Game Recap: Softball | 5/3/2025 11:04:00 PM 
(5/3/25) – The Kean University softball team exploded for 10 runs to power past The College of New Jersey in the elimination bracket of the New Jersey Athletic Conference Tournament
The Cougars (21-21) fell behind 2-0 in the third as Julia Kinnally singled home two runs
The score would remain that way until the fifth as the Cougars loaded the bases with no outs on back-to-back bunt singles and a walk
After reloading the bases on a walk, rookie <a href="/sports/softball/roster/gina-mahlik/13926" rel="smarttag" rev="13926">Gina Mahlik</a> came through with a two RBI single
giving Kean a lead they would not relinquish
 The Cougars pulled off a successful double-steal and added to their lead
Later in the inning, <a href="/sports/softball/roster/kylie-petak/13929" rel="smarttag" rev="13929">Kylie Petak</a> lined a two RBI triple in the gap to go ahead by five (7-2)
In the circle, <a href="/sports/softball/roster/samantha-raymond/13884" rel="smarttag" rev="13884">Samantha Raymond</a> (3-1) tossed a complete game
Kean faces Montclair State on Tuesday at Rowan University at 1 p.m
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I'm an associate professor in global politics at University College
- [Interviewer] The smallest moments have the largest impacts
and how arbitrary and accidental forces divert and change our lives and our societies much more than we imagine
And I think we tend to believe that there's this neat and tidy story for why things happen in the world
But when you peer a little bit closer at the world
and that we're constantly being diverted by these seemingly random forces
So "Fluke" investigates this and tries to flip our traditional worldview on its head
the chaos of life matters a lot more than we imagine
So a fluke is often seen by people as a lucky or a chance event that changes the world
I use it in a broader sense for anything that is what's called contingent
Not exactly a term that rolls off the tongue
but it is one thing that basically refers to the idea that a small change can have a profound impact
and all of a sudden you go down a different road
and this is something that usually applies to the world of hard science rather than social science and our own lives
But what chaos theory tells us is that there is what's called sensitivity to initial conditions
fancy way of saying that if any small change happens
that over time it can lead to very big effects
And all of us intuitively understand this because this is the reason why we can't predict the weather beyond 7 to 10 days
If there's even a slight change in the temperature
the outcome of that model becomes radically different
And so what this is telling us is that these small changes over time can add up
I personally am the byproduct of an extreme fluke
but it is one where the story goes back to 1905 in Wisconsin
this little farmhouse just outside of a place called Kieler
And a woman has what we would probably call a postpartum depression mental breakdown
They wouldn't have called it that back in those days
And tragically she decided to take the lives of her four young children
and then one of the most horrific things a person can possibly experience
the reason this is in the introduction to "Fluke" is because this is my great-grandfather's first wife
And he comes home and discovers his whole family wiped out
the astonishing bit about this is that I realized this only when I was in my mid-20s
My dad sat me down and showed me a newspaper headline from 1905
And all of a sudden I realized that my existence was quite literally predicated on a mass murder of children
But this has ripple effects everywhere because anyone watching this would not be listening to my voice
but for a mass murder of children in Wisconsin in 1905
Of course she had no idea that her tragic decision would lead to us talking now
And this unbroken chain of causes and effects is something where the ripple effects of our decision making in the future can have profound consequences that we don't anticipate
And so the flukes of life are things that reshape our world
and yet we often write them out of the models or the imaginations we have when we tell the stories of why things happen
So there's a question that you might imagine when you think about flukes
if everything is so contingent and all these little tiny changes matter so much
the reason that exists is because I think that the nature of change is what I call contingent convergence
So this means that you have this sort of idea where a small fluke might actually divert the trajectory
then the order of life does take hold a bit
And this is the kind of stuff where when you imagine you get on a highway
It's not like everybody is driving at different speeds
It's not like everybody is constantly crashing their car and every single twitch of your hand is
occasionally a contingent event causes a car accident
and then the life path for that person is radically changed
So I think that the right way to think about change in our lives and our societies is contingent convergence
where we have these moments that may seem consequential
there are forces of order that do constrain the way that change unfolds
- [Interviewer] What is a concrete example of a fluke
- The opening story in "Fluke" is a story of a seemingly unimportant vacation that a husband and wife took to Kyoto Japan in 1926
and they stayed at the Miyako Hotel and did a bit of sight scene and fell in love with the city
"This is one of the best cities in the world." Now
a vacation doesn't normally change history
And so he was overseeing the decision of where to drop the first atomic bomb in 1945
and we all agree Kyoto should be destroyed." Now
Stimson gets this memo and he springs to action because he doesn't want to have what he called his pet city get destroyed
So he has to meet with President Truman twice to convince him to take Kyoto off the targeting list
So the first atomic bomb goes to Hiroshima instead of Kyoto because of a 19-year-old vacation
The second bomb is supposed to go to a place called Kokura
there's briefly clouds that obscure their view
and they can't guarantee that they're going to hit the target
So instead they go to the secondary target
that the reason why hundreds of thousands of people died in Hiroshima and Nagasaki rather than Kyoto and Kokura
is because of a 19-year-old vacation and a passing cloud
when you are going to imagine why the US dropped the atomic bomb where it did in the end
What's the right place to destroy for the war effort
What you would not put on the list is the vacation history of American government officials or the weather patterns necessarily
those were the immediate causes of mass death in those two cities rather than another two cities
they have a saying where they refer to Kokura's luck
which is this idea where a city or a person unknowingly escaped disaster because Kokura didn't know it was going to be incinerated until much later
this is one of the key ideas in "Fluke," is that when we look back at our lives
we think about these big obvious pivot points
these moments where we can imagine that the world has shifted
Obviously that's going to change your life
What you don't think about are the invisible pivots
the future pathways that you don't know could have existed
because you're simply oblivious to those variables that have changed your life but were invisible to you
but for two people who vacationed in their city 19 years previously
And so when we try to understand change in our lives and our societies
You never have models that imagine the vacation history of a government official
very clear to hundreds of thousands of people
and of course their generational offspring who are alive today because of one couple's vacation and a single passing cloud
One of the things about the invisible pivot points in life is that we are completely oblivious to them until a major event makes it obvious that they were important
So there's a film from the 1990s staring Gwyneth Paltrow called "Sliding Doors." And the idea of it is very simple
It's where Gwyneth Paltrow is trying to get onto a subway train
she misses the train very slightly because somebody gets in her way
The story of the film is then how her lives change depending on whether she makes that train or misses it
it's totally obvious when we think about the nature of change
that this is a plausible pathway where something so small can change someone's life
But we just are completely oblivious to it because any individual only either experiences being on the train or missing the train
They don't get to see both versions of reality
sometimes consequential events make us confront these in really upsetting and tragic ways
So there is a story that I write about in "Fluke" of a man named Joseph Lott
And Joseph Lott is someone who was going to a conference and was delayed in his flight to the conference
And so his shirt got really crinkled and he
So he decided he would wear a pastel green shirt instead of the white shirt that he was planning to wear for his presentation
he has breakfast with his colleague Elaine
And Elaine Greenberg is a very thoughtful person
So she knows that Joe really likes Monet ties
and she presented it to him at this breakfast meeting
Joe is incredibly touched that his colleague has been so kind
I'm gonna put it on right now and I'm gonna wear it for the presentation." And she shoots back right away
because the Monet tie is full of these bright colors
It clashes horrifically with his pastel green shirt
I'll see you up there in 10 minutes." So he goes back to his hotel
I believe it's the 101st floor of the World Trade Center
Joe looks up and sees the plane hit the tower
It's a question of a random act of kindness that produces this unbelievable effect where
because he would've joined her at the conference
He would've gone up the elevators and he would've met his end on 9/11 as well
one of the things that was really striking when I met Joe was he said to me
the most upsetting thing about the experience was everybody told him everything happens for a reason
And that actually was really upsetting because it was like
they were supposed to die and I was supposed to live," right
And not only does that put so much pressure on an individual
but it also creates a statement where when people die in horrific random occurrences
And that's not something that he wanted to accept
I think there is something where when we see these moments
And it's not like the snooze button is good or bad
It's not like the sliding doors are good or bad
And it's not like the tie was something that Elaine shouldn't have done
And I think this is the nature of change that is so profoundly moving when you think about it
is that your life is constantly at the whims of these chance events
And only occasionally do people like Joe Lotts experience this and understand viscerally that
- [Interviewer] Does everything happen for a reason
we are told that we're in control of our path through life
that we have this idea of we're the main character
And as long as we sort of make wise decisions
the saying that we always hear is that everything happens for a reason
I think one of the key arguments in "Fluke" is that we control nothing but we influence everything
this illusion of control that we have and this stitching together of this clear narrative where everything has a reason behind it causes us to misunderstand the world and make mistakes
And when you look at the causal chain of events that produce outcomes
We're told to ignore the noise and focus on the signal
The noise is where many of the most important and consequential events in life take place
So one of the key ideas here is that when you start to accept that you have profound influence on the world
and you start to accept the limits of what you can and cannot do
So when we imagine that everything happens for a reason
And it also causes us to inscribe ideas behind the events of our lives that are fundamentally wrong
And so the scientific evidence shows us that everything does not happen for a reason
and therefore you need to have a philosophical change in how you think about the world if some things just happen arbitrarily
or as the byproduct of chaos theory that create the puppets that we all are of random events
is basically a history of trying to cram the complexity and messiness of the world into a really neat and tidy story for why things happen
And this is partly derived from religion where people wanted to have elegant order from God
The idea that there's this sort of accidental nature to reality is completely at odds with the notion that everything is planned by a higher being
the everything happens for a reason aspect that's tied to the divine
then as science unfolded and the scientific revolution
It's not necessarily that it's all about God
It's all about these sort of clockwork models of physics
And this is the kind of stuff where you have to eliminate the noise
because everything is supposed to be an equation that is really beautiful
the hand that guides our economies or the ways that Isaac Newton presented change and these unbelievably powerful equations to explain the world
we have always tried to find the explanation that fits everything into an explanation that seems ordered and rational
this is why I think there's so much resistance to this notion of contingent convergence
the fact that I can look at my own life and understand that I'm the byproduct of a mass murder
or that hundreds of thousands of people will die in one city because of a random vacation a couple took 19 years earlier
And I think one of the things about science is that a lot of really strange things exist
And it's better for us to just accept them and sort of stare into the face of this uncertainty
than to simply pretend it doesn't work this way because it's somehow comforting to our pattern-obsessed brains
when you look at the intellectual history of the world
the randomness has systematically been written out
When we try to understand why stuff has happened to us in our lives
our brains have evolved to make sense of patterns
And that's because it's advantageous to survive to over-detect patterns
So if you can imagine that you're a prehistoric hunter-gatherer and you see a little bit of rustling of the grass
or maybe there's a saber-toothed tiger that's waiting to eat you
Now if you imagine there's nothing there and it turns out to be a saber-toothed tiger
But if you over-interpret the pattern and you say
I think that might be something that I need to watch out for," even if there's nothing there
So through survival of the fittest and evolutionary patterns
our brains are hyper-attuned to pattern detection
this means that when random or seemingly random things happen to us
we're allergic to the explanation that it was just arbitrary
And so we stitched together a neat and tidy story from A to B
that's a problem because when stuff happens to you that you don't have control over and you ascribe this sort of intentionality to it
And I think one of the things that's also very striking is that we understand this when we think about the past
but we don't understand this when we think about the present
you shouldn't talk to anyone because you might accidentally delete yourself from the future or fundamentally change the patterns that you'll then go back to when you return to your present time
The problem is that when we think in the present
We never imagine that if we squish a bug or if we talk to someone
cause and effect patterns don't change whether they're in the past or the present
And so I think the mentality we have towards the past is the correct one
that we are constantly reshaping the future
And that idea is something that I think we are also somewhat allergic to because it's so overwhelming to imagine that every single act that we have has unforeseen ripple effects that will change the world and reshape our futures is bewildering
And one of the things that I think happens when you look closely at the nature of causality
and existence is that things that are bewildering are happening all the time
you start to see a very different world and one that can be more fulfilling if you actually accept that some things don't happen for a reason and in fact that we have a life and a society that is diverted by chaos theory
- [Interviewer] What is the delusion of individualism
- Western modernity has an obsession with what I call the delusion of individualism
And it is comforting to a lot of people to think that they're in control of their own lives so that they are the ones who are driving change
and that it's not really up to other people
that your life unfolds the way you want it to
that you can control the way the economy is going to work out or the way the election is going to turn out
is that there's a lot of different ways about thinking of the world
which thinks a lot more about the intersections between people and the relational idea of how we're all connected
And there's a story that's sort of a strange story that I saw in the press while I was researching "Fluke," about a person who went swimming off the coast of Greece
and a riptide basically sucks him out into the ocean
his friends are pretty upset about this because he disappears from sight and they can't find him
And there's about 24 hours where Ivan is missing at sea
And we all know how these stories turn out when someone is missing at sea for 24 hours
right as Ivan is about to slip beneath the waves and drown
he spots a soccer ball bobbing on the surface of the ocean
You have this moment where he just is saved by this passing soccer ball that's floating
and he clings to it and is eventually rescued
But the more extraordinary part of the story is that when this news made the Greek television
there was a woman who was watching the news
dropping her cup of coffee or whatever as they see the soccer ball on the screen
And she knew that her children had been playing with that exact same ball and had accidentally kicked it off a cliff 80 miles away from where Ivan eventually intersected with the trajectory of that ball bobbing on the sea 10 days later
the kids would look at this and they would think
Let's buy another ball." They would've no idea
But it turned out that kick is what saved the life of another person who was about to drown
it's extremely obvious that there's an interconnection between those lives
The problem is that there's not some magic that Ivan had
It's that everybody is actually unfolding in this way where we're constantly being affected by the actions of people we will never see and never meet
And the extremely obvious way that we can understand this as well is the pandemic from the coronavirus outbreak in 2020 where you have a single person get infected with a virus in Wuhan China and the lives of eight billion people change for many
And the trajectories of our lives are irrevocably changed
All of us are different because of this pandemic
And it's from one virus infecting one person potentially thousands of miles away from where you live
and everything in the world became different
And I think it's something that's a coping mechanism effectively for us to just ignore the science
And this is where that saying that I come back to throughout fluke arises
the influence that he experienced was from a couple of kids he will never have met
- [Interviewer] How can science help us understand the nature of flukes
- One of the most interesting realms of science is evolutionary biology
And it tells us so much about why things happen in the world
because it's a historical science where the outgrowths of what we see around us with all the life forms
have come through this unbroken chain of causes and effects
evolutionary biology has a major debate within it
that I think is really useful for understanding change in our own worlds
And this is the debate between what's called contingency and convergence
Contingency is where a small change occurs and everything ends up different
Convergence is where there's a set of order because certain things work
and you can sort of have a little bit of noise
but you eventually get to the same destination in the end
the best example of contingency is the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs
there's basically this little tiny oscillation in the Oort cloud
And it flings this giant space rock towards the Earth and eventually hits in just the right way for maximum damage and devastation in which the dinosaurs go extinct
if this space rock had been delayed slightly or had hit the Earth slightly earlier
it probably would not have wiped out the dinosaurs
It might have missed the planet altogether
not only would the dinosaurs not have been wiped out
but humans would not exist because the extinction of the dinosaurs was the precursor to the rise of mammals and eventually to us
So you can imagine this single second of change 66 million years ago
everything in human history is obliterated
convergence is where there's order and things are a little bit different
And my favorite example of this in evolutionary biology brings us to the octopus
if you look at the eye of an octopus and you look at the eye of a human
this is very bizarre because about 600 million years ago
octopuses and humans diverted on the evolutionary branch of life
They're on totally different evolutionary trajectories
It helps a living organism navigate the world
And there's only so many ways that an eye can evolve
So what happened was nature basically experimented over and over through undirected mutations
and it produced solutions that are extremely similar even for radically different organisms
the reason this is important for us to think about is because the frameworks of contingency and convergence allow us to think about the paths that we have through our own lives and the ways that our societies evolve over time
So one of the ways I apply this to our own lives is with something I've coined called the snooze button effect
And the snooze button effect is a very easy to understand idea where you imagine that it's a Tuesday morning
So you decide to slap the snooze button and sleep for five more minutes
Now you imagine that the tape of your life rewinds 30 seconds and you have a slightly different decision
and you decide not to hit this snooze button
Anything that would stay the same regardless of this snooze button
because even though you have this little fluctuation
ultimately you got to the same destination in the end
But if your life unfolds in a profoundly different way
then the snooze button would be a contingent event because that little tiny change has diverted the trajectory of your life
And what I'm arguing in "Fluke" is that the contingency actually plays a much bigger role
We can't imagine or know what would've happened
but we can understand that we'll meet different people that day
Sometimes it allows you to escape from a car accident
So all these sorts of things are constantly reshaping our lives
And I think because it's so bewildering to imagine that
that we are an infinite number of branches on the pathway of life
But scientific fact and evolutionary biology tell us this is actually how the world works
So we're somewhere between order and chaos
And I think these ideas of contingency and convergence allow us to structure our thoughts to understand the different extremes of how our lives can radically change or not change that much with every individual decision that we make
I would describe it as everything happens for a reason
When people make sense of random occurrences in their lives
stuff happens." And yet when bad things happen to us
we're pretty uncomfortable with the idea that stuff just happens
And so there's a lot of psychology research that suggests that contingency is something that we systematically ignore with bad news
There has to be some sort of sense that we can make of it
people have no problem accepting contingency
So the sort of stuff happens versus everything happens for a reason mentality is one that is a debate that's alive and well in evolutionary biology
And it's also one that we sometimes will see
stitched on pillows in our homes when we try to make sense of the chaos and sometimes the disorienting tragedies of life
- [Interviewer] How do ripple effects define our lives
- One of the things that happens when we think about our lives is we think that there's a lot of small stuff that is just able to be ignored
where you can just imagine it's not important
And that's not how physics tells us the world works
physics tells us that there's an unbroken chain of causes and effects
That's what causes everything in the world
So there's all these reactions and things that are happening
They eventually lead to the moment that you are in
is that then if you imagine your life as a sort of thread
that we're all sort of tied together in these sort of mutual networks and so on
What it means is that the thread of your life is not individual
But the really extraordinary thing is that if you pull one thread
It's not like you can just unravel your little bit
And that's because your thread is part of everybody else
It's part of the way that we have come to be
if you think about this for more than a moment
if our parents hadn't met in just the exact same way
Eventually you get to a chimpanzee-like creature
You keep going back further and further and further
And eventually there's an extraordinary story
the one that we owe all of our existence to
which is probably the most improbable fluke that's ever happened
bumps into a prokaryote and finds itself inside of it
And that is the origin story of mitochondria
which powers all of the cells that we have
It happened once two billion years ago and never again since
So when you think about these aspects of life
the decision to try to unpick them in the threads
it just keeps getting longer the more you look at it
The thread of your life is also tied to the thread of your parents' life
which is tied to the thread of their parents' life
back and back and back through evolution to
a single worm-like creature hundreds of millions of years ago that all of us owe our existence to
Or you can imagine another finding from modern science in evolutionary biology
where you look at the story of why mammals don't lay eggs
the best scientific evidence seems to suggest that a single shrew-like creature got infected with a mutated retrovirus
And that's the reason why we don't lay eggs
we probably wouldn't exist because we wouldn't be the same thing if we didn't have live births
the fact that we are part of the tapestry of life and the tapestry of existence
I think is a profoundly beautiful way to think about the world
It's also a way to think about the world that is scientifically accurate because it is the case that we cannot experience
And this also has philosophical implications that I find very comforting because the worst moments in our lives are inextricably linked to the best moments
And that's quite literally true for me because every joy in my life wouldn't exist unless four children had been murdered in Wisconsin 119 years ago
And yet when we think about the nature of change or we think about our own lives
the American dream or some of these other ideas that pervade modern thinking
do your best and you'll be fine." And sometimes that's true
And if you change any thread of any individual
the whole image of the rest of the world will change
- [Interviewer] How can we better understand the butterfly effect
- So the origin story of chaos theory goes back to the 1960s with a man who was studying meteorology named Edward Norton Lorenz
He decided to use a very simple computer model to try to forecast the weather
But he was doing a simulation and he decided
And I'll take the values that were spit out by the computer and I'll stick them back in
everything will turn out exactly the same because it's the same model
everything in the weather patterns was super different
What he realized eventually was that when the computer would print out the data
it would truncate the values to three decimal points
And as a result of these tiny infinitesimal changes that he would have
And this is the origin story of what we know as the butterfly effect
the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings can create a hurricane many days later
It's also the reason why we can't forecast the weather very far into the future
tiny bit wrong will create a profoundly different outcome over the span of some stretch of time
this helps us understand why physics is showing us that the nature of change is contingent on small events
Because if the tiny little rounding error on a gust of wind or a temperature can lead to a hurricane or a blue sky
then of course that's also true for us because we are made of physical matter
We're not some magical beam that's separate from the rest of nature
this interconnection of all these tiny causes and effects which add up to the way the world unfolds
it becomes impossible to imagine that we have complete control
this delusion of individualism where we're sort of in charge of things
We can't control things because the world is uncontrollable
And it was an outgrowth of this sort of Newtonian mechanics of physics
which are extraordinarily effective at predicting how things will unfold in the sort of normal world of
and you wouldn't be able to really know where it was going to end up because there's sort of these mysterious forces
And Newton's genius was to develop these clockwork models where the equations were extremely effective at predicting the future based on a few key ideas like momentum
and all these sorts of things which you can measure and compute
this gives rise to the idea of Laplace's demon
where the thought experiment goes a bit like this
Let's imagine that we have this perfect intellect
a perfect intellect that can understand everything
So it knows the exact location of every single atom
And the idea behind this is that if that intellect could accurately measure everything in the universe
then it would be able to see the future as clearly as it saw the past
there would be no mystery about the world because we live in a clockwork universe
there's a few reasons why this is not the case
One of them is because it is impossible for an intellect to know everything about every atom in the universe
So we're never going to be able to predict the future this way
And chaos theory shows the limitations of our ability to forecast
although we're rarely uncertain when we make predictions
the other side of this is that quantum mechanics has thrown a bit of a wrench in this because quantum mechanics shows that matter behaves at very strange ways at the atomic and subatomic level in ways that are potentially even completely random
there's a challenge to what is called determinism
this idea that the sort of unfolding of events follows this clockwork model from the presumed indeterminism that many people interpret as the evidence from quantum mechanics
So when you think about the nature of change
physics tells us that chaos theory means that there are limitations to what we can know and what we can predict and that small changes can have enormous consequences over the long stretches of time
again to return to the story of my own existence
A small change in the past leads to a profound shift in what occurs in the future
And my existence is one of those shifts that came from it
So physics helps us understand that there is no way to forecast the future accurately
And the world of Laplace's demon is a pipe dream that will always prove elusive
so complex systems involve diverse parts where not everything is uniform
human society is obviously a complex system
If you have the exact same molecule of a gas and you switch it out for another molecule of the same gas
We obviously interact with each other and constantly have small diversions in our lives as a result of this
So when something goes wrong in someone's life
this on the large scale of human society means that we are a giant complex system of eight billion interacting individuals
And so these sort of old models that ignore that are going to be very
very bad at understanding change on human timescales
there are a few other ideas within complex systems theory that I think are particularly useful for understanding how our lives unfold
So the first one is called the sandpile model
which is a subset of what is called self-organized criticality
And the sandpile model is really easy to understand where you have a grain of sand and you add another grain of sand and another grain of sand
the pile of sand is going to get so tall and so unstable
it will be on what physicists sometimes call the edge of chaos
a single grain of sand can cause the entire pile to collapse
that collapse can be produced by something so tiny and yet have such huge effects that it explains the nonlinear dynamics of that system where one tiny grain of sand can change everything in the pile
this is something that I think we have engineered in modern society because of what are called basins of attraction
And a basin of attraction is where a system will tend to move towards this evolution of the system over time
a great way of thinking about this is traffic on the highway
The speed limit is a basin of attraction for that system
Not everyone is going to drive 60 miles an hour when the speed limit is 60 miles an hour
But most people will drive somewhere near it
So it's sort of the system evolves towards that equilibrium of roughly around the speed limit
the cars are going to be roughly evenly spaced
Of course there might be a jerk who's tailgating
there might be someone who's way far behind you
there's sort of this order that emerges from a lot of interconnected individuals driving cars
The problem is that the modern basins of attraction we have for our societies are on the edge of chaos
what we do is we try to maximize the sandpile to its absolute limit so that we are prone to the avalanche
let's squeeze this last 2% of efficiency out of a social system
Let's do just in time manufacturing where if something arrives even an hour late
And that's supposed to be good for us because efficiency is the main driver of so much of our modern social systems
But this means that the basin of attraction for our world is on the edge of chaos
It's at the absolute limit of the sandpile so that when the sand falls
and this is where I think we make a profound error in understanding social disasters
well that was just a black swan." And now we've gone back to the normal way the world works
now we can go back to regular order." The problem with that is you've misunderstood the origin of those black swans
What's happened is you've developed a sandpile that's so tall that the avalanche is inevitable
And so if you write those out as accidents
you don't understand that they're actually part of the system
They're actually the inevitable culmination of a sandpile model that is a basin of attraction at the absolute limit
that is teetering on the edge of chaos in which a small change can cause a catastrophe
And so this is where I think the lesson for us is to prioritize efficiency and optimization slightly less
to build a slightly smaller sandpile so that it's more resilient
so when the sort of randomness or the flukes of life
And this is where there's a great example from South America
there was an electricity grid that was designed where it was less efficient
But what they had done was they had decoupled regional hubs from the national grid
And this meant that when one part of the system failed
the rest of the system could still continue at greater cost with less efficiency
But it meant that when the blackouts did occur
what we have designed are systems that a single shock can reverberate around the world and change everything everywhere
- A black swan is a term that was coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
And what it basically refers to is a highly consequential rare event that was unpredictable
And so these are the kinds of things that wallop us in our complacency where we sort of think that the world is
people interpret this slightly differently
Some people say the pandemic was a black swan
Taleb disagrees with this because it was foreseeable in some way that a pandemic could happen
It's usually something that you couldn't actually foresee
to an idea that former Secretary of Defense
one of the things that produces an early warning sign in natural systems
which is to say systems in the natural world
which is a new branch of science that I think will be developed further in the coming years and will be an important way of having an early warning system that a system has become more prone to black swan events
normally what happens when there are fluctuations in an ecological system
eventually this sort of noise gets back to equilibrium and things go back to how they were before
you have fluctuations that don't go back to equilibrium
And they can measure how quickly it takes for a system to snap back to normal
This early warning system potentially can provide us with a red flag that things are a little bit unstable
and that this means that when a perturbation or sort of shock to the system is going to happen
And so there's all these sort of mathematical representations of complex systems that allow us to navigate uncertainty a little bit more effectively
I think it's hubristic and incorrect to believe that we tame these things
I don't think we're ever going to be able to tame black swans
But I think it's so important that we understand that the systems we have designed have not only made it more likely that black swans will hit us
but also that the consequences of them will be larger and they'll be faster felt by more people around the world
the sort of dogma of society around optimization and efficiency actually makes it more likely that those perturbations
are going to end up producing wild fluctuations that we see in terrorist attacks
and all of these other things that blindside us
but that profoundly reshape the way that our lives unfold
- [Interviewer] How do we define the research model of social change
And it's because those are really comforting
But the world is far more complex than it's ever been
And so those assumptions are falling apart
And the research we do doesn't fit the standard of the dynamics of the modern world
And one of the first assumptions that we start with is this idea that when you look at why something happens
that there's going to be a clear cut cause behind it
sometimes this is true if we think about why people are developing cancer
smoking is correlated with cancer and it is one of the main causes of lung cancer
But there's a lot of stuff that unfolds in the world that doesn't have a clear cut cause
It has an infinite number of patterns that had to occur in exactly the right way for that moment to unfold as it was
you think about the atomic bomb being dropped on Japan
If all sorts of things had been slightly different
this would not have played out the same way
So if the Battle of Midway had not happened
or if uranium deposits had not been forged by geological forces
all of these things had to exist just as they were for that event to happen on exactly August 6th
And yet our models don't do well in trying to understand an infinite number of causes producing a single effect
which complex systems theory challenges and tells us is wrong
is that if you just understand the components of an individual system
you will therefore understand the entire system
And the reason that's incorrect is because complex systems are different from what are called complicated systems
And the reason it's complicated is because it has a million interlocking parts
It's got all these little things in it that need to work for the watch to actually perform its function
But it doesn't adapt within the system if something breaks
something else might shift in the system as well
And we can imagine this in our own lives because if you're in traffic
it's not like everybody just keeps going and slams into them
They also pump the brakes and it affects the entire system
So this adaptation that we have in a complex system means that you can't just understand the constituent parts
you have to understand exactly how they interact with each other
And most models of social change are not good at that
So it causes us to misunderstand the world
and this is something that's totally central to social science and a lot of understandings of change in the past
is that if something was a pattern of cause and effect in the past
it will also be a pattern of cause and effect in the present or in the future
And the Philosopher David Hume identified this problem many hundreds of years ago and highlighted it
But we've just sort of ignored it because it's very difficult to overcome
the problem is that the world is more rapidly changing than ever before
So that means that this problem is particularly acute right now because the patterns of the past are least likely to apply to our current moment or to the future
And of course we understand this with things like climate change
The 100-year flood is happening every 3 years now." Well
that's because the pattern of the past no longer fits the pattern of the present
And this is one of those really strange dynamics of social research that I think is difficult to wrap your head around
but is a very important question for understanding the world
there's an analysis of authoritarian regimes and how they work and why they're so stable
And this analysis says that Middle Eastern regimes are extremely resilient
And then about a year or two after this book was published
the Arab Spring happens and all these regimes collapse in the span of like three months
Now the immediate reaction is to think this theory was wrong
It was disproven by the fact that they said they were stable and then they broke apart
But the second way of thinking about the world is that the world actually changed from the point that the book was written to the point when the regimes collapsed
It's saying that when they were writing the book
Then something happened and the world changed
really important idea to wrap your head around because so much of modern life runs on models that assume that past patterns are predictive of future ones
where AI is learning based on past patterns and then trying to develop
machine learning driven models that can help us navigate uncertainty in the future
then that analysis is not going to just be wrong
It's going to be dangerous because it will lead you astray to thinking that this is the way the world works
when in fact the world is now profoundly different
And the problem is we can't really test this
We can't know when the world has shifted because the only way we make sense of cause and effect is by looking at what happened in the past
if all we can know about the current moment is from the past
then our information is not going to help us navigate uncertainty into the future." And I think that's one of the reasons why we are so often blindsided by things that are unexpected because we're applying the lessons of the past to a moment that is profoundly different from anything that has happened before in terms of social dynamics in the history of our species
So when we tried to understand why things happen in social systems
the old way of thinking often involve what are called linear dynamics
It just means that the proportion of a cause is directly related to the outcome that occurs
a small cause has a small effect and a big cause has a big effect
and the relationship between them is linear
the way the world actually works is non-linear
And this means that sometimes a very small change can produce a very big effect
And complex systems theory and the sort of world of complexity science understands this and tries to incorporate it into its models
one of the reasons why we used to have linear models was simply because of computing power
And this is another one of the flukes that has sort of lingered on to the way that we understand the world is that back in the 1980s and 1990s
computers just simply couldn't grapple with complex systems
They had to have simple dynamics where a straightforward cause is a straightforward effect
and there is a linear relationship between them
which can be spit out in a neat and tidy equation
Computer models have gotten radically better in technological advancement
but the way that we think about the world hasn't really caught up to it
So a lot of models that we derive our understanding of reality from
the problem of course is that complex systems models are trying to come up with very difficult equations to explain a very complex reality
this is the kind of thing where we're not going to solve every problem
There is some uncertainty that can't be tamed
But we should acknowledge that linear relationships are wrong
that almost nothing in the world actually has a very straightforward relationship between the size of the cause and the size of the effect
which is still a small minority of social research
will be the future of 21st century thinking
But it's still only forms a small slice of what social research is produced
Another reason why this exists is derived from a fluke that is arbitrary
which is the way that we design our silos of knowledge in university research
And these people study physics and biology
A lot of people are actually thinking about change
They're not just thinking about these realms of knowledge which are totally disparate
And it's not like change happens completely differently
They have the same sort of aspects behind them because physics is determining the way the world works
So I think these silos between disciplines and sort of fields of knowledge are holding us back
And what complex systems theory does really
It brings these groups of thinkers together who are thinking about really different questions and says
let's try to see if there's any commonality in how we can understand change." And that requires non-linear thinking
It requires the idea of modeling a world in which a tiny shift
or a little fluctuation that seems to be noise
can actually radically shift the way that the future unfolds
We don't have a complete understanding of this
which is why our forecasts are still so often wrong
But I think this is where the action is going to be in the intellectual developments of the 21st century
is jettisoning the old ways of thinking about these systems and thinking much more about complexity
- [Interviewer] How can we resist the illusion of control
we tend to have what I call the mirage of regularity
And it's very easy to be seduced by this because the world does seem really stable
I think when we think about our daily lives
we can set the alarm at the same time every day
Things unfold in these highly predictable ways
and we can just decide how things are going to unfold." This is however a mirage
And I think this is where the sandpile model
and some of the other ideas from complex systems theory
are so important for correcting that mirage and making us understand that it is just an illusion
The mirage of regularity is one where when you think about the 21st century
we have been able to delude ourselves into thinking we can make forecasts
We can say here's how the world is going to work
But every forecast has been invalidated by these black swan events
every single economic and geopolitical forecast was invalidated by 9/11 and the financial collapse of the financial crisis
We have every single geopolitical forecast about the Middle East being invalidated by the Arab Spring
Everything that we thought about the world was invalidated by the rise of Donald Trump
how different would the world be if Hillary Clinton had won in 2016
And it could have profoundly reshaped the world
And of course the easiest one is the pandemic
just imagine going back and reading the economic forecasts for what the 2020
what the world in 2020 would look like written in late 2019
those forecasts were so unbelievably wrong
And I think one of the things that's worth thinking about is that we could never imagine some of these dynamics until they happen to us
So one of the arguments I make in "Fluke" is there are things that we call radical uncertainty where we can't simply understand the future in any possible way because the idea doesn't even occur to us
how much do you think that a person will use their phone in the year 2020
and they were asking you this question in 1995
there is absolutely no way you could forecast the answer correctly because
phones only existed to call people on in 1995
You wouldn't understand that it was possible to spend all day on your phone
you would not know that a pandemic was about to be unleashed
So the forecast that we make are very often wrong
And yet what we do is we continue to make these assumptions under the mirage of regularity that are rarely uncertain
And I think the lesson we need to learn from this is that we can't tame the world
And so there are things that we have to separate from the questions we have to answer
from the questions we don't have to answer
if you get a very strange medical disease that you don't understand
you still have to try to answer that question
We hope it works." If you want to make an economic forecast about the GDP growth rates or the inflation rates of Malawi in 2035
because it's inevitably going to be inaccurate
So I think if we parcel out the parts of the world that we have to try to navigate through this uncertainty with the questions we must answer
and we separate it from the questions we don't have to answer
we'll make fools of ourselves slightly less often
and that will be a good thing for our societies
- [Interviewer] What is the upside to uncertainty
- One of the things that happened to me while I was researching this book and writing it was I realized that I don't think I have a cosmic purpose
I effectively believe that I'm an accident
and I'm an accident in a short sense in terms of the fact that I was born rather than somebody else to my parents
But it's also a cosmic accident in the sense of humanity is but one evolutionary fluke that could have turned out differently if the trajectories of evolution had been slightly different
this is something that a lot of people have a hard time accepting because the idea that I don't have a cosmic purpose seems to be jarring and uncomfortable
I actually think there's significant upside to this
And I think the reason there's upside to it is because the idea of certainty
If somebody could tell you when you were born
here's everything that's about to happen to you
I think it would be awful to know all those things
You know exactly upon being 13 years old that you're gonna end up marrying this person and you're gonna have these children
The sort of serendipity of life is where a lot of the joy comes from
The unplanned flukes are where our lives actually derive the most meaning
I think it's also something where it allows us to let ourselves off the hook a little bit
Because if you believe that everything happens for a reason and you believe that you're universally in control of the trajectory of your life
And that is terrible because it's often not your fault
I think about the things that have brought me to the moment I'm in now
and the most important ones are things I had zero control over
There's none of these things were in my control at all
And so I think what we do is we tend to pretend that we have the driver's seat of our lives
that we're sitting in the driver's seat of our lives
and that we're the ones who are determining the path
And I find it really helpful to imagine that when there is a setback in my life
I'm going to try my hardest to be a good person to live the life I want to live
But I also should take a lot less credit for my successes and a lot less blame for my failures because we're all part of this thing that we have a lot less control over than we pretend
but also in the fact that we're just part of this cosmic accident that is existence that we don't fully understand
And I think the lesson of that accident is to enjoy life
I think that if you don't think that you have a grand purpose
then maybe the best thing to do is to just try to make other people's lives a bit better and to enjoy being on the ride
And I think that's the way that I have sort of come to think of my own existence as a result of the revelation
Modern humans experience a different world and a different dynamic of our existence than anyone who has ever come before us
And the reason for that is because we've inverted the dynamics of how our lives unfold
the sort of vast stretches of prehistoric humans
they lived in a world that was defined by what I call local instability
And what I mean by that is that their day-to-day lives in their local environment was unpredictable
They might starve one year because their crops would fail or because the animals they were hunting would disappear
And so they didn't have regular predictive patterns of life
and yet their world did not change that much
The parents and children of each generation would basically inhabit the same kind of existence
So we have the ability to go to any Starbucks in the world and basically drink the same thing
And it's gonna taste roughly the same no matter which branch we're in
We have the ability to sort of order something online and we know exactly when it's going to arrive at our door
we have extreme regularity in our daily lives to the point where when researchers looked at cell phone data
they found that they could predict with about 93% accuracy where any given person would be at any given time because we're creatures of habit
So our lives on a day-to-day basis are extremely stable
And that's because our world is changing faster than it ever has before
And now it's impossible to imagine life without it
And when I think about the way that the world is changing
you used to have for every human who came before us
there was technology transfer from parents to children
You have to go to your kids to ask them how to use new technology instead of the reverse
we've also engineered a world that is much more prone to shocks
And the reason for that is because the world is hyperconnected and hyper-optimized in a complex system that is fragile
And what I mean by this is that when you think about the way the world works
we are people who worship at the altar of efficiency
The life hacks we have squeeze every ounce of inefficiency
don't have any sort of slack in your life or in your social system
But the consequence of that is that when things do go wrong
because this is the way the world works through chaos theory
the ripple effects are much more profound and much more immediate
the Suez Canal was briefly blocked by a boat that was hit by a gust of wind and twisted sideways
It caused $54 billion in damage and disrupted global supply chains
it was impossible for one boat to wipe out $50 billion of economic value
But now we've embedded risk into our world because we are hyperconnected
So what this means functionally is that our world is upended by flukes much more than it used to be
And if you think about the history of the 21st century
it is a history of calamities and black swans that were not predicted
And so what we have done is we've embedded the risk into the world through the fact that when flukes do occur or when small chance events and black swans hit us
they're going to change everything almost immediately
And this is where that sort of aspect of global instability is really dangerous
I think that we've actually engineered a volatile world
where Starbucks is completely unchanging from year to year
but democracies are collapsing and rivers are drying up
I think we would be much better off if we focused a little bit less on optimization
and tried to ensure that we had slightly more serendipity in our day-to-day lives and slightly more stability in the way that the world actually works
- [Interviewer] Why is the world of self-help delusional
- There is an entire industry that exists to lie to you about how you can control your own life
And the self-help industry is pervaded by these simple life hacks
you will all of a sudden bring all the wealth and joy and wonderful nature of life to yourself
is a book called "The Secret," which is an extreme international bestseller
And it has this sort of idea that you just have to manifest things that you want in your life and they will come to you
the problem with this is that you look back in injustices in history and you imagine that this worldview says
why didn't they just imagine their lives slightly differently?" I mean
you think about things like colonialism or slavery
and it's like under the worldview of the secret
these people were to blame because they simply didn't imagine riches and freedom
that's a ridiculous way of understanding the world
So one of the problems with the self-help industry is it says
"Here are the three things you need to do to become rich or the three things you need to do to become powerful." It writes out the arbitrary
And it tells you that you are therefore to blame because you didn't do these three things
And so I think one of the things that's really liberating about the worldview that I present in "Fluke," it tells you that you should not take so much credit for your success and you should not take so much blame for your failure
We wanna strive and make our lives as good as we possibly can
But that doesn't mean that you can take all the credit in the world when things go right for you
Sometimes it's nothing that you could control
And so I think these aspects of advice are actually much more useful than the self-help lies that tell you that you can conjure up the success that you dream of
- [Interviewer] What is your position on free will
- One of the things I realized while I was researching and writing "Fluke" is that I do not believe in free will
And the idea of free will is one that I think a lot of people try to contemplate and grapple with
is there a difference between my mind and my brain
there's two different words to describe these things
which means that I believe that the substance in my brain
I don't believe there's some sort of disembodied soul that is behind my decision-making
And I don't believe that there is some sort of other magical property within my head that is different from my brain
my entire body is part of a complex system that is producing decisions
And one of the things that I write about in "Fluke" is this
this moment in my childhood where I went to the Battle of Gettysburg
which I'm sure comes as complete shock to the people watching the video
I wanted to read all I could about this historic event
There's not some like weird version of the eight-year-old me that thought the best thing to be in life is a Civil War aficionado child
I don't think there was an independent choice being made
I'm sure there'll be many people in the comments who tell me whether they like me or dislike me
I don't think they have a choice over that
I think they are going to react to me in exactly the way that their brains tell them to based on their brain structures
and also the encoding that you have through all the experiences you had in life
which slightly affect those brain structures
So the question of free will to me is a question about causation or why things are happening or why decisions are being made
there are a few ways to think about this philosophically
which is the idea that you have an independent ability to determine what your brain decides to do separate from the physical material in your head
You actually have independent agencies separate from the physical matter in your body
I'm not saying that this is impossible because we don't understand consciousness
then basically everything we know about science would have to be wrong
The second and third are called the compatibles mentality and the hard determinist mentality
the compatibles mentality says that it is possible to simultaneously have determinism
which says that everything that happens unfolds in this very unbroken line of causes and effects
It can be this unbroken chain of causes and effects from the Big Bang up to the present moment
So everything that's happening now is directly caused by something that happened 13.8 billion years ago
And the compatibilist argument says that's because you get to choose what you want to do
but you can want what you want." In other words
you can pursue your preferences free from coercion
So no one's putting a gun to your head and saying
"You must do this." But you can't necessarily choose why you like something
So if I go to an ice cream shop and I decide that I want mint chocolate chip ice cream
I'm always going to pick that in the compatibilist mentality because my brain has a certain structure and my experiences with mint chocolate chip ice cream in the past have been positive
given the state of my brain at that moment
because no one forced you to order vanilla instead
the hard determinist agree with the determinism
there's this unbroken chain of causes and effects
basically a definitional debate that determines whether you end up in the compatibilist camp or the hard determinist camp
who's a controversial figure for some of the other things he talks about
But his ideas on neuroscience I think are really persuasive on this front where he says
"The difference between the compatibilists and the hard determinists is basically whether a puppet likes its strings." In other words
do you accept that you don't have control over your decisions because the world is unfolding in this very bizarre but scripted way where your brain is basically choosing things for you
and you don't have independent control over it
And so he says the compatibilist have a cop-out
They're basically saying that a puppet is free as long as it thinks its strings are nice
And so I think this is the aspect of free will that is very mind-bending
And the one wrinkle here is quantum mechanics
because determinism says that there's this unbroken chain of causes and effects
back to the Big Bang up to the present moment
which is really weird to think about because it basically means that if you throw the Frisbee for your dog
that was directly an unbroken chain of events that was caused by the Big Bang
the sort of wrinkle in this thinking is quantum mechanics because
although we don't fully understand the meaning of quantum mechanics
And they do seem to show there is some undiluted randomness at the atomic and subatomic level
And this creates the question of maybe the world is not deterministic at all
which is to say that sometimes there are these sort of random things that change the way the world unfolds
There's different realms of quantum mechanics
the many world's interpretation or things like super determinism
they can have a world in which quantum mechanics coexist with determinism
what's called the Copenhagen interpretation
is completely incompatible with determinism
I think a lot of people believe in indeterminism through quantum effects
And so I think the aspect of this is you make your own answer
I have interpreted it to believe that there is no free will
Everyone will make sense of this in a slightly different way
I think one of the most beautiful things about the human experience
is that eight billion of us can be presented with different information
are going to interpret reality in slightly different ways
The question is whether you could have thought something different from what you end up deciding in the end
- [Interviewer] What do we get wrong about the concept of genius
- One of the great myths that our society perpetuates is that if anyone is super rich
And there's a few reasons why this is not true
that when you start to peer in the dynamics of the correlation between wealth and talent
and luck plays a much bigger role than we are told
So the first thing to understand is that some human traits are normally distributed
height is going to be clustered around a relatively narrow band
You're not going to find a human that's 1 foot tall
and you're not gonna find a human that's 200 feet tall
you have a sort of normal distribution around a relative average
Wealth is distributed on what has a long tail
It has this really long distribution at the top
and then a lot of people clustered towards the bottom
So there's a large number of people who have sort of average incomes and then a few people who might be a hundred
or even a million times richer than somebody else on the planet
And this creates a mismatch because in order to produce that long tail
my favorite study that shows this was a collaboration between some physicists and an economist
And they developed what is basically a sort of fake world with some crude relationships between wealth and talent
You have people who are clustered around a sort of normal area
And then you have a small number of people who are really talented and a small number of people who are really not so talented
But nobody in the world is like a billion times more talented than somebody else
It's much more clustered around this sort of middle value
And what this means is that when luck is introduced into the equation
when you have these sort of lightning strikes that we can think of with luck
they're going to hit in the place that has the most people
Because if you imagine a sort of bell curve where most people are in the talent spectrum
the idea that the lightning is gonna strike the one person who's the most talented in the world or the one person who's the least talented in the world
So instead what's going to happen is the lightning is going to hit someone around the middle value of talent
it's going to increase the chance that they become wealthy
the odds of them becoming extremely wealthy increase
So what ends up happening in these simulations they run is that over and over and over
the richest person in their fake world is not somebody of extreme talent
It's somebody who's marginally above average on talent who happens to get lucky
And I think this is the way the world works
I think we have a lot of complex dynamics that are producing these outcomes
which is highly correlated with being rich in the future
and also whether you had a network that supported you through connections and so on
and that they obviously are the most talented person
And I think this is just so something that is fundamentally a myth
But as long as you have some and you get lucky
you're more likely to end up on those long tails of the high degree of wealth
And I think this is something that our modern world infers backwards
That genius is something that always is attached to the people who are wealthy
And sometimes they were just the random byproduct of lightning hitting them rather than somebody else
but perhaps not as much as everybody pretends
he inferred that therefore he must be a genius
and therefore that his skills are transferrable into everything else that he could possibly throw himself into
So you look at some of the areas where he has had financial success
the reason for the success is because you're a genius." And geniuses
all believe that they can control their own future and that their talent will see them through no matter what realm they enter
Elon Musk has had some success with cars and with rocket ships
and some of that is due probably to his talent
But some of it is also due to the talent of the people who work for him
the funding mechanisms that allow him to get government grants and so on
which is to say when he's acquired Twitter
he basically lit tens of billions of dollars on fire and made that social media site worth a fraction of what it was before because his genius wasn't transferrable from one area
wasn't transferrable to the realm of social media
they learn the lesson that they are so talented
And I think it's one of the huge problems of society
is actually there's a lot of things about billionaires that are not due to luck or to talent
So one of the things that I think about with this as well is there is a degree of overconfidence and a degree of thirst for money that you have to have in order to become a billionaire
the first thing that I would not do is say
how can I get $3 billion?" I would give away most of my money because that is what I would think
"How can I have three?" And then they get three billion and they say
"How can I have four?" So what's happened is you have a self-selection of certain traits that make it more likely these people will become super
I think there is a lot of the mythology around billionaires and a lot of the mythology around people like Elon Musk infers backwards
this straight line between talent and wealth
And I think the immediate assumption that the genius must be embedded in the person who is financially successful in one industry is a great misunderstanding of how our world works and the sort of arbitrary nature and sometimes the unfairness with which talent and wealth are not strictly correlated
- [Interviewer] Why do people believe in conspiracy theories
- The modern world is full of conspiratorial thinking where people see an event and they come up with this extraordinary story
and that sometimes things just sort of randomly happen
And sometimes those things have very small causes
this is a problem because our brains are driven to find explanations that fit a pattern
and our brains are also driven to find explanations that fit a narrative
this is where you have two terms that are worth understanding if you want to understand the world of conspiracy theories
which are narrative bias and magnitude bias
The human brain has evolved to make sense of the world through stories
And the reason for that is because stories have neat and tidy causes and effects
And when you understand the cause and effect
you're more likely to navigate the world in a way that allows you to survive long enough to reproduce
our brains have gotten more and more attuned to pattern detection
the problem with conspiracy theories is they're not just telling you a story
There's a hidden cabal behind everything that's happening
There's a secret pattern that you just have to be smart enough to detect
you can be inducted in this group of people who understand the real truth
And that social glue sort of reinforces the conspiratorial thinking
So narrative bias is one of these things where conspiracy theories thrive in narrative bias because what you have is you have a thriller versus someone telling you nothing to see here
So even though some of these conspiracy theories are extremely insane and obviously wrong
they still have a lot of people that end up gravitating towards them because it's a good story
magnitude bias is a slightly different idea
And one of the things that happens when you think about chaos theory is that sometimes very small changes can have very big effects
you have the Arab Spring where a man decides to light himself on fire in Central Tunisia because he's disgruntled about his economic prospects
This is the trigger for multiple regimes collapsing and also a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people
traced back to one person lighting himself on fire in Central Tunisia in 2010
the conspiracy theories around this would tell you that there's something else going on
because this sort of random event of one man causing all of these catastrophes seems too strange to compute as a human brain
you have things like Princess Diana's death
which is also one of the areas where there's lots of conspiratorial thinking around it
It's basically a sort of random event where somebody was driving too fast and she died
So there has to be some sort of bigger story to make sense of this tragedy
And what's extraordinary about this psychologically within conspiratorial thinking is that research will show that conspiracy theorists will hold ideas that are quite clearly logically opposed to each other
So people who believe in Princess Diana conspiracy theories will simultaneously say that
we think that she is alive and also that she was probably killed by the British government
but they would rather accept that logical impossibility than the random explanation that there was some sort of small cause that was banal
which is to say she died in a car accident
So conspiratorial thinking is really difficult to debunk
This is one of the reasons why it's so sticky in modern life
are telling what Jonathan Gottschall calls the storytelling animal
We're a storytelling animal that gravitates towards stories and the people trying to counteract conspiratorial thinking say nothing to see here
because you're telling someone who is evolutionarily predisposed to believe stories
the best explanation for the conspiratorial thinking's pervasiveness in the modern world
is that you get exposed to these a lot more through social media and through the ways that we consume information
but they're simply sticky in our minds because we are predisposed to patterns and we're allergic as human beings to explanations that involve either randomness or small
I think one of the other reasons why conspiratorial thinking is so prominent today is because the information pipelines that we use to get knowledge about the world have completely shifted
And this is something that's different from every other human who has ever lived
So if you think about the history of information flows
the history up until now has been a history of expanding the number of people who can consume information
but not the people who can produce information
you still have a small number of people who write the news
and you have a larger number of people who consume it
from a very small number in the distant past to a very large number with the rise of mass media
The internet has forever shifted that calculation because for the first time ever
we have gone from few-to-many communication to many-to-many communication
We have drastically expanded the pool of people who can make information and then disseminate it instantly around the world
And this means the barrier to entry for crazy ideas is significantly lower than it used to be
So people are routinely exposed to conspiratorial thinking in their daily lives in ways that weren't true in the past because you had to seek out conspiratorial newsletters
rather than simply passively consuming them when you log onto the internet
And so this combination of the information pipelines shifting in the way that we understand the world and navigate it
combined with our evolutionary predisposition to storytelling and pattern detection
is a perfect storm for the rise of conspiracy theories as a major driver in our modern politics
It's a very dangerous development because if we can't agree on reality
And democracies are based on a shared sense of reality
and then the compromise that is forged within it
And this is one of the reasons why I think there is so much polarization and democratic breakdown around the world
is because we simply inhabit different realities due to the fact that there has been such a surge in conspiratorial thinking around the world
- [Interviewer] What are our conspiratorial cognitive biases
- So when it comes to understanding conspiracy theories
there's three main cognitive biases that you need to grapple with
And magnitude bias is this idea that any big event must have a big cause
we have these linear relationships and how we understand it
So anything that has a small effect must have a small cause
Anything that has a big effect must have a big cause
This is an incorrect and impossible way to imagine the world
because very often small changes make big effects
the problem is conspiracy theories often revolve around really consequential moments
And so we don't have this idea that there could be an explanation that is potentially small
It has to be something where these hidden forces behind it
And that's where magnitude bias causes us to misunderstand the world and over-interpret conspiracy theories as plausible explanations for big events
The second form of bias is called narrative bias
And this is where the human brain has evolved to make sense of reality through storytelling
And the reason for that is because stories involve a very neat and tidy cause and effect
And when you understand simple causes and effects
you can normally navigate the world more effectively
And certainly the hunter-gatherer brain that we're all derived from
98% of the human experiences is basically derived from hunter-gatherer evolution
They lived in a simple world where simple cause and effect relationships were the way to survive
the problem is that when you have these storytelling biases
you don't end up accepting that the random cause was what produces the outcome
And conspiracy theories are not just stories
They would be thrillers if they were turned into films
And so if you think about the world that way
you have basically a debunking group that is trying to talk about why the conspiracy theory is wrong
The rest of the people who are spreading the conspiracy theory
that's really attractive to make sense of the world." It's a losing fight
And it's one where normally the conspiracy theorists have an upper hand in this because of simply the ways our brains have evolved to make sense of this complex reality
The third form of bias is called teleological bias
which is effectively that there must be a reason for everything
I sometimes go on the news to try to explain events
like sometimes just sort of random things happen." It doesn't make for good television because you don't want to be told that the guest has no idea either
So what you have to do is you have to sort of fit the world into these really clear explanations where exactly one cause produced exactly one effect
And you'll hear this when you listen to stock market news
Markets are reacting to whatever it is in the day
that's where you should be really worried that teleological bias has infiltrated the thinking of the person who's talking to you because the economy in the stock market is an unbelievably complex institution that does not have one cause for one effect
So conspiracy theories thrive on all of these forms of biases because they ultimately stitch them all together in a single really compelling big reason why things happen
and one that gives you a reason to make sense of a bewildering thing that has occurred that is consequential in the world
And that's why the ability to debunk conspiracy theories is such a challenge for the forces who want to provide fact-based evidence for people who are speculating in the realm of these three cognitive biases
Debunking conspiracy theories is really difficult for all of those reasons
but yet we still have to try because it's really important to make sure that people don't fundamentally misunderstand the world or vote based on conspiracy theories that are ultimately wrong
And so the best way forward is to try to clean up the information pipelines that we have that allow people to make sense of the world
to ensure that good information is provided to people
to also provide detailed fact checks that grapple with the parts of the conspiracy theory that make the good story and explain them in clear ways to show why it's incorrect
We understand that this is not going to get through to everyone
And I think this is something where if you understand that part of the reason for the storytelling bias
And I think this is where when people simply say
How could you possibly believe this?" It's better to engage on the terms that the person understands the world through and then explain this story is incorrect
But I think it's definitely something that we need to do because it is a huge part of the base problem that we're dealing with in modern society and modern democracies
people not inhabiting the same reality because they believe this conspiratorial thinking
the Catholic Church lost its faithful pastor and visionary leader
And the world lost its most persuasive champion to end the scourge of capital punishment
I remember exactly where I was when Pope Francis addressed the U.S
I had just deboarded my train arriving at Penn Station in New York
Standing inside the station and watching the simulcast
hanging on to the Holy Father’s every word.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Pope Francis called on Americans to embrace our highest ideals and to pursue the common good
Yet no line touched me as powerfully as when he made a specific call to end the death penalty in the United States
Pope Francis was the first Pope to formally address Congress
seizing this opportunity to single out an issue that
still resided within a loophole of disclarity on the continuum of life issues
while supporters of the death penalty pushed back
a glimpse into one of the central tenets of his papacy—prophetic and unequivocal action against the death penalty
including and especially promoting its abolition in the United States
The Catholic Church has long seen the death penalty as incompatible with the consistent ethic of life
the injustice is compounded by widespread racial bias
and the reality that innocent people have been sentenced to death
American abolition would send a message to the international community setting a key precedent for other nations to follow suit
the Pope sought to inspire the millions of American Catholics
Conference of Catholic Bishops and my organization
were already working hard to advance key arguments against the death penalty and break through the polarization that divides American Catholics
With countless Catholic public servants in key positions
a new openness to hearing the moral and practical arguments against the death penalty could prove decisive
Following his 2015 visit, and throughout the next presidential administration, Pope Francis continued to take unparalleled action. He revised the death penalty section of the Catholic Catechism, the core teaching of the Catholic Church, calling the practice <a href="https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20180801_catechismo-penadimorte_en.html" target="_blank" rel="external">“inadmissible”</a> in all cases
At the same time President Trump reinstated federal executions in 2020
Pope Francis released his third encyclical
which included a section decrying the injustice of the death penalty and calling for its worldwide abolition
The encyclical affirmed the Catechism revision
placing the full weight of Pope Francis’ teaching authority behind the Church’s anti-death penalty position
Pope Francis called Catholics around the world to “be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison
respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty
a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation.”
And in the final days of the Biden Administration, in his weekly Angelus on December 8, 2024, Pope Francis stood before the world and urged <a href="https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-12/pope-appeal-prayers-federal-death-row-grace-inmates.html" target="_blank">federal death row commutations in the United States.</a> Later that month
President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on death row
No president in the history of the United States had ever taken such an action
For Pope Francis’ legacy to be fully realized
American Catholics and all who admire the Pope’s courageous moral leadership must continue to pursue human dignity
Will we rise to this challenge by abolishing the death penalty
and honoring the legacy of a Pope who believed in our capacity for mercy
Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter.<a href="/en/newsletter-registration.html" alt="newsletter-link" title="newsletter-link"> Just click here</a>
Wind is the enemy of anglers who use float tubes
It doesn’t matter if the tube is a doughnut-shaped belly boat or a U-shaped luxury vehicle
High winds are dangerous for any watercraft
But even breezes and gusts that don’t make big waves can turn a day of lake fishing into a miserable leg workout
a perfect day looks like this: Kick my tube into a light wind
then crack a beer and sit back while the wind carries me back to the boat ramp
Wind speeds in the high teens are definitely too strong
Speeds around 10 mph – or maybe ranging between 5 mph and 15 mph – seem doable
The wind was light on a recent Monday at Amber Lake
I wanted to fish a small bay south of the boat launch
The wind was blowing south – so while it could help me get there
it could make returning to shore at the end of the day a major chore
I settled for moseying around the water in front of the launch
and we had the normal yelling conversations about how things were going
An angler fishing from shore hooked a nice fish on a water boatman
Another paddling a pontoon boat had some luck with a small woolly bugger
There were a lot of bugs in the air and a bunch of spent shucks in the water
A guy who had just trailered his johnboat said he saw some big mayflies earlier in the day
He mentioned it was possible that there would be a spinner fall – a short window in which thousands of mayflies die and fall on the surface of the water
I glanced over at the bay I’d planned to fish
The wind had weakened to almost nothing at this point
I thought about getting back in the tube and going after them
Then I remembered the dinner plans and the possibility that the wind would regain strength
I asked a few people what that hatch might have been
a big gray mayfly that can make for epic fishing
Others said it was too early for that hatch
I figured going back and staying later would present another chance
I decided to let it blow me into the bay I wanted to fish
thinking it would eventually weaken and give way to golden hour flatwater magic
it became clear that nothing was going to happen
I fought it all the way back to the boat launch
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This interview is part of&nbsp;<a href="https://sojo.net/articles/series/reconstruct">The Reconstruct</a>, a weekly newsletter from Sojourners. In a world where so much needs to change, Mitchell Atencio and Josiah R. Daniels interview people who have faith in a new future and are working toward repair.&nbsp;<a href="https://sojo.net/articles/series/reconstruct">Subscribe here</a>
While much of the nation was captivated by Rev
Mariann Budde’s sermon calling on newly inaugurated President Donald Trump to show mercy
I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now,” she said
asked for mercy specifically for LGBTQ+ children
and refugees — people the president had targeted in his campaign
so I didn’t really miss the sermon — I knew it happened
and I knew our team could cover it in my absence
when it was time to prepare for my April 1 interview with Budde
I had to retrace the moment: An interfaith service with a long history
a cathedral that serves as a de facto site of civil religion
a president who does not like being told what to do
I realized that the questions I had were larger than that one sermon
They implicated the existence and purpose of the Washington National Cathedral
there’s an inherent tension in the mission to be a prophetic witness to the peace of the gospel and the request to host and honor the state
I see that tension in funerals for state figures such as the late President Jimmy Carter
But I also see it in the cathedral’s special police — a force licensed by the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia
we spoke about the breadth of those tensions
how she’s spent her vocation discerning them
whether it was appropriate to ask Trump for mercy
and why the cathedral is no longer letting presidents plan their own inaugural prayer services
This interview has been edited for length and clarity
the cathedral’s interfaith service didn’t have a sermon
You said then that it was “not the occasion that we will use to address particular issues of policy or concerns we might have about the direction he’s taking the country.” 
Did you change your mind in the eight years since
those services were planned and executed by the cathedral
but it certainly was true by the Obama administration — the vast majority of the planning was handed over to the presidential inaugural committee and the religious advisers of the president-elect or the president
depending on if it was an election or a reelection
the speakers — while the cathedral was involved
the leadership really went to the inaugural committee
We were struggling in 2017 with what President-elect Trump and his advisers would want
the request was made by the incoming Trump administration that there be no homily
That’s saved us from having to vet somebody that we may or may not have been enthusiastic about in the pulpit of the cathedral
As the dean and I were thinking about how we felt about this service with all of its implications — before the election
back in the summer — we did a lot of consulting with people around the country
that we would simply announce in June that there would be a prayer service for the nation after the election
Its theme would be prayers of unity after the divisive nature of the electoral season
and the cathedral would be in charge of it from beginning to end
and the bishop of Washington would preach regardless of who won
I knew in June that I was going to be preaching at that service
The only thing I didn’t know was who the president would be and how the service would unfold within the context of the outcome of the election
And we are gonna hang on to the service from now on
We’re done handing it over to the inaugural committee
Does that feel like a necessary step because of the times or a correction from some slippage in the decades before
It was always meant to be a service to bring the nation together after the inauguration
there was concern — particularly in the environment in which we live now — that regardless of who won
it would feel like a spiritual coronation of a civic outcome
We wanted to step away from that regardless of who won
And that’s because of the intensity of the polarization in the country right now. Which I mean, we’ve seen in the past, but it’s taken on overtones given what some have called the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/02/opinion/sunday/political-polarization.html">culture of contempt</a>” in which we live now
and the ways that we speak about people who disagree with us politically
Part of the <a href="https://cathedral.org/about/mission-vision/#:~:text=Grounded%20in%20the%20reconciling%20love%20of%20Jesus%20Christ%2C%20Washington%20National,great%20church%20for%20national%20purposes.">mission and vision</a> is for the cathedral to be “a great church for national purposes.” I wondered about the tension between “church” and “for national purposes.” How do you think about the tensions of being prophetic and also bringing the nation together
I think about it in the classic pastoral/prophetic tension that clergy live with all the time. It has implications everywhere. When I was a rector in Minneapolis, I was there the year that <a href="https://minnesotareformer.com/2022/10/24/sen-paul-wellstone-and-the-portents-of-his-death-two-decades-later/">Sen. Paul Wellstone died in a plane crash</a> in Northern Minnesota
Wellstone was a beloved man to many people in the state of Minnesota
and he was not universally loved by those who disagreed with him politically
Half of my congregation served in politics
It wound up being more charged than I realized
because of a couple of things I said in the sermon that really upset people who felt I had taken a stab at Wellstone — I didn’t mean to
It’s obviously writ large in the cathedral
And people rightfully observe and critique us
saying sometimes we’ve crossed the line one way or the other
When you know you have to prepare a sermon where politics is going to be front and center
Put another way: When you realize that you do need to step into that prophetic role
That’s the major vocational question of my life
I seek to have a consistent voice in the pulpit
regardless of which side of the balance I’m on
so that every sermon potentially has some element of both prophetic and pastoral
“the spirit of the Lord came upon me because God has anointed me,” but just speaking any kind of truth that makes us all uncomfortable
A truth that perhaps none of us really wants to hear
I try to make sure that I’m not stepping out of an overall worldview that I believe is my essential calling as a clergyperson
I always see myself as standing under the same prophetic word that I preach to other people
so that I’m not perceived — to the degree that it’s possible — as speaking at people
Speaking prophetically is not something that I do lightly
I try to make it clear whenever I preach that it is not my expectation that everyone is going to agree with what I have to say
Part of my function is to raise issues and to help people think about them prayerfully
and if they don’t agree that doesn’t make them any less in God’s eyes
If it causes them to think and for us to have a conversation or to move the conversation forward
to avoid language that I know is just going to set people off
or do you want to be heard?” I think about that a lot
To whom am I speaking and for what purpose
I know a lot of people were caught off guard by you directly asking President Trump to show mercy
I found myself caught off guard because I wasn’t sure mercy was quite the right thing
When you use that term “mercy,” what are you thinking of
Let me say that it’s a pretty common homiletic tool when there’s a service where someone is at the center of it to address them directly
If you’re parents whose children are being baptized
The fact that people were — if you go back to any of the presidential homilies
Whether “mercy” was the right word — that’s a really valid question
I was thinking about “empathy.” I was thinking about “compassion.”
There are times when any of us are in need of mercy
and there are times when we are in a position to offer it
It suggests a power imbalance or a state of being imbalanced
I was deliberate in the sense that I was trying to acknowledge that he had been elected president
and he had been elected by most Americans who voted in that election
He believed he had been spared by a loving God to carry out his vocation
that when we are in a position to be merciful
It’s part of what it means to be a humane and moral society
I chose mercy in a deliberate appeal to his position of authority
I was expecting more pushback from that than I actually received
From people who said, “How dare you ask for mercy? You should demand that. You should demand compassion. Why are you being subservient?” One of your colleagues <a href="https://sojo.net/magazine/april-2025/when-sermons-go-viral">wrote</a> in Sojourners about the sermon
at the very end he wrote “in our role as democratic citizens
it is our place to demand rather than plead.” I think that’s a fair critique
Something I found in my research was that in 2020, when you were asked to do a closing prayer for the Democratic National Convention, they asked you to do it at <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/news/trump-attends-nonpartisan-service-church-he-once-used-photo-op">St. John’s Church, Lafayette Square</a>, where Trump had done his <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/police-tear-gas-peaceful-protesters-clear-way-trump-church-photo-op">photo-op that summer</a>
And they asked me to do it in the cathedral
Does it feel like you’re always being asked to baptize political power
as the bishop of the Diocese of Washington
I’m pretty sure the DNC didn’t invite me to do that sermon because they thought I looked nice at the back of processions
They asked me because of my position when President Trump walked across Lafayette Park and held a Bible in front of the church
“What are you doing offering a prayer at a partisan event?” I thought about it
I thought of all the other religious leaders that I admired that had offered prayers at either convention
I didn’t think less of them as clergyperson because they did that
“If the Republican party asked me to do the same thing
But it was also very clear that I was not going to stand in front of
For the very same reason that I criticized President Trump
I wasn’t going to extend the spiritual iconography of our architecture and our sacred spaces into that moment
I might have been invited to do it at the convention itself
Everything was running late that night and everything had shut down on television
I did my best to have a prayer that I would’ve said anywhere.&nbsp;
I want to ask you about that extending of spiritual iconography. One of the places the cathedral most frequently does that is in funerals for political figures. When Colin Powell died, for example, the cathedral was used to honor him and called him a “<a href="https://cathedral.org/about/news-media/cathedral-mourns-death-of-secretary-colin-powell/">peace-maker</a>.”
What is the process for thinking through funerals
First of all, the request comes from the family of the person who died. In the case of Colin Powell and <a href="https://cathedral.org/about/news-media/cathedral-to-host-funeral-for-madeleine-albright/">Madeleine Albright</a>
it’s a very high honor and it is something that they asked for
Because of their affiliations with various branches of government
security and all of those factors come into play
the effort is to highlight the gifts that a person brought to his or her work and life and maybe not hammer home all of the contradictions and failures
It brings together people of very different political persuasions into one room
It’s an opportunity to highlight aspirational values and to reflect a solemnity and dignity
I would say that’s civic religion in its purest form
his daughter was very clear in her sermon how she felt about President Trump
people had a lot to say about Colin Powell and particularly his endorsement and what proved to be inaccurate assessments that justified the invasion of Iraq
You said it’s a great honor to be buried at the cathedral
I would agree with you that funerals are not really the place for picking through the mistakes of someone’s life
are there times the cathedral would look at somebody’s life and say they don’t reach the worthiness of this great honor
We do a lot of funerals that don’t make it onto national television
I don’t know if that’s a question — I would have to think about that
Some public person whose life was so notorious that we would say no
What would that say about us and our understanding of mercy and forgiveness
I’ve had to preside at funerals of people who were really terrible husbands
You know that in the congregation there’s a lot of emotion — that isn’t all necessarily grief
You’re an alum of Virginia Theological Seminary. These days, students at VTS get invited to a service at the cathedral during the first week or two on campus. And spouses are kindly invited — even Mennonite spouses like me. The first thing I saw on site was the police presence. I did not realize the cathedral — and I know it <a href="https://pecf.org/aboutus">extends to other institutions</a> — has its own special police department
What’s the balance between being peacemakers as Christians and employing a special police force
are hired by the foundation that is in charge of not only the cathedral
There are three schools on the grounds of the cathedral
for the schools and for the cathedral itself
but more and more institutions — religious and educational — have increased security
The whole question of whether or not they should be armed was something that we really wrestled with
And security has only intensified in these years
both because of the rise of gun violence and
the fact that there are family members who are often targeted for all sorts of reasons
The cathedral sits on the highest mountain in Washington
but I realize that it’s the world that we live in
I’ll get you out on a less challenging question
When you’re preparing to preach at the inauguration interfaith service
you’re also preparing other sermons for other contexts later even that very week
especially after all the attention started rolling in
there are times when I refer to the moment that we’re in and some aspect of that sermon or the response to it
That’s what people were thinking about when they see me
Most of my sermons take as their springboard the gospel texts for the day or the event that we are gathered for
I am preaching a lot about mercy these days
I’m preaching about how to stay in relationship with people who disagree with us
All of those things come up on a pretty regular basis
in part because it’s the conversation we’re having nationally
and a lot of people are losing their jobs really fast and in whole swaths
We have a very high population of undocumented workers and people who are here on various forms of status that are about to be revoked
The fear and grief and confusion that people are feeling — some people are feeling perfectly fine about that
That’s more on my mind than what people thought about what I said in January
Congress almost took a billion dollars from the district’s funding
And they <a href="https://51st.news/house-fails-to-act-on-dc-budget-fix-raising-threat-of-cuts-to-schools-and-public-safety/">haven’t reinstated it</a> yet
Sometimes you don’t have to actually explicitly say something because everybody’s thinking about it
You just have to create a space where people can fill in the blanks themselves
People need to have space in their own lives to do that for themselves
And that actually gives more room for the Holy Spirit to work in people’s lives
Mitchell Atencio is senior associate&nbsp;news editor
Got something to say about what you're reading
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there is no justification for what President Donald Trump and his subordinates are doing
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"The very act of her getting up and pressing and pushing to her rightful healing is an act of resistance."
Vanessa Martinez Soltero is an activist bridging her Christian faith and Indigenous traditions to sustain herself and community
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The TimesNext Thursday’s meeting of the Bank of England’s rate-setting monetary policy committee is the most consequential since the group stopped raising interest rates in September 2023
cast a long shadow over the global economy and the credibility of US assets
Although financial markets have settled down from their daily gyrations
Trump’s protectionist trade strategy threatens to constrain global and UK economic growth
An expected near-term inflation surge in the UK
fuelled by a range of household bills rising in the second quarter of this year
may steer the Bank of England away from a procession of rate reductions in response to the Trump-induced growth hit
investors are unanimous in thinking that the Bank of England will
climate change renders some areas uninhabitable
They are forced to live in frontline&rsquo;s communities
disproportionately affected by climate change
Despite their minimal contribution to climate change exacerbation
and persons with disabilities) are the most affected by its ongoing impacts
A study prepared by Holm Akhdar for Environmental Studies and Consultancy on climate displacement
entitled &lsquo;At the Mercy of the Climate: The Impact of Climate Change on IDPs in Yemen&rsquo; concluded that the extreme climate events in Yemen during the period (2020-2024) have pushed more than a half of IDPs to adopt maladaptive coping strategies
This study examines the impact of climate change on IDPs in Yemen across six chapters
The significance of this studylies in its being one of the first case studies that examine the impact of climate change on internal displacement in Yemen
specifically focusing on the governorates of Marib
no comprehensive studies have been conducted on the impact of climate change-induced displacement in these particular areas
The importance of the study is also reflected in its subject
which may make this study a new qualitative addition to increased understanding of the impact of climate change on internal displacement in Yemen
Field findings indicated that approximately 13.9% of the IDPs surveyed in Marib
were displaced primarily due to the impact of climate changes in their areas of origin
Among those displaced due to climate changes
around 10.2% experienced displacement triggered by floods and landslides
leading to the destruction of housing in their areas of origin
3.7% of them were displaced by drought and shortage of rainfall in their areas of origin
leading to water scarcity and affecting sources of income
with disruption of various livelihoods such as agriculture
The findings of focused group discussions (FGDs) and qualitative interviews conducted by Holm Akhdar team
reveal that climate disasters have intensified the hardship experienced by IDPs
compelling them to endure multiple displacements
either within sites or towards other districts and governorates
A significant portion of climate-induced displacement from these camps can be attributed to torrential rains and flash floods
as witnessed in Socotra and Al Maharah governorates
prompting IDPs to seek relocation to areas in close proximity to wells and water sources
The study findings indicate that a significant proportion 94.3% of the IDPs in the governorates of Marib
and Socotra have already experienced a wide range of climate-related impacts within their temporary camps
the study revealed that IDPs in the eastern regions
the percentages of affected IDPs were 95.5% and 90%
This discrepancy can be attributed to the successive and concerning occurrence of extreme weather events in the eastern regions
Yemen was hit by eight cyclones and severe storms
compared to only one tropical storm in the previous years (2007-2014)
The most pressing threats posed by climate change to IDPs in Yemen include intense storms such us thunderstorms (affected 96.7% of the IDPs)
These impacts are associated with an escalating death toll and exacerbated losses and damages on an annual basis
It is imperative to recognize the heightened vulnerability of frontline communities
which are particularly exposed to the adverse effects of climate change
and others are the most affected and least able to cope with these impacts
This exacerbates the climate displacement crisis
thereby creating a vicious cycle of intergenerational trauma and ecological devastation
Food shortages and restricted access to relief assistance affect 81.2% of IDPs
worsened by rainstorms and flash floods that destroy supplies
Weak emergency preparedness and inadequate humanitarian response leave many displacement sites underserved
with only 720 out of 2,284 IDP camps receiving international aid
have led to the destruction of shelters for 74.3% of IDPs
particularly in flood-prone areas where makeshift housing offers little protection
According to focus group discussions with IDP community leaders in Marib
6,500 tents have been completely destroyed by floods in the last four years
and thousands of tents have been partially damaged
175 camps and sites were completely damaged by flash floods in 2024
91 IDP camps were severely damaged by floods
and 2,869 tents partially damaged over the past four years
nearly 2,500 IDPs are still directly exposed to the risk of flooding in the camps
Climate change has contributed to disease outbreaks and epidemics such as fevers (malaria and chikungunya)
diarrhea and other epidemics due to swamps created by rainwater
Stagnant floodwaters create breeding grounds for disease vectors like mosquitoes
These challenges are compounded by a lack of functional healthcare facilities in these governorates
as many of them sustained serious damages by conflict and extreme weather events
61.2% of IDPs across the four surveyed governorates identified fires in camps and shelters as significant recurring risks
intricately linked to climate-related factors
The study team noted an increase in fire incidents within IDP camps
forcing residents to seek alternative shelters
Fires often occur due to elevated temperatures in summer
and mostly exacerbated by the absence of fire safety and prevention tools (e.g
there were 636 fires in Marib&rsquo;s camps
Social tensions are a major cumulative effect exacerbated by extreme climatic events affecting IDP communities in Yemen
Approximately 44.1% of displaced respondents reported an increase in social tensions and threats from the host community regarding land issues associated with the camps
103 camp face immediate evacuation threats
landowners are increasingly motivated to invest in their properties
most of which lack formal rental agreements
tensions arise from competition over scarce services and resources in host communities
This is particularly evident in the camps located in Marib and Hajjah
The climate shocks experienced in the governorates of Marib
Al-Maharah and Socotra have forced displaced families to adopt maladaptive coping strategies
due to their inability to effectively cope with climate risks
62% of the IDPs in these areas resorted to changing their shelter and endured second displacement to escape the floods and storms that ravaged their camps
While this adaptation strategy may provide temporary relief from immediate climate threats
it could further deepen the climate displacement crisis in the country
36% opted to relocate their shelter within the same area of displacement
while 26% were forced to undergo displacement once again to seek refuge in other safer areas
The decision to flee for a second time was driven by the fact that their initial settlements were situated in flood-prone zones
have made a deliberate decision to remain in their camps
27% of these IDPs have collaborated with their displaced and host communities to mitigate the risk of flooding by constructing buffers and earthen barriers in front of the camps to deter floodwaters
they have taken the initiative to educate fellow camp residents through applications such as WhatsApp and others
disseminating knowledge about the hazards of floods
as well as providing guidance on improved tent installation techniques
Another 7% of IDPs have employed alternative energy technologies in their camps as a means of adapting to climate risks
4% of them were compelled to change their professions or occupations
Key actors in Yemen should focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation as the main strategies to respond to climate change
The study reveal a range of systemic and institutional factors that contribute to the intensification of climate risks faced by displaced communities
as well as the issue of increasing climate-induced displacement
Field data illustrates the most significant factors
accounting for 82% of the IDPs respondents
which is absence of early warning systems EWS to effectively alert local communities of climate-related disasters
all shelter camps in Yemen have no EWS for disaster risk reduction DRR
This is closely followed by 80% limited official awareness regarding the severity of climate change and the necessary preparations to mitigate its impacts
Lack of policies pertaining to the environment and climate ranks third among these contributing factors
representing 75.5% according to respondents
the absence of environmental governance and inadequate institutional capacities are identified as additional factors contributing to climate risks
Insufficient international support provided to Yemen in confronting climate change is also a major factor
The study results also highlighted a weak response to the climate emergency
revealing significant shortcomings among key actors
57% of IDPs reported that local authorities and humanitarian organizations have implemented limited interventions to mitigate climate risks and facilitate adaptation efforts
43% of IDPs indicated that no meaningful actions were taken in their IDP sites to protect them from climate disasters
The lack of climate risk reduction interventions was particularly pronounced in the governorates of Socotra and Al-Maharah
followed by 57% in Hajjah and 29% in Marib
Without climate action and adaptation strategies
the impact of climate change on IDPs in Yemen will not be limited to the current situation but will extend to successive generations within each local community
perpetuating cycles of vulnerability and displacement
Employing a descriptive and analytical approach
the research utilized a questionnaire as the primary data collection tool
supplemented by Twenty qualitative interviews and five focus groups (both males and females) with 37 participants
The questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 310 IDPs across 26 sites in four governorates: Marib
245 valid and fully completed questionnaires were returned
The total number of participants across all study tools amounted to 302
These participants were distributed among questionnaire respondents
The collected data were subsequently analyzed using SPSS and Microsoft Excel
the study identified several systemic and structural factors that intensify climate risks for vulnerable groups within the surveyed communities
It also highlighted gaps in the responses to climate emergencies
the study provided recommendations for policymakers
and donors aimed at facilitating climate reforms in Yemen that promote disaster risk reduction
<a href="https://thinkadvisor.tradepub.com/c/pubRD.mpl?qf=w_adde15&amp;ch=TAWSRC" target="_blank" rel="noopener nofollow" class="text-lg font-normal hover:text-blue hover:underline" data-v-f220aae8>RIA Quarterly Period: Q4 2024</a>
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The Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Field
The Mercy of Gods, James S.A. Corey (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/031652557X/?tag=locusmag06-20">Orbit 978-0-31652-557-2, $30.00, 423 pp, hc</a>) August 2024
the more I notice how it much it depends on recycling tropes – not just repeating but extending and varying and inverting them – and
refitting them to reflect current anxieties or hopes
This time the recognition lights have been set flashing by the opening volume of The Captive’s War
Corey (the collabora­tive identity of Daniel Abraham &amp; Ty Franck)
The Mercy of Gods doesn’t encompass quite as extensive a set of subgenres and motifs as their wide-ranging Expanse sequence does – not yet
manage to braid together an apocalyptic First Contact; glimpses of space opera (or the results of one) and Stapledonian galactic history; contrasting human and inhuman psychologies; and a vision of humans defeated and dominated by an alien hegemony
The initial setting is a lost-colony situation in a future an uncertain distance from today
suffered what sounds like a civilization-breaking nuclear war that also broke their connection with their history
So Anjinn’s human population is already isolated
with only myth-filtered notions of how they and the rest of their biome got there
Their painfully rebuilt civilization is technologically sophisticated
but no match for the Carryx invasion fleet that appears in their solar system
The Carryx effort­lessly brush aside all planetary defenses
cull one in eight of the population in an instant (to show their power and determination)
and carry off samples of high-ability human elites to become part of the Carryx’s apparently endless
unstop­pable wars of interstellar conquest
The book opens (as do each of its five sections) with the voice of a Carryx administrator that establishes the inhuman thinking that drives them to dominate their environment and also announces that what follows is “the chronicle of [the Carryx’s] failure.” What unfolds thereafter is an elaboration and application of these hints
The human viewpoint characters are from a group of scientists that is something between a research team and a family: the intensely focused and ambitious team leader Tonner; his right-hand associate (and lover) Else; the in­separable old-but-junior-status couple Nöl and Synna; the able but deeply depressive Jessyn; and so on
But the crucial figure is the most junior assistant and pot-washer
not really a scientist but a political appointee with (as it proves) a profound gift for understanding relationships both human and alien
preconquest chapters as he navigates the “intricate and opaque rules of behavior and&#8230; rigidly enforced though ill-defined hierarchy of status” of the academic social world
There is one more important viewpoint char­acter: the “swarm,” an artificial-intelligence entity sent to spy by some enemy of the Carryx
and overwhelms the body and mind of a host as it gathers data
killing the body when it leaves but retaining remnant revenants of the personalities it has absorbed
It was present on Anjiin before the conquerors arrived and will host-hop in order to travel with the kidnapped humans
all the while seeking a way to transmit its information to those it serves
At the heart of the story is cap­tivity: the interstellar cattle-car conditions of transportation; the strange prison-camp/world-city where dozens of alien species serve the Carryx in a multitude of specialized ways; the revelation of the rules that govern the conquered; and the various kinds of adjustment to servitude
there is a growing recognition of the nature of their cap­tors
driven primarily by Dafyd’s determination to make sense of what he sees and to eventually use it against the Carryx – though at a cost
The conditions of that captivity are strange and apparently contradictory
The voyage to the Carryx world-city is profoundly miserable
but once there the researchers are given not only tolerable quarters in its giant ziggurats but some of their old equipment and a project to work on – interestingly related to their previous research on incompatible biomes – with the understand­ing that it is also a test to determine whether humans can be useful
and that “usefulness is survival.” The ziggurat is aswarm with dozens of subject species
among which are rivals who also must demonstrate their usefulness
which leads to a nasty conflict and an even nastier resolution by the Carryx
Each member of the research team is affected differently by captivity
but Dafyd’s re­sponse is to try to understand
his con­versations with members of other spe­cies show not only the pattern of Carryx conquest and domination but the variety of responses to it
What he hears from them is haunting and chilling
We eat their leavings and we smile and they give us our draft of pleasure&#8230;
Whatever it is you’re planning will fail and all of your kind will burn
Nothing here has a history except for the Carryx
A number of things kept going through my mind as I read
I also couldn’t not think of the behavior and culture of the Nazi regime
particularly in the portrait of blitzkrieg
There’s also an echo of the Roman Empire’s conquer-absorb-exploit model for estab­lishing hegemony
though with a terrifyingly chilling deployment of genocidal and scorched-planet practices that make imperial Rome look like the UN
And from there it is a short step to the entire human history of colonialism
(There are hints that Anjiin’s humans recapitulated these practices in their long climb back to technological civiliza­tion.)
I recalled the title and situation of William Tenn’s Of Men and Monsters (aka The Men in the Walls)
followed by a substantial catalogue of other tales of humankind-conquered/used/domesticated/drafted: Frederik Pohl &amp; C.M
Greg Bear’s War Dogs sequence and Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Final Architecture trilogy
From there it’s a short step to the consideration of what a “monster” is
of what is being modeled in a book about a confrontation between humans and entities that are powerful
What behavior is it that strikes us as “mon­strous”
The book’s initial backward-looking “final statement” by the “keeper-librarian of the human moiety of the Carryx” is the start of a thread that reveals how they see the world and themselves
rooted in a coherent and clearly articulated world view
is not opaque but merely (initially) unseen
and elaborated in those section-leading segments of the keeper-librarian’s “final statement.” Here is one lesson:
When a primitive of your own kind cut a branch from a tree and carved the wood into a tool&#8230; whatever your will designed – you placed no moral judgment on the act
we did with you and countless others before you
is not something the universe ever answers
Elsewhere there is the recurring metaphor of weeding a garden
and everywhere the vision of how creatures make use of other creatures
All this runs through a novel busy with in­cidents ordinary and horrific
with sharp observations of how people behave on the outside and feel on the inside
while building toward a nightmare vision of retribution in which worlds will burn
But that would seem to be the matter of later books
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He has been loitering around the SF world since childhood and been writing about it since his long-ago grad school days
he published a good bit of business-technology and music journalism
He is still working on a book about Hawaiian slack key guitar
This review and more like it in the <a href="https://locusmag.com/2024/9/issue-764-table-of-contents-september-2024/">September 2024 issue of Locus</a><a href="https://locusmag.com/2023/10/issue-753-table-of-contents-october-2023/">.</a>
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&quot;God’s mercy is our liberation and our happiness
If there is a message that has most characterized Pope Francis’ pontificate and is destined to remain
The Pope passed away suddenly on Easter Monday morning
after giving his final Urbi et Orbi blessing on Easter Day from the central Loggia of St
following his last round through the crowd to bless and greet them
The first Argentine Pope in the history of the Church addressed many themes
particularly regarding his care for the poor
and his firm and unconditional “no” to war
the one that undoubtedly made the most impact
which is precisely the closeness and tenderness of God toward those who recognize their need for His help
is “the air we breathe,” meaning that it is what we need most
without which it would be impossible to live
The entire pontificate of Jorge Mario Bergoglio was carried out under the banner of this message
2013 at the window of the papal apartment he would never live in
the late Pope Francis spoke about the centrality of mercy
recalling the words of an elderly woman who came to confess to him when he was the newly appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Buenos Aires: “The Lord forgives all things..
The Pope who came “from the ends of the earth” did not change the teachings of the two-thousand-year-old Christian tradition
but simply put mercy at the center of the magisterium in a new way
thus changing the perception many people had of the Catholic Church
He bore witness to the maternal face of a Church that bows down to those who are hurting
He showed a Church that takes the first step toward the sinner
inviting Himself to the house of the despised and shunned Zacchaeus
And it was because Zacchaeus felt for the first time to be seen and loved in this way that he recognized his own sinfulness
finding in the gaze of the Nazarene the motivation to convert
Two thousand years ago many people were scandalized to see the Master enter the house of the tax collector in Jericho
Many people have been scandalized over the years by the gestures of welcome and closeness from the Argentine Pope toward all categories of people
especially toward “undesirables” and sinners
In a homily he gave during one of his morning Masses in April 2014
Pope Francis said: “How many of us perhaps deserve a condemnation
With mercy that does not erase the sin: it is only the forgiveness of God that erases it
but when the sun comes in the morning with so much light
So it is with God’s mercy: a great light of love
The preponderance of artificial intelligence raises serious ethical and legal questions about due diligence
Danny de Gracia is a resident of Waipahu, a political scientist and an ordained minister. Opinions are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily reflect Civil Beat&#8217;s views. You can reach him by email at <a href="mailto:dgracia@civilbeat.org">dgracia@civilbeat.org</a> or follow him on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/ddg2cb">@ddg2cb</a>
Last year, the state Senate Transportation and Culture and the Arts Committee set off a firestorm when it heard Senate Bill 2314, which proposed to create a <a href="https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/archives/measure_indiv_Archives.aspx?billtype=SB&amp;billnumber=2314&amp;year=2024" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">digital identification pilot project</a>
The Chinese system is a citizen trustworthiness score which evolved from its <a href="https://www.prcleader.org/post/grid-management-china-s-latest-institutional-tool-of-social-control" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“grid-style social management system” of mass surveillance</a>
it is effectively a way for the Chinese government to reward or punish citizens with access or denial to things like banking and housing
Though the Senate&#8217;s transportation committee canned the well-meaning measure in the face of public pressure
the world is ultimately moving in a direction where “Big Tech” — privatized control of digital services along with the proliferation of artificial intelligence — will create a de facto social credit system if we don’t provide legal protections to stop that
It’s important to note that while a government may not impose restrictions on an individual per se
if both private and government entities alike use the same technology
whoever (or whatever) controls the technology controls the people and the government
if you’re someone who uses a product like Facebook by Meta
you’ll likely notice that the AI that powers the social media platform is so glitchy that it will impose penalties for perceived violations made years ago
and often one can’t directly appeal these penalties with a human
I had a strike made against me more than 16 years ago in error
and I can’t use Facebook ads to this day because of a penalty imposed against me.&nbsp;
We can already see problems arising where AI is &#8220;shadowbanning&#8221; — that is, restricting who sees what content — on social media. <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0160791X23000672" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">This has the danger</a> of raising the profile of extreme people who advocate dehumanizing or mistreating certain population groups
while preventing less viral but more level-headed people from being seen on a social network
Imagine what it would be like to have a society so thoroughly digitized and controlled by AI and run by private corporations or individuals that you get restrictions on services and can’t appeal anything. <a href="https://medium.com/@oneboredarchitect/ai-in-management-a-2023-perspective-on-a-1979-ibm-slide-ef368036fc1a" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">This is why IBM in the 1970s</a> used to give training presentations to employees that included the phrase
therefore a computer must never make a management decision.”
I have a subscription with Musk’s X social media service and I regularly use the Grok AI service that he provides for assistance in academic research and data analysis
I’ve also written in the past about the benefits of AI
is that if we do not have human-imposed checks and balances that prevent private companies from imposing a de facto social credit score on us
we could unintentionally have a future where we’re banned from flying on airlines
Imagine the following nightmare future scenarios where one&#8217;s digital identity is at the mercy of AI:
These are just a few of the possible horrors we could face if we don&#8217;t take steps now
Hawaiʻi shouldn’t fear digital identities if we can have digital rights protected by robust regulations
by creating either a constitutional amendment or a set of digital fence laws that prohibit the use of social credit scores or mandate that residents be given the means to appeal any decision that a private or public AI makes regarding them
our congressional delegation should propose a constitutional amendment which clarifies that the Fourth Amendment includes security in one’s digital identity
and Hawaiʻi should absolutely embrace AI as a useful tool for human progress
but we should be wary of AI that is not democratized and subject to strict regulation by the government
Honolulu Civil Beat is a nonprofit organization
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Ideas is the place you'll find essays, analysis and opinion on public affairs in Hawaiʻi. We want to showcase smart ideas about the future of Hawaiʻi, from the state's sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email <a href="mailto:news@civilbeat.org">news@civilbeat.org</a> to submit an idea
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2025Contact: Hannah Lorenc | hlorenc@cwa-union.org | (716) 969-4797
NY –&nbsp;At approximately 8:00 AM on Monday
March 10,&nbsp;Communications Workers of America (CWA) District 1
and CWA Local 1168 representing frontline healthcare workers at Mercy Hospital of Buffalo
were informed by Catholic Health Administration that a patient shot himself late Sunday night in the Emergency Department of Mercy Hospital of Buffalo
Vice President of CWA District 1 stated&nbsp;“This incident highlights the growing crisis of violence in healthcare facilities– an issue that frontline healthcare workers have been raising for years
This shooting is the latest and most extreme example of how severe the problem has become,"&nbsp;Debora Hayes
Upstate Area Director for CWA D1 echoed these concerns
and we cannot continue to allow them to work in conditions where their safety is at risk."
Healthcare workers are at higher risk of workplace violence than workers in any other profession
Despite repeated warnings and calls for action
hospitals have been slow to implement the necessary security measures
leaving staff vulnerable and unsafe in the very environments where they are needed most
"Our hospitals must ensure the safety of the healthcare professionals who risk their lives every day to care for our community,"&nbsp;says Brian Magner
"We cannot wait for another tragedy before we take action."
The ongoing threat of violence in healthcare settings has reached a crisis point
with workers facing both physical and verbal assaults on a regular basis
These incidents can range from verbal threats and intimidation to physical attacks
many hospitals still lack basic protections such as adequate security personnel
or proper training to de-escalate violent situations
This failure to prioritize worker safety not only jeopardizes the health and well-being of healthcare professionals but also puts patients and visitors at risk
I come to work every day ready to care for my patients
but I should never fear for my own safety while doing my job,"&nbsp;said Maureen Kryszak
Catholic Health must act now to make sure that I come home at the end of my shift."
CWA has been in discussions with Catholic Health regarding workplace safety
who are currently in contract negotiations for a successor agreement
met with Catholic Health officials today to discuss the incident
CWA is demanding that Catholic Health immediately implement the following security measures:
“We stand united in demanding that our workers are shielded from violence and that our hospitals invest in the safety and well-being of those who serve our community,” says Cori Gambini
we can create an environment where healthcare professionals can focus on what they do best: caring for our community.”
The Communications Workers of America represents working people in telecommunications
CWA represents roughly 15,000 healthcare workers throughout New York
© <a href="http://www.cwa-union.org/">Communications Workers of America</a>, AFL-CIO, CLC. All Rights Reserved.<a href="https://cwa-union.org/pages/privacy_policy">Privacy Policy</a>
she never imagined where the adventure would take her family
12 years after embarking on this educational journey
one of her children landed his dream job as an editor at a science fiction publishing house
while another is training to be a circus performer and hoping to join Cirque du Soleil
moved to Atlanta in 2000 to pursue a career in teaching
where she met a mom whose toddler was enrolled
she asked me if I wanted to meet her brother,&rdquo; Marta recalled
and soon after welcomed their children: Jaume
Marta was content working in the public school system
but her perspective changed when her own children entered school
but the school did not offer her the resources she needed&mdash;especially in music
but only because the school&rsquo;s educational approach prioritized rote memorization over comprehension
Marta realized she wanted more for her children: a love of learning and an education tailored to their strengths
Her frustrations grew when she saw how easily government decisions impacted her children&rsquo;s education
By the time Afrika started at the same school
those programs had been cut due to administrative changes
&ldquo;I realized my children&rsquo;s education was at the mercy of the system
Their experience could be great or not,&rdquo; she said
She was saddened that she couldn&rsquo;t change that
Private school was financially out of reach
Homeschooling was the only remaining option
she was overwhelmed by the vast array of homeschool curricula
but she found clarity when a friend at a homeschool group recommended John Holt&rsquo;s books
This introduction to unschooling&mdash;a philosophy that prioritizes child-led learning&mdash;changed everything
Her guiding principle became following her children&rsquo;s interests
but after a year of watching their children thrive
Their family began unschooling when Jaume was 9 and Afrika was 7
He spent hours writing and even completed a science fiction novel during his final year of high school
Though he received an offer to publish his book
he ultimately decided the offer wasn&rsquo;t in his best interest
He also gained valuable editorial experience by editing a book in Spanish about his family&rsquo;s experience of unschooling
Even though Jaume hasn&rsquo;t published his own books because he thinks he needs more experience as an editor
these experiences helped him land a job as an editor at a publishing house specializing in a popular sci-fi and fantasy universe series
His role involves reviewing and editing manuscripts
and world-building&mdash;all while maintaining the intricate lore of the universe
&ldquo;I love being able to shape and polish narratives
knowing that my work will contribute to something much bigger,&rdquo; Jaume said
He credits homeschooling for allowing him the flexibility to build a portfolio tailored to his career aspirations
&ldquo;Homeschooling gave me the freedom to focus on what I truly cared about,&rdquo; he said
Afrika had a deep love for books&mdash;Marta recalls that she would &ldquo;devour&rdquo; them
But she also had a fascination with animals and music
and flute lessons and composed her own music on the piano
She also spent countless hours listening to Cirque du Soleil soundtracks
she asked her mom to enroll her in additional academic courses
Marta helped her register for and complete several free Harvard online courses on tumors and diseases
he was amazed at her natural talent in the air,&rdquo; Marta said
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s incredible what she can do on a rope.&rdquo;
Her schedule is a mix of intense physical exercise and academic courses
&ldquo;When I hear [Cirque du Soleil&rsquo;s] music
&ldquo;Their music inspires me to work harder and strive to be part of their team.&rdquo;
Training hard hasn&rsquo;t taken away her passion for medicine
&ldquo;She doesn&rsquo;t want to dedicate her life to medicine; she only needs to keep her brain happy,&rdquo; Marta said
He also has a strong entrepreneurial spirit
he&rsquo;s deeply interested in mobile investments
&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve always been interested in money,&rdquo; Konji said
&ldquo;Having time to follow my passions though homeschooling allowed me to learn about investing.&rdquo;
Marta and Brian feel profoundly grateful for the freedom homeschooling provided their children
Each of them was able to explore their unique interests without external pressure or limitations
&ldquo;I have always followed their interests,&rdquo; Marta reflected
&ldquo;Their passions led them to their own journeys
and now they&rsquo;re building their futures on their own terms.&rdquo;
Alicia Leal studied Law and Philosophy in Monterrey
She writes and edits English and Spanish content for HSLDA
HSLDA is the trusted movement leader that makes homeschooling possible by caring for member families and protecting and securing the future of homeschooling
We&rsquo;re available by phone (540-338-5600) M&ndash;F 8:30 a.m.&ndash;5:00 p.m
The end of a presidential administration always brings with it a last-minute pardon spree
In recent years the practice has led pundits and politicians to worry that the men occupying the Oval Office don't have the ethics to handle such broad power
Outgoing President Joe Biden ignited controversy this time around when he <a href="https://reason.com/2024/12/02/hunter-bidens-pardon-features-several-shades-of-hypocrisy-including-the-gun-policy-implications/">pardoned his son Hunter</a>
even though Biden previously promised the American public that he wouldn't interfere in the prosecution
Under pressure from a coalition of criminal justice advocacy and religious groups, Biden also commuted the sentences of <a href="https://reason.com/2024/12/23/biden-commutes-nearly-all-federal-death-penalty-sentences/">all but three of the 40 inmates on federal
death row</a>
reducing their punishment to life in prison
the pardon power was a substitute (or autocratic workaround
Biden's critics charged) for death penalty abolition legislation that Biden promised during the 2020 campaign but that he and Democratic leadership never had any real stomach for
lawmakers in Congress have proposed constitutional amendments to stop presidents from pardoning themselves
But while it's been amply demonstrated over the past two administrations that pardons can be used for self-serving ends—nepotism
shielding unrepentant lackeys—they are still a crucial check on judicial and legislative excess
justice system heavily values finality in sentencing
and overturning sentences through courts or reform legislation
even when everyone agrees there's been a mistake
A grant of clemency is instantaneous and unchallengeable
Trump's last-minute pardon spree during his first term included <a href="https://reason.com/2021/01/20/lil-wayne-steve-bannon-and-some-drug-war-victims-pardoned-but-no-assange-snowden-or-ulbricht/">commuting the sentence of Chris Young</a>
Young was sentenced to life in prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring
After he refused a plea deal and exercised his right to trial
prosecutors used a federal "three strikes" law to enhance his sentence to life
Among the people granted clemency by Biden were more than a dozen nonviolent drug offenders who received significantly longer sentences than they would have if they had been convicted today
Their draconian sentences were the result of legislation championed by then-Sen
The pardon power is a rare instance where our government has enshrined the quality of mercy
That's a virtue we should value and preserve in our leaders
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<a href="https://reason.com/people/cj-ciaramella/">C.J. Ciaramella</a> is a reporter at Reason
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Maybe it’s a favorite sweater or the device you’re using—something you’ve recently worn
or eaten very likely passed through the Panama Canal
The roughly 82-kilometer-long channel connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea (and
the Atlantic Ocean) has been an important artery of global shipping since it opened in 1914
the canal’s relevance has been thrust into the political spotlight as President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have expressed a desire for the United States to reclaim ownership of it
In recent years the operation of the Panama Canal has been increasingly affected by changes in rainfall
and some data suggest that more shifts are on the way
Delays and reductions in traffic caused by these events portend a more volatile future for the shipping route should climate change alter periodic weather patterns
The Panama Canal is built around a system of locks. Ships, ranging from privately owned yachts to gigantic <a href="https://pancanal.com/en/panama-canal-commemorates-seventh-anniversary-of-the-neopanamax-locks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Neopanamax vessels</a> capable of transporting more than 13,000 standard cargo containers
traverse three locks to gain roughly 25 meters in elevation and three locks to drop back down on the other side
confers enormous savings in both time and fuel: Ships traveling from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean or vice versa would otherwise take a route around the southern tip of South America
Get the most fascinating science news stories of the week in your inbox every Friday
“Five percent of shipping globally traverses the Panama Canal.”
“Five percent of shipping globally traverses the Panama Canal,” said Mark Russo
the chief science officer at Everstream Analytics
a supply chain risk analytics company in Elmhurst
“It’s a critical artery for global trade.”
Precipitation is key to ensuring that Gatun Lake
the artificial lake that makes up a major part of the canal
remains full enough for Neopanamax ships to safely navigate without running aground
The lake loses water not only to evaporation and deliberate pumping—it supplies some of the region’s drinking water—but also to the very operation of the canal: Each day
about 7 billion liters of water are extracted to supply the locks
Panama fortunately tends to receive a lot of rainfall: on average, more than 2,000 millimeters each year. “Panama is an incredibly wet country,” said <a href="https://profiles.si.edu/display/nPatonS872006" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Steven Paton</a>
the director of the Physical Monitoring Program at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama City
But the past 3 decades have included three relatively dry years in the canal’s watershed
and 2024 rainfall dipped below 1,750 millimeters
(Water years span the 12-month period between 1 October and 30 September.)
Water-scarce years tend to occur about once every 2 decades
and the relatively tight clustering of dry years is unprecedented in the watershed’s 144-year precipitation record
Because of low water levels in Gatun Lake during those years
the Panama Canal Authority significantly reduced the number of ships passing through the canal
A total of 11,240 vessels traversed the canal in 2024
The Panama Canal Authority also limited ships’ maximum draft
the depth at which it sits in the water—means removing cargo
Such rearranging takes time and results in longer queues at the locks
“That ultimately slows down the vessels moving through,” he said
Researchers have been keen to understand whether such collisions between supply chain logistics and the weather at the Panama Canal will become more commonplace in the future. Shipping companies <a href="https://pancanal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/ADV25-2024-Modifications-to-the-Transit-Reservation-Booking-System.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reserve a spot in line at the canal more than a year in advance</a>
so such a forward-looking perspective is important
“If you’re planning on your shipments through the Panama Canal
you can get out of in front of those risks a year in advance.”
a physical oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle
“This has been going on for millions of years.”
What is changing as the planet warms is the intensity of big storms
“The strong events are getting stronger,” said McPhaden
there’s been about a 10% increase in storm intensity
and modeling suggests another 10% increase may occur over the next century
“We’ll see more frequent strong events in the future potentially.”
Though having more rain in the Panama Canal watershed might seem like a boon to ship traffic, there is such a thing as too much precipitation. In 2010, record-setting rainfall temporarily caused <a href="https://eos.org/science-updates/torrential-rains-and-poor-forecasts-sink-panamas-infrastructure" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a complete shutdown of the Panama Canal</a>
The problem was the rapidly rising water level in Gatun Lake
which threatened to overtop an earthen dam between the lake and the Chagres River
“You never ever want to overtop an earthen dam because it begins to erode exponentially fast,” said Patton
Crews worked around the clock to siphon water
but the lake still crept to within 1 meter of the top of the dam
Efforts are underway to better understand the hydrology of the Panama Canal watershed. Such work could help canal managers steel the shipping route against future weather-driven events like those of 1998, 2010, 2016, and 2024. An example is the <a href="https://stri.si.edu/facility/agua-salud" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Agua Salud Project</a>
run by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
absorbing rainfall and releasing it in a controlled manner
That’s key to ensuring reasonably constant water levels in Gatun Lake
Though the trials of the dry past year are still fresh in many people’s minds
there’s also a sense of optimism right now that 2025 will be a good year for ship traffic through the Panama Canal—current water levels in Gatun Lake are the highest they’ve been in the past 5 years
—Katherine Kornei (<a href="https://twitter.com/katherinekornei" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@KatherineKornei</a>)
13 February 2025: This article has been updated to correct a source&#8217;s name
Fourteen trailblazers who lead and serve their Erie-area community will be honored this month by the Mercy Center for Women
The center has for more than 30 years recognized <a href=https://www.mcwerie.org/news/2025-women-making-history-honorees-announced target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">Women Making History</a>
an honor bestowed annually on women who have a lasting effect on the community through their dedication
This year's honorees will be celebrated March 31
"It is no easy task to select a remarkable woman who aligns with the Mercy mission," said Jennie Hagerty
Mercy Center for Women's executive director
the 14 women chosen this year embrace the qualities of passion and empathy of the diverse population we serve and house in Erie."
Hagerty said the Mercy mission evolves around charism and critical concerns of women. The center provides safe, supportive and empowering housing solutions for individuals and families in transition with a focus on those affected by domestic violence, addiction and mental health challenges, according to its <a href=https://www.mcwerie.org/about target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">website</a>
One of its programs is the Mercy Anchor Community Center
women and children along with other services in a former school building
Opinion by Jennie Hagerty: <a href=https://www.goerie.com/story/opinion/columns/2024/11/02/mercy-center-homelessness-erie-poverty-addiction-child-care-health-care-east-side-united-way-sisters/75891621007/ rel=noreferrer target=_blank>What is Erie doing to to address homelessness?</a>
The 14 individuals who are this year's Women Making History honorees are: Lauren Bauer
senior vice president and wealth management adviser with Merrill Lynch
has served as the chair of the Erie Women’s Fund and has recently joined the Erie Community Foundation’s Board of Trustees
a licensed professional mental health counselor with the U.S
has been a supporter of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Erie for more than a decade and became a mother in 2024
CEO and founder of Mocha Media Management LLC
serves those around her through her involvement with the Martin Luther King Center
uses her medical skills and science to empower her clients and is also a supporter of Erie United Methodist Alliance
Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Pennsylvania and more
healthy food and educating the community about the food system
was formerly director of gardens and greenspace with the Sisters of Saint Joseph Neighborhood Network
president of Mercyhurst University since 2021
is also a board member at the Erie Regional Chamber
a parish member at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and an occasional volunteer at Emmaus Soup Kitchen
recruiting and development coordinator with Erie Homes for Children and Adults
is president of the Rotary Club of Presque Isle and involved with the boards of the Erie Philharmonic
Family Services of NWPA and Meals on Wheels
director of marketing and development with LECOM Health
was formerly with the Nonprofit Partnership and works with Young Erie Professionals
Public Relations Society of America and the Wattsburg Area School Foundation
regional director of health and wellness for the Sisters of Mercy since 2008
her loving family and the women of the Sisters of Mercy
and is on the Mercy Center's board of directors
for many years an associate broker with the RE/Max Real Estate Group
executive director of the Multicultural Community Resource Center
has held board positions with the Barber National Institute
is a board member for Voices4Autism and was appointed to the Pennsylvania Housing Advisory Committee
who has more than 50 years of social service and community involvement
which has a mission to make the Erie region a community of opportunity where everyone can learn
is the owner of ABCs of Building Better Lives Counseling Services as well as a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity and a critical incident stress debriefing responder
salon coordinator at Ambridge Rose Spa & Salon
is known for her big heart and giving spirit
and she and her team truly enjoy supporting a long list of local causes including Mercy Center for Women
Choosing Women Making HistoryEach November
Mercy Center for Women asks the Erie community to nominate trailblazers who have set the path for success
Hagerty said 26 nominations were received this past fall and 14 were chosen to be designated as Women Making History
The number of recipients varies from year to year
"There is no one woman stronger than the next," Hagerty said about the recipients
"But together they embody Women Making History."
From 2024: <a href=https://www.goerie.com/story/lifestyle/2024/03/14/erie-pa-mercy-center-women-making-history-erie-county-pa-womens-history-month-2024/72712109007/ rel=noreferrer target=_blank>Mercy Center for Women will recognize these 15 women serving the Erie County community</a>
The women will be recognized on March 31 beginning at 7 p.m. in the Mary D'Angelo Performing Arts Center at Mercyhurst University, 501 E. 38th St. Organizers said the <a href=https://www.mcwerie.org/events/women-making-history-2025 target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">event</a> is free and the public is encouraged to attend
Dana Massing can be reached at <a href=mailto:dmassing@timesnews.com target=_blank rel="noreferrer noopener">dmassing@timesnews.com</a>.
Nearly three years after <a href="https://www.theringer.com/tv/2021/12/9/22825148/expanse-season-6-finale-amazon-books-ending">The Expanse ended, both on-screen and on the page,</a> the James S.A
Corey duo is out with the start of a new series: The Mercy of Gods
the first novel in a planned trilogy called The Captive’s War
is both a satisfying stand-alone read and an excellent setup for the series to come
even if it forecasts a rather different sort of story from The Expanse
Asked about a key distinction between the two series
Abraham turns to the gritty Star Wars prequel to a prequel to make a point
Andor excelled because “it felt authentic,” Abraham says
“It was the first time I can remember since the ’70s when I felt like the Empire was really something oppressive
It was this sense of the danger of that kind of vast machine.”
There is perhaps no machine more oppressive
and more vast than the Carryx empire in The Mercy of Gods: a race of warlike aliens who are set on conquering the galaxy and can slaughter millions without strain
due to their military might and incomprehensibly advanced technology
as this new series details the flickers of a burgeoning rebellion against overwhelming imperial odds
“It’s survivors versus authoritarians,” Franck says
“It is what happens to you when you are conquered by a militaristic authoritarian regime and you have to learn to live inside that regime.”
The Mercy of Gods starts on a human planet—not Earth—thousands of years in the future
Dafyd Alkhor is a research assistant in a biology lab
consumed by the petty desires and complications of any average human life: routine data collection
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOWBBMC__w0&amp;t=13s">Then everything changes</a> when the Carryx attack
They kill some humans and take others (including Dafyd) prisoner
transporting them back to their homeworld for a seemingly simple test: If the surviving humans can make themselves useful
The Captive’s War employs a narrower narrative lens than The Expanse
Almost all of the focus in Mercy is on Dafyd and his lab partners—each of whom develops as a unique and relatable character
just as James Holden’s crew on the Rocinante flourish as both a collective unit and individual beings
But some of The Expanse’s other highlights
such as planet hopping and intricate politicking
This tightened focus extends to the series’ structure
“It’s not doing the same kind of genre skipping that The Expanse did
it did its political thriller,” Abraham says
a more cohesive story than The Expanse had the ability to be.”
(That’s the high-minded way to look at the difference
with a laugh: “We didn’t want to write nine books again.”)
The new novel suffers from the lack of political maneuvering; there’s no Chrisjen Avasarala or Winston Duarte analogue in Mercy
Its world can sometimes feel too small (though a development at the end of the book suggests an expansion—no pun intended—to come in the sequel)
Mercy’s world-building makes its universe feel unknowably gigantic
the alien threats never actually appear; the authors thought they’d add more menace as looming
as the human prisoners interact with and observe creatures of all shapes
the authors utilize the delightful genre trick of implying a much larger world than is actually relevant to the plot
The human captives are housed in a massive pyramid where they encounter those multifarious species
but that’s merely the prison for “the other oxygen breathers,” Franck says
The humans also see other immense pyramids in the distance
which hold yet more aliens who live in sulfuric atmospheres
“The idea of this is to give that sense of vast scale,” Abraham says
Mercy is also punctuated by moments of violence and humiliation and despair
The authors have always been able to turn darkness into page-turning thrills
and Mercy’s bleakest sections approach—if don’t ever quite reach—the worst protomolecule-induced horror that The Expanse ever presented
But there’s a light at the end of the tunnel
a flash-forward reveals that the Carryx empire falls and that Dafyd is somehow responsible
This choice was made partly for tonal balance
this would be a brutal read,” Abraham says
it creates a compelling mystery that will carry through the rest of the series
The Carryx empire seems omnipotent and completely unbothered by humanity
It doesn’t murder and enslave humans because of any hatred or rivalry; the humans are simply resources to be exploited
As one of the Carryx analogizes in the book
the human tool named Dafyd will take down an empire
‘Let me tell you about the first time I killed a crocodile,’ and then the scene opens with a guy being dropped naked into the middle of a crocodile pit
How the fuck did a naked guy in a crocodile pit actually beat one of them?”
That setup is reminiscent, incidentally, of Andor: Everyone watching Cassian, Luthen Rael, and Mon Mothma struggle against the might of the Empire knows that, eventually, the underdog rebels will succeed in creating the sunrise that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3RCme2zZRY">Luthen knows he’ll never see</a>. But the tension and entertainment value come from learning how they reach that sunrise and how they endure all the dark nights they face along the way. 
The same looks to be true of The Mercy of Gods. With all of its alien surroundings, and without Earth and our familiar solar system as a backdrop, this new series doesn’t appear remotely as adaptable as The Expanse. It would be a surprise if Dafyd defeats the Carryx on television screens anytime soon.
But this story lives just as wonderfully on the page. “The first book is telling you all the reasons why [the Carryx empire] can’t fail: It’s too big, it’s too powerful,” Franck says. “So the tension is: What could this guy possibly have done to bring this about?”
ArchiveWe’ve been around since Brady was a QB
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shares of upscale furniture chain RH were among the biggest losers — plunging to their biggest percentage drop ever
as analysts raised concerns about steeper costs and difficulties in finding new ways to secure some of the materials it uses to make products
The 40% slide came after RH’s <a data-type="phrase" href="https://www.marketwatch.com/investing/stock/rh" target="_blank" class="ekxajjj0 css-1y1y9ag-OverridedLink">RH</a> earnings release after hours on Wednesday landed roughly at the same time that Trump announced steeper tariffs globally — and particularly on nations like China and Vietnam, where RH makes a significant portion of its furniture.
Posted in: <a href='/tv/cbs/' rel='category'>CBS</a>, <a href='/tv/paramount/' rel='category'>Paramount+</a>, <a href='/tv/' rel='category'>TV</a> | Tagged: <a href='/tag/tracker/' rel='tag'>tracker</a>
With the hit CBS series returning on April 13th
here's a look at what's ahead with Justin Hartley-starring Tracker S02E16: "The Mercy Seat."
We're not getting a new episode of&nbsp;CBS's hit Justin Hartley-starring series Tracker tonight
we do have something to pass along to make the wait a little easier
and image gallery for April 13th's S02E16: "The Mercy Seat" &ndash; with Colter (Hartley) undertaking a snowy rescue mission and Reenie (Fiona Rene) having a serious moral dilemma.&nbsp;In addition
we also have a look at the season finale with the official overview for May 11th's S02E20: "Echo Ridge" &ndash; all waiting for you below
Tracker Season 2 Episode 16: "The Mercy Seat" &ndash; Colter (Justin Hartley) helps an old friend with a search and rescue mission for two missing sisters in the snowy Montana wilderness
Reenie (Fiona Rene) gets a visit from a new client who challenges her morality
Written by Elwood Reid &amp; Sharon Lee Watson&nbsp;and directed by David Barrett
Tracker Season 2 Episode 20: "Echo Ridge" &ndash; Colter (Justin Hartley) returns to Echo Ridge to investigate a diner owner's disappearance
only to uncover a decades-old kidnapping and a shocking family secret
Written by Elwood Reid&nbsp;and directed by Ken Olin
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Marie Moore has been named the next president for Mercy Washington and Lincoln communities
Moore comes to Washington by way of Mercy Springfield where she most recently served as chief nursing officer in Mercy’s southwestern Missouri region
“I’ve had the privilege of working with Marie for several years now
and she is truly a transformational leader,” said David Argueta
regional president of Mercy East and Southwest communities
“She brings so much joy and empathy to her work and cares deeply about her team and the patients we serve
as a nurse and as a leader have given her a unique set of skills that makes her the right fit for this role
As the chief nursing officer for Mercy Springfield Communities
I saw first-hand the impact Marie made not just on our team of caregivers but also in the community
which is what excites me about Marie leading these teams.” 
starting as a nurse tech on the surgical telemetry floor at Mercy Hospital Springfield while in nursing school
She later moved to bedside nursing care and into several leadership positions
“My focus on caring for others started when I was in elementary school,” Moore said
who was a leader at the local health department
I spent after-school hours putting together health education packets
I think it’s where I first learned about community health
something I’m still passionate about today.”
Moore originally planned to pursue her nurse practitioner degree but with the prompting of a hospital leader
she took some health administration courses and fell in love with the business side of health care
She went on to complete her master’s in health care administration
“My clinical background pairs nicely for us to get health care right,” Moore said
“I plan to bring authentic leadership and look forward to working with our caregivers and the community to build a clear vision for the future.”
Active in Springfield area community organizations
Moore expects to build relationships in the area as she helps shepherd the growth in both Washington and Lincoln communities
“These are very important communities for Mercy
and selecting Marie to be president is a testament to her strength and vision as a leader
I know Marie will make a lasting impact here just as she has in Springfield,” Argueta said
“Thanks to the support of the local leadership teams
we were able to dedicate the time it took to activate our succession plan and select the right person who can meet the needs of our caregivers and our patients in these communities.”
and earned her bachelor’s in nursing and master’s in health care administration from Missouri State University
She plans to relocate to Washington with her husband
<a href="https://www.mercy.net/newsroom/mercy-quick-facts/">Mercy</a>
health systems and named the top large system in the U.S
for excellent patient experience by NRC Health
serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation’s largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost
multi-state health care system including 50 acute care and specialty (heart
Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities
more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 50,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas
outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas
Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits
including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid
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<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Si habla español, hay serviciosgratisde asistencia lingüística disponibles para usted. También hay herramientasy servicios de asistencia adecuadospara proveer información en formatos accesiblessin costo alguno. Llame al1-833-364-0424o hable con su proveedor.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">य&quot;द आप &quot;हदं ) बोलते ह/तो नःश ु क भाषा सहायता सेवाएँआपके &gt;लए उपल@ध ह/। सु लभ प म जानकार) दान करने के &gt;लए उJचत सहायक उपकरण और सेवाएँ भी नःश ु क उपल@ध ह/। 1-844-372-8344 पर कॉल कर या अपने दाता से बात कर।</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">ຖ້ າທ ່ ານເ ົ ວ ້ າພາສາລາວ, ີ ມ ໍ ບ ິ ລການຊ່ ວຍ ເ ື ຫ ຼ ອດ້ ານພາສາໃຫ້ທ ່ ານ. ອຸ ປະກອນຊ່ ວຍ ແລະ ການ ໍ ບ ິ ລການເ ີ ສມເພ ື ່ ອ ໃຫ້ໍ ຂ ້ ມ ູ ນໃນຮ ູ ບແບບ ່ ີ ທເ ົ ຂ ້ າເຖ ິ ງໄດ້ ກ ໍ ີ ມໃຫ້ ໂດຍ ່ ໍ ບເສຍຄ່ າ. ໂທຫາ 1-844-477-7622 ື ຫ ຼ ເ ົ ວ ້ າ ໍ ນາຜ ູ ້ ໃຫ້ ໍ ບ ິ ລການຂອງທ ່ ານ.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Ako govorite bosanski, dostupne su Vam besplatne jezičke usluge. Besplatna su i odgovarajuća pomagala i usluge za pružanje informacija u pristupačnim formatima. Pozovite 1-844-477-7623 ili razgovarajte sa svojim provajderom usluga.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Εάν μιλάτε ελληνικά, διατίθενται δωρεάν υπηρεσίες γλωσσικής βοήθειας. Διατίθενται επίσης, δωρεάν κατάλληλα βοηθήματα και υπηρεσίες για την παροχή πληροφοριών σε προσβάσιμες μορφές. Καλέστε το 1-844-477-7620 ή μιλήστε με τον πάροχό σας. </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Eḷaññe kwõj kajin Majõḷ, ewor im remaroñ ukok ñan kwe im ejjeḷọk oṇean. Barãinwõt elõñ jipañ ko ñan kwaḷọk meḷeḷe ko ñan yuk ilo kajin Majõl ñe kwõ aikuji im bar ejjeḷọk oṇean jipañ kein. Kwõn calle 1-844-865-1243 ak kõnono ippãn taktõ eo aṃ</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Ikiwa unazungumza Kiswahili, huduma za msaada wa lugha zinapatikana kwako bila malipo. Usaidizi na huduma zinazofaa za kutoa habari katika miundo inayofikika zinapatikana pia bila malipo. Piga simu kwa 1-844-701-0309 au zungumza na mhudumu wako.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Afaan Oromoo yoo dubbattan ta'e tajaajilli gargaarsa afaanii tolaan siif kennama. Gargaarsi dabalata fi tajaajilli odeeffannoo bifa dhaqqabamaa ta’een kennuunis tolaan ni argama. 1-844-372-8351 irratti bilbila ykn dhiyeessaa keessan waliin haasa’a.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Jeżeli mówisz po polsku, możesz skorzystać z bezpłatnej pomocy językowej. Odpowiednie pomoce i usługi, które pozwalają na uzyskanie informacji w dostępnych formatach, są również dostępne bezpłatnie. Zadzwoń pod numer 1-844-802-3930 lub porozmawiaj ze swoim dostawcą.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">Yog tias koj hais lus [Hmoob], muaj kev pab cuam txhais lus pub dawb rau koj. Muaj cov cuab yeej pab thiab kev pab cuam tsim nyog los muab cov txheej xwm ua hom uas koj nkag siab yooj yim pub dawb. Hu rau 1-844-477-7621 los sis tham nrog koj tus kws kho mob.</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank"> 如果您讲中⽂，我们可为您提供免费的语 ⾔协助服务。 此外，您还可以免费获得适当的辅助⼯具 和服务，以便以⽆障碍的形式提供信息。 请致电 1-844-802-3927 或 1-844-372-8337 或咨询您的医疗服务提供者。 </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_1124.pdf">نابز کمک تامدخ ،دینک یم تبحص یسراف نابز ھب رگا .تسامش سرتسد رد ناگیار رد تاعلاطا ھئارا یارب بسانم یکمک تامدخو اھ کمک رد ناگیار تروص ھب زین سرتسد لباق یاھ بلاق .تسا سرتسد اب 1-844-372-8347 هدنھد ھئارا اب ای دیریگب سامت .دینک تبحص دوخ</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">ا ودرا یتنوس ہضواعملاب ںیہ بایتسد ۔ ےیل ےک ےنرک مہارف تامولعم ںیم سٹیمراف یئاسر لباق بایتسد ہضواعملاب یھب زسورس روا دادما نواعم بسانم ۔ںیہ 1-844-372-8338 ای ںیرک لاک رپ ےس هدننک مہارف ےنپا ۔ںیرک تاب</a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">หากคุณพูดคุยหรือสื/อสารด้วยภาษาไทยได้ คุณจะไดร ้ับบริการช่วยเหล ื อดา ้ นภาษาฟรี นอกจากนBี เรายงัมีบริการช่วยเหล ื อและบริการเสริมท ี/ เหมาะสมเพ ื/ อใหข ้ อ ้ มูลในรูป แบบที/เข้าถึงได้ โดยไม่มีค่าใชจ ้่าย โทร 1-844-372-8350 หร ื อพดูคุยกบัผใู้ หบ ้ ริการของคุณ </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">JᏣᎳᎩ ᏱᎩᎶᏒᎢ 「ᏣᎳᎩ」, ᏧᏍᏆᎦᏟᏗᏢᏍᎬᎢ ᏧᎦᏃᏩᏛ ᏗᏣᏓᏠᏍᏙᏗ ᎢᏳᏍᏗ ᏱᏥᎨᏒᎢ. ᎤᎾᏍᏓᏡᎬᏗ ᎠᏆᏂᏱᎶᏗ ᏧᎦᏃᏩᏛᎢ ᏂᏴᏫ ᎦᏙᎤᎾᏟᏍᏗ ᏗᏓᏡᎬᏗ ᏥᏳᎪᏗᏳᎢ ᏧᏣᏓᏠᏍᏙᏗ ᏱᏥᎨᏒᎢ. ᏗᏓᏂᏍᏙᎢ 1-844-372-8357 ᏗᏤᎢ ᎠᏂᏆᎶᏗᏍᎬᎢ. </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">اذإ تنك ثدحتت ةغللا ،ةیبرعلا فوسف رفاوتت كل تامدخ ةدعاسملا ةیوغللا ةیناجمل . امك رفوتت أی ًضا تادعاسم تامدخو ةدعاسم ةبسانم میدقتل ًا . َس ُھل علاطلاا اھیلع مجان تامولعملا تاقیسنتب ی لصتا ىلع مقرلا 1-844-802-3928 وأ ثدحت ىلإ مدقم ةیاعرلا صاخلا كب </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">သင်သည်ြမန်မာဘာသာစကားကိ.ေြပာပါ က အခမ ဲ ဘ့ ာသာစကားအကအ 6 ည ီ ဝန်ေဆာင်မ:များကိ.သင်ရ=&gt;ိ?ိ.င်ပါသည်။ သငေ ့် လျာ်ေသာ အရနအ ် ကအ 6 ညမ ီ ျား?င &gt; ့် သတင်းအချက်အလက်ဝန်ေဆာင်မ:များကိ. လက်လ&gt;မ်းမီ?ိ.င်ေသာ ေဖာ်မတပ ် ံစ . မံ ျားြဖင ့်လည်း အခမ ဲ ရ့ = ိ &gt; ?င ိ . ပ ် ါသည။ ် 1-844-477-7624 သ . ိဖ.န်းေခEဆိ.ပါ ့ သမ . ိ့ဟတ . ် သငဝ ့် နေ ် ဆာငမ ် ေ : ပးသ? 6 င &gt; ့်စကားေြပာပါ။ </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">  જો તમે 'જુ રાતી બોલો છો તો િન:23ુક ભાષા સહાય સેવાઓ તમારા માટ=ઉપલ@ધ છે. Cલુ ભયોDય ફોમFટમાં માHહતી IરૂK પાડવા માટ= યોDય સહાયક સાધનો અને સેવાઓ પણ િન:23ુક ઉપલ@ધ છે. 1-844-372-8340 પર કૉલ કરો અથવા તમારા Qદાતા સાથે વાત કરો. </a>
<a href="/content/dam/mercy/en/pdf/MRC_37953_NondiscriminationNotice_24x36PST_1124.pdf" target="_blank">アクセスしやすい形式で情報を提供する 適切な補助機器および補助サービスも無 料でご利⽤いただけます。 1-844-477-7617 にお電話いただくか、プ ロバイダーにご相談ください。 </a>
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<a href="https://amzn.to/3L64G4h" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>In The Mercy of Gods
we follow a group of team members as they drive their careers as part of the bleeding edge of scientific research industry
and politic their way around trying to find out who is trying to break their team up
until one of them accidentally discovers cloaked ships in the local space around their planet
which faction is trying to break their team up and take over their research is the most insignificant problem they
As the Carryx take over the planet with brutal force and then steal humanity&#8217;s best and brightest
The Mercy of Gods is told through a range of human and alien perspectives
Tonner Freis is the scientific genius leader trying to hold his team and his research together
Else is his right hand person in the field
whose aunt happens to be the head of the funding committee
and finds opportunity to step out from obscurity
Jessyn is running out of medication as the team are shipped to another galaxy entirely
Campar and the rest of the team and desperately trying to hold themselves together
a multi-galaxy-dominant alien species who view every other species as a tool that needs sharpening to usefulness as so well done
and so far further advanced compared to us that we aren’t even like children to them
waiting to be cut off and sanded into a tool
I love the snippets of POV from the human’s Carryx librarian (a character who shepherds them to make scientific breakthroughs)
providing brilliant excerpts of the vast Carryx empire
their vast war against an enemy we aren&#8217;t given much of an insight into
and waits for the opportunity to report back to its hive mind all it discovers about its species&#8217; greatest foe in the hope of influencing the war against the Carryx
it can sometimes take a moment to orient yourself at the start of a chapter or section
but I think the authors did well to differentiate the characters for the most part
If you are a stern adherent to a single POV style of storytelling
this book is going to be a struggle for you
The Mercy of Gods is story of resistance in the face of insurmountable odds
Of what people might do when the universe crushes them beneath its vicious heel
Of what it feels like to be an ant or an animal
and your life to be worth only what you can produce for a more powerful species
I&#8217;d say it&#8217;s a nice play on the story of what it&#8217;s like to be anything other than a human being
From the perspective of what a grimdark fan will enjoy
you&#8217;re going to find a lot of brutality
and a lot of characters reaching down into their souls to find out who they are in the face of adversity
but I&#8217;m always here for the grey moralities of humanity
and I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;ll find a lot of that in the main perspectives of this story
In some of the side characters you&#8217;ll find it in spades
I think The Mercy of Gods is going to be a book that splits fans of the authors&#8217; previous work, The Expanse. Some I think will love the retention of scientific detail and intellectual focus, of wonder and the unknown becoming horrifically known. Others will decry the loss of sprawling human factions and raging space battles, of political manouvring and that <a href="https://www.grimdarkmagazine.com/review-a-game-of-thrones-by-george-r-r-martin/">Game of Thrones</a> in space feeling
I quite enjoyed Corey spreading their wings and really showing their creative range
and I can&#8217;t wait to pick up book two
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Picture a teenager in a suburban Southern California Costco
lingering by the books tables while her parents shopped
between the boxed vacuums and party-size clamshells of croissants
“After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town,” had been included in The Best American Short Stories 2001
a Western fast food chain opens in Northern China
despite lacking models in my immigrant Malaysian Chinese family
I knew I wanted to be a writer but I didn’t know how a person—let alone a person like me—went about becoming one
several months before I read “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town,” Jin was asked
“What’s the most important kernel of advice you can give young writers?” Jin responded
reading his advice twenty-three years later
“Patient” is a word that pairs well with <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/132/9781101908495" class="external" target="_blank">Waiting</a>
What can I say about this novel to readers of the future
It’s the rare novel that is timeless and urgent all at once
Waiting begins like this: “Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose village to divorce his wife
who is torn between the past and the future
It is about what is both lost and gained in a transition to a more modern life
and time—“Patience is everything”—is a character
Waiting could only have been written by an immigrant
Being an immigrant requires imagination: an immigrant must imagine life in another country
an immigrant cannot help but picture what their life might have been
Ingrained in the experience of being an immigrant is the question of what if
The alternate lives one might have led had one decision been made
At times the immigrant will regret a choice that has been made
Or will regret not making any decisions at all
That Ha Jin is an acclaimed American novelist is itself an imaginative stretch
the year Lin Kong and Manna Wu marched four hundred miles and commenced their entanglement
and the year Mao’s Cultural Revolution began
in order to join the People’s Liberation Army
stationed on the frigid northeastern border between China and Russia
he encountered a Chinese translation of War and Peace
(It was as accidental as a suburban teenager coming across “After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town.”)
Yet Tolstoy’s novel made apparent that Russians were as human as he was
Leaves of Grass and Don Quixote among them
that these—along with other Western works—were prohibited
Ha Jin.) After being discharged at nineteen
he listed as his possible fields of study: philosophy
Despite scoring poorly on the English exam
he was assigned to study English at Heilongjiang University in Harbin
The story that became Waiting began as an offhand remark
Jin and his wife Lisha were visiting his in-laws at the army hospital where they served
They noticed a man standing outside the hospital
and Lisha mentioned that he was an army doctor who had waited eighteen years to divorce his wife
Jin joked that this would be a good premise for a novel
he carried this story with him on a plane to Boston in 1985
He was traveling alone to study at Brandeis University in Waltham
who helped him place his first English poem
“The Dead Soldier’s Talk,” in The Paris Review
He entered the MFA program at Boston University
When the Tiananmen Square massacre happened in 1989
Jin realized that he could not return home
this novel you are holding in your hands won the National Book Award for fiction
eventually writes a novel like this one—evocative and efficient
devastating and moving—in a language that is not his first
In an interview in The Paris Review in 2009
“What would you have done if you’d stayed in China?”
and yet there is nothing more quotidian than the reality: it happens day by day
Waiting is the rare text that illuminates both the length of days and the brevity of years
The possibilities of youth—which once seemed so boundless—narrow and narrow to a point
That life proceeds only forward should not come as a surprise: we know this fact of physics
And yet Lin Kong arrives at this realization only after too much time has passed
“What a mess he had made of his life and the lives of others!” he thinks to himself
Jin captures the details and textures and minutiae of days
A new year’s dinner is described in detail: “a cabbage salad mixed with cellophane noodles
a small basket of fried pies made of glutinous-rice flour
and a casserole of sauerkraut and pork and tiny shrimps.” And yet we cannot cling to each moment
abundant home-cooked meals—vanishes into memory
Lin “tried to recall the holidays in recent years and found himself at a loss—not a single one of them was distinguishable from the rest.”
Lin notices her physical changes (“Her face was no longer that youthful
Thin rings appeared around her eyes when she smiled
and her complexion had grown pasty and less firm
realizing that a young woman could lose her looks so easily and that however little the loss was
it was always irretrievable.”) He comprehends her aging more readily than he does his own
we are less capable of seeing what damage the years have done to us
In a series of realizations it occurs to Lin
regretfully: “I’m a superfluous man”&#8230;“I’m a bad
“Around his head a few midges were flitting
tossing their mottled tails.” Birds travel without constraint
and their flapping wings make me think of the Butterfly Effect—that if a bird had flapped its wings differently
Lin Kong’s life might have gone in another direction
We’re reminded of how arbitrary borders are
and how arbitrary it is that we are born in one place and not another—how that place and that time then determines
Lin and Manna are not permitted to walk around together outside the hospital wall
the vice-director of the hospital’s Political Department
makes an invasive request of Lin: “‘Promise me then that you and Manna Wu will have no abnormal relationship unless you have divorced your wife and married her.’ By ‘abnormal’ he meant ‘sexual.’” Eighteen years later
it no longer matters: “It occurred to [Lin] that the rule that prohibited two people of opposite sex from walking together outside the wall had been almost abandoned in the past year
Few leaders would now bother to criticize young men and women who walked in pairs outside the compound
He had heard that some nurses had even gone into the woods with their patients
there still seemed to be a wall around them
They had never walked together outside the hospital since they were married
and Manna still could not ride a bicycle.” These arbitrary rules have lasting effects on ordinary lives—on Lin’s
Manna and Lin watch a featured report on TV called “To Get Rich Is Glorious.” China is changing again
The Party now encourages capitalist tendencies
It’s another arbitrary about-face that will have consequences for the lives of ordinary people
we see how both a state’s arbitrary rules and regulations and cultural conventions do their damage to human lives
Shuyu is Lin’s hardworking and devoted wife
Her body keeps a record of its own oppression: she has bound feet
girls’ feet were painfully shaped from childhood because tiny feet were a beauty standard
But Lin considers Shuyu’s feet an embarrassment—a vestige of the past
“This was the New China; who would look up to a young woman with bound feet?” he wonders
He never once considers the suffering Shuyu went through in order to have these tiny bound feet
is that though Shuyu’s feet are meant solely for her husband
these feet she endured years of pain for.)
When we first meet Manna in the fall of 1964
we learn that she “was an energetic young woman at the time.” “At the time” is a weighty phrase
foreshadowing how the years that follow will diminish her
Manna is among the nurses who have had their virginity verified: “Every young woman recruited had to go through a physical exam that eliminated those with a broken hymen.” In 1964
where this invasive checking of hymens is accepted as standard practice
He has viewed this as a betrayal on his part
In an essay called “The Language of Betrayal” from The Writer as Migrant
“the ultimate betrayal is to choose to write in another language
No matter how the writer attempts to rationalize and justify adopting a foreign language
it is an act of betrayal that alienates him from his mother tongue and directs his creative energy to another language
This linguistic betrayal is the ultimate step the migrant writer dares to take; after this
any other act of estrangement amounts to a trifle.” In China his work would be censored
“I wanted to separate myself from Chinese state power
The Chinese language has a lot of political jargon.”
Jin nevertheless writes about China beautifully
English inflected with a Chinese sensibility
Both the countryside and the city of a quarter million are evoked vividly yet straightforwardly
vulgarity and natural beauty exist hand in hand
Jin presents both ways of living matter-of-factly
To choose one way of living means closing the door to another
An author torn between two languages must choose one
Yet the city and country can’t stay wholly segregated
Having lived in one place informs one’s life in another
Ha Jin’s Chinese life brings perspective to his American one
Waiting also asks: What is the use of books
It’s a playful proposition within a text itself
Lin reflects that books are useless in a place where physical labor is paramount
(“Shuyu doesn’t know how to take care of books
These books are of no use to me anymore,” Lin thinks.) In Muji City
he keeps the books even though they are contraband
Lin and Manna tenderly wrap his books in paper
Keeping these books might be the biggest risk that Lin ever takes
Lin wonders if his books have led to his emotional disability: “Never had he experienced that kind of intense emotion for a woman; never had he written a sentence charged with that kind of love&#8230;Maybe I’ve read too much
I’m a scientist by training—knowledge chills your blood.” Where are people living their lives
Waiting describes the paradox of reading a book
which enriches your experience at the same time it means you aren’t taking action
Lin is well versed in stories about “legendary heroes
kung fu masters,” yet unable to fully feel emotion in his own life
A tension exists between living and reading
familiar to any young bookworm who has opted to read indoors rather than play outdoors
Reading makes up for some of the life we have lost
Life experienced only through books simply isn’t enough
Lin Kong does not exercise his own imagination until it is too late
“If only he had had enough passion and energy left in him so that he could learn how to love devotedly and start his life afresh.”
perhaps inevitable feeling for anyone who has ever grown older and found doors closed
Imagination can be a salve: “He couldn’t help forming imaginary plans—withdrawing all the 900 yuan from his savings account
sneaking away at night to the train station
restarting his life in a remote town where no one knew him
Ideally he’d like to work as a librarian.”
He wishes he could trade places with his twins: “Lin felt weak and aged; he was unsure whether he cared for the twins and whether he would be able to love them devotedly
somehow he began to imagine trading places with them
If only he himself had been carried by someone like this now; then he would have led his life differently.”
“If only” is an especially striking and heart-breaking phrase
Waiting stresses the limitations of our lives—the fact we only get to lead one
An immigrant’s life requires both imagination and an acceptance of one’s limitations—of the reality
which is that we only get to live one life
Despite its accolades in the States (a National Book Award
Waiting has never been celebrated or honored by China itself
it has always been the individual who is accused of betraying his country
Why shouldn’t we turn the tables by accusing a country of betraying the individual?” In Waiting
the country betrays its ordinary people: Lin Kong
The Cultural Revolution is a period that China prefers not to speak about
China wants to pretend the past did not exist
He sees the role of a writer as a preserver: “Yes
to preserve is the key function of literature
must be predicated on the autonomy and integrity of literary works inviolable by time,” Jin writes
“The writer should be not just a chronicler but also a shaper
It is impossible to make sense of historical experiences as we’re living through them
and a seemingly meaningless experience can be transformed
Jin calls attention to the lives of ordinary people
Though we can make out the shapes of these characters’ lives and see the arc of them
we can’t help but wonder about the arbitrary demands and strictures placed on these individuals: What was it all for
How could the lives of these ordinary people have been different
if they hadn’t been subjected to authoritarian rule
Waiting itself is an imaginative exercise that we are all fortunate exists
Ha Jin’s overactive immigrant imagination has given us this incredible novel
we can experience other lives imaginatively
We are able to feel what it might have been like to lead these ordinary lives: Shuyu’s life
Each of us is at the mercy of arbitrary occurrences—some that cause lasting damage and trauma
others that shape our lives for the better
Picking up a book is one random event that can turn someone into a writer
Nothing,” Jin says in his Paris Review interview
“In China the individual used to be treated as a screw or a small cog in the revolutionary machine
I wanted to be a human being with a voice.”
Imagining a different way of being can be a step toward being different; imagination is necessary for both selves and political structures to change
Adapted from <a href="https://bookshop.org/a/132/9781101908495" class="external" target="_blank">Waiting</a> by Ha Jin
an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature
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I walked around at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week
and I talked with several developers of artificial intelligence (AI) video services
The number of young people working on new ideas is simply staggering and their variety of ideas is mind-boggling
Some of these new apps send A LOT of data to the cloud:&nbsp;one smartphone application uses two cameras on the iPhone simultaneously
with two 1440p HD video streams at 60 frames per second
The two video streams are combined in the cloud for rich 3D video effects.&nbsp;Today
the app is used for non-realtime processing of video…but of course there will be pressure to adapt this technique for Microsoft Teams or Zoom.&nbsp;It would definitely up my game if I had this kind of production-quality video for my customer meetings.&nbsp; &nbsp;
The engineer I spoke with said that they don’t have any preferences for network connections
His app will upload over 4G or 5G if the speed is "good enough." That’s scary
I have a word of warning this month: The mobile operators are at the mercy of these 22-year-old whiz kids
The minute that somebody creates a video app that combines two videos
or analyzes a video stream in a useful way
or uses a video stream in a game — the mobile network could be buried in traffic
the mobile industry could commit suicide unintentionally
and we offer it to the OTT community for any app they like.&nbsp;The whiz kids will quickly figure out that the 5 ms network is better than the 20-30 ms cable broadband/Wi-Fi network and they’ll start directing the smartphone to prefer 5G
If we haven’t set up premium pricing plans before that happens
our industry could be buried in a mountain of uplink data demand without any new revenue to pay for it
and streaming services use Wi-Fi and fixed broadband connections today.&nbsp;Mobile devices are offloading their traffic onto Wi-Fi and wired broadband at least 70% of the time…and some apps are used almost exclusively on Wi-Fi.&nbsp;That allows the CSPs to charge a premium for mobile data…at a consumer level
they charge 20x more for mobile data compared with fixed broadband data
if the mobile industry moves ahead with investing in edge data centers everywhere (or even GPUs everywhere)
we would create a ‘tipping point’ that incentivizes the app developers to steer the “offload” traffic back onto the mobile network
We could drown in the flood of OTT application data that suddenly appears on the mobile network
But I encourage the operators to consider this: before you build a better pipe
figure out what will happen to traffic that is adjacent to your network
Can you live with sudden 3x growth in your traffic?&nbsp; &nbsp;
Can you charge 3x or 4x higher prices for that 5 ms network?&nbsp;Be selective
Offer the premium latency only to diamond-level customers
The mobile industry has talked for a long time about edge computing and low-latency connections
These are grand ideas but be careful what you wish for
Joe Madden is principal analyst at Mobile Experts
a network of market and technology experts that analyze wireless markets
analysts or our editorial staff are opinion pieces that do not represent the opinions of Fierce Network
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Mercy Research is making proton beam clinical trials available to Mercy patients through a membership with <a href="https://pcgresearch.org/" target="_blank">Proton Collaborative Group</a> (PCG)
PCG is a group of more than 30 treatment centers across the country committed to improving outcomes for cancer patients and advancing the role of proton beam therapy
Mercy’s PCG membership includes access to a proton therapy registry, which helps evaluate disease process and treatment, as well as <a href="https://pcgresearch.org/research-2/" target="_blank">trials</a> for various breast
“PCG provides our patients greater opportunity and access to clinical trials using proton beam therapy
which for many of them makes this treatment possible
while at the same time helping improve future cancer treatment,” said Dr
principal investigator for the proton beam registry and PCG trials at Mercy St
the care teams will have access to important data to help shape future treatment.”
The <a href="https://www.mercy.net/newsroom/2022-07-01/mercy-opens-proton-therapy-center-for-precision-radiation-treatm/">Mercy Proton Therapy Center</a> opened in July 2022 at Mercy Hospital St
becoming one of only 43 centers in the United States
Radiation with proton therapy precisely targets cancer tumors
reducing and eliminating unwanted radiation exposure to surrounding healthy tissue
Mercy Research hired a dedicated research specialty coordinator for all proton therapy trials and proton registry data entry
“We are delighted to have Mercy as a member of PCG and to share their expertise and perspective on the field of proton therapy,” said Jillian Plochocki
“Mercy’s contribution to the largest proton therapy registry in the world and to critical proton therapy clinical trials will help pave the way to better treatment
improved clinical outcomes and enhanced quality of life for those diagnosed with cancer.”
“New trials with PCG will complement Mercy Research’s existing portfolio of National Cancer Institute-sponsored trials for proton beam therapy,” said Dr
Mercy director of oncology research and Mercy's representative on the PCG executive council
The PCG executive council provides oversight for PCG committees
clinical policies and procedures and organizational strategy implementation
PCG was founded in 2009 by a group of radiation oncologists whose primary mission was to improve the survival outcomes of cancer patients and their quality of life
These oncologists strongly believed that collaborating to develop new research protocols and sharing those results across multiple treatment centers would best serve their mission
Brent crude is totally at the mercy of OPEC+
but the group will stay the course through 2025
chief commodities analyst at Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (SEB)
said in a report sent to Rigzone by the SEB team on Tuesday
&ldquo;The current oil price is totally at the mercy of OPEC+,&rdquo; Schieldrop stated in the report
&ldquo;The group is planning to put volumes back into the market in 2025 and that places somewhat of a cap on the upside,&rdquo; he added
&ldquo;The group really proved its resolve repeatedly in 2024 and the oil market now probably feels quite confident that it will stay the course also in 2025 and supply volumes in a manner that yields an acceptable price of $70-$80 per barrel,&rdquo; he went on to state
In a separate report sent to Rigzone on Monday by the SEB team
Schieldrop noted that OPEC+ proved strong resolve on supply restraint last year
&ldquo;We have solid resolve by OPEC+ to keep oil prices steady,&rdquo; Schieldrop said in that report
&ldquo;They have confirmed and reconfirmed this solid resolve again and again over the past half year by postponing heralded production hikes time and time again,&rdquo; he added
and then the latest plan is to increase production gradually by 2.2 million barrels per day over 18 months from April
they will likely postpone yet again if needed when we get towards April,&rdquo; Schieldrop went on to state
Rigzone has contacted OPEC for comment on the SEB reports
OPEC has not yet responded to Rigzone&rsquo;s request
In a report sent to Rigzone last month by Standard Chartered Bank Commodities Research Head Paul Horsnell
highlighted that the OPEC+ meeting held on December 5 - along with discussions on the sidelines between Saudi Arabia
&ldquo;One - the unwind of the November 2023 tier of voluntary cuts remains subject to market conditions and is now scheduled to start in April 2025 and finish in September 2026
it will begin three months later than the previous schedule and end nine months later,&rdquo; they said in the report
&ldquo;Two - the UAE&rsquo;s already-agreed 0.3 million barrels per day base target increase will now be phased in from April 2025 to September 2026 rather than over 12 months starting January 2025,&rdquo; they added
&ldquo;Three - the baselines for all countries with targets have been extended by a year to end-2026; and four - payback schedules for 2024 overproduction will be carried out over 2025 and H1- 2026,&rdquo; they continued
The next OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting is scheduled to be held on May&nbsp;28
according to a statement posted on OPEC&rsquo;s website on December 5
A statement posted on OPEC&rsquo;s site on December 10 highlighted that the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) between OPEC Member Countries and non-OPEC oil-producing countries turned eight years old that day
the DoC framework has aimed at facilitating cooperation and dialogue
including at the technical and research levels
among its participants in the interest of oil market stability,&rdquo; the statement noted
including OPEC Member Countries and some non-OPEC oil-producing nations
decided to join forces to address the instability the global oil market was then facing
marking the beginning of a new chapter in multilateralism
and the history of the oil industry,&rdquo; OPEC Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said in the statement
To contact the author, email&nbsp;<a href=\"mailto:andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com\">andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com</a>
To contact the author, email&nbsp;<a href="mailto:andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com">andreas.exarheas@rigzone.com</a>
It had been 20 years since Eagles photographer Ed Mahan last used a film camera
On Sunday, Mahan, the first Eagles team photographer, used an old-school Nikon film camera to <a class="nfl-o-cta--link nfl-o-cta--underline" style="word-break: break-word" href="https://features.philadelphiaeagles.com/philadelphia-eagles-kelly-green-old-school-film" target="_blank">shoot the team’s Kelly Green game against the Jaguars</a>
known by many as the "Eagles' Eye," has been prominent in the Eagles organization as he has shot for the team for more than 50 years
he was taking photos for all four Philadelphia sports teams
Mahan described his experience shooting with an old camera as a "frustrating enjoyment," noting the challenges of using a film camera in today's world
"It took me awhile to just remember how the film cameras worked
It's completely different than what's happening today," Mahan said
"I just realized the advances since the film days to current day digital images
It was quite an awakening for me to have that time period of not using film and then going back and using it and wondering
The advances from when Mahan began taking photos for the Eagles are quite large
photographers can take as many photos as they desire and are able to see the images instantly
On the Nikon motor drive camera Mahan used on Sunday
which was similar to what he used throughout his time with the Eagles
there is a roll of film that contains enough for 36 frames
Mahan cannot see the photos until the film is processed
They gave me eight rolls of film and I had just finished my roll and that's another thing to be concerned about
you're not a photographer anymore," Mahan said
you can go back out an hour after the game and still shoot whatever you want
Photos: These Kelly Green images truly turn back the clock
Our award-winning team of photographers celebrated the Kelly Green experience by capturing images on film – utilizing vintage 35mm cameras
Mahan began to remember what it was like to work the film cameras and capture Eagles football
He enjoyed the process of being down on the field again
looking to catch action like he normally would for the team
"I would just look for interesting things during warmups
Maybe there was a player just getting into his mindset
a moment of quietness for him," Mahan said about what he looks for before the game starts
"This is off anything that would be visually interesting
that brought back a lot of memories for me going back to the old days."
Mahan continued to learn the vast differences between the old film cameras and today's digital versions
It was like there was a time warp where I was pushed back to all those years," Mahan said
If there was an important play that would come up
you didn't want to run out and not be able to shoot
You probably want to rewind that roll of film even before you got to the end
because you wanted a fresh roll of film in case things happened that required more than just the last couple frames on that roll."
Mahan and company would work on the photos after the game in a dark room at Veterans Stadium
He mentioned that back in the day it would take days – usually midway through the week – for the photos to appear in Eagles publications
They had to be sent to Eagles Digest in Florida to be processed
Mahan was only responsible for taking the photos at the game on Sunday
Mahan had a chance to reflect on his experience shooting Eagles football with the old camera and give advice to the next generation of photographers
but I would say this for new photographers: If you know the score
"The most important thing is not to enjoy the game
You're there to get the pictures and your concentration has to always be on the field and try not to be distracted by all the things going on around you."
\"That's a cheat code right there.\" The Olympic events were on full display Sunday as the Eagles outdid one another with one dramatic
we were able to pack in all of this action into a one-minute highlight
Here are the jersey numbers for the new veterans
Chris and Michelle Britton honor the memory of their youngest son by raising thousands of dollars each year for the Eagles Autism Foundation
The Britton family was chosen to represent the Foundation at the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay
Jackson took part in this weekend's Rookie Minicamp on a tryout basis
The cornerback becomes the fifth draft pick to sign his rookie contract
the first-year players got back to football at the NovaCare Complex
The Eagles kick off Rookie Camp by getting Smael Mondon Jr.
and Antwaun Powell-Ryland to ink their four-year rookie deals
a travel football club for boys and girls from New Jersey
After adding 10 draft picks to an already strong roster
the Eagles will have ample ammunition to continue to bolster the team in the 2026 NFL Draft
The 6-foot-6 defensive tackle has started every game over the last two seasons for the Eagles
Robinson was the last first-round linebacker picked by the team back in 1979
The organization honored the men and women who have served the country during the time in Washington
with a trip to Arlington National Cemetery
How did Howie Roseman execute the trade to get linebacker Jihaad Campbell
Why was Andrew Mukuba such a highly sought-after target in the second round
What did the Eagles want to accomplish on the final day of the 2025 NFL Draft
It's all here in the post-draft episode of Unscripted
Ahead of their first official practice as Philadelphia Eagles
and outside linebacker Antwaun Powell-Ryland
Join first-round pick Jihaad Campbell in his first 24 hours as an Eagle
From the moment he gets selected to his tour of the facilities in Philadelphia
every moment of Campbell's first day as an Eagle is right here for your viewing pleasure
<a href="https://www.thegazette.com/">Home</a> / <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/news/">News</a> / <a href="https://www.thegazette.com/education/">Education</a> / <a class="breadcrumb_last" href="https://www.thegazette.com/higher-education/">Higher Ed</a>
‘There are precious few assets in the trust to be marshaled on behalf of creditors’
The Gazette offers audio versions of articles using Instaread
With the bankruptcy case of Iowa City&rsquo;s only community hospital winding down &mdash; and tens of millions in liquidated assets already distributed to bondholders &mdash; attorneys
and other professionals still are fighting for their cut
if approved would go to Chicago-based law firm McDermott Will &amp; Emery
When combined with the $4.8 million billed by Mercy&rsquo;s interim managing operator
those two firms account for three-fourths of the fees
&ldquo;The sale price of the major asset in this case
was $26 million,&rdquo; according to a &ldquo;Liquidating Trust Oversight Committee&rdquo; motion asking a judge not to approve all $13 million in fees
which it notes is &ldquo;more than half of what was recovered.&rdquo;
&ldquo;There are precious few assets in the trust to be marshaled on behalf of creditors in this case,&rdquo; according to the motion
Bankruptcy Judge Thad Collins already signed off on some fee applications &mdash; including several he approved inadvertently and might pull back &mdash; on Thursday he told attorneys he wanted to hold one
Collins said he wants to discuss on the record fees that have incited objections and those that haven&rsquo;t &mdash; but repeatedly stressed his goal isn&rsquo;t to &ldquo;head hunt&rdquo; attorney fees
&ldquo;I'm not out head-hunting fees,&rdquo; he said
I believe the lawyers should get paid for their work.&rdquo;
In a status report submitted to the court last week
Mercy&rsquo;s liquidation trustee Dan Childers said the trust has distributed $20.4 million to secured bondholders
and is holding $1.5 million in reserve for unsecured creditors &ldquo;for future distributions.&rdquo;
Heading into its bankruptcy in August 2023
Mercy owed its secured bondholders more than $62.8; its unsecured creditors $38.4 million; and its former employees due pension distributions between $8 million and $30 million
Addressing the notion that so much of the proceeds of the sale of Iowa City&rsquo;s 150-year-old hospital could be headed out of state
pensioners this week filed a motion to curtail fees requested by McDermott
Will &amp; Emery &mdash; which involved 28 of its attorneys in this case
also billing for work done by one paralegal and nine other research- and data analyst-type professionals
&ldquo;McDermott Will &amp; Emery&rsquo;s fee applications in this case are replete with duplication of efforts
with multiple attorneys billing to review the same document
attorneys reviewing one another&rsquo;s work
as well as multiple partners preparing for and attending hearings (even in cases where only one attorney from McDermott Will &amp; Emery appeared in court),&rdquo; according to the pensioners
&ldquo;McDermott Will &amp; Emery attorneys frequently billed for simply listening to in court proceedings on the phone.&rdquo;
McDermott billed Mercy $245,042 for the time it spent applying for compensation and addressing objections to its fee applications
bankruptcy trustee presented many of the same objections pensioners made this week
18 charged Mercy more than $1,000 an hour &mdash; with three partners making $1,850 to $1,975 an hour
billed $1.2 million for his about 10 months on the case
billed just under $1 million for her 522 hours on the case
Given McDermott is involved in many other corporate reorganizations and insolvency matters nationally
records show Simon &mdash; for example &mdash; billed $1,285 an hour earlier this year for his work with Envistacom
&ldquo;the hourly rates charged by McDermott Will and Emery are far outside the range charged by practitioners in this district.&rdquo;
&ldquo;Standard rates for practitioners here top out at roughly $500 an hour
less than half the rate of several McDermott Will and Emery associates and roughly a quarter of the McDermott Will and Emery partner billing at the highest rate.&rdquo;
Although Judge Collins aired support for attorneys and paying them &mdash; noting
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m a believer in people doing a good job in this case
and I&rsquo;m not going to change my view of that&rdquo; &mdash; he also characterized the U.S
which has objected to every McDermott fee application
&ldquo;And I&rsquo;m all ears when they&rsquo;re talking about these things,&rdquo; he said
&ldquo;They tend to be reasonable with lawyers on fees and work with them.&rdquo;
Regarding trustee objections to both McDermott and Cedar Rapids-based Nyemaster Goode applications
attorney Roy Leaf said a resolution could be brewing &mdash; or not
&ldquo;We will at least try again with the U.S
trustee to reach a resolution,&rdquo; Leaf said
&ldquo;I understand McDermott has also reached out to the U.S
trustee&rsquo;s office and tried to reach a resolution
But it sounds like a resolution may not be coming
And I'm not confident on our side either that there'll be a resolution.&rdquo;
Among the fee applications the judge inadvertently signed too soon was one for $1.2 million to New Jersey-based Sills Cummis &amp; Gross
as reflected in the application; we took another further substantial discount based upon the robust discussions I had,&rdquo; Sills Cummis attorney Andrew Sherman said Wednesday
I relied on the fact that there wasn't going to be further litigation
But obviously your honor has the last word
So we would only ask your honor to leave your orders in place
&ldquo;This is not what I would call litigation.&rdquo; And
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s no big red flag here.&rdquo;
Vanessa Miller covers higher education for The Gazette
Comments: (319) 339-3158; vanessa.miller@thegazette.com
including Iowa&#8217;s public universities
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The sound of helicopters over the High Desert usually means a Mercy Air crew is on a lifesaving mission
Mercy Air officials recently gathered at the Apple Valley Airport to celebrate 35 years of serving the people of California and Nevada, according to <a href=https://www.airmethods.com/>Air Methods officials</a>
Guests at the event met with the Mercy Air crew
and learned how the air medical program provides critical lifesaving air medical care
In recognition of the air medical program’s 35 years — Mercy Air Base 2 Victorville
Base 66 Barstow and Base H285 Big Bear — brought together first responders and others to celebrate the company’s milestone
former pediatric patient Luke Haas and his family reunited with members of the air medical team
who provided his critical care over two years ago
Luke was riding his bike and crashed causing him to need emergency medical care
After ground first responders assessed Luke’s condition
they determined the young boy needed urgent
higher-level care and transported him to the Mercy Air 22 base in Hesperia
The Mercy Air critical care team flew Luke to a level 1 trauma hospital
where doctors diagnosed him with C2 and C4 spinal injuries
continues to show incredible strength and determination
“Thank you for being first responders,” said Luke’s mother
as she addressed Flight Paramedic Ken Sexton and Flight Nurse Michael Lentz
“We’re grateful to have this opportunity to reunite with you and thank you for the care you provided Luke that day.”
“It was great to be able to share our anniversary with our community and partners
and what made it even more special was to reunite with Luke,” Sexton said
The Mercy Air program has been a crucial part of the local healthcare system that provides critical care for patients through 911 calls
Each flight crew includes a seasoned pilot
all equipped to stabilize and transport patients swiftly and efficiently
The team is also equipped to administer blood during flights
"We have a great working relationship with Mercy Air,” said Apple Valley Fire Protection Capt
who highlighted Mercy Air’s success in building strong partnerships with local agencies
“We were happy to take part in Mercy Air’s 35th anniversary."
Mercy Air has expanded throughout California and Nevada
offering critical care to underserved rural areas without requiring memberships
The four Mercy Air locations opened between 2007 and 2019
Operations began at the Rialto Municipal Airport with a Bell Helicopter BHT 412 and staffed with a pilot
and flight paramedic – a staffing standard still held today
Air Methods acquired the Mercy Air program in 1997 and has since continued to advance and enhance the program in the region
providing lifesaving care to those who need it most
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVDailyPress.com
Washington Bishop Mariann Budde preaches Jan
21 at the Service of Prayer for the Nation at Washington National Cathedral
[Episcopal News Service] The sermon’s duration was less than 15 minutes
Its theme – a call for unity grounded in faith at a time of political division – was hardly out of the norm for a post-inauguration service at Washington National Cathedral
which has hosted similar services 10 times before
Her calm plea to the president: “Have mercy.”
the president labeled her “a so-called bishop” and a “Radical Left hard line Trump hater” whose sermon was “ungracious” and “nasty in tone.”
had asked Trump to show mercy to “the people in our country who are scared now,” and she specifically held up the fears felt by many LGTBQ+ people and immigrants at the start of Trump’s second term
21 prayer service at Washington National Cathedral
Trump had issued a series of executive orders
including several intended to address what he declared was a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border
During the campaign Trump had promised to enact mass deportations
and in his social media post about Budde’s sermon
that a “large number of illegal migrants” had entered the United States and killed people as part of a “giant crime wave.”
<a href="https://episcopalnewsservice.org/2025/01/21/washington-bishops-plea-to-trump-have-mercy-upon-the-people-in-our-country-who-are-scared/">Budde&#8217;s plea to Trump: ‘Have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared’</a>
Episcopal News Service sought comment from Budde for this story, which will be updated upon receiving a response. The bishop, whose diocese includes the United States’ capital city and part of Maryland, discussed her sermon <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BMZAkFbt9M">in an interview with CNN</a> that aired Jan
after Trump’s initial comments but before his demand for an apology
Budde confirmed she was looking directly at Trump while speaking to him from the pulpit
through that one-on-one conversation with the president
reminding us all that the people that are frightened in our country … are our fellow human beings and that they have been portrayed all throughout the political campaign in the harshest of lights,” Budde told CNN
with a reminder of their humanity and their place in our wider community.”
She <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.npr.org/2025/01/22/nx-s1-5270903/bishop-mariann-budde-talks-about-confronting-president-trump-in-sermon">later told NPR&#8217;s &#8220;All Things Considered&#8221;</a> that she didn&#8217;t see a need to apologize
&#8220;I regret that it was something that has caused the kind of response that it has
in the sense that it actually confirmed the very thing that I was speaking of earlier
which is our tendency to jump to outrage and not speak to one another with respect,&#8221; she said
I won&#8217;t apologize for what I said.&#8221;
her sermon set off a firestorm on social media and a flurry of emails to church officials
The ENS story posted to Facebook had generated more than 600 comments as of midday Jan
many of them thanking Budde for upholding Christian values and others strongly criticizing her – some even going as far as calling for her removal
ENS also received more than a dozen emails about the sermon
Some suggested Budde’s message to the president was better delivered in person rather than from the pulpit
who identified herself as the granddaughter of the Rt
shared with ENS a letter she had addressed directly to Budde
“It was extremely inappropriate for you to use the pulpit to lash out at President Trump during today&#8217;s service
especially for a bishop!” Kinsolving wrote
“You should always treat every member of your congregation with the utmost respect
though not a member of the Washington National Cathedral
had attended the cathedral’s Service of Prayer for the Nation with his family and members of his new administration
21 during the Service of Prayer for the Nation
which was attended by President Donald Trump
a day after Trump&#8217;s inauguration to a second term
An Episcopal Church spokesperson released a statement Jan
saying that Budde has been a “bishop in good standing” since her consecration in 2011
“She is a valued and trusted pastor to her diocese and colleague to bishops throughout our church
We stand by Bishop Budde and her appeal for the Christian values of mercy and compassion.&#8221;
Some critics of Budde’s sermon argued it was inappropriate for her to preach directly to Trump – or to any individual member of a worshipping community. ENS posed this scenario to the Rev. Ruthanna Hooke, <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://vts.edu/faculty/rev-ruthanna-hooke/">a professor of homiletics at Virginia Theological Seminary</a>
who noted preachers commonly address individuals in other types of services
“When people are going to preach a sermon that might be controversial in this context
basing it firmly on Scripture is the solid ground
The preacher’s message may not reach every member of a congregation immediately
but “sometimes a sermon is planting seeds that are going to grow and sprout much later.”
Some of Budde’s fellow bishops were <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/DioET/posts/pfbid0PWfmfFQxNbYtdd8aFWRcewRjVp2GEyFCf5Qu5VkdNpzB1srhiFjWn3ZGNh85ioLql">among those who came to her defense</a> and commended her sermon
“I encourage you to listen to the whole sermon, which is a reflection on Godly unity, and what is means to be united across disagreement,” Arizona Bishop Jennifer Reddall <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.reddall/posts/pfbid02rK4Bebf4Rg4syVCXLnaBpRCeb4GCKM3mvQnfQaPhJpKGeagPVgPo2iJx3k9CRhtzl">said on Facebook while sharing video of Budde’s sermon</a>
deeply rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Los Angeles Bishop John Harvey Taylor went further <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.facebook.com/john.h.taylor.9/posts/pfbid0afxVYTjApcUZC89s24wqE3eY9aPdyDA5xgDGeo9beeXZLPLNHc3n7xLTVozxbkpGl">in his Facebook post about the sermon</a>
saying Budde had “held Trump accountable to his face for ten years of hate speech.”
Judging by the look on Trump’s face, “you could tell she got through to him,” said Taylor, who previously served as former President Richard Nixon’s chief of staff and <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.nixonfoundation.org/2009/02/taylor-leaving-as-nixon-foundation-executive-director/">executive director of the Richard Nixon Library &amp; Birthplace Foundation</a>
Taylor urged his followers to “resist colluding with the second-day story,” presumably referring to the outrage from Trump’s supporters
Plans for the cathedral’s post-inauguration service were announced in October, before Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in November to win the presidency for a second time. The service was not open to the public because of security concerns, though it was livestreamed and is available as a video <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhHE8fvf92M">on the cathedral’s YouTube channel</a>
did not identify or criticize any specific policy promoted by Trump
she invoked familiar Christian themes of compassion
respect for human dignity and welcoming the stranger
on those in our communities whose children fear that their parents will be taken away
and that you help those who are fleeing war zones and persecution in their own lands to find compassion and welcome here,” Budde said
“Our God teaches us that we are to be merciful to the stranger
for we were all once strangers in this land.”
she explained why she thought it important to address Trump directly at the end of her sermon
“I felt that he has this moment now where he feels charged and empowered to do what he feels called to do
and I wanted to say there is room for mercy,” Budde said
We don’t need to portray with a broad cloth in the harshest of terms some of the most vulnerable people in our society
Those neighbors “are not abstract people for me,” she added
I wanted to present a vision of what unity can look like in this country that is transcending of differences and viewpoints and acknowledging our common humanity.”
– David Paulsen is a senior reporter and editor for Episcopal News Service based in Wisconsin. He can be reached at <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="mailto:dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org">dpaulsen@episcopalchurch.org</a>
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