"Billion Dollar Bets" to Create Economic Opportunity for Every American

The American Dream--the notion that if you "work hard and play by the rules," you will improve your lot in life--has become impossible for Americans to achieve. That was the conclusion of nearly six out of ten people who responded to a June 2014, CNNMoney poll. In a December 2015 Harvard Institute of Politics' survey of millennials, nearly half pronounced the American Dream "dead."Given the fact that social mobility in the United States has largely remained stagnant for more than 30 years, many people doubt there's a better economic future for themselves and their children. Indeed, it will take a sustained effort to restore economic opportunity for all Americans. But according to research by The Bridgespan Group, reports of the American Dream's demise just might be premature.Drawing from an extensive research base--as well as dozens of interviews with experts and practitioners and the diverse perspectives of an advisory board--a Bridgespan team embarked on an effort to map out "what matters most" to increase upward economic mobility for millions of low-income Americans. (Learn more about our research effort in the Overview of Research.)The team identified an array of on-the-ground interventions that are already building pathways to the middle class, as well as promising innovations that are just beginning to emerge. The results of that investigation can be found in this report, "Billion Dollar Bets" to Create Economic Opportunity for Every American.We framed our research around this question: "How could a philanthropic investment of $1 billion dramatically increase upward social mobility for low-income individuals and families?" With access to capital that is flexible and adaptable, philanthropists are uniquely positioned to put social mobility on an upward trajectory. Roughly 80 percent of the largest donors aspire to impel social change, but just 20 percent of philanthropic investments above$10 million went to social-change organizations between 2000 and 2012. Philanthropists have lacked the sightlines into shovel-ready projects and they've lacked the confidence that large investments would actually impact the economic lives of many people.Our intent was to create a series of roadmaps that illustrate how investments of $1 billion might improve the lifetime earnings of millions of low-income Americans. We began by identifying four promising areas where large investments of private capital would likely catalyze population-level change.We then evaluated scores of concepts for restoring the meritocratic ideal to many more Americans. Working with our advisory board, we selected 15 of those concepts as illustrative "big bets" that span the four investment areas. To get a better understanding of the promise and pitfalls that come with any attempt to take on the social mobility challenge, we took a deeper dive into six of the proposed bets:Improve early childhood developmentEstablish clear and viable pathways to careersDecrease rates of conviction and incarcerationReduce unintended pregnanciesReduce the effect of concentrated poverty on the lives of people living in distressed neighborhoodsImprove the performance of public systems that administer and oversee social service

Lost Oscillations: Exploring a City’s Space and Time With an Interactive Auditory Art Installation

Presented at the 22nd International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD-2016)Lost Oscillations is a spatio-temporal sound art installation that allows users to explore the past and present of a city's soundscape. Participants are positioned in the center of an octophonic speaker array; situated in the middle of the array is a touch-sensitive user interface. The user interface is a stylized representation of a map of Christchurch, New Zealand, with electrodes placed throughout the map. Upon touching an electrode, one of many sound recordings made at the electrode's real-world location is chosen and played; users must stay in contact with the electrodes in order for the sounds to continue playing, requiring commitment from users in order to explore the soundscape. The sound recordings have been chosen to represent Christchurch's development throughout its history, allowing participants to explore the evolution of the city from the early 20th Century through to its post-earthquake reconstruction. This paper discusses the motivations for Lost Oscillations before presenting the installation's design, development, and presentation

SLIDES: Rapanos and the Courts: Navigating Through the Fog

Presenter: Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel, National Wildlife Federation, VT 25 slide

Heaven Overland

These poems record, from our own language—spoken on the street in Atlanta or Dayton or Chicago, in the graveyard in Charleston, on the rivers of Ohio or Missouri or Illinois, on the road in Mississippi, or on the radio anywhere in America—momentary beauties, to show us that song, however rare, proceeds from the common tongue. So these poems promise that any speech, that any mouth, might be an occasion for beauty or blessing. Everywhere in this collection, ears, eyes, minds open to discover new abundance in landscapes thought familiar. These poems discover in America and its history boundless vistas, to remind us that the word cosmos means both “beauty” and “world.” In this world, innumerable processions make their way “through the neighborhoods of breath and music” to find those “embouchures” through which we might reach some greater expanse. Jim Murphy’s America is one in which a heaven—in which Heaven—might be reached by making the right turns on common roads. Wherever we live, wherever we have lived, may already be holy. In Jim Murphy’s America, a blessed music is anywhere. It is everywhere. It bears us home.https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/ksupresslegacy/1009/thumbnail.jp

The Problem of Authenticity in Heidegger and Gadamer

In Being and Time, Martin Heidegger claims that one can obtain an authentic identity by way of the resolute anticipation of death. With this proper relation to one’s finitude, one’s understanding will no longer be obscured by entanglement in the world, and the world can be genuinely seen as it is according to the tradition that supports one’s understanding. Following Charles Taylor in The Ethics of Authenticity, I argue that Heidegger’s account of authenticity fails to incorporate the necessary role of recognition by the community in the formation of an authentic identity. Because of the deeply personal nature of one’s relation to one’s death, authenticity cannot be recognized by the community; therefore, the distinction between authenticity and inauthenticity appears meaningless to others. In Truth and Method, Hans-Georg Gadamer is able to satisfy Taylor’s recognition requirement for the formation of authentic identity. I argue that for Gadamer, one obtains an authentic identity if one is able to ‘fuse horizons’ with another. For Gadamer, authenticity is not a magical transformation of one’s understanding that takes place with the anticipation of death; rather, one can understand the world authentically when the prejudices that block understanding are worked out in the process of understanding itself. When we encounter those that are different or other, we must struggle to understand and recognize them on their own terms (and vice versa) by working out our prejudicial limitations in a process of genuine dialogue and discourse with these others. This is what Gadamer calls fusing horizons. I argue that this fusion of horizons satisfies Taylor’s recognition requirement since the genuine mutual recognition of others, and by others, is necessary work in achieving authentic understanding and identity

Prevalence and patterns of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption assessed using the AUDIT among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal.

AIMS: This study sought to ascertain the prevalence of hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption among Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and to identify predictors of elevated risk in order to better understand intervention need. METHODS: Hazardous and harmful alcohol consumption was assessed using the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) administered in a face-to-face interview in a census of two camps comprising ∼8000 refugees. RESULTS: Approximately 1/5 men and 1/14 women drank alcohol and prevalence of hazardous drinking among current drinkers was high and comparable to that seen in Western countries with longstanding alcohol cultures. Harmful drinking was particularly associated with the use of other substances including tobacco. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of the alcohol-related needs of Bhutanese refugees has permitted the design of interventions. This study adds to the small international literature on substance use in forced migration populations, about which there is growing concern

Improving the Assessment (Assurance of Learning) Processes

Strategically located in downtown Denver, this state university is a popular destination for working adults and traditional students alike to get a quality education. The university’s College of Business was first accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business International (AACSB) in spring 2016. Five undergraduate programs and one graduate program in Accounting were accredited; an undergraduate program in Economics was excluded from AACSB review. Since the initial accreditation, the college added three undergraduate degree programs and a second graduate program (MBA). AACSB standards stipulate assessing general knowledge & skills and subject-specific knowledge & skills for each program. University also requires each program to conduct program assessment every year. Given this huge challenge of assessment for 11 programs that includes data collection, analysis, and planning & implementing intervention to improve student learning, the faculty team was looking for ways to improve the processes to avoid duplication and data storage for easy retrieval. This paper, the first in a two- part series, explains how this challenge is being addressed by the college. Because of six sigma approaches, a technology solution is developed

Zombies They Walk Among Us! Rethinking Consumer Capitalism

The purpose of this paper will be to describe how one would survive the zombie apocalypse from a philosophical perspective. This paper will draw on first generation critical theorist, Theodore Adorno to explicate the position. According to critical theory, the zombie apocalypse is already upon us. For Adorno, contemporary individuals in Western society live under the conditions of consumer capitalism. These individuals are manipulated by advertisements and the mass media into believing that the ideal way to relieve their inner frustrations is to mindlessly purchase goods and services that reflect their inner longings. Due to this constant manipulation, young people are ill-equipped with the tools required to think critically and evaluate both their own behaviours and the messages generated by advertisements. These individuals retain their human forms, but do not employ their mental faculties to engage in what truly makes them human (i.e. free, critical thought). Therefore, they are zombies in a figurative sense. This paper will propose that the only way to survive a zombie apocalypse of this sort would be for individuals to wake up and think critically for themselves about the socio-economic forces that manipulate the world in which they live. By becoming a free thinking, critical individual, a zombified person will awake human once again

Review of standards for biodegradable plastic bags.

The Single Use Carrier Bags Charges (England) Order 2015 requires retailers to charge at least 5p for each single use carrier bag, except where exempted. Under section 18 of that order, the Secretary of State must— (a) complete a review of industry standards for the biodegradability of lightweight plastic material; and (b) lay a copy of a report before Parliament setting out the conclusions of the review, in particular— (i) whether it appears to the Secretary of State that there exists an industry standard appropriate for the purposes of an exclusion from the obligations specified in Part 2 on grounds of biodegradability; and (ii) if so, how that exclusion would be implemented. That review has now been completed. It found that there are a number of standards for plastic bag biodegradability. We will need to conduct further work before any of these could be used to exempt certain types of carrier bags on grounds of biodegradability. By the end of May 2016 retailers are required to report the number of bags that have been supplied, and the uses to which the proceeds of the charge have been put, after reasonable costs are deducted. The Government will use that opportunity to consider the early impacts of the charge. The Government will continue to consider the technical specification for a genuinely biodegradable bag, and will at that point further report on how an exemption for such a biodegradable bag can be implemented