Abstinence Only vs. Comprehensive Sex Education: What are the Arguments? What is the Evidence?

Responding to the continuing health threats of HIV, STIs and unplanned pregnancy among young people, the widely respected Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences recently recommended eliminating congressional, federal, state and local "requirements that public funds be used for abstinence-only education." And surveys consistently show that the public wants schools to deliver strong abstinence messages alongside information about self-protection for young people who find themselves in sexual situations. The vast majority of parents support sex education in the schools, including the provision of information about contraceptive and condom use.Unfortunately, federal policy is grossly out of step with the wishes of most parents and students, as well as the scientific research. Since the early 1980s, Congress has devoted significant resources to abstinence-only programming. Partly as a result of federal policy and funding changes, public schools are increasingly supporting abstinence-only curricula that are less likely to include information about birth control, STD prevention and sexual orientation. The evidence tells us that these trends represent a dangerous disservice to America's younger generation

Digital Cultural Mapping: Transformative Scholarship and Teaching in the Geospatial Humanities

"Digital Cultural Mapping: Transformative Scholarship in the Geospatial Humanities" is a proposal for a three-week summer institute at UCLA for an interdisciplinary group of 12 humanities scholars and advanced graduate students to learn how to develop innovative publications and courses that harness the theoretical and practical approaches of the "geospatial humanities." Situated at the intersection of critical cartography and information visualization, the Institute will combine a survey of the state of the art in interoperable geospatial tools and publication models, with hands-on, studio-based training in how to integrate GIS data into humanities scholarship, develop robust spatial visualizations, and deploy a suite of mapping tools in the service of creating publication- ready research articles and short monographs. The Institute will culminate in an "impact and evaluation" seminar of these publications with representatives from major university presses and journals

Supplemental Monitoring of Selected Water Bodies with Contact Recreation Impairments

This report contains data regarding E.coli, ammonia and nitrate levels in a variety of Waller Creek locations There are pictures of monitoring sites where the data was collectedNutrient and indicator bacteria data were collected at seven sites in five Austin creeks that are on the draft 2010 Clean Water Act section 303(d) list of impaired water bodies proposed by the TCEQ. The supplemental data was collected to verify the TCEQ assessment that the creeks are not supporting designated uses of primary contact recreation in the Texas Surface Water Quality Standards due to elevated bacteria levels (30 TAC 307.7(b)(1)(A)(i)). These streams may also be “of concern” under Clean Water Act section 305(b) due to nutrient enrichment. Flow monitoring indicated that Eanes Creek below the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer recharge zone is ephemeral; therefore, the bacteria impairment for this site is not appropriate according to TCEQ assessment methodology. Bacteria levels are low enough at the Westlake-Davenport Tributary site to fully support primary contact recreation uses. Primary contact recreation is not supported at the Waller Creek, Taylor Slough South or Spicewood Tributary to Shoal Creek sites. Elevated nutrients at Waller Creek appear to be from and indeterminate source of sewage contamination and those at Westlake-Davenport are most likely from nearby residential fertilizer application.Waller Creek Working Grou