Demolition of the 43-year-old Aztec Center on the campus of San Diego State University concluded this week, paving the way for construction of Aztec Student Union. Aztec Center was designed to accommodate 10,000 students in 1968, and it will be replaced by a sustainable building that will serve 30,000 students.
With the main structure down, the construction crew is now processing and separating the demolished materials. Metal, steel, rebar and concrete will continue to be hauled off for recycling. More than 150 tons (300,000 lbs.) of materials was recycled in June, a total that doesn't even include the concrete brought to a staging area in Parking Lot W waiting to be crushed and re-used for Aztec Student Union. The July totals will be released at the end of August.
The elevator tower at the north end of the site will be knocked down soon. Parts of the retaining walls around the site will remain intact for the new building. The laying of the foundation is expected to begin in October and the erecting of steel is slated to begin in February of next year.
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2013, Aztec Student Union is designed to be LEED Platinum-certified, the highest rating for green buildings given by the U.S. Green Building Council. It will be the first LEED Platinum-certified student union in the California State University system.
Aztec Student Union will be twice the size of Aztec Center and will feature a larger Montezuma Hall, multi-purpose theater, state-of-the-art bowling and games center, a fitness center, Student Organization Center, Student Leadership Center, Cross-Cultural Center, and new dining options.
The design elements that will help attain LEED Platinum certification include solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity, a vegetative rooftop to lower greenhouse gas emissions, and underground storm water storage tanks to help conserve water by recycling the water run-off. Roughly 80 percent of materials in the original Aztec Center will be recycled or reused in Aztec Student Union.


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You are at:Home»Disease Discoveries»Pathway Found for Treating Fatal Lung Disease
Pathway Found for Treating Fatal Lung Disease
By Nora Dunne on	 Sep 15, 2014
The LRP5 gene correlates with pulmonary fibrosis severity. Staining of diseased lungs in mouse models with (top) and without (bottom) the Lrp5 protein.
Northwestern Medicine scientists have identified a pathway for treating a fatal lung disease that currently has no cure.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) affects 5 million people worldwide. It occurs when lung tissue scars and stiffens, making it difficult to breathe. "Idiopathic" means the cause of the chronic disease is unclear.
In a study recently published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine, scientists focused on a pathway called Wnt/beta-catenin that, among its many roles, is known to be critical in normal fetal development. Previous research revealed similarities between the gene expression of developing lungs and IPF lungs.
Anna Lam, MD, '03, '04, '07 GME, assistant professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Critical Care, Cara Gottardi, PhD, associate professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Critical Care and their colleagues analyzed bloods cells from patients with the disease.
"We found that expression of genes in the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway in circulating blood cells correlated with disease progression and severity," said Dr. Lam, first author of the study.
Anna Lam, MD, '03, '04, '07 GME, assistant professor in Medicine-Pulmonary and Critical Care hopes to use this study to identify patients at risk for severe idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Specifically, they discovered that overexpression of several genes in the pathway – LRP5 and LRP6 in particular – was associated with progression of IPF. Overexpression of LRP5 was also correlated with disease severity and mortality.
In mice, loss of LRP5 protected the models from developing the disease. To confirm the findings, the scientists tested a new molecule inhibitor targeting the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and saw the same results.
Previously, the mechanisms that drove Wnt/beta-catenin signaling were unknown, as was the extent that the pathway predicted outcomes for IPF patients.
"Based on this study, we can potentially identify IPF patients at risk for the worst prognosis and disease severity by a blood test, so that new therapies targeting the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway can be used judiciously in a treatment strategy that is specifically patient-tailored," said Dr. Lam. "Currently, no beta-catenin signaling inhibitors are yet FDA approved for use in humans. Once approved, however, our study suggests that such compounds might slow the progression of this disease."
This study was supported by NIH grants K08HL093216, P30HL101292, HL095397, GM076561 and HL094643, in addition to Department of Defense grant W81XWH-12-1-0471.
For more information about treating pulmonary fibrosis, contact the Interstitial Diseases and Pulmonary Fibrosis Program at Northwestern Medicine.
Pulmonology Research

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Alexus Larson joined the ABC36 news team as a multi-media journalist in December 2018.
She is from a suburb outside of the Twin Cities in Minnesota and most recently comes from Minot, North Dakota where she reported and graduated from Minot State University with a degree in broadcasting.
Alexus and her husband are excited to be in Lexington and out of the cold!
When she's not reporting, she loves to explore new places, be with friends and family, and watch or attend sports – especially if it's a Minnesota team!
You can see Alexus reporting during the week and the weekends. If you have any story ideas, you can contact her by email alarson@wtvq.com, or you can find her on Facebook at Alexus Larson ABC36, or on Twitter at @AlexusLarsonTV. She looks forwarding to hearing from you!


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You may never lead an auction in your life.
But you probably do (or will) lead meetings.
Last Friday night, I took my first turn as an auctioneer (and emcee) at the annual spring fundraiser for my kids' elementary school.
Now that I've run my first auction, it's became obvious that there are massive parallels between auctions and meetings.
Start on time, or you lose credibility. The live auction was scheduled (and publicized) to start at 9 pm. It was preceded by a silent auction, which started at 6:30 pm. For a whole host of reasons, we didn't start the live auction until 9:30. By start time, the crowd's numbers (and sprit) had thinned considerably.
Thank people upfront. The auction committee had spent months planning this event. I was just hosting the auction. Giving a shout out to the people who do the actual work is a great way to start.
Do your homework. There were six items to be auctioned off, and while I was familiar with four of them, two (entrance to a consignment pre-sale, a ride to school on a fire truck) I needed to know more specific details so I could speak credibly. I sought out members of the auction committee for more detailed info.
Grab their attention by leading with your best stuff. Whatever you think will hold interest most—don't save it for later. There may not be a later. In the live auction, a very well-known and likable parent (Scott) was auctioning off 6 hours of lawn care. Scott was in attendance and was a good sport about having some fun with his item and bidding. Scott was a hit, and that got things rolling.
Cut your losses quickly. Sometimes a dud's just that: a dud. Remember the item of " entrance to the consignment pre-sale"? When I opened the bidding at $50, not only did I not get a bid, the energy sank through the floor. It was instantly clear this thing was not popular. I quickly shifted gears, saying (as I mimed an invisible earpiece) "OK, we've just got word that tonight, just for you, the consignment pre-sale opening bid has just been reduced…to TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS!" One generous thoughtful woman bid on it, and it was sold (and done) in a flash.
Have fun with others. Make fun of yourself. An auction (as any meeting) creates many opportunities for improvised humor. By all means, have fun. But if you're going to poke fun at anyone, make sure it's yourself. Two good reasons: 1) You'll never offend anyone. 2) You'll never run out of material.
SURPRISE! Everyone loves surprises. It turned out that with two items up for bid (the ride on the fire truck, and a pool party with the principal), the donors had offered two gifts (two rides, two pool parties). This was kept a secret until the bidding peaked at its highest, and I (Surprise!) revealed the two gifts, and BOTH top bidders were a winner!
End when it's over. Sometimes it's clear that the bidding (or the meeting discussion) is over. When no one has any more to add, don't beat the horse. It's dead. On the second item up for bid, I did this poorly, and I saw the eye-rolls and disengagement in real-time. No need to invent drama for its own sake.
What meeting management lessons have you learned (at auctions or anywhere else)? Join the conversation by leaving a comment below.
This entry was posted in Communication, Decision Making, Facilitation, Leadership, Management. Bookmark the permalink.


Dilbert stands in front of a table with a computer monitor on it. Wally is under the table pretending to be a 3-D interface. The Boss says to Dilbert nervously, "Our new VP is coming. Is the demo of our holographic interface ready?" Dilbert says, "Everything should be fine . . . Unless we're suddenly visited by the dark angel of product demos . . ." Phil appears inside the monitor next to Wally and says, "Hello-o-o, Wally. Did somebody say 'demo?'" Wally looks shocked. Dilbert says to the new VP, "I'm Dilbert; loyal peon."


This is a reprint of an earlier post. It still works.
People sometimes have questions concerning their drinking patterns and whether they might constitute signs of alcoholism. Typical among them are the issues of drinking alone, to relax, to "kill the pain," and so forth. Many of these could apply to the non-medical or recreational use of drugs, as well as most process addictions.
First of all, lest drinkers object to being lumped together with drug users, let me point out that alcohol (ethanol) is a drug, and that drinking beverage alcohol is recreational drug use. Ethanol is not only a drug, it is one of the most lethal ones when used to excess. Simply withdrawing from alcohol, once addicted, can be fatal without medical supervision. So drinkers who like to tell themselves that they're better than people who use drugs need to think again. The only differences are that their drug is cheaper, more easily acquired, and legal.
This entry was posted in 12-Step Programs, addiction, alcohol abuse, alcoholism, denial, drug Abuse, Process Addictions and tagged alcoholic progression, blackout, tolerance on July 17, 2018 by Bill.
Practicing unconditional love and tolerance requires more than putting up with others; it requires a sincere desire to understand, respect and empathize, otherwise it's just condescension.
This entry was posted in Thought for the Day and tagged compassion, tolerance, Unconditional love on May 14, 2017 by Bill.


How does Paris look by this time? How does a city look when, its fate hangs on the strength of a line of men only seventy miles away? Are the people anxious? Is there any laughter in the houses, any light in women's faces, any spring in children's feet? Are there signs of discouragement? Is food scarce? Is there much discontent? Is man-power much depleted? These are questions which are likely to be put to a person who has been in Paris recently. If some, tourist agency could arrange for a. three hours' visit to Paris, taking up the travellers from their homes in America, bringing them by wireless to the Place de l'Étoile, conducting them through those parts of the city that are most worth seeing, and then setting them down, safe and sound, at their own dinner-tables, it might charge a very considerable price and yet do an immense business. Many stay-at-home Americans would be glad to have that experience.
In my walks here I like to fancy myself dropped down thus for a three hours' visit, a precious only visit, and try to note everything significant and memorable. I shut my eyes, count five, and open them again, pretending that I have just arrived by magic. Then I busily record every unwonted aspect and incident. I did this once in a trolley-car that was climbing a hill from the Seine in Saint Cloud, and the first thing I saw beside the track was a group of very ragged, dirty, and barefoot children. "This is war," I sighed. "I never saw the like in antebellum France." A turn in the road disclosed a gypsy camp, into which the children darted, and I laughed at myself, realizing that they were not French nor in all probability either hungry or unhappy.
But in the matter of impressions there is no time like the first twenty-four hours, and I attach considerable barometric value to the fluctuations of my spirits on the fifteenth of May, when I found myself, after five years' absence, on the Quai d'Orsay outside the railway station, in a new and yet strangely familiar Paris. There were only half a dozen cabs in sight where there used to be a hundred, and some of the drivers were women, dressed, from the waist up, as nearly as possible like the traditional cocher, in red vests, blue coats with metal buttons, and glazed round hats. Passengers from the trains were walking off with their own bags and bundles. Here were two slender girls carrying a trunk between them. They put it down to breathe when they reached the Pont Royal. The motorbuses, which used to come thundering and screeching down the Rue du Bac, were not running, so that it was easier than it had been before the war to understand why Madame de Sévigné sighed for the gutter of that ancient thoroughfare. It was a pleasure to see old people and children stringing across that once dangerous crossing without terror. "War," I thought, "has one good side if it has restored Paris to the pedestrian."
The sun was setting behind the Arc de Triomphe, and for a few moments a golden light flared from the river and danced among the leaves of the poplars that line the quays. With a shock of pleased surprise I saw that the book-stalls were still in place on the parapet and open and full of books and maps and engravings, more or less worthless, but always stimulating to curiosity. Somehow I had supposed that the book-stalls would have been among the first features of Paris to disappear. But there they were, just like the river-itself, and the old women who guard them with such apparent indifference were still knitting and looking the other way, so as not to make shy purchasers nervous. From the Quai Voltaire I turned in at a familiar door to a hospitable and quiet hotel which, had often sheltered me in years gone by. The old landlord, who remembered me, showed no surprise. Perhaps it was a war economy, but in any case it pleased, me to see that the same old carpet was on the stairs. I knew by the shaking of the house that the underground trains were still running. The river steamboats flashed past as usual and the slow barges nosed their way between the arches of the bridge just as they always did. Breakfast next morning was the same as before the war, except that the bread was made from whole-wheat flour and the lumps of sugar for my coffee were exactly the number that a reasonable man would require, and no more. And the price had not changed. In old days this hotel was the resort of a few American and British families and of sedate French people from the country; now I noticed various pieces of uniform hanging in the hall and inferred that the house was full of officers on short leave.
Going out into the morning streets, I found them certainly less crowded than before the war. Almost as many soldiers were to be seen as civilians, and among the latter there were few foreigners. Motor-trucks, carrying aeroplanes and military supplies, were more noticeable and perhaps more frequent than ordinary business lorries. There was no hurry, and no one looked anxious, though it was plain enough that a deep seriousness possessed the minds of all adults. The latter half of May was a period of depression in France. A winter almost without coal had left many people suffering from colds and chilblains. The April offensive, though not altogether unsuccessful, had fallen far short of what was expected. Men wounded in that great attack and kept hitherto in base hospitals were now being brought into Paris. The extent of Russia's defection was beginning to be appreciated. There were some strikes in the clothing trade, not in themselves very important, but full of menace. Women, under their black veils, looked sad.
No one, except soldiers in uniform, looked really cheerful. It was then that the face of Paris, the physical loveliness of this queen of cities, helped to keep up the courage of the people. The city government had wisely paid at least as much attention as usual to the parks and public gardens; flowers were blooming in every open plot of ground; the parterres in the Tuileries were glorious; and I have no doubt that the beauty of Paris, appealing to a sensitive population, went far to turn the winter of their discontent into the summer of hope that presently arose. The newspapers were unnecessarily pessimistic in May, and their foolish headlines gave currency to exaggerated reports of strikes and revolts. It was wonderful to see the change that sunshine and success brought about by the middle of July. In the interval Russia had had one of her favorable turns, the British had won a splendid victory near Arras, the French themselves had repulsed a fierce attack before Verdun, and American troops had been seen in France. There is nothing like seeing. The French have never doubted the fidelity and tenacity of Britain, but that the United States would actually send an army was seriously disbelieved. The welcome given to our men on the Fourth of July had in it therefore something of the frankness of a confession.
Since then a splendid summer has made people forget the coal problem, abundant crops have reduced the cost of food, the quality of bread has improved, fewer recently wounded men are to be seen and more German prisoners, several lines of motor omnibuses are operated, more underground trains are run, more shops are open, and a general feeling of relief is evident everywhere. Bread is cheaper than in the United States, though the quality, as compared with the yard of golden-brown ambrosia that ten sous would buy before the war, leaves much to be desired. Notwithstanding that there are two meatless days a week and two days when the sugar-loving American cannot purchase chocolate or confectionery, a good meal may still be had for three or four francs in most of the restaurants of Paris. In spite of the supposed shortage of gasolene, taxicabs are equal to the demand, which of course is not great, and the fares are much lower than in New York. One can cross the street without much risk in places like the corner of the rue de Rivoli and the rue Royale. Young and middle-aged men in civilian garb are few and far between. Even more noticeable is the absence of overdressed people, wasters, and those who cater to the fancies of the idle rich. The plain people possess Paris, which, is rather gain than loss, A good many shops are closed, but if you examine their signs you see that what was formerly sold in them were goods not strictly necessary to life and happiness. Luxury trades have suffered, but the dealing in essentials goes on about as usual. To any one accustomed to think of Paris chiefly as a city of luxurious refinements; it must be surprising to observe how little difference is made by the closing of jewellers' shops and how the genuine Paris has revealed itself. An old Parisian friend of mine once told me that no city in the world contained more men and women devoted to serious pursuits, and I believe he was right.
Though there must be many families with broken fortunes, nobody seems to be out of work. I have seen only two or three beggars in three months, except the gypsy children in Saint Cloud. I have seen no bread-lines. On the other hand, I have seen very few dresses that look new or fashionable. Women appear to have turned over the contents of their wardrobes and to have exercised their individual tastes. The results are charming. The serious question is: "How are we to keep warm next winter?" Every bit of bark that falls from the sycamores in Neuilly, every dead branch that drops in the Bois de Boulogne, every piece of board and every box are being gathered against the coming cold, Housekeepers are saving paper, which they roll into balls with some sticky substance, to use as fuel.
It is hardly proper to speak of the face of Paris, for the city has many parts and aspects. Between Neuilly, for example, Modern, sanitary, with wide, well-shaded avenues, and the Latin Quarter, still mediaeval notwithstanding some regrettable reforms, there can be no measure of comparison. Passy, rising above the Seine on the right bank, is a town by itself. The hasty traveller remembers only the Champs Élysée, the Grands Boulevards, and the adjacent streets, but Montmartre and Belleville are here to assert their rights, and the rue de la Paix is not so rootedly Parisian as the rue de l'Arbre Sec or the rue du Pot de Fer or the rue du Puits de l'Ermite, Yet, after all, if the war has made any impression, it will be seen plainly enough in the course of a walk from the Place de l'Étoile to the Louvre, then across the Pont Royal and along the Quai Voltaire and the Quai des Grands Augustins to the Boulevard Saint Michel, and thence by a winding way to the Pantheon, the Luxembourg Garden, and the Odeon.
No other thoroughfare in Paris shows the effect of the war so much as the Champs Élysée. At the very top of it stands a great hotel that has been turned into a hospital for French wounded, over which floats the Union Jack, for it is maintained by the British as a fraternal offering to France. As we go down the avenue we pass a Russian hospital, likewise in a celebrated hotel and through the windows of the ground floor we see big Russian soldiers lying in gilt beds in an overdecorated dining-room. Roumanian, Montenegrin, and French hospitals, a shop for the sale of goods made by wounded men, the headquarters of an American relief association, the warehouses of the American Fund for French Wounded, closed lace, fur, and tapestry stores, mark the way to the Place de la Concorde. Nearly all the men one meets are in uniform, or perhaps it would be truer to say multiform. British and Belgians are in khaki. The Montenegrin doublets of dust-colored gray and trousers of dark blue and long black boots are different from any other costume, and the men that wear them are the tallest.
Australians are distinguishable from New Zealanders by their hats. The Russians, who were numerous in May, have disappeared. Here and there one meets a Portuguese officer in a neat pea-green uniform. American, British, and Canadian officers look much alike to any but the sharpest eyes. The variety of the French uniforms is bewildering. At first it seemed as if I must conclude "motley's the only wear," but soon I observed that the youngest, dustiest, most weary-looking men, with hard-set faces, who glanced neither to right nor left but lunged painfully forward under enormous packs, men with the mark of great memories on their brows and a stern determination in their legs, men from the trenches whose feet the pavement hurt, wore tunics and breeches and puttees and helmets all of a decided that this was the real thing. The men in brown velveteen, yellow khaki, and the red trousers and blue coats of the old infantry, the men in red fezes and wide red pantaloons and other fantastic finery of the zouaves, the men in various experiments in protective coloration, were reservists and permissionaires.
It is a strange sight, this mingling of types in the Champs Élysée. Homesick French boys wandering aimlessly along; energetic English subalterns bent on having some fun; Highlanders whose mien accords fully with the French saying, "Fier comme un Ecossais"; tall, thin Senegalese taller and blacker than any American negroes; brown Algerians; American ambulance-drivers, waiting with sorely tried patience for something to do; little yellow soldiers from Annam who look like girls—it is, indeed, a military kaleidoscope. But most noticeable of all are the wounded, generally in groups and always pitiful; and, on the whole, the Champs Élysée presents a depressing spectacle.
It is only when one reaches the Place de la Concorde, surely the centre of the finest panorama in any city, that one feels relief from the sense of war's wastefulness, for here one enters a region of great and permanent monuments and the Seine comes into view, with its bridges and curving quays, and the poplars whisper their old song, and the barges drift slowly by, and on the other side lies a more ancient and fascinating Paris, which the war has touched only to make more distinct and true to itself. In the garden of the Tuileries the fountains play as usual and children sail toy boats in the basins. In the Place de Rivoli, Joan of Arc still rides to victory, and who that sees her can doubt or despair? Only, O Maid in Armor, it is the race bred from your old foes the Anglois (the old spelling) who with your own heroic countrymen will free the soil of your Lorraine.
There is unfortunately no name except the awkward and inadequate compound "Anglo-Saxon" to designate the English-speaking people, but however called and under whatever flag, it is the men of British origin and English speech who will have to finish this war. France is capable of holding her own, and doubtless will hold her own, along the line she has reserved for herself, but it would be too much to expect her to lead in the next great offensive. Even now her losses appear to be far short of those which the British are suffering. She has not yet been obliged to send her boys under twenty-one to the front, and it is to be hoped she will not have to send them. I make these statements merely from personal observation and without paying much attention to published figures. Judging from the small number of recently wounded men who came to the hospitals of Paris and its environs during the summer, I should say that the French were suffering smaller losses than the British, and from the ages of the men I am confident that the younger classes have been held in reserve. No one observing the high proportion of women who wear mourning could demand greater sacrifices than they have made. I have witnessed nothing that distressed me so much as the drilling of French youth from eighteen to twenty-one years old. They know what awaits them unless the war ends next summer. And one feels that they are doubly, trebly precious to their families and their country because of the losses already suffered in the classes that preceded them.
The Latin Quarter shows fewer traces of war than the city on the right bank, and such changes as have occurred have brought out the true character of that mountain of schools and busy homes. There is a feeling of neighborliness here, as if we were in a small town and among old acquaintances. On the quays and at the foot of the rue de Seine people still finger the soiled bouquins that are exposed for admiration and sale, and seem inspired with the old hope of finding a treasure. In this corner, dedicated to literature and the fine arts, surrounded by print-shops, the Institute, the palace of the Beaux Arts, and the river which was the cause of Paris and is still its chief ornament, stands the statue of Voltaire, contemplating with his astute smile the innocents who fish in the Seine for gudgeons .and those equally hopeful optimists who turn the pages looking for pearls of wisdom. How much of the best of all that is French is represented by these two statues, that of the devout heroine and this of the humane wit!
There still are cafes in the Boul' Miche' and the pace of the passing throng is leisurely as of yore, and half a dozen long-haired young-old men in velveteen jackets and Rembrandt hats are still to be seen; but they look strangely out of place and very lonely, and by ten o'clock at night quiet reigns from the Odéon to the Seine. The quarter has gained as well as lost by the war. Wisdom no longer cries aloud in the street, but neither does folly. Though the schools have suffered, they have kept open, and their work is intensely serious. The many women and the few men who attend lectures in the university realize that the tradition of sound learning must pass through them or be lost. And now that the human tide has ebbed, the architectural monuments, like rocks in shoal water, assert their ancient claims. If France had been conquered in 1914 and fallen to the rank of a second or third rate power, so that Paris remained only a relic of civilization, certain structures, like the cathedral of Notre Dame and the Panthéon, if the barbarians had spared them, would have kept a touching charm and a serene aloofness. Even now, because the flood of traffic is low and the noises of the street are stilled, their high qualities are enhanced. In the pale light of these summer evenings the Panthéon especially is a lonely figure of grandeur. The pavement around it is empty. The lines of the rue Soufflot converge without interruption till they embrace this edifice, Roman in its massive and simple outline, yet very French in its fine gray color. This monument, not only of great men but of a great country and a great age, would grace a Paris in ruins, One thinks of the temple of Neptune at Paestum and of Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."
But the terrible and beautiful dream of a dead Paris lasts only a moment. The vast city still pulsates at our feet, and it is seldom, on the quietest nights, that the sound of the guns reaches our ears. There is some doubt as to how the deliverance was accomplished. In the ancient church of Saint Etienne du Mont, hard by the Panthéon, there is a votive tablet to the patron saint of Paris that gives one account and not the most fantastic; it reads: "Gratitude to Sainte Geneviève, who preserved Paris from the invasion of the modern Huns, September, 1914." For my part I have more faith in "la bonne Lorraine." and will confess to being deeply touched by a prayer, embroidered by the hands of a little girl and pinned to the statue of the heroine, in another church: "Jeanne d'Arc protegez mon Papa."


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Nikifor Alekseevich Begichev (Bigichev) (; February 7 (N.S. February 19), 1874 – May 18, 1927) was a Soviet seaman and polar explorer. He was twice awarded gold medals by the Russian Academy of Sciences

Biography
Begichev was born in Tsariov, Astrakhan Governorate, to a family of Volga River fishers. In 1895, he was called up to the service in the Russian Navy and traveled three times as a sailor and a boatswain to the Antilles islands.

He was a participant in Baron Eduard Toll's 1900–1903 "Russian Polar Expedition" as the bosun of ship Zarya. After the death of Baron Toll, Begichev took part in the research. During this voyage, he saved the life of his commander - lieutenant Aleksandr Kolchak, a future admiral. Walking by the sea ice, Kolchak fell in the split. When Begichev pulled him from the water, the lieutenant showed no signs of life. Begichev took off his dry clothes and dressed Kolchak with them. Then, to re-animate him, Begichev fired his pipe and put it in Kolchak's mouth. Kolchak opened his eyes.

Later, Begichev took part in the Russo-Japanese War.

In 1922, at the request of the government of Norway, Begichev led an unsuccessful Soviet expedition to search for Peter Tessem and Paul Knutsen, lost crew members of the ship Maud from Roald Amundsen's 1918 expedition. Begichev was one of the researchers exploring the Taymyr Peninsula with Nikolay Urvantsev in 1923–1924. During his explorations, he surveyed two islands, which have been called after him: Bolshoy Begichev Island and Maliy Begichev Island.

Nikifor Begichev died during wintering at the mouth of the Pyasina River. In 1964, a monument to Begichev was erected in the settlement of Dikson.

Notes

References
William Barr, Baron Eduard von Toll's Last Expedition: The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900–1903
N. Bolotnikov. Nikifor Begichev, Moscow-Leningrad 1949

1874 births
1927 deaths
Explorers of the Arctic
Laptev Sea
People from Astrakhan Governorate
People from Leninsky District, Volgograd Oblast
Recipients of the Cross of St. George
Russian and Soviet polar explorers
Russian explorers
Russian military personnel of the Russo-Japanese War

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


REGION – Every winter, both Antrim and Kalkaska counties host a number of large, ghost-like Snowy Owls that have migrated south from the bitter cold of the Arctic in search of food.
KALKASKA – The sheriff of Midland County, Scott Stephenson, now has a criminal record to go with his political one.
KALKASKA – Officials at Kalkaska Public Schools aren't just thinking of tweaking the school district's alternative program housed at Kalkaska High School, they're looking to restructure and even reinvent it, while also creating a new path for non-college bound students.
KALKASKA – Hundreds of people again gathered in downtown Kalkaska to help herald in the holiday season, as the village played host to the annual Christmas in Kalkaska held Thursday through Saturday, Dec. 6-8.


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text:
The Fall of Icarus
In his work over the past forty years, Professor Emeritus of History Marvin Bram sought to demystify the unraveling of that 'subtle knot' constituting the human condition prior to the emergence of civilization in the Middle East approximately six millennia ago. Today, I would like to explore some of Marvin Bram's discussion in more detail. This may help shed light on terminology we have already encountered in our own conversations over the past few months, and help clarify the nature of our current predicament.
It was Dr. Bram who first coined the descriptive expression "Curriculum of the West," a phrase meant to encapsulate modern (civilized) humanity's adherence to a specific cognitive framework exemplified by the defining tool of modern consciousness – the syllogism. According to Bram's hypothesis, a univocal semantic, (A = A) together with a new three-part logistic (Universal –> Particular –> Consequent) lay at the basis of this mode of analysis or deductive reasoning.
As he states, the syllogistic form becomes the framework or "foundation-layer of both the internal and external life of the West" (Humanity 59 [MS]). The syllogism informs all modes of human engagement within the world – moral (religion), social (law), and material (sciences). It epitomizes a mode of thought that elevates the art of distinction-making, or analysis, over that of distinction-dissolving (participation or fusion); its influence is global, effecting perception, speech, action, and one's overall relations to place and to other people. Yet, according to Bram, these two capacities – originally complementary modalities of our internal life – find a primal and natural equilibrium in totemic consciousness and its pre-civilized social unit, the kinship-based tribe and clan.
Totemism is that internal and external state of human affairs that is vertically unisubstantial [of-one-substance] and horizontally plurisubstantial. It binds persons to other persons so as to multiply substance and maintain amity, and it binds communities to nature to the same ends. It is the world-picture of what we will be calling equilibrium kinship. Perhaps no human arrangement has worked so well, for so long, over so much of the planet. (Recovery of the West, 30)
However, in all post- or non-totemic communities, i.e., modern civilized societies, where both the sciences (natural or human) and the law (religious or social) reign supreme, distinction-making has already gained ascendancy over distinction-dissolving; differentiation, supremacy over fusion or participation. Certainly, we still find some symbolic modes of participation today, for example, in the Christian celebration of the Eucharist, where the celebrant incorporates the body and blood of the savior. And some remnants of fusion are still visible in vestigial forms, as witnessed in feelings of empathy or sympathy. Yet, in terms of daily commerce, experience, and thought, the reality of fusion is a nonstarter in modern culture.
This capacity for drawing distinctions, or creating cuts in the plenum, has become like a cancer within us – its now mutant "cells" continuing to divide and multiply well beyond what the "body" (humanity and the globe) needs to prosper. The result is a mass or growth, a tumor, if you will. And this growth of distinction-making has become like a malignant cancer; this hyper-rationality, driven by the deductive and predictive capacity of the syllogism, allowing for increased control and mastery over the environment, has invaded all other "tissues and organs," spreading its disease globally.
Bram reminds us about the last forty thousand year period in the life of Homo sapiens sapiens, after the disappearance of the last pre-modern humans.
The origin of civilization in the Middle East about fifty-five hundred years ago is probably the decisive moment in human history. The significance of that origin-moment for internal life is that distinction-making and distinction-dissolving competencies, which had been mixed and proximate for about thirty-five thousand years, were now being forcibly sorted and distanced from each other, the distinction-making competencies ascending in importance, the distinction-dissolving competencies descending in importance.
The significance of the origin of civilization for external life is that social relationships that had been controlled by equilibrium-kinship conventions for about thirty-five thousand years were now being forcibly re-ordered into anti-kinship, bureaucratic and hierarchical conventions.
Equilibrium kinship would everywhere on earth be replaced by civilization. The history of the last fifty-five hundred years has been the story of that replacement, of what has been lost and what has been gained in this or that place, at this or that time. (Recovery, 32-33)
He concludes, "Most modern societies know or believe they know why they cultivate making distinctions."(29) Yet, they willingly ignore what was lost in that process as well as the disease that it nurtured, along with the vast but emptied hierarchies to which it gave rise. The mental and verbal habits that emerged with the birth of literacy, the cultivation of reason, and establishment of the first social and then scientific laws, created fissures that led to abstraction, alienation, and disequilibrium – personally and socially. As such hierarchies became more articulated vertically, and horizontally more plurisubstantial, the parts of the hierarchies became emptier in both content and meaning. (46) Concomitantly, the life of the increasingly isolated person shrank, being reduced, specialized, and abstracted; the individual learned to live a divided life of anomie, as an emptying part in an empty institutional hierarchy. (48) This signaled the end of kinship as the basis for amity and for social relations.
As Bram summarizes:
'Equilibrium' in 'equilibrium kinship' establishes the balance of distinction-making and distinction-dissolving. 'Kinship' in 'equilibrium kinship' establishes the social conventions that such balance brings about. Kinship means that most of the people you know or will ever know are related to you. They will be the only people who will affect your life, and whose lives you will affect… Kinship will be your over-riding social reality, subsuming to itself everything disequilibrium-civilized persons regard as political and economic activities, professional and educational activities. (Recovery, 36)
Due to this primal equilibrium and humankind's natural capacity for participation – becoming the Other in a distinction-dissolving apperception – totemic (tribal) decision-making was never simply a matter of casting votes or negotiating a strained consensus, but rather, and more significantly, it was an exercise in being of one mind, in short, of fusion. Nor was such participation restricted to the human community.
Fusion permitted persons to become other animate, and inanimate, beings… So the web of obligation and privilege would finally involve every human member of the society and much of the natural environment within which the society made its home. (Recovery, 38)
However, with the emergence of big agriculture, the birth of cities, the rise of standing armies, the establishment of political, religious and economic hierarchies, the reality of social enslavement, and the grand dominion of the syllogism, came an end to equilibrium kinship, the tribes and clans, as a sustainable socio-economic model.
[In a 'post-kinship' world] the nuclear family by itself [could not] resist the impingements of modern political and economic institutions: the father, mother, and their children [need to] be surrounded by some intermediate, protective body of persons in order to be safe from unacceptable levels of control. In fact, those modern political and economic institutions could not have been created in the first place unless the original protective body of persons, the clan, was broken into its constituent and susceptible parts, its nuclear families. The first emergence of civilization in the Middle East, and all subsequent civilized nations, were constructed on the break-up of their pre-urban clans. (Unpublished)
In America today, we can see this in the manner in which the diverse institutional hierarchies of the State, under the direction of global corporate sponsors, continue to whittle away at the purported rights elaborated in our social contract – the US Constitution. It becomes more apparent with each passing year that such a document was crafted to provide only the illusion of social securities and personal protections – inarticulate guarantees previously and naturally afforded by the consanguinity and primal affinity of family, tribe, and clan. Yet, in reality, like most contractual arrangements, a social contract (like our Constitution) does little more than validate our sense of anomie and our real helplessness within a faceless system of domination, management and control. Further, it encourages, indeed, it necessitates the promotion of contestual relationships, designed to create winners and losers, in a world where the goal is most unambiguously represented in the claim to offer blind justice, just like the well-oiled wheels of a cold, hard, and impersonal machine.
Such contractual arrangements are always the result of the exercise of undiluted (pure or practical) reason, the calculating logic of science and jurisprudence. Herein lies the true strength of the Curriculum of the West. It was designed to ascertain causal connections and thereby deliver, convincingly and conclusively, control over natural and social relations – and control is what it effectively delivers. The Curriculum basks in the distinction-making process, in analysis, and the deduction of discrete facts that present univocal meanings and predictive conclusions on a unilinear historical timeline; it abhors the intimacy of fusion – its consubstantiality and its natural tendency towards polysemy, participation, and equilibrium. But, like the Fall of Icarus in the Greek myth — who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax — this cancerous growth, this hypertrophied-rationality, too will lead to the would-be hero's ultimate demise.
22 Responses to Equilibrium and the Fall of Icarus
relentless says:
Thank you Sandy. i absolutely love this post! i haven't read Bram, other than as his intro to one of your books, and a few other tidbits you've offered. i will seek his work out. My condensed take, re: his thoughts and yours, is that Homo sapiens sapiens is a truly failed species, which i too tend to closely concur with. What i might add, due to this Curriculum of the West, is that those who seek power and influence, be they in the political arena, corporate/capitalist realms, or particularly those behind the masks (such as NSA, CIA, etc., who essentially are calling the shots for all), are, deep down (perhaps not even that deep, more like the most shallow of shallowness), not only heirarchically driven because of this disequalibrium, but not worthy of inclusion in such an extraordinary World. Re: they truly are evil, demanding we must adhere to their staggeringly insane pathologies, or else. It's all…unbalanced, which is why i have come to balance my life to the extreme, with creative beauty, to offer an ever-deepening reciprocity for these gifts of breaths.
Rebalancing personally is the best response to the pending chaos, my friend. Glad you enjoyed the post. sandy
Rade says:
I concur with Relentless, this is an outstanding post, with a great deal to chew over. Bram's term "empty hierarchies" is brilliant and gives expression to something I've tried to articulate to myself for a long time. A complete egalitarianism has always seemed to me as unnatural as the dizzying web of hierarchy that we live in now, so the distinction between an "empty hierarchy" and one based on kinship (or relationship) is very helpful.
Obviously as a species we have a long way to go to correct the balance towards kinship and an equilibrium between distinction making and distinction dissolving, but it is encouraging to see someone writing about equilibrium as a stated goal (some writers give the distinct impression that they would like to tear down every normal natural human distinction in their effort to purge us of the sins of modernity). While it is hard to hold out hope, for the sake of my children and their future, I pray this path toward equilibrium can be found before we destroy ourselves.
I believe Marvin thinks equilibrium is recoverable. Perhaps that is why he calls his work the Recovery of the West. I also think he demonstrates a personal equilibrium that I admire. Thanks for your comments, Rade.
Edd Writer says:
You didn't like my comment ?
Edd, no other comment of yours has shown up on the blog; not in comments, spam or trash. Sorry. Try again. kulturCritic
So very well written and makes all of the very good points concerning the path that we have taken and I always wonder why we came this way. Between looking through the dictionary to make certain my definition of so many words you use are similar to my meanings of them. One thing really stood out to me. "the US Constitution. It becomes more apparent with each passing year that such a document was crafted to provide only the illusion of social securities and personal protections." now that you expose it for what it really is Sandy it boggles the mind to think that so many of us were so conditioned as to not see the truth behind the curtain and were the constructors of said constitution that clever? Probably deviously so. I am going to need to reread everything you have written today as it was so well laid out. The why of it all still mystifies me.
Hi Malthus – I am sure Marvin is as gratified by your pleasure with the post as I am. Well, we are conditioned through thousands of years and countless generations to respond to the magic – the art and logic – in short, the language of the Curriculum. That is why when we read things like "We hold these truths to be self-evident…" (The Declaration) we unthinkingly understand what they are meant to express; and we never question the logic of their construction or why it was necessary to articulate them.
Right on Malthus. i too am gratified by the lay of, the employment of, words in this post, from both Sandy and Bram. It is falling well into my particular suggestion that we must contaminate The Kings' Languages, in whatever way necessary, one that matters, that overrides the conventional sneaky-pete use by the 'masters of deceptions.' One that works for us and the planet, be they new impassioned, precise words, or refined definitions, or redefined if required. It was the author Tom Robbins who noticed the contradiction in the Preamble To Said Constitution "In order to form a more perfect Union." Something like, "So, apparently it isn't perfect, or if it's perfect, how can it be more perfect? i can't recall exactly how he wrote it (one of his novels), however, he stated it 'perfectly.' Bram's writing exposes the utter incompetence of the English language and the continuing price being borne by the acceptees of the charade.
Out in the fabricated world today…spied (ha!) a guy with a t-shirt: Picture of an amerikan flag on a pie with about 40% of the pie gone. The caption: 'Taken By Socialism' (i'd think the creator of this t-s might better have written 'Eaten By Socialism.' Whatever.) Wouldn't a better t-shirt be: 'Eaten By Every Ism' with only microscopic crumbs scattered about? Back to the Authentic World.
I am pleased to see this post, which is your best explication yet of the Curriculum of the West. It's also good that you cite your source clearly, as I've unwittingly written in these comments and at my own blog that the term is yours, not Marvin Bram's (no doubt the oversight is mine). With each week's new post, it amazes me how well the complex of ideas you have been unpacking fit with those I've been absorbing over the years from my own sources. I've always thought our disagreements minor. In the spirit of deepening discussion, however, let me bring forward a couple things.
/rant on
The distinction between distinction-making and distinction-dissolving (isn't the irony there glaring?) is something I've been developing at my blog (are you cribbing from me like I am from you?), especially as I read and blog about Iain McGilchrist's book. Indeed, that's the core of his thesis: the analytical left hemisphere is riding roughshod over the synthetic right. So as modern people in possession of or possessed by ego consciousness, we inevitably discuss these matters by analyzing, drawing distinctions, and believing that we've figured out something useful. That may be so, but it repeats the same foundational error you observe with the drafting of the U.S. Constitution. However, I don't find agency in the worldview we've inherited — the intentional fallacy at work — any more than in the notion that the Framers/Founders had the foresight to realize they were crafting a document that would enable so well venal manipulations of the moneyed elite then or later. Nor indeed do I think that those monied elite necessarily know that they're raining disaster down upon us. They may be well-enough-educated people, but it's been a long time since being educated crossed over from a broadly informed, liberal, philosophical view of the world where a Ph.D. (literally a Doctor of Philosophy) might have meant something to a science- or business-oriented professional degree enabling mere money-making. Anything other is considered useless.
And you can't really blame people for playing the game with some gusto, since it's the only game in town now that virtually all meaningful alternatives have been extinguished. Frankly, I blame Robin Leach, who was among the first in recent memory to legitimize what was before sometimes regarded as a rather crass, disgusting display of opulence. If only all those lifestyle accoutrements weren't made so appealing: flashy cars, mansions with their handsome appointments, travel and wardrobes afforded the wealthy, the plethora of shiny screens nearly all of us enjoy, etc. It's easy to have one's head turned by the obvious material benefits of our age without there needing to be evil geniuses manipulating all and everything. Too bad the moral, ethical, and spiritual costs are so well hidden within the glamor and bling. If ever there were an alternative tradition to warn us of such heedless loss, it should have been the Church (no one church or religion in particular intended here). However, despite numerous heretical gestures to the contrary, it was eventually corrupted by power and riches just like every other fragile human institution, so it gets the other portion of my blame.
Last, vestigial remnants of fusion are many, not least of which are the arts — at least when they're not bound up in vacuous celebrity. More commonly, however, fusion is found in populist behaviors of the mob ranging from professional team sports, racehorse politics, and from time to time, grassroots uprisings such as OWS. The embedded character of such phenomena, where the adherent/participant loses him- or herself in the midst of the action, is a clear exception to the egoistic character of instrumental reality we share like so many atoms whirling around a mostly empty nucleus. Frankly, it matters little whether one's adopted metaphor is particle physics, biology, cosmology, or some other. Distinguishing constituent parts from wholes is what we do and who we are until at last we rejoin the void from whence we all came.
/rant off
Ah yes! The eternal void! And, no; I never 'crib' from anyone without a reference. LOL. The fact is that music is transporting, and can indeed take you out of yourself and into some mode of fusion with the 'Other'. There are other cultural doors that open to the outside as well. But, many modern examples are weak substitutes for real fusion. Glad you like the posting, Brutus. sandy
from the journeys of m fana: "Surround yourself with beauty, the other option sucks."
pixelwhiplash says:
So much depth here. Malthus and Brutus reference the Constitution. I am afraid that particular parchment has been in the revisionist library for a while now. Initial intent is muddied horribly and only Orwell would understand the implications of it now.
Why is it that areas of the world when under the stewardship of indigenous peoples, was a whole microcosm that functioned in balance? I'm certain "distinction making" wasn't on any agenda then. As always a great post Sandy. A crystallization of complex ideas. Thank you.
Thank you, Pixel… And yes, "under revision" is a good characterization of the fate of the US social contract. Although, if we keep it in perspective, legal documents, like religious documents, have always been open to a revised hermeneutic; this is why jurists and legislators always leave some wiggle room (vagueness) in the text; that gives them flexibility and staying power; they can be manipulated just by the application of a new interpretive framework (i.e., direction).
Vyse Legendaire (@VyseLegendaire) says:
Nice and concise clarification post, I also think this would be a good introduction for new readers.
On a related note, have you read this week's Truthdig article from Chris Hedges?
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/welcome_to_the_asylum_20120430/
It is highly relevant to this week's post and I just read them back to back, their consubstantiality apparent. 😉
Thanks VL – yeah; I just read Hedges. Seems like he's been peaking at my posts. LOL. And, an asylum it surely is!! What I find curious about Hedges in this article is that he wants to believe there is a better way and that it comes to us from an indigenous past that we systemically have sought to destroy. On the other hand, his usual tray of goodies suggests a reconstitution of Empire, only a more kind and gentle one. So he leaves me perplexed. But, he has been in recent dialogue with Derrick Jensen, so maybe his compass is turning a bit in the radicalized direction. LOL. sandy
Dandy says:
Very interesting post! It has certainly given me a lot to think about. I hadn't previously run across the assertion that syllogism lies at the heart of Western consciousness. That adds a different perspective to the traditional dichotomy between tribal and civilized (urban?) social structures. It is almost impossible to argue that tribal societies are not the more ecological alternative. It is also easy to see that totemic consciousness offers a powerful social safety net and psychological security. On the other hand, this comes at the cost of personal identity and both physical and philosophical mobility. My primary reaction is to find the tribal model to be claustrophobic, realizing, of course, that those for whom it is a natural social paradigm don't experience it that way any more than fish feel suffocated by water.
I am an artist, so the cornerstone of my world view is aesthetic. I'm also an intensely urban person. I am deeply conscious of the ways in which urban western civilization falls tragically short of its aesthetic potential, as well as being ecologically destructive and unsustainable. In spite of that, I view the majority of the accomplishments contributed to the human "reality" by Western Civilization to be good. Not being aware of any prior examples of tribal societies that have even come close to the grandeur and sophistication of modern urban society, I'm left wondering if the psychological and ecological benefits of totemic consciousness and the cultural sophistication and technological accomplishments of western Civilization are mutually exclusive.
Welcome Dandy! I would not wish you to feel suffocated; but I imagine your sense of tribal life as claustrophobic and lacking in personal identity is a reflex reaction of that hypertrophied sense of self which you carry around (like the rest of us), built up by generations of inculcation to the curriculum. Of course, if we look at the tribal consciousness in light of the issue of fusion or participation, then the sense of identity in totemic culture becomes greatly enhanced and expanded, well beyond what we today experience with all of our cultural artifices and technological prosthetics. I personally have been the beneficiary of modern medicine, so I have a hard time turning a deaf ear to the miracles of modern science. However, I also recognize that these treasures of the West are purchased at a high price to me, to my society and to the global environment at large. I also do not think it fair to label the totemic model as limiting in terms of physical or philosophical mobility. Of course the H/G tribes were de facto mobile, as were its members; and living one another's lives was tantamount to extreme psychological and theoretical mobility, I would imagine. But the real question is: what do you mean by mobility? Many of the images you have conjured up: claustrophobic, suffocated, lack of mobility… suggest a very modern view of freedom.
"the cultural sophistication and technological accomplishments of western Civilization." Wow, a true urbanite has joined the forum. Welcome. It will certainly be interesting to read your take on currant events and all the comments here.
derekthered says:
i'll see your icarus and raise you some synthetic DNA
http://the-scientist.com/2012/04/19/synthetic-genetic-evolution/
"It's a breakthrough, a beautiful paper in the realm of synthetic biology."
"It shows that you don't have to stick with the ribose and deoxyribose backbones of RNA and DNA in order to have transmittable, heritable, and evolvable information,"
isn't this just peachy, who knows what some mad scientist somewhere is cooking up.
of course exploitation and hoarding is an easy sell to a species that spent several million years scratching to survive, piece of cake. but that's not what worries me, oh no……………………
it's the internalization of the capitalist ethos which worries me, a sort of mass stockholm syndrome, well mixed with the false zen of equivalence; but hey, "it's all good".
please note how the scientist refers to the brand new XNA, it's just information, easily manipulated and capitalized upon. we have lost our collective minds here in the west, that's what's up.
"…of course exploitation and hoarding is an easy sell to a species that spent several million years scratching to survive…"
Red, you crack me up. LOL What an image.


The resent arrived Swallows are collection mud for nest building, chicks of Chaffinch in nests, the Great Spotted Woodpeckers have stopped there drumming but I have yet seen them fly to a nest site, found Green Hairstreak Butterflies for the first time at my regular site today plus Orange Tips, a very old small tortoiseshell butterfly plus a number of fresh hatched and good numbers of Peacock's on the wing, on the insect front wolf spiders, plus two others unidentified my me, some form of flat Shield bug on nettles possible Nettle Bug, Pied Shield Bugs, St Mark's Fly, bee-fly, horse fly, a couple of different hoverflies, plus a few flies again unidentified. I spent much time just looking a single patch of nettles these micro creatures have much going for them and are the basic building blocks for all wildlife be it plants or other animals creatures, they are food, bio graders, pollinators, with predators at their own level to control numbers with many adaption's to cater for ever niche, common sense should tell us if we destroy from the face of the earth any one of these creatures we will unbalance the ecosystem that it lives in and change will take place, which is highly likely to affect higher level creatures including man.
The Blackbirds look glorious today in the Sun in Canterbury, and a Song Thrush in the Tree with the dapples of light through the freshly emerging leaves would have made a fine art painting subject for any wildlife artist. Nature bounces back from disaster, with the late cold easter last year with plants still dormant this year what a change fresh leaves and yound birds in nests already, along with young rabbits in abandance, almost Summer I only hope it is not a long hot and to dry a one.
had my first Swallow this year today.
In Kings Wood today the Brimstone was floating along its normal path on the public ride, saw a nice green beetle with two small whitish dot on each wing case about the size of a Honey bee, plus both Red tail and Buff Tailed queen bumble bees, and loads of a Black spider with a white stripe straight down its back there was a few others larger but brown with a light cream stripe which I took to be the female of this unknown species. It is surprising just how many insects you can see when in a woodland area, today was the first day this year the large wood ants were seen on the move.
The sweet chestnuts are still in bud with little signs of sap rising on the cut stumps as against the silver birch stumps that were wet with new rising sap, should set about tapping the standing trees before they are felled for some of that free unable to buy seasonal drink. On the bird front saw Wood Pigeons, heard Drumming Woodpeckers and spotted a Great Spotted on way out, and heard just one Tawny Owl calling today.


text:
OnDemand/
Travel/
How the TSA Is Working to Modernize the Future of Travel
The Outlook for Low-Cost Airlines: Opportunities and Challenges
Technology and Sustainability Are Key Tenets of Air Canada's Post-Pandemic Strategy
Avianca Airlines' Path Forward After COVID and Restructuring
How Boom Supersonic's Super-Fast Plane Could Change Consumer Air Travel
Southwest Airlines' Gary Kelly on Industry Recovery in a Post-Pandemic World
David Pekoske
Acting Administrator, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Christopher D. Roberti
Senior Vice President for Cyber, Space, and National Security Policy, U.S. Chamber of Commerce
As it looks to modernize travel post-pandemic, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has many goals and challenges to address, including staff recruitment and retention as well as national security efforts.
On Day 2 of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's two-day Global Aerospace Summit, Christopher D. Roberti of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce spoke with The Honorable David P. Pekoske, Acting Administrator of the Transportation Security Administration. In a fireside chat about the return to travel, Pekoske shared insights on new technological advancements that will benefit passenger safety and the TSA's upcoming goals.
The TSA Has Created a New Budget Request to Support Recruitment and Retention
For the first time since TSA was founded, "[a new] budget will put all of our employees on equal footing for pay with their counterparts and the rest of the federal government," said Pekoske.
"We're under a different pay system," he noted, explaining that if you classified someone's position in TSA into any other federal agency, that person's pay would increase by around 30%.
"It's a very significant difference," Pekoske said. "These are national security positions [with] significant responsibility, and we want to make sure that we provide equitable compensation. Our proposal in the budget is for pay equity."
"This [budget] request will be about $1.5 billion in fiscal 2024," Pekoske added. "So far, we've had great support from the House and from the Senate. They have different proposals for when it starts, but the most important thing is to start it."
This, he said, will help the TSA with recruitment and retention — a top priority for the sector going forward.
One-Stop Security Will Harmonize International Security Efforts
Pekoske noted that one-stop security is an important concept "not just in the one-stop concept, but … in the investments and the training we make going forward."
He explained that the concept achieves three key things:
"One is that everything we do should improve security effectiveness," he said. "The second is we should always endeavor to improve security efficiency, and the third is we should endeavor to make sure we improve or increase the passenger experience going through our screening process."
According to Pekoske, the benefit of one-stop security is it improves security significantly by harmonizing internationally "to achieve the security outcomes [and harmonize] our technology and the software that runs within that technology," he said.
However, unlike in the U.S., some countries don't require their officers to screen within their own country.
"We could have one-stop really outbound from the United States start first, and we've done a lot of work on that already," he said. "Then, once our authorization comes in place … [we can] figure out which are the prototype locations [and] to make sure that we fully brief up to our oversight committees in the Congress, [and figure out] the process we're gonna use and how we're gonna ascertain the security commensurability between the two systems."
"I would expect that in the not too distant future, we will see some one-stop arrangements if only outbound from the U.S. at first," Pekoske added.
From the Series
Global Aerospace Summit


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What potential does Wales hold for electricity storage?
Electricity storage in the UK has the potential to improve energy security and increase the use of low carbon electricity. Currently Wales provides the majority of electricity storage, with a single pumped hydroelectric storage facility, Dinorwig, contributing over half of the UK total storage capacity of approximately 3,000 MW (peak electricity use in the UK is around 50,000 MW). However, the landscape is changing rapidly with the potential for up to 12,000 MW of battery capacity to be installed by the end of 2021.
With the move towards decarbonisation of the energy system, the UK grid is increasingly reliant on intermittent renewables. A quarter of electricity produced in the UK in 2016 was from renewable sources and Wales is aiming to produce 70% of the electricity it uses from renewable energy by 2030, having reached 40% by the end of 2016. The majority of renewable electricity comes from either wind or solar, both of which are dependent on weather conditions. As a result peak generation often does not line up with peak demand, a problem that storage can help overcome.
Reducing the demand on bottlenecks in the transmission network, preventing costly upgrades.
Pumped hydroelectric storage (PHES) operates by pumping water between two bodies of water. Overnight, water is pumped uphill using cheap electricity to power the pumps then, during periods of peak demand, the water is then run downhill through the turbines to generate electricity. PHES schemes typically operate at around 70-80% efficiency but require specific geography that allows large volumes of water to be transferred.
PHES currently provides over 90% of the electricity storage capacity for the UK. Dinorwig (1,800 MW) and Ffestiniog (360 MW) in Wales make up the majority of the 2,800 MW of PHES in the UK. Both of these facilities were built for the purpose of fast reserve, meeting sharp, short-term demand peaks. As a result they have very rapid response rates (Dinorwig can go from 0 to 1,300 MW in 12 seconds).
Image from Geograph by Terry Hughes and licensed for reuse under Creative Commons.
Work on a new 100 MW PHES at Glyn Rhonwy is due to begin this year. There are new PHES plants, conversions from conventional hydroelectric power and expansions to existing PHES plants planned in Scotland too. This reflects the movement towards PHES as a means to overcome the intermittent electricity supply from renewables. There are several more sites in Wales that have suitable geography to accommodate PHES schemes. Limitations currently holding back further schemes include the high capital cost and difficulties in securing planning permission.
One alternative to PHES is grid-scale battery storage (PDF, 801 kB). This has the advantage of higher cycle efficiency (>90%), reducing energy loss during storage. The possibility of using battery for grid-scale energy storage has been driven forward by rapidly falling costs associated with the development of new technologies and the increasing scale of production for electric vehicles.
Only 100 MW of battery storage had been installed on the UK grid up to November 2017, however, there are a number of projects due to begin operating in 2018, resulting in a tripling of market size in just a few months. GE is planning to build a 41 MW plant in the Midlands and Vattenfall is installing 22 MW of batteries at the Pen y Cymoedd wind farm. Co-locating batteries alongside wind turbines aims to provide a significant saving in costs through sharing transmission infrastructure.
In addition to large scale battery, there is a possibility for a distributed network of batteries to be used to provide storage for the grid. Currently battery packs installed alongside solar have a relatively long payback time of 20 years and present a less attractive business case than grid-scale battery co-located with wind farms. However, with the rapidly growing market in electric vehicles, there is the possibility for vehicle-to-grid charging. This would use smart chargers to allow batteries in electric vehicles to be used as a storage network. Electric vehicle owners would be able to extract additional value by using spare battery capacity to buy electricity at times of excess supply and sell during peak demand.
The Imperial College and Carbon Trust study found that two key barriers for investors in electricity storage were the market frameworks and policy risk. Ofgem and the UK government launched a smart energy plan last July. This aims to remove some of the obstacles for storage such as being double charged transmission fees. However, some previous UK government policies such as the capacity market, did not produce the desired change and resulted in the majority of these subsidies going to fossil fuel plants.
The Welsh Government is responsible for planning decisions for electricity generating stations of 10-50 MW as developments of national significance (see Research Service Planning Series 17). This is likely to include most grid-scale battery installations. Following commencement of section 39 of the Wales Act 2017, this will be extended up to 350 MW, leading to planning for most PHES schemes coming under the remit of the Welsh Government. This is a significant change since concern over securing planning is frequently an obstacle for PHES.