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December 12, 1940: Operation Fritz
"'Boche-Buster', a 250-ton 18-inch railway gun, Catterick, 12 December 1940. The gun later traveled down to Kent to take up a position at Bishopsbourne on the Elham to Canterbury Line, taken over by the Army for the duration." © IWM (H 6089).
Battle of the Mediterranean: The British on 12 December 1940 continue mopping up the remnants of the Italian garrisons in Egypt. The only Italian presences remaining in Egypt are near the border outside Sollum, and in the area of Sidi Omar. The Western Desert Force pursues the fleeing Italians along the coast road (the Via Della Vittoria) toward Halfaya Pass and Fort Capuzzo in Libya. Some British forces cross the border, and Fort Capuzzo in Libya is next on the Operation Compass list.
British 7th Armored Brigade heads through the desert to outflank Sollum and cut the road to Bardia. Sollum, which appears inconspicuous on the map, actually is extremely important to the British because it has a small port, and the Royal Navy has complete control of the sea and can use it to supply further advances.
The Italians leadership is in a panic. Marshal Graziani signals Mussolini that Libya may be next to fall, and Italian troops may be required to withdraw the 10th Army all the way to Tripoli.
Altogether, the Italians have lost 38,289 troops. Some of these are dead and wounded, but the vast majority are taken as prisoners. They also lose 73 tanks, 237 guns, 1000 other vehicles - and all of Egypt+. The British to date have lost 634 casualties and no equipment.
The RAF operates offensively against the Italian bases in Libya. Blenheim bombers based in both Malta and Alexandria raid Castel Benito, Benina and El Adem. They are virtually unopposed, as the Italian Fiat CR 42 biplane fighters are brushed aside by the modern RAF Hurricanes.
The RAAF retires its Gloster Gauntlet Mk II fighters, which have been effective recently in ground attacks in Egypt (against virtually no opposition) but are obsolete and difficult to maintain.
"Three 12-inch railway guns at Catterick, 12 December 1940." © IWM (H 6123).
Italian/Greek Campaign: The weather in the Albanian mountains is brutal. The Greeks continue to make small gains. I Corps moves forward in the direction of Himarë. II Corps continues gaining ground between the Aöos and the Apsos rivers, approaching Klisura. Greek V Army Corps advances toward Mount Tomorr, where it hopes to act as a link between Greek II and II Corps.
European Air Operations: While officially the Battle of Britain may be over, for many in England this month is the worst bombing experience they yet have faced. It only seems to be getting worse, too, with the shorter days giving the Luftwaffe plenty of nighttime hours to launch carefully planned attacks.
The Luftwaffe returns full force tonight. KG 100 leads off with 13 Heinkel He 111s, followed by literally hundreds of Junkers Ju 88, Heinkel, and Dornier Do 17 bombers. Altogether, 280-336 bombers (accounts vary) attack Sheffield throughout the night in three main waves, winding up their attacks at 04:00. However, the bombers miss the center of town, and there are no reports of extensive damage to militarily or economically vital facilities. That said, the city is a mess, with transportation crippled and many left homeless.
This is a continuation of the Germans' most recent strategy of targeting mid-sized cities and towns rather than just focusing on London and Liverpool. As with many of these raids, the citizens can expect a follow-up raid, whether it be tomorrow night or several nights hence. This is the first night of the "Sheffield Blitz."
The Luftwaffe also mounts smaller raids at London, Liverpool and many smaller towns throughout the country. The Luftwaffe loses less than a handful of bombers.
This attack is particularly interesting because the British, as at Coventry, have some idea that it is going to take place. During the day, British monitoring stations detect X Verfahren radio beams, and British military intelligence correctly assesses that they cross at Sheffield. However, as at Coventry, no special precautions are taken such as warnings or evacuations.
The RAF authorizes "Operation Intruder" in Operational Instruction No. 56. These will be night attacks on Luftwaffe airfields by Blenheim Mk 1F fighters of RAF No. 23 Squadron.
The Royal Navy (monitor HMS Terror, gunboats Aphis and Ladybird, and battleships Ramillies and Warspite) bombards the Italian bases in Libya before sunrise. Several of these ships then return to Alexandria. Aircraft carrier HMS Illustrious - a thorn in Mussolini's and Hitler's side - sends aircraft to bomb Italian barges at Bardia.
The Royal Navy has another big task now: evacuating all the Italian POWs from Egypt. Destroyer HMS Janus begins the process, taking 200 POWs from Mersa Matruh to Alexandria. Destroyer HMS Juno also embarks 450 Italians. The Mediterranean fleet begins sending other ships such as HMS Chakla, Fiona and Protector to Sidi Barrani for the same purpose.
RAF ace Douglas Bader is awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for his services during the Battle of Britain. His unit has compiled 62 aerial victories.
"Southampton was hit by two serious raids on the nights of 23 November and 30 November. During the second of these raids, which lasted six hours, 800 high explosive bombs were dropped. The Auxiliary Fire Service (AFS) was short of firefighters and reinforcements had to be brought in from other areas. The water, gas, and electricity supplies were cut off in many areas. The city's authorities struggled to cope with the aftermath of this raid and its municipal leaders were widely criticized." "Lower High Street, Southampton after the air raids of 30 November and 1 December 1940." © IWM (ZZZ 8205C).
Battle of the Atlantic: U-96 (Kplt. Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock) continues its successful attacks on Convoy HX 92 about ten miles south of St. Kilda, Hebrides. Having sunk two ships yesterday (the Rotorua and the Towa), the U-boat remains perfectly placed to wreak more devastation on the convoy. The rough winter weather provides excellent cover for those U-boats which can ride it out and mount attacks.
At 01:56, U-96 torpedoes and sinks 4575-ton Swedish freighter Stureholm (Master John Olof Gunnar Berner). The ship is loaded with 6850 tons of steel and scrap iron and sinks in only 11 minutes. While Lehmann-Willenbrock observes the 30/32-man crew launch four lifeboats, nobody on the ship ever is found. The Stureholm, incidentally, had survived Convoy HX 84, which had been attacked by Admiral Scheer on 28 October 1940. Stureholm picked up 65 survivors that night, but tonight the crew is not as fortunate.
At 04:31, U-96 is behind the convoy when it sights straggler Belgian 5227-ton phosphates freighter Macedonier. One torpedo is enough to send the ship to the bottom. There are four deaths and 43 survivors. The survivors are spotted by an RAF patrol aircraft, which guides Icelandic ship Súlan to rescue them.
The rough seas are almost as much a danger to the convoys as the U-boats. In Convoy HX 91, 5168-ton Greek tanker Dionyssios Stathatos loses its rudder (a fairly common event this month) in the Northwest Approaches, and the crew abandons it. Since it is never seen again, the Dionyssios Stathatos is presumed to have foundered somewhere in the Atlantic.
Danish fishing boat Margrethe hits a mine and blows up in the North Sea off Sylt, Germany.
Convoy OB 258 departs from Liverpool, Convoy FN 358 departs from Southend, Convoy BS 10B departs from Suez.
U-147 (Kapitänleutnant Reinhard Hardegen) is commissioned.
USS Claxton (DD 140) is recommissioned as HMS Salisbury (I-52) pursuant to the September destroyers-for-bases agreement.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Urge and minesweeper HMS Romney are commissioned.
Destroyer HMS Martin is launched.
"View: a group of sailors lowers a large mine down through a hole in the surface of the ship's deck." © IWM (Art.IWM ART LD 1372) (War Artists Advisory Committee commission artist: Muirhead Bone).
Anglo/US Relations: Lord Lothian (Philip Henry Kerr, 11th Marquess of Lothian), the British Ambassador to the US, passes away unexpectedly at age 58 from uremic poisoning. A controversial figure, Lord Lothian did more to curry American support in the first year of the war than anyone but Winston Churchill. He "set the ball rolling" toward unlimited US support of the British war effort so that, by the time of his passing, the momentum was virtually unstoppable.
Several things stand out about Lord Lothian's tenure:
He was the prime mover behind Lend Lease, and it was Lord Lothian who planted the idea of unlimited credit in President Roosevelt's mind (and Roosevelt is on the record as contemplating the idea by this date);
He was the only member of the British government during his lifetime to take affirmative steps (in July 1940) to explore any avenues of peace (which irritated Churchill, who immediately put a stop to it);
He brought up the delicate subject of Great Britain's looming bankruptcy, making everyone unequivocally aware of England's financial issues (on 23 November 1940), causing temporary consternation in the financial markets but getting the issue front and center so it could be solved.
President Roosevelt, cruising the Caribbean in heavy cruiser USS Tuscaloosa, sends a telegram of condolences to King George VI:
I am very certain that if he had been allowed by Providence to leave us a last message he would have told us that the greatest of all efforts to retain democracy in the world must and will succeed.
In some ways, Lord Lothian was not a "team player" in the sense of marching in lockstep with the Foreign Office. However, he was extremely farsighted, a realist who knew what should be done and did it (albeit not always in the most tactful way) regardless of what his superiors felt was tactful. He "advanced the ball" when it needed to be done. Largely forgotten, Lord Lothian was one of the Allies' unsung heroes of World War II.
Spy Stuff: Having received the secret papers recovered from freighter "Automedon" in the Indian Ocean, German Ambassador to Tokyo Admiral Wenneker gives a copy to Vice Admiral Kondo, Vice Chairman of the Japanese Naval General Staff. The documents are Top Secret assessments by the British War Cabinet regarding British defenses in the Pacific (Hong Kong and Singapore, primarily) and the British negotiating posture in the theater: appeasement.
Needless to say, these papers are of inestimable value to the Japanese, and they are extremely appreciative. Admiral Wenner writes in his diary:
Kondo repeatedly expressed to me how valuable the information in the War Cabinet memorandum was for the navy. Such a significant weakening of the British Empire could not have been identified from outward appearances.
This information swiftly goes to the Japanese naval attaché in Berlin, Captain Yokoi, per Hitler's orders (a copy has been sent to Berlin on the trans-Siberian railway). Yokoi sends a condensed version to Tokyo, which the US intercepts but can't decipher until 1943. Many consider this German/Japanese intelligence coup to be a major step toward war in the Pacific. Even if the Japanese would have attacked the western powers on the same date, this intelligence certainly affects Japanese planning on how and where they attack.
A mobile canteen operated by the Women's Voluntary Services, Sheffield, Yorkshire, 12 December 1940. (Source: The Guardian).
Propaganda: At this time, British citizens have a variety of news sources that give different perspectives on events. Aside from the BBC, there are English-language broadcasts, more or less daily, from both "Station DJA" in Hamburg and from Sweden (on medium wave band at 265 meters (1.13 MHz). The Swedish broadcasts are brief (five minutes) and focus on Scandinavia, but they give a fairly neutral version of the daily news. The Hamburg broadcast is by "Lord Haw-Haw" and his colleagues and is pure German propaganda - but many listen anyway just to see what the enemy's message is that day.
Hungarian/Yugoslavian Relations: While Yugoslavia is unwilling yet to sign the Tripartite Pact with Germany, it inches slightly closer to doing so. Cvetkovic's Yugoslavian government and Teleki's Hungarian government sign a "Treaty of Eternal Friendship" with Hungary. Hungarian Foreign Minister Count Csaky arrives in Belgrade for the signing, greeted by Yugoslav Foreign Minister Aleksandar Cincar-Markovic. They sign the treaty at the Hungarian Embassy, and it provides:
They wish to place their neighborly feelings, mutual esteem, and confidence on a solid and durable basis which will serve their mutual interests and Danubian peace and prosperity
Given that Romania at this point essentially is a German satellite, this is an indication of which way Yugoslavia may be heading - but it isn't quite in the German orbit yet.
German/Spanish Relations: The German Ambassador to Madrid sends Foreign Minister Ribbentrop a lengthy telegram marked "Strictly Secret." It recounts the 7 December meeting between Admiral Canaris, head of the Abwehr, and Generalissimo Franco. The report notes that Franco refuses to enter the war for the following reasons:
The British would seize the Canary Islands, Azores, Madeira, the Cape Verde Islands, and Guinea;
Spain has insufficient foodstuffs and transports for war, particularly of rail cars to support troop movements;
Imports are insufficient for military preparations due to the war situation;
Even if the Canary Islands were not invaded, they have supplies for only six months, and they could not be re-supplied.
Canaris then asked whether another date, after the proposed date of 10 January 1941, would be acceptable. Franco replied in the negative, though he did make the lukewarm gesture of stating that he personally would overseeing "Spain's preparations" for such an assault, including a new large-bore mortar ("Mortar 240").
The report reveals why General Keitel canceled all preparations for Operation Felix, the proposed assault on Gibraltar, so abruptly on 10 December. It also suggests why Hitler also found his meeting with Franco at Hendaye on 22 October so frustrating. Franco's bad-mouthing of his country's capabilities is simply a veil for his covert reasons for avoiding collaboration with Germany.
The real reason for Franco's unwillingness is revealed in contemporaneous internal Spanish military documents. They quite shrewdly conclude that the Axis is in no position to defeat the British at this time and that only the capture of Alexandria would shift the balance of power in the Mediterranean. This same sort of political calculation will recur with Finnish Marshal Mannerheim in two year's time when he similarly demurs on aggressive action until the Wehrmacht removes Leningrad as a Soviet redoubt. Recent Italian reversals in Albania and now Egypt similarly have cast shadows upon Axis prospects over the long term.
German/Vichy French Relations: Hitler invites Marshal Philippe Pétain to attend a ceremony in which Napoleon II's remains are to be reinterred from Austria to the Les Invalides cemetery in Paris, France.
Vichy French/Japanese Relations: The French officially recognize the state of Manchukuo, the Japanese-backed puppet state that presumes to be the government of all of China.
British Military: Sub-Lieutenant Peter Victor Danckwerts, RNVR, receives the George Cross for disarming 16 mines in 48 hours after only five weeks of training and experience. The war is full of such men not really knowing what they are doing - but doing it anyway, at great personal hazard, because it needs to be done.
A cave at Hastings, England - a real cave, not a subway - used as a shelter. Note the furniture bought to make the accommodations bearable. Sleeping in the caves became a nightly routine. 12 December 1940 (AP Photo).
US Military: Men are being drafted into the Armed Forces pursuant to the 1940 Selective Service Act, but an internal Army report finds that preparations are lacking. There are insufficient barracks, arms, ammunition, uniforms, other equipment, and even tent camps. The report shifts the blame to organized labor and its "strikes."
Rear Admiral John M. Smeallie, Commandant Sixteenth Naval District and Commandant Cavite Navy Yard (Philippines), attempts suicide and is hospitalized. The Navy orders him transferred back to Mare Head, California. Many histories refer to this incident euphemistically as Smeallie's "incapacitation." This is the first in a series of command "incidents" at Cavite over the next year which seriously impairs its preparation and functioning despite the best efforts of Four Star Admiral Thomas C. Hart. Hart, incidentally, is temperamentally unsuited to work with General Douglas MacArthur (or vice versa), the dominant US presence in the Philippines. This presents additional challenges which eventually will bear extreme consequences.
German Military: The first draft of Directive 21, the plans for the invasion of the Soviet Union, are completed today and submitted to General Jodl. This draft has the codename "Fritz." The name Fritz is chosen because it is the name of planner Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard von Lossberg's eldest son and basically is just a placeholder. Hitler is not going to leave Fritz as the codename for long.
The planning process for what turns into Operation Barbarossa is convoluted and confuses even experts. There actually are two entirely different plans being prepared. This is the OKW (Military High Command) plan; the OKH (Army High Command) also has its own plan, which it presented to Hitler on 5 December. The OKH plan basically has three axes of advance, or prongs, in the north, center, and south of the front, but with the greatest emphasis on the central (Moscow) line of advance. The army generals feel that Moscow is the most important objective in the Soviet Union and should be taken first.
This version of the invasion, the OKW/Hitler plan, shifts greater weight to the attacks on Leningrad and Kyiv. The Army plan, while not the "official" plan, is being used by the army for logistical planning purposes regardless of what the OKW (and, by extension, Hitler) intends. This may seem like a subtle distinction, but, as an example or perhaps an exaggeration of what is going on, the army is putting its best divisions where it wants to strike - toward Moscow - in favor of weaker forces heading toward Hitler's objectives further north and south.
In essence, there are two completely separate plans being prepared, and internally the army is disposing of its forces in favor of its own plan - changes which for all intents and purposes will decide what actually happens during the invasion. In other words - the army covertly is ignoring what Hitler is going to issue in his upcoming directive. There will be insufficient time to reallocate forces once the army has them in position for its own plan, and, in any event, it would be extremely inefficient to shift things around once the troops are at their jump-off points.
That said, not all of the army generals favor the army's plan, as they also think the main weight of the advance should be in the north, to link up with the Finns at Leningrad and then head south to Moscow. The southern prong, though, raises little enthusiasm in anyone besides Hitler, who is lusting after the economic resources there.
Hitler eventually realizes what is going on - when isn't entirely clear - and tells the army leaders that they can start out with their plan, but once the boots are hitting the ground and early gains are made, his plan will take over and the army group weightings will shift. Those who view Hitler as an all-powerful warlord in control of everything going on in his military may not grasp the subtle undermining of his intent throughout the Operation Barbarossa planning process.
Looking ahead, this goes a long way toward explaining Hitler's growing resentment toward his generals as a group and will explain why some generals seemingly inexplicably are dismissed and replaced (such as Fedor von Bock - but we'll get to that down the road) on what otherwise seems to be a whim. It also will go a long way toward explaining what cripples the German invasion in August 1941.
Separately, the 102 Infanterie Division is formed in Wehrkreis VIII from parts of the 8 and 28 Infanterie Divisions. It becomes part of the XX Korps/11th Army.
"The shell hoist of 'Boche-Buster', a 250-ton 18-inch railway gun, Catterick, 12 December 1940. The gun later traveled down to Kent to take up a position at Bishopsbourne on the Elham to Canterbury Line, taken over by the Army for the duration." © IWM (H 6091).
India: General Claude Auchinleck becomes British Commander-in-chief, India. This post is a typical warm-up spot for future leaders in North Africa.
Palestine/Turkey/Bulgaria: Refugee ship Salvador, a small Bulgarian schooner sailing from Burgas and denied entrance to Palestine by the British, sinks in a violent storm in the Sea of Marmara near Istanbul. The ship, crowded with Jewish refugees, takes with it about 230 people (there are 223 Jewish graves at Mount Herzl, Jerusalem), including 66 children. Some 125 survivors are deported back to Bulgaria, while 70 others board the transport Darien.
South Africa: General JBM Hertzog resigns from the South African government. He had been the prime proponent of a neutral stance in the war, but that has proven to be an unpopular position within the government. Jan Smuts, his former coalition partner, now leads the South African government. Following his replacement, Hertzog tried to form a new coalition with Daniel Malan's opposition Purified National Party to create the Herengde Nasional Party. However, Hertzog stood for equal rights between British South Africans and Afrikaners, and that was unacceptable to his erstwhile partners.
British Homefront: Reports are arising once again that the evacuation schemes put in place by the government (Operation Pied Piper) are being thwarted by families and the evacuated children themselves. During the war's first winter, children are getting homesick and parents are bringing their children home for the holidays - to stay permanently, despite the danger.
The evacuations, incidentally, are not free - the children's parents must pay every week 10 shillings and sixpence (53p; equivalent to £27 today, roughly $35) for the first unaccompanied child, and 8 shillings and sixpence for any subsequent children. The host families - many of whom have no choice but to accept children - theoretically use those sums to provide for the evacuees. While it is tempting to view host families as only too happy to shelter endangered children, human nature intrudes at every turn, and many host-evacuee relationships are disasters. All of this means that children are finding their way back into their at-risk cities right when the Luftwaffe is mounting some of its most effective and devastating attacks.
Future History: Marie Dionne Warrick is born in East Orange, New Jersey. Her family is heavily involved with the Drinkard Singers, a family gospel group that even Elvis Presley once asks to serve as his backup group. Marie loves to sing. She finishes high school in East Orange in 1959, then attends the Hartt College of Music in Hartford, Connecticut. She lines up some session work in New York City, and while doing so meets songwriter Burt Bacharach. He hires her to record demos of his own songs, and she winds up with a deal with Scepter Records in 1962. She releases her first solo single, "Don't Make Me Over," that year. On that single, purely by accident, Marie's name is misspelled "Warwick," and it sticks. As Dionne Warwick, Marie continues to work with Bacharach and Hal David, recording such hits as "Walk on By" and "Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" Dionne Warwick's success continues to grow, she changes labels (but still works with Bacharach and David), and goes on to a legendary singing career which continues to this day (2016).
Amazing Stories vol 14 no 12, December 1940. Cover by Robert Fuqua illustrating "Adam Link Fights A War" by Eando Binder. (Sci-Fi Covers.com).
December 1, 1940: Wiking Division Forms
December 2, 1940: Convoy HX 90 Destruction
December 3, 1940: Greeks Advancing
December 4, 1940: Italian Command Shakeup
December 5, 1940: Thor Strikes Hard
December 6, 1940: Hitler's Cousin Gassed
December 7, 1940: Storms At Sea
December 8, 1940: Freighter Idarwald Seized
December 9, 1940: Operation Compass Begins
December 10, 1940: Operation Attila Planned
December 11, 1940: Rhein Wrecked
December 13, 1940: Operation Marita Planned
December 14, 1940: Plutonium Discovered
December 15, 1940: Napoleon II Returns
December 16, 1940: Operation Abigail Rachel
December 17, 1940: Garden Hoses and War
December 18, 1940: Barbarossa Directive
December 19, 1940: Risto Ryti Takes Over
December 20, 1940: Liverpool Blitz, Captain America
December 21, 1940: Moral Aggression
December 22, 1940: Manchester Blitz
December 23, 1940: Hitler at Cap Gris Nez
December 24, 1940: Hitler at Abbeville
December 25, 1940: Hipper's Great Escape
December 26, 1940: Scheer's Happy Rendezvous
December 27, 1940: Komet Shells Nauru
December 28, 1940: Sorge Spills
December 29, 1940: Arsenal of Democracy
December 30, 1940: London Devastated
December 31 1940: Roosevelt's Decent Proposal
Posted by James Bjorkman at 10:31:00 PM
Labels: Admiral Hart, Admiral Wenneker, Auchinleck, Boche-Buster, Canaris, Convoy HX 92, Franco, Gauntlets, Graziani, Kondo, Lord Lothian, Operation Compass, Operation Fritz, Operation Intruder, Sheffield, U-147, U-96


The South Portland City Council is evaluating the need to protect our city from the potential impact of tar sands oil. This is a positive and important step. The recent election was close, and many residents who voted against the Waterfront Protection Ordinance do not want tar sands oil in South Portland. This is an opportunity for the City Council to take action that will protect our city.
Think a moment about Bug Light Park. I often ride my bike there and sit on a bench enjoying the spectacular scenery and fresh air. The website for the annual Bug Light 5K Run & Walk describes it as being "In Celebration of Livable, Healthy & Historic South Portland." These values are integral to the vision of South Portland as described in the Comprehensive Plan. But I ask you, how are two, 70-foot smokestacks spewing toxic chemicals from tar sands oil into the air, right next to Bug Light, consistent with that vision of a livable and healthy South Portland?
Our only chance to keep Bug Light Park and South Portland tar sands free is for the City Council to pass an ordinance that will accomplish that goal. I hope that the moratorium that is being considered will be passed. I encourage citizens to come to the South Portland City Council meeting on Dec. 16 at 7 p.m., when there will be a discussion and vote on the moratorium.


SpaceX announced the name of the test dummy at a pre-launch briefing Feb. 28. Her name is "Ripley," after Ellen Ripley, the female protagonist in the "Alien" movie franchise.
Astronauts on board the International Space Station will welcome an interesting new passenger this weekend when SpaceX attempts to launch its Crew Dragon spacecraft for the first time into space.
An instrumented, SpaceX spacesuit-wearing mannequin — or Anthropomorphic Test Device for those who want to get technical — will hitch a ride on the spaceship designed to send American astronauts to the space station from U.S. soil later this year.
"There's a — should I say dummy, is that the right word?" Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of build and flight reliability at SpaceX, asked Feb. 22 at a post-flight readiness review briefing at Kennedy Space Center. "We prefer to not call them dummies," NASA Commercial Crew Program manager Kathy Lueders said at the briefing.
Sitting in one of the seven-passenger seats aboard the spaceship, the ATD will help gauge the environmental conditions for humans aboard Dragon — one of the key elements for the mission, Koenigsmann said.
SpaceX is currently targeting to launch its uncrewed Demonstration Mission-1 for NASA's Commercial Crew Program atop a Falcon 9 rocket at 2:48 a.m. Saturday from KSC pad 39A.
The mission will not only send some cargo to the space station, but will also serve as the precursor for future crewed flights blasting off American ground — an event which has not occurred since the shuttle program ended in 2011.
"There's a puppet, dummy, ATD, whatever it is, in there and it will measure the responses on the human body and measure the environment," Koenigsmann said. "We want to make sure that everything is perfect for the safety of the astronauts." This isn't the first time SpaceX sends a mannequin-style figure on one of its missions however.
Last year, the world witnessed CEO Elon Musk's red Tesla roadster blast off a Falcon Heavy rocket into deep-space orbit with a mannequin named "Starman" in the driver's seat. Unlike Starman that was chosen primarily for decoration, this mannequin — whose name is unknown at this time — will provide crucial information regarding the spacecraft's capability to send astronauts safely into space.
Aside from carrying an artificial passenger on board, the spacecraft will also send some radiation monitors, utilization hardware and various crew supplies to the space station. If everything goes accordingly, this will be the first time SpaceX sends its Crew Dragon — or Dragon 2 — to the ISS. The spacecraft is an updated version of Dragon 1 — or the cargo Dragon spacecraft — which has seen 16 successful resupply missions to the space station since 2012.
Some key differences between Dragon 1 and Dragon 2 include Dragon 2 being able to dock directly to the space station, have side-mounted heat shields, a more robust thruster system and perhaps the biggest difference: enough room for seven astronauts.
"Inside there are seats for astronauts, there's a life support system, there's an interface console so that the astronauts can take over if necessary and perform certain functions within Dragon," Koenigsmann said.
The unpiloted capsule is scheduled to dock at the space station on Sunday and return for a splashdown landing in the Atlantic Ocean five days later. Before any crewed missions commence, NASA first has to review performance and flight data for certification ahead of crewed flights.
If SpaceX passes all tests, the Space Coast could see two NASA astronauts blast off to space as early as July.
"Human spaceflight is basically the core mission of SpaceX, so we are really excited to do this," Koenigsmann said. "There's nothing more important to us than this endeavor."
Jaramillo is space trends reporter at FLORIDA TODAY.


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Kyselina neuraminová je organická sloučenina, devítiuhlíkatá cukerná kyselina. Lze si ji představit jako produkt aldolové kondenzace D-manózaminu a kyseliny pyrohroznové. V přírodě se samotná kyselina nevyskytuje, ovšem mnoho jejich derivátů bylo nalezeno v bakteriích a živočišných tkáních, hlavně ve formě glykoproteinů a gangliosidů.

N- a O-substituované deriváty kyseliny neuraminové se souhrnně označují jako kyselina sialová, převažující formou v buňkách savců je kyselina N-acetylneuraminová. Na aminovou skupinu se obvykle připojuje acetylová nebo glykolylová (acyl od kyseliny glykolové) skupina. Substituenty hydroxylu jsou různorodější: takto byly nalezeny acetylová, laktylová, methylová, sulfátová a fosfátová skupina. Tyto deriváty jsou substráty pro enzymy označované jako neuraminidázy. Lidské chřipkové viry mají neuraminidázové enzymy nazývané "HxNx", kde H označuje izoformu hemaglutininu a N izoformu virové neuraminidázy.

Název "kyselina neuraminová" zavedl německý chemik E. Klenk roku 1941 podle mozkových lipidů, z nichž ji získal jako produkt štěpení molekul.

Pro tuto kyselinu se často používá značka Neu.

Reference

Externí odkazy

Aminosacharidy
neuraminová

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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University of Illinois Sports Center Offers Kosher Food Stand
Erica Terry
University of Illinois fans who observe kashrut can now enjoy a hot dog with the rest of the Fighting Illini. The flagship campus at Urbana-Champaign has introduced a kosher food stand at basketball games this year.
The Associated Press reports that the kosher dogs, drinks, and snacks are thanks to the efforts of local Chabad Rabbi Dovid Tiechtel. Teichtel was dissatisfied that outside food was not allowed in the school's State Farm Center, leaving observant Jews with few dining options.
The university has about 3,500 Jewish students out of 43,000 total, and it's likely few of them keep kosher. Tieichtel confirmed that few of the stand's customers on opening night this week were observant Jews. But he was excited that others have been eagerly enjoying the treat, including some observant Muslim diners, who must avoid pork hot dogs to observe halal. The food stand's volunteers promote the hot dogs simply as "the best all-beef hot dog" at the arena.
Kosher food options are somewhat common in professional sports arenas, especially in cities with large Jewish populations; one blogger lists 31 professional stadiums with kosher food stands.
But these choices are much less common at the college level. The AP could find only one other kosher food stand nearby. Not coincidentally, it was founded by Tiechtel's brother, Zalman, at the University of Kansas.
'Aftermath' Unearths Terrible Secrets of Polish Participation in WWII
A sense of violent dread pervades every moment of Polish drama "Aftermath." A simple story of two brothers reunited after 20 years is slowly revealed to be a complex power struggle between the legacy of the past and the possibilities of the future.
Franek Kalina (Ireneusz Czop), the son of a poor farmer, immigrated to the US in the 80s, but is having trouble achieving the American dream and blames Chicago Jews for his plight. He finally returns to his hometown, a small village in central Poland, when his brother's wife arrives on his doorstep without explanation.
Franek finds that his brother Jozek (Maciej Stuhr) is shunned and threatened by the locals. He doesn't understand what happened, and struggles to reconnect. He soon finds out the root of the problem: Jozek has rescued Jewish gravestones from roads, plazas and houses all over town. Franek's latent anti-Semitism fights his familial loyalties as he takes on his brother's quest to honor the Jewish dead, while the town does all it can to keep the past buried. Ultimately, the brothers uncover a horrifying secret. One chooses the path of righteousness, while the other succumbs to self-doubt.
Slow moving, but steady of hand, "Aftermath" deserves the acclaim it received upon release in Poland, and the controversy that followed it. Some cinemas banned the picture, and Polish Nationals accused the film of being anti-Polish propaganda. Clearly, some in Poland still struggle with accounting for actions in wartime.
"Aftermath" shows what happens when people have been given permission to be their darkest selves, and how they will try to cover it up afterwards. The images of Jewish headstones in a burning wheat field, and a group of Jews that locals call "vacationers" saying Kaddish are haunting. Not a film to be viewed lightly, "Aftermath" will hopefully open a dialogue about Polish complicity in WWII that is long overdue.
"Aftermath" is now playing in New York City and opens in Los Angeles on November 15.
Jspace Exclusive Interview with Sex Expert Dr. Ruth
This article was published originally on Jspace News on August 9, 2012.
Born Karola Ruth Siegel in Wiesenfeld Germany to Orthodox Jewish parents, the woman affectionately known as Dr. Ruth lived through the Holocaust, the birth of Israel, and the advent of Twitter—where she maintains a healthy presence. The iconic sex guru and cultural fixture has spread sexual education through television, print, radio, and the Internet. Jspace caught up with Dr. Ruth to talk about her attachment to Israel, Jewish sexual philosophy, and the best lovers in the world.
Jspace: You were orphaned at an early age, and then severely injured during the Israeli War for Independence, yet you fearlessly moved around the world and have made a global impact in your field. How did you find the strength to persevere through challenges?
Dr. Ruth: First of all, because of the challenges, I have a strong belief and strong conviction that I have an obligation to contribute something to the world, since I was saved and a million and half Jewish children were murdered. I did not know that it would be talking about sex, but I certainly do believe that I was fortunate to be very well trained with a doctorate from Columbia University.
This spring I'm teaching a graduate course at Teacher's College Columbia University on the family as depicted in television, movies, and Internet. I always try to do something new. I just taught six years at Princeton and Yale, and now that that has run its course as an adjunct, I'm going to be teaching at Columbia.
I think part of why I can do what I'm doing is because I'm very Jewish. I did a book called "Heavenly Sex: Sexuality in the Jewish Tradition" with Jonathan Mark a few years ago, and I believe I can talk so openly about sex because I am very Jewish. In the Jewish tradition, sex has never been a sin; sex has always been considered an obligation between married people of course, but never anything that is sinful.
In honor of the Olympics, you recently shocked your followers with the news that you were a sniper in Israel. What was that time like in your life?
I went to then-Palestine in 1945 after having been in an orphanage in Switzerland for six years. I went to a kibbutz, and all 47 of us living there were trained in some area of warfare. I was very, very lucky that I was in the Haganah, which was the forerunner of the Israel Defense Forces. And for some reason that I cannot explain, they found out that I'm a very good sniper. So I became a sniper. I know how to throw hand grenades.
I've never killed anybody, but I was badly wounded on my 20th birthday in Jerusalem on both of my legs and I'm fortunate there was a wonderful German-Jewish surgeon. So I was wounded very early in the game in 1948 on June 4.
I go back to Israel every single year. I do documentaries. I did a documentary about the Bedouin living in Israel, about the Druze, about the Ethiopian Jews. I did a documentary for the Joint Distribution Committee on the training of the Haredim, of the very Orthodox men who go to the army and the women trained to be computer analysis.
I was most recently in Israel for President Shimon Peres' conference Tomorrow. I did a master class about the future of sexuality and sex education. I had to switch the room because the room they gave me was too small. I had 600 people in the audience, so I had to be in a larger auditorium of the Knesset.
In your opinion, how important is it for Jews to marry other Jews?
I would not say that it is important. It's important to marry a person that is compatible with you and if somebody adheres to the Jewish tradition, then the partner has to know that and hopefully might convert to Judaism. It's just important that these things be discussed before children arrive and also before there are problems. So I'm not against intermarriage, I just think it's easier if both of the couple agrees ahead of time on how the children will be raised.
Are there particular issues that seem to face Jewish couples as opposed to other religions?
It's all the same?
Absolutely. The same problems of boredom, of being stressed, of not having time, of problems with mother-in-laws. It's not different in the Jewish tradition.
How has modern technology—from sexting to Facebook-inspired divorces—changed relationships over the years?
Texting, for example, takes away from communicating with each other. If both sit over dinner and text there's very little communication between the two of them. There's very little talk. So of course, any of this modern social media, has an impact on the relationship. People have to be aware of the danger of not having enough conversation topics if they're all involved in their own texting.
Specifically for our Jspace daters, how can you make a meaningful connection online?
First of all I would say I'm all for dating services. The time has passed when parents are able to introduce their children to future spouses. However, it's very important to not only rely on the Internet but to meet, and very important to make sure that people are safe. So I tell them never to meet in a secluded place, but to meet in hotel lobbies, in restaurants, and places that are public.
But make sure that this whole idea of maybe there's somebody better out there is put into perspective, because otherwise we're going to have a whole generation of people in their 40s and 50s who haven't found a partner because of unfulfilled and unrealistic expectations. Real romance isn't what we see on television. That's stories, that's film. Reality looks different.
You recently tweeted that you'd go out with Christian Grey. Why do you think so many women are in love with a fictional character?
Forget about the sadistic part of it—pass over those pages. We live in a materialistic society, and the guy not only has money, he has a plane, a motorboat, he has everything! What he does have, in addition to his affliction of adultery and I would like him to go see a psychiatrist on his sadistic impulses, but he certainly has a way of treating women. And the women that did get involved with him were free not to do so. He didn't rape anybody, he didn't force anybody, so I think a combination of all of that is what makes it such fun to read.
You've lived in Israel and Paris and New York. What country has the best lovers?
All of these countries have wonderful lovers. The idea that the French are the best lovers is not true. The Americans have the best scientifically validated data about human sexual functioning. Women in the United States certainly have heard people like me, I'm not the only one, keep saying that they have to take the responsibility for their own sexual satisfaction. That they first have to masturbate in order to know what they need. Even here, with all the research that we have from Masters and Johnson, Kinsey, and Kaplan, who trained me, we need more research. We need more research in terms of how to do sex education and also how to treat sexual dysfunction.
Turning to gender roles, is there anything you deem not ladylike or gentlemanlike? Or are terms like that obsolete?
Certainly not obsolete. I'm now 84. I do believe in equal pay for equal work, but I still want the man to open the door for me. I think that it's a ridiculous thing to say 'I don't need that.' Certain things are very nice in terms of old-fashioned manners. And that translates also into the bedroom.
What's the most erotic Jewish food?
Chicken soup with matzo balls is the most erotic Jewish food because it makes you think of your grandparents, it makes you think of tradition, and who knows, there might be some sexually arousing material in a chicken soup.
Jspace Exclusive Interview with Gal Gadot on 'Fast & Furious 6'
This article was originally printed on Jspace News on May 24, 2013.
When Israeli actress and model Gal Gadot beat out six other candidates for the role of Gisele Harabo in "Fast & Furious," she signed on for a hell of a ride. Now in it's sixth film, the franchise is revving up its engine for a splashy release in theaters nationwide.
But Gadot rose to fame far before "Fast & Furious" brought the car heist genre to the American mainstream. At the age of 19, Gadot won the Miss Israel title, and went on to represent the Jewish state at the 2004 Miss Universe pageant. From there, Gadot launched a successful modeling career, becoming Castro's leading model in 2008. Making the jump to acitng, Gadot has held roles in Israeli and American films, from "Bubot" (2008) to "Date Night" (2010) and "Knight and Day" (2010). In the latest "Fast & Furious," which critics are calling a thrilling ride, Gadot's Gisele Harabo joins the team once more to pursue an organization of villainous mercenary drivers in exchange for a full pardon.
Jspace News caught up with Gal Gadot via email to learn more about the latest film, becoming a working mother, and representing Israel on the global stage.
Jspace: This is your third appearance as Gisele Harabo in the "Fast & Furious" series. How did it feel to return to the character?
Gal Gadot: It was great coming back to the set. It felt like a family reunion! The very first film, we all became great friends. In "Fast & Furious," the fourth film, we were all single. By "Fast Five" we had all gotten married, and during "Fast & Furious 6" everyone came to set with babies!
What was the hardest part about filming "Fast & Furious 6"?
The hardest part was actually the last day of shooting. After being together for four months, we have to say goodbye—but it was really more like, "See you later!"
What reactions are you getting from fans about your role as Gisele?
The reactions are amazing. Clearly, this franchise has a lot of loyal fans and I don't take that for granted. The fans really like the car heist narrative, but more than anything, they care about the characters. For me, as an actress, I feel a lot of responsibility to show Gisele as a role model for young girls. I wanted to show that women are empowered and strong, and don't necessarily have to be saved by some male hero, but they can take care of themselves using their intelligence and their power.
Has it been difficult to go on the road, shooting and promoting the film with a young child at home?
I actually got to bring my daughter, Alma, along! It has been an amazing family road trip. I feel incredibly privileged to be able to travel the world with my family.
What are the differences between working in Israel and in the US?
The only real difference is budget. In Israel, the budgets are tiny compared to the US. But because of this limitation, the content and the level of creativity in Israel is much higher.
Do you feel as if you are representing Israel in your professional life?
I don't see myself as an ambassador or anything, but I defiantly talk a lot about Israel and invite the people I meet to come and visit. There are a lot of misconceptions about Israel and it's very important to me that people know that Israel is a beautiful place with great history and culture.
Jspace Exclusive Interview with Author and Actress Mayim Bialik
This article was published originally on Jspace News on March 16, 2012.
Some know her as "Blossom," and others as Amy Farrah Fowler on "The Big Bang Theory," but now Mayim Bialik is taking on a new role as the unofficial celebrity spokesperson for attachment parenting. Her book, "Beyond the Sling," released last week, candidly and humorously answers questions about the practicalities of how her parenting style works, from the family bed (where do you have sex?) to gentle discipline (how do kids learn to share?). We caught up with the actress-turned neuroscientist-turned mother to find out just how she manages to get it all done.
Jspace: Do you see yourself as the voice of the attachment parenting movement?
Mayim Bialik: Gosh, I consider a lot of other people to be the voice of the attachment parenting movement—people like William Sears, and the brave leaders of La Leche League International, and Ricki Lake, who is one of the leaders in terms of educating people about natural birth. I have sort of become this unofficial celebrity spokesperson for this way of life, which is a burden I knew I was taking on. Many of us for years and years and years have been privately slammed and attacked, and I guess I knew that I was taking this on publically on behalf of all the amazing people who helped me get here.
Did you discover attachment parenting before or after you had your first son and developed your parenting style?
It was actually even before we got pregnant. My husband and I had friends who had kids before us and a lot of our learning about attachment parenting was from seeing these people who believed in home birth, and breast-feeding on demand, and gentle discipline.
Honestly it sounded crazy to us. These people seemed really consumed with their kids, and it was very bizarre. But what we saw even before we got pregnant, was as these kids got older, this really interesting relationship emerged. Our friends were not parenting by force, or by fear, they weren't hitting their kids. Their kids believed that they had a voice. It's not that the kids trumped the parent's lives and desires, but that they believed that their opinions mattered enough to be able to communicate really effectively. And I think that's what appealed to us.
Have you seen results with your own children?
A lot of this style of parenting is about lowering expectations of what it should look like and being at peace with this process. Our kids are not perfect. I wasn't looking to have quiet children, or good children, or obedient children. But by not fighting with a baby in their first years about when they want to nurse and when they want to sleep, we had an easier way of life.
We had very high needs kids who demanded a lot of attention and care and holding, but it seems to have suited their temperaments well. Our older son, who's six, eventually weaned, and can put himself to sleep, and says "please" and "thank you," even though we didn't give him time-outs if he didn't. He expects big things of people, like love and kindness. He's a really interesting person.
How has your Jewishness influenced your parenting choices?
I don't know if it's influenced it so much as my parenting is just a part of the Jewish person that I am. I feel like a lot of Jewish tradition is about teaching to each their own, and that's something we believe very strongly.
I also feel like a lot of my environmentalism comes from being raised in a reform synagogue where tikkun olam was a very big part of our education. I do feel like this style of parenting is a very green and environmentally friendly way of parenting. Children who know that they're loved and cared for will become part of a community where the world is loved and cared for. So I think that feels pretty consistent to us.
It sounds like you find that your Jewishness meshes with the theories of attachment parenting.
I know all sorts of Jewish parents who parent a lot of different ways. But there's absolutely a sizable portion of halachic Jews, like me, who also believe in natural birth and breast-feeding and attachment parenting style. But there are as many kinds of Jewish parents as there are others, and I think a lot a people who claim to do the attachment parenting thing may look a lot like other traditional ethnic communities.
What will readers find most surprising in your new book, "Beyond the Sling"?
I didn't write a parenting book about how you should parent your kids. I think a lot of people think attachment parents think they have figured it all out, and got it all right, and are judgmental, and if you don't breast-feed, you're a bad mom. None of that is true. It's not lip service. I'm really not in a position to write a book to tell you how to parent. What I did is tell what works for us and why, and how my neuroscience background affirmed a lot of intuitive stuff that many parents are scared out of by conventional doctors.
You touch on this in your book, but what has it been like to switch back and forth between acting and academics?
Gosh, I mean, there's a lot of similar skillsets needed. There's a lot of suppression of ego and a lot of complexity to the social relationships in both academics and acting. Schedule-wise, my husband and I prefer this kind of schedule. I get to be with our kids a lot, and I was with them in their first years. I wasn't planning to be a regular on a TV show when I went back to auditioning.
Speaking of your regular TV role, is it coincidence that you have a PhD in neuroscience and your character on "The Big Bang Theory" is a neurobiologist?
My first episode, she had no profession. They made her a neurobiologist after they brought me back in season four. Bill Prady, our creator and executive producer, said that way I could fix things if they were wrong.
You have been a very active representative of several Jewish organizations. What compelled you to this work?
I guess personal desire to be part of the philanthropic community, because of the way I was raised. I'm not as wealthy as people think I am.
Participating, especially as a young person, in philanthropic organizations, is why I got involved with JFLA. Now that I'm a more prominent person, I'm being asked to put a face on Na'amat, which asked me to do a PSA for them, and Chai Lifeline, recently I've been very involved in Gift of Life. I've made six bone marrow matches—six!—just from a drive that I did with the Maccabeats and Matisyahu last Hanukkah.
But honestly I feel like it's important to put a face on organizations, and a lot of times people want someone that they know and are familiar with. But I also feel very strongly and deeply about being part of the Jewish community and our desire to help other people. It's the foundation of our peoplehood. Personally I feel that, and now publically it's become something that I'm known for.
You are related to Hayim Nahman Bialik, one of the pioneers of modern Hebrew poetry. Has his legacy influenced you at all?
He's my great-grandfather's first cousin. I grew up with an acute knowledge that I was part of a very important family in modern Jewish history. It gave me a lot of pride, and honestly I think it was very special. I grew up in an area where there were a lot of Jews, but I didn't go to Jewish day school, and most of the people I interacted with were not Jewish. So for me, it did give me a little extra confidence and feeling of uniqueness.
I think it's something that's possible for the entire Jewish people. We all descend from some amazing people, whether it's a couple generations ago, or thousands of years ago. It's been interesting to see that I felt a real personal destiny for myself and my family, but now that I've learned more, and become a more observant person, I feel as close to Moshe Rabbenu as I do to that sort of legacy.
Do you have any recommendations for any of our Jewish readers also trying to balance motherhood with career and interests?
Honestly, and this is something I've said to non-Jewish publications as well, I feel like the Sabbath has been the greatest present. I feel like it's almost more of a secular gift than a religious one. We work all week. For me, the only reminder that we are human beings and not human doings is the Sabbath.
It means really unplugging from everything that distracts me from my kids and from my responsibilities as a parent. I can't do that every day. But I feel like if I can do it for 25 hours a week, it replenishes my resources, and really keeps me going. It's sort of what guides my entire week, to get there, and then it's what powers me through the next week.
It's actually been kind of amazing. I took on Shabbos observance before I felt that way about Shabbos. I did it because, oh, it's something I'm trying to do, and it was really only after doing it and become more frantic in my work life, that it became that important.
J-Connection: "The Big Bang Theory" actress Mayim Bialik is a Jew with a bachelor's degree in Hebrew and Jewish Studies, and a PhD in neuroscience.
.ORG-Connection: The Jewish Free Loan Association of Los Angeles offers interest-free loans on a non-sectarian basis to individuals and families whose needs are urgent and who may not qualify through normal financial resources.
Jspace Exclusive Interview with Playwright Tony Kushner
This article was published originally on Jspace News on June 20, 2012.
Tony Kushner is arguably the most famous American playwright alive today. He also happens to be Jewish. While fans may know him best for hits like "Angels in America" and "Caroline, or Change," Kushner has also been quietly working for years on a project close to his heart: editing "The Collected Works of Arthur Miller" with the Library of America. The first volume has been circulating for some time, and Volume II was just recently released.
Jspace caught up with Kushner to discuss Miller, himself an iconic Jewish playwright; Willy Loman, Miller's most revered character; and why Jewish and American aren't mutually exclusive terms.
Jspace: Was Willy Loman, the protagonist in Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman," Jewish?
Tony Kushner: My feeling is there's really no question that Willy Loman is Jewish. Miller makes it clear that the characters are primarily based on a couple of people he knew from the Jewish neighborhood he grew up in in Brooklyn. But my feeling is that the Loman family is sort of identifiably pre and post war Jewish New York. There's a number of complicated reasons why the Lomans do not refer to themselves as being Jewish.
The play is very, very specific to its time period, sort of the beginnings of the economic collapse following World War II and the period of recession going into the 60s following the end of the economic boom. In "All My Sons" [Miller] deals with the nature of war. The nature of war is economic. So you know that you're an American, you know that you're in New York, you know you're dealing with a guy who is living in the late 1940s, early 1950s, but the language is stripped of a certain kind of specificity while remaining realistic language. I think Arthur was a great experimenter with language. There's really a powerful attempt to make the language that is spoken in the play very clean and spare and I think in a way classic. Timeless. And because I think it's because he was aiming for tragedy on the level of Sophocles.
And I think he succeeded. I think that the fact that he succeeded has made the play one of this country's most universal and exploitable plays. He wrote beautifully about doing "Salesman" in Beijing in the 80s. You can sort of pick it up and put it anywhere. And I remember when I was on the Executive Council of Drama Schools in the early 90s, it was sort of a running joke that when delegations of theater artists came, the only person they ever really wanted to meet was Arthur Miller. He was the last of the sort of great patriarchs of the revolution that swept through the transformation of American drama that began with [Eugene] O'Neill and concluded with [Tennessee] Williams and Miller.
I feel like in terms of his Jewishness, I feel very strongly that Miller was certainly a Jewish identified writer. He wrote about being Jewish, he wrote plays about being Jewish, and the older he got the more open about it he got. I think there's a clue there. For people who are from the Jewish American writers of Arthur's generation, assimilation was a very important thing. And being American. He was like the immigrant parents, it was sort of beaten into them. They weren't taught Yiddish. They weren't sent to yeshiva. They didn't even go to shul. They're supposed to become assimilated and be able to function in America. Look at a writer who is as profoundly Jewish and profoundly Jewish identified as [Arthur Miller]. Saul Bellow, from the other side of the political spectrum. His first great work of art, the first sentence of "The Adventures of Augie March," is 'I am an American, Chicago born.' Not, "I am a Jewish American." And there's no question that Augie is Jewish, but he is also very much an American. And I think that's what the emphasis is on.
Sam [Freedman, New York Times writer] was reaching [in a recent article] towards an idea that part of Willy's tragedy is a lack of a strong ethnic identity or cultural or religious identity. That Miller was making a point. But I don't agree with that at all. I don't believe that we're meant to think that had Willy gone to shul on Shabbat and had he identified himself as a Jewish guy, that his tragedy would have in some way been adverted. The destruction of this man that we witness, his self-destruction and also that he is destroyed by the world in which he lives, is completely, absolutely meant to be, and irreducibly is part of, the greatness of this play. A tragedy of a formal social organization that absolutely devalues the human and makes a human being interchangeable, disposable. Cogs in a machine by which rich people get richer.
I mean, it's not a simple play. It's not an easy play. It's not street scene or 1930s agitprop. It's much deeper and richer and more complicated. But I don't think we're meant to think that for Willy, there is a personal pathology that has produced some sort of separation from his Jewishness and that's a big part of is what's wrong. I don't think that was at all intended.
Now I could be wrong about that, but that's my reading of it. I think one of the things that makes the play so great is it's hard to think of other plays that succeeded in this. But there's absolutely no way to understand what's wrong with this guy if you don't understand the political economy of his world. And it's the indiscernibility of those, of the personal and the social. That's part of the genius of the play. There are people who say that the play on one level is kind of old-fashioned, creaky, rusty, nonsense, but it's a great play about a great character. You literally can't even understand what's happened to Willy if you don't understand what's happened to the salesman. You can't separate the two at all. And any attempt to do that just misses the point entirely.
There are parallels between your work and Miller's work: Two Jewish playwrights using theater for social advocacy. Do you feel a kinship with him and is that perhaps why you have paid such attention to his plays?
I feel an enormous indebtedness to him. "Death of a Salesman" was the first play I saw when I was 6 years old, my mother was in a production in Lake Charles, Louisiana. And I saw the "The Diary of Anne Frank" and a couple of other Broadway hits that were being produced in the little theater in Lake Charles, but nothing had that impact on me as a 6 year old. I didn't really know what was going on. But I could tell this was a play that was having a profound effect on the grown ups in the audience– the power of it was clear even as a little kid. So yeah, he had a huge impact on my life in a way.
I think of my mother in that production as sort of the beginning of my interest in theater. And as a writer of drama, I mean when I was much younger I was somewhat critical of O'Neill and of Miller. I was always a fan of Williams because he was gay and he was southern and I found him and the lyrics of his writing gloomy, powerfully. But with Arthur and with O'Neill, both writers that I now revere, when I was 18 or19 I was really scornful. Probably some sort of Oedipal thing going on. But they seemed corny to me and individualist and I was very much looking at everything through the eyes of Brechtian theory [universal appeal technique] and not impressed with them.
As I started to write plays, I reread "Salesman" and "View from a Bridge" and there's a magnificent sort of erratic construction in these works. They serve as the greatest structure of dramatic events this country's ever produced. And I think in terms of social advocacy, Arthur is important as a model in two ways. In one way because he doesn't write polemic, he writes drama, which is really different. And the plays are not plays that present problems and provide answers for those problems, they're deeper and more complicated and more tortured than that. That's when they're at their best. And as it progresses, they become more and more what we would call personal, and less and less obviously political.
At the same time Arthur used his immense fame for social good. He was a brave, tireless fighter, a scrupulous and courageous public intellectual, an advocate. Those are important things. I think he remains the luminous example of a writer as a citizen. It's always good to have role models and certainly for me, when faced with a choice between doing something political and doing something that I really enjoy doing, I say to myself, "What would Arthur Miller do?" I knew him a little bit but not well, but the Arthur in my head is a very interesting and valuable figure.
You wrote the screenplay for "Munich." The Olympic Committee is currently receiving flak for refusing a proposed moment of silence for the 40th anniversary of the attack. Do you have any reflection on the decision?
Well I mean this is completely repulsive. Not surprising because the Olympic Committee reacted disgustingly when it happened. I wasn't there of course, I was only 10 or 11 years old. But, in working on "Munich" I found their reactions really horrifying. I had a conversation with one of the widows of one of the athletes in Tel Aviv after the movie came out. I don't understand the Committee's decision to continue with the games when these men had been murdered, I find it shocking.
The way that the Olympic Committee behaved then was terribly tough. It's an appalling and disgusting decision. I don't that think you deal with tragedy by pretending it didn't happen. I don't think that you deal with tragedy by saying that if murderers interrupt the flow of everyday life, that they've won. They have interrupted the flow of everyday life. What happened to those guys was a monstrous tragedy and it's disrespectful not to stop this sporting event, very disrespectful. For whatever kind of reasons, I'm sure the kind of rhetoric that you expect from these people. But also it's misguided geo-politics. It's a terrible decision to try and make what happened 40 years ago political.
"Caroline, or Change," your Broadway musical, featured Klezmer music. Can we expect more musicals in the future from Tony Kushner, and if so will we hear Klezmer music again?
Jeanine Tesori, who wrote the music for "Caroline," did an opera with me last summer for Glimmer Glass. It was a one act so we're now working on the second and expanding it into a full-length opera about Eugene O'Neill. And I'm very proud of it. I think it's very good. And we have plans to do other things, so it's a possibility.
I grew up in the Deep South. What I listened to was classical music, because my parents loved classical musicians. I felt I wanted to be very true to what the Jewish world of Lake Charles, Louisiana in the 1960s. It was before "Fiddler on the Roof," which was for a lot of Jewish Americans in my generation the first exposure we had to anything that sounded remotely Klezmer. When I finally heard my first Klezmatic album it was a giant revelation. I love the music very much. I have another piece I've been working on for a long time and the Klezmatics wrote some music for it. And it isn't finished yet. We did a reading of it years ago at the Jewish Museum [in New York]. Susan Sontag was in it, and it's about my grandmother. So it's quite possible we'll one day see that finished.
Six 'Israeli Spies' Shot in Gaza Without Trial
Six accused Israeli collaborators were shot today in Gaza.
The men were accused of spying for Israel, and shot one by one without trial or conviction.
The bodies reportedly remained in a heap in the middle of the street, as hundreds gathered to kick and spit on the bodies.
An incensed mob chanted "Spy! Spy!" according to the Times of Israel.
A video of another accused Israeli conspirator being dragged from the back of a Hamas motorcycle was also circulating online today.
Today's actions came after a similar killing last Friday, when Hamas shot Ashraf Quaida for Israeli espionage.
A poster was hung from Quaida's body accusing him of traitorous acts, as his corpse was left on display for civilians to see.
Hamas' al-Aqsa radio said today the six killed were "caught red-handed" with "hi-tech equipment and filming equipment to take footage of positions."
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Q: How to specify the JNLP output file when using javafx-maven-plugin for creating a javafx native installer? I'm using the maven plugin  https://github.com/javafx-maven-plugin/javafx-maven-plugin to generate an installer for the javafx application. I could create a exe and run it successfully. the problem is I'm not able to generate the jnlp file.
I see the below message
[INFO] Skipping WebStart JNLP Bundler because of configuration error No OutFile Specificed
Advice to Fix: Please specify the name of the JNLP Outut file in 'jnlp.outfile'

Where and how to do I set the name of the JNLP output file ?

A: For having JNLP-files being generated, you have to adjust your configuration a bit:
<plugin>
    <groupId>com.zenjava</groupId>
    <artifactId>javafx-maven-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>8.2.0</version>
    <configuration>
        <mainClass>com.zenjava.test.Main</mainClass>
        <verbose>true</verbose>
        <appName>YourAwesomeProject</appName>
        <bundleArguments>
            <!-- to include "dtjava.js" and other related files, set this to TRUE -->
            <jnlp.includeDT>true</jnlp.includeDT>

            <!-- the JNLP-bundler needs this, they don't use "appName" for the filename ... you have to set this, otherwise it doesn't build -->
            <!-- for details of that JNLP-bundler, please have a look at the source -->
            <!-- https://github.com/Debian/openjfx/blob/e32fd960e20c58c9b7db27e426b4bca6d52add2f/modules/fxpackager/src/main/java/com/oracle/tools/packager/jnlp/JNLPBundler.java#L84 -->
            <jnlp.outfile>YourAwesomeProject</jnlp.outfile>
        </bundleArguments>
    </configuration>
</plugin>

You need to call mvn jfx:native instead of mvn jfx:web because Oracle is moving the JNLP-generation to a new internal form, removing some com.sun.*-packages.
To only have the JNLP being generated, you could reduce build-time by specifying <bundler>jnlp</bundler> inside the configuration.
Disclaimer: I'm the maintainer of that maven-plugin.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Not only has Prime Minister Trudeau broken his promise that 2015 would be the last First-Past-The-Post election, now the government is breaking its promise to undo former Prime Minister Harper's so-called Fair Elections Act.
One of the clearest and earliest commitments in the 2015 Liberal election platform was that, if elected, Trudeau would repeal the voter suppression provisions in the act. The Council of Canadians and the Canadian Federation of Students held a press conference today to call on the government to take immediate action to repeal these provisions once and for all, so that the matter won't have to be resolved in court.
While the government did introduce legislation to undo these changes with Bill C-33, the legislation has been languishing for nearly a year and a half, not moving past first reading since November, 2016.
Because of the government's failure to follow through on its promise, the Charter Challenge by the Canadian Federation of Students and the Council of Canadians, which seeks to remove those provisions will be heard this October, so it can be acted on before the October 2019 federal election. The government's responding evidence is to be filed by Friday, March 30, 2018, and the plaintiffs are very worried that it will seek to defend the very provisions of the act it has promised repeatedly to remove.
The Charter Challenge seeks to overturn the same provisions of the Fair Elections Act the government has promised (and so far failed) to repeal, which restricted voting rights, including prohibiting the authority of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to authorize the use of the Voter Information Card as valid ID for voting, and limiting the CEO's authority to carry out voter education and outreach.
Background on the Charter Challenge is available here: https://canadians.org/charter-challenge.
Dylan Penner, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org.


Nanostructured Bi2Te3 (bismuth telluride) alloys are sandwiched between thin-film solar absorber plates and a heat sink to absorb both solar light and irradiation converting them to both energy and heat. The use of nanostructured Bismuth Telluride results in a 20-40% enhancement of thermoelectric properties over microstructured bismuth telluride. The concept is analogous to combining a solar water heater with a solar PV panel, creating a more efficient panel/heating element in a smaller footprint.
The solar absorber conducts heat and electricity to the thermoelectric nanostructures. These nanostructures transmit the conducted heat and electricity to the copper bottom plates, which act as electrical electrodes, radiation shields and heat spreaders. The new design overcomes some of the efficiency shortcomings of previous Solar Thermoelectric Generator (STeG) designs by encapsulating the solar absorber and thermoelectric device within a domed glass vacuum, allowing for minimal heat loss and greater absorption during morning and late afternoon.
This technology would enhance the energy production of STeG devices by boosting conversion efficiency.
The nanostructured bismuth telluride results in a 20-40% enhancement of thermoelectric properties when compared to microstructured bismuth telluride.


Preloading on Steam will begin next week.
Just a couple of weeks ahead of its release, Eidos Montreal has announced the Deus Ex: Mankind Divided system requirements, as well as the start time of preloading on Steam.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided preloading on Steam will begin at 9 am PT/12 pm ET/5 pm BST/6pm CEST on August 19, four days ahead of its release on August 23.


text:
2016 Politics: The Need to Advocate for Science, Food, and Human Nutrition
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By Deb Hamernik, President-Elect, ASAS
In 2016, many interesting and potentially far-reaching political events have already taken place. In May, Brazil impeached its President. In June, the United Kingdom (UK) voted to leave the European Union (EU). And, the presidential campaign in the United States (US) is filled with drama and controversy that will likely continue to escalate until the November elections. Each of these political scenarios provided the opportunity for the public to engage in discussions on a wide range of topics, including the economy, jobs, immigration, healthcare, education, international trade, and others. However, in none of these countries was science, agriculture, or food on the political agenda or a topic of debate. Yet, the ramifications of politics in Brazil, the UK and the US will likely have a long-lasting impact on science, food production, and human nutrition.
The most immediate impact of political change in Brazil is a potential disruption of funding for science. The interim president of Brazil downgraded Brazil's science ministry by fusing the federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation with the ministry that handles telecommunications and internet regulations. In addition, federal funding for research in Brazil was 37% lower in 2016 compared to 2015 and will likely be cut by an additional 6% this year due to declining oil revenues resulting from a bribery scandal that involves the major state-run oil company (1).
In the UK, it is too soon to tell how the vote to leave the EU will impact funding for science or science policy. EU funding programs have provided around 8 billion euros to scientists in the UK over the past 10 years. Scientists in the UK will be shut out of the EU's multi-billion euro Horizon 2020 program, if the UK restricts immigration or until the UK signs a new agreement with the EU. Scientists in the UK were also leading efforts to work around controversial issues associated with the use of federal funding for research with human embryonic stem cells. It is not clear if UK scientists will be allowed to participate in these policy issues in the future. What will happen to research facilities located in the UK that are owned by the EU? What will happen to trainees from other EU countries that are in programs located in the UK? What will happen to EU-funded collaborations that are led from the UK? Despite advocacy campaigns supported by overwhelming facts and empirical evidence generated by academic experts, lobby groups that represented scientists, and other scientific experts…52% of the UK public ignored this science-based evidence and voted to leave the EU. (2)
In addition, with the sharp decline in the British pound after the vote to leave the EU, the cost of imported meat (especially bacon) is expected to rise. Almost half of all meat products consumed in the UK are imported. The UK may have to independently negotiate new trade agreements with EU countries as well as with major beef exporting countries including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. More than half of Ireland's beef exports and around 60% of Ireland's pork exports go to the UK. After Brexit, Ireland will now be treated as a foreign country so that tariffs, regulatory barriers or other restrictions may be imposed and may lead to more than a billion euros in reduced trade and considerable damage to the UK's beef industry and rural economy. (3)
In the US, a Clinton presidency is expected to essentially be status quo for scientists, farmers, and ranchers while a Trump presidency is at best unpredictable. Funding for science or support for farm policy rarely gets more than a few seconds of media attention from either candidate. Instead, farmers and ranchers seem to be more interested in other national issues such as composition of the Supreme Court, additional regulatory burdens, and potential changes to the Constitution. Farmers and ranchers should likely pay more attention to issues associated with immigration and the potential for disruption in opportunities for international trade. Without sound policies for immigration the future workforce needed for crop, vegetable, and livestock production as well as meat processing plants may be in jeopardy and export markets for these food products may be limited. (4)
The US food system may be the biggest challenge and opportunity that is absent from the US political agenda. Human nutrition and the environmental impact of the food system are major policy issues that are in need of basic and applied research, education, and extension efforts. Production of food accounts for 70% of water use, significant release of greenhouse gases, and tremendous challenges to the oceans, biodiversity, and rural communities. Sustainable food production systems that are economically viable for producers, environmentally responsible, and socially acceptable are needed. Poor nutrition is the leading cause of poor health in the US and around the world. Americans spend more than $3 trillion annually on health care, including more than $1 trillion per year on diabetes, pre-diabetes, hear disease, obesity, and cancer. The only way to reduce the amount of money spent on preventable and curable diseases is through improved food choices, improved diets, and healthier lifestyles. In addition, Americans with lower incomes often have lower quality diets, reduced performance in school, lower wages, increased costs for health care, and more poverty. The gap between the size and scope of these problems and the media attention it receives is larger for food and nutrition than any other issue being debated by the presidential candidates. (5)
Now is the time for scientists, especially animal scientists around the world, to engage in discussions with politicians and the public to advocate for increased funding and science-based policies that will ensure the sustainable production of animal-sourced foods that promote human health and well-being. We must learn from the recent events in the UK and take every opportunity to use new communication methods (including social media) to elevate science, food, and human nutrition to the forefront of political agendas in countries around the world.
Angelo, Claudio. 2016. Brazil science woes mount. Nature 533: 301.
Abbott, Alison; Daniel Cressey; and Richard Van Noorden. 2016. UK scientists in limbo after Brexit shock. Nature 534: 597-598.
Murphy, Dan. Meat of the Matter: Assessing the aftermath. Drover's Cattle Network. http://www.cattlenetwork.com/community/meat-matter-assessing-aftermath Accessed on June 30, 2016.
Phipps, John. 2016. Trump or Clinton: Who is better for ag? Drover's Cattle Network. http://www.cattlenetwork.com/news/trump-vs-clinton-who-better-ag Accessed on June 30, 2016.
Mozaffarian, Dariush. 2016. Why our food is the single biggest election issue not on the table. Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/aspen-journal-of-ideas/food-single-biggest-election-issue-not-table/ Accessed on June 30, 2016.
TAGS: Newsletter 8


How to Choose the Best Paraphrasing Service for You?
In the academic discussion forums and social networks, one of the key questions that do the masters and doctorate students and academics is how to find and select the best provider of academic paraphrasing services.
Sometimes this question is asked about a disappointing experience they may have had due to choosing the wrong copywriting service provider.
In addition to their need for review services, academics and doctoral students often have to cite a source or consult a quote from another author during their research, and here lies the risk of plagiarism if they just copy and paste it. They must mold it with their own words and style using different words and structures while transmitting the original idea.
It is perfectly understandable why sometimes things go wrong for some students and academics who need a paraphrasing service.
The first and most important mistake is simply that they chose the wrong service provider. They can be deceived by the florid and eloquent language that these providers use in the description of their services.
Almost all paraphrasing service providers offer a free sample option to customers, especially new ones. In principle, every student or academic who wants to make the right decision should take advantage of this offer.
The more samples you receive from the suppliers, the better, because it will help you compare them with a certain number of criteria (quality, speed, cost). If this is the first time you are dealing with a provider, it is always best to try it first with the free sample option. If that does not happen often enough, it will cause disappointment.
The poor quality of a paraphrase is undoubtedly the result of a lack of knowledge about the art of paraphrasing.
Paraphrasing is not about replacing one word with another, or replacing a sentence with synonyms. Rather, it is about capturing the original text completely, digesting it and then converting it to a different style, structure, terminology and tone.
Unfortunately, many students and academics complain that the providers that tested them gave them a circumscribed version that was easily recognized as plagiarism. Recognizing the abrogated or plagiarized content was never so easy, thanks to the software available as Turnitin.
Therefore, it is highly recommended that students and academics seeking a professional paraphrase inform themselves about the best provider, try as many providers as possible and then compare the quality of their service. Only then can you be sure that you have made the right decision.


text:
Digging Deeper with Edith Wharton
By Rebecca Gross
EdithWharton.jpg
Edith Wharton. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress
Last Saturday marked Edith Wharton's birthday—she would have turned 153—so we thought we'd celebrate with a few facts you might not know about the Pulitzer Prize-winning Big Read author.
She kept up with the Joneses: Wharton was born Edith Newbold Jones, a daughter of one of New York's most prominent, wealthiest families. How rich were they? Well, it's purported that the phrase "Keeping up with the Joneses" actually originated with them.
The gilded life wasn't all it cracked up to be: The idea of leading a lavish life without financial worry would seem pretty ideal to most of us. For Wharton however, the social conventions that came with such a lifestyle could be unbearably suffocating. At that time, women of her position were expected to be ladies of society, not working professionals, and Wharton's writing was strongly discouraged by her mother. Marriage was also based on logistics rather than emotion—a good match enabled a lady to elevate, or at the minimum retain, her current social and financial position. This explains her own unhappy union with Edward "Teddy" Robbins Wharton, whom she wed in 1885 and divorced in 1913. Almost immediately upon marrying, she developed poor health, from migraines to asthma to depression. She began taking extended annual sojourns to Europe, where she finally found like-minded intellectual peers of both genders, who provided an outlet for her literary and artistic interests. (She also found romantic passion for the first time, with journalist Morton Fullerton.) Of course, her personal struggles with upper-class social customs became a boon for the rest of us, as they formed the basis of her novels such as House of Mirth (1905) and Age of Innocence (1920).
She began her writing career as a designer, not a novelist: It's true! Wharton's first published book was not one of the fictional masterpieces for which she is best-known. Instead, it was the nonfiction work The Decoration of Houses (1897), which she wrote with architect and friend Ogden Codman. The pair descried the crowded jumble of heavy, ornate furnishings favored by the Victorians, and called for a more minimalist approach. Wharton maintained an interest in design throughout her career, and published Italian Villas and their Gardens in 1904.
She fought for those less fortunate: When World War I broke out, Wharton was already living in France full-time. Appalled that the U.S. didn't join the Allied cause, she threw her energy into relief work, aiding those left behind on the front. While women were expected to contribute to the war effort by sewing, wrapping bandages, etc., they were rarely paid for their work. Wharton, however, established the first paying workroom in Paris, designed specifically for women who didn't have access to military income through their husbands or other close relatives. Her other relief activities including the establishment of three hostels in Paris for refugees from Belgium and northern France, providing them with food, shelter, clothing, and an employment agency; helping found the Children of Flanders Rescue Committee, which cared for refugee children orphaned when Germany invaded Belgium (the organization also took in infirm senior men and women); and arranging concerts for unemployed musicians.
She wasn't keen on stream-of-consciousness: Although considered a revolutionary literary form, stream-of-consciouness did not pass muster with Wharton. In a 1923 letter to friend Bernard Bereson, she described James Joyce's Ulysses as "a turgid welter of pornography (the rudest schoolboy kind) & unformed & unimportant drivel. Until the raw ingredients of a pudding make a pudding, I shall never believe that the raw material of sensation & thought can make a work of art without the cook's intervening." At the end, she adds, "The same goes for [T.S.] Eliot." She also wasn't crazy about Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, calling it a "a flow of gelatinous mass." Apparently, she also wasn't keen on sugarcoating.


text:
Cooperative Housing Is Redefining 'Home' for People with Disabilities
By sharing everything from services to accessibility renovations, co-housing strikes a balance between autonomy and affordability.
By: Eric Krebs
Credit: Kim Brookes / Flickr
There's a disability that affects three-quarters of Americans. It's one that, globally, contributes to an annual loss of over 60 million collective years of life. That disability is vision loss. And while vision loss is debilitating for 4.6 percent of Americans, the vast majority of those with imperfect vision are largely unencumbered by it thanks to corrective lenses.
This experience of having a disability accommodated is so common that most people hardly think of vision loss as a disability at all. But for people with more serious disabilities, it isn't so easy. One in four Americans has a serious cognitive or physical disability that affects their daily lives: 13.7 percent report mobility issues, 10.8 percent report cognitive impairment, 6.8 percent report difficulty living alone and 3.7 percent report difficulty in self-care, dressing, or bathing.
For these people, an affordable place to live that accommodates their disability is essential — and often, difficult to come by. "Living options for these people with disabilities are limited to being institutionalized or semi-independent living with [their] biological family, who are often overworked and too burnt out to provide such care," says Esther Lee, an attorney at the Disability Law Collective. Lee has cerebral palsy, a disability that, as she puts it, affects her speech and mobility, but not her spirit.
Lee is a co-founder of Able Community, a non-profit co-housing cooperative designed for folks with disabilities. Able Community operates a house in a suburb of Chicago that balances interdependence with independence — an opportunity that, for folks with disabilities, is rare.
Our first meal together at Able Community's house! Fish tacos and chicken tacos as seconds.
A post shared by Able Community (@ablecommunity) on Nov 6, 2017 at 4:45pm PST
Alongside advisory board members, the house's residents, including Lee herself, control and coordinate resources and care services, like food purchases, health care and maintenance. Through fundraising and pooling resources, they have been able to maintain the property and renovate the house to be more accommodating to their particular needs.
Beyond physical accommodation, the co-op has also brought members a sense of community, belonging and joy. "Community means having friends you can count on, who encourage one another, and problem-solve issues faced together," says Lee. This is what differentiates the Able Community from typical housing for folks with disabilities, which is typically controlled by government agencies, companies, or families.
Money is a major barrier to independent housing for folks with disabilities. The structure of benefit programs like SSI, SNAP and Medicaid create paradoxes for recipients. SSI recipients, for instance, can earn only up to $65 per month before SSI benefits begin to phase out. "People with disabilities often need to choose between benefits (e.g., health insurance that covers meds, equipment, care services, etc.) and earning more than poverty level wages, which would disqualify them from any benefits and make them pay for everything themselves at exorbitant costs," says Lee.
In 2019, only 19.3 percent of people with a serious disability were employed. And while Americans with serious disabilities qualify for Social Security Income, it is hardly enough to cover living expenses. In 2020, the maximum SSI monthly payout for an individual is $783, not enough to cover the median rent in any U.S. state. Over the last decade, the SSI benefit has grown by roughly 10 percent. Over the same period of time, nationwide rent increased by 46.5 percent.
This is where Able Community's model bridges the gap between affordability and autonomy. Supported by private donations, grants and member income, the housing is cheaper than market-rate renting and more independent than institutional housing. Services and essential purchases are collectively arranged, though Able Community makes clear on its website: "No, we are not a commune." The organization has plans to build a 20-unit inclusive co-housing community "committed to including people with disabilities, open to a wide range of incomes, skills, and capacities." The main barrier is not the imagination, will, or ability of the Able Community — just resources.
Proof exists that it can be done, however. The Able Community's goal of providing affordable, accessible co-housing at scale might look something like The Kelsey, a mixed-ability housing non-profit based in San Francisco.
Funded through grants, city funding, individual donations, investors and sponsors — including Google and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative — The Kelsey works to advocate for and directly build disability-inclusive housing in California. Building any new housing in California — especially in the Bay area — is an uphill battle, but in under two years, The Kelsey has secured permission for 240 new units of housing. The first project, set to break ground this winter after being delayed by the pandemic, is the Kelsey Ayer Station in San Jose.
The 115-unit Kelsey Ayer Station will be joined by the Kelsey Civic Center, a 125-unit development in the heart of San Francisco. Both will rent units at a number of income levels, and a quarter of the Civic units will be rented through the San Andreas Regional Center system, a branch of California's network of private-public partnership organizations that coordinate and provide services to Californians with disabilities.
A rendering of the forthcoming Kelsey Civic Center. Courtesy of The Kelsey
The goal is to create housing that is both beautiful and accessible. "These are units that anyone would want. This is just like any other apartment complex that you or I would be interested in renting from," says The Kelsey's Manager of Communications and Partnerships Eric Mondragon, adding that the building was designed with input from architect and disability advocate Erick Mikiten. "For anyone who needs a wheelchair or power chair to get around, and also for people with non-physical disabilities, we're thinking about interior design, color choice, lighting — it's not only people with physical disabilities but people with all disabilities."
Upon the projects' completion, The Kelsey plans to release a free guidebook for "Universal Design" guidelines for accessible homes.
These projects don't come cheap, however. Kelsey Ayer Station is projected to cost $75 million, a reflection of California's expensive housing market and the often-high cost of building accessible housing. But Mikiten argues that housing for people with disabilities shouldn't be seen as a niche amenity for a particular group. "Universal Design is not about disability; it's about better living for everyone," he writes on his website.
This principle applies beyond architecture. "[For people with disabilities], the process to find a place to live as a roommate or stay as a vacationer is very difficult; it requires many more steps than for someone without a disability," says Jeff Hinz, co-founder of Dwellability, a start-up that helps people with disabilities find roommates and vacation rentals. "A lot of times, people with disabilities have to hide their disabilities out of fear of shame and rejection, that they won't be accepted."
Hinz's service, which he co founded three years ago with his wife Elizabeth who has a disability, now has over 2,500 members. Dwellability's goal is to build a community of renters and vacationers with disabilities, and, for Hinz, "community means that there is someone in your home who knows what you need."
Housing models like these are premised on this notion, as well as the notion that when you center the voices of people with disabilities, accessibility follows. As Mondragon put it, "Rather than speak about people with disabilities, we have to include them and let them speak for themselves. There's no need for us to speak for them."
Eric Krebs
Eric Krebs is a writer from Queens, New York. He has written for the New York Times, Slate, and Bloomberg, among others.
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