DAY: May 18 2024

• 5-18-2024 HAVE SMARTPHONES KILLED THE ART OF CONVERSATION? Once upon a time, human relationships unfolded without smartphones. The reality may be hard to recall, so profoundly have these devices transformed the way we relate to the world and others in fifteen years or so. As an anthropologist interested in modernity, I am particularly preoccupied by the impact of these devices on our conversations. In my book, “The End of the Conversation? Words in a Spectral Society” (French original: “La fin de la conversation? La parole dans une société spectrale”), I investigate the pernicious effects of this technology
• 5-18-2024 HOW TO REWARD EMPLOYEES FAIRLY AND IMPROVE TEAM DYNAMICS A recent study has shed light on how to reward employees more fairly and improve team dynamics. The study found that when less skilled employees report their performance voluntarily, they often exaggerate their achievements and ask for higher bonuses. These employees also tend to put in less effort and are less concerned about fairness when sharing their contributions voluntarily. Interestingly, the researchers discovered that requiring employees to explain their contributions leads to fairer decisions about bonus allocation and improves
• 5-19-2024 BILLIONS ARE SPENT ON EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, BUT WE DON’T KNOW IF IT WORKS During the COVID lockdowns, schools and universities worldwide relied on education technology—edtech—to keep students learning. They used online platforms to give lessons, mark work and send feedback, used apps to teach and introduced students to programs that let them work together on projects. In the aftermath of school closures, the market for edtech has kept on growing. The value of the sector is projected to rise to US$132.4 billion globally by 2032. The problem is that we don’t know very much about how effective many edtech apps or programs
• 5-19-2024 STUDY FINDS CONSUMERS WILLING TO PAY MORE FOR NATURALLY COLORED COTTON CLOTHING Research has looked at consumer attitudes toward naturally colored cotton clothing. The study found that amid increasing concerns over the environmental impact of conventional cotton processing, consumers are willing to pay more for a greener T-shirt.
• 5-18-2024 HOW AI IS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF SALES STRATEGIES In the fast-evolving business landscape, artificial intelligence, or AI, is taking center stage in transforming sales processes, making them more efficient and responsive to the dynamic market demands. A new University of Alabama at Birmingham study titled “AI in Sales: Laying the Foundations for Future Research” highlights the pivotal role AI is playing in reshaping the sales sector.
• 5-18-2024 WHEN CONSUMERS WOULD PREFER A CHATBOT OVER A PERSON Actually, sometimes consumers don’t want to talk to a real person when they’re shopping online, a new study suggests. In fact, what they really want is a chatbot that makes it clear that it is not human at all. In a new study, researchers found that people preferred interacting with chatbots when they felt embarrassed about what they were buying online—items like antidiarrheal medicine or, for some people, skin care products. “In general, research shows people would rather interact with a human customer service agent
• 5-18-2024 NEW STUDY REVEALS THE POTENTIAL OF COACHING EMPLOYEES TO DRIVE NEW STRATEGIC IDEAS In the landscape of modern business, inclusion isn’t just a buzzword—it’s a strategic imperative. Companies like IBM, Volkswagen and Starbucks are moving to more participative strategy development approaches that reflect a growing understanding of the importance of diversity in fostering innovative and creative strategic ideas. Yet the outcomes of inclusive strategy processes often fall short of expectations. A new study in the Strategic Management Journal sheds light on why that may be. In their study of an inclusive strategy process in a large insurance company, Violetta Splitter, along with co-authors
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS SHOW WAYS TO PROPEL PRODUCT SUCCESS New research explores the key strategies that firms should adopt when launching a new product. The researchers say that these strategies depend on the current market view of the product and the firm. Employing the correct one, which might sometimes be collaborating with overtly demanding reviewers or instituting rather challenging pilot tests, ensures that the product launch will go as successfully as possible.
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS DEVELOP ALGORITHMS TO UNDERSTAND HOW HUMANS FORM BODY PART VOCABULARIES An example of the study’s language sample and the words for arm/hand and leg/foot in English and Wolof. Human bodies have similar designs. However, languages differ in the way they divide the body into parts and name them. For example, English speakers have two words for foot and leg, whereas other languages express the concepts foot and leg in one word.
• 5-18-2024 STUDY FINDS AVOIDING SOCIAL MEDIA BEFORE AN ELECTION HAS LITTLE TO NO EFFECT ON PEOPLE’S POLITICAL VIEWS In the weeks before and after the 2020 presidential election, researchers ran a number of tests to try to understand how much Facebook and its corporate cousin, Instagram, may be contributing to the nation’s political divide. One of those experiments—led by Matthew Gentzkow and Hunt Allcott, economics professors at Stanford University—centered on more than 35,000 Facebook and Instagram users who were paid to stay off the platforms in the run-up to Election Day. There’s a lot that researchers could glean from the social media hiatus, including whether people’s political attitudes
• 5-18-2024 USING COMPUTER MODELS TO UNDERSTAND THE DEBATE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE Different types of noise and how they act inside or outside the social interaction process. Cognitive biases are among the most important factors that prevent people from changing their minds. Climate change deniers and climate activists often tend to accept only information that confirms their respective opinions on the matter. However, opinion dynamics are also influenced by a factor that the researchers call “ambiguity noise.” Unlike biases, ambiguity noise is variable, depends on many random factors, and leads to inconsistent judgment.
• 5-18-2024 FOR SOME INDIGENOUS SOUTHERN PLAINS TRIBES, AN ORIGINAL FLUTE SONG IS THE FIRST STEP TOWARD MARRIAGE “Warrior with flute” by Timothy Tate Nevaquaya. Used with permission. Credit: Timothy Tate Nevaquaya Every love story is unique, and in traditional Indigenous Southern Plains culture, it begins with an original ballad performed on the flute. In order to win a lover’s affection, and respect among the tribe, each pursuer must compose one good flute serenade. Paula Conlon, a former music professor at the University of Oklahoma, has researched the history and cultural significance of the Indigenous flute since the 1980s. Conlon presents her work Tuesday, May 14, at 9:45
• 5-18-2024 WANT TO BE AN INFLUENCER? OUR RESEARCH SHOWS WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW FIRST You’re hard at work, lying in a hammock, composing the perfect selfie on the beach. The turquoise sea sets off the idyllic sunset, and just visible though the fronds of a palm tree is the logo of the hotel which is paying you to promote it to your millions of followers on Instagram. Click. The perfect shot. And another typically perfect day in the life of an influencer. Or is it? Certainly a career as an influencer can seem appealing. The work generally involves promoting products or services through sponsored
• 5-18-2024 WHY STUDENTS CHEAT IN ONLINE EXAMS Media psychologists at the University of Cologne have studied how students’ individual needs, conceptions and reasons relate to cheating behavior in online exams. Online exams have become a more common type of exam at universities, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. They are advantageous because they save time and offer flexibility. However, cheating attempts present a big challenge for lecturers. This is why universities have been working on ways to thwart cheating in online exams by putting organizational and technical measures into place.
• 5-18-2024 WHY STUDENTS CHEAT IN ONLINE EXAMS Trust and distrust in social media coexisted in the study participants. Credit: Emmaline Nelsen Are anti-misinformation interventions on social media working as intended? It depends, according to a new study surveyed over 1,700 participants in the United States, revealing that anti-misinformation features increased users’ awareness of misinformation in social media; but did not make them more likely to share information on social media
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Seventy-eight percent of people in England and Wales think that crime has gone up in the last few years, according to the latest survey. But the data on actual crime shows the exact opposite. As of 2024, violence, burglary and car crime have been declining for 30 years and by close to 90%, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)—our best indicator of true crime levels. Unlike police data, the CSEW is not subject to variations in reporting and recording. The drop in violence includes domestic violence
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Can we truly assess whether someone finds us attractive? Cognitive psychologist Iliana Samara discovered that men, in particular, tend to overestimate the interest of their date. She explains why this may be. “Imagine you walk into a packed bar, looking for a date. Your eyes are naturally drawn to attractive faces. If you’re a man and find someone attractive, you’re more likely to assume they’re also interested in you. “Then, when you approach them, whether you’re a man or woman
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Having more education has long been linked to better individual health. But those benefits are also contagious, say the co-authors of a new working paper. “It’s not just that the individuals who have more years of education are in better health,” said David M. Cutler, Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics. “It’s that even people with fewer years of education—for example, people with just a high school degree—are in better health when they live around
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? Our research on children in early primary years, show they are better are writing with a pen or pencil than a keyboard. Children today are growing up surrounded by technology. So it’s easy to assume they will be able to write effectively using a keyboard. But our research suggests this is not necessarily true. We need to actively teach students to be able to type as well as write using paper and pen or pencil. Our research Our research team has published two recent
• 5-18-2024 MOST CRIME HAS FALLEN BY 90% IN 30 YEARS—SO WHY DOES THE PUBLIC THINK IT’S INCREASED? The provision of therapies for children and young people (CYP) with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) can be an affectively challenging, sometimes procedurally complex, process for the various stakeholders involved. However, the efficiency and effectiveness of this process, are crucial to various outcomes, in particular
• 5-18-2024 HOW DO MINDFULNESS, COMPASSION AND NEED FULFILLMENT AFFECT SATISFACTION IN MIDLIFE MARRIED COUPLES? Many people practice mindfulness or self-compassion techniques in their everyday life as part of their normal self-care routine. Although many studies support the individual benefits of mindfulness and self-compassion, few have focused on romantic relationship outcomes. A new study published in Personal Relationships has examined how mindfulness, self- and other-compassion, and need fulfillment relate to relationship and sexual satisfaction in midlife married couples. The study involved survey results from 640 adults aged 40–59 years who were residing in Canada and were married. Mindfulness is the nonjudgmental attention and awareness to
• 5-18-2024 HOW ENTERTAINMENT BRANDS ARE ADAPTING TO GENERATION ALPHA Growing up, did you play with hyper-sexualized Barbie dolls, boys-only Thomas the Tank Engine trains, or slim, white Disney princesses? If so, you’re not alone, but this is no longer the case for Generation Alpha. Brands like Mattel, once criticized for promoting unrealistic body standards and gender stereotypes, now portray themselves as feminist and progressive. The recent Barbie movie serves as a prime example of this shift. Millennial parents are actively seeking out toys, books and movies to educate their children about life and teach them values that align
• 5-18-2024 STUDENTS WITH DYSLEXIA FACE CHALLENGES TRANSITIONING TO THE WORKPLACE, BUT WITH SUPPORT THEY CAN THRIVE Transitioning from university to the workplace is a critical period in anyone’s life, but it can be especially challenging for students with dyslexia. While academic settings often offer accommodations for people with dyslexia, professional environments often fall short on such support systems. Fortunately, there are strategic interventions that can be established in workplaces to help individuals with dyslexia not only adapt, but excel in their careers. It is estimated that up to 20% of the population has dyslexia and 80% of people with a learning disability have dyslexia
• 5-18-2024 BUSINESSES UNINTENTIONALLY DISCOURAGE DIVERSE IDEAS, FINDS STUDY Businesses influence the ideas they receive from external contributors by unintentionally signaling which ideas they like, a research analyzed 1.44 million ideas to understand how organizations unknowingly shape the ideas they receive. Data came from organizations that asked visitors how they could improve their websites before choosing which ideas to use. Chosen ideas were communicated for all to see.
• 5-18-2024 WHAT’S IN A NAME? A LINGUISTICS EXPERT EXPLAINS WHY SOME BABY NAMES DOMINATE THE CHARTS YEAR AFTER YEAR What do names like Noah, James, Mateo, Mia, Evelyn and Luna all have in common? They’re not only some of the top baby names in the United States, but they also seem to flow off the tongue. And that’s exactly why parents love them. On May 10, the Social Security Administration released a list of the top baby names in the United States in 2023. Liam and Olivia maintained the number one spot in their respective categories for the fifth consecutive year while Noah and Emma also retained second place.
• 5-18-2024 ACCESS TO GARDENS AND CITIZEN SCIENCE HELPS ENCOURAGE CONSERVATION AMONG CHILDREN, STUDY SHOWS Access to gardens and citizen science projects at school can help promote pro-conservation behavior among pupils, a new study shows. Offering children the chance to take part in authentic scientific ecological work and gardening encourages an interest in plants. This can change behavior—to spend more time gardening or to pursue a botanical career—and fuels a positive attitude towards safeguarding the environment, experts found
• 5-18-2024 WHAT PROFESSIONALS EXPECT FROM FUTURE EMPLOYERS Employers who want to attract new talent should recognize diversity and enable inclusion. This is confirmed by a representative study by IU International University of Applied Sciences (IU), which surveyed more than 1,200 trainees and students across Germany. The results clearly show that 75.1% of prospective employees consider it very or somewhat important that companies implement measures to promote diversity and inclusion. This suggests that companies that communicate these measures openly and transparently
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCH LINKS VOTER BEHAVIOR IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO HOUSING MARKET PERFORMANCE If the 21st century has proven anything to the United States electorate, it is that presidential elections are notoriously unpredictable affairs. The seeming randomness by which the country’s electorate chooses its next president has only emboldened polling outlets, talking heads, and amateur psephologists to scrutinize every conceivable variable to give their respective electoral forecasting models a much-needed edge. However, Sherwood Clements, collegiate assistant professor of real estate in the Pamplin College of Business, had an electoral theory that, to the best of his knowledge, had never been explored with regards
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCH LINKS VOTER BEHAVIOR IN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO HOUSING MARKET PERFORMANCE If the 21st century has proven anything to the United States electorate, it is that presidential elections are notoriously unpredictable affairs. The seeming randomness by which the country’s electorate chooses its next president has only emboldened polling outlets, talking heads, and amateur psephologists to scrutinize every conceivable variable to give their respective electoral forecasting models a much-needed edge. However, Sherwood Clements, collegiate assistant professor of real estate in the Pamplin College of Business, had an electoral theory that, to the best of his knowledge, had never been explored with regards
• 5-18-2024 MECHANISTIC MODEL SHOWS HOW MUCH GOSSIP IS NEEDED TO FOSTER SOCIAL COOPERATION Gossip often has a negative connotation, but imagine you are part of a group deciding on a job candidate to hire or a local political candidate to back. Candidates who get a good reputation by helping others may be more likely to receive help in the form of a job offer or endorsement, a feedback loop known as indirect reciprocity. Gossip can facilitate cooperation. Previous research has shown that people tend to cooperate more when they think their peers are gossiping about their behavior, gossip
• 5-18-2024 SINGING RESEARCHERS FIND CROSS-CULTURAL PATTERNS IN MUSIC AND LANGUAGE Are acoustic features of music and spoken language shared across cultures? Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen have contributed to a global study of music and speech, published in Science Advances. An international team of researchers recorded themselves performing traditional music and speaking in their native language. In all 50+ languages
• 5-18-2024 NEW RESEARCH REVEALS JUST HOW FEW LGBTQI+ PEOPLE PLAY SPORTS The topic of homophobia in sport has recently made headlines in Australia, with a series of homophobic incidents involving men’s AFL players. These homophobic incidents are usually well-reported in news media, but research has rarely explored the impact on participation for LGBTQI+ people. Fresh research into the problem Our new research is one of the first pieces of academic research in Australia to document how many LGBTQI+ people play and engage with sport. We also explored current levels of discrimination across sport in Australia, and the barriers and enablers
• 5-18-2024 SWIPE RIGHT OR LEFT? HOW DATING APPS ARE IMPACTING MODERN MASCULINITY What it means to be a man is changing. Critical men or masculinity studies is an emerging robust research field that explores how men and masculinity are being transformed by shifting socio-economic, sexual and political conditions in our post-industrial world. Fascinating new male-identifying sub-cultures and communities have emerged, like mushroomcore and dandies. Yet heteronormative masculinity is typically framed as threatening, toxic or maladaptive, as in the case of fragile masculinity. In my years of swiping on dating apps, I encountered different kinds of masculinities, as well as some very offensive
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS SAY AUTOMATED NEWS VIDEO PRODUCTION IS BETTER WITH A HUMAN TOUCH AI-generated videos for short messages are only as well received as manually created ones if they are edited by humans. News organizations—including Bloomberg, Reuters, and The Economist—have been using AI powered video services to meet growing audience demand for audio-visual material. A study recently published in the journal Journalism now shows that the automated production of news videos is better with human supervision. Technology providers like Wochit and Moovly are allowing publishers to mass produce videos at scale. But what do audiences think of the results? Researchers led by LMU
• 5-18-2024 HOW ‘ETHICAL INFLUENCERS’ ENGAGE THEIR AUDIENCES ABOUT SAVING THE PLANET Have a quick think back to the last time you scrolled through social media. Maybe it was this morning, last night or a few minutes ago. What do you recall? One thing you’re bound to remember is the continuous stream of influencers showing off their latest content. These could be videos of influencers discussing the latest skin-care products, the trendiest places to eat, their latest shopping haul or the PR packages they received from various brands. Much of social media influencing is about getting consumers to buy more products.
• 5-18-2024 ALLYSHIP IS ESSENTIAL TO NEW MOTHERS RETURNING TO WORK, SAYS STUDY Returning to work after parental leave can be one of the most challenging experiences for any parents, especially mothers, to navigate. Fortunately, there are simple, kind and thoughtful ways in which organizational members—regardless of formal status, parental identity or gender identity—can help mothers feel supported as they return to work, which can also benefit job satisfaction and maternal well-being.
• 5-18-2024 STUDY FINDS SAYING ‘PLEASE’ MAY NOT BE SO POLITE IN EVERYDAY REQUESTS By kindergarten age, most children have been taught that “please” is a magic word. “Please” is an expression of politeness that shows courtesy and respect, turning a potential demand into a request that will—poof!—magically be granted. But a new study on the ways people make requests of one another suggests that “please” might not be an all-purpose marker of politeness, but rather a more focused, strategic tool to manage frictions or obstacles among family members, friends and even coworkers.
• 5-18-2024 MILITARY RANK AFFECTS MEDICAL CARE, OFFERING SOCIETAL INSIGHTS: STUDY Stock project from Pexels Human relationships are inherently shaped by power dynamics, yet quantifying their impact has remained a scientific challenge. Now, a large new study published Thursday in the journal Science reveals that military doctors give more attention to higher-ranked patients, providing concrete evidence about the privileges that come with elevated status, frequently at the expense of the less powerful. “One of the things we are trying to show is that this is not a military-specific analysis,”
• 5-18-2024 RESEARCHERS DISCUSS CURRENT STATE OF HOMOPHOBIA, TRANSPHOBIA AND BIPHOBIA Gender-neutral bathrooms, conversion therapy and Quebec’s advisory committee on gender identity have been in the news lately. These are polarizing, hot-button issues. While there have been legislative and social advances for LGBTQ+ rights, ignorance and discrimination persist and continue to negatively affect the lives of many. On May 17, the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia, UdeMNouvelles asked two Université de Montréal professors and researchers who are experts in the field to share their views.
• 5-18-2024 PICKLEBALL COURTS IN A LEGAL PICKLE OVER THE ASSOCIATED NOISE Experts recommend HOAs and communities consider the “popping” noise associated with pickleball when deciding to build courts near homes. Credit: AIP Pickleball Legal Consultant is a job title that likely did not exist a decade ago, but as pickleball courts infiltrate neighborhoods to satiate an appetite for a sport whose namesake is a snack, communities take issue with the resulting influx of noise. Now homeowners’ associations and city councils face litigation by those whose lives are disrupted by pickleball’s din. Charles Leahy, an attorney, retired mechanical engineer, and former HOA
• 5-18-2024 TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING HOW COMPANIES DO BUSINESS In the fast-paced world of modern business, technology plays a crucial role in shaping how companies operate. One area where this impact is particularly significant is in the organization of production chains—specifically the way goods are made and distributed. A new study from the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business advances understanding of the U.S. production chain evolution amidst technological progress in information technology (IT), shedding light on the complex connections between business IT investments and organizational design. Advances in IT have sparked significant changes in how companies design
• 5-18-2024 HOW DOES THE US KNOW THAT FORCED LABOR IS HAPPENING IN CHINA? A SUPPLY CHAIN EXPERT WEIGHS IN The Biden administration has added 26 more companies to the list of Chinese textile traders and manufacturers whose goods are blocked from entering the United States because of their alleged ties to forced labor. The banned imports, known as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act Entity List, names businesses that are said to be involved in exploiting

Hey everyone! Random Appalachian here. I just wanted to check back in with you all and provide some updates, as well as some exciting, if personal, news. I have to type this quick, as my work break ends soon, so pardon any typos, grammatical errors, or weirdly structured sentences.
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a park ranger in real life, and work at a wildlife reserve in Ohio. We’ve been having some issues with vandalism in our northern woods for a few months, and despite our best attempts, haven’t been able to find the culprit. It’s been immensely frustrating, especially when more paint has shown up on more trails, ranging from slashes, lines, and crosses, to dots and even letters. Normally we wouldn’t get too bent out of shape over a few trees being painted, but it’s well over 60 at this point, and widespread throughout the forest. None of the official people who help us maintain the trails in that area say they are responsible, and yet many of the markings seem to be blazes for trails. However the markings are at times absurdly close together, or in abstract places that make no logical sense. One “trail” is no more than perhaps 30 yards long and runs right along a massive clearing in a semi-circle, within plain sight of the clearing, and goes to nowhere; it goes into the woods, and pops back out into the clearing only 30-ish yards away. Most of our established trails that have been painted already have well-made trail markings of our own, and the trails are well-blazed. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to why these things are there at all. I don’t think it’s anything sinister, though the painter has left his/her paint cans in the woods before, so at the very least, they’re a litterbug. There is the concern about potential poaching, which can be a problem in our area. Sure, deer and turkey are commonplace in my rural community, but they are only that way because of conservation and game laws that keep populations intact. Local hunters play a big part in conservation, and if someone starts taking more than their fair share through poaching, that means less for everyone else, and upsets the balance of things. The sad thing is, unlike legal hunters who often hunt for meat for their families, (food is expensive nowadays) poachers usually do it for trophies, antlers, or ‘fans’ from the turkey tail-feathers. But our painter has yet to take any game to our knowledge. We’ve found no gut piles, blood, or discarded gear anywhere. So, if he’s not poaching . . . what on earth does he want?
Then a few weeks ago, we did find a camera inside our central perimeter.
To put this into perspective, we have roughly 10,000 acres to our little reserve. Only 1/3 is fenced in, containing our exotic animals for our tours, and our buildings that we use to operate. Offices, mechanical garages, barns, and storage sheds, that sort of thing. Usually if we have trespassing issues, it's in the northern woods, which is open to the public for walking/biking trails. Sometimes in the southern prairie reserve we get some wanderers, but it's pretty open, so people tend to shy away from it. But our interior, the central area, most of which is fenced in, is sacred ground for us. We have a children’s camp in there for kids to learn about nature, we have our animal barns, and even some staff housing. For people to walk around in there would be like a stranger walking through your bedroom at night, while you’re in the shower.
Not cool. Not cool at all.
One of our ecology survey teams found the camera in a lesser-used section a mile or so north of the children’s camp. Naturally, they assumed it was one of ours, until one of the staff innocently asked another ranger why we’d put a camera by that lake. When the ranger told her that we didn’t have any cameras there, it began to sink in.
We either have two trespassers, or the painter has decided to move his game further into our land.
I’m hoping it’s the former, that I’m overthinking things, but after all, the mystery painter had to have seen a few of the trail cameras we put up in the north to catch him. Could he be doing this as a form of tit-for-tat? I don’t know, but it’s got us rangers frustrated, and our ecology team is spooked. It was fun and games in the unpopulated north, but now he’s getting close to our people, our guests, and our animals. This is serious now. We removed the camera, but there’s not really much we can do without more patrols, more cameras, and more rangers. With our budget already restricted, the last part just isn’t possible.
My foray into trail cameras yielded no results as to a culprit. In fact, the day I came in early to pull them out of the field, it seemed nothing went right. Only two came off the tree, as I forgot the keys for the locks for the other two. I couldn’t find the last one at first, and darkness fell before I could locate it, so that I was wandering around in the northern district in the blackness searching for it. Inadvertently this helped me find the camera in the end; I saw the red light flash as it took my picture and was able to retrieve the SD card. It was in my long return trek to the patrol truck that I discovered the marks on a remote trail I hadn’t walked yet. A capital O and a capital N were scrawled in various places, with dots over the letters. I took German in university, so I know they aren’t grammatical marks from that language, known as umlauts (pronounced as “oomlout” for my fellow English speakers; for all my German speakers, if I spelled that wrong, I apologize). I’d left my phone in the truck (stupid rookie move for a seasoned ranger, I know) so I couldn’t take any photos, and didn’t want to follow the trail too far in the pitch dark. I had a flashlight with spare batteries, as well as my gun (I’m not a complete moron after all) but I didn’t have time to do much exploring, since I had other duties in the park that were waiting on me. I had some VIP’s that were coming in late, and had to be escorted, which meant I had to clamber back to my truck, swatting at mosquitos the whole way. Nothing on the cameras showed any definitive proof, though we might have a lead on a guy with a bow case on his back. Could be nothing though; it’s not illegal to wear camo or carry things, and it could very well have been a camera case, a backpack, or an empty bow case.
In any event, we rangers are working on a strategy for changing up our patrol routes and putting more cameras in the field, as well as checking in on the children’s camp frequently throughout the night. So far, this mystery person hasn’t actually hurt anything that we know of, but even if this is just local kids having a prank, it’s not funny anymore.
Anyway, on to the other news. For the aforementioned reasons, as well as others, I’ve been super swamped this past month, and so writing on the third book in the Barron County trilogy has been slow. I wanted to release it at the beginning of June, but at this rate, I’m going to have to push that back to late June, possibly early July. I hate to think I’ve disappointed you all, but it’s just not ready yet. That, and I’ve been busy with something else . . . something big.
I’m getting married next week.
It’s been a long time coming, but my fiancé and I are super excited. We’ve known each other since kindergarten and have been best friends since forever. We’ve both been running like chickens with our heads cut off to get everything ready, and naturally, we’re both exhausted/somewhat nervous. Our honeymoon will require some flying, and since my fiancé has never been on a plane before, that’s a point of nervousness for her. I’m sure she’ll be fine once we’re in the air, but until then, she’s a bundle of nerves.
All that is to say, I am working on the story, it’s just taking a bit. I cannot wait to get back into the swing of things for all of you and thank you again for your supreme patience in this. You guys and gals are great, and entertaining you all is a massive privilege. Stay tuned for the third installment of the Barron County trilogy, and the epic conclusion of Hannah Brun’s journey into the unknown! Until next time.

Generally, compared with Gen X kids like myself, they seem more able to handle conflict, more mindful, more tolerant of other kids struggles, more empathetic, more concerned with injustice and ecological issues.
Even the teenagers are more polite (I can't even remember the last time a teenager mouthed off at me...)
At my daughter's kindergarten, the kids get good conduct points which they spend on treats, etc. My daughter spent some of hers on an event... lunch for her and a friend with her teacher.
For her dining companion she picked a kid who transferred to her class from another kindergarten last week in order to "make her feel welcome".
I don't know where she gets it from.
5yo me? I would have blown my points on the toy chest in a heartbeat.

We all know there is a problem with the education system in America. We know there is a mental health crisis in colleges, we know there is a financial crisis, and we know the way we go about fixing these issues is not working. Because if whatever it was that we are doing is working, we would see a difference, and we do not. I am an undergraduate college student in America. And I am done having to sit back and wait for someone else to speak up and do something for once for the students. Having the personal experience as a current student has given me a few ideas on what could be done, changed, or implemented, to make even the slightest difference.

The Flaws with the Current Grading System:

I am in no way a writer, or a public speaker. I am a math major, and thrive in equations and proofs and the unknown. However, beyond who I am as a student, I am also a human being. Part of being human is the way we take in the world, take in information, and ponder our existence and place in this world. We ponder who we are, what we want to do, what we could do. And especially being a teenager, I wonder, is the current reality really the future I want to be in? Another really cool thing about being human is how we are able to make connections with things that are seemingly unrelated. What got me thinking at first about a "solution" to the current education system crisis, was the show The Good Place on Netflix. Yeah, really. It isn't directly connected to the education system at all, but, spoilers for the "message/ending" of the show, the way in which no matter how awful someone might have been in their lifetime, they are given second, third, fourth, as many chances to be better as they need, rather than just be sent directly to the bad place, resonated with me. Then came an idea, the first "solution" I thought of. Imagine a grading system where, instead of just receiving a letter grade and moving on, you are able to go back, retake the tests, redo the assignments, until you show true understanding of the material. No, not just a "you can retake the test and get half of the points back you lost if you get the answers right". That is not learning. That is a "I need a certain percentage to pass in order to get my degree". What even is the point of learning if that is our standard? Beyond that, receiving a low grade without the chance to show understanding, is a major confidence slash, and can lead to the very mental health issues we see in college students who are stressed about passing. Of course, that leads to the question, but what about time. You do not have infinite time to just retake the same thing over and over, what about the rest of the course material that needs to be covered in the few months of a semester?
And this is the big question I am grappling with. You need to have an understanding of prior content to be able to have an understanding of future content, so brushing past something that a student doesn't understand will not help them understand future content anyway, leading to a near grade-death spiral. And it really leads to the question of what is the point of taking a class in college? To get a grade so you can get credit and get a diploma that says hey, you can now be in the workforce under this speciality, or to genuinely learn. To foster curiosity, to give us knowledge of the world we live in, to nourish and exercise our minds, to become better humans. The whole point of school and learning nowadays is to throw students into the workforce, into the machine that is capitalism. No longer does it give opportunities to let all students grow to their potential, to give students confidence that they can use their knowledge to do something amazing, to change the world. It only gives the picture of living under a system, of living under standards, of someone above them dictating whether they are good enough. And that needs to change. The very purpose of school, of, I'll just say it, but its a HUGE can of worms, the purpose of society, needs to change. What is means to be human is not to live UNDER others, but to live WITH others, and to explore who you are, without the restraints of the conveyer belt we are currently living on.
So, that "solution" won't exactly work. Not in the current world we live in. We cannot just do a complete change in how we teach our future generations. Not with bureaucracy, not with whoever it is that oversees everything, not with how our society functions. It seems to be working alright, besides the whole we are heading into environmental and societal collapse in a few years because colleges spit out workers instead of thinkers and passionate, creative, non-robotic humans. We know the problems: mental health is worsening for students, the grading system doesn't exactly represent understanding, creativity and passion are being stifled. The solution of letting students retake assignments and quizzes/tests to show complete understanding won't work because of time, (and yes, I truly believe that everyone can eventually understand something fully, it just takes different ways of teaching, and that is genuinely how we exercise our brains and learn to overcome difficulties...). So what is the solution? All I can think of, is baby steps. And the very first baby step we can all take, is to acknowledge there is a problem, to speak up, to brainstorm together, and to implement anything new in a very gradual way. So. Let's begin. We know the overarching problems. We can break those down into smaller problems, and keep breaking them down until we find something small that we can at least attempt to fix. To fix the wound one stitch at a time.
Alright. Overarching problem: mental health crisis in college students. What could cause this: stress from having to maintain a letter grade to get credit for classes to pass and get their diploma, worrying about a bleak or monotonous future, having to navigate personal life / finances on top of being a student. The last one, I can already imagine, others may say that that will give students real-life experience. I honestly laugh at that, as why would a student need to go through pain just to be ready for the "real world"? Doesn't that sound like a problem to you? Not one we can immediately fix, no, we don't have a fix-all solution, but we can acknowledge there is a problem. Let's begin then, instead, with the current grading and overall teaching system. We can subdivide some of the problems of this as well: the grading and teaching system doesn't take into account different styles of learning/showing understanding, it barely takes into account extenuating circumstances, it causes low-confidence with low letters which leads to grade-spirals, overall it doesn't accurately reflect whether someone should receive credit or not. Take the simplest example of a student cramming/memorizing content for a test, and forgetting most of it within the next week. Is that really showing understanding?
Our current system of slapping on a letter grade and calling that the measure of whether someone knows the content of the course / puts in effort, is one of the biggest issues in the system. With this, the first thing I want to discuss is the current grading system.
Most of us know and have a love/hate relationship with the current grading system. 90-100 is an A, with certain percentages giving you an A- or A+, same with 80-89 for a B, 70-79 for a C, 60-69 for a D, and a Fail for anything under 60. At surface level, this system seems to make sense. An average person should have a mastery of around 75% of the material in order to use that knowledge. If you know and have a mastery of 90+% of the material of a course, you are exceptional and receive a high grade. But, what exactly is the point of letter grades anyway? A teacher in a blog said: "Letter grades give my students a clear way to measure their progress and the motivation to do well because they have a clear goal they can measure and see. They don't get that with a pass/fail system." https://study.com/blog/why-letter-grades-work-for-my-teaching-style.html#:~:text=Letter%20grades%20give%20my%20students,with%20a%20pass%2Ffail%20system.
We also use letter grades to determine who gets / keeps scholarships, and who ultimately gets credit for their courses. Obviously a student who doesn't show up to class and doesn't do half of the work should not receive the same credit as another student who puts in effort and attends the classes, right? The student who works hard will get at least a C, or even above average, and if they don't, they can use the low letter grade/percentage as motivation to do better! Well. This only works in a perfect, one-dimensional world, with one-dimensional students. But students are not one-dimensional. They are not two-dimensional either. They are human beings, as well as students, with human minds. And what it means to be human, and to have a human mind, well. That is the question of the times. The best I can say is that to be a human is to be multi-dimensional. To be a family member, and a student, and a person with emotions and an individual way of thinking and perceiving the world and navigating through difficulties because everyone in this world faces things they are never fully prepared for. Yet the education system treats students like they are just that, just students. It is time that they begin to factor in that students are human.
Every single person has a different mind, different way of thinking, of learning, of handling what life throws their way. https://web.wlu.ca/learning_resources/pdfs/Learning_Styles.pdf gives a summary of a few different learning styles. There are visual learners, who thrive off of seeing the content they are meant to learn, of seeing examples of it in real life, of viewing the geometries of the math, of seeing the movie of the book and the human emotions behind the psychology. There are auditory learners, who learn best when hearing the material, who thrive in lecture settings, in audio books, in talking out loud, in discussions to others or even just to themselves, to reciting the content in front of a mirror. There are reading/writing learners, who learn best with words, with writing out notes or reading the content on slides, in reading textbooks or writing out their notes multiple times to understand it. There are also tactile learners, who thrive in hands-on experience, who learn best when they are actually applying what they have learned, who thrive in laboratory settings or building models. Beyond these "main" types of learning, there is also a difference between social and isolated learners, some learn best in groups, while others learn best by themselves. And although most people can fall into one category of learning, that doesn't mean there aren't overlaps, we aren't rigid and one-dimensional, again. There are probably some who thrive in all different kinds of learning, who can adapt to any environment they are put into, and kudos to them! But that is not the case for everyone.
Which brings me to the main point in all of this. In school, every single person is forced to learn and show their understanding under the exact same conditions. A lecture hall class will be perfect for auditory learners, while the other main types will have to adapt in their own ways to be on par with those learners. Visual learners will have to create their own images, charts, graphs, flowcharts, visual notes, in order to learn. Reading/writing learners will have to rely heavily on the textbook/their own written notes to learn, and tactile learners will also have to create their own unique way of grasping the material. What typically happens though, is that students aren't even aware of their type of learning. They are forced to be auditory learners, and are unable to fully grasp the material as well as others in the class, and they end up not knowing why. They feel inferior, they feel less intelligent, why can't they get the material as quickly as others! When in reality, it is just the way their mind works. And as much as we can force students into a box of "this is who you have to be and how you have to think", that is what is causing some of the issues of lacking grades and low mental health.
You may then say, well, the students who are tactile learners should then be engineers or architects, and visual learners should be designers or artists, and auditory learners should be secretaries or therapists maybe, and reading/writing learners should be authors or mathematicians, everyone should just do what they are good at! Well. Not everyone is going to want to do that with their life. Not every person who is a visual learner is going to want to be a designer. And what about the ambiguous jobs, like being a doctor or politician or athlete or really anything that doesn't align in an obvious way to one learning style? Back to a previous point, we are not one-dimensional, we may have a mix of learning styles, but also a mix of what we are "good" at, and a mix of what we are passionate about. And besides all of this, most colleges require credit from a distribution of subjects, not just the ones you major in or are "good" at.
Having the same standard of grading, the same tests, assignments, lecture methods, will never let every student learn to their fullest. There is a simple solution to this. Most colleges and places of learning have already begun to do this, but it isn't widespread, and it needs to be. The way the content of a course is taught needs to accommodate every style of learning, not just one. Instead of a lecture setting where all a professor does is talk, one solution could be that, in tandem, there is also a visual component, a written component, and a hands-on component. Why not include a presentation to go along with spoken words for the reading learners, accompanying videos or visual components like pictures, graphs, for visual learners, and something for tactile learners like hands-on experiments they can do if it's a science course, or honestly something new and creative like showing how a metaphor in a book works by building and linking components together in a physical model? There are so many ways we can teach the material. We are so accustomed to hearing it being explained out loud and being like, oh yeah that's how I learn. Because that's how we have always learned. But it doesn't need to be that way.
You may be asking, is this even possible? That is so much extra work for the professor to put together, they should just make the lessons in a way they are comfortable teaching, else their teaching won't be effective anyway. To that, I can say, isn't it the professor's job for the students to learn the material of their course? In no way is the professor expected to create something for every single student individually. But if the fact that mostly all students learn in these 4 different ways doesn't become fundamental to the way things are taught, then we are back where we started, with depressed, low-confidence students, with grades that are lower than they should be.
Imagine, if you could choose the way you present your understanding. If your grade was based on understanding rather than the same assignments and tests that every single person gets. The point of tests anyway is to show understanding of the material. If you don't know something, you get points taken off, and your grade is lowered, showing you don't have a mastery of the topic. (This is a whole separate point of how even after tests, professors and the course just moves on, without ever correcting your misunderstanding and testing again to make sure you do fully understand like I brought up at the beginning of this whole post). What if, all students from the start of kindergarten are tested on what their learning style is. I mean, what do we do in kindergarten? We don't just listen to the teacher speak. We use our hands, we trace letters, we are encouraged to be creative, we look at pictures, we listen to the teacher! When did this all stop? When did learning become not about learning anymore, but about copying down information and spitting it back out? Anyway. We would all know our learning style around middle school, most likely. I know there are tests out there, and there also should be ways of testing this. Assignments in middle school that have all 4 different types of ways of going about the project, and seeing how the students gravitate and work with being given as much freedom as possible to learn the material. And yes, I believe that we as humans have innate curiosity and a drive to learn. We just are stifled so much that we honestly don't believe it anymore. Which could lead to another discussion on, maybe the root of the problem begins way before college. Anyway.
We also can never know everything that is affecting an individual, we can't know if they are currently juggling multiple jobs and have no time to study for an assignment, we can't know if someone in their family is sick, or is abusive, or what goes on in someone's personal life. All of these factors play into what someone gets as a letter grade. If they miss an assignment because they were too drained to do it, their grade may go from an "A" to a "C", and there is typically no way to remedy this without talking to the professor and revealing personal details of their lives some people are not ready to discuss. There isn't an easy solution to this as "late tokens" or "x amount of assignment grades voided" can be exploited by students who don't have any issues at all and allow them to slack off. At least, that is what I've heard from others I've talked to about this exact issue.
There is also the fact that not all students are neurotypical / mentally well as well. Colleges act as a microcosm of the real world, as we've come to recognize. And the real world preys on those who are not neurotypical and those who are mentally ill. Those who may just need a little extra help because of something they were born with. Someone with ADHD cannot control the fact that they have ADHD, and yet they are forced to sit through a 2 hour lecture period or tests without means of stimulation, and are expected to take in all the information. Someone with anxiety is not going to do well in social classes or may do worse on tests, someone with depression may not speak up or may have to take a few days if they are in the middle of a depressive episode which will cause any attendance grades to be low, and to miss lecture material that just continues and builds upon itself. And in the real world, it is unacceptable to be late to work or to miss a few days just because you are "depressed", it is unacceptable to not work in a group just because you have "anxiety", it is unacceptable to bounce around or need stimulation in an office setting. It really makes me think, why aren't we treating mental health as we would physical health? Why aren't we giving the same attention to accommodations for someone who may have missed a week from the flu, to someone who missed a week because of a manic episode? We need to figure out a system of accommodations, not just for others learning styles, but for all the ways in which others think and take up space in the world. I'm not sure how yet, but I know it is possible.
So, there are many different factors that results in the current grading system being not so perfect. From extenuating circumstances to not actually showing a student's progress/understanding, to causing stress and confidence issues when a student may just have had one bad test or forgot one assignment, to not being fair to all students by being a single system that only benefits a few types of thinkers.
It isn't too late to begin to try to heal humanity. While the education system is only one of the many many wounds we have as a people, it doesn't hurt to just... try. To not say, "someone else will do this", or to brush it off because our current system seems to be working. Because we all know it isn't. It isn't and it will not. Ecologic disaster, homelessness and people living paycheck to paycheck vs wealth hoarders, territorial wars, crime, murder, the prison industrial complex, big pharma and healthcare and the cost of just going to the hospital, the two party system and so much polarization. America is facing so many crises. Everyone in the world is. We all know it, and most of us just try to ignore it, or turn a blind eye, until it affects you individually. I am just a single person amount 300 million in this country, among billions. What difference can I make? And you all probably think the same. What can one person do? All we can do is try. We have voices, we have power in our voices, power in numbers. It's time we use our voices. To say, enough is enough.
I'm not too sure how reddit works. I honestly just needed to get a few thoughts out about this. There are so many other thoughts, we haven't delved into other issues or even deep into the ones I began to talk about. With that, I believe there is a comment feature. I would love it if others could share their thoughts on the issues/potential solutions, or your experiences as a student or even a teacher if you are one, or just to let me know that you have read this and also believe there is an issue. That you believe something can be done.
Thank you

http://webserver.rilin.state.ri.us/billtext24/housetext24/h7051.htm
Introduced By: Representatives Potter, Boylan, Tanzi, Batista, Donovan, Caldwell, Cruz, Fogarty, McGaw, and Ajello.
​

(d) Effective January 1, 2025, no outdoor gun range shall be used for firing, discharging or
shooting firearms within a one mile circumference or closer of any school kindergarten through
grade twelve (K-12) and all grounds and sports fields connected thereto.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on January 1, 2025.

​
I did not see any exception for existing, established gun ranges. Nor did I see any exception for law enforcement ranges such as in Cranston. The "all grounds and sports fields" could easily be used to buy a vacant/wooded lot near an existing range and turn it into a school ecological research area, thereby classifying it as "school grounds".
​

21-minute read (with lots of drama).

Armenia has decided very clearly to make a shift in foreign policy to take some distance from Moscow: NATO representative Javier Colomina

NATO Rep.: The Armenians are free to make their own decisions, but they decided to do that and I believe they’re already starting to get closer to us – to ask for more cooperation, to ask for more political dialogue, to ask for more NATO presence and visibility in the relationship they have with us. We encourage whatever is decided by our partners that we believe is good for the stability of a region. //
source,

Armenian government criticizes Aliyev regime for destroying Armenian heritage in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh

Iran hosted the 7th Forum of Ancient Civilizations attended by Greece, Egypt, China, Armenia, and others. Armenia's deputy foreign minister gave a speech in which he mentioned the ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh and Azerbaijan's continued destruction of Armenian historical-cultural sites.
source,

Nagorno-Karabakh president's adviser resigns a day after claiming president rescinded the decree on dissolving the state; "it was my personal opinion"

On December 22 the adviser to President Shahramanyan claimed the decree on dissolving Nagorno-Karabakh was basically revoked by another decree, and that the Nagorno-Karabakh officials and state agencies would continue to operate in Armenia. The adviser resigned "hours later" and said the comments made by him were his personal opinion.
The adviser's earlier statement was met with fierce criticism by several members of Armenia's ruling party who are against the idea of running a "state within a state".
QP MPs: You signed a capitulation, surrendered the weapons to Azerbaijan, attempted to drag Armenia into war, and now your population is in Armenia being taken care of by the Armenian government. We won't let you take steps to destabilize Armenia now. If you want to be helpful, help pay off the $776 million debt that you left behind. //
Nagorno-Karabakh's political leadership disagrees with the notion that their activities in Armenia will provoke Azerbaijan or derail the peace efforts.
Shahramayan's now-former adviser later gave an interview reiterating that it's his personal interpretation that the decree on dissolution was revoked. He said Shahramanyan and everyone else agree that Shahramanyan had no right to dissolve the state without a referendum and that Shahramanyan was forced to sign the documents during the invasion.
source, source, source, source, source, source, source, video,

interview with journalist-historian Tatul Hakobyan

REPORTER (Tamrazyan, Azatutyun): Last week Pashinyan gave an interview during which he stated that the only realistic scenario for resolving the conflict was the option to swap the Meghri region for Nagorno-Karabakh and that other options [after 1999] did not envisage a real resolution. What's your opinion?
HAKOBYAN: It depends on what he meant by a "resolution". Did we expect Nagorno-Karabakh to be an independent republic? Did we expect it to be part of Armenia or Azerbaijan?
REPORTER: As someone who has been covering the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for many years, I agree with him that every plan after the Lisbon summit envisaged a status within Azerbaijan. Nagorno-Karabakh would remain part of Azerbaijan while exercising its right to self-determination. The international community told us what it meant by "self-determination". The international community relied on the UNSC resolutions that declared the captured territories "illegal" and Azerbaijan's territorial integrity as the primary goal.
HAKOBYAN: Let's recall what happened in Lisbon. Azerbaijan held every document hostage, nullified the previous negotiation history, and demanded Nagorno-Karabakh be recognized as part of Azerbaijan. The Armenian president LTP vetoed it. Then the negotiations entered a deadlock. Then LTP declared that the international community was not our ally in the Nagorno-Karabakh issue because every OSCE Minsk Group co-chair state, including our "allies", had all sided with Azerbaijan. LTP decided that it was best to postpone the issue of status. He wanted to resolve things relating to security, refugees, and territories while delaying the status. To this end, in 1997 LTP promoted the phased resolution which ended with a criminal coup against him. Because of the coup, we lost the only acceptable resolution. A group of greedy power-hungry figures came to power. Pashinyan is the #1 figure responsible for this disaster but the roots stretch to the 1998 coup.
REPORTER: At some point the OSCE co-chairs began to receive criticism for their inaction. The negotiations became a routine practice to enjoy luxury trips, good food, and hospitality. The co-chairs and their aides' were making a fortune. Here is a story involving the US co-chair Matthew Bryza, who has turned into Aliyev's fanboy today:
At the time Bryza was the co-chair and an assistant to the deputy secretary, I believe. This was 10-15 years ago. I accused him of inaction. I told him that the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan were misleading the co-chairs, while the co-chairs didn't mind being misled. The co-chairs always circulated the same generic statement: "There is a window of opportunity". The co-chairs share the guilt in this situation, it's not just the fault of the 1998 coup organizers. What do you think?
HAKOBYAN: It was our conflict, not the US's, not Russia's, not France's. We should have resolved it ourselves. I want to be self-critical and focus on our mistakes. Every time we end up losing more and wish we had accepted the previous offer. Today we wish we had the Nov. 9 agreement, which was described as "treason" by the opposition parties. Today they are running on the streets of Yerevan with the Nov. 9 document in their hand, demanding its terms to be enforced. No matter how much I criticize Pashinyan for not using his high rating to go for a compromise, I can't ignore the fact that whatever happened to Armenia was a repetition of 1920, when the Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan alliance stomped on Armenia. This is what happened after 2020 as well. We miscalculated. There is a video [old video] of Armenia's smug former officials stating "What Nagorno-Karabakh conflict? It has been resolved." Is this what you wanted? I see more signs of danger today. If we don't make the right decisions now, one day we will wish we could return to December of 2023.
REPORTER: Azerbaijan wants to, and it appears that Armenia doesn't object, to the idea of demarcating borders after the signing of a peace agreement.
HAKOBYAN: Even friendly countries require many years to demarcate their borders. I support the idea of signing an agreement now and de-escalating the situation until we can have diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan which will allow us to carry out the demarcation. If you think demarcation is going to take 2 days or 2 years, you are deeply mistaken. Armenia and Georgia have been unable to resolve issues on 40% of our borders for over 30 years despite having good relations. Signing peace now and demarcating later is also how we can free the captives held in Baku prisons.
REPORTER: What do you think about Azerbaijan's offer to settle Soviet-era Azeris in Armenia in exchange for Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians returning home?
HAKOBYAN: It's a dangerous game and we should not play it symmetrically. Azeris could settle in Armenia safely, but Armenians cannot do so in Azerbaijan. And I'm critical of the pseudo-patriots who continue to swing their swords about returning Shushi or collectively returning to Nagorno-Karabakh. Are you being serious? Do you really think you can return to Nagorno-Karabakh under these conditions? People sitting far away are carried away with romanticism while being detached from reality.
It's possible to sign a peace agreement and resume the war the following day. It's also possible not to sign a peace agreement but establish normal relations for many years. The most important thing is to have mechanisms that prevent another war, preferably through a peace agreement. It's another question whether Russia will allow the sides to sign one [in the Western platform]. Some Armenians thought Russia was on the brink of a collapse, but the truth is, Russia has been in this current state since the times of Ivan the Terrible. We cannot ignore Russia's demands because Russia has and could harm Armenia because Ilham Aliyev is the only ally Russia has in the South Caucasus. We need to de-escalate our conflict with Russia while simultaneously strengthening our army.
source,

PM Pashinyan visits Russia for EAEU, tells Putin not to turn the economic bloc into a geopolitical circlejerk and not to block Upper Lars every time he feels mad

During the 2-day meeting, the PM attended the economics bloc meetings and an informal CIS summit. During the EAEU meeting, Pashinyan urged members not to turn the economic bloc EAEU into a political or a geopolitical tool.
PASHINYAN: Armenia will assume the presidency of EAEU in 2024. It coincides with the 10th anniversary of the foundation of EAEU. It was created with the explicit understanding that it would be exclusively an economic bloc and not have a political or geopolitical agenda. This is how Armenia interprets the bloc. EAEU's free trade should not collide with political ambitions. The fundamental freedoms of trade and integration should not be restricted for political reasons, as doing so would lead to the corrosion of the fundamental principles of the Union. Happy New Year. //
Lukashenko bullied poor Putin during the summit. While speaking about the production of various goods, he made a long pause, stared at Putin, and LOL-ed at his face when eggs became the topic. Putin laughed back and asked Lukashenko not to be greedy and send some of his eggs. The situation with Russia's egg shortage is explained in December 13 news briefing.
Lukashenko praised the North-South trade route passing through Azerbaijan and Russia, and called for the speedy construction of remaining infrastructure links to boost the route.
Not everyone was paying attention to Lukashenko's boring speech. The president of Kyrgyzstan was caught seemingly rehearsing his speech off of his iPad.
After the summit, Lukashenko said he is not upset at Pashinyan for skipping the CSTO summit in Belarus amid fears of Armenia's "pivot to the West". Lukashenko "trusts" Pashinyan and hopes that Armenia will not abandon the Russian-led EAEU trade bloc. Pashinyan earlier criticized Russia and the CSTO military bloc for ignoring their defense obligations, but there was no high-level decision by Armenia to distance itself from the EAEU bloc as well. Moreover, Armenia summoned a meeting with EAEU earlier this month to resolve issues with Russia's agricultural inspection agency's suspension of Armenian goods.
source, video, video, video, source, source, source, source, source,

Armenia and Azerbaijan are ready to conclude the peace process: Putin's spokesman

Pashinyan and Aliyev held an informal one-on-one meeting during the CIS forum and discussed topics relating to peace.
QUESTION: Why did you put these two rivals in the same cage?
PESKOV: Armenia and Azerbaijan are not parties to a conflict. They have declared their full readiness to sign a joint document and finalize the peace process.
[source,](politika/19633047) source,

EAEU and Iran sign full-fledged free trade agreement

It replaced the provisional agreement that went into effect in 2019.
source,

Azerbaijan will resume embassy activities in Iran after the armed attack and subsequent "boycott"

Officials from Azerbaijan and Iran held a meeting to discuss the roadmap to resume the embassy activities. The parties noted a "positive trend" in Azerbaijan-Iran relations.
source,

fact-check: did Azerbaijan really ship artillery shells to Ukraine?

Fact-checker: Recently a Ukrainian journalist uploaded a photo showing lots of artillery shells in the background. In the background, you could see a placard with the name of an Azerbaijani company. It was suggested that the shells were manufactured and shipped to Ukraine from Azerbaijan. In reality, there is an Azerbaijani-owned company that operates in Istanbul, Turkey. It's been manufacturing shells for Ukraine since late 2022 and exporting them from Turkey to Ukraine with the help of a Ukrainian middleman.
source,

Azerbaijan expels two French embassy officials amid worsening relations over France's support for Armenia

Earlier, the French authorities revealed that a group of Azeri special services agents were operating in France disguised as "journalists".
"NO U!", said Ilham Aliyev.
Shortly afterward, Azerbaijani authorities accused France of running a spy network in several countries including Azerbaijan. The regime allegedly cooperated with a "whistleblower" to uncover the "French spies".
source, source,

Russian man is facing 25 years in prison after smuggling sanctioned products from US to Russia through the territory of Armenia

The genius decided to hide the illegal transfers from Kansas to Russia while using a company named... KanRus [Kansas-Russia]. He has confessed to exporting sanctioned aviation components.
source,

Armenian military leadership is finally starting to learn from mistakes and has agreed to involve NGOs for retraining soldiers: interview with mil. expert Vova Vartanov

REPORTER: After 2020 it became obvious that Armenia's defense system needed modernization. What has been accomplished in 2023?
VOVA: The need to modernize existed since the 1990s. The army was founded on volunteer groups before turning into an inefficient beurocratic apparatus that still exists today. The army finally realized after the 2016 events that they needed modernization, and some processes began. This year I finally observed a desire by the army's big bosses to listen to others. They finally understand that by cooperating with NGOs and private organizations they can achieve the desired outcome much faster. In October they organized 25-day retraining courses with the involvement of two NGOs. The army leadership sent representatives to inspect and scrutinize the outcome but they were forced to admit the obviously positive outcome of NGOs' involvement. Who would have thought that experienced experts are better than 19th-century textbooks?
source,

the Competition Protection Commission goes after a bike shop for "misleading consumers" and allegedly running a Ponzi scheme

CPC: The bicycle shop "City Bike" is using its social media pages to spread misleading information. The claim that they are sponsored by "the world's biggest Citibank" bank is false, and so is the claim that they represent the American company "CitiBike". They also encouraged consumers to invest by offering unrealistically high interest rates. //
Investigative journalists wrote about the company earlier this month.
REPORT: The company has a Telegram channel where people regularly ask how they can invest in the company in exchange for high return rates [avg. 3% daily interest rate]. The company offers cash rewards if you bring friends. Its Facebook page has 100,000 members.
We sent an undercover reporter to act as an unsuspecting client. The receptionist at the shop showed us her investments, the large returns, all the jewelry she supposedly purchased with the earnings, and assured us that we wouldn't regret it. She discussed the promotional events in various towns and how one of the members recently won an iPhone. //
The central bank recently warned consumers to beware of risky transactions. They said the company was not "licensed" by CB and that consumers should exercise vigilance.
full report, source, source, source,

consumper protection agency is investigating fuel companies over alleged abuse of dominant market position

The CPC initiated a case against SPC, Flash, Mega Trade, and Max Oil for possible abuse of dominant position, after recording a discrepancy between the cost of gasoline purchase and sale. Changes in gasoline prices were studied.
source, source,

justice ministry's Personal Data Protection Agency fines an organization for the first time ever for improper handling of personal data

AGENCY: An investigation was launched against several organizations that provide billing services. One of them has been fined. The fine was paid in full.
source, source,

ruling party publishes the list of donors

In July the QP party held a fundraiser. The media requested the list of donors and received it today. There were 996 donors who contributed a total of $1.255 million. Among them are family members of QP politicians and several business owners.
source, source, source,

Turkey has been abusing water resources and depriving Armenia of access to hundreds of millions of m³ since 2012. Armenia has decided to build dozens of reservoirs on its territory.

Armenia is 34th out of 164 countries in the water stress index. According to USAID, underground water levels have plummeted by 6-15 meters in certain parts of Armenia over the last decade. The artesian zone shrank by 67%.
Reservoirs can help with the problem. Armenia has over 80 of them but there is a chronic shortage of water in them. The top 5 reservoirs have a capacity of 815 million m³ but currently hold only 180 million m^3.
The last time they were at full capacity was in 2012. In 2015, the Aparan Reservoir held the smallest volume since 1969. The best result in recent years was recorded in 2020 when Azat and Marmarik were at 100%.
Akhuryan Reservoir has faced a severe shortage of water since 2016 partly because of Turkey's post-2012 policy of building as many reservoirs as possible. The volume of River Araks has shrunk by 30%-40% since 2012 because Turkey has built reservoirs on their side holding 1 billion m^3. The mountainous section of Araks originates from Turkey. By the time it reaches Armenia, it becomes a "state border", making it difficult for Armenia to make unilateral decisions on its use.
Armenia's water resources shrank by 2% in the last 4 years. It's expected to reach 8% by 2040.
The government has introduced programs and financial incentives to encourage farmers to switch to drip irrigation systems. The price of water for farmers is inevitably going to rise, said PM Pashinyan during a recent Q&A.
The government wants to build an additional 15 reservoirs by 2026. The largest, with 29 million m³ capacity, will be the Vedi Reservoir. It's expected to go into use next year.
Kaps Reservoir's construction began during the USSR before being interrupted. It's under construction again. The government is discussing the possibility of increasing its capacity to 60 million m^3.
Some of the 15 reservoirs may not make sense to build anymore because not enough water is flowing near them anymore. Their locations will need to change. The crews have found 3 new locations for some of them.
Here are some examples of smaller reservoirs as part that 15: Qasakh 10m m³ [this one will alleviate pressure on Lake Sevan], Argicha 6.5m m^3, Lichk 3.9m m^3, Yelpin 0.9m m^3, Artik 1.8m m^3, etc. The government is also rebuilding the pumping stations "Mkhchyan" and "Ranchpar" (not reservoirs) to reduce pressure on Lake Sevan.
There is also a plan to build 30 mini-reservoirs for communities. The construction for some of them begins in 2024.
video,

economic stats: January-November

Economic activity +9.4%

Ուշագրավ է, որ 2023-ի նոյեմբերին 2022-ի նոյեմբերի նկատմամբ տնտեսական ակտիվությունը եղել է 11,2 տոկոս, այսինքն, բարձր աճն արձանագրվել է նախորդ տարվա արդեն բարձր ցուցանիշների համեմատ։

Consumer prices +2.2%
Trade turnover +24.3%
Construction +15.6%
Domestic trade turnover +24.3%
Services sector +11.1%
Industrial output +2.1%
Industrial output, November YoY: +23.8%
Within the industrial output, the big growth was a result of jewelry production volumes multiplying by 13.7x.
Number of paid employees in November: 737,866 (+5.2% YoY)
source, source, source, source,

Yerevan subway will have new entry gates soon

Buses and subway stations have been equipped with validator scanners for e-payment. The subway will import modern entry gates in the coming months.
Riders will soon be able to use their bank cards or "mifare" cards, in addition to QR codes. The fare will be valid in bus, trolley, and subway.
You'll be able to buy a ticket that allows you to ride unlimited times within X hours, X days, long-term passes, or one-time-use tickets. The Executive branch has finalized the reform and is waiting for Yerevan municipality to approve it in February. A company was paid $3 million to implement the electronic system.

... the use of QR codes by riders has exploded

Jun: 1.7K
Jul: 1.5K
Aug: 1.3K
Sep: 2.7K
Oct: 8.2K
Nov: 25.7K

... What do you do if you only have a ֏100 coin and no card or a mobile device?

Bus stops will have Telcel terminals where you can drop a coin to get a QR code before boarding the bus. There are 3,500 such terminals across the city. If you find any bus stop that does not have a terminal within a 100-meter radius, the city will install one for you.

... completion date

May 2024
video,

Yerevan Zoo is set to undergo changes in 2024

OFFICIAL: The plan to expand the Zoo from its current 29 hectares to 34 is ready. We will have two new ponds and new cages for animals. The priority will be given to the cages that are in dire condition, and the construction of the elephant enclosure and a fence. We will have a new and larger elephant enclosure and a second elephant because elephants should not live alone. The Zoo will also gain the ability to receive an aerial tramway and a new entrance from Gyurjyan St.
MAYOR AVINYAN: I saw a "kindergarten" in the new plan. What is it about?
OFFICIAL: That's how it's often done in Europe. It's an area where you can see cubs from up close. //

Yerevan Zoo is home to more than 150 species of animals and birds, including some species listed in the Red Book. Every year 100-120 thousand people visit the zoo

source, source,

Yerevan Council approves the development plan despite boycott by former regime and ex-mayor Hayk Marutyan's factions over parking fees

The former regime and Hayk Marutyan oppose the idea of increasing "red line" parking fees in central Yerevan. The ruling coalition says an increase is necessary as part of the plan to reduce the clutter in downtown and to raise the parking fees that are "too low". For example, 1-year parking will cost $400 instead of the current $30.
Dog's faction is not a member of the ruling coalition but it has the ability to derail sessions by not showing up because their presence is needed to secure quorum. They decided to show up.
Seeing that Dog's faction secured enough quorum to hold a session, the two boycotting factions decided to join the session and harshly criticized Dog for not joining the boycott. Dog officially joins the list of "traitors".
During the session, Dog's faction advised the mayor to postpone the decision to increase parking fees but received a rejection.
MAYOR AVINYAN: It's easy to criticize decisions when you are not the decision-maker. Besides increasing parking fees, we also plan to have 200 new buses next year, new bus routes, and several new parking lots for personal vehicles, 4 of which have been designed already. In other areas, we will prohibit parking and convert part of the street to "buses only". A single bus replaces 60 cars. Yerevan is a city for humans, not cars. //
Hayk Marutyan's faction criticized the decision to increase the 1-year parking cost from $30 to $400. "Are you trying to alleviate traffic by depopulating central Yerevan?" They said 1-year parking in downtown Tbilisi costs $100 less than what's proposed in Yerevan. Marutyan's party is concerned about low-income residents' ability to park their cars.
RULING FACTION: Low-income residents who travel to central Yerevan for work are not paying for 1-year parking. They usually buy tickets for X hours or X days. Fees for those categories won't increase drastically. It's also possible to park in cheaper Zone B and walk to your workplace in Zone A [the radius of central Yerevan, aka Zone A, is only 800 meters.] We are 10 years behind Tbilisi in adopting these reforms. A large number of Russians moved to Yerevan, driving up the price of everything, and coupled with the rising wages, maintaining a $30/year fee is not practical. //
DOG'S FACTION: Unlike the former regime and Hayk Marutyan's factions, we will not boycott this session and harm the city by sabotaging its budget and development plan. Why are we raising parking fees today? The reason why we've reached this point is because the development of public transport was neglected by the former administration. Your boycotts won't solve the traffic congestion. Unlike you, we have made several proposals. As for the ruling faction, they failed to complete the deployment of the unified payment terminals this year. We will support this resolution under the condition of abolishing red lines in general if it doesn't solve the issue within 3 months. We will give you a chance. We also demand that you lift the "block" on our president's ability to contact district leaders. We will be constructive, for now. //
MAYOR AVINYAN: We won't be intimidated by your threats and [Dog's] practice of digging in others' underwear for blackmail material. Do not expect to receive privileged treatment from us, but rest be assured we won't discriminate against your faction or block your activities. As for the bus fare, we already have a unified fare system in 660 buses. In February we plan to discuss the introduction of new ticket options (hours, days, monthly passes, annual passes). //
ARAM SARGSYAN's FACTION: We support this resolution. The opposition says we have to improve public transport before unloading the center, but the fact is, it has to be done simultaneously. We cannot improve the bus network without uncluttering Kentron. Hopefully, this change will encourage more offices to be present outside of Kentron so the city can develop more evenly. We could use more businesses in Masivs and Malatia. //
The Council voted to approve the plan. These will be the new parking fees on parking spaces marked in red lines:
inside center / outside center
1 hour: $0.75 / $0.50
1 day: $5 / $2.50
1 week: $12 / $5
1 month: $44 / $10
1 year: $400 / $60
There will be an opportunity to park for free for 15 minutes. With another resolution, the city could simultaneously expand the hours when you can park for free. Instead of 12 am to 9 am, it could be 10 pm to 9 am. Parking will be free for electric vehicles and disabled residents.

... how much revenue does the red line parking bring?

2022: ֏680m
2023: ֏960m
2024: ֏1,350m (projected)

... what else was in Yerevan's development plan?

A new road will connect Yerevan to Zvartnots Airport. A new bridge will connect Hrazdan Gorge to Tbilisyan and Yeghvard.
New air quality monitoring stations will be installed in several districts.
Trees will be planted on 30 hectares of Dalma Gardens. Nork will have a buffer zone with 10 hectares of trees.
Repair 271 kilometers of roads.
Finalize the unified transport fare network.
Replace the remaining outdated elevators in high-rise condos.
A new electronic portal that provides 150 types of services all in one place.
video, source, source, source, video, source, video, source, source, video, source, source, source, source, source, source, source, source,

Yerevan is planting adult trees imported from Italy and Netherlands, recultivating trashy areas, replacing dying trees, reforms the ecology departments

ECO-DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: This year we replaced many trees with mature 10-year-old trees that are better functional and look better. This is the first time since the 1950s.
We are planting trees in the 15-hectare area near Yerablur. Around 7 km of irrigation network was installed. For the first time in Yerevan's history, recultivation work was done to convert abandoned lands full of garbage into gardens with 5,000 trees and bushes in April.
This year we began replacing old trees that were dying or losing their functionality. A forum of experts agreed that Yerevan's trees are too old. Around 50% of them are near the end of life or have lost their viability. The most affected ones were թեղի (ulmus), բարդի (poplar), and հացենի (ash tree) you find on sidewalks. The panel of experts confirmed our concerns. As if it wasn't enough that Yerevan didn't have enough trees, a large share of it turned out to be outdated. They should have been replaced about a decade ago.
The new 10-year-old replacement trees were planted on Sayat Nova, Moskovyan, and Ulnetsi streets, while Artem Mikoyan St. had no sidewalk trees and ended up gaining սոսի (platan) trees.
REPORTER: How do the new trees differ from the old ones?
OFFICIAL: They do a much better job with cleaning the air, and reducing dust and noise. These are much better than the old թեղի trees. թեղի isn't a bad tree but its city lifespan is too short. Why do we have so many թեղի in Yerevan? During the USSR, when they were deciding what to plant, the priority was to choose a tree that grew fast because Yerevan was in a semi-desert climate and needed trees ASAP. This is why they planted թեղի and բարդի. These trees expired about a decade ago. Not only do these trees no longer serve their function, but they have become a safety hazard and fall easily during winds, especially բարդի. The older բարդի have rotten roots, while the younger ones are being treated to reduce their height and the risk of falling. To make things worse, they planted the բարդի on sidewalks. We want to instead plant the new բարդի in gardens, away from sidewalks.
REPORTER: Why did you decide to plant already-grown trees?
OFFICIAL: Because of the dust issues we don't have time to wait for a new plant to grow from zero. They were imported mostly from Italy and the Netherlands.
REPORTER: What reforms have you carried out in the administration?
OFFICIAL: For the first time, the director's office has an adjacent scientific advisory board consisting of volunteer professors and directors of various institutions from the industry. Any decision, including around the replacement of trees, is made after consulting with them. They are also retraining our staff and dendrologists.
video, video,

the head of the IRS about the fight against the shadow economy

REPORTER: Which areas of the economy saw the largest reduction in unreported activities?
BADASSYAN: In early 2023 we uncovered an instance of a company using a server system to provide special services to businesses in the trade sector. In that case alone we uncovered a shadow turnover worth $180 million, and we were able to collect $20.2 million in unpaid taxes with another $49 million pending.
Overall, the tax-to-GDP ratio is going to increase by 0.7%-1.2%, contributed by the fight against shadow. //
more,

is the fight against gambling working?

The share of gambling in the services sector, January-September:
2017: 18.9% (֏197 billion)
2018: 21.3% (֏267 billion)
2019: 22.9% (֏338 billion)
2020: 21.2% (֏268 billion)
2021: 12.1% (֏164 billion)
2022: 9.5% (֏173 billion)
2023: 8.3% (֏183 billion)
Some of the anti-gambling laws have not gone into effect yet.
video,

incumbent president of the soccer federation is reelected

The members of the soccer federation gave 20 votes to incumbent Armen Melikbekyan and 3 to his challenger and former national team player Aras Ozbilis.
The president of the club that nominated Ozbilis yelled at the federation chief, accusing him of being nominated illegally. The federation organizers denied the accusation in a heated debate during the official voting ceremony.
Journalist-historian Tatul Hakobyan was one of the 3 who voted for Ozbilis. Hakobyan co-founded a soccer club "Dovegh" and has the right to cast a ballot.
source, Tatul, source,

Inter will soon extend contract with 34 y/o midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan: source

The contract will last until 2025. His salary will be €4 million. During this season Mkhitaryan played 22 matches, scored twice, and made four assists.
source,

In contemporary Western society, it is customary to think of democracy as something that liberates and equalizes. Most of us are accustomed to the idea that, except for a few countries that the media paints as enemies of democracy, we live in a world with dominantly liberal views. We do, however, have the opportunity to choose our leaders, express opinions on their competence, and have the ability to see what is happening in our transparent government. But is this really the case and do we really understand what democracy means and what is necessary for it to truly function?
Observing the course of our society, the economic processes taking place in it, the media, and geo- and local politics, some questions arise. "Are we not living in the illusion of democracy?" And isn't living in the illusion of democracy ironically kind of democratic? The first, emotional response might be negative, but after deeper observations, this answer begins to change, but it is not exhausting, depressing, or infuriating in any way. Rather it's kind of neutral and natural. It is understandable how such a question might create confusion, anxiety or even anger in someone, but this thought should instead generate more desire to develop this line of thought and see what lies behind it? Someone might say that the idea of “Being in the illusion of democracy.” is ridiculous or trivial, since the idea of living in the illusion of democracy and its conscious or unconscious active maintenance is inherently democratic and refutes itself.
The purpose of this expression of thought is not to discredit our government or nullify all the developments that have taken place in democratic countries. The purpose of this essay is to look at the course of modern democracy and how it is affected by capitalism, the media, and each one of us? The essay's aim is not to directly pose a problem or provide a solution, but to justify the line of thought reaching to the idea as well as developing the question "Are we living in the illusion of democracy?". The final goal of the essay is to share another perspective on the Western worldview, the democratic system of government, and human nature.

What is Democracy?

Democracy, or the power of the people, derives from the ancient Greek words “demos” which means people, and “kratos” which means power. Democracy is a political system of governance where the people or officials authorized by the people have the right to create laws, make decisions, and exercise legitimate violence. The following characteristics define democracy:

1. The majority of the people is the only source of power, which respects the rights of the minority.
2. Separation of government branches and the existence of local self-government.
3. Civil society - Citizens have the right to participate in politics and public elections.
4. Opposition is legitimate - Pluralism and political parties.
5. Commitment to the principles of the rule of law.
6. Protection of individual and human rights.

What is an Illusion?

An illusion is a thing or phenomenon that deceives our senses or mind, giving the impression that it is something else. An illusion can be defined as an opinion or belief that is not true. Illusions include all kinds of card tricks; optical illusions; holograms, and stories told by fraudsters when selling their schemes. Illusions can be natural and harmless, such as optical illusions, where a static combination of colors or shapes on an image appears to the eye as moving. They can also be tools for promoting someone's agenda, and can affect people’s worldviews and experiences. Examples include radicalized sects, where charismatic leaders instill absurd beliefs in their followers, or state propaganda, which has been a popular tool for creating mindsets since the industrial revolution.
“Illusion is defined as a 'false' presentation of a 'real' sensory stimulus, i.e., an interpretation that is at odds with the generally agreed upon objective 'reality.' Illusions are special perceptual experiences where the information arising from 'real' external stimuli leads to incorrect perception or a false impression of the object or event from which the stimulation originates.”
The following characteristics define illusion:

1. The perceived does not match with other senses or measurable information.
2. Caused over the course of limited or erroneous experience.
3. The experience can be recreated, despite its untruthfulness.

The World is Hierarchical

Hierarchy is a system in which people or things are placed at different levels or ranks according to their importance. In social sciences, hierarchy is the order of power positions, often associated with the chain of command and control. The term is derived from the Greek words hieros ("sacred") and archein ("rule" or "order").
Political hierarchies systems are inherently political in nature. In world politics, hierarchies stratify, order, and organize relationships not only among states but also among other actors, often even a mix of different actors within one differentiation structure.
Social hierarchies are systems of social organization in which individuals are ranked according to group status and have different access to social and material resources. In a hierarchical system, individuals standing higher are usually granted greater privileges and status than those at lower levels, and they have a higher orientation towards social domination.
The Difference Between Hierarchy and Food Chain in Terms of Domination and Privileges: The hierarchy of domination is a social structure within an animal group, where certain individuals dominate over others and therefore have the opportunity to access better resources like food, companions, shelter, and other desirable goods. This differs from the food chain, where organisms are interconnected through feeding relationships; one organism eats another for survival. On the other hand, hierarchies of domination are more organic and less formal than bureaucratic hierarchies, allowing greater fluidity and flexibility in hierarchical relationships in established roles.
The first argument supporting the thesis of the illusoriness of modern Western democracy goes as follows: We live in a hierarchical world, where everything in existence dominates and is dominated. That is, everything that exists dominates something while at the same time is dominated by something else.
Hierarchies are present everywhere around us. The interactions among organisms and their environment form different groupings, termed as food chains or ecological hierarchies depending on the context. Even inanimate nature is hierarchical in its own way. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and hurricanes. The hierarchical ladder is most clearly visible in food chains, without which life would not be possible. Herbivores have their own ranks; some higher, some lower. Similarly, among carnivores, fresh killers are at the top, followed by scavengers. If this chain were to break down, neither the wolf nor the sheep flock or bee colony would survive, and as a result, we too would perish, who are so equal and free in our small social bubble. In this essay, we do acknowledge food chains, but primarily focus on social hierarchies as a category of ecological hierarchies. Over time, states too have developed various hierarchies, referred to as divisions of labor, which resemble food chains in nature. Each food chain, even democratic division of labor, must have stability as well as the fertility of links. This limits the existence and diversity of underdeveloped individuals, sick fruits, and sterile flowers.
Taking the ancient Greece, which was the first functioning democracy, until it ceased to function, as an example. In that democracy, only citizens (polites) could participate, which included only men. Foreigners (metikoi) were free and could engage in economic activities, but like women and slaves, they could not participate in political processes like public discourse and elections.
Leaving out inappropriate examples at the expense of monkeys and other animal species, we must still admit that despite how diligently we try to create social equality (where at times, but not perfectly, we have been quite successful), no one has yet annulled the natural individual tendency towards certain social roles, which in turn are structurally hierarchical. Someone always rises to a leading position and as a result, someone falls into a subordinate position. Evidence for this can be observed in all forms of governance, enterprises, and societies that have existed in history so far. The very fact that we have a social order indicates that hierarchies are natural for us and we also realize them through their conceptualization and delineation. In every society and collective, there are individuals in leading positions as well as those who are subordinate. We see how individuals forced or accidentally into leading positions cannot or do not want to cope with their responsibilities and step down. Following which, those with the necessary characteristics emerge. Despite the fact that our social roles have changed, disintegrated, and reborn throughout history, we cannot completely annul them, but can only distort them in one direction or another.
Take, for example, the role and place of women in society. Although the role of women in society and the family has changed over the last century, household and nurturing duties have not disappeared, but have been shared as other role duties, either between men and women in the family or between teachers and educators in broader society. Observations suggest that despite our rationality and empathy, social hierarchy is still inevitable. The following chapters justify this inevitability. However, despite the inevitability of social hierarchy in our species, it can be equalized and democratized to a certain extent through its maintenance measures and the consequences of its existence.

Individual and Physiological Inequality

Even at the individual level, our physiological differences make the maintenance of democracy extremely challenging. Physiological and biochemical differences in our brains play a significant role in the formation of social hierarchies and how various roles and statuses are achieved, which in turn affect political processes and the overall quality of democracies. These are significantly influenced by subjective mutual evaluations and group perceptions, often colored by individuals' physiological and biochemical differences.
"Using modern artificial intelligence techniques, we find that brain FC (Functional Connectivity) largely predicts a person's political orientation. In the largest neuropolicy study so far, we find that of the nine common tasks, reward, search, and empathy tasks predicted political affiliation the best. We create a powerful political ideology predictor that enhances the use of common socio-demographic predictors. We identify the brain regions that are most influential in predicting liberalism and conservatism, possibly identifying the political brain."
"Overall, our results are consistent with the view that political orientation partly reflects individual differences in the general mechanism functioning related to cognitive control and self-regulation"
The study concludes that political orientation reflects to a certain extent individual differences in the general mechanism functioning related to cognitive control and self-regulation. Stronger conservatism was associated with lower neurocognitive sensitivity to response conflicts, while liberalism was associated with higher neurocognitive sensitivity to cognitive conflicts.
For instance, individuals dominating in social hierarchies often have higher levels of testosterone, which manifests through aggression, dominance, and territoriality. This behavior is supported by coordinated changes in physiological systems, including the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal and hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal axes. The physiological and biochemical bases underlying social hierarchies significantly impact social hierarchies, their formation and maintenance, which in turn influence political processes.
"Leaders' endogenous testosterone and cortisol significantly influenced hierarchical position: testosterone positively predicted the number of subordinates leaders had, but only among leaders with low cortisol levels"
The study concluded that a specific neuroendocrine profile - low cortisol and high testosterone levels - may favor the attainment of higher or more competitive statuses. This hormonal profile allows the status-enhancing effects of testosterone to operate unrestrictedly, enabling individuals to attain higher-status positions within the organization hierarchy.
Dominant individuals, who often achieve greater wealth and power, can use their resources to influence politics. Additionally, due to close preference, these individuals create more favorable (privileged) conditions for their inner circle and also place them in power positions, which may lead to a political power imbalance. Although this has a simple animal rationale, again referring to our significant physiological difference, those close ones, who have become privileged to be in power positions, may not be competent in them at all. Consequently, having a negative impact on the people in their sphere of influence and the surrounding society. This scenario results in a political landscape that disproportionately favors the interests of the wealthy, undermining the democratic ideal of equal representation.
"In general, our results showed that novel education and occupational ladders (excluding income ladder) predict a significant portion of the dispersion levels of psychological well-being, which are not due to canonical objective measures of SES (i.e., income, education, and occupation) or the conventional subjective SES MacArthur scale"
"In Study 1, perceptions of social class rank provided a positive association between objective material resource measurements of social class and self-evaluation"
"In Study 2, lower-class individuals who received a small (compared to equal) share of economic resources in an economic game scenario reported more negative self-conscious emotions - negative self-evaluation correlation - compared to higher-class individuals."
The study concluded that both chronic and situation-specific understanding of economic status significantly affects self-evaluation. People from lower social class backgrounds usually have a negative self-evaluation, which worsens when they are reminded of their lower economic status.
This distortion can impair democratic governance, political engagement, and social cohesion. Additionally, the stress associated with lower positions in the social hierarchy may lead to a decrease in citizens' political engagement. Those who are less affluent may feel that their voices are not heard or that the issues discussed do not align with their interests. This disappointment can lead to disenfranchisement and apathy, reducing participation in elections and other forms of political activity. It is evident that individuals' physiological and biochemical differences play a foundational role in shaping the social, political, and democratic landscape. Environmental, social, and economic impacts further exhaust on this, in turn, determining the individual's capacity and interest in participating in social activities for the maintenance of democracy.
When we look at what is happening around us and in the media at the moment, we see that this is exactly how our situation is evolving. Large corporations and wealthy individuals make decisions while economically weaker people try to cope with their private lives and find ways to adapt to the decisions and conditions made by the wealthy without having had any chance to decide. This is because the conditions in which they are do not allow them to delve into politics and actively participate in it. This, in turn, raises another question. Is this democracy if the people do not have the conditions, opportunities, or resources to influence their local politics in a way that would benefit them?

Economic Inequality

Looking at our current Western capitalist democracy, we see that economic inequality and class divide are greater than ever before. Inflation continues while wages stagnate or grow disproportionately slowly. Power and capital are increasingly concentrated in the hands of the wealthier and more privileged class, while citizens have to strive more to avoid drowning in bills and debts. It can be argued that a major reason why we are far from living in a democratic society is the economic divide, which prevents a large part of society from participating in politics even on a small scale. Purely because they lack the necessary resources. Not only directly economic resources like money or power, but also indirect resources stemming from money and life comfort, such as freedom from excessive existential stress and the opportunity to take an interest in public life. Although economic instability or direct poverty does not directly prevent a person from voting, political activities, like self-realization, belong to the top of Maslow's pyramid. Therefore, it can be argued that people in economically unstable conditions do not see voting or participating in political activities as something prioritized.
Additionally, economic inequality may also lead to a decrease in citizens' political engagement. When wealth accumulates in the hands of a few, those who are less affluent may feel that their voice is not heard or that the discussed issues do not align with their interests. This can lead to disenfranchisement and unrest. Inequality can disrupt social cohesion and undermine trust in democratic institutions. As the economic divide grows, so do social divides. This can lead to increased polarization, fostering an environment of mistrust and resentment, which may further undermine democratic norms.
Addressing economic inequality is crucial for preserving democracies. This includes implementing policies aimed at reducing income disparities and ensuring equal access to opportunities. It also requires efforts to ensure that political influence does not disproportionately accumulate in the hands of a few.

Education, Enlightenment, and Active Participation

Another thesis formulation helps us understand this from another angle. "A functioning democracy requires education, enlightenment, and active participation." Undoubtedly, the number of educated people in the world is much higher than ever before, which is naturally a positive phenomenon. However, it must be admitted that due to rapid development and the market demand dictated by capitalism, the quality of publicly available education begins to lag behind and become rigid.
Since the industrial revolution and the advent of capitalism, the quality of education level began to grow, but disproportionately towards the development of income-generating technologies, leaving humanities, a less lucrative direction, in the background. Systematically reducing the humanities part of publicly available education. This, in turn, has accelerated the development of both technologies and societies, hence individuality began to emerge more and the quality of education, if not declining, began to lag step by step and become rigid.
Speaking of the rigidity of the education system, we must admit that the education system is more geared towards cultivating quality and obedient workers, rather than critically thinking and actively participating individuals in society. This is mostly at the primary and secondary education level (during the period when a person is actively engaged in self-discovery) and less at higher education level. This is indicated by a monotonous classroom-based approach, where students are required to memorize and repeat information to get a good grade. Although public schools with directions and inclinations are somewhat more flexible than the average public institution, there is also more of a disciplinary rather than individual development function among them. This can also be noticed in the similarity between kindergarten, school, factory, and prison, where all individuals are equalized, disciplined, and forced to operate within certain fixed time frames.
This is one significant reason why today's democracy is mainly illusory and soon collapsing. Humanities focus on society, its study, and promotion. The decline in humanitarian education has a direct impact on the quality of democracy and its maintenance, which in turn affects the overall quality of life. Quality, diverse education promotes citizens' interest and activity in political life and the maintenance of democratic values. Consequently, when the quality of education and particularly humanities is low, the citizen's contribution to a democratic society is correspondingly lower.
The way a person is educated and the knowledge and characteristics favored in them affect how the person sees themselves as a member of society. If the education system cultivates workers, whose main skills are to be on time and repeat what was told to them, then their behavior in a political context will largely reflect that. If a person is not taught to think critically, use logic, and take an interest in the surrounding society and politics, they are unlikely to develop these characteristics. Except for a few individual cases. If citizens lack the education to participate in democracy as well as the understanding of why to do it, then their participation will be minimal or, in the worst case, destructive.

Corporate Preference

In the democratic process, it is presumed that the votes of citizens are the primary force behind legislative outcomes. However, studies and statistics show that corporate lobbying can significantly influence the enactment of laws, sometimes even when these laws are at odds with public referendums. Over the last four decades, large corporations have learned to play the Washington game. Companies now dedicate immense resources to politics, and their widespread influence increasingly limits the capacity of the democratic political system.
"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism."
Research also shows that bills associated with lobbying are more likely to be enacted than bills without lobbying. This suggests that corporate lobbying can significantly increase the likelihood of adopting a new law or repealing an old one. There have been instances where enacted legislation contradicts public referendums. "Apparently, the central point of the theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, the median citizen or "median voter", does not fare well against the economic elite and organized interest groups." Additionally, it cannot be forgotten that large corporations, like political parties, have access to funding and experts for conducting all sorts of media campaigns. This brings us to the next argument.

Media and Consent Formation

The third argument lies in how modern media operates. It seems that a much more influential reason why we live in the illusion of democracy is the public information space and social media, more than education or interest. The way social media algorithms work, how our attention operates, how easy and lazy the consumption of modern media and entertainment has become - all of this has been exploited by capitalist media factories, which in turn strongly affect our opinions, worldviews, and the ability to effectively participate in maintaining democracy.
Considering the shortening attention span of the average user and how popularity outweighs legitimacy in social media and search engines. The way social media and search engines are set up, creates prejudices and beliefs in people, instead of educating them. Currently, it cannot be denied that big data is used not only for product marketing, analysis, and influencing consideration but also for manipulating people. After all, platforms nowadays collect so much data that they know the users better than the users know themselves. The malevolence here lies in how big data is used for various manipulations and why it is done. The reason is that collecting big data and presenting content based on it works. If you know the user's interests, preferences, views, and habits, it's quite easy to start tailoring content for that user. Data, proper marketing skills, and access to the platform's background (or adequate funding) – it's quite easy to start giving people biased information, which in turn biases their views and opinions in the desired direction. We see examples of such manipulations in Google, where search suggestions vary based on location and political views. Yes, this can be attributed to what search terms are popular in that particular area at that time, but believing that would be, to put it mildly, ignorance would be absurd. Here we address a case where search auto-complete suggestions are composed in a suggestive manner.
Just as statistical data can be misrepresented for manipulation, search engines and social media can be used to propagate a desired perspective and biased opinion. And yes, this may indeed seem like a conspiracy theory, but only because such things are hard to bring to light without professional expertise. Nevertheless, the number of lawsuits filed against large platforms provides enough basis to doubt their work ethics and talk about the dangers they pose to the public. After all, is it our decision or opinion if we ourselves have not participated in its formation, but have accepted the perspective composed for us knowing our interests and beliefs better than we ourselves?
In addition to algorithms, large corporate marketing budgets, and content bias, I have to point out the incredibly large volume of media we consume daily. Media and entertainment are everywhere around us. On the streets, in newspapers, on the radio, on television channels, on computers, and our phones. Historically, we have never before had such great access to entertainment and stimulation. Our brains are simply not capable of processing such a large amount of information, which in turn affects how effectively we analyze what we encounter as well as how it limits our decision-making capacity. We may think that the abundance of choices is good, but we forget that this abundance overwhelms us. Marketers know this, which is why on websites we are mainly offered three choice options. Poor and cheap, excessively expensive, and the middle one that they actually want to sell us. Marketers and analysts know that if we are offered more than three options, there's a greater likelihood that we won't choose anything. Now extrapolate this example to our everyday lives, where we need to make hundreds of decisions a day and on top of it all we are fed a hundred different variants of the same event. We can't handle it, which is why we choose the most easily digestible or accessible option.
Here are some examples of traditional media and how different news networks deliver exactly the same narrative.
https://youtu.be/487CRdRHEeI
https://youtu.be/xwA4k0E51Oo

Historical Consequences of Democracy

Subjectivity and self-deception are natural human phenomena, but being aware of these traits, we must learn to observe them. This is because long-term illusion distances us from reality, in turn creating new, deeper problems. Referencing Winston Churchill's quote, "Democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried," democracy may indeed be the best among bad options, yet it doesn't make it good. The fact that our current situation is tolerable and has yielded some good only suggests that much work lies ahead and we shouldn't settle for what we have now. The argument "If it ain't broke, don’t fix it" is also not pertinent as it implies that if the windows of a house are broken, there's no problem since the foundation remains. If we settle for the good we have at the moment without critically examining the real situation and where it may lead us, we merely float in ignorance without preparing for what lies ahead. Looking back at the past, we see that history tends to repeat itself, and according to historical references, a rosy future is not what awaits us. Democracy is always followed by a totalitarian or authoritarian regime, with partial democracy appearing in the transition period. Examples can be found in our recent and earlier history.
Delving slightly into our civilization's historical course, we see that the current democratic order is slowly cracking, and all the rot we have tried to plaster over is emerging. I tend to think that on a collective level we cannot go against our nature, but that does not mean we should hang our heads and cease discussions and striving for something better. Even if this striving may not be successful or may bring us to the same place as now, just under slightly different conditions. Every house can burn down for one reason or another, but that doesn't mean we should stop building houses and figuring out how to build the subsequent houses better.

ETA: There should be a period at the end of the second sentence, not a question mark.
" Summer was supposed to be about freedom and youth and no school and possibilities and adventure and exploration." ― Benjamin Alire Sáenz
It was June of 1973 when 15-year-old Bonnie Bickwit was dropped off at Camp Wel-Met in Narrowsburg, Sullivan County, New York, for the summer. A summer camp ran by the Jewish Federation. It was her first year working there, having spent previous summers as a camper there herself. She would be employed as a Mother’s Helper. This job would require her to watch a few of the younger children while their mothers worked at the camp.
June turned into July, and Bonnie’s parents, Theodore (Ted) and Raye decided to drive the three hours from their Borough Park home to visit their daughter. The parents brought Bonnie’s 26-year-old sister Sheryl Kagen and Mitchel Weiser, Bonnie’s boyfriend of over a year. Mitch was a 16-year-old photography buff from Flatbush, Brooklyn, who was usually at camp himself during the summer. However, he decided to stay home that year, where he spent his final summer before graduation interning at a photography studio in Coney Island. During this visit, Bonnie would come across as perfectly normal to her family. That is how she came across in letters to her best friend Michelle Festa, who was in Europe over the summer. Sheryl would later say Bonnie’s “‘behavior seemed a little strange. She seemed to have a lot on her mind.’” But Sheryl thought little of it at the time.
It would turn out that Bonnie was not enjoying her summer job. She was spending it concerned about her father’s health. He had a “degenerative neurological disorder,” and she would cry at night to her friends at work regarding him. There was also the fact Bonnie felt exploited by her job. Her boss, Charles Shayne, had Bonnie work up to 16 hours daily. The 15-year-old wrote in a letter to Mitch’s best friend Stuart Karten (the three knew each other due to attending John Dewey High School, a school for gifted children in Brooklyn) that she was “lonely and bored...considering quitting her job”. She asked if there were any jobs at the camp Stuart was working. If so, let her know. This letter was dated the day before she went on her trip with Mitch to a rock concert on July 28th.
Bonnie snuck away from Camp Wel-Met. She returned home to Boro Park, Brooklyn, to retrieve the $80 ($550 in 2023) she had saved to purchase a bicycle. Her parents were on vacation in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, so she let herself in and out through a window. Bonnie returned to the camp, not bothering to contact Sheryl while in the city.
On July 25th, Mitch and his friend Larry Marion spent $10 each ($69 in 2023) on tickets to Summer Jam. A concert “billed as the successor to Woodstock” would occur on July 28th in Watkins Glen, New York. The Band, The Grateful Dead, and The Allman Brothers were in performance. Summer Jam would become the largest concert in history, with around 600,00-800,000 people in attendance.
When Larry’s mother learned about the concert, she forbade him from attending at the last minute. Though usually permissive with her son, she had a funny feeling regarding Summer Jam. Not wanting the ticket to go to waste, Mitch asked Larry if he could take it for Bonnie. The couple, who often spent their afternoons together during the school year, had secretly exchanged wedding rings that summer and were missing each other. Larry said he could take the ticket, so the other teen thanked him and left and told his friend he’d see him on Monday. Mitch had a driving lesson planned for that day and had no plans to miss it.
It was two days later when Mitch left his home. Mitch’s mother, Shirley, did not want him to attend. But Mitch was determined to go. Shirley eventually conceded. Before leaving, she attempted to give him more money, knowing he only had $25 ($172 in 2023). Mitch had yet to cash his last paycheck, and she wanted to ensure he had enough. Mitchel, independent as always, ignored his mother and left the house.
Before Mitch arrived, Bonnie went to her boss, Charles Stayner, and asked for the next two days off. It appeared that Mitch contacted her about the concert, but it is unknown when he did so. Stayner refused Bonnie’s request. Overworked and tired, she quit right on the spot. The 15-year-old told a friend she would return for her possessions and final check on Monday. Depending on the source, she was either paid then and there or would pick up her last check after the concert. She then got to work on a hitchhiking sign which read “Watkins Glen,” some 75 miles from Narrowsburg.
Mitch took the bus to Narrowsburg, then took a cab the rest of the way to Camp Wel-Met, arriving around midnight. Mitch then called his house as usual when staying overnight somewhere. Susan took the call, and Mitch told his sister the trip used all of his money, but he would be okay. Concerned, she begged her brother to come back home. However, Mitch was stubborn and told her that she would be fine. He said he would see her when he arrived home Monday.
Mitch and Bonnie spent the night at Camp Wel-Met. The following day they ate breakfast and left the camp with plans to hitchhike. They wanted it to make it by noon when the concert gates opened, allowing those in attendance to reserve a spot by camping overnight. Since she no longer employed Bonnie, Stayner made no effort to stop her from going. Sheryl would later say it greatly upset her that he would let Bonnie leave without effort to contact her family. So with backpacks and sleeping bags, they set out for their adventure.
The young couple then stood outside the campsite and attempted to get a ride from one of the trucks that came in and out of the site all day. They chased after these trucks and waved until someone stopped to give them a ride. The teens were given a lift into Narrowsberg. The two thanked the driver and then went to stand on the side of Highway 27 in an attempt to hitch another ride. They were last seen in the truck driver’s rearview mirror holding up the cardboard sign Bonnie had made the night previous.
That night a young woman named Ellen Sperling received a call. Sperling did not know who called, but they said Bonnie and Mitch would stay with Sperling in her dorm that night. Sperling was spending the summer attending a program run by Cornell University, which made her dorm just a short distance from Watkins Glen. Sperling stayed up and waited through the night for the pair to show up. They never did arrive at her dorm.
By Sunday night, Mitch should have been at his home. He never showed up. His parents started to worry as Mitch “‘would call us up if he were going to be just a half hour late.’” By Monday morning, there was still no sign of Mitch. Shirley called Camp Wel-Met; she figured he was spending more time with Bonnie before coming home. This was not the case. Somebody told Shirley that Bonnie, and therefore her son, never returned. Susan, with her and Mitch’s father, Sidney, went to a Brooklyn precinct to report Mitchel missing. There he was treated with “great disrespect.” Law enforcement said that Mitch was just another runaway. And besides, the camp was in Sullivan County and therefore did not fall under the jurisdiction of New York Police.
Raye and Ted Bickwit were still on vacation in Cape Cod. They had no idea she planned to go to Summer Jam. The Bickwits were notified on Tuesday when they arrived home. Someone called their house, and Ted answered. The person was looking for Bonnie. When they learned that Bonnie was not at the house, they informed her parents that Bonnie had left for the concert, did not return, and had left her possessions behind. The Bickwits immediately got into the car and drove to Camp Wel-Met to look for their daughter and report her missing to the police. Raye later said that “Their attitude was ‘they are away of the summer, and they will come back.’” Officers also said that they couldn't do much since Bonnie was 15 and left of her own accord. To the police, Bonnie and Mitch were just a couple of young lovers who ran off for the summer. They had hit the road and would return before school started in the fall.
Shortly after returning from vacation, the Bickwtis got a letter from Bonnie dated three days before the concert. In it, she reassured her parents that she loved them very much. But at camp, she had independence which she seemed to enjoy despite how she felt about the job overall. Bonnie told her parents she wished for the same freedom at home; notably, when she wasn't working, the teen could get up and go where she wanted without telling anyone. She told them, “I really want you to allow me to and not mind my traveling and doing things” With that, the Bickwits thought their child would be gone from the summer but would surely make it back before the school year.
By Friday, August 3rd, a week had passed with no signs of the two. Sidney and Susan drove to Watkins Glen to look for the pair. Shirley stayed home by the phone in case her son called home. Sidney and Susan were unable to come up with anything regarding Mitch. The police there told the pair they had no jurisdiction over the case since it is unknown if Mitch and Bonnie made it. It would fall to Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department to investigate.
Besides, it was the era of freedom after a decades-long war. It was common back then for teenagers to get up and leave home. Or for young people to join communes and cults. Bonnie even observed in a paper for school that previous spring entitled Is the Traditional Marriage Dying? in which she said, “People are looking for alternatives to traditional ways, other ways to be happy. And the teenagers were typical for their era. Raye told the New York Times that she and Bonnie “‘didn’t communicate very well’” She said that she knew her viewpoints differed from her daughter’s and did not want to argue with her. Raye also “never knew the depths of her [Bonnie’s] feelings.” Shirley also had few discussions with her son, except for nagging him to brush his teeth or cut his hair. Therefore despite both coming from “strong, loving families” whom they were close to, things were strained at the moment. However, this is all very typical of being a teenager. But their families could not fathom that their children ran off. After all, this was all very typical teenage behavior, wasn't it?
But the teens spending the rest of their summer on an adventure was a plausible explanation to the families. Mitch had stayed home from camp that summer, and to Shirley, he appeared to miss the country. His parents also felt he could be resentful towards them. His family had recently told Mitch they could not afford to send him to his dream college in Rochester. Instead, he would have to attend Brooklyn College, about ten minutes from home. The Weiser parents felt he had come to terms with this but were less sure after he went missing.
The four parents waited anxiously for the start of the school year. But there was no sign of the duo when classes resumed in September. This was strange to those in their immediate circles. After all, the two were popular and were “extremely articulate, extremely intelligent, socially involved youngsters…[who] cared for many causes.” The pair did advanced coursework, were active in an ecology class, and were already planning their careers. Mitch was going to graduate early that coming January. Bonnie was a volunteer at a local Kindergarten who was relatively close to her family. Nobody could fathom they would jeopardize their futures by staying away for good. After all, they were both “intelligent and responsible” young adults. Raye stated Bonnie would never “go missing” because she knew what it would do to her father. The parents could no longer contain the worry and fear they had put on the back burner for the last two months.
Six weeks had passed, and the police still treated them as a couple of “runaway hippies.” They dismissed any claims of foul play or how out of character this was for the teens. The family would later say that the police botched the case. Sullivan County was the principal investigator, while New York County police were to assist because the teens were Brooklyn residents. This investigation was a complete sham, and neither department took anything seriously. Only Bonnie’s best friend Michele Festa would be interviewed. Raye tried to get the FBI involved, but they had no jurisdiction since the crime did not cross state lines. They wrote to their congressman as well, asking for help. With the officials failing to take them seriously, it became clear that the adults would need to launch an investigation.
Within the coming months, the adults “circulated letters and posters to more than 500 American Indian missions, 300 youth hostels, hundreds of radio stations, and various runaway centers such as the East Villages ‘Contact,’ operated by the Educational Alliance. They have combed the East Village personally. They asked the Social Security Administration whether either child had earned any wages since summer.” They had not earned any wages, and all the parents' efforts resulted in dead ends. They looked as far as San Francisco and Oregon, where runaways of the day usually congregated. The families placed hundreds of ads in underground newspapers pleading with their children to come home. They did everything possible to keep their children’s stories in the public eye.
Desperate and frustrated, the WeiseBitwicks started to contact psychics. One by the name of Bennett Bayrick said the children were someplace cold, like New Hampshire or Vermont. This reminded Ted of an announcement he heard on a loudspeaker while searching Camp Wel-Met. The announcer said anyone who needed food and a place to stay should go to “Earth’s People Park” in Vermont. The families made inquiries there, but this, too, proved futile.
By autumn, one of the few early leads came as a letter. It was from a South Dakota reservation and asked for a donation. She thought it could be from the teens interested in “Indian affairs''. The families mailed over 500 fliers to reservations and mission schools until they concluded they weren’t there. However, Raye was still curious how they got the Bickwits’ address. The fliers the families sent out did not contain either family's address.
Other witnesses insisted they saw the teens on a bus to Dover, New Hampshire. The witnesses only took notice because of how young the two looked. Though this was either not reported or taken seriously by the police. Another witness had insisted they’d seen Bonnie in a pharmacy. Nothing could definitively be proven.
When not looking for the tens, the parents “search[ed] for reasons their children might have run away and never written or called home.” This behavior was very out of character for the two teens. Mitch, as mentioned, would make sure to contact his household if he was to be gone overnight. And according to Ted, "My daughter has never been away from home like this even for a few days.’” Both Mitch and Bonnie came from “strong, loving families.” Stuart Karten said,”...were both really good kids and very responsible.” This was unlike them, and friends and family repeatedly tried to point this out to the police. But, they never did listen.
It was January 1974, and Mitch’s graduation day came and went. When February slowly peaked around the corner, the student organization at John Dewey High School voted to set up a committee, which would be named Have-a-Heart. It would be a Valentine’s Day fundraiser. The small shop would sell shirts, cakes, and donuts. The goal was to raise $1000 ($6865 in 2023) to hire a private investigator. A student had seen an advertisement on tv about a company named Tracers. This company claimed a 60% success rate in tracking down missing persons.
The parents welcomed the private investigator as they were running out of money to fund their investigation. Ted did not work due to his condition, while Raye worked in a Manhattan retail store. Shirley was looking for a job, and Sidney ground lenses for prescription glasses. The families were just barely middle-class. “The Bickwits and the Weser's had saved some money for their children’s college education, but now they are spending that money looking for their children…[Raye told papers] the costs keep going up, but how can I put a price on my daughter?”
Have-a-Heart ran longer than it intended to. When it finally ended in March, the shop had raised only $675 ($4,634 in 2023). Edward Goldfaber, the company's founder, said they would check runaway havens throughout the country. He also told the parents could count on hearing from the teens by Bonnie’s 18th birthday if he failed to find anything. It would end up that Tracers was unable to find anything on the teenagers.
It was challenging for them to be empty nesters sooner than they imagined. Bonnie had another year at school. Mitch was going to college within walking distance of his house. No longer did Bonnie’s radio play all night throughout the house, as it did during the school year. Mitch and his parents no longer talked about his plans after graduation. No more friends pouring in and out of either house. The halls of their homes were silent. They missed their children dearly and wished nothing more than for them to walk through their door. Ted memorized a speech that day, “Thank God you’re home.” He planned to say this to his youngest daughter.
The years dragged slowly, but the four never stopped hoping and praying their children would come home. Their investigation had slowed over the next two years. During this, they waited for Bonnie’s 18th birthday with bated breath. The families hoped that finally, now that she and Mitch were both legal adults, they would return. January 28, 1976, finally came. The two did not show up. There again, was no sign of Bonnie and Mitch.
In 1984 Sidney and Shirley moved from Brooklyn to Tucson, Arizona, to improve Sidney’s health. However, they kept their names and numbers in the Brooklyn White Pages despite it costing them just over $2.25 to do so. One day in 1986, the Weiser household received a long-distance call. The operator said it was from a woman named Bonnie and asked if he would accept the call. Sidney enthusiastically said that he would. As soon as the call was put through, he exclaimed, “Oh my God, Bonnie! Bonnie! Where are you?” There was no reply, as the call was disconnected. Whoever it was would never try to call the Weiser household back. Nor contact Bonnie’s own family. This may have just been a prank call.
In 1994, Detective Anthony Suarez of the Monticello City Sheriff’s Department was handed the case. This was due to pressure from the families and a local journalist, Eric Greenberg. In his article Memories of the Missing, Greenberg was told that Suarez planned to hand out fliers at the Woodstock concert's 25th anniversary in August. Suarez theorized that there was a good chance Summer Jam was “Billed as a successor to Woodstock.” Greenberg wrote. had an overlap of attendees. In addition, Suarez told Greenberg and the families that he planned to redo the investigation and interview parents, witnesses, and friends. For the first time in years, things seemed hopeful.
EDIT: I believe I misunderstood what Yizkor was. I have done further research and am now attempting to fix the paragraph.
If any information is still incorrect please let me know.
The years went on as they had before. The hope that had filled the families faded year by year. By the early 1990s, Sheryl Kagen was thinking of her sister far more than usual. She sought the advice of her Rabbi, who suggested that Sheryl honor Yom Kippur. The most important of the Jewish holidays were people asking for God's forgiveness and atoning for their sins from the past year. During the evening and morning service Yizkor takes place, which is a series of prayers to honor the dead. And so Bonnie’s name was placed in the bulletin for the first time at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. During an interview, Sheryl told Greenberg she hoped putting it in writing would bring her closure. “...but it ultimately didn’t”. Raye was against the ceremony. Hoping Bonnie was still alive, but even with that hope, she would, too, say Yizkor. The Weisers never said Kaddish, the mourning prayer for the dead, for their son. Unable to cope with the thought he could be dead. “ Not knowing is horrid…But if I ever found out he was dead, I think I would just die,” stated Sidney Weiser.
The year was 1998. Greenberg was again writing about the case in an article entitled Without a Trace etc. In an interview, Suarez would admit that the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department lost the original case files, As did the NYPD, who assisted because the teens were Brooklyn residents, said they too had misplaced their file. This reveal was crucial as the file contained the only copies of the duo’s dental records. The original records were destroyed after both of the teens’ dentists had retired long ago. The files being misplaced also meant witness lists and any notes on the case were lost. Not that there was much to it, as it was found that the police failed to interview anybody from the camp or talk to any of their friends. Michele Festa, Bonnie’s best friend, was the only one police ever spoke to. New York County police, who assisted because the teens were Brooklyn residents, said they, too, had misplaced their file.
After Greenberg published his Without a Trace etc., a psychic named Maurice Schicker contacted The Jewish Week reporter. Schicker stated to Greenberg that somebody had graphically killed Mitch. He first met with Greenberg. After speaking with Greenberg, Susan had him over to her house. Susan would go on to say she was creeped out by Schliker and that when speaking with him, something occurred to her. Schicker was describing himself. Susan wondered if she was talking to her brother’s killer. Schlicker told her he tried to work with Suarez regarding the case to no avail. Suarez’s not wanting to work with Schlicker did not stop him from trying to wedge his way into the case. In summer 0f 1999, a segment regarding the case aired on Channel 9 10:00 News in New York. Schlicker was featured in this segment, giving a tour of Camp Wel-Met.
Nineteen ninety-nine was also the same year the class of 1974 ( the year Mitch was due to graduate) from John Dewey High had their school reunion, per usual, with a high school reunion discussion trailed to subjects of the past. Friends realized that for nearly all of them, the disappearance of Bonnie and Mitch was a pivotal moment in their lives. Bonnie’s best friend Michele Festa said, "The world changed for all of us that summer.” They had thought this world was safe, but with what happened to their friends, the naivety of childhood started to fade away as they began to take notice of the world for what it was. They were angry at how the case was mismanaged and how they were brushed away as teenagers. The class would raise funds through email to plant a tree on the grounds of John Dewey in memory of the pair. In memory of the couple, it reached $1000, the original goal of the Have-a-Heart committee many years ago. This was led by Ellen Sperling, who said she wanted to give these feelings a form.
In June of 2000, the ceremony took place. Mitch’s sister Susan would say, “It was an incredible gift for me.”. During the ceremony, the group “...called upon state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to order a new statewide probe to pursue recommendation made by TV manhunter John Walsh…”. Michele Festa, Bonnie’s best friend, is an attorney for New York, said that as teens, she and her peers felt helpless and put all faith in the police. She said, “Now we are adults, we have the Internet, and faxes and emails. Even with the passage of time, it’s not too late to get closure.”
By the following week, friends and family got a response from State Attorney General Spitzer, who looked into how his office could help. The attorney general in New York does not have jurisdiction over the local police, but they can offer assistance where they see fit. An aide to Gov. George Pataki spoke with Susan. They told her the supervisor of the New York State Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse, Ken Buniak, would like to speak with her. Buniak wished to discuss Mitch and Bonnie’s case. Things were starting to look positive once again. In July, Attorney General Spritzer and Governor George Pataki involved top-of-the-line investigators on the case. These were Investigator William Kilgallon and Investigator Roy Streever of the New York State Bureau of Criminal Investigation. They would be assigned to this case alone. On July 22-26th, fliers would be distributed at Woodstock ‘99, the 29th anniversary of the concert, in hopes of generating more leads. Unfortunately, it failed in doing so.
That same month, MSNBC filmed an episode of Missing Persons about Bonnie and Mitch that would air on October 6 and 7 aired an episode on MSNBC’S show Missing Persons Susan, Raye, Sheryl, friends Eric Greenberg, and Detective Suarez participate. Maurice Schickler, the psychic from earlier, was there as well. He graphically described, with peculiar accuracy, the murder to the film crew. And took them to where he felt the crime scene was; he described the crime with eerily accuracy.
Detective Suarez did not look into this, which upset Susan, who still found the psychic odd. In fact, Suarez only bothered to look into a little of anything. He failed to interview any of the witnesses. Nor did he speak with the previous investigators. Having failed to keep promises he had made to families back in 1994
After Missing Persons aired their segment, a man named Allyn Smith came forward. He told Killgallon and Streever he saw Bonnie and Mitch drown in a river. He said that on July 29, he was coming back from the concert. He hitched a ride in an orange VW bus with Pennsylvania plates that he did not recall the name of. Already inside were two teenagers, who he claimed were Mitch and Bonnie. He even remembered the girl talking about summer camp. Twenty-three-year-old Smith and the driver got high on marijuana; while the teens were offered some, they stayed sober. During the drive, the party decided to stop at a river to cool off. This was either the Chemung or Susquehanna River. Bonnie went into the water, and then Smith heard a scream. He looked up to see Bonnie being swept away by a current. Mitch jumped in to save her, but the current pulled him out from shore. Even though he was a Navy veteran, Smith did not try to dive in and save the pair. Instead, the driver and Smith returned to the bus and drove off. The driver said he would call the police when they got to the next town. The two then parted ways at the turn-off into Pennsylvania. Smith would tell investigators he was going home to Rhode Island while he had told a reporter that he went to Yonkers, New York.
Investigators found Smith’s story plausible at first. Streever thought he gave conflicting information and showed little guilt. He and Kilgallon decided to ask Smith to ride back into New York with them. This was to see if he could narrow down where the drownings occurred. He could not do so on either of the rivers.
Despite Smith being unable to pinpoint the location, Kilgallon and Streever checked every damned coroner's office along the Chemung and Susquehanna Rivers. This was the first lead in years, and even if the officers questioned the claim's validity quite yet, unlike the police from 1973, they still investigated. There were not any bodies that matched the teens’ descriptions that ever surfaced or washed ashore. A forensic expert for New York, Judy Van Vranken, would say this is not likely. She said during the nearly thirty years since bodies or bones should have washed to shore or floated to the surface. Van Vranken did not find Smith’s story to be that believable. And there was sound reasoning for this.
On December 6th. This was to let her and Raye know what Smith had told them. After so many years, they wanted to give them some kind of closure. Despite this fact, they felt skeptical of the story. They told the family that he could not identify the teens from photos. And how he said he did not know the names of Mitch and Bonnie; he only knew once he saw the report on tv. But if the pair were in that bus, their backpacks would be as well. There would be some clue to their identities amongst that. Nor, as already stated, pinpoint an area where the drownings would've occurred. The investigators also told the two women that they asked Smith to take a polygraph, which he denied. While we know as of 2023 that polygraphs are junk science, what matters is that someone believes their validity and, therefore, would trip themselves up by being nervous. The investigators did say that they did wish to make him take it but did not want to press it further and make him lawyer up. They had a few more questions, and they would like answers. This would never come to fruition. Streever and Kilgallon would be pulled off the case for unknown reasons. Thhis upset family who thought they still could find something to Smith’s story.
As a favor, Susan asked if Streever would give Schliker a call. Susan still could not shake the feeling he was somehow connected. Schicker refused to talk to Streever and told him he was leaving town. Susan found this very odd. The psychic had been trying for years to work with the police, but when given the chance, he did not take it.
Then in August of 2001, Detective Suarez retired. The case was handed over to Detective Don Starner. Starner resided in Watkins Glen in the 1970s; he was of the same generation as the teens. Susan would speak to him and say that “she was impressed with the change.” By this time, for reasons unknown that
There were a few more leads in the coming years. The following April, inmates at a Maryland Prison said they heard a fellow inmate confess to the murder. He was serving time already for killing two people, so this did not seem that far of a reach. But when interviewed, the prisoner could not provide accurate details regarding the case. Police concluded that since he was already doing time, he decided to claim he killed the teens as well as some kind of brag.
It would be 2016, well over a decade later, before the next lead came about. The investigators were told that Bonnie and Mitch were buried on a piece of land by Kakua Lake, only a half hour from Watkins Glen; after spending days searching the area, police concluded that this was another false lead.
The latest lead came about as recently as 2020. Police were told the pair were buried underneath a set of concrete steps in Bath, New York. This, too, went nowhere. Like every other damn lead that this case has ever had.
It has now been fifty years since Bonnie and Mitch left Camp Wel-Met. The world kept turning, and their families had to go on without them. Wishing one day for the duo to return. As Raye put it back in 1974, “‘What’s the alternative…death for myself? You have to go on living and have hope.” Theodore, Sidney, and Raye held on to this hope until their deaths, unfortunately never knowing what happened to their children. Ted died on November 4th, 1979, at 61; his health conditions were likely exuberated by the stress and anxiety of Bonnie’s disappearance. Sid passed away in April of 2000 at the age of 73. After he passed, Susan found he had kept Mitch’s baby teeth. She was hoping this could be used to pull DNA. Raye stayed in her Boro Park home, where she raised her two daughters for many years until she finally moved out. She passed on October 1st, 2019, and was 97. Shirley is still alive, as far as I can determine. She is now 94 and lives in the Bronx, New York. Having moved back after her husband had passed. As for Susan and Sheryl? They would go on to have families of their own. Sheryl and her husband Edward would have two children. She is now age 76. And Susan wed a man named Paul and had two children as well. She is now 77 and lives in the same area she did when Mitch went missing. In case he ever wished to track her down. She has a box of mementos that contains his 1969 Mets World Series tickets, poems he wrote, and an oversized birthday card from his friends.
As usual, only some information is available to the public with cases like this. And therefore, some gaps cannot be filled. That is okay, though. We must remember we have no right at all to any answer. We are not family or close friends. We do not get all the information and must accept that for what it is. One thing is very evident throughout this entire case. The teens were loved. They are missed. And their families, what remains of them, deserves closure. Michele Festa has said, “The saddest this is never to know, never to have any closure.
Bonita Mara Bickwit stood at 4’11 and weighed 90 lbs. She had dark brown eyes and dark brown hair, parted in the middle; She wore either jeans or overalls, depending on the source, and a T-shirt.
Mitchel Fred Weiser was 5’7 and 145lbs. He, too, had brown eyes and long brown hair, which he wore tied back and in part down the middle. Mitch wore gold wire-framed glasses to see. He had a scar on his lower lip. The 16-year-old wore blue jeans and a T-shirt with boots on. Both teens had their sleeping bags strapped to their backs; according to some sources, they also had backpacks.
If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Bonita and Mitchel, please contact Sullivan County Sheriff's Department at 914-794-7100
Sources
https://mitchelandbonnie.com/
https://pix11.com/news/local-news/brooklyn/40-year-old-mystery-brooklyn-sweethearts-never-returned-from-famous-73-rock-concert/
https://medium.com/cold-cases-unsolved-crimes/lost-in-the-crowd-what-happened-to-mitch-weiser-bonnie-bickwit-eff9643a7ae
​
ETA: Realized I had some repeated paragraphs and bad grammar that needed correcting.
ETA: Fixed some facts I got wrong.

Famine, flooding, failed states, sickness, heat waves, violence. Yet for many these are, despite it all, still the good times.
Last Week in Collapse: July 9-15, 2023
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter bringing together some of the most important, timely, useful, depressing, ironic, amazing, or otherwise must-see moments in Collapse. Upvote this post if this week scared you.
This is the 81st newsletter. If this edition is several hours earlier than expected,™ it’s because I’m on the road. You can find the July 2-8 edition here if you missed it last week. These newsletters are also on Substack if you want them sent to your email inbox every Sunday. Don’t read this before sleep; Collapse ain’t exactly a lullaby.
——————————
Scientists are considering declaring the beginning of the Anthropocene epoch in August 2024—although it really got going about 70 years ago. Believing that mankind’s changes will have become so severe by next year, some argue that it is necessary to formally acknowledge the beginning of a new period of earthly transformation, a tipped point that is leading us straight to hell. This would close the Holocene Period, which will have lasted about 11,700 years, and encompassed almost all of humankind’s hitherto written history.
After a month of terrible drought, the U.S. state of Vermont experienced terrible flooding, alongside much else of New England. It was called a “1 in 1000 year weather event”. Roads were wiped out and a woman in New York state was killed. The storm damage was said to surpass Hurricane Irene’s wrath 12 years earlier. Meanwhile, flooding slammed southwest Japan and killed at least 6; it was the heaviest rain ever to hit the region. In South Korea, flooding killed 20+ people.
London, England is facing imminent water shortages and rationing is said to be close at hand. Iraq is facing its worst heat wave in 40 years. Sand storms are expected to become more common; Mad Max is right on schedule.
Heat waves slew over 61,000 people across Europe, from 30 May to 4 September, according to a study in Nature Medicine. 2022’s summer was the hottest on record—until this year, anyway. The largest number of dead was recorded in Italy (18,010), followed by Spain (11,324) and Germany (8,173). Record temperatures swept through Europe from Spain to Poland…part of Spain hit 60 °C! That’s 140 °F. Working hours across Greece were changed to prevent worker heat stroke. Even a record-breaking heat wave won’t be enough to cancel work for a day.
Temperatures hit 42 °C (108 °F) in part of Siberia! Heat wave in the Alps. Records broken in northern Quebec too.
Nickel mines in Indonesia are destroying local ecosystems. Nickel is used in batteries and demand is expected to rise by over 65% by 2030. Canada is trying to stop deep-sea mining—or so they seem—pledging not to approve any mining licenses until a moratorium is over.
The Economist Intelligence Unit published a 16-page report on trends in global climate change. While the percent of energy generated from fossil fuels in certain Western countries (Norway, Japan, Israel, France) is projected to decrease over the next 9 years, it is estimated to increase in several other developing nations (Philippines, Pakistan, Angola, Belgium, Nigeria). One also wonders if some of the former countries like Norway will decrease their fossil fuel use overall—or if it will merely decrease relative to green energy, and yet still rise. On second thought, I think I already know. The report is mostly fluff, but it’s still got some decent images.
The blue ocean is becoming greener, and scientists are blaming phytoplankton, the microscopic, photosynthesizing bacteria and protists that live in the upper sea. The color shift has been noticed in over half of the world’s oceans, and reflects another way humans are altering the global ecosystems. Phytoplankton also provide the basis for much of oceanic life.
The sea off the coast of Florida is breaking temperature records. In some places it hit 90 °F, or 32.4 °C. More than one third of the planet’s oceans are currently experiencing a marine heat wave, and it’s affecting everything: coral, fish, plants, water currents, and more. All across America, extreme weather is expected to become more common—in China too.
What happens to a human body during extreme heat? Cramps, sweating, lightheadedness, nausea, exhaustion, sometimes death. A new study came out looking at wet bulb temperatures in South Asia. El Niño is expected to make a wet hot summer.
The European Commission—the executive arm of the EU—is breaking a recent promise to prohibit several thousand dangerous chemicals, including PFAS. Industry lobbyists, an alleged decline in support for the “green agenda,” and political opportunists are factors behind the regulatory rollback.
——————————
Earthquakes, floods, and gang Wars are tearing apart Haiti, alongside growing cholera, famine, and trauma. While some people protest to get governments to help Haiti, almost all states and NGOs are keeping out, leaving the failing state to its wailing fate. This is Collapse.
A stabbing at a kindergarten in China killed 6. An apartment building in Brazil collapsed and killed 14+. North Korea launched another ICBM; it fell in the sea west of Japan. A gunfight killed 6 Rohingya refugees at a camp in Bangladesh.
Russia threatened to cut off aid to millions of Syrians. Russia is also allegedly planning to launch a gold-backed currency alongside other BRICS nations, leading some observers to theorize “dedollarization” and the coming Collapse of the USD. Other economists think it’s all bullshit and bluster.
Russia is reportedly planning to build 25 prison camps and 6 detention centers across occupied Ukraine over the coming years. Google wants to build a massive data center in water-scarce Montevideo, which would guzzle millions of liters of water every day during a historic drought.
New taxes resulted in deadly protests in Kenya, where at least 6 people have died so far. Police also gassed dozens of children at a middle school, sending some to the hospital. The protests were allegedly instigated by Raila Odinga, a 78-year old opposition leader who ran unsuccessfully in Kenya’s last 4 presidential elections. You can watch a demonstration here or here if you’re interested.
The world’s number of hungry people has increased by 122M in the last 4 years. The UN World Food Programme released its 316-page report: The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2023, and I don’t need to tell you how bad it is. More people, less food. Asia and Africa lead the world in hunger, food is becoming less affordable, urbanization is a double-edged sword, and global food insecurity will never end. For most of human history, hunger has been the norm; satisfaction is the outlier.
Recent mass grave discovered in Sudan, alleged to be the work of insurgents. Meanwhile the Sudanese army shelled a market, killing at least 30. War has a tendency to escalate, and now many Sudanese think this could be the end of Sudan. Two armed groups duel for legitimacy at scale, but instead they sideline the helpless masses whom each side wants to rule. War is hell.
Cartel warfare in Mexico slew 4 Mexican police and 2 civilians last week. This is ordinary enough in prolonged warlord struggles; what’s notable is here the gang used IEDs (some remotely detonatable) against police for the first time. Dozens of other IEDs were found, transforming some understanding of the nature of the spiraling conflict. In Brazil, illegal miners have been largely repulsed from indigenous land. They’re down but not out, allegedly waiting for circumstances to change; some have simply gone to Venezuela to destroy the Amazon there.
A farcical melee erupted in Kosovo’s parliament as a minister was talking about ways to defuse tensions with the Serbian-majority north. Farther south, the number of migrants in boats is rising, traveling across the Med mostly bound for Italy. By 2050, it is projected that there will be 1.2 billion climate migrants/refugees. Many Sub-Saharan migrants, and black Tunisians, in Tunisia are facing increasing hostility and abuse.
——————————
Surprise: the pandemic forced a lot of people into poverty. Meanwhile, banks and sovereign wealth funds are repatriating gold, anticipating currency inflation ahead. In China, the debt bubble grows, leaving unfinished construction projects for unfinished ghost cities. Oh, the concrete!
Egypt is nearing a major debt crisis, and nobody is coming to save them. Ethiopia and Egypt have apparently agreed to make an agreement on water sharing from the gigantic Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which sits on the Blue Nile River near the border to Egypt. Egypt is also planning on building a $5 billion artificial river. Meanwhile, Iraq and Türkiye are also negotiating over water access as the region dries up even more. How long will it take for settlements to shrivel up when the old snowpack and underground reservoirs have been used up?
A new oil pipeline has damaged ecosystems in Uganda. The pipeline goes from Uganda through Tanzania to the Indian Ocean. Many impacted people have also complained about the low and delayed compensation by the government. Some things never change.
Peru declared a 90-day emergency over 165 reported cases of Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare neurological condition that affects the nervous system. It is not contagious, its cause is unknown, and it has a CFR of about 7%.
Europe is facing a medicine shortage. Almost all Texas saltwater beaches have unsafe levels of bacteria. Ocean temperatures are beyond all predictions.
There was a major COVID outbreak on a cruise ship. 18% of people were positive; presumably 100% were unmasked. Apparently 90% of asymptomatic COVID cases are not detected by rapid home tests, according to a Nature study. Repeated infections may also be responsible for rising COVID symptoms among young people. Because almost all Long COVID research was done in the West, there is little awareness in the poorer parts of the world, resulting in all sorts of predictable outcomes. Another study from Nature points to a DNA sequence that may leave someone more vulnerable to (Long) COVID. COVID-19 may be the most studied disease in human history but there’s still so much we don’t know about it.
A feline coronavirus has reportedly killed over 300,000 cats on Cyprus since the start of this year. Experts believe it has probably already left the island. Cyprus is sometimes known as the “island of cats” and is allegedly the place where they were first domesticated. Now it may have become the epicenter of a cat plague.
The President of the COP climate talks has released his plan: the world will try to stay below 1.5 °C, and to “double energy efficiency, triple renewable energy capacity…globally, and double hydrogen production” by 2030. He also called for a big transformation among global institutions and increase national reporting. He calls these measures “inevitable,” but I can imagine a future where nothing substantial comes to pass.
Global public debt has hit a new high……drumroll, please……$92 trillion USD](https://archive.ph/SGAU8)! More than ⅓ of that total is U.S. government debt. That global debt is a 5x increase in the last 20 years. No government is ever going to pay that off. I don’t even want to now what the global private debt is: it’s hard to get a precise figure, but it’s 17 Trillion in the US.
Drought is responsible for lowered butterfly populations in the UK. A study determined that Europe and Central Africa in particular are gonna get uncomfortably hot before 2 °C hits.
For those people who believe we are going to somehow engineer our way out of this mess, I think they should be challenged to imagine a somewhat plausible story that explains how humanity might do it. How will we possibly re-freeze the polar ice caps, and create new glaciers in the Himalayas, Greenland, and Alps, when the last ones melting are thousands of years old? How could humanity realistically clean up the oceans of toxins and microplastics, and restock global fish supplies? How might we reforest the great rainforests on planet earth if we continually cut down and/or burn them progressively, year after year? Do they really think there could be a lasting industrial civilization for 8+ billion people when all the oil’s gone? How will drying lakes, rivers, and reservoirs be replenished when no government on earth is putting any serious effort towards this task? How will humanity reduce unsustainable consumption levels when the world population continues to grow, and our collective energy demands continue to rise? How could there be any other outcome but Collapse?
——————————
Things to watch next week include:
↠ Peru is bracing for worse protests next week. On July 19, protestors are expected to descend on the capital, Lima—but nobody is sure how serious it will get. Police are reportedly preparing a massive search and grab operation to sift out some people and demoralize and intimidate the rest. How come nobody ever talks about what crowd control efforts will look like in 2030?
Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:
-Nobody will tolerate being inconvenienced, judging on the responses to a question asking why Just Stop Oil protestors are despised by a large number of people.
-Is this really what it’s come to in Texas, when advising women on abortion access? They’re already living in a kind of dystopia, they just haven’t realized it yet.
-This weekly observation from Vermont adds a human face and a local touch to a regional SHTF event. Some say the world will end in drought, others say in flood—and others still say it will be in blood.
Got any feedback, questions, comments, hate mail, free doomy resources, amazing pictures of outer space, escape routes, desalination hacks, 2024 almanacs, etc.? There’s a Last Week in Collapse SubStack if you don’t want to check collapse every Sunday, you can get this newsletter sent to your email inbox every weekend. I always forget something... What did I miss this week?

At a time when the invincibility and fortitude of our cause have been further demonstrated all over the world and the all-people struggle for ushering in a new upsurge in socialist construction is gaining momentum thanks to the scientific and strong guidance and practice by the ever-victorious Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee convened a plenary meeting to promote the perfect and substantial attainment of the grand goals of national prosperity.
The 8th Enlarged Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the WPK was held at the office building of the WPK Central Committee, the supreme general staff of the Korean revolution, from June 16 to 18, Juche 112 (2023) to arouse stronger enthusiasm of all the Party members and other people for the struggle to consolidate the precious victory and the dignity and position of our powerful state, which they achieved by boldly breaking through all difficulties under the leadership of the great Party Central Committee, with steady advance and continuous leaps.
The plenary meeting made an interim summing-up of this year's work for implementing the major policies to firmly preserve the interests and security environment of the country and bring about a fresh upswing in the overall development of Korean-style socialism in line with the goal for progress and strategic and tactical principles set forth at the 6th and 7th plenary meetings of the 8th Party Central Committee. It discussed and decided on the important policy issues to be addressed without fail and further spurred in the advance in the second half of the year.
Attending the meeting were members of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, members and alternate members of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and members and alternate members of the WPK Central Committee.
Present there as observers were officials of the relevant departments of the WPK Central Committee and the Cabinet, chairpersons of the provincial, city and county people's committees, chairpersons of the provincial rural economy committees and leading officials of ministries, national institutions and major industrial establishments.
The respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea, was present at the plenary meeting.
The presidium of the meeting was formed with members of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK.
The plenary meeting put the following items on its agenda:

1. On launching a bolder struggle for implementing the major policies for this year
   
2. On the epoch-making measures for developing education
   
3. On decisively enhancing the role of the officials of people's committees at all levels
   
4. On the issues arising in strengthening the people's power
   
5. On the important measures for intensifying the building of Party discipline
   
6. Organizational matter
   

The plenary meeting unanimously approved the agenda items.
The first agenda item "On launching a bolder struggle for implementing the major policies for this year" was discussed.
The participants heard a report.
The report reviewed the signal successes achieved by our Party and people through their arduous and fierce struggle in the first half of the year.
The adventurous military moves and reactionary offensive of the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet cliques going unprecedentedly reckless have seriously threatened the security environment, development and interests of our state, laying a grave stumbling block to our advance.
Though the subjective and objective circumstances were unfavorable, the WPK and the people of the DPRK have overcome difficulties through proactive and positive struggle under the outstanding and tested leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un and achieved encouraging and progressive successes to be proud of in all fields including the Party building, protection of national interests, economic construction and building of civilization.
The report summarized the work of the Party Central Committee for wisely organizing and guiding the all-people struggle for achieving substantial successes in the national economy development and providing a decisive guarantee for the fulfillment of the five-year plan.
It recalled that the Party Central Committee set it as a key issue to ensure self-sufficiency in food supply by increasing the country's agricultural production, opened up an epoch-making prospect for providing farming materials and strengthening the material and technical foundations of the countryside, and took every possible measure to successfully attain this year's grain production goal.
The Party Central Committee also took important measures to enable the major sectors of the national economy, including coal-mining, machine-building, forestry and railways, to make progress, and took revolutionary steps to tighten discipline in implementing the national economy plan. Such efforts brought about considerable results in tackling the unstable fluctuations manifested in various sectors at the outset of this year, remarkably increasing the growth rate of production in all fields of economic construction.
The report briefed the participants on the successes achieved in the struggle to attain the 12 major goals for national economic development.
This year's goal of irrigation construction, set at the 7th Plenary Meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the WPK, has been fulfilled in the main, and the socialist patriotic movement for increased coal production pioneered by the coal miners of South Phyongan Province is spreading on a larger scale to all sectors and units across the country. The metallurgical and chemical industries, the twin pillars of the economic development, are taking the lead in the drive, staunchly tiding over the ordeals and difficulties and over-fulfilling their higher plans.
In the construction sector, the construction of the first-stage 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area was successfully completed to be followed by inauguration. The construction of additional 2 000 flats in the area and of 1 400 flats in the Taephyong area were completed and new rural villages were built one after another, instilling joy and confidence into the people across the country.
Now, the construction of second-stage 10 000 flats in the Hwasong area, the construction of a new street in the Sopho area, the construction of the Kangdong Greenhouse Farm and the housing construction in the Komdok area are progressing apace.
The firm faith of all the people that the leadership of the Party is science and victory gets stronger amid the struggle for implementing the resolutions of the plenary meetings of the Party Central Committee, and the will to pave a broad avenue toward self-reliant prosperity with the great might of loyalty and patriotism has developed into the all-people ideological sentiments. This is a great success incomparable with any economic growth.
The report referred to the analysis made by the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee of some shortcomings and wrong attitudes revealed in the struggle for implementing the state economic policies in the first half of the year, and the ways for overcoming them.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee importantly put forward the realistic tasks to be fulfilled immediately for the sustainable and long-term development of agriculture.
The report rigorously analyzed a series of wrong attitudes - failure in establishing strict discipline of unconditionally carrying out the national economic plans in the economic work for the first half of the year and in building self-supporting foundations of the economy in a substantial way.
The high goals of struggle for this year and the reality oriented to the comprehensive development require the major industrial sectors, the pillars of the state economy, to overcome the one-sidedness in production, consolidate the already-reached growth line and bring about a fresh upsurge in the overall economy through a more vigorous struggle.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee intends to put spurs to completing the projects for the maintenance and reinforcement, updating and modernization being promoted at the key industrial sectors and other sectors in order to make significant successes of completion for consolidating the backbone of the self-supporting economy one after another in the second half of the year.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee in the report stressed the need for all construction project headquarters to take thoroughgoing measures for supplying building materials in consideration of the builders' ever-growing enthusiasm for struggle this year that witnesses the largest-ever projects in the country's history of construction and to invariably push ahead with the projects as scheduled through a strenuous offensive while perfectly ensuring the quality of design and construction.
In particular, the report underlined the need for all sectors and units to responsibly conduct the work for proactively encouraging and supporting the young people ideologically, morally, materially and technically to ensure that their high patriotic enthusiasm result in shining feats and miracles, true to the noble intention of the Party Central Committee which entrusted the young people with the whole project for building a new street in the Sopho area of Pyongyang Municipality.
In the report, the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee paid attention to the accounts of the work for carrying out the policy-oriented tasks prioritized by the Party at present.
In particular, it analyzed and reviewed in detail the execution of a new childcare policy set forth at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Eighth Party Central Committee.
In the past two years, provinces, cities and counties have made much effort to increase milk production and provide facilities for producing dairy products along with the establishment of the well-organized system and order for supplying dairy products. This made it possible to regularly supply dairy products to all the children at nurseries and kindergartens every day, which is one of the most remarkable changes made in the life of our people by the Eighth Party Central Committee.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee correctly found out and reviewed the advantages and shortcomings manifested in the execution of the Party's childcare policy by classifying them according to different units and contents, and stressed the need to take practical measures for increasing the production of dairy products and promote them consistently.
The report referred to the issue of pushing forward with the work for land administration and ecological environment protection in a long-term and development-oriented way, the issue of scientifically intensifying the work for financially and monetarily guaranteeing the economic development and the improvement of the people's living standard, and the issue for the Cabinet to establish a well-regulated unified commanding system and controlling and reporting system of the economic work as befitting the economic headquarters of the country.
The report said that in order to confidently pave the path for achieving prosperity of the country by dint of self-reliance, it is necessary to hold fast to the development of science and technology as a core strategy in all fields and sectors and focus efforts on it.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee put forward the ways for training the scientists and technicians, who are the scouts and main forces of the country's sci-tech development, into revolutionary and patriotic scientists, and mobilizing and using the sci-tech talents in a unified and effective way, and specified the major goals and tasks of sci-tech development at present.
To dynamically push ahead with the expansion and development of the space industry as a national affair is arising as an urgent task, the report pointed out.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee proposed an essential structural measure to be referred to the Supreme People's Assembly in the light of the view that the nationwide space science and technology potentiality should be fully mobilized to pave the path to development of space industry in a far-sighted way and turn the country into a world-class space power by steadily expanding and increasing the sci-tech successes made at the early stage for exploring the space field.
The Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK stressed the important mission of security organs to thoroughly guarantee the implementation of the policies of the Party and the government with the security work and in a legal way, and underlined the need for relevant sectors to more offensively, tactically and powerfully conduct the work for reliably defending the single-hearted unity, the irresistible might of the DPRK.
The report referred to the analysis and evaluation of the Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK on the justification for directing greater efforts to bolstering up the capabilities for self-defence in conformity with the present changed security situation of the DPRK and steadily updating the military hardware of the DPRK armed forces.
The complicated and serious situation on the Korean peninsula which is getting out of control requires the DPRK to ceaselessly renew its military potentials and make a faster advance toward the bolstering up of its capabilities for self-defence.
The practical actions which turned the core tasks for bolstering up the defence capability set forth at the 8th Congress of the WPK into successful entities, pursuant to the solemn declaration of the WPK that the DPRK will counter the enemies' nukes and policy of frontal confrontation in kind, have demonstrated the rapid building speed of the ever-developing strategic force of the DPRK and its powerful military technical capabilities and have exposed the U.S. imperialists and the south Korean puppet forces to the insurmountable security crisis.
The Political Bureau of the C.C., WPK appreciated that the strategic force of the DPRK has made progress recognized by the world in the light of the high-level military technical capabilities and the development speed of weapon systems and has developed into an existing powerful entity. On the other hand, it strictly reviewed the shortcomings that were revealed in some fields and that cannot be overlooked.
The most serious one was the failure of the military reconnaissance satellite launch, the important strategic work in the field of space development, on May 31.
The five-point major goals for developing the defence capabilities set forth by the 8th Congress of the Party are all important, but the development of military reconnaissance satellite is of very great significance in prospect of the development of the armed forces of the DPRK and in making full preparations for combat.
The report bitterly criticized the officials who irresponsibly conducted the preparations for satellite launch, and set forth the militant task for officials and scientists in the relevant field to make a thorough analysis of the cause and lesson of the recent failure, successfully launch the military reconnaissance satellite in a short span of time and thus make a shortcut to improving the capabilities of the Korean People's Army's reconnaissance intelligence and achieving a greater leap forward in the field of space development, bearing deep in mind their important mission.
All the successes made in the field of developing various weapon systems including nukes and missiles are a big stride forward in the important and critical situation of bolstering up the nuclear war deterrent of the country, the Political Bureau affirmed, calling on the national defence field to consistently adhere to the orientation of developing nuclear weapons and the line of bolstering up the nuclear force set forth by the Party Central Committee and reliably defend the sacred cause of the Juche revolution by increasing the production of powerful nuclear weapons.
The report seriously analyzed and evaluated the extremely deteriorating security situation on the Korean peninsula due to the reckless war moves of the hostile forces in disregard of the patience and warning of the DPRK and referred to the urgency to swiftly respond to them in a military technical, political and diplomatic way.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee recognized that the principle of action for action should be strictly adhered to and the overwhelming and offensive countermeasures should always be taken forcefully without delay against the enemy's intentional and undisguised escalation of military tension. And the plenary meeting unanimously approved concrete plans and modes of counter-action for their implementation.
The Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee set forth important tasks for conducting external activities independently and more actively on the principle of defending the sovereignty and national interests to cope with the swirling international military and political situation such as further strengthening solidarity with the countries which are opposed to the U.S. brigandish strategy for world supremacy.
The report referred to the issues essential in remarkably increasing the leadership ability and fighting efficiency of the Party as required by the enormous revolutionary tasks facing the DPRK at present and the urgent requirements of the subjective and objective environment.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee analyzed and reviewed the successes, made in the work for actively promoting the qualitative consolidation of the Party and enhancing the fighting efficiency and activity of the Party organizations in the first half of the year, and the shortcomings that should be immediately overcome in the Party work.
The report referred to the new Party measures to firmly guarantee the sound political climate and development of the Party by energetically organizing and conducting the work to implement the five-point line of party building in the new era and indicated the orientation of work to be given priority to by the party organizations at all levels in carrying out the goals of this year's struggle and the strategic tasks.
Expressing belief that the Korean revolution will surely enter a new phase of development as all the Party members and other people are making redoubled efforts by dint of their unity in the face of the worst difficulties, the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee called upon all sectors and units to put spurs to successfully attaining the goals of this year's struggle and courageously shoulder the mission and important duty they have assumed.
All the participants expressed with loud applause their full support and approval to the report of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee which set forth the policies for dynamically putting the Korean-style socialist construction on a certain track of upswing according to our timetable.
Kim Tok Hun, premier of the Cabinet, and Ri Il Hwan and Jon Hyon Chol, secretaries of the Party Central Committee, made speeches on the first agenda item.
Speakers expressed their determination to dynamically propel the implementation of the resolutions of the Party, always aware of their heavy responsibility for the important affair directly related to the dignity and might of the Party and the state during the most important and responsible period in the history of the development of the DPRK. They presented to the plenary meeting for deliberation the measures that should be taken in the course of the struggle to enhance the role of the Party organizations and attain the 12 major goals for national economic development.
The plenary meeting discussed the second agenda item "On the epoch-making measures for developing education".
Pak Thae Song, secretary of the Party Central Committee, made a report on the research made by the relevant field true to the Party's policy on adjusting the educational structure of the country to ensure advanced education and improving the contents and methods of education in keeping with the world-wide trend of educational development and submitted it to the plenary meeting for deliberation.
The plenary meeting discussed the third agenda item "On decisively enhancing the role of the officials of people's committees at all levels".
Jo Yong Won, secretary of the Party Central Committee, said that very great are the trust and expectation reposed by our Party on the officials of the provincial, city and county people's committees, who are powerful locomotive leading the development of their regions and are in charge of the people's living.
The meeting stressed the principled issues to be maintained by the chairpersons of the people's committees in fully displaying the initiative, creativity and activity in their work with the firm viewpoint and stand that they are totally responsible for their regions before the Party and the state. The participants heard a briefing on the chairpersons of some people's committees who failed to conduct the work in a responsible manner by indulging in defeatism.
The plenary meeting discussed the fourth agenda item "On the issues arising in strengthening the people's power".
Choe Ryong Hae, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, made a speech.
He referred to the importance of improving the method of electing deputies, who are the people's representatives responsible for state affairs, to the effect that they can display high political consciousness, initiative and ingenuity, aware of their sacred and responsible position given by the state and people.
There was a briefing on the new method of electing deputies which was studied in the orientation of helping the working masses fully exercise their responsibility and rights as genuine masters of the state and society in conformity with the popular character of our state power and of further consolidating and developing the democratic election system based on the principle of centralism.
Choe Ryong Hae presented to the plenary meeting for deliberation a plan for studying the method of electing deputies.
The plenary meeting discussed the fifth agenda item "On the important measures for intensifying the building of the Party discipline".
Jo Yong Won, secretary for Organizational Affairs of the Party Central Committee, made a speech.
Noting that Kim Jong Un advanced the unique idea of party building that the building of party discipline should be put forward as a crucial priority task and important line of party building and activities in order to give full play to the WPK's might as a party making revolution and struggle, Jo Yong Won stressed the significance and importance of establishing more thoroughly the party discipline at present when the Party is advancing towards the attainment of the great goal of overall development and overall prosperity of socialist construction.
He made a report on the accounts of research for the ways of improving the new machinery and work system in the field of discipline supervision on the basis of the theory of party building in the new era.
Presented to the plenary meeting for deliberation was a measure of realistic significance in strengthening the institutional mechanism for thoroughly guaranteeing the realization of the monolithic leadership of the Party Central Committee and the broad political activities of the Party and invariably maintaining the WPK's pure political climate through iron discipline by further intensifying the building of party discipline on a new level.
The plenary meeting held panel study and consultative meetings to draw up positive and detailed measures for thoroughly implementing the tasks for the second half of the year and to put together and examine the issues that were raised in the discussion of the agenda items.
Senior officials of the Party and the government guided the panel study and consultative meetings.
At the study and consultative meetings, constructive measures were brought up on the basis of sincere and dynamic study of the tasks reflected in the draft resolutions and the plans, whose scientific accuracy and feasibility were strictly examined, deliberated.
The Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee submitted the finally confirmed draft resolutions to the approval of the plenary meeting.
The plenary meeting adopted the relevant resolutions with unanimous approval.
It discussed the organizational matter as the sixth agenda item.
It recalled and by-elected members and alternate members of the WPK Central Committee.
Choe Hui Thae and Kim Son Uk were by-elected as members of the Party Central Committee from alternate members. Kim Yong Chol and Kim Yong Gyu were by-elected directly as members of the Party Central Committee.
Hong Pyong Chol, O Yong Jae and Kim Pong Chol were by-elected as alternate members of the Party Central Committee.
It recalled and by-elected members and alternate member of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee.
Kang Sun Nam was by-elected as member of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee from alternate member and O Su Yong was by-elected directly as member of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee.
Kim Yong Chol was by-elected as alternate member of the Political Bureau of the Party Central Committee.
It dismissed and elected a secretary of the WPK Central Committee.
O Su Yong was elected as secretary of the Party Central Committee.
It dismissed and appointed a department director of the WPK Central Committee.
O Su Yong was appointed as department director of the Party Central Committee.
It recalled and by-elected a member of the Central Inspection Commission of the WPK.
Choe Kun Yong was by-elected as member of the WPK Central Inspection Commission.
The enlarged plenary meeting, at which policy issues of important significance in radically advancing the Korean revolution were discussed and decided earnestly in a detailed, special and innovative way amid the high political consciousness and enthusiasm of the participants, finished its work, being convinced that our huge goals of the struggle for this year will be successfully attained with the ardent loyalty of all the people to the Party Central Committee headed by Kim Jong Un.
All the participants pledged to fulfill their important mission in further propelling the overall prosperity and development in a more prudent way through the stubborn struggle based on the single-hearted unity, further hardening their self-confidence to make our noble idea and sacred cause reach the high eminence of success and victory as early as possible.
The 8th enlarged plenary meeting of the 8th Central Committee of the WPK served as an important political occasion which strikingly demonstrated once again high enthusiasm and advance spirit of the whole Party to consolidate the militant might of the Party in every way and to steadily accelerate the dynamic general advance for attaining the grand goals of struggle by remaining loyal to the idea and leadership of Kim Jong Un.

​
I ask this because in the US, you sometimes attend preschool, pre-k, and kindergarten. In my state none of them are required as far as I know. Primary, elementary, middle, and high/secondary school are next, all categorized into 12 grades. Sometimes primary is included in elementary, and sometimes kindergarten is included in primary. Ages for grade are as follows:
Primary (Elementary) School
Kindergarten 5-6
Grade 1 6-7
Grade 2 7-8
Elementary School
Grade 3 8-9
Grade 4 9-10
Grade 5 10-11
Middle School
Grade 6 11-12
Grade 7 12-13
Grade 8 13-14
High (Secondary) School
Grade 9 14-15
Grade 10 15-16
Grade 11 16-17
Grade 12 17-18
Legally in my state you have to attend school through your 6th and 16th birthdays. When is school required in your state/province/territory/country?
Furthermore, you can apply to university, which is optional. It usually costs money unless you have a scholarship and there are many of them scattered around. You get to choose which program(s) you will study and can get multiple levels of degrees based on that. This is the confusing thing for non-Americans and even some Americans. The terms "university" and "college" are used interchangeably. But they are not the same. A university often refers to an ENTIRE school. In this instance, we'll use University of Georgia. UGA has 18 colleges within it; Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Engineering, Environment and Design, Family and Consumer Sciences, Pharmacy, Public Health, Veterinary Medicine, Arts and Sciences, Graduate School, Journalism and Mass Communication, Education, Honors College, Ecology, Law, Public and International Affairs, Social Work, Business and Forestry and Natural Resources. (copied from the website)
You can do more research on those, but they all ideally offer different programs.
And, yes, I said I have multiple questions.
-What is school culture like in your country? Is it viewed as a privilege or a burden?
- Is it common to study beyond required schooling?
- How do these American standards compare to your country's standards?
and any more education you would like to include :)
Overall, this is a loaded post, but this draws me back to the one main question: What is school like in your country?
Fellow Americans, please correct me if I got anything wrong and add more information as you please.
feel free to ask questions if I confused you!

​

• If you find your book in the thread below, comment "PMed" below and then send your request by clicking here.
• If you don't find the book in the list, you can send your request to one of the administrators of Bokitba by clicking here.
• Please do not mention the title of the book in comments section
• All payments are done through PayPal (all payment methods are accepted) and secured with PayPal Buyer Protection
• Books are delivered through Google Drive

​

1. The Essential Cosmic Perspective, 7th edition: Jeffrey O. Bennett & Megan O. Donahue
2. Corporate Communication, 7th edition: Paul Argenti
3. Financial Accounting, 10th edition: Jerry Weygandt
4. A Pocket Style Manual, 8th edition: Diana Hacker
5. The Doctor of Nursing Practice: A Guidebook for Role Development and Professional Issues, 4th edition: Lisa Astalos Chism
6. Introduction to Health Research Methods: A Practical Guide, 3rd edition: Kathryn Jacobsen
7. Oxford Handbook for Medical School: Kapil Sugand & Miriam Berry
8. Introductory Chemistry: A Foundation, 9th edition: Steven S. Zumdahl & Donald J. DeCoste
9. Introduction to JavaScript Programming with XML and PHP: Elizabeth Drake
10. The Psychologist as Detective: An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology, Updated 6th edition: Randolph A. Smith & Stephen F Davis
11. GPS: The First Global Navigation Satellite System: Trimble
12. The Brief Bedford Reader, 14th edition: X. J. Kennedy & M. Kennedy
13. The Bedford Reader, 14th edition: X. J. Kennedy & M. Kennedy
14. Health Informatics Practical Guide, 7th edition: Robert E. Hoyt & William R. Hersh
15. Advanced Practice Nursing Essential Knowledge for the Profession, 4th edition: Susan M. DeNisco
16. Understanding Operating Systems, 8th edition: Ann McHoes & Ida M. Flynn
17. Biology Laboratory Manual, 12th edition: Darrell Vodopich & Randy Moore
18. Organizational Communication Balancing Creativity and Constraint, 8th edition: Eric M. Eisenberg & Angela Trethewey
19. Abnormal Child Psychology, 7th edition: Eric J Mash & David A Wolfe
20. Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity, 10th edition: John C. Kotz & Paul M. Treichel
21. Nutrition Through the Life Cycle, 7th edition: Judith E. Brown
22. Critical Care Nursing Diagnosis and Management, 8th edition: Linda D. Urden & Kathleen M. Stacy
23. College Algebra & Trigonometry, 1st edition: Julie Miller & Donna Gerken
24. Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service, 5th edition: Glenn P. Corbett & Francis L. Brannigan
25. Consciousness: An Introduction, 2nd edition: Susan Blackmore
26. Working Through Conflict: Strategies for Relationships, Groups, and Organizations, 8th edition: Joseph Folger & Marshall Scott Poole
27. Mastering the National Admissions Test for Law, 2nd edition: Mark Shepherd
28. Organizational Behavior: A Skill Building Approach, 2nd edition: Christopher P. Neck & Jeffery D. Houghton
29. Fundamentals of Electric Aircraft R-462, 1st edition: Pascal Thalin & Ravi Rajamani
30. Heinemann Physics 12, 4th edition: Doug Bail & Greg Moran
31. Critical Community Psychology: Critical Action and Social Change, 2nd edition: Carolyn Kagan & Mark Burton
32. Self-Leadership: The Definitive Guide to Personal Excellence, 2nd edition: Christopher P. Neck & Charles C. Manz
33. A History of Modern Psychology: The Quest for a Science of the Mind, 1st edition: David C. Ludden
34. 150 Most Frequently Asked Questions on Quant Interviews: Dan Stefanica & Rados Radoicic
35. Routledge International Handbook of Sexual Homicide Studies: Jean Proulx & Eric Beauregard
36. Microeconomics: Canada in the Global Environment, 10th edition: Michael Parkin & Robin Bade
37. Integrated Marketing Communications, 5th Asia-Pacific edition: Bill Chitty & Edwina Luck
38. Law and Society, 10th edition: Steven Vago
39. International Law Frameworks, 4th edition: David Bederman & Chimene Keitner
40. Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning, 7th edition: Graham Hooley & Brigitte Nicoulaud
41. Comparative Social Evolution, 1st edition: Dustin R. Rubenstein & Patrick Abbot
42. Understanding Pharmacology for Health Professionals, 5th edition: Susan Turley
43. The Gebusi: Lives Transformed in a Rainforest World, 4th edition: Bruce Knauft
44. Retail Buying From Basics to Fashion, 6th edition: Richard Clodfelter
45. Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Physical Therapy: Evidence to Practice, 5th edition: Donna Frownfelter & Elizabeth Dean
46. Maternity & Women's Health Care, 12th edition: Deitra Leonard Lowdermilk & Shannon E. Perry
47. The Elusive Eden: A New History of California, 5th edition: Richard B. Rice & William A. Bullough
48. Ethical Problems in the Practice of Law, 5th edition: Lisa G. Lerman & Philip G. Schrag
49. Abnormal Psychology, 8th edition: Susan Nolen-Hoeksema
50. Breastfeeding and Human Lactation, 5th edition: Karen Wambach and Jan Riordan
51. Case Conceptualization and Treatment Planning: Integrating Theory With Clinical Practice: Pearl Susan Berman
52. Core Questions in Philosophy A Text with Readings, 7th edition: Elliott Sober
53. Adolescence, 12th edition: Laurence Steinberg
54. Educational Research Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Approaches, 7th edition: Robert Burke Johnson and Larry B. Christensen
55. Foodservice Manual for Health Care Institutions, 4th edition: Ruby Parker Puckett
56. Genetics Essentials Concepts and Connections, 4th edition: Benjamin Pierce
57. Media Strategies Managing content, platforms and relationships, Jane Johnston and Katie Rowney
58. Macroeconomics , 6th Canadian edition: N. Gregory Mankiw
59. Medical Terminology for Health Professions, 8th edition: Ann Ehrlich & Carol L. Schroeder
60. Medical-Surgical Nursing Concepts for Interprofessional Collaborative Care, 10th edition: Donna D. Ignatavicius & M. Linda Workman
61. Organizational Behavior A Skill Building Approach, 2nd edition: Dr. Christopher P. Neck & Jeffery D. Houghton
62. Practical Argument Short Edition, 4th edition: Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell
63. Principles and Labs for Fitness and Wellness, 15th edition: Wener W.K. Hoeger & Sharon A. Hoeger
64. Race in America, 2nd edition: Matthew Desmond and Mustafa Emirbayer
65. Canadian Organizational Behaviour, 10th edition: Steven McShane
66. Varcarolis’s Canadian Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing, 2nd Canadian edition: Cheryl Pollard, Sonya Jakubec & Margaret Halter
67. Saunders Comprehensive Review for the NCLEX-RN Examination, 8th edition: Linda Anne Silvestri and Angela Elizabeth Silvestri
68. Milady Standard Esthetics Fundamentals, 11th edition: Milady
69. Sensation and Perception, 2nd edition: Bennett L. Schwartz and John H. Krantz
70. Professional Bread Baking, 1st edition: Hans Welker
71. Cooper’s Fundamentals of Hand Therapy, 3rd edition: Christine M. Wietlisbach
72. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart with Sources, Concise 2nd edition, Volume 2: Elizabeth Pollard & Clifford Rosenberg
73. Helping Skills Facilitating Exploration, Insight, and Action, 5th edition: Clara E. Hill
74. Electronics for Electricians, 7th edition: Stephen L. Herman
75. Introduction to Traffic Engineering A Manual for Data Collection and Analysis, 2nd edition: Thomas R Currin
76. Professional Nursing Concepts & Challenges, 9th edition: Beth Black
77. Chemistry An Introduction to General, Organic, and Biological Chemistry, 13th Edition: Karen Timberlake
78. The Developing Person Through the Life Span, 11th edition: Kathleen Stassen Berger
79. Traffic and Highway Engineering, Enhanced, 5th edition: Nicholas J. Garber and Lester A. Hoel
80. The Psychologist As Detective An Introduction to Conducting Research in Psychology, Updated 6th edition: Randolph A. Smith and Stephen F. Davis
81. Arguing About Literature A Guide and Reader, 3rd edition: John Schilb and John Clifford
82. Lone Star Politics Tradition and Transformation in Texas, 6th edition: Ken Collier & Steven E. Galatas
83. Economics Today, 19th edition: Roger Miller
84. Porth's Essentials of Pathophysiology, 5th edition: Tommie L Norris
85. Art A Brief History, 7th edition: Marilyn Stokstad and Michael Cothren
86. Fundamentals of Statistics, 5th edition: Michael Sullivan III
87. Organizational Communication A Lifespan Approach: Michael W. Kramer and Ryan S. Bisel
88. Introduction to Health Research Methods A Practical Guide, 3rd edition: Kathryn H. Jacobsen
89. Practical Argument, 4th edition: Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell
90. Understanding Canadian Business, 10th edition: William G. Nickels
91. Contemporary Criminal Law Concept, Cases, and Controversies, 5th edition: Matthew Lippman
92. Policing America An Introduction, 2nd edition: Willard M. Oliver
93. Sensation and Perception by Yantis, 2nd edition: Steven Yantis and Richard A. Abrams
94. The Structure of Argument, 10th edition: Annette T. Rottenberg & Donna Haisty Winchell
95. Leading & Managing Occupational Therapy Services An Evidence-Based Approach, 2nd edition: Brent H Braveman
96. How to Think About Weird Things Critical Thinking for a New Age, 8th edition: Theodore Schick
97. Principles of Managerial Finance, 15th edition: Chad Zutter and Scott Smart
98. I Never Knew I Had a Choice Explorations in Personal Growth, 11th edition: Gerald Corey and Marianne Schneider Corey
99. Writing Papers in the Biological Sciences, 6th edition: Victoria E. McMillan
100. Elements of Physical Hydrology, 2nd edition: George M. Hornberger & Patricia L. Wiberg
101. Corporate Communication, 7th edition: Paul A Argenti
102. Consumer Behaviour, 12th edition: Michael Solomon
103. Biology Life on Earth with Physiology, 12th edition: Gerald Audesirk & Teresa Audesirk
104. Social Stratification Class, Race, and Gender in Sociological Perspective, 4th edition: David B. Grusky
105. Secrets of Successful Program Design A How-To Guide for Busy Fitness Professionals: Alwyn Cosgrove and Craig Rasmussen
106. Medical Dosage Calculation A Dimensional Analysis Approach, 11th edition: June Olsen Emeritus & Anthony Giangrasso
107. New Perspectives Microsoft Office 365 & Office 2019 Introductory, 1st edition: Patrick Carey & Katherine T. Pinard
108. Davis's Drug Guide for Nurses, 17th edition: April Hazard Vallerand and Cynthia A. Sanoski
109. Using Assessment Results for Career Development, 9th edition: Debra S. Osborn and Vernon G. Zunker
110. Therapeutic Recreation A Practical Approach, 5th edition: Marcia Jean Carter and Glen E. Van Andel
111. Business Analytics, 3rd edition: James Evans
112. Business Statistics, 4th edition: Norean Sharpe & Richard De Veaux
113. Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Behavior Psychological Research Perspectives, 2nd edition: John R. Jung
114. Health Policy Making In the United States, 6th edition: Beaufort Longest
115. Growing Artists Teaching the Arts to Young Children, 6th edition: Joan Bouza Koster
116. How Children Develop, 6th Canadian edition: Robert S. Siegler & Jenny Saffran
117. Social Media Marketing A Strategic Approach, 2nd edition: Melissa Barker & Donald I. Barker
118. Child, Family, School, Community Socialization and Support, 10th edition: Roberta M. Berns
119. Counseling Psychology, 3rd edition: Charles J. Gelso
120. Scientific American: Psychology, 3rd edition: Deborah Licht & Misty Hull
121. Canadian Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, 10th edition: Wesley Balderson & Peter Mombourquette
122. The Little, Brown Handbook, 14th edition: H. Ramsey Fowler & Jane E. Aaron
123. Child Development: A Practitioner’s Guide, 4th edition: Douglas Davies & Michael F. Troy
124. A Practical Guide to Drafting Contracts: From Concept to Closure, 2nd edition: Cynthia M. Adams & Peter K. Cramer
125. Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World’s Religions, 1st edition: Stephen Prothero
126. The World of Customer Service, 3rd edition: Pattie Gibson
127. Management of Neck Pain Disorders A research informed approach, 1st edition: Gwendolen Jull & Deborah Falla
128. Chemistry An Atoms-Focused Approach, 3rd edition: Thomas R. Gilbert & Rein V. Kirss
129. New Perspectives Microsoft Office 365 & Access 2016 Comprehensive, 1st edition: Mark Shellman & Sasha Vodnik
130. The Marketing Edge for Filmmakers: Developing a Marketing Mindset from Concept to Release, Russell Schwartz & Katherine MacDonald
131. Career Focus Canada A Personal Job Research Guide, 6th edition: Helene Martucci Lamarre
132. Cognition, Occupation, and Participation Across the Lifespan: Neuroscience, Neurorehabilitation, and Models of Intervention, 4th edition: Noomi Katz & Joan Toglia
133. Programming Logic and Design, Comprehensive, 9th edition: Joyce Farrell
134. Financial Markets and Institutions, 7th edition: Anthony Saunders
135. Assistive Technologies: Principles and Practice, 5th edition: Albert M. Cook, Janice Miller Polgar & Pedro Encarnação
136. Introduction to Solid Modeling Using SOLIDWORKS 2020, William Howard and Joseph Musto
137. Financial Accounting: Information for Decisions, 9th edition: John Wild
138. VECTOR MECHANICS FOR ENGINEERS: DYNAMICS, SI, 12th edition: Ferdinand P. Beer, E. Russell Johnston, Phillip J. Cornwell & Brian Self
139. Philosophy: Asking Questions-Seeking Answers, Stephen Stich & Tom Donaldson
140. Principles of Virology, 5th edition: Jane Flint & Vincent R. Racaniello
141. Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents, Tim Urdan
142. Laser Beam Scanning: Opto-Mechanical Devices, Systems, and Data Storage Optics: Marshall
143. Manufacturing Processes for Engineering Materials, 6th edition: Serope Kalpakji
144. Introduction to Manufacturing Processes: Mikell P. Groover
145. The Routledge Handbook on Biochemistry of Exercise: Peter M. Tiidus & Rebecca E. K. MacPherson
146. Mastering the National Admissions Test for Law, 2nd edition: Mark Shepherd
147. Gendered Tradeoffs: Women, Family, and Workplace Inequality in Twenty-One Countries, Becky Pettit & Jennifer L. Hook
148. Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By, 2nd edition: Arran Stibbe
149. The Bedford Handbook, 10th edition: Diana Hacker & Nancy Sommers
150. Introduction to Food Science and Food Systems, 2nd edition: Rick Parker and Miriah Pace
151. Company Accounting, 11th Edition: Ken Leo; Jeffrey Knapp; Susan McGowan; John Sweeting
152. Imperfections in Crystalline Solids, 1st edition: Wei Cai & William D. Nix
153. From Therapeutic Relationships to Transitional Care: A Theoretical and Practical Roadmap, 1st edition: Cheryl Forchuk
154. ASM Specialty Handbook: Stainless Steels: Joseph R. Davis
155. Introduction to Information Systems, 8th edition: Brad Prince and R. Kelly Rainer
156. The West: A New History, 1st edition: David A. Bell & Anthony Grafton
157. Nursing Administration: Scope and Standards of Practice, 2nd edition
158. Population Health: Creating a Culture of Wellness, 3rd edition: David B. Nash & Alexis Skoufalos
159. Effective Negotiation From Research to Results, 4th edition: Ray Fells
160. Adventure Group Psychotherapy: An Experiential Approach to Treatment, 1st edition: Tony G. Alvarez, Gary Stauffer
161. Research Design & Method Selection: Making Good Choices in the Social Sciences, 1st edition: Diana Panke
162. Occupational Therapy in Community and Population Health Practice (3rd edition)
163. Managing Performance Through Training and Development (8th edition)
164. Ethics in Practice: An Anthology (5th edition)
165. The Mind and Heart of the Negotiator (7th edition)
166. Intermediate Algebra (7th edition)
167. The Writer's Presence (9th edition)
168. The Right Thing to Do: Readings in Moral Philosophy (8th edition)
169. Perspectives on Personality (8th edition)
170. Introduction to Occupational Therapy (5th edition)
171. Social Work and Social Welfare: An Invitation (5th edition)
172. How Children Develop (6th edition)
173. Introduction to Student-Involved Assessment FOR Learning (7th edition)
174. Theories of Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Integrative Approach (3rd edition)
175. Adolescence (12th edition)
176. The Legal and Regulatory Environment of Business (19th edition)
177. Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering (6th edition)
178. Research Methods: Concepts and Connections (2nd edition)
179. Rules for Writers with 2020 APA Update (9th edition)
180. General Chemistry: The Essential Concepts (7th edition)
181. The Bedford Guide for College Writers with Reader, Research Manual, and Handbook (12th edition)
182. Developmental Physical Education for All Children: Theory Into Practice (5th edition)
183. Everything’s an Argument with 2020 APA Update (8th edition)
184. Introduction to Learning and Behavior (5th edition)
185. Introducing Psychology (4th edition)
186. Brain & Behavior: An Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience (6th edition)
187. Pharmacology: A Patient-Centered Nursing Process Approach (10th edition)
188. Personal Stress Management: Surviving to Thriving (1st edition)
189. Culture and Psychology (6th edition)
190. Geology and the Environment (7th edition)
191. Lifespan Development: Lives in Context (2nd edition)
192. The Global Business Environment: Towards Sustainability? (5th edition)
193. EasyWriter (7th edition)
194. The World of Music (8th edition)
195. Interviewing for Solutions (4th edition)
196. "They Say / I Say" with Readings (5th edition)
197. Physiology of Sport and Exercise (7th edition)
198. Essential Research Methods for Social Work (4th edition)
199. Primary Care: Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (6th edition)
200. The Logic of American Politics (9th edition)
201. A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers (11th edition)
202. Peak Performance: Success in College and Beyond (10th edition)
203. Financial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision-Making (9th edition)
204. Policy Analysis: Concepts and Practice (6th edition)
205. Reading the World Ideas that Matter (4th edition)
206. Human Resource Management People Data and Analytics (1st edition)
207. Frames of Reference for Pediatric Occupational Therapy (4th edition)
208. Case Conceptualization and Treatment Planning Integrating Theory With Clinical Practice (4th edition)
209. Worlds of History, Volume 1: A Comparative Reader, to 1550 (7th edition)
210. Crafts and Creative Media in Therapy (5th edition)
211. Occupation By Design: Building Therapeutic Power (1st edition)
212. The Intentional Relationship Occupational Therapy and Use of Self (2nd edition)
213. American Democracy Now (6th edition)
214. Lilley's Pharmacology for Canadian Health Care Practice (4th edition)
215. Biological Anthropology: Concepts and Connections (3rd edition)
216. Accounting Information Systems (11th edition)
217. Abnormal Psychology (10th edition)
218. MKTG 12: Principles of Marketing (12th edition)
219. Intercultural Communication: A Contextual Approach (8th edition)
220. Rules for Writers with Writing About Literature, Tabbed Version (9th edition)
221. Local Anesthesia for Dental Professionals (2nd edition)
222. Willard and Spackman's Occupational Therapy (13th edition)
223. Understanding and Managing Diversity: Readings, Cases, and Exercises (6th edition)
224. Business Research Methods (9th edition)
225. A Writer's Reference with Exercises (9th edition)
226. Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture (10th edition)
227. New History of Social Welfare (7th edition)
228. Smith and Roberson’s Business Law (17th edition)
229. New Perspectives Microsoft Office 365 & Access 2016: Comprehensive (1st edition)
230. The World of Customer Service (3rd edition)
231. Business Statistics (4th edition)
232. What is Life: A Guide to Biology (4th edition)
233. Traditions & Encounters: A Brief Global History (4th edition)
234. Tort Law for Paralegals (6th edition)
235. The Study of Law: A Critical Thinking Approach (5th edition)
236. The Little, Brown Handbook (14th edition)
237. Scientific American Psychology (3rd edition)
238. Religion Matters: An Introduction to the World's Religions
239. Principles of Biochemistry (8th edition)
240. Perspectives on Human Occupation Theories Underlying Practice
241. Organizational Behavior Improving Performance and Commitment
242. Mindful Crafts as Therapy Engaging More Than Hands (1st edition)
243. Microbiology: An Evolving Science (5th edition)
244. Introduction to Health Research Methods: A Practical Guide (3rd edition)
245. Infants and Children in Context (1st edition)
246. Foundations of Business (4th edition)
247. Environmental Science (16th edition)
248. Chemistry An Atoms-Focused Approach (3rd edition)
249. Chemistry (6th edition)
250. Canadian Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management (10th edition)
251. Accounting (28th edition)
252. Nurse Practitioner Certification Exam Prep (6th edition)
253. Middle Range Theories Application to Nursing Research and Practice (Sth edition)
254. An Introduction to Human Services (9th edition)
255. Case Studies Through the Health Care Continuum A Workbook for the Occupational Therapy Student (2nd edition)
256. The Art of Peace and Relaxation Workbook (8th edition)
257. Advanced Physics For You (2nd edition)
258. Modern Plumbing (8th edition)
259. Integrated Perspectives in Global Studies
260. Survey of Accounting (2nd edition)
261. Precalculus with Limits (5th edition)
262. Ebersole and Hess’ Gerontological Nursing & Healthy Aging (6th edition)
263. Christian Paths to Health and Wellness (3rd edition)
264. Leadership Theory and Practice (9th edition)
265. Western Civilization (10th edition)
266. Intermediate Accounting Reporting and Analysis (2nd edition)
267. Morpho Muscled Bodies Anatomy for Artists
268. Health The Basics (7th Canadian edition)
269. Dosage Calculations (Sth Canadian edition)
270. Africana Studies A Survey of Africa and the African Diaspora (4th edition)
271. Compensation (6th Canadian edition)
272. Organisational Behaviour Emerging knowledge Global insights (6th edition)
273. The Human Record Sources of Global History, Volume To 1500 (8th edition)
274. Exploring Physical Geography (3rd edition)
275. Lone Star Politics Tradition and Transformation in Texas (7th edition)
276. Essentials Of Life-span Development (Ist Canadian edition
277. Precalculus A Right Triangle Approach (4th edition)
278. Strategic Management A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases (17th edition)
279. Research Methods for the Behavioral Sciences (3rd edition)
280. Planning Local Economic Development Theory and Practice (6th edition)
281. Pharm Phlash! Pharmacology Flash Cards (3rd edition)
282. Occupational Therapy in Acute Care (2nd edition)
283. Environmental Science for the AP® Course (3rd edition)
284. Moran's Principle of Engineering Thermodynamics (SI 9th Global edition)
285. Medical Anthropology A Biocultural Approach (4th edition)
286. Investments An Introduction (13th edition)
287. Human Anatomy & Physiology Laboratory Manual, Fetal Pig Version (13th edition)
288. Experiencing the World's Religions (8th edition)
289. Business Law The Ethical, Global, and Digital Environment (18th edition)
290. Fundamental Accounting Principles (16th Canadian edition, Volume 1)
291. Chemistry (4th Canadian edition)
292. Connect Core Concepts in Health (Brief 17th edition)
293. Analyzing Moral Issues (7th edition)
294. Screening Adult Neurologic Populations (3rd revised edition)
295. Biochemical Adaptation Response to Environmental Challenges from Life's Origins to the Anthropocene (Ist edition)
296. Climate Justice and Community Renewal (1st edition)
297. Nursing Research in Canada (5th edition)
298. Managerial Accounting (12th Canadian edition)
299. OET Physiotherapy Official OET Practice Book 1
300. Leadership in Public Organizations An Introduction (3rd edition)
301. Violence Across the Lifespan (Ist edition)
302. LOOK Looking Out, Looking In (4th edition)
303. Ferri’s Clinical Advisor 2022
304. Trail Guide to Movement Building the Body in Motion (2nd edition)
305. Study Guide for Lilley’s Pharmacology for Canadian Health Care Practice (4th edition)
306. Nursing as Ministry
307. Earth Science (16th edition)
308. Human Behavior for Social Work Practice A Developmental-Ecological Framework (3rd edition)
309. Davis Advantage for Essentials of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Concepts of Care in Evidence-Based Practice (8th edition)
310. The Complete Corporate Coaching Toolkit The Quintessential Guide for 21st Century Business Coaches and Leaders
311. What Psychology Majors Could (and Should) Be Doing Ad Your Options After College (2nd edition)
312. Geospatial Information System Use in Public Organizations How and Why GIS Should be Used in the Public Sector
313. The World of Philosophy An Introductory Reader (2nd edition)
314. Principles of Sociology Canadian Perspectives (4th edition)
315. Systems Analysis and Design (8th edition)
316. Fundamentals Success NCLEX®-Style Q&A Review (5th edition)
317. Pearson’s Federal Taxation 2022 Corporations, Partnerships, Estates & Trusts (35th edition)
318. Automotive Technology Principles, Diagnosis, and Service (6th edition)
319. The New Harbrace Guide Genres for Composing (4th edition)
320. Professional Issues in Nursing Challenges and Opportunities (6th edition)
321. American Politics Today (Essentials 7th edition)
322. Nutrition Science and Applications (3rd Canadian edition)
323. Neuroscience for the Study of Communicative Disorders (5th edition)
324. Medical Terminology for Health Professions (9th edition)
325. Marketing (5th Australian edition)
326. Decoding the Ethics Code A Practical Guide for Psychologists (5th edition)
327. Constitutional Law in Contemporary America, Volume 2 Civil Rights and Liberties (Ist edition)
328. HDEV (4th Canadian edition)
329. We the People (13th edition)
330. Social Psychology (8th Canadian edition)
331. The Public Speaking Playbook (3rd edition)
332. The Enduring Vision, Volume II Since 1865 (9th edition)
333. Occupational Health and Safety for Technologists, Engineers, and Managers,
334. Social Psychology (7th Canadian edition)
335. Forging the Modern World A History (2nd edition)
336. Peak Performance Success in College and Beyond (1ith edition)
337. Cognition (Ist edition)
338. The Enduring Vision A History of the American People (9th edition)
339. Sociology A Brief Introduction (14th edition)
340. Industrial Maintenance and Mechatronics (Ist edition)
341. Sociology A Brief Introduction (13th edition)
342. Drugs, Behaviour, and Modern Society (2nd Canadian edition)
343. Personal Heath A Population Perspective (Ist edition)
344. Physiology of Sport and Exercise (8th edition)
345. PSYCH 7 (7th edition)
346. Becker's World of the Cell (10th edition)
347. Patterns for College Writing A Rhetorical Reader and Guide (15th edition)
348. Music An Appreciation (Brief 10th edition)
349. Business Its Legal, Ethical, and Global Environment (12th edition)
350. Approaches to Social Research (6th edition)
351. Updated Myers’ Psychology for the AP® Course (3rd edition)
352. Canadian Maternity and Pediatric Nursing (2nd edition)
353. Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques (10th edition)
354. Survey of Accounting (9th edition)
355. Speech Sound Disorders in Children Articulation & Phonological Disorders (9th edition)
356. Language Development in Early Childhood Education (Sth edition)
357. Applications and Investigations in Earth Science (9th edition)
358. Molecular Biology of the Cell (7th edition)
359. Workbook for Textbook of Radiographic Positioning and Related Anatomy (10th edition)
360. Pathophysiology of Heart Disease An Introduction to Cardiovascular Medicine (7th edition)
361. Systems of Psychotherapy A Transtheoretical Analysis (9th edition)
362. Pediatric Emergent Urgent and Ambulatory Care The Pocket NP (2nd edition)
363. Answer Key for The Practice of Harmony (7th edition)
364. The Practice of Harmony (7th edition)
365. Corporate Computer Security (5th edition)
366. Portfolio Selection and Asset Pricing Models of Financconomics and Their Applications in Investing
367. Bailey & Scott's Diagnostic Microbiology (15th edition)
368. Nutrition A Functional Approach (4th Canadian edition)
369. Murach’s JavaScript and jQuery (4th edition)
370. Urban Economics (9th edition)
371. Human Resource Management (10th edition)
372. Morality and Moral Controversies Readings in Moral, Social, and Political Philosophy (10th edition)
373. American Civilization An Introduction (8th edition)
374. Introduction to Electric Circuits (10th edition)
375. Foundations of Marketing
376. Techniques and Guidelines for Social Work Practice (10th edition)
377. 1001 Pediatric Treatment Activities Creative Ideas for Therapy Sessions (2nd edition)
378. Structure & Function of the Body (16th edition)
379. Literature The Human Experience
380. Varcarolis’ Foundations of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing (3th edition)
381. Literature A Portable Anthology (Sth edition)
382. Theatre (Brief 12th edition)
383. Molecular Medicine An Introduction (Ist edition)
384. Family Patterns, Gender Relations (4th edition)
385. Psychology Frontiers And Applications (7th Canadian edition)
386. Nurse Practitioner's Business Practice and Legal Guide (7th edition)
387. A Graphical Approach to Algebra & Trigonometry (7th edition)
388. Physical Best Physical Education for Lifelong Fitness and Health (4th edition)
389. Financial Management for Nurse Managers and Executives (6th edition)
390. Population Health Creating a Culture of Wellness (3rd edition)
391. Mathematics of Finance (9th Canadian edition)
392. Lutz's Nutrition and Diet Therapy (7th edition)
393. Propaganda & Persuasion (7th edition)
394. Fundamentals of Futures and Options Markets (3rd edition)
395. Thinking Qualitatively Methods of Mind (Ist edition)
396. Fire Fighter Safety and Survival (2nd edition)
397. World Religions Eastern Traditions (Sth edition)
398. Trauma Doesn't Stop at the School Door Strategies and Solutions for Educators Human Sexuality in a World of Diversity (6th Canadian edition)
399. ISE EBook Music An Appreciation 13E [Roger Kamien]
400. Skills of Management and Leadership Managing People in Organisations (Ist edition)
401. Advanced Practice Nursing Essentials for Role Development (4th edition)
402. MR (2nd edition)
403. Emergency Care (14th edition)
404. Difference Matters Communicating Social Identity (2nd edition)
405. The Social Dynamics of Family Violence (2nd edition)
406. Aging as a Social Process Canadian Perspective (7th edition)
407. Advertising and Integrated Brand Promotion (8th edition)
408. Freedom on My Mind (Volume 1, 2nd edition)
409. Public Community Health and Nursing Practice Caring for Populations (2nd edition)
410. The Art and Science of Social Research (2nd edition)
411. Nutrition From Science to You (4th edition)
412. Public Speaking Handbook (6th edition)
413. Helping Young Children Learn Language and Literacy Birth Through Kindergarten (Sth edition)
414. Employment Law for Business and Human Resources Professionals (4th edition)
415. MANAGEMENT OF OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY (8th edition)
416. Interpersonal Communication (4th edition)
417. Managing Human Resources (9th Canadian edition)
418. Interviewing in Action in a Multicultural World (Sth edition)
419. Medical Conditions in the Athlete (3rd edition) Investments (9th Canadian edition)
420. Healthy Foundations In Early Childhood Settings (6th edition)
421. Burns’ Pediatric Primary Care (7th edition)
422. Primary Care Art and Science of Advanced Practice Nursing (6th edition)
423. Business Fundamentals for the Rehabilitation Professional (2nd edition)
424. Fundamentals of Management (9th edition)
425. Vold's Theoretical Criminology (8th edition)
426. Nursing Scope and Standards of Practice (4th edition)
427. Contemporary Trusts and Estates (3rd edition) Pharmacology for Nurses (6th edition)
428. The Humanities Culture, Continuity, and Change (Volume 1, 4th edition)
429. Global Business Today (12th edition)
430. Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice Nurse Prescribers Essentials of Human Diseases and Conditions (7th edition)
431. Social Research Methods (5th Canadian edition)
432. HR (5th edition)
433. Choices & Connections An Introduction to Communication (3rd edition)
434. American Democracy Now (7th edition)
435. They Say Say with Readings (5th Edition)
436. A Taste for Writing Composition for Culinarians (2nd edition)
437. Scientific American Biology for a Changing World with Core Physiology
438. Visualizing Human Biology (5th edition)
439. Working with Families A Guide for Health and Human Services Professionals (2nd edition)
440. Retail Buying From Basics to Fashion (6th edition)
441. Social Problems A Down-to-Earth Approach (13th edition)
442. Real Communication An Introduction (5th edition)
443. Nester’s Microbiology A Human Perspective (10th edition)
444. Introduction to Environmental Engineering (5th edition)
445. Essentials of Pharmacology for Health Professions (8th edition)
446. Cognition, Occupation, and Participation Across the and Models of Intervention (4th edition)
447. Evolutionary Psychology (4th edition)
448. Evolutionary Psychology (4th edition)
449. Canadian Criminology (4th edition)
450. Economics (2nd edition)
451. Caring for Older Adults Holistically (7th edition)
452. Employment Law for Business and Human Resources Professionals (Revised 4th edition)
453. Business Communication Process and Product (Brief 7th Canadian edition)
454. Alcohol and Drug Counselor Exam Secrets Study Guide ADC Test Review for the International Examination for Alcohol and Drug Counselors Planning Canadian Communities (7th edition)
455. Assistive Technologies Principles and Practice (5th edition
456. American Horizons US History in a Global Context, Volume One To 1877 (4th edition)
457. The Little Seagull Handbook (4th edition)
458. Abnormal Psychology (3rd edition)
459. Invitation to Public Speaking (6th edition)
460. Identity Development Adolescence Through Adulthood (2nd edition)
461. Environmental Economics (8th edition)
462. Culture and ValuesA Survey of the Humanities (9th edition, Volume 1)
463. By the People Debating American Government (Brief Sth edition)
464. An Introduction to Medicinal Chemistry (6th edition)
465. Abina and the Important Men (2nd edition)
466. American Pageant (17th edition, Volume 2)
467. Women, Music, Culture An Introduction (2nd edition)
468. Introduction to Information Systems (8th edition)
469. Discovering Human Sexuality (5th edition)
470. Electrical Motor Controls for Integrated Systems (5th edition)
471. Core Concepts in Health (3rd Canadian edition)
472. Warehouse Managemen At Complete Guide to Improving Efficiency and Minimizing Costs in the Modern Warehouse (3rd edition)
473. Treating Those with Mental Disorders A Comprehensive Approach to Case Conceptualization and Treatment (2nd edition)
474. Critical Perspectives in Food Studies (3rd edition)
475. Violence and Maltreatment in Intimate Relationships (2nd edition)
476. Essentials of Biological Anthropology (Sth edition)
477. Concise Guide to Critical Thinking (2nd edition)
478. Maternity and Pediatric Nursing (4th edition)
479. The Kaleidoscope of Gender Prisms, Patterns, and Possibilities (6th edition)
480. Introduction to Criminal JusticAe Brief Introduction (2nd edition)
481. By the People
482. Brannigan’s Building Construction for the Fire Service
483. Family Life Education
484. Women’s America Refocusing the Past (9th edition)
485. Fundamentals of Fire and Emergency Services (2nd edition)
486. Privilege, Power, and Difference (3rd edition)
487. Sociology A Brief Introduction (7th Canadian edition)
488. Macroeconomics Principles for a Changing World
489. Understanding Human Resources Management A Canadian Perspective
490. The McGraw-Hill Guide Writing for College, Writing for Life
491. Nutrition For Healthy Living
492. Geography Realms, Regions, and Concepts (18th edition)
493. Governing California in the Twenty-First Century (8th edition) Introduction to Geography (16th edition)
494. Forensic Psychology (6th Canadian edition)
495. A Pocket Guide to Writing in History (10th edition)
496. Child Development An Introduction (15th edition) Children (15th edition)
497. Introduction to Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics (9th edition)
498. Managerial Accounting (17th edition)
499. The Family Diversity, Inequality, and Social Change (3rd Edition)
500. Systems Analysis and Design (7th edition)
501. Strategic Management (17th edition)
502. Sociology of North American Sport
503. Social Problems (8th edition)
504. Of the People A History of the United State with Sources (4th edition, Volume 1)
505. Methods in Behavioral Research (14th edition)
506. Business Ethics Case Studies and Selected Readings (8th edition)
507. The Top 100 Drugs: Clinical Pharmacology and Practical Prescribing (2nd edition)
508. The Jury Crisis: What’s Wrong with Jury Trials and How We Can Save Them
509. Intermediate Accounting: Reporting and Analysis, 2017 Update (2nd edition)
510. The Well-Managed Healthcare Organization (9th edition)
511. Analytics and Decision Support in Health Care Operations Management (3rd edition)
512. Climate Justice and Community Renewal (1st edition)
513. Ethical & Legal Issues in Canadian Nursing (4th edition)

A man became a man when he heard the whisper of leaves, the song of a grasshopper, the murmur of a spring stream, the ringing of silver bells, the singing of birds in the bottomless summer sky, the gentle splash of water, the solemn silence of the night – he heard and, holding his breath, listens to this wonderful music of life for hundreds and thousands of years. (to the music)
​
Today we will talk about how to bring up a sense of love for nature in children, how to protect the Earth – our common big house in which we live.
​
All outstanding thinkers and teachers of the past attached great importance to nature as a means of educating children: Ya. A. Kamensky saw in nature a source of knowledge, a means for developing the mind, feelings and will. K. D. Ushinsky was in favor of "leading children into nature to inform them of everything available and useful for their mental and verbal development". https://wunderkiddy.com/category/subject
​
Environmental education in our time is becoming the most important direction of childhood pedagogy. 1- environmentally sound human behavior is the key to the survival of humanity in our common home – on planet Earth. 2- familiarization with nature makes it possible to introduce a child to beauty, humanity. Children are closer to nature in the truest sense of the word, if only because they are small in stature. The grass is up to his waist, the flowers raise their corollas to his very eyes. But the clouds of exhaust smoke float directly into the baby's face, and piles of garbage container dangerously hanging over his head…
​
Now only the lazy do not complain about the poor state of the environment. The natural world around us is rich, beautiful and infinitely diverse. And a preschool-age child is open, trusting and receptive to the environment. Therefore, the task and duty of adults is to introduce a child into this world, reveal its beauty, uniqueness, teach to love and protect nature. Most of the changes in the natural world a person can notice, feel and experience in direct contact with nature. Going out for a walk, adults should be aware that for children this is a trip to the big. A diverse world. The child explores the world around him, reaches for the beautiful. Bright. He can see all this in nature, and everything surprises and pleases. We, adults, introduce the child into this world of nature, reveal its secrets and laws to him, educate the right attitude to nature, the need for his knowledge, which means we can and should help the child in mastering elementary natural science knowledge. In the development of the ability to know the world of nature, to attach it to the elementary work of creating favorable conditions for the life of living beings. On this basis, a caring attitude towards all living things in the immediate environment is brought up. That is why it is so important to learn to peer, admire, rejoice and admire the beauty of the natural world. To cultivate observation, curiosity, kind, careful attitude to the objects of nature.
​
In kindergarten, the teacher uses various methods to familiarize preschoolers with nature. These are 1. Educational and gaming activities: research, travel, entertainment, which are formed according to the principles of individual characteristics of the child's development and his capabilities. 2. Visual and practical methods: observations, excursions, elementary experiments, game problem situations. 3. Games: didactic, verbal, mobile. Forming the basis of ecological culture in the conditions of preschool education, it is necessary to integrate ecology in all educational fields through various forms of work. (educational fields: artistic and aesthetic development, speech development, physical, cognitive, social and communicative development.)

I took my daughter on an excursion last weekend with her kindergarten class. We went to a little island off the coast and learnt about marine life, ecology and conservation. It was cute seeing the kids learn about how littering in the ocean and wasting water is killing our turtles, dugongs and other sea life. They were all so excited to learn.
Before the ferry home we were on the beach building sandcastles, collecting shells and playing in the waves, when one mum, at a little before midday, piped up:"I saw a cafe back there that do take away wine, I'm having a bottle, who's with me?"
Cue all the parents but me, at a kindy day trip that's meant to be spent engaging with our children and their learning, ensuing on a 4 hour drinking session. This left the few educators that had given up their weekend to be there looking after their kids in the water.
Is no place safe from alcohol? An educational trip for 5 year olds on a remote island ended up being a bunch of drunk parents and hungry sunburnt kids, and I hate to think how they all got their children home.
These moments anger me, I try not to be judgemental because I've done stupid shit when drinking, but the example being set for the kids at such an impressionable age is just disappointing. These moments also allow me to reflect though, on what a lovely sober day I had with my kids. I'll never let alcohol take that from me, alcohol is not and will never be conducive with the parent my children need or that I want to be. From leaving the house at 5am feeling fresh to tucking their tired little heads into bed that night I was completely and entirely theirs, undivided, A memory we'll have for many years to come, and even the next morning too.
Judgemental rant over. Thanks for tuning in. IWNDWYT.

Although agriculture has changed significantly since civilization began, hunting and gathering remain essential practices. It influences almost everything the world consumes and contributes commodities to the global economy, such as grains, livestock, dairy, fiber, and raw materials. Agriculture supports job creation, promotes economic development, impacts global trade, and interconnects sectors of the economy. Sustainability in food production requires regenerative technologies that maintain the resource base in an ecologically appropriate manner. Nevertheless, adopting such alternative technologies requires changes in many critical agricultural concepts beyond economics.
The global food system (production, transport, processing, packaging, storage, retail, consumption, loss, and waste) supports over 1 billion people's livelihoods. Although globalizing markets offer opportunities for marketing higher-value products that did not exist before, these markets also require significantly more business acumen, efficiency, and attention to quality and food safety standards than traditional products markets. The conditions for meeting these conditions may not be available in some communities or among some groups of asset-poor producers due to a lack of land, inputs, technology, knowledge, organizational capacity, skills, and infrastructure.
I decided to publish the article about Turkish Agriculture because approximately a quarter of Turkey's population is employed in agriculture, and the country's agricultural economy is among the top ten in the world. With approximately 85 million people, Turkey sits at the crossroads of Asia and Europe and is blessed with fertile soils. With half of its land planted for agriculture, the country's major exports are wheat, sugar beets, milk, poultry, cotton, fruits, and vegetables. The country has been going through challenges, and one of the main problems stems from trade policies and rural-to-urban migration, decreasing agricultural populations.
To learn more about Turkish agriculture, I interviewed Umut Dogan, a dedicated agricultural consultant, agricultural technician, and agricultural machinery and equipment specialist.
What do you think about Turkey's E-Agriculture strategy, opportunities, and benefits?
The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry determined its e-agriculture strategy in 2022 so that productivity in agriculture will increase with agriculture 4.0; production will be suitable for the market. An annual budget of 1.1 billion Liras has been allocated for R&D studies. We also attempted to protect our unique plant and animal resources in 32 gene banks. Electric tractor production and many agricultural start-ups are being supported. However, these affect very few people, and many innovative agriculture projects must be postponed due to increasing currency exchange rates. The digital or innovative agricultural products, which European American farmers can purchase less expensive, are currently on hold to be sold at relatively high prices in Turkey. Of course, it facilitates many works and contributes to protecting the environment and people; for example, disease and insect detection can be made on the field map with a multispectral agricultural camera. This process can provide low and effective plant protection measures and fertilization.
How does agriculture attract the young population?
The education process for the youth living in rural areas focuses on the city and city culture rather than sustainable economic development through agricultural activities in the villages. Hence, agriculture practices are based more on physical strength than in other countries because people adhere to the old methods. While farming is accepted as a profession in official documents in state records, it is not socially accepted as a profession in society. For example, a young farmer between 18-40 can hardly get married or has to leave this profession. It is a challenge for a young population living in the countryside is more complicated than life in city and district centers. Additionally, living standards are not getting higher. Besides, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's young farmer projects are inadequate and underdeveloped, the Ministry's personnel are inadequate, and youth awareness is lacking.
What would you have as suggestions for solutions?
Agricultural Education centers should be increased, and education should be made legally compulsory for each product. The number of existing agricultural faculties and universities should be reduced and turned into farmer training centers. Turkey needs more consciously educated farmers than agricultural engineers and technicians. Primary school and kindergarten education in rural areas should encourage and incentivize the future of agriculture as much as possible. It should be turned into an education policy based on the Village Institutes Project, which was an effective process to train well-qualified teachers back in the 1940s. Social media, TV programs, series, and movies should praise and encourage farming and rural life. Also, agricultural research institutions should be available in more villages.
What are the difficulties of Turkish agriculture?
On the other hand, Turkey cannot meet the domestic demand for many products but still has significant agricultural production potential. However, the attitudes of international institutions and multinational companies toward agricultural policies and the new agricultural culture in Turkey, as in many countries. The inability of agricultural state institutions and small producers to compete against large national and international companies in the free market economy resulted in many changes. In the competitive environment as a result of the liberal market system, it is another challenge that public agriculture institutions (KIT) were not profitable, leading to the privatization of these institutions. Small producers or relatively less significant producers were in danger of losing their lands. A domestic agriculture policy needs to be developed, and the influence of multinational companies and institutions on policy development in the Ministry of agriculture and forestry should be prevented.
The influence of multinational companies on seeds and agricultural biodiversity should be reduced, and Turkish geography's seed varieties should be expanded and developed. Many native seeds are genetically extinct or about to be extinct. Laws and regulations related to seeds and seeders should be developed and changed, and the influence of multinational companies should be minimized. Today, the plantation of hybrid seeds instead of native seeds raises concerns about pollination and unproductivity due to the sterilization of native seeds. This process results in a further decrease in product yield. In addition to the advantage of hybrid seeds being more efficient than native seeds, it should be taken into consideration that their agriculture requires more pesticides and chemical fertilizers; hence may create issues like soil and water pollution, degradation of environmental ecology, and public health. The present Turkish conventional agriculture has been forced to rely on the applications of chemicals produced by multinational companies, the use of hybrid seeds, and similar inputs. Unfortunately, the effect of conventional agriculture on Turkish agriculture is negative. Instead, the domestic Turkish agricultural model should be developed within the framework of sustainability and should be protected legally.
For this reason, the imbalance in the exchange rates has led to unbalanced agricultural production. The development of tractor park and machinery inventory is progressing very slowly due to the daily increase in diesel prices and new technology expenses. Human labor and agriculture productivity remain the same due to companies' limited use of smart agriculture and digitalization. The main reason is that it is either too expensive for the producers in the villages or remains only an academic study. Village living standards in rural areas should be increased; the influence of the state and agriculture ministry should be more effective in villages. Cooperatives and standard machinery should be encouraged; the state should develop a model; legal gaps and errors in the collaborative law should be corrected and protected with severe and deterrent penalties. Producer associations and sub-unions should either be terminated or regulated under state control. Producer organizations, which company owners in cities chair, unfortunately, do more harm than good to rural people and farmers. Organic Agriculture, global GAP, or local, sustainable natural farming methods should be encouraged. The accumulation of Ministry of agriculture personnel in cities should be prevented, models that will encourage their work in villages and rural areas should be developed, a careful recruitment policy should be implemented, and personnel who do not want to work in rural areas should be dismissed and replaced. A rural model should be developed to market agricultural products, and monopolization and cartelization should be prevented. For example, tomatoes bought from the farmer for 0.25 TL are sold for 3-4 TL in the cities, making both the farmer and the consumer victims. TMO (Town Crops Office) working under the Ministry of Agriculture should become more effective. The Chambers of Agriculture should operate effectively under the Ministry's control to reduce the Ministry's workload. Significant deficiencies in Inspection and Planning cause fluctuations in production from year to year. Many farmers cannot meet the criteria of agriculture and rural development fund, İpart, and European Union support.
Why is the high proportion of small farms with fragmented structures a weakness of Turkish agriculture?
Article 8 of the Soil Conservation and Land Use Law No. 5403
"The Ministry determines minimum agricultural land size by considering the region's social, economic, ecological, and technical characteristics. Agricultural lands have reached the minimum size determined and become indivisible goods. Minimum size of agricultural land; It cannot be determined as smaller than 2 hectares in absolute agricultural lands, marginal agricultural lands and special croplands, 0.5 hectares in planted agricultural lands, and 0.3 hectares in greenhouse cultivation lands. Agricultural lands cannot be allocated below the sizes determined by the Ministry, cannot be shared, and the number of shares and stakeholders cannot be increased, except for the sales transactions of the Treasury immovables. The Ministry may increase the minimum agricultural land sizes according to the current conditions. However, suppose it is necessary to form parcels smaller than the minimum agricultural land size determined due to the land characteristics in areas where non-agricultural use permits are granted or where plants with particular climate and soil needs, such as tea, hazelnut, and olive grow. In that case, smaller parcels can be created with the approval of the Ministry. Phrases and land dimensions should be changed and improved.
Agricultural lands are divided into small parcels due to the agricultural inheritance law, which has not been regulated previously, decreasing the profitability in production, and increasing the number of farmers in official documents. Today, Changes in Law No. 6537, Article 5/3, are insufficient and cause sociological practice difficulties. Because the optimum land size is low, the profitability of Turkish agriculture, which is already experiencing joint and various organizational problems, reduces productivity and negatively affects sustainable development. The solution takes a long time because land consolidation works have not been done in the past or have been done too late. Incoming immigrants who had to migrate due to events in the Middle East benefit from Article 35 of the Land Registry Law, amended in 2016 by Law No. 6302. Agricultural lands are being sold to people with Middle Eastern culture who want to become citizens of the Republic of Turkey and do agriculture, rather than Turkish farmers.
Why does the high cost of agricultural mechanization for small farms prevent small-scale farms from increasing production efficiency?
The level of mechanization cannot be increased due to the high cost and the inability to choose a machine suitable for the size of the land, and the lack of appropriate mechanization training leads to inefficient use of machinery and equipment. Although the production of agricultural equipment and tractors in Turkey is considerable worldwide, access to Turkish farmers is difficult because of the costs. The grants and support of the Ministry of Agriculture and the European Union are used inefficiently and questionably. It should be noted that a new technology tractor usually requires new technology equipment.
How often do natural disasters affect agriculture?
Insurance against frost, hail, fire, and drought was implemented in Turkey for the first time, becoming a model for many countries. The General Directorate of Meteorology and Agricultural Insurance works effectively and efficiently. However, insurance coverage and appraisal services should be developed; agricultural insurance should serve the farmers rather than the profitability of insurance companies, and loss adjusting should be expanded.
How much instability does it cause in pricing?
The cartels and monopolies should be prevented in pricing, basin production model and production should be done by planning, big companies should be prevented from buying cheap and selling high, and agricultural export models should be developed. The need for imported oil increased due to the costs and the wrong planning of oil sunflower planting. The delayed arrival time of the ships loaded with oil from Russia caused a crisis and increased prices.
Do small-scale agricultural enterprises face inefficient use of technology and integration into markets? How can this be improved?
Yes. High pesticide and chemical residue rates can be monitored very limitedly in imported products that are very weak in integrating into the market and have high regional variability. The biggest reason for this is cartelization and lack of supervision. The cooperative wing and the export mechanism cannot be established; the Ministry should implement an audit at the initiative of the companies, cooperatives and production should be constantly supervised, and farmers who produce good and healthy products should be rewarded and encouraged.

I'm a TA at a very small liberal arts school. It's my dream to become a math teacher once I finish college.
The school is literally on a farm and we have only 8 students from ages 8-11, TWO full-time teachers, and myself. Every now and then we have other teachers come in a teach other subjects. They have been learning basic academics, gardening, ecology, and the importance of keeping the environment safe.
What I'm specifically worried about is math. Again, these kids are again 8-11 years old and are just now learning tower subtraction, addition, long division, and multiplication. Right now they are learning how to add, subtract, multiply and simplify fractions. A lot of these kids were homeschooled, so I expected them to be a little behind, but not to this level. They didn't even know all the continents and oceans, which I learned in KINDERGARTEN.
Another concern is that since most of them were homeschooled, they haven't learned proper discipline. Their parents haven't been strict with them. They are very distractible and have a hard time focusing. They see the other teachers as assholes. When in reality we're just trying to teach them proper life skills for the future.
I want them to succeed in life, and I'm really concerned that they are going to be suuuuuper behind once they go to 'regular' school. Other, more experienced teachers, how far behind are they? And are there any tips to teach them respect without being too harsh?

I've been working on an anti-capitalist comedy satire for a while. This is the most explicitly anti-capitalist scene I've written so far, so if anyone can get through the 3000+ words, I'd love to hear what other leftists think about it. The setting for the work is a Japanese boarding school in the future where students have to spend all day being indoctrinated with conservative and free-market propaganda, essentially Kekko Kamen with Dennis Prager as the school principal. In this scene, the closeted leftist MC is taking a test.
I'm fairly new to creative writing, and didn't do any for the nearly 20 years between leaving school and starting this series, so I know there are lots of areas where I can improve, and I'm fine with constructive feedback even if it's negative.
Here it is. I don't know if it needs a content warning, but there is some profanity.
“Now listen carefully everyone.” Shigino-sensei mouthed, staring right through the students and forward at the wall. Even with so many of them huddled together in the same room, he never could shed the habits he had formed from years of performing for video lectures in an empty room. “Today’s mid-term test is very important, and will help decide your future here. I dare indeed say that you might find this year more competitive than ever.” The same as every year, not that it ever amounted to anything. “In fact, some of you may find yourself reflecting back on how your actions today shaped your future here.”
With that all out of the way, he fumbled around his desk, attempting to find the sealed brown envelopes containing the tests and answer sheets. The front legs of the table, two solid chunks of wood roughly hacked down to size by machete, gave way with each tap against the surface. Once getting his hands on the crumpled envelope, he peeled off the seal, folding it into equal halves twice and patting it down with his finger tips. He stepped towards the line of students by the entrance. Flicking through the pile of sheets, he selected one for each student before placing them on the front desk. He moved through the room with a similar unhurried pace much in line with the level of urgency he had shown towards injustice or ecological disaster. Measured steps. A moderate course of action.
The sheets flapped as the students passed them along, making a sound reminiscent of a middle class trader opening the pages of their broadsheet to full breadth in a bid to assert dominance on a packed train, before finally gaining in strength as Shigino-sensei managed to lumber towards Kota’s end of the room with the few remaining papers. Ruffling through the sheets, he grabbed onto a bunch and laid them down against the front desk. The rotting wood at the surface of the desk creaked, a worrying but all too expected response considering how poorly maintained their classroom had been. The student four seats in front of Kota took a sheet for himself before passing the others down.
The student to Kota’s immediate front, a particularly taciturn loner with a buzz cut so short it appeared sprayed on, cranked his arm back with the remaining answer sheets in hand. His head remained unturned by any noticeable degree, because why would he ever want to make the most basic effort to acknowledge anyone in the room? He began to shake his hands, obviously feeling inconvenienced by the split second delay in taking them off him, but such strenuous work does indeed put a strain on the deltoids. He shook them again. The sheets wafted around like a kindergarten art project wind chime and breezed past Kota’s hand as he reached in. The papers fell, imprinting a gash against Kota’s fingers. He dove forward. The edge of his desk ate into his stomach, but he managed to grab hold of the sheets before it went in deep enough to perform a gastrectomy. With the sheets understandably tattered, he smoothed out the crumples with his hands, making sure to keep hold of the one most badly creased and pass the remaining few down the line. He dipped his head in apology to the student behind him, a feather haired snob with the look of someone who’d start a riot over getting the wrong toy from a Happy Meal. He took hold of them, examining the depth of each crease before acknowledging Kota with narrowed eyes. With another slight drop of the head, Kota apologized and turned back to face the front.
Shigino-sensei had by that time made his way back to the center of the room with the test papers. Kota got ready to grab them so as to avoid another incident. It did however prove to be a completely pointless gesture, as the crew-cutted princess simply tossed them over to him, where they landed face up against his desk. He quickly turned them back over and flattened them down his fingers. Peeking at the test before it had officially started would only get him in trouble, and Kota knew better than to be seen flaunting the rules. Of course no reasonable person could have accused him of cheating, but the school never held reason in much high regard, especially when presented with an opportunity to levy fines against their students. He passed the other sheets to the back of the line, finding the uppity snob seemingly unappeased by the offering of an unspoiled test paper. The sulking snob took hold of them and smacked them down against his desk.
The ruffling of papers settled down as the few outliers received their sheets. With everyone ready before the start time, there was nothing for them to do but sit in silence. Some showed the telltale signs of mental revision such as nodding their heads and wiggling their fingers as they recited factoids in their heads. Others appeared more calm, clearly confident they had done all could to prepare.
The bell rang, unsettling one of the more worried students who went from writing out memos with his finger across the desk to scrunching up in his seat. “You may now begin.” Shigino-sensei said. “Please read each question carefully, and of course, be sure not to forget your name and student number.”
Receiving the go ahead, Kota turned his test paper over and began to consider his answer for the first question. Although starting with a short essay, the core question was simple enough. “Please explain why socialism will always fail.” He had of course heard it at least a thousand times. “Socialism undermines personal responsibility by redistributing money from the entrepreneurial elites who earned their wealth to the unproductive members of society, thus serving the ruling class by taking from the many and giving to the elite few. By never having to work to earn their rightful place in society, the common man is forced into work by an authoritarian class of bureaucratic elites, who are themselves burdened by crippling regulations and thus have no incentive to contribute to society. This can only end in an unequal society where the ruling class live lives of luxury on the backs of the masses who work for poverty wages, struggling to afford food, rent, or health care.” Simple as that. They may as well have let him go back and pack his things there and then, because advancement to the 3rd grade was practically guaranteed. But either way, he’d probably have been done in around twenty minutes.
He wrote out the first line, his gaze lagging a few steps behind his pencil. Having not rested long enough to sooth the sting in his eyes, he began to yawn. He let go of the pencil as his head lifted itself away from his desk. With his brief fit of weariness quelled, he picked it up and went back to working on his answer. He shuddered as he leaned in towards his sheet, finding all but his name and student number erased from the sheet, and his sanity reassured by only the faintest imprint of what he had written. He penciled the words in once again, but by the time his eyes had reached back around to the start, his answer had yet again disappeared from the page. Having no other option, he gripped the side of the sheet with his thumb and index finger and made a single, deep stroke with his pencil, loosening his grip each time the sheet showed signs of tearing. Even if he couldn’t write it down like they would have normally preferred, they’d have to accept it as long as he could manage to carve the answer into his paper. He stopped after making a deep enough impression of the first few words. After a few moments, the lead imprint shrunk in on itself before disappearing completely. The surface of the paper then bulged out, filling out the imprint he had worked so hard to create.
Kota’s foot shot up in pain. He bit down on his lip to distract himself from it. Reaching around to see what had happened, he found the tip of his neighbor’s chair planted into his foot. The redpilled little princess rocked his chair forward, lifting it and offering Kota a momentary release from its grip. His leg shriveled back under his desk where it would be shielded from any further harm. The crew-cut Karen scribbled against his paper before once again stomping down with the feet of his chair like he was an obstacle in a 16-bit platformer. Although certainly stressed, it had by that time become clear that they were not the only ones experiencing issues, as the entire room scratched their pencils against their sheets, failing to make any lasting mark and making a sound that under normal circumstances would have only been interpreted as the citizens of a country finally having the good sense to subject their elected officials to mass polygraph testing. While most continued to etch in their answers with no success, some gave up, with one of the students eventually raising his hand to attract Shigino-sensei’s attention. Lacking in awareness as always, the teacher’s eyes refused to drift away from his desk. The student began to wave his arm vigorously like an insufferable child so eager to show their teacher that they once again knew the right answer while others didn’t. The scribbling began to wane. Others began to raise their arms, certainly aware that even under these unusual circumstance, the faculty would show no hesitation in enforcing the fines for speaking during an exam. To give him credit, Shigino-sensei maintained his facade of ignorance to the students pleas longer than most could have been expected to. He had after all shown throughout his career that he possessed great skill at remaining oblivious. With his lectures on biology being so heavily skewed in favor of corporate interests, he often couldn’t stop himself from taking creative licence with the more mundane elements of his field. One notable incident involved a lesson detailing the attempts of environmentalist to shutdown a manufacturer of agricultural products based on the “unfounded fears” of the product’s safety. The teacher had countered this by claiming that not only was the product perfectly safe, the producer had successfully eradicated droughts in Africa by repurposing their production plants to act as a water supply in regions where clean water was scarce. Although Deku questioned the absence of this incident from the school’s history textbooks and curriculum, as well as the many independent sources available to him that detailed industrialization in 21st century Africa, Shigino-sensei had always found a way to avoid engaging with his arguments. But although evading one or two questions had been well within his means, remaining nonchalant was a much more difficult task while surrounded by forty irritable, sleep deprived students, especially when packed in tight enough for him to feel the sweat vapors from the less hygienic members of the class being deposited along his receding hairline. “Perhaps you haven’t heard of the schools change of policy this year.” he said. The concerned student, stuck in the same position this whole time, shook his arm once again. “Go ahead. I shall allow you to speak.”
“Sir, none of us can seem to write on the answer sheets.”
“Well, as you will no doubt begin to understand, the school had no choice but implement a change in policy this year.” He delivered his explanation with a restrained smile, the kind a company spokesperson would don so as to not appear completely emotionless seconds before announcing that the higher-ups had decided to fuck over their customers for profit. “In the previous academic year, the student body, by which I mean you, performed much disappointingly. And you must understand that such poor performance affects not only yourselves, but the reputation of the school too, particularly among the companies that pay to ensure you grow into the skilled professionals that our economy demands.”
Another student raised his hand, wafting his bushy hair back behind his ears. “But sir, what does this have to do with our answer sheets.”
“You’ll begin to see that in due time, dear boy.” Shigino-sensei said, gesturing for him to lower his hand. “So anyway, as I was saying before I was interrupted, the students’ performance last year was most disappointing, leaving the faculty in a very precarious situation with our sponsors, who expect only the best from those entering into their workforce. With funds growing scarce, we found ourselves in the unfortunate position of having to secure new sponsors.”
The bushy haired student shook his head each time the teacher uttered a sentence that in no way advanced his understanding of their situation. Others exchanged glances. Another grinded his fingertips into his desk with each tangent before giving up and waving his hand in the air. “But sir, what does any of this have to do with our answer sheets?”
“Yes, well, I appreciate the encouragement, but I was actually just about to get to that. One should ask if such impatience had any hand in landing us all in this situation to begin with. After all, if you all weren’t so concerned with immediate results, maybe you would have taken the time to study.”
The student with the twitchy fingertips dug his nails into his desk and dragged them back and forth.
“So, anyway, as I would have explained earlier if it weren’t for the many undeserved interruptions I have been forced to endure, through a need to secure further funding, we had little choice but to sign a contract with a new stationary supplier. With your academic performance being as woefully low as it was, the new sponsorship deal was however insufficient in meeting the shortfall in funds.”
A student in the front row, a slender figure with spiky brown hair, took a flick knife out from his pocket. His eyes seemed to caress each detail of the blade. He flicked it open with a single one-handed motion, folding it back up and spinning it around in his hand before returning his gaze to the teacher. It was a display of superior dexterity and a power move on his part, as Shigino-sensei would have been in no position to object until he had confirmed if the blade’s manufacturer had stayed on as a sponsor for that academic year.
“So anyway” He eased open his desk drawer and slid his hand in. “This new sponsor kindly offered us additional funding on the condition that they became the exclusive supplier of stationary for this school.” He said, glancing down at his desk drawer every few seconds. ”And after many weeks of negotiations, we both thought it only fair that our students, who were after all the ones responsible for landing us in this situation, help subsidize the shortfall with the purchase of Dorobo Corp. compliant pencils for the new school year.” His hand sashayed away from his drawer and perched on his desk. “And may I remind you, Mr. Seitani, that sharpened instruments are not permitted in this school with the exception of those produced by the manufacturer of our catering equipment.”
The knife wielding student shook his head and slapped his knife down across his desk. The other students murmured. One of them, retaining enough of his composure to speak up, raised his hand. “But sir, Dorobo-compliant pencils have been in short supply for months. I sent an enquiry to the principal’s officer, but he never got back to me.”
“Well, young man. I’d say that rather than crawling to the faculty for help, you should have found your own solution. At this establishment, we equip our students with the skills necessary for the challenges they will face in liberal society, and I’d dare say there is no skill more important than self sufficiency.
Another student raised his arm, shaking so vigorously that the creases he tore into his sleeve with each individual wave of the hand could be observed from the other end of the room. “They’ve been out of stock for almost a year. It would have cost us six months’ worth of credits just for a single, used pencil. You can’t expect us to pay that. That’s far too expensive.
Shigino-sensei chewed on his lip, appearing as if he had just taken his first bite of the cafeteria’s poor excuse for food after decades of gourmet dining, but of course being too sophisticated and middle-class to show any outright expression of disgust. “Far too expensive ...” He leaned in towards the shaken student, supporting his body with his arms planted into his desk. “I would dare say that we both should be grateful for these circumstances, as one such as yourself who cannot begin to grasp the basics of the subjective theory of value would no doubt struggle with the concepts presented in this test.” He straightened out his posture and took a moment to readjust his cuffs. “As for those of you whose time here has been put to better use, there is in fact a solution I can offer. We do just so happen to have a batch of emergency school supplies for sale at 2000 credits a piece.”
“Will they come with the pencils?” Seitani asked with tone that wasn’t exactly optimistic.
Shigino-sensei shrugged his shoulders. “They very well might do.” He sat back down at his desk, his expression turning back to vacancy. With no more helpful information to prize out of him, the students broke into conversation among their cliques. Some of the more introverted students pondered their options in silence. Kota however didn’t need to give it anymore consideration. He took his regular pencil and marked a big fat zero in the section for his score. That and his name alone persisted on paper, a fact he had little to no resistance in acknowledging. After getting up from the chair, he strolled to the front. “You coming?”, he shot at Deku as he passed by.
His body withered up at the sound of that suggestion. “It’s the middle of an exam. We can’t just leave.”
“Well, suit yourself. I’ll see you later then.” Kota turned back towards the front and dropped his paper on Shigino-sensei’s desk. With no reason to linger, he slid the door open and left.
“Humpf! No one wants to study anymore!” Shigino-sensei screamed as the door closed shut.

Suggested Listening Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F1M9k21lkQ
Light flickered through the plain glass windows, faint on the winter sky. Wrapped up in two sweaters, Marie Avcheka shivered in her office, keeping her fingers tucked in fingerless gloves. Behind her, another man worked, sleeves rolled up. The heat had been set down low, to 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Part of it was power saving. Part of it was her office mate literally not feeling the cold. Part of it was her always being cold. They got along well enough…but this was not one of them. The bear-like, bear-sized man was a pure statistician, and Marie was a social scientist–neither of them were economists. The window creaked against the wind, the wooden frame giving slightly. One person shivered. One person yawned.
Marie Avcheka had a number of eyes on her past, but right now, she was a nobody bureaucrat. Not that this bothered her. She was focused in on slaying her nations’ economic white whale, on closing the Bala Cynwyd coalfields. They had supplied energy to the D.R.S in the early days of the revolution, the economic value of their yields very secondary to keeping the lights on. During Centralist control, operations at Bala Cynwyd had vastly expanded, supplying the rail network with fuel and powering a network of very large power plants that the D.R.S had managed to restore to working order. It had fed foundries, produced gas, and even been broken down into fuel. But it had many drawbacks: a single interruption from the coalfields impacted tens of thousands, inky black smoke had clouded otherwise clearing skies, and the fields themselves represented a strategic target that was a turkey shoot to anyone with a few hours for recreational bombing. The D.R.S needed to find another source of power besides Bala Cynwyd, and close it for good.
The light on the ceiling did not blink. It was a LED, newly made and installed, likely by hand. Marie had been disrupted at work for a day while the electricians swapped out all of the lights, while her companion groused and did tricks with a slide rule in the hallway. Use of slide rules hadn’t fully penetrated the D.R.S once again; computers had been babied, kept running, repaired, and smuggled in; now there was production of new machines to a small degree. Still, they had one computer to share between themselves, and data entry wasn’t fun. Maybe the heating would get improved next, but Marie doubted it. As a child, she had been given the best, but the rest of the D.R.S hadn’t. There had always been shortages, but everyone had clustered together or tightened their belts. Her uncle claimed that they had succeeded because of his genius. Growing up, she had seen the luck.
The biggest thing that the D.R.S needed was electricity. Electricity operated motors and lights, charged batteries, managed temperatures, made computers work, and kept signals flying through the phone lines. Since it had some solutions to store electricity, it could afford to use electric cars and save on fuel. Even better, it could directly electrify all of its rail lines, replacing the traditional coal-powered locomotive and the cobbled-together biodiesel train with modern, electrically-driven trains that were both efficient and non-polluting. Of course, electrified trains would be a major stress on the power grid, constantly drawing electricity while in service. The constant draw didn’t match the patterns of sunrise and sunset, or the waxing and waning of the wind. This was a constant challenge for a primarily renewables-supported power web, and it was one that had to be surmounted by everyone using these life-friendly sources.
Marie recognized that a lot of what kept the D.R.S energized depended on efficient social norms. Since you couldn’t achieve these through propaganda, and social pressure could only do so much without becoming utterly evil. Instead, the D.R.S chose habits, learned consciously and practiced deliberately, starting as kids. She had always learned to turn out the lights when she was done, to compost her food scraps and store her leftovers according to use-by date, to wash her hands and brush her teeth promptly, to put up the curtains and put down the door-snakes against drafts…all the things of kindergarten. This was one of the times when having children clean up the classroom wasn’t a bad thing or exploitative–it was a teaching opportunity! And the D.R.S never let the chance for a good learning opportunity go to waste…that was something that had been drilled into her head.
Various pieces were in place. The D.R.S had already started the process of achieving consensus on the wide variety of common standards that electric trains would need to function across a nation-shaped entity. Everything from transmission voltages to chyron designs were being figured out in a convention center that had the atmosphere of a mall crawl and mailed out to newspapers, interested parties, local governments, and anyone who asked for a copy. Designs were prototyped, discussed on stage, iterated, and then prototyped again. Someone had managed to get a piece of test track hauled in, courtesy of the railway union. The electric trains themselves, the infrastructure to get them power, all of that was coming together on its own.
Someone just needed to come up with the power itself.
Quietly, Marie had been going to the library. The library had been less quiet in general, and while she didn’t mind, it was a sign of growing community life. The founding generation of revolutionaries had been permanently traumatized, hesitant to speak up and almost overstimulated. They had held their society together with duct tape and rope, sometimes with nothing but themselves. The next generation had been protected as much as they could have been, but they had worked nonstop, going to fields and factories–or off to medical school. Marie was one of the few people who had kept working in science, although her work was applied. She had been on the scientist registry before working for the government, and getting enough attention to work for Parliamentary-level government, no less. But she didn’t always stay at the office–the library, a haven for anyone seeking peace and quiet, was a true community center. Marie, however, saw that it was bursting at the seams. This wasn’t a bad thing.
The D.R.S had come up with a way to produce lots and lots of baseload electricity, and it needed it before it fully electrified its railway lines and pushed even more energy to future projects. It also needed this energy to be decentralized, easily maintained, and non-polluting to the communities it was powering. Here, the polity was at an impasse: it had harvested much of the lower-hanging fruit, constructing multitudes of hydroelectric dams and building windmills across hill and dale, harvesting methane from old sources and new community biodigesters. It had supported this with the installation of power storage centers made of batteries and capacitors, sometimes flywheels or pumped storage, and tied it together with a power web that enabled the quick shuffling of electricity to support higher demand. Old combustion power plants had been replaced by fuel cells, providing higher efficiency and less waste. While this would have been enough for many of the towns, it didn’t yet live up to the promises made so long.
One of these promises was the ability to go outside in peace. The bombing had stopped, the skies were clear of most of the obvious planes, the trash had been picked up, the water was clear, while there was still some nasty pollution kicking around, it wouldn’t really kill you. Marie and many of her peers liked going outside…but there wasn’t really anywhere to go yet. People were looking for community, and while they were finding and making it, they really needed somewhere to do it that was properly appointed. Either that, or they needed to be in a virtual space, and there was no way to do that yet. Marie really, really saw that the D.R.S needed an internet, and this was where she slightly disagreed with her uncle. Generally, Stevka didn’t think that an internet was strictly necessary, while Marie thought that one was essential. This boiled down to a mis-understanding of what was essential, fuelled by Stevka’s gigantic ego. However, both recognized that the D.R.S wasn’t quite there…but that it could close that gap quickly.
The most immediate gap to close was in producing biofuels. Marie’s desk had accumulated reports, letters, journal articles, and eventually, statistics of some kind. She had needed to do many of these analyses herself, and they had been boring slogs through spreadsheet software interspersed with marking areas on a map. Marie had then overlaid them with weather reports for the years, and computed the amount of time that each region received sunlight–by doing this, she had determined where algae biofuels could still be expanded. Cross-referencing farming data, newer ecological surveys, and putting in a lot of phone calls to cooperatives, environmental governance groups, and communal kitchens gave her an idea of where cellulosic crop waste could be taken without removing too much carbon from the area. Sea-based algae cultivation was out of the question, given the problems of growing anything in a highly polluted eldritch ocean; there was also insufficient sea-going infrastructure.
And so Marie Avcheka wrote a report that everyone could enjoy. For Parliament, it told them where fuels could be made and how to help, for regional representatives, it gave them breakdowns on the details of how to swing their regional economies into making these fuels; and for the people living there, it highlighted how they could actually do this and receive benefits. Large-scale refineries weren’t the best way for the D.R.S to produce its fuel; the associated costs of moving raw materials and finished fuel would make any gains completely moot. Instead, regional and local refineries, built according to her uncles’ ‘mini-refinery’ principle were the drop-off sites of farm waste and algae harvests. They could be serviced by everything from animal-drawn carts and ferries to electrified train lines, and they could be built by local industry–any extra parts could be shipped in by train line. Overall, Marie’s synthesis of other reports, local data, and general industrial knowledge illuminated a path forward to bring biofuel production to its full, multi-path potential. Algae, mosses, tree and field scraps–everything could be useful. Marie would not let any scrap of potential go to waste.
Stevka was proud of that. He said that Marie was ‘liberated from capital in her work’. Marie thought that she was simply naive about capital and costs, because the D.R.S still used money. Stevka told her that he didn’t believe in money, because sometimes you could go from direct production to use, and that once the immediate needs of people were taken care of, the pressure of money could be taken away. Once people just needed things like hobby equipment and basic tools to do their jobs with, there was much less pressure for cash to even matter. The economist had proudly proclaimed his work to be the most effective post-capitalist system yet. Marie thought that this was kind of dumb, but she hadn’t said anything, because she thought that she was missing something. Now, with Stevka soon to leave, and Marie working in the same area as her uncle, she thought his opinion was kind of dumb. Socialism and capital-free society wouldn’t just appear overnight. Capitalism had to fall away by itself, Marie thought. It couldn’t be abolished wholesale. It needed to be supplanted.
One of the places where her uncle was right was in the production of new solar power sources. Many, many workshop-style solar cell plants were currently in production, making slightly-iterated developments of the original solar cells that Olumbiye had helped to spread, and they were putting these cells into panels. The panels sometimes varied, becoming strips or entire fields over farms; they could be placed on tents or vehicles for mobile communities and emergency power sources. Right now, they were especially useful for powering smaller devices such as radios, toys, and remote telephones. Marie had other applications in mind. The most obvious was fixed in fields under crops that needed partial shade, growing small patches of black on the rainbow; this was already starting to come to fruition. In her report, Marie outlined a series of steps to bring solar panels to rooftops and fields, making a big deal of information and technique sharing, as well as good stewardship of the power web and its’ expansion down to the level of the farms. Generally, the web was thinner towards the mainland of Hakon–but it was time to change this.
Marie had some doubts about the power web, but they were somewhat overshadowed by her doubts about the nation. Right now, the politicians of the D.R.S didn’t want to be involved in…anything. Adhering to the guidelines of the Glass Cage had kept them safe from bombing, even in the face of the pure hypocrisy of the old regime. Marie didn’t like this, and while she wouldn’t hesitate to admit that the D.R.S had no chance against the Cage, she thought that the nation should still be actively paying attention to the outside world. While the state had been willing to do a few things, such as send advisors when asked to, it seemed to have a supine governing philosophy that focused on getting along. The Centralists had talked about changing this, but they had failed conclusively enough that Marie had little faith in them. The only thing that they had left, Marie thought, was a few dreams that could be recycled by rational people.
Their flagship program was to revive the idea of a network of solar concentrators that had been proposed back in the 70’s and never again considered by the oligarchy. Marie had seen their plans, and she wasn’t a fan–they were simply impractical, and didn’t go into how much storage they would need. However, the original idea was good, and Svarska could benefit from it. The solar concentrators that Marie envisioned were not giants existing on leveled land, but smaller machines that conformed to both geography and environment. She had been reading magazine articles and writing to the editor–two of Maries’ letters had been published in a smaller magazine now–and she had found that many of her ideas were mirrored in other thinkers and designers. There was a great deal of interest in solar concentrators now, ranging from science fiction dreams of beamed-down power to practical inventions in backyards. Marie had visited one example and seen a solar furnace made from old satellite dishes covered with mirrors and bike reflectors; she had written many more letters and enjoyed many more phone calls with similar-minded persons, eventually helping to organize a series of conferences of geeks. Her communications had not just involved solar power either; the old Centralist plans for tidal batteries were very popular. While the D.R.S could not have built these installations in the past, the time was ripe to break ground, and one project was already ongoing. Each tidal battery would provide reliable, stable power that wasn’t dependent on the weather, and while there were significant environmental concerns from disrupting the shoreline and letting in that much eldritch seawater, the benefits were simply too significant to resist. Objections had also come in from a few Tidalist congregations, with strange links to persons who Marie couldn’t recognize. However, there was too much enthusiasm to stop; and Marie had met a few shoreline architects with ideas that were as much as art as science. Already, dunes were rising, not walls of concrete. It was almost science fiction…
Marie had about four novels on her person. Speculative fiction, some people called it. Future-maybe, others said. Trash, a literary critic said, seconds before a bench-clearing bar brawl that ended with 30,000 hours of community service issued during sentencing. Science fiction was fairly popular in the D.R.S, and her copies were dog-eared, checked out from the library or bought from a bookseller after months of waiting. At home, Marie had two posters, and was eagerly waiting for a third to be finished and shipped–she couldn’t wait to see the flying saucers darting around, one hijacked by the daring ‘Batross hero Flapp Rannigan–or their thrilling twists over the plains of Lumbria. While she had her head in the clouds, Marie had her feet on the ground. The other book that she had read recently, Bases of Accurate Moving Parts was about manufacturing objects to extreme precision. Science fiction, she thought, coupled with practical skills and methodical preparation, could bring the wonders of the world to life.
And Marie was taking a chance on one of those wonders: the poorly named ‘blowhole generators’. While they were an excellent way to generate dirty jokes, they were also a good way to generate consistent electrical power–however, they needed to be placed out in the ocean itself. When a wave hit the generator, the force of the ocean would be channeled in such a way that it forces air upwards, driving a small air turbine. The key to this devices’ success was that it was a one-way method of harvesting energy; ocean currents and air were shot outwards after the first harvest, and no other complicated steps remained. (1) This kept the design simple, efficient, and reliable, all of which were needed in a challenging marine environment. The D.R.S’ major evolutions in the design were to have minimized the amount of electronics and maritime steel or aluminum alloys used, making for a very efficient and easier to produce design. Despite consistent efforts to improve recycling and naval material production across the board, the D.R.S’ efforts to produce marine steel had been unsuccessful outside of a set of three smelters at Loropole; and both naval steel and marine aluminum remained out of reach for the moment.
Marie was not a fool, nor was she even an optimist; she was a practitioner of the dismal science, and her rules were probably the most depressing. But she was extremely clever, and she could see several dozen steps ahead of the present day–she had vision. Just like her uncle. Within the D.R.S there were people with interests, wants, and needs, and if she handled them in just the right way, she could align them to her goals. In this case, her goals included lots and lots of power being generated. Marie wanted the lights on–as did everyone else. And she would bring people together to get it, allow them to work on their own, and then champion their solutions, not as hers, but as self-weaving tapestry. No one would really know that she set the threads in motion–and she often believed that she was just making the inevitable happen faster. Behind her, the bear-like statistician puttered through his pure numbers. Marie Avcheka wrote another letter. She was Andriepovol Stevka’s niece on the outside, but on the inside she was very, very different. Marie Avcheka was right about everything, but her correct opinions came from everyone else’s input–and if you asked her, she just worked here.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jUcpGHPGgk

There are criteria that will allow you not to make a mistake with the choice.
Budget The budget is often a key and merciless factor that will filter out many options that will suit you based on other characteristics. Therefore, it is extremely important to soberly assess your financial capabilities at the very beginning. Well, immediately mark for yourself the amount that you will be ready to pay extra if you come across "Oh, mom, it's just a dream!".
Location of the future house Location is one of the key factors in pricing. Here it is worth analyzing three main components: infrastructure and its volume, transport accessibility, and ecology.
Infrastructure Its importance and development will directly depend on the composition of your family, needs, and habits. If you are a young person without a partner and with your own car, the presence of educational institutions, clinics, pharmacies, and all kinds of playgrounds near the house is unlikely to interest you. Probably, it is much more important for you to have a shopping mall, a couple of restaurants, a fitness center and a cinema nearby. But if you have children, then the presence of such facilities as a school, kindergarten, polyclinic, and playgrounds, on the contrary, will be important. But, even if the developer talks about many kindergartens and schools nearby, don't be too lazy to visit some of them yourself. It is likely that the queue for several years ahead may be an unexpected surprise for you.
Transport accessibility You should not neglect this factor, referring to the presence of your own car. After all, it is not only you, and in case of insufficient development of public transport, many hours of traffic jams on the way to the place of work and back will become an integral part of your everyday life. In many metropolitan housing complexes, finding a free place in the evening is another enormous problem. Therefore, it is important to monitor the area in advance for the availability of parking lots and free parking lots.
Ecology It is important for everyone but especially valuable for the elderly and families with children. Therefore, be sure to check the area for: spontaneous landfills; factories and industries; transport highways with saturated traffic. Landfills and factory emissions greatly pollute the air and cause serious illnesses in people with allergies or respiratory diseases. And the noise and exhaust gases from a lot of traffic will force you to keep the windows closed all the time. Proximity to parks and remoteness from factories and industrial zones increases the cost per square meter of the residential complex
What other criteria are crucial, before buying property in residence? Also, visit https://hata.ng/ if you are interested in different African properties