Super Bowl Sunday an Unofficial Holiday for Millions

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted: Ferbuary 3rd 2012

Each year, on a Sunday at the end of January or beginning of February, tens of millions of Americans declare their own unofficial holiday. Gathered in groups large and small, nearly half of all U.S. households participate vicariously in a televised spectacle that has far outgrown its origins as a sporting event.

The Super Bowl, which determines the championship of American football, is most of all a shared experience, when Americans disproportionately choose to spend this day in the company of friends.

Neither the hugely popular Major League Baseball World Series nor the National Basketball Association championship commands so intense a grip on the nation’s attention. Possibly this is because the Super Bowl is a single game, a winner-take-all contest. Add in the entertainments that have sprung up around the game and Super Bowl Sunday becomes an event even for those who are not football fans.

ORIGINS OF THE SUPER BOWL

American football is unrelated to the game most of the world knows by that name, which Americans and some others call soccer. And even the American game has variants, as there are slightly different rules for the versions played by college teams, professional teams and Canadian Football League teams.

For most of its history, professional American football was played within a single National Football League (NFL). In 1960, a rival league, the American Football League (AFL), began to compete for premier talent. As the leagues contemplated a merger, they agreed to a single game each year between their respective champions. Because many collegiate football championships were known as “bowls” for the bowl-shaped stadiums that hosted them, one AFL owner referred to the new game as a “super” bowl. The name stuck.

Four Super Bowl games were played before the two leagues merged into a single National Football League, which was realigned into the American and National “conferences.” Each year, the conference champions play each other in the Super Bowl to determine the NFL champion.

While most U.S. sports championships are determined in the home cities of the contestants, a Super Bowl — as with the Olympics and the World Cup — is awarded to a city some three years to five years in advance, opening the door to broad marketing and promotional opportunities. Because the game is played in winter, it affords warm cities like New Orleans, Miami and Los Angeles a substantial advantage. Occasionally a northern city with an indoor stadium will host the game. That happens this year, as Indianapolis hosts Super Bowl XLVI — the New York Giants versus the New England Patriots — on February 5.

A Super Bowl generates substantial economic activity within its host city. Many ticket holders, media representatives and others arrive a week before the game, exploring the area and spending freely.

Cities that seek to host the game must submit environmental plans detailing how they plan to make the Super Bowl as “green” as possible.

TELEVISION EVENT, SOCIAL EVENT

Four of the 10 most-watched television programs in U.S. history have been Super Bowls. The game played in 2011, Super Bowl XLV, had an audience of 111 million viewers and broke the record set by the 2010 game as the most-watched U.S. television program in history.

Americans increasingly have gathered in private Super Bowl parties, where they enjoy food, drink and televised football. The game is always played on a Sunday, when Americans are not likely to be at work. Because of the event’s national prominence, even Americans who are not football fans might adopt a team just for Super Bowl Sunday.

Another key to the Super Bowl’s success is the carefully choreographed entertainment events that surround the game itself. The “halftime show,” musical and other entertainment offered by major stars, takes place on the field during the mid-game rest period. In 2012, the headliner will be Madonna.

For many television viewers, the highlight of the Super Bowl isn’t the game, it’s the commercials. Advertisers compete to display their most creative efforts and introduce their newest products. Given the huge audience, advertisers are willing to pay dearly to parade their wares on the Super Bowl broadcast. In 2012, a 30-second ad will cost a record $3.5 million.

Although serious football fans would disagree, Super Bowl Sunday, for millions of Americans, is less about which team prevails than it is about fun. Whether at the stadium or with friends in front of the television, most Americans find something to enjoy on this unofficial national holiday.

Additional information on the game is available on the official Web site of Super Bowl XLVI.

 

Internet Was Tool for Expression and Repression in 2011

Author: Charlene Porter
Posted: February 3, 2012

The United States and its international partners “made a great deal of progress” in 2011 in adopting measures that can “turn our commitment to Internet freedom into reality,” according to U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael H. Posner.

Speaking at a Washington conference January 17, Posner said the use of the Internet as a tool for human rights and as the nemesis of dictatorial regimes were two narratives that unfolded in 2011. While some oppressive regimes attempted to silence their online detractors by “jailing bloggers and hijacking Facebook pages,” the United States and a group of nations from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development concurred on principles for an open Internet available to all.

Posner said 2011 also saw 15 countries and private interests launch the Coalition for Freedom Online. “They will stand up for the rights of netizens and cyber-activists,” Posner said. “And these governments will work with tech companies on ways to promote respect for their customers’ human rights and fundamental freedoms.”

The Internet freedom this coalition strives to protect will serve as a basis for the 21st-century human rights agenda, Posner said.

The United States has spent more than $70 million on advocacy and training programs to defend human rights online through “projects ranging from developing better circumvention technologies and ‘panic buttons’ for mobile phones to training activists in cyber self-defense,” said the human rights official, speaking at the State of the Net conference, sponsored by the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Caucus.

Posner reminded his audience that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton defined two pillars of U.S. policy on Internet access in 2010: universal human rights of expression and assembly apply online as well as offline; and promotion of those rights is a U.S. foreign policy priority.

But the Arab Awakening, which first burst onto the scene in January 2011, “upped the stakes further,” Posner said. Authoritarian regimes that have clung to power through fear and isolation lost control of populations that made demands for greater freedom and accessibility using online blogs, street encampments and grainy videos of police brutality.

The Arab Awakening has been like a “geopolitical earthquake,” Posner said.

“Syria is not having a Facebook revolution or a Twitter revolt or a YouTube winter. Syria is having a mass outbreak of courage,” Posner said. “Their courage does not emanate from any digital device. It comes from knowing that they are not alone.”

Information technology tools allow expression of the outrage of injustice, Posner said, and grievances born from injustice have driven people into the streets to demand their human rights of freedom of expression, assembly and association.

The assistant secretary of state for democracy cautioned against the attempts of some governments to put forth policies phrased as “information security or Internet management” when they are actually attempts to wall off their citizens from the wide-open, and sometimes raucous, Internet. No government should believe it is empowered to deny fundamental rights of expression and association, he said.

“We do not need to reinvent international human rights law, or our enduring principles, to account for the Internet,” Posner said.

He also said technology companies should be compelled to respect human rights as they negotiate a global market to distribute their products. They must resist pressure from repressive regimes to provide personal information about political dissidents.

Other industries have confronted and overcome ethical challenges forced upon them by authoritarian governments, and technology companies must do the same. “All have a special stake in protecting the freedom and integrity of the Net as well as the human rights of their customers,” Posner said.

 

Putting Engineering Study to Work

Author:  IIP Digital
Posted: February 2, 2012

When she’s not playing on the school tennis team or reading the latest of the Inheritance Cycle fantasy novels, there’s a good chance you’ll find Natalie Jones building a robot.

A senior at Battlefield High School in Virginia, Jones participates in the school’s ILITE (Inspiring Leaders In Technology and Engineering) Team, a robotics team of 30 students. ILITE participates in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition, which attracts entrants from almost every state in the United States and 12 other countries.

This year’s competition assignment is a robot that will compete against other teams’ robots shooting balls into hoops and dodging obstacles on a playing field. The robotics class draws on what Jones learns in her other classes. “In calculus,” Jones said, “we’ve done a bunch of calculations for the shooter strength. It’s physics as well, knowing how fast we need the motor spinning and what gearing we need.” Her experience in robotics has inspired her to plan for an engineering major in college.

Here, Jesse Knight, an engineer with aerospace company Lockheed Martin who is an adult mentor to the team, shows Jones how to use a lathe to cut a piece of aluminum to fit over the robot’s axle hub.

 

 

Meet Ambassador Smith!

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted: January 26th 2012

On January 31, U.S. Ambassador to Athens Daniel B. Smith, will be available to answer your questions LIVE on the internet. This is your opportunity to ask the Ambassador questions about the United States, foreign policy or Greek-U.S. relations!

Ambassador Smith has been in Athens just over a year and is looking forward to hearing directly from the Greek people through an interactive platform.

Ambassador Smith was appointed by U.S. President Obama to be the official representative of the United States in Greece. He has been a diplomat with the Foreign Service for 25 years and has served overseas in Bern, Istanbul, Ottawa and Stockholm, as well as in Washington, D.C. He is married with three sons.

To participate in the event, click on https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/athens or http://goo.gl/XGGiF at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, January 31st and sign in as a guest and you can ask questions just by typing them on the computer!

If you won’t be able to make the chat but have a question you’d like answered, email it in advance to AskAmbassadorAthens@state.gov or post a question on our Facebook Wall and we’ll try to answer it on the air. See you on the 31st!

 

Milo Z

Author: Mosaiko editor
posted on January 13, 2012

“Funkin ‘n Rollin”

A funk maitre, not just in New York, but in Athens as well, since Milo Z and his explosive band visit the Half Note jazz Club quite often and have created their own cult movement as well as a loyal fun base. Jazz funk, hip hop, and groovy dance and soul rhythms characterize the group, with an intense jazz thing and street beat. Milo Z creates music for the youth by combining old soul and the funk of the Sly & The Family Stone, the War, the Kool & The Gang and the Parliament-Funkadelic, with avant rock influences, within a contemporary dance spectrum.Their music is influenced by the sounds of the Prince and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. On January 26, 2012, at the Athens Half Note jazz Club.

With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens

For more information please visit: http://halfnote.gr

 

 

Martin Luther King Jr. Day: A Time to Serve Others

Author: Mosaiko editor
Published: January 13th 2012

The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., who is remembered in the United States on the third Monday of January each year, is perhaps best known as America’s chief spokesman for nonviolent activism as a result of his leadership role in the U.S. civil rights movement.

Born on January 15, 1929, King, a Baptist minister, devoted his life to ensuring equal rights for African Americans and all minorities who suffered discrimination and marginalization in U.S. society. Between 1957 and 1968, King traveled ceaselessly across the United States and, in some 2,500 public appearances, spoke out against injustice. He suffered arrest, physical assaults and personal abuse of all kinds, and his home was bombed. But he never gave up his dream that “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

King’s work caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a “coalition of conscience,” which helped change American society and create new U.S. laws protecting civil rights.

In 1964, King became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and racial discrimination. He turned over his prize money to further the objectives of the civil rights movement.

In addition to being a champion for the civil rights of minorities, King advocated for the rights of workers. In a speech delivered in 1965, King said: “The labor movement [in the United States] was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life.”

King believed that all labor has dignity and that economic justice was a critical component of civil rights reform. In a 1968 speech, King asked: “What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”

King died upholding his beliefs. On April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, King was assassinated by James Earl Ray, a white supremacist with a long criminal record. King had been in Memphis to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking sanitation workers of that city.

A campaign to honor King began soon after his death. Workers’ unions provided the financial and social capital to make observance of King’s birthday a nationwide movement. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed legislation into law making King’s birthday a federal holiday, but it wasn’t until 2000 that the holiday was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time.

In 1994, the U.S. Congress designated the King holiday as a national day of service, calling on Americans from every walk of life to volunteer their time and effort on that day to help realize King’s vision of a “beloved community.”

King once said: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is ‘What are you doing for others?’” Each year, Americans attempt to answer that question by volunteering for activities such as fundraising for charities and collecting and distributing food to the needy.

“We have an opportunity to make America a better nation,” King said on the eve of his death. “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”

 

 

A Night of Gospel, Spirituals and Christmas Jazz

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 9th 2011

The Arts Center at ACS is proud to present “A Night of Gospel, Spirituals and Christmas Jazz” with Deborah Carter, accompanied by Dimos Dimitriadis on saxophone, George Kontrafouris on hammond organ and Nikos Kapilidis on drums on Saturday, December 17, 2011, at 8:30 p.m., at the Arts Center at ACS.

This is the first time where the American culture unites with the biggest names of Greek Jazz to create a spectacular event! One of the greatest vocalists in the US, described by the Music Maker magazine in the US as “absolutely top-class”, Deborah Carter is one of the most dynamic vocalists in the jazz scene. She is accompanied by three exceptional Greek musicians and brings together the magic of Jazz with the spirit of the Holidays!

The concert is co-hosted by ACS Athens, the US Embassy, the Fulbright Foundation in Greece and the generous support of Amway. The concert is free of charge and open to the public. Seating will be on a first-come, first-seated basis. For more information, please call 210-63-93-200, ext. 320 or visit www.acs.gr.

 

 

ISLANDS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK...

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 9th 2011

ISLANDS OFF THE BEATEN TRACK...

Islands off the beaten track is the name of a series of archaeological exhibitions being organised by and held at the Museum of Cycladic Art, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The exhibitions will focus on the most remote, inaccessible, small and medium-sized islands of the Aegean archipelago. They will include some of the farthest removed and least known regions of Greece in which people have lived and worked, and whose works and culture will be highlighted in separate exhibitions. The exhibitions are curated by the Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art, Professor Nicholas Chr. Stampolidis, in collaboration with the Museum curator, archaeologist George Tassoulas.

These exhibitions will be presented every two or three years in groups of one, two or more islands or regions, grouped according to their similarity or geographic proximity and to the breadth of their archaeological wealth.

The exhibition will begin with a presentation of the islands’ geographical, geological, geophysical and other features (size, shape, mountains, harbours, bays, etc.) and goes on to describe their mythology and history through a multitude of architectural and other artefacts (statues, reliefs, vases, weapons, tools, jewellery etc.) that highlight their human presence: human society, occupations, interests, allegiances, beliefs, customs and manners. In this way their richness and periods of prosperity are illustrated, as is their decline, and their intense presence or silence at specific periods of history. In addition to the ancient artefacts, wall panels and captions, there will also be maps, pictures, photographs and brief videos about each region, as well as time charts showing every island’s main period of development. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue in Greek and in English. Throughout the exhibition, a related microsite will provide information about the exhibition and opportunities to comment (blog).

For more information please visit: http://www.cycladic.gr

 

 

 

 

Design for Resilience in a Black Swan World

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 2nd 2011

Mosaiko.gr briefly met with professor David Orr of the Oberlin College in the framework of the 2011 Ecoweek in Athens, and discussed his upcoming lecture at the Benaki Museum on Monday, December 12, 2011. David Orr’s lecture is made possible thanks to the cooperation and support of the US Embassy in Athens, and in cooperation with the Benaki Museum and SAKA (Athens College Alumni Association).

What is the focus of your speech/discussion at the 2011 Ecoweek in Athens?

Building resilience in a “black swan” world . . . including a discussion of climate change and occurrence of unpredictable, high consequence events including financial collapse and Fukushima scale events.

Ecoweek has an architecture/urban landscaping theme. Do you think that significant progress has been made in the design and construction of green buildings in the world?

Absolutely! Green building is becoming the default in design and construction for many reasons including costs, long-term savings, and owner and user satisfaction.

In a recession, the environment can sometimes take a backseat. How do you persuade people or organizations to stay “green” when times are tough – particularly when it comes to building green?

Two ways: (1) the savings from building green are real and potentially very large which is even more important in tough times; and (2) to reduce carbon emissions to avoid really, really tough times due to climate destabilization . . .

You are a scholar, a speaker, an author, an entrepreneur… what will you tackle next?

Creating a national and possibly global network of similar endeavors at varying scales and in different circumstances

For more information please visit: http://www.ecoweek.gr

 

Βicycle Film Festival

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 2nd 2011

The Bicycle Film Festival, the most effective bicycle festival in the world, returns for a second time in Athens, from December 8-11, in the framework of the 2011 world tour. The festival started 11 years ago in New York to celebrate the rising bicycle culture through music, the arts and the cinema of course; it now travels to 27 countries all over the world and makes a stop at our country, with the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens.

It brings a selection of the finest bicycle movies of the years along with it. Altogether, 53 short and medium-sized films will be showcased and will lead us to a cinematic journey from Keirin in Japan to the Andes and Ghana in Africa, to the hills of San Francisco.

For more information and to see the movie trailers please visit: www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/athens

 

BATTLE OF THE BEST THESSALONIKI 2011

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 2nd 2011

The Battle of the Best Thessaloniki 2011 continues for its seventh year, on Saturday, December 10 at the Mylos venue. The B.O.T.Y. Balkans Headoffice is getting ready to celebrate this event with all hiphop funs.

For the second year in a row the festival hosts the international preliminaries for the UK BBOY Championships Crew vs Crew Balkans Qualifier. The winning team will represent Greece and the Balkans to the internationally renowned IBE 2011 competition, and will travel to Holland. For the break battles fanatics there will be two additional competitions; 2 vs 2 and the Longest Powermove Battle. For the first time a 2 vs 2 hiphop battle will be hosted.

The jury committee consists of three world class dancers; two times world champion bboy Lilou (Pokemon – France), bboy Grazy )Madrid Rockers – Spain) and bboy raVITY (Dynamic Rockers – USA) are considered to be top dancers in their respective countries having won numerous titles and distinctions.

 

Christmas Activities for Children at the Museum

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Dec 2nd 2011

This Christmas children can have fun while exercising their mind, by participating in the holiday children’s workshops at the Museum Herakleidon in Athens, Greece:

“CHRISTMAS SYMMETRIES”
Sunday, December 11, 11:30 – 13:30
Mosaic workshop with Sophia Boudoura, for elementary school children: the intellectual and emotional value of mosaics for the practitioner of this ancient art is incontestable. On the one hand the children will work with natural materials such as stone, marble, earth, glass, etc. and on the other they will cultivate their powers of observation and concentration, their patience and their aesthetic sense. The patterns on which they will work combine the holiday spirit of Christmas with the secret geometry of art and of nature.
Participation fee: 20 € (fee includes materials)

“CHRISTMAS PRANKS”
Sunday, December 11, 11:30 – 13:30
Live storytelling in parallel with the creation of comics for children aged 7 to 12: the elves escape through the storytelling of Vasilia Vaxevani and come to life thanks to the pen of Michalis Dialinas. An original storytelling performance of myths, legends and tales about elves and other make-believe creatures from all over the world, together with the creation of comics. As the storyteller tells the children about the elves’ pranks, she invites them to participate in the narration and the pranks, while the illustrator gives the creatures form in front of the children’s eyes.
Participation fee: 20 €

“NOEL”
Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th of December, 13:30 – 15:30
The ever popular Pascaline Bossu leads children, aged 7 to 12, in a two-day ornament creation workshop, using clay, colored cardboard, and all the sparkle of Christmas. On Saturday we create with clay and on Sunday we color and decorate!
Participation fee: 40 € for both days (fee includes materials)

For more information please visit: http://www.herakleidon-art.gr

 

The Athens Chancery celebrates 50 years!

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Nov 25th 2011

The Athens Chancery, by architect Walter Gropius, one of the most celebrated representatives of the famed Bauhaus School, is a modern tribute to ancient Greek architecture. The architect designed the building as a metaphor for democracy in the country to which modern democracy owes so much.

Completed on July 4, 1961, the three-story edifice is markedly open. The landscaped courtyard provides a place for discussion and meeting. The white columns and brilliant reflective surfaces of the exterior façade are clad with Pentelic marble, the famous stone used in the Parthenon, other buildings on the Acropolis, and throughout the ancient Mediterranean. Black marble from Saint Peter, Peloponnesus, gray marble from Marathon, and native Greek marbles are used throughout the building. The beautifully-tuned wood stair railing was made with Greek pearwood by Greek artisans.

Contemporary architecture magazines described the chancery as a “symbol of democracy at the fountainhead of many old democratic and architectural traditions” by “one of modern architecture’s Olympian figures,” Walter Gropius, and his associates at The Architects Collaborative (TAC). Gropius said that he sought “to find the spirit of (the) Greek approach without imitating any classical means. “The podium, quadrilateral plan, interior patio, exterior columns, and formal landscaping were all handled in a thoroughly modern way. Paul Weidlinger and Mario Salvadori were the structural engineers.

The building’s climatic response includes ceramic sunscreens, wide overhangs, free flowing air at continuously slotted overhangs, and a bipartite roof. Upper floors hang from the roof structure. Gropius placed a reflecting pool at the main entrance and fountains in the landscape to create serene settings and cooling from the Greek sun. The floor plan is arranged in a sweeping crescent that embraces a large formal terrace descending to a lawn and garden.

On the lawn facing the city is a bronze statue of American soldier/statesman George C. Marshall, whose aid program helped turn the Greek civil war away from Communism and supported a return to prosperity in Greece at the end of World War II.

The Athens Chancery remains a fresh and optimistic bow to the classical idea and one of the most prominent Bauhaus buildings in Greece.

 

Violence Against Women Has Broad Social Consequences, Experts Say

Author: Charlene Porter
Posted on: Nov 25th 2011

Long a subject locked in the home behind a curtain of silence, violence against women will be pushed into an international spotlight in the days and weeks ahead in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The occasion is marked on November 25, but Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer said advocates of the cause will be recognizing this international problem with events scheduled through the end of the month and up to December 10, Human Rights Day. Verveer said advocates are linking the cause to human rights day as a demonstration of the fact that the rights of women and girls are also human rights. Striking a blow against a woman is a blow against human rights, she said.

“Not something marginal to human rights, not a subset of human rights, but violations of human rights,” said Verveer at a State Department discussion forum held November 21. “It is truly and sadly a global scourge.”

In the 16 days leading up to Human Rights Day, Verveer said, thousands of organizations and tens of thousands of people in more than 150 nations have organized events and activities to denounce violence against women.

The Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues organized a State Department event to focus on the economic, health, legal and social costs that are the consequences of violence against women. United Nations surveys show that one in three women worldwide will experience gender-based violence in her lifetime, and that violence against women causes more death and disability for women and girls between the ages of 15 and 44 than do cancer, traffic accidents, malaria and war combined.

The World Bank has recently issued a wide-ranging report on gender equality, said Jeni Klugman, a specialist on women’s issues. She said one finding is that gender equality is a smart economic policy.

“Gender equality has important benefits in terms of productivity, incomes, and improves development outcomes, including for future generations,” said Klugman. Economic analysis further shows that violence incurs significant costs. As a woman is debilitated by violence or seeks to escape it, costs are incurred by the individual, her employer and her community, state and nation.

Jay Silverman, a professor in the Division of Global Public Health at the University of California–San Diego, said domestic violence is a contender to be the most preventable and modifiable risk factor that prevents the achievement of community and global health goals. Even beyond injury or death caused by violence, Silverman said, domestic violence can also degrade a woman’s reproductive health and maternal health, and affect her HIV status and vulnerability to other sexually transmitted conditions.

Children in a violent home also suffer, even before birth. Evidence shows that infants born to abused women are most likely to be of low birth weight, one of the greatest risk factors for a newborn. “Once born, they are far more likely to get sick from major, major sources of child mortality,” Silverman said, “such as diarrheal disease and acute respiratory infection; they are also more likely to experience stunting, malnutrition and other development issues.”

And if violence is routine in domestic life, children of the household are also likely to become victims, Silverman said. Girl children in a violent home are at significantly greater risk of sexual assault; or a male relative might force them into prostitution or sell them to a human trafficker.

The U.N. General Assembly designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 1999, while women’s rights activists have marked the day since 1981, in solemn recognition of assassinations that occurred in 1960. Three sisters, political activists in the Dominican Republic, were murdered in 1960 after their ongoing protests against the Dominican dictator of the time, Rafael Trujillo.

Embassy Athens is hosting a six week photo exhibit depicting the work of local artists in its consular waiting room of pieces illustrating the cruel realities of human trafficking and slavery. The exhibit is in part a collaboration with The NO Project – an independent anti-slavery and anti human trafficking public awareness initiative that focuses on the role of demand and specifically targets youth awareness through music, the arts, education and social media.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/iipdigital-en/index.html)

 

ALVIN AILEY II

 

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Nov 18th 2011

On November 25, 26 & 27, 2011, at the Pallas Theater.

Ailey II is an exceptional company that merges the spirit and energy of the country’s best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding emerging choreographers. Started in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, Ailey II embodies Mr. Ailey’s pioneering mission to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training and community programs for all people. Today, it has become one of the most popular dance companies in the United States.

Under the artistic direction of Sylvia Waters, Ailey II is comprised of the most promising scholarship students of The Ailey School and offers unique opportunities for these young artists to refine their technique while gaining invaluable performing and teaching experience during their tenure with the Company. Many Ailey II members have gone on to pursue successful careers as dancers, teachers and choreographers with other dance companies, on Broadway and in schools.

In recent years, Ailey II’s distinctive rep¬ertory has included works by dance masters Alvin Ailey, Talley Beatty, Donald Byrd, Ulysses Dove, George W. Faison, Lar Lubovitch, Ailey’s Artistic Director Judith Jamison and Artistic Director Designate Robert Battle. Ailey II has also performed innovative works by emerging choreographers including Sidra Bell, Thang Dao, Carlos dos Santos and Christopher L. Huggins. The Company’s 2011-2012 tour will consist of performances in over 25 cities across the United States and abroad. The Company has received numerous honors, awards and proclamations in recognition of its residencies at major colleges and universities as well as its visits to elementary, middle, and high schools across the US.

Ailey II is presented by Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, a non-profit organization which also supports the activities of the renowned Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, The Ailey School, Ailey Arts In Education & Community Programs and the Ailey Extension.

For more information please visit: http://www.ellthea.gr

 

International Education Week

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Nov 4th 2011

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States. The event is taking place on November 14-18, 2011.

We encourage the participation of all individuals and institutions interested in international education and exchange activities, including schools, colleges and universities, embassies, international organizations, businesses, associations, and community organizations.

For more information on how to get involved please visit: http://iew.state.gov/

 

Meet the Consul General!

 

Meet the Consul General!
This Thursday, November 3 at 4 p.m., Katherine Brandeis, the Consul General at US Embassy Athens, will be available to answer your questions live on the internet.
This is your opportunity to ask every question you’ve ever had about travelling to the United States!

• How do you get a visa?
• Do you need visa?
• How do you study in the US?
• Can you work in the US?
• What is the Diversity Visa and how do you apply?

As Consul General, Ms. Brandeis oversees all consular matters at the Embassy, including non-immigrant and immigrant visa application processing, passport and citizenship and assisting American citizens traveling or residing in Greece.

To participate in the event, just click on https://statedept.connectsolutions.com/athens at 4 p.m. on Thursday and sign in as a guest with your name and you can ask any topical question just by typing it on the screen!

If you won’t be able to make the chat but have a question you’d like answered, email it to us at athembpress@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer on the air. Please pass this message to any friends or family who may be interested in the event. See you Thursday!

Kate Brandeis has been in the Foreign Service for over 20 years. She has served Liberia, The Dominican Republic, and the U.K., and has been in Greece since 2009.

 

 

 

Athens Photo Festival 2011

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Oct 26th 2011
 

Athens Photo Festival 2011, organized by the Hellenic Centre for Photography during the period of October 31-November 25, 2011. The festival program covers a wide range of solo and group exhibitions with international and national artists as well as a number of other parallel events throughout the city.

This year’s exhibition program is divided in two main sections.

The one, is presented at TECHNOPOLIS of Municipality of Athens (Piraeus 100, Gazi) forming this year’s main program which functions as an international contemporary photography platform for the friends of photography and visual arts. Technopolis is a complex of buildings that covers an area of approximately 30 acres, administered as a cultural venue by the Municipality of Athens. Technopolis constitutes a live industrial museum of incomparable architecture and one of the most interesting in Europe. It is located in the old Gas factory of Athens, known as “Gazi”, next to Keramikos and close to the Acropolis.

The other one, sited IN THE CITY of Athens includes 25 projects presented in various galleries, cultural institutes and other art spaces.

For more information please visit: http://www.photofestival.hcp.gr/index.php/

 

 

Happy Birthday, Statue of Liberty!

The Statue of Liberty is having a birthday extravaganza on October 28, the 125th anniversary of her dedication. The 93-meter-high copper beauty will celebrate with a flotilla of ships, a naturalization ceremony, a cake, musical performances, readings, speeches and fireworks.

Shown above, the statue stands on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, with Ellis Island in the background. Her green color is caused by a chemical reaction called patination.

The statue was a gift from the people of France. Completed in France in 1884, it was disassembled, shipped to New York, and reassembled. On October 28, 1886, the statue was dedicated as thousands cheered. The Statue of Liberty welcomed more than 12 million immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island (1892–1954), and she remains a symbol of American freedom.

For more information, see the National Park Service’s Statue of Liberty website. Starting October 29, the inside of the statue will be closed for a year for renovations. However, Liberty Island will remain open to visitors.

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.

 

Be Prepared For the Battle!

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Oct 21st 2011

The Battle of the Best Athens 2011 returns to name the best. The 2011 festival returns renewed and full of fresh and innovative ideas. It’s taking place at the ACS arts centre on Saturday, November 12, 2011.

The festival will showcase breakdance contests, 1 vs 1, and 3 vs 3, in which countries from the Balkans will participate, and winners will receive money prizes and gift certificates. The most important trophy of all is the fact that the 1 vs 1 winner will represent Greece and the Balkans at the International IBE contest in Heerlen in the Netherlands, all expenses paid. At the end of the festival the audience has a chance to become a judge and vote for the winner of the All Styles Special Edition Battle 1 vs 1 in which street dancers will compete in 1 vs 1 battles to win the audience over.

Judges: THESIS (KNUCKLEHEADS – USA), SALO (FLYING LEGS – VENEZUELA), AIRDIT (TNT – GERMANY), DJ KID STRETCH(WARRIORZ/GREECE)

With the support of the U.S. Embassy in Athens

For more information please visit: http://www.battleoftheyear.gr/

 

 

 

Dance With Us: Motion Across Cultures

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Oct 14th 2011
 

Whether it’s a spontaneous dance with our families or a formal performance, we express ourselves through movement in every culture. Grab your camera, get creative, and capture a movement that celebrates your unique culture.

Prizes
Two Grand Prize winners will receive a tablet computer (iPad 2) and their entries will be displayed at the U.S. Department of State.
Runners-up will receive ExchangesConnect T-shirts and real postcards featuring the top 20 submissions.

Important Notes
You must be at least 14 years old to enter the contest.
If you are under 18, you need permission from a parent or guardian to participate.
Each member may submit a maximum of two (2) entries for consideration in the contest.
Entries will be judged by a panel from the U.S. Department of State and leading arts organizations on originality, creativity, effectiveness, and photo quality. What are these?
Submissions will be accepted from September 13 until October 25, 2011.

Read our full rules to learn more.
For more information please visit: http://connect.state.gov

 

President Obama on the Passing of Steve Jobs: "He changed the way each of us sees the world."

 Following the loss of visionary Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, President Obama released this statement:

Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators - brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.

Source: The White House Blog

 

 

International Conference on Library Services

Author: Mosaiko editor
Posted: October 1

The Committee for the Support of Libraries (CSL) organizes its 7th International Conference on the theme “Redefining library services: responding to the economic downturn”. The Conference will be held at the National Hellenic Research Foundation (48 Vas. Konstantinou Ave., Athens, Greece) on October 6-7, 2011.

The Conference will emphasize the means by which libraries – during the recent recession – can continue to provide quality services to the community they serve. Without doubt, the global financial crisis has affected vital domains of everyday life. In their effort to overcome and manage the current circumstances, it is necessary for libraries to engage appropriate planning, partnerships and innovative activities.

Maintaining the international character of the conference, several distinguished professionals have been invited from Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the United States. The speakers will describe the current situation and problems that libraries encounter in their respective countries and will refer to best practice examples, as well as to suggestions in order to deal with challenges.
 

The Forest

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted: Sept. 15, 2011

If you ask a city resident what is a forest, he or she will probably respond it is the trees and the animals living in it. A forest is that and so much more. For millions of people the forest is their home and their livelihood. For all inhabitants of earth the forest is our oxygen, our clean water, our life.

Forests cover more than 30% of earth’s land and are home to 80% of terrestrial biodiversity. Over 1.6 billion peoples’ livelihoods depend on forests, while 300 million people live in them. Tropical rain forests produce more than 40% of the earth’s oxygen and are the source of almost 30% of modern medicine.

All these numbers mean one thing: it is our collective duty to protect and help sustain the earth’s forests.

In celebration of the UN International Year of the Forest 2011, the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature, with the support of the U.S. Embassy, created a photographic exhibition focused on forests. The photographs featured in this exhibit, all from the archives of the National Geographic Magazine, cover a small part of the diversity and beauty of forests around the world, and highlight the dangers of reforestation.

For more information please visit: http://www.eepf.gr/

Photo caption: A red spruce forest blanketed in heavy fog, Gaudineer Knob, West Virginia. The Gaudineer Knob is situated at about 1,200 meter elevation. In 1974, it was declared a National Natural Landmark in order to protect the virgin red spruce. Red spruce grows at a slow to moderate rate and lives for 250 and up to 400 years. Photo by Bates Littlehales

Athens Film Festival Conn-X

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Sep 9th 2011
Good cinema as antidote to the crisis

At movie theaters Apollon Cinemax Class, Attikon Cinemax Class, Danaos 1, Danaos 2 from September 09-25, 2011.

The greatest movie event of Athens is planning this year’s program as an antidote to misery of our days, believing that cinema is the most optimistic form of art. The art of travel and escapade.

Once more, the Athens Film Festival keeps the ticket price at 6 euros, while continuing its morning screenings for 4 euros per ticket. A great festival initiative is the 1500 free tickets to the unemployed.

For more information on tickets please click here

The tributes focus on multiple targets. From the alternative Dutch ducumentarist Johan van der Keuken, to the Japanese samurai of new wave Yasuzo Masumura, and from Masumura a huge leap to Norway’s cinematography, as well as a large tribute to Czech literary Franz Kafka.

You can find information on the competition section, the documentaries and the premiers, as well as get the detailed festival program here.

For more information please visit: http://www.aiff.gr

Animation and the Cyclades once again!

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: September 12th, 2011

Αnimasyros 4.0 International Animation Festival & Forum is back this year and will take place on September 15-18, 2011 in Hermoupolis, Syros Island (Greece).

Animasyros 4.0 includes screenings of films from all over the world, tributes to international animation film festivals, workshops, seminars, the professional forum and above all the competition section of the festival.

All interested filmmakers are invited to submit their applications for participation through our website until July 31, 2011. We are looking for inventive animation films produced from 2008 onwards, while filmmakers can also submit their films to a special competition category “Tell me what you do for the environment?”, depending on the theme of their animation film.

Animasyros 4.0 is an initiative of Platforma- Urban Culture Co and in collaboration with the Cultural Centre of the Municipality of Hermoupolis.

The NY Metropolitan Opera in Greece

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Sep 9th 2011

he renowned NY Metropolitan Opera, the absolute meeting point for all great vocalists, has been secured by Antenna for 2011-2012.

In particular, Antenna got the rights for the award winning program of the MET “The Met Live in HD” for Greece and Cyprus. It gives audiences a unique opportunity to watch in high definition quality at the same time with the New York audiences. The program “The Met live in HD” started in December 2006 with six transmissions and expanded to 12 in 2010-11, in 46 countries.

Anna Bolena by Donizetti, starring Anna Netrebko is the new Metropolitan Opera production which will open the new season and we will have the opportunity to enjoy on October 15.

For more information please visit: http://www.metingreece.com
 

Space Junk an Orbital Hazard; On Mars, Rover Finds New Rock

Author: Charlene Porter
Posted on: Sep 9th 2011

Debris circling the Earth in a low orbit is becoming a serious hazard, a danger to spacecraft and astronauts, and NASA needs a plan to reduce the hazard, an expert advisory panel reported September 1.

The U.S. space agency is keeping track of about 22,000 pieces of this debris, known as space junk. But the report from the National Research Council (NRC) released September 1 estimates another 500,000 bits of stuff, 10 centimeters or less, are out there. And bits of debris less than 1 centimeter? The NRC estimates tens of millions of those.

Derelict satellites, equipment lost from missions, paint fragments, space wreckage and meteoroids form the orbital clutter that only can get worse.

“Existing objects are more likely to collide with other debris and produce additional smaller pieces, increasing the chance of further collisions and satellite failure,” according to the report, “Limiting Future Collision Risk to Spacecraft.”

NASA has been trying to keep an eye on space junk since 1979, but the small bits can’t be tracked with current technologies. Meteoroids are tiny particles of comets or asteroids that travel through space and veer into Earth’s atmosphere. Once again, today’s science can’t follow their paths toward our planet.

NASA has adopted some protective equipment for its spacecraft, notably a form of shielding added to the International Space Station, but the problem is growing beyond the effectiveness of passive technologies and the expense they add to missions.

Sending a cleaning crew into space might sound like a solution, but the report points out complexities of international law that inhibit such an effort. Seventy percent of the cataloged pieces of space junk came from non-U.S. space missions, and international legal precedents prohibit one nation from salvaging or collecting objects that belong to another government.

While it outlines the problem in detail, the NRC report offers no ready solutions. It recommends that NASA collaborate with commercial, national and international agencies to devise solutions for debris avoidance, mitigation and surveillance.

ROVER’S NEW TERRITORY

The space rover Opportunity left Earth behind long ago. It has spent more than seven years observing, sampling and roaming the surface of Mars. Scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) who study the data the craft sends back announced September 1 that the newest patch of Martian ground Opportunity is exploring yields rocks unlike anything studied before. The rover arrived several weeks ago on the rim of a large crater that the scientists named Endeavour.

“This is different from any rock ever seen on Mars,” said Steve Squyres, principal investigator for Opportunity at Cornell University. It’s almost as if the arrival at Endeavour has “given us the equivalent of a second landing site for Opportunity,” Squyres said in a NASA briefing.

The Opportunity team has reason to believe that some rock exposures on Endeavour’s rim may date from early in Martian history and include clay minerals that could be more favorable to life. They are guiding the rover to a rock ridge that “looks like sedimentary rock that’s been cut and filled with veins of material possibly delivered by water,” said Ray Arvidson, an investigator on the mission from Washington University in St. Louis.

Opportunity has been working what NASA calls “bonus overtime” since 2004 when the craft completed the 90-day mission for which it was designed — to study the history of environmental conditions at sites where trace evidence suggested the presence of water at some point in the past. Opportunity, and its twin craft Spirit, both found geologic indicators of a watery past at the two very different sites where they landed.

After those first three months, scientists directed the vehicles to other locations on the Martian surface, continuing the search for evidence of water. Spirit continued to send back useful data until 2010, when communications were lost. So far, Opportunity has driven more than 30 kilometers, 50 times the distance originally planned for the mission.

With a career far longer than ever anticipated, Opportunity could experience a system failure at any moment. In the meantime, the JPL team is happy to study whatever new visions of Mars the craft returns.

A next-generation Mars rover is soon to begin its voyage, with a launch window starting in late November and lasting about three weeks.
 

More Taxi Companies Turning to Greener Operations

Green Cab of Madison has a fleet of 20 Prius taxis, and may add more hybrid vehicles soon.

 By Karin Rives | Staff Writer | 29 August 2011

Washington — Mike and John Schmidt long had dreamed of opening their own taxicab company in the Midwestern college town where their family had lived for several generations.

Opportunity knocked in 2010 when the business plan the brothers brought before the city council in Madison, Wisconsin, was approved without a hitch. They had startup capital from the sale of another company years ago, and a local dealer of hybrid Toyota Prius cars had already offered to sell an initial 10 vehicles to get the company going.

Green Cab of Madison took off, and a lot faster than the Schmidt brothers had ever hoped.

“It was perfect timing with all the Priuses hitting the market and everybody talking about going green,” said Amanda Schmidt, Mike’s 24-year-old daughter and Green Cab’s marketing manager. “We weren’t supposed to add the next 10 cars until we had been open for a year, but we had to add them right away. A lot of people really like us, and we’ve never even done any traditional advertising.”

Environmentally minded taxi companies have popped up in cities across the United States in recent years, appealing to riders who want to minimize their carbon emissions while on the road. In Arlington, Virginia, for example, a company called EnviroCab made a splash a few years ago when it opened as “the world’s first carbon-negative taxi fleet.” In Boston, the city has required all taxi companies to go hybrid by 2015.

With rising gasoline prices, such taxi companies are often able to offset high investment costs with lower operating costs.

Green Cab’s 20 Prius taxicabs in Madison get an average of 50 miles per gallon of gasoline (21.3 kilometers per liter). That compares with 15 or 20 miles per gallon (about 7 or 8 kilometers per liter) for a traditional American taxicab model, Schmidt said. Lower fuel costs translate into lower fares for customers; Green Cab now offers the best price in town for certain fares.

Of course it takes more than savings of a few dollars to get people to grab your cab, especially in a town with several other taxi companies. Green Cab tries to further distinguish its business with a high-tech taxi dispatch system that runs on a custom-made software program the company ordered to meet its specific needs.

HIGH-TECH DISPATCH

For customers who want to keep fares down and travel greener, Green Cab picks up other riders who are headed in the same direction. Customers can order a direct ride for a little bit more money.

Green Cab’s software system calculates the fare upfront when a customer calls in — taking into account the ride options and Madison’s complicated city zone system, which leads to an extra charge anytime a cab crosses a city zone border.

The call taker at Green Cab enters the rider’s phone number, address, type of ride and destination into the system, which then crunches the numbers. The fare has already been calculated and communicated to the customer by the time the taxi arrives.

The taxi fee is set, regardless of what route the driver takes or whether the car gets stuck in traffic. All cars are equipped with Apple iPad tablet computers that are connected to Green Cab’s booking software and that provide GPS navigation for the drivers.

“People getting into the cab are often taken aback when they see the driver using an iPad,” Schmidt said.

Another perk for green customers: Each car carries a bicycle rack to accommodate people who bike but want a ride one-way or part of the way.

“It’s important for the next generation that we think about the environment,” Schmidt said.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.)

 

Musicians Celebrate the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

Posted on August 29, 2011

Classic songs that inspired the U.S. civil rights movement — mixed with newer songs that carry similar messages of hope, strength and unity — rocked the Washington Convention Center at an August 25 concert called “The Message in the Music.”

The concert, organized as part of the weeklong festivities celebrating the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, featured such music icons as singer Patti LaBelle, Eddie Levert of the rhythm and blues group The O’Jays, and The Impressions, a rhythm and blues group/soul trio whose songs are widely described as the soundtrack of the civil rights movement. Other artists also performed.

A seven-man a cappella group called Naturally 7 played “Ready or Not,” an original song that evoked the soulful 1960s sound of the Motown record label. The group brought the audience to its feet by underscoring the song’s lyrics with syncopated vocal percussion. Naturally 7 was followed onstage by The Impressions, whose appearance brought forth a sustained roar of approval from the crowd.

Combining smooth harmonies and choreographed dance moves, The Impressions (Fred Cash, Sam Gooden and Reggie Torian) performed two of their signature hits, “Movin’ On Up” and the gospel-influenced “People Get Ready,” perhaps the best-known anthem of the civil rights era.

Next, soul singer India Arie took the stage. “I dedicate this performance right now to my grandmother,” she said. Arie told the crowd that her grandmother, a drug-abuse counselor in Lansing, Michigan, died in 2009. “She saved so many lives,” Arie said. “The day Obama was inaugurated, we spoke on the phone; this was right before she passed [died]. She told me she marched in Washington and heard the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech” delivered by King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.

Arie played a flute in the introduction to her first song, which she said was about the beauty of nature. Singing in Hebrew, she was accompanied by Israeli keyboardist and vocalist Idan Raichel. In her next song, “Gift of Acceptance,” Arie urged tolerance and harmony among people of different religions, ethnicities and races. Both songs, she said, are from her forthcoming album, Open Door.

The group Ray Chew Live, named for its bandleader, Ray Chew, offered a jazz-inflected, mostly instrumental version of the Marvin Gaye hit “What’s Goin’ On,” a Motown staple that alludes to the social changes of the 1960s and ’70s. O’Jays vocalist Levert, showcasing his powerful voice and dynamic stage presence, performed “Give the People What They Want” before launching into The O’Jays’ most famous song, “Love Train.”

An ecstatic crowd joined in as Levert sang the familiar refrain: “People all over the world (everybody)/Join hands (join)/Start a love train, love train.” At the song’s conclusion, Levert addressed the cheering audience. “Dr. King would say this song is what we all need to do,” he said.

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.

 

Inside – A Social Film Experience

Author: Mosaiko Editor
Posted on: Jul 22nd 2011

Inside is a Social Film experience brought to you by Intel and Toshiba, directed by DJ Caruso, starring Emmy Rossum, and possibly you. The event begins on Monday, July 25, 2011.

This is a completely new genre of Hollywood-class entertainment where the audience can play as much of a role as the A-list talent and actors. Using social media you can interact with characters in real time, affect the plot, and possibly earn a featured cameo alongside Emmy Rossum in the final film.

It’s the first of its kind, but it won’t be the last. When the story begins, you won’t want to miss a minute.

Inside is a LIVE entertainment experience, blending film and social media. You can play a part in this thriller through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. So, stay connected.

There will be many twists and turns, and you can keep up with them IN REAL TIME by subscribing to YouTube or following on Twitter and Facebook

For more information please visit: http://www.theinsideexperience.com
 

U.S. and Greece Sign Agreement to Protect Greek Cultural Heritage

Author Mosaiko editor
Posted: July 22, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Greek Foreign Affairs Minister Stavros Lambrinidis signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the Hellenic Republic to reduce the incentive for further pillage of Greece’s cultural heritage. The Secretary and Foreign Minister signed the MOU at the Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, on July 17, 2011.

Secretary Clinton said, “It is a great honor for me to be representing the United States, a friend, ally, and partner to Greece, and also to be exemplifying the very warm relations between the American and Greek people.

“Millions of visitors have already had the experience of walking through this magnificent museum here in the shadow of the Acropolis and experiencing firsthand the extraordinary gifts that Greece has given over its long history to Western civilization in which my country as well is in your debt.

“This agreement that we are signing today will protect Greece’s culturally significant objects even further from looting and sale on the international market. It will be illegal to import protected items from Greece into the United States unless they have been certified by the Greek authorities. And that will help reduce the incentive to illegally remove such objects in the first place.

“We know from experience that measures like this work. This will be our 15th cultural property agreement. And in countries from Cambodia to Cyprus, we have seen real results. These agreements build on America’s long-term commitment to cultural preservation. Forty years ago, the United States was the first nation in the world to ratify the World Heritage Convention, and it remains a priority for our government and for me personally.

“Let me just conclude by saying that America is just as committed to Greece’s future as we are to preserving your past. During these difficult economic times, we will stand with you. We are confident that the nation that built the Parthenon, invented democracy, and inspired the world can rise to the current challenge.”
 

Space Shuttle Lands, NASA Looks to New Era

Atlantis was met with applause from spectators when the pilot landed the spacecraft July 21. It was at one time known as the most complex machine ever built.

By Charlene Porter
July 21, 2011

Washington — The space shuttle Atlantis dropped through the pre-dawn darkness July 21 toward a long strip of pavement at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, landed in perfect form, and ended a 13-day journey. The craft rolled to a stop and closed a 30-year chapter in U.S. manned space flight.

Atlantis, launched in 1985, has flown almost 200 million kilometers in its lifetime, about 8.5 million on this trip alone. Atlantis made about 200 orbits of the Earth this trip, many of those docked with the International Space Station (ISS). The primary objective of the mission was to load needed supplies and equipment on the station and offload unneeded material to keep the station operating until its next supply flight.

Moments after the landing, Commander Chris Ferguson spoke for his crew. “We sure hope that everybody who has ever worked on, or touched, or looked at, or envied or admired a space shuttle was able to take just a little part of the journey with us.”

The end of the shuttle program is going to put many NASA employees out of work, some having spent most of their professional lives devoted to the program. But NASA officials say the loss of the shuttles isn’t putting the agency out of business. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, a former shuttle commander himself, issued a statement after the landing, emphasizing the new frontiers in the agency’s future.

“We recommit ourselves to continuing human spaceflight and taking the necessary — and difficult — steps to ensure America’s leadership in human spaceflight for years to come.”

The United States loses its capability to put humans in space with the retirement of the shuttle. It will depend on Russian ships giving rides to U.S. astronauts for assignments on board the ISS. NASA regards that as a short-term arrangement, however. The agency is counting on fledgling commercial space-flight companies to expand, improve and develop the capability to launch humans into space within a relatively short time.
NASA is also looking beyond the ISS, beyond low Earth orbit, to more distant destinations in space. The agency must first develop the equipment, the knowledge and the science to achieve that goal, but that process is under way. Bolden said, “I want to send American astronauts where we’ve never been before by focusing our resources on exploration and innovation.”

The space agency has been quietly pursuing that goal even while the final shuttle mission has seized most of the attention. An unmanned flight is traveling through our solar system, making observations and gathering data that will help science understand more about space to better inform future plans for voyaging farther and farther from the home planet.

NASA’s Dawn spacecraft swung into orbit around the asteroid Vesta on July 16 and became the first probe to enter orbit around an object in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Dawn will circle Vesta for a year, providing close-up observations of the asteroid that, it is hoped, will broaden understanding of the earliest years of the formation of the solar system. In a statement issued when Dawn slipped into the Vesta orbit, Bolden said Dawn “points the way to the future destinations where people will travel in the coming years.”

President Obama’s vision for U.S. space exploration has NASA landing humans on an asteroid by 2025, and using that as a stepping stone to more distant destinations.

After a year in orbit around Vesta, Dawn will travel on to the dwarf planet Ceres. In so doing, Dawn will become the first spacecraft to orbit two destinations in the solar system. Vesta and Ceres were chosen as the study subjects for this mission, according to NASA documents, because of their very different natures. Vesta is like Earth and the other rocky planets of the inner solar system, while Ceres appears to be more similar to the icy moons of the distant planets. Scientists want to learn more about forces at work in the early universe that led to the very different conditions on the two bodies.

Dawn may be something of a newcomer to the public eye, but actually has been around for awhile; it was first launched in 2007. The University of California, Los Angeles is responsible for the science side of the mission. Orbital Sciences Corporation of Dulles, Virginia, designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics are part of the mission team.

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.

 

 

 

Moving Beyond Earth: 21st-Century Spaceflight

Author: Lauren Monsen
Posted on: July 19, 2011

How do astronauts describe the experience of spaceflight? Can human spaceflight ever become routine, economical, practical and safe? Will it someday be possible to create a home and workplace in the extreme environment of space? What does the future hold for human space travel?

These are just a few of the questions posed by the permanent exhibition Moving Beyond Earth, on view at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The first stage of the exhibition, which opened in November 2009 with temporary closings for renovations and upgrades, is slated for completion in late 2011. A second and final stage is due to open in March 2012.

Focusing on the space shuttle and International Space Station, Moving Beyond Earth offers six interactive displays to help museum visitors understand the challenges and possibilities of space exploration. According to Lori Garver, deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the exhibition aims to “inspire curiosity and create interest — especially for our young people — to go into science, technology, engineering and math careers.”

Historical artifacts on display reflect three main themes: Moving Into Space (represented by a 3.66-meters-tall space shuttle model and other launch-vehicle models), Living and Working in Space (astronaut gear, spacesuit gloves, and parts of the Hubble Space Telescope), and Envisioning Our Future in Space (the suit worn by space tourist Dennis Tito and a model Ares launch vehicle, suggesting future prospects for commercial spaceflight to the moon).

New additions to Moving Beyond Earth include a space shuttle main engine, a shuttle middeck crew cabin and a robot exhibit. Another new feature, courtesy of Google Inc., is a circular arrangement of huge, synchronized monitors known as Liquid Galaxy, which offers visitors the sensation of a three-dimensional environment as they virtually “explore” Mars and the moon.

“People always ask us what spaceflight is really like,” said former NASA pilot General John R. “Jack” Dailey, director of the museum. The exhibition’s wall-size projections and live presentations by astronauts seek “to answer that question and inspire visitors of all ages.”

As they walk through the exhibition gallery, visitors are launched “into orbit” by an expansive view of the Earth that drifts over one gallery wall, while a fly-around tour of the International Space Station fills another wall. A presentation stage for live events, broadcasts and webcasts at the center of the gallery serves as the platform for SpaceFlight Academy, a group quiz game that invites visitors to test their space smarts and become “flight ready.”

Visitors can also simulate aspects of spaceflight through interactive computer kiosks where they serve as mission control’s flight director to keep a shuttle mission on track, equip a new module for the space station, manipulate and assemble space-station elements, explore the moon and Mars, and match their own interests to jobs in the spaceflight workforce.

The immersive, interactive nature of the gallery is very attractive to visitors, said Valerie Neal, the museum’s shuttle program curator. “They love the full-wall projections of views from space, and they engage enthusiastically in the role-playing programs. They are delighted when astronauts make guest appearances, talk about their experiences in space and answer visitors’ questions. Live presentations and the spaceflight quiz game are big hits.”

“We hope that visitors feel as if they have experienced spaceflight in some measure and that they will realize spaceflight is a matter of challenges and choices,” Neal added. “We have created an immersive environment that gives them the sense of being in space, and we show how the technologies of spaceflight reflect various choices about how to meet the challenges.”

More information about the exhibition is available on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum website.

 

Biotech and Organic Farming: Coexisting Peacefully

Raoul Adamchak and Pamela Ronald in the organic garden he manages

Washington — Agricultural biotechnology and organic farming can coexist — even thrive in the same food-supply chain — despite the fact that some proponents of organic farming have been at odds with the scientists who genetically engineer seeds.

So say Pamela Ronald and Raoul Adamchak, co-authors of Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics and the Future of Food, a new book that argues that organic farming and agricultural biotechnology combined can meet the world’s future food needs. Ronald, a plant pathologist at the University of California–Davis, and Adamchak, an organic farmer for 30 years, should know something about good combinations — they have been married for 15 years.

“We want readers to distinguish between fact and fiction,” Ronald said June 21 in Washington at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. “Polarizing debates on seed technologies versus farming practices” distract from the challenge of creating “a healthy and productive agricultural system.”

With the world’s population expected to increase to 9.2 billion people by 2050, farmers must “double or triple food production to meet demand,” Ronald said. “Agriculture needs our collective help and all appropriate tools if we are to feed the growing population in an ecological manner.”

THE CHALLENGE

Ronald described some of the challenges of feeding a growing population. The amount of arable land is limited, she said, and is being lost to urbanization and erosion. “As a result of erosion over the past 40 years, 30 percent of the world’s arable land has become unproductive,” she said. Making the problem worse, most eroded soil carries pesticides and fertilizers and ends up polluting lakes and rivers. The polluted waters kill fish.

Freshwater systems also are strained, according to Ronald. Many rivers have become nearly dry. About half of the world’s wetlands have disappeared. Major groundwater aquifers are being mined for urban and industrial use. That means more food must be produced on the amount of land now available using less water.

Another part of the challenge stems from climate change. As glaciers melt, low-lying croplands will see more flooding that will cost the people living in those areas nutrition and livelihoods. Climate change can also cause increased temperatures and severe droughts in other areas, according to Ronald. In recent years, for instance, Australia has had two record-breaking droughts that crippled wheat production. Russia stopped wheat exports for nearly a year because of its drought in 2010.

Genetic engineering, also known as genetic modification, can work well along with organic farming, Ronald said, to meet the challenges of urbanization, erosion and climate change.

THE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED WAY

Genetically engineered seeds carry traits that make plants tolerate climate and soil stress, resist disease and pests, and provide essential micronutrients. In 2010, more than 15 million farmers in 29 countries grew biotech crops, reports the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, an international research group. Those countries represent more than half of the world’s population.

Experts from the Indian, Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian, French, British and U.S. science academies have concluded that the genetically altered crops now on the market are safe to eat, Ronald said.

THE ORGANIC WAY

Organic farming is good for the environment because it uses crop rotation to reduce the buildup of pests that attack a single crop. Organic farmers use leguminous cover crops, such as lentils and alfalfa, to increase soil fertility and organic matter to fertilize. However, for some staple crops, like rice, yields are often lower on organic farms. In addition, the higher prices of organic produce make it unaffordable to some consumers.

DESIRED RESULT

In the book, the authors write that either organic farming or genetic engineering should be used if the desired result is abundant, safe, nutritious and more-affordable food. Using both methods brings a desirable reduction of harmful inputs, like synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

Ronald and Adamchak want farming practices to be safe for farm workers and want healthy rural economies. They want practices that keep soils fertile, enhance crop genetic diversity and protect native species. To do all that, “we need everyone at the table,” Ronald said.

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.

 

 

Fourth of July is Independence Day

Independence Day honors the birthday of the United States of America and the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. It's a day of picnics and patriotic parades, a night of concerts and fireworks, and a reason to fly the American flag.

Moving Beyond Earth: 21st-Century Spaceflight

Astronaut Steven Swanson, seen here, takes part in a spacewalk. The museum exhibition Moving Beyond Earth helps visitors understand the experience of human spaceflight.

 

Washington — How do astronauts describe the experience of spaceflight? Can human spaceflight ever become routine, economical, practical and safe? Will it someday be possible to create a home and workplace in the extreme environment of space? What does the future hold for human space travel?

These are just a few of the questions posed by the permanent exhibition Moving Beyond Earth, on view at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington. The first stage of the exhibition, which opened in November 2009 with temporary closings for renovations and upgrades, is slated for completion in late 2011. A second and final stage is due to open in March 2012.

Focusing on the space shuttle and International Space Station, Moving Beyond Earth offers six interactive displays to help museum visitors understand the challenges and possibilities of space exploration. According to Lori Garver, deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the exhibition aims to “inspire curiosity and create interest — especially for our young people — to go into science, technology, engineering and math careers.”

Historical artifacts on display reflect three main themes: Moving Into Space (represented by a 3.66-meters-tall space shuttle model and other launch-vehicle models), Living and Working in Space (astronaut gear, spacesuit gloves, and parts of the Hubble Space Telescope), and Envisioning Our Future in Space (the suit worn by space tourist Dennis Tito and a model Ares launch vehicle, suggesting future prospects for commercial spaceflight to the moon).

New additions to Moving Beyond Earth include a space shuttle main engine, a shuttle middeck crew cabin and a robot exhibit. Another new feature, courtesy of Google Inc., is a circular arrangement of huge, synchronized monitors known as Liquid Galaxy, which offers visitors the sensation of a three-dimensional environment as they virtually “explore” Mars and the moon.

“People always ask us what spaceflight is really like,” said former NASA pilot General John R. “Jack” Dailey, director of the museum. The exhibition’s wall-size projections and live presentations by astronauts seek “to answer that question and inspire visitors of all ages.”

As they walk through the exhibition gallery, visitors are launched “into orbit” by an expansive view of the Earth that drifts over one gallery wall, while a fly-around tour of the International Space Station fills another wall. A presentation stage for live events, broadcasts and webcasts at the center of the gallery serves as the platform for SpaceFlight Academy, a group quiz game that invites visitors to test their space smarts and become “flight ready.”

Visitors can also simulate aspects of spaceflight through interactive computer kiosks where they serve as mission control’s flight director to keep a shuttle mission on track, equip a new module for the space station, manipulate and assemble space-station elements, explore the moon and Mars, and match their own interests to jobs in the spaceflight workforce.

The immersive, interactive nature of the gallery is very attractive to visitors, said Valerie Neal, the museum’s shuttle program curator. “They love the full-wall projections of views from space, and they engage enthusiastically in the role-playing programs. They are delighted when astronauts make guest appearances, talk about their experiences in space and answer visitors’ questions. Live presentations and the spaceflight quiz game are big hits.”

“We hope that visitors feel as if they have experienced spaceflight in some measure and that they will realize spaceflight is a matter of challenges and choices,” Neal added. “We have created an immersive environment that gives them the sense of being in space, and we show how the technologies of spaceflight reflect various choices about how to meet the challenges.”

More information about the exhibition is available on the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum website.

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.



 

 

A WORLD STAGE TO BUILD AWARENESS

 

Author: Mosaiko Editor

During 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, we celebrate the year-round efforts and achievements of the movement’s athletes. World Games are not only exciting sports events but also create lasting legacies of positive change in participating countries.

This summer, nearly 7,500 athletes from 180 countries will converge on the most important site in the history of Olympic sport for the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Athens, Greece.

It will be the world’s largest sporting event of the year, a celebration of the abilities and accomplishments of people with intellectual disabilities and clear progress toward a new global vision of acceptance.

From June 25 through July 4, the World Summer Games will also involve 2,500 coaches, 25,000 volunteers, 3,000 technical officials and referees and tens of thousands of family, friends and fans.

They will gather to watch and cheer as Special Olympics athletes compete in 22 Olympic-style sports in the birthplace of the modern Olympic Games.

Special Olympics Chairman and CEO Tim Shriver invites all to come and see the World Games and the athletes in action. The impact goes beyond competition, as the Games stand as a symbol of hope for a more just and unified world.

 For more information please visit:http://www.specialolympics.org

What’s Race Got to Do with It?

An acclaimed traveling exhibition, "RACE: Are We So Different?" opened at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of Natural History on June 18. It runs through Jan. 1, 2012.

 

Washington — Does the concept of race have any scientific foundation, or is it merely a social construct? What is the so-called “one-drop rule,” and how has it shaped perceptions about racial identity?

These questions, among others, are probed by the traveling exhibition “RACE: Are We So Different?,” which opened June 18 at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

The exhibition, a project of the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Science Museum of Minnesota, is divided into three categories: science, history and lived experience. Personal videos, interactive stations and informational panels invite museum visitors to join a broader dialogue about the effects of race and racism, from experiences in the school cafeteria to buying a home.

“New scientific understandings about human variation demonstrate that human populations are not clearly defined, biologically distinct groups that some people call races,” said Mary Jo Arnoldi, chair of the anthropology department at the National Museum of Natural History and Smithsonian curator of the exhibition.

The exhibition’s science section traces early human migration from Africa, using current research to reassess widely held beliefs about the origins of physical traits such as skin color and resistance to disease.

The history section traces racism from the pre-Columbus era to modern genetic studies.

The lived-experience section includes the voices and images of people who share their experiences of race, identity and racism.

Displays in the exhibition cater to visitors of all ages. For example, the “Who’s Talking?” interactive station asks visitors to match voices they hear with photos of people of different races to see if they can identify a person’s race by his or her speech. A “Youth on Race” video features teenagers of different races and ethnicities talking about their experiences in the classroom, in the school cafeteria and outside school.
Another video, titled “We All Live Race,” focuses on the role that race plays in everyone’s lives, from an interracial couple living in the Midwest to an Asian-born girl with white adoptive parents to a black woman raising two sons.

Yolanda Moses, lead curator of the traveling exhibition and an anthropologist and vice provost at the University of California, Riverside, described the exhibition’s main objectives.

“One of the things we all worked hard to do in designing this exhibition was to make the section ‘The Lived Experience’ come alive in the personal stories of everyday citizens,” she said. “We wanted people from all walks of life in America to be able to talk about how race is both personal and systemic in their lives.”

MULTIRACIAL AMERICA

The Smithsonian will host a series of programs and events related to the exhibition. One is a July 21 panel discussion inspired by the book Blended Nation: Portraits and Interviews of Mixed-Race America. It will be led by Blended Nation co-authors Mike Tauber and Pamela Singh.

Immigration and intermarriage in the United States have produced rising numbers of multiracial and multiethnic Americans, Tauber said. Yet even today, “there seems to be some confusion among many in the general population as to who and what is considered mixed-race or multiracial.”

“A key question that many multiracial Americans hear is: What are you? Another challenge that many experience is a mismatch between their visual appearance and identity,” he said. Blended Nation presents essays by multiracial people explaining how they define themselves and how they fit into the fabric of society.

The panel’s goal, Tauber said, “is to include the topic of being mixed-race into the larger and increasingly complex conversation” about race in America.

 

This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State.

 

 

 

Snapshot: Los Angeles, City of Dreamers

Hollywood's Walk of Fame features 2,400 stars commemorating the entertainment industry's greatest achievers.

Editor’s note: Jonathan Kellerman, clinical psychologist, professor, and author of 37 books, grew up in Los Angeles. These excerpts are taken from his essay “Dreamland,” which Kellerman wrote for the publication My Town.

Jonathan Kellerman:

For all its traffic jams and chock-a-block development, much of Los Angeles remains curiously unspoiled, bracketed by mountains on three sides and graced by the Pacific Ocean on the fourth.

This is the place dreamers, as well as those plagued by nightmares, come to reinvent themselves.

L.A. encourages a steady influx of starry-eyed seekers. It’s a company town where the primary product is illusion and who knows when “The Next Big Star” will step off the bus?

The visionaries who created the concept of motion picture as a commercial enterprise at the turn of the 20th century were lured to Los Angeles by miles of open land that could be made to mimic anything from Texas to Tahiti, a do-your-own-thing zeitgeist, and of course, benevolent meteorology. The roots planted by Sennet, Goldwyn, the Warners, and the like have since grown deep and stout. Many of the aerospace companies that lured my father have vanished, and manufacturers in the city’s hub struggle to compete with low-wage regions around the globe. But the enterprise that calls itself “The Industry” without a trace of irony, and the ancillary businesses it has spawned — costume rental outfits, stunt specialists, special effects and film editing labs, talent agencies — have expanded exponentially.

To a far greater extent than when I moved here half a century ago, the movie business dominates L.A.’s cultural, sociological and political landscape.

Obsession with celluloid fame feeds the city coffers handsomely by attracting thousands of tourists, adventurers, even locals, whose fantasies revolve around catching a glimpse of their idols in the flesh.

Go anywhere in the civilized world and everyone’s heard of Hollywood. The same goes for Beverly Hills and Malibu.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State). 


 

 

 

 

 

Saving the Environment Might Also Save Health

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, center, rides a bike as a demonstration of how to reduce carbon emissions ahead of a 2007 meeting on climate change in Jakarta.

Washington — In the wide-ranging and often fractious debate about climate change, many ideas have come forth to reduce greenhouse gases and mitigate climate change. A report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) June 14 projects that adoption of some of those proposals may deliver a pay-off in better health before they have a substantial impact on the environment.

WHO is planning a series of reports, Health in the Green Economy. The first one, focusing on housing, was released at an international meeting of health practitioners and policymakers in Washington. Climate-friendly housing construction and insulation techniques that better protect living areas from temperature extremes would help people susceptible to heart attack or stroke, and would alleviate forms of asthma and allergies, according to the report.

“This series explains why green housing and home energy, transport and urban environment can improve our health … and why the health sector can prevent much disease, at very little cost, by advocating for healthier investments in some key sectors,” said WHO’s Dr. Carlos Dora, an epidemiologist and coordinator of the series.

Health in the Green Economy makes a number of recommendations about how sustainable development policies could improve public health. It also argues that scientists and policymakers considering climate change policies have underemphasized the health concerns that circle the prospect of climate change.

For example, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s most authoritative forum on the topic, cites vehicle emissions as a major source of greenhouse gases, trapping the Earth’s heat and raising the global temperature. Their most recent report, WHO points out, focuses on better fuels and engines to ameliorate this problem. But Health in the Green Economy emphasizes walking, bicycling and public transport as a more available and more healthful way to eliminate vehicle emissions.

Indoor air pollution that results from the use of carbon-based fuels in cooking causes almost 2 million deaths a year, WHO estimates. Clean cookstoves provide an immediate alternative, if international organizations could mobilize the resources to buy and more widely distribute these stoves. Further, 17 percent of pneumonia deaths among African and Latin American children could be prevented with stoves using clean fuels, such as propane and liquid petroleum gas (LPG), or with cookers using solar power or charcoal.

In May, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton endorsed the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, which strives to help get clean cookstoves into 100 million homes by 2020. “Reaching this goal will save lives and reduce pollution,” she wrote in a commentary published in the May 6 edition of USA Today. “It will also give people, especially women and girls, a new tool to create economic opportunity for themselves.”

The U.S. government, European and South American governments, and private-sector partners are also members of the initiative to reduce the hazard of open-fire cooking, which disproportionately harms women and children.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is engaged in a campaign to help state and city health departments in the United States prepare for the health effects related to climate change. The Atlanta-based agency has awarded grants to 10 health departments in cities and states to develop ways to anticipate people’s needs in a changing climate, predicting health impacts and devising solutions.

The grantees will look at the issues from two perspectives. One group will examine their communities’ capabilities as they are currently structured to provide relief to climate change health impacts. The second group will look at what health services would require expansion to help people adversely affected by climate change impacts as they will arise in their particular geographic areas.

Charlene Porter,
Staff Writer
Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State
 

 

 

Houston Residents Thrive on Change

Opened this April, Houston's Ballet Center for Dance is the largest professional dance company facility in the United States.

Editor’s note: Fritz Lanham grew up in a suburb of Houston and for 16 years was book editor for the Houston Chronicle newspaper. These excerpts are taken from “Houston: Experimental City” by Fritz Lanham in the publication My Town.

Fritz Lanham:

Houston is a site for building and tearing down, dreaming and discarding. It’s a place for remaking physical and social space — throwing up a new building, launching a new business, starting a new art gallery or dance company.

About half of this new stuff fails, gets discarded and forgotten. But Houston is a city where people try things because there’s no one to stop them. …

While Houston physically is in an almost constant state of flux, it’s also experiencing a demographic sea change. … Houstonians of every ethnicity will wake up one day soon and discover that not only do the bricklayers and restaurant cooks have brown faces and Spanish surnames, but so do most of the doctors and lawyers and bank executives and store clerks. …

How will the radical Hispanicization of Houston change the city? In fewer ways than you might imagine. That’s my guess. Admittedly, plenty of non-Hispanic Houstonians experience spasms of anger and anxiety when they notice everyone around them in a store or on a bus is speaking a language they don’t understand. … But most Houstonians have already absorbed into their cultural DNA Hispanic food, music and at least a little of the language. More significant, most of the Hispanic people I know seem to embrace the idea of the Experimental City and the social and physical churn it brings.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State).

 

 

1950s Jazz Icon Comes to Life on Washington Stage

Vocalist Dennis Spears plays Nat "King" Cole in I Wish You Love.

 

Washington — It was 1956 and a time of racial unrest in America when jazz musician Nat “King” Cole became the first black person to host a national television program. More than 50 years later, an African-American theater company in Minnesota is putting on its highly praised musical to dramatize the singer’s poise during a time of racial struggle in America.

The musical, called I Wish You Love, will be performed in Washington at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts during June.

The run is a special triumph for playwright Dominic Taylor, who is African-American and can remember his own father being inspired by Nat “King” Cole. The musician “was a regal, dignified black man at a time riots were going on,” Taylor said. “My father felt it important to have a certain comportment.”

Taylor said he too holds admiration for Cole because, while Cole was performing popular songs as an entertainer, he was also “connected to his community, contributing to civil rights groups like the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] and Urban League.”

The story told in the musical is a history lesson, a reminder of the struggles of black artists before important civil rights laws were passed by Congress in the 1960s. Despite the fact that Cole’s television show received high ratings, it was canceled after only one season.

 Nat "King" Cole is surrounded by fans before a Paris performance in 1960.

At a time when U.S. television broadcasts were covering civil rights demonstrations in the streets of several cities in the United States, the show was not generating enough advertiser sponsorship, and network executives worried that the show was not an easy lead-in to those news broadcasts.

The musical is directed by Lou Bellamy, who in 1976 founded the African-American Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. He said he remembers Nat “King” Cole electrifying his neighborhood. “We had one of the first television sets on the block,” Bellamy said. “When Nat came on, neighbors would show up to watch.” Bellamy’s direction, he said, tries to show Cole’s struggle between what were sometimes opposing goals — advancing civil rights and advancing his own fame.

Cole performed many memorable songs throughout his career, including “The Very Thought of You,” “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and “Unforgettable.” His recordings were big hits in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Vocalist Dennis Spears brings Cole to life by emulating his smooth jazz style. While the musical chronicles a struggle with a television network and with racism, Spears said, it also has great music — what he calls a “win-win.”

Cole died of lung cancer when he was 46. His daughter, Natalie Cole, keeps his songs alive. In 1991, she recorded a remake of 22 of her late father’s songs, singing, with the help of digital technology, duets with him.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State).
 

 

 

 

Saving Oceans - And the Planet

Teenagers in Orange Beach, Alabama, pose with bags of trash they collected as part of a coastal cleanup effort sponsored by Ocean Conservancy.

 

 

Washington — Why is the ocean so important to our planet’s health? And what can we do to protect it?

Many environmental organizations — such as Ocean Conservancy, based in Washington — are answering such questions by explaining the vital role that oceans play in our daily lives and encouraging kids to get involved in coastal cleanup programs in their communities.

Scientists believe life on Earth began in the oceans, and marine life accounts for the majority of our planet’s life forms today, according to the Earth’s Kids website.

Oceans control climate and weather. Fisheries depend on oceans, as do the tourism-based economies of coastal regions. Transportation and telecommunications are affected by oceans. Oil, gas and mineral deposits are found in oceans, which also provide wave, thermal and wind energy. Marine biotechnology is a source of medicines.

But some 6.5 tons of trash ends up in oceans each year, and — as Ocean Conservancy points out — ocean trash can seriously affect human health (sharp items can cut beachgoers; batteries, car parts and chemical drums can leak toxic compounds). Wildlife is also threatened: Whales entangled in old rope or fishing nets can drown, and fish, birds and animals can die from eating trash they mistake for food.

Ocean Conservancy is responding to these threats, and putting kids at the forefront of many of its public campaigns.

For the past 25 years, Ocean Conservancy has organized its annual International Coastal Cleanup, enlisting volunteers worldwide to remove marine debris from their coastal communities. During its September 2010 cleanup events, “natural beauty was restored to beaches and riverbeds as bags of trash were hauled away, separated from recyclable items whenever possible,” the organization said.

One such cleanup event in Tampa, Florida, was spearheaded by rock musicians — the Jonas Brothers — and a corporate sponsor, the Disney Corporation. During that event, 11-year-old artist Olivia Bouler was recognized for her drawings of birds, which focused attention on wildlife affected by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

All 50 U.S. states participated in the 2010 International Coastal Cleanup efforts, as did countries around the globe. Ocean Conservancy volunteers documented worldwide highlights: Ghana residents devised a scheme to avoid using plastic garbage bags by collecting the debris in laundry baskets before wheeling it to the dump in barrels; volunteers in London discovered an antique sawed-off shotgun amid 5 tons of old ship wreckage; and scientists at Puerto Rican sites helped children identify any organisms collected with the debris from underwater cleanups and safely return them to their home.

To learn more about Ocean Conservancy, visit the organization’s website.

(This is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State).

 

Asian-American Designers: A Force in Fashion

Detroit native Anna Sui, of Chinese descent, studied fashion at The New School’s art and design college, Parsons School of Design, in New York. Encouraged by her friends, models Naomi Campbell and Linda Evangelista, she launched her first runway show in 1991. Her debut was warmly received, and today, her brand retails globally. Sui is known for her bold, culturally inspired designs, which have a distinctly bohemian look, say fashion critics. When designing clothes, Sui told Elle magazine, she asks herself: “Would a rock star wear this?”

Poet Laureate of the Environment

Washington — On May 4, W.S. Merwin concluded his term as U.S. poet laureate consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress. He gave a brief talk and read poems from his career of more than 60 years.

The poems Merwin read touched again and again on the connectedness of man to the natural world around him and the ability of human imagination to bring man to a more intimate knowledge of that connection. “It’s the thing that makes children — and those of us who remain children — fascinated by and recognize something in every other form of life,” Merwin said of humans’ imaginative power. “There’s a wonder in every moment, and it’s always available to us. Why do I think it’s important to live by it? Because I think if we don’t, we’re belittling ourselves.”

“Time and its passage, memory, the environment and the natural world. All of these are preoccupying concerns in his poetry,” Steven Young, the programs director for the Poetry Foundation, said of Merwin. These themes have remained constant even as the words that express them have changed. In the years between Merwin’s first book, A Mask for Janus (1952), which won the Yale Younger Poets prize, and more recent works such as The Shadow of Sirius, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for poetry (his second Pulitzer), his work has transformed from formal elegance to something more personal and intuitive, which, said Young, “largely abandons punctuation and finds rhythms in the words themselves. There is nobody writing in English who sounds quite like Merwin.”

As well as being a prolific poet, Merwin has been a respected translator of more than a dozen volumes of works in 23 languages.

Merwin’s devotion to the natural world extends far beyond his poetry. In the 1970s, he moved to Hawaii to study with a teacher of Zen Buddhism. He and his wife, Paula, have lived since the 1980s on a former pineapple plantation that he has nurtured into one of the most comprehensive palm forests in the world. An avid gardener, he has worked to preserve a number of nearly extinct native species. Over the years, he has lent his name and efforts to a number of environmental causes, especially in his adopted state of Hawaii.

“The reason above all I thought I should accept [the position of poet laureate] was that this was a unique opportunity for me to say something that had been part of my life since I was a very small child, since before I could even write,” Merwin said at his final public appearance as poet laureate. “It has been a kind of point on my compass my whole life,” he said. “It has to do with what I believe distinguishes the human species. I think to me it’s always, without any doubt, been the imagination. It’s the source of compassion; it’s the source of the arts.”

 

 

Americans Are Taking Their Children to Work

Americans show their children the rich variety of careers waiting for them when they enter the work force through Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on April 28.

 

 

 

Preserving Water with a Camera Lens

 The U.S. State Department’s Information Resource Center in Lima, Peru, organized a continent-wide photo contest under the banner “FOTOTIERRA!” to promote World Water Day. The winning photos depict scenes from across South America that demonstrate the importance of water conservation.
This photo — “Hydrotopia” by Juan Manuel Tobares, Argentina — received an honorable mention in the contest.

 

 

International Education Week 2010

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide.

This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

A Celebration of Hispanic-American Heritage

 

Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, honors the diverse people of Spanish-speaking backgrounds in the United States — those who trace their roots to Spain, Mexico and the Spanish-speaking nations of Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Special programs, events, exhibits and websites celebrate the culture, traditions and extraordinary contributions of the 48.4 million Hispanics who constitute the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, according to the Census Bureau. In addition, there are about 4 million residents of Puerto Rico, a Caribbean U.S. territory.
 

Greek Library Wins the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s 2010 Access to Learning Award

The Veria Central Public Library, host of a successful American Corner received $1 million international award for embracing technology and creating vibrant community asset.
More

 

The Fourth of July: Celebrating U.S. Independence Day

July 4th has been recognized as Independence Day in the United States ever since the country’s Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. To mark the occasion, Americans celebrate with parades, fireworks, concerts and other festive activities.

 

U.S. Men’s Soccer: One Team, Many Homelands

About a dozen U.S. players from immigrant families have achieved the ultimate goal in their sport — being picked to play for their country in the 2010 FIFA World Cup of Soccer. Edson Buddle, left, Landon Donovan, center, and Benny Feilhaber, right, all play for Team USA but have roots in other countries. This year, the United States has fielded the most ethnically diverse team in its World Cup history.

 

 

 

Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s internationally acclaimed novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), still draws admiration and criticism for its depiction of Huck, the boy outcast, and his friend Jim, a runaway slave.
 

Graphic Novels: Drawing the Asian- American Experience

Asian-American artists and writers have attained considerable prominence as creators of sophisticated graphic novels, many of which explore cultural identity and social issues.
 

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2010

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in the U.S. Some 15.5 million residents claim Asian heritage. More at the following link:
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Earth Day 2010: Preserving Marine Biodiveristy

Earth Day reminds us that all creatures depend upon water for life. 

 

Cultural Sites Reflect U.S. Democracy -- Park Service protects sites that tell both inspiring, painful stories

24 March 2010

Washington — What do the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty, and the theater where Abraham Lincoln was shot have in common? They are part of the network of scenic and historic sites safeguarded by the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) so visitors can learn about the people and places that have shaped America.
Some of these landmarks might have been lost without visionaries who believed they should be protected and set aside for everyone’s use, said NPS Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. Since 1916, the Park Service has been “the U.S. government’s steward of its history, telling the quintessential American story” of a sprawling, diverse nation, he explained in an interview.
The stories behind these sites and landmarks are “extraordinarily inspiring and, sometimes, extraordinarily painful,” Jarvis said. “This grand experiment in democracy isn’t perfect, but these stories reveal that we’re willing to discuss our mistakes — that we’re still learning, still growing.”
 

Presidential Proclamation on Women’s History Month

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
March 2, 2010

WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, 2010

- - - - - - -

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Countless women have steered the course of our history, and their stories are ones of steadfast determination. From reaching for the ballot box to breaking barriers on athletic fields and battlefields, American women have stood resolute in the face of adversity and overcome obstacles to realize their full measure of success. Women’s History Month is an opportunity for us to recognize the contributions women have made to our Nation, and to honor those who blazed trails for women’s empowerment and equality.

Women from all walks of life have improved their communities and our Nation. Sylvia Mendez and her family stood up for her right to an education and catalyzed the desegregation of our schools. Starting as a caseworker in city government, Dr. Dorothy Height has dedicated her life to building a more just society. One of our young heroes, Caroline Moore, contributed to advances in astronomy by discovering a supernova at age 14.

When women like these reach their potential, our country as a whole prospers. That is the duty of our Government -- not to guarantee success, but to ensure all Americans can achieve it. My Administration is working to fulfill this promise with initiatives like the White House Council on Women and Girls, which promotes the importance of taking women and girls into account in Federal policies and programs. This council is committed to ensuring our Government does all it can to give our daughters the chance to achieve their dreams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Presidential Proclamation -- National African American History Month

Presidential Proclamation -- National African American History Month

February 01, 2010

In the centuries since African Americans first arrived on our shores, they have known the bitterness of slavery and oppression, the hope of progress, and the triumph of the American Dream. African American history is an essential thread of the American narrative that traces our Nation's enduring struggle to perfect itself. Each February, we recognize African American History Month as a moment to reflect upon how far we have come as a Nation, and what challenges remain. This year's theme, "The History of Black Economic Empowerment," calls upon us to honor the African Americans who overcame injustice and inequality to achieve financial independence and the security of self empowerment that comes with it.

Nearly 100 years after the Civil War, African Americans still faced daunting challenges and indignities. Widespread racial prejudice inhibited their opportunities, and institutional discrimination such as black codes and Jim Crow laws denied them full citizenship rights. Despite these seemingly impossible barriers, pioneering African Americans blazed trails for themselves and their children. They became skilled workers and professionals. They purchased land, and a new generation of black entrepreneurs founded banks, educational institutions, newspapers, hospitals, and businesses of all kinds.

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African American History Month 2010. Law Library, Library of Congress

National African American History Month in February celebrates the contributions that African Americans have made to American history in their struggles for freedom and equality and deepens our understanding of our Nation's history.

 

Haiti Receives 10-Year Commitment from International Community

The international community makes a 10-year commitment to help Haiti’s reconstruction and will follow priorities set by the Haitian government. Donors will hold a conference in New York in March.

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The World Digital Library (WDL), launched April 21, offers free online access to rare and important cultural materials from libraries and archives around the world. It is a project of the U.S. Library of Congress, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and more than 30 partner institutions. Every country in the world is invited to participate. By increasing the diversity of cultural materials on the Internet, the WDL aims to become a unique educational resource that will help improve international understanding and reduce the digital divide between countries. New content is being added regularly.

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