"Is Meritocracy an Idea Worth Saving?" asks The Chronicle of Higher Education, reporting on a special forum held recently at the University of North Carolina's Program for Public Discourse. "This discussion took place before Covid-19 changed everything. But the topics — the definition of meritocracy, the role of universities in a just society, the composition of socioeconomic class, and the real purpose of education — are as relevant as ever." Moral philosopher Anastasia Berg, a junior research fellow at the University of Cambridge: Obviously certain roles in society and certain honors should be going to someone who is most competent for them: the Nobel Prize, or a teaching award, or who should perform eye surgery on us. The question is whether this is the right measure for determining who should be entering universities. There are objections from the left and from the right. I find the left ones persuasive, which is to say, in effect, that the pretensions to meritocracy are not borne out, if we actually look at who gets into colleges. We find out that there's huge correlation between the kind of material support that people have, and their ability to perform on the kind of exams that allow people to get into colleges. But what I also find problematic has to do with what has formerly been thought of as a conservative critique, although I think that leftists and liberals and progressives should be as concerned about it as anyone else: The current way of running college admissions concentrates talent, ambition, and competence in very few areas — on the coasts, in a very few universities — and draws potential leaders from communities elsewhere. Moreover, the current system leaves people blind to all the ways in which they owe gratitude to a community, for all the help that allowed them to achieve. New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat: It's useful to remember that the term "meritocracy" was coined as a description of a dystopia, in a book by a British civil servant written in the late '50s called The Rise of the Meritocracy. It was a tongue-in-cheek evocation of some pompous civil servant from somewhere around our own era, looking back on what he saw as the self-selection of the cognitive elite to rule over a society that was drained of talent, drained of ambition, and had all power centers outside the elite deprived of leadership and talent from within. It's reasonable to look at class divisions in the United States and much of the West and say that at least a partial version of that dystopia has come to pass. College-educated and more-than-college-educated Americans cluster together in geographic hubs in ways that they did not 50 or 60 years ago. It's a fascinating discussion, in which writer Thomas Chatterton Williams argues "it takes a kind of privilege to sneer at meritocratic measures that allow people to advance." But Berg also makes the observation that at least half of Americans won't ever have a college degree. "If that's the way to make citizens, what do we do with the rest? We have to make room for the dignity of other paths."

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Research Event

Event participants

Professor Amitav Acharya, Professor, School of International Service, American University
Chair: Professor Michael Cox, Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics; Associate Fellow, Americas Programme, Chatham House

12 March 2015 , Volume 91, Number 2

Whenever Americans see videos of police brutality against black men and women, the first thing they do is assume they deserved their executionWhat skin color are the bad guys in America’s fantasies of vigilantism? When the proverbial “fellas” get together to drink beers and talk about their newest guns and who they’d take down, what race are the “criminals” in the theater of their minds?When Greg McMichael and his son, Travis, got the call from their neighbor that a “burglar” was running through their Brunswick, Georgia neighborhood that chilly February day, what color man do you think they imagined as they locked, loaded, and embarked on their “mission”?Ahmaud Arbery is dead today because when Americans dream of vigilante justice, black men are the villains of their imaginations.We as a nation are so comfortable with this baseline bigotry that our first assumption whenever we see videos of police brutality against or shootings of black men and women, the first thing we do is assume that the victims must have done something wrong to earn their own public execution.This assumption is both a function of white America having a completely different experience with police officers than black America as well as the hundreds of years of vilifying blackness in media and American culture.I will never forget the biggest and most uproarious applause during the theater debut of the lackluster 2007 vigilante film, Brave One, came when the protagonist Jodi Foster got her first vigilante kills of the movie – two threatening and scary black men. That theater filled with men the same age range as Greg and Travis McMichael erupted as if at that moment, all that they had ever imagined had been fulfilled on the big screen. Needless to say, I left that theater before the credits rolled.Across the country, our political leaders hold these same bigoted beliefs which inevitably lead to policies that directly assume criminality based on skin color.During his tenure as mayor of New York City, billionaire Michael Bloomberg made it explicitly clear why it was that he sent police officers into black and brown communities to “throw them” up against the wall. In his 2015 Aspen Institute speech he stated:“People say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana who are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in the minority neighborhoods. Yes, that’s true. Why’d we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you should get the guns out of the kids’ hands is throw them against the wall and frisk them.”And it is for this reason that I do not distinguish between the violence committed by American citizens acting as vigilantes and the violence committed by so-called officers of the law when, in both cases, the working assumption and driving force behind that violence is the deeply bigoted and firmly American association between blackness and criminality.For Ahmaud, that association not only led to his brutal killing, but it also initially meant his killer not being arrested. It took more than two months for the father and son duo to be arrested. When explaining why they were not charged immediately the district attorney, George Barnhill, immediately stated that the victim, Ahmaud Arbery, was, in fact, the “criminal suspect”.“It appears that [Greg and Travis McMichael’s] intent was to stop and hold this criminal suspect until law enforcement arrived. Under Georgia Law [sic] this is perfectly legal.”Even after viewing the video and with no evidence beyond Ahmaud’s skin color, the top cop in the institution designed to bring equal justice under the law concluded that Ahmaud was a criminal suspect when he was simply a black man taking a jog.What are black Americans to do when justice is delayed or outright denied because of the assignment of innocence to vigilantes and police officers?What are black Americans to do when the assumption of guilt because of our skin color is as American as the guns they use to kill us?What are we to do when in our neighbors’ dreams and fantasies of cop-and-robber, the skin color of the bad guy matches our own?The very first thing we are going to do is defend ourselves as if our lives depend on it because when Americans fantasize about killing, those fantasies become our living nightmares. * Benjamin Dixon is the host of the Benjamin Dixon show.

Since 1970, the immigrant populations from Mexico and Central America living in the United States have increased significantly: rising by a factor of 20 even as the total U.S. immigrant population increased four-fold over the period. This demographic report examines the age, educational, and workforce characteristics of these immigrants.

The event discussion, which touched on the intersection of race and immigration, focused on the demographics of Black immigrants (both African and Caribbean) in the United States and their children, their educational success, and the implications of the recently released volume’s findings for research and public policy.

Book release event for MPI's volume on the Children of Black Immigrants, covering topics of education, health, and demographics, with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Services Policy Ajay Chaudry; Gerald D. Jaynes, Yale University Departments of Economics and African-American Studies; chapter authors Dylan Patricia Conger and Kevin Thomas; and volume editors MPI's Randy Capps and Michael Fix.

This edited volume rigorously assesses the 1996 U.S. welfare reform law, questions whether its immigrant provisions were ever really necessary, and examines its impact on legal immigrants’ ability to integrate into American society.

This interdisciplinary volume examines the health, well-being, school readiness, and academic achievement of children in Black immigrant families (most with parents from Africa and the Caribbean)—a population that has had little academic attention even as it represents an increasing share of the U.S. Black child population.

Briefing and discussion of the release of the latest paper by MPI's Labor Markets Initiative: The Impact of Immigrants in Recession and Economic Expansion.

Briefing and discussion of the release of the latest paper by MPI's Labor Markets Initiative. Speakers are report author Giovanni Peri, UC Davis Professor of Economics; Ross Eisenbrey, Vice President, Economic Policy Institute; and Demetrios G. Papademetriou, MPI President.

Billy Crystal, Tiffany Haddish, Kenan Thompson and Byron Allen are set to co-host Sunday's Feeding America Comedy Festival.

Testimony of Muzaffar Chishti, Director of MPI's office in New York, before the House Judiciary Committee.

Testimony of Doris Meissner, Director of MPI's U.S. Immigration Policy Program, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest regarding the Central American Minors Refugee/Parole Program that began in December 2014.

Joya Kazi’s work on Mindy Kaling’s ‘Never Have I Ever’ helps blend Indian and American cultures  indica News

OM workers explain, their home has become a mix of Latin American and Middle Eastern cultures.

Doulos had a transforming impact on Latin America and its church. To this day, it is remembered as the initiator of the mission movement in Latin America.

Cartagena, Colombia :: An interview with Julie Paniagua, Associate Area Leader for resourcing with OM Latin America.

Yes, Indian FTR 1200 series is based on the FTR 750 race bike. Unlike the race machine, of course, the FTR 1200 is fitted with brakes upfront and it has a proper seat. So, what is a flat track-bred street bike like to ride?

Warren Buffett on Saturday took a dive into the 231-year history of the United States of America to predict the future of the country’s economy struggling to stay on its feet amid the struggle against coronavirus and lockdown: “Nothing can basically stop America.”

As trade tensions escalate between Washington and Beijing, India is boosting efforts to lure more than 1,000 US businesses out of China, reportedly offering to ease tax and labor laws, and allowing easier access to land.
Read Full Article at RT.com

The renewable energy market is fast-paced and growing with each passing day. It’s hard to keep up with every industry announcement and insight, so we decided to highlight interesting developments that took place during the past few weeks, and some valuable insights that are worth revisiting.

The U.S. Department of Commerce just announced that it will add high tariffs for solar modules imported from China. The Canadian government is also investigating the adoption of similar measures, following recent complaints filed by Ontario-based solar manufacturers. With the solar industry in hypergrowth, it’s not a surprise that these governments are interested in boosting new jobs, protecting their economies, and fostering the solar sector. The problem is that tariffs are a short-sighted approach that actually attack the future of North American solar on its home soil, and likely destroy more jobs than they create.

Following the conclusion of the United Nations climate negotiations in Lima, Peru, last December, a busy schedule of breakout sessions has begun for Latin American business and political leaders in early 2015.

Researchers at Yale have unveiled a new interactive map that estimates public opinion on global warming right down to the county level.

In our second annual survey on American homeowners’ attitudes toward clean energy, one thing is resoundingly clear. In a nation divided on climate change, immigration policy, and so many other issues, Americans are overwhelmingly united in their support of renewable energy.

Five companies were recognized this week by the National Hydropower Association during its annual Waterpower Week in Washington conference for work in hydroelectric power that exemplifies "extraordinary recreational, historical, environmental or educational value."

Brazil's latest A-3 auction, matching up developers and power purchasers to prepare renewable energy projects to meet the nation's electricity demand by 2016, was a landslide win for wind energy -- but a shutout for solar, which was included in the process for the first time.

The U.S. market for wind energy is something of a contradiction: it's one of the world's larger markets and fastest growing with its own supply chain, yet it's still heavily reliant upon a production tax credit, which was renewed at the last minute last December (yet late with enough uncertainty to chill many projects in the pipeline), and this time its renewal is even less certain.

After being shut out of previous renewable energy auctions, and delaying its own auction by two weeks, the state government of Pernambuco held the nation's first solar energy auction on December 27, registering 122.82 MW of energy, six times the country's current entire solar energy output (20 MW). The auction involved 34 bidders proposing roughly 1 GW of capacity; at the end it was narrowed to six companies from Brazil, Italy, Germany, China and Spain. Average price of power finished trading at 228.63 Brazilian reais/MWh (just under U.S. $97), about 9 percent lower than the starting price of R 250.

CARACAS: Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with terrorism and conspiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on Friday.Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan...

CARACAS: Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with terrorism and conspiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on Friday.Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan...

CARACAS: Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with terrorism and conspiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on Friday. Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan...

CARACAS: Venezuela has charged two former US soldiers with terrorism and conspiracy for allegedly taking part in a failed bid to topple President Nicolas Maduro, the attorney general said on Friday.Luke Alexander Denman, 34, and Airan Berry, 41, were among 17 people captured by the Venezuelan...

Palo Alto, CA – Aha™ by HARMAN today announced new content available via the free Aha Radio app for Android and iOS and included in the in-vehicle infotainment system in over 40 models of cars. With the addition of self-improvement publisher Hay House, live podcast network BlogTalkRadio and leading national broadcasters American Public Media (APM) and CBC/Radio-Canada, Aha adds thousands of new programs, across a multitude of genres, extending its content library of 40,000 audio and non-audio programs to include exactly what consumers want to hear in the car, at home, and on the go.Specific offerings include APM’s business and economic news program Marketplace, AAA station The Current, Classical Minnesota Public Radio and regional news from Southern California Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio.

Palo Alto, CA – HARMAN announced today that its Aha Radio service will be a standard feature in all Subaru models and trims starting with the 2015 Legacy. Subaru of America, Inc. was one of the first automotive manufacturers to integrate the Aha Radio service into its vehicles. A partnership that was established through the availability of the service in 2014 Subaru Forester’s top trim levels has been consistently growing since then.

Sean Hannity blasted the Obama administration and Democrats on Saturday night for the Russia investigation and targeting of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. 

The U.S. response to the coronavirus outbreak has led to "unintended consequences" -- including lost pride for many American workers, TV host Mike Rowe said Saturday night.

Thirty-three million Americans have filed for unemployment since the coronavirus lockdowns began in earnest. Many more have tried and failed thanks to an extremely creaky system running on ancient software, easily overwhelmed by a tsunami of layoffs.

But 20.5 million, the official number of jobs lost in April, according to a report released on Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is a terrifying figure in its own right. That’s the worst single month for job losses in a data set that dates back to 1939. As in, when Franklin Roosevelt was president and the Great Depression was still fading in the rearview mirror.

After weeks of mounting evidence of economic collapse, the official U.S. unemployment rate has spiked to 14.7 percent, and that number was biased down because 6 million people just gave up and dropped out of the labor market and were thus not counted in the jobless rate. That rate will almost surely go even higher from here.

Read more at The Daily Beast.

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The Cornhole Mania 2020 doubles tournament broadcasted on ESPN noon, and the singles event will take place at 6 p.m. as some live sports begin making a comeback.

For her latest single, "Say Too Much," on-the-rise Canadian country singer/songwriter Karli June teamed up with an unlikely ally in pop/rock producer and All-American Rejects keyboardist Scott Chesak. But while Chesak's success as a songwriter and producer largely stems from projects with the likes of Panic! at the Disco and Weezer, his first foray into country has been quite fruitful.

Andrew speaks with both artists about how they first came together, what drew Karli to the song despite the demo being straight-up pop, how the song evolved during their sessions, and lessons learned for both the emerging singer and touring vet throughout the process.

PLUS, because it's #BellLetsTalk Day, we're re-airing Mike's interview with Royal Mountain Records' Menno Versteeg from this past summer about the label's mental health fund and why musicians are particularly vulnerable to mental health struggles.

Check out Mike's feature on Music's Mental Health Crisis at: http://canadianmusician.com/features

This episode is sponsored by Bandzoogle. Try it free for 30 days and use the promo code “CMPOD” to get 15% off the first year of any subscription. https://bandzoogle.com/?pc=cmpod

"The persistence of the drought conditions, in the Colorado River basin especially, is essentially unprecedented in human history," John Fleck, author of "Water is for Fighting Over," said.

These Argentinian alfajores might just be the best chocolate treat you have not yet heard of

Tasting your first alfajor may be a defining moment. Mine was in my kitchen, on a lockdown Sunday in April. I cut it in half, and offered half to my eldest, who declined it before changing her mind when she heard the noises I started to emit.

Alfajores (pronounced al-fa-ho-res) are traditional Latin American treats, often sold in kiosks, and are usually two soft biscuits around dulce de leche and coated in chocolate; veritably God’s own creation.

Trying to revive a devastated U.S. economy, Trump is expanding his wartime metaphors to draw in just about everyone across the nation.

Saturday Night Live kicked off its season 45 finale this weekend with a tip of the hat to the Class of 2020. The cast members appeared on-screen remotely in the cold open as graduating seniors, with Alec Baldwin joining them as President Donald Trump. Wearing a red “Make America Great Again” cap, Baldwin offered a […]