Dublin, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "AI in Education Market - Forecasts from 2020 to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The Artificial Intelligence in education market was valued at US$2.022 billion for the year 2019. The growing adoption of artificial intelligence in the education sector due to the ability of these solutions to enhance the learning experience is one of the key factors which is anticipated to propel its adoption across the globe for education purposes.

The proliferation of smart devices and the rapidly growing trend for digitalization across numerous sectors is also propelling the demand for artificial intelligence solutions in the education sector. Artificial intelligence majorly uses deep learning, machine learning, and advanced analytics especially for monitoring the learning process of the learner such as the marks obtained and speed of a particular individual among others. Also, these solutions offer a personalized learning experience and high-quality education and also helps the learners to enhance pre-existing knowledge and learning.

The growth of the market is also anticipated to be driven by the growth in the use of multilingual translators which are integrated with AI technology. Furthermore, the artificial intelligence solutions also give customizable learning experience depending on the requirements of the end-user, student path prediction, suggestion of learning path, identification of weakness, and also help the learners to analyze their areas for improvement and help them to improve their capabilities.

However, the less availability of skilled workforce, high investment costs coupled with the growth in the risk of data security on account of a surge in the number of cyber-attacks is one of the major factors which is anticipated to hamper the growth of the artificial intelligence in the education market. The integration of AI-empowered educational games is also projected to boost the adoption of these solutions across the K-12 education segment, as the learning for the students become highly interactive and further helps the teachers also to uplift the learning experience of the students. In addition, the integration of AI in the education sector has revolutionized the overall learning experience across all the learning areas through its result-driven approach.

Furthermore, the use of artificial intelligence in education can also be used for automating the basic activities in the education sector which includes grading and assessment purpose among others. This, in turn, leads to saving the teachers time to stay more focused on the quality of education of the professional development of the students. The use of these solutions enables the learners to attain the ultimate academic success through the help of smart content. The global artificial intelligence in the education market has been segmented on the basis of offering, technology, end-use, and geography. On the basis of offering the market has been classified into solutions and services. By technology, the market has been segmented into deep learning, machine learning, and natural language processing. By end-user, the segmentation has been done on the basis of academic learning and corporate learning.

Services are projected to show good growth opportunities

By offering, the market has been segmented into solutions and services. The services segment is estimated to show decent growth opportunities during the forecast period and beyond on account of the rising awareness among education providers regarding the adoption of AI technology for providing high-quality education. Furthermore, the growing trend of professional training services is also leading to the high adoption of AI-powered solutions for corporate learning purposes which also supports the growth of this segment during the next five years.

Corporate learning expected to grow substantially over the forecast period

The corporate learning segment is anticipated to show decent growth over the forecast period on account of the growing adoption of these solutions by corporate companies in order to enhance the skills of their employees with an aim to meet the growing competition. Thus, to enhance the skills of the employees, key players investing heavily to develop new platforms and courses so as to attract big companies and expand their competitive edge in the market. Furthermore, big giants at the global level are adopting AI solutions for corporate learning to equip the global workforce with the skills and knowledge to succeed in the rapidly changing economy further shows the growth potential of artificial intelligence in the education market for the corporate learning segment.

The academic learning segment is projected to hold a decent share in the market owing to the high adoption of these solutions across the school level for enhancing the education quality and for building the careers of the students. Also, the use of AI techniques for learning purposes helps the students to focus more on self-development.

North America expected to hold a substantial market share

Geographically, the global market has been segmented into North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa and the Asia Pacific. North America is projected to hold a noteworthy share in the market on account of well-established infrastructure and early adoption of technology. Furthermore, the presence of a state-of-art education system also bolsters the growth of the market in the North American region. The Asia Pacific region is projected to show robust growth over the next five years on account of the rising adoption of AI-based solutions across the major developing countries such as China and Indonesia among others. The education system in China is one of the most reputed systems across the globe, on the other hand, it is also the most challenging and competitive one. Moreover, India has one of the largest education sectors in the world. Thus, the presence of well-established education systems of the country is expected to supplement the growth of the market during the next five years.

Competitive Insights

Prominent key market players in the artificial intelligence in education market include IBM Corporation, Cognizant, Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, and Amazon Web Services among others. These companies hold a noteworthy share in the market on account of their good brand image and product offerings.

Major players in the artificial intelligence in education market have been covered along with their relative competitive position and strategies. The report also mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last two years.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction 1.1. Market Definition 1.2. Market Segmentation

2. Research Methodology 2.1. Research Data 2.2. Assumptions

3. Executive Summary 3.1. Research Highlights

4. Market Dynamics 4.1. Market Drivers 4.2. Market Restraints 4.3. Porters Five Forces Analysis 4.3.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers 4.3.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers 4.3.3. Threat of New Entrants 4.3.4. Threat of Substitutes 4.3.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Industry 4.4. Industry Value Chain Analysis

5. Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Analysis, By Offering 5.1. Introduction 5.2. Solutions 5.3. Services

6. Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Analysis, By Technology 6.1. Introduction 6.2. Deep Learning 6.3. Machine Learning 6.4. Natural Language Processing

7. Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Analysis, By End User 7.1. Introduction 7.2. Academic Learning 7.2.1. K-12 Education 7.2.2. Higher Education 7.3. Corporate Learning

8. Artificial Intelligence in Education Market Analysis, By Geography 8.1. Introduction 8.2. North America 8.2.1. North America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Offering, 2019 to 2025 8.2.2. North America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Technology, 2019 to 2025 8.2.3. North America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By End User, 2019 to 2025 8.2.4. By Country 8.2.4.1. USA 8.2.4.2. Canada 8.2.4.3. Mexico 8.3. South America 8.3.1. South America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Offering, 2019 to 2025 8.3.2. South America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Technology, 2019 to 2025 8.3.3. South America Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By End User, 2019 to 2025 8.3.4. By Country 8.3.4.1. Brazil 8.3.4.2. Argentina 8.3.4.3. Others 8.4. Europe 8.4.1. Europe Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Offering, 2019 to 2025 8.4.2. Europe Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Technology, 2019 to 2025 8.4.3. Europe Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By End User, 2019 to 2025 8.4.4. By Country 8.4.4.1. Germany 8.4.4.2. France 8.4.4.3. United Kingdom 8.4.4.4. Spain 8.4.4.5. Others 8.5. Middle East and Africa 8.5.1. Middle East and Africa Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Offering, 2019 to 2025 8.5.2. Middle East and Africa Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Technology, 2019 to 2025 8.5.3. Middle East and Africa Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By End User, 2019 to 2025 8.5.4. By Country 8.5.4.1. Saudi Arabia 8.5.4.2. Israel 8.5.4.3. Others 8.6. Asia Pacific 8.6.1. Asia Pacific Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Offering, 2019 to 2025 8.6.2. Asia Pacific Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By Technology, 2019 to 2025 8.6.3. Asia Pacific Artificial Intelligence in Education Market, By End User, 2019 to 2025 8.6.4. By Country 8.6.4.1. China 8.6.4.2. Japan 8.6.4.3. South Korea 8.6.4.4. India 8.6.4.5. Others

9. Competitive Environment and Analysis 9.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis 9.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness 9.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations 9.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix

10. Company Profiles 10.1. IBM Corporation 10.2. Amazon Web Services Inc. 10.3. Microsoft Corporation 10.4. Google LLC 10.5. AI Brain Inc. 10.6. Cognizant 10.7. Blippar Ltd 10.8. Nuance Communications, Inc. 10.9. Cerevrum 10.10. Cognii, Inc.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/mip4qk

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Global AI in Education Market (2020 to 2025) - Featuring IBM, Amazon and Microsoft Among Others - Yahoo Finance UK

When Studio Theatres acting conservatory parted ways with its eponymous Studio Theatre more than a year ago, the split was existential, according to conservatory Co-Director Joy Zinoman. Zinoman, who founded both the conservatory in the mid-1970s, and the theatre several years later in 1978, served as the theatres Artistic Director for more than 30 years before transitioning to her current role in 2010. The two entities had operated under the same roof for more than 40 years, the conservatory training more than 10,000 Washington area performers, many of whom appeared in the theatres staged productions.

By the time Studio Theatre made its public announcement in February 2019 that it planned to discontinue the acting school and reclaim the space for the theatre, Zinoman (who learned of the plan in June) had already raised almost three-quarters of a million dollars to keep the school alive. She moved the conservatory to a temporary space in a former DC middle school. By May of 2019, the newly named Studio Acting Conservatory had purchased a permanent homean unused church in Columbia Heightsand announced its plans for renovations.

Today, the conservatorys new space, which Zinoman describes as glorious and full of light, her own eyes alight with excitement, is only weeks from completion. But, like many Washington area businesses and schools, its offices, classrooms, performance spaces and practice rooms will remain empty for the indefinite future, due to the continued threat of Covid-19. Actingis such an intimate thing, Zinoman said, we cant expose our students or instructors to that kind of risk.

Like everyone else, weve had to be innovative, Zinoman continued with renewed enthusiasm. When we moved our classes online last spring, the instructors rose to the challenge. Of the roughly 180 students enrolled in the Conservatorys 3-year comprehensive acting curriculum, about 91% continued their classwork online.

Not all of the classes worked online, Zinoman admitted with a chuckle, we had movement classes where the students were trying to perform in tiny apartment bedrooms where the bed took up the entire room. We cant kid ourselves, of course, she continued. Something is lost when you are not in the same physical space. With classes being conducted online, scenes have to be shot in extreme closeup, Zinoman continued, to emphasize the actors emotions and maintain the conceit of physical proximity. You always lose something without the whole body.

With a curriculum based on realism (grounded in the Stanislavsky method), the transition was far less painful then Zinoman first assumed. Realism is more about the internal lifethe emotional context, of the characters, she explained. At first, the actorswho were performing scenes over Zoomfocused on trying to make their background environments feel more cohesive, switching out their screen backgrounds so it seemed they were in the same physical space, or engaging in somewhat gimmicky prop effects, like passing a glass of water from one actors hand to another via sleight of hand. It was impressive work, Zinoman said, noting that the students final scenes can be viewed on the conservatorys website.

What really worked and became interesting, she continued, was when students started to transfer their scene work into the now very familiar context of a virtual meeting. They would take famous scenes and transfer it such that the characters themselves were having intimate interactions via Zoom.

Really what could feel more real right now than the strangely intimate, always awkward, window we are suddenly forced to open up into our own homes and lives? The eager burn of a co-workers eyes over your shoulder, assessing the tiny slice of your apartment youve chosen to broadcast (Huh, thought it would be nicer, you can hear them thinking. Wouldnt have pegged her for a cat person.) while you wonder whether your boss can tell you just rolled of bed, tucking your button down into pajama bottoms. The virtual blind date, absent the distraction of dinner and a show, or even the dim lighting, that requires near constant eye contact.

While most of us hope it isnt the case, this could the new normal, both in life and theater. Playwrights and directors are already producing online plays that portray their characters communicating via video chat. Zinoman points to Richard Nelsons renowned Apple Family plays, historically staged at New Yorks Public Theatre, the latest of which (the 6th in the series) features the characters forced together on a Zoom call, appearing in a grid of boxes. Auditioning via videotapehas become the norm, for many theatres, Zinoman added, at least in the first round of auditions. Delivering a convincing, emotional performance via video, is an essential skill for todays actor.

The conservatory is adapting to this new need, introducing new classes like Self-Taping for Auditions, in addition to making its full curriculum available online. We know its a difficult timeimperfect, Zinoman said. The theatre is about gatheringand thats the one thing thats not safeabout connection in a time when thats not safe. Never one to be caught lying down, she also sees great potential for actors during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now is a great time for actors to focus on self-improvement, Zinoman said, developing your craft is the best you can do right now.

And the online environment does have its advantages. Zinoman noted that students can now take the conservatorys classes from other citiesstudents from New York and even as far as Spain have already enrolled in the fall. We have college students who can now fit in virtual classes, in addition to their own virtual college course load. We have our existing students who have seen that they can make tremendous progress even with virtual classes. What we need are incoming students who are going to believe that, in this format, they can express themselves at a higher level.

Studio Acting Conservatory opens for its fall semester today, with spaces still available in many of its online classes. Find online application here or call 202.232.0714.

Interview with Joy Zinoman conducted virtually, via Zoom.

Meaghan Hannan Davant is a freelance writer and lawyer with an unabashed love for theater of all types, and musical theater in particular. She has written theater reviews and various other pieces for print and online publications, including Washingtonian magazine, and is thrilled to be working with DC Theatre Scene. Given her druthers, Meaghan would be on the stage herself. She has performed in professional and amateur productions from the age of 8, from Bangor, Maine (her hometown) all the way down the East Coast. She holds an undergraduate degree in English and Theater from Princeton University, a Masters in Journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill, a law degree from Duke and has had acting and voice training at NYU-TISCHs CAP-21 program and Studio Theatre. When shes not writing or an enjoying a show, she loves to spend time with her husband, two kids, and mini goldendoodle Leo in her Capitol Hill neighborhood.

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Joy Zinoman, ever the innovator, takes acting to a higher level via Zoom curriculum - DC Theatre Scene

By Ron Signore

Being liberal, not even so much a democrat, gives the perception of a more opened mind than most. Sometimes, we forget the true fight in some of these smaller battles. We know in the end our vote is voicing the ideals of a broader citizenship than ourselves. Heck, we are voting for the benefit of those who support the right-wing agenda without understanding they are only hurting themselves.

These smaller battles magnified by the media get us lost in the weeds to our own main principle.

Make no mistake, these smaller battles are indeed a big deal. Do not associate the word small with irrelevant or unimportant. It is an ongoing war with no end in sight and we can think of these events in the media as fights on different battlefields. The impact of these battles can be huge to any one person, maybe even more so than a whole group of people. The problem is we de-humanize the opposition in many instances. As a nation, we stereotype associations and their members every day in a hypocritical fashion. The hypocrisy we are typically fighting from the left can find itself being hypocritical. I am guilty of it. The chances of changing my views on certain matters will be difficult to change. However, in self-reflection, this openly gives me something to work on from a self-improvement perspective.

Each day there is something new that crosses our newsfeed. Sometimes it is not new, but further detail to something present in prior reports. This past weeks prime example of the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, WI is just another small battle in the larger war of Police Brutality specifically against blacks. The media plays very well to pull the heart strings in these events. The conceptual headlines around a man paralyzed from seven shots to the back by police draws the attention of the nation and further magnifies the bi-partisan war on topics like Black Lives Matter and Defund the Police.

Like frying an ant under a magnifying glass, the burning that pursues yet another event of nationally publicized police action escalation against African Americans is life altering. Our immediate responses set the tone for the future. For many Caucasian citizens that align to the left, the reaction is one of empathy directly for the victim and a fighting attitude with hatred to the police. For law enforcement, the feelings are more around a sense of a lose-lose. Many law enforcement officers draw to anger because people bring judgement without knowing the exact details of the event, or how it pertains to how they have been trained to handle a situation, no matter the color of ones skin.

For African Americans, we have tended to see two general responses. One I am very much in favor for is the use of our first amendment and peacefully protesting the injustice we see. The other is one that none of us like in protests that have had instances of rioting and looting. I am one who believes, whether conspiracy based or factual, that outsiders from the Black Lives Matter movement come in and instill these escalated events. Furthermore, there are many video and photographed instances showing violators of many races, yet the media escalates an image that it is all African American driven mob action. This is simply not the case and should be identified in a much bolder statement in the portrayal of the mainstream media. The negative connotation of these acts helps fuel the fire for the right-wing ignoramus who think the battle is against anarchy and chaos. A battle to destroy our societys law and order. A perception to govern our city streets in the same gangland manor many poverties ridden areas are becomes rampant in the fear and paranoia agenda presented by the right from Cheeto Man on down.

We forget that we are battling with uneducated intelligence levels in many cases on the right where it is a simple association of African Americans against the police. These observers and believers to the right cannot separate the legit efforts of the movement and the set ups to help drive the right agenda. We forget that the ability to be brainwashed based on perception messaging from the media is very much present in people today. A prime example is this focal point on the aftermath of the Jacob Blake event in Kyle Rittenhouse. While we see these villainizing photos and video around his actions in the proceeding events, this is a kid who is brainwashed by racism, fear, and paranoia from the right-wing agenda.

The right wants to paint Rittenhouse as a vigilante hero who killed in self-defense while preserving the Great America Trump envisions. Cheeto Man echoes that view with the knowledge Rittenhouse is a supporter of his. But lets break this down to the simple-stupid. You have an Illinois resident under the age of 18 with an assault rifle engaging a riotous event well prepared to fight. He put himself into that position. I carry a firearm and have taken all proper classes in order to do so. The first thing discussed about firearms are that you never pull a gun unless you have intent to use it. Whatever his reality is of the world, or lack thereof, he had intent to use an assault rifle. He should go to jail for the rest of his life because of his actions.

Which adds to another point I am not sure anyone is talking about in this case (maybe they are and I am ignorant from the lack of attention to specific details of events) in white privilege. We have a white male out after dark in a riotous situation with an assault rifle in which he opened fire. Though many were calling out that he was shooting as he maneuvered away from the victims, the police ignored that and flowed to the victims, in a way ignoring the armed assailant. A detail I seemed to see was that of him approaching police carrying a loaded weapon. They, in so many words, peacefully took him under arrest. I am one who believes that if Rittenhouse were African American, it would have been another brutality vision for America to see while taking him into custody. The presence of an armed suspect, with an assault rifle nonetheless, typically does not go that smoothly.

The ability to keep an open mind on any of this latest saga is extremely difficult. This child should be punished for his actions. This child should be held accountable as if he were an adult. The rest of the noise around the matter should be irrelevant. Maybe it is my generation, or just simply being alive for Columbine, but this concept of right versus wrong as dictated by what is adopted from television (any media source) is a driving factor. The disconnect to our own country even in just the bi-partisan views separated between rural and urban populations is a huge reason for the increasing fight to support ones views on any given topic. Money and business over you and I seem to be the balance.

It has always been clear to me and the thoughts I get down typically support the left. The root of that is the fact that I have an ongoing need for change in an improving fashion. I remember being very angry at the Make America Great Again slogan because I felt America, and do feel, America is great. I did see areas of improvement I would have liked to see, whether that was tied to a candidate or party could be debated. A clear example of this is basic human rights supporting the LGBTQ being accepted; Another is supporting the continued fight for racial equality. The tensions between understanding the difference between Black Lives Matter versus the All Lives Matter ignorance.

We do not know what we do not know as humans. We believe what were exposed to. In many cases, if we use rural versus urban living, the rural citizen is less exposed to diversity, less exposed to multiple views of life. They fight for what they believe true, just like those in urban areas do. Even urban areas have different levels of society and understanding of the world. The battle between law enforcement and the topic of brutality is probably the connecting factor to all citizens here. There is no doubt that we continue to see brutality and excess force exercised in the field. While the media shows the message of racism, the truth is that this is not only a much wider topic than one race and more of an authority versus those evading accountabilities. Yes, there is racism instances, but the truth goes farther and wider in most instances.

In discussions with a friend that is in law enforcement, the conversation on the Jacob Blake event is an incident that can have one video shown and have people see a million different things. We forget that we really do not live in a country where in the grand scheme of things, we probably do not have to fear the police. I have written and believed in the long ongoing social injustice battle African Americans have gone through and my previous statement is not to minimize that. That is a huge impact to the drawn perception of hostility towards the police. We have law enforcement in all races and creeds, and our own inability to not see that maybe there are police that are in a strong amount of danger just doing their everyday job has helped raise these tensions.

With Jacob Blake, do I believe he needed to be shot 7 times at point blank range, and in the back? No, not 7 times. I personally feel that was excessive, as do many. Are the police who shot racist? I have no idea without knowing them. Where the reasonable doubt comes into play in any of this are the considerations to what his actions are being told to be after not cooperating with law enforcement on the initial reason for their presence. His movements into a vehicle we cannot see past the door of and claims of having a gun or knife near by raised tensions to a point that officers drew fire. There are a lot of details, maybe some are true, maybe some are false, but the original call that let to not cooperating with police who were called to a scene, resisting and escalating a situation through (allegedly) being stunned with the taser put officers in a tense position. What is the line between cooperation, resisting arrest and the need for force? I am not a cop, so I am not trained to make these identifications. In my opinion, this was someone who was wrong for not cooperating and resisting arrest that caused the escalation leading the wrong action of excessive force resulting in 7 shots to the back and Blake being paralyzed. Two wrongs do not make a right. National headlines do not make one wrong more wrong than the other. We need to further identify the wrongs and separate color. A bad person and a bad act does not favor or discriminate one race or religion.

It is a very controversial topic. Not just the scenario at play, but the battle over the last 5 hundred years. I am not preaching knuckling under to those who cannot think openly. I am encouraging the notion that all people take a step back and look to live in a peaceful manor. We need to deal with these scenarios one by one while we continue to push for improvement. It is unfortunate. In the meantime, we need to look at everything objectively and identify a negative event and try to sort out where the breakdown for cause and effect was. These events should drill to a defunding of police in many instances and redefine the training in high intensity situations. As much as many want to believe, the world is not so black and white, and hate is not the way to peace.

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Donald Trump Wants You To Believe His BS Narrative about BLM and Protests! Wake Up America to What is Really the Truth... - Ringside Report

A scandal recently broke in American academic circles. An American scholar of European heritage and Jewish background, Jessica Krug, had claimed first North African Blackness, then US rooted Blackness, then Caribbean rooted Bronx Blackness throughout her life. Only recently did she choose to volunteer information about her lies. Her coming out in a Medium post all of a sudden came as a shock to some, while some were already bracing themselves for some acknowledgment of this appropriation.

Krug admittedly built her career on these misnomers, constantly falling back on her Black Caribbean identity. Victimhood in the space of optics politics grants sympathy and acceptance to those who do not feel they belong. Many well-meaning people prefer to prioritise their victim background to silence detractors. A well-known white scholar has displayed the image of his non-white siblings on his official website to demonstrate his cosmopolitan multiracial upbringing. In another incident, a white friends grandfather, who was a career diplomat, had adopted two children from South East Asia. This gave his kids, and their kids, a multicoloured family. The white friend who grew up amidst this diversity wouldnt believe it if someone pointed out her sometimes culturally insensitive cues. It took some time for her to understand her positionality. However, her Southeast Asian siblings did not see her actions as being racist.

Appropriation politics in the era of black suppression and the black fight to reclaim their personhood is seen by many as the epitome of white fragility, though some see it as a forgivable act for which Krug has apologised and which has not done harm to black scholarship. Krug claims mental health trauma as a reason for her act, while also being unwilling to forego the guilt of her violence.

The point of order is related to two highly flammable words of our time: appropriation and misrepresentation. This trick of entering sacred, highly secretive, guarded spaces of vulnerable people who are fighting their death imposed by society is not new.

In a hyper-race-obsessed society, there are apparent problems with colour-based, biological identifiers. The colour-based distinction is a well taught, thought out process by the educational and societal norms. In one of his best sociological works, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899), W.E.B. Du Bois refuted the biologism of racial politics. He identified colour, class and state non-intervention in the black population as reasons for growing anti-black violence and stereotypes. The oft-repeated criminality of the black population of Philadelphia was not rooted in the inherent characteristics of the Negro; however, it was the change of environment and unfamiliarity that produced lack of harmony in society. By reasserting the dignity of black personhood devoid of colour-based social Darwinism, Du Bois succeeded in presenting humanity over concocted theories of Black Americans.

In another unrelated but similar incident, a neuroscientist of European descent, BethAnn McLaughlin, fabricated multiple identities to gain attention. She framed herself as an indigenous person, COVID-19 patient and victim of sexual harassment to gain sympathy. She pushed back on efforts to prove the Native American (Hopi) ancestry of the fake persona she had created her alter ego @sciencing_bi. McLaughlin also sidelined other people of marginalised backgrounds and bullied the actual victims of sexual harassment in her high-breed claim of victimhood.

Similarly, we have so many troublemakers in the Dalit movement who have made their way into the private spheres of Dalit circles. This brings us back home with a few plausibilities:

1. What does it mean for a non-Dalit to masquerade the violent, horrific life of a Dalit?

2. What about those Dalits who earlier shied away from their Dalitness and suddenly want to own their Dalit identity?

3. What about half-Dalits and their representation?

To masquerade as a Dalit, to seek to exercise command over Dalit voices, is a soft-tone appropriation of Dalit politics. Many well-meaning Brahmin and other dominant castes (ODCs) have taken upon themselves to fight Brahminism. Their hearts seem to be in the right place. However, their actions are not. More often than not, these individuals clamp down upon Dalit voices for being too political or being too emotional. Many Dalits are not given the right to grieve and express their anger.

Many ODCs claim Dalit affinity while at the same time toying in the dominant caste circles without fear and remorse. A female scholar shared her entire genealogy to prove that her caste in her state is not SC, but is in another state. While this anthropological mischief might be correct in her terms, she didnt have the burden of carrying a bag full of caste certificates, running from post to pillar to fill scholarship forms, or desperately wait in line for early-morning rituals in overcrowded SC hostels and live a markedly humiliating life.

Also read: To Be or Not to Be a Dalit?

A journalist who silently claims his Dalit identity doesnt actually have proof of his caste. It is all done in good faith. If showing ones caste certificate became a requirement, then half of all activists in the Dalit movement would be disqualified. But the journalist never had to bear the burden of untouchability. He did not even face the trauma of being a quota candidate.

In these situations, one has to ask what is at stake for the non-Dalit claiming the Dalit identity. It is the success of the poor, working class, humiliated Dalits who retained their Dalit being by risking their lives. One cannot just walk into a room and flaunt ones caste identity without being fully accountable to the Dalit pasts and committing to the Dalit future.

Central to all of the casteness and Dalit paradigm is the experience of untouchabilities. The one born with the blood flowing under their skin of former untouchables have carried the cruelty of untouchable traumas in their DNA. One cannot just assume Dalitness while not grasping the fundamental ethic of an untouchable life.

Dalit in a non-Dalit life

I have lately noticed fights over misappropriation politics. In some Dalit circles, there have been heated conversations over some Dalit Christians and NRIs who have not lived the Dalit life and are all of a sudden claiming the Dalit tag to enter the NGO-ised space. Advantaged with a Christian education and international exposure, many such individuals have lived a life that does not represent the cause of the marginalised. Would these groups who have a Dalit background but have shed that for self-improvement by converting to other religions or by changing names qualify to take over the poor and working-class Dalit spaces?

Many Ambedkarites have taken objection to such singular leadership handed down from social media ceremonies. However, I think one needs to base the argument from the perspective of liberation as opposed to leadership. More often, the person claiming the Dalit cause with standard English-language vocabularies and western references gets an upper hand as opposed to the non-English, Dalit-name-carrying individuals who also incidentally occupy the same space. It becomes a competition over authenticity. The one who has come from the roughness of Dalithoods is asked to speak as opposed to the ones who have deviated from this.

We have far too many cases of Dalit misrepresentation and control by non-Dalits. I recently noticed that on my social media troll list many anonymous accounts that claimed Dalit identities were actually not Dalits. Their ignorance of Dalit vocabularies immediately exposed their non-Dalitness.

At a Dalit-run media outlet, there were a few Brahmin women who were anti-caste. They wanted to help and the editor needed their assistance as much as he could. In this situation, it was a quid pro quo. However, what was unsettling was the hierarchical relationship of a society that does not sleep horizontally but reeks of vertical divides. The Brahmin women easily got ahead in a space created and catered to by Dalits. This is not to say that non-Dalits cannot participate in the anti-caste movement. But there are spaces and ways in which one can act and participate. One has to be sensitive and cordial while at the same time recognising that they have to create more spaces and opportunities for Dalits many times by creating and then stepping aside.

Also read: Ram Nath Kovind and the Making of a Right-Wing Dalit Identity

There is a difference between speaking for and speaking with (and speaking against). The positionality and location of the speaker with the subject makes one in charge of deciphering the contexts of issues at hand. Objectivity as a peripatetic condition that has no firm axis evolves in the discourses of anti-caste optics. Dominant castes caring for Dalits and wanting to participate in the anti-caste movement need to learn to be humble servants of the cause. Their appropriation of Dalit stories, life and experiences is an epochal violence.

These dialogues are opening up new doors, and for the better, so that hereon the oppressors claiming victimhood by robbing genuine, everyday brutality of oppressed people will be checked and held accountable by the community.

Suraj Yengde is the author of the bestseller Caste Matters and is a fellow at the Initiative for Institutional Anti-Racism and Accountability at Harvard Kennedy School, Massachusetts.

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In Fallout of Black Appropriation in US, Echoes of Debate on Dalit Representation in India - The Wire

Launched in 2012, YourStory's Book Review section features over 250 titles on creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and digital transformation. See also our related columns The Turning Point, Techie Tuesdays, and Storybites.

Its not just upbringing and hard work that determine entrepreneurial success. Harnessing your internal strengths and even converting adversity into opportunity are key, according to the compelling book The Unfair Advantage: How Startup Success Starts With You, by Ash Ali and Hasan Kubba.

Table 1 (image credit: YourStory)

Here are my takeaways from this must-read book, summarised as well in Table 1. Also see my reviews of the related books Quirky, Frugal Innovation, Straight Talk for Startups, The Creative Curve, The Introvert Entrepreneur, Shortcut Your Startup, and Master Growth Hacking.

Grit, perseverance, hustle, talent, passion, and discipline are certainly important for a startups success, along with its business model and teamwork. But life is not a pure meritocracy, and what also helps is having family wealth, connections, and education. This extends to the city of upbringing and even passport.

For example, white male American graduates from Ivy League colleges and working in Silicon Valley certainly have an unfair advantage, the authors explain. Being in the right place at the right time with the right upbringing considerably helps with the luck factor.

Countries around the world have such pecking orders of privileges. As compared to the West, many emerging economies do not have advanced infrastructure with world-class education and health safety nets, the authors observe.

Unfair is not to be confused with unethical or illegal, the authors clarify. It is something unique to each person that gives a competitive upper hand, and can exist even without having worked for it. A focus on unfair advantages helps to work smart and not just hard, it works the system and does not cheat the system.

Your circumstances and unfair advantages, whether apparently positive or negative, can be double-edged swords, the authors explain. Adversity can lead to depression or insecurity, but can also be framed for a path leading to opportunity. On the other hand, a wealthy background can also lead to smug superiority, arrogance or over-confidence.

The key is to map ones circumstances, experiment to build a toolbox of talents, and do something that one enjoys and is valued by others, the authors emphasise. Hard work and luck are equally important to have, and require mindsets of growth as well as acceptance or gratitude. Unfair advantages multiply each other and accrue over time.

[The Turning Point] How a personal pain point influenced the founding of edtech startup Springboard

A number of founders have effectively leveraged their unfair advantage, though these specific privileges may not have been highlighted as such in the media. Examples include Snapchats Evan Spiegel, who had wealthy well-connected parents, and an upbringing which helped build confidence and effective behaviour.

The authors emphasise that these founders certainly executed brilliantly on their insights. But they also had lucky breaks which other aspiring founders may not have had.

For example, Oprah Winfreys sense of compassion and empathy grew from her troubled childhood. Her family members also supported her outstanding reading and public speaking skills.

The authors themselves had challenges growing up in the UK as children of immigrant parents. Serial entrepreneur Ash Ali dropped out of college but lived with his parents and picked up internet skills during the dotcom boom. He launched a number of side projects, eventually becoming marketing director of Just Eat (which became a unicorn).

Hasan Kubba built a lifestyle business around a web marketing agency, learning from an accountability partner along the way. Eventually, he was able to live off the passive income from his SEO business.

Thus, individual unfair advantages are like organisational competitive edges. Startups have the advantage of speed, fire in the belly, an all in approach, and a nothing to lose mindset.

[The Turning Point] How a conversation with a farmer led these IIT graduates to start Vernacular.ai

Based on their experience as entrepreneurs, investors and mentors, the authors present aspiring founders an audit framework to assess and act on their unfair advantages. The framework goes by the acronym MILES: money, intelligence/insight, location/luck, education/expertise, and status.

The framework helps founders understand their underlying motivations and mindset, which can evolve over time. They need to understand their personality along the dimensions of openness, curiosity, discipline, introversion/extroversion, friendliness, and ability to handle stress and worry. Complimentary skills and types can add balance to a founder team, the authors explain.

Vision, resourcefulness, lifelong learning, and grit help in this regard. Founders like Jeff Bezos, Oprah Winfrey and Sara Blakely started with expansive visions for themselves.

Many entrepreneurs did not have any kind of huge vision when they set up their company, the authors also observe. Startups like Google grew and kept growing from their initial version as a side-project.

On the money front, the authors advise founders to ensure they have a cushion or safety net, through savings, family contributions, freelancing, or side-projects. Financial constraints can breed creativity, resourcefulness and ingenuity, they suggest.

Formal education and IQ are not enough founders also need social and emotional intelligence, intuition to judge character, and creativity. Intersectional and interdisciplinary thinking help connect trends and developments and devise unique solutions.

Driven by curiosity and experimentation, insights help find market needs and gaps, as seen in the success of Apple (design), Stripe (payments systems), Amazon (e-retail), and Google (monetising traffic). Domain expertise helps in this regard, but outsider perspectives can also be disruptive, the authors observe.

Being in clusters like the Silicon Valley, Cambridge, Berlin, or Bengaluru helps through knowledge spillovers and availability of talent, meetups and capital. But costs and competition can be ferocious, and being away from such clusters offers other advantages, the authors explain. Nomadic entrepreneurs also work out of the famous digital nomad hub of Bali.

Being the first entails overheads of educating the market. Latecomers can become successful as well, eg. Google (search), Facebook (social media), DropBox (cloud storage), Spotify (online music), Amazon (ecommerce).

Good education offers unfair advantage through knowledge, networks and credentials. Expertise is self-taught and comes from experience, self-directed learning, and mentors. University-led clusters excel in specialised technical knowledge.

Status is your perceived ability to add value, the authors explain. It is a form of social signalling in a hierarchical society. Status derives from economic, cultural and social capital, according to sociologist Pierre Bourdieu.

It is visible in assets, accent, dress code, hobbies, and tribes. The status is also derived internally from self-esteem and confidence, and leads to being regarded as trustworthy and engaging. All these are areas for self-improvement, the authors advise. One should acknowledge ones circumstances, but neither be too humble nor brag too much, they caution.

10 small-town businesses that are now multi-crore brands in India

The last section of the book describes the startup lifecycle, and how unfair advantages play roles in each phase. The first step is to understand ones purpose, motivations, and definitions of success. This helps to choose which type of startup to launch: lifestyle (linear, niche, usually local) or hyper-growth (digital, venture-funded).

In the case of Apple, Steve Jobs was the visionary while Steve Wozniak was the technical co-founder. Eduardo Severin was a better networker and communicator than Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, the authors explain.

While ideas help get started, validation is key. Beware of falling in love with your idea before you have any feedback from prospective customers or users, the authors caution. Pragmatism, perfectionism and pride need to be balanced in product development.

A mindset of immersion in problems helps identify market opportunities and refine operations, eg. Will Shu and Deliveroos launch in Europe, Melanie Perkins launch of Canva to address problems in design software usage. Identifying unmet needs helps to stay ahead in the game.

Founders should expand the breadth and depth of their network in a focused manner. The strength of your network increases the more you add value to it, the authors explain. It calls for good listening, and being the first to offer help. Mentoring works well if founders are interested and willing to be coachable.

The book ends with advice on growth hacking, metrics, fundraising, and pitching. Funders want to see if founders understand what goes into growth forecasting even though plans may change. Make sure you highlight your personal unfair advantages, the authors advise.

Want to make your startup journey smooth? YS Education brings a comprehensive Funding Course, where you also get a chance to pitch your business plan to top investors. Click here to know more.

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How to find your unfair advantage and succeed as an entrepreneur - YourStory

SHILLONG: The NPP-led MDA Government has completed half of its term after it took over the command of ruling the state from Congress in 2019. Prior to elections 2018 the NPP had promised to bring change in the governance of the state but two and half years later, citizens feel that the coalition Government needs to pull up its socks and perform better. In this Part-II and concluding episode on Bouquets and Brickbats, we bring some more views from all across the political spectrum: Former Home Minister, RG Lyngdohsaid that the performance of this MDA Government has been impeded to a very large extent by the Them Mawlong agitation, then the CAA agitation and finally by the Coronavirus pandemic. While making his observations, he said that firstly, the coalition does not seem to be a very cohesive one, with the major party dominating the Government and pushing its agenda at the expense of the minor partners. It appears to be a marriage of convenience rather than a marriage of principles, Lyngdoh said According to Lyngdoh, there appears to be a definite lack of transparency, with most decisions being kept in the twilight zoneas for example, a lot of consultants are being appointed without following proper protocols. This is, perhaps made possible because the principles of checks and balances in governance are being flouted. For example, good governance requires that proposals from a line department be vetted first by planning and then by finance. But in this case the same Commissioner & Secretary heads two major line departments as well as the planning and finance departments, he said He also believed that while this may ease the sanctioning of developmental schemes, it however throws the principles of checks and balance out of the window which is a dangerous trend that could easily lead to major procedural and financial irregularities. Thirdly, it appears that with everybodys attention being diverted by the pandemic, a lot of decisions are being taken without a proper debate. The major ones being the Meghalayan Age Festival which cost the State exchequer close to Rs 5 crore. Then the Tourism Policy that proposed a paradigm shift in policy that is threatening the livelihood of a huge number of small stakeholders. And finally, the proposal to construct a shopping complex in the erstwhile Barik PWD compound, he said He also observed that the inability of this Government to implement decisions taken on (Contd on P-10)

Law and order (Contd from P-3) important issues like the coal ban, gave them a bad name. This Government, under its present leadership had started with a lot of public goodwill and support. It appears that this has eroded substantially over the last two and a half years. I sincerely hope the Chief Minister and his team will take corrective measures to that his present term can end on a positive note, Lyngdoh added. Congress MLA, Ampareen Lyngdohsaid that the government has been through so many challenges in the last two years. She said that the high handed dictates of the CAA, the proposed Sixth Schedule Amendment, the arbitrary increase on state shares in Central Schemes, are issues that have added more pressure on governance, resulting in long drawn displacement of development in the state. The unexpected challenge of the onslaught of the pandemic has put huge strains on the financial health of the state, besides the exposure of an ill prepared health system impacting especially children and women in particular between April & July. Drugs and substance abuse have also penetrated deep in the state, hitting especially the urban areas impacting dearly on law & order and increase on related rise of hideous crimes, she said. According to Lyngdoh, livelihoods and employment are at an all time low as a result of the drastic fall of the overall GDP in the country adding on to the woes of citizens. She said power cuts, failure of water supply are also worrisome. The former Minister further observed that in the last two years, they are yet to be given adequate ground to assess the states performance in respect of development, growth and progress. Former minister and UDP leader, Paul Lyngdohsaid that considering the plurality of political parties partnering in the coalition, issues like the CAB and the ILP agitations were handled tactfully. However, he said that the challenges of effective governance that lie ahead are manifold: tackling the menacing COVID scenario, the resultant impact on the economy and livelihoods, the boundary tangle, water crisis, etc The biggest room in the world is that of self-improvement, he said. Former President of Khasi Jaintia Hills Deficit School Teachers Association, ED Nongsiangsaid that the performance of the Government has not been up to the mark as in the beginning Government did tried to do something but over the years, things are going very slow. He pointed out that road condition is bad everywhere and even in the Education sector, they have not come up with anything new while adding that demands of the teachers are stagnant and even the teachers have not been included in the 5thpay Commission. In two and half years, something should have been done but nothing have been done, he said. Cabinet Minister, AL Hekhowever maintained that the Government has done very well especially during the pandemic. The entire Government has worked as a team and we are trying our best to deliver to the people, he said.

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'Law and order impeded governance, development' The Shillong Times - The Shillong Times

Friday, September 11

George W Bush SBS, 7.30pm

With almost 20 years' hindsight and with the world much changed it's fascinating to look back on the presidency of George W. Bush, the events that defined it, and the history that shaped it. This meticulous PBS documentary is long two 120-minute episodes but it's the detail that makes it worth watching.

The Split: Rose (Fiona Button), Hannah (nicola Walker), Nina (Annabel Scholey).

Opening with a blow-by-blow of September 11 (something that still produces chills) we proceed to a primer on the life and career of Bush senior, how that shaped the life, values and decisions of Bush junior, how W came to enter politics and of course how and why he responded the way he did to the al-Qaeda attack.

Without being revisionist it certainly shows us the human being behind the relentless headlines and generates considerable compassion for what was, after all, just a man doing his best in extraordinary circumstances.

24 9Now

The clock is always ticking for Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland). The audacious real-time conceit of this addictive espionage thriller requires that someone important is always under threat and that the fate of the United States, if not the whole "free world", is under attack from shadowy malevolent forces. Bauer, stony-faced, fearless and resilient, is an agent for the Counter Terrorist Unit, a maverick who'll break the rules to achieve the desired outcome.

Each episode spans an hour in real time and the suspense, especially in the ripper first season, is perpetually high, even when the plots can take some wild turns to keep the momentum pumping. Sutherland wears a pained expression and a furrowed brow through the eight seasons even though he's the designated survivor. Four seasons are now available, with a new batch dropping every Friday.

The Big Family Cooking Showdown SBS Food, 6.30pm

Terrific casting makes this lightweight but enjoyable cooking comp a winner. The format will be familiar: three members of a family, regular home cooks, compete against a similar team in unsophisticated culinary challenges. Co-host Nadiya Hussain is always delightful; the judges Rosemary Shrager (Ladette to Lady) and Georgio Locatelli (Italy Unpacked) are fun, and in this first ep the granny from one team not only is the spitting image of Anne Reid, she's like every slightly dotty granny you ever knew.

The Split ABC, 8.20pm

This first-rate British drama returns for a second season tonight, still worrying at the conundrums it set up last season. It's fertile ground: a family drama peopled by flawed, empathetic characters who are then layered into a legal drama - both the machinations within the firm and a case of the week. Showrunner Abi Morgan continues to find ways to use those cases (the work of a family law firm thats also a family business) to motivate, illuminate or reflect on the family issues. She also knows perfectly how to modulate light and shade, and make sure everyone in the big ensemble has something to do.

Freeman ABC, 7.40pm

Twenty years ago, on September 25, Cathy Freeman won gold in the 400-metre footrace at the Sydney Olympics. It's a moment so etched in the cultural memory it seems like theres not much else to say about it.

But this elegant, intelligent documentary manages to introduce new material, remind us of all the things we've forgotten, and put the event in a contemporary context that makes us feel the weight of the moment in fresh ways. As moving as it is exhilarating.

Todd Sampson accumulates more frequent dying points in a new season of Body Hack, hitting a demolition derby in Utah in the opening episode.

Peppa Pig ABC Kids, 7.55pm

Before home-grown hit Bluey set the benchmark for animated children's discovery, the porcine power of Peppa Pig was top of the pile of toddlers. The seventh season of the now lucrative British franchise debuted earlier this year, but frankly repeating it in the early evening feels like a positive gambit during a pandemic (especially if you're in lockdown); it's quite the palate cleanser for when you've had enough reality TV.

A family visit to a local castle provides the everyday excursion for the first episode, which allows Peppa to ask questions and make observations with Mummy and Daddy Pig while little brother George continues to stick to chortles and animal noises. The show hits the sweet spot of silly and sensible for the target audience, and it remains impervious to those trying to ideologically critique it. That said, Daddy Pig's disappointment at the medieval banquet being plastic did hit a little close to home.

Drunk History Ten, 9.40pm

It's taken a good part of two years for Ten's local take on the American comedy hit, which was initially commissioned for their pilot week sweepstakes, to be broadcast. That should set off alarm bells, but the Drunk History concept where the past is illuminated by a comedian recently acquainted with alcohol as actors provide the visuals is so pliable that with the right talent talking it's harder to get this irreverent education wrong than right.

Free of her terrifying Helen Bidou character, comic Anne Edmonds provides the lowdown on Dame Nellie Melba's ascent to opera glory, despite having a "head like a busted arse", while Harley Breen provides a mocking, mirthful retelling of the many failings that got Burke and Wills killed. The explorers are played by James Mathison and Osher Gunsberg respectively, which is an unlikely Australian Idol reunion, but nonetheless a daftly enjoyable one. Cheers!

The Trip to Greece (premiere) ABC Comedy, 9.20pm

While cinemas in Australia get first dibs at an edited version of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon's improvised fine dining comedy, the complete fourth season of director Michael Winterbottom's European vacation comedy has finally arrived for those who prefer their plating to be like their mockery: intricate and well-seasoned.

As (hopefully) exaggerated versions of themselves, the two actors and pals start their odyssey at the ruins of Troy, although they're soon at the lunch table where Brydon, forever grasping for equality with Coogan, is quoting Aristotle to garnish the worth of his impressions. There's a sombre streak to this edition, which concludes the show, but nonetheless this remains a masterful upending of the culinary travelogue.

Todd Sampson's Body Hack Ten, 7.30pm

How much hacking can Todd Sampson's body take? This is the fourth season of the advertising creative-turned-television presenter's international endurance test and he's previously been caught up in demonstrations in the Gaza Strip, trekked through Siberia, visited the French Foreign legion, and trained with various competitive fighters. By rights he should have accumulated plenty of frequent dying points.

While Sampson's appetite for risk can sometimes suggest a self-improvement streak that's verging on self-obsession, he remains a good observer of others, a trait well deployed in the season's opening episode. Travelling to the American state of Utah to take part in a demolition derby contest, Sampson draws some dismissive glances from the white, working-class devotees of extreme driving when he's introduced. Kudos to him for noting their suspicion.

Bluff City Law Nine, 9.40pm

Jimmy Smits has enjoyed an estimable television career, spanning roles in L.A Law and NYPD Blue to Dexter and Sons of Anarchy, but this pious legal drama where he plays a famous litigator whose personal flaws can't compare to his courtroom oratory is not going to dominate his highlight reel. Cancelled after a sole season, Bluff City Law is set in Memphis, where the firm run by Smits' Elijah Strait focuses on civil rights cases. His newest lawyer is formerly estranged daughter Sydney (Caitlin McGee), who is leaving behind her corporate clients to be closer to her father after a shared family tragedy. What unites the father and daughter? Some lofty legal ideals and grand speeches that in 2020 feel more like a sleek fantasy than the fabric of American life.

Friday Night Dinner ABC Comedy, 8.30pm

Once more it's Friday night in North London and adult sons Adam (Simon Bird, The Inbetweeners) and Jonny (Simon Rosenthal) are attending Shabbat dinner with their parents, Jackie and Martin Goodman (Tamsin Greig and Paul Ritter). The Jewish tradition is the foundation stone for sibling pranks, parents embarrassing their children, oddball diversions, and eccentric guests.

This is the first episode of the show's fifth season and, while there's a daft strain of slapstick still peeking through the plot, the defining element is the familial familiarity that defines these weekly gatherings. While it's far from acerbic, the writing and lead performances truly do capture the matter-of-fact oddness in getting together with people you've spent much of your life with but still don't fully comprehend. It's a mix of blood and bafflement that tie the clan together.

Just Jen SBS Food, 7.30pm

If you've seen American food blogger and kitchen creative Jen Phanomrat on YouTube you'll be well aware of her vibrant personality, feel for accessible dishes, and engaging food culture knowledge. Just Jen adds a broadcast sheen to her studio kitchen appearances, but it wisely keeps her style undiluted some of the puns aren't good, but the pleasure she takes in cooking is infectious. This episode is dedicated to fare that will help you relax, which includes her own take on the lollipop.

Secrets of the Museum ABC, 9.30pm

The items on display at London's Victoria and Albert Museum might number somewhere in the thousands, but the institution has approximately 2million pieces in its collection. This British documentary series captures the conversation with history both practical and philosophical that's involved in keeping those items viable. "Trying to keep the past alive," is how one conservator puts it, and it's a fascinating process even as it starts with a home-made Edwardian stuffed elephant named Pumpy, who is the worse for wear after a century of hands-on play and insect attack.

The staff show deep connections to the pieces they're studying, revealing illuminating details about the works that connect them to today, so that an 18th century portrait miniature is analogous to Instagram. An exhibition of Christian Dior gowns is the glamorous headliner, but it's the niche items that reveal the best techniques and tales. And there's a matching level of care in the direction of Jack Warrender, who visually captures not just the intricacies of individual pieces but the museum itself as a space where wonder is fostered.

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What's on TV: Friday, September 11 to Thursday, September 17 - Brisbane Times

September 09, 2020 00:00 ET | Source: AuthorHouse

photo-release

HERMISTON, Ore., Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Miguel A. Ornelas S. felt the need to share what he learned with those that do not know and/or knew but were not confident enough to profess their knowledge and share it with others. It is for this reason that he writes Being an Independent Thinker by Thinking of Others (published by AuthorHouse).

This book is about leadership and everything that this word embodies. It is not limited to a work title, it is directed and written especially for someone like you and me. It is about finding ones way through life picking up bits and pieces of knowledge and experiences and adding them to ones arsenal as one grows to become ones own leader and boss. It is about discovering who one is and living that person out to the fullest.

The idea behind what I have written is that you expand your belief system to accept things that resonate with your own thoughts because there is only one you in this universe, the author says. My wish is that you become the best you that you can be by being the only person who sets limits to your belief system. May your life be that of continuous growth.

Being an Independent Thinker by Thinking of Others aims to give inspiration to readers for them to make improvements in their lives and see the value in themselves. Overall, an improvement to their self-esteem. For more details about the book, please visit https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/being-an-independent-thinker-by-thinking-of-others-miguel-a-ornelas-s/1137528009?ean=9781728369426

Being an Independent Thinker by Thinking of Others

By Miguel A. Ornelas S.

Hardcover | 6 x 9in | 184 pages | ISBN 9781728369402

Softcover | 6 x 9in | 184 pages | ISBN 9781728369426

E-Book | 184 pages | ISBN 9781728369419

Available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Miguel A. Ornelas S. has been married for 25 years and has three kids. He enjoys reading, and now that his kids are grown, he also enjoy the healthy balance of alone time with family time. If he was to have written about his lifes trials and tribulations. It would not have been worth the paper it was written on. Instead, he chose to write about and share some of what he has learned throughout his life. Hopefully, in a way in which it makes more sense to readers than it made to him as he was learning and discovering things for himself. He hopes that the information he shared holds value and be of merit as readers learn things throughout his life.

AuthorHouse, an Author Solutions, Inc. self-publishing imprint, is a leading provider of book publishing, marketing, and bookselling services for authors around the globe and offers the industrys only suite of Hollywood book-to-film services. Committed to providing the highest level of customer service, AuthorHouse assigns each author personal publishing and marketing consultants who provide guidance throughout the process. Headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana, AuthorHouse celebrates over 23 years of service to authors. For more information or to publish a book visit authorhouse.com or call 833-262-8899.

Bloomington, Indiana, UNITED STATES

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New book discusses about leadership and everything that it embodies - GlobeNewswire

SEPT 2020 Issue 970 x 90 Field Notes

The history of the University of California over the last half-century has been written through protest. Student movements and labor actions alike erupt iteratively in response to changes in the UCs structure. Amid one longer struggle, each generation fights its own particular battles. Last December, when a group of grad students at UC Santa Cruz withheld grades from the winter quarterand were summarily fired, prompting a full labor strike and solidarity actions statewidethey were targeting the material conditions of their labor and their housing. They were also rejecting the dictates of a university system increasingly run as a business, in which they represent nothing so much as a discounted workforce. The university greeted them with open hostility.

Santa Cruz provided the ideal tinder box for the conflagration. Housing costs are among the highest in the nation: the average monthly rent of a one-bedroom apartment in the county hovers just under $2,000, with affordability trending down as rent continues to outpace regional income growth. Like most of Californias metropolitan areas, the number of cost-burdened renters exceeds national averages, and the countys per-capita homeless population has reached San Francisco levels. The university is not only far and away the countys largest employer, but a major player in the real estate market, capable of exerting citywide influence on rent prices. On its campus, according to internal polling, most graduate workers are rent-burdened, paying more than 30 percent of their income toward rent; many pay more than 70 percent.1 The graduate workers contract signed with the UC in 2018, meanwhile, had been voted down by 83 percent of Santa Cruz graduate student workers.

Discontent boiled over into a December grading strike for a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to keep pace with the overheated housing market. In the coming months, the grade withholding grew into a full labor strike on UCSCs campus. The grad workers union had signed a contract with the UC the previous year with a boilerplate no-strike clause that precluded the union sanctioning any such action; the UCSC workers, on wildcat strike and thus unprotected, were fired en masse by the university, which in turn spread the strikeand demands for COLAacross the UC system.

University administration set about managing the fallout from the terminations: while claiming that they were unable to bargain with the striking workers based on the current contract, they simultaneously sued the union for tacitly supporting the strike, and attempted to negotiate with an obscure graduate-student governing body unaffiliated with either the striking UCSC students or the union. This chicanery was perhaps to be expected given the UCs history. As labor historian Toby Higbie notes, in response to a climate of campus radicalism, universities turned to labor relations experts to manage labor conflicts and quell unrest. Clark Kerr is the one who presided over the expansion of the UC system, and he was a labor relations expert. He was the director of the Berkeley Institute of Industrial Relations. In the sixties and seventies, a lot of university presidents were industrial relations scholars.2

Kerrs expansion of the UC system also set the stage for later transformations that would precipitate the COLA movement. In 1960, Kerr, then president of the University of California, and California governor Pat Brown spearheaded passage of the California Master Plan for Higher Education. An ambitious agenda committed to continual growth of the states higher education capacity to meet public demand, the Master Plan enshrined in law the public good model of the UCstipulating that it would operate simultaneously as a vehicle of equal opportunity, individual upward mobility, and statewide economic development. In Master Plan California (so the theory went), tuition-free public higher education would propel the state toward an ever-increasing prosperity in which everyone could share, so long as they committed themselves to the form of self-improvement signaled by the attainment of a college diploma. Such an understanding of the personal and social value of the publicly financed university had a degree of plausibility in the postwar era, when rising productivity appeared unproblematically linked to rising wages and a Keynesian sensibility about state expenditure prevailed.

But as an ideological justification for unequal outcomes, the Master Plan was also compatible with an emerging neoliberal alternative, most prominently embodied in the thinking of Gary Becker, a University of Chicago-trained economist and later president of the Mont Pelerin Society, font of neoliberal thought. Seeking a way of accounting for disparities in the labor market, Becker developed the theory of human capital, a gloss on the knowledge and skills possessed by workers that would be attractive to firms and therefore reflected in a higher wage. Beckers theory was a tidy inversion of Marx: no longer the possessor solely of labor power in a coercive market stratified by class, the worker was rather the proprietor of her own human capitalwhich is to say, a capitalist in miniature. Education became, in this view. an avenue for students to invest in themselves.

Thus even as Kerr was pitching the university as something of a public good, he described its functioning, in his The Uses of the University (1966), in the language of business: one at the center of the growing knowledge industry, such that The university and segments of industry are becoming more alike. As the university becomes tied into the world of work, the professortakes on the characteristics of an entrepreneur.

In 1964, the same year that Becker published Human Capital, huge free speech protests at UC Berkeley would interrupt Kerrs smooth managerial triumphalism. Kerr, we assume, was unimpressed: in Industrialism and Industrial Man (1960), he writes:

The intellectuals (including the university students) are a particularly volatile elementcapable of extreme reactions to objective situationsmore extreme than any group in society. They are by nature irresponsible, in the sense that they have no continuing commitment to any single institution or philosophical outlook and they are not fully answerable for consequences. They are, as a result, never fully trusted by anybody, including themselves.3

Protestors appear in Kerrs thinking, then, as a nuisance to be managed and controlled as the knowledge industry rolls along: an easy prospect, he assures his reader, as today men know more about how to control protest, as well as how to suppress it in its more organized forms. It seems he did not know well enough. As soon as Kerr published these thoughts, of course, they were given the lie. Ronald Reagan, who came to political prominence in part through his revanchist opposition to the Free Speech Movement and the way Kerr was managing it, promised California voters he would be the man to clean up the mess at Berkeley. Elected governor in 1967, he moved swiftly to oust Kerr and violently suppress the student movement.

And while the political logic underwriting the Master Plan was entrenched enough during Reagans tenure as governor that he actually implemented the states first progressive income tax to keep Californias public universities tuition-free, his ascendance to the presidency was pivotal in completing the transformation of public higher education into something that conferred a private market benefit. Reagans national initiation of the neoliberal epoch was foreshadowed by Californias taxpayer revolt, which in 1978 led to the ratification of Proposition 13. By strictly capping property tax revenue, Proposition 13 reduced Californias fiscal base, limiting the amount of money available for higher education expenditure and reinforcing a growing common sense: no longer a public good in any meaningful sense, the university instead offers a way for the driven and the motivated to augment their human capital. This would be (and continues to be) expressed monetarily in the education premium, the lifetime of higher earnings that seemed to accrue to the college graduate.

In other words, the ambiguity of the Master Plan, which proposed a public good model of the university but allowed a human capital explanation of its benefit, seemed to resolve in favor of the latter. This has had profound downstream effects on how the university is governed and financed. In Kerrs time, tuition at the UC was free. The business-like character of the UC has only been magnified since, as public funding has dried up through successive crises, leaving the university ever more reliant on tuition for funding and on squeezing its underpaid workforce. The current era was inaugurated in 2004, when the UCs Board of Regents signed a Higher Education Compact with then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, which committed to yearly tuition hikes twice what the state committed in return. This ushered in what UC Santa Barbara professor Christopher Newfield has called a devolutionary cycle of neoliberal privatization and public retrenchment at the university that continues straight up to the present.4 In the 20202021 UC budget, for example, tuition ($3.80 billion) and state funding ($3.94 billion) now account for almost equal proportions of the universitys core funds for teaching and research. Per-student expenditures on education, meanwhile, have declined nearly 20 percent, from $25,220 in fiscal year 20002001 to $20,670 in fiscal year 20202021, and the composition of these expenditures has shifted dramatically. Tuition has more than doubled as a share of per-student expenditure since 2001, while the per-student state contribution has been cut in half in the same period.5

The tuition-based revenue model may seem to have been enacted defensively, in response to declining state funding, but it offers certain advantages to university administrators. As Dan Nemser and Brian Whitener point out, tuition, unlike state funding, is unrestricted revenue, capable of being allocated to all of the universitys operations, including construction, real estate, administration, or anything else privileged by higher educations managerial strata. Whats more, tuition increases, and the phenomenon of mass student indebtedness they have helped to manufacture, can be leveraged as collateral by the university to issue debt of its own.6 Debt financing, consonant with a conception of the lean, entrepreneurial university serving a lean, entrepreneurial student population, has exploded across higher education in the 21st century, and remains central to university operations. In the UCs 20192025 financial plan, for instance, a full 40 percent of the $28 billion in capital with an identified funding source is expected to come from external financing borrowed on capital markets.

The university may be able to secure preferential credit scores and interest rates in these markets by representing itself as a quasi-corporate nexus of assets and revenue streams, but it also subjects itself to the whims of financial governance. Finance, of course, celebrates the privatization of the university already long in progress, and the many ways in which public institutions have adapted themselves to market logics. Little surprise, then, that the UC, like universities everywhere, has striven to diversify revenue streams and cut coststhrough increased tuition and decreased per-student expenditure, yes, but also intellectual property rents, corporate sponsorship of research, outsourcing and contracting of non-core operations, hospital income, contingentization of the academic labor force, and institutional landlordism. It is in this broader context that the most recent cycle of unrest at the UC must be understood.

The neoliberal universityleveraging tuition money to debt-finance real estate acquisition and other potentially profitable ventureshas both opportunistically responded to and helped to produce one of the largest consumer credit bubbles in the United Statess history, now directly underwritten by the federal government, which has $1.5 trillion in student loans on its booksa figure that is equivalent to nearly 7 percent of the national GDP. Even more than retrenchment at the state level, this new role of federal government as permanent lender for the nations student population reflects the breadth of neoliberal retreat: no longer a provider of higher education as a tax-financed public good, the government now operates as the major player in a ballooning debt market. The scale of student indebtedness is enough to [generate] new forms of docility through peonage as students take on debt before ever entering the formal workplace.7

But this financialized landscape also exposes new fissures. In 2009, after the financial crisis decimated Californias state finances and led Schwarzenegger to renege on the Higher Education Compact by drastically cutting state funding for higher education, the UC responded by announcing widespread layoffs, budget cuts, and a 32 percent tuition increase. Undergraduates, led by students at Santa Cruz, erupted in protest, occupying university buildings and staging sit-ins across the UC campuses. A flurry of critical student writing proliferated, distributed in chapbooks and zines at the protests. Here is how one of the essays written at that time describes graduate students:

Meanwhile the graduate students, supposedly the most politically enlightened among us, are also the most obedient. The vocation for which they labor is nothing other than a fantasy of falling off the grid, or out of the labor market. Every grad student is a would be Robinson Crusoe, dreaming of an island economy subtracted from the exigencies of the market. But this fantasy is itself sustained through an unremitting submission to the market. There is no longer the least felt contradiction in teaching a totalizing critique of capitalism by day and polishing ones job talk by nightGraduate school is simply the faded remnant of a feudal system adapted to the logic of capitalismfrom the commanding heights of the star professors to the serried ranks of teaching assistants and adjuncts paid mostly in bad faith.8

While the tone here is clearly polemical, the undergraduates do capture some of the challenges of graduate student organizing. On the one hand, graduate students at the UC are public employees. On the other, academic graduate students are widely perceived as professionals-in-training, whose advanced degrees will propel them into the comfortable ranks of the tenured professoriateepitomizing the logic of human capital. But decades spent cutting labor costs means that contingent faculty slots make up 70 percent of all instructional appointments across the United States. Graduate students are thus overwhelmingly competing for part-time jobs that are renewed on a contract basis with little to no year-to-year security, and often paid on a per-class basis that breaks down to less than minimum wage. And while such a bleak outlook offers a stark corrective to the notion that doctoral education is first and foremost a professionalization process that will pay off in a tenure-track future, it also ironically engenders intensely neoliberal forms of self-governance among a graduate and adjunct population competing for an ever-shrinking share of tenure-eligible positions. Promoting solidarity becomes a challenge when, as the undergraduates in 2009 so pointedly put it, graduate students are routinely encouraged to [polish] ones job talk by night.

* * *

We can confirm the ambivalence expressed among graduate students at the height of the COLA actions. Opinion seemed to oscillate between discontent over the 2018 contract ratification process, reflexive support of the UAW, decrying of paltry paychecks, and deep concern over how participation may affect access to university money and future job prospects. The UCs mass firing of UCSC students did indeed inspire fear in graduate workers, some of whom felt more comfortable committing to slower-moving but legally protected actions through the union than quicker wildcat strikes; other students, whose faith in the apprenticeship model prevailedparticularly in those fields with real promise of stable employment post-graduationshowed little interest in spending their stretched time on questions of labor. In any case, as graduate student workers across the state considered whether and how to expand the strike in early March, the coronavirus pushed university life onlineopening new opportunities for organizing, but ultimately throwing a heavy blanket over the COLA push. For a time, the graduate workers local, UAW 2865, worked toward an unfair labor practices (ULP) strike to reinstate the fired workers; ultimately, though, that campaign ended with a whimper, with the bargaining committee deciding against a vote to authorize the strike, decrying the efforts of a vanguardist minority union of grad workers in the social sciences, arts, and humanities to act without the bulk of the unions membership behind them.

In a retrospective on the heels of the COLA campaigns headiest days, the organizers of the COLA movement considered their successes and pitfalls:

It is possible that the COLA demand uniquely and directly addressed the material conditions of graduate workers, its singularity and universality concentrating political energy in ways that analogous campaigns had not. Moreover, the emergence of the single, focused COLA demand bypassed the pitfalls of recent histories of UC graduate organizing. It was not a Graduate Student Association initiative, did not seek an audience with administration, and was unavoidably antagonistic to the UAW 2865 leadership and the 2018 contract.9

The distaste, then, was mutual, and informed by the history of division between two caucuses within the UAW: Organizing for Student-Worker Power (OSWP) and Academic Workers for a Democratic Union (AWDU). The AWDU had emerged from the post-2009 political landscape on campus and promoted an expansive social justice vision of union activism. OSWP, whose members currently make up the leadership of UAW 2865, took back the local in the wake of declining membership rolls and the shock of the Supreme Courts Janus decision, aiming to reorient the union to the more modest task of building a supermajority membership. It is heavily influenced by labor scholar and UC Berkeley fellow-in-residence Jane McAlevey, who contends that the strikes that work best and win the most are the ones in which at least 90 percent of all the workers walk out, having first forged unity among themselves and with their broader community.10 This benchmark is relatively difficult to hit, particularly in the context of a local as sprawling as UAW 2865, which covers more than 19,000 student workers across 10 campuses and which experiences a nearly complete turnover of the workforce in any given 10-year period. The COLA organizers, adherents of the social justice unionism approach advocated by the AWDU, considered that standard to lend itself to an overly conservative approach to labor action; they argue that,

Without the wildcat strike, we would have none of these concrete possibilities to secure and improve our conditions. Without the continuing pressures and threat of mass action exerted by the wildcat strike, there would never be sufficient pressure on the University to agree to reopen negotiations with the union, nor would there be sufficient power behind the union to successfully negotiate with a behemoth institution like the UC.

The union, in this view, is a tool, a legally protected body to be pushed and prodded into action, absent which it succumbs to inertia.

COLA advocates made the case that their wildcat strike accomplished just that. The COLA movement was itself something of a referendum on the last contract signed by UAW 2865, in summer of 2018. That contract was ratified narrowlywith 52 percent of union members who cast a vote approvingand rejected on UCSCs campus by a more than four-to-one margin. Nonetheless, as March wore onand before the UAW bargaining committee rejected authorization of a ULP strikethe tactics of the two groups converged: as the union worked toward an authorized ULP strike, COLA organizers pushed rolling wildcat strikes toward the same goal. The very day that our home department (UCLA Geography) held a town hall to discuss our options, though, we left the meeting to news that in-person classes had been canceled the following day. We have not returned since.

Coronavirus squashed momentum across the UC system toward a COLA, and thwarted graduate labor agitation against further austerity for the university. So too does it promise further austerity. A one-time infusion of funds from federal aid notwithstanding, the state legislature has reduced the funds allocated to UC by 12 percent for 202021; the $3.47 billion now marked for the UCs is a full 20 percent less than the amount requested by the universitys regents pre-COVID to avoid deep deficits. Campuses have tirelessly tried all sorts of revenue workarounds, mostly involving overenrollment coupled with non-resident student growth, but it hasn't worked, writes Newfield. After years of acquiescence to state cuts, the UC is thus staring down a budget one fifth less than their stipulated pre-COVID needs, with the virus wreaking havoc on its ability to generate revenue. COVID exacerbated what would have already been a shoestring budget; as Newfield writes, the problem isn't just Covid but a flawed business model in which the University has let state funding massively decline.

The universitys pivot toward a privatized and financialized model amid reduced public funding depends on its continued legitimacy as a hub of what Kerr called the knowledge industry, which in turn depends on the matriculation and movement of students through their courses of study. The withholding of gradesand the potential withholding of academic labor generallyby graduate students undermines the ability of the university to publicly certify that core function. As the COLA strikers write:

For a brief moment, it seemed as if the UCSC grade strike, and the follow-up actions on that campus and elsewhere, might force the university to address the concerns of their graduate workersand, in doing so, force further consideration of the condition of the university and its funding more broadly. Not only did the pandemic throttle that momentum, it will at best exacerbate the cycle of defunding and privatization that spurred the graduate worker uprising in the first place, and at worst shatter the entire edifice.11 At a glance, a fragile equilibrium is returning to the university, even as it transitions nearly fully onto Zoom: in February, UCSC announced an annual $2,500 housing stipend for its graduate workers, which the COLA organizers can tout as a victory; the threat of a graduate worker strike has, for now, abated; and the fired graders at Santa Cruz have been reinstated. The circle, however, remains unsquared, and the structural deficits of the neoliberal university remain unaddressed. Another protest looms.

Samuel Feldblum studies geography at UCLA and reports across the southern half of the United States.lives in North Carolina and writes across the South.

John Schmidt is a graduate student of geography at University of California, Los Angeles.

Continued here:
What's the Use of a University? - Brooklyn Rail

Posted on September 3, 2020 at 8:56 am by West Sider

By Yvonne Vvra

It may take a village to raise a kid, but it takes a winery to homeschool one.

Thats just one of the hundreds of memes circling through social media during the height of the pandemic.

Its called quarantine coffee. Its just like normal coffee but it has margarita in it and also no coffee.

Thats another one. Conan OBrien asked: Can we all agree to temporarily raise the bar for whats considered an alcoholic? And while many of President Franklin D. Roosevelts quotes are just as appropriate in our time as they were during the Great Depression, the one he reportedly said on the end of prohibition certainly hit the sweet spot of 2020: What America needs right now is a drink.

Apparently. Sales of alcoholic beverages in the US skyrocketed since we were ordered to stay at home. Wine sales rose 66% over the previous year in the week ending March 21, the market research firm Nielsen reported. Beer sales were up 42%, and harder liquor like tequila or gin even jumped up 75%. Like toilet paper and cleaning supplies, booze was flying off the shelves, and understandably so: The pandemic had everyone on edge, feeling not only their own but also the collective anxiety, prompting many to turn to the bottle for a break: In a study from Alcohol.org, 38% of New Yorkers admitted they were day-drinking during working hours.

Beej Christie Karpen.

The reason many are drinking more during the pandemic has largely to do with uncertainty, says Beej Christie Karpen, a certified coach, mindfulness-based therapist, and long-time Upper West Sider. Most of us dont do well with uncertainty. It scares us, and the pandemic has really brought that to the forefront.

Karpen had become curious about why people overdrink during her studies at NYU where she designed a mindful drinking program. Later she became a meditation instructor and eventually implemented her idea for mindful and self-compassionate drinking practices in free meetings for women as part of Moderation Management, a support network for people learning to reduce their drinking to healthier levels.

When the pandemic hit, I moved our in-person meeting to Zoom, and all of a sudden we started getting people from all over the country, says Karpen. As it seemed, a lot of women were taking stock of their alcohol consumption and had started worrying that they were drinking too much. People were really addressing their drinking and taking the time to do some self-examination. So I started to also offer my Conscious Drinking Workshop on Zoom.

Karpen follows the Harm Reduction approach that empowers the individual to set their own goals. Its not about encouraging people to stop drinking, but rather to figure out individually how much alcohol use feels ok to them. Im offering tools that can help participants access their inner wisdom around drinking; a mindfulness approach that can help them reduce stress in all areas of their lives.

But how do we even know if we may have been drinking a little too much to cope with the quarantine stress?

I found that most people are not in denial, but have a sense that they may be drinking too much, because it doesnt feel good. Maybe they are not waking up as clear-headed as they used to, or they dont like the feeling of depending on something, and theyre having a hard time reining in the habits on their own.

The workshops are all about bringing the unconscious to the conscious and becoming aware: of how much we are actually drinking, of what the craving feels like, what triggers the stress and the habit-loop, and what kind of reward we are truly after. Participants get to know the inner critic, the inner negotiator, and the inner rebel: How are these parts talking to us, what are their tactics? Are they bullies or are they nice? Trying to be our friends or shame us?

Karpen herself has experienced the pandemic in the Upper West Side as mindfully and curiously as her long-standing meditation practice has taught her. I have a lot of disaster preparedness tools and know that life is always in flux, she says. The root cause of most suffering and stress is wanting things to be different than they are. But if you just accept what is happening and start to view it with a sense of curiosity, you might find that gentle curiosity is the antidote to stress!

The next Conscious Drinking 101: A Group Coaching Workshop for Women starts Thursday, September 15th. You can learn more here.Beej also offers free meditation classes via Zoom on Tuesday Mornings. Click here for information.

More here:
Started Drinking a Little Too Much During Quarantine? This Upper West Sider Teaches You How to Moderate - westsiderag.com