Home » Archives for September 2015

2016 Brings New Colors to the i3

Wednesday, September 30, 2015 0 comments
2016 i3 color options. Wheel choices remain the same.
BMW has added three new color options for the i3 in 2016. At the same time though, they have deleted three colors, so the i3 is still available in six different colors. The pessimist may say, "It's still only available in Solar Orange, and fifty shades of grey," and while they wouldn't be entirely incorrect in saying so, I think the changes are an improvement over what was previously offered.
Fluid Black really looks great. 
The best addition in my opinion is the new Fluid Black. I had the opportunity to see a Fluid Black i3 in person earlier in the year and I was instantly sold. I believe this is going to be the top selling i3 color in 2016, and I would have ordered my car with it if it were available in 2014. So the i3 color options in 2016 will be as follows:

The original Capparis White, Ionic Silver and Solar Orange remain available. Arravani Grey, Laurel Grey and Andesite Silver have been dropped and Fluid Black, Platinum Silver and Mineral Grey have been added. You can download the 2016 i3 PDF brochure which has the color chart from this link.
Andesite Sliver (seen above) is being replaced by a new color called Platinum Silver
The changes are really not too dramatic, but do make sense. The two least popular colors, Arravani Grey and Andesite Silver have been dropped, along with the very popular Laurel Grey. Andesite Silver was replaced with what appears to be (in pictures at least) a very similar, Platinum Silver. Arravani and Laurel Grey have been replaced with a single grey color option called Mineral Grey. From the pictures, it looks like it's a combination of the two previously offered grey colors. It's lighter than Laurel Grey was, closer to what Arravani Grey looked like, but it's metallic like Laurel Grey.  
Laurel Grey looked black in certain conditions. This picture is of me on my delivery day back in 2014.
These changes to the grey offerings make total sense, especially when you consider that there is a black paint option now.  Laurel Grey was very dark, and even looked like it was black if you were standing at a distance, or if it was parked in the shade. I believe that the Fluid Black color would decimate sales of Laurel Grey because it would be so close. By combining Arravani and Laurel Grey, and offering a lighter colored, metallic grey which is clearly different than Fluid Black, there is enough color separation for both colors to coexist.   
Arravani Grey (or Battleship Grey as I called it!) will no longer be offered.
One of the things I like about the new Fluid Black is that the car is monochromatic with it. I'm not totally against the i3 having a black hood as an accent for certain colors. In fact, I think it looks great with Capparis White and Solar Orange in particular, but I also think that the i3 looks good in certain colors without the black accent, or "Black Belt", as BMW calls it. I wrapped my car red the first week I got it because I wanted a color that popped and also wanted to see how it would look in all one color without the black hood. I'm happy I did so and have had many people ask me about it. I think the bright red really gives the i3 a more aggressive look, something I know that many i3 owners would like.
My red wrapped i3 next to an Andesite Silver one. 

When I was first told that BMW was considering new color options for 2016 I (somewhat) jokingly asked if "Moloughney Red" would be offered sometime in the future. The BMW product manager quickly responded "Don't hold your breath, Tom" - with a smile. I may be partial, but I think it would go over pretty well if it were offered, what do you think?


A Day in the Life at Chicago Public Schools - Special Ed

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A local story went national yesterday. A mother arrived at school to find her child separated from the other kids and wearing a garbage bag. According to the mother one official defended the practice by saying since there was no rule explicitly against it, it wasn't actionable.

Meanwhile, Chicago Public Schools is cutting vast sums of money from special ed in an unprecedented way (after the school year has already started).

Mark Brown, at Chicago Sun-Times, went to CPS' press conference and wrote that this is a calculated move to push kids out of special ed. Special ed is expensive.

In a Facebook post, quoted with permission, activist and former mayoral candidate Jesus Chuy Campuzano agreed. He posted this picture of a slide which demonstrates how CPS is planning to tear apart their special ed program.


Image Description: Who are our Diverse Learners in CPS?
The majority of students with disabilities in CPS qualify for services
because of a specific learning disability (50.4%). For the most part, these students have
average or above average intellectual ability (IQ) and should
be learning with their peers.

I also have a number of other stories from parents I hope to be sharing in a forthcoming piece. It's not good.

Two MacArthur Winners - A Medievalist and a Designer for People with Disabilities

Tuesday, September 29, 2015 0 comments
I am a cynic about most high-prestige awards, institutions, and other fancy things. Somehow, though, the MacArthur fellowships (aka the "genius" grants) manage to please me every year. Whatever their process, which is mostly opaque, they find both high profile and low profile scholars and creators who just do outstanding work.

We've had a good run of medievalists in the last decade or so, an elite cadre now including Marina Rustow.
Marina Rustow is a historian using the Cairo Geniza texts to shed new light on Jewish life and on the broader society of the medieval Middle East. The Cairo Geniza (or Genizah) comprises hundreds of thousands of legal documents, letters, and literary materials—many of them fragmentary—deposited in Cairo’s Ben Ezra Synagogue over more than a millennium. Rustow’s approach to this archive goes beyond decoding documents, in itself a formidable task, to questioning the relationship between subjects and medieval states and asking what that relationship tells us about power and the negotiation of religious boundaries.
Given my own background in Mediterranean studies, I know Rustow's work and I know her archive, though I lack the language skills to work with it directly.  This is her lab, dedicated to making the archive accessible.

The other winner (other than Coates, whose work is extremely important, but also already well known), is Alex Truesdell. I didn't know Truesdell's work, but it sounds fascinating.
Alex Truesdell is a visionary social entrepreneur who creates low-tech, affordable tools and furniture that enable children with disabilities to participate actively in their homes, schools, and communities. Truesdell challenges our assumption that disabilities are fixed and instead suggests that limitations can be minimized, or even eliminated, with effective user-inspired adaptations—the kind she creates as founder and director of the nonprofit Adaptive Design Association (ADA).

Most devices that help children with special needs are expensive and mass-produced and must be replaced as a child ages. Each item built by ADA, in contrast, is the result of extensive collaboration with a child and family in order to optimize how the user will function at home or school. Truesdell’s innovative construction processes use common and affordable materials, such as corrugated cardboard and glue, to allow designers to prototype, build, and fit equipment on-site quickly and inexpensively. The result is unique, imaginative, and thoroughly useful products. Examples include steps (customized with superhero designs) that allow a young boy to climb in and out of his wheelchair without assistance, a seat insert that makes a standard classroom desk accessible for a little person, and a rocking chair that a non-walking child can propel and that can be combined with a detachable tray for eating or play.
Amazing, right? This is what these grants are for, in my opinion - taking a visionary, giving them a lot of money and more visibility, and saying .... go create!

NIMBY: Bigotry Against the Disabled is Bigotry

Monday, September 28, 2015 0 comments
A proposal to build a home (note: I do not know the people building or running this home, so I cannot vouch for it. I am generally opposed to this kind of large-scale establishment, but some are alright for some people) for adults with developmental disabilities in Atlantic met with opposition. Not in backyard, they said. Then, the opposers were treated as if they were bigots, and their feelings got hurt.
Baker was fuming Thursday night after the Hall County commission meeting at which the board approved a planned community for adults with developmental disabilities. It wasn’t the facility getting OK’d that made her so mad. It was the way it was approved, she said, with the board seemingly in agreement before the vote and residents who were in opposition castigated as bigots.
Note: Bigotry against the disabled is bigotry.

There's an interesting local internet wrinkle though.
This rezoning vote was a typical exercise in local politics: someone proposes to build something. People see a change is coming. Conjecture builds. Worry ensues. Folks pack a room.
But what happened here demonstrates a new wrinkle in this age-old process. Here, the Internet aided public engagement, which is good, but enabled people to create a narrative, often ugly and untrue, that built upon itself. The petition against the plan drew comments with the usual zoning buzzwords like “traffic” and “density.” But then, terms like “mentally challenged” and “Section 8 deadbeats” and “near a school” came in and the controversy took on a life of its own.
We - meaning the media and those who consume it - spend a lot of time thinking about the internet conversations, whether productive or destructive, on a global scale. I'm very interested in the localized internet and the way it can foster connectivity or magnify dissension.

Which is to say my local suburb internet can be pretty nasty sometimes.

Maintenance Monday: Fall vehicle checklist

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Fall vehicle maintenance checklist: help your vehicle adjust to seasonal changes by completing this preventative maintenance checklist.
  
Most of the items on this checklist are geared toward winter driving but it’s much smarter and easier to do them during fall when the weather is milder and less threatening. 

Fall Vehicle Maintenance Checklist: be prepared!
  1. Check your oil level, and add oil if necessary. Be sure to use a multi-grade viscosity oil for winter driving.
  2. Test your battery for free at any auto parts stores. If it needs to be replaced, Advance Auto Parts will install the new battery for no extra fee.
  3. Inspect your windshield wipers. Bitter cold, snow and ice are hard on their rubber blades. You can find blades designed for winter at Advance Auto Parts stores. They install those for free, too.
  4. Fill your windshield wiper reservoir with the proper type of windshield fluid for your climate.
  5. Look at the level and condition of your engine coolant. If the level is low, add antifreeze. If the condition looks poor, do a flush-and-fill.
  6. Evaluate your belts and hoses. If you see any evidence of fraying, cracking or leaking, get a new belt or hose immediately.
  7. Consider getting a tune-up, especially if it’s been 30,000 miles or so since your last one. At the least, perform a visual inspection of your spark plugs, wires, distributor cap and rotor.
  8. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. When dealing with sloppy or icy road conditions, you’ll need the best traction your tires can deliver. If your tires are worn, replace them before winter arrives.
  9. Apply high-grade car wax to your vehicle’s exterior to help protect it from the possible onslaught of snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain.
  10. Put together a winter car survival kit. Jumper cables, flares, ice scrapers, road salt, flashlights, flares, blankets, first aid materials and snacks are all good to include in your kit.

Tips provided by Advance Auto Parts

Sunday Roundup - Back on Blogger

Sunday, September 27, 2015 0 comments
Well, my move to Wix was a disaster. I did, however, defeat sunk cost bias and moved back here. I'll be writing more about the lessons of the disaster in the next week or so.

Here's what I wrote this week, even as I continue to work on my book and other long-term projects.
Should be a published piece or two next week. Thanks for reading!

Inspiration Porn at a Chicagoland McDonald's - I'm Hating It.

Saturday, September 26, 2015 0 comments
An act of kindness at a Chicago-area McDonalds has been getting a lot of attention over the last week. A customer, Destiny Carreno, saw an employee decide to close his till and go help a disabled man eat lunch. Carreno  took a picture, placed it on Facebook, and went viral.

Her Facebook post has nearly 400K shares. Buzzfeed’s  coveragehas near 300K. Carreno, who I’m sure is a nice lady, wrote, “Seeing this today brought tears to my eyes! Compassion has NOT gone out of style.”

This is inspiration porn. The disabled man, here, is a prop to reveal the inspirational kindness of the McD's employee. Notice how he vanishes from the story. Notice how his predicament is used, WITHOUT PERMISSION, by Carreno to show off how great the employee is. Inspiration porn strips agency away from people with disabilities, rendering them a tragic situation in which the abled can show off how awesome they are.

Moreover, this story took place in Illinois, where we are experiencing a sustained attack from Bruce Rauner and his allies on community services for people with disabilities. If this man needs assistance to eat lunch, a pretty basic need, where are his supports? 

It's not the employee was to blame. He did the right thing. It's not that Carreno was wrong, although please do not take pictures of disabled people and broadcast them on the internet without permission. It's that such media coverage tells us the wrong lessons.

A just society doesn't revel in an act of kindness from an underpaid employee of a mega corporation, but develops structures to make that act of kindness unnecessary. Inspiration porn works directly against that fight for a more accessible society, simultaneously convincing us that disability is necessarily tragic and that a little compassion is all we need to make everything better.



Miracles and Things That Aren't

Friday, September 25, 2015 0 comments
Many children with Down syndrome are born with holes in their hearts. In many of those cases, the holes close by themselves as the children grow older.

Unless you meet the Pope, in which case USA Today has decided to clickbait it as a miracle.
The Pope asked my husband, 'How old is she? What's her name?' He told (the Pope) she has two holes in her heart. When we got home in May, we went back to the cardiologist for a check-up. One of the holes was completely closed and one was half the size."
I'm happy for this baby, and if the feelgood media wants to report on it as "the family believes it's a miracle," that's fine. But adequate reporting would include some basic medical facts. Rather than being inspirational, this story suggests Down syndrome and its complications require divine intervention, whereas we humans (perhaps using our God-given intelligence and, you know, science), are doing some pretty awesome things right here on earth.

If you want a miracle, on the other hand, here's one. John Boehner's resignation was reportedly inspired by the Pope.
Amen.

VW: Das-eption and the path to Redemption

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Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned on Wednesday.

While this blog's primary focus is the BMW i3, I occasionally sprinkle in some featured EV products and discuss topics not necessarily i3-centric, but are instead just general electric vehicle information. In light of the recent revelations that Volkswagen has been deliberately cheating on emissions testing for many years now, I wrote the following article for Green Car Reports.

So far, no other automaker has been caught as VW has - with proof that they purposely installed a "defeat device" on the vehicles so the cars would curb their emissions only during actual emission testing. However it's fair game to speculate if other OEMs may also be exposed as cheaters now that the EPA knows what they have to look for, and how to expose it. It will certainly be interesting to watch this all unfold.

In any event, Volkswagen is going to face huge fines for intentionally violating Federal emission standards and I wanted to offer my thoughts on how I believe some of that money should be used. If we don't use at least a portion of that money to help reverse the damage done by these heavily polluting "clean diesels", I believe we will have missed a great opportunity to improve the quality of air we all breathe.


 How VW Can Atone For Diesel Deception: Electric-Car Advocate's Thoughts

The full impact of Volkswagen's diesel-emission cheating scandal has yet to be realized, but what it has apparently already admitted to doing could result in the largest civil fine ever levied by the Federal government on an automaker. And that's just the beginning.

Besides paying civil penalties, and coping with a spate of criminal actions, and class-action lawsuits, and investigations by multiple levels of government, VW also needs to deal with the 482,000 cars it sold--plus more in limbo at dealers--that clearly do not comply with emission laws.

In real-world use, these vehicles emit 10 to 35 times the allowable legal limit of certain pollutants, so they're not just slightly out of compliance. They will need to be modified to comply, or VW will have to buy them back. And if owners don't like the modified cars, they'll likely have to buy those cars back too.
After all that, VW has to figure out how to regain the trust of the public.

There are lots of aspects to this debacle, and all will undoubtedly be discussed ad nauseam over the coming weeks. But the aspect I find most interesting is how Volkswagen can best right the wrongs it has done. How does paying fines, settling lawsuits, and bringing highly-polluting vehicles into compliance really undo the damage done? It doesn't. All it does is punish Volkswagen. And I believe the public deserves more.

Make no mistake: If VW is guilty as charged, it absolutely deserves to be punished--and severely.
It turns out they aren't as clean as we were told - not nearly, actually.
But I hope the Justice Department also considers what can be done to offset the damage to air quality created by the offending so-called "clean diesels." And I hope VW, separately, does the same. We've seen penalty estimates as high as $18 billion dollars (the maximum allowed of $37,500 per vehicle for intentionally violating the Clean Air Act. I doubt the actual penalty will be anywhere close to that, but it will likely be in the billions. I think it's not unreasonable to expect the fine to be somewhere around $2.5 billion, or about $5,000 per non-compliant vehicle sold.

Why not use a portion of that civil fine to invest in a nationwide DC Fast Charge network for electric vehicles?

If just half of a $2.5 billion fine were dedicated to this purpose, we could blanket the majority of Interstate highways and major high-traffic corridors with DC fast chargers that would make switching from gasoline and diesel cars to zero-emission electric vehicles a much easier decision for many buyers. Here's why I believe that is what should be done. Helping to advance the proliferation of cleaner electric vehicles would, over time, more than reverse the emissions damage that has been done, and further improve the quality of air we breathe, instead of just punishing the offender. And shouldn't that really be the goal here?

A second thought: As well as using the fine to build out a national DC fast-charging network, how about Volkswagen getting out in front of this crisis itself and telling us how it will do its part to help clean the air it polluted?

BMW, Volkswagen and ChargePoint teamed up to create "Express Charging Corridors" on the East and West coasts. While it's a good start, much more fast charge infrastructure is needed to allow the average electric car of today to be a viable choice for long distance driving.
Rather than just declaring that it will be a leader in electric mobility, as the company has done before, show us the proof that it's serious about how it plans to expand its zero-emission vehicle offerings? VW Group could combine that with a generous investment in public charging infrastructure, on a much greater scale than last December's partnership with BMW and ChargePoint to install approximately 100 DC fast chargers.

That program in just now starting to get under way, but it's really only the beginning of what's needed. VW should commit to expanding it to 400 or 500 stations, including high-volume corridors not only on the East and West coasts but across the country--essentially following the Tesla Supercharger road map.
Tesla North American Supercharger map.
Yet another idea to consider: Give the owners of the affected vehicles the option to replace their car with a new electric Volkswagen e-Golf. Some current Volkswagen TDI diesel owners have said they now feel guilty for having driven their diesel for the past few years, with a main reason for their purchase having been both fuel economy and because it was a "clean" diesel.

Offering those owners the option to return the polluting car for a much cleaner Volkswagen could demonstrate that VW understands and is concerned with its customers' desire to drive clean cars. Many owners won't take advantage of such an offer--diesel partisans can be just as committed to their technology as electric-car advocates--but the offer would send a powerful signal about the company's intent. I believe these are the sort of things Volkswagen must consider if it wants to convince the public it is serious about making proper restitution for this egregious deception.
How about offering eGolfs to the customers that don't want their dirty diesel anymore?
There are plenty of ways to make some good come out of this shameful episode. No matter how you slice it, it will be very painful for Volkswagen AG. How well or poorly the company manages this crisis will  have a lingering effect for years to come, even decades.

It appears VW intentionally deceived both the American consumer and the U.S. government, and put public health at risk, by knowingly planning and executing a fraud. To me, and I think to many others, that's much worse than a carmaker trying to delay or prevent a vehicle recall.

But Americans are forgiving people, and sin followed by redemption is a part of our national myth. As long as we believe the offender is genuinely remorseful for what it did, and is taking steps to prove it hase learned from the offense, recovery is possible--perhaps even lauded and held up as a shining example of redemption.

Now that we've found out the real truth in German engineering, the ball has moved into VW's court to decide on what it can do to begin to offset the damage it has done to itself, its customers, and the environment.
Let's hope Volkswagen is smart enough to make the right decisions.

*Edit: BMW released a statement regarding the recent discussion of diesel engines and emission compliance. You can read it HERE.

Call for Stories: Neighbors Trying to Control Your Disabled Child

Thursday, September 24, 2015 0 comments
Yesterday I published a brief post on Flowers v. Gopal, in which some rich California folks are trying to declare a neighboring autistic child a public nuisance. I'll have more to say about the case, including answering the, "but but he wasn't a nice kid!" comments I'm getting (short version: If he didn't have autism and they wanted to sue, they'd use personal injury law or something, not public nuisance. Public nuisance law presupposed it's uncontrollable. Anyway).

I'd like to collect other stories about the ways that neighbors have tried to control your disabled child through the legal system - either lawsuits, calling the police, or calling child protective services or departments of children and family services (or whatever your state has), or trying to get the school to expel your child because of their behavior to other children, etc. 

You can post them in comments (now with Disqus, which hopefully will work better). You can post them on my Facebook threads. You can send them to me over email. If you send them to me over email, I can keep them confidential.

Please share widely.

Wade Ford & Chick Auto Tips present Cupcakes, Coffee & Car Care Tips

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Would You Like To Learn About Your Car?

Join us on October 8th, 2015 from 7pm-8pm at Wade Ford for Cupcakes, Coffee and Car Care Tips

Learn all about:
  • Under the hood checks
  • Proper Tire Care
  • What is Routine Maintenance?
  • What's in an Emergency Chick Kit and more

This FREE event is designed specifically to encourage women to learn more about auto repairs and maintenance from Automotive Blogger Arkeedah McCormick and Wade Ford’s friendly and knowledgeable mechanics. With refreshments and giveaways this Women’s Car Care Clinic is an innovative way to make a date with your favorite ladies and gain some auto expertise at the same time.

Happy Eid from a Rude Professor at Rutgers

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The above tweet details a snotty response to a student asking for an excused absence for Eid Al Adha. It's rude. It's arrogant. It's demeaning. It implies that the student is a liar and a slacker and insists the student brings in a note from their religious leader.

It also violates Rutgers' religious holiday policy:
It is University policy (University Regulation on Attendance, Book 2, 2.47B, formerly 60.14f) to excuse without penalty students who are absent from class because of religious observance, and to allow the make-up of work missed because of such absence. Examinations and special required out-of-class activities shall ordinarily not be scheduled on those days when religiously observant students refrain from participating in secular activities. Absences for reasons of religious obligation shall not be counted for purposes of reporting.
Students are advised to provide timely notification to instructors about necessary absences for religious observances and are responsible for making up the work or exams according to an agreed-upon schedule.
I hope the student formally reports this professor.

Flowers v Gopal - Rich folks try to declare autistic boy a "Public Nuisance."

Wednesday, September 23, 2015 0 comments
UPDATE 10/11/15: One member of the plaintiffs called me to offer their side of the story, which is that it's entirely about public safety and not about autism at all; furthermore, they claim, they only sued because the defendants served them with a cease and desist letter, leaving the plaintiffs with no choice to sue. I have a lot of documents and will be reading them, but obviously I am aware that the plaintiffs are trying to win in the press, and weigh their account appropriately.

In Sunnyvale, CA, a bunch of rich folks are trying to use a lawsuit to declare a child with autism a "public nuisance." Here's a version of the complaint with, at the defendants' request, the child's name blacked out.

The neighborhood is rich.That matters in this story. A poorer context would result in informal working it out, child services intervening, or incarceration.



Initial News coverage:
I dislike how these stories lead with casting the boy as a menace. I'll have much more to say about this in a forthcoming piece. It's part of a larger pattern of both news representation and the way that private citizens, not just the state, try to declare the disabled as unfit for public spaces.

The latest is that the judge sent the parties to mediation. Here's a statement from the defendants:
Sunnyvale Autism Parents Speak Out
By Parul Agrawal and Vidyut Gopal
Yesterday, the Honorable Judge Maureen Folan decided that the lawsuit against our family should go to a judicial settlement conference where both parties should mediate and put an end to this very unfortunate litigation. This case has caused grief not just to our loving and close-knit family, but also to the community around us. We have tried repeatedly to settle this case and sincerely hope that this judicial settlement conference will put an end to the agony.
In an attempt to protect our privacy, especially for our disabled son, we have been shy about talking to the press or appearing on camera. But, in spite of our desire for privacy, after all the public opinions about this lawsuit we felt that the community needs to understand our story too. We are very disappointed by the deeply manipulative falsehoods that have been spread about our family. We love our son deeply and have always provided the supervision and support he needs at home and in the community at large.
Our son is an affectionate, fun loving and outgoing boy who has autism. With support (and we do not deny that like all children with autism he needs support), he enjoys community activities, including hikes, swimming, and bicycling. He is learning to play tennis and has Bollywood danced on stage several times in front of large audiences.
When there is a genuine safety concern in a neighborhood, our society provides many remedies, including police enforcement and child protective services. In our case, neither of these public authorities found any public safety issue with our son warranting intervention. Please also note that to this date, not a single medical bill or evidence of property damage has been presented to our lawyers. More than a year ago, we felt compelled to move from Arlington Court, in order to provide a safe and nurturing environment for our son, and it has been a positive experience for our family.
We hope it's obvious that no autism parents want their children's outbursts to result in any harm to anyone else. Yes, our kids need more help than other kids. We do not deny that for a moment. Yes, we can—and do—go to the ends of the Earth to help them. But as the Judge said, when conflict arises, we must use our brains for creative community solutions and not aggressive, expensive lawsuits. We do not want a single other autism family to suffer what we have. Every day, every hour and every minute that we have had to live through this nightmare has been agonizing for us. But we are grateful for the amazing support of the community and the disability organizations around us. We just hope this lawsuit will result in stronger, more welcoming, and more resilient, less litigious neighborhoods everywhere.
Update: Here are stories covering the attempt to mediation. NOTICE THAT THE FLOWERS HAVE MOVED, BUT ARE STILL SAYING - THIS IS ABOUT KEEPING OUR KIDS SAFE. IT'S CLEARLY NOT.

The "Authenticity" Dodge

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I met Arthur Chu this summer at a workshop on the problem of misogyny on the internet and we've been corresponding via email and social media a lot since then. Our writing interests overlap when it comes to representation issues in media and games. He interviewed me on the problem of claiming "authenticity" as a way to avoid diversity.

Here's an excerpt:
DP: When you start to create fantasy races and then you make the argument “Oh no people of color, we have to be realistic,” you’ve revealed your cards. You’ve shown that you just don’t want to have a diverse world, that you want to promote this myth of homogeneity, that you want to use historical reality to justify making a choice that makes other people upset.
AC: That’s interesting, because it seems we’re in an upsurge of interest in sword-and-sorcery fantasy–
DP: We sure are, it’s great!

AC: And it seems recently we have this appetite for “old-fashioned” narratives that center the West and reduce the rest of the world to antagonists or scary foreigners, even if it’s in a winking, ironic way. You’ve got the Lord of the Rings films that started the revival of high fantasy in film hewing close to Tolkien’s depictions of the Southrons and the Easterlings as sort of flat enemy races, and then you’ve got Game of Thrones using the Dothraki to bring back the trope of the barbaric Mongols. What do you think is driving this trend of the past ten years or so?
DP: Oh, to me it’s a much longer trend than that. Orientalism is built into 800 years of Western narrative production about the East. That the East is simultaneously more advanced and more decadent and more barbaric and more civilized all at the same time. And I think that the Orientalism of Game of Thrones is the perfect embodiment.

Jesse Leaves Wisconsin

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(Reposted from 9/9/15) 

Jesse Stommel is leaving a tenure-track job at Wisconsin to go take a job as a faculty development director at the University of Mary Washingon. He wrote a powerful blog post about the descision, which you should read.

I want to highlight just one point, out of the many, skipping the issue of the Wisconsin GOP attack on higher education (which is the main story): Jesse writes [his emphasis].

My work — the work I was hired to do — has not been supported. While I was initially assured that digital work for broad public audiences would count, I was later told I should wait to do that work until after tenure and focus on traditionally peer-reviewed publications for academic audiences. In January, the following bolded words were sent to me in a letter for my official file: “The Committee wants to send a clear message that what matters is tenure, what matters for tenure is peer review, and work posted on the web is not considered peer‐reviewed.” 

Jesse is an emerging leader in digital humanities,  pedagogy, alternate forms of publication, and more. This kind of work is what makes him a nationally-known voice in higher education. It increases, well, increased, UW Madison's reputation. It matters.

That his department/committee couldn't figure out a way to count that work is an indictment of their inflexibility. 

Tenure and Activism

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Here's a great piece from Conditionally Accepted about the way being on the tenure-track makes us conservative. It's wide-ranging and important, thinking about identity and many related issues. Read it all. Here's the bit that especially dovetails with my interests on public writing, activism, and the academy [my emphasis]:

More generally, I bear the burden of fear and doubt because the institution itself does not explicitly reward activism, advocacy, and community engagement.  I appreciate informally being told teaching a community-based learning class looks good, or that open access research is the way of the future for scholars.  And, at a minimum, there is little sense that such efforts would hurt one professionally (though I remain skeptical when such claims are made regarding activism).  But, formally, these initiatives are not valued; they are not explicitly mentioned in the tenure expectations outlined in our faculty handbook, nor is there a longstanding tradition of favorably evaluating community engagement and advocacy.  As I told my colleague, it’s great that the Center offers so much to faculty who engage the community in their work — even offering a small stipend to those who go through training on community-based teaching; but, short of the institutions explicit valuing of such efforts (i.e., counting it toward tenure), only a few brave souls will venture into them.

As I've said many times -  If we believe that something is important, we have to make it count for tenure, promotion, and hiring. 

Donald Trump and Autism

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(Reposted from 9/18/15) 

Last night Donald Trump said that vaccines cause autism. It's important to remind you of a few things.

1) They don't.
2) The notion that autism is worse than a deadly disease reveals deeply ableistic ideology.
3) See point #1.

Here's a link to the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's statement:

While no link exists between autism and vaccines, of greater concern is the willingness of those who promote this theory to suggest that exposing children to deadly diseases would be a better outcome than an autistic child. Vaccinations do not cause autism – but the use of autism as a means of scaring parents from safeguarding their children from life-threatening illness demonstrates the depths of prejudice and fear that still surrounds our disability. Autism is not caused by vaccines – and Autistic Americans deserve better than a political rhetoric that suggests that we would be better off dead than disabled.

Inclusion Denied in West Virginia

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(Reposted from 9/16/15 on a defunct part of the site)

In West Virginia, a young man with Down syndrome is being told he can't attend the inclusive school near his house. 

It all started when Roy's parents noticed he was becoming more disinterested in school while attending Magnolia High School during his freshman year.
In Wetzel County students with "severe" special needs are to be placed at Magnolia, regardless of where they live. The Stevens family lives within the territory of Hundred High School, but the school system believes Magnolia is better equipped to deal with students with special needs.
Magnolia is about an hour drive away from the Stevens' home.
Last year Roy's family was granted a temporary reprieve, which allowed him to attend Hundred. At the time, Roy was having trouble getting up early enough to catch the bus to Magnolia. His family said he ended up missing school on quite a few occasions, despite his flexible attendance schedule. Karen would take Roy to school later in the day on some of these occasions, which was two hours round-trip.
While attending Hundred High School, Roy flourished. He attended more than half of regular education classes, performed hands-on work, and joined clubs and activities, including the school band.
"He made so many friends, and now, when he sees people in town, his friends know him, they're not afraid of him, they tell their parents about him, and their parents know him," Karen said. "And as Roy transitions into adulthood, that's the greatest thing for him where he lives."

Every time you read a story about a child being denied a FAPE in LRE (Free and Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment), remember there are lots more people like Roy being denied as well. 

West Virginia - Wetzel County anyway - is structurally designed to make a less independent, less included, adult population. 

We've got to fight that. 

Me and Pope Francis

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(Reposted from 9/14/2015 on a defunct piece of the site)

Pope Francis is coming to America. Here's a media guide to his visit from John Allen at Crux (From the Boston Globe).

I owe my media career to the popes. I had just turned in my tenure file and my book 
manuscript when Benedict retired. That morning, I was talking about how all the news reports talking about a 15th century pope who retired were missing the more important 13th century precedent - Pope St. Celestine V. Benedict had visited Celestine's shrine twice, and the medieval pontiff, who retired due to old age and a desire to return to a contemplative life, clearly offered a better example. Also the canon law that followed Celestine was critical.

So I wrote about it for CNN. Then I wrote a followup piece for The Atlantic about medieval and modern elections, and what we might learn from medieval elections. After Francis was elected, I had the front page on The Atlantic's website with "The Importance of Being Francis."

I wrote more about the Popes and history too, as time went on, the most recent being on the double canonizations of two popes on "why secular people could care about saints."

I write about other things now. In the initial wake of his election, a lot of US media seemed to not get Francis, trying to shove him into classic American liberal/conservative dialectics where he simply refuses to fit. So I wrote. Now, they either are better at covering him or they've hired Catholic journalists to do it, and I haven't felt the need to pitch a piece on him in a long time.

But I'm watching, because whatever you think of him, Pope Francis continues to be an interesting story.


2015 Lexus GX 460 SUV Luxury

Tuesday, September 22, 2015 0 comments

The 2015 Lexus GX 460 is a luxurious midsize SUV that is jammed packed with style and performance. This vehicle is perfect for a family because its comfortable and you don't have to sacrifice the sophistication.


Standard features on the base model include 18-inch alloy wheels, automatic LED (low-beam) headlights, illuminated running boards, a sunroof, roof rack side rails, rear privacy glass and a rear spoiler. Inside you'll find dual-zone automatic climate control, leatherette premium vinyl upholstery, eight-way power front seats with two-way power lumbar, driver memory settings, cruise control, sliding and reclining 40/20/40-split second-row seats, a 50/50-split third-row seat, a power tilt-and-telescoping steering wheel, an auto-dimming rearview mirror, a rearview camera, Bluetooth phone and audio connectivity, an 8-inch touchscreen electronics interface and a nine-speaker sound system with a CD player, Siri Eyes Free, satellite radio, HD radio and two USB inputs with an iPod interface.

Luxury model includes the standard features plus a "liquid graphite finish" for those 18-inch wheels, an adaptive suspension, rear auto-leveling, headlamp washers, illuminated front scuff plates, auto-dimming side mirrors, blind spot monitoring with rear cross-traffic alert, a heated steering wheel, mahogany wood trim on the steering wheel and shift knob, upgraded leather upholstery, a cargo cover and power-folding third-row seats. Options on the Luxury model include a 17-speaker Mark Levinson surround-sound audio system, a rear seat video entertainment system, and the Driver Support package, which includes the off-road-oriented Crawl Control feature, automatic high beam control, adaptive cruise control (includes a pre-collision warning system), a lane departure warning system, additional front and side parking cameras and the Mark Levinson audio system






 
 

The 2015 Lexus GX 460 comes equipped with a 4.6-liter V8 engine, 17 mpg combined (15 city/20 highway) MPG and has a seating capacity of seven, comes standard with antilock brakes, traction and stability control, a rearview camera, front and rear seat side airbags, driver and front passenger knee airbags, and side curtain airbags that cover all three rows. 

Also standard is Lexus Safety Connect emergency communications with automatic collision notification, stolen vehicle locator and emergency assist.  



Price Point Starting at: $60, 715 MSRP
You can visit http://www.lexus.com/to learn more about Lexus vehicles 

ChargePoint Home: Connected EV Charging with Style

Monday, September 21, 2015 0 comments
The ChargePoint Home 25 EVSE is the latest addition to my EVSE collection
When most electric vehicle owners think of ChargePoint, they likely are thinking about public charging infrastructure. That's because for the past five years, ChargePoint's focus has been on installing and maintaining the largest network of public EVSEs in the US, with well over 20,000 locations currently in use.

Back in 2012, ChargePoint did release an EVSE for home charging, the CT500 made by Coulomb Technologies, but it was priced a bit above the market at $2,495. At the time, it was the only home EVSE that was networked, so that was a major advantage. However, the price was prohibitively high and competitive units were selling for half of that, so the CT500 never sold in any serious volume.

That won't be the case with ChargePoint Home, ChargePoint's new entry in the home EVSE market. I've had the opportunity to test this product for a month now, before the official launch and I've been really impressed.
Options

There are two power levels offered, a 16 amp unit (The ChargePoint Home 12) and one which can deliver up to 32 amps (The ChargePoint Home 25). If you're wondering why "12" and "25" are used in the product names it is because ChargePoint is advertising that the 16 amp unit is capable of adding 12 miles of range per hour to the typical EV, and 25 miles of range per hour for the 32 amp unit. I'm not particularly fond of using that method to name them, since every EV is capable of achieving different levels of efficiency. Plus, I think it may confuse some people who think the number is the amps the EVSE is capable delivering. However, this is only the name so it's not really a big consideration.

Since I'm discussing the power delivery, this brings me to one of the few criticism I have for the new ChargePoint Home. While 32 amps is above the maximum charging limit for any currently-offered electric vehicle that isn't a Tesla or that uses a Tesla onboard charger (Mercedes B-Class ED), some of the competition is now offering 40 amp and 50 amp home charging solutions. These would be attractive for Tesla owners, and perhaps someone who wanted to future-proof their garage. I suspect ChargePoint would be ready to offer a higher powered version in the future if there are any new electric vehicles offered that can accept more than 32 amps. However, considering the current electric vehicle offerings, 32 amps is fine.

I got the optional 25' cord
After selecting whether you want the 16 amp or 32 amp EVSE, you then have the option of choosing a hard wired unit or one that plugs in. The 16 amp plug-in version uses a NEMA 6-20 outlet and the 32 amp plug-in EVSE uses a NEMA 6-50 outlet. Once that is decided you can choose the length of cable you want, but that's only if you buy the 32 amp version. For some reason, the 16 amp version only comes with a 12' cord, you cannot order it with one longer. That could be a deal breaker for some people whose garage is set up in a way that twelve feet of cable won't reach their charge port. On the other hand, the 32 amp unit comes standard with an 18' cord, and has an optional 25' cord for an additional $50. It's a bit puzzling why the lower powered unit isn't available with a longer cord, and I believe this will steer many potential customers to the higher powered EVSE, even if they originally considered the lower powered unit (maybe that's the plan!).  I did reach out to ChargePoint about this and was told that a customer can order a replacement cord of either 18' or 25' length and replace the 12' standard cord that comes with the 16 amp EVSE. I didn't get the pricing, but I assume it will cost considerably more than the $50 up-charge when you upgrade from an 18' cord to the 25'cord on a ChargePoint Home 25 (32 amp). The rep also told me that if there is demand for longer cords on the 16 amp unit, then ChargePoint will consider offering it at a later date.

Installation

Drill bit & nut driver
If you choose to go with one of the plug-in versions, you'll need to have an electrician install the appropriate outlet in your garage. The 16 amp unit requires a 20 amp, 240v dedicated circuit with a  NEMA 6-20 outlet and the 32 amp EVSE requires a 40 amp circuit with a NEMA 6-50 outlet. I chose the 32 amp hard wired one, with a 25 foot cord. Since I was replacing one of my older EVSEs with the Home unit, it was an extremely simple process, and that wasn't by accident. ChargePoint made every effort to make installing the Home EVSE as easy as possible, especially if the owner was swapping out an older EVSE for the new Home unit. In that case, it's so easy to do that the average person can probably complete the installation in less than an hour. I had mine installed in about 30 minutes. A drill bit and nut driver for the supplied wall mounting screws are even included. One aspect of the installation I found curious is that all three mounting screws run down the center of the unit, as opposed to the four corners. This could possibly cause the EVSE to rock a bit from side to side if the wall it's mounted on isn't flat. I'd prefer if the mounting screws were in the four corners, which would provide for a more secure mount on uneven surfaces.


                                  ChargePoint Home installation video

Another great feature is how compact, lightweight and portable the ChargePoint Home is. At only 11.2" by 7" it's stylish and not bulky. It has a back-lit connector holster which swivels up and down and that helps to make returning the connector to the base easy, even in the dark. If you choose the plug in version, you can easily take this EVSE with you for charging away from home. All you would need is the appropriate outlet at your destination. The ChargePoint Home is indoor and outdoor rated and is UL listed.




















The ChargePoint app displays useful charging information such as current and cumulative energy draw. You can also set a "Remind Me to Plug in" notification, so you never wake up to an uncharged EV.

Connected

Perhaps the best feature of ChargePoint Home is that it can be integrated with your ChargePoint account which allows the user access to information from the ChargePoint mobile app. This includes viewing information on the current charging session, remotely start and schedule charging, set notification reminders so you don't forget to plug in, review data on past charging sessions, and it even works with Nest thermostat products which can help save energy.

ChargePoint Home EVSE pricing starts at $499 for the Home 12 hard wired station and goes up to $749 for the Home 25 plug in station with a 25 foot cord. Full pricing details are below. ChargePoint Home has a three year warranty and is available through Amazon.

ChargePoint Home 12: 16A Hardwire station with 12' cord$499
ChargePoint Home 12: 16A Plug station with 12' cord$549
ChargePoint Home 25: 32A Hardwire station with 18' cord$649
ChargePoint Home 25: 32A Plug station with 18' cord$699
ChargePoint Home 25: 32A Hardwire station with 25' cord$699
ChargePoint Home 25: 32A Plug station with 25' cord$749
Slim, compact design


I've been using my ChargePoint Home 25 for a few weeks now and I really like it. ChargePoint has a winner with this EVSE, and I predict it will sell very well. I've been driving electric for over six years now, and I've seen the evolution of EVSE products. It's good to see the products continue to improve just as the prices continue to go down. The ChargePoint Home delivers on size, portability, quality and ease of installation. It's stylish, competitively priced, and best of all connected to the ChargePoint Network which allows the user mobile access to effective tools which can enhance their electric lifestyle. This all adds up to great news for EV owners.



Note: I received for free, one ChargePoint Home 25 EVSE from ChargePoint for testing, feedback and product review publication before the consumer launch. No other compensation was made.

Tips for Avoiding Road Rage

Thursday, September 10, 2015 0 comments

Often it’s frightening. Sometimes it’s deadly.

Road rage – where flaring tempers mix with two-ton machines – continues to be a problem on America’s highways, leading to accidents, assaults and occasionally even murder. It’s a perplexing problem in part because it can happen at anytime and anywhere that roads and vehicles are involved, yet specific statistics on its frequency are hard to come by. All that aside, though, there are solutions that can at least reduce the number of road-rage incidents. People who are easily angered by slower drivers, detours and other traffic disruptions can be taught to be more aware of their responses and modify them to reduce accident risks, according to research published this year by the Society for Risk Analysis.

That let’s-calm-down approach is applauded by Scott Morofsky, author of the books “The Daily Breath: Transform Your Life One Breath at a Time” and “Wellativity: In-Powering Wellness Through Communication” (www.Wellativity.com).
“Sometimes there’s this tendency to throw on the brakes when someone is tailgating us, or use an obscene gesture at an aggressive driver,” says Morofsky, who developed the concept of Wellativity, which helps people address any behavior that inhibits wellness.“But when you encounter an aggressive driver, you don’t want to engage them or do anything to further agitate them.”
What are some of our behaviors that can aggravate other drivers? The No. 1 culprit is drivers who are texting, according to a 2015 Road Rage Report by Expedia.com, the travel site. Those texting drivers upset 26 percent of us.Other offenders, in descending order, are tailgaters, left-lane hogs, slow drivers and drivers multi-tasking.

Of course, those examples represent situations that can raise your ire after you are behind the wheel. Often, the foundation for fury on the highway was laid before you got into the car. Maybe you had an argument with someone earlier. Maybe you are stressed because you are running late for an appointment.
“Probably all of us at some time have been angry and someone wisely told us to take a deep breath,” Morofsky says. “That’s actually good advice because breathing and taking in oxygen plays an important role in every area of our health and well-being.”
Morofsky offers these tips for heading off your own road rage or avoiding the rage of others:
•  Don’t turn that ignition. If you are feeling stressed and anxious before you even start your trip, then the time to calm down is now, not after you are on the highway. Get a grip before you start the car, Morofsky says. Take that deep breath you always heard would work. You might even try counting from one to 10, inhaling on one, exhaling on two, up to 10 and back to one again. “You want to be relaxed before you head out,” he says.
•  Stop right there. If you are already driving, and you feel your anger is starting to impact your judgment, pull over for a few moments. “Breathe and ask yourself, is my problem important enough to risk lives?” he says. “Taking a few conscious breaths could prevent a catastrophe.”
•  Don’t react or retaliate. You can’t control those other drivers, but you can control how you react to them. If someone is tailgating you, flipped you off or is just infuriating you with bad driving habits, ignore them, Morofsky says. Engaging in some sort of road-rage argument will just further raise your blood pressure, and could prove dangerous in some circumstances. This is just one more opportunity to take that deep breath, he says.
                                                               About Scott Morofsky
Scott Morofsky is the author of the books “The Daily Breath: Transform Your Life One Breath at a Time” and “Wellativity: In-Powering Wellness Through Communication” (www.wellativity.com). Morofsky created the concept of Wellativity, which uses 12 principles to target crossover afflictions such as obesity, smoking, lethargy, procrastination and any behavior that inhibits wellness. He has national certification as a personal trainer by the American Council on Exercise and various other certifications in the health and fitness field. He is a New York State licensed massage therapist and a graduate of the Swedish Institute of Massage and Allied Health Sciences. For more than 30 years, Morofsky has maintained a private practice specializing in joint replacement rehabilitation and physical training for seniors, as well as fitness training and massage therapy, and has given lectures and taught seminars on these subjects.

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