The widespread disdain over the Vietnam War meant that veterans returning home didn’t receive a heroes’ welcome. For some, this caused a sense of shame that worsened the difficulties that military members often face when transitioning to civilian life. And while the war ended almost 40 years ago, some service members at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Tacoma, Wash. wanted to show their appreciation to those vets that fought in Vietnam.
So they threw a big welcome-home party to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War. (According to a presidential proclamation, the 50th anniversary of this long-running conflict can be observed any time between 2012 and 2025.) More than 2,500 veterans and their families packed the JBLM parade field and retired General Barry McCaffrey spoke to the crowd, which included representatives of all branches of the military.
“It is never too late, never too late, to pay tribute to the men and women who served and continue to serve our country,” I Corps Commander Lt. Gen. Stephen Lanza tells Adam Ashton of The News Tribune.
Veteran Stephen Stribling returned from Vietnam in 1968 and was moved by the long-delayed tribute. “I’m like a baby to something like this. It’s so unreal,” he says.
Seventy-nine-year-old Magnum Tulto, an Army veteran, was similarly delighted by the honor. “When we came home as Vietnam veterans, they didn’t like us. I’m glad they like us now,” he tells Ashton.
One Army Lieutenant Colonel, Jeff Schmidt, brought his Vietnam Veteran father-in-law all the way across the country from Coral Springs, Fla. to attend the salute. “I feel it’s important to give them the welcome home that soldiers get today. They served our country just as honorably as us,” Schmidt says.
MORE: The Surprisingly Simple Actions Helping Veterans Visit the Memorials That Honor Their Service
Tag: Washington
Name the Most Pedestrian-Friendly City in America
Pedestrian life is picking up speed across the country, with an estimated five percent more Americans walking to work now compared to 2000, Bloomberg reports. But with more than 4,700 pedestrian deaths in 2012, city planners are recognizing the importance of improving pathways and policies to protect citizens on their feet.
In a study of the safest cities for pedestrians by insurer Liberty Mutual Holding Co., Seattle topped the list. The Pacific Northwest city had fewer than 10 annual pedestrian deaths in 2012 and was noted for its investment in infrastructure to improve the walking safety of more than 108,000 commuters each day. That same year, the city ordered more than 500 crosswalks and also improved walking routes for students.
Boston and Washington, D.C. came in second and third, respectively. San Francisco notched fourth and New York City grabbed the fifth spot on the list of of 25 cities analyzed for pedestrians. The most dangerous for walkers? Detroit. The report ranks cities by traffic data, infrastructure and local attitude on public safety among 2,500 residents across the observed cities.
Dave Melton, Liberty Mutual’s managing director of global safety, attributes well-planned pedestrian safety to countdown lights and flashers at crosswalks that help drivers focus on the road and direct attention from pedestrians. But pesky cellphone usage still remains an issue.
“The human brain doesn’t multitask,” Melton says. “It switches back and forth.”
It’s tricky to try to control phone distraction, but ensuring every other component of protecting pedestrians is a step in the right direction.
When a Public High School Experiments With the Charter Model, Here’s What Happens
At the Lincoln High School in Tacoma, Wash., some students go to school from 7:20 a.m. to 5 p.m., including Saturdays and throughout summer. If this intense amount of schooling sounds familiar, that’s because there are charter schools across the country that are already doing this with their students in order to prepare them for college. So what’s notable about this schedule?
It’s going on at a public high school.
As Al Jazeera America reports, six years ago, Lincoln High School principal Pat Erwin decided to apply charter school methods to his own public school, launching the Lincoln Center High School for 350 of the school’s 1,500 students.
Besides the long and rigorous school hours, students in the program must take honors and AP level courses in every subject — from history to math. Students must also participate in clubs or sports.
“It adds up to 540 hours of extra academic support, enrichment and teacher contact,” Erwin says.
MORE: This 6-Year High School Challenges Everything We Thought We Knew About American Education
The extended hours certainly made a difference. According to Al Jazeera America, 95 percent of the senior class graduated from charter portion of the school, compared to only 61 percent of the larger Lincoln student population. Additionally, 82 percent of the first Lincoln Center senior class were accepted into two or four-year colleges, receiving almost $2 million in scholarships, the school says.
Based upon its success, the principal will be applying a modified extended-day approach to the entire student body. Every student will now be required to take honors classes and attend school from 7:30 a.m. to 3:05 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and Fridays at the former regular time of 2:05 p.m. The extra hour is meant for homework help and academic advising.
Al Jazeera America notes, however, that the expanded Lincoln Center model is expensive and controversial and has drawn opposition from staff members.
However, many feel that this approach is what’s best for the students. Although the students and teachers will be in school for longer hours, this experiment could help close the achievement gap for Lincoln’s mostly low-income student population (about 82 percent qualifying for free or reduced-priced meals).
“Our goal in all of this is to see your child graduate from high school and be prepared for college, work, or service to their country,” says Erwin in a statement. “We have seen rising levels of success over the years and by providing more support, more time, greater access to the best teachers in the state, we will see these desired results.”
[ph]
DON’T MISS: Are Community Schools the Key to Fixing Education?
This App From MIT Tells You How Much Solar Energy Your House Can Produce
As solar energy continues to become more available, more Americans are getting on board with the idea of taking their power off the grid and embracing more sustainable sources like solar panels.
But with that decision comes a lot of research. Individuals must find out just how expensive it might be and how much money installing solar panels actually saves, which can be a costly process if it involves seeking professional consultation.
Enter, Mapdwell.
Mapdwell, born out of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), helps individuals determine solar potential of their properties using massive data sets across cities including Washington, D.C., Boston and Cambridge, Mass.
The company taps into LIDAR data from aerial mapping flights to produce one-by-one meter resolution 3D models of landscape including the shape of a roof and surrounding greenery.
With up to 8,600 data points to illustrate, the maps then provide a rating of solar potential based on analysis and historical weather data. Users can also share visual components of the data with a systems installer.
“We had to show you all the information, which can be overwhelming, but you need to have it if you really want to make a decision,” CEO Eduardo Berlin tells Fast Company. “Many times designers want to communicate the minimum amount of information to get you interested. But in this case, it’s different.”
Mapdwell lets users simply enter their address to access the information, as well as helping design custom solar systems based on metrics such as price, energy and environmental impact.
“The challenge is: How can you get people interested? How can you get people informed and excited with all these little things that we can do. If I do it, and you do it, and your neighbor does it, it could really have a huge effect,” Berlin says. “…You can really empower change within a community by people having all this information — if you manage to get it to them.”
The technology is only available for a select few cities right now, but the company is planning to expand, as well as design similar systems for rainwater collection, small wind energy installations and green roofs at a city level.
While solar energy still only accounts for less than 1 percent of the country’s electricity, the potential of transitioning more people off environmentally harmful fossil fuels is evident. With the help of companies like Mapdwell, the process can move more quickly.
MORE: How Utah Stopped a Power Company’s Ridiculous Bid to Tax the Sun
[ph]
How Our Nation’s Capital is Improving Life for Commuters
On the heels of Apple’s unveiling of the new iPhone 6 and iWatch, Washington D.C.’s transit system Metro announced a new pilot program in line with the next wave of technology.
Metro’s new program will let riders pay transit fares with a smartphone, contactless credit and debit cards and other types of near field communication (NFC) devices like the iWatch. Starting in January, 10 Metrorail stations, six bus routes and two parking facilities will be outfitted with the new technology, but Metro officials plan to begin installing the new fare readers in October, according to the Washington City Paper.
“The main goal of this whole program is to eventually eliminate the need for people to convert their U.S. currency into Metro money,” says Metro spokesman Dan Stessel.
Officials contend the initiative is to make public transportation easier for both D.C. riders as well as tourists.
The nation’s capital is not the first city in the world to march toward contactless payment for public transit network. London’s bus system has already removed cash from its fare system, and the underground Tube is rolling out a new contactless payment program September 16.
But are days numbered for Metro’s old fare gates, vending machines and SmarTrip card program? Not anytime in the “foreseeable future,” according to city officials. If the pilot is met with success, Metro plans to install new fare readers across the entire transit system in 2017.
The city will begin recruiting around 2,000 participants for the pilot project this fall, encouraging residents who commute between the stations or along the bus routes included in the program to sign up. More details of the recruitment process are expected to be announced next month, according to Stessel.
MORE: Will California’s New Kill Switch Policy Reduce Phone Theft?
Why Tracking Students Post-Grad Can Help Improve Education and the Economy
We’re constantly hearing stories about college graduates drowning in student debt. But just as unsettling is the news that American students are falling behind in global rankings when it comes to finishing college and education mobility, according to a report from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD).
While it signals a need to focus on education policy, a new initiative is paving the way for better planning. States have long had a problem amassing accurate data on students as they move away with families, to pursue higher education or take a new job. But a multi-state pilot project from the the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), a regional organization comprised of 15 states and the Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, has revealed a way for more states to collaborate on student outcomes.
Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Hawaii participated in the WICHE project, which analyzed 192,689 students — including public high school graduates of 2005 and public college students from 2005 to 2011 across the four states.
“We’re all looking to educate and retain people in our states so that they can help the economy thrive,” says Peace Bransberger, a senior research analyst at WICHE. “You can only speculate until you have some information about students who have gone beyond your borders after you’ve educated them.”
Sharing cross-state data is no easy feat, especially when it comes to logistical, technical and political challenges such as student privacy. But the project enabled each of the four states to compare student outcomes while also taking note of how many students moved to one of the participating states for higher education or for a job. It also helped officials determine which local labor markets attract out-of-state candidates.
“There isn’t a lot of knowledge about what happens after a student competes (their education) in terms of labor market or employment because most states are relying on their own data only,” says Brian T. Prescott, director of policy research at WICHE.
While each state could have only accounted for around 62 percent using their own data, the multi-state approach allowed them to report on an additional 7 percent, according to Government Technology.
The $1.5 million project was backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and received an additional $5 million grant to expand the program to include at least six other states.
But aside from keeping track of student outcomes, the pilot project could provide educators with the tools for planning future policy. With additional data from other states, more lawmakers could learn about where residents are obtaining degrees or migrating for jobs, according to Paige Kowalski, director of state policy and advocacy for the Data Quality Campaign.
“This kind of data allows you to show them what actually happens or what policy is driving students in a certain direction,” says Andy Mehl, head of Idaho’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System. “It helps them be better informed about the decisions and the repercussions of what they’re doing.”
As parents and lawmakers recognize the urgency to design better education policy, perhaps more cross-state collaboration like the WICHE project could serve as a model in other regions.
MORE: Why Families Are Key to Transforming Education in America
Portland is About to Get Tons of Tiny Homes That Can Shelter the Homeless
On any ordinary night in Portland, Ore., an estimated 4,000 people sleep on the city’s streets or in shelters, according to the Portland Housing Bureau.
This year, as the Rose City passes its deadline for the 10 Year Plan to End Homelessness, a growing number of locals are growing frustrated with a lack of solutions.
Which is why local entrepreneur Tim Cornell decided to repurpose a project designed for Haiti and retrofit a blueprint for urban areas such as Portland. Cornell’s company, Techdwell, builds tiny, economical homes that can be assembled in just a day’s time with limited construction experience.
The houses, which include just a small kitchen, a bathroom and a couch that turns into a bed, costs about $12,000 to build and can also accommodate families, according to Fast Company.
Thanks to Cornell’s persistence, this type of residence may soon be available to Portland’s large homeless population in less than a year. After months of zoning processes and meetings with citiy officials and community boards, Techdwell’s plan is expected to pass a final zoning approval. Should the plan get the green light, the city will break ground on the first tiny home community in February 2015.
“I said, look, we can do a community — 25 homes, 40 homes — in an infill lot, making it look acceptable,” Cornell tells Fast Company. “Not a camp, not tents, but aesthetically pleasing. Just do something — here’s a plan that’s feasible.”
The company is already selling homes to individuals looking for a simpler way of life, with eco-friendly features including solar panels, rainwater collection and composting toilets. Cornell is also in talks with Washington state officials to start erecting homes for disaster victims in the wake of the devastation left from recent wildfires and floods.
Of course Techdwell’s model is not the first of it’s kind. Similar projects for homeless have cropped up in Wisconsin and Texas, as well as New York state.
As Portland’s decade-old program to help the homeless expires, maybe Techdwell’s vision is the key to a future plan that’s affordable and sustainable — increasing its chance of success.
MORE: Social Enterprise Incubator Hatches in Portland, Oregon
These Computer Science Programs Have Just What Women Want
The likes of Marie Curie and Jane Goodall may have set great examples for future female scientists, and it’s time that more women follow in their footsteps — especially when it comes to computer science.
For all the jobs available in the industry and programs to train workers for it, a mere 18 percent of computer science graduates in the United States are women. Can we balance out the gender gap amongst computer scientists? Some of the top institutions of higher learning have already started, according to The New York Times.
At Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, 40 percent of incoming freshmen are women, and almost a third of computer science graduates this year were women at the University of Washington. And that’s not all. Harvey Mudd College in California boasts that 40 percent of their computer science program enrollees are female and this year, more than half of their engineering school graduates were women — a first for the school.
As promising as these numbers are, these three schools represent only a fraction of the computer science programs in the country. The question remains – what’s their secret, and how can it spread to every school?
Unsurprisingly, there is no cure-all, but one general trend is helping out everywhere: With so many professional opportunities for computer science majors, the field in general is attracting more students — regardless of gender.
But what sets Carnegie Mellon, University of Washington, and Harvey Mudd apart is that they are grabbing potential students when they’re younger by promoting computer science at an earlier age. By hosting summer camps and training high school teachers to teach computer science, girls are more likely to gain exposure to the discipline and develop a lifelong interest in it.
Another tactic used by these schools is revamping their marketing and support systems. Harvey Mudd, for example, has featured female students in their brochures to show that it’s normal for girls to study science. “We made it very clear that being a female scientist, that’s normal,” said Maria Klawe, president of Harvey Mudd. Plus, the school now talks about computer science as a way to problem solve (as opposed to it simply being about technical coding), putting an emphasis on its practical applications.
At Carnegie Mellon, the requirement to have prior experience in order to enter the major was eliminated and an official student mentorship program was established. By removing barriers and easing the process of becoming a computer science major, more women are showing interest.
Good news is, this can be easily replicated elsewhere.
As Lenore Blum, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon told The New York Times, “I don’t think we’re doing anything that nobody else could do, but it has to be sustained and institutionalized.”
If other schools picked up some tips from this trend-setting trio, America could be well on its way to unlocking a whole new set of minds for computer science.
MORE: Can Google Crack the Code for More Female Computer Scientists?
This Service Dog Has a Mission Beyond Helping Just One Vet
For the past several years, we’ve heard a lot about veterans suffering from PTSD after returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan. And we’ve heard the stories about the various (sometimes interesting) methods to help them — from biofeedback to gardening to nudity. But one approach that’s helping thousands of soldiers is a basic one: Pairing them with man’s best friend.
Jake Fish of Port Angeles, Washington, was medically discharged from the Marine Corps in 1997. But in recent years, he continued to struggle with PTSD. Coming to his rescue was the service dog Megan, a two-year-old golden retriever, who was trained by the local nonprofit New Leash on Life.
New Leash on Life trains dogs and puppies left at the Clallam Humane Society to become service animals — ultimately providing them to veterans and people with disabilities.
Fish told the Peninsula Daily News, “The biggest thing about having Megan is that I’m not lonely. She gives me a feeling of companionship. I also know for a fact that she lowers my stress levels. She puts me in a good mood when I don’t want to be in one.”
As soon as Fish was paired with Megan, he began bringing her to the Northwest Veterans Resource Center, where he volunteers to help other vets access their benefits from the VA. Megan decided to volunteer for duty, too.
“Vets will come into the office, and we’ll start going over the paperwork, which means talking about all the vets’ pain and issues they have. It can get kind of tense,” Fish said. “Megan will get up from behind my desk and go to the person, and they just relax. She’s so happy and soft, they forget what they’re talking about that happened to them when they’re petting her. She lessens their anxiety of talking about stuff.”
“I feel like helping others as a service officer is a continuation of my duty,” Fish said. Megan clearly has figured out that helping more than just her veteran owner is a continuation of her duty, too.
MORE: This Organization Knows How to Simultaneously Save Veterans and Dogs
A New Museum Exhibit Educates About Disaster Preparedness
From ‘superstorm’ Sandy in 2012 to the countless forest fires that ravage the West every year, natural disasters are increasingly becoming a large part of American life. As a result, combating Mother Nature when she’s at her angriest requires not just innovation, but education, too.
That’s exactly what a new exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. aims to do, according to Next City. Organized into categories of earth, wind, fire, and water, “Designing for Disaster” is educating visitors about the history of disaster relief and prevention, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
Tales of large-scale projects such as flexible staircase joints at UC Berkeley’s California Memorial Stadium will surely draw in visitors, though it is the hands-on demonstrations and focus on everyday solutions that this exhibit is making the most difference with.
As the Washington Post writes, “The exhibit’s most compelling demonstrations show how innovative engineering solutions can reduce the impact of disasters and, in fact, already are.”
Whether highlighting family disaster plans, showcasing earthquake drills, or using an interactive feature to help visitors learn about the durability of different roof styles, Designing for Disaster is spreading knowledge.
As Americans flock to our nation’s capital during the summer vacation months, they can learn how others are preparing for natural disasters. And with that education, perhaps they can educate members of their own communities on how best to prevent future damage.
After all, while you can’t avoid Mother Nature’s fury, you can make sure you’re ready to meet it head on.
MORE: The Competition for Disaster Relief Funds Heats Up