In August 2014, the Democratic Republic of the Congo announced a case of Ebola. Since then, the outbreak has spread in West Africa, especially in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with concerns that it may affect other parts of the world. To help inform the public of this deadly disease, Learning Life offers the following five facts.
1) Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1976
The places and year the Ebola Virus were first discovered in a simultaneous outbreak, with the virus taking its name from the Ebola River in the Congo. Ebola has five identified virus species, with four being fatal to humans and the fifth (the Reston virus) only affecting non-human primates. Although the origin of the Ebola virus remains unknown, researchers believe it is animal-borne and that bats are the most likely culprit for its genesis. Since the discovery of the first Ebola virus in 1976, there have been sporadic outbreaks mostly contained to Africa. This current outbreak is the largest in recorded human history.
The common symptoms of Ebola. The average rate of appearance of these symptoms is between eight to ten days, but can occur anywhere between two and 21 days. An infected person will first develop a fever greater than 101.5 degrees fahrenheit, headache, sore throat, and muscle pains. Vomiting, bleeding, and diarrhea follow. While there are no vaccines available as a cure yet, treatments such as intravenous fluids and maintaining oxygen and blood pressure can help the recovery process. Once a person is recovered from Ebola, they develop antibodies that can last ten years or more, although it is not currently known if these antibodies protect from all species of Ebola or only the one recovered from.
These ailments share many of the same symptoms as Ebola, making Ebola diagnosis more difficult. However, if Ebola is suspected, there is an array of tests that can be given to a patient to confirm Ebola infection. These tests include antigen-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) testing, antigen-capture detection tests, electron microscopy, virus isolation via cell culture, and others.
The only way Ebola is spread. Ebola does not spread via air, water, or food. However, Ebola can spread on the surfaces of objects such as bedsheets and clothing, which is why it is important to take extreme precaution when around someone who is sick or any of other belongings. It is also possible to spread the virus once recovered from its effects, especially in men. The Ebola virus can, for instance, stay active in semen for up to three months after recovery.
These are two of the ways to prevent the Ebola virus from spreading. Washing your hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer and avoiding contact with any bodily fluids from another person will drastically reduce the chances of transmission of Ebola (and other viruses). Avoiding bodily fluids may include not directly handling any items that have come into contact with a sick person (e.g., counters, door handles, car steering wheels). It is also advisable to avoid contact with bats or non-human primates, including food prepared using them.
For much more information, visit the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention’s website devoted to Ebola: http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/
Trivia vs. Signia: A New Word for the English Language
We live in what has come to be called the “Information Age.” Often though, we don’t stop to think about the purpose and quality of the information that surrounds us in abundance. Not all information is equal though, and it’s time for the English language to have a word that can help elevate significant information.
Information has always been important to human understanding, action and progress. But we now live in an Information Age in part because the long trajectory of human history charts the growing importance of information as societies become more complex, requiring more accumulated knowledge to sustain them. Imagine, for example, the accumulated knowledge early human hunter-gatherers might have depended on to gather enough food to live versus that required to operate modern, international food systems moving massive amounts of food safely and efficiently from farm to factory to table.
We also live in an Information Age because of the advent of the computer and internet, and the movement these technologies have helped spur toward jobs that involve the production and processing of information and symbols. Journalists, writers, scientists, artists, software developers, engineers, consultants, marketers, producers, lawyers and professors are among those who form part of this growing class of what observers like Robert Reich (1992) and Richard Florida (2003) call the “symbolic-analyst” or “creative” class.
Observers of this “creative class” don’t typically parse the information this class produces, but it ranges widely from research on cancer or international relations, to gossip about who is dating whom in Hollywood. Moreover, the creative class is pumping out more and more information as it grows and as consumers and critics implicitly or explicitly demand that they be prolific and always current. This state of affairs has created what sociologist Todd Gitlin has aptly called a “media torrent” (2007), an ever growing quantity and diversity of information that is hard to absorb, let alone digest properly.
Most consumers are not in the habit of parsing trivial from significant information in the torrent, but at least some readily recognize that a lot of the information produced is relatively trivial, whether it is about what celebrities are wearing or who they are dating, the latest entertainment releases or plot developments in popular TV shows, the twists and turns of sport seasons, or else.
Of course, more significant knowledge is always available in the Information Age – via news articles and TV shows that report on economic and political developments local to global, radio shows and infographics that help make sense of current issues, science magazines that explore nature, books that nourish our imagination or illuminate human behavior, TV history documentaries that help us better understand our past, present and future, etc. Some of these occasionally garner significant public attention, but they generally do not compete with the glitter and glitz of more trivial, fast-moving entertainment.
I love entertainment. Given two TV screens, one showing who is dating whom in Hollywood, the other showing experts discussing the state of the economy or a world disease pandemic, my eyes will gravitate to the former. Anyone in the business of making money knows this about me and most other human beings. That is why the preponderance of information in the Information Age is more trivial than significant, and why people often know more about the former than the latter. Entertaining information will always attract people and thus thrive as long as there are people and there are businesses that make money from entertainment. But the balance of trivial vs. significant information in our environments and in our minds need not be so lop-sided. We can have an Information Age that nurtures more informed citizenship and less distracted consumerism.
The first step is to recognize the difference between trivial and significant information. Curiously, but perhaps understandably, the English language has the word “trivia” to denote insignificant information, but no contrasting word for significant information. In developing Learning Life I mean to introduce not just a new approach to public education, but also a new word to the English language. “Signia” means significant information, and it purposefully plays on the look and sound of the word “trivia.”
In introducing signia I am not arguing that all information is either trivial or “signial,” but rather that there exists a continuum from the most trivial to the most signial information. What is more or less trivial or signial information is indeed up for debate, and I introduce signia in no small part in order to encourage such debate. Nonetheless, I think most people can agree that there is a difference between knowing about who is dating whom in Hollywood versus knowing about the state of our economy, government or environment, or about who’s winning or losing in sports versus where and how disease is transmitted. Modern democratic societies have a present and long-term interest in recognizing and elevating signia over trivia to nurture more informed and engaged citizens.
The second step toward a signial Information Age is to think and talk about how we can promote signia, making it a larger part of more people’s lives. Learning Life offers one approach – spreading signia on everyday surfaces, like napkins, placemats, cup sleeves and posters, and connecting those surfaces to further learning online – but it’s by no means the only approach. So I invite everyone, not just the “creative class” but all citizens of the world who care about making our world a better place, to ponder and pursue these two questions:
What do you consider trivial, and signial? And, how can we innovate to spread signia more widely?
Florida, Richard. 2003. The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books.
Gitlin, Todd. 2007. Media Unlimited, rev. ed. New York: Henry Holt & Company.
Reich, Robert. 1992. The Work of Nations. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Intern Spotlight: Saniya Chitale
Special thanks to Learning Life Content Writer Craig Gusmann for drafting Saniya’s profile.
Born and raised in India, Saniya is now a student of the world. She began traveling at a young age with her family and her love of foreign cultures spurred her interest in analyzing international marketing trends.
After completing high school in India, Saniya moved to Madison, Wisconsin to begin her undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin, receiving her bachelor’s in industrial engineering in 2013. Upon graduating, Saniya moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue her passion for culture and marketing as a Master’s student in Communication, Culture & Technology at Georgetown University. She is now in her second and final year as a CC&T Master’s student at Georgetown.
This past summer, Saniya helped Learning Life research and draft a review of research on the use of surfaces like posters and billboards for advertising to or educating publics. She also assisted with social media promotion and research on competitors and potential partners.
Saniya was kind enough to answer some questions that shed light on her past, present and future.
Where were you born? Pune, India
What are your hobbies? My father has instilled a love of travel in me. I’ve been to Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia, and North America and hope to continue my travels after I graduate. I am fascinated by diverse cultures and hope to experience and understand the influence of culture on marketing. I also love scuba diving, sky diving, tennis, and swimming.
What is your fondest childhood memory? My fondest childhood memory was scuba diving through Australia’s Great Barrier Reef [the world’s largest coral reef system] was the most beautiful experience of my life. Sky diving, on the other hand, was the most thrilling experience of my life.
What does your future hold? After I finish my Master’s Degree, I hope to merge the two things I’m most passionate about: engineering and marketing. I would like to utilize technical and statistical methodologies to analyze market segments across the globe. I see marketing as an opportunity to study consumer behavior and how culture and technology influence the choices people make in terms of brand preference.
What drew you to Learning Life? Given my strong belief in education’s power to enhance an individual’s life and enable him or her to reach their highest potential, I was drawn to Learning Life’s idea of spreading education in such an unconventional way, on everyday surfaces like napkins and placemats.
Five Facts on Unemployment in the USA
When the United States entered a recession in late 2007, unemployment rose to its highest levels in 20 years. While the U.S. economy has slowly recovered, some questions remain ever important: How is unemployment measured? What are the causes of unemployment? Who is more likely to be unemployed? Learning Life presents the following five facts to help answer these enduring questions, and inform public discussion about unemployment in the USA.
1) 5.8%
As of November 2014, this was the national unemployment rate. The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts someone as unemployed if “they do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the prior 4 weeks, and are currently available for work.” Thus, those people who are unemployed and available for work, but have not actively looked for work in the past four weeks are not counted as unemployed.
As of September 2014, the unemployment rate for African-Americans (11%) versus White Americans (5.1%). Since 1954, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics began to keep detailed data on unemployment rates, White Americans have averaged an unemployment rate of 5%, while the average unemployment rate of African-Americans has been 9.9%.
The causes of this discrepancy are debated, but explanations include a skills gap between white and black Americans, their differing distribution or location in labor markets, and racial discrimination. Racial discrimination explanations include the “last hired, first fired” theory that proposes that in a good economy African-American workers are the last to be hired while in a bad economy they are the first to be laid off. According to the Pew Research Center, evidence does not support the idea that African-Americans are last hired, but there is “considerable support” for the idea that they are the first fired.
As of 2010, the percentage of young Americans without high school diplomas that were unemployed (33%) versus those with a bachelor’s degree (8%). In all, the unemployment rate for youth 16-24 years old was 26% in 2010, more than double that of “prime age” workers. The reasons for this discrepancy include levels of experience but also the types of industries in which young people often work. Many young people work in retail, leisure and hospitality industries that are sensitive to business cycle fluctuations such as seasonal sales and economic downturns.
The number of people in the USA who would potentially lose their jobs were there to be an increase in the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour in 2016, and then an adjustment in the wage based on inflation every year thereafter. However, if such a minimum wage increase were to take effect in 2016, low-wage workers would get an estimated $31 billion in increased earnings. This would move an estimated 900,000 people out of poverty.
The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25/hour, up from $5.15/hour in 2009. Some states have since enacted higher minimum wages.
The lowest and highest rates of unemployment in the United States since 1984. The unemployment rate hit 4.0% in 2000, while it hit 9.6% in 2010.
Unemployment can be due to a variety of factors. Economists organize unemployment causes into types, including the following:
Frictional unemployment: Unemployment caused by the time it takes someone to move between two events, such as moving from school graduation to a first job, or from layoff or firing to a new job.
Structural unemployment: When there is a discrepancy between the skills available workers have, and the skills employers need. Within structural unemployment, “occupational immobility” happens when workers face challenges learning the skills of a new industry. “Geographic immobility” refers to the hurdles workers face to move to where jobs are available. Technological change such as automation (i.e., when machines replace workers), and structural change such as the decline of an industry can also lead to higher unemployment rates.
Real wage unemployment: When workers’ wages become unsustainably high. This can happen in industries where there are too few available but necessary workers, or when employers and worker unions negotiate wages that are too high to sustain in the short or long-term.
Voluntary unemployment: When a person chooses to stay unemployed. For example, savings, spousal income, unemployment benefits, and/or the prospect of a better job may lead some to choose unemployment over a job with poor wages and/or working conditions.
Demand-deficient unemployment: When there is not enough consumer demand in an economy. This often leads companies to produce less, and to layoff workers.
1) Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, 1976
