text:
Would the 10th Mountain exist without Camp Hale?
Why the Strait of Hormuz is so important, in just 10 minutes
There's a single waterway in the world that pops up in the news every year or so and, right now, is popping up every week or more: The Strait of Hormuz. When I was deployed with Army Central, we received a brief from senior leaders that was all about the importance of this single strip of water. If you're still a little fuzzy on how Iran can pressure the rest of the world through such a small bit of water, here's a great primer.
Why the US and Iran are fighting over this tiny waterway
The video above is from Vox. We're going to highlight some details below, but you can understand the broad strokes just by watching that for 9.5 minutes.
The most important thing to understand is that one of the things that makes the strait so important is how small it is. There simply isn't another economical way to ship most of the oil out of the gulf region, and the strait is so small that even a small navy like Iran's can inflict serious pain.
It's sort of like the "Hot Gates" from the story of the Spartans at Thermopylae. But America is Xerxes and Iran gets to play King Leonidas.
A map shows the network of oil pipelines that carries gas and oil from Russia to the rest of Europe.
(Samuel Bailey, CC BY 3.0)
And oil is, even more than most other commodities, a resource that is extremely price sensitive and the markets are so fluid (no pun intended) that reducing supply anywhere increases price everywhere. Oil coming through the strait is destined for markets around the world, especially the Pacific and Europe.
So, take Europe for a moment. Now, it can get oil from a lot of places. Rigs in the North Sea provide plenty of energy, and pipelines from Russia pump fuel as far west as Germany, Italy, and even England. But all of those markets count on the Russian oil, the North Sea oil, and oil from the Strait of Hormuz. If the oil from the gulf is threatened in the strait, then buyers start competing harder for Russian and North Sea oil and that drives up prices quickly.
And that drives up the price of everything. Petroleum drives cars, heating oil warms homes, lubricants are needed for everything from vehicles to ice cream makers to door hinges. An interruption of oil in the strait threatens 20 percent of the world's oil supply, making everything more expensive and risking thousands of homes going cold.
But why is Iran willing to do this? After all, they are risking a new war by attacking tankers flagged by gulf and European countries.
Well, Iran needs sanctions relief, and right now that's primarily a problem between them and the U.S. Sure, Europe has a longer trading relationship with Iran, and it has protested losing access to Iranian markets and oil during periods of American-led sanctions. But Europe has proven time and again that in a power struggle between the U.S. and Iran, Europe is willing to step aside.
Targeting oil in the strait allows Iran to spread the pain to other countries. Europe is forced off the sidelines as its access to energy markets is thrown into disarray. China, India, Japan, and South Korea are all top-five oil importers, and America—at number two—is the final member of the big 5. All of them feel the crunch when oil prices climb.
But there's, obviously, a big risk for Iran. While China and Russia might side with Iran if only to counter American power, the rest of the world could easily decide that it's easier to back the U.S. in a power play against Iran than to endure Iranian agitation.
Here's how Iran could actually make good on the threat to close the Strait of Hormuz
Iran just threatened to do something it couldn't possibly do
US Ship Destroyed Iranian Drone Over Strait Of Hormuz, Trump Says
Iran seizes British tanker in Strait of Hormuz - BBC News
What's behind Iran's actions in the Strait of Hormuz? - Los Angeles ...
5 reasons bourbon is the most American drink of all time
Blake Stilwell
Bourbon is a liquor that has a place in your hand all-year round. Whether it's sipping a mint julep on a hot summer's day or spiking the egg nog (like George Washington might) to make Christmas with the family that much more fun (or bearable), there is just never a bad time for a bourbon beverage.
Despite being named for a house of French kings, there are myriad reasons why we should take a moment to take stock (literally and figuratively) of America's distinctive, home-grown, and distilled liquor.
And if you want to get technical, those French Bourbon kings helped George Washington and the Continental Army create America, so show some respect.
Bourbon's all-American status goes well beyond the fact that it's an American-born corn-fed whiskey created by a Baptist minister in Kentucky — although I can't think of a more American birth for anything.
Unless you can figure out how to get cheese, baseball, and apple pie in there, too.
A 1964 act of Congress made bourbon the official spirit of the United States of America, or as they put it, "America's Native Spirit." Which says a lot, both about America and the U.S. Congress… and probably the people who voted for them.
It should be noted that many, many great bourbons are Kentucky-based but it isn't necessary for a bourbon to be made in Kentucky for it to be considered a bourbon. This is not champagne we're talking about. The necessary qualifications for a whiskey to be a bourbon are as follows:
It's made with 51 percent corn.
It must be aged in a new white oak barrel, with the inside charred before adding liquor.
It can't have any color or flavor additives
Bourbon must be between 80 and 160 proof (40-80 percent alcohol)
There are real reasons why bourbon is a product that could only have been American-made. So, put that vodka-soda down, comrade, and get a bottle of Evan Williams for the coming July 4th holiday. Your friends and family will thank you.
Now if you want to drink bourbon like a sailor, try the classic Whiskey Smash!
American Oak repels British cannonballs while making an excellent liquor flavor. Amerigasm.
1. Those oak barrels are only found in North America.
Bourbon must be aged in a new American White Oak barrel every time. These barrels are never reused by bourbon makers. I think they're shipped off to Scotland so they can age scotch whisky in them with peat moss and haggis or whatever. No, America's bourbon only uses them once — by law (no joke) — and they're mostly found only in America.
When the U.S. Navy needs to patch up Old Ironsides, the USS Constitution, they use white oak from a grove specifically for the ship, called "Constitution Grove," at a Naval timber reserve at Naval Weapons Support Center in Crane, Indiana.
Both of them always make faces that imply 120 gallons was not enough.
2. Bourbon fueled the exploration of the United States.
Lewis and Clark didn't take water with them on the expedition to map the Louisiana Purchase, but you can be damn sure they remembered to bring 120 gallons of bourbon to fuel their two-year trek to the Pacific Ocean.
America runs in your veins, whether you like it or not.
3. American icons f*cking love bourbon.
What did Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Harry Truman, Walt Whitman, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, Jack London, Mark Twain, Anthony Bourdain, and John Wayne have in common? No, they weren't all taken over by the reptile aliens and replaced: They loved American bourbon.
When Grant's critics appealed to Lincoln to try and have him fired for his drinking, Lincoln offered to send Grant's preferred brand to all his other generals — and you can still buy Grant's favorite bourbon today. President Truman began every day of his life, even as President, with a glass of the hard stuff.
Even Winston Churchill loved American bourbon, which can be partly explained by the fact that the British bulldog's mother was American born.
Fear of the President of the United States leading an Army into your hometown: keeping people from being tarred and feathered since 1794… Probably.
4. The young U.S. Army ran on booze, not its stomach.
An army still needs to eat, but how do you pay for the food that fuels that army — or, specifically, the U.S. Army? It was excising taxes on distilled spirits for the fledgling United States that bought the guns and grub that defeated the British and put down rebellions (including the rebellion against the taxes) in the country's early years. Rum and whiskey can also take some claim for this, but it was bourbon that kept the country together in the war to come.
The face you make when you used to be a bartender but now you're President during the Civil War.
5. It was the glue that saved the Union.
When the border state of Kentucky remained in the Union, it allowed Abraham Lincoln to use taxes on distilled spirits to pay for much of the Union war effort. The Confederacy prohibited bourbon production because it wanted to use the corn to feed troops and the copper stills to make cannon.
Bad call.
Behind the misleading claims fueling America's bourbon boom
Bourbon & American Whiskey
The 13 Best Bourbons In America - Business Insider
Bourbon: America's Spirit | HowStuffWorks
See the moment HIMARS strikes a massive weapons cache
Operation Resolute Support has released a video from September 9, 2018, when Afghan National Security Forces reported finding a massive weapons cache in Helmand Province, where security forces and Taliban fighters have been clashing as the government gains ground in the area.
The U.S. forces supporting the Afghans agreed to help "reduce" the stockpile, but they didn't risk droves of explosive ordnance disposal specialists by sending them in to drag out all the explosives and destroy them one by one.
Nope, instead, they turned to rocket artillerymen, and had a high-mobility, artillery rocket system shoot at the cache. Then, they released the video with just the text:
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Sept. 9, 2018) – Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) conducted operations in Nad 'Ali District and discovered a compound containing a large weapons and explosives cache. In support of ANDSF maneuver, Task Force Southwest conducted a strike on the compound with HIMARS to safely and completely eliminate the hazardous material from the battlespace, degrading the Taliban's ability to conduct combat operations in central Helmand.
Soliders from Bravo Battery, 1-121st Field Artillery Regiment with the Wisconsin National Guard, fire M142 HIMARS Ripper rounds while training at Fort McCoy, WI.
(Fort McCoy Visual Information Branch Jamal Wilson)
The most common ordnance for HIMARS is either a pack of six unguided rockets or one guided missile. While the Department of Defense didn't specify which munition was used, the guided missile makes more sense for the mission. It's capable of high precision as long as it's fed accurate GPS coordinates.
And, judging by the massive explosion in the video, the round found its mark. The shockwave radiates out for hundreds of meters, so the weapon cache must've been massive.
The Afghan National Security Forces have pressed hard against the Taliban in recent months, and some of their victories have been dramatic. In one case, government forces defended the Farah district center with their bare hands and blades after a siege went on so long that they ran out of ammo and other supplies.
But many Afghan citizens remain angry and worried about the performance of their security forces, especially the logisticians, intelligence officers, and other support forces crucial for modern combat. In Farah, they yelled at Afghan officials about the long and obvious Taliban buildup before the battle and asked why the government forces weren't better supplied, reinforced, and prepared for the fight.
All of this comes amid new peace talks between the Taliban, the Afghan government, and the U.S. The war turns 17-years-old today if you count it from the 9/11 attacks that precipitated the U.S. invasion. The youngest Afghan voters can't remember a time without war between the U.S. and the Afghan national government and the Taliban and its allies.
Why even today artillery still has a key role in winning battles
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High Mobility Artillery Rocket System | Lockheed Martin
Traditionally, field artillery is known as the King of Battle. It's not hard to imagine why, either. Throughout the history of warfare, the ability to project firepower at a distance has always been one of the most important assets any commander could ask for, and time and time again, artillery proved its worth.
Even before the advent of the cannon, catapults and trebuchets hurled massive stones that could shatter castle walls, bringing sieges that could last for months to an end in a matter of days. Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus's effective use of artillery at the Battle of Breitenfeld proved decisive, especially once he was able to capture the enemy's guns and turn them against their own formations.
During the Battle of Guilford Courthouse in the Revolutionary War, the fighting grew so intense at one point that, in order to break up the fighting, General Cornwallis was forced to load his cannon with grapeshot, and fire them into the thickest part of the melee. Doing so killed many of his own men, but forced the lines to disengage. He would ultimately take the field, though at great cost.
Napoleon was famously fond of artillery and artillerymen, once remarking that God fought on the side with the best artillery. Generals and kings throughout history have heaped praise upon praise on the redlegs and their guns, but in recent years, people have started to wonder whether they were going the way of the cavalry charge: an increasingly useless anachronism, soon to be eliminated from modern armies the world over in favor of more modern technological terrors.
U.S. Army Soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 14 Field Artillery, 214th Fires Brigade, fire a rocket from a M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, Fort Carson, Colo., March 6, 2015. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nathan Clark/Released)
After all, they argue, we have bombers that can drop precision guided munitions of astounding power and accuracy. Cruise missiles can be launched from submarines and ships, and can be made to fly into a particular window. Why do we even need the guns and the peculiar breed of soldier that takes pride in calling themselves redlegs?
Well, for starters, all those planes and cruise missiles? They cost money. Lots of it. A single Tomahawk cruise missile costs upwards of a million dollars. Not only are bombers hideously expensive to fly, they suck up unbelievable amounts of money just sitting on the ground.
Meanwhile, a gun tube or a HIMARS or MLRS launcher is dirt cheap in comparison. They're relatively easy to repair when they break. Their crews also don't require months or years of highly specialized training. All they need is a few weeks of school, some experienced officers and NCOs to show them the ropes, some extraordinarily filthy pornography, and they're good to go.
And, unlike aircraft, they can sit in one place for more than a few hours without crashing into the ground. You can park a firing battery in the middle of nowhere, bring them in food and ammo on occasion, and they're perfectly happy. Well, not happy happy, since no redleg worth the name is ever truly happy unless they're dropping 155 millimeters of freedom on some poor bastard's head, but keeping them pissed off just means they'll kill more bad guys.
A U.S. Army Soldier from 1st Battalion, 14th Field Artillery, 214th Fires Brigade, Fort Sill, Okla., unfolds an antenna on an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems vehicle during a radio check, March 6, 2015. U.S. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nathan Clark/Released)
And, while they're sitting out there on a fire base in the middle of nowhere, troops on the ground have access to an on call resource that can put rounds on target any time, day or night, 365 days a year. They're not grounded because of bad weather. A cannon crew can put rounds downrange in conditions that would make even the ballsiest pilot think twice, and they can keep the heavy hate coming until all that's left of the target is rubble and slowly cooling chunks of meat.
They're also getting into the precision fires game, especially with the advent of GPS guided rounds. Sure, a HIMARS launcher might not be as sexy as an F/A-18, but both of them can place a whole lot of boom within a meter of a given target. And the HIMARS will be a lot safer doing it. There are a lot more fighter jets plowed into mountainsides than rocket launchers stuck in the sky, after all.
Though the world of warfare is evolving rapidly, there's just no replacing good old field artillery. Even though the future shape of the battlefield is as uncertain as ever, one thing remains constant: there will always be a need for cannon and the crews that fire them, and any general who says otherwise is in for a rude awakening.
How artillery actually kills you
How a plain old Cessna became a military legend
When you see them at airports, you probably don't give them a second thought. Cessna aircraft are very common and are, typically, privately owned. But what you may not know is that the United States military — and a fair number of allies — used basic Cessnas for nearly a quarter-century. In fact, these planes saw service in both the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
Now, the Department of Defense didn't call them Cessnas. Their official designation was the L-19 (later the O-1) Bird Dog. The Army ordered this plane in the wake of the 1947 divorce with the Air Force (and the establishment of the 1948 Key West Agreement). At the time, the Army was looking for a scout plane that could also serve as an artillery spotter.
The Cessna design was slated for introduction in December, 1950. Just six months before then, the Korean War broke out — and the artillery spotter, though effective in its primary mission, quickly proved capable of much more, handing a variety of missions ranging from medical evacuations to general liaison.
One of the most famous O-1s — this plane made a landing on USS Midway (CV 41) as South Vietnam fell.
(US Navy)
The Army and Marine Corps bought over 3,200 of these planes. While the planes proved useful in Korea, it was in Vietnam that they would become legends. There, the Bird Dogs were used by forward air controllers, or FACs, to accurately spot for close-air support. The jets bringing that support to troops on the ground were very fast. Without the guidance provided by the Bird Dogs (who had a much more clear view), they stood a greater chance of missing the intended target — in the worst cases, this resulted in landing air strikes on American troops.
The rockets this Bird dog packs aren't to kill the enemy – they just provide an aiming point.
(US Air Force)
In Vietnam, the Bird Dog also acquired some armament in the form of rocket pods. These weren't to attack enemy forces, but instead served as a means to mark targets for jets carrying the heavy firepower. Over 500 Bird Dogs were lost in Vietnam.
In 1974, the Air Force retired this plane, but it was passed down to other countries, including South Vietnam.
Watch the video below to learn how this unassuming airframe became a military legend in Vietnam!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=howlUgxqQ6Y
How Vietnam-era gun cameras showed another side of the war
This Dragonfly stung the Communists in Vietnam
O-1 "Bird Dog" toughest in the fight | Talking Proud
Warbird Alley: Cessna L-19 / O-1 Bird Dog
O-1 Bird Dog | National Naval Aviation Museum
Army-funded research nabs Nobel Prizes in chemistry and physics
Professor Frances Arnold won a 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for research initially funded by the U.S. Army in new enzyme production that led to the commercial, cost-effective synthesis of biofuels tested on the U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters in 2013, and are now approved by the aviation standards body for use in commercial aviation.
Arnold is only the fifth woman to win the prize in its 117-year history.
Gérard Mourou, a French scientist and pioneer in the field of electrical engineering and lasers, won a 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics for Army-funded research in fundamental physics that led to new developments high-intensity, ultrashort laser pulses which led to a number of commercial advancements from masonry, i.e., drilling tiny holes, to medicine's Lasik eye surgery.
With a modest single investigator grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory's Army Research Office in the 1990s, Arnold demonstrated the ability to modify an enzyme that provided robust native activity but at higher temperatures. Through a process of protein sequence alteration and selection, directed evolution stretches the boundaries of enzyme activity and function beyond what nature provides.
During this grant period, Arnold also developed a computational algorithm called SCHEMA which provides a means of improving molecular evolution searches toward targeted protein sequence alterations. Through SCHEMA, she demonstrated that this algorithm can be used to design variations of a model protein that confers functional diversity (e.g. enhanced activity, enhanced thermal stability, altered substrate specificity).
Dr. Frances Arnold, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry.
(California Institute of Technology photo)
In 2003, the Army began funding Arnold through the Army's Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies (AICB) in Santa Barbara. There, Arnold has utilized SCHEMA to design novel activities for a broad host of enzymes including activity and stability improvements in enzymes capable of degrading cellulosic biomass toward renewable fuel synthesis and developed new machine learning tools to enhance the selection of novel engineered enzymes.
Most notably, as a transition of Army basic research funding, Arnold co-founded a start-up company (Gevo) in 2005 that received its initial funding through the AICB applied research program. Gevo's business goal was to scale-up processing systems that utilize SCHEMA-designed enzymes incorporated into microorganisms for the cost-effective synthesis of biofuels. From these beginnings, Gevo developed into a business that is the world's only commercial producer of renewable isobutanol and in 2013, the US Army successfully flew the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk Helicopter on a 50/50 blend of Gevo's ATJ-8 (Alcohol-to-Jet).
"This recognition validates the way ARO pursues basic research," said ARL's Dr. Robert J. Kokoska, program manager in microbiology.
"Twenty years ago, an ARO program manager recognized a potentially unique and exciting approach that could change the way biology can be used to expand the possibilities and range of biochemical synthesis. As Prof. Arnold successfully pursued her vision in large part through this modest initial investment and then through the AICB, the Army can take great pride in knowing that it helped nurture this ground-breaking research which has provided valuable tools for enhancing the creativity of biologists and engineers within the Army research enterprise and the research community at-large. The exciting Army-impactful industrial biofuel transition further validates ARO's basic research investments," Kokoska said.
Dr. Gerard Mourou, Nobel Laureate in Physics.
(University of Michigan photo)
Arnold is the Linus Pauling professor of chemical engineering, bioengineering and biochemistry at the California Institute of Technology.
The Nobel Prize in Physics winner, Mourou, was initially funded while he was at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There, he created ultrashort, high-intensity laser pulses, called chirped pulse amplification, that were used to develop a positron source for positron spectroscopy. According ARO program manager Dr. Richard Hammond, this research will lead to new kinds of directed energy sources for the Army. Mourou continues his research at the Ecole Polytechnique, public institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, a suburb southwest of Paris.
"It is good the world recognizes the value of the research funded by ARO," Hammond said.
"This research opened the door to an entirely new kind of physics, both in spectroscopy to and high intensity physics interaction leading to directed energy include X-rays, neutron beams and beta rays. This work could lead to developments in new detection mechanisms of future failure of rotors in helicopters, finding voids in materials for electronic and photonic devises, and in radiation therapy," Hammond explained.
Arnold shares the prize in chemistry with George Smith, who developed a method known as phage display, where a bacteriophage — a virus that infects bacteria — can be used to evolve new proteins.
Mourou shares the prize in physics with Dr. Donna Strickland, of Canada, who is only the third woman to win the prize in physics.
This article originally appeared on the United States Army. Follow @USArmy on Twitter.
MIGHTY MILSPOUSE
Air Force Academy and the experiment of enlisted faculty
Enlisted airmen have been part of the Air Force Academy in both instructor and mentor positions. But now they have a chance to be considered full time accredited faculty teachers.
The Air Force Academy was established in April 1954 after several years of consideration. Long before the Air Force was its own branch of the military, senior leadership argued they needed a school that would be directly focused on the war in the air – they needed a place to train future airmen.
In 1948, a year after the formal establishment of the Air Force, the Stearns-Eisenhower Board was formed to study existing military academies. They concluded that the Air Force absolutely needed its own school and that at least 40 percent of all future officers should be service academy graduates.
It took seven years for leadership to reach a consensus on site location and to receive funding. In 1955, construction began on the Academy in Colorado Springs. That same year, the first class of 306 officers were sworn-in at a temporary site – Lowry Air Force Base in nearby Denver, Colorado. Lt. Gen. Hubert R. Harmon was recalled from retirement by President Eisenhower to become the Academy's first superintendent.
Women were allowed to enter the Academy beginning in 1975, and the first women cadets graduated in 1980. That flagship-class included the Academy's first woman, who would later be superintendent, Lt. Gen. Michelle Johnson. To date, the Air Force Academy has graduated more than 50,000 officers.
Since its inception, the Air Force Academy has provided a corps of officers dedicated to upholding the standards of their profession and of the Air Force. In turn, the Academy offers cadets the right kind of access to a diverse and varied faculty. Now that faculty is even more diverse than ever.
After its first year, the Air Force Academy says that having noncommissioned officers serve as faculty shows real promise, but there needs to be further evaluation to decide if it's worth keeping. The Academy is the first service academy that features enlisted service members as official faculty.
A report issued this summer, written by Chief Master Sgt. Sean Milligan and Senior Master Sgts. Ecaterina Garcia and Gloria Kuzmicki was released a year after the test pilot began. The Air Force reports that it will need several more years to explore the sustainability of the program, but initial findings are very promising – both for cadets and for the current faculty on staff.
The four enlisted Academic instructors, including the Chief mentioned above MSgt. Milligan, Senior MSgt. Garcia and Kuznicki, along with Senior MSgt. William Baez. Milligan manages the enlisted instructors and teaches part-time in the management department. Garcia teaches military strategy studies, Kuzmicki teaches leadership and behavior science, and Baez teaches intro statistics.
In a statement to Air Force Times, Milligan said that the program proves that the Air Force can select and hire appropriately qualified enlisted instructors to help increase faculty diversity. He went on to say that it seems like having an enlisted faculty component helps to have a positive effect on the cadets. The diversified faculty might also help cadets have a more collaborative learning environment, leading to greater career growth – not to mention significant experience with enlisted airmen.
The Air Force Academy created three enlisted teaching positions for the senior noncommissioned officers, all of whom hold advanced degrees.
After being hired, each instructor receives their department assignment and teaches classes relevant to their subjects of expertise. This initiative's main goal is to provide enlisted airmen who have advanced degrees with a chance to put their education to work while continuing to serve the Air Force.
The report concludes that cadets will ultimately be better served with a more diverse staff. It still remains to be seen how the program will continue to unfold, but it seems clear the Air Force is committed to providing the right proving ground for America's next generation of Air Force officers.
Senior NCO beats odds, fulfills dream of teaching - Air Force Academy
In a First, Enlisted Airmen to Be Hired as Faculty at Air Force Academy
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What it's really like for military families when troops are deployed
#WWIII, #NoWarWithIran, and other trending Twitter hashtags from the past week reveal the anxiety people across the globe are feeling amid near-boiling-point tensions between the US and Iran.
The US is sending 3,500 Army paratroopers to the Middle East, reports Tuesday revealed, adding more uncertainty — especially for military families.
To add to that distress, those being deployed have been told to leave their cellphones at home.
Eighteen-year old Melissa Morales is one of those family members caught off guard. Her twin sister, Cristina, is scheduled to leave Wednesday, she said in an interview with CNN.
"As her twin sister, it kind of hurts. It stings," she told the outlet.
Research shows deployment can have a very real psychological impact on family members, particularly military spouses and children.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Sean Mathis)
Among a range of feelings, studies have shown that families of deployed military personnel experience a range of challenging emotions.
Learning of a spouse's deployment can mean "emotional chaos."
A qualitative study of 11 women married to deployed Army Reserve military members had a heart-wrenching finding.
Nearly all of the women described the moment they learned their husband would have to deploy fell into a category researchers call "emotional chaos," or experiencing a range of emotions — like stress, disbelief, and sadness — all at once.
Partners of those deployed report higher levels of anxiety and stress.
One study of 130 US military spouses (68 spouses of non-deployed servicemen and 62 spouses of servicemen deployed to a combat zone) took a close look at stress.
Spouses of deployed servicemen had markedly higher stress scores than spouses of non-deployed service members, the study found. Additionally, anxiety levels were "significantly higher in spouses of deployed versus non deployed servicemen," the researchers found.
Spouses are at an increased risk for substance abuse.
UK-based King's Centre for Military Health Research collected data from 405 women in military families with at least one child.
Shared routines, rituals and set rules help keep members feeling stable and grounded.
(US Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Daniel Snider)
These women reported higher rates of binge drinking than women in the general population, 9.7% compared to 8.9%, respectively. They also reported higher rates of depression, 7% compared to 3%.
For parents, there's often no room for self-care.
When spouses deploy, many partners are left to take care of their families by themselves.
One 2018 study found that spouses report not having enough time to take care of themselves. As one participant said, when it comes to taking care of themselves, "Everything else comes first." Time to go to the gym and money to buy healthy food is nonexistent, they said.
Children are at a higher risk for depression and other psychosocial issues.
Kids with a deployed parent show higher incidents of lashing out, sadness, worry, and depression, a meta analysis of several studies shows.
Toddlers of deployed parents can experience confusion and separation anxiety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics writes on its blog that toddlers "may not understand why mom or dad isn't there for bedtime" and that school-aged children "may worry mom or dad will be hurt."
(U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Brad Mincey
A 2014 research analysis supports this finding, with author Dr. Suzannah Creech, a research psychologist with Veterans Affairs and a professor at Brown University writing, "For children, deployment-separation can bring a sense of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and absence."
Trouble sleeping and poor academic performance can weigh on kids.
A 2009 study that looked at children ages 5-12 with a deployed parent found that 56% had trouble sleeping and 14% had school-related issues.
Social support and therapy are proven to help spouses and children.
While these findings paint a grim picture, there is help out there for military families.
Studies show that factors such as increased social support and cognitive behavioral therapy, where people learn to challenge their patterns of thought, can greatly help families during and after a loved one's deployment.
Within military families individually, maintaining shared routines, rituals and set rules help keep members feeling stable and grounded. And regular family meetings before, during, and after deployment can be helpful, researchers report.
Editor's note: If you or someone you know is struggling, please call the US National Suicide Prevention Helpline anytime at 1-800-273-8255.
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This is Russia's improved airborne infantry fighting vehicle
Armored vehicles, like cars, get a makeover from time to time. Improved versions emerge, often as operational experiences and new technologies are assessed. One big proponent of this iterative process is Russia, which pays special attention to its infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.
For instance, let's look at the BMD series of airborne infantry fighting vehicles. These vehicles are intended to back up paratroopers with some heavy firepower. The original BMD, the BMD-1, was a hybrid between a light tank and an armored personnel carrier. And, just as they did with as the the BMP, the Russians made wholesale improvements to the BMD with each new iteration.
The BMD-1 featured a 73mm gun and the AT-3 Sagger anti-tank missile as its primary armaments. The BMD-2, however, used a 30mm automatic cannon and either an AT-4 Spigot or AT-5 Spandrel anti-tank missile.
The BMD-2 entered service in the 1980s, and featured a 30mm 2A42 autocannon as its main armament.
Why the shift from a 73mm gun to a 30mm? According to WeaponSystems.net, the reason was that the 73mm gun had… well, performance issues. To be precise, it was simply not as lethal as desired. The 30mm autocannon packed more punch, so it made the cut.
The BMD-2 can hold at least four grunts while packing iits lethal 30mm autocannon and a choice of anti-tank missiles.
(Vitaly V. Kuzmin)
The BMD-2 could also carry grunts, just as the BMD-1 did. Sources here differ on the exact configuration, but most say the BMD-2 carried four grunts and had a crew of three. That's a slight step down from the capacity of the BMD-1, but given the greater lethality of the vehicle, we'd call that a fair trade.
Oh, and the BMD-2 can parachute in, like the BMD-1.
The BMD-2 series got further upgrades to handle the AT-14 Spriggan anti-tank missile, also known as the Kornet. According to most sources, it never was exported outside the Soviet Union — but some say India was able to get their hands on a few.
Learn more about Russia's upgraded airborne infantry fighting vehicle in the video below!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otXAf7GtanY
Here's why we love the Bradley Fighting Vehicle (and so should you)
This is Russia's airborne combat armored vehicle
The USSR's Air-Dropped Fighting Vehicles Tore Through Cold War ...
Russia upgrades BMP-2 and BMD-2 IFVs | Jane's 360
BMD-2 Airborne Infantry Fighting Vehicle
This is how Sam Adams will help launch your vet-owned business
Do you love beer? Do you love money? Are you a military veteran who owns a business? Would you like to improve your business strategy and learn from experts through mentoring in essential business disciplines, such as social media, sales and distribution, marketing, and package design?
If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, then listen up. The StreetShares Foundation is teaming up with Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream to provide the military and veteran-community with access to capital and mentoring through StreetShares' Veteran Small Business Awards.
The StreetShares' Veteran Small Business Award will provide $100,000 in business grants to the chosen recipient in addition to educational resources and support. By connecting you with experts and hosting speed-coaching events all across the country, StreetShares gets to help you, a veteran and entrepreneur, succeed!
To apply, submit a video pitch and short application to the StreetShares Foundation website. In your application, be sure to include a business idea, how you'd use reward funds, how your product or service fits your target market, team and company history, and how your business impacts the military and veteran community.
(The StreetShares Foundation Twitter)
About the StreetShares Foundation
The StreetShares Foundation was launched on Veterans Day, 2016, with the goal of educating, inspiring, and supporting veteran business owners across America. The Foundation is run by veterans and is based just outside of our nation's capital.
"Research shows military veterans give back to their communities in powerful ways. But studies also show this special breed of entrepreneurs need coaching and better mentor networks," said StreetShares Foundation Board Member, Mark L. Rockefeller. "Our partnership with Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream addresses these needs head-on. Together, we'll provide community-impact veteran business owners with free coaching, mentoring, and grants to put their dreams in motion."
For more information, visit their website.
(Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream)
About Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream
Sam Adams Brewing the American Dream is a philanthropic program that embodies Sam Adams' pursuit for greatness by providing food and beverage startups with real-world business advice. Since 2008, they've provided coaching and loans to over 40 breweries across the country totaling more than id="listicle-2557006807″ million.
Samuel Adams - American Revolution - HISTORY.com
Samuel Adams | American politician | Britannica.com
Brewing the American Dream
How this soldier is finding his dream job through the US Army
Sit across the table from Spc. Sergo Dzamashvili for just a few seconds and you'll see a basic outline emerge fairly quickly. His manners and easy smile, the way he leans forward when he talks, and — not least of all, of course — his affection for Starbucks Doubleshot energy drinks make him the typical — almost archetypal — 30-year-old soldier; busy, eager, and always ready for the next task, the next challenge. But dig a little deeper and you will see, quite clearly, the details that color the world inside that simple sketch. To map the entire terrain, however, you'll need to travel some 15,000 miles.
"I always wanted to be a soldier," says Dzamashvili, sitting in the offices of the 21st Signal Brigade on a warm September morning. "When I was a kid that was always something I thought would be cool, being a soldier for the American Army."
Those words, and indeed his affinity for the Army and America as a whole, are repeated so often and with such calm conviction that he could almost double as a motivational speaker; one specializing, perhaps, in writing simple daily mantras for busy professionals to read on their daily commutes. Instead, Dzamashvili is a board-certified medical doctor who enlisted in the Army just last year, in early 2018. It's a commitment, he says, that doubles as a gift to the country that gave him opportunities he never would have had in his native Georgia — a tiny, still-emerging country located at the intersection of Western Asia and Eastern Europe.
U.S. Army Spc. Sergo Dzamashvili speaks with a coworker at his desk located in the offices of the 21st Signal Brigade.
(Photo by Mr. Ramin A. Khalili)
"Honestly," says Dzamashvili, "the reason I wanted to become an American soldier is because America has given my family everything."
The first 5,000 miles
"When I was born in Georgia," says Dzamashvili, reaching back to the late 1980s, "it was still part of the U.S.S.R. This was just before the U.S.S.R. split up, and so there was instability and there was upheaval … there was an ongoing fight for power."
It was that atmosphere of decline that Dzamashvili's father, Konstantin, sought to flee when he reached out to a friend living in Chicago for help in the early 1990s. Political and cultural strife in the country of — at the time — barely more than four million people had led to the breakdown of living conditions and, in some cases, the basic application of law. And so Konstantin, a neurologist by trade, was hoping America could provide safety for his wife, son, and young twin daughters.
"My father was waiting in breadlines for hours just to feed the family," says Dzamashvili. "So when he came here, it was for a better life."
But that opportunity came with a catch. In order to pay for his family's move to America, Konstantin had to travel to the U.S. alone first in order to save up enough money. He wound up bunking with that same buddy in Chicago for a year —eventually re-starting his medical career at 40-years old — before bringing the rest of the family to Illinois.
Says Dzamashvili of his father, "He was out there for a year, alone, while we were still in Georgia, until he had passed all his boards and started his residency program, which would then fund us coming over here."
And so at age five, Sergo was finally in the place he wanted to be all along … for a little while, at least.
Return to Georgia
For Sergo, it all started with his grandfather — his father's father. He was the catalyst, the inception point. He passed away when Konstantin was in his late teens and so Sergo never got a chance to meet him, but he did have pictures — volumes of mementos from Georgia.
"I would always hear stories about his bravery," says Sergo, "about what kind of man he was. From early on, I was always intrigued — the way he was standing there in his [military] uniform with all these medals."
Those pictures, coupled with Sergo's newfound affinity for the United States, stuck with him during his formative years and carried through to his entrance into medical school — which he ultimately chose to attend at David Tvildiani Medical University back in Georgia.
U.S. Army Spc. Sergo Dzamashvili (foreground, right) conducts Army Warrior Tasks (AWT) drills during the 21st Signal Brigade Best Warrior Competition 2019.
(US Army photo by Sgt. Raul Pacheco)
The decision to both leave home (to leave again, in a manner of speaking) and reconnect with family roots was daunting to say the least, as Georgia had been rife with the same political instability from Dzamashvili's youth up until pro-democratic forces rose to power in the mid-2000s. The tiny, burgeoning country was still — much like Sergo at the time — moving through its adolescent years.
There was contrasting comfort, however, in the medical training itself. Turns out Dzamashvili's chosen university not only came highly recommended from family friends practicing medicine in Chicago, it was designed specifically to cater to regional students who wanted to ultimately enter U.S.-based medical professions. To that end, all university textbooks were written in English and, further, the overall cost of schooling was substantially less than a U.S.-based medical education — all perks unavailable to his father just a decade-or-so earlier. Ironically, Georgia would eventually, in 2014, become home to the U.S. Army Medical Research Directorate-Georgia, a subordinate command of the USAMRDC's Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
"Going back to Georgia really brought me that perspective," says Dzamashvili. "There was a long time where my family wouldn't go back, even though we had a chance to go back in the 90s."
Just twelve years after touching down in America's Heartland — and just a few years after becoming an American citizen — Sergo was back on a plane at age 17 for a new and different journey.
Homecoming, part II
When you ask him how Georgians speak — ask about the language they use, the way they talk, the casual slang terms they use, even — Dzamashvili is quick to make it clear that Georgia is a singular and unique entity; a hard-fought identity that he clearly still respects.
"Georgians have their own language," he says quickly, almost as a sly-but-gentle rebuke to those who think the country may still be hindered by its turbulent past in any way. "They have their own alphabet, everything — and so I had to re-learn how to read and write, essentially, when I went back for school."
Dzamashvili's university stay would last for six years until his graduation in 2013; at which point he'd not only navigated the rigors of initial medical training, but had reached a poignant understanding of the country of his birth ("people there are very hospitable," he says), gained a greater understanding of the government's democratic efforts ("I see hope," he says), and, with regards to cultural differences, had also determined that Georgia had substantial culinary shortcomings as compared to the U.S. ("I did miss burritos over there," he says).
U.S. Army Spc. Sergo Dzamashvili assigned to HHC, 21st Signal Brigade, conducts M9 weapons qualification as part of the 21st Signal Brigade Best Warrior Competition 2019.
(U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Raul Pacheco)
Touching back down in Illinois, Dzamashvili eventually passed his medical board examinations, shadowed professional doctors, and even performed clinical research at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital. But when it came time for residency training, instead of waiting a year to attend either Loyola University of Chicago or the University of Illinois at Chicago, he opted for a different path: the U.S. Army.
"Screw waiting," says Dzamashvili of his mindset at the time. "I'm going to join the Army. I was always told the fastest way to get into the Army was to just go and enlist anyways, so that didn't bother me to go enlist for a couple of years as long as I got into the medical field."
Desire, meet destiny
Now, after thirty years and medical training efforts on two different continents, Sergo Dzamashvili is both a medical doctor and a member of the U.S. Army; his first assignment is here at Fort Detrick. His unique qualifications have bred an understandable eagerness to move forward — a chomping at the bit, of sorts — as, indeed, he's already started the process of entering the Army's medical occupation; taking the steps required to become a physician. But if you think the man who's waited nearly three decades to realize his dream is put off by a little time in the waiting room, then you don't know Sergo.
"My ultimate goal is to practice medicine in the Army," says Dzamashvili. "That's what I want, to give back. I'd like to serve for at least eight years, to give back that entire time in service."
Just how long it will take to reach that goal is yet to be seen, though it should come as no surprise that Dzamashvili has already attempted to plot the arc of his military medical career even before his training has been completed. Even now, serving as a Human Resources Specialist in the S-1 Office until his next assignment, he finds in each day's shift what so many others would gladly welcome into their own lives: a sense of purpose, the feeling of belonging, and the satisfaction of a job that truly has meaning.
In the end — if these kinds of stories can have an end — the service career of Sergo Dzamashvili is, in reality, just beginning. It would be an exaggeration, perhaps, to say that Dzamashvili has already lived multiple lives; though it wouldn't be such a stretch to say that's the truth, either. In any capacity, his life's work as currently constructed already stands as an impressive feat; a soldier coupling the desire to serve America with the talent required to make a lasting impact.
Not too bad for a typical 30-year-old.
Says Dzamashvili, "If there's nothing else I do in my life, I can always say I was a soldier. That's the way I look at it. If there's nothing else that I accomplish, I will always know that I served my country."
This article originally appeared on United States Army. Follow @USArmy on Twitter.
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Trump picks controversial general for National Security Advisor post
President-elect Donald Trump named three members of his national-security team Nov. 18, including his pick for Attorney General, CIA director and National Security Advisor.
Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn previously led the Defense Intelligence Agency. He retired after political backlash from his harsh criticism of the Obama administration's war on terrorism. (Photo from Defense Department)
According to multiple media reports, retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn was selected to be Trump's National Security Advisor, while Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions was chosen for the Attorney General slot.
Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo was asked to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Kansas Rep. Mike Pompeo was picked to head the Central Intelligence Agency. (Official congressional portrait)
Flynn, who had been a strong supporter of Trump on the campaign train and was a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, served in a number of posts during his Army career. He took part in Operations Urgent Fury and Restore Democracy, then served tours in Iraq and Afghanistan prior to taking charge of the DIA.
Flynn's service decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Bronze Star with three oak leaf clusters, the Meritorious Service medal with five oak leaf clusters, and the Army Commendation Medal with five oak leaf clusters.
Flynn's tenure as DIA director was marked by controversy, leading him to retire in August 2014.
Representative Pompeo was first elected to Congress in 2010 and was re-elected to his fourth term in 2016. Prior to entering Congress, Pompeo served for five years in the United States Army, reaching the rank of captain, then went to Harvard Law School before founding an aerospace firm and becoming president of an oilfield equipment company.
Pompeo has been an advocate of a hard line with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Pompeo has served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Select Committee on Benghazi.
Senator Sessions is in his fourth term, having first been elected in 1996. Prior to his election, he served as a United States Attorney for 12 years.
During his service as a U.S. Attorney, his 1986 nomination as a federal judge was derailed. Sessions later ran for Attorney General of Alabama serving two years before winning his seat in the U.S. Senate.
While best known for his tough positions on illegal immigration and border security, Sessions was the sponsor of the HEROES Act of 2005, which boosted the death gratuity benefit to $100,000, and upped Serviceman's Group Life Insurance coverage to $400,000. The legislation became law later that year.
Sessions served on the Senate Committee on Armed Services, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, the Senate Committee on the Budget, and the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. Sessions also served in the Army Reserve from 1973-1977, reaching the rank of captain.
Both Flynn and Sessions had been reportedly under consideration to serve as Secretary of Defense in a Trump administration. Had Flynn been nominated for that post, he would have needed a special exemption from rules mandating civilian leadership of the Pentagon.
5 misconceptions troops have about reentering the civilian world
That sweet, sweet DD-214 can't come soon enough. You've served your country honorably for all those years and now, finally, it's time to close that chapter of your life. You've either got some big plans for your life after service or you're just planning on winging it. Whatever the case, you're ready to hang that uniform up for good and move on, into the great unknown.
Not to sound like the exit briefing slideshows that they'll make you endure, but we've got to warn you: You've probably got a few misconceptions about what civilian life has in store for you.
Don't worry about telling everyone you were in the military. We know. We all know.
(Meme via Sh*t My LPO Says)
"I can just fall back into my old life"
Let's get the most obvious — yet somewhat depressing — misconception out of the way first: You've changed. You're not the same person that you were when you stepped on that bus to head out to Basic/Boot Camp. And to be entirely honest, you've probably grown better for it.
But at the same time, the world didn't stop spinning while you were gone, and others have changed in your absence — for better or for worse. Your family and your old friends have adapted to you not being around for years. They've developed hobbies, relationships, and interests without you, so jumping back in might just feel… odd. Hell, even your old job has carried on in your absence.
It's not going to be easy, so just ease your way back into civilian life. Accept that the world is different now.
And don't forget your references. You know your boys back in the military will talk you up.
(Meme via Pop Smoke)
"My skills won't translate to civilian life…"
Over the years, you've perfected the art of putting your mind to tasks and getting them done. By now, your work ethic is probably phenomenal and you're highly mission oriented. That just so happens to be a skill that every employer wants — but it's not the only skill they'll want.
When building a resume, pick aspects of your service and let those shine, too. For example, being an infantry squad leader taught you personnel management skills. Being a medic gave you skills in property accountability and acquisitions. Stuff like that.
If you feel, in the bottom of your heart, that your passion lies in underwater basket-weaving, you be the best f*cking underwater basket-weaver this world has ever seen. Maybe don't lock yourself into crippling debt to get there, though.
"I'll be 100% student loan debt free"
One of the key selling points of military life was the GI Bill and the promise of a tuition-free college experience. Now, don't get me wrong: If you play your cards right, this might be exactly what happens. But know the GI Bill won't cover your expenses at just any school.
If your plan is to go through a technical school or a smaller college, outstanding. Carry on to the next misconception. If you've got your mind set on a specific career path, look into exactly how much assistance the GI Bill can offer you. Then, evaluate if it's worth taking out a sizable loan to pursue your goals.
If there's anyone who's earned the right to chase after their dreams, it's a veteran who's given the world their all.
You don't have to hide all of your military bearing. Just know when to turn it on and off.
(Meme by CONUS Battle Drills)
"Civilian coworkers are going to be garbage"
You've spent years knowing that an individual's failure has consequences for the entire unit. Many civilians don't have that same kind of all-for-one way of thinking. They'll see working hard at this job as a stepping stone to something bigger and better down the road. You will encounter blue falcons in the civilian world — but they aren't all bad.
Many civilians are genuinely good people who just aren't as loud as we tend to be. Some people legitimately want to help everyone succeed.
Keep the a**holes at an arm's length, but don't shut out everyone and adopt some sort of "holier than thou" mentality because of your service. In short, don't be a civilian blue falcon.
You'll be the odd duck — but at least your stories are funnier.
(Meme via Shammers United)
"I'll never find friends like I did in the military…"
The tiny ray of sunshine is that you won't be alone in this world. Just as you'll find some co-workers to be good, decent people, you're sure to find good friends, too. Open up a bit and try to socialize.
And if worst comes to worst and all civilians annoy you, you can always find the nearest VFW or American Legion and hop in for a beer or two. Vets tend to befriend other vets fairly easily.
5 of the biggest ways you can still be a boot after service
6 disappointing things new recruits discover after basic training
5 of the worst misconceptions to have when joining the military
Do you have less than a year left of military service?: Vets.gov
US Military Veterans' Difficult Transitions Back to Civilian Life and ...


Audrey and Jackson both had their well child checkups this week, and the doctor was pretty amazed by what she called Audrey's "receptive skills." If you've spent any time around Audrey, you understand what that means. From early on people have commented on how she just seems to have a greater sense of understanding. We are both constantly amazed by what she understands from the way she answers questions to following instructions.
Here are a few more recent pics of Audrey. Like we said, she loves trying to figure things out...like this puzzle.
As always, there are a few more pictures in the album.


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Judge rejects request to release Trump's tax returns under freedom of information laws
By Veronica Stracqualursi and Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 7:17 PM EST, Tue December 18, 2018
A federal appellate court has rejected a non-profit organization's attempt to obtain President Donald Trump's tax records from the Internal Revenue Service by filing a Freedom of Information Act request.
DC Circuit Court Judge Karen Henderson wrote that the President should be afforded the same privacy rights as any other citizen.
"This case presents the question whether a member of the public – here, a nonprofit organization – can use a FOIA request to obtain an unrelated individual's tax records without his consent," Henderson wrote in a opinion on behalf of herself and two other appellate judges. "With certain limited exceptions – all inapplicable here – the answer is no."
Previous presidents have released their tax returns as a matter of course, but Trump has resisted making his records public, both as a candidate and in office.
Henderson wrote that the President's tax returns are protected by the IRS.
"No one can demand to inspect another's tax records," she wrote. "And the (Internal Revenue Code's) confidentiality protections extend to the ordinary taxpayer and the President alike."
The decision in the DC federal appeals court affirmed the prior decision of a trial-level judge rejecting the freedom of information suit filed against the IRS by the nonprofit Election Privacy Information Center (EPIC) in 2017.
The nonprofit sent the IRS a FOIA request shortly after the 2016 election seeking Trump's tax returns stretching back to 2010 "and any other indications of financial relations with the Russian government or Russian businesses," according to Henderson's opinion.
The IRS declined the FOIA request and a subsequent request from EPIC, leading the nonprofit to sue the IRS.
The ruling won't end efforts to win the release of Trump's tax records.
House Democrats, including members on the House Ways and Means Committee, have said one of their priorities will be requesting the disclosure of the President's tax returns.
A New York Times report from October found that Trump helped "his parents dodge taxes" in the 1990s, including "instances of outright fraud."
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump broke with candidate norms and declined to release his tax returns for public review.
Trump has repeatedly claimed he cannot release his tax returns because he's under audit by the IRS. Being under audit by the IRS, however, does not preclude someone from disclosing their tax returns.
CNN's Donna Borak and Sophie Tatum contributed to this report.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


An election for the office of Mayor, Councilor for Ward 1 and Councilor for Ward 3 will be held at the November 6, 2018 General Election.
Candidates may file for these positions beginning on Wednesday, May 30. The last date to file for positions is by 5:00 PM, Tuesday, August 28, 2018.
Be a resident of the City of Astoria since May 6, 2018 AND be a resident of the ward for which you are filing.
The City Charter and ordinances allow for signatures in lieu of a filing fee. An approved and completed petition must be filed no later than 5:00 p.m. on 8/28/18.
Candidates may file beginning on Wednesday, May 30, or at any time before August 28, 2018 at 5:00 p.m.


He had only one eye and his arm was dangling by a thread. But four year-old Hannah loved Bear. Bear always accompanied her to Sunday School. One day her teacher suggested the class pray for people who were sick and hurting. The children prayed for hungry children around the world, sick relatives, and broken relationships. Hannah put her arms around poor, tattered Bear. She prayed, "Dear Jesus, please make Bear better."
Then Hannah had such a good time at church, she forgot Bear and left without him. One of Hannah's teachers, who heard her prayer took Bear home and "healed" him. She replaced both eyes with pretty new buttons and sewed the arm back on. When she gave Bear back to Hannah on the next Sunday, Hannah was filled with joy. "God fixed Bear," she said.
What Hannah would later understand about God, is that sometimes he heals directly; other times he uses people like her Sunday School teacher, throughout life's journey, to sew our bears together and help mend our broken lives.
1. When has God used someone in your life to help you with a burden?
2. What characteristic of God do you see in James 1:17 and Matthew 7:11?
Show us your constant love, O LORD, and give us your saving help. I am listening to what the LORD God is saying, he promises peace to us, his own people, if we do not go back to our foolish ways. Surely he is ready to save those who honor him, and his saving presence will remain in our land.
Love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will embrace. Man's loyalty will reach up from the earth, and God's righteousness will look down from heaven.
The Lord will make us prosperous, and our land will produce rich harvests. Righteousness will go before the LORD and prepare the path for him.


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Ukraine: The critical moment has arrived
Putin has laid all his cards on the table — and we mustn't be cowed by the bluster of a bully who knows he's losing.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former owner of one of Russia's largest oil companies | Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images
By Mikhail Khodorkovsky
October 4, 2022 4:03 am CET
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a former political prisoner and CEO of Yukos Oil company, is the author of "The Russia Conundrum: How the West Fell for Putin's Power Gambit – and How to Fix It."
When declaring the annexation of Ukraine's Luhansk, Donetsk, and parts of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin showed characteristic contempt for the truth. The announcement followed sham referenda reflecting Putin's brand of democracy — where voting takes place at gunpoint and the outcome is predetermined.
Delivered amid deranged bombast regarding the "satanic" West, this was Putin's latest attempt to regain the initiative and deflect attention from the fact that he's losing his disastrous war — to a humiliating extent. Announcing the mobilization of 300,000 reserve troops last week was as close as he could come to admitting he's losing. And the now familiar threats to use nuclear weapons can also be seen in this context.
Evidently, the critical moment has arrived.
Pro-secrecy ruling opens floodgates to dark money
By Julia Wallace and Ilya Lozovsky
Safeguarding Europe's economies
Putin has laid all his cards on the table — and we mustn't be cowed by the bluster of a bully who knows he's losing. Instead, we must intensify support for Ukraine and give it what it needs to ensure Putin's defeat. Simultaneously, the West must also take steps to support and incentivize members of the Russian population dissenting from the Kremlin's latest abominations, to hasten his defeat at home.
As it stands, Putin's forces are now incapable of holding the line without massive reinforcements.
According to some estimates, since the start of the invasion, the total of Russia's fallen and wounded could be as high as 100,000 to 150,000 — roughly the size of the total initial invasion force. And Russia's generals have repeatedly, even publicly, insisted they cannot accomplish the goals they have been given without a serious increase in personnel. Their desperation became clear when footage emerged of Putin crony Yevgeny Prigozhin scouring Russian prisons for contract fighters to enlist.
And though the new mobilization answers the generals' request, it creates a whole host of other problems — both military and political.
Up until now, Russian society's support for the war in Ukraine could be defined as "apathetic non-interference." It was a matter for the Kremlin to deal with, and it didn't affect them directly. But the mobilization has blown this wide open, sending shock waves throughout the population.
Previously, authorities had been able to balance the not-entirely-voluntary use of conscripts with the offer of generous handouts if they were wounded or killed. For this purpose, they started with those from Russia's poor periphery, but they've now exhausted this pool of cannon fodder.
After mobilization, the war in Ukraine is no longer something far away for ordinary Russians.
Hence, the hundreds of thousands of Russian men of fighting age desperately trying to flee the country. Why would these men wish to stay and be sent to face the horrors of war — a war that serves no purpose other than the agenda of a corrupt regime? Why would they want to become war criminals, corpses, or both, simply to protect the wealth, power and pride of Putin and his gangster cronies?
Moreover, drafting 300,000 is just a first step. Currently, people from all of Russia's regions and social groups are receiving mobilization draft notices, and it's likely that over a million will have been drafted by the start of next year.
But saturating the front lines with poorly trained, and even less motivated, mobilized troops won't lead to greater military "success." It will be unmanageable, and the expected losses will be catastrophic.
Russian society's ability to tolerate tens and hundreds of thousands of dead conscripts is not a given. As time goes on, passive forms of protest, such as draft evasion, will increase. And as losses mount and the number of deserters rises further still, protest will begin to take more aggressive forms.
Then, there are also the more medium-term domestic risks for the regime, like the emergence of at least tens of thousands of individuals in Russia who have deep but thus far restrained grievances with their lot in life, now with weapons, training and experience in using them. Moreover, this group won't only be comprised of Russians but also the armed separatists from Ukrainian regions Putin has now "annexed," and to whom he has granted citizenship.
If, and when, Ukraine's army penetrates the front, stopping this armed "Russian" horde from retreating into the Russian Federation and heading through the adjoining regions to Moscow won't be possible. The historical precedent of 1917 may provide a template, when the rollback of troops from the front in World War I led to the fall of the regime and the Bolshevik takeover.
All of these risks may have been what held Putin back from mobilizing sooner, but the situation at the front is now out of control. Mobilization, sham referenda and vainglorious declarations of annexation are acts of desperation and weakness, and the West must choose how to respond.
One response to mobilization could be for European countries to grant asylum to draft dodgers. Ukraine could also provide asylum for Russians who wish to fight on the Ukrainian side or otherwise support its war effort too.
At the same time, however, Ukraine needs weapons, and it's down to every country with the ability to do so to provide them. It's particularly vital to increase the supply of weapons capable of taking out distant command and logistical centers.
But no matter what, now is not the time for the West to soften its resolve in the fight against Putin — it's time to step it up. There is no "escape ramp" to offer him; no elegant way of enabling him to declare victory. Those pushing such "solutions" don't understand Putin — or worse, they're advocating a policy of appeasement against a fascist dictator to try to reduce their gas bill.
Instead, by far the most efficient way to put an end to Putin's energy blackmail and nuclear threats would be a further rout of his invasion force. That's why the world must now back Ukraine's forces with greater intensity than ever before.
More from ... Mikhail Khodorkovsky
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Aid and development Asylum Crisis Energy prices History Kremlin Military Russian politics Security War War in Ukraine


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Political Risk in International Business: What is it?
In recent times, the increased levels of interconnectedness that exist throughout the world have allowed more small and medium-sized enterprises to take advantage of opportunities to do business internationally. Operating internationally allows SMEs to grow and increase their sources of revenue.
Operating internationally is no longer just something for large corporations. Many businesses, nowadays, at least have the potential to move towards international operation and more and more SMEs are doing so. Meanwhile, they are also learning how to overcome the new problems that they encounter as a result.
Bound specialises in dealing with one significant risk that is posed to businesses that operate internationally. That risk is currency risk, which is the risk that changes to the exchange rate can cause money to be lost.
Another significant risk that businesses also face is political risk.
What is Political Risk In International Business?
Political risk is the risk that a firm could lose money to political events that take place in a foreign country in which it operates. Government actions and political unrest in that country can all impact a firm's operations and profitability by making it more expensive, more difficult, or even impossible to reach its original objectives.
Some forms of political risk, such as the potential for a government to nationalise industry and to take ownership of a firm's assets without compensation, are (to some companies) potentially severe.
While political risks are often directly related to government activity, that is not always the case. Civil unrest is an example of a political risk that occurs in spite of a government's attempts to maintain stability. Widespread riots, for example, could impact a business by disrupting supply chains and other business networks.
While a high level of political risk is more often associated with doing business in developing countries, it also exists in developed countries as well. While it may take a different form in developed countries it is still sometimes a significant risk. The impact that Brexit has had on overseas firms which operate in the UK is an example of a political event in a developed country causing financial disruption to foreign-based firms.
The term political risk is closely related to country risk. However, country risk refers to the risks associated with doing business in a particular country.
Political risk is often divided into macro-level risk and micro-level risk.
Macro-Level Political Risk
Macro-level risks are risks that are not associated directly with operations conducted by a firm. Macro-level risks affect businesses and citizens across a country and can also be events that have a regional or global impact. Macro-level political events will often alter the overall suitability of a country for investment. A country going to war or deciding to separate into smaller territories are all obvious examples of macro-level political risk.
Micro-Level Political Risk
Micro-level risks are risks that are more directly associated with operations conducted by a firm. These risks usually affect specific companies or areas of the economy. Tariff introductions, government regulations to specific industries, or initiatives that are designed to favour local businesses are all examples of micro-level political risk.
What is Currency Risk?
As we mentioned earlier, currency risk is another significant risk that internationally operating businesses face. This is the risk that a change in the exchange rate will cause a business to lose money.
The most common form of currency risk is known as transaction risk and is a simple form of risk. This is the risk that a company will commit itself to a future exchange of currencies that, when the time comes to complete it, will have to be done at an unfavourable exchange rate.
The simple risk is that in the time between a company agreeing to complete a transaction in a foreign currency and the money actually changing hands, the exchange rate could change for the worse. When currencies are then exchanged for the transaction, profits can be reduced or, if the transaction is a purchase, expenses can be higher than anticipated.
Bound specialises in providing fast, effective and simple ways to eliminate currency risk. By using financial products provided by companies like Bound it is possible for companies that operate internationally to have complete certainty about the exchange rate that they will be able to receive for long periods of time.
In many cases, it is possible to both eliminate the risk of an unfavourable change to the rate having an effect while still leaving the possibility of benefiting from a favourable change to the exchange rate.
What are the Main Types of Political Risk?
While there are a huge number of potential political risks for businesses that operate internationally, these are some of the main ones…
Government Expropriation
Perhaps one of the more intriguing forms of political risk is expropriation by the local government. Expropriation is when a government takes control of private assets and can affect businesses as well as individuals.
As we mentioned earlier, one potentially serious risk is the risk that a government could seize an entire business operation. Known as nationalisation, there are various reasons why a government may choose to take ownership of a business. In some cases, this is done without any compensation being given to the foreign company which has made an investment.
In many cases, international businesses will choose not to invest in a country where nationalism is likely to take place. However, it can take place unexpectedly or happen to businesses that have operated in a country for a long period of time.
One incidence of government nationalisation happened in 1972 when the socialist government of Chile, led by Salvador Allende, nationalised the operations of various US companies (Anaconda, Kennecott, and Cerro) that existed in the copper mining industry. In order to do so, the government had to modify the Chilean constitution.
Forced Divestiture
In some cases, a national government in a foreign country in which a business operates may force the business to sell off part of its ownership of a local business operation.
Asset Confiscation
Again, in some cases, local governments may choose to confiscate particular assets owned by foreign companies. If no compensation is provided, the company may face a significant financial loss and could also face difficulty in conducting its business operations without important assets.
Gradual Expropriation
As well as taking place suddenly and obviously through nationalisation, forced divestiture or asset confiscation, expropriation can also take place more gradually.
In gradual expropriation, a local government will gradually seek to effectively seize a business. Gradual expropriation can take many forms but often involves increasing taxes on profits, increasing property taxes, or the introduction of barriers that prevent normal operation.
It may be that political events that take place in a country make it impossible to keep a contract held by a foreign company. Rather than there being any targeted action against a company, as with government expropriation, sometimes events just make it impossible to continue doing business. A change to local laws, for example, that is not enacted to target a company may make it impossible for a company to meet its original contractual obligations.
Transfer Restrictions
In many cases, changes to local laws may hamper a business by making it difficult to transfer essential things in and out of the country. Limitations can be imposed on the transfer of things such as specialist staff, capital, and equipment and this can hamper business operations.
Similarly, sanctions may be imposed on a country that could hamper the ability of a foreign company to import commodities or other things that it requires as part of its business operations.
Currency Restrictions
In some cases, a government may decide to impose regulations on its currency. For example, a government may choose to ban the conversion of its local currency into foreign currencies. This particular rule is often introduced in developing countries in order to provide a level of exchange rate stability. With locals unable to participate in the foreign exchange market, the government is able to have a high level of control over its currency's exchange rate at times of economic instability.
Where restrictions such as this are introduced, it can make it difficult for a business to operate. For example, if a company has earnings in a foreign currency that it is unable to convert it into its own domestic currency it will be unable to repatriate its profits. In the long term, there are ways around this problem (such as using an alternative currency for business operations), however, restrictions like this can still seriously hamper a foreign-based company.
Terrorism, War and Unrest
Some other examples of political risks that can cause serious disruption are war, terrorism, and civil unrest. If a company invests in a country that subsequently goes to war or faces a serious level of civil disorder through terrorism or civil unrest, they may find that they struggle to or are unable to conduct business operations. In some cases, the networks on which a business relies will be seriously damaged for a long period of time.
The Arab spring that started in the early 2010s is a good example of civil unrest that led to widespread economic disruption. Businesses that operated throughout the Middle East were seriously affected by the events which unfolded after the initial protests and are still affected by them as they continue to take place today.


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Single Malt Report: Bruichladdich Links, Old Course St. Andrews 17th Hole
Disclaimer, first: This whisky may have gone bad in the mini-bottle, though it is difficult to tell since this malt's reviews vary so widely.
Bottle shot, second:
Odd white sediment floating in the bottle, third:
In 2003, Jim McEwan -- Master Distiller and Production Director at Bruichladdich -- began releasing a series of Bruichladdich Links single malts in order to celebrate two of the most famous of Scottish recreations: Whisky and Golf. There appears to have been about a dozen of these releases so far, the first of which is The Old Course St. Andrews. The well-detailed bottle and tin art of the course's 17th hole is courtesy of artist Graeme Baxter. This particular single malt was aged for 14 years in refill Spanish oak, then had a limited 12,000 bottle release.
Those are the facts as per other reviewers online. Bruichladdich itself has no information about any of the Links releases on their website, but then again they've produced a wide variety of whiskys and most of those are absent from their site as well. But I don't think they'd be in any hurry to detail this release.
Distillery: Bruichladdich
Brand: Links
Maturation: refill ex-sherry Spanish oak
Limited Bottling: 12,000
Chill-filtered: No
Caramel colored: No
Color -- Light yellow gold
Nose -- Oaky, bland, and bready up front. Then old beer vomit, Atlantic Ocean, plastic toys, and a vegetal note (possibly peat).
Palate -- Barley water and cardboard lead the way. It is considerably bitter and dry with a mild sweetness. Smaller notes of tree bark, urine?, potpurri, and old hard dried up raisins at the bottom of the SunMaid box
Finish -- Bitterness first, then acetone and sea salt.
Color -- Great oils and clouds
Nose -- It reminds me of a blend: muted oak and malt. It's a little farty, cardboardy, with simple syrup.
Palate -- Something synthetic like toasted toys, a plastic version of cilantro, along with unfiltered sourness.
Finish -- Identical to the palate.
IF my mini was not screwy, then this could be a good example of 'Laddich dispatching a number of inherited crummy casks. Aside from the synthetic notes aroused by the water, it's a bitter but sleepy whisky.
IF my mini was contaminated in some way, I recommend you take a look at Jordan's Chemistry of the Cocktail review as well as Ruben's review on WhiskyNotes. I lean much closer to Jordan's take.
My apologies if this report is as bland as the whisky. I was so underwhelmed by this malt that I dumped half the booze down the sink. But let's end on an Up note. The best part of this whisky? The mini tin's top serves as a perfect Glencairn cap! See the glass on the left in the pic below.
Availability - Europe, though only at "collectible" prices now
Pricing - $200-$350 (yup)
Next up is another Bruichladdich malt that was sampled alongside this one. It fared MUCH better...
Labels: Bruichladdich, Drinking, Reviews, series, Single Malt Report, Whiskey, Whisky
Eric April 2, 2013 at 6:21 PM
That white sediment looks like bits from the cardboard on the inside of the cap (all screw-tops have this to keep the whisky from contacting the metal).
Michael April 2, 2013 at 7:22 PM
Could have been. Too bad I already tossed the bottle or I'd check for it. The mini was packed with packing peanuts, but they were all intact. Plus the styrofoam chunks would have had to squeeze their way into the well-sealed bottle (the fill was to the very top of the neck).
Jordan Devereaux April 2, 2013 at 7:51 PM
The sour wine notes I got out when I tried made me think that it was just a lousy sherry cask. Standards probably weren't too high in the late-80s when it got produced and they might have loaded up a sherry cask that had sat around for too long and went off somewhere in transit. It seems like some of the improvements in single malts lately has been due largely to better wood management.
I agree about the standards then and now. Should this malt then not have become one of McEwan's ACEing experiments? This may be one of the few examples wherein I'd champion a winey (whiney?) finish.
Single Malt Report: Bruichladdich Links, Old Cours...


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BILL HIRSCHMAN and KELLIE PATRICK Education WritersSUN-SENTINEL
Volunteer Lucille Lipkin perched on a stool behind the teacher's desk and carefully checked to make sure students had correctly identified the bacteria on their biology quizzes.
That left Olympic Heights High School teacher Michael Klein free to review the finer points of viruses with his class of 37.
"With class sizes [like this), every instructional second counts," said Klein, grateful for a volunteer to help grade papers and set up lab activities at the school west of Boca Raton.
"It gives me a great deal of satisfaction," Lipkin said of the four to five hours a week she works with teachers and parents of students who are not fluent in English.
Freeze that scene of the West Boca retiree committed to improving education in Palm Beach County.
Multiply it. Not scores or even hundreds of times. But thousands of times. And growing.
It's not just tutoring. It's tens of millions of dollars in cash, merchandise and expert advice that eclipse the old notion of bake sales and chaperoning.
During the past five years, a surge in volunteerism has transformed the manner, depth and breadth of citizen involvement in education in Broward and Palm Beach counties.
"Years ago, it was more like chaperoning field trips, holiday parties and things where now, I think they're doing more academics and classroom assistance," said Shelley Parpard, Palm Beach County's volunteer coordinator.
Fueled in part by dissatisfaction with the quality of education, a groundswell of volunteer parents, retirees, municipal officials and business leaders has surged through the two counties.
Consider the 1989-90 school year in Palm Beach County: More than 3,400 residents volunteered about 240,000 hours of service.
Fast forward seven years: The annual figures topped 872,000 hours and 15,000 volunteers.
At the going rate for volunteer work, that is worth $10 million.
Those figures do not take into account the fastest growing aspect of volunteerism: Hundreds of Palm Beach County businesses and organizations contribute scholarships, advice, expertise and underwrite everything from awards dinners to field trips.
It does not count Palm Beach County's American Red Cross, which trains volunteers to teach first aid and water safety to students.
It does not count officials in a dozen cities who are mentoring and providing other services to the schools.
The city of Boca Raton's involvement ranges from allowing students to shadow city officials and employees to paying the salaries of more than half a dozen before- and after-school program workers.
Mayor Carol Hanson lets Boca schools auction off a day with the mayor as a fund-raiser. She shows students the fire department, police department and the water and sewer plant.
"I think it's important for them to know where you get water at and what happens when you flush your john," Hanson said.
Hanson said the city does not have much choice but to get involved in Boca Raton schools: "If we weren't, it wouldn't get done. There is just not enough money to go around." The scope of volunteerism now requires full-time staffers to coordinate it in Palm Beach and Broward.
And to develop more of it. Volunteerism has become an essential part of public education at a time when tax dollars are already stretched.
"It's become very helpful to have those extra hands, eyes and ears working individually with students," Parpard said. "Many schools have really come to count on the volunteers being there."
Schools have also come to count on the money that parent volunteers help raise. Without them, some schools would not have playground equipment and would have fewer computers and library books.
There are still bake sales and parents chaperoning field trips and shelving library books.
But most volunteers prefer projects inside the classroom where they can see the result of their labor.
"I'm interested in kids," said Lipkin, who was the administrative assistant to a New York City school superintendent before she retired. "I'm helping out so that their education is better."
Often that translates into mentoring children at risk of dropping out: matching one adult with one student for tutoring and counseling.
It provides "role modeling just by volunteers being there and caring" and demonstrating that public service is valued, said Parpard.
Many businesses aim to transform the fabric of education rather than one child at a time.
In Palm Beach County, BellSouth created a computer site that enables homebound or hospital-bound students to continue with their coursework by modem.
Educators save special praise for companies like First Union Bank of Florida, which gives every employee, not just parents, four hours a month of paid leave to any education-related activity, ranging from consulting with your child's teacher to tutoring someone else's child.
South Florida's population continues to grow, but the hours contributed in schools has grown twenty times faster.
Over and over, volunteers say the primary reason is a renewed desire to improve their community.
"You just see the need . . . there are so many sad stories out there. If you can do something, you might make things a little better," said Mike Bonner, a community banks sales manager for First Union Bank.
Hundreds of volunteers have no children in school.
An increasing number of Palm Beach County's retirees are volunteering, Parpard said.
"A lot of them are working with literacy. Some retired engineers are working with math and science classes," Parpard said.
Volunteerism began to flourish in 1991 when state education officials listed reform-minded goals called Blueprint 2000. One required community involvement in decision-making, especially putting parents and business leaders on advisory committees at each school.
Parents became more alarmed, and more vocal, about emerging issues such as boundary changes that ignored parents' wishes, racial inequities in busing, and overcrowding that forced students to eat lunch in shifts that began in midmorning.
The second wave swelled about four years ago with the Florida business community.
"The business community's perception was that we had a failed system, that we had a flat tire, that the district could not do the job," said Roy Rogers, vice president for housing developer Arvida and the leader of several education programs.
Business leaders in Palm Beach County volunteered to join district committees to audit the district's finances and deal with school construction issues.
Scores of business executives joined the WorldClass Schools champions program sponsored by a consortium of business groups. The organization trained them to become knowledgeable activists for reforming the education system.
First Union Vice President Donna Waldron explained, "We would give an entry-level test of reading and writing skills to tellers, and only 40 [percent) to 50 percent would pass it. . . . That's when we realized we had to get involved."
Toyota, Ford and General Motors feared graduates could not handle the sophisticated computerized diagnostic equipment that were becoming standard in repair shops. So they provided schools with the equipment and training to give students the experience that will make them worth hiring.
Municipal governments joined in. Fort Lauderdale Assistant City Manager Pete Witschen said the redevelopment of eastern Broward, which is attracting new residents and businesses, requires schools that are perceived as the equal of those in the west.
One more reason for the growth is that school district superintendents Joan Kowal and Frank Petruzielo made public involvement an institutional priority, their colleagues say. Petruzielo created a department just to develop partnerships with businesses and he solicited residents to serve on task forces.
"There was a new focus on them from the top that wasn't there. [Partnerships with business) became an integral part of the School Improvement Plans," said Nina Randall, director of Broward's Partners in Education.
Much of this stemmed from school officials' realization that society wants schools to do far more than ever before, especially providing social services _ more than it can accomplish itself, said Merrie Meyers-Kershaw, Broward's administrator developing programs with businesses.
If schools benefit, so do volunteers like Lipkin who are looking for an opportunity to improve the quality of education.
"I just want to give something back to the community," he said.
West Boca Raton


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Beranda Fisika Partikel Universitas Cosmology for Particle Physicists - An Introduction
Cosmology for Particle Physicists - An Introduction
By Radiant Medica Pi On Saturday, April 01, 2017
Over the past two decades Cosmology has increasingly become a precision science. That the Universe is expanding was an astonishing discovery. Now we know its details to unprecedented precision. An expanding Universe also implied an extremely compact state in the past, and therefore very high temperature. The Particle Physics forces which can now be explored only in accelerator laboratories were in free play in the remote past. Thus the observation of the oldest remnants in the Universe amounts to looking at the results of a Particle Physics experiment under natural conditions.
https://pixabay.com/en/galaxies-interacting-universe-stars-597905/
In these notes we present a selection of topics, each section approximately amounting to one lecture. We begin with a brief recapitulation of General Relativity, and the Standard Model of Cosmology. The study of Cosmology requires General Relativity to be applied only under a highly symmetric situation and therefore it is possible to recast the essentials as Three Laws of Cosmology.
The study of very early Universe brings us squarely into the domain of Quantized Field Theory at given temperature. Intermediate metastable phases through which the Universe passed require an understanding of the effective potential of the field theory in a thermal equilibrium. This formalism is developed in some detail. The remainder of the notes discuss important signatures of the remote past.
These include :
(i) inflation,
(ii) density perturbations leading to galaxy formation,
(iii) study of hot and cold relics decoupled from the remaining constituents, some of which can be candidates for Dark Matter,
(iv) finally the baryon asymmetry of the Universe. As we shall see each of these has a strong bearing on Particle Physics and is being subjected to ever more precise observations.
General Theory of Relativity : A Recap
Special Theory of Relativity captures the kinematics of space-time observations. On the other hand, General Theory of Relativity is a dynamical theory, which extends the Newtonian law of gravity to make it consistent with Special Relativity. In this sense it is not a "generalization" of Relativity but rather, a theory of Gravity on par with Maxwell's theory of Electromagnetism.
It is nevertheless a very special kind of theory because of the Principle of Equivalence. The equivalence of gravitational and inertial masses ensures that in a given gravitational field, all test particles would follow a trajectory decided only by their initial velocities, regardless of their mass. This makes it possible to think of the resulting trajectory as a property of the spacetime itself. This was the motivation for introducing methods of Differential Geometry, the mathematics of curved spaces for the description of Gravity. Due to this "grand unification" of space and time into a dynamically varying set we shall use the convention of writing the word spacetime without hyphenation as adopted in ref. [8].
Throughout these notes we use the convention h = c = 1 and the sign convention \(ds^{2}=dt^{2}−\left | dx \right |^{2}\) for the spacetime interval in Special Relativity. The principle of General Covariance states that a given gravitational field is described by a metric tensor gμν a function of spacetime variables collectively written as \(x^{μ} ≡ x, t\). Gravity modifies the spacetime interval to the general quadratic form \(g_{μν}\,dx^{μ}dx^{ν}\), where the summation convention on same indices is assumed. The trajectories of test particles are simply the shortest possible paths in this spacetime, determined by the metric tensor through the geodesic equation \[\frac{d^{2}x^{\mu}}{d\tau ^{2}}+\Gamma _{v\rho }^{\mu }\frac{dx^{\nu}}{d\tau }\frac{dx^{\rho }}{d\tau }=0\]
where the Christoffel symbols \(\Gamma _{v\rho }^{\mu }\) are given by \[\Gamma _{v\rho }^{\mu }=\frac{1}{2}g^{\mu \lambda }\left ( \frac{\partial g_{\nu \lambda }}{\partial x^{\rho }}-\frac{\partial g_{\nu \rho }}{\partial x^{\lambda }} +\frac{\partial g_{\rho \lambda }}{\partial x^{\nu}}\right )\]
These symbols are not tensors but determine the covariant derivative much the same way that the electromagnetic potentials which are themselves not gauge invariant determine the minimal coupling of charged particles to electromagnetic fields.
The equations which determine the gravitational field, i.e., the tensor \(g_{\mu\nu}\) itself are the Einstein Equations, \[G_{\mu \nu }-\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }\equiv R\mu \nu -\frac{1}{2}g_{\mu \nu }R-\Lambda g_{\mu \nu }=8\pi GT_{\mu \nu}\]
where Tμν is the energy momentum tensor and the Ricci tensor Rμν and the scalar curvature R are the contracted forms of the fourth rank tensor the Riemann curvature, given by .... to be continued
Reference [8]
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