Senate Committee Releases Findings on CIA Detention and Interrogation Program

Posted by & filed under Hot Docs, Keeping Tabs.

CIA sealThe Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has released the “Foreword,” “Findings and Conclusions” and “Executive Summary”—a total of over 500 pages—from its Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agency ‘s Detention and Interrogation Program. The full report is more than 6700 pages long and remains classified, although it is an official Senate report.

This report is highly critical of the CIA’s actions following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, accusing the agency of responding to the national crisis by initiating a program of indefinite, secret detention and the use of brutal interrogation techniques that violated U.S. law, treaty obligations, and basic human values.

Additional views by six individual committee members accompany the released consensus summary.

Minority views and Additional Minority views were also presented by several senators who disagreed with the methods and conclusions of the report.

The CIA has responded with a Statement from Director Brennan on the SSCI Study.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

November 11 is Veterans Day

Posted by & filed under Special Days.

On November 11 we honor the many selfless men and women who have risked and often sacrificed their lives for our freedom. Here are some ways you can show your appreciation for their service.

The U.S. flag is flown on Veterans DayPresidential Proclamation

Read the Presidential Proclamation announcing Veterans Day 2014.

National Veterans Day Ceremony

The National Veterans Day Ceremony occurs each year on 11/11 at 11 a.m. at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Many regional observances also occur throughout the country.

Veterans Day Deals for the Troops

Many restaurants and retailers are offering Veterans Day discounts or free meals to service members and veterans. Some offers even extend to family members. This is a partial list of discounts and other deals available to veterans, compiled by the Veterans Administration.

Teaching Materials

The National Education Association has a collection of Veterans Day teaching materials for Grades K–5. They include lesson plans, activities, a bibliography of children’s literature, and other resources.

Another teacher resource guide is available from the Veterans Administration. It includes activities, historical and statistical information, illustrations, a directory of veterans service organizations, information on flag etiquette, and more. It was created in 2009 but still contains many valuable resources.

History of Veterans Day

Although World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 18, 1919, the fighting had ceased several months earlier when an armistice went into effect on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of the year 1918.

  • On the first anniversary of this cessation of hostilities, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the first celebration of “Armistice Day.”
  • In 1926 the U.S. Congress passed a concurrent resolution urging the annual commemoration of Armistice Day with displays of the flag and other appropriate ceremonies.
  • In 1938 an act of Congress made November 11 an official national holiday.
  • In 1945 World War II veteran Raymond Weeks proposed expanding Armistice Day to honor all American veterans, not just those who served in World War I. A law was passed by Congress in 1954 to establish the new holiday, and shortly thereafter the law was amended to change the name from “Armistice Day” to “Veterans Day.”
  • The Uniform Holiday Bill of 1968 arranged for four national holidays (Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Columbus Day) to be celebrated on Mondays every year so as to ensure a three-day weekend. Many Americans were not pleased with this decision, and in 1975 a law was passed to restore the observance of Veterans Day to November 11 of each year, beginning in 1978.

Read more about the history of Veterans Day at the Center of Military History Web site and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Web site.

Would You Like to Know More?

You can find other Veterans Day resources at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Web site.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Photo of U.S. flag from the Veterans Day Poster Gallery on the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Web site.

A Halloween Playlist from the National Jukebox

Posted by & filed under Data about Databases, Special Days.

The Library of Congress, in cooperation with Sony Music, has made available to the public a vast collection of historical recordings—the largest ever made publicly available online.

Nipper the dog listening to "His Master's Voice"On May 10, 2011 they officially launched the National Jukebox, a Web site that provides public access to over 10,000 recordings made between 1901 and 1925 by the Victor Talking Machine Company, still famous today for their advertisements featuring the dog Nipper listening to “His Master’s Voice” on a wind-up gramophone. These historical recordings are now owned by Sony, which has granted license for the Library of Congress to stream them online. Recordings available on the National Jukebox include not only music, but also spoken word recordings such as poetry and political speeches.

Through the additional cooperation of the University of California, Santa Barbara, these recordings can be searched online via cataloging data provided by UCSB’s Discography of American Historical Recordings database, itself an expansion of their earlier Encyclopedic Discography of Victor Recordings database.

Also available on the National Jukebox site is an interactive digital facsimile of the 1919 edition of the Victrola Book of the Opera. This tome was developed as an advertising gimmick, but contains much valuable educational information. It includes descriptions and illustrations of over 100 operas, and the online version links to recordings of excerpts from each that were available from Victor Records. Some of these recordings were made by such early 20th century luminaries of the operatic stage as Enrico Caruso, John McCormack, and Geraldine Farrar, while others are popular overtures and instrumental arrangements.

Here are a few holiday-themed tricks and treats from this vast collection to keep you entertained during the Halloween season:

Article by Bobby Griffith.

“His Master’s Voice” painting by Francis Barraud from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Early Voting Available on UNT Campus for Denton Voters

Posted by & filed under Local Doings, Make a Difference.

The official election day is November 4 this year, but UNT students, faculty, and staff who live in Denton County will have an opportunity to beat the crowds and vote early in the November 4, 2014 General Election without even leaving the Denton campus. Other voters from the community who are registered in Denton County will also be allowed to vote early on the UNT Denton campus.

Time and Place

From Monday, October 27 to Friday, October 31 the UNT Libraries, in cooperation with the Denton County Elections Administration, will host an early voting booth in Room 142 of Sycamore Hall. The voting area will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Visitors can park on campus for a fee.

Candidates and Issues

A Voter’s Guide from the League of Women Voters of Denton is available to help you become a more responsible voter by learning about the candidates and issues being voted on. Some of the more contentious local issues include an initiative to ban hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within Denton city limits, and a local option to allow the sale of all alcoholic beverages, including mixed drinks, in Denton. There are also several bond programs coming up for a vote.

Learn more about the upcoming elections at the Denton County Elections site and the Texas Elections Division Web site.

Don’t Forget Your I.D.

Don’t forget that now that a new Texas voter I.D. law has been passed and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, you must now present one of the following forms of photo identification in order to vote:

Vote Texas

Information about voter registration, voting rights, special needs, and other issues related to voting in Texas is available at the Texas Secretary of State’s VoteTexas.gov page.

Contact Julie Leuzinger if you have any questions.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Celebrate Constitution Day at UNT

Posted by & filed under Local Doings, Special Days.

"The Constitution," by Barry Faulkner

During the hot, muggy summer of 1787, a Grand Convention was called together at the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia for the purpose of revising the Articles of Confederation, which had proved a highly unsatisfactory document for holding the United States together during the first 13 years of the young nation’s existence. While waiting for enough delegates to arrive to make a quorum, James Madison took the initiative of drawing up an initial proposal to get the discussion going: the so-called Virginia Plan.

Benjamin Franklin almost lets the cat out of the bag.The delegates had a complex, delicate task ahead, and precautions were taken to insure secrecy so that everyone would be able to speak his mind honestly and change his mind freely as discussions progressed. Heavy curtains were drawn, and windows were nailed shut. The notoriously bibulous and garrulous Benjamin Franklin was accompanied during public excursions by chaperones charged with making sure he wouldn’t inadvertently reveal too much. James Madison took extensive notes of the debates. Over the next four months the delegates sweated, argued, and struggled with the task of devising a system of government adequate to meet the needs of a new nation. They didn’t just revise the Articles of Confederation; rather, they produced an entirely new document from scratch, perhaps overstepping the bounds of their original mandate.

James Madison, Father of the ConstitutionOn September 17, 1787 the final draft of the Constitution of the United States was signed by 39 of the 55 delegates. The document was then sent to the states for ratification while James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay campaigned for acceptance of the new constitution in a series of articles and essays that were eventually compiled and published under the title The Federalist. Their arguments—plus the promise of a Bill of Rights enumerating certain personal freedoms not explicitly provided for in the Constitution—proved persuasive, and the new Constitution went into effect on June 21, 1788, after New Hampshire had become the ninth state to ratify it.

Constitution of the United StatesIn commemoration of these momentous events, Congress has designated September 17 as Constitution Day. All schools that receive federal funds have been charged with providing educational programming related to the Constitution on or near September 17.

In celebration of Constitution Day, University of North Texas students, faculty, staff, and visitors are warmly invited to enjoy trivia, prizes, and a free pocket Constitution (while supplies last).

Join us on the UNT Library Mall from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. and at the Eagle Commons Library in Sycamore Hall from noon to 3:00 pm.

Pocket-size U.S. ConstitutionPocket-size editions of the U.S. Constitution will be distributed at the following locations:

This event is sponsored by the following UNT departments and organizations:

Contact Julie Leuzinger for more information.

Quote by James Madison at the Library of Congress

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Photos of the U.S. Constitution and Faulkner mural from National Archives and Records Administration.

Cartoon from NT Daily (September 17, 1987).

Photo of James Madison quote from Library of Congress.

“The Star-Spangled Banner” Turns Two Hundred

Posted by & filed under Is that a Document?, Special Days.

Flag that flew over Fort McHenryTwo hundred years ago, while the American lawyer and Sunday poet Francis Scott Key was negotiating the release of certain prisoners from the British during the War of 1812, circumstances compelled him to remain on board a British ship and watch helplessly as Fort McHenry was bombarded during the Battle of Baltimore on the night of September 13 through 14, 1814. Heartened by the sight of the American flag still waving the following morning, Key was inspired to write his most famous lyric, “Defence of Fort McHenry,”  set to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven,” a popular British drinking song of the day.

The song has four stanzas, although most Americans are familiar with only the first, which asks a question but does get to the answer. Nowadays even extended performances almost always skip over the embarrassing third stanza, in which Key—a slave-owner himself and as District Attorney a frequent prosecutor of those who would speak out against the practice of slavery—has the nerve to jeer at the “hireling[s] and slave[s]” who had joined the British forces in order to secure their own blessings of liberty from lives of slavery and oppression. Even in Key’s lifetime the hypocrisy of these lyrics made them a target of parody.

Land of the Free, Home of the Oppressed

Still, the song gained in popularity, especially during the nationalistic fervor of the Civil War, and by the end of the century “The Star-Spangled Banner,” as it had become known, was one of the most beloved of American patriotic songs and had become accepted by the armed forces as the de facto national anthem, in spite of its allegedly unsingable melody. Several other songs vied with Key’s for the position of official national anthem, including “Yankee Doodle,” “America,” and especially “Hail, Columbia.” There was even a contest for a new anthem that produced such dreadful proposals that we can be grateful to the committee that they did not designate a winner.  In 1931, over a century and a half after the founding of the United States of America, Congress finally made things official and designated “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem.

Learn more about the origin and history of this song at the Smithsonian Institution’s online exhibit.

Read about the history of the song’s melody in The Music of The Star-Spangled Banner from Ludgate Hill to Capitol Hill, an article by William Lichtenwanger that was first published in the July 1977 issue of the Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress.

Listen to a jaunty arrangement for brass band that gives a sense of how it probably sounded in Francis Scott Key’s day. The printed sheet music for the first printed edition combining words and music is available online from the Library of Congress.

Listen to the official arrangement used by the U.S. Armed  Forces Bands on the Internet Archive. An official edition of the conductor’s score and individual instrumental parts of this arrangement is available in the Government Documents collection in the UNT Eagle Commons Library.

Band music for "The Star-Spangled Banner"

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Photo of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry from the Smithsonian Institution.

Political broadside illustration from HarpWeek American Political Prints, 1766–1876.

Photo of score and parts to instrumental arrangement by Bobby Griffith.

Portrait of Francis Scott Key attributed to Joseph Wood from Wikimedia Commons.

World War I Posters from the UNT Libraries Digital Collections

Posted by & filed under Data about Databases, Is that a Document?.

WWI posters display at UNT LibrariesThe UNT Eagle Commons Library has just put up a display of World War I posters that are featured in our Digital Collections. The display is accented by toy soldiers from UNT Library employee Bobby Griffith’s private collection.

As a fun way to see if the students looking at our library displays, we have placed a note in the display that if a student is interested in getting a toy soldier of their very own, they can ask for one at the Eagle Commons Library Service Desk.  We will be giving out one soldier per day, per patron.

These posters, as well as other World War I posters and related materials available the UNT Libraries, can be identified and located by searching the UNT Library Catalog.

For help accessing these posters or any UNT Libraries resources, please visit the Eagle Commons Library Service Desk or call 940-565-2194.

WWI Poster Exhibit at UNT Eagle Commons Library    WWI Poster Collection Exhibit at Eagle Commons Library

Article by Jenne Turner.

Photos by Bobby Griffith.

Some WONDERful Resources from the CDC

Posted by & filed under Data about Databases, Toys "R" U.S..

CDC HeadquartersCDC (previously Centers for Disease Control; now Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but still retaining just the three letters) is the primary federal agency responsible for protecting public health in the United States. Its scientists and other researchers collect data in the United States and throughout the world to track diseases, investigate real and potential outbreaks, detect and minimize germs and other risk factors, and deal with just about every kind of health-related emergency.

CDC WONDER

CDC WONDER Home page (detail)CDC WONDER (the slightly strained acronym is short for “Wide-ranging ONline Data for Epidemiologic Research”) is an online public information health system created by CDC.  It provides an integrated, one-stop point of access for the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), prevention guidelines, and numerous other CDC reports and guidelines. There is also a vast collection of statistics related to public health.

These are a few of the topics you can find information on here:

  • Births and deaths, including cause of death
  • Risky behaviors
  • Incidents of cancer, AIDS, diabetes, and many other diseases
  • Hospital discharges

Each data set can be investigated through a system of menus, search boxes, and fill-in-the-blank request forms. When the data is retrieved, it can be viewed online or exported into a word processor, spreadsheet, or statistical analysis program. If you wish to report an error or other problem, need technical assistance, or just want to make a comment, there is a customer support team to help you.

In addition to providing the general public with access to information from the CDC, this database provides fast, simplified access to timely data that doctors, researchers, and administrators can use for investigating public health concerns, setting priorities, making decisions, allocating resources, and evaluating programs.

PHIL: Public Health Image Library

Sample image from the Public Health Image LibraryIt has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and the field of public health is a prime example of an area of knowledge where it is often easier to communicate through images rather than through text. The Public Health Image Library, affectionately known as PHIL, is a central database providing access to CDC’s photographs, illustrations, and videos. Public health professionals, journalists, scientists, teachers, students, and authors can all find a wealth of imagery here ready to use in articles, lectures, textbooks, and public health messages.

Images can be searched by keyword, image type, and subject matter. If you really want to get specific, you can also search by date the image was created or uploaded, or by the CDC location, sub-agency, or personnel associated with the image.

Most of the images are in the public domain, although some are protected by copyright. A fair use statement is provided with each image to let you know the copyright status. You can even restrict your search to only public domain products.

Solve the Outbreak

Disease Detective badgeIf you’d like to have a taste of what it’s like to be a CDC researcher, download the Solve the Outbreak app and see if you have what it takes to be a Disease Detective. This app provides various realistic outbreak scenarios, providing you an opportunity in each case to figure out what is happening, why, how it started, and how it is spreading.  Download the app to your tablet or phone and become the star of your own version of CSI!

Preparedness 101: Zombie Pandemic

Zombie apocolypseZombies have been all the rage for several years now in movies, TV shows, comic books, and other popular media. CDC has prepared an emergency preparedness campaign around the theme of a zombie apocalypse, using humor to engage audiences and deliver a message of deadly serious import. It’s an unlikely event to say the least, but if you’re prepared for a zombie apocalypse, surely you’ll be prepared for anything!

Here are some downloadable zombie products to help teach emergency preparedness:

Would You Like to Know More?

These products provide barely a glimpse of the rich treasure available from CDC. Here are a few more examples of the plethora of informative and entertaining products available on the CDC Web site:

To learn more about health in the United States, visit HealthData.gov for information about  Medicaid, Medicare, drugs and other treatments, biomedical research, safety, health-care administration, health-care costs, and much more.

Illustrations: CDC headquarters, PHIL sample image, Disease Detective badge, zombie apocalypse illustration, and CDC WONDER opening screen courtesy of CDC Web site.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

A Promise Fulfilled: New Executive Order Prohibits LGBT Discrimination among Federal Contractors

Posted by & filed under Hot Docs.

President Obama signing Executive Order 13672

It doesn’t make much sense, but today in America, millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness that they could lose their job, not because of anything they do or fail to do, but because of who they are — lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender. And that’s wrong.

So spoke President Obama on Monday in the remarks he gave before signing Executive Order 13672, finally fulfilling a campaign promise made in 2008.

Discrimination among Federal Contractors Prohibited

In 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors and subcontractors and federally-assisted construction contractors and subcontractors that generally have contracts that exceed $10,000 from discriminating in employment decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. President Barack Obama amended this order to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected classes.

Discrimination in Civilian Federal Workforce Prohibited

Obama’s order also amends Executive Order 11478, signed by President Nixon in 1969 to prohibit discrimination in the civilian federal workforce on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, handicap, and age. President Clinton had already amended this order (in Executive Order 13087) to include sexual orientation in the list of protected classes, and later signed Executive Order 13152 to add the category of “an individual’s status as a parent,” as well as a detailed definition of that new category. Obama’s order adds gender identity to the list of protected classes.

Religious Exemption

Obama’s order keeps intact an amendment signed by President George W. Bush that allows religiously-affiliated federal contractors to give preference in hiring to members of their own religion, but adds no new religious exemptions, as some constitutional law professors and religious and civil rights organizations had feared might happen in the wake of the recent Hobby Lobby decision by the Supreme Court.

Discrimination in the General Workforce

Several bills have been introduced in Congress that would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in all workplaces, not just federal, but so far none has passed. The most recent, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2013 (S.815), has passed in the Senate, but not in the House of Representatives.

Would You Like to Know More?

Learn About Executive Order 13672
·         Read the full text of Executive Order 13672
·         Read a transcript of the President’s opening remarks
·         Watch the signing ceremony on YouTube
·         Read a White House fact sheet explaining more about this executive order

Learn About Executive Orders

An executive order is an official document issued by the president to manage the operations of the federal government.
·         Learn about the executive order process and how to search for and read an executive order at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
·         Browse all executive orders from Abraham Lincoln to the present at the American Presidency Project.
·         Learn How Executive Orders Work at HowStuffWorks.

Image from White House video of the signing ceremony.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Don’t Leave Uncle Sam Holding the Bag — of Your Money!

Posted by & filed under Get Help.

Uncle Sam holding a bag of your moneyDid you ever leave a job and forget to pick up your last paycheck? Maybe you never collected your security deposit after moving from an apartment, or perhaps you have a rebate coming for a computer you purchased decades ago, or a refund for an overcharge on a long-forgotten electric bill.

Billions of dollars are being held by the government because the rightful owners don’t know how to find it or that it even exists. These forgotten funds can come from bank closings, matured savings bonds, pensions, mortgage refunds, and many other sources. Here is a way to discover whether the government is holding onto any money that rightfully belongs to you.

Unclaimed funds are usually held by individual state treasuries, so to do a thorough search you should be sure to check with each state in which you have ever lived. The National Association of Unclaimed Property Administrators (NAUPA) has a Web site at www.unclaimed.org where you can select a state from a clickable map (or select from a drop-down menu) and find out whether that state has unclaimed property in your name. You can also search several states simultaneously by going to missingmoney.com, another site sponsored by NAUPA.

You can find other sources of Unclaimed Money from the Government at the USA.gov government information Web site.

Beware of scammers who claim to be government agencies and offer to reunite you with your money for a pre-paid fee or who ask you for personal financial information that could be used to access your bank account. The Federal Trade Commission has information on how to recognize, avoid, and report these Government Imposter Scams.

Article by Bobby Griffith.

Illustration from the USGS publication Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country.