bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Stereoselective C-O Ring Construction: The Oguri-Oikawa Synthesis of Lasalocid A
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

O-Centered radicals have been little used for C-O ring formation. Glenn M. Sammis of the University of British Columbia showed (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 5083) that O-centered radicals could be generated efficiently, and that they cyclized with high diasterecontrol. Liming Zhang of the University of Nevada, Reno, continuing his studies of Au-activation of alkynes, uncovered (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 12598) the bimolecular condensation of polarized alkynes such as 3 with aldehydes and ketones, including 4, to give the dihydrofuran with high diastereocontrol. Margarita Brovetto of the Universidad de la República, Montevideo, Uruguay, prepared (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 5776) the precursor to the enantiomercially triol 6 by fermentation of bromobenzene with Pseudomonas putida 39/D. Cyclization of 6 gave 7 with high diastereocontrol. Petri M. Pihko of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, found (Organic Lett . 2008, 10, 4179) that cyclization of 8, prepared by Sharpless asymmetric epoxidation followed by Sharpless asymmetric dihydroxylation, also proceeded with high diastereocontrol. Vincent Aucagne of the Université d’Orléans observed (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 4750) that brief exposure of the sulfone 10 to t -BuOK at low temperature gave clean conversion to the kinetic diastereomer 11. At room temperature, similar conditions delivered the other, more stable diastereomer. Angeles Martín and Ernesto Suárez of the C. S. I. C., La Laguna, took advantage (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 5179) of the facile generation of O-centered radicals in converting 12 to 14, having a stereocontrolled quaternary center. The transformation is thought to be proceeding by H-atom abstraction, then diastereocontrolled trapping of the C-radical so formed with the allyl stannane 13. Much of the effort toward alkylated cyclic ether construction has been focused on alkyl group attachment adjacent to the ring oxygen. Torsten Linker of the University of Potsdam developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 16003) a complementary approach, stereocontrolled oxidative radical addition of malonate 16 to glycals such as 15 to give the 3-alkyl substituted 17.
New Methods for the Stereoselective Construction of N-Containing Rings
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Several methods have been reported for the stereocontrolled preparation of pyrrolidine and piperidine derivatives. Alison J. Frontier of the University of Rochester has observed (Organic Lett. 2007, 9, 4939) that hydrogenation of acyl pyrroles such as 1 gave good control not just around the ring, but also on the sidechain. Chi-Ming Che of the University of Hong Kong has devised ( J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 5828) a catalyst that converted amides such as 3 into the cyclized product 4, also with high diastereocontrol. Jean Ollivier of the Université de Paris-Sud, following the Sato procedure, has applied (Tetrahedron Lett. 2007, 48, 8765) the Kulinkovich reaction to allylated amino acid esters such as 5 , to give, after Fe-mediated fragmentation, the enantiomerically-pure piperidone 7 . Richard C. Hartley of the University of Glasgow has reported (J. Org. Chem. 2007, 72, 10287) what are, remarkably, the first examples of the aza-Petasis-Ferrier reaction, converting an ester such as 9, by carbonyl methylenation followed by Mannich cyclization, into the piperidone 10. Procedures for catalytic enantioselective C-N ring construction have also been developed. Armando Córdova of Stockholm University has shown (Tetrahedron Lett . 2007, 48, 8695) that condensation of 11 with 12 led to 14, which on reduction and hydrolysis delivered the 3-aryl proline 15. In an even simpler case, Santos Fustero of the Universidad de Valencia found (Organic Lett. 2007, 9, 5283) that the aldehyde 16 could cyclize to 17 with high ee. In a different approach (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 14811), William E. Greenberg and Chi-Huey Wong of Scripps/La Jolla harnessed the power of an enzyme to mediate the addition of 19 to 18, leading to the pyrrolidine 21 . Daniel P. Furkert of the University of Bath has applied (Organic Lett. 2007, 9, 3769) the powerful Itsuno-Corey reduction to the piperidone 22, leading, after SN2’ displacement, to the alkene 23. To construct larger rings, Barry M. Trost of Stanford University has employed (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2007, 46, 6123) his powerful Pd catalyst to effect opening of the racemic aziridine 24, leading, after metathesis, to the amine 27.
New Methods for C-N Ring Construction
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Chaozhong Li of the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry demonstrated (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 4037) facile and selective Cu-catalyzed β-lactam formation, converting 1 to 2. Paul Helquist of the University of Notre Dame devised (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 3903) an effective catalyst for intramolecular alkyne hydroamination, converting 3 into the imine 4. Six-membered ring construction worked well also. Jon T. Njardarson of Cornell University found (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 5023) a Cu catalyst for the rearrangement of alkenyl aziridines such as 5 to the pyrroline 6. Philippe Karoyan of the UPMC, Paris developed (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 6706) an interesting chiral auxiliary directed cascade process, converting the simple precursor 7 into the complex pyrrolidine 9. Sherry R. Chemler of the State University of New York, Buffalo devised (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 17638) a chiral Cu catalyst for the cyclization of 10, to give 12 with substantial enantiocontrol. Wei Wang of the University of New Mexico demonstrated (Chem. Commun. 2008, 5636) the organocatalyzed condensation of 13 and 14 to give 16 with high enantio- and diastereocontrol. Two complementary routes to azepines/azepinones have appeared. F. Dean Toste of the University of California, Berkeley showed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 9244) that a gold complex catalyzed the condensation of 17 and 18 to give 19. Frederick G. West of the University of Alberta found (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 3985) that lactams such as 20 could be ring-expanded by the addition of the propiolate anion 21. Takeo Kawabata of Kyoto University extended (Organic Lett . 2008, 10, 3883) “memory of chirality” studies to the cyclization of 23, demonstrating that 24 was formed in high ee. Paul V. Murphy of University College Dublin took advantage (Organic Lett . 2008, 10, 3777) of the well-known intramolecular addition of azides to alkenes, showing that the intermediate could be intercepted with nucleophiles such as thiophenol, to give the cyclized product 26 with high diastereocontrol.
Preparation of Benzene Derivatives
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Several new methods have been put forward for the functionalization of benzene derivatives. J. S. Yadav of the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad has devised (Chem. Lett. 2008, 37, 652) a procedure for direct thiocyanation, converting 1 into 2. Sukbok Chang of KAIST has established (Chem. Commun. 2008, 3052) that both NH4Cl and aqueous NH3 could be used to directly aminate an aryl iodide such as 3. John F. Hartwig of the University of Illinois has developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 7534) a protocol for the directed borylation of anilines such as 5 and of phenols, based on a transient silylation. Karsten Menzel of Merck West Point (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 415) has observed selective exchange of tribromobenzene derivatives such as 7, with the direction of the selectivity being controlled by the fourth substituent on the benzene. Gary A. Molander of the University of Pennsylvania has extensively developed the stable, readily prepared trifluoroborates, exemplified by 10 (J. Org. Chem. 2008, 73, 2052) and 14 (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 1795) as partners for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling. The conversion of 9 to 10 is complementary to aminocarbonylation, exemplified by the conversion of 12 to 13 reported (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 2221) by Bhalchandra M. Bhanage of the Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai. The coupling of 9 with 14 is complementary to the long-known Heck coupling of an aryl halide such as 16 with an allylic alcohol, as illustrated by the preparation of 18 described (Tetrahedron Lett. 2008, 49, 3279) by Martin E. Maier of the Universität Tübingen. Professor Hartwig has also (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 1545, 1549) optimized conditions for the Pd-catalyzed arylation of ester enolates such as 19. Gang Zhou of Schering-Plough, Kenilworth, NJ has developed (Organic Lett. 2008, 10, 2517) a related transformation, the arylation of deprotonated sulfonamides. Peter Somfai of the Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm has established (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2008, 47, 1907) a complementary procedure, base-mediated elimination of t -butoxide from 24, followed by 1,2-addition of an aryl or heteroaryl Grignard reagent.
Heterocycle Construction: The Chang Synthesis of Louisianin C
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

It has been known for some time that an acid chloride 1 can be added to an alkyne 2 to give the β-chloro enone. Yasushi Tsuji of Kyoto University found (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2009, 131, 6668) that with an Ir catalyst, the condensation of 1 with 2 could be directed to the furan 3. Huanfeng Jiang of the South China University of Technology described (Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 1931) a complementary route to furans, Cu-mediated condensation of a propargyl alcohol 4 with the diester 5 to give 6. Bruce A. Arndtsen of McGill University developed (Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 1369) an approach to pyrroles such as 9, by condensation of an α,β-unsaturated α-cyano imine 7 with the acid chloride 8. Thomas J. J. Müller of Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf observed (Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 2269) the condensation of an acid chloride 11 with a propargyl amine 10, leading to the iodo pyrrole 12. John A. Murphy of the University of Strathclyde uncovered (Tetrahedron Lett. 2009, 50, 3290) a new entry to the Fischer indole synthesis, by Petasis homologation of a hydrazide 13. Dali Yin of Peking Union Medical College took advantage (Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 637) of the easy sequential displacement of the fluorides of 15, leading, after acid-catalyzed cyclization, to the indole 17. Kang Zhao of Tianjin University extended (Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 2417; Organic Lett. 2009, 11, 2643) his studies of oxidation of an enamine 18 to the 2H -azirine, that on heating cyclized to the indole 19. Peter Wipf of the University of Pittsburgh established (Chem. Commun. 2009, 104) a microwave-promoted indole synthesis, illustrated by the intramolecular Diels-Alder cyclization of 20 to 21. A review delineating all nine types of indole syntheses will appear shortly in Angewandte Chemie . Fushun Liang and Qun Liu of Northeast Normal University demonstrated (J. Org. Chem. 2009, 74, 899) that the readily-prepared ketene thioacetal 22 condensed with NH3 to give the pyridine 23. Sundaresan Prabhakar and Ana M. Lobo of the New University of Lisbon observed (Tetrahedron Lett. 2009, 50, 3446) that the addition of the alkoxy propargyl amine to the alkyne 25 gave a Z alkene, that on warming rearranged to the pyridine 26.
The Wood Synthesis of Welwitindolinone A Isonitrile
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

Welwitindolinone A Isonitrile 3 is the first of a family of oxindole natural products isolated from the cyanobacteria Hapalosiphon welwischii and Westiella intricate on the basis of their activity for reversing multiple drug resistance (MDR). A key transformation in the total synthesis of 3 reported (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 2087) by John L. Wood, now at Colorado State University, was the chlorination of 1, that in one step established both the axial secondary chloro substituent and the flanking chiral quaternary center. The starting material for the synthesis of 3 was the diene acetonide 5, readily prepared from the Birch reduction product 4. Intermolecular ketene cycloaddition proceeded with high regio- and diastereoselectivity, to give the bicyclooctenone 6. The triazene-bearing Grignard reagent 7 added to the ketone 6 with the anticipated high diastereocontrol, to give, after reduction and protection, the cyclic urethane 8. Selective oxidation of the diol derived from 8 followed by silylation delivered the enone 9. Conjugate addition of hydride followed by enolate trapping gave the trifl ate 10. Pd-catalyzed meth-oxycarbonylation established the methyl ester 11. Addition of CH3MgBr to 11 gave 1, setting the stage for the establishment of the two key stereogenic centers of 2 and so of 3. The transformation of 1 to 2 was envisioned as being initiated by formation of a bridging chloronium ion. Pinacol-like 1,2-methyl migration then proceeded to form the trans diaxial product, moving the ketone-bearing branch equatorial. In addition to being an elegant solution of the problem of how to establish the axial chloro substituent of 3, this strategy might have some generality for the stereocontrolled construction of other alkylated cyclic quaternary centers. Reduction of the ketone 2 and dehydration of the resulting alcohol led, after deprotection and oxidation, to the ketone 12. Protection followed by β-elimination gave the enone 13. Direct reductive amination of 13 failed, but reduction of the methoxime was successful, giving, after acylation, the formamide 14. Reductive N-O bond cleavage followed by deprotection and isonitrile formation then set the stage for the planned intramolecular acylation to complete the synthesis of Welwitindolinone A Isonitrile 3.
The Johnson Synthesis of Zaragozic Acid C
Authors: Taber Douglass
Published: November 2020

The zaragozic acids, exemplified by Zaragozic Acid C 3, are picomolar inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis. Jeffrey S. Johnson of the University of North Carolina developed (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 17281) an audacious silyl glyoxylate cascade approach to the oxygenated backbone fragment 1. Intramolecular aldol cyclization converted 1 to 2, setting the stage for the construction of 3. The lactone 2 includes five stereogenic centers, two of which are quaternary. The authors were pleased to observe that exposure of 4 to vinyl magnesium bromide 5 led, via condensation, silyl transfer, condensation, and again silyl transfer, to a species that was trapped with t-butyl glyoxylate 6 to give 7 as a single diastereomer. This one step assembled three of the stereogenic centers of 2, including both of the quaternary centers. The alcohol 7 so prepared was racemic, so the wrong enantiomer was separated by selective oxidation. Intramolecular aldol condensation of the derived α-benzyloxy acetate 1 then completed the construction of 2. Addition of the alkyl lithium 8, again as a single enantiomerically-pure diasteromer, to 2 gave the hemiketal 9. Exposure of 9 to acid initially gave a mixture of products, but this could be induced to converge to the tricyclic ester 10. To convert 10 to 11 , the diastereomer that was needed for the synthesis, two of the stereogenic centers had to be inverted. This was accomplished by exposure to t-BuOK/t-amyl alcohol, followed by re-esterification. The inversion of the secondary hydroxyl group was thought to proceed by retro-aldol/re-aldol condensation. Debenzylation of 11 followed by acetylation delivered 12, an intermediate in the Carreira synthesis of the zaragozic acids. Following that precedent, the ring acetates of 12 were selectively removed, leaving the acetate on the side chain. Boc protection was selective for the endo ring secondary hydroxyl, leaving the exo ring secondary hydroxyl available for condensation with the enantiomerically-pure acid 13. Global deprotection then completed the synthesis of Zaragozic Acid C 3. The key to the success of this synthesis of the complex spiroketal 3 was the assembly of 7 in one step as a single diastereomer from the readily-available building blocks 4, 5, and 6.
Unrest in the Magic Valley
Authors: Broughton Chad
Published: November 2020

One Evening in May 1967, in the parched border city of Mission, Texas, Ed Krueger had worked into the early evening on a painting and was late to the demonstration at the railroad crossing. He arrived there at 8:45 p.m. with his wife, Tina; his 18-year-old son, David; and Doug Adair, a young journalist writing for the magazine El Malcriado: The Voice of the Farm Worker. Just a few union members and bystanders were at the crossing when they arrived. Krueger, 36, a lanky and clean-cut minister, had been working with Local 2 of the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee (UFW) and had expected to see thirty or forty striking farmworkers and activists protesting the “scab melons” passing by on the next train. But they weren’t there, and Krueger was worried. They parked 75 feet south of the railroad crossing, on the west side of Conway Street. Krueger and his wife grabbed some hamburgers and sodas and leaned on their bumper to eat with their son. Adair went to talk to a reporter on the north side of the crossing. Joining Krueger was Magdaleno Dimas, an itinerant 29-year-old farmworker. A Mexico-born U.S. citizen, Dimas had a dragon tattoo on his right arm, a rose on his left, and an edgy zeal for the strike. They were waiting for a freight train carrying tens of thousands of recently harvested cantaloupes and honeydews loaded into thirty or so refrigerated cars. The melons had just been cut at La Casita ranch in Rio Grande City, thirty miles west of Mission. After a switch down-valley in Harlingen, the ranch’s melons would head north to San Antonio. La Casita, owned by a California company, operated nearly year round and employed 300 to 500 laborers on 2,700 acres of melons, peppers, carrots, cabbage, celery, and lettuce. The southern boundary of its well-ordered fruit and vegetable fields was the snaking Rio Grande River. All that separated La Casita from Mexico was a short swim across the slow-moving, greenish river that irrigated its fields.
“The End is HERE”
Authors: Broughton Chad
Published: November 2020

On the Last day there would be a potluck and a drawing for some free appliances and $100 in cash. It was clear, though, that those still around in September 2004 could hardly wait for this drawn-out shuttering finally to be over. Crews were taking down the lighting, removing tables and cabinets, and gathering screws and air gun bits to toss in the garbage. “I don’t know if they are going to start with fresh tools down there in Reynosa or what the deal is,” Tracy Warner said. The crews also asked workers to remove photographs and newspaper clippings from their workstations. “They are dismantling it all around us, like they can’t wait for us to get out of there.” The lawn outside, usually covered in pop cans, plastic wrappers, and cigarette butts, was cleaned up and sprayed green by Chem Lawn. Management was trying to sell the old place. Warner’s imminent layoff was part of a sea-change in Illinois in the first years of the new millennium. The pace of the hollowing out of manufacturing in the fourth-largest manufacturing state in the country had been unprecedented. From June 2000 to November 2003, Illinois lost more than 100 manufacturing jobs a day, or one out of every six. Gone were over 150,000 jobs in a state of 12,500,000. In Rockford, the machine-tool industry wilted, and unemployment spiked at over 11 percent. In Harvard, located near the Wisconsin border, Motorola closed its cellphone plant. Developers wanted to turn the site into the world’s largest indoor water park. In Peoria, Decatur, and Kankakee, laid-off workers applied for jobs at Walmarts and Home Depots that would pay them maybe half their former wage. In suburban Chicago, Winzeler Gear went from making 2 million gears a month with fifty-five workers to making 16 million a month with thirty-five employees. A robot the size of a minivan increased the factory’s output while also eliminating human labor. Even with the productivity boost, the owner doubted the company would be able to stay competitive.
Treading Water in the Great Recession
Authors: Broughton Chad
Published: November 2020

In April 2010 George Carney found himself stacking and banding wooden boards to be made into roof and barn trusses. His new workplace was Roberts and Dybdahl, a lumberyard in Milan, Illinois. Carney was paired with a partner, an automated cutting machine with five enormous shark-toothed saw blades that bit loudly into lumber and dropped boards onto the tray below. Now 51, Carney was using his body to earn a living again, even if the job paid only $9 an hour, a shade above the Illinois minimum. The first week he put in 60 hours. “It was a hard job. It was perfect for me.” On April 29, his ninth day on the job, Carney’s life changed forever, again. Two days after an unremarkable Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspection, a two-by-six shot out of the saws like “a ball out of pitching machine.” Its long side smacked right into Carney’s skull, and in an instant his world went dark. In the previous year Carney had been bartending while he lived in his son’s extra bedroom in Matherville, Illinois. He served “fancy, high falutin” drinks at the Oak View Country Club starting in late May 2009, after being unemployed for a couple of months. Members liked Carney because he would remember their names and favorite drink. The “whisky-beer man” learned to make cosmopolitans, martinis, manhattans, and other country club mixes. “I always told myself I was shy, but everyone tells me I’m not. I feel uncomfortable with it, but I seem to be fairly sociable.” In August he added a day job at Milan Lanes, a bowling alley and bar, and was working almost every day. Still, it was a “pretty low point” to be a working-age man living in his son’s extra room. It was a role-reversal that neither of them relished. “You don’t feel like you got anything,” Carney said of the year after leaving the Town Tavern. Then Carney’s father succumbed to cancer in March 2010.
The Influence of Oxygenates on the Atmospheric Chemistry of Urban, Rural, and Global Environments
Authors: Calvert Jack , Mellouki Abdelwahid , Orlando John , Pilling Michael , Wallington Timothy
Published: November 2020

One cannot overestimate the importance of oxygenated organic compounds in atmospheric chemistry. As discussed in the previous chapters of this book and elsewhere (e.g., Wayne, 1991; Seinfeld and Pandis, 1998; Brasseur et al., 1999; Finlayson-Pitts and Pitts, 2000; Calvert et al., 2000, 2002, 2008) the atmosphere is an oxidizing environment and all organic compounds emitted into the atmosphere are converted into oxygenated organic compounds. The first-generation products are oxidized further. As an example, the oxidation of ethane gives CH3CHO, C2H5OH, and C2H5OOH as first-generation products and CH3OH, CH3OOH, CH2O, and HC(O)OH as second-generation products. An understanding of the chemistry of oxygenated organic compounds is central to unraveling the complex processes in the atmosphere. In this chapter we discuss the representation of oxygenates in atmospheric models, their participation in secondary organic aerosol formation, contribution to HOx chemistry in the upper troposphere, role in the transport of pollutants, and use as proxies for volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions. A major application of the chemical kinetics and mechanisms of VOC oxidation is the development of an understanding of the chemistry occurring in the troposphere and the use of that understanding to predict and develop strategies which help to mitigate adverse changes in air quality and climate change. Such applications depend on the development of models that assess chemical impacts; chemical mechanisms lie at the heart of such models. The mechanisms can be very detailed, often termed explicit, in models where the aim is to understand the chemistry occurring in a small volume of air, for example, in an analysis of processes determining radical concentrations in field measurements. Such a mechanistic approach can also be used, with increased computer resources, when a trajectory approach is used to assess the coupled impacts of atmospheric transport and chemistry. An Eulerian approach to modeling both regional and global processes presents greater problems, because the chemical rate equations have to be solved for each species at each spatial grid point in the model; this severely limits the number of chemical species that can be incorporated realistically in the model.
Interactive Ear Training
Authors: Manzo V. J
Published: November 2020

In this chapter, we will review some of the objects and concepts we’ve learned so far and make an interactive ear-training program. We will build our ear-training program using primarily objects you already know. In designing a program with a specific purpose, like an ear-training program, the worst technique you can take is to begin by arbitrarily inserting objects into a patch. Instead, it’s best to conceptualize the task at hand and “divide and conquer.” Divide the task into smaller steps and think through what actually needs to get done to accomplish the goal of the patch. Begin a new blank patch we will use to build an ear-training program in which diatonic and chromatic intervals are randomly performed by the patch. Users will have to correctly select the name of the interval they heard from a menu. The soft ware will give immediate feedback based on their response. To begin, create a new patch and 1. Create a button 2. Create 2 new object boxes both called random with the argument 12 3. Position the objects next to each other horizontally 4. Connect the button to the first inlet of each random 12 object 5. Create 2 number boxes beneath each random 12 object 6. Connect the outlet of each random 12 object to the number box beneath it 7. Lock the patch and click the button to generates 2 random numbers between 0 and 11 We will use these two random numbers to build our intervals. The random number on the left will be our starting pitch and we’ll add the second random number as the added interval. As you may have realized, giving the argument 12 to random restricts the number of pitches to 12 allowing us to keep our intervals within one octave. Let’s add the two numbers together.
The Realpolitik of Race and Gender
Authors: Ginsberg Benjamin
Published: November 2020

It is Certainly no secret that professors tend to have liberal political orientations. Most academics, especially but not exclusively those in the humanities and social sciences, strongly support racial and gender equality, social justice, protection of the environment, constraints on the use of force in international affairs, and other elements of America’s liberal Democratic agenda. Faculty generally explain the academy’s ideological imbalance, especially marked at elite universities, as a natural consequence of the fact that liberals are smarter than conservatives. In recent years, unfortunately, on many campuses the political commitments of the faculty have been hijacked and perverted by administrators. Issues that to many professors represent moral imperatives have been transformed into powerful instruments of administrative aggrandizement. Ironically, administrators have brought about this transformation by forging what amount to tactical alliances with representatives of minority groups as well as activist groups on their campuses. Indeed, since it was not so long ago that campus administrators responded to the legitimate grievances of minority groups and liberal activists by calling the police, it is fascinating to observe the apparent sympathy shown for these same groups by university administrators today. At my university, for example, the administration strongly supported liberal activists’ protests in response to what some termed a fraternity’s racial insensitivity. The fraternity had called its 2006 All Hallow’s Eve party, “Halloween in the Hood,” invited guests to wear their “bling,” and decorated its chapter house with a plastic skeleton in pirate garb dangling from a rope noose. The precise meaning of this display was far from clear. A noose might have a racist connotation, but skeletons and pirates would seem, at first blush, to be devoid of racial antecedents. Campus and community activists, however, chose to interpret the unfortunate skeleton as a symbolic affirmation of the idea of lynching black people. This understanding was vigorously contested by the fraternity, which boasted a multiethnic membership. The university administration, nevertheless, supported the activists’ interpretation and agreed with them that investigations, punishments, and policy changes would be required to prevent such events from occurring in the future.
Lesson Design in Technology-Based Music Instruction
Authors: Dorfman Jay
Published: November 2020

The content of individual lessons and units in TBMI classrooms falls somewhere on a spectrum of content, as seen in Figure 6.1. At the left end of the spectrum fall activities that are purely musical. Even in TBMI classes, we can occasionally design activities that we believe address long-term goals and short-term objectives that are purely musical. For example, when we ask our students to rehearse or perform a piece of music (although it may eventually be recorded, edited, mixed, etc.), we are addressing musical goals through musical activities without integrating technology. At the right end of this spectrum fall activities that are purely technological. These activities may include procedures for digital file management, techniques within software, or hardware connectivity and maintenance. Even though the broader content of TBMI classes should be musical, the focus on technology in lessons that fall to the right side of the spectrum is one of the ideas that separate TBMI classes from traditional music classes. We include lessons that focus on technology because those are the tools in use to make music. It is important that students learn how to use them properly, and teachers should consider it their responsibility to include lessons that meet this description. Purity of content is rare. In truth, longer-term sequences of TBMI might be categorized in one of two ways: Lessons fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. This indicates that the lesson has some content that is musical and some that is technological. The teacher artfully blends them together so that students recognize the application of technology to music, and of music to technology. Lessons shift from one end of the spectrum to the other, perhaps exhibiting more than one shift within a class period. Sometimes it is necessary to explore a musical concept in non-technological ways, then shift to a technological technique that will further address that concept. So, when the activities associated with the two phases of the lesson are combined, we achieve “neutrality” along the spectrum. Also, it should be acknowledged that this spectrum of lesson content depicts lessons under ideal circumstances.
Computational Thinking in Music Courses: How to Get Artsy Types to Start Thinking like Geeks and Vice Versa
Authors: Greher Gena R. , Heines Jesse M.
Published: November 2020

When we began to develop our interdisciplinary course in computing+ music, which we call Sound Thinking, we made the deliberate decision that computational thinking would be the foundation upon which all of our projects would be based. But what exactly do we mean when we refer to “computational thinking” (CT) and what might it look like in practice? Jeannette Wing coined this term in 2006 to characterize analytical thought processes that are subject-matter independent. She wrote: . . . Computational thinking involves solving problems, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, by drawing on the concepts fundamental to computer science. Computational thinking includes a range of mental tools that reflect the breadth of the field of computer science. While the “mental tools” of which Wing speaks may originate in—or at least be most visible in—computer science, she stresses that “computational thinking is a fundamental skill for everyone, not just for computer scientists.” We wholeheartedly agree. Too often we see students attack problems in a hodgepodge manner, devoid of planning, hoping that trial and error will eventually lead them to a solution. When they are lucky enough to arrive at a desired result through random processes, students too often fail to understand or appreciate why a particular approach worked. This makes it impossible for them to generalize the approach and apply it to related problems. Analytical skills are the essence of computational thinking. What’s more, we feel that these skills are just as important to music and other arts majors as they are to computer science majors. Both groups are hampered by habit, which limits their abilities to imagine alternative possibilities. By getting students from disparate disciplines to work together, or at least by getting students to look at things from the perspective of someone whose discipline is different from their own, we aim to break the bonds of those habits and help students learn to think analytically.
Poisoned Blessings
Authors: Colopy Cheryl
Published: November 2020

“Any water-related stress you can imagine, we have. Abundance, shortage, pollution. We have them all,” a young woman named Afifa Raihana told me on my first trip to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Afifa was working for the World Bank at that time, coordinating environmental initiatives, having earlier worked as a journalist. The list of water-related problems in Bangladesh is long and sometimes contradictory: waterlogging as well as desertification, floods along with shortages. Bangladesh sees frequent cyclones and storm surges; it copes with salinity and sedimentation of riverbeds. Industrial chemicals, agricultural runoff, and urban sewage pollute the nation’s ponds and rivers. The problems sometimes stem from the sheer abundance of water in this nearliquid land. In the monsoon, a quarter of the land is regularly inundated. When rivers flood, two-thirds of the land may be covered by water—drowning people and their animals, displacing families, destroying crops. This is the bottom of the Ganges watershed; any water and sediment that has not been held back upstream comes to rest here or washes into the Bay of Bengal. On occasion the abundance is a curse, but usually it is a blessing. Maniruzzaman Miah told me that drought is a far greater threat here than floods, which are essential for growing rice and jute and for keeping the water table high. “Rain and the need for rain. That is what Bangladesh is all about. Floods are part of the ecosystem.” The oddly shaped country that is now Bangladesh was once part of a prosperous realm stretching from Bihar to the Bay of Bengal. Bengal, which was partitioned in 1948—half to India, half to Pakistan—was known as the best-educated, most literate, most cultured part of India. It was a grain basket, a seat of Buddhist learning in ancient times, and later had a well-developed textile industry until England’s East India Company strangled it to promote English-made textiles. Britain essentially launched control of the subcontinent from the east. Calcutta was the seat of British power until 1911, when the capital was moved to Delhi.
Centers of Power, Weapons of Iron
Authors: Price T. Douglas
Published: November 2020

The introduction of iron after 1000 BC brought new tools and weapons to Europe. Smelting technology and higher furnace temperatures were likely the key to iron production, which is generally thought to have originated in Anatolia around 1400 BC among the Hittites, but there are a few earlier examples of iron artifacts as old as 2300 BC in Turkey. Iron produced sharper, more readily available implements and was in great demand. In contrast to copper and tin, whose sources were limited, iron was found in a variety of forms in many places across the continent. Veins of iron ore were exploited in Iberia, Britain, the Alps, the Carpathian Mountains, and elsewhere. Bog iron was exploited in northern Europe. Carbonate sources of iron in other areas enabled local groups to obtain the raw materials necessary for producing this important material. At the same time, the collapse of the dominant Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean changed the flow of raw materials and finished products across Europe. Greece fell into a Dark Age following the demise of the Mycenaean city-states. The Etruscans were on the rise in Italy. Rome was a small town at the border of the Etruscan region. Soon, however, new centers of power in classic Greece and Rome emerged, bringing writing and, with it, history to Europe. Again, we can observe important and dramatic differences between the “classic” areas of the Mediterranean and the northern parts of “barbarian” Europe. The chronology for the Iron Age in much of Europe is portrayed in Figure 6.2. The Iron Age begins earlier in the Mediterranean area, ca. 900 BC, where the Classical civilizations of Greece, the Etruscans, and eventually Rome emerge in the first millennium BC. Rome and its empire expanded rapidly, conquering much of western Europe in a few decades before the beginning of the Common Era and Britain around ad 43, effectively ending the prehistoric Iron Age in these parts of the continent. The Iron Age begins somewhat later in Scandinavia, around 500 BC.
Mindfulness: Moonshine Hollow and Thich Nhat Hanh
Authors: Lane Belden C.
Published: November 2020

The locals call it Moonshine Hollow, or Mooner’s Hollow, partly because of the haunting character of the moonlight in this small, isolated valley. It forces you to pay attention to the thousand shades of shadow and light you’d never thought to distinguish before. The phenomenon has something to do with the curvature of the ravine here, as light reflects off stone cliffs above and the lithe, white limbs of sycamore trees below. Whatever accounts for it, Moonshine Hollow is well named. Up from Coonville Creek in St. Francois State Park in southeast Missouri, it lies along the eleven-mile Pike Run backpacking trail. A small trickle of water flows year-round from the base of the cliff where I usually camp. During Prohibition it’s said that bootleggers operated a still in this remote hollow, making hooch, white lightning, or panther’s breath (as it was variously called). Hidden deep in the Ozarks, with cornfields nearby, a steady supply of cold water, and sufficient wood to keep a fire going, it was an ideal site for producing “mountain dew.” In fact, Missouri law still allows its citizens to distill up to two hundred gallons of whiskey a year for personal and family use. All of this lends Moonshine Hollow its unique appeal. What creates the ambience or “sense of place” that we associate with a singular locale? For Moonshine Hollow, it’s a combination of sheltered seclusion, the distinctive play of shadows on a moonlit night, even an edge of lawlessness. It’s a place where time has stopped. It invites you to linger. The moonshiner’s art is a slow and demanding one. The corn has to soak in a wet burlap sack for ten days. The mash has to be fermented with water, yeast, and malt for another ten days or more. Then, in being gently heated over a low fire, the alcohol has to evaporate, passing through a copper coil inside a barrel of cold branch water, dripping leisurely into a stoneware jug. The process can’t be hurried. Nothing should be rushed in Moonshine Hollow.
The Old Story: Economic Globalization, the Market Consensus, and the New State Religion
Authors: Nadeau Robert
Published: November 2020

The new york times editorial page attributed the lack of regulation that resulted in the meltdown of the financial markets in 2008 to the “Bush administration’s magical belief that the market, with its invisible hand, works best when it is left alone to self regulate and self correct.” But what the editorial failed to mention is that the Bush administration’s $700 billion economic stimulus plan and the Obama administration’s $789 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act were both predicated on this magical belief. The fundamental assumption in these plans was that the meltdown occurred because the self-correcting and self-regulating dynamics associated with the invisible hand ceased to function properly. And the intent of the plans was to create market conditions in which these dynamics could begin to function properly with a massive infusion of capital generated by deficit spending. This meltdown began after the collapse of the markets for derivative contracts that allow buyers to hedge against economic gains or losses. In the parlance of mainstream economists, a derivative is an agreement between two parties that the value of something is determined by the price movement of something else, and hedging allows a buyer or seller to protect assets or incomes against future rises in prices. In derivatives markets, debt is used to generate surplus capital, and this surplus is used to borrow increasingly larger sums of money in a process economists call financial leveraging. Traditional derivative trading was in commodity-related futures contracts, and the amount of debt that could be used as financial leverage was highly regulated. In these markets, buyers could hedge against unpredictable changes in the prices of real assets, such as wheat or cotton, and each commodity was traded separately. But this situation changed dramatically after December 2000, when the U.S. Congress banned the regulation of derivatives by passing the Commodity Futures Modernization Act. The rationale for passing this bill, which was largely written by representatives of the investment banks that would later make enormous profits in derivatives trading, appealed to two assumptions in neoclassical economic theory.
The Dream of This Place with Us: Science, Religion, and the Environmental Crisis
Authors: Nadeau Robert
Published: November 2020

The first color photograph of the whole earth taken by an astronaut aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft in 1969 appeared in posters, popular magazines and films, and a staggering number of advertising campaigns promoting the sale of an enormous variety of consumer goods and services. Like any iconic visual image repeatedly used in a variety of diverse contexts for different purposes, the image of the blue planet shimmering under the flow of its delicate atmosphere against the backdrop of the interstellar dark seemed, over time, to lose much of its original significance and emotive power. But for some of us, myself included, it still serves as sign and symbol of two astonishing facts: life on earth is a self-organizing and self-perpetuating whole that evolved from a single organism to a level of enormous complexity and incredibly beauty; our species emerged from this evolutionary process as fully conscious and self-aware beings in the vast cosmos. Many scientists are convinced that biological life must have arisen on other planets and that the process of evolution on some of them resulted in the emergence of intelligent life-forms and advanced technological civilizations. The most ardent promoters of this idea are physicists and molecular biologists, and public acceptance of their views resulted in the creation of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) project. The intent of those involved in this project, as many Americans learned for the first time after seeing a movie based on the late Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos , is to intercept intragalactic or intergalactic communications between advanced civilizations on other planets. But what the book and movie failed to mention is that many evolutionary biologists are convinced that the odds that these civilizations exist anywhere else in the vast cosmos are slim to none. The skeptics argue that even if life exists on many other planets, this does not mean that the process of evolution on any of them would result in life-forms that have the capacity to acquire and use a complex symbol system like the human language system.
Introduction
Authors: Shorter Edward
Published: November 2020

For the past 40 years, the diagnosis of depression has been steadily increasing. The prevalence of serious depression in the middle third of the twentieth century was less than one in a thousand; today, it is measured in the double digits per hundred. In an outpatient medical practice in New York, 18.9% of the patients had a diagnosis of major depression. On a lifetime basis, one American in five will receive a diagnosis of depression. This is a real puzzle. Given that these millions of patients with purported depression are not necessarily sad and have scads of other symptoms, it is not clear what the basis is for calling them depressed. Maybe they have some other diagnosis? The extreme form of being very ill was historically the nervous breakdown, involving melancholia, panic, overwhelming fatigue, and bodies that felt and moved like lead. Lesser forms of nervous illness were simply called “nerves.” Were these nervous patients simply depressed? Or is it we who are the nervous? This is a subject that we as a society have not lost interest in. “Government on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” was a page one story on the cable channel MSNBC in 2011, as Congress teetered on the point of passing the controversial deficit reduction plan. So the nervous breakdown has not gone away after all! Just when psychiatry, with all its talk about depression, thought diseases of the nerves were dead, the concept turns out to be alive and well among the public. Take the HBO comedy-drama “Enlightened”: When Laura Dern, as troubled corporate executive Amy Jellicoe, has a nervous breakdown, every system of her body screams stop! This is way beyond depressed. Then when she returns from a New Age spiritual healing colony in Hawaii “after swimming with the turtles,” everything has been buffed. She’s a “new person.” People can relate to nerves as a disease of the entire body, whereas depression, in the sense of a sad mood, is a bit of a stretch. Many patients who are called depressed are not sad.
The Wilderness Idea
Authors: Lorbiecki Marybeth
Published: November 2020

It was supposed to be a day of short, easy paddles and portages. But that is before the winds show up, gale force and pummeling wave after wave against us, determined to lock us down on the island. We pull our three canoes laden with children and camping gear along the edges of the rocky shore to try to find an easier launching point. The teens then take steering positions, as we throw our shoulders into our paddles and dig, over, and over into those icy blasts of heavy, strong-armed water. Any lapse sends the canoe back. One slip of weight, and we’ll tip, losing all our gear, and we’ll have to struggle to stay alive against hypothermia, even in August. We’re tired. We’re cold. And we’re swearing against the powers that push at us, testing us. But we’re alive and we know it. We feel it in our bones and spirit like never at home. And we’re so darned grateful to be here. This is the wilderness. No directions came with this country—the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) between Minnesota and Ontario. They could have been so easily lost. In the 1930s and 1940s, Aldo Leopold, Sigurd Olson, and other lovers of the outdoors saw these granite-sheathed lakes for what they were—places of rugged beauty and unspoiled wild communities that once developed could not be recovered. They called a halt to unthinking “progress” for a chance to rest in what was and preserve it for the future. Leopold explained that “Recreation is valuable in proportion to the degree to which it differs from and contrasts with workaday life.” So if Leopold were here, what progress would he note on the wilderness front, where the waves of progress push so hard against the concept? First, he would have admired the persistence of his comrade Howard Zahniser from the Wilderness Society. How “Zahnie” patiently built partnerships over his ten years as secretary of the Society and then persevered for another nine crafting the Wilderness Act. He endured 65 drafts and all the associated lobbying of Congress.