February 29, 2012

By: Samantha Gray

Slow news days often seem to involve some story or another about literary burnings in America and abroad, with the Harry Potter series and the Qur'an seemingly popular targets for reactionary moral guardians these days. Their torches and (usually metaphorical) pitchforks stem from millennia of censorship and colonialism. As human nature pushes some to destroy or suppress what they can't understand, book burnings often lead to future frustrations, as academics and other interested readers eventually lose out on valuable scholarly resources. These book burnings represent massive destruction of history and culture, but their impact makes us remember landmark literature, some of which might very well have improved humanity's lot had they only survived.

1.  

   The Library of the University of Louvain

   When German soldiers torched University of Louvain's library during World War I, scholars across the globe mourned the loss of irreplaceable Renaissance and Gothic literary works and one of the only surviving written examples of a rare Easter Island language. More than 300,000 volumes perished in the blaze along with other priceless historical artifacts and artworks, which generally seem to accompany literature into oblivion in some of the most infamous examples of purging.

    

2.  

   Irish National Archives

   Nobody knows for certain who bombed the Irish National Archives in 1922, resulting in the almost universal loss of the Public Record Office of Ireland. The government blames the Irish Republican Army, the Irish Republican Army claims the whole thing was an accident. Just about the only thing anyone can agree on is the devastating loss of centuries upon centuries of history obliterated completely in one conflagration. A small number of 14th century manuscripts miraculously managed to survive, but these days much of what politicians and academics can glean about Irish official history comes from only the 19th and 20th.

    

3.  

   Burning the Books and Killing the Scholars

   China's first emperor completely altered the nation's history by demanding the destruction of Confucian philosophy and literature hailing from defeated regions. Anecdotes – though no definitive proof – also link Qin Shihuangdi to the live burial genocide of scholars he deemed culturally threatening. Obviously, historians have yet to unearth a solid number for the books he destroyed, but the overarching impact his raging paranoia left behind still resonates even today. Entire schools and academic corners may have wound up lost forever as a result!

    

4.  

   The Library of Alexandria

   When the Library of Alexandria, one of the world's first, burned at the (theorized) behest of a conquering Julius Caesar, academics believe it may actually stand as one of the all-time biggest book burnings. Even factoring out sheer volume, the destruction is undeniably among the most significant examples of completely game-changing book burning. Seeing as how innovations such as the "screw-shaped water pump," geometry, the Earth's circumference, and more happened right there, it's probable that many others went extinct alongside original works by Plato, Aristotle, and other great thinkers.

    

5.  

   Nalanda University

   This Indian marvel allegedly took months to fully burn to the ground when ransacked by Muslim invaders in 1197. As the most resplendent university of its time (or any time, really), Nalanda University launched in A.D. 427 and pioneered many common higher-ed standards still in use today, such as entrance exams and student housing. Eventually, it came to host the then-largest collection of important Buddhist and Hindu texts, though the school's popularity had already begun wavering by the time it fell.

    

6.  

   The House of Wisdom

   Known also as Byat Ul-Hikma, The House of Wisdom shares no commonalities with the Baghdad research center destroyed by American troops in 2003 beyond the name. One of the greatest think tanks of the Islamic Golden Age launched in the 760s succumbed to the Mongols during their 1258 invasion. In its prime, however, it acted as the premier center for scientific, philosophical, religious, and mathematical inquiry. Apocryphally, water sources soaked up The House of Wisdom's blood and ink for months after, but some savvy scholars at least managed to smuggle out some of the manuscripts

    

7.  

   Bonfire of the Vanities

   Girolamo Savonarola, before his excommunication as a Dominican cleric, infamously tried to cleanse Italian society of all things he himself deemed too decadent or pagan. More than just books ended up in the massive bonfires, including art, mirrors, makeup, music, clothing, games, and other aesthetic or luxury goods. Such demonstrations were nothing new in Renaissance Italy, but Savonarola's particularly piqued the public's fanaticism and ire alike. His second major event in 1498, which coincided with a new Medici rule, instigated such fervor that riots wound up ravaging Florence.

    

8.  

   Book Burning at Mani

   Today's historians are lucky to know anything about the Mayan civilization at all since the Bishop of Yucatan Diego de Landa's purging of its productions on July 12, 1561. An exact number of books and codices remains elusive, with reports ranging from "only" 27 to several thousand. It doesn't much matter, though. What makes this horrific colonial incident among the biggest in history is how the religion, art, and other traditions of an ancient society almost died out entirely because of one man on one day. Only a small sliver from that awful day remains, merely allowing us a tiny peek into a highly complex former dynasty.

    

9.  

   Make room for the Siku Quanshu

   For more than six decades, the Quinlong Emperor set out cobbling together a massive collection of Chinese history, art, and literature books known as the Siku Quanshu. In order to make room for it in society's consciousness, anywhere between tens and hundreds of thousands of written works, which spanned about 3,000 titles, wound up utterly destroyed. At least 50 authors faced execution after being labeled evil for criticizing — even questioning — the ruling class. Among the volumes purged were encyclopedias he deemed unfit, some of which managed to escape and appear centuries later.

    

10.  

    New York Society for the Suppression of Vice

    Anthony Comstock's New York Society for the Suppression of Vice burned so many books, artistic works, and photos, it eventually inspired "Comstock Laws" preventing the United States post office from distributing materials deemed offensive. Starting with its 1873 inception, the organization destroyed literally tons of books in its heyday, citing them as pornographic and detrimental to a moralistic society. Rarely, however, do these demonstrations ever lead to legislation, so Comstock's cronies left quite a mark on American history.

     

February 15, 2012

By: Samantha Gray

Americans can't seem to agree on anything anymore. It's always war between left versus right, 99 % versus 1 %, gays versus straights. And like any war, children sometimes get caught in the crossfire. One of the latest battlegrounds is the classroom, and the spoils of victory are the hearts and minds of little learners. Debate rages among school boards across the land over what to leave out of textbooks, what to include, and how exactly to word it, which is ironic because everyone knows one of the hallmarks of being an American adult is forgetting everything you learned in school. Oh well; here are 10 textbook passages clothed with controversy.

1. "Explain how Arab rejection of the State of Israel has led to ongoing conflict."

   We could make this entire list solely out of controversial excerpts from textbooks from the Lone Star State, but we'll limit ourselves to two (see next). It would be hard to find an example of an issue that divides people around the world more than the events of Palestine in the last 50 years. With one fell swoop, this loaded discussion question from a world history book places the entire blame for the Arab-Israeli conflict on Arab people. It's akin to saying, "Explain how colonial America's rejection of the British Empire led to years of conflict."

2. "Explain the impact of the writings of John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Voltaire, Charles de Montesquieu, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin and Sir William Blackstone."

   This Texas history book excerpt deals with major philosophers whose ideas were crucial to political revolutions since 1750. The question used to include one man's name at the end of the list: the man who wrote the Declaration of Independence. That's right, they cut American icon Thomas Jefferson from a book about history. Instead, Protestant superhero John Calvin was added, the argument being Jefferson cribbed many of his ideas from Calvin and others.

3. "Men had many more rights than women. Unless there were no sons in a family, only a man could inherit property. Only men could go to school or become priests."

   In 2005, the State of California began to hear grumblings from members of the Hindu community about the representation of their religion in school history books. Among other complaints, they preferred the history of women's rights in their culture be set in a better light. Their suggested revision spoke of men's "different rights" and how women weren't prevented from learning, but that their education "was mostly done at home." Multiple experts called it a deliberate attempt to distort the record books.

4. "Egyptian records from the time don't mention the Exodus of the Israelite slaves. And archaeology hasn't uncovered any evidence of their years in Egypt or of their dramatic departure."

   This was another headache Oxford University Press created for California around the time they were ticking off Hindus. Although Jews did not dispute this statement in a sixth-grade social studies book Oxford was offering, they were perturbed that such figurative asterisks were not placed next to discussions of major events in other faiths. The board of education rejected the book after opponents from the Jewish community complained.

5. "Christian worldview … is the only correct view of reality; anyone who rejects it will not only fail to reach heaven but also fail to see the world as it truly is."

   Homeschools are one of the last bastions of biology materials that espouse creationism. This doozy of a sentence appeared in Biology: Third Edition, printed by Bob Jones University Press. As inflammatory as the line is, because the majority of homeschoolers are fundamentalist Christians, there hasn't been a major outcry against it. But non-Christian parents teaching their kids at home have a devil of a time finding Big Bang books.

6. "This textbook discusses evolution, a controversial theory some scientists present as a scientific explanation for the origin of living things, such as plants, animals, and humans."

   The South would be the other place you can still find Darwin disagreement. Although they've since modified their stance, in 1996 and 2001 the Alabama Board of Education ordered a sticker be attached to all public school biology textbooks clarifying evolution as a "controversial theory." The label went on to say, "any statement about life's origins should be considered as theory, not fact." The 2005 version of the sticker removed the word "controversial."

7. "Then there was a dreadful scream, and there glaring at her in the doorway stood the Witch of the Future…"

   What started in Chicago suburbs in 1991 as a parent crusade against an elementary reader was taken up by national conservative groups like Focus on the Family. Their anger was directed at the "Impressions" line of children's textbooks because they included stories like "The Witch and the Rainbow Cat," about a young girl who gets trapped in a witch's cabin. The issue became a hot-button topic in Chitown, and boy, were the school board elections crazy in '92.

8. "All praise is due to Allah that I moved to Boston when I did. If I hadn't, I'd probably still be a brainwashed black Christian."

   In 1974, the school board in West Virginia's Kanawha County was tasked by the state with promoting more diversity in their textbooks. When this quote from Malcolm X's autobiography was discovered in the language arts books the board had committed to buy, there was an uproar. One thousand people protested the meeting where the board finalized the book purchase. Then 12,000 people signed a petition to ban the book from schools. Three thousand coalminers went on strike. Dynamite was thrown. People were shot. But the books stayed.

9. "Scholars of the People of the Book know that Islam is the true path because they find it in their books. But they shy away out of ignorance and stubbornness. And God knows their deeds and will judge them."

   The Islamic Academy in Virginia had already been the source of a study by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that found the school's textbooks promoted discrimination against non-Muslims. This quote is supposedly one of the results of a move toward tolerance in the books. It appears in a book for 11th-graders and basically condemns all Christians and Jews.

10. "We want you to help clean the weapons and fight the Russians in jihad."

    Technically qualifying as American textbooks because they were produced by the University of Nebraska, in the late '80s, millions of textbooks were sent to Afghan children to try to turn them against the Communists while teaching them math and language skills. The books were a blatant attempt to mix education with propaganda, as the primers were illustrated with pictures of tanks and assault rifles and math equations like "5 guns + 5 guns = 10 guns." It's still a controversial moment in the history of education in this country.

February 1, 2012

By: Samantha Gray

Twitter is like a window into the soul of America. It shows us faster and more accurately what is on our collective minds than any other medium currently in use. So it was only a matter of time, in a bad economy and a worse job market, that Twitter would be flooded with both job seekers and job offerers. The way they find each other is through certain key hashtags, the best of which we have laid out for you to help you in your quest for employment. Some of these will give you broad search results and take a while to sift through, but let's face it — you have lots of free time.

To Find an Employer

These are the tags to plug into Twitter's search engine to connect you with companies with openings.

1. #hiring: Here it is, your No. 1 word to find a hiring company is … hiring.
2. #tweetmyjobs: It's a pretty clunky phrase, but #tweetmyjobs has been tagged nearly a million times, so include it in your search.
3. #HR: The folks handling the headhunting for the company will be from human resources, so go straight to the source.
4. #jobopening: Now we're talking. This tag is almost exclusively used by people offering people work. Easy.
5. #jobposting: "Jobposting" is another efficient tag to search, only it's used a bit less than #jobopening.
6. #employment: Often listed along with #jobs at the end of a tweet, #employment is a major keyword used by businesses in the market for talent.
7. #opportunity: There will be some quotes and other tweets that don't help you, but there will be plenty of hookups to employment opportunities.
8. #recruiting: Search this hashtag to find not only employers that are hiring, but inside info on the recruiting techniques they'll be using.
9. #rtjobs: Many Twitter users are there helping you out by retweeting job openings they come across.
10. #jobangels: The JobAngels are a volunteer group working to help unemployed people find jobs, and they have a strong presence on Twitter.
11. #jobsearch: Sometimes this will be the only hashtag a hiring company will use, so be sure to make it one of your search terms.
12. #joblisting: Attention! I'm a hiring employer and this is my way of telling you that I've got a job right here just waiting to be filled.

To Attract an Employer

Strut your stuff and get yourself out there with these hashtags to help employers find you.

13. #hireme: Don't beat around the bush. #Hireme is short, sweet, and to the point.
14. #MBA: Have an MBA? Shout it out in a hashtag to direct employers to your top-shelf business acumen.
15. #linkedin: If you're unemployed, you're no doubt already networking away on LinkedIn, so let them know you have a viewable profile.
16. #profile: While you're at it, go ahead and tag "profile" too, and couple it with #facebook, #linkedin, #monster, or any other place your details are posted on the internet.
17. #unemployed: It's what you are, so own it and let employers know you are totally available for engagement.
18. #resume: If you're tweeting about your resume posted online, be sure to hashtag it.
19. #CV: Curriculum vitae is basically a more fleshed-out résumé, but #resume is nearly twice as popular. Use both to be safe.
20. #needajob: Thousands of the unemployed have tacked this phrase onto the end of their tweets in the hopes an employer will stumble across it in a search.

To Educate Yourself

These tags may not directly land you a job, but they will enlighten you on the latest trends in finding, keeping, and enjoying a job.

21. #jobtips: By far the best search phrase in this category, it will load you up with more good job advice than you could ever read.
22. #career: At half a million tags, searching #career will score you some job listings and tons of helpful guidance for your professional life.
23. #interview: Hiring companies don't use this word as much, but "interview" and "interviews" are still helpful because they turn up a wealth of advice from fellow tweeters on making your best possible first impression.
24. #benefits: Knowing what to expect in the way of benefits is a good weapon to have heading into an interview.
25. #personalbranding: Do a search for this hashtag to find ideas and tips on selling yourself in the job market.
26. #compensation: If you know the going rate for whatever you do, you are much less likely to be taken advantage of.
27. #training: Searching for "training" is a good way to find great, free job training resources.
28. #jobhunt: A search for this tag brings up mainly advice on job searching, but there will be a healthy smattering of job postings, too.
29. #unemployment: This tag has been used more than 100,000 times by users tweeting about unemployment news, ways to combat unemployment, and jobs to pull you out of unemployment.
30. #employers: They may not be tweeting about themselves, but plenty of employees and commentators are tweeting news and reviews of employers and their practices.
31. #jobless: Curious about what's going on with others in your predicament? Search for this commonly-used tag and find out.
32. #laidoff: It's the same idea as #jobless, except it has more of a sad connotation. If you want to commiserate with some other people about searching for that elusive job, this is the tag to search.

To Find a Certain Type of Job

If you don’t want just any old job, try searching these hashtags for that special placement you have in mind.

33. #freelance: This is a hugely popular tag used by job hunters who want to leave the option of part-time, freelance work open.
34. #homebusiness: If you're eyeing a job being self-employed, try searching this term for entrepreneurship ideas and tips.
35. #greenjobs: Here's one for the truly unselfish people who put the environment before employment.
36. #dreamjob: If you aren’t sure what you want to do with your life, search this tag and get some ideas of what other people would do if they had their druthers.
37. #hotjobs: Hot jobs call for a hot hashtag.
38. #consulting: Another in the potentially temporary job category, #consulting is a nice tag to widen your net and earn some income.
39. #consultant: It might seem silly to use two tags that say virtually the same thing, but those three letters might make the difference in connecting you with your new employer.

Hottest Tags by Field

If you work in one of these industries, you are in a trending field, which could be good (lots of job listings) or bad (lots of competition).

40. #SEO: "SEO" is another one that has been tagged millions of times by job seekers and tweeters discussing search engine optimization.
41. #webdesign: Clocking in at nearly a million uses all-time, #webdesign is another hot topic on Twitter.
42. #accounting: If you're an accountant, you are in luck, as job listings in your field pop up regularly on Twitter.
43. #telecom: Telecommunications is another field with a strong showing on Twitter; it's been used in hashtags more than 81,000 times.
44. #legal: We live in a litigious society, and the need for paralegals and other non-lawyers is increasing. It's a great career to consider because paralegal certification can be obtained relatively quickly.
45. #lawyer: The number of lawyers in America has surged in the last 10 years, which explains why this tag is such a popular one in the Twitterverse.
46. #industry: Pair this with another tag like #music or #hotel and you'll find listings and info on your area of expertise.
47. #salesjobs: You don't have to pound the pavement looking for a sales job; just do a search for this popular tag on Twitter.

To Search When You Have a Couple Hours

You'll need to free up your morning to adequately search through these tags.

48. #jobs: You've probably been wondering when this word would come up. The tag's been used all of 14 million times all-time, for everything from political discussion to job listings. Your best bet is to search it with another tag from this list.
49. #job: Although it has registered only half the uses as #jobs (7 million), the singular version calls up more listings and won't take you as long to sort through.
50. #design: Because it's a generic word, #design has been hashtagged a healthy 2 million times, so if you work in design be sure to supplement tweets with at least one other tag.

Thanks go to topsy.com for the usage stats included in this list.