Some Words I Should Know How To Use:

Einkorn
Emmer
Free threshing
Hulled and naked barley
Pulses, Pea, lentil, bitter vetch, chickpea, grass pea
Linear pottery
Glume wheats
Loess
Chaff and straw
Temper (pottery)
Daub (houses)
Wattle-and-daub
Teleological reasoning
Holocene
Adobe
Circumscribed
Peripterael
Stylobate
Pronaos
Cella or naos
Pteroma
Flank columns
Columns in antis
Colonnade
Peristyle
Stereobate/substructure
ochres
manganese oxide
awls
vestibule
palimsest
panoptic
plastered
inlaid
megalith
menhir
henge
trilithon
cromlech
cursus
sarsen stones
lintels
post-and-lintel
tenon and mortise
Portico
Acropolis
Antiquity
modem
leaden
cosmography
malaise
method of loci
syllogisms
facade
colonnade
genteel
hexametrical
dodecahedron of quintessence
gestalt principles
river of the transmigration of essence
gross and subtle bodies
prana
sheaves
stopgap
buttresses
panaphonics
somersault
demiurge
jouissance
stupors
infirmity
beset
comports
megaron
beaked jug
serpentine
inlay
corbeled
casemate
cyclopean
relieving triangle
tholos
barrel vaulted
dromos
rivetted
rhyton
repousse
pitch
tallow
middens
flood-retreat farming
triglyph
architrave
abacus
echinus
necking
metope
acroterion
cornice
pediment
frieze
entablature
capital
macrobotanical
envisaged
terraces
marl hollow
alluvium
hummocks
agglomeration
basins
glen
foci
indices
statigraphic
dogged
phytolith
moldings
volute
flute
gable
neonates
guiloche
acanthus
palmette
meander
rosette
egg-and-dart
amphora
dipylon
sexagesimal
stereobate/stylobate

Some Thoughts I Had About the Chauvet Cave Paintings That Some Girl in my Class Prevented me from Sharing

I don't believe an animated effect is intentional in the hall of lions. In my group, I made the argument that some of the draw-overs look more like corrections than extensions. While the more naturalistic looking lions were given shading, highlights, and details like eye-whites or whiskers, the ones with odder proportions (circled) lack these. This gave me the impression the artist had been unsatisfied with these drawings.

In the top right circle, a lion is shown with two heads at different angles. While it could be read as a bowing or looking up, I think the artist just took another shot at drawing it. Overlapping lines are common in the Chauvet cave paintings. The large fluid strokes could easily turn out differently than the artist hoped. We also have no reason to believe these paintings were commissioned by anyone or held to a certain standard of polish. I imagine the process of the cave paintings looked more like someone drawing in their sketchbook than trying to paint the Sistine Chapel.

I also don't think the lions are traveling in a unit. I don't even believe they really inhabit the same imagined space. I read it as similar to when someone draws a bunch of eyes in their sketchbook but doesn't intend them all to belong in the same scene to some eldritch eye monster.

Because they were drawn in torch light, I don't think the artist could see or was taking in the whole scene. I don't think they cared about how the lions related to each other very much. I think they're composed the way they are, all going the same direction, because that's an effective use of space. the necks can overlap, and the heads stay visible.

Everything you need to know about the NLRB

A Brief Overview:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) was established in 1935 as a part of the National Labor Relations act (also sometimes called the Wagner act). It's job is to enforce labor law and oversee union elections. If an employer or union thinks the other is engaging in an unfair labor practice, they file a complaint with one of the NLRB's 26 regional offices. In order to form a union, at least 30% of a workforce must sign authorization cards cards in order to submit a petition to the NLRB, who will then oversee an official election.

The NLRB falls outside of the fifteen federal departments run by an appointee of the sitting president (making up the Cabinet). It is an independent federal agency, which means the president has limited authority over its leadership and operations. Though, in the case of the NLRB, that influence is still substantial.

The highest authority in the NLRB is a five member board that rules on whether the cases brought to them violate labor law. They're basically the supreme court of the NLRB, as their rulings determine "binding precedents that set labor law going forward". Each member is assigned by the president and serves a 5-year term with the idea that one board member is swapped out each year. The General Council is one person, instated by the president at the beginning of their term, who sets priorities for the agency and decides cases make it to the board.

I was so charmed by the acting in this official introductory video:

History:

the World War 2 draft thinned out the labor market, and more industries were deemed crucial for the war effort. It was the perfect time for organizing, but the government started to see unions as a threat to vital wartime productions. A temporary agency was established for the duration of the war, the National Wartime Labor Board, to minimize these interruptions (strikes) and kneecap the NLRB. When World War 2 ended, industries that had refrained from or been prevented from striking finally had their chance. There was such a huge wave of strike votes that the NLRB had to suspend most other operations to handle the workload. At the same time, anti-communist fervor had taken over the nation.

The 1947 Taft-Hartley obliterated union power with such totality that it requires a breakdown post of its own, but Wikipedia summarizes it better than I could:

"The Taft–Hartley Act banned jurisdictional strikes, wildcat strikes, political strikes, secondary boycotts, secondary picketing, mass picketing, union campaign donations made from dues money, the closed shop, and unions of supervisors. The act also enumerated new employer rights, defined union-committed ULPs(Unfair Labor Practices), gave states the right to opt out of federal labor law through right-to-work laws, required unions to give an 80-days' strike notice in all cases, established procedures for the President to end a strike in a national emergency, and required all union officials to sign an anti-Communist oath. Organizationally, the act made the General Counsel a presidential appointee, independent of the board itself, and gave the General Counsel limited powers to seek injunctions without referring to the Justice Department. It also banned the NLRB from engaging in any mediation or conciliation, and formally enshrined in law the ban on hiring personnel to do economic data collection or analysis."

Also try this short Video:

TLDR:

The Taft-Hartley act pulled the teeth out of unions. It incentivized people not to join unions, prevented unions from independently deciding what to do with their own money, kicked countless longstanding organizers out of their positions for having socialist/communist ties, prevented "sympathy strikes" or union solidarity, etc. etc. Labor power in the United States is completely unrecognizable from what it was shaping up to become.

Jennifer Abruzzo

Biden's General Council is named Jennifer Abruzzo and she rules so hard. Republicans have used the NLRB to stamp down worker's rights, and Democrats have stagnated. Abruzzo is unusually forthright and proactive in her push for legal labor protections. She uses her position as GC to outline "Mandatory submissions to the division of advice". Issues that, if they show up in a case, regional offices are required to turn in so that they can be reviewed and ruled on by the board directly. Previously, Trump's General Council targeted a top-ten list of issues given to him by the Chamber of Commerce. (The Chamber of Commerce a network of businesses banding together to further business interests.)

Some of Abruzzo's Targets:

Stripping an employer's ability to host mandatory meetings during work hours to play anti-union propaganda
Allowing employees to have a coworker present when investigation may lead to discipline even in non-union workplaces
overturning two 2019 decisions that allowed employers to exclude union representatives from public spaces on employer property
Backpay should cover financial losses an employee incurred due to having been wrongfully fire, like late fees on credit cards, credit rating, or loss of home or car.
Training of managers who broke the law + progress updates, letters of apology
A 80% union authorization card majority would mean the union is recognized without the need for an election. (Currently an employer can refuse to acknowledge the union and insist on an election)
Banning non-competition agreements (a legal clause that prohibits an employee from competing with their employer (/working for a competitor) after employment for a certain length of time.)

Union Busters HATE her!!!

One sign to trust Abruzzo is looking at just how upset she makes corporate lobbyists. She was voted in by the senate 51-50. Every democrat voted yes, every republican voted no, and Kamala Harris broke the tie. I first discovered Jennifer Abruzzo in this video, where union-busting firm, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, helpfully outlines Abruzzo's targets in advancing labor rights.

After mentioning she wanted to challenge the legality of "captive audience meetings" (where employers are allowed to hold mandatory meetings during work hours to who employees anti-union propaganda), six major staffing firms banded together to sue her for "violating the first amendment". These are: Burnett Specialists, Staff Force, Inc. d/b/a Staff-Force Personnel Services, Allegiance Staffing Corp., Link Staffing, LeadingEdge Personnel, Ltd. and Staff Force doing business as Staff Force Personnel Services.

But what is a staffing firm, and why do they seem so threatened by challenges to union-busting tactics? According to Recruiter.com, staffing firms specialize in finding short-term workers for employers. (Not to be mistaken for recruiting agencies, which focus on long-term full employment). Contract workers are unable to organize in the same way full-time employees are. They aren't entitled to any of the same benefits or security. Switching out employees for contract workers is a classic union avoidance strategy. Unions can limit the ability for employers to rely on contract work going forward, which means bad business for staffing firms.

The NLRB is one of the most flappable government agencies depending on whether a democrat or a republican is in office. The changes Abruzzo makes now have little chance of surviving a republican presidency. But the lengths she has been able to go are staggering compared to previous democrats in office, in large part because the tides are changing in terms of public union support and pro-union sentiment among democrats in office. It is making corporate lobbyists scared, because they know that this is potentially just the beginning. They’re doing everything they can to stamp it down now, before it has the power to cement itself. As for Abruzzo, she stated, “I do not worry about what courts may or may not do. I do not feel constrained at all.”

More about her Here

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Research Questions

How to Speak Money

The relationship between inflation and interest rates
How does the government set interest rates?
What are the Federal Home Loan Banks? Explain their low interest rate loans to predatory student loan lenders. How is this system being taken advantage of, what are its effects, and how can it be changed?
Make a list of important banks and credit ratings agencies
Explain the difference between different kinds of banks and bankers
How is GDP calculated?
Explain the founding and functions of the IMF and World Bank
Why is the dollar the reserve currency?
Explain the inverse relationship between yeild and price
Beggar Thy Neighbor policies and their effects
Marx's surplus theory of value. Why does eliminating labor eliminate value?
Arguments that government-paid student loans would make a return vs not
Obama-era reforms on the financial sector
Quantitative easing
Price/earnings ratio implications
Developing vs Emerging, Macro vs Micro, and Monetary vs Fiscal

A Collective Bargain

Timeline of union legislation
Structure and powers of the NLRB
Anti-labor legislation being pushed
Who are the biggest anti-union lobbyists?
Labor reforms of recent past and future plans
Union organizer strategy vs Union buster strategy
Research on unions and green jobs
Strategic unionizing zones. What are the largest unions or pro-union organizations?
Process of getting unionized/negotiating contracts

Homewreckers

The easy solution to the 2008 financial crisis
Why are the banks bailed out anyway?

Misc.

Theophilus Riesinger Overview
1934 Earling Exorcism document top 10 funny moments