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I teach anthropology and environmental studies at Haveford College, just outside of Philly. Currently, I'm holed up in a cabin in the Adirondacks in upstate New York with several family members, including my spouse and 4 year old daughter and 3 dogs. I started working on disasters by accident, when one day in 2001 I was walking to class at NYU and saw the World Trade Center buildings on flames. I have known Kim for a few year and I contacted her to connect with folks around Covid-19 and its imacts.

I'm particularly intersted in issues of communal grief, mourning, and bereavement. Also, I'm interested in the religious response to Covid-19.

“the demands placed on an investigation have as much, or more, to do with defining the dominant investigator and quickly addressing the fears and anger of the press, government, and an outraged public than they do with discovering the definitive technical truths of a catastrophic event.” (Knowles 11)

“The Hague Street inquest featured many experts, none with the authority to effect real change. The result was a blanket of blame that covered everyone” (Knowles 19)

“With the exception of federal oversight, Iroqouis set the tone for investigations of modern disasters from the Baltimore Conflagration (1904) to the world Trade Center collapse.” (Knowles 24)

Vulnerability and resilience in this artifact are defined by the high concentration of child poverty in Essex County. They are measured using the Census from 2000 and 2015 which show how there is a trend in the percentage of children who expereince poverty within the county. Majority of the children living in poverty are currently living in heavilyu concentrated poverty neighborhoods like Newark, Irvington, and the Oranges. Although the affluent town of Milburn is nearby, it is unclear how these children continue to live below the poverty line in Newark even though the towns are only 6 miles apart. 

The article provides statistics of approved applications based on the medical reason for the application and the department the application was processed at based on location, to show how different acceptance rates are. The article also provides many stories of applications, invoking an emotional response that allows the reader to sympathize with the personal challenge that faces medical officers and government officials making the discussions that may dramatically affect the health and wellbeing of individuals.

This system would definitely be difficult to use directly in the field as it does require steady internet connection to allow for collaboration between users. Another likely problem would be collaboration between users who speak a different language, although the publishing aspect of the app, and adaptable software downloads allow for multiple languages. Integrating numerical data between users who’s primary languages differ creates technical challenges that could range from complete field incompatibility to something as simple as interpreting a comma as thousands rather than a decimal point.

The Stafford Act was significantly criticized by the public, primarily for the fact that while the act set up legal systems allowing the government to provide housing and medical services to displaced citizens it did not require the government to do so. There was also concern that the policy created too many restrictions and limitations for FEMA which would slow the response time to an emergency.

The US government is motivated by both the social necessity of reintegrating thousands of active military servicemen every year, and the responsibility of supporting the veterans who sacrificed for this country.

The study aimed to do large scale studies on disasters relating to the exposure of a portion of the population to a toxic agent, in order to learn how to better study the long-term medical effects.

The report was written on the behalf of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation as a summary of their sixtieth session. The summary was written to be read to the United Nations General Assembly. The scientific data reported was collected by independent teams working on behalf of the Committee.

The film focuses on differing outlooks on death from terminal illness, to accept certain inevitabilities and place importance on the quality of life rather than the time remaining as opposed to the traditional medicine approach of fighting until the last moment to extend life.