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I'm interested in better understanding the ongoing geological processes that shape St. Louis and the Mississippi Valley region. So far, I've been looking into the history of seismicity in the region, focusing on the fascinating but little known history of the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811 and 1812 -- the most devastating earthquakes to have hit the US east of the Rockies. I've also been exploring how St. Louis and surrounding areas are dealing with the possibility of another earthquake occurring in the future. According to one article I read, one of the biggest uncertainties is what would happen to the heavily engineered Mississippi River in the case of another major tremblor. The shaking could break the levees, flooding wide areas along the river and creating cascading effects. The flow of the river might also reverse completely, as occurred during the New Madrid earthquakes.

On these possibilities and the lack of scientific consensus surrounding intraplate seismicity in this zone, see this article in The Atlantic.

On current efforts to create earthquake hazard maps in St. Louis, see this overview on the US Geological Survey site.

For a deeper dive into the history of the New Madrid earthquakes, see this book by historian of science Conevery Bolton Valencius. 

Doctors Without Borders comes with a unique aspect of non-bias for the people they give care. Just as a hospital should have no bias, MSF has no religious affiliation, pays no attention to social classes and does not participate in political battles. This lack of bias allows for the most effect when administering emergency patient care. 

Researchers used personal anecdotes of two individuals who, were locked up in Rikers in order to provided a personal view of the conditions of the facilities. The other data was collected from multiple agency's and law firms that have gather data to make a case for either the closing or improvement of Rikers.  

This article is supported with the following:

- Anecdotes from survivors whom have experienced the turmoil of living in the remains after Katrina.

- Showing the disproportional treatment of individuals based on wealth. Those wealthy enough are able to relocate, but those who live in poverty are less likely able to relocate and forced to live in subpar conditions.

- Showing price gouging done by private companies in order to gain funds from federal funding.

Adriana Petryna is a professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania researches the cultural and political aspects of nuclear science and medicine.

The article uses data from sources such as the Aid Worker Security Database, interviews and focus groups. The Aid Worker Security Database, as aforementioned, produces very little data in comparison to how large the problem is suspected to be. 

• "My argument is that while humanitarianism, in conjunction with certain feminist movements, may work to medicalise and depoliticise gender-based violence, the politics of gender actually creep back in undercover, revealing problems at the heart of the humanitarian mission – problems that undermine the very idea of a ‘humanitarian space’ critical to humanitarian action, that is, a space that tries to temporarily hold the political at bay."
• "MSF argued in their essays on the Congo that one reason for not taking rape seriously was that women who had experienced sexual assualt were not ideal subjects of aid; since they could not be easily identified with images of innocence."
• "I argue that the shift to gender-based violence as the exemplary humanitarian problem could not have happened without the prior move to medicalise gender-based violence, and render it a medical condition like all others."