U.S. leads world in mass shooting incidents, study finds
Security Info Watch – Aug. 26
The United States is, by a long shot, the global leader in mass shootings, claiming just 5% of the global population but an outsized share — 31% — of the world’s mass shooters since 1966, a new study finds. The Philippines, Russia, Yemen and France — all countries that can claim a substantial share of the 291 documented mass shootings between 1966 and 2012 — collectively didn’t even come close to the United States. And what makes the United States such a fertile incubator for mass shooters? A comprehensive analysis of the perpetrators, their motives and the national contexts for their actions suggests that several factors have conspired to create in the United States a potent medium for fostering large-scale murder … With those conclusions, University of Alabama criminologist Adam Lankford set out to illuminate the darker side of American “exceptionalism” — the notion that the United States’ size, diversity, political and economic institutions and traditions set us apart in the world. Lankford’s paper is among those being presented this week at the American Sociological Assn.’s annual meeting, in Chicago.
Washington Post – Aug. 26
Daily Mail (U.K.) – Aug. 26
Georgia Newsday – Aug. 26
Ora.TV – Aug. 26
The Crime Post – Aug. 26
Value Walk – Aug. 26
Live Science – Aug. 26
Is the Second Amendment Outdated?
FreeSpeech.org – Aug. 26
Two new reports have come out in recent days showing just how violent the United States has truly become. The first study, which comes from The University of Alabama, shows that the United States has had at least 90 mass shootings over the last fifty years where four or more people were murdered. This doesn’t include robberies or hostage situations either – this only counts gunmen who go on shooting sprees. These 90 mass shootings make up an astounding one-third of all mass shootings that took place across the planet during that 50-year span. The second study, which isn’t so much a study as it is a warning, comes from the FBI itself. According to a leaked Intelligence Bulletin, the FBI has warned officers that right wing extremist groups have begun targeting Mosques and Muslims in the United States.
Democratic Underground – Aug. 26
Could a cold blooded on-air killing finally drive change in America’s gun laws?
Startsatsixty.com – Aug. 26
A pretty young news journalist is conducting an interview live on air when she sees a man walking towards he. He wants to hurt her and he aims a gun straight at her face. What happens next has shocked the world but sadly, it’s not the first time and may not be the last if America does what they usually do – ignore it. Sadly, Virginia WDBJ7 local journalist Alison Parker, 24 was not the only person killed in this senseless attack – cameraman Adam Ward, 27, was also shot at close range … Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama, compiled data from 171 countries, and found that the United States had by far the most public mass shooters, with 90 during a 46-year period. That’s five times as many as the next country on the list: the Philippines, with 18. In other words, although the US accounts for less than five per cent of the world’s population, it had 31 per cent of mass shootings between 1966 and 2012. According to Mass Shooting Tracker, a crowdsourced database that tracks shootings, since the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings in December 2012 there have been at least 864 shootings in the US, with shooters killing at least 1,125 people and wounding 3,097 more.
UA professor comments on deaths of TV news reporter and cameraman
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – Aug. 26
University of Alabama communication professor Chandra Clark says it’s very unfortunate that this could even happen to any reporter or anyone involved in the news profession at any time.
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 26
NBC 12 (Montgomery) – Aug. 26
Social Media Shows Best, Worst Sides in Journalist Shootings
Hong Kong Herald – Aug. 26
The shooting of a reporter and cameraman in Virginia live on air Wednesday highlighted the very worst – and the very best – of the instant sharing culture of news that now happens across social media platforms. Former news station employee Vester Flanagan shot his co-workers Alison Parker and Adam Ward while live-tweeting the experience and recording his perspective of the shooting and sharing the video on Facebook. … University of Alabama professor Elliot Panek studies the relationship between social media use and psychological traits. He said social media “acts as a kind of extension to someone’s instinct to draw attention to themselves and to get their message out in this kind of unvarnished, unedited way.” For most people, this translates as an opportunity to post selfies and share personal details of their lives. But it also can cause people “to get stuck in this loop where they’re thinking more about themselves and curating their image and trying to get feedback and becoming more absorbed in themselves,” said Panek.
Research finds similar neural reactions among drinkers, abstainers
MedicalXpress.com – Aug. 26
College students who are light alcohol drinkers or abstainers react the same when they see alcohol as those who drink regularly or binge drink, according to a researcher at The University of Alabama. Dr. Philip Gable, associate professor of social psychology at UA, recently completed a follow-up study to 2014 findings in which he concluded that alcohol cues, like pictures of alcoholic beverages, can cause the same myopic state, or narrowing of focus, in college students as drinking alcohol. In the follow-up, Gable used Electroencephalography, or EEG, to measure activity of the left frontal lobe of the brain, a hemisphere of the brain related to approach motivation. Gable found that, as with the previous study, the alcohol cues caused greater attentional narrowing than neutral cues. In this round, though, he found that brain activity in the left frontal lobe was greater in both drinkers and non-drinkers, which signaled equal motivation toward the visual cues of alcohol. “Half of the sample were light drinkers or abstainers, and half reported binge drinking in the past month,” Gable said. “What’s interesting is that we weren’t able to find differences between those groups.
GUEST COLUMNIST: Taxes critical for rural health care
Tuscaloosa News – Aug. 26
Friends, family and colleagues have asked about my views on proposals to raise taxes in order to keep up the services available to Alabama’s citizens. My first impulse is to believe that there is already plenty of money in Montgomery to cover all the bases. I grew up around farms, and many of my family still farm, where we learned “to make do.” Also, I appreciate the favorable current use tax rate on several hundred acres of timberland. It is tempting to believe that there is enough money to go around. On the other hand, I teach students who are preparing to become rural physicians to serve in their hometowns that are similar to the towns where my relatives live. These doctors are needed badly. Alabama cannot afford the loss of its farmers or its rural doctors. When the older doctors cannot afford to stay and new doctors cannot afford to come, where does that leave a town and community? This is the situation Alabama faces if it does not fund Medicaid at current levels. (Dr. John R. Wheat is a professor and director of the Rural Scholars Programs in the College of Community Health Sciences at the University of Alabama. The opinions expressed in this column are his own and do not represent the views of the University of Alabama.)
University Medical Center -Northport holds ribbon cutting
WVUA (Tuscaloosa) – Aug. 26
The University of Alabama Medical Center’s new Northport location officially opened today. The grand-opening took place this evening in the Fitness One building. The center also held an open house which included patient information sessions on health related issues. Both University Medical Center and UMC Northport are operated by UA’s College of Community Health Sciences.
Bama Dining holds ribbon cutting ceremony for new location
Crimson White – Aug. 26
Bama Dining opened its newest location, Greens to Go, today at 11 a.m. in the Ferguson Center. Greens to Go is a salad and wrap bar. Its creation is the reflection of a partnership between Bama Dining and the SGA to bring healthier options to campus in addition to the renovations to campus eating facilities. Bama Dining General Manager Bruce McVeagh said Greens to Go was a reestablishment of the salad and wrap bar the Ferg had before its renovation through 2013 and 2014. “After the renovation, Elliot came and saw us and said, ‘Hey, we love the food court, but can we bring back one thing from the old court?'” McVeagh said. SGA President Elliot Spillers said the addition is something that he felt there was need for in conjunction with his healthy campus initiative. “One thing that I heard from the student body was, ‘We want healthier options,'” Spillers said. “And so Bruce and [Bama Dining District Manager] AJ DeFalco were amazing in partnering with the SGA, making sure we could have this green bar on campus.”
Coast Guard’s Katrina heroism shines in ‘Paratus 14:50’
New Orleans Times-Picayune – Aug. 26
You could try to get a handle on the Coast Guard’s Hurricane Katrina response in numbers, tallying up aircrews, flights and rescues. A new documentary, “Paratus 14:50” measures it in blood, sweat and tears. The film made its Gulf Coast broadcast premiere Wednesday evening on Alabama Public Television, as part of a block of programming related to the 10th anniversary of Katrina’s landfall on Aug. 29, 2005. Begun as a student project at the University of Alabama, made by a crew consisting largely of undergraduates (many of whom graduated along the way to its completion), it is airing in all Gulf Coast states and elsewhere in the country. As of Wednesday, it also can be viewed online via www.aptv.org.
Sometimes it’s the little things: A look at Alabama’s ‘world’s smallest’ titles
Al.com – Aug. 26
We’ve bragged before on Alabama’s “world’s largest titles,” such as the Vulcan the largest cast-iron statue; the World’s Largest Office Chair in Anniston; and Enterprise’s Boll Weevil Monument which is the largest because, well, it’s the only statue honoring a cotton-eating bug. … Today, we’re going to celebrate the little things that are important in Alabama: Its “world’s smallest” title holders. Some titles are officially recognized, while others are unmeasured claims. Either way, they are lots of fun … World’s Smallest Mardi Gras Parade, University of Alabama: An unusual club at the University of Alabama holds one of the state’s strangest parades each year. The Mallet Assembly is sort of like a fraternity for “unconventional thinkers,” according to its website. It is a residence for honors students named for its original home, Mallet Hall. Each year since about 1980, members of the Mallet Assembly have set aside Fat Tuesday for what they bill the “World’s Smallest Mardi Gras Parade,” according to alumnus Chris Luehmann. It features a person chosen as that year’s king or queen riding in the back of a truck with a member of the university’s Million Dollar Band on either side. The parade moves along a short route on sorority row.