Category Archives: Transforming

Projects that are making a difference, improving lives, and building communities.

Authors A-H, Politics

Pandering to Gerrymandering: Who Won the Redistricting War? – by David Grinberg

Here’s the Score…

Examining the race to redraw congressional maps prior to the midterm elections.

What started as so-called “Trump-mandering” quickly became a national political battle between Republicans and Democrats to redraw as many congressional districts as possible before the critically important midterm elections on November 3, 2026.

When the smoke finally cleared, one party emerged victorious and will likely have up to a 10-seat advantage in the race to control the House of Representatives going into Election Day. That’s theoretical, of course, because even though a district map is redrawn to heavily favor one party, there’s no guarantee that an upset won’t occur, even if it remains a long shot.

Continue reading Pandering to Gerrymandering: Who Won the Redistricting War? – by David Grinberg →

Authors A-H, Social Issues

Becoming Insightful: Thinking Together – by Leland Beaumont

Dialogue, derived from the Greek dia logus, meaning “through words and reason,” is a unique communication skill driven by genuine curiosity, and aligned with understanding. Dialogue seeks insights. Dialogue listens closely and asks: What are they saying? Why are they saying that? What are they thinking? What can I learn? What is true? What is the insight?

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Authors A-H, Social Issues

Is Your Backyard Playground Ready for Fall? – by Sheryl Berkley

7 Common Hazards to Look for After Summer Break

As summer winds down and kids head back to school, families often start spending more time in the backyard after school and on weekends. If you have a home playground, now is a good time to take a closer look at it. Months of summer sun, rain, storms and everyday play can leave behind safety hazards that may not be obvious at first glance.

Before the kids return to regular outdoor play, take a few minutes to walk around the playground and surrounding area. A simple inspection can help you spot small problems before they become bigger safety concerns. Here are seven common backyard playground hazards to look for after summer break.

Continue reading Is Your Backyard Playground Ready for Fall? – by Sheryl Berkley →

Authors I-Q, Social Issues

Grabbbing Ahold Of Time – by Martin Kimeldorf

An Essay About The Most Elusive, Perplexing, Sought-After Element of Modern Life

Certain dream stories repeat themselves over time until they no longer hold my interest. I call these Dream Themes. One theme that has lasted a long time centers on my first year or two of college. 

I attended the University of California at Santa Cruz in the late 1960s. Back then it was an emerging experiment created in response to the Berkeley uprisings. It featured small classes built around themes, and combined large lectures with smaller, intensely interactive seminars. The first year consisted of only one class, Western Civ, which combined history, English, and art. You didn’t get to deviate from the core curriculum until after the first year or so. 

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Authors I-Q, Education

Reimagining Education for the AI Era – by Muhammad Usman Qazi

Building Inclusive, Interactive, and Future-Ready Curricula

I have had the opportunity to witness several important stages in the evolution of computing. When I first encountered computers, interaction was largely command-oriented. Users needed to understand commands, remember syntax, and enter instructions carefully to make a computer perform a task. Computing was powerful, but it was not necessarily intuitive or accessible to everyone.

Then came a major turning point: the emergence and widespread adoption of the Windows graphical environment. The way people interacted with computers changed dramatically. Instead of relying primarily on typed commands, users could work with windows, icons, menus, folders, and a mouse. Tasks that once required specialized knowledge became much easier for ordinary users.

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Advisors, Authors A-H, Social Issues

Legacy of 16-year-old Barbara Johns – by Terry Howard

Exhausted enough for change

pastedGraphic.pngBabara Johns
Note: Not long ago, this author co-sponsored a trip from central Virginia to Farmville, Virginia for a visit to the R. R. Moton Museum . Mounted prominently on the wall in the museum’s auditorium is a picture of 16-year-old Barbara Johns, who led a protest that changed trajectory of history. Here’s her story.

20 years ago, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. penned words that have held their meaning and significance to this day….“Few forces are more compelling than a soul grown exhausted enough for change.”

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Advisors, Authors R-Z, Education

American Education Is Changing – by Sridhar Rangaswamy

Something has been quietly changing in American classrooms, and it’s worth paying attention to. Over the past two to three years, schools have been rethinking almost everything. How they teach reading. What role does technology play? Who gets to enroll, and under what conditions? The debates happening in school board meetings and university hallways right now will shape what American education looks like for the next decade.

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Go Green, Levine articles

Going Green is Tough Public Policy — by Deborah Levine

1 Comment

Editor’s note: Written 12 years ago but timely as ever.

Environmentalists may not be happy with some of the solutions to climate change.  In a recent article in Wired Magazine, “Inconvenient Truths: Get Ready to Rethink What It Means to Be Green”, the top 10 ways to save the planet are likely to drive environmentalists crazy. Calling for Greens to unite around the issue of greenhouse gasses, the article makes the case for public policies that favor nuclear energy and urban density. The outcry from readers was memorable as they criticized the single mindedness of the article, its lack of supporting data, its in-your-face sensationalism, and overall creepiness.   Yet, the discussion of climate change and public policy does and should raise these most difficult issues as new reports show irreversible damage.

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DL Opinion columns, Tech & AI

Conversational AI comes to Chattanooga, again – by Deborah Levine

originally published in The Chattanooga Times Free Press

Project Voice 2026 marks a decade of Conversational AI and it was a pleasure to attend at its conference at the Chattanooga Convention Center. I’m in total agreement with the organizer, Bradley Metrock, (General Partner, Project Voice Capital Partners) and his explanation of the celebration. “We’ve been very pleased to host Project Voice for the last ten years here in Chattanooga. Every time I get asked “Why Chattanooga?” I respond “Why not?” The city is growing, vibrant, and hungry, and those working with voice AI and conversational AI from around the world that have attended over the years have witnessed that energy first-hand. The conference itself moves the voice AI world forward, and quietly has established a reputation as a central event for this young but growing technological domain.”

There were more than 160 attendees for amazing sessions like: Alexa, What’s Next For Voice AI?, Security Reimagined in an Age of AI, Hiring In The Age Of AI, Conversational AI in Modern Healthcare, and Measuring AI’s Effectiveness in Customer Service.

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Academic Articles, Authors I-Q, Politics

A Value-Based Peace Proposal for the Middle East – by W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz

The New Israel and the New Palestine

“The world is the totality of values, rather than the totality of facts.”
— Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus, 7.2021

Modern diplomacy consistently fails in the Middle East because it treats the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a zero-sum collision of physical facts, borders, and raw power politics. This paper (Korab-Karpowicz 2026a) operationalizes the evolutionary axiology of the Tractatus Politico-Philosophicus to present a structural, value-based alternative.

By rejecting the Hobbesian trap of mechanically dividing the contested territory of the West Bank, I propose a grand geopolitical exchange: the complete integration of the West Bank into Israel to ensure its strategic and historical security, balanced by the creation of “The New Palestine”—a sovereign, world-class hyper-developed state encompassing the Gaza Strip and an expanded territory in the Sinai Peninsula, funded entirely by the international community.

Continue reading A Value-Based Peace Proposal for the Middle East – by W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz →