Animal welfare → Blues rock, Lakshmi, Woodrow Wilson Awards

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  Animal welfareAnimal welfare is the quality of life and overall well-being of animals. Formal standards of animal welfare vary between contexts, but are debated mostly by animal welfare groups, legislators, and academics. Animal welfare science uses measures such as longevity, disease, immunosuppression, behavior, physiology, and reproduction, although there is debate about which of these best indicate animal welfare. Respect for animal welfare is often based on the belief that nonhuman animals are sentient and that consideration should be given to their well-being or suffering, especially when they are under the care of humans. These concerns can include how animals are slaughtered for food, how they are used in scientific research, how they are kept, and how human activities affect the welfare and survival of wild species. There are two forms of criticism of the concept of animal welfare, coming from diametrically opposite positions. One view, held by some thinkers in history, holds that humans have no duties of any kind to animals. The other view is based on the animal rights position that animals should not be regarded as objects and any use of animals by humans is unacceptable. Accordingly, some animal rights proponents argue that the perception of better animal welfare is used as an excuse for continued exploitation of animals. Some authorities therefore treat animal welfare and animal rights as two opposing positions. Others see animal welfare gains as incremental steps towards animal rights. The predominant view of modern neuroscientists, notwithstanding philosophical problems with the definition of consciousness even in humans, is that consciousness exists in nonhuman animals; however, some still maintain that consciousness is a philosophical question that may never be scientifically resolved. A new study has devised a unique way to dissociate conscious from nonconscious perception in animals. The researchers built experiments predicting opposite behavioral outcomes to consciously vs. non-consciously perceived stimuli. The monkeys' behaviors displayed these exact opposite signatures, just like aware and unaware humans tested in the study.
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  Blues rockBlues rock is a fusion genre and form of rock and blues music that relies on the chords/scales and instrumental improvisation of blues. It is mostly an electric ensemble-style music with instrumentation similar to electric blues and rock. From its beginnings in the early 1960s, blues rock has gone through several stylistic shifts and along the way it inspired and influenced hard rock, Southern rock, and early heavy metal. Blues rock started with rock musicians in the United Kingdom and the United States performing American blues songs. They typically recreated electric Chicago blues songs, such as those by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Reed, at faster tempos and with a more aggressive sound common to rock. In the UK, the style was popularized by groups such as the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and the Animals, who put several blues songs into the pop charts. In the US, Lonnie Mack, the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Canned Heat were among the earliest exponents. Some of these bands also played long, involved improvisations as were then commonplace on jazz records. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the style became more hard rock-oriented. In the US, Johnny Winter, the early Allman Brothers Band, and ZZ Top represented a hard rock trend, along with Led Zeppelin, Ten Years After, Chicken Shack, and Foghat in the UK. Along with hard rock, blues rock songs became the core of the music played on album-oriented rock radio in the United States, and later the classic rock format established there during the 1980s.
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  LakshmiLakshmi, also known as Shri, is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of fortune, wealth, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She, Parvati, and Sarasvati form the trinity of goddesses called the Tridevi. Lakshmi has been a central figure in Hindu tradition since pre-Buddhist times and remains one of the most widely worshipped goddesses in the Hindu pantheon. Although she does not appear in the earliest Vedic literature, the personification of the term shri—auspiciousness, glory, and high rank, often associated with kingship—eventually led to the development of Sri-Lakshmi as a goddess in later Vedic texts, particularly the Shri Suktam. Her importance grew significantly during the late epic period, when she became particularly associated with the preserver god Vishnu as his consort. In this role, Lakshmi is seen as the ideal Hindu wife, exemplifying loyalty and devotion to her husband. Whenever Vishnu descended on the earth as an avatar, Lakshmi accompanied him as consort, for example, as Sita and Radha or Rukmini as consorts of Vishnu's avatars Rama and Krishna, respectively. Lakshmi holds a prominent place in the Vishnu-centric sect of Vaishnavism, where she is not only regarded as the consort of Vishnu, the supreme being, but also as his divine energy (shakti). She is also the supreme goddess in the sect and assists Vishnu to create, protect, and transform the universe. She is an especially prominent figure in Sri Vaishnavism tradition, in which devotion to Lakshmi is deemed to be crucial to reach Vishnu. Within the goddess-oriented Shaktism, Lakshmi is venerated as the prosperity aspect of the supreme goddess. The eight prominent manifestations of Lakshmi, the Ashtalakshmi, symbolise the eight sources of wealth. Lakshmi is depicted in Indian art as an elegantly dressed, prosperity-showering golden-coloured woman standing or sitting in the padmasana position upon a lotus throne, while holding a lotus in her hand, symbolising fortune, self-knowledge, and spiritual liberation. Her iconography shows her with four hands, which represent the four aspects of human life important to Hindu culture: dharma, kama, artha, and moksha. She is often accompanied by two elephants, as seen in the Gaja-Lakshmi images, symbolising both fertility and royal authority. The Gupta period sculpture and coins only associate lions with Lakshmi, often flanking her on either side. Archaeological discoveries and ancient coinage suggest a recognition and reverence for Lakshmi by the first millennium BCE. Iconography and statues of Lakshmi have also been found in Hindu temples throughout Southeast Asia, estimated to be from the second half of the first millennium CE. The day of Lakshmi Puja during Navaratri, and the festivals of Deepavali and Sharad Purnima are celebrated in her honour.
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  Woodrow Wilson AwardsWoodrow Wilson Awards are given out in multiple countries each year by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars of the Smithsonian Institution to individuals in both the public sphere and business who have shown an outstanding commitment to President of the United States Woodrow Wilson's dream of integrating politics, scholarship, and policy for the common good. Created in 1999 as a local Award for leadership in Washington, DC, the Awards were expanded in 2001 to recognize great leaders and thinkers throughout the world. Funding from the Awards supports additional research, scholars, and programs in Washington and the home community of the recipients.

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