Vulnerability

Vulnerability refers to the inability (of a system or a unit) to withstand the effects of a hostile environment. A window of vulnerability (WoV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are diminished, compromised or lacking.

Common applications

In relation to hazards and disasters, vulnerability is a concept that links the relationship that people have with their environment to social forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain and contest them. “The concept of vulnerability expresses the multi-dimensionality of disasters by focusing attention on the totality of relationships in a given social situation which constitute a condition that, in combination with environmental forces, produces a disaster”.

It's also the extent to which changes could harm a system, or to which the community can be affected by the impact of a hazard or exposed to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, either physically or emotionally: "we were in a vulnerable position".

Research

Brené Brown

Brené Brown (born November 18, 1965) is an American scholar, author, and public speaker, who is currently a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Over the last twelve years she has been involved in research on a range of topics, including vulnerability, courage, worthiness, and shame. She is the author of two #1 New York Times Bestsellers: The Gifts of Imperfection (2010) and Daring Greatly (2012). She and her work have been featured on PBS,NPR,TED, and CNN.

Early life and education

Brown was born in San Antonio, Texas and spent a formative period in New Orleans, Louisiana. She completed her Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) at University of Texas at Austin in 1995, followed by a Master of Social Work (MSW) in 1996 and Ph.D. from the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston in 2002.

Career

Brown began her career as a research professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her research focuses on authentic leadership and wholeheartedness in families, schools, and organizations. She presented a 2012 TED talk and two 2010 TEDx talks.

Oprah Winfrey

Oprah Gail Winfrey, born January 29, 1954, is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show, which was the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011. Dubbed the "Queen of All Media", she has been ranked the richest African-American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and is now North America's first and only multi-billionaire Black. Several assessments regard her as the most influential woman in the world. In 2013, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama and honorary doctorate degrees from Duke and Harvard.

Winfrey was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood. She has stated that she was molested during her childhood and early teens and became pregnant at 14; her son died in infancy. Sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Brown

Brown is the color of dark wood or rich soil. Brown is a composite color; in printing or painting, brown is made by combining red, black and yellow, or red, yellow and blue. In the RGB color model used to make colors on television screens and computer monitors, brown is made by combining red and green, in specific proportions. The brown color is seen widely in nature, in wood, soil, and human hair color, eye color and skin pigmentation. In Europe and the United States, brown is the color most often associated with plainness, humility, the rustic, and poverty. Brown is also, according to public opinion surveys in Europe and the United States, the least favorite color of the public.

In nature and culture

The Sahara Desert around Kufra Oasis, Libya, seen from space

The Sahara Desert around Kufra Oasis, Libya, seen from space

Chocolate. A sachertorte in a Vienna cafe.

Chocolate. A sachertorte in a Vienna cafe.

Espresso-roasted coffee beans.

Espresso-roasted coffee beans.

Super Soul

Super Soul is an album by jazz organist Richard "Groove" Holmes fronting a big band which was recorded in 1967 in Chicago and released on the Prestige label.

Reception

Allmusic awarded the album 2 stars stating "Super Soul was a little funkier than much soul-jazz that had passed before 1967, and its horn parts sometimes slanted more toward pop and soundtrack territory... The album's a little on the innocuous side, even for a genre (Prestige 1960s soul-jazz) that can be pretty homogeneous. It's easygoing background party music, though Holmes summons an interesting light, prickly, almost vibes-like organ sound at times".

Track listing