Violent crime as old as the Bible: Boko Haram uses rape as a weapon of war

Days after Nigerian security forces freed 234 women from Boko Haram’s stronghold in Nigeria’s Sambisa forest it was reported that at least 214 (91%) of them were pregnant. The women were among nearly 700 rescued from the Islamic terrorist group in operations and have been taken to safe camps in Borno State where they will be offered medical and pre-natal care and counselling. It is not yet known whether any of the 230 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram from their school in the town of Chibok in April 2014 were among them

Farewell Terry Pratchett: a psychological analysis of Discworld

Terry Pratchett, the incredibly prolific fantasy author and creator of the bestselling Discworld series, has died aged 66. He was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease eight years ago. Pratchett set 40 of his novels in his most famous creation, Discworld. This is a place in which magic is the natural rule and the way to deal with life and its problems. Here, the “scientist” is held in either mild disdain or open disbelief

Are You There God? Whether we Pray Harder or Endure Wrath Depends on the Religious Doctrine of Providence

This article gives a Christian perspective on the COVID-19 pandemic, relating it to the apocalypse narrative found in the Book of Revelations, in addition to the doctrinal idea of Divine Providence. The article discusses providential fatalism, providential activism, providential exclusivism, providential punitivism, and providential interventionism

Practical Strategies for Integrating a Conversation Analyst in an Iterative Design Process

We present a case study of an iterative design process that includes a conversation analyst. We discuss potential benefits of conversation analysis for design, and we describe our strategies for integrating the conversation analyst in the design process. Since the analyst on our team had no previous exposure to design or engineering, and none of the other members of our team had any experience with conversation analysis, we needed to build a foundation for our interaction. One of our key strategies was to pair the conversation analyst with a designer in a highly interactive collaboration. Our tactics have been effective on our project, leading to valuable results that we believe we could not have obtained using another method. We hope that this paper can serve as a practical guide to those interested in establishing a productive and efficient working relationship between a conversation analyst and the other members of a design team.Comment: 11 page

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Conversation and critique within the architectural design process: a linkograph analysis

Conversation and critique are central to architectural design practice as they function as tools for probing and further improving design ideas. We study the kind of design activities that take place in such conversation and critique within the architectural design process. We use linkographs to characterise the design process taking place during conversation. More precisely, we study conversations between design teachers and design students. In this article, an example design process is considered that takes place via a traditional face-to-face meeting. Using the resulting linkograph, we are able to assess the kind of design activity taking place during such sessions of conversation and critique

Lost in Conversation

While still in the midst of their study abroad experiences, students at Linfield College write reflective essays. Their essays address issues of cultural similarity and difference, compare lifestyles, mores, norms, and habits between their host countries and home, and examine changes in perceptions about their host countries and the United States. In this essay, Kate Henley describes her observations during her study abroad program at the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador