A Monument to Culture and Achievement: The Samurai Suit of Armor and Katana at Gettysburg College

Of the many artifacts found in Gettysburg College’s Musselman library, perhaps the most unusual and seemingly out of place may be the centuries-old replica of a samurai suit and katana standing guard over visitors and students from an oversized glass case on the first floor. Though hard to miss, their connection with Gettysburg College is not so obvious. A plaque located below the suit reads, “Samurai Armor and Warrior Katana; Late 19th Century; Gift of Major General Charles A. Willoughby; Class of 1914.” These artifacts represent hundreds of years of the ancient Samurai tradition in Japan, a crucial element of traditional Japanese culture and history that experienced a resurgence even within the twentieth century. They also symbolize relations between the United States and Japan during and after World War II as narrated by Major General Charles A. Willoughby, Chief of Intelligence under Douglas MacArthur. How and why Major General Willoughby acquired such artifacts is unclear; however, a character study set against the backdrop of this period in history allows us to extrapolate potential theories. Documents within the Gettysburg Special Collections & College Archives offer insights into the man Willoughby was and posit deeper questions about the suit and katana’s journey to the college. This essay illuminates the connection between the college and an ancient culture half way around the globe as well as one of the murkiest mysteries at Gettysburg College

Analysing the visual dynamics of spatial morphology

Recently there has been a revival of interest in visibility analysis of architectural configurations. The new analyses rely heavily on computing power and statistical analysis, two factors which, according to the postpositivist school of geography, should immediately cause us to be wary. Thedanger, they would suggest, is in the application of a reductionist formal mathematical description in order to `explain' multilayered sociospatial phenomena. The author presents an attempt to rationalise how we can use visibility analysis to explore architecture in this multilayered context by considering the dynamics that lead to the visual experience. In particular, it is recommended that we assess the visualprocess of inhabitation, rather than assess the visibility in vacuo. In order to investigate the possibilities and limitations of the methodology, an urban environment is analysed by means of an agent-based model of visual actors within the configuration. The results obtained from the model are compared with actual pedestrian movement and other analytic measurements of the area: the agents correlate well both with human movement patterns and with configurational relationship as analysed by space-syntax methods. The application of both methods in combination improves on the correlation with observed movement of either, which in turn implies that an understanding of both the process of inhabitation and the principles of configuration may play a crucial role in determining the social usage of space

Performance Evaluation of Microservices Architectures using Containers

Microservices architecture has started a new trend for application development for a number of reasons: (1) to reduce complexity by using tiny services; (2) to scale, remove and deploy parts of the system easily; (3) to improve flexibility to use different frameworks and tools; (4) to increase the overall scalability; and (5) to improve the resilience of the system. Containers have empowered the usage of microservices architectures by being lightweight, providing fast start-up times, and having a low overhead. Containers can be used to develop applications based on monolithic architectures where the whole system runs inside a single container or inside a microservices architecture where one or few processes run inside the containers. Two models can be used to implement a microservices architecture using containers: master-slave, or nested-container. The goal of this work is to compare the performance of CPU and network running benchmarks in the two aforementioned models of microservices architecture hence provide a benchmark analysis guidance for system designers.Comment: Submitted to the 14th IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (IEEE NCA15). Partially funded by European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 639595) - HiEST Projec

Changing views at Banaras Hindu University on the Academic Study of Religion: A first report from an on-going research project

Given India’s vibrant religious landscape, there is a somewhat surprising paucity of depart‐ ments, centres or even programs for the academic study of religion. This article discusses this issue based on the preliminary results of an interview study conducted at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi, India, in 2014 and 20 Its focus is on the views of university teachers and researchers concerning the place, role and function of religion and religious stud‐ ies at BHU. Twenty‐eight semi‐structured interviews were conducted. In the course of their analysis, six themes emerged: 1) the place and role of religion in society; 2) religion as ‘religi‐ osity/spirituality’ or sanatana dharma vs. political ideology/communitarianism; 3) religion vs. dharma; 4) secularization; 5) religion in education in general; and, 6) religion in the education at BHU. The informants agreed on the increasing importance of religion in India, and most of them viewed the meaning of secularization as being ‘equal respect for all religions’. Moreover, a majority distinguished between ‘religion’, in the Western sense, and the Indian conception of dharma, considering it regrettable that the latter, described as the common ground of all reli‐ gions, is not taught more extensively at BHU. They also considered the original ideal of BHU’s founder, Madan Mohan Malaviya, to be of signi cant importance. That ideal involved not only teaching students the knowledge and skill sets found in a standard modern university, but also equipping them with a value‐based education, grounded upon sanatana‐dharma. As our project progresses, further understanding of this turn toward dharma education is something we intend to pursue through the lens of multiple modernities, developed by Marian Burchardt et al. as multiple secularities

The Resurgence of Tribal Courts: A Tribal Judge's Perspective

A full transcript is included with this record, and includes case citations. Transcript prepared by Melissa S. Green, Justice Center, University of Alaska Anchorage.Judge David Voluck is an attorney in Sitka, Alaska, and in 2008 was appointed chief judge of the Sitka Tribal Court. He also serves as magistrate judge for the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes and is presiding judge pro tem for the Aleut Community of St. Paul Island tribal government. He is introduced here by Dr. Ryan Fortson of the UAA Justice Center. In this podcast Judge Voluck presents a context for tribal courts and Native law, outlines the development of Indian law in the United States, and discusses tribal sovereignty and the role of tribal courts in Alaska. This presentation was recorded on Monday, November 18th, 2013 at the University of Alaska Anchorage/Alaska Pacific University Consortium Library on the UAA campus.Welcome and Introduction / MAIN PRESENTATION / Why is any of this important? / Divine Rights / Foundations of United States Indian Law / Fundamentals of the Marshall Trilogy / Aboriginal rights in Alaska / Post-ANCSA Tribal Sovereignty in Alaska / Post-ANCSA ‘Indian Country’ in Alaska / State of Alaska’s Historical Hostility Toward Tribal Sovereignty / Renaissance for Tribal Sovereignty in Alaska / The Tide Continues / Turn About Continues / Except for In Alaska / QUESTIONS & ANSWERS / Contrasts between tribal courts and Alaska state courts / ANCSA corporations as Native entities / Tribal land acknowledgement / “Integration” under ANCSA; land into trust / “Why haven’t I heard of tribal court in Alaska before?” / Do tribal courts write opinions? / The Major Crimes Act / Circle justice, restorative justice / Intergenerational trauma / Tribal jurisdiction and overlapping jurisdictions / Lawyers in tribal court

WHY GIRLS’ SCHOOLS? THE DIFFERENCE IN GIRL-CENTERED EDUCATION

The past decade has witnessed a remarkable resurgence of interest in all-girls’ education. Following the enactment of Title IX in 1972, the number of single-sex schools declined. By the mid 1990s, only two public girls’ schools remained. What, then, explains the remarkable renaissance that has occurred in just over a decade’s time? What has led to the renewal of interest in girls’ schools? How does an all-girls education differ from a co-educational education? The answers to these questions can be found in a series of interrelated developments in educational theory, gender research, and the link between brain function and the learning process