Joseph, Jehoiachin, and Cyrus: On Book Endings, Exoduses and Exiles, and Yehudite/Judean Social Remembering

In a recent ZAW article, Michael Chan argues that II Reg 25,27-30 alludes to Gen 40-41, and that this allusion provides a hermeneutical key for understanding the purpose of II Reg 25,27-30 in an Enneateuchal context: it points to an imminent exodus, a return from exile and a gathering of diaspora in the promised land. This article picks up where Chan left off, in order to flesh out some of the implications of his contribution. It argues that remembering exodus at the end of II Reg included hope, as Chan says, but also struggles and failure, punishment and death. Exodus is multivocal. Likewise, the end of II Reg contributes to a multivocal discourse concerning Davidic kingship, which included the end of Chronicles and prophetic literature. The diminution of Davidic kingship in II Reg 25,27-30 is balanced by other perspectives. The article concludes with an observation on the import of this multivocality for Yehudite social memory

A Critical Review of Strategic Conflict Theory and Socio-political Instability Models

This paper provides a critical general overview of two strands of recent vast economic literature on social conflicts, namely strategic conflict theory and socio-political instability models. The first strand can be traced back to Haavelmo (1954) and has been further developed in a variety of ways by game theoretical models of rational conflict (Boulding, 1962; Schelling, 1963, Hirshleifer, 2001). Their goal is to understand threat power. A second version of conflict theory has been developed by the founders of the Public Choice School (Olson 1965, 1982; Tullock 1974, 1980; Stringham, 2005, 2007) in order to tackle genuine political violence. The main finding of this paper is that both strands of recent economic literature have not yet come to grips with social conflicts. The application of standard microeconomic assumptions to the field of "social conflicts" has resulted in reducing conflicts either to "rational conflicts"- a threat of conflict without any real clash - or "real self-interested private conflicts". In other words, economic theory has considered social protesters either as looters or lunatics, but never as a group of people struggling for a common cause.Strategic Conflict Theory, Socio-political instability models, Coase theorem, Appropriative activity, Social Conflicts

Action

This essay describes two different phenomena: action games, understood as a genre of games in which the player’s sensori-motor skills prevail over his cognitive activity, and a general theory of action-taking in context of the game-playing practice. Through a short history of the main genres and sub-genres traditionally identified with “Action games”, and the conclusion that such a categorization pertains to a mode of action rather than a given genre, the properties of action games are identified as involving a standardized repertoire of actions, emphasis on sensori-motor skills, and short-term action sequences

Ancient Chinese Tombs: Western Han Dynasty Chapter

The study of history is one way of preserving human culture. In China, a country with thousands of years long history, a vast number of historical events have been recorded in different literary works, including history books, fictions, biographies, and so on. However, we still need evidence to support or verify those literatures. One physical evidence are antiques excavated from tombs of different dynasties. The ancient tomb mirrors a micro society of a certain dynasty. This project presented in this study is a 3D environmental design, comprised of four 3D scenes in high quality rendering to show the architecture and interior environment of an ancient tomb. Due to the long history of China (more than 3000 years), it is impossible to cover all dynasties here. Hence in this study, the author focuses on the Western Han dynasty (206BC - 9AD) because it was one of the peaks of the development of Chinese culture, and the royal mausoleums from Han spread all over the city of Taiyuan where rich cultural relics were perfectly excavated. This 3D design reproduced the ancient tomb’s architecture using softwares such as, Maya, Zbrush and Substance Painter. The author created 3 important rooms including the chariot room, the front room and the main room. In each room, specific lighting, different decoration and beautiful burial objects were created and carefully added to restore an incredibly lifelike 3D ancient tomb. This 3D design can easily attract people’s attention and help audience understand this ancient cultural relics that were extensively destroyed by now

Conserving Historic Urban Landscape and Beautifying the City by Means of its History

This paper focuses on three issues concerning historic urban landscape conservation under the background of new urbanization: the first one is attaching great importance to cultural heritage conservation in rapid urbanization; the second one is laying great emphasis on historic urban landscape conservation which is part of cultural heritage conservation; the third is Hangzhou’s practice in cultural heritage conservation

Kings and Vikings: On the Dynamics of Competitive Agglomeration

This paper studies the Viking age – the roughly 300 year period beginning in 800 AD – from the perspective of the economics of conflict. The Viking age is interesting because throughout the time period, the scale of conflict increased – small scale raiding behaviour eventually evolved into large scale clashes between armies. With this observation in mind, we present a theoretical model describing the incentives both the defending population and the invading population had to agglomerate into larger groups to better defend against attacks, and engage in attacks, respectively. The result is what might be called a theory of competitive agglomeration. We also apply our model in assessing the factors behind the onset of Vikings raids at the end of the 8th century.

THE ADAPTATION OF 3D VIDEO GAME PRODUCTION TECHNIQUES TO THE 2D GAME PLAY MECHANICS OF THE BEAT-EM-UP GENRE

In this paper, we address some of the technological issues and shortcomings that led to the recession in popularity of the Beat \u27em up video game genre. In particular, we adapt current technological advances and apply them to 3D video game development to mirror the mechanics of the 2D Beat \u27em up genre. We describe our assembly-line approach to 3D asset production that permits quick development of multiple and varied characters and environments. Our approach to 3D camera placement provides the same viewpoint used in the 2D game approach. We have developed various scripts to streamline the animation process. In addition, levels are designed retroactively with a go right\u27 mentality, and various programming techniques that facilitate swappable, and multiple enemy types with didifferent AI behaviors. Finally, we apply current hit detection technology to the spirit of the Beat \u27em up

Tang Elite Women and Hufu Clothing: Persian Garments and the Artistic Rendering of Power

During the Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), elite women wore hufu dress to subdue the Tang court’s conventional representations of women. In contrast to the women’s classical dress styles, the hufu dress, or male foreign clothing, typically included a long robe with decorative patterns, a leather belt, long trousers and boots. This paper analyzes elite women and female elite attendants dressed in hufu dress, which established their visual personas of independence, as displayed in paintings and pottery figurines. The hufu dress connects to the foreigners’ dress traveling from the Silk Road, a period when the Tang court fostered tolerance towards foreigners. I compare the Silk Road foreign influence of the Sasanian Persians as a prominent culture that elite women incorporated into their quintessential images of independence, comprising hufu dress and the polo sport, a Persian import. The Tang elite women\u27s adoption of this persona coordinated as part of the women’s experimentation to create new fashion trends in the empire to fulfill the women’s pursuit of visual power through textiles