To Remake a Man: Disability and the Civil War

With a disability certificate and discharge from the military in hand, disabled citizens who had not long previously been abled bodied servicemen went through a period of emasculation followed by a return to waged labor which redeemed their sacrifice. These disability certificates were issued in large quantities by the sprawling northern bureaucratic machines created by the Civil War. The above-pictured certificate, issued to James Murray of the 56th New York, discharged Murray from service because, according to his regimental surgeon, he would “never be able to discharge his duty as a soldier.” Murray stood 5’8″ when he re-enlisted for three more years in the unit on February 17th, 1864 at Beaufort, South Carolina. This certificate was issued to him less than a year later. Murray had fulfilled Victorian notions of manhood by serving in the military and satisfying his patriotic duty; however, this certificate ensured that James Murray never finished out his term of service, thus leaving his patriotism and manhood questionable to outsiders, and perhaps even to Murray himself. Disabled Civil War veterans faced much uncertainty when they reentered the civilian world with these certificates in hand. [excerpt

Transformative Effects of NDIIPP, the Case of the Henry A. Murray Archive

This article comprises reflections on the changes to the Henry A. Murray Research Archive, catalyzed by involvement with the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (NDIIPP) partnership, and the accompanying introduction of next generation digital library software. Founded in 1976 at Radcliffe, the Henry A. Murray Research Archive is the endowed, permanent repository for quantitative and qualitative research data at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science, in Harvard University. The Murray preserves in perpetuity all types of data of interest to the research community, including numerical, video, audio, interview notes, and other types. The center is unique among data archives in the United States in the extent of its holdings in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed quantitativequalitative research. The Murray took part in an NDIIPP-funded collaboration with four other archival partners, Data-PASS, for the purpose of the identification and acquisition of data at risk, and the joint development of best practices with respect to shared stewardship, preservation, and exchange of these data. During this time, the Dataverse Network (DVN) software was introduced, facilitating the creation of virtual archives. The combination of institutional collaboration and new technology lead the Murray to re-engineer its entire acquisition process; completely rewrite its ingest, dissemination, and other licensing agreements; and adopt a new model for ingest, discovery, access, and presentation of its collections. Through the Data-PASS project, the Murray has acquired a number of important data collections. The resulting changes within the Murray have been dramatic, including increasing its overall rate of acquisitions by fourfold; and disseminating acquisitions far more rapidly. Furthermore, the new licensing and processing procedures allow a previously undreamed of level of interoperability and collaboration with partner archives, facilitating integrated discovery and presentation services, and joint stewardship of collections.published or submitted for publicatio

Memories of Murray and the Quark Model

Life at Caltech with Murray Gell-Mann in the early 1960's is remembered. Our different paths to quarks, leading to different views of their reality, are described.Comment: Talk presented at the "Conference in Honor of Murray Gell-Mann's 80th Birthday," Nanyang Technical University, Singapore, February 24,2010. 18 pages, 4 figure

Understanding Confinement in QCD: Elements of a Big Picture

I give a brief review of advances in the strong interaction theory. This talk was delivered at the Conference in honor of Murray Gell-Mann's 80th birthday, 24-26 February 2010, Singapore.Comment: I give a brief review of advances in the strong interaction theory. This talk was delivered at the Conference in honor of Murray Gell-Mann's 80th birthday, 24-26 February 2010, Singapor

A Swamp Called Mama

Poetry by Con Murray

Reasoning by analogy: attempts to solve the cosmological constant paradox

Talk given by one of us (A. Zee) at Murray Gell-Mann's 80th Birthday Celebration held in Singapore, February 2010. Based on R. A. Porto and A. Zee, Class. Quant. Grav. 27, 065006 (2010) [arXiv:0910.3716 [hep-th]]Comment: 4 pages. To appear in Proceedings of the Conference in Honor of Murray Gell-Mann's 80th Birthday, World Scientifi

Buying Back the Living Murray: At What Price?

In June 2004 the Council of Australian Governments approved the Intergovernmental Agreement on Addressing Water Overallocation and Achieving Environmental Objectives in the Murray-Darling Basin (‘IGMDB’). The IGMDB set out arrangements for a ‘Living Murray’ that includes a budget of $500 million to return 500 billion litres of water per year to the Murray River by 2009. Unfortunately, two years later and only 11 billion litres have been returned as environmental flows as a result of the initiative. In response, the Australian Government in April 2006 proposed a new scheme to purchase water entitlements from farmers who undertake water-savings measures. We examine this proposal in relation to the general economic principles for the allocation of scarce water. We contend that the latest initiative, although helpful, suffers from two fundamental problems in terms of water pricing. First, the current market price for water entitlements does not include the value of water ‘in situ’, or the benefits it generates separate from its value in consumption. Second, the constraint imposed that water users undertake infrastructure investments when selling their entitlements unnecessarily raises the cost of returning water to the Murray River. We conclude that the latest scheme to achieve the laudable goals of the ‘Living Murray’ is not cost effective and that the ratio of litres of water returned to dollars spent could be much higher if the pricing policies were changed.Living Murray, scarce water, water entitlements, water pricing, pricing policies

Murray Gell-Mann, A Short Appreciation

On September 25, 2014 Murray Gell-Mann was presented with the Helmholz Medal of the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in a ceremony at the Santa Fe Institute. The author, among others, was asked to speak for fifteen minutes on Murray and his accomplishments. The following is an edited transcription of the author's speaking text.Comment: 6 pages, revtex, picture added, typos fixe