The Flip Diameter of Rectangulations and Convex Subdivisions

We study the configuration space of rectangulations and convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane. It is shown that a sequence of $O(n\log n)$ elementary flip and rotate operations can transform any rectangulation to any other rectangulation on the same set of $n$ points. This bound is the best possible for some point sets, while $\Theta(n)$ operations are sufficient and necessary for others. Some of our bounds generalize to convex subdivisions of $n$ points in the plane.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures, an extended abstract has been presented at LATIN 201

Hyper-Presidentialism: Separation of Powers Without Checks and Balances in Argentina and the Philippines

Politicians have an incentive to enhance their power by creating institutions that give them greater freedom to act and by undermining institutions designed to check their influence. Presidents are particularly likely to test the limits of their power. Legislators must compromise in order to pass statutes.I Judges are aware that the executive or the legislature may refuse to comply with their rulings. An independently elected President, in contrast, can sometimes act without seeking legislative approval or provoking judicial constraints. Although Presidents are generally subject to impeachment, this is almost always an extraordinary remedy invoked only in response to a crisis

Designing the climate observing system of the future

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Earth's Future 6 (2018): 80–102, doi:10.1002/2017EF000627.Climate observations are needed to address a large range of important societal issues including sea level rise, droughts, floods, extreme heat events, food security, and freshwater availability in the coming decades. Past, targeted investments in specific climate questions have resulted in tremendous improvements in issues important to human health, security, and infrastructure. However, the current climate observing system was not planned in a comprehensive, focused manner required to adequately address the full range of climate needs. A potential approach to planning the observing system of the future is presented in this article. First, this article proposes that priority be given to the most critical needs as identified within the World Climate Research Program as Grand Challenges. These currently include seven important topics: melting ice and global consequences; clouds, circulation and climate sensitivity; carbon feedbacks in the climate system; understanding and predicting weather and climate extremes; water for the food baskets of the world; regional sea-level change and coastal impacts; and near-term climate prediction. For each Grand Challenge, observations are needed for long-term monitoring, process studies and forecasting capabilities. Second, objective evaluations of proposed observing systems, including satellites, ground-based and in situ observations as well as potentially new, unidentified observational approaches, can quantify the ability to address these climate priorities. And third, investments in effective climate observations will be economically important as they will offer a magnified return on investment that justifies a far greater development of observations to serve society's needs

The Human Age: The World Shaped by Us

Humans have subdued 75 percent of the land surface, concocted a wizardry of industrial and medical marvels, strung lights all across the darkness. We tinker with nature at every opportunity; we garden the planet with our preferred species of plants and animals, many of them invasive; and we have even altered the climate, threatening our own extinction. Yet we reckon with our own destructive capabilities in extraordinary acts of hope-filled creativity ... Ackerman [explores] our new reality, introducing us to many of the people and ideas now creating--perhaps saving--our future and that of our fellow creatures. --Jacket.https://scholar.dominican.edu/cynthia-stokes-brown-books-big-history/1038/thumbnail.jp

Diane Ackerman, 15th Annual ODU Literary Festival

Diane Ackerman, poet and nature writer, has cavorted with whales in Argentina, studied bats in the deserts of Texas, and scouted out rare albatrosses on Japan\u27s Torishima Island. Her non-fiction bestseller, A Natural History of the Senses, is a meticulously researched celebration of hearing, vision, smell, taste and touch. Her Jaguar of Sweet Laughter: New and Selected Poems was named a Notable Book of the Year in 1991 by the New York Times Book Review. She is also the author of Reverse Thunder, a dramatic poem on the life of a sixteenth century Mexican nun, Sister Juana Ines de la Cruz, from which the staged reading for the Literary Arts Festival has been adaped

Diane Ackerman, 6th Annual ODU Literary Festival

Few poets possess the verve and brilliance of Diane Ackerman. Her first poetry collection, The Planets: A Cosmic Pastoral, combined scientific fact with imaginative fancy so gracefully that Carl Sagan called her work stunning...spectacularly good poetry, clear, lyrical and soaring and later enlisted her as a researcher in his Cosmos series. The Hudson Review said of her second book, Wife of Light, Ackerman takes the American language to school and lets it graduate with her own unique mintage. Her poems reveal a woman of sensitivity, restraint, ingenuity, and passionate daring. Her third book of poems, Lady Faustus, released last month by Morrow, extends the range of her interests to learning how to fly, to dreaming and knowing how to dream, and to probing the worlds of possibility and curiosity. Strong, exuberant, and honest, Ackerman has been called by Review, arguably, the best lyrical poet now writing in the United States. Ackerman has also published a prose memoir, Twilight of the Tenderfoot. She will read her poetry on Wednesday afternoon

The only guide you'll ever need to marry money

ix, 150 p. ; 23 cm