Book review: Questioning secularism: Islam, sovereignty, and the rule of law in modern Egypt

"Questioning Secularism: Islam, Sovereignty, And The Rule Of Law In Modern Egypt." Hussein Ali Agrama. University of Chicago Press. November 2012. --- The central questions of the Arab uprisings—what is the appropriate relationship between religion and politics and what is the function of the national security state —have developed into a vigorous debate amongst actors from across the political spectrum. But what, exactly, is secularism? What is its relationship to the ‘deep state’ in Egypt? In Questioning Secularism, Hussein Ali Agrama focuses on the Fatwa councils and family law courts of Egypt just prior to the revolution, to argue that secularism is a historically contingent phenomenon that works through a series of paradoxes that it creates. He probes the meaning of secularism and the ambiguities that lie at its heart. Reviewed by Corinna Mullin

Are sports image rights assets? A legal, economic and tax perspective

This paper highlights the factors to consider in entering into sports agreements including the tax treatment applied to image rights and the recent update and commentary of the Inland Revenue (HRMC) to their capital gains tax manual on the taxation of image rights. The commentary of HRMC on image rights is yet another indication that, although traditional common law remedies will evolve further in the light of the growing commercialisation of image rights, a formal legislative or jurisprudential recognition of personality rights remains unlikely in the near future in the UK

Why Care Matters: The Importance of Adequate Care for Children and Society

The care of children matters to all of us. But today there are millions of children around the world that are not cared for adequately. It is a global crisis and one that will only get worse. There are an estimated 151 million children worldwide with either one or both parents dead, with at least 13 million of these children having lost both parents (UNICEF 2013). Adequate care means that children grow up in a permanent, safe and caring family. Many children are separated from their families because they cannot afford to care for them. Other move to attend school or access health services unavailable to them at home.Children that aren't cared for adequately are less likely to attend or do well in school, they are less able to access health and other basic services, and they are more likely to engage in anti-social and criminal behaviours. The lack of care affects their physical, emotional and cognitive development and can sometimes even be life-threatening. This in turn has an impact on society as the future prospects of children without adequate care are often severely limited. As adults, they are often less able to access employment, more likely to experience poverty and more likely to be dependent on the state. Inadequate care can hinder efforts towards development targets such as growth, employment, poverty reduction, health, education and humanitarian preparedness and response.Children have rights and these rights have already been translated into global guidance endorsed by the UN. But improving the care of children requires major efforts and political will. Investment in vulnerable families and communities are needed to strengthen their ability to care for their own children. Investments must also be made in quality, family-based, alternative care. Families living in poverty need greater access to social protection and basic services. It also means giving children without adequate care a stronger voice and raising awareness of their needs. Ensuring that all children are adequately cared for is within our reach. Our recommendations:Build an in-depth understanding of care in each context, and develop locally appropriate responses.Make the care of children a political and financial priority.Ensure broader development and humanitarian work reinforces the effective care of children.Increase the coverage and quality of social protection in order to strengthen the capacity of families to care for children.Ensure that each country adheres to the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children

Wendigos, Eye Killers, Skinwalkers: The Myth of the American Indian Vampire and American Indian “Vampire” Myths

Drawing on American Indian myths and folklore that previous scholarship has placed into direct relationship to the Anglo-European vampire narrative, and on recent U.S. mainstream commodifications of these myths, my paper traces and contextualizes the two oppositional yet intimately linked narratives of American Indian vampirism ensuing today: the commodified image of the “Indian” vampire and the renegotiated vampire tropes created by American Indian authors and filmmakers

Mixing of asymmetric logarithmic suspension flows over interval exchange transformations

We consider suspension flows built over interval exchange transformations with the help of roof functions having an asymmetric logarithmic singularity. We prove that such flows are strongly mixing for a full measure set of interval exchange transformations

Weaving theory/practice for art as knowing in early childhood education

Early childhood education has a tradition of arts based pedagogy. Current emphasis on high stakes testing and test scores as evidence of learning, even for young children, has educators moving away from the arts as academic learning. This visual essay is an a/r/tographic inquiry with woven threads of theory/practice from this moving fault zone that support the arts as a way of knowing for the early years. Making and writing with woolen fibers and feathers form a mat as a surface that is thinking with encounters from teaching pre-service early childhood educators with art. The weaving is an opening to understanding that falling, fear, and knowing are temporary and can provoke what might be next for pre-service teachers and young children using art as learning

Executive summary report on the comprehensiveness and compatibility of organic market data collection methods ( = Deliverable 3.2 of the OrganicDataNetwork project)

Up to now, organic market data collection has been inconsistent, or data from different organisations and/or countries has not been comparable, because different methodologies have been used. Hence, the organic market suffers from information-asymmetry and a lack of transparency. Interpretations based on incomplete and inconsistent data might lead to wrong decisions and misinvestments. More coherent data collection and thorough data analyses are needed to overcome current dispersion and fragmentation of data sources. This executive summary gives a short overview on the current situation of organic market data collection in Europe by showing some results of a European-wide survey among data collectors. Furthermore the application of quality dimensions for the identification of ‘best practice’ examples is described in order to provide recommendations for data collection and compilation, the evaluation of existing data collection methods, and the assessment of data quality

The high energy source 3C 273

The properties of 3C 273 are reviewed and an attempt is made to find an answer to the question why 3C 273 is the only extragalactic source so far, which was detected at energies greater than or equal to 50 MeV