J.R.R. Tolkien and his Influence on Modern Fantasy Writer Tamora Pierce

Tolkien’s writing of female and racial minority characters has been criticized as misogynistic and racist by many critics of Tolkien. However, these critics come to these conclusions due to the limited quantity of these characters overall, especially those of the female sex, and their involvement in the overall story’s plot. Tolkien uses women sparingly and because of this, each one has important characteristics and roles that they play. Therefore, if not invalidating the critics position on his supposed misogynistic views, then, at least, dissolving some of their support platforms. However, the roles that the women play are important in understanding Tolkien’s true moral and world view points. We are able to more clearly see these subtle aspects in Tolkien’s writing when we separate it from the moral overarching story of the One Ring. However, in order to do that, it helps to analyze these characters along with a mirror character that modern fantasy authors have created. Tamora Pierce is such a writer, and her characters in her first series align very succinctly with the characters in Tolkien’s series. Through a close character analysis, we are able to see that the criticisms lobbed at Tolkien for his treatment of Arwen and Éowyn are not as substantiated as some would believe

Open access: brave new world requires bravery

The year 2012 heralded significant developments in open access (OA) that impacted the relationships between the major stakeholders in scholarly publishing: researchers, funders, publishers and governments. In the UK, the clear preference for a gold OA policy enunciated by the government-backed Finch Report is now being implemented by the research councils. Although the policy has been modified to include green routes to OA publishing, arguments continue about the optimal route to a system of open access that can work on a global scale. Resolution of these disputes will require courage and imagination

Learning statistics at a distance : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Educational Studies in Mathematics at Massey University

There is evidence from many leading statistics educators that students often find statistics a difficult subject to learn. This is often attributed to the abstract nature of the concepts and the change in thinking required to understand the theory of probability and the innate variation existing around us. For mature-aged students, these difficulties may be compounded by lack of basic mathematical skills and anxiety about learning statistics. In addition, learning at a distance may increase the problems students have in obtaining good understanding of the concepts. The purposes of this qualitative study were to determine the value mature-aged students placed on having a compulsory statistics paper in their business or applied science degree; and to record the difficulties that these students attributed to their choice of the distance mode of learning and their strategies or suggestions for dealing with these. Recommendations for the design of distance courses for mature-aged students were discussed. The main findings were: • The lack of mathematical skills was the main reason that students were tentative about tackling a statistics course. Older students and those with little secondary education may be particularly affected. • Anxiety was not as extensive as had been reported in overseas studies but is still an issue for statistics educators. • Almost all students saw value in having a compulsory statistics course in their degree and were aware of the need to interpret data presented to them in their study, work or everyday life. • The mature-aged students demonstrated good metacognitive skills and other learning strategies. Determination to succeed and high motivation were apparent, although many students found the course unexpectedly difficult. • There was a variety of opinions about the effectiveness of available resources. Support mechanisms were deemed important, as was some face-to-face component in the statistics course and some flexibility in time-frames

Inspired to Serve: Representing the U.S. Overseas

The idea of working overseas conjures thoughts of exotic locales and exciting adventures. For Joshua Johnson ’04 and Kelsey Lyle ’07, the joys of being an expat are simpler than that

Beliefs as inner causes: the (lack of) evidence

Many psychologists studying lay belief attribution and behavior explanation cite Donald Davidson in support of their assumption that people construe beliefs as inner causes. But Davidson’s influential argument is unsound; there are no objective grounds for the intuition that the folk construe beliefs as inner causes that produce behavior. Indeed, recent experimental work by Ian Apperly, Bertram Malle, Henry Wellman, and Tania Lombrozo provides an empirical framework that accords well with Gilbert Ryle’s alternative thesis that the folk construe beliefs as patterns of living that contextualize behavior

Method of producing alternating ether siloxane copolymers Patent

Method for producing alternating ether-siloxane copolymers with stable properties when exposed to elevated temperatures and UV radiatio

Poland\u27s Ex--Communists: From Pariahs to Establishment Players

The Polish United Workers\u27 Party (Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza [PZPR]) suffered what seemed to be a terminal blow in 1989. In elections rigged so that the communists and their old allies were guaranteed 65 percent of the seats in the main house of parliament, the communists did so badly that their old allies deserted them. After what appeared to be a total defeat, all the communist reformers could do was turn the government over to the men and women of Solidarity they had interned and harassed for more than a decade. Then they had to disband themselves and form a new party to inherit the tattered remains of their mantle and resources. Less than four years after what looked like a complete rejection, in the 1993 free parliamentary elections, the successor party to the PZPR, the Social Democrats of Poland (Socjaldemokracja Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej [SdRP]), and its coalition, the Democratic Left Alliance (Sojusz Lewicy Demokratycznej [SLD]), did well enough to dominate the parliament and form a government. Two years later, in 1995, the leader of the SdRP and its coalition\u27s presidential candidate, Aleksander Kwasniewski (a junior member of that last communist government), soundly defeated the Solidarity leader and incumbent president, Lech Wałesa. By 1999, when the coalition turned itself into a party, the SLD was, by far, both the most popular and the most stable party in democratic Poland. As a result, it dominated the parliamentary elections of 2001, leaving Solidarity\u27s old parties so fragmented that they did not get enough of the votes to get seats. In the process, it raised the population\u27s hopes that it could solve Poland\u27s economic problems and bring the same economic boom Poles remembered from 1993 to 1997