Italy in the Baroque: selected readings

Selected Italian texts written between 1583 and 1704 translated into English by Brendan Dooley

Whither Criminology?: On The State of Criminology\u27s Paradigm

What is the condition of criminology’s paradigm? The reply to this question has implications bearing on the profession’s bona fides as a science as well as its sustainability as an independent academic enterprise. The work attempts to capture the elusive term through the use of five themes: theoretical consensus, methodological consensus, boundaries, the departure from sociology, and the current and future status of the field. In approaching this question the work presents an analysis of both qualitative and quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seventeen renowned criminologists. The centerpiece of the latter data set was assembled and analyzed in prior research (Savelsberg et al. 2002). A content analysis of 2,109 peer reviewed articles appearing in the field’s top journals from 1951 to 2008 produced numerous findings. Criminology lacks a hegemonic theoretical orientation but a consensus is evident in the peer-reviewed publication data in terms of its methodology. The field defends its prerogative to draw from any tradition it sees fit to. A review of the content of the field’s research and the debates discussed with the interviewees suggests a somewhat amorphous, yet still discernible, definition of the field’s identity, one that is dedicated to the process of science. This can be seen in terms of the parameters of the seminal theoretical and empirical debates recounted by the interviewees. What is clear is that the field has successfully emancipated itself from the discipline of sociology both professionally and in terms of its content. Concerns were offered in terms of potential threats to the continued growth of the profession resulting from a reduction in funding and its becoming fractured and isolated organizationally but there are reasons for optimism in terms of the expansion of its research horizons into exploring state crime, overcoming the macro/micro divide and incorporating biological, international, cultural/anthropological, and power oriented themes. Discussion of the prospects for how the current work may come to inform a large scale research agenda conclude the work

Armada! What Armada?

Less than three months before the battle of Lepanto, famously won by the Holy League against the Turks on October 7, 1571 in the Gulf of Patras, passions in the Mediterranean are already running high. Bit by bit, the Venetian maritime empire is losing territory to Ottoman expansion, most recently, Nicosia and, with particular fierceness, Cyprus. The Italian states’ maritime cities are on high alert for any signs of action. But the eyes may deceive, as this newsletter from Rome dated 27 July 1571 testifies. What actually did the people of Messina see off their coast? https://www.euronewsproject.org/2021/06/23/armada-what-armada

Irish Beef

https://www.euronewsproject.org/2021/04/28/irish-beef/ The Irish were making trouble again, or so it seemed. The year was 1666, and relations between the Irish and the English, only recently becalmed following the close of the tumultuous Cromwellian period, were being roiled by a new crisis, this one having to do with large landowners and their exports. The beef? This time, of the bovine kind....

What Day Is It Anyway?

Trouble in Rome! The Rome newsletter of 23 October 1582 informs: “The Congregation responsible for the reform and intercalation of the year has heard from Naples about a serious error in the printed version, such that the pope having heard about this has initiated discussions, and nobody knows where this is going to lead.” Florence, Archivio di Stato, Mediceo del Principato (MdP) fol 334v, Rome, 23 oct 1582 [La Congregazione deputata sopra la riforma, et intercalatione dell’anno, è stata avertita da Napoli di un grave errore dapoi ch’è stata stampata, per il che il papa advisato fa discutere sopra ciò, non si sapendo veramente da tutti, ove batte il punto.] Apparently, information coming out about the new calendar reform by Pope Gregory XIII is becoming garbled in transmission. The news comes by way of Naples, that a “serious error” has been noted in the last decree. What has happened? Time will tell…

The Effects of Varying Cosmological Parameters on Halo Substructure

We investigate how different cosmological parameters, such as those delivered by the WMAP and Planck missions, affect the nature and evolution of dark matter halo substructure. We use a series of flat $\Lambda$ cold dark matter ($\Lambda$CDM) cosmological $N$-body simulations of structure formation, each with a different power spectrum but the same initial white noise field. Our fiducial simulation is based on parameters from the WMAP 7th year cosmology. We then systematically vary the spectral index, $n_s$, matter density, $\Omega_M$, and normalization of the power spectrum, $\sigma_8$, for 7 unique simulations. Across these, we study variations in the subhalo mass function, mass fraction, maximum circular velocity function, spatial distribution, concentration, formation times, accretion times, and peak mass. We eliminate dependence of subhalo properties on host halo mass and average over many hosts to reduce variance. While the "same" subhalos from identical initial overdensity peaks in higher $\sigma_8, n_s$, and $\Omega_m$ simulations accrete earlier and end up less massive and closer to the halo center at $z=0$, the process of continuous subhalo accretion and destruction leads to a steady state distribution of these properties across all subhalos in a given host. This steady state mechanism eliminates cosmological dependence on all properties listed above except subhalo concentration and $V_{max}$, which remain greater for higher $\sigma_8, n_s$ and $\Omega_m$ simulations, and subhalo formation time, which remains earlier. We also find that the numerical technique for computing scale radius and the halo finder used can significantly affect the concentration-mass relationship computed for a simulation.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures, Accepted to ApJ on March 15, 201

The Caterpillar Project: A Large Suite of Milky Way Sized Halos

We present the largest number of Milky Way sized dark matter halos simulated at very high mass ($\sim$$10^4$ M$_\odot$/particle) and temporal resolution ($\sim$5 Myrs/snapshot) done to date, quadrupling what is currently available in the literature. This initial suite consists of the first 24 halos of the $Caterpillar$ $Project$ (www.caterpillarproject.org) whose project goal of 60 - 70 halos will be made public when complete. We resolve $\sim$20,000 gravitationally bound subhalos within the virial radius of each host halo. Over the ranges set by our spatial resolution our convergence is excellent and improvements were made upon current state-of-the-art halo finders to better identify substructure at such high resolutions (e.g., on average we recover $\sim$4 subhalos in each host halo above 10$^8$ M$_\odot$ which would have otherwise not been found using conventional methods). For our relaxed halos, the inner profiles are reasonably fit by Einasto profiles ($\alpha$ = 0.169 $\pm$ 0.023) though this depends on the relaxed nature and assembly history of a given halo. Averaging over all halos, the substructure mass fraction is $f_{m,subs} = 0.121 \pm 0.041$, and mass function slope is d$N$/d$M\propto M^{-1.88 \pm 0.10}$ though we find scatter in the normalizations for fixed halo mass due to more concentrated hosts having less subhalos at fixed subhalo mass. There are no biases stemming from Lagrangian volume selection as all Lagrangian volume types are included in our sample. Our detailed contamination study of 264 low resolution halos has resulted in obtaining very large and unprecedented, high-resolution regions around our host halos for our target resolution (sphere of radius $\sim$$1.4 \pm 0.4$ Mpc) allowing for accurate studies of low mass dwarf galaxies at large galactocentric radii and the very first stellar systems at high redshift ($z \geq$ 10).Comment: 19 pages; 14 figures; 6 tables; Received September 3, 2015; Accepted November 15, 2015; Published February 2, 201

The Earth Charter in Australia I: Proceedings of the inaugural Australian National Earth Charter Forum

Today’s meeting brings together representatives from a broad range of community, business, professional, indigenous, youth, religious and academic groups and associations. It marks an important step forward in this process of participation by Australian men and women in the development of the Earth Charter, a document which is envisaged as a truly inspirational statement of universal principles to guide individuals, communities and nations towards the protection and sustainable development of the environment. In this, of course, the Australian contribution is part of a much wider program of consultation with people and communities around the world, leading up to an Earth Charter Global Assembly next year – the year 2000 – and the adoption of the final draft of a People’s Earth Charter, As you know, the intention is to present the document to the United Nations – hopefully, by the year 2002.Sponsored by The ACT Government; The Australian National University; The Queensland Government; ACTEW Corporation; CH2M Hill Pty Ltd; Collex Waste Management Pty Lt