Cyber-Democracy or Cyber-Hegemony? Exploring the Political and Economic Structures of the Internet as an Alternative Source of Information

Although government regulation of the Internet has been decried as undercutting free speech, the control of Internet content through capitalist gateways???namely, profit-driven software companies???has gone largely uncriticized. The author argues that this discursive trend manufactures consent through a hegemonic force neglecting to confront the invasion of online advertising or marketing strategies directed at children. This study suggests that ???inappropriate content??? (that is, nudity, pornography, obscenities) constitutes a cultural currency through which concerns and responses to the Internet have been articulated within the mainstream. By examining the rhetorical and financial investments of the telecommunications business sector, the author contends that the rhetorical elements creating ???cyber-safety??? concerns within the mainstream attempt to reach the consent of parents and educators by asking them to see some Internet content as value laden (sexuality, trigger words, or adult content), while disguising the interests and authority of profitable computer software and hardware industries (advertising and marketing). Although most online ???safety measures??? neglect to confront the emerging invasion of advertising/marketing directed at children and youth, the author argues that media literacy in cyberspace demands such scrutiny. Unlike measures to block or filter online information, students need an empowerment approach that will enable them to analyze, evaluate, and judge the information they receive.published or submitted for publicatio

Risk Estimation and Expert Judgment: The Case of Yucca Mountain

Professor Shrader-Frechette discusses factors responsible for acute disagreement between the federal government and Nevada citizens over potential Risks at Yucca Mountain and focuses on the use of expert judgment, concluding that some of them appear to exemplify bad science. That aside, she argues that 1,000 year predictions cannot be made from current knowledge of geology or, e.g., institutional behavior and concludes that permanent disposal of radioactive waste is currently impossible

Workplace Pollution: Nuclear Safety, Ethics, and the Exploitation--Avoidance Argument

The author reviews evidence of poor worker health and safety practices in United States Department of Energy nuclear facilities in contending that less protective standards for workplace hazards constitute an environmental injustice not rectified by a hazard pay premium

Scientific Method, Anti-Foundationalism, and Public Decision-making

An examination of the legitimacy of attacks on lay assessments of environmental or other technological Risk. The case is made that rational policy requires an epistemology in which what we believe about Risk is bootstrapped onto how we should act concerning Risk

Book Review

Review of the following: ELAINE DRAPER, Risky BUSINESS: GENETIC TESTING AND EXCLUSIONARY PRACTICES IN THE HAZARDOUS WORKPLACE. (Cambridge University Press 1991) [315 pp.] Index of names and subjects, glossary, notes, references. LC 90-28112; ISBN 0-521-37027-2 (cloth $49.50); ISBN 0-42248-5 (paper$15.95). [40 W. 20th St., New York NY 10011.

Combinatorial Properties of Rogers-Ramanujan-Type Identities Arising from Hall-Littlewood Polynomials

Here we consider the $q$-series coming from the Hall-Littlewood polynomials, \begin{equation*} R_\nu(a,b;q)=\sum_{\substack{\lambda \\[1pt] \lambda_1\leq a}} q^{c|\lambda|} P_{2\lambda}\big(1,q,q^2,\dots;q^{2b+d}\big). \end{equation*} These series were defined by Griffin, Ono, and Warnaar in their work on the framework of the Rogers-Ramanujan identities. We devise a recursive method for computing the coefficients of these series when they arise within the Rogers-Ramanujan framework. Furthermore, we study the congruence properties of certain quotients and products of these series, generalizing the famous Ramanujan congruence \begin{equation*} p(5n+4)\equiv0\pmod{5}. \end{equation*}Comment: 16 pages v2: Minor changes included, to appear in Annals of Combinatoric

Perceived Risks Versus Actual Risks: Managing Hazards through Negotiation

The author describes what she calls the Expert-Judgment Strategy , finding that, because it discounts lay perceptions of Risk, it interferes with the acceptance of important but Risky technologies

Academy Recommendations on the Proposed Yucca Mountain Waste Repository: Overview and Criticisms

Offers alternative criticism of the NAS report

The Potential Value of Agricultural Trade Options

Hedgers located far from organized commodity exchanges suffer a mismatch between their local prices and exchange prices. Futures and options traded on the exchange may still be valuable to distant hedgers, but only to the extent that basis risk is small. Forward contracting allows hedgers to manage risk using a local delivery price, but the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has long banned the sale of off-exchange options, limiting the opportunities available to hedgers. Recently, agricultural trade options (ATOs) have been introduced as over-the-counter option products designed specifically for hedgers. To date, ATOs have found little interest from potential sellers, but the potential demand for these options may be substantial. This study develops a methodology for measuring the potential value of ATOs. It describes and quantifies the demand for corn ATOs by dairy farms in Pennsylvania and estimates the value these farms might place on ATO contracts offered locally.International Relations/Trade,

The Origins of Phenomenology in Austro-German Philosophy. Brentano, Husserl

The development of phenomenology in nineteenth‐century German philosophy is that of a particular stream within the larger historical‐philosophical complex of Austro‐German philosophy. As the “grandfather of phenomenology” resp. the “disgusted grandfather of phenomenology,” but also as the key figure on the “Anglo‐Austrian Analytic Axis”, Brentano is at the source of the two main philosophical traditions in twentieth‐century philosophy. This chapter focuses mainly on his place in nineteenth‐century European philosophy and on the central themes and concepts in his philosophy that were determinant in the development of the philosophy of his most gifted student: Edmund Husserl. Despite the variety of stances which Brentano expressed on ontology, metaphysics, and psychology over the course of his career, the five general principles remain central to his whole philosophy throughout: they have an important place in what could be called Brentano's philosophical worldview or system. By extension, they also are essential to his conception of phenomenology