Towering over all : the Italianate villa in the colonial landscape

The Picturesque aesthetic emerged in the later 18th century, uniting the Sublime and the Beautiful and had its roots in the paintings of Claude Lorrain. In Britain, and in Australia, it came to link art, literature and landscape with architecture. The Picturesque aesthetic informed much of colonial culture which was achieved, in part, through the production and dissemination of architectural pattern books catering for the aspirations of the rising middle classes. This was against a background of political change including democratic reform. The Italianate villa, codified and promoted in such pattern books, was a particularly successful synthesis of style, form and function. The first Italianate villa in England, Cronkhill (1803) by John Nash contains all the ingredients which were essential to the model and had a deeper meaning. Deepdene (from 1807) by Thomas Hope gave the model further impetus. The works of Charles Barry and others in a second generation confirmed the model\u27s acceptability. In Britain, its public status peaked with Osborne House (from 1845), Queen Victoria\u27s Italianate villa on the Isle of Wight, Robert Kerr used a vignette of Osborne House on the title page of his sophisticated and influential pattern book, The Gentleman\u27s House (1864,1871). It was one of many books, including those of J.C, Loudon and AJ. Downing, current in colonial Victoria. The latter authors and horticulturists were themselves villa dwellers with libraries and orchards, two criteria for the true villa lifestyle. Situation and a sense of retreat were the two further criteria for the villa lifestyle. As the new colony of Victoria blossomed between 1851 and 1891, the Italianate villa, its garden setting and its landscape siting captured the tenor of the times. Melbourne, the capital was a rich manufacturing metropolis with a productive hinterland and international markets. The people enjoyed a prosperity and lifestyle which they wished to display. Those who had a position in society were keen to demonstrate and protect it. Those with aspirations attempted to provide the evidence necessary for such acceptance, The model matured and became ubiquitous. Its evolution can be traced through a series of increasingly complicated rural and suburban examples, a process which modernist historians have dismissed as a decadent decline. These villas, in fact, demonstrate an increasingly sophisticated retreat by merchants from ‘the Town’ and by graziers from ‘the Country’. In both town and country, the towers of villas mark territory newly acquired. The same claim was often made in humbler situations. Government House, Melbourne (from 1871), a splendid Italianate villa and arguably finer than Osborne House, was set in a cultivated landscape and towered above all It incorporated the four criteria and, in addition, claimed its domain, focused authority and established the colony\u27s social status. It symbolised ancient notions of democracy and idealism but with a modem appreciation for the informal and domestic. Government House in Melbourne is the epitome of the Italianate villa in the colonial landscape and is the climax of the Picturesque aesthetic in Victoria

Orientação e alocação de um objeto-alvo

Neste estudo foram medidos os efeitos provenientes da orientação-alvo na alocação em memória de um alvo quadrado ou retangular em movimento. A orientação dos alvos em relação ao seu percurso era variada; os efeitos de orientação-alvo em uma alocação futura foram observados para o alvo retangular, mas não o foram para o alvo quadrado; Os resultados mostraram-se consistentes com a hipótese de que os efeitos da orientação-alvo (a) podem ser observados em alvos que não têm uma trajetória claramente definida ou uma orientação prototípica em relação à direção do seu movimento, e (b) podem influenciar a alocação futura quando as coordenadas espaciais dos contornos do alvo não são constantes ao longo de mudanças na orientação do alvo em relação à direção do movimento.The effects of the target orientation on displacement in memory for the location of a moving rectangular or square target were measured. The orientation of a target relative to its path of motion was varied; the effects of target orientation on forward displacement were observed for the rectangular target and not for the square target. The data were consistent with the hypotheses that the effects of target orientation (a) can be observed in targets that do not have a clearly defined direction of pointing or prototypical orientation relative to their direction of motion, and (b) can influence the forward displacement when the spatial coordinates of the contours of the target are not invariant across changes in target orientation relative to the direction of motion

Do the flash-lag effect and representational momentum involve similar extrapolations?

In the flash-lag effect (FLE) and in representational momentum (RM), the represented position of a moving target is displaced in the direction of motion. Effects of numerous variables on the FLE and on RM are briefly considered. In many cases, variables appear to have the same effect on the FLE and on RM, and this is consistent with a hypothesis that displacements in the FLE and in RM result from overlapping or similar mechanisms. In other cases, variables initially appear to have different effects on the FLE and on RM, but accounts reconciling those apparent differences with a hypothesis of overlapping or similar mechanisms are suggested. Given that RM is simpler and accounts for a wider range of findings (i.e., RM involves a single stimulus rather than the relationship between two stimuli, RM accounts for displacement in absolute position of a single stimulus and for differences in relative position of two stimuli), it is suggested that (at least some cases of) the FLE might be a special case of RM in which the position of the target is assessed relative to the position of another stimulus (i.e., the flashed object) rather than relative to the actual position of the target

How Consequences of Physical Principles Influence Mental Representation: The Environmental Invariants Hypothesis

The environmental invariants hypothesis suggests that (a) mental representations automatically extrapolate effects of invariant physical principles on the referent physical objects, and (b) the results of this extrapolation distort spatial memory. The extrapolations preserve a second-order isomorphism between the dynamics and kinematics of physical objects and the mental representations of those objects, and such an isomorphism has implications for theories of cognitive structure and processing across a variety of domains. The remembered position of a target is usually displaced from the actual position of that target, and the pattern of displacement is often consistent with the operation of invariant physical principles on that target (for review, see Hubbard, 1995b). For example, an observer’s memory for the final location of a horizontally moving target is displaced forward and downward, and this pattern is consistent with the operation of momentum and gravity on such a target. Several different types of displacement in spatial memory have been documented, and these displacements may reflect nonconscious or implicit knowledge of environmentally invariant physical principles that has been incorporated into the functional architecture of the representational system (Hubbard, 1998a)

Semiparametric Estimation in Models of First-Price, Sealed-Bid Auctions with Affiliation

Within the affiliated private-values paradigm, we develop a tractable empirical model of equilibrium behaviour at first-price, sealed-bid auctions. The model is non-parametrically identified, but the rate of convergence in estimation is slow when the number of bidders is even moderately large, so we develop a semiparametric estimation strategy, focusing on the Archimedean family of copulae and implementing this framework using particular members--the Clayton, Frank, and Gumbel copulae. We apply our framework to data from low-price, sealed-bid auctions used by the Michigan Department of Transportation to procure road-resurfacing services, rejecting the hypothesis of independence and finding significant (and high) affiliation in cost signals.first-price, sealed-bid auctions, copulae, affiliation

A Model of Tradeable Capital Tax Permits

Standard models of horizontal strategic capital tax competition predict that, in a Nash equilibrium, tax rates are inefficiently low due to externalities - capital infl ow to one state corresponds to capital out ow for another state. Researchers often suggest that the federal government impose Pigouvian taxes to correct for these effects and achieve efficiency. We propose an alternative incentive-based regulation: tradeable capital tax permits. Under this system, the federal government would require a state to hold a permit if it wanted to reduce its capital income tax rate from some pre-determined benchmark. These permits would be tradeable across states. We show that, if the federal government sets the correct number of total permits, then social efficiency is achieved. We discuss the advantages of this system relative to the canonical suggestion of Pigouvian taxes

Millennials: Adapting Police Recruiting and Supervision Practices

The law enforcement profession across the country is suffering from difficulties recruiting and retaining qualified officers. There are likely many factors contributing to the problem. A factor many consider to be having a significant effect is the change of demographics of the job applicant pool with the rise of the millennial generation in the workforce. With millennials being the largest generation since the baby boomers, they will make up more of the workforce as the last of the boomers retire and Generation X begins retiring. It is incumbent upon organizations to modify supervisory practices to account for the different priorities of the millennial generation to keep them engaged. Otherwise, they will switch employers looking for a better fit. The millennial generational cohort differs from earlier cohorts, such as baby boomers and Generation X, in significant ways. These differences are a based on common circumstances shared by that cohort as they grew up. Many of the differences are at odds with the command and control and strong hierarchy traditionally associated with law enforcement organizations. Some feel millennials should conform to the traditional law enforcement paradigm just as all others have because of the assertion that law enforcement’s objectives cannot be met if supervisory and leadership practices change to support their expectations. However, many of the needs of this generation are more consistent with contemporary leadership practices outside law enforcement. Unquestionably, this generation will soon take over the workforce. Therefore, to recruit and retain quality officers, organizations must adapt and adopt leadership practices more aligned with the needs and expectations of the incoming millennial generation

The Inner Meaning of Outer Space:Human Nature and the Celestial Realm

Kant argued that humans possess a priori knowledge of space; although his argument focused on a physics of bodies, it also has implications for a psychology of beings. Many human cultures organize stars in the night sky into constellations (i.e., impose structure); attribute properties, behaviors, and abilities to objects in the celestial realm (i.e., impose meaning); and use perceived regularity in the celestial realms in development of calendars, long-range navigation, agriculture, and astrology (i.e., seek predictability and control). The physical inaccessibility of the celestial realm allows a potent source of metaphor, and also allows projection of myths regarding origin and ascension, places of power, and dwelling places of gods, immortals, and other souls. Developments in astronomy and cosmology influenced views of human nature and the place of humanity in the universe, and these changes parallel declines in egocentrism with human development. Views regarding alleged beings (e.g., angels, extraterrestrials) from the celestial realm (and to how communicate with such beings) are anthropocentric and ignore evolutionary factors in physical and cognitive development. It is suggested that in considering views and uses of the celestial realm, we learn not just about the universe, but also about ourselves. Kant afirmaba que los seres humanos poseen un conocimiento a priori del espacio. Aunque este argumento se centra en la física de los cuerpos, también tiene implicaciones para la psicología del ser. Muchas culturas humanas organizan las estrellas en constelaciones (imponen estructura); atribuyen propiedades, conductas y habilidades a objetos en el reino celeste (esto es, determinan significado); y usan la regularidad percibida en los reinos celestes para el desarrollo de calendarios, navegaciones de grandes distancias, agricultura y astrología (buscan predicción y control). La inaccesibilidad física del reino celeste permite una potente fuente de metáforas, así como la protección de los mitos sobre el origen y la ascensión, los lugares del poder y aquellos donde habitan dioses, seres inmortales y otras almas. Los desarrollos en astronomía y cosmología influyeron las opiniones sobre la naturaleza humana y el lugar de la humanidad en el universo; estos cambios ponen en paralelo los descensos en el egocentrismo y el desarrollo humano. Las visiones acerca de los presuntos seres (como los ángeles y los extraterrestres) del reino celestial (y cómo comunicarse con esos seres) son antropocéntricas e ignoran factores evolutivos del desarrollo físico y cognitivo. Se sugiere que al considerar opiniones y usos del reino celeste, aprendemos no sólo acerca del universo, sino también sobre nosotros mismos