On sharing NATO defence burdens in the 1990s and beyond

This article investigates NATO burden sharing in the 1990s in light of strategic, technological, political and membership changes. Both an ability-to-pay and a benefits-received analysis of burden sharing are conducted. During 1990-99, there is no evidence of disproportionate burden sharing, where the large allies shoulder the burdens of the small. Nevertheless, the theoretical model predicts that this disproportionality will plague NATO in the near future. Thus far, there is still a significant concordance between benefits received and defence burdens carried. When alternative expansion scenarios are studied, the extent of disproportionality of burden sharing increases as NATO grows in size. A broader security burden-sharing measure is devised and tested; based on this broader measure, there is still no disproportionality evident in the recent past.

The impact of LIHTC program on local schools

The low-income housing tax credit (LIHTC) program has developed over two million rental homes for low-income households since 1986. The perception of deterioration in school quality has been a main reason for community opposition to LIHTC projects in middle-and upper-income areas. In this paper, we examine the impact of LIHTC projects on the nearby school performance. The LIHTC projects tend to have positive and statistically significant impacts on school performance the year they are placed in service and this finding is robust to various specifications. Offsetting these, the one year lag effects are negative and of similar or smaller magnitude.Housing subsidies ; Housing policy ; Education ; Poverty

Spotlight: Educational opportunity: Does low-income housing tax credit hurt nearby schools?

The largest federal program designed to increase the rental housing supply for poor working families helps them find living space in decent neighborhoods with good schools. It also encounters frequent neighborhood opposition.Housing subsidies ; Education ; School choice

1902 Dec 14 James Murdoch to JM postcard p1

[Page 1] Edinburgh Dec 14 1902 Dear Mr. Muir I was glad to receive your letter of 17 Nov telling me that I had been at the Grand Canon of the Colorado after all. You see underneath a photo of myself and three others looking into it from what I suppose was Grand View point. At any rate the point is about half an hours easy walk in a westerly direction or perhaps NW from the Grand View Hotel. I have to thank you for the beautiful description you sent me from the Century Magazine. I will make a point now of seeing each month’s Century and hope to see more articles of your’s therein. You will not doubt have heard that Maggie Lunam has had a bad time of it lately with bronchitis but is getting [ ] again. I wish I could look with some sort of hope to taking the trip you mention to the Forests and Glaciers of Alaska, but at present I cannot see my way to do so. I am sending another Post Card [Page 2] to your daughters along with this. The view on it is one I took in Cairo – a mere snapshot – but it is considered a very good picture. We are now in the dead of winter with its cold bleak blasts while you are no doubt reveling in sunshine. By the way you must have been in the Grand Canon just three months after I was there myself. How odd it would have been if we had met in either of these Backwood Hotels – the Bright Angel or Grand View. Yours very sincerely, James Murdoc

Cloudiness and precipitation in relation to frontal lifting and horizontal convergence

The physical processes which result in the formation of clouds and the production of precipitation have been described by numerous meteorologists. The genetical classification has been summarized by Petterssen as follows: (1) Clouds and precipitation types which form in unstable air masses, (2) Clouds and precipitation types which form in stable air masses, (3) Clouds and precipitation types which form in connection with quasi-horizontal inversions in the free atmosphere, and (4) Frontal clouds and precipitation forms. In general, the procedure adopted for the forecasting of these meteorological elements can also be subdivided into the same four categories. Since the distribution of the elements in the atmosphere is never constant with time, the problem of forecasting cloudiness and precipitation is sometimes diffcult. A detailed discussion of qualitative and quantitative prognostic methods can be found in various standard meteorological texts. However, present methods are not entirely adequate and it is the aim of this investigation to contribute to the solution of the forecast problem. This study has been divided into two main sections, viz., (1) Clouds and precipitation types which occur at frontal surfaces as the result of frontal lifting, and (2) Clouds and precipitation types which occur within air masses as the result of horizontal convergence within the wind field. (1) Frontal Surfaces. In a recent study of fronts and frontogenesis, Petterssen and Austin have investigated the processes that tend to create wind shear, or vorticity, along fronts. It was found that, in general, an increase or decrease in shear is accompanied by a change in the vertical velocity field at a front. Since cloudiness and precipitation arise from the ascending velocities at frontal surfaces, the possibility of forecasting the change in horizontal shear at a front will be investigated. Furthermore, it has been shown that the vertical velocity of either air mass at a frontal surface can be determined from the velocity of the front and the horizontal wind velocity. The wind velocities in the free atmosphere can be obtained with a reasonable degree of accuracy, but the front velocity cannot always be evaluated with the same accuracy. Because it is important to determine the magnitude or at least the sign of the vertical velocities, a kinematical study will be made of the displacement of frontal surfaces. (2) Horizontal Convergence. In 1931 Giao published an explanation of the origin of clouds and precipitation in the vicinity of moving cyclones, without introducing the concept of frontal surfaces. Giao claimed that most condensation phenomena could be attributed to the cooling produced by local pressure changes and the horizontal convergence which arises from the meridional component of the wind velocity. The conclusions are conveniently summarized by Haurwitz, together with a short discussion of Giao's theory. Since some systems of clouds and precipitation types may result solely from convergence in the horizontal flow, an attempt wil be made to evaluate this effect quantitatively

Ecological theology within the church and society programme

The ecological crisis was a complex social phenomenon which caused some concern and public debate in the Western industrialised nations in the late sixties and early seventies. The crisis situation has been discussed in the World Council of Churches, which formulated its goal in social ethics in terms of the Just, Participatory, and Sustainable Society. Most of the ecumenical discussions about the sustainable society have taken place in the programme of the Church and Society subunit, which has been concerned with the place of technology in such a society. It held a major conference at the Massachusetts institute of Technology in 1979, on 'The Contribution of Faith, Science and Technology to the struggle for the Just and participatory and Sustainable Society' , and it had already conducted an intense investigation from 1969 to 1974, on 'The Future of Man and Society in a World of Science-Based Technology'. The basic problem seems to lie in ethics rather than systematic theology; but I argue in Chapter One that the ecological crisis involves questions at the level of systematic theology. My Chapter Two is concerned with making precise the concept of an 'ecological theology' within theological discourse and adducing as examples ecological theologies from a Barthian theologian, a process theologian, and a biblical theologian. Chapter Three analyses the ecumenical materials, and places the MIT conference in the ethical and theological history of the Church and Society programme. Four main theological approaches are found in the sources: an approach which sees nature as an entangling force from which humanity is to emancipate itself by scientific and technological skill; a theology of hope; a process theology; and an Orthodox approach. These are described, analysed, and evaluated in Chapter Four, and the orientation they give for Christian life in the technological culture is described. The conclusions of this thesis include some constructive criticisms aimed at assisting the Church and Society programme and enhancing its theological adequacy