‘Shell to Sea’ in Ireland: building social movement potency

In 1996 the Corrib gas field, holding over 1 trillion cubic feet of gas, was discovered by Enterprise Oil 83km off the North West coast of Ireland. Acquired by Shell in 2002, proposed extraction and processing is now a co-venture between several multinational energy corporations who aim to transport the gas some 90kms via pipeline to an onshore refinery site at Bellanaboy. Although heralded as a significant opportunity for development and employment by Shell and participating companies, local resistance to the proposals, on social and environmental grounds, has been sustained and effective. Mirroring global conflicts between the petrochemical industry and local people and lifeworlds, this resistance has elicited repressive responses, including the jailing of local landowners by the Irish state following their resistance to unprecedented compulsory land acquisition orders, and the taking out of a court injunction by Shell in 2005. Drawing on elements of contemporary social movement theory, and on both field research and analysis of campaign documents and media reports, this paper seeks to describe and reflect on the shape and spread of the social movement that has arisen in response to this development project. We focus on the ‘Shell to Sea’ campaign which has argued for the offshore, as opposed to the onshore, development of the gas field, and has garnered support from many other social movement groups and networks. In particular we consider the use of alternative media in strengthening shared networks of concern and in engaging critically with corporate media representations of both the project and the mobilisation. We conclude that social movement effectiveness and potency is in large part an outcome of collective and subjective commitments to intense work effort and the sharing of felt solidarity regarding environmental and social concerns; and we iterate the significance of affective and subjective dimensions of social movement activities alongside more conventional descriptions of work practices and structuring contexts

Bufo microscaphus

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Near-field angular distributions of high velocity ions for low-power hall thrusters

Experimental angular distributions of high-energy primary ions in the near-field region of a small Hall thruster between 50-200 mm downstream of the thruster exit plane at a range of centerline angles have been determined using a highly-collimated, energy-selective diagnostic probe. The measurements reveal a wide angular distribution of ions exiting the thruster channel and the formation of a strong, axially-directed jet of ions along the thruster centerline. Comparisons are made to other experimental determinations as applicable

Objectives of permanent lunar bases

Permanent manned lunar surface and orbiting base

Enforcing anti-redlining policy under the Community Reinvestment Act

Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 ; Discrimination in mortgage loans

The volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients in the local universe

We present a measurement of the volumetric rate of `calcium-rich' optical transients in the local universe, using a sample of three events from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF). This measurement builds on a detailed study of the PTF transient detection efficiencies, and uses a Monte Carlo simulation of the PTF survey. We measure the volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients to be higher than previous estimates: $1.21^{+1.13}_{-0.39}\times10^{-5}$ events yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$. This is equivalent to 33-94% of the local volumetric type Ia supernova rate. This calcium-rich transient rate is sufficient to reproduce the observed calcium abundances in galaxy clusters, assuming an asymptotic calcium yield per calcium-rich event of ~0.05$\mathrm{M}_{\odot}$. We also study the PTF detection efficiency of these transients as a function of position within their candidate host galaxies. We confirm as a real physical effect previous results that suggest calcium-rich transients prefer large physical offsets from their host galaxies.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ. 9 pages, 5 figure

A thin rivulet or ridge subject to a uniform transverse shear stress at its free surface due to an external airflow

We use the lubrication approximation to analyse three closely related problems involving a thin rivulet or ridge (i.e. a two-dimensional droplet) of fluid subject to a prescribed uniform transverse shear stress at its free surface due to an external airflow, namely a rivulet draining under gravity down a vertical substrate, a rivulet driven by a longitudinal shear stress at its free surface, and a ridge on a horizontal substrate, and find qualitatively similar behaviour for all three problems. We show that, in agreement with previous numerical studies, the free surface profile of an equilibrium rivulet/ridge with pinned contact lines is skewed as the shear stress is increased from zero, and that there is a maximum value of the shear stress beyond which no solution with prescribed semi-width is possible. In practice, one or both of the contact lines will de-pin before this maximum value of the shear stress is reached, and so we consider situations in which the rivulet/ridge de-pins at one or both contact lines. In the case of de-pinning only at the advancing contact line, the rivulet/ridge is flattened and widened as the shear stress is increased from its critical value, and there is a second maximum value of the shear stress beyond which no solution with a prescribed advancing contact angle is possible. In contrast, in the case of de-pinning only at the receding contact line, the rivulet/ridge is thickened and narrowed as the shear stress is increased from its critical value, and there is a solution with a prescribed receding contact angle for all values of the shear stress. In general, in the case of de-pinning at both contact lines there is a critical “yield” value of the shear stress beyond which no equilibrium solution is possible and the rivulet/ridge will evolve unsteadily. In an Appendix we show that an equilibrium rivulet/ridge with prescribed flux/area is quasi-statically stable to two-dimensional perturbations

A thin rivulet or ridge subject to a uniform transverse\ud shear stress at its free surface due to an external airflow

We use the lubrication approximation to analyse three closely related problems involving a thin rivulet or ridge (i.e. a two-dimensional droplet) of fluid subject to a prescribed uniform transverse shear stress at its free surface due to an external airflow, namely a rivulet draining under gravity down a vertical substrate, a rivulet driven by a longitudinal shear stress at its free surface, and a ridge on a horizontal substrate, and find qualitatively similar behaviour for all three problems. We show that, in agreement with previous numerical studies, the free surface profile of an equilibrium rivulet/ridge with pinned contact lines is skewed as the shear stress is increased from zero, and that there is a maximum value of the shear stress beyond which no solution with prescribed semi-width is possible. In practice, one or both of the contact lines will de-pin before this maximum value of the shear stress is reached, and so we consider situations in which the rivulet/ridge de-pins at one or both contact lines. In the case of de-pinning only at the advancing contact line, the rivulet/ridge is flattened and widened as the shear stress is increased from its critical value, and there is a second maximum value of the shear stress beyond which no solution with a prescribed advancing contact angle is possible. In contrast, in the case of de-pinning only at the receding contact line, the rivulet/ridge is thickened and narrowed as the shear stress is increased from its critical value, and there is a solution with a prescribed receding contact angle for all values of the shear stress. In general, in the case of de-pinning at both contact lines there is a critical “yield” value of the shear stress beyond which no equilibrium solution is possible and the rivulet/ridge will evolve unsteadily. In an Appendix we show that an equilibrium rivulet/ridge with prescribed flux/area is quasi-statically stable to two-dimensional perturbations