Scraping Down the Past: Memory and Amnesia in W. G. Sebald\u27s Anti-narrative

Vanguard anti-narrativist Galen Strawson declares personal memory unimportant for self-constitution. But what if lapses of personal memory are sustained by a morally reprehensible amnesia about historical events, as happens in the work of German author W. G. Sebald? The importance of memory cannot be downplayed in such cases. Nevertheless, contrary to expectations, a concern for memory needn’t ally one with the narrativist view of the self. Recovery of historical and personal memory results in self-dissolution and not self-unity or understanding in Sebald’s characters. In the end, Sebald shows how memory can be significant, even imperative, within a deeply anti-narrativist outlook on the self, memory, and history

Protecting a threatened coastal fish species through regional collaboration

Rainbow smelt (Osmerus mordax) are small anadromous fish that live in nearshore coastal waters during much of the year and migrate to tidal rivers to spawn during the spring. They are a key prey species in marine food webs, as they are consumed by larger organisms such as striped bass, bluefish, and seabirds. In addition, smelt are valued culturally and economically, as they support important recreational and commercial fisheries. The Atlantic Coast range of rainbow smelt has been contracting in recent decades. Historically, populations extended from the Delaware River to eastern Labrador and the Gulf of St. Lawrence (Buckley 1989). More recent observations indicate that rainbow smelt spawning populations have been extirpated south of Long Island Sound, and evidence of spawning activity is extremely limited between Long Island and Cape Cod, MA. In the Gulf of Maine region, spawning runs are still observed, but monitoring surveys as well as commercial and recreational catches indicate that these populations have also declined (e.g., Chase and Childs 2001). Many diverse factors could drive the recently noted declines in rainbow smelt populations, including spawning habitat conditions, fish health, marine environmental conditions, and fishing pressure. Few studies have assessed any of these potential threats or their joint implications. In 2004, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) listed rainbow smelt as a species of concern. Subsequently, the states of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts were awarded a grant through NMFS’s Proactive Conservation Program to gather new information on the status of rainbow smelt, identify factors that affect spawning populations, and develop a multi-state conservation program. This paper provides an overview of this collaborative project, highlighting key biological monitoring and threats assessment research that is being conducted throughout the Gulf of Maine. (PDF contains 4 pages

Hirsch, Sebald, and the Uses and Limits of Postmemory

Marianne Hirsch’s influential concept of postmemory articulates the ethical significance of representing trauma in art and literature. Postmemory, for Hirsch, “describes the relationship of children of survivors of cultural or collective trauma to the experiences of their parents, experiences that they ‘remember’ only as the narratives and images with which they grew up, but that are so powerful, so monumental, as to constitute memories in their own right”. Through appeal to philosophical work on memory, the ethics of remembering, and Peter Goldie’s discussion of empathy, I explore the virtues and limitations of Hirsch’s concept of postmemory, and the risks involved in empathic engagement in the past of another. This analysis informs my rejection of Hirsch’s attempt to place German author W.G. Sebald in league with the postmemory generation

Vote Miscounts or Exit Poll Error?

Electronic vote counting equipment makes it easy for a few persons to electronically manipulate vote counts and virtually impossible to independently audit vote count accuracy. Without routine independent audits of hand-countable voter verified paper ballots, insiders have freedom to manipulate vote counts with negligible possibility of detection.This new exit poll discrepancy function allows us, for the first time, to know what patterns of exit poll discrepancy result from various combinations ofvote miscounts,partisan exit poll completion rate differences, andrandom sampling error (by simulation).These patterns can be compared with actual discrepancy patterns produced in elections to determine what causes are consistent with actual election discrepancy.This paper also outlines statistical methods to determine the number of precincts with significant discrepancy, and how to test precinct-level exit poll and official election results data for consistency with partisan exit poll response rate explanations. Using these methods, mathematicians or statisticians can determine if vote miscounts are indicated prior to when candidates concede future elections

Global versus local managing human resources in the multinational company

This paper considers the extent to which multinational enterprises adopt a global or local approach in their management of human resources. Nine organisations, drawn from a range of nationalities and sectors operating in Ireland, were examined. The analysis revealed that the majority of organisations adopted a local approach, with headquarters involvement in many cases limited to monitoring the financial implications of human resource decisions. However, it appears that the transfer of human resource management practices can be a two way process with some subsidiaries focusing on human resource issues in order to maintain their competitive position within the corporation. The findings also suggest that the integration of human resource issues in strategic decision-making may need to be considered as a local, rather than a corporate level, activity

Water ascends in woody plants : so what?

Woody plants are often considered as static individuals, taking up water via the root system and losing it again via leaf transpiration. Quite boring one might conclude when considering that more than 95% of the water taken up by the roots is transpired by the leaves. But the story suddenly becomes much more intriguing when the dynamics happening during the ascent of water in woody plants are included. This keynote talk will elaborate on water transport in woody plants, highlighting where the dynamics come from, what the relevance is and which tissues are involved. The power to decipher water transport dynamics with plant-based measurements, where sap flow and stem diameter variations are at the forefront, will be illustrated. The concept of plant-based measurements will be complemented with a viewpoint on how sophisticated mechanistic water transport models can assist in plant-based irrigation scheduling or early warning and stress detection systems

Why the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education Enhances Information Literacy Instruction

This article attempts to clarify what the ACRL Framework is designed to do for teaching librarians. The article looks briefly at the need for change from the Competency Standards based on librarian concerns about their own teaching effectiveness. The short description of two of the foundational books, on which the Framework was based, are introduced so that instruction librarians can do their own research into the foundational concepts of the Framework for a deeper understanding of the value of this new approach to library teaching. Links to teaching resources are included