[Review of] Susan Olzak. The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict

Susan Olzak’s work, The Dynamics of Ethnic Competition and Conflict, is informative and contributes to an understanding of ethnic violence from an historical perspective. The central finding is that ethnic/racial conflict arises from an increase in intergroup competition for social resources. Exploring economic and political competition in the United States from 1877 to 1914, Olzak concludes that violence is most apt to occur when members of a disadvantaged ethnic/racial group experience greater equality of opportunity. This new environment creates a situation whereby members of a formerly segregated group become rivals for social awards. An environment which contains several disadvantaged groups competing for rewards -- a situation which existed in the period under investigation through a combination of racial migration from the south and European immigration -- leads to attacks on groups least able to defend themselves. Thus, the “..... breakdown of racially and ethnically ordered systems unleash forces of competitive exclusion against the least powerful targets in the system” (224). Olzak suggests this situation occured [occurred] with African Americans as European groups achieved social mobility

[Review of] David Delaney. Race, Place, & the Law

David Delaney\u27s work is informative and contributes to an understanding of race relations and the legal system. The central finding is that race relations exist in different spatial contexts at the same time. The author begins with the case Commonwealth v. Aves, 18 Pick. 193 (1836) which focuses on a young slave girl, Med and her freedom. The cause of action involved the movement of the servant girl to Massachusetts by her Louisiana master. The master was visiting relatives. Under Louisiana law Med was a slave, but Massachusetts law did not permit slavery

Stratospheric effects of solar ultraviolet variations on the solar rotation time scale

A summary is presented of some current work on measurement and interpretation of stratospheric ozone and temperature responses to observed short term solar ultraviolet variations. Although some studies have yielded provisional evidence for a nearly in-phase ozone-solar cycle relationship, they extend at most over only one or two 11 year cycles so the statistical significance of the correlations is not large. Similarly, the relatively short lengths of individual satellite data sets combined with the problem of estimating the effect of changes in instrument sensitivity (drift) during the observing period have complicated attempts to infer long term or solar cycle ozone trends. The solar rotation and active region development time scale provides an alternate time scale for which detailed studies of middle atmospheric ozone and temperature responses to solar ultraviolet variability are currently possible using available satellite data sets. At tropical latitudes where planetary wave amplitudes are relatively small, clear correlative evidence for the existence of middle atmospheric ozone and temperature responses to short term solar ultraviolet variations has been obtained in recent years. These measurements will ultimately allow improved empirical and theoretical calculations of longer term solar induced ozone and temperature variations at low and middle latitudes

Lunar Magnetic Fields: Implications for Resource Utilization

It is well known that solar-wind-implanted hydrogen and helium-3 in lunar soils are potentially usable resources for future manned activities. For economical mining of these implanted gases, it is desirable that relative concentrations exceed that of typical soils. It has previously been noted that the monthly variation of solar wind flux on the surface due to lunar immersion in the geomagnetic tail may have measurable consequences for resource utilization. It is pointed out that, for a constant external flux, locally strong lunar crustal magnetic fields will exert the dominant influence on solar wind volatile implantation rates. In particular, the strongest lunar crustal magnetic fields will both deflect and focus incident ions in local regions leading to local enhancements of the incident ion flux. Thus, the most economical sites for extraction of solar-wind-implanted volatiles may be within or adjacent to strong crustal magnetic fields. In addition, solar wind ion deflection by crustal magnetic fields must be considered in evaluating the issue of whether remnant cometary ice or water-bearing minerals have survived in permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles. This is because sputter erosion of water ice by solar wind ions has been suggested to be an important ice loss mechanism within permanently shadowed regions. Thus, permanently shadowed regions that are also shielded from the solar wind by locally strong crustal fields could be the most promising locations for the survival of cometary ice. Additional numerical simulations are employed to show that solar wind ion deflection by strong lunar magnetic anomalies can produce local increases in the implantation rate of solar wind gases such as hydrogen

Investigation of the Saturn dust environment from the analysis of energetic charged particle measurements

In order to assist the Cassini project in evaluating risks of collisions with particulate matter in the rotational equatorial plane, available Pioneer 11 and Voyager energetic charged particle data were reinvestigated to constrain the column mass density of absorbing material within several radial ranges. Within the orbit of Mimas, CRAND proton phase space densities maximize near 2.67 R sub s and exhibit secondary maximum at 2.43 R sub s. From the condition that sources must exceed losses near these maxima and using available theoretical models for CRAND proton production rates, upper bounds on the column mass density at these two radial locations are calculated. Detailed fits of radial diffusion models to the observed flux maxima yield somewhat more restrictive upper limits. The upper limits compare to a lower limit on the column mass density, estimated from previous model calculations by Van Allen. Aside from continuous rings, longitudinally limited, low optical depth clouds of particulates may exist in orbit with several of the inner satellites including Mimas and Enceladus. A brief review of Voyager energetic particle microsignatures that suggest the presence of material co-orbiting with these two satellites is presented. Finally, Pioneer 11 and Voyager measurements of low energy electron fluxes exhibit minima near the location of the tenuous E Ring centered on approx. 4 R sub s. Pioneer 11 pitch angle distributions appear to support the possibility that direct absorption by Ring E particulates produced the observed flux decreases

A Mechanism Involving Solar Ultraviolet Variations for Modulating the Interannual Climatology of the Middle Atmosphere

In years of low solar activity, free traveling wave modes in the upper stratosphere are dominated by atmospheric normal modes such as the 16-day wave. However, within a 4-year interval centered on the 1980 to 1981 solar maximum, cross-spectral analyses of zonal mean satellite temperature data versus the solar UV flux demonstrate significant power near 27 and 13 days, providing indirect evidence that short-term UV variations were capable of exciting traveling planetary-scale waves in the upper stratosphere. Previous theoretical and observational work has indicated that interference between traveling waves and stationary waves forced from below (and the resulting oscillating latitudinal heat transports) plays a likely role in the initiation of stratospheric warmings. Researchers therefore hypothesize that the initiation of a major stratospheric warming in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere may depend to some extent on the amplitude of longer-period 27-day traveling waves in the upper stratosphere. This would represent a new mechanism for solar UV effects on stratospheric climatology that may be relevant to the interpretation of some recent long-term correlative results

A Probable Approx. 2400 Year Solar Quasi-cycle in Atmospheric Delta C-14

A 2200 to 2600 year quasi-periodicity is present in atmospheric delta C-14 records after removal of long-term trends due to the geomagnetic dipole amplitude variation. This periodicity consists of both a long-term variation of the mean and a superposed, approximately recurring pattern of century-scale variations. The strongest of these latter variations occur near maxima of the approx. 2400 year delta C-14 cycles. The residual record can be modeled to first order as an amplitude modulation of a century-scale periodic forcing function by a approx. 2400 year periodic forcing function. During the last millennium, the largest century-scale variations (occurring near the most recent 2400 year delta C-14 maximum) are known to be mainly a consequence of the pronounced Maunder, Sporer, and Wolf solar activity minima, as verified by independent proxy solar activity records. Therefore, during this period, amplitude modulation has been occurring primarily in the sun and not in the terrestrial radiocarbon system. It is therefore inferred that the approx. 2400 year forcing function is mainly solar although some secondary terrestrial feedback into the delta C-14 record is likely. This conclusion has implications for the predictability of future pronounced solar activity minima and for the interpretation of certain minor Holocene climatic variations

Magnetic effects of large-scale impacts on airless planetary bodies

The analysis of lunar orbital and sample data combined with laboratory measurements of impact-produced plasmas suggest that large-scale impacts on planetary surfaces may have had significant magnetic effects. These effects may potentially explain part of all lunar crustal magnetization and, by extension, may be responsible for producing paleomagnetism on other airless silicate bodies in the solar system. Theoretical studies are presented of the magnetic field and remanent magnetization effects of basin-scale impacts on the Moon. The specific case of a Moon exposed to the solar wind plasma flow and its embedded magnetic field is investigated. It is shown that maximum compressed field amplitudes occur antipodal to the impact point in agreement with the observed tendency for orbital magnetic anomalies to be concentrated antipodal to young large lunar basins. Generalization of these results to include magnetic effects of impacts on other airless or nearly airless bodies in the solar system is presented

The supernatural guilt trip does not take us far enough

Belief in souls is only one component of supernatural thinking in which individuals infer the presence of invisible mechanisms that explain events as paranormal rather than natural. We believe it is important to place greater emphasis on the prevalence of supernatural beliefs across other domains, if only to counter simplistic divisions between rationality and irrationality recently aligned with the contentious science/religion debate

Ethnic Disparities in Sentencing and the Washington Sentencing Reform Act: The Case of Yakima County

An important issue confronting the criminal justice system is sentencing disparity. Sentencing disparity involves inequitable sanctions imposed on individuals who have committed similar offenses. These inequalities in sentencing patterns have allegedly centered on group differences and may reflect an ethnic or racial bias