Green Taxes and Climate Change: Theory and Reality

Klimaveränderung, Ökosteuer, Steuertheorie, Vereinigte Staaten, EU-Staaten, Climate change, Environmental tax, Theory of taxation, United States, EU countries

Searching for annihilation radiation from SN 1006 with SPI on INTEGRAL

Historical Type Ia supernovae are a leading candidate for the source of positrons observed through their diffuse annihilation emission in the Galaxy. However, search for annihilation emission from individual Type Ia supernovae has not been possible before the improved sensitivity of \integral. The total 511 keV annihilation flux from individual SNe Ia, as well as their contribution to the overall diffuse emission, depends critically on the escape fraction of positrons produced in $^{56}$Co decays. Late optical light curves suggest that this fraction may be as high as 5%. We searched for positron annihilation radiation from the historical Type Ia supernova SN 1006 using the SPI instrument on \integral. We did not detect significant 511 keV line emission, with a 3$\sigma$ flux upper limit of 0.59 x 10$^{-4}$ ergs cm^-2 s^-1 for \wsim 1 Msec exposure time, assuming a FWHM of 2.5 keV. This upper limit corresponds to a 7.5% escape fraction, 50% higher than the expected 5% escape scenario, and rules out the possibility that Type Ia supernovae produce all of the positrons in the Galaxy (~ 12% escape fraction), if the mean positron lifetime is less than 10$^{5}$ years. Future observations with \integral will provide stronger limits on the escape fraction of positrons, the mean positron lifetime, and the contribution of Type Ia supernovae to the overall positron content of the Galaxy.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

Melanie Reynolds, Infant Mortality and Working-Class Child Care, 1850-1899, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016 [Book Review]

Book Review of Melanie Reynolds, Infant Mortality and Working-Class Child Care, 1850-1899, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. £63.00, 978 1 137 36903 1(hardback), pp. IX + 251

Concealment of birth: time to repeal a 200-year-old "convenient stop-gap"?

Feminists have long argued that women who offend are judged by who they are, not what they do, with idealised images of femininity and motherhood used as measures of culpability. The ability to meet the expectations of motherhood and femininity are particularly difficult for women who experience a crisis pregnancy, as evident in cases where women have been convicted of concealment of birth. The offence prohibits the secret disposal of the dead body of a child, to conceal knowledge of its birth. Traditionally used to prosecute women suspected of killing their newborn children, analysis of court transcripts suggests the offence is also used to punish women who fail to meet expectations of motherhood. This paper analyses three contemporary cases in light of the historical origins of the offence, illustrating the legacy of prejudice against ‘deviant’ mothers. Finally, it questions the continued existence of this archaic offence

Karissa Haugeberg, Women against Abortion: Inside the Largest Moral Reform Movement of the Twentieth Century, Urbana, Chicago and Springfield, University of Illinois Press, 2017 [Book review]

Book revie

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders in adults: ethical and legal perspectives: an overview on FASD for professionals , edited by Monty Nelson and Marguerite Trussler [Book review]

Book revie

Zubin Mistry, Abortion in the Early Middle Ages c.500-900, Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2015 [Book Review]

Book review of Zubin Mistry, Abortion in the Early Middle Ages c.500-900, Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2015. £60.00, 978 1 903153 57 4 (hardback), pp. xiv + 342

The Moral Case for Abortion , written by Ann Furedi [Book review]

Book review

Banking crisis solutions old and new

In 2007 Britain experienced its first run on a bank of any macroeconomic significance since 1866. This was not dealt with by the method that had maintained banking stability for so long: letting the bank fail but supplying abundant liquidity to the markets to prevent contagion. In this paper the authors examine why that traditional solution was not used and propose changes to Britain's deposit insurance system, to its bank insolvency regime, and in arrangements to allow customers access to banking services should their bank be closed-so that the traditional approach can once more be used to mitigate moral hazard.Risk management ; Banks and banking