When Literacy Matters: A Study of the Impact of English and Local Language Literacy on Income in Ghana

Ghana is a country with substantial language heterogeneity. In 2002, Ghana began a nationwide policy instituting English as the primary language of instruction in grade school. Using data from the Ghana Living Standards Survey, this paper examines the conditions (sectoral, geographic, educational attainment) in which English language literacy is, in fact, beneficial. Implementing a multinomial logit first stage to capture sector selection, this paper explores the interaction of sector and language on income in Ghana

The tree of knot tunnels

We present a new theory which describes the collection of all tunnels of tunnel number 1 knots in the 3-sphere (up to orientation-preserving equivalence in the sense of Heegaard splittings) using the disk complex of the genus-2 handlebody and associated structures. It shows that each knot tunnel is obtained from the tunnel of the trivial knot by a uniquely determined sequence of simple cabling constructions. A cabling construction is determined by a single rational parameter, so there is a corresponding numerical parameterization of all tunnels by sequences of such parameters and some additional data. Up to superficial differences in definition, the final parameter of this sequence is the Scharlemann-Thompson invariant of the tunnel, and the other parameters are the Scharlemann-Thompson invariants of the intermediate tunnels produced by the constructions. We calculate the parameter sequences for tunnels of 2-bridge knots. The theory extends easily to links, and to allow equivalence of tunnels by homeomorphisms that may be orientation-reversing.Comment: This version has extensive minor rewriting for accuracy and clarity. The material on the depth invariant has been substantially expanded and moved into a new ArXiv preprint, The depth of a knot tunnel. Also moved there is the calculation of the slope sequences for the short tunnels of torus knot

Christ’s Presence in the Poor and the Church: A Traditionalist Liberation Theology

This paper argues that central claims about the poor in liberation theology do not displace traditional claims about the centrality of the Church but are a natural outworking of them. Christ is present in the poor first in the sense that Christ is present prior to and as preparation for justification, working to overcome our infirmities; Christ is present second in the sense that the poor are God’s special instrument of salvation. Neither manner of being present relies on the rethinking of nature and grace in the 20th century that is sometimes made foundational to liberation theology, suggesting that at least some of its central claims could survive translation to other conceptions

The Beauty of the Ethical: An Everyday Ethics that Brings Grace to Life

Excerpt: Malcolm Muggeridge entitled his reflection on Mother Teresa Something Beautiful for God. Perhaps the force of that expression does not immediately strike us, but consider how curious a statement it is: that here was something—an act, a project, a life—beautiful for God. By far the most curious aspect, and the hardest to see afresh and not as mere formula, is that it was for God; but I leave that to a subsequent essay, with only the saints, here Teresa and Irenaeus, to point toward my sequel. For now note instead that it was something beautiful

Westernizing Islam and the American Right

Excerpt: At the end of The Searchers, John Wayne stands framed by the darkened doorway of a cabin, and with the dry scrub and John Ford vastness behind him he contemplates the house his successful search party has just entered. He looks inside for a second, half smiles, turns, and walks with his John Wayne slouch back into the sandstone and prairie. The door closes in front of the camera, the screen is thrown into blackness, and the credits roll. John Wayne ain’t gonna do civilization: The End

An Alternative to Spinning Dust for the Microwave Emission of LPH 201.663+1.643: an Ultracompact HII Region

The microwave spectral energy distribution of the dusty, diffuse H II region LPH 201.663+1.643 has been interpreted by others as tentative evidence for microwave emission from spinning dust grains. We present an alternative interpretation for that particular object; specifically, that an ultracompact H II region embedded within the dust cloud would explain the available observations as well or better than spinning dust. Parameters for the size, surface brightness, and flux density of the putative ultracompact HII region, derived from the microwave observations, are within known ranges. A possible candidate for such an ultracompact H II region is IRAS 06337+1051, based upon its infrared colors. However, IRAS 06337+1051's infrared flux appears to be too small to be consistent with the microwave flux required for this alternative model to explain the observations.Comment: 11 pages, 3 figures, accepted to ApJ Letter

Exothermic Double-Disk Dark Matter

If a subdominant component of dark matter (DM) interacts via long-range dark force carriers it may cool and collapse to form complex structures within the Milky Way galaxy, such as a rotating dark disk. This scenario was proposed recently and termed "Double-Disk Dark Matter" (DDDM). In this paper we consider the possibility that DDDM remains in a cosmologically long-lived excited state and can scatter exothermically on nuclei (ExoDDDM). We investigate the current status of ExoDDDM direct detection and find that ExoDDDM can readily explain the recently announced ~3 sigma excess observed at CDMS-Si, with almost all of the 90% best-fit parameter space in complete consistency with limits from other experiments, including XENON10 and XENON100. In the absence of isospin-dependent couplings, this consistency requires light DM with mass typically in the 5-15 GeV range. The hypothesis of ExoDDDM can be tested in direct detection experiments through its peaked recoil spectra, reduced annual modulation amplitude, and, in some cases, its novel time-dependence. We also discuss future direct detection prospects and additional indirect constraints from colliders and solar capture of ExoDDDM. As theoretical proof-of-principle, we combine the features of exothermic DM models and DDDM models to construct a complete model of ExoDDDM, exhibiting all the required properties.Comment: 26 pages, 9 figure