On Being Us: Who Are We, and What is This Book About? - Chapter 1 of Being at Home in the World: A New Christian Apologetic

This chapter introduces the authors and explains why we have written a book of Christian apologetics. It is important that the authors introduce themselves, because our apologetic procedure is personal. We do not offer a cool, detached, objective argument; instead, we extend an invitation

Status, taste and distinction in consumer culture: acknowledging the symbolic dimensions of inequality

The relationship between social position and health has been the focus of extensive public health debate. In the UK and elsewhere, most researchers have focused on physical aspects of health, using indicators such as mortality and morbidity to draw a picture of profound and widening social inequalities. This paper draws attention to the (neglected) influence of contemporary culture on wellbeing, arguing that the social meanings created within consumer culture possess symbolic force that can add to wider inequalities. The possession of greater material and cultural resources by people of higher social status enables them to label their preferred forms of consumption and lifestyle as desirable and legitimate, thus conveying messages about superior taste and social distinction. Symbolic rather than material forms of inequality are implicated here, with consequences for the psychological wellbeing of disadvantaged people. This paper argues that analyses of inequality need broadening to include such considerations. However, there are implications for efforts to address health inequalities because this analysis suggests that if some forms of social inequality are removed, elements within society would be motivated to invent new forms to replace them. Therefore, this article suggests processes whereby people can develop the self-awareness needed to resist the glossy illusions of the good life represented by modern consumer capitalism

Reintegration, hospitality and hostility:Song-writing and song-sharing in criminal justice

Distant Voices is an ongoing, interdisciplinary collaborative action research project, drawing on criminology, community development, politics, practice-led research and songwriting to explore crime, punishment and reintegration through creative conversations that aim to challenge and unsettle understandings of and approaches to rehabilitation and reintegration. In this paper, we discuss some of the thinking behind the project and we reflect on our experiences to date as a community of enquiry. Specifically, we explore the extent to which certain practices of hospitality that we have experienced in processes of collaborative songwriting and song-sharing might mediate and resist the ‘hostile environment’ that faces people leaving prison in many contemporary societies. Drawing on our experience, we argue that hospitality is often disruptive; that creating and sustaining hospitable environments is extremely challenging; and that to do so requires careful thought and planning, including in relation to problems created by the power dynamics intrinsic to criminal justice. The paper includes links to and discussion of one song written in the project – ‘An Open Door’ -- which engages with and illustrates these themes

2003 Manifesto on the California Electricity Crisis

The authors, an ad-hocgroup of professionals with experience in regulatory and energy economics, share a common concern with the continuing turmoil facing the electricity industry ("the industry") in California. Most ofthe authorsendorsed the first California Electricity Manifesto issued on January 25, 2001. Almost two years have passed since that first Manifesto. While wholesale electric prices have moderated and California no longer faces the risk of blackouts, in many ways the industry is in worse shape now than it was at the start of 2001. As a result, the group of signatories continues to have a deep concern with the conflicting policy directions being pursued for the industry at both the State and Federal levels of government and the impact the uncertainties associated with these conflicting policies will have, long term, on the economy of California. Theauthorshave once again convened under the auspices of the Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization at the University of California, Berkeley, to put forward ourtheir ideas on a basic set of necessary policies to move the industry forward for the benefit of all Californians and the nation. The authors point out that theydo not pretend to be "representative." They do bring, however, a very diverse range of backgrounds and expertise.Technology and Industry, Regulatory Reform

The Public Playground Paradox: "Child’s Joy" or Heterotopia of Fear?

Literature depicts children of the Global North withdrawing from public space to“acceptable islands”. Driven by fears both of and for children, the publicplayground – one such island – provides clear-cut distinctions between childhoodand adulthood. Extending this argument, this paper takes the original approach oftheoretically framing the playground as a heterotopia of deviance, examining –for the first time – three Greek public playground sites in relation to adjacentpublic space. Drawing on an ethnographic study in Athens, findings show fear tounderpin surveillance, control and playground boundary porosity. Normativeclassification as “children’s space” discourages adult engagement. However, in anovel and significant finding, a paradoxical phenomenon sees the playground’spresence simultaneously legitimizing playful behaviour in adjacent public spacefor children and adults. Extended playground play creates alternate orderings andnegotiates norms and hierarchies, suggesting significant wider potential toreconceptualise playground-urban design for an intergenerational public realm

KELT-24b: A 5M_J Planet on a 5.6 day Well-Aligned Orbit around the Young V=8.3 F-star HD 93148

We present the discovery of KELT-24 b, a massive hot Jupiter orbiting a bright (V=8.3 mag, K=7.2 mag) young F-star with a period of 5.6 days. The host star, KELT-24 (HD 93148), has a T_(eff) =6508±49 K, a mass of M∗ = 1.461^(+0.056)_(−0.060) M_⊙, radius of R∗ = 1.506±0.022 R_⊙, and an age of 0.77^(+0.61)_(−0.42) Gyr. Its planetary companion (KELT-24 b) has a radius of R_P = 1.272^(+0.021)_(−0.022) R_J, a mass of MP = 5.18^(+0.21)_(−0.22) M_J, and from Doppler tomographic observations, we find that the planet's orbit is well-aligned to its host star's projected spin axis (λ = 2.6^(+5.1)_(−3.6)). The young age estimated for KELT-24 suggests that it only recently started to evolve from the zero-age main sequence. KELT-24 is the brightest star known to host a transiting giant planet with a period between 5 and 10 days. Although the circularization timescale is much longer than the age of the system, we do not detect a large eccentricity or significant misalignment that is expected from dynamical migration. The brightness of its host star and its moderate surface gravity make KELT-24b an intriguing target for detailed atmospheric characterization through spectroscopic emission measurements since it would bridge the current literature results that have primarily focused on lower mass hot Jupiters and a few brown dwarfs

The TESS Grand Unified Hot Jupiter Survey. II. Twenty New Giant Planets

NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission promises to improve our understanding of hot Jupiters by providing an all-sky, magnitude-limited sample of transiting hot Jupiters suitable for population studies. Assembling such a sample requires confirming hundreds of planet candidates with additional follow-up observations. Here, we present twenty hot Jupiters that were detected using TESS data and confirmed to be planets through photometric, spectroscopic, and imaging observations coordinated by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP). These twenty planets have orbital periods shorter than 7 days and orbit relatively bright FGK stars ($10.9 < G < 13.0$). Most of the planets are comparable in mass to Jupiter, although there are four planets with masses less than that of Saturn. TOI-3976 b, the longest period planet in our sample ($P = 6.6$ days), may be on a moderately eccentric orbit ($e = 0.18\pm0.06$), while observations of the other targets are consistent with them being on circular orbits. We measured the projected stellar obliquity of TOI-1937A b, a hot Jupiter on a 22.4 hour orbit with the Rossiter-McLaughlin effect, finding the planet's orbit to be well-aligned with the stellar spin axis ($|\lambda| = 4.0\pm3.5^\circ$). We also investigated the possibility that TOI-1937 is a member of the NGC 2516 open cluster, but ultimately found the evidence for cluster membership to be ambiguous. These objects are part of a larger effort to build a complete sample of hot Jupiters to be used for future demographic and detailed characterization work.Comment: 67 pages, 11 tables, 13 figures, 2 figure sets. Resubmitted to ApJS after revision

Another Shipment of Six Short-Period Giant Planets from TESS

We present the discovery and characterization of six short-period, transiting giant planets from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) -- TOI-1811 (TIC 376524552), TOI-2025 (TIC 394050135), TOI-2145 (TIC 88992642), TOI-2152 (TIC 395393265), TOI-2154 (TIC 428787891), & TOI-2497 (TIC 97568467). All six planets orbit bright host stars (8.9 <G< 11.8, 7.7 <K< 10.1). Using a combination of time-series photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations from the TESS Follow-up Observing Program (TFOP) Working Group, we have determined that the planets are Jovian-sized (R$_{P}$ = 1.00-1.45 R$_{J}$), have masses ranging from 0.92 to 5.35 M$_{J}$, and orbit F, G, and K stars (4753 $<$ T$_{eff}$ $<$ 7360 K). We detect a significant orbital eccentricity for the three longest-period systems in our sample: TOI-2025 b (P = 8.872 days, $e$ = $0.220\pm0.053$), TOI-2145 b (P = 10.261 days, $e$ = $0.182^{+0.039}_{-0.049}$), and TOI-2497 b (P = 10.656 days, $e$ = $0.196^{+0.059}_{-0.053}$). TOI-2145 b and TOI-2497 b both orbit subgiant host stars (3.8 $<$ $\log$ g $<$4.0), but these planets show no sign of inflation despite very high levels of irradiation. The lack of inflation may be explained by the high mass of the planets; $5.35^{+0.32}_{-0.35}$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2145 b) and $5.21\pm0.52$ M$_{\rm J}$ (TOI-2497 b). These six new discoveries contribute to the larger community effort to use {\it TESS} to create a magnitude-complete, self-consistent sample of giant planets with well-determined parameters for future detailed studies.Comment: 20 Pages, 6 Figures, 8 Tables, Accepted by MNRA