Relentless Assimilationist Indigenous Policy: From Invasion of Group Rights to Genocide in Mercy’s Clothing

Despite the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, assimilationist policies continue, whether official or effective. Such policies affect more than the right to group choice. The concern is whether indeed genocide or “only” ethnocide (or culturecide)—the elimination of a traditional culture—is at work. Discussions of the distinction between the two terms have been inconsistent enough that at least one commentator has declared that they cannot be used in analytical contexts. While these terms, I contend, have distinct senses, yet in cases of governmental and other institutional assimilationist policy for indigenous peoples, such ethnocide effectively entails genocide. Insofar as any people’s cultural practices and beliefs are essential for life and health, individuals in groups value, if tacitly, their culture as highly as their language or any artifact: Thus, attempts to eradicate a culture through assimilation in fact eradicate individuals’ lives and health and so are effectively murderous. Acknowledgement by worldwide organizations that assimilationist ethnocide is effectively genocide should affect policy concerning indigenous peoples and thus has significance for international law

Anticipating the ultimate innovation, volitional evolution: can it not be promoted or attempted responsibly?

Theaspirationforvolitionalevolution,orhumanevolutiondirectedbyhumansthemselves,has increased in philosophical, scientific, technical, and commercial literature. The prospect of shaping the very being who is the consumer of all other innovations offers great commercial potential, one to which all other innovations would in effect be subservient. Actually an amalgam of projected technical/commercial developments, this prospective innovation has practical and ethical ramifications. However, because it is often discussed in a scientific way (specifically that of evolutionary theory), it first calls for examination in terms of common scientific approaches to evolution. Yet, as evolutionary-theory controversies point up, evolution may be considered as neither a directed nor a directable process – a problem for the ontology of volitional evolution. One challenge for theories and programs aiming to implement the proposed innovation is then whether it is theoretically coherent. While I offer responses to the challenge in the form of objections, these in turn remain problematic. Two central issues of responsible innovation arise: (1) If this prospect were feasible, would it be responsible to implement it, and (2) if it is not even theoretically coherent, is it responsible for innovators, even this early-on, to keep promoting it as if it were

The Palgrave Handbook of Posthumanism in Film and Television by Michael Hauskeller, Thomas Philbeck, and Curtis Carbonell (review)

Science fiction has served the film industry like a dreamy stepchild. It gets only scant accolades from its master but must do heavy lifting: that is, make money. While science-fiction films often emphasize spectacle and action, they also inspire philosophical contemplation. Why? Science fiction, dating back to Shelley and Verne, came into existence speculating about humanity's social and physical worlds. Many books and articles over the past several years discuss the philosophical issues that films raise. One fairly new school of thought, "posthumanism," explicitly deriving from postmodernism, with touches of critical theory, has seized on science-fiction movies as support for its theorizing. This volume and its 42 authors from film theory, science and technology studies, literary criticism, media studies, and philosophy, offer an array of posthumanist scholarship

Public expenditures on health and pensions in OECD countries : their simultaneous estimation

This dissertation aims to explore the simultaneous determination of public expenditures on health and old-age pensions regarding 31 high-income OECD countries during the period 1990-2011. To take into account that each country and year can´t be treated as homogenous, the thesis uses a panel data model with country and year fixed effects. Regarding pensions and health individual determination, it was verified through an OLS regression with Dummy Variables, that GDP is the most important determinant of health expenditures and that it also has a strong impact on old-age pensions expenditures. Given that old-age pensions expenditures have a statistically significant impact on health expenditures and vice versa, a 2SLS model was used in order to estimate this simultaneous determination. Per capita pensions expenditures have a positive and robust impact on health expenditure per capita mainly because pensions expenditures will redistribute income for those that have a larger propensity to spend on health. Additionally the expectations of the future pensions payments serve as an incentive to invest in living longer. (Yonghong An 2015) The impact on pensions expenditures of expenditures on health was not so clear. The impact is positive and significant, but the instruments for health used in the pensions 2SLS equation, though relevant, seem not to be strong enough to totally validate this causality relation. If true, this relation would indicate that when the Government invests in health, invests in a higher life expectancy which means that also it will have to pay for pensions during a longer period.Esta dissertação tem como objetivo explorar a determinação simultânea dos gastos públicos com pensões de velhice e saúde em 31 países da OCDE durante o período 1990 - 2011. Como os países e períodos de tempo não podem ser tratados de forma homogénea, um modelo de dados de painel com efeitos fixos por país e ano é utilizado. No que se refere à determinação individual dos gastos, verificou-se através de regressões OLS com Dummy Variables que o é a variável com maior impacto na despesa em saúde e que também tem um forte impacto nas despesas com pensões. Dado que as despesas com pensões de velhice tiveram um impacto nas despesas de saúde e vice-versa, um modelo 2SLS foi utilizado. A despesa com as pensões tem um impacto positivo e robusto nas despesas em saúde, devido ao facto das despesas com pensões redistribuírem o rendimento por aqueles que têm maior propensão para gastar em saúde. (Yonghong An 2015). Por outro lado as expectativas dos pagamentos futuros das pensões servem como um incentivo para se investir em viver mais tempo. O impacto nas despesas com pensões das despesas em saúde não é tão claro. Apesar do impacto ser significativo, os instrumentos utilizados para a saúde na equação de 2SLS das pensões, apesar de relevantes, não parecem ser suficientemente fortes para validar totalmente esta relação. Se verdadeira ela indicará que quando o Governo investe em saúde, investe na esperança de vida o que implicará pagamentos de pensões durante períodos mais longos

Study of some volumetric properties of the pharmaceutical model solvent system ethanol + ethyl acetate at several temperatures

The binary solvent system ethanol + ethyl acetate is widely used in the pharmaceutical sciences as a versatile model for studying the solubility of drugs. In this context, the excess molar volumes and the partial molar volumes of components were investigated from density measurements on the entire range of mass fractions, for this system at 293.15 K, 298.15 K, 303.15 K, 308.15 K, and 313.15 K. The excess molar volumes were fitted by Redlich-Kister equation by using third degree polynomials and compared with those reported in the literature for other solvent systems. The system tested exhibited positive excess volumes (up to 0.18 cm3 mol-1 at 313.15 K), probably due to weak interactions, like dispersion forces, between unlike molecules or, some differences in the molar volumes of pure components. The effect of temperature on the different volumetric properties studied was also analyzed.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Study of some volumetric properties of the pharmaceutical model solvent system ethanol + ethyl acetate at several temperatures

The binary solvent system ethanol + ethyl acetate is widely used in the pharmaceutical sciences as a versatile model for studying the solubility of drugs. In this context, the excess molar volumes and the partial molar volumes of components were investigated from density measurements on the entire range of mass fractions, for this system at 293.15 K, 298.15 K, 303.15 K, 308.15 K, and 313.15 K. The excess molar volumes were fitted by Redlich-Kister equation by using third degree polynomials and compared with those reported in the literature for other solvent systems. The system tested exhibited positive excess volumes (up to 0.18 cm3 mol-1 at 313.15 K), probably due to weak interactions, like dispersion forces, between unlike molecules or, some differences in the molar volumes of pure components. The effect of temperature on the different volumetric properties studied was also analyzed.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Dead Zone Accretion Flows in Protostellar Disks

Planets form inside protostellar disks in a dead zone where the electrical resistivity of the gas is too high for magnetic forces to drive turbulence. We show that much of the dead zone nevertheless is active and flows toward the star while smooth, large-scale magnetic fields transfer the orbital angular momentum radially outward. Stellar X-ray and radionuclide ionization sustain a weak coupling of the dead zone gas to the magnetic fields, despite the rapid recombination of free charges on dust grains. Net radial magnetic fields are generated in the magneto-rotational turbulence in the electrically conducting top and bottom surface layers of the disk, and reach the midplane by Ohmic diffusion. A toroidal component to the fields is produced near the midplane by the orbital shear. The process is similar to the magnetization of the Solar tachocline. The result is a laminar, magnetically-driven accretion flow in the region where the planets form.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure

Beyond Human Nature by Jesse J. Prinz

The nature-nurture debate rages so, one cannot help but wonder why the sides are so vehemently partitioned. What's at stake? It is simply not clear why a great amount of people embrace either one side or the other, but dare not even blow a kiss to the opposite opinion. Prinz does an excellent job of arguing for the nurture position, zeroing in on some of the most preciously held nature arguments including the basis of knowledge, thought, and feelings in experience and cultural values, increasing as a child grows. Most prominent of the nature hypothèses that Prinz takes on may be that of language acquisition and the Chomskyean notion of inborn lingusitic knowledge, via the proposed universal language. He contends that children's language acquisition--even the notion that the supposed inborn language device shuts off somewhere in mid-childhood, meaning most people will not be fully bilingual--need not demand such a natural language faculty in the brain, as general learning strategies can account for language acquisition. His arguments can stimulate both nurturists and naturists. Yet, in the end--realizing how much of the human arise from the genes--one still cannot help wonder why the two debated positions so rally to one flag or the other

Transplanting the Body: Preliminary Ethical Considerations

A dissociated area of medical research warrants bioethical consideration: a proposed transplantation of a donor’s entire body, except head, to a patient with a fatal degenerative disease. The seeming improbability of such an operation can only underscore the need for thorough bioethical assessment: Not assessing a case of such potential ethical import, by showing neglect instead of facing the issue, can only compound the ethical predicament, perhaps eroding public trust in ethical medicine. This article discusses the historical background of full-body transplantation, documents the seriousness of its current pursuit, and builds an argument for why prima facie this type of transplant is bioethically distinct. Certainly, this examination can only be preliminary, indicating what should be a wide and vigorous discussion among practitioners and ethicists. It concludes with practical suggestions for how the medical and bioethics community may proceed with ethical assessment