Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: Trumpeter of God: A Biography of John Knox, by W. Stanford Reid. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1982. 353 pages

Armstrong Empire: A Look at the Worldwide Church of God (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: The Armstrong Empire: A Look at the Worldwide Church of God, by Joseph Martin Hopkins, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1974, 304 pages

Washington: Christians in the Corridor of Power (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: Washington: Christians in the Corridor of Power, by James C. Hefley and Edward E. Plowman, Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, Ill., 1975, 200 pages

Institutional Structures of Opportunity in Refugee Resettlement: Gender, Race/ethnicity, and Refugee NGOs

Previous research suggests that social welfare assistance can further subordinate already disadvantaged recipients. Refugee resettlement, essentially a social welfare program, offers a diferent perspective on how welfare assistance might exert social control. Using data gathered from 60 in-depth interviews with people working in resettlement and observations at refugee non-governmental organizations (NGOs), this paper argues that refugee NGOs provide a complex institutional opportunity structure that has the potential to reproduce the gender and racial/ethnic subordination embedded in refugee welfare policy while also providing opportunities for refugees to counteract subordinating gender and racial/ethnic relations through advocacy and cultural activities. These findings refine the conclusions of previous literature on the role NGOs play in incorporating refugees into American life, and point to the importance of NGOs for structuring opportunities for immigrants to challenge social inequality

Displacement, Urban Populations, and the Right to Space and Place: Syrians in Istanbul and Colombians in Medellín

The internal displacement of rural Colombians and displacement of Syrians in and out of Syria constitute some of the largest conflict-induced migrations in the world today. Rural Colombians have been driven from mountainous areas of the country by conflict between the government, rebels of the the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), and paramilitaries and have entered urban spaces like Medellín in search of assistance allocated to internally displaced persons. The majority of Syrian refugees fleeing the civil war in their country reside in Turkey, and many have made their way to Istanbul for the greater economic opportunities that the largest urban center in Turkey can provide, as well as proximity to migration opportunities to Europe. Although internally displaced Colombians and Syrian refugees have different patterns of migration and rights of legal citizenship, their experiences of space and the right to belong are similar in many key ways. Both groups experience heavy state surveillance and barriers to recognition and the right to exist in their physical and sociopolitical space as legitimate members of the space. These issues represent barriers to the political and economic incorporation of displaced Colombians and Syrians. While not being denied the right of movement, the treatment of these displaced peoples constitutes a human rights violation by excluding them from social and economic membership in the state. The similarities across their experiences, despite one group having political citizenship while the other group does not, point to the challenges of displaced populations to exercise human rights

A persuasive television remote control for the promotion of health and well-being

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, February 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-132).New forms of media technology that enter the home often fundamentally transform the way that people spend their time. In the present day, daily "screen time" with televisions and other entertainment systems continues to rise [1]. Within this climate of escalating media consumption, experts in the medical community have repeatedly voiced concerns about the public health crisis that looms over a largely sedentary U.S. population. Principal among these concerns is the continuing upward trend in lifestyle-related disorders such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes. Within the last two decades, substantial epidemiological research has linked excessive television viewing with both obesity [2] and Type 2 diabetes [3, 4]. This work describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a ubiquitous computing system intended to simultaneously decrease a user's television viewing while increasing his or her frequency and quantity of non-sedentary activities. This system, called VizTo, employs a residential sensing infrastructure to recognize an individual's television viewing and uses wearable accelerometers to detect physical movement. The primary user interface consists of a handheld computing device that serves as a wireless remote control for a television and home theatre system, as well as an interface for planning and reviewing daily activity.(cont.) This device tracks daily activity patterns and uses theories of behavior modification to non-intrusively persuade users to decrease their daily television use while increasing physical activity. Results from a 14-day case study evaluation revealed examples of how persuasive interface design elements might influence user behavior without inducing a burden of annoyance.by Jason Paul Nawyn.S.M

Striking at the roots of German militarism: efforts to demilitarize German society and culture in American-occupied Württemberg-Baden, 1945-1949

Most scholars interested in cultural change in western Germany after World War II have focused on the issue of democratization. This dissertation looks instead at social and cultural demilitarization, examining efforts initiated by the Americans during their postwar occupation aimed at eliminating the sources and symptoms of militarism from German society and culture in hopes of preventing another war. Ultimately, it argues that, by late 1949, life in the state of Württemberg-Baden was characterized far less by militarism than by civilianism and maintains that this transformation was neither solely a spontaneous German reaction to the horrors of war, nor an unchallenged development. Rather, despite troublesome flaws in their thinking and sometimes inconsistently applied regulations, the Americans perceptibly influenced the character and parameters of tangible change. In addition to making concrete demands, such as requiring the removal of militaristic books from libraries, they monitored personnel appointments and policed German educational and youth programs, thereby preserving the public sphere for sympathetic native voices and enabling and nurturing a discourse condemning war and militarism. At the same time, American efforts were facilitated and strengthened by the many Germans who also wished to see German militarism eradicated, even when they did not always agree with their occupiers regarding methods or exact objectives. Although social and cultural demilitarization as a basic goal was widely supported by the Germans, its nature and extent remained contested throughout the occupation, with individual views determined in part by concerns regarding the time and costs involved in making substantive changes and in part by personal beliefs regarding Germany’s past and the causes of the country’s recent descent into war