Between the Natural and the Artificial: The Sublime Sexual Sensation of Car Crashes in J.G. Ballard’s Crash

At a time when technology progressively pushes back nature, the sexual act runs the risk of being denaturalised. The notion of the sublime, which I argue is how humans react to the machine as a surrogate for nature and as a sexual stimulus in Crash (1973), is therefore of central interest in this article. Ballard himself has described Crash as ‘the first pornographic novel based on technology’ (1973, 6). This engagement with a technologised sexuality is explored as a subjective narrative stance, which grants authenticity to the fictive alter ego, who can probe alternatives to an extra-textual reality. This narrative mode is notably potent in relation to the narrator’s estimation of the merge between sexuality and technology in the form of car crashes uniting Eros and Thanatos. I therefore suggest that Crash can be read as an attempt to localise the natural and human in a world dictated by artificiality and technology

An Assessment of the UK’s Trade with Developing Countries under the Generalised System of Preferences

The European Union (EU) Generalised System of Preferences (GSP Scheme) grants preferential treatment to 88 eligible countries. There are, however, concerns that the restrictive features (such as Rules of Origin, Low Preference Margin and Low Coverage) of the existing scheme indicate gravitation towards commercial trade agenda to which efficiency imperatives appear subordinated. Whether these concerns are genuine is an empirical question whose answer largely determines whether, after Brexit, the UK continues with the existing specifics of the EU scheme or develops a more inclusive UK-specific GSP framework. This study quantitatively examines the efficiency of the EU GSP as it relates to UK beneficiaries from 2014 to 2017. We draw on the descriptive efficiency estimation (The utilisation Rate, Potential Coverage Rate, and the Utility Rate) using import data across 88 beneficiary countries and agricultural products of the Harmonised System Code Chapter 1 to 24. Asides the Rules of Origin that, generally, harm the uptake of GSP, low preference margin is found to cause low utilisation rates in a non-linear manner. Essentially, a more robust option (such that allows “global Cumulation” or broader product coverage) could, substantially, lower the existing barriers to trade and upsurge the efficiency of the GSP scheme

Economic Integration in the Euro-Mediterranean Region

This study evaluates the effects of the current Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement for the EU and the Mediterranean region, in order to assist policy makers in defining the next steps in the Euro-Mediterranean Road map till 2010 and beyond. It provides quantitative, qualitative and sectoral assessment of the impacts of the Euro-Mediterranean FTA on trade and investment, points out the partnerships’ strengths and weaknesses and provides policy recommendations with the view of realizing a goal of a well functioning free trade area in the future. The focus of the study is on Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia (MED5). [...

Zasoby węgla w glebach Beskidu Śląskiego i Małego użytkowanych rolniczo

Organic carbon stocks (SOCs) were determined in 14 pedons of the Little and Silesian Beskids (7 from each one: arable land and grassland) and compared with the C-stocks occurring in the soils of Ciężkowickie and Silesian Foothills. They were similar to SOCs in the soils of the Silesian Foothills, but significantly higher than in the soils of the Ciężkowickie Foothills. The participation of SOCs 0–30 cm layer at the stocks of this element in the whole pedon was higher than in the soils of the foothills. Different types of land used (arable land, grassland) did not affect the quantity of SOCs in pedons and layers

Vertical pit-mounds distribution of uprooted Norway spruce (Picea abies L.): field evidence in the upper mountain belt

Tree uprooting causes significant changes in forest habitat functioning and soil formation. In this paper soil uplifted by tree throws was compared among 15 study plots from heterogeneous Norway spruce stands of the upper mountain belt in southern Poland. Pit-mound microtopography parameters such as length, width, depth of tree-throw pits, height of the root plate, and height of mineral and organic mounds, were measured at each uprooting site. Sites were grouped in 3 age groups based on the time elapsed since uprooting. Results showed significant differences between the studied parameters among age groups. Differences were most pronounced in mean pit depth (0.52, 0.65 and 0.95 m for 5-year, 3-year, and 1-year-old pits, respectively). No significant interaction between age group and root plate height was detected by ANOVA. Regression analysis showed that pit depth decreases as root plate height increases. Redundancy analysis using pit-mound parameters as dependent variables revealed that root plate height along with slope steepness are good predictors of the volume of dislocated soil at tree-throw sites. Overall, our results suggest that the erosion expected at uprooting sites in mountain Norway spruce stands could be conveniently estimated by measuring their root plates. This may help estimate the impact of windthrow on soil microtopography and quantify its effects on soil disturbance in Norway spruce stands of the upper mountain belt