Jasper Skulls and Memento Mori

The jasper skulls in this Curiosity Cabinet sit on the scale atop the touch-ables table. Jasper, a type of impure silica usually a reddish color, is commonly carved for small sculptures, as we see in the skulls. The reddish tones of both skulls match the overall tone of the cabinet nicely, as well as complimenting the rich medium blue of the walls. Thematically, skulls perfectly align with other objects in the cabinet. A ubiquitous theme of curiosity cabinets in the 16th and 17th century is the inevitability of death. Symbols of this notion in art work are known as Memento mori or vanitas. Memento mori is derived from Latin, and roughly translates to, “remember you will die.” Vanitas is a related term with similar meaning: all Earthly pursuits are feeble because they are temporary. (excerpt

The Marketing of Closed-End Fund IPOs

This study investigates a well-documented enigma in the finance literature, the aftermarket behavior of closed-end fund initial public offerings (IPOs). Many models with rational agents attribute the underpricing of industrial IPOs to information asymmetry between the IPO issues and the investing public. Since closed-end funds typically do not have pre-existing assets or proprietary rights, there is little information asymmetry about their asset valuation. Consequently, these models suggest that closed-end funds should exhibit less underpricing than industrial IPOs. However, information asymmetry theories cannot explain why closed-end funds are successfully brought to market overpriced. Specifically, closed-end funds are overpriced at issue relative to their net asset values (NAVs) due to substantial underwriting fees that average approximately 8% of total issue size. The study investigates these anomalies and describes regulatory and institutional mechanisms that contribute to the pattern of aftermarket returns. The authors perform an intraday analysis of aftermarket trades and quotes in the first 100 days of trading. They find that underwriting arrangements, identified during discussions with underwriters, help to explain not only the their primary observations, but also several unusual patterns in the transactions data. The authors show that the vast majority of volume in the first four weeks of trading is seller-initiated. Since short selling is not possible during this time period, the selling imbalance confirms the presence of flippers. However, these imbalances do not immediately translate into price declines. As the number of issues that are stabilized declines over time, the proportion of issues trading at unencumbered, market-determined prices increases. The authors also provide evidence that underwriters manage the cost of stabilizing by creating a net short position in the number of shares issued during the pre-market. Selling imbalance in the first few trading days has predictive power for the timing of subsequent price decline: the faster the short position is covered through stabilizing purchases, the sooner the price drops. Funds that exercise the over-allotment option experience longer stabilization periods. The authors document that seller-initiated trades are both larger and more profitable than buyer-initiated trades in the after market period. Small investors who buy shares in the aftermarket engage in open market transactions that they believe are at unencumbered prices. The authors believe that their findings support a marketing hypothesis for closed-end fund IPOs. To protect their reputation and improve the likelihood of a successful offer, lead underwriters promise to stabilize prices in the aftermarket, essentially granting free put options with a strike price equal to the offer price. The stabilization bid provides the opportunity for some syndicate members to sell large blocks to flippers during the pre-issue period. The number and size of sell orders in the first few days of trading show that a sizable number of these traders exercise this options and flip their shares back to the syndicate. The size of the trades suggest that they are small, retail customers. The legality of this scenario appears to be within the guidelines of current securities regulation The authors speculate that flippers are wiling to participate because of other inducements they receive through their ongoing relationships with underwriters. On the cost side, underwriters may incur significant costs from flipping and protracted stabilization. However, the cost of stabilization may well be offset by the benefits of assuring a successful initial distribution. Small investors face substantial information processing costs and may be highly susceptible to "marketing" tactics. The authors believe their findings raise questions about the adequacy of current disclosure rules for IPOs, and the propriety of securities regulation that permit short term stabilization in closed-end fund IPO aftermarkets. They also suggest that similar patterns of selling pressure, price stabilization, and asymmetric behavior between large and small trades may be found in two other securities - master limited partnerships and real estate investment trusts.

19th Century Miniature Landscape and Seascape

As a gift to Gettysburg College, known as Pennsylvania College at the time, Johann Heinrich Wilbrand Stuckenberg willed his vast estate including an extensive 17th-19th century map collection after his death in London in 1903. J.H.W. Stuckenberg, and his wife Mary, were fond of the college for its progressive curriculum and support of his philosophical endeavors in publication, sociology, religion, and his native politics and culture.Two items that were bequeathed to the college are a pair of small paintings, one a landscape, the other a seascape. [excerpt

Event-based media monitoring methodology for Human Rights Watch

Executive Summary This report, prepared by a team of researchers from the University of Minnesota for Human Rights Watch (HRW), investigates the use of event-based media monitoring (EMM) to review its application, identify its strengths and weaknesses, and offer suggestions on how HRW can better utilize EMM in its own work. Media monitoring systems include both human-operated (manual) and automated systems, both of which we review throughout the report. The process begins with the selection of news sources, proceeds to the development of a coding manual (for manual searches) or “dictionary” (for automated searches), continues with gathering data, and concludes with the coding of news stories. EMM enables the near real-time tracking of events reported by the media, allowing researchers to get a sense of the scope of and trends in an event, but there are limits to what EMM can accomplish on its own. The media will only cover a portion of a given event, so information will always be missing from EMM data. EMM also introduces research biases of various kinds; mitigating these biases requires careful selection of media sources and clearly defined coding manuals or dictionaries. In manual EMM, coding the gathered data requires human researchers to apply codebook rules in order to collect consistent data from each story they read. In automated EMM, computers apply the dictionary directly to the news stories, automatically picking up the desired information. There are trade-offs in each system. Automated EMM can code stories far more quickly, but the software may incorrectly code stories, requiring manual corrections. Conversely, manual EMM allows for a more nuanced analysis, but the investment of time and effort may diminish the tool’s utility. We believe that both manual and automated EMM, when deployed correctly, can effectively support human rights research and advocacy

Valuing the American Archivist: An Interpretation of SAA's First Readership Survey

The American Archivist Editorial Board administered a Web-based survey to 6,000 Society of American Archivists members and affiliates. The survey was open for response for 45 days during April and May 2010. Respondents expressed overall satisfaction with the American Archivist. Print remains the publishing vehicle of choice. Reading the American Archivist varies in priority. Three major issues emerge from the data analysis. First is the apparent contradiction between generally high overall satisfaction with the American Archivist and significant variation in the perception of the value of its individual components. Second is whether the journal should focus primarily on matters of practice or on scholarly or theoretical explorations of archival principles. The third issue is the relationship of the print and online versions of the journal.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/89872/1/Fear Conway Valuing American Archivist 2011.pd

A freshwater diet-derived 14C reservoir effect at the Stone Age sites in the Iron Gates gorge

From the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference held in Jerusalem, Israel, June 18-23, 2000.Human bones from single inhumation burials and artifacts made from terrestrial mammal (ungulate) bone found in direct association with the skeletons were obtained from the Stone Age site of Schela Cladovei situated just below the Iron Gates Gorge of the River Danube. The results of stable isotope analyses of the human bone collagen are consistent with a heavy dependence on aquatic protein while radiocarbon dating of the samples reveals an offset of 300-500 years between the two sample types, indicating a freshwater reservoir effect in the human bone samples. Since protein consumption is by far the major source of nitrogen in the human diet we have assumed a linear relationship between delta-15N and the level of aquatic protein in each individual's diet and derived a calibration for 14C age offset versus delta-15N which has been applied to a series of results from the site at Lepenski Vir within the gorge. The corrected 14C ages (7310-6720 BP) are now consistent with the previous 14C age measurements made on charcoal from related contexts (7360-6560 BP). In addition, the data indicate a change from a primarily aquatic to a mixed terrestrial/aquatic diet around 7100 BP and this may be argued as supporting a shift from Mesolithic to Neolithic. This study also has wider implications for the accurate dating of human bone samples when the possibility exists of an aquatic component in the dietary protein and strongly implies that delta-15N analysis should be undertaken routinely when dating human bones.The Radiocarbon archives are made available by Radiocarbon and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform February 202

Geomorphic evolution of pleistocene Lake Bonneville: temporal implications for surface processes on Mars

Journal ArticlePleistocene Lake Bonneville of the Great Basin offers unparalleled insight into temporal constraints for understanding the development of similar analog environments and processes on Mars. The extensive and well preserved lake system exhibits many intact features that include: prominent shorelines, spits, bay mouth barriers, deltas, gullies, outburst channels, and playa lake features, including patterned grounds and downwind aeolian systems. Although water is recognized as a geomorphic agent on Mars, remotely sensed datasets by themselves have limited utility for inferring how long it took for the formation of specific features. With the Lake Bonneville analog, we can address how long standing water might be geomorphically effective, and infer the rate of development for specific landforms (e.g., coastlines, wavecut terraces, outflow channels, rills)

Revisiting and revitalizing political ecology in the American West

Political ecology, initially conceived to better understand the power relations implicit in management and distribution of natural resources in the developing world, came “home” to the American West in the 1990s and 2000s. This groundswell of research did much to problematize socio-environmental conflicts in the region, long typified by tensions over land and resources, identity and belonging, autonomy and authority. Since first touching down in the West, however, the “big tent” of political ecology has only grown bigger, incorporating new perspectives, epistemologies, and ontologies. At the same time, the nexus of environment and society is perhaps even more salient today, amid a regional conjuncture of populist revolt, climate change, and rapid political economic transformation. Here we reflect on three longstanding regional concerns – energy development, wolf reintroduction, and participatory governance – leveraging the pluralism of contemporary political ecology to better understand their contemporary incarnations. In so doing, we highlight the need to bring together insights from both “traditional” approaches and newer directions to better understand and engage contemporary challenges, with their heightened stakes and complexity. Such an approach demonstrates what we might learn about global processes in this place, as well as what insights regional praxis (often woefully provincial) might gain from elsewhere – new ways of seeing and doing political ecology. Our goal is to generate discussion among and between political ecologists and regional critical scholars, initiating new collaborative engagements that might serve the next wave of political ecology in the 21st century American West