Law Thrown Overboard: Direct Democracy and the Alaska Ocean Rangers

Alaska is one of the premier cruise destinations in the world. The vessels\u27 many amenities and luxuries, however, come with a price: cruise ships produce an inordinate amount of waste, most of which is dumped into the ocean. In 2006, Alaska voters passed a ballot measure establishing a program called the Ocean Rangers, which would monitor cruise ships in Alaskan waters to ensure that vessels were disposing of waste in accordance with state and federal law. In 2019, after an unsuccessful attempt in the state legislature to end the Ocean Rangers program, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy vetoed the entirety of the Ocean Rangers budget, effectively killing the program. This Note contends that because a ballot measure created the Ocean Rangers, Governor Dunleavy\u27s veto likely violated the Alaska Constitution. First, this Note discusses the environmental risks of unregulated dumping and the cruise industry\u27s historical lack of transparency in its waste management. Then, this Note distinguishes the Ocean Rangers veto from vetoes of other statutory program budgets in Alaskan case law. Next, this Note explains Alaska\u27s constitutional protection of initiatives that were enacted directly by voters and argues why Governor Dunleavy\u27s budget likely violated those protections. Finally, this Note postulates how potential litigants seeking to reinstate the Ocean Rangers could bring a case in state court under a citizen-taxpayer theory of standing

Memory Retention Rates of Gossip-Related Information

The aim of this study is to determine if gossip-related information produces higher memory retention rates than scientific information. Participants completed a two-part survey. During the first part of the survey, participants read nine paragraphs, separated into three categories. Three were scientific, three were non-celebrity gossip, and three were celebrity gossip. After reading each article, participants rated each on a scale of 1-10 based on both personal relevance and how interesting they found each article. After a week delay, participants completed a multiple-choice memory test about the articles read the week before. The study found that while scientific articles were rated as the most relevant to participants’ lives and there was no significant difference in interest levels among each type of article, celebrity gossip was remembered at higher rates than either other type of information

Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge

How the tools of STS can be used to understand art and science and the practices of these knowledge-making communities. In Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge, Hannah Star Rogers suggests that art and science are not as different from each other as we might assume. She shows how the tools of science and technology studies (STS) can be applied to artistic practice, offering new ways of thinking about people and objects that have largely fallen outside the scope of STS research. Arguing that the categories of art and science are labels with specific powers to order social worlds—and that art and science are best understood as networks that produce knowledge—Rogers shows, through a series of cases, the similarities and overlapping practices of these knowledge communities. The cases, which range from nineteenth-century artisans to contemporary bioartists, illustrate how art can provide the basis for a new subdiscipline called art, science, and technology studies (ASTS), offering hybrid tools for investigating art–science collaborations. Rogers's subjects include the work of father and son glassblowers, the Blaschkas, whose glass models, produced in the nineteenth century for use in biological classification, are now displayed as works of art; the physics photographs of documentary photographer Berenice Abbott; and a bioart lab that produces work functioning as both artwork and scientific output. Finally, Rogers, an STS scholar and contemporary art–science curator, draws on her own work to consider the concept of curation as a form of critical analysis

Beauchemin Residence

The following report details the structural engineering completed on the Beauchemin Residence, as well as the associated drawings, details, and special considerations. The Beauchemin Residence is an existing single story wood frame building on raised wood floor, located in the city of San Clemente. The scope of work includes calculations for a new roof, new walls (gravity & lateral), retrofit of the existing foundation, new foundation, and providing calculations. The process and progression of the structural design is documented, and correlated to the final product in the Appendix A & B

Moral Dilemmas and Cases of Conscience : Trollope\u27s Morality in The Warden and The Last Chronicle of Barset

This thesis offers an exploration of Trollope\u27s morality in The Warden and The Last Chronicle of Barset. Existing critical work which explores Trollope\u27s morality often argues either for or against Trollope\u27s moral relativism. This thesis argues, instead, that Trollope\u27s morality unifies aspects of both theoretical perspectives. It reconciles the polarisation of Trollope\u27s moral absolutism and moral relativism, taking the middle-ground. In doing so, it makes evident the contradictions and extremes in existing Trollopian criticism. The thesis places Trollopian morality within the historical and socio-cultural context of Victorianism. It focuses on the Victorian consciousness of change, securing a definition of Trollope\u27s morality which brings to the fore the contradictions masked by complacent assumptions about Victorian moral conservatism. Incorporating primary and secondary literary sources, the thesis interweaves the man and his work in an original assessment of Trollope\u27 s personal and professional moral code

Open for Business: Offering Physical Library Spaces in the COVID Era

Objective: Our goal was to safely reopen physical library spaces at the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Library for use by various Emory University user groups including students, faculty, and staff during the COVID pandemic of 2020. Because our university brought a subset of students back to campus, we felt it was important to offer safe, socially distanced seating and workstations in the library. Methods: In collaboration with Emory University’s environmental and safety health officers, we made determinations of the number of seats that could safely be offered. Seating was removed or cordoned off or otherwise signposted. We implemented a reservations system to limit the number of people in the library at one time and to ensure that all library visitors had completed the University’s requirements for returning to campus. In addition, cleaning materials were distributed around the library for easy access by library staff and users. Library staff monitor user behavior and issue reminders as needed. Results: We were able to open the library on July 6th at approximately 25% of our normal capacity. Students adhere to library expectations and we have been able to gradually offer additional spaces. Conclusions: With careful planning and collaboration with other University service points, libraries can partially reopen their physical spaces and create a climate of safety, compliance, and comfort for their users

Techniques learned by students to determine which agar coated plates will show bacterial growth and glow.

The process in which students conducted a series of experiments to find if agar plates would produce the GFP gene