The Literature of Difference In Cultures of Science

The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics Edited by Evelynn M. Hammonds and Rebecca M. Herzig. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009. Pp. 368. $95.00 cloth,$45.00 paper.

Outlier Detection In Depth Of Snow Data

In many places in the United States, buildings need to be built to withstand extreme snow events, without making the construction overly expensive. Often, fitting a probability distribution based on annual maximum measurements of snow depth (or snow water equivalent) will be used in an extreme value analysis. Because the maximum annual snow depths are used in fitting the probability distributions, it is crucial that those maximum values are legitimate. Manually searching through about 100 different snow measurement locations scattered in four different states, there are four patterns that large, but legitimate, maximum snow values tend to follow. The patterns are characterized by the degree of build up to, or build down from, the maximum observation. We use these patterns as part of a two-step filtering process. The first step of the filter naively flags potential outliers. The second step then looks through each potential outlier and compares the set of days around the max to the four patterns previously identified. Any potential outliers that closely follow one of the four patterns are not thrown out, but those that do not follow any pattern are removed. This method of outlier removal protects the probability distribution fitting process from anomalous high values while still ensuring that buildings are designed to withstand true, extreme snow load events

The Freedom of God

This paper addresses the exceedingly complex nature of God\u27s freedom through the defense of Friedrich Lohmann’s article, “God’s Freedom: Free to be Bound.” The role of God’s creation in his own freedom is explored as well as the idea of omnipotence, negative freedom, positive freedom, and gracious autonomy. This paper affirms the idea that God is simultaneously free and bound to his own creation; God’s own self-restriction leads to his eternal glory. God’s freedom to be bound is seen both in the Old Testament Scriptures as well as the New Testament. For example, God permanently tied himself to the world when Jesus was sent to God’s creation to bring salvation due to his gracious autonomy. Jesus brings forth an even more complex exploration of freedom due to him operating in both a human will and a divine will; Jesus’ free wills affirm the concept of God being free and yet tied to his creation

iSchool Proposal for Themed Wildcard Session on New Information Systems Methods

???New Information Systems??? is an emerging field composed of social studies of science (STS), information sciences (IS), workplace studies and technological design, and new media forms such as cyberinfrastructure or eResearch. Within this area we are exploring the connections and inter-relationships between empirical studies of information at knowledge creation and use, and methods from more traditional IS, social networks, grounded theory and ethnomethodology. The collective creation of a theoretically driven cluster at this juncture would tie us together in a convergence that would link our scholarship and enable students to access this strong and existing - yet invisible - college. We propose a ???wildcard??? session here that makes a space for people to speak about their methods, assess their viability for helping to build our emerging community, and hopefully to explore the ???behind the scenes??? actions associated with practicing any methods. Such an event is most timely. At the recent meetings of the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), an entire day was devoted to the emerging intersections of STS and IS. In addition it should be noted that the same book, Memory Practices in the Sciences (G. Bowker, MIT Press, 2007), won the best book award at both ASIST and 4S. This might be seen as a harbinger for the deeply theoretical and methodological work that is to take place, if the intersection is to be a robust one. Our research directions will be focused on studies of infrastructure, ethical actions that are inscribed into IS, and theoretical studies of questions such as ???what is useful information???? We need to unpack the contextual nature of knowledge creation and use. As well, we need to understand the ways in which it is entangled with obligations from different domains and communities of practice such as privacy, consent, anonymity, confidentiality, ownership and a whole host of organizational and professional matters. New media studies point to an intense overlapping and interrelationship of fields and disciplines. Methods should come from a combination of (1) sensitivity to the historical moment (e.g., multiculturalism, extreme changes in the meaning of ???global???); (2) an assemblage of tools that are ready to hand, theoretically driven, are pleasant and effective to use; and (3) embody an ethical commitment to the values and meanings of those who are being studied (emic), within a way to explore the conventions, standards and infrastructures that both constrain and enable their experiences (etic). The papers here aim to show a range of approaches from the current STS, IS and Workplace Studies emergence that speak to the criteria detailed above. Each participant in the experiemntal forum will bring an example of their research, and as honestly as possible, assess its methodological strengths and weaknesses. The assessment will be relative to strengthening the development of the iSchool community, to the intersections noted above, and to the welfare of respondents

The Literature of Difference In Cultures of Science

Review of The Nature of Difference: Sciences of Race in the United States from Jefferson to Genomics, edited by Evelynn M. Hammonds and Rebecca M. Herzig. The Nature of Difference is a timely addition to conversations about race and genomics, organized so as to allow readers to make new connections between contemporary discourses and the histories of science and race. The text’s selections and the organization of the selections with introductory material are especially helpful, serving as navigational aids to the sometimes astounding statements of racial fact that could otherwise be conversation stoppers. The book would be useful either as a course text or as a collection of primary material for individual research. Students wishing to track the scientific construction of sex and sexuality more directly alongside race should consider pairing this text with Lucy Bland and Laura Doan’s 1998 edited volume of primary sources, Sexology Uncensored. For those looking for analysis of the production of genetic racial difference, Revisiting Race in a Genomic Age, edited by Barbara Koenig, Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, and Sarah Richardson (2008), keys its essays to genomics, race-based medicine, and genetic ancestry, while Genetic Nature/Culture, edited by Alan Goodman, Deborah Heath, and M. Susan Lindee (2003), offers an anthropological approach and respected scholars in science studies (Troy Duster, Sarah Franklin, Joan Fujimura, Donna Haraway, Rayna Rapp, and Hilary Rose, to name just a selection). Both of these essay collections would help students see how the analytic questions suggested by Hammonds and Herzig open up the apparently settled domain of science for productive interdisciplinary inquiry

Science and Religion on Sexual Orientation

An analysis of scientific and religious perspectives on sexual orientation will show that the scientific data support a biological origin of sexual orientation that is influenced but not determined by environmental conditions. Religious perspectives will show values affirming equality and integrity are of greater importance than the conditioned attitudes that condemn homosexuality. As a result, forgiveness and acceptance are paramount in dealing with others as they struggle to know Christ. Commitment within a relationship is paramount regardless of the couple’s orientation

Ready for the Robot: Bovines in the Integrated Circuit

Situating cows as co-laborers in global technology sectors, “Ready for the Robot” explores the predicament of cows working as robot operators, information workers, and data producers. The data cows produce shape the conditions in which they work, including their own bodies, as statistical evaluations of cattle abstract profitable traits and warp their connection to breed. Milking robots are posited as providing freedom to dairy cows, but this is far from guaranteed. Rather, cow bodies are programmed to fit the limitations of the robot and the routines of the automated farm, coding that breaches categories of breed. Drawing on Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, this article argues for a “cowborg politics” that shapes technology for new research questions and methods that produce genuinely better working conditions for cows and their human companions and co-workers