1,279 research outputs found
The Anthropocene concept as a wake-up call for reforming democracy
Human activity has reshaped all parts of the Earth system. For this reason, a vast majority of geologists at the 35th International Geological Congress in Cape Town (September 2016) spoke out in favor of changing the classification of geological epochs and of declaring a new world age – the Anthropocene. This chapter points at implications that the proclamation of the Anthropocene should have for the currently relevant concept of democracy. In particular, it is argued that the transition into a new phase of geology also necessitates a further advancement of our form of government. Democracy, as it has been conceived of and practiced until now, has to a large extent ignored the problem of ‘presentism’. This chapter suggests an extension of the 300-years-old separation of powers between the legislative, executive and judicial branch. It is argued that in order to make our political system more future-oriented, there is a need for a new (fourth) branch which ensures that the interests of future generations be taken into account within today's decision-making process. A newly-established ‘future council’ should have the right to introduce legislation, integrating the competences of this new institution with those of parliament. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the legitimacy of offices for future generations (OFGs) as the embodiment of the proposed future branch
Tangos: the agile numerical galaxy organization system
We present Tangos, a Python framework and web interface for database-driven
analysis of numerical structure formation simulations. To understand the role
that such a tool can play, consider constructing a history for the absolute
magnitude of each galaxy within a simulation. The magnitudes must first be
calculated for all halos at all timesteps and then linked using a merger tree;
folding the required information into a final analysis can entail significant
effort. Tangos is a generic solution to this information organization problem,
aiming to free users from the details of data management. At the querying
stage, our example of gathering properties over history is reduced to a few
clicks or a simple, single-line Python command. The framework is highly
extensible; in particular, users are expected to define their own properties
which tangos will write into the database. A variety of parallelization options
are available and the raw simulation data can be read using existing libraries
such as pynbody or yt. Finally, tangos-based databases and analysis pipelines
can easily be shared with collaborators or the broader community to ensure
reproducibility. User documentation is provided separately.Comment: Clarified various points and further improved code performance;
accepted for publication in ApJS. Tutorials (including video) at
http://tiny.cc/tango
Writing Teacher Education: Past and Present
This article provides an overview of some of the recent developments in writing teacher education and considers how the journal can add to this community,
How ‘Bout Them Hawks!
Students will learn about the Ioway Indians and others who lived and thrived here while considering the influence of Iowa’s geography on them and on all of us who have followed. The value of primary and secondary resources will be studied
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