ABRAHAM LINCOLN: CENTRALIZING CLASS WARRIOR

Abraham Lincoln was the great centralizer. His War of 1861 was only the tip of the iceberg in this regard. This core of his philosophy can also be seen in his “contributions” to class warfare, the American “system” of public works, strong tariff protection, public lands policy, welfare payments to large corporate interests, and in the contrasts between the Confederate and the U.S. Constitutions.Class warfare, Lincoln, tariffs, public lands, Confederate Constitution, centralization

Structure of giant nuclear molecules

Strong indirect evidence exists for the existence of attractive forces between nuclei making surface contact. Experimentally, the recent observations of spontaneous positron production in heavy-ion collisions can only be understood if nuclei stick together for times long compared to the collision time. We show that any such tendency for nuclei to attract implies the existence of nuclear molecules with entirely new kinds of collective modes. We present a simple model for these modes and apply it to 238U-238U

Supply Chains and Rural Development in the Asia Pacific Region

Rapid income growth and urbanization are having profound impacts on the food system, food producers and rural areas in the developing Asia Pacific economies. Meeting the challenge of rural development will depend on better integrating rural areas with fast-growing urban areas where the composition of food demand is changing and the logistics of supply are growing more complex. Possible government options include investment in transportation infrastructure—roads, railroads and waterway—and providing rural communities and small-scale producers the tools they need to better adapt to the rapid spread of modern supermarkets and their supply chains.Community/Rural/Urban Development,

On the Relationship of Expected Supply and Demand to Futures Prices

Expectations about future economic conditions are important determinants of commodity prices. This paper presents a relatively simple model that makes futures prices for corn a function of expected production and inventories and of variables that account for demand shifts. The intent is to provide an historical, objective context for new price and quantity observations, which may help market analysts.expected supply, futures prices, commodity prices, Demand and Price Analysis, Risk and Uncertainty,

Dynamics of Coulomb fission

A general formalism is described for the treatment of Coulomb fission, within the framework of the semiquantal theory. We develop a model for the fission probabilities of levels excited in Coulomb excitation. This model contains penetration of the double-humped fission barrier, competition from gamma and neutron emission, and the spreading of the collective states into noncollective compound states. For 74184W + 92238U, the fission probability at θc.m.=180° is increased by a factor of 3.9, 3.3, and 2.0 at E/ECoul=0.77, 0.85, and 0.935, respectively, compared to the simplified sharp cutoff model used in earlier model calculations. The enhancement comes from barrier penetration. The damping of the fission probability due to spreading into noncollective compound states is small. Prompt Coulomb fission (near the distance of closest approach) is studied in a one-dimensional model. The results clearly imply that prompt fission is negligible. We have also studied the sudden approximation for collective rotational levels in connection with Coulomb fission. At high spins (I≈20), it leads to significant errors. Contrary to the basic assumption of the sudden approximation that the nuclear symmetry axis remains fixed during the collision, it is shown that Coulomb excitation results in a strong alignment of the nuclear symmetry axis perpendicular to the beam axis at small internuclear distances. NUCLEAR REACTIONS, FISSION Semiquantal theory of prompt and asymptotic Coulomb fission, study of double-humped barrier penetration, damping effects, neutron and γ emission. Calculated σ(Ep, θc.m.=180°)