The Law and Mark Twain

Varying concepts of law are an essential part in many of Mark Twain\u27s works. Twain\u27s position as an observer and critic of society is often reflected by the way he represents law and justice in his stories. His dislike of injustice and cruelty caused him to focus on these legal problems as a way of revealing and attacking various injustices in society. My thesis examines Twain\u27s perception of law as he exposes it in Roughing It, Pudd\u27nhead Wilson, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u27s Court. The general objective of my study is to examine Twain\u27s philosophy of law and how his ideas are reflected in his literature. The specific aim of study is to explore Twain\u27s tendency to present law and politics with multiple views which sometimes suffer from seeming to embody contradictory opinions. The first half of my study examines Twain\u27s view of American frontier law by centering on Roughing It and Pudd\u27nhead Wilson. Roughing It exhibits Twain\u27s early views of lawlessness in the west and includes his suggestions for a commonsense approach to law. The areas of law covered include: desperadoism, juries, and government. Twain\u27s approach to these subjects frequently oscillates between criticizing the lack of law and finding fault with established, but poorly administered law. Pudd\u27nhead Wilson continues Twain\u27s critical approach to law and justice with the location changing to the antebellum southwest. The regimented code of law in this novel fails to secure justice because it suffers from existing within the framework of slavery, which is supported by antebellum aristocractic privileges and traditions. Pudd\u27nhead Wilson demonstrates how traditionally entrenched laws and customs prove unyielding even to creative and innovative methods (fingerprinting and crime detection) for securing justice. The pessimism concerning law in this novel differs from Roughing It\u27s tone of youthful speculations and suggestions for law in a new frontier. The second half of my study examines Twain\u27s political comparison of democracy to monarchy and despotic rule. The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u27s Court reveal many of Twain\u27s thoughts concerning justice and government. His criticisms of the appalling injustices in these supposedly outworn and alien systems suggests the inherent injustice in law and government, not merely historically, but even in Twain\u27s nineteenth century America. Twain examines man\u27s inability to find solutions to injustice and inefficient government, and Twain\u27s moral outrage often results in multiple and contradictory presentations. Democracy and technology in A Connecticut Yankee initially appear to be solutions for oppressed people, but the inability of the common man to accept and use these innovations properly, ultimately results in failure and destruction in the novel\u27s ending. Twain\u27s inability to envision or propose a consistent system for securing justice reveals his changeable and unresolved approach to the difficult issues of law, government and justice

The Law and Mark Twain

Varying concepts of law are an essential part in many of Mark Twain\u27s works. Twain\u27s position as an observer and critic of society is often reflected by the way he represents law and justice in his stories. His dislike of injustice and cruelty caused him to focus on these legal problems as a way of revealing and attacking various injustices in society. My thesis examines Twain\u27s perception of law as he exposes it in Roughing It, Pudd\u27nhead Wilson, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u27s Court. The general objective of my study is to examine Twain\u27s philosophy of law and how his ideas are reflected in his literature. The specific aim of study is to explore Twain\u27s tendency to present law and politics with multiple views which sometimes suffer from seeming to embody contradictory opinions. The first half of my study examines Twain\u27s view of American frontier law by centering on Roughing It and Pudd\u27nhead Wilson. Roughing It exhibits Twain\u27s early views of lawlessness in the west and includes his suggestions for a commonsense approach to law. The areas of law covered include: desperadoism, juries, and government. Twain\u27s approach to these subjects frequently oscillates between criticizing the lack of law and finding fault with established, but poorly administered law. Pudd\u27nhead Wilson continues Twain\u27s critical approach to law and justice with the location changing to the antebellum southwest. The regimented code of law in this novel fails to secure justice because it suffers from existing within the framework of slavery, which is supported by antebellum aristocractic privileges and traditions. Pudd\u27nhead Wilson demonstrates how traditionally entrenched laws and customs prove unyielding even to creative and innovative methods (fingerprinting and crime detection) for securing justice. The pessimism concerning law in this novel differs from Roughing It\u27s tone of youthful speculations and suggestions for law in a new frontier. The second half of my study examines Twain\u27s political comparison of democracy to monarchy and despotic rule. The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur\u27s Court reveal many of Twain\u27s thoughts concerning justice and government. His criticisms of the appalling injustices in these supposedly outworn and alien systems suggests the inherent injustice in law and government, not merely historically, but even in Twain\u27s nineteenth century America. Twain examines man\u27s inability to find solutions to injustice and inefficient government, and Twain\u27s moral outrage often results in multiple and contradictory presentations. Democracy and technology in A Connecticut Yankee initially appear to be solutions for oppressed people, but the inability of the common man to accept and use these innovations properly, ultimately results in failure and destruction in the novel\u27s ending. Twain\u27s inability to envision or propose a consistent system for securing justice reveals his changeable and unresolved approach to the difficult issues of law, government and justice

Oh, Behave! Behavior as an Interaction between Genes & the Environment

This lesson is designed to teach students that behavior is a trait shaped by both genes and the environment. Students will read a scientific paper, discuss and generate predictions based on the ideas and data therein, and model the relationships between genes, the environment, and behavior. The lesson is targeted to meet the educational goals of undergraduate introductory biology, evolution, and animal behavior courses, but it is also suitable for advanced high school biology students. This lesson meets the criteria for the Next Generation Science Standard HS-LS4, Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity (NGSS Lead States, 2013)

Conservation Tools: The Next Generation of Engineering--Biology Collaborations

The recent increase in public and academic interest in preserving biodiversity has led to the growth of the field of conservation technology. This field involves designing and constructing tools that utilize technology to aid in the conservation of wildlife. In this article, we will use case studies to demonstrate the importance of designing conservation tools with human-wildlife interaction in mind and provide a framework for creating successful tools. These case studies include a range of complexities, from simple cat collars to machine learning and game theory methodologies. Our goal is to introduce and inform current and future researchers in the field of conservation technology and provide references for educating the next generation of conservation technologists. Conservation technology not only has the potential to benefit biodiversity but also has broader impacts on fields such as sustainability and environmental protection. By using innovative technologies to address conservation challenges, we can find more effective and efficient solutions to protect and preserve our planet's resources

Adjusting Mortality for Loss to Follow-Up: Analysis of Five ART Programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Evaluation of antiretroviral treatment (ART) programmes in sub-Saharan Africa is difficult because many patients are lost to follow-up. Outcomes in these patients are generally unknown but studies tracing patients have shown mortality to be high. We adjusted programme-level mortality in the first year of antiretroviral treatment (ART) for excess mortality in patients lost to follow-up

The scale of population structure in Arabidopsis thaliana

The population structure of an organism reflects its evolutionary history and influences its evolutionary trajectory. It constrains the combination of genetic diversity and reveals patterns of past gene flow. Understanding it is a prerequisite for detecting genomic regions under selection, predicting the effect of population disturbances, or modeling gene flow. This paper examines the detailed global population structure of Arabidopsis thaliana. Using a set of 5,707 plants collected from around the globe and genotyped at 149 SNPs, we show that while A. thaliana as a species self-fertilizes 97% of the time, there is considerable variation among local groups. This level of outcrossing greatly limits observed heterozygosity but is sufficient to generate considerable local haplotypic diversity. We also find that in its native Eurasian range A. thaliana exhibits continuous isolation by distance at every geographic scale without natural breaks corresponding to classical notions of populations. By contrast, in North America, where it exists as an exotic species, A. thaliana exhibits little or no population structure at a continental scale but local isolation by distance that extends hundreds of km. This suggests a pattern for the development of isolation by distance that can establish itself shortly after an organism fills a new habitat range. It also raises questions about the general applicability of many standard population genetics models. Any model based on discrete clusters of interchangeable individuals will be an uneasy fit to organisms like A. thaliana which exhibit continuous isolation by distance on many scales