The old drama and the new: conceptions of the nature of the theatrical experience in the work of William Archer, G.B. Shaw, W.B. Yeats, E.G. Craig and H. Granville-Barker.

PhDTwo opposing philosophical outlooks can be discerned in the thought of the men discussed in this dissertation.. The humanist view, associated with Archer and Barker, sees life as centred solely on man; the religious thinkers, Yeats and Craig, are concerned with man's relationship with a power beyond himself. Shaw is unique in his advocacy of contradictory elements from both philosophies. The humanist thinkers are concerned in art with the communication of information about man; those of the religious party value an indescribable experience communicated by artistic symbols. These two kinds of communication can perhaps be seen in the English theatre of the nineteenth century; the theatre of the early part of the century made use of a traditional language of theatrical symbols, while the later theatres of Irving and the Bancrofts abandoned tradition in favour of new "realistic" portrayals of society and human psychology. Archer illustrates the humanist approach to art in his concern for the moral and psychological information conveyed by the play. In his humanist guise, Shaw emphasizes the need for drama to convey new social and philosophical ideas. For Barker, drama conveys, through the medium of the actor, a special kind of "subjective" truth. Each of the religious theorists seeks symbolic value in a different facet of the theatrical performance;, for Yeats, the religious communication is achieved by the traditional symbols of poetry; for Shaw, in his religious guise, the performer is the prime source of symbolic value; for Craig, purely visual symbols of natural process provide a glimpse of a world untainted by man's egotism. The theories are open to criticism. The humanist theories seem to deny the value of artistic form, while the religious theories seem to seek form without content. All the theories seem to show insufficient respect for the laws of audience psychology

Predicting glacier accumulation area distributions

A mass balance model based on energy balance at the terrain surface was developed and used to predict glacier accumulation areas in the Jotunheimen, Norway. Spatially distributed melt modelling used local climate and energy balance surfaces to drive predictions, derived from regional climate and topographic data. Predictions had a temporal resolution of 1 month and a spatial resolution of 100 m, which were able to simulate observed glacier accumulation area distributions. Data were stored and manipulated within a GIS and spatial trends and patterns within the data were explored. These trends guided the design of a suite of geomorphologically and climatologically significant variables which were used to simulate the observed spatial organisation of climatic variables, specifically temperature, precipitation and wind speed and direction. DEM quality was found as a critical factor in minimising error propagation. A new method of removing spatially and spectrally organised DEM error is presented using a fast Fourier transformation. This was successfully employed to remove error within the DEM minimising error propagation into model predictions. With no parameter fitting the modeled spatial distribution of snowcover showed good agreement with observed distributions. Topographic maps and a Landsat ETM+ image are used to validate the predictions and identify areas of over or under prediction. Topographically constrained glaciers are most effectively simulated, where aspect, gradient and altitude impose dominant controls on accumulation. Reflections on the causes of over or under prediction are presented and future research directions to address these are outlined. Sensitivity of snow accumulation to climatic and radiative variables was assessed. Results showed the mass balance of accumulation areas is most sensitive to air temperature and cloud cover parameterisations. The model was applied to reconstruct snow accumulation at the last glacial maximum and under IPCC warming scenarios to assess the sensitivity of melt to changing environmental conditions, which showed pronounced sensitivity to summer temperatures Low data requirements: regional climate and elevation data identify the model as a powerful tool for predicting the onset, duration and rate of melt for any geographical area

Should We Biochemically Enhance Sexual Fidelity?

In certain corners of the moral enhancement debate, it has been suggested we ought to consider the prospect of supplementing conventional methods of enhancing sexual fidelity (e.g. relationship counselling, moral education, self-betterment, etc.) with biochemical fidelity enhancement methods. In surveying this argument, I begin from the conviction that generally-speaking moral enhancement ought to expectably attenuate (or at least not exacerbate) vulnerability. Assuming conventional methods of enhancing sexual fidelity are at least partially effective in this respect – e.g., that relationship counselling sometimes successfully attenuates the particular vulnerability victims of infidelity feel – then presumably the case for supplementing conventional methods with biochemical methods turns, in part, on the claim that doing so will better promote attenuation of victim vulnerability. In this chapter I argue that on a sufficiently sophisticated conception of what this vulnerability consists in, biochemical methods of enhancing fidelity will not expectably attenuate victims’ vulnerability. Moreover, when combined with conventional methods, biochemical methods will predictably tend to undermine whatever attenuation conventional methods expectably promote in that respect. Thus, I conclude that couples committed to saving their relationship following an instance of sexual infidelity have reason to prefer conventional methods of enhancing sexual fidelity sans biochemical methods to conventional methods plus biochemical methods

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article provides and introduction to and includes an excerpt of the autobiography of Otto Koeltzow, a migrant from Germany who homesteaded Greer County, Oklahoma Territory and weathered many difficulties to establish a community there

Chronicles of Oklahoma

Article discusses the history of the Tri-State District area, which includes the history of mining camps and their poor conditions, the intellectual environment and the schools that were established in the region, and the social and economic conditions prevalent