Criticism, Context and Community: Connections between Wittgenstein's On Certainty and Feminist Epistemology

I explore the conceptual connections between Wittgenstein's On Certainty and the work of three contemporary feminist epistemologists: standpoint theorist Sandra Harding and feminist empiricists Helen Longino and Lynn Hankinson Nelson. My inquiry reveals both surprising similarities and important differences between Wittgensteinian and feminist epistemologies. Exploring these similarities and differences clarifies Wittgenstein's epistemology and reveals ways feminist epistemologists have developed themes from On Certainty. On Certainty anticipates three important pillars of feminist epistemology: criticism, context, and community

In the loves of barnacles

Poetry by Carol Watt

The Effect of Firm Bankruptcy on Retiree Benefits, with Applications to the Automotive and Coal Industries

[Excerpt] Benefits for retired employees are of particular interest to policy makers because of the growing number of retirees and forecasts indicating that some future retirees may not have the necessary financial resources to maintain their standards of living. Part of this congressional concern is what happens when bankrupt employers are unable to provide promised pension and health benefits to their retired employees. This report explores the protections of benefits awarded retirees and future retirees of bankrupt private-sector employers under current law. Although there are many types of employee benefits, active employees, retirees, and the employers themselves are often especially concerned with post-retirement pensions and health insurance benefits, usually the two largest components of these so-called legacy costs. This analysis provides examples from two industries of interest to Congress where competitive pressures resulted in changes in each sector’s business outlook: automobiles and coal

Collection Development in a Small Library

“Libraries need to become fundamentally different institutions than they were twenty years ago.” So says Mark Sandler in his article, “Collection Development in the Day of Google” in the October, 2006 issue of Library Resources & Technical Services.1 Is your collection development policy up to date? Does it reflect user’s expectations? Does it provide for an expanded range of formats? Does it address funding issues? As the small college library develops a collection that supports the curriculum of the college, the policy that governs that responsibility must be reflective of the community it serves. Overarching issues like information literacy and the rapidly changing information environment must also be considered

Small Library, Big Job

Many small college libraries employ only one professional. T hat means one person serves as reference librarian, cataloger, acquisitions specialist, circulation supervisor, inter-library loan officer, periodicals manager, information literacy instructor, and administrator- as well as conm1ittee member and sometimes teacher. (We won\u27t mention organist, student activity sponsor, or even volleyball coach.) Wearing so many hats at one time can be both a bane and a blessing. No two days are ever alike. I like being my own boss. It\u27s never boring. A 2004 ACL Conference roundtable discussion brought out all of these positives about working in the single-professional library. But the twenty or so librarians who attended were also quick to mention long hours, stress, and backlogs of work that burden them in their assigned places of service. They shared some very help fit! words of advice for those who work in similar situations

Optimal rate list decoding via derivative codes

The classical family of $[n,k]_q$ Reed-Solomon codes over a field \F_q consist of the evaluations of polynomials f \in \F_q[X] of degree $< k$ at $n$ distinct field elements. In this work, we consider a closely related family of codes, called (order $m$) {\em derivative codes} and defined over fields of large characteristic, which consist of the evaluations of $f$ as well as its first $m-1$ formal derivatives at $n$ distinct field elements. For large enough $m$, we show that these codes can be list-decoded in polynomial time from an error fraction approaching $1-R$, where $R=k/(nm)$ is the rate of the code. This gives an alternate construction to folded Reed-Solomon codes for achieving the optimal trade-off between rate and list error-correction radius. Our decoding algorithm is linear-algebraic, and involves solving a linear system to interpolate a multivariate polynomial, and then solving another structured linear system to retrieve the list of candidate polynomials $f$. The algorithm for derivative codes offers some advantages compared to a similar one for folded Reed-Solomon codes in terms of efficient unique decoding in the presence of side information.Comment: 11 page

LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND: Approaches to Working Effectively With American Indians/ Alaska Natives

This publication was written to assist benefits planners and advocates in working more effectively with American Indian and Alaskan Native populations. The guide provides a general orientation to these indigenous populations and highlights cultural differences. It also provides more in depth information on conducting outreach and working in tandem with sovereign nations

An Introduction to Health Insurance: What Should a Consumer Know?

[Excerpt] Congress has seen a renewed interest in questions related to the market for private health insurance since the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA; P.L. 111- 148, as amended). Recent health insurance marketplace changes include a different way to purchase health insurance (exchanges) and a new system of categorizing the generosity of plans’ health coverage based on the names of various metals (e.g., bronze and silver). Some consumers may face different choices of health insurance plans than in the past. Not all consumers are comfortable with the various concepts governing which health insurance plan might be best for them. This report provides an overview of private-sector (as opposed to government-provided) health insurance. It serves as an introduction to health insurance from the point of view of consumers under the age of 65 who purchase a health insurance plan. No background in health insurance is assumed, and all terms are defined. The report therefore can be viewed as an introduction to the more comprehensive discussion of health insurance found in the Congressional Research Service (CRS) health insurance primer