How to Do Things with Words: Tolkien’s Theory of Fantasy in Practice

After his St Andrews lecture on ‘Fairy Stories’ Tolkien projected his theory of sub-creation into his legendarium. In this projection the theory of what the human sub-creator does with thought and words became a model for what miraculous and magical beings can do with spirit and matter. For example, Fëanor’s making of the Silmarils and Sauron’s forging of the Ring were conceived (or in the first case, re-conceived) as acts analogous to human fantasy. Middle-earth thus became a world in which the magical potential of human words is revealed in the visible being of magical things

Fantasy Incarnate: Of Elves and Men

This essay proposes the idea of incarnation as a key to unlocking Tolkien’s conception of fantasy as set out in the \u27Origins\u27 section of On Fairy Stories. Tolkien\u27s intellectual context is explored and his conception of mythology as a blending of imagination and history examined. The essay also establishes the differences between mortal and Elvish fantasy and argues that Tolkien\u27s Elves engage in a different kind of incarnational art than do mortals. In conclusion it is claimed that in ‘Origins’ Tolkien reworked the speculations of mid-Victorian comparative philology into an aesthetic theory of artistic creation grounded upon the notion of incarnation

How water and agriculture support livelihoods in the Volta

The CPWF Volta Basin Focal Project project team was led by Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, France) with collaborating scientists from the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) - Ghana, CSIR Water Research Institute - Ghana, Université de Ouagadougou, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research-Ghana, Institut de Recherches en Sciences de la Santé (IRSS)- Ouagadougou, Institut National des Sciences de la Société (INSS) - Ouagadougou, WorldFish Centre - Egypt, and International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Water, people and food in the Mekong River Basin

Three factors will drive great change in the Mekong area:1) Population is expected to increase from the current 6 0million to more than 90 million in 2050. 2) The proportion of urban dwellers will rise from about 20 % to about 40 %. Economic growth is around 4.5 % per annum.3) With an annual average rainfall of over 7km3 per capita, the major issues concern not total water availability, but the impact of changed flows on ecology, fish production, access to water and food security

The Source of sn-1, 2-Diradylglycerol in Mitogen-Stimulated Swiss 3T3 Fibroblasts

The aim of the work in this thesis was to characterise the formation of sn-1,2-diglyceride (DG) in the Swiss 3T3 fibroblast, a model system for mitogenic signalling, and to assess the source of that DG

Neighbouring Communities: Interaction, Lessons and Opportunities

Building, understanding and sharing software that works in creative spaces is increasingly popular and widespread, with many communities outside of academic research interested in pursuing questions highly relevant to Computational Creativity. We report here on several notable communities in the area: the Procedural Generation Jam, the National Novel Generating Month, the Twitterbot community and the #CreativeAI movement. By studying these communities, we benefit from different perspectives on building creative software, as well as how communities of like-minded people form, grow and sustain themselves. We reflect on these communities as sources of lessons for our field and opportunities for future growth and knowledge exchange, as well as raising awareness of sources of inspiration beyond academia

The Willingness to Pay for Mortality Risk Reductions: A Comparison of the United States and Canada

We present results for two contingent valuation surveys conducted in Hamilton, Canada and the US to elicit WTP for mortality risk reductions. We find similar Value of Statistical Life estimates across the two studies, ranging from USD 930,000 to USD 4.8 million (2000 US dollars). WTP increases with risk reduction size, but varies little with respondent age: individuals aged over 70 years hold WTP values approximately one-third lower than other respondents. Respondent health status has limited effect on WTP. These results provide little or no evidence for adjusting VSL estimates used in policy analyses for the affected population’s age or health status.value of a statistical life, mortality risks, benefit-cost analysis

The complex adoption pathways of digital technology in Australian livestock supply chains systems

This paper reviews early experiences, expectations and obstacles concerning the adoption of digital technologies in Australian livestock systems. Using three case studies of publicly-available information on Australia’s red meat industry, we identify the process of digitally enhanced value creation according to four themes: (1) supply chain operability; (2) product quality; (3) animal welfare; and (4) innovation and learning. We find reasons for both optimism and pessimism concerning the adoption of digital agriculture. While digital technology is being offered by various stakeholders to support collaboration within supply chains, it is also being met with scepticism amongst some producers who are not actively engaging with a digital transformation. We identify that the ‘technology fallacy’, which proposes that organisations, people, learning and processes are as important to digital transformation as the technology itself; but while digital technologies enable change, it is the people who determine how quickly it can occur. We argue that – since quality appears to be the major basis on which Australian red meat producers will compete in global markets – the broad adoption of digital technology will prove increasingly essential to future growth and sustainability of this supply chain