Swatting Political Discourse: A Domestic Terrorism Threat

This Note will attempt to address the question of whether or not incidents of swatting aimed at contrary political ideals meet the characterization of domestic terrorism in the post–9/11 era. In particular, there will be consideration of the extent to which treatment of political swatting as domestic terrorism is consistent with the maintenance of the delicate balance between public safety concerns and protection of the constitutional values of free speech and free expression. This Note will proceed in four parts. Part I will examine the growth of telecommunication manipulation practices from products of curiosity to an alarming means of intimidation in modern day swatting and the dangers swatting presents to American communities. Part II will offer a history of the development of domestic terrorism in American jurisprudence and discuss the current state of domestic terrorism in the post–9/11 era. Part III provides context for the application of the domestic terrorism classification by offering examples of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, particularly the rise of “special-interest” domestic terrorism. Finally, Part IV analyzes political swatting in light of domestic terrorism requirements grown out of the PATRIOT Act and in comparison with prior examples of crimes classed as domestic terrorism. Part IV concludes with the argument that, in light of the definitional requirements of domestic terrorism in the United States and strong public policy interests, swatting should in fact be classified as an act of domestic terrorism when used to intimidate political adversaries or coerce advocates of a particular viewpoint to withdraw from participation in political discourse

Swatting Political Discourse: A Domestic Terrorism Threat

This Note will attempt to address the question of whether or not incidents of swatting aimed at contrary political ideals meet the characterization of domestic terrorism in the post–9/11 era. In particular, there will be consideration of the extent to which treatment of political swatting as domestic terrorism is consistent with the maintenance of the delicate balance between public safety concerns and protection of the constitutional values of free speech and free expression. This Note will proceed in four parts. Part I will examine the growth of telecommunication manipulation practices from products of curiosity to an alarming means of intimidation in modern day swatting and the dangers swatting presents to American communities. Part II will offer a history of the development of domestic terrorism in American jurisprudence and discuss the current state of domestic terrorism in the post–9/11 era. Part III provides context for the application of the domestic terrorism classification by offering examples of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, particularly the rise of “special-interest” domestic terrorism. Finally, Part IV analyzes political swatting in light of domestic terrorism requirements grown out of the PATRIOT Act and in comparison with prior examples of crimes classed as domestic terrorism. Part IV concludes with the argument that, in light of the definitional requirements of domestic terrorism in the United States and strong public policy interests, swatting should in fact be classified as an act of domestic terrorism when used to intimidate political adversaries or coerce advocates of a particular viewpoint to withdraw from participation in political discourse

Deactivation and excitation of 0I(6s ⁵S) at above-thermal energies

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1982Absolute collisional deactivation and excitation cross sections have been measured for a beam of O (⁵P-⁵S°) incident on N₂. The beam energy was varied from 3.95 to 10.65 keV. Cross sections for charge transfer (electron capture) of 0⁺ in N₂ were also measured in the energy range from 2.4 to 24.3 keV. The variation of light intensity 5436 Å (from the 6s-3p transition of the quintet system of atomic oxygen) emitted from the beam as a function of N₂ target pressure was fitted to a beam of kinetic equation to determine deactivation and excitation cross sections. The cross section for deactivation in N₂ decreases from 6.84 x 10⁻¹⁵ cm² at 3.95 keV to 1.5 x 10⁻¹⁵ cm² at 19.65 keV. The cross section for excitation decreases from 3.3 x 10⁻¹⁹ at 3.95 keV to 2.25 x 10⁻¹⁹ cm² at 19.65 keV

Quantification Of Metals In Sewage Sludges By X-ray Spectrometry

The application of sewage sludge on soils is a common practice, but the heavy metals should be determined before disposal. Sewage sludges composition is mainly organic and the amount of heavy metals is variable. Usual methods for heavy metals determination are based on dissolution of the sample. The results depend, partially, on the efficiency of the dissolution of the heavy metals, which may vary from sample to sample. We studied the feasibility of analyzing pressed pellets of sludges by wavelength dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (WD-XRF), with fundamental parameters matrix effects correction. Several ways of introducing the carbon content in the corrections were tested. Accuracy was evaluated by analysis of four international certificate reference materials. Results were within or very close to the confidence interval of the available certified values for most elements (Al, As, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, S, Se, Si, V, Zn). Other metals, like Cd and Hg were below the detection limits (15 and 9 mg kg-1, respectively). Despite the limitation concerning the proper matrix correction, the uncertainty of the XRF results is probably similar to the methods normally used in sludge analysis, with the advantage that sample preparation is much faster.107I423426Radojevic, M., Bashkin, V.N., Practical environmental analysis (1999), p. 466. , (Royal Society of Chemistry Cambridge, UK)West, H.M., Cawley, J., Willis, R., (1995) Analyst, 120, pp. 1267-127

Hyperloop

Bei der sogenannten Hyperlooptechnologie handelt es sich um ein Hochgeschwindigkeitstransportsystem, welches derzeit an verschiedenen Standorten weltweit für den Waren- und Personentransport erforscht und entwickelt wird. Transportkapseln (Pods) sollen in Röhren in einem nahezu vollständigen Vakuum stark beschleunigt werden. Hierdurch sollen Geschwindigkeiten von über 1.000 km/h möglich sein, sodass sich Reise- und Transportzeiten im Vergleich zu anderen Verkehrsträgern deutlich verkürzen. Der Hyperloop soll ein neuer, fünfter Verkehrsträger neben Flugzeugen, Eisenbahnen, Straßenfahrzeugen und Schiffen werden. Seine Befürworter sehen kommerzielle Hyperloopsysteme als Teil einer neuen und sauberen Hochgeschwindigkeitsinfrastruktur, welche Wirtschaftszentren und Arbeitsmärkte über nationale Grenzen hinweg näher zusammenrücken und das Ziel des europäischen Grünen Deals unterstützen könnte, verkehrsbedingte Emissionen bis 2050 um 90 % zu senken. Obwohl kürzlich die erste bemannte Testfahrt durchgeführt werden konnte (von Virgin Hyperloop), sind weiterhin noch viele technische Detailfragen zu lösen. Die Errichtung einer neuen Verkehrsinfrastruktur wäre zudem mit erheblichen wirtschaftlichen Anstrengungen und raumplanerischen Problemen verbunden. Regulatorische Bedarfe bestehen insbesondere mit Blick auf die Interoperabilität und Sicherheit dieses Hochgeschwindigkeitstransportsystems

The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understanding

Visual understanding of complex urban street scenes is an enabling factor for a wide range of applications. Object detection has benefited enormously from large-scale datasets, especially in the context of deep learning. For semantic urban scene understanding, however, no current dataset adequately captures the complexity of real-world urban scenes. To address this, we introduce Cityscapes, a benchmark suite and large-scale dataset to train and test approaches for pixel-level and instance-level semantic labeling. Cityscapes is comprised of a large, diverse set of stereo video sequences recorded in streets from 50 different cities. 5000 of these images have high quality pixel-level annotations; 20000 additional images have coarse annotations to enable methods that leverage large volumes of weakly-labeled data. Crucially, our effort exceeds previous attempts in terms of dataset size, annotation richness, scene variability, and complexity. Our accompanying empirical study provides an in-depth analysis of the dataset characteristics, as well as a performance evaluation of several state-of-the-art approaches based on our benchmark.Comment: Includes supplemental materia

Discursos sobre aprendizagem no brasil: uma análise da Revista Brasileira de Estudos Pedagógicos (1944-1964)*

This article, as a result of research, aims to present and describe how discourses about learning were articulated in the Brazilian historical context from 1944 to 1964, marked by renovating influences of the New School movement. The conceptual tool of discourse was used to do this description. The presentation of the investigative exercise is divided into three distinct and complementary cores: a historical approach, a methodological approach, and an analytical approach. As a final result, some trends of the discourses on learning in Brazil are presented: learning as individual improvement, learning as social adjustment, and learning as experience. Based on this, it is sustained that the New School movement introduces different understandings about learning, seeking a renovation of education in Brazil. However, such concerns did not rule out a type of intentional pedagogy, different from current pedagogical tendencies and marked by processes of naturalization and individualization of learning.Este artículo, como resultado de investigación, tiene como objetivo presentar y describir cómo los discursos sobre aprendizaje se articularon en el contexto histórico brasileño en el periodo de 1944 a 1964, marcado por influencias renovadoras del movimiento de la Escuela Nueva. Para la elaboración de esta descripción, se utilizó la herramienta conceptual del discurso. La presentación del ejercicio investigativo está dividida en tres focos distintos y complementarios: un enfoque histórico; un enfoque metodológico y un enfoque analítico. Como resultado final, son presentadas algunas tendencias de los discursos sobre aprendizaje en el Brasil: aprendizaje como perfeccionamiento individual; aprendizaje como ajuste social y aprendizaje como experiencia. A partir de eso, se sustenta que el movimiento de la Escuela Nueva introduce diferentes comprensiones acerca del aprendizaje buscando una renovación educacional en el Brasil. No obstante, tales preocupaciones no descartaban un tipo de conducción pedagógica intencional, diferente de tendencias pedagógicas actuales, marcadas por procesos de naturalización e individualización del aprendizajeEste artigo, como resultado de investigação, objetiva apresentar e descrever como discursos sobre aprendizagem se articularam no contexto histórico brasileiro no período de 1944 a 1964, marcado por influências renovadoras do movimento da Escola Nova. Para elaboração desta descrição, utilizou-se a ferramenta conceitual do discurso. A apresentação do exercício investigativo está dividida em três focos distintos e complementares: um foco histórico; um foco metodológico e um foco analítico. Como resultado final, são apresentadas tendências dos discursos sobre aprendizagem no Brasil: aprendizagem como aprimoramento individual; aprendizagem como ajustamento social e aprendizagem como experiência. A partir disso, sustenta-se que o movimento escolanovista introduz diferentes compreensões acerca da aprendizagem visando uma renovação educacional no Brasil. Entretanto, tais apreensões não descartavam um tipo de condução pedagógica intencional, diferentemente de tendências pedagógicas atuais, marcadas por processos de naturalização e individualização da aprendizagem

Beneficial uses of treated drainage water

Presented during the USCID water management conference held on October 13-16, 2004 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The theme of the conference was "Water rights and related water supply issues."Includes bibliographical references.The United States Bureau of Reclamation has a legal requirement to provide drainage services to the San Luis Unit of the Central Valley Project (CVP) in Southern California. A number of options are being investigated by Reclamation, but the current favored option includes a number of approaches to water reduction and treatment, including a spiral reverse osmosis plant. A different membrane system to recover higher proportions of saline drainage water, containing saturated levels of calcium sulfate, was tested in early 2004 at a drainage collection point in Panoche Water District. Results from that work suggest it may be possible to recover over 90% of saline drainage water for unrestricted reuse as fresh irrigation water at a cost less than or equal to the cost of producing sea water by reverse osmosis. If the equivalent amount of CVP water could be sold to urban areas at a price close to the cost of treating Sea Water by Reverse Osmosis this approach could provide an environmentally friendly and negligible cost solution to the problem of drainage water in the San Luis Unit.Proceedings sponsored by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Central Utah Project Completion Act Office and the U.S. Committee on Irrigation and Drainage