Palsgraf Revisited (Again)

[Excerpt] “A funny thing happened at the 2005 meeting of the American Law Institute in Philadelphia. With hardly a thought as to the profundity—and probable futility—of its act, the assemblage bulldozed one of the enduring nuggets of common law wisdom to the pile of discarded relics of legal history. Apart from those in personal injury work, most lawyers won’t remember too many specifics about their first year law school torts courses. But if I had to bet on a single common law judicial opinion that is likely to stimulate a flicker of recognition in many memories—by specifying common law, I mean to muscle aside Marbury v. Madison by definition—my money would be on Palsgraf v. Long Island R.R. Co

Explaining Disparities between Actual and Hypothetical Stated Values: Further Investigation Using Meta-Analysis

Spurred by the need to account for non-market values in various policy applications, a lively and extended debate has surrounded the presence and magnitude of hypothetical bias in stated value studies (e.g., applications of the survey-based contingent valuation method). Using the rapidly accumulating set of comparison studies, List and Gallet (2001) conducted an initial meta-analysis of the experimental protocol that may be influencing the disparity between real and hypothetical values in stated value studies. We expand the original meta-analysis by using a significantly larger (29%) data set, including variables to account for referendum formats, certainty corrections, and cheap talk scripts.

Evaluating Differences in Household Subsistence Harvest Patterns between the Ambler Project and Non-Project Zones

Western Alaska is one of largest inhabited, roadless areas in North America and, indeed, the world. Access, via a new road that would transverse Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve (GAAR), to a mining district in a vast roadless section of northwest Alaska has been proposed. Given the potential effects of the road on nearby communities, we analyzed how communities connected to the road system compare to their unconnected counterparts. Specifically, using zero inflated negative binomial models, we analyzed subsistence harvest data to understand factors that influence subsistence production at the household level. We found substantial difference in these factors between communities near the proposed road (project zone (PZ) communities and a comparable set of road accessible communities outside the region, and were affected by household characteristics such as the gender of the head of household, number of children, and income. Total subsistence production of project zone communities was 1.8 – 2.5 times greater than that of non-project zone communities. Communities with a higher percentage of Alaska Native residents had greater per capita subsistence harvests. Higher household income levels were associated with lower subsistence harvest levels. Roads can provide access for hunters from outside the region to traditional subsistence hunting grounds used by local residents that would not be very accessible if not for the road. Our proxy for competition (number of nonlocal moose hunters) indicates that resident moose harvest amounts are inversely related to the number of hunters in a particular area. If subsistence harvest patterns for project zone communities currently off the road changed to mirror existing non-project zone harvests due to the road, the financial cost would be USD $6,900 – 10,500 per household per year (assuming an$8/lb. ‘replacement’ cost for subsistence harvests). This represents about 33% of the median household income. Taken together, our results suggest that the proposed road should be expected to substantially impact subsistence production in communities that are not currently connected to the road system. The scale of our data did not allow for the comparison of the impacts of the different proposed routes but the impacts of different routes is likely minor in relation to the presence or absence of the proposed roadFigures / Tables / Abstract/Executive Summary / Acknowledgments / Introduction / The Proposed Road and Mine / Study Area / Communities / Background / Modeling Household Harvest / Conclusions / Literature CitedYe

Construct Ireland - Partial Fill Cavity Walls

An examination of whether it still deserves its best practice status in the Irish Construction Industry in light of higher U-Values, construction practices, recent research and cultural pressures

Breaking the Mould 5 : Comparative simulation of internal insulation systems

In the last edition of Construct Ireland ‘Breaking the Mould IV’ established the standard that should be used to evaluate thermal upgrades of single leaf walls, described steps to physically prepare the wall, explained some of the mechanisms that affect the likelihood of mould and gave criteria for judging the simulations outputs. The next step is to simulate a number of permutations of typical internal insulation systems using WUFI Pro under IS EN 15026

Building Fabric Design : Thermal Performance Standards

This is the first of a series of articles using content from the new RIAI Building Fabric Design CPD which explores a range of themes of central importance to designing buildings that are highly energy efficient, genuinely compliant and perform to their design intent and specification. As the articles are short and the themes are often complex, they can be at best a short introduction to the issues raised. In this article we will look at the new minimum building fabric standards: these are far more onerous than much of the Industry understands

On Viewing Educational Research as a Textual Enterprise

This article explores the history of North American educational research in an attempt to offer readers a historically informed view of the field as a whole. The first part of the article situates many of the major research programs in their original social settings, showing how they emerged in response to various administrative and academic pressures. The second part acknowledges the textual underpinnings of educational research by underscoring the practical reality that researchers produce patterned forms of text, which are used in patterned social situations to accomplish anticipated goals.Cet article porte sur l’histoire de la recherche en éducation en Amérique du Nord et se veut un aperçu historique du domaine dans son intégralité. Dans un premier temps, l’article situe plusieurs des programmes de recherche les plus importants dans leur contexte social original et démontre leur évolution en réaction à diverses pressions de nature administrative et académique. L’article évoque ensuite les fondements textuels qui sous-tendent la recherche en éducation en soulignant que les éléments pratiques de la réalité font en sorte que les chercheurs produisent des textes selon des schémas donnés et qui sont par la suite employés dans des situations sociales structurées pour réaliser des objectifs anticipés

In Transit - Transition Movement Inspires Dramatic Carbon Cuts in House Refurb

Drawing on the ‘Energy Descent Action Plan’ he developed at Kinsale, Rob Hopkins and his team launched Transition Town Totnes (in the UK) one and a half years ago. 64 recognised transition communities and 600 other groups (and counting) are now in communication with Rob’s team to launch their versions of this initiative in their communities worldwide.1 The Transition Ireland Network is coordinated by Davie Philip of Cultivate and several transition initiatives are underway here