Finding Clio in Mid-Atlantic

When he frst stepped ashore in 1867, Mark Twain found Britain’s tiny mid-Atlantic colony of Bermuda a delightful place. Wearied by a long trip to the Holy Land, Twain found Bermuda’s semi-tropical aesthetic immediately restful. “A few days among the breezy groves, the flower gardens, the coral caves, and the lovely vistas of blue water,” he wrote in Te Innocents Abroad, his memoir of the trip, “… restored the energies dulled by long drowsing on the ocean.” Twain would return habitually to Bermuda - or “Berm-o-oda” as his stretched it out in his Southern drawl. “You can go to heaven if you want to – I’d rather stay here in Bermuda,” he would quip from the verandah of his favourite hotel. Sadly, he failed to keep this promise; just weeks before his death in 1910 he was stretchered in pain off the island to return to his Connecticut home. “I have no sorrowful associations with Bermuda,” he remarked by way of consolatio

HMCS \u3cem\u3eThiepval\u3c/em\u3e: The Accidental Tourist Destination

In the spring of 1910 an act of Parliament gave birth to the Canadian navy. What followed were four years of bitter partisan battles over whether this new service would be small and largely coastal, or whether the money was better spent in direct support of the imperial fleet. By the time war came in 1914 the fledgling service consisted of two dilapidated old cruisers—Niobe and Rainbow—acquired solely for training. During the war this navy evolved into a hodgepodge of little auxiliary vessels as it scrambled to meet the new threat from submarines. By the time the war ended, as the official naval historian Gilbert Tucker noted, Canada had nothing more than “a small ship navy.” HMCS Thiepval—all 357 tons of her—was borne into this emerging small ship navy in 1917. The little trawler subsequently had a brief but remarkable career in the service of Canada, and a fate that has left her as one of the West Coast’s most famous tourist sites

The Origins of New Zealand's Chinook Salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha

Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, are well established as anadromous and landlocked runs in New Zealand. Ova introductions during the 1870's (probably from the McCloud River, California, U.S.A.), failed to generate anadromous stocks, but further introductions offall-run salmon ova from hatcheries in California's Sacramento River basin in the early 1900's were successful and formed the basis for existing runs. The first batch of ova in the 1900's consignments originated from Battle Creek, a Sacramento River tributary, but the explicit source of later batches is not known. It seems likely that the successful runs stem from the second batch (1903 brood year-1904 consignment in New Zealand), probably augmented by returns from later importations

Artfully healing Austin : artist’s hospital beautification project spotlights local healing arts

textArt has long been used as a healing method. Thousands of years ago, the Greeks designed temples to surround patients with art and nature and to promote healing and harmony. Today, a growing amount of evidence-based design research proves that hospitals need to be more mindful of the healing environment through better design and inclusion of the arts to reduce stress, lower costs and shorten hospital stays. This report follows Aaron Darling, an artist and part-time nurse based in Austin, Texas, who has seen a need for such change in local hospitals. Through expansive nature-themed wall murals, Darling hopes to improve the blank walls he has seen in hospital hallways and patient rooms and increase the presence of local art in Austin-area hospitals, starting with Seton Medical Center. His story sheds light on other local professionals using art to heal, such as art therapists, and successful healing arts programs, including Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas. More than that, this report highlights the power of art itself to serve patients by improving healing spaces and acting as a positive distraction in an oftentimes scary place: the hospital.Journalis

Cultural Orientations Framework (COF) assessment questionnaire in cross-cultural coaching: A cross-validation with Wave Focus Styles

This paper outlines a cross-validation of the Cultural Orientations Framework assessment questionnaire (COF, Rosinski, 2007; a new tool designed for cross-cultural coaching) with the Saville Consulting Wave Focus Styles questionnaire (Saville Consulting, 2006; an existing validated measure of occupational personality), using data from UK and German participants (N = 222). The convergent and divergent validity of the questionnaire was adequate. Contrary to previous findings which used different measures (Ronen & Shenkar, 1985; Schwartz, 1999; House et al., 2004; Bartram et al., 2006), the results from this particular study indicated few national differences between UK and Germany, however differences by gender were observed. These findings are discussed in terms of their implications for the development and use of the COF in practice. This may allow for a more finely grained understanding of culture than previous models such as Hofstede’s cultural values framework (1980; 2001), if further evidence for its validity is obtained and published

The new Nowhere Land? : a research and practice agenda for the “Always on Culture"

Purpose: Rapid developments in the field of information communication technology (ICT) mean that e-working has become increasingly common and prolonged – the “always-onculture” potential to enhance work-life balance via increased flexibility in terms of time and location, as well as posing the risk of being ‘always on’ has been identified with potentially serious implications for the health and performance of employees. We identify a research agenda and review current organizational practice. Approach: We discuss current technological developments as well as prevalent research frameworks and terminology in the domain of work-life balance and beyond to evaluate their fitness for purpose. We also report findings from a survey of 374 employees working within UK businesses about current organisational practice. Findings: Over half of the organisations sampled do not have clear guidance regarding worklife balance and supporting employees with regards to ICT enabled working. Key challenges are the sheer volume of email traffic, lack of training and infrastructure and an absence of appropriate support. Practical implications: Organisations need to develop clear policies regarding the psychosocial aspects of technology use and provide evidence-based guidance to managers and employees. Social implications: Managers and individuals require support to engage with technology in a healthy and sustainable way

High Scale Boundary Conditions in Models with Two Higgs Doublets

We investigate high scale boundary conditions on the quartic Higgs-couplings and their $\beta$-functions in the Type-II Two Higgs Doublet Model and the Inert Doublet Model. These conditions are associated with two possible UV physics scenarios: the Multiple Point Principle, in which the potential exhibits a second minimum at $M_{Pl}$, and Asymptotic Safety, where the scalar couplings run towards an interacting UV fixed point at high scales. We employ renormalisation group running at two-loops and apply theoretical and experimental constraints to their parameter spaces. We find neither model can simultaneously accommodate the MPP whilst also providing realistic masses for both the Higgs and the top quark. However, we do find regions of parameter space compatible with Asymptotic Safety.Comment: 25 pages, 13 figures (25 plots); v3: version accepted for publicatio

Scenarios and futures in the governance of sustainable innovation pathways: the case of hydrogen energy

Global climate change and other sustainability challenges demand a transition to more sustainable systems. The long-term and complex nature of such transitions invites longterm planning, but it also suggests that the future is unpredictable and contested. Moreover, the act of envisioning, forecasting and planning for possible futures itself influences transitions, because visions and expectations form part of the institutional environment that shapes the behaviour of policymakers, innovators and others. Futures activities are thus part of the process of transition. A key source of technological expectations and visions are published technology futures documents, and the processes that are used to develop them. How are such published futures created, and why are they produced? How can we assess the quality of published futures? What role do computer models play in shaping such futures, and how can computer models be used to open up futures to alternative framings and perspectives? How can published futures be improved in order to facilitate the governance of transitions to sustainability? These are the questions that motivate this PhD, and which are the subject of the portfolio of publications and this commentary. These questions are addressed through a case: hydrogen energy technologies. A key theme that runs throughout the publications is that the future is a contested space in which actors bid for their preferred futures, express their interests and their perspectives, and attempt to influence the processes of both appraisal of and commitment to particular futures. The thesis presents a variety of ways in which participatory scenario development can be combined with other methods to ‘open up’ futures and enable consideration and representation of diverse perspectives, deep uncertainty, and plural pathways