Historical reasoning about Indigenous imprisonment: a community of fate?

The high rate of Indigenous incarceration is a problem for public policy and therefore for historical and social analysis. This paper compares and contrasts two recent attempts at such analysis: Thalia Anthony’s Indigenous People, Crime and Punishment (2013) and Don Weatherburn’s Arresting Incarceration: Pathways Out of Indigenous Imprisonment (2014). What difference do these books’ contrasting narrative models of Australian history make to our thinking about contemporary Indigenous incarceration? The paper reveals several differences and similarities in their perspectives: how they position themselves in relation to the values that shape Australian debate about punishment; their historical understanding of the institutions of ‘protection’ and of the impact of ‘assimilation’; whether the law and order apparatus is systemically biased against Indigenous Australians; and whether Indigenous Australians should be understood as a ‘community of fate’

USING THE WRONG DISCOUNT RATE TO ALLOCATE A MARINE RESOURCE

How does conventionally defined social welfare (SW) decline when a marine resource is allocated over time using a discount rate different from the social discount rate (SDR)? Utilizing a computational, discrete-time stylized anchovy model it is found that, for SDRs in the range 4–7%, using a rate different from the SDR by three percentage points or less yields small percentage welfare losses. The largest loss is 3.34% of the welfare associated with the efficient dynamic path. More pronounced percentage surplus transfers between consumers and producers occur as the improper rate diverges from the SDR. Generalizing from such results is problematic, because different marine resources can exhibit vastly different demand and supply circumstances. To the extent that the results generalize, however, they offer some comfort to practitioners who must use a numerical SDR in a marine resource model. Yet, income distribution issues may loom larger when a discount rate is selected.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Early Christian readings of Paul on moral regeneration

Since God judges everyone according to their deeds, Paul regards the cultivation of moral conduct as a crucial task. Responding to the scholarly deadlock on whether believers’ ethical capacities are themselves regenerated or simply overlaid with divine power and otherwise unchanged, we engage with Romans 6:1-14 and its direct citations up to the death of Origen, where direct citations are identified by an attribution signal and literality. We ask whether moral regeneration is present in the early readings of Romans 6:1-14. Irenaeus’ three citations argue for the unity of Christ, the salvageability of the flesh, and a distinction between fleshly deeds and the flesh itself. Understanding the Spirit as formative of those whom he indwells, Irenaeus cites Romans 6:4 in order to demonstrate believers’ moral regeneration if they continue in the Spirit. Clement of Alexandria’s four citations are proof-texts against the Basilideans and the Valentinians. Clement’s Apostle signals believers’ exoneration for involuntary misdeeds because he says that they are “under grace”. Tertullian adapts two extended citations to his sympathetic audience in order to argue for the salvageability of the flesh and for the exclusion of recidivist baptized adulterers from the Church. Tertullian’s Apostle expects that all wrongdoing comes to an end with baptism. Origen adopts a voluntarist hermeneutic in his Commentary on Romans against opponents who promoted moral determinism. Thus, we find his strong witness to personal responsibility for moral action. His Commentary also contains his deduction from Romans 6:12 that the desires of the Spirit overlay the desires of sin, which believers still have. Origen’s other works contain proof-texts from our passage which display symbolic readings of “sin” and moral degeneration in recidivists; these too mainly make the case for personal responsibility. Thus, Clement, Tertullian, and Origen witness to perspectival renewal, and Irenaeus and Origen also to moral regeneration

Optical Constants of Single Crystal Bismuth

The index of refraction and extinction index of bismuth for a ray reflected from a natural cleavage surface (perpendicular to main crystallographic axis) are measured by means of a Stokes\u27 analyser. The values so obtained are compared with the values for the polycrystalline metal

Fathers' occupation as a factor elimination of high school pupils

Thesis (M.A.)--Boston University, 1917. This item was digitized by the Internet Archive

Insult vs. Information in Today\u27s News Media

Arthur E. Rowse, a veteran newsman and media critic, retired from U.S. News & World Report after serving on the city desks of the Boston Globe, Boston Herald/Traveler, and Washington Post. He is the author of Drive-By Journalism: The Assault on Your Need to Know (Common Courage Press, 2000). This talk was delivered at the Seventh Annual Media Studies Symposium at Sacred Heart University on March 25, 2001

'Essentially sea‑going people' : how Torres Strait Islanders shaped Australia's border

As an Opposition member of parliament in the 1950s and 1960s, Gough Whitlam took a keen interest in Australia’s responsibilities, under the United Nations’ mandate, to develop the Territory of Papua New Guinea until it became a self-determining nation. In a chapter titled ‘International Affairs’, Whitlam proudly recalled his government’s steps towards Papua New Guinea’s independence (declared and recognised on 16 September 1975). However, Australia’s relationship with Papua New Guinea in the 1970s could also have been discussed by Whitlam under the heading ‘Indigenous Affairs’ because from 1973 Torres Strait Islanders demanded (and were accorded) a voice in designing the border between Australia and Papua New Guinea. Whitlam’s framing of the border issue as ‘international’, to the neglect of its domestic Indigenous dimension, is an instance of history being written in what Tracey BanivanuaMar has called an ‘imperial’ mode. Historians, she argues, should ask to what extent decolonisation was merely an ‘imperial’ project: did ‘decolonisation’ not also enable the mobilisation of Indigenous ‘peoples’ to become self-determining in their relationships with other Indigenous peoples? This is what the Torres Strait Islanders did when they asserted their political interests during the negotiation of the Australia–Papua New Guinea border, though you will not learn this from Whitlam’s ‘imperial’ account

Statistics of the Self: Shaping the Self Through Quantified Self-Tracking

Self-tracking practices are growing in popularity worldwide. From heart-rate monitoring to mood tracking, many believe that wearable technologies are making their users more mindful in exclusively positive ways. However, I will argue that consistent and deliberate self-tracking (with or without portable devices) necessitates a particular understanding of the self with consequences that have yet to be fully explored. Through an analysis of forum posts on a popular self-tracking discussion and informational site, QuantifiedSelf.com, I will claim that self-trackers approach the creation of self-knowledge in a manner that is particular to today’s society. I will discuss how the ubiquitous conflation of numerical identities with objective reasoning feeds into a mindset that supports quantification of the self, and how the views of self exhibited by these self-trackers can be considered a version of creating a “scientific self.” The notion of the scientific self supports both an individual and societal shift in the practice of “being”—a shift that carries with it many possible repercussions that have yet to be widely analyzed. This analysis, I will argue, is key to limiting the destructive potential of understanding people in terms of data, while simultaneously enabling new conceptualizations of self to be practiced in modern society

Spoliation: Civil Liability for Destruction of Evidence

Intentional destruction of evidence has become a serious legal problem. Recently, the A.H. Robins Company was accused of intentionally destroying incriminating documents relevant to Dalkon Shield litigation. Even documents the court ordered to be preserved were allegedly destroyed by an attorney representing the company. The A.H. Robins Company is not the only corporation accused of intentionally destroying evidence. An attorney representing the Eastman-Kodak Company in an antitrust suit admitted that he destroyed documents relating to the litigation