American Outlaws in Australia

An aspect of the diffusion of American popular culture is examined in this research drawing upon national survey data. Measuring Australians’ knowledge of American and Australian outlaws, we found that Jesse James and Billy the Kid are better known in Australia than any of the local outlaws, or bushrangers, with the exception of Ned Kelly. While a relatively large proportion of Australians identified Ned Kelly, Ben Hall, Jesse James and Billy the Kid as outlaws, few identified other Australian ‘outlaws’. Social background and political ideology is associated with greater knowledge of outlaws. Men, baby boomers and their predecessors, those born in Australia or the UK, those with a basic secondary level education and those identifying as left on the political spectrum are the most knowledgeable. This Australian study suggests that outlaws such as Jesse James and Billy the Kid are not just national folk heroes, but recognised globally. Promoted by visual and print media they have transcended their outlaw heritage to represent romanticised notions of freedom, loyalty and the ‘underdog’, regardless of the historical facts surrounding their lives and deaths

Explaining Support for Animal Rights: A Comparison of Two Recent Approaches to Humans, Nonhuman Animals, and Postmodernity

Questions on "animal rights" in a cross-national survey conducted in 1993 provide an opportunity to compare the applicability to this issue of two theories of the socio-political changes summed up in "postmodernity": Inglehart's (1997) thesis of "postmaterialist values" and Franklin's (1999) synthesis of theories of late modernity. Although Inglehart seems not to have addressed human-nonhuman animal relations, it is reasonable to apply his theory of changing values under conditions of "existential security" to "animal rights." Inglehart's postmaterialism thesis argues that new values emerged within specific groups because of the achievement of material security. Although emphasizing human needs, they shift the agenda toward a series of lifestyle choices that favor extending lifestyle choices, rights, and environmental considerations. Franklin's account of nonhuman animals and modern cultures stresses a generalized "ontological insecurity." Under postmodern conditions, changes to core aspects of social and cultural life are both fragile and fugitive. As neighborhood, community, family, and friendship relations lose their normative and enduring qualities, companion animals increasingly are drawn in to those formerly exclusive human emotional spaces. With a method used by Inglehart and a focus in countries where his postmaterialist effects should be most evident, this study derives and tests different expectations from the theories, then tests them against data from a survey supporting Inglehart's theory. His theory is not well supported. We conclude that its own anthropocentrism limits it and that the allowance for hybrids of nature-culture in Franklin's account offers more promise for a social theory of animal rights in changing times

Homeownership, Shareownership And Coalition Policy

The rise in private shareownership has been a striking feature of Australia's political economy over the last decade. This paper compares its implications with those arising from the widespread homeownership, that occurred from the Menzies years onwards

Civic Identity in Australia

A typology of macro-social identities is suggested based on the strength of social attachments (strong vs. weak:) and the nature of the objects-referents of such attachments (society vs. nation). It yields three types of identity: civic, ethno-national, and denizen. This typology is then operationalized using national survey data (1995 ISSP). The analysis reveals two modal forms of identity in Australia (the denizen identity appears to be very rare). The largest proportion (38%) of Australians embrace civic identity, and this identity is most widespread among 'baby boomers', tertiary educated, and the secular. Ethno-nationalists form a sizable minority (30%), and they are predominantly older, less educated and religious people. The key issue dividing the adherents to civic and ethno-national identity is immigration and its socioeconomic consequences. The proportion of ethno-nationalists is likely to shrink in the process of generational replacement, educational revolution and progressive secularization

American Outlaws in Australia

An aspect of the diffusion of American popular culture is examined in this research drawing upon national survey data. Measuring Australians’ knowledge of American and Australian outlaws, we found that Jesse James and Billy the Kid are better known in Australia than any of the local outlaws, or bushrangers, with the exception of Ned Kelly. While a relatively large proportion of Australians identified Ned Kelly, Ben Hall, Jesse James and Billy the Kid as outlaws, few identified other Australian ‘outlaws’. Social background and political ideology is associated with greater knowledge of outlaws. Men, baby boomers and their predecessors, those born in Australia or the UK, those with a basic secondary level education and those identifying as left on the political spectrum are the most knowledgeable. This Australian study suggests that outlaws such as Jesse James and Billy the Kid are not just national folk heroes, but recognised globally. Promoted by visual and print media they have transcended their outlaw heritage to represent romanticised notions of freedom, loyalty and the ‘underdog’, regardless of the historical facts surrounding their lives and deaths

The Incorporation of a Complementary Therapy by Australian General Practitioners: The Case of Acupuncture

Complementary therapies may be rejected by doctors as quackery or incorporated by doctors as part of their practice, although such incorporation may be limited. In Australia acupuncture has been incorporated as a normal part of general practice, although it is not accepted as an orthodox technique. This incorporation is demonstrated through analysis of national data on acupuncture usage and through analysis of two surveys of general practitioners undertaken independently in the states of Tasmania and Victoria, Australia. Further, it is argued, from examination of interview and focus groups responses, that experienced doctors turn to acupuncture to deal with patients who do not respond to orthodox therapies. This move is possible because the valuing of clinical judgement allows practitioners to suspend their scientific judgement of the therapy although they are uneasy about doing so

Young Queenslanders’ experiences of COVID-19 : Insights from the Our Lives cohort study

[Extract] These findings provide an overview of changes in young Queenslanders’ attitudes, behaviours, and life pathways during the early spread of COVID-19 and public health restrictions to contain it. Evidently, this period of sudden, mass social and economic disruption posed heightened risks to the social, economic, and psychological well-being of the Our Lives cohort and those young adults they represent. The introduction of emergency welfare measures may have been a short-term buffer to some of these impacts, as were the opportunities found by more fortunate young people to strengthen existing relationships, and cultivate an inward focus on personal goals, interests, and health. Nonetheless, our research suggests both the risks and opportunities posed by COVID-19 are being experienced unevenly within the cohort, with the potential for a widening of social inequalities. Encouragingly, there were signs that political bipartisanship on the issue of COVID-19 has helped to reverse a long-term decline in young people’s trust in government and politicians generally. Further research on the Our Lives cohort will thus be critical for understanding the longer-term implications of COVID-19 for the lives and outlooks of young Queenslanders into 2021 and beyond

LINES BY SOMEONE ELSE: THE PRAGMATICS OF APPROMPTED POEMS

Over the last sixty years, overtly intertextual poems with titles such as "Poem Beginning with a Line by John Ashbery" and "Poem Ending with a Line by George W. Bush" have been appearing at an increasing rate in magazines and collections. These poems wed themselves to other texts and authors in distinct ways, inviting readers to engage with poems which are, themselves, in conversation with lines from elsewhere. These poems, which I refer to as "apprompted" poems, explicitly challenge readers to investigate the intertextual conversation, and in doing so, they adopt inherent risks. My thesis will chart the various effects these poems can have for readers and the consequences they may hold for the texts from which they borrow. It is difficult to trace the germ of an idea, and this one has been gestating for several years. At first, I had assumed that these poems with titles declaring they possessed lines from elsewhere were part of a well-established form before learning that the form had no name and that there was little criticism on the theory of their operation. I thank William Virgil Davis for drawing this to my attention. I also want to thank the poets who answered my emails and queries about their apprompted poems. These poets includ

A land-to-ocean perspective on the magnitude, source and implication of DIC flux from major Arctic rivers to the Arctic Ocean

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Global Biogeochemical Cycles 26 (2012): GB4018, doi:10.1029/2011GB004192.A series of seasonally distributed measurements from the six largest Arctic rivers (the Ob', Yenisey, Lena, Kolyma, Yukon and Mackenzie) was used to examine the magnitude and significance of Arctic riverine DIC flux to larger scale C dynamics within the Arctic system. DIC concentration showed considerable, and synchronous, seasonal variation across these six large Arctic rivers, which have an estimated combined annual DIC flux of 30 Tg C yr−1. By examining the relationship between DIC flux and landscape variables known to regulate riverine DIC, we extrapolate to a DIC flux of 57 ± 9.9 Tg C yr−1for the full pan-arctic basin, and show that DIC export increases with runoff, the extent of carbonate rocks and glacial coverage, but decreases with permafrost extent. This pan-arctic riverine DIC estimate represents 13–15% of the total global DIC flux. The annual flux of selected ions (HCO3−, Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, Sr2+, and Cl−) from the six largest Arctic rivers confirms that chemical weathering is dominated by inputs from carbonate rocks in the North American watersheds, but points to a more important role for silicate rocks in Siberian watersheds. In the coastal ocean, river water-induced decreases in aragonite saturation (i.e., an ocean acidification effect) appears to be much more pronounced in Siberia than in the North American Arctic, and stronger in the winter and spring than in the late summer. Accounting for seasonal variation in the flux of DIC and other major ions gives a much clearer understanding of the importance of riverine DIC within the broader pan-arctic C cycle.Funding for this work was provided through NSF-OPP-0229302 and NSF-OPP-0732985. Additional support to SET was provided by an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship.2013-06-1

Spiny lobster development: where does successful metamorphosis to the puerulus occur?: a review

This review re-addresses the question: Where does metamorphosis to the puerulus mainly take place among the shallow-water palinurids? A decade ago we reviewed this ecological question in a paper that focused on phyllosomal development of the western rock lobster, Panulirus cygnus. The main region of occurrence of its metamorphosis was found to be in the slope region beyond the shelf break. Because the puerulus of P. cygnus is a non-feeding stage, it was hypothesised that metamorphosis will not occur until the final phyllosoma has reached some critical, and specific, level of stored energy reserves. For late larval development and successful metamorphosis of P. cygnus, the richest food resources seem to be located in the slope waters adjoining the shelf break off Western Australia. This, like most shelf break areas, is a region of higher zooplankton and micronekton biomass than is usually found further offshore, and is dominated (in winter-spring months) by the warm south-flowing Leeuwin Current. In this new review, distribution and abundance data of final phyllosomas and pueruli are examined from, Panulirusargus, Panulirus cygnus, Panulirus japonicus, Panulirus ornatus and Jasus edwardsii, and where possible, related to features of the satellite imagery of the areas in which they occur. We hypothesise that metamorphosis will occur where the final stages have partaken of sufficient, appropriate nutrition to provide them with a reserve of bioenergetic resources, and this can occur where oceanographic fronts effect greater planktonic productivity and concentrations of food organisms. This may be near the shelf-break, or out to large distances offshore, because of large-scale oceanographic events such as the prevailing current system, its off-shoots, mesoscale eddy fronts, counter-currents, etc. However, we contend that, in terms of population recruitment, metamorphosis in most shallow-water palinurid species occurs mainly in the slope waters adjoining the shelf break of the region to which the species is endemic. Although some final phyllosomas may metamorphose much further offshore, it is unlikely that these pueruli will reach the shore, let alone settle and successfully moult to the juvenile stage. All of the data indicate that successful metamorphosis from the final-stage phyllosoma to the puerulus stage in all species occurs offshore but close to the continental shelf