Introducing eco-masculinities: How a masculine discursive subject approach to the individual differences theory of gender and IT impacts an environmental informatics project

In this paper I introduce the concept of eco-masculinities as a philosophical and critical project to understand the links between gendered and pro-environmental behaviour. The background of the feminist project, the sociology of masculinity, and the post-gendered world to which they both aspire, alongside a brief history of the project of ecofeminism, occupy the bulk of the paper. In the last section I briefly consider how these philosophical approaches might impact upon analysis of an EU Project entitled Digital Environment Home Energy Management System

Charmonium Spectroscopy (X,Y,Z) at the B Factories

Since 2003 several states in the charmonium mass region were discovered. While in the conventional c c-bar spectrum some states are missing, the number of states observed up to now is larger than empty spaces in the c c-bar spectrum. This, together with other difficulties to explain observed states as a c c-bar mesons triggered discussions on a possible exotic interpretations. In this proceedings we present current experimental status from B-factories of the so called X, Y and Z states.Comment: Prepared for Beauty 2009 conference, Heidelberg, German

Social networking and transnational capitalism

Social Networking Sites (SNS) have become a key component of users’ experience of the internet. Whilst much has been made of the social dynamics of online SNS, the influence of the structures and operations of these sites – and the business models behind them – on users is rarely accounted for. This paper argues that behind the social behaviours sup- ported by SNS, there is a growing shift towards viewing online communities as commodities, and SNS as an extension of mainstream capitalist ideologies fostered by existing patterns of commercialization and consumption. Using the works of Gramsci, Gill and Hardt & Negri to provide a critical grounding, this paper explores the popular SNS site ‘Facebook’ and suggests that SNS may feel to the users to be free, social, personal, but in fact SNS are business as usual

Foucault, exhibitionism and voyeurism on chatroulette

Sexuality, understood as a Foucauldian discourse that expresses itself through our passions and pursuits and contributes massively to our socially- constructed identity formation, has from the outset been a major factor in the growth of the internet. As the ultimate look-but-don‘t-touch medium, the computer screen has offered us a pornographic emporium in the privacy of our homes, fed first by the producers of material in the standard broadcast mode, then more and more by ourselves, to each other, in the social media context of online sexual social networking. The recent shift of sexual video material from broadcast to social media mode highlights the fundamental exhibitionism/voyeurism dyad at the core of all this activity, and finds its most impersonal, anonymous apotheosis in the phenomenon that is ChatRoulette, where visual discourse-objects are deployed in a nexus of online sexual power relations

Direct CP violation in B decays

We review recent experimental results on direct CP violation. The hot topic is a measurement in charmless two-body decays of B0, B+. In connection to this the first analogous measurements in Bs0 and Lambda_b0 decays are now available. Furthermore first evidence for direct CP violation in B+ decays is obtained from Dalitz plot analyzes of the K+pi-pi+ final state at B-factories. The last group of discussed results probes the b -> c\bar{c}d transition in attempt to resolve the discrepancy between Belle and BABAR experiments in CP violation in the B0 -> D+D- decays.Comment: Prepared for Flavor Physics & CP Violation Conference, Taipei, 2008. Adding few more references, small correction to tex

Tevatron Experimental Issues at High Luminosities

In this paper we describe the detector components, triggers and analysis techniques for flavor physics at the Tevatron experiments CDF and DO. As Tevatron performs very well and runs at higher luminosities regularly we also touch issues related to it and efforts to improve detectors and triggers for such running.Comment: Prepared for Beauty 2009 conference, Heidelberg, German

How the web continues to fail people with disabilities

The digital divide is most often understood as that between the IT haves and have-nots. However, if there is one minority group that can be, and often is excluded from the world wide web, even if they have a computer, it is disabled people. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Act 2001 (SENDA) extended the provisions within the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 regarding the provision of services to the education sector. Yet accessible web design, dependent on professional coding standards, adherence to guidelines, and user testing, remains rare on the web. This paper examines the background to professional coding standards, and adherence to guidelines, in an attempt to find out why the web continues to fail people with disabilities. It begins by examining the progress of the transition in the 1990s from old style HTML to strict XHTML. It applauds the vision behind that transition, charts its progress identifying the principle constituencies that it involves – and how well each has played its part. It then focuses on the further problem of the requirement for user testing to iron out anomalies not covered by standards and guidelines. It concludes that validating XHTML code is desirable, but that user testing also needs to be undertaken. It identifies the complex and heterogeneous network of interrelated concerns through which the needs of disabled web users remain unheeded. To support its argument, the paper details the results of two studies – 1) of the homepages of 778 public bodies and blue chip companies, which found only 8% of homepages validated against any declared Document Type Declarations (DTD), and 2) a wider research project on employment websites which also included disabled user testing and a number of focus groups and interviews with disabled users and web development companies