Academic literature on the topic 'John Bull's other island'

This thesis provides an auto-ethnographically informed ‘making strange’ of the mise-en-scène of Irish working class domesticity in the North West of England as it was lived during the 1960s, 1970s and into the 1980s. The liminality of being a child of migrant parents is considered and the interstices of experience and identity in and of England and Ireland, Englishness and Irishness are explored. The first chapter of the thesis draws the reader into the initial frame of reference, the personal childhood ethnography that inspired this wider study, and considers Bhabha’s ‘shadow of the nation’ falling ‘on the condition of exile’ as one context for the development of individual identities. The second chapter examines the ways in which a performance studies approach provides a useful method for interrogating matters of place, personhood and citizenship whilst the third chapter introduces performance theory as a mechanism for exploring the ways in which quotidian and cultural performance have been harnessed as tools of negotiation. These are sometimes resistant, sometimes affirmative and sometimes celebratory acts in the construction of new identities. Ongoing performances reveal the embodied histories of individual performers, shaped in part by culture and memory, masking and unmasking to both construct and reveal layered identities. The fourth chapter, provides the most obvious example of traditional fieldwork, and draws on interview extracts to provide key insights into aspects of the diasporic context, identifying and analyzing the many rehearsal and performance opportunities provided by growing up in Irish households in England, where identities were initially formed, informed, and performed. Bridging the distinction between autoethnography, performance ethnography and the ethnography of performance, this chapter engages in discussion with a range of contributors defamiliarising the domestic mise-en-scène whilst simultaneously recognizing a commonality of experience. These interviews are themselves a celebration of Irish identity performance and form an important bridge between the theoretical framework explored in the opening chapters and the subsequent case studies. The final section of the thesis searches out a mirroring of these processes in the construction of theatrical and mediatised performance – providing opportunities to both utilize and observe performance ethnography and the ethnography of performance. It is suggested that Terry Christian provides an affirmative yet angry celebration in a complex performed response to a complex mise-en-scène. A new reading of Steve Coogan’s work then suggests three modes of performance: first, Coogan the outsider satirises British mores; second, Coogan plays sophisticated games of revealing and masking multiple versions of self; third, a searching and ultimately serious engagement with his engagement with Ireland. The application of a performance theory perspective, in the context of this fraction of the Irish diaspora, reveals a playful and generous spirited approach to complex and serious matters of identity and place in the world – to the ways in which lives are led and meanings made through and for the generation of performance.

Traditional readings of George Bernard Shaw's texts suggest that he is not a pure Marxist socialist because of the spiritual and nationalist aspects of his vision. This thesis attempts to confront Shaw's politics in order to demonstrate that he indeed offers a viable socialist program. Overlaying his socialism with Louis Althusser's concepts of "overdetermination," "structural causality," and "ideology" reveals that Shaw uses relatively autonomous instances of the superstructure toward socialist ends. This reevaluation of Shaw is best achieved through a combined reading of three of his major plays -- John Bull's Other Island, Man and Superman, and Major Barbara. In John Bull, Shaw incorporates the controversy of nationalism into his socialist vision by explaining it as an inevitable step in the development of an oppressed nation toward socialism. Man and Superman discusses the need for spirituality in the form of Shaw's concepts of Creative Evolution and the Life Force, which drive toward the development of a consciousness that recognizes socialism as the only sustainable internationalist program. Major Barbara combines Shaw's socialist and spiritual views by showing that both stand in reciprocal relation to each other; they are equally necessary to the Shavian world, one providing the ideal social system, the other the most enlightened human sensibility. This project demonstrates that Shaw's integration of these elements usually considered contradictory to Marxism becomes a way to understand him as practicing the Althusserian idea that any displacements of the infrastructure are economic in the last instance.
Graduation date: 1999

In the summer of 2009, Governor John P. DeJongh, Jr. announced that the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority (WAPA) had just signed two 20-year Power Purchase Agreements, and the Virgin Islands Waste Management Authority (VIWMA) had signed two 20-year Solid Waste Management Services Agreements with affiliates of Denver-based Alpine Energy Group, LLC (AEG) to build, own, and operate two alternative energy facilities that will serve the residents of St. Croix, St. John, and St. Thomas. The alternative energy facilities, to be built on St. Croix and St. Thomas, have a projected cost of $440 million and will convert an estimated 146,000 tons per year of municipal solid waste into refuse-derived fuel (RDF) using WastAway Services® technology, which will be combined with petroleum coke as fuel in fluidized bed combustion facilities to generate steam and electric power. These sustainable projects will provide 33 MW of electric power to St. Thomas and St. John and 16 MW of electric power to St. Croix, and will help to provide long-term cost stability for electric power and solid waste management in the Territory. Construction is expected to start in spring 2010 with an anticipated completion date during the fourth quarter of 2012. This procurement is a significant achievement for the U.S. Virgin Islands. When the projects are fully implemented, they will allow the Territory to reduce its dependence on oil, recover the energy value and certain recyclable materials from its municipal solid waste, and divert this waste from landfill. Since VIWMA has the responsibility to collect and/or dispose of solid waste year-round, having a system incorporating multiple solid waste processing lines and an adequate supply of spare parts on hand at all times is crucial to meeting the daily demands of waste receiving and processing, and RDF production. Also, with the location of the US Virgin Islands in a hurricane zone, and with only one or two combustion units available in each Project, the ability to both stockpile waste pre-RDF processing and store the produced RDF is very important. Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. (GBB)’s work has included a due diligence review of the Projects and providing professional support in VIWMA’s negotiations with AEG. GBB’s initial primary assignment centered on reviewing the design and operations of the RDF processing systems that will be built and operated under the respective Service Contracts. VIWMA needed to undertake a detailed technical review of the proposed RDF processing system, since this was the integration point of the waste collection system and waste processing/disposal services. GBB, in association with Maguire, was requested to provide this review and present the findings and opinions to VIWMA. In the completion of this effort, which included both a technical review and participation in negotiations to advance the Service Contracts for the Projects, GBB made direct contact with the key equipment suppliers for the Projects proposed by AEG. This included Bouldin Corporation, the primary RDF processing system supplier, with its patented WastAway technology, and Energy Products of Idaho, the main thermal processing equipment supplier, with its fluidized bed combustion technology and air pollution control equipment. Additionally, since the combustion systems for both Projects will generate an ash product that will require marketing for use and/or disposal over the term of the Service Contracts, GBB made contact with LA Ash, one of the potential subcontractors identified by AEG for these ash management services. Due to the nature of the contract guarantees of VIWMA to provide 73,000 tons per year of Acceptable Waste to each Project for processing, VIWMA authorized GBB to perform a current waste stream characterization study. Part of this effort included waste sorts for one week each in February 2009 on St. Croix and March 2009 on St. Thomas, with the results shared with VIWMA and AEG, as compiled. The 2009 GBB waste stream characterization study incorporated historical monthly waste weigh data from both the Bovoni and Anguilla Landfills that were received from VIWMA staff. The study has formed a basis for continuing to augment the waste quantity information from the two landfills with the additional current monthly results compiled by VIWMA staff going forward following the waste sorts. The final GBB report was published in December 2009 and includes actual USVI landfill receipt data through August 31, 2009. The information contained in this document provides the underpinnings to allow for better tracking and analysis of daily, weekly and monthly waste quantities received for recycling, processing and disposal, which are important to the overall waste processing system operations, guarantees and cost projections. GBB’s annual projections are that the total waste on St. Croix is currently over 104,000 tons per year and over 76,000 tons per year on St. Thomas. The thermal processing technology selected for both Projects is a fluidized bed process, employing a heated bed of sand material “fluidized” in a column of air to burn the fuel — RDF and/or Pet Coke. As such, the solid waste to be used in these combustion units must be size-reduced from the myriad of sizes of waste set out at the curb or discharged into the large roll-off boxes or bins at the many drop-off sites in the US Virgin Islands. While traditional RDF would typically have several days of storage life, the characteristics of the pelletized RDF should allow several weeks of storage. This will be important to having a sound and realistic operating plan, given the unique circumstances associated with the climate, waste moisture content, island location, lack of back-up disposal options and downtime associated with the Power Generation Facility. During the negotiations between AEG and VIWMA, in which GBB staff participated, in addition to RDF and pelletized RDF as the waste fuel sources, other potential fuels have been discussed for use in the Projects and are included as “Opportunity Fuels” in the Service Contracts. These Opportunity Fuels include ground woody waste, dried sludges, and shredded tires, for example. Therefore, the flexibility of the EPI fluidized bed combustion boilers to handle multi-fuels is viewed as an asset over the long term, especially for an island location where disposal options are limited and shipping materials onto and off of each island is expensive. This presentation will provide a unique behind-the-scenes review of the process that led to this historic agreement, from the due diligence of the proposed technologies, to implementation planning, to the negotiations with the contractor. Also discussed will be the waste characterization and quantity analysis performed in 2009 and the fast-track procurement planning and procurement of construction and operating services for a new transfer station to be sited on St. Croix.

Grand Canyon National Park is all about time and timescales. Time is the currency of our daily life, of history, and of biological evolution. Grand Canyon’s beauty has inspired explorers, artists, and poets. Behind it all, Grand Canyon’s geology and sense of timelessness are among its most prominent and important resources. Grand Canyon has an exceptionally complete and well-exposed rock record of Earth’s history. It is an ideal place to gain a sense of geologic (or deep) time. A visit to the South or North rims, a hike into the canyon of any length, or a trip through the 277-mile (446-km) length of Grand Canyon are awe-inspiring experiences for many reasons, and they often motivate us to look deeper to understand how our human timescales of hundreds and thousands of years overlap with Earth’s many timescales reaching back millions and billions of years. This report summarizes how geologists tell time at Grand Canyon, and the resultant “best” numeric ages for the canyon’s strata based on recent scientific research. By best, we mean the most accurate and precise ages available, given the dating techniques used, geologic constraints, the availability of datable material, and the fossil record of Grand Canyon rock units. This paper updates a previously-published compilation of best numeric ages (Mathis and Bowman 2005a; 2005b; 2007) to incorporate recent revisions in the canyon’s stratigraphic nomenclature and additional numeric age determinations published in the scientific literature. From bottom to top, Grand Canyon’s rocks can be ordered into three “sets” (or primary packages), each with an overarching story. The Vishnu Basement Rocks were once tens of miles deep as North America’s crust formed via collisions of volcanic island chains with the pre-existing continent between 1,840 and 1,375 million years ago. The Grand Canyon Supergroup contains evidence for early single-celled life and represents basins that record the assembly and breakup of an early supercontinent between 729 and 1,255 million years ago. The Layered Paleozoic Rocks encode stories, layer by layer, of dramatic geologic changes and the evolution of animal life during the Paleozoic Era (period of ancient life) between 270 and 530 million years ago. In addition to characterizing the ages and geology of the three sets of rocks, we provide numeric ages for all the groups and formations within each set. Nine tables list the best ages along with information on each unit’s tectonic or depositional environment, and specific information explaining why revisions were made to previously published numeric ages. Photographs, line drawings, and diagrams of the different rock formations are included, as well as an extensive glossary of geologic terms to help define important scientific concepts. The three sets of rocks are separated by rock contacts called unconformities formed during long periods of erosion. This report unravels the Great Unconformity, named by John Wesley Powell 150 years ago, and shows that it is made up of several distinct erosion surfaces. The Great Nonconformity is between the Vishnu Basement Rocks and the Grand Canyon Supergroup. The Great Angular Unconformity is between the Grand Canyon Supergroup and the Layered Paleozoic Rocks. Powell’s term, the Great Unconformity, is used for contacts where the Vishnu Basement Rocks are directly overlain by the Layered Paleozoic Rocks. The time missing at these and other unconformities within the sets is also summarized in this paper—a topic that can be as interesting as the time recorded. Our goal is to provide a single up-to-date reference that summarizes the main facets of when the rocks exposed in the canyon’s walls were formed and their geologic history. This authoritative and readable summary of the age of Grand Canyon rocks will hopefully be helpful to National Park Service staff including resource managers and park interpreters at many levels of geologic understandings...