Books on the topic 'Large sample size'

The chapter looks at the division between poetry and prose in ancient and other literatures, and shows the importance of rhythmic patterning in ancient prose. The development of rhythmic prose in Greek and Latin is sketched, the system explained and illustrated (from Latin). It is firmly established, for the first time, which of the main Greek non-Christian authors 31 BC–AD 300 write rhythmically. The method takes a substantial sample of random sentence-endings (usually 400) from each of a large number of Imperial authors; it compares that sample with one sample of the same size (400) drawn randomly from a range of authors earlier than the invention of this rhythmic system. A particular sort of X2-test is applied. Many Imperial authors, it emerges, write rhythmically; many do not. The genres most likely to offer rhythmic writing are, unexpectedly, narrative: historiography and the novel.

The study of musteloids requires different perspectives and techniques than those needed for most mammals. Musteloids are generally small yet travel long distances and many live or forage underground or under water, limiting the use of telemetry and direct observation. Some are arboreal and nocturnal, facilitating telemetry but limiting observation, trapping, and many non-invasive techniques. Large sexual size dimorphism arguably doubles sample sizes for many research questions. Many musteloids defend themselves by expelling noxious chemicals. This obscure group does not attract funding, even when endangered, further reducing rate of knowledge gain. Nonetheless, passive and active radio frequency identification tags, magnetic-inductance tracking, accelerometers, mini-biologgers and some GPS tags are tiny enough for use with small musteloids. Environmental DNA can document presence of animals rarely seen. These technologies, coupled with creative research design that is well-grounded on the scientific method, form a multi-dimensional approach for advancing our understanding of these charismatic minifauna.

This chapter discusses how secondary analyses conducted with large-scale federal data sets offer a way of capturing national samples of the diverse population of deaf students, as well as important features that need to be considered when generalizing findings to practice. The author’s work with federal large-scale data sets has largely focused on an exploration of individual and systemic factors that influence postsecondary outcomes for deaf individuals. Large-scale data sets offer unique opportunities to efficiently test hypotheses and empirically address long-standing assumptions in the field through the use of large sample sizes that bring researchers closer to true representations of the heterogeneity in the Deaf community. Specific examples are shared that highlight some successes and challenges in this approach, and how researchers can best utilize large-scale data sets to conduct secondary analyses in their own work with deaf populations.

Most species now have fragmented distributions, often with adverse genetic consequences. The genetic impacts of population fragmentation depend critically upon gene flow among fragments and their effective sizes. Fragmentation with cessation of gene flow is highly harmful in the long term, leading to greater inbreeding, increased loss of genetic diversity, decreased likelihood of evolutionary adaptation and elevated extinction risk, when compared to a single population of the same total size. The consequences of fragmentation with limited gene flow typically lie between those for a large population with random mating and isolated population fragments with no gene flow.

This chapter develops the methods for designing, executing, and analyzing large suites of computer simulations that generate stable and replicable results. It starts with a discussion of the different methods of experimental design, such as grid sweeping and Monte Carlo parameterization. Next, it demonstrates how to calculate mean estimates of output variables of interest. It does so by first discussing stochastic processes, Markov Chain representations, and model burn-in. It focuses on three stochastic process representations: nonergodic deterministic processes that converge on a single state; nondeterministic stochastic processes for which a time average provides a representative estimate of the output variables; and nondeterministic stochastic processes for which a time average does not provide a representative estimate of the output variables. The estimation strategy employed depends on which stochastic process the simulation follows. Lastly, the chapter presents a set of diagnostic checks used to establish an appropriate sample size for the estimation of the means.

In this chapter, we summarize the main results of a recent empirical research concerning European banks. We first explore the main drivers of the differences in risk-weighted assets (RWAs) across a sample of fifty large European banking groups. We then assess the impact of RWA-based capital regulations on those banks’ asset allocations in 2008–14. We find that risk weights are affected by bank size, business models, and asset mix. We also find that the adoption of internal ratings-based (IRB) approaches is an important driver of RWAs and that national segmentations explain a significant (albeit decreasing) share of the variability in risk weights. As for the impact of internal ratings on banks’ asset allocation in 2008–14, we uncover that banks using IRB approaches more extensively have reduced more (or increased less) their corporate loan portfolio. This effect is somewhat stronger for banks located in Eurozone periphery countries during the 2010–12 sovereign crisis. We do not find evidence, however, of internal models producing a reallocation from corporate loans to government exposures, suggesting that other motives prevailed in driving banks towards sovereign bonds during the Eurozone sovereign crisis, including the so-called ‘financial repression’ channel.

This chapter empirically investigates the effects political economy factors on energy innovation in a sample of 20 countries between 1995 and 2010. We use various proxies for energy innovation and focus on the role of environmental policy, good governance, political orientation, and the distribution of resources to energy intensive industries. We show that political economy factors affect the incentives to engage in energy-related innovation even in the presence of stringent environmental policy. Specifically, good governance and left-wing governments provide incentives for greater R&D resources to the energy sector, while a larger distribution of resources toward energy intensive sectors can induce market-size effects and lobby for larger energy R&D allocation. This implies that, in order to move towards a greener economy, countries should combine environmental policy with a general improvement of institutions, consider the influence of government’s political orientation on environmental policies and the size of energy-intensive sectors.

Researchers have to consider a host of factors when planning their research and analyzing their data. This chapter discusses a number of important research considerations. For instance, when planning research it is important to have a large enough sample to prevent conducting an underpowered study that would be unable to detect true differences when they existed. When selecting measures, researchers should understand exactly what they are assessing and determine if the scales used have a history of producing valid and reliable scores with similar samples. When developing measures, researchers should avoid the jingle jangle fallacy and avoid creating scales that are redundant with already developed scales or use names that obfuscate the reader. When analyzing their data scientists should avoid dichotomizing continuous constructs and should shun stepwise regression techniques. When compiling findings, researchers need to consider if their results are meaningful, so effect sizes should be reported and interpreted in light of absolute standards and relative to prior research.

The landscapes of exoplanets are likely to be incredibly diverse: exoplanets come in a large range of sizes and masses, and therefore surface gravities. Atmospheres can be thick layers, or absent. The interior makeup of exoplanets is even harder to know, but the formation scenarios of the giant planets and the remains of planets found in white-dwarf atmospheres provide insights. All that knowledge, combined with information on the central stars and other exoplanets within a system, provides a view of past, present, and future environments. This chapter reviews sample exoplanets and the conditions on their surfaces.

The majority of suicides occur in LAMIC. This chapter presents findings from two low-cost, feasible interventions aimed at reducing suicides. The Suicide Prevention Multisite Intervention Study (SUPRE-MISS) of WHO assessed the effectiveness of brief intervention and contact (BIC) as an intervention strategy in five countries. Another trial in South India examined the effectiveness of a central pesticide storage facility as a means of reducing pesticide suicides. Some challenges that such trials face are the large sample sizes required to detect a significant change, making them uneconomical and unfeasible. Dearth of reliable data on suicide and underreporting because of cultural norms and legal barriers compound the problem. Future research should incorporate effective surveillance for reliable data, address high-risk groups, and initiate large-scale intervention at the community level involving multiple collaborators. Multipronged strategies, addressing social inequities, and improving health services would be the way forward to reduce the burden of suicide.

This chapter reviews recent research on the genetics of spoken language, both behavioral and molecular, and explains the methodologies for non-geneticists. Twin studies, which have benefited from statistical advances and larger sample sizes in recent decades, have progressed from merely establishing the presence of heritability in language to making claims about whether sub-domains of language (such as vocabulary and syntax) share common genes. Molecular studies have identified at least ten promising genes associated with reading impairment, Specific Language Impairment, and speech-language impairment, but in most cases have only begun to explore the pathways from gene to behavior.

Using the example of Ohio and its media markets, this chapter discusses the geographic distribution of respondents resulting from alternative sampling schemes. Traditional survey research designs for gathering information on voter attitudes and behavior usually ignore variability in context in favor of representation of a target population. When sample sizes are large, these polls also provide reasonably accurate estimates for focal subgroups of the electoral population. As the examples here show, conventional polls frequently lack the variations in geographic context likely to matter most to understanding social environments and the interdependence among voters, limiting variation on such continua as urban and rural, economic equality and inequality, occupational differences, exposure to physical environmental conditions, and a variety of other factors that exhibit spatial variation. The chapter calls for more surveys that represent exposure to a broader range of social and physical environments than researchers have produced up to now.

Romantic relational aggression (RRA) is aimed at harming a romantic partner’s relationships with others. In this chapter, we discuss 15 RRA studies that show a high prevalence of RRA in surveys of adolescents, young adults, and married partners, and a gender difference (favoring females) in studies with large sample sizes. There is evidence of personal and social antecedents (e.g., parents and peers) of RRA, as well as poorer psychosocial outcomes from RRA. Researchers are identifying a developmental pathway from late childhood or adolescent general relational aggression to RRA, which seems to also involve attributions for and beliefs about aggressive and other hostile behavior, physiological and emotional reactions, and alcohol use. We present key future research directions, including the integration of RRA research with that from related fields, clarification regarding the conceptualization and measurement of RRA, and the development and evaluation of intervention programs aimed at reducing this form of aggression.

This chapter explores the supposed difference between health regulations that are generally accepted (e.g., inspections for salmonella) and ones that are found excessively paternalistic (portion size controls), and it argues that the two are basically the same: in each case government tries to protect people from choices that do not advance their ends. Coercion is not bad when it keeps people from making choices that would promote obesity and heart disease, since most people value health more than they value the availability of large portions of junk food. Paternalists recognize that people also value things other than health, such as social outings involving food and celebrations of culture that feature traditional meals. The chapter argues that eating habits have always evolved, however, and an evolution that reflects healthier options in particular is no more destructive of shared social gatherings or cultural traditions than any other change.

Digital computers are built from hardware of great simplicity. First, they are built from devices with two states: on or off, one or zero, high voltage or low voltage, or logical TRUE or FALSE. Second, the devices are connected with extremely fine connections, currently on the order of size of a large virus. Their utility, value, and perceived extreme complexity lie in the software controlling them. Different devices have been used to build computers: relays, vacuum tubes, transistors, and integrated circuits. Theoretically, all can run the same software, only slower or faster. More exotic technologies have not proved commercially viable. Digital computer hardware has increased in power by roughly a factor of 2 every 2 years for five decades, an observation called Moore’s Law. Engineering problems with very small devices, such as quantum effects, heat, and difficulty of fabrication, are increasing and may soon end Moore’s Law.

The Pacific Ocean is the world's largest and deepest ocean, spanning about one-third of the earth's surface. Despite its size, the Pacific has received only scant global historical attention when compared to the Atlantic and the Indian Oceans. However, the Pacific has played a prominent role intermittently in world history, highlighted by Austronesian expansion, Manila Galleon trade, eighteenth-century European exploration, and the intense island-hopping military campaigns of World War II. At the same time, such historical interest did not translate into a familiar timeline integrating this watery geographical feature into a larger world historical framework. This article argues that there is more discontinuity than continuity to this ocean, and its history is best broken down by three distinct periods of exploration and settlement.

While international trade and investment is still dominated by larger multinational enterprises (MNEs), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly reaching out beyond their traditional domestic habitat. A significant number of SMEs today are engaged in transboundary trade and investment and in the wake of the digital revolution the phenomenon of ‘born global’ SMEs can be increasingly observed. In addition, many SMEs enter the global economy indirectly via global value chains. International economic law, with its traditional focus on MNEs and their interests, is only slowly waking up to this new reality. At the same time, it is increasingly recognized that the internationalization of SMEs provides the key to creating more sustainable and inclusive global economic growth. The 2015 UN Sustainable Development Goals, for example, expressly call for the facilitation of increased access for SMEs to international trade and investment. This book undertakes a first attempt at systematically analysing the interaction between SMEs and international economic law. The analysis covers a broad spectrum of international trade and investment law focusing on issues of particular interest to SMEs, such as trade in services, government procurement, and trade facilitation. Salient regional and transregional developments are taken into account, including the implications of the TPP and the TTIP negotiations for SMEs. Close attention is also devoted to the concern of many states that further liberalization of international trade and investment would unduly restrict the regulatory space necessary to protect and promote the legitimate interests of domestic SMEs.

Phenotyping is key in all genetic association studies and designing clinical studies to assess the genetic contribution to pain and analgesic response in general, and in the context of obstetric pain is even more challenging. In addition, interpreting results, particularly when multiple genes are evaluated, requires large sample sizes and appropriate statistical analysis to avoid misconstrued finding. The genetic contribution to labour pain or even that of pharmacogenetics to explain differences in analgesic response is probably not simple and straightforward and we are at the beginning of our explorations. Firm recommendations to tailor opioid regimens based on patients’ individual genetic profile are not available and are unlikely to become available in the near future other than for the prescription of codeine. To help explore genetic variants that influence the progress of labour and other various obstetric outcomes, the concept of mathematical modelling of labour progress is extremely promising and may in the future allow identification of some important genetic contributions and will perhaps one day predict labour outcome and labour pain perception.

Many observational studies have consistently shown that high-flux haemodialysis (hf-HD) has positive effects on the survival and morbidity of uraemic patients when compared with low-flux haemodialysis, and mainly considering the results of Membrane Permeability Outcome (MPO) studies there is evidence favouring high-flux treatments. A further improvement in convective treatments is represented by the on-line modality. On-line preparation from fresh dialysate by a cold-sterilizing filtration process is a cost-effective method of providing large volumes of infusion solution. Randomized, controlled, large-sized trials with long follow-up in haemofiltration (HF) are unfortunately lacking, possibly suggesting the difficulties in performing these trials, mainly in providing the same urea Kt/V considered adequate in HD. On-line haemodiafiltration (HDF) is considered the most efficient technique of using high-flux membranes, and clearances of small solutes like urea are higher in HDF than in HF and of middle solutes like β‎‎‎2-microglobulin are higher than in hf-HD. Thus HDF, as a strategy based on simultaneous diffusive and convective transport, may combine the beneficial effects of diffusive standard HD with the possible advantages of convective HF. Five large, randomized controlled trials just concluded are inconclusive in definitively clarifying the impact of on-line HDF on chronic kidney disease stage 5 patient outcomes.

This book examines the links between economic growth, changing employment conditions, and the reduction of poverty in Latin America in the 2000s. Its analysis answers the following broad questions: Has economic growth resulted in gains in standards of living and reductions in poverty via improved labour market conditions in Latin America in the 2000s, and have these improvements halted or been reversed since the international crisis of 2008? How do the rate and character of economic growth, changes in the various employment and earnings indicators, and changes in poverty and inequality indicators relate to each other? Our contribution is an in-depth study of the multi-pronged growth–employment–poverty nexus based on a large number of labour market indicators (twelve employment and earnings indicators and four poverty and inequality indicators) for a large number of Latin American countries (sixteen of them). The book presents a positive and hopeful set of findings for the period 2000 to 2012–13. Economic growth took place and brought about improvements in almost all labour market indicators and consequent reductions in poverty rates. But not all improvements were equal in size or caused by the same things. Some macroeconomic factors were associated with changes in labour market conditions, some of them always in the welfare-improving direction and others always in the welfare-reducing direction. Most countries in the region suffered a deterioration in at least some labour market indicators as a consequence of the international crisis of 2008, but the negative effects were reversed very quickly in most countries.

Firms generally begin as privately owned entities. When they grow large enough, the decision to go public and its consequences are among the most crucial times in a firm’s life cycle. The first time a firm is a reporting issuer gives rise to tremendous responsibilities about disclosing public information and accountability to a wide array of retail shareholders and institutional investors. Initial public offerings (IPOs) offer tremendous opportunities to raise capital. The economic and legal landscape for IPOs has been rapidly evolving across countries. There have been fewer IPOs in the United States in the aftermath of the 2007–2009 financial crisis and associated regulatory reforms that began in 2002. In 1980–2000, an average of 310 firms went public every year, while in 2001–2014 an average of 110 firms went public every year. At the same time, there are so many firms that seek an IPO in China that there has been a massive waiting list of hundreds of firms in recent years. Some countries are promoting small junior stock exchanges to go public early, and even crowdfunding to avoid any prospectus disclosure. Financial regulation of analysts and investment banks has been evolving in ways that drastically impact the economics of going public—in some countries, such as the United States, drastically increasing the minimum size of a company before it can expect to go public. This Handbook not only systematically and comprehensively consolidates a large body of literature on IPOs, but provides a foundation for future debates and inquiry.

The first step in understanding the production economics side is to understand the main five sectors in our food system and how they are related. Chapter 11 gives an overview of the five main sectors in the food system -- from the field to the fork. The chapter gives data on the contribution each sector makes to the US food dollar. All of these sectors are trying to answer the same fundamental questions that all economic systems are designed to answer. Therefore, it is beneficial to couch the discussion in a larger context of economic systems and systems theory. Understanding these broader principles provides a very constructive framework for discussing the challenges facing the food system.

The book provides a comprehensive description and in-depth analysis of the major word order changes affecting the clausal and the nominal domains in the transition from old to modern Romanian. The Romanian data are set in a comparative Romance perspective, and the impact of the Balkan Sprachbund and the influence of Old Church Slavonic on the word order changes taking place in the transition from old to modern Romanian are also analysed. The book examines a large number of phenomena: some of them are found across Romance (e.g. scrambling, interpolation, discontinuous constituents, variation in the position and linearization of DP-internal adjectival modifiers), others are rare in Romance (e.g. a low pronominal cliticization site), and still others are specific to old or modern Romanian (e.g. the double, proclitic and enclitic, realization of the same pronominal clitic, the low definite article, the adjectival article construction).

Judicial decision-making is ideally impartial. In reality, judges are influenced by many different factors, including institutional context, ideological commitment, fellow justices on a panel, and personal preferences. Empirical literature in this area increasingly analyzes this complex collection of factors in isolation, when a larger sample size of comparative institutional contexts can help assess the impact of the procedures, norms, and rules on key institutional decisions, such as how appeals are decided. This book explains how the answers to the following institutional questions largely determine the influence of political preferences of individual judges and the degree of cooperation among judges at a given point in time. Who decides how judicial appointments are made? How does an appeal reach the court; what processes occur? Who is before the court; how do the characteristics of the litigants and third parties affect judicial decision-making? How does the court decide the appeal; what institutional norms and strategic behaviors do the judges follow in obtaining their preferred outcome? The authors apply these four fundamental institutional questions to empirical work on the supreme courts of the United States, UK, Canada, India, and the High Court of Australia. The ultimate purpose of this book is to promote a deeper understanding of how institutional differences affect judicial decision-making, using empirical studies of supreme courts in countries with similar basic structures but with sufficient differences to enable meaningful comparison.

This collection is dedicated to questions surrounding Hegel’s philosophical method and its relationship to the conclusions of his political philosophy. It contributes to the debate about the importance of a systematic context for political philosophy, and the relationship between theoretical and practical philosophy. It also engages with contemporary discussions about the shape of a rational social order and gauges the timeliness of Hegel’s way of thinking. The chapters do not approach the topic of the relationship between Hegel’s method and system with his political philosophy from the same perspective—nor do they reach the same conclusions. But they suggest that greater attention can and should be paid to how Hegel’s political philosophy relates to his larger philosophical enterprise. It is hoped that this volume will enliven a wider debate about the importance of Hegel’s system for understanding his philosophy as a fruitful site for future research.

The figures for company insolvencies continue to decline: 9,900 cases in the first half of 2018 compared to 10,250 cases in the same period the previous year. However, the relative significance of insolvencies is increasing. The number of employees affected by them is around 20 per cent, while the commercial losses of 17 million euros caused by them in 2015 rose to 30 million in 2017. This is because middle-sized and large firms are increasingly among the companies going bankrupt, which is resulting in growing legal complexities. At a symposium entitled ‘Krisen im Aufschwung’ (An Upswing in Crises), speakers and participants discussed company insolvency law, insolvency employment law, mass generation and compliance especially, along with industrial constitution law and the right of appeal. This anthology offers in-depth access to these and other important issues relating to insolvency law and employment law in practice, and will not only appeal to academics but also to lawyers, business consultants, insolvency administrators and judges in particular.

This chapter focuses on C. Francis Jenkins' pioneering work in radio. In 1925, Jenkins began his first experimental television station in Washington, D.C. Called 3XK (later W3XK-TV), it was among the first licensed experimental television stations in the United States. Jenkins envisioned that it would follow patterns established in the growth of commercial radio. This chapter first considers Jenkins' radio-related ideas, including receivers called “Radiovisor Kits,” and goes on to discuss some of the challenges he faced in trying to improve receiver technology. It then considers the Radio Act of 1927, which shifted the Department of Commerce's licensing authority to a new Federal Radio Commission, along with Jenkins' concept for a large theater-sized television screen. It also recounts Jenkins' demonstration of his television technology for Federal Radio Commissioners in 1928 and the W3XK inaugural programming that same year. Finally, it assesses Jenkins' role in the development of television standards.

As a social historian, James W. Sanders takes a new look at a critical period in the development of Boston schools. Focusing on the burgeoning Irish Catholic population and framing the discussion around Catholic hierarchy, Sanders considers the interplay of social forces in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that led to Irish Catholics’ emerging with political control of the city and its public schools. The latter reduced the need for parochial schools; by at least the 1920s, the public and parochial schools had taken giant steps toward one another in theory and practice under the leadership of the Catholics who presided over both systems. The public schools taught the same morality as the Catholic ones, and, in the generous use of Catholic saints and heroes as moral exemplars, they came dangerously close to breaching the wall of separation between religion and the public school. As a result, despite the large Irish Catholic population, Boston’s parochial school system looked very different from parochial schools in other American cities, and did not match them in size or influence. The book begins in 1822 when Boston officially became a city and ends with the Irish Catholic takeover of the Boston public school system before the Second World War.

No two system leaders were identical in their claims to being the most innovative states in their respective zones, eras, and periods of leadership. Nonetheless, three general categories emerge: maritime commercial leadership, a pushing of agrarian boundaries, and sustained industrial economic growth. Those that made breakthroughs in the latter category, of course, redefined the modern world. Frontiers were critically important in all four cases of system leadership (China, the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States), but not exactly in the same way. Major improvements in transportation/communication facilitated economic growth by making interactions more feasible and less expensive, although the importance of trade varied considerably. Expanding populations were a hallmark of all four cases, even if the scale of increase varied. Population growth and urbanization forced agriculture to become more efficient and provided labor for nonagricultural pursuits. Urban demands stimulated regional specialization, technological innovation, and energy intensification, expanding the size of domestic markets and contributing to scalar increases in production. Just how large those scalar increases were depended on the interactions among technological innovation, power-driven machinery, and energy transition. Yet no single change led automatically to technological leadership. While lead status was never gained by default, it helped to have few rivals. As more serious rivals emerged, technological leaderships became harder to maintain.

This book explores what it means to be a gendarme investigating cases, writing reports, and settling disputes in rural Niger. At the same time, the book looks at the larger bureaucracy and the irresolvable tension between bureaucratic structures and procedures and peoples' lives. The world of facts and files exists on one side, and the chaotic and messy human world exists on the other. The book contends that bureaucracy and police work emerge in a sphere of constant and ambivalent connection and separation. The book's frontier in Niger (and beyond) is seen through ideas of space, condition, and project, packed with constraints and possibilities, riddled with ambiguities, and brutally destructive yet profoundly empowering. As the book demonstrates, the tragedy of the frontier becomes as palpable as the true impossibility of police work and bureaucracy.

This handbook is currently in development, with individual articles publishing online in advance of print publication. At this time, we cannot add information about unpublished articles in this handbook, however the table of contents will continue to grow as additional articles pass through the review process and are added to the site. Please note that the online publication date for this handbook is the date that the first article in the title was published online. For more information, please read the site FAQs. The Oxford Handbook of Ancient Greek Law is a general introduction to the law and legal procedure of Greece from the Archaic period to the Roman conquest. The handbook provides a reliable survey of the evidence and a critical evaluation of recent trends in scholarship. Among the contributors are some of the foremost experts in the field. It covers all aspects of ancient Greek law and the major topics of scholarly debate and reviews the status of the available evidence, especially the epigraphical material. As a whole, the handbook offers new perspectives, while at the same time discussing important avenues for future research. The volume attempts to do justice to the local features of the legal system of the numerous Greek city-states, while at the same time outlining the general legal principles that bound the Greek cities together. Some chapters examine individual poleis (Athens, Sparta, Gortyn, Ptolemaic Egypt), whole others are devoted to comparative studies of specific topics in the field: constitutional law, citizenship, marriage law, control of magistrates, law and economy, slavery and manumission, interstate relations, and amnesties aimed at ending stasis. Several chapters also examine the connection between law and political philosophy in the ancient Greek world. Each chapter starts by placing the topic within the larger historical context, then provides an overview of the evidence and methodological issues, detailed discussion of major topcis, and a critical evaluation of recent trends in scholarship.

Lattimer, Pennsylvania, is the location for one of labor’s forgotten massacres, a result of the xenophobic fears prevalent during the turn of the twentieth century. On September 10, 1897, about four hundred strikers of eastern and southern European descent marched to close the Lattimer colliery. Without warning, the men were fired upon by the local sheriff and his posse. The shooters stood trial for the killing of the protestors and were acquitted. Though Lattimer is one of the largest tragedies in U.S. labor history, a type of amnesia attached to the event, and the massacre has been largely forgotten in the national public memory. Many attempts to memorialize the Lattimer massacre failed, as labor and capital struggled to control memory of the event. Eventually, in 1972, the town erected a monument at the site. While Lattimer is a lesson about past labor and immigration practices, it is also about the ways in which contemporary communities perceive and deal with new immigrants. Today, northeastern Pennsylvania has experienced a new influx of immigrants from Latin America. Many belonging to the established local population are treating the new immigrants with the same prejudices and distain their own ancestors received several generations ago. Though local reaction to the immigrants reflects the larger national dialogue on immigration, there are those who struggle to change the anti-immigration rhetoric.

Modern scholars are fond of likening the task of attempting to reconstruct the medieval past to trying to do a jigsaw puzzle with very few pieces. This study has focused on the more colourful pieces of medieval history. Some of the pieces fit together neatly, through the processes of copying that were central to both the development of text and medieval book production. New histories were composed with reference to and often from existing ones, and comparison of surviving volumes sometimes permits us to track the circulation of a work over time. Other pieces of the puzzle are less obviously connected, but can nevertheless be situated within a larger picture of book production and circulation in the Middle Ages. The manuscripts considered here are united both in the themes of their contents and in the complex processes involved in their manufacture, from the production of parchment to the composition of text, and from the planning of pages to the execution of their contents. Although medieval histories could be the work of individuals, who acquired parchment, composed and wrote text, and added any decoration, history books were usually created through the collaboration of authors, scribes, and artists. The decisions made about the investment of resources of time, skills, and materials in these manuscripts seem also to be linked to real or potential patrons, and thus manuscripts were planned with consideration of the experience of the intended owner. The surviving volumes vary significantly in size (both of the folios and the amount of content), and in their appearance. Some manuscripts were made for a local readership, within a monastic community. Others were probably created for historians whose primary interest was in the text, but the most extensively decorated volumes, whether narrative histories, chronicles, or cartularies, can often be linked to a desire to impress powerful patrons. At the same time, new texts were less likely to be copied in manuscripts that required a significant investment of resources, though higher-quality copies might be made once their value was recognized....

In this study, several aspects of Saxion spin-offs have been analysed, the numbers, workplaces, location, migration, gender issues, different economic sectors and survival rates. The main question underlying all these analyses was what the impact of Saxion as university of applied sciences is on the regional economy of the two regions in which it is located. From the literature, the concept of an entrepreneurial ecosystem, as explanatory factor for the observations that in certain regions more graduates or staff members start their own business and that such an ecosystem helps small fledgling businesses to survive and grow is an interesting concept. Unfortunately, the theoretical foundations are still not fully crystallized, therefore measuring the actual influence of such entrepreneurial ecosystems is still a difficult exercise. In this study, Saxion spin-offs from two regions, Twente and the Cleantech Region, have been analysed, and several differences in terms of number of spin-offs, employment, migration patterns and survival rates have been identified. Since the spin-offs are from the same university of applied sciences, with the same policy regarding support of entrepreneurship and both regions are located outside of the economic core regions of the country, it appears as if the strength of the regional context, the regional entrepreneurial ecosystem and the business opportunities it provides is a factor in explaining why there are more spin-offs in Twente (even when controlling for the larger size of the Saxion campus in this region). If one assumes that the strength of the entrepreneurial ecosystem is stronger in Twente (among others because of existing business networks, the availability of a world class research university, the University of Twente and a business support organization like Novel-T), it would explain why spin-offs located in this region on average offer more workplaces, and have a higher survival rate than in the Cleantech Region. Gender differences related to entrepreneurship are present in Saxion spin-offs, female graduates and staff members are much less likely to start a spin-off company than their male counterparts. When females do start, their spin-offs are on average much smaller in terms of workplaces offered. Their businesses have on average an equal survival rate than those started by a male entrepreneur. Findings from the literature on the subject and the numbers found in this study suggest that there is a need for specific programs in Saxion targeting females, to at least think about starting their own business. Also, specific mentoring programs for spin-offs with female entrepreneurs may help to let these businesses grow and increase their regional economic impact. Saxion spin-offs can be found in many different sectors, something understandable given the broad spectrum of study programs in Saxion. Even though most spin-offs remain micro sized businesses, certain economic sectors seem to offer better scalable business models, especially in sectors such as industry, information and communication technology businesses and business support services. The number as well as employment in the more innovative and internationally competitive topsectors is much higher in the region Twente than in the Cleantech Region, possibly another consequence of the – apparently – stronger regional entrepreneurial ecosystem in Twente. An often-stated argument for regional economic development is that investing in spin-off companies will help to create workplaces in the region, since companies are not very likely to move. In this study, the data on migration of spin-offs have been compared with the migration of graduates, based on the HBO-monitor survey. It is not possible to one-on-one compare the two datasets, as the migration of spin-offs is calculated for the first five years of their existence and the HBO-monitor is held around one and a half year after graduation. Still, w

This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Planetary Science. Please check back later for the full article.Although the second most abundant element in the cosmos is helium, noble gases are also called rare gases. The reason is that they are not abundant on terrestrial planets like our Earth, which is characterized by orders of magnitude depletion of—particularly light—noble gases when compared to the cosmic element abundance pattern. Indeed, such geochemical depletion and enrichment processes make noble gases so versatile concerning planetary formation and evolution: When our solar system formed, the first small grains started to adsorb small amounts of noble gases from the protosolar nebula, resulting in depletion of light He and Ne when compared to heavy noble gases Ar, Kr, and Xe: the so-called planetary type abundance pattern. Subsequent flash heating of the first small mm to cm-sized objects (chondrules and calcium, aluminum rich inclusions) resulted in further depletion, as well as heating—and occasionally differentiation—on small planetesimals, which were precursors of larger planets and which we still find in the asteroid belt today from where we get rocky fragments in form of meteorites. In most primitive meteorites, we even can find tiny rare grains that are older than our solar system and condensed billions of years ago in circumstellar atmospheres of, for example, red giant stars. These grains are characterized by nucleosynthetic anomalies and particularly identified by noble gases, for example, so-called s-process xenon.While planetesimals acquired a depleted noble gas component strongly fractionated in favor of heavy noble gases, the sun and also gas giants like Jupiter attracted a much larger amount of gas from the protosolar nebula by gravitational capture. This resulted in a cosmic or “solar type” abundance pattern, containing the full complement of light noble gases. Contrary to Jupiter or the sun, terrestrial planets accreted from planetesimals with only minor contributions from the protosolar nebula, which explains their high degree of depletion and basically “planetary” elemental abundance pattern. Indeed this depletion enables another tool to be applied in noble gas geo- and cosmochemistry: ingrowth of radiogenic nuclides. Due to heavy depletion of primordial nuclides like 36Ar and 130Xe, radiogenic ingrowth of 40Ar by 40K decay, 129Xe by 129I decay, or fission Xe from 238U or 244Pu decay are precisely measurable, and allow insight in the chronology of fractionation of lithophile parent nuclides and atmophile noble gas daughters, mainly caused by mantle degassing and formation of the atmosphere.Already the dominance of 40Ar in the terrestrial atmosphere allowed C. F v. Weizsäcker to conclude that most of the terrestrial atmosphere originated by degassing of the solid Earth, which is an ongoing process today at mid ocean ridges, where primordial helium leaves the lithosphere for the first time. Mantle degassing was much more massive in the past; in fact, most of the terrestrial atmosphere formed during the first 100 million years of Earth´s history, and was completed at about the same time when the terrestrial core formed and accretion was terminated by a giant impact that also formed our moon. However, before that time, somehow also tiny amounts of solar noble gases managed to find their way into the mantle, presumably by solar wind irradiation of small planetesimals or dust accreting to Earth. While the moon-forming impact likely dissipated the primordial atmosphere, today´s atmosphere originated by mantle degassing and a late veneer with asteroidal and possibly cometary contributions. As other atmophile elements behave similar to noble gases, they also trace the origin of major volatiles on Earth, for example, water, nitrogen, sulfur, and carbon.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.