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Courting the Youth Vote in 2008: The Obama Effect
No full textThis paper examines a few of the numerous factors that may have led to increased youth turnout in 2008 Election. First, theories of voter behavior and turnout are related to courting the youth vote. Several variables that are perceived to affect youth turnout such as party polarization, perceived candidate difference, voter registration, effective campaigning and mobilization, and use of the Internet, are examined. Over the past 40 years, presidential elections have failed to engage the majority of young citizens (ages 18-29) to the point that they became inclined to participate. This trend began to reverse starting in 2000 Election and the youth turnout reached its peak in 2008. While both short and long-term factors played a significant role in recent elections, high turnout among youth voters in 2008 can be largely attributed to the Obama candidacy and campaign, which mobilized young citizens in unprecedented ways
THE CLOWN BEFORE THE POWERS. A SOUTH AFRICAN RESPONSE TO CHARLES CAMPBELL’S COMIC VISION ON PREACHING
No full textIn this paper Charles Campbell’s vision on the foolishness of preaching is brought into dialogue with the South African context with its history of apartheid and its struggles with issues such as poverty, HIV and AIDS, crime and most recently, xenophobia. The contribution of Campbell is discussed in terms of its significance for breaking the syndrome of silence, the revalidation of the image of the preacher as jester or clown, the role of the biblical texts as counter-testimonies to the status quo, and the rediscovery of the image of a vulnerable God
The Reichstag and the New Berlin
No full textThis work examines the Reichstag’s emblematic role in Berlin’s history. Today the Reichstag is a major tourist attraction and home to Germany’s democratic parliament. However, the building has had a complicated history spanning five distinct times in German history: the Imperial Age and World War I, the troubled Weimar Republic, Nazism and World War II, the divided Cold War, and finally a unified Germany. The progressions of the building mirror those of German society and the city of Berlin over the pasts century, culminating in the vibrant Western European democratic country, city, and building we see today. Specifically, the revitalization of the Reichstag building itself through Christo’s wrapping project and Sir Norman Foster’s reconstruction were vital steps for a torn city to embrace its past while transitioning the building from a history museum into the seat of the German parliament. Furthermore, this change is emblematic of Berlin as a whole, in its quest for its own Hauptstadtkultur as the capital moved back to Berlin from Bonn. Architecture has played a significant role in this New Berlin, and the case of the Reichstag building is no different. Foster’s design, adding a modernist glass and steel dome to the nineteenth century building, emphasizes political transparency while maintaining traces of the past. Focusing on the example of the Reichstag, I argue that this merging of history and hope for the future has proved essential and successful, though often controversial, in recreating a unified, vibrant, and strong Berlin
The design and implementation of a computer interface for a Raman spectrometer using the LabVIEW software package
No full textA user-friendly computer interface was created for the SPEX 1403 Raman spectrometer using the LabVIEW computer package. The interface allows the user to align the spectrometer easily, produce a graph of the Raman spectra, and save the file to a format readable by a spreadsheet program. The program has three screens: the first allows the user to set initial settings, the second allows the user to read from a particular wavelength for proper alignment, and the third allows the user to set scan settings and perform the scan. The interface was successful in reading Raman spectra easily and efficiently
