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Jewish Presence in the Venetian Empire: A Challenge to Venetian Mythology
Get PDFThis paper attempts to explain the significance of Jewish presence in the Venetian Empire in the context of the myth of Venice. Jews were officially permitted to settle in Venice in 1516, but their connection with the Venetian Empire goes further back. Jews were important for the success of the Venetian Empire, particularly from the sixteenth century onward. The permanent settlement of the Jews in Venice directly impacted the very ideology of the Venetian Empire.
Although the phrase myth of Venice was developed by twentieth-century historians, Venetians perpetuated the myth and wove its ideals into the foundation of the Venetian Empire. Blessed by the Patron Saint Mark, the Venetians believed their stable, homogenous, tolerant, Christian, mercantile Republic was destined for greatness. The Venetians perpetuated the image that Venice maintained these ideals, so this was the image Europeans had of the Venetian Empire. The reality in Venice, however, was much different. Venetians had one goal; to maintain dominance in the Adriatic Sea and gain wealth through trade. Jewish presence in Venice supported this goal, so the Venetian government ultimately permitted Jews to settle in the city. By studying the Jews in Venice, we can understand the extent that Venice was pragmatic and Venice\u27s maritime superiority and eastward-looking economy came at the expense of all else
The Effect of Blue Mussel (Mytilus edulis) Extinction on Ecosystem Function in the Gulf of Maine Rocky Intertidal
Get PDFStressors associated with climate change including thermal stress and ocean acidification inhibit the growth and reproduction of many species, including the ecologically and economically important blue mussel species in the Gulf of Maine (GOM). Established scaling relationships between mussel size, abundance, and water filtration suggests that the decline of mussels will stunt GOM water filtration. This change in the rate of water filtration could have large effects on the abundance of phytoplankton, abundance of invertebrate larvae, abundance of nutrients and organic material, food web stability, and biodiversity. Overall, this thesis explores the effect of blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) extinction on the rate of water filtration, as well as the effect of secondary extinctions of rockweed (Fucus distichus) and acorn barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides) on water filtration by mussels. Using allometric relationships between size and filtration and combining these with data from the Barner Lab, an ongoing field extinction experiment that tracks the long-term shifts in species abundance and diversity after the experimental extinction of foundation species, I examined how species extinctions will affect mussel abundance and water filtration rates. Overall, the removal of both S. balanoides and Fucus distichus correlated with a dramatic decline in the total water filtration rate by M. edulis. Therefore, the projection of water filtration decline by mussels will likely be amplified by simultaneous species decline
Complexities of Community Consultation in Chile\u27s Lithium Industry
Get PDFEchoed by November’s COP27 in Egypt, the climate crisis has become an increasingly pressing and global issue, with the need to move away from fossil fuels more urgent than ever. In attempts to decarbonize the global economy, many countries and companies have turned to electrification –particularly within the transportation sector, one of today’s largest contributors of greenhouse gasses. A crucial component of energy storage and batteries is lithium, now considered a “critical mineral.” Demand for lithium has skyrocketed in recent years and is only expected to continue growing. More than fifty percent of the world’s lithium supply is found within Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia, located beneath the surface of salt flats, or “salares.” Extraction in this region –termed the Lithium Triangle– raises several critical questions about the global energy transition, including can extraction of these critical minerals, such as lithium, be mined in a just way? Who reaps the benefits of extraction and who pays the cost? Who gets to make the decisions surrounding mining? And how ecologically sustainable is extraction via evaporation of brine? These questions are explored within the context of the Salar de Atacama, a salt flat located in Chile’s Atacama Desert, which was the first site of lithium discovery and brine extraction. Globally and historically, Indigenous peoples have often borne the brunt of extractive industries. To ensure that extraction of a mineral, primarily utilized by consumers in the Global North, does not happen at the expense of Indigenous communities in the Global South, the right to and compliance with Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) is crucial. FPIC –recognized by the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) and ILO Convention 169– obligates states to “obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.” Through the conceptual framing of the Just Transition, this paper analyzes how the Chilean consultation processes related to lithium mining align with four core principles of justice. Though existing literature addresses the variety of socio-environmental externalities through a range of perspectives, such as political ecology, emphasis surrounding consultation is lacking. Ultimately, through literature reviews, analysis of written policies, and interviews, Chilean consultation processes are evaluated within the framework of the Just Transition, exploring the tensions between state and corporate commitments with the lived realities of Indigenous community members
Thanks, It\u27s Second-Hand: Shifting Values of Second-Hand Clothing in Mexico City
Get PDFThis thesis is an analysis of the relationship between people and clothing in Mexico City. Using ethnographic snapshots, local histories and scholarly research on used clothing, this thesis looks at how the economic and emotional value attached to second-hand clothing is determined by place, story and social identity. This thesis questions how clothing changes value as it travels between the United States, open air markets that have existed since the Aztec empire and curated second-hand and vintage stores in Roma Norte, one the city’s most affluent neighborhoods. Second-hand clothing is unique in that it has an added narrative from its previous owner and time period. These identities contribute to value given by both sellers and consumers. Finally, this thesis considers how race and class structure economic and social relationships within the network of second-hand clothing exchange. This thesis seeks to provide insight about the network of second-hand clothing exchange in Mexico City and encourage readers to consider their own contribution to clothing consumption and disposal
The Colby Echo (February 16, 2023)
No full textPublished by the students of Colby College since 1877, The Colby Echo is the weekly, editorially independent student-run newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Published monthly, 1877-1886; semi-monthly, 1886-1897; and weekly during the academic year, 1898-present
The Colby Echo (April 13, 2023)
No full textPublished by the students of Colby College since 1877, The Colby Echo is the weekly, editorially independent student-run newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Published monthly, 1877-1886; semi-monthly, 1886-1897; and weekly during the academic year, 1898-present
Stereotype Threat in Older Adults’ Episodic Memory Tests: Susceptibility and Protection
Get PDFThe objective of the present study was to investigate whether prior task success would protect older adults against stereotype threat in an episodic memory test. Previous experiments have established that, whereas stereotype threat negatively impacts older participants’ episodic memory performance, prior task success benefits it. However, up until this point, researchers had yet to combine the two manipulations to test their joint effect on episodic memory. Participants were randomly assigned to read a stereotype threat or neutral passage, after which they were placed in the success or no success group. Participants next received a stereotype condition reminder, and they then completed a memory encoding and free recall task. To conclude the experiment, the older adults filled out a manipulation check and responded to an open-ended threat reaction question, and they completed some measures of individual differences. Participants’ recall accuracy did not differ as a function of stereotype condition or prior task success group, indicating that success did not buffer threatened participants against the stereotype manipulation. Intrusion rate, however, varied based on stereotype condition: Threatened participants made significantly fewer intrusions than neutral participants, which is consistent with the regulatory fit hypothesis of stereotype threat. The Discussion includes an analysis of these results in the context of previous research. Moreover, interpretation of the nonsignificant findings in light of manipulation check and open-ended threat reaction data points toward a potential avenue of future research to examine the connection between internalized metamemory beliefs and susceptibility to old age-based stereotype threat
Changes in Ecosystem Processes and Functional Traits over an Elevational Gradient
Get PDFElevation gradients have been used to understand how climate change impacts various ecosystems processes by substituting distance across elevation with time, reflecting a previous, colder climate. To monitor the changes in soil organic carbon (SOC), plant community, and functional traits across time in the face of climate change, this study used space-for-time substitution to emulate a long-term study with elevational gradients and revisited the same gradient for nearly two decades to monitor elevational effects across time. With this research, I aim to answer the following questions: (1) How does elevation impact ecosystem processes and alpine plant traits? (2) How does each site’s plant leaf traits and soil organic carbon content change over time? (3) Does elevation affect how plant traits and ecosystem processes change over time? Our results show that elevation shows a s-curve relationship in carbon cycling and causes a variety of responses in alpine plant traits, of particular note is a significant increase in specific leaf area (SLA) for several species with elevation. Overtime, SOC content had slight variations, but was unchanged. Plant communities could not be accurately predicted to change given the nature of the data set. As the s-curve for SOC and the increase in interspecific plant SLA were consistent across time, elevation’s effect on plant communities and ecosystem processes did not change over the study period. Improving our knowledge on the climate-carbon feedback would allow more accurate models for predicted ecosystem effects due to climate change
The Lie-brary of Congress: Misinformation’s Grip on the American Legislative Process
Get PDFThis thesis investigates the influence of misinformation on the policy-making pro- cess by examining its temporal relationship with congressional speech on the floor of Congress. Through the application of Granger causality tests, I aim to determine the extent to which misinformation permeates political discourse and affects representatives from both political parties. My findings reveal that misinformation drives congressional speech on certain issues, and it appears to have an asymmetrical impact on Republicans and Democrats. While not set up to answer the question about a false dichotomy, my thesis hints that Republicans spread significantly more systems-based misinformation than their Democratic counterparts