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Astronomy, 2020
No full textSince its debut in 1868, The World Almanac and Book of Facts has become the best-selling American reference book of all time, with more than 82 million copies sold. This essential household and workplace desk reference is “the most useful reference book known to modern man,” according to the L.A. Times. Renowned New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz calls it his “#1 reference work for facts.”
Dr. Marschall is the editor of the chapter on astronomy, which compiles astronomical data and information on celestial events, moon phases, eclipses, and astronomical positions and constants, as well as data on planets and satellites
The Tale of the Tokugawa Artifacts: Japanese Funerary Lanterns at the Penn Museum
Get PDFThat previously stood at the back of the quiet inner courtyard of the Penn Museum waited many years for its significance to be rediscovered. It is one of the Tokugawa lanterns that long illuminated the shogunate family’s grand mausoleums during the Edo period (1603–1868 CE) in the Zōjōji temple in Tokyo, Japan. Photographs taken around 1930 show the lanterns flanking the Museum entrance in the Stoner Courtyard. The prominent placement of these objects suggests that, in those days, the Museum acknowledged the significance of the lanterns. One of the lanterns was subsequently moved to Museum storage after suffering damage from an act of vandalism in the 1950s or 1960s. Although it is not clear exactly when the lanterns left Japan and arrived in the United States, Stephen Lang, Lyons Keeper in the Asian Section at the Museum, has determined that the lanterns came into the Museum collection as a loan in 1919 from Mrs. Richard Waln Meirs (Anne Walker Weightman Meirs Rush, 1871–1958). They may have been sent from Japan by Mrs. Meirs’ uncle, Robert Jarvis Cochran Walker in the late 1880s to be displayed at Meirs’ Ravenhill Mansion. [excerpt
The Enigma of Electability: How Do Voters Predict Who Can Win?
Get PDFIdeological moderation is often assumed to inform a candidate\u27s electability. This article examines the effects of a voters’ perceptions of a candidate’s ideology on the voters’ belief in the candidate’s ability to win the election. Using data from the American National Election Survey from 2008 and 2016, the paper compares the effect of the perceived ideology of a candidate and individuals\u27 predictions about the candidate that will win. Opinions regarding Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Donald Trump are analyzed. The results suggest that for the Democratic candidates, voters who believed them to be more moderate or conservative were more likely to believe they would win than those who thought they were more liberal. However, the results suggested no similar relationship existed for the Republican candidates with no effect of ideological moderation on election outcome predictions
Millionaires, Millennials, and More
Get PDFJoin colleagues from Development, Alumni and Parent Relations and from Foundation, Government, and Faculty Grants for a conversation on trends in higher education philanthropy, fundraising at Gettysburg College, grant-seeking, and more
The Influence of Signaling Conspecific and Heterospecific Neighbors on Eavesdropper Pressure
Get PDFThe study of tradeoffs between the attraction of mates and the attraction of eavesdropping predators and parasites has generally focused on a single species of prey, signaling in isolation. In nature, however, animals often signal from mixed-species aggregations, where interactions with heterospecific group members may be an important mechanism modulating tradeoffs between sexual and natural selection, and thus driving signal evolution. Although studies have shown that conspecific signalers can influence eavesdropper pressure on mating signals, the effects of signaling heterospecifics on eavesdropper pressure, and on the balance between natural and sexual selection, are likely to be different. Here, we review the role of neighboring signalers in mediating changes in eavesdropper pressure, and present a simple model that explores how selection imposed by eavesdropping enemies varies as a function of a signaling aggregation\u27s species composition, the attractiveness of aggregation members to eavesdroppers, and the eavesdroppers\u27 preferences for different member types. This approach can be used to model mixed-species signaling aggregations, as well as same-species aggregations, including those with non-signaling individuals, such as satellites or females. We discuss the implications of our model for the evolution of signal structure, signaling behavior, mixed-species aggregations, and community dynamics
APPC Minutes - November 5, 2019
No full textMinutes of the Academic Policy and Program Committee Meeting, November 5th, 2019
Secrecy in the American Revolution
Get PDFThis paper analyzes how the use of various cryptographic and cryptanalytic techniques affected the American Revolution. By examining specific instances of and each country\u27s general approaches to cryptography and cryptanalysis, it is determined that America\u27s use of these techniques provided the rising nation with a critical advantage over Great Britain that assisted in its victory
APPC Minutes - November 12, 2019
No full textMinutes of the Academic Policy and Program Committee Meeting, November 12th, 2019
APPC Minutes - December 3, 2019
No full textMinutes of the Academic Policy and Program Committee Meeting, December 3rd, 2019
Leonardo and the Whale
Get PDFAround 1480, when he was 28 years old, Leonardo da Vinci recorded what may have been a seminal event in his life. In writing of his travels to view nature he recounted an experience in a cave in the Tuscan countryside:
Having wandered for some distance among overhanging rocks, I can to the entrance of a great cavern... [and after some hesitation I entered] drawn by a desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within...
[excerpt