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Feasibility of Introduced Species into the Westhampton Lake for Pollution Control
Get PDFWesthampton Lake, located at the University of Richmond in Virginia is a man made lake that feeds into the James river. The lake itself suffers from pollution and above average nutrient loads from external sources. There have been efforts to try to reduce some pollution from the lake but this research proposes and explores the viability of introducing species into the lake for the same purpose. Two types of animals proposed for introduction into the lake are common carp (Cyprinus carpio) and freshwater mussels (Bivalvia: Unionidae). Sterilized common carp are proposed as a short term solution to removal of invasive plant species (can not reproduce and would need to be replenished) because of their foraging ecology to eat undesirable plant species. Freshwater mussels have the potential to filter through e.coli and nutrients that are in excess in the lake. Freshwater mussels are also suffering from dwindling populations and so reintroducing them into the Westhampton lake would be overall beneficial to their survival in Virginia. Research into the nutrient levels of the lake proved that Westhampton Lake has nutrient levels in the range of what mussels could survive in. Common carp, however, would have too many risks associated with their introduction to be recommended. Common carp forage in a way that breaks up soil and could release nutrients into the water and would also likely favor eating native rooted plants as opposed to the invasive duckweed we would be seeking for them to target. Therefore, it is proposed that there be a trial introduction of mussels in enclosed cages in the lake so their health and growth could be monitored before introducing a larger population. Common carp as a means of invasive plant species management should not be pursued
Myth, Fiction and Politics in the Age of Antiheroes: A Case Study of Donald Trump
Get PDFIn this article, we demonstrate that the antihero archetype informs our understanding of Trump in important ways, including his rise to and fall from power. We introduce an analytical framework for analyzing Trump’s antiheroic traits based on his social positioning, individual motivation, and personal charisma. We argue that Trump is fascinating because he is powerful, amoral, and charismatic, and suggest that the American public was primed for Trumpism through a zeitgeist hospitable to antihero worship. That is, Trump’s dogged popularity with nearly half of the American public was foretold by decades of pop-cultural obsession with, and adulation for, the antihero
Convulsed States: Earthquakes, Prophecy, and the Remaking of Early America. (Book Review)
No full textReview of the book, Convulsed States: Earthquakes, Prophecy, and the Remaking of Early America. By Jonathan Todd Hancock. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. 132pp
Reforming Age Cutoffs
Get PDFThis Article examines the use of minimum age cutoffs to define eligibility for social insurance, public benefits, and other governmental programs. These cutoffs are frequently used but rarely examined in detail. In Part I, I examine and catalogue policies that employ minimum age cutoffs. These include not only Medicare and Social Security but also other policies such as access to pensions and retirement benefits, eligibility for favorable tax treatment, and eligibility for discounts on governmentally provided goods and services. In Part II, I examine different rationales underlying eligibility and discuss the imperfect fit between these rationales and the use of age cutoffs, as well as the likelihood that cutoffs will exacerbate disparities and disadvantage those with atypical life plans. In Part III, I consider different ways that age cutoffs might be reformed. One, the most realistic, is the option proposed for Medicare: extending eligibility downward to people earlier in life. But other options exist as well. One option, often advanced by those further to the political left, would completely eliminate age-based eligibility cutoffs in favor of universal programs such as Medicare for All. Another option would adjust age cutoffs upward or downward based on factors like geography or occupation, rather than basing eligibility on a one-size-fits-all cutoff. Yet another would replace age-based eligibility cutoffs with eligibility time periods, which are limited but can be started and ended flexibly: people could give up some eligibility time later in life in order to receive access during earlier periods
Replacing Tinker
Get PDFIn this Article, I wish to question whether reaffirming the animating spirit of Tinker is the best way to protect student speech rights. In allowing schools to punish student speech that school officials reasonably believe could be substantially disruptive, Tinker founds students’ free expression rights on unstable ground. This is true for two reasons. First, the Tinker standard allows school officials to regulate student speech based on their own perceptions of what its impacts will be. While these perceptions must be reasonable, courts have shown extraordinary deference to educators’ claims that student speech could be substantially disruptive. Second, the substantial disruption standard allows speech to be restricted not because it is in some way unlawful, but rather because of what others’ reactions might be to it. As I discuss below, government regulations with either one of these defects would generally be found unconstitutional in a nonschool context, because they give government officials too much discretion to burden or proscribe unpopular speech—the very harm the First Amendment’s free speech guarantee is designed to guard against.
For these reasons, I argue that Tinker’s substantial disruption standard ought to be replaced by something like the public forum doctrine, which tailors governments’ power to restrict speech in a given forum based on the forum’s traditional use and the government’s role in creating it and is highly skeptical of government discretion in determining what expression will be allowed in the forum. In my view, schools should be allowed to regulate student speech only when they create or control the forum in which it is expressed. Otherwise, they should be without the power to regulate student speech. Even within the forums that they control, I argue that schools’ ability to regulate student speech should be circumscribed
The Medical and Legal Implications of Artificial Intelligence in Health Care - An Area of Unsettled Law
Get PDFJames “Jim” Corrigan returned home following a stressful day at work with a headache that only increased in intensity as time elapsed. He laid down, but the room started to spin and his vision blurred. Sensing that something was wrong, he went to the emergency room and was greeted by a waiting area filled with others seeking medical attention. Jim was summoned by a nurse who asked various questions that she read from a screen. His answers produced a computer response indicating that he may be having a stroke and needed a computerized tomography (CT) scan. The patient was immediately transported to radiology, and the CT scan was performed. Twenty seconds later, a computer indicated that Jim had an ischemic stroke and notified the attending physician that the patient needed a tissue plasminogen activator to dissolve the blood clot and restore blood flow to the brain. The appropriate action was initiated, and the patient made a prompt and successful recovery
Why Not Both Nature and Nurture: Using Behavioral Genetic Markers as Sentencing Factors
Get PDFOn the evening of July 1, 2013, Amos Wells was upset that his pregnant girlfriend, Chanice Reed, would not answer his calls. He then drove to where she, her mother Annette, and ten-year-old brother Eddie, lived. After arguing with Chanice and yelling at the top of his voice in a “bone-chilling scream,” Wells retrieved a handgun from his Chevrolet Tahoe parked in front of the house, and shot Chanice in the front yard as she screamed, “No, no, no.” Her mother then tried to bat the gun away before he shot her too. Further shots were heard before Wells finally drove off
The Sheriff in Our Minds: The Morality of the Mental
No full textMany people believe that our thoughts can be morally wrong. For example, many regard rape and murder fantasies as morally wrong. In a provocative recent essay, George Sher disagrees with this and argues that “the realm of the purely mental is best regarded as a morality-free zone,” wherein “no thoughts or attitudes are either forbidden or required” (2). Ultimately, Sher argues that “each person’s subjectivity is a limitless, lawless wild west in which absolutely everything is permitted” (2). Sher calls this view the Wild West of the Mind.
I argue against Sher’s position. In section I, I summarize Sher’s view. In section II, I criticize Sher’s argument for the Wild West of the Mind. In section III, I outline additional objections to Sher’s view