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Shakespeare in fragments: culture in captivity at Ruhleben internment camp
No full textDuring the First World War, about 5500 “British” civilians were interned at Ruhleben Camp in Germany. Internees developed their own micro-society that featured performances of Shakespeare’s plays, including a 1916 Tercentenary Festival, as well as Shakespearean parodies, commentaries, and extracts within the camp’s magazines. By examining the short forms and adapted texts developed by internees, this article evaluates Shakespeare’s presence at Ruhleben, arguing that it is characterized by fragmentation in appeal and evidence. While some internees, including the camp’s “Supermen”, prized Shakespeare as an essential cultural touchstone during their imprisonment, he was a disputed figure for others in the camp and was not performed very often. Shakespeare was most significant as a metonymy for an elite, highbrow culture that was valued by some internees, but was exclusionary and unappealing for others. Understanding the dramatist’s presence at Ruhleben is also compromised by the limitations of surviving evidence and the fact that extant testimonies and memoirs predominately reflect the views of upper- and middle-class white internees, who championed Shakespeare as a representative of superior “English” culture and language. Centralizing Shakespeare can deflect attention away from the diversity of the camp’s demographics and the transnational range of dramatists performed at the camp theatre.Pendant la Première Guerre mondiale, environ 5500 civils britanniques ont été internés au camp de Ruhleben en Allemagne. Les internés ont développé leur propre micro-société qui présentait des représentations de pièces de Shakespeare, notamment un festival du tricentenaire en 1916, ainsi que des parodies shakespeariennes, des commentaires et des extraits dans les magazines du camp. Cet article examine la présence de Shakespeare à Ruhleben en examinant les formes courtes et les textes adaptés développés par les internés et soutient qu’elle se caractérise par une fragmentation des appels et des preuves. Alors que certains internés, y compris les surhommes du camp, considéraient Shakespeare comme une référence culturelle essentielle pendant leur emprisonnement, il était une figure controversée pour les autres membres du camp. Shakespeare n'était pas joué très souvent, mais il était surtout important en tant que métonymie pour une culture d'élite et de haut niveau qui était appréciée par certains internés, mais était exclusive et peu attrayante pour d'autres. La compréhension de la présence de Shakespeare à Ruhleben est compromise par les limites des preuves survivantes et par le fait que les témoignages et les mémoires existants reflètent principalement les opinions des internés blancs des classes supérieures et moyennes, qui défendaient Shakespeare comme un représentant de la culture et de la langue anglaise supérieures. Centraliser Shakespeare peut détourner l’attention de la diversité démographique du camp et de la gamme transnationale de dramaturges joués au théâtre du camp
Compensation for permissible harm
Get PDFThis paper examines the law on when a person has a duty to compensate, despite acting permissibly in causing harm that normally violates a person’s right. First, it compares the law’s approach to compensation across a number of different types of permitting fact, such as defence, private necessity, public necessity, preventive action against a common enemy, and seeks to explain the extent to which the law’s approach is consistent. It will be shown, on the one hand, that some initially puzzling distinctions can be justified, while others require alterations in the law. Second, it seeks to develop a new account of the normative foundations of compensation for permissible harm. This account contrasts with the popular view that compensation is owed because one permissibly infringed a right. Instead, it proposes that compensation is owed as fair payment for an exceptional permission to use another’s resources in a harm-causing manner
Increasing targeted poaching of lions for trade has the potential to pose an existential threat to the species in Africa
No full textLions (Panthera leo) in Africa are targeted for the illegal wildlife trade, driven by demand in African and Asian markets, for their body parts. This threat is distinct from traditional drivers of lion decline such as prey depletion, habitat loss, and persecution, and is poorly understood, under-reported, growing, and prone to the influence of organised transnational crime. Here, we synthesise the current state of knowledge on targeted poaching for lion parts, identify key conservation and legal challenges, and propose a coordinated response agenda, drawing on examples from around the continent. We call for consideration in six critical areas: improving in situ protection, effective engagement of communities in conservation interventions, improved understanding of trade dynamics, disrupting the trade via multiple mechanisms, strengthening legal frameworks, and demand reduction. We recommend a proactive approach to prevent entrenchment of poaching and illicit markets and avert severe impacts on lion populations. Without coordinated action to address targeted poaching, there is a significant risk of lion population declines and extirpations. Urgent action is needed to acknowledge and address this issue, because it represents a potentially existential threat to the species
Using recycled plastic posts and geogrid to resist soil sliding
No full textThis study investigates the effectiveness of a slope reinforcement system consisting of a network of recycled plastic posts interconnected at the slope surface with a geogrid. Centrifuge and numerical modelling were performed to study the shear resistance of soils reinforced by posts with or without geogrid connection. A large-area, direct shear apparatus that can be mounted on a centrifuge was utilised so that a soil block could be sheared at a predefined slip depth under a prototype-scale effective stress state. Eleven tests were conducted to study the effects of soil density, post spacing and geogrid connection on the shear behaviour of the reinforced soil. The soil-structure interaction was analysed by the beam-on-non-linear-Winkler-foundation approach. The reinforcement effect was maximum when slip occurred at the mid-length of the post. For a deep slip, the reinforced soil followed an “intermediate mode” of failure, where the soil strength was fully mobilised along the post length. The geogrid increased the shear resistance of the reinforced soil, but these benefits were at the cost of additional mobilisation of bending stresses within the connected posts. Despite the significant improvements of soil stability, careful monitoring of the reinforced system might be required to prevent post overstress and yielding
The importance of natural exhibits in students' learning: a case study in attitudes to the use of school and museum collections
No full textThis work is a case study which builds on similar research previously carried out at the same school. It focuses on the use of real objects to enhance student learning within the formal school curriculum. A number of teaching activities are described which draw on the literature concerning informal learning in museums, where constructivist teaching with the help of individual objects and collections is commonplace. These activities form the basis of research into the attitudes of students and staff concerning the use of objects and displays in school teaching. The main points of interest are: the perceptions of pupils at key stages three and four regarding the frequency with which displays are used, their learning value and their enjoyment value; teacher perceptions regarding the use of displays; and the practicality of using objects as everyday teaching tools. As is common in case studies, a variety of research instruments were used and the results analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods as appropriate. The research reveals that natural exhibits are indeed seen by both teachers and pupils to contribute informally to student learning and motivation, although there is a tension between this and the formal school curriculum, which tends to be content-driven due to pressures of the testing regime. This results in pupils perceiving displays to be infrequently used and, therefore, not fulfilling their potential as learning tools. Possible ways of overcoming this problem are discussed and a number of other practical issues raised during the course of this study are also addressed
Toward Black Hole Stars: Supermassive Black Hole Growth in Nuclear Clusters via Stellar-object and Gas Accretion
No full textSupermassive black hole (SMBH) growth plausibly occurs via runaway astrophysical black hole mergers in nuclear star clusters that form intermediate mass black hole seeds at high redshifts. Such a model yields an order-of-magnitude higher rate of tidal disruption events than that of compact-object captures. Our prediction, normalized to our proposed resolution of SMBH seeding, yields detectable tidal disruption event rates at high redshift. The resulting dense gas cocoons generate compact galactic nuclei, each incorporating a central, massive, black hole star, with comparable masses in gas, stars, and massive black holes within a scale of around a parsec as inferred from the various Little Red Dot spectral signatures
Forest Impacts on Peak Runoff Revealed by Accounting for the Effects of Climate
No full textPlain Language Summary: It is often challenging to identify how land cover affects peak river flows across many catchments because climate differences among catchments often mask land‐cover effects. Here we quantify the runoff response per unit of rainfall in 252 U.S. catchments and minimize climate‐driven differences by grouping runoff responses according to antecedent wetness at the time of rainfall. For similar antecedent wetness conditions, peak runoff response decreases as forest cover increases. Peak runoff response is 16%–63% lower in forested catchments than in catchments dominated by cropland and grassland. This indicates that forest impacts on peak river flows emerge after accounting for the effects of climate
Tracing the origins and evolution of nymphalid butterflies (Lepidoptera) in the Atlantic Forest
No full textUnderstanding the relative roles of diversification and dispersal is key to explaining large‐scale biogeographical patterns. Although both processes are known to shape biodiversity, their relative contributions remain understudied for many organisms. Here, we examine how these processes have jointly contributed to the exceptional diversity and endemism of Nymphalidae butterflies in South America's Atlantic Forest, a global biodiversity hotspot. We obtained DNA sequences for 65 Nymphalidae species and integrated them into published time‐calibrated phylogenies. We used dispersal–xtinction–ladogenesis models and biogeographical stochastic mapping to infer historical biogeographical patterns over time, and the cladogenetic diversification rate shift (ClaDS) model to estimate region‐specific diversification patterns. We further evaluated whether regional patterns of diversification are associated with occurrence in montane environments or across the north–south biogeographical break within the Atlantic Forest. Our results show that nymphalid butterfly diversity in the region was driven primarily by recurrent dispersal from Amazonia and the Andes, rather than by elevated in situ diversification rates, which remained low and stable through time. Although dispersal increased progressively during the Cenozoic, we found no evidence that the diagonal of open formations acted as a major barrier, indicating that forest corridors probably allowed extensive dispersal between the Atlantic Forest and other Neotropical regions. Southern Atlantic Forest lineages exhibited slightly higher diversification rates than northern ones, especially among montane generalist species. However, overall diversification contributed little to the current species diversity patterns compared to the sustained input of dispersing lineages from other Neotropical biomes. Together, these findings highlight the central role of biome connectivity and dispersal in shaping Atlantic Forest Nymphalidae diversity, while underscoring the importance of jointly considering diversification and dispersal processes to better understand the macroevolutionary dynamics underlying current biodiversity patterns
The ideological orientation of academic social science research 1960–2024
No full textThis study analyzes approximately 600,000 English-language social science abstracts published between 1960 and 2024 to estimate the long-run ideological orientation of disciplinary research output. Large language models (LLMs) were applied to each abstract using a fixed 2025 U.S. ideological spectrum, enabling consistent coding across six decades. Five key findings emerged. First, roughly 90 percent of politically relevant social science articles leaned left 1960–2024, and the mean political stance of every social science discipline was left-of-center every year during the period. Second, all disciplines showed leftward movement between 1990 and 2024. Third, policy-proximal disciplines generally showed limited rightward moderation between roughly 1970 and 1990, though policy-distal disciplines did not. Fourth, disciplines with greater leftward orientation generally displayed greater ideological homogeneity Fifth, sociocultural content was more consistently left-leaning than economic content, and that gap widened over time. Robustness checks using a wide assortment of alternative datasets and analytical methodologies indicated that these findings were unlikely to be artifacts of idiosyncratic assumptions. Methodologically, the study demonstrates the capacity of LLM-based text classification to deliver reliable, large-scale ideological measurement over time, a task previously impractical with human coding alone. Taken together, the analysis provides the first systematic, cross-disciplinary evidence of the long-run political orientation of anglophone social science scholarship, revealing both the persistence and the intensification of its leftward tendencies, particularly in sociocultural domains
Reframing entrepreneurship: an upside-down pyramid perspective on community-led social and cultural sustainability
No full textThis study examines how community-driven and culturally embedded forms of entrepreneurship contribute to sustainable development beyond market-oriented models. We propose an “upside-down pyramid” methodological approach that combines a bibliometric analysis of 1,155 scholarly articles with a qualitative and sociological analysis of 15 interviews to stakeholders from Officina Keller, a community-oriented cultural and creative enterprise in Southern Italy. The bibliometric analysis identifies five thematic clusters, covering environmental governance, inclusive innovation, and cultural regeneration.. The qualitative analysis highlights the role of community cohesion, territorial reactivation, and cultural memory in driving entrepreneurial innovation, while revealing persistent challenges linked to weak institutional and techno-economic support. By connecting large-scale scholarly discourse with situated practice, the study advances a more inclusive understanding of entrepreneurship and calls for policy frameworks that better integrate social and cultural dimensions into place-based community initiatives, particularly in contexts of place-based transformation and community-led regeneration