Archive for April, 2007

TEXTURAS

Posted by Biblios on April 27th, 2007


Texturas es una nueva revista dedicada a los libros y la comunicación textual. En su Consejo Editorial figuran nombres bien conocidos por los bibliodiversos. Por ejemplo, José María Barandiarán que, por cierto, es el responsable de un blog de lectura casi obligatoria si es que quieres enterarte de lo que pasa: Opinión con Valor. También está Manuel Ortuño, editor de tantas cosas interesantes y presidente de ARCE, la dinámica asociación de editores de revistas culturales. A Manolo tenemos que agradecerle su reciente defensa del editor como creador en su comparecencia en el Congreso de Diputados con motivo del trámite de audición de partes en la tramitación de la Ley de Fomento del Libro. A esa tesis se opuso, por cierto, como se puede comprobar buceando en el Diario de Sesiones, el venerable Juan Mollá del que se dice que, si Dios no lo remedia, será el próximo presidente de CEDRO. Otro más que cree que defiende sus derechos negando a los demás los suyos.
Texturas es una alternativa válida a la revista sectorial al uso que es útil, sobre todo, como soporte de publicidad o B.O.E. del stablishment editorial que la sustenta. Por el contrario en esta nueva publicación hay reflexión y prospectiva seria desde la diversidad de las perspectivas.
Echadle un vistazo a aquí o haceros con un ejemplar de su número 1.

New Issue of Journal of Palestine Studies

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 25th, 2007

Jps
The latest issue of the Journal of Palestine Studies is out now! In "The Camp David II Negotiations: How Dennis Ross Proved the Palestinians Aborted the Peace Process" DePaul professor Norman Finkelstein calls Ross out on the distortions in his account and shows how Ross's "main innovation" has been to subordinate the normative framework of rights to the arbitrary and capricious one of "needs." Read the full text in Issue 142, Winter 2007.

Shaykh Ra'id Salah, a leader of the Islamic movement in Israel, has recently been in the news protesting Israeli excavations at the Al Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site of Islam. JPS carries an exclusive interview with the man who helped found one of the most influential movements among Arabs in Israel; the annual "al-Aqsa Endangered" rally attracts thousands of Palestinian citizens from across Israel. Click here to read the insightful introduction about Salah and the Islamic movement. The full text of the interview can be purchased from UC Press.

You can also read book reviews and view abstracts online. And don't miss out on the Quarterly Update on Conflict and Diplomacy by Michele K. Esposito for an invaluable overview and analysis of developments on the conflict, the full chronology of events, key documents, and a comprehensive bibliography. An extract of the chronology is available here. All articles can also be purchased from UC Press. Or subscribe today and make sure to get your regular copy.

Click here to see the full Table of Contents.

FSR on Supreme Court sentencing cases, Claiborne and Rita

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 25th, 2007

Fsr
The latest issue of the Federal Sentencing Reporter, Volume 19.3, is available now. Its articles provide both context and concepts for understanding the federal sentencing realities that may have prompted the Supreme Court to take up Claiborne and Rita and that may impact the Court’s decisions.

The articles in this FSR issue, some of which directly address federal sentencing realities after Booker and some of which address broader issues concerning the operation of guideline systems, provide varied perspectives on how Claiborne and Rita could impact the current state and future direction of the federal sentencing system.

Highlights from this issue are available in free sample articles, including Professor Douglas A. Berman’s "Editor’s Observations", and U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Gertner with "Thoughts on Reasonableness", at http://caliber.ucpress.net/toc/fsr/19/3.

In addition, you can find information on Booker, Blakely, death penalty issues and other sentencing issues updated every day at Prof. Berman’s blog, Sentencing Law and Policy at http://sentencing.typepad.com/.

10650 This past summer, I completed the final manuscript of How Everyday Products Make People Sick: Toxins at Home and in the Workplace. Since then, I have been following ongoing stories included in the book. One such story concerns the “recent” emergence of severe lung disease (called bronchiolitis obliterans) among workers exposed to the chemical diacetyl. It seems the outbreak has spread. The disease was first thought to be limited to a narrow industrial sector located in a few Midwestern states: artificial butter-flavored, microwave popcorn production. Now several cases have been confirmed in California in other types of factories using diacetyl and California OSHA (a counterpart to Federal OSHA) is investigating 30 facilities where enough of the chemical is used to give concern over additional disease. It has also become clear that the new disease did not first emerge in 2000, as had been thought. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) was called in to investigate a similar outbreak in 1985 in a bakery in Indiana using diacetyl, but the report was inconclusive and was never followed up. Neither Federal nor Cal OSHA has enacted to date any emergency rules for diacetyl control. In a September 2006 public meeting on diacetyl held in Oakland California, a labor representative asked, “…if exposure to diacetyl is hazardous why is it still being allowed to be used?” The California Health Department member chairing a meeting responded, “…the relationship of diaceytl to bronchiolitis obliterans or other lung disease is not entirely clear.” Later in the meeting, he also noted, “…market forces are probably already operating to reduce the use of diacetyl…”

Watching this story unfold only further underscores the inescapable lesson of the long and sad history of occupational and environmental disease – the same old pattern of slow response and inadequate protection seems to repeat itself again and again.

Bach in the Subway: New York Does It Better by Lawrence Kramer

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 17th, 2007

Occasionally, UC Press has the opportunity to bring you brief articles written by our authors. The following is by prolific author, Lawrence Kramer, whose newest book is Why Classical Music Still Matters:

10771 "Whenever classical music makes news these days the news is likely to be bad. So it was with a recent Washington Post article by Gene Weingarten. Weingarten persuaded Joshua Bell, a world-class violinist, to take his world-class Stradivarius into a Washington Metro station and play Bach for spare change. The outcome? Of over a thousand people who walked through the station, only seven paid any attention. The world seemed literally to be passing this great music by. Not even a great performer could get it a hearing.

The story interested me because the concluding chapter of my new book, Why Classical Music Still Matters, centers on a similar incident I witnessed in the New York subway. The violinist, a young woman, probably a music student, was playing an Adagio from a Bach solo sonata. But unlike Bell, she captured the attention of the passersby, who not only ringed her to listen but also applauded when she was finished. This was hardly typical behavior under Times Square. It got me thinking about how and why it happened and what it said about the music. The results are in the book. But given Joshua Bell's experience, one has to wonder: Why was Bach a hit in New York and a bust in Washington? Why did a good violinist succeed where a great one failed? One explanation is that Bell was badly placed. He was playing-and at rush hour--near both a kiosk with a brisk Lotto trade and an escalator, both sites of purposeful action that stopping to listen to music, any music, would disrupt. The New York violinist was on the train platform, where the only real action is waiting. Hearing Bach there is unusual but it is no disruption. The platform gives the music a chance to be heard, despite the rumble of passing trains. And when one person turns to listen, others follow until an audience assembles-which was exactly what happened. If that first listener had never materialized, the New York violinist might have shared Bell's disappointment. Both incidents involve an element of happenstance. But the contrast of outcomes argues against overreacting to the Washington flop. In New York Bach's music got heard and it moved its hearers. This music still mattered-and proved it."

UC Press Author, Peter La Chapelle, on Merle Haggard’s Politics

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 10th, 2007

10311 In Proud to Be an Okie, author Peter La Chapelle explores the political and cultural history of the Los Angeles country music scene, illuminating the evolution of politics and musical expression from the early songs of the liberal Woody Guthrie to the later conservative views of Merle Haggard and his "Okie from Muskogee" anthem. Merle Haggard is now making headlines for penning his recent song "Hillary," which seems to endorse Hillary Clinton for President. Could Haggard be serious? La Chapelle examines the debate:

Just as my book Proud to Be an Okie was beginning to hit the store shelves, country music legend Merle Haggard, one of the central figures I write about, was making headlines with a new song titled "Hillary."

Often cast as a working-class conservative for such patriotic anti-counterculture numbers as "Okie from Muskogee" and "Fightin' Side," Haggard appears to endorse Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential bid in the new song, which argues it is time to "put a woman in charge."

The brouhaha that followed resembled in an inverse way the original uproar that broke out over "Okie from Muskogee," his seemingly pro-war, hippie-bashing anthem, in 1969.

With "Hillary," fans on the Right voiced confusion, disappointment, and a sense of betrayal. Fans and bloggers on the Left either applauded it or criticized Haggard, who has been unabashedly opposed to the Iraq War, for endorsing one of the few Democratic presidential candidates who has not officially renounced an earlier pro-war stance.

In 1969, left-wing country-rock fans and critics of the Vietnam War expressed a similar disappointment at "Okie," while right-wing audiences turned out in droves at places such as the Anaheim Convention Center Arena to cheer and sing along.

The one through-line between "Hillary" and "Okie from Muskogee" may be a question of interpretation: Is Haggard singing these songs at face value or are they to be understood as statements of irony?

Haggard's intent has always been a difficult item to nail down. In 1969, even academic folklorists were unsure if "Okie" was meant to be sarcastic, while many longtime fans will swear to this day that Haggard was really lampooning his own small-town boot-wearing narrator.

Although the New York Times blog that brought "Hillary" to light claimed Haggard was serious, longtime fans writing on his website swear it is a lark.

If Haggard is indeed serious, then this, along with the Dixie Chicks' multiple honors at the Grammy Awards, suggest that the earlier liberal populist trend I describe in the book has not completely trailed off in country music--even if today's mainstream country remains dominated by a more-or-less conservative outlook.

10454_2 Peter Sacks is an author, journalist and social critic. His new book,Tearing Down the Gates: Confronting the Class Divide in American Education (forthcoming in May) is a powerful indictment of American education that shows how schools, colleges, and universities exacerbate inequality by providing ample opportunities for advantaged students while too often shutting the gates on the poor.

This week, Peter Sacks critiques the U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" rankings on The Huffington Post and discusses the socio-economic divide in higher education, particularly at top colleges, in an interview hosted on The Chronicle of Higher Education's web site. Listen to an interview with Peter Sacks at http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i29/29a02001.htm.

Weekend Gardening Tips

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 6th, 2007

10185_2 Looking for some ideas for your garden this weekend? The Landscaping Ideas of Jays, and its author, Judith Larner Lowry might just have some ideas for you. Lowry will be speaking this Saturday, April 7 (11am) at Native Sons Nursery http://nativeson.com in Arroyo Grande, Ca.

Thus far, gardening critics have gushed over The Landscaping Ideas of Jays. Most recent are two reviews at The Los Angeles Times and The San Francisco Chronicle.

For more upcoming events with Judith Larner Lowry, please visit http://www.larnerseeds.com/_pages/events.html

Un petit coup de pouce pour l’e-paper français …

Posted by diridolloualicefr on April 5th, 2007

Juste une petite news pour marquer le retour d'une absence contrainte par mon activité du moment ... "réducteur de thèse"

La PME française Nemoptic, à la tête du projet Sylen et développeur d'un modèle de papier électronique, vient de recevoir l'aval du Ministère de l'Industrie pour un financement de plus de 5 millions d'euros dans le cadre du pôle de compétitivité Cap Digital.

Cette société n'en sera pas la seule bénéficiaire puisque d'autres sociétés compétentes dans le domaine de l'édition numérique, dont Bookeen (des collègues ex-cytaliens), y seront associées. C'est une très bonne chose d'avoir l'appui des pouvoirs publics, cela renforce la légitimité de ce type de projets....

Plus d'info plus tard (du moins je l'espère), mais pour le moment, vous pouvez aller voir directement à la source ...

 

Plant Galls in Spring

Posted by Erich van Rijn on April 5th, 2007

10412_2 Occasionally, we have the opportunity to bring you brief articles written by our authors. The following is by Ronald Russo, the author of our recent book, Field Guide to Plant Galls of California and Other Western States:

"As spring begins to unfold with buds swelling and leaves unfurling, there is a quiet awakening of tiny gall midges and gall wasps. They have spent the winter in an inactive state waiting for the right temperatures, which signals the swelling of host plant buds and leaves. Now is the beginning of yet another 'gall season' with the flush of spring galls on oaks, junipers, cottonwoods and many other native plants. Many of the spring galls will produce males and females who will lay eggs in buds and leaves by June and July, producing a second, female-only generation. The galls of this generation will catch your attention because of their bright red, pink, and orange colors, particularly on oaks and manzanitas as they reach their peak in late summer and early fall. One of the most interesting relationships in nature involves the larvae of some gall wasps stimulating the galls to release sugary compounds on the surface, called honeydew, which attracts ants, yellow jackets and bees. The presence of these pugnacious insects on the galls offers some protection to the vulnerable larvae within from parasitic and predaceous insects. Similar to flower nectar being the reward or enticement for pollination services, the availability of sugar in the late summer and fall entices bees and yellow jackets to provide protection simply by their presence. If bees, yellow jackets, and ants were not available for this mutually beneficial assistance, the rate of larval mortality would likely increase reducing the number of gall wasps that survive to carry on their species. Why is this so important? Because, the existence of these tiny gall wasps sustains countless other insects and hungry birds like vireos, kinglets, and chickadees. Without them, a small but essential web in the ecosystem of oak woodlands would collapse."

Ronald Russo