Epilogue

Drew Pearson died just before the scandals of the 1970s elevated and bestowed honors on those who followed him. His long career linked the old-time muckrakers and the Watergate-spawned investigative reporters. Jack Anderson carried on the “Washington Merry-Go-Round” and won a Pulitzer Prize for revealing secrets—a recognition that had always eluded Pearson. Lacking Pearson as an anchor, however, Anderson drifted and made some appalling mistakes. As his ethics came under fire, Anderson compared himself favorably to his mentor, portraying Pearson as a knee-jerk liberal whose penchant for making a better world led him to lobby politicians for his favorite causes and treat them kindly in return for their support. But Pearson is better remembered for his admonition to reporters to serve as a watchdog and be ruthless in exposing any betrayal of public trust.

Is 'right-of-reply' right for science?

In this Editorial, we outline the 'right-of-reply' policy at Cortex and explain how it differs from typical expectations at many peer-reviewed journals. Too often, the right-of-reply prompts a generic opinion piece -- a form of academic theatre -- that is focused more on reputation-management than on science. At Cortex, we do not believe that right-of-reply should be a knee-jerk response. We do not routinely offer it, because it does not routinely add value. The received norm may be that the authors of an original study are owed a special status in shaping the narrative around criticisms of their work; but, as scientists, we do not ‘own’ our research questions or findings after we have shared them by publication. Cortex will always consider informed scientific commentaries that advance the debate, subject to editorial judgement and peer review; but there is no routine right-of-reply.

Editorial: Trafficking in Minors: Confronting complex realities, structural inequalities, and agency

This Editorial introduces a Special Issue of the journal Anti-Trafficking Review of the topic of ‘Trafficking in Minors’. It argues that the urgency of the phenomena of child trafficking and related issues, such as child labour and child sexual exploitation, and the emotional responses they provoke, have often led to superficial and knee-jerk reactions that obscure the root causes of the problems and deflect attention and resources away from grounded, sustainable solutions. It presents a brief overview of the articles contained in the Special Issue and concludes that policy responses and practical interventions to address trafficking in minors need to have the best interest of the child in mind and address the underlying socio-economic and political root causes.

Law’s response to New Zealand’s ‘darkest of days’

This article discusses various aspects of the New Zealand legal system’s response to the 15 March Christchurch mosques attack. It also considers New Zealand’s response to the attack from the perspective of the academic literature on the policymaking process and argues that the response to date has been modest and cannot be characterised as a knee-jerk reaction.

Geopolitics of Power and Knowledge in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Decolonial Reflections on a Global Crisis

This article offers a provisional decolonial reading of the crisis created by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The article performs five interrelated tasks. The first task addresses the question of knowledge and theorizing during exceptional moments. A decolonial case is made for seeking mitigations and solutions to COVID-19 based on the African knowledge and epistemologies from the Global South. Africa in particular and the Global South in general have the richest histories and experiences of epidemics and pandemics. This moment of the COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about the geopolitics of knowledge (which historical archive do we run to, who should learn from whom, and which epistemology is privileged?). The second task is to outline how the triple concepts of paradox, crisis, and crossroads (PCC) can help us to gain a better understanding of the issues cascading in this moment of the COVID-19 pandemic. The third task is a critique of lockdowns as knee-jerk reactions in Africa, since they are not sustainable, and they impinge on life, security, freedom, and economy in fragile African environments. The fourth task is to introduce 10 Ds of the decolonial turn —Deimperialization, De-Westernization, Depatriachization, Deracialization, Debourgeoisement, Decorporatization, Democratization, Deborderization, Decanonization, and Desecularization—which help in envisioning a post-COVID-19 decolonial world order. The final task is to propose decolonial love as the soul of the post-COVID-19 world order based on a new ethics for living together, economies of care, a politics of conviviality, and hospitality as opposed to enmity. Africa in particular and the Global South in general constitute the author’s locus of enunciation.

Sagittal and Frontal Plane Knee Angular Jerk Effects During Prolonged Load Carriage

Introduction: Musculoskeletal injuries are a costly military problem that routinely occur during training. Quantifying smoothness of knee motion, or angular knee jerk, may be an effective measure to monitor injury risk during training, but to date, the effects of body borne load and prolonged locomotion on angular knee jerk are unknown. Purpose: This study sought to quantify angular knee jerk for frontal and sagittal plane motion during prolonged load carriage. Methods: Eighteen participants had peak and cost of angular jerk for frontal and sagittal plane knee motion quantified while they walked (1.3 m/s) 60-minutes with three body borne loads (0, 15, and 30 kg). Statistical Analysis: Peak and cost of angular jerk for sagittal and frontal plane knee motion of stance phase (0 % - 100%) were derived from motion capture and IMU data and submitted to a repeated measures linear model to test the main effects and interaction of load (0, 15, and 30 kg) and time (0, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min.). Two one sided t-tests (TOSTs) were used to compare the motion capture- and IMU-derived measures of angular jerk for sagittal and frontal plane knee motion. Results: For the motion capture-derived jerk measures, body borne load increased peak and cost of angular jerk for sagittal (p < 0.001, p < 0.001) and frontal (p < 0.001, p < 0.001) plane knee motion, while time increased jerk cost (p = 0.001) of frontal plane knee motion. While the IMU-derived jerk measures exhibited similar increases in peak and cost of angular jerk for sagittal (p < 0.001, p < 0.001) and frontal (p = 0.027, p < 0.001) plane knee motion with addition of load, and in cost (p = 0.015) of angular jerk for frontal plane knee motion with time, they were not statistically equivalent to motion-capture derived measures (p > 0.05). Conclusion: Prolonged load carriage may lead to jerkier knee motion and increased knee musculoskeletal injury risk. Specifically, the jerkier knee motions exhibited with the addition of body borne load and longer walking time may increase the joint loading that leads to greater knee musculoskeletal injury risk.

Tackling offensive behaviour in Scottish football: A how (not) to guide to developing criminal justice policy?

Since 2011, the issue of ‘sectarianism’ has dominated the Scottish political agenda as well as media and public discourse. The most high-profile aspect of the Scottish Government’s response to the problem was undoubtedly the Offensive Behaviour at Football (Scotland) Act 2012. This article is based on analysis of official documentation, speeches and media coverage relating to sectarianism and the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act since 2011. By tracing the Act’s journey from its introduction to its repeal in 2018, it challenges notions of a policymaking process built on consensus. It also casts doubt upon the Scottish Government’s claims of a socially progressive approach to criminal justice, as the behaviours of working-class youth around football have been increasingly problematised, criminalised and regulated. I argue that the Act highlights the need for an ongoing critique of the direction of criminal justice in Scotland and demonstrates the consequences of knee-jerk responses to complex social problems, which has relevance beyond the Scottish context.