The Role of Legal Texts in Mesopotamian Scribal Education

Mesopotamian scribal education in the Old Babylonian (OB) period included exposure to a wide range of legal-oriented texts, including sample or “model contracts,” “model cases” (or fictional cases), legal phrasebooks, and short series of laws. Although not all of these texts had immediate application, a number of them had ties to law on the ground. Sumerian model contracts, the fictional cases, and legal phrasebooks all include contractual clauses that mirror those used in actual OB contracts. The student exercise known as Laws about Rented Oxen likewise exhibits parallels with actual contracts of hire. When this diverse content is examined as a whole, it becomes apparent that the legal-pedagogical texts reflect a cultural matrix unto themselves, with copious cross-references and abundant links to law beyond the educational sphere. This legal-pedagogical content provides a crucial foundation for the reassessment of the origins of biblical law.

Fossil insects 10 years after the Geological Conservation Review (Great Britain)

At the third congress of the I.P.S. (International Palaeoentomological Society) in Beijing (2010), Professor Dong Ren, conference organiser, was presented with an author’s copy of the arthropod volume of the Geological Conservation Review of Great Britain, which included fossil insects, and had just been published (Jarzembowski et al., 2010). The purpose of the review, which commenced in the last century before the founding of I.P.S., was essentially to select and document the key sites of British geology, geomorphology and palaeontology with view to geoheritage conservation—including palaeoentomology. The results were collated and published in a series of volumes and, as it subsequently transpired, the arthropod volume was the last one (number 35). The insect part (written by the current author) and other arthropods (by Derek Siveter and Paul Selden) were augmented by general geology and palaeontology contributed by Douglas Palmer. A planned volume with relevant Lower Cretaceous (Wealden) geology was eventually produced instead as a short series of papers by the Geologists’ Association of London (Radley & Allen, 2012b). Geoconservation has featured periodically on the I.P.S. agenda and this paper reflects on the legacy of the GCR study, a decade later, and over a generation after its initiation.

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen: The Bank Failures and Near Failures That Started America’s Greatest Financial Panics

This paper examines the failures or in some cases near-failures of financial institutions that started the 12 most severe peacetime financial panics in the United States, beginning with the Panic of 1819 and ending with the Panic of 2008. The following generalizations were true in most cases, although not in all. (1) Panics were triggered by a short series of failures or near-failures; (2) many of the failing institutions were what we would now call shadow banks; (3) typically, the source of trouble was an excessive investment in real estate; and (4) typically, they had outstanding reputations for trustworthiness, prudence, and financial acumen—before they failed. It appears that in these respects the Panic of 2008 was an old-school panic.[a panic] occurs when a succession of unexpected failures has created in the mercantile, and sometimes also in the non-mercantile public a general distrust in each other’s solvency; disposing every one not only to refuse fresh credit, except on very onerous terms, but to call in, if possible all credit which he has already given.—John Stuart MillAll of this has happened before, and it will all happen again.—Peter Pan

Going beyond the one-off: How can STEM engagement programmes with young people have real lasting impact?

<p>A major focus in the STEM public engagement sector concerns engaging with young people, typically through schools. The aims of these interventions are often to positively affect students’ aspirations towards continuing STEM education and ultimately into STEM-related careers. Most schools engagement activities take the form of short one-off interventions that, while able to achieve positive outcomes, are limited in the extent to which they can have lasting impacts on aspirations. We review various different emerging programmes of repeated interventions with young people, assessing what impacts can realistically be expected. Short series of interventions appear also to suffer some limitations in the types of impacts achievable. However, deeper programmes that interact with both young people and those that influence them over significant periods of time (months to years) seem to be more effective in influencing aspirations. We discuss how developing a Theory of Change and considering young people’s wider learning ecologies are required in enabling lasting impacts in a range of areas.</p>

Assessing the Suitability of Freeform Injection Molding for Low Volume Injection Molded Parts: A Design Science Approach

Low-volume manufacturing remains a challenge, especially for parts that need to be injection-molded. Freeform injection molding (FIM) is a novel method that combines elements from direct additive manufacturing (DAM) and injection molding (IM) to resolve some of the challenges seen in low-volume injection molding. In this study, we use a design science approach to explore the suitability of FIM for the manufacturing of low volume injection-molded parts. We provide an overview of the benefits and limitations of traditional IM and discuss how DAM and indirect additive manufacturing (IAM) methods, such as soft tooling and FIM, can address some of the existing drawbacks of IM for short series production. A set of different parts was identified and assessed using a design science-based approach to demonstrate how to incubate FIM as a solution to address the challenges faced in short series production with IM. This initial process innovation was followed by solution refinement, involving the optimization of the FIM processes. Finally, a “cross-case” analysis was conducted using the framework of context, intervention, mechanism and outcomes to generate insights about the generalizability of the results. It is concluded that FIM combines the short lead-times, low start-up costs and design freedom of DAM with the versatility and scalability of IM to allow manufacturers to bring low volume products to the market faster, more cheaply and with lower risk, and to maintain the relevance of these products through easy customization and adaptations once they have been launched.