Analyzing the Politics of Legislative Debate

This chapter considers why we should be interested in the politics of legislative debate. What does the analysis of legislative debate contribute to our understanding of politics more generally? This is particularly important given that legislative debate is not actually “debate” in any meaningful sense of the word, and that most legislators are not even present when most legislative speeches are made. The answers offered here rest on the assumption that speeches in the legislature allow legislators to commit to policy positions on the official record. If the main concern is politics between parties, debate speeches tend to concern actual policy implementation, likely closer to “true” preferences than electoral aspirations and promises. If the prime concern is politics within parties, debate speeches can give insight into internal party policy divisions, even in settings where the final legislative party vote is tightly whipped.

All the President’s Men

This chapter identifies the administrative personnel responsible for the creation of a council record and their relationship to the bishops and officials in charge. It advocates the key distinction of an official secretariat tasked with the production of the ‘official’ record from other clergymen present and also skilled in the techniques of stenographic recording. It disproves the notion of alternative records created by such men and demonstrates the reliance instead on ‘memory’ by those challenging the official records. The examination further refutes hypotheses of part-records made for individual participants and only subsequently accumulated. The official secretariat instead creates a single official record in close collaboration with, and on the direct instructions of the council’s leadership.

Music

A number of women who made their name as punk musicians and experimental performers have published their memoirs in quick succession. Taken together these books offer a rescripting of the dominant narrative of punk and related independent—indie—music scenes. The memoirs considered here—by Viv Albertine, Carrie Brownstein, Kim Gordon, Chrissie Hynde, Patti Smith, Brix Smith Start, and Cosey Fanni Tutti—go some way in challenging androcentric stereotypes in the “story of punk,” its politics and furious male icons. These memoirs provide rich insights into the complex, underground sexual politics of making it in a male-dominated industry. In so doing they rewrite the official record of punk registers of musical and political protest as groundbreaking experimental artists who also excel at playing fast, loudly, and with the libidinous energy usually attributed to masculine performance.

Seeking traces of women in early Irish filmmaking

Recent research by Díóg O’Connell and Donna Casella has brought to light the work of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan with the Film Company of Ireland (1916–20). These scholars trace the personal archive of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan’s descendants and use this data to create a trajectory of her role within this first significant Irish film company. While the official record of the Film Company of Ireland is considered limited, there are traces of the company in trade papers, archives and newspapers. In comparison, information about the role of women in this company is difficult to discover as women often slip from the official archive in this period. In the case of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan, she is frequently hidden behind her husband’s record as owner and director of the Film Company of Ireland, or behind her more famous father and brothers, well-connected Republicans, Mayors of Limerick, and successful businessmen. This paper will examine the role of Ellen O’Mara Sullivan and her sister Mary Rynne in the development of the Film Company of Ireland by examining the archival records available and exploring how to find information about these women when they elude the official record. Working in particular on documents found in the Rynne family archive, Special Collections, NUIG, this paper will attempt to trace the financial contribution of Mary Rynne to this film company and to bring to light the role these two sisters played in the development of the early Irish film industry.

A PRELIMINARY CHECKLIST OF Ficus L. SPECIES IN KUANTAN, PAHANG

Ficus is the largest genus in the Moraceae family, with more than 700 species worldwide. It was classified into a distinct genus based on the unique nature of its inflorescence. Until recently, there was no official record of the Ficus checklist in Kuantan, Pahang. Therefore, this study aims to develop the preliminary checklist of Ficus species in Kuantan Pahang. Plant samples were collected from selected areas of Kuantan. Plant samples were pressed, dried and mounted on a herbarium board and processed as specimen vouchers. Based on this study, 14 species of Ficus were recorded. The list of Ficus presented in this study could be used for future research and as a reference source for conservation activities.

From Time Sheets to Tablets: Documentation Technology in Frontline Service Sector Managers’ Coordination of Home Healthcare Services

Research on service work theorizes a triangle of power alliances between workers, managers, and customers, while studies on electronic health records (EHRs) focus on user experiences. Using an ethnography of a home healthcare company, this article explores how EHR affects the roles of frontline managers in the service triangle. Managers using traditional paperwork perform mediational authority. They interpret accounts from workers and clients to create an official record. Managers using app-based EHR software perform directive authority by telling staff how to document, but they lack the power to directly alter the record. Thus, documentation technologies have unintended implications for roles and relationships in service sector work.

Socrates the judge: a not-so-platonizing dialogue on the deposition of patriarch Nicholas IV Mouzalon

The article brings under scrutiny an understudied dialogical account about the deposition of the patriarch of Constantinople Nicholas IV Mouzalon (1147-51). A close reading shows that this is not an official record of the proceedings but a piece of fiction that deliberately inverts the generic conventions of the two types of texts indicative of the 12th-century literary landscape, namely 1) minutes of church councils and 2) syllogistic theological dialogues. The anonymous author invites the reader to recognize the all-familiar scheme of the Socratic interrogation but eventually departs from it investing the protagonists (Manuel I Komnenos and Mouzalon) with features that distance them from their Platonic models. The text seems to be inextricably linked to Mouzalon’s canonical dilemma: can an archbishop who previously voluntarily fled from his office be appointed archbishop once again? In fact, the author’s primary concern is not the patriarch but the emperor, a judge-logician who is at one and the same time Socrates and more than Socrates, and the new language able to reflect the changing balance between the imperial and ecclesiastical powers in mid- 12th-century Byzantium.

Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit in Brazil: history of an invasive plant.

The purpose of this text is to provide a long-term record of occurrences of the species Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. in the Brazilian territory, in order to (i) determine if its introduction occurred before the earliest official record, (ii) identify points of occurrence in Brazil, and (iii) assess its status as a useful although invasive plant. The text is partly based on research done on the confirmed presence of this plant in the Brasília National Park, located in Brazil’s Federal District. Three databases available on the Internet containing information from several herbariums were accessed to obtain the location and the dates of the relevant records of the plant in Brazilian territory. We found that the species was rather widely present in the Brazilian territory before the official record of its earliest introduction. In addition, we found that the plant’s current geographic distribution indicates that it continues to have a strong invasive potential in Brazil, especially because there are social and technical incentives to cultivate it in rural properties.***Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit no Brasil: história de uma planta invasora***O objetivo deste texto é oferecer um histórico de longo prazo das ocorrências da espécie Leucaena leucocephala (Lam.) de Wit. no território brasileiro, para (i) determinar se a sua introdução aconteceu antes da data oficial de seu primeiro registro, (ii) identificar os seus pontos de ocorrência no Brasil e (iii) avaliar o seu status como uma planta útil, mesmo que invasiva. O texto se baseia em parte em pesquisa conduzida sobre a presença confirmada dessa espécie de origem exótica no Parque Nacional de Brasília, Distrito Federal. Foram acessadas três bases de dados disponíveis na Internet para obter a localização e as datas dos registros relevantes da planta no território brasileiro. A pesquisa constatou que a espécie tinha uma presença relativamente abrangente no Brasil muito antes do primeiro registro oficial de sua introdução. Além disso, foi constatado que a atual distribuição geográfica da planta indica que ela continua a ter um forte potencial invasivo no Brasil, especialmente porque existem incentivos econômicos e técnicos para o seu cultivo em propriedades rurais.Palavras-chave: Leucaena leucocephala. ocorrência geográfica. espécies invasivas. Brasil.

Estimate of Covid prevalence using imperfect data

The real number of people who were truly infected with SARS-CoV-2, is certainly significantly larger than the official record. Few countries have tracking and testing procedures that are sufficiently robust to discover nearly all infections. In most countries they are inadequate, hence the true extent of the pandemic is unknown. The current study proposes the estimate of the COVID-19 extent for countries with sufficiently high number of deaths and cases. The estimate is based on a simple model of mortality. This model was developed for a reference country with a large number of cases and high intensity of COVID-19 testing. The model is then applied to compute apparent mortality in the target and reference countries. The number of cases in the target country is then estimated assuming constant underlying true mortality. The estimate of cases in most countries is significantly higher than the official record. As of April 12, 2020, the global estimate is 5.2 million compared to 1.8 million in the official record. The models developed in this study are available at covid-model.net. The model ignores several factors that are known to influence mortality, such as the demographics and health condition of population, state of epidemic and sociological differences between countries. While the model is rough, it nevertheless provides a unified approach to producing a systematic global estimate of the extent of the COVID-19 epidemic and can be useful for its monitoring.

First record of a by-the-wind-sailor (Velella velella Linnaeus, 1758) in the Galápagos Archipelago - Ecuador

We present the first official record of the by-the-wind-sailor (Velella velella) for Ecuador. Twelve individuals were found along different beaches of San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz Islands in Galápagos Archipelago, Ecuador. These sightings may be influenced by El Niño Southern Oscillation events.