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There are two facts of my life that my grandchildren used to tell their friends with pride. One is that in the year 2000, as part of my application to [...]

Political Theology of International Order BY WILLIAM BAIN OXFORD, 272 PAGES, $85 Whatever international order there is today, it certainly is not beholden to political theology for its justification. Nevertheless, [...]

Until quite recently, natural law thinking had been a Catholic preserve. My interest in it was awakened during my days as a Jewish undergraduate at the University of Chicago, by [...]

Supersessionism describes the theological conviction that the Christian Church has superseded the Jewish people, assuming their role as God's covenanted people, Israel. At first glance, supersessionism seems to be a [...]

This article describes the political performances of the annual Project Fukushima! festival that--only a few months after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster on 3/11/11, and each summer since--has brought thousands to sing, dance, and make music in Fukushima City. Why celebrate Fukushima in the midst of a meltdown? I argue that performance has taken on a vital critical dimension in the ambivalent pluralism that drives contemporary public protest movements. Music and dance--particularly in the festivals that have become deeply integrated into social activism in post-3/11 Japan--have become particularly expedient ways to enable broad critiques of technocultural capitalism and its silencing of marginal populations. The performativity of festival connotes but does not necessarily constitute public dialogue. Rather, it makes audible the dissonance of diverse political assemblies, who respond with ambivalence to demands to speak with a singular voice. I examine the ways in which the anthropology of social movements can attend to new performative assemblies that reframe narratives of disaster and displacement to describe emergent scenes of embodied interdependence in a global politics of survival. By blurring the lines between social expression and the disruptive noise of collective spectacle, Project Fukushima! builds the ambivalence of regional culture into a platform for amplifying the noise of political community in the disaster zone. [Keywords: Japan, Fukushima, politics of survival, antinuclear protest, music, performance] [Palavras-chave: Japao, Fukushima, politica de sobrevivencia, protesto anti-nuclear, musica, performance], On August 15, 2011, only a few months after the March 11 triple disaster of the tsunami, earthquake, and nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi, a music festival brought audiences in [...]

Despite advancements in numerical modeling and the increasing prevalence of convection-allowing guidance, flash flood forecasting remains a substantial challenge. Accurate flash flood forecasts depend not only on accurate quantitative precipitation [...]

ABSTRACT The northeast U.S. extratropical cyclone of 8-9 February 2013 produced blizzard conditions and more than 0.6-0.9 m (2-3 ft) of snow from Long Island through eastern New England. A [...]

In 'Catholic Zionism' (January), Gavin D'Costa steps where most Catholic angels fear to tread. He goes beyond the half-century-old Catholic affirmation of God's continuing covenant with Jewish Israel to the [...]

The general trend in data management is to outsource data to 3rd party systems that would provide data retrieval as a service. This approach naturally brings privacy concerns about the (potentially sensitive) data. Recently, quite extensive research has been done on privacy-preserving outsourcing of traditional exact-match and keyword search. However, not much attention has been paid to outsourcing of similarity search, which is essential in content-based retrieval in current multimedia, sensor or scientific data. In this paper, the authors propose a scheme of outsourcing similarity search. They define evaluation criteria for these systems with an emphasis on usability, privacy and efficiency in real applications. These criteria can be used as a general guideline for a practical system analysis and we use them to survey and mutually compare existing approaches. As the main result, the authors propose a novel dynamic similarity index EM-Index that works for an arbitrary metric space and ensures data privacy and thus is suitable for search systems outsourced for example in a cloud environment. In comparison with other approaches, the index is fully dynamic (update operations are efficient) and its aim is to transfer as much load from clients to the server as possible. Keywords: Cloud, EM-Index, Outsourcing, Privacy, Similarity Search, INTRODUCTION With the rapid growth of the volume and diversity of digital data produced by all kinds of commercial, scientific and leisure-time applications, the retrieval in large data sets became [...]

No-fault divorce changed the American culture of marriage. So did the sexual revolution. Now proponents of gay rights are redefining marriage at an even more fundamental level. What's to be [...]

Although most Christian churches advocate some sort of mission to non-Christians, no Jewish group advocates a mission to non-Jews. Proselytization seems to be foreign to Judaism. Are covenant and mission [...]

Latino men represent a quickly growing segment of the U.S. population. As such, it is important to document the health of these individuals. Data were collected from one of the [...]

The most recognized face of any Jewish leader of the past fifty years belongs to the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, even more so today than at his death in [...]

A germline homozygour intronic mutation, c.2386-11A->G, in the spindle-assembly checkpoint gene BUB1B, which creates a de novo splice site, is identified in a 34 years of age patient with a BUB1B detected with a premature chromatid separation and mosaic variegated aneuploidy, combined with structural chromosomal abnormalities. The abnormalities affecting the spindle-assembly checkpoint expand the phenotype associated with BUB1B mutations and the mosaic variegated aneuploidy syndrome to include common adult-onset cancers and provide evidence for the interdependency of the APC protein encoded by the adenomatous polyposis coli gene and the BUBR1 protein in human.

Public health messaging encourages men who have sex with men (MSM) to be tested for sexually transmitted infections (STI) and HIV at least yearly, and more frequently depending on sexual behaviors. However, despite engaging in a range of sexual behaviors, many MSM do not participate in regular STI testing. The objective of this study was to understand factors associated with STI testing among a nonclinic-based population of men accessing an Internet-based social and sexual networking site. We asked 25,736 men to complete a comprehensive behavioral and health assessment after being recruited from an Internet site popular among men seeking social or sexual interactions with other men. Analyses were performed using multivariate logistic regression with effects significant at p < 0.05. Two separate predictive models were assessed: STI diagnosis within the past 2 years and STI testing within the past year. Regarding previous STI diagnosis, men who used a condom some of the time or never during both insertive (odds ratio [OR] = 1.72) and receptive (OR = 1.41) anal sex were significantly more likely to have had an STI in the past 2 years. For STI testing, men who never used condoms during receptive anal sex were more likely to have had an STI test within the past year (OR = 1.31), but men who had a STI history were less likely to have been tested (OR = 0.24). Public health efforts directed toward MSM should continue to emphasize screening for STI other than HIV, particularly among those men prioritized during condom promotion campaigns. In addition to the benefits of learning one's STI status, the STI screening and treatment environment itself may provide an important venue for encouraging a range of sexual health promoting behaviors. DOI: 10.1089/apc.2010.0178

Circumcision's potential link to HIV/sexually transmitted infections (STI) has been at the center of recent global public health debates. However, data related to circumcision and sexual health remain limited, with most research focused on heterosexual men. This study sought to assess behavioral differences among a large sample of circumcised and noncircumcised men who have sex with men (MSM) in the United States. Data were collected from 26,257 U.S. MSM through an online survey. Measures included circumcision status, health indicators, HIV/STI screening and diagnosis, sexual behaviors, and condom use. Bivariate and regression analyses were conducted to determine differences between HIV/STI status, sexual behaviors, and condom use among circumcised and noncircumcised men. Circumcision status did not significantly predict HIV testing (p > 0.05), or HIV serostatus (p > 0.05), and there were no significant differences based on circumcision status for most STI diagnosis [syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, human papilloma virus (HPV)]. Being noncircumcised was predictive of herpes-2 diagnosis, however, condom use mediated this relationship. These data provide one of the first large national assessments of circumcision among MSM. While being noncircumcised did not increase the likelihood of HIV and most STI infections, results indicated that circumcision was associated with higher rates of condom use, suggesting that those who promote condoms among MSM may need to better understand condom-related behaviors and attitudes among noncircumcised men to enhance the extent to which they are willing to use condoms consistently. DOI: 10.1089/apc.2010.0082

Objectives. We sought to assess risk exposures, health care access, and screening rates for HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among men who have sex with men (MSM) in Massachusetts. Methods. We used a modified respondent-driven sampling method to collect data between March 2006 and May 2007. Overall, 126 MSM completed a survey. Results. Seventy percent of participants reported unprotected receptive anal intercourse with at least 1 nonmonogamous male partner; 50% reported having had a previous STI. Although 98% had visited a health care provider in the previous year, 39% had not been screened for STIs during the previous 2 years. Bisexual respondents were less likely to have told their health care providers that they engage in male-to-male sexual contact (OR=4.66; P partner (OR=5.04; P Conclusions. Clinicians need to assess sexual risk-taking behaviors and more routinely screen for STIs among sexually active men regardless of disclosure of a history of having sex with men. (doi:10.2105/AJPH.2007.127464)

Seeking ideas for presents this year, we asked several of our well-read friends and contributors for recommendations of a few wise, or fun, or disturbing books that every FIRST THINGS [...]

This study relies on participant observation and in-depth interviews to explore how StreetWise, an organization with a newspaper by the same name, mobilizes symbolic and material support for people without homes or those at risk. Pragmatism is used to understand how StreetWise ameliorates the experience of homelessness by building community. In stark contrast to forces that erase 'the homeless' from the public scene, StreetWise integrates people without homes, as vendors, into community life by providing employment and raising awareness about poverty-related issues. Through its structure, mission, and business plan StreetWise encourages an engaged citizenry and enhances civic discourses. StreetWise provides scholars with a context within which to understand the reflexive and interactive organization-society relationships that strive to support a democratic way of life. Keywords: Democracy; Community; Organizing; Homelessness; Poverty; Pragmatism

To purchase or authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2008.00343.x Byline: David Novak (1) Keywords: universality; particularism; Jewish ethics; creation; revelation; natural law; egalitarianism Abstract: ABSTRACT Jewish ethics like Judaism itself has often been charged with being 'particularistic,' and in modernity it has been unfavorably compared with the universality of secular ethics. This charge has become acute philosophically when the comparison is made with the ethics of Kant. However, at this level, much of the ethical rejection of Jewish particularism, especially its being beholden to a God who is above the universe to whom this God prescribes moral norms and judges according to them, is also a rejection of Christian (or any other monotheistic) ethics, no matter how otherwise universal. Yet this essay argues that Jewish ethics that prescribes norms for all humans, and that is knowable by all humans, actually constitutes a wider moral universe than does Kantian ethics, because it can include non-rational human objects and even non-human objects altogether. This essay also argues that a totally egalitarian moral universe, encompassing all human relations, becomes an infinite, totalizing universe, which can easily become the ideological justification (ratio essendi) of a totalitarian regime. Author Affiliation: (1)Room 314University CollegeUniversity of TorontoToronto, Ontario M5S 3H7Canada416.946.3229david.novak@utoronto.ca

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2006.04.036 Byline: Suresh K. Nair (a), David C. Novak (b) Keywords: Markov decision process; Traffic shaping; Bandwidth; Goal programming Abstract: The management of technology in multi-service computer networks, such as university networks, has become a challenge with the explosive growth of entertainment oriented peer-to-peer (P2P) traffic. Traffic shaping is one of the tools used to manage bandwidth to improve system performance by allocating bandwidth between P2P and non-peer-to-peer (NP2P) traffic. We present a model for traffic shaping and bandwidth management that considers the trade-offs from allocating different amounts of bandwidths for different application categories and use data from a university network. The current policy allocates varying bandwidths over the day to P2P and NP2P traffic to reflect the importance of not letting entertainment based traffic choke the network during the day time at the expense of the more important traffic, such as Web traffic. We highlight the difficulties in obtaining data in the form required for analysis, and the need to estimate demand for allocations not covered by current policy. We present a goal programming model for this estimation task. We also model the traffic shaping problem as a Markov decision process and develop an algorithm for determining the optimal bandwidth allocation to maximize the utility of all users. Finally we use a numerical example to illustrate our approach. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Operations and Information Management, School of Business Administration, 2100 Hillside Road, Unit 1041 OPIM, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1041, United States (b) School of Business Administration, 310 Kalkin Hall, 55 Colchester Ave., University of Vermont, Burlington, VT 05405-0157, United States Article History: Received 22 December 2004; Accepted 27 April 2006

MAIMONIDES by SHERWIN B. NULAND Schocken, 234 pages, $19.95 THE EIGHT-HUNDREDTH anniversary of the death in 1204 of Rabbi Moses the son of Rabbi Maimon the Spaniard--better known to the [...]

No group has benefited more from modern secularity than have the Jews. Modern secularity has enabled Jews to become full and equal participants in the secular societies in which almost [...]

To engage in parrhesia is to function as a truth-teller. While Foucault (2001) outlined different types of parrhesia identified by the Greeks, the five elements of parrhesia remain constant yet context-specific: frankness, danger, criticism, duty, and truth. Foucault (2001) argued that 'real parrhesia, in its positive, critical sense does not exist where democracy exists' (p. 83). I claim that parrhesia can exist in democratic institutions and, in fact, is a process that members of the public should demand from public actors. To illustrate this claim, I analyze three Malcolm X speeches, 'Black Man's History,' 'The Ballot or the Bullet,' and 'After the Bombing' and argue that while he did not start out as a parrhesiastes, he ended his life as one who spoke the truth in a democratic society.

This project explores how discourses of difference sustain the separation of people with disabilities from community life and highlights the efforts of one organization, Passion Works, as members perform a counter-narrative of disability. Passion Works is a non-profit organization housed within a sheltered workshop sponsored by its local county board of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, and provides innovative employment opportunities by supporting artistic collaborations between individuals with and without disabilities. Our ethnographic portrayal is based on our experiences as participant observers, narratives performed in daily routines and collected through indepth interviews with staff artists, and document analysis. We unpack how artists perform a counter-narrative of freedom through flight that fosters both autonomy and connection, allows artists to accomplish mind and body, and provides opportunities for artists to perform the personal in the public sphere. Keywords: Narrative; Disability; Aesthetic; Dialectics

This ethnographic portrayal relies on participant observations at two supplemental support programs for youth without homes, narratives collected through in-depth interviews with educators and case managers, and focus group interviews with youth participants to explore the discursive (re)production of invisibility among youth without homes. Structuration theory is used to frame macro and micro forces coalescing to enable and constrain processes of invisibility among the hidden homeless. Analysis reveals how invisibility shapes (and is shaped by) processes of stigmatization, 'street smarts' as enacted by youth, and 'Mayberry' and 'not in my backyard' community discourses, and how the disappearance of youth without homes simultaneously serves and undermines various stakeholders. Keywords: Structuration; Homelessness; Invisibility; Space; Marginalization

With the passing of disputations between Jewish and Christian thinkers as to whose tradition has a more universal ethics, the task of Jewish and Christian ethicists is to constitute a universal horizon for their respective bodies of ethics, both of which are essentially particularistic being rooted in special revelation. This parallel project must avoid relativism that is essentially anti-ethical, and triumphalism that proposes an imperialist ethos. A retrieval of the idea of natural law in each respective tradition enables the constitution of some intelligent common ground for ethical cooperation in both theory and practice between the traditions. This essay also suggests how the constitution of this common ground could include Muslims as well. The constitution of this common ground enables religious ethicists to present more cogent ethical arguments in secular space, but only of course, when those who now control secular space are open to arguments from members of any religious tradition. KEY WORDS: natural law, ethics, halakhah, general revelation, special revelation, border concept, universal

ESSENTIAL ESSAYS ON JUDAISM. BY ELIEZER BERKOVITS. Edited by DAVID HAZONY. Shalem. 393 pp. $22.95 paper. DURING THE SECOND HALF of the twentieth century, three significant traditionalist Jewish thinkers were [...]

Rav Kook: Mystic in a Time of Revolution BY YEHUDAH MIRSKY YALE, 288 PAGES, $25 Yehudah Mirsky's biography of Rabbi (or 'Rav') Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Chief Rabbi of [...]

No one, save a prophet, could have predicted the radical change in the relationship between Jews and Christians since Western civilization narrowly escaped physical and moral annihilation in the Second [...]

In his writings, Karl Barth dismissed Judaism and never truly engaged any contemporary Jewish thinkers of his time. Viewing Barth's work from a Jewish perspective is relevant for a number of reasons, most importantly because of Barth's emphasis on the commandments of God.

The relationship between Judaism and Christianity is discussed from a Jewish perspective. Topics include presuppositions of Jewish-Christian dialogue, legalism and antinomianism, Noahide law, the law of a Gentile community, and normative communities.

ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL: PROPHETIC WITNESS. By Edward K. Kaplan and Samuel H. Dresner. Yale University Press. 416 pp. $35. Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972) was the most significant Jewish thinker ever [...]

The right to privacy has both positive and negative connotations for those who consider themselves part of the natural law tradition. On the one hand, a significant part of the [...]

The question of natural law poses a problem to modern Judaism. When natural law became linked to natural rights, Jews were granted admission to European society. Jewish modernity was determined by the acquisition of citizenship, the Holocaust, and the founding of the state of Israel. Natural law presupposes there is something greater than the Jewish religion. A philosophical answer to the dilemma comes from the the Enlightenment which theorizes that through social contract people can set up their own primary society.

Michael Wyschogrod's argument that Jews who become Christians should continue to observe the Torah is an unhistoric possibility. It would be the same as saying Jewish Christians are a sect of Judaism, which is unacceptable in traditional Jewish theology. In Jewish law, apostasy is a rejection of God and therefore not acceptable, even if done in good conscience.