Ephemeral Life Research Articles

Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive

Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive

POVERTY

AbstractPoverty can be an ephemeral life stage of a young person whose skill sets will become more valuable with training and experience, a personal setback such as losing a job, or a systemic affliction that puts a whole community in danger of widespread famine. A common theme of this volume’s essays is that we cannot understand poverty and famine unless we acknowledge that poor people are not mouths to be fed but agents. Amartya Sen got this right, crediting Adam Smith for the seeds of his insight. What has been enabling people by the billions since Smith’s time to work their way out of poverty?

Chasing the offshore wind farm wind-wake-induced upwelling/downwelling dipole

The operational principle of offshore wind farms (OWF) is to extract kinetic energy from the atmosphere and convert it into electricity. Consequently, a region of reduced wind speed in the shadow zone of an OWF, the so-called wind-wake, is generated. As there is a horizontal wind speed deficit between the wind-wake and the undisturbed neighboring regions, the locally reduced surface stress results in an adjusted Ekman transport. Subsequently, the creation of a dipole pattern in sea surface elevation induces corresponding anomalies in the vertical water velocities. The dynamics of these OWF wind-wake induced upwelling/downwelling dipoles have been analyzed in earlier model studies, and strong impacts on stratified pelagic ecosystems have been predicted. Here we provide for the first time empirical evidence of the existence of such upwelling/downwelling dipoles. The data were obtained by towing a remotely operated vehicle (TRIAXUS ROTV) through leeward regions of operational OWFs in the summer stratified North Sea. The undulating TRIAXUS transects provided high-resolution CTD data which enabled the characterization of three different phases of the ephemeral life cycle of a wind-wake-induced upwelling/downwelling dipole: development, operation, and erosion. We identified two characteristic hydrographic signatures of OWF-induced dipoles: distinct changes in mixed layer depth and potential energy anomaly over a distance < 5 km and a diagonal excursion of the thermocline of ~10–14 m over a dipole dimension of ~10–12 km. Whether these anthropogenically induced abrupt changes are significantly different from the corridor of natural variability awaits further investigations.

Playing Conspiracy

Playing Conspiracy

Life-history strategy and extinction risk in the warm desert perennial spring ephemeral Astragalus holmgreniorum (Fabaceae).

This study of Astragalus holmgreniorum examines its adaptations to the warm desert environment and whether these adaptations will enable it to persist. Its spring ephemeral hemicryptophyte life‐history strategy is unusual in warm deserts. We used data from a 22‐year demographic study supplemented with reproductive output, seed bank, and germinant survival studies to examine the population dynamics of this species using discrete‐time stochastic matrix modeling. The model showed that A. holmgreniorum is likely to persist in the warm desert in spite of high dormant‐season mortality. It relies on a stochastically varying environment with high inter‐annual variation in precipitation for persistence, but without a long‐lived seed bank, environmental stochasticity confers no advantage. Episodic high reproductive output and frequent seedling recruitment along with a persistent seed bank are adaptations that facilitate its survival. These adaptations place its life‐history strategy further along the spectrum from “slower” to “faster” relative to other perennial spring ephemerals. The extinction risk for small populations is relatively high even though mean λ s > 1 because of the high variance in year quality. This risk is also strongly dependent on seed bank starting values, creating a moving window of extinction risk that varies with population size through time. Astragalus holmgreniorum life‐history strategy combines the perennial spring ephemeral life form with features more characteristic of desert annuals. These adaptations permit persistence in the warm desert environment. A promising conclusion is that new populations of this endangered species can likely be established through direct seeding.

Early “Frictions” in the Transition towards Cashless Payments

Abstract – In this article we describe the trials and tribulations in the early stages to introduce cashless retail payments in the USA. We compare efforts by financial service firms and retailers. We then document the ephemeral life of one of these innovations, colloquially known as “Hinky Dinky”. We conclude with a brief reflection on the lessons these historical developments offer to the future of digital payments.

Christine Beaule and John G. Douglass (eds.), The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism

Reviewed by: The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism ed. by Christine Beaule and John G. Douglass Damián V. Solano Escolano (bio) Christine Beaule and John G. Douglass, eds., The Global Spanish Empire: Five Hundred Years of Place Making and Pluralism. University of Arizona Press, 2020. Pp. 306. This collaborative work offers an overview of the Spanish empire as a global and pluralistic territory that, due to massive migrations and varied intermarriage practices, had multiple manifestations of place making. This theoretical concept does not have a univocal meaning in the book, since it includes both the deliberate creation of a physical space and its ritual practices, as happens in a mission, and the constant evolution of material traditions that affect, for instance, the forms of social climbing and cultural persistence (4–6). Other theoretical terms that appear intermittently are the dichotomy between place (physical markers such as buildings) and space (the totality of the landscape) (152), and ethnogenesis, usually understood as the creative responses of conquered groups to perpetuate their culture (216). As the editors explain in the introduction, this theoretical approach aims to overcome the particularities of the Spanish empire and to serve as an analogy for other forms of colonialism, whether European, non-European, or a combination of both, as in this case (8). The method used in The Global Spanish Empire, which is part of the current trend in theories of materiality, constitutes a useful contribution to colonial studies from an anthropological view. Besides examining new cases of specific [End Page 272] settings in disparate geographical points, each chapter extracts general principles related to these theoretical foci. To support their arguments, the authors use not only archival sources but also a wide variety of archaeological findings, artifacts, anthropological analyses, and oral sources. Considering the coloniality of power from a material point of view sheds light on the circumstances in which relations among pluralistic groups developed. For example, the presence of beads of various materials throughout the empire shows that, in addition to being proselytizing tools for Spanish priests, they were also signs of identification with Christian values for those Indigenous groups who wanted to distinguish themselves from others who rejected acculturation (259–61). To illustrate these material aspects, all chapters contain visual aids such as maps, drawings, and photographs. In this sense, a consistent use of place names from context (New Spain instead of Mexico, for example) both in the text and in the maps would have added historical rigor to the work. The Global Spanish Empire contains eleven chapters that analyze various cases, ranging from concrete contextual approaches to broader scopes. The structure does not seem to follow any thematic, geographical, or methodological order. Chapter 1 (Christopher R. DeCorse) explores the Iberian intersections in West Africa, in particular the life around Castelo São Jorge da Mina (today known as Elmina Castle, in Ghana). Chapter 2 (Corinne L. Hofman, Roberto Valcárcel Rojas, and Jorge Ulloa Hung) examines the latent Indigenous cultural persistence in the Caribbean Sea through case studies in Cuba and Hispaniola that focus on architecture and pottery. Chapter 3 (Christopher B. Rodning, Michelle M. Pigott, and Hannah G. Hoover) looks at the encounters between Spaniards and Mississippian chiefdoms throughout what was known as La Florida. The presence of Spanish forts and missions created divisions and clusters between the newcomers and the natives, and among the natives. Chapter 4 (Stacie M. King) travels to the current Sierra Sur de Oaxaca, Mexico. The arrival of Spaniards, mestizos, African slaves, and Indians (both allies and enslaved) transfigured the social reality of this region, which was a multiethnic landscape of conquest and migrations from pre-Hispanic times. Chapter 5 (Laura Matthew and William R. Fowler) examines the tense multiethnic coexistence in the first Spanish settlements in Central America, Santiago en Almolonga in Guatemala and San Salvador in El Salvador. Both were urban projects with an ephemeral life that highlighted the contradictions between the idealizations of the imperial mission, embodied in the layout in traza, and its complicated implementation. In a similar manner, chapter 6 (Kevin Lane) focuses on the domination of the Christian place over the Indigenous space through the construction...

Counting plants: The extent and adequacy of monitoring for a continental-scale list of threatened plant species

Monitoring of threatened species is a critical part of conserving biodiversity. It is needed to understand population trajectories, threatening processes, and the type and effectiveness of management responses needed to ensure persistence and recovery. Characteristics of some plant species (e.g. immobility) should render them amenable to monitoring, whereas other characteristics (e.g. ephemeral life histories) will make plant monitoring challenging. We evaluated monitoring adequacy and extent for a large sample (839 taxa) of Australia's threatened plants (1336 taxa) and compared this assessment with a similar evaluation for threatened vertebrates. We found 37.2% of threatened plants are monitored, half the rate found for vertebrates. For monitored plants, monitoring quality as assessed using a set of nine criteria was generally low, similar to results for vertebrates. Plants with more imperilled conservation status were more likely to be monitored and tended to have higher quality monitoring. Plants with recovery plans were more likely to be monitored than those without. The likelihood a species was monitored decreased the longer a taxon had been listed under threatened species legislation. Monitoring longevity was poor but inclusion of demographic data and linkages to management were better than for vertebrates. Our assessment highlighted a lack of collated monitoring data for plants, and we recognise there are exemplary programs for threatened plants that can guide improvements in monitoring for other species. Plants are overwhelmingly represented in threatened species lists worldwide and a determined focus to improve the extent and quality of plant monitoring should underpin biodiversity conservation targets.

Vasile Aaron – Reporta din vis, o noutate literară din vreme

Vasile Aaron (1780-1821) had an important contribution to the modernization of the Romanian literature. He was also the representative of the Transylvanian Enlightenment School. One of his works which is worth mentioning is Reporta din vis (Reporta in his dream), a meditation upon the ephemeral human life. Here, the author brought in elements of novelty such as the “dream-in-a-dream” images, the pre-Romantic motif of the ruins or the first fantastic descriptions in the Romanian poetical works. All Aaron´s literary and social activity reflected the specific features of his age. The complete studies written by Liliana Popa and Nicolae Popa shed light upon Aaron’s life and work and they showed the real dimensions of his personality.

Songwriting and functional load in the “Diary of Ephemeral Life”

In the history of Japan, the Heian era is considered the golden age, the heyday of aristocratic literature. It was then that the aristocracy became the creator of literary works, which to this day are the masterpieces of world literature. One of the unique phenomena of Japanese classical literature is recognized diary, including female diary literature of the Heian era (IX-XII centuries). Diary literature differs from other genres in terms of presentation style, artistic language, plot and composition, figurative system, presentation methods. Mitsitsuno no haha (935-996), who enriched the Japanese medieval art tradition with an original literary style, a new theme, a new poetic vision, new sensuality, is recognized as the most striking representative of womens diary literature in Japan. In the Diary of Ephemeral Life, by Mitsitsu no haha the tradition of poetic inserts is widely embodied, a special layer of poetic material (three-part, five-part) is highlighted. They serve as a necessary attribute for conveying an emotional mood, creating an image, enhancing important moments of importance. Considering the artistic features of the diary, the author of the article makes an attempt to suggest that poems are additional material in the transfer of various emotional states of the heroine. Poetic insertions enhance one or another mood, establish an emotional connection between the external and internal world of the author. Analysis of poetic inserts makes it possible to determine their functional load.

El valor de la vida y de la muerte en J. R. R. Tolkien desde "Hoja de Niggle"

La cautivante obra de J. R. R. Tolkien nos dejó un increíble mundo de fantasías, mitos y poesías, mediante la cual se puede vislumbrar la fascinante belleza de la realidad. Una de esas realidades es la muerte del hombre que sólo se entiende desde la vida vivida, desde la obra incompleta, desde el mandato de destruir el anillo -“mi tesoro”- con las debilidades de la propia naturaleza humana. El análisis hermenéutico a esta concisa historia se complementa con otros trabajos de Tolkien, de su amigo C.S. Lewis, de referentes como San Juan de la Cruz y Dante Alighieri, entre otros. La exégesis de este texto nos permite develar la existencia de un trasfondo de procesos psicológicos que buscan el sentido más profundo de la muerte a través del mito basado en las creencias religiosas. Creencias que están lejos de la comprensión racional y que solo se pueden entender a través de “parábolas”. Nuevamente la esperanza es un elemento que atraviesa y da sentido a la vida iluminando a la razón en aquellos oscuros y recónditos pasajes, donde el hombre moderno se encuentra sin argumentos. El bien y los valores del hombre frente al bien y a los valores de un mundo que ha perdido el norte, pero que, sin embargo, se cree trascendente frente a la efímera vida y obra de “un pobre hombre llamado Niggle” (Tolkien, 1999, p. 65).

La "topografía Médica de Mataró y su zona" d’Antoni Franquesa i Sivilla (1862-1906).

THE MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF MATEAR AND IST AREA BY ANTONI FRANQUESA I SIVILLA (1862-1906): The medical topography of Mataró, by the local doctor Dr. Antoni Franquesa i Sivilla, was presented by its author to the prize of the Royal Academy of Medicine and Surgery of Barcelona in 1888. Dr. Franquesa, despite his ephemeral life, he was a prominent figure in the professional and political spheres of the city, and recognized with a street that bears his name.

A Paradox Relating to the Costume Designer

A Paradox Relating to the Costume Designer Radoslav Lazić, Stage Director and Professor Of the many paradoxes associated with theater designers, the work of a costume designer seems to be the source of greatest admiration. The paradox of aesthetics within this complex artistic activity becomes even more pronounced due to the fact that the design of theatrical costumes manifests itself in a triple form: first as sketches, then as costumes, and lastly as stand-alone design exhibits. The costume designer must first draw the costumes for the dramatis personae, defining them by means of color according to historical accuracy and contemporary taste (figure 1).1 Amazingly, a costume designer's creative endeavor produces the greatest creative and aesthetic energy, and in theatrical practice, their artistic works are termed "costume sketches" (figure 2). This is the first aspect of the costumer's paradox. In the tailor's workshop, costume sketches are used to make the patterns that will fit the performing artists and the roles they will play on stage (figure 3). The actual costumes are made of fabrics, which take the selected models, style, historical accuracy, and characters into account (figure 4). Costume sketches give rise to the making of garments, footwear, jewelry, and other accessories to be worn by the characters on stage (figure 5). After the costumes are made, the sketches then sink into oblivion, surviving only in the theater archives or in the costume designer's collection (figure 6). On the stage, however, one encounters only the costumes, which are an integral part of the performance. Accordingly, costume sketches are forgotten, whereas actual costumes are remembered. This is another aspect of the paradox arising from the profession of costume design (figure 7). Finally, the third aspect of this paradox can be seen in the exhibition of costume designs. Appearing as an independent form of applied art and theatrical design, a sketch has now become an artifact and a work of art, which we look at in admiration [End Page 217] of its author and the aesthetics of their "palette" (figure 8). Costume sketches have become works of art, the exclusive record of the art of a costume designer and, even more so, of a theatrical performance and its ephemeral life (figure 9). While celebrating the fruitful artistic endeavors of Milanka Berberović, a costume designer and professor of costume design at the Faculty of Applied Arts and Design, I remember with nostalgia the beginning of my own career as a director. We started our career together in the (then) Contemporary Theatre in Belgrade, working on Petar Kočić's drama Jazavac pred sudom (The Badger in Court), she as a costume designer and I as a stage director. Milanka Berberović has designed the costumes for more than 100 performances, theatrical, televised, and otherwise (figure 10). Many productions have vanished according to the law of theatrical life, always ephemeral, but costume sketches survive as a valuable aesthetic record of this fine costume designer, an expert in the history and theory of costume design and an exceptional practitioner of a complex theatrical art. In addition to her skill, charm, and diligence, Milanka Berberović distinguishes herself by a highly developed style of artistic expression (figure 11). As the most outstanding representative of the contemporary Belgrade School of Costume Design, she can also take pride in her artistic creation amid "theatrical chaos," as well as morality and concern for the art of costume design. Costume sketches are the designer's authentic, lasting artistic works. Milanka Berberović's world of theater design is an exceptional creative endeavor which continues to live its own life through the surviving costume sketches. Indeed, the paradox associated with the art of a costume designer is amazing (figure 12). [End Page 218] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Miladin Ševarlić, Karadjordje, sketch for the costume of Karadjordje. [End Page 219] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. William Shakespeare, The Tempest, sketch for the costume of Caliban. [End Page 220] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 3. Guiseppe Verdi, Attila, sketch for the costume of Odabella. [End Page 221] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 4. Branislav Nuši...

The Witness's Two Bodies: The Migration of the Testimonial Function After Primo Levi's Death

This paper asks what became of Primo Levi's testimonial function after his death. The first part investigates the literary objects (novels and comic books) produced in the wake of Levi's death, when fictionalized representations of him multiplied through different media. As a means of comparison, the question will be explored by taking into account a series of fictional works that feature another quintessential emblem of the Shoah: Anne Frank. The second part will instead examine Literature or Life by Buchenwald survivor Jorge Semprún, who rewrote and rearticulated Levi's words on the very day of the latter's suicide. Can testimonial function migrate between mortal bodies, like the royal dignitas, thus preserving itself beyond the ephemeral lives of individuals?

Los fondos históricos del Archivo de la Universidad de Cádiz: bastante más que historia de la universidad

University of Cadiz, which was created by law on 30 October 1979, has a history of higher studies dating back to 1748, when it was established in the Royal Hospital of the city, the Royal College of Medicine and Surgery of the Navy. Already in the nineteenth century were established teaching of Teaching and Commerce, which, along with other educational institutions, some of ephemeral life, as a Faculty of Pharmacy, provide the Archive of the UCA with a rich documentation. not limited to that generated by the university itself.

SYMBOLS OF INTIMITY FROM THE ROMANIAN FAIRY TALE. (V) THE INSTITUTION OF OLD AGE

The imaginary, through the totality of beliefs, speaking about the stage of the oldness is well emphasized and structured for a good contouring and phenomenological reception of the symbols of intimacy from the Romanian fantastic fairy tale, the subject claiming a particular approach. Representing a biological and spiritual-ethical reality, this final stage of life manifests and maintains a subtle “network" of mythological, mental, psycho-social and cultural interferences. Endorsements from numerous and various anthologies of fairy tales invariably talks about the carnal body perishability, about the effects of biological degradation occurring over time. Moreover, the features used by the anonymous creator of fairy tale, are all in this directory of the ephemeral and the overwhelming proportion counter to the young youth with virile hero fairytale “displays" in front of such old persons. Distracted for a certain period of their time (knowned and physically limited), discovering, experimenting and living part of a historical Times, these fairy-tale heroes are disturbed by its limitations. Sometimes they discover magical remedies that rejuvenate an aging body, discovering, experiencing and / or living, even temporarily, a seductive myhtologist like the realm of eternal youth. Sometimes they can live forever, they can enjoy the presence of extremely beautiful and young female beings, but then they seem to want old age and / or death more and more! Other times, in personalist ontology, the hero will discover that what originally seemed to be a noematic gain (the eternity of his ephemeral life) slowly changes into a continuous loss, in a non-natural negative. In the great majority of the fairy tales, the symbolic intentionality of the change of consciousness over the time (to live) is evident, through which the divine-profane relationship can be overthrown, as well as the specific significance of its meaning in illo tempore, the divinity between man's ephemerality and the ideatic desire to transcend his perishability condition. As such, starting from a composite and ideological epistemic concept (oldness as an ideologem), in this study we tried to discover and analyze what are the main-ideas of this “institution of old age" from the fantastic Romanian fairy tale, at the level of the cultural-social imagination. Thus, we have brought into discussion both the mythical dimension of such a concept (the archetype of oldness) and the structural-narrative, with the forms and contents supposed or taken at the level of the fantastic epic fantasy (the posology of old age, magic cures and rituals un-aging, paradisiac realms of eternal youth).

Hydrocotyle serendipita (Araliaceae), a new species of fire ephemeral from south-western Australia

Hydrocotyle serendipita A.J.Perkins sp. nov. is a rare species of fire ephemeral from the Albany area of southwest Western Australia. The newly discovered species shares the fire ephemeral life history trait with the recently described H. phoenix A.J.Perkins. Based on a suite of vegetative synapomorphies, these two species appear to be closely related. Marked differences in mericarp shape and surface morphology, assist to differentiate the two species. Photographic images of H. serendipita are provided, along with a distribution map and a list of diagnostic features to aid in identification.

Rising from the ashes - Hydrocotyle phoenix (Araliaceae), a new annual species from south-western Australia

A recently discovered fire ephemeral Hydrocotyle phoenix A.J.Perkins sp. nov. from south-west Western Australia is described and compared to other Australian species of Hydrocotyle. Photographic images of the new species are provided, along with a list of diagnostic features to aid in identification. The annual fire
 ephemeral life history of this species is novel for the genus.

A cien años del constituyente mexicano de 1917. La visión de El Zancudo, periódico satírico de Querétaro

Con sentido crítico y perspectiva histórica, el texto describe y analiza El Zancudo, periódico de caricaturas de vida efímera que, aprovechando la coyuntura política del momento, se publicó con el propósito específico de rescatar algunos de los acontecimientos más destacados del Congreso, ridiculizando las posturas, poses, vestimenta, manera de expresarse e ideología de los diputados del ala jacobina o radical. Tan sólo cuatro números fueron publicados a fines de enero y principios de febrero de 1917, siendo el director Pedro A. Chapa y sus colaboradores Marcelino Dávalos, Rafael de los Ríos y Alfonso Cravioto, todos ellos diputados constituyentes del ala conservadora, con amplia experiencia periodística y defensores del proyecto reformista del Primer Jefe y Encargado del Poder Ejecutivo.

The Ephemeral Life of an Emerging Fund Manager

The investment industry has been undergoing massive transformation. Traditionally, members followed a predictable path from graduate school to portfolio manager. Wall Street firms would pluck fresh MBAs from leading business schools, such as Harvard, Wharton, or Chicago, and groom a lucky few for a privileged existence. Salaries and bonuses were not extraordinary by national standards, but they provided a stable, enviable career. This tranquil path no longer exists. It has been replaced by one filled with unpredictable change and heartache. Many still enjoy a fulfilling, perhaps even extraordinary, career. But survival has been made more challenging with market upheaval, technological advances, consolidation, and excess talent. In order to survive, all investment professionals need to adapt to the changing environment or shift energies to an entrepreneurial paradigm.