bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Frozen Envelope
Authors: Criblez Adam J.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the pivotal moments in the careers of DJ Run, DMC, and Jam Master Jay, collectively known as Run-DMC, who revolutionized hip-hop with their fusion of hard rock and rap. It details how Run-DMC's debut album in 1984 marked a change in the music scene, offering a new sense of blackness and a powerful voice. Meanwhile, in the world of basketball, the New York Knicks faced challenges, such as losing key players like Ray Williams and missing out on drafting future legends like Michael Jordan due to earlier trades. The chapter details the intriguing story of the 1985 NBA draft lottery, where the Knicks landed the first overall pick, selecting Patrick Ewing amidst speculation of conspiracy. This momentous event sparked hope and excitement among Knicks fans, signaling a potential return to greatness for the team.
Consuls
Authors: Conroy-Krutz Emily
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the summer of 1861 when William Thayer, the new U.S. Consul General in Egypt, was thrust into a complex diplomatic situation involving Faris-el-Hakim, a Syrian physician working with American Presbyterian missionaries. Faris, who faced severe persecution after assisting a woman attempting to convert back to Christianity, was neither a US citizen nor officially connected to the United States. The chapter details how Thayer saw Faris's case as a critical test of US commitment to religious liberty and its global influence. The chapter notes the missionaries' plea for intervention that led Thayer to demand justice from the Egyptian government, resulting in the imprisonment of Faris's attackers and a significant indemnity. It highlights the intertwining of US diplomatic efforts and missionary activities, reinforcing the role of American consuls in promoting religious toleration and the broader influence of the United States during a time of national crisis.
Victims
Authors: Conroy-Krutz Emily
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the perilous experiences of US missionaries abroad in the late nineteenth century, highlighting two significant incidents that captivated American attention and illustrated the dangers faced by missionaries. In 1862, US missionaries on Tanna in the South Pacific barricaded themselves in their home for ten days, fearing for their lives after their Canadian colleagues were murdered by islanders. The chapter mentions John L. Stephens, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) who was brutally killed in Mexico. It details the swift and severe response by the Mexican government to Stephen's murder, which was influenced by diplomatic pressure from the United States and aimed to ensure justice and protection for American citizens. It also discusses the evolving relationship between missionaries and the US government, noting that while missionaries often faced violent attacks and conflicts with local authorities, they increasingly relied on diplomatic support to navigate these challenges.
Workers
Authors: Conroy-Krutz Emily
Published: October 2024

This chapter highlights the Fourth of July, 1871, when former Secretary of State Henry Seward attended the grand opening of Robert College in Constantinople. This college, symbolizing the intertwining of American and Christian identities, was the first to fly the US flag on the Bosporus. The chapter discusses how Seward's presence endorsed a vision of American influence abroad, intertwining missionary and diplomatic goals. The college, opened with significant symbolism on July 4th, became a prominent US institution in the Ottoman Empire, showcasing the complex interplay of secular and religious influences in American foreign endeavors. The chapter touches on the broader implications of missionary work in the late nineteenth century, noting the increasing presence of US missionaries and diplomats and the evolving dynamics of missionary diplomacy.
Boxers
Authors: Conroy-Krutz Emily
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores William Rankin's extensive notes on East Asian history and the role of missionaries in international law. It explores how Rankin, a historian with missionary roots, compiled detailed notes on missionaries, diplomacy, and international law, especially regarding Townsend Harris's instructions to Japan. Focusing on his uncle, Divie Bethune McCartee, Rankin argued that missionaries like McCartee were crucial diplomatic figures linking the Orient and the Western world. The chapter looks at Rankin's belief that the United States had a moral duty in East Asia, advocating for American influence alongside British support to foster development and spread Christianity. It reviews Rankin's work, which was aimed to assert the enduring importance of missionaries in US–China relations and broader international diplomacy.
The Geography of Injustice
Authors: Kushner Barak
Published: October 2024

This book argues that the war crimes tribunals in East Asia formed and cemented national divides that persist into the present day. In 1946, the Allies convened the Tokyo Trial to prosecute Japanese wartime atrocities and Japan's empire. At its conclusion one of the judges voiced dissent, claiming that the justice found at Tokyo was only “the sham employment of a legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge.” War crimes tribunals, the book shows, allow for the history of the defeated to be heard. In contemporary East Asia a fierce battle between memory and history has consolidated political camps across this debate. The Tokyo Trial courtroom, as well as the thousands of other war crimes tribunals opened in about fifty venues across Asia, were legal stages where prosecution and defense curated facts and evidence to craft their story about World War Two. These narratives and counter narratives form the basis of postwar memory concerning Japan's imperial aims across the region. The archival record and the interpretation of court testimony together shape a competing set of histories for public consumption. The book offers compelling evidence that, despite the passage of seven decades since the end of the war, East Asia is more divided than united by history.
The Kaleidoscope of Defeat in East Asia
Authors: Kushner Barak
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the series of defeats in East Asia. World War II in Asia exploded because a young Japanese infantry soldier based just outside of Beijing temporarily went missing. The weight of China's World War II history obscures a larger understanding of today's Sino-Japanese relationship. The chapter then discusses the history of the Nuremberg Principles and the Tokyo Trial. International criminal law is not sufficient to render justice all the time, particularly when the scale is so large or based on state-sponsored violence. The chapter explains that finding justice for Japanese war crimes is an example of the weighty emotional baggage that infects East Asia and shapes the current political landscape.
The Shape of Justice
Authors: Kushner Barak
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers the shape of justice by creating new symbols of international stature. It explains that governments were deeply concerned with managing how their domestic populations understood the meaning of World War II and the significance of Japan's imperial loss. The fall of the Japanese empire served as the initial trigger for the start of the reordering of the world order in East Asia. The chapter then elaborates on the subsequent competition to recolonize and decolonize. It discusses the significance of understanding the crucial transformations in East Asia in correlation with the political dynamics that prevented war crimes trials from forming a base for reconciliation in the region.
When the Hero of Your Story Is the Villain of Another
Authors: Kushner Barak
Published: October 2024

This chapter explains how China's outmoded legal tradition became a major obstacle in the attempts to uphold international goals of justice. The chapter provides an overview of the proceedings of the Tokyo Trials. The phenomenon of the obviousness of the crimes could be seen in the Nanjing and Shanghai BC class war crimes courtrooms, especially after the victims' bones were displayed on the judge's dais in open court. The chapter then discusses the imposition of war crimes trials by using international law to stem postimperial violence in East Asia after Japan's surrender. It elaborates on Chinese prisoners of war, the legacy of the trials, and Japan's role in the region as an innovator.
Laying Blame for Japan’s War Responsibility
Authors: Kushner Barak
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the blame for Japan's war responsibility. Within weeks of Japan's surrender, most areas and nations had fallen into social and economic turmoil. Moreover, death plays a feature role in many first-person accounts of the disorder following Japan's imperial collapse alongside the descriptions of willful disregard for others. Japan's surrender symbolized the rudderlessness of the European imperial powers' efforts to regain control of East and Southeast Asian colonies. The chapter discusses Japan's efforts to create the war responsibility council in correlation with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Law, Order, and Empire
Authors: Kalman Samuel
Published: October 2024

While much attention has focused on society, culture, and the military during the Algerian War of Independence, this book addresses a vital component of the empire that has been overlooked: policing. The book examines a critical component of the construction and maintenance of a racial state by settlers in Algeria from 1870 onward, in which Arabs and Berbers were subjected to an ongoing campaign of symbolic, structural, and physical violence. The French administration encouraged this construct by expropriating resources and territory, exploiting cheap labor, and monopolizing government, all through the use of force. The book provides a comprehensive overview of policing and crime in French Algeria, including the organizational challenges encountered by officers. Unlike the metropolitan variant, imperial policing was never a simple matter of law enforcement but instead engaged in the defense of racial hegemony and empire. Officers and gendarmes waged a constant struggle against escalating banditry, the assault and murder of settlers, and nationalist politics–anticolonial violence that rejected French rule. Thus, policing became synonymous with repression, and its brutal tactics foreshadowed the torture and murder used during the War of Independence. To understand the mechanics of empire, the book argues that it was the first line of defense for imperial hegemony. The book outlines not only how failings in policing were responsible for decolonization in Algeria but also how torture, massacres, and quotidian colonial violence—introduced from the very beginning of French policing in Algeria—created state-directed aggression from 1870 onward.
The Fetishism of the Subject and Its Secret in The Portrait of a Lady
Authors: Parker Ben
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the fetishism of the subject and its secret in The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. James's idea of a plot is the inevitable exposure of subjectivity's painfully suppressed unconscious determinations and its insertion in the degrading mediations of temporality. The chapter explains that subjectivity is confronted with the history of its own involvements in retrospective recognition scenes. Throughout the book, James plots the self-obscuring social process that lurks behind the fetishism of bourgeois appearances. The chapter notes that the recognition scenes expose and dismantle the concealed social machinery and transactions determining the false immediacy of Isabel Archer's alleged placement.
The West and the Oil Shock
Authors: De Groot Michael
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the impact of the oil crisis of 1973. The quadrupling of oil prices in the fall of 1973 signaled the formal end of the Golden Age. Moreover, the oil shock aggravated inflation, increased unemployment, triggered a sharp recession, created chaos in the international monetary system, and precipitated an enormous transfer of wealth to oil producers in the developing world. Instead of restoring the Bretton Woods systems, US officials believed that their country's interests aligned with the advancement of economic globalization, particularly with the notion of economic independence. The chapter explains that the post-Bretton Woods system was still organized around the dollar, which ensured that the United States retained the privileges of seigniorage.
The Travails of Jimmy Carter
Authors: De Groot Michael
Published: October 2024

This chapter elaborates on the efforts of the Jimmy Carter administration. Even though the recession of the mid-1970s had ended and the emergency phase of the oil crisis had passed, inflation and unemployment remained high, and the global recovery proved weak. The administration reluctantly prioritized monetary stability, a policy that combined with the second oil shock to impose a corrective recession in the late 1970s. The chapter provides an overview of the locomotive theory, a strategy proposed by Carter that called for West Germany and Japan to join the United States. Regardless of the favor for Ronald Reagan in the next presidency, Carter helped create structural conditions that contributed to the resurgence of US economic and military power.
Spaces and Places
Authors: Blum Susan D.
Published: October 2024

This chapter details the correlation of schoolishness with spaces and places. It notes how academic spaces are made by architects and planners, and they are sometimes aware of the ways spaces may ideally become significant and positive places. However, some of the ways schoolish spaces and places function create a space of separation and alienation. The chapter explains that cyberspaces lack the embodied dimensions expected from places, but it also has associations, histories, and affective experiences. It highlights that schoolish time, work, space, and place shape expectations for schoolish learning, which is carried out in a variety of schoolish genres.
Attending (to) Bodies
Authors: Blum Susan D.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines schoolish bodies which are still, isolated, uniform, and controlled. It explains how schoolish bodies moved to action, connection, variation, and agency. The Universal Design for Learning, UDL, reminds educators to employ multiple ways to get the material and the experience in an effort to prevent stigmatizing those who are granted accommodation for their disabilities. The chapter also notes surveillance as another aspect of pedagogy to ensure compliance and lack of deviance. It discusses that bodies in schools may be a challenge to care for, but they may be a resource for learning as more modalities raise the likeliness of the experience and learning to stick and reach everyone.
Whose Time Is It?
Authors: Mahadeo Rahsaan
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the crucial yet often overlooked role that time plays in structuring everyday life, from eating and leisure activities to hygiene and work schedules. It argues that the banality of time obscures its function as a central organizing principle and distinguishes between those who own time and those who owe it. It also explores how time is racialized and race is temporalized, revealing that social time systematically marginalizes racialized persons. The chapter depicts white time as a site of exploitation and extraction of non-White life, while racial time is premised on enslavement, dispossession, and death. It underscores the power of temporal subversion as a means to cope with and resist the timelessness of racialized violence, ultimately calling for a re-examination of normative conceptions of time within sociology.
Introduction
Authors: Wagner Steven
Published: October 2024

This chapter begins with Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address on January 17, 1961, where he reflected on America's rise to global prominence and emphasized the need for balance in using its power for peace and human betterment. Eisenhower's speech highlighted the challenges of maintaining national influence through responsible and ethical means. It reviews key events in Eisenhower's presidency, such as his pursuit of a “Middle Way” in social welfare, his creation of a “New Look” for national security, his management of the Little Rock desegregation crisis, and his reaction to the launch of Sputnik. The chapter details Eisenhower's consistent effort to balance personal preference and civic duty, national security and economic prosperity, and states' rights and federal responsibility. It looks into the attributes that have cemented Eisenhower's reputation as one of the top U.S. presidents.
Dealing with McCarthyism
Authors: Wagner Steven
Published: October 2024

This chapter highlights President Dwight D. Eisenhower's speech at Columbia University's bicentennial on May 31, 1954, where he indirectly denounced McCarthyism. Eisenhower's speech aligned with the celebration's theme, “Man's Right to Knowledge and the Free Use Thereof.” The chapter details how Eisenhower criticized the perversion of education for tyranny and spoke against thought control. It analyzes Eisenhower's cautious approach to Joe McCarthy, avoiding direct confrontation to prevent party division and undesired attention from the senator, which has been both criticized and reassessed by historians. While Eisenhower's indirect methods contributed to McCarthy's eventual downfall, some argue he missed an opportunity to more decisively counter the senator's demagoguery.
From Low-Level Petty Corruption to State Capture
Authors: Jancsics David
Published: October 2024

This chapter offers a chronological outline of corruption in postcommunist Hungary. After the peaceful transition from a one-party dictatorship and a command economy to a multiparty parliamentary democracy with a market economy, the country had started to catch up with the West. However, after the election in 2010, new prime minister Viktor Orbán and his populist conservative party Fidesz turned the country toward illiberal democracy. In contemporary Hungary, all four types of corruption discussed in this book—market corruption, social bribe, corrupt organization, and state capture—coexist, yet their significance has changed over time. Since 2010, the Fidesz regime has effected a radical transformation of grand corruption patterns in Hungary, a shift from oligarchic state capture toward political state capture in which complex corrupt networks are professionally designed and managed by the very top of the political elite. This in turn has brought changes in other forms of corruption as well. In Orbán's new system, corruption is nationally centralized and monopolized; thus corruption of low-level officers or individual organizations is not tolerated anymore.
Dealing with Strangers
Authors: Jancsics David
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines how market corruption happens spontaneously “on the spot” where participants meet. In 2009, many respondents reported extensive low-level market corruption in Hungary, but by the late 2010s this type had become less widespread. Interviewees found it much riskier than in the preceding two decades to bribe a police officer to turn a blind eye to traffic violations, something considered quite normal in the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2021, the Orbán government also started to systematically curb another major form of petty corruption, hálapénz, a widespread informal practice of giving gratitude money to nurses and doctors for priority or more complete health care. According to the new law, hálapénz is now considered bribery, so whoever gives or accepts it commits a crime. The chapter considers how the relative social status of the actors is an important factor in corrupt transactions, shaping communication strategies and in fact the whole setting of the corrupt exchange.
The Agent Side
Authors: Jancsics David
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the organizational aspects of market corruption. The agent's organization offers opportunities, conditions that make corruption possible. It is not uncommon that multiple agents operate within the same opportunity structure to create corrupt profit. In such situations the organization of corrupt individuals phenomenon may emerge, where a large number of employees organize themselves into collusive groups to facilitate the internal activities of multiple bribe-taker agents. This means that although market corruption is usually an exchange between two individuals—an agent and a client—the agent's colleagues might also be corrupt or at least know about corruption, and this requires internal activities, such as negotiation, coordination, or cover-up, in order to avoid exposure.
Just Helping Friends
Authors: Jancsics David
Published: October 2024

This chapter evaluates the main patterns of social bribe. Using informal networks to respond to social problems generated by the malfunctions of socialist institutions was a widespread practice during communist times in Hungary. This created a network-sensitive culture that still exists. Such networks provide low-risk and low-cost infrastructure for informal transactions, including corruption. The bond-based form of corruption, social bribe, differs from market corruption in many ways. Social bribe is an often-recurring exchange between the same partners, possibly involving other network members, while market corruption is an ad hoc deal between two strangers. Moreover, the opportunity to delay the counter-transfer and the immaterial form of the exchanged resource can blur the corrupt nature of social bribe and make this type of corruption less detectable. Yet, as with impersonal market corruption, the relative social status of the actors indicates distinctive social bribe patterns.
Do It for the Company
Authors: Jancsics David
Published: October 2024

This chapter addresses corrupt organization, which is also referred to in various social science disciplines as corporate crime, illegal corporate behavior, elite deviance, or collective corruption. In this type of corruption, a whole private organization acts as the client in a corrupt transaction. While there are often one or more corrupt public officials on the agent side, employees of private companies can also be agents. Such private-to-private or corporate corruption is when only private organizations are involved, and it happens without the direct participation of any state actor. Although individuals often benefit from their corrupt behavior on behalf of a private organization in the form of promotion, bonuses, or pay increases, the organization is the primary and direct beneficiary of this type of corruption. The chapter reviews cases in which otherwise typical employees are willing to engage in corruption for their organization. It also discusses the two main drivers of such behavior: corrupt organizational culture and personal dependencies embedded in the organization's power structure.
Diaspora within China
Authors: Lim Wah Guan
Published: October 2024

This chapter situates Gao Xingjian in the 1980s Chinese context where politics, state power, and censorship heavily influenced the artistic scene, highlighting the efforts of Gao and his contemporaries to champion alternative ways of being Chinese beyond the state narrative. The chapter considers the 1980s to be pivotal as auteurs filled artistic vacuums and forged new cultural traditions, noting identities in the period from Gao's diasporic stance within mainland China to the peripheral positions of Stan Lai, Danny Yung, and Kuo Pao Kun. The chapter explains how the 1980s marked the rise of a new consciousness that is driven by international dynamics and compels ethnic Chinese to reassess their identities. It reveals overlooked dynamics in the development of a pan-Chinese cultural consciousness, reflecting the competition to define the place and value of Chinese culture in a globalizing world.
Conclusion
Authors: Lim Wah Guan
Published: October 2024

This chapter reviews the theater histories of locales with majority ethnic Chinese populations to map the transnational geopolitical influences that shaped regional identities in the 1980s. It reveals a pluralistic notion of Chineseness and diasporicity that defies uniformity. It also illuminates the interconnectedness and continued tensions between China and its diaspora through resistance performances by intellectual dramatists, who challenged state-sanctioned identities and mainland China's claims on overseas Chinese populations. The chapter covers dramatists like Gao Xingjian, Danny Yung, and Stan Lai that actively collaborated, resisted homogeneous identities, and affirmed their unique cultural identities. It highlights Gao's works that gained critical acclaim in Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, underscoring the importance of these sites in promoting diverse Chinese artistic expressions.
Heathen Landscapes of Souls and Soils
Authors: Lum Kathryn Gin
Published: October 2024

This chapter delves into Thomas Smith Grimké's 1834 address in Charleston. Grimke vividly described an imaginary island untouched by civilization and its transformation through the efforts of missionaries, contrasting the view of other visitors who saw no value. It highlights that Grimké's missionaries envisioned the island's wilderness as heathen and ripe for evangelization, reflecting the broader nineteenth-century American Protestant belief that non-Christian lands were barren due to their inhabitants' sinfulness. This perception, coupled with the doctrine of discovery, justified colonialist actions by framing non-Christian territories as wild and their inhabitants as needing Christian intervention. The chapter explores how these ideas informed domestic and global missionary efforts and and how figures like Jedidiah Morse perpetuated hierarchical views of civilizations while seeing all heathen lands as needing Christian oversight to truly flourish.
Inventing Rupture in India and America
Authors: Howlett David J.
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the story of Limpan Raika, who converted to Christianity in 1966 and moved from his traditional Sora tribal village in Orissa, India to a village that had recently converted en masse. It features how Raika found the Christian practices, which contrasted with the poverty-inducing rituals of his old village, compelling. Raika's evangelism was part of a broader trend among the Soras, with hundreds of lay teachers spreading Christianity in similarly transformed villages. The chapter examines how different groups, including the converted Soras, Hindu nationalists, and administrators of the American Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (RLDS) constructed the idea of rupture to suit their ideological and political agendas. It briefly touches on how RLDS missionaries adopted ecumenical Protestant ideas of indigenization in their missions.
A Rainy Evening in the Pantanal
Authors: Prado Cynthia P. A. , Prado Cynthia P. A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks into the frogs found in Pantanal floodplains in central South America. It elaborates on the simultaneous polyandry for a dozen frog species. After the rainfall at Pantanal, multiple different frog species started their calling at the same time, most of which were males of the Miranda's White-Lipped Frog (Leptodactylus macrosternum, formerly L. chaquensis), a very common species in that region. The chapter details the spawning practice of Miranda's White-Lipped Frog where male frogs wrestle and then attach themselves to a female frog. It also explains an alternative reproductive behavior, with sneaker males trying to fertilize some of the eggs released.
Borneo’s Tadpole Heaven
Authors: Das Indraneil , Das Indraneil
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the frog fauna of Borneo. It primarily focuses on the frog pond at Kubah National Park managed by the Sarawak Forestry Corporation and the staff at Kubah. Moreover, the pond brings a sense of pride to the people of Sarawak regarding their natural heritage. The chapter looks into the tadpoles of the Matang Narrow-Mouthed Frog (Microhyla nepenthicola) that develop exclusively in the pitchers of a particular species of Nepenthes (pitcher plant), and the Red Hot Chili Pepper Frog (Glyphoglossus capsus). For researchers or the general public, frog biology is engrossing and the natural history of their larval stages must be one of the most diverse in the entire vertebrate world.
Lessons From the Field
Authors: Lips Karen , Lips Karen
Published: October 2024

This chapter covers the process of fieldwork. It provides an overview of the lessons learned from the trip to Valle de Silencio after learning about the place from Luis Diego Gomez, director of the Organization for Tropical Studies' Las Cruces Botanical Gardens in San Vito, Costa Rica. Although technology is rapidly expanding the ability to observe remotely, field studies are still one of the best ways to gather certain data. Thus, supporting fundamental organismal biology enables the management of sensitive species properly while also conserving species. The chapter explains the experience of hiking at Agua Caliente, particularly elaborating on the significance of communication, safety, and enjoying the journey itself instead of the destination.
Never Work on a Species that is Smarter than You Are
Authors: Shine Rick , Shine Rick
Published: October 2024

This chapter explores the study focused on reptiles and their features. It elaborates on the perceived intelligence of reptiles. Reptiles' ecological footprint is vastly lower than that of energy-squandering warm-blooded mammals and birds. The chapter explains how goannas were almost impossible to catch by any of the methods, so Aboriginal people have been catching and eating goannas for years. It provides an overview of the struggle of studying Yellow-Spotted Monitor (Varanus panoptes) with the help of the Aboriginal people, referencing the smarts and secrecy of goannas that escape to inaccessible sites such as crocodile-infested billabongs and massive brush piles.
Chance, Myth, and the Mountains of Western China
Authors: Savitzky Alan H. , Savitzky Alan H.
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks into Azemiops feae, now sometimes called Fea's Viper, at the position at the boundary between science and myth. It elaborates on how the features mystified researches as its external characters were less viper-like and its skulls had the characteristics of the Crotaline. Meanwhile, research suggests that a group of Rhabdophis species in western China had shifted their primary diet from frogs to earthworms, which are not toxic. The chapter indicates that the source of their defensive toxins lies in firefly larvae, an unusual prey for a snake. It also notes the chance of finding Leonard's Keelback (Rhabdophis leonardi).
Dive in the Air Beside a Rice Paddy
Authors: Mori Akira , Mori Akira
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the life devoted to snakes. It notes the experiences of being part of the Ashiu Experimental Forest of Kyoto University and keeping snakes at home. Snakes have many different styles of fleeing, which would have been uniquely evolved in different species or under different environmental conditions. After watching snake behavior in the field, the suitable ways to catch a snake vary from species to species, such as noticing the presence of a nearby snake by hearing a specific sound caused by its slithering. The chapter cites that the diversity of snake behavior can only be discovered when a person goes into the field and meets wild, active, healthy snakes.
Herpetology Moments
Authors: Burrowes Patricia A. , Burrowes Patricia A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter highlights that doing fieldwork in herpetology brings all kinds of moments. It provides an overview of how time as a field biologist are the moments of camaraderie resulting from sharing exciting moments of discovery, despite adversities, with the many colleagues and students becoming close friends. Moreover, working with students in the same place for many years gives a field biologist a sense of understanding of an ecological system beyond scientific data. The chapter mentions the biodiversity loss of La Planada. It explains that identifying culprits of decline in the wild may result in ways to reverse their actions.
Swat Team to the Rescue
Authors: Berish Joan (Diemer) , Berish Joan (Diemer)
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses how the SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team rescued a tortoise out of a sinkhole. It examines the research on Gopher Tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) in Florida. Florida has a number of natural environmental factors that can affect the burrowing tortoise, such as predation, hurricanes, fires, floods, and sinkholes. The tortoise was aptly named “Lucky” after its rescue as it survived with only a few abrasions and dehydration. The chapter also explains that since it was late summer, the animal might have been looking for a mate but then, unfortunately, found itself in a deep hole instead of its burrow.
Military Herpetology
Authors: Lovich Robert , Lovich Robert
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an overview of military herpetology at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton. It explains how military installations had the most species and the highest densities of species being captured. Work on the military base includes developing best management practices documents for mission-sensitive species of herpetofauna and developing partnerships related to herpetofauna on military lands. The chapter then looks into the process of drafting a strategic plan for the entire Department of Defense for the conservation and management of amphibians and reptiles. Regardless of the years of delays, intervals of nonoccurrence, and endless reviews, the Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Amphibians and Reptiles was finalized in 2015.
Don’t Tread on Her
Authors: Zamudio Kelly , Zamudio Kelly
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks into the aftermath of being bitten by an angry Black-Tailed Rattlesnake (Crotalus molossus). Generally, the species is so calm it is rarely involved in snakebite incidents, so a person must be mostly unlucky to step on it and be bitten. A snake's defensive bite means that the fangs penetrated well into the muscle bundle on the shin and delivered venom deep within. The chapter discusses the process of snake bite protocol for field biologists, highlighting the warning that fieldwork will always involve danger. It then elaborates on the process of recovery, which includes antivenom, emergency fasciotomy, and over two years of trying to regain mobility.
Goose on the Road
Authors: Lamar William W. , Lamar William W.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the journey with The Blue Goose, a Ford F-150 pickup, to get access to Mexico's inaccessible areas. It notes that Mexico is a Mecca for biologists since the country boasts an unparalleled richness of plants and animals. The Blue Goose drove to several places of note, such as Nubiñuutun, Cerro Rabón, and Huautla de Jiménez, and led to the collection of stream frogs. The chapter notes that the collected stream frogs were subsequently found to be a new species, the Ptychohyla zophodes. The chapter then considers the struggle with fieldwork and travel after the Blue Goose died.
Lost and Found
Authors: Crump Martha L. , Crump Martha L.
Published: October 2024

This chapter examines the fieldwork in Ecuador focused on the diversity of frog reproductive modes at Santa Cecilia. It explains finding a Sumaco Horned Treefrog (Hemiphractus proboscideus), also known as the queen of frog parental care. The fieldwork also involved getting a bit lost in the woods, which eventually resulted in the discovery of a large, spiny, lime-green katydid resting on a bright green nettle. The chapter details a former Quechua hunting trail after leaving Muñozlandia. It also looks into the time of getting lost during fieldwork in Belém, Brazil to study the ecology of birds in three types of local forests.
The Mob That Almost Hanged Us in Chiapas, Mexico
Authors: Flores-Villela Oscar A. , Flores-Villela Oscar A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter looks into the study of the Central American River Turtle (Dermatemys mawii) found in a big cayaco that nearly led a mob turning against the researchers in Chiapas, Mexico. The turtles were collected following the visitation of Mexican president José López Portillo. The mob, fortunately, calmed down after realizing the researchers were sent by the Mexican government to save the Dermatemys and then study the turtle populations of the Usumacinta River. The turtles' populations were being overexploited, mainly for local consumption or exportation to markets out of the state of Chiapas. The chapter highlights that Dermatemys wawii is one of the most endangered turtles in the world.
The Field Herpetologist’s Guide to Interior Australia … With Kids
Authors: Rabosky Alison Davis , Rabosky Alison Davis
Published: October 2024

This chapter provides an overview of the field herpetologist's guide to traveling to interior Australia with children. It looks into the journey of a pregnant woman tagging along with her herpetologist husband to the deserts of Western Australia. Essentially, the arid Australia is a paradise for herpetologists studying lizards and snakes. Most of the interior deserts are not accessible except by helicopter, so the sheer wilderness is the only thing that motivates most herpetologists to do fieldwork. The chapter highlights the importance of prior planning, trying again, maximizing only what will matter in two decades, and understanding that herpetological fieldwork is never easy.
Troubles in a Tropical paradise
Authors: Alford Ross A. , Alford Ross A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter discusses the fieldwork on Hinchinbrook Island. It explains that the fieldwork focused on the effects of varanid lizards as top predators on smaller lizards that are intermediate predators. Some of the struggles during the fieldwork were the insects and the operating permits since Queensland's Parks and Wildlife Service often seems to feel that scientists are annoyances that want to interfere with the proper management of parks. The chapter notes how the project remained, but some parts of it died off after Parks and Wildlife decided to build an elevated walkway past half of the designated plots. Regardless of the aftermath, many volunteers got a taste of the joys and pains of fieldwork.
Sounds of Silence on the Continental Divide
Authors: Taylor Emily , Taylor Emily
Published: October 2024

This chapter notes that the Continental Divide in the Panamanian highlands houses an incredible diversity of wildlife. Before 2004, the pools and streams would have been crawling with amphibians. However, the tropical community started crumbling following a deadly microscopic fungus sweeping through Central America in a wave of destruction. Cope's Vine Snake (Oxybelis brevirostris), which had been common in the area, started becoming uncommon following the sudden loss of frogs, which reveals its significance in the entire food web. The chapter explains how recovery efforts based on sound science have worked and that the recovery of certain frog species is slowly restoring the ecosystem.
Why Do I Do What I Do in the Field?
Authors: Mendelson III Joseph R. , Mendelson III Joseph R.
Published: October 2024

This chapter considers the experiences prominent in fieldwork. The most interesting stories of fieldwork revolve around the people the researcher meets while doing their respective work. While it is rewarding to think about the amazing animals encountered and the new discoveries, people often leave the greatest impression. Moreover, miscommunication often arises due to the language barrier in foreign countries or a deep cultural gulf between the field biologist and local people. The chapter explains how local folks can be helpful and fun as they are knowledgeable about local trails and tips in the area. It mentions how a deck of flashcards with pictures of the animals helps with communication.
In the Rabeta of the Pajé
Authors: Cosendey Beatriz N. , Cosendey Beatriz N.
Published: October 2024

This chapter covers the ethnoherpetological experience regarding the effects of climate change on the local species of lizards from Pará, northern Brazil. Lizards are usually surrounded by legends and stories that only increase people's distance and disgust toward them. The pajé (witchdoctor) held significant authority during the research, but was generous enough to let the researchers roam and do their work with enough supervision and interaction with the community. The chapter provides an overview of a group interview at Oca Cultural. It details how the pajé hunted by the river and then had a Tamaquaré (Uranoscodon superciliosus) in hand.
Parting Thoughts
Authors: Crump Martha L.
Published: October 2024

This chapter concludes with the importance of fieldwork. Field observations form scientific questions, make predictions, and test hypotheses as researchers strive to understand the natural world. However, less emphasis and fewer resources are currently directed to fieldwork. Through field studies, people can better understand the basic needs of animals and be in a stronger position to fight for the protection of species and preservation. The chapter argues that fieldwork is as critical as ever due to the million species threatened with extinction. It mentions how human-caused habitat modification and destruction worsen the problem as wild places continue to decline and the animals that deem those places as their home.
The Supreme Court and the Philosopher
Authors: Kasper Eric T. , Kozma Troy A.
Published: October 2024

This book illustrates how the modern US Supreme Court has increasingly adopted a view of the constitutional right to the freedom of expression that is classically liberal in nature, reflecting John Stuart Mill's reasoning in On Liberty. The book advocates for a maximum protection of human freedom. Proceeding case by case and covering a wide array of issues, such as campaign finance, offensive speech, symbolic speech, commercial speech, online expression, and false statements, the book shows how the Supreme Court justices have struck down numerous laws for infringing on the freedom of expression. It demonstrates how the adoption of Mill's version of free speech began with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. more than a century ago and expanded over time to become the prevailing position of the Court today. The book argues that this embrace of Mill's rationale has led to an unmistakable reorientation in the Court's understanding of free expression jurisprudence. It explores how the political philosophy of Mill has influenced the highest court in the land. In targeting the underlying philosophical reasons that explain why the modern Supreme Court renders its First Amendment decisions, the book is particularly timely, as the issues of censorship and freedom of expression are debated in the public square today.
Introduction
Authors: Kasper Eric T. , Kozma Troy A.
Published: October 2024

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the role of John Stuart Mill's On Liberty (1859) on the US Supreme Court's contemporary interpretation of the freedom of expression. On Liberty outlines the merits of limiting governmental and social power over the individual. Mill was particularly protective of the freedom of expression; he understood it as foundational to promoting a society in which individuals flourished, pursuing lives that fit their own needs, even if this offended prevailing notions of a properly lived life. For Mill, the sole legitimate restraint exercised against one's will is to prevent harm to others; moral reasons or the good of the person in question are not satisfactory reasons to limit that person's freedom. This is known as the harm principle, and it is a rule that Mill applied to the freedom of speech. The chapter then looks at a Supreme Court case reviewing the federal conviction of Xavier Alvarez, which encapsulates this Millian understanding of free expression.
Preventing Substantive Evils
Authors: Kasper Eric T. , Kozma Troy A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter explains that although the Supreme Court issued some early free expression decisions, before World War I, there were substantial limitations on the right to free expression. As the nineteenth century turned to the twentieth, Supreme Court rulings implied that this right, following English common law tradition, was largely limited to the prevention of prior restraints, which are suppressions of expression before it is even made public. In Davis v. Massachusetts (1897), the Supreme Court upheld the prosecution of a man who preached in a public park without a license. Turner v. Williams (1904) upheld a law that punished advocacy of anarchism. In Patterson v. Colorado (1907), the justices permitted punishing seditious libel. A series of decisions also restricted the freedom of speech for unions and union organizers. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court ruled in Mutual Film Corp. v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915) that states may require films to be approved by censorship boards. Not a hint of Mill's philosophy appeared in these cases. These decisions culminated in upholding the Espionage Act in Schenck v. United States (1919).
Imminent Lawless Action
Authors: Kasper Eric T. , Kozma Troy A.
Published: October 2024

This chapter illustrates how continuing advocacy of free speech principles moved the tribunal back to a more Millian approach to the freedom of expression in the mid-1960s. Personnel changes on the Supreme Court, as well as the plight of civil rights protestors and a thaw in Cold War relations, helped to bring a majority of justices closer to Black and Douglas on several First Amendment questions. Justice Brennan narrowed what constituted libel in New York Times v. Sullivan (1964). The justices also tightened the definition of unprotected obscenity. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court adopted the imminent lawless action standard for expression in Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969), embracing a view of expression that Holmes used in Abrams and that Mill supported in On Liberty. In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), the Supreme Court recognized student expression as constitutionally protected. Although the Supreme Court deferred to the government on speech at county jails in Adderley v. Florida (1966) and on symbolic speech in United States v. O'Brien (1968), the period from 1963 to 1969 was one of the fastest shifts toward Mill in the Supreme Court's history.
Vytas Lukšys
Authors: Reich Anna
Published: October 2024

This chapter focuses on the story of Vytas Lukšys, who was born in a small village in a southern region of Lithuania. Despite his efforts to be a mariner, Lukšys was not qualified for the trade school because of his low academic standing, so he went to St. Petersburg, Russia, to study with the hope of becoming a captain's assistant. Lukšys knew conscription was looming. To avoid a three-year contact in the Soviet navy, he volunteered for a paratrooper unit that had a shorter, more appealing two-year contract. On May 9, 1979, Lukšys was summoned by the Lithuanian Defense Ministry and deployed to Fergana, Uzbekistan, for two months of basic combat training. The paratrooper unit then relocated to the mountains of Kyrgyzstan for extensive physical endurance training. Lukšys says a portion of the training was indoctrination into Soviet ideology, urging the trainees to believe in their cause and the Soviet motivation. He recounts that one of the most challenging aspects of combat was the ambiguous ethics of war violence. After the war, Lukšys obtained degrees in history and law. He was also president of the Vilnius Association of Afghan War Veterans from 2000 to 2010.