Suchergebnisse

Abstract. Heavy rains spread over some interval preceding large landslides in sensitive glaciomarine clay in eastern Canada are often noted as a triggering or causative factor in case studies or research reports for individual landslides, although the quantity or duration of the triggering rain event has never been characterized adequately. We selected five large landslide events that occurred in the glaciomarine clay in eastern Canada, and calculated cumulative antecedent precipitation for intervals ranging between one and 365 days preceding each event. We also calculated the antecedent precipitation values for every other day in the record, and computed the relative rank of the landslide day within the complete record. Our results show that several intervals for each landslide event are highly ranked – including those preceding a presumably earthquake-triggered landslide – but overall the rankings were highly variable, ranging between 99% and 6%. The set of highest-ranking intervals are unique for each event, including both short and long-term cumulative precipitation. All of the landslides occurred in the spring months, and the release of sequestered surface and ground water during the spring ground thaw may be related to the timing of the large landslides, so that the evolution of ground frost in the early winter may be of interest for landslide prediction. We found no simple precipitation threshold for triggering large landslides in sensitive glaciomarine clay in eastern Canada, suggesting that some complex temporal and spatial combination of pre-conditions, external energy (e.g. earthquakes), precipitation triggers and other factors such as ground frost formation and thaw are required to trigger a landslide.

I take it as my assignment to criticize the Gauthier enterprise. At the outset, however, I should express my general agreement with David Gauthier's normative vision of a liberal social order, including the place that individual principles of morality hold in such an order. Whether the enterprise is, ultimately, judged to have succeeded or to have failed depends on the standards applied. Considered as a coherent grounding of such a social order in the rational choice behavior of persons, the enterprise fails. Considered as an extended argument implying that persons should (and possibly must) adopt the moral stance embodied in the Gauthier structure, the enterprise is, I dunk, largely successful. Considered as a set of empirically falsifiable propositions suggesting that persons do, indeed, choose as the Gauthier precepts dictate, the enterprise offers Humean hope rather than Hobbesian despair.

Interviews political philosopher David Gauthier on the concept of moral contractualism & its role in contemporary liberal political theory. Gauthier draws on the Rawlsian connection between moral sense & reasonability to explain how an individual's political position is shaped by emotion, deliberation, & a universal rationality. He differentiates between his idea of moral contractualism & utilitarianism, contending that the former has a distributive component that focuses more on individual rights & inclusion. He addresses the weaknesses of fundamentalism in regard to the individual's moral contract with society, contrasting it to how liberal politics allow for a more comprehensive, flexible, & evolving agreement between diverse groups & actors. Gauthier concludes by discussing the fragmentary & eroding effect of nationalism, citing Quebec & Northern Ireland as examples of how nationalism interrupts moral contractualism. D. Bajo

In this paper the potential for electric vehicle production and the likely economic impacts of developing an electric vehicle industry in Los Angeles are examined. An historical overview of the automobile industry in Los Angeles suggests that a fully fledged automobile complex was never really developed. Rather, automotive firms have focused on the production of components for a variety of aftermarket and specialized uses. The small size of most auto firms and their custom orientation bodes well for the nascent electric vehicle industry. The region's industrial base, with the diverse range of products and labor skills offered, is well equipped to meet the needs of electric vehicle producers. After specifying a generic electric vehicle technology, input-output analysis is used to examine the employment effects of shifting production from conventional automobile technology to electric vehicles.