—The Vegetarian Finch, Platyspiza crassirostris ! is a relatively unstudied Darwin’s finch that appears to be in decline in the Galápagos Islands. We monitored 11 nests of Vegetarian Finches during 2013 and 2014 on Santa Cruz Island, Galápagos, and found that 10 of these were infested with an invasive parasitic fly, Philornis downsi. This is the first report of P. downsi attacking this bird spe...

In November 2014, OPEC announced a new strategy geared towards improving its market share. Oil-market analysts interpreted this as an attempt to squeeze higher-cost producers, notably US shale oil, out of the market. Over the next year, crude oil prices crashed, with large repercussions for the global economy. We present a simple equilibrium model that explains the fundamental market factors th...

Getting Started with Ecclesiastes: Coming to Grips with Mortality Dr. Elaine Phillips, © 2013 Introduction Ecclesiastes presents the reader with alternately disturbing and oddly reassuring realities. While scholars differ as to whether these views are a comfortable fit with “orthodoxy” and debate how to label and understand the various attitudes expressed, Ecclesiastes unquestionably speaks to ...

This 24-nation European–US study (1999–2000) of the democratic political values, attitudes, and behavior of adolescents uncovers a generally high level of self-predicted future political participation as adults. Four of five14-year-olds regard themselves as future voters, and 61% predict involvement in protest activities. Moreover, law breaking as an act of protest is almost as attractive in th...

The distinction between hedonic (i.e., subjective well-being) and eudaimonic (i.e., psycho-social functioning) components of well-being is questioned by some researchers on the grounds that these two aspects of well-being are highly correlated. However, I argue that previous research has relied on confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), which is likely to overestimate interfactor correlations, beca...

For students of medieval proportional systems who lack such documentary evidence as James Ackerman had, in relative abundance, for his groundbreaking 1949 study of the Cathedral of Milan, the only choice has been to turn to the buildings. Yet Ackerman warned that such an exercise was destined to fail: ‘the analysis of remaining monuments,’ he wrote, ‘provides insufficient evidence for [the] tas...

It is doubtful whether I shall be able to meet the high standards set by previous speakers. I shall not prove deep theorems. I shall not present astonishing new results. Instead of this I shall try to catch your attention by a fictitious dialogue. I shall employ the help of imaginary discussants like the “Bayesian” or the “experimentalist.” A “chairman” will determine who speaks next, but he sh...

It may have been Chebyshev who said that in the olden days the mathematical problems were posed by the gods, later by the demi-gods (Gauss, etc.) and nowadays by the technician. Modern demands by technology are growing and often (paradoxically) lamented by designers of courses and syllabi. Arguments that fundamentals have to be established rst, leave the fear that applications and philosophical...