McKinney, Mark. Redrawing French Empire Comics. Columbus, The Ohio State University Press, 2013. 304 pages. 9780814212202

The history of France and its empires is one that has been well trodden, particularly the French occupation, and subsequent war, in Algeria. In this companion to his earlier work, 2011’s The Colonial Heritage of French Comics,McKinney attempts to examine the reconstruction of French national identity in the wake of decolonisation through the medium of Francophonecomics. He endeavours to study the colonial affrontier (3), the space in which France and its colonies are connected and divided, where they seek to confront each other, or to seek peace and the removal of the division. McKinney argues this affrontier can be found most strongly in the Francophone comics produced dealing with the French colonial experience in Algeria, as well as that of Indochina,and does so from both sides of each conflict. McKinney examines in detail the French colonisation of Algeria (1830sonwards), the French war in Indochina (1946–54) and the Algerian war (1954–62), and his work is the first to approach these well-covered areas of research through the medium of comics. The resulting work takes the form of an investigation into the five forms of genealogical inquiry utilised in comics regarding these conflicts. His approach investigates the familial, ethnic, national, artistic and critical forms of genealogy relating to colonialism and imperialism from a variety of viewpoints, including the previously overlooked perspective of the pieds noirs. He aims to highlight both those cartoonists that critique the colonial ideology, as well as those cartoonists who to some extent attempt to gloss over or even romanticise the French empire, strengthening the affrontier. He positions himself alongside Foucault in seeing genealogy as a useful means of establishing ‘historical knowledge of struggles’ (Foucault1980, 85), but McKinney looks at the colonial representation in a popular medium,including the recent increase in comics produced which consider the French colonial experience. He argues that this consideration of the present, as well as European imperialism, is absent in the work of Foucault. The text is accompanied by a number of black and white facsimiles of pages from the comics he analyses to illustrate the different and often conflicting positions of cartoonists on these issues. Overall, McKinney’s work is a welcome addition to the study of the French colonial experience, which separates its elf from the rest by using Francophonecomics as lenses through which to look at these already well-trodden areas of study. He succeeds in determining if and how cartoonists critique colonial ideology and representations on both sides of the conflicts, a task in which he is unarguably successful. McKinney’s work, however, is unfortunately let down by typo graphicerrors, which occur throughout the text.Nevertheless, McKinney’s work is another important work in the field of Bande Dessine ́e scholarship, and useful for anyone interested in the representations of colonialism and imperialism in French comics, accompanied by anencyclopaedic bibliography of comics produced on this topic.

The Blue Highway

The Blue Highway is a collection of eleven literary short stories and ten miniatures that depict men in trouble, searching for a code to live by. The miniatures are repressed memories, appearing suddenly like the tips of ice bergs and act as stepping stones (tension bridges) between the larger works. The stories begin at the end with "Time Out", the story of Frank, a down and out homeless vet at the end of his rope. Then we begin the journey along "The Blue Highway" with Danny and his gang of teenage bandits, taking themselves to Disney World to see if they can recapture their lost dream. On our journey we will meet Mark, the ex-killer, an old Cuban fisherman who will not give up his honor, a young man on a way to a war who discovers a fantastic treasure, a soldier on his way home again, two MP's who nearly kill the wrong man, we will spend a night on an African savannah with wild hyenas and finally, meet a grandfather who discovers the one gift which might save his family. The same gift which might save Frank as well. ^

Beauty Pageants, FIU, and "Worlds Ahead": An Open Letter to FIU President Mark Rosenberg

In response to FIU's decision to rent space to Donald Trump's Miss Universe Beauty pageant, it is argued that FIU has a responsibility toward its female and male students to work for a less sexist world. As the leadership of the university does not seem to be aware of the dangers of exaggerated beauty standards and female objectification, the letter draws on feminist insights to add non-sexist substance to FIU's vision of being "worlds ahead".

Boundary : an exploration of architecture's power to mark a boundary

Cities are no longer recognizing their boundaries beyond their legal or political implications. This thesis explored the architecture of a boundary in the design of a structure that visually and symbolically marked the current Miami-Dade County development limit along Krome Avenue. This limit ultimately separates the city from the endangered Everglades ecosystem. Through the examination of ancient boundaries such as Medieval and Renaissance Military fortifications, as well as contemporary interventions such as Steven Holl's "Edge of the City Projects", an architectural vocabulary was developed considering the Double Wall, Bastion, Rampart, and Gate principles. However, rather than considering these principles to defend the city from outside forces, the focus of this exploration is their inversion in order to contain the city by strengthening its periphery visually and symbolically. From this exploration, it was concluded that a successful boundary or limit should be visible and significant. Furthermore, it should serve as an informative and reflective landmark.

The blue highway

The Blue Highway is a collection of eleven literary short stories and ten miniature that depict men in trouble, searching for a code to live by. The miniatures are repressed memories, appearing suddenly like the tips of ice bergs and act as stepping stones (tension bridges) between the larger works. The stories begin at the end with "Time Out", the story of Frank, a down and out homeless vet at the end of his rope. Then we begin the journey along "The Blue Highway" with Danny and his gang of teenage bandits, taking themselves to Disney World to see if they can recapture their lost dream. On our journey we will meet Mark, the ex-killer, an old Cuban fisherman who will not give up his honor, a young man on a way to a war who discovers a fantastic treasure, a soldier on his way home again, two MP's who nearly kill the wrong man, we will spend a night on an African savannah with wild hyenas and finally, meet a grandfather who discovers the one gift which might save his family. The same gift which might save Frank as well.

Morfometria, variação anual no peso e demografia do Tico-tico-rei-cinza (Lanio pileatus: thraupidae) em dois ambientes de caatinga no nordeste do Brasil

The caatinga is considered the only exclusively Brazilian biome, with a total area of 735.000km². It is estimated that about 59% of this area has already been removed and only 2% are protected in conservations units. The region is characteristic by strong seasonality and heterogeneity in their environments. This paper sets generate information on morphological and population patterns Lanio pilatus in two areas of caatinga of Estação Ecológica do Seridó (ESEC – Seridó), Serra Negra do Norte - RN. Data collection was performed in six phases between July 2012 and December 2014, covering the end of the dry and rainy seasons in the region. The captures were performed with nets and individuals captured were marked with metal rings and measured (weight, wing length, tail, tarsus, culmen and tip of the bill to nostril). Through these measures, we observed that only males of open area range in weight during the dry and rainy season, youngs were significantly lower for all parameters measured, and males were larger than females in three characteristics (weight, wing length and tail) in open area and only one (wing length) in the closed area. The population parameters were generated from the mark-capture-recapture technique by program MARK, using the techniques of robust design and CJS. The survival probability of detection and population estimates varied with time. Only individuals of open area fluctuated in their estimates during the study. Overall, the environment was a great mediator of results which increases the need for more studies on the life history of the species in the region.

2011 18 August Mark Guyer-Jane Peterson interview

Mark Guyer and Jane Peterson, in-person interview with Kathryn Maxson and Robert Cook-Deegan, conducted in Rockville, MD (NIH campus), 18 August 2011. Mark Guyer and Jane Peterson were grants program officers at the NIH during the HGP, and were some of the longest-standing employees in the HGP administrative structure. Both witnessed the transformation of the Office of Genome Research into the National Center for Human Genome Research and, finally, the National Human Genome Research Institute. They were close participants in the history of the Bermuda Principles within the NIH.

Mark E. Smith and The Fall: Art, Music and Politics

This is the first book of critical essays devoted to post-punk legends Mark E Smith and the Fall, examining the group form a number of different perspectives, including their relations with Manchester and the North, post-punk aesthetics cultural politics, fandom and contemporary media. As John Peel famously said, this group was 'always different, yet always the same', and deserving of more academic attention than they have so far received.