Beyond geopower: earthly and anthropic geopolitics in The Great Game by War Boutique

This article reconsiders the nature of art and geopolitics and their interrelations via a discussion of The Great Game, an artwork by War Boutique dealing with successive British military interventions in Afghanistan. As we discuss, The Great Game is richly suggestive in terms of the earthly materials and forces at work in geopolitics, as well as the roles played by objects and technology. The main goal of our discussion, however, is to show how pursuing such concerns leads us back towards a consideration of the ideational, the human and the representational and the roles they play in art and in geopolitics. We argue that framing art in terms of the earthly, the affective and the inhuman is suggestive but misses too much of what art is otherwise taken to be and to do, sometimes even within accounts framed in earthly terms. Because we are initially responding to the work rather than seeking to explicate it, we first provide an extended discussion of the The Great Game, in which we consider how it entangles earthly and anthropic dimensions of geopolitics. We then bring this discussion back to bear on academic work that rethinks geopolitics and art in earthly, inhuman, nonrepresentational and affective terms. Third, we discuss how our understanding of art and geopolitics is enhanced by reflection on what makes artistic engagements with geopolitics artistic, considering how The Great Game has moved through a series of artworlds. In conclusion, we underscore the extent to which art is suggestive as an onto-epistemological form of inquiry into geopolitics as well as an aesthetic-political practice with regard to it

The development of a tongue assessment tool to assist with tongue-tie identification

AIM: To produce a simple tool with good transferability to provide a consistent assessment of tongue appearance and function in infants with tongue-tie. METHODS: The Bristol Tongue Assessment Tool (BTAT) was developed based on clinical practice and with reference to the Hazelbaker Assessment Tool for Lingual Frenulum Function (ATLFF). This paper documents 224 tongue assessments using the BTAT. There were 126 tongue assessments recorded using the BTAT and ATLFF tools to facilitate comparisons between them. Paired BTAT assessments were obtained from eight midwives who were using the new assessment tool. RESULTS: There was acceptable internal reliability for the four-item BTAT (Cronbach's α=0.708) and the eight midwives who used it showed good correlation in the consistency of its use (ICC=0.760). The BTAT showed a strong and significant correlation (0.89) with the ATLFF, indicating that the simpler BTAT could be used in place of the more detailed assessment tool to score the extent of a tongue-tie. Midwives found it quick and easy to use and felt that it would be easy to teach to others. CONCLUSIONS: The BTAT provides an objective, clear and simple measure of the severity of a tongue-tie, to inform selection of infants for frenotomy and to monitor the effect of the procedure

Global vision, ground truth? A Short Film About War as experimental geopolitics

What is it that we see when we encounter images of war on screens connected to online social networks? Two recent episodes in visual culture provide useful departure points for considering A Short Film About War, Thomson & Craighead’s narrative documentary artwork scripted together with Steve Rushton, which explores this question

Economic Impacts of the Kentucky Green Industry

The Green Industry has a significant impact on Kentucky’s economy. Green Industry enterprise owners, managers and employees should be aware of their economic impacts, and policy makers and other state leaders need to know the importance of this industry as potential laws, regulations and resource allocations are considered. This publication is intended to provide a brief summary of the 2007 economic impacts of the Green Industry in Kentucky

Economic Impacts of the Kentucky Green Industry [2015]

The green industry, comprised of firms engaged in the production and use of landscape and floral crops and related supplies and equipment and the design, construction, and maintenance of landscapes, has a significant impact on Kentucky’s economy. Green-industry enterprise owners, managers, and employees should be aware of their economic impacts, and policy makers and other state leaders need to know the importance of this industry as potential laws, regulations and resource allocations are considered. This publication is intended to provide a brief summary of the 2013 economic impacts of the green industry in Kentucky

Characteristics of Kentucky’s Nursery and Greenhouse Industries [2015]

The nursery and greenhouse industry in Kentucky is diverse and contributes significantly to the local and state economy. This industry represents the largest segment of Kentucky’s sales of horticultural products and is comprised almost completely of farm families. Nursery and greenhouse operations have historically been characterized as separate production systems and crops. However, today primary nurseries may also have greenhouses and/or produce herbaceous perennials and annuals to satisfy their customer base. On the other hand, many primary greenhouse firms that once grew mostly annuals and potted flowering crops have expanded their product line to include herbaceous perennials, often finished in outdoor spaces. Nursery and greenhouse crops are produced and marketed in containers or grown in the field and dug and sold as balled and burlapped or bare root plants. Most of Kentucky’s nursery and greenhouse crops are marketed in Kentucky and surrounding states

Characteristics of Kentucky’s Nursery and Greenhouse Industries

The nursery and greenhouse industry, distributed throughout Kentucky, is diverse and contributes significantly to the local and state economy. This industry represents the largest segment of Kentucky’s sales of horticultural products and is comprised almost completely of farm families. Nursery and greenhouse crops are produced and marketed in containers or grown in the field and dug and sold as balled and burlapped or bare root plants. Most of Kentucky’s nursery and greenhouse crops are marketed in Kentucky and surrounding states

No Child Left Behind: A study of policy, planning and program implementation in an urban district with high-poverty schools.

Teaching and learning in urban public school districts have been marginalized by an institutional culture marred by random acts of improvement and a propensity for maintaining the status quo. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, Public Law 107--110) will affect almost every elementary and secondary public school student in the United States. Researchers of organizational design and public policy have frequently found that failed efforts to increase effectiveness can be traced back to ineffective planning processes for program implementation. This exploratory research study examines the NCLB policy implementation in high-poverty schools, as it relates to planning and program fidelity in the delivery of Title I services for disadvantaged children in an urban district. This study examines the need for cogent, detailed planning and closely monitored execution of NCLB planning and program implementation strategies

The combined influence of distance and neighbourhood deprivation on Emergency Department attendance in a large English population: a retrospective database study

YesThe frequency of visits to Emergency Departments (ED) varies greatly between populations. This may reflect variation in patient behaviour, need, accessibility, and service configuration as well as the complex interactions between these factors. This study investigates the relationship between distance, socio-economic deprivation, and proximity to an alternative care setting (a Minor Injuries Unit (MIU)), with particular attention to the interaction between distance and deprivation. It is set in a population of approximately 5.4 million living in central England, which is highly heterogeneous in terms of ethnicity, socio-economics, and distance to hospital. The study data set captured 1,413,363 ED visits made by residents of the region to National Health Service (NHS) hospitals during the financial year 2007/8. Our units of analysis were small units of census geography having an average population of 1,545. Separate regression models were made for children and adults. For each additional kilometre of distance from a hospital, predicted child attendances fell by 2.2% (1.7%-2.6% p<0.001) and predicted adult attendances fell by 1.5% (1.2% -1.8%, p<0.001). Compared to the least deprived quintile, attendances in the most deprived quintile more than doubled for children (incident rate ratio (IRR) = 2.19, (1.90-2.54, p<0.001)) and adults (IRR 2.26, (2.01-2.55, p<0.001)). Proximity of an MIU was significant and both adult and child attendances were greater in populations who lived further away from them, suggesting that MIUs may reduce ED demand. The interaction between distance and deprivation was significant. Attendance in deprived neighbourhoods reduces with distance to a greater degree than in less deprived ones for both adults and children. In conclusion, ED use is related to both deprivation and distance, but the effect of distance is modified by deprivation