A multidisciplinary coastal vulnerability assessment for local government focused on ecosystems, Santa Barbara area, California

Incorporating coastal ecosystems in climate adaptation planning is needed to maintain the well-being of both natural and human systems. Our vulnerability study uses a multidisciplinary approach to evaluate climate change vulnerability of an urbanized coastal community that could serve as a model approach for communities worldwide, particularly in similar Mediterranean climates. We synthesize projected changes in climate, coastal erosion and flooding, watershed runoff and impacts to two important coastal ecosystems, sandy beaches and coastal salt marshes. Using downscaled climate models along with other regional models, we find that temperature, extreme heat events, and sea level are expected to increase in the future, along with more intense rainfall events, despite a negligible change in annual rainfall. Consequently, more droughts are expected but the magnitude of larger flood events will increase. Associated with the continuing rise of mean sea level, extreme coastal water levels will occur with increasingly greater magnitudes and frequency. Severe flooding will occur for both natural (wetlands, beaches) and built environments (airport, harbor, freeway, and residential areas). Adaptation actions can reduce the impact of rising sea level, which will cause losses of sandy beach zones and salt marsh habitats that support the highest biodiversity in these ecosystems, including regionally rare and endangered species, with substantial impacts occurring by 2050. Providing for inland transgression of coastal habitats, effective sediment management, reduced beach grooming and removal of shoreline armoring are adaptations that would help maintain coastal ecosystems and the beneficial services they provide

Does Phenomenal Consciousness Overflow Attention? An Argument from Feature-Integration

In the past two decades a number of arguments have been given in favor of the possibility of phenomenal consciousness without attentional access, otherwise known as phenomenal overflow. This paper will show that the empirical data commonly cited in support of this thesis is, at best, ambiguous between two equally plausible interpretations, one of which does not posit phenomenology beyond attention. Next, after citing evidence for the feature-integration theory of attention, this paper will give an account of the relationship between consciousness and attention that accounts for both the empirical data and our phenomenological intuitions without positing phenomenal consciousness beyond attention. Having undercut the motivations for accepting phenomenal overflow along with having given reasons to think that phenomenal overflow does not occur, I end with the tentative conclusion that attention is a necessary condition for phenomenal consciousness

Trademark Parody: Lessons From the Copyright Decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.

Parodies have long provided many of us with amusement, entertainment,and sometimes even information. An effective parody can convey one or more messages with powerful effect. The message may be a political statement, social commentary, commercial speech, a bawdy joke, ridicule of a brand name, criticism of commercialism, or just plain humor for its own sake. Often someone\u27s ox is being gored, or someone feels that a property right has been infringed. The party so injured often contemplates a lawsuit, and an array of legal theories are available to further that impulse. Perhaps copyright infringement is the claim, if some protectable expression has been used in the parody; or the right of publicity, if a person\u27s name, likeness, or other identifying characteristic has arguably been usurped; or intentional infliction of emotional distress, if the parody is perceived as too biting. When a trademark has been used in a parody, a panoply of federal and state law claims can be asserted, including federal trademark infringement, violation of section 43(a) of the Lanham Act of 1946,\u27 common law unfair competition, and violation of a state trademark statute. The gist of any of these claims is practically the same; the parodist caused a likelihood of consumer confusion or otherwise infringed upon the trademark owner\u27s good will. If the trademark owner cannot make this showing, it may resort to a dilution claim under state statutes or case law (and now under federal law), alleging here that the parody blurred the distinctiveness or tarnished the image of a distinctive mark, even though it did not cause a likelihood of confusion. The Supreme Court has recognized parody\u27s protected role a number of times in specific contexts but has not offered general guidelines for dealing with all intellectual property claims involving parody. Given the distinct nature of each of these claims and the need to decide only the particular case at hand, the lack of general guidance is not surprising. The result, however, has been confusion. Lower courts have often struggled with parodies in intellectual property cases, and many law review articles have been written on the topic. The treatment of parodies in trademark law is one of the more serious areas of difficulty, particularly because the Lanham Act does not appear to contemplate or address the issue. The likelihood of confusion test provides a conceptual approach that works well enough in garden variety trademark cases, but it provides an uncomfortable fit in parody cases. The Supreme Court\u27s recent copyright decision in Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc., provides some guidance for the treatment of parodies in copyright cases. Although Campbell focused on copyright parodies, the case may also provide some important principles for the analysis of parody in trademark law. Therefore, this article discusses Campbell\u27s broader relevance, specifically in trademark cases

Get Them in the Door

If blowout sales bring crazed shoppers to department stores on Black Friday and the perfect 75⁰ day draws people outside to enjoy the fresh air, then what brings the students to the library? With countless books, journals, and videos available at the click of a button, it might be easy or obvious to suppose that the library building would be an empty space gathering dust. It might be surprising, but quite the opposite is true. What makes a college library appealing? How can the academic library, as a place, continue to be important to the life of campus? [excerpt

A New Face at the Reference Desk

Hi there! I’m Sarah and I’m a graduate reference intern this fall at the Musselman Library. I’m currently in my last semester of completing my Master of Library Science degree with Clarion University of Pennsylvania. I graduated from Susquehanna University with a degree in history. I wanted a profession that combines my love of research with my passion for teaching so that’s how I found my way to library science. My professors and librarians at Susquehanna were helpful in guiding me to this profession where I will never stop learning. [excerpt