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This chapter describes software emulators for the Pilot ACE. The first known software emulator of the Pilot ACE was built in Visual BASIC by Donald Davies in the early 1990s. In spring 2001, two graduate students at the University of San Francisco, Athena Huang Shih-Yun and Nicola Rugai, ported Davies's code to Java as part of their Master's Project. Huang wrote additional Java code and improved and extended the interface. The improved emulator was written for The Turing Archive for the History of Computing and was inspired by the desire to offer a Pilot ACE emulation in a platform-independent format. Huang subsequently adapted the Pilot ACE emulator to the architecture of the Big ACE.

Radio astronomy, as first applied by Penzias and Wilson, showed that all space is permeated by a low level of radiation. This is left over from the big bang at the beginning of the universe and is a major factor in proving the validity of Big Bang theory. The existence of the cosmic background radiation, which is everywhere the same, raises the question of the possibility of using it to define an absolute space, and therefore negating relativity theory. It turns out that relativity is still valid because it deals with the relations between observable objects, and is correct regardless of the existence of a background radiation.

This chapter examines financial politics in the 1990s and the emergence of the Big Bang financial reforms in 1996. It discusses the main arguments of the book, namely that Japanese politics has changed since 1995; that the Big Bang resulted from strategic interaction between the Liberal Democratic Party and Ministry of Finance, and an increased role of the public in policymaking; and that there has been institutional change in financial politics since 1995 represented by the breakdown of the Convoy System and the decay of bureaupluralism. An overview of the chapters included in this volume is provided.

This chapter begins with an overview of existing literature on Japanese politics, focusing on Japanese financial politics in the 1990s. It identifies three issues of contention in the various approaches to Japanese politics, and explains how these debates help inform the study’s research design. It suggests five alternative explanations for the emergence of the Big Bang reforms, against which the explanation in later chapters will be weighed.

This chapter examines the predicted economic consequences of the Big Bang reforms for a range of actors in the financial market to identify the perceived ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ from the reforms. It begins by providing an overview of the developments leading up to the reform initiative, focusing on the period from November 1996 through June 1997. It then summarizes the content of the initiative and the accompanying financial reforms. A discussion of expected economic consequences for the financial market in general follows.

This chapter examines the politics surrounding the emergence of the Big Bang Initiative, seeking to determine who brought it about and why. It focuses in particular on developments between the fall 1995 and November 1996, when then Prime Minister Hashimoto announced the initiative. It argues that the political economy of the Big Bang can be best explained according to the logic of actor behavior detailed in Chapter 3. This logic focuses on the maintenance of organization survival and holds across political parties, organizations, and firms.

This chapter analyzes the process in which the initiative of November 1996 was embodied and implemented. The Big Bang is compared to three cases of past financial reforms (1991-93, 1992-94, and 1979-82) to assess the extent of change the Big Bang has brought about. The focus is on the influence of regulated industry actors — the economic ‘losers’ from the Big Bang — on public policymaking. The influence they had on the outcome as well as their inability to reverse the Big Bang reforms are assessed.

This chapter situates the Big Bang within broader financial sector developments and in the political economy in general. It uses the framework of ‘institutional change’ introduced in Chapter 3 to understand the larger changes taking place in finance. It shows the causal mechanism through which the observed changes in financial politics occurred, while demonstrating how the components of the Financial Convoy related to one another, triggering the breakdown of the Convoy. The breakdown of the Convoy and the decay of bureaupluralism are observed, and the future of the latter is predicted.

This chapter examines the applicability of the study’s findings to other cases in the political economy, generating hypotheses about the determinants of regulatory reform. It discusses the policy implications of the analysis and identifies issues for additional research. It argues the need to shift the emphasis from ‘stability’ to ‘change’ in conceptualizing Japanese politics today. This shift should take place not only at the level of theory but also at the level of practice, given the fast pace of technological innovation, the deepening global integration, and change in the institutional environment. Accordingly, public administration must be carried out with the assumption of ‘change’ rather than the assumption of ‘continuity’, and the long-established emphasis on following precedents in policymaking abandoned.

This chapter examines Genesis 1:1-2:4a, known as the Priestly account of creation. This “report” describes creation as a divinely guided process that begins with benign chaos and concludes with a fully differentiated cosmos. God enlists the elements of creation (water and earth) to bring forth a life-sustaining order. The structure of the Priestly account renders a picture of sacred space that mirrors the architecture of the temple. Connections are explored between the Genesis narrative and the modern cosmological perspective, which posits a “Big Bang” and accounts for the evolution of cosmic structure. The “image of God” language in Genesis, moreover, finds resonance with the unique neurological and cultural facilities of Homo sapiens. Disparities between the scientific account and the seven-day account of creation underscore the theological significance of Sabbath. In light of these findings, the problematic language of “dominion” in Genesis is understood in new ways.

The ‘Big Five’ banks dominated British retail banking before 1939 and provided strength and stability in the financial sector. Yet after 1945, these institutions lost their dominance as providers of domestic financial services due to the severe restrictions placed on their lending activity by government regulation and increasing competition from non-bank financial institutions. It was only after 1970, and the lifting of such regulation, that British retail banks were able to flourish once again. Yet the banks have not been without criticism. They have been the subject of several government enquiries which have queried their levels of competition and efficiency and how well they served the needs of consumers and the British economy. Moreover, the global financial crisis starting in 2007 put British retail banks under severe strain and brought the question of performance and regulation to the fore.

This chapter illustrates the unique nature of questions from the different justices currently on the Court. Using the Big Five approach to personality description (extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, open-mindedness, negative affect), it classifies justices on the basis of their individualized personality clusters and provides examples through their questions and comments during the oral arguments. An attempt is made to explain why Justice Thomas does not ask questions during the oral arguments.

This chapter begins with a brief discussion of the ENIAC and the EDVAC projects in the US. The author then describes his work at the National Physical Laboratory. Topics covered include the ACE Test Assembly, the 12-bit ACE, the Big ACE, the SWAC (National Bureau of Standards Western Automatic Computer), and the Bendix G15. Finally, a comparison of the Test Assembly, Pilot Model, and G15 is presented.

This chapter describes circuit design of the Pilot ACE and Big ACE. Topics covered include the advantages of the long tailed pair in digital circuits, the half-adder and adder circuits, signal coupling, the circulation unit, wide band DC coupling, data distribution and control, the assisted cathode follower, and the magnetic drum store of the ACE Pilot Model and Big Ace.

This chapter discusses developments in the global securities market from 1970 to 1990. It shows that growth and development in the global securities market in the 1970s and 1980s were marked by two major turning points: the abolition of fixed commissions on the New York Stock Exchange in May 1975, which put pressure on stock exchanges in the US and around the world; and the Big Bang in London in October 1986, which not only transformed the British securities market but also intensified the pressure for change which had already been experienced by other stock exchanges, especially in Europe. By 1990, the effects of these twin developments were visible worldwide. The securities markets re-emerged as essential components of national financial systems whilst the global securities market once again became a key element in the financial flows that brought stability to the international monetary system.

This introductory chapter provides the historical background to the rise of the Big Society, surveying the history of voluntarism over the last century. Politicians and commentators have long bemoaned the supposed decline of civic life, fretting about its health and its future. In fact, the real story of voluntarism over the last hundred years has not been decline, but constant evolution and change. Whether the terms charity, philanthropy, civil society, non-governmental organisations, the third sector or the Big Society are used, voluntary endeavour is one of the most vibrant and dynamic areas of British public life. Voluntarism not only continues to thrive, but is also far larger than any political agenda that may be imposed upon it.