Search Results

Administrative Costs of State Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution Systems

Edwin C. Hustead

in The Future of Public Employee Retirement Systems

This chapter compares the administrative costs of public sector defined benefit and defined contribution systems offered by the federal government and many states. Administrative expenses are ... More

This chapter compares the administrative costs of public sector defined benefit and defined contribution systems offered by the federal government and many states. Administrative expenses are presented as percentages of both income and assets, and the author discusses how administrative expenses might enter into the decision by a public sector employer as to whether to establish a defined contribution plan.Less

Introduction: Rediscovering a Local Legend

Annalies Corbin and Bradley A. Rodgers

in The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West: History, Excavation, and Architecture

The identification of the steamboat Montana in September 2002 in the Missouri River near St. Charles, Missouri, by an East Carolina University (ECU) research team unlocked a tantalizing opportunity: ... More

The identification of the steamboat Montana in September 2002 in the Missouri River near St. Charles, Missouri, by an East Carolina University (ECU) research team unlocked a tantalizing opportunity: a chance for researchers to combine history and archaeology on a known shipwreck. The Montana archaeological site provided researchers the perfect opportunity to amass a body of evidence about the construction details of western river steamers. Archaeology and history had the perfect opportunity to generate comprehensive insight into this understudied genre of historic ship architecture. Archaeologists brought to the excavation their arsenal of documenting tools and analysis while historians sought out archival information concerning the life of the Montana. Together they explored steam vessels of the nineteenth century that represented valuable capital and most often, regardless of the extent of damage, were floated and repaired in a short time. The thorough study of the Montana makes clear the lengths to which steamboat engineering evolved in order to economically compete against railroads. The study of the Montana also revealed the fatal architectural flaw that, in combination with striking the bridge abutment, destroyed the steamboat.Less

Introduction

Guenter Lewy

in Assisted Death in Europe and America: Four Regimes and Their Lessons

This introductory chapter reviews the US Supreme Court's decisions regarding the refusal of unwanted medical treatment and the states' right to legalize assisted death. As of the time of writing, ... More

This introductory chapter reviews the US Supreme Court's decisions regarding the refusal of unwanted medical treatment and the states' right to legalize assisted death. As of the time of writing, Oregon, Washington, and Montana allow physician-assisted suicide. The fact that until 1997 physician-assisted suicide was illegal in all states of the union explains the suicide practice of Dr. Jack Krevorkian—a pathologist with no special expertise in end-of-life care—whose conduct, until ended by his imprisonment, probably represented the worst case scenario of a maverick doctor on his own. Equally unsettling is the fact that despite its illegality in most jurisdictions, the deliberate ending of life by physicians occurs rather often. This euthanasia underground, an entirely unregulated aspect of medicine, reveals a pattern that not only is secretive and deceptive but also has great potential for abuse. The question therefore is probably not whether to permit physician-assisted suicide. The real choice we face is whether we seek to regulate and control the practice of assisted death, or whether it is left unregulated and unchecked, which creates great risks for both doctors and patients.Less

Immigrant Artists

Ilaria Serra

in The Value of Worthless Lives: Writing Italian American Immigrant Autobiographies

Italian immigrants came to America to pursue an artistic dream, but they remain “immigrant workers” at heart. They strongly maintain the ethos of the artisan, with its ... More

Italian immigrants came to America to pursue an artistic dream, but they remain “immigrant workers” at heart. They strongly maintain the ethos of the artisan, with its mixture of manual labor and creativity, more than pretenses of artistic genius. They tell their stories in the quiet mode that links our autobiographies. One of them in particular who does not find success, Luigi Olari, strikes a very human note in his description of failure. Even the quite well-known Alfred Crimi, a painter, Pietro Montana, a sculptor, and Luigi Lombardi, an orchestra director, never put on airs about the position they acquired but always highlighted their struggles, being men of survival. Two of them, the actors Rocco De Russo and Emanuel Gatti, directly experience the decline of theater due to television, and their autobiographies become narratives of the end of an era more than tales of personal triumph. All of these artists started at the bottom, and they unabashedly admit that.Less

The Great Midwest

James Belich

in Replenishing the Earth: The Settler Revolution and the Rise of the Angloworld

As early as the 1830s, the Old Northwest began to expand and blur into that elusive region known as the Midwest. The post-war Midwest centred on a tier of four states, Kansas, Nebraska, and the ... More

As early as the 1830s, the Old Northwest began to expand and blur into that elusive region known as the Midwest. The post-war Midwest centred on a tier of four states, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, but was divided into two distinct ecological zones, eastern prairie and western plains, each of which encompassed parts of the states bordering the central tier — Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana to the west, and Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri to the east. The rough dividing line between Plains and Prairies was the 100th meridian, which ran through the middle of the four core states. Plains and Prairies shared one major obstacle to settlement: the local Indians. They were not numerous, but their adoption of the horse and the gun had turned them into extremely formidable light cavalry.Less

Cowboys and Yodeling

Timothy E. Wise

in Yodeling and Meaning in American Music

This chapter is concerned with the role yodeling played in mass media constructions of the fictional cowboy in the early twentieth century. With the emphasis on semiotics and musical connotation, it ... More

This chapter is concerned with the role yodeling played in mass media constructions of the fictional cowboy in the early twentieth century. With the emphasis on semiotics and musical connotation, it examines the relationship of yodeling to the attributes of the idealized cowboy in a mythic American West as presented on radio and in film. It relates elements of the cowboy construct, for example bravado and braggadocio, to the specific features of the yodeling heard in the recordings, such as speed and virtuosity. Also considered is the emergence of singing cowgirls, whose themes and styles contrast with those of their male counterparts. Using Wilf Carter as a paradigm for cowboy-style yodeling, the discussion extends to Elton Britt, Slim Whitman, Patsy Montana, harmony yodeling, the Girls of the Golden West, and the DeZurik Sisters, among others. The musical features characterizing cowboy yodeling styles are differentiated from those of hillbilly yodeling styles.Less

Coda

Dale Maharidge

in Someplace Like America: Tales from the New Great Depression

Sacramento may be the capital of California, but the city has a long history of a hardscrabble underbelly. Among the attractions are the waterways that run through the city—the clear American and the ... More

Sacramento may be the capital of California, but the city has a long history of a hardscrabble underbelly. Among the attractions are the waterways that run through the city—the clear American and the muddy Sacramento rivers join near downtown. The draw is not the presence of water in rare quantity for parched California, but the riverbanks thick with vegetation that conceals the camps of the homeless “river people.” Michael S. Williamson and Dale Maharidge spent a lot of time in these camps back in the 1980s and fittingly end their journey in the place where it began—Sacramento and the surrounding Central Valley. The camps Michael and Dale found in the early 1980s weren't as elaborate as those photographed by Dorothea Lange. One camp later grew in size, a village of shanties belonging to Montana Blackie and his hobo buddies. The cops kept the river people cowering in the shadows through the 1980s. Dale wrote stories about most of those sweeps, for the newspaper and in a book about Blackie, The Last Great American Hobo. Then he left town.Less

Excavating the Montana

Annalies Corbin and Bradley A. Rodgers

in The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West: History, Excavation, and Architecture

Incorporating standard Phase II predisturbance procedures allowing maximum data collection for the least survey time and cost, the East Carolina archaeological team documented the remains of the ... More

Incorporating standard Phase II predisturbance procedures allowing maximum data collection for the least survey time and cost, the East Carolina archaeological team documented the remains of the Montana on the Missouri River bottomlands across from St. Charles, Missouri. The wreck site's position on the riverbank allowed easy documentation of half the hull, including the stern, and logical inference of what the submerged half looked like. Survey of the Montana site included documentation of the prominent features on site, as well as documentation of associated artifact scatters and other site features. The journey of understanding from the initial riverbank view of the Montana's wreckage has been profound. Western river steamers were not simply barges with engines; they represented a wholly integrated marine technology specifically designed to deal with and conquer an unpredictable freshwater river environment. Powerful, imaginative, and seemingly unbound by ship-construction standards and traditions, western engineers found startlingly practical solutions to engineering problems, proving their shipbuilding prowess.Less

Construction and Engineering

Annalies Corbin and Bradley A. Rodgers

in The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West: History, Excavation, and Architecture

A scale model of the stern section of the Montana, based on measurements, drawings, and photographs compiled during the archaeological project, was developed specifically to answer questions ... More

A scale model of the stern section of the Montana, based on measurements, drawings, and photographs compiled during the archaeological project, was developed specifically to answer questions concerning the engineering of the vessel. As an added bonus, the activity of model construction provided much-needed insight into how the Montana was constructed. It seems likely from the model construction that the Montana was built in simple prefabricated pieces and assembled on the ways. This method would have been cost effective and efficient given the ship's abnormally large size and the constraints imposed by it. The engines on the Montana were powerful for their size, converting the 130 to 160 pounds (59 to 75.6 kg) of steam pressure supplied by the boilers to locomotive power. The Montana was driven by two of these engines: one mounted on each set of cylinder timbers, port and starboard. The Montana carried boilers specially developed for western river use called flue boilers. Just as steamer hulls and engines had been adapted to the particular exigencies of a riverine environment, the western river flue boiler was a regional variation of accepted boiler technology. And like the other components of the western river steamer, it was designed to contend with the harsh elements of river use while advancing engineers' aims to make boats that were powerful, light, and maneuverable.Less

Epilogue

Annalies Corbin and Bradley A. Rodgers

in The Steamboat Montana and the Opening of the West: History, Excavation, and Architecture

The Montana's archaeology offered many answers to questions concerning mountain steamers that researchers have been unable to answer with reference to history alone. The wreck site also enabled them ... More

The Montana's archaeology offered many answers to questions concerning mountain steamers that researchers have been unable to answer with reference to history alone. The wreck site also enabled them to ask intelligent questions that would not have occurred to them had they not studied it. History and archaeology have taken them far in this quest for knowledge of the western river steamer. More questions can be asked and answered with more work on site. The material culture carried aboard the vessel has, as yet, barely been examined. Yet, the Montana carried in her hull the goods of everyday life on the western frontier. While the Montana's hull demonstrates the pinnacle of wooden ship construction for inland transportation, the goods it carried represent the everyday lives of all who braved the American West. The Montana's history and subsequent archaeological investigation can be utilized as a case study for understanding and appreciating the development of the trans-Mississippi West. Through the Montana's activities, trade, transportation, and population patterns that shaped both the past and present are discovered.Less

Energy Development and Conservation Tradeoffs: Systematic Planning for Greater Sage-Grouse in their Eastern Range

Kevin E. Doherty, David E. Naugle, Holly E. Copeland, Amy Pocewicz, and Joseph M. Kiesecker

in Greater Sage-Grouse: Ecology and Conservation of a Landscape Species and Its Habitats

A framework for conservation planning was developed to evaluate options for reducing development impacts on Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, North ... More

A framework for conservation planning was developed to evaluate options for reducing development impacts on Greater Sage-Grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Lek-count data (2,336 leks) were used to delineate high-abundance population centers, termed core regions, that contained 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% of the known breeding population. Sage-grouse abundance varied by state. Wyoming contains 64% of the known sage-grouse population and more active leks than all the other states combined within the study area. Montana contains fewer sage-grouse (24%) than Wyoming, but actions that reduce sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) tillage by providing private landowners incentives to maintain sagebrush-dominated landscapes would provide lasting benefits because core regions in Montana are at comparatively low development risk. Habitat restoration in areas with low risk of development but containing fewer sage-grouse fit into the overall conservation strategy by targeting populations that promote connectivity of core regions.Less

Stoneflies of Glacier National Park and Flathead River Basin, Montana

Robert L. Newell, R. W. Baumann, and J. A. Stanford

in International Advances in the Ecology, Zoogeography, and Systematics of Mayflies and Stoneflies

This chapter describes the stoneflies located in the Glacier National Park and Flathead River basin in Montana. It explains that 58 species were documented in the Flathead River, 58 from Glacier ... More

This chapter describes the stoneflies located in the Glacier National Park and Flathead River basin in Montana. It explains that 58 species were documented in the Flathead River, 58 from Glacier Park, and 95 and 74 species respectively from west and east of the continental divide. The chapter stresses the need to conduct more studies on the number of Lentic stoneflies in this region and on hyporheic stonefly fauna.Less

“This Strange White World”: Race and Place in Era Bell Thompson’s American Daughter and RoseGordon’s Newspaper Writing

Michael K. Johnson

in Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West

Era Bell Thompson in her North Dakota memoir American Daughter revises the traditional opposition of frontier literature—the difference between West and East, the wilderness and the metropolis—to ... More

Era Bell Thompson in her North Dakota memoir American Daughter revises the traditional opposition of frontier literature—the difference between West and East, the wilderness and the metropolis—to symbolize double-consciousness. Moving west to the frontier means separating from the black community and becoming part of a “strange white world.” American Daughter describes a sense of restless movement between West and East, reflecting the difficulty of that choice. As did Thompson, Rose Gordon grew up in a pre-dominantly white frontier community, White Sulphur Springs, Montana. In contrast to Thompson, who eventually moved to Chicago, Gordon spent her entire life in her western home. Juxtaposed here are different accounts of black western experience by two African American women. Rose Gordon’s writing—mostly contributions to her local newspaper—reflects her strategies for making home in one particular place, a story of settlement that converges and diverges with accounts of black western travel.Less

Sweetgrass: ‘Baaaaaaah. Bleeeeeeet’

Lucien Castaing-Taylor

in Beyond text?: Critical practices and sensory anthropology

This interview with Lucien Castaing-Taylor, director of the Sensory Ethnography at Harvard University reflects on the film ‘Sweetgrass’ he made in 2009 about the last migration of sheep through ... More

This interview with Lucien Castaing-Taylor, director of the Sensory Ethnography at Harvard University reflects on the film ‘Sweetgrass’ he made in 2009 about the last migration of sheep through Montana’s Absaroka-Beartooth mountain range. It is an unsentimental elegy at once to the American West and to the 10,000 years of uneasy accommodation between post-Paleolithic humans and animals. With its observational filmmaking style of long shots and minimal camera movements it offers a prescient example of observational filmmaking as ‘sensory ethnography’ that was initially roundly rejected by many anthropological film festivals before achieving artistic acclaim and theatrical releases in the United States, Canada, Latin America, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.Less

Digital Live-Action 3-D

Ray Zone

in 3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema

3D concert films and digital live action 3D adventure films. Sports 3D TV is also considered along with delivery using satellite and cable systems.

Conservation And Development at Sun Ranch: The Search for Balance in the US. West

Roger Lang, William H. Durham, and Josh Spitzer

in Stitching the West Back Together: Conservation of Working Landscapes

The 26,000-acre Sun Ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, owned by the Lang family from 1998-2010, was a private conservation enterprise working to protect ecologically important ranchlands through a ... More

The 26,000-acre Sun Ranch in Montana’s Madison Valley, owned by the Lang family from 1998-2010, was a private conservation enterprise working to protect ecologically important ranchlands through a variety of economic and conservation approaches. Sun Ranch also worked closely with the nonprofit Madison Valley Ranchlands Group, a collection of conservation-minded stakeholders with local ranchers at its core, to tackle regional problems such as habitat fragmentation, invasive species eradication, endangered species protection, and smarter development. The owners explored several ways to operate a financially viable conservation-focused ranch. They opened an “eco-lodge” for tourists. They founded the Sun Ranch Institute to design a small residential development on a least-sensitive part of the ranch. More than 98% of the remaining ranch was placed into conservation easements. The economic recession of the late 2000s resulted in the withdrawal of all prospective homebuyers, however, and the ranch was sold.Less

Spain

Natalie Berkowitz

in The Winemaker's Hand: Conversations on Talent, Technique, and Terroir

This chapter presents conversations with two winemakers from Spain: Pedro Benito Saez of Bodegas Urbina Crianza and Oscar Montaña Porres of Marqués de Tomares Wineries. The history of winemaking ... More

This chapter presents conversations with two winemakers from Spain: Pedro Benito Saez of Bodegas Urbina Crianza and Oscar Montaña Porres of Marqués de Tomares Wineries. The history of winemaking across the Iberian Peninsula has much in common with the long, complicated tale of conquest and trade that spread knowledge of viticulture and vinification there. Spain's diverse landscape produces a panoply of whites, reds, sherries and other fortified dessert wines, and Cava—the Spanish sparkling wine. Although many of Spain's wines are sold at home, they are also exported to many countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Rioja in northern Spain is perhaps the most widely-recognised name out of the country's sixty-eight wine regions. At fine wineries, grapes in Rioja are primarily hand-harvested and go through a double selection to start the winemaking process.Less