The ‘histories’ of economic discourse

Baudrillard's work has been presented as the essential postmodernist contribution to social theory. Yet doubts have been expressed as to the accuracy and the meaning of this claim. Here a number of leading presentations are reviewed against the claims and denials found in the work of Baudrillard himself: his opposition to postmodernism and his refusal to be labelled postmodernist. The ironies of this position are discussed with respect to Marxist and feminist readings in light of the possibility that it may be these appropriations themselves which are postmodern.

Baudrillard ‘was perhaps the first to organize a postmodern social theory’. (Kellner 1988: 242)

Baudrillard speaks from the dark side of postmodernity. A. Kroker 1988: 171

So far Baudrillard has resisted spelling out a theory of postmodernity. Kellner 1989: 121

I have nothing to do with postmodernism. Baudrillard     

Ethanol formation in unadulterated postmortem tissues

During the investigation of aviation accidents, postmortem samples obtained from fatal accident victims are submitted to the FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) for toxicological analysis. During toxicological evaluations, ethanol analysis is performed on all cases. Many species of bacteria, yeast, and fungi have the ability to produce ethanol and other volatile organic compounds in postmortem specimens. The potential for postmortem ethanol formation complicates the interpretation of ethanol-positive results from accident victims. Therefore, the prevention of ethanol formation at all steps following specimen collection is a priority. Sodium fluoride is the most commonly used preservative for postmortem specimens. Several studies have been published detailing the effectiveness of sodium fluoride for the prevention of ethanol formation in blood and urine specimens; however, our laboratory receives blood or urine in approximately 70% of cases. Thus, we frequently rely on tissue specimens for ethanol analysis. The postmortem tissue specimens received by our laboratory have generally been subjected to severe trauma and may have been exposed to numerous microbial species capable of ethanol production. With this in mind, we designed an experiment utilizing unadulterated tissue specimens obtained from aviation accident victims to determine the effectiveness of sodium fluoride at various storage temperatures for the prevention of microbial ethanol formation. We found that without preservative, specimens stored at 4 degrees C for 96 h showed an increase in ethanol concentration ranging from 22 to 75 mg/hg (average 42 +/- 15 mg/hg). At 25 degrees C, these same specimens showed an increase ranging from 19 to 84 mg/hg (average 45 +/- 22 mg/hg). With the addition of 1.00% sodium fluoride, there was no significant increase in ethanol concentration at either temperature.     

Missed Opportunities and New Risks: Penal Policy in England and Wales in the Past Twenty‐Five Years

This paper discusses trends in criminal justice and penal policy over the past twenty‐five years. This period has been characterised as a time of penal populism, which originated in the failure of the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, and the competition between the main political parties to be ‘tough on crime’. However, this is not the only trend to be found in penal policy. There has continued to be a strong undertow of support for rehabilitation and community penalties, including restorative justice. There has been pressure from the left as much as the right to take domestic violence, sexual offences against women and children, and hate crimes more seriously. There have been pressures to meet performance targets—which gradually transformed into calls to build the legitimacy of the justice system. Finally, there have been pressures to privatise criminal justice agencies. These various impulses have sometimes amplified and sometimes counteracted the pressures towards tough penal policy. If the period of intense penal populism ran from 1993 to 2007, inertia in the system has ensured that there have been no significant attempts to row back from tough policies, and to reassert the values of penal parsimony. Given that money has been tight since 2007 and crime has continued to fall, this must amount to a lost opportunity of significant proportions.     

RETHINKING URBAN COMPETITIVENESS,COHESION AND GOVERNANCE

RETHINKING URBAN COMPETITIVENESS, COHESION AND GOVERNANCE
Nick Buck, Ian Gordon, Alan Harding and Ivan Turok (eds)
Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, 317 pp., £19.99 (pb) ISBN: 1403906807