Oxford University Press's
Academic Insights for the Thinking World
By Jose Recio-Rodriguez
Americans spend about five hours daily in front of a television set according to official statistics. Prolonged television viewing is one of the most common behaviors associated with a sedentary lifestyle and public health authorities consider physical inactivity a major problem. Clinical trials have revealed a dose-response relationship between sitting time and mortality, including from cardiovascular disease.
By Christopher Wills
The balancing act that keeps ecosystems intact results from interactions, not only among the animals and plants, but also among their many smaller pathogens, parasites, symbionts, and pollinators. Taken together, all these interactions among the visible and invisible world produce an ecological balance, a green equilibrium.
By Nancy C. Unger
In the fall of 1994 I was invited to offer my university’s first environmental history course. Entering this unchartered territory, I scrambled to find sample syllabi and appropriate books. Nearly two decades later, environmental history is a standard course offering, and my university, like so many others, boasts a thriving Environmental Studies major as well as a major in Environmental Science
By Klaus Dodds
The last couple of weeks have been busy ones when it comes to news about the Falkland Islands. Or Islas Malvinas as Argentine and other readers might insist upon. For others, the Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas) is the preferred naming option – highlighting as it does their continued contested status.
The indication that an ordinary string of rare book thefts has evolved into a terrifying string of rare book thefts often comes down to this: the presence of a man whose sole job it is to get rid of library ownership marks. No other single trait indicates as certainly that a theft ring has moved from the amateur to the professional ranks.
By Stuart Casey-Maslen
Derided by a number of major military powers when it was adopted, almost 16 years later the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention is in pretty rude health. No fewer than 161 States have adhered to its provisions — the most recent being Poland in December 2012 – and few outside dare to use anti-personnel mines these days such is the stigmatisation of the weapon, even though a ban has not yet crystallised in customary law.
By David Ellwood
In January 2013 the Daily Telegraph ran a story on the refusal of the inhabitants of the famed old neighbourhood of Montmartre, in Paris, to accept the arrival in their midst for the first time of a Starbucks coffee shop. The Paris Pride heritage association denounced this “attack on the place’s soul.” A resident said “we must do everything to stop this disfiguring, as it opens the door to any old rubbish.”
By P.A.J. Waddington
“‘Pleb’–gate” — as the altercation between Andrew Mitchell, MP, and police officers guarding Downing Street has become known — continues to rumble along. It seems to me that there is a huge unanswered question lurking therein. It is this: what on earth are police officers doing providing an armed guard for the Prime Minister?
By Anatoly Liberman
The title of this post is meant to warn our readers that the origin of the word thief has never been discovered. Perhaps an apology is in order. I embarked on today’s seemingly thankless topic after I received a question from Denmark about the possible ties between Danish to “two” and tyv “thief.”
By Paul J. Ennis
Many people are puzzled by the phenomenon of ripperology. What kind of person has a grim fascination with a serial killer famous for not getting caught? For me, and many fellow ripperologists, the appeal is not Jack per se, but the atmosphere of Whitechapel in the 1880s. The case is a window into a forgotten world and one that shows us how that world was experienced by the common man.
By Matthew Flinders
Today’s publication of a parliamentary report recommending a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom sheds light on a number of issues that urgently demand debate.
By Gabrielle Lynch
On Saturday 30 March 2013, Kenya’s Supreme Court unanimously decided that Kenya’s presidential election — which had been held on 4 March — was conducted in a free, fair, transparent, and credible manner, and that Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto of the Jubilee Alliance were validly elected. Raila Odinga of the Coalition for Reform and Democracy (CORD) publicly disagreed with the court’s findings, but emphasised the supremacy of the constitution and wished Kenyatta and Ruto luck in implementing the 2010 constitution.
Celebre a Semana Nacional da Biblioteca de 14 a 20 de abril com livre acesso aos dois produtos Oxford mais populares. De 14 a 20 de abril, todas as pessoas na América do Norte e do Sul terão livre acesso ao OED e ao Oxford Reference. O livre acesso será feito através de um nome de usuário e senha publicados aqui no blog OUP no dia 14 de abril. Todas as pessoas terão acesso através do mesmo logon, que estará disponível até o final da semana.
Celebre la semana de bibliotecas del 14 al 20 de abril, con acceso gratuito a dos de los productos en línea más populares de Oxford. Empezando de Abril 14 hasta Abril 20, todo el mundo en América del Norte y del Sur tendrá acceso gratuito al Oxford English Dictionary y a Oxford Reference. El acceso gratuito será a través de un nombre de usuario y contraseña que va a ser anunciado en este Blog de OUP en abril 14. Todo el mundo tendrá acceso con la misma clave hasta el último día de la semana.
Celebrate National Library Week, 14-20 April 2013, with free access to two of Oxford’s most popular online products. Starting 14 April and running through 20 April, everyone in North and South America will have free access to the OED and Oxford Reference. Free access will be through a username and password announced here on the OUPblog on 14 April. Everyone will have access through the same login, which will last until the end of the week.
By Mary Coleman
The field of autism is riddled by several unsolved mysteries. One concerns the rate of children who suffer from autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). A study released last year by the CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network used school behavioral assessments and clinical reports of children who were 8 years old in 2008 and applied a standard checklist of criteria for diagnosis.