Journal articles on the topic 'Swami and Friends'

Narayan’s Swami and Friends (1935) luminously portrays its child protagonist Swaminathan’s adventures in soul making, his skirmishes with his little comrades and reconciliations in his soupy school, his contact with the experienced adult world vis-à-vis apparently apolitical, shallow and banal Swami and Friends (1935) also postulates encoded political and cultural resistance so strategically camouflaged by Narayan’s narrative devise. Narayan’s Anti-colonial propaganda, his aversion to fundamentalism and authoritarianism, his earnest desire to bring the subaltern narrative into our mainstream narrative give him a special place in literary world. Kudos to the Nietzschean Will to Power of the common inhabitants of Malgudi and the little urchins of Albert Mission School that they dared to join the protest march against the hegemony of their white colonial masters. Swami much like Ishaan of Aamir Khan’s Taare Zameen Par (2007) used to shudder at the very thought of his monotonous school where his wings of freedom used to be crushed under the fatal mill of the authoritarian and strict teachers except D.Pillai who was famous among the students. Swaminathan’s hybrid identity, Rajam’s Europeanized existence, overlapping associations of tradition and modernity, class struggle, Centre/Periphery, Self/Other, Master/Slave dichotomy in Swami and Friends (1935) actually celebrate Narayan’s deep concern for our pluralistic and multicultural Indian identity where Narayan has also given space to the subaltern existence like Rajam’s family cook who was insulted and undervalued by Rajam only because Rajam belonged to the centre of a power structure. In this paper I would like to investigate in which way Narayan has pointed out the various agathokakological entities of human life through the artistic representation of his characters, his celebration of India’s heterogeneous identity, class struggle, the marginalized and peripheralized existence of subaltern voices, politics of colonial masters’ Self and the muted Other in an unequal power structure where a very limited number of people actually get access to the resources , ambivalence, hybrid identity etc. with reference to Swami and Friends (1935).

M.K. Gandhi is a unique paradox. He has been sanctified and idolised for his beliefs and teachings and at the same time has been assumed as an impractical idealist. On the contrary his educational philosophy has been highly practical and in the ever-changing times and challenges of the 21st century, it becomes pertinent to explore it.Education is the facilitator of humanity. It is precisely this understanding of education that Gandhi propounds in his philosophical understanding of the same. The roots of all evils lie in ignorance of education and the roots of all virtuousness lies in adherence to it.R.K. Narayan (1906-2001) and M.K. Gandhi (1869-1948) were two major figures of the 20th century India, owing to the former’s literary and the latter’s political and philosophical sensibilities. Gandhi's ideas and ideals regarding education are multi-faceted. For him education has multiple aims and objectives. For him education is not only a means to serve an individual or a national cause but goes on to serve the still larger cause of humanity. It is this aspect of his teachings which will remain the focal point of this paper. The novel Swami and Friends (1935) is written in the characteristic Narayanian vein which refuses to evolve and incorporate serious issues on the surface. Though primarily it appears to be apolitical and plain in style, the novel nonetheless exhibits some serious issues related to education. Efforts would be made in the paper to show how the educational system portrayed in the novel is in stark contrast to the educational philosophy and the ideals for which Gandhi pined throughout his life. The paper would hence attempt to delineate the Gandhian educational philosophy by placing it in and around the critique of education that R.K. Narayan offers in his debut novel Swami and Friends (1935).

The representation of the child in art has a long history. Great importance is attached to the child in the indigenous literary traditions of India. The antics of Krishna , the ‘balgopal’ are represented vividly in the Bhagavata Purana and the Mahabharath. Likewise, the adventures of the child Rama are sketched in great detail in another epic Ramayana. An array of Indian writers have made the child the protagonist in their novels ; Manu Bhandari’s Aap ka Bunty, Ganeswar Misra’s Face of the Morning, R.K. Narayanan’s Swami & Friends, Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children, and Amitav Ghosh’s Shadow Lines are some typical examples. This paper attempts to make a comparative study of the portrayal of the child in two modern Indian novels namely Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyaya’s Pather Panchali and Krishna Baldev Vaid’s Uska Bachpan.

Background: The problem of substance abuse has spread to almost every part of the globe surmounting almost all barriers of race, caste, religion, sex and educational status. The interaction of various cultural, psychological, social, variables like stress, peer pressure, unemployment, early age of initiation results in the development of substance abuse. It is important to address these factors so that severity of relapses can be reduced and quality of life is improved. Aims and objectives were to study the role of cultural and socio-psychological factors in substance abuse.Methods: It was a cross-sectional study. Study population consisted of substance abusers enrolled at Swami Vivekananda Drug Deaddiction Centre. Study took place at Swami Vivekananda Drug Deaddiction Centre attached to the Government Medical College, Amritsar, from 1st January 2015 to 31st December 2015. Sample size consisted of 400 males. The collected data was entered in Microsoft excel sheets and analysed using Epi Info version 7.Results: Mean age was 28.5 years, 64% were high and intermediate pass, 47% belonged to lower middle class, 23% were unemployed, 61% married, 83% of the respondents belonged to Sikh religion, 76% were introduced to drugs by their friends, significant association was found between problem of thinking and communication and drug addiction , 62% showed escapism to problems of life.Conclusions: Findings confirm that socio-psychological and cultural factors including peer pressure, availability of drugs, unemployment are powerful stimuli for substance abuse and sits relapse, hence it is important to highlight these issues.

R.K. Narayan conforms to his times and during the period he wrote, there was a radical change in the status of women. Moreover, he maintains an objective detachment from his themes and characters. However detached he is from his characters, it is possible to draw out a conception that the portrayal of women characters takes a definite shape through his novels. As we read his novels, we can trace a gradual transition of his women characters from silence to speech. His pre-independence novels like Swami and Friends, The English Teacher, Dark Room have women who are submissive and docile even though they nurture the desire for liberation. But, R. K. Narayan was a genius to picturise the ordinary middle-class milieu. Narayan takes a different attitude in portraying his post-independence heroines. The middle-class is considered the citadel of tradition but has shown its heroines courageously negotiating their way out from stereotyped notions about women and their roles. His women who are presented as votaries of emancipation educate themselves, long for economic independence and do not hesitate in leaving their parents or dumping their husbands and lovers in their search for individual identity and desired happiness.

Our Mutual Friend, published just six years after Darwin's The Origin of Species, is structured on a Darwinian pattern. As its title hints, the novel is an account of the mutual-though hidden-relations of its characters, a fictional world of individuals seeking their own advantage, a "dismal swamp" of "crawling, creeping, fluttering, and buzzing creatures." The relationship between the two works is quite direct in light of the large number of reviews on science, evolution, and The Origin from 1859 through the early 1860s in Dicken's magazine, All the Year Round. Given the laissez-faire origin of the Origin, Dicken's use of it in a book directed against laissez-faire economics is ironic. Important Darwinian themes in the novel are predation, mutual relationships, chance, and, especially, inheritance, a central issue in both Victorian fiction and in The Origin of Species. The novel asks whether predatory self-seeking or generosity should be the desired inheritance for human beings. The victory of generosity is symbolized by a dying child's "willing" his inheritance of a toy Noah's Ark, "all the Creation," to another child. Our Mutual Friend is saturated with the motifs of Darwinian biology, therefore, to display their inadequacy. Although Dickens made use of the explanatory powers of natural selection and remained sympathetic to science, the novel transcends and opposes its Darwinian structure in order to project a teleological and designed evolution in the human world toward a moral community of responsible men and women.

ABSTRACT The aim of this research is to control environmentally friendly soybean pod borer by utilizing plants in swamps as a vegetable insecticide, namely Kepayang (Pangiumedule). The study was conducted on tidal land in the Village of Kiri Dalam, Barambai District, Barito Kuala Regency, South Kalimantan Province. The study was designed in a randomized block design with 5 replications. The treatment is; 1. Kepayang leaf extract, 2. Without control, 3.Neem plant extract, 4. Chloriliprol insecticide. The results showed that the Kepayang leaf extract can be used as a botanical insecticide controlling soybean pod borer because it can suppress soybean pod attack by up to 62% and is no different from the Chloriliprol insecticide treatment by 64%. Keywords: Applications, Swamp Plants, Boring Pods Borers, Tidal Swamps

One type of pest that often attacks soybean plant leaves in tidal swamplands is the armyworm pest. The intensity of leaf damage due to armyworm attack in tidal swamps ranges from 30-95%, and can even lead to crop failure. In controlling pests in soybean plants in general, always rely on chemical insecticides. The use of these chemical insecticides has a negative impact on the environment. To overcome this, the control is directed towards environmentally friendly pest control by utilizing swamp plants as a botanical insecticide. The study used a randomized block design (RBD) with 3 treatments of swamp plant extracts (galam, kirinyuh, kepayang) and 3 controls, namely without control, botanical insecticide made from neem, chemical insecticide with the active ingredient kloraniliprol. The aim of this study was to obtain a swamp plant extract that could be used in controlling armyworm pests (Spodoptera litura). The results showed that the three types of swamp plants could be used as botanical insecticides in controlling armyworm pests, and has an effectiveness value above 70%. The highest effectiveness of botanical insecticides was obtained at the age of 75 DAP, namely Galam (78.29%), Kirinyuh (78.86%) and Kepayang (78.85%).

Increasing mining activities in several regions in Indonesia, began to faceproblems, namely of environmental pollution. One of the mining waste that is liquidsulfur, or acid mine water, which can lower the pH of the water and dissolves heavymetals. Countermeasures for the chemical method is to use lime, but this is lesseffective. The method is good and is environmentally friendly way by using biologicalbacteria sulphate reduction bacteria (SRB) that naturally there are many in thesediment wetland. Goal of this research is to find the type of sediment wetland mosteffectively increase the pH and decrease the concentration of sulphate in acid minewater. The sediment wetland is used mangroves, swamp, rice fields, and beaches.Treatment bioreaktor made on the filled with sediment underneath the compost isgiven further incubation for 50 days. The observation of pH and content of sulphatebased on the value of OD spektrofotometer and known pH increased to the highestin the pH of 7.3 is in the swamp sediment treatment, while the only other treatmentuntil the pH 6-6,7. Increasing the pH in accordance with the decrease in the rate ofSO4 is most sharply in the swamp sediment treatment as well as the most effectivetreatment.

There is a tendency in literature to poeticise rural settings over their urban counterparts based on the proposition that villages bring human beings closer to nature, whereas cities come between them. Problems born and accentuated in urban environments are often, in fiction and poetry, resolved in a more rural atmosphere. In his 1916 novella Chaturanga, Rabindranath Tagore seems to challenge this popular inclination. The story begins in Calcutta, moves to rural Bengal and then returns to the city. After his uncle, who was also his father-figure, philosopher and guide, dies, Sachish disappears from Calcutta. When his friend and the narrator of the text, Sribilash, finds him two years later in a village, Sachish has joined a so-called mystic named Leelananda Swami. He has also changed unrecognisably. Sribilash is shocked at his transformation and is distrustful of Leelananda Swami, but he cannot abandon his friend, so he too, joins the guru. He too seems to leave behind his old self and becomes engrossed and entranced in a new, unreal world. It is only when he returns to the city that Sribilash seems to come out of his trance and shake off the false skin; he misses or becomes his former hard-working and useful self again. Sachish’s path, however, is irrevocably changed. In this paper, I wish to examine why and how Tagore, who wrote so many thousands of lines in so many different forms eulogising nature, depicted an apparent divide between nature and human beings in this text: when the men are in the city, they are grounded in reality and engaged in meaningful activity; when they are in the lap of nature, so to speak, they seem to become disoriented escapists. I will also address the importance of the fact that these characters retire froity when they are bereaved and spend their mourning period in the villages, and that their return to Calcutta is closely linked to the appearance of a new love interest in their lives. The paper will explore how, in this particular text, people and places seem to affect each other and what they signify.

My first inclination to this prompt, what of Black temporalities in crisis, was to ask a small group of Black familiars (friends and colleagues) to talk with me about their current experience of time in quarantine, and under the present articulations of racial injustice and economic crisis. Many remarked on awaiting moments of dance and embodiment, or the body after surgery during COVID, to the forms of mutual aid arriving, just on time. Others expressed holding patterns of rage, when being called forth in work environments to engage in conversations about race, others of the crushing aftermath of an intimate partnership in quarantine that went awry, only to arrive at new forms of intimacy in self-reflection and community co-counseling, or deep expressions of freedom, when invited to social distance with a family member, and doing so outside clothing. Still others reflected on mourning a relative, loved one, distant friend, and the uncertainty of the living body, through measures that are within and outside of human control. As the call for this special issue of SAQ noted, “Black temporalities of crisis might consist of subtle, collective and individual experiences of anticipation, drawn-out boredom, acceleration, or the feeling that something has ended before something else begins, among other possibilities.” In this instance, I focus on how the stretchy drawn-out and quickening qualities of time in crisis persist. By drawing on the anonymous experiences of loved ones and moments of rebellion toward fugitivity (e.g., the maroon communities of the Great Dismal Swamp and Harriet Jacobs’s neo–slave narrative), I ruminate on the in-between moments of Black life that show up in and around ongoing crisis.

Abstract To reduce dependence on wheat flour, it is necessary to find substitutes for flour from local food. As local food, bamboo shoots (betung) and swamp tubers (alabio and nagara) have the potential to be processed into flour even though they have relatively low characteristics. To improve the flour characteristics, it can be made by modifying the flour biologically. The purpose of this study was to investigate modified fibre-rich flour derived from bamboo shoot and swamp tuber through fermentation and to formulate the flours as functional food. This modification was preferred because it did not need chemical agents that may be harmful for environmental. The modified flour was prepared by both spontaneously and non-spontaneously fermentation, using mocaf starter. Alabio tuber (Dioscorea alata L.), nagara tuber (Ipomoea batatas L.), bamboo shoots betung (Dendrocalamus asper) were fermented for 24, 48, and 72 hours. After fermentation, the modified flours were formulated based on a certain combination to meet the nutritional adequacy rate. The best results of alabio, nagara and betung flour were 72 hours spontaneous fermentation, 48 hours spontaneous fermentation, and 72 hours starter fermentation, respectively. The best-modified flour formulation was obtained in the combination of nagara tuber flour: bamboo shoots in 90:10.

Chili Hiyung is a local chili variety typical of South Kalimantan. At this time began to be exposed to a lot of anthracnose disease. Control using pesticides needs to be avoided by finding more convenient control methods. Area-friendly disease control includes using PGPR (Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria). The use of PGPR for chili plants in the swamp land of Hiyung village has not been studied, meanwhile its potential has been tested on several other plants. This research aims to identify the effect of PGPR in suppressing anthracnose disease in Chili Hiyung in the swamp land of Hiyung Village. The design used was a single aspect Completely Randomized Design (CRD) based on 4 (four) treatments, namely the leak, spray, or spray and leak methods. The results of the research show that the PGPR application does not affect the incidence of anthracnose disease in Hiyung chili plants in Hiyung village. But the PGPR application can increase plant size and fruit weight per branch.

The impact of roads on local biodiversity is a major issue associated with urbanisation. A major arterial road in the southern suburbs of Brisbane, south-east Queensland, was upgraded in 2004–05 from two to four lanes. In an attempt to minimise the impact of the larger road on local wildlife populations, a range of fauna crossing structures were constructed at the site. Monitoring of road-kill was undertaken for 4 months before construction and after the completion of construction. Assessment of the use of two underpasses and a large overpass (‘land-bridge’) started 6 months after construction using sand tracking in underpasses and scat sampling on the land-bridge. An initial 26-week period of intensive monitoring was undertaken from August 2005 to February 2006 followed by monthly monitoring from June 2006 to June 2007. On average, 1–5 tracks per day were detected in the underpasses at the start of the survey, increasing steadily to ~42 tracks per day by February 2006. The monthly survey showed regular use of the underpasses by a wide range of species and species-groups, the most abundant being ‘rodents’, most likely Rattus species, both native and introduced. The land-bridge was also used continuously by three species of macropod (red-necked wallaby, Macropus rufogriseus; swamp wallaby, Wallabia bicolor; and eastern grey kangaroo, Macropus giganteus) with brown hare (Lepus capensis) becoming increasingly common in summer 2006. The exclusion fencing was extremely effective in preventing most road-kill, at least of larger species, except following human-related breaches in the fence.

In recent years, there has been a veritable boost in next-generation sequencing (NGS) of gene amplicons in biological and medical studies. Huge amounts of data are produced and need to be analyzed adequately. Various online and offline analysis tools are available; however, most of them require extensive expertise in computer science or bioinformatics, and often a Linux-based operating system. Here, we introduce “CoMA–Comparative Microbiome Analysis” as a free and intuitive analysis pipeline for amplicon-sequencing data, compatible with any common operating system. Moreover, the tool offers various useful services including data pre-processing, quality checking, clustering to operational taxonomic units (OTUs), taxonomic assignment, data post-processing, data visualization, and statistical appraisal. The workflow results in highly esthetic and publication-ready graphics, as well as output files in standardized formats (e.g. tab-delimited OTU-table, BIOM, NEWICK tree) that can be used for more sophisticated analyses. The CoMA output was validated by a benchmark test, using three mock communities with different sample characteristics (primer set, amplicon length, diversity). The performance was compared with that of Mothur, QIIME and QIIME2-DADA2, popular packages for NGS data analysis. Furthermore, the functionality of CoMA is demonstrated on a practical example, investigating microbial communities from three different soils (grassland, forest, swamp). All tools performed well in the benchmark test and were able to reveal the majority of all genera in the mock communities. Also for the soil samples, the results of CoMA were congruent to those of the other pipelines, in particular when looking at the key microbial players.

In its recent history, the philosophy of mind has come to resemble an entry into the genre of Hammer horror or pulpy science fiction. These days it is unusual to encounter a major philosophical work on the mind that is not populated with bats, homunculi, swamp-creatures, cruelly imprisoned genius scientists, aliens, cyborgs, other-worldly twins, self-aware Computer programs, Frankenstein-monster-like ‘Blockheads,’ or zombies. The purpose of this paper is to review the role in the philosophy of mind of one of these fantastic thought-experiments — the zombie — and to reassess the implications of zombie arguments, which I will suggest have been widely misinterpreted. I shall argue that zombies, far from being the enemy of materialism, are its friend; and furthermore that zombies militate against the computational model of consciousness and in favour of more biologically-rooted conceptions, and hence that zombie- considerations support a more reductive kind of physicalism about consciousness than has been in vogue in recent years.

Palm oil production is a key industry in tropical regions, driven by the demand for affordable vegetable oil. Palm oil production has been increasing by 9% every year, mostly due to expanding biofuel markets. However, the oil palm industry has been associated with key environmental issues, such as deforestation, peatland exploitation and biomass burning that release carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, leading to climate change. This review therefore aims to discuss the characteristics of oil palm plantations and their impacts, especially CO2 emissions in the Southeast Asian region. The tropical climate and soil in Southeast Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Indonesia, are very suitable for growing oil palm trees. However, due to the scarcity of available plantation areas deforestation occurs, especially in peat swamp areas. Total carbon losses from both biomass and peat due to the conversion of tropical virgin peat swamp forest into oil palm plantations are estimated to be around 427.2 ± 90.7 t C ha−1 and 17.1 ± 3.6 t C ha−1 year−1, respectively. Even though measured CO2 fluxes have shown that overall, oil palm plantation CO2 emissions are about one to two times higher than other major crops, the ability of oil palms to absorb CO2 (a net of 64 tons of CO2 per hectare each year) and produce around 18 tons of oxygen per hectare per year is one of the main advantages of this crop. Since the oil palm industry plays a crucial role in the socio-economic development of Southeast Asian countries, sustainable and environmentally friendly practices would provide economic benefits while minimizing environmental impacts. A comprehensive review of all existing oil plantation procedures is needed to ensure that this high yielding crop has highly competitive environmental benefits.

This paper describes the SWAMS ALERT system; a forecast and warning system based on the assessment of risks associated with navigation and moored ships in port areas. This system is based on HIDRALERTA, a previously developed system for overtopping and flooding in coastal and port areas. The basic idea is to use 72-hour sea waves’ forecasts and simulate their effect on ships, either in port approach maneuvers or when they are moored inside.This modular system consists of four modules: I – Sea waves characteristics; II - Navigation and mooring in port areas; III - Risk assessment and IV - Warning System. The system is implemented on a fully interactive user-friendly web platform.The system prototype was tested in the Azorean island of Terceira. A generic container ship and a specific berth in the container terminal of the Praia da Vitória port were chosen, as well as a generic mooring layout with six mooring cables and two fenders. This test case illustrates some of the system’s capabilities, namely its ability to forecast, not only wave characteristics on the specific site of the moored vessel, but also forces on mooring lines and fenders and the risk of pre-set thresholds being surpassed.

Lebak swamp weeds such as Kayambang (Salvinia molesta) grow abundantly. They can be used as compost, which effectively improves soil fertility, increasing nutrients N, P, and P K quickly and environmentally friendly. The effectiveness of compost fertilizer needs to be increased by adding indigenous microbes as decomposers and biological agents to control plant diseases. The activities carried out to empower horticultural farmer groups on sandy land in Tanjung Pinang Village, Palangka Raya are through socialization, training in composting with three types of antagonist fungus Trichoderma sp. (Trichocompost), facilitate the procurement of weed chopping machines, assist farmers in horticultural crop cultivation, and increase farmers' independence in self-supporting organic fertilizers. The use of Kayambang as Trichocompost with microbial decomposers and indigenous biological agents is new knowledge for partner farmers. The application of Trichocompost on the demonstration plots shows that eggplant plant growth and yields are excellent, meaning that Trichocompost can improve the fertility of sandy soils. Farmers participating in the training stated that the use of Trichocompost could reduce farming costs because it can substitute for manure that has been used by farmers and can meet the self-help needs of organic fertilizers. Participants wanted an advanced mentoring program because the farmers had not yet mastered the isolation or propagation of biological agents and decomposer microbes.

Dayak tribe in Central Kalimantan Province has long time ago applied the local wisdom of healthy life and environmental friendly by consuming more local vegetables that grow wild. The research was conducted from July to September 2018, by conducting survey observations and interviewing respondents in Kapuas district, Pulang Pisau district, Katingan district, Gunung Mas district, and Palangka Raya city. There are a total of 14 species found from swamp areas, namely Singkah enyuh (Cocos nucifera), Singkah undus (Elaeis guineensis), Singkah hambie (Metroxylon sagu), singkah uwei (Calamus sp), Taya (Nauclea sp), Ujau (Bambusa sp), Bajei (Diplazium esculentum), Bakung (Crinum asiaticum), Kalakai (Stenochlaena palustris), Kujang (Colocasia esculenta), Uru mahamen (Neptunia olearecea), Pucuk teratai (Nymphae sp), Genjer (Limnocharis flava), dan Kangkung danum (Ipomoea aquatica). The benefits of local vegetables aside from being a food source that has the potential as a drug, pesticides, bioethanol and various other industrial materials. The majority of respondents aged over 40 years prefer vegetables (local) and food types were soup, while middle age (16-40 years) and young (under 16 years) can adapt to vegetables from outside and a new menu from outside Kalimantan. Factors for choosing the types of vegetables to be consumed are more influenced by taste reasons (54-86%), followed by habits (32-47%) and benefits for health (39-40%).

In recent years, the demand for organic products has increased on the world market, including environmentally friendly and healthy beekeeping bioproducts. Organic beekeeping currently exists in 60 countries around the world. In our country, there are vast territories for creating apiaries of a new topical direction. These territories are located north of the Trans-Siberian Railway from the right bank of the Irtysh to the left bank of the Ob - these are the Vasyugan swamps. Administratively, Vasyuganye unites the Omsk, Tomsk, and Novosibirsk regions. This territory is located in the wind rose, where the air masses of cities with industrial gases bypass it. Therefore, bee products collected by bees do not contain harmful elements. At present almost no one lives here and does not engage in agriculture. As a result of a survey of the natural forage base of the Vasyugan swamps, the authors discovered the most important honey plants and perganos. These are common coltsfoot, soft fluffy lungwort, marsh marigold, medicinal dandelion, late dandelion, Asian bathing suit, willows, warty birch, fluffy birch, ivy-like budra, bird cherry, white clover, black currant, yellow acacia, Siberian snakehead, chistets swamp, forest kupyr, mouse peas, thin-leaved peas, meadow geranium, forest geranium, forest raspberry, dissected cow parsnip, forest angelica, common goutweed, wild parsnip, common serpukha, field bodyak. Thus, this area is a rich pasture for bees. The authors recommend sowing wastelands with yellow sweet clover (Melilotus officinalis L.) and white sweet clover (Melilotus albus Medik.) if it is expedient to organize apiaries in Vasyuganye. This area will always be well visited by bees and provide honey collection from 5 to 10 kg per day for several years.

The study undertakes to solve the problem of obtaining reliable seismic data in swampy areas. Raw hydrocarbon deposits in the North of Perm Krai are a promising asset, but their geological survey is constrained due to problematic surface conditions. Seismic exploration is the most detailed and reliable remote method of geological subsurface studies, but any state-of-the-art seismic 3D survey requires covering a much larger surface area than an actual area of a targeted subsurface survey. Swamps tend to strongly attenuate seismic waves, thus complicate a further geological interpretation of obtained data, and significantly limit the choice of engineering tools and techniques of surveying. Also it is impossible to avoid the influence of hard surface conditions in territories extending over hundreds of square kilometers. In order to explore the possibility of obtaining high-quality data in such conditions, we offer a comprehensive pilot survey using various recording and seismic wave excitation facilities. We analyzed and explored the possibility of solving this problem by using advanced seismic exploration methods. The study looks into the technology of obtaining primary data and into the stage of information processing for its further geological interpretation. This is the first time that Geoton seismic pulse source and GSONE high-sensitivity seismic receivers have been used for these purposes. According to the findings, there is an obvious advantage of using the blast over pulse source, especially in the swamp bed itself. At the same time, Geoton proved to be highly eco-friendly and safe, which makes it possible to use it in seismic exploration works of inhabited areas. The results of processing the pilot survey data show that the single seismic receivers produce wave patterns with the best quality and accuracy. The paper offers the seismic exploration techniques in swampy conditions and in territories that have increased requirements to environmental protection and safety.

The dearth of animal protein in Nigeria and the need for environmental friendly animal protein productionnecessitates the use of edible insects as an alternative protein source. To ensure the sustainability of edible insects, a cost-effective captive method of rearing needs to be devised. This study was designed to investigate alternative culture media for rearing African palm weevil Rhynchophorus phoenicis under captive management. One hundred and sixty eight palm weevils collected from ‘Mgbo swamp’ in Ebenebe town, Anambra State, were used for the study. The larvae were randomly assigned to eight different culture media (coconut fibre, coconut fibre with palm wine, sawdust of mahogany, sawdust of mahogany with palm wine, palm frond petiole, palm bunch midrib, sugarcanetops (SCT), spoilt watermelon (SWM)). Survivability, growth performance in terms of weight gain and increasein linear body measurements (within 10 weeks) as well as pupation of the larvae (within 35-40 days after the first 10 weeks) were monitored and used as indices of the suitability of each of the culture media. The result showedthat the larva thrived better in SWM and SCT but failed to pupate in SWM. The statistical analysis of the growth performance showed a significant difference (P<0.05) in weight gain in favour of larvae reared in SWM. Numericalvalues for larvae reared in SWM were 8.933±0.1764 and 7.433±0.66 g, respectively. There was no significantdifference (P>0.05) for the linear body measurement: 4.80±0.230 cm body length increases and 1.1±0.058 cm for body width increases for larvae on SWM, while those on SCT recorded 4.183±0.0601 cm body length increasesand 1.033±0.033 cm body width increases. Cocoon formation and pupation was not observed in the larva in the SWM in the 40-day period of observation

(ID) Indonesia memiliki persentase area rawa dan gambut yang sangat besar. Kurang lebih 30% lahan di Indonesia adalah daerah rawa/gambut. Di Pulau Sumatera, Provinsi dengan lahan gambut terluas yaitu Provinsi Riau dengan luas ± 4, 04 juta Ha atau 56, 1% dari luas total lahan gambut di Sumatera. Siak merupakan salah satu kabupaten di Riau yang memiliki daerah gambut yang cukup luas. Keberadaan daerah gambut ini menyebabkan pengembangan infrastruktur di Desa Suak Merambai menjadi terhambat karena tingkat kesulitan yang tinggi dalam proses konstruksi di daerah rawa. Beberapa metode perbaikan tanah telah diterapkan pada tanah gambut berupa perbaikan tanah secara fisik, mekanis maupun kimia. Salah satu metode perbaikan tanah yang mulai berkembang saat ini adalah Bio Grouting. Bio Grouting telah dikembangkan sebagai teknologi perbaikan tanah baru yang sistem kerjanya seperti semen pada beton sehingga mampu mengikat partikel tanah melalui bantuan aktivitas biologi. Bio Grouting ini dapat meningkatkan sifat mekanik (kekuatan, kekakuan, kohesi, gesekan), menurunkan permeabilitas bahan berpori, memperkuat atau memperbaiki dan memodifikasi sifat fisik dan mekanik tanah. Sistem kerja Bio Grouting adalah pengendapan Calcite oleh induksi microbiology, microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), yang dilakukan oleh bakteri penghasil enzim urease. Teknik microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) / Bio Grouting ini akan coba diterapkan pada tanah gambut sehingga dapat memperbaiki sifat permeabilitas dari tanah gambut. Melalui penelitian ini diharapkan permasalahan kontruksi diatas tanah gambut dapat diminimalisir dan menjadi salah satu solusi yang ramah lingkungan yang bisa membantu pengembangan infrastruktur di Desa Suak Merambai Kecamatan Bungaraya Kabupaten Siak Provinsi Riau. (EN) Indonesia has a very large percentage of swamp and peat area. About 30% of the land in Indonesia is swamp / peat. On the island of Sumatra, the province with the most extensive peatlands is Riau Province with an area of ​​± 4, 04 million Ha or 56.1% of the total area of ​​peatlands in Sumatra. Siak is one of the regencies in Riau which has quite extensive peat areas. The existence of this peat area causes the development of infrastructure in the Village of Suak Merambai to be hampered due to the high level of difficulty in the construction process in the swampy area. Several soil improvement methods have been applied to peat soils in the form of physical, mechanical or chemical soil improvements. One method of soil improvement that is starting to develop now is Bio Grouting. Bio Grouting has been developed as a new soil improvement technology that works like cement on concrete so that it can bind soil particles through the help of biological activities. Bio Grouting can improve mechanical properties (strength, stiffness, cohesion, friction), reduce permeability of porous materials, strengthen or improve and modify the physical and mechanical properties of the soil. The work system of Bio Grouting is the deposition of Calcite by induction of microbiology, microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP), which is carried out by the bacteria producing the urease enzyme. This microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP) / Bio Grouting technique will try to be applied to peat so as to improve the permeability of peat soil. Through this research, it is expected that construction problems on peatlands can be minimized and become one of the environmentally friendly solutions that can help infrastructure development in Suak Merambai Village, Bungaraya District, Siak Regency, Riau Province.

<p>Pengembangan hortikultura di lahan rawa merupakan salah satu cara untuk meningkatkan produksi pangan nasional, mengatasi masalah gizi, dan kesejahteraan petani. Untuk mencapai tujuan yang diharapkan maka diperlukan strategi pengembangan hortikultura di lahan lawa. Tujuan penelitian adalah untuk mengidentifikasi faktor-faktor internal dan eksternal yang berpengaruh terhadap pengembangan buah/sayur dan merumuskan strategi pengembangan hortikultura di lahan rawa. Penelitian dilakukan di lokasi SERASI, yaitu di Kecamatan Muara Telang, Banyuasin, Sumatra Selatan. Data yang digunakan adalah data primer yang diperoleh melalui wawancara 81 orang responden dan Focus Group Discussion (FGD) dengan 18 orang stakeholder. Metode analisis yang digunakan adalah Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) dan Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa prioritas tujuan dalam pengembangan hortikultura di lahan rawa adalah peningkatan produksi dan keragaman produk yang dapat dicapai melalui strategi pemberdayaan petani dan penerapan teknologi ramah lingkungan dengan menjalin sinergi antaraktor yang paling berperan dalam mencapai tujuan tersebut. Langkah operasional untuk mencapai tujuan ini pada tahap awal pembangunan model adalah dengan memprioritaskan langkah operasional yang memiliki ranking tertinggi, yaitu: (1) penerapan teknologi inovasi hortikultura melalui demplot, (2) sinergi antara teknologi inovasi hortikultura dengan pengalaman petani, dan (3) mengkoordinir kelompok tani dalam penetapan pola tanam. </p><p><strong>Keywords</strong></p><p>AHP; Hortikultura; Rawa; Strategi; SWOT</p><p><strong>Abstract</strong></p><p>Horticulture development in swamps land is basically aimed at supporting programs to increase food production, fulfill nutritional needs and improve farmers’ welfare. The main objective of this study was to identify internal and external factors that influence the development of fruit/vegetables and formulate horticultural development strategies in swamp lands. The study was carried out in Muara Telang District, Banyuasin, South Sumatra. The data used are primary data obtained through interviews with 81 respondents and FGD with 18 stakeholders. A combined SWOT and AHP was used to analyze data. The results showed that the priority goals in the development of horticulture in swamps land are increased production and produce diversity that can be achieved through farmer empowerment strategies and the application of environmentally friendly technology. Therefore, it requires synergies between actors who have an important role in achieving these goals. The operational steps to achieve these goals in the early stages of model development are to prioritize activities that have the highest ranking, namely: (1) disseminating/applying horticultural innovation technologies through demonstration plots, (2) building synergies between horticultural innovation technology and farmer experience, and (3) coordinating farmer groups to determine cropping pattern. </p>

The article investigates the contribution of Anatoliy Petrovych Aleksandrov (1903-1994) to the study of the Dnipro rapids. Biographical and comparative methods were used during writing this article. The rapids of river Dnipro occupy a prominent place in the history and culture of Ukraine. And because of this, they are constantly attract attention to themselves, even after their flooding.Researchers of the Dnipro try to fully reproduce the picture of a river as much as possible. But it seems that the experience of A.P. Aleksandrov have not been studied yet. A.P. Aleksandrov lived a bright and extraordinary life. He became an outstanding physicist and renowned scientist in the field of atomic energy. His achievements were highly praised by his contemporaries, who elected a scientist as president of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1975-1986). In the study of his biographies, the main focus is on the scientific and technical aspects of it.Besides that, a fun and exciting scientist's hobby is beyond the detailed research – boat trips along the Dnipro river. Especially often he rested this way during living in Kiev (1903-1930 years). In the 1920's A.P. Aleksandrov had very busy life: he taught physics and chemistry at the labor school №79 (1923-1930), studied at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Kyiv People's University (1924-1930), conducted scientific research at the Kyiv X-ray Institute, falsified in the electro-technical bureau at a physical-chemical school club, etc. Still, he somehow managed to combine good with pleasure and had a chance to rest on the bank of Dnipro river on his lovely boat every summer. At first – near Kiev, and later – on the Dnipro rapids themselves. According to Aleksandrovs memories and documents from the archive of the Institute of Manuscripts of the National Library of Ukraine named after V.I. Vernads'kyy, we managed to establish that the scientist visited the rapids of Dnipro every summer during four years before it was flooded. At first, probably in 1926, he went to rapids with only one friend. They wanted to see them and, if possible, go down through them. In 1927-1929 as a photographer, he participated in the expedition of A.S. Synyavs'kyy, who was to explore the rapids before flooding. In 1927 the expedition shot a film about the rapids and the Dnipro hydroelectric power station. The expedition was held in the summer of 1930, but without Anatoliy Petrovych. In August 1930 he participated in the First All-Union Congress of Physicists in Odessa and later he moved to Leningrad. During the first trip to the rapids, A.P. Aleksandrov and his friend almost drowned at the Kodats'kyy rapids. Fortunately, friends quickly learned how to swim between granite rocks. At the same time, they not only went down the flow with a boat, but also rose against it. In historical studies, the ability to swim bottom-up dipper rapids up until recently was considered a very controversial issue. Ya.R. Dashkevych writes that in the annotation to the map of Lithuania Makovs'kyy-Radzyvil (1613) it is said that Dmytro Vyshnevets'kyy (about 1517 - 1563/1564) managed to reach the Cherkasy through the rapids (that is, from the bottom up). French engineer Hiyom Levaser de Boplan in his memories of the second half of the seventeenth century also wrote about his personal trip through the rapids of the Dnipro against the flow. O.S. Afanas'yev-Chuzhbyns'kyy in 1861 and Ya.P. Novyts'kyy in 1905, after personal visits to the rapids and communication with local pilots and fishermen, came to the conclusion that it was not possible to overcome the rapids against the flow. A.Kh. Lerberh in 1819 and Ya.R. Dashkevych in 2007 assumed that it was still possible. In 2000, the last pilot of the Dnipro rapids H.M. Omel'chenko (1911-2002) wrote very confidently that he and his father repeatedly swam across the rapids of the Dnipro from below upwards. Memoirs of A.P. Aleksandrov, published in 2002, greatly facilitate the above discussion. Unlike all his predecessors, he describes in detail the technique of swimming through the rapids from the bottom up and its rationale. The point is that the flow does not always flow down the rapids. By stones, it flows up with approximately the same force as it was before it was down. So to swim from the bottom up to the rapids, you need to swim through one of the stones (there flows flow from below upwards), gaining there some sort of a speed boost and cross the strip of ordinary flow to the next stone (up to 2 meters), and so on. So, the memoirs of A.P. Aleksandrova allows a significant advance in the many-year historical debate about the possibility of swimming on the rapids of the Dnipro against the flow. However, they do not prove that all evidence of such a voyage is true. In the long run, the author plans to test the methodology of the scientist in practice and expand the base of historical sources on swimming the rapids. He will also try to find photos and movies that were created in 1927-1929 with the participation of A.P. Aleksandrova.

The population circulation network is an important matter regarding the modes of transportation and mobility of the population owned by a city. If this network is bad, it will lead to decreased access for pedestrians, waste of motor vehicle fuel, and worsening of the level of air quality in the city. The Swamp Crocodile area is an area that has many modes of transportation. However, this mode of transportation is not well organized, creating congestion points in this area. The concept of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) was created as a solution for sustainable urban development in terms of transportation that focuses on circulation and accessibility. The TOD concept is very suitable to be applied to terminals in the city of Jakarta, which have criteria for using TOD-based terminals. This Transit Oriented Development (TOD) area will help people in the city of Jakarta, especially the Rawa Buaya area, West Jakarta to create a pedestrian-friendly mode of transportation that can connect areas in this area. The design method used is based on existing precedents and will take direct examples of user experiences from several successful transportation hubs. This design is expected to increase public interest in using public transportation and help reduce congestion in the city. Keywords: accessibility; transportation hub; transit oriented development; Rawa Buaya Abstrak Jaringan sirkulasi penduduk adalah hal penting yang menyangkut moda transportasi dan mobilitas penduduk yang dimiliki suatu kota. Bila jaringan ini buruk, akan menyebabkan menurunnya akses bagi pejalan kaki, pemborosan bahan bakar kendaraan bermotor, serta memburuknya tingkat kualitas udara dalam kota. Daerah Rawa Buaya merupakan daerah yang terdapat banyak moda transportasi. Tetapi, moda transportasi ini kurang tertata dengan baik sehingga menciptakan titik kemacetan pada kawasan ini. Konsep Transit Oriented Development (TOD) diciptakan sebagai salah satu solusi pembangunan kota yang sustainable dalam hal transportasi yang berfokus pada sirkulasi dan aksesibilitas. Konsep TOD ini sangatlah cocok untuk diterapkan untuk terminal yang ada di kota Jakarta, yang memiliki kriteria untuk menggunakan terminal berbasis TOD. Kawasan Transit Oriented Development (TOD) ini akan membantu masyarakat dalam kota Jakarta khususnya daerah Rawa Buaya, Jakarta Barat untuk menciptakan moda transportasi yang ramah pejalan kaki dan dapat menghubungkan wilayah-wilayah pada kawasan ini. Metode desain yang digunakan berdasarkan preseden yang sudah ada akan mengambil contoh langsung pengalaman pengguna dari beberapa pusat transportasi yang sudah berhasil. Perancangan desain pusat transportasi ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan minat masyarakat untuk menggunakan transportasi umum dan membantu mengurangi kemacetan dalam kota.

Topicality. The urgency of the problem of greening and development of export opportunities of Ukrainian producers today is growing due to the need to adapt to changes in the European Green Deal, as well as the need for environmental modernization, which creates new opportunities for export and prevents the negative impact of non-tariff environmental restrictions. Ensuring environmental modernization of production are key and relevant factors for sustainable development and competitiveness of enterprises, the basis for successful international cooperation. Aim and tasks. The purpose of the article is to develop theoretical and practical proposals that should justify the principles of greening the economy and the mechanism of their practical implementation at the enterprise level in terms of association with the EU. The proposed measures of ecological modernization of enterprises can be implemented at almost any export-oriented enterprise. Research results. In terms of environmental efficiency, Ukraine ranks 60th in the world. The structure of capital investments in environmental protection by types of environmental measures and types of economic activity where ecological modernization is taking place in Ukraine is determined. The changes due to the introduction of the European Green Course, as well as the consequences for Ukrainian exporters are outlined. A number of measures have been proposed at the enterprise level that will eliminate the risk of restricting access of Ukrainian goods to the EU market due to new "climate" non-tariff barriers to trade, including: reducing the use of non-renewable energy sources, transition to more energy and resource-efficient technologies. technologies that create a smaller carbon footprint, increase attention to the environmental characteristics of goods and services, active participation in the standardization process in accordance with international standards, introduce into production practices technical regulations harmonized with EU standards, entering the EU public procurement market with "green" goods Conclusion. The basis for the development of exports by Ukrainian enterprises is further integration into the EU market, which leads to increasing dependence of Ukrainian producers on the greening of the economy of the common European market. In anticipation of the introduction of new non-tariff environmental barriers to SWAM in the framework of the association with the EU in 2023, Ukrainian exporters must already adapt to these requirements. Prospects for future research in the field of greening of export industries are related to the mechanisms of transition to environmentally friendly industries and finding adequate to the economic situation sources of funding for environmental modernization of Ukraine's economy.

The second volume of Atna comes to you with our humble efforts to enrich tourism literature in India. We are delighted with the overwhelming response to the I volume from distinguished readers across India and abroad. Inspired by the constructive comments to the I volume, the second volume of Atna continue to incorporate articles on diverse areas of tourism such as sustainable tourism, heritage, medical tourism, cruises, cuisines, education, aviation etc. Raiesh N Ragde and Maduri T Sawant in their article on 'Proficiency of Foreign Languages : A study of the approved tourist guides of Aurangabad Region' state that, most of the tourist guides engaged in tourism business do not have proficiency of foreign languages, resulting in lack of appreciation of their role and responsibilities. Nedelea and Babu P George presents a case study of sustainable tourism development in Eastern Europe. This article points to the problems faced by hospitality and tourism industry in Romania and force the tourism sector to contemplate on the approaches towards sustainable tourism development. Strategies for sustainable eco-tourism by Maduri T Sawant examines the overall development of tourism and suggests strategies for sustainable tourism development. Sindhu Joseph critically analyses the potential and present stage of development of Bekal beach resort in Kerala in her article 'Special tourism Area- a critical study of Bekal.' 'Management of Eco-tourism sites: A case study of Aianta Ellora caves' by Raiesh N Ragde and Maduri Sawant highlights that the heritage contributes to the richness of any landscape and can attract innumerable tourists looking for cultural experiences in eco-friendly environment. Prospects of developing Medical tourism in India authored by Binoy T A draws attention to the pivotal role of medical tourism and calls for coordinated promotional strategies to develop medical tourism. Paramita Suklabaidya explores the potential of cruises as tourism product and the reasons for its growing popularity worldwide in her article 'New Age Tourism Product: The Cruise Industry - the Fastest growing Tourism Sector'. Gastronomy tourism can be a pull factor for many tourism market segments and the role of Gastronomy Tourism in promoting Jharkhand as a Tourist Destination is beautifully presented by Mohinder Chand, Ashish Dahiya and Lata S Patil. Issues of effective teaching and learning in tourism education by Toney K. Thomas reviews and evaluates the effectiveness of the application of skills in the industry. Joby Thomas and P. Pakkerappa in their article highlight the crucial role of HRD in airline industry to cope UP with the challenges of advancement in technology, changing market scenario, industry restructuring and more competitive business environment. To demonstrate the techniques of implementing intrapreneurship with examples from the tourism industry a case of Southwest Airlines of USA, is presented by Jyothirmoy Ghosh and Anianeya Swamy, and portrays how the intrapreneurship principles are applied effectively in tourism sector. On behalf of the editorial board I extend sincere gratitude to all the authors for contributing their scholarly articles to Atna. We look forward to the support, guidance and encouragement of academicians, researchers, professionals and well wishers of tourism and hospitality sector in our future endeavours. Joby Thomas Executive Editor

Pondasi Kalang pada Rumah Tradisional Banjar adalah pondasi yang sudah digunakan selama ratusan tahun di kawasan tanah rawa di Banjarmasin dan sekitarnya, merupakan pondasi yang sudah teruji kekuatan dan ketahanannya selama ratusan tahun. Sebagai suatu jenis pondasi yang sudah teruji oleh waktu, beban dan cuaca, sistem struktur pondasi rumah tradisional Banjar tersebut merupakan obyek struktur yang sangat berharga untuk dikaji lebih mendalam tentang kekuatan, efisiensi dan efektifitasnya. Untuk mengkaji kekuatan dan ketahanannya dilakukan melalui identifikasi pondasi tersebut dari literatur dan survey lapangan, serta perhitungan terhadap beban dan tegangan yang terjadi pada rumah model dibandingkan dengan beban dan tegangan maksimal. Hasil analisis menunjukkan bahwa pondasi Kalang terdiri dari elemen Tihang, Tongkat, Sunduk dan Kalang, dimana 3 bahan yang pertama terbuat dari kayu ulin (Eusideroxylon Zwageri) yang tahan terhadap iklim dan cuaca, sedangkan Kalang terbuat dari kayu kapurnaga (Calophyllum Soulattri) atau galam (Melaleuca Leucadendron), namun ditempatkan selalu di bawah air tanah terendah sehingga terhindar dari pelapukan. Tihang dan Tongkat sangat kuat, dimana kuat tekan dan kuat tekuknya jauh melebihi beban yang bekerja padanya. Sunduk memiliki ketahanan dan kekuatan dalam menahan beban yang bekerja padanya, dimana hal ini ditunjukkan oleh tegangan lentur, tegangan geser dan tegangan tumpunya yang cukup jauh di bawah tegangan izinnya. Daya dukung pondasi kalang galam/ kapurnaga lebih besar dari beban yang bekerja padanya, kecuali pada Tihang koordinat 15-W dan 17-W yang melebihi daya dukung dengan selisih yang relatif kecil sebesar 1,06 kg. Karenanya pondasi kalang dapat menghindari penurunan struktur atau badan bangunan. ECO FRIENDLY FOUNDATIONS IN SWAMP LAND: STUDY OF STRENGTH AND RESISTANCE OF KALANG FOUNDATIONS OF TRADITIONAL BANJAR HOUSESThe Kalang Foundation of the Banjar Traditional House is a foundation that has been used for hundreds of years in the swampy area of Banjarmasin and its surroundings. A foundation that has been tested for strength and durability for hundreds of years. But currently not used anymore. As a type of foundation tested by time, load, and weather, the traditional Banjar house foundation structure system is a valuable structural object to be studied more deeply in its strength, efficiency, and effectiveness. It is done to assess its strength and durability by identifying the foundation from literature and field surveys, as well as calculating the loads and stresses that occur in the model house compared to the maximum load and stress. The analysis results show that the Kalang foundation consists of elements of Tihang, Tongkat, Sunduk, and Kalang, where the first three materials are made from ulin wood (Eusideroxylon Zwageri) which is resistant to climate and weather. In contrast, the Kalang is made of kapurnaga (Calophyllum Soulattri) or galam (Melaleuca Leucadendron) but is always placed under the lowest groundwater so as to avoid weathering. Tihang and Tongkat are very strong, and their compressive and flexural strength far exceeds the load acting on them. Sunduk has resistance and strength to withstand the loads acting on it, which is indicated by the bending stress, shear stress, and bearing stress far below the allowable stress. The bearing capacity of the kalang galam/kapurnaga foundation is greater than the load acting on it, except for Tihang coordinates 15-W and 17-W, which exceeds the bearing capacity by a relatively small difference of 1.06 kg. Because of this, the foundation can prevent the lowering of the structure or body of the building.

Инкрустация – такой вид предпосевной обработки семенного материала, при котором на поверхность семян наносится жидкий состав на основе водного раствора. В растворе содержатся защитные вещества: фунгициды, бактерициды, инсектициды, различные микро- и макроудобрения, стимуляторы роста, нейтральные красители, клеящие вещества. Такой способ обработки семян обеспечивает качественное покрытие семян, получение дружных всходов. Цель исследований – изучить возможность комбинирования препаратов для предпосевной подготовки и их дозировки при инкрустации семян моркови столовой. Работа проведена в 2013–2014 годах на полях ВНИИО – филиала ФГБНУ ФНЦО (Раменский район Московской области) на неорошаемых старопахотных торфяно-болотных почвах Москворецкой поймы. Объект исследований – перспективные линии (690П и 690В) моркови столовой. Варианты опыта: 1. Максим 480, КС (1,0 л/т) + Круйзер 600, КС (10,0 л/т); 2. Максим 480, КС (1,0 л/т) + Круйзер 600, КС (10,0 л/т) + Изабион (3,0 л/т); 3. Максим 480, КС (10 л/т); 4. Максим 480, КС (1,0 л/т) + Форс, МКС (16,5 л/т) + Изабион (3,0 л/т); 5. Без обработки (контроль). Инкрустация семян снижала их лабораторную всхожесть, однако в полевых условиях оболочка с препаратами защиты создавала более благоприятные условия для роста и развития моркови столовой. В среднем за годы исследований наилучшим оказался вариант инкрустации семян препаратами в дозах Максим 480, КС (1,0 л/т) + Круйзер 600, КС 10,0 (л/т) + Изабион (3,0 л/т). Урожайность на этом варианте при обработке семян линии 690В составила 61,50 т/га стандартных корнеплодов, общая урожайность – 79,86 т/га. Этот вариант также был лучшим и на обработке семян линии 690П: урожайность корнеплодов составила 71,36 т/га, из которых 56,64 т/га стандартных. При этом включение в состав оболочки фунгицида Максим способствовало снижению количества больных корнеплодов в общем урожае. Inlay is a type of pre-sowing treatment of seed material, in which a liquid composition based on an aqueous solution is applied to the surface of the seeds. The solution contains protective substances: fungicides, bactericides, insecticides, various micro- and macro-fertilizers, growth stimulants, neutral dyes, adhesives. This method of seed treatment provides high-quality seed coating, obtaining friendly shoots. The purpose of the research is to study the possibility of combining preparations for pre-sowing preparation and their dosage when inlaying carrot seeds in the dining room. The work was carried out in 2013–2014 in the fields of the ARRIVG – branch of FSBSI FSVC (Ramensky district of the Moscow region) on non-irrigated old-arable peat-swamp soils of the Moskvoretsky floodplain. The object of research is perspective lines (690P and 690B) of canteen carrots. Experience options: 1. Maxim 480, SC (1.0 l/t) + Cruizer 600, SC (10.0 l/t), 2. Maxim 480, SC (1.0 l/t) + Cruizer 600, SC (10.0 l/t) + Isabion (3.0 l/t), 3. Maxim 480, CS (10 l/t), 4. Maxim 480, CS (1.0 l/t) + Force, MS (16.5 l/t) + Isabion (3.0 l/t), 5. Without treatment (control). Seed encrustation reduced the laboratory germination of seeds, but in the field, the shell with protective preparations created more favorable conditions for the growth and development of table carrots. The best option on average over the years of research turned out to be the option of inlaying seeds with preparations in doses of Maxim 480, SC (1.0 l/t) + Cruizer 600, CS 10.0 (l/t) + Isabion (3.0 l/t). The yield on this variant was 61.50 t/ha of standard root crops when processing seeds of the 690V line, the total yield was 79.86 t/ha. This option was also the best for seed treatment of the 690P line: the yield of root crops was 71.36 t/ha, of which 56.64 t/ha were standard. At the same time, the inclusion of the fungicide Maxim in the shell contributed to a decrease in the number of diseased root crops in the total harvest.

Man is a social animal, and thus live in society with family, friends and other human beings. To live in this world, one needs to live with certain rules, principles, and good behaviour, so as to form a best system of life, “dharma” was established. India being a land of yoga for thousands of years, pratice of yoga is been carried out by thousands of sages, in which they have achieved the supreme power. By self experiences these sages (yogis) gave the world plenty of literature, like Vedas, Upanishads, Yoga Sutra etc. These scriptures came from the sages penance, deep knowledge and self experiences. So these all Indian Scriptures are very valuable, with the essence of truth. Sage Patanjali in yoga sutra, classifies yoga into eight steps and at the end of which highest aim of human life, is attained which is, of achieving divine body, and dissolving one’s self into the ultimate supreme divine energy. From the eight steps of yoga, the first two steps are very important, which are yamas and niyamas, without which no one can move a step ahead. Yamas and niyamas play a very important role in yoga seeker’s life, as well as for all human beings. There are five golden rules in eachyamas and niyamas. Five yamas are non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy and nonpossessiveness. And the five niyamas are purity, contentment, self-study, worship of god and austerity. Yamas play necessary role in social religion, as they are the principles to follow with all human beings. Celibacy is of prime importance in socialreligion, as it is avery strong code for yogi to reach ultimat goal of divine body. Yama are moral restraints and niyamas are moral observnces. So both these play a strong role for all human beings.Sanatan Dharma mentions about four parts of life, in which first is Bramcharyashram, Gruhasthashram, Vanprasthashram and Sanyastashram. At first place comes Bramcharyashram, in which comes celibate students. So this is a great arrangment, which builds up character, There is no means equal to celibacy.

Nai-Talim, eco-friendly technology, Energy Service Groups Abstract: - The objective of the paper is to elucidate the role of sustainable and eco-friendly technologies and thinking for the future development for Indians hyperbole of sustainable development is not necessary. it is just integrate& conscious living in the knowledge that all is Brahman. From Vedic seers to Buddha and Swami Vivekanand and through all the educational pioneers like Swami Sharddhananda of Gurukul kangri, Shri Aurbindo of Bengal national college, Gurudev Ravindra Nath Tagore ofSanti Niketan and Sri Niketan founder of Jamia Millia and Mahatma Gandhi the same thread is easily visible, even though emphasis varies on constituent components because of the predilection and context of the vision of the founder.

This paper describes the feasibility study, detailed design and construction of the 27 km long sea-crossing Temburong Bridge (now called Sultan Haji Omar Ali Saifuddien Bridge) in Brunei, which comprises two cable-stayed navigation bridges, 14 km of marine viaducts and 12 km of swamp viaducts. The design and innovative environmentally friendly construction techniques for the marine and swamp viaducts and the unique Islamic architectural design of the cable-stayed bridges are presented.

Hamzah et al, 2018. Empirical Study on the Pattern of Funding Sources for Rice Farming in South Sumatra. JLSO 7(2): The objective of the study was to identify the source and size of the financing portion of the rice farming from the loan and the terms and the interest rate charged. The interviews were conducted on 75 samples of rice farmers whose farming costs were partly derived from loans at three different land ecosystems in South Sumatra Province. The three types of ecosystems viz., tidal swamp land, technical irrigation, and swamp land were used in the study. The results showed that there were seven financing sources that farmers used for fulfill their production cost if they not enough capital. Middlemen was biggest source with a portion of 45.28% and their own costs of 43.52, the rest is relatively small comes from money lenders, families, rice milling units, cooperative and friends. The interest rate charged varies from 3% to 50% per planting season. The lowest interest rate on lending money was to cooperatives and middlemen. However, if farmers borrow from middlemen, they must sell their rice to them. The highest interest rate from money lenders is 50%. All loans were being paid at after harvested time. Only borrow to families and friends were not charged interest and other terms. Farmers were forced to use non-formal lending institutions because banks located far away and they were afraid to come to the bank. It is suggested to reduce the dependence of rice farmers on non-formal lending institutions through developing a more effective agricultural cooperative.

Kerala has made significant contribution to Ayurvedic literature. The traditional medical knowledge, gained from years of critical observations and clinical experiences has been documented by the great physicians. The medical literature of Kerala can be classified as, commentaries of the original texts as well as independent works based on these texts, compilation works by details of Oushada yogas and Kriyakramas from the Vaidyas. The text book of regional literature are rich source of information’s like formulations and treatment modalities based on geographical, climatic and cultural situations of various regions, based on their thoughts and lifestyle. The text Arogya chandrika athava kudumba vaidyan written by Sri Swami Sachidananda is an important work both from medical and poetic merits. The book was written in Malayalam language because it is specially meant for the native physicians of Kerala. It is a user– friendly text for the guidance of students and physicians. The uniqueness of the text is that it has mentioned simple and potential treatments for common diseases. The text is enriched with grammatical styles like Vritha. The text addresses the preventive as well as curative concept of Ayurvedic thoughts. Arogya chandrika athava kudumba vaidyan can be considered as an important contribution from Kerala’s regional literature to the Ayurveda community. The present paper is to critically analyze the subject matter of the text Arogya chandrika athava kudumba vaidyan. This will definitely enrich the literary data base of Ayurveda.

Innovative recreation services, such as non-traditional camps, can help provide diverse youth a chance to engage in physical activity, develop healthy relational skills, and meet others. Twenty-two participants took part in a new, 1-week triathlon camp held on a Mid-Atlantic University campus. Participants were recruited through local parks and recreation agencies and local youth running clubs. Scholarships were given to participants who expressed financial challenges through a USA Triathlon Youth Grant. The 1-week day camp took place on a college campus. The camp served the surrounding neighborhoods, which was accurately represented in the camper demographic (i.e., half the campers were youth of color). During the week, the campers swam, biked, ran, rock climbed, and participated in other multi-sport activities to help develop proper form and skills for triathlon. As guided by the USAT Splash, Spin, Sprint Camp manual, campers participated in daily swimming, cycling, running, and other related exercises. In addition, the camp included traditional camp activities such as indoor rock climbing, participation on a challenge course, and crafts. Eighty percent of the campers indicated they now want to do a triathlon, and 95% shared that they will tell their friends about the sport of triathlon. Using the practitioner-friendly American Camp Association’s Youth Outcomes Battery, campers indicated gains in competence, teamwork, and problem-solving confidence. The findings of this evaluation study provide evidence-based support for the potential of triathlon camp to enhance important developmental outcomes. The results from the evaluation support the desired outcomes for this type of camp, and with USA Triathlon support, other recreation services can use this model to replicate. A unique aspect of this program was its setting and participant composition. That is, this day camp, hosted in an urban area, had a diverse group of campers with youth from various ethnic and sport backgrounds. Over half (60%) of the campers were of color, providing evaluation data from often underrepresented groups of interest. This program evaluation provides a template for other camps on campus model to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion of our youth. Currently, there is only one African American female professional triathlon in the United States. We need to be more intentional offering unique programs (e.g., triathlon camps and nonprofits) to all youth. Grants can be pursued by camps, municipal parks and recreation, nonprofits to remove some of the financial barriers preventing many youth of color from exploring the sport of triathlon.

Cabbage caterpillars can attack all stages of plant growth in the vegetative and generative phases. In the concept of integrated pest control, the use of chemical insecticides is the last alternative, so an environmentally friendly control technology is needed. Swampland has the potential of plants that can be extracted as active ingredients for pest control. The results of the literature study showed that there were several types of potential wetland plants that contained the active ingredient of hydrocarbon derivative compounds which were effective in controlling Plutella, but of the 13 types of plants, a study was conducted on their effectiveness in controlling Pluttela xylostella larvae is very necessary. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of various types of wetland plants as effective botanical insecticides in controlling Pluttela xylostella on a laboratory scale. The results showed that there were 13 types of swamp plants that could be effective botanical insecticides in controlling Pluttela xylostella. The mortality of Pluttela xylostella larvae at 48 hours of observation was high in the treatment of plant extracts of Piper sarmentosum, Tithonia diversifolia, and Ziziphus spina-christi with a percentage of 68%. Therefore, it is necessary to conserve these wild plants so that these plants do not become extinct.

Abstract Introduction Today’s digital world has surplus educational resources for the students. Medical curriculum has changed the traditional way of teaching to audio-visual methods. Learning anatomy has changed from cadaveric dissection to specimen models, life models and three-dimensional models, which has raised questions as to whether cadaver dissection should be continued. Multimodel Approach Computer software with 3-D models is a useful tool for the beginners (Silen et al., 2008). Didactic lectures provide easy steps to be followed during dissection. Body paintings explain the surface anatomy in an appropriate way. Online videos are user friendly and personalized, so that one could review them repeatedly. Finally, live demonstration in theatre explains the structures and relations, with the flaws of only limited students benefited Pros Cadaver dissection creates interest to explore and learn detailed anatomy, to gain everlasting knowledge blending the theoretical knowledge with the practical and to involve in research. In addition, students develop the art of team work building their interpersonal skills. Cons Unpleasant smell of the formalin preserved cadaver, limited opportunities for everyone to learn, inadequate fund, inexperienced staff and psychological distress (Evans and Fitzgibbon, 1992). Conclusion Cadaveric dissection is a better method of learning (Winkelmann, 2007). Students understanding subjects precisely, make them better clinicians. Other teaching methods could be used as supplements. Recommendations Organize different teaching techniques helping diversity of students to learn anatomy based on their learning styles. Use of advanced technology like real time pictures, videos and imaging modalities to learn anatomy (Swamy and Searle, 2012).

Large-scale oil palm agriculture has caused deforestation in the tropics, but also degrades stream water quality and reduces aquatic biodiversity. Though the outcomes of industrial-scale oil palm plantations for biodiversity have been explored extensively, the consequences of small-scale oil palm agriculture for freshwater macroinvertebrate fauna are poorly understood. Here, we explored the impacts of small-scale oil palm agriculture on aerial adult Odonata (the dragonflies and damselflies), which, due to their inherent sensitivity to habitat degradation, represent useful indicators of wider ecosystem health. We surveyed riparian corridors of man-made waterways in natural habitats converted into agricultural lands in both peat swamp and mangrove forest, comprising a total of 60 sampling units across a region of Peninsular Malaysia where such small-scale agricultural practices are widespread. We hypothesized that physicochemical water quality of oil palm waterways together with riparian vegetation influence Odonata species richness and composition. Our results revealed that Odonata species richness increased with dissolved oxygen, water temperature and vegetation cover, but decreased with water level, pH, and total dissolved solids. Species composition was influenced by both dissolved oxygen and pH. The present study provides valuable insights into the effects of small-scale oil palm agriculture for water quality of associated aquatic habitats, and subsequent responses of adult Odonata. Therefore, smallholders should reduce the use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers to improve the conservation value of oil palm waterways for both Odonata and aquatic fauna more generally, in order to be certified as biodiversity-friendly agriculture.

It all started with a tweet. On the afternoon of 2 June 2013, Professor Geoffrey Miller, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and visiting instructor at New York University (NYU), tweeted out a message that would go on to generate a significant social media controversy. Addressing aspiring doctoral program applicants, Miller wrote:Dear obese PhD applicants: if you didn’t have the willpower to stop eating carbs, you won't have the willpower to do a dissertation #truthThe response to Miller’s tweet was swift and fiery. Social media users began engaging with him on Twitter, and in the early hours of the controversy Miller defended the tweet. When one critic described his message as “judgmental,” Miller replied that doing a dissertation is “about willpower/conscientiousness, not just smarts” (Trotter). The tweet above, now screen captured, was shared widely and debated by journalists, Fat Acceptance activists, and academic social media users. Within hours Miller had deleted the tweet and replaced it with two new ones:My sincere apologies to all for that idiotic, impulsive, and badly judged tweet. It does not reflect my true views, values, or standards andObviously my previous tweet does not represent the selection policies of any university, or my own selection criteriaHe then made his Twitter account private. The captured image, however, continued to spread. Across social media, users began to circulate a campaign that called for Miller to be formally disciplined (Trotter). There was also widespread talk about potential lawsuits from prospective students who were not selected for admission at UNM (Kirby). Indeed, the Fat Chick Sings blogger Jeanette DePatie offered her own advice to Miller: #findagoodlawyer.Soon after the controversy emerged a response appeared on UNM’s website in the form of a video statement by Professor Jane Ellen Smith, the Chair of the UNM Psychology Department. Smith reiterated that Miller’s statements did not reflect the “policies and admissions standards of UNM”. She also stated that Miller had defended his actions by claiming the tweet was part of a “research project” where he would deliberately send out provocative messages in order to measure the public response to them. This claim was met with incredulity by a number of bloggers and columnists, and was later determined to be incorrect in an Institutional Review Board inquiry at UNM, which concluded Miller’s tweets were “self-promotional” in nature. Following a formal investigation, the UNM committee found no evidence that Miller had discriminated against overweight students. It did however pass a motion of censure that included a number of restrictions, including prohibiting Miller from sitting on any graduate admission committee at UNM.The #truth about Fat PhDs?Readers may be wondering why Miller’s tweet continues to matter as I write this article in 2015. It is my belief that the tweet is important insofar as it affords an insight into the cultural scene that surrounds the fat body in higher education. The vigorous debate generated by Miller’s tweet offers researchers a diverse array of media texts that are available to help build a more comprehensive picture of fat embodiment within higher education.Looking at the tweet in the cold light of day it is difficult to imagine any logical links one might infer between a person’s carbohydrate consumption and their ability to excel in doctoral education. And there’s the rub. Of course Miller’s tweet does not represent a careful evaluation of the properties of doctoral willpower. In order to make sense of the tweet we need to understand the ways cultural assumptions about fatness operate. For decades now, researchers have documented the existence of anti-fat attitudes (Crandall & Martinez). Increasingly, scholars and Fat Acceptance activists have described a “thinness norm” that is reproduced across contemporary Western cultures, which discerns normatively slender bodies as “both healthy and beautiful” (Eller 220) and those whose bodies depart from this norm, as “socially acceptable targets for shaming and hate speech” (Eller 220). In order to be intelligible Miller’s tweet relies on a number of deeply entrenched cultural meanings attributed to fatness and fat people.The first is that body-size is primarily a matter of self-control. Although Critical Fat Studies researchers have argued for some time that body weight is determined by complex interactions between the biological and environmental, the belief that a large body size is caused by limited self-control remains prevalent. This in turn supports a host of cultural connotations, which tend to constitute fat people as “lazy, gluttonous, greedy, immoral, uncontrolled, stupid, ugly and lacking in willpower” (Farrell 4).In light of the above, Miller’s message ought to be read as a moral one. I have paraphrased its logic as such: if you [the fat doctoral student] lack the willpower to discipline your body into normatively desired slimness, you will also likely lack the strength of character required to discipline your body-mind into producing a doctoral dissertation. The sad irony here is that, if anything, the attitudes that might hamper fat students from pursuing a doctoral education would be those espoused in Miller’s own tweet. As Critical Fat Studies researchers have illuminated, the anti-fat attitudes the tweet reproduces generate challenging higher education climates for fat people to navigate (Pausé, Express Yourself 6).Indeed, while Miller’s tweet is one case that arose to media prominence, there is evidence that it sits inside a wider pattern of weight discrimination within higher education. For example, Caning and Mayer (“Obesity: Its Possible”, “Obesity: An Influence”) found that despite similar high school performances, ‘obese’ students were less likely to be accepted to elite universities, than their non-obese peers. In a more recent US-based study, Burmeister and colleagues found evidence of weight bias in graduate school admissions. In particular, they found that higher body mass index (BMI) applicants received fewer post-interview offers into psychology graduate programs than other students (920), and this relationship appeared to be stronger for female applicants (920). This picture is supported by a study by Swami and Monk, who examined weight bias against women in a hypothetical scenario about university acceptance. In this study, 198 volunteers in the UK were asked to identify the women they were most and least likely to select for a place at university. Swami and Monk found that participants were biased against fat women, a finding which the authors interpreted as evidence of broader public beliefs about body size and access to higher education.In my examination of the media scene surrounding the Miller case I observed that most commentators associated the tweet with a particular affective formation – shame. Miller’s actions were widely described as “fat-shaming” (Bennet-Smith; Ingeno; Martin; Trotter; Walsh) with Miller himself often referred to simply as the “fat-shaming professor” (King; ThinkTank). In this article I wish to consider the affective-political dimensions of Miller’s tweet, by focusing on one digital community’s response to it: Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs. In following this path I am building on the work of other researchers who have considered fat activisms and Web 2.0 (Pausé, Express Yourself); fat visual activism (Gurrieri); and the emotional politics of fat acceptance blogging (Kargbo; Bronstein).Imaging Alternatives: Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDsBy 3 June 2013 – just one day after Miller’s tweet was published – New Zealand-based academic Cat Pausé had created the Tumblr Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs. This was billed as a photo-blog about “being fatlicious in academia”. Writing on her Friend of Marilyn blog, Pausé explained the rationale behind the Tumblr:I decided that what I wanted to do was to highlight all the amazing fat individuals who are in graduate school, or have completed graduate school – to provide a visual repository … and to celebrate the amazing work being done by these rad fatties!Pausé sent out calls for participants on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook, and emailed a Fat Studies listserv. She asked submitters to send “a photo, along with their name, degree, and awarding institution” (Pausé Express Yourself, 6). Images were submitted thick and fast. Twenty-three were published in the first day of the project, and twenty in the second. At the time of writing, just over 150 images had been submitted, the most recent being November 2013.The Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs project ought to be understood as part the turn away from the textual toward the digital in fat activist movements (Kargbo). This has seen a growth in online communities that are interested in developing “counter-images in response to the fat body’s position as the abject, excluded Other of the socially acceptable body” (Kargbo 162). Examples include a multitude of Fatshion photo-blogs, Tumblrs like Exciting Fat People or the Stocky Bodies image library, which responds to the limited diversity of visual representations of fat people in the mainstream media (Gurrieri).For this article, I have read the images on the Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs Tumblr in order to gain an impression about the affective-political work accomplished by this collective of self-identified fat academic bodies. As I indicated earlier, much of the commentary following Miller’s tweet characterised it as an attempt to ‘shame’ fat doctoral students. As Elspeth Probyn has identified, shame frequently manifests itself on the body “most experiences of shame make you want to disappear, to hide away and to cover yourself” (Probyn 329). I suggest that the core work of the Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs Tumblr is to address the spectre of shame Miller’s tweet projects with visibility, rather than it’s opposite. This visibility also enables the project to proliferate a host of different ways of (feeling about) being fat and doctoral.The first image posted on the Tumblr is Pausé’s own. She is pictured smiling at the 2007 graduation ceremony where she received her own PhD, surrounded by fellow graduates in academic regalia. Her image is followed by many others, mostly white women, who attest to the academic attainments of fat individuals. My first impression as I scrolled through the Tumblr was to note that many of the images (51) referenced scenes of graduation, where subjects wore robes, caps or posed with higher degree certificates. Many more were the kinds of photographs that one might expect to be taken at an academic event. Together, these images attest to the viability of the living, breathing doctoral body - a particularly relevant response given Miller’s tweet. This work to legitimate the fat doctoral body was also accomplished through the submission of two historical photographs of Albert Einstein, a figure who is neither living nor breathing, but highly unlikely to be described as lacking academic ability or willpower.As I read through the Tumblr subsequent times, I noticed that many of the submitters offered images that challenge stereotypical representations of the fat body. As a number of writers have noted, fat people tend to be visually represented as “solitary, lonely figures whose expressions are downcast and dejected” (Gurrieri 202). That is if they aren’t already decapitated in the visual convention of the “headless fatty” used across news media (Kargbo 160). Like the Stocky Bodies project, the Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs Tumblr facilitated a more diverse and less pathologising representation of fat (doctoral) embodiment.Across the images there is little evidence of the downcast eyes of shame and dejection that Miller’s tweet seems to invite of aspiring fat doctoral candidates. Scrolling through the Tumblr one encounters images of fat people singing, swimming, creating art, playing sport, smoking, smiling, dressing up, and making music. A number of images (12) emphasise the social nature of fat doctoral life, by picturing multiple subjects at once, some holding hands, others posing with colleagues, loved ones, and a puppy. Another category of submissions took a playful stance vis-à-vis some representational conventions of imaging fatness. Where portrayals of the fat body from side or rear angles, or images of fat people eating and drinking typically code an affective scene of disgust (Gurrieri), a number of images on the Tumblr appear to reinscribe these scenes with new meaning. Viewers are offered pictures of smiling and contented fat graduates unashamed to eat and drink, or be represented from ‘unflattering’ angles.Furthermore, a number of images offered alternatives to the conventional representation of the fat subject as ugly and sexually unattractive by posing in glamorous shots bubbling with allure and desire. In one memorable picture, blogger and educator Virgie Tovar is snapped wearing a “sex instructor” badge and laughs while holding two sex toys.Reading across the images it becomes clear that the Tumblr offers a powerful response to the visual convention of representing the solitary, lonely fat person. Rather than presenting isolated fat doctoral students the act of holding the images together generates a sense of fat higher education community, as Kargbo notes:A single image posted online amidst vast Internet ephemera is just a fleeting document of a moment in a stranger’s life. But in the plural, as one scrolls through hundreds of images eager to hit the ‘next’ button for what will be a repetition of the same, the image takes on a new function: it becomes an insistent testament to the liveness of fat embodiment in the present. (164)Obesity Timebomb blogger Charlotte Cooper (2013) commented on the significance of the project: “It is pretty amazing to see the names and faces as I scroll through Fuck yeah! Fat PhDs. Many of us are friends and collaborators and the site represents a new community of power.”Concluding Thoughts: Fat Embodiment and Higher Education CulturesThis article has examined a cultural event that that saw the figure of the fat doctoral student rise to international media prominence in 2013. I have argued that while Miller’s tweet can be read as illustrative of the affective scene of shame that surrounds the fat body in higher education, the images offered by the Fuck Yeah! photo submitters work to re-negotiate implication in social discourses of abjection. Indeed, the images assert that alternative ways of feeling about being fat and doctoral remain viable. Fat students can be contented, ambivalent, sultry, pissed off, passionate and proud – and Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs provides submitters with a platform to perform a wide array of these affects. This is not to say that shame is shut out of the project, or the lives of submitters’ altogether. Instead, I am suggesting that the Tumblr generates a more open field of possibilities, providing “a space for re-imagining new forms of attachments and identifications.” (Kargbo 171). Critics might argue that this Tumblr is not particularly novel when set in the context of a range of fat photo-blogs that have sprung up across the Internet in recent years. I would argue, however, that when we consider the kinds of questions Fuck Yeah! Fat PhDs might ask of university cultures, and the prompts it offers to higher education researchers, the Tumblr can be seen to make an important contribution. I am in agreement with Kargbo (2013) when she argues that fat photo-blogs “have the potential to alter the conditions of visual reception and perception”. That is, through their “codes and conventions, styles of lighting and modes of address, photographs literally show us how to relate to another person” (Singer 602). When read together, the Fuck Yeah! images insist that a different kind of relationship to fat PhDs is possible, one that exceeds the shaming visible in Miller’s tweet. Ultimately then, the Tumblr is a call to take fat doctoral students seriously, not as problems in need of fixing, but as a diverse group of scholars who make important contributions to the academy and beyond.I would like to use the occasion of concluding this article to call for further conversations about fat embodiment and higher education cultures. The area is significantly under-researched, with higher education scholars largely failing to engage with the material and affective experiences of fat embodiment. Indeed, I would argue that if nothing else, this paper has demonstrated that public scenes of knowledge creation have done a much more comprehensive job of analysing the intersection of ‘fat + university’ than academic books and articles to date. While not offering an exhaustive sketch, I would like to gesture toward some areas that might contribute to a future research agenda. For example, researchers might begin to approach the experience of living, working and studying as a fat person in the contemporary university. Such research might examine whose body the university is imagined and designed for, as well as the campus climate experienced by fat individuals. Researchers might consider how body size could become a part of broader conversations about embodiment and privilege in higher education, alongside race, ability, gender identity, and other categories of social difference.Thinking about the intersection of ‘fat + university’ would also involve tracing possibilities. For example, what role do university campuses play as spaces of fat activism and solidarity? And, what is the contribution made by Critical Fat Studies as a newly established interdisciplinary field of inquiry?Taken together, I hope the questions I have raised in this article demonstrate that the intersection of ‘fat’ and higher education cultures represents a rich and valuable area that warrants further inquiry.ReferencesBennet-Smith, Meredith. “Geoffrey Miller, Visiting NYU Professor, Slammed for Fat-Shaming Obese PhD Candidates.” 6 Apr. 2013. The Huffington Post. ‹http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/04/geoffrey-miller-fat-shaming-nyu-phd_n_3385641.html›.Bronstein, Carolyn. “Fat Acceptance Blogging, Female Bodies and the Politics of Emotion.” Feral Feminisms 3 (2015): 106-118. Burmeister, Jacob, Allison Kiefner, Robert Carels, and Dara Mushner-Eizenman. “Weight Bias in Graduate School Admissions.” Obesity 21 (2013): 918-920.Canning, Helen, and Jean Mayer. “Obesity: Its Possible Effect on College Acceptance.” The New England Journal of Medicine 275 (1966): 1172-1174. Canning, Helen, and Jean Mayer. “Obesity: An Influence on High School Performance.” The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 20 (1967): 352-354. Cooper, Charlotte. “The Curious Case of Dr. Miller and His Tweet.” Obesity Timebomb 4 June 2013. ‹http://obesitytimebomb.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-curious-case-of-dr-miller-and-his.html›.Crandall, Christian, and Rebecca Martinez. “Culture, Ideology, and Antifat Attitudes.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 22 (1996): 1165-1176.DePatie, Jeanette. “Dear Dr. Terrible Your Bigotry Is Showing...” The Fat Chick Sings 2 June 2013. ‹http://fatchicksings.com/2013/06/02/dear-dr-terrible-your-bigotry-is-showing/›.Eller, G.M. “On Fat Oppression.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 24 (2014): 219-245. Farrell, Amy. Fat Shame: Stigma and the Fat Body in American Culture. New York: NYU Press, 2011. Gurrieri, Lauren. “Stocky Bodies: Fat Visual Activism.” Fat Studies 2 (2013): 197-209. Ingeno, Lauren. “Fat-Shaming in Academe.” Inside Higher Ed 4 June 2013. Kargbo, Majida. “Toward a New Relationality: Digital Photography, Shame, and the Fat Subject.” Fat Studies 2 (2013): 160-172.King, Barbara. “The Fat-Shaming Professor: A Twitter-Fueled Firestorm.” Cosmos & Culture 13.7 (2013) Kirby, Marianne. “How Not to Twitter: Dr. Geoffrey Miller's 140 Fat-Hating Characters of Infamy.” XoJane 5 June 2013. ‹http://www.xojane.com/issues/professor-geoffrey-miller›.Martin, Adam. “NYU Professor Immediately Regrets Fat-Shaming Potential Students.” New York Magazine June 2013. ‹http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/06/nyu-professor-immediately-regrets-fat-shaming.html›.Pausé, Cat. “On That Tweet – Fat Discrimination in the Education Sector.” Friend of Marilyn 5 June 2013. ‹http://friendofmarilyn.com/2013/06/05/on-that-tweet-fat-discrimination-in-the-education-sector/›.Pausé, Cat. “Express Yourself: Fat Activism in the Web 2.0 Age.” The Politics of Size: Perspectives from the Fat-Acceptance Movement. Ed. Ragen Chastain. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2015. 1-8. Probyn, Elspeth. “Everyday Shame.” Cultural Studies 18.2-3 (2004): 328-349. Singer, T. Benjamin. “From the Medical Gaze to Sublime Mutations: The Ethics of (Re)viewing Non-Normative Body Images.” The Transgender Studies Reader. Eds. Susan Stryker and Stephen Whittle. New York: Routledge, 2013. 601-620. Swami, Viren, and Rachael Monk. “Weight Bias against Women in a University Acceptance Scenario.” Journal of General Psychology 140.1 (2013): 45-56.Sword, Helen. “The Writer’s Diet.” ‹http://writersdiet.com/WT.php?home›.ThinkTank. “'Fat Shaming Professor' Gives RIDICULOUS Excuse – Check This Out (Update).” ThinkTank 8 July 2013. ‹https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Ey9TkG18-o›.Trotter, J.K. “How Twitter Schooled an NYU Professor about Fat-Shaming.” The Atlantic Wire 2013. ‹http://www.thewire.com/national/2013/06/how-twitter-schooled-nyu-professor-about-fat-shaming/65833/›.Walsh, Michael. “NYU Visiting Professor Insults the Obese Ph.D.s with ‘Impulsive’ Tweet.” New York Daily News 2013.

Tanjung Leban Village, Bukit Batu District, Bengkalis Regency, Riau Province is a village included in the Rokan-Siak Kecil River Peat Hydrology Unit. The existence of this village is very strategic in maintaining the peat swamp ecosystem because its area is included in the Giam Siak Kecil-Bukit Batu Biosphere Reserve area (GSK-BB). But his condition today is quite alarming because it is included in an area prone to repeated land and forest fires. Departing from the above problems, the author wants to raise the focus of the research problem on efforts to develop community potential in peatland management. This study aims to analyze the development of community potential in peatland management in Tanjung Leban Village. This research is a qualitative descriptive study with a sampling technique used is snowball sampling. Research informants are all stakeholders involved and responsible for peatland management. Data collection is done by interviewing, observing, and studying documentation. After the data is collected then it is analyzed using qualitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that the fundamental problem related to environmental management at the study site was the threat of land and forest degradation due to the use of peatland ecosystems that had not been integrated. Therefore it is important to have an empowerment effort with the main goal of improving the quality of life of the community, this is because community empowerment is believed to be able to motivate to change for the better so as to improve the socioeconomic of the family, foster a work culture, and foster a passion for cooperation in development. The programs that are needed by people who live around peatlands are environmental education, the application of environmentally friendly technologies, and the socialization of regulations relating to the protection of ecosystems.

IntroductionNew Orleans is one of a number of infamous swamp cities—cities built in swamps, near them or on land “reclaimed” from them, such as London, Paris, Venice, Boston, Chicago, Washington, Petersburg, and Perth. New Orleans seemed to be winning the battle against the swamps until Hurricane Katrina of 2005, or at least participating in an uneasy truce between its unviable location and the forces of the weather to the point that the former was forgotten until the latter intruded as a stark reminder of its history and geography. Around the name “Katrina” a whole series of events and images congregate, including those of photographer Robert Polidori in his monumental book, After the Flood. Katrina, and the exacerbating factors of global warming and drained wetlands, and their impacts, especially on the city of New Orleans (both its infrastructure and residents), point to the cultural construction and production of the disaster. This suite of occurrences is a salutary instance of the difficulties of trying to maintain a hard and fast divide between nature and culture (Hirst and Woolley 23; Giblett, Body 16–17) and the need to think and live them together (Giblett, People and Places). A hurricane is in some sense a natural event, but in the age of global warming it is also a cultural occurrence; a flood produced by a river breaking its banks is a natural event, but a flood caused by breeched levees and drained wetlands is a cultural occurrence; people dying is a natural event, but people dying by drowning in a large and iconic American city created by drainage of wetlands is a cultural disaster of urban planning and relief logistics; and a city set in a swamp is natural and cultural, with the cultural usually antithetical to the natural. “Katrina” is a salutary instance of the cultural and natural operating together in and as “one single catastrophe” of history, as Benjamin (392) put it, and of geography I would add in the will to fill, drain, or reclaim wetlands. Rather than a series of catastrophes proceeding one after the other through history, Benjamin's (392) “Angel of History” sees one single catastrophe of history. This single catastrophe, however, occurs not only in time, in history, but also in space, in a place, in geography. The “Angel of Geography” sees one single catastrophe of geography of wetlands dredged, filled, and reclaimed, cities set in them and cities being re-reclaimed by them in storms and floods. In the case of “Katrina,” the catastrophe of history and geography is tied up with the creation, destruction, and recreation of New Orleans in its swampy location on the Mississippi delta.New OrleansNew Orleans is not only “the nation’s quintessential river city” as Kelman (199) puts it, but also one of a number of infamous swamp cities. In his post-Katrina preface to his study of New Orleans as what he calls “an unnatural metropolis,” Colten notes:While other cities have occupied wetlands, few have the combination of poorly-drained and flood-susceptible territory of New Orleans. Portions of Washington, D.C. occupied wetlands, but there was ample solid ground above the reach of the Potomac [River’s] worst floods. Chicago’s founders platted their city on a wetland site, but the sluggish Chicago River did not drain the massive territory of the Mississippi. (5)“Occupied” is arguably a euphemism for dredging, draining, filling, and reclaiming wetlands. Occupation also conjures up visions of an occupying army, which may be appropriate in the case of New Orleans as the Army Corps of Engineers have spearheaded much of the militarisation by dredging and draining wetlands in New Orleans and elsewhere in the U.S.The location for the city was not propitious. Wilson describes how “the city itself was constructed on an uneven patch of relatively high ground in the midst of a vast swamp” (86). New Orleans for Kelman “is surrounded by a wet world composed of terrain that is not quite land” (22) with the Mississippi River delta on one side and Lake Pontchartrain and the “backswamps” on the other, though the latter were later drained. The Mississippi River for Kelman is “the continent’s most famed and largest watercourse” (199). Perhaps it is also the continent’s most tamed and leveed watercourse. Earlier Kelman related how a prominent local commentator in 1847 “personified the Mississippi as a nurturing mother” because the river “hugged New Orleans to its ‘broad bosom’” (79). Supposedly this mother was the benign, malign, and patriarchal Mother Nature of the leveed river and not the recalcitrant, matrifocal Great Goddess of the swamps that threatened to break the levees and flood the city (see Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands; People and Places, especially Chapter 1). The Mississippi as the mother of all American rivers gave birth to the city of New Orleans at her “mouth,” or more precisely at the other end of her anatomy with the wetland delta as womb. Because of its location at the “mouth” of the Mississippi River, New Orleans for Flint was “historically the most important port in the United States” (230). Yet by the late 1860s the river was seen by New Orleanians, Kelman argues, only as “an alimentary canal, filled with raw waste and decaying animal carcasses” (124). The “mouth” of the river had ceased to be womb and had become anus; the delta had ceased to be womb and had become bowel. The living body of the earth was dying. The river, Kelman concludes, was “not sublime” and had become “an interstate highway” (146). The Angel of Geography sees the single catastrophe of wetlands enacted in the ways in which the earth is figured in a politics of spaces and places. Ascribing the qualities of one place to another to valorise one place and denigrate another and to figure one pejoratively or euphemistically (as in this case) is “placist” (Giblett, Landscapes 8 and 36). Deconstructing and decolonising placism and its use of such figures can lead to a more eco-friendly figuration of spaces and places. New Orleans is one place to do so.What Colten calls “the swampy mire behind New Orleans” was drained in the first 40 years of the twentieth century (46). Colten concludes that, “by the 1930s, drainage and landfilling efforts had successfully reclaimed wetland between the city and the lake, and in the post-war years similar campaigns dewatered marshlands for tract housing eastward and westward from the city” (140–1). For Wilson “much of New Orleans’s history can be seen as a continuing battle with the swamp” (86). New Orleans was a frontline in the modern war against wetlands, the kind of war that Fascists such as Mussolini liked to fight because they were so easy to win (see Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands 115). Many campaigns were fought against wetlands using the modern weapons of monstrous dredgers. The city had struck what Kelman calls “a Faustian bargain with the levees-only policy” (168). In other words, it had sold its soul to the devil of modern industrial technology in exchange for temporary power. New Orleans tried to dominate wetlands with the ironic result that not only “efforts to drain the city dominate early New Orleans history into the present day” as Wilson (86) puts it, but also that these efforts occasionally failed with devastating results. The city became dominated by the waters it had sought to dominate in an irony of history and geography not lost on the student of wetlands. Katrina was the means that reversed the domination of wetlands by the city. Flint argues that “Katrina’s wake-up call made it unconscionable to keep building on fragile coastlines […] and in floodplains” (232–3). And in swamps, I would add. Colten “traces the public’s abandonment of the belief that the city is no place for a swamp” (163). The city is also no place for the artificial swamp of the aftermath of Katrina depicted by Polidori. As the history of New Orleans attests, the swamp is no place for a city in the first place when it is being built, and the city is no place for a swamp in the second place when it is being ravaged by a hurricane and storm surges. City is antithetical and inimical to swamp. They are mutually exclusive. New Orleans for Wilson is “a city on a swamp” (90 my emphasis). In the 1927 flood (Wilson 111), for Kelman “one of the worst flood years in history” (157), and in the 2005 hurricane, the worst flood year so far in its history, New Orleans was transformed into a city of a swamp. The 1927 flood was at the time, and as Kelman puts it, “the worst ‘natural’ disaster in U.S. history” (161), only to be surpassed by the 2005 flood in New Orleans and the 2012 floods in north-eastern U.S. in the wake of Superstorm Sandy in which the drained marshlands of New York and New Jersey returned with a vengeance. In all these cases the swamp outside the city, or before the city, came into the city, became now. The swamp in the past returned in the present; the absent swamp asserted its presence. The historical barriers between city and swamp were removed. KatrinaKatrina for Kelman (xviii) was not a natural disaster. Katrina produced “water […] out of place” (Kelman x). In other words, and in Mary Douglas’s terms for whom dirt is matter out of place (Douglas 2), this water was dirt. It was not merely that the water was dirty in colour or composition but that the water was in the wrong place, in the buildings and streets, and not behind levees, as Polidori graphically illustrates in his photographs. Bodies were also out of place with “corpses floating in dirty water” (Kelman x) (though Polidori does not photograph these, unlike Dean Sewell in Aceh in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami in what I call an Orientalist pornography of death (Giblett, Landscapes 158)). Dead bodies became dirt: visible, smelly, water-logged. Colten argues that “human actions […] make an extreme event into a disaster […]. The extreme event that became a disaster was not just the result of Katrina but the product of three centuries of urbanization in a precarious site” (xix). Yet Katrina was not only the product of three centuries of urbanisation of New Orleans’ precarious and precious watershed, but also the product of three centuries of American urbanisation of the precarious and precious airshed through pollution with greenhouse gases.The watery geographical location of New Orleans, its history of drainage and levee-building, the fossil-fuel dependence of modern industrial capitalist economies, poor relief efforts and the storm combined to produce the perfect disaster of Katrina. Land, water, and air were mixed in an artificial quaking zone of elements not in their normal places, a feral quaking zone of the elements of air, earth and water that had been in the native quaking zone of swamps now ran amok in a watery wasteland (see Giblett, Landscapes especially Chapter 1). Water was on the land and in the air. In the beginning God, when created the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos moved over the face of the waters, and the earth was without form and void in the geographical location of a native quaking zone. In the ending, when humans are recreating the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos move over the face of the waters, and the earth is without form and void in the the geographical location and catastrophe of a feral quaking zone. Humans were thrown into this maelstrom where they quaked in fear and survived or died. Humans are now recreating the city of New Orleans in the aftermath of “Katrina.” In the beginning of the history of the city, humans created the city; from the disastrous destruction of some cities, humans are recreating the city.It is difficult to make sense of “Katrina.” Smith relates that, “as well as killing some 1500 people, the bill for the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans […] was US$200 billion, making it the most costly disaster in American history,” more than “9/11” (303; see also Flint 230). A whole series of events and images congregate around the name “Katrina,” including those of photographer Robert Polidori in his book of photographs, After the Flood, with its overtones of divine punishment for human sin as with the biblical flood (Coogan et al. Genesis, Chapters 6–7). The flood returns the earth to the beginning when God created heaven and earth, when “the earth was without form and darkness moved […] upon the face of the waters” (Coogan et al. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 2)—God's first, and arguably best, work (Giblett, Postmodern Wetlands 142–143; Canadian Wetlands “Preface”). The single catastrophe of history and geography begins here and now in the act of creation on the first day and in dividing land from water as God also did on the second day (Coogan et al. Genesis Chapter 1, Verse 7)—God’s second, and arguably second best, work. New Orleans began in the chaos of land and water. This chaos recurs in later disasters, such as “Katrina,” which merely repeat the creation and catastrophe of the beginning in the eternal recurrence of the same. New Orleans developed by dividing land from water and is periodically flooded by the division ceasing to be returning the city to its, and the, beginning but this time inflected as a human-made “swamp,” a feral quaking zone (Giblett, Landscapes Chapter 1). Catastrophe and creativity are locked together from the beginning. The creation of the world as wetland and the separation of land and water was a catastrophic action on God's part. Its repetition in the draining or filling of wetlands is a catastrophic event for the heavens and earth, and humans, as is the unseparation of land and water in floods. What Muecke calls the rhetoric of “natural disaster” (259, 263) looms large in accounts of “Katrina.” In an escalating scale of hyperbole, “Katrina” for Brinkley was a “natural disaster” (5, 60, 77), “the worst natural disaster in modern U.S. history” (62), “the biggest natural disaster in recent American history” (273), and “the worst natural disaster in modern American history” (331). Yet a hurricane in and by itself is not a disaster. It is a natural event. Perhaps all that could simply be said is that “Katrina was one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in U.S. history” (Brinkley 73). Yet to be recorded in U.S. history “Katrina” had to be more than just a storm. It had also to be more than merely what Muecke calls an “oceanic disaster” (259) out to sea. It had to have made land-fall, and it had to have had human impact. It was not merely an event in the history of weather patterns in the U.S. For Brinkley “the hurricane disaster was followed by the flood disaster, which was followed by human disasters” (249). These three disasters for Brinkley add up to “the overall disaster, the sinking of New Orleans, [which] was a man-made disaster, resulting from poorly designed and managed levees and floodwalls” (426). The result was that for Brinkley “the man-made misery was worse than the storm” (597). The flood and the misery amount to what Brinkley calls “the Great Deluge [which] was a disaster that the country brought on itself” (619). The storm could also be seen as a disaster that the country brought on itself through the use of fossil fuels. The overall disaster comprising the hurricane the flood, the sinking city and its drowning or displaced inhabitants was preceded and made possible by the disasters of dredging wetlands and of global warming. Brinkley cites the work of Kerry Emanuel and concludes that “global warming makes bad hurricanes worse” (74). Draining wetlands also makes bad hurricanes worse as “miles of coastal wetlands could reduce hurricane storm surges by over three or four feet” (Brinkley 10). Miles of coastal wetlands, however, had been destroyed. Brinkley relates that “nearly one million acres of buffering wetlands in southern Louisiana disappeared between 1990 and 2005” (9). They “disappeared” as the result, not of some sort of sleight of hand or mega-conjuring trick, nor of erosion from sea-intrusion (though that contributed), but of deliberate human practice. Brinkley relates how “too many Americans saw these swamps and coastal wetlands as wastelands” (9). Wastelands needed to be redeemed into enclave estates of condos and strip developments. In a historical irony that is not lost on students of wetlands and their history, destroying wetlands can create the wasteland of flooded cities and a single catastrophe of history and geography, such as New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.In searching for a trope to explain these events Brinkley turns to the tried and true figure of the monster, usually feminised, and “Katrina” is no exception. For him, “Hurricane Katrina had been a palpable monster, an alien beast” (Brinkley xiv), “a monstrous hurricane” (72), “a monster hurricane” (115), and “the monster storm” (Brinkley 453 and Flint 230). A monster, according to The Concise Oxford Dictionary (Allen 768), is: (a) “an imaginary creature, usually large and frightening, composed of incongruous elements; or (b) a large or ugly or misshapen animal or thing.” Katrina was not imaginary, though it or she was and has been imagined in a number of ways, including as a monster. “She” was certainly large and frightening. “She” was composed of the elements of air and water. These may be incongruous elements in the normal course of events but not for a hurricane. “She” certainly caused ugliness and misshapenness to those caught in her wake of havoc, but aerial photographs show her to be a perfectly shaped hurricane, albeit with a deep and destructive throat imaginable as an orally sadistic monster. ConclusionNew Orleans, as Kelman writes in his post-Katrina preface, “has a horrible disaster history” (xii) in the sense that it has a history of horrible disasters. It also has a horrible history of the single disaster of its swampy location. Rather than “a chain of events that appears before us,” “the Angel of History” for Benjamin “sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage upon wreckage” (392). Rather than a series of disasters of the founding, drainage, disease, death, floods, hurricanes, etc. that mark the history of New Orleans, the Angel of History sees a single, catastrophic history, not just of New Orleans but preceding and post-dating it. This catastrophic history and geography began in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, darkness and chaos moved over the face of the waters, the earth was without form and void, and when God divided the land from the water, and is ending in industrial capitalism and its technologies, weather, climate, cities, floods, rivers, and wetlands intertwining and inter-relating together as entities and agents. Rather than a series of acts and sites of creativity and destruction that appear before us, the Angel of Geography sees one single process and place which keeps (re)creating order out of chaos and chaos out of order. This geography and history began at the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, and the wetland, and divided land from water, and continues when and as humans drain(ed) wetlands, create(d) cities, destroy(ed) cites, rebuilt/d cities and rehabilitate(d) wetlands. “Katrina” is a salutary instance of the cultural and natural operating together in the one single catastrophe and creativity of divine and human history and geography.ReferencesAllen, Robert. The Concise Oxford Dictionary. 8th ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.Benjamin, Walter. “On the Concept of History.” Selected Writings Volume 4: 1938–1940. Eds. Howard Eiland and Michael W. Jennings. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2003. 389–400.Brinkley, Douglas. The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. New York: William Morrow, 2006.Colten, Craig. An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 2006.Coogan, Michael, Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, eds. The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha. 4th ed. New York: Oxford UP, 2010.Douglas, Mary. Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London: Routledge, 1966.Flint, Anthony. This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 2006.Giblett, Rod. Postmodern Wetlands: Culture, History, Ecology. Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 1996.———. The Body of Nature and Culture. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.———. Landscapes of Culture and Nature. Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.———. People and Places of Nature and Culture. Bristol: Intellect Books, 2011.———. Canadian Wetlands: Place and People. Bristol: Intellect Books, forthcoming 2014.Hirst, Paul, and Penny Woolley. “The Social Formation and Maintenance of Human Attributes.” Social Relations and Human Attributes. London: Tavistock, 1982. 23–31.Kelman, Ari. A River and its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans. Berkeley: U of California P, 2006.Muecke, Stephen. “Hurricane Katrina and the Rhetoric of Natural Disasters.” Fresh Water: New Perspectives on Water in Australia. Eds. Emily Potter, Alison Mackinnon, Stephen McKenzie and Jennifer McKay. Carlton: Melbourne UP, 2005. 259–71.Polidori, Robert. After the Flood. Göttingen: Steidl, 2006.Smith, P.D. City: A Guidebook for the Urban Age. London: Bloomsbury, 2012.Wilson, Anthony. Shadow and Shelter: The Swamp in Southern Culture. Jackson: UP of Mississippi, 2006.

The old “Is the glass half empty or half full?” question does more than just illustrate a person’s proclivity for pessimism or for optimism. It alerts us to the possibility that the same real world phenomena may be interpreted in entirely different ways, with very real consequences. It is this notion that I apply to the way fat sex and thin sex are conceptualised in the larger social consciousness. While sexual, romantic and/or intimate acts between people where at least one individual is fat (Fat Sex) are deemed atypical, abnormal, fetishistic and even abusive (Saguy qtd. in Swami & Tovee 90; Schur qtd. in Prohaska 271; Gailey 119), such encounters between able-bodied individuals who are thin or of average weight (Thin Sex) are deemed normal and desirable. I argue in this article that this discrepancy in how we label and treat fat and thin sexuality is unjustified because the two domains are more similar than distinct. Given their similarity we should treat similar aspects of both domains in the same way, i.e. either as normal, or as fetishistic based on relevant criteria rather than body size. I also argue that fat prejudice and thin privilege underlie this discrepancy in modern western society. I finally conclude that this causes significant personal and social harm to both fat and thin individuals.Fat Sex – The Fetishized NormalHanne Blank, in writing of her foray into publishing body positive material exploring fat sexuality, speaks of the need for spaces that acknowledge the vitality and diversity of fat sex; not in fetishistic and pornographic portrayals of Big Beautiful Women offering themselves up as an object of desire but reflecting the desires and sexual experiences of fat people themselves (10). If there are a 100 million people in America who are obese according to BMI standards, she argues, they represent a whole array of body sizes and a lot of sexual activity, which she describes as follows:Fat people have sex. Sweet, tender, luscious sex. Sweaty, feral, sheet-ripping sex. Shivery, jiggly, gasping sex. Sentimental, slow, face-cradling sex. Even as you read these words, there are fat people out there somewhere joyously getting their freak on. Not only that, but fat people are falling in love, having hook-ups, being crushed-out, putting on sexy lingerie, being the objects of other people’s lust, flirting, primping before hot dates, melting a little as they read romantic notes from their sweeties, seducing and being seduced, and having shuddering, toe-curling orgasms that are as big as they are. It’s only natural. (15)Such normalcy and diverse expression, however, is not usually portrayed in popular media, nor even in much scholarly research. Apart from body positive spaces carved out by the fat acceptance movement online and the research of fat studies scholars, which, contextualises fat sexuality as healthy and exciting, in “the majority of scholarship on this topic, fat women’s sexual behaviors are never the result of women’s agency, are always the result of their objectification, and are never healthy” (Prohaska 271).This interpretation of fat sexuality, the assumptions associated with it and the reinforcement of these attitudes have much to do with the pervasiveness of fat prejudice in society today. One study estimates that the prevalence of weight based discrimination in the US increased by 66% between 1996 and 2006 (Andreyeva, Puhl and Brownell) and is now comparable to gender and race based discrimination (Puhl, Andreyeva and Brownell). This is not an isolated trend. An anthropological study analysing the globalisation of notions of fat being unhealthy and a marker of personal and social failing suggests that we have on our hands a rapidly homogenising global stigma associated with fat (Brewis, Wutich and Rodriguez-Soto), a climate of discrimination leading many fat people to what Goffman describes as a spoiled identity (3).Negative stereotypes affecting fat sexuality are established and perpetuated through a process of discursive constraint (Cordell and Ronai 30-31). “’No man will ever love you,’ Weinstein’s grandmother informs her (Weinstein, prologue), simultaneously offering her a negative category to define herself by and trying to coerce her into losing weight – literally constraining the discourse that Weinstein may apply to herself.Discursive constraint is created not only by individuals reinforcing cultural mores but also by overt and covert messages embedded in social consciousness: “fat people are unattractive”, “fat is ugly”, “fat people are asexual”, “fat sex is a fetish”, “no normal person can be attracted to a fat person”. Portrayals of fat individuals in mainstream media consolidate these beliefs.One of the most loved fat characters of 1990s, Fat Monica from the sitcom Friends is gluttonous, ungainly (rolling around in a bean bag, jolting the sofa as she sits), undesirable (Chandler says to Ross, “I just don’t want to be stuck here all night with your fat sister!”), and desperate for sex, affection and approval from the opposite sex: “the comedic potential of Fat Monica is premised on an understanding that her body is deviant or outside the norm” (Gullage 181).In Shallow Hal, a film in which a shallow guy falls in love with the inner beauty of a fat girl, Hal (Jack Black) is shown to be attracted to Rosemary (Gwyneth Paltrow) only after he can no longer see her real fat body and her “inner beauty” is represented by a thin white blond girl. All the while, the movie draws laughs from the audience at the fat jokes and gags made at the expense of Paltrow’s character.Ashley Madison, a website for married people looking to have an affair, used the image of a scantily clad fat model in an advertisement with the tagline “Did your wife scare you last night?”, implying that infidelity is justified if you’re not attracted to your partner, and fatness precludes attraction. And a columnist from popular magazine Marie Claire wrote about Mike and Molly, a sitcom about two fat people in a relationship:Yes, I think I'd be grossed out if I had to watch two characters with rolls and rolls of fat kissing each other ... because I'd be grossed out if I had to watch them doing anything. (Kelly)It is the prevalence of these beliefs that I call the fetishisation of fat sexuality. When fat bodies are created as asexual and undesirable, it gives rise to the rhetoric that to be sexually attracted to a fat body is unnatural, therefore making any person who is attracted to a fat body a fetishist and the fat person themselves an object of fetish.The internalisation of these beliefs is not only something that actively harms the self-esteem, sexual agency & health and happiness of fat individuals (Satinsky et al.), but also those who are attracted to them. Those who internalise these beliefs about themselves may be unable to view themselves as sexual and engage with their own bodies in a pleasurable manner, or to view themselves as attractive, perhaps discounting any assertions to the contrary. In a study designed to investigate the relationship between body image and sexual health in women of size, one participant revealed:I’ve had my issues with T as far as um, believing that T is attracted to me…because of my weight, my size and the way I look. (Satinsky et al. 717)Another participant speaks of her experience masturbating and her discomfort at touching her own flesh, leading her to use a vibrator and not her hands:Like, I don’t, I don’t look down. I look at the ceiling and I try to – it’s almost like I’m trying to imagine that I was thinner. Like, imagine that my stomach was flatter or something like that, which sounds bizarre, but I guess that’s what I’m trying to do. (Satinsky et al. 719)Others stay in bad marriages because they believe they wouldn’t find anyone else (Joanisse and Synnott 55) or tolerate abuse because of their low self-esteem (Hester qtd. in Prohaska 271).Similarly, men who internalise these attitudes about fat find it easier to dehumanise and objectify fat women, believe that they’d be desperate for sex and hence an easy target for a sexual conquest, and are less deserving of consideration (Prohaska and Gailey 19).On the other hand, many men who find fat women attractive (Fat Admirers or FA’s) remain closeted because their desire is stigmatised. Many do not make their preference known to their peer group and families, nor do they publicly acknowledge the woman they are intimate with. Research suggests that FA’s draw the same amount of stigma for being with fat women and finding them attractive, as they would for themselves being fat (Goode qtd. in Prohaska and Gailey).I do not argue here that all fat individuals have spoiled identities or that all expressions of fat sexuality operate from a place of stigma and shame, but that fat sexuality exists within a wider social fabric of fat phobia, discrimination and stigmatisation. Fulfilling sexual experience must therefore be navigated within this framework. As noted, the fat acceptance movement, body positive spaces online, and fat studies scholarship help to normalise fat sexuality and function as tools for resisting stigma and fetishisation.Resisting Stigma: Creating Counter NarrativesGailey, in interviews with 36 fat-identified women, found that though 34 of them (94%) had ‘experienced a life of ridicule, body shame and numerous attempts to lose weight’ which had an adverse effect on their relationships and sex life, 26 of them reported a positive change after having ‘embodied the size acceptance ideology’ (Gailey 118).Recently, Kristin Chirico, employee of Buzzfeed, released first an article and then a video titled My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women about her relationship with her boyfriend who loves fat women, her own discomfort with her fatness and her journey in embracing size acceptance ideologies: I will let him enjoy the thing he loves without tearing it down. But more importantly, I will work to earn love from me, who is the person who will always play the hardest to get. I will flirt as hard as I can, and I will win myself back.Books such as Wann’s Fat!So?, Blank’s Big Big Love: A Sex and Relationships Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them), Chastain’s Fat: The Owner’s Manual and her blog Dances with Fat, Tovar’s Hot and Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion, as well as Substantia Jones’s fat photography project called The Adipositivity Project are some examples of fat activism, size acceptance and body positive spaces and resources. The description on Jones’s site reads:The Adipositivity Project aims to promote the acceptance of benign human size variation and encourage discussion of body politics, not by listing the merits of big people, or detailing examples of excellence (these things are easily seen all around us), but rather through a visual display of fat physicality. The sort that's normally unseen. When fat individuals create personal narratives to resist stigmatisation of fat sexuality they confront the conundrum of drawing the line between sexual empowerment and glorifying fat fetishism. To see one’s own and other fat bodies as sexual, normal and worthy of pleasure is one way to subvert this fetishism. One would also take seriously any sexual advances, seeing oneself as desirable. The line between normal expression of fat sexuality and the wide spread belief that fat sex is fetishistic is so blurred however, that it becomes difficult to differentiate between them, so it is common to ask if one is being sexual or being an object of fetish. There is also the tension between the heady sense of power in being a sexual agent, and the desire to be wanted for more than just being a fat body.Modern burlesque stage is one arena where fat bodies are being recreated as sexy and desirable, offering a unique resource to ‘fat performers and audience members who want to experience their bodies in new and affirming ways’. Because burlesque is an erotic dance form, fat women on the burlesque stage are marked as ‘sexual, without question or challenge’. The burlesque stage has a great capacity to be a space for transforming sexual identity and driving changes in audience attitudes, creating a powerful social environment that is contrary to mainstream conditions in society (Asbill 300).The founder and creative director of “Big Burlesque” and “Fat-Bottom Revue” the world’s first all-fat burlesque troupe, however, notes that when she started Big Burlesque there were a couple of “bigger” performers on the neo-burlesque circuit, but they did not specifically advocate fat liberation. ‘Fat dance is rare enough; fat exotic/erotic dance is pretty much unheard of outside of “fetish” acts that alienate rather than normalise fat bodies’ (McAllister 305).In another instance, Laura writes that to most men her weight is a problem or a fetish, constraining the potential in relationships. Speaking of BBW (Big Beautiful Women) and BHM (Big Handsome Men) websites that cater to Fat Admirers she writes:As I’ve scrolled through these sites, I’ve felt vindicated at seeing women my size as luscious pinups. But, after a while, I feel reduced to something less than a person: just a gartered thigh and the breast-flesh offered up in a corset. I want to be lusted after. I want to be wanted. But, more than this, I want to love, and be loved. I want everything that love confers: being touched, being valued and being seen.That sexual attraction might rely wholly or partly on physical attributes, however, is hardly unfamiliar, and is an increasing phenomenon in the wider culture and popular media. Of course, what counts there is being thin and maintaining the thin state!Thin Sex: The Normalised FetishUnlike the fat body, the thin body is created as beautiful, sexually attractive, successful and overwhelmingly the norm (van Amsterdam). Ours is a culture fixated on physical beauty and sex, both of which are situated in thin bodies. Sexiness is a social currency that buys popularity, social success, and increasingly wealth itself (Levy). Like fat sex, thin sex operates on the stage set by the wider cultural ideals of beauty and attractiveness and that of the burden of thin privilege. Where stigma situates fat sexuality to abnormality and fetish, thin sexuality has to deal with the pressures of conforming to and maintaining the thin state (vam Amsterdam).Thin individuals also deal with the sexualisation of their bodies, confronting the separation of their personhood from their sexuality, in a sexual objectification of women that has long been identified as harmful. Ramsey and Hoyt explore how being objectified in heterosexual relationships might be related to coercion within those relationships. Their evidence shows that women are routinely objectified, and that this objectification becomes part of the schema of how men relate to women. Such a schema results in a fracturing of women into body parts dissociated from their personhood , making it easier to engage in violence with, and feel less empathy for female partners (in cases of rape or sexual assault). (Ramsey and Hoyt) What is interesting here is the fact that though aspects of thin sexuality are recognised as fetishistic (objectification of women), thin sex is still considered normal.Thin Sex, Fat Sex and 50 Shades of OverlapThe normalisation of sexual objectification -- society for the most part being habituated to the fetishistic aspects of thin sex, can be contrasted with attitudes towards comparable aspects of fat sex. In particular, Feederism, is generally viewed within scholarly discourse (and public attitudes) as ‘a consensual activity, a fetish, a stigmatised behaviour, and abuse’ (Terry & Vassey, Hester, Bestard, Murray as qtd. in Prohaska 281). Prohaska argues that Feederism and Diet Culture are broadly similar phenomena that elicit tellingly opposing judgements. She reports that the culture of feederism (as analysed on online forums) is a mostly consensual activity, where the community vocally dissuades non-consensual activities and any methods that may cause bodily harm (268). It is mostly a community of people who discuss measures of gradual weight gain and support and encourage each other in those goals. This, she argues, is very similar in tone to what appears on weight loss websites and forums (269). She contends, however that despite these parallels ‘the same scrutiny is not given to those who are attempting to lose weight as is placed upon those who do not diet or who try to gain weight’ (269).She notes that whereas in judging feederism emphasis is on fringe behaviours, in evaluating diet culture the focus is on behaviours deemed normal and healthy while only disorders like anorexia, bulimia, and pill using are judged fringe behaviours. This disparity, she claims, is rooted in fat phobia and prejudice (270).In comparing the dating sections of feederism websites with mainstream dating sites she notes that here too the nature of ads is similar, with the only difference being that in mainstream sites the body size preference is assumed. People seeking relationships on both kinds of sites look for partners who are ‘caring, intelligent and funny’ and consider ‘mutual respect’ as key (270).This is similar to what was revealed in an article by Camille Dodero, who interviewed a number of men who identify as fat admirers and delved into the myths and realities of fat admiration. The article covers stories of stigma that FA’s have faced and continue to face because of their sexual preference, and also of internalised self-hatred that makes it difficult for fat women to take their advances seriously. The men also create BBW/BHM dating websites as more than a fetish club. They experience these online spaces as safe spaces where they can openly meet people they would be interested in just as one would on a normal/mainstream dating site. Even if most women fit the type that they are attracted to in such spaces, it does not mean that they would be attracted to all of those women, just as on match.com one would look over prospective candidates for dating and that process would include the way they look and everything else about that person.Attempting to clear up the misconception that loving fat women is a fetish, one of the interviewees says,“Steve, over there, has a type,” gesturing wanly at a stranger in a hockey jersey probably not named Steve. “I have a type, too. Mine’s just bigger. He may like skinny blondes with bangs and long legs. I like pear shapes with brown hair and green eyes. I have a type—it just happens to be fat.” Besides, people aren’t fetish objects, they’re people. “It’s not like having a thing for leather.” (Dodero 3)ConclusionAnalysis of the domains of thin and fat sex shows that both have people engaging in sexual activity and romantic and intimate relationships with each other. Both have a majority of individuals who enjoy consensual, fulfilling sex and relationships, however these practices and desires are celebrated in one domain and stigmatised in the other. Both domains also have a portion of the whole that objectifies relationship partners with immense potential for harm, whether this involves sexualisation and objectification and its related harms in thin sex, objectification of fat bodies in some BBW and BHM circles, and the fringes of feederism communities, or non-body size specific fetish acts that individuals from both domains engage in. Qualitatively, since both domains significantly overlap, it is difficult to find the justification for the fetishisation of one and the normativity of the other. It seems plausible that this can be accounted for by the privilege associated with thin bodies and the prejudice against fat.Our failure to acknowledge such fetishisation of normal fat sex and normalisation of the fetishistic aspects of thin sex creates huge potential for harm for both groups, for it not only causes the fragmentation of effort when it comes to addressing these issues but also allows for the rich vitality and diversity of “normal” fat sex to wallow in obscurity and stigma.References Andreyeva, Tatiana, Rebecca M. Puhl, and Kelly D. Brownell. "Changes in Perceived Weight Discrimination among Americans, 1995–1996 through 2004–2006." Obesity 16 (2008): 1129-1134.Asbill, D. Lacy. "'I’m Allowed to Be a Sexual Being': The Distinctive Social Conditions of the Fat Burlesque Stage." The Fat Studies Reader, eds. Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum. New York: New York UP, 2009. 299.Blank, Hanne. Big Big Love, Revised, A Sex and Relationship Guide for People of Size (and Those Who Love Them). New York: Celestial Arts, 2011.Bogart, Laura. Salon 4 Aug. 2014.Brewis, A.A., A. Wutich and I. Rodriguez-Soto. "Body Norms and Fat Stigma in Global Perspective." Current Anthropology 52 (2011): 269-276.Chirico, Kristin. My Boyfriend Loves Fat Women. 25 Feb. 2015.Cordell, Gina, and Carol Rambo Ronai. "Identity Management among Overweight Women: Narrative Resistance to Stigma." Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, eds. Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer. Transaction Publishers, 1999. 29-48. Dodero, Camille. Guys Who Like Fat Chicks. 4 May 2011.Prohaska, Ariane, and Jeannine A. Gailey. "Achieving Masculinity through Sexual Predation: The Case of Hogging." Journal of Gender Studies 19.1 (2010): 13-25.Gailey, Jeannine A. “Fat Shame to Fat Pride: Fat Women’s Sexual and Dating Experiences.” Fat Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society 1.1 (2012). Goffman, Erving. Stigma: Notes on the Management of Spoiled Identity. Englewood Cliffs, N.J: Prentice-Hall, 1963.Gullage, Amy. "Fat Monica, Fat Suits and Friends." Feminist Media Studies 14.2 (2012): 178-89. Jacqueline. "I'm The 'Scary' Model in That Awful Ashley Madison Ad." 11 July 2011. Online. 24 May 2015.Jones, Substantia. The Adipositivity Project. n.d. Kelly, M. "Should 'Fatties' Get a Room? (Even on TV?)" 2010.Levy, Ariel. "Raunch Culture." Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture. New York: Free Press, 2005. 7-45.McAllister, Heather. "Embodying Fat Liberation." The Fat Studies Reader, eds. Sondra Solovay and Esther Rothblum. New York: New York UP, 2009. 305.Prohaska, Ariane. “Help Me Get Fat! Feederism as Communal Deviance on the Internet.” Deviant Behaviour 35.4 (2014). Puhl, Rebecca M., Tatiana Andreyeva, and Kelly Brownell. "Perceptions of Weight Discrimination: Prevalence and Comparison to Race and Gender Discrimination in America." International Journal of Obesity 32 (2008): 992-1000.Ramsey, Laura R., and Tiffany Hoyt. "The Object of Desire: How Being Objectified Creates Sexual Pressure for Women in Heterosexual Relationships." Psychology of Women Quarterly (2014): 1-20.Satinsky, Sonya, et al. "'Fat Girl Complex': A Preliminary Investigation of Sexual Health and Body Image in Women of Size." Culture, Health and Sexuality: An International Journal for Research, Intervention and Care 15.6 (2013): 710-25.Swami, Viren, and Martin J. Tovee. “Big Beautiful Women: The Body Size Preferences of Male Fat Admirers.” The Journal of Sex Research 46.1 (2009): 89-86.Joanisse, Leanne, and Anthony Synnott. "Fighting Back: Reactions and Resistance to the Stigma of Obesity." Interpreting Weight: The Social Management of Fatness and Thinness, eds. Jeffery Sobal and Donna Maurer. New York: First Transaction Printing, 2013. 49-73.Van Amsterdam, Noortje. "Big Fat Inequalities, Thin Privilege: An Intersectional Perspective on 'Body Size'." European Journal of Women's Studies 20.2 (2013): 155-69.Weinstein, Rebecca Jane. “Fat Sex: The Naked Truth”. EBook, 2012.

Introduction There are many competing explanations for why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Increasingly, conspiracy theories are mainstream sites of cultural engagement (Barkun). Conspiracy theorising, then, is part of, or at least brushes up against, people’s daily sense-making practices. However, many still think of conspiracy theorising and the communities that form around them as deviant, pathological or deficient (Swami et al.). In this article, we argue that we need to shift from a model of a deficient and deviant understanding of conspiracy theorising to understand these practices as part of our everyday behavioural and social repertoires. We argue that part of this shift means attending to the sensory and felt experience of conspiracy thinking, as a bodily and affective experience, as a site of pleasure. Centring pleasure as an explanatory framework for conspiracy theorising does not foreclose other explanations. Rather we argue that pleasure operates as a broader explanatory framework within which these competing explanations can also offer insight. We do not aim to provide an empirical account of the #FreeBritney movement in this article, but instead use it as an example through which we can begin to develop pleasure as a potential explanatory framework for understanding conspiracy theorising. To argue for the centrality of ‘pleasure’ in conspiracy theories, we draw on scholarship from fandom studies to ask, “What can the ‘Free Britney’ movement tell us about the pleasures of conspiracy?” We pay particular attention to how conspiracy theorising can be understood as a site of pleasure and, at times, hope, which in turn transform conspiracy theories into ‘sticky’ cultural sites (Ahmed). The centring of pleasure as a driver of conspiracy theorising also points to possible alternative approaches to countering the affective pull of conspiracy theories. Why #FreeBritney? This article focusses on the #FreeBritney community as an example for several reasons. #FreeBritney sits outside many of the political concerns that often characterise conspiracy theories; that is, it is neither left nor right in its orientation. Additionally, #FreeBritney was initially written off as nonsense by mainstream media outlets and commentators. For example, in the first version of TikToker Abbie Richards’s viral chart that categorises conspiracy theories, #FreeBritney is in the same category as UFOs and not something that ‘actually happened’ (Richards), meaning Richards did not believe the central claim of the #FreeBritney movement, that Britney wished to end an abusive conservatorship, was real. Similar coverage was evident in other press, including by Maria Sherman for Jezebel, which describes the #FreeBritney theory as “dubiously sourced” and as “mak[ing] gargantuan assumptions about mental health without much concrete evidence” (Sherman). Despite the derision, #FreeBritney persisted, and the claims made in the initial, instigating episode of Britney’s Gram (a fan-created podcast) have been borne in court, affirmed by Spears herself, and in numerous pieces of investigative reporting (Stark and Day). The #FreeBritney Context So, how did we get to #FreeBritney? In early 2008, after a string of increasingly erratic public appearances, Britney Spears was placed into a conservatorship arrangement. Conservatorships are typically reserved for the elderly and mentally ill, or those without the capacity to care for them themselves. Spears’s conservatorship meant that she could not make any personal or financial decisions for herself. Spears’s conservatorship was overseen by her father and court-appointed lawyers who benefited financially by allegedly exploiting the arrangement (Day and Abrams). Until 2021, Spears remained under the conservatorship, while continuing to work. These working arrangements included world tours, TV appearances and a long-running Las Vegas residency where she performed a 90-100 minute show several times per week (Jacobs). Rumours marked the beginning of Spears’s conservatorship that it was an attempt to exploit Spears financially while keeping her under parental control (Jacobs). This is evidenced by her thwarted attempt to acquire legal representation, where the court ultimately ruled that she was too unwell to retain her own counsel (Coscarelli et al.). Rumours of a broader conspiracy designed to entrap Spears in the conservatorship only gained widespread traction in 2019, resulting in the birth of the #FreeBritney movement. The growth of #FreeBritney discourse can be traced to an April 2019 episode of the podcast Britney’s Gram (Barker and Babs). Britney’s Gram was initially a ‘close reading’ of Spears’s Instagram focussed on parsing her captions, images, and emoticon use. In the podcast's special ‘emergency’ episode, episode 75, titled “#FreeBritney”, the nature of the conspiracy regarding Spears’s conservatorship took shape. The ‘emergency’ episode of the podcast responded to a tip called into the Britney’s Gram hotline. The anonymous source claims to be a paralegal who worked on legal documents related to the conservatorship throughout their employment. The paralegal claims that the conservatorship is “disturbing to say the least”. The show goes on to lay out a timeline of key events that support their assertion that Spears is being kept in the conservative against her will. Their claims are supported by a ‘close reading’ of Spears’s output, including her Instagram account and her public appearances, both official and unofficial. The hosts assemble their theory from a diverse range of sources, but their iterative theory building is underscored by the hosts’ empathetic reading, “what if it were me?” Fandom and the Collective Feelings of Conspiracy The #FreeBritney movement offers an opportunity to reflect on the parallels and intersections between fandom culture and conspiracy. It also allows us to consider what contemporary fan practices might tell us about the appeal of engaging in conspiracy. While #FreeBritney as a movement has extended far beyond the reach of the Britney Spears fandom, its roots began in the everyday fan practices that are not unique to the singer's supporters. Identifying as a ‘fan’ of a celebrity, a band, television show, film franchise, or other popular cultural texts has become a mainstream activity in recent decades, moving from a more subcultural or fringe practice (Gray et al.). Fan practices often include developing a repertoire of knowledge of their chosen fandom. This repertoire allows them to conduct close readings of these ‘texts’, which include relevant images and social media content (Hills), and look for patterns, consistencies and inconsistencies — what Jason Mittell (52) calls ‘forensic fandom’. Fans also create their own paratexts drawing on their fandom-specific knowledge to create work such as fanfiction, fan videos (fanvids), blogs, dedicated social media accounts, podcasts (such as Britney’s Gram) and other texts that fans may also analyse (Geraghty). Much like engaging in conspiracy, participating in fandom is also a broad continuum in terms of commitment, and depth of engagement. Some fans are more peripheral to the fandom, casually engaged, and only broadly aware of close reading practices that may be normalised for those within the more engaged inner circle of the fandom. However, these more casual fans may also draw on and consume paratext created by more avid fans. Creators of popular and well-made paratexts can even become renowned in social media spaces within fan communities for their creations (Hills). This mirrors conspiracy thinking, where believers range from curious about the conspiracy to committed and embedded in the conspiracy community. Like fandoms, the more active participants in the conspiracy can become established and well-known in the community for disseminating information and knowledge. For example, many followers of the QAnon conspiracy receive most of their information through secondary QAnon social media influencers who interpret ‘Qdrops’ rather than interpret the cryptic message board posts themselves (Conner and MacMurray). Scholarship examining fandom and fan experiences has emphasised the key role of pleasure for fans in developing this fan expertise (McCann and Southerton). In particular, the practices of close textual reading and familiarity with the fandom's texts, symbols, and key players offer a sense of community and collective feeling. As McCann and Southerton report in their study on queer shipping among One Direction fans (when fans invest emotional energy in the relationship, the ‘ship’, between two characters or celebrities), pleasure is collective rather than individual and emerges from a sense of belonging and shared investment. While, as we have discussed, the differing levels of involvement and investment can create hierarchy, and therefore potential conflict within fandom, scholarship on fandom has argued that fans primarily take pleasure in the feeling of community, support and belonging (McCann and Southerton; Geraghty; Pearson). Fan spaces are spaces in which collective feelings can be heightened, as participants take pleasure in experiencing something that thousands of others are feeling simultaneously — whether it be in person at a concert or, increasingly, in social media communities. The pleasures of fandom also go beyond momentous occasions like a singer's album launch or a celebrity scandal. Fans can cultivate pleasure in the mundane practices of fandom by building a sense of building and momentum, by using their close reading to predict imminent events (e.g. attempting to discern what Instagram posts might be hinting that a popstar is going to put out a new album) or undertaking rereading of old material to reinterpret meanings in new contemporary light. The pleasures of anticipation are central to these fan practices, with close reading offering endless rewards. Conspiracy theorists operate similarly, even when an anticipated event does not come to fruition. When the predictions of the mysterious Q that tell of mass arrests of prominent enemies of the movement fail to eventuate, rather than lose belief in Q’s prophetic power, the believers find explanation and new events to anticipate (Butler and Martin). Is #FreeBritney a Conspiracy? While it is tempting to situate #FreeBritney firmly within the domain of fan studies, we argue that while later borne out by facts, it can also be understood as a conspiracy theory. Conspiracy theories are united by a focus on and fear of a larger malevolent actor, who uses the power vested in institutions to control the narrative about the conspiracy, and indeed the conspiracy itself (Melley). In #FreeBritney, the stakes are a little lower, with the clearest villains being Spears’s immediate family, who appear to have financially benefited from her conservatorship. Nevertheless, the conspiracy involves elements of control, not only over Spears herself but the media, the criminal justice system, and the medical professionals diagnosing and treating Spears, as well as any close friends and staff. As with other conspiracies, power is exercised through social institutions to ‘cover up’ the conspiracy itself and any damage it is causing (Barkun; Melley). If conspiracies are secret, how then are they detected? Key to conspiracy theorising is the ‘close reading’ or ‘forensic’ examination (Mittell) of various texts to spot inconsistencies and gaps in authenticity that disrupt the dominant narrative. This is a hallmark of conspiracy theorising, which relies on “the interpretation of half-hidden cIues, tell-tale signs, and secret messages” (Melley 16). Within #FreeBritney, close reading is most obviously applied to her Instagram account and extends to various court courts, interviews, and media reporting. This analysis allows for these inconsistencies to build an alternative explanation while using a corpus of evidence available to everyone. Where Is the Pleasure? Where can we locate the sources of pleasure in #FreeBritney? To be clear, we are arguing for an understanding of pleasure that is not eroticised but rather found in the arguably mundane practises of conspiracy. The close, detailed sifting through evidence required to build a conspiracy theory is pleasurable in a number of ways. These practices are pleasurable in and of themselves — developing deep knowledge assembling the threads in the conspiracy theory holds the individual in a continual site of possibility and potential. The space of ‘what if’ where nothing is certain and outcomes can be constantly refigured allows conspiracy theorists to exist in expectation, in ‘looking forward to’ as one would a long-awaited holiday. The pleasure is in anticipating the event, but not necessarily in the resolution of the conspiracy itself. The momentum and anticipation in fan communities are remarkably similar to those of conspiracy theory communities, creating a pleasurable affective atmosphere (Anderson) that circulates in and through digital practices. The ‘close reading’ practice we describe is also pleasurable through proximity and intimacy. Close reading allows for a point of entry and connection to the broader #Free Britney community, where close readings are contributed, the readings of others are affirmed, and these individual contributions are incorporated into the fabric of the community. Close reading also provides proximity and a sense of intimate familiarity with Spears herself. Close reading is only made possible through deep knowledge, through being able to understand Spears’s self-presentation, mediated through digital platforms like Instagram, as authentic or forced. The Internet also makes close reading more accessible and immediate. Instagram posts can be saved for later perusal, comments screenshotted, and deleted comments captured before they vanish. This work of understanding, interpreting, and building happens both in real time (as soon as content is posted) and retrospectively, using what is now known or agreed upon to go back and reinterpret old material, hunting for clues and signs previously missed. This is evident in a number of TikToks where fans closely interpret Britney’s movement to confirm their theories. In one video, Spears discusses the LGBTQIA+ community. The video is not particularly coherent, and in the comments, a fan writes, “If you need help, wear yellow and blink twice”, and “If you need help do two spins” (ABC News). In her next video, Spears appears wearing a yellow top and holding flowers; she blinks twice, then does two spins for the camera. Given what we now know about Spears’s situation at the time, it seems likely she was in dialogue with her fans, counting on their close reading, attention to detail, and emotional investment. While Spears’s abusive conservatorship was obviously of concern to fans, there is also pleasure in the moments of reading, knowing, and dialoguing with Spears, creating a parasocial intimacy (ABC News). These compounding pleasures are overlapping and mutually reinforcing and create what Ahmed would call a ‘sticky’ site of affective engagement. Ahmed’s conceptualisation of ‘stickiness’ often refers to negative affects, but we argue can apply to positive or pleasurable affectivities. Conclusion #FreeBritney began as a fringe fan concern. It was mocked, derided and dismissed, before being ultimately vindicated through legal action and the removal of the conservatorship. Legal action addressing the financial exploitation of Spears is underway (Day). In a video after the end of her conservatorship, Spears speaks to her fans through an Instagram video detailing her next steps (Sky News). She also thanks the #FreeBritney movement, saying, the Free Britney Movement, you guys rock! Honestly, my voice was muted and threatened for so long, and um I wasn’t able to speak up or say anything, and um because of you guys’ awareness and kind of knowing what was going on and delivering that news to the public for so long ... because of you, I honestly think you guys saved my life. Examining the #FreeBritney movement allows us to consider the role of pleasure in conspiracy theorising. Through this reading, we can also begin to understand conspiracy theorists in a more nuanced way. Those who believe in conspiracy theories are often characterised as fearful, anxious, and paranoid. However, there are pleasurable affectivities also associated with conspiracy theorising. While conspiracy theories most often circulate through and coalesce in online spaces, #FreeBritney demonstrates that theories also drive practice with fans protesting outside of Spears’s court hearings and taking steps to dismantle the conservatorship system more generally (Rolling Stone). Focussing on pleasure can also explain the derision directed towards conspiracy theories and their subscribers. Anti-fan communities provide a language to discuss the gleeful debunking and mocking of conspiracy theories. Pleasure is also a core part of anti-fandom, that is groups mobilised around their hate of something or someone (usually a celebrity with a fan following), and this anti-fandom mirrors many core fan practices (Pinkowitz). The anti-fan is smarter and more discerning than the fan and has the ‘right’ way of thinking, reasoning, and appreciating. 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