Characteristics of Raised Cobble Ridges in the Terrace Bay Area of the North Shore of Lake Superior

Cobble features near Terrace Bay, Ontario, traditionally described as 'raised beach ridges,' are investigated to establish the extent to which they exhibit characteristics substantiating the assumption of a wave-formed origin. Detailed examination of their plan orientation, profile, and pattern does indicate a wave-formed origin, with little evidence of shore ice activity during their formation or of sub-aerial modification since. Localized angular materials and topographic discontinuities suggest that surface morphology represents the compound effect of rare high magnitude storm wave events over the last three thousand years.
L'auteur étudie les formations de galets près de Terrace Bay, Ontario - ce qu'on désigne généralement comme des «cretes de plage soulevée≫ - afin d'établir dans quelle mesure elles présentent des caractéristiques qui permettent de justifier l'hypothèse selon laquelle elles seraient le résultat de Faction des vagues. De l'examen approfondi du plan vertical, du profil, et de la disposition des formations, on peut en effet conclure à une origine due à l'action des vagues; peu d'indices de l'action de la glace de rive durant la formation, ou de modifications subaériennes par la suite, ont été relevées. La présence de matériaux anguleux dans les environs et les discontinuités topographiques suggèrent que la morphologie de surface est le résultat de l'effet combiné, lors des derniers trois mille ans, de vagues de tempêtes exceptionnelles et d'une très grande puissance.     

The Advocacy Coalition Framework and Implementation of the Endangered Species Act: A Case Study in Western Water Politics

Theories about subsystem activity typically focus on policy formulation processes. One causal model of public policymaking, the advocacy coalition framework, offers a potentially useful way to bridge the gap between policy formulation and implementation in examining subsystem activity. The purpose of this paper is to assess the analytical utility of the advocacy coalition framework by examining the stability of policy-producing coalitions over time in the face of implementation complexities. An analysis of the policy changes that occurred during the implementation of the Endangered Species Act vis-à-vis planning for the construction of the Bureau of Reclamation's Animas-La Plata water project is conducted. The analysis reveals how coalitions protect their policy core beliefs during technical disputes through the acquiescence of secondary aspects of belief systems.     

Satellite footprint to cultural lifelines: Sirius XM and the circulation of Canadian content

Satellite radio posed a new question for Canadian policy-makers: How to take advantage of a transnational radio service while ensuring cultural identity was not lost within channel offerings that are predominately American. Comparing the initial licensing of satellite radio in Canada (2005) to the merger of the services (2011) and the post-merger license renewal (2012) highlights a shift in the spatial understanding of satellite radio, from being determined by a satellite’s footprint to that of what I call ‘cultural lifelines,’ the various mobile devices and services that enable one to maintain connection to cultural content. Alongside shifting spatial considerations of satellite radio, Canadian content has increasingly been packaged as a brand or genre, catering to fragmented taste preferences and individual, mobile listening practices.     

Perceived Risk and Citizen Preferences for Governmental Management of Routine Hazards

Risk perceptions are important to the policy process because they inform individuals’ preferences for government management of hazards that affect personal safety, public health, or ecological conditions. Studies of risk in the policy process have often focused on explicating the determinants of risk perceptions for highly salient, high consequence hazards (e.g., nuclear energy). We argue that it is useful to also study more routinely experienced hazards; doing so shows the relevance of risk perceptions in individuals’ daily lives. Our investigation focuses on the impact perceived risk has on citizens’ preferences over hazard management policies (as distinct from identifying risk perception determinants per se). We use a recursive structural equation model to analyze public opinion data measuring attitudes in three distinct issue domains: air pollution, crime, and hazardous waste storage and disposal. We find that citizens utilize perceived risk rationally: greater perceived risk generally produces support for more proactive government to manage potential hazards. This perceived risk–policy response relationship generally holds even though the policy options respondents were asked to consider entailed nontrivial costs to the public. The exception seems to be when individuals know less about the substantive issue domain.