Death's dance of women

The 1486 edition of La grant danse macabre des femmes by Martial d'Auvergne, also known as Martial de Paris, is the subject of this study. The skeleton, representing death, queries each of the thirty-six women described in the poem. The answers they give tell us about their occupation and the chances of their salvation. The author is a realist who represents only those women he is familiar with and shows deep understanding of the women portrayed. The concerns of the flesh get more attention than the spiritual factors.Death was very important in the middle ages, especially in the late fourteenth and fifteenth century. It was featured in public curiosity, religion, literature, visual and dramatic presentations, and popular beliefs. The authors attempt to describe it and give an answer to the pressing problems of death in the fifteenth century.     

Migration and market wage risk

The author presents an approach to the analysis of labor migration that incorporates the role of market wage variability as a source of information in individual migration decisions. "The focus...is on quantifying the effects of the origin market acting through amenities and the share of market-specific wage variability as it affects forecasts of alternative wages and forecast precision. A subsample of employed males...from the [U.S.] National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLS) age 16 to 22 years is used for estimation. The empirical results are consistent with the theoretically predicted relationship between migration propensities and regional differences in the information content of wages. In addition, the results provide evidence that risk aversion deters migration given uncertainty, measured by forecast precision, about alternative market wage levels."     

Oldest Australian vespertilionid (Microchiroptera) from the early Miocene of Riversleigh,Queensland

An upper molar of a small bat, here described from an early Miocene freshwater lime-stone deposit at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, is the oldest record in Australia of the microchiropteran family Vespertilionidae. The new taxon is referred to the cosmopolitan genus Leuconoe, but it does not appear to be closely related to the two extant Australian species of this genus.     

“A log-rolling,Irish-American politician,out to raise votes in the United States”: Tip O’Neill and the Irish dimension of Anglo-American relations, 1977–1986

The Irish dimension of Anglo-American relations is a relatively marginalized aspect of the historiography of transatlantic studies. Historians have focused on the role of the Clinton administration in the Northern Ireland “peace process” but previous American contributions also warrant attention. As the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill was one of the most prominent Irish-American politicians. This article demonstrates O’Neill's attempts to ensure that the American contribution to the Anglo-Irish process steadily increased, despite the transition from arguably his natural political ally in the President Jimmy Carter administration to President Ronald Reagan in 1981. O’Neill's interest in Northern Ireland and position as speaker helped ensure that Carter's promise of financial aid to Northern Ireland in 1977 following progress in the political process was fulfilled in March 1986.