Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper is about inter-species communication between dogs and cats and is based on a survey of households where both dogs and cats were present. Using play as our focus, we explore the issue of how dogs and cats negotiate a relationship through interaction given that they speak "different languages." We argue that sociology has a natural interest in such inter-species communication given its negotiated nature.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: El Al Airlines is reputed to have the safest security in the world attributing part of their success to keeping their security techniques a secret. These security techniques have never been published or shared with the public until now. Like many, I looked at the events of September 11th through the lens of my own experience. During the summer of 1988, I was hired by American Airlines and sent to their headquarters in Dallas, Texas for about two weeks of training in international security procedures. At the time, American operated a non-stop flight from Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina to Paris, France that has since been discontinued. Many of the agents who worked in security for American at the time had no previous formal training in international security. For example, I was hired to speak French fluently. American paid $5.77 per hour, not much more than minimum wage at the time. I was trained in these procedures by ICTS, the same company that trains El Al, the Israeli airline (http://www.icts-int.com).

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The relationship between democratic and autocratic countries is like that of cats and dogs (Oneal and Ray 1997).This paper outlines the explanation of conflict escalation between democratic and non-democratic dyads once they have disputes. At the core of this analysis is the expectation that a similarity of national preferences (national affinity) and power parity are two key sources of conflict escalation. Because democratic leaders are constrained by internal politics, there will be more deliberations once democrats in disputes with autocrats. I argue that the differences of policy preferences and power parity will influence the conflict escalation between democratic and non-democratic dyads. These also represent the models of “willingness” and “opportunity” respectively._x000d_I simply reproduce the four levels of hostility in MID 3 between 1946 and 2000, regress with three main predictor variables, affinity between nations, power parity, and interaction term between affinity and power parity. By adopting the ordered probit model, I found that dissimilarity of policy preferences interacted with power parity and needs to be considered as the critical explanatory component for conflict escalations between democrats and autocrats.

Publication Type: Abstract
Abstract: The work aimed at determining the range of greatest impact of cats by identifying patterns of their activity and area searching and their predation upon wildlife fauna. At first, 6 villages in central Poland were surveyed. It showed that on average one animal was kept in the household, few cats were provided with proper food (around 40% was given milk only), all of them roamed freely, reproduced without control and hunted regularly. The density, estimated from transect counts (XI 2002-X 2005) along standard routes, was dependent on temperature, precipitation and time of the day. In spring and summer, cats presented a two-peaked activity pattern, while in cold seasons it was more stable throughout the day. The animals were much less active in cold and rainy weather. Cat predation was studied for four years (2004-2007) with three methods (prey collection, scat and stomach content analysis). Prey composition depended on the method applied. Prey collection underestimated share of invertebrates, insectivores (unpalatable prey) were found less often in scats and stomachs. Moreover, predation rate revealed by prey collection was much lower (2,1 items/cat/month) than by scat or stomach content analysis (42 and 51 items/cat/month, respectively). To conclude, cats may exert strong pressure (biggest in summer) on wildlife species as they are numerous and their outdoor presence is not restricted.

Publication Type: Proceeding
Abstract: The more an emotion is concealed, the more it will become fetishized; the more fetishized the emotion, the greater its influence over the condition of the human in question. This paper illustrates how the apotheosis of hate is central to the human condition in capitalist, late modernity with reference to a narrative taken from the past. In 1789, the HMS Bounty under the command of ruthless Naval Lieutenant and his languorous but likeable Master�s Mate was anchored deep in the Pacific for replenishment activities. In the weeks that ensued, the intercourse between British sailors and Pacific islanders would change the course of their lives indelibly. The long sea journey to the South Pacific and the exotic opportunities that presented themselves led to changes that were to remain the talk of the town in both polite society and among the rabblement. Over the course of 11 years, the three voyages of the Bounty bred searing envy and seething hatred between the merciless Commander and his crew. Why did hatred between two men have such irreversible results? What does this tell us about the human condition? In this paper, the concept of hate is explored and treated as a critical motivator for consumption ownership in modernity. When equated with envy, hate creates an even greater desire for capitalist goods and services. In this paper, Theodor Adorno�s culture industry thesis is used to explain hatred and how such an emotive and concealed passion might be used to constitute part of the social good rather than a social bad. The paper uses the analogy of consumption as a form of ownership to explain the symbolic importance of possession, dispossession, and its neoMarxist aesthetics in terms of an American classic mercantilist film, Mutiny on the Bounty. I argue that the desire for capitalist power and the trappings of an illusory and eternal paradise may be extrapolated towards deepening our understanding of the human condition in modernity.

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