Flight of the Conchords: Recontextualizing the voices of popular culture1

Folk‐comedy duo, Flight of the Conchords, have become one of New Zealand's most successful musical exports, having attracted a large international audience through their American‐produced TV series. One of their central comic devices is to stylize well‐known singers and their music. This article focuses on how Flight of the Conchords shift their phonetic style towards that of various target personas, and how they maintain their own voices as comedians in the process. An acoustic analysis compares Flight of the Conchords’ pronunciation of four vowels (kit , dress , trap , and goat) to the pronunciation of the pop singers being stylized. Both Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie manipulate their vowel production towards that of the targeted personas. They also maintain some distance from their targeted roles through a range of devices including the use of exaggerated phonetic style. Through their performances, Flight of the Conchords recontextualize and parody a range of popular cultural products, continuing the enregisterment of certain phonetic styles with the voices of well‐known characterological figures.     

Exploring structural habitat heterogeneity in sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) for urban biodiversity support

Implementation of sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) as part of cities’ transition towards climate resilience encompasses unique opportunities to enhance urban nature qualities. SUDS include individual elements integrated in the urban landscape, e.g. rain gardens or wet basins, which are usually constructed with low structural heterogeneity. Structural heterogeneity of habitats is, however, associated with a high degree of biodiversity. This study explored potentials of habitat heterogeneity enhancement in SUDS using structural heterogeneity as a proxy for biodiversity potential. In an interdisciplinary workshop, landscape architects and urban ecologists designed individual SUDS elements with enhanced structural habitat heterogeneity, hereafter bio-SUDS. The redesigned SUDS elements were infiltration trench, curb extension, rain garden, swale, wet basin, and dry basin. To evaluate the bio-SUDS designs, we developed an index of habitat heterogeneity in SUDS based on registration of 45 structurally important components. The conversion from standard SUDS to bio-SUDS entailed substantial increases in structural heterogeneity ranging from 4 to 18 additional components within elements. Larger bio-SUDS elements returned higher index scores, but the relative score increases were substantial for all bio-SUDS and in the range of a factor of 2–5.5. Increased terrain differences, meandering edges, stones, gravel, boulders, deadwood, and brown roof-like vegetation were the components most often employed in the bio-SUDS designs. In conclusion, implementation of bio-SUDS has potential to increase structural habitat heterogeneity thereby providing habitat for biodiversity in urban green areas. The developed bio-SUDS index can assist in future assessments of ecological qualities in designs and real-world SUDS elements.     

A school health service for children?

This paper considers the merits of the school health service in England and Wales, viewed as a service for children of primary school age. The paper reports on data from a recent Economic and Social Research Council-funded study: Children's Health in Primary Schools. Data were collected through a randomly selected sample of 620 schools and through six case studies. The study found variation in the quantity and quality of the service; the service was not, in general, child-friendly. The paper argues, on grounds of efficiency, convenience and complementarity, that children should have access to a health service during their days at school, and one which is even in quality and quantity.     

'Staying on': the effects of recent changes in educational participation for 17–19 year-olds in Norway and Scotland

In this paper we consider some of the implications of the growth of educational participation for the labour market integration of young people between the ages of 17 and 19 in Norway and Scotland. In particular, we focus on the experiences of disadvantaged youth and assess the extent to which they benefit from participation in post-compulsory schooling. We argue that in terms of success on the labour market, post-compulsory secondary education is only beneficial to those intending to continue into Higher Education. We demonstrate the existence of persistent inequalities among 'non-traditional stayers', and show that despite greater access to post-compulsory education, young people from middle class families still retain important advantages in both Norway and Scotland. However, we argue that in Scotland, females and those from less advantaged social positions are more disadvantaged than their Norwegian counterparts.     

Hot Jobs in Cool Places. The Material Cultures of New Media Product Spaces: The Case of South of the Market, San Francisco

This paper explores the localization of new media production in San Francisco. It is contextualized within a debate about the material culture of cyberspace. Much rhetoric has been expended in 'reading off' idealized 'online' worlds into probable 'off-line' worlds: the 'death of geography' is a case in point. The case is made for a corrective to both the idealist-culturalist, and the materialist techno-economic, accounts of cyberspace that accords an opportunity for both to infuse one another. The paper uses the concept of the material cultural practice of making products, underpinned by the notion of product space, to argue in favour of a co-construction of the 'off-' and 'online' worlds. The case study illustrates the point of how the most ecstatic 'online' community is rooted in a particular space and place, and how 'off-line' practices are essential to its 'online' presence.     

International venture capital research: From cross-country comparisons to crossing borders

Venture capital (VC) has become an international phenomenon, and VC firms are a specific kind of service firm whose characteristics have distinctive implications for international behaviour. There is now a disparate body of research on international aspects of VC across a number of disciplines comprising finance, economics, strategy, entrepreneurship, international business and economic geography. A novel aspect of this paper is that we review and synthesize this disparate literature. A number of research gaps and limitations in the theoretical and methodological approaches involved in previous studies are identified and suggestions made for further research. We show that the vast majority of the literature relates to cross-country comparisons; that is, macro-level comparisons of VC industries across different countries and micro-level comparisons of VC behaviour across countries. From our review of the literature, we argue that an under-researched area concerns the influence of institutional contexts, especially the role of social networks and cultures. Furthermore, our review of the literature indicates that there is a major research gap in relation to work dealing with the crossing of country borders by VC firms. We suggest that resource-based, capabilities, institutional and network theories may be offer insights to further our understanding of the behaviour of VC firms in this area.     

From protection to concern: child protection careers without apologies

This article provides evidence from a study of the careers of children in an English local authority from the point of the child protection investigation with a follow up of one year. The study demonstrates the way that for the vast majority welfare needs are ignored in the process of investigation and identifies the need to refocus investigations. The authors suggests criteria that can be used to provide a clearer focus on whether to investigate a referral.     

TIIDA 2008诠释“时尚高品质 快·乐·慢生活”

不知不觉，中国的各大城市间开始流行起“快·乐·慢生活”的风潮，越来越多的人也开始意识到，“快生活让我们失去了太多。不仅是健康，还包括对生活的热爱、激情和享受，对周围的一切丧失了新鲜、好奇、体会与感动，生活的细节早已被快节奏的生活、工作所忽视。”正如约翰·列侬曾经说过，当我们正在为生活疲于奔命的时候，生活已经离我们渐渐地远去。