Critics discussing Mark Twain's early skepticism have, to date, confined their explorations to short studies (articles or book chapters), brief references in passing, or buried their insights in discussions on other topics. Other critics ignore Twain's atheistic statements and see his beliefs as theistic or deterministic. Others ascribe his attitudes in the "dark writings" to late life disappointments. This study demonstrates that Twain's later attitudes towards religion, determinism, social reform and institutions were products of his family heritage, his social environment, and his early reading. Chapter 1 introduces the major premises of the study, and Chapter 2 reviews the critical background. Chapter 3 discusses the family and hometown influences: on Twain's skeptical thought, and Chapter A discusses Twain's early literary and philosophical influences. Chapter 5 examines Twain's early writings in letters and frontier tales and sketches, showing the development of his anti-religious attitudes. Chapter 6 concludes the study.

Television news contains factors of time constraints and deadlines that add pressures to the underlying rules of objectivity, fairness, and bias. This study seeks to determine if the elements of "responsible journalism" dissipate in television news coverage of a highly significant, developing news story. In other words, how well do the rules hold up under pressure? The momentous story selected for observation was the Mark Hofmann bombings in Salt Lake City, Utah. The focus centered on the coverage by local stations rather than the network television news operations.

This project exhaustively examines the first element (theme) of each clause in Mark and in samples from other roughly contemporaneous Jewish writings. The comparative documents are divided into two categories, referential and non-referential narratives. Then statistical analyses (χ2 and t-test) are used to determine with which category of comparative documents Mark more closely aligns. The raw results of these hypothesis tests were equivocal, but their corresponding effect sizes (Cramer’s V and Cohen’s d, respectively) clearly demonstrate that Mark more closely resembles referential narrative, although the difference is small. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

<p> Perhaps since its composition, the Gospel of Mark has troubled scholarship with regard to its content and genre. In it, a number of anomalies appear: Jesus' use of secrecy, Jesus' use of the "son of man" title, how the miracles and exorcisms function with regard to plot, and why Jesus never convinces his listeners of his message. In this study, I argue that these anomalies can be explained by considering Mark's Gospel in light of the tragic genre. Mark's Gospel does not simply contain motifs or modes from tragedy; Mark's Gospel is a tragedy. Through the examination of extant Greek Tragedy and an application of Hegel's theory of tragic Kollision, this study illustrates the ways in which the plot of Mark's Gospel is built upon a tragic foundation. Kollision describes how Jesus is in conflict as the tragic hero. Conflict becomes central to this study, in which Jesus is the antagonist to the Temple and the cultural ethos it creates. This antagonism defines Jesus as the Messiah and concealed Son of God, and it produces the suffering and death common to all of tragedy. What is more, this study critically engages with several tragic theories, ranging from ancient to modern. It specifically analyzes Aristotle's Poetics-the standard description of tragic genre-and ask whether Aristotle's categories really do provide an exhaustive definition of ancient tragedy.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis advisor: Angela K. Harkins / Thesis advisor: Giovanni B. Bazzana / Thesis (STL) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.

Jesus as portrayed in the Gospel of Mark is someone who would resonate with readers of Harry Potter because of his words and acts of resistance and justice. However, for many of them there are obstacles to even reading the Markan Gospel. Some of them are unfavourable perceptions of Christianity and the Bible. Others are merely uninterested or are unfamiliar with what the Markan story really is. The purpose of this study is to explore how Mark can be read using a popular culture reading lens, like the Harry Potter literature, to expand the horizons of the Harry Potter audience. An examination of the social and historical background will provide a first-century context of resistance to oppression. Using the Harry Potter lens, I will juxtapose that text with the Gospel of Mark as a whole to show that there is a pattern of resistance enacted by Jesus throughout. I will then carry out an exegetical analysis of Mark 10:32 45, again juxtaposing it with the Harry Potter text. The intertextual connections drawn from this analysis will be considered in terms of how they can impact the Harry Potter audience and provide them with new horizons. This project will therefore be given a reading strategy to help them read Mark 10:32 45 through the lens of the Harry Potter novels. This lens allows the reader to both transform and be transformed by the Markan text and will highlight how Jesus acts to resist and subvert the role of tyrannical rule in the lives of his followers, much like the resistance and subversion seen in the story of Harry Potter.

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We examined various aspects of horseshoe crab populations in conjunction with BioWhittaker, a biomedical company that bleeds horseshoe crabs (Limulus polyphemus) and utilizes their blood for biomedical purposes. We examined mortality rates of bled and unbled crabs by holding crabs in tanks for 2-week periods. We estimate average differential mortality between bled and unbled horseshoe crabs to be 7.5% (95% CI: 0.14% - 38.1%), significant with p<0.001. We examined the range in amounts of blood extracted from 98 male horseshoe crabs. Mean mass of blood extracted was was 78.3 grams (95% CI: 70.5g - 86.0g) and ranged from 8.2g to 212.3g. We compared gender-, size-, and stage-class distributions of crabs caught in trawls by BioWhittaker in Chincoteague, Virginia and Ocean City, Maryland during the years 1999 - 2000. Significant differences in gender distribution (p=0.0062), size distribution (p=0.0002) and stage-class distribution (p<0.001) were seen between locations, with Chincoteague, Virginia's population comprised of smaller and younger crabs, with greater proportions of females as compared with Ocean City, Maryland. Significant differences in overall gender distributions (p=0.0109) were also seen between years 2000 and 2001, with greater proportions of females present in 2000 than in 2001. We tagged 7,500 bled, adult horseshoe crabs to gain information on horseshoe crab population dynamics. From resight reports (N=121), we examined movement patterns and found average distance traveled was 29.8 miles and maximum distance traveled was 195 miles, suggesting mixing along the Atlantic coast. We found a 1.6% recovery rate of tagged crabs and tags found detached from crabs. 11.6% of our resights consisted of tags found detached from crabs. We use information gained in our study to suggest improvements for future tagging efforts that could lead to further knowledge of horseshoe crab population dynamics. / Master of Science

An examination of the persistent death motif in Twain's literature reveals a strong fusion of his art, personal experience and philosophical conclusions. Death imagery dramatizes Twain's pessimistic view of an estranged humanity existing without purpose or direction in an incomprehensible universe. Twain shows in his works that religious and social beliefs only obscure the fact that the meaning of death is beyond man's intellectual and perceptual powers. In Twain's view the only certainty about death is that it is a release from the preordained tragedies of existence. Illusions, primordial terrors, and mystifying dreams shape man's disordered reality, Twain concludes, and therefore death is as meaningless as life.

Use of trade marks as internet search engine keywords Main purpose of my thesis is a comprehensive analysis of the issue of trade mark use as internet search engine keywords in relation to displaying advertisements on the internet search engine's websites, mostly from the point of view of the European Union law. However, I briefly address also legislation and jurisdiction in the USA. I chose the topic of my thesis mostly because it is one of the most discussed issues in the field of trade marks in the last few years, not only thanks to its significant economic importance, but also because of the challenge which this issue brought to the law practice. This completely new form of trade mark use was not anticipated by applicable law and it caused many debates regarding basic principles of trade mark protection. The thesis is composed of eight chapters. The first chapter is an introduction. Chapter two provides basic insight into the issue of keywords. The system of internet search engine functioning and keyword advertising is introduced. This chapter also addresses the economic importance of keyword advertising and possible conflicts that may arise when trade marks are used as keywords. Chapter three analyses trade mark legislation with focus on Community trade marks. The scope of rights of trade mark...