A French Chevalier for scholarly societal contributions

Professor Judith Butler receives the French Chevalier for her contributions in philosophy, ethics, political and literary theories from French Consul General Pauline Carmona in San Francisco.

Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Berkeley’s Program of Critical Theory, where she served as founding director, received the formal honor from Consul General Pauline Carmona at ceremonies in San Francisco. Butler was awarded the diploma of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Cultural Ministry in 2013. This week she was pinned with the medal itself.

Professor Judith Butler receives the French Chevalier in the Order of Arts et Lettres for her contributions in philosophy, ethics, political and literary theories from French Consul General Pauline Carmona.

Professor Judith Butler receives the French Chevalier for her contributions in philosophy, ethics, political and literary theories from French Consul General Pauline Carmona in San Francisco.

Carmona noted at the award ceremony the strength of Butler’s links with French scholars and intellectuals and the profound impact her work has had on France’s society, especially in the fields of feminism and gender studies.

Butler is active in gender and sexual politics, human rights and anti-war politics, and serves on the advisory board of Jewish Voice for Peace. She was recently the recipient of the Andrew Mellon Award for Distinguished Academic Achievement in the Humanities (2009-13). She received the Adorno Prize from the city of Frankfurt (2012) in honor of her contributions to feminist and moral philosophy, as well as the Brudner Prize from Yale University for lifetime achievement in gay and lesbian studies.

She is the past recipient of several fellowships including Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Ford and American Council of Learned Societies, and was Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton and at the College des Hautes Etudes in Paris. She has received honorary degrees from Université Bordeaux-III, Université Paris-VII, Grinnell College, McGill University and the University of St. Andrews. In 2013 she was awarded the diploma of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Cultural Ministry. In November 2014, Butler received an honorary degree from the Universite Fribourg in Switzerland.

She received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale University in 1984.

Source: UC Berkeley

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Three out of every four European banks fails in handicap accessibility of their websites

"The results reflect that only 26% of the banks show acceptable levels on their websites, and in more than 36% of cases analysed, serious obstacles to accessibility were found," Ana Belén Martínez, one of the researchers participating in the study, explained.

Three out of every four European banks fails in the accessibility of their websites Researchers from the University of Oviedo (Spain) have analysed the websites of nearly 50 banks from the EU to check whether any user, even if disabled, has equal access. The results show that this right is not fulfilled in 74% of cases, and therefore they demand greater interest from financial entities in this technological and social problem.

Web accessibility is the collection of technological innovations that guarantee fair access to the web for all users, regardless of disability or the device used. However, these facilities do not appear on the majority of web pages for European banks, according to an analysis carried out by computer specialists and economists from the University of Oviedo, Spain.
"The results reflect that only 26% of the banks show acceptable levels on their websites, and in more than 36% of cases analysed, serious obstacles to accessibility were found," Ana Belén Martínez, one of the researchers participating in the study, explained.

Javier De Andres, another of the authors, highlighted the consequences of the lack of accessibility: "People with disabilities find themselves with additional obstacles at the time of accessing electronic banking services, therefore often having to carry out certain steps in person, with the difficulties and discrimination that this implies."

The researchers offered some solutions to solve the problem: "The websites of the banks should provide text alternatives for all of their visual and auditory content, use units that facilitate understanding of style sheets, include input devices alternative to using the mouse, and clearly identify the language used on their website."

In order to carry out the study, published by the journal Information Processing & Management, a database made up of 49 banks from the EU -- 8 of them Spanish -- was used, whose actions form part of the Dow Jones EURO STOXX 50 stock index.

The authors have identified three factors that implement web accessibility. The first is operational, because of its contribution to the efficiency of the bank operations. "Those financial entities that want to improve a poor performance can adopt these applications, within a range of corrective measures," Martínez said.

Another factor is the size, in the way that the bigger banks have bigger information technology departments that provide a competitive advantage to adopt this technology, in relation to small banks. The third factor is that web accessibility can also be understood as part of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of the entity, that is to say, its active and voluntary contribution towards social, economic and environmental improvement.

According to the results, neither the operational factors nor the size seem to have exercised a significant influence on the adoption of this technology by European banks. Regarding the CSR strategy, the results show a paradox whereby those less engaged with social corporate responsibility are precisely those that have more accessible websites.

"One possible reason is that the banks that do not appear in the indices that demonstrate high CSR commitment try to overcome this problem by participating in activities such as the adoption of web accessibility," Martínez pointed out.

The researchers concluded by indicating that neither web accessibility nor the advantages that it offers to the organisations are sufficiently known yet, and thus encourage the banks to improve in this sphere in order to guarantee fair access to all clients.

Source: Plataforma SINC

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John Lennon commemorated by naming a new tarantula species from South America after him

A newly described tarantula species from Western Brazilian Amazonia was named Bumba lennoni in honor of John Lennon, a founder member of the legendary band the Beatles. Credit: Doi: 10.3897/zookeys.448.7920, Image courtesy of Pensoft Publishers

A newly described tarantula species from Western Brazilian Amazonia was named Bumba lennoni in honor of John Lennon, a founder member of the legendary band the Beatles. The new species is part of the tarantula family Theraphosidae which comprises the largest spider species in the world. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys.

The name of the new species came across when the authors of the study Fernando Pérez-Miles, from the University of the Republic, Uruguay, and Alexandre Bonaldo and Laura Miglio, both from the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Brazil, found out that they are all great fans of the Beatles music.

The genus, Bumba, which is proposed as replacement of the old one Maraca, already taken and used for Orthoptera, also has a story behind the choice of name. The new name is taken from Brazilian theatrical folk tradition of the popular festival called Boi-bumbá (hit my bull), which takes place annually in North and Northeastern Brazil.

The new species, as other tarantulas, has defensive urticating hairs on the abdomen which produce irritation upon contact with the skin or sensible tissues.

The specimens used in the study were captured manually or in traps during the night in Caxiuaná, Pará, Brasil, which suggest they could be mainly nocturnal animals.

Source: Pensoft Publishers

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