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The Virgin Project, Volume 2 is an illustrated collection of true stories about first-time sexual experiences, told as comics pages. The stories were collected from real people by Seattle artist KD Boze and Montana artist Stasia Kato over a period of three years at various locations. The names are changed to protect privacy, but story sources are encouraged to furnish their current age and occupation. The variety of stories includes everything from teenage experimentation to wedding night nerves, including the humorous and tragic, gay and straight – all of them different. The introduction is by Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a professor of sociology at the University of Washington.

This paper discusses the role of fiscal policy and fiscal institutions in managing scaled-up aid. In an environment of volatile scaled-up aid, fiscal policy formulation should be anchored in medium-term frameworks, incorporating a longer-term view of potential resource availability and spending plans. There is merit in smoothing expenditures over time so that all programs are adequately funded. The paper argues that wage-bill ceilings should be used in Fund-supported programs only in exceptional cases. The paper also discusses basic reforms for strengthening public financial management systems for effective utilization of scaled-up aid flows.

The ability of populations to be connected across large landscapes via dispersal is critical to longterm viability for many species. One means to mitigate population isolation is the protection of movement corridors among habitat patches. Nevertheless, the utility of small, narrow, linear features as habitat corridors has been hotly debated. Here, we argue that analysis of movement across continuously resistant landscapes allows a shift to a broader consideration of how landscape patterns influence connectivity at scales relevant to conservation. We further argue that this change in scale and definition of the connectivity problem improves one's ability to find solutions and may help resolve long-standing disputes regarding scale and definition of movement corridors and their importance to population connectivity. We used a new method that combines empirically derived landscape-resistance maps and least-cost path analysis between multiple source and destination locations to assess habitat isolation and identify corridors and barriers to organism movement. Specifically, we used a genetically based landscape resistance model for American black bears (Ursus americanus) to identify major movement corridors and barriers to population connectivity between Yellowstone National Park and the Canadian border. Even though western Montana and northern Idaho contain abundant public lands and the largest wilderness areas in the contiguous United States, moving from the Canadian border to Yellowstone Park along those paths indicated by modeled gene flow required bears to cross at least 6 potential barriers. Our methods are generic and can be applied to virtually any species for which reliable maps of landscape resistance can be developed.

This second volume of The Virgin Project is another brilliant collaboration between two artist-storytellers. They collected stories at various times and locations, including the Seattle Erotic Art Festival and the Victoria Erotic Art and Film Festival. All of the stories in this book are true. The names have been changed to protect privacy, and fictitious names were supplied by the people telling the stories, resulting in a few duplicate names. The variety of stories includes everything from teenage experimentation to wedding night nerves, including the humorous and tragic, gay and straight all of them different. The introduction is by Dr. Pepper Schwartz, a Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. In retelling these stories, artistic license has been used, but sparingly, to ensure that these real-life stories ring true.