Sumatra as seen by a Botanist

I would like to point out that the flora of Sumatra is in many respects as spectacular as Rafflesia and the giant Amorphophallus make one suspect (Meijer, unpublished). People should learn to attach the same scientific and aesthetic value to the loss of this flora as to the disappearance of rhinos, tigers, and tapirs. The only fruitful approach to save the tropical rain‐forests of Sumatra is absolute protection of the whole Bukit Barisan Range as a vital water catchment area of this island, to establish buffer zones in the foothills of this reserve, to establish enough reserves in the coastal plain regions and the peat swamps, the mangrove swamps, limestone hills, and Tiga Puluh Mountains to save representative areas. A massive botanical/ecological survey of the whole island is needed for a rational conservation plan. In this, access to centres of higher learning, participation of local universities, and the establishment of a series of local educational and research centres should play a major role. It has been discovered now in Central America (Costa Rice and Panama) that the only feasible way to preserve tropical rain‐forests is through a network of research stations and related scientific tourism.

Also in Sumatra with its local centres of diverse cultures, nature conservation can go hand‐in‐hand with cultural preservation and stimulation of local pride in people's natural heritage.     

Transport and photochemical effects seen in stratospheric NO2 amounts

Column contents amounts of NO₂ were measured from our sites at 45°S, 53°S and 78°S using long path differential absorption spectroscopy. In spring, the two mid-latitude sites exhibit essentially the same smooth winter to summer transition. While this trend is also present in the Antarctic data, large amplitude oscillations with a period of approximately 9 days are superimposed on this trend. These oscillations are explained in terms of transport of mid-stratospheric air from more poleward or more equatorial latitudes.The observed night-time decay of NO₂ is shown to agree with a simple N₂O₅ chemical conversion scheme.     

稿本《杜解传薪》提要

在我国古代诗人中,唐代大诗人杜甫诗的注本是最多的.早在宋代,已号称千家注杜.其后,注杜、评杜、研杜著作可谓汗牛充栋.今特选世所罕见者--清赵星海所撰《杜解传薪》简介如下,以飨读者.     

The noon and midnight mid-latitude trough as seen by Ariel 4

The electron density data returned by the polar orbiting satellites Ariel 3 and Ariel 4 revealed that the mid-latitude trough is one of the distinct large-scale features of the ionosphere at about 550 km. Recent work (e.g. Tulunay and Grebowsky, 1975) on the data included the investigation of the temporal development of the latitudinal position of the mid-latitude electron density trough at dawn and dusk during the large magnetic storms of May 1967 and May 1972. Model calculations which assumed that the equatorial convection E-field varies in step with the K_p index reproduced on the average the observed behaviour. In the present paper, trough observations made at noon and midnight during the period, 12–21 December 1971 which encompassed a relatively large magnetic storm have been discussed. In this context, model calculations have been employed as a guide of average approximations of the actual situation in predicting the plasmapause location. It is also shown that the trough observed on the noon passes is not generally plasmapause related as we expect the nightside troughs to be.     

Angle-of-arrival oscillations in the mesosphere as seen by medium frequency (MF) radar

The Saskatoon MF radar operates continuously in the spaced antenna mode with 5 min resolution, primarily for horizontal wind analysis at mesospheric heights. Mean Doppler frequency and antenna-pair phase difference are available as byproducts. Clear oscillations are sometimes seen in the latter. Spectral analysis shows that these also occur in the Doppler and extend over a range of heights. The two cases shown are almost certainly perturbations in specular reflecting layers moving with horizontal velocity close to that of the wind. Downward phase propagation is apparent, and when the oscillations are present, the wind appears to be decelerating. The tentative explanation of a breaking gravity wave decelerating the mean flow is put forward, although the relations between frequency, and horizontal and vertical wavelengths, contradict linear gravity wave theory.     

The equatorial electrojet and associated currents as seen in Magsat data

Magsat data are re-examined with regard to the presence and character of fields due to the equatorial electrojet and meridional currents at dawn and dusk local times. Dip-latitude organized field variations at dawn are:

• 1.(1) extremely weak,
• 2.(2) extremely variable with longitude,
• 3.(3) inconsistent with the pattern expected from a line or narrow sheet current.

It is shown that the use of Magsat dusk data can ‘contaminate’ a main field model, introducing apparent equatorial electrojet effects into the dawn data.Fields due to the equatorial electrojet and (presumably) associated meridional currents are clearly present in the dusk data. They show a variation with longitude which is apparently associated with the longitudinal variation of the strength, or square of the strength, of the main field in the E-region. Also evident is a variation with time of the year, although data are available for only a six month period. The meridional currents are generally minimum during January and February and maximum either during November and December or March and April, depending upon longitude. The E-region horizontal currents are minimum in November and December and maximum in March and April, except for − 30° to −90° longitude when the maximum occurs in January and February.Assuming that field gradients in local time are considerably smaller than field gradients in dip-latitude, current densities are estimated to be 1–3.6μA/m² for the horizontal current at 110km and about 10–20 × 10⁻⁹ A/m² for the vertical currents at 400km altitude. These results confirm and extend earlier results of Takeda and Maeda.Most models of the electrojet system in the literature disagree severely with these measurements either because their scope is inadequate or because of the wind system they assume. Those models which best describe the data invoke an eastward wind and/or an eastward electric field at dusk local time.     

Chronology and palaeoenvironment of levantine prehistoric sites as seen from sediment studies

Analysis of sediments from the sites of et-Tabun, Jebel Qafza, and Sefunim in Israel, of Ksar 'Aqil in Lebanon, and of Yabrud Rockshelter I and Jerf 'Ajla in Syria leads to a reconstruction of the environments of deposition, periods of weathering and erosion, and relations to changing sea level during the times of occupation of these sites by prehistoric man. The overlapping sequences span the interval from part or all of the last interglaciation through the time of the last glaciation into historic time. Aeolians and from the last interglacial littoral zone and aeolian silt from more distant deserts dominate the site sediments until the early part of the last glaciation (especially at Tabun), whereas colluvial slope deposits, alluvium (Ksar 'Aqil), and angular rockfall debris are characteristic of the mid-last glaciation sediments in most sites, commonly with an admixture of reworked terra rossa soil sediment. These latter sediments seem to reflect a period or periods of greater available moisture or surface run-off. Prominent unconformities mark many sites at times coincident with the final middle palaeolithic (mousterian) occupations or in the interval between middle palaeolithic and upper palaeolithic occupations. It is not clear, in the absence of firm radiometric dates, whether these hiatuses should be correlated from site-to-site or whether they are site-specific. Freeze/thaw phenomena appear not to have played a significant role, if any at all, in the origin of sediments in coastal Levantine sites, although the middle palaeolithic of the Syrian Desert (Yabrud, Jerf 'Ajla) is contained in typical cryoclastic rubble. Finally, the reconstructed sedimentary environments are compared with the still-too-sparse palynological record for the Near East. Parallels of more humid and less humid climatic intervals throughout the past 60,000 to 70,000 years in both of these records reinforce the growing impression of a regionally fluctuating climate in the eastern Mediterranean region during the time of the last glaciation.     

Revealing the city in maps: Bath seen, built, and imagined

Putting Bath on the Map is an exhibition of maps of the City of Bath displayed in the Building of Bath Collection. The maps are considered in the context of the permanent collection of the museum which examines how buildings were constructed in the eighteenth-century city. The exhibition reviews how buildings moved from conception, as shown on maps and in architectural texts, through legal, financial, and material processes to take their place in the landscape. This essay considers the display of particular maps, such as Joseph Gilmore's (1694), and John Wood's (1735), and the recent city initiative to improve its signage maps to help visitors and citizens build mental maps of the historic city.     

“Nameless landscapes” - what can be seen and understood on a battlefield?

Abstract

A battlefield—as a complex notion—encompasses many kinds of space, from the physical to the symbolic. The features of geographical elements together created the stage for a clash and conditioned in some way (partly or even entirely) the course and result of the battle. However, today’s battlefield landscape is often a literary silent witness to history, telling us nothing of the past. Given the fact that battlefields have become tourist attractions and are a destination not only to the so-called ‘dedicated cultural tourists’, there is a need to give the landscape a voice in the complex tourist narration. In order to enable including a historical landscape story in a general tourist narration about a battlefield, a theoretical framework of a historical battlefield is proposed and discussed to justify the need of using specific tourist facilities to make the past present in today’s landscape. The case of Rac?awice battlefield in Poland illustrates the ‘nameless landscape’ where only the symbolic space is readable and linked with the past. It also supports a conclusion that there is a need to make the battlefield legible in terms of the sequence of events, the roles of people (groups and individual), and the role of geographical features in the battle. In this simple condition, a visit to a battlefield might be more complex and provide a fuller understanding.     

Evolution of the Palaeolithic landscape at the westernmost tip of continental Europe: The shoreline seen by the Menez Dregan dwellers

The successive dwellers of the Palaeolithic Menez Dregan site (Finistère, France) experienced a different landscape because of the relative sea level transgressions and regressions which affected Audierne Bay between 465 and 369?Ka. We computed a series of bathymetric measurements and then produced a series of 3D images between Penmarc'h Bill, the Sein Ridge and the –120?m isobath to reconstruct these landscapes. Due to the lack of flint in the onshore and offshore Brittany basement, the –40 and –80?m regressive stages have been particularly well studied as they correspond to two well-developed flint-rich boulder bars. The other topographic features which probably attracted the attention of pre-Neanderthals were: (1) the vertical granite cliffs of Sein, Audierne and Penmarc'h; (2) the mid-Bay granitic pinnacles and cascade; (3) the Raz pass, which was the only communication route between the Audierne and Douarnenez Bays; (4) the Goayen and Pouldreuzic Rivers; (5) the Ar Palinier plateau made up of shelly limestone characterised by small caves and dolinas; (6) the Bigorne marsh, infilled by continental mud, which received drainage from all the rivers and the cascade; (7) the gentle south-facing slope located south of Sein island and (8) the N130° 2?m linear step cutting across all of their territory. Some of these data suggest that other Palaeolithic sites may have occurred at a deeper depth than the present sea level.     

Sidelining the Hardliners: A 2 + 1 Solution for Israel‐Palestine

This article presents a modified two‐state solution to the Israeli‐Palestinian conflict. A “2 + 1 solution” would see the establishment of a State of Palestine in the West Bank whose constitution proscribes the participation in government of any party whose platform calls for the elimination of Israel; Gaza would accede upon the reform or demise of Hamas. Achieving a state in the West Bank should be the proximate, urgent goal of the Palestinian people. Ideologically motivated Israeli settlement of the West Bank continues apace and threatens the viability of a two‐state solution. Meanwhile, religiously motivated policies of colonization hide behind a security narrative conflating Hamas with Fatah and suggesting that the Palestinians pose an existential threat. The 2 + 1 solution, by excluding Hamas from a State of Palestine, directly addresses Israel's legitimate security concerns and thus carries the potential to lay bare the extent to which ideology informs Israeli policy. The approach also gives moderate Palestinians the opportunity to define the civic values and attributes of Palestinian national identity in a way that supports a lasting two‐state peace.