The Shorter Science and Civilisation in China: 1

Abstract

Desert landscapes are the least understood among terrain types of the Earth. The dearth of basic information on arid landforms has resulted in the misconception that the desert is man-made and that, therefore, we can 'fix it'. Scientific evidence indicates that deserts are part of the natural features of both Earth and Mars. They form as a result of the lack or scarcity of rain, which may be cyclical. The basic layout of today's arid terrain appears to have formed during humid periods in the geological past. Understanding of such features and those caused by wind erosion and deposition is essential to the development of deserts and semiarid lands for the benefit of mankind. Images obtained by spacecraft provide a new tool that is very useful in this regard, particularly in the location of groundwater resources to be used at times of cyclical droughts.     

The Civilisation Cards: US Army Style.

Abstract

The term ‘heritage crime’ has been recently brought into the spotlight by English Heritage — the organization tasked with protecting England’s heritage assets — and is attracting an increasing amount of attention from individuals and organizations from a range of disciplines. Heritage crime includes recognized crime types (such as arson, criminal damage, theft, and graffiti) but arguably has a greater impact on the country’s legacy for future generations because of the types of sites affected. This paper presents an initial examination of our understanding of heritage crime, and limitations to that knowledge. The paper contributes an initial typology to facilitate future interdisciplinary discussions of the problems facing heritage assets, and presents a possible route for expanding our ability to tackle this problem. Whilst this is an initial foray into the world of heritage crime, it is hoped that this paper will act as a stimulus for further discussion and action.     

澳大利亚 菲利普岛的生态乐活之旅

正上帝用最仁慈的心,勾勒出了菲利普岛上的你;你弱小又让人爱怜的样子,你坚强又让人心疼的日常,一直镌刻于我的心中;日出前,你出海逐浪;日落后,奋力回归;日复一日,年复一年,没人知道在大海里发生了什么。在眼前的,只是暗夜里,一心想着回家的你!菲利普岛又称企鹅岛,是澳大利亚维多利亚州南部西港海湾口的一座岛屿,位于墨尔本东南约130公里处,车程约2个小时。在菲利普岛西南部居住着超过3.2万只珍稀的小蓝企鹅(Little penguin),它们平均只有33厘米高,     

Paradigms,Assumptions, Enclosure,and Violence: The Hillforts of Strathdon

Abstract

This paper examines the assumptions and intellectual models that lie behind the debate around the connections between violence, warfare, and hillfort construction. These underlining academic paradigms have been heavily influenced by current social and political mores, which have created a context in which prehistoric and Early Medieval hillforts are studied in isolation and where the theoretical models have been developed from and with sole reference to the prehistoric period. In turn the debate in Scotland is based on a very limited number of dated hillforts. New excavation by the author from Aberdeenshire has allowed an attempt at an integrated settlement sequence and this is presented in the assumed context of violence as a dominant influencing factor in hillfort design and construction at specific periods.     

Rethinking Law and Violence: The Domestic Violence (Prevention) Bill in India, 2002

This essay focuses on the controversy generated by recent proposed legislation on domestic violence in India. An alternative draft bill on domestic violence prepared by the feminist legal NGO, the Lawyers’ Collective, and supported by women's groups nationally, includes a demand that victims of domestic violence (usually wives) be permitted by law to continue to occupy the domestic home, a demand that the Government bill has refused to include. This demand is theoretically informed by a politics of space. Bodies and space are linked, to the extent that each is an abstraction without the concept of the other to ground it. The feminist legal proposal challenges property‐as‐absolute‐(male) ownership by conceptualising the household as, instead, shared domestic space. The proposal does not dissimulate common sense – it is conscious of being radical, in part at least because it demystifies the ‘domestic’ as an ideological construct and offers it instead realistically and minimally as simply an alternative to destitution. The recognition that there are no support structures for dependant women outside the family (such as, for example, state‐sponsored welfare institutions), so that destitution can be both sudden and real for women of any class and circumstances, has led to the conceptualisation of a law that formulates a right to shared space as one that makes no claim to shared ownership – while at the same time questioning the other's absolute property right. Despite the limited nature of the claim it makes, this proposal has been viewed as threatening by Indian law‐makers.     

Port Royal, Jamaica: The archaeological problems and potential

In September 1968, one of the authors (P. Mayes), having been appointed Head of Mission by the British Ministry of Overseas Development to act as advisor to the Jamaica National Trust Commission, made recommendations which formed the basis for the establishment of the Port Royal Project. The Project is concerned with the excavation, conservation and presentation of 17th century Port Royal, which was founded in 1655 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1692 (see Fig. 1). For the purposes of archaeology the area was divided into three: the Archaeological-Historical Reserve, encompassing the protected underwater area and lands currently occupied by government facilities at the west end of Port Royal; the area in the centre of Port Royal which is protected archaeologically by modern housing and the area at the east end of Port Royal in which it was proposed that commercial expansion should be allowed on land held on lease from the Jamaican government. Work began early in 1969 in a section of this last area, which was threatened, at that time, by the construction of an hotel. This area was part of the shoal water section of sunken Port Royal (see below and Fig. 2). Since that date excavation headquarters and conservation laboratories have been established in the old naval hospital and the construction of a major museum, the first phase of the presentation programme, has begun.