Mud Silk and the Chinese Laundress: From the South China Silk Industry to Mud Silk Suits in Maine

In 1921, bride Toy Len Goon (1892–1993), a peasant from Guangdong (Canton) South China, emigrated to Portland, Maine, USA where she and her husband ran a suburban laundry. She became a respected member of the community and, in 1952, American ‘Mother of the Year’. This article follows her biography by investigating a group of four recently rediscovered tunic and trouser suits preserved from her trousseau. The suits are made of Guangdong mud silk, a two-colour fabric distinguished by its black upper surface and brown underside. Mud silk is a little recognised, studied or collected South-East Asian textile. By examining mud silk and its manufacture within the context of Guangdong’s rise and decline as a major silk producer and exporter, this article contributes a new perspective to the present limited body of research on this regional textile.     

石阡 把最美的生态留给未来

正"美丽中国生态科考"是由国家林业局中国野生动植物保护协会与贵州省林业厅共同发起,联合国环境规划署、联合国人居署、世界自然基金会(WWF)、国际爱护动物基金会等机构共同主办的一个生态公益系列品牌活动。计划用5~10年时间,科考穿越中国境内最典型的20个国家级自然保护区,2015年11月,首站贵州石阡佛顶山国家级自然保护区为活动拉开序幕。2015年11月下旬,贵州省石阡县一直笼罩在雾霭氤氲之中,给为期7天的"美丽中国生态科考"佛顶山大型跨     

持“女儿国护照”走近现代摩梭人

在云南省盐源县内的泸沽湖,生活着一群至今仍延续着母系氏族特点的摩梭人。那儿独特的"阿夏"婚姻,古老原始的社会形态,淳朴独特的民族风情,丰富神秘的宗教文化,如痴如醉的歌舞之乡,珍禽异鸟的天然乐园,为这片土地染上了一层美丽的色彩,在全国乃至全球都具有唯一性和不可替代性,因而成为宝贵的世界文化遗产。     

持“女儿国护照”走近现代摩梭人

在云南省盐源县内的泸沽湖,生活着一群至今仍延续着母系氏族特点的摩梭人。那儿独特的阿夏婚姻,古老原始的社会形态,淳朴独特的民族风情,丰富神秘的宗教文化,如痴如醉的歌舞之乡,珍禽异鸟的天然乐园,为这片土地染上了一层美丽的色彩,在全国乃至全球都具有唯一性和不可替代性,因而成为宝贵的世界文化遗产。     

From medicine to psychotherapy: the placebo effect

If placebos have been squeezed out of medicine to the point where their official place in in clinical trials designed to identify their own confounding effect, the placebo effect nevertheless thrives in psychotherapy. Not only does psychotherapy dispose of placebo effects that are less available to medicine as it becomes increasingly technological and preoccupied with body parts, but factors of the sort inhibiting the use of placebos in medicine have no equivalent in psychology. Medicine today is disturbed by the placebo effect in a way psychotherapy is not. Psychotherapy does not have to grapple with such a disconcerting paradox as successful sham surgery, and unlike those physicians who once pretended to treat the patient's body while actually attempting to treat the mind, the psychotherapist can treat the mind in all frankness. Perhaps it is because psychotherapy is less burdened by doubts about the placebo effect that it was able to come to its aid when it was orphaned by medicine. It is vain to expect something with so long a history as the placebo effect to disappear from the practices of healing.     

The Voyage of the Shilka: The Bolshevik Revolution Comes To Seattle, 1917

This article explores the questions and intrigue arising from the appearance of the Russian ship Shilka at the port of Seattle in December 1917. The first Russian vessel to reach American shores since the Bolshevik seizure of power, the Shilka raised both local and national fears of collusion between Soviet agitators and domestic radicals, especially the militant Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The article challenges the conclusions of an earlier article which argued against any substantive contact or understanding between the Russian seamen and locals. Relying on the memoirs of a Bolshevik crew member, the recollections of Seattle radicals and the reports of US Bureau of Investigation and Naval Intelligence agents, this article instead demonstrates the genuine presence of Bolshevik agitators and propaganda aboard the Shilka and their secret interaction with IWW activists. It also reveals a leak on the Russian end, a leak that both stimulated and perplexed American investigators.     

Ambitious deep energy retrofits of buildings to accelerate the 1.5°C energy transition in Canada

Scientists advise limiting global warming to 1.5°C with substantial actions by 2030. Our viewpoint argues that climate response strategies in Canada have underemphasized and underestimated the potential contribution deep energy retrofits can make to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions, leading to inadequate responses in the building sector, and that Canada can (and should) be ambitious with building retrofits over the next decade. GHG savings from building retrofits can be realized more quickly than GHG reductions from other sectors, and either deliver net cost savings or are cost‐effective when compared to other mitigation measures. Retrofits can also provide social and economic benefits, such as improved health and comfort, and lower energy costs. This paper reviews energy use and building retrofits in Canada and argues the following should be implemented: (1) focus innovation on deep energy retrofit processes, not singular retrofit actions; (2) maximize both social and environmental benefits; (3) improve data gathering and availability for analysis and delivery; (4) innovate for a process of decisions and to avoid “dropouts” during the retrofit process; and (5) focus innovation on business models that maximize benefits.