Phosphatic mineralization of seeds from archaeological sites

Recent investigations of botanical material from archaeological sites have provided seeds and plant remains exhibiting a crystalline or semi-crystalline appearance. X-ray diffraction and partial chemical analysis have revealed that the particular plant materials had been replaced by calcium phosphate. Using systematic sampling and retrieval techniques a significant body of data has been accumulated. Most mineralized botanical evidence has been recovered from faecal deposits, in particular cess pits and garderobes, and has provided an important source of information about aspects of diet of past populations.     

Imago Mundi bibliography (of literature mainly published 1994–1996)

The Vinland Map and the Tartar Relation. By R. A. Skelton, Thomas E. Marston and George D. Painter, with a foreword by Alexander 0. Vietor; New Edition with an Introduction by George D. Painter and Essays by Wilcomb E. Washburn, Thomas A. Cahill and Bruce H. Kusko, and Laurence C. Witten II. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995. ISBN 0 300 06520 5. Pp. lxvi, 291, ill. STG£30 (cloth).     

Fear and Loathing in Cyberspace

Stephen E. Frantzich, Computers in Congress: The Politics of Information
Stephen E. Frantzich, Political Parties in the Technological Age
David H. Freedman and Charles C. Mann, At Large: The Strange Case of the Worlds Biggest Internet Invasion
Kevin A. Hill and John E. Hughes, Cyber politics: Citizen Activism in the Age of the Internet
Dinty W. Moore, The Emperors Virtual Clothes: The Naked Truth about Internet Culture
Tsutomu Shimomura with John Markoff, Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw—By the Man Who Did It
Ziauddin Sardar and Jerome R. Ravetz, (Eds.), Cyber futures: Culture and Politics on the Information Superhighway
Bruce Sterling, The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier     

A Synthesis of Aggregation Methods for Multifacility Location Problems: Strategies for Containing Error

When solving a location problem using aggregated units to represent demand, it is well known that the process of aggregation introduces error. Research has focussed on individual components of error, with little work on identifying and controlling total error. We provide a focussed review of some of this literature and suggest a strategy for controlling total error. Consideration of alternative criteria for evaluating aggregation schemes shows that the method selected should be compatible with the objectives of the analyses in which it is used. Experiments are described that show that two different measures of error are related in a nonlinear way to the number of aggregate demand points (q), for any value of the number of facilities (p). We focus on the parameter q/p and show that it is critical for determining the expected severity of the error. Many practical implementations of location algorithms operate within the range of q/p where the rate of change of error with respect to q/p is highest.