Historical Note

La télévision a joué un rôle essentiel dans la définition de l'intellectuel pour le grand public. L'article s'interroge sur l'évolution de l'exposition médiatique de l'intellectuel, son adaptation aux contraintes de l'outil télévisuel et le statut que lui accorde la télévision, de ses origines à nos jours. Quatre grandes phases se dégagent. La première (années 1950–1960), marquée par l'emprise du pouvoir mais aussi l'ambition culturelle du petit écran, oppose le «savant-professeur» médiatisé à l'intellectuel engagé, absent de la télévision. La deuxième (l'après-68), correspond au moment où même les intellectuels les plus engagés acceptent de se montrer à la télévision. Elle prépare la troisième (fin années 1970-années 1990), celle de l'«intellectuel médiatique» qui se prête volontiers au jeu du spectacle télévisuel. Enfin, depuis les années 1990, s'impose l'intellectuel-expert, choisi par la télévision pour ses talents de communication, et en dehors de tout engagement politique.     

Henry Head in Ewald Hering’s Laboratory in Prague 1884–1886: An Early Study on the Nervous Control of Breathing

Henry Head, the English neurologist, received the main parts of his academic education in Cambridge and in London. In addition, he spent two years in Prague where he worked in the physiology department of the German university under the guidance of Ewald Hering. He was interested in the nervous control of breathing and worked out a new method of recording the tension and the contractions of the diaphragm in anaesthetised animals. His results substantiated the experimental basis of the Hering-Breuer reflexes and included the discovery of a new reflex now named Head’s paradoxical reflex. Head not only wrote an extensive paper about his scientific work, the recollections of his time in Prague also formed a considerable part of his autobiographical notes. These were written some forty years later and still expressed a deep affection for his teacher and mentor.     

Five thousand years of atmospheric Ni,Zn, As,and Cd deposition recorded in bogs from NW Iberia: prehistoric and historic anthropogenic contributions

The analysis of environmental archives from across the world has demonstrated that human perturbation of the geochemical cycles of trace metals and the resultant atmospheric metal contamination date back, at least, several millennia. However, an understanding of the local processes and timing of changes in trace metal deposition is also essential for a proper global interpretation. The Iberian Peninsula was a major mining area since prehistoric times and the analysis of environmental archives provides a good opportunity to improve our understanding of the history of mining and metallurgy in Europe. We present the results from three ¹⁴C dated peat cores from the Xistral Mountains (NW Iberia). These records are used to reconstruct past atmospheric deposition of Ni, Zn, As, and Cd. The chronology of the changes in concentrations and metal accumulation rates was found to be concordant in the three bogs, and showed great similarity to total Pb, Hg, and Pb isotope ratios as determined in previous investigations. They present a consistent view of changes in atmospheric pollution and the importance of metals in the development of human societies, especially: i) the first evidence of atmospheric metal pollution 3400 years ago, which is simultaneous with the expansion of the Atlantic Bronze Koine; ii) a pollution event between 2350 and 2150 years ago, associated to the development of so-called Celtic culture (local Late Iron Age); iii) a dramatic increase of metal fluxes in Roman times; iv) a severe and rapid increase in the last 250 years corresponding to the beginning of the industrial revolution in Europe, reflecting the emergence of the new dominant sources of pollution, and v) the increase of long range atmospheric transport of pollutants. Our data suggest that all detected ancient (until ca. 1450 cal BP) periods of enhanced Ni, Zn, As, and Cd accumulation may have had an anthropogenic origin, related to the onset and development of mining and metallurgy.     

Precarious Democratization and Local Dynamics in Niger: Micro–Politics in Zinder

Literature on the African state often finds it hard to specify what is state and what is not. The closer one gets to a particular political landscape, the more apparent it becomes that many institutions have something of a twilight character. This article argues that studies of local politics in Africa should focus on how the public authority of institutions waxes and wanes and how political competition among individuals and organizations expresses the notion of state and public authority. This is explored in the context of contemporary political struggles in Niger, played out in three different arenas in the region of Zinder around 1999, as home–town associations, chieftaincies and vigilante groups all take on the mantle of public authority in their dealings with what they consider to be their antithesis, the ‘State’.     

Klaus G. Witz,The Supreme Wisdom of the Upanisads: An Introduction

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

Design thinking for city dashboard development: Recommendations from a study of smart asset management in Sydney,Australia

The city dashboard has become an integral component of smart city asset management systems. It leverages data collected from multiple sources to monitor performance and enable evidence-based decision making. This article investigates the use of a design thinking framework to develop a functional and easy to understand city dashboard. The Smart Social Spaces project is used as a case study to illustrate how design thinking can be employed to develop an asset management dashboard, enabling efficient management of public space and infrastructure. The article profiles the unique collaboration between a local government, a multi-disciplinary team of university academics, and a street furniture designer and manufacturer, all located in Sydney, Australia. We unpack some of the design practice nuances that led this project to receive national awards and international recognition, and most importantly, created a user-friendly system to track and maintain public micro assets. We conclude with lessons learnt and recommendations for dashboard development through a design thinking process.