PLAYING AT BEING MEN

Among the Gende people in Madang Province the game of Last Card is played almost exclusively by young men. Requiring greater concentration and skill than the more popular games of Three Leaf and Seven, Last Card is rejected by older players on the grounds that it angers them when their carefully planned strategies are upset by the lucky draw of a less skilled opponent. This paper examines Last Card's appeal for young men and puts forward the proposition that, in many respects, Last Card is a functional equivalent of traditional male initiation. Providing frequent opportunity for public displays of self-control and mastery, games of Last Card give otherwise undistinguished village youths a chance to attract the attentions of potential mates and brideprice supporters. For players who are especially talented (or lucky) Last Card is a source of income to be invested in exchange relations with other youths as well as older men and women. Finally, although older card players rarely play Last Card, they are keen observers of the game and will sponsor new players by giving them the initial stakes.     

Modeling and deterioration mapping of façades in historical urban context by close-range ultra-lightweight UAVs photogrammetry

Deterioration mapping of façades may be a challenging task in historical urban contexts, often characterized by narrow streets and tall buildings. In these situations, the application of Terrestrial Laser Scanning or Terrestrial Photogrammetry does not provide satisfactory results. Furthermore, the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, the so-called “drones”, is generally forbidden in crowded places for safety reasons unless they are lighter than a weight imposed by the regulations in force in each country. This article presents the application of a very small and ultra-lightweight drone (less than 300 g) equipped with a low-cost camera, particularly suitable for operating in very narrow spaces. A close range photogrammetric survey performed to analyze a huge historical building façade in Bologna (Italy) pointed out a good accuracy level, confirmed by the validation of the results carried out by a 3D laser scanner survey. Moreover, a map of the degradation has been realized to support further restoration analysis, demonstrating that this low-cost, fast, and easy-to-use survey technique can be applied to other similar urban contexts at the same time.     

Showing and telling science – the integrated use of literature and images in the works of Erasmus Darwin and Alexander von Humboldt

ABSTRACT

In recent years, both the fields of literature and science and visual culture of science have addressed the importance of different visual and literary elements and their roles in establishing meaning and communication in science. In this article, I explore how visual and textual elements work to establish a narrative of plants in Erasmus Darwin’s The Botanic Garden (1791) and in Alexander von Humboldt’s Essai sur la géographie des plantes (1804). These two scientists employed literary and visual elements in order to construct their visions of the nature of plants in a time when the ideals of Enlightenment science gave way to a more holistic view of integrating the sciences and the arts. I, therefore, also discuss the analytical approach of integrated readings between the literary and visual elements of science.