Notes from the Iberian Algae Belt

In this paper, we explore regional innovation in the use of varieties of algae as inputs to industrial processes. It is important to understand that algae are one of nature's most bountiful products, with an almost infinite variety of applications. Algae have received prominence in the research literature because of the strong evidence that they can make a major contribution to the production and—importantly—storage of renewable energy. Following the introduction to this paper, Section 2 reviews the nature and application of algae in two main aspects of clean energy production: first as biogasolene or biodiesel; second as large-scale storage batteries for electricity. The latter is particularly important as one classic deficiency of electricity is the difficulty in storing it for lengthy periods other than in short-life batteries. However (Section 3), there are other uses for algae, ranging from aquaculture to medicine and the production of cosmetics. In the southwest corner of the Iberian Peninsula, between Faro in Portugal through Huelva to Cadiz in Spain, is a significant research and commercial algae production zone. The paper describes the key system elements in play in this trans-border innovation network and considers prospects for new path creation towards biofuels, the main research and application centres for which are in the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Conclusions and recommendations for policy action are then drawn.     

THE FUTURE ENVIRONMENTAL AGENDA OF THE USSR

A set of contemporary and increasingly urgent environmental problems in the USSR are surveyed, emerging as a result of continued development and technological change and mandating, in effect, a new environmental agenda. Analysis of specific problems reveals ways in which the new agenda must differ from the old: it must be more ecologically based, more comprehensive, and more global in scope. A concluding section examines how this agenda appears to be evolving over time, and identifies components which will be essential in order for it to effectively address the environmental challenges of the next century.     

Missionaries of the Millennium: Israelite Preachers in the English‐Speaking World, 1823–1863

This article recovers the global history of the English millennial religion of Southcottianism. After Joanna Southcott died in 1814, leaving thousands of English followers still expecting the millennium that she prophesied, elements of her movement generated further prophets and a dynamic missionary division known as “Israelite Preachers.” From the 1820s onwards, these preachers took Southcott's ideas and new doctrines developed by her successor, John Wroe, throughout the British Isles, then the English‐speaking world, most notably Australia and North America. Drawing mission approaches (and recruits) from revivalist dissent, Israelite preachers forged first a Britain‐wide sect, then a global movement which followed the British settler diaspora and competed with rival American millennialisms. The spread of Southcottianism is a forgotten episode in the story of nineteenth‐century British colonial missions, and an argument for examining millennial movements beside more mainstream Christianity.     

Adapting the roman alphabet for writing Old English: evidence from coin epigraphy and single‐sheet charters

Single‐sheet charters and coin epigraphy provide valuable evidence for the development of representations of the Old English dental fricative in the seventh and eighth centuries. This evidence indicates differing Kentish and Mercian practices up to the 780s, when scribes in both areas rapidly adopt <ð> to represent this sound. In Kent, occasional experimentation with this character from perhaps as early as the reign of Eadbald (616–40 ad ) may suggest a lengthy period of gradual adoption prior to the rapid increase. Mercian practice instead shows an abrupt adoption, which is perhaps the result of reform according to external (perhaps Kentish) models.     

“Castram AD Divisas.” The Castle at the Boundaries

Abstract

Documentary evidence reveals that, when in 1395 the Purbeck marble tomb with gilt cast copper-alloy effigies commemorating Richard II and his queen, Anne of Bohemia, was installed in St Edward the Confessor's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, another tomb was moved to make room for it. It has commonly been supposed that the displaced tomb was the Cosmatesque tomb chest now in the south ambulatory, which has traditionally been believed to house the bones of Katherine, daughter of Henry III, and up to eight other royal infants and older children of Henry III and Edward I. Examination of the evidence indicates that neither part of this view is correct. Three other tombs may have been moved from the Confessor's chapel; of these, the highstatus monument to William de Valence is the most likely candidate for the tomb displaced in 1395.     

A Pre-Norman Field-System at Hen Domen,Montgomery

SURVEY of a field, immediately north of the early Norman motte-and-bailey castle of Hen Domen, Montgomery, revealed ridge-and-furrow, averaging 4 m. in width, cut by the outer ditch of the bailey. Excavation demonstrated that the ridge-and-furrow extended under the inner rampart of the bailey. Pollen analysis of the buried soil showed the former presence of cereals and the weeds of cultivation. A Carbon-14 date from charcoal in the buried soil reinforced the view that this field-system was in use before the Norman conquest.