"Silently Farting in the Face of the Empire." Review of Paul and the Imperial Roman Order

Abstract

As the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchy ventures more frequently into the sphere of environmental ethics and makes pronouncements on large-scale environmental problems, its effectiveness will consistently be undercut by its commitment to what is traditionally called "Catholic act analysis," which when used to evaluate a host of commonplace actions leads Catholics to believe that they are morally unproblematic. Yet when these same actions are performed day after day and year after year, they contribute to many large-scale environmental problems that are unquestionably harmful—and are often viewed negatively by the Catholic hierarchy. At some point, this pattern of approving morally of certain actions the cumulative, corporate side effects of which cause pernicious environmental problems will strain the Catholic Church's credibility on environmental matters—and until the hierarchy reexamines its commitment to Catholic act analysis, this dilemma will be unavoidable.     

Sightseeing in the mansions of the dead

This paper looks at a type of tourism visit which inhabits an ambiguous and relatively unmapped territory of meaning, crossing boundaries between the conceptual domains of pilgrimage, commemoration and pleasure-seeking. These visits and activities have developed in response to traumatic histories, and also reflect the growth of secular forms of spiritual experience, in which the pursuit of revelation is personal rather than hierophantic. Sites of Holocaust memorialization raise questions of memory and forgetting, guilt and redemption, meaning and ownership, with particularly acute force. However, even these most consecrated and highly cathected sites are experienced through the mediation of mimetic forms and processes of representation which significantly re-order testimony and evidence. Furthermore, the grounding of collective memory in sacralized locations and structures tends towards the distancing, externalizing and disarming of traumatic memory. Under these conditions, visitor motivations and experiences are polysemic: fractured, ambivalent, unstable, and resistant to paradigms of either the sacred or the profane.     

Bipolar antagonism and multipolar coexistence: framing difference and shaping fear in two Caribbean cities

This article proposes a new approach to urban geographies of fear, focusing on the connection between fear and cultural understandings and representations of difference. Much of the existing work on the relationship between fear, urban space, and social difference tends to take social difference as more or less given. In this article, we argue that how differences (such as ethnic, political or class differences) are framed has strong implications for geographies of fear. The article suggests that dualistic and nondualistic framings of difference influence levels of fear and that this becomes visible in the use and perceptions of urban space, and in the built environment through the erection of physical barriers. These spatial factors, as they limit mobility and interaction, tend to reproduce the specific framing of difference. Two discursive modes of representing difference are discussed. The first, ‘bipolar antagonism’, is based on a dualist rhetoric of irreconcilable opposites. This is contrasted with ‘multipolar co-existence’, in which social categories are understood as multiple or hybrid, with flexible or fluid boundaries, and as not necessarily antagonistic. This argument is elaborated through a comparative analysis of social–cultural and spatial processes in two Caribbean cities: Kingston, Jamaica, and Paramaribo, Suriname.     

Science in Dispute: Debating the Authority of Knowledge in an Environmental Contestation

This paper is an examination of science, as it is understood and contested between conservationists and developers in an application to construct a salt mine in Western Australia. If the salt mine were to go ahead, it would have become the largest salt mine in the world, adjacent to a World Heritage Area. Thus, the application triggered significant local interest in the potential environmental impacts on surrounding ecological systems. As the only means for the public to have an impact on decision‐making is through the environmental approvals process, much of the debate revolved around the validity and legitimacy of knowledge gained through ecological science. This paper focuses on the ways in which the conservationists and developers moulded and shaped scientific knowledge to fit their opposing beliefs, values, and aims. However, rather than focus on the overtly political manipulation of science, I examine why particular interpretations of science are considered legitimate by some participants in the dispute, while others are not. In particular, I ask, what does it take for particular scientific ‘facts' to be considered legitimate? To do so, I examine how the conservationists and developers came to conceptualise and frame science within the dispute. I argue that for members of either group to consider any scientific knowledge legitimate, it is first judged on its ability to resonate with their own worldviews, experiences, and aim.     

Non-destructive PXRF analysis of museum-curated obsidian from the Near East

Non-destructive pXRF has the potential to expand sample populations of archaeological provenancing studies by facilitating access to museum collections of artefacts. In this study, we use museum-curated obsidian for the sites of Tell Brak, Mersin-Yümüktepe and Tell Arpachiyah and geological obsidian samples from central Turkey to demonstrate that non-destructive pXRF is comparable to other techniques in differentiating between Near Eastern obsidian sources. Secondly, we use multivariate analysis to evaluate whether non-destructive pXRF is sufficiently accurate and precise to enable comparison with legacy datasets from previous analysis using PIXE and ICP-MS. Multivariate analyses show that instrumental offsets between the results from pXRF and other analytic techniques are less than source-to-source variation typical for most Anatolian obsidian outcrops and pXRF-identified geochemical groups are directly comparable to legacy datasets. Non-destructive pXRF analysis indicates that during the Chalcolithic, East Göllü da? and Nenezi da? continued to be the major sources of obsidian to communities in central Anatolia and the Bingöl range and mountains surrounding Lake Van supplied sites east of the Levant. Variations in the analysed assemblages suggest a number of obsidian exchange networks existed during this period.     

博物馆展示中的观众注意力引导——以“南越王墓出土文物陈列”为例

注意是人类进行信息加工的前提条件。博物馆观众的注意具有明显的选择性,大多数观众的参观是无意注意行为,博物馆应根据此特性进行管理,从展前的信息组织开始,合理规划展览的内容和形式;在展览预展期,应结合驻足人数、驻足时间以及参观效果访谈等因素进行观众注意力评量,并根据结果实时调整展览设计;开展后,应综合利用各种资源和手段,完善观众注意力引导,从而加强博物馆与观众之间的信息沟通与交流,实现博物馆的教育和传播功能。     

近现代工业遗产博物馆的特点与内涵

近现代工业遗产博物馆是博物馆的一种特殊类型,目前正呈现快速增长的态势。其特点主要表现为以近现代工业遗址性博物馆为主体,以在工业遗址的原状陈列为主要展示手法,以反映近现代城市工业文明足迹为主题,体现专题性与区域性的产业发展史。近现代工业遗产博物馆具有独特的内涵,它是解读近现代工业城市发展历史的一部书,也是折射近现代工业城市社会生活的一面镜子。近现代工业遗产博物馆的建设对城市个性的塑造具有重要的意义(增加)。     

Benchmark Standards for Geography: A personal review

The Human–Environment Research Observatory (HERO) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program aimed to develop the next generation of researchers working on place-based human–environment problems. The program followed a cooperative learning model to foster an integrated approach to geographic research and to build collaborative research skills. The program hosted 12–16 students annually, who first engaged in an intensive short course and then formed three- or four-person teams to conduct research in four biophysically and socioeconomically diverse places. The teams used cyberinfrastructure to collaborate and integrate their research and findings. Most of the REU students have opted to attend graduate school and specialize in human–environment research.     

周代生态环境的考古分析

考古发现了大量的周代农业生产工具,这些生产工具反映了当时农业发展的状况及对生态环境的影响,而周代的古都城址不仅体现了当时的环境观,还能看到城市的发展对生态环境的改变,周代的厚葬风气文献记载和考古发现都很多,使我们看到当时厚葬之风的盛行及其与生态环境的关系。考古发现不仅弥补了周代文献资料缺乏的不足,还能使我们更加客观和直观地认识周代的生态环境。     

海洋环境卸船机的防腐技术（综述）

随着全球港口海运的蓬勃发展,中国港机出口量越来越大。针对海洋环境下腐蚀和防腐蚀疲劳问题而展开卸船机钢结构和配套件防腐蚀研究日益受到人们的关注。文中通过对国内外卸船机钢结构和配套件防腐现状的介绍,分析和展望海洋环境卸船机钢结构及配套件防腐涂装体系的发展趋势,并就存在的固形物污染物的治理提出简浅的动议供从事同行工作者在对卸船机钢结构和配套件防腐蚀、增强该类设备寿命、实现在设备维护并提升我国同类产品机能和动力水平工作参考。