The Universe will be televised: space,science, satellites and British television production, 1946–1969

This essay uses material from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) archives to show how space-related technoscientific activities played a key role in the development of BBC television. The essay focuses on a crucial period when this influential cultural institution transitioned away from radio as their primary broadcast medium in the 1930s and 1940s to reluctantly embrace television in the 1950s and 1960s. Space-related activities, including astronomy, cosmology, rocketry, aerospace engineering, astrophysics and interplanetary research, played a key role in the modernization of BBC television broadcasting in two intersecting ways. Space-related material provided informative, yet popular, programmatic material that helped BBC television compete in an increasingly commercialized media market, and, later, space projects supplied technologies that impacted on the mechanics of broadcast production and transmission. The profile and prestige of space as a topic, in particular, its visuality, the drama of exploration it presented, and its association with celebrity scientists like Bernard Lovell and Fred Hoyle, meant that such programming became a crucial business asset for the BBC and a professional asset for ambitious producers who saw its commercial potential. Following the launch of Sputnik in 1957, space technology became further intertwined with the development of British broadcasting as the fields of satellite communications and broadcasting transmissions infrastructure converged. In particular, BBC producers promoted the potential development of communication satellites within their television programming by portraying such satellites as plausible and necessary for the advancement of civilization, and most crucially, as a prospective British Space Race achievement.     

Iron and bronze production in Iron Age IIA Philistia: new evidence from Tell es-Safi/Gath, Israel

A metallurgically-oriented excavation in Area A at Tell es-Safi/Gath yielded evidence for iron and bronze production dating to the early Iron Age IIA. Two pit-like features, which differed considerably from one another in colour, texture and content, were excavated. Evidence shows that each feature represents a different in situ activity related to iron production, inferred by the presence of hammerscales, slag prills and slag. An upturned crucible was found on top of one of the features. Analysis of the crucible slag showed that it was used for bronze metallurgy. Tuyères, both round and square in cross-section, were found in and around the two features. The presence of the two industries together presents a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between copper and iron working. This is especially important against the background of the scarcity of evidence for iron production in the Levant during the early phases of the Iron Age.     

Hypermobility and the governance of global production networks: The case of the Canadian cycle industry and its links with China and Taiwan

Western firms engaged in mass retailing and in product assembly make frequent changes to their global production networks (GPNs). Indeed, some GPNs show a tendency to hypermobility, which we define as a rapid switching of economic links among manufacturers, importers, and retailers. This theme is explored in the context of the Canadian bicycle industry where domestic production collapsed between 1980 and 2008, following a century of remarkable stability. After a period of flux when Taiwan was the key player, China has emerged as the dominant original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of bicycles sold in Canada, with big‐box stores accounting for the great majority of sales. We connect this increasing fluidity in supply arrangements and in the global organization of the industry with the governance of these GPNs. Several aspects of governance are considered, including the Sloanist practices of the largest Canadian retailers, and the activist role of the Chinese state in directing regional patterns of manufacturing in China.     

饕餮纹多变性研究

饕餮纹多变性的根源在于组成它的各器官的多变性。饕餮纹各器官的变形模式可总结为:不同形象同类器官间的置换,器官数量、位置、性质的变化,器官独立成纹以及器官兽化。这些变化模式突出表现了饕餮纹各器官的独立性和自由性。究其实质,独立性和自由性的根源在于这些器官来自不同的动物原型,通过分解—重组的模式将不同动物的器官集合于饕餮纹之上。而这些动物通常是与祭祀相关的牺牲和巫觋助手,它们具有人神媒介的特性,因而满足了青铜器纹饰用于沟通人神的需要。     

Is Fish Health Food or Poison? Farmed Fish and the Material Production of Un/Healthy Nature*

Abstract: This paper contributes to scholarship on health and environment by focusing on connections between human health and political economy of seafood. The contemporary rise of aquaculture is an effort on the part of the seafood industry to escape the contradictions of capital that create crisis in capture fisheries. Yet intensive aquaculture may also create human health problems that contribute to new crises. Aquaculture practices not only increase production of healthful fish, but also lead to fish burdened with chemical pollutants about which there are a variety of health concerns. These health concerns pose problems for producers who may not be able to sell contaminated seafood. By examining the intertwined biochemical and social processes that produce multiple natures (fish bodies, human bodies and the aquatic environment), the paper shows that concerns about health are not only an outcome of political economic processes, but are also an explanatory factor in these processes.     

土遗址保护利用模式探讨——以西安地区为例

土遗址是一个较为庞大的体系,它本身的特性决定了对其保护利用应尽量遵循原真性原则和可读性原则,其中原真性原则对应遗产保护,可读性原则对应遗产利用。西安地区土遗址保护利用模式可大致分为室内模式和露天模式。室内模式对保护遗址本身的原真性较为得力,但在原真环境保存方面有一定的欠缺,适用于经过考古发掘清理,需要展示多种遗迹现象的土遗址;露天模式在保护环境原真以及提高可读性方面有着重要意义,但应与室内模式有机地结合,才能达到理想效果,适用于原有形制不复杂,较为规整、对称的土遗址。     

青海出版业集团化发展模式略论

改革开放使青海出版业得到了长足发展。但随着改革步伐的不断深入,人们日益增长的对文化的需求,使得青海出版业自身存在的诸多问题不断显现出来。文章从整合优势资源的视角,提出青海出版业应走集团化发展模式之路,并就相关内容进行了论述。     

“课本剧表演”走进聋生的语文教学课堂

课本剧可以激发聋生学好语文的兴趣,能培养学生的活动能力、组织能力、创造能力、增强聋生的口语表达能力以及加深对课本、对生活的理解,增加与教材、社会的互动,使聋生能做到学以致用。进而提高学生的综合素质。     

中国共产党领导民族振兴的90年

中国共产党的90年,是领导中华民族重新崛起进而走向伟大振兴的90年。大体看来,前28年侧重于民族独立和民族解放,为民族振兴大业创造政治前提;中30年侧重于在中国实践马克思、恩格斯社会主义建设模式;近32年侧重于探索中国特色的社会主义发展模式并形成体现中西文化结合的中国特色社会主义的完善形态。