A magnetometer survey with electronic positioning control and calculator-plotter system

Historical Archaeology - This paper describes the instruments, methodology, and results of a marine magnetometer survey of twenty-five miles of the South Texas coast conducted by the Underwater...     

The monetary reform of 1854 in the Duchy of Schleswig: a case of attempted state-building

This article is a survey of the monetary reform of 1854 in the Duchy of Schleswig, then part of the Danish monarchy. The reform can be seen as the third of three major attempts to overcome the economic and political difficulties associated with a heterogeneous and divided monetary system within the Danish state in the period from the end of the eighteenth to the middle of the nineteenth century. Informed by theories of institutional economics and state-building and based on contemporary sources, the article critically examines the problematic implementation of a single currency in a nineteenth-century region torn by ethno-political tensions and upheaval. The national split between German and Danish in the Duchy seriously hampered the dissemination of the new currency, thus obstructing the reform and the fulfilment of its underlying ambition: to transform Schleswig into a more harmonious polity within the institutional framework of the Danish composite monarchy.     

The tragedy of the commodity and the farce of AquAdvantage Salmon

The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve AquAdvantage Salmon as the first genetically modified animal for human consumption. The genetic modifications allow the proprietary fish to grow at a rate twice as fast as a wild salmon, leading to greater ‘efficiency’ in terms of reduced costs and reduced time to market. This article provides an analysis of the ways in which AquAdvantage Salmon exemplifies capitalist market forces controlling and guiding the terms of salmon recovery and conservation. The authors trace historical developments within the salmon industry to demonstrate how capitalist commodity production has impacted fishing communities. They reject the oft-cited ‘tragedy of the commons’ hypothesis offered to explain fisheries crises. In its place, they offer the conceptual framework of the ‘tragedy of the commodity’ to explore how capitalist market forces and complicit state regulations amplify rather than resolve global environmental problems.     

‘TWIN SUN’: A SIMPLE LUNAR ECLIPSE PREDICTOR

A simple method to predict lunar eclipses proposed in this article uses the position of the full moon relative to the sun. Calculations show that the method works better during the summer period in Scandinavia simply because the night is shorter and therefore the moon is closer to the exact time of the lunar eclipse when the moon rises as the sun is setting. When the conditions are right, the moon reflects the red colour of the setting sun. The two celestial bodies look within a short time as similar objects, like twins or ‘Twin Sun’ (TS). This article aims to demonstrate that TS is a useful method to predict lunar eclipses during the summer period at Northern latitudes. It will be discussed that TS as a lunar eclipse predictor could partly explain the alignment of some megalithic monuments in Denmark constructed from c. 3300-3100 BC. Finally, it is suggested that TS could be an explanation behind the doubleness reflected in the construction of the Danish passage graves. Some archaeological finds seemingly also render the TS phenomenon.