Download or read book Searching the Heavens and the Earth written by Agustin UDIAS and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-04-17 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jesuits established a large number of astronomical, geophysical and meteorological observatories during the 17th and 18th centuries and again during the 19th and 20th centuries throughout the world. The history of these observatories has never been published in a complete form. Many early European astronomical observatories were established in Jesuit colleges. During the 17th and 18th centuries Jesuits were the first western scientists to enter into contact with China and India. It was through them that western astronomy was first introduced in these countries. They made early astronomical observations in India and China and they directed for 150 years the Imperial Observatory of Beijing. In the 19th and 20th centuries a new set of observatories were established. Besides astronomy these now included meteorology and geophysics. Jesuits established some of the earliest observatories in Africa, South America and the Far East. Jesuit observatories constitute an often forgotten chapter of the history of these sciences.

Download or read book Tahiti Nui written by Colin W. Newbury and published by University of Hawaii Press. This book was released on 2019-03-31 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tahiti Nui is an account of the survival of a Polynesian society in the face of successive settlements of missionaries, traders, and administrators. Beginning with the first explorers and Captain Cook's scientific observations at Point Venus, Dr. Newbury has separated the various strands interwoven in the fabric of Tahitian society, tracing their development and showing how they interacted at successive stages. Missionaries and foreign traders, administrators and Polynesians, planters and immigrant Chinese have all contributed to the distinctive flavor of French Polynesia, with Tahiti and Tahitians becoming increasingly dominant, not just as the focus of the French administration in Pape'ete, but in the social networks and trading patterns that have evolved.

Download or read book Science of Societal Safety written by Seiji Abe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-12-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This open access book covers comprehensive but fundamental principles and concepts of disaster and accident prevention and mitigation, countermeasures, and recovery from disasters or accidents including treatment and care of the victims. Safety and security problems in our society involve not only engineering but also social, legal, economic, cultural, and psychological issues. The enhancement needed for societal safety includes comprehensive activities of all aspects from precaution to recovery, not only of people but also of governments. In this context, the authors, members of the Faculty of Societal Safety Science, Kansai University, conducted many discussions and concluded that the major strategy is consistent independently of the type and magnitude of disaster or accident, being also the principle of the foundation of our faculty. The topics treated in this book are rather widely distributed but are well organized sequentially to provide a clear understanding of the principles of societal safety. In the first part the fundamental concepts of safety are discussed. The second part deals with risks in the societal and natural environment. Then follows, in the third part, a description of the quantitative estimation of risk and its assessment and management. The fourth part is devoted to disaster prevention, mitigation, and recovery systems. The final, fifth part presents a future perspective of societal safety science. Thorough reading of this introductory volume of societal safety science provides a clear image of the issues. This is largely because the Japanese have suffered often from natural disasters and not only have gained much valuable information about disasters but also have accumulated a store of experience. We are still in the process of reconstruction from the Great East Japan earthquake and the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident. This book is especially valuable therefore in studying the safety and security of people and their societies.

Download or read book A Short History of Mathematical Population Dynamics written by Nicolas Bacaër and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-02-01 with total page 160 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Eugene Wigner stressed, mathematics has proven unreasonably effective in the physical sciences and their technological applications. The role of mathematics in the biological, medical and social sciences has been much more modest but has recently grown thanks to the simulation capacity offered by modern computers. This book traces the history of population dynamics---a theoretical subject closely connected to genetics, ecology, epidemiology and demography---where mathematics has brought significant insights. It presents an overview of the genesis of several important themes: exponential growth, from Euler and Malthus to the Chinese one-child policy; the development of stochastic models, from Mendel's laws and the question of extinction of family names to percolation theory for the spread of epidemics, and chaotic populations, where determinism and randomness intertwine. The reader of this book will see, from a different perspective, the problems that scientists face when governments ask for reliable predictions to help control epidemics (AIDS, SARS, swine flu), manage renewable resources (fishing quotas, spread of genetically modified organisms) or anticipate demographic evolutions such as aging.

Download or read book The Lighthouse and the Observatory written by Daniel A. Stolz and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-11 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This history of astronomy in Egypt reveals how modern science came to play an authoritative role in Islamic religious practice.

Download or read book Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy in the Context of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention written by Clive L. N. Ruggles and published by . This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This joint venture between ICOMOS, the advisory body to UNESCO on cultural sites, and the International Astronomical Union is the second volume in an ongoing exploration of themes and issues relating to astronomical heritage in particular and to science and technology heritage in general. It examines a number of key questions relating to astronomical heritage sites and their potential recognition as World Heritage, attempting to identify what might constitute "outstanding universal value" in relation to astronomy. "Heritage Sites of Astronomy and Archaeoastronomy--Volume 2" represents the culmination of several years' work to address some of the most challenging issues raised in the first ICOMOS-IAU Thematic Study, published in 2010. These include the recognition and preservation of the value of dark skies at both cultural and natural sites and landscapes; balancing archaeoastronomical considerations in the context of broader archaeological and cultural values; the potential for serial nominations; and management issues such as preserving the integrity of astronomical sightlines through the landscape.Its case studies are developed in greater depth than those in volume 1, and generally structured as segments of draft nomination dossiers. They include seven-stone antas (prehistoric dolmens) in Portugal and Spain, the thirteen towers of Chankillo in Peru, the astronomical timing of irrigation in Oman, Pic du Midi de Bigorre Observatory in France, Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and Aoraki-Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve in New Zealand. A case study on Stonehenge, already a World Heritage Site, focuses on preserving the integrity of the solstitial sightlines.As for the first ICOMOS-IAU Thematic Study, a international team of authors including historians, astronomers and heritage professionals is led by Professor Clive Ruggles for the IAU and Professor Michel Cotte for ICOMOS.

Download or read book Worlds in Collision written by and published by Paradigma Ltd. This book was released on with total page 437 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With this book Immanuel Velikovsky first presented the revolutionary results of his 10-year-long interdisciplinary research to the public, founded modern catastrophism - based on eyewitness reports by our ancestors - shook the doctrine of uniformity of geology as well as Darwin's theory of evolution, put our view of the history of our solar system, of the Earth and of humanity on a completely new basis - and caused an uproar that is still going on today. Worlds in Collision - written in a brilliant, easily understandable and entertaining style and full to the brim with precise information - can be considered one of the most important and most challenging books in the history of science. Not without reason was this book found open on Einstein's desk after his death. For all those who have ever wondered about the evolution of the earth, the history of mankind, traditions, religions, mythology or just the world as it is today, Worlds in Collision is an absolute MUST-READ!

Download or read book The Transformation of the World written by Jürgen Osterhammel and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-09-15 with total page 1192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A panoramic global history of the nineteenth century A monumental history of the nineteenth century, The Transformation of the World offers a panoramic and multifaceted portrait of a world in transition. Jürgen Osterhammel, an eminent scholar who has been called the Braudel of the nineteenth century, moves beyond conventional Eurocentric and chronological accounts of the era, presenting instead a truly global history of breathtaking scope and towering erudition. He examines the powerful and complex forces that drove global change during the "long nineteenth century," taking readers from New York to New Delhi, from the Latin American revolutions to the Taiping Rebellion, from the perils and promise of Europe's transatlantic labor markets to the hardships endured by nomadic, tribal peoples across the planet. Osterhammel describes a world increasingly networked by the telegraph, the steamship, and the railways. He explores the changing relationship between human beings and nature, looks at the importance of cities, explains the role slavery and its abolition played in the emergence of new nations, challenges the widely held belief that the nineteenth century witnessed the triumph of the nation-state, and much more. This is the highly anticipated English edition of the spectacularly successful and critically acclaimed German book, which is also being translated into Chinese, Polish, Russian, and French. Indispensable for any historian, The Transformation of the World sheds important new light on this momentous epoch, showing how the nineteenth century paved the way for the global catastrophes of the twentieth century, yet how it also gave rise to pacifism, liberalism, the trade union, and a host of other crucial developments.

Download or read book The Dictator s Seduction written by Lauren H. Derby and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-17 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo, who ruled the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961, was one of the longest and bloodiest in Latin American history. The Dictator’s Seduction is a cultural history of the Trujillo regime as it was experienced in the capital city of Santo Domingo. Focusing on everyday forms of state domination, Lauren Derby describes how the regime infiltrated civil society by fashioning a “vernacular politics” based on popular idioms of masculinity and fantasies of race and class mobility. Derby argues that the most pernicious aspect of the dictatorship was how it appropriated quotidian practices such as gossip and gift exchange, leaving almost no place for Dominicans to hide or resist. Drawing on previously untapped documents in the Trujillo National Archives and interviews with Dominicans who recall life under the dictator, Derby emphasizes the role that public ritual played in Trujillo’s exercise of power. His regime included the people in affairs of state on a massive scale as never before. Derby pays particular attention to how events and projects were received by the public as she analyzes parades and rallies, the rebuilding of Santo Domingo following a major hurricane, and the staging of a year-long celebration marking the twenty-fifth year of Trujillo’s regime. She looks at representations of Trujillo, exploring how claims that he embodied the popular barrio antihero the tíguere (tiger) stoked a fantasy of upward mobility and how a rumor that he had a personal guardian angel suggested he was uniquely protected from his enemies. The Dictator’s Seduction sheds new light on the cultural contrivances of autocratic power.

Download or read book The Geography of Transport Systems written by Jean-Paul Rodrigue and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mobility is fundamental to economic and social activities such as commuting, manufacturing, or supplying energy. Each movement has an origin, a potential set of intermediate locations, a destination, and a nature which is linked with geographical attributes. Transport systems composed of infrastructures, modes and terminals are so embedded in the socio-economic life of individuals, institutions and corporations that they are often invisible to the consumer. This is paradoxical as the perceived invisibility of transportation is derived from its efficiency. Understanding how mobility is linked with geography is main the purpose of this book. The third edition of The Geography of Transport Systems has been revised and updated to provide an overview of the spatial aspects of transportation. This text provides greater discussion of security, energy, green logistics, as well as new and updated case studies, a revised content structure, and new figures. Each chapter covers a specific conceptual dimension including networks, modes, terminals, freight transportation, urban transportation and environmental impacts. A final chapter contains core methodologies linked with transport geography such as accessibility, spatial interactions, graph theory and Geographic Information Systems for transportation (GIS-T). This book provides a comprehensive and accessible introduction to the field, with a broad overview of its concepts, methods, and areas of application. The accompanying website for this text contains a useful additional material, including digital maps, PowerPoint slides, databases, and links to further reading and websites. The website can be accessed at: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans This text is an essential resource for undergraduates studying transport geography, as well as those interest in economic and urban geography, transport planning and engineering.

Download or read book The Great Fear of 1789 written by Georges Lefebvre and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This major work, graphically describes the panic, paranoia, and social chaos that sparked the Revolution. One of France's great historians analyzes the causes of the mass hysteria that overcame rural France during the summer of 1789, as hungry villagers flocked into towns to look for work or to beg for charity, and as vagrants and beggars choked the rural roads, threatening reprisals against householders who refused to give them shelter or a crust of bread. Originally published in 1983. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book From Kostenki to Clovis written by Olga Soffer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-29 with total page 510 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the American Side I went to the USSR for the first time in 1982 to attend the 11th meeting of the International Union for Quaternary research (INQUA) held at the Moscow State University. At that time relations between our two countries were anything but congenial and many restrictions were placed on our viewing the archaeological and paleontological collections and labora tory facilities. This was not the ideal climate for the free exchange of ideas needed for meaningful research. However, it was obvious to us that the strained relations did not extend to scientific discussions between scholars. We left that meeting well aware that if the problems of prehistoric Old World-New World relationships were to be resolved, it would eventually require cooperative research efforts within the world community of archaeologists. At that time, the pre-Clovis problem in New World archaeology was foremost in the minds of many North American researchers: tool technology and assemblages were being studied as a possible means of establishing cultural relationships across the Bering Strait, Clovis sites and mammoth kills were being looked at with new ideas for interpretation, and New World researchers realized that to resolve these questions they had to become familiar with the archaeological record of northeast Asia. A chance meeting of the writer with Olga Soffer in 1983 led to serious discussions of the sites on the Russian or East European Plain.

Download or read book Historical Dictionary of Rwanda written by Aimable Twagilimana and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blessed with natural beauty and rich vegetation, Rwanda is often called the “land of a thousand hills” (le pays des mille collines), a reference to its many lush and green rolling hills. Moreover, for many Rwandans, at least in the past, Rwanda, in spite of its small size, is vast; in fact, it means the universe. This idyllic view, however, sharply contrasts with the sad history of ethnic strife that unfolded since the 1950s: the 1959 Hutu Revolution followed by years of anti-Tutsi pogroms, undemocratic regimes, the civil war of 1990-1994, and, more significantly, the April-July 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and the killing of Hutu who opposed the killings. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi remains the most defining single event in contemporary Rwanda, and many people in the world today know of this central African nation from the prism of extreme mass violence that sullied the end of the 20th century amid international indifference and has since haunted the world’s conscience. This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Rwanda contains a chronology, an introduction, appendixes, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has over 300 cross-referenced entries on important personalities, politics, economy, foreign relations, religion, and culture. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Rwanda.

Download or read book Walled Towns and the Shaping of France written by M. Wolfe and published by Springer. This book was released on 2009-08-31 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book focuses on the development of towns in France, taking into account military technology, physical geography, shifting regional networks tying urban communities together, and the emergence of new forms of public authority and civic life.

Download or read book Sugar and the Origins of Modern Philippine Society written by John A. Larkin and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The sugar industry has been a vital part of the economic and social life of modern Philippine society. Under Spanish and American colonialism, sugar cultivation and export became one of the chief commercial industries in the Philippines. Both the Filipino people and the colonizing forces participated in the sugar industry; a few profited enormously. John Larkin examines how the international sugar market and local culture forged two types of society, one based on plantation agriculture, the other on tenant farming. Larkin investigates the history of the two most important sugar-producing regions, Negros Occidental and Pampanga. He depicts the impact of colonial economic forces on the rise of the elite plantation-owning class, the subsequent gap that developed between the extraordinarily wealthy and the impoverished, and the nation's dependence on the international market. Larkin concludes that the sugar industry resulted in stunted economic development, wide cleavages among the Filipino people, and an imbalance of political power - all effects that are still felt today. Sugar and the Origins of Modern Philippine Society is an indispensable contribution to our understanding of Southeast Asian history and the industry vital to the evolution of the Philippines.

Download or read book Le Tumulte Noir written by Jody Blake and published by Penn State Press. This book was released on 1999-01-01 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jody Blake demonstrates in this book that although the impact of African-American music and dance in France was constant from 1900 to 1930, it was not unchanging. This was due in part to the stylistic development and diversity of African-American music and dance, from the prewar cakewalk and ragtime to the postwar Charleston and jazz. Successive groups of modernists, beginning with the Matisse and Picasso circle in the 1900s and concluding with the Surrealists and Purists in the 1920s, constructed different versions of la musique and la danse negre. Manifested in creative and critical works, these responses to African-American music and dance reflected the modernists' varying artistic agendas and historical climates.

Download or read book The Language of Physics written by Elizabeth Garber and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work is the first explicit examination of the key role that mathematics has played in the development of theoretical physics and will undoubtedly challenge the more conventional accounts of its historical development. Although mathematics has long been regarded as the "language" of physics, the connections between these independent disciplines have been far more complex and intimate than previous narratives have shown. The author convincingly demonstrates that practices, methods, and language shaped the development of the field, and are a key to understanding the mergence of the modern academic discipline. Mathematicians and physicists, as well as historians of both disciplines, will find this provocative work of great interest.