Climatic Variability in Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social Dimension

Climatic Variability in Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social Dimension
Author: Christian Pfister
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401592594

A multidecadal cooling is known to have occurred in Europe in the final decades of the sixteenth-century. It is still open to debate as to what might have caused the underlying shifts in atmospheric circulation and how these changes affected societies. This book is the fruit of interdisciplinary cooperation among 37 scientists including climatologists, hydrologists, glaciologists, dendroclimatologists, and economic and cultural historians. The known documentary climatic evidence from six European countries is compared to results of tree-ring studies. Seasonal temperature and precipitation are estimated from this data and monthly mean surface pressure patterns in the European area are reconstructed for outstanding anomalies. Results are compared to fluctuations of Alpine glaciers and to changes in the frequency of severe floods and coastal storms. Moreover, the impact of climate change on grain prices and wine production is assessed. Finally, it is convincingly argued that witches at that time were burnt as scapegoats for climatic change.

Catalogue of Risks

Catalogue of Risks
Author: Dirk Proske
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2008-07-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3540795553

Since the German edition of this book, the topic of risk has experienced even greater attention, not only in the world of science but also in other fields, such as economics and politics. Therefore, many new publications have evolved. To keep with the idea of an encyclopedia for the topic of risk, this book has been completely reworked. Not only are many updated examples included in chapter “Risks and disasters” but also new chapters have been introduced, such as the chapter “Indetermination and risk”. This new chapter was developed since the question “Is it possible for risks to be completely eliminated, and if not why?” has become a major point of c- cern. Therefore, especially in this chapter, the focus of the book has - tended from a simple mathematical or engineering point of view to include much broader concepts. Here, not only aspects of system theory have to be considered, but also some general philosophical questions start to inf- ence the considerations of the topic of risk. The main goal of this edition, however, is not only the extension and revision of the book, but also the translation into the English language to allow more readers access to the ideas of the book. The author deeply hopes that the success the book made in the German edition continues and that readers experience a major gain from reading the book.

A Gravity's Rainbow Companion

A Gravity's Rainbow Companion
Author: Steven C. Weisenburger
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Total Pages: 433
Release: 2011-03-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0820337641

Adding some 20 percent to the original content, this is a completely updated edition of Steven Weisenburger's indispensable guide to Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow. Weisenburger takes the reader page by page, often line by line, through the welter of historical references, scientific data, cultural fragments, anthropological research, jokes, and puns around which Pynchon wove his story. Weisenburger fully annotates Pynchon's use of languages ranging from Russian and Hebrew to such subdialects of English as 1940s street talk, drug lingo, and military slang as well as the more obscure terminology of black magic, Rosicrucianism, and Pavlovian psychology. The Companion also reveals the underlying organization of Gravity's Rainbow--how the book's myriad references form patterns of meaning and structure that have eluded both admirers and critics of the novel. The Companion is keyed to the pages of the principal American editions of Gravity's Rainbow: Viking/Penguin (1973), Bantam (1974), and the special, repaginated Penguin paperback (2000) honoring the novel as one of twenty "Great Books of the Twentieth Century."

Rising in the East

Rising in the East
Author: Rachel Keeton
Publisher: Sun
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2011
Genre: Architecture, Modern
ISBN: 9789461056832

In the west, the design of new towns has always been based on an ideal model in accordance with the ideas of that moment. In the case of the latest generation of new towns in Asia, however, only quantitative and marketing principles seem to play a role: the number of square metres, dwellings or people, or the greenest, most beautiful or most technologically advanced town. "Rising in the east" shows which design principles these premises are based on.

Dissemination of Cartographic Knowledge

Dissemination of Cartographic Knowledge
Author: Mirela Altić
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2017-09-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319615157

This book gathers 22 papers which were presented at the 6th International Symposium of the ICA Commission on the History of Cartography in Dubrovnik, Croatia on 13–15 October 2016. The overall conference theme was ‘The Dissemination of Cartographic Knowledge: Production – Trade – Consumption – Preservation’. The book presents original research by internationally respected authors in the field of historical cartography, offering a significant contribution to the development of this field of study, but also of geography, history and the GIS sciences. The primary target audience includes researchers, educators, postgraduate students, map librarians and archivists.