7,270 research outputs found
Rapa Nui (Easter Island)’s Stone Worlds
No full textThis article explores the spatial, architectural and conceptual relationships between landscape places, stone quarrying, and stone moving and building during Rapa Nui’s statue-building period. These are central themes of the ‘Rapa Nui Landscapes of Construction Project’ and are discussed using aspects of the findings of our recent fieldwork. The different scales of expression, from the detail of the domestic sphere to the monumental working of quarries, are considered. It is suggested that the impressiveness of Rapa Nui’s stone architecture is its conceptual coherence at the small scale as much as at the large scale. </div
Ruth Stone, 12th Annual ODU Literary Festival
No full textRuth Stone is the author of six books or chapbooks of poetry: In an Iridescent Time, 1960; Topography and Other Poems, 1971; Unknown Messages, 1973; Cheap, 1975; American Milk, 1986; Second-Hand Coat: New and Selected Poems, 1987. Three new books will be published this year: Who is the Widow\u27s Muse?; The Yasha Poems, and The Solitary. We were very fortunate that Ruth Stone taught creative writing as a visiting faculty member at Old Dominion University during 1989-90
Tacit knowledge, learning and expertise in dry stone walling
No full textThis is a detailed study of learning in the context of dry stone walling. It examines
what happens in the learning situation. The aim of this work was:
'To understand the nature of expertise in dry stone walling, how it is understood
by those practising the craft, and how it is transmitted to others'.
The main research questions were, therefore:
What happens when dry stone wallers are learning their craft?
How do they acquire expertise in dry stone walling?
How is this learning communicated?
This process necessitated developing a way of engaging with the practitioners,
eliciting descriptive data about what they were doing, and why they were doing it,
through interviews (or conversations) with both individuals and groups, whilst
they practiced their skill. Twenty three wailers were interviewed as they worked,
building walls.
The material obtained was analysed under seven different themes:
'Knowing how'
The use of tacit knowledge or intuition
'Flow'
Constant decision making, reflection and learning from mistakes
Individual and subjective variations and experiences
The relevance of emotion
The use of 'rules of thumb' or maxims.
Learning walling does not fit simply into any of the seven themes. It is
contextualised, complex and individual. It demonstrates tacit knowledge and
intuition. It involves emotion, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. It involves
memory, problem solving, and learning from mistakes, and reflection. Maxims or
'rules of thumb' were a key element in the learning process at all stages. Linear
stages of learning were not evidenced. Deep understanding of the practice is
evidenced, and the wider learning and teaching implications are explored
Joyful Readers: The New Webster Series
No full textThe Monkey and the Glasses (162) is listed as from Russia. Krylov, its author, seems not to be mentioned. The story is well told, with two nice colored illustrations. Though this fable is in good condition, the rest of the book has suffered somewhat from young hands. Do not miss the streamlined train engine on 16! The book is copyrighted, apparently, in 1932 and 1939.This is a hardbound book (hard cover)Clarence R. Stone and Odille Ousle
Laurie Stone, 23rd Annual ODU Literary Festival
No full textLaurie Stone is the author of the novel Starting with Serge; a collection of literary memoirs, Close to the Bone; and Laughing in the Dark: A Decade of Subversive Comedy. She was a columnist for The Village Voice for twenty-five years and her work has been published in Ms. Magazine, New York Woman, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The Utne Reader, and Art Forum.
Stone is the recipient of grants from The New York Foundation for the Arts and The MacDowell Colony, and she received the 1996 Nona Balakain Excellence in Reviewing Award from the National Book Critics Circle. Stone is currently writing short fiction and a second novel, Apart from Sex. She will be Old Dominion’s Writer In Residence for fall 2000
The Value of Darkness: A Moral Framework for Urban Nighttime Lighting
No full textThe adverse effects of artificial nighttime lighting, known as light pollution, are emerging as an important environmental issue. To address these effects, current scientific research focuses mainly on identifying what is bad or undesirable about certain types and uses of lighting at night. This paper adopts a value-sensitive approach, focusing instead on what is good about darkness at night. In doing so, it offers a first comprehensive analysis of the environmental value of darkness at night from within applied ethics. A design for values orientation is utilized to conceptualize, define, and categorize the ways in which value is derived from darkness. Nine values are identified and categorized via their type of good, temporal outlook, and spatial characteristics. Furthermore, these nine values are translated into prima facie moral obligations that should be incorporated into future design choices, policy-making, and innovations to nighttime lighting. Thus, the value of darkness is analyzed with the practical goal of informing future decision-making about urban nighttime lighting
Effects of ethylenediamine – a putative GABA-releasing agent – on rat hippocampal slices and neocortical activity in vivo
No full textThe simple diamine diaminoethane (ethylenediamine, EDA) has been shown to activate GABA receptors in the central and peripheral nervous systems, partly by a direct action and partly by releasing endogenous GABA. These effects have been shown to be produced by the complexation of EDA with bicarbonate to form a carbamate. The present work has compared EDA, GABA and [beta]-alanine responses in rat CA1 neurons using extracellular and intracellular recordings, as well as neocortical evoked potentials in vivo. Superfusion of GABA onto hippocampal slices produced depolarisation and a decrease of field epsps, both effects fading rapidly, but showing sensitivity to blockade by bicuculline. EDA produced an initial hyperpolarisation and increase of extracellular field epsp size with no fade and only partial sensitivity to bicuculline, with subsequent depolarisation, while [beta]-alanine produces a much larger underlying hyperpolarisation and increase in fepsps, followed by depolarisation and inhibition of fepsps. The responses to [beta]-alanine, but not GABA or EDA, were blocked by strychnine. In vivo experiments, recording somatosensory evoked potentials, confirmed that EDA produced an initial increase followed by depression, and that this effect was not fully blocked by bicuculline. Overall the results indicate that EDA has actions in addition to the activation of GABA receptors. These actions are not attributable to activation of [beta]-alanine-sensitive glycine receptors, but may involve the activation of sites sensitive to adipic acid, which is structurally equivalent to the dicarbamate of EDA. The results emphasise the complex pharmacology of simple amines in bicarbonate-containing solution
Designing for Darkness: Urban Nighttime Lighting and Environmental Values
No full textArtificial illumination has had profound and far-reaching impacts on the development, use, and perceptions of urban nights, and has brought with it many benefits. However, in recent years its adverse costs and effects – commonly referred to as light pollution – have emerged as a topic of concern. Nighttime lighting uses enormous amounts of energy, costs billions of dollars annually, can be detrimental to the health of humans and ecosystems, and cuts off access to a starry night sky. Addressing these impacts, and more fundamentally understanding the underlying values shaping contemporary discourse, is a complex and pressing challenge with moral, aesthetic, political, and technical dimensions. This dissertation takes up this challenge by offering a critical examination of the historical roots and normative presuppositions shaping the concept of light pollution. This critique leads to the proposal of an alternative normative framework: instead of focusing on reducing lighting, it argues for fostering darkness in urban nightscapes. A designing for darkness approach is developed on two interrelated levels. The first is conceptual, exploring the relationship between darkness, illumination, and environmental values. The second is practical, proposing first steps towards realizing darker nights via the responsible design of new and emerging technologies, namely LEDs and autonomous vehicles. Taken together, the chapters of this dissertation weave together a critical investigation and constructive contribution to a pressing urban challenge for the 21st century.Design AestheticsEthics & Philosophy of Technolog
Design for values and the city
No full textThis paper undertakes a critical and constructive investigation into the applicability of value sensitive design (VSD) and design for values (DfV) methodologies for urban technologies, as a means to envision and enact responsible urban innovations. In particular, this paper focuses on the identification and analysis of values in urban technologies. First, an important methodological critique is highlighted, namely the vague articulation of ‘values' in VSD and DfV discourse. Next, cities are characterized as open, dynamic, and evolving systems, with ‘urban technologies’ as co-shapers of this process. This highlights the unique conditions requiring attention in order to arrive at a robust understanding of the relationship between values and urban technologies. Finally, these insights are combined to propose and sketch six heuristic principles aimed at surfacing and analysing values in urban technologies, offering a refinement of value-sensitive methodologies for the context of urban technological innovation.Ethics & Philosophy of Technolog
Light pollution: A case study in framing an environmental problem
No full textLight pollution is a topic gaining importance and acceptance in environmental discourse. This concept provides a framework for categorizing the adverse effects of nighttime lighting, which advocacy groups and regulatory efforts are increasingly utilizing. However, the ethical significance of the concept has, thus far, received little critical reflection. In this paper, I analyze the moral implications of framing issues in nighttime lighting via the concept of light pollution. First, the moral and political importance of problem framing is discussed. Next, the origins and contemporary understandings of light pollution are presented. Finally, the normative limitations and practical ambiguities of light pollution are discussed, with the aim of strengthening the framework through which decisions about urban nighttime lighting strategies are increasingly approached.Ethics & Philosophy of Technolog
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