Marian Stamp Dawkins
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198569350
- eISBN:
- 9780191717512
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198569350.003.0010
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
New technology in the form of video, GPS trackers, and other equipment has opened up the observation of behaviour in ways that were unimaginable before. It is now possible to follow animals ...
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New technology in the form of video, GPS trackers, and other equipment has opened up the observation of behaviour in ways that were unimaginable before. It is now possible to follow animals continuously for days or months, and to know where and what they are doing even when they have disappeared from view. There is now the possibility of collecting large quantities of data and the problem is how best to analyze it. ‘Observation’ has taken on a whole new meaning and assumed a whole new significance. It is no longer the poor relation of experiment but a major research tool in its own right. The book concludes with a checklist of all the different stages of an observational study: (i) the type of question (about adaptation, causation, development, or evolution) being asked; (ii) what hypothesis is being tested; (iii) what the predictions from this hypothesis are and what would count as evidence both for and against it; (iv) how the observations will be designed to achieve independence, not confounding variables and removing unwanted variation; (v) how the level, units, and type of sampling will be selected and what sort of records will be taken; (vi) how behaviour is to be recorded (paper, video, computer, etc.); (vii) the completeness of the protocol, including sample size, choice of animals; (viii) the ethics of the study; (ix) permissions and agreements with other people involved; (x) the carrying out of a pilot study; (xi) analysis of data; and (xii) presentation of results.Less
New technology in the form of video, GPS trackers, and other equipment has opened up the observation of behaviour in ways that were unimaginable before. It is now possible to follow animals continuously for days or months, and to know where and what they are doing even when they have disappeared from view. There is now the possibility of collecting large quantities of data and the problem is how best to analyze it. ‘Observation’ has taken on a whole new meaning and assumed a whole new significance. It is no longer the poor relation of experiment but a major research tool in its own right. The book concludes with a checklist of all the different stages of an observational study: (i) the type of question (about adaptation, causation, development, or evolution) being asked; (ii) what hypothesis is being tested; (iii) what the predictions from this hypothesis are and what would count as evidence both for and against it; (iv) how the observations will be designed to achieve independence, not confounding variables and removing unwanted variation; (v) how the level, units, and type of sampling will be selected and what sort of records will be taken; (vi) how behaviour is to be recorded (paper, video, computer, etc.); (vii) the completeness of the protocol, including sample size, choice of animals; (viii) the ethics of the study; (ix) permissions and agreements with other people involved; (x) the carrying out of a pilot study; (xi) analysis of data; and (xii) presentation of results.
Nicola Casarini
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199560073
- eISBN:
- 9780191721168
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199560073.003.0006
- Subject:
- Political Science, International Relations and Politics
This chapter examines EU—China space and satellite navigation cooperation, including the strategic implications of this form of collaboration for the United States. This chapter traces the process ...
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This chapter examines EU—China space and satellite navigation cooperation, including the strategic implications of this form of collaboration for the United States. This chapter traces the process leading to the EU—China political agreement on the joint development of Galileo (the EU‐led global navigation satellite system alternative to the dominant US Global Positioning System) and examines the reaction of US policy makers concerned that this form of international collaboration would support China in upgrading its space capabilities and power projection in the region precisely at a time when the Pentagon would perceive Beijing as a potential space competitor. This chapter asks the following: Why did the EU invite China to cooperate in the joint development of Galileo? What would EU and Chinese policy makers like to achieve with this kind of cooperation? And what would be the strategic implications for the United States and its East Asian allies?Less
This chapter examines EU—China space and satellite navigation cooperation, including the strategic implications of this form of collaboration for the United States. This chapter traces the process leading to the EU—China political agreement on the joint development of Galileo (the EU‐led global navigation satellite system alternative to the dominant US Global Positioning System) and examines the reaction of US policy makers concerned that this form of international collaboration would support China in upgrading its space capabilities and power projection in the region precisely at a time when the Pentagon would perceive Beijing as a potential space competitor. This chapter asks the following: Why did the EU invite China to cooperate in the joint development of Galileo? What would EU and Chinese policy makers like to achieve with this kind of cooperation? And what would be the strategic implications for the United States and its East Asian allies?
Christopher Hodges
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199282555
- eISBN:
- 9780191700217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282555.003.0013
- Subject:
- Law, EU Law
The purpose of controlling distribution is to ensure that the product that reaches the hands of the consumer does so in the condition intended by the manufacturer, and in the state in which it left ...
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The purpose of controlling distribution is to ensure that the product that reaches the hands of the consumer does so in the condition intended by the manufacturer, and in the state in which it left him or her. If the justifications for imposition of regulation on distributors is that it should apply in the case of products for which performance and/or safety are critical and may be affected by the conditions in which they are stored or transported, there may be a case for extending regulation to products such as sterile or active implantable medical devices and certain types of mechanical, measuring, testing, or diagnosis equipment. It is argued in this chapter that sterility or other safety aspects can be adequately protected by appropriate packaging and by labeling. An obvious lacuna is that although the GPS duties apply to consumer products, no similar provisions apply for non-consumer products.Less
The purpose of controlling distribution is to ensure that the product that reaches the hands of the consumer does so in the condition intended by the manufacturer, and in the state in which it left him or her. If the justifications for imposition of regulation on distributors is that it should apply in the case of products for which performance and/or safety are critical and may be affected by the conditions in which they are stored or transported, there may be a case for extending regulation to products such as sterile or active implantable medical devices and certain types of mechanical, measuring, testing, or diagnosis equipment. It is argued in this chapter that sterility or other safety aspects can be adequately protected by appropriate packaging and by labeling. An obvious lacuna is that although the GPS duties apply to consumer products, no similar provisions apply for non-consumer products.
Matthew Rizzo, Scott Robinson, and Vicki Neale
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195177619
- eISBN:
- 9780199864683
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195177619.003.0008
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems, Behavioral Neuroscience
This chapter discusses the use of a “people tracker” to study human behavior in the real world. Modern technology allows for the development of various “people trackers” using combinations of ...
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This chapter discusses the use of a “people tracker” to study human behavior in the real world. Modern technology allows for the development of various “people trackers” using combinations of accelerometers, GPS, video, and other sensors (e.g., to measure cerebral activity, eye movement, heart rate, skin temperature) to make naturalistic observations of human movement and behavior. These devices can advance the goal of examining human performance, strategies, tactics, interactions, and errors in humans engaged in real-world tasks. Besides various issues of device development and sensor choice and placement, there is also a need to develop taxonomies for classifying likely behavior from sensor output, as well as the need to be able to analyze behavior sequences using new applications of classic ethological techniques.Less
This chapter discusses the use of a “people tracker” to study human behavior in the real world. Modern technology allows for the development of various “people trackers” using combinations of accelerometers, GPS, video, and other sensors (e.g., to measure cerebral activity, eye movement, heart rate, skin temperature) to make naturalistic observations of human movement and behavior. These devices can advance the goal of examining human performance, strategies, tactics, interactions, and errors in humans engaged in real-world tasks. Besides various issues of device development and sensor choice and placement, there is also a need to develop taxonomies for classifying likely behavior from sensor output, as well as the need to be able to analyze behavior sequences using new applications of classic ethological techniques.
Paul Dourish and Genevieve Bell
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262015554
- eISBN:
- 9780262295345
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262015554.001.0001
- Subject:
- Computer Science, Programming Languages
Ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) is the label for a “third wave” of computing technologies. Following the eras of the mainframe computer and the desktop PC, it is characterized by small and powerful ...
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Ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) is the label for a “third wave” of computing technologies. Following the eras of the mainframe computer and the desktop PC, it is characterized by small and powerful computing devices that are worn, carried, or embedded in the world around us. The ubicomp research agenda originated at Xerox PARC in the late 1980s; these days, some form of that vision is a reality for the millions of users of Internet-enabled phones, GPS devices, wireless networks, and “smart” domestic appliances. This book explores the vision that has driven the ubiquitous computing research program and the contemporary practices which have emerged—both the motivating mythology and the everyday messiness of lived experience. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the authors’ collaboration, it takes seriously the need to understand ubicomp not only technically but also culturally, socially, politically, and economically. The authors map the terrain of contemporary ubiquitous computing, in the research community and in daily life; explore dominant narratives in ubicomp around such topics as infrastructure, mobility, privacy, and domesticity; and suggest directions for future investigation, particularly with respect to methodology and conceptual foundations.Less
Ubiquitous computing (or ubicomp) is the label for a “third wave” of computing technologies. Following the eras of the mainframe computer and the desktop PC, it is characterized by small and powerful computing devices that are worn, carried, or embedded in the world around us. The ubicomp research agenda originated at Xerox PARC in the late 1980s; these days, some form of that vision is a reality for the millions of users of Internet-enabled phones, GPS devices, wireless networks, and “smart” domestic appliances. This book explores the vision that has driven the ubiquitous computing research program and the contemporary practices which have emerged—both the motivating mythology and the everyday messiness of lived experience. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of the authors’ collaboration, it takes seriously the need to understand ubicomp not only technically but also culturally, socially, politically, and economically. The authors map the terrain of contemporary ubiquitous computing, in the research community and in daily life; explore dominant narratives in ubicomp around such topics as infrastructure, mobility, privacy, and domesticity; and suggest directions for future investigation, particularly with respect to methodology and conceptual foundations.
Geoffrey E. Hill
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195323467
- eISBN:
- 9780199773855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323467.003.0006
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter recounts a fall misadventure when Hill and one of his grad students, Mark Liu, take a weekend trip to a new area on the Choctawhatchee River. The two explorers find areas with huge ...
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This chapter recounts a fall misadventure when Hill and one of his grad students, Mark Liu, take a weekend trip to a new area on the Choctawhatchee River. The two explorers find areas with huge cypress trees and signs of Ivory-billed Woodpecker activity. By making some incorrect assumptions about where they were on the river, they get far off track and barely make it back to their vehicles by nightfall. Getting lost in kayaks is used as a metaphor for how searches for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers can wander off course if searchers are not careful about their assumptions.Less
This chapter recounts a fall misadventure when Hill and one of his grad students, Mark Liu, take a weekend trip to a new area on the Choctawhatchee River. The two explorers find areas with huge cypress trees and signs of Ivory-billed Woodpecker activity. By making some incorrect assumptions about where they were on the river, they get far off track and barely make it back to their vehicles by nightfall. Getting lost in kayaks is used as a metaphor for how searches for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers can wander off course if searchers are not careful about their assumptions.
Geoffrey E. Hill
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195323467
- eISBN:
- 9780199773855
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195323467.003.0015
- Subject:
- Biology, Ornithology
This chapter provides detailed suggestions for how to visit the swamp forests along the Choctawhatchee River to look for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. The authors suggests going to the area in the winter ...
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This chapter provides detailed suggestions for how to visit the swamp forests along the Choctawhatchee River to look for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. The authors suggests going to the area in the winter when water levels are higher and insects are fewer. A GPS and a canoe or kayak are essential equipment. The biggest danger is not snakes or alligators; it is the cold flowing water of the river.Less
This chapter provides detailed suggestions for how to visit the swamp forests along the Choctawhatchee River to look for Ivory-billed Woodpeckers. The authors suggests going to the area in the winter when water levels are higher and insects are fewer. A GPS and a canoe or kayak are essential equipment. The biggest danger is not snakes or alligators; it is the cold flowing water of the river.
William Rankin
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226339368
- eISBN:
- 9780226339535
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226339535.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
Over the last several decades, paper maps have been gradually displaced by new electronic navigation systems like GPS. For many geographic tasks, the map’s familiar god’s-eye view from nowhere has ...
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Over the last several decades, paper maps have been gradually displaced by new electronic navigation systems like GPS. For many geographic tasks, the map’s familiar god’s-eye view from nowhere has thus been exchanged for the much more embedded experience of electronic coordinates, with a new focus on geographic points rather than large areas. This book argues that this shift in geographic knowledge should be seen quite broadly as a change in both the macro-politics of territory and the everyday micro-politics of geographic space. It presents the history of the mapping sciences in the twentieth century through three of its most important global projects – the International Map of the World, the Universal Transverse Mercator grid, and the Global Positioning System – and traces a widespread retreat from the authority of representational maps in favor of the pragmatism of GPS and its many predecessors. It also questions the usual understanding of globalization as a battle between national territory and global networks. The advent of GPS does not mean that territory is losing its relevance, but rather that there are now new forms of territory – pointillist, non-exclusive, and provisional – that may or may not align with the sovereign space of states. Conceived narrowly, this book is a deep history of GPS and its relationship to earlier forms of mapping. But more expansively, it is also a cultural and political history of geographic space itself.Less
Over the last several decades, paper maps have been gradually displaced by new electronic navigation systems like GPS. For many geographic tasks, the map’s familiar god’s-eye view from nowhere has thus been exchanged for the much more embedded experience of electronic coordinates, with a new focus on geographic points rather than large areas. This book argues that this shift in geographic knowledge should be seen quite broadly as a change in both the macro-politics of territory and the everyday micro-politics of geographic space. It presents the history of the mapping sciences in the twentieth century through three of its most important global projects – the International Map of the World, the Universal Transverse Mercator grid, and the Global Positioning System – and traces a widespread retreat from the authority of representational maps in favor of the pragmatism of GPS and its many predecessors. It also questions the usual understanding of globalization as a battle between national territory and global networks. The advent of GPS does not mean that territory is losing its relevance, but rather that there are now new forms of territory – pointillist, non-exclusive, and provisional – that may or may not align with the sovereign space of states. Conceived narrowly, this book is a deep history of GPS and its relationship to earlier forms of mapping. But more expansively, it is also a cultural and political history of geographic space itself.
Rowan Wilken
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- April 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190234911
- eISBN:
- 9780190234942
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190234911.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Sociolinguistics / Anthropological Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
Cultural Economies of Locative Media examines the manifold ways that location, location-awareness, and location data have all become familiar yet increasingly significant parts of our mobile-mediated ...
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Cultural Economies of Locative Media examines the manifold ways that location, location-awareness, and location data have all become familiar yet increasingly significant parts of our mobile-mediated experiences of everyday life. The book explores the complex of interrelationships that mutually define the new business models and economic factors that emerge around and structure locative media services, their diverse social uses and cultures of consumption, and their policy implications and impacts. It offers a detailed, in-depth account of how location-based services, such as GPS-enabled mobile smartphones and associated applications, are socially, culturally, economically, and politically produced and shaped, as much as technically designed and manufactured. The result is a rich, composite portrait of locative media in all its cultural economic complexity.Less
Cultural Economies of Locative Media examines the manifold ways that location, location-awareness, and location data have all become familiar yet increasingly significant parts of our mobile-mediated experiences of everyday life. The book explores the complex of interrelationships that mutually define the new business models and economic factors that emerge around and structure locative media services, their diverse social uses and cultures of consumption, and their policy implications and impacts. It offers a detailed, in-depth account of how location-based services, such as GPS-enabled mobile smartphones and associated applications, are socially, culturally, economically, and politically produced and shaped, as much as technically designed and manufactured. The result is a rich, composite portrait of locative media in all its cultural economic complexity.
Alvaro De Rújula
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198817802
- eISBN:
- 9780191859366
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198817802.003.0015
- Subject:
- Physics, Particle Physics / Astrophysics / Cosmology
Various opinions on the practical consequences of basic science. Some of the ones mentioned: The GPS, the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http), Sputnik, Hertz’s radio, nuclear reactors and Plato’s ...
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Various opinions on the practical consequences of basic science. Some of the ones mentioned: The GPS, the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http), Sputnik, Hertz’s radio, nuclear reactors and Plato’s views on the subject.Less
Various opinions on the practical consequences of basic science. Some of the ones mentioned: The GPS, the HyperText Transfer Protocol (http), Sputnik, Hertz’s radio, nuclear reactors and Plato’s views on the subject.
Ken McGwire and Napoleon A. Chagnon
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195085754
- eISBN:
- 9780197560495
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195085754.003.0009
- Subject:
- Archaeology, Archaeological Methodology and Techniques
For almost thirty years Chagnon has been studying the settlement patterns of a large cluster of remote Yanomamö communities in southern Venezuela, documenting ...
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For almost thirty years Chagnon has been studying the settlement patterns of a large cluster of remote Yanomamö communities in southern Venezuela, documenting population growth, mortality patterns, fissioning, dispersal, and pioneering of adjacent virgin areas of tropical forest. Approximately fifteen villages, with a current (1992) population of about 2000 individuals, have been studied. During a period of some 150 years, members of these communities have cleared and subsequently abandoned approximately five hundred sites whose geographical locations are very poorly known. In 1990 and 1991, Charles Brewer Carías, a Venezuelan naturalist, joined Chagnon in this research effort. Recent field research has resulted in geographic and demographic data suggesting that long-term warfare patterns may be contests over the apparently more desirable lowland areas, where economic activities are less costly in terms of energy and resources are more abundant or easier to obtain. Periodic village movements, provoked by hostilities with neighbors, require that relatively large lowland areas must be controlled so that groups can move around within them and maintain maximum distance from enemy groups. To do this, lowland villages must grow large and politically bellicose. When they fission, usually at a size of about 150 to 200 people, some of the resulting smaller groups are driven out and take refuge in more rugged but economically less productive highland terrain, where they adopt a less bellicose political stance toward their neighbors. Rates of mortality due to warfare, frequencies of abduction of women from neighbors, and other sociodemographic attributes distinguish highland from lowland communities in the overall area (Chagnon 1992). Geographic information systems are considered effective methods for organizing and analyzing the variety of spatial information required to test such hypotheses of relationships between environment and social processes. A GIS-based approach would allow maps of parameters relating to resource distribution and environmental characteristics to be compared to a rich and growing record of field observations. Analysis based on GIS would support data management requirements by allowing accurate identification and positioning of cultural and environmental features within a consistent map base.
Less
For almost thirty years Chagnon has been studying the settlement patterns of a large cluster of remote Yanomamö communities in southern Venezuela, documenting population growth, mortality patterns, fissioning, dispersal, and pioneering of adjacent virgin areas of tropical forest. Approximately fifteen villages, with a current (1992) population of about 2000 individuals, have been studied. During a period of some 150 years, members of these communities have cleared and subsequently abandoned approximately five hundred sites whose geographical locations are very poorly known. In 1990 and 1991, Charles Brewer Carías, a Venezuelan naturalist, joined Chagnon in this research effort. Recent field research has resulted in geographic and demographic data suggesting that long-term warfare patterns may be contests over the apparently more desirable lowland areas, where economic activities are less costly in terms of energy and resources are more abundant or easier to obtain. Periodic village movements, provoked by hostilities with neighbors, require that relatively large lowland areas must be controlled so that groups can move around within them and maintain maximum distance from enemy groups. To do this, lowland villages must grow large and politically bellicose. When they fission, usually at a size of about 150 to 200 people, some of the resulting smaller groups are driven out and take refuge in more rugged but economically less productive highland terrain, where they adopt a less bellicose political stance toward their neighbors. Rates of mortality due to warfare, frequencies of abduction of women from neighbors, and other sociodemographic attributes distinguish highland from lowland communities in the overall area (Chagnon 1992). Geographic information systems are considered effective methods for organizing and analyzing the variety of spatial information required to test such hypotheses of relationships between environment and social processes. A GIS-based approach would allow maps of parameters relating to resource distribution and environmental characteristics to be compared to a rich and growing record of field observations. Analysis based on GIS would support data management requirements by allowing accurate identification and positioning of cultural and environmental features within a consistent map base.
Rutger van Santen, Djan Khoe, and Bram Vermeer
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195377170
- eISBN:
- 9780197562680
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195377170.003.0019
- Subject:
- Computer Science, History of Computer Science
It can be pretty dispiriting to go into an electronics shop shortly after you’ve bought yourself a new computer. Every month, you seem to get more ...
More
It can be pretty dispiriting to go into an electronics shop shortly after you’ve bought yourself a new computer. Every month, you seem to get more computing power for the same money. And every year, the devices get smaller. The pace of progress is so intense that you’re out of date again within a few months. If you look back 10 years, the most advanced computers of the time now appear clumsy. Ten years from today, our current computers will no doubt seem ridiculously primitive, too. It may be frustrating, but that same rapid progress offers an important source of hope for humanity, as it will enable us to apply the power of computers to areas that have so far proved resistant. All sorts of pressing issues in health care and the global economy stand to benefit from the ever-decreasing price of electronics and the ability to pack more and more computing and communication power into a smaller space. That’s why electronics lies at the heart of many of the solutions we describe in the remainder of this book. The promise held out by electronics amounts to more than the wishful thinking of unworldly nerds laboring in dust-free labs to develop yet more powerful microchips. It is bound up with the nature of the new kind of problems we face. Electronics is proving increasingly important in complex situations that are difficult to control. A tiny oscillation in the earth’s interior, for instance, has the potential to induce an earthquake. It’s therefore vital that we install inexpensive devices around the globe that can pick up these early signals before they intensify, while there’s still time to warn the people in harm’s way. The same applies to many other complex contemporary issues. Powerful computers could routinely analyze masses of financial data to detect the next crisis in the making, and a few years from now, we may have computers powerful enough to identify tipping points in the climate. Rapid calculation, accurate measurement, and automatic control will give us a firmer grip on complex problems.
Less
It can be pretty dispiriting to go into an electronics shop shortly after you’ve bought yourself a new computer. Every month, you seem to get more computing power for the same money. And every year, the devices get smaller. The pace of progress is so intense that you’re out of date again within a few months. If you look back 10 years, the most advanced computers of the time now appear clumsy. Ten years from today, our current computers will no doubt seem ridiculously primitive, too. It may be frustrating, but that same rapid progress offers an important source of hope for humanity, as it will enable us to apply the power of computers to areas that have so far proved resistant. All sorts of pressing issues in health care and the global economy stand to benefit from the ever-decreasing price of electronics and the ability to pack more and more computing and communication power into a smaller space. That’s why electronics lies at the heart of many of the solutions we describe in the remainder of this book. The promise held out by electronics amounts to more than the wishful thinking of unworldly nerds laboring in dust-free labs to develop yet more powerful microchips. It is bound up with the nature of the new kind of problems we face. Electronics is proving increasingly important in complex situations that are difficult to control. A tiny oscillation in the earth’s interior, for instance, has the potential to induce an earthquake. It’s therefore vital that we install inexpensive devices around the globe that can pick up these early signals before they intensify, while there’s still time to warn the people in harm’s way. The same applies to many other complex contemporary issues. Powerful computers could routinely analyze masses of financial data to detect the next crisis in the making, and a few years from now, we may have computers powerful enough to identify tipping points in the climate. Rapid calculation, accurate measurement, and automatic control will give us a firmer grip on complex problems.
Tara Fickle
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781479868551
- eISBN:
- 9781479805686
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479868551.003.0006
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
This chapter uses the mobile game Pokémon GO as a case study of how video game developers have successfully harnessed the self-centering power of ludo-Orientalism, using augmented reality and GPS ...
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This chapter uses the mobile game Pokémon GO as a case study of how video game developers have successfully harnessed the self-centering power of ludo-Orientalism, using augmented reality and GPS technology to construct virtual spaces ripe for playful exploration as well as economic exploitation. In focusing on Nintendo’s sophisticated marketing and aesthetic strategies to erase all signs of Japanese “cultural odor” from its games, scholarly appraisals of the Pokémon franchise have largely followed the traditional reduction of race to an explicit visual or linguistic feature of games. This chapter instead uses Pokémon GO’s seemingly inadvertent exposure of U.S. racial fault lines as an opportunity to explore how race is not erased but rather embedded in the game’s disorienting technology. It reveals the unacknowledged legacy of Japanese racial ideologies, imperialist ambitions, and atomic history that lurk beneath the game screen. The chapter argues that this illusion of ahistorical universality crucially buttresses the fantasy of Pokémon GO as a truly “free” game, masking the invasive and dehumanizing data mining structures that make it enormously profitable for its developers.Less
This chapter uses the mobile game Pokémon GO as a case study of how video game developers have successfully harnessed the self-centering power of ludo-Orientalism, using augmented reality and GPS technology to construct virtual spaces ripe for playful exploration as well as economic exploitation. In focusing on Nintendo’s sophisticated marketing and aesthetic strategies to erase all signs of Japanese “cultural odor” from its games, scholarly appraisals of the Pokémon franchise have largely followed the traditional reduction of race to an explicit visual or linguistic feature of games. This chapter instead uses Pokémon GO’s seemingly inadvertent exposure of U.S. racial fault lines as an opportunity to explore how race is not erased but rather embedded in the game’s disorienting technology. It reveals the unacknowledged legacy of Japanese racial ideologies, imperialist ambitions, and atomic history that lurk beneath the game screen. The chapter argues that this illusion of ahistorical universality crucially buttresses the fantasy of Pokémon GO as a truly “free” game, masking the invasive and dehumanizing data mining structures that make it enormously profitable for its developers.
Jeremy Black
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780300167955
- eISBN:
- 9780300198546
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300167955.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, World Modern History
This chapter briefly discusses how the United States became the foremost imperial, military, and industrial power in the twentieth century. It also describes the rapidly changing means of information ...
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This chapter briefly discusses how the United States became the foremost imperial, military, and industrial power in the twentieth century. It also describes the rapidly changing means of information acquisition, processing, and representation, which includes forms of surveillance and exploration linked to technological progress. The availability of information in the twentieth century increased with the development of space shuttles, satellites, satellite-linked global positioning systems (GPS), drones, and submarines.Less
This chapter briefly discusses how the United States became the foremost imperial, military, and industrial power in the twentieth century. It also describes the rapidly changing means of information acquisition, processing, and representation, which includes forms of surveillance and exploration linked to technological progress. The availability of information in the twentieth century increased with the development of space shuttles, satellites, satellite-linked global positioning systems (GPS), drones, and submarines.
Christopher Hodges
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199282555
- eISBN:
- 9780191700217
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199282555.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, EU Law
The purpose of pre-marketing control is to ensure that the product's design, functionality, performance, and safety are sufficiently predictable and that the predicted standard of each of these ...
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The purpose of pre-marketing control is to ensure that the product's design, functionality, performance, and safety are sufficiently predictable and that the predicted standard of each of these aspects is acceptable. There are explicit requirements for many product types that are covered by vertical regulation, and although there are no explicit requirements for products that are subject to the horizontal GPS provisions, the impact of the GPS requirements and of product liability law makes the voluntary adoption of appropriate measures advisable if not essential. The issues that arise in this chapter are first, to find out who has what obligations to generate or collect information; secondly, to identify the information that should be collected; and thirdly, to find out who needs to take responsibility for the accuracy of the information.Less
The purpose of pre-marketing control is to ensure that the product's design, functionality, performance, and safety are sufficiently predictable and that the predicted standard of each of these aspects is acceptable. There are explicit requirements for many product types that are covered by vertical regulation, and although there are no explicit requirements for products that are subject to the horizontal GPS provisions, the impact of the GPS requirements and of product liability law makes the voluntary adoption of appropriate measures advisable if not essential. The issues that arise in this chapter are first, to find out who has what obligations to generate or collect information; secondly, to identify the information that should be collected; and thirdly, to find out who needs to take responsibility for the accuracy of the information.
David K. Lynch and Kenneth Sassen
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780195130720
- eISBN:
- 9780197561430
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780195130720.003.0025
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Meteorology and Climatology
The preceding 20 chapters reveal cirrus in considerable depth. Just as important, however, is what is not revealed. There are many things that we do not know or ...
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The preceding 20 chapters reveal cirrus in considerable depth. Just as important, however, is what is not revealed. There are many things that we do not know or understand about cirrus. In this final chapter we present the outstanding scientific issues facing the cirrus research community. Our goal here is to produce a guide for students, scientists, policy makers, and funding organizations who wish to quickly grasp the direction and future needs of cirrus research. The impact of cirrus clouds on climate and how they interact with a climate perturbed by human enterprise is only dimly perceived. Do cirrus clouds, on a regional or global scale, act to cool or warm our planet? By reflecting incoming solar radiation to space, they can cool. Yet as an opacity source in the 10-μm window, they can radiate downward and warm the Earth. Which process dominates, and under what conditions does warming overtake cooling? Does the atmosphere react to cirrus globally or regionally (i.e., can cirrus increase pole-equator temperature differences or mute them)? Are there other mechanisms at work that defeat or amplify temperature changes by cirrus? We do not yet know. Programs such as SUCCESS, ICE, CRYSTAL, INCA, and FIRE/SHEBA will do much to answer questions about contrails and cirrus variability from one part of the world to another. They also will go a long way toward understanding one of the most difficult problems in meteorology: how convection and turbulence are related to cirrus formation and maintenance. In the meantime, existing capabilities are underused. For example, remote sensing techniques for estimating ice water path now exist but have not been assigned enough priority to achieve the necessary breakthroughs. Considerable progress could also be made in data analysis. As in other fields, analyzing existing data has a lower funding priority than designing and building new hardware and flight systems. Three fields of inquiry need more attention before we can claim a sufficient understanding of cirrus: physical properties, radiative properties, and modeling. These fields are interconnected in often subtle ways. Much of what we do not know about cirrus involves the range of properties and their evolution in time.
Less
The preceding 20 chapters reveal cirrus in considerable depth. Just as important, however, is what is not revealed. There are many things that we do not know or understand about cirrus. In this final chapter we present the outstanding scientific issues facing the cirrus research community. Our goal here is to produce a guide for students, scientists, policy makers, and funding organizations who wish to quickly grasp the direction and future needs of cirrus research. The impact of cirrus clouds on climate and how they interact with a climate perturbed by human enterprise is only dimly perceived. Do cirrus clouds, on a regional or global scale, act to cool or warm our planet? By reflecting incoming solar radiation to space, they can cool. Yet as an opacity source in the 10-μm window, they can radiate downward and warm the Earth. Which process dominates, and under what conditions does warming overtake cooling? Does the atmosphere react to cirrus globally or regionally (i.e., can cirrus increase pole-equator temperature differences or mute them)? Are there other mechanisms at work that defeat or amplify temperature changes by cirrus? We do not yet know. Programs such as SUCCESS, ICE, CRYSTAL, INCA, and FIRE/SHEBA will do much to answer questions about contrails and cirrus variability from one part of the world to another. They also will go a long way toward understanding one of the most difficult problems in meteorology: how convection and turbulence are related to cirrus formation and maintenance. In the meantime, existing capabilities are underused. For example, remote sensing techniques for estimating ice water path now exist but have not been assigned enough priority to achieve the necessary breakthroughs. Considerable progress could also be made in data analysis. As in other fields, analyzing existing data has a lower funding priority than designing and building new hardware and flight systems. Three fields of inquiry need more attention before we can claim a sufficient understanding of cirrus: physical properties, radiative properties, and modeling. These fields are interconnected in often subtle ways. Much of what we do not know about cirrus involves the range of properties and their evolution in time.
Adrian F. Tuck
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- November 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199236534
- eISBN:
- 9780191917462
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199236534.003.0007
- Subject:
- Earth Sciences and Geography, Atmospheric Sciences
Probability distributions plotted to date from large volumes of high quality atmospheric observations invariably have ‘long tails’: relatively rare but intense events ...
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Probability distributions plotted to date from large volumes of high quality atmospheric observations invariably have ‘long tails’: relatively rare but intense events make significant contributions to the mean. Atmospheric fields are intermittent. Gaussian distributions, which are assumed to accompany second moment statistics and power spectra, are not seen. An inherently stochastic approach, that of statistical multifractals, was developed as generalized scale invariance by Schertzer and Lovejoy (1985, 1987, 1991); it incorporates intermittency and anisotropy in a way Kolmogorov theory does not. Generalized scale invariance demands in application to the atmosphere large volumes of high quality data, obtained in simple and representative coordinate systems in a way that is as extensive as possible in both space and time. In theory, these could be obtained for the whole globe by satellites from orbit, but in practice their high velocities and low spatial resolution have to date restricted them to an insufficient range of scales, particularly if averaging over scale height-like depths in the vertical is to be avoided; analysis has been successfully performed on cloud images, however (Lovejoy et al. 2001). Some suitable data were obtained as an accidental by-product of the systematic exploration of the rapid (1–4% per day) ozone loss in the Antarctic and Arctic lower stratospheric vortices during winter and spring by the high-flying ER-2 research aircraft in the late 1980s through to 2000. Data initially at 1Hz and later at 5Hz allowed horizontal resolution of wind speed, temperature, and pressure at approximately 200 m and later at 40 m, with ozone available at 1 Hz, over the long, direct flight tracks necessitated by the distances involved between the airfield and the vortex. Some later flights also had data from other chemical instruments, such as nitrous oxide, N2O, reactive nitrogen, NOy, and chlorine monoxide, ClO, which could sustain at least an analysis for H1, the most robust of the three scaling exponents. Better than four decades of horizontal scale were available for 1Hz and 5Hz data. Since then, a lesser volume of adequate data has been obtained away from the polar regions by the WB57F.
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Probability distributions plotted to date from large volumes of high quality atmospheric observations invariably have ‘long tails’: relatively rare but intense events make significant contributions to the mean. Atmospheric fields are intermittent. Gaussian distributions, which are assumed to accompany second moment statistics and power spectra, are not seen. An inherently stochastic approach, that of statistical multifractals, was developed as generalized scale invariance by Schertzer and Lovejoy (1985, 1987, 1991); it incorporates intermittency and anisotropy in a way Kolmogorov theory does not. Generalized scale invariance demands in application to the atmosphere large volumes of high quality data, obtained in simple and representative coordinate systems in a way that is as extensive as possible in both space and time. In theory, these could be obtained for the whole globe by satellites from orbit, but in practice their high velocities and low spatial resolution have to date restricted them to an insufficient range of scales, particularly if averaging over scale height-like depths in the vertical is to be avoided; analysis has been successfully performed on cloud images, however (Lovejoy et al. 2001). Some suitable data were obtained as an accidental by-product of the systematic exploration of the rapid (1–4% per day) ozone loss in the Antarctic and Arctic lower stratospheric vortices during winter and spring by the high-flying ER-2 research aircraft in the late 1980s through to 2000. Data initially at 1Hz and later at 5Hz allowed horizontal resolution of wind speed, temperature, and pressure at approximately 200 m and later at 40 m, with ozone available at 1 Hz, over the long, direct flight tracks necessitated by the distances involved between the airfield and the vortex. Some later flights also had data from other chemical instruments, such as nitrous oxide, N2O, reactive nitrogen, NOy, and chlorine monoxide, ClO, which could sustain at least an analysis for H1, the most robust of the three scaling exponents. Better than four decades of horizontal scale were available for 1Hz and 5Hz data. Since then, a lesser volume of adequate data has been obtained away from the polar regions by the WB57F.
Penny McCall Howard
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781784994143
- eISBN:
- 9781526128478
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781784994143.003.0005
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Anthropology, Global
Chapter Four continues the discussion of techniques and technologies with a focus on orientation and navigation. The chapter draws on Tim Ingold’s and James Gibson’s descriptions of orientation as a ...
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Chapter Four continues the discussion of techniques and technologies with a focus on orientation and navigation. The chapter draws on Tim Ingold’s and James Gibson’s descriptions of orientation as a process of movement through the landscape to find affordances. The chapter describes the techniques used locally for finding position from the 1960s onwards: dead-reckoning, and the use of radar, depth sounders, Decca, and GPS. Challenging anthropological accounts of ‘Western’ navigation that assume Westerners always rely on charts and instruments and that these alienate people from direct relations with their environment, the GPS chartplotter shows the perpetual importance of the subjective and experiential aspects of orientation in a digital age. The chapter argues that alienation is instead produced by relations of ownership and exploitation, and that the chartplotter facilitates the centralisation of fishing knowledge with the skipper and the employment of low-waged migrant workers as crew. While authors such as Edwin Hutchins describe navigation as answering the absolute question ‘where am I?’, the chapter proposes that the aim of navigation is usually to answer the relational question ‘where is that?’Less
Chapter Four continues the discussion of techniques and technologies with a focus on orientation and navigation. The chapter draws on Tim Ingold’s and James Gibson’s descriptions of orientation as a process of movement through the landscape to find affordances. The chapter describes the techniques used locally for finding position from the 1960s onwards: dead-reckoning, and the use of radar, depth sounders, Decca, and GPS. Challenging anthropological accounts of ‘Western’ navigation that assume Westerners always rely on charts and instruments and that these alienate people from direct relations with their environment, the GPS chartplotter shows the perpetual importance of the subjective and experiential aspects of orientation in a digital age. The chapter argues that alienation is instead produced by relations of ownership and exploitation, and that the chartplotter facilitates the centralisation of fishing knowledge with the skipper and the employment of low-waged migrant workers as crew. While authors such as Edwin Hutchins describe navigation as answering the absolute question ‘where am I?’, the chapter proposes that the aim of navigation is usually to answer the relational question ‘where is that?’
Jerome Lewis
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780262027168
- eISBN:
- 9780262322492
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262027168.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Information Technology
Hunter-gatherer land-use in the Congo Basin leaves few traces. One consequence is that their presence is invisible on maps and ignored in land-use planning decisions over the areas they inhabit. ...
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Hunter-gatherer land-use in the Congo Basin leaves few traces. One consequence is that their presence is invisible on maps and ignored in land-use planning decisions over the areas they inhabit. Governments do not recognise their rights to land, conservationists exclude them from rich forest areas, logging roads open up remaining areas to extractive outsiders, and global warming changes rainfall patterns and the seasonal events that normally guide people to wild foods. A forestry company in Congo-Brazzaville seeking a ‘green’ label for its timber sought anthropological advice on how to respect the rights of forest people. This chapter describes the challenges and participatory design process that developed in creating icon-driven software on converted military palmpilots. Maps produced using this technology have become a new way for non-literate communities to be heard by powerful outsiders. A community radio station broadcasting uniquely in local languages will facilitate forest people to develop their own understanding of the situations facing them, share insights, observations and analyses in order to better secure their long-term interests. The creative interaction of non-literate users and ICT is spawning new developments, from new software builds to monitor illegal logging or wildlife, to geographic information systems for non-literate users.Less
Hunter-gatherer land-use in the Congo Basin leaves few traces. One consequence is that their presence is invisible on maps and ignored in land-use planning decisions over the areas they inhabit. Governments do not recognise their rights to land, conservationists exclude them from rich forest areas, logging roads open up remaining areas to extractive outsiders, and global warming changes rainfall patterns and the seasonal events that normally guide people to wild foods. A forestry company in Congo-Brazzaville seeking a ‘green’ label for its timber sought anthropological advice on how to respect the rights of forest people. This chapter describes the challenges and participatory design process that developed in creating icon-driven software on converted military palmpilots. Maps produced using this technology have become a new way for non-literate communities to be heard by powerful outsiders. A community radio station broadcasting uniquely in local languages will facilitate forest people to develop their own understanding of the situations facing them, share insights, observations and analyses in order to better secure their long-term interests. The creative interaction of non-literate users and ICT is spawning new developments, from new software builds to monitor illegal logging or wildlife, to geographic information systems for non-literate users.
Javier Benedicto and Adolfo Plasencia
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780262036016
- eISBN:
- 9780262339308
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262036016.003.0009
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Technology and Society
The engineer, Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme Department at ESA, describes in this dialogue the frustration felt by scientists who work in space agencies. The long-term nature of ...
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The engineer, Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme Department at ESA, describes in this dialogue the frustration felt by scientists who work in space agencies. The long-term nature of their projects means that those who envision and design a space mission are forced to leave the future generation to implement the mission as well as processing the results. He explains that although it is hard to believe, uncertainty also hovers over the Galileo space programme meaning they also have to consider that the impos∫sible could actually occur. He relates how in Galileo they ‘manufacture’ their own notion of ‘universal time’ that will be used worldwide and explains how they are working with this time, which is accurate to a nanofraction of a second. He goes on to explain how they managed to persuade the Russians (Glasnoss), Chinese (Beidou) and North Americans (GPS) to agree to cooperate and, at the same time, make their systems compatible with Galileo’s future GPS system for civilian use.Less
The engineer, Javier Benedicto, head of the Galileo Programme Department at ESA, describes in this dialogue the frustration felt by scientists who work in space agencies. The long-term nature of their projects means that those who envision and design a space mission are forced to leave the future generation to implement the mission as well as processing the results. He explains that although it is hard to believe, uncertainty also hovers over the Galileo space programme meaning they also have to consider that the impos∫sible could actually occur. He relates how in Galileo they ‘manufacture’ their own notion of ‘universal time’ that will be used worldwide and explains how they are working with this time, which is accurate to a nanofraction of a second. He goes on to explain how they managed to persuade the Russians (Glasnoss), Chinese (Beidou) and North Americans (GPS) to agree to cooperate and, at the same time, make their systems compatible with Galileo’s future GPS system for civilian use.
