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Avians have been shown to be highly cognitive. This chapter asks whether they are also metacognitive in two separate experimental situations. In Study 1, recognition of confidence of their immediate decision in perceptual tasks was tested. Pigeons and bantams performed a visual search to peck at a target colour among distracters. Completing the search led them to a choice between a ‘risk’ icon and a ‘safe’ icon. The ‘risk’ icon always rewarded the bird’s correct search responses by food but punished incorrect responses by a timeout. The ‘safe’ icon rewarded the response at a lower frequency irrespective of their responses. The birds chose the ‘safe’ icon more frequently after an incorrect search than after a correct search. This differential use of icons generalized to the same tasks with new stimuli in most birds, and in one pigeon to a novel line-length discrimination task. In Study 2, it was asked whether pigeons would seek a hint when they were unsure of what to do next. They performed a list learning task, in which they had to peck at three icons in an arbitrary sequence. When novel icons appeared, the birds had to find out a correct sequence by trial and error. However, on half of the trials, there was an additional ‘hint’ icon, and pecking at it marked the next icon in the sequence. Some of the birds used this ‘hint’ icon more frequently upon starting to learn novel lists and less frequently later. These results suggest that some birds could be metacognitive in some situations, although other non-metacognitive accounts were also considered.

In 1914 the British army experienced a rush of volunteers. Physical standards were changed several times to manage the numbers, but many enthusiastic, patriotic men were below enlistment standards. Bantam battalions were then authorized to admit short but sturdy men. However, many men were enlisted who were short but not able to face the rigors of military service. Two divisions were initially formed, although only one fought with Bantams. It had a mediocre record in action, and was reorganized with men of normal physique. However, many of the Bantams were kept in the army, put into non-frontline roles.

This chapter focuses on Ray Bradbury's phenomenal year as a writer during the summer and fall of 1950. A chance meeting with Christopher Isherwood at a Los Angeles bookstore in early July 1950 provided the critical breakthrough that Bradbury needed to bring The Martian Chronicles more fully into mainstream literary appreciation. The timing of Bradbury's review copy gift could not have been better; Isherwood had just agreed to write extended book reviews for Tomorrow, a new literary magazine. Isherwood's review of the Chronicles appeared in the October 1950 issue of Tomorrow. This chapter first considers the impact of Isherwood's friendship on Bradbury's career before turning to Bradbury's new “Illustrated Man” concept for Doubleday and his creation of a 100-page typescript titled Long after Midnight. It also discusses Bradbury's deal with Bantam for an anthology of new fantasy and science fiction stories.

This chapter examines Ray Bradbury's mass-market paperback anthology Timeless Stories for Today and Tomorrow, published by Bantam, and his contract with Ballantine for three science fiction novellas. Timeless Stories, which reached bookstores in time for the fall 1952 publishing season, was Bradbury's first achievement as a literary editor. Featuring works by twenty-five authors, the anthology reflected a more optimistic aspect of the myths Bradbury was developing to negotiate modernity as a writer. Most of the selections played into a more fundamental Bradbury strategy—his long-standing goal of extending fantasy into the literary mainstream by including “authors who rarely write fantasy.” Bradbury wanted to define fantasy by guarding against the dangers that lurked just beyond its margins. This chapter first considers how Bradbury's editorship of Timeless Stories had forced him to articulate his sense of authorship in a way he had never done before. It then looks at Bradbury's Ballantine book contract for his three novellas.

Gujarat was concentric to the early modern Indian Ocean world. The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the fine tuning of long distance trading systems. In South East Asia, the Indo-Portuguese trade network flourished in the sixteenth century, followed by the English and the Dutch in the seventeenth. Equilibrium was established between European and Asian traders, both indispensable to the other. Profitable trade in pepper and spices in the eastern archipelago was based on cotton textiles from Gujarat. In the sixteenth century, Cambay stretched out two arms—towards Aden and Malacca. Commercial connections included ports like Acheh, Kedah, Tenasserim, Pegu, Pase, and Pidie. In the seventeenth century, Surat’s mercantile marine facilitated the consolidation of Gujarati trade. This chapter shows how Gujarati merchant diaspora was intrinsic to the intricate patterns of trade practices and traditions of the Indian Ocean.