Towards a New International Law of the Atmosphere?

Inclusion of the topic ‘protection of the atmosphere’ in the current work programme of the UN International Law Commission (ILC) reflects the long overdue recognition of the fact that the scope of contemporary international law for the Earth’s atmosphere extends far beyond the traditional discipline of ‘air law’ as a synonym for airspace and air navigation law. Instead, the atmospheric commons are regulated by a ‘regime complex’ comprising a multitude of economic uses including global communications, pollutant emissions and diffusion, in different geographical sectors and vertical zones, in the face of different categories of risks, and addressed by a wide range of different transnational institutions. Following several earlier attempts at identifying crosscutting legal rules and principles in this field (by, inter alia, the International Law Association, the UN Environment Programme, and the Institut de Droit International), the ILC has now embarked on a new codification/restatement project led by Special Rapporteur Shinya Murase – albeit hamstrung by a highly restrictive ‘understanding’ imposed by the Commission in 2013. This article assesses the prospects and limitations of the initial ILC reports and debates in 2014 and 2015, and potential avenues for progress in the years to come

Viking Lander 1 and 2 revisited: The characterisation and detection of Martian dust devils

Dust devil data from Mars is limited by a lack of data relating to diurnal dust devil behaviour. The meteorological data from the Viking landers has been revisited to provide these diurnal statistics

The locative dystopia

Locative media uses portable, networked, location aware computing devices for user-led mapping and artistic interventions in which geographical space becomes its canvas. The discourse of locative media gestures to a convergence of the digital domain and geographical space, and the course it plots towards this future demands not only that data be made geographically specific but also that the user - if not defined by their location - at least offers up their location as a condition of entering the game. In this respect, not to mention its choice of tools, locative media operates upon the same plane as military tracking, State and commercial surveillance, forcing a consideration of how locative media might challenge, or be complicit with such forms of social control

Trail records and navigational learning

An emerging wave of 'ambient' technologies has the potential to support learning in new and particular ways. In this paper we propose a 'trail model' of 'navigational learning' which links some particular learning needs to the potentialities of these technologies. In this context, we outline the design and use of an 'experience recorder', a technology to support learning in museums. In terms of policy for the e-society, these proposals are relevant to the need for personalised and individualised learning support

Be Gay Do Crime: Community Building and Queer Solidarity in "Cloudpunk" and "Motor Crush"

This essay deals with queer theory and how it applies to the videogame Cloudpunk and the comic series Motor Crush. Both of these texts use cyberpunk settings to tell stories about finding hope in community. Each text features protagonists trying to navigate worlds where legal success is highly competitive and practically impossible. They must therefore turn to community building, mutual aid, and criminal activity to find happiness. This analysis views the texts through the lens of queer time and queer space making practices as outlined by J Jack Halberstam and Jose Esteban Muñoz. Central to this article’s exploration of these texts is the characters inability and/or refusal to fit neatly into the worlds they inhabit, and how they must therefore find success outside of accepted channels. Success is only found by these characters through an attitude that can be summarised by the queer anarchist meme “be gay, do crime”, which connotes a sense of mischief, solidarity, and standing up to authority. The rigid social hierarchies that are built into the dystopian worlds is reflected in the infrastructure of the cities, which do not account for anyone living outside of an accepted norm. It is therefore considered an act of radical solidarity to break the rules if it is in support of others

Parametrical study of miniature generators for large motion applications

Designing a generator for large amplitude motion has lead to an energy-consistent model that also considers the finite dimensions of the device. Using SPICE software we have studied the influence of several design parameters on the output of the generator, including the limited motion of the seismic mass imposed by small system dimensions. Three different types of load circuits are presented, as well as their optimization towards output voltage and power