The Moon and the Mystery: Expanding Our Horizons

(Excerpt) Easter arrived early this year. Only rarely does the festival come on its earliest possible date, March 22. (It last did so in 1818 and will not do so again until 2285.) But not uncommonly Easter comes toward the end of March; it was March 26 this year as it was in 1978 and 1967. It fell on March 25 in 1951

The British Church and the Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms to c.620 (Chapter Four of The Celtic and Roman Traditions: Conflict and Consensus in the Early Medieval Church)

Excerpt: At the same time that Columbanus was establishing his monasteries in Merovingian Gaul, Pope Gregory the Great began planning a mission to convert the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms located in present-day England. The pope wrote to leading Merovingians such as Brunhild asking for their support in this endeavor and to provide whatever aid was necessary for the missionaries. In 596, Augustine (597–604/10), future bishop of Canterbury, and his party departed Italy for the north, traveling through the Merovingian kingdoms to Kent where the papal mission established their headquarters at the old Roman town of Canterbury (map 4.1). In the first years of the seventh century, Augustine came into conflict with the British Church over their alternative practices, specifically baptism and the Celtic-84. Augustine also wanted the British bishops to submit to his authority and to assist in converting the Anglo-Saxons. However, the British churchmen refused to acknowledge Augustine’s jurisdiction or change their practices

An appraisal of the Guttinger statistic 611

Using the Systems Design procedure developed at Cranfield, an appraisal of the Guttinger Statistic 611 has been carried out; in particular, the interface of the machine has been redesigned

Private ex-ante transaction costs for repeated biodiversity conservation auctions: a case study

The European Union’s Council Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 on support for rural development by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development has introduced promising changes in rewarding farmers by the implementation of conservation auctions and granting farmers’ transaction costs. The paper therefore deals with the evaluation of private transaction costs within a case study using repeated auctions to reward plant biodiversity. Based on a review of the current literature the paper develops a specific definition of transaction costs as well as a methodology to measure and calculate the farmers’ private transaction costs. The case study enfolds two field experiment auctions and two corresponding surveys. The transaction costs are measured by the use of written questionnaires and will be discussed both as a first reference value of farmers’ transaction costs as well as compared to the individual payments within the case study auctions in order to investigate the real-life performance of this specific application of repeated conservation auctions in biodiversity protection efforts.agri-environmental policy, biodiversity conservation auctions, transaction costs, ecological services, plant biodiversity, experimental economics, EAFRD-Regulation

The Hetu'u Global Network: Measuring the Distance to the Sun Using the June 5th/6th Transit of Venus

In the spirit of historic astronomical endeavors, we invited school groups across the globe to collaborate in a solar distance measurement using the rare June 5/6th transit of Venus. In total, we recruited 19 school groups spread over 6 continents and 10 countries to participate in our Hetu'u Global Network. Applying the methods of French astronomer Joseph-Nicolas Delisle, we used individual second and third Venus-Sun contact times to calculate the distance to the Sun. Ten of the sites in our network had amiable weather; 8 of which measured second contact and 5 of which measured third contact leading to consistent solar distance measurements of 152+/-30 million km and 163+/-30 million km respectively. The distance to the Sun at the time of the transit was 152.25 million km; therefore, our measurements are also consistent within 1sigma of the known value. The goal of our international school group network was to inspire the next generation of scientists using the excitement and accessibility of a rare astronomical event. In the process, we connected hundreds of participating students representing a diverse, multi-cultural group with differing political, economic, and racial backgrounds.Comment: 19 pages; 7 Figures; 1 Table; Accepted for publication in Astronomy Education Review (AER) For more information see http://www.das.uchile.cl/~drodrigu/easter/index_en.htm