Social Housing: Chatsworth Gardens, Ashchurch Place, Fleet Street Hill, Baden Powell Close, Hannibal Road Gardens

This return comprises five social housing projects undertaken by Peter Barber between 2009 and 2013, some built, some unbuilt. The un-built projects contribute significantly to the development of Barber’s research agenda over this period. The primary research questions addressed by the projects are: Can urban life can be regenerated through well designed, mixed use high-density housing? Can sustainable development can be achieved through good design? Can better use of land and resources can be achieved through higher densities in housing? How can energy saving objectives be met in high-density housing? Each of the projects was developed through observational site visits and discussions with clients, community members and local planning officers. Conceptual design strategies drew on the writings of Walter Benjamin and Jane Jacobs, in line with Barber’s on-going interest in the cultural life of the urban street, and in-depth analysis of vernacular housing typologies and the work of his contemporaries. Key urban design moves were established early on in design processes and remained consistent through their evolution. Extensive physical model making, three-dimensional sketching and other forms of visualisation tested design options and refined the overall configuration of the buildings in terms of accessibility, circulation, lighting, housing typology and general functional viability. The many exploratory physical models for each scheme were all constructed with the same logic as the real construction operations would be on site, being regularly and quickly updated throughout the whole process. Positive coverage of these projects has appeared in the architectural press and popular media. Hannibal Road Gardens was awarded a 2013 RIBA London National Award. Baden Powell Close was shortlisted for a 2010 RIBA Award. In the same year, Peter Barber Architects was awarded the 2010/2011 Building Design Architect of the Year Award for Housing. This followed commendation in the 2008 Civic Trust Awards

Resolving the Degeneracy: Experimental tests of the New Self Creation Cosmology and a heterodox prediction for Gravity Probe B

The new theory of Self Creation Cosmology has been shown to yield a concordant cosmological solution that does not require inflation, exotic non-baryonic Dark matter or Dark Energy to fit observational constraints. In vacuo there is a conformal equivalence between this theory and canonical General Relativity and as a consequence an experimental degeneracy exists as the two theories predict identical results in the standard tests. However, there are three definitive experiments that are able to resolve this degeneracy and distinguish between the two theories. Here these standard tests and definitive experiments are described. One of the definitive predictions, that of the geodetic precession of a gyroscope, has just been measured on the Gravity Probe B satellite, which is at the present time of writing in the data processing stage. This is the first opportunity to falsify Self Creation Cosmology. The theory predicts a 'frame-dragging' result equal to GR but a geodetic precession of only 2/3 the GR value. When applied to the Gravity Probe B satellite, Self Creation Cosmology predicts an E-W gravitomagnetic/frame-dragging precession, equal to that of GR, of 40.9 milliarcsec/yr but a -S gyroscope (geodetic + Thomas) precession of just 4.4096 arcsec/yr.Comment: LaTex, 15 pages. Correction of the prediction of the GP-B geodetic measurement to 4.4096 arcsec/y

Crafting the Community

Purpose – Crafting the Community is a volunteering project run by the Textiles Department at the University of Huddersfield to promote and deliver textile craft activities to the wider community. The purpose of this paper is to explore how volunteering can be a powerful tool for enriching peoples’lives while deepening students’ textile-related competencies through placing their learning in social and communal settings. Design/methodology/approach – Initially the paper will articulate how the project has been developed to bring innovation to the forefront of the curriculum, equipping students with tools for playing a meaningful and constructive role in society. Subsequently the paper will investigate how volunteering can be used to affect real-life changes in homelessness, archival threats and rural transport. Findings – The paper uses a case study approach to realise the vision of Crafting the Community that enables students to put into practice their learning while capturing the imagination of local communities. Social implications – As active players in society, staff, students and external partners create an engaged and interrelated learning experience as an evolving process, mimicking the repetitiveness and structure of the warp and weft of cloth itself. Originality/value – In response to emerging debates concerning the value, relevance and impact of cloth on societies today the project’s aim is to share the course’s own unique philosophy and insight into the importance of a practical and creative engagement with materials and processes in the wider community. This paper would be suitable for academics that who are interested in textile culture and emergent textile volunteering and socially engaged practices in the public realm

Partition regularity of a system of De and Hindman

We prove that a certain matrix, which is not image partition regular over R near zero, is image partition regular over N. This answers a question of De and Hindman.Comment: 7 page

The Unseen City: Anthropological Perspectives on Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, by Michael Goddard (Book Review)

Review of the book "The Unseen City: Anthropological Perspectives on Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea", by Michael Goddard. “The Unseen City” that is the focus of this collection of essays is the part of Port Moresby that remains out of sight for most non-Melanesians. It is the everyday social environment of migrant settlers and urban villagers who daily negotiate the legacies of tradition and the colonial past and the contemporary challenges of living in a modern city. Contrary to stereotypical portrayals of Port Moresby as the site of crime and corruption, the essays in this volume present a picture of creative, dynamic “grassroots” responses to the demands of everyday life

On solving Ordinary Differential Equations using Gaussian Processes

We describe a set of Gaussian Process based approaches that can be used to solve non-linear Ordinary Differential Equations. We suggest an explicit probabilistic solver and two implicit methods, one analogous to Picard iteration and the other to gradient matching. All methods have greater accuracy than previously suggested Gaussian Process approaches. We also suggest a general approach that can yield error estimates from any standard ODE solver

Breaking the consensus: The politicisation of Maori affairs

This article takes issue with the claim made by Tremewan (2005a) that the New Zealand social sciences have been uncritical of neotraditionalist and culturalist trends in social policy. It points out that at least since the 1980s there has existed a significant body of social science literature critical of these trends. The article also takes issue with Tremewan’s attribution of increased political dissent in the area of Maori affairs to the culturalist ideological currents dominating social policy. The article provides an alternative explanation for this increase in political dissent by focusing upon the material conditions of existence and the opportunism of power-seeking politicians

Whose Job Is It, Anyway? Capital Strategies for Labor

[Excerpt] When corporate mergers and takeovers create massively debt-ridden new entities, with the resulting pressures to sell off assets, reduce costs (especially wages) and close marginal operations, it is the company\u27s workers and their communities who suffer. And, when corporate managers accept, and even encourage, huge levels of waste, or ignore obvious opportunities because they aren\u27t profitable enough, workers and their communities end up paying for the resulting inefficiencies and lost potential. I believe that a hallmark of the new economic era we seem to be entering will be that workers and unions will be forced to actively concern themselves with all aspects of an employer\u27s business — with the intricate details of corporate structure, finance, and operations. In the process, they will have to evolve a comprehensive approach to the process of production and distribution, to investment and financial issues, as well as to corporate organization and control. In short, they will need to begin learning how to organize economic resources themselves and evolve what have been called capital strategies

S.O.S –Supporting Other Students: the role of student library ambassadors at Southampton Solent University

Since March 2008, the library at Southampton Solent has been employing a team of students to act as ‘library ambassadors’. They provide alternative support to our users, particularly during periods when library staff are not on duty, such as during extended opening hours on bank holidays and late evenings. Ambassadors provide peer support covering library facilities and resources,as well as more technical issues (ICT, photocopying,binding). Overall they help to ensure that a high-quality learning environment is accessible throughout our full opening hour