Method and apparatus for determining return stroke polarity of distant lightning

A method is described for determining the return stroke polarity of distant lightning for distances beyond 600 km by detecting the electric field associated with a return stroke of distant lightning, and processing the electric field signal to determine the polarity of the slow tail of the VLF waveform signal associated with the detected electric field. The polarity of the return stroke of distant lightning is determined based upon the polarity of the slow tail portion of the waveform

Re-reading and rehabilitating Basil Bernstein

This article constitutes a re-reading of and an attempt to rehabilitate Basil Bernstein, both of which are important in light of the interpretation of Bernstein as a proponent of the verbal deficit view, and the general discrediting of his work on social class differences in the British educational system, as related to what he later called ‘codes’, by scholars like Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970), in particular. Exploring whether the international criticism of Bernstein was justified entails both an analysis of articles written by Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970) and by Bernstein, notably ‘Language and social class’ and ‘A critique of the concept of compensatory education’, both published in the first volume of Class, codes and control (Bernstein, Class, codes and control, Volume 1. Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language, Schocken Books, 1971). The article argues for the importance of contextualising Bernstein's thoughts on language and society within the socio-political climate framing his scholarship and the development of his ideas as a whole. We show that much of the interpretation of Bernstein is, in fact, a misinterpretation, for which Bernstein was only partly at fault. By rehabilitating some of Bernstein's ideas, it is possible to argue for their relevance today, especially with reference to salient connections between socio-cultural background and performance at school. Furthermore, Labov and Bernstein may not have been so far apart in their thinking as has previously been assumed

Re-reading and rehabilitating Basil Bernstein

This article constitutes a re-reading of and an attempt to rehabilitate Basil Bernstein, both of which are important in light of the interpretation of Bernstein as a proponent of the verbal deficit view, and the general discrediting of his work on social class differences in the British educational system, as related to what he later called ‘codes', by scholars like Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970), in particular. Exploring whether the international criticism of Bernstein was justified entails both an analysis of articles written by Jensen (Social class and verbal learning, Holt, 1968) and Labov (The logic of non-standard English, Georgetown University Press, 1970) and by Bernstein, notably ‘Language and social class' and ‘A critique of the concept of compensatory education', both published in the first volume of Class, codes and control (Bernstein, Class, codes and control, Volume 1. Theoretical studies towards a sociology of language, Schocken Books, 1971). The article argues for the importance of contextualising Bernstein's thoughts on language and society within the socio-political climate framing his scholarship and the development of his ideas as a whole. We show that much of the interpretation of Bernstein is, in fact, a misinterpretation, for which Bernstein was only partly at fault. By rehabilitating some of Bernstein's ideas, it is possible to argue for their relevance today, especially with reference to salient connections between socio-cultural background and performance at school. Furthermore, Labov and Bernstein may not have been so far apart in their thinking as has previously been assume

Tracing Urban Manchester: Palimpsests of Post-war Planning

In Britain, during the post-war period, many urban design professionals were architect-planners. A considerable proportion of these were employed by local authorities. A drive by the state to use legislation to control and influence the shape of development created a very specific set of circumstances. Central government policy was filtered and interpreted by local government councillors and their officers and each town or city approached this in a different way. The legislation and the training enabled a very particular mode of urban design that was characterised by ambitious three-dimensional visions. Such ambition was also underpinned by non-statutory guidance that reflected the zeitgeist for vertical separation in urban settings, such as Sir Colin Buchanan’s Traffic in Towns. In this paper I will look at the city of Manchester. Manchester’s 1945 Plan, directed by City Engineer and Surveyor, Rowland Nicholas, was one of the most comprehensive in Britain, yet it faltered due to a lack of capital and lack of material resources. In the 1960s, Manchester’s first Chief Planner, John Millar, revisited the urban design of the entire central area with a team of talented young planners, recruited from the region. Their work was arguably greater in its scope and definition than that produced in 1945 and shaped the city for the next 50 years. Though only partially realised, the framework for development established in the mid 1960s and approved in 1968, set the tone for almost all the changes to follow. Here, I will explore how central government legislation was interpreted spatially by Manchester’s planners using drawings and models and how these visions continued to inform development well into the twenty-first century. In so doing, I will present an inverted archaeology of the city that traces the patterns established on paper and the long-term physical residue of these gestures

Machining the Moors: Motorway Landscapes and Policy

The M62 motorway in the north of England was completed in the early 1970s. Its design was exemplary of the types of concerns espoused by landscape architects in Britain in the 1950s. Partly by virtue of its topography, partly attributable to talented engineers, the motorway scenically winds its way over the southern Pennine hills from Lancashire in the west to Yorkshire in the east. As a vital piece of infrastructure, the route connects Europe to the Americas (the port of Hull to the port of Liverpool), as well as interweaving the fortunes of the north’s industrial cities. In tandem with the development of the motorway, other major infrastructure transformed the Pennine landscape. Most notable were large reservoirs for public water supply, including the world’s first dam-motorway hybrid at Scammonden, Huddersfield, near to the Lancashire-Yorkshire border. The delivery of such complex entanglements in difficult upland conditions demanded new forms of collaborative practice between various tiers of government, a range of professionals, publics and contractors. These infrastructural landscapes were three-dimensional compositions somewhere between sculpture and engineering. Their aesthetic qualities were deliberate and, as undertakings within nationalised governmental structures, carried both civic and amenity responsibilities. Time has rendered this sense of sublime beauty almost obsolete, the memory of pride in their completion is faded, ceding to priorities of speed and the negative implications of carbon made and carbon driven space. Such notions account for poor physical transformations to the motorway landscape and its apparent invisibility as a designed object. Here, I argue for an appreciation of a heritage landscape that demands a holistic view of the agents acting on its production and understands its production as of particular political circumstance. In so doing, I invite the idea of state structures themselves as heritage objects, with potential to enact positive change in their reconstruction

Renewal and Regionality: Cruickshank and Seward in Manchester

This proposal seeks to begin an examination of the role of Comprehensive Development Area (CDA) allocation in the shaping of renewal cities. The term renewal here is used to mean cities that began the most significant part of their post-war development after 1959 (Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, Glasgow etc.) These cities not only share characteristics in terms of the tempo of their post-war development, but can also be seen to be city regions in their own right. In this sense are their particular regional nuances in policy, in planning, in economics and in architecture that are distinct but also have commonality? Manchester will be used as a case study with which to start to unfold the relationships between the afforded statutory powers, the formal processes of allocation, the informal processes of developer led lobbying and the role of architects in this situation. There are several key questions attached to this enquiry [1] What were the conditions that meant rebuilding did not really commence until almost 15 years after the end of WWII? [2] Why, if powers to allocate CDAs were awarded under the 1947 Town and Country Planning Act, were these powers not employed sooner by local authorities? [3] What were the influencing factors in terms of selecting areas to be designated as CDAs? [4] What was the role of the architect in the processes of allocation, of lobbying and of development? [5] What was the relationship between CDA allocation and other planning led decisions of the period? Of the six designated CDAs in Manchester, the architectural practice of Cruickshank and Seward were appointed to develop two of them and had significant influence in a third. Of the two in which they were the only appointed architects, one was built and another failed to be realised. An examination of the political and economic structures around these two particular instances may reveal some answers to the questions posed above – often unbuilt projects have as much to say about a period in question as those which were completed. Cruickshank and Seward themselves may be described as regionally dominant during the period from 1960-74 and as such perhaps provided a useful conduit to the predominantly London based development companies. Thus the role of the regional architect in socio-cultural, economic and political setting, termed here as regionality, will also be explored