Shanghaied into the future: the Asianization of the future Metropolis in post-Blade Runner cinema

The clichéd 1930–1950 Western cinematic images of Shanghai as a fascinating den of iniquity, and, in contrast, as a beacon of modernity, were merged in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. As a result, a new standard emerged in science ction lms for the representation of future urban conglomerates: the Asianized metropolis. e standard set by this lm, of a dark dystopian city, populated by creatures of all races and genetic codes, will be adopted in most of the representations of future cities in non-Asian cinema. is article traces the representation of Shanghai in Western cinema from its earliest days (1932– Shanghai Express) through Blade Runner (1982) to the present (2013– Her). Shanghai, already in the early 1930s, sported extremely daring examples of modern architecture and, at the same time, in non-Asian cinema, was represented as a city of sin and depravity. is dualistic representation became the standard image of the future Asianized city, where its debauchery was o en complemented by modernity; therefore, it is all the more seedy. Moreover, it is Asianized, the “Yellow Peril” incarnated in a new, much more subtle, much more dangerous way. As such, it is deserving of destruction, like Sodom and Gomorrah

Soil concentrations of platinum and lead along the main exit routes from the city of Poznan

Przedstawiono problem występowania ołowiu i platyny w glebie przy drogach i autostradach, z uwzględnieniem nowych i od dawna eksploatowanych tras komunikacyjnych. Analizę zawartości ołowiu i platyny w glebach przedstawiono na przykładzie głównych dróg wylotowych z Poznania. Jakkolwiek zawartość ołowiu jest monitorowana od dłuższego czasu, to jednak problem obecności platyny w glebie nie był brany wcześniej pod uwagę. Badania wykazały, że pomimo stosowania benzyny bezołowiowej zawartość ołowiu w badanych próbkach gleby była znaczna, jednak nie przekraczała wartości dopuszczalnych. Ponadto stwierdzono obecność platyny w badanym materiale w ilości przekraczającej wartość tła geochemicznego, co wskazuje na konieczność monitorowania jej zawartości ze względu na stale zwiększającą się emisję tego pierwiastka z układów katalitycznych, w które wyposażone są pojazdy samochodowe.The paper addresses the problem of lead and platinum occurrence in the soil along roads and highways, the case in point being the main exit routes from the city of Poznan. While the soil concentrations of lead have been monitored not only along recently constructed roads but also those used over a long period, the presence of platinum in those soils was left without due consideration. The study reported on in this paper has revealed that despite the common use of unleaded petrol, the soil concentrations of lead along main roads are still high although they do not exceed the admissible levels. Another major finding of this study is that the soil concentrations of platinum exceed the geochemical background values. This corroborates the necessity of monitoring the presence of this noble metal, since its emission from the catalytic systems in motor vehicles continues to increase

A study of the influence of selected transition metals on the solid state Reactivity in a Fe-KClO4 mixture

The effect of selected transition metal powders (Zn, Ti, Mo and nano-Fe), in the concentration range from 0-5 wt.%, when used as activators in the highly calorific mixture Fe-KClO4 (containing 16 wt.% KClO4), has been studied. It has been established that zinc and molybdenum powders can act as factors in decreasing the activation temperature and increasing the effectiveness of the oxidant used. Titanium powder increases the oxygen conversion rate and the amount of energy released. Iron nano-powder has only a slight influence on the above mentioned parameters