Electronic Surveillance After Berger

The history of man’s attempt to communicate with his fellow man has been paralleled by another history–that of man’s attempt to overhear this communication. The art of overhearing or eavesdropping has proceeded on a step-by-step bases with the science of communication. Indeed, the furtive methods of the art have rarely failed to emulate the sophisticated means of the science. From passive overhearing of face-to-face conversation to sanguinary interception of homing pigeons by domesticated hawks, the progress of interception vis-a-vis communication has been carried into the twentieth century, utilizing methods and means beyond the imagination of the interceptor or eavesdropper of yesterday. This progress of communications-interception has not been without legal ramification. Recently, in the case of Berger v. New York, the Supreme Court was confronted with a situation that exemplifies the simultaneous attempt to overhear a conversation and yet remain within the framework of existing law. To a great extent, the decision of the Supreme Court in this case rests on the constitutional history of eavesdropping in the United States. Therefore, before attempting to analyze the holding in Berger, it would seem appropriate to view briefly its historical underpinnings

Seabed geomorphology: a two-part classification system

The BGS has developed a two- part classification system (‘Morphology’ and ‘Geomorphology’) to facilitate work on a new ‘S eabed Geomorphology’ mapping initia tive, and this classification system is the focus of this report. As stated in the Foreword, the rationale and the basic framework of the classification system were conceived and es tablished within BGS, but recent collaboration within the MAREANO -Norway, INFOMAR -Ireland, and MAREMAP -UK (MIM) partnership has led to significant improvement of the classifi cation system, and this report. To further support this effort, existing BGS GIS tools (SIGMA) ha ve been adapted to apply this two-part classification system for more efficient geom orphological mapping in the marine environment. This report: provides a brief background on seabed mapping and characterisation, as well as how this science has been addressed historically within BGS; describes the current motiva tion to conduct seabed geom orphological mapping, and the requirement for a new set of t ools to facilitate this work; describes the logical framework that underpins the classification system; outlines the attributes of the classification system, how it can be applied, and discusses the advantages and limitations of the approach. It is anticipated that through testing and usage, the classification syst em will be revised and improved over time, with updated versions released through MIM partnershi p. It is also planned that a further ‘user guide’ report will be produced for the classifi cation system and the GIS tools, including thematic details (e.g. background information on ‘coastal’ or ‘glacial’ features) and a feature glossary

Public Benefits of Undeveloped Lands on Urban Outskirts: Non-Market Valuation Studies and their Role in Land Use Plans

Over the past three decades, the economics profession has developed methods for estimating the public benefits of green spaces, providing an opportunity to incorporate such information into land-use planning. While federal regulations routinely require such estimates for major regulations, the extent to which they are used in local land use plans is not clear. This paper reviews the literature on public values for lands on urban outskirts, not just to survey their methods or empirical findings, but to evaluate the role they have played--or have the potential to play-- in actual land use plans. Based on interviews with authors and representatives of funding agencies and local land trusts, it appears that academic work has had a mixed reception in the policy world. Reasons for this include a lack of interest in making academic work accessible to policy makers, emphasizing revealed preference methods which are inconsistent with policy priorities related to nonuse values, and emphasis on benefit-cost analyses. Nevertheless, there are examples of success stories that illustrate how such information can play a vital role in the design of conservation policies. Working Paper 07-2

Simultaneous activities in the household and residential electricity demand in Spain

Recent research and policy studies on the low-carbon future highlight the importance of flexible electricity demand. This might be problematic particularly for residential electricity demand, which is related to simultaneous consumers’ practices in the household. This paper analyses issues of simultaneity in residential electricity demand in Spain. It makes use of the 2011 Spanish Time Use Survey data with comparisons from the previous Spanish Time Use Survey and the Harmonised European Time Use Surveys. Findings show that media activities are associated the highest levels of continuity and simultaneity, particularly in the early and late parts of the evening during weekdays

Revised lithostratigraphy of the Mesozoic-Cenozoic succession of the onshore Rovuma Basin, northern coastal Mozambique

A revised formal lithostratigraphy for the Mesozoic-Cenozoic succession of the onshore portion of the Rovuma Basin in northern Mozambique replaces a previous mixture of informal lithostratigraphical and biostratigraphical names. The new lithostratigraphy is based on fieldwork carried out in 2005 by mapping teams from the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), British Geological Survey (BGS) and the Mozambique Direcção National de Geologia (DNG) , combined with information taken from published papers and maps, and unpublished reports at the DNG made available to the project. The following formations are formally described: Rio Mecole Formation (Jurassic? age), N'Gapa Formation (Jurassic? age), Pemba Formation (late Jurassic and early Cretaceous age), Macomia Formation (Aptian-Albian age), Mifume Formation (Albian (offshore)/Campanian (onshore)-Maastrichtian age), Alto Jingone Formation (Paleocene-Eocene age), Quissanga Formation (middle Eocene to Oligocene age), Chinda Formation (Neogene age) and Mikindani Formation (Neogene age). The thickest accumulation of sediments occurred during the Cretaceous concomitant with intense erosion of the uplifted African interior. The Basin’s geology records the temporal development of the coastline of northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania over the last 200 or so million years. Throughout this period, intermittent, mostly extensional faulting parallel to the approximately N-S to NNW-SSE coastline strongly influenced sedimentation, and the faults remain active along this ‘passive’ continental margin. These faults cut across the ENE-WSW structural grain of the underlying Precambrian crystalline rocks of the East African Orogen. However, transfer faults identified in the offshore part of the Rovuma Basin are parallel to the Precambrian structural grain, and may well represent reactivated major ductile shear zones, e.g. in the area between Pemba and Quissanga

Landform assemblages and sedimentary processes along the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream

Several regional and detailed bathymetric datasets together with 2D and 3D seismic data are compiled to investigate the landform assemblages and sedimentary processes along the former path of the Norwegian Channel Ice Stream (NCIS). At the broad scale, the glacial geomorphology and sedimentary architecture reveals three different zones along the ice-stream path, characterized by: (1) glacial erosion in the onset zone and inner shelf area, (2) sediment transport through the main trunk of the ice stream across the mid-shelf, and (3) a zone of deposition towards the outer continental shelf edge. Along the first 400 km of the ice stream bed (outer Oslofjord–Skagerrak–Stavanger) a major overdeepening is associated with suites of crag-and-tail features at the transition from the crystalline bedrock to the sedimentary bedrock, together with evidence of glaciotectonic thrusting in the form of hill-hole pairs. Here we interpret extensive erosion of both sedimentary rocks and Quaternary sediments. This zone is succeeded by an approximately 400 km long zone, through which most of the sediments eroded from the inner shelf were transported, rather than being deposited. We infer that sediment was transported subglacially and is likely to have been advected downstream by soft sediment deformation. The thickness of till of inferred Weichselian age generally varies from 0 and 50 m and this zone is characterized by mega-scale glacial lineations (MSGLs) which we interpret to be formed in a dynamic sedimentary system dominated by high sediment fluxes, but with some localized sediment accretion associated with lineations. Towards the shelf break, the North Sea Fan extends to the deep Norwegian Sea, and reflects massive sedimentation of glacigenic debris onto the continental slope. Numerous glacigenic debris flows accumulated and constructed a unit up to 400 m thick during the Last Glacial Maximum. The presence of these three zones (erosion, transport, deposition) is consistent with observations from other palaeo-ice streams and their significance arises from their potential to feedback and impact on ice stream dynamics