The standardisation of diplomatic in Scottish Royal Acts down to 1249. Part 1: Brieves

I argue that there are three principal categories of royal act in Scotland during the period 1100 to 1250: the Brieve, the Letter of Notification, and the Charter. (There are also diplomas, proclamations, treaties, letters of correspondence, and so on, but these were not produced (or at least not preserved) in large enough quantities to be significant in this context.) This article describes how the Brieve became standardised in form

The standardisation of diplomatic in Scottish Royal Acts down to 1249. Part 2: letters with notification

This second major class of letters is closer in form to the charter, for it gives notice of a disposition which has given rise to the consequent instruction or injunction that the letter serves to relate. The notification of the type Sciatis quod or Sciatis me/nos is not diagnostic, but it is usually a signal that we are dealing with letters rather than a charter

Phillip Tovey. Of Water and the Spirit: Mission and the Baptismal Liturgy. Norwich: Canterbury Press, 2015. viii + 151 pp. £16.99 eBook & paperback. ISBN 9781848258037.

No abstract available

Personal space : bring on the physics revolution

Some years ago a student submitted a practical assignment in which he wrote something along these lines: I collected the data on Sauchiehall Street on Friday afternoon. I asked any young-looking males (who didnt look too scary!) to fill in the questionnaire. It started to rain about four oclock so I went in Costa Coffee, and when I came out there werent so many people about, so I finished it off on Saturday morning. Colleagues felt this was inappropriate in a practical essay on a scientific subject. They objected to the use of the word I, which by definition made it a subjective account; and they suggested that a phrase such as Data were collected from a random sample of young males would have been more suitable. But I disagreed strongly, arguing that the student account was more informative, more scientific, more honest, and there was no attempt to hide behind scientific rhetoric. And obviously, the sample could not be called random

Aesthetics and didactic intention: the meeting place of beauty and information transmission in the 2006 community theatre production of swamp treasures.

This paper is the outcome of qualitative research undertaken around a community theatre production presented at the Hamilton Fuel Festival 2006. Swamp Treasures was an attempt to articulate in a theatre aesthetic the plight of the wetland regions in the Waikato province. There were 80 participants, a choir, an orchestra, an elaborate set, lighting design and over 30 specifically made theatre masks. I invited a group of eight teenagers to watch the performance and they were then interviewed, answering specific questions. The data were then considered using Kant's theories of beauty, aesthetics and communication as a reference point for the production's development, delivery and effectiveness. As Swamp Treasures was designed as a montage of impressions and points of view, the research has been able to evaluate the artistic efficacy of the differing styles and the aptitude of these techniques to transfer information

Book review: The globalisation of addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit

This book review is about 'The globalisation of addiction: a study in poverty of the spirit' by Bruce Alexander

Welshmen in the army of Edward 1 during the Scottish campaign of 1296

No abstract available

Combining Agri-Environment Schemes For Environmental And Financial Benefit - Tir Gofal And Organic Farming

Peter Davies farms 750 acres in the Vale of Glamorgan. He has a suckler herd and sheep, with arable crops for sale off the farm and for livestock feed. The farm began conversion in 1999 and most of it will finish in 2001. It was accepted into the Tir Gofal whole farm agri-environment scheme in 2000. In this interview with Will John he explains how the two schemes work together. He has researched and planned the changes carefully and expects his farm enterprise to benefit in the long term

The geography of the crisis in western Europe : national and regional impacts and policy responses

In the course of 2008, the countries of Western European began to experience the full impact of the global economic crisis. The financial crash was followed by a drying-up of bank liquidity and slowdown in trade. Every country saw a decline in GDP growth over successive quarters in late 2008 and the first half of 2009. During the latter part of 2009, most Western European economies saw the resumption of growth (notable exceptions were Spain and the United Kingdom), with varying predictions of the sustainability of the recovery in the course of 2010. For much of the 2008-09 period, the attention of policymakers was fixed on emergency measures to contain the effects of the crisis, notably to rescue banks in danger of collapse and to stabilise the financial sector. Various packages of crisis measures have been implemented across Western Europe, generally with the aims of stimulating consumer demand and investment and reducing the effects of the crisis on (un)employment. For the most part, the policy measures in response to the crisis have been implemented on a nationwide basis. There is however an important territorial dimension both to the effects of the crisis - only gradually becoming apparent - and the policy responses. This chapter examines the geography of the crisis in Western Europe, discussing regional impacts and regional responses. It begins with a short review of the development of the crisis, the main differences in its impact across countries and the different types of policy measures implemented to contain the effects of the crisis. The chapter then investigates the different types of regional impacts - in particular on regional unemployment rates - and the geographical characteristics of policy responses by national and regional authorities

Digital Democracy: Episode IV—A New Hope*: How a Corporation for Public Software Could Transform Digital Engagement for Government and Civil Society

Although successive generations of digital technology have become increasingly powerful in the past 20 years, digital democracy has yet to realize its potential for deliberative transformation. The undemocratic exploitation of massive social media systems continued this trend, but it only worsened an existing problem of modern democracies, which were already struggling to develop deliberative infrastructure independent of digital technologies. There have been many creative conceptions of civic tech, but implementation has lagged behind innovation. This article argues for implementing one such vision of digital democracy through the establishment of a public corporation. Modeled on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the United States, this entity would foster the creation of new digital technology by providing a stable source of funding to nonprofit technologists, interest groups, civic organizations, government, researchers, private companies, and the public. Funded entities would produce and maintain software infrastructure for public benefit. The concluding sections identify what circumstances might create and sustain such an entity