State and local governance in Solomon Islands: building on existing strengths

In dealing with the question of a future system for governance in Solomon Islands, two options have been put on the table: patch up the existing system or convert the existing provinces into states under a federal system. I question whether the public has had a chance to discuss a third option—that is, more effective use of local governance—and point to the variety of informal governance structures that rural communities have formed to fulfil their needs in the absence of effective government. I argue that better articulation of these kinds of organisations with the state may do more for development through broadbased participation than federalising

Time scales in LISA

The LISA mission is a space interferometer aiming at the detection of gravitational waves in the [$10^{-4}$,$10^{-1}$] Hz frequency band. In order to reach the gravitational wave detection level, a Time Delay Interferometry (TDI) method must be applied to get rid of (most of) the laser frequency noise and optical bench noise. This TDI analysis is carried out in terms of the coordinate time corresponding to the Barycentric Coordinate Reference System (BCRS), TCB, whereas the data at each of the three LISA stations is recorded in terms of each station proper time. We provide here the required proper time versus BCRS time transformation. We show that the difference in rate of station proper time versus TCB is of the order of $5 10^{-8}$. The difference between station proper times and TCB exhibits an oscillatory trend with a maximum amplitude of about $10^{-3}$ s.Comment: 14 pages, 5 eps figures, 0 table, accepted in Classical and Quantum Gravit