Books on the topic 'Land configuration'

This chapter examines the tripartite nature of the settlement pattern that emerged at St. Louis during the 1760s: it consisted of a nuclear village, plowlands for sowing grain, and commons for pasturing livestock, gathering firewood, and shooting rabbits and squirrels. It begins with a description of the physical configuration of early St. Louis and goes on to discuss Indians' claims to the land on which St. Louis was built. It then traces the history of town planning at early St. Louis before turning to Louis St. Ange de Bellerive's conveyance of land grants in early St. Louis containing an explicit homesteading provision. It concludes with an account of French monarch Louis XV's promulgatation of a land ordinance for Louisiana.

In this book, we introduce the use of drones for wildlife conservation. We provide a broad overview of when drone technology can be useful for wildlife conservation before going into the different types of drones that are available and the basic configuration of such systems. After this we discuss the various types of sensors that are being used to obtain data and the various applications for those sensors by us and others. We discuss the various applications of sensors and discuss research that we and others have conducted with those. The usage of drones for surveillance is discussed as well with a particular focus on poaching and other illegal activities. Drones are commonly used for mapping areas and we provide an overview of considerations for mapping missions as well as on how to process the data collected during mapping missions into products. We discuss examples such as the creation of orthomosaics and digital surface models, and their use in land cover classification and for object detection. We also provide an overview of how drones have been used to count animals and derive distribution and density from such data. We end with some thoughts on the future of drones.

This chapter is about representations of contemporary constructions of earthly Christian Jerusalem in fifth-century Rome. Once the apostolic history of Rome had become visible in the city, and Rome had turned into a pilgrimage destination, where the faithful celebrated the commemoration of the local Roman martyrs, Jerusalem was welcomed to perform on stage, embraced by the strong arms of Peter and Paul. Thus, additional translations of relics from Palestine to Rome, as well as distinct appearances of Jerusalem and Bethlehem in mosaic decoration (S. Pudenziana; S. Maria Maggiore) and possibly architecture (S. Stefano Rotondo), will form the core of discussion. I will show how innovative Roman combinations of Rome and Jerusalem, as well as configurations of Rome as the “Promised Land,” were designed to reinforce the supreme position of Rome and its Apostolic See both in the present and at the End of Days.

This chapter briefly describes ‘perfect fluids’. These are characterized by their mass density ρ‎(t, xⁱ), pressure p(t, ⁱ), and velocity field v(t, ⁱ). The motion and equilibrium configurations of these fluids are determined by the equation of state, for example, p = p(ρ‎) for a barotropic fluid, and by the gravitational potential U(t, ⁱ) created at a point ⁱ by other fluid elements. The chapter shows that, given an equation of state, the equations of the problem to be solved are the continuity equation, the Euler equation, and the Poisson equation. It then considers static models with spherical symmetry, as well as polytropes and the Lane–Emden equation. Finally, the chapter studies the isothermal sphere and Maclaurin spheroids.

Sovereignty according to the radicalized liberalism of Wilsonianism would exist in the international system after the Great War, or it would not. If it would not, the League was never going to become anything but what it was, an institutionalized means for state cooperation. The League continued the “laboratory” of sovereignty established at the Paris Peace Conference. It articulated a certain configuration of agents and structures in attempts to redefine a system of international security. While assiduously avoiding self-designation as any kind of “world state,” the League tried to complete a good deal of unfinished business bequeathed to it by the conference, notably in the “unmixing” of lands and peoples. It would try to draw boundaries, administer plebiscites, enforce minorities treaties, supervise mandates, and avoid blame for the population exchanges. But in the end, the League was always what states made of it.

In Terror Capitalism anthropologist Darren Byler theorizes the contemporary Chinese colonization of the Uyghur Muslim minority group in the northwest autonomous region of Xinjiang. He shows that the mass detention of over one million Uyghurs in “reeducation camps” is part of processes of resource extraction in Uyghur lands that have led to what he calls terror capitalism—a configuration of ethnoracialization, surveillance, and mass detention that in this case promotes settler colonialism. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the regional capital Ürümchi, Byler shows how media infrastructures, the state’s enforcement of “Chinese” cultural values, and the influx of Han Chinese settlers contribute to Uyghur dispossession and their expulsion from the city. He particularly attends to the experiences of young Uyghur men—who are the primary target of state violence—and how they develop masculinities and homosocial friendships to protect themselves against gendered, ethnoracial, and economic violence. By tracing the political and economic stakes of Uyghur colonization, Byler demonstrates that state-directed capitalist dispossession is coconstructed with a colonial relation of domination.

Throughout Islamic history the issue of leadership of the community has been of primary importance. The Sunni majority has identified Muslims who did not give allegiance to the Caliph as shiʿa, or sectarians. Two of the groups discussed in this chapter are part of the historical controversies over community leadership, and for all of them leadership remains a very important concern. Both the Nizari Ismaʿilis, led by Imam Aga Khan, and the Druze are offshoots of the Fatimid countercaliphate, which flourished for two centuries. The other two groups are more modern. The Ahmadiyya developed in the context of European occupation of Islamic lands and the reaction to Christian missionary activity and modernization. The Qur'anists, sometimes referred to as the Ahl al-Qur'an, share the beliefs of the United Submitters International regarding the Qur'an as the sole foundation of Islam. With long-term roots in attempts to understand the “right” way to live Islamically, they are more recent as an identified school of thought. All of these groups maintain a presence in the current configuration of Islam in America.

Three successive parts are presented within this article, all intended to raise the visibility and show the utility of classical geopolitics as a deserving and separate international-relations model: (a) a common traditional definition, (b) relevant theories that correspond to that definition, and (c) applications of certain theories that will delve at some depth into three case studies (the Ukrainian shatterbelt, contemporary Turkish geopolitics, and a North American heartland).The placement of states, regions, and resources, as affecting international relations and foreign policies, defines classical geopolitics. This definition emphasizes the application of spatially composed unbiased theories that should bring insight into foreign-affairs events and policies. Specifically, a “model” contains theories that correspond to its description. A “theory” is a simple sentence of probability, with “A” happening to likely affect “B.” Importantly, models are passive; they merely hold theories. In contrast, theories possess their own titles and perform actively when taken from such models.Various methodological challenges are presented: (a) combining concepts with theories, (b) estimating probability for testing theories, (c) claiming the “scientific,” (d) accounting for determinism, (e) revealing a dynamic environment for geopolitics, (f) separating realism from geopolitics, and (g) drawing classical geopolitics away from the critical. Certain theories that are placed within the geopolitical model are examined next: (a) heartlands and rimlands, (b) land and sea power, (c) choke points and maritime lines of communication, (d) offshore balancing, (e) the Monroe doctrine, (f) balances of power, (g) checkerboards, (h) shatterbelts, (i) pan-regions, (j) influence spheres, (k) dependency, (l) buffer states, (m) organic borders, (n) imperial thesis, (o) borders/wars, (p) contagion, (q) irredentism, (r) demography, (s) fluvial laws, (t) petro-politics, and (u) catastrophic events in nature. Additional theories apply elsewhere in the article as well.Of the three case studies, the Ukrainian shatterbelt represents the sole contemporary geopolitical configuration of this type, a regional conflict coupling with a strategic rivalry. Here, partisans of the civil war between the eastern and the western sectors of the country have joined with the Russians against the Europeans and Americans, respectively. Next, Turkey’s pivotal location has afforded it both advantages and disadvantages, a topic discussed at some length earlier in the article. Its “zero-problems” strategy of seeking positive relations with neighbors has now been forced to change tactics, reflective of new forces within and beyond the country. Finally, a North American heartland compares nicely to Halford Mackinder’s earlier Eurasia heartland thesis, with the American perhaps proving more stable, wealthy, and enduring, based in large part on its stronger geopolitical features.

What configuration of institutions and policies is most conducive to human flourishing? The historical and comparative evidence suggests that the answer is social democratic capitalism — a democratic political system, a capitalist economy, good elementary and secondary schooling, a big welfare state, pro-employment public services, and moderate regulation of product and labor markets. Lane Kenworthy shows that this system improves living standards for the least well-off, enhances economic security, and boosts equality of opportunity. And it does so without sacrificing other things we want in a good society, from liberty to economic growth to health and happiness. Its chief practitioners have been the Nordic nations. The Nordics have gone farther than other rich democratic countries in coupling a big welfare state with public services that promote high employment and modest product- and labor-market regulations. Many believe this system isn’t transferable beyond Scandinavia, but Kenworthy shows that social democratic capitalism and its successes can be replicated in other affluent nations, including the United States. Today, the U.S. lags behind other countries in economic security, opportunity, and shared prosperity. If the U.S. expanded existing social programs and added some additional ones, many Americans would have better lives. Kenworthy argues that, despite formidable political obstacles, the U.S. is likely to move toward social democratic capitalism in coming decades. As a country gets richer, he explains, it becomes more willing to spend more in order to safeguard against risk and enhance fairness. He lays out a detailed policy agenda that could alleviate many of America’s problems.

For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it.—Habakkuk 2:11.AMONG THE PAGAN CITIES THAT WENT THROUGH “CONVERSION” TO Christianity in the fourth century, two were linked to Jerusalem by witness of stone and wood: Aelia Capitolina and Rome. The pagan identity of Aelia Capitolina—the Roman city founded by Hadrian in 135 CE on the ruins of Jerusalem—was exposed by the sanctuaries and statues of Roman deities erected in central places, notably, the Temple Mount. During the fourth century, however, the city was defined less and less by the presence of Jupiter’s temple and more and more by the absence of the Jewish Temple. This lack of a Jewish visual frame and physical medium was made more palpable by the looming constructions that now began to mark the sites of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection. It was time to remember the Jewish past in order to construct a meaningful configuration of the New Jerusalem. But Rome itself had laid claim to Jerusalem’s Jewish past. It was home to the Temple spoils, transferred, or better, “translated” to the city by Titus in 71 CE. Whether they were kept in the city or later taken away, the Temple cult vessels were sculpted in stone, for all to see, on the Arch of Titus. Sometime in the fourth century, a relic of the True Cross was also translated from Jerusalem to Rome, turning Rome into the home of relics of both Old and New Jerusalem....