Meditation

The term meditation encompasses a broad range of different practices, including reciting religious scriptures, chanting sacred mantras, progressive muscle relaxation, exercising deep breathing, sitting in silence, dancing, or even screaming. Spirituality through meditation is becoming widespread in the mainstream business world.

Kuviteltu aatelismies : Aateluus viholliskuvana ja itseymmärryksenä 1800-luvun Suomessa

An imagined nobleman Nobility as an enemy image and in-group identity in nineteenth-century Finland The focal point of this study is the difficult relationship between two seemingly very different 19th-century elite groups, the upwardly mobile bourgeois intelligentsia and the slowly declining traditional nobility. In the thinking of the bourgeois contender the two emerged as exact opposites, styled as conflicting ideal types: an outdated, exclusive, degenerate hereditary aristocracy versus a dynamic and progressive new force in society, recruited solely on the basis of personal merit, originating from the common people and representing the nation. The appearance of an important 19th-century novelty, print publicity, coincided with the emergence of the bourgeois intelligentsia. The institutions of the developing publishing industry were manned by the aspiring new group. The strengthening flow of progressive, democratic, nationalist ideas distributed via the printing presses carried an undercurrent of self-promotion. It transmitted to the developing readership the self-image of the new cultural bourgeoisie as the defender and benevolent educator of the nation. Having won the contest over the media, the intelligentsia was free to present its predecessor and rival as an enemy of the people. In its politics the nobility emerged as an ideal scapegoat, represented as the source for existing social evils, all if which would promptly go away after its disappearance. It also served as a black backcloth, against which the democratic, national, progressive bourgeois intelligentsia would shine more brightly. In order to shed light on the 19th-century process of (re)modelling the image of nobility as a public enemy I have used four different types of source materials. These include three genres of print publicity, ranging from popular historical and contemporary fiction to nonfictional presentations of national history and the news and political commentaries of the daily papers, complemented by another, originally oral type of publicity, the discussion protocols of the Finnish four-estate parliament. To counterpoint these I also analysed the public self-image of the nobility, particularly vis-à-vis the nationalist and democratic ethos of the modernising politics.

Suomen suuriruhtinaskunnan virkamiehistön yksityiskirjastot ja sensuurin kieltämä kirjallisuus niissä 1800-luvun alkuvuosikymmeninä

Tutkimus luotaa 1800-luvun alkuvuosikymmenten Suomen suuriruhtinaskunnan virkamiehistön poliittisia asenteita sensuuri-ja painovapauskysymysten valossa. Sadan virkamiehistöön kuuluneen henkilön yksityiskirjastot ja niiden sisältämät mahdolliset sensuurin kieltämät nimikkeet on seulottu Kansalliskirjaston kokoelmissa olevista 1800- luvun kirjahuutokauppaluetteloista vertailemalla niitä Kansallisarkistossa säilytettäviin sensuuriviranomaisten kiellettyjen teosten listoihin. Tutkimuksen keskeisimmiksi teemoiksi nousevat näin poliittis- sekä kirjahistorialliset, kirjallista kulttuuria koskettelevat ulottuvuudet. Virkamiehistön yksityiskirjastot mahdollisine kiellettyine nimikkeineen on esitelty tilastollisen taulukoinnin avulla kirjastojen koon, virkamiehistön hallintoalan, rankiluokan sekä alueellisen identiteetin mukaan jaoteltuina. Vaikka lähdeaineiston perusteella on tämänkaltaisen poliittisväritteisen kirjallisen kulttuurin tavoittaminen osaksi ongelmallista, ovat huutokauppaluettelot systemaattisesta ja säännöllisestä luonteestaan johtuen merkittävää ja satunnaisten inventaarioluetteloiden ohella lähestulkoon ainoaa käsillä olevaa yksityiskirjastoja koskevaa lähdeaineistoa. Suomen 1800-luvun valtiolliseen asemaan liittyviä historiantulkintoja on tutkimuksen edetessä pyritty kuljettamaan rinnakkain; niitä ovat toisaalta suomalaisten käsitykset maansa perustuslaillisesta asemasta ja toisaalta venäläisten viranomaisten tulkinnat Suomen asemasta yleisvaltakunnallisessa viitekehyksessä. Tämän ohella tutkimusaihetta on lähestytty sen ajalliseeen kontekstiin olennaisesti kytkeytyvien yhteiskunta-ja historianfilosofisten teorioiden avulla. Ne ovat olleet myös tutkimuksen kohteena olleille aikalaisille relevantti henkinen ulottuvuus. Tämä on perusteltua, koska filosofista ja valtiotieteellistä kirjallisuutta on ollut kirjastoissa paljon. Etiikasta ja moraalista lähtevä vapauden ongelma on ollut yksi tämänkaltainen yhteiskuntafilosofinen kysymys. Tutkimuksessa aika ajoin esiin nouseva aatteellinen vertailu muiden Euroopan maiden oloihin laajentaa tutkimuksen historiallisen viitekehyksen osaksi 1800-luvun eurooppalaisen henkisen aatemaailman maisemaa. Tutkimuksen varovaiset johtopäätökset juontuvat erilaisista näkökulmista. Kiellettyjä nimikkeitä löytyi hieman yli 30 % kaikista virkamiehistön yksityiskirjastoista, mutta kiellettyjen nimikkeiden määrät osoittautuivat kirjastokohtaisesti laskettuna pienehköiksi. Ilmiön voi näin väittää olleen toisaalta marginaalista, mutta toisaalta konkreettinen osoitus poliittiseen vakaumukseen viittaavasta asennoitumisesta; sensuuria esimerkiksi saatettiin tulkita perustuslaillisuutta ja Aleksanteri I:n antaman hallitsijanvakuutuksen taustaa vasten. Kielletyn kirjallisuuden hankkiminen sensuurilaeista piittaamatta saattoi myös olla kamppailua hyvänä pidetyn yhteiskuntajärjestyksen puolesta järjestelmän epäkohtia vastaan. Keisaria kohtaan tunnettiin lojaalisuutta, mutta hänen hallitsemaansa järjestelmää edustavia sensuuriviranomaisia kohtaan välttämättä ei. Tässä kohdin Suomen tilanteella oli vastaavuutta Saksan oloihin, j o s s a nuorhegeliläiset halusivat muuttaa yhteiskuntaa ideaalimpaan suuntaan. Venäjän keisarikuntaan kuuluminen toi mukanaan maallista hyvää, mutta henkisen kulttuurin puolella orientoiduttiin pääasiassa länteen, ja pitäydyttiin Ruotsin ajan luomassa perinnössä. Yksi keskeinen tästä kummunnut valistusaatteen traditionaalinen arvo oli itsensä vapaa kehittäminen, joten sensuurikysymyksissä ajauduttiin väistämättä törmäyskurssille valtiopoliittisen ja kulttuurisen identiteetin ristipaineessa. Vaikka valtiopoliittinen identiteetti vaihtui vuoden 1809 jälkeen, ei kulttuurisen identiteetin kohdalla näin käynyt. Tätä kautta vahvistuu kokonaiskuva 1700-luvun historian ja Ruotsin ajan perinnön tärkeydestä 1800-luvun henkiselle kehitykselle etenkin kirjallisen kulttuurin saralla.

Jac. Ahrenberg ja historian perintö : Restaurointisuunnitelmat Viipurin ja Turun linnoihin 1800-luvun lopussa

Jac. Ahrenberg and Patrimony Restoration Plans for Viipuri and Turku Castles at the End of the 19th Century This dissertation examines the unrealized restoration plans for two castles in the Grand Duchy of Finland one located at Viipuri (Vyborg, nowadays in Russia), the other at Turku (in Swedish, Åbo) during the last decades of the 19th century. Both castles were used as prisons, barracks and warehouses. From the middle of the 19th century on, their restoration and transformation into museums and "national monuments" were demanded in the newspapers. The prison reform in the 1860s stimulated the documentation and debate concerning their future, but it was only at the beginning of the 1880s when their restoration became an official state-run project. The undertaking was carried out by Johan Jacob (Jac.) Ahrenberg (1847 1914), architect of the National Board of Public Buildings. By combining written sources with drawings and photographs, this dissertation examines the restoration projects, the two castles' significance and the ways in which they were investigated by scholars. The plans are analyzed in connection with restoration practices in France and Sweden and in the context of contemporary discussions concerning national art and patrimony. The thesis argues that these former castles of the Swedish crown were used to manifest the western roots of Finnish law and order, the lineage of power and the capacity of the nation to defend itself. However, because of their symbolism, their restoration became a politically delicate question concerning the role of the Swedish heritage in Finland's nation-building process. According to Jac. Ahrenberg's plans, the two castles were to be restored to their assumed appearance at the time of the Vasa dynasty. Consequently, the structures would have resembled castles in Sweden. It is suggested that one aim of the restoration plans was to transform the two buildings into monuments testifying to the common history of Sweden and Finland. They were meant to consolidate the Swedish basis of Finnish culture and autonomy and thus to secure them against the threatening implications of Russian imperialism. It seems that along with the changing ideals of architectural restoration and the need for an original Finnish architectural heritage, the political connotations associated with the castles were one reason why Jac. Ahrenberg's restoration plans were never realized.

Public and private technical assistance programs for non-industrial private forest landowners in the southern United States.

XVIII IUFRO World Congress, Ljubljana 1986.

Finlandismer och språkvård från 1800-talet till i dag

The aim of the study is to investigate the use of finlandisms in an historical perspective, how they have been viewed from the mid-19th century to this day, and the effect of language planning on their use. A finlandism is a word, a phrase, or a structure that is used only in the Swedish varieties used in Finland (i.e. in Finland Swedish), or used in these varieties in a different meaning than in the Swedish used in Sweden. Various aspects of Finland-Swedish language planning are discussed in relation to language planning generally; in addition, the relation of Finland Swedish to Standard Swedish and standard regional varieties is discussed, and various types of finlandisms are analysed in detail. A comprehensive picture is provided of the emergence and evolution of the ideology of language planning from the mid-19th century up until today. A theoretical model of corpus planning is presented and its effect on linguistic praxis described. One result of the study is that the belief among Finland-Swedish language planners that the Swedish language in Finland must not be allowed to become distanced from Standard Swedish, has been widely adopted by the average Finland Swede, particularly during the interwar period, following the publication of Hugo Bergroth s work Finlandssvenska in 1917. Criticism of this language-planning ideology started to appear in the 1950s, and intensified in the 1970s. However, language planning and the basis for this conception of language continue to enjoy strong support among Swedish-speaking Finns. I show that the editing of Finnish literary texts written in Swedish has often been somewhat amateurish and the results not always linguistically appropriate, and that Swedish publishers have in fact adopted a rather liberal attitude towards finlandisms. My conclusion is that language planning has achieved rather modest results in its resistance to finlandisms. Most of the finlandisms used in 1915 were still in use in 2005. Finlandisms occur among speakers of all ages, and even among academically educated people despite their more elevated style. The most common finlandisms were used by informants of all ages. The ones that are firmly rooted are the most established, in other words those that are stylistically neutral, seemingly genuinely Swedish, but which are nevertheless strongly supported by Finnish, and display a shift in meaning as compared with Standard Swedish.

Averting biodiversity collapse in tropical forest protected areas

The rapid disruption of tropical forests probably imperils global biodiversity more than any other contemporary phenomenon(1-3). With deforestation advancing quickly, protected areas are increasingly becoming final refuges for threatened species and natural ecosystem processes. However, many protected areas in the tropics are themselves vulnerable to human encroachment and other environmental stresses(4-9). As pressures mount, it is vital to know whether existing reserves can sustain their biodiversity. A critical constraint in addressing this question has been that data describing a broad array of biodiversity groups have been unavailable for a sufficiently large and representative sample of reserves. Here we present a uniquely comprehensive data set on changes over the past 20 to 30 years in 31 functional groups of species and 21 potential drivers of environmental change, for 60 protected areas stratified across the world's major tropical regions. Our analysis reveals great variation in reserve `health': about half of all reserves have been effective or performed passably, but the rest are experiencing an erosion of biodiversity that is often alarmingly widespread taxonomically and functionally. Habitat disruption, hunting and forest-product exploitation were the strongest predictors of declining reserve health. Crucially, environmental changes immediately outside reserves seemed nearly as important as those inside in determining their ecological fate, with changes inside reserves strongly mirroring those occurring around them. These findings suggest that tropical protected areas are often intimately linked ecologically to their surrounding habitats, and that a failure to stem broad-scale loss and degradation of such habitats could sharply increase the likelihood of serious biodiversity declines.

Climatic variability in Central Indian Himalaya during the last similar to 1800 years: Evidence from a high resolution speleothem record

Stable isotopes from a U/Th dated aragonite stalagmite from the Central Kumaun Himalaya provide evidence of variation in climatic conditions in the last similar to 1800 years. The delta O-18 and delta C-13 values vary from -4.3 parts per thousand to -7.6 parts per thousand and -3.4 parts per thousand to -9.1 parts per thousand respectively, although the stalagmite was not grown in isotopic equilibrium with cave drip water, a clear palaeoclimatic signal in stalagmite delta O-18 values is evident based on the regional climate data. The stalagmite showed a rapid growth rate during 830-910 AD, most likely the lower part of Medieval Warm Period (MWP), and 1600-1640 AD, the middle part of Little Ice Age (LIA). Two distinct phases of reduced precipitation are marked by a 2 parts per thousand shift in 8180 values towards the end of MWP (similar to 1080-1160 AD) and after its termination from similar to 1210 to 1440 AD. The LIA (similar to 1440-1880 AD) is represented by sub-tropical climate similar to modern conditions, whereas the post-LIA was comparatively drier. The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) was located over the cave location during wetter/warmer conditions. When it shifted southward, precipitation over the study area decreased. A prominent drop in delta O-18 and delta C-13 values during the post-LIA period may also have been additionally influenced by anthropogenic activity in the area. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.

Alfonso X : un modelo de rey letrado

Integran este número de la revista ponencias presentadas en Studia Hispanica Medievalia VIII: Actas de las IX Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura Espa��ola Medieval, 2008, y de Homenaje al Quinto Centenario de Amadis de Gaula.

La leyenda artúrica en la literatura alemana : el Parzival de Wolfram von Eschenbach

Integran este número de la revista ponencias presentadas en Studia Hispanica Medievalia VIII: Actas de las IX Jornadas Internacionales de Literatura Espa��ola Medieval, 2008, y de Homenaje al Quinto Centenario de Amadis de Gaula.

El radicalismo bonaerense, de la Unión Cívica a la reorganización partidaria (1890-1892)

Resumen: Un tema que ha sido poco tratado, muy probablemente opacado por la importancia y celeridad del proceso relacionado con el nacimiento de la Unión Cívica Radical, es el de la rápida expansión del movimiento cívico y todo lo relativo a la organización, tanto a nivel provincial y nacional de los comités partidarios. El presente trabajo tiene entonces la intención de estudiar, dentro de la escasa información existente al respecto, cómo se produjo dicha organización y la posterior reorganización de los diversos centros políticos luego de la ruptura, en junio de 1891, de la Unión Cívica.

Impuestos imperiales : la Caja Real de Buenos Aires (1700-1800)

Resumen: En este artículo se analiza la Real Hacienda Imperial en Buenos Aires durante el siglo XVIII. En principio, se describen las fuentes, el sistema contable y la organización fiscal. A partir de lo anterior, se estudia la evolución de los ingresos fiscales discriminando los principales impuestos. Esto permite realizar un análisis de los ingresos y egresos de la Caja Real de Buenos Aires durante todo el período, en general y en relación con la evolución de la población. El resultado de ello demuestra que la hacienda real porteña no era deficitaria, por lo cual no dependía de transferencias de otras regiones para cubrir sus gastos. Al mismo tiempo se comprueba que los ingresos fiscales comenzaron a incrementarse a mediados del siglo XVIII, un cuarto de centuria antes de la creación del Virreinato del Río de la Plata.

Imperator Caesar Augustus según la «Vida de los Césares» de Suetonio

En este trabajo se aborda la biografía de Augusto realizada por Suetonio como una fuente imprescindible para el estudio del nuevo régimen político, de su instauración y características. Tras una introducción sobre las características del autor y su obra, nos centraremos en Augusto, el ‘fundador del régimen más afortunado’, del que su moderación del, convirtiéndolo en modelo para sus sucesores.

Reconnaissance of the geology and ground-water resources of Columbia County, Florida

The Floridan aquifer was found to be principal source of ground water in the area, containing artesian water in the northern part of Columbia County, and being recharged in the southern part of the county. A few wells in the northern part of the county tap water present in sediments that lie above the Floridan aquifer. These shallow waters are generally high in iron and tannic acid. The details on the geology and hydrology necessary to conserve and utilize the water available to the residents of Columbia County are presented in this study. (PDF contains 86 pages)