Silent Springs: Groundwater Resources Under Threat

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Edmunds
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Creation Myths ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Spring Flow

Springs are symbolic of the sustainability of life on earth. Since the earliest times flowing springs have been held as sacred and as a subject of awe and fascination. Subterranean water is identified in the creation myths on Babylonian tablets, where waters above the earth are separated from the ‘water of the deep’. The persistence of these creation myths is still reflected in the Arabic word ain or ayun, which has the double meaning of spring and eye (Issar 1991). Springs were the eyes of the gods. Springs (or fountains) were the focal point of many events in the Bible and other religious texts, and were the subject of veneration, as in Psalm 104: 10, ‘He sendeth the springs into the valleys, which run among the hills Modern scientific understanding of the origins of spring flow dates from the seventeenth century. The earliest explanations of the hydrological cycle, often termed the reversed hydrological cycle, probably stem from biblical sources (Ecclesiastes 1: 7). The unexplained constancy of the ocean volume was accounted for by the return of seawater through the rocks, which then purified them and returned the water to the surface as freshwater rivers and springs. This interpretation of the hydrological cycle persisted through the writings of ancient Greece and Rome as in Seneca’s Quaestiones Naturales and into the Middle Ages (Tuan 1968) until correctly explained by Edmond Halley(Halley 1691). In modern society spring waters are valued highly because they still embody an element of mystery and bring us face to face with the subsurface expression of the hydrological cycle or ‘groundwater’. There is also traditional belief that spring waters represent a source of perennial pure water. The properties of pure spring water command a high market value and in a world where tap water is (often wrongly) perceived as something less pure, the bottled water image-makers seek after evidence of the purity, longevity, and healing properties of the spring, with a zeal that echoes the reverence accorded to spring waters by early philosophers. The objective of this chapter is to explore the reasons for the decline of natural springs and the fragility of groundwater resources in general.

'The Bosom of Abraham' (Luke 16:22): Father Abraham in the Visual Imagination

2007 ◽  
Vol 15 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 485-518
Author(s):  
Martin O'Kane
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Church Fathers ◽  
Visual Imagination ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Visual Metaphors ◽  
The Bible ◽  
Genesis 22 ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Sacrifice

AbstractThe phrase 'in the bosom of Abraham' occurs just once in the Bible (Lk. 16:22) and yet has become one of the most powerful and intriguing visual metaphors in the entire repertoire of Christian iconography. As the focal point of the parable of Dives and Lazarus, it suggests a haven of protection and security to which all the (male) characters in the story aspire. The Greek term κóλπoς, 'bosom,' is an ambiguous term that can be applied as much to a female figure as a male and indeed Abraham is often represented as if he were 'mother of all nations' rather than, or as well as, father. The iconography associated with the image of Abraham's bosom is both extensive and complex, especially during the period of the Middle Ages, but in this article, I select a range of representative examples to illustrate how artists and iconographers appealed to other biblical texts to help illuminate the meaning and significance of the phrase in Luke: in particular, the sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22; the infancy narrative of Luke including the presentation in the temple (Luke 1-2), and the woman who gives birth in Revelation 12. In interpreting the image, artists frequently followed the direction of the exegetes and Church Fathers but this does not seem always to have been the case, especially when it came to harmonizing the contrasting images of Abraham as sacrificial father of Isaac and protective father of Lazarus. Contrary to many biblical commentators, the iconographical tradition largely ignores any suggestion that the bosom of Abraham signifies Lazarus reclining at a heavenly banquet next to Abraham, preferring instead to concentrate on the challenges posed in conveying the somewhat incongruous notion of Abraham, the most venerated of patriarchs, holding a naked and vulnerable child in his bosom.

MARCEL PAGNOL'S THE BAKER'S WIFE, A CINEMATIC CHARIVARI IN POPULAR FRONT FRANCE

2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 437-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRETT BOWLES
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Focal Point ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Popular Front ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
National Union ◽  
Late Middle Ages ◽  
The Social ◽  
Definition Of

Taking an anthropological approach, this article interprets Pagnol's critically acknowledged classic as a reinvention of a carnivalesque ritual practised in France from the late middle ages through the late 1930s, when ethnographers observed its last vestiges. By linking La Femme du boulanger (The baker's wife, 1938) to contemporaneous debates over gender, national decadence, and the definition of French cultural identity, I argue that the film recycles the charivari's long-standing function as a tool of popular protest against social and political practices regarded as detrimental to the welfare of the nation. In the context of the Popular Front, Pagnol's charivari ridiculed divisive partisan politics pitting Left against Right, symbolically purged class conflict from the social body, and created a new form of folklore that served as a focal point for the communitarian ritual of movie-going among the urban working and middle classes. In so doing, the film promoted the ongoing shift in public support away from the Popular Front in favour of a conservative ‘National Union’ government under Prime Minister Edouard Daladier, who in 1938–9 assumed the role of France's newest political patriarch.

The Self-Decay Characteristics of Chlorine Dioxide in Water

2012 ◽  
Vol 610-613 ◽  
pp. 296-299
Author(s):  
Xin Jie Li ◽  
Dan Nan Jiang ◽  
Yue Jun Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Rate Constants ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Decay Behaviour ◽  
Increase With Increase ◽  
Higher Temperature ◽  
Effects Of Temperature ◽  
Lower Temperature ◽  
Kinetics Of ◽  
Temperature Water

In order to learn the ClO2 decay behaviour in tap water, the kinetics of ClO2 decay in pure water was studied. Under the conditions of tap water treatment and keeping away from light, the effects of temperature and pH on ClO2 degradation were investigated. The results show that the ClO2 decay reaction in pure water is the first-order with respect to ClO2, the decay rate constants increase with increase in temperature or pH. At pH=6.87, the rate constants are 0.012h-1(15°C), 0.017h-1(25°C), 0.023h-1(35°C), and 0.029h-1(45°C), respectively. At 25°C, the rate constants are 0.0083h-1(pH=4.5), 0.0111h-1(pH=5.5), 0.0143h-1(pH=6.5), 0.0222h-1(pH=7.5), and 0.0351h-1(pH=8.5), respectively. The experimental data prove that ClO2 is more stable in acidic or lower temperature water than in neutral, alkalescent, or higher temperature water.

scholarly journals A Review of Case Studies on Climate Change Impact on Hydrologic Cycle: An Indian Perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 249-266
Author(s):  
P K Bhunya ◽  
Sanjay Kumar ◽  
Sunil Gurrapu ◽  
M K Bhuyan
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Hydrological Cycle ◽  
Groundwater Resources ◽  
Rainfall Events ◽  
Groundwater Levels ◽  
Groundwater Level Fluctuations ◽  
Change Impact ◽  
Heavy Rainfall Events ◽  
Flood Characteristics

In recent times, several studies focused on the global warming that may affect the hydrological cycle due to intensification of temporal and spatial variations in precipitation. Such climatic change is likely to impact significantly upon freshwater resources availability. In India, demand for water has already increased manifold over the years due to urbanization, agriculture expansion, increasing population, rapid industrialization and economic development. Numerous scientific studies also report increases in the intensity, duration, and spatial extents of floods, higher atmospheric temperatures, warmer sea, changes in precipitation patterns, and changing groundwater levels. This work briefly discusses about the present scenario regarding impact of climate change on water resources in India. Due to the insufficient resolution of climate models and their generally crude representation of sub-grid scale and convective processes, little confidence can be placed in any definite predictions of such effects, although a tendency for more heavy rainfall events seems likely, and a modest increase in frequency in floods. Thus to analyses this effect, this work considers real problems about the changing flood characteristics pattern in two river regions, and the effect of spatial and temporal pattern in rainfall. In addition to these, the work also examines the trend of groundwater level fluctuations in few blocks of Ganga–Yamuna and Sutlej-Yamuna Link interfluves region. As a whole, it examines the potential for sustainable development of surface water and groundwater resources within the constraints imposed by climate change.

scholarly journals NATIONALHISTORIE EFTER MODERNISMEN - FOLKEBEGREBET I LYSET AF EUROPAS STORE FORTÆLLINGER

1970 ◽  
Vol 42 (117) ◽  
pp. 159-174
Author(s):  
Michael Böss
Keyword(s):  
19Th Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Main Role ◽  
National History ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Middle Ages

WRITING NATIONAL HISTORY AFTER MODERNISM: THE HISTORY OF PEOPLEHOOD IN LIGHT OF EUROPEAN GRAND NARRATIVES | The purpose of the article is to refute the recent claim that Danish history cannot be written on the assumption of the existence of a Danish people prior to 19th-century nationalism. The article argues that, over the past twenty years, scholars in pre-modern European history have highlighted the limitations of the modernist paradigm in the study of nationalism and the history of nations. For example, modernists have difficulties explaining why a Medieval chronicle such as Saxo Grammaticus’s Gesta Danorum was translated in the mid-1600s, and why it could be used for new purposes in the 1800s, if there had not been a continuity in notions of peoplehood between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age. Of course, the claim of continuity should not be seen as an argument for an identity between the “Danes” of Saxo’s time and the Danes of the 19th-century Danish nation-state. Rather, the modern Danishness should be understood as the product of a historical process, in which a number of European cultural narratives and state building played a significant role. The four most important narratives of the Middle Ages were derived from the Bible, which was a rich treasure of images and stories of ‘people’, ‘tribe’, ‘God’, King, ‘justice’ and ‘kingdom’ (state). While keeping the basic structures, the meanings of these narratives were re-interpreted and placed in new hierarchical positions in the course of time under the impact of the Reformation, 16th-century English Puritanism, Enlightenment patriotism, the French Revolution and 19th-century romantic nationalism. The article concludes that it is still possible to write national histories featuring ‘the people’ as one of the actors. But the historian should keep in mind that ‘the people’ did not always play the main role, nor did they play the same role as in previous periods. And even though there is a need to form syntheses when writing national history, national identities have always developed within a context of competing and hierarchical narratives. In Denmark, the ‘patriotist narrative’ seems to be in ascendancy in the social and cultural elites, but has only partly replaced the ‘ethno-national’ narrative which is widespread in other parts of the population. The ‘compact narrative’ has so far survived due the continued love of the people for their monarch. It may even prove to provide social glue for a sense of peoplehood uniting ‘old’ and ‘new’ Danes.

Technical and economical evaluation of water recycling in the carwash industry with membrane processes

2008 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 1131-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Boussu ◽  
G. Van Baelen ◽  
W. Colen ◽  
D. Eelen ◽  
S. Vanassche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Membrane Fouling ◽  
Tap Water ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
Optimal Choice ◽  
Water Recycling ◽  
Membrane Processes ◽  
Environmental Laws ◽  
Membrane Type ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right

In the carwash industry, water recycling is necessary to be in accordance with present and upcoming environmental laws. As this is not possible with traditional techniques, membrane processes (like ultrafiltration (UF) and nanofiltration (NF)) are technically and economically evaluated in this study. Concerning the technical part, there needs to be a compromise between a high permeate permeability on the one hand and a high permeate purity on the other hand. Depending on the use of the purified wastewater, ultrafiltration (to recycle wastewater in the main wash cycle) or nanofiltration (to recycle wastewater in the rinsing step) would be the optimal choice. Concerning the financial part, the implementation of membrane processes in the wastewater purification installation is economically feasible, especially when expensive tap water is used as pure water. These positive evaluations imply that membrane processes can be useful to recycle wastewater in the carwash industry, on condition that the right membrane type (with the least membrane fouling) and the right process format (e.g., hybrid process of UF and/or NF with a biological treatment) is selected.

Scripture and Pluralism; Reading the Bible in the Religiously Plural Worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance

2007 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 792
Author(s):  
Daniel Timmerman ◽  
Thomas J. Heffernan ◽  
Thomas E. Burman
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Middle Ages

The sisyphean task of biblical transformation

1977 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 501-521
Author(s):  
R. P. Carroll
Keyword(s):  
Subject Matter ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Alternative Form ◽  
Intellectual Activity ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Bible ◽  
European Culture ◽  
Independent Entity ◽  
The Given

The task of interpreting the Bible has two main phases— the understanding of the text and the transformation or making relevant of its meaning for modern readers. The steady decline of monolithic religious structures and the growth of pluralism in modern society have produced multivariant forms of intellectual activity embracing the Bible as part of their subject matter. Thus the Bible is embedded in the given of European culture and functions as part of the hermeneutical processes of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and secular traditions. The quest for understanding may be common to all the traditions but the task of transformation can take one of two forms. From within the religious tradition transformation is the attempt to reinterpret the text so as to make it meaningful in contemporary terms but always controlled by the tradition. This form may simply be termed transformation from within or controlled transformation. The alternative form is transformation without limits or control. In this form fidelity to a tradition is not paramount and the real concern is to see how far the material may be transformed so as to constitute an independent entity itself.

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