George Town, Penang

George Town World Heritage Site

THE World Heritage Committee meeting in Quebec City added George Town to UNESCO’s World Heritage List on the morning of 7 July 2008. George Town's built heritage comprises architectural traditions adapted to local conditions from both East and West. Its historic core has the largest concentration of pre-World War II architecture in Southeast Asia. Over the last 222 years, a unique way of life based upon East-West exchanges has developed here. The influences of Asia and Europe have endowed the city with a specific multicultural heritage.

George Town is one of three great historic settlements along the Straits of Malacca. The other settlements are Malacca, also a World Heritage Site, and Singapore. The island of Penang, in north-west Malaysia, was the first of these three British colonies to be established, and George Town is its capital.

In 1786, Captain Francis Light established an English East India Company (EIC) trading post here. However, Light was not the first settler and his role as “founder” is much contested, for Penang was, until then, part of the ancient Kedah Sultanate.

Achenese traders had already settled along the Pinang River when Francis Light arrived. Chinese tombstones in Tanjong Tokong allegedly predate Light’s arrival. In those days, however, Penang Island was very sparsely populated. After Francis Light arrived, George Town soon attracted migrants from all over Asia and Europe, contributing to a rapidly burgeoning multicultural identity.

In 1805, the British government designated the colony as an Indian Presidency, under the administration of Bengal, and a multiethnic Committee of Assessors was established to set rates and help manage the city. This was the precursor to the George Town Municipal Council, and the first in Malaysia.

In its early days, George Town attracted traders from India and Indonesia because it was a major port for textiles and pepper within the region, and later nutmeg. These commodities were of great importance financially. But the big money was in the China trade that passed through the Malacca Straits. It was based almost entirely upon tea, but included silk and ceramics.

In the opposite direction, ships carried opium and silver, and sundry other items that were of interest to the Chinese. However, Penang never became the main port for the China trade, because its role was soon usurped by Singapore (est 1819), which was fast developing under the administration of Stamford Raffles, who had the ear of the British Government.

In 1826, George Town became the capital of the British Straits Settlements comprising Penang, Malacca and Singapore. But by 1832, Singapore had taken over George Town’s administrative role. With declining trade and disease threatening its pepper and nutmeg plantations, the city’s future was bleak.

This decline was stemmed 10 years later by the discovery of tin in the neighbouring Malay States. Migrants from south-eastern China soon arrived, adding to the city’s cosmopolitan character. The Triads, fighting men affiliated with Chinese clans and dialect groups, accompanied them.

In 1857, competition amongst the Chinese over the monopoly for opium and tin trading exploded into open warfare. The Penang Riots resulted in the end of indirect rule. Up till then, the British had ruled through local headmen called “Kapitans”. In their place, the British established an inspectorate of police that enforced British laws throughout the colony.

By 1869, the year the Suez Canal opened, George Town had developed into the region’s chief entrepot port. Wealth from trade, tin mining and commercial agriculture resulted in the largest conglomeration of pre-World War II architecture in Southeast Asia.

By the turn of the 20th century, George Town had become a regional education and intellectual centre through its English schools and lively modern press. It became a haven for religious reformers, revolutionaries and proto-nationalists. It was also a modern city with electric tram-cars and a funicular railway linking the city to the Penang Hills. As with so many major ports in the 1930s, George Town was a centre not just for trade and finance, but also for recreation, with its Great World Parks, jazz bands and cabarets.

In 1941, this cosmopolitan society was shattered by the bombing raids of the Japanese Imperial Air Force and nearly extinguished by the brutal three and a half year occupation that followed. Rebuilding went on in earnest after the war ended in 1945, but George Town’s role as an imperial port city was played out as the post-war British Empire was quickly dismantled, to be replaced by the looser affiliations of the Commonwealth.

On 1 January 1957, George Town was granted city status by HRH Queen Elizabeth II. It was now settling into its new role as the second city in the new Malaysian Federation. In the 1960s, as entrepot trade declined further, George Town also declined. A decade later, with a shift away from trade, manufacturing and mass tourism took over, creating new townships. Manufacturing concentrated in the south-west, with tourism to the north.

Reference: http://www.igeorgetownpenang.com/

Chikungunya

Chikungunya (in the Makonde language "that which bends up") virus (CHIKV) is an insect-borne virus, of the genus Alphavirus, that is transmitted to humans by virus-carrying Aedes mosquitoes. There have been recent outbreaks of CHIKV associated with severe illness. CHIKV causes an illness with symptoms similar to dengue fever. CHIKV manifests itself with an acute febrile phase of the illness lasting only two to five days, followed by a prolonged arthralgic disease that affects the joints of the extremities. The pain associated with CHIKV infection of the joints persists for weeks or months, or in some cases years.

Signs and symptoms
The incubation period of Chikungunya disease is from two to four days. Symptoms of the disease include a fever up to 40 °C (104 °F), a petechial or maculopapular rash of the trunk and occasionally the limbs, and arthralgia or arthritis affecting multiple joints. Other nonspecific symptoms can include headache, conjunctival Injection, and slight photophobia. Typically, the fever lasts for two days and then ends abruptly. However, other symptoms—namely joint pain, intense headache, insomnia and an extreme degree of prostration—last for a variable period; usually for about 5 to 7 days. Patients have complained of joint pains for much longer time periods depending on their age.

Causes
Chikungunya virus is indigenous to tropical Africa and Asia, where it is transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes, usually of the genus Aedes. Chikungunya virus belongs to alpha-virus under Togaviridae family. It is an "Arbovirus" (Ar-arthropod, bo-borne). CHIK fever epidemics are sustained by human-mosquito-human transmission. The word "chikungunya" is thought to derive from description in local dialect of the contorted posture of patients afflicted with the severe joint pain associated with this disease. The main virus reservoirs are monkeys, but other species can also be affected, including humans.

Treatment
There are no specific treatments for Chikungunya. There is no vaccine currently available. A Phase II vaccine trial, sponsored by the US Government and published in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 2000, used a live, attenuated virus, developing viral resistance in 98% of those tested after 28 days and 85% still showed resistance after one year.
A serological test for Chikungunya is available from the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Chloroquine is gaining ground as a possible treatment for the symptoms associated with Chikungunya, and as an anti-inflammatory agent to combat the arthritis associated with Chikungunya virus. A University of Malaya study found that for arthritis-like symptoms that are not relieved by aspirin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), chloroquine phosphate (250 mg/day) has given promising results. Research by an Italian scientist, Andrea Savarino, and his colleagues together with a French government press release in March 2006 have added more credence to the claim that chloroquine might be effective in treating chikungunya. Unpublished studies in cell culture and monkeys show no effect of chloroquine treatment on reduction of chikungunya disease. The fact sheet on Chikungunya advises against using aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen and other NSAIDs that are recommended for arthritic pain and fever.

Epidemiology
Chikungunya virus is an alphavirus closely related to the O'nyong'nyong virus, the Ross River virus in Australia, and the viruses that cause eastern equine encephalitis and western equine encephalitis.
Chikungunya is generally spread through bites from Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, but recent research by the Pasteur Institute in Paris has suggested that Chikungunya virus strains in the 2005-2006 Reunion Island outbreak incurred a mutation that facilitated transmission by Aedes albopictus (Tiger mosquito). Concurrent studies by arbovirologists at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, confirmed definitively that enhanced chikungunya virus infection of Aedes albopictus was caused by a point mutation in one of the viral envelope genes (E1). Enhanced transmission of chikungunya virus by Aedes albopictus could mean an increased risk for chikungunya outbreaks in other areas where the Asian tiger mosquito is present. A recent epidemic in Italy was likely perpetuated by Aedes albopictus.
In Africa, chikungunya is spread via a sylvatic cycle in which the virus largely resides in other primates in between human outbreaks.
On 28 May 2009 in Changwat Trang of Thailand where the virus is endemic, the provincial hospital decided to deliver by Caesarean section a male baby from his Chikungunya-infected mother—Khwanruethai Sutmueang, 28, a Trang native—in order to prevent mother-foetus virus transmission. However, after delivering the baby, the physicians discovered that the baby was infected with Chikungunya virus, and put him into intensive care because the infection had left the baby unable to breathe by himself or to drink milk. The physicians presumed that Chikungunya virus might be able to be transmitted from a mother to her foetus; however, there is no laboratory confirmation for this presumption.

Geomagnetic storm

A geomagnetic storm is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a disturbance in space weather. Associated with solar coronal mass ejections (CME), coronal holes, or solar flares, a geomagnetic storm is caused by a solar wind shock wave which typically strikes the Earth's magnetic field 24 to 36 hours after the event. This only happens if the shock wave travels in a direction toward Earth. The solar wind pressure on the magnetosphere will increase or decrease depending on the Sun's activity. These solar wind pressure changes modify the electric currents in the ionosphere. Magnetic storms usually last 24 to 48 hours, but some may last for many days. In 1989, an electromagnetic storm disrupted power throughout most of Quebec—it caused auroras as far south as Texas.

Radiation hazards to humans
Intense solar flares release very-high-energy particles that can cause radiation poisoning to humans (and mammals in general) in the same way as low-energy radiation from nuclear blasts.
Earth's atmosphere and magnetosphere allow adequate protection at ground level, but astronauts in space are subject to potentially lethal doses of radiation. The penetration of high-energy particles into living cells can cause chromosome damage, cancer, and a host of other health problems. Large doses can be fatal immediately.
Solar protons with energies greater than 30 MeV are particularly hazardous. In October 1989, the Sun produced enough energetic particles that an astronaut wearing only a space suit and caught out in the brunt of the storm, would probably have died; the expected dose would be about 7000 rem. Note that Astronauts who had time to gain safety in a shelter beneath moon soil would have absorbed only slight amounts of radiation.
The cosmonauts on the Mir station were subjected to daily doses of about twice the yearly dose on the ground, and during the solar storm at the end of 1989 they absorbed their full-year radiation dose limit in just a few hours.
Solar proton events can also produce elevated radiation aboard aircraft flying at high altitudes. Although these risks are small, monitoring of solar proton events by satellite instrumentation allows the occasional exposure to be monitored and evaluated, and eventually the flight paths and altitudes adjusted in order to lower the absorbed dose of the flight crews.

Disrupted systems - Communications
Many communication systems use the ionosphere to reflect radio signals over long distances. Ionospheric storms can affect radio communication at all latitudes. Some radio frequencies are absorbed and others are reflected, leading to rapidly fluctuating signals and unexpected propagation paths. TV and commercial radio stations are little affected by solar activity, but ground-to-air, ship-to-shore, shortwave broadcast, and amateur radio (mostly the bands below 30 MHz) are frequently disrupted. Radio operators using HF bands rely upon solar and geomagnetic alerts to keep their communication circuits up and running.
Some military detection or early warning systems are also affected by solar activity. The over-the-horizon radar bounces signals off the ionosphere to monitor the launch of aircraft and missiles from long distances. During geomagnetic storms, this system can be severely hampered by radio clutter. Some submarine detection systems use the magnetic signatures of submarines as one input to their locating schemes. Geomagnetic storms can mask and distort these signals.
The Federal Aviation Administration routinely receives alerts of solar radio bursts so that they can recognize communication problems and forego unnecessary maintenance. When an aircraft and a ground station are aligned with the Sun, jamming of air-control radio frequencies can occur. This can also happen when an Earth station, a satellite, and the Sun are in alignment.
The telegraph lines in the past were affected by geomagnetic storms as well. The telegraphs used a long wire for the data line, stretching for many miles, using ground as the return wire and being fed with DC power from a battery; this made them (together with the power lines mentioned below) susceptible to being influenced by the fluctuations caused by the ring current. The voltage/current induced by the geomagnetic storm could have led to diminishing of the signal, when subtracted from the battery polarity, or to overly strong and spurious signals when added to it; some operators in such cases even learned to disconnect the battery and rely on the induced current as their power source. In extreme cases the induced current was so high the coils at the receiving side burst in flames, or the operators received electric shocks. Geomagnetic storms affect also long-haul telephone lines, including undersea cables unless they are fiber optic.
Damage to communications satellites can disrupt non-terrestrial telephone, television, radio, and Internet links.

Disrupted systems - Geologic exploration
Earth's magnetic field is used by geologists to determine subterranean rock structures. For the most part, these geodetic surveyors are searching for oil, gas, or mineral deposits. They can accomplish this only when Earth's field is quiet, so that true magnetic signatures can be detected. Other surveyors prefer to work during geomagnetic storms, when the variations to Earth's normal subsurface electric currents help them to see subsurface oil or mineral structures. For these reasons, many surveyors use geomagnetic alerts and predictions to schedule their mapping activities.

Antenna (biology)

Antennae (singular: antenna) in biology have historically been paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. More recently, the term has also been applied to cilium structures present in many cell types of eukaryotes.
In arthropods, antennae are connected to the front-most segments. In crustaceans, they are biramous and present on the first two segments of the head, with the smaller pair known as antennules. All other arthropod groups, except chelicerates, proturans and arachnids which have none, have a single, uniramous pair of antennae. These antennae are jointed, at least at the base, and generally extend forward from the head. They are sensory organs, although the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups, nor always clear. Functions may variously include sensing touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially olfaction (smell) or gustation (taste).

Insects

Antenna are the primary olfactory sensors of an insect and are accordingly well-equipped with a wide variety of sensilla (singular : sensillum). Paired, mobile, and segmented, they are located between the eyes on the forehead. Embryologically, they represent the appendages of the second head segment.
All insects have antenna though these may be greatly reduced in the larval forms. Amongst the non-insect classes of Hexapoda, Collembola and Diplura have antenna, but Protura do not.

Structure

The three basic segments of the typical insect antenna are the scape (base), the pedicel (stem), and finally the flagellum, which often comprises many units known as flagellomeres.
Muscles are only present in the two first segments, the scape and pedicel. The scape is surrounded by a membranous region of the head. It pivots on a single marginal point called the antennifer, allowing it to move in any direction.
The number of flagellomeres can vary greatly, and is often of diagnostic importance. True flagellomeres have a membranous articulation between them, but in many insects, especially the more primitive groups, the flagellum is entirely or partially composed of a flexible series of small annuli, which are not true flagellomeres.
In many beetles and in the chalcidoid wasps, the apical flagellomeres form a club, and the collective term for the segments between the club and the antennal base is the funicle; for traditional reasons, in beetles it is the segments between the club and the scape, but in wasps, it is the segments between the club and the pedicel.
In the groups with more uniform antennae (for example: Diplopoda), all segments are called antennomeres. Some groups have a simple or variously modified apical or subapical bristle called an arista (this may be especially well-developed in various Diptera).

Functions

Olfactory receptors on the antennae bind to odour molecules, including pheromones. The neurons that possess these receptors signal this binding by sending action potentials down their axons to the antennal lobe in the brain. From there, neurons in the antennal lobes connect to mushroom bodies that identify the odour. The sum of the electrical potentials of the antenna to a given odor can be measured using an electroantennogram.
In the case of the Monarch, it has been shown that antennae are necessary for proper time-compensated Sun compass orientation during migration, that antennal clocks exist in monarchs, and that they likely provide the primary timing mechanism for Sun compass orientation.

Crustaceans

Crustaceans bear two pairs of antennae. The first pair are uniramous and are often referred to as antennules, while the second pair are biramous, meaning that each antenna is composed of two parts, joined at their base. In most adults, the antenna are sensory organs, but they are used by the nauplius larva for swimming. In some groups of crustaceans, such as the spiny lobsters and slipper lobsters, the second antennae are enlarged, while in others, such as crabs, the antennae are reduced in size.

Cellular antennae

Within the biological and medical disciplines, recent discoveries have noted that primary cilia in many types of cells within eukaryotes serve as cellular antennae. These cilia play important roles in chemosensation, mechanosensation, and thermosensation. The current scientific understanding of primary cilia organelles views them as "sensory cellular antennae that coordinate a large number of cellular signaling pathways, sometimes coupling the signaling to ciliary motility or alternatively to cell division and differentiation."

Solid-fuel rocket

A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket with a motor that uses solid propellants (fuel/oxidizer). The earliest rockets were solid fueled and powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese, Mongols and Arabs in warfare as early as the 13th century. All rockets used some form of solid or powdered propellant up until the 20th century, when liquid rockets and hybrid rockets offered more efficient and controllable alternatives. Solid rockets are still used today in model rockets and on larger applications for their simplicity and reliability. Since solid fuel rockets can remain in storage for long periods—and then reliably launch on short notice—they have been frequently used in military applications such as missiles. Solid fuel rockets are unusual as primary propulsion in modern space exploration, but are commonly used as booster rockets.

Basic concepts

A simple solid rocket motor consists of a casing, nozzle, grain (propellant charge), and igniter.
The grain behaves like a solid mass, burning in a predictable fashion and producing exhaust gases. The nozzle dimensions are calculated to maintain a design chamber pressure, while producing thrust from the exhaust gases.
Once ignited, a simple solid rocket motor cannot be shut off, because it contains all the ingredients necessary for combustion within the chamber that they are burned in. More advanced solid rocket motors can not only be throttled but can be extinguished and then re-ignited by controlling the nozzle geometry or through the use of vent ports. Also, pulsed rocket motors which burn in segments and which can be ignited upon command are available.
Modern designs may also include a steerable nozzle for guidance, avionics, recovery hardware (parachutes), self-destruct mechanisms, APUs, controllable tactical motors, controllable divert and attitude control motors and thermal management materials.

Design

Design begins with the total impulse required, this determines the fuel/oxidizer mass. Grain geometry and chemistry are then chosen to satisfy the required motor characteristics.
The following are chosen or solved simultaneously. The results are exact dimensions for grain, nozzle and case geometries;

1. The grain burns at a predictable rate, given its surface area and chamber pressure.
2. The chamber pressure is determined by the nozzle orifice diameter and grain burn rate.
3. Allowable chamber pressure is a function of casing design.
4. The length of burn time is determined by the grain 'web thickness'.

The grain may be bonded to the casing, or not. Case-bonded motors are much more difficult to design, since the deformation, under operating conditions, of the case and the grain must be compatible.
Common modes of failure in solid rocket motors include fracture of the grain, failure of case bonding, and air pockets in the grain. All of these produce an instantaneous increase in burn surface area and a corresponding increase in exhaust gas and pressure, which may potentially induce rupture of the casing.
Another failure mode is casing seal design. Seals are required in casings that have to be opened to load the grain. Once a seal fails, hot gas will erode the escape path and result in failure. This was the cause of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Hobby and amateur rocketry

Solid fuel rocket motors can be bought for use in model rocketry; they are normally small cylinders of black powder fuel with an integral nozzle and sometimes a small charge that is set off when the propellant is exhausted after a time delay. This charge can be used to trigger a camera, or deploy a parachute. Without this charge and delay, the motor may ignite a second stage (black powder only).
In mid- and high power rocketry, commercially made APCP motors are widely used. They can be designed as either single use or reloadables. These motors are available in impulse ranges from "D" to "O", from several manufacturers. They are manufactured in standardized diameters, and varying lengths depending on required impulse. Standard motor diameters are 18, 24, 29, 38, 54, 75, 98, and 150 millimeters. Different propellant formulations are available to produce different thrust profiles, as well as "special effects" such as colored flames, smoke trails, or large quantities of sparks (produced by adding titanium sponge to the mix).
Designing solid rocket motors is particularly interesting to amateur rocketry enthusiasts. The design of a successful solid fuel motor requires application of continuum mechanics, combustion chemistry, materials science, fluid dynamics (including compressible flow), heat transfer, geometry (particle spectrum packing), and machining. The vast majority of amateur-built rocket motors utilize a composite propellant, most commonly APCP

Langkawi Geopark

On June 1, 2007, Langkawi Island has been given a World Geopark status by UNESCO. Three of its main conservation area in Langkawi Geopark; Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park and Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest park. (Island of the Pregnant Maiden Lake). These three parks are the most popular tourism area within Langkawi Geopark.
Langkawi Geopark is made up of 99 tropical islands off the northwestern coast of Peninsular Malaysia covering an area of about 478 square kilometer. These rocky tropical legendary islands are rich in geodiversity, many of which have scientific value of national and regional significant. Langkawi Geopark highlights the region's most complete Palaeozoic geological history and outstanding beauty of tropical island karst landscape. The Palaeozoic rocks of Langkawi Geopark contain among others the oldest strata in the region, complete Palaeozoic succession from Cambrian to Permian, and best sedimentological and palaeontological evidences affiliating Langkawi and the surrounding region with Gondwanaland. Langkawi Geopark portrays a rich mixtures of surface water, ground water and ocean wave originated karstic landscape including some rare formation of islands and hills, ridges and pinnacles; gorges, wangs and doline lakes; caves, tunnels and their diverse cave deposit landforms; and sea-notches, sea-caves, sea-tunnels, sea-arches and sea-stacks. Langkawi Geopark geoheritage sites are mostly protected within the Malaysian holistic nature conservation concept of Geoforest Park where rock conservation is equally treated as biological conservation and other nature conservation components. Three geoforest parks of Langkawi are the Machinchang Cambrian, Kilim Karst and Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Parks, each of which highlighting its own unique geology and geological landscape. Other smaller conservation areas are the Recreational Forest and State Permanent Forest Reserves, which hosted several protected geoheritage sites and geological monuments outside the geoforest parks.

Geoheritage of Langkawi
Langkawi possesses rich geodiversity in terms of rocks, minerals, fossils, geological structures, geomorphological and landscape features, with heritage value of national and regional significant. Geoheritage of Langkawi mostly occurred within rocky coasts, cliffs, peaks and waterfalls as well as in caves. Some highly significant exposures have been classified as geoheritage sites, containing one or more geodiversities of high heritage value. There are more than 90 geoheritage sites identified throughout the Langkawi Geopark, some of which have been proposed into the National Geological Heritage Lists. Despite of its rich geodiversity, Langkawi Geopark will only highlight two major geological attractions, that are: complete Palaeozoic geological records, incorporating oldest rocks and fossils in the region, best preserved sedimentary structures and fossils, best sedimentological and palaeontological evidences for affiliation with Gondwanaland, most beautiful island karst landscape in the region featuring unique hills, ridges, islands and pinnacles, beautiful caves, tunnels and arches and the magnificent rare mangrove association with limestone bedrock.

Geoforest Park
Geoforest park is essentially chosen in area where most of the rocks are permanently or seasonally exposed, hence the coverage of the three geoforest parks in Langkawi shows that nearly 40 percent of the islands are half-barren. This also indicates why most of Langkawi geheritage sites fall within these geoforest parks. Geoforest park is a special conservation areas within PRFs with outstanding geological and biological resources where protection and wise utilization of these resources are geared towards sustainable recreation, promoting multidisciplinary research and enriching community awareness about the natural integration of various forest resources. Three geoforest parks of Langkawi are: Machinchang Cambrian Geoforest Park which highlights region's oldest sandstone that bears beautifully preserved sedimentary structures and oldest fossils of the region. Competent Machinchang Cambrian sandstone produced outstanding and beautiful landscapes of mountain peaks, cliffs, waterfalls, remnant islands and rocky beaches, while detailed sculpture on some of the rocks produced amazing tafoni and other erosional features.

Kilim Karst Geoforest Park features breathtaking landscape of nearly vertical karstic hills, ridges and islands with pinnacles of various shapes and sizes formed on thinly bedded flat to very gently dipping limestone of Setul Formation. Kilim karstic hills bear many beautiful cave, while karstic coastlines are provided with much more varied and colourful karstic features including sea notches, sea tunnels, sea caves, sea arches, sea stacks and remnant islands. The limestone of Kilim is also very rich in fossils, particularly those at Pulau Langgun. The region's highest (23m above m.s.l.) Holocene (circa 7000m.a.) sea level was also recorded within this geoforest park.

Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest Park exhibits karst landscapes developed mostly on marble of Chuping Formation. This geoforest park has fine cave features developed in Gua Pasir Dagang, beautiful sea-arches and caves at Pulau Lima and Pulau Dua, sea-stacks and other wave-related features. The famous Tasik Dayang Bunting (or Lake of Pregnant Maiden) is the biggest natural fresh water lake in Langkawi Islands, and is thought to be of doline origin.

Reference : http://www.globalgeopark.org/publish/portal1/tab128/info2293.htm

Abu Rayhan Biruni

Abū Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad Bīrūnī (Persian: ابوریحان محمد بن احمد بیرونی), often known as Alberuni, Al Beruni or variants, (born 5 September 973 in Kath, Khwarezm (now in Uzbekistan), died 13 December 1048 in Ghazni, today's Afghanistan) was a Persian scholar and polymath of the 11th century.
He was a scientist and physicist, an anthropologist and comparative sociologist, an astronomer and chemist, a critic of alchemy and astrology, an encyclopedist and historian, a geographer and traveler, a geodesist and geologist, a mathematician, a pharmacist and psychologist, an Islamic philosopher and theologian, and an scholar and teacher.
He was the first Muslim scholar to study India and the Brahminical tradition, and has been described as the founder of Indology, the father of geodesy, and "the first anthropologist". He was also one of the earliest leading exponents of the experimental scientific method, and was responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanics and mineralogy, a pioneer of comparative sociology and experimental psychology, and the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.
George Sarton, the father of the history of science, described Biruni as "one of the very greatest scientists of Islam, and, all considered, one of the greatest of all times." A. I. Sabra described Biruni as "one of the great scientific minds in all history."
The crater Al-Biruni on the Moon is named after him. Tashkent Technical University (formerly Tashkent Polytechnic Institute) is also named after Abu Rayhan al-Biruni and a university founded by Ahmad Shah Massoud in Kapisa is named after him.

Astronomy

Will Durant wrote the following on al-Biruni's contributions to Islamic astronomy:
"He wrote treatises on the astrolabe, the planisphere, the armillary sphere; and formulated astronomical tables for Sultan Masud. He took it for granted that the earth is round, noted “the attraction of all things towards the center of the earth,” and remarked that astronomic data can be explained as well by supposing that the earth turns daily on its axis and annually around the sun, as by the reverse hypothesis."

Experimental observations

Biruni was the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena.

He supposed the Milky Way galaxy to be a collection of numerous nebulous stars, and in Khorasan, he observed and described the solar eclipse on 8 April 1019, and the lunar eclipse on 17 September 1019, in detail, and gave the exact latitudes of the stars during the lunar eclipse.
In 1031, Biruni completed his extensive astronomical encyclopaedia Kitab al-Qanun al-Mas'udi (Latinized as Canon Mas’udicus), in which he recorded his astronomical findings and formulated astronomical tables. The book introduces the mathematical technique of analysing the acceleration of the planets, and first states that the motions of the solar apogee and the precession are not identical. Biruni also discovered that the distance between the Earth and the Sun is larger than Ptolemy's estimate, on the basis that Ptolemy disregarded the annual solar eclipses.

Philosophy of science

Scientific method

In early Islamic philosophy, Biruni discussed the philosophy of science and introduced an early scientific method in nearly every field of inquiry he studied. For example, in his treatise on mineralogy, Kitab al-Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones), he is "the most exact of experimental scientists", while in the introduction to his study of India, he declares that "to execute our project, it has not been possible to follow the geometric method" and develops comparative sociology as a scientific method in the field. He was also responsible for introducing the experimental method into mechanics, the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena, and a pioneer of experimental psychology.
Unlike his contemporary Avicenna's scientific method where "general and universal questions came first and led to experimental work", Biruni developed scientific methods where "universals came out of practical, experimental work" and "theories are formulated after discoveries." In his debate with Avicenna, Biruni made the first real distinction between a scientist and a philosopher, referring to Avicenna as a philosopher and considering himself to be a mathematical scientist.
Biruni's scientific method was similar to the modern scientific method in many ways, particularly his emphasis on repeated experimentation. Biruni was concerned with how to conceptualize and prevent both systematic errors and random errors, such as "errors caused by the use of small instruments and errors made by human observers." He argued that if instruments produce random errors because of their imperfections or idiosyncratic qualities, then multiple observations must be taken, analyzed qualitatively, and on this basis, arrive at a "common-sense single value for the constant sought", whether an arithmetic mean or a "reliable estimate."

Stockholm syndrome

In psychology, the Stockholm syndrome is a term used to describe a paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein hostages express adulation and have positive feelings towards their captors that appear irrational in light of the danger or risk endured by the victims. While uncommon, the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Stockholm syndrome. The syndrome is named after the Norrmalmstorg robbery of Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg in Stockholm, in which the bank robbers held bank employees hostage from August 23 to August 28, 1973. In this case, the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The term "Stockholm Syndrome" was coined by the criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who assisted the police during the robbery, and referred to the syndrome in a news broadcast. It was originally defined by psychiatrist Frank Ochberg to aid the management of hostage situations.

Development

While there is still disagreement as to what factors characterize incidents that contribute to the development of Stockholm syndrome, research has suggested that hostages may exhibit the condition in situations that feature captors who do not abuse the victim, a long duration before resolution, continued contact between the perpetrator and hostage, and a high level of emotion. In fact, experts have concluded that the intensity, not the length of the incident, combined with a lack of physical abuse more likely will create favorable conditions for the development of Stockholm syndrome.
The following are viewed as the conditions necessary for the Stockholm syndrome to occur.

a) Hostages who develop Stockholm syndrome often view the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it. In this sense, the captor becomes the person in control of the captive’s basic needs for survival and the victim’s life itself.
b) The hostage endures isolation from other people and has only the captor’s perspective available. Perpetrators routinely keep information about the outside world’s response to their actions from captives to keep them totally dependent.
c) The hostage taker threatens to kill the victim and gives the perception of having the capability to do so. The captive judges it safer to align with the perpetrator, endure the hardship of captivity, and comply with the captor than to resist and face murder.
d) The captive sees the perpetrator as showing some degree of kindness. Kindness serves as the cornerstone of Stockholm syndrome; the condition will not develop unless the captor exhibits it in some form toward the hostage. However, captives often misinterpret a lack of abuse as kindness and may develop feelings of appreciation for this perceived benevolence. If the captor is purely evil and abusive, the hostage will respond with hatred. But, if perpetrators show some kindness, victims will submerge the anger they feel in response to the terror and concentrate on the captors’ “good side” to protect themselves

In cases where Stockholm syndrome has occurred, the captive is in a situation where the captor has stripped nearly all forms of independence and gained control of the victim’s life, as well as basic needs for survival. Some experts say that the hostage regresses to, perhaps, a state of infancy; the captive must cry for food, remain silent, and exist in an extreme state of dependence. In contrast, the perpetrator serves as a mother figure protecting her child from a threatening outside world, including law enforcement’s deadly weapons. The victim then begins a struggle for survival, both relying on and identifying with the captor. Possibly, hostages’ motivation to live outweighs their impulse to hate the person who created their dilemma.

Historically explanations

Historically raptio (e.g., Rape of the Sabine women) and bride kidnapping have been (and still are in some places) very common practices. Women who were kidnapped and consistently fought back were likely to be killed or imprisoned and thus not have children. But women who bonded with and submitted to their captors were more likely to have children and their children were more likely to receive the genes that made their mothers more passive and bonding towards their captors. And over several generations, this made the population of humans more genetically prone to submission and bonding when kidnapped.
In many cases, capture may also involve the killing (or threat of killing) of the captive's relatives, thereby isolating the captive. The captive is subjected to isolation and so sees even a small act, such as providing amenities, as a great favour. Such captives may side with their captors while believing their captors have conferred on them great importance and love. Furthermore, captives who perceive themselves as the only members of their group not to have been killed may believe that they have been shown a special interest.

Psychoanalytic explanations

The Stockholm syndrome is a psychological shift that occurs in captives when they are threatened gravely but are shown acts of kindness by their captors. Captives who exhibit the syndrome tend to sympathize with and think highly of their captors, at times believing that the captors are showing them favor stemming from inherent kindness. Such captives fail to recognize that their captors' choices are essentially self-serving. When subjected to prolonged captivity, these captives can develop a strong bond with their captors, in some cases including a sexual interest.
Psychiatrist Frank Ochberg, widely credited with Stockholm Syndrome's psychiatric definition, describes it as "a primitive gratitude for the gift of life," not unlike that felt by an infant.
According to the psychoanalytic view of the syndrome, this tendency might be the result of employing the strategy evolved by newborn babies to form an emotional attachment to the nearest powerful adult in order to maximize the probability that this adult will enable—at the very least—the survival of the child, if not also prove to be a good parental figure. This syndrome is considered a prime example for the defense mechanism of identification.