Islamic Sensory History, Volume 2: 600–1500 presents a selection of texts translated into English from Arabic and Persian. These selected texts all offer illustrative engagements with issues related to the sensorium in different times, places, and social milieus throughout the early and medieval history of Islamic societies. Each chapter is prefaced by an introductory essay by the translator,…
2021, the leaders of major industrial countries declared a shared goal of achieving a carbon-neutral international community by mid-century, during the G7 meeting. This objective is in alignment with the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2°C, and preferably to 1.5°C, compared to pre-industrial levels. In addition, …
What is so interesting about housing policies? I have been asked this question many times over the last years, ever since I became interested in the topic of housing. I used to respond in a simple way, disregarding the complexity of the topic: ‘We cannot allow the existence of one billion people living in slums!’, ‘We live in the 21st century; there must be a way to improve the living con…
When Penguin announced the upcoming release of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice in 2009, they heightened the suspense with two marketing gimmicks. One was a series of short movie trailers with Pynchon providing Doc Sportello’s slurred voice. The other one was a playlist of songs that would be mentioned in the novel. The choice of media was fitting since film…
Take a journey through the back roads of Germany to discover the area's real soul and charm. Twenty-four themed drives, each lasting one to five days, reveal breathtaking views, hidden gems, and authentic local experiences that can only be discovered by road. Each tour is bursting with insider knowledge and loaded with ideas for varied activities, from short walks and longer hikes to days on…
This open access proceedings presents new approaches to Machine Learning for Cyber-Physical Systems, experiences and visions. It contains some selected papers from the international Conference ML4CPS – Machine Learning for Cyber-Physical Systems, which was held in Hamburg (Germany), March 29th to 31st, 2023. Cyber-physical systems are characterized by their ability to adapt and to learn: They…
Water is not only the beginning of all things, as the old Greeks had alreadyrealized, but without water, no life on earth is possible, and clean water is also aprecondition for any form of sustainable development. There is enough availablefreshwater on earth (about 91,000 km3) to supply every individual on earth (about7.5 billion in 2020) approx. 12,000l, more than enough to live decently. Howe…
The world in which we live is fragile; a small layer of organismic activity covers the planet like a microbial film on top of a large boulder. Nonetheless, humans treat the Earth as if anthropogenic impacts on this delicate biological layer may be absorbed by unfailing natural buffers. Yet, convergent and overwhelming evidence from all over the world underlines that mankind has al…
Uually, our emotions are strongly controlled. Therefore, we seldom experience situations of raw affect, where emotions simply overwhelm us. This is basically a good thing, because controlling our ancestral emotional urges helps us to respond more appropriately to most of the daily situational demands of our modern society. It is simply not acceptable to always show an emotional response i…
Marine mammals live in and obtain their food from the sea. But, just like other mammals, marine mammals are warm-blooded; they have lungs and they breathe air. The give birth to living young that are dependent on milk from developed to catch their own food. The structure of a marine mammal is generally the same as that of land mammals; the internal organs and main elements of the skeleton are …