Magnetic tape

The move to visualization and image processing in data systems is increasing the demand for larger and faster mass storage systems. The technology of choice is magnetic tape. This paper briefly reviews the technology past, present, and projected. A case is made for standards and the value of the standards to users

Flattening Functions on Flowers

Let $T$ be an orientation-preserving Lipschitz expanding map of the circle \T. A pre-image selector is a map \tau:\T\to\T with finitely many discontinuities, each of which is a jump discontinuity, and such that $\tau(x)\in T^{-1}(x)$ for all x\in\T. The closure of the image of a pre-image selector is called a flower, and a flower with $p$ connected components is called a $p$-flower. We say that a real-valued Lipschitz function can be Lipschitz flattened on a flower whenever it is Lipschitz cohomologous to a constant on that flower. The space of Lipschitz functions which can be flattened on a given $p$-flower is shown to be of codimension $p$ in the space of all Lipschitz functions, and the linear constraints determining this subspace are derived explicitly. If a Lipschitz function $f$ has a maximizing measure $S$ which is Sturmian (i.e. is carried by a 1-flower), it is shown that $f$ can be Lipschitz flattened on some 1-flower carrying $S$.Comment: Accepted for publication and confirmed for december 200

A Note On Destitution

In this paper the economic, social and political dimensions of destitution are analysed. Economic destitution is seen as a contradiction in terms since destitute people survive without assets and income. Social destitution is a process of expulsion and of the denial of dependent status. The state plays an active political role in creating and perpetuating destitution. Next, destitution is mapped onto other paradigms of poverty. Finally responses outside and inside political economy are outlined. Case material is drawn from India.

Development, Policy and Agriculture in India in the 1990s

Policy tends to be depoliticised in development discourse. In this paper Bernard Schaffer's framework for the political analysis of policy is recalled and developed. Repoliticising policy involves the analysis of four overlapping political fields: those of agenda, procedure, resources and access. The framework is applied to the politics of the agricultural policy agenda over the recent past in India, and with special reference to Tamil Nadu state.