Why do we learn some lessons more easily than others - indeed with alacrity and enthusiasm? Often these are not of the most attractive sort. It seems so frequently as if there is a sheer perversity in us.

NEXAFS is shown to be an excellent technique, of potentially widespread application, for the determination of the orientation of organic molecules intercalated in preferentially oriented thin films of polycrystalline, layered minerals. A NEXAFS study of [Mg2Al(OH)6]+C7H5O2 · nH2O, a layered anionic clay, is described. This material shows a transition from a layer spacing of 15.4 Å to only 9 Å at a remarkably low temperature (below 100°C). This is shown to be accompanied by a change in the angle of the plane of the benzoate molecule to the 00ℓ planes from 35° ± 10° to 0° ± 10°. The tilt of the benzoate anion in the room temperature structure demonstrates the presence of an interaction between the phenyl ring and the positively charged, brucite-like layers. Furthermore it is suggestive of the importance of hydrogen bonding in determining the interlayer spacing and stability.

Chlorite minerals, found in a great variety of rocks and geological environments, display a wide range of chemical compositions and a variety of polytypes, which reflect the physicochemical conditions under which they formed. Of particular importance for studies dealing with ore deposit genesis, metamorphism, hydrothermal alteration or diagenesis is the paleotemperature of chlorite crystallization. However, in order to understand the relationship between chlorite composition and formation temperature and hence use chlorite as a geothermometer, one must determine how other parameters influence chlorite composition. These parameters may include fO2 and pH of the solution and Fe/(Fe + Mg) and bulk mineral composition of the host rock.

Four approaches to chlorite geothermometry, one structural and three compositional, have been proposed in the past: 1) a polytype method based on the (largely qualitative) observation that structural changes in chlorite may be partly temperature-dependent (Hayes, 1970); 2) an empirical calibration between the tetrahedral aluminum occupancy in chlorites and measured temperature in geothermal systems (Cathelineau, 1988), which has subsequently been modified by several workers; 3) a six-component chlorite solid solution model based upon equilibrium between chlorite and an aqueous solution, which uses thermodynamic properties calibrated with data from geothermal and hydrothermal systems (Walshe, 1986); and 4) a theoretical method based on the intersection of chlorite-carbonate reactions and the CO2-H2O miscibility surface in temperature-XCO2 space, which requires that the composition of a coexisting carbonate phase (dolomite, ankerite, Fe-calcite or siderite) be known or estimated (Hutcheon, 1990). These four approaches are reviewed and the different calculation methods for the compositional geothermometers are applied to a selection of chlorite analyses from the literature. Results of this comparative exercise indicate that no single chlorite geothermometer performs satisfactorily over the whole range of natural conditions (different temperatures, coexisting assemblages, Fe/(Fe + Mg), fO2, etc.). Therefore, chlorite geothermometry should be used with caution and only in combination with alternative methods of estimating paleotemperatures.

Clay mineral compositions from 2 paleosol profiles (Chu-Wan, CW, and Shiao-Men Yu, SMY, profiles) on the late-Miocene sediments in Penghu Islands (Pescadores), Taiwan, are characterized by random X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). By the clay assemblage of the paleosol profile, we want to explore the probable formation mode of the Penghu paleosols.

The paleosol profiles in study are overlain by a layer of basalt flow. However, the clay mineralogy of the 2 paleosols was not altered metasomatically after burial. Results show that 3 distinctive zones of different dominating kaolin-group minerals are apparent in the profiles. In descending order, they are: 1) spheroidal, hollow 7Å-halloysite, 2) platy, irregular-shaped and disordered kaolinite, and 3) platy, irregular-shaped, disordered kaolinite. The relative crystallinity of kaolin minerals of the 3 layers is: layer 2 > layer 3 > layer 1. On the basis of the XRD, TEM analyses and the crystallinity calculations, the distribution of kaolin in Penghu paleosol profiles appears to be unique. Penghu paleosol profiles show systematic change in kaolin crystallinity and polymorphs with depth. Because the clay type is heterogeneous within the profile, this represents that Penghu paleosol profiles were polypedogenic.

The contact between the upper basalt and the paleosol is the erosion surface, so we do not know exactly what the thickness of the original paleosol was. The first layer (about 20 cm) of the profiles appears to be constituents of the original paleosol. It contains high contents of pedogenic (in situ weathering) hematites and 7Å-halloysites, which implies that the local climate of the Penghu Islands at late Miocene was warm and humid. Intense leaching and dry/wet cycle should be the reason for high contents of halloysite (>60%) in the Penghu paleosols. Laterization was the probable pedogenic process for the formation of the paleosols.

Saponite, hectorite, and laponite have been pillared with cationic Al clusters, and special attention has been given to the solution chemistry or Al. Pillared saponite is obtained after exchange with refluxed Al solutions; while for hectorite, Al solutions treated with ammonium acetate give a pillared product with 1.8–1.9 nm spacing and thermal stability up to 873 K. In both types of solutions, the Keggin ion Al cluster is a minority species or totally absent. The typical 1.8–1.9 nm spacing is only obtained after washing. The quality of the pillared material can be judged from its thermal stability, its surface area, and the width of the d001 line before and after pillaring. The width should not exceed 0.3 nm before calcination and 0.5 nm after calcination. The latter criterion reflects the importance of the crystallinity of the parent clay for successful pillaring. Pillaring in concentrated conditions occurs by a combination of ion exchange and precipitation of Al and gives materials that exhibit poor thermal stability.

Being professionally interested in African languages, there is no way in which we could try to hide our rather selfish motive in hoping for the survival of African languages, and as many as possible at that. The disappearance of any African language means to us scholars the final, irrecoverable loss of an important empirical resource, not only for linguistic studies, but also for studies on the history and culture of a people. Not many outside the academic circle, however, will have heartaches over such matters.

A kaolin clay occurring in Carboniferous mudstone near the Jiangshan-Shaoxing deep fault in Zhejiang Province, eastern China was characterized by XRD and IR. Although the dominant mineral appeared to be kaolinite, IR also suggested the possible occurrence of nacrite. This was confirmed by forming intercalation complexes with potassium acetate and with hydrazine hydrate, both water complexes having the same characteristic spacing at 8.35 Â. Different particle size fractions of the kaolin clay were studied and the results indicated that nacrite content increased with increasing particle size. This occurrence of nacrite is consistent with previous findings of the polytype in high temperature and pressure environments.

This paper will describe the rite for the exorcism of toch'aebi and examine its symbolic significance in the wider social reality of Cheju shamanism. Toch'aebi is a stranger deity who visits Cheju randomly and tries to get on good terms with the people. However, this deity afflicts people, particularly women, wearing down their vitality and causing a kind of “madness” (turida). The exorcism ritual of toch'aebi requires a sacrificial feast of roast pig and several days of dancing by the possessed. For this reason, the exorcism ritual is called a dancing rite, or ch'unun kut. It is supposedly toch'aebi himself who has the desire to dance. Shaman's songs (seouje sori) are used to induce the toch'aebi, who is hiding in the patient's body, to dance and reveal his identity. The trance dance and singing are directed toward a dialogical construction of the demonic reality, which entails a romantic entanglement of toch'aebi and the possessed. By translating a history of personal suffering into the idiom of love, the shaman's songs develop a particular cultural logic of cure. Through an analysis of curing song texts, along with various modes of performance such as dance and comic play, this paper explores the transformative process in which a particular cultural logic of illness and cure are produced and enacted to reintegrate the patient into the social world. In practice, the analysis addresses the articulation of a personal case of madness that afflicted Sunho, a twenty-one year old female factory worker, whose social values and understanding are reflective of contemporary Korea.

A swelling mica, Na2Mg3(Al2Si2)O10F2·xH2O, (hereafter “Na-4 mica”) was synthesized from metakaolinite + MgO and Mg aluminosilicate gels at different temperatures and durations using NaF flux. The various samples were characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and 27A1 and 29Si magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS NMR) spectroscopy. The results showed that phase-pure Na-4 mica was obtained from metakaolinite which serves as a cost-effective aluminosilicate source. 27Al MAS NMR spectra showed that all or nearly all Al is in tetrahedral coordination whereas 29Si MAS NMR spectra showed that the nearest neighbor environment of Si is mainly Si(3Al), as expected based on the Si:Al ratio.

Human experience is rich in singular bursts and flashes that not everyone can participate in, that can only be the doing of a very small number of persons, and yet which, exceptional or strange as they are, have the capacity to enlighten us all. The extraordinary has something to say about the ordinary. Sometimes individuals travel alone along divergent paths, seeking a destination that perhaps only they can anticipate. In such cases the method used is not one that proceeds from the unknown to the known, from what the infant or newcomer doesn't know to what science or society considers as established knowledge. For those who travel to the zenith of experience, discoveries are of a different order because the person is transformed by them.

Hydroxyaluminosilicate (HAS) ions prepared from hydroxy-Al (HyA) ions and orthosilicic acid at different NaOH/Al molar and Si/Al atomic ratios were fixed in the interlayer spaces of vermiculite (Vt). The electric charge and surface characteristics of HAS-Vt and HyA-Vt complexes formed were investigated in the pH range of 4 to 8. At pH 4 to 6, the magnitude of negative charge (CEC) of HAS-Vt and HyA-Vt complexes was drastically reduced by a HAS- or HyA-interlayer formation of Vt. At pH 7 to 8, especially in NaOH/Al molar ratio of 2.5, the magnitude of negative charge was from 62 to 89% of CEC in untreated Vt, suggesting that part of HAS or HyA ions fixed on Vt was excluded from its interlayer spaces. The positive charge did not develop on HAS-Vt and HyA-Vt complexes at pH between 4 and 8. The fixation of HAS or HyA ions on Vt caused the significant reduction of its total and internal surface areas as well as the slight increase of its external surface area. The HAS- or HyA-fixation in the interlayer spaces of Vt was confirmed by X-ray diffraction analysis. Our results provided evidence of a possibility that Vt could fix HAS ions in the same way as HyA ions, transforming to chloritized-Vt. These interlayer materials could play a significant role in modifying the surface and mineralogical properties and cation exchange capacity of clays and soils.

A new method is proposed for applying the chlorite geothermometer using X-ray diffraction (XRD) data. A linear correlation has been found between the (001) basal spacing of chlorite and its “crystallization” temperature. The basal spacing values were corrected for an increase of Al(IV) with Fe enrichment (Fe/Fe + Mg), when the Fe(II) value of chlorite is >2.6 in the formula unit. The regression coefficient of the best fit is r = 0.95. Only 2 Bragg lines need to be measured for application of the proposed technique: the (001) and (060) X-ray spacing. The proposed method is applied to 19 chlorite samples from 4 different geothermal fields. The temperatures of chlorite formation obtained with the present method and those calculated by the expressions formulated by Cathelineau (1988) and Kranidiotis and MacLean (1987) are presented. The method's validity was also tested on geothermal chlorites from the literature, and the results show good agreement with previous experimental trials.

During the last century procedures for distinguishing between ‘human sciences’ and ‘natural sciences’ have seen a number of changes. Currently, the pre-eminence of the scientific-naturalist paradigm, which led the field throughout the nineteenth century, seems again under discussion on some fundamental issues. In particular, the boundaries between the two sciences - boundaries which were in no case rigid or absolute - are being tested, in a confrontation concerning the very statutes of both disciplines as well as their respective methods.

It would be comforting to think of a disjunction between America at home and America in the world, to imagine the arrogance of government a matter of distance rather than character, to think of the billion people in the world who are starving and the epidemic of obesity in the United States as a failure of knowledge rather than of character. But there are so many who live poor in this, the richest country in the history of the world, that I now doubt both the ethics of America and the wisdom of its leadership in the ways of the world. The country seems to be now on a wrong path, having confused the momentary benefits of triumphant force with the real benefits of fairness. The cost in money to provide the poor of the world with potable water is nothing compared to the cost of war.

Using theoretical profiles of diffracted X-ray intensity for interstratification between layers having d-spacings around 14.3 Å and 10.1 Å, a series of diagrams was derived from which the proportion of 14.3 Å layers (W14) and the probability of passing from a 14.3 Å layer to a 10.1 Å layer (P14/10) can be derived. W14 can be derived independently of P14/10 using the angular distance between reflections situated at 18.2° and 25.4° 2θ (CuKα). Once W14 is determined, P14/10 may be obtained using the angular width of the diffuse reflections between 27° and 34° 2θ. In this case, two different diagrams are proposed for P14/10 determination because experimental X-ray patterns show either one or two diffuse reflections. Comparison of five experimental patterns with theoretical patterns calculated using W14 and P14/10 obtained using these diagrams indicates that the method can be useful for determining W14 and P14/10 in unknown samples. Moreover, the method described is independent of the Lorentz polarization factor and the layer type. The d-spacings associated with the two kinds of layers, however, should be similar (± 1%) to those for which the determinative diagrams were calculated.

There is a question mark hanging over the two great markers of modern civilization in the so-called Judeo-Christian, or more accurately Semitic-western-modern tradition: monotheism is the first of these two great markers. The second is the Project, that is, the idea that real life is elsewhere, messianism. Life must be saved, healed. Based on this structural schizophrenia and this transcendent project can we talk about a humanism? Our western civilization has reached saturation point. This saturation is expressed in a polytheism of values. We should no longer search for a distant utopia, but utopias in the gaps, existential ‘makeshift’ forms, close at hand, that promote something like the emotional, the domestic. It is more a question of re-emerging humanisms, pantheisms, polytheisms, something structurally plural. A re-orientalization as well, an alternative to the monovalency of western culture.