This volume arises from the work of the International Geographical Union Working Group on Regional Hydrological Response to Climate Change and Global Warming under the chairmanship of Professor Changming Liu (1992-96). The book consists mostly of peer-reviewed papers delivered at the Working Group's first three scientific meetings held in Washington, D.C. (1992), Lhasa, Tibet (1993) and Moscow (1995). These have been supplemented by a few additional chapters that have been specifically commissioned in order to give a well-rounded coverage of the global and scientific aspects of the topic. As editors, we have sought to balance state-of-the-art reviews of methodology and regional research with detailed studies of specific countries and river basins. In the spirit of the IGU, we have devoted particular effort to encouraging contributions from scientists in the non-English-speaking world. These chapters provide valuable evidence of recent climatic change and predictions of future hydrological impacts from parts of the world where little detailed work has been conducted hitherto. They provide much valuable information that is new and interesting to an international audience and is otherwise very difficult or impossible to acquire. It is hoped that the present volume will be not only a record of current achievements, but also a stimulus to further hydrological research as the detail and spatial resolution of Global Climate Models improves. One notable aspect that emerges from a number of the contributions is that many, though by no means all, recent hydrological trends are in line with global warming predictions.

Towards the end of the twelfth century, powerful images of laughing kings and saints began to appear in texts circulating at the English royal court. At the same time, contemporaries began celebrating the wit, humour, and laughter of King Henry II (r.1154-89) and his martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, Saint Thomas Becket (d.1170). Taking a broad genealogical approach, Laughter and Power in the Twelfth Century traces the emergence of this powerful laughter through an immersive study of medieval intellectual, literary, social, religious, and political debates. Focusing on a cultural renaissance in England, the study situates laughter at the heart of the defining transformations of the second half of the 1100s. With an expansive survey of theological and literary texts, bringing a range of unedited manuscript material to light in the process, Peter J. A. Jones exposes how twelfth-century writers came to connect laughter with spiritual transcendence and justice, and how this connection gave humour a unique political and spiritual power in both text and action. Ultimately, Jones argues that England's popular images of laughing kings and saints effectively reinstated a sublime charismatic authority, something truly rebellious at a moment in history when bureaucracy and codification were first coming to dominate European political life.

Sergeant Jack Kilroy returns to the United States after a year in combat and two years in a prison camp in Vietnam where he had led an escape and returned over a hundred internees back to U. S. lines, becoming a hero to his men. He takes his discharge in New Mexico and finds an isolated stream near Santa Cala Pueblo where he can fish and think, all by himself, but soon visitors begin to arrive: a Maine coon cat, the cat's pretty owner, and an old Indian selling firewood. Others follow and soon he is playing high stakes poker in the back room of the local bar once a week. All he wants is a little time off, but his time is soon filled with the problems of his army buddies in the V. A. Hospital, the Indians of the nearby pueblo and the poker players, which include the theft of sacred artifacts, the murders of young Indian men and the enmity of witches. J. A. JONES spent three years as an army enlisted man during WW II, went to college on the G.I. bill and earned a B.A. in anthropology at the University of New Mexico and a PhD in anthropology at Columbia. He worked on Indian Claims law suits, taught anthropology at Arizona State University and Indiana University and was a Professor of Social Planning at Pennsylvania State. From there he went into community development in Chicago and became a hospital administrator In Las Vegas, New Mexico, retiring to write and play poker. He's been married to the same woman for sixty-four years. His trilogy on King Arthur, "In the Shadow of the Oak King," "Witch Queen of the North" and "A Prince in Camelot," made best seller lists.

Jacob Miller, a painter confined to a wheel chair most of his life as a result of childhood polio, is confronted with whether to end his friend's life when that friend is lying unable to move a muscle after breaking his neck. What We Love, takes us on a voyage through eight years in Jacob's life from a poor artist living with his to-be wife in SoHo to ultimate worldwide success. During the course of his development his sole pursuit is getting at the truth in everything he paints. Yet near the end of the story he tells the world and his wife a lie that only she can uncover.