An art history of means: Arendt-Benjamin

Transmissibility is an essential concept for any discourse on historiography and aesthetics. In fact, this concept traverses the contemporary impasse of art historical critical practice. Although explicitly associated with Walter Benjamin, the entirety of Hannah Arendt’s work on art and history is premised on transmissibility as well. It allows them to conceive a space of history from within the aesthetic, the world of artifice. This essay reads Benjamin and Arendt alongside and against one other in order to rethink art and history without resorting to eschatology or the histrionics of political theology. In creating this virtual historiography—Arendt-Benjamin—it conceives transmissibility as an aesthetic-historiographic concept that renders an openness between past and future, poiesis and aisthesis. Writing the history of art becomes the creation of a passage between what-has-been and artifice; it becomes the opening of history into life, an event of recollection

The American Congress Digital Archives Portal Project White Paper

This white paper documents the work of the American Congress Digital Archives Portal project to aggregate congressional archives into a single, online platform and make them more broadly available. Congressional archives document the democratic process; the development of public policy; and multiple narratives related to the country’s social, cultural, and political development. Work of the project included developing standards and best practices; creating governance structures for the one-year project and future phases; developing a web portal that meets user needs and adding archival content; determining digitization priorities via a research survey; conducting usability testing; and communicating and publicizing the project. The project was made possible by funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities

A Tariff Primer

It is evident from the examination of these cases that the proponents of a tariff policy are well supported by Constitutional authority and logic depending on the time and necessity of the situation. Economically also there are many instances in which a reduction in or denial of tariff policy would be to the detriment of our country. The only point worth taking in summary of this complex problem is the fact that a mere permissive use of a tariff doesn\u27t necessarily mean that the country\u27s best interests are always served by a too rigid application of such measures. The reciprocal trade agreements of the last decade or so are proof of this

Regressed but Not Gone: Patterns of Vision Gene Loss and Retention in Subterranean Mammals

Regressive evolution involves the degradation of formerly useful traits as organisms invade novel ecological niches. In animals, committing to a strict subterranean habit can lead to regression of the eyes, likely due to a limited exposure to light. Several lineages of subterranean mammals show evidence of such degeneration, which can include decreased organization of the retina, malformation of the lens, and subcutaneous positioning of the eye. Advances in DNA sequencing have revealed that this regression co-occurs with a degradation of genomic loci encoding visual functions, including protein-coding genes. Other dim light-adapted vertebrates with normal ocular anatomy, such as nocturnal and aquatic species, also demonstrate evidence of visual gene loss, but the absence of comparative studies has led to the untested assumption that subterranean mammals are special in the degree of this genomic regression. Additionally, previous studies have shown that not all vision genes have been lost in subterranean mammals, but it is unclear whether they are under relaxed selection and will ultimately be lost, are maintained due to pleiotropy or if natural selection is favoring the retention of the eye and certain critical underlying loci. Here I report that vision gene loss in subterranean mammals tends to be more extensive in quantity and differs in distribution from other dim lightadapted mammals, although some committed subterranean mammals demonstrate significant overlap with nocturnal microphthalmic species. In addition, blind subterranean mammals retain functional orthologs of non-pleiotropic visual genes that are evolving at rates consistent with purifying selection. Together, these results suggest that although living underground tends to lead to major losses of visual functions, natural selection is maintaining genes that support the eye, perhaps as an organ for circadian and/or circannual entrainment

Free-flight investigation of the stability and control characteristics of a STOL model with an externally blown jet flap

The stability and control characteristics of a four-engine turbofan STOL transport model having an externally blown jet flap have been investigated by means of the flying-model technique in the Langley full-scale tunnel. The flight characteristics of the model were investigated under conditions of symmetric and asymmetric (one engine inoperative) thrust at lift coefficients up to 9.5 and 5.5, respectively. Static characteristics were studied by conventional power-on force tests over the flight-test angle-of-attack range including the stall. In addition to these tests, dynamic longitudinal and lateral stability calculations were performed for comparison with the flight-test results and for use in correlating the model results with STOL handling-qualities criteria