‘Turning many to righteousness’ : Religious didacticism in the ›Speculum humanae salvationis‹ and the similitude of the oak tree

In this contribution I shall be interested, among other things, in finding a place for the European phenomenon of the ›Speculum humanae salvationis‹ within German literary history, which will inescapably involve revisiting the unfashionable discussion of date and origins. I also intend to ask about the place of this text in the ‘didactic’ literature of the Middle Ages. Is a religious text structured according to sacred history didactic? Much didactic poetry is in the vernacular: What does it mean that the ›Speculum‹ was composed in Latin? And what place should be accorded to its vernacular reception? The ›Speculum‹ is inscribed within a set of oppositions that would appear to be recurrent in the didactic literature of the later Middle Ages: Latin and vernacular, verse and prose, words and pictures, religious and profane, moral teaching and devotion, clerical and lay. In view of its exceptionally broad transmission in the German lands, both in Latin and in vernacular reworkings, is it possible to describe this text so that it takes a place within a larger picture? In some respects it may stand at a threshold in the history of European didacticism

Style and mimesis in the name of Walter Benjamin

This study locates the consistency of Benjamin’s philosophy in its deployment of style. Since the style of his philosophy corresponds to its object, it always manifests differently. But the principle of its presentation remains the same: it is deployed to induce in the reader an act of mimetic assimilation to the constructive principle of the text. The purpose is to bypass theory by effectuating praxis directly in an act of what is here called “staging.” Such direct effectuation of praxis by prose is the only way of avoiding contradiction in a philosophy committed to the linguistic nature of recognition. If all factual knowledge derives from a communion with the thing in its name by an act of ecstatic praxis, then this same principle must apply to the presentation of knowledge itself. While this principle had always implicitly informed Benjamin’s practice, it was only later that he recognised how the symbolic character of language on which his concept of the name is based presupposes the mimetic faculty of man. The key to grasping the mediation he once claimed to exist from his linguistico-philosophical standpoint to the approach of dialectical materialism is the priority that each assigns praxis. The development of the concept of similitude in terms of a theory of the faculty of mimesis between 1928 and 1933 sets the stage for the materialist appropriation of the conceptual resources of theology that characterises his late philosophy. The role of style and mimesis in the staging of his philosophy has been obscured until now by a neglect of the interdependency of symbolic character and mimetic praxis; by the interpretation of his style in terms of the performative speech act; and by a failure to address part of the reason for his prioritisation of Plato and Kant above all other philosophers, namely the role of dialogue in Plato and the mystical terminology of Kant

An updated maximum likelihood approach to open cluster distance determination

An improved method for estimating distances to open clusters is presented and applied to Hipparcos data for the Pleiades and the Hyades. The method is applied in the context of the historic Pleiades distance problem, with a discussion of previous criticisms of Hipparcos parallaxes. This is followed by an outlook for Gaia, where the improved method could be especially useful. Based on maximum likelihood estimation, the method combines parallax, position, apparent magnitude, colour, proper motion, and radial velocity information to estimate the parameters describing an open cluster precisely and without bias. We find the distance to the Pleiades to be $120.3 \pm 1.5$ pc, in accordance with previously published work using the same dataset. We find that error correlations cannot be responsible for the still present discrepancy between Hipparcos and photometric methods. Additionally, the three-dimensional space velocity and physical structure of Pleiades is parametrised, where we find strong evidence of mass segregation. The distance to the Hyades is found to be $46.35\pm 0.35$ pc, also in accordance with previous results. Through the use of simulations, we confirm that the method is unbiased, so will be useful for accurate open cluster parameter estimation with Gaia at distances up to several thousand parsec.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, 3 appendices. Accepted in A&

Evaluation of the use of on-board spacecraft energy storage for electric propulsion missions

On-board spacecraft energy storage represents an under utilized resource for some types of missions that also benefit from using relatively high specific impulse capability of electric propulsion. This resource can provide an appreciable fraction of the power required for operating the electric propulsion subsystem in some missions. The most probable mission requirement for utilization of this energy is that of geostationary satellites which have secondary batteries for operating at high power levels during eclipse. The study summarized in this report selected four examples of missions that could benefit from use of electric propulsion and on-board energy storage. Engineering analyses were performed to evaluate the mass saved and economic benefit expected when electric propulsion and on-board batteries perform some propulsion maneuvers that would conventionally be provided by chemical propulsion. For a given payload mass in geosynchronous orbit, use of electric propulsion in this manner typically provides a 10% reduction in spacecraft mass

A description of the reformatted spring small grains labeling procedure used in test 2, part 2 of the US/Canada wheat and barley exploratory experiment

The reformatted spring small grains labeling procedure is designed to be used for assigning crop identification labels to a predetermined and selected number of dots. The development and description of this procedure is presented

Comparison of two head-up displays in simulated standard and noise abatement night visual approaches

Situation and command head-up displays were evaluated for both standard and two segment noise abatement night visual approaches in a fixed base simulation of a DC-8 transport aircraft. The situation display provided glide slope and pitch attitude information. The command display provided glide slope information and flight path commands to capture a 3 deg glide slope. Landing approaches were flown in both zero wind and wind shear conditions. For both standard and noise abatement approaches, the situation display provided greater glidepath accuracy in the initial phase of the landing approaches, whereas the command display was more effective in the final approach phase. Glidepath accuracy was greater for the standard approaches than for the noise abatement approaches in all phases of the landing approach. Most of the pilots preferred the command display and the standard approach. Substantial agreement was found between each pilot's judgment of his performance and his actual performance

Surveyor landing radar test program review Final report

Test program evaluation and modifications for Surveyor radar altimeter and Doppler velocity sensor syste