Apparatus and method for explosive bonding to edge of flyer plate

The invention is an apparatus and a process for the explosive joining of a flyer plate and a base plate. The apparatus consists of a flyer plate positioned over a base plate. The flyer plate has a notch containing a filler material in intimate contact with the flyer plate. An adhesive means holds a ribbon explosive partially overlapping the notch in the flyer plate. A detonating means initiates the ribbon explosive that drives the flyer plate to accomplish a high velocity, angular collision between the mating surfaces. This collision creates surface melts and effacing bonding, resulting in electron sharing linkups between the plates. An unbonded tab fractures at a base of the notch leaving a bond to an edge of the attached flyer plate

Permanent wire splicing by an explosive joining process

The invention is an apparatus and method for wire splicing using an explosive joining process. The apparatus consists of a prebent, U-shaped strap of metal that slides over prepositioned wires. A standoff means separates the wires from the strap before joining. An adhesive means holds two ribbon explosives in position centered over the U-shaped strap. A detonating means connects to the ribbon explosives. The process involves spreading strands of each wire to be joined into a flat plane. The process then requires alternating each strand in alignment to form a mesh-like arrangement with an overlapped area. The strap slides over the strands of the wires, and the standoff means is positioned between the two surfaces. The detonating means then initiates the ribbon explosives that drive the strap to accomplish a high velocity, angular collision between the mating surfaces. This collision creates surface melts and collision bonding results in electron sharing linkups

Small-scale societies exhibit fundamental variation in the role of intentions in moral judgment

Intent and mitigating circumstances play a central role in moral and legal assessments in large-scale industrialized societies. Although these features of moral assessment are widely assumed to be universal, to date, they have only been studied in a narrow range of societies. We show that there is substantial cross-cultural variation among eight traditional small-scale societies (ranging from hunter-gatherer to pastoralist to horticulturalist) and two Western societies (one urban, one rural) in the extent to which intent and mitigating circumstances influence moral judgments. Although participants in all societies took such factors into account to some degree, they did so to very different extents, varying in both the types of considerations taken into account and the types of violations to which such considerations were applied. The particular patterns of assessment characteristic of large-scale industrialized societies may thus reflect relatively recently culturally evolved norms rather than inherent features of human moral judgment

Moral Parochialism and Contextual Contingency Across Seven Societies

Human moral judgement may have evolved to maximize the individual\u27s welfare given parochial culturally constructed moral systems. If so, then moral condemnation should be more severe when transgressions are recent and local, and should be sensitive to the pronouncements of authority figures (who are often arbiters of moral norms), as the fitness pay-offs of moral disapproval will primarily derive from the ramifications of condemning actions that occur within the immediate social arena. Correspondingly, moral transgressions should be viewed as less objectionable if they occur in other places or times, or if local authorities deem them acceptable. These predictions contrast markedly with those derived from prevailing non-evolutionary perspectives on moral judgement. Both classes of theories predict purportedly species-typical patterns, yet to our knowledge, no study to date has investigated moral judgement across a diverse set of societies, including a range of small-scale communities that differ substantially from large highly urbanized nations. We tested these predictions in five small-scale societies and two large-scale societies, finding substantial evidence of moral parochialism and contextual contingency in adults\u27 moral judgements. Results reveal an overarching pattern in which moral condemnation reflects a concern with immediate local considerations, a pattern consistent with a variety of evolutionary accounts of moral judgement