A Dodecalogue of Basic Didactics from Applications of Abstract Differential Geometry to Quantum Gravity

We summarize the twelve most important in our view novel concepts that have arisen, based on results that have been obtained, from various applications of Abstract Differential Geometry (ADG) to Quantum Gravity (QG). The present document may be used as a concise, yet informal, discursive and peripatetic conceptual guide-cum-terminological glossary to the voluminous technical research literature on the subject. In a bonus section at the end, we dwell on the significance of introducing new conceptual terminology in future QG research by means of `poetic language'Comment: 16 pages, preliminary versio

`Iconoclastic', Categorical Quantum Gravity

This is a two-part, `2-in-1' paper. In Part I, the introductory talk at `Glafka--2004: Iconoclastic Approaches to Quantum Gravity' international theoretical physics conference is presented in paper form (without references). In Part II, the more technical talk, originally titled ``Abstract Differential Geometric Excursion to Classical and Quantum Gravity'', is presented in paper form (with citations). The two parts are closely entwined, as Part I makes general motivating remarks for Part II.Comment: 34 pages, in paper form 2 talks given at ``Glafka--2004: Iconoclastic Approaches to Quantum Gravity'' international theoretical physics conference, Athens, Greece (summer 2004

You had to be there: Anachronism and the limits of laughing at the Middle Ages

Comic medievalism is one of the most widespread but least examined forms of postmedieval response. Its combination of comic modality, modern sensibility and historical vision captures what postmedieval audiences have deemed amusing about medieval society. But some instances have been less successful. ‘You had to be there,’ the phrase marking the failure of a comic attempt, and the relationship of that failure to the loss of immediacy, is realized in comic medievalism through the temporal fragility of laughter, historical mediation and temporal paradox. This essay explores some limitpoints to the comic reception of the Middle Ages, focusing especially on its use of anachronism

Verwirklichung einer vollkommenen Glücksmöglichkeit/A perfect bliss-potential realized: “Wunsch, Indianer zu werden” im Lichte des Dao Kafkas übersetzend gelesen/Transreading “Wish, to Become Indian” in light of Kafka’s Dao

Walking an unexplored path, Huiwen Helen Zhang contextualizes Kafka's pithy and cryptic parable, “Wish, to Become Indian” in his transplantation of Daoist philosophy—an astonishing cross-cultural enigma that Zhang terms “Kafka's Dao”—and parses it through a micro-level approach that Zhang terms “transreading.” Contextualizing “Wish, to Become Indian” in Kafka's dialogue with ancient Chinese philosophers such as Laozi, Liezi, and Zhuangzi enables the reader to comprehend a series of otherwise incomprehensible puzzles. Zhang's scrutiny of Kafka's Dao shows how, through creative writing, Kafka not only penetrates esoteric Daoist classics, but also furthers their spirit in a way that transcends Richard Wilhelm, the pioneer European Sinologist. Transreading “Wish, to Become Indian” illuminates nuances that otherwise might have been overlooked. Wordplay, punctuational oddity, syntactic complexity, lyric density, and the curiously interlaced tenses and cases are all part of the idiosyncratic delivery of Kafka's message. Integrating the four activities of transreading—lento reading demanded and enhanced by cultural hermeneutics, creative writing required and inspired by poetic translation—unravels Kafka's riddle as a historical-cultural phenomenon.publishedVersio

The soft power of development: aid and assistance as public diplomacy activities

Following a political communications framework can provide useful critical understanding of the international philanthropic industries beyond the more traditional approaches of political economy, anthropology and postcolonial studies. To this end, this chapter frames foreign aid and development assistance through theories of soft power, arguing that these activities are acts of public diplomacy and thereby conducive to the source government's power accumulation motive. This is open to some contest across the literature as research framed under international political economy or social anthropology often assumes that international power redistribution is the primary motive. Analysis of these programmes under the soft power framework allows for the discussion of the multitude of audiences that the activities engage with beyond the direct recipients of assistance as part of the power accumulation precedent. The chapter will hereby discuss the role of morality and compassion within the policy-making process, which leads to the question of whether we should really be considering whether most aid and development is in fact meant to work rather than the more popular query of why so much of it does not work