Arendt’s notion of natality: An attempt at clarification

Arendt claims that our natality (i.e., our condition of being born) is the “source” or “root” of our capacity to begin (i.e., of our capacity to initiate something new). But she does not fully explain this claim. How does the capacity to begin derive from the condition of birth? That Arendt does not immediately and unambiguously provide an answer to this question can be seen in the fact that her notion of natality has received very different interpretations. In the present paper, I seek to clarify the notion. I bring together and examine Arendt’s scattered remarks about natality and propose a new interpretation that responds to the stated question. Along the way, I show how the various existing interpretations have arisen and argue that, in view of that question, they are inadequate

Arendt’s Notion of Natality. An Attempt at Clarification

Arendt claims that our natality (i.e., our condition of being born) is the “source” or “root” of our capacity to begin (i.e., of our capacity to initiate something new). But she does not fully explain this claim. How does the capacity to begin derive from the condition of birth? That Arendt does not immediately and unambiguously provide an answer to this question can be seen in the fact that her notion of natality has received very different interpretations. In the present paper, I seek to clarify the notion. I bring together and examine Arendt’s scattered remarks about natality and propose a new interpretation that responds to the stated question. Along the way, I show how the various existing interpretations have arisen and argue that, in view of that question, they are inadequate.Arendt afirma que nuestra natalidad (es decir, la condición de haber nacido) es la “fuente” o “raíz” de nuestra capacidad para comenzar (a saber, de nuestra capacidad para iniciar algo nuevo). Sin embargo, ella no explica esta afirmación a cabalidad. ¿Cómo es que la capacidad para comenzar deriva de la condición de nacimiento?  Debido a que Arendt no proporciona una respuesta inmediata y clara a esta pregunta, su noción de natalidad ha sido interpretada de maneras muy diferentes. Este trabajo busca aclarar la noción. Se reúnen y se examinan los comentarios dispersos de Arendt acerca de la natalidad y se propone una nueva interpretación que responde a dicha pregunta. En el proceso, se demuestra cómo surgieron las diversas interpretaciones existentes y se argumenta que son inadecuadas

The Simple Publishing Interface (SPI)

Ternier, S., Massart, D., Totschnig, M., Klerkx, J., & Duval, E. (2010). The Simple Publishing Interface (SPI). D-Lib Magazine, September/October 2010, Volume 16 Number 9/10, doi:10.1045/september2010-ternierThe Simple Publishing Interface (SPI) is a new publishing protocol, developed under the auspices of the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) workshop on learning technologies. This protocol aims to facilitate the communication between content producing tools and repositories that persistently manage learning resources and metadata. The SPI work focuses on two problems: (1) facilitating the metadata and resource publication process (publication in this context refers to the ability to ingest metadata and resources); and (2) enabling interoperability between various components in a federation of repositories. This article discusses the different contexts where a protocol for publishing resources is relevant. SPI contains an abstract domain model and presents several methods that a repository can support. An Atom Publishing Protocol binding is proposed that allows for implementing SPI with a concrete technology and enables interoperability between applications.European Committee for Standardization (CEN), CEN/Expert/2009/3

The time evolution of marginally trapped surfaces

In previous work we have shown the existence of a dynamical horizon or marginally trapped tube (MOTT) containing a given strictly stable marginally outer trapped surface (MOTS). In this paper we show some results on the global behavior of MOTTs assuming the null energy condition. In particular we show that MOTSs persist in the sense that every Cauchy surface in the future of a given Cauchy surface containing a MOTS also must contain a MOTS. We describe a situation where the evolving outermost MOTS must jump during the coalescence of two seperate MOTSs. We furthermore characterize the behavior of MOTSs in the case that the principal eigenvalue vanishes under a genericity assumption. This leads to a regularity result for the tube of outermost MOTSs under the genericity assumption. This tube is then smooth up to finitely many jump times. Finally we discuss the relation of MOTSs to singularities of a space-time.Comment: 21 pages. This revision corrects some typos and contains more detailed proofs than the original versio

Simulation of astronomical aspects of Middle Neolithic circular ditch systems

Introduction The oldest Middle European monuments (approx. 4850/4750 – 4550/4500 BC) were presented in the Lower Austrian County Exhibition at Heldenberg in 2005 (Daim & Neubauer, 2005). The Middle Neolithic circular ditch systems, or Kreisgrabenanlagen (KGA), are known all over Middle Europe. These wooden monuments form a first pan-European phenomenon, crossing the cultural borders defined by the archaeological material record. One third of the approx. 135 monuments known so far are found in..

Integrated archaeological and engineering geophysical investigation of the castle ruin Mödling (Austria)

An extensive multi-method investigation of a castle ruin has been conducted that extends the spectrum of geophysical methods used in archaeological prospection. For complex sites like a castle ruin, the incorporation of seismic and geoelectrical methods can facilitate the interpretation of ground penetrating radargrams, particularly in the existence of bedrock

Bridges to the past - the Roman settlement of Emmersdorf/Rosegg, Austria

A large-area archaeological prospection of a roman bridgehead settlement using aerial photography, magnetics and GPR was conducted. The roman bridgehead settlement of Emmerdorf/Rosegg is one of the best preserved Roman settlements in Austria

Protected by shooting at it - the Öde Kloster and an associated Roman settlement within the military training area Bruckneudorf, Austria

The archaeological prospection focused on a multiphase fortified settlement. It was conducted as an integrated survey using airborne laserscanning (ALS) data, aerial photography, magnetics and GPR. The results show among other things that restricted military areas provide outstanding conditions for the preservation of archaeological sites