What is metaphysics ? The one and only meaningful definition, and why traditional academic philosophy is unlikely ever to embrace it

‘Metaphysics’ is the quest to find the ultimate meaning and purpose of existence. It is about trying to find a decisive and conclusive resolution to the human condition, such that the human condition is fulfilled in some absolute way, and no longer at the mercy of meaningless suffering, or a dreadful sense of uncertainty. All other definitions and determinations of metaphysics are trivial, and irrelevant; and, given the critical importance of the quest for human fulfilment – our lives are not infinite, after all – really quite bewildering. Western philosophy has never understood this, and its entire intellectual history has been characterised by a persistent debasing of any simple, straightforward and direct quest for objective metaphysical self-knowledge, preferring instead always to indulge either in pedantic squabbling over definitions, distinctions and conceptual manoeuvrings, or in flatulent ‘system building’

Krishnamurti explained: a critical study

The acclaim accorded Jiddu ‘Krishnamurti’ (1895-1986) – as an apparently major figure in our modern understanding of all things spiritual – shows just how shallow western popular culture is when it tries to extend its reach beyond science, materialism and celebrity. Krishnamurti liked to portray himself as a wholly independent thinker, and as someone who encouraged similar independence of thought in others, yet he milked the role of an oriental guru tirelessly, discoursing from on high in an autocratic and commanding manner. At best his vast body of transcribed teachings is diverting nonsense; at worst he’s wasting our time. keywords: criticism critical analysis critique Jiddu Krishnamurti assessment evaluation appraisa

The Shadow Side of Second-Person Engagement: Sin in Paul’s Letter to the Romans

This paper explores the characteristics of debilitating versus beneficial intersubjective engagements, by discussing the role of sin in the relational constitution of the self in Paul’s letter to the romans. Paul narrates ”sin’ as both a destructive holding environment and an interpersonal agent in a lethal embrace with human beings. The system of self-in-relation-to-sin is transactional, competitive, unidirectional, and domineering, operating implicitly within an economy of lack. Conversely, Paul’s account in romans of the divine action that moves persons into a new identity of self-in-relationship demonstrates genuinely second-personal qualities: it is loving, non-transactional, non- competitive, mutual, and constitutive of personal agency

Bibliometric Maps of BIM and BIM in Universities: A Comparative Analysis

Building Information Modeling (BIM) is increasingly important in the architecture and engineering fields, and especially in the field of sustainability through the study of energy. This study performs a bibliometric study analysis of BIM publications based on the Scopus database during the whole period from 2003 to 2018. The aim was to establish a comparison of bibliometric maps of the building information model and BIM in universities. The analyzed data included 4307 records produced by a total of 10,636 distinct authors from 314 institutions. Engineering and computer science were found to be the main scientific fields involved in BIM research. Architectural design are the central theme keywords, followed by information theory and construction industry. The final stage of the study focuses on the detection of clusters in which global research in this field is grouped. The main clusters found were those related to the BIM cycle, including construction management, documentation and analysis, architecture and design, construction/fabrication, and operation and maintenance (related to energy or sustainability). However, the clusters of the last phases such as demolition and renovation are not present, which indicates that this field suntil needs to be further developed and researched. With regard to the evolution of research, it has been observed how information technologies have been integrated over the entire spectrum of internet of things (IoT). A final key factor in the implementation of the BIM is its inclusion in the curriculum of technical careers related to areas of construction such as civil engineering or architecture

The Drag and Interference of a Nacelle in the Presence of a Wing

A wing interference investigation was conducted to determine why the N.A.C.A. cowling did not yield the expected increase in speed when adapted to the outboard nacelles of trimotored airplanes

Pressure Distribution on a Slotted R.A.F. 31 Airfoil in the Variable Density Wind Tunnel

Measurements were made in the variable density wind tunnel to determine the pressure distribution over one section of a R.A.F. 31 airfoil with a leading edge slot fully open. To provide data for the study of scale effect on this type of airfoil, the tests were conducted with air densities of approximately one and twenty atmospheres

An Integer Linear Programming Solution to the Telescope Network Scheduling Problem

Telescope networks are gaining traction due to their promise of higher resource utilization than single telescopes and as enablers of novel astronomical observation modes. However, as telescope network sizes increase, the possibility of scheduling them completely or even semi-manually disappears. In an earlier paper, a step towards software telescope scheduling was made with the specification of the Reservation formalism, through the use of which astronomers can express their complex observation needs and preferences. In this paper we build on that work. We present a solution to the discretized version of the problem of scheduling a telescope network. We derive a solvable integer linear programming (ILP) model based on the Reservation formalism. We show computational results verifying its correctness, and confirm that our Gurobi-based implementation can address problems of realistic size. Finally, we extend the ILP model to also handle the novel observation requests that can be specified using the more advanced Compound Reservation formalism.Comment: Accepted for publication in the refereed conference proceedings of the International Conference on Operations Research and Enterprise Systems (ICORES 2015

Robust Control Design for Large Space Structures

The control design problem for the class of future spacecraft referred to as large space structures (LSS) is by now well known. The issue is the reduced order control of a very high order, lightly damped system with uncertain system parameters, particularly in the high frequency modes. A design methodology which incorporates robustness considerations as part of the design process is presented. Combining pertinent results from multivariable systems theory and optimal control and estimation, LQG eigenstructure assignment and LQG frequency shaping, were used to improve singular value robustness measures in the presence of control and observation spillover