Economy of LIfe: Charismatic Dynamics and the Spirit of Gift

The dominant mode of globalization has mostly reinforced the disembedding of states and markets from the social practices and civic virtues of civil society writ large. In this process, abstract economic values linked to instrumental reason and procedural fairness have supplanted civic virtues of courage, reasonableness and substantive justice. As such, the global ‘market-state’ reflects the centralization of power and the concentration of wealth that is undermining democratic politics and genuinely competitive economies. However, the growing economic interdependence around the world also offers new opportunities for reciprocity, mutuality and fraternity among communities and nations. To promote an ethos of responsible and virtuous action, what is required is the full breadth of political and economic reason. Christian social teaching offers conceptual and practical resources that are indispensable to the search for broader notions of rationality. Among these resources are non-instrumental conceptions of justice and the common good in the social doctrine of the Catholic Church and cognate traditions in Anglicanism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Closely connected to this is the idea of ‘civil economy’. As Pope Benedict XVI has suggested in his encyclical Caritas in veritate, ‘civil economy’ embeds state-guaranteed rights and market contracts in the social bonds and civic virtues that bind together the intermediary institutions of civil society. In this manner, it binds the ‘logic of contract’ to the ‘logic of gratuitous gift exchange’. The spirit of gift exchange translates into concrete practices of reciprocal trust and mutual assistance that underpin virtues such as reciprocal fraternity and the pursuit of the universal common good in which all can share. As such, ‘civil economy’ reconnects activities that are primarily for state-administrative or economic-commercial purposes to practices that pursue social purposes

Propulsion and control propellers with thruster nozzles primarily for aircraft applications

A propulsion and control propeller with thruster nozzles, primarily for aircraft application is described. Adjustability of rotor blades at the hub and pressurized gas expulsion combined with an air propeller increase power. Both characteristics are combined in one simple device, and, furthermore, incorporate overall aircraft control so that mechanisms which govern lateral and horizontal movement become superfluous

Combustion engine for solid and liquid fuels

A combustion engine having no piston, a single cylinder, and a dual-action, that is applicable for solid and liquid fuels and propellants, and that functions according to the principle of annealing point ignition is presented. The invention uses environmentally benign amounts of fuel and propellants to produce gas and steam pressure, and to use a simple assembly with the lowest possible consumption and constant readiness for mixing and burning. The advantage over conventional combustion engines lies in lower consumption of high quality igniting fluid in the most cost effective manner

Vertically operating flight vehicle for drilling and agricultural use

The invention deals with an aircraft which ascends and descends vertically and which is used for recreational aircraft, as well as for drilling and in agriculture. The invention combines the floating effect of a parachute with the helicopter to develop a flight vehicle with multiple uses which go beyond those of contemporary flight vehicles. Both hub mechanisms and thrust power are implemented to achieve this goal. Four designs are described in detail

The future of welfare: a Theos collection

Adrian Pabst and John Milbank argue against the social and economic liberalism that has dominated post-war Britain, in favour of a more mutualist vision. The welfare settlement, they argue, has tended to function as a substitute for high employment, decent jobs, and widespread asset ownership – the statist model effectively (and ironically) propping up the free market one. In its place, they call for “responsible reciprocity”, a mutualised welfare settlement that is personal, local and participatory. This would demand a renewal and extension of Attlee’s original idea of a unified insurance-based social security system alongside a ‘preferential option for the poor’, moving away from means-testing, putting in place what they call a Mutual Jobs Fund, and developing locally-based welfare schemes that embed people in meaningful relationships of reciprocity

Strong-Field Many-Body Physics and the Giant Enhancement in the High-Harmonic Spectrum of Xenon

We resolve an open question about the origin of the giant enhancement in the high-harmonic generation (HHG) spectrum of atomic xenon around 100 eV. By solving the many-body time-dependent Schr\"odinger equation with all orbitals in the 4d, 5s, and 5p shells active, we demonstrate the enhancement results truly from collective many-body excitation induced by the returning photoelectron via two-body interchannel interactions. Without the many-body interactions, which promote a 4d electron into the 5p vacancy created by strong-field ionization, no collective excitation and no enhancement in the HHG spectrum exist.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure