Sub-creating Arda (2019), edited by Dimitra Fimi and Thomas Honegger

Book review by Dennis Wilson Wise of Sub-creating Arda (2019), edited by Dimitra Fimi and Thomas Honegge

Harken Not to Wild Beasts: Between Rage and Eloquence in Saruman and Thrasymachus

One of the giant gaps in Tolkien scholarship has been to miss how deeply Saruman answers the age-old antagonism between rhetoric and philosophy. Like John Milton, Tolkien cannot bring himself to trust rhetoric. It threatens the unitary truth of a divinely-revealed moral order and, ironically, Tolkien applies great rhetorical skill to convince his reader of rhetoric’s illusionary nature. In this matter Tolkien has been largely successful, since few readers (if any) question the de-privileging of Saruman’s perspective. In the process, though, I suggest that Tolkien has developed in his master rhetorician a new relationship between rhetoric (eloquence) and rage (thymos). The “wild beast” (LOTR III.10 563) in Saruman’s nature eventually overwhelms the Art of his Voice. Yet by examining Saruman in light of another “wild beast,” Plato’s Thrasymachus (Republic 336b), we begin to see how Tolkien has subverted the hierarchy first established by Plato between art and anger. Thrasymachus subordinates his rage to his rhetorical skills, but Saruman allows his skills to wane as his anger waxes. The example of Sauron, who needs no rhetoric, drives home to Saruman the (mistaken) lesson that rhetoric is superfluous. It belongs to the weak. Saruman thereby allows his anger freer rein. Following his defeat at the Battle of Isengard, Saruman’s rage overwhelms him completely, and that rage quickly turns to resentment (ressentiment). After Saruman escapes Treebeard’s watchful eye, a “new” Saruman emerges. Following Peter Sloterdijk’s Rage and Time, I then expand my argument to suggest that Sharkey’s Shire exemplifies the forces of rage and resentment in modern politics. Defeating Sharkey, though, comes at a high price for the hobbits of the Shire. Since the meek do not inherit the earth, rage and eloquence must be marshalled together to defeat their oppressor—a situation tragic to Tolkien because it finds no easy reconciliation with his Christian beliefs

The Return of the Ring (2016), edited by Lynn Forest-Hill

Book review, by Dennis Wilson Wise, of The Return of the Ring (2 vols, 2016), ed. by Lynn Forest-Hil

The effect of a type 3 and type 4 shock/shock interaction on heat transfer in the stagnation region

One of the major engineering challenges in designing the National Aerospace Plane, NASP, is to overcome augmented heating on the intake cowl lip from shock/shock interactions. The shock/shock interaction arises when the bow shock from the craft's nose interferes with the bow shock from the cowl lip. Considering only the region immediately around the cowl lip, the problem geometry may be simplified as that of an oblique shock impinging on a bow shock from a circular cylinder. Edney classified six different interference patterns resulting from an oblique-shock/curved bow-shock interaction. Of these six types, type 3 and 4 are most significant in that augmented surface heat transfer may be ten to thirty times greater than the case without the shock/shock interaction. The objective was to begin to develop a mathematical model which is capable of predicting the effect of a type 3 and 4 shock/shock interaction in the stagnation region of an arbitrary 2-D body. This model must be capable of predicting the maximum surface heat flux and the surface stagnation point pressure once the outer (effectively inviscid) flowfield is given. Therefore, it must capture the unsteady physics of the impinging shear layer

Initial results from the NASA-Lewis wave rotor experiment

Wave rotors may play a role as topping cycles for jet engines, since by their use, the combustion temperature can be raised without increasing the turbine inlet temperature. In order to design a wave rotor for this, or any other application, knowledge of the loss mechanisms is required, and also how the design parameters affect those losses. At NASA LeRC, a 3-port wave rotor experiment operating on the flow-divider cycle, has been started with the objective of determining the losses. The experimental scheme is a three factor Box-Behnken design, with passage opening time, friction factor, and leakage gap as the factors. Variation of these factors is provided by using two rotors, of different length, two different passage widths for each rotor, and adjustable leakage gap. In the experiment, pressure transducers are mounted on the rotor, and give pressure traces as a function of rotational angle at the entrance and exit of a rotor passage. In addition, pitot rakes monitor the stagnation pressures for each port, and orifice meters measure the mass flows. The results show that leakage losses are very significant in the present experiment, but can be reduced considerably by decreasing the rotor to wall clearance spacing

Potential flow around two-dimensional airfoils using a singular integral method

The problem of potential flow around two-dimensional airfoils is solved by using a new singular integral method. The potential flow equations for incompressible potential flow are written in a singular integral equation. The equation is solved at N collocation points on the airfoil surface. A unique feature of this method is that the airfoil geometry is specified as an independent variable in the exact integral equation. Compared to other numerical methods, the present calculation procedure is much simpler and gives remarkable accuracy for many body shapes. An advantage of the present method is that it allows the inverse design calculation and the results are extremely accurate

Special-Interest Groups and Volatility

This paper explores the relationship between special-interest groups and volatility of GDP growth. In an unbalanced panel of 108 countries, we find a significant negative relationship between the number of interest groups in a country and the volatility of GDP growth.

Comparison of FFP predictions with measurements of a low-frequency signal propagated in the atmosphere

An experimental study of low-frequency propagation over a distance of 770 m was previously reported (J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Suppl. 1 86, S120 (1989)). For that study, sound speed profiles were reconstructed entirely from surface-layer micrometeorological data. When the acoustic data were compared with theoretical predictions from a fast field program (FFP), it was found that the FFP underpredicted sound levels measured in a shadow zone. Here, the effect on the predictions of including meteorological data for heights greater than the surface layer, i.e., wind profiles measured by a Doppler sodar, is discussed. Vertical structure of turbulence is simulated by stochastically perturbing the mean profiles, and the agreement between the acoustic data and FFP predictions is improved

Post-activation Potentiation: Increasing Power Output in the Block Power Clean

The effect of post-activation potentiation has been shown to increase both jumping height and sprinting over short distances (Wilson, et al., 2013). PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to examine if a PAP protocol could also enhance bar-velocity (m/s) in the block power clean, a movement commonly used in strength and conditioning to enhance explosive athletic attributes such as jumping and sprinting. METHODS: ECU throwers (n=6, 67% male) participated in two session separated by three to 14 days. The first session consisted of a three-to-five repetition max of the block power clean using the Auto-regulated Progressive Resistance Exercise method, vertical jump, and a training history questionnaire. During the second session, participants performed a series of trials testing peak bar-velocity of the block power clean following a 6-second maximum voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC). Rest times were counter-balanced, varied between 15 and 120 seconds of rest between the MVIC and block power clean. Mean differences and effect sizes were calculated on the peak bar-velocities. RESULTS: Our results indicate that 15, 30, 90, and 120 seconds rest increase the peak bar-velocity. The highest effect size (ES= 1.159) and mean difference (MD= 0.123) were seen with 90 seconds of rest compared to the baseline. CONCLUSION: These initial findings suggest that the effects of post-activation Potentiation can increase peak bar-velocity of the block power clean in collegiate athletes when given appropriate rest. These finding hold important implications for training applications, however, further analysis and testing is needed