scholarly journals Microscopy Used to Discover New, Cool Mineral!

2008 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen W. Carmichael
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Rare Events ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
The Earth ◽  
As If

It is relatively infrequent these days for a novel mineral to be discovered in the natural environment (in this context, this implies on the Earth). On the rare events of such a discovery, the new mineral is typically found in milligram quantities. In an article by Ronald Peterson, William Nelson, Bruce Madu, and Herbert Shervell, they describe the discovery of kilograms of a mineral that had only been synthesized previously, but never before detected in the natural environment. As if that were not impressive enough, they went looking for this mineral because they thought it had been observed on Mars!

scholarly journals Integralna ochrona środowiska w nauczaniu Jana Pawła II

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-127
Author(s):  
Wojciech Bołoz
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Common Property ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Negative Consequences ◽  
Human Environment ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Moral Construction ◽  
Human And Nature ◽  
As If

In his teaching John Paul II paid a lot of attention to the subject of environmental protection. His holistic concept incorporates the most important issues that relate to preservation of natural resources that still exist. Among many issues discussed by him the following seem to be of the highest importance. The ecological issue refers to all people irrespective of religious or political views. Natural environment degradation bears negative consequences which apply to everyone, the Pope regards his comments on the natural environment protection as the Church’s support for the peoples’ efforts in overcoming the growing ecological crisis. In John Paul’s II opinion, so-called “anthropological mistake” is the basis for thoughtless degradation of natural environment. A human being who discovers his ability to transform and, to some extent, to create the world through his own work believes he can disobediently rule the Earth and bring it under his absolute control. He acts as if the Earth did not have its own shape nor an intention previously indicated by God. God’s intention for the Earth may indeed be expanded by a human but it should not be fought against. Instead of being God’s co-worker in the act of creation a human tries to replace Him. As a consequence, nature, which is oppressed rather than ruled by a human, protests. Ecological crisis is seen as a consequence of troubled relationship between a human and nature. In this relationship a human is driven only by his own economical needs. He does not take into consideration the specificity of nature’s constituting components: natural resources, plants and animals. Another important reason for the environment crisis is inconsiderate output of natural resources as if they were to last forever. Natural environment exploitation is reprehensible. However, destruction of “human environment” is equally dangerous. Alike with the Earth, which should be used respectfully in accordance with its initial intention, a human ought to value his own “natural and moral construction he was equipped with”. According to the teaching of the Church, God gave the Earth with everything it consists for the use of all the people and nations, this sense of common property also bears common responsibility for the existing goods. Because it is a shared property, it should be of a public concern, therefore , every enterprise that makes use of natural resources is obliged to take care of the environment.

scholarly journals “‘But the Fountain Sprang Up and the Bird Sang Down’: Heidegger’s Gathering of the Fourfold and the Seven-Sacraments Font at Salle, Norfolk.”

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 464
Author(s):  
Marie Clausén
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Art History ◽  
Architectural Elements ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Medieval Church ◽  
The Church ◽  
As If

My paper analyses the 15th-century seven-sacraments font at the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul at Salle in Norfolk (England). The church guides and gazetteers that describe the font, and the church in which it is situated, owe both their style and content to Art History, focusing as they do on their material and aesthetic dimensions. The guides also tend towards isolating the various elements of the font, and these in turn from the rest of the architectural elements, fittings and furniture of the church, as if they could be meaningfully experienced or interpreted as discrete entities, in isolation from one another. While none of the font descriptions can be faulted for being inaccurate, they can, as a result of these tendencies, be held insufficient, and not quite to the purpose. My analysis of the font, by means of Heidegger’s concept of Dwelling, does not separate the font either from the rest of the church, nor from other fonts, but acknowledges that it comes to be, and be seen as, what it is only when considered as standing in ‘myriad referential relations’ to other things, as well as to ourselves. This perspective has enabled me to draw out what it is about the font at Salle that can be experienced as not merely beautiful or interesting, but also as meaningful to those—believers and non-believers alike—who encounter it. By reconsidering the proper mode of perceiving and engaging with the font, we may spare it from being commodified, from becoming a unit in the standing reserve of cultural heritage, and in so doing, we, too, may be momentarily freed from our false identities as units of production and agents of consumption. The medieval fonts and churches of Norfolk are, I argue, not valuable as a result of their putative antiquarian qualities, but invaluable in their extending to us a possibility of dwelling—as mortals—on the earth—under the sky—before the divinities.

scholarly journals Plane Sailing or Horizontal Navigation

1956 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 454-462
Author(s):  
D. W. Waters
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Horizontal Plane ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Plane Area ◽  
As If

Professor Taylor contends that the expression used to describe a course of action so simple as to leave no room for mistakes is plain sailing; that this is nautical in origin in that it derives from a simple or plain system of navigation based upon the use of a simple or plain (manifestly foolproof) chart; that this system of navigation was known originally as plain (simple) sailing—which expression she traces back to Richard Norwood's Doctrine of Plaine and Sphericall Triangles of 1631, and that it was sophisticated into plane sailing in the eighteenth century in the belief—which she holds to be erroneous—that the expression described a form of navigation based upon the use of a plane or flat chart on which the Earth was drawn as if the Earth and oceans lay in one horizontal plane area and not upon the surface of a sphere or, more accurately, ellipsoid; and, finally, that the Admiralty Navigation Manual is in error in teaching mariners that ‘to regard certain small triangles as plane… gives rise to the expression plane sailing, which is popularly referred to as if plane were spelt plain and the sailing free from difficulty’.

Neumayer, Humboldt and the search for a global physics

2011 ◽  
Vol 123 (1) ◽  
pp. 2
Author(s):  
R.W. Home
Keyword(s):  
Dynamical System ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Scientific Investigation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Mineral Deposits ◽  
New Mineral ◽  
Alexander Von Humboldt ◽  
The Earth

In setting up the Flagstaff Observatory in Melbourne in 1857, the young German geophysicist Georg Neumayer brought new standards of precision to the pursuit of physics in Australia. His wide-ranging research program in geomagnetism, meteorology and oceanography was conceived within an overall approach to science associated especially with the name of Alexander von Humboldt, that saw the Earth and its oceans and atmosphere as an integrated dynamical system. Neumayer also, however, envisaged immediate practical outcomes from his work, whether in determining optimal sailing routes between Europe and Australia, or in locating new mineral deposits. From a personal point of view he regarded his seven years in Australia as, above all, a preparation for the scientific investigation of Antarctica that he dreamed in vain of undertaking.

scholarly journals Religion, Polity, and the Natural Environment in the Anthropocene Age

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Hekmatpour
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Human Impacts ◽  
Environmental Problems ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Political Organizations ◽  
Central Concept ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Level Of Analysis

The Anthropocene age is marked by increased human impacts on the natural environment. As social beings, humans interact with each other, and with their surrounding environments, often through organizations and institutions. Religion and the polity are among the most influential human institutions, and they tend to impact the natural environment in several ways. For instance, several thinkers have claimed that some of the central ideas of the Abrahamic traditions, such as the concept of “Domination of men over the earth,” are among the causes of several anthropogenic environmental problems. By contrast, some of the ideas of non-Abrahamic, particularly animistic, religions are found to be associated with environmental conservation and stewardship. The polity can also contribute to environmental problems. The relationship between political organizations and environmental degradation, at any level of analysis from local to global, is well studied and established in the literature. Politicizing the natural environment, however, is not without tradeoffs. Environmentalism, by certain groups of people, is considered as a “stigma,” while it is a central concept in the political ideology of another part of the population. This antagonism is harmful to the environmental protection cause. I make the case that religion, or at least a number of religious ideas, can be conducive to the process of depoliticizing the natural environment. In this paper, I strive to draw a theoretical framework to explain how religion and the polity can mutually impact the natural environment.

scholarly journals Returning Separation of Powers Analysis to its Normative Roots: The Constitutionality of Qui Tam Actions and Other Private Suits to Enforce Civil Penalties

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M. Shane
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Environmental Services ◽  
Categorical Approach ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Executive Authority ◽  
The Status ◽  
Citizen Suits ◽  
As If

This paper examines the status of debates concerning the constitutionality of private suits to enforce civil fines in light of the Supreme Court's decisions in Vermont Agency of Natural Resources v. United States ex rel. Stevens and Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, as well as a pending Fifth Circuit decision in United States ex rel. Riley v. St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. The two Supreme Court opinions have upheld qui tam and citizen suits against standing challenges, but have reserved the question of their constitutionality under Article II. The Riley panel opinion held qui tam actions to be unconstitutional under Article II, but the Fifth Circuit took the matter en banc on its own motion on the very day the opinion was published. (Subsequent to the publication of this article, the Fifth Circuit overturned the panel opinion and upheld the constitutionality of qui tam actions, Riley v. St. Luke's Episcopal Hosp., 252 F.3d 749 (5th Cir. 2001).) In the author's judgment, all such private suits to enforce civil fines are plainly constitutional under both Article II and Article III. That such suits appear to raise constitutional doubts is the consequence of missteps in the Supreme Court's implementation of separation of powers principles. The Court, led chiefly in this respect by Justice Scalia, has written often as if constitutionally vested executive authority guarantees the President plenary policy control over all federal civil administration, and as if the purpose of standing doctrine were largely to protect such executive authority from judicial interference. The author believes that the vesting of executive power is better understood as an effort to remove Congress from the business of administration. Standing rules, for their part, ought chiefly to be understood as protecting the judiciary from the dilution of judicial power that would come from the resolution of abstract or collusive litigation. The author explains why the Court should go back to requiring no more as a matter of standing doctrine than that a case be presented in an adversary context and in a manner historically viewed as capable of judicial resolution. The Court's injury, causality, and redressability inquiries should be abandoned in favor of a more straightforward questioning whether plaintiffs in federal lawsuits have constitutional or statutory causes of action to support their complaints. In Article II cases, the Court should adhere to the analytic framework of Morrison v. Olson, and abandon the more wooden and categorical approach to interpreting executive power that informs Justice Scalia's Morrison dissent and his alternative holding in Printz v. United States.

scholarly journals Plant Life and More-than-human Agency in Zainab Amadahy’s Resistance

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 79-91
Author(s):  
Paula Wieczorek
Keyword(s):  
Human Agency ◽  
Speculative Fiction ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Donna Haraway ◽  
Cultural Violence ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
As If

For centuries humans have acted as if the environment was passive and as if the agency was related only to human beings. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous writers, scholars, and artists express the need to narrate tales about the multitudes of the living earth, which can help perceive the Earth as vibrant and living. The following paper discusses Black/Cherokee Zainab Amadahy’s speculative fiction novel 2013 Resistance as an example of a story resisting the claim about human beings as the ultimate species. The paper initially scrutinizes the phenomena of “plant blindness” and then explores how Zainab Amadahy illustrates plant life in her book. Unlike in traditional literary depictions of botany, the writer presents tobacco as an active and responsive agent that influences the characters, which, consequently, opposes anthropocentrism. The article also addresses the cultural violence and disregard that has dominated the Western perception of animistic cultures and expresses the need to rethink the theory of animism. This paper draws from posthumanist writings by scholars including Donna Haraway, Bruno Latour, Jane Bennett, and Stacy Alaimo. It also refers to some of the most influential contributions to critical plant studies made by Indigenous thinkers such as Robin Wall Kimmerer’ s Braiding Sweetgrass (2013).

scholarly journals Philosophical Foundations of Ecological Ethics

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
Hryhorii Vasianovych ◽  
Olena Budnyk ◽  
Hasrat Arjjumend
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Ethics ◽  
Natural Environment ◽  
Nature Management ◽  
Ecological Ethics ◽  
Human Race ◽  
Ecological Consciousness ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The Earth ◽  
World Outlook ◽  
Ecological Thinking

This article substantiates the essence of ecological ethics in the context of modern scientific research. The emphasis lies on the need to develop a strategy and approach of human behavior amid the natural environment, rational nature management, protection and restoration of the surrounding world. The new methodological thinking is characterized by philosophical foundation of ecological ethics (ecological consciousness, ecological thinking, ecological values, ecological activity, etc.). The idea of development of environmental ethics based on principles of Christian and Philosophic noology is introduced. The world outlook is changing rapidly with its positive and negative aspects. It requires humanization of natural environment as well as a human being by forming ecological consciousness. There is a necessity of humanization of technosphere and abandoning technocratic thinking, which is anti-culture itself and, at times, it endangers human race on the Earth.

Die globale Dichtung des Orlando Furioso

2012 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-33
Author(s):  
Federico Italiano
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Hybrid Vehicle ◽  
Early Modern Europe ◽  
The West ◽  
Ludovico Ariosto ◽  
Orlando Furioso ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Epic Poem ◽  
Peter Sloterdijk ◽  
As If

AbstractThe epic poem of Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso (1516–1532), one of the most influential texts of Renaissance writing, shows not only a precise cognition of early modern cartographic knowledge, as Alexandre Doroszlaï has illustrated it in Ptolemée et l’hippogriffe (1998), but also performs a complex transmedial translation of cartographic depictions. The journeys around the globe of the Christian paladins Ruggiero and Astolfo narrated by Ariosto are, in fact, performative negotiations between literary and cartographic processes. Riding the Hippograph, the hybrid vehicle par excellence, Ruggiero and Astolfo fly over the Earth as if they were flying over a map. Their journeys do not merely transmedially translate the course to the West pursued by Early Modern Europe. Rather, by translating the map Ariosto performs a new geopoetics that turns away from the symbolic dominance of the East (or “Ent-Ostung”, as Peter Sloterdijk has usefully called it) and offers us one of the first poetic versions of modern globalization.

Dioses sembradores en el Códice Madrid

Xihmai ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (24) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Albero Morales Damián [1]
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Religious Symbolism ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of Religions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Heaven And Earth ◽  
As If

ResumenEl objetivo de este trabajo es analizar el simbolismo agrario en algunos pasajes del Códice Madrid en los cuales ciertos personajes divinos utilizan la herramienta propia de los campesinos mayas, el bastón plantador, xuul. El enfoque utilizado es el de la historia de las religiones y por ello se recurre al estudio de las imágenes desde la perspectiva de la fenomenologí­a del simbolismo religioso. Se analizan diez imágenes en las que aparece Chaak, el dios de la lluvia, así­ como otras ocho imágenes, en este caso de Pawahtun, una deidad que se desdobla en los cuatro puntos cardinales y que es considerada una advocación del propio Chaak. En todos los casos los dioses portan el xuul, como si fuesen agricultores que están removiendo la tierra; en la mayorí­a de los casos esto se acompaña con la representación de semillas que caen hacia el suelo indicando por tanto el trabajo de la siembra. Las imágenes de estos dioses establecen el modelo mí­tico de la agricultura, relacionando la siembra con el acto sexual, la unión de las fuerzas sagradas del cielo y de la tierra, así­ como con el origen del cosmos.Palabras clave: Códice Madrid, Religión Maya, Dioses de la fertilidad, Simbolismo agrí­cola. AbstractThis paper analyze the agrarian symbolism in some passages of the Madrid Codex in which divine characters use the own tool of the Mayan peasants, xuul. The methodological approach is the history of religions, therefore the phenomenology of religious symbolism is used to analyze the images. The farmer gods are Chaak, the rain deity, and the Pawahtuns, gods of the four cardinal points, associated with the four Chaaks. In all cases the gods carry the xuul, as if they were farmers who are stirring the earth. In most cases this is accompanied by the representation of seeds falling to the ground indicating therefore the work of sowing. The images of these gods establish the mythical model of agriculture, relating the sowing to the sexual act, the union of the sacred forces of heaven and earth, as well as with the origin of the cosmos.Keywords: Madrid Codex, Mayan Religion, Fertility Gods, Agrarian Symbolism. [1] Doctor en Estudios Mesoamericanos. Profesor Investigador del Área Académica de Historia y Antropologí­a,Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades,Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Hidalgo.

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