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• Raja Mazumder,
Affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C., United States of America
• Sona Vasudevan mail
With the increase in genomic and proteomic data from genome sequencing projects and structural genomic initiatives, we are faced with an increasing number of sequences and structures in various databases annotated as “uncharacterized,” “hypothetical,” or “unknown function” [1],[2]. In addition to this exponential increase in sequence and structure data, we are also seeing an increase in the number of databases that hold these data, and thus the need to evaluate the quality of these databases [3]. All these data, however, can be used meaningfully for biological and clinical research only if we can extract the functional information from them and convert biological data into knowledge of biological systems. While we have made significant progress in this regard with the availability of several functional prediction servers such as ProFunc, ProtFun 2.2, PFP ConFunc, and others [4][8], many challenges still remain in accurately inferring function and more importantly propagating this information reliably to the millions of proteins that still lack experimental characterization. Unfortunately, none of these servers have a high success rate for large-scale function predictions. The reasons for this failure are many-fold, including lack of strict adherence to common guidelines for functional inference. However, through rigorous and systematic comparative analysis of structures and sequences, one can make headway in annotating these proteins on a large scale with relevant biological functional information. Detailed methodologies for large-scale functional annotations are discussed elsewhere [9].
Biological function can be inferred at different levels depending on sequence identities that exist between the sequences. The success of functional inference, however, depends on the availability of experimentally validated information of related proteins. This relatedness may be at the full-length protein level, domain level, structural level, or motif level. Depending on the type and level of similarity, specific or general functions can be propagated. In fact, it has become widely accepted that percent identity is more effective at quantifying functional conservation than any other scores or means [10]. Our view of this is presented as a percent-identity scale shown in Figure 1. This scale is rather conservative since it is not clear what level of sequence identities guarantees that two proteins have similar functions [11],[12]. For sequences with identities above 50%, a general approach for functional characterization is by transfer of annotation from a characterized template to a subject. While it is a common practice to transfer such annotations, an error rate as high as 30% or more has been reported when proper caution is not taken [13]. Therefore, ideally for sequences whose identities fall below this threshold, availability of structural information becomes important, and transfer of annotation should be done with care. An example where homology-based transfer failed is cbiT, which was annotated as a decarboxylase until the structure revealed that it was a methyltransferase [14]. It has now become clear from several studies that no single method is sufficient for functional inference [15],[16]. In fact, as will be clear from the example discussed in this tutorial, several layers of evidence have to be collected before assigning the function to a protein.
Figure 1. Percent-identity scale.
The horizontal line gives the percent identity between query and subject sequences, and the boxes gives the resources and tools that can be used for functional inference.
The main objective of this article is to define a ten-step procedure (Figure 2) guided by the percent-identity scale (Figure 1), that can be followed as a general rule for functional inference of an uncharacterized protein. In addition, the goal is also to provide the available tools and databases that are relevant for functional analysis.
Figure 2. Ten-step procedure for comparative analysis of protein structures and sequences to infer biological function.
We will describe the ten-step procedure using an example of an uncharacterized conserved bacterial protein from Aquifex aeolicus (UniProt ID O67940_ AQUAE) [17]. Aquifex, a hyperthermophilic chemolithoautotrophic bacterium, is considered to be one of the earliest bacteria to diverge from eubacteria [18]—hence its importance. Also, bacterial halogenation is poorly understood, and this example brings out the importance and challenges in function prediction.
The analysis performed and results shown reflect the databases at the time of writing of this paper. Unless otherwise mentioned, default parameters were used. Also, because of limitation in space, we have not included other excellent databases and tools that can be used for this type of analysis. The list of tools and resources included in this paper (Table 1) were chosen because of the authors' familiarity with them, and because they are widely used.
Table 1. URLs used for this tutorial
Tools, Resources, and General Concepts for Functional Analysis and Annotation Transfer
(a) Homology determination based on full-length sequence information.
Based on the percent-identity scale (Figure 1) for sequences with identities >80%, a simple pair-wise alignment or comparison using BLAST [19] to an experimentally characterized protein may suffice to infer function, provided the uncharacterized protein and the characterized protein are of similar lengths and align end-to-end without large insertions or deletions. In such cases, for the most part it may be safe to assume that the two proteins have similar overall functions. The widely used and the most reliable resource for obtaining high-quality annotated sequences is UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot [17]. For sequences whose identities fall in the 50%–80% range, the general approach for functional assignment includes evaluation of homology to protein family, domain, and functional motif databases. The most commonly used methodology is querying against profiles generated using either hidden Markov models (HMM) [20] or position-specific scoring matrices (PSSM) [19].
In the higher end of this range, say above 70% identity, a widely used practice is to see if the query protein belongs to a protein family that has experimentally characterized members. The concept of protein family based on homology was articulated by Margaret Dayhoff in the early days of sequence analysis [21]. Protein family classification has several advantages as a basic approach for large-scale genomic annotation over other methods. Classification databases ideal for this kind of analysis include PIRSF [22] and the prokaryotic and eukaryotic Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs and KOGs) [23],[24]. The PIRSF provides classification of UniProtKB sequences primarily into homeomorphic (end-to-end similarity) families and subfamilies (domain level superfamilies are also included) based on their evolutionary relationships. Because PIRSF families and subfamilies are based on full-length proteins rather than on component domains, they allow annotation of generic biochemical and specific biological functions, as well as classification of proteins without well-defined domains. On the other hand, COGs and KOGs consist of clusters of orthologous (and co-orthologous/inparalogous) proteins from completed genomes. The identification of orthologous protein sets is based on automatic clustering of proteins from three or more distantly related organisms based on reciprocal BLAST. This is followed by additional automatic recruitment based on a rigorous BLAST-based algorithm, and subsequent extensive manual curation of membership (including splitting of full-length proteins and assigning them to different clusters if necessary) and annotation.
For sequences whose identities fall in the lower end, say <70% range, in the absence of end-to-end similarity, a safer approach would be to evaluate domain architectures of these proteins, as these can evolve and exist independently of the rest of the protein chain. The most widely used domain database that provides a comprehensive coverage is Pfam [25].
(b) Homology determination based on 3D-structural information.
Sequence similarity based on full-length sequences has been used as a guiding principle in many classification databases. While this works quite well for closely related sequences whose sequence identities are greater than 50%, it begins to fail for sequences that are related at the three-dimensional structural levels rather than at sequence levels [1], [26][28]. This is not surprising since molecular evolution conserves structural features longer than sequence [16],[29].
Examination of a protein's structural neighbors and fold comparisons can reveal distant evolutionary relationships that are otherwise undetectable and, perhaps, suggest unsuspected functional properties. Just as proteins with end-to-end similarities may be evolutionarily related, structures with similar folds may also be related. Data resources that provide structural comparisons include Vector Alignment Structural Tool (VAST) [30], Combinatorial Extension (CE) [31], and DALI databases [32]. For structural classifications, SCOP and CATH have become the most widely used structural resources that provide a comprehensive hierarchical description of structural relationships [33][35]. The uniqueness of SCOP, however, is that it is an expert-constructed database geared toward identifying evolutionary relationships rather than relationships based on mere three-dimensional geometry of proteins.
(c) Sequence and structural motifs to aid in functional inference.
Analysis of sequence/structural motifs becomes valuable especially for cases where the overall percent identity goes below 30% for functional inference. These functional motifs/sites form stable units and are evolutionarily conserved relative to the remainder of the protein. Their identification is important in the assignment of protein names and accurate propagation of structural and functional site annotations [9]. The most commonly used programs and tools available to calculate inter and molecular contacts are PDBSum [36] and LPC/CSU [37] servers. For identifying known sequence and structural patterns/motifs, PROSITE and the Catalytic Site Atlas (CATRES), respectively, are invaluable resources [38],[39].
Ten-Step Procedure—An Example
We propose a ten-step procedure (Figure 2) that can generally be followed for inferring function of an unknown protein. The candidate protein with ID O67940_AQUAE from Aquifex aeolicus is currently annotated as an “uncharacterized conserved protein” in UniProtKB [17], whose orthologs are found in bacterial and archeal species.
Step 1: PSI-BLAST against NCBI non-redundant database (nr).
The amino acid sequence of O67940_ AQUAE is blasted against NCBI's non-redundant protein database (nr) in order to retrieve all its related sequences (Figure 3, top). Results of the BLAST output (Figure 3, bottom) show no hit to a characterized protein among the top hits (additional iterations to convergence did not hit any other characterized members). However, a close examination of the results indicates that the query protein hits several solved crystal structures (tagged with S in a red box). Two of them with PDB IDs 2Q6O from Salinispora tropica (UniProt accession A4X3Q0) and 1RQP from Streptomyces cattleya (UniProt accession Q70GK9) are functionally characterized as chlorinase and fluorinase, respectively [40][42]. In the BLAST results, 2Q6O has an e-value of 3e-20 with a percent identity of 32%, while 1RQP has an e-value of 3e-17 with a percent identity of 26%. Now the question is: Can we reliably predict O67940_Aquefix to be a chlorinase (specific to a chloride ion) or a fluorinase (specific to a fluoride ion) or just a halogenase (could be specific to one or more of the halogens)? The answer is not yet known since the sequence identities between the query and the characterized members fall in the low end of the sequence-identity scale, and therefore additional supportive evidence needs to be gathered before reliable function transfer.
Figure 3. PSI-BLAST input panel (top) and PSI-BLAST output iteration (bottom).
(Top) Default parameters are used. The fasta sequence of query protein with UniProt accession O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus is blasted against NCBI's nr database. (Bottom) The query protein O67940_ AQUAE hits several structures (tagged with S in a red box). Only two of the non-redundant structures with PDB-ids 2Q6O and 1RQP (marked by a pink box) are functionally characterized with e-values 3e-20 and 3e-17 and percent identities of 32% and 26%, respectively. (The Expect value (E) or an e-value is a parameter that describes the number of hits one can “expect” to see by chance when searching a database of a particular size. It decreases exponentially as the Score (S) of the match increases.)
Step 2: Evaluate pairwise alignment with the identified structures from Step 1.
The results of the BLAST run (Figure 4) of query versus subjects (2Q6O—pdb|2Q6O|A and 1RQP—pdb|1RQP|A) gives us the pairwise alignments. The pairwise alignment of query with 2Q6O (Figure 4, top) extends almost the entire length of the protein without long gaps. However, the alignment of query with 1RQP (Figure 4, bottom) has three regions with relatively long gaps. Based on this, it is clear that we need to get additional homologs and construct a multiple sequence alignment to identify the conserved residues before transferring functional annotation.
Figure 4. Pairwise alignment between query sequence O67940_ AQUAE and 2Q6O (top) and 1RQP (bottom).
(Top) Query aligns end-to-end without any long gaps with a sequence identity of 32%. (Bottom) Query aligns end-to-end but with three regions of gaps, the most significant being a 23-residue region in 1RQP residues 92–116. The sequence identity of query with 1RQP is 26%.
Step 3: Scan against sequence pattern, domain, and family classification databases.
Results obtained from the steps so far are not conclusive to determine if the query is a chlorinase or a fluorinase. In this step, we will attempt to see if the query protein belongs to any well-annotated protein and domain families or if the protein has any specific identifiable sequence pattern. The results of scanning the candidate protein against family databases PIRSF and COGS are given in Figure 5. The query along with 2Q6O and 1RQP belong to PIRSF006779 and COG1912; both families, however, lack any functional annotation. Similarly, scanning against the domain database Pfam (Figure 5E and Figure 5F) and functional site database PROSITE does not provide any additional insights into the function of the query protein O67940_AQUAE. Nevertheless, Steps 1, 2, and 3 provide clues about phyletic distributions of homologs that can be used to construct a multiple sequence alignment.
Figure 5. PIRSF (A,B), COG (C,D), and Pfam (E,F) input and results.
(A) The fasta sequence of query protein with UniProt accession O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus is scanned against PIR's curated family database. (The query is searched against the full-length and domain hidden Markov models for manually curated PIRSFs. If a match is found, the matched regions and statistics are displayed). (B) The query hits the PIRSF family PIRSF006779. The output provides family details; statistical data for full-length proteins, composite domains, and a pairwise alignment of query with the consensus sequence of the PIRSF. (C) The fasta sequence of query protein with UniProt accession O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus is scanned against the database of clusters of orthologous groups. COG compares protein sequences encoded in complete genomes, representing major phylogenetic lineages. Each COG consists of orthologous/co-orthologous proteins from at least three lineages. (D) The query hits COG1912. The output provides the family details: statistical score, reciprocal best hits, and members of the family. (E) The fasta sequence of query protein with UniProt accession O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus is scanned against the Pfam domain database. The Pfam database is a large collection of domain families, each represented by multiple sequence alignments and hidden Markov models (HMMs). (F) The query hits Pfam family PF01887.
Step 4: Search against structural family databases for structural classification.
Similarity between related sequences at either the sequence or structural levels may give important clues about their functions since it may be a consequence of functional or evolutionary relationships. Results of the structural searches using the SCOP database is presented in Figure 6. The results indicate that the N- and C-terminal domains of 1RQP belong to two SCOP superfamilies named Bacterial fluorinating enzyme (N-terminal domain) and Bacterial fluorinating enzyme (C-terminal domain). 2Q6O is not classified in the SCOP 1.73 release, but most likely belongs to the same superfamily as 1RQP.
Figure 6. SCOP output.
1RQP is used since our query protein O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus does not have a solved structure. The results indicate that the N-terminal and C-terminal domains of 1RQP belong to two SCOP superfamilies. (The SCOP database provides a detailed and comprehensive description of the structural and evolutionary relationships between all proteins whose structure is known).
Step 5: Search structural database for structural neighbors.
This becomes an important step especially for sequences whose percent identity falls below 30%. Since our query does not have a structure, 2Q6O and 1RQP will be used as starting points to get other related structures. Results of the structural searches using VAST is presented in Figure 7. Thus, identified structures can be used to generate a high-quality structure-guided multiple sequence alignment to which the query and other related sequences can be aligned. The generation of a high-quality alignment is critical for function prediction and reliable phylogenetic analysis.
Figure 7. VAST output.
Since our query protein O67940 from Aquifex aeolicus does not have a solved structure, 1RQP is used as a query. The only non-redundant structural neighbor that provides functional annotation is 2Q6O, indicated by a pink box.
Step 6: Extract homologs.
Transfer of annotations from one homolog to another is not always straightforward. To transfer annotation, one has to identify homologs that can be used for constructing multiple sequence alignments and subsequently used for performing phylogenetic analysis to identify orthologs (next step). More often than not, when many paralogs are present, it becomes difficult to identify a true ortholog. This step is to identify homologs based on results obtained from earlier steps. With the increasing number of genomes being sequenced, it is becoming apparent that restricting analysis to high-quality genomes and sequences from model organisms for generating alignments and performing phylogenetic analysis is important.
Step 7: Perform structure-guided alignment and phylogenetic analysis.
High-quality multiple alignments are a pre-requisite for understanding the evolutionary relationships that exist between homologous sequences. A structure-guided alignment carried out using Cn3D on the structures and sequences obtained from Step 6 is presented in Figure 8. This alignment is manually edited to ensure that all the secondary structural elements are properly aligned without any geometric violations. To this manually edited structural alignment, the initial query O67940_Aquefix along with the identified homologs from Step 6 are added. It is interesting to note that the longest gap observed in the BLAST pairwise alignment in Step 1 (Figure 4, bottom) between query and 1RQP corresponds to an exposed loop region of the protein. This 23-residue loop region absent in both 2Q6O and the query seems to be significant enough to cause a decrease in the buried surface area around the active site compared to 1RQP. Neighbor-joining (NJ) phylogenetic analysis of the aligned sequences was carried out using CDTree. The tree reveals that the query and our subjects (1RQP and 2Q6O) do not fall in the same branch (Figure 8, bottom). This indicates that transfer of annotation requires more in-depth analysis that includes examination of structural attributes such as regions around the active and binding sites. As mentioned earlier, conservation of these sites is critical for functional inference.
Figure 8. Structure-guided alignment constructed with homologous sequences using Cn3D (top) and neighbor-joining tree based on the score of aligned residues from homologous sequences using CDTree (bottom).
Step 8: Identify functional residues.
Structures of complexes provide more functional information than uncomplexed structures. 2Q6O, also referred to as SalL, is a trimer with substrate chloride and ligand S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM) bound. 1RQP on the other hand is a hexamer (dimer of trimers) with three molecules of the ligand SAM bound. The functional site in these two related structures reside at the interface between the monomers. SAM-binding residues were obtained from PDBSum [36]. A plot of SAM-binding residues for 1RQP is shown in Figure 9. 2Q6O is a SAM-dependent chlorinase that catalyzes the transfer of a chloride ion to SAM to generate 5′-chloro-5′-deoxyadenosine [41]. It has also been shown to possess brominating and iodinating activities but not fluorinating activity. 1RQP on the other hand is a fluorinating enzyme that catalyzes the formation of a C–F bond by combining SAM and F to generate 5′-fluoro-5′-deoxyadenosine and L-methionine [43]. Subsequently, it was shown that fluorinase from Streptomyces cattleya is also a chlorinase [44]. There are a few crucial differences between 1RQP and 2Q6O that give them their halogenating specificities. For example, the active site residue (involved in catalysis) Gly 131 in 2Q6O is Ser 158 in 1RQP. This small difference seems to result in a larger binding pocket in 2Q6O, resulting in the apparent differences in their specificities, making one a fluorinase/chlorinase and the other a chlorinase/brominase/iodinase. In addition, mutagenesis studies indicate another important active site residue Thr 70 in 1RQP, occupied by a hydrophobic residue Tyr 70 in 2Q6O. Mutation of Tyr 70 in 2Q6O to Thr decreases the chlorinating and brominating activities, indicating their important role in catalysis and the observed specificities [41].
Figure 9. Ligplot for 1RQP.
SAM-binding residues. Dashed green lines indicate hydrogen bonds, and the half-moon indicates van der Waals interactions. (Ligplot is a program for automatically plotting protein–ligand interactions provided as part of the PDBsum database, which is a Web-based database of summaries and analyses of all PDB structures).
Step 9: Identify conserved functional residues in query.
Mapping the functional residues from 1RQP and 2Q6O (Table 2) to query O67940_ AQUAE identifies residues Asp:8, Phe 15, *Val 67, Asp 69, *Gly 127, Asp 177, Asn 181, Ser 221, Phe 222, Leu 229, and Val 231 as part of the catalytic region. The two crucial active site residues (marked with a *) discussed in the previous step, namely Gly 131 and Tyr 70 (mutated to Thr) in 2Q6O, are Gly 127 and Val 67 in the query. Alignment of homologous sequences carried out in Step 7 indicates that this position is occupied predominantly by a hydrophobic residue, except in the case of the fluorinating enzyme 1RQP where it is a Thr.
Table 2. Alignment of functional residues
Step 10: Evidence-based assignment of biological function of query O67940_Aquefix.
Based on the conservation of the crucial residues that are involved in catalysis, the query is closer to the chlorinating enzyme 2Q6O than the fluorinating enzyme 1RQP. While it is safe to assume that the binding site for SAM is conserved among the members of PIRSF006779 and that all its members bind to SAM and likely are halogenases, it is not safe to assume that all the members are chlorinases or fluorinases. Their specificities may be to a fluoride, chloride, bromide, or iodide. Judging from the alignment and available experimental evidence on bacterial fluorinating (and chlorinating) enzymes in Streptomyces cattleya [45],[46] and chlorinating enzyme from Salinispora tropica, it is likely that the query protein O67940_Aquefix is an enzyme that can halogenate SAM with chloride, bromide, or iodide ions. Based on available experimental information, it is not possible to say if the Aquefix enzyme can also use fluorine. Additional supporting experimental data need to be collected before we can conclude the precise specificity of the query.
By following all the above steps, we have answered one critical question that we set out to answer at the beginning of this tutorial, i.e. the function of O67940_ AQUAE. In addition, we have also identified functional residues.
The main objective of this article was to define a ten-step procedure, largely guided by the percent-identity scale, that can be followed as a general rule for functional inference of an uncharacterized protein. This procedure is by no means exhaustive but can be used as an initial process for functional assignment. In many cases, additional clues and complementary information may be obtained from pathway analysis, operon information, and other non-homology based methods. We have demonstrated how by following the ten steps a function could be assigned for an uncharacterized conserved protein with its related sequences. In addition, the goal was to provide an overview of the available tools and databases to carry out comparative sequence and structural analysis.
The authors would like to thank all PIR staff, especially Cathy Wu, for encouragement and support. In addition, the authors would like to thank all the people instrumental in developing and maintaining the various databases and tools mentioned in this article.
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Department ofReligion
Agnes Choi
Assistant Professor of New Testament
Office 253-535-7314
Suzanne Crawford-O'Brien
Associate Professor of Religion and Culture
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Seth Dowland
Assistant Professor of American Religious History
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Erik J. Hammerstrom
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Lecturer in Judaism
Douglas Oakman
Professor of New Testament
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Associate Professor of Christian Ethics
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Professor of the History of Christianity, University Professor of Lutheran Studies, Director of Vocational Reflection, Center for Vocation; Director of the Center for Religion and Culture in the Pacific Northwest
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Marit Trelstad
Associate Professor of Religion & Chair of Religion Dept.
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New yoga game planned for Wii
JoWooD has confirmed it plans to release a yoga-themed title for Nintendo Wii.
Wii Yoga will work with the Balance Board peripheral which is said to play "a central role for the exercising (gaming) experience".
This isn't the first time we've got wind of this though - Wii Yoga cropped up in some information leaked from Intellisponse last month.
Apparently it'll feature an "adaptable weekly schedule of exercises that will leave you feeling refreshed", and you'll follow the instructions from a virtual yoga guru for doing "poses, stretches and triangular positions". Sounds lovely.
Apart from that, little more information has released about the title, although we do know it should be available some time in Q2 2009. Get your yoga mats at the ready.
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Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver
For: DS Also on: DSi
Time to resurrect the 'How do you get a Pikachu on a bus' joke
Product: Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver | Publisher: Nintendo | Format: DS | Genre: Adventure, RPG | Players: 1-2 | Version: Europe
Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver DS, thumbnail 1
At what point did Pokefever grip you?
Were you a Pokefan from the very beginning? Maybe you picked it up around the time mothers starting asking what 'Pokemans' were and dads were pretending not to care, but secretly playing it at work.
Whether you cared for it or not, Pokemon was everywhere, and Pokemon Gold and Silver were arguably the pinnacle of the madness.
The second in the saga, the twin act expanded on all that made Red/Blue so addictive, doubling the size of the adventure and adding just over 100 new creatures to the Pokemon roster.
Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver brings that original magic from 2001 for a bit of plastic surgery - but this is a lot more than a simple niptuck.
Return to Johto
Along with a complete graphical rehaul, injecting the partially-3D environments of the latest Pokemon DS release into the worlds of Johto and Kanto, dramatic changes and additions make the original Game Boy version difficult to spot.
If you haven't played Gold or Silver since the early noughties, this re-imagining will most likely feel like an entirely new experience.
Pokemon gyms have been given a complete revamp, with brand new layouts and puzzles; The Goldenrod Game Corner has new touchscreen games to gamble away your coins on; Several new buildings have popped up across the land, including the Pokethlon Dome, in which your Pokemon compete in touchscreen minigames for gold medals.
The new minigames are a mixed bag, ranging from repeatedly hammering your screen to make Pokemon dash to victory, to tactical tapping in takes on football and the like. For the most part, a welcome addition to the action.
The top screen displays the main action, while down below a new interface allows for selecting special items and abilities easily. Gone are the days of sifting through menus to find your Pokegear et al, as they're now available at the tap of a screen.
No need to repeatedly remove and replace the stylus, though - every option on the touchscreen is still accessible via the DS buttons.
In fact, if you'd rather not get touchy feely at all, almost the entire game can be controlled via the buttons, bar exceptions such as the aforementioned Pokethlon minigames.
Putting your heart and soul into it
Other noteable additions include your lead Pokemon following you around, lovely static images as you enter each new area, and your mother constantly calling to let you know she's bought even more crap with your hard-earned cash.
The ability to migrate Pokemon from the Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed and LeafGreen editions is also a big plus for anyone who's spent a decent amount of time nurturing critters on an old copy.
Of course, there's also the Pokewalker, but we'll get back to that later.
So there's tons of new stuff to see, but does it retain that unique, addictive quality that once caused us to wittle many hours away?
While the Pokemon titles of recent times have failed to emulate what once made the series so great, take a bow, HeartGold and SoulSilver - you're back on top form.
The original formula has aged remarkably well and works just as gloriously now as it did nearly ten years ago. Exploring the realms of Johto initially feels a little slow-paced, but once the main action gets going, you'll be throwing Pokeballs like there's no tomorrow.
I didn't, however, find myself so interested in attempting to "catch 'em all". Instead, I opted to only bag the Pokemon I deemed squad material. It would appear that a decade of Pokemon collecting has taken its toll on me, and my heart just wasn't into bagging them all again.
Still, this did not bring the main adventure down one jolt. Quite simply, Nintendo has brought a whole new meaning to the term 'spruced-up', putting so much of the recent DS games library to shame.
Let's stroll on to the Pokewalker, then. The Pokewalker is essentially a pedometer bundled with the game, in the shape of a flattened Pokeball, with a black-and-white LCD screen and three round buttons.
Pokemon can be transferred from the game to the Pokewalker via infrared, and then each step taken whilst carrying the device adds to the little guy's experience. Each 20 real-life steps equates to 1 Watt, which can be used to play a couple of different minigames on the Pokewalker.
The first is a simple, cut-down version of battling. Players first search in grass for a Pokemon to battle, then use the three buttons to attack, evade or throw a Pokeball. Any Pokemon caught can then be transferred to the game. It's definitely a nice thought, but at the same time, entirely pointless and not worth bothering with.
The other game is The Dowsing Machine, which is essentially searching through tall grass for items. That's right, scavenging through dirt looking for stuff people have accidently dropped or thrown away.
I tried it many times, and didn't find a single useful item. Another pointless, tedious time-waster, then. If it sounds like I was deeply unimpressed with the Pokewalker, you'd be right on the money. It feels like a booby prize needlessly tacked on to something far greater than it.
So the Pokewalker gets our thumbs down, but let me reassured you - this takes nothing away from the main spectacle.
HeartGold and SoulSilver have taken our beloved original and done the unthinkable - made it even better. After 30 hours of play, I was still enthralled, lost in the Pokemon world.
If you're looking for the definitive version of Pokemon, look no further.
Pokemon HeartGold / SoulSilver
Reviewer photo
Mike Rose | 9 April 2010
The best Pokemon game so far. Combines the addictive elements of the originals with the latest graphics to great effect. Just don't mention the Pokewalker
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Anonymous | 22:00 - 15 April 2010
I quite like the little pokewalker its quite useful because you can catch pokemon without wasting your good old cash on poke balls!!!!
Anonymous | 23:20 - 10 April 2010
Think the lack of response may have set them straight :P
Feb 2010
Post count:
Michael Rose | 18:08 - 10 April 2010
The word to note there is "constantly". She will call you now and again in the original, but in this version, she calls around every 10 minutes (or so it feels). This is the point I was putting across.
That factual enough for you?
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View Single Post
Old November 10th, 2012, 04:38 PM
LCCoolJ95's Avatar
Limited Capacity
Join Date: May 2009
Location: The World That Never Was
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Nature: Naive
Hey, is there by any chance that all the Pokemon from the New Unova Dex from Black 2/White 2 going to be finished, and all the legendaries? I'm working on a Pokemon Black 2/White 2 Demake that incorporates all the Unova Pokemon, and all the legendaries, from Articuno to Genesect. This has been a big help for me. Almost all of the sprites are used from this thread. I will credit anyone who does them. I would, but I'm not that good at spriting. Cheers
Fairy-type in Pokémon Emerald:
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Osborne: Brown govt responsible for Libor scandal
Osborne says Labour were involved in the rate-rigging
Osborne says Labour were involved in the rate-rigging
By Georgie Keate
The tension and speculation over who is to blame over the rate-rigging scandal heated up today as the chancellor claimed his predecessors were "clearly involved".
In an interview with the Spectator, Osborne accused the former Labour government of being implicit with the manipulation of the Libor rate.
It comes just after Barclays sent a memo saying the Bank of England encouraged the bank to lower its borrowing rate.
Mr Osborne was in haste to clear the central bank, however: "They are not people who pull their punches, and they're very clear that the Bank did not issue instructions to Barclays to cut its Libor rate."
Instead, the Chancellor claimed: "My opposite number was the City minister for the part of this period and Gordon Brown's right hand man for all of it.
"So he has questions to answer. That's Ed Balls, by the way."
The question of what type of inquiry would look into the scandal was fought out earlier at prime minister's questions with Labour pushing for a judge-led approach and the government a parliamentary inquiry.
In response to the interview, Chris Lesley, the shadow treasury minister, said: ""This is desperate stuff from George Osborne – lashing out in a frenzied way that demeans the office of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
"It’s now increasingly clear that he isn’t interested in getting to the truth, only in playing party politics and throwing around false allegations with no evidence.
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iPhone 4 Cases 2010-06-15 01:47:55
iSkin Announces New iPhone 4 Cases
Hot on the heels of other iPhone 4 cases, iSkin announced that they'll be bringing their sleek and slim designs to the iPhone 4 this Summer. Launching two new designs this July (with one more on the way), the cases will take a leap from previous models like the tough and rugged revo, and the trend-worthy Solo case, which will be followed up by the super classy and chic Enigma series at a later date.
The revo4 and Solo iPhone 4 cases will range in price from $30 - $45, with pricing to be announced on the Enigma edition. Your iPhone has never looked better!
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Going Wireless and Restoring Memories: The Incredible Future of Brain Implants
Neuroprostheses are already bridging the divide between man and machine to treat diseases and allow paralyzed people to move prosthetic limbs. And the next generation of brain-machine interfaces will be even more incredible.
By Sarah Fecht
Saad Faruque/Flickr
June 17, 2013 6:48 PM Text Size: A . A . A
In some ways, the human brain isn't much different from a computer. Both use electricity to process information, relay commands, and execute actions. At the Global Future 2045 conference in New York City this past weekend, several speakers explained how scientists are exploiting those electrical connections to blur the line between man and machine—and the accomplishments so far are incredible.
Using electrode implants, deep-brain-stimulation therapies can zap neurons with tiny electrical pulses to treat Parkinson's, depression, and epilepsy. Cochlear implants restore hearing to the deaf, while artificial retinas can partially restore sight to the blind. Thought-controlled robotic limbs have already enabled quadriplegics to feed themselves and reach out to touch a loved one, and may one day help people with paralysis to live independently.
Yet technologies that interface between neurons and computers are still in their infancy. Here are four big improvements that will soon bring brain-machine interfacing to the next level.
Better Materials, Longer Lifetimes
Today's brain implants last for only one to two years in primates. After a while, the electrodes simply stop communicating with the neurons and scientists aren't sure why. One theory is that the electrodes (essentially stiff beds of needles) damage surrounding cells and capillaries, causing scar tissue to form around the electrode. Several research groups are working to create electrodes that are more flexible and biocompatible. "Think of contact lenses," Michel Maharbiz, an electrical engineer at University of California, Berkeley, said during a talk on Saturday.
Maharbiz says his group envisions an ultrathin, pliable implant that sits on top of the brain and dangles strips of flexible electrodes down into the brain tissue, "so you have almost a thin spaghetti permeating the brain and taking data." By integrating more naturally with the brain, such biocompatible electrode arrays should increase the lifetime of the devices.
Sensory Feedback and Better Control
Current brain-controlled prosthetic limbs don't provide sensory feedback to the user. A patient using a prosthetic limb can't feel the cup she's grabbing—she has to watch the limb to keep track of where it is in relation to the rest of her body. "Sensation is one of the missing elements in the BMI [brain-machine-interface] field," said Jose Carmena, who also studies neuroprosthetics at UC, Berkeley. He and other scientists are trying to find out how to use prosthetic limbs to collect sensory information—such as texture or temperature—and translate that information into electrical signals the brain can interpret. Integrating sensory feedback not only will provide a richer experience for the user, but can also help patients use the prosthetics to perform finer and more complex movements such as tying their shoes or brushing their teeth.
Going Wireless
Today's BMI implants must be tethered to an outside energy source to send and receive electrical signals. That means wires coming out of a hole in the patient's skull, leaving an easy route for infection to enter the brain. That leaves the patient vulnerable and also limits what the brain-controlled prosthetic can do.
During Saturday's talk, Carmena and Maharbiz revealed their newest concept for an untethered BMI. The idea, which they've named Neural Dust, involves replacing needle electrodes with a sprinkling of tiny ultrasound transceivers throughout the brain. The free-floating nodes are meant to be smaller than the width of a human hair. They could simultaneously interface with thousands of neurons from various parts of the brain and wouldn't need batteries or wires. Instead, they'd be powered similarly to RFID tags, which couple with an outside energy source to transmit data. Although the group hasn't built a prototype yet, Carmena and Maharbiz think they'll be testing Neural Dust in animal models within a year and a half.
New Uses for BMI
BMIs could have many uses that haven't even been explored yet. For example, biomedical engineer Theodore Berger from the University of Southern California has created an implantable chip that can recover lost memory function in rats and primates.
To test the chip in rats, Berger's group placed individual rats in a cage with two levers. After pressing one lever, the rat had to remember to press the opposite lever after being distracted for a short time. By recording neural activity in the rat's hippocampus as it chose the correct lever, the scientists were able to pick up on firing patterns that corresponded to each lever. When the researchers impaired a rat's hippocampus—the area of the brain that turns short-term memories into long-term memories—it had a harder time remembering which lever it had just pushed. By hooking the rats up to an artificial hippocampus and replaying the correct neural firing patterns, the rats remembered.
Berger thinks the method could be applied in humans to repair cognitive deficits from stroke, aging, head trauma, and even epilepsy. Moreover, the group even used the implants to strengthen memory in rats whose hippocampi were intact—potentially pointing to cognitive enhancements for humans in the decades to come.
As BMI technology advances, it'll open up even more avenues. At the conference on Sunday, Berger hinted that his group is thinking ahead to a new generation of enhancements. "This project is to develop a neural prosthesis for cognition—first for memory, but later for other types of cognitive functions," he said.
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Introduction to Osaka
Food of Osaka
Since the old days, Osaka has been called "kuidaore," literally meaning "bringing ruin upon oneself by extravagance in food," and known for its food culture. This is not only due to Osaka's proximity to the sea and mountains, which makes all kinds of ingredients easily available, but also because various products were easily brought to Osaka from remote areas on ships via the calm Seto Inland Sea. Today, cuisine from around the world is enjoyed here; restaurants reputed for both fine taste and attractive prices line the streets downtown in the entertainment quarters.
(Picture) Tessa
Raw globefish meat is sliced so thin that the pattern on the plate beneath is visible.
A Japanese-style pancake made using a batter of flour, water, and egg with shredded cabbage, meat or squid, grilled on a hot plate and topped with special sauce and mayonnaise.
(Picture) Okonomiyaki
(Picture) Takoyaki
Round dumplings made by pouring batter made of flour, water, and egg into a griddle with hemispheric indentations and adding bits of chopped octopus, scallion and other ingredients.
Sushi made by placing slices of shrimp or fish and vinegared rice into a wooden box, pressing, and cutting it into bite-size pieces. [Photo (right) courtesy of Heibonsha.]
(Picture) Hako-zushi
(Picture) Kitsune-udon
Wheat flour noodle served with "age", which is red-brown deep-fried, thinly sliced Tofu, in hot soup made from "kombu", a kind of dried kelp, and seasoned with soysauce, etc.
Chicken, seafood, vegetables, and udon noodles cooked in boiling stock in a pot at the table.
(Picture) Udon-chiri
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What are the characteristics of developing or Underdeveloped countries ?
It is difficult to specify a typical underdeveloped country. The underdeveloped or developing countries are spread throughout the continents of Asia, Africa, South America and even Europe. Their number is quite large. Besides, they have diverse characteristics. If some are endowed with abundant natural resources, others are not. If some are overpopulated, others are sparsely populated. They differ in their economic, social, cultural and political conditions. They might be passing through different stages of development. The underdeveloped countries do not reveal all the features of underdevelopment.
In spite of these differences and heterogeneity, they exhibit certain common characteristics in varying degrees. These characteristics of underdevelopment may of discussed below. From a study of these features a systematic analysis of the economic landscape of the underdeveloped countries is possible.
Characteristics of developing or Underdeveloped countries
1. Widespread poverty :
The most important feature of the underdeveloped countries is general poverty. Poverty is the fundamental malady. The per capita income in these countries is very low in comparison to the other developed countries such as the U.S.A., West Germany, France, Canada, etc. For instance, per capita income in the United States and Canada was 58 times and 56 times of the per capita income of India in 1977. "The collective per capita income of the underdeveloped countries average less than one-fourteenth of the per capita income of the rich nations."
This abnormally low per capita income leads to very low living standards of the people. More than 50 per cent of the people live below the poverty line. Although 50 to 60 per cent of the income is spent on food, it cannot secure a balanced diet. It manifests in the low consumption of protein. Food mainly consists of cereals. While the diet in the advanced countries includes fruits, milk, fish, meat, etc., in most of the developed countries, the average calorie of food is around 3,000, whereas it is hardly 2,000 calories in the developing economies.
The consumption of protein also is more than double in the former than in the latter. In the consumption of non-essential and semi-luxury goods also there are glaring disparities in the levels of per capita consumption. Thus, most of the developing countries are characterised by widespread poverty, hunger, malnutrition, ill-health, diseases and low life expectancy.
The disparity between the developing and the developed countries is widening because of a slower growth rate in the former than the latter. This has added a new dimension' to the problem of underdevelopment in the recent years. In 1977, the developing countries, excluding the oil-producers—with 53 per cent of world population, accounted for only 17 per cent of world GNP. According to 1978 World Bank Atlas the industrialised countries commanded over 63 per cent of world GNP with only 17 per cent of world population.
2. Heavy reliance on agriculture :
“The vast majority of developing countries are agrarian in economic, social and cultural outlook." Agriculture, both subsistence and commercial, often constitutes the main occupation. More than 60 per cent of the population depend on farming, fishing and herding. In India, for instance, 70 per cent of the population depend on agriculture. On the other hand, the percentage of active population engaged in agriculture is hardly 4 per cent in the U.S., 3 per cent in the U.K. and 8 per cent in Canada, agriculture contributing 3 per cent and five per cent of the national income respectively.
Although agriculture is the main occupation in these countries, yet strangely agricultural techniques are usually primitive, inefficient and outdated. Agriculture happens to be an overcrowded depressed industry. Agricultural productivity is extremely low. This is reflected in the fact that the share of agriculture in the total employment is disproportionately larger than its share in the national income. In Tanzania 86 per cent of the labour force is engaged in agriculture, but it contributes only 37 per cent of the national income. In Kenya and Zaire 80 per cent and 78 per cent of the labour force engaged in agriculture turn out 31 per cent and 8 per cent of national income. In India" the relative productivity of a farmer is only 70 per cent of an average worker.
In recent years modern farm technology has been increasingly adopted in these countries. However, the average yield is still much lower than in the developed countries. The paradox is that agriculture in an industrially developed country is much more advanced than in a developing economy. Backward agriculture is a symptom of poverty leading to malnutrition, seasonal hunger and disguised unemployment.
3. Capital deficiency :
A striking feature of the underdeveloped countries is capital deficiency. An underdeveloped economy has been rightly designated as a "capital poor economy." As Oscar Lange put it, "An underdeveloped economy is an economy in which the available stock of capital goods is not sufficient to employ the total available labour force on the basis of modern techniques of production." The amount of capital per head is very low. Insufficiency of capital equipment per head explains the low level of productivity per worker. The capital deficiency is also reflected in the form of low rate of capital formation. Thus, if the rate of capital formation in a developed country is as high as 30 per cent, in a less developed country it may be 10 to 15 per cent.
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Date: Fri, 8 Sep 1995 15:55:45 -0400 From: My name is Randy Amasia. I am affiliated w/ ACT UP/Los Angeles (yes, we still exist!) and Clean Needles Now!, the latter not being a queer organization per se' (although it was originally part of ACT UP/LA). I am asking for information re: how to get a web page, and to set up links on those pages to other AIDS, health care and queer resources. ACT UP/LA was founded in December 1987. We are a democratic, grass roots, non-violent but militant (that's OK, we've never been able to decide what exactly "non-violent" and "militant" mean, either) dedicated to creating positive change around AIDS and HIV-related issues. Membership is open to everyone, regardless of race, age, gender, HIV status, sexual orientation, ad infinitum. We have no officers, no board of directors -- all decisions on all matters are made by majority vote of the active membership. Our current major project is pursuing passage of H.R. 763, The AIDS Cure Act, which would fund a 5-year comprehensive plan to find a cure for AIDS. CNN/CLEAN NEEDLES NOW! was founded as committee of ACT UP/LA in November 1991 and in Summer of 1993 it became an organization unto itself. Clean Needles Now serves the needs of the I-V drug user community by facilitating three needle exchanges per week in the L.A. area, and by providing safer sex/safer shooting implements (i.e., condoms, cookers, bleach, distilled water), all in a non-judgemental atmosphere. Our needle exchange activities are illegal, but were are currently operating under State of Health Emergency declarations in the cities of Los Angeles and West Hollywood, which directs law inforcement to make the investigation of needle exchanges a low priority (i.e., "leave us the fuck alone!") Any help or information you can provide would be welcomed! Thank you Randy Amasia
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Career of the Month
Article excerpt
According to Plant Talk (2007), approximately 270,000 species of plants exist on Earth. The number of known species--including trees, flowers, fruits, and herbs--increases almost daily as scientists make new discoveries. From indigenous cultures in Australia to urban communities in the United States, and everywhere in between, plants are used in clothing, medicine, furniture, food, and symbolic and spiritual rituals. Ethnobotanists, such as Maria Fadiman, study this relationship between people (ethno) and plants (botany). In the rain forests of Latin America and African Savannas, home to hundreds of thousands of plant species, Fadiman works to help people and plants live in harmony.
How did you choose this field?
I had always wanted to do conservation work, but I was initially intimidated by science and studied Latin American literature as an undergraduate. Then, during my junior year of college, I was introduced to the rain forest as an ecotourist station volunteer. After my initial fright of spiders, snakes, and scorpions I was dazzled by the green leaves, parrots, monkeys, and waterfalls. I realized that all the fascinating elements around me involved biology, botany, ecology, zoology, and hydrology. How could I not be interested in science after that insight? And, as I learned about the ecosystem, I realized that the people who were teaching me about the rain forest were also a part of it. So, in order to truly be a conservationist, I needed to look at the whole picture, which includes people.
Describe your work.
In cultures all over the world, plants have myriad applications in food (vegetables and fruits), medicine (herbal remedies), clothing (cotton), furniture (wood), symbolism (pumpkins on Halloween), and spirituality (evergreens on Christmas). Working in the rain forests of Latin America and African Savannas, I focus primarily on sustainability of plant resources.
To do this, I begin by interviewing indigenous peoples. I talk with healers, specialists, and interested villagers to understand how they gather and use plants. For instance, is a tree used for its bark, leaves, or fruit? Is the bark used for shelter or medicine? Villagers' practices may vary. When I learn of a plant resource collected and used in a sustainable way, I share that information with other villagers to encourage the approach. For example, I worked with one group that cut down palm leaves for weaving with a special tool, which left the tree standing, while a different group cut down the entire tree for the same palm leaves. I conveyed knowledge about the former method to the latter group, providing an opportunity for more people to practice the sustainable technique.
Throughout my studies, I develop written records of the plant knowledge I gather. The records allow information, often lost through acculturation, to be accessed by future generations of indigenous peoples.
A typical day?
A typical day starts with the roosters beginning to call, long before the sun is up. I crawl out of my mosquito net, put on my rubber boots, and slip and slide down the muddy hill to the river where I brush my teeth. …
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Posts tagged "Desperate Ground"
Weekly Release Spotlight: The Thermals
Posted on 5/6/2013
The Thermals
Desperate Ground
[Saddle Creek]
There is a sense of urgency that is apparent all throughout Desperate Ground. Actually, it's not just apparent, it's the essence of the entire record. Those vocals stay overdriven as if they were running through a megaphone. Those guitars stay distorted and heavy. The only times it lets up are during the gaps between songs, so you've got maybe 20 seconds total to catch your breath on the entire record. It's like Reign in Blood in that sense, but even that record has a brief rainfall interlude. Now I'm not trying to surmise that this record is more brutal than the thrash masterpiece, but rather that its a similar jolt to the system. This record, like the probably irrelevant aforementioned disk, is short enough that it's like the musical equivalent of drinking an energy shot. It's brief enough to be consumed entirely during a slightly irritatingly long wait at the bus stop. It's shorter than a few Godspeed songs.
Yet what's most compelling about the record is not its immediacy. The record is truly carried by a sense of melody that works its way in to every track, and they are paramount to this recording. Guitar parts tend to be relatively lower register power chords, and there's nary a weedly-weedly solo or synth lead line to be found anywhere. You've got to pay attention to where those melodies lead you, because Hutch Harris has an ear for a catchy tune that reminds me a bit of Colin Meloy. Hear me out on this though. Put on that track "The Sunset" (shared below this text for the week of this record's feature, may I remind you) and tell me that it doesn't sound a bit like a Decemberists tune getting the crap blasted out of it. That's not a bad thing! Meloy's got some great tunes! And so does this record. And when the bus is running late again, you might just have enough time to put it on repeat.
Written by Tom Steffes, Radio K volunteer.
Tags: The Thermals Desperate Ground weekly release spotlight
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Updated September 26, 2004
November 6 2003 -- Rewritten January 11. 2004 -- tweaked, August 7, 2007
by Ramon Sender Barayon
Nov 6 2003 --
Imagine you are a star, named by its self-aware creations (at least in one language) 'the Sun,' and yet in truth you are a conscious being, their Creator/ Sustainer, Mother/Father, source of all their light and life, all love and consciousness -- and food -- on their planet. Yet these children of yours currently wear mental/spiritual blindfolds and insist, if and when they decide to worship a god, that it must be an 'invisible god' somewhere outside of what 'stares them in the face' every morning. That's too obvious for them, not complicated enough. Besides, they've been taught that the physical universe is inanimate -- you know, hot rocks, fire, gas, stuff like that.
Because this invisible god cannot be seen anywhere, or talked to or even heard (in the majority of cases), these humans then try to 'have faith' that this god is really real. Also sometimes they tend to get a little paranoid, those that 'have faith,' because they are never sure when this invisible god might be watching what they're up to. They struggle with their doubts, and then prop their belief systems up with various theories and analyses -- and of course some wonderful myths and stories. These they then enjoy deconstructing and re-deconstructing, with stories about stories about more stories. All this keeps academic publishing companies in business, which is a good thing for those of us on a tenure track at a university. By the way, for a detailed and amusing look at the strange antics of what a certain Mr. Gurdieff calls these 'three-brained beings,' read his irritating but very amusing book "All And Everything -- Beelzebub's Tales To His Grandson."
Meanwhile, while the presses print ream after ream of great thoughts such as those on this page, our conscious creator-star, Father/Mother Sun, keeps pouring light and love and consciousness down on all planets and life forms, believers, nonbelievers, awake or sleep-walking, good and bad alike. For the most part, we humans are much too busy thinking great thinks, and worrying about 'our bottom lines' or 'our checkbook balances' or our shiny new _______ (fill-in-the-blank) to notice the golden waterfalls of scintillating eudaemony (I prefer this word to 'bliss' because the latter has been so devalued by Joseph Campbell and others) -- or well-being, if you prefer, that pour down around us and grow our food and enlighten our days.
I could rant on for many more pages about the remarkable methods to which we humans resort NOT to see the obvious. I actually could argue that a great deal of culture and the science as they exist were erected as filters so as NOT to live a quote 'brute' existence of direct experience of THAT golden presence. Yet beyond the sun's embrace nothing exists except at very sub-zero temperatures for quite a few light years until you snuggle up to another gorgeously radiant creator-star.
However, all sorts of teachers and pointers to the truth surround us. If you sneak a glance at the animals and plants, you will find they are very sun-oriented, phototropic if you prefer. Birds greet the sun at dawn and sunset with liquescent-like melodies, although the ornithologists amongst us might pooh-pooh my explanation of our local male mockingbird's rapturous warbles as merely his staking out his territory.
Today we live with serious warnings about the dire effects of sunlight on our physical well-being. Now that the effluent of modern civilization has melted our protective layer of ozone, the sun has assumed in our imaginations a strangely destructive persona as the harbinger of disease and death. Yet despite the increased activity at the skin specialists, we continue to gravitate to the beaches in the summer and to outdoor activities, slathered in the sunblocker creams that recently I read actually may be causing some of the problems. Sunglasses also are bad news for our health because they block out the trace ultraviolet that activates our body's repair systems. Our sun is not a steady-state star, and in its active mode shoots us full of tiny pinholes that we have evolved a way to control. Our bodies monitor the sun through the light that bathes our eyes and adjusts its repair activities accordingly.
Note: for more information about this, see also my essay/interview with full-spectrum light inventor, John Ott
We seem to be stuck, because the solar exposure that makes things worse for our bodies makes things better for our mood. My dearest father-in-law, who inclined towards a seasonally affective gloominess, used to migrate south every winter for a few weeks, returning with his bald pate as crisp as a well-basted turkey but with renewed enthusiasm and a smile on his face. 'Sunny' makes for a sunny disposition, but not the enlightened recognition that we actually bathe in the splendor of our creator consciousness daily. Instead of recognition, we have religion, which I personally view as using the promise of 'pie in the sky in the great bye-and-bye' as a way to assuage the "why poor me's" of the underfed, underpaid and socially disadvantaged. Although today we also have television, drugs, antidepressants, booze, sex, and food as a smorgasbord of opiates for the masses, religion continues to keep at least an ever-dwindling number of the 'less economically favored' amongst us from rising up and demanding their fair effing share of the goodies.
For my spiritual communion, I am very content with the light in the sky every morning, and the eudaemony that I receive from our Creator. Every day is a day of worship for me, a literal Sunday even when it's cloudy because, as the song almost says, I always look for the golden lining, and a fun game of solar peek-a-boo. Our congregation is so huge it cannot be counted, if I include every blade of grass and tiny gnat. We all are light-to-love transformers, because I am convinced that the light drenching our retinas moves in some manner to our hearts, which function as light-to-love transformers. Light is vertical love and love is horizontal light. I like to believe that when we pour our love out to others, mirroring what the light does for us, it thrills our parent star. Our Sun thrives on the knowledge that all living things beam love, consciously or unconsciously, in small or large amounts, even those of us who live two-dimensionally (never gazing up and recognizing our ever-beaming Source), busy scratching in the dirt and bemoaning our god-abandoned state in lengthy tomes and lonely lives, or floundering in a dummied-up materialistic, mechanistic view of reality that even today's quantum scientists have long ago discarded.
Actually, this state of affairs would be VERY FUNNY if it were not, in my candid opinion, very sad. I can't help wondering if this also must sadden the Sun a little bit. Maybe that's why, recently, our star shouted a little louder when early last November she began throwing us unusually large solar kisses.
"Yoo-hoo, kids! Here I am!"
"Big Mama! Watermelon-Ripener! I hear you!" I called back.
A little girl once told me, "The sun is my friend." And when I asked why, she said, "Because he's always looking over my shoulder to see what I'm doing!"
I suggest that we might learn from our children more about the very innocent truth of what is REALLY real.
Of possible interest, Stanford's About Arts - The Sun in Literature:
- directory of the sun in literature.
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[–]TheEllimist 5 points6 points
This is why I can't take naps. I set an alarm then I spend the whole time thinking about the minutes that are ticking away until the alarm goes off because I haven't fallen asleep, then I don't fall asleep because of it.
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[–]trgdr090 3 points4 points
Mine died at 14 years old, five years ago and I still cry like a little girl whenever i think of him. Miss you, Dallas. Such a good boy.
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[ih-lek-trof-er-uhs, ee-lek-]
An electrophorus is a capacitive generator used to produce electrostatic charge via the process of electrostatic induction. It was invented in 1764 by Swedish professor Johan Carl Wilcke, but Italian scientist Alessandro Volta improved and popularized the device in 1775, and is sometimes erroneously credited with its invention. The word electrophorus was coined by Volta from the Greek ήλεκτρον ('elektron'), ϕέρω ('phero'), meaning 'electricity bearer'.
The electrophorus consists of a dielectric plate (originally a 'cake' of resinous material like pitch or wax, but in modern versions plastic is used) and a metal plate with an insulating handle. First, the dielectric plate is charged through the triboelectric effect by rubbing it with fur or cloth. Then, the metal plate is placed onto the dielectric plate. The electrostatic field of the dielectric causes the charges in the metal plate to separate. The metal develops two regions of charge — the side facing the charged dielectric plate charges opposite to the charge of plate, while the side facing away from the dielectric charge attains the same sign of charge as the dielectric plate, with the metal plate remaining electrically neutral as a whole. Then, the side facing away from the dielectric plate is momentarily grounded (which can be done by touching it with a finger), draining off the alike charge. Finally, the metal plate, now carrying only one sign of charge, is lifted.
The charge on the plate can be discharged and the process can be repeated, replacing the plate on the dielectric and grounding the top to get a new charge on the plate. This can be repeated as often as desired without depleting the dielectric's charge, and in this way an unlimited amount of charge can be obtained from the device (although in actual use the charge on the dielectric will eventually leak away through the atmosphere). For this reason Volta called it elettroforo perpetuo (the perpetual electrophorus).
One of the largest examples of an electrophorus was built in 1777 by German scientist Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. It was 6 feet (2 m) in diameter, with the metal plate raised and lowered using a pulley system. It could reportedly produce 15 inch (38 cm) sparks. Lichtenberg used its discharges to create the strange treelike marks known as Lichtenberg figures.
Where does the charge come from?
It is sometimes asked, how can an unlimited amount of charge be gotten from the limited initial charge on the device? The answer is that the charge on the dielectric isn't consumed in the process. Its role is just to induce charge in the plate. Although the plate is set on the dielectric, it only makes contact with the surface in a few places, and little or no charge is transferred since charge can't move through the dielectric; in fact the electrophorus can function without the two parts touching.
Where does the energy for all this electricity come from? The energy to accumulate each charge comes from the work done in lifting the charged plate away from the dielectric surface, against the electrostatic force between them. The electrophorus is actually a manually operated electrostatic generator, using the same induction principle as electrostatic machines such as the Wimshurst machine and the Van de Graaf generator.
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You're About To Feel REALLY Guilty About Skipping Brekkie
Hands up: Who can’t stomach a bowl of cereal in the morning? No judgement, we all feel like that sometimes. In the rush to get showered, dressed, and out the door in the morning, sometimes eating is the last thing on our minds. But, spare a thought for your health the U.K. economy as this very simple act of non-eating is harming it, to the tune of £300 million a year.
A survey conducted by Weetabix On the Go (the clue's in the title) reveals that on average, 82 minutes are lost per person, per day due to low productivity levels caused by lack of breakfast eating. London workers are even worse than the national average, admitting to skipping breakfast twice a week, resulting in an increased 101 minutes of wasted time per working day.
While it must be said that these results are incredibly useful in marketing Weetabix’s new range of portable food products, it does also make us think about our own morning eating habits. It doesn’t take more than a couple of minutes to fix up a bowl of porridge or toast a slice of bread and mash avocado all over it. In fact, we're suddenly seeing it as our civic duty to eat before we go to work. No one wants a triple-dip recession now, do they? (The Daily Mail)
Photo: Via The Daily Mail
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20 Buy-Now Pieces From NYC Boutiques
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We'll be the first to agree that walking around the city in the blazing heat can be a total drag. Still, we've got to shop. And, we're not going to settle for mass-produced merch when NYC offers up unique wares you can't get anywhere else. That's when e-commerce comes in handy. Yes, you can still support local businesses without dealing with the overheated tourists, melting Mr. Frostee cones, and crowded, sweaty, stinky subways. Since we're the pros, we rounded up 20 pieces you can scoop up from local shops without leaving the comfort of your climate-controlled apartment. That totally justifies clicking "buy now" on each and every slide.
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Exorcism (Casting out Demons)
Exorcism is the Christian practice of casting out demons from a person they are believed to have strongly influenced or physically possessed. According to the Bible, demons are fallen angels that have been cast out of heaven to the earth (e.g. Isaiah 14:12), and whose judgment is eternal torment (e.g. 2 Peter 2:4). While demons have been sentenced, their punishment won't be carried out until the end times (e.g. Matt. 25:41). Presently, demons oppose God and believers in subtle, and occassionally in extreme ways like possession, according to orthodox Christian theology. (Learn more about demons here and Satan here.)
crossExorcism is a debated topic even among devout Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox believers. On one end of the spectrum, some believe that exorcism should be a regular practice of Christian ministry. On the other end of the spectrum are those who believe that the term "demons" as used in the Bible is nothing more that an outdated way of trying to understand physical or psychological abnormalities.
Yet there are many Christians who hold to a view between these two understandings, believing that demons exist and obstruct God and his people, but don't think possession is often responsible for life's difficulties. Keep reading to learn about exorcists.
What is an exorcist?
An exorcist is a Christian authority figure, frequently a Catholic priest, who has been identified as having unique spiritual gifts, which enable him to successfully perform exorcisms. The Roman Catholic Church has established an ecclesiastical position for exorcists, yet there are Christian ministers, who are neither Catholic nor priests, who perform exorcisms as well. Exorcists may also receive training through seminary or mentorship programs.
Christian ministers who perform exorcisms are often given guidelines for discerning when an exorcism is the best course of action. Their assessment often involves an examination and interview of the allegedly afflicted person. If it is determined the hardship is psychological or physical in nature, exorcism is bypassed in favor of other treatment. Christian leaders who consider demonic possession as a realistic prognosis, and exorcism as a realistic remedy, don't ignore psychological or physiological explanations. Yet if it is discerned that the best explanation for the matter is demonic influence, an exorcism is planned.
What happens at an exorcism?
Formal exorcists often receive extensive training and teaching as well as oversight from an experienced minister. An exorcists training involves significant amounts of communication, as in what prayers to say and when (i.e. speaking to God), what words to say directly to the afflicted person, and in some cases, what to say to the demon(s). Some exorcists incorporate crucifixes (i.e. small figurines of Christ on the cross) and other Christian symbols, as well as readings from the Bible. (Learn more about Christian symbols here and the New Testament here.)
Nearly all exorcists evoke the name of the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ. Some outside the Protestant Christian tradition also evoke the names of various saints. Less common are those exorcists who evoke the name of angels to help in an exorcism. Rituals vary depending on the exorcist and the person believed to be possessed. Exorcisms may be considered successful after one session; other exorcisms take countless sessions, sometimes spanning years before they are considered successful. (Learn more about the reverence of saints here and prayer here.)
What is believed about the influenced or possessed?
There is significant debate in Christian theology concerning the extent to which a Christian can be influenced or possessed by an evil spirit. The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit indwells believers, who some understand to create a barrier within the believer that demons cannot penetrate to the degree of "possession." Others Christians suggest that through behavior such as habitual sin or occult activity, demons may possess a believer.
(Learn about exorcists like Malachi Martin here and Gabriele Amorth.)
Exorcism in other non-Christian religions
The idea of expelling evil spirits from a person is found in most major world religions. Hinduism refers to using mantras for exorcism. In Islam exorcisms are the means by which people are healed from the damage evil spirits have done. Judaism also includes the practice of exorcism. Christianity’s teaching about exorcism is the most comprehensive and systematic treatment of exorcism among the world’s major religions.
Related Articles
Glimpses of the Devil: A Psychiatrist's Personal Accounts of Possession, by M. Scott Peck
3 Crucial Questions about Spiritual Warfare (Three Crucial Questions) by Clint Arnold
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Tuesday 16th January 2007
Lots of emails about PCs versus Apple Macs, mainly favouring the latter, but with some strong arguments against. Ian Apple has not yet been in touch offering me free stuff, so there is still a chance for another manufacturer to beat him to it - though Simon Vaio (the only company director in the world not to be called Ian - apart from Richard Branston) need not apply. All that can be agreed is that Vaios must never be purchased by any of you again. In fact Vaios are so crap that they don't even have a self destruct programme inside them to stop people writing bad stuff about them and putting that stuff up on the internet. And if any laptop needs a programme like that, then it is surely the unreliable and rubbish Vaio.
Let the discussion continue because at the moment I don't have the funds to buy a new computer, so am just praying my crappy Vaio can stay alive and unfrozen until I get paid for one of my scripts. And what if it dies before I can email the scripts off? Again, that's what I'd do if I was a Vaio computer, but it's too shitty to be able to be that shitty.
A deadline for the next draft of the script is fast approaching, so of course I managed the best day of work of the year. It's far from finished, but it's definitely moving in the right direction.
I was still working at midnight and by after so many hours of work it's hard to tell whether the idea you've come up with is a good one.
I was writing a bit about the character I am playing, Ian (of course), feeling that he has had so many failed relationships that he fears for him that love is broken.
His sister tells him it is impossible to break love and that love is like one of those Shatterproof rulers that you used to have at school.
Ian questions this analogy, pointing out that it was actually quite easy to break Shatterproof rulers. You could snap them in two if you bent them enough, especially if you put them in a vice, they just wouldn't shatter. In fact, I continued writing, that is what made the manufacturers of Shatterproof rulers into millionaires. Kids would buy Shatterproof rulers solely so they could attempt to shatter them and prove the measuring device was a liar, then they would snap them in two and thus have to buy another Shatterproof ruler, which again they would try to break. Any normal ruler would probably last a person their entire life, but thanks to the Shatterproof ruler, children were getting through eight or nine rulers a year. Suddenly it was boom time for ruler manufacturers.
At the time this digression seemed like a good idea, though in the cold light of day it is hard to imagine that it will make it into the final script (in fact I have just replaced it with a joke about love being unbreakable like the robot in Terminator 2 - which to be honest will probably be thrown in the bin itself before filming continues).
But reminding myself of Shatterproof rulers and the human need to test such claims even if it can ever only be a Pyrrhic victory, meant I went to bed thinking of my school-days and as I tried to sleep with my unfinished script on my rubbish computer, hoping it wasn't going to get wiped, I began thinking about "IDT".
"IDT" is what was written on a notebook or a wall next to a piece of salacious slander. For example, it might read "Geoff Quigley is gay. IDT."
IDT means "If destroy true", the implication being that if the awful information is scrubbed or crossed out by the accused person that this will merely confirm the awful truth. It's a Catch 22 situation. But it was a powerful group of three letters as it did stop most kids from destroying the statement.
But some libellers were not satisfied with the power of IDT. They (and Phil Fry's face pops into my head as I remembered this, so he might have been the instigator) would not only write "IDT" but also put "INDT" - "if NOT destroyed true". Now you were definitely screwed. The statement was as true as anything could possibly ever be. It was bullet-proof. "Geoff Quigley is gay IDT INDT" was as good as finding Geoff Quigley kissing Brian Bancroft in the playground. No way out!
Yet as I tried to sleep something struck me about this for the first time. The INDT addition was actually a huge tactical error. Because if the statement was true whether destroyed or not destroyed then the accused person might as well destroy it and then at least spare himself the shame of people reading this unarguable truth.
Yet it's taken me over 30 years to realise this. At school I thought IDNT just doubled the power. If only I had been as clever then as I am now. All the slurs about me that were written all over Fairlands Middle School could have been destroyed. I pass this information on to any 8 year olds who read my blog. INDT puts the ball back in your court. Don't be intimidated by it.
But if it's only IDT you will have to leave it, or be damned by your own hand.
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A List of Non-English Ruby and Rails News Sites
By Peter Cooper / October 28, 2008
When Ruby Inside started over two years ago, there were only a handful of sources for Ruby related news. The announcements on the ruby-talk mailing list (which Ruby Weekly News - now deceased - rounded up on the Web), del.icio.us, and a few popular Rubyists blogs (such as Why's Redhanded). Now, however, there are lots of options, including Ruby Inside itself, Rails Inside, RubyFlow, Ruby Reddit, and Planet Ruby on Rails.
But what about the Ruby and Rails news for non-English speakers? I've been keeping my eye on a number of foreign-language Ruby and Rails news sites, and want to highlight some of the best:
Russia / Россия / русско
ru-rubyflow.pngRubyFlow.ru is a Russian equivalent of the English language RubyFlow.com. Like RubyFlow, it's a community blog where news about Ruby and Rails libraries, projects, tutorials, and so forth can be posted.
They've done an excellent job on the design - it rather makes me wish I could read Russian!
rubymag.pngRubyMag is a new weekly summary of Ruby and Rails news for Russian speaking developers.
The Netherlands / Dutch / Nederlands
rubyweb.pngRubyWeb is a Dutch RubyFlow clone. There seem to be posts for most days, and it's primarily updated by "TomEric" of i76.
rubyenrails.pngRuby En Rails is a Dutch Rails-themed blog. It doesn't seem to be particularly well updated, but has news relating to Dutch Rails events, along with general tutorials written in Dutch.
China / 中国
Flow.RubyNow.com is a Chinese language equivalent of RubyFlow. It seems to mostly feature the same items as RubyFlow but in Chinese.
Japan / 日本 / 日本語
RubyFlow-ja is a Japanese language translation of RubyFlow, and the first such translation. It's maintained by Makota Kuwata - of Erubis fame. It features the most interesting of the RubyFlow stories (that is, not all of them).
The Rubyist is a long-time Japanese language online Ruby magazine. It has a very strong reputation in the Japanese Ruby community, but as the articles aren't translated into English, many Anglophone Rubyists are not aware of it. It's not to be confused with Jeremy McAnally's newer print-based The Rubyist magazine.
For some time, the official Indonesian Ruby site featured translations of choice Ruby Inside articles into Indonesian. This appears to have stopped recently, but it is still a key resource for Indonesian Rubyists.
Brazil / Brasil / Portuguese / Português
Ruby-Br.org is a key resource for Brazilian Ruby developers. It summarizes a lot of general Ruby news in Portuguese.
Akita on Rails is a Brazilian Rails-focused blog written by perhaps the most famous Brazilian Rubyist of all - Fabio Akita (who was the principal organizer of the successful Rails Summit Latin America conference recently).
Others? I Need Your Help!
I've been trying to find Ruby news sites in other popular languages, such as French and German, but have been drawing blanks. Where are French, German, Swedish, Danish, Spanish and Italian Ruby developers getting their news from? I want to turn this post into a resource for finding foreign language Ruby news sites, so please leave your links and suggestions in the comments.
1. Raul says:
I am a spanish developer. As far as I know there is no such kind of site in spanish and, in my opinion, there shouldn't be. Of course everybody can choose what language they write on, but I think that publishing in a non-english language restricts the information flow, which - again, IMHO - is a loose-all decission: you help less readers and you get less feedback/branding/whatever you get from them.
We have a nicely active mailing list, ror-es, which usually acts as a kind of cluster to avoid the unmanageable traffic of the main ruby and rails users lists. It also works to get in touch with local groups and developers and has become the central communication node for the spanish community. But these benefits have nothing to do with blog posts or news sites which content refers to world-wide subjects. In that case, I think that publishing on a non-english language is a bad choice.
2. CrazyDK says:
Hot Ruby(http://hot.rubykr.org) is a Korean ruby and rails news site.
3. Ale Muñoz says:
Here's a spanish Ruby news site:
And here's a couple of blogs you may not have found:
4. Sikachu! says:
We're creating a site for Thai Ruby on Rails developer, called Rails66.
It's here: http://rails66.com
5. Henrik N says:
I think most Swedish developers are comfortable enough with English to make do with English language sites, and the market for Swedish Ruby news is pretty small.
There is the http://rails.se wiki, a mailing list and a Freenode IRC channel. Can't think of any news sites, though.
6. olivM says:
one of my favorites French Rails blog is made by Nicolas Merouze : http://blog.boldr.fr/
7. Mastro says:
For Italy the big stuff is here: http://blog.lipsiasoft.com
8. Redd Vinylene says:
Norwegians get theirs from http://www.irb.no. Great article. Thanks.
9. Duccio says:
This is an italian resource Rails on the road... Only blog title is in english ;-)
10. Thomas B says:
The same goes for Norwegians, but there is http://irb.no for general Ruby and RoR news and discussions.
11. Willian Molinari says:
Hi Peter!
We have http://rubyonda.com/ in Brazil trying to aggregate the most brazilian blog posts! =)
Brazilians Railers send a link to RubyOnda, so we have a place to centralize all the content.
Willian Molinari
12. Okilash says:
RubyFlow.ru very beautiful
13. JavaEye says:
most Chinese ruby on rails developers visit this site: http://www.javaeye.com
ruby on rails related news:
and a ruby board
btw, this site is power by ruby on rails
14. Bruno says:
In portuguese there is also Rubyonda
15. TrueRuby.com says:
You've forgotten http://www.trueruby.com/ - Russian Ruby & Ruby on Rails weblog.
16. lbz says:
While there isn't any "pure" news site (rubyflow-like) in Italian, there are some nice websites featuring both news and tutorials on Ruby and Rails:
- http://ruby.html.it/
- http://yeahnowow.com/
- Italian Ruby user group http://www.ruby-forum.com/forum/19
17. hosiawak says:
http://www.rubyonrails.pl is the most popular Polish RoR/Ruby site with an active community forum.
18. combatwombat says:
I'm german and i mostly read english sites. But there are a few german Ruby news sources:
19. Sylvain Utard says:
Also a french one: http://www.liveonbankiz.org
It's an online game where you must take care of a virtual penguin. Who sayed rails can't scale!?!? I did it!
20. Gastón Ramos says:
Somes sites in spanish:
21. jason says:
I haven't really announced it publicly yet, but there is also http://casts.rubynow.com which is the railscasts series translated into Chinese subtitles, they also have English subtitles, so any non-native english speaker can use them to better understand the railscasts. Right now only a few have been transcribed and translated, but I plan to go through the whole archive for everyone to enjoy. Thanks!
22. rhg says:
《Ruby Hacking Guide》 with Chinese
Ruby Hacking Guide中文版
23. spine says:
http://ruby.inuse.ru -- Russian Ruby community
24. Leon says:
You should definitely add http://chinaonrails.com to you list, it is a very(probably the most) active Chinese Ruby/Rails community.
25. Reggie says:
In Italy there is http://therubymine.com, one of the first sites that try to take the knowledge from the people for the people. Only in Italian, and now a bit stopped, but ready to restart soon with new energies!
26. Peter says:
A new Brazilian rails/ruby news aggregator and soon a new sites powered by Rails section in Portuguese.
27. Peter says:
Forgot the link http://www.rails.com.br
28. Wee@ThoughtWorks says:
Thai Ruby/Rails website is at http://www.rails66.com/blog/
29. electron-libre says:
In french : http://www.frailers.net
30. heaven says:
Chinese Railser Open Community
31. Ozéias Sant'ana says:
In portuguese:http://railsbox.org - Podcasts, screencast and more.
Other Posts to Enjoy
Twitter Mentions
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Have a Minute? Here’s How to De-Stress in 60 Seconds
Life. Gets. Crazy. That’s a simple fact. But calm is attainable – even on the busiest of days. All you have to do is breathe.
Canyon Ranch blog
According the experts at Canyon Ranch®, controlled, purposeful breathing is a powerful tool you can call upon anytime, anywhere. When your chest tightens. When you lose focus. When those deadlines start creeping up, and the emails keep piling in. You know, like… today.
Here’s how to start the unwind. (Feel free to try it right at your desk.)
1. Sit down. Make sure you’re comfortable, then rest your hands on your stomach.
2. Inhale deeply, inflating your abdomen to its full capacity. Release your breath slowly.
3. On the next inhale, fill your abdomen again. Then move that breath into your ribs.
4. Breathe out. First release the air in your ribs, then your abdomen.
5. Inhale one more time, again moving your breath into your abdomen, then your ribs, then finally into your chest.
6. Release your breath in reverse order and repeat.
Want to take the calm a step further? Our Canyon Ranch® Boutique opens Tuesday, October 15, at 11AM ET.
By Joanna Berliner, Editor
Continue reading “Have a Minute? Here’s How to De-Stress in 60 Seconds” »
October 15, 2013
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AMA Primer Helps Primary Care Physicians Address Obesity with Their Patients
Primer on managing overweight and obesity
In 2003, the American Medical Association (AMA) produced a 10-booklet primer that offers practical recommendations to physicians for addressing adult obesity in the primary care setting.
The primer is the third volume in a physician education series, Roadmaps for Clinical Practice: Case Studies in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which is a collaboration between the AMA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Key Results
• The AMA's Medicine and Public Health Unit published the 10-booklet primer, Case Studies in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion: Assessment and Management of Adult Obesity: A Primer for Physicians, in December 2003, complete with patient assessments and other clinical tools, laminated charts and patient handouts.
• The AMA offered the primer in print or on CD-ROM, and made it available for download from the AMA Web site free of charge.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) provided a $43,600 grant from November 2002 through May 2004 to support the production and dissemination of the primer.
Most Requested
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Sacred Texts Hinduism Tagore Index Previous Next
I had just made the discovery that it was useless to keep up a pretence of reading in my room outside, and also that it was equally beyond me to busy myself attending to anything at all--so that all the days of my future bid fair to congeal into one solid mass and settle heavily on my breast for good--when Panchu, the tenant of a neighbouring zamindar, came up to me with a basketful of cocoa-nuts and greeted me with a profound obeisance.
"Well, Panchu," said I. "What is all this for?"
I had got to know Panchu through my master. He was extremely poor, nor was I in a position to do anything for him; so I supposed this present was intended to procure a tip to help the poor fellow to make both ends meet. I took some money from my purse and held it out towards him, but with folded hands he protested: "I cannot take that, sir!"
"Why, what is the matter?"
"Let me make a clean breast of it, sir. Once, when I was hard pressed, I stole some cocoa-nuts from the garden here. I am getting old, and may die any day, so I have come to pay them back."
Amiel's Journal could not have done me any good that day. But these words of Panchu lightened my heart. There are more things in life than the union or separation of man and woman. The great world stretches far beyond, and one can truly measure one's joys and sorrows when standing in its midst.
Panchu was devoted to my master. I know well enough how he manages to eke out a livelihood. He is up before dawn every day, and with a basket of pan leaves, twists of tobacco, coloured cotton yarn, little combs, looking-glasses, and other trinkets beloved of the village women, he wades through the knee-deep water of the marsh and goes over to the Namasudra quarters. There he barters his goods for rice, which fetches him a little more than their price in money. If he can get back soon enough he goes out again, after a hurried meal, to the sweetmeat seller's, where he assists in beating sugar for wafers. As soon as he comes home he sits at his shell-bangle making, plodding on often till midnight. All this cruel toil does not earn, for himself and his family, a bare two meals a day during much more than half the year. His method of eating is to begin with a good filling draught of water, and his staple food is the cheapest kind of seedy banana. And yet the family has to go with only one meal a day for the rest of the year.
At one time I had an idea of making him a charity allowance, "But," said my master, "your gift may destroy the man, it cannot destroy the hardship of his lot. Mother Bengal has not only this one Panchu. If the milk in her breasts has run dry, that cannot be supplied from the outside."
These are thoughts which give one pause, and I decided to devote myself to working it out. That very day I said to Bimal: "Let us dedicate our lives to removing the root of this sorrow in our country."
"You are my Prince Siddharta, 17 I see," she replied with a smile. "But do not let the torrent of your feelings end by sweeping me away also!"
"Siddharta took his vows alone. I want ours to be a joint arrangement."
The idea passed away in talk. The fact is, Bimala is at heart what is called a "lady". Though her own people are not well off, she was born a Rani. She has no doubts in her mind that there is a lower unit of measure for the trials and troubles of the "lower classes". Want is, of course, a permanent feature of their lives, but does not necessarily mean "want" to them. Their very smallness protects them, as the banks protect the pool; by widening bounds only the slime is exposed.
The real fact is that Bimala has only come into my home, not into my life. I had magnified her so, leaving her such a large place, that when I lost her, my whole way of life became narrow and confined. I had thrust aside all other objects into a corner to make room for Bimala--taken up as I was with decorating her and dressing her and educating her and moving round her day and night; forgetting how great is humanity and how nobly precious is man's life. When the actualities of everyday things get the better of the man, then is Truth lost sight of and freedom missed. So painfully important did Bimala make the mere actualities, that the truth remained concealed from me. That is why I find no gap in my misery, and spread this minute point of my emptiness over all the world. And so, for hours on this Autumn morning, the refrain has been humming in my ears:
It is the month of August, and the sky breaks into a passionate rain;
Alas, my house is empty.
17 The name by which Buddha was known when a Prince, before renouncing the world.
Next: XI
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Sacred Texts Native American Southeast Index Previous Next
(Tuggle collection)
One day a Rabbit saw a Tie-snake in a pool of water and proposed a trial of strength, which the Snake, to honor the little fellow, accepted. The Rabbit ran over the hill to another pool of water and made a similar arrangement with another Tie-snake, fixing the same time for the trial to begin. He obtained a long vine and put an end in each pool and gave the signal. Then the Snakes pulled against each other until they were amazed at the Rabbit's strength, and each fell on the same device to find out how the Rabbit was pulling so hard, which was to crawl out of the pool slowly, pulling all the while
p. 50
and gradually ascend the hill, where the Rabbit had agreed to stand. So they shortened the vine and crawled to the top of the hill, where, behold! the Snakes saw each other and no Rabbit at all, for he had concealed himself as he saw them coming up. After talking it over, the Snakes agreed that the Rabbit should not be allowed to drink any more water and accordingly the decree went forth to all the Tie-snakes, who are kings of the water, that the Rabbit should drink no more on account of his deception.
Day after day, as the Rabbit went to drink, the Tie-snakes ordered him away. Finally he adopted this plan to fool them. He found the skin of a fawn and putting it on he approached a pool of water and began bleating like a young fawn in distress. A Tie-snake hearing the cry, crawled out and asked why he cried.
"Because the Rabbit says I can never drink any more water, for all the Tie-snakes have so ordered," said the pretended fawn.
"It is one of his lies," said the Snake, "it is only the Rabbit who was ordered to drink no more. Such a pretty little creature as you are can always get all the water he wishes."
So the Rabbit went to the pool and drank his fill.
Next: 52. Rabbit Engineers a Tug of War Between Tie-Snake And Man-eater
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Science Talk
In Search of Memory: An Interview with Nobel Laureate Eric Kandel
Male voice: Novartis—committed to making innovative medicines for a world of patients and their families, online at Novartis…. Think what's possible.
Steve: Welcome to Science Talk, the podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting May 24th. I am Steve Mirsky. This week on our special edition of the podcast we will talk with Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Kandel shared the Nobel in the year 2000 with Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard officially for "their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system." But it's easier than that to remember what Kandel did because his work concerns memory, how learning and memory happen at the cellular and molecular level. Kandel's newly published autobiography is called In Search of Memory and a brief adaptation from the book appears in the current issue the April/May issue of Scientific American Mind magazine. The complexity of mammals led Kandel to try to find a simpler organism to use in his studies. The marine snail, Aplysia, fit the bill, having only about 20,000 nerve cells compared with about a 100 billion in the human brain. The snail has a simple reflex by which it protects its gills and Kandel used that reflex to study how the snail learnt and remembered stimuli. He showed that short-term memory involves increased levels of neurotransmitters at the synapses, the communication sites between nerve cells and long-term memory requires changes in the levels of proteins in the synapse. This understanding is crucial for attempts to develop medications to battle memory loss. Kandel is a senior investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is university professor at Columbia University and he is the director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences at Columbia. We spoke at his office with a memorable view of the Hudson River on the west side of upper Manhattan.
Dr. Kandel, great to talk to you today.
Kandel: Steve it's wonderful to talk to you.
Steve: And I want you to begin with your background. You went from an interest in being a psychoanalyst to a molecular biologist of mind—not the mind, we'll get to that. I realize I'm asking you to give me your life history, but briefly can you trace that trajectory?
Kandel: Actually the more I think about it, the more routine that trajectory seems to me. I was interested in the nature of human mental processes, which is what got me interested in psychoanalysis. And it became clear to me after a while that mental processes come from the brain and in order to understand them, you need to be a biologist of the brain. And once I got into brain biology, it became clear you needed to study the brain on the cellular level, and once you began to understand aspects of behavior in the cellular level, you wanted to understand the molecular level. And this didn't occur overnight, this occurred over a period of decades. So I was already a fairly mature cellular neurobiologist when molecular biology came of age and began to have an impact in the nervous system; and I was fortunate to have Richard Axel as a friend and colleague and I got him interested in nervous system and he taught me some molecular biology.
Steve: And you both won Nobel Prizes, (laughs) so that went pretty well.
Kandel: It was a very nice friendship in collaboration.
Steve: I was at the recent symposium in the honor of Don Purpura.
Kandel: That was a wonderful symposium.
Steve: You both told a story—which I would like you to tell—about when you first went to his lab and what your intent was?
Kandel: I went to Don's lab when I was a senior medical student and we had a six-month elective period.
Steve: This is 1955?
Kandel: 1955, 1955-56. And I had, up to that point, never entertained an alternative possibility besides becoming a psychoanalyst. But I thought a psychoanalyst, even a Park Avenue psychoanalyst, should know something about the brain, and since I had a 6-month elective period, I thought I would do that in brain science. And I looked around and the best laboratory in New York City was one that was run by Harry Grundfest. And I went to see Harry Grundfest, and he asked me, what do you want to do? And I said I wanted to localize the ego, the id and the superego; and he thought I was out of my blooming mind, but he was very gracious and patient. And he told me, you know, those problems are beyond the reach of neuroscience at the moment; but that I should speak to Don Purpura, who was interested in higher mental function and see whether I could work out some kind of research project with him, so that's how I was let do Don. Harry Grundfest also felt very strongly that the way to study the brain is one cell at a time, and he got me interested into [a] reductionist approach to behavior, which is really the approach that I've taken since then.
Steve: Let's talk for a moment about the virtues and the pitfalls of a reductionist approach.
Kandel: Right! And you put it very well. The virtues are when you have a complex problem; it's often best to study it in the simple system. To look at the most elementary representation of that process, and since learning and memory are extremely conserved in phylogeny, you need to know what's good and what's bad, what's dangerous and what's safe, what's edible and what's toxic, so you need to learn how to discriminate between alternatives and to remember that decision; and that is such a conserved process that almost all animals with nervous systems can learn and remember. So I thought that rather than continue, as I had started working on the hippocampus of a very complex structure, involving complex memory, I might go to a simple reflex act that can be modified by learning and see how learning occurs and how memories are stored. And that proved for me very useful. I went to the marine snail, Aplysia, I worked out a simple reflex, the neurocircuitry that reflex could be modified and so how it be learnt. What's the weakness of that approach? You can't study attention. You can't study complex representation of space and of objects in the brain. For that you need a more complex organism. But I would say that even in a complex organism we need to take broader approaches; you need both [a] bottom-up reductionist and [a] pump-down approach, you need both in order really solve these more complicated problems. So certainly reductionism has great strengths—it's sort of the super highway of biology but it also has limitations in the sense that you need to combine it with synthesis with an approach that looks at the whole organism, that looks at complex behavior and that looks at complex neurocircuitry.
Steve: You talk in the book in the article in Scientific American Mind about the importance of asking the right question and picking the right system to examine that question with, and it seems like an obvious thing, but it's not.
Kandel: Well! The principle is obvious, the selection is difficult. And I think I was very fortunate with Aplysia; I mean, I had no way of knowing that it and I would fit so well and because I think that's where the emphasize[emphasis] is. Obviously there are a number of systems that have absolute merit and Aplysia has lots of absolute merits. But there are also certain things that if an investigator like[s] to do, and I came from cellular neurobiology having learnt from Grundfest and from Wade Marshall and from my period at the NIH how to study nerve cells in the brain; and I was until that point studying complex organisms—a cat; Aplysia fitted me to a tee. I could see the cellular interconnections with a clarity that you couldn't possibly see in the mammalian brain. In the mammalian brain, a single cell receives input from hundreds of other cells; each produces a tiny effect. In Aplysia, the interconnections between two cells are extremely effective. One cell can drive another cell the [to] fire or if the connection is inhibitory can shut up the fire itself. So to see [that] this powerful action [occurred] as result of the interaction took [of just] a few cells was quite dramatic and I just loved it.
Steve: You talk about the resistance that you encountered with that choice of a model organism. Why did you have faith that your results will be applicable in a more widespread way?
Kandel: I have a philosophy that has guided me throughout all of my scientific career and that is, I think of myself as a fairly thoughtful person. I don't go into projects impetuously and I try to select important problems. And once I decide, a problem is important, I really trust my judgment and you're not going to talk me out of it. It's essentially what I feel, because I see things in it that you might not see because I have thought a lot about it. That puts it in a more arrogant way. I don't feel arrogant about that, I just feel I just have thought a lot about it and most people probably haven't thought that much about it, so I can justify in detail if you want to hear it. As I argued before, I thought that learning and memory are likely to be conserved. And if that's so the solution to any problem, no matter how simple the animal or the task, any problem of learning or memory is going to be instructive; since we don't know anything about any form of learning and memory to see how any of it works is going to be good.
Steve: You bring up, I think, such an important point. Many people—obviously we're living in a time where evolution is under fire and a lot of people, even people who accept evolution, don't necessarily see why it's so important that it's studied, but when you are talking about …
Kandel: It's so fundamental, absolutely—[it's] the driving force of all of biology. Biology does not work—as Francois Jacob pointed out—it doesn't work by designing the nervous system, it works as a tinkerer. It uses the tools of the trade that are there in and modifies these slightly. So if you have something that works in a primitive organism, that's going to be maintained. I mean cyclic ANP—the molecule that I found to be important in learning and memory—is used as a scape in bacteria, it's used as a hunger signal in bacteria. So I mean it's amazing how conserved these processes are. So I felt quite confident. And I think being a psychiatrist gave me even more confidence because I knew that psychiatry is a field filled with aspirations, tremendous goal[s], but very little fundamental knowledge. And if you can contribute any bit of solid knowledge it would be useful for psychiatry, useful for psychoanalysis. This is not to say that this is going to explain the ego, the id and the superego, but you know, you need to start at ground zero and this was providing the ground zero.
Steve: I mentioned earlier the difference between biology of the mind and biology of mind, and it's a point you make in the article.
Kandel: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Steve: Why did you make that point?
Kandel: It's a pedantic point and that is the biology of the mind suggests that there is a limited set of functions that's localized at a particular point in the brain; while mind refers to the whole family of mental processes, every thought that you have, every feeling that you express, every dream that you aspire to, and it works on the assumption that these are going to be localized in a variety of each one of these functions, it's going to be localized in a variety of different areas in the brain.
Steve: More with Erick Kandel right after this.
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Steve: Back to the interview.
You talk in the Scientific American Mind piece about what you would be thinking about in terms of how you would make a choice about what to study if you were starting now. Not so much just specifics about what you will study, but about what you'd have to consider when deciding; and I know that a lot of students listen to this podcast, so it'll be just useful for them.
Kandel: Right! I like problems at the borders of disciplines. One of the reasons that neurobiology of learning and memory appeal to me so much was that I liked the idea of bringing biology and psychology together. How was that? The first one I'm not, the last one—this is something that has been going on for long time—but you know, with my self biological perspective, I was there before most people on that particular perspective and similarly with the molecular biology. So it put me in a position to see relationships between things that, you know, other people were not just aware of as I was, and I think this is generally true. One area like—now again, all of these areas, you know, have been discovered by others—is molecular-associated biology identifying genes that are important [in] social behavior. Carl Bergmann has made some marvelous progress in worms, Tom Insel in voles. I think there is lots of work to be done there. I think it's a fantastic area.
Steve: Why is that important?
Kandel: Well because we like to know what are the biological determinants of how you and I interact. See, you know we're having a perfectly pleasant conversation, we don't have any angry feelings toward each other—you know how does one form an acquaintance, begin the initiation of a friendship, what is it?
Steve: On a molecular level?
Kandel: On systems and a molecular level, yes. There are probably genes that code for being a nice guy, being a son-of-a-bitch; it's not a one-to-one relationship, but there are probably things that enhance aggressivity—well, things that enhance sociability—so that's interesting to know. The other thing that fascinates me, being Jewish and having been exposed to anti-Semitism is, what is the origin of anti-Semitism? To some degree it is probably not specific to Jews; it's probably [a] reflection of an attitude that may be gulped into the genome about strangers, about foreigners, about eccentrics. They may very well have some early evolutionary origins, once people begin to bond together, to form groups in order to develop a social structure; the bonding to one another may carry with it the consequence of excluding people that don't belong to the group. And that exclusion may have aggressive components to it. You don't simply say, we would prefer that you don't join, but you know, we'll kill you if you try to get into this group.
Steve: Right!
Kandel: So to understand what the social and biological and genetic factors that predispose to cohesiveness and anti-cohesiveness if you are quite fascinating; even I was years away from them, but ….
Steve: And hope would be that an awareness of that would stop our reflexive attitudes.
Kandel: Might very well; might very well.
Steve: You bring up your personal background, which you go into in the book. And when I was reading it, I was thinking about, I had heard an astronaut interviewed once, who had done a space walk, and he was asked, what did you think of when you were on the space walk, outside the capsule, looking at the planet and universe? And he said, what I thought of was, what did I do to deserve this unbelievable experience? And I thought of that when I was reading your background, because you seem to be so grateful for everything that's happened, and you are kind of the (laughs) American dream.
Kandel: I find it unbelievable that a little kid from Vienna, coming from a poor family, coming to America without any money, [to] have had this fantastic life that I have had in the United States, that brings tears to my eyes. Really I find it, I would say, unendingly grateful. I don't spend my days say[ing] thank you. You know I'm not incompetent; I've contributed something to my success. But nonetheless I feel so fortunate at the opportunities that I have received here. I'll give you one example. I was so grateful to the United States for so long that it was a long time after we had entered the Vietnam war that I realized it was a wrong war for us to be in. I was reluctant to be critical of the United States because I thought the United States could do no wrong; that the government could not lie to its people. I had not realized you know, any government can at sometimes, you know, because [go] out of its way to not tell people the truth for variety of political reasons. But I was such a romantic youth that I closed my eyes to lots of things that I should've had my eyes open to; and I described it in my book, how, you know, a high school teacher pushed me to Harvard. How Harry Grundfest gave me a chance to work in his lab despite the fact that I showed up myself to be [a] bozo on the first interview. That because of Harry Grundfest I was able to go to the NIH; that I have had wonderful colleagues and collaborative experiences from which I gained an enormous amount.This guy who walked in before, Steve Siegelbaum, I gave a lecture—I'm making it up; I don't remember exactly, 1978 in Paris. I was a visiting professor at the College de France and he spent the year at College de France. I didn't know him. And he came to my lecture and he said, you know, what you're doing is pretty interesting, and I've got a new method, a biophysical method that I think would help your studies. I'm not much of a biophysicist; it was a fantastic opportunity. We had a fantastically productive collaboration. We, you know, both are matured scientists and now his tenure as a professor is going to be in two years to now the chairman of [the] neuroscience facility at Columbia, a big effort. We still collaborate periodically. I've learned an enormous amount from him. I mentioned Richard Axel, what I learnt from him. When I moved into the biochemistry of the nervous system, I collaborated with Jimmy Schwartz. I knew no biochemistry.
Steve: You had taken almost no science as an undergraduate.
Kandel: A very poor background. In fact I had no background. Even after I finished medical school, I didn't have much of a background in science. So I learned most of what I know in the course of my scientific career. And the way one learns in science, you obviously read—that's fundamental—and I did take courses later on, but I would say the vast majority of what I know is from talking to people and learning from them. This is the wonderful thing about the university experience. There is nothing like it.
Steve: You also benefited from the advice from a man you never met, your wife's father.
Kandel: Yes. He said that she should marry a poor intellectual because he would be ambitious enough to work hard and do something interesting.
Steve: Actually [a] not-rich intellectual, not a bad intellectual.
Kandel: That's right, that's right, that's right!
Steve: Well what were you going to say? You actually were …
Kandel: I often tell Denise that the one thing I am certain of, I am the sort of guy her father would have liked her to marry, (laughs) which makes me feel very good.
Steve: Thank you very much. It was such a pleasure talking to you.
Kandel: Nice talking to you.
Steve: Erick Kandel's new book is called In Search of Memory, his essay titled "The New Science of Mind"is in the April/May issue of Scientific American Mind magazine currently for sale at newsstands and available at Also, in the late '90s, Kandel wrote a couple of articles about where he saw psychiatry going in the future, thanks to advances in neuroscience; and I wrote a brief article about him in that work in the year 2000. It came out just before he won the Nobel Prize and when I reread it the other day I was reminded about how interesting his thinking is on that subject. The article is available online for free, it's the first thing that comes up if you Google his name—K-a-n-d-e-l—with my name—M-i-r-s-k-y.
We'll be right back.
Steve: Okay, let's get in a quick round of TOTALL…….Y BOGUS. Here are four science stories; only three are true. See if you know which story is TOTALL…….Y BOGUS.
Story number 1: Wiggly, wobbly jellyfish need to break into their crustacean prey's hard shells to get a decent meal. To accomplish it, they accelerate their stinging cells to one hundred times the acceleration we all feel due to gravity at the earth's surface.
Story number 2: Dolphins have the equivalent of names by which they may address each other and even talk about other dolphins behind their fins.
Story number 3: The number of twin births in the U.S. has tripled in the last 30 years and a new study implicates the presence of bovine growth hormone in the food supply as a factor.
And story number 4: Since taking office, President Bush has issued so-called signing statements on more than 750 new laws which basically say, my fingers were crossed when I signed this, so it doesn't count. One such signing statement dealt with stopping scientists from sharing their findings with congress.
And, time is up.
Story number 3 is true. The presence of Bovine growth hormone in the food supply may be a factor in the increased rate of twins over the last three decades—that's according to a new study in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. Women who ate meat and milk products were five times more likely to have twins than were vegans. You can read more in David Biello's article on our Web site,
Story number 2 is true. A new study published online by the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences indicates that each dolphin has a so-called signature whistle that identifies it. The special whistle could be the equivalent of a name and the marine mammals may even refer to third-party dolphins as in, "Hey get a load of (whistling sounds)."
Story number 4 is true. The Boston Globe reported on the president's signing statements, which the administration believes allows the president to basically ignore the law he just signed in to effect. One such law noted that when congress requested scientific information "prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted uncensored to congress and without delay," but the president's signing statement read "the President can tell researchers to withhold any information from congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch." Not to worry though, because what chance is there that our scientific study results could even be related to foreign relations, other than, you know, research on global warming or acid rain or fish populations or avian-flu transmission or mad-cow-disease transmission, or ozone depletion or …. Anyway all of that means that the story about jellyfish shooting their stinging cells at prey at one-hundred times the acceleration equivalent to that of normal gravity is TOTALL…….Y BOGUS. Because according to a report in the May issue of Current Biology, the jellyfish can accelerate their stinging cells to over five million g—it might be the fastest cell movement in nature. Now remember that force equals mass times acceleration and there is a whole lot of mass to go along with the acceleration, so the overall force isn't going to smash open the planet, but it's enough to smash through a crustacean's armor to inject some poison. The resultant force is actually up there with some fired bullets; and we know that because the jellyfish information either was generated at the University of Frankfurt or was judged not to threaten foreign relations.
We'll be right back.
Rennie: I am John Rennie, the editor in chief of Scientific American magazine. If you'd like a free preview issue of Scientific American as well as a gift, visit today.
Steve: Well that's it for this edition of the Scientific American podcast. Our e-mail address is; and also remember science news is updated daily on the Scientific American Web site, For Science Talk, the podcast of Scientific American, I am Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.
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Science Talk
The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory
George Musser talks about his new book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory. Plus, we'll test your knowledge of some recent science in the news
Podcast Transcription
Welcome to Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American for the seven days starting July 16th, 2008, I'm Steve Mirsky. This week on the podcast: something for the complete idiots out there, me included. We'll talk with Scientific American editor, George Musser, who is not a complete idiot; plus we'll test your knowledge about some recent science in the news.
George Musser is our resident astronomy and physics editor. He is the author of the brand new book, The Complete Idiot's Guide To String Theory. To become something less than a complete idiot, I spoke to George in the library at Scientific American.
Steve: What is string theory? I mean everybody has heard of string theory; I think it has been on the cover of Time magazine, probably on Newsweek, certainly on our covers and everybody talks about it as some kind of new-fangled big deal in physics, which it is. What is it?
Musser: It's a good question because the theory itself is being developed by scientists. It's not a fully formed theory, so what I'll tell you, the summary version I will give you, is the current level of understanding; but what's so wonderful about string theory is that it seems to open up new levels even below that.
Steve: One of the things in your book that I've not seen before was that string theory really goes back about 80 years.
Musser: Yep.
Steve: The first formulation was back in the '20s.
Musser: Yeah, even most string theorists don't realize that. This is something that Steve Weinberg, the Nobel laureate physicist actually pointed out in a talk that I kind of plucked and put in the book—that the concept of string theory goes way back.
Steve: As most physicists think it started in the '70s.
Musser: Yeah, it started in late '60s, but it was one of those things that was invented and then forgotten and then re ... invented actually isn't even the word, it was more of discovered; it was stumbled upon as a potential theory not even of everything as it is now portrayed, but as a theory of nuclear forces. It didn't work out for that. It was re-branded as a theory of everything; everything meaning everything—electricity, magnetism, matter, space, gravity and you name it, it's supposed to be in the string theory at some level. So the basic idea is that when you zoom in on matter, you zoom in, you see molecules and you zoom in on the molecules, you see atoms and you keep on zooming, you see the particles in the atoms ...
Steve: Protons, neutrons, electrons ....
Musser: Precisely, and then you zoom in on for instance, a proton, it turns as you zoom in and you see quarks and then you keep on zooming and those quarks according to string theory are actually tiny, tiny, tiny little strings that are vibrating and moving around. The beauty of the theory is that one type of thing—namely a string—can vibrate in different ways and give you different types of particles. It can give you an up-quark, down-quark, and electron, photon, the whole zoo of particles that have been discovered.
Steve: What does that give you other than a felicitous kind of aesthetic feeling about the universe, that it's all connected together in some kind of unified whole?
Musser: Well, of course I wouldn't put that down on a felicitous aesthetic view of the universe; I think that's important.
Steve: No, absolutely not!
Musser: No, I am being precocious a little bit, but [a] lot of the big brick theories in physics over the past hundreds of years have come from unification, have come from trying to bring together that which had seemed so impossible to bring together. It seemed desperate. Electricity and magnetism were unified in the theory of electromagnetism. One thing actually we take for granted today—which is that the stars and planets follow the same laws that we observe on the Earth—was really unification that Newton did. Prior to that people had separated those two grounds and Newton unified them into a single theory of motion and of universal gravitation; and in turn, when you boil everything down and unify, then you can build up again, and you can see how many new phenomena you would have no idea even existed. So Newton opened our eyes to all that motion of the universe and the ways that planet systems can form in galaxies and beyond galaxies.
Steve: And one of the great things about the book is that it goes off on a lot of digressions as you just did, because you really do need a background in the entire history of physics, to a certain degree, to understand string theory, even at a relatively rudimentary level. But what is it now that string theory is trying to accomplish that has remained unaccomplished?
Musser: So, I bring up those other examples as it is just historical, like scene setting to this, but string theory has similar consequences in terms of bringing things together and then opening our eyes to new things. So the mere act of bringing together gravity and quantum mechanics, that was Einstein's dream. That was a major accomplishment, because the theory of gravitation, which is Einstein's theory, and quantum theory seems to sync completely incompatible. They are used today in conjunction; they will be applied, like, the first one then the other, but they are not actually used together in any deep sense; so that already is a conceptual breakthrough. Those two theories approached the world in such a different way that to unify them gives you something you didn't have before. And then there is a whole stream of possible phenomena; none has really been proved or observed, but [they] are predicted by the theory. For instance, other dimensions of space and time; other universes that could be out there; different particles in our own universe that we are oblivious to right now, but which might be discovered, at for instance, the Large Hadron Collider when it starts up later this year.
Steve: You talk in the book about what it would feel like if asense being in one of these other dimensions actually try [tried] to touch you.
Musser: Yep.
Steve: And you allege that you would have some sort of sensation, but you wouldn't really know what it was.
Musser: Yeah, that's an amazing thing about extra dimensions—asthey feel so magical; the kinds of things that would to us appear like hocus pocus would be possible in extra dimensions.
And that also feeds into some of the physics as well, but your example of, if you had a multidimensional being or force, does not have to be artificial intelligence, tap you on the shoulder, you would look around you and you wouldn't see it by definition, because it wouldn't exist in the dimensions that you have access to, that you can observe. So, it would feel to you as some ineffable force acting on you, you couldn't localize it, but it would still be there. And that actually comes up in theories of cosmology, for example. If, For instance, the forces that may have caused the universe to expand very early in the history of our universe—they seemed to require a force that lacks direction; it has no directionality to it. It's called a scalar field in the jargon and that's precisely the kind of thing you might get from an extra dimension. You would get a directionless type of force acting on you. Such type of things string theory might give you. I should point out that there are other explanations for scalar fields as well, but string theory does seem to give those naturally to you.
Steve: Well, so let's review: just basically string theory says that there are many dimensions that we're not aware of in our three-dimensional world of perception and that all the fundamental particles are actually tiny little strings that are vibrating in different ways from each other.
Musser: Precisely. I would actually phrase it a little differently than that. I would take the second idea as the primary one and the dimensions are actually derived from that. It isn't as though someone is sitting around one day at the bar and saying, "Hey, wouldn't [it] be great to have 10 extra dimensions of space?" These actually just fall out of that theory naturally. If you didn't have them, the strings could not vibrate in a consistent way. You might, for instance, have reversals of cause and effect, where the string would react to you before you touched it. That might occur if the string didn't have these extra dimensions, to play in, to act, to vibrate in and to move in.
Steve: Early in the history, the modern history of string theory formulations, there were some physicists who really didn't like string theory, because it wasn't testable enough to be other than—in their opinion—kind of, philosophical musings; and they thought it wasn't even really science. And how has the field progressed since then?
Musser: Well, it's kind of, it has been a to and fro, kind of, ping-pong effect. A lot of the criticism for string theory is there even today comes down to that same question of, is it testable? And that's actually a criticism, as I try to discuss in the book, not specific to string theory. It's also true of the various alternatives to string theory; and when I think that, I think I tried to do it in the book that other books haven't done so much, is to really address those theories as well. Although the book is entitled Idiot's Guide to String Theory it's also an idiot's guide to look on gravity, the cause of dynamical triangulations to the other types.
Steve: Supersymmetry.
Musser: Right ... exactly.
Steve: Little idiot's guide.
Musser: Little idiot, or many idiot's guides within the book. So the problem is that gravity is very weak as we experience it, so that implies, just as a matter of course, it's an empirical fact that the unification of gravity with other quantum forces must occur at very, very, very short distances. This isn't a failing of string theory; this isn't failing of loop quantum gravity or anything else. It's a fact to[of] the world. So quantum gravity, of which string theory is an example, is distant from experiment, and we have to live with that fact. So, a lot of the criticism of string theory isn't specific to string theory, it's bemoaning this fact of nature that quantum gravity is such a distant phenomenon. So I think it is important to separate those questions; that there are criticisms of string theory per se, but this most common lack of experimental tests isn't about string theory per se, it's again a broader criticism.
Steve: Most people might be surprised that gravity is so weak, because it's the one we really experience and if you fall down a flight of stairs—which I have done—gravity doesn't seem so weak.
Musser: Yep, exactly. It is ironic, and I actually do have a short discussion in the book about how—did I put it? If gravity is still weak, why does it hurt so much when I fall? And the reason is it is fairly straightforward; gravity is a cumulative force. For instance electrical and magnetic forces have offsetting contributions; you might have a positive and negative charge or a north pole and south pole and those things tend to cancel out. And anytime you have a whole bunch of electrons together, they tend naturally to draw in positive charges to neutralize them. So electromagnetism is self negating in that way whereas gravity is not. Gravity only adds and it only adds up; there is only essentially positive gravitational charge. So in case of the earth, [it] has so many protons, neutrons, electrons and other particles in the earth and they all add up producing what we experience as a fairly large gravitational force. I should point out that large though it is, we are still able to resist it. We can still maintain our integrity. We can avoid falling down stairs. We can lift things up off a table and when we lift a book off the table, we are opposing the entire might of the earth to do so. So the essential electromagnetic forces that let us lift the book are opposing the entire earth's gravitational force. So it's, I think, it's 1039 or it is some other ungodly large number times more powerful than gravity, electromagnetism; and the strong force of the atomic nucleus is even stronger than electromagnetism. So this is just something we have to live with. And that implies, in turn, that whatever unifies gravity with other types of particles and other types of forces occurs at very, very short distances those are the kind of flip side of that.
Steve: These are distances that are not only too small to see, they are too small to even perceive with an electron microscope.
Musser: Oh, yeah, .yeah! This is just a way off.
Steve: They are orders and orders of magnitude smaller than the smallest thing you can visualize with our best microscopic technology.
Musser: Right and even our best microscope or, in a sense, microscope, is the Large Hadron Collider—the one being built or one about to start up, really, now in Switzerland—and it can penetrate to, I think it is 10-19 to -20 meters; in effect it's a microscope down to those distances; and the plank scale, the scale at which strings seem to operate these other types of entities is another 1015 times smaller; it is 10-35 meters. I should point out, just as a caveat, that strings might be a bit bigger than that strictly speaking, but usually people thought by 10-34 and 10-35 meter in size. So it's not something we're ever going to see it directly. In the case of atoms, we can see them now using various kinds of microscopes, but a string will never be directly visible to us. So you have to come out to it indirectly. So I think the way I describe it in the book is you tell physicists, "Hey, you're never going to be able to observe strings, sorry," and what's their first reaction? "Aaakkkhhe ... I've got to find a way to observe strings." They take it as a challenge. So I actually have a list of 10 possible ways not to observe strings, not even to prove that they exist, but to test the idea. And I think that's the way science usually works. You don't ever disprove something strictly or prove something strictly; it's always, sort of like, I think you've tilted it for or against; it's a balancing act. So slowly, over time, you tend to bring more and more evidence for something until we reach a point where, "Wow, it must be true" or conversely we pile up so much negative evidence we say, "No, can't really be true."
Steve: I was thinking if it's a long legal case with an accretion of evidence so that you finally come to a conclusion beyond the reasonable doubt about something.
Musser: Right, exactly, exactly.
Steve: What is the Large Hadron Collider actually going to enable us to start to see in concrete terms? What kind of evidence is it going to supply that we haven't had before that could play into our acceptance of string theory or any of the competing unification ideas?
Musser: Yeah, the Large Hadron Collider will really be the most closely watched instrument in physical science, at least over the next few years. It is actually the most expensive scientific instrument of any sort ever built. It involved, a tour de force of engineering and of organization and computing and all the rest. So I am really excited about it. It is not specific to string theory, of course. It's meant generally to prove beyond the current standard model of particle physics, and I want to emphasize that, because the standard model of particle physics is pretty much at the end of its rope when it comes to the energies probed by the Hadron Collider. Something has to happen at the Hadron Collider. There has to be some new physical process of some sort or other that current theories can handle. There [are]is just too many loose threads in the standard model and they all seem to kind of begin to matter. They began to affect observational predictions at the energies probed by the Hadron Collider. So number one, whatever comes out of the Hadron Collider will be a guide to [the] unification of physics, be it string theory, be it one of these other theories I have mentioned. Now there are specific types of phenomena that string theory would prove or would predict that the Hadron Collider might see. Now it's, again—as I've emphasized earlier—it's not a question of strictly proving or strictly disproving string theory; that's beyond even the Hadron Collider's ability. It's more of a hint level. and one is called super symmetry; and this is the idea that the two main types of particles in nature which are basically particles in matter and particles of force. So, particle matter might be an electron, a particle force might be a photon, a particle of light. Those are the two kinds of families of particles, the two types of particles, and super symmetry says they are actually united. There is actually, in essence, one type of particle that has these different manifestations, be it a matter or be it a force. So the electron is related—like a family relationship—to the photon, which is related to other types of particles as well; and that is the prediction of string theory [that] seems to be required—though not strictly required—but seems to be required by the behaviors of the strings and probably would be observable at the Hadron Collider. And you would see it because you would see a whole new gaggle of particles just start to pop out of thin air when they start to collide these particles at the Collider. So you are going to smash the protons together. They spew out countless other types of particles that we know of and hopefully that we don't know of. That's the whole purpose: is to find something that we don't know, some of which may be the super symmetric particles. Bottom line: the discovery or non-discovery of super symmetry, the Hadron Collider will be a huge clue. It's just going to be the elephant in a room holding the dagger clue.
Steve: The elephant in the room holding the dagger ...
Musser: Okay ...
Steve: So the elephant did it ...
Musser: The elephant did it, exactly, so it makes metaphor or whatever.
Steve: So, the results that we see from the Hadron Collider should start coming in pretty soon actually.
Musser: Let's see they are supposed to start up July, so this month or maybe August.
Steve: By the time papers come out with new particles, if there are any discovered—I mean, they're going to come out pretty quick.
Musser: Probably, but no, they have to take it slowly. Their actual first goal at the Collider is to rediscover the standard model.
Steve: Right.
Musser: So they are going to just recreate all the models they know, then remeasure them and ...
Steve: That will make sure that the Collider itself is working properly.
Musser: And also to really add another decimal place beside the measurements, so they can then look for deviations at a finer level than they were before. Now there are all sorts of exotic predictions that people have made about the Hadron Collider; about looking for black holes that it might produce for example; that if they did see, it would just already just be it like, start handing out Nobel prizes to the string theorists. Now most people think that's pretty unlikely, even if string theory is true that those black holes could be found, but the possibility is there and if they see a black hole already they just start ticking off names on who they are going to send to Stockholm, because it is going to be a huge, major discovery; not to mention they will be humanity's look into extra dimensions because of black holes—should they be creatable at the Hadron Collider—will be an indication that space has extra dimensions.
Steve: We're talking about teeny, tiny black holes, because I know that there are people out there who are afraid to press the start button on the Hadron Collider because they think it could destroy the world, the whole universe.
Musser: Yeah, forget the world, the universe. The thing about these little black holes—and this is actually something I talk about [a] lot in the book and which is essential to unifying physics—little black holes, you've [got] to think of them very differently from the big ones. They are all black holes, but the little ones aren't the monsters that the big ones are; they are kind of tortured souls. They are, kind of, they come on[in] to this world and they wink out almost as fast as they appear. So you shouldn't think of the little black holes as these, kind of, cosmic monsters or[that can] just, kind of, tear you apart.
Steve: It's not the doomsday machine.
Musser: It's not [a] doomsday machine. These are just going to form and they go pop; they form and pop; and they don't pose any threat to us, because in order to be created, that very fact that they can be created in the laboratory necessarily implies that they would also go pop and they would also destroy themselves almost instantly.
Steve: So we'll see some, you know, within the next couple of years, we are going to start to see some very interesting things or not come out of the collider. But let me ask you, there is this search for unification. It's been really this dream of physics now for, you know, a pretty much a century. Why do physicists believe that there is unification to be found? How do I know that that's the way the universe is and how do I not know that, well, as you said at the beginning of our conversation, this is just the way it is and you have to deal with it? How do I know that this isn't just the way it is and I can't unify gravity with the other fundamental forces, and I just have to live in a universe that is aesthetically unpleasing that goes on its merry way without unification?
Musser: I think there is [are] really three ways. One is just that nature itself is a unity. There don't seem to be lines in the sand drawn around natural phenomena in the world. Everything seems to just click together, so it suggests that underlying the natural world is a unifying set of principals. Second is really historical example—that in the past, every time we had seen disparate phenomena and that we think of just, "Oh completely different," they turn out to have a common cause; they turn out to stem from some unified description of them. And third, there are particular sign posts up ahead that tell us that there seems to be a unity to the particles and even to gravity and particles. For example, if you extrapolate the strengths of different forces of nature, they still vary; they are not constant. Electromagnetism strengthens a little bit as you probe to higher and higher energies; to strong force seems to weaken a little bit as you probe to higher and higher energies; gravity seems to strengthen as you probe to higher and higher energies. These trends among the forming forces of nature all converge; they all converge on a point up near this plank scale I was telling you about earlier. It happens about 10-35 meters; it is the distance or equivalent energy—because those two concepts are related—at which all the forces of nature seem to be unified.
Steve: And what we mean by that is: it's not that there is a single set of equations that describe them all so much as they are all the same.
Musser: Right.
Steve: At the point of the big bang, gravity is electromagnetism, is the strong force, is the weak force. They are force X, they are all exactly the same, and it is only when we get that expansion, then the forces themselves also start to separate from each other.
Musser: Exactly, exactly, exactly. So, at the dawn of our universe—and I have to emphasize our universe, because there could be others—so, dawn of our universe, physicists think there was one type of force, one type of matter and that as the cosmos expanded, as space expanded, it cooled and things started to condense out like snow flakes, and over time that single force broke, it differentiated; and something similar happens in the human body as we develop from a single cell; we differentiate, different tissues form in our bodies, different layers of tissues. Something similar happened, physicists think, in our universe, that over time this single force somehow differentiated into the four forces that we know today. The two nuclear forces—gravity and electromagnetism—and in turn electromagnetism seems to differentiate into electricity or magnetism, depending on our own velocity, for example; depending how we perceive what our perspective on that force is. So the idea is that because the forces seem to converge in strength it is taken as a clue as a sign post that they are actually manifestations of a single force. It's not proved, but it's, you know, go to battle with the army you have; you have to see what's you have got here and it seems to be a clue; what's interesting in particular about that clue is that the two components of it—namely gravity on the one side and the three quantum forces, electromagnetism, and the nuclear forces on the other—act independently in their convergence. For instance, the forces of electromagnetism and the nuclear forces seem to converge and there are laws of quantum mechanics that dictate that convergence and they actually are fairly modest in their variation with scale, with energy. So they just, kind [of], lackadaisically they come together to a point and meet. Gravity, which varies hugely with a scale of with a scale of energy that you probe it out, just kind of swoops in from afar like a falcon and lands exactly where this[these] other three forces are. That is a coincidence rather than something that had deep meaning rather then, "Boy, God has really played a trick on us".
Steve: (laughs)
Musser: So the indications are there. There seems to be some unity to nature. It's coming out in the measurements that scientists can now take.
Steve: Well, these are certainly interesting times to be a physicist or to follow physics.
Musser: I think so. I mean, everybody thinks to live in a special time, wouldn't that be great, to see Einstein's theory proved in 1919, demonstrated in 1919; and today we have something similar. So as we see these results come from the Hadron Collider, we are going to see something new, and I think most physicists would like to speed it up, if they were wrong, because that it would open up new doors for them.
Story number 1: A species of chameleon has been found whose eggs, while the chameleons are in them developing, can change color to match their surroundings.
Story number 2: Historians have dated Caesar's invasion of Britain to August 26th and 27th in the year 55 BC, but a new analysis by astronomers shows that the actual invasion dates had to be earlier.
Story number 3: Keeping a food diary doubled the pounds taken off by participants in a weight loss program.
And Story number 4: After suffering from a stroke, an Ontario woman started to speak with a Newfoundland accent.
Time is up.
Story number 4 is true. An Ontario woman sounded like a "Newfie" after a stroke. So-called foreign accent syndrome affect[s] some people who suffer brain damage. Their speech changes to something that listeners think sounds like a foreign accent. In this case, however, the changes are more reminiscent of maritime Canadian English. The case was reported in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences.
Story number 3 is true. A study of participants in a weight loss program found that those who simply wrote down everything they ate lost twice as much as those people who just tried to follow the program. The researchers published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine; for more check out the July 11th edition of the daily podcast, 60-Second Science.
And story number 2 is true. Because of gravitational forces exerted by the sun and moon, the English Channel would have been flowing the wrong way on the dates usually given for Caesar's invasion of Britain. Caesar's own descriptions of the tides along with the new astronomical calculations indicate that he probably invaded Britain four days earlier than the accepted dates of August 26th and 27th 55 B.C. The research appeared in Sky & Telescope magazine.
All of which means that story number 1, about a chameleon whose eggs exhibit color mimicry, is TOTALL....... Y BOGUS. But what is true is that a species of Madagascar chameleon has been discovered to spend three-fourths of its life span inside the egg. It then lives free for only four or five months. No other known four-legged animal has such a rapid growth rate after hatching or birth along with such a short life span.
Well that's it for this edition of the weekly SciAm podcast. Visit for the latest science news, content from our magazines and all our podcasts. For Science Talk, the weekly podcast of Scientific American, I'm Steve Mirsky. Thanks for clicking on us.
Click below to watch a brief version of Steve's interview with George Musser about his new book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to String Theory. Listen to the complete audio podcast above.
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Saturday, July 4, 2009
Curious About Covers
I came across this cover at this online Spanish Bookstore supposedly for the 3rd book in Eileen Wilks paranormal series. Look familiar? I wonder if Patricia Briggs or artist Dan Dos Santos has seen this..
1. That is strange. I just finished that book a few days ago. I have had the book sitting here for months so I know it is not new.
2. Does Eileen have a Spanish publisher? - thats a definitely a breach of copyright. I know the French editions of the Mercy series has the same covers with some differences but that has been allowed. I have notified Mike (Patty's husband) and perhaps Eileen should be as well - this looks definitely off.
3. It's on the level. Actually publishers buy cover art and manuscripts separately, and there's nothing preventing a foreign publisher from using cover art that was originally used on a different book.
We saw something similar with a Spanish publisher earlier, and I brought it to Dan Dos Santos' attention. He assured me that it was legit, and mentioned that the Spanish publisher had also bought the rights to other additional covers.
Bottom line: good catch (and thank you!), but this is not a problem, and it IS a lovely cover!
Mike Briggs
4. WOW! I've seen some similar in using the same characters, different poses or different clothes, but this is exact the same!
5. Good catch. This is exactly the same.
~ Popin
6. sundcarrie Mike Briggs kindly provided answers below.
Thanks Has - Mike replied below.
Hi Mike thanks for dropping in and letting us know the scoop. Interesting that such a high profile author and artists cover would be repurposed like that. Don's work is fabulous so I can understand wanting to use it. Good to know everything is on the level.
Caffey and PopinFresh I guess in totally different markets they don't expect people to be aware of the reuse. And they do have good taste!
7. It might be legit, but I find it sad that they chose to use a cover specifically made for another book! It's not as if it was a simple use of a same stock picture... Not the end of the world, I know :)
8. Well if they can reuse covers - does this mean Eileen Wilks has a book with a woman mechanic as a main character? Now I'm curious about that.
9. infiniteshelf well great art can sell books even if it doesn't relate to the content. Sigh.
Janicu I've read the series and there is definitely no mechanics. One of the characters DOES have a lot of tattoos though.
10. Hi Doug
Strange how the cover art isn't copyrighted for a certain book or author, and it can be used over again or purchased again for use. I've seen this online with similar covers used, especially with ebooks, but I haven't seen an exact duplicate used like this.
Thanks for the info, very interesting.
Dottie :)
11. if i was an author getting my book published im pretty sure i would want my own brand new beautiful cover not one that i bought from another author-
12. Dottie I imagine most rights are sold country by country. It probably happens more than we think because most of us rarely see foreign language editions.
Anonymous I think most authors are more than happy just to see the rights bought for foreign publication. Anything else is gravy.
13. Great find!
Love that cover! It's sad that the other book had to copy it and to have no mechanic in the book is terrible!
There are tons of other works that depict women with tattoos. Too sad.
Awesome of Mike to let us know all is cool. :)
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Stella Does Tricks (1996)
Main image of Stella Does Tricks (1996)
35mm, 99 min, colour
DirectorCoky Giedroyc
Production CompanyBritish Film Institute
Channel Four
ProducerAdam Barker
ScreenplayAL Kennedy
CinematographyBarry Ackroyd
Cast: Kelly Macdonald (Stella McGuire); James Bolam (Mr Peters); Hans Matheson (Eddie); Ewan Stewart (Francis McGuire)
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Stella, a teenage Scottish prostitute living in London, tries to escape from her pimp's clutches but finds little happiness.
Show full synopsis
Coky Giedroyc's debut feature, Stella Does Tricks (1997) is one of a rash of British films dealing with drugs and social issues following in the wake of Trainspotting (d. Danny Boyle, 1996). The casting of Trainspotting's Kelly Macdonald as teenage prostitute Stella helps cement the reference.
It is on the collision of Stella's dream life with the harsh realities of her material existence that Giedroyc chooses to focus. The 'tricks' that Stella does are both the sordid businessmen to whom her pimp sells her and the magic tricks that help her disappear into dreams of childhood. As life tightens its grip upon Stella, even these dreams are infected. It becomes apparent that the loving comedian father of the early sequences was simply the first in a long line of men who have abused her. The slippage between fact and fantasy frustrates the audience's reading of scenes where Stella returns to her Glasgow roots to enact childish revenge fantasies against the father and aunt who raised her.
We first see Stella buying ice creams with her hair in bunches, wearing long socks and carrying a child's rucksack. She is presented as an infantilised figure, reflecting both her actual youth and the sexual preferences of her pimp, Mr Peters, who demands her services while he holds her ice-cream.
The actors don't always carry the weight of the film, and exchanges between Stella and her junkie boyfriend Eddie (Hans Matheson) are overly theatrical. But James Bolam delivers a striking performance as Peters, the soft-spoken manipulator who subjects Stella to an organised gang rape as a farewell present and rejoices in sinister lines like "since when did you have a say in how you're treated?"
Giedroyc went on to make Women Talking Dirty (1999), and her previous credits include the short film, The Future Lasts a Long Time (1996), also funded by the BFI Production Board.
Jonny Bugg
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3. Swimming pool (1:27)
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Sex Traffic (2004)
Ackroyd, Barry (1954-)
Bolam, James (1938-)
Macdonald, Kelly (1976-)
Serkis, Andy (1964-)
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Eng. 270 - Tupac, Immortal Technique
Eng. 270 - Tupac, Immortal Technique
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Hartz1Scott HartzEng. 270Dr. GuzzioThe Acceptance of Death and the Fight with God: Tupac, Immortal Technique, andTraditional African American MusicIf we look into the lyrics of traditional African American songs and comparethem to the lyrics of music by contemporary African Americans and other non-whites we can find similarities in their subject matter and the treatment of theAfrican condition. Lyrics from "Soon I Will be Done," an old African Americanspiritual song, have similarities to Tupac Shakur's poem "In the Event of MyDemise". Contemporary Hispanic rapper Immortal Technique employs ideas about God similar to those used in the African American gospel song "Freedom in the Air."These works and others hold similar ideas about God, oppression of blacks, and thedivide between people of different color. By drawing these comparisons we can seethat the struggle for equality between people is still ongoing, despite years of reformand attempted mending."Soon I Will Be Done (With the Troubles of the World)" is an AfricanAmerican spiritual song. The speaker repeats many times that their "troubles" willsoon end. We can infer that the writer has become so worn by their trials that theyhave grown comfortable with the idea of death ("I want t' meet my Jesus, I'm goin' tolive with God"(17-18). The speaker welcomes death because it provides a relief from "the troubles of the world." Tupac Shakur evokes a similar sense of acceptingdeath in his prescient poem "In the Event of My Demise" when he states that he has
Hartz2"come 2 [sic] grips with the possibility [of death] and wiped the last tear from[his]eyes." Shakur feels that he will "die before [his] time because [he] feels theshadows depth." Although I cannot find the date that Tupac's poem was written, it proved to be prophetic because he was tragically murdered not long after it waswritten. Both lyrics reveal an acceptance of death, and in one case it is evenwelcomed because of the speaker's "troubles." These ideas about death andembracing God are further explored in other songs by people of non-white ethnicity.The African American gospel song "Freedom in the Air" concludes that "theremust be a God somewhere (23)". The speaker's idea that there is "freedom in the airover [their] head" indicates a questioning hope from God for relief from earth-bound suffering. Hispanic rapper Immortal Technique (Felipe Andres Coronel)states in his song "Internally Bleeding" that he "was chosen to speak the words oevery African slave" thereby placing himself in a position to win some kind of retribution for those souls who were "[d]umped in the ocean/ stolen by America" byrapping about their former and current oppression. In his own internal conflict withGod, Andres Coronel says that
"[his] mother told [him] that placing [his] faith in Godwas the answer" but then replies with the assertion that "then[he] hated God 'causehe gave [his] mother cancer"(citation needed), thus questioning his own trust in Godbecause of his mother's illness. Both works present a torn image of God as bothsavior and antagonist because of His power to give, take, and influence people'slives. Although they do not explicity state that their problems stem from theirethnicities, the voices, in this case, come from Black and Hispanic people.
Hartz3In "Internally Bleeding" Andres Coronel also reaffirms the prevalence of death in his life by stating plainly that "the things [he has] seen in life will make youchoke by surprise" and that "death is another part of life" (citation needed). Thisconnects to the acceptance of death in both Tupac Shakur's "In the Event of MyDemise" and "Soon I Will Be Done." Andres Coronel further explores his feelings of impending death as he raps "[t]hese are my last words, I'm having difficultlybreathing/Dying on the inside, internally bleeding/ Angel of death dragging meaway while I'm sleeping/ Watching my world crumble in front of me, searching formeaning" (citation needed). It is sad to look here at these recurring themes of accepting death in works that span time and include two different ethnic groups (inthis case, African American and Hispanic). They point to a need for change in thetreatment of people who don't have the privelege of being white, and it is evenworse that being white today may still give someone an advantage over someonewho isn't white.It is appropriate for the songs of any human to include themes of death andsadness, but why is it so prevalent in the strains of African American tunes? Weshould all work to give people something happy to sing about, especially those whohave a history in our country as slaves. Songs about death and sadness will neverdisappear, but we can at least endeavor to give people more reason to move awayfrom songs about forthcoming death and divide between men; let us work rather togive each other songs to sing of co-existing life and brotherhood. As John Lennonwrote in his famously hopeful song "Imagine": "Imagine no possessions/ I wonder if
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Why Men Don't Call After A Date - Was It Something You Said?
By Jamie Roberts
As he walks you to your door, you both stop short of the entranceway. He stares into your eyes and you're reminded of just how handsome he is. Smiling, he holds your hand and reaches for a kiss. What a perfect way to finish off a fantastic evening.
The date went well, and he definitely seemed to be into you. In fact, he couldn't keep his eyes off. You feel as though you've really connected with him and you're certain that this is the beginning of something special. Returning to his car, he tells you that he'll give you a call. You wave and smile; unaware of the fact that this is the last time you'll see him.
Of course, he won't phone the next day. That would seem a little desperate - and he certainly was not that. Two days pass - then a week. What's going on - why hasn't he called?
After two weeks, you realize that it's over. If you did have something special that night, it's gone. Playing things over in your head, you can't understand where you went wrong. How could you have misread the signals? Why would he mislead you and hurt you like that?
You contemplate calling him, but self-respect prevails.
Why didn't he call?
Here are some possible reasons:
He's insincere: Plain and simple - he is the type that can't show his feelings. He can put on a good show, but underneath he's thinking about how to get you into bed, or what the score of last night's game was. He probably has a lot of friends (that are at least as immature as he is) and a woman or two on the side. This guy has a lot on his plate and you don't take priority.
Fear of commitment - Maybe he sensed that things were going a little fast. Some people just can't get close to others. The biggest reason for this is the perceived loss of freedom. Although it's normally an issue after more than one date, he might have seen where things were headed and decided to end it before it even started.
You came off as desperate - Yes, even though you were laughing it up like a couple of kids during the date, and you thought things were going great, you might have been giving off desperation vibes. Laughing at all his jokes and agreeing with everything he said may not have been the best plan. But you only did that because you wanted to please him. Surely he could see that?
You were too serious. You could have said something that was misinterpreted (marriage, babies). Unfortunately, you'll probably never know. The best thing to do on a first date is to keep things light.
There is one positive about the whole experience, however. At least you spared yourself the pain of building a relationship; only to have it all eventually come crashing down.
"A Good Man Is Hard To Find." Many women believe this, but the truth is that you simply need to know what to look for and change your approach a little. Discover how to become irresistible to men! Get the advantage, and quickly decide if he's right for you!
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Men-Dont-Call-After-A-Date---Was-It-Something-You-Said?&id=1089981
Copyright © 2005-2008 Sex Ed 101. All Rights Reserved
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Michael and Beth get better introduced
This house wasn’t quite your average student house. For one is was larger than you would expect. There were very few of them in the area so the went fast. Three floors, but designed for three people. Not a floor each, but for maximum comfort. Three bedrooms, each as large as the others, each with scenic large windows and all, with soundproofing. An overly large kitchen, en-suit bathrooms, and offices for each tenant along with a large living area… fully furnished. The strangest thing, no catch…
Bethany, Michael and Jonathan were the three tenants down for the student house. Bethany was doing a degree in Media, Michael in Physics and Jonathan in Maths. None of them had met before the first day of moving in. the personal possessions had been eased in over the last few weeks. Jonathan was situated on the second floor, Bethany and Michael on the third. Jonathan spent little time with our housemates during the first week, retreating to his highly private room with his girlfriend.
For tonight how ever we bring our attention to the bedroom of Bethany. Her door had slipped open an inch or two before she had gone to bed, thus killing the soundproofing of her room. Michael had to pass her door in order to retreat to his own bedroom, the hectic life the three had lead the last week hadn’t lead to introductions but Michael was a very good judge of character. Bethany, the overly quite and timid room mate, prone to bursts of attitude and sarcasm and seemingly bursts for control. It was obvious to him she was after the opposite and was desperate for it, and there was never any mention for the other half, the closest clue he had to her sex life was the low sound of vibration currently emitting from her bedroom.
He slipped in through the door closing it behind him, Beth didn’t even notice.
”And what are you up to tonight young lady?”
Beneath the covers Beth’s heart skipped a beat, she clicked the vibrator of and feigned sleep, praying her intruder would just back off. Her breathing had increased significantly and her wet cunt hugger the vibrator tighter as she found that this situation was arousing her. She had never been caught with a vibrator before and no one even knew that she knew what one was.
“Do you honestly think that pathetic attempt will hide your actions?” the mocking tone in his voice was obvious, he sat down on the bed and slipped his hand beneath the covers to find the source of her current pleasure. “A Rabbit? Nice choice. Did you even have it on the highest setting?” his voice still mocking her as his hands fingered the buttons of the vibrating bunny on the vibrator.
Beth finally found her voice and tried to sound furious at the intruder. With his hand so close to her cunt she was finding it hard. “What, exactly, do you think you are doing in here?!”
Michael leaned towards hear and flicked the vibrator up a notch, he was only a few inches from her face, his chiselled features visible even in the gently light from the window behind her. His long hair spilled down around his face, he was smiling slightly down at her and her breath caught in her throat.
“I’m about to give a slut a dam good orgasm, and then punishment for speaking to me in such a manner. I’d think twice before addressing me sharply again.” He brought his lips down onto hers and kissed her hard as he pushed up the level on the vibrator to full. She bucked her hips against the pressure whilst kissing him back passionately. She with drew and spoke through shortened breathes.
“Too, High..”
“I take it your cunt has never had the feeling of this up full?” his head was cocked to one side as he pushed the vibrator deeper into her soaking wet cunt, the rabbit closer to her clit. She bucked her hips again, gasping and pushing her head back. “You will enjoy the end believe me, You’ll also enjoy being my pet.”
“Your.. What?” her attempts to sound angered were drowned out by the groan when he pushed it closer to her cunt once more.
“My Pet. If you wish me to stop, stop me. You know you need me to be your master, you’ll know that even more when you cum.”
She moved her hands under the blanket and lay them on his, her body starting to tingle all over, she threw her head back trying to fight rational thought but not wanting to let go of this feeling.
“You will submit to me pet, you’re a whore for pleasure and I can give it to you.” He ran his tongue up her exposed neck, his hot breath caressing her neck.
Beth was become a lot more vocal, her hips pushing down onto the vibrator in her cunt, she pulled his hands towards her, moaning loudly and the tingling sensation turned to heat and coursed through her entire body, her back arched backwards far of the bed and she came hard, when she settled he with drew the vibrator and replaced it with his fingers.
“Surprisingly tight, even after fucking a vibrator.” He nodded his approval and she blushed when he gave it. She abandoned rational thought that this man was crazy and was taking advantage of her, she needed to feel that again and he knew it.
Michael stood up and moved to the end of the bed, sitting down near the end. “Come here Beth, now. Its time for the second part of this encounter.”
It was then she remembered that he had mentioned a punishment. “What exactly are you planning on doing to me?” sarcasm back in her voice, hands on hips. The blanket falling away to reveal her sleeping garments. A black silk strap top, which gave a good shot of her cleavage and a pair of silk shorts, she must have slipped them on quickly when his was turned.
“Did I tell you to re clothe?” he sighed and tapped his lap patiently, knowing that she would come over, she needed it badly, it was just taking her a while to figure it out. “If you don’t come over on your own, I will drag you by your hair.”
Beth was speechless and shook her head, but found herself moving towards him none the less. She hung her head as he took hold of her arms and pulled her across his lap and then pinned her wrist in the small of her back
“Do you know why you hear Beth?”
“Because my insane roommate barged into my room, forced me to orgasm and then put me here?”
Michael emitted a low growl before bringing his hand down hard on her arse. Several times he did this, hard and fast, alternate from each side of her arse. She yelped loudly with each slap, squirming and trying to dodge each one. Her movement bringing her cock to full erection when he had managed to keep it at bay before now.
“I don’t appreciate that.”
“I’m... sorry… I’m here because I spoke rudely to you…?”
“That’s right, see? You can be a good pet.”
Without further warning he brought his hand down on her arse again, repeating what he was doing earlier another 30 or so times. She still struggled after every slap but didn’t utter a word apart from the pained yelps. He hooked his fingers in the black silk short and pulled them down. Revealing her quickly reddening arse beneath and he cleanly shaven cunt.
“Looks like I judged you right pet, you can call me Sir from now on.”
“What?!” she made a show of trying to stand only to be pushed down hard again. Followed by the feel of his large hands now striking her bear flesh. She yelps became louder and struggles harder.
After a few more slaps he slipped a finger inside of her. Stroking her gently as he spoke
“Beth, your now my pet, my sex Slave. You’ll do as I say and call me what I tell you to. In return I’ll give you what your after. Your cunt is drenched, and its gotten even more so since I started this punishment. Tonight is just to ease you in, let you realise what you need. Say now if you want to go back to how things were and I will leave right now and nothing will have happened…”
Beth shook her head frantically, a little more so than she had intended to.
“No, Please… Sir… I don’t want things to go back to how they were.”
He didn’t speak further, he with drew his hand quickly and brought his hand down hard on her arse over and over until it turned a bright hot red, she still yelped at each slap and she swore she had never felt such pain, yet her cunt just seemed to get more and more wet. Her yelps became interspersed with moans and before she knew it two of his fingers wear deep in her cunt, moving roughly and forcing her to orgasm. She bucked her self towards his hands and screamed when the orgasm hit her.
He stroked her back before pulling her silk shorts up roughly. Her cunt still sopping wet she was craving more. He picked her up and lay her in her bed and picked up the vibrator. Her eyes lit up but he shook it in front of her face, smiling lightly at her. He leaned it and kissed her gently.
“Mr. Rabbit will spend the nights in my room now pet, you only cum when I say.”
She groaned in something akin to that of a child not getting its own way.
“But Sir…”
He cut her of with a wave of his hand that seemed to make her arse tingle at the memory.
“Sleep” he said in almost a whisper as he exited the room closing the door behind him. The erection in his pants was killing him. He made his way quickly down the hall to his room, the though of his new pet in bed, desperate for another orgasm helped bring him to his own.
anonymous readerReport
2011-07-30 15:14:05
please please write another.
2011-06-18 21:17:12
Heyy this was good. And yea, just spelling isn't great. Part 2 ?!
2007-11-12 19:48:31
the story line is great but the spelling dosen't allow the story to flow.
2007-10-02 07:52:23
Spelling and grammar errors detract markedly from the text. Great start
2007-09-13 09:13:45
Part 2? . . . . . Please?
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Die Heuning Pot Literature Guide
© 2014 Shmoop University, Inc. All rights reserved.
There's a word for Nemo's particular brand of hatin': misanthropy. That's a fancy term for "a dislike of mankind." In 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, we never really know who has caused Nemo's pain. So, the ever-lurking, ambiguous nature of his enemies makes us feel like everyone could is his enemy. Nemo's hatred of mankind doesn't prevent him from liking certain individuals, however. He gets along with his crew just fine, he works with the Greek diver, and he saves the poor Indian pearl diver. Plus, despite their differences, he seems to like Aronnax. So Nemo's sort of a mixed bag of fiery hate and not-so-fiery like, after all.
Questions About Hate
1. Nemo demonstrates compassion and concern on more than one occasion. Can he really be called a misanthrope if he's capable of acts of kindness?
2. Aronnax is convinced that Nemo is filled with hatred from the moment he meets him. What inspires this gut reaction in Aronnax?
3. Would we empathize more with Aronnax if his hatred were more targeted?
4. Aronnax calls Nemo an "archangel of hate." Are there any positive aspects to Nemo's anger? Does it give him a "holy" quality?
Chew on This
Hatred defines Nemo and powers his intellect; without it, he would be not only no one, but nothing.
Though he may seem hateful on the surface, Nemo's commitment to the oppressed peoples of the world suggests that his feelings are much more complex.
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Die Heuning Pot Literature Guide
© 2014 Shmoop University, Inc. All rights reserved.
Quote #10
(Chorus to Aegisthus): "You – you woman! Against those who were newly from the fighting, while you had kept the house at home and violated the husband's bed as well – did you plan this death for their commander? […] As if I shall see you ruling the Argives – you who planned death for this man but had no courage to carry out the deed by killing him yourself!"
(Aegisthus): "That was because the deception was clearly a woman's role, while I was a suspect enemy from long ago." (1625-1627, 1633-1635)
Once again, we see that the Chorus, even though they are already upset for the basic reason that their king has been killed, is EXTRA angry because he was killed through deception. Here, they show how Aegisthus's use of deception means they have no respect for him. (This is expressed by the fact that they call him a "woman," which in ancient Greek society meant that Aegisthus was less than a man.) In response, however, Aegisthus argues that he used deception because he had to. Can you think of other moments in Aeschylus's play in which characters justify their actions by saying that they had no choice? Do you think that Aeschylus considers this an acceptable way of justifying bad behavior?
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Jump to:
23370 Posts in 18160 Topics by 2864 members
General Questions
SilverStripe Forums » General Questions » $this->dataRecord->Fieldname versus $this->FieldName
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• aragonne
Community Member
26 Posts
$this->dataRecord->Fieldname versus $this->FieldName Link to this post
Hi there,
Chapter 5 of the SilverStripe book by Ingo Schommer and Steven Broschart, specifically pages 149-150, states that to access a property of the model in the controller, the dataRecord property should be used. For example:
class MyPage extends Page {
static $db = array { 'MyField' => 'VarChar' };
function getCMS() { ... }
class MyPage_Controller extends Page_Controller {
$myField1 = $this->MyField;
$myField2 = $this->dataRecord->MyField;
myField1 and myField2 store the same content when echo'd out. What is the advantage of using dataRecord or is it used for other situations? Examples please.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/60902
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I'm new to Javascript so bear with me.
I have a table with 4 thumbnails on the right side. I've used Javascript to display a larger mid-sized image in a 5th cell to their left. This image changes whenever I click on the appropriate thumbnail. I've assigned "MyImage" to that cell's name and my onclick statement reassigns the larger image's nane and displays it properly. So far, so good.
Next I want to click on the mid-size image to bring up a new window with that image displayed in a larger XGA sized resolution. I've tried numerous ways to make this happen but I keep getting the XGA sized image of the first thumbnail and the XGA image size doesn't swap.
The code is as follows:
<table border="0" width="100%" style="border-collapse: collapse">
<td rowspan="3" width="70%">
<p align="center">
<a target="_blank" href="super_1.jpg">
<img border="0" src="image_1.jpg" name="MyImage"></a></p></td>
<td align="center">
<img border="0" src="thumb_1.jpg"
<td align="center">
<img border="0" src="thumb_2.jpg"
<td align="center">
<img border="0" src="thumb_3.jpg"
<td align="center">
<img border="0" src="thumb_4.jpg"
I've used "thumb" to reference the thumbnails, "image" to reference the mid-size, and "super" to reference the large XGA sized images. The 4th line of the code, the one with the "super_1.jpg" href is the one that's not working. I've tried all sorts of methods to get this to change but I'm too new to javascript and it's beyond me. But, I'm a fast learner.
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Setting up a family trust
Personal Finance editor, Annette Sampson explores how to set up a family trust and what benefits it can have.
PT2M19S 620 349
The strategy: To find out whether there's a potential problem with my family trust.
Is that likely? At last count, there were more than 600,000 family trusts in Australia, many of which were set up 20 or 30 years ago. So when was the last time you looked at the trust deed? Do you even know where it is?
A partner with Hall & Wilcox, Emma Woolley, says a growing number of people are looking to review or modernise their trust deeds and are discovering they don't know where they are. The family may not have retained the original documents, or they may have been left with an adviser such as an accountant or lawyer that the family moved on from years ago, or they may have been damaged at some time.
<i>Illustration: Karl Hilzinger</i>
Search and recover … misplaced trust deeds can prove costly. Illustration: Karl Hilzinger
Even worse, she says, some clients are seeing advisers to have their trusts reviewed, only to find they have matured and no longer exist. This can have significant tax and legal consequences and, ideally, you'd like time to plan for them, but if you don't know when the trust matures it could be too late.
Why do I need the trust deed? Woolley says family trusts are much less flexible than companies, or even self-managed super funds. The trust deed is the document that sets out what the trustee can do and how the trust should be managed. She says the Bamford court decision of 2010 emphasised the importance of the trust deed in determining how income from the trust could be distributed. Prior to that decision, she says, people assumed all trusts were the same, but they're not.
The Bamford decision centred around streaming of trust income - paying different types of income to different beneficiaries - and caused many families and their advisers to go back to their trust deeds to find out exactly what they said. But if you don't have the trust deed, you can't read it. And if you can't read it, you can't find out whether it needs to be updated.
''Some trusts have limitations or require a particular person's consent to any changes,'' she says. ''There's a real risk that if you don't know that, any changes you do make might not be effective.''
Woolley says she is also expecting a ''tidal wave'' of litigation when trusts mature and family members, who have been tied together by the trust, fall out.
So what should I do? A good start, even if you don't think the deed needs any changes, would be to track down the trust deed and ensure it is in a safe place. She says even if it doesn't need any changes now, it may once the government review of how trusts are taxed is completed.
If you can't find the original deed, Woolley says there is a risk the Tax Office might not believe it existed. In most cases, she says, clients are able to find enough documentation to give comfort that the trust exists. You may be able to find a copy of the original deed or some other form of evidence.
She says in one case, two brothers had established identical trusts at the same time with the same accountant. One brother had later moved his business (and trust deed) to a new accountant and lost track of the trust but had enough evidence to show his lost deed was identical to his brother's.
If you have no evidence, she says, you can go through the court system to try to establish confirmation of a deed, but this is expensive and potentially risky.
Is it worth having a trust? Woolley says they are still useful vehicles for estate and succession planning, and for protecting an individual's assets. But they have their own challenges and are ruled by the trust deed. So it's a document to be taken care of.
Twitter: @sampsonsmh
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Well, the bad news is that DocEvil couldn't make it this week to do the Weekend Web. Some people have no sense of obligation, and lack the punctuality to update in a regular fashion. Seeing as how his absence is due to a addiction that started with 10 day trial into World of Warcraft, we at Something Awful found it appropriate to perhaps "scare him straight" by highlighting the WoW community. And since we don't know how to use email, we figured we would do so in this update! And you have to read it! Sucks to be you! Read it anyways!
Blizzard's Official World of Warcraft Forum
This lead in to the screenshot is like kissing your own sister: forced and awkward.
Most of us wear gloves, drink beer and suck while masturbating, so what is he trying to prove?.
Get paid playtesting from your home! Earn $200 a week while playing for 60 to 80 hours!
Next time he will be sure to hide the WoW when his mom's around.
What's cooler than being cool? Bragging about putting cold things on the genitals of others!
Friends in the game are much more likely to pay you the $20 they owe you sooner, too.
More The Art of Warcraft
This Week on Something Awful...
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KEF Reference 207/2 Stereo Speakers Page 2
The Short Form
Price $10,000 each / / 732-683-2356
At $20,000 a pair, these superlative loudspeakers celebrate the rich heritage of British loudspeaker manufacturing and deliver everything they promise.
•Impeccable sound quality •Drop-dead gorgeous cabinets •Built-in equalization
•If you have to ask the price, you can't afford them
Key Features
Model 207/2 •61/2-in Uni-Q midrange with 1-in titanium tweeter; 10-in low/mid; (2) 10-in woofers; 481/4 in high; 145 lb •Finishes: piano black, high-gloss cherry, high-gloss American walnut, satin sycamore
Test Bench
The 633-T showed excellent bass extension, along with a bump at 100 Hz, a floor bounce notch at 200 Hz, and a 3-dB elevation near its crossover. The 634-VAC center delivered unchanged sound to off-axis seats; its Cabinet mode attenuates sub-500-Hz output by 2 to 3 dB. The surrounds behaved as expected, with the Dipole mode showing notably more low-end rolloff than Bipole mode. The sub averaged 104 dB SPL from 25 to 62 Hz, and hit max SPL of 112 dB at 50 Hz. - Tom Nousaine Full Lab Results
I ended up placing the speakers about 3 feet from my wall and, after experimentation, set the LF control to -2 dB and the HF control to -0.75 dB. I also decreased my usual toe-in to a very slight angle; this further attenuated the high end and warmed it up a bit. And although the black cloth grilles were mighty attractive, I listened with them removed.
Music Performance I began my audition with some CDs I know well, and it was immediately clear that the 207/2s could take music reproduction to another level. On Mark Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelphia, the vocals and Stratocaster solos sounded like a live feed from the studio's mixing console; it's hard to fully describe the immediacy of the sound. Percussion was precisely enunciated, without any sense of artificiality. Instead of a speaker reproducing a hi-hat, it was, to my ear, the sound of a hi-hat.
The dynamics of Robert Randolph & the Family Band's Colorblind really kicked on the 207/2s. The pedal steel guitar was absolutely clean throughout its broad midrange region - a particularly tricky area because of the interplay of three different speaker drivers. But they integrated perfectly to create the sound of one steel guitar.
Thanks to the KEF's wonderful woofers, I've never heard Santana's Supernatural sound quite so good. On songs like "Migra," I was getting tuneful bass from a real music speaker, not the one-note bass I hear from many standalone subs. Furthermore, the bass levels were much louder than that of many subs. A lot of subs self-destruct when trying to play the bottom half-octave at even modest levels. In contrast, these woofers - flat down to "only" perhaps 40 Hz - could more easily play loud and clean.
Other good speakers convey sonic detail (such as fingers dragging across guitar strings), but the 207/2s went beyond detail, truly lifting a veil from the music. Each instrument occupied its own acoustic space, as opposed to the ensemble smear created by many speakers. I was particularly impressed by the clarity of the rhythm guitar and the floor toms; the large midbass driver was a revelation here. In a world of sats and subs, that crucial transition between the two frequency ranges is too often deficient. Here, with a 10-inch driver dedicated to that region, the transition was seamless.
To conclude my music audition, I listened to Act III of Wagner's Die Walküre, in a performance conducted by James Levine. This is an excellent stereo recording of one of the most beautiful pieces ever written. At the end of the opera, waves of sound washed over me - and I am not ashamed to say that this music, both tender and heroic, brought tears to my eyes.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/60976
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Next: , Previous: Setting Symbols, Up: Symbols
5.3 Symbol Names
Symbol names begin with a letter or with one of `._'. On most machines, you can also use $ in symbol names; exceptions are noted in Machine Dependencies. That character may be followed by any string of digits, letters, dollar signs (unless otherwise noted for a particular target machine), and underscores.
Case of letters is significant: foo is a different symbol name than Foo.
Multibyte characters are supported. To generate a symbol name containing multibyte characters enclose it within double quotes and use escape codes. cf See Strings. Generating a multibyte symbol name from a label is not currently supported.
Each symbol has exactly one name. Each name in an assembly language program refers to exactly one symbol. You may use that symbol name any number of times in a program.
Local Symbol Names
A local symbol is any symbol beginning with certain local label prefixes. By default, the local label prefix is `.L' for ELF systems or `L' for traditional a.out systems, but each target may have its own set of local label prefixes. On the HPPA local symbols begin with `L$'.
Local symbols are defined and used within the assembler, but they are normally not saved in object files. Thus, they are not visible when debugging. You may use the `-L' option (see Include Local Symbols: -L) to retain the local symbols in the object files.
Local Labels
Local labels help compilers and programmers use names temporarily. They create symbols which are guaranteed to be unique over the entire scope of the input source code and which can be referred to by a simple notation. To define a local label, write a label of the form `N:' (where N represents any positive integer). To refer to the most recent previous definition of that label write `Nb', using the same number as when you defined the label. To refer to the next definition of a local label, write `Nf'—the `b' stands for “backwards” and the `f' stands for “forwards”.
There is no restriction on how you can use these labels, and you can reuse them too. So that it is possible to repeatedly define the same local label (using the same number `N'), although you can only refer to the most recently defined local label of that number (for a backwards reference) or the next definition of a specific local label for a forward reference. It is also worth noting that the first 10 local labels (`0:'...`9:') are implemented in a slightly more efficient manner than the others.
Here is an example:
1: branch 1f
2: branch 1b
1: branch 2f
2: branch 1b
Which is the equivalent of:
label_1: branch label_3
label_2: branch label_1
label_3: branch label_4
label_4: branch label_3
Local label names are only a notational device. They are immediately transformed into more conventional symbol names before the assembler uses them. The symbol names are stored in the symbol table, appear in error messages, and are optionally emitted to the object file. The names are constructed using these parts:
local label prefix
All local symbols begin with the system-specific local label prefix. Normally both as and ld forget symbols that start with the local label prefix. These labels are used for symbols you are never intended to see. If you use the `-L' option then as retains these symbols in the object file. If you also instruct ld to retain these symbols, you may use them in debugging.
This is the number that was used in the local label definition. So if the label is written `55:' then the number is `55'.
This unusual character is included so you do not accidentally invent a symbol of the same name. The character has ASCII value of `\002' (control-B).
ordinal number
This is a serial number to keep the labels distinct. The first definition of `0:' gets the number `1'. The 15th definition of `0:' gets the number `15', and so on. Likewise the first definition of `1:' gets the number `1' and its 15th definition gets `15' as well.
So for example, the first 1: may be named .L1C-B1, and the 44th 3: may be named .L3C-B44.
Dollar Local Labels
as also supports an even more local form of local labels called dollar labels. These labels go out of scope (i.e., they become undefined) as soon as a non-local label is defined. Thus they remain valid for only a small region of the input source code. Normal local labels, by contrast, remain in scope for the entire file, or until they are redefined by another occurrence of the same local label.
Dollar labels are defined in exactly the same way as ordinary local labels, except that they have a dollar sign suffix to their numeric value, e.g., `55$:'.
They can also be distinguished from ordinary local labels by their transformed names which use ASCII character `\001' (control-A) as the magic character to distinguish them from ordinary labels. For example, the fifth definition of `6$' may be named `.L6C-A5'.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61006
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Guess the lyrics 80s edition
Random Music or Lyrics Quiz
Can you name the lyrics from this classic song?
Quiz not verified by Sporcle
How to Play
Score 0/208 Timer 10:00
Verse 1
Verse 2
Verse 3
Chorus x3
Friend Scores
Player Best Score Plays Last Played
You You haven't played this game yet.
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Created Jun 8, 2011SourceReportNominate
Tags:Lyrics, 1980s
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61007
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Cartoon Character Hodgepodge
Random Television or cartoons Quiz
Can you name the cartoon characters from each group?
Featured Aug 18, 2012
How to Play
Also try: Cartoons
Score 0/58 Timer 07:00
Friend Scores
Player Best Score Plays Last Played
You You haven't played this game yet.
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Created Aug 16, 2012Report
Tags:cartoons, Image Quiz, animation, character, group
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61008
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Europe's Most and Least
Random Geography or country Quiz
Can you name the Europe's largest and smallest countries?
Quiz not verified by Sporcle
How to Play
Score 0/20 Timer 02:00
Biggest Countries
Most Populated Countries
Smallest Countries
Least Populated Countries
Friend Scores
Player Best Score Plays Last Played
You You haven't played this game yet.
You Might Also Like...
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61009
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Died in 2012 - RIP
Random Miscellaneous or Clickable Quiz
Can you pick the people who passed away in 2012?
Quiz not verified by Sporcle
How to Play
Also try: Died in 2013 - RIP
Score 0/50 Timer 10:00
Questions Remaining 50 Correct 0 Wrong 0
Friend Scores
Player Best Score Plays Last Played
You You haven't played this game yet.
You Might Also Like...
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61020
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Royce Leather® Checkpoint Passport
Item # WX2-160033
5 stars
Buyer's Club $44.99 Non-Member $49.99 Compare at $59.00
Royce Leather® Checkpoint Passport... make airline travel a snap!
Have your "ducks in a row" when you're making heading off on your next trip... load up this Checkpoint Passport with your boarding pass, passport and more!
Sifting through your wallet, packed-up bags and pockets will be a thing of the past. Two currency pockets, and ID slot, pen slot and additional document sleeves will have you on that plane in no time!
Made with premium leather that's both good-looking and durable for years of travel. Measures 8 3/4 x 4 1/2 x 1/4" and weighs 4 ozs. Choose between a black or tan exterior.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61033
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Survey Warning Ransomware Removal Guide
Do you know what Survey Warning Ransomware is?
Survey Warning Virus is a way for cyber criminals to trick you into spending your money for nothing. This infection is closely related to such ransomware programs as FBI Moneypak and other Ukash Group viruses, for example, Pulizija ta’ Malta Virus or Homeland Security Virus. The only difference is that Ukash Viruses blocks your computer with intention to make you think that you have violated several laws, while Survey Warning Ransomware insists that you need to fill out a survey in order to proceed with whatever you have been up to.
In order to fill out the survey you are asked to send a particular sum of money via In case you do not enter the correct code, Survey Warning Ransomware reboots the PC and you see the notification once again:
Please fill in a survey in order to close this application.
You will also be able to use your computer again.
Don’t to this, and you’ll see what happens.
Thank you for your understand.
Unlock code:
As you can see, this infection is using a rather threatening tone, so nothing good can come of it. Do not even think of paying the money, because Survey Warning Ransomware will never unlock your PC. In order to unlock your computer you need to remove Survey Warning Ransomware and invest in a legitimate computer security tool that will protect the PC from similar infections.
Survey Warning Ransomware will not allow you to operate your PC properly, and you will only be able to open these websites that would allow you to transfer money to the criminals behind this malicious program.
Below you will find instructions on how to restore your desktop access and subsequently remove Survey Warning Ransomware from your PC. Do not hesitate to clean your computer off malicious applications.
How to remove Survey Warning Ransomware
Instructions for Windows Vista & Windows 7
1. Restart the computer and tap F8 key continuously.
2. Use arrow keys to navigate and select Safe Mode with Networking. Press Enter.
3. Go to and download SpyHunter.
4. Install the program and run a full system scan.
Instructions for Windows XP
1. Follow the steps 1 and 2 above.
2. When a confirmation dialog box appears, click Yes.
3. Download SpyHunter.
4. Open Start Menu and launch Run.
5. Enter “msconfig” into Open box and press OK.
6. Select Startup tab on System Configuration Utility.
7. Click Disable all and click OK to save changes.
8. Restart the PC in Normal Mode.
9. Install SpyHunter and launch a full system scan to detect Survey Warning Ransomware.
Instructions for Windows 8
1. Press Windows key for metro Start menu to appear.
2. Move the mouse cursor to the bottom right corner of the screen.
3. Click Settings on the Charms bar and go to Change PC Settings.
4. Click General and scroll down to Advanced Startup. Click Restart Now.
5. Select Troubleshoot and open Advanced Options.
6. Click Startup Settings and select Restart.
7. When BIOS loads, press F5 to select Safe Mode with Networking.
8. Go to and download SpyHunter.
9. Install the application and perform a full system scan.
In non-techie terms:
Survey Warning Ransomware is a computer infection that targets your money. It restricts computer operations and requires you to pay a ransom fee. Acquire a powerful antimalware tool and remove Survey Warning Ransomware from your PC following the instructions above.
Aliases: SurveyWarningRansomware
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61063
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Stata The Stata listserver
st: RE: residuals for GEE
From "Nick Cox" <>
To <>
Subject st: RE: residuals for GEE
Date Thu, 15 Dec 2005 17:17:58 -0000
It seems that the general comments on -predict-
after -xtgee- are an exaggeration in this case,
as no specific option is available that
produces any flavour of residuals.
No matter, you can still use -predict-
to generate predictions and (e.g.) plot those
against observed. Use the GIC: the
graphical investigation criterion. Or
calculate your own residuals from observed
and predicted.
That might tell you more than any other ?IC
purporting to encapsulate all information on
badness of fit in a portmanteau statistic.
This is all supposing that there isn't
some well-known argument showing that
with -xtgee- residuals are a snare,
a delusion and generally poor citizens.
Also, I don't know how much juice there
can be in panels 3 time units long.
> Please forgive my ignorance if this question is nonsense.
> I'm trying to fit a GEE model to a panel data collected at 3
> points in time. My outcome variable is continuous and I'm
> considering the family of distribution as gamma with log link
> and unstructured correlation structure.
> Although the help menu for postestimation for xtgee tells me
> that the predict command can be used to predict residuals,
> stata gives me an error:
> .predict r, residuals
> option residuals not allowed
> Does stata allow residuals for xtgee?
> Also, is there any goodness of fit statistics for xtgee: AIC
> or BIC ?. How would one check whether the model fits the
> data well? (other than comparing the estimated correlation
> matrix to the actual and looking at the predicted values )
> I'm using version 8.2
> Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.
> Leny
> *
> * For searches and help try:
> *
> *
> *
* For searches and help try:
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61064
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Bookmark and Share
Re: st: "bsample" and "set seed" together do not work!
From Maarten buis <>
Date Fri, 17 Sep 2010 14:42:15 +0000 (GMT)
--- On Fri, 17/9/10, Daniele Pacifico wrote:
> Well, I actually need to set the seed inside my program..
> In your opinion, is there a way to create a "temporary
> seed" within a ado file? I mean, something like a
> temporary variable that disappears once the program
> ends?
I still don't think that this is the best way of doing
what you want to do. Setting seeds inside general use
programs still seems like bad practice, so I strongly
recommend that you rethink this (or tell us why you
think this is necesary, so we can think about it).
Having said that, the current state of the seed can be
recovered using c(seed), so you can store that in a
local and than set the seed to some constant, do your
stuff under the constant seed, and than set the seed
to the current state to continue where you where
before you moved to the constant seed.
local seed `c(seed)'
forvalues is = 1/5 {
set seed `seed'
di "should change: " runiform()
local seed `c(seed)'
set seed 12345
di "should be constant: " runiform()
di _n
Hope this helps,
Maarten L. Buis
Institut fuer Soziologie
Universitaet Tuebingen
Wilhelmstrasse 36
72074 Tuebingen
* For searches and help try:
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61078
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Company Name: Value momentum Software Services Private Limited
Location: Hyderabad
Interview Date: 24th July,10
Duration: NA
Position: Sr. Test Engineer
Experience: NA
Sent By: Sanjay
This is Sanjay,here i am providing date and location
Date: 24 July
Location: Value momentum Software Services Private Limited
Plot No. 1, Sagar Society,
Road No. 2, Banjara Hills,
Hyderabad – 500 034 AP (India)
URL: www.valuemomentum.com
Email: [email protected]
1. Could you brief about your current project?
2. What are the requirements you got for your project?
3. How do you got this requirements?
4. In which module you are involved?
5. What is the bug tracking tool you are using?
6. What is the difference between bug tracking tool and bug management tool?
7. How will you find duplicate bugs in QC?
8. How many defects did you find for this module?
9. From past three days what you been doing in the organization?
10. What is cyclomatic complexity?
It’s our responsibility to answer to the above questions. Please Comments and answer to the questions.
Attended any interview? Please send us the questions at [email protected] and help your fellow Test engineers.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61093
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Archive for the ‘Calculating Bales’ Category
Straw Bale Broker Delivers Across the United States
Here’s his contact information:
Nick Fitzpatrick
845.901.1892 (cell)
800.747.3811 (office)
Some Mind-Numbing Facts about Ferncliff’s Eco Center
Last year’s straw bale construction workshop season started with a huge project: the Eco Learning Center at Ferncliff outside of Little Rock, Arkansas. I recently hear from the host of that workshop that the 5300 Sf structure is just about finished. I am amazed at how quickly the project has moved towards completion, especially having read the mind-numbing facts that the host shared with me. It’s a great example of some of the “behind the scenes” numbers that go into building a house. I hope you enjoy the numbers.
Eco Center Front
-The slab has 3,300 fee (.62 miles) of ½ inch PEX tubing that was tied with 5000 zip ties in a serpentine fashion for the 3,900 square feet of hydronic radiant floor heat. The 5300 sq ft building is heated with a wood furnace/boiler with pumps using less than 7% of the power the 12 solar panels can produce.
-The total weight of the steel framing is 28,000 pounds and it was all hand-carried from the staging area to the slab, then assembled.
-The Straw bale “toe up” consists of 89; 4×4’s each 10’ in length running twice end to end around the 445 foot perimeter. To fasten these timbers to the concrete, 380, half-inch holes were drilled in the concrete, 380 wedge anchors driven and 380 more holes drilled in the timbers. For “grabbers,” 2,136 large nails (20 penny) were partially driven every 5 inches into the 4×4 timbers.
-4.26 miles of baler twine was used for “sewing” the walls and re-tying custom-sized bales.
-556 ceiling panels 30”x30” were milled out of OSB and pre-painted, two coats on each side adding up to 13,900 square feet of surface area painted. This is for the ceilings over the bedrooms. 95% of this painting was done by volunteers. and 95% of that was done by two women (Carol and Jo).
-25 pallets of rice hulls at 800 pounds per pallet equal 20,000 lbs. or 10 tons of material. This material was toted, poured, slung, scattered for interior wall and attic insulation. Another perspective: A five gallon bucket of rice hulls weighs 7 pounds and carried two at a time would constitute 1,429 trips to its final destination.
-Approximately 43 tons of sand and 14.5 tons of hydraulic lime, plus water were handled into a mixer, wheel barrowed to work area, transferred to scaffold to hawk and trowel to wall. This was done to plaster an 8,888 feet of straw bale wall area three times (26,664 square feet). It took 120 for the plastering and walls were wetted down at least twice per day during this process.
-Each of the four large bedrooms employed a different locally available material. A rock floor was made with rock salvaged from the old camp pool. A cement stepping stone clock was put in the middle of the floor to make it a “Rock Around the Clock” room. Another floor was made by putting about 3000 beer bottles bottom up in sand and then mortaring them. The third floor was made to look like field stone but is actually made from paper mache. The fourth floor was made with used conveyor belt that was cut into tiles laid over compressed gravel.
Calculating the Number of Bales in Your Straw Bale House
I am often asked how many bales will be needed in my client’s straw bale houses. I too have to know the answer to this on all of my own projects. There are a number of ways to calculate the bale requirements. Click the following link ( to see an article I just wrote for on the three most commonly used ways to calculate bale quantities for your straw bale house. My preferred method, the second of the three listed, is given here.
Calculate the number based on square footage of the wall surface area
One way to estimate your bale needs is to go a bit more in depth and calculate the number based on square footage of the wall surface area. In other words, you calculate the total lineal feet of straw bale wall and then multiply that by the height of the walls. This yields the square footage of wall surface. For a gable roof, measure one half the width of the building at the gable and multiply it by the total height of the gable end. That will give you the square footage of the entire gable as if you took the two triangles and glued them back together in the shape of a square at each gable end. You can then remove the square footage of window and door openings from this number. Once you have all of the openings removed, divide the total square footage by the square footage of your bales. For this, consider a 14†tall by 36†long bale would have 504 square inches or (504÷144) 3.5 square feet of bale surface area. This will give you the exact number of bales you will need to build the structure.
Calculating the Density of Your Bales
Most codes require specific measurements for the density of a construction grade bale. The code I work with calls for a bale density of at least 7 pounds per cubic foot of material. The bales I use measure 18″ wide x 14″ tall x 45″ long and weigh roughly 50 pounds. Many bales measure 18″ x 14″ x 36″ and weigh between 40 and 45 pounds. These numbers are for two string bales. To calculate the density of the bales I use, follow the formula below:
Multiply 18*14*45 = 11,340 cubic inches
Divide 11,340/1728 = 6.5625 cubic feet
Divide 50 pounds by 6.5625 cubic feet = 7.62 pounds per cubic foot
You can substitute your bale measurements and weight into this equation to calculate the density of your bales no matter what size they are.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61111
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RE: how to display " and · in pdf
Subject: RE: how to display " and · in pdf
From: <Jarno.Elovirta@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 19 Apr 2004 17:13:02 +0300
> In my XML file, some element might contain html data like:
Can't see any XHTML elements in your example, nor entities defined in the XHTML DTD.
> <paragraph>This is a list of "Test"</paragraph>
> <paragraph>·Item one</paragraph>
> <paragraph>·Item two</paragraph>
> how can I display " as " and · as a list bullet in pdf.
" is " and · is B7, thus your problem is not there. You need to explain your problem in more detail, as I fail to see what the problem is.
Vegan chocolate muffins are the greatest invention ever,
Jarno - Suicide Commando: Evildoer
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61143
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Dirt-cheap Fuel Cut Defender
This page describes a very simple electronic fuel cut defender circuit you can use to eliminate the overboost protection present in many stock engine computers. I have a Subaru Legacy Turbo, so it's got an EJ22T slant, but the same basic idea would work on many cars.
The pressure sensor
The way most ECU overboost protection works is by monitoring manifold pressure through a pressure sensor. When the readings go too high, the ECU stops pulsing the fuel injectors. On the Legacy Turbo, this happens when the ECU reads a pressure above approximately 28 psia for longer than approximately 3 seconds.
The pressure sensor generally outputs a voltage linearly related to pressure as long as pressure remains within its valid range. The Subaru pressure sensor can read up to approximately 29 psia. The output voltage more or less follows this relationship:
Vout = Vref × (P÷38.677 + 0.14)
Where Vout and Vref are in volts and P is in psia. Vref is supplied by the ECU and is approximately 5 volts.
So, if we can ensure the ECU never sees a reading above around 4.3 volts, we can eliminate the fuel cut. Here's one way:
An active clamp
FCD schematic
The basic idea behind this circuit is this:
All three op amps are acting as unit-gain buffers which take their feedback from the circuit's output.
The op amp to the right is simply a voltage follower to ensure output impedance is low.
The upper op amp tries to drive the output signal to equal the input but its output impedance is limited by the resistor.
The lower op amp tries to drive the input to equal a reference voltage defined by the voltage divider (this would ideally be just below the fuel cut voltage). It has a low output impedance but, because of the diode, can only pull the output towards the negative rail.
The result is that when the input is below the voltage defined by the divider, the output follows the input. When the input is above this threshold, the output follows that threshold.
The real-life circuit
A practical realization of this circuit as applied to an EJ22T looks something like this:
+12v would go to an ignition-switched 12-volt source. +5v would tap into the sensor's reference voltage line. Input would come from the sensor, and output would go to the ECU.
The 10K and 47K resistor set the clamping voltage at approximately 27 psia.
The "+5v" line should be spliced into the ECU's MAP sensor power supply pin. The "+12v" line should be spliced into the ECU's MAF sensor power supply pin. The "ground" line should be spliced into the ECU's MAP sensor ground pin. Finally, the ECU's MAP sensor signal wire should be cut. The sensor side should be connected to the "input" line and the ECU side to the "output" line. Done this way, you only need to mess with one of the ECU's four connectors.
For information on EJ22T ECU pinouts, look here: http://www.surrealmirage.com/vrg3/ecupins/
The LM224 is a tougher version of the more common LM324. The LM324 is only rated for operation at temperatures between 0 and 70 degrees Celsius, while the LM224 is rated for -25 to +85 degrees Celsius. If you really want to just use parts your local Radio Shack carries, you could probably get away with an LM324, but you technically might take it out of the manufacturer's specified operating conditions when you use it in a car.
If you want to eliminate the need for the +12v power supply, you could use a TLV2374 op amp instead. The TLV2374 has rail-to-rail inputs and outputs, so you could just connect pin 4 to the +5v source instead of +12v.
Assembling it
I drew the above diagram in such a way that it would be really easy to transfer to Radio Shack's general-purpose IC printed circuit board (part number 276-159):
Radio Shack p/n 276-159
After cutting away unused portions of the PC board, it'd look something like this:
Assembled circuit on PC board
You could also build it free-standing without a circuit board:
Assembled circuit free-standing
You could then seal it with epoxy for a very rugged package that could probably even stand being in the engine bay (though it's still probably best installed next to the ECU).
If you went to Radio Shack and bought all the stuff (substituting an LM324 for the LM224 of course) it'd probably cost about $10. Some careful shopping would cut that price down closer to $2.
If you wanted to make the circuit adjustable (so you could use it on a variety of cars), you'd just need to replace the fixed voltage divider with a potentiometer. A trimpot would be sensible. To increase the resolution of the adjustment, it would make sense to limit its adjustability to the upper half of the voltage range, since I would imagine no factory engine management system would waste 50% of the sensor's resolution:
Universal FCD
The design on this page is a revision of my original design. This version reduces the effect of input offset voltage. For posterity's sake, the original writeup is here: original_design/.
Warning: This type of FCD eliminates the factory overboost prevention, which is an important engine protection device. Should a vacuum hose come loose, or something else go wrong, the turbocharger would be permitted to boost as much as physically possible, potentially causing untold amounts of engine damage. It would be wise to incorporate another form of overboost protection when using a circuit like this one. Also, the ECU will be unaware of the increased boost levels, which may interfere with its fuel and/or ignition control. And if the ECU in your car fuels based on the pressure sensor readings (if it's a "speed density" system), this FCD will certainly prevent proper fueling, and something will need to be done about that.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61156
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Living in a state of accord.
Don’t Make Your Design Responsive
Menu collapses once it would no longer fit.
Menu collapses once it would no longer fit.
From Java to Swift
Ever since the public beta of OS X I’ve been meaning to get around to learning Objective-C but for one reason or another never found a real reason to. I’ve picked up bits and pieces of it and even written a couple of working utilities but those were pretty much entirely copy/paste from various sources. Essentially they were small enough and short-lived enough that I only needed the barest grasp of Objective-C syntax and no understanding of the core philosophies and idioms that really make a language what it is. This is probably best exemplified by the approach to memory management those utilities took: it won’t run for long, so just let it leak.
I do however have a ton of experience in Java and JavaScript plus knowledge and experience in a bunch of other languages to a wide range of extents. In other words, I’m not a complete moron, I’m just a complete moron with Objective-C.
Anyway, obviously when Swift was announced it was complete justification for my ignoring Objective-C all these years and interesting enough for me to actually get around to learning it.
So I’ve been building a very small little utility in swift so I can pull out information from OS X’s system calendar from the command line and push it around to various places that I happen to want it and can’t otherwise get it. The code is up on GitHub if you’re interested – code reviews and patches most welcome. It’s been a great little project to get used to Swift the language without spending too much time trying to learn all the OS X APIs.
Language Features
Swift has some really nice language features that make dealing with common scenarios simple and clear. Unlike many languages it doesn’t seem to go too far with that though – it doesn’t seem likely that people will abuse its features and create overly complex or overly succinct code.
My favourite feature is the built-in optional support. A variable of type String is guaranteed to not be null, a variable of type String? might be. You can’t call any methods from String on a String? variable directly you have to unwrap it first – confirming it isn’t null. That would be painful if it weren’t for the ‘if let’ construct:
let events: String? = ""
let events = events { events.utf16count()
I’ve dropped into a habit here which might be a bit overly clever – naming the unwrapped variable the same as the wrapped one. The main reason for this is that I can never think of a better name. I figure it’s much like have a if events != nil check.
Calling Swift a new language is correct but it would almost be more accurate to call it a new syntax instead. Swift does have its own core API which is unique to it, but that’s very limited. For the most part you’re actually dealing with the OS X (or iOS) APIs which are shared with Objective-C. Thus, people with experience developing in Objective-C quite obviously have a huge head start with Swift.
The other impact of sharing so many APIs with Objective-C is that some of the benefits of Swift get lost – especially around strict type checking and null reference safety. For example retrieving a list of calendar events is done via the EventKit method:
func eventsMatchingPredicate(predicate: NSPredicate!) -> [AnyObject]!
which is helpfully displayed inside Xcode using Swift syntax despite it being a pre-existing Objective-C API and almost certainly still implemented in Objective-C. However if you look at the return type you see the downside of inheriting the Objective-C APIs: the method documentation says it returns [EKEvent] but the actual declaration is [AnyObject]! So we’ve lost both type safety and null reference safety because Objective-C doesn’t have non-nullable references or generic arrays. It’s not a massive loss because those APIs are well tested and quite stable so we’re extremely unlikely to be surprised by a null reference or unexpected type in the array, but it does require some casting in our code and requires humans to read documentation and check if something can be null rather than having the compiler do it for us.
If Swift were intended to be a language that competes with Java, python or ruby the legacy of the Objective-C APIs would be a real problem. However, Swift is designed specifically to work with those APIs, to be a relatively small but powerful step of OS X and iOS developers. In that context the legacy APIs are really just a small bump in the road that will smooth out over time.
The other really big thing a Java developer notices switching to Swift is what a Java developer notices when switching to any other language – the tools suck. In particular, the Java IDEs are superb these days and make writing, navigating and refactoring code so much easier. Xcode doesn’t even come close. The available refactorings are quite primitive even for C and Objective-C and they aren’t supported at all for Swift.
The various project settings and preferences in Xcode are also a complete mystery – and judging from the various questions and explanations on the internet it doesn’t seem to be all that much clearer even to people with lots of experience. In reality I doubt its really much different to Java which also has a ridiculous amount of complexity in IDE settings. The big difference is that in the Java world you (hopefully) start out by learning the basics using the standard command line tools directly. Doing so gives you a good understanding of the build and runtime setup and makes it much clearer what is controlling how your software is built and what is just setting up IDE preferences. Xcode does provide a full suite of command line developer tools so hopefully I can learn more about them and get that basic understanding.
Finally, Xcode 6 beta 3 is horribly buggy. It’s a beta so I can forgive that but I’m surprised at just how bad it is even for a beta.
Cocoa Pods
This was a delight to stumble across. Adding a dependency to a project was a daunting prospect in Xcode (jar files are surprisingly brilliant). I really don’t know what it did but it worked and I’m grateful. Libraries that aren’t available as pods are pretty much dead to me now. There does seem to be a pretty impressive array of libraries available for a wide range of tasks. Currently all of them are Objective-C libraries so you have to be able to understand Objective-C headers and examples and convert them to Swift but it’s not terribly difficult (and trivial for anyone with an Objective-C background).
Swift has a good feel about it – lots of neat features that keep code succinct. Also it’s very hard not to like strict type checking with good type inference. With Apple pushing Swift as a replacement for Objective-C over time the libraries and APIs will become more and more “Swift-like”. Xcode should improve to at least offer the basic refactorings it has for other languages and stabilise which will make it a workable IDE – exceeding the capabilities of what’s available for a lot of languages.
Most importantly, the vast majority of existing Objective-C developers seem to quite like it – plenty of issues raised as well, but overall generally positive.
I think the future for Swift looks bright.
Apple have released Swift, their new programming language – designed to be familiar to Objective-C programmers and work well with the existing Cocoa frameworks. It’s far too soon to make substantial judgements about the language – that can only come after actually using it in real projects for some time. However, there’s nothing that stands out as incredibly broken, so with Apple’s backing it’s extremely unlikely that it won’t become a very commonly used language. After all, there’s plenty wrong with every other programming language and we manage to make do with them.
What I find most promising about it though is that many language design choices are justified by them preventing common causes of bugs in Objective-C or C (and many other languages). For example:
“The cases of a switch statement do not “fall through” to the next case in Swift, avoiding common C errors caused by missing break statements.”
They’ve replaced many common checkstyle/lint errors with better language design that the mistakes impossible (what a good idea). It could be argued that they could have taken more extreme approaches to find solutions or prevented more sources of errors with additional cleverness but my initial take is that it has likely found a good balance between fixing common causes of bugs while still being familiar to Objective-C coders (it’s target audience) and working well with the existing frameworks and libraries.
We’ll likely find plenty to complain about, as always, but overall I suspect it will be a very nice language to work with.
Static and Dynamic Languages
Automated Tests Are a Code Smell
Writing automated tests to prove software works correctly is now well established and relying solely or even primarily on manual testing is considered a “very bad sign”. A comprehensive automated test suite gives us a great deal of confidence that if we break something we’ll find out before it hits production.
Despite that, automated tests shouldn’t be our first line of defence against things going wrong. Sure they’re powerful, but all they can do is point out that something is broken, they can’t do anything to prevent it being broken in the first place.
So when we write tests, we should be asking ourselves, can I prevent this problem from happening in the first place? Is there a different design which makes it impossible for this problem to happen?
For example, checkstyle has support for import control, allowing you to write assertions about what different packages can depend on. So package A can use package B but package C can’t. If you’re concerned about package structure it makes a fair bit of sense. Except that it’s a form of testing and the feedback comes late in the cycle. Much better would be to split the code into separate source trees so that the restrictions are made explicit to the compiler and IDE. That way autocomplete won’t offer suggestions from forbidden packages and the code won’t compile if you use them. It is therefore much harder to do the wrong thing and feedback comes much sooner.
Each time we write an automated test, we’re admitting that there is a reasonable likelihood that someone could mistakenly break it. In the majority of cases an automated test is the best we can do, but we should be on the look out for opportunities replace automated tests with algorithms, designs or tools that eliminate those mistakes in the first place or at least identify them earlier.
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Definitions for
Overview of noun appetisingness
The noun appetisingness has 1 senses? (no senses from tagged texts)
1. appetizingness, appetisingness
(the property of stimulating the appetite) © 2001-2013, Demand Media, all rights reserved. The database is based on Word Net a lexical database for the English language. see disclaimer
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Definitions for
Overview of noun topology
The noun topology has 4 senses? (no senses from tagged texts)
1. topology
(topographic study of a given place (especially the history of the place as indicated by its topography); "Greenland's topology has been shaped by the glaciers of the ice age")
2. regional anatomy, topographic anatomy, topology
3. topology, analysis situs
4. topology, network topology
(the configuration of a communication network) © 2001-2013, Demand Media, all rights reserved. The database is based on Word Net a lexical database for the English language. see disclaimer
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Welcome Home?
My children are becoming German citizens, and I’m going nuts
A Cartoon in More Than Bad Taste
German blood libel depiction deemed not to incite hatred
Bibi Reportedly Okayed Dubai Killing
Plus diplomatic rifts, the real German passport, and more
Van-Jew-ver Readies for Games
Israel is sending three to the Winter Olympics
Sundown: U.S. Reps. Urge Less Hardship on Gaza
Plus Merkel’s pledge, Labor’s pains, Boteach’s bid, and more
Daybreak: Israel Wants In the OECD Club
Daybreak: Germany’s Historic Anti-Iran Stand
Daybreak: The Land Swap That Never Was
Plus Iran test-launches and Germany donates to Auschwitz, and more in the news
Demjanjuk’s Trial May Not Be the Last
Might Germany prosecute other non-Germans?
Sundown: Zionism and the Black Experience
95-Year-Old Sets German High Jump Record
Well, she set it in 1936, but Germans are now reinstating it
Daybreak: It’s a Man’s World at Jewish Orgs
Sundown: Germany Makes Suspicious Toys, Monuments
Plus un-kosher shenanigans, pre-game prayer, and more
Provocative Writer Wants to Run for German Jewish Post
Plans to de-outlaw Holocaust denial, among other things
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Thursday, August 15, 2013
Hold Your Friends Close
It’s amazing when inspiration hits. To me, it’s like a giant wave that catches my foot in its undertow. I get caught up in the flow and forget everything around me. This happened to me this past weekend at the D23 Expo; I was reminded why I write and why I love Disney. I met various readers who continued to tell me how much they miss this blog. My heart was warmed and I felt inspiration finally start to creep back into my life. This led me to remember this story…..
They had been best friends since childhood and grew up about 5 blocks from Disneyland. I was on my normal lobby rounds (at the Grand Californian) when I noticed the two sitting close to the fireplace. They were laughing and cracking jokes. In a scruffy voice, an elderly man motioned me over. I remember his gleaming blue eyes that were magnified by giant thick-framed glasses. The other man had hazy green eyes that disappeared when he laughed and were surrounded by wrinkles that all told a story.
I sat down by the fireplace and the two men introduced themselves as Ralph and Larry. I could tell from the very beginning these two shared a bond that only time could create. Larry told me how they had met at a local restaurant. It happened when Larry threw his straw wrapper across the room and hit Ralph in the head. At that moment, Ralph interrupted and said, “It was a spit wad and you know it.” At this, they both chuckled and teased each other (I never did get a straight answer out of them about which one it was). Well, Larry’s mom saw what he did and made him walk over to Ralph’s table and apologize. Because of this, the families ended up eating lunch together. As Ralph described it, this is when they became best friends and they spent the rest of the summer together.
After high school, they both enlisted in the Navy and were stationed at Pearl Harbor. I noticed that the conversation got really quiet and Larry’s eyes started to glisten. Larry broke the silence and said in a weak voice, “If it weren’t for Ralph, I would have died that day.” It took me a moment to figure out what they were referring to and then it dawned on me—the Pearl Harbor attack. Larry told me that when the attacked happened, a piece of shrapnel shot into his left thigh and he started to bleed to death. He was about to pass out when he heard a familiar voice. It was Ralph. Ralph had been onshore that day too and not on board. As Larry passed out, he felt Ralph pick him up and walk him to safety… At that point, Larry looked at me and told that no matter what happens in life, make sure someone always has your back.
They continued to tell me more stories about their life and how they married the loves of their lives. They even told me that on the night before the opening day of Disneyland they camped out so they knew they would get in. It was their weekly tradition since 1960 to go to Disneyland, find a bench, sit, and talk. Then I asked them what the secret to life was. Larry took off his glasses and with a grin said, “Live a good story, keep your friends close, and follow your dreams.” Then I heard a scolding tone, “Ralph! Larry! Are you bothering this nice lady?” I turned around to see two elderly women holding shopping bags. Ralph nudged Larry and looked at me, “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention…we married sisters!”
I reassured the women that they weren’t bothering me and asked if they had plans for dinner. They told me they had reservations at Storyteller Café. So I walked them over and shook their hands because they were such a delight. I then told the manager that their meal was on me, because both of these men were Pearl Harbor survivors. The manager wanted to make this moment special, so we ordered them special cakes from the bakery and arranged for Mickey to make an appearance. After the plans were all set, I left the restaurant with some of the best advice of my life.
I wrote that piece of advice down and kept it taped to the back of my nametag. What struck me was keeping friend close. Often in this life we let friendships fade due to different paths, responsibilities, miles, and schedules. In fact, our idea of catching up is going through their newsfeed, perhaps liking their photo or commenting “LOL.” But friendship is much more than that. There is something about sitting down with an old friend and talking about life. In fact, I often think about Larry and Ralph.
In my own life, I know I need to spend more time just talking to people. Not letting distraction or anything keep me from connecting with that moment. I hope one day to sit down with an old friend and be able to share a story like that. Having someone who will walk through life with you is priceless. Hold your friends close.
1. That was a fantastic story. Thank you so much for sharing.
2. That is so wonderful and a really good reminder. What stories you have of being a cast member and meeting so many people!
3. I've never had the pleasure of meeting you (wish I had known you were at D23 last week since I was there all 3 days too), but it's stories like these that hooked me onto your blog. No matter where life takes you, please keep sharing these wonderfurl stories. *hugs*
4. Thank you. This was delightful. :)
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Recent Rivendell Topics 1997-2007
Our scheduled monthly discussions during 1997 have included:
All Saturdays, 1:30 p.m., in Coffman Union 355 (U of MN-MPLS campus) unless otherwise noted:
Jan. 25. Topic: Owl in Love, by Patrice Kindl.
OWL IN LOVE is the 1995 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award-winning book, which received many very positive reviews. It was published as a "YA" book, a "young adult" children's book, though I think that many adults could read it without recognizing that (like Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea). It's a little off-beat, the story of an adolescent were-owl, obsessed with her high school homeroom teacher. I was so taken with the opening paragraphs that I sat down and read it straight through, a couple of years ago after bringing it home from the public library--it only took a couple of hours or so. Kindl's book would be in most big children's departments of thepublic libraries, and there was also a paperback edition (try Uncle Hugo's or Dreamhaven or The Red Balloon if it's already vanished from the shelves of the big bookstore chains). I think that it will also make a good subject for a discussion, as it is the sort of book that could easily be read in different ways, and the decisions that Kindl made in creating the world of the story couldbe second-guessed in many respects. Indeed, we did have a pretty good discussion of this book.
Feb. 15. Topic: Exile's Song, by Marion Zimmer Bradley
We had a good discussion of the Heritage of Hastur sequence that includes this new book, I hope to write up a brief synopsis of our discussion in the near future.
March activities at Minicon, March 28-30, the annual Minnesota Science Fiction Convention, at the Radisson South Hotel..
Minicon was the last weekend in March, we held a discussion of Jane Yolen's new "Young Merlin" trilogy, beginning with the book Pasager, continuing with Hobby, and concluding with Merlin. Jane was present for the discussion. These are very short books, based originally upon stories that appeared in her colleciton Merlin's Booke. (Try that if you can't find the new books).
We also co-hosted (with Second Foundation) a discussion of C.J. Cherryh's fiction.
Our "Tolkien 101" panel discussion of one of our favorite authors, as an introduction to his works, to Tolkien fandom, and to our upcoming "BREE MOOT 3." featured authors Ruth Berman and Patricia C. Wrede, and book dealer and scholar Phil Kaveny, along with David Lenander.
April 12. Topic: A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, by Mark Twain, plus a film or two based on this book.
This is the classic ironic fantasy, or satire, by perhaps the greatest American writer--
admittedly, not his greatest work. But interesting and fun to read!
We'll probably look at one of the movies....
July 26 Special Meeting at 2:00 p.m., Saturday, , at Diversicon TOPIC: Tim Powers' Expiration Date.
August 23rd meeting at Mike's & Marianne's, Denny Lien will present an informal review of some Fantasy scholarship non-fiction reference works.
Sept. 20, we will be celebrating Bilbo's and Frodo's birthdays with another Birthday Party, including filksinging & other Tolkien fan activities. 1:30 p.m. in Fridley, MN. (a northern suburb of Mpls)
Special SUNDAY, September 28, Noon Rivendell discussion of one or more works by James Branch Cabell at Arcana, with guest of honor Neil Gaiman.
In this photograph by Mike Dorn (used by permission), Neil Gaiman's MFA statuette, (sometimes fondly known as the "Aslan") is pictured between two of his books, the unillustrated edition of Stardust--the award was made this year for the illustrated version--and his collection of short pieces, Smoke and Mirrors, which was also on the preliminary list this year for the MFA. (The candles were to match those on the Smoke & Mirrors cover). That's the Rivendell Group banner in the back. Sorry, I should've thought about the fact that a darker background would've set off the MFA better. Neil's previous novel, Neverwhere, was a finalist last year for the MFA. A good web-page devoted to Neil can be found at The Dreaming: the Neil Gaiman Page: Photo was taken at the September Rivendell Group discussion (the Bilbo Baggins Birthday Party). See a closeup photo of the award on the Bird & Baby site.
November 20 topic: Peg Kerr will join us for a discussion of her recent novel, The Wild Swans. Southeast Public Library, 1222 Fourth Ave. SE, diagonal from Dreamhaven in Dinkytown. Off-street parking available. 1 p.m. We've heard chapters from it at past "Readings from Rivendell" meetings. I certainly enjoyed reading it, and people are talking about nominating it for our Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, as well as other awards. Several Rivendellers are thanked in the author's note at the end of the book. Peg's been getting some amazing reviews, check some out from links on her web-page.
a panel discussion featuring experts on and writers of children's fantasy.
FROM HOBBITS TO HARRY POTTER: Children's Fantasy since Tolkien
Confirmed panelists as of this writing are:
This program will be co-sponsored by the Southdale Public Library, the
Rivendell Group of the Mythopoeic Society and The Minnesota Science Fiction
Society (Minn-Stf).
[Pictured in foreground: Angelo and Jason talk Tolkien at the 2002 Hobbits' Birthday Party].
FALL 2004
Photos from our discussion in January 2004, a joint meeting with Second Foundation and The Minnesota Tolkien Society:
We had a good discussion of Peter Jackson's Return of the King.
FALL 2005
Winter-SPRING 2006
FALL 2006
Winter-Spring 2007
June? July? what did we do?
Fall 2007
For which Rivendell was joined by the Minnesota Tolkien Society. This was at an Off-campus location.
Saturday, September 20, 1:00 p.m.
The Rivendell Group
met-partied with The Minnesota Tolkien Society
at a private home in. Fridley, MN 55413. .
See photos from past years at
And here are some 2005 photos:
The Rivendell Group assembled at a private home to celebrate and talk about things Tolkien, from the original Hobbit to the new films. People began to arrive about 1:00, and talked for most of the afternoon.
For a program , I think we read one or two of Margaret Howes's short stories in her "Tales Told by the Lonely Mountain." Margaret died earlier this year, but her stories in this series were probably the best things she wrote. Three of them appeared in The Tolkien Scrapbook, and we read from that. After that, people read their own Tolkien-inspired poems or sang songs, not necessarily pastiche or "set" in Middle-earth, but responding to or inspired by JRRT. Ruth read her Tolkien memorium poems from The Tolkien Scrapbook. Others similiarly read or spoke. David Emerson accompanied us on a singing through of the Donald Swann-composed "Road Goes Ever On" song cycle, based upon Tolkien's Middle-earth poems (and approved by JRRT).
No need to bring anything (though Tolkien memorabilia to show off is always appropriate! And bring any copies of the Swann/Tolkien Road Goes Ever On and The Middle-earth Song Book--or the like). I expect to provide tea, coffee and probably other non-alcoholic beverages, and some form of snacks, and at some point I will probably have some more substantial food (in the past we've had lasagna and hot dishes) and you are welcome to bring something if you want to share. In the past we've had some teenagers, possibly some younger, so bring kids if you like, there's lots of room to run around outside. They've tended to play board games or watch videos. Any smoking will have to be outside.
If it rains or is too cold, we'll watch more Tolkien-related videos and/or listen to audio recordings, or just talk. But if it's a fairly nice day, it may be perfect for watching the river flow by and walking around the Banfill Locke grounds, so perhaps some will go for a walk. In the past we've often had music from such members as Mark Heiman or Greg Bohen, so feel free to bring along your guitar or tin whistle if you want to share your music, which need not be Tolkien inspired.
Saturday, May 8, 2010, at 1:30 at the Southeast Community Library, 1222 4th St. SE Minneapolis, MN (in "Dinkytown," near the U of M Mpls campus). Library phone: 952-847-2728. I previously sent a .pdf of a flyer for this meeting, so hopefully you were able to read the details there. Here are a few more. Plus additional news.
Sharin Schroeder read her paper-in-progress, working title is "'It is enough to make the dead rise out of their graves!': Tolkien, Oliphant, and Gendered Conventions of the Supernatural." She writes: "In my paper for the panel on Tolkien Un-bodied, I will begin with Oliphant's novella in order to discuss the gendered roots of discussions about the fantastic and the spiritual that spilled over into modern fantasy from eighteenth and nineteenth-century literary criticism. As we know from "On Fairy Stories," Tolkien saw a reason to intertwine the religious and the fantastic while at the same time wishing to separate the fantastic from the childish. Tolkien is attempting to counteract a narrative of the fantastic that associates both the religious and the preternatural with women and children. After framing the terms of the debate, I then examine moments in _The Lord of the Rings_ where the spirit meets the incarnate, particularly in the narrative of the Paths of the Dead."
Assuming that you've read the Tolkien, you might want to look at the novella by Margaret Oliphant, _A Beleaguered City_, which you can find on the web, since it was originally published in 1880 and is long out of copyright. Or I could probably send you the text as an attachment to an e-mail if you like. I found some notes about Margaret Oliphant on the web today--check out _A Beleaguered City_ is a pretty short novel, and I thought it wonderful. But it's written in Victorian language and style, and some readers today may be quite put off by it--at least one former Rivendeller was quite emphatic about that.
Return to Rivendell. Back to the Bird & Baby. This page is maintained by David Lenander, please forward comments or criticism to
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Teach Engineering Home Page
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Lesson: Everyday Polymers
Contributed by: CHIP GK-12 Project, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University
Polymers are everywhere. Five photos: plastic bags and bottles in a pile, a tower of plastic Tupperware containers, s plastic water bottle, two plastic packages of wipes, and a car headlight.
Everyday encounters with polymers.
Students explore the chemical identities of polymeric materials frequently used in their everyday lives. They learn how chemical composition affects the physical properties of the materials that they encounter and use frequently, as well as how cross-linking affects the properties of polymeric materials.
Engineering Connection
Relating science and/or math concept(s) to engineering
Materials engineers, especially those who design plastics, combine an understanding of chemistry and material science to design, develop and manufacture new materials with special properties for new applications. For example, the demand for lightweight parts and vehicles using recycled materials challenges engineers to make "smart polymers" that change their properties according to their environments. Such materials can be sensitive to temperature, humidity, pH, light intensity, or electrical or magnetic field, and can respond in various ways, such as altering color or transparency, becoming conductive or permeable to water, or changing shape (shape memory polymers).
1. Pre-Req Knowledge
2. Learning Objectives
3. Introduction/Motivation
4. Background
5. Vocabulary
6. Associated Activities
7. Lesson Closure
8. Attachments
9. Assessment
10. Extensions
11. Multimedia
12. References
Grade Level: 10 (10-12) Lesson #: 1 of 1
Time Required: 30 minutes
Lesson Dependency :None
Keywords: cross-linking, materials engineering, materials science, molecular composition, monomer, petroleum, polymer, synthesis
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Related Curriculum
subject areas Physical Science
activities Let's Make Silly Putty
Educational Standards :
Does this curriculum meet my state's standards?
Pre-Req Knowledge (Return to Contents)
A familiarity with basic chemistry concepts.
Learning Objectives (Return to Contents)
After this lesson, students should be able to:
• Describe how polymers are synthesized by combining two types of monomers with heat for a sufficient period of time.
• Predict how a cross-linker will cause a change in the physical properties of a polymer system and how molecular arrangements influence these materials properties.
• Describe examples how polymers are used in everyday life.
Introduction/Motivation (Return to Contents)
(Hold up a pair of sunglasses, a plastic bag, and a CD case for the class to see. Using Figure 2, write on the classroom board the chemical name and structure for each material. Then, talk about each item, highlighting its chemical structure. What atoms are in the structure? Do chemical groups exist in the backbone?)
Polymers are encountered in everyday life and are used for many purposes! Polymers are chains made of monomer subunits. A monomer is a repeating chemical unit. The structure and chemical composition of the polymer chain determines the physical properties of the material.
What are some items made from polymeric materials that you frequently use? (Listen to student responses.) Polymers are used to make electronic components, paint, plastic bottles, sunglass lenses, DVDs and so much more! Polymeric materials are usually derived from petroleum or oil, but significant research is underway to develop novel methods of producing these materials using renewable energy sources.
Materials engineers rely on some polymers for their rigid strength, others for their flexibility, and still others for their resistance to corrosion. For instance, poly(vinyl chloride) is a strong, corrosion-resistant polymer commonly used in plumbing applications, whereas polyethylene is an example of a flexible polymer found in plastic bags.
Lesson Background & Concepts for Teachers (Return to Contents)
(Present the following information to students as you show them the eight-slide Polymer Presentation, a PowerPoint file.)
Slide 1
• A polymer is a chemical term for a material composed of repeating units called monomers.
• Many consumer products are made from polymeric material. The polymeric material is formed by thousands of repeating monomers put together to make up a functional material.
Slide 2
• Some consumer products are made polymers, commonly called plastics. Just a few examples of the many, many polymeric materials are shown here.
• Not everything you see here has a polymeric composition. Can you guess what does? (Answer: The transparent portion of the Nalgene is polycarbonate, but the lids are not made from polycarbonate. The clear blue gel plastic on the running shoe is a polyurethane material designed to cushion a runners foot.)
Slide 3
• This animation is a simplistic representation of polymer synthesis, where monomers A and B are combined in a reaction vessel and then heated to create a polymer.
• At the end of the animation, a final polymer strand is show in an A-B-A-B pattern.
Slide 4
• Examples of a few commonly encountered consumer products made from polymeric materials.
Slide 5
• Some medical devices are made from polymers. For example, needles used for vaccines and IVs use a plastic casing typically made of polyurethane.
• (Bottom of slide from left to right:) The first two images show vascular grafts made from polytetrafluroethylene, with the second vascular graft (middle ) featuring roughness on the surface to promote integration of the vascular graft to the patient. The image on the right shows poly(vinyl chloride), commonly used in medical tubing.
Slide 6
• Introduce students to the different chemical players involved in making silly putty: monomer, cross-linker and polymer.
• A monomer is a basic building block of a polymer. Many vinyl alcohol monomers chemically linked yield a polymer called poly(vinyl alcohol).
• Poly(vinyl alcohol) is the polymer that students will use to make silly putty.
• In order to influence the material properties of the silly putty students make, they will need to determine the amount of tetrahydroxyborate anion or cross-linking agent that is incorporated into the polymer. A cross-linking agent is able to link poly(vinyl alcohol) chains together by forming a chemical bond.
Slide 7
• An illustration of the chemical link between two polymer chains.
• Note to teachrs: Refer to Figure 2 in the Imitation Silly Putty Worksheet. to understand how this chemical link is formed. You do not need to explain the figure to the students.
Slide 8
• This slide is very important to help students start thinking about the upcoming design challenge (in the associated activity).
• The "no cross-link" material has free-flowing polymer chains and stretches if force is applied to either end of the material chains.
• The opposite is true with the "with cross-link" material, because chemical linkers between changes prevent the individual polymer chains from stretching when a force is applied to either end, making a more ideal material to bounce.
• This information gives students an idea for how to approach the design challenge after they make two different formulations of a poly(vinyl alcohol) silly putty.
Synthetic and Natural Polymers
Polymers are large molecules held together by chemically linked subunits called monomers. The first scientist to discover that polymers contained many small repeating units (monomers) was Hermann Studadinger. Studadinger received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of the chemical structure of natural rubber. Following the discovery of synthetic materials, scientists learned how to modify and tune their chemical and physical properties to make them useful for various applications.
Common uses for polymer materials: packaging, bottles, paint, automotive parts, surgical sutures, housewares (tupperwares, plates, cups), electric components, fabric, contact lenses, rubber, adhesive, pipes, medical supplies (bone cement, blood bags), plastic bags.
Figure 1: Common applications for polymeric materials.
Figures 1 and 2 list just a few examples of the many ways that polymeric materials have changed our day-to-day lives through primarily low-cost, mass-produced materials. Many of these materials are made from synthetic polymers and were developed in commercial laboratories, but countless other polymer examples are found in nature and in living organisms. For example, Chitin, also known as N-acetylglucoseamine (derived from glucose monomers), forms the hard exterior of many crustaceans, turtle and beetle shells. Cellulose, a polysaccharide, is used by many plants for structural stability. Polymers also exist inside the human body. Proteins and DNA are both synthesized from small subunits, called amino acids.
Table that consists of three columns. The left column lists six polymeric compounds. The middle column shows the chemical monomer unit structure for each polymer, and the right column shows a common application for each polymer. Polymers listed include: polyethylene, poly(vinyl chloride), polycarbonate, polystyrene, polyacrylamide, and polyurethane.
Figure 2: Structures and common applications of six polymers.
Polymers are formed by a process called polymerization, in which a chemical reaction of reacting monomer molecules forms polymer chains in a variety of complexities. Depending on the polymerization reaction conditions, the resulting polymer can be a simple linear chain of linked carbon atoms. Chain-growth polymerization (or addition polymerization) involves the linking together of molecules incorporating double or triple carbon-carbon bonds. The physical properties of the materials are influenced by the arrangement of the chains. A polymer network consists of many polymer chains connected through a number of covalent linkages called cross-links. Most of the polymers we talk about here are linear polymers. A linear polymer is composed of one molecule after another, hooked together in a long chain called the backbone. Now, linear polymers do not have to be in a straight, rigid line. Those single bonds between atoms in the backbone can swivel around a bit, like paper clips hooked together end-to-end.
Image shows three types of polymer chain orientations: linear, branched and cross-linked.
Figure 3: Three conformations in which the polymer chains may be arranged within a polymeric material.
Molecular Forces and Chemical Composition of Polymers
Differences in chemical composition can influence a material's application. For example, the polymer polyethylene has an ethylene backbone (CH2CH2). Polyethylene is one of the most common polymeric materials found in plastic packaging, bottles and shopping bags. The uses of polyethylene are very different from another polymer, poly(vinyl chloride), which is commonly used for water pipes and is able to withstand large amounts of pressure. Other applications for poly(vinyl chloride) are door frames, waterproof fabric and electrial wire insulation, The only chemical difference between polyethylene and poly(vinyl chloride) is the substitution of one hydrogen atom in polyethylene for a chloride ion in poly(vinyl chloride), as shown in Figure 4. The inclusion of a chlorine atom introduces a change in the physical properties of the overall material. The next monomer unit, featured in Figure 2, is polycarbonate.
Image shows the chemical compositions: polyethylene, poly(vinyl chloride), polystyrene and polyacrylamide.
Figure 4: Polyethylene monomer unit and three other polymer monomers: poly(vinyl chloride), polystyrene and polyacrylamide.
Polycarbonate is commonly used in bulletproof glass and headlights, in lenses for headlamps, glasses and sunglasses, as well as in CD, DVD and Blu-Ray discs. Polycarbonate monomer includes the integration of two, six-membered aromatic rings separated by a carbon atom that has two methyl groups attached. Aromatic rings (also known as aromatic compounds or arenes) are hydrocarbons that contain benzene. Benzene, C6H6, is often drawn as a ring of six carbon atoms, with alternating double bonds and single bonds as shown below.
The inclusion of the aromatic rings can lead to pi-stacking between different polymer chains. In chemistry, pi stacking (also called π-π stacking) refers to attractive, non-covalent interactions between aromatic rings. This means that non-covalent interactions between pi-bond electrons available in one polymer chain can interact with aromatic rings on another polymer chain when they are in close proximity. Polycarbonate also includes an ester linkage within the polymer back-bone. Ester functional groups are a less polar functional group than an alcohol group. Polystyrene is found in many products including: license plate frames, CD cases, Petri dishes, insulation and Styrofoam packing peanuts. Polystyrene's monomer unit is similar to polyethylene and poly(vinyl chloride), in which a hydrogen atom in polyethylene monomer is substituted with a six-membered aromatic ring, in the case of polystyrene (see Figure 4). Ring stacking can also be observed between chains of polystyrene as with polycarbonate. Polyacrylamides are used in a various applications ranging from water purifiers, paper coating, cosmetic additives, photographic emulsion and contact lenses. Again, polyacrylamide can be derived from polyethylene by substituting a hydrogen atom with an amide functional group. The final monomer featured in Figure 2 is the monomer unit for polyurethane. Polyurethanes are used in foams, paints, adhesives and spandex. This monomer is similar to polycarbonate in that it cannot be derived from polyethylene's monomer unit. Polyurethanes are connected by urethane linkages.
Effect of Cross-Links
A cross-link is a covalent bond formed between two polymer chains in a material (see Figure 5). These covalent bonds cause the polymer chains within a polymeric material to become networked. A polymer network is a network in which all polymer chains are interconnected to form a single macroscopic entity by many crosslinks. In general, cross-links tend to make the polymer chain closer together and cause the material to become more rigid. In the associated activity, Let's Make Silly Putty, studentsuse hydroxy tetraborate to form four covalent bonds between two poly(vinyl alcohol) chains when making imitation Silly Putty. Depending on the degree of cross-linking within a material, the polymer chain will have different properties. When no cross-links are present to chemically link the chain together, the chains are able to move much more freely. Long-chain polymers often have many kinks in the chains, and these kinks can move and un-kink, causing the material to stretch. To illustrate this point, imagine a kink in a garden hose; the kinks loosen after enough force is applied, which is similar to how polymeric materials stretch. The act of stretching a polymer forces the polymer chain to align with each other because of the force applied to the material.
When many long polymer chains with a large number of cross-links are present within a material, the chains are chemically linked, making the material more rigid. Thus, the degree of cross-linking throughout a material is very important in understanding how the physical properties of the material change. In other words, more cross-linking within a polymeric material results in a more rigid material, whereas less cross-linking results in a more elastic material.
Image comparing the different effect of cross-links within a polymeric material depending on the varying degree of cross-link. When there are no cross-links in a material (on the left), theses polymer chains can have a full range of motion within the polymeric material. Whereas (on the right), there is a higher degree of cross-linking causing the chain to be held tightly together making the material more rigid.
Figure 5: Cross-linking within a polymer.
Vocabulary/Definitions (Return to Contents)
copolymer: A polymer made from two or more types of monomer subunits.
cross-linker: A covalent bond linking two polymeric chains together, sometimes facilitated by a small molecule.
homopolymer: A polymer made from only one type of monomer.
monomer: The building block of polymers. Monomers can be combined in various repeating patterns to form different types of polymers.
natural polymer: A polymer that is synthesized naturally by a plant or organism.
polymer: A material composed of repeating monomer units.
polymerization: The process of chemically linking monomers in various patterns to produce a polymeric material.
synthetic polymer: A polymer was made by humans.
Associated Activities (Return to Contents)
• Silly Putty Experiment and Design Challenge - Students make two different formulations of imitation Silly Putty with varying degrees of cross-linking. They witness how changes in the degree of cross-linking influence the putty properties.
Lesson Closure (Return to Contents)
Remember, cross-linking affects polymeric material properties by limiting the motion of individual polymer chains within a material (as highlighted visually in Figure 5). We can see the effect of cross-linking on polymeric materials by comparing the strength of polyethylene and cross-linked polyethylene. Polyethylene, as discussed previously, is used to make plastic shopping bags and many plastic containers, whereas cross-linked polyethylene (abbreviated as PEX) tubing is used in plumbing applications. The strengths of a polyethylene plastic bag and a water pipe made from cross-linked polyethylene are very different. Cross-linking of the polymer chains strengthens the material properties present in PEX tuning.
Worksheet: Have students complete the Polymer Worksheet. Review their answers to gauge their comprehension.
Lesson Extension Activities (Return to Contents)
Recycling Drive: Ask students to each bring in several examples of polymeric materials for a class recycling drive. Use this opportunity to identify the seven recycling codes (see Figure 6) and discuss the chemical properties of each plastic material. Consumer products also typically use an initial stamp to signify the chemical compositions of the polymer used to create the material. Although recycling codes are usually placed on polymeric materials, not all polymeric materials used in consumer products are labeled with recycling coded and not all polymeric materials are actually recycled. Frequently, this is because some polymeric materials are extremely durable, making recycling of the material costly and time consuming. Another roadblock to recycling some plastics is non-existent demand for the post-recycled materials. To make the use of recycled materials more common in consumer products, it helps to increase the demand by purchasing recycled materials or products that use post-recycled plastic. Polymeric materials, as demonstrated in this lesson and in Figures 2 and 6, are not all chemically the same. This fact alone makes recycling all of these different plastic materials challenging, time consuming and costly. Another consideration is that many consumer products are made with blended polymeric materials, meaning that more than one polymer is used. These blended and composite plastics may not be able to use the same recycling process, making recycling costly and challenging for them. Some success has been achieved in recycling certain polymeric materials, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PETE), which is used to make plastic bottles, packaging and plastic containers. Its post-recycled material has found a niche application as a polyester insulation fiber used in winter jackets, pillows, bedding and carpeting.
U.S. recycling codes (1 through7) for polymeric materials, including abbreviation, polymer name and chemical structure.
Figure 6: Common abbreviations for recycling codes and their polymer name and structure.
Research Projects: Have students (either in small groups or individually) research an assigned polymeric material, investigating its chemical properties, processing techniques and applications. Have students describe how the material's properties and processing techniques enable the polymer to function well in various applications. Optionally, ask students to include schematics of the polymer chains and describe how certain functional groups interact with other functional groups between different polymer chains. Use this as an opportunity to incorporate scientific writing guides, electronic researching tools, and scientific citation into the class.
Homework: Lead a class discussion about possible types of plastics that students use at home. Ask them to bring in examples not mentioned in the lesson presentation and talk about their polymer types and properties. Select polymeric materials based on the chemical structures mentioned in the PowerPoint presentation and summarized in Figure 2. Additionally, have students each locate a material made from a polymer and be prepared to explain its chemical structure to the class.
Additional Multimedia Support (Return to Contents)
Note: The animation in the attached PowerPoint presentation (v.11.5.5 or higher) requires Quicktime (v. 7.7 or higher).
Ahluwalia, V. K. and Mishra, A. Polymer Science: A Textbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2008.
Bahadur, P. and Sastry, N. V. Principles of Polymer Science. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2002; p. 401.
Morgan, N. "Polymers and Plastics." in Chemistry in Action: The Molecules of Everyday Life. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995, pp. 94-107.
Nicholson, J. W. The Chemistry of Polymers. Third Edition. London, UK: Royal Society of Chemistry, 2006.
Cherelle M. Bishop, Kate McDonnell, Jeramy Jasmann, Melissa M. Reynolds, Michael A. de Miranda
© 2013 by Regents of the University of Colorado; original © 2011 Colorado State University
Supporting Program (Return to Contents)
Acknowledgements (Return to Contents)
This work was developed by the Colorado Higher-Education Interdisciplinary Project (CHIP) in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, based upon collaborative work supported by National Science Foundation grant no. 0841259. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Last Modified: July 29, 2014
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TPUcapture question?
Discussion in 'General Software' started by reverno, May 4, 2010.
1. reverno New Member
May 4, 2010
1 (0.00/day)
Thanks Received:
May seem like a stupid question but can i clear all the uploads ive made with tpucapture because i recently noticed im up to SS 124 and i cant even access number 50.
So in short can i clear all the screenshots ive uploaded?
What happens to the screenshots ive uploaded?
are they there all the time or for a set amount of time?
if they are there all the time why cant i get to the first screenshot ive taken?
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Samsung starts rolling out Android 2.3 for Galaxy Tab, Galaxy S
By Emil
May 16, 2011
Post New Reply
1. Samsung has announced that the Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) upgrade to its Galaxy S, Galaxy Tab, and Galaxy Ace/Gio/Fit/mini devices has begun to roll out on Kies, the company's device management…
Read the whole story
2. Trillionsin
Trillionsin TechSpot Addict Posts: 1,044 +37
This is supporting the Galaxy S Captivate?
3. princeton
princeton TechSpot Addict Posts: 1,716
I got gingerbread on my SGS over a month ago. Kind of late news in terms of the SGS.
Not until later. Blame your carriers for not compiling the source samsung gives em :p
4. Jibberish18
Jibberish18 TechSpot Maniac Posts: 431 +8
I guess it's a good thing I held off on upgrading my cousins Captivate, as it will be receiving an update to 2.3 very soon, if not already?
5. note they mention Africa last... FML
6. princeton
princeton TechSpot Addict Posts: 1,716
Uh you realize the captivate is still on eclair right. The captivate won't be getting gingerbread for a long time if EVER. You can't go from eclair to gingerbread on the galaxy S, it needs the froyo bootloader to update to the gingerbread one.
7. Jibberish18
Jibberish18 TechSpot Maniac Posts: 431 +8
The Captivate is on Froyo actually. I figured, when they said Galaxy S, they meant ALL Galaxy S phones. Any evidence that it won't be getting Gingerbread? From what you said, I suppose I'll have to upgrade her to Froyo first.
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TED Conversations
This conversation is closed.
• Jan 21 2013: Tragedy of the Commons refers to any shared resource which is depleted by individuals that have only self interest motives. So if you understand this concept then one might theorize that private property is the antonym of a common resource. I believe it is safe to say our air and water an important shared resource. So can we privatise it? Should we? Any alternative ideas? I have my own ideas but I would like to hear others.
• Jan 21 2013: Well the first thing that came to my mind is land purchase in our Canadian National Parks. Parks owns the land however there is a great deal of real estate on the go in some areas. This benefits wildlife preservation, water quality and many other facets. To be sure Real Estate is through the roof in some National Parks
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Jan 21 2013: What is the tragedy of the commons'?
Private property probably exists for several reasons. One might be that people want some control over who enters their life, both because they might not like some people or want to interact with them, and other people may be overtly dangerous to them.
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Jan 21 2013: It sounds like a question....???
Water is on way to be "privatized" in some place , soon air will be , no worry ....
By the way
Do you think privatization of Air & Water will resolve environmental problems?
• Jan 21 2013: Yes it is a question. I dont know why I put it in ideas honestly. I have to ask how is water being privatised? Do you know any details? And when I say privatise water I am refering to bodies of water not city water supply. As for your question, I do not have a definite answer in part because I do not know how you could set it up. What I muster is the government essentially owns navigable rivers because they are free for anybody to cruise. So what's the water quality of our rivers and lakes? Well much better since the Clean Water Act but I still wouldn't eat anything out of the big muddy. Now if there is an incentive to improve the water quality for economic gain then a private owner could sue the polluter that dirties his waters. There is not much to gain economically from polluted water. The government has no incentives. But I would like to hear other peoples thoughts because I know that privatising everything isn't an environmental godsend.
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Tuesday 29 July 2014
Meet the 'olinguito' the world's newest mammal
Described as a cross between 'a cat and a teddy bear' the olinguito was introduced to the world today becoming the first new carnivore to be discovered in the western hemisphere for 35 years.
The racoon-like creatures, which live in the jungles of Ecuador and Colombia, were thought to belong to a closely related but different species known as olingos.
The discovery of the new species came about when scientists at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in the USA decided to classify a collection of olingos and realised that some of the animals had different characteristics.
The new species had smaller teeth and skulls than olingos, with longer and thicker coats, the carnivores appeared to have lived in higher reaches of the northern Andes than any known olingo species.
Kristofer Helgen, Curator of Mammals at the Smithsonian Institutions explained why it had taken so long to discover the new creatures.
"Like so many animals in the rain forest only comes out at night. It's wet, it's dark, it's socked in with cloud, it's hard to find these animals."
The olinguito mainly eats fruit and weighs approximately a kilogram.
Source AP and Smithsonian Institute
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Andrew Schulman
Houston Rapper Pens Book of Financial Advice
Slim Thug's latest hit is not a song but a book of financial advice.
The Most Interesting Man in Paris, Texas
Arjumand Hashmi, the mayor of Paris, Texas, is perhaps the state's most unlikely mayor - a wealthy, Pakistani-born Muslim with close ties to foreign leaders.
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Is kangaroo meat as healthy as we think it is?
Is kangaroo meat as healthy as we think it is?
Australian experts said the study was significant because up until now, scientists generally believed cholesterol and fat in red meat was driving the link between high consumption and heart disease.
The surprising discovery has caused warnings against the widespread use of L-carnitine as a dietary supplement, particularly among athletes such as footballers and body builders who believe it helps build muscle, burn fat and improve brain function.
It has also caused doctors to reiterate warnings about excessive consumption of red meat and especially kangaroo meat, which has long been thought to be one of the healthiest choices because of its low fat content.
The authors of the study, from Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the US, said that when L-carnitine was metabolised by gut bacteria in people who eat meat, it turned into high amounts of a compound named trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), which damages arteries supplying blood to the heart and brain.
They said meat-eaters were found to produce significantly higher amounts of TMAO than vegetarians after consuming L-carnitine, suggesting that a red meat diet favours the growth of gut bacteria that digests the nutrient.
Executive chairman of Obesity Australia and Professor of Medicine at Monash University John Funder said given that kangaroos had more L-carnitine per gram than any other red meat, consumers should be wary of excessive consumption. He said companies selling the meat may also have to reconsider how they market it, given that it is widely perceived to be healthier than other red meats.
While Professor Funder said the study found an important link between L-carnitine and the build-up of plaque in blood vessels, it was one of several factors likely to be causing heart disease, including cholesterol, saturated fat, genetic factors and certain infections.
Director of Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Professor Garry Jennings, said that although the study was clever, the harmfulness of red meat remained controversial, with some studies showing everything from no ill effects to moderate adverse effects, and in some cases, only from processed meat.
“Red meat consumption remains controversial and therefore this study makes an important contribution to that discussion," he said.
"However, the evidence is not sufficiently compelling to cause concern among the red meat industry and a balanced diet remains the best recommendation for Australians."
Australian health authorities currently recommend about three to four palm-sized serves of red meat a week.
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David Brooks's 5-Step Guide to Being Deep
By Uri Friedman
ASPEN, Colo.—David Brooks doesn't subscribe to the Pharrellian school of life. It's not that he begrudges Pharrell for being happy. It's that he believes American culture is too centered around attaining happiness, at the expense of "a different goal in life that is deeper than happiness and more important than happiness."
We're not only obsessed with happiness. The New York Times columnist argues that we focus on accumulating power, material wealth, and professional achievements instead of cultivating the kinds of qualities that will be discussed at our funerals. As Brooks phrases it, we emphasize "resume virtues" over "eulogy virtues."
Brooks's objective is to establish a "counterculture" to our happiness culture and our resume culture. It's to fashion a path to "inner depth." In a talk at the Aspen Ideas Festival, which is sponsored by the Aspen Institute and The Atlantic, he did just that. Expanding on a column he wrote in March, Brooks wove together various philosophical, theological, and biographical threads to define what it means to be "deep," and how to lead a life of depth.
As Brooks sees it, resume virtues and eulogy virtues represent two sides of human nature. In a 1965 essay, the American rabbi and philosopher Joseph Soloveitchik developed a dichotomy to capture this phenomenon. He distinguished between "Adam I" and "Adam II."
"Adam I is the external Adam, it's the resume Adam," Brooks explained. "Adam I wants to build, create, use, start things. Adam II is the internal Adam. Adam II wants to embody certain moral qualities, to have a serene inner character, not only to do good but to be good. To live and be is to transcend the truth and have an inner coherence of soul. Adam I, the resume Adam, wants to conquer the world…. Adam II wants to obey a calling and serve the world. Adam I asks how things work, Adam II asks why things exist and what ultimately we're here for."
(Brooks didn't get into this, but Soloveitchik actually conceived of Adam I and Adam II as a way to reconcile the fact that Genesis offers two accounts of how God created man. As an Orthodox Jew who believed in the "divine character" of the Bible, Soloveitchik didn't accept the explanation that the stories sprang from different authors and sources. Instead, he argued, they existed to illustrate "dual man." In the first account, in which man is created "in the image of God," Adam is tasked with "filling" and "subduing" the earth. In the second account, in which man is created out of dust and God's breath, Adam is charged with "serving" and "keeping" the Garden of Eden.)
"We live in a culture that nurtures Adam I," Brooks said. "We're taught to be assertive and master skills, to broadcast our brains. To get likes. To get followers."
Being deep doesn't preclude you from being, well, shallow, he added. "Some days we want to be externally successful, some days we want to be internally good. The question is whether your life is in balance."
So how do we nourish Adam II—the deep Adam? For that matter, what does it even mean to be deep?
"I think we mean that that person is capable of experiencing large and sonorous emotions, they have a profound spiritual presence," Brooks said. "In the realm of emotion they have a web of unconditional love. In the realm of intellect, they have a set, permanent philosophy about how life is. In the realm of action, they have commitments to projects that can't be completed in a lifetime. In the realm of morality, they have a certain consistency and rigor that's almost perfect."
Deep people also tend to be old.
"The things that lead you astray, those things are fast: lust, fear, vanity, gluttony," Brooks observed, in religiously inflected language. "The things that we admire most—honesty, humility, self-control, courage—those things take some time and they accumulate slowly."
Albert Schweitzer, Dorothy Day, Pope Francis, Mother Teresa. These are deep people, according to Brooks.
What qualities spur us to plumb the depths of our being? Brooks outlined five:
1. Love
The love Brooks has in mind is of the transformational, unconditional variety. "It could be love for a cause, usually it's love for a person, it could be love for God," he said. Love issues the humbling reminder that "we're not in control of ourselves," and also "de-centers the self"—a "person in love finds the center of himself is outside himself." It “complicates the distinction between giving and receiving, because two selves are so intermingled in love that the person giving is giving to him or herself." Brooks cited the French writer Michel de Montaigne, who, when asked why he had such strong affection for a friend, replied, simply, "because I was I, and he was he."
2. Suffering
"When people look forward, when they plan their lives, they say, 'How can I plan ... [to] make me happy?'" Brooks noted. "But when people look backward at the things that made them who they are, they usually don't talk about moments when they were happy. They usually talk about moments of suffering or healing. So we plan for happiness, but we're formed by suffering." Like love, suffering exposes our lack of control over our lives. But it also encourages deep introspection and equips people with a moral calling. "They're not masters of their pain, they can't control their pain, but you do have a responsibility to respond to your pain," Brooks explained. He gave the example of Franklin Roosevelt, whose character was forged through his battle with polio.
3. Internal struggle
"Here, I don't mean the struggle involved in winning a championship, starting a company, or making a lot of money," Brooks cautioned. Those who have depth are "aware that while they have great strength, great dignity, they also have great weakness. And they are engaged in an internal struggle with themselves." Consider Dwight Eisenhower, who constantly tangled with his bad temper. "Internal struggles are the logic by which we build character," Brooks said.
4. Obedience
Brooks took aim at the common message in commencement speeches that students should turn inward to discover their passion and vocation. "If you look at the people who are deep, often they don't look inside themselves. Something calls to them from outside themselves," he said. They obey a cause. Brooks mentioned Frances Perkins, who watched in horror as people leaped to their deaths during the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911, and then devoted her life to workers' safety (she eventually became FDR's labor secretary).
5. Acceptance
Brooks also calls this "admittance," seeking to shake the word's association with exclusivity (think a nightclub or college). He likens the concept to the religious notion of "grace." It is "unmerited, unearned admittance"—belonging to "some sort of human transcendent community." Whereas Adam I wants to "work" and "sweat," Adam II "simply accepts the fact that he's accepted. Adam II, the spiritual side of our nature, stands against the whole ethos of self-cultivation, which is the resume side of our world. The ethos of scrambling, working, climbing." Just as the journalist and activist Dorothy Day brimmed with gratefulness after the birth of her child, acceptance energizes the accepted. "They want to honor the people who gave them that gift and they want to pass on the gift that they didn't deserve," Brooks said.
What's perhaps most interesting about Brooks's schema is how it inverts the reigning culture of self-help in this country. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People this is not. Rather than suggesting depth-seekers take control of their lives, Brooks is urging them to surrender control to external forces, at least to a degree. With the exception of "internal struggle," we can't readily act on his advice. We don't necessarily choose when we fall in love, or whom or what we fall in love with. We don't decide when suffering is visited upon us. Obedience and admittance, by Brooks's definitions, cannot be willed into existence. The most we can do is accept invitations to a more meaningful life, whenever and wherever they arise.
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I think the reason religious people are so bellicose...
Posted 6/8/2012 at 4:45:16 AM
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is because they are so repressed and so frustrated. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't constantly trying to oppress the rest of us.
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Patronymic: Wikis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A patronym, or patronymic, is a component of a personal name based on the name of one's father, grandfather or an even earlier male ancestor. A component of a name based on the name of one's mother or a female ancestor is a matronym. Each is a means of conveying lineage. During singular naming there was a considerable time of loose patronomization before they became a formal part of a person's name in the 1700s.
In biological taxonomy, a patronym is a specific epithet which is a Latinized surname. These often honor associates of the biologist who named the organism rather than the biologist himself. Examples include Gopherus agassizii, named by James Graham Cooper after Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz, and Acacia greggii, named by botanist Asa Gray after explorer Josiah Gregg.
Western Europe
Nordic countries
This following entry somewhat oversimplifies the situation in Norway by implying that Danish and Norwegian were-are the same language. The Norwegian forms are -son and -dotter, Danish and Dano-Norwegian forms are -søn, -sen and -datter. As noted in the comment about Danish patronymics in northern Germany, the use of Danish spellings in Norway was due to the cultural and political domination of Norway by Denmark which supplanted the written Norwegian language with the Danish one. All scribes, priests and official persons used Danish to express the Norwegian names and words they were hearing and wrote down whatever they saw fit. Norwegian did not die but continued to evolve as a spoken language - in the mid-19th C it was given a written norm again after approximately four centuries of Danish only as the literary language of Norway and Denmark. Norwegian is officially known today as nynorsk (Modern Norwegian - to differentiate it from Middle- and Old Norwegian). Dano-Norwegian in its spoken form evolved essentially from Norwegian pronunciation of Danish while retaining most of the Danish vocabulary - it is officially known as bokmål (book language or literary language).
The Norwegian Naming Law does not prohibit the use of patronymics, it is entirely permissible to use -son or -sen, -dotter or -datter for children. In order to avoid the predominence of -sen names as surnames (due to the historical substitution of Danish forms for Norwegian ones), one may also choose as a last name a farm, place or occupational name that has been in the family from ones great-great-grandparents, great-grandparents, grandparents or parents. So the ancient custom can be kept up if one chooses to do so - first name + patronymic + last name. This is one way of preserving some of the Norwegian cultural heritage that was degraded or assumed not to exist during the Danish period - somewhat analagous to the Russian versus Ukrainian linguistic divide.
In Norse custom patronyms and matronyms were formed by using the ending -son (later -søn and -sen in Danish and Norwegian) to indicate "son of", and -dóttir (Icelandic -dóttir, Danish and Norwegian -datter, Swedish -dotter) for "daughter of". This name was generally used as a last name although a third name, a so-called byname based on location or personal characteristic was often added to differentiate people and could eventually develop into a kind of family name. Some early modern examples of the latter practice, where the patronymic was placed after the given name and was followed by the surname, are Norwegian Peder Claussøn Friis, the son of Nicolas Thorolfsen Friis (Claus in Claussøn being short for Nicolas) and Danish Thomas Hansen Kingo, the son of Hans Thomsen Kingo. Eventually, most Nordic countries replaced this system with the prevailing "international" standard of inherited family names. In Norway, for example, the parliament passed a family name act in 1923, citing the rising population and the need to avoid the confusion of new last names in every generation. In Iceland, however, patronymics are still used as last names and this is in fact compulsory by law, with a handful of exceptions[1]
The use of Nordic-style patronymics, particularly in its Danish variation with the ending -sen, was also widespread in northern Germany. This reflects the influence of Scandinavia in this part of Germany during the centuries.
Ireland, Scotland and Wales
The use of "Mac" in some form, was prevalent in Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx. "Mc" is also a frequent anglicisation in both Scotland and Ireland. In Ireland, the forms "Mag" and "M'" are encountered. The prefix "Mac" is used to form a patronym, such as "MacCoinnich" - or the anglicized 'Mackenzie' - son of Coinneach/Kenneth. Less well known is the female equivalent of Mac, Nic, condensed from nighean mhic (in Scottish Gaelic) or iníon mhic (in Irish). For example, the Scottish Gaelic surname, Nic Dhòmhnaill meaning 'daughter of a son of Dòmhnall' (in English, Donald), as in Mairi Nic Dhòmhnaill, or Mary MacDonald. In Ireland, the use of Ó (and its feminine equivalent , from iníon uí), anglicised "O'" and meaning 'grandson' predominated over "Mac"[citation needed]. At the north end of the Irish Sea, in Ulster, the Isle of Man and Galloway (indeed as far north as Argyll), "Mac" was frequently truncated in speech, leading to such anglicisations as "Qualtrough" (Son of Walter) & "Quayle" (son of Paul, cf. MacPhail) - usually beginning with "C", "K" or "Q". In Ireland, this truncation resulted in surnames such as "Guinness" (son of Aonghus, cf. MacAonghusa) beginning usually in "C" or "G" for patronymics prefixed with Mac, and in "H" (e.g. "Hurley" (descendant of Jarlath, cf. Ua hIarfhlatha/O'Hurley) for surnames prefixed with "O". Colloquial Scottish Gaelic also has other patronymics of a slightly different form for individuals, still in use (for more information please see: Scottish Gaelic personal naming system). An interesting crossover variation in the use of "O'" for grandson in Irish and "Ap" for son in Welsh, was that the West Waleian name Ho-well was derived from Ui'Well of old Irish, which then became O'Well... then Howell in their Welsh relatives. As for Ap Howell, that does mean, 'the son of the grandson of...Well'[citation needed]
In Wales, before the 1536 Act of Union all Welsh people used patronyms and matronym as the sole way of naming people. Welsh, as a p-Celtic language, used "Map" (Modern Welsh "Mab") in contrast to the q-Celtic Scottish "Mac". Rhydderch ap Watcyn was Rhydderch son of Watcyn. Daughters were indicated by verch (from merch, meaning 'girl, daughter'), as in Angharad Verch Owain or 'Angharad, daughter of Owain'. This gave rise to names such as ap Hywel being — after the Acts of Union — used as Anglicised surnames; in this case the name ap Hywel became the surnames Howell/Powell. There are many such Anglicised surnames, such as Bowen from ab Owen, Protheroe from ap Rhydderch, and Pulliam from ap William. Up until the Industrial Revolution the use of patronyms was still widespread, especially in the South West, Mid West and North of Wales. There was a revival of patronyms during the 20th century, which continues today. Myrddin ap Dafydd is a contemporary Welsh poet.
The archaic French, more specifically, Norman, prefix fitz, which is cognate with the modern French fils, meaning son, appears in England's aristocratic family lines dating from the Norman Conquest, and also among the Anglo-Irish. Thus there are names such as Fitzgerald and Fitzhugh. Of particular interest is the name Fitzroy, meaning "King's son", which was used by Royal bastards who were acknowledged as such by their fathers.
In modern France the terms patronyme and nom patronymique have been used to designate the family name, meaning that it is inherited from the father. This usage is contrary to the international meaning as described in the rest of this article. A law enacted in 2002 replaced these terms with nom de famille, as in other countries, although its widespread adoption remains unrealised.
Iberian Peninsula
In Portugal, there are some common surnames which had a patronymic genesis, but are no longer used in such way. For instance, Álvares was the son of Álvaro and Gonçalves was the son of Gonçalo (it was the case of Nuno Álvares Pereira, son of Álvaro Gonçalves Pereira, son of Gonçalo Pereira). Other cases include Rodrigues (Rodrigo) and Nunes (Nuno). In the same way the surname Soares means son of Soeiro (in Latin Suarius). It comes from Latin Suarici (son of Suarius); the Latin genitive suffix -icius/a was used to indicate a patronymic. After it became Suariz, Suarez and eventually Soares.
Spanish patronyms follow a similar pattern to the Portuguese (e.g., López: of Lope; Hernández: of Hernando; Álvarez: of Álvaro). Common endings include -ez, -az, -is, and -oz. (Note: Not all names with similar endings are necessarily patronymic, i.e. Ramas, Vargas, Morales.)
In the past, both in Spanish and Portuguese, plus Catalan endings -ez, -es, -iz, -is tended to confound (since pronunciation was quite similar in the three languages). Nowadays, Portuguese has been fully standardized in -es and Catalan in -is, Spanish also is standardized to -ez but is very common to see archaic endings in -es. For instance, Pires, Pérez and Peris are the modern forms of "Peterson" in Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan.
Eastern Europe
Vuk Karadžić reported that in Serbia there were no last names "until our times", i.e. until the nineteenth century, and that patronymics were used in the traditional way.
In East Slavic languages, the ending -ovich/-yevich/-yich is used to form patronymics for men. For example, in Russian, a man named Ivan with a father named Nikolay would be known as Ivan Nikolayevich or 'Ivan, son of Nikolay' (Nikolayevich being a patronymic). For women, the ending is -yevna, -ovna or -ichna. For masculine names ending in a vowel, such as Ilya or Foma, the corresponding endings are -ich and -inichna.
In Russia, the patronymic is an official part of the name, used in all official documents, and when addressing somebody both formally and among friends. A Russian will rarely formally address a person named Mikhail simply as 'Mikhail', but rather as 'Mikhail' followed by his patronymic (i.e. 'Mikhail Nikolayevich' or 'Mikhail Sergeyevich' etc). However, on informal occasions when a person is called by a diminutive (such as Misha for Mikhail), the patronymic is rarely used. In colloquial, informal speech, it is also possible to contract the ending of a patronymic: thus Nikolayevich becomes Nikolaich, and Stepan Ivanovich becomes Stepan Ivanych or simply Ivanych as the given name may be omitted altogether. In this case the contraction, if possible, is obligatory: Ivan Sergeyevich Sidorov may be called 'Sergeich' or, more rarely, 'Sergeyevich', though such contractions are sometimes avoided as they tend to bring a shade of muzhik-style familiarity. A famous example of a contracted female patronymic is 'Mar' Ivanna' (Марьванна), short for 'Maria Ivanovna' (Мария Ивановна), a young female teacher who is a recurring character in Vovochka jokes. In contrast to male names, if a woman is called by her patronymic name without a given name, the patronymic is never contracted: 'Ivanovna' but 'Mar' Ivanna'. Male and female patronymic names derived from names ending in -slav (Vladislav, Yaroslav) have two possible forms: long, with -vovich/-vovna (Yaroslavovich, Yaroslavovna) and short, with -vich, -vna (Yaroslavich, Yaroslavna). A curious use of a Russian patronymic occurs in some Tom Clancy novels; the character Jack Ryan, whose father was Emmet Ryan, is addressed as Ivan Emmetovich by a Russian colleague, Sergei Nikolaich (Nikolaievich) Golovko. Similarly, the name of the Arabic genie from the Russian book Old Khottabych (Starik Khottabych) by Lazar Lagin was constructed from the genie's name 'Hassan Abdul-rahman ibn Khattab'.
In Ukrainian, the female Patronymic always ends with -івна (-ivna) or -ївна (-yivna) . The male Patronymic always ends with -ович (-ovych).
Most Greek surnames are patronymics by origin, albeit in various forms depending on ancestral locality. Diminutive suffixes which denote "son of", or more generally "descendant of", are produced as follows: starting with the given name Δημήτριος, Dēmétrios, for example, the patronymic surnames Dēmētrópoulos (Peloponnesus), Dēmētrákos (Laconia), Dēmētréas (Messenian Mani), Dēmētrátos (Cephalonia), Dēmētrákēs (Crete), Dēmētriádēs/Dēmētr-ídēs (Pontus, Asia Minor, also -ídēs), Dēmētréllēs (Lesbos), Dēmétroglou (Asia Minor), or simply Dēmētríou (Cyprus, the first name in the Genitive) are formed. The same principle can apply to surnames deriving from professions, for example from παπάς, papás, priest, one derives the surnames Papadópoulos, Papadákos, Papadéas, Papadátos, Papadákēs, Papadéllēs, Pappá etc, all of which signify a "priest's son". The same principle(s) may apply in combination, eg Papanikoláou, Papanikolópoulos, "the son of the Reverend Nicholas". A daughter's patronymic is the same as the son's, but always declined in the Genitive, eg Dēmētropoúlou, Papanikoláou etc. In addition to these surnames, actual patronymics are used in official documents as "middle names" preceding the surname, for example the children of a Giánnis Papadopoúlou are, say, María Ioánnou Papadopoúlou and Andréas Ioánnou Papadópoulos (Ioánnou is the genitive case form of Ioánnis, which is the Katharevousa correspondence of the father's name, Giánnis). Traditionally, a married woman would adopt her husband's names - both his patronymic and his family name - but today this is not official and she keeps her own names as far as the state is concerned. If she is widowed, the tradition requires that she should switch back to her own patronymic, but keep the family name of the deceased.
Use of patronymics was introduced in Armenia by Russians during the times of Russian Empire and the Soviet Union. Previously to that use of patronymics was very limited. Patronymics are usually formed by addition of "i" (pronounced as ee) to the father's name, e.g. if father's name is "Armen", the corresponding patronymic would be "Armeni". Russified version of the same patronymic would be "Armenovich" for males and "Armenovna" for females. After Armenia re-gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 a massive decline in use of Russified patronymics occurred; nowadays few Armenians use patronymics. Many Armenian surnames, especially Western Armenian, are patronymics that were first used by distant ancestors or clan founders. These are characterized by the suffix "-ian" in Western Armenian, often transliterated as "-yan" in Eastern Armenian. These are appended to the given name, i.e. Asdvadzadourian, Hagopian, Khachadourian, Mardirosian, Bedrosian, Sarkissian, etc. Patronyms for individuals were common in the 20th century but have since fallen out of use.
In Georgian, patronymics, when used, come with the addition of s to the end of the father's name, followed by dze. For example, Joseph Stalin's actual name was Ioseb Besarionis Dze Jugashvili. s in Georgian is a possessive, and dze means son. Georgian last names derive mostly from patronymics. Two common elements in Georgian last names, dze and shvili mean son of, and child, respectively.
Middle East
In Arabic, the word "ibn" (ابن) (or بن: "bin", "ben" and sometimes "ibni" and "ibnu" to show the final declension of the noun) is the equivalent of the "-son" suffix discussed above (The prefix ben- is used similarly in Hebrew). In addition, "bint" (بنت) means "daughter of". Thus, for example, "Ali ibn Amr" means "Ali son of Amr". The word "Abu" means "father of", so "Abu Ali" is another name for "Amr". In medieval times, an illegitimate child of unknown parentage would sometimes be termed "ibn Abihi", "son of his father" (notably Ziyad ibn Abihi.) In the Qur'an, Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is consistently termed "Isa ibn Maryam" - a matronymic (in the Qur'an, Jesus has no father; see Islamic view of Jesus). An Arabic patronymic can be extended as far back as family tree records will allow: thus, for example, Ibn Khaldun gives his own full name as "Abd ar-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad ibn Jabir ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khaldun". Patronymics are still standard in parts of the Arab world, notably Saudi Arabia; however, most of the Arab world has switched to a family name system. As in English, the new family names are sometimes based on what was formerly a patronymic. Often, the word Ibn is replaced with a "b." and bint with a "bt." in name formulas rendered from Arabic into Latin characters. Thus Hisham Ibn al-Kalbi becomes simply Hisham b. al-Kalbi. Another form widely used in the Arab World is the usage of both the Patronymic and a family name, often using both the father's and grandfathers given name in sequence after the own given name, and then the family name.
In Iraq for example, full names are formed by combining the given name of an individual with the given name of their father (sometimes the father is skipped and the grandfather's given name is used instead, sometimes both father and grandfather are used), along with the town, village, or clan name. For instance, Hayder Muhammed al-Tikriti is the son of Muhammed named Hayder, and he is from the town of Tikrit.
In Aramaic, the prefix bar- means "son" and is used as a prefix meaning "son of". In the Bible, Peter is called Bar-jonah in Matthew 16:17 and Nathanael is possibly called Bartholomew because he is the son of Tolmai. The titles can also be figurative, for example in Acts 4:36-37 a man named Joseph is called Barnabas meaning son of consolation.
Jewish usage
Jews have historically used Hebrew patronymic names. In the Jewish patronymic system the first name is followed by either ben- or bat- ("son of" and "daughter of", respectively), and then the father's name. (Bar-, "son of" in Aramaic, is also seen). Permanent family surnames exist today but only gained popularity among Sephardic Jews in Iberia and elsewhere as early as the 10th or 11th century and did not spread widely to the Ashkenazic Jews of Germany or Eastern Europe until much later. While Jews now have permanent surnames for everyday life, the patronymic form is still used in religious life. It is used in synagogue and in documents in Jewish law such as the ketubah (marriage contract). Many Sephardic Jews used the Arabic ibn instead of bat or ben when it was the norm. The Spanish family Ibn Ezra is one example.
Many immigrants to the modern Israel Hebraized their names. This was especially common among Ashkenazic immigrants, because most of their names were taken later and some were imposed by the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires.
A popular form to create a new family name using Jewish patronymics sometimes related to poetic Zionist themes, such as ben Ami ("son of my people"), or ben Artzi ("son of my country"), and sometimes related to the Israeli landscape, such as bar Ilan ("son of the trees"). Others have created Hebrew names based on phonetic similarity with their original family name: Golda Meyersohn became Golda Meir. Another famous person who used a false patronymic was the first Israeli Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, whose original family name was Grün but adopted the name "Ben-Gurion" ("son of the lion cub"), not "Ben-Avigdor" (his father's name).
Indian subcontinent
In Ancient India during the Vedic Age, when Sanskrit was the lingua franca, patronymics were common as last names. Sanskrit patronymics were the adjective form of the father's (or clan's forefather's) given name. This adjective is formed by Indo-European ablaut (a phonological process), which adds an additional /a/ to the first vowel in the patronymic: changing from short /a/ to ā, short and long /i/ and /ē/ to ai, and short and long /u/ and /ō/ to /au/. Sometimes a suffix, such as -ya, was also added. E.g.:
• The very first mantra of the Rigveda has its seer named Madhuchchhandā Vaishvāmitra, meaning Madhuchchhandā, son of (or of the lineage of) the sage Vishvāmitra.
• Buddha Shākyamuni had the patronymic Gautama due to his lineage from the sage Gotama.
• The clan descended from Sage Agasti is called Āgastya.
• The full name of Draupadi was Krishnā Draupadī, meaning Krishnā, daughter of Drupada.
• As Krishna (Vishnu's avatar) was the son of Vasudeva, his name was Krishna Vāsudeva.
In southern India, Tamil Nadu and parts of Kerala and Karnataka, patronymy is almost the norm. This is a significant departure from the rest of the country where caste or family names are mostly employed as surnames.
However, rather than using the father's full name, only the first letter—the initial—is prefixed to the given name. For example, if a person's personal name is Saravanan and his father's Krishnan, then the full name is K. Saravanan and is seldom expanded, even in official records. Some families follow the tradition of retaining the name of the hometown, the grandfather's name, or both as initials. The celebrated Indian English novelist R. K. Narayan's name at birth was Rasipuram Krishnaswami Ayyar Narayanaswami, which was shortened at the behest of his writer friend Graham Greene. Rasipuram, the first name, is a toponym and Krishnaswami Ayyar, the second name, is a patronym.
Nonetheless, the growing trend in cities in southern India and among expatriates is to expand the father’s name and place it after one’s given name, thus creating a surname and preventing confusion. The name stated in the earlier example, K. Saravanan would become Saravanan Krishnan, bringing it partly in line with western naming conventions.
In Maharashtra, a very common convention among the Hindu communities is to have the patronymic be the middle name. Examples:
• Sunil Gavaskar's son Rohan would be Rohan Sunil Gavaskar, and so on.
Indians, particularly Tamils, in Singapore often continue the patronymic tradition; this entails having a single given name, followed by son / daughter of, followed by their father's name. Malaysian Indians may also follow this custom with "son" or "daughter" of being replaced by "anak lelaki" or "anak perempuan" respectively.
See also
External links
Up to date as of February 01, 2010
From Familypedia
This article compiles a useful guide of genealogical definitions and methods used in research.
General definitions
• Genealogy - the study of family history.
• Genealogist - one who studies family hostory.
A patronymic is a form of a surname derived from a fathers given name. For example, If Johann had a son "Jacob", that son would be known as "Jacob Johann's son" or more simply "Jacob Johannson". When Jacob Johannson had a son "Herman" that son would be known as "Herman Jacob's son" or simply "Herman Jacobson". At some moment in time different cultures adopted the practice of using a surname to reflect parantage, with the patronymic becoming "fixed" as a surname. In some cultures a variant of this practice was used with daughters names. If Jacob Johannson had a daughter "Brita" she would be known as Brita Jacob's Dotter". On occassion, these 'dotter' names were also perpetuated as a surname. Thus if Brita Jacob's Dotter had a son "Carl", he might be known as "Carl Britasdotter". Also known as Patronym a term often used by genealogists, but is undefined in the Oxford Dictionary of English (qv).
Levels of Confidence
• Possible----refers to the level of confidence that one has concerning a genealogical fact. In this case, it suggests that the "fact" is not contradicted by other known and accepted facts. For example, if a John Smith was born in 1850 it is possible that he is the child of Robert Smith and Ann Jones, who were married in 1849. It is not possible that he was the child of Ann Jones who was born in 1748
• Plausible---refers to the level of confidence that one has concerning a genealogical fact. In this case, it suggests that the "fact" is consistent with the currently available information, is not refuted by any known and accepted data, and, in general, would "make sense" if it were indeed correct. Plausible data, however, does not rise to the level where it can be clearly accepted as proven. That is, while it doesn't conflict with any other accepted data, it is neither confirmed by any direct primary source, nor does the available data surrounding it sufficient to consider it probably true. As an example of "plausible data", if John Smith were born in 1850 in the town of Roanoke, VA, it would be both possible and plausible that he could be the child of Robert Smith and Ann Jones, who were married in 1849 in Roanoke, VA. This datum would not rise to the level of "probable" because there might be more than one Smith family in Roanoke, VA in 1850 who could be his parents.
• Probable---refers to the level of confidence that one has concerning a genealogical fact. In this case, it suggests that the fact is more likely true than not, but that there is no direct primary source that can be cited to show that it is true. Usually, things that reach the level of "probably true" have multiple lines of evidence independently pointing to their accuracy. No given line is sufficient by itself to raise the data above the level of "plausible", but taken together, the various lines of evidence suggest that it is in fact "probable". For example, if there were documentary evidence that
• John Smith was born in Roanoke in 1850,
• Robert and Ann Smith were married in Roanoke in 1849,
• Robert and Ann Smith appear in the 1850 census in Roanoke with no children,
• John's mother's given name was Ann,
• That there was only one Smith couple in Roanoke in 1850
It might be concluded that John's parents were probably Robert and Ann Smith, and that John was born after the census had been taken. However, the point might not be accepted as proven, because the evidence for the connection is largely circumstantial.
• Proven---refers to refers to the level of confidence that one has concerning a genealogical fact. In this case, it suggests that the fact is based on direct primary sources, such as a bible record, that demonstrate to a reasonable person that the fact is true. For example, if a family bible for Robert and Ann Smith showed that their son John was born in December of 1850, in Roanoke, most reasonable people would probably conclude that Robert and Ann were indeed the parents of "our" John Smith. However, depending on the extent of the effort made to gather comprehensive evidence to support this conclusion, and the additional evidence that could be mustered to support it, this might still not reach the level of the BCG Standards of Proof (See below).
Types of Sources
This section provides a distinction between two broad categories of source material and documents: Primary Sources, and Secondary Sources. The distinction between primary and secondary sources is critical in genealogy. A conclusion based on primary sources is fundamentally more sound than a concusion based on secondary sources. The definitions given here are simplifications, and should be used with some caution.
• Primary Sources---A primary source or record is an original document more or less contemporary with the events it refers to. A birth certificate, marriage record, gravestone, court record, contemporary letter would usually be considered to be a primary record. The key characteristic of a primary record is that it represents testimony of someone who had direct first hand knowledge of the events described. What is not included in category of "primary sources" are documents compiled long after the events by persons who could not be considered eyewitnesses. Some elements of death certificates are marginal in this respect: if the only available relative of a deceased person was a nephew, he might, for example, give an incorrect answer to the question about the deceased's father's occupation.
A possible exception to this are compilations of original records, in the form of extracts, or in some cases verbatim transcripts. A compilation of court records, marriage records, and the like are included in this category. Such documents are properly considered to be secondary sources as there is the possibility of information loss occurring in the transcription process. As a result, these sources are less reliable than true primary sources. Practically speaking, most genealogists can not (or do not) readily access the original source material on which such compilations are based, and so transcriptions of primary source material are often treated as if they were themselves primary sources.
• Secondary Sources - for present purposes a secondary source or record is a document that is not contemporary with the events that it describes. The author can not be described as being an eyewitnesss to the events. Technically, this includes verbatim extracts and compilations based on primary documents, but in practice, such sources are often treated as primary records. (Some caution should be exercized when dealing with such records, as they may contain transcription errors of a substantive nature). Examples of a secondary sources would include: County Histories, Family Genealogies, newspaper articles about events that occurred at some time in the relatively distant past, etc. The authors of such works may be exactly right about what they describe, but they do not have this information based on their direct experience with the events of concern. The author's may be basing their interpretation on primary sources, but their presentation is ultimately an analysis. That is, it may describe what they think occurred, but they do not know of their own personal knowledge that the events concerned are in fact correctly described. A secondary source is fundamentally interpretative in nature, and interpretation can be in error.
• Tertiary Sources - Tertiary source are sometimes described as a mixture of both primary and secondary sources. The wikipedia definition is "A tertiary source is a selection, distillation, summary or compilation of primary sources, secondary sources, or both...Typical instances of tertiary sources are bibliographies, library catalogs, directories, reading lists and survey articles. Encyclopedias and textbooks are examples of materials that typically embrace both secondary and tertiary sources, presenting on the one hand commentary and analysis, while on the other attempting to provide a synoptic overview of the material available on the topic."
Verification and Validation
Main article: Help:Verification and Validation
Standards of Proof
The Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG) established the following standards for genealogical research:
1. Reasonably exhaustive search
• Assumes examination of a wide range of high quality sources
2. Complete and accurate citation of sources
3. Analysis and correlation of the collected information
• Facilitates sound interpretation of the data contributed by each source
• Ensures that the conclusion reflects all the evidence
4. Resolution of conflicting evidence
5. Soundly reasoned, coherently written conclusion
• Explains how the evidence led to the conclusion
Additional information is available at BCG Site
Reference Styles
• Fide - term taken from the Latin "fide", meaning "by, with, or from faith"; the term is used in the context of references to mean "taken on the faith of". It is used when an author has not seen a particular work, but is taking it on faith that another author has correctly cited the work.
Significance of Reference Verification
Reference verification in genealogy is important in and of its self. That is, its important that we be confident that references cited a) exist, and b) contain the information that's attributed to them.
However, the true significance of reference verification lies elsewhere. As an overall statement, genealogists are not very good at explaining "how they know what they know". Information is diligently sought, and inserted into family histories. Often much effort goes into tracking down a piece of information, or developing the reasoning underlying a conclusion about a date of birth (for example). Yet much more often than not, the sources used to develop that information or the reasoning, are not provided. If you search family lineages presented on Ancestry (for example) its likely that nine out of ten entries will lack any indication about where the data is coming from, or at best, reference someone else's genealogical work. Here, the attitude seems to be "That's a lot of work. I found this out, its true, and I don't need to explain where it came from."
Yes, recording where information comes from is a lot of work. But its less work than having to redo the research because you've forgotten how you got that information, or when you find that you have several answers for the same question, and don't know why you thought one of them was right. Again, look at Ancestry family lineages. Often you will find that several hundered people have entered information about any given person. For any given individual where you have a few hundred records, you'll typially find a mixture of DOB's, DOD's, parents and spouses. And more likely than not few if any of these entries will explain what the information is based on. Without that information, its impossible to determine which if any of these records is right. Anything you picked would be little better than a guess.
So, in order to select among many choices you need to know what sources were used in developing those lineages. No sources, and you can't choose among them.
However, that's not the real significance of reference verification. The real significance of including or leaving out the citations, is that it speaks to your credibility. If references are cited, you can in theory, check them out. They tell you that someone had a basis for what ever conclusion they reached, and they've giving you the basis for verifying their sources, and ultimately for validating their conclusions. If they don't provide the sources, you can't do any of that, and your own work will suffer.
An adage that applies here is:
You don't know what you know unless you know how you know it
The corrollary to that being
If you don't tell people how you know what you know, they probably aren't going to believe you
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This article uses material from the "Help:Genealogical definitions and methods" article on the Genealogy wiki at Wikia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
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Badge Film Blog
Up in the Air castigates romance, not capitalism
George Clooney isn't anatomising alienation in Jason Reitman's film; he's reinventing the romcom
Up In The Air - 2009
Ripping up the romcom rule book ... George Clooney and Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air. Photograph: Rex Features
1. Up in the Air
2. Production year: 2009
3. Country: USA
4. Cert (UK): 15
5. Runtime: 109 mins
6. Directors: Jason Reitman
7. Cast: Anna Kendrick, Danny McBride, George Clooney, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, Vera Farmiga
8. More on this film
With Up in the Air, Jason Reitman has certainly set people thinking. Many seem to have seen his striking film as a post-recessionary lament for humanity's estrangement from an environment denatured by the ideology of business. Nonetheless, this element is essentially the backcloth to a more familiar big-screen fable.
The predicament that's ensnared George Clooney's Ryan can't really be blamed wholly on the excesses of late capitalism. Like so many Hollywood heroes before him, he's an alpha male who has allowed mistaken fancies to divert him from the proper path to heterosexual partnership. Re-education awaits him in the form of witty but transformative interplay with a gorgeous paramour. Make no mistake, this is a romcom. But it's not the kind of romcom that we've all come to love or despise. This is the romcom reinvented at last for a more realistic age.
The film's genuinely shocking plot makes it abundantly clear that something's changed. Ryan may indeed be forced to appreciate that wayward singledom is wrong, and committed coupledom correct. Yet the reason why this proves to be the case rips up the romcom rule book.
Even the most would-be innovative of recent romcoms have stayed true to the dream of romance. They've continued to insist that the greatest joy available on this earth, worth pursuing above all else, is the fusion of enamoured souls. This will envelop those fortunate enough to achieve it, they've implied, in an aura of undying bliss.
Up in the Air makes no such claim. On the contrary, it remorselessly unpicks romantic love and its supposed capacity to generate and sustain happiness. It suggests that love's most apparently unambiguous manifestations can be readily faked. When the film's most enthusiastic standard bearer for romance, Ryan's young colleague Natalie, attempts to articulate its blessings, her efforts fall hopelessly flat. Then she gets dumped by text message.
The only happy pairing featured requires the persistent adultery of one of the participants to keep itself afloat. Ryan's sisters are keen family gals, but one of them is separating from her husband. The other is eager to get married, but the night before her wedding day, her intended gets cold feet. He tells Ryan he's been thinking about what he'll be letting himself in for. On reflection, he just can't see the point of it all.
Neither can Ryan. Just one thing, he suggests, might make the burdens of coupledom worth shouldering: togetherness provides a hedge against the loneliness that the modern world will inflict on those rash enough to rely only on their own resources. The reluctant groom accepts this, but still looks understandably unenthused about his impending fate.
The film's picture of contemporary life, as bleakly devoid of emotional gratification away from the comforts of the hearth, is there to support Ryan's dispiriting argument, rather than to provide a Marxist critique of capitalism's excesses. In pursuit of this purpose, however, Reitman does feel obliged to present interactions that might once have involved a sincere smile or cheery word as having been ruthlessly automated. At the same time, he shows the workplace as having been stripped of its social dimension by the heartless pursuit of profit. You can't have a genuine relationship with your colleagues since they may have to shaft you at any point, or you them.
This fits with the mood of the times, but it's not wholly convincing, since capitalism's triumph has proved a bit more limited than Reitman needs it to be. In real life, plenty of workmates still manage to form bonds, in spite of bean-counting bosses. To protect its stance, the film feels obliged to exclude any reference to what has become connubiality's main screen rival as a source of human warmth. None of the characters is allowed any friends. The likes of Sex and the City, buddy and bromance movies and TV shows like Friends have shown people who eschew domestic solace, finding no-strings-attached affection in the company of their peers. Poor Ryan isn't permitted one supportive chum, though even Alfie was provided with Nat.
Over and over again, the film points out that those who seek fulfilment in work can find themselves unceremoniously dumped by ungrateful employers. Yet the divorce rate suggests that cinemagoers will be at least as likely to be thanklessly discarded by their spouses as by their bosses.
Air travel, the film's eponymous motif, is paraded as a fearsome metaphor for what awaits life's incautiously rootless loners. Adrift in capitalism's depersonalised airspace, they can look forward only to pointless peregrination, recycled oxygen, phoney solicitude and lots of Air Miles.
Nonetheless, life in what Natalie dubs "a cocoon of self-banishment" takes on a certain appeal, in spite of the film's efforts to decry it. You don't, as Ryan puts it, "get welcomed home by jumping dogs and squealing kids", like those more prudential couples beneath the clouds. You do, however, retain your autonomy and avoid a lot of trouble and disappointment.
This is a romcom that acknowledges there's no hey-presto escape from the human predicament. Its message isn't cheering, but unlike so many of its predecessors, it may help dispel some of the damaging delusions that so many of its predecessors have fostered.
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Thursday, August 11, 2011
RMK Eyebrow Brush
RMK is another one of those highly desirable and hard to find Asian cosmetics brands, second only to Suqqu in reputation and (lack of) availability. It is easier to buy online, though, and I started exploring it earlier this year. I started with RMK eyebrow brush (don't worry, it didn't remain alone for long) because I was curious about the shape. Classic eyebrow brushes are angled and have a straight edge. The Paula Dorf one is just one example; I'm sure you have others in your brush holder.
The RMK eyebrow brush is a pretty little thing. It's made of water badger hair and sporting a matte black ferrule. The angle is curved and not straight and the hair slightly tapers towards the edge. It looks like a slightly thinner and oddly asymmetric relative of the Hakuhodo brushes I use to tightline (Kokutan E0189 and K005). The result is a softer look when you fill in your brows. It prevents from even accidentally drawing harsh lines and seems to hold more eyebrow powder and deposit it evenly.
Is there much of a difference between working with RMK's eyebrow brush to a really good traditional angled one (Hakuhodo or Shu Uemura, for example)? There is some difference and I love this brush, but I can't insist that everyone goes out of her (or his) way to buy this brush. If you already have a couple of good eyebrow brushes and you're comfortable and secure in your brow routine than you're probably all set. However, if you're unsatisfied with the look you achieve using your current tools you might want to look into changing your brush shape.
Bottom Line: nice to have.
RMK Eyebrow brush (approx. $29.99) is available at very select locations, mostly in Asia and in the UK (Selfridges, as far as I know). The only Asian site I found that ships to the US is
1 comment:
1. What I like about this brush (the tapered edges are attractive, a sign of quality craftsmanship, but they don't seem to make much of a difference) is how squat and stiff the bristles are. You get more control than a floppy angled brush.
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Clearly Stated - Since we’re on the subject of heirs…
Send to a friend
Send this article to a friend.
Forgive me for not being glued to the television screen in order to hang on every word spoken regarding the pregnancy of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge. I am not now, nor have I ever been an avowed royalist. I mean no harm to the crowd across the pond, and in fact, publicly swore allegiance to the Queen when I became a Canadian citizen in 1999, which is more than natural born Newfoundlanders have ever had to admit doing. Giddiness over everything Royal is bigger than me, and my inability to get with the program should not prevent me from learning something from them and using that knowledge in a way that benefits us all. It’s my duty as a commoner.
Therefore, in the spirit of admitting when something is bigger than me, I have decided to adopt some royal behaviour regarding lineage and incorporate that process in something we all might find slightly entertaining as I endeavour to contribute my part in selling more newspapers. Knowing my readers well, I will admit up front that the use of the term “slightly” is probably an overstatement.
The timing couldn’t have been better. At the same time that the British government is engaged in changing the rules regarding those eligible to be crowned now including females, my little exercise will also not discriminate on the basis of gender. Therefore, I am proud to announce a manner in which the editor of this fine publication may consider an heir to this column in the event of my demise, removal, or any other form of relinquishing the crown that comes with this column. Lucky for me I suppose, beheading isn’t so common anymore.
Here’s what I’m thinking: Anyone who would like to vie for the title of “Clearly Stated Columnist in Waiting” may submit a written piece of suitable column length explaining why they think they should be next in line to inherit this column after, and only after, I step down, or a coup ensues, or we are invaded by France. A Quebec invasion doesn’t count, ‘cause they’re not really France. St. Pierre is, but it’s highly unlikely they would invade us before Quebec makes a run at us.
While the editor may wish to consult me on eligible submissions, the final decision is and always remains with that office, seeing as all columnists serve in that capacity by their grace. Naturally, editors do get significant support from their constituent of readers, and only the most powerful of editors would interfere with the people’s choice, a choice made known only by your numerous calls and letters of support or displeasure, as the case may be.
Having enjoyed a somewhat long but not very profitable term as one of your Crowned Columnists as a result of your continued support of my significant contribution to your newspaper well-being, I know well of what I speak. References to your continued support are an assumption made by me on the basis of a decided lack of hate mail having been received either by me or the editor. Either that, or he doesn’t share the bad stuff with me, knowing well of my fragile nature and propensity to repeat every rumour I hear via this esteemed platform.
As with the Royal Family, it would be my desire to create a lineage for Clearly Stated comprised of personalities we might all become interest in, such that a weekly review of their exploits and foibles may appear as newsworthy items in a manner that could possibly hold its own with the Royals. Who wouldn’t want to know of the Column’s third in line naked romp in Vegas, or how often the pregnant wife of the second in line puked on Tuesday, when you realize that person is one of your own; perhaps a neighbour, or a Tritonite whom you know only too well?
This process gives us the advantage of knowing that any future columnists have earned the title without the same level of years of inbreeding in the past that has plagued those other royals. I must offer this caution, however. I don’t plan on going anywhere anytime soon, and regardless of which pieces are published, I still get the revenue. Rank has its privileges. ‘Tis a heavy crown one wears. Cheerio!
Organizations: Royals
Geographic location: Cambridge, France, Quebec Vegas
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Toonami Announces 'The Intruder Part 2'
Toonami Announces 'The Intruder Part 2'
The first Toonami-centric story to feature Toonami's hosts is getting a sequel, and the amount of interest will extent the special.
In 2000 in it's third year on air, Toonami did something special by airing it's first original programing that focused on the block's hosts TOM and Sara. It was called "The Intruder" and ran for eight-episodes with the main result from the series was TOM from his original short bulky form to TOM 2.0 which was leaner and a slick black design.
Fourteen years later, and two later specials we'll be finally getting a sequel. Toonami announced on their tumblr that they're working on "The Intruder Part 2", but with a twist. During this weekend if you use the hashtag #intruder2 and if it trents it'll increase the ammount of content of the special which will air sometime in 2015. Here's the official release:
Love, The Toonami Crew.
We'll keep you updated on this developing story.
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Wikipedia black helicopters circle Utah's Traverse Mountain
SlimVirgin, naked short selling, and the end of Web 2.0
Top three mobile application threats
This is true. Despite its popular reputation as a Web 2.0 wonderland, Wikipedia is not a democracy. But the totalitarian attitudes of the site's ruling clique go much further than Jimbo cares to acknowledge.
Talk of Wikipedia admins trying to seize "the truth" may sound familiar. Famously, comedian Stephen Colbert has poked more than a few holes in the site's commitment to democratic consensus, making fun of its efforts to clamp down on edits deemed less than factual. And the web is still abuzz over the secret mailing list used by top administrators to silence inconvenient voices.
But what happens when, say, the Wikipedia elite decides to take a topic as weighty as the health of US financial markets under its control without informing the public of its decision?
How far will Wikipedia's arbiters of truth go? Come with us down the rabbit hole.
One thousand innocent bystanders
One sleepy evening this October, Cory Hogan stumbled onto Wikipedia while trawling the web for information on US Vice President Dick Cheney. He read the site's extensive screed on the curmudgeonly veep, and before he knew it, he was inclined to contribute his own thoughts to the discussion. But when he clicked on the "edit this page" tab, he was told he wasn't allowed.
A rather menacing message filled his web browser, announcing that Wikipedia edits were forbidden from his IP address. His address, the message said, was a favorite "open proxy" of Judd Bagley and Overstock.com.
Judd Bagley Wikipedia Block Warning
Wikipedia bans Traverse Mountain, Utah
Cory Hogan shares his IP range with about 1,000 other homes in Traverse Mountain, Utah, a neighborhood twenty miles south of Salt Lake City, and one of those homes belongs to Judd Bagley. The two men live within two blocks of each other, and they're members of the same church.
When that message turned up on Wikipedia, Hogan's first thought was that Bagley was some sort of shady political henchman for the Vice President of the United States. But the truth is far stranger.
That Traverse Mountain IP address is not an open proxy. It would seem that the address was banned because Judd Bagley has accused Wikipedia's uber-administrators of skewing the contents of four online articles. Yes, just four. But those four articles may sway the fate of billions of dollars spilling through America's stock markets.
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61373
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Man cracks open floppy disk, inserts USB Flash drive
The return of the 3.5in diskette
The Power of One Brief: Top reasons to choose HP BladeSystem
The pictures say it all, really. Hardware hacker Charles Mangin this weekend posted the results of his attempt to slot the innards from a USB Flash drive into an old 3.5in floppy disk case - well, two of them, to be precise, the original casing not being quite thick enough for the cable and connector.
Charles Mangin Floppy Hack
Pictures: Charles Mangin
Says Charles on his Flickr page: "I decided that I would put a promotional USB drive I received at a trade show to good use. The drive itself was stuffed into something the size of a stack of business cards, and my thought was to try and cram those same innards into a floppy disk."
And that's what he did:
Charles Mangin Floppy Hack
He retained the disk itself so that, since the sliding cover ended up being fixed into the open position, users have something to look at other than the inside of the plastic case:
Charles Mangin Floppy Hack
"The final detail I added before sealing everything up," wrote Charles, is "the red activity LED. I lined up the tiny LED on the USB drive with a piece of translucent plastic, which pokes through to the write protect notch in the corner of the disk." ®
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61376
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Glassholes beware: This guy's got your number
Your MAC address, in fact. To block you from his networks
The Power of One Brief: Top reasons to choose HP BladeSystem
An artist/engineer working in Germany is sure to have sparked the next Google Glass debate: is it okay to simply block them from a network you control?
There's plenty of stories about “Glassholes” taking the devices where they're not wanted or aren't legal (for example, driving), with outcomes ranging from being charged to regrettable cases of assault.
Google has made a public plea for users to “don't be creepy”, ignored by app writers that made spyware for the devices, and NYPD ran beta tests earlier this year.
But for a sysadmin that doesn't want Google Glass around, the problem is simply solved, as New Zealand-born, Berlin-based engineer and artist Julian Oliver demonstrates: just make a script that kicks Google Glass off the network.
The BOFH-style intervention is published here, and it's quite simple: it polls the network every 30 seconds looking for devices whose MAC address include the first eight digits of Glass devices, and de-authorise them from the network. Then, rinse and repeat.
For connectivity, Oliver suggests a Raspberry Pi or a BeagleBone Black.
The bash script requires the utilities beep, arp-scan and aircrack-ng, and only occupies 52 lines (including blanks and comments). And as Oliver notes in his comments, that might need to be updated if Google ships new devices with a different first eight digits.
As the comments note, Oliver's concern is people using Glass to record or purloin artworks on exhibition, although he says he was inspired by this Medium post by Omer Shapira complaining that Glassholes seem to think it's okay to record conversations or presentations without permission.
The question Vulture South will now put to commentards is simple: if you're responsible for the network, is it legit to block Google Glass? ®
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Did MLK Improvise in the 'Dream' Speech?
100 Amazing Facts About the Negro: What led to it and how some famous lines nearly weren't spoken.
Martin Luther King Jr. addressing the audience at the March on Washington (Wikimedia Commons)
(The Root) -- Amazing Fact About the Negro No. 45: What laid the groundwork for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous address at the March on Washington, and what are common misperceptions about its intent?
Five Score and 50 Years Ago …
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, issued at the midpoint of the American Civil War, and the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a moment that marked the spiritual summit of the civil rights movement. In place and time, they are joined at the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington, the nation's shrine to the president who signed the proclamation declaring the slaves of the Confederate states free and the King who, 100 later, spoke to the disappointments and dreams of their descendants. Today, the words of both men -- authors of arguably the two greatest speeches in American history, the Gettysburg Address and the "I Have a Dream" speech (pdf) -- are etched in stone and in memory at the Lincoln and King Memorials in Washington.
No one understood the poetry of their parallel moments better than the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. himself, who, speaking in front of Daniel Chester French's iconic seated Lincoln statue, began his speech, "Five score years ago a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today signed the Emancipation Proclamation … But 100 hundred years later the Negro still is not free." In this way, Dr. King framed Abraham Lincoln as the Great Emancipator and made freedom -- "at last" -- the ideal by which we measure progress in our country.
So effective was King in tying the memory of Lincoln to the cause of civil rights that most of us now see the Lincoln Memorial as the obvious site, the holiest of holy places, where history and racial progress meet. So, it was -- it had to be -- the perfect backdrop for the ultimate barrier breaker, Barack Obama, to stand on the eve of his inauguration in 2009. Yet, as we shall see, there was nothing inevitable about the choice of the Lincoln Memorial as the logical place for racial protests throughout the early 20th century, or as the staging ground for Dr. King's most memorable speech.
Last week, we honored Bayard Rustin, the architect of the march; today, we examine the moment that remains most closely associated with it. But first, it's important that we all understand a bit of the complicated background about the setting …
1922: A Dedication or an Opening?
The NAACP was founded in Springfield, Ill., Feb. 12, 1909, the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth. Yet, at the opening of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington May 30, 1922, security guards tried to "Jim Crow" black guests into a separate section from whites, despite the presence of a black orator onstage, the president of Tuskegee Institute, Robert Russa Moton, who, in addition to serving on numerous national boards, published an annual list of blacks lynched in the United States. (Sources for this last fact include the Afro-American newspaper from June 2, 1922, and Moton's New York Times obituary from June 1, 1940.)
The title of Moton's speech, "The Negro's Debt to Lincoln," might have been the other way around (given the role of black soldiers in the Civil War), but Moton agreed to tone down his remarks to placate the Memorial Commission, as Adam Fairclough writes in his article "Civil Rights and the Lincoln Memorial." Even then, Moton managed to slip in his view of Lincoln's ambivalence about emancipation: "The claim of greatness for Abraham Lincoln lies in this, that amid doubt and distrust, against the counsel of chosen advisers, in the hour of the nation's utter peril, he put his trust in God and spoke the word that gave freedom to a race."
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Minute Repeater
A complication on a watch that can strike the time in hours, quarters, or seconds by means of a push button.
A watch which can additionally "repeat" the time, at the push of a button or move of a small slide on the side of the case, by striking the hours, quarter hours and minutes since the last quarter hour on small gongs inside the watch. See also "Repeater."
Considered one of the most complicated mechanisms whereby hammers and gongs signal the hours, quarter hours and minutes acoustically. The most complicated of these minute repeaters have 3 gongs (carillon), most have 2.
A striking mechanism with hammers and gongs for acoustically signalling the hours, quarter hours, and minutes elapsed since noon or midnight.
A device, in a watch, in which the current time is announced by means of a combination of sounds that represent the hour, quarter hour, and minute; usually activated by a button
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1. Headline
1. Headline
updated 1/13/2010 7:51:26 PM ET 2010-01-14T00:51:26
Brett Grinde said he took Effie out for their usual walk on Monday evening, but within a couple of minutes she started pulling on the leash, wanting to go in a different direction.
Effie then took off running, leading Grinde to a neighbor's house where a 94-year-old man was face down on the driveway. The dog started licking the man's face. Grinde called 911, then started CPR.
KARE-TV reported the elderly man, William Lepsch, regained consciousness and is in serious condition at North Memorial Medical Center.
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1. Headline
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Image: Astronaut Janice Voss
Astronaut Janice Voss, who died Feb. 6, 2012, at age 55, is pictured on the flight deck of the space shuttle Endeavour during the STS-99 mission in 2000.
updated 2/8/2012 7:12:04 PM ET 2012-02-09T00:12:04
Astronaut Janice Voss, a veteran of five spaceflights and a former science director for a NASA exoplanet-hunting spacecraft, has died after a battle with cancer. She was 55.
"Just got the very sad news that U.S. astronaut Janice Voss passed away last night," the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization representing more than 350 individuals who have flown in space, wrote on Facebook. "Our thoughts go out to her family and friends."
NASA confirmed Voss' death in a statement issued on Tuesday, saying she had passed away overnight.
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Chosen by NASA for the astronaut corps in January 1990, Voss served as mission specialist on five space shuttle missions, including the only repeat flight in the shuttle program's 30-year history. She flew with the first commercial laboratory, rendezvoused with Russia's Mir space station and helped create the most complete digital topographic map of the Earth.
Five-time shuttle flier
Voss launched on her first and final missions aboard the shuttle Endeavour. As a member of the STS-57 crew in June 1993, she helped conduct biomedical and material science experiments in the first commercially-developed Spacehab module, a pressurized laboratory mounted in the orbiter's payload bay that more than doubled the work area for astronaut-tended activities.
In February 2000 Voss again launched on Endeavour, this time for NASA's Shuttle Radar Topography Mission. After deploying a nearly 200-foot mast, Voss and her crewmates worked around the clock in two shifts to map more than 47 million square-miles of the Earth's land surface. [ Shuttle's Best Science Missions ]
Voss' second flight to space marked the first time a space shuttle came within the vicinity of Russia's space station Mir. Flying on the shuttle Discovery, Voss and her STS-63 crewmates — including Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot a U.S. spacecraft — rendezvoused with the Russian outpost to verify flight techniques, communications, and navigation and sensor aids. The February 1995 "Near-Mir" mission set the stage for the first shuttle-Mir docking later that year.
Voss' two other spaceflights, STS-83 and STS-94, were the only time in the shuttle program's history that an entire crew was launched twice to achieve the same mission. The crew's first attempt began with a liftoff on Columbia on April 4, 1997. Three days into the mission however, a problem with one of the orbiter's three power-generating fuel cells resulted in the flight being cut short and the crew members returning to Earth.
Three months later with Columbia back in working order, Voss and her six STS-83 crewmates launched again, this time as the STS-94 crew. During the successful 15-day flight, Voss and her fellow fliers worked inside a European Spacelab module, conducting experiments as part of the Microgravity Science Laboratory (MSL) mission.
In total, Voss logged over 49 days in space, traveling 18.8 million miles while circling the Earth 779 times. Her five missions tied her with the record for the most spaceflights by a woman.
Four years after returning to Earth for a final time, Voss transferred from Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., where she headed the science program for the agency's Kepler space observatory. Designed to search for Earth size planets orbiting distant stars, Kepler was launched in March 2009 and to date has confirmed 61 exoplanets and identified more than 2,000 planetary candidates.
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Voss left Ames in 2007 and most recently served as the payload lead in the astronaut office's space station branch at the Johnson Space Center.
"As the payload commander of two space shuttle missions, Janice was responsible for paving the way for experiments that we now perform on a daily basis on the International Space Station," chief astronaut Peggy Whitson said in the NASA statement.
"During the last few years, Janice continued to lead our office's efforts to provide the best possible procedures to crews operating experiments on the station today," she said. "Even more than Janice's professional contributions, we will miss her positive outlook on the world and her determination to make all things better."
Path to space
A native of Rockford, Ill., Voss received her bachelor of science in engineering science from Purdue University in 1975, a master of science degree in electrical engineering and a doctorate in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977 and 1987, respectively.
Voss' first work with NASA was during her undergraduate studies at Purdue. A member of Johnson Space Center's co-op program, she worked on computer simulations in the engineering and development directorate in the years leading up to the start of the shuttle-era. Voss returned to the Johnson in 1977 for a year, working as a crew trainer teaching entry guidance and navigation.
Before becoming an astronaut, Voss worked at the Orbital Sciences Corporation, supporting mission integration and flight operations for the Transfer Orbit Stage that launched the Advanced Communications Technology Satellite from the space shuttle in September 1993, and NASA's ill-fated Mars Observer from a Titan rocket in 1992.
A multiple recipient of NASA's Space Flight Medal, Voss donated her personal papers documenting her spaceflight career to Purdue Libraries' division of archives and special collections in 2009.
"Knowing that someone else got from here to there brightened many of my days at Purdue," Voss said at the time, referring to the university's earlier astronaut alums. "Maybe my papers will help someone else feel that they aren't that different from me."
"If I can do it, then so can they," Voss said.
Follow collectSPACE on Facebook and Twitter @ collectSPACE and editor Robert Pearlman @ robertpearlman. Copyright 2011 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
© 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.
Video: Remembering astronaut Janice Voss
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1. Southern stargazing
2. A balloon's view
3. Spacemen at work
4. Special delivery
5. Accidental art
6. Supersonic test flight
7. Red lagoon
8. Fire on the mountain
9. Where stars are born
10. Cygnus takes flight
11. A long, long time ago...
12. Frosty halo
1. Editor's note:
This image contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
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Old February 28 2013, 11:47 PM #1
los2188's Avatar
Location: North Carolina
A Khan and Klingon alliance?
One of the ideas or a neat hope of mine, which I don't think is going to happen, is this...what if the Klingons were the ones to discover Khan on the Botnay Bay? I can imagine an angry Khan who was sent away wanting to exact revenge on the people of Earth who, in a sense, wronged him and his followers. With all of that, he convinces the Klingons to help him destroy the Federation and Earth, but I would imagine that at some point Khan turns on the Klingons for whatever reason like using the Klingons as a means to maybe control the Alpha quadrant as well...what do you think?
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Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Many people, me included at one stage, have only ever been familiar with the concept of .NET compilation as a result of building within Visual Studio. Keep in mind though that Visual Studio is no more than an IDE. Ok, it’s a particularly good IDE but it doesn’t have a monopoly and compilation and actually creating object code from C# (or that other one).
Once we start moving towards compiling on a build server, there’s no concept of Visual Studio (it won’t be installed on the machine) and we need to be able to run builds from the command line. This is why we now need to start getting a bit intimate with MSBuild.
Welcome to MSBuild
MSBuild is actually a rather comprehensive platform of which I only want to touch on what’s absolutely necessary to achieve the objective of this blog series. There are two very important tasks we need MSBuild to perform within the build server:
1. Ensure the entire solution builds. Not just the web app or it’s dependencies but the entire solution which could include other interface layers, unit test projects, etc.
2. Package the web app. We need to go through a packaging process before deployment can happen and MSBuild is going to do this for us.
Let’s start with the MSBuild basics. If we navigate over to the “Microsoft Visual Studio 2010” folder in your start menu then drill down into “Visual Studio Tools” we’ll have a program titled “Visual Studio Command Prompt” with an icon that looks just like the good old command window next to it. This loads up a (hopefully) familiar environment with the current directory drilled down into the Visual Studio folder. From here we can start running MSBuild commands. We could also run them from the MSBuild packaged in with the .NET framework at “C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\msbuild.exe” but we’ll stick with the VS command window for the moment.
The easiest way of running a build against the existing project is simply to navigate over to the root folder of the project (which should contain the .sln file) and run the command “msbuild”. This will automatically identify that a solution file exists in the folder and run the build. Here’s what happens:
Successful MSBuild output against a solution
Getting a bit more explicit and running the msbuild command with the solution file as a parameter will yield an identical result:
msbuild AutoDeployProject.sln
There’s quite a bit of info in the window above, at least quite a bit more than you usually get in Visual Studio with the default level of build output verbosity. So what does a failed build look like? Here’s what happens when I introduce an error to the project and try and reference “NonExistentClass”:
Failed MSBuild output against a solution
I’m showing this simply because the output becomes an important concept once we get into automated builds. This is essential information for working through the root cause of failed builds and we’re going to be seeing this again in the near future.
What’s a “package”?
Web packaging is a pretty essential component of this blog series. It’s how we’re going encapsulate our entire website into a redistributable format which can then be pushed out over Web Deploy. Introduced by Microsoft last year and bundled in with Web Deploy and Visual Studio 2010, Vishal Joshi has a great simple explanation for it:
Web Packaging is the process of creating a .zip file which can contain your web content (pages, images, CSS, JavaScript files etc), databases, IIS Settings, Application creation, ACLs etc.
The really important thing to note here is that not only does a package contain all the usual web content you’d expect (aspx, css, js, etc.), it may also contain a database (which again, we won’t look at in this series) as well as IIS settings and ACLs. In short, the package becomes an authoritative source of both the structure and configuration of a web application.
There are numerous ways of creating a web package including by backing up a website directly from IIS, publishing one directly out of Visual Studio or scripting it from the command prompt from the solution files. It’s this last strategy we’re going to look at next because it’s easily automated.
Creating packages with MSBuild
So now that the solution builds, let’s look at packaging the web app. We’re going to run MSBuild again but this time against the project file in the web app and with a couple of new parameters. Here’s how it looks:
msbuild Web.csproj /T:Package /P:Configuration=Deploy-Dev
After the csproj parameter, the next one declares an MSBuild target which in this case is “Package”. Next up is pretty self-explanatory and is obviously running the “Deploy-Dev” build configuration we created in part 1 of this series. This is important because it’s the config transforms in this build that we want incorporated into the package. Here’s what we get once the build finishes:
MSBuild targetting package
In the first line of the output window we can see a zip file has been created and saved into the “obj/Deploy-Dev/Package” folder. If we take a look in Windows Explorer we’ll see the output of the packaging process:
Contents of a web application package
The final thing we want to do is confirm the config transforms have been successfully recognised. I say “recognised” rather than “applied” because creating the package is only the first half of the config transforms process. There’s a couple of interesting things to observe here. Firstly, within the Web.SetParameters.xml file we’ll find a parameters node with a couple of child nodes titled “setParameter”. One of these will look like this:
<setParameter name="AutoDeployDb-Web.config Connection String"
value="Data Source=MyDevServer;Initial Catalog=AutoDeploy;User
" />
What we’re seeing here is the “AutoDeployDb” connection string with a value attribute matching the config transform for the “Deploy-Dev” build. Now let’s take a look inside the PackageTmp folder and we’ll find what looks like a deployed web application and it almost is. Let’s take a look inside the Web.config and in particular, at the “AutoDeployDb” connection string:
<add name="AutoDeployDb" connectionString="$(ReplacableToken_AutoDeployDb-
Web.config Connection String_0)
Obviously the config transform hasn’t been applied yet. The reason behind this is explained more fully in the MSDN post about How to: Use Parameters to Configure Deployment Settings When a Package is Installed but in short, you may not always know the correct value for the target destination. For example, you may not have the credentials for the connection string and instead be dependent on an administrator to fill these in after packaging but before deployment. In the scenario I’m building in this post, we do know the values of each of our configurations for each of our environments but I thought it was worth explaining why the package was structured in this fashion.
I don’t want to get too tangential here, but there’s one other thing worth touching on briefly in relation to the Web.config in the package. Just below the connection string with the tokenised value we’ll find the app setting for the chart handler, but it’s presented a little differently to the connection string:
<add key="ChartImageHandler"
Whoa, what’s going on here? Where’s the tokenisation? I struggled to find information on this so I turned to the oracle of programming knowledge that is Stack Overflow and asked Why are some Web.config transforms tokenised into SetParameters.xml and others are not? As it turns out, connection strings are, well, a little bit special. By default (and this can be overridden), only connection strings are tokenised with their values stored in the SetParameters.xml file then substituted on deploy while all other Web.config values with an appropriate transform are substituted when the package is created.
Frankly, I find this a little counter-intuitive to the earlier message about not knowing target environment values at the time of packaging. Surely there are valid use cases for this outside of just connection strings? Service accounts, for example, may be required for the application to connect to other systems but the credentials are not intended to be shared with the developer. Anyway, that’s how it works as of today and given the scenario we’re modelling in this post it’s not going to affect us anyway.
Coming next…
So our config settings are working beautifully and we have a nice deployable package. Now we need to actually do something with it which is where MSDeploy will come into play in part 3.
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TryScience Home Page Experiment!Experiment
Apple Face Icon
Mummy Magic
Things You'll Need Graphic
Pouring Graphic
Carving Apple Graphic
Dipping Apple Graphic
Apple In Natron Graphic
Discover how the Ancient Egyptians used drying as one step in the mummification process.
• 1/2 apple
• 1 popsicle or craft stick
• 1 medium-sized plastic bags that seals
• Natron Solution: 1/4 cup table salt, 1/2 cup sodium carbonate (washing soda, sometimes called powder bleach - check the ingredients), and 1/2 cup baking soda
• Stir together--this makes enough to do one apple. You may maximize this recipe as necessary.
Make the Natron solution (recipe above) in the plastic bag. Carve a face into the apple with the popsicle stick then stick the popsicle stick into the apple so you have a handle (like you were making a candy apple). Dip the apple into the Natron Solution until the face is covered, and leave the apple in the bag. Safety precautions: do NOT eat the apple or the Natron Solution; wash your hands after the activity and don't touch your eyes or mouth until you wash your hands. You might want to wear plastic safety goggles. Leave the bag open in an upright position to allow air to flow. Record your observations as your apple mummifies. What happens to the apple once it is covered with the Natron Solution? How much time does it take for the apple to turn into a "mummy"?
The Natron Solution dries the apple just as it would dry a human body to make a mummy. By eliminating moisture, you have eliminated the source of decay. Natron is made up of four salts: sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, sodium chloride, and sodium sulfate. The sodium carbonate works as a drying agent, drawing the water out of the body. At the same time the bicarbonate, when subjected to moisture, increases the pH that creates a hostile environment for bacteria.
The mummification of the apple may take up to two weeks. Other suggestions for the mummification process: try using chickens or game hens. Adjustments would have to be made to the amount of Natron Solution used and the time allotted for the experiment. The Ancient Egyptians believed that mummification was necessary for eternal life. The soul needed a body to which to return. Challenge your children to research the afterlife beliefs of the Ancient Egyptians. Also challenge your children to research other cultures that practiced mummification. What other substances did the Ancient Egyptians use to make mummies? How did the Ancient Egyptians discover Natron? How long does it take for your apple to be mummified? What changes to the apple did you observe during the mummification process?
Egyptian Mummies @ the Denver Museum of Nature & Science
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Large PrintHandheldAudioRating
Twisting The Hellmouth Crossing Over Awards - Results
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Daddy's Home
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Summary: Buffy's finds out who her real father is. *Implied Slash*
Categories Author Rating Chapters Words Recs Reviews Hits Published Updated Complete
Multiple Crossings > Buffy-CenteredgigiFR131611082,6353 Apr 083 Apr 08Yes
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Supernatural, Stargate, or Harry Potter.
AN: For humorous purposes only. Buffy's real family stories... Love them! Still gotta make fun of them though. Not really following any canon whatsoever.
Buffy looked at the four men in front of her in disbelief. There were two wizards, one looked sort of strange and the other was in desperate need of shampoo. Another had mentioned that he was once an U.S. Air Force General before implanting an alien creature inside him in order to live. The last had said that he hunted demons. Every single one of them had found out that she was the Slayer and had wanted to enlist her help in their cause, and to top it off, they had just told her some crazy news.
“So Hank Summers is not my real father?” Buffy asked incredulously. They all nodded. “But all four of you are? And my real mom wasn't Joyce Summers, it was Lily Evans? And now, I have four half-brothers and one half-sister?” Once again, they nodded their confirmation. “How is this even possible?”
“It involved lots of alcohol, magic, and an orgy.” Said the man who had introduced himself as John Winchester. He smiled in reminiscence. “I was hunting a demon in England and met them in some bar.”
“Yea, I remember that. I was there with some buddies celebrating. Lily was quite a beauty.” The man named Jacob Carter chimed in.
“Yes, this was when I was just starting out, still creating my plans. Lily had been drinking because of her fight with that infernal Potter. Severus had been trying to console her. Instead, she surprised us all.” The strange looking wizard smirked. The greasy-haired one known as Severus, scowled.
"What was the reasoning behind the pregnancy again? Something about yours and Severus' magical energy mixed with all of our combined sexual energy created an unusual effect, which resulted in a pregnancy spell?" John asked. The wizards nodded their confirmation.
“Whoa. Maybe that was an overshare.” Buffy cringed. She really didn't need to hear about these old guys in an orgy having sexual anything, especially that snake-looking one who had said his name was Lord Vollysomething. He looked evil and was starting to creep her out.
“Come on, kid. Give us a break. We were all young once.” Jacob winked.
“Yea, but I don't need details.” Buffy smiled reluctantly. Buffy liked him even though he was giving off some weird, demony-like vibes, but she didn't think he was evil.
“This shouldn't really surprise you. I'm sure someone as beautiful as you has had your fair share of suitors. You did get your good looks from me after all.” Lord Voldywart rasped out in his gravelly voice, somewhat arrogantly.
Buffy looked at him skeptically and said, “Somehow, I doubt that.”
Lord Voldy scowled. “I used to be quite the ladies man before my desire for world domination.” He sniffed defensively.
“Sure.” Buffy agreed insincerely. “Can I ask you guys something?” They nodded. “Where is my birth mother? Shouldn't she be here too?” Everyone looked at her awkwardly.
"What?" Buffy asked.
“She was murdered when your half-brother, Harry, was just a baby.” Severus explained. His voice held a hint of sadness tinged with guilt. Buffy wondered about that.
“Oh. How did she die?” Buffy asked curiously. Severus paled even more than he already was. Both John and Jacob glared at Lord Voldy.
“Oh I killed her. She got in my way when I tried to kill Harry.” Lord Moldy Shorts said unrepentantly.
“Excuse me?” Buffy wasn't sure she was hearing right. “You killed my mother and tried to kill my brother?”
A slight pause. "Yes."
"And now you have the gall to ask me to join you?" Lord Volleyball shrugged his shoulders.
“Evil wizard here.”
“Oh right.”
Absurd much?
Please review.
The End
You have reached the end of "Daddy's Home". This story is complete.
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Twisting The Hellmouth Crossing Over Awards - Results
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Screaming Trouble
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Summary: King had never noticed how nice Summers’ breasts were until that moment. Written for the 50 Smutlets.
Categories Author Rating Chapters Words Recs Reviews Hits Published Updated Complete
Marvel Universe > Blade(Moderator)AvaFR2122,3274124,0345 Jun 093 Jun 13Yes
Scroll down if you still wish to read it.
Screaming Trouble
Title :: Screaming Trouble
Rating :: FR21
Prompt :: 39 Washing
Pairing :: Buffy Summers/Hannibal King
Disclaimer :: Blade: Trinity and all related characters are copyright David S. Goyer, New Line & Marvel. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all related characters are copyright Joss Whedon and ME. No infringement intended.
Note:: Written for Nina and the 50 smutlets.
Synopsis :: King had never noticed how nice Summers’ breasts were until that moment.
Screaming Trouble
Water cascaded around her, sliding down her nude form and a pointed chin lifted, presenting her beaten and bloody face to the shower spray. She welcomed the cold shock of it as it sliced through the dried blood coating one side of her and the arms that had held another of her crew, in this new and harder universe, as they bled out. Buffy’s stomach tightened, rolled as she watched rust colored water make pink trails across her abdomen and down her thighs to circle her calves before slipping down the drain.
Her hair tumbled forward, thick with water and darker bits as she let the shower beat at her body. She blinked, damp lashes sticking together and then frowned when she noticed a pair of army boots just outside the ring of falling water. The scuffed toes moved forward an inch before she lifted her head and looked into a pair of understanding brown eyes that made her feel worse.
A slow smirk curved the right side of his mouth inward and Buffy’s eyes narrowed, bracing herself for the idiocy filled comment about to follow that smile. “You know, Summers, I never noticed how nice your tits were until this moment.” His head cocked, voice turning conversational as he continued, “A little on the small side, but still more than adequate.”
She stepped forward, out of the shower’s spray and Hannibal’s brow rose when she moved to take the spot directly in front of him. Close enough so that the water dripping from her chin dropped on those scuffed toes before she tilted her head back and asked, “You do realize this is the last thing you’re ever going to see, right?”
His adam’s apple bobbed before his smile turned cheeky. “Or it could be the first thing I see every morning.” She snorted, eyes rolling before her arms rose to cross beneath her breasts and Hannibal’s gaze dipped before shooting back up to hers. “Abby wanted me to check on you.”
“While I was taking a shower?”
“While. After. I’m not seeing the big difference.”
Her jaw thrust forward a moment and she resisted the urge to break his as she growled, “Except for the whole my being naked part.”
“There is that.” His head cocked and he lifted his gloved hands in a peaceful motion, palms up and level at his sides. “I could get naked too. Just a thought.”
“Okay.” Buffy nodded her agreement and turned to hide her smile from his ever widening gaze.
She slipped back under the water’s spray to continue to wash another’s blood from her body and that slow smile of triumph at shocking Hannibal quickly faded as she scrubbed at the flaky streaks of red still coating her lower back. It wasn’t long before callused hands pressed against her water slick skin, helping her pick at the dried blood and she turned, found Hannibal standing directly behind her.
She kept her gaze on his rather impressive chest, didn’t let herself look down as she asked, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“Following orders.”
Buffy blinked and then blushed as her gaze dipped. She ignored the warmth building behind her face and kept her voice even as she prompted, “So we’re even?”
His brows quirked upward as his chin dipped into a nod. “I would say so.”
“Good. Now get out.”
“You don’t want me to get those hard to reach places for you?” The blush burned brighter, slipping down her throat to color her chest a rosy hue as Buffy shook her head and the callused hands rubbing at the blood on her arms lifted to cup her face. She looked up at Hannibal though damp lashes and watched his gaze stay trained on her face as he added, almost as an afterthought, “You just scream trouble, don’t you?”
Her eyes widened and she tensed, lifted a hand to the center of his chest and prepared to shove his naked ass away from her when he added, voice nearly as lost as she felt. “God, I love that in a woman.”
His head dipped, brown eyes falling closed and suddenly his warm mouth was pressed to her wet one and she was dragged forward. The hand resting on his chest snaked upward, fingers curving around his strong neck as she rose on tip toe and opened her mouth. His sharp tongue swept inward, drew her inward and focused her on him instead of the world where she’d lost someone, an important someone. The hand cupping his neck inched upward, threaded her fingers through his damp hair and pulled, drew his head back and their kiss broke, leaving them both panting.
She blinked up at him, felt the evidence of his desire pressed hard and tight against her stomach and swallowed the need, the urge to fall to her knees and taste Hannibal in places other than his mouth. A pink tongue eased out, traced her teeth and then her abraded mouth as her hand left the hair of his scalp to absently comb through his beard.
“We’re not having sex.”
He swallowed, chin dipping and voice soft. “Are you sure?”
Another snort, shook her shoulders and breasts and Hannibal’s hands inched from around her back to palm her sides before his head lifted and he met her gaze. Buffy’s brow arched as she smiled up at him. “I need at least one date between us before sex.”
The skin around his eyes tightened as they narrowed. “Only one?”
“Maybe two.”
His hands slipped around her back again and tugged Buffy forward, captured her mouth and quieted her protests for the next few minutes before he let go and she simply stared up at him, stunned. He grinned and grabbed the soap, lathering his hands before he stated, “Come on, let’s get you cleaned up enough to catch a movie.”
She watched him dumbly for a moment before prompting, “Movie?”
“Yeah, we can sit in the back and pretend to watch. We’ll neck like school kids.” He started with her stomach and spread his hands wide, scattering the thin layer of bubbles as he worked. Buffy watched his hands, still confused by the change in topic as he stepped closer and asked, “You don’t have teeth in your vagina, right? I mean I’ve dealt with that before and really don’t want to go through it again.”
Her head jerked back and she lifted her chin, mouth opening to deliver a scathing comeback when one of his lathered hands dipped between her thighs, slipped inside the folds of her sex. Buffy swallowed her abrupt words and let her head fall against his chest, whimpering when he drew his hand away and directed her towards the shower spray.
“No, no teeth there.”
She spun, ignored his knowing smirk and claimed his mouth. Between heated touches and panting breaths Buffy managed to mutter, “Screw the movie.”
Hannibal, never one to let someone else have the last word responded with, “No, screw me.”
The end.
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The White Shadow
Season 2 Episode 13
Feeling No Pain
Aired Monday 8:00 PM Jan 01, 1980 on CBS
out of 10
User Rating
1 votes
By Users
Episode Summary
Salami sprains a knee during a pickup basketball game, and his doctor prescribes amphetamines, which he unwittingly shares with the team.
Who was the Episode MVP ?
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John Mengatti
John Mengatti
Nick Vitaglia (1979-1981)
Ed Bernard
Ed Bernard
Jim Willis (1978-1980)
Joan Pringle
Joan Pringle
Sybil Buchanan
Ken Howard
Ken Howard
Ken Reeves
Kevin Hooks
Kevin Hooks
Morris Thorpe
Byron Stewart
Byron Stewart
Warren Coolidge
Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions
• TRIVIA (1)
• QUOTES (6)
• Reporter: So, then, this player's involvement with drugs had nothing to do with basketball, in other words?
Reeves: There's no "in other words"! This kid's not involved with drugs. They were prescribed by a physician for a knee injury. The kid got stupid with 'em!
• Reporter: Do you have any first-hand information about the proliferation of drugs in high school sports?
Reeves: There's proliferation of drugs in high school, period! Don't you ever watch the other parts of the news?
• Reporter: Anyway, it's been brought to my attention that one of the Carver players was suspended for selling amphetamines
Reeves: How exactly was that brought to your attention?
Reporter: Let's just say I've got my spies (reaches for papers on Reeves' desk, Reeves stops him)
• Reeves: (to reporter) You know, you ask way too many questions, and I don't feel like answering them, so I think you should go.
Reporter: You used to play for the Bulls, right?
Reeves: Yeah, and we had a trick in the locker room for certain wanna see it?
Reporter: (leaving hurriedly) Thanks for your time!
Reeves: I didn't think so!
• Sybil: (about Salami) He got those pills from a doctor you sent him to?
Reeves: Do me a favor, can the righteous indignation!
Sybil: Damn it, Ken, don't tell me to can anything!
• (at drug hearing)
Chairman: Did you take amphetamines prior to the Russell game?
Coolidge: Yes.
Reeves: WHAT!?
• NOTES (1)
• DVD goof: At the end, when Reeves takes his bottle of prescription painkillers into his office bathroom, we don't hear him flushing them down the toilet as he did during the episode's original run.
• ALLUSIONS (0)
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3. Chapter 3
Rating 0/5 Word Count 1218 Review this Chapter
I can’t believe it. I just graduated and I am 22 years old! All those four years of full effort. I never saw him anymore, so it means he moved on. Most of my dreams these past years were all about him. He was in Paris, a meadow in Paris. He was screaming my name, and I could hear him mumbling “I love you, my brand of heroine.” I will just wake up in the middle of the night crying.
“And our Valedictorian of the year, Kristine Lyons.” I stood up and smiled at the clapping crowd.
“Go Kristine!” I smiled at my dad. A week before the graduation I called Charlie and apologized to him about everything. I told him my plan, but not the part that this was all to be perfect for him (Edward). I told him that I don’t want distractions during my studies so I left him (Edward), and did not tell him where I was. I also told him that I changed my name so he (Edward) really won’t find me.
“Thank you.” I received my diploma and smiled at the crowd.
I walked down the stairs, not afraid of falling anymore. I practiced my balance and now I never trip anymore, even if I ran a mile.
A lot has changed over the years, instead of having a full circled face; I have a matured heart face. The only thing missing is me being the most beautiful woman. There is still a lot to do before I go back to ‘him’. I am still not ready.
Our English teacher, Mr. Biddle, said his last massages and the graduation was done. I only had one friend, Sophia. She is also my neighbor. The two of us are planning to have a vacation in Paris, and go to a restaurant tonight. We had been planning this for days.
“Kristine!” Sophia knows everything about me, and him. But I did not tell her that he was a vampire, I just told her that he was too perfect for me.
“Hey Sophia, congratulations! At last we graduated,” I said as we were hugging each other. She had been excited on graduating. Then she started crying.
“I. am. So. Happy!” she squealed.
“I can tell. Oh, don’t cry. Just remember what we are doing tonight and tomorrow.”
“See that is why I am so happy. I get to spend it with you.” I just smiled as she gave me that goofy grin.
“Kristine! Come on, don’t be a slowpoke again.” Sophia banged my door like there was something to hurry about. I was still looking at the mirror thinking what ‘he’ will think when he sees me. I was wearing a blue pencil skirt, with a black baby doll shirt on top of a blue tank top. Since I am not afraid of falling anymore, I’m wearing a pair of black heels.
“Come in Sophia,” I screamed.
“Gosh, what is taking you so long, like you are going on a date,” she complained.
“You’re right, let’s go?” Then Sophia started complaining about her, wasting her time walking in my door. I just smiled and thought about him, again.
We went to this famous restaurant called Mi Piaccé. I ordered their seafood carbonara, while Sophia ordered their anchovies and rocklet pizza. We talked mostly on what we will do, since we were already done in college.
When we were walking back to Sophia’s car, there were three things I did not want to see.
First, three beautiful men standing in front of us, Second, they were pale like him, and third, they have bloody red eyes.
“Bella,” said the guy in the middle. How did know my name? I don’t even know him.
Then I remembered Carlisle and his three friends. But how did he know? I never met him. The three of them have black hooded capes and I could tell from their eyes that they hunted humans, like James’ clan.
“I heard that Edward is looking for you and I, actually we helped out.” He continued with a mischievous smile.
“How…,” I chocked out.
“Well, from your scent of course, and I have me here a wonderful tracker.”
“No, I mean… How did you know my name?”
“From Edward, he was easy to read. He is... how do you call it? Emotional” he laughed. Emotional, where is Edward?
“He did not even care that I was there and I touched him to read his mind,” he continued.
“So I read his mind and I saw what caused his sadness, you left him!” he laughed.
“Come here dear, can I see your hand?”
I gave him my hand because I did not know what to do. I was still in shock that Edward was grieving… for me.
“It can’t be,” he breathed out.
“Aro?” said the other vampire beside him.
“I can’t read her mind!” he shouted.
“Edward can’t read my mind too,” I said.
Aro was still holding my hand. I could remember that it was the same texture as Edward’s. But Aro’s hand is hard, papery, and cold at the same time and Edward’s is smooth, hard, and cold.
“Take her and her friend back to the castle. We need her. I already see what her ability will be.” I forgot about Sophia. She was still beside me in shock. But what ability only vampires have ability, unless.
Next thing I know, I was strapped down on a huge gurney, like Frankenstein. But I wasn’t being turned to a monster but into a beautiful creature.
Before Aro turned me into a vampire, first he told Sophia what se was going to be. When Aro was finished he turned to me and next thing I know, he bit me.
The past few days were complete torture. The burning on my body keeps getting worst. It hurt me to hear Sophia being tortured like this. What kind of a friend am I?
The third day, I could feel my body getting colder and stronger. But, the burning was still there. I could hardly keep my eyelids open. I tried calling him, to make the burning stop just like before. But it was too late. Isn’t this what I want? Yes, but not from the venom of a killer.
I counted every thump of my heart, until it reduced its sound. I could hear cars from outside the castle. I could also hear someone pacing down the hall. At least now, I would be perfect as him, the face, the voice, and especially the scent. I would never be the clumsy and fragile Bella ever again. I will be the strongest and graceful Bella.
After this I will try to find a way to get out of this place. Then, I will run back to Edward’s arm and beg him to take me back.
My heart pumped faster than a humming bird’s wings, and then suddenly stopped. I listened for Sophia’s but it already stopped too. It was like the plane took off then suddenly landed, before it could make it to the skies.
I opened my eyes successfully and saw everything. I searched the room for the chance to escape. But something was blocking the door, a little girl with bloody red eyes?
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Anatomía de la placenta normal
La placenta proporciona oxígeno y nutrientes al feto y facilita la eliminación de desechos, como el dióxido de carbono, a través del cordón umbilical.Anatomía de la placenta normal
• Call 911 for all medical emergencies.
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icon of a paper next to Apply online text
open door next to gray writing "Visit"
Small icon next to white bg says "Give"
plus sign and gray writing
Funding your research
There are two ways to help fund your research:
Internal funding
Questions and completed applications should be sent directly to Dr. Mark Silby
External Funding
Numerous groups outside UMass Dartmouth undergraduate research.
• Federal agencies (eg. NSF)
• Professional societies
• Private foundations
OUR has compiled a list of some organizations as a source to fund your research. Your faculty advisor and OUR can also help provide any information on organizations you have found that could help you.
You can find the list on the OUR page in the OUR UMassD portal page
myCoursesmyCourses myAlertmyAlert LibraryLibrary
COINCOIN HRDirectHR Direct umasspassUMass Pass
ReservItReservIt ZimbraZimbra
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61652
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Bartlett Group Summer 2014
Front Row Left to Right: Frances, Jimmy, Ben, Kayla, and Lydia
Back Row Left to Right: Charles, Garret, Bart, Scott, Sam, and Emily
Recent News
June 23, 2014. Bart is awarded an LSA Class of 1923 Memorial Teaching Award.
June 18, 2014. Profs. Bart Bartlett and Stephen Maldonado are awarded a UM Energy Institute Postdoctoral Fellow Grant for "Synthesis, Modeling and Lab Testing of Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Perovskite Materials for High Efficiency Solar-to-Electrical Energy Conversion."
June 12, 2014. The Bartlett Group is awarded a grant from the Department of Energy for "Chemoselective Oxidations Using Visible-Light Responsive Semiconducting Oxides."
May 15, 2014. The UM Board of Regents promotes Assistant Professor Bart M. Bartlett to the rank of associate professor with tenure, effective September 1, 2014.
May 8, 2014. Xiaoguang's LMO fracture paper is accepted in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.
April 24, 2014. Josh Kurtz is awarded the Jerome and Isabella Karle Physical Sciences Goldstein Honors Prize. Congrats.
April 23, 2014. Taylor Evans and Josh Kurtz are presented with the ACS Inorganic Chemistry Award and theWalter Yates Undergraduate Award, respectively at the Chemistry Undergraduate Awards Recognition Program. Congrats!
April 15, 2014. Xiaoguang successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis, Synthesis and Defect Structure Analysis of Complex Oxides for Li-Ion Battery Electrodes. Congraulations, Dr. Hao!
April 1, 2014. Rotation Student, Emilia Groso & Group Alum, Aaron Goodman are awarded NSF Graduate Research Fellowships. Congrats!
March 21, 2014. Joe successfully defends his Ph.D. thesis, Photoelectrochemical and Photocatalytic Water Oxidation using Metal Oxides. Congratulations, Dr. Yourey!
January 21, 2014. Vinod and Joe's TiO2-B/RGO battery paper is accepted in ACS Nano.
January 17, 2014. Ben's Fe-catalyst on WO3 water oxidation paper is accepted in J. Am. Chem. Soc.
News archive
Contact Info
University of Michigan
Department of Chemistry
930 N. University
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1055
Lab: 734.615.6393
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61683
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Urban Rivals
Register Already signed up to the game →
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Flash modification
Flash modification
Monday 03/06/2013, 17:07
Goralion - Admin English
101 messages
Flash modification
Goralion - Admin - E X C A L I B U REnglish - Wednesday 05/06/2013, 16:32
Hey everybody,
Enjoy !
edited by UM_AaaBattery Wednesday 05/06/2013, 16:32
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Babs Hartley - Legend - TRiNiTY English
Sunday 23/06/2013, 21:08
Can we please have an option to turn off the courage/reprisal and confidence/revenge notifications in game?
They're really distracting and unnecessary for most players over level 15.
The notifications really take away from the art, too.
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Play our other addictive free to play online TCG: Fantasy Rivals
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61688
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look up any word, like swag:
"Dave is such a pandork that he spends all his time on www.avatar-forums.com writing essays about what he would take with him if he could live on Pandora for a year."
by Hail Cesar!! January 14, 2010
Words related to Pandork
avatar dork geek james cameron loser pandora
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61689
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look up any word, like bae:
A brainless waste of space with no sexual organs.
Luke Baschnagel is a prump.
by paul shaer January 26, 2005
To pass wind from your bottom.
adj... Prumped, Prumper, Prumping
Ewwww James just did a prump
by The Metatron August 27, 2009
(n.)a fat whore
(adj.) prumping- being fucking cool.
Your music teacher is a total prump.
by frijoles.y.queso. May 03, 2007
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61691
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look up any word, like fluffer:
A car driven mainly by people over the age of 60. Looks and feels like driving a 100-ton brick shithouse. You can hit curbs, pedestrians, and other cars and not leave a scratch in your bumper. If anything on your volvo ever breaks or needs replacing, no matter how small, it will cost you 800.00. If the airbag ever goes off it will most likely decapitate you too. The cupholders.... oh wait... the early 90's volvos DON'T HAVE CUPHOLDERS. If you drive a volvo you're an asshole, bottom line.
Hey look at that guy driving a volvo, what an asshole.
by Domino May 20, 2007
by kung-fu jesus August 19, 2004
by squirrelmaster5.0 June 08, 2003
by mean mother fucker January 10, 2006
That Volvo owned that ricer in his Honda.
by Everruler December 27, 2006
Car company known for their boxy but safe cars.
See Wagon
I own a choclate lab and a Volvo wagon.
by Ted Krygier November 19, 2003
by Alex B. December 28, 2004
by greatgalkan March 17, 2007
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61692
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look up any word, like plopping:
Scottish - More central scotland insult.
Definition -
To smell like a male genital area which is rather smelly indeed. Balls that havent been washed in a long time or are rather sweaty.
You are stinkin of bawhum!
by Gayley August 19, 2006
to hum upon the male testes usually to the tune of the macarena
"gees a bawhum ya ride"
by trig April 29, 2003
A Scottish term meaning a gentle oral vibration upon the scrotum or sometimes used to describe a person of little intelligence.
1: "This girl gave me a BJ and bawhum last night"
2: "Shut it you bawhum"
by Chris June 19, 2006
the act of placing the man's testes in one's mouth and humming, hence the man ejaculates all over your doll-like face, resulting in spots, sometimes AIDS.
'ooh.......oh.oh...oh.OOH OOH OOH BUZZ LIKE A BEE BIATCH and take my juice. Baw Hum me mom'
by master de bates June 22, 2006
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61694
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look up any word, like cleveland steamer:
a big skanky neanderthal woman who scares the shit out of men until they give into her sexual desires. poor men, AND NO I AM NOT A VICTIM SO FUCK YOU.
DUDE, look at what that that lyns mom is doing to that poor man's pecker.
by i love you lyn October 03, 2003
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global_05_local_4_shard_00000656_processed.jsonl/61695
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look up any word, like cleveland steamer:
An urban legend has it that if you sneeze 7 times in a row you will orgasm. An orgasm achieved this way is known as a Sneezegasm.
With this hayfever I've been blowing snot outta my face all week, but this morning I swear it was so bad I had a sneezegasm and I'd already used up almost all my kleenex. I had goo drippin' outta me top and bottom and only enough left to wipe one or the other. So basically my underwear is glued to me now.
by Mister Hughes. March 21, 2007
The event of having to sneeze, but it won't happen. Then all of a sudden, a powerful sneeze is released followed by a feeling of relief.
An orgasm of the nose.
John: -ACHUUUU!!-
Frank: Dude, I saw that building up. Total sneeze-gasm.
by sierramyst93 November 24, 2010
The girlfriend sneezegasm'd.
by Kelsey and Dani April 24, 2009
To sneeze to an excessive amount thus triggering an orgasm
I sneezed so much dawg, I damn near sneeze-gasm'ed
by Sneeze-spert January 04, 2012
Sneezing 7 times in a row causing you to have an orgasm
Yesterday i had a sneezegasm. It was awesome
by swagmaestro123 March 04, 2014
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