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Husky Puppy
This is an exercise submission on the exercise Model a Husky Puppy
Rules of the Exercise
• 1
Model must convincingly resemble a friendly husky.
• 2
Model must be made of all quads.
• 3
There should be loops surrounding all major anatomical features.
• 4
The poly count should be below 7000 triangles.
This Exercise Submission has passed!
This was a difficult exercise, but I learned quite a bit. Hopefully he looks cute and friendly!
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Alternative medicines vs. prescription drugs, which are more dangerous? | December 24, 2010
A new survey led by Australian researchers suggests using alternative medicines, or homeopathic remedies, may be dangerous for kids.
The survey found four deaths between 2001 and 2003 that were associated with use of alternative treatments in Australia.
Alissa Lim of the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne went through all reports by Australian pediatricians and found 39 indicating side effects, including the four deaths associated with not using conventional medicine.
The report is published in the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says about 38 percent of U.S. adults used complementary or alternative medicine like herbal remedies, dietary supplements, vitamin supplements, or enzymes in 2004.
The health agency also reported in 2008 that in the United States about 12 percent of children under 17 used CAM-therapy.
Deaths associated with use of dietary supplements or alternative medicine are rare, compared to the death toll from the medical errors and prescription drugs, according to Dr. Gary Null, a health and nutrition expert and award-winning talk radio host.
Dr. Null cited reports indicating the number of deaths due to medical mistakes annually:
adverse drug reactions - 106,000 deaths/yr
medical errors- 98,000 deaths/yr
unnecessary procedures - 37, 136 deaths/yr
surgery - 32,000 deaths/yr
David Liu and editing by Aimee Keenan-Greene
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6213
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Monday, February 12, 2007
Two in a row from Dan Lyons at
IBM Open Client
How does that moniker strike you?
Same here. As a whole bunch of B$.
Dan Lyons of beat me to it with his article here.
From the article:
What do you do when you're trying to put a fresh look on a 20-year-old e-mail system? Well, if you're IBM, you start calling it "Open Client"; you hype it as being Linux-related; and you throw in a bunch of smack-talk about helping poor, oppressed customers throw off the yoke of Microsoft.
So what, exactly, is it? Scroll down through the press release and you find out it's basically a combo of Lotus Notes (e-mail and collaboration), Lotus Sametime (instant messaging) and a couple of other pieces that can all run on Windows, Linux or the Mac.
The Linux part of the equation comes from Red Hat and Novell, which will team up with IBM.
Maybe you're wondering, as I was, whether the name "Open Client" means that the software IBM is shipping is open-source, meaning its underlying instructions are available for users to study, share and copy. Er, no. The Lotus stuff remains closed-source. But the Open Client runs on top of a program called Eclipse, which is open-source.
While it might be great to run the same client software on every desktop regardless of operating system, the one time this rule does not apply is when the client software is Lotus Notes.
Lotus Notes is far and away the most horrible software on the planet. Sure, people grumble about Microsoft products. But that's nothing compared to how people feel about Notes. People hate Notes. As in, they want to change jobs just so they can stop using it. ....
......The only virtue of Notes is that often, IBM will throw it in at no cost if you buy a bunch of its other stuff.
Is there anyone left in the world who really believes Linux is cheaper than Windows? (Red Hat on the server actually costs more.) Does anyone think the way to make life easier is to go from dealing with Microsoft to dealing with Microsoft, IBM, Red Hat and Novell?
Remember one thing: As much as you may hate Windows, the reason Windows became popular in the first place was because it saved the world from IBM's attempt to monopolize the desktop with OS/2 and Presentation Manager.
But maybe you really believe that IBM has changed, and that it really wants to save you money and make you free and empower you with loads of choice and help you simplify your life. In which case, this no-list-price, non-open "Open Client" installed by consultants and delivered by three vendors working at cross-purposes may be just the thing for you.
Even I, with both a flensing knife, and a Ginsu knife for close-in work, could not have filleted that incredibly misleading and moronic IBM press release as did Daniel Lyons.
Now you know why Forbes remains the best business magazine out there.
Goes to show, no matter how much you perfume a pig, or put lipstick on it, it still is a P-I-G, pig!
© 2007, John Obeto II for®
Ed said...
Hey John,
First of all, your Logikworx site has a funny on it -- you've published something dated January 8, 2006 that shows the award you received from Microsoft dated January 30, 2007. Pretty clever time travel there.
You might also want to check out "Subheading 2" on your "about Logikworx" page, the Latin is clever but I'm sure I've seen it somewhere before.
As for the "moronic" press release, perhaps if you checked out the original -- or some of the coverage on eWeek, CRN, Network World, or many other publications -- you'd see that IBM -did- in fact announce something, something completely unfamiliar to the Microsoft crowd -- choice.
John Obeto said...
Thanks for the review of the website, Ed. Appreciate it.
Ok Ed, a little English lesson.
The award was given on January 8th. The product RTM'd back in November. The consumer release was on January 30th.
Are you following, Ed? Do I need to connect the dots for you, Bro'?
As for the 'choice' put forth by IBM, are you kiddin'?
What choice is this? How many open source messaging clients are bundled in the IBM package?
Shake yourself, dawg!
Open client? Choice my ass!!!
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Tudou and its Video Accelerator - watch videos faster
Tudou is one of the most famous Chinese videos sites. It has a lot of videos in Chinese and also in English. But most of them are in Chinese. From Chinese dramas, movies until tutorial videos, all are free for you to watch. It's also quite fast in viewing. You can also make the video run faster, by downloading and installing the video accelerator. You'll then see a great difference in speed. The video accelerator also functions when you open videos on other video sites like Youtube. What makes it special is that it's rich in contents.
For those who don't know Chinese, probably feel hard when using Tudou. You need to know at least a little about Chinese Pinyin. These can be learned from Chinese dictionary. Typing pinyin helps you in searching the videos you want to watch (there will be a long list of video names in Chinese). Of course it's better, if you know how to type Chinese character using Windows Chinese input method.
If you like Chinese videos, you can also visit www.56.com or www.youku.com for more. But Tudou seems to be a bit faster in streaming.
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The Age of Transition and Scientism Fraud by Jay Dyer
//The Age of Transition and Scientism Fraud by Jay Dyer
The Age of Transition and Scientism Fraud by Jay Dyer
By | 2017-06-04T04:38:59+00:00 September 18th, 2015|Categories: Suppression|
I answer in the negative and the reasons for my dark assessment are many. Listening to a recent interview between someone of a truly skeptical bent with a figure in the scientism/skeptical crowd, I was irked to hear a bevy of fallacies and incongruences and unexamined assumptions that will here be analyzed with scalpel-like precision. As mentioned above, what precisely is meant by the terms “evolution,” “change,” “progress” and “Nature”? According to those in the ranks of establishment scientism, these are givens, terms of brute factuality and reason, all of which mystically coalesce to give us the “best possible model” of the world under the new grand narrative mythos of “science.”
What is meant by “evolution”? According to modern scientism, the observation of small-scale changes in a species that appear to aid in the species’ extension into the future through reproduction is the basic understanding of evolutionary adaptation. Thus, because certain breeds of animals can be bred with fitter members of the species, we can extrapolate that large-scale aeons of time resulted in the origins of all life from a single amoeba. When it is pointed out that aeons – millions of years – of adaptation and change are not observed, the reply is that bacteria purportedly adapt under conditions of pressure. Thus, it follows that all life mutated under conditions of pressure to “evolve” into what we see today.
Destroy them with Weird Psyience!
On the surface, this has an appearance of being reasonable. Almost no one denies micro-evolutionary adaptation and change, that within the mechanics of various organisms there resides the DNA programming to adapt to environmental circumstances. Where the bait and switch comes is the dogmatic assertion that from this observation, it is certain that all life originated from a single cell millions of years ago, following billions of years of “Big Bang” expansion. The evidence for these theories nowadays is, of course, taken as dogmatic fact, with any dissension on these matters scorned and mocked. Why? Because religion is irrational and “unscientific” and cannot be tested. Yet can these assertions be tested as scientific?
The reply is that they are proven by carbon dating and observing various UV rays that appear to “expand” from the presumed “singularity” point. There are numerous problems with these claims, but the most glaring will suffice in illustration. First, carbon dating is notoriously unreliable, with examples of testing on recent artifacts showing outrageous time stamps for items that are manifestly not ancient. Further, the carbon dating itself works on the assumption of millions of years of evolutionary, chaotic flux, which begs the question. In other words, if your testing methods already operate on the assumption that matter is aeons in age, then the results of the tests are obviously predetermined.
Second, the appearance of light expanding from some locale is only as coherent as the assumption that it comes from some point of singularity, of which there is absolutely no observable evidence. As you point these facts out to those enmeshed in the religion of scientism, many will admit these are “theories,” but they are “the best models we have.” Says whom? Why does the scientism crowd never admit they are subject to biases and greed (for grants)? How is it that science or the lab is magically averse to the failings of the rest of human endeavors? “Ah, well, yes, it is subject to those things, but that is the beauty of science, we are always changing and adapting our theories to fit the evidence,” the general response comes.
To a degree, this is true. Science does posit new theories and does refine its previous analyses as new data emerges. Yet as I’ve pointed out many times, for this methodology to be consistent, they would have to also conduct scientific experiments into the question of the empirical scientific method itself, as well as its governing assumptions. This is never, ever done, aside from one establishment-funded study that tried to implicate lab bias into a ridiculous Marxist framework. On the contrary, there is a motivating impetus to not conduct this kind of investigation, because it would expose much of scientism’s fraud and deception, where we would discover the scientific establishment is the servant of the same master as the banking, economic and entertainment fields, all of which operate under the (fallacious) umbrella of consensus reality.
The scientific establishment is a hierarchy that operates just like any other corporation of government entity, where knowledge is apportioned on a need-to-know basis. Biologists are afraid, for example, to speak on the matter of physics because they aren’t “physicists,” while mathematicians are afraid to speak on the matter of astronomy because they aren’t “astronomers.” This ridiculous segmentation of knowledge (and there is nothing wrong with specialization) is itself also predicated on the presupposition of scientism, that reality is not a meaningful, coherent universe, but a random, chaotic mutation of accidental consequence. “It just is,” becomes the scientistic refrain, and if you don’t accept that premise and consider any other options, you are a fool.
Scientism is your friend!
What begins to become clear is that this is a weighted game that has nothing to do with discovering what is true, objective and “factual” in the “natural world,” but rather a realm of gatekeepers that demand adherence to a predefined set of orthodoxies that determine who is a “scientist” and who is worthy of “peer review.” Furthermore, scientism is entirely grounded in an old, outdated epistemology known as empiricism which has been dissected, refuted and annihilated so many times by cogent philosophers and logicians its continued existence is ironically miraculous. Of all the persons who ought to adhere to their much-touted “logic” and “reason,” these fools are the most irrational, incoherent and nonsensical of all, as they perpetually melt under the 100 degree flame of foundational presuppositional inquiry (and that’s a lab test I’ve done many times that appears to always hold true).
Arrogantly assuming they know, when in fact they do not (having a gadfly appearance of knowledge), scientism likes logic when it suits, quickly to discard and dispense with such rigors when the heat comes. “All human knowledge comes through sense experience” begins their assumptions, yet when pressed as to whether this proposition itself is a fact of sense data (which it obviously is not), universal claims suddenly dissipate and this great commandment is hailed as an obvious given. It’s a new maxim, a new commandment from the gods of the Enlightenment, and you daren’t ask such questions. Yet if science is so groundbreaking and revolutionary in character, why is it so afraid of these basic questions of epistemology?
The general reply at this stage is that science cannot, should not and will not answer such absurd “metaphysical” questions. Now wait a minute here – on what basis did this suddenly get shelved into the “metaphysical” category? Says whom? By what standard does the individual scientist know that asking questions of this nature are “metaphysical,” as opposed to questions concerning lab data? You begin to see how many and multifaceted the mere assumptions are for scientism to operate. Despite the fact that their starting point is a foundational contradiction, the rest of the world is expected to gaze in awe upon the entire edifices that are constructed upon these fallacies, with rational inquiry unwelcomed. This, you see, is the role of philosophy, and is quite clearly the reason true philosophical inquiry it is hated by scientism (as Tyson recently demonstrated).
Also crucial to note is the structure of scientism and the establishment, whose fraudulent bases are continuously exposed openly, with the public becoming none the wiser. This year alone papers were produced from peer review that give the appearance of black holes being both impossible and non-existent, as well as existing. “Dark matter” pervades our universe, yet, wait, no it’s back to ancient conceptions of aether. Quantum physics is real, yet wait, it is pseudo-science theory. In other words, “science,” like all the other industries, operates under the public’s naïve assumption that it is a unified, governing body of non-biased, neutral geniuses, engaged in the noble endeavor of furthering the “progress” of human “knowledge.” Again we see those amorphous, undefined, inchoate terms.
Simple philosophical questions should come to bear on these multitudes of theories, and were “scientists” better trained in logic and metaphysics (which they are not), we might avoid many of these ridiculous pitfalls. For example, if Einstein’s relativity is true, there is no fixed point of reference from which to determine which stellar bodies are orbiting which, nor the theory that the universe expanded from a single, compressed atomic mass. This preposterous notion is a clear signpost of the irrationality of scientism, as is the popular theory of how planets formed – that random chunks of space dust got caught in orbits, started spinning, and over billions of years, like bellybutton lint, congealed into a sphere from which life happened to spring forth from primal sludge. Truly it is the case that only academics could believe such fairy tales which are far more laughable than religious creation narratives.
The belly button lint planetary theory of "science."
And so the age of transition is not the transition into the era of utopian scientific progress, transhumanism, technological immortality and United Nations kumbaya most think, it is the age of transitioning away from all traditional forms of culture. It is the age of transition into a new global mythology that is created and manufactured in the same way the culture industry creates cultures in various regions and nations. It is a scientific dictatorship that is not scientific, but dogmatic, fascist and hierarchically structured on a need-to-know basis that blatantly hides, obfuscates and rejects actual data and information about human origins and life, only to be replaced by the most preposterous theories of primal sludge, lint ball planets and imagined aeons of unobserved billions of years, meaninglessly exploding forth from the universe’s (Fantasia level) singularity point.
This is not progress, these retarded theories are a regress into explanatory models with no explanatory power. They need to be called out for what they are – replacement mythologies – that are rehashed forms of ancient atomism, dressed up in scientistic garb. It is time to reject these phonies, liars, dupes and establishment hacks, and recognize they suppress real science and inquiry for the purpose of control. Their control is not about human progress, but the Orwellian opposite, the dysgenics plan of destroying man. We need only think of the Lancet, Oxford’s most prestigious medical journal, whose editor recently stated in a matter-of-fact tone that half the world’s scientific literature is fraudulent:
He also went on to call himself out in a sense, stating that journal editors aid and abet the worst behaviours, that the amount of bad research is alarming, that data is sculpted to fit a preferred theory. He goes on to observe that important confirmations are often rejected and little is done to correct bad practices. What’s worse, much of what goes on could even be considered borderline misconduct.
Dr. Marcia Angell, a physician and longtime Editor in Chief of the New England Medical Journal (NEMJ), which is considered to another one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals in the world, makes her view of the subject quite plain:
About the Author:
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Seventh Annual RefoRC Conference 2017 Wittenberg
May 10-12, 2017.
Theme of Plenary Lectures
More than Luther: The Reformation and the Rise of Pluralism in Europe
Speaking in plural about the reformations of the sixteenth century has become common in early modern research, the question, however, is what this plural form means. Is plural also plurality? And what was the diversity within each of the various traditions arising out of these reformations? Wittenberg is the venue and the LEUCOREA Foundation is the host for the 2017 RefoRC conference: the perfect match for dealing with these questions. The plenary papers will reflect, from various angles, on the variety of what came out of Luther or over against Luther and his movement, but the overall topic of the conference also gives full space to short papers on all kinds of subjects. The conference aims at getting a picture of the plurality of sixteenth century traditions and the interdisciplinary and interconfessional exchanges within these.
Short Papers, Panels and General Attendance
The conference is open to individual short paper presentations (20-minute presentations) and to thematic sessions of two or three short papers. While we encourage papers on the conference theme, papers can also focus on all disciplines related to the 16th century Reformations, such as philosophy, law, history, theology, etc., independent of the theme of the plenary papers.
Short Paper Submission and Registration
Short paper proposals and registrations can be submitted via the registration form. Short paper proposals are welcome before March 1, 2017.
The language of the conference is English, but papers in French and German will be welcomed. Presenters who prefer to give their paper in French or German are invited to provide the audience with an English summary of about 150-200 words.
Conference Volume
The conference volume will be published by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht in the series Refo500 Academic Studies (R5AS)and will contain all the plenary papers and a selection of short papers. Another publication venue is the Journal of Early Modern Christianity (JEMC).
Manuscripts for the conference volume can be submitted to the editors (contact info will follow). All other manuscripts can be submitted to Tarald Rasmussen. Editors will decide on publication.
R5AS stylesheet.
JEMC stylesheet (complete version). JEMC stylesheet (short version).
You can register online. Your registration will become effective on receipt of your payment. Registration closes: May 9, 2017.
Registration Fee
Refo500 partner € 85.00
Non-Refo500 partner € 140.00
Student, Refo500 partner € 70.00
Student, non-Refo500 partner € 105.00
Registration Fee Includes
Subscription to the JEMC of 2017 (two issues)
Coffee Breaks
Cancellation and Refund Policy
Refunds will be made for written cancellations received before March 1, 2017, less a € 30,00 processing fee.
Contact for More Information
Karla Apperloo-Boersma, project leader of Refo500
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6271
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Tax Policy
I’ve come to realize that tax policy is more a field of philosophy than anything else. In the end, the question boils down to what we want to be the goals of society. Do we go by an “only as good as the worst off” attitude, or do we go by “GDP above all”; do we see equity and fairness as the primary issue or efficiency? Do we want our society to have higher production than all others; do we want the highest utility per capita; or do we want to reward the more productive (and in what proportion)? In economics, the most efficient and most equitable methods of taxation can be derived, but when push comes to shove, taxation is of normative importance.
The problem is that methods of taxation are implemented by politicians and not economists. Populism and the common ignorance tend to steer society in a non-optimal manner. The system is flawed. It is the job of philosophers and the intelligent to solve, not the drones.
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nVidia released their CUDA API allowing developers to utilize their graphics cards, taking advantage of the massively parallel architecture and vectorized operations. Libraries such as pyCUDA were created to allow developers of scripting languages to send selected code to the GPU.
And there has been a growing effort to design multi-lingual virtual machines, such as Parrot, on top of strongly-typed concurrency-friendly languages like Erlang.
So I wonder, are there any open source projects to code a virtual machine environment tailored to take full benefit of the GPU?
I would imagine that having a strongly-typed, monadically-secured concurrent environment for running major scripting languages able to take advantage of all the GPU has to offer, would be an extremely interesting field. But so far, I haven't found anything on Google.
Is anyone working on this?
Edit: I should perhaps have stated that rather than sharing a GPU, such projects might also target using a dedicated GPU.
No, because the graphics card is always hosted in a machine capable of taking care of the details leaving the full capacity of the card for the processing at hand, rather than using some of its limited resources for what amounts to maintenance chores.
In other words, the GPU isn't designed, and isn't very suitable, for VM work, script processing, etc, and these tasks would take up an extraordinary amount of resources to work well.
Adam Davis
+4 A:
The reason no-one's trying to migrate full-on processes entirely onto the GPU is that it's not good at that kind of thing - branchy, unpredictable code is very much at odds with the average GPU's execution- and memory-model. Even Cell, whos SPEs are much more CPU-like and more capable of dealing with general-purpose code, still has a regular CPU component as well.
If GPUs were suited to this kind of thing then they wouldn't be GPUs, they'd be CPUs.
+2 A:
Modern VMs such as Java and .NET actually support much richer features than GPUs currently do. Although you can get an incredible amount of raw computing power out of a GPU, there are basic features still missing, such as recursive function calls or function pointers. These are needed needed to implement functional or object oriented languages. GPUs will likely have these eventually, but they don't now.
That said, NVIDIA already has a public ISA called PTX. It should be possible to write a translation program to convert simple VM code to this language, so it can run on any NVIDIA GPU, but I don't know of any project that does this.
Jay Conrod
One major limiting factor with the current NVIDIA implementation of CUDA is that each device is only accessible from a single CPU thread. This makes it impossible to share a device between programmes on the same physical machine, let alone virtual machines.
A VM can't be used to access CUDA hardware because a VM virtualises the devices and doesn't expose PCIE and other buses that are important for efficient use of the device. There are some VM hacks that one can use, but they all have some security/stability issues.
One can use a jail in OpenSolaris/BSD to provide such guarantees, but there are no CUDA drivers for those operating systems.
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The Muses
The nine goddesses and daughters of the god Zeus and of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory. They preside over the arts and sciences and are believed to inspire all artists, especially poets, philosophers, and musicians. Calliope is the muse of epic poetry, Clio of history, Euterpe of lyric poetry, Melpomene of tragedy, Terpsichore of choral songs and the dance, Erato of love poetry, Polyhymnia of sacred poetry, Urania of astronomy, and Thalia of comedy. They are said to be the companions of the Graces and of Apollo, the god of music. They sit near the throne of Zeus, king of the gods, and sing of his greatness and of the origin of the world and its inhabitants and the glorious deeds of the great heroes. The Muses are worshiped throughout ancient Greece, especially at Helicon in Boeotia and at Pieria in Macedonia.
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Friday, February 09, 2007
"the anatomical jewel"
TITLE: Cunt: A Declaration of Independence
AUTHOR: Inga Muscio
I know it took me forever to finish this book, but that wasn't because it was bad -- it was because it is such a great book to digest in little tiny bits. I enjoyed stretching it out over many days, treating myself to a tidbit here & there. I'd love to give this book to every woman I know. It's a joyful, celebratory, gleeful smile of a book that just cherishes & embraces the fact of woman's existence.
I am disappointed that I won't get a chance to discuss the book with the next meeting of the Code Pink Book Club, though, because that is the same evening I'm doing the Prison Book Program. So I guess I will say here a few (probably not nearly all) things that I was thinking about as I read the book:
I did not like that she presumes that every single reader of her book is unfamiliar with the gorgeous & haunting & ethereal (really, I couldn't choose from the 3 descriptive words; they all fit so well) work of Remedios Varo -- granted, I had to read one of my favorite books (Pynchon's The Crying of Lot 49) before my interest was piqued about that name, and granted that was only a few years ago, but still. We're not all as in the dark as she seems to think (I know she was making a point, but still it upset me for some odd reason). Hmpf.
I did, however, totally relish her idea of consuming only art created by women for a full year. While I am not certain I want to commit to a full year, what I decided to do was at least make a start in that vein. I've made a list of some of the books that I currently own & want to read, all written by women, and I fully intend (we'll see how well I stick to it) to read 10 of those as my next 10 books (alongside any book club books I might need to get done, although those are generally usually women authors, as well). These are definitely not in the order I plan to consume them. Here, then, is my list of what I have to choose from:
1. Gone With the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
2. Swerve (Aisha Tyler)
3. Emma & Me (Elizabeth Flock)
4. Fashion Victim (Michelle Lee)
5. We Don't Need Another Wave (Melody Berger)
6. More Now Again (Elizabeth Wurtzel)
7. No Logo (Naomi Klein)
8. Are Men Necessary? (Maureen Dowd)
9. Same As It Never Was (Claire LaZebnik)
10. Bel Canto (Ann Pratchett)
11. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant)
12. Pure (Rebecca Ray)
13. Odd Girl Out (Rachel Simmons)
14. Best Friends (Martha Moody)
15. Tales of a Female Nomad (Rita Golden Gelman)
16. Daughter of Fortune (Isabelle Allende)
17. The Secret Life of Bees (Sue Monk Kidd)
18. Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil (Inga Muscio)
(Wow, have I got a lot of female-authored books! And that's not even all of them, just the first several I came across.)
Granted, those 10 books could very well take me the whole of a year, so I'm not entirely dismissing the concept. I just need to approach it in my own way! :)
I will also place the list in my sidebar, under the header "Goal: 10 Female Authors", so that we can all keep track of my progress. (Or yell at me if I'm digressing terribly! Although hopefully it won't be at all difficult to stick to.)
I've already started on Gone With the Wind, partially because I want to read the book before seeing the movie (I have this weird need to do that, often), partially because it's one of those Great Novels that I've always wanted to read, and partially because my mom said she remembers reading it, and sometimes (well, often) I just like to be like my mom. :)
Speaking of awesome parents, my father is also so fantastic: he offered to buy the yarn I'll need for the cardigan I want to knit! Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the pricing for it yet, and I'm not even sure if I want to take him up on that, but I think it was such a sweet offer. (Thanks, Dad!)
And in one more note of good news, I got invited back to the closed beta of Lord of the Rings Online! I hope they've fixed some of the lag problems that were happening during the stress test (which is exactly a stress test's purpose in the first place). I still don't think I can talk about it yet, but when I can, I'll be sure to dish!
All right, everyone, have a fantastic weekend! xoxo
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It's news to some, ho-hum to others
February 09, 2003|By Marianne Murciano. Marianne Murciano is a freelance writer and occasional contributor to WTTW-Ch. 11's "Chicago Tonight."
The tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia made me notice the generation gap. I was glued to the television from the moment I turned it on to pass time on my treadmill and NBC broke in with the news that NASA (or "Nassau," as the anchorman repeatedly referred to it) had lost communication with the space shuttle. It was evident something horrible was taking place.
As the "Today" show replaced its light weekend format with non-stop shuttle news, I also dropped my plans to tackle the treadmill and the difficult Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle at the same time.
I couldn't help myself. No amount of news was enough. I began flipping around to see whether other stations were offering any other shred of information about the missing craft. Forty-five minutes on the treadmill flew by.
Before leaving the house for the gym and its weights, I stopped in the family room, where my daughter and three friends, all 13 years old, were waking up from a late night of watching "Moulin Rouge" at their sleepover. I worked up my courage and carefully broke the news that there had been an accident with the space shuttle and that it appeared to have crashed.
"The what crashed?"
"The space shuttle Columbia may have crashed."
"That means we have to watch the news," one girl said. Grimaces, followed by, "We hate watching the news 'cause it's so depressing."
I got in my car and dialed my mother's phone number. She sounded as though one of her children had been aboard the shuttle. In the five minutes I was on the road consoling her, our conversation was interrupted three times by friends and family calling her to talk about the shuttle accident.
Most people at the gym seemed unaware of the news. But when I turned on the TV, several "older" people (40 and up) gravitated toward it to hear the shocking news. Moments later, the set was shut off. I turned it on two more times during the morning, only to see it turned off again by the young men running the gym. This is the same place that regularly blasts a mind-numbing broadcast of some obscure sports program on ESPN during workouts.
Television networks and cable stations have been collectively scratching their heads trying to figure out how to make young people watch the news. Even as we are on the brink of war, some kids are more concerned about who's dating whom in the celebrity world.
When I was growing up, I was inspired by the music and words of John Lennon, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix. Whether I agreed with their message, I felt that learning about our world would help me. And when I turned on the television, like it or not, the news was on at 6 p.m. on all the stations. The only choice was which one to watch.
But our children do not live in that world. The messages are as diverse as the music they listen to. And there are too many choices on television to force them to watch anything in particular. But there has to be a way to reach them. Without this knowledge they'll be at a disadvantage later when forging their own opinions.
I've tried reading parts of the newspaper to them at the dinner table but find myself reading only the interesting stories that are uplifting. They don't mind those, and, frankly, by the time dinner is ready I don't have the energy to get into something heavy. I know that at school they are forced to bring in a current events report once a week and discuss it in class.
But I think I began to break through to at least one teenager.
I asked my daughter, who has read a lot of history, whether she is still fascinated by it. That brought a resounding yes. I reminded her that today's news is tomorrow's history lesson; the only difference is she's experiencing it now.
By lunchtime, she was glued to the television set, watching the gut-wrenching piece of history we were living through.
I wonder whether I did the right thing.
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Jumat, 30 Desember 2011
The term World In Android
Many terms in the android world that we might not understand, so let us learn one by one.
GER == Android Package, Science in the iPhone, Symbian s60 SIS or JAR on BB (BB-user) and other devices based java .. Essentially, file2 with apk extension can be used to install the application on android device ..
BRICK (ed) == Dmana conditions in the device is not able to recover, and it could be like a brick (brick) that can be used to throw dog (if needed) ..
adb = command to the command in android through pc .. including if adb shell command adb extension part .. there are many, like adb push, pull adb, adb install requirement etc ... can walk = adb adb drivers have been installed on the pc. .. usually in the device manager (windows) will look andoid composite device adb, adb driver from the vendor of the device's usually .. klo nexus, htc magic, dream can use the default driver usb motorola milestone ... if can of luggage or wear motorola cd software update ...
adb.exe = can be taken from the SDK, there is in the tools folder, to know the function can adb command by typing "adb help"
adb shell logcat = make know the process that occurred diandroid, really useful when experiments flashing rom ...
IMAP = Internet Message Access Protocol, a protocol to retreive POP3 email in addition to
POP3 = Post Office Protocol 3, one of the protocol TCP / IP port 110 in the draw email
Widget = one application that was more interactive GUI
GUI = Graphical User Interface, application interfaces that are more graphic
GMS = Google Market Services, where his aplikasi2 download on the Android (like apps store in iphone, appworld on BB)
Root = super user on one OS (in this case Android)
nge-root = privilage process to change from a normal user to become root
Apps2SD = The process of moving / save the application to the SDCARD in addition to
internal memory,
AOSP = Android Open Source Project,
Boot = The process turn on the handheld,
Bootloader = combined SPL and IPL dr who became the basis of a device,
Bootloader Mode - fastboot load = Power + Camera button, the mode
This boot, we can install a system image that is / put
in SDCARD by pressing the Power button again,
Cache2SD = The process of moving / save the Cache from ROM to SDCARD,
Diagnostic Mode = Capture + Power Button. boot mode to test (using
volume keys to select an item),
Normal Mode: Normal turn handheld means,
OTA: Over The Air, a method to send a data, usually the term
using that pd activity update (the term lainna mgkn download),
Recovery Mode: The Home button + Power, in this boot mode, we can
open a shell .. to .. make a backup flash image and Restore. Signature
Safe Mode: Menu + Power buttons, handheld boot normally but
a lot? learn first friends and get to know so that no one later.
ok thank you so much from my
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Posting Komentar
Silahkan coment yang rapih tidak menerima spam ya :-p
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How to build a catfish box
Catfish fishing is a sport enjoyed by all types of anglers and there are many different ways to fish for them. One method that has been around for a very long time and used by many anglers is trapping the fish in a catfish box. This is simply a long rectulanglar box that has an opening shaped like a funnel on one end. This allows the catfish to get in but it can’t get back out once inside.
This type of fishing can be very effective and you can use it in most any type of water where trapping fish is allowed. Some states do not allow trapping so find out what the laws are for your area before you go fishing. Some areas will allow you to use this method but there are strict guidelines that you must follow. For example, when trapping the channel catfish the trap must be large enough for the fish to move around because this is how it breaths. If the catfish box is too small, the channel cat will suffocate.
When you’re ready to try your hand at trapping catfish, you’ll need to get your traps ready. You can buy catfish boxes that come in a variety of sizes or you can make your own. It doesn’t take a lot of time or materials to build a catfish box so if you’re handy with the tools, you may want to give it a try.
Here are the basic instructions on how to build a catfish box:
* Decide how big you want your trap to be. This will be based on the size catfish you hope to catch. You will need the box to be a foot or so larger than the size catfish you want to catch.
* Gather together all of your materials. To make your trap you’ll need the following: Oak board (preferably one inch thick), table saw, hammer, nails, hinges, latch and safety glasses.
* Cut the boards according to the size you want to use (standard size is 2x2x5 feet). You’ll need four sections this size.
* Nail three sides of the catfish box together. This would be the bottom and two sides.
* Cut a piece of wood for the backside. For a standard trap, you’ll need it to be 2×2 feet. You need this side to open so you can get the catfish out. Nail the hinges onto the bottom part of the back panel and bottom of the box and place the latch to hold it shut on the top sections.
* Now you need an entrance shaped like a funnel. This will allow the catfish to enter but not go back out. You can construct a funnel shape entrance out of wood by building two frames (one smaller than the other) and nailing slats on the inside of the frames to create the funnel. You can also use wire to construct the funnel entrance.
* The last step is to place the top of the box on and nail it to the sides. Your catfish box is complete and ready to use.
Once your catfish box or boxes are finished, you’re ready to take them to the water. Pick a spot next to rocks, stumps, heavy brush and so forth to set your traps. It’s best if they are completely submerged underwater and you can put a heavy rock inside the trap to hold it down if needed. However, it’s a good idea that you mark your spot so you don’t have any trouble finding your traps.
Before submerging your trap in place, you need to bait it. You can use most anything from baitfish to stink bait, whatever you think will get the attention of the catfish in your area. Once the box is in place, all you have to do is sit back, relax and wait for a fish to take the bait.
Fishing with a catfish box is fun and a great way to bring home a nice catch but you must be a responsible angler when using this method. Never leave your catfish box unattended for long periods. It’s best if you stay with the trap when fishing and take them out of the water when you’re ready to leave.
However, in some cases you may need to leave but if you do, make sure you can be back to check the trap within a few hours. It’s recommended that you check them at least every two to three hours because you don’t want to leave a catfish stuck in these traps for a long time. If you do, they will most likely die inside the trap.
Building and fishing with catfish boxes is a great way to spend time with your kids. You can teach them a form of fishing that’s been around for centuries. It’s an easy and effective way to catch catfish. One reason many anglers prefer using boxes instead of a more traditional form of fishing is because it doesn’t damage the fish in any way.
© 2011 Ask Catfish Fishing. All rights reserved. Sitemap
Proudly designed by TotalTreasureChest.
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Franz Nicolay - I Drink
from by Franz Nicolay and Mischeif Brew
Erik & I first recorded together on ‘A Liquor Never Brewed,’ off Mischief Brew’s Smash The Windows; and then on the full-length Mischief Brew/Guignol collaboration Fight Dirty. So when we were asked if we wanted to do a split covers 7” it was a no-brainer. I even knew what song I wanted to do: Charles Aznavour’s stark, wild ‘I Drink,’ which I’d first heard on Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour program. I couldn’t find it anywhere online, so I edited an mp3 out of the radio show itself so I’d have it, which felt a little like taping something off the radio back in the day. It’s a perfect evocation of how easily drinking for fun can turn into something more toxic and focussed. I still get chills at the end. I’d filed it away to cover immediately (and more than one person has told me I sing a little like Aznavour already); and I’d been looking for an excuse to sing in front of Guignol too. The only drag was transcribing the amazing string arrangement from the original so Peter could cop it on clarinet.
Aznavour, if you don’t know, is a French-Armenian crooner who may have one of the highest ratios of best-loved entertainer to least-known in the US. Sometimes called “the French Sinatra,” he was discovered by Edith Piaf in the 1940s and became her protegee (he was the passenger in the 1951 car crash, the injuries from which led to her morphine addiction). He’s written over a thousand songs, and is still recording and touring at 88. If you like this, you should also check out ‘What Makes A Man,’ his majestic character sketch of a lonely drag queen.
-Franz Nicolay
from Under The Table, released June 11, 2014
Franz Nicolay
"I Drink"
by Charles Aznavour & Georges Garvarentz (SACEM)
Franz Nicolay - accordion, percussion, piano, vocals
with Guignol:
John Bollinger - drums
Peter Hess - clarinet, percussion
George Rush - tuba
and Erik Petersen - guitar
Copyright 2010 Franz Nicolay, all rights reserved.
all rights reserved
Silver Sprocket San Francisco, California
record label and art crew
contact / help
Contact Silver Sprocket
Streaming and
Download help
Redeem code
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Thursday, September 30, 2010
The Green Lanterns of Sector 2814
Mr. Bat-Mom Part Two
Part One can be found here:
Mr. Bat-Mom Part Three
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Monster Mash/The Atoms
Don't worry, Tim scores really big after this mess.
A tribute to the many writers and artists who contributed to the Batman Black & White limited series.
For those of you who don't know what 'Batman Black & White' is, follow the link.
The Atoms
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6408
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@ARTICLE{Ghaffari, author = {Ghaffari, Hamidreza and Yoonessi, Ali and Darvishi, Mohammad Javad and Ahmadi, Akbar and }, title = {Normal Electrical Activity of the Brain in Obsessive-Compulsive Patients After Anodal Stimulation of the Left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex}, volume = {9}, number = {2}, abstract ={Introduction: Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) has been used as a non-invasive method to increase the plasticity of brain. Growing evidence has shown several brain disorders such as depression, anxiety disorders, and chronic pain syndrome are improved following tDCS. In patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), increased brain rhythm activity particularly in the frontal lobe has been reported in several studies using Eectroencephalogram (EEG). To our knowledge, no research has been done on the effects of electrical stimulation on brain signals of patients with OCD. We measured the electrical activity of the brain using EEG in patients with OCD before and after tDCS and compared it to normal participants. Methods: Eight patients with OCD (3 males) and 8 matched healthy controls were recruited. A 64-channel EEG was used to record a 5-min resting state before and after application of tDCS in both groups. The intervention of tDCS was applied for 15 minutes with 2 mA amplitude where anode was placed on the left Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) and cathode on the right DLPFC. Results: In line with previous studies, the results showed that the power of Delta frequency band in OCD patients are significantly higher than the normal group. Following anodal tDCS, hyperactivity in Delta and Theta bands declined in most channels, particularly in DLPFC (F3, F4) and became similar to normal signals pattern. The reduction in Delta band was significantly more than the other bands. Conclusion: Anodal tDCS over the left DLPFC significantly decreased the power of frequency bands of Delta and Theta in Patients with OCD. The pattern of EEG activity after tDCS became particularly similar to normal, so tDCS may have potential clinical application in these patients. }, URL = {http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-862-en.html}, eprint = {http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/article-1-862-en.pdf}, journal = {Basic and Clinical Neuroscience Journal}, doi = {10.29252/nirp.bcn.9.2.135}, year = {2018} }
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Today is Belgian National Day
You know when you've been in Belgium too long when ...
1. You always stop your car for traffic from even the tiniest little road from the right.
2. You consider breaking the speed limit normal, and honk and flash at people who don't.
3. If you have had less than 10 beers you drive your car home, but you still don't indicate when turning or respect the speed limit.
4. If you have a car, you consider any other means of transportation slightly suspicious.
5. You know the names of at least 10 different sauces for chips.
6. You catch yourself ordering a "Supplement Frites" with every single dish you have in any kind of restaurant.
7. You give other foreigners lectures on the difference between fake and real monastery-produced beer.
8. You don't drink the last two centilitres of a Westmalle trippel.
9. You never wear any colour brighter than dark green. You automatically assume anyone who does is either a. Dutch b. Scandinavian c. American or d. Extremely childish or rude
10. Just one day without rain even in July and August can make you happy.
11. On Saturday morning and Sunday evening of any sunny summer-weekend you accept spending more than three hours stuck in traffic jams on motorways in order to get to and from 100 km's of coastline that are completely cramped with high-risers 20 meters from the beach.
12. You don't mind that bouncers have to be given at least 20 euro when you leave a disco as a bribe for letting you get in next time
13. You consider it normal that even the train to and from the airport has announcements in both Dutch and French, but not in English. You don't react when all the foreigners storm out of the train at the announcement of Brussels North when coming from the airport.
14. You do all your grocery shopping in either GB or Delhaize, and you don't understand anyone who shops in the other supermarket chain.
15. You consider it normal to go out to a restaurant at least five times per week.
16. You think it is logical that shops are closed Sundays and evenings, but buy the booze you consume in night-shops between 4 and 5 AM Sunday morning.
17. You use and understand abbreviations like NMBS/SNCB, MIVB/STIB and SMAP/OMOB.
18. You only buy the most up-market chocolate brands, and feel sorry for the geeks who buy "white products".
19. You start going to Quick instead of McDonalds and you have actually tasted the Quick Bearnaise Burger.
20. You think it looks nice when the type of pavement tiles in front of each house are different, and you don't mind falling over lopsided tiles occasionally.
21. You take dog-shit on the pavement as just another challenge on you daily walks.
22. You keep three colours of bin-bags for different kinds of waste, and remember which days to put out which kind of bag on the pavement in front of your house.
23. You don't mind when most streets are full of bags that have been put out on the wrong day, not even in the summer when the combination of the sun and intrepid dogs makes it a very interesting experience.
24. You automatically assume that everyone else speaks at least three languages, but refuse to speak more than one yourself.
25. You have given up on any sensible political discussion on the language divide in general and the Brussels Capital Region and the future of Belgium in particular.
26. You consider politicians and the police worse than criminals, with the possible exception of paedophiles.
27. You consider it perfectly normal when the names of towns on road signs change from French to Dutch and vice versa every 5 or 10 kilometres of motorway.
28. You have understood that the hassle of monthly visits to the municipality to obtain papers or residence permits is reserved for recently arrived foreigners who move every 6 months, and you therefore don't complain over your own annual visit where you wait in line for an hour or two.
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6421
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We at BENJAMIN DAWSON view and treat the maintenance and processing of your personal information with utmost importance. As required under the Personal Data Protection Act 2010 (“the Act”), this notice is to inform you how we collect and process your personal data when you appoint us to provide services, and when you access and use our website or when you communicate with us whether verbally or in writing, by means of documentation or telecommunication or other available means.
By giving us your personal data, you are deemed to have given us your consent for us to collect, process, use and disclose your personal data in accordance with the terms of the Act.
What Personal Data do we collect?
Such data may include information concerning your personal details (such as name, age, gender, identity card number, passport number, date of birth, education, race, ethnic original, nationality), contact details (such as address, email, phone numbers), family information (such as marital status, name of spouse or child or immediate family), occupation details (such as employer’s name, job title, job responsibilities, employer’s contact details and address) and any personal data derived from any legal documentation (hereinafter referred to collectively as “Personal Data”).
Source of Personal Data
Other than the Personal Data collected from you, we may also verify or source your Personal Data from third party sources including but not limited to credit reporting agencies, government departments or agencies such as Companies Commission and Insolvency Department.
Why we collect and process your Personal Data?
Your Personal Data is collected and processed by us for the following purposes:
1. to provide legal services to you;
2. to verify your identities;
3. for the purpose of enforcing and preserving our legal rights and/or obtaining legal advice;
4. for security and internal audit purposes;
5. meeting the requirements to make disclosure under the requirements of any law binding on us or under and for the purposes of any guidelines issued by regulatory or other authorities with which we are expected and/or required to comply; and
6. any and/or all purposes relating thereto.
Disclosure of your Personal Data
Your Personal Data held by us will be kept confidential but we may provide such information to the following parties for the purposes set out above:
1. any persons directed or consented to by you;
2. our professional advisors including but not limited to auditors, legal advisors, insurance brokers, financial advisors;
3. our agents, servants, contractors, or third party service providers who provides administrative, telecommunications, computer or other services to us in connection with the operation of our business;
4. our employees under a duty of confidentiality to us; and
We may also disclose your Personal Data if required to do so by law or in good faith, if such action is necessary to (i) comply with requirements of any law enforcement agency, court order or legal process; or (ii) protect and defend our rights or property and its personnel.
Consequence of refusal or failure to provide your Personal Data
The refusal or failure to supply such Personal Data may result in us being unable to render or provide our legal services to you.
Rights of access and correction
You may at any time after the submission of your Personal Data to us, submit your request for access to your Personal Data with us if:
1. you require access to make corrections to your Personal Data in our records in the event the information is inaccurate, misleading, out-of-date or incomplete;
2. you require access to verify your Personal Data with us;
3. you request that your Personal Data shall only be kept for the fulfilment of the purpose of the collection of such information.
You may make all such request to access through:
Personal Data Compliance Officer
Messrs Benjamin Dawson
C-11-5 Megan Avenue II
12 Jalan Yap Kwan Seng
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2710 1822
Fax: 03-2710 1811/1833
An administrative fee may be charged for the processing of any data access request.
We reserve the right to refuse any such request in the following circumstances:
1. where the information provided by you or any party making a request is insufficient to enable us to positively locate or identify the Personal Data in question;
2. where there is reasonable doubt surrounding your identity or the identity or the person making a request;
3. where permitting access or correction would tantamount to a violation of a court order or our duty of confidentiality towards our client.
Your Personal Data will be kept and processed in a secured manner. The appropriate administrative and security safeguards, policies and procedures will be implemented in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. We will as far as practicable aim to prevent the unauthorised and/or unlawful processing of your Personal Data.
This notice is issued in both the National and English languages. In the event of any conflict, the English language version shall prevail.
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6437
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Noah Webster Bible
The Book of Psalms
Return to Index
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance. Make haste, O God, to deliver me; make haste to help me, O LORD.
5 But I am poor and needy: make haste to me, O God: thou art my help and my deliverer; O LORD, make no delay.
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Bible Topics Online
Bible Topics for Bible Students
Tag: unclean spirits like frogs
The Sixth Vial and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ
“The Sixth Vial” is the term by which the plague that brings about the return of Jesus Christ in the Book of Revelation, is most commonly known. In more modern versions, these seven judgements are called “the bowls of the wrath of God”. This article is particularly concerned with the sixth. The Sixth Vial is […]
Frontier Theme
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6442
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aesthetics, geomorphology, impacts
On a deeper, literally fundamental level, landscape (in the broader sense of environment) bears study because it is the ground of our being, the material basis of our existence. As geographers and environmental scientists remind us, our lives “take place”; we live in particular locales that affect us enormously–physically and psychologically–in ways that seldom rise to conscious awareness.
Where we are helps determine who we are and how we interact with our world.–The Best & Worst Country in the World Stephen Adams
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Wednesday, November 30, 2011
BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010: Calling a View in SQL Azure
I have posted a new sample on Code Gallery: BizTalk Server 2010 Adapter Pack: Call SQL Azure View.This is one of samples I have used in my talks on BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010 Integration (A Lap Around BizTalk Adapter Pack 2010) I held in Stockholm for Swedish BizTalk User Group and in Nieuwegein for BizTalk User Group The Netherlands. Hopefully you experiment with it yourself. If you want to work with SQL Azure and want to create a database, see How to Create a SQL Azure Database wiki on TechNet.
No comments:
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23 weeks
cravings & such: nothing new to report. i am the lamest pregnant lady ever! where are these pickles and ice cream cravings that i have heard about. come on baby girl, let's get crazy and work on expanding that palate!
the bump: yup. i still have one. and it is getting bigger...
cool & cute things: baby girl's sense of movement is well developed by now and can feel it when i move around. apparently i should have private dance parties with her. we'll see about that. but, if you happen to witness my swaying or doing the macarena, you'll know why. baby girl is 11 inches long and weighs over a pound.
new things: blood vessels in the lungs are developing to prepare for breathing. and, the inner ear is fully formed so she can hear whatever i hear [but not at the same level]. which would explain why she gets her in-utero groove on whenever i play music.
meaningful moments: another doctor appointment [we are on the monthly appointment scheduled now]. being reassured that you are doing well. hearing your heartbeat again.
the countdown: 119 days to go!
current size: weighs as much as a large mango
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monster Times 21 Cover!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Frankenstein Spoon!
From what I can gather, this spoon (and others featuring the Universal Monsters) were available at the Universal Studios Tour, or perhaps the Islands of Adventure.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman Still!
That "beauty mark" on the face is a tell-tale sign that's Lugosi under the makeup!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Ghost of Frankenstein Still?
This is one of those stills that I'm not quite sure for certain which movie it's from... it appears to be Lon Chaney, Jr., which would make it from Ghost of Frankenstein, right?
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Scary Nails!
Not sure why the manufacturer thought these nails had something to do with the Frankenstein Monster... the card art appears to be a really bad copy of the art used for Aurora's model kit.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Frankenstein Puzzle from 1992!
I don't usually post stuff this recent, but I liked it, so you get to see it!
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Frankenstein Monster Size Monsters Poster!
Here is what appears to be the actual poster that was sold through the comics!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Burger King Universal Monster Toys!
Probably the coolest kids' meal toys ever produced!
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Frankenstein Belt Buckle!
This was a flicker, or vari-vue styled product.. unfortunately, since I randomized my files, I don't have the other view to show you right now!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Remco Monsterizer!
From what I understand, the Monsterizer was a toy designed to quickly "charge up" the glow-in-the-dark parts of their Monster figures!
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6473
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Pushpin MIDI interface update (Still no success)
December 1st, 2007
To make a long story short:
The bad news is I still haven’t come up with working design. The good news is that I think my problem is with my MIDI interface (A Radium49 keyboard) I tried several opto-couplers, and I couldn’t get the 6n13x’s to give the slightest hint of a signal on the other side. Admittedly, I didn’t find a 6n138 at the lab, so all I tried was 6n136, 6n137 and 6n139, which should all be good for MIDI. This was something I double checked with an oscilloscope, but no reaction.
I also tried a CNY17-3, which did work, but only barely (Sometimes copied the data corrupted)
I think my Radium has too much resistance, so that the current it can gives cannot drive the LED in the opto-coupler. (The alternative is that I just suck and should give up :p ) Some day maybe I’ll check inside. But my next attempt will be to find another MIDI device to check if I was correct.
Until then, stay tuned.
6 Responses to “Pushpin MIDI interface update (Still no success)”
1. Clay says:
Pesky little bugger! Don’t give up Nitro, you can do it!
2. george lazenbleep says:
dude, you need the level converter between your opto circuit and the gbc,
quoting noah ;
‘GB uses 5V, but MIDI does not.
MIDI actually uses a *current loop.*
That means the voltage almost doesn’t matter, there just has
to be some current flowing versus not to mark the diff. b/t 0 and
gonna build it next week
3. nitro2k01 says:
george: MIDI is communicating with a current loop, yes. But you don’t need a level shifter before the opto-coupler. The MIDI protocol is specifically designed in such a way that the current should be able to drive an opto-coupler. Internally most MIDI circuits are actually using 5 V logic. And the MIDI protocol, even using a current loop, is centerred around 5 V. (The two pins that are being used are 5 V connected through a 220 Ohm resistor and some sort of CMOS driver also padded with 220 Ohm)
When Noah says “GB uses 5V, but MIDI does not.” he doesn’t mean that most MIDI circuits don’t use 5 V (They do) but that you can use any voltage you wish (3.3 V or 9 V for example, altough I’ve personally seen neither) so long you pad it with proper resistors to drive the opto-coupler on the other side of the cable without trashing it. (A quick calculation gives me that a MIDI transmitter using 9V logic should use around 560 Ohm resistors to give a suitable current (Min 5 mA) for the opto-coupler)
The level shifter mentioned was actually meant to be placed after the opto-coupler, to shift the voltage up to RS-232 levels. This, however, has little relevance in the case of Gameboys. I think the confusion comes from the fact that the Pushpin interface was based on a MIDI < -> palm Pilot interface or something like that. (The Palm Pilot uses RS-232 to communicate)
If you look at Noah’s original interface, you see that ther’s no level shifter. (A level shifter would’ve used two capacitors) What you see is ont opto-coupler, and something which is probably a schmitt trigger (Like 74hc04) to clean up the signal.
Do your homework instead if quoting something you don’t fully understand.
4. george lazenbleep says:
ok man , its all cool, just want to build it now
5. zombectro says:
I’m so impatient that your interface works !
I tried to understand the hardware construction on the Pushpin page, but it’s too hard for me, I need pictures to learn, like on your second pushpin post !
I really don’t understand electronics things, I have only circuit bending skills, so you’re my only hope to help me build this !
You explains things so well !
(damn, I’m sucking your balls, it’s bad)
6. LameBoy says:
try a 4n33
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How to Install Apache HTTP Servecr on Linux
What is Apache HTTP?
Apache HTTP Server, colloquially called Apache (/əˈpætʃiː/ ə-PA-chee), is free and open-source cross-platform web server software,
released under the terms of Apache License 2.0. Apache is developed and maintained by an open community of developers under the auspices of the Apache Software Foundation.
commonly used on a Unix-like system (usually Linux), the program is available for Microsoft Windows as well.
Version 2.0 improved support for non-Unix, e.g. Windows and OS/2 (and eComStation). Old versions of Apache were ported to run on e.g. OpenVMS, and NetWare.
Apache HTTP Server can be compiled or downloaded from specific OS enviroments.
Install Apache and PHP on CentOS 6
Last updated on: 2016-06-21 Authored by: Rackspace Support
This article demonstrates how to install Apache and PHP on CentOS 6.
CentOS 6 comes with Apache 2.2.3 and PHP 5.1.6, and
you can install them by using the default CentOS Package Manager, yum. The advantages of using yum (as opposed to installing by using source code)
are that you get any security updates (when they are distributed) and dependencies are automatically handled.
Install Apache
Run the following command:
#sudo yum install httpd mod_ssl
The Apache2 web server is available in Ubuntu Linux. To install Apache2:
At a terminal prompt enter the following command:
#sudo apt install apache2
The Apache web server can be installed by using zypper. Open a terminal and become root. Type the below command:
# zypper in apache2
root account on the server machine.
Binaries Download Apache
Apache HTTP Server download site. Download the source files appropriate to your system.
Binary releases for some operating systems are available as well.
Extract the Apache Files
uncompress file after complete download
#$gunzip -d httpd-2_0_NN.tar.gz
#tar xvf httpd-2_0_NN.tar
This creates a new directory under the current directory with the source files.
Configuring Your Server for Apache
Once you have the files, you need to tell your machine where to find everything by configuring the source files.
The easiest way is to accept all the defaults and just type:
Apache Standards Option is the prefix=PREFIX option.
This specifies the directory where the Apache files will be installed.
Specific environment variables and modules.
1.mod_alias – to map different parts of the URL tree
2.mod_include – to parse Server Side Includes
3.mod_mime – to associate file extensions with its MIME-type
4.mod_rewrite – to rewrite URLs on the fly
5.mod_speling (sic) – to help your readers who might misspell URLs
6.mod_ssl – to allow for strong cryptography using SSL
7.mod_userdir – to allow system users to have their own web page directories
For details about the modules go Apache homepage
Overview for the impatient
Download Download the latest release from
Extract $ gzip -d httpd-NN.tar.gz
$ tar xvf httpd-NN.tar
$ cd httpd-NN
Configure $ ./configure --prefix=PREFIX
Compile $ make
Install $ make install
Customize $ vi PREFIX/conf/httpd.conf
Test $ PREFIX/bin/apachectl -k start
Build Apache source installation, you’ll then need to build the installation:
Perform make Command
make install
Customize Apache
Assuming that there were no problems, you are ready to customize your Apache configuration. This really just amounts to editing the httpd.conf file.
This file is located in the PREFIX/conf directory. I generally edit it with text editor.
vi PREFIX/conf/httpd.conf
Note: you’ll need to be root to edit this file.
Follow the instructions in this file to edit your configuration the way you want it. More help is available on the Apache website.
Test Your Apache Server
Open a web browser on the same machine and type http://localhost/ in the address box.
You should see a page similar to the one in the partial screen shot above. It will say in big letters “Seeing this instead of the website you expected?”
This is good news, as it means your server is installed correctly.
Start Editing/Uploading Pages to Your Newly Installed Apache Web Server
Once your server is up and running you can start posting pages. Have fun building your website!
Apache HTTP Apache
Apache HTTP Server Version 2.4
Apache HTTP Serer Download Binaries
Apache on Ubuntu
Apache on Centos/RHEL
Apache on SLES
Video Tutorial
How to install and run Apache web server in Ubuntu Linux
How Install LAMP on Ubuntu Web Server
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Wednesday, 30 November 2011
Salman Khan in Different Style, Pics for Wallpapers
Bollywood Superstar Salman Khan Deadly Photo
Handsome Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif pic
Salman Khan Smiling with his Pet Dog
Salman Khan Best photo for Wallpapers
1 comment:
1. Salman has such a well maintained physique. Awesome Salman! You rock!
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Saturday, July 11, 2015
Robert Hugh Benson's Fiction
Catholic World Report has a good article on the fiction of Robert Hugh Benson. I haven't read all of it, by any means, but I have read Lord of the World, The Dawn of All, The Necromancers, By What Authority?, and Come Rack! Come Rope! In overall terms, Lord of the World and Come Rack! Come Rope! are the best of those, although I think I liked the characterization in By What Authority? better than in Come Rack! Come Rope! (Mary Corbet, the flippant and gaudy lady-in-waiting who turns out to have more sense in her head, and more goodness in her heart, than almost everyone else around her, was especially good).
The description given in the article of The Dawn of All is somewhat misleading, since it doesn't at all convey the essential point of the story, which is that victory in the world does not really change anything about the task of the Christian. Be the victory ever so great -- and in The Dawn of All it is taken to the very farthest limit -- the Christian faith is still the faith of martyrs, and if your faith does not involve a willingness to die for Christ, it is not the faith. That the Christian faith is the faith of martyrs seems actually to be a common theme throughout Benson's work.
1. Enbrethiliel12:35 AM
I've only read The Lord of the World, thanks to my book club.
As you know, Brandon, I occasionally enjoy reading old books that have long been out of print and thinking about how (or even if) they could have been "saved"--but I started this project months after trying Monsignor Benson, so I didn't have it in mind while reading. I do recall, however, that The Lord of the World made me think of 70s and 80s B-movies: perhaps not the best quality in the world, but with real heart and cult classic potential. While it's a pity that Benson isn't better known, it feels a little like an initiation into coolness when someone who is in the know finally introduces you.
Yet I can also see why it might have fallen out of favor with its own target market. I think the idea of faithful, orthodox Catholics as old-fashioned, unpopular, and even distrusted by a more progressive world can't have been fun for Catholics living fifty years after its publication. Suggest that they might even face martyrdom, and well . . .
2. branemrys7:07 AM
Benson is also at his strongest when writing historical novels, and I think that's a field in which it's especially difficult to keep up an enduring readership. Although a few of Benson's works never entirely stopped being read, even if only as a matter of a small niche fandom, which is something.
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Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Caitlyn's new friend
Caitlyn got a new friend! This is Toby, an 8 week old schnoodle. (poodle schnouzer mix) Toby is a great little puppy. He follows Caitlyn around trying to play with her. She's not quite sure what to think of him. I help her to pet him, and she smiles. When she is done, she gently pushes Toby away. I hope they will grow to be great friends.
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On Sacred Liturgy
by Pope Benedict XVI
This is the text of the General Audience of the Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday, September 26, 2012.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Pope Benedict XVI In these months we have journeyed in the light of the word of God so as to learn to pray ever more authentically, looking at several important Old Testament figures, at the Psalms, at the Letters of Saint Paul and at the Book of Revelation, but, especially, at the unique and fundamental experience of Jesus in his relationship with the heavenly Father. In fact, only in Christ can a person be united to God with the depth and intimacy of a child in his relationship with a father who loves him, only in Christ can we address God in all truth, calling him affectionately, "Abba! Father!" Like the Apostles, we too have repeated in these past few weeks and repeat to Jesus today: "Lord, teach us to pray" Lk 11:1.
Furthermore, to learn to live more intensely our personal relationship with God, we have learned to invoke the Holy Spirit, the first gift of the Risen One to believers, because it is he who "helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought" Rom 8:26, Saint Paul says, and we know how right he is.
At this point, after a long series of Catecheses on prayer in Scripture, we can ask ourselves; how can I let myself be formed by the Holy Spirit and thereby become able to enter into the atmosphere of God, of prayer with God? What is this school in which he teaches me to pray, comes to help me in my attempts to speak to God correctly? The first school of prayer — as we have seen in these weeks — is the Word of God, Sacred Scripture. Sacred Scripture is an ongoing dialogue between God and man, a progressive dialogue in which God shows himself ever closer, in which we can become ever better acquainted with his face, his voice, his being; and man learns to accept to know God and to talk to God. Therefore, in these weeks, in reading Sacred Scripture we have sought to learn from Scripture, from this ongoing dialogue, how we may enter into contact with God.
However there is yet another precious "place," another precious "source" for developing in prayer, a source of living water that is very closely related to the previous one. I am referring to the liturgy, which is a privileged context in which God speaks to each one of us, here and now, and awaits our answer.
What is the liturgy? If we open the Catechism of the Catholic Church — ever an invaluable and, I would say, indispensable aid — we can read that the word "liturgy" originally meant: a "service in the name of/on behalf of the people" (#1069). If Christian theology made use of this word of the Greek world, it obviously did so thinking of the new People of God born from Christ who opened his arms on the Cross to unite human beings in the peace of the one God. A "service on behalf of the people," a people which did not exist on its own, but was formed through the Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the People of God does not exist through ties of kinship, place or country. Rather it is always born from the action of the Son of God and from the communion with the Father that he obtains for us.
The Catechism also indicates that "in Christian tradition (the word ‘liturgy’) means the participation of the People of God ‘in the work of God’" (#1069), because the People of God as such exists only through God’s action.
The actual development of the Second Vatican Council reminds us of this. It began its work 50 years ago with the discussion of the draft on the Sacred Liturgy, which was then solemnly promulgated on 4 December 1963, the first text that the Council approved. That the Document on the Liturgy was the first document to be promulgated by the conciliar assembly was considered by some to have happened by chance.
Among the many projects, the text on the Sacred Liturgy seems to have been the least controversial. For this very reason it could serve as a sort of exercise in learning conciliar methodology. However, there is no doubt that what at first sight might seem a coincidence, also turned out to be the best decision, on the basis of the hierarchy of the subjects and of the most important duties of the Church. In fact, by starting with the theme of the "liturgy," the Council shed very clear light on the primacy of God and his indisputable priority. God in the very first place: this itself explains to us the Council’s decision to start with the liturgy. Wherever the gaze on God is not conclusive, everything else loses its orientation. The fundamental criterion for the liturgy is its orientation to God, enabling us to take part in his action itself.
However, we might ask ourselves: what is this work of God in which we are called to take part? The answer that the Council's Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy gives us is apparently twofold. In #5 it points out, in fact, that the works of God are his actions in history which bring us salvation and which culminated in the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ; but in #7, the same Constitution defines the celebration of the liturgy as an "action of Christ." In fact these two meanings are inseparably linked. If we ask ourselves who saves the world and man, the only answer is: Jesus of Nazareth, Lord and Christ, the Crucified and Risen One. And where does the Mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ that brings salvation become real for us, for me, today? The answer is: in Christ’s action through the Church, in the liturgy, and, especially, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, which makes present the sacrificial offering of the Son of God who has redeemed us; in the sacrament of Reconciliation, in which one moves from the death of sin to new life; and in the other sacramental acts that sanctify us (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, #5). Thus the Paschal Mystery of the death and Resurrection of Christ is the center of the liturgical theology of the Council.
Let us take another step forward and ask ourselves: how does the enactment of Christ’s Paschal Mystery become possible? Twenty-five years after the Constitution Sacrosanctum concilium Blessed Pope John Paul II, wrote: "In order to reenact his Paschal Mystery, Christ is ever present in his Church, especially in liturgical celebrations. Hence the Liturgy is the privileged place for the encounter of Christians with God and the One whom he has sent, Jesus Christ cf. Jn 17:3" (Vicesimus quintus annus, #7). Along the same lines we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "sacramental celebration is a meeting of God's children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit; this meeting takes the form of a dialogue, through actions and words" (#1153). Therefore the first requirement for a good liturgical celebration is that there should be prayer and a conversation with God, first of all listening and consequently a response. Saint Benedict, speaking in his Rule of prayer in the Psalms, pointed out to his monks: mens concordet voci, "the mind must be in accord with the voice." The Saint teaches that in the prayers of the Psalms words must precede our thought. It does not usually happen like this because we have to think and then what we have thought is converted into words. Here, instead, in the liturgy, the opposite is true, words come first. God has given us the word and the sacred liturgy offers us words; we must enter into the words, into their meaning and receive them within us, we must attune ourselves to these words; in this way we become children of God, we become like God. As Sacrosanctum concilium recalls, "in order that the liturgy may be able to produce its full effects it is necessary that the faithful come to it with proper dispositions, that their minds be attuned to their voices, and that they cooperate with heavenly grace lest they receive it in vain" (#11). A fundamental, primary element of the dialogue with God in the liturgy is the agreement between what we say with our lips and what we carry in our hearts. By entering into the words of the great history of prayer, we ourselves are conformed to the spirit of these words and are enabled to speak to God.
In line with this I would just like to mention one of the moments during the liturgy itself; it calls us and helps us to find this harmonization, this conformation of ourselves to what we hear, say and do in the celebration of the liturgy. I am referring to the invitation that the celebrant expresses before the Eucharistic Prayer: "Sursum corda," let us lift up our hearts above the confusion of our apprehensions, our desires, our narrowness, our distraction. Our hearts, our innermost selves, must open in docility to the word of God and must be recollected in the Church’s prayer, to receive her guidance to God from the very words that we hear and say. The eyes of the heart must be turned to the Lord, who is in our midst: this is a fundamental disposition.
Whenever we live out the liturgy with this basic approach, our hearts are, as it were, removed from the force of gravity which has pulled them downwards and are inwardly uplifted, towards the truth, towards love, towards God. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: "in the sacramental liturgy of the Church, the mission of Christ and of the Holy Spirit proclaims, makes present, and communicates the mystery of salvation, which is continued in the heart that prays. The spiritual writers sometimes compare the heart to an altar" (#2655): altare Dei est cor nostrum.
Dear friends, we celebrate and live the liturgy well only if we remain in a prayerful attitude, and not if we want "to do something," to make ourselves seen or to act, but if we direct our hearts to God and remain in a prayerful attitude, uniting ourselves with the Mystery of Christ and with his conversation as Son with the Father. God himself teaches us to pray, Saint Paul says cf. Rom 8:26. He himself gave us the appropriate words with which to address him, words that we find in the Psalter, in the great orations of the sacred liturgy and in the Eucharistic celebration itself. Let us pray the Lord to be every day more aware of the fact that the liturgy is an action of God and of man; prayer that wells up from the Holy Spirit and from us, wholly directed to the Father, in union with the Son of God made man (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #2564).
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Editing a short video project
on Monday, February 4, 2008
Editing video is really cool and easy to do if you have a reasonably modern computer. But why talk about editing when you can jump right into it? Here’s the drill:
1. Open Windows Movie Maker (Windows) or Apple iMovie (Macintosh). If you don’t know how to open your video-editing program, or if you aren’t sure you have the latest version, check out Appendix C for information about iMovie, or Appendix E for the scoop on Windows Movie Maker. If you are prompted to create a new project by iMovie, create a new project and call it Chapter 1.
2. Put the CD-ROM that accompanies this book in your CD-ROM drive.
3. Choose File➪Import in iMovie or File➪Import into Collections in Windows Movie Maker.
4. Browse to the Samples\Chapter 1 folder on the CD-ROM. In iMovie, hold down the Ô (Mac) key and click each clip once to select all three of them. In Windows Movie Maker, click the file Chapter1 to select it.
5. Click Open (iMovie) or Import (Windows Movie Maker). Three clips appear in the browser window of your video-editing program. The figure shows iMovie, but Windows Movie Maker is fairly similar.
6. Click-and-drag Clip 01 from the clip browser and then drop it on the storyboard.
7. Click-and-drag Clip 02 and drop it on the storyboard just after Clip 01.
Congratulations! You’ve just made your first movie edit. You should now have two clips on the storyboard. If your Windows Movie Maker window doesn’t look quite like this, click the Show Timeline button (if you see it on-screen). Well, okay, what’s so nonlinear about that? After all, you placed one clip after another — that’s about as linear as an edit can get. You could easily imagine doing the same thing with a camcorder, a VCR, and some cables.
Aha, but here’s the kicker: What if you decide to insert Clip 03 in-between Clips 01 and 02? If you’re “editing” with a camcorder and VCR, this move suddenly becomes a horrendously tricky edit to make. But with a nonlinear editing program like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker, the edit is easy. Just click-and-drag Clip 03 and drop it right between Clips 01 and 02. The software automatically shifts Clip 02 over to make room for Clip 03. Almost as easy as shuffling cards, edits like these are the essence of nonlinear video editing
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Thursday, July 2, 2015
Polly Dugan talks about THE SWEETHEART DEAL, grief, moving from writing short stories to novels, and so much more
Library Journal compares her to Anne Tyler, and in The Sweetheart Deal, Polly Dugan has crafted an unforgettable story of grief loss and love. I'm thrilled to have her here. Thank you, Polly!
I always have to ask, what sparked this book? What was the question or image that was haunting you that led to the novel?
In early 2013, I queried my now agent, Wendy Sherman, with my story collection and early in our discussions she asked me if I was working on a novel. My answer wasn’t so much No as it was No, why would you ask me such an outlandish question I’m a short story writer. But I knew the answer she was hoping for was yes. I swear the idea came via the grace of the muse because when Wendy brought it up, writing a novel was the furthest thing from my mind.
A long time ago, in 2000 I think, my best friend from college came to visit my husband, Patrick, and me in Portland. During that visit, because she and I are so much alike and because she and my husband are friends in their own right, the three of us somehow came up with the very morbid joke that if I died, she had to marry Patrick. I have a lot of anxiety about death and dying as people close to me know well, including this friend, and my fear is fair game for people who love me and it really was just very silly, like, Sorry you’ll be dead, Polly, but Patrick won’t not only be alone, he’ll be with someone you love and approve of.
For the three of us, that joke didn’t extend much past that visit but for whatever reason I remembered it when I realized I’d better come up with an idea for a novel in order to maximize the possibility for a book deal.
Because of my obsession with death, it’s invariably the foundation, or part of the foundation, of all my writing. And relationships—between men and women, families and friendships—they’re interesting to me, so I keep banging on those over and over too. So when I recalled this joke in my own life, I wondered, what if it came up between two men and one seriously asked of his friend the favor to marry his wife if he died, and then the guy did die? The premise was compelling to me on all kinds of levels because of the opportunities for potential conflicts it offered—both the interpersonal and intrapersonal ones. And, ultimately, the idea sounded like a book I’d want to read myself, so that alone justified going with it.
This is your first novel after an acclaimed short story collection. What was it like moving from one form to another? (I was nauseous and anxious when I moved from short stories to a novel!) What surprised you about the whole process?
My God, I was anxious too. The idea was very intimidating and I felt like a fraud even thinking and especially sharing with anyone, I’m writing a novel. It seemed like such a lofty and unattainable goal for me, but something other writers, no question, were capable of accomplishing. I didn’t think it was easy for other writers—I knew it wasn’t—I just thought it was an achievement that wasn’t meant for me.
So what I ended up doing—I thought this at the time and in hindsight it seems pretty accurate—I sort of snuck up on writing the novel by approaching all the various elements of the book like I would have the short form. I knew each character’s blueprint and their story arc, so wrote what I knew about each one first, all the ‘big rocks’—one son’s obsession with a friend’s mother, his brother’s night terrors, another’s getting in trouble at school; the back story of the friendship between Leo and Garrett; the story of Audrey and Leo; the intimacy between Audrey and her best friend; the insular quality of the firefighter culture that challenges Garrett; the development and tensions in Audrey and Garrett’s relationship. By taking on all of these smaller narratives, which seemed manageable, I felt like I tricked myself into generating a viable volume of work and by then connecting the narratives and making them a cohesive larger whole no longer seemed insurmountable. It was a great relief to stop feeling like an imposter when I told people I was writing a novel.
What made you decide to tell the story in different points of view? (It works really well, but I was wondering if you knew that this was the way you wanted to tell the story right away, or if it came through trial and error.)
Thank you for saying so! I wrote the first 20 pages, the beginning of the book, from Leo’s first person POV. It was my initial instinct, and it felt authentic and effective so I stayed with it for the other characters, but I was open to making changes if they seemed like better choices to serve the story. I actually wrote several sections in close third to see if the change made them stronger and I didn’t think it did—although it created a different dynamic—and it was interesting to notice the effect of changing the POV, as it always is when I play around with it. When I compared the two, first seemed like the obvious way to go for all the characters, for them to all ‘have their say.’
Ultimately I decided on the different first person points of view for two non-negotiable—technical or creative?—reasons: first, by putting myself as much as I could in all the characters’ skins, each narrative felt like I was telling ‘my’ story about ‘myself’ (times five plus Leo) rather than ‘their stories’ (times five). Even when I wrote with the greatest care and compassion I could, close third had an unavoidable element of distance, which blunted the emotions I wanted to honestly portray; I couldn’t overcome the sense that I was an outsider intrusively reporting on a struggling group of ‘them.’ The second reason is that although the five characters are all grieving the loss of Leo—they are in the same boat if you will—but despite that commonality, each person’s grief is private and isolating; their shared circumstance doesn’t unify them. I thought the POV choice accentuated that isolation, made it more acute and conveyed that to the reader.
The Sweetheart Deal says so much about how and why we love and how we grieve. Could you talk a bit about that please?
My God, these are such vast, elusive and complicated topics. Love and grief are at the center of many of my own deepest questions, or experiences really, since there aren’t ready, easy answers to the hows and whys of both those things. At least I haven’t found them yet and I’ve been pondering them for a long time.
Anne Lamott is one of my greatest influences for spirituality, the doggedness required for a writing life, the messiness of being a human being living among other human beings, forgiveness, so many things. There’s a story in one of her books, I think one of the ones on faith, where she talks about her son Sam, whom she raised as a single mom, and his friend, also named Sam, whom I believe, if I’m remembering correctly, because of a birth defect, was born with only one arm. Anyway, she writes about overhearing the boys talking to each other in the unabashed, guileless way of children and her Sam asks the other Sam, “Where’s you arm?” and friend Sam answers, “I don’t know. Where’s your dad?”
What struck me when I read that piece the first time was how we are all without something, or multiple somethings, in our lives at different times, or throughout our lives, and those various losses, whatever they are, and certainly the death of a loved one, have the potential to make us all so much kinder and more empathetic to each other than we typically are. Like, sorry about your arm. Yeah, sorry about your dad—everyone is missing something. And losses always make us capable of greater love, of loving better, because they remind us not to take anyone, anything important to us, for granted.
I have only one sibling, my sister Nancy, who is disabled. As a result I have always—since childhood—been hungry for a sibling relationship I never had. My best friend growing up was one of six kids and I loved spending time at her house to get that sibling fix. Of course the very thing that drew me to her house was what drove her crazy and pissed her off the way brothers and sisters will. Yet, her mother was raising her six kids on her own after her husband left them, so my friend had all these siblings but no father, and back at my house, I had both my parents but was lacking in the sibling-as-peer department. The story of the two Sams remind me of my friend and me.
As far as love goes, there are so many different kinds—romantic, familial, between friends—and they’re all in the book. One of the things about all these relationships that I’ve found to be true, and didn’t fully understand or believe as a younger person, is that when we love someone, that love has to account for all the parts of a person—the flaws as well as the fabulous parts that got our attention in the first place. And, in any kind of relationship, we don’t get to discover the flaws until a certain level of intimacy is reached. Most of us go through the world in a certain public persona way, but the people closest to us know the entire list of best and worst and love us anyway. I would never assume to give people relationship advice, but in the book I really put my characters through the 360-degree paces of love. You can’t just take what you want—the good stuff—and leave the rest.
I always want to know about craft, so tell us what kind of writer are you? Do you outline or use Post-its (my fave!) or do you wait and see what happens and let the characters lead you?
I wrote the novel in a completely different way than I wrote the story collection, which I wrote over several years, and what I discovered in the process during the year I wrote it is that I’m a binge writer. At my luckiest, after I’ve sat down to write and I’ve started the story rolling, if things are working at all optimal levels, the characters will take over and I’ll feel like I have to keep up with them in the way of William Faulkner’s famous quote about trotting along behind his characters once they stand up and move around to not miss anything they say and do. When this happens it’s the greatest gift I’ve experienced from writing, but when those characters show up in all their three-dimensional glory when I’m not at the computer, it’s a challenge to strive to not miss something.
The times that happens—in the car, when I’m cooking, picking up my kids at school, at a friend’s house—I must jot the idea, lines of dialogue, whatever, on a Post-it, or scrap of paper, or put it in my notes app on my phone or write it on my hand to not lose the thought. (If you like I can email pictures of my pile of ‘material’ that when I was working on the final drafts, as I incorporated, or rejected, each piece of information into the larger project, they systematically got recycled. It was very cathartic and effective and a genuinely physical aspect of writing I hadn’t expected.)
I admire writers who outline and I wish I could because it seems like a wonderful tool for them. I wrote a piece for about never having been good at understanding and creating and using outlines from my earliest experiences in school. But in the early stages of writing “The Sweetheart Deal,” there was one morning that I had so many ideas coming to me all at once that I jotted down a diagram, a drawing really, to not forget any of the intricacies that were swirling, and I followed it like a road map to write the novel. It seemed like such a simple thing at the time, just a mess of words and arrows and lists of emotions and conflicts for each character and what I envisioned happening during the course of the book, but I needed that diagram, and I couldn’t have written the book without it. (I can send a photo of this too.)
What’s obsessing you now and why?
As far as work goes, how to fully envision and commit to writing the next book. In “Legacies,” one of the stories from my collection, Joan Cavanaugh, a character I love, is dying and shares a revelation with Peter, her daughter’s ex-boyfriend, whom she’s asked to come visit just before Christmas. The story is told from Peter’s point of view, and without realizing it at the time, although the story stands alone, the conclusion leaves a door ajar for Joan’s side of the story, more of the story, and a secret that she takes to her grave. Decades later, in Portland, because of two women who are the closest of friends and next-door neighbors, Joan’s family uncovers her secret.
No surprise, death again. And secrets are another obsession I have; along with death, a secret comprises the backbone of this story. And, I don’t know if this occurs in other cities, but I’m constantly intrigued by what a ‘small town’ Portland is, evidenced by how people’s lives overlap, and by extension, because of how mobile people have become, how small our country can seem, and the world, especially when uncanny connections or coincidences happen. All these elements are at play, wooing me toward the next book, trying to convince me they’ll work together to pull it off.
What question didn’t I ask that I should have?
They’ve all been so thorough and thoughtful, thank you, that it’s tough to come up with one. How about this: “If you had one wish for your books, what would it be?” My answer: “That my mom were alive to read them.”
No comments:
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Muv-Luv Alternative - PSVita
Got packs, screens, info?
Requires: PS Vita Memory Card
Viewed: 3D Third person, into the screen Genre:
Media: Cartridge Arcade origin:No
Publishers: Pqube (GB)
Released: 8 Jun 2018 (GB)
Ratings: PEGI 16+
Experience the definitive version of a masterpiece in the Muv-Luv trilogy's thrilling conclusion. The best visual novel of all time is finally coming to the West, revamped and for the first time in English! What begins as a tongue-in-cheek romantic comedy ultimately transforms into an action-packed thrill ride in a war-torn alternate reality.
Turn Back The Clock: After the tragic events of Muv-Luv Unlimited, go back in time to rewrite the story. Western Release: This is the first time this grandiose story is release in English, with an official translation.
A Fresh New Look: Muv-Luv was fully revamped for this PS Vita release, with updated graphics, interface and game engine.
Highly-Acclaimed Story: Muv-Luv Alternative is the highest rated visual novel of all time, a story that demands to be experienced.
A Gripping Tale: Get ready for 50 to 70 hours of visual novel, where the fate of mankind rests in your hands!
Under Attack: The Earth is threatened by an alien invasion going on for 20 years, and humans seem to be on the losing side! 3 Years Ago: Go back to the beginning of Unlimited with the knowledge that the Earth will be decimated if nothing is done differently.
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↑ Return to Curriculum
Year 5
Walnut Class and Willow Class
Willow Class
Miss Bethany Taylor – Teacher
Ms Michelle Robertson – LSA
Mrs Jackie Yardley – LSA
Walnut Class
Miss Nicky Rieger – Teacher French/ German speaker
Ms Lisa Holmes – Learning Mentor
Wisteria Class
Dr John Mynott – Headteacher French/ German speaker
Mr Tim Woodhead- Teacher Russian speaker
Welcome to the Year 5 page. Below is a copy of the curriculum maps of Year 5 which aim to give you an overview of what the children will be learning this term.
Permanent link to this article: http://central.herts.sch.uk/curriculum/year-5/
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Friday, August 07, 2009
How To Make Free Porn Pay
I like to joke that over the past few weeks, I've become the go-to guy for the three Ps: Porn, Prostitution, and Perversion.
What the heck, I guess it's better than being known as the guy who hates San Francisco.
Which is why I'm going to lend a helping hand to the porn industry by telling them how to make free porn pay.
Forbes has an article out about the difficulties that free porn sites are having with making money.*
Or more precisely, it's an article that features a ton of traditional porn studios complaining about how free porn sites keep *them* from making money.
That's the funny are the porn companies, who are usually the smartest operators around, and they're completely blowing the opportunity represented by the free porn sites.
Ironically enough, the winning model already exists, and is being used by one of the most backwards of industries--the music industry.
If you're a porn studio, and you think putting your content on a free porn site is going to lead people to click back to your paid site, you're as dumb as some of your on-screen talent. For the vast majority of porn users, porn has one single purpose. And you don't need a full-length movie to achieve that purpose.
Instead, do what the music industry has done--give away the easily pirated digital good, and sell the experience.
Live, interactive video with chat and voice integration is the killer app. You can't pirate live, especially when it comes to interactivity.
If I were a porn star (and despite the Internet rumors to the contrary, I'm not.**) I would build my business around subscriptions to live interactive video sex sessions.
For example, check out the site of porn legend Nina Hartley (NSFW, duh!). Every week, she provides a new live show, "60 Naked Minutes." It's kind of like Jay Leno, if Jay performed live sex acts on his guests.***
"Join Nina each week as she welcomes, interviews, and then f*cks the greatest lineup of adult stars on the planet."
Nina is a true master (mistress?) of branding, which may account for how she's still going strong at the age of 50. In addition to her live video shows, she also travels around the country conducting hands on sex classes.
For Nina, having pirated videos appear on free porn sites is a feature, not a bug.
For free porn sites, trying to upsell people on higher quality porn is a fool's errand. You don't need HD for the main purpose of the content. Instead, partner with and feature the porn stars themselves, and turn your pirated content into a marketing tool for the higher value interactive and in-person revenue streams.****
* A friend sent me the Forbes article. I guess that happens when you become the go-to guy for Porn, Prostitution, and Perversion.
** I was young, and I needed the money, okay? Geez.
*** Don't give NBC any ideas. Please.
**** I am available to consult with major free porn sites for a very reasonable rate. Call me.
Thursday, August 06, 2009
Ghosts (a play by Jason Yeh)
Here's the latest drama from the pen of my son, Jason Yeh.
* * * * *
Jason: There are no such things as ghosts.
Dunya: Aahhhhhhh!
J: Is that a ghose?
D: Yes!
Ghost: Whoooo!
D: Eeeeek!
G: Boo!
J&D: Aahh!
J: Run!
D: Panic!
Narrator: Jason and Dunya wasn't saved. Jason and Dunya died. THE END.
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MOZART: Die Zauberflöte, K620. Symphony No. 39 in E-flat, K543*.
Josef Greindl (Sarastro); Anton Dermota (Tamino); Wilma Lipp (Königin der Nacht); Irmgard Seefried (Pamina); Erich Kunz (Papageno); Edith Oravez (Papagena); Peter Klein (Monostatos); Christel Goltz (Erste Dame); Margherita Kenney (Zweite Dame); Sieglinde Wagner (Dritte Dame); Vienna State Opera Chorus; Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; *Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra/Wilhelm Furtwängler.
Beautifully sung Zauberflöte; arch-Romantic readings. Often, they work. The opera recording comes from a performance at the 1951 Salzburg Festival. Apparently, Austrian Radio had taped it but destroyed the tapes. These were "off-site" recordings from a broadcast, so the original audio doesn't reach state-of-1951-art levels. Pristine has done what it can, but it hasn't quite eliminated the occasional peak distortion. Unfamiliar with Furtwängler's Mozart, I eagerly looked forward to hearing how he approached two of the composer's best and most effervescent works.
I'll report mixed results. The actual playing of the Vienna Philharmonic is wonderful. Furtwängler brings out inner voices and shapes phrases with care. Some reviewers have found that the conductor emphasizes the spiritual aspects of Zauberflöte, by which they mean the music of Sarastro and the priests as well as of Tamino's trial. In my opinion, the performance fails at precisely those points, and it begins with the overture. Furtwängler sits on the "Masonic" chords so heavily that he can't get anything going in the quicker sections, which, after all, take up most of the time. He slows down both of Sarastro's arias to the point that Josef Greindl can't really sing them: he's too occupied with just making it to the end of the phrase. George Bernard Shaw wrote that these arias were "the only music yet written that would not sound out of place in the mouth of God." Furtwängler makes Sarastro sound as if he needs a Feenamint. However, most of the other numbers move fleetly and gracefully. Then again, I'm always a sucker for Papageno and his magic glockenspiel.
For me, the singers really make the performance, usually well-supported by the conductor. They're so good, I was hard-pressed to think of a comparable group of present-day singers. Not only do they produce beautiful sounds, but they possess individual timbres and can act with their voices. Their performances come over the microphone so vividly, you think you can see them on stage. Irmgard Seefried's Pamina will break your heart, she sounds so vulnerable. Wilma Lipp's Queen of the Night has flexibility, power, and, in her revenge aria, such uncannily accurate intonation in her stratospheric runs that she reminded me of Annie Oakley, "Little Miss Sure-Shot." Anton Dermota does well in a part where it's all too easy to phone in a wooden performance. Let's face it -- Tamino's a bit of a stick, a generic prince-hero. Josef Greindl has a beautiful bass, but as I've said, gets stuck in Furtwängler's glacial tempos. As Monostatos, Peter Klein, a singer previously unknown to me, has a flexible tenor with a bit of heft as well as a noteworthy musical intelligence. Indeed, he strikes me as a perfect Mozart tenor. However, the Papageno usually makes a Zauberflöte for me. Erich Kunz is one of the best I've heard - a genuine comic actor and superb singer.
The inflation Furtwängler is occasionally subject to infects the Symphony No. 39 with the Berlin Phil, as if ponderousness equaled profundity. This may be my favorite Mozart symphony, with a pyrotechnic excitement and sparkle. These two qualities Furtwängler's performance lacks. The scale is way too big, more suitable to a middle Beethoven symphony. This may be a reaction to the typical Nineteenth-Century opinion of Mozart as a petit maître of "tuneful little ditties" -- a view Shaw fulminated against. Furtwängler seems so defensive about the symphony's worth that he overcompensates, talks way too loudly. Indeed, he blusters. He sees Mozart through late-Romantic lenses -- a titanic hero rather than, in this work, a fabulous comic sensibility.
Pristine attempts to give you not only a clean sound, but a "live" one that conveys the ambience of the venue, mostly in "historic" recordings. Their success depends not only on their technical wizardry, but on the state of the original recording. Again, the Zauberflöte comes from an off-site taping made in the Fifties. The symphony performance comes from an early Forties recording which turned up in Russian archives. The circumstances don't contribute to an ideal result. However, Pristine has done what it can. The problems cited by the engineer, Andrew Rose, have mostly been overcome. Again, traces of fuzz at peak outputs remain in both recordings. I shudder to imagine how much more there was in the originals.
S.G.S. (January 2013)
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Version 7 (modified by Charles, 6 years ago)
cue: a signal for action
cue: a thing said or done that serves as a signal to an actor or other performer to enter or to begin their speech or performance.
The cue keyword is used on some selected methods to indicate to the compiler that these methods are special, implement a 'special' behaviour or concept and will be treated specially to the system.
Cues supported include (or will include):
• Initializer - cue init
• Destructor (destruction cleanup/Finalizer) - cue finalize
• Calculate an objects HashCode - cue hash as int
• Determine comparison operation - cue compare(other) as int
• Determine object equality - cue equals(other) as int
• Implement enumeration/iteration capability - cue enumerate as T*
• Others may be added as needed
See Discussion Posting "Cue"
# as for method definition but 'cue' replaces 'def'
cue <methodName> [as <returnType>] [is <AccessModifiers>]
[has <Attributes>]
cue <methodName>(<paramList>) [as <returnType>] [is <AccessModifiers>]
[has <Attributes>]
Language systems generally have special hooks at the object level for various purposes such as comparisons, hash codes, enumeration, object construction, initialization and destruction Different languages use differing conventions and names for much the same ideas.
The original approach used the C#, VB, .Net naming except that constructors are done through "def init" which had the unfortunate consequence of conflicting with some third party libraries leading to some hacks in the compiler. Purportedly that approach also could not be extended to other backends (such as JVM) as they dont use the same exact method names as .NET.
The solution adopted was to introduce a new keyword cue used (instead of def) on methods that have or may have a special use or meaning and will be translated to the correct voodoo for whatever platform you're on (.NET, JVM, etc.)
Cues have some special rules about them, both in general and specific to particular cues:
• Cue declarations are exempt from needing "is override" on them.
• Most cues cannot be directly invoked external to the cue. Normally however there is a canonical way in cobra to invoke the 'cued' capability or it is invoked invisibly for you in the correct circumstances (hashcode)
For example
"a = ClassName(args)" is the canonical way to construct and invoke an initializer
"a == b" is the canonical way to compare objects for equality, and
"for a in collection" is the canonical way to enumerate through the elements of a collection.
• One exception to "do not invoke cues directly" is that *within* the declaration of a cue, you can invoke it for purposes of implementation (e.g., base.init, .init, .thing.hash).
• A cue alters and adds to your class as needed to implement the cue.
For example the .enumerate cue when used on .NET will make your class implement IEnumerable and IEnumerable<of> while adding a method for each, for a total of two new methods.
This provides the capability of using your object in a for loop ("for a in mycollection, ...") and pass it where enumerables are expected ("List<of T>(...)").
• Cues cannot necessarily be reflected on by name at run-time as their run-time names may be different by platform (.NET "GetHashCode" vs. JVM "hashCode").
The intention is to provide implementations of the supported cues in a portable way between platforms and in some cases (like .enumerate) in a more convenient manner.
cue init
The init cue is used to denote an initializer for a class instance.
The initializer code is implicitly invoked on object construction to set the contents of an object instance to an initial state.
It doesnt return any value and is not inherited: i.e baseclass initialization must be done with an explicit call to a baseclass or sibling initializer
Constructor chaining can be done to another constructor in the same class
(usually to one with a different number or types of args)
or to a superclass constructor (using base.init)
- this call must be the first executable line in the initializer code body.
If an init cue is not specified the compiler runtime generates a (default) noArg constructor that does nothing.
cue finalize
Called implicitly on object destruction (at an indeterminate time).
Nominally responsible for release of any additional stored resources
e.g File handles, shared memory descriptors, sockets.
But please see the various platform notes (.Net and JVM) on issues with use of
destructors and finalizers and hints toward use of Disposal Interfaces instead (IDispose).
Hash Code Calculation
cue hash as int
Used to calculate a hash code (single unique id) for an object instance.
The platform Framework calls this implicitly when needed
(e.g. hash generation for Dictionary keys).
The .hash cue is also an exception to the 'should not call a cue directly' note above.
It is considered "externally visible" and can be invoked like an ordinary method.
Platform .NET
see Object GetHashCode
cue compare(other) as int
Provide a comparison calculation for the ordering of instances of a class, this instance against the provided one.
The return value is 0 for equality, negative for .this < other, positive for .this > other
Platform .NET
see IComparable(<T>).CompareTo Method
Object equality
cue equals(other) as int
Method used to determine if this instance is equal to another object.
Nominally called as a result of "a == b" expressions
Can be pretty much boilerplate along the following lines
cue equals(other [as Object]) as bool
if this is other, return true
if other inherits <!ThisClass>
return <boolean comparisons on equality of instance fields>
return false
Platform .NET
see Object.equals method
Provide enumeration/iteration capability
cue enumerate as <Type>*
This cue provides an implementation of the Enumerable/Iterable? pattern for containers such that the class supports the idea of enumeration/iteration.
i.e so that the cobra construct
for item in <myCollectionObject>
works such that item gets each item stored in the object one at a time.
It may (probably will) insert additional (boilerplate) code to provide exposure of this capability in the framework approved manner (Enumerator/Iterator?)
Platform .NET
see IEnumerable and IEnumerable<of>
class Customer
cue init(name as String)
_name = name
cue finalize
pass # release any held resources (file handles, sockets, ...)
get name from var as String
cue equals(other) as bool
if this is other, return true
if other inherits Customer
return .name ==
return false
cue hash as int
return .name.hash
Currently only "cue init" is fully supported
While you may specify access modifiers and return types in a cue the implementation may modify, augment or ignore these to conform to the platform requirements or restrictions
There is an original forum discussion post on cues.
See also: Classes, LanguageTopics
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Version 21 (modified by hopscc, 5 years ago)
Library Topics
Library-related Wiki Pages
Key Classes at MSDN
Searching for information on libraries
1. You can search this wiki using the search box in the upper right.
2. You can search the forums (currently a separate search).
3. Cobra currently runs on .NET/Mono which means that you can often search for the web for phrases like "C# parse xml" and find an example that you can readily adapt to your code. Or search for ""msdn SomeClass someMethod" and find the reference information for a method.
Reading Source
Cobra's standard library is a small set of additions on top of .NET/Mono. You can browse the source code in CobraWorkspace/Source/Cobra.Core.
How To
The HowToPrograms show some of the library calls you will use when coding.
See Also
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Version 3 (modified by hopscc, 5 years ago)
Cobra supports the normal range of variables
• Local Variables (lexically scoped)
• Instance Variables
• Method parameter Variables
• Properties
• Class or shared/static Variables
Variables are statically typed but typing can be done explicitly (and optionally) with a declarative "as clause" otherwise the variables type is inferred from initialization or first assignment or use. Static typing allows cobra to be fast in execution, Type inference makes static typing bearable.
Variables are normally 'early bound' - typed at (first) use or declaration.
Variables can be dynamically typed (untyped) or 'late bound' by explicitly giving them (or for some variables allowing them to default to) the dynamic type.
Local Variables
Local variables are created and used within a method.
They are used for temporary storage or calculation and are named starting with a leading lowercase letter (no leading underscores or punctuation).
They come into existence on first assignment unless explicitly declared but are created local to the method they appear in (not just the block they might have been first used in).
A compiler error will be generated if a local variable is used (read) before it is created (initialized).
Local variables can be explicitly typed if desired otherwise they infer their type from the type of what they are assigned from.
s = "name:" # s is a String since thats what it is assigned from
greet = 'hello" + 'Mike.' # also a String since the assignment is a (String) expression
i = 99 # i is an int (int32) since thats what 99 is
iu = 99_u8 # iu is an unsigned 8 bit int from the literal suffix on 99_u8
s1 as String = 'xxx' # redundant 'as TYPE' clause since assigned from a String anyway
i1 as int # declaration without initialisation - defaults to the default value for the type (0 in this case)
Local variables of Reference types should generally be assigned to, to create and type them.
s as String # generates a compiler error
# needs to be
# s as String?
s = 'string value'
print s
Non-primitive (Reference) typed variables, if declared and not initialised
need to be declared as nilable since they will default to the default-value for
a reference type which is nil (null) and if they're not nilable they can't have a nil value.
Idiomatically in cobra it's best to create local variables by first use (an assignment)
rather than an explicit type declaration.
Sometimes though you need a variable to be typed differently (usually wider) than what it is
assigned from. To do this you can explicitly type the variable with an 'as clause' on first
use or cast (upcast) the initial value to the desired type.
space = 32_u8
ispace as int32 = space
# or
ispace = space to int32
enclosure as Shape = Circle()
# or
enclosure = Circle() to Shape
Instance Variables
Instance variables are variables associated with a Type (commonly class) instance.
They encapsulate the state of the instance object
They must be declared (using the var keyword in a Type (class/structure/interface) definition) but they too can be explicitly typed or have their type inferred from being initialised in the declaration.
Like method parameter variables, if untyped and uninitialised, their type defaults to type dynamic.
Instance variables default to public access.
If named with a leading '_' they default to protected access, with double leading '_' to private access.
Accessibility may be explicitly specified otherwise or overridden with an 'is clause' specifying one of 'public', 'protected', 'private' as per the usual variable AccessModifiers.
class VarEG
var count = 0 # type inferred from initial value (int32)
var age as int # explicitly typed to int (int32) initial value default value for int (0)
var _name as String # explicitly typed to String - nil value, private
var _definition as INamedNode?
var other is private # dynamic type, explicitly private
# Properties
pro defn as String # String Property
if not _definition
return 'No Defn'
_definition = value
pro name from _name # Read-write String Property from _name
get repr as String # Read-only String property - synthesized
return '[_name]_[.age]'
# class Variable
var nItems as int is shared
Unlike local variables, explicitly typed instance variables without an initial value given need not be declared nilable unless they are intended or allowed to have a nil value after the class instance initializer has run.
Instance variables that are not nilable will emit a runtime error if they have a nil value at the end of the initializer execution.
In code, instance variables are accessed with a leading 'this.' or just '.'.
(idiomatically and preferably just a leading '.').
The leading '.' is unnecessary if the instance variable name has a leading '_'.
(These are unambiguously instance variables as local variables cannot be declared with leading underscores.)
# Initializer/Ctor
cue init( age as int, name as String)
.age = age
_name = name # ok _name now initialised and non nil
.other = .calcOther(name, age)
.nItems += 1
# A method
def rename(nuName as String)
.count += 1 # instance variable
calcName = nuName + '_[.count]' # local variable (String)
.name = calcName # change instance variable
In the initializer, instance variable _name is now initialised,
_definition is nil but thats allowed since its declared nilable.
Method parameter variables
Methods (initializers, etc) in a class may be declared to take parameters.
These can be optionally explicitly typed. If method parameters are not explicitly typed they are assumed to be the dynamic type.
Method parameter variables are named the same way as local variables ( leading lowercase letter) and are also local only to the method they are on.
Calls to the methods convey the arguments given in the call to the (formal) parameter names in the order declared on the method for use in the called method.
# call to create VarEg instance
t = VarEG( 157, 'hops')
In the initializer call parameter variables
• age <- 157
• name <- 'hops'
in method call rename, parameter variables
• nuName <- 'hopscc'
Properties are a construct for external change or access to a classes state (class or instance variables) mediated by some code.
They can be a simple passthrough to a possibly otherwise inaccessible class variable (field) or anything else doable in a method.
The major difference/advantage is that to calling code they are written to appear exactly like a class variable access or mutation (no punctuation or boilerplate for method calls) so all the description for instance variables applies.
t = VarEG( 492, 'hops')
oldDefn = t.defn # local var oldDefn <- 'No defn'
oldName = # local var oldName <- 'hops' ='hopscc'
t.defn = .makeDefn(t)
print t.repr # prints 'hopscc_492'
Class Variables
Class (or shared or static) variables are like instance variables but they are associated with the class rather than each instance of a class. They are declared like instance variables except that they have the modifier 'shared'. Class variables can be accessed through a class instance or using the className otherwise all the description of instance variables applies.
# Note that nItems is incremented in the initializer so it has a count of the
# number of instances made
nItems = VarEG.nItems
print 'number Of VarEg instances made ' + nItems
nullVarEG = VarEg(0, '')
assert nullVarEG.nItems == nItems + 1 # access class vars through instance or className
These variables can also be created subject to the usual AccessModifiers for variables.
See Also
Access Modifiers
Back to LanguageTopics
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Tuesday, May 31, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 29 (Day 172)
Question 29 of the PARCC Practice Exam is our second straight trig problem:
29. A carpenter is constructing a triangular roof for a storage shed as shown in the figure:
[The triangle has a 45-foot base and two 15-degree base angles -- dw]
Part A
How high will the peak of the roof rise above the top of the shed?
Give your answer to the nearest foot.
Part B
After the roof is constructed, it will be covered with an asphalt roofing material. The carpenter needs to calculate the combined length of the two sloping sides. What will be the total length needed of the roof covering?
Give your answer to the nearest foot.
Once again, I lament that all the good stuff is showing up on the test too late. By "the good stuff," I mean the material I covered in the Algebra II and Honors Integrated Math I classes I covered earlier this month (trig and constructions), and by "too late," I mean that I reach the problems after the week I was in that classroom. Just think about how many trig and construction problems I've covered after Friday the 13th, when I left that class!
For Part A, notice that we can't use any of the three trig functions until we have a right triangle. We form right triangles by drawing in the altitude to the base, which as we know, divides the isosceles triangle (which it is, as it has two base angles) into two congruent right triangles. The base of each triangle -- the leg adjacent to the 15-degree angle -- is 22.5 feet, and the value we are trying to find is the leg opposite the given acute angle. This implies that we need the tangent ratio:
a/22.5 = tan 15
a = 22.5 tan 15
a = 6.03, which is about 6 feet.
For Part B, we need to find the sum of the two hypotenuses of the right triangles. This implies that we need the cosine ratio:
22.5/c = cos 15
c = 22.5/cos 15
c = 23.3
2c = 46.6, which is about 47 feet.
As usual, we must deal with rounding error. It's so easy to round 23.3 down to 23 feet first and then double it to 46 feet, when we see that 46.6 rounding up to 47 feet is more accurate. As usual, PARCC counts both 46 and 47 feet as correct answers. On the other hand, students really have no business rounding 6.03 to anything other than six feet. And we can already see what the common student error will be -- giving 23 feet as an answer to Part B instead of doubling it to 46 or 47 feet. Another error is to plug 45 feet directly into the formulas instead of halving it to 22.5 feet.
Also, my rule of thumb is to use exact values from the question to solve Part B -- not the rounded off value from Part A. So we use the cosine in 22.5/c = cos 15, not the sine in 6/c = sin 15 or even the Pythagorean Theorem in 6^2 + 22.5^2 = c^2. In this problem, it probably wouldn't make that much of a difference since 6 and 6.03 are so close -- about half a percent difference.
Then again, using 6/c = sin 15 gives c = 23.2 (instead of 23.3) and so 2c = 46.4, which rounds to 46 instead of 47 feet. (Using 6 in the Pythagorean Theorem still gives 46.6 feet.) This doesn't matter for PARCC, which counts both 46 and 47 feet as correct, but it could make a difference in a real class where 46 feet could be marked wrong.
And of course, under no circumstances should we round 22.5 off in these formulas. If we tried to round 22.5 to 23, we obtain c = 23/cos 15 = 23.8 and 2c = 47.6, which rounds off to 48 feet -- and this answer will be marked incorrect.
By the way, notice that the total length of the roof covering is about 47 feet -- just two feet longer than the base of the roof -- yet it sticks up six feet in the air. That is, adding two feet to the roof makes it stick up six feet in the air. This unexpected result occurs because of the Pythagorean Theorem -- the equation a^2 + b^2 = c^2 implies that c = sqrt(a^2 + b^2) -- and when a is much smaller than b, c works out to be very close to b.
A classic question exploits this property of square roots -- suppose there is a track of length one mile, but when it gets hot, the track expands one inch, causing it to buckle. How high in the air will the track buckle? This is equivalent to the original question where the "base" of the roof (cold track) is one mile and the length of the roof "covering" (hot track) is one mile and one inch, and we wish to find the peak of the roof "covering" (hot track). The answer works out to be 15 feet -- and we'd definitely notice a track rising 15 feet in the air!
PARCC Practice EOY Question 29
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 14-4, The Sine and Cosine Ratios
Key Postulates: Definition of Sine and Cosine
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: Once again, this sort of question -- where we're given an isosceles triangle and we must cut it into two right triangles before we can apply trig -- is not in the U of Chicago text. I have run out of Pizzazz worksheets from the Algebra II class to apply, but I found an old worksheet from last year that covers another topic covered poorly in the U of Chicago text -- inverse trig functions. Both ideas -- applying trig to isosceles triangles and inverse trig -- are used to solve problems, so I decided to include last year's questions on today's worksheet.
Friday, May 27, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 28 (Day 171)
We have completed our reading Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World. As I begin to turn my focus to the middle school math class that I will teach in the fall, books like Kline's can help motivate students to learn math as they learn about the connections to science.
For the sixth and seventh graders, I can show them ideas from the first six or seven chapters of the book, minus the trig parts. For the eighth graders, I can go a bit further in the book, since here in California eighth graders focus on the physical sciences. This may change under Next Generation Science standards, though, to a more integrated approach.
Today is a traditionalists post, but I think I'll do the PARCC question first. Question 28 of the PARCC Practice Exam is on trig:
28. The figure shows right triangle ABC.
[The triangle is labeled, with the right angle at A and a, b, and c opposite A, B, and C -- dw]
Which of the listed values are equal to the sine of B?
Select all that apply.
A. b/c
B. c/a
C. b/a
D. the cosine of B
E. the cosine of C
F. the cosine of (90 - B)
G. the sine of (90 - C)
And now we have a trig problem -- the other subject I taught during that full week I spent in a math classroom, this time the Algebra II class rather than Honors Integrated Math I. Again, all these great problems that match up with the worksheets are appearing one and two weeks after I subbed there.
The usual definition of sin B is choice (C). But we know the definition of cosine as complementary sine -- and this is a frequent PARCC question, as we've seen in the past. As it turns out, choices (E), (F), and (G) are all correct.
Frequent errors include marking only one answer instead of four, and getting confused with the relationship between sine and cosine. It may help to change 90 - B to C and 90 - C to B before attempting to answer -- then it becomes obvious that (E) and (F) both say cos C and (G) says sin B, which is the original question.
This is a great point to transition into another traditionalists post. I've said before that my classes will not be traditionalist, except when it comes to basic skills, where I agree with traditionalism. One traditionalist I haven't discussed on the blog yet, but whose ideas will be a strong influence in my own classes, goes only by the username "Bill." Bill often posts at the following link:
The creator of this website (Joanne Jacobs) regularly links to various education articles -- I often skip the middle woman and link directly to those articles, but if I do link to Jacobs herself, it's to highlight the comments of Bill and a few other traditionalists who post in the comments.
Bill strongly believes that students graduating these days lack basic skills. Here are a few of his most recent comments:
Your 2nd grade teacher sounds like an idiot, if he or she couldn’t spot the properly spelled word and the improperly spelled one, but then again, in many elementary schools these days in the U.S., a student who fails all of their coursework in every subject isn’t held back, either, so they don’t have an issue with their self-esteem.
What happens in 6-7 years when they reach middle school and cannot read, write, or add/subtract/multiply/divide…
I'm actually confused with the first part of Bill's comment, since the "2nd grade teacher" mentioned here was trying to catch cheating. The important part of the comment is the second part. Bill complains that grade retention isn't used often enough, because students are allowed to move on to the next grade without having basic skills. This is a frequent traditionalist complaint.
That’s because in the 70’s and 80’s, persons who excelled academically or showed a strong interest in math/science got labeled as ‘geeks’, and the kudos always went to the football/baseball/basketball teams (or insert your sport here)…This is the way it has always been in high school/college/professional sports.
Given that it’s darn near impossible to hold back a student who has failed all of their courses in elementary school, is it any wonder why students who put the time and excel academically are in those ethnic groups which make education a priority?
I was looking at a article on using CRISPR-cas9 to edit DNA, and this was being discussed in a high school biotechnology classroom, I’d say all of the students were either caucasian, asian, or asian-american (go figure)…
By the way, most of Bill's comments are not about racial politics, but unfortunately, his most recent comment as of today is about racial politics (and I'd planned on writing this traditionalist post today about Bill long before I read this comment). Then again, I am burying this in a post just before a three-day weekend, which I often do in order to minimize the controversial subject of race. (The original article also mentioned gender -- not enough girls are going into STEM, but Bill and the other commenters chose to ignore gender and focus only on in this thread.)
Of course, the first part of the comment has nothing to do with race. Words like "geek" and "nerd" aren't specific to any race -- Bill laments that sports are considered high status and math is considered a low-status activity. We've seen before that students are willing to work on athletic drills, which are neither easy nor fun, if the drills would make them a champion athlete. But the same students, if they are asked to perform mathematical drills, will insist that they instead do only activities that are easy and fun, and ask questions like "Why?" and "When will we ever use this?" whenever asked to perform a task in math class that is not easy or fun.
Now it's the second part of Bill's comment where race places a factor. He repeats his complaint that there isn't enough retention -- a crude form of tracking -- in elementary school. But here's the thing -- Bill claims that this failure to track students, far from reducing the achievement gap, is actually contributing to the gap! Bill's post is implying that if elementary schools were to bring back retention, perhaps after repeating a grade, students will suddenly see the need to work hard in their classes in order to avoid being held back again. Then students of all races would suddenly have an incentive to work hard, and with everyone working hard, the achievement gap would be reduced.
This is a typical traditionalist argument, and I don't fully agree with it at all. I suspect that if an aggressive retention plan were adopted, students wouldn't start studying harder. Instead, the natural human reaction is to blame the system, rather than themselves, for their failure. And if we add the highly volatile factor of race, people are even more likely to blame the system -- and this is exactly why tracking no longer exists! Once again, the traditionalist plan won't give the results that the traditionalists desire.
And here's another, non-racial factor that the traditionalists fail to consider. Some students will refuse to learn, and so there will be huge age gaps in the classroom. Bill mentions self-esteem and the broken feelings of the students who must repeat grades, but I'm worried about the broken bones of the smarter students who are beaten up by kids in the same class who may be four or more years older than they are.
Last night was the Scripps National Spelling Bee, and every year after the competition, I watch one of my favorite movies, Akeelah and the Bee. It is about a girl who is branded as a nerd for being such an excellent speller, but becomes a local heroine as she advances to the National Spelling Bee. (Oh, and race definitely plays a factor among the characters in the movie as well.)
Now I said that I want to apply Bill's thoughts to my own classroom. I'm a middle school teacher, so there's obviously nothing I can do about elementary school retention (regardless of whether I agree with Bill's idea or not). But I do want to turn around the idea that students who are successful at math are "nerds" who are worthy of scorn.
Indeed, I turn around the word "nerd" to form the word "dren" -- an anti-nerd who is incapable of performing elementary-level math. Even though Bill doesn't use the word "dren" (of course not, since I made it up), it encapsulates Bill's opinion in a single syllable -- it's not the students who are good at math who have the problem. The students who can't do math are the ones with the problem!
In some of Bill's posts, he writes about college and career readiness. I will continue to write Bill's comments throughout the summer, and I may even repeat some of these in the classroom. The point is that the so-called "nerds" are actually popular with the only people who matter -- college admissions officers and employers -- and it's the "drens" who are unpopular with the people who matter. I'll have more to say about this idea as we read more of Bill's comments together on the blog.
My next post will be on May 31st, which is after Memorial Day.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 28
Key Postulates: Definition of Sine and Cosine
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: The worksheet is based on the Pizzazz Worksheet from Algebra II. I changed it so that the hypotenuse is a, to match the PARCC problem on the previous page.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 27 (Day 170)
Chapter 27 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is "Mathematics and Nature." Yet another very famous name is the author of today's quote:
"How can it be that mathematics, a product of human thought independent of experience, is so admirably adapted to the objects of reality?" -- Albert Einstein
Kline begins:
"There is a well-known story, largely apocryphal, concerning the visit of the French Encyclopedist, Denis Diderot, to the court of Catherine the Great...Diderot accepted [the invitation -- dw]. Euler appeared, rattled off some meaningless mathematical formulas, and concluded, 'So God exists.'"
If I remember correctly, the story was that Euler used his famous formula "e^(i*pi) = -1" in his proof of the existence of God. As we can see, this chapter of Kline is somewhat religious in nature. My earlier promise is that I would not discuss religion here on the blog unless it is in the context of calendars, which is why I added the "Calendar" label to this post.
Kline writes that many mathematicians, not just Euler, believed that the theorems of math were absolute truths, and so one could mathematically prove the existence of God. But he writes why this belief was flawed:
"The development of non-Euclidean geometry showed that man's mathematics did not speak for nature, much less lead to a proof of the existence of God."
So in a way, this is a continuation of the previous chapter. The fact that there exist geometries other than the familiar Euclidean geometry demonstrate that there is no absolute truth in mathematics -- truth is relative to the axioms and postulates that are chosen at a particular time. If we chose Euclid's Fifth Postulate, then the angles of a triangle add up to 180. If we choose a different postulate, then the angles of a triangle don't add up to 180. As Kline writes, even 2 + 2 = 4 is not absolutely true:
"But there are algebras, physically useful algebras, in which this statement does not hold."
Oh, and since I added the "Calendar" label to this post, I'd better say something about calendars and religion lest I break my own promise about writing about religion on the blog. Well, let's see:
-- On the Jewish Calendar, today is Lag B'Omer (33 days after Passover).
-- On the Christian Calendar, today is Corpus Christi (60 days after Easter). Yes, there's a Texas city named after this feast day.
-- On the Usher Calendar, Memorial Day weekend coincides with Pentecost (the 50th day after Usher Easter, which always falls April 5th-11th). I explained back on Leap Day that many American secular holidays and Christian holidays line up on the Usher Calendar.
-- On the Muslim Calendar, Ramadan will begin in just over a week (approx. June 6th).
Question 27 of the PARCC Practice Exam is about the diagonal of a screen:
27. A computer monitor is 20 inches wide. The aspect ratio, which is the ratio of the width of the screen to the height of the screen, is 16:9. What is the length of the diagonal of the screen, to the nearest whole inch?
This question involves similar rectangles and require us to set up a proportion. We'll let a be the altitude and b the base of the screen:
b/a = 16/9
20/a = 16/9
16a = 180
a = 11.25"
You may wonder, why did we use a for altitude and b for the base, rather than the more natural h for height and w for width? Oh, it's because we need to use the Pythagorean Theorem to find the diagonal:
a^2 + b^2 = c^2
(11.25)^2 + 20^2 = c^2
126.5625 + 400 = c^2
526.5625 = c^2
c = 22.9", which rounds to 23"
As is typical for measurement problems, PARCC will count either 22" or 23" as correct.
On one hand, we could bill this as a Pythagorean Theorem question from Lesson 8-7. But this question is very nearly like one that I included on the Chapter 12 Test (the lchapter on similarity) back in February. On that day, I alluded to the fact that TV's used to have a 4:3 aspect ratio, but now the standard is 16:9, just as in the PARCC problem.
But that question, as originally written in the SPUR section of the U of Chicago text, gave the ratio of a standard def TV as 9:7, referring to the diagonal-to-width ratio rather than width-to-length. This is approximately the same as a 4:3 width-to-length ratio. I converted this to an HD TV when I wrote the Chapter 12 Test, and I implied a diagonal-to width ratio of 8:7. This does correspond approximately to a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Notice that the 4:3 aspect ratio of the old TV sets should bring to mind the 3-4-5 Pythagorean triple and right triangle. Indeed, the ratio 9:7 is a poor excuse of an approximation to the diagonal-to-width ratio of the standard def TV's, considering that 5:4 is the exact value and is simpler than 9:7. (In music, we ordinarily don't play 9:7, a "septimal major third," instead of 5:4, the just major third.) On the other hand, the diagonal of a triangle with legs 9 and 16 is sqrt(337). I'd use 8:7 to approximate sqrt(337):16 well before using 9:7 to "approximate" 5:4.
Then again, the ratios 8:7 and 9:7 are easy to compare. The diagonal-to-width ratio is smaller for the HD TV. which makes sense, if you think about it. If we had a standard def TV of width 20", it's easy to calculate its diagonal as 25". Then if we played a widescreen video on this TV, black bars would appear near the top and bottom of the screen, so that the diagonal of the visible image is only 23" instead of 25". (This does not mean that the top and bottom bars are about 1" each. We must use the altitude, not the diagonal, to find the size of the black bars. We calculate the height of the 20" standard def TV as 15", and we already found the height of the widescreen image to be 11.25". This means that the top and bottom bars are closer to 2" each.)
PARCC Practice EOY Question 27
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 8-7, The Pythagorean Theorem
Key Theorems: Pythagorean Theorem
In any right triangle with legs a and b and hypotenuse c, a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: The questions come from the old Pizzazz worksheet that I covered during the week I subbed in an Algebra II class. Oh why couldn't I have covered that class this week instead, when I'm discussing these questions on the blog?
Wednesday, May 25, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 26 (Day 169)
Chapter 26 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is "Non-Euclidean Geometry." I know that I've discussed non-Euclidean geometry extensively on the blog.
"One must regard nature reasonably and naturally as one would the truth, and be contented only with a representation of it which errs to the smallest possible extent." -- John Bolyai, 19th century Hungarian
Kline begins:
"Toward the ends of their lives, Euler, D'Alembert, and Lagrange agreed that the realm of mathematical ideas had been practically exhausted and that no new great minds were appearing on the mathematical horizons. Of course, these men had grown old and their vision was already dimmed, for Laplace, Legendre, and Fourier were already in young manhood."
But the hero of this chapter is Karl Friedrich Gauss, who needs no introduction. Here is a little of the great mathematician's bio as described by Kline:
"Karl Friedrich Gauss's brilliance was noted by his elementary school teachers, and they helped him to secure a good education. [No, Kline says nothing about adding up numbers 1 to 100 -- dw.] There is a story that at Gottingen he approached one of his university teachers, A.G. Kastner, with a proof that the 17-sided regular polygon is constructible with straightedge and compass -- at that time one of the outstanding construction problems. Of course, [Kastner] knew that the problem was of theoretical interest, but he did not believe Gauss could solve it. Then Gauss explained that he had reduced the solution of the seventeenth degree equation [that appears in a proof -- dw] to one of lower degree and then solved the latter. For this rebuff, Gauss repaid Kastner, who prided on being something of a poet, by lauding him as the best mathematician among poets and the best poet among mathematicians."
As we know now, Gauss was correct in that he really did construct a regular 17-gon. But no, neither the PARCC, nor any other Common Core test, will ever require high school students to know the steps to construct a regular heptadecagon, as it is very complicated. After this discovery, Gauss was convinced to spend the rest of his life studying mathematics.
And of course, one of his discoveries was non-Euclidean geometry -- one in which the Parallel Postulate is replaced with another axiom. Indeed, Gauss independently discovered the new geometry with two other mathematicians -- one of whom uttered the quote at the start of this chapter, Bolyai.
Kline writes:
"Their chief idea was the one we have already mentioned, namely, that Euclid's parallel axiom is an independent assumption about parallel lines and hence it is logically possible, whether or not it serves any scientific or practical purpose, to replace it by a contradictory axiom. What alternative axiom did these men adopt? One alternative would be to assume that every line through P met l; that is, there are no lines through P which are parallel to l. ...[T]hey had found that theorems deduced from this axiom and the other nine axioms of Euclid contradicted each other. This outcome meant that such an alternative to Euclid's parallel could not be entertained, since a body of inconsistent results certainly made no sense."
First of all, the total of ten axioms (a Parallel Postulate and "the other nine axioms") are mentioned in Lesson 13-6 of the U of Chicago text (five algebraic and five geometric postulates). All the talk about Euclid's "Fifth Postulate" refers to his fifth geometric postulate, not any algebraic postulates.
Anyway, we've discussed this contradiction that Gauss and others found before on the blog. We've seen that a geometry that satisfies all of Euclid's axioms except the Fifth Postulate is known as "neutral geometry." Spherical geometry is a well-known example of a non-Euclidean geometry in which there are no parallel lines. But, just as Kline implies above, spherical geometry is not a neutral geometry, since the Spherical Parallel Postulate contradicts the nine neutral axioms! Therefore the geometry that Gauss and Bolyai discovered is actually hyperbolic geometry -- the non-Euclidean geometry that is neutral, yet a bit harder to visualize than the non-neutral spherical geometry.
In fact, I myself had heard of non-Euclidean geometry, but I never knew that spherical geometry is not neutral until I researched the website of Dr. Franklin Mason for this blog. On an old version of his website. Dr. M used no version of a Parallel Postulate to prove the theorem "Through a point on a line, there is at least one line parallel to the given line." His proof was therefore neutral -- thus demonstrating that parallel lines exist in neutral, but not spherical, geometry.
Kline moves on to discuss the discovery of spherical geometry by Bernhard Riemann, another very famous mathematician. Kline writes:
"Hence, he proposed to replace the infiniteness of the Euclidean straight line by the condition that it is merely unbounded [like a circle -- dw]."
So Riemann had to replace Euclid's Second Postulate in order to make Spherical Geometry work. If Spherical Geometry were neutral, we'd have to keep the Second Postulate (and all others except the Fifth), but again, that's why spherical geometry is not a neutral geometry.
Last summer, I devoted some posts to Adrien-Marie Legendre's Geometry, which includes some work on spherical geometry. Notice that Legendre is one of the mathematicians that Kline mentions at the start of today's chapter as part of the "old" generation. We found out last year that Legendre's treatment has some gaps in it -- first he attempts to "prove" the Parallel Postulate, then much later on he discusses the properties of spherical lines without considering it to be a separate geometry. It wasn't until Riemann -- who was just six years old when Legendre died -- who put spherical geometry on a completely rigorous foundation.
Then last fall, I changed the order of the U of Chicago text so that congruence was taught earlier in the course, well before parallel lines. This meant that I had to pay more attention to which theorems required a Parallel Postulate and which ones didn't (i.e., were neutral). But this neutral geometry didn't connect to the spherical geometry I wrote over the summer, since spherical geometry is not a neutral geometry.
By the way, this summer I plan on returning to spherical geometry on the blog. I am adding the label "Spherical Geometry" to this post as a reminder that I want to finish Legendre this summer, starting at where I left off from last year.
Actually, Kline writes a little about spherical lines in the previous Chapter 25:
"If the surface of the earth is treated as a perfect sphere, and this may be assumed for navigation of the oceans, then the geodesic between two points on the surface is the shorter arc of the great circle passing through these points."
That chapter was all about the calculus of variations. I once took such a course in college, but I never did figure out the integral I was supposed to calculate to prove the geodesy of the great circle. (I couldn't figure out what to do with this strange "arctanh" term!)
In the current chapter, Kline writes more about the better-known results -- that the sum of the angles of a spherical triangle exceeds 180 (for a hyperbolic triangle, it's less than 180) and that in both spherical and hyperbolic geometry, all similar triangles are congruent. (In Common Core parlance, all similarity transformations are isometries.) Kline then describes the experiment in which Gauss tried to calculate the sum of the angles of a large triangle on earth to determine whether geometry was spherical, hyperbolic, or Euclidean. The U of Chicago mentions this experiment in Lesson 5-7, when the students first learn the Triangle-Sum Theorem.
After that long discussion on non-Euclidean geometry, fortunately today's PARCC question is short:
26. Which geometric figures have a measurable quantity?
Select each correct answer.
A. line
B. angle
C. point
D. line segment
E. ray
The correct answers are obviously (B) and (D). We even have two postulates that describe how these are measured -- the Protractor Postulate and the Ruler Postulate. The former is called the Angle Measure Postulate, and the latter part of the Point-Line-Plane Postulate, in the U of Chicago text. The common student errors include mistaking "line" for "line segment" and, as usual, marking only one correct answer instead of both.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 26
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lessons 1-7, Postulates and 3-1, Angles and Their Measures
Key Postulates: Point Line-Plane Postulate
(d) Distance assumption: On a number line, there is a unique distance between two points.
Angle Measure Postulate
(a) Unique measure assumption: Each angle has a unique measure from 0 to 180 degrees.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: Since spherical geometry is on my mind today, let's try answering today's PARCC question in spherical geometry. Now a line is measurable since it has the same measure as a great circle. Some authors define a ray in spherical geometry to be half of a great circle, so it also has a measure. Only a point has zero measure in spherical geometry.
Tuesday, May 24, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 25 (Day 168)
Chapter 25 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is called "From Calculus to Cosmic Planning." In this chapter, Kline discusses the Calculus of Variations.
"The spectacle of the universe becomes so much the grander, so much the more beautiful, the worthier of its Author, when one knows that a small number of laws, most wisely established, suffice for all movements."
So we see that this chapter is all about minimizing things, including physical laws (which we've discussed in the previous chapter as well). Now Kline begins with a problem familiar to the readers of this blog:
"According to one of the legends of history, Dido, of the Phoenician city of Tyre, ran away from her family to settle on the Mediterranean coast of North Africa. There she bargained for some land and agreed to pay a fixed sum for as much land as could be encompassed by a bull's hide."
Ah yes, we are discussing the Isoperimetric Problem, Lesson 15-8 of the U of Chicago text. Actually, back when I was researching the Isoperimetric Problem for this blog, I saw references to the ancient Queen Dido, but I didn't mention her on the blog at all. Actually, what I knew then about the Dido problem was incomplete -- I didn't know about the following twist until I read it in Kline:
"Her second bright idea was to use this length to bound an area along the sea. Because no hide would be needed along the seashore she could thereby enclose more area."
We know that the solution to the Isometric Problem is the circle -- the curve that encloses the most area for its length. We've also seen questions in which we are to maximize area by building a fence along a river to enclose a rectangular area -- the answer is a rectangle whose width is exactly half of its length. Combining these two ideas, we can solve the Dido problem:
"According to the legend, Dido thought about the problem and discovered that the length of hide should form a semicircle."
So we see that without water, the largest area is a circle -- with water, it's a semicircle. If we restrict to rectangles, without water the largest area is a square -- with water, it's a semi-square (that is, half of a square, or a rectangle whose width is half of its length).
We found out earlier (Chapter 6 of Kline) that the reason for the semi-square involves reflections -- if we reflect the rectangle across the river, we have a larger rectangle whose area is maximized for the new fixed perimeter (double the original fence length). The solution to that problem is a square, so that of the original problem with the pre-image rectangle is a semi-square. Similarly, if we reflect Dido's land across the water, the figure should be a circle (the solution to the Isoperimetric Problem), so the pre-image is a semicircle.
Kline writes that the life of Dido -- perhaps the world's first female mathematician -- ended tragically:
"[Dido's new lover] Aeneas was a man on a mission, and he soon departed to found a new civilization in Rome. Dejected and distraught, Dido could do no more for Aeneas than to throw herself on a blazing pyre so as to help light his way to Italy...Rome made no contributions to mathematics whereas Dido might have."
Kline writes only three equations in this chapter -- all of them involving integrals. In this chapter, he proceeded to write an equation to describe an object falling on an arbitrary curve, which looks very ugly when we try to write the integral in ASCII:
T = 1/sqrt(2*32) int _0 ^x1 (sqrt((1 + y' ^2)/y) dx
This integral is used to solve the Brachistochrone Problem -- find the curve that minimizes the time it takes for an object to fall from P to Q not directly below P. Three Swiss mathematicians worked to solve this problem: the Bernoulli brothers (Johann and Jakob) and later on, a more famous name I've mentioned several times on the blog -- Leonhard Euler. Their work laid the foundation for a new branch of mathematics -- the Calculus of Variations.
Question 25 of the PARCC Practice Test is on constructions:
25. Using a compass and a straightedge, a student constructed a triangle in which XY is one of the sides.
The compass is opened to a set length and two intersecting arcs are drawn above XY using X and Y as the centers. The intersection of the two arcs is labeled as point Z.
Part A
What could be the set length of the compass so that triangle XYZ is isosceles but not equilateral?
Select all that apply.
A. less than 1/2 (XY)
B. equal to 1/2 (XY)
C. between 1/2 (XY) and (XY)
D. equal to (XY)
E. greater than (XY)
Part B
Select the correct phrase to complete the sentence.
If the opening of the compass is Choose... [from the same choices as A-E above -- dw], then triangle XYZ will be equilateral.
What's this? Here's yet another question that's on classical constructions,right after I spent an entire week in an Honors Integrated Math I class studying constructions!
Anyway, Part A of this question is similar to the earlier construction problem, Question 21. We recall how Jericho set his compass to be less than the length of the segment PQ. This prevented Choice (E), "an equilateral triangle," from being one of the correct answers. Since once again, we are asked not to construct an equilateral triangle, so it would appear that "less than XY" would be correct. There are three choices here that indicate less than XY -- (A), (B), and (C) -- and since this is a "select all that apply" question, all three could be correct.
At this point we should begin to wonder, what does 1/2 (XY) have to do with anything? Well, we can try an actual compass set to less than 1/2 (XY) and see what happens. The result is that the two arcs fail to intersect, and no triangle is formed. The problem here is the Triangle Inequality -- the longest side of the triangle can't be as long as or longer than the the sum of the other two sides. So if one side has length XY, the other two sides must be more than 1/2 (XY). Neither (A) nor (B) produce a triangle (in the latter case, the two arcs intersect right at the midpoint of XY).
Also, there's no reason that the compass setting can't be greater than XY (even though it's always less than the segment length in Question 21). This never violates the Triangle Inequality since the length of the long leg is always less than the sum of the other long leg and the base XY. Thus there are two correct answers to Part A, (C) and (E).
For Part B, we want the triangle to be equilateral. Of course we want all three sides to equal XY, so the fourth choice from the drop-down menu -- the same as choice (D) above -- is correct.
I suspect most student errors will occur in Part A. We begin with the usual problem with a multi-part answer, namely that students will only choose one answer even if two or more are correct. But even if the students realize that they must choose more than one answer, they might be influenced by Question 21 to choose answers like (A) or (B).
In fact, come to think of it, the earlier Question 21 is poorly worded. That question doesn't consider the possibility that the compass setting is less than half of PQ -- and if it were, none of the five choices from Question 21 would be constructed! And I admit that I probably would have ignored the less than half case -- except that just four questions later, we're forced to consider that case! Who knows -- perhaps we're supposed to know that the compass setting is more than half of PQ in Question 21 by looking at the diagram, which would be impossible otherwise. We're only given that the setting is less that PQ so that we know not to choose "an equilateral triangle" (or "a 60-degree angle") for that question.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 25
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 3-6, Constructing Perpendiculars
Key Theorem: Construct the perpendicular bisector of a given segment AB.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: Inspired by the story of Dido, I decided to add two construction questions to construct a region over which she could rule. I changed "bull hide" to "fence" in order to avoid distracting the students who might wonder what the hide is for.
Monday, May 23, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 24 (Day 167)
Chapter 24 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is called "Differential Equations -- the Heart of Analysis." Differential equations are the next step beyond Calculus.
"Nature is pleased with simplicity, and affects not the pomp of superfluous causes." -- Isaac Newton.
Kline begins:
"Man's expectation that he can understand the multifarious workings of nature has rested upon the belief that nature is designed not only rationally but simply."
And so physicists wanted to derive as many facts from as few principles as possible. But to do this, they needed to solve differential equations.
Kline's first example of a differential equation is:
d = 32t
But this is clearly not a differential equation. Kline calls this an equation about velocity, so he clearly means to write d-dot here. In ASCII, we use the prime symbol instead:
d' = 32t
A solution of this differential equation is easily found:
d = 16t^2
So notice that every time we calculate an integral, we're actually solving a differential equation. Kline gives a more complicated differential equation:
v' = -96,000/(r^2)
From the solution of this, Kline calculates the escape velocity of a spacecraft to reach the moon. The solution of this equation gives 6.87 miles per second, and he writes that it would take a spacecraft about four days, 21 hours to reach the moon. (Kline wrote this book before the moon landing, but notice that Apollo 11 really did take a little over four days to reach the moon.)
Question 24 of the PARCC Practice Exam is on the circumference of a circle:
24. A landscaper is designing a display of flowers for an area in a public park. The flower seeds will be planted at points that lie on a circle that has a diameter of 8 feet. The point where any seed is planted must be at least 2 feet away from the seeds on either side of it.
Part A
What is the maximum number of flower seeds that can be planted using the design?
Part B
After planting the flower seeds, the landscaper has 20 seeds left over. The landscaper wants to plant all of the remaining seeds in another circle so that the seeds are 2 feet apart. To the nearest tenth of a foot, what is the diameter of the smallest circle that the landscaper can use to plant all of the remaining seeds?
This question clearly asks students to use the circle circumference formula, C = pi d. So for Part A, the circumference of the circle of diameter 8 feet is 8pi feet. Since we must allow for 2' per seed, we conclude that there must be at most 4pi seeds. Now 4pi is about 12.6, but there isn't quite enough room for the 13th seed (13 seeds would require a diameter of 8.3'), so there are only 12 seeds.
For part B, we see that 20 seeds require 40', so the diameter is 40/pi feet. We calculate that 40/pi is about 12.73', which we round to the nearest tenth as 12.7'.
For the second time in the last three questions, students may have some problem with rounding. Now according to the key provided by PARCC, 12.6', 12.7', and 12.8' are all acceptable answers. But for the number of seeds, only 12 is the correct answer. We see that PARCC is especially picky with rounding when it comes to real countable objects such as seeds, as opposed to measurements. There isn't enough room for the thirteenth seed, so the answer is twelve seeds. On the other hand, six bags of candy wasn't enough to fill the spherical candy jar -- we needed seven bags.
In each case, students need to read the question to know which way to round. For today's question, each seed needs at least two feet of clearance -- we're allowed to give each seed extra clearance, but we can't shortchange the amount of clearance by having too many seeds. Last week, we were asked to fill the sphere -- we're allowed to overfill it, but we couldn't leave any extra space. On the other hand, last week's question could have asked, "What's the most number of bags that can fit in the sphere?" To that question, the answer would have been six bags, because the seventh bag can't fit.
I also wonder whether students might be confused as to what to do to solve the problem. Some students might try to find the area of the circle or something like that, or they might find the circumference, but the fail to divide it by two since each seed need 2' clearance. Notice that once we knew what we had to find, the calculation was trivial.
Some readers might notice that the pre-rounded answers to Part A and Part B are almost the same, each about 12.6. But observe that we're calculating different things in each case -- the exact answer for Part A is 4pi, and for Part B, it is 40/pi. These are nearly equal because pi is so close to sqrt(10) -- remember our discussion about how sqrt(10) Day would be just two days after Pi Day.
I decided that since we never actually completed any questions from Lesson 8-8 of the U of Chicago text, I included some on this worksheet. But now I realize that some of the "review" questions from this section may be too difficult for the students. One of the questions asks for the area of an equilateral triangle -- this is a "review" question from Lesson 8-8, but in reality students can't answer until they learn about 30-60-90 questions in Lesson 14-1! (Of course, we have finished Lesson 14-1, so we have no such handicap.)
Another question asks to compare the perimeters of two triangles. Even though students might be able to eyeball the answer, a rigorous proof is quite tricky. Students must notice that one pair of sides form opposite sides of a parallelogram, and they have a second pair in common. The third pair of sides can be compared using the SAS Inequality (Hinge Theorem).
PARCC Practice EOY Question 24
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 8-8. Arc Measure and Arc Length
Key Theorem: Circle Circumference Formula
If a circle has circumference C and diameter d, then C = pi d.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: Some questions from Lesson 8-8 are included.
Friday, May 20, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 23 (Day 166)
Today is a traditionalist-labeled post. I used last week's traditionalists posts to discuss the block schedule that my new school will use in the fall. Today's post will discuss the other aspect of my new school -- the fact that it is a charter school.
What exactly is a charter school? Well, why don't we ask the president? He has declared the first week of May each year as National Charter Schools week. This is what he said in this week's presidential proclamation about two weeks ago:
"During National Charter Schools Week, we celebrate the role of high-quality public charter schools in helping to ensure students are prepared and able to seize their piece of the American dream, and we honor the dedicated professionals across America who make this calling their life's work by serving in charter schools," Obama said in a presidential proclamation. "With the flexibility to develop new methods for educating our youth, and to develop remedies that could help underperforming schools, these innovative and autonomous public schools often offer lessons that can be applied in other institutions of learning across our country, including in traditional public schools."
Charter schools are not without controversy, though. Once again, I want to avoid biting the hand that feeds me, and so I don't discuss this controversy on the blog. Instead, let's go to see what the traditionalists have to say about charter schools.
Before I was hired to work at one, I've only mentioned charter schools thrice on the blog. The first example I gave was a middle school that starts in fifth grade, and the second example I gave was a Waldorf-inspired school. The third example I gave was BASIS -- a charter school which prides itself on accelerating students as much as possible. We know that the traditionalists especially like BASIS, since traditionalists also emphasize acceleration.
No, the school I'll be working at in the fall isn't any of those three schools. My middle school begins at the more common sixth grade, not fifth (though it is a K-8 campus), it isn't a Waldorf school, and it certainly isn't BASIS (as there are no BASIS charters in California) -- otherwise I'd be preparing to teach Saxon Math 87, Algebra I, and Algebra II to my middle school students! But this does show that there are many different types of charters.
Charters are associated with choice. A quick glance at some traditionalist websites tells me that some traditionalists favor charters because they give teachers choices such as pedagogy -- meaning, of course, that they like charters that choose the traditionalist pedagogy over the more dominant progressive pedagogy. (I wonder whether they'd be as enthusiastic about charters if the dominant pedagogy were traditionalism and the progressives were the ones who wanted an alternative choice!)
Oh, and by the way, I subbed in at another class on the block schedule due to SBAC testing. This is the same school that I was at last week, with a Hybrid Block Schedule -- but as I pointed out last week, the blocks are now two full hours since school can't be out a half hour early everyday. This time it's a health class, but once again, the students watch a video (on the danger of STD's) and then study for a test coming up on Monday. Again, I can see traditionalists like Jeff Lindsay who oppose the block schedule point out that teachers use blocks just to play videos -- but once again, a counterargument is that teachers use blocks to have the sub play videos. Because I'm a sub, I can't be sure what these teachers do on block days when there's no sub. (And notice that the math teacher last week didn't play any videos on block days.)
Chapter 23 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is called "The Integral Calculus." I covered derivatives yesterday, so now it's time for integrals.
"As God calculates, so the world is made." -- Leibniz
Kline begins:
"One of the fascinating facts about the development of mathematics is that an idea that is created to solve one type of problem often solves another which on superficial examination seems to be totally unrelated. This turn of events occurred in the history of the calculus."
Notice that Kline quotes our other co-inventor, Leibniz. And the connection that he and Newton discovered is that the derivative and the integral are related -- the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.
Kline's example to find the area of the curve y = x^2 between x = 3 and x = 5. We now think of this as the Riemann sum, but Newton and Leibniz originated the idea. Kline writes:
y_1 h + y_2 h + ... + y_n h
to approximate the area by n rectangles.
Actually, I won't write the rest of Kline's equations here, since the summation and integral signs look messy when converted into ASCII (and because I took up so much of this post with the discussion about traditionalists).
Question 23 of the PARCC Practice Exam is on translations on the coordinate plane:
23. Quadrilateral ABCD is shown graphed in the xy-coordinate plane.
Part A
Quadrilateral ABCD will be translated according to the rule (x, y) -> (x + 3, y - 4) to form A'B'C'D'.
Select the correct orientation of A'B'C'D' and place it correctly in the plane.
Part B
Quadrilateral ABCD maps onto A"B"C"D". It will undergo a different transformation that will map A(-6, 3) to A", B(-4, 5) to B", C(-1, 6) to C", and D(-3, 2) to D". The transformation will consist of a reflection over the y-axis followed by a translation. Point D" is shown plotted in the plane after the transformation.
Plot the point A" in the plane.
[The coordinates of D" are (6, 2) -- dw]
Part A is straightforward. The transformation is a translation, so we know that the image has the same orientation as the preimage. So we only need to translate a single point, say A(-6, 3) to A'(-3, -1), and place the quadrilateral so that A' is at the correct point.
Part B appears to be a glide reflection -- the composite of a reflection and a translation. Since we're given the image D", it's best just to reflect D first in the y-axis, to obtain (3, 2). The final point we need for D" is (6, 2), which is three units to the right of the mirror image. Thus the translation must be three units right. Transforming A in the same manner gives us (6, 3) as the mirror image and then (9, 3) as the final image.
Notice that for glide reflections, the translation is usually taken to be parallel to the mirror, but this time the translation is perpendicular to the mirror. We've discussed this in the past -- when the translation is perpendicular to the mirror, the composite turns out to be a simple reflection -- not a glide reflection at all! The mirror for this new reflection is found by taking the original mirror and sliding it half the distance of the translation. So we translate the y-axis 3/2 units to the right, giving us the line x = 3/2 as the new mirror. Reflecting A in this new mirror does indeed give us (9, 3), but it's actually easier to reflect in the y-axis and then translate.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 23
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 6-2, Translations
Key Theorem: Two Reflection Theorem for Translations
If m | | l, the translation r_m o r_l slides figures two times the distance between l and m, in the direction from l to m perpendicular to those lines.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: After not providing much of an activity last week, this week I decide to repeat an activity from last year that is all about compositions of transformations.
Thursday, May 19, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 22 (Day 165)
Chapter 22 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is "The Differential Calculus." We apparently can't avoid Calculus forever!
"It's enough if you understand the Propositions with some of the Demonstrations which are easier than the rest." -- Newton's advice to prospective readers of his Principia Mathematica
Kline begins,
"Through the study of the motion of projectiles, planets, pendulums, sound, and light the scientific world of the seventeenth century became conscious of the pervasiveness of change. It had also become aware of the usefulness of a function to represent relationships between variables and to deduce new scientific laws."
Kline's opening quote is from one of the co-inventors of Calculus, Isaac Newton. As we can see so far, Calculus deals with functions and change. Kline writes:
"Next to the creation of Euclidean geometry the calculus has proved to be the most original and the most fruitful concept in all of mathematics."
I said that Newton was one of the co-inventors of Calculus. The other was Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who created the subject independently from Newton. Here's a little of what Kline says about Leibniz:
"This man of universal gifts and interests, son and grandson of professors, was born in Leipzig [Germany] in 1646. At the age of fifteen he entered the University of Leipzig with the announced intention of studying law and the unannounced intention of studying everything. His brilliance so excited the jealousy and the envy of his teachers that they never granted him his doctor's degree. During the years in which he acquired his legal training Leibniz was also busily studying mathematics and physics."
Kline's first example of Calculus is to find the instantaneous velocity of a ball three seconds after it has been dropped. He writes the following calculation, starting with the formula Galileo had found for the distance traveled by an object in free fall:
d = 16t^2
d_3 = 144
d_3 + k = 16(3 + h)^2 (That is, in an additional h seconds the ball travels an extra k feet.)
d_3 + k = 16(9 + 6h + h^2)
d_3 + k = 144 + 96h + 16h^2
k = 96h + 16h^2 (Here Kline substitutes in the value of d_3 found earlier and subtracts.)
k/h = (96h + 16h^2)/h
k/h = 96 + 16h
Kline writes that to find the instantaneous velocity, we should plug in h = 0 into the penultimate equation in this list -- but this gives us 0/0. So we plug it in to the last equation instead, and we end up with k/h (distance divided by time, or velocity) equals 96 feet per second. According to Kline, the great insight by Newton and Leibniz is that this is justified using limits -- as h approaches 0, the value of 96 + 16h approaches 96, and so this is taken to be the instantaneous velocity.
The author goes on to demonstrate that at an arbitrary time t = x, we perform the same calculation to y = 16x^2 to obtain 32x as the instantaneous velocity. This is what we now know as the derivative of the expression 16x^2. Kline writes that Leibniz used the notation dy/dx to denote the derivative of y with respect to x, but he prefers Newton's notation, y-dot (that is, a dot above y). This is difficult for me to show in ASCII, so I'll use another commonly used symbol for derivative -- the apostrophe, often pronounced "prime" (just as we do with transformation images in Geometry). So we have:
y = 16x^2
y' = 32x
Kline also works out the velocity of a bob on a spring, which follows the formula y = sin x, at the initial time t = 0. He shows that this equals the limit of the expression (sin h)/h as h -> 0. He gives the following argument -- when h is a small central angle of a circle, we can let r be the radius of the circle, and then we draw a right triangle with hypotenuse r and opposite leg a (since sine equals opposite over hypotenuse, or a/r). Then s is the arc subtended by the central angle h, and so the measure of h in radians is the arclength s divided by the radius r, or s/r. Then (sin h)/h works out to be a/s, as the r's cancel. But as h approaches 0, a approaches the arclength s (which is why a regular polygon with many sides approaches a circle), so a/s is approaching 1. Nowadays we would write:
y = sin x
y' = cos x
y'_0 = cos 0
y'_0 = 1
but we must actually prove that the derivative of sine is cosine.
Here are a few more amusing examples. Kline begins with the area of a circle and differentiate it with respect to the radius:
A = pi r^2
A' = 2pi r
That's funny -- the derivative of the area is the circumference! Kline explains why:
"This result is intuitively clear, for as the radius increases, one might say that 'successive' circumferences are added to the area."
And of course, we do the same thing with the volume of a sphere:
V = (4/3) pi r^3
V' = 4pi r^2
which is the surface area of a sphere.
Actually, the volume of a sphere is a great place to segue into PARCC. Question 22 of the PARCC Practice Exam is on the volume of cylinders and -- you guessed it! -- spheres.
22. Hank is putting jelly candies into two containers. One container is a cylindrical jar with a height of 33.3 centimeters and a diameter of 8 centimeters. The other container is spherical. Hank determines that the candies are cylindrical in shape and that each candy has a height of 2 centimeters and a diameter of 1.5 centimeters. He also determines that air will take up 20% of the volume of the containers. The rest of the space will be taken up by the candies.
Part A
After Hank fills the cylindrical jar with candies, what will be the volume, in cubic centimeters, of the air in the cylindrical jar? Round your answer to the nearest cubic centimeter.
Part B
What is the maximum number of candies that will fit in the cylindrical jar?
Part C
The spherical container can hold a maximum of 260 candies. Approximate the length of the radius, in centimeters, of the spherical container. Round your answer to the nearest tenth.
Part D
Hank is filling the cylindrical candy container using bags of candy that have a volume of 150 cubic centimeters. Air takes up 10% of the volume of each bag, and the rest of the volume is taken up by candy. How many bags of candy are needed to fill the cylindrical container with 260 candies?
To answer this question, we obviously have to calculate volume. For Part A, we calculate the volume of the cylinder as pi(4)^2 (33.3) = 1673.8 cm^3. Only 20% of this is air, so this gives us an air volume of 334.8 cm^3, which rounds off to 335 cm^3.
For Part B, we see that 1339 cm^3 is left for the candy. Now the volume of a single candy is pi(0.75)^2 (2) = 3.53 cm^3, and so we divide the volumes to give a value of 378.88 candies. (This last value is exact -- the factors of pi cancel out to leave a rational number.) Notice that there isn't quite enough room for 379 candies -- so the answer is 378 candies.
For Part C, we begin by multiplying 3.53 cm^3 for each candy by 260 to obtain 918.92 cm^3. But notice that this doesn't include the air. The candy only takes us 80% of the space, so we must divide this volume by 0.8 to obtain the total volume of the sphere as 1148.64 cm^3. This is the volume of a sphere and we want to know the radius, so we use the sphere volume formula that we found in Kline:
(4/3) pi r^3 = 1148.64
r^3 = 274.21875 (exact rational value)
r = 6.497, which rounds to 6.5 cm
For Part D, first of all, I'm wondering, why does the question have Hank put 260 candies in the cylinder when we already know that exactly 260 candies fit in the sphere? Wouldn't it have been more logical to ask, "How many bags of candy are needed to fill the spherical container?" (Then there wouldn't have been any need to say "260 candies" again -- "fill the sphere" would've been sufficient.)
At this point, it's probably easier to notice that since air takes up only 10% of the 150 cm^3-bag, the remaining 135 cm^3 is candy. We already calculated the volume of 260 candies earlier (when trying to find the radius of the sphere) as 918.92 cm^3, so we only need to divide this by 135 to obtain an answer of 6.8 bags. Six bags aren't enough -- we need 7 bags.
This question has several places where student error can creep in. This includes how to handle the air factor in both cases. Students must know the formulas for both the cylinder and the sphere without mixing the two up, as well as plug in the radius (not the diameter) correctly and solve for it properly (for example, don't take the square root instead of the cube root of r^3).
As for rounding error, according to the PARCC answer key, both 334 and 335 are acceptable for Part A, and both 6.4 and 6.5 are acceptable for Part C. However, both Part B and Part D have only one acceptable answer, as there isn't enough room for the 379th candy, and six candy bags aren't enough to fill the sphere.
One problem with questions that include many values that need to be rounded off is that rounding error may accumulate throughout the problem. (I assume this is the reason that Parts A and C have two acceptable answers.) But notice that since both the cylinder and sphere have pi in their formulas, the irrational value of pi cancelled out. This means that for Parts A, B, and C, we could have simply ignored pi altogether (or used a crude value like 3.14) and obtained the correct answer. Only Part D requires a value for pi as it doesn't cancel out (since the volume of the bag is 150 cm^3, not anything in terms of pi). But even a crude value like 3.14 still produces seven bags as the correct answer. (In fact, the approximation pi = 3 gives an answer of exactly six and a half bags.)
With so many possibilities for error, I expect most students to get at least one part, if not several parts, of this question wrong.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 22
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lessons 10-5 and 10-8, Volumes of Cylinders and Spheres
Key Theorem: Volume Formulas
The volume V of any prism or cylinder is the product of its height h and the area B of its base.
V = Bh
The volume V of any sphere is (4/3)pi times the cube of its radius r.
V = (4/3)pi r^3
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: There are no problems just like this one in the U of Chicago text. Instead, I combine parts of two questions -- one from the SPUR section of Chapter 10 about the volume of a cylindrical cup, the other from Lesson 10-8 on the volume of a spherical tank -- and ask about how many cupfuls of water fit in the tank.
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 21 (Day 164)
Chapter 21 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is called "Mathematical Oscillations of the Ether." This is the chapter when electricity and magnetism join to be one force.
"For many parts of nature can neither be invented with sufficient subtlety, nor demonstrated with sufficient perspecuity, nor accommodated into use with sufficient dexterity without the aid and intervention of mathematics." -- Francis Bacon, 17th century English philosopher
Kline begins:
"The developments in electricity and magnetism that we have examined so far might be said to constitute the childhood of a new science."
Well, if the previous chapter was the childhood of electricity and magnetism, then the current chapter is their marriage. And the scientists who performed the marriage of electricity and magnetism were 19th century British physicists Michael Faraday and James Maxwell.
Maxwell's first equation is rather simple:
lambda f = c
where lambda is the wavelength, f is the frequency, and c is the wave velocity -- better known to us as the speed of light. (Kline doesn't point this out, but it's the speed of all electromagnetic waves, not just light). So wavelength and frequency are inversely proportional -- the longer the wavelength, the smaller the frequency.
The most interesting part of this chapter is when Kline explains how AM radio works. The letters AM stand for amplitude modulation -- that is the amplitude of the waves varies with time:
E = D(1 + .3 sin 2pi * 400t) sin 2pi * 1000000t.
So the wave has a frequency of one million cycles per second (or 1000 kilohertz), but the amplitude itself varies 400 cycles per second.
Now FM radio wasn't as common in Kline's day, but I know that the letters stand for frequency modulation -- so it's the frequency that must vary. Kline gives the formula for FM radio as:
E = D sin (2pi * 100000000t + a sin 2pi * 400t)
so that the factor that varies is placed with the frequency (which here is about 100 megahertz) rather than the amplitude. Notice that the radio station numbers refer to frequency -- 1000 AM means 1000 kilohertz, and 100.0 FM means 100 megahertz!
Afterward Kline moves on to light, and explains that different colors come from different frequencies, so that 4 * 10^14 hertz is red and 7 * 10^14 hertz is violet.
Question 21 of the PARCC Practice Test is on classical constructions:
21. Jericho is making several constructions based on the segment shown [PQ -- dw].
Part A
For his first construction, Jericho made the markings shown [two each with the tip at P and Q, one of which is above and the other is below PQ -- dw] with a compass open to a length less than the length of segment PQ. Jericho's markings are useful for the construction of which of the figures listed?
Select all that apply.
A. a 60-degree angle
B. a bisector of PQ
C. a line perpendicular to PQ
D. a rhombus with PQ as one diagonal
E. an equilateral triangle with side PQ
Part B
The first steps of Jericho's second construction are shown [with R not on PQ, S any point on PQ, and ray SR drawn in -- dw]. After drawing arcs from point S and point R, he adjusted the compass length using the intersection of the arc from point S with PQ and ray SR. Which figure is he constructing?
A. the bisector of PQ through point R
B. an angle congruent to angle RPQ with vertex R
C. a line through point R that is parallel to PQ
D. a circle containing points P, Q, and R
Of course, now we're wondering, why couldn't this question have shown up last week, back when I was covering that Honors Integrated Math I class? It would have been perfect to work with these constructions both on the PARCC and in the classroom at the same time!
I have a few things to say about this problem. First of all, I find it highly interesting that the name of the protagonist in this question is Jericho. You see, back on Sunday, after I watched my favorite TV show The Simpsons, an episode of Bob's Burgers aired. On that episode, the girl Tina Belcher has an imaginary horse named Jericho! And so, just three days after seeing the unusual name Jericho appear on TV, suddenly the same name appears on the PARCC as well.
Now in that Integrated Math I class, our constructions began with a circle and we were to inscribe an equilateral triangle or hexagon. On the PARCC, we are starting with just a segment, not a circle (even though the triangle and hexagon constructions appear in the Common Core Standards).
For Part A, it's clear that we're constructing the perpendicular bisector of PQ -- so we must choose choice (C) for "perpendicular" and choice (B) for "bisector." Less obvious is that we're also constructing a rhombus with diagonal PQ -- after all, a rhombus is just a quadrilateral with four congruent sides, and the four arcs drawn from P and Q all have the same radius, so the four sides are indeed congruent. So the correct answer is (B), (C), and (D). Common errors will include marking just one letter instead of all three, as will often occur with multiple-answer questions. Also, the rhombus will be easily missed by students. After all, we tell students to construct the perpendicular bisector of PQ, but we never ask them to construct a rhombus.
Notice that in this question, it is stated that to draw the four arcs, the compass setting is to be less than the length of PQ. In Lesson 3-6 of the U of Chicago text, students are told to set the compass to exactly the length of PQ. We see that by setting the compass to PQ, suddenly all five answer choices are correct. The four sides of the rhombus all have length PQ, and so PQ itself divides the rhombus into two equilateral triangles, each with side PQ. And of course each angle of these equilateral triangles must be 60 degrees.
For Part B, the correct answer is choice (C), the construction of parallel lines. I've discussed the construction of parallel lines several times on the blog -- a major weakness of the U of Chicago text is that this construction doesn't appear anywhere. I've written that it's possible to construct the parallel by constructing the perpendicular of PQ through R, labeling the intersection point S, and then constructing the perpendicular of RS through R. By the Two Perpendiculars Theorem, this last line must be parallel to PQ. But this isn't the construction that appears on the PARCC, which usually prefers the Corresponding Angles construction.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 21
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 3-6, Constructing Perpendiculars
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: Lesson 3-6 of the U of Chicago text describes how to construct a perpendicular bisector of a segment -- the U of Chicago method is used for my first exercise. For my second exercise, students must construct a circle through three points. This is taught in Lesson 4-5 of the U of Chicago text.
Tuesday, May 17, 2016
PARCC Practice Test Question 20 (Day 163)
Today I subbed in a middle school history class. Normally I don't announce non-math subbing assignments here on the blog, but this one is significant because:
-- It's the first time I subbed at a middle school since the announcement that I will be teaching at a middle school full-time next year.
-- As SBAC testing continues, the middle school is on a block schedule. Wednesdays are Common Planning days at the elementary and middle schools in our district, and so the blocks are set up with odd periods on Mondays and Thursdays and even periods on Tuesdays and Fridays -- just like the middle school I'll be at in the fall.
So this is another chance to look critically at the block schedule and see how teachers plan for block periods, even in subjects other than my own. In this class, the eighth graders have four tasks to complete during the 1:50 block:
-- Finish the movie Glory. California eighth graders study U.S. History up to around the Civil War.
-- Take a 10-minute break.
-- Listen to a lecture about the Battle of Vicksburg.
-- Work on the Civil War project that is due next week.
Traditionalists often complain about watching movies when they occur in lieu of a task with more academic rigor. It's hard to know whether the students would have watched the video had there not been block periods, since the Civil War is always taught at the end of the year, right around the time of the SBAC. (Even before the SBAC, eighth graders always must take the NCLB science tests, which here in California are given to fifth, eighth, and tenth graders.)
But it's that 10-minute break that will annoy traditionalists the most. The savings in passing time are offset by the need to give the students a break during the period. The class is now divided essentially into two 50-minute "periods."
The project mentioned above may sound perfect for a block lesson, except that it's one of those multimedia projects that is best completed using technology at home. So if the students have no research to do, then it ultimately turns into study hall. So again, we see that there are many parts of this block period for traditionalists to dislike. Of course, I point out that even though I want to see what block periods look like, these block periods are biased by the fact that these are lesson plans written for a sub. For example, the "study hall" could occur because the teacher can't think about how to fill 1:50 for a sub, not because the teacher always has study time every block period. The same is true about the video -- there might be no video today had the regular teacher been present.
Chapter 20 of Morris Kline's Mathematics and the Physical World is "Old Foes With New Faces." In this chapter, the "old foes" are electricity and magnetism.
"The magnet's name the observing Grecians drew/From the magnetic region where it grew." -- Lucretius
Kline begins:
"The world of nature is vaster than what the hand can touch, the eye see, or the ear hear. Beyond the senses lies a world that has been effectively explored only within the last hundred years or so."
It is the world of electricity and magnetism. Kline's quote from the poet Lucretius tells us the origin of the word magnet, and Kline repeats this origin story:
"For example, Thales knew that iron ores containing lodestone, such as those found near Magnesia in Asia Minor, attract iron. He is also supposed to have known that after amber is rubbed it attracts light particles of matter."
And indeed, the word electricity comes from the Greek word for amber, although Kline does not point this out.
Now the key formula for this chapter was discovered by the 18th century French physicist Augustin Coulomb, and it describes the electrical force between two charged particles:
F = k q_1 q_2 / (r^2)
Kline points out that this is very similar to the equation for the gravitational force. Kline proceeds by pointing out that electricity and magnetism are closely related --the electromagnetic force.
Question 20 of the PARCC Practice Test is on inscribed angles:
20. In circle O, points A, B, C, and D lie on the circle; arc AD is congruent to BC; and the measure of arc AB is twice the measure of arc BC.
[Moving clockwise, the points lie on the circle in the order D, A, B, C.]
Part A
The measure of angle ACD is Choose... (a third, half, equal to, twice, three times) the measure of angle ADC.
Part B
The measure of angle ADC is Choose... (a third, half, equal to, twice, three times) the measure of angle BCD.
This question clearly involves the Inscribed Angle Theorem of Lesson 15-3, since all of the angles mentioned are inscribed angles. Of course, it may be tricky to look at the diagram and determine which angles subtend which arcs. An easy way to tell is to note that the endpoints of the arc are the two points named in the inscribed angle other than the vertex. Since the inscribed angle is half the measure of the arc, we substitute into the original problem:
Part A
Half the measure of arc AD is Choose... (a third, half, equal to, twice, three times) half the measure of arc AC.
Part B
Half the measure of arc AC is Choose... (a third, half, equal to, twice, three times) half the measure of arc BD.
Of course, we can multiply everything by two to get rid of the "half":
Part A
The measure of arc AD is Choose... (a third, half, equal to, twice, three times) the measure of arc AC.
Part B
Both of these require us to calculate the measure of arc AC. We see that arc AC is the sum of arcs AB and BC, and the former is said to be twice the latter. Therefore AC has thrice the measure of BC, which in turn has the same measure as AD. So AD must have a third of the measure of AC -- that is, for Part A, the measure of angle ACD is a third of the measure of angle ADC.
For Part B, we see that arc BD is the sum of arcs AB and AD, and once again, the former is said to be twice the latter (as again, BC and AD have the same measure). So both AC and BD have thrice the measure of BC -- that is, AC and BD are congruent. Therefore the measure of angle ADC is equal to the measure of angle BCD.
Notice that we must be careful when just blindly substituting in the arc measures. If the angle is obtuse, then it must subtend a major arc, so we can't just substitute a minor arc measure (fortunately all the arcs needed for the problem are minor and all the angles are acute). Also, we can't generally ignore the factor of 1/2 -- here I did because all of the angles were inscribed. If we had a mix of inscribed and central angles then the factor of 1/2 becomes significant.
PARCC Practice EOY Question 20
U of Chicago Correspondence: Lesson 15-3, The Inscribed Angle Theorem
Key Theorem: Inscribed Angle Theorem
In a circle, the measure of an inscribed angle is one-half the measure of its intercepted arc.
Common Core Standard:
Commentary: This question may be slightly more abstract than a typical problem from the U of Chicago text. Question 9 from Lesson 15-3 and Question 33 from the SPUR Review for Chapter 15 are two questions where the arc lengths and angle measures are unknown.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
November 25th, 2008
Corpus Libris has jumped the pond! Thanks to Andre in Portugal for these great photos. And I dig your blog (although I can't read Portuguese)!
Monday, November 17, 2008
November 17th, 2008
I won't name names, but someone at Skylight said, "Okay, I'll be a part of your little project, just as long as no one has to see my face." For any of you who know our staff, I'll give you one guess... :) (I love you, CCH)
Friday, November 7, 2008
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The ContainerNode::parserRemoveChild function in WebKit/Source/core/dom/ContainerNode.cpp in Blink, as used in Google Chrome before 49.0.2623.75, mishandles widget updates, which makes it easier for remote attackers to bypass the Same Origin Policy via a crafted web site.
Assigning CNA
Date Entry Created
Phase (Legacy)
Assigned (20160112)
Votes (Legacy)
Comments (Legacy)
Proposed (Legacy)
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Thursday, September 28, 2017
Despite the crazy busy schedule (I miss my time to sit and write these blogs) and the inability to figure out how to squeeze 10 more hours into any given day, the team at work has decided to participate in HacktoberFest - just too cool to pass up! If you're not familiar with it yet, check it out and find a little time to give back to the open source community in a fun way.
I'll probably be focusing my efforts on the Yii front there, since it's a project that I use daily and am not sure how I lived without it before ... What are you passionate about and willing to sacrifice a little personal time to see thrive?
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Swivel Extension for Yii
In my last post, I mentioned that I was looking forward to making a Swivel extension for Yii. I'm excited to share that I've FINALLY found the time to do so.
It's a fairly straight forward extension, simply providing access from the application to a Swivel component which interacts with the core Swivel library, and which handles the general bucket assignment for users as swivel is accessed. I've also provided a class for integrating the existing Swivel logger over to the primary Yii Logger, and provided a data structure and model for storing the list of features for the application.
The extension is available on the Yii Framework Extensions list, from the GitHub repository or as a composer package.
It's really designed to be installed via composer:
composer require "dhluther/yii-swivel":"~1"
I've tried to keep it lean, but provide a good bit of information about how to implement it and how the Swivel features work on the Yii-Swivel Wiki on GitHub.
I will be creating a 2.0 version shortly as well.
Enjoy! I hope others find it as useful as I think I am going to, and huge props to the Zumba team that developed it and to Stephen Young and his presentation at SunshinePHP 2016!
Sunday, February 7, 2016
SunshinePHP 2016 Conference
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Testing in Yii 2.0 with Codeception - Fixture Data
I'll admit it -- I'm a phpunit addict. Switching to codeception has been a bit of a struggle for me, just because it feels like it should be intuitive, but it's different enough from what I'm used to that it's taken me a few days to really wrap my head around it. My biggest struggle? Trying to get fixture data to automatically load and unload when functional and acceptance tests are run. I finally dug through the yii2-app-advanced code and discovered the FixtureHelper!! The FixtureHelper is the missing link in getting your fixture data to automagically load and unload when the functional and acceptance tests are run.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Flash Messages and Redirects in Yii2
Using Flash messages in Yii 1.1.* is something that I have done for so long, and so commonly, that I take it completely for granted. Whenever a user performs some action and the processing generates some information I want to convey back, I plug that information into a success, warning, info or error flash message, pop in a redirect for that situation and VOILA! After my processes are finished, the flash message is displayed to the user.
For example, in Yii 1.1.*, I have a handy action that is called if a user needs to retrieve their password from the database. It was written well back, around 1.0.6-ish, but still gets the job done nicely. Look up the user by the posted email, if the user is found, send the user an email and set a success message, otherwise, set an error message. Once that's done, redirect the user to the previous page. Otherwise, notify them that there was an error and keep going on.
When I converted this particular action to Yii2 it kept losing my flash messages. If I took out the redirect after successfully processing and sending the email, it was fine -- but I need the redirect to prevent inadvertent multiple form submissions etc. What to do?!? After scouring the internet and Yii forums, and finding multiple instances of people complaining about it not working but no good solutions or notes other than 'working as intended', I finally - FINALLY - realized that it is the redirect method itself that is, while stopping any output to the screen, not actually stopping the currently processed action. If I was more observant, I would have noticed it in the example of a controller redirect here:
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Active Relations from Yii 1.1 to Yii 2.0
Saturday, April 19, 2014
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Monday, February 3, 2014
DOAN & CARSTAIRS WEEK - Day 1: Holocaust House (1940)
This is the tale that introduced our intrepid duo to the world. Doan is a detective for the Severn Agency. He's chubby, mild-mannered and innocent-looking, but deadly as hell. Carstairs, the Great Dane he won in a crap game, is a snob. He's particular about what he eats, where he goes and who he associates with, and - because he's the size of a small Shetland pony - he does pretty much what he wants.
Davis introduces them thusly:
Argosy published the story in two parts, in the issues for November 16 and 23, 1940. As you'll see below, the mag was going through one of its ugly cover phases, but the contents were still good, and the first issue includes a great story about John Quincy Adams by Theodore Roscoe (the Foreign Legion guy).
Doan and Carstairs are cockeyed characters in a cockeyed world, and Norbert Davis proved himself a master at mixing comedy and murder. It's no wonder this series has developed a cult following that continues to grow.
"Holocaust House" begins when Doan finds a mysterious cigarette case in his pocket. Some instinct warns him it's dangerous, and the instinct is right. He soon discovers the thing is packed with explosives, and the explosives were meant for him. Then his boss assigns him a case: He's to head for the mountain country around Desolation Lake, where a young woman is about to come into fifty million dollars and needs protection. Reluctantly, Doan goes, but is forced to leave Carstairs behind. Why? Because Carstairs disapproves of mountains.
The real reason, of course, is that Davis chose to leave Carstairs behind, and I see no good explanation for it. Having established such great chemistry between this pair, it's a shame he didn't involve the dog in the rest of the case. Still, it's a good story, and Doan is still a great character, and - with hindsight - we know Carstairs will be much better employed in the novels (and novelette) to come.
For some reason, this story, like the three novels, seems to have fallen into the public domain, and is available in several different electronic and print editions. Cheapskates like me can download the whole thing free on, right HERE.
Here's the rest of the lineup for DOAN & CARSTAIRS Week:
TUESDAY: The Mouse in the Mountain (1943)
WEDNESDAY: Sally's in the Alley (1943)
THURSDAY: Oh, Murderer Mine (1946)
FRIDAY: The lost (or at least forgotten) novelette "Cry Murder!," presented in its entirety for the first time since 1944.
I posted "Never Say Die," a Norbert Davis story from Detective Fiction Weekly, HERE.
Rittster said...
Looking forward to your comments on "the boys" (man and dog) this week!
tularosa said...
Norbert Davis is in my handful of all-time hardboiled greats, who is unfortunately a much neglected writer today. Thanks so much for shining your spotlight on him this week!
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This stuff is liquid gold for pit bikes and comes 100% recommended from the KÜRZ race team both for tarmac and off-road.
This is a semi synthetic oil and therefore will not make your clutch slip like some fully synthetic oils will.
Proven over and over again though hundreds of hours in race conditions to protect your engine and gearbox.
This is the only oil we recommend for your pit bike engine.
Putoline DX4 Semi Synthetic Oil 1l
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6771
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Sunday, December 11, 2016
You're Getting VR Wrong (And Not The Way You Think You Are)
Sunday, December 11, 2016
The central imagery for VR is people wearing the headset. They're In There, they're experiencing new worlds, you the viewer are left pining for whatever special experience they're having, or trying to interpolate the experience of what is clumsily superimposed behind them on a green screen.
"Presence," as we're calling it, after having already used up "immersion," is absolutely real, and is foremost to the appeal of VR, but it is not ultimately what VR is best at. Stay with me for a minute here.
The trouble people have had with VR is that they're being delivered two extraordinary pieces of tech together as a suite. The first and seemingly most important is the head mounted display (HMD), which hijacks enough sensory apparatus to fool our brains into thinking, at least on some level, We Are There, This Is Real (albeit ghostly and insubstantial).
This is what almost all introductory VR experiences focus on, and almost all VR experiences are introductory at the moment.
And like most launch window software, they've got it wrong.
Being In There is great, but with enough exposure a human will acclimate to anything extraordinary. Think of the men having lunch on a girder of a skyscraper in progress high above New York and so on. I believe that's a big part of why VR is stalling out in terms of install base at the moment. Mere spectacle isn't good enough, it will never be enough.
If spectacle plus some headaches and discomfort were enough, we'd all be watching terrible movies on our 3D televisions and loving it. But we're not, terrible movies on flat screens are just fine, thank you.
No, the second and more important part of the revolutionary tech suite bundled together as "VR" is motion control. Real motion control.
Though I'm sure it was a necessary stepping stone, as an industry we cried revolutionary product wolf with motion controls with the Wii and Kinect despite not having it at all.
The Wiimote was never going to cut it because the precision was not there, barely enough for a crude parody of known sports. But it gave us a glimpse of the ubiquitous ease of entry that would come later.
The Kinect was never going to cut it because other than the input lag, you know you look like an idiot waving around in your living room, rather than slouched with a controller looking catatonic as usual. That, at least, your family is used to seeing.
The key point is that in VR you are still going to look like an idiot waving around but you're not going to care, because now you're In There, you can't see the fallen world you inhabit the rest of your waking hours. We've finally got enough accuracy and speed to put your hands in the game, for real, and the results are incredible.
I put my septuagenarian father into the Vive to shoot basketballs like he's done all his life in Nvidia's VR Funhouse and he didn't even blink, he just tried to shoot basketballs. Think of that compared to any experience of handing a non-player a controller, much less strapping something to their head.
That's the trick. We think we are going to have something amazing that is just going to explode the brains of the non-believers and plebians, but that isn't what will get them, or get you for that matter. It's finally being able to use this miraculous head and hands as direct input.
The fact that the environment tracks with our head and we can see it and we feel more or less immersed is important, but secondary to being able to act in that world like we expect to, and on that score the Vive was correct to go completely all-in on roomscale experiences, despite how opulent it seems to some at this point.
So far I sound like most other VR evangelists but I want to point out now that there is no possible near future, no matter who is president, that is going to make my father run and spend the thousands of dollars to get a Vive and the computer to run it.
Your parents, and most of your siblings, and most of your friends aren't going to either. They're going to be amazed by the demo you give them, and probably talk about it a lot, maybe even tell all their peers about it, but they're not going to be the least bit interested in getting back in there themselves. That was a unique one-off. A trip to the amusement park. A thing to talk about on social media. Not a decision point, or whatever the marketing people call it.
We can talk all we want about how this shouldn't be, and ways to fight it, and constantly swallow the lump in our throats about a clear inferiority complex that continues to plague game players and developers, but that's a lot to get into today. It's Sunday, take it easy.
What I want to get out there is VR is absolutely real, and incredible, but it's being wasted right now. We're showing Mom a tiny moon in Tilt Brush that seems to be floating in the room with her. She reacts predictably while we film it on our phones. I've done it too. Filming first timers in VR is as much fun as it is useless in selling more VR sets.
Strain to remember all those forgettable launch titles for every new console generation. A worse version of that is all that is available to play for VR right now. Maybe not quite that dire--for PSVR and soon PC, there's Thumper; for Vive there's Onward. But that's about it.
We need games. Real games that are fun to play once the novelty of VR has long worn off. Games that can't be played with prior control schemes.
The people that are going to pay thousands of dollars for VR right now are the ones that want to crawl inside their videogames, not everyone else who has a vague contempt and suspicion for what we play. They can come too if they like, but I don't think they're going to pony up any cash any time soon beyond the mobile VR market. Which is not going to lead to much beyond an incredible amount of VR pornography. Chiefly because mobile VR currently has no facility for precise motion control, the real star of VR.
Videogames, beyond some hotseat multiplayer and the like, has tended to be a one-slackened-face-to-one-screen solitary affair. Why are we bending over backwards to sell VR as something even more social than regular games? Because we want to prove all of our favorite cyberpunk media wrong? I don't buy it. Strapping something over your eyes is necessarily going to be isolating, but not that much more so than gaming has ever been.
I've got another hundred pages I want to write about how the big companies have been peddling a fundamentally wrongly targeted campaign for VR and have been paying the price for it, or how teleport locomotion was never the right call, but I don't want to bore you, I want to get back to working on a game for VR that couldn't be played in anything but VR.
See you In There.
Johnnyburn said...
Pullquote: "you are still going to look like an idiot waving around but you're not going to care"
Eyesimple said...
VR is getting more popular
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gausswerks: design reboot. Design by Pocket
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The POPL Gatekeeper
6 October 2016
There is an obvious distinction to be made between computers (which include laptops and iPads) on the one hand and mathematical models on the other hand. Strictly speaking, it is wrong to say that “a computer is a finite state machine.” That's like speaking about a mathematical model as if it coincides with reality. Unfortunately, it is unusual to make these kinds of observations explicit in computer science, as I am doing now and as I have done in my paper entitled `Category Mistakes in Computer Science at Large.'
My paper on Category Mistakes was rejected by POPL referees for some very good reasons (albeit non-technical ones). I've introduced the POPL Gatekeeper in my previous post and the objective here is to discuss the following remark made by the Gatekeeper:
I'm not sure why CACM reviewers would ignore the difference between real-world systems and their mathematical models. I don't actually see that mistake in the quoted reviews.
I received this genuine comment on October 3rd, 2016. In my rejected POPL paper, I present quoted reviews from anonymous referees of the Communications of the ACM (CACM) — reviews that I received on January 24th, 2016, after having submitted a prior version of my rejected POPL paper to the CACM in the fall of 2015. (For the sociological record: the reviews received from the CACM are much more elaborate, they convey more how each reviewer thinks. The CACM referees have provided pages of feedback. In retrospect, this is perhaps to be expected. The CACM is after all a journal while “POPL” refers to an annual conference which has a well-defined scope of research.)
As I've mentioned in my previous blog post, I don't agree with the Gatekeeper's assessment. In my words:
I'm afraid reviewers of the CACM have applied faulty reasoning and I also believe I have illustrated precisely that in my POPL paper (but that's a topic I will address another day).
I will address that topic now. I will, however, only discuss a strict subset of all the CACM reviews that I cover in my rejected POPL paper. I will thus only present the basics here and leave the really interesting stuff for later.
Computers vs. Mathematical Models
The categorical distinction between computers and mathematical models often goes unnoticed. A computer is not a finite state machine. The former is a concrete physical object and it can be mathematically modeled by the latter, which is an abstract object. Well, here then is the first comment that I have received from a referee of the CACM:
My laptop is a universal Turing machine, but its tape size is of course limited by the finiteness of human resources.
If you limit the tape size of a universal Turing machine, you may end up with, say, a linear bounded automaton or even a machine that is computationally equivalent to a finite state machine. You thus end up with another mathematical model of computation but not with a laptop (i.e., a concrete physical object). To be more precise:
You can't use human resources to limit the size of a mathematical object, i.e., the tape. Note that the “tape” indeed denotes a mathematical object and not a physical object, contrary to what the word “tape” seems to suggest.
You can introduce mathematical restrictions to limit the size of a mathematical object. Likewise, you can use human resources to limit the size of a concrete physical object (such as a laptop). But, once again:
A Turing machine is a mathematical object, it is not a computer. This is contrary to what the word “machine” seems to suggest.
I know where the CACM reviewer is coming from. I, too, have been educated as a computer scientist and also used to speak about my mathematical model as if it coincides with reality. The right way to put it, once again, is as follows:
Placing finite bounds on an abstract object (Turing machine) does not make it a concrete physical object (laptop). Instead, it results in another abstract object (e.g., a linear bounded automaton or a finite state machine) that can potentially serve as another mathematical model for the physical object at hand.
I agree that these words convey a very trivial distinction. But missing the distinction can easily lead to faulty reasoning. For example, it makes no sense to say that a laptop is Turing complete. Only a mathematical model of computation can be Turing complete. Likewise, it makes no sense to question whether your iPhone is Turing complete or not. Unfortunately, these statements can be found all over the place, not only in peer reviews but also in articles and in books, published by reputable publishers. (I discuss several peer reviewed articles in my rejected POPL paper.) I've even had discussions with colleagues who start proving on the blackboard that my laptop is Turing complete. They really think they are giving a mathematical proof. As I emphasize in my (often rejected) writings:
It is the mathematical model of a laptop that may or may not be Turing complete, not the laptop itself. Yet, many computer scientists disagree with this statement and erroneously place both objects in the same category. This is where a category mistake occurs.
Comparing a laptop with a Turing machine is only warranted with the proviso that we all agree we are reasoning across separate categories.
Likewise, and as I have already illustrated to some extent in my previous blog posts, it makes no sense to claim, nor to attempt to mathematically prove, any of the following:
1. The computer programming language C is Turing complete.
2. The Halting Problem of computer programs residing in my laptop (or any laptop for that matter) is unsolvable.
I understand that many programming language experts view a “programming language” as a mathematical object. That's why I want to explicitly distinguish between a “computer programming language” and a “mathematical programming language.” I take C to be a computer programming language and I know that many computer scientists (= typically non programming language experts) who defend claim 1. do so too and, therefore, make a category mistake. In fact, they often simply do not distinguish between the computer programming language and their mathematical model. That is the main point I am repeatedly trying to make.
Abusing the Halting Problem
Grasping the significance of the observations made so far is not easy for here is yet another response that I have received from a referee of the CACM and which I have also reported in my rejected POPL paper:
What does the undecidability proof of the halting problem for computer programs actually tell us. Like diagonalization proofs in general it may be viewed finitely as saying that, if there is a bound M on the size of accessible computer memory, or on the size of computer programs, or any other resource, then no computer program subject to the same resource bounds can solve the problem for all such computer programs.
The previous remark and the follow-up remark, presented below, are only correct if we accept the following two assumptions (each of which is wrong):
The reason why the second assumption has to hold is merely because the referee is referring to the halting problem of Turing machines. Continuing:
If computer program A solves correctly all halting problems for computer programs respecting bound M, then the counterexample computer program T must exceed that bound, which is why A fails for T. To solve problems of computer programs, one needs an ideal program.
The quote hints at a distinction that has to be made between finite and infinite objects (with the latter being labeled “ideal”) but the categorical distinction between computer programs and mathematical programs goes unnoticed. Again, this is where a category mistake occurs. The undecidability proof of the halting problem is about mathematical programs only, and not about computer programs. The diagonal argument can only be applied to mathematical objects. So, to be frank, the referee thinks s/he is giving a mathematical argument but, in fact, s/he is demonstrating faulty reasoning. S/he is not proving something about computer programs but about a *particular* mathematical model of a computer program! So much for mathematical rigor.
what do you think I'm going to say? :-)
"The computer programming language C is Turing complete."
There is a distinction to be made between the C abstract machine as specified by the C standard and the myriad of particular implementations of C. When someone says "C is Turing complete (or not)", you should give them charitable reading and assume they're talking about the abstract machine. At least that's what *I* did (albeit to conclude that it's not Turing complete).
Good point
When analyzing the writings of different actors from a historical angle I try to understand how each actor uses, say, the term "programming language" without judgment. (My typical example pertains to four different views on programming: Dijkstra, Strachey, Parnas, and Naur.) So when somebody says "C is Turing complete" and doesn't start "proving" things about electronic technology in a particular way, then I don't see any problem with that statement.
There is a distinction to be made between the C computer programming language and several mathematical models of that technical artefact. Since in my philosophical analysis I try to follow Raymond Turner's terminology (which you can agree or disagree with) I, as an actor myself, do *not* consider the C programming language to refer to a mathematical machine. The C programming language is a technical artefact and not a mathematical object. Therefore it can be neither Turing complete nor incomplete.
From Turner's perspective, neither a laptop nor a computer programming language can be Turing complete (or incomplete).
Moreover, the fact that you (along with other like-minded researchers) prefer a Turing incomplete mathematical model for the C computer programming language and others prefer a Turing complete mathematical model, shows that a distinction is in order between the technical artefact under scrutiny and its mathematical models.
Whether the inventors of C were going for a Turing complete or incomplete model is an interesting historical question. My educated guess is that historical research will reveal that programming language designers "back then" were not at all concerned about Turing completeness to begin with. So the historical question is probably anachronistic.
There is also a distinction to be made between the C standard of the C computer programming language and the various implementations of the C standard. Both the C standard (e.g., written on paper) and each implementation (e.g., represented electronically) are technical artefacts, albeit of a very different kind.
R. Turner. Programming languages as technical artefacts. Philosophy and Technology, 27(3):377–397, 2014. First online: 13 February 2013. (See also the references in this paper.)
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St. Michael’s Cave
St Michael’s Cave is a karst cave dug into the limestone by the erosion of water, which still has concretions in development. You can get to the terrace in front of the cave via a steep staircase
carved into the mountainside near the ancient houses of the monks of the hermitage of San Michele. The history of the cave and the cult of St. Michael are intertwined.
Over thousands of years the water has shaped various secondary arms of the main cavity, creating concretions of various types and columnar formations of stalactites and stalagmites now united.
The cave is inhabited by bats hanging from the ceiling.
Guide of Monte San Giovanni in Sabina
Guide of Monte San Giovanni in Sabina
Monte San Giovanni is located in the mountains separating the plain of Rieti from the middle Tiber valley. There is […]
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The Design of Software (CLOSED)
The archives will remain online indefinitely.
Source control -check-in practice
How do you handle such scenario(source control is subversion,one visual studio solution has 10 projects,and continuous integration server is setup) -Say,you have worked on 3 files,but they are in different projects.One developer in our team,checks in each file one at a time.The problem-CI builds fail(if other 2 files are required).I feel,one should check-in everything in one go.What is the best practice?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
One suggestion:
Have some kind of delay in the check-in builds, say it's 30 minutes.
Then the developer has 30 minutes to check in all the files, as in
10:31 check in proj001/a/b/mnop.c
10:34 check in proj002/d/e/ghi.c
10:39 check in proj003/x/y/qrs.java
11:09 - thirty minutes has expired, build finally starts
That's better than launching multiple builds, as well.
This is also important when there are multiple developers.
The dark side of this is that the build can be indefinitely postponed if many people are checking in, so there is room for tweaking the parameters.
dot for this one
Sunday, January 27, 2008
I'd say that checkins should not break the build, but am having a hard time getting a clear picture of what is happening here.
How are these different projects if they have some interaction?
Why does checking in one file cause a build to fail? Are the changes changing the API?
Sunday, January 27, 2008
If you can't check into the trunk without breaking the build, then create a branch to check in to, and then merge back into the trunk later.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
What's the problem with checking in all files at the same time.
Regardless if they belong to different "projects" as in MS Visual Studio Project or your IDE project, they all belong to THE project - as in business project, and they are all required to compile; IDE project files are just a way of organizing your source files.
At the end of the day, a broken CC means THE project is non-functional and you still have to check-in all files - either in one-go or multiple times.
PS. I fail to see who would insist multi-check-ins if you need all to compile.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Your developer needs to get a better understanding of what kinds of changes break the build and what kinds don't. This usually isn't that difficult, but it does take a bit of thinking about instead of reflexively checking files in.
You might also look at instructing your team about how to mark old interfaces with Obsolete, which can also help prevent intermediate broken builds.
Even where people are careful about it, everybody breaks the build once in a while. But if it's happening all the time, then it sounds like your developers just haven't thought much about how the ACID properties of a database apply to source control.
Kyralessa Send private email
Sunday, January 27, 2008
> What's the problem with checking in all files at the same time.
Yes. Subversion has atomic commits, and that's how it has to be used in this kind of case.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Check ins should be atomic.
If you changed 3 files as part of the same piece of work, then they should be checked in together.
If the 3 files were part of 3 different tasks, why not check each of them in as soon as the task is completed and tested?
Monday, January 28, 2008
A bit off topic, but here it goes: how small should changes be and how often should they be checked in? I believe that the changes should be as small as possible and as someone pointed they should be complete (the project must remain consistent).
Also, do you think that this shouldn't apply for projects that have just started? I've heard someone saying that there's no point in using many small changes since the project is not finished at all (it's not even at alpha version) and because the other developers will be bugged too often (email alerts) about non-important changes, e.g. fixed typos, extracted method M.
Cristian Ciupitu Send private email
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
+1 on atomic checkins. They're a single unit, even if the actual changes are spread out over multiple files.
Chris Tavares Send private email
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
> What is the best practice?
You should have a build machine that does nothing but run a script ever half an hour, which gets all the latest code from source control and does a full build.
If the build fails it should turn the screen red for everyone to see and the person responsible for breaking the build is then responsible for fixing the build ASAP.
Jussi Jumppanen
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
FWIW...our CI server only kicks in if the Subversion repository has been untouched for 3 minutes. Otherwise it backs off and tries again later. Then it performs its checkout and starts its CI run.
If you couple this approach with atomic commits then only genuine screw-ups break the build.
MonkeySpank Send private email
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Some automated build servers are so smart that this problem goes away.
For example, TeamCity from Jetbrains (find it with Google, I've got nothing to do with the company except that I am a satisfied customer).
It can be configured so that it tests your changes with Subversion in a pre-commit stage, and the changes are only committed if it doesn't break the build. Pretty amazing stuff.
It's free too for small teams.
Steve McLeod Send private email
Thursday, February 21, 2008
This topic is archived. No further replies will be accepted.
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Re: Why did small dinos become extinct?
We now know of burrowing dinos (Oryctodromeus and possibly Orodromeus). Admittedly Oryctodromeus was vegetarian and Orodromeus was a close relative, so both were doomed under the standard explanation. But why were there no burrowing small predatory dinos in the latest Cretaceous or, if there were, why did they perish?
As far as we currently know, there were no burrowing predatory dinosaurs ever.
While I obviously can't exclude future surprises of the sort that *Drinker* and *Oryctodromeus* have been, using the forelimbs to dig must be difficult when the forearms cannot be rotated -- the palms constantly faced each other, unless the arms were spread very wide. That only leaves the feet and the mouth, and the latter is not recommended in the absence of gnawing teeth or a beak.
Still, there are birds that nest in self-dug burrows...
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Title: Massimilla Doni
Author: Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850
Language: English
*** Start of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "Massimilla Doni" ***
MASSIMILLA DONI
HONORE DE BALZAC
Translated by
Clara Bell and James Waring
To Jacques Strunz.
MY DEAR STRUNZ:--I should be ungrateful if I did not set your name
for your patient kindness and care. Accept this as my grateful
acknowledgment of the readiness with which you tried--perhaps not
very successfully--to initiate me into the mysteries of musical
knowledge. You have at least taught me what difficulties and what
labor genius must bury in those poems which procure us
transcendental pleasures. You have also afforded me the
satisfaction of laughing more than once at the expense of a
self-styled connoisseur.
your conscientious help. I have, perhaps, been an inaccurate
translator without knowing it, and I yet hope to sign myself
always one of your friends.
DE BALZAC.
MASSIMILLA DONI
is the first in Europe. Its _Libro d'Oro_ dates from before the
Christian Rome which had flung itself into the waters to escape the
political and commercial world.
With a few rare exceptions this brilliant nobility has fallen into
utter ruin. Among the gondoliers who serve the English--to whom
history here reads the lesson of their future fate--there are
descendants of long dead Doges whose names are older than those of
among the ashes.
These reflections, intended to justify the singularity of the persons
there is nothing more intolerable than the stale reminiscences of
most of the houses.
day some of these families have titles.
assumed sovereignty, did not take possession of Monaco till much
The last Cane of the elder branch vanished from Venice thirty years
less criminal. The branch on whom this nominal principality then
formerly owned on _terra firma_, and sold to the Austrian government.
This little income spared our handsome Emilio the ignominy of
every impoverished patrician under the stipulations of the cession to
At the beginning of winter, this young gentleman was still lingering
and made light by sky-blue ceilings across which graceful figures
the _Procuratie_ in the piazetta at Venice. Stone walls, admirably
decorated, keep the rooms at a pleasantly cool temperature. Verandas
throughout is the old Venetian inlay of marbles, cut into unfading
handsome silks, judiciously employed, and valuable pictures favorably
hung; some by the Genoese priest, known as _il Capucino_, several by
Leonardo da Vinci, Carlo Dolci, Tintoretto, and Titian.
The shelving gardens were full of the marvels where money has been
turned into rocky grottoes and patterns of shells,--the very madness
of craftsmanship,--terraces laid out by the fairies, arbors of sterner
the melancholy olive mingled pleasingly with orange trees, bays, and
pruned into parasols, and yews fantastically clipped; this luxury of
scarf swept aside by the wind and immediately renewed; those bronzed
metal figures speechlessly inhabiting the silent grove; that lordly
outline at the foot of the Alps,--all the living thoughts which
garden plots,--this lavish prodigality was in perfect keeping with the
removed from the coarse ends of brutal nature.
the Senators wore whom Titian painted.
Genoa, the Duchess Cataneo obeyed the edicts of Victorine and the
the perfect freedom with which this lovely daughter of Tuscany wore
and serious in her eyes as in those of others.
those glistening gray irises streaked with threads of gold that
constantly studied, seem supreme and imposing, perhaps one so
magnificently handsome as the Duchess could fascinate to stupidity a
absorbed his young soul.
she was Christianly content to be his wife.
a _cavaliere servente_, even offering his services to introduce to her
the Cascine--wherever handsome young men of fashion were to be met;
exchanged with her a flash of inquiry.
Duchess' ear called out: "This is he!"
Anywhere else two persons more prudent and less guileless would have
studied and examined each other; but these two ignorances mingled like
Massimilla was at once and thenceforth Venetian. She bought the
she was now staying.
The two children were afraid of each other. Massimilla was no
coquette. She had no second string to her bow, no _secondo_, no
_terzo_, no _patito_. Satisfied with a smile and a word, she admired
months in getting used to each other.
now this pretty pair had been there for six months.
Massimilla, now twenty, had not sacrificed her religious principles to
her passion without a struggle. Still they had yielded, though
there holding her beautiful, aristocratic hand,--long, white, and
she was, had the majestic bearing which mythological tradition
happiness, would sometimes obtain from his beloved a promise that led
his torture in his heart.
whose situation can only be described by comparing him to the cherubs
you need?"
kissed the beautiful and guileless hand. Then he suddenly started up
deliver a letter brought by express messenger.
Marco Vendramini,--a name also pronounced Vendramin, in the Venetian
dialect, which drops many final letters,--his only friend, wrote to
important fact, of the engagement at the _Fenice_ of the famous tenor
Genovese, and the no less famous Signora Tinti.
forgetting his heraldic honors.
object of curiosity in Italy, and Emilio briefly repeated it.
voice had captivated a great Sicilian nobleman on his travels. The
girl's beauty--she was then twelve years old--being worthy of her
three most fastidious capitals of Italy.
said the Duchess.
to be present at the opening of the winter season.
with Austrian colors, which mark out the channel for gondolas as
could not repress the bitter reflections suggested to him by the
assumption of his title.
"What a mockery of fortune! A prince--with fifteen hundred francs a
campeachy wood worth nearly a million of francs, and have no
topmost arabesque cornice constructed of marble brought from the Morea
--the land which a Memmius had marched over as conqueror in the time
Bellini, Paul Veronese--and to be prohibited from selling a marble
capital of an income on which this son of the Memmi could live--this
descendant of Roman senators as venerable as Caesar and Sylla.
even have enough cigars!"
and was happy to gratify them. He made his only meal at her house--his
_Fenice_. He had also to pay a hundred francs a year as wages to his
"And I am a prince!"
As he spoke the words, Emilio Memmi tossed Marco Vendramin's letter
away like a paper boat launched by a child.
better man than Lord Wellington with the gout, than the paralyzed
push back his thick brown hair, and gazed again at Massimilla's
without being hanged."
echo of this last thought.
In the distance he could now perceive the mauresque pinnacles that
had vanished in the Canareggio.
These fantastic pictures of a romantic and perilous existence, as the
principality without money, an empty body and a full heart--a thousand
heartbreaking contradictions. The hapless youth mourned for Venice as
she had been,--as did Vendramini, even more bitterly, for it was a
warm friendship between these two young men, the wreckage of two
illustrious families.
balconies furnished with musicians, seemed to harbor all Venice coming
and going on the great staircase that rang with laughter.
The chisels of the greatest artists of many centuries had sculptured
the bronze brackets supporting long-necked or pot-bellied Chinese
furnished some contribution to the splendor that decked the walls and
money--the great means to enjoyment! Venice, the London of the Middle
raven on a corpse, to croak out in lyric poetry--the first and last
utterance of social man--the burden of a _de profundis_. English
poetry! Poor Venice!
meditations by Carmagnola's cry:
of this strange bustle.
A whole tribe of workmen were hurriedly completing the furnishing and
glories of Venice, displayed to Emilio's waking eyes the magnificence
even in the smallest details. Emilio wandered about without remark
from anybody, and surprise followed on surprise.
went up, and found everything finished. The unknown laborers,
commissioned by a wizard to revive the marvels of the Arabian nights
in behalf of an impoverished Italian prince, were exchanging some
inferior articles of furniture brought in for the nonce. Prince Emilio
smart, so full of elegant contrivance, that he straightway seated
to eat.
she is twice as rich as she was; she will marry me----"
port wine.
irresistible longing for bed. Perhaps he was suffering from a double
provided for him."
the _Barbiere_. She tossed a woman's dress on a chair, a whole outfit
for the night, and said as she did so:
"Here they come!"
latest French style, who might have sat for some English fancy
portrait engraved for a _Forget-me-not_, a _Belle Assemblee_, or a
_Book of Beauty_.
which gave Italy her Madonnas, created Michael Angelo's statues and
Ghilberti's doors of the Baptistery,--desire had him in its toils, and
agitated him without infusing into his heart that warm, ethereal glow
of an infidelity; and yet that brutal, unreasoning infidelity
domineered over his spirit. But the woman was not alone.
imaginary existence of a more or less literary description. The dress
seemed to have made it his business to verify the Neapolitan as
he did not lack a certain cyclopean dignity; he had aristocratic
manners and the confident demeanor of a rich man.
seen his history written by base passions on this noble clay degraded
enjoyment. And debauchery had destroyed the human being and made
another after its own image. Thousands of bottles of wine had
disappeared under the purple archway of that preposterous nose, and
The blood tainted with impurities had vitiated the nervous system. The
expenditure of force in the task of digestion had undermined his
placed this man by the side of this rose of love.
certainly thinks herself at home--she has taken off her cloak! Have I,
wax lights, was unfastening her frippery with the utmost calmness.
he looked round the room, and discovered the Prince's trousers hanging
over a chair at the foot of the bed.
some pride.
alike of my generosity and of my hatred--"
palace is mine."
head framed in the flowing hangings.
At first Clarina laughed--one of those irrepressible fits of laughter
one to adore, no sense of reason bridled her sudden fancy--a Sicilian
woman in love.
"I am at home here."
"Doubts! Say proof positive, my lady!"
million francs I have cost you, if you insist."
dismiss you. We are quits."
order, which was given with an action worthy of Semiramis,--the part
in which la Tinti had won her fame,--the prima donna flew at the old
ape and put him out of the room.
And my _never_ counts for more than yours," she added.
strikes me that I am leaving you _agitata_!"
The Duke departed.
His mean spirit was no surprise to Emilio.
Every man who has accustomed himself to some particular taste, chosen
passions to become a habit.
Clarina bounded like a fawn from the door to the bed.
fairy tale!"
of an audience at the _Fenice_, but in a warble tender with emotion.
her eyes and given decision to her voice and gestures when she
when she came out in _Il Fazzoletto_, an opera by Garcia that was then
hearing, killed himself in despair. The prima donna of the _Fenice_
she had that air of native majesty that is characteristic of Italian
La Tinti--whose name also resembled that which the French singer
assumed--was now seventeen, and the poor Prince three-and-twenty. What
young and beautiful creatures! every ravishment at once.
These were his thoughts while dressing:--
an hereditary prerogative, you who are worthy of the portrait of
_Margherita_, one of the few canvases painted entirely by Raphael to
has her Duke, mine be my Duchess!"
--the whole picture had been composed by the devil, who, as is well
known, is a fine colorist.
Emilio Memmi--"
"A Prince since yesterday."
from head to foot.
through her tears.
stage--that the Duke--is Cataneo himself. And your friend Vendramini,
crowns, for the period of my season at the _Fenice_. Dear idol of my
here--now--it is full noonday. If to-morrow you are not satisfied,
the impulse of delight that sent a shiver through Clarina seemed to
so impressive a form.
At that moment Carmagnola whistled loudly.
But bewildered by love, Emilio paid no heed to the gondolier's
repeated signals.
If you have never traveled in Switzerland you may perhaps read this
description with pleasure; and if you have clambered among those
--a valley as wide as the Avenue de Neuilly in Paris, but a hundred
fathoms deep and broken into ravines,--flows a torrent coming from
immensity, heavenly love, and eternal happiness--to the most heedless
traveler, the most hurried courier, the most commonplace tradesman--as
this liquid diamond into which the snow, gathering from the highest
Alps, trickles through a natural channel hidden under the trees and
The watery sheet overhanging the fall glides so gently that no ripple
bridge: suddenly there is a terrific uproar of cascades tumbling
so irresistibly cut by the most formidable of active forces.
constantly under the stone.
this symphony to him?"
He asked Clara Tinti.
"My dear child,"--for she saw that Emilio was but a child,--"dear
nerves,--everything in man that can supply an impulse and remind him
The old ape sits on my knee, takes his instrument,--he plays fairly
well,--he produces the notes, and I try to imitate them. Then, when
will roll on the floor like a drunken man.
whose voice occasionally sounds in unison with mine. Either we really
Genovese. Genovese belongs to him. No theatrical manager can engage
my beauty,--my fortune, no doubt. He will die of an attack of perfect
many men in the same predicament. May Madonna preserve them!
"You have not come to that! You can do all you want--all I want of
you, I know."
Towards morning the Prince stole away and found Carmagnola lying
asleep across the door.
this note."
his sight was dim, and his hands shook as he read:--
"DEAR EMILIO:--Your gondola stopped at your palazzo. Did you not
tossed into the lagoon.
"MASSIMILLA DONI."
The writing and the scent of the paper brought a thousand memories
languid state produced by satiated senses he was disarmed by the
thought of that purer divinity.
curtain aside.
Clarina with his foot.
She clutched it so lovingly, her look imploring some explanation,--the
look of a tear-stained Samaritan,--that Emilio, enraged to find
pushed away the singer with an unmanly kick.
"You told me to kill you,--then die, venomous reptile!" he exclaimed.
He left the palace, and sprang into his gondola.
"Pull," said he to Carmagnola.
"Where?" asked the old servant.
"Where you will."
The gondolier divined his master's wishes, and by many windings
design, vying with each other in fantastic ornament, with balconies
How charming is that doorway! how mysterious the vaulted arcade
ingenious art has laid a carpet that will last while Venice stands,--a
the charming ornament of the colonnades of the upper story,--gilt like
those of a ducal palace,--so that the marvels of art are both under
your feet and above your head.
the Duchess had collected antique Venetian furniture, and employed
The splendor was not merely noble, it was instructive. The
archaeologist would have found there such models of perfection as the
be seen the original ceilings of woodwork covered with scrolls and
each corner, with a splendid fresco in the centre,--a style so costly
marble, wood, and silk had served as materials for exquisite
on her knees in front of a Madonna.
did not take it.
"No," he replied.
made Vendramin let your palace to him?"
wide awake, experienced the sensations of the horrible dream that
not but be incapable of any stain.
Emilio's hand was clammy and his brow moist.
sweetness of a flute.
me all about it."
Massimilla turned pale, but a caress from Emilio reassured her.
Cataneo's," said Massimilla.
apparent joy.
into the sanctuary of the divinity he worships the tainted atmosphere
of the courtesan?
Baader, who in his lectures eliminated things divine by erotic
intimate resemblance between human and heavenly love.
coquettish spice is far indeed from spurring affection so much as this
gentle sympathy of tenderness. The smartness of a coquette too clearly
marks opposition; however transient it is displeasing; but this
intimate comprehension shows a perfect fusion of souls. The hapless
Emilio was touched by the unspoken divination which led the Duchess to
pity a fault unknown to her.
Massimilla, feeling that her strength lay in the absence of any
boldly and confidently poured out her angelic spirit, she stripped it
soul and that of the vehement and muscular Sicilian.
Massimilla pillowed Emilio's head in her arms, and now and then
such tumultuous and vibrating echoes as fevered their blood.
be less perfect than satisfaction, and it is in fact the stronger,--it
enjoyment must always take something off happiness. Married in heaven
--that of two souls incandescent, and united in celestial light,
coarser joys lavished by the Sicilian singer--the material expression
of that angelic union?
These noble thoughts were in the Prince's mind as he reposed in
their realm of glory,--in the works of some great painters of Heaven.
every one expends his lungs and strength in politics, without
care of oneself, to waste time in patriotic undertakings each more
of real happiness, fills up all the time.
Emilio, everybody was confident of her immaculate purity. And women
respected as love.
Evening after evening Massimilla's box was the first object of every
Duchess and her adorer:
"How far have they got?"
The lover would examine Emilio, seeking some evidence of success;
say to the ladies:
"La Cataneo is not yet Emilio's."
"_Forse!_" (Perhaps) the young wives would reply, with the solemn
accent that Italians can infuse into that great word--the answer to
many questions here below.
declared that it was a misapprehension of religion to allow it to
smother love.
Massimilla, as they met on the stairs in going out.
"Then why does not he look happy?"
Massimilla's reply was a little shrug of her shoulders.
We in France--France as the growing mania for English proprieties has
made it--can form no idea of the serious interest taken in this affair
by Venetian society.
Vendramini alone knew Emilio's secret, which was carefully kept
arms with the motto _Non amici, frates_.
every capital in Italy. The _Fenice_ was crowded.
cares to introduce a rival. An Italian woman almost always reigns
brilliant hanging lustre which, in spite of protests, has been
decorated with handsome silks, the ceilings are painted and ornamented
considerable value; some are estimated at as much as thirty thousand
sufficiently indicate the importance attributed to this incident of
fashionable life.
Conversation reigns supreme in this little apartment, which Stendhal,
all-important trivialities of love that are discussed, the
and amused with studying itself.
This futile gossip, or serious colloquy, these elegant trivialities of
day at her residence. The foreign visitor cannot at first understand
this life of idle wit, this _dolce far niente_ on a background of
cares little about the management of his fortune; he leaves the
necessity felt by the lady and her lover for being constantly
hidden under apparent light-heartedness.
world are men so often found worn out.
The Duchess' box was on the pit tier--_pepiano_, as it is called in
resembling the noble features of Andrea del Sarto's heads; by the
themselves, which spoke of the rapture of a woman dreaming of
Instead of _Mose_, in which la Tinti was to have appeared with
Genovese, _Il Barbiere_ was given, and the tenor was to sing without
the celebrated prima donna. The manager announced that he had been
and the Duke was not to be seen in the theatre.
full houses by bringing out Genovese and Tinti separately, or was
Clarina's indisposition genuine? While this was open to discussion by
others, Emilio might be better informed; and though the announcement
caused him some remorse, as he remembered the singer's beauty and
Duchess very much at their ease.
the tenor did his best with the powers which have since achieved
clever in apprehending the spirit of a part, was already developing
success,--a phrase which is literally exact only in Italy, where the
applause of the house is absolutely frenzied when a singer procures it
Some of the Prince's friends came to congratulate him on coming into
a French physician had come to Venice whom the General wished to
introduce to her. The Prince, seeing Vendramin wandering about the
_parterre_, went out for a few minutes of confidential talk with his
tier of boxes, he had an opportunity of observing Massimilla's
reception of the foreigner.
"Who is that Frenchman?" asked the Prince.
Malfatti, with whom he is to hold a consultation."
her lover that it is difficult to detect an expressive glance directed
at anybody else.
last night."
might be with her, is torment."
charms of her conversation bright with Italian wit, in which sarcasm
lashed things but not persons, laughter attacked nothing that was not
laughable, mere trifles were seasoned with Attic salt.
intelligent race, have no fancy for displaying their talents where
Conversation sparkles with a delicate and subtle satire that plays
gracefully with familiar facts; and instead of a compromising epigram
--and they are right--that to be expected to understand ideas when
they only seek enjoyment, is a bore.
Indeed, la Vulpato had said to Massimilla:
of no intelligence,--their impression very commonly of an Italian in
love,--whereas he was simply a lover up to his ears in rapture.
stranger, occupied the corner facing the Duchess.
Massimilla, after looking at Vendramin.
"Yes," replied she, simply.
gracious indulgence is shown to every form of error. The Duchess
sighed deeply, and an expression of suppressed pain passed over her
madness for ourselves."
"The Genoese regrets his republic, the Milanese pines for his
independence, the Piemontese longs for a constitutional government,
the Romagna cries for liberty--"
need read your French books--useless rhodomontade--"
"Useless!" cried the Frenchman.
master," said the physician.
you do, over crazy ideas?"
"Then you approve of despotism?" said the physician.
Massimilla laughed so slyly that her interlocutor could not
distinguish mockery from serious meaning, nor her real opinion from
ironical criticism.
"Then you are not a liberal?" said he.
occupied by all mankind?"
"Those who love are naturally aristocrats," the Austrian General
observed, with a smile.
the constitutional spirit."
will not be left to us for six months--"
the French physician. He, for a moment, felt doubtful of himself,--a
rare thing in a Frenchman,--fancying he had said or done something
incongruous; but the riddle was immediately solved.
mind in the presence of our masters?"
villainous idea suggested to him by an Englishman who, for other
reasons of his, craved an easy death--not death as men see it in the
call a flag--a maiden form crowned with flowers or laurels; she
--or else stretched on a bed between two courtesans; or again, she
diamond--but a diamond in the form of carbon.
divans in the Seraglio among the Sultan's wives, while the Grand
could never show.
and he enjoys a life of domestic happiness,--a home, a winter evening,
furnishes our empty arsenal, he watches convoys of merchandise coming
Italy, the mastery of the Mediterranean and the Indies!"
"What an opera is the brain of man! What an unfathomed abyss!--even to
elixir will do me. After hearing ravishing voices and imbibing music
through every pore, after experiencing the keenest pleasures and the
fiercest delights of Mahomet's paradise, I see none but the most
terrible images. I have visions of my beloved Venice full of
through her streets!
"Already the Austrian soldiers are grinning over me, already my
Vendramin's brow.
"I will cure your friend," said the Frenchman.
better. The hapless Italians are too much crushed by foreign dominion
to be fairly judged--for we have known yours," she added, with a
--there lies the difference.
and heavy as themselves, while you overwhelmed us by your devouring
said she, in a tone that thrilled through the box,--"that is to say, I
would ask,--that each Italian republic should be resuscitated, with
would have the old aristocratic republics once more with their
intestine warfare and rivalry that gave birth to the noblest works of
By extending the action of one government over a vast expanse of
were her porters, have triumphed?"
with their own little concerns, and neither having any cause for
envying another. Your republics were haughty queens, preferring to
to rise again. The Guelphs are triumphant."
misfortune Italy governs through the choicer spirits that abound in
her cities.
"Unfortunately the greater number of her geniuses learn to understand
this land--pitied for its fallen state by traveled simpletons and
hypocritical poets, while its character is traduced by politicians--in
canes productive of delicious fruit. This race of ancient rulers still
gives birth to kings--Lagrange, Volta, Rasori, Canova, Rossini,
singers and executants who captivate Europe by their amazing
world which will always come to worship her.
here as _il Fanatico_."
After sitting a few minutes listening to the eager war of words
between the physician and the Duchess, who showed much ingenious
French doctor. This was the talk of the evening.
such a distance that this salute might have secured her the man's
holding hands they listened together to the duet that finishes _Il
by that song as of two rapturous nightingales.
summer's day shines down on the golden harvest; his heart seemed
conscious of having a body.
to the remark she had made as to Genovese's cavatina.
"But, _carino_," said she in Emilio's ear, "are not you as far better
After handing the Duchess to her gondola, Emilio waited for Vendramin
to go to Florian's.
The Cafe Florian at Venice is a quite undefinable institution.
Merchants transact their business there, and lawyers meet to talk over
green-room, a newspaper office, a club, a confessional,--and it is so
to write, they go to write it there.
sharpens Venetian wits, which may here exercise the discretion once so
take a turn to hear what is going on there.
While the two friends were walking in the narrow streets of the
He related his adventure with Clarina and explained his position. To
Vendramin Emilio's despair seemed so nearly allied to madness that he
promised to cure him completely if only he would give him _carte
blanche_ to deal with Massimilla. This ray of hope came just in time
the Venetians made great sport; then Cataneo's attachment for la
Tinti, for which no reason could be assigned after twenty different
match between the Duchess and the French doctor. Just as the
discussion became vehemently musical, Duke Cataneo made his
appearance. He bowed very courteously to Emilio, which seemed so
finally to the man who happened to be speaking,--a celebrated musical
frequented Florian's, his mode of life was absolutely unknown, so
chose to tell.
powerful minds divine everything. He was an eccentric theorist, and
cared no more for celebrity than for a broken pipe.
at about ten every morning under the _Procuratie_, without anyone
herself prepared his stuffed oysters, provided him with cigars, and
on in the morning.
Though he was the descendant of an old patrician family he never
everything. This peaceful Diogenes, quite incapable of explaining his
discreet though smiling mouth.
various countries of Europe, and had left the interest untouched ever
enormous, alike from the increased value of the capital and the
without hearing a _cadenza_ executed as I have heard them in my
the air. The clear _cadenza_ is the highest achievement of art; it is
elements of sensation.
"It is a grievous thing that the populace should have compelled
musicians to adapt their expression to words, to factitious emotions;
_cadenza_ is the only thing left to the lovers of pure music, the
_cavatina_, I felt as if I were beckoned by a fair creature whose look
a few minutes from this old husk--minutes, short no doubt by the
spring-time, scented with roses, I was young again--and beloved!"
"But you are mistaken, _caro_ Capraja," said the Duke. "There is in
music an effect yet more magical than that of the _cadenza_."
"What is that?" asked Capraja.
"The unison of two voices, or of a voice and a violin,--the instrument
command the whole universe. You still need a _thema_, Capraja, but the
lake without a ripple. I can embrace the infinite."
"Speak no more, Cataneo," said Capraja, haughtily. "What! Do you fail
to see the fairy, who, in her swift rush through the sparkling
atmosphere, collects and binds with the golden thread of harmony, the
gems of melody she smilingly sheds on us? Have you ever felt the touch
of her wand, as she says to Curiosity, 'Awake!' The divinity rises up
radiant from the depths of the brain; she flies to her store of
wonders and fingers them lightly as an organist touches the keys.
Suddenly, up starts Memory, bringing us the roses of the past,
divinely preserved and still fresh. The mistress of our youth revives,
and strokes the young man's hair. Our heart, too full, overflows; we
see the flowery banks of the torrent of love. Every burning bush we
ever knew blazes afresh, and repeats the heavenly words we once heard
and understood. The voice rolls on; it embraces in its rapid turns
those fugitive horizons, and they shrink away; they vanish, eclipsed
by newer and deeper joys--those of an unrevealed future, to which the
fairy points as she returns to the blue heaven."
"And you," retorted Cataneo, "have you never seen the direct ray of a
star opening the vistas above; have you never mounted on that beam
which guides you to the sky, to the heart of the first causes which
move the worlds?"
To their hearers, the Duke and Capraja were playing a game of which
the premises were unknown.
"Genovese's voice thrills through every fibre," said Capraja.
"And la Tinti's fires the blood," replied the Duke.
"What a paraphrase of happy love is that _cavatina_!" Capraja went on.
"Ah! Rossini was young when he wrote that interpretation of
effervescent ecstasy. My heart filled with renewed blood, a thousand
cravings tingled in my veins. Never have sounds more angelic delivered
me more completely from my earthly bonds! Never did the fairy wave
more beautiful arms, smile more invitingly, lift her tunic more
cunningly to display an ankle, raising the curtain that hides my other
"To-morrow, my old friend," replied Cataneo, "you shall ride on the
back of a dazzling, white swan, who will show you the loveliest land
there is; you shall see the spring-time as children see it. Your heart
shall open to the radiance of a new sun; you shall sleep on crimson
silk, under the gaze of a Madonna; you shall feel like a happy lover
gently kissed by a nymph whose bare feet you still may see, but who is
about to vanish. That swan will be the voice of Genovese, if he can
unite it to its Leda, the voice of Clarina. To-morrow night we are to
hear _Mose_, the grandest opera produced by Italy's greatest genius."
All present left the conversation to the Duke and Capraja, not wishing
to be the victims of mystification. Only Vendramin and the French
doctor listened to them for a few minutes. The opium-smoker understood
these poetic flights; he had the key of the palace where those two
sensuous imaginations were wandering. The doctor, too, tried to
understand, and he understood, for he was one of the Pleiades of
genius belonging to the Paris school of medicine, from which a true
physician comes out as much a metaphysician as an accomplished
"Do you understand them?" said Emilio to Vendramin as they left the
cafe at two in the morning.
"Yes, my dear boy," said Vendramin, taking Emilio home with him.
"Those two men are of the legion of unearthly spirits to whom it is
given here below to escape from the wrappings of the flesh, who can
fly on the shoulders of the queen of witchcraft up to the blue
empyrean where the sublime marvels are wrought of the intellectual
life; they, by the power of art, can soar whither your immense love
carries you, whither opium transports me. Then none can understand
them but those who are like them.
"I, who can inspire my soul by such base means, who can pack a hundred
years of life into a single night, I can understand those lofty
spirits when they talk of that glorious land, deemed a realm of
chimeras by some who think themselves wise; but the realm of reality
to us whom they think mad. Well, the Duke and Capraja, who were
acquainted at Naples,--where Cataneo was born,--are mad about music."
"But what is that strange system that Capraja was eager to explain to
the Duke? Did you understand?"
"Yes," replied Vendramin. "Capraja's great friend is a musician from
Cremona, lodging in the Capello palace, who has a theory that sounds
meet with an element in man, analogous to that which produces ideas.
According to him, man has within him keys acted on by sound, and
corresponding to his nerve-centres, where ideas and sensations take
their rise. Capraja, who regards the arts as an assemblage of means by
which he can harmonize, in himself, all external nature with another
mysterious nature that he calls the inner life, shares all ideas of
this instrument-maker, who at this moment is composing an opera.
"Conceive of a sublime creation, wherein the marvels of the visible
universe are reproduced with immeasurable grandeur, lightness,
swiftness, and extension; wherein sensation is infinite, and whither
certain privileged natures, possessed of divine powers, are able to
penetrate, and you will have some notion of the ecstatic joys of which
Cataneo and Capraja were speaking; both poets, each for himself alone.
Only, in matters of the intellect, as soon as a man can rise above the
sphere where plastic art is produced by a process of imitation, and
enter into that transcendental sphere of abstractions where everything
is understood as an elementary principle, and seen in the omnipotence
of results, that man is no longer intelligible to ordinary minds."
"You have thus explained my love for Massimilla," said Emilio. "There
is in me, my friend, a force which awakes under the fire of her look,
at her lightest touch, and wafts me to a world of light where effects
are produced of which I dare not speak. It has seemed to me often that
the delicate tissue of her skin has stamped flowers on mine as her
hand lies on my hand. Her words play on those inner keys in me, of
which you spoke. Desire excites my brain, stirring that invisible
world, instead of exciting my passive flesh; the air seems red and
sparkling, unknown perfumes of indescribable strength relax my sinews,
roses wreathe my temples, and I feel as though my blood were escaping
through opened arteries, so complete is my inanition."
"That is the effect on me of smoking opium," replied Vendramin.
"Then do you wish to die?" cried Emilio, in alarm.
"With Venice!" said Vendramin, waving his hand in the direction of San
Marco. "Can you see a single pinnacle or spire that stands straight?
Do you not perceive that the sea is claiming its prey?"
The Prince bent his head; he dared no more speak to his friend of
To know what a free country means, you must have traveled in a
conquered land.
When they reached the Palazzo Vendramin, they saw a gondola moored at
the water-gate. The Prince put his arm round Vendramin and clasped him
affectionately, saying:
"Good-night to you, my dear fellow!"
"What! a woman? for me, whose only love is Venice?" exclaimed Marco.
At this instant the gondolier, who was leaning against a column,
recognizing the man he was to look out for, murmured in Emilio's ear:
"The Duchess, monseigneur."
Emilio sprang into the gondola, where he was seized in a pair of soft
arms--an embrace of iron--and dragged down on to the cushions, where
he felt the heaving bosom of an ardent woman. And then he was no more
Emilio, but Clarina's lover; for his ideas and feelings were so
bewildering that he yielded as if stupefied by her first kiss.
"Forgive this trick, my beloved," said the Sicilian. "I shall die if
you do not come with me."
And the gondola flew over the secret water.
At half-past seven on the following evening, the spectators were again
in their places in the theatre, excepting that those in the pit always
took their chances of where they might sit. Old Capraja was in
Cataneo's box.
Before the overture the Duke paid a call on the Duchess; he made a
point of standing behind her and leaving the front seat to Emilio next
the Duchess. He made a few trivial remarks, without sarcasm or
bitterness, and with as polite a manner as if he were visiting a
But in spite of his efforts to seem amiable and natural, the Prince
could not control his expression, which was deeply anxious. Bystanders
would have ascribed such a change in his usually placid features to
jealousy. The Duchess no doubt shared Emilio's feelings; she looked
gloomy and was evidently depressed. The Duke, uncomfortable enough
between two sulky people, took advantage of the French doctor's
entrance to slip away.
"Monsieur," said Cataneo to his physician before dropping the curtain
over the entrance to the box, "you will hear to-night a grand musical
poem, not easy of comprehension at a first hearing. But in leaving you
with the Duchess I know that you can have no more competent
interpreter, for she is my pupil."
The doctor, like the Duke, was struck by the expression stamped on the
faces of the lovers, a look of pining despair.
"Then does an Italian opera need a guide to it?" he asked Massimilla,
with a smile.
Recalled by this question to her duties as mistress of the box, the
Duchess tried to chase away the clouds that darkened her brow, and
replied, with eager haste, to open a conversation in which she might
vent her irritation:--
"This is not so much an opera, monsieur," said she, "as an oratorio--a
work which is in fact not unlike a most magnificent edifice, and I
shall with pleasure be your guide. Believe me, it will not be too much
to give all your mind to our great Rossini, for you need to be at once
a poet and a musician to appreciate the whole bearing of such a work.
"You belong to a race whose language and genius are too practical for
it to enter into music without an effort; but France is too
intellectual not to learn to love it and cultivate it, and to succeed
in that as in everything else. Also, it must be acknowledged that
music, as created by Lulli, Rameau, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven,
Cimarosa, Paisiello, and Rossini, and as it will be carried on by the
great geniuses of the future, is a new art, unknown to former
generations; they had indeed no such variety of instruments on which
the flowers of melody now blossom as on some rich soil.
"So novel an art demands study in the public, study of a kind that may
develop the feelings to which music appeals. That sentiment hardly
exists as yet among you--a nation given up to philosophical theories,
to analysis and discussion, and always torn by civil disturbances.
Modern music demands perfect peace; it is the language of loving and
sentimental souls, inclined to lofty emotional aspiration.
"That language, a thousand times fuller than the language of words, is
to speech and ideas what the thought is to its utterance; it arouses
sensations and ideas in their primitive form, in that part of us where
sensations and ideas have their birth, but leaves them as they are in
each of us. That power over our inmost being is one of the grandest
facts in music. All other arts present to the mind a definite
creation; those of music are indefinite--infinite. We are compelled to
accept the ideas of the poet, the painter's picture, the sculptor's
statue; but music each one can interpret at the will of his sorrow or
his gladness, his hope or his despair. While other arts restrict our
mind by fixing it on a predestined object, music frees it to roam over
all nature which it alone has the power of expressing. You shall hear
how I interpret Rossini's _Mose_."
She leaned across to the Frenchman to speak to him, without being
"Moses is the liberator of an enslaved race!" said she. "Remember
that, and you will see with what religious hope the whole house will
listen to the prayer of the rescued Hebrews, with what a thunder of
applause it will respond!"
As the leader raised his bow, Emilio flung himself into a back seat.
The Duchess pointed out the place he had left, for the physician to
take it. But the Frenchman was far more curious to know what had gone
wrong between the lovers than to enter the halls of music built up by
the man whom all Italy was applauding--for it was the day of Rossini's
triumph in his own country. He was watching the Duchess, and she was
talking with a feverish excitement. She reminded him of the Niobe he
had admired at Florence: the same dignity in woe, the same physical
control; and yet her soul shone though, in the warm flush of her
cheeks; and her eyes, where anxiety was disguised under a flash of
pride, seemed to scorch the tears away by their fire. Her suppressed
grief seemed calmer when she looked at Emilio, who never took his eyes
off her; it was easy to see that she was trying to mollify some fierce
despair. The state of her feelings gave a certain loftiness to her
Like most women when under the stress of some unusual agitation, she
overstepped her ordinary limitations and assumed something of the
Pythoness, though still remaining calm and beautiful; for it was the
form of her thoughts that was wrung with desperation, not the features
of her face. And perhaps she wanted to shine with all her wit to lend
some charm to life and detain her lover from death.
When the orchestra had given out the three chords in C major, placed
at the opening by the composer to announce that the overture will be
sung--for the real overture is the great movement beginning with this
stern attack, and ending only when light appears at the command of
Moses--the Duchess could not control a little spasmodic start, that
showed how entirely the music was in accordance with her concealed
"Those three chords freeze the blood," said she. "They announce
trouble. Listen attentively to this introduction; the terrible lament
of a nation stricken by the hand of God. What wailing! The King, the
Queen, their first-born son, all the dignitaries of the kingdom are
sighing; they are wounded in their pride, in their conquests; checked
in their avarice. Dear Rossini! you have done well to throw this bone
to gnaw to the _Tedeschi_, who declared we had no harmony, no science!
"Now you will hear the ominous melody the maestro has engrafted on to
this profound harmonic composition, worthy to compare with the most
elaborate structures of the Germans, but never fatiguing or tiresome.
"You French, who carried through such a bloodthirsty revolution, who
crushed your aristocracy under the paw of the lion mob, on the day
when this oratorio is performed in your capital, you will understand
this glorious dirge of the victims on whom God is avenging his chosen
people. None but an Italian could have written this pregnant and
inexhaustible theme--truly Dantesque. Do you think that it is nothing
to have such a dream of vengeance, even for a moment? Handel,
Sebastian Bach, all you old German masters, nay, even you, great
Beethoven, on your knees! Here is the queen of arts, Italy
The Duchess had spoken while the curtain was being raised. And now the
physician heard the sublime symphony with which the composer
introduces the great Biblical drama. It is to express the sufferings
of a whole nation. Suffering is uniform in its expression, especially
physical suffering. Thus, having instinctively felt, like all men of
genius, that here there must be no variety of idea, the musician,
having hit on his leading phrase, has worked it out in various keys,
grouping the masses and the dramatis personae to take up the theme
through modulations and cadences of admirable structure. In such
simplicity is power.
"The effect of this strain, depicting the sensations of night and cold
in a people accustomed to live in the bright rays of the sun, and sung
by the people and their princes, is most impressive. There is
something relentless in that slow phrase of music; it is cold and
sinister, like an iron bar wielded by some celestial executioner, and
dropping in regular rhythm on the limbs of all his victims. As we hear
it passing from C minor into G minor, returning to C and again to the
dominant G, starting afresh and _fortissimo_ on the tonic B flat,
drifting into F major and back to C minor, and in each key in turn
more ominously terrible, chill, and dark, we are compelled at last to
enter into the impression intended by the composer."
The Frenchman was, in fact, deeply moved when all this united sorrow
exploded in the cry:
"O Nume d'Israel,
Se brami in liberta
Il popol tuo fedel,
Di lui di noi pieta!"
(O God of Israel, if thou wouldst see thy faithful people free, have
mercy on them, and on us.)
"Never was a grander synthesis composed of natural effects or a more
perfect idealization of nature. In a great national disaster, each one
for a long time bewails himself alone; then, from out of the mass,
rises up, here and there, a more emphatic and vehement cry of anguish;
finally, when the misery has fallen on all, it bursts forth like a
"As soon as they all recognize a common grievance, the dull murmurs of
the people become cries of impatience. Rossini has proceeded on this
hypothesis. After the outcry in C major, Pharoah sings his grand
recitative: _Mano ultrice di un Dio_ (Avenging hand of God), after
which the original subject is repeated with more vehement expression.
All Egypt appeals to Moses for help."
The Duchess had taken advantage of the pause for the entrance of Moses
and Aaron to give this interpretation of that fine introduction.
"Let them weep!" she added passionately. "They have done much ill.
Expiate your sins, Egyptians, expiate the crimes of your maddened
Court! With what amazing skill has this great painter made use of all
the gloomy tones of music, of all that is saddest on the musical
palette! What creepy darkness! what a mist! Is not your very spirit in
mourning? Are you not convinced of the reality of the blackness that
lies over the land? Do you not feel that Nature is wrapped in the
deepest shades? There are no palm-trees, no Egyptian palaces, no
landscape. And what a healing to your soul will the deeply religious
strain be of the heaven-sent Healer who will stay this cruel plague!
How skilfully is everything wrought up to end in that glorious
invocation of Moses to God.
"By a learned elaboration, which Capraja could explain to you, this
appeal to heaven is accompanied by brass instruments only; it is that
which gives it such a solemn, religious cast. And not merely is the
artifice fine in its place; note how fertile in resource is genius.
Rossini has derived fresh beauty from the difficulty he himself
created. He has the strings in reserve to express daylight when it
succeeds to the darkness, and thus produces one of the greatest
effects ever achieved in music.
"Till this inimitable genius showed the way never was such a result
obtained with mere _recitative_. We have not, so far, had an air or a
duet. The poet has relied on the strength of the idea, on the
vividness of his imagery, and the realism of the declamatory passages.
This scene of despair, this darkness that may be felt, these cries of
anguish,--the whole musical picture is as fine as your great Poussin's
Moses waved his staff, and it was light.
"Here, monsieur, does not the music vie with the sun, whose splendor
it has borrowed, with nature, whose phenomena it expresses in every
detail?" the Duchess went on, in an undertone. "Art here reaches its
climax; no musician can get beyond this. Do not you hear Egypt waking
up after its long torpor? Joy comes in with the day. In what
composition, ancient or modern, will you find so grand a passage? The
greatest gladness in contrast to the deepest woe! What exclamations!
What gleeful notes! The oppressed spirit breathes again. What delirium
in the _tremolo_ of the orchestra! What a noble _tutti_! This is the
rejoicing of a delivered nation. Are you not thrilled with joy?"
The physician, startled by the contrast, was, in fact, clapping his
hands, carried away by admiration for one of the finest compositions
of modern music.
"_Brava la Doni!_" said Vendramin, who had heard the Duchess.
"Now the introduction is ended," said she. "You have gone through a
great sensation," she added, turning to the Frenchman. "Your heart is
beating; in the depths of your imagination you have a splendid
sunrise, flooding with light a whole country that before was cold and
dark. Now, would you know the means by which the musician has worked,
so as to admire him to-morrow for the secrets of his craft after
enjoying the results to-night? What do you suppose produces this
effect of daylight--so sudden, so complicated, and so complete? It
consists of a simple chord of C, constantly reiterated, varied only by
the chord of 4-6. This reveals the magic of his touch. To show you the
glory of light he has worked by the same means that he used to
represent darkness and sorrow.
"This dawn in imagery is, in fact, absolutely the same as the natural
dawn; for light is one and the same thing everywhere, always alike in
itself, the effects varying only with the objects it falls on. Is it
not so? Well, the musician has taken for the fundamental basis of his
music, for its sole _motif_, a simple chord in C. The sun first sheds
its light on the mountain-tops and then in the valleys. In the same
way the chord is first heard on the treble string of the violins with
boreal mildness; it spreads through the orchestra, it awakes the
instruments one by one, and flows among them. Just as light glides
from one thing to the next, giving them color, the music moves on,
calling out each rill of harmony till all flow together in the
"The violins, silent until now, give the signal with their tender
_tremolo_, softly _agitato_ like the first rays of morning. That
light, cheerful movement, which caresses the soul, is cleverly
supported by chords in the bass, and by a vague _fanfare_ on the
trumpets, restricted to their lowest notes, so as to give a vivid idea
of the last cool shadows that linger in the valleys while the first
warm rays touch the heights. Then all the wind is gradually added to
strengthen the general harmony. The voices come in with sighs of
delight and surprise. At last the brass breaks out, the trumpets
sound. Light, the source of all harmony, inundates all nature; every
musical resource is produced with a turbulence, a splendor, to compare
with that of the Eastern sun. Even the triangle, with its reiterated
C, reminds us by its shrill accent and playful rhythm of the song of
early birds.
"Thus the same key, freshly treated by the master's hand, expresses
the joy of all nature, while it soothes the grief it uttered before.
"There is the hall-mark of the great genius: Unity. It is the same but
different. In one and the same phrase we find a thousand various
feelings of woe, the misery of a nation. In one and the same chord we
have all the various incidents of awakening nature, every expression
of the nation's joy. These two tremendous passages are soldered into
one by the prayer to an ever-living God, author of all things, of that
woe and that gladness alike. Now is not that introduction by itself a
grand poem?"
"It is, indeed," said the Frenchman.
"Next comes a quintette such as Rossini can give us. If he was ever
justified in giving vent to that flowery, voluptuous grace for which
Italian music is blamed, is it not in this charming movement in which
each person expresses joy? The enslaved people are delivered, and yet
a passion in peril is fain to moan. Pharaoh's son loves a Hebrew
woman, and she must leave him. What gives its ravishing charm to this
quintette is the return to the homelier feelings of life after the
grandiose picture of two stupendous and national emotions:--general
misery, general joy, expressed with the magic force stamped on them by
divine vengeance and with the miraculous atmosphere of the Bible
narrative. Now, was not I right?" added Massimilla, as the noble
_sretto_ came to a close.
"Voci di giubilo,
D' in'orno eccheggino,
Di pace l' Iride
Per noi spunto."
(Cries of joy sound about us. The rainbow of peace dawns upon us.)
"How ingeniously the composer has constructed this passage!" she went
on, after waiting for a reply. "He begins with a solo on the horn, of
divine sweetness, supported by _arpeggios_ on the harps; for the first
voices to be heard in this grand concerted piece are those of Moses
and Aaron returning thanks to the true God. Their strain, soft and
solemn, reverts to the sublime ideas of the invocation, and mingles,
nevertheless, with the joy of the heathen people. This transition
combines the heavenly and the earthly in a way which genius alone
could invent, giving the _andante_ of this quintette a glow of color
that I can only compare to the light thrown by Titian on his Divine
Persons. Did you observe the exquisite interweaving of the voices? the
clever entrances by which the composer has grouped them round the main
idea given out by the orchestra? the learned progressions that prepare
us for the festal _allegro_? Did you not get a glimpse, as it were, of
dancing groups, the dizzy round of a whole nation escaped from danger?
And when the clarionet gives the signal for the _stretto_,--'_Voci di
giubilo_,'--so brilliant and gay, was not your soul filled with the
sacred pyrrhic joy of which David speaks in the Psalms, ascribing it
to the hills?"
"Yes, it would make a delightful dance tune," said the doctor.
"French! French! always French!" exclaimed the Duchess, checked in her
exultant mood by this sharp thrust. "Yes; you would be capable of
taking that wonderful burst of noble and dainty rejoicing and turning
it into a rigadoon. Sublime poetry finds no mercy in your eyes. The
highest genius,--saints, kings, disasters,--all that is most sacred
must pass under the rods of caricature. And the vulgarizing of great
music by turning it into a dance tune is to caricature it. With you,
wit kills soul, as argument kills reason."
They all sat in silence through the _recitative_ of Osiride and
Membrea, who plot to annul the order given by Pharaoh for the
departure of the Hebrews.
"Have I vexed you?" asked the physician to the Duchess. "I should be
in despair. Your words are like a magic wand. They unlock the
pigeon-holes of my brain, and let out new ideas, vivified by this
sublime music."
"No," replied she, "you have praised our great composer after your own
fashion. Rossini will be a success with you, for the sake of his witty
and sensual gifts. Let us hope that he may find some noble souls, in
love with the ideal--which must exist in your fruitful land,--to
appreciate the sublimity, the loftiness, of such music. Ah, now we
have the famous duet, between Elcia and Osiride!" she exclaimed, and
she went on, taking advantage of the triple salvo of applause which
hailed la Tinti, as she made her first appearance on the stage.
"If la Tinti has fully understood the part of Elcia, you will hear the
frenzied song of a woman torn by her love for her people, and her
passion for one of their oppressors, while Osiride, full of mad
adoration for his beautiful vassal, tries to detain her. The opera is
built up as much on that grand idea as on that of Pharaoh's resistance
to the power of God and of liberty; you must enter into it thoroughly
or you will not understand this stupendous work.
"Notwithstanding the disfavor you show to the dramas invented by our
_libretto_ writers, you must allow me to point out the skill with
which this one is constructed. The antithesis required in every fine
work, and eminently favorable to music, is well worked out. What can
be finer than a whole nation demanding liberty, held in bondage by bad
faith, upheld by God, and piling marvel on marvel to gain freedom?
What more dramatic than the Prince's love for a Hebrew woman, almost
justifying treason to the oppressor's power?
"And this is what is expressed in this bold and stupendous musical
poem; Rossini has stamped each nation with its fantastic
individuality, for we have attributed to them a certain historic
grandeur to which every imagination subscribes. The songs of the
Hebrews, and their trust in God, are perpetually contrasted with
Pharaoh's shrieks of rage and vain efforts, represented with a strong
"At this moment Osiride, thinking only of love, hopes to detain his
mistress by the memories of their joys as lovers; he wants to conquer
the attractions of her feeling for her people. Here, then, you will
find delicious languor, the glowing sweetness, the voluptuous
suggestions of Oriental love, in the air '_Ah! se puoi cosi
lasciarmi_,' sung by Osiride, and in Elcia's reply, '_Ma perche cosi
straziarmi?_' No; two hearts in such melodious unison could never
part," she went on, looking at the Prince.
"But the lovers are suddenly interrupted by the exultant voice of the
Hebrew people in the distance, which recalls Elcia. What a delightful
and inspiriting _allegro_ is the theme of this march, as the
Israelites set out for the desert! No one but Rossini can make wind
instruments and trumpets say so much. And is not the art which can
express in two phrases all that is meant by the 'native land'
certainly nearer to heaven than the others? This clarion-call always
moves me so deeply that I cannot find words to tell you how cruel it
is to an enslaved people to see those who are free march away!"
The Duchess' eyes filled with tears as she listened to the grand
movement, which in fact crowns the opera.
"_Dov' e mai quel core amante_," she murmured in Italian, as la Tinti
began the delightful _aria_ of the _stretto_ in which she implores
pity for her grief. "But what is the matter? The pit are
"Genovese is braying like a stage," replied the Prince.
In point of fact, this first duet with la Tinti was spoilt by
Genovese's utter breakdown. His excellent method, recalling that of
Crescentini and Veluti, seemed to desert him completely. A _sostenuto_
in the wrong place, an embellishment carried to excess, spoilt the
effect; or again a loud climax with no due _crescendo_, an outburst of
sound like water tumbling through a suddenly opened sluice, showed
complete and wilful neglect of the laws of good taste.
The pit was in the greatest excitement. The Venetian public believed
there was a deliberate plot between Genovese and his friends. La Tinti
was recalled and applauded with frenzy while Genovese had a hint or
two warning him of the hostile feeling of the audience. During this
scene, highly amusing to a Frenchman, while la Tinti was recalled
eleven times to receive alone the frantic acclamations of the house,
--Genovese, who was all but hissed, not daring to offer her his hand,
--the doctor made a remark to the Duchess as to the _stretto_ of the
"In this place," said he, "Rossini ought to have expressed the
deepest grief, and I find on the contrary an airy movement, a tone
of ill-timed cheerfulness."
"You are right," said she. "This mistake is the result of a tyrannous
custom which composers are expected to obey. He was thinking more of
his prima donna than of Elcia when he wrote that _stretto_. But this
evening, even if la Tinti had been more brilliant than ever, I could
throw myself so completely into the situation, that the passage,
lively as it is, is to me full of sadness."
The physician looked attentively from the Prince to the Duchess, but
could not guess the reason that held them apart, and that made this
duet seem to them so heartrending.
"Now comes a magnificent thing, the scheming of Pharaoh against the
Hebrews. The great _aria 'A rispettarmi apprenda'_ (Learn to respect
me) is a triumph for Carthagenova, who will express superbly the
offended pride and the duplicity of a sovereign. The Throne will
speak. He will withdraw the concessions that have been made, he arms
himself in wrath. Pharaoh rises to his feet to clutch the prey that is
"Rossini never wrote anything grander in style, or stamped with more
living and irresistible energy. It is a consummate work, supported by
an accompaniment of marvelous orchestration, as indeed is every
portion of this opera. The vigor of youth illumines the smallest
The whole house applauded this noble movement, which was admirably
rendered by the singer, and thoroughly appreciated by the Venetians.
"In the _finale_," said the Duchess, "you hear a repetition of the
march, expressive of the joy of deliverance and of faith in God, who
allows His people to rush off gleefully to wander in the Desert! What
lungs but would be refreshed by the aspirations of a whole nation
freed from slavery.
"Oh, beloved and living melodies! Glory to the great genius who has
known how to give utterance to such feelings! There is something
essentially warlike in that march, proclaiming that the God of armies
is on the side of these people. How full of feeling are these strains
of thanksgiving! The imagery of the Bible rises up in our mind; this
glorious musical _scena_ enables us to realize one of the grandest
dramas of that ancient and solemn world. The religious form given to
some of the voice parts, and the way in which they come in, one by
one, to group with the others, express all we have ever imagined of
the sacred marvels of that early age of humanity.
"And yet this fine concerted piece is no more than a development of
the theme of the march into all its musical outcome. That theme is the
inspiring element alike for the orchestra and the voices, for the air,
and for the brilliant instrumentation that supports it.
"Elcia now comes to join the crowd; and to give shade to the rejoicing
spirit of this number, Rossini has made her utter her regrets. Listen
to her _duettino_ with Amenofi. Did blighted love ever express itself
in lovelier song? It is full of the grace of a _notturno_, of the
secret grief of hopeless love. How sad! how sad! The Desert will
indeed be a desert to her!
"After this comes the fierce conflict of the Egyptians and the
Hebrews. All their joy is spoiled, their march stopped by the arrival
of the Egyptians. Pharaoh's edict is proclaimed in a musical phrase,
hollow and dread, which is the leading _motif_ of the _finale_; we
could fancy that we hear the tramp of the great Egyptian army,
surrounding the sacred phalanx of the true God, curling round it, like
a long African serpent enveloping its prey. But how beautiful is the
lament of the duped and disappointed Hebrews! Though, in truth, it is
more Italian than Hebrew. What a superb passage introduces Pharaoh's
arrival, when his presence brings the two leaders face to face, and
all the moving passions of the drama. The conflict of sentiments in
that sublime _ottetto_, where the wrath of Moses meets that of the two
Pharaohs, is admirable. What a medley of voices and of unchained
"No grander subject was ever wrought out by a composer. The famous
_finale_ of _Don Giovanni_, after all, only shows us a libertine at
odds with his victims, who invoke the vengeance of Heaven; while here
earth and its dominions try to defeat God. Two nations are here face
to face. And Rossini, having every means at his command, has made
wonderful use of them. He has succeeded in expressing the turmoil of a
tremendous storm as a background to the most terrible imprecations,
without making it ridiculous. He has achieved it by the use of chords
repeated in triple time--a monotonous rhythm of gloomy musical
emphasis--and so persistent as to be quite overpowering. The horror of
the Egyptians at the torrent of fire, the cries of vengeance from the
Hebrews, needed a delicate balance of masses; so note how he has made
the development of the orchestral parts follow that of the chorus. The
_allegro assai_ in C minor is terrible in the midst of that deluge of
"Confess now," said Massimilla, at the moment when Moses, lifting his
rod, brings down the rain of fire, and when the composer puts forth
all his powers in the orchestra and on the stage, "that no music ever
more perfectly expressed the idea of distress and confusion."
"They have spread to the pit," remarked the Frenchman.
"What is it now? The pit is certainly in great excitement," said the
In the _finale_, Genovese, his eyes fixed on la Tinti, had launched
into such preposterous flourishes, that the pit, indignant at this
interference with their enjoyment, were at a height of uproar. Nothing
could be more exasperating to Italian ears than this contrast of good
and bad singing. The manager went so far as to appear on the stage, to
say that in reply to his remarks to his leading singer, Signor
Genovese had replied that he knew not how or by what offence he had
lost the countenance of the public, at the very moment when he was
endeavoring to achieve perfection in his art.
"Let him be as bad as he was yesterday--that was good enough for us!"
roared Capraja, in a rage.
This suggestion put the house into a good humor again.
Contrary to Italian custom, the ballet was not much attended to. In
every box the only subject of conversation was Genovese's strange
behavior, and the luckless manager's speech. Those who were admitted
behind the scenes went off at once to inquire into the mystery of this
performance, and it was presently rumored that la Tinti had treated
her colleague Genovese to a dreadful scene, in which she had accused
the tenor of being jealous of her success, of having hindered it by
his ridiculous behavior, and even of trying to spoil her performance
by acting passionate devotion. The lady was shedding bitter tears over
this catastrophe. She had been hoping, she said, to charm her lover,
who was somewhere in the house, though she had failed to discover him.
Without knowing the peaceful course of daily life in Venice at the
present day, so devoid of incident that a slight altercation between
two lovers, or the transient huskiness of a singer's voice becomes a
subject of discussion, regarded of as much importance as politics in
England, it is impossible to conceive of the excitement in the theatre
and at the Cafe Florian. La Tinti was in love; la Tinti had been
hindered in her performance; Genovese was mad or purposely malignant,
inspired by the artist's jealousy so familiar to Italians! What a mine
of matter for eager discussion!
The whole pit was talking as men talk at the Bourse, and the result
was such a clamor as could not fail to amaze a Frenchman accustomed to
the quiet of the Paris theatres. The boxes were in a ferment like the
stir of swarming bees.
One man alone remained passive in the turmoil. Emilio Memmi, with his
back to the stage and his eyes fixed on Massimilla with a melancholy
expression, seemed to live in her gaze; he had not once looked round
at the prima donna.
"I need not ask you, _caro carino_, what was the result of my
negotiation," said Vendramin to Emilio. "Your pure and pious
Massimilla has been supremely kind--in short, she has been la Tinti?"
The Prince's reply was a shake of his head, full of the deepest
"Your love has not descended from the ethereal spaces where you soar,"
said Vendramin, excited by opium. "It is not yet materialized. This
morning, as every day for six months--you felt flowers opening their
scented cups under the dome of your skull that had expanded to vast
proportions. All your blood moved to your swelling heart that rose to
choke your throat. There, in there,"--and he laid his hand on Emilio's
breast,--"you felt rapturous emotions. Massimilla's voice fell on your
soul in waves of light; her touch released a thousand imprisoned joys
which emerged from the convolutions of your brain to gather about you
in clouds, to waft your etherealized body through the blue air to a
purple glow far above the snowy heights, to where the pure love of
angels dwells. The smile, the kisses of her lips wrapped you in a
poisoned robe which burnt up the last vestiges of your earthly nature.
Her eyes were twin stars that turned you into shadowless light. You
knelt together on the palm-branches of heaven, waiting for the gates
of Paradise to be opened; but they turned heavily on their hinges, and
in your impatience you struck at them, but could not reach them. Your
hand touched nothing but clouds more nimble than your desires. Your
radiant companion, crowned with white roses like a bride of Heaven,
wept at your anguish. Perhaps she was murmuring melodious litanies to
the Virgin, while the demoniacal cravings of the flesh were haunting
you with their shameless clamor, and you disdained the divine fruits
of that ecstasy in which I live, though shortening my life."
"Your exaltation, my dear Vendramin," replied Emilio, calmly, "is
still beneath reality. Who can describe that purely physical
exhaustion in which we are left by the abuse of a dream of pleasure,
leaving the soul still eternally craving, and the spirit in clear
possession of its faculties?
"But I am weary of this torment, which is that of Tantalus. This is my
last night on earth. After one final effort, our Mother shall have her
child again--the Adriatic will silence my last sigh--"
"Are you idiotic?" cried Vendramin. "No; you are mad; for madness, the
crisis we despise, is the memory of an antecedent condition acting on
our present state of being. The genius of my dreams has taught me
that, and much else! You want to make one of the Duchess and la Tinti;
nay, dear Emilio, take them separately; it will be far wiser. Raphael
alone ever united form and idea. You want to be the Raphael of love;
but chance cannot be commanded. Raphael was a 'fluke' of God's
creation, for He foreordained that form and idea should be
antagonistic; otherwise nothing could live. When the first cause is
more potent than the outcome, nothing comes of it. We must live either
on earth or in the skies. Remain in the skies; it is always too soon
to come down to earth."
"I will take the Duchess home," said the Prince, "and make a last
"Afterwards," cried Vendramin, anxiously, "promise to call for me at
"I will."
This dialogue, in modern Greek, with which Vendramin and Emilio were
familiar, as many Venetians are, was unintelligible to the Duchess and
to the Frenchman. Although he was quite outside the little circle that
held the Duchess, Emilio and Vendramin together--for these three
understood each other by means of Italian glances, by turns arch and
keen, or veiled and sidelong--the physician at last discerned part of
the truth. An earnest entreaty from the Duchess had prompted
Vendramin's suggestion to Emilio, for Massimilla had begun to suspect
the misery endured by her lover in that cold empyrean where he was
wandering, though she had no suspicions of la Tinti.
"These two young men are mad!" said the doctor.
"As to the Prince," said the Duchess, "trust me to cure him. As to
Vendramin, if he cannot understand this sublime music, he is perhaps
"If you would but tell me the cause of their madness, I could cure
them," said the Frenchman.
"And since when have great physicians ceased to read men's minds?"
said she, jestingly.
The ballet was long since ended; the second act of _Mose_ was
beginning. The pit was perfectly attentive. A rumor had got abroad
that Duke Cataneo had lectured Genovese, representing to him what
injury he was doing to Clarina, the _diva_ of the day. The second act
would certainly be magnificent.
"The Egyptian Prince and his father are on the stage," said the
Duchess. "They have yielded once more, though insulting the Hebrews,
but they are trembling with rage. The father congratulates himself on
his son's approaching marriage, and the son is in despair at this
fresh obstacle, though it only increases his love, to which everything
is opposed. Genovese and Carthagenova are singing admirably. As you
see, the tenor is making his peace with the house. How well he brings
out the beauty of the music! The phrase given out by the son on the
tonic, and repeated by the father on the dominant, is all in character
with the simple, serious scheme which prevails throughout the score;
the sobriety of it makes the endless variety of the music all the more
wonderful. All Egypt is there.
"I do not believe that there is in modern music a composition more
perfectly noble. The solemn and majestic paternity of a king is fully
expressed in that magnificent theme, in harmony with the grand style
that stamps the opera throughout. The idea of a Pharaoh's son pouring
out his sorrows on his father's bosom could surely not be more
admirably represented than in this grand imagery. Do you not feel a
sense of the splendor we are wont to attribute to that monarch of
"It is indeed sublime music," said the Frenchman.
"The air _Pace mia smarrita_, which the Queen will now sing, is one of
those _bravura_ songs which every composer is compelled to introduce,
though they mar the general scheme of the work; but an opera would as
often as not never see the light, if the prima donna's vanity were not
duly flattered. Still, this musical 'sop' is so fine in itself that it
is performed as written, on every stage; it is so brilliant that the
leading lady does not substitute her favorite show piece, as is very
commonly done in operas.
"And now comes the most striking movement in the score: the duet
between Osiride and Elcia in the subterranean chamber where he has
hidden her to keep her from the departing Israelites, and to fly with
her himself from Egypt. The lovers are then intruded on by Aaron, who
has been to warn Amalthea, and we get the grandest of all quartettes:
_Mi manca la voce, mi sento morire_. This is one of those masterpieces
that will survive in spite of time, that destroyer of fashion in
music, for it speaks the language of the soul which can never change.
Mozart holds his own by the famous _finale_ to _Don Giovanni_;
Marcello, by his psalm, _Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei_; Cimarosa, by the
air _Pria che spunti_; Beethoven by his C minor symphony; Pergolesi,
by his _Stabat Mater_; Rossini will live by _Mi manca la voce_. What
is most to be admired in Rossini is his command of variety to form; to
produce the effect here required, he has had recourse to the old
structure of the canon in unison, to bring the voices in, and merge
them in the same melody. As the form of these sublime melodies was
new, he set them in an old frame; and to give it the more relief he
has silenced the orchestra, accompanying the voices with the harps
alone. It is impossible to show greater ingenuity of detail, or to
produce a grander general effect.--Dear me! again an outbreak!" said
the Duchess.
Genovese, who had sung his duet with Carthagenova so well, was
caricaturing himself now that la Tinti was on the stage. From a great
singer he sank to the level of the most worthless chorus singer.
The most formidable uproar arose that had ever echoed to the roof of
the _Fenice_. The commotion only yielded to Clarina, and she, furious
at the difficulties raised by Genovese's obstinacy, sang _Mi manca la
voce_ as it will never be sung again. The enthusiasm was tremendous;
the audience forgot their indignation and rage in pleasure that was
really acute.
"She floods my soul with purple glow!" said Capraja, waving his hand
in benediction at la _Diva_ Tinti.
"Heaven send all its blessings on your head!" cried a gondolier.
"Pharaoh will now revoke his commands," said the Duchess, while the
commotion in the pit was calming down. "Moses will overwhelm him, even
on his throne, by declaring the death of every first-born son in
Egypt, singing that strain of vengeance which augurs thunders from
heaven, while above it the Hebrew clarions ring out. But you must
clearly understand that this air is by Pacini; Carthagenova introduces
it instead of that by Rossini. This air, _Paventa_, will no doubt hold
its place in the score; it gives a bass too good an opportunity for
displaying the quality of his voice, and expression here will carry
the day rather than science. However, the air is full of magnificent
menace, and it is possible that we may not be long allowed to hear
A thunder of clapping and _bravos_ hailed the song, followed by deep
and cautious silence; nothing could be more significant or more
thoroughly Venetian than the outbreak and its sudden suppression.
"I need say nothing of the coronation march announcing the
enthronement of Osiride, intended by the King as a challenge to Moses;
to hear it is enough. Their famous Beethoven has written nothing
grander. And this march, full of earthly pomp, contrasts finely with
the march of the Israelites. Compare them, and you will see that the
music is full of purpose.
"Elcia declares her love in the presence of the two Hebrew leaders,
and then renounces it in the fine _aria_, _Porge la destra amata_.
(Place your beloved hand.) Ah! What anguish! Only look at the house!"
The pit was shouting _bravo_, when Genovese left the stage.
"Now, free from her deplorable lover, we shall hear Tinti sing, _O
desolata Elcia_--the tremendous _cavatina_ expressive of love
disapproved by God."
"Where art thou, Rossini?" cried Cataneo. "If he could but hear the
music created by his genius so magnificently performed," he went on.
"Is not Clarina worthy of him?" he asked Capraja. "To give life to
those notes by such gusts of flame, starting from the lungs and
feeding in the air on some unknown matter which our ears inhale, and
which bears us heavenwards in a rapture of love, she must be divine!"
"She is like the gorgeous Indian plant, which deserting the earth
absorbs invisible nourishment from the atmosphere, and sheds from its
spiral white blossom such fragrant vapors as fill the brain with
dreams," replied Capraja.
On being recalled, la Tinti appeared alone. She was received with
a storm of applause; a thousand kisses were blown to her from
finger-tips; she was pelted with roses, and a wreath was made of
the flowers snatched from the ladies' caps, almost all sent out
from Paris.
The _cavatina_ was encored.
"How eagerly Capraja, with his passion for embellishments, must have
looked forward to this air, which derives all its value from
execution," remarked Massimilla. "Here Rossini has, so to speak, given
the reins over to the singer's fancy. Her _cadenzas_ and her feeling
are everything. With a poor voice or inferior execution, it would be
nothing--the throat is responsible for the effects of this _aria_.
"The singer has to express the most intense anguish,--that of a woman
who sees her lover dying before her very eyes. La Tinti makes the
house ring with her highest notes; and Rossini, to leave pure singing
free to do its utmost, has written it in the simplest, clearest style.
Then, as a crowning effort, he has composed those heartrending musical
cries: _Tormenti! Affanni! Smanie!_ What grief, what anguish, in those
runs. And la Tinti, you see, has quite carried the house off its
The Frenchman, bewildered by this adoring admiration throughout a vast
theatre for the source of its delight, here had a glimpse of genuine
Italian nature. But neither the Duchess nor the two young men paid any
attention to the ovation. Clarina began again.
The Duchess feared that she was seeing her Emilio for the last time.
As to the Prince: in the presence of the Duchess, the sovereign
divinity who lifted him to the skies, he had forgotten where he was,
he no longer heard the voice of the woman who had initiated him into
the mysteries of earthly pleasure, for deep dejection made his ears
tingle with a chorus of plaintive voices, half-drowned in a rushing
noise as of pouring rain.
Vendramin saw himself in an ancient Venetian costume, looking on at
the ceremony of the _Bucentaur_. The Frenchman, who plainly discerned
that some strange and painful mystery stood between the Prince and the
Duchess, was racking his brain with shrewd conjecture to discover what
it could be.
The scene had changed. In front of a fine picture, representing the
Desert and the Red Sea, the Egyptians and Hebrews marched and
countermarched without any effect on the feelings of the four persons
in the Duchess' box. But when the first chords on the harps preluded
the hymn of the delivered Israelites, the Prince and Vendramin rose
and stood leaning against the opposite sides of the box, and the
Duchess, resting her elbow on the velvet ledge, supported her head on
her left hand.
The Frenchman, understanding from this little stir, how important this
justly famous chorus was in the opinion of the house, listened with
devout attention.
The audience, with one accord, shouted for its repetition.
"I feel as if I were celebrating the liberation of Italy," thought a
"Such music lifts up bowed heads, and revives hope in the most
torpid," said a man from the Romagna.
"In this scene," said Massimilla, whose emotion was evident, "science
is set aside. Inspiration, alone, dictated this masterpiece; it rose
from the composer's soul like a cry of love! As to the accompaniment,
it consists of the harps; the orchestra appears only at the last
repetition of that heavenly strain. Rossini can never rise higher than
in this prayer; he will do as good work, no doubt, but never better:
the sublime is always equal to itself; but this hymn is one of the
things that will always be sublime. The only match for such a
conception might be found in the psalms of the great Marcello, a noble
Venetian, who was to music what Giotto was to painting. The majesty of
the phrase, unfolding itself with episodes of inexhaustible melody, is
comparable with the finest things ever invented by religious writers.
"How simple is the structure! Moses opens the attack in G minor,
ending in a cadenza in B flat which allows the chorus to come in,
_pianissimo_ at first, in B flat, returning by modulations to G minor.
This splendid treatment of the voices, recurring three times, ends in
the last strophe with a _stretto_ in G major of absolutely
overpowering effect. We feel as though this hymn of a nation released
from slavery, as it mounts to heaven, were met by kindred strains
falling from the higher spheres. The stars respond with joy to the
ecstasy of liberated mortals. The rounded fulness of the rhythm, the
deliberate dignity of the graduations leading up to the outbursts of
thanksgiving, and its slow return raise heavenly images in the soul.
Could you not fancy that you saw heaven open, angels holding sistrums
of gold, prostrate seraphs swinging their fragrant censers, and the
archangels leaning on the flaming swords with which they have
vanquished the heathen?
"The secret of this music and its refreshing effect on the soul is, I
believe, that of a very few works of human genius: it carries us for
the moment into the infinite; we feel it within us; we see it, in
those melodies as boundless as the hymns sung round the throne of God.
Rossini's genius carries us up to prodigious heights, whence we look
down on a promised land, and our eyes, charmed by heavenly light, gaze
into limitless space. Elcia's last strain, having almost recovered
from her grief, brings a feeling of earth-born passions into this hymn
of thanksgiving. This, again, is a touch of genius.
"Ay, sing!" exclaimed the Duchess, as she listened to the last stanza
with the same gloomy enthusiasm as the singers threw into it. "Sing!
You are free!"
The words were spoken in a voice that startled the physician. To
divert Massimilla from her bitter reflections, while the excitement of
recalling la Tinti was at its height, he engaged her in one of the
arguments in which the French excel.
"Madame," said he, "in explaining this grand work--which I shall come
to hear again to-morrow with a fuller comprehension, thanks to you, of
its structure and its effect--you have frequently spoken of the color
of the music, and of the ideas it depicts; now I, as an analyst, a
materialist, must confess that I have always rebelled against the
affectation of certain enthusiasts, who try to make us believe that
music paints with tones. Would it not be the same thing if Raphael's
admirers spoke of his singing with colors?"
"In the language of musicians," replied the Duchess, "_painting_ is
arousing certain associations in our souls, or certain images in our
brain; and these memories and images have a color of their own; they
are sad or cheerful. You are battling for a word, that is all.
According to Capraja, each instrument has its task, its mission, and
appeals to certain feelings in our souls. Does a pattern in gold on a
blue ground produce the same sensations in you as a red pattern on
black or green? In these, as in music, there are no figures, no
expression of feeling; they are purely artistic, and yet no one looks
at them with indifference. Has not the oboe the peculiar tone that we
associate with the open country, in common with most wind instruments?
The brass suggests martial ideas, and rouses us to vehement or even
somewhat furious feelings. The strings, for which the material is
derived from the organic world, seem to appeal to the subtlest fibres
of our nature; they go to the very depths of the heart. When I spoke
of the gloomy hue, and the coldness of the tones in the introduction
to _Mose_, was I not fully as much justified as your critics are when
they speak of the 'color' in a writer's language? Do you not
acknowledge that there is a nervous style, a pallid style, a lively,
and a highly-colored style? Art can paint with words, sounds, colors,
lines, form; the means are many; the result is one.
"An Italian architect might give us the same sensation that is
produced in us by the introduction to _Mose_, by constructing a walk
through dark, damp avenues of tall, thick trees, and bringing us out
suddenly in a valley full of streams, flowers, and mills, and basking
in the sunshine. In their greatest moments the arts are but the
expression of the grand scenes of nature.
"I am not learned enough to enlarge on the philosophy of music; go and
talk to Capraja; you will be amazed at what he can tell you. He will
say that every instrument that depends on the touch or breath of man
for its expression and length of note, is superior as a vehicle of
expression to color, which remains fixed, or speech, which has its
limits. The language of music is infinite; it includes everything; it
can express all things.
"Now do you see wherein lies the pre-eminence of the work you have
just heard? I can explain it in a few words. There are two kinds of
music: one, petty, poor, second-rate, always the same, based on a
hundred or so of phrases which every musician has at his command, a
more or less agreeable form of babble which most composers live in. We
listen to their strains, their would-be melodies, with more or less
satisfaction, but absolutely nothing is left in our mind; by the end
of the century they are forgotten. But the nations, from the beginning
of time till our own day, have cherished as a precious treasure
certain strains which epitomize their instincts and habits; I might
almost say their history. Listen to one of these primitive tones,--the
Gregorian chant, for instance, is, in sacred song, the inheritance of
the earliest peoples,--and you will lose yourself in deep dreaming.
Strange and immense conceptions will unfold within you, in spite of
the extreme simplicity of these rudimentary relics. And once or twice
in a century--not oftener, there arises a Homer of music, to whom God
grants the gift of being ahead of his age; men who can compact
melodies full of accomplished facts, pregnant with mighty poetry.
Think of this; remember it. The thought, repeated by you, will prove
fruitful; it is melody, not harmony, that can survive the shocks of
"The music of this oratorio contains a whole world of great and sacred
things. A work which begins with that introduction and ends with that
prayer is immortal--as immortal as the Easter hymn, _O filii et
filioe_, as the _Dies iroe_ of the dead, as all the songs which in
every land have outlived its splendor, its happiness, and its ruined
The tears the Duchess wiped away as she quitted her box showed plainly
that she was thinking of the Venice that is no more; and Vendramin
kissed her hand.
The performance ended with the most extraordinary chaos of noises:
abuse and hisses hurled at Genovese and a fit of frenzy in praise of
la Tinti. It was a long time since the Venetians had had so lively an
evening. They were warmed and revived by that antagonism which is
never lacking in Italy, where the smallest towns always throve on the
antagonistic interests of two factions: the Geulphs and Ghibellines
everywhere; the Capulets and the Montagues at Verona; the Geremei and
the Lomelli at Bologna; the Fieschi and the Doria at Genoa; the
patricians and the populace, the Senate and tribunes of the Roman
republic; the Pazzi and the Medici at Florence; the Sforza and the
Visconti at Milan; the Orsini and the Colonna at Rome,--in short,
everywhere and on every occasion there has been the same impulse.
Out in the streets there were already _Genovists_ and _Tintists_.
The Prince escorted the Duchess, more depressed than ever by the loves
of Osiride; she feared some similar disaster to her own, and could
only cling to Emilio, as if to keep him next her heart.
"Remember your promise," said Vendramin. "I will wait for you in the
Vendramin took the Frenchman's arm, proposing that they should walk
together on the Piazza San Marco while awaiting the Prince.
"I shall be only too glad if he should not come," he added.
This was the text for a conversation between the two, Vendramin
regarding it as a favorable opportunity for consulting the physician,
and telling him the singular position Emilio had placed himself in.
The Frenchman did as every Frenchman does on all occasions: he
laughed. Vendramin, who took the matter very seriously, was angry; but
he was mollified when the disciple of Majendie, of Cuvier, of
Dupuytren, and of Brossais assured him that he believed he could cure
the Prince of his high-flown raptures, and dispel the heavenly poetry
in which he shrouded Massimilla as in a cloud.
"A happy form of misfortune!" said he. "The ancients, who were not
such fools as might be inferred from their crystal heaven and their
ideas on physics, symbolized in the fable of Ixion the power which
nullifies the body and makes the spirit lord of all."
Vendramin and the doctor presently met Genovese, and with him the
fantastic Capraja. The melomaniac was anxious to learn the real cause
of the tenor's _fiasco_. Genovese, the question being put to him,
talked fast, like all men who can intoxicate themselves by the
ebullition of ideas suggested to them by a passion.
"Yes, signori, I love her, I worship her with a frenzy of which I
never believed myself capable, now that I am tired of women. Women
play the mischief with art. Pleasure and work cannot be carried on
together. Clara fancies that I was jealous of her success, that I
wanted to hinder her triumph at Venice; but I was clapping in the
side-scenes, and shouted _Diva_ louder than any one in the house."
"But even that," said Cataneo, joining them, "does not explain why,
from being a divine singer, you should have become one of the most
execrable performers who ever piped air through his larynx, giving
none of the charm even which enchants and bewitches us."
"I!" said the singer. "I a bad singer! I who am the equal of the
greatest performers!"
By this time, the doctor and Vendramin, Capraja, Cataneo, and Genovese
had made their way to the piazzetta. It was midnight. The glittering
bay, outlined by the churches of San Giorgio and San Paulo at the end
of the Giudecca, and the beginning of the Grand Canal, that opens so
mysteriously under the _Dogana_ and the church of Santa Maria della
Salute, lay glorious and still. The moon shone on the barques along
the Riva de' Schiavoni. The waters of Venice, where there is no tide,
looked as if they were alive, dancing with a myriad spangles. Never
had a singer a more splendid stage.
Genovese, with an emphatic flourish, seemed to call Heaven and Earth
to witness; and then, with no accompaniment but the lapping waves, he
sang _Ombra adorata_, Crescentini's great air. The song, rising up
between the statues of San Teodoro and San Giorgio, in the heart of
sleeping Venice lighted by the moon, the words, in such strange
harmony with the scene, and the melancholy passion of the singer, held
the Italians and the Frenchman spellbound.
At the very first notes, Vendramin's face was wet with tears. Capraja
stood as motionless as one of the statues in the ducal palace. Cataneo
seemed moved to some feeling. The Frenchman, taken by surprise, was
meditative, like a man of science in the presence of a phenomenon that
upsets all his fundamental axioms. These four minds, all so different,
whose hopes were so small, who believed in nothing for themselves or
after themselves, who regarded their own existence as that of a
transient and a fortuitous being,--like the little life of a plant or
a beetle,--had a glimpse of Heaven. Never did music more truly merit
the epithet divine. The consoling notes, as they were poured out,
enveloped their souls in soft and soothing airs. On these vapors,
almost visible, as it seemed to the listeners, like the marble shapes
about them in the silver moonlight, angels sat whose wings, devoutly
waving, expressed adoration and love. The simple, artless melody
penetrated to the soul as with a beam of light. It was a holy passion!
But the singer's vanity roused them from their emotion with a terrible
"Now, am I a bad singer?" he exclaimed, as he ended.
His audience only regretted that the instrument was not a thing of
Heaven. This angelic song was then no more than the outcome of a man's
offended vanity! The singer felt nothing, thought nothing, of the
pious sentiments and divine images he could create in others,--no
more, in fact, than Paganini's violin knows what the player makes it
utter. What they had seen in fancy was Venice lifting its shroud and
singing--and it was merely the result of a tenor's _fiasco_!
"Can you guess the meaning of such a phenomenon?" the Frenchman asked
of Capraja, wishing to make him talk, as the Duchess had spoken of him
as a profound thinker.
"What phenomenon?" said Capraja.
"Genovese--who is admirable in the absence of la Tinti, and when he
sings with her is a braying ass."
"He obeys an occult law of which one of your chemists might perhaps
give you the mathematical formula, and which the next century will no
doubt express in a statement full of _x_, _a_, and _b_, mixed up with
little algebraic signs, bars, and quirks that give me the colic; for
the finest conceptions of mathematics do not add much to the sum total
of our enjoyment.
"When an artist is so unfortunate as to be full of the passion he
wishes to express, he cannot depict it because he is the thing itself
instead of its image. Art is the work of the brain, not of the heart.
When you are possessed by a subject you are a slave, not a master; you
are like a king besieged by his people. Too keen a feeling, at the
moment when you want to represent that feeling, causes an insurrection
of the senses against the governing faculty."
"Might we not convince ourselves of this by some further experiment?"
said the doctor.
"Cataneo, you might bring your tenor and the prima donna together
again," said Capraja to his friend.
"Well, gentlemen," said the Duke, "come to sup with me. We ought to
reconcile the tenor and la Clarina; otherwise the season will be
ruined in Venice."
The invitation was accepted.
"Gondoliers!" called Cataneo.
"One minute," said Vendramin. "Memmi is waiting for me at Florian's; I
cannot leave him to himself. We must make him tipsy to-night, or he
will kill himself to-morrow."
"_Corpo santo!_" exclaimed the Duke. "I must keep that young fellow
alive, for the happiness and future prospects of my race. I will
invite him, too."
They all went back to Florian's, where the assembled crowd were
holding an eager and stormy discussion to which the tenor's arrival
put an end. In one corner, near a window looking out on the colonnade,
gloomy, with a fixed gaze and rigid attitude, Emilio was a dismal
image of despair.
"That crazy fellow," said the physician, in French, to Vendramin,
"does not know what he wants. Here is a man who can make of a
Massimilla Doni a being apart from the rest of creation, possessing
her in heaven, amid ideal splendor such as no power on earth can make
real. He can behold his mistress for ever sublime and pure, can always
hear within him what we have just heard on the seashore; can always
live in the light of a pair of eyes which create for him the warm and
golden glow that surrounds the Virgin in Titian's Assumption,--after
Raphael had invented it or had it revealed to him for the
Transfiguration,--and this man only longs to smirch the poem.
"By my advice he must needs combine his sensual joys and his heavenly
adoration in one woman. In short, like all the rest of us, he will
have a mistress. He had a divinity, and the wretched creature insists
on her being a female! I assure you, monsieur, he is resigning heaven.
I will not answer for it that he may not ultimately die of despair.
"O ye women's faces, delicately outlined in a pure and radiant oval,
reminding us of those creations of art where it has most successfully
competed with nature! Divine feet that cannot walk, slender forms that
an earthly breeze would break, shapes too frail ever to conceive,
virgins that we dreamed of as we grew out of childhood, admired in
secret, and adored without hope, veiled in the beams of some
unwearying desire,--maids whom we may never see again, but whose smile
remains supreme in our life, what hog of Epicurus could insist on
dragging you down to the mire of this earth!
"The sun, monsieur, gives light and heat to the world, only because it
is at a distance of thirty-three millions of leagues. Get nearer to
it, and science warns you that it is not really hot or luminous,--for
science is of some use," he added, looking at Capraja.
"Not so bad for a Frenchman and a doctor," said Capraja, patting the
foreigner on the shoulder. "You have in those words explained the
thing which Europeans least understand in all Dante: his Beatrice.
Yes, Beatrice, that ideal figure, the queen of the poet's fancies,
chosen above all the elect, consecrated with tears, deified by memory,
and for ever young in the presence of ineffectual desire!"
"Prince," said the Duke to Emilio, "come and sup with me. You cannot
refuse the poor Neapolitan whom you have robbed both of his wife and
of his mistress."
This broad Neapolitan jest, spoken with an aristocratic good manner,
made Emilio smile; he allowed the Duke to take his arm and lead him
Cataneo had already sent a messenger to his house from the cafe.
As the Palazzo Memmi was on the Grand Canal, not far from Santa Maria
della Salute, the way thither on foot was round by the Rialto, or it
could be reached in a gondola. The four guests would not separate and
preferred to walk; the Duke's infirmities obliged him to get into his
At about two in the morning anybody passing the Memmi palace would
have seen light pouring out of every window across the Grand Canal,
and have heard the delightful overture to _Semiramide_ performed at
the foot of the steps by the orchestra of the _Fenice_, as a serenade
to la Tinti.
The company were at supper in the second floor gallery. From the
balcony la Tinti in return sang Almavida's _Buona sera_ from _Il
Barbiere_, while the Duke's steward distributed payment from his
master to the poor artists and bid them to dinner the next day, such
civilities as are expected of grand signors who protect singers, and
of fine ladies who protect tenors and basses. In these cases there is
nothing for it but to marry all the _corps de theatre_.
Cataneo did things handsomely; he was the manager's banker, and this
season was costing him two thousand crowns.
He had had all the palace furnished, had imported a French cook, and
wines of all lands. So the supper was a regal entertainment.
The Prince, seated next la Tinti, was keenly alive, all through the
meal, to what poets in every language call the darts of love. The
transcendental vision of Massimilla was eclipsed, just as the idea of
God is sometimes hidden by clouds of doubt in the consciousness of
solitary thinkers. Clarina thought herself the happiest woman in the
world as she perceived Emilio was in love with her. Confident of
retaining him, her joy was reflected in her features, her beauty was
so dazzling that the men, as they lifted their glasses, could not
resist bowing to her with instinctive admiration.
"The Duchess is not to compare with la Tinti," said the Frenchman,
forgetting his theory under the fire of the Sicilian's eyes.
The tenor ate and drank languidly; he seemed to care only to identify
himself with the prima donna's life, and had lost the hearty sense of
enjoyment which is characteristic of Italian men singers.
"Come, signorina," said the Duke, with an imploring glance at Clarina,
"and you, _caro prima uomo_," he added to Genovese, "unite your voices
in one perfect sound. Let us have the C of _Qual portento_, when light
appears in the oratorio we have just heard, to convince my old friend
Capraja of the superiority of unison to any embellishment."
"I will carry her off from that Prince she is in love with; for she
adores him--it stares me in the face!" said Genovese to himself.
What was the amazement of the guests who had heard Genovese out of
doors, when he began to bray, to coo, mew, squeal, gargle, bellow,
thunder, bark, shriek, even produce sounds which could only be
described as a hoarse rattle,--in short, go through an
incomprehensible farce, while his face was transfigured with rapturous
expression like that of a martyr, as painted by Zurbaran or Murillo,
Titian or Raphael. The general shout of laughter changed to almost
tragical gravity when they saw that Genovese was in utter earnest. La
Tinti understood that her companion was in love with her, and had
spoken the truth on the stage, the land of falsehood.
"_Poverino!_" she murmured, stroking the Prince's hand under the
"By all that is holy!" cried Capraja, "will you tell me what score you
are reading at this moment--murdering Rossini? Pray inform us what you
are thinking about, what demon is struggling in your throat."
"A demon!" cried Genovese, "say rather the god of music. My eyes, like
those of Saint-Cecilia, can see angels, who, pointing with their
fingers, guide me along the lines of the score which is written in
notes of fire, and I am trying to keep up with them. PER DIO! do you
not understand? The feeling that inspires me has passed into my being;
it fills my heart and my lungs; my soul and throat have but one life.
"Have you never, in a dream, listened to the most glorious strains,
the ideas of unknown composers who have made use of pure sound as
nature has hidden it in all things,--sound which we call forth, more
or less perfectly, by the instruments we employ to produce masses of
various color; but which in those dream-concerts are heard free from
the imperfections of the performers who cannot be all feeling, all
soul? And I, I give you that perfection, and you abuse me!
"You are as mad at the pit of the _Fenice_, who hissed me! I scorned
the vulgar crowd for not being able to mount with me to the heights
whence we reign over art, and I appeal to men of mark, to a Frenchman
--Why, he is gone!"
"Half an hour ago," said Vendramin.
"That is a pity. He, perhaps, would have understood me, since
Italians, lovers of art, do not--"
"On you go!" said Capraja, with a smile, and tapping lightly on the
tenor's head. "Ride off on the divine Ariosto's hippogriff; hunt down
your radiant chimera, musical visionary as you are!"
In point of fact, all the others, believing that Genovese was drunk,
let him talk without listening to him. Capraja alone had understood
the case put by the French physician.
While the wine of Cyprus was loosening every tongue, and each one was
prancing on his favorite hobby, the doctor, in a gondola, was waiting
for the Duchess, having sent her a note written by Vendramin.
Massimilla appeared in her night wrapper, so much had she been alarmed
by the tone of the Prince's farewell, and so startled by the hopes
held out by the letter.
"Madame," said the Frenchman, as he placed her in a seat and desired
the gondoliers to start, "at this moment Prince Emilio's life is in
danger, and you alone can save him."
"What is to be done?" she asked.
"Ah! Can you resign yourself to play a degrading part--in spite of the
noblest face to be seen in Italy? Can you drop from the blue sky where
you dwell, into the bed of a courtesan? In short, can you, an angel of
refinement, of pure and spotless beauty, condescend to imagine what
the love must be of a Tinti--in her room, and so effectually as to
deceive the ardor of Emilio, who is indeed too drunk to be very
"Is that all?" said she, with a smile that betrayed to the Frenchman a
side he had not as yet perceived of the delightful nature of an
Italian woman in love. "I will out-do la Tinti, if need be, to save my
friend's life."
"And you will thus fuse into one two kinds of love, which he sees as
distinct--divided by a mountain of poetic fancy, that will melt away
like the snow on a glacier under the beams of the midsummer sun."
"I shall be eternally your debtor," said the Duchess, gravely.
When the French doctor returned to the gallery, where the orgy had by
this time assumed the stamp of Venetian frenzy, he had a look of
satisfaction which the Prince, absorbed by la Tinti, failed to
observe; he was promising himself a repetition of the intoxicating
delights he had known. La Tinti, a true Sicilian, was floating on the
tide of a fantastic passion on the point of being gratified.
The doctor whispered a few words to Vendramin, and la Tinti was
"What are you plotting?" she inquired of the Prince's friend.
"Are you kind-hearted?" said the doctor in her ear, with the sternness
of an operator.
The words pierced to her comprehension like a dagger-thrust to her
"It is to save Emilio's life," added Vendramin.
"Come here," said the doctor to Clarina.
The hapless singer rose and went to the other end of the table where,
between Vendramin and the Frenchman, she looked like a criminal
between the confessor and the executioner.
She struggled for a long time, but yielded at last for love of Emilio.
The doctor's last words were:
"And you must cure Genovese!"
She spoke a word to the tenor as she went round the table. She
returned to the Prince, put her arm round his neck and kissed his hair
with an expression of despair which struck Vendramin and the
Frenchman, the only two who had their wits about them, then she
vanished into her room. Emilio, seeing Genovese leave the table, while
Cataneo and Capraja were absorbed in a long musical discussion, stole
to the door of the bedroom, lifted the curtain, and slipped in, like
an eel into the mud.
"But you see, Cataneo," said Capraja, "you have exacted the last drop
of physical enjoyment, and there you are, hanging on a wire like a
cardboard harlequin, patterned with scars, and never moving unless the
string is pulled of a perfect unison."
"And you, Capraja, who have squeezed ideas dry, are not you in the
same predicament? Do you not live riding the hobby of a _cadenza_?"
"I? I possess the whole world!" cried Capraja, with a sovereign
gesture of his hand.
"And I have devoured it!" replied the Duke.
They observed that the physician and Vendramin were gone, and that
they were alone.
Next morning, after a night of perfect happiness, the Prince's sleep
was disturbed by a dream. He felt on his heart the trickle of pearls,
dropped there by an angel; he woke, and found himself bathed in the
tears of Massimilla Doni. He was lying in her arms, and she gazed at
him as he slept.
That evening, at the _Fenice_,--though la Tinti had not allowed him to
rise till two in the afternoon, which is said to be very bad for a
tenor voice,--Genovese sang divinely in his part in _Semiramide_. He
was recalled with la Tinti, fresh crowns were given, the pit was wild
with delight; the tenor no longer attempted to charm the prima donna
by angelic methods.
Vendramin was the only person whom the doctor could not cure. Love for
a country that has ceased to be is a love beyond curing. The young
Venetian, by dint of living in his thirteenth century republic, and in
the arms of that pernicious courtesan called opium, when he found
himself in the work-a-day world to which reaction brought him,
succumbed, pitied and regretted by his friends.
No, how shall the end of this adventure be told--for it is too
disastrously domestic. A word will be enough for the worshipers of the
The Duchess was expecting an infant.
The Peris, the naiads, the fairies, the sylphs of ancient legend, the
Muses of Greece, the Marble Virgins of the Certosa at Pavia, the Day
and Night of Michael Angelo, the little Angels which Bellini was the
first to put at the foot of his Church pictures, and which Raphael
painted so divinely in his Virgin with the Donor, and the Madonna who
shivers at Dresden, the lovely Maidens by Orcagna in the Church of
San-Michele, at Florence, the celestial choir round the tomb in
Saint-Sebaldus, at Nuremberg, the Virgins of the Duomo, at Milan, the
whole population of a hundred Gothic Cathedrals, all the race of beings
who burst their mould to visit you, great imaginative artists--all these
angelic and disembodied maidens gathered round Massimilla's bed, and
PARIS, May 25th, 1839.
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Cane, Marco-Facino
Facino Cane
Tinti, Clarina
Albert Savarus
Varese, Emilio Memmi, Prince of
Varese, Princess of
Vendramini, Marco
Facino Cane
Lost Illusions
Letters of Two Brides
Gaudissart II
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Starting Dreadlocks With My Poodle
by Catherine Holden Robinson
Poodles are widely admired for their amazing coats, and the multitude of styles they sport.
Jupiterimages/ Images
A poodle's naturally curly coat affords it many grooming opportunities, from the blown out bow-sporting diva to the perfectly groomed bow-tied show dog. Dreadlocks, commonly known as cords, form naturally in a poodle coat with the propensity to mat, but care must to be taken to allow the cords to form properly, avoiding severe matting, which can cause coat and skin damage.
Not for Every Poodle
Similar to humans, the coarseness of the hair and coat of each poodle may vary, and not every poodle's coat can be worked into dreadlocks or cords. Puppies shouldn't be corded until they reach 8 months of age. By working with the coat during bathing and grooming, it's possible to get a feel for the coarseness of the coat. A coat that mats easily likely will cord, and while the process is painstaking, the rewards are immense. Corded poodles are striking, especially in the show ring.
Let Nature Do its Work
A poodle's hair will form into mats naturally if not cared for properly. To begin the dreadlocks process, avoid combing the dog for a period of time. The exact time line may vary depending on her coat condition and previous grooming, but you'll be able to feel the cords forming near the base of the hair shaft near the dog's skin. You may want to trim the hair near the dog's anal area to avoid having feces mat into the cords as they begin to form.
Lift and Separate
Once you stop combing your poodle, her dreadlock cords will begin to form, but they must be separated to keep her from looking like one large mat. Separate the hair into 1/4-inch sections. For best results, use your fingers. Separate the sections by holding one 1/4-inch section in each hand. Pull one toward you, while pulling the other in the opposite direction. You'll need to repeat this for the entire coat. Sections that are very matted can be separated by using a metal comb. Mats that won't separate can be helped along by using a small pair of grooming shears and snipping a small cut into the mat near the dog's coat. Cut away from, not toward the skin being careful not to snip the dog's skin. This is a process best handled by a groomer if you're not familiar with grooming or handling grooming scissors.
Continuous Care
Dreadlock cords require constant care. You'll need to rework the cords two or three times weekly as the full dreadlocks form, and your poodle still needs to be bathed. Dreadlock cords need to dry fully to avoid mold and mildew in the coat, which could take several hours. The use of a kennel dryer or large house fans directed toward the kenneled dog as she dries, can assist in the drying process. To ensure the proper formation of the dreadlock cords and keep them clean and dry, you may want to delegate the bathing and drying to your professional groomer.
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The Disguiser 伪装者 - Episode 22 (Recap)
"The Hunt" begins. I love and I hate the Ming Brothers, especially the two older ones. That's some craaaaaaaazy shit they are pulling in this episode O_____________o And get ready to press play again right away after this one ends, because the Operation is far from over.
JoAnne: Will you LOOK at how sexy he is. Just LOOK at him. Rrrrrrrrawr...
Eleanor: This episode. I think I'm still hyperventilating. Can't breathe. Too much tension!
Yeah, plus... You Saw Wang Kai this weekend! In person!!!
Episode 22
Poor Ming Tai.... he is sleepwalking on the streets of Shanghai, thoughts chasing themselves in his head. Is his brother really a traitor? But that can't be, his sister would not let him stay at home if he were! But if he is not a traitor, what is he? Ming Tai is sure his Bro is anti-Japanese, but what exactly? KMT? Communist? And what about Ah Cheng and his hints? And Big Sis?! Nothing makes any sense! Ahhhhhh!
Remember the good old days, when he could look at someone's lunch on an airplane and know so much? What happened to that early promise, Mr. Ming?
I really loved this sequence. So far Ming Tai has been pretty unflappable, and considering he was kidnapped by the KMT and turned into a spy, that's saying something. I really felt his pain and indecision and all the tensions and loyalties he's been trying to figure out, come clashing to a point where he can no longer ignore them.
Ming Tai has stopped in the middle of the street, completely lost in thought, and a police officer is desperately trying to get him to move. When he touches him, Ming Tai comes to and instinctively throws the poor guy over his shoulder. At least he's aware of his surroundings again now, bows an apology and leaves, without saying a word.
Yes because the police are always up for a good body slam. Gets your spine right back into alignment!
Remind me never to creep up on Ming Tai and try and surprise him.
On their way home, Ming Lou and Ah Cheng get held up by some vendor who has parked his cart in the middle of the street. All of Ah Cheng's honking leads to naught, so that Ming Lou (he seems to be having a headache) tells him to get out and buy some walnuts instead. He does: a huge bag, for the whole family. Before they continue their journey, they talk about Ming Tai and how difficult it must be for him. Ming Lou does not answer, when Ah Cheng asks what will happen to baby bro if he refuses the order...
No walnuts for disobeyers!
My heart just hurts right now with what they are trying to accomplish.
Ming Tai has not gone home ... he has gone to Miss Cheng, seeking comfort and counsel. He asks her whether Ming Lou is a Communist, but she does not know, maybe. And even if she knew, she would need the permission of a superior, she adds. Finally, she calls Ming Lou "grey" - neither fish nor fowl. Ming Tai leaves, non the wiser, but judging from the few words his Miss exchanges with Mrs. Su, Miss Cheng knows MORE than she just led on.
Deceitful bitch. Okay, that was harsh, I admit it. Possibly undeserved. Felt good, though.
I get why no one can tell Ming Tai anything, but at least she could be less wishy-washy about her answer. I feel like she revealed more than she was allowed, but that it wasn't necessarily helpful. I'm worried.
Ming Tai stands in front of his home, thinking and thinking ... if Ming Lou is grey, he finally concludes, he is either Communist or KMT or ... he could be the Cobra/Viper himself, which would explain why that dude keeps refusing to meet with him. But what if he is wrong??! He needs to know! Now!! And he storms into the house, to unmask his big brother.
Poor lil thing looks so worried. Maybe they'll tell him Santa isn't real, either.
Aw Ming Tai. Clever boy though. Cobra/Viper is a good hunch, but... Ming Tai, do you really think Big Bro would unmask himself that easily?
Him and Ah Cheng are sitting on the stairs, cracking walnuts. They invite him to join them and he does ... but the atmosphere is tense, because Ming Tai starts fishing for info and voices his frustration about the task given to him, but the other two won't help him one bit, deliberately misunderstanding his intentions.
Pretty soon I'm going to take that hammer and start cracking some nuts, too.
Ah Cheng's face. Haha. When you can't tell secrets, I guess walnut hammering is a good way to release some tension. Do walnuts have a special significance in this drama? I wonder if we are missing something. Joyce, moonlil?
They need to cook for themselves, because Ah Xiang is out of the house to take care of her sick mother. Ming Lou assigns Ah Cheng and Ming Tai to cook and when asked what he wants to eat, Ming Tai says "snake". But Ah Cheng says he does not dare cook it and Ming Lou says he fears Ming Tai would not stomach it well. Stop it with the double-meaning, boys! >.<
Hahahhhahahah I didn't even notice it when I watched. Too busy staring at Ming Luscious.
Big Bro and Ah Cheng's expressions XD hahahahaha. I know that this scene is super serious, but at the same time it is written so wittily as as to be super funny as well.
When Ming Tai has disappeared into his room - he is rather pissed by now - Ah Cheng and Ming Lou conclude that he is onto them... he is testing them. I seriously want you punished for this, you scumbags!!!! Imagine how much Ming Tai is suffering right now??!
We shouldn't be able to see that bit of skin between your pants and socks, Ming Lou. Suspenders, or buy socks that are long enough.
There has to be a reason why they can't tell him though. Everyone is feeling pretty crappy about the whole situation, but yeah, Ming Tai has the really rotten end of the stick on this one.
The common cooking is not going well, Ming Tai attacks the carrots as if they were his enemies. Him and Ah Cheng even get into a fight over nothing, which ends with Ming Tai screaming "You are traitors!" and Ah Cheng kicking him out of the kitchen, which results in Ming Tai grabbing a knife, storming out into the living room, and throwing the knife at a basket of fruits in front of Ming Lou. Who does not blink an eye. Haha. Then, Ming Tai cuts the pomelo with vigor and starts speaking about snakes again. He gets nowhere. Again. They could as well have him run against a wall over and over.
Look at that pouty face, ahahahahahahahahahha! It's sort of misplaced here, actually. Now he should be displaying genuine anger and worry, not petulance.
But just in case they aren't spies, he still has to be bratty and a baby. This scene was super funny though. Haha. Poor, pouty Ming Tai.
Not surprisingly, dinner is no cheerful affair. In fact, they're all so tense that a sudden movement of Ming Tai's almost makes Ah Cheng attack him. Ming Lou and Ah Cheng are starting to discuss about a press event that will take place the next day. And then, everything turns sad and farewell-y, as Ming Lou tells his little brother to be careful when he leaves the house and gives him a new watch as a present. Ming Tai is about to cry and quickly leaves for his room.
How is this a test? If he agrees to do it and fails, then he sucks. If he doesn't agree to do it, he sucks. He can't possibly do it and remain human, either. This is his brother. What do they want him to do?????
This drama is messing with my head!!! They aren't really going to kill off Ming Lou are they?!?!?! I can see them being crazy enough to do that. There is just enough in this farewell scene that has me convinced he's going to die, but they won't do that, will they? Ack! This drama!
Ah Cheng wonders whether he will be able to follow orders tomorrow ... and Ming Lou tells him to get Guo there as a back-up in case Ming Tai does not show up. Well, that settles the question whether Guo knows "things", doesn't it.
That night, nobody gets much sleep in the Ming house...
So we know that Airplane Wang knows who Ming Lou is. Guo knows too, apparently. And if Trainwreck knows, then Uncle Li must know, and perhaps Mrs. Su. But not Ming Jing? Hmm. Wait though. Airplane Wang and Guo are KMT. They know Lou is KMT, of course. But do they also know he's Communist? What would they be telling Guo that he would think it's okay for Ming Tai to have a job to assassinate his brother/a fellow KMT/the local BOSS? I reject this line of thought.
They can't kill Ming Lou. They just can't! I think that Guo and Wang might know he's KMT, but I have no idea who knows he's also Communist.
Early the next morning, they meet in front of the house, Ming Lou ready to go to work and Ming Tai returning after a morning run. Again, it feels like farewell ... even when Ming Lou says that the first who is home is the one who has to cook for all the others. When he looks after his brother's car, Ming Tai's eyes fill with tears. In the car, Ming Lou is certain that Ming Tai will join "The Hunt".
So clearly he never intends to be there of course, but I still don't understand why Ming Lou thinks this is in any way a good test of his brother.
There HAS to be a reason. There HAS to! I have to believe this is going to work out.
At the spy-hide-out, Mission Leader Ming Tai maps out their operation in detail. His two team mates look sheepish, as he talks about when and where his brother will be. His car will have to pass a sentry post between two events he is attending (the first meeting at Big Boss' residence and later, the press event). This is where they will hit him. Their mission: capture that sentry post, change into their uniforms and use their weapons to kill Ming Lou. And by the way, there is Ah Cheng too. In that car. Guo is in charge of him ... Ming Tai will be in charge of Ming Lou.
I give up, honestly.
Even though Ming Tai is being like this, I'm not convinced he will go through with at the last minute. I just can't see him killing Ming Lou.
And with that, we're at the first meeting. The room is thick with smoke and Manchun has a coughing fit during Minamida's long speech. She is out of tea, too. Ah Cheng brings her a new one; how nice of him! Ming Lou glances at his watch... it's 12.15.
Yeah, I'm guessing that tea has a bit more than sympathy as ingredients.
Ah! This drama! I really want to know how this plan is going to unfold.
About 25 minutes later, Manchun is starting to feel weird... it's her heart. She tries to get up but falters ... luckily, a concerned Ming Lou can catch her before she falls. To the concerned people in the room, he says this is not to worry, Manchun has a heart problem, since forever. She just needs some rest! And with that, Ming Lou leads her out the room. Minamida on the other hand concludes the meeting, but reminds everyone of the press event that Ming Lou will hold later. When the room is emptying, Ah Cheng whispers to her: "wait for me downstairs and get ready to go".
And a thousand watchers sigh and pretend he whispers it to them.
Ah Cheng then goes to check on Ming Lou and Manchun (she is lying on a sofa). Ming Lou orders him to tell people that she needs absolute rest and is not to be disturbed. She holds onto his hand and pleads with him not to leave her. He assures her he will, indeed, stay right beside her. She smiles blissfully at that and ... falls asleep like a log. It is now 1.10 pm. Ming Lou gets up and leaves, unseen by anyone.
Hahahahahahaha okay I feel sad for her in a way but the way he uses her like she's a prop just makes me laugh so hard.
I'm just mortally afraid that she's going to wake up and know she was betrayed somehow.
Ah Cheng steps outside, to inform Minamida about the exact rendezvous point. 2 pm. Scott Road. There's a problem though: her car isn't starting and it can't be fixed. "Let's take my car", Ah Cheng suggests. And off they go!
I'm just bopping along right about here, not a suspicion in my mind. I'm an idiot.
It was at this point that I figured it out! I got so excited! Though I was still curious about a few details of course. So exciting!
A guy is sitting quietly in front of a window, a gun next to him. It's Ming Lou! It's now ten minutes to two o'clock. Ah Chang and Minamida have arrived at Scott Road and storm upstairs, to arrest Wasp at the rendezvous point. But what is this?! The room is empty! In that other location, Ming Lou has taken position next to the window. He is completely calm.
I'm still bumbling along, wondering where he disappeared to, and why he was there in the first place. It's embarrassing, really.
Minamida turns to point her weapon at Ah Cheng and smirks. So, how does he explain this?! He starts stammering something when he suddenly notices a hot tea cup on the table. That's the proof that he was here! He just left! Minamida has her man check the room and he finds... remnants of a KMT broadcasting station. That's good, because now, she won't shoot our Kai Kai.
I love watching her but that uniform is so.freaking.hideous. that I'd almost shoot her myself just not to see it again.
You CANNOT shoot Kai Kai! Never! Oh those beautiful eyes *sigh*
She wants to know why Wasp knew that they were coming... isn't it strange? She steps over to the window and pushes away the curtains. And Ming Lou takes aim... from across the street, in that other apartment!
Man, all these Ming brothers look so hotte! Damn!
Ah Cheng steps behind Minamida ... and then, his eyes widen in shock as he screams "Look out!!!!" as he pushes the woman to the side ("saving" her life). But Ming Lou fires! And hits ... Ah Cheng. WTF!!!!!!!!!!!! Man down, man down!!!! Calmly, Ming Lou turns around and leaves. When Minamida's men get to the place where the shot came from, it is empty.
Hey, wait.
I knew it! Ah Cheng! Ah Cheng!
An ambulance is called for the wounded Ah Cheng. He is muttering something about a trap and how Wasp was obviously planning to kill Minamida, using him, Ah Cheng, as the means to get to her. He tells her to take his car and drive to Wu Tong Road - that is where one of Wasp's contact points in case of emergencies is. It's probably their last chance, because after this, he will be even more elusive.
Before she takes off, she tells the ambulance driver to take Ah Cheng to the military hospital and hands him a passbook of sorts ... inside the ambulance, there is nobody else but Miss Cheng in the back and Uncle Li up front, next to the driver. After giving him the right password ("Hunting"), Jinyun shoots Ah Cheng as full of pain killers as she possibly can and puts bandages on the wound. It's a "clean" shot-through, so no need to take the bullet out. Ming Lou is a good shot, isn't he. Let's all appreciate his skill while we curse him for hurting poor Ah Cheng. What a bunch of idiots.
What if she hadn't gone to the window in the first place?
The scriptwriter wouldn't have allowed it. It was part of the plan!
Making their way towards the sentry post: Ming Tai and Man Li, posing as lovers on a bike. Screw you, Writer-nim. Seriously. The bike breaks down and Man Li starts complaining loudly about his misuse of money. A lovers' quarrel ensues. One of the sentries comes out to tell them to quiet down, but Man Li snuffs him and walks sexily away ... towards the other sentry. And SLAM, one guy is out with a roundhouse kick ... and the second one two. Sentry post successfully seized. Part two of the crazy plan can begin.
She is so good. She deserves any Ming she wants! All the Mings for Man Li!Yes!
Except for Ah Cheng. Ah Cheng is mine!
Clever, clever, clever, oh so damn clever! Or isn't it? So many things could go wrong, timing, positions, material, get-aways.... people. People deciding to do something unexpected. OMFG, you Ming-bastards!! You're crazy!! Now we also understand what Ming Lou meant when he asked Ah Cheng a few episodes back whether he could really go through with it and that it would cost him "the most". He has now been punished enough for picking up that watch, I would say.
This was a very stupid plan. The fact that it might work does not prove me wrong.
I think it's a crazy plan, but if it works, it will achieve many things. Play big to win big?
And then, we have Ming Tai. Currently at the sentry post, waiting to kill his own brother. So horrible. Ming Tai, you deserve to be a brat for this forever and nobody can ever again scold you.
Still do not understand how this could possibly be anything but a disaster.
I'm still super worried, let's just push play already for the next episode.
And our BTS for this episode:
Also, proof that Hu Ge is about 6 and hyperactive:
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Where All Your Blessings Flow...
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
The Lord executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.
Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the Lord, O my soul." —Psalm 103.
The River of God
“There flows from the throne of God a mighty river, tinctured with all the elements for the sustenance of all the mighty works of His hands. What, of this river, may be seen by the angels of God, id past the comprehension of man. Man knows naught of the powerful tides flowing out from God to sustain the mighty orbs of heaven. To man no intelligence conveys an idea of the power that controls the myriads of incomprehensibly immense planets which are hung apparently on nothing. What a stream of power must flow continuously to every orb, to say nothing of every possible inhabitant of every orb, is a theme not to be solved by the dwellers of earth, at least not in this life; but to us is but a theme of wonder and an awe forever.
Yet man sees his small share of that mighty stream. Daily do its gracious drops sustain him; daily he basks in the reflection of its crystal tides; daily he carols in unison with its pulsating harmony, and bathes in the sparkling essence of its splendor. In and through and around man is the river of God ever flowing. On the sinking shores of time man stands and views the ever-flowing stream.” —By W.T. Heald.
"God is the source of life and light and joy tot he universe. Like rays of light from the sun, like streams of water bursting from a living spring, blessings flow from Him to all His creatures. And wherever the life of God is in the hearts of men, it will flow out to others in love and blessing." Mind, Character and Personaltiy, Vol. I, p. 28.
Thou crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness." Psalms 65:9-11.
Do You Need a Blessing?
Unbounded Love...
"Turn around and believe that the good news that we are loved is better than we ever dared hope, and that to believe in that good news, to live out of it and toward it, to be in love with that good news, is of all glad things in this world the gladdest thing of all. Amen, and come Lord Jesus.” ― Frederick Buechner
"Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever." Hebrews 13:8
"Thy mercy, O LORD, [is] in the heavens; [and] thy faithfulness [reacheth] unto the clouds." Psalms 36:5
Bible Universe
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The YouTube that said No to renewing SAIC CityTime.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Chess Forum West Village
Chess Forum has one of the most diverse range of chess sets from an elegant medieval set for $8,000 to a $5 rental for in store use.
There is every kind of figure from baseball chess sets to cartoon characters and from modern to abstract.
I asked the gentleman what kind of brain is a chess lover's?
He said inquisitive, patient, logical...
Chess Forum 219 Thompson Street
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(Most Frequent) Labels:
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Two from Os Incriveis
From this album:
And my all time favorite tune from the Clevers (as they were later known) -- what could be more delightfully stupid than a song about a guy who thinks the girls love him because when he was a baby they had no talcum powder so his mother put powdered sugar on him. I LOVE it.
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fluid drive
You are here
Definitions by Wordnik
1. (noun) An automotive transmission coupling that provides a smooth start, consisting of two separate turbines that rotate on the same axis in a surrounding liquid, such that the turbine connected to the engine drives the turbine connected to the transmission. Also called fluid clutch.
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Politics. Economics. Morality. Religion. And Everything In Between.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Why We Need Liberals
My last post asked what I hoped was a thought-provoking question: why not divide the United States into two countries along ideological lines? At the end of the post, I asked my readers what was wrong with this idea. As inviting as this prospect may seem to some of the more partisan viewers of this blog (including me), there IS something wrong with it. You see, apart from the fact that dividing the U.S. in two would probably require a long and bloody civil war, liberals and conservatives can actually be of use to each other. As an example, I am going to describe how the presence of serious and intelligent liberals in society helps conservatives be better conservatives and better thinkers all around.
Smart liberals protect the conservative movement (and the rest of America) from Stupid Conservatives. Stupid Conservatives are the guys who promote themselves with syllogisms like this one: "Socialism is un-American. Obama is a socialist. Therefore, Obama is not an American! I am not a socialist. Thererfore, I am an American. Vote for me because I am an American!" (The kind of person who I am thinking of would probably say this while running for city council. Such a Proud American won't let a little thing like not being a presidential candidate keep him from taking on Barack Hussein Obama!) Now, I happen to think Barack Obama is definitely a Keynesian and possibly also a crypto-socialist. I can support my claim with facts and reasoning. Perhaps more importantly, I know what socialism actually is, how it differs from mere Keynesianism, and why both are bad economic policies. (I also know what the prefix "crypto-" means and what a syllogism is, for that matter.)
The core problem with Stupid Conservatives is that they don't even know what conservatism is. Conservatism is not just an ideology. It is a relationship with reality that we arrive at through respect for both past traditions and present facts. "Socialism" isn't some imaginary bogeyman we throw rhetorical eggs at in the town square. It's a name for a specific set of economic policies that we believe do more harm than good based on our observations of their effects throughout history. Smart liberals TROUNCE Stupid Conservatives both intellectually and politically because they have a much firmer relationship with reality than Stupid Conservatives do.
Consider the example of Cory Booker, mayor of Newark, "smart liberal du jour" of the conservative movement. He criticized the Obama campaign's attack on private equity because he understands that the private equity industry is an important part of the business community and that business generates the wealth that is necessary to pay for substantial positive social change. Suppose Booker runs for a state or national office against a Stupid Conservative. Realizing that he and Booker are fairly similar economically, the Stupid Conservative will try to attack Booker on social issues. Booker strongly supports gay marriage. The stupid conservative might say that legalizing gay marriage would undermine the traditional family. Booker would probably retort that legalizing gay marriage is a low-risk proposition because traditional marriage as an institution had already collapsed long before gay marriage became legal anywhere. In making this argument, Booker would be more right than his Stupid Conservative opponent. Legalizing gay marriage would probably have about the same effect on the traditional family as a gunshot wound to the foot would have on a person who had been hit by a bus. (The real family values play is to attack no-fault divorce, in my humble opinion).
Smart conservatives like Chris Christie work with smart liberals like Cory Booker to achieve common goals in areas such as expanding school choice and reducing crime. (Christie has also sidestepped Booker on gay marriage by calling a referendum to "let the voters decide.") Conservatives who want to get things done in Washington or in statehouses and city halls outside of New Jersey should take note. No liberal faction, no matter how radical or entrenched, can withstand the power of a smart conservative who has smart liberals on his side. On a more personal front, a smart liberal friend of mine that I mentioned in my last post and with whom I joked about partitioning the United States actually agreed with me that if David Petraeus ever ran for president, we would both be excited to support him. Conservatives, think about this one: who would you rather vote for in November, Slick Mitt or General David "The Man, The Myth" Petraeus? Independents, how about you? Liberals, Obama or ... wait, don't answer that. But still, you'd be OKAY with Petraeus, right?
Liberals keep us on our toes, especially the smart ones. They force us to evaluate conservative leaders on how sensible their policy proposals are for America, not how many times they can quote Ronald Reagan. Contrary to popular myth, the thing that made Reagan special was not how conservative he was, but rather how clearly he could communicate why conservative policies were right for all Americans. If we can't justify ourselves to reasonable people of all political persuasions, we don't deserve to govern America.
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Category talk:Cleanup
From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search
If an article is short enough to be categorized as a stub, and expanding it would probably take care of cleanup issues in the process, consider tagging it just as a stub, rather than cleanup.
Also, if a maintenance tag like cleanup applies to the whole article, add it to the top of the article. --Rat 23:48, 10 February 2007 (UTC)
I'm wondering if subcategories similar to those used for stubs would be useful here. Comic-cleanup, person or character cleanup, and so forth. -- Sine 07:28, 11 June 2007 (UTC)
I'm wondering if subcategories would be more useful for different kinds of cleanup; cleanup-grammar, cleanup-organize, etc. I also wonder if smaller tags, like {{fact}} would be useful to zero in on places the reviewer thought were problematic. --Rat 02:43, 19 June 2007 (UTC)
Only a dozen articles[edit]
With a couple of zeros after the 12. Working on it. :) -- Sine 17:43, 25 July 2011 (EDT)
Jeez H!. o_O Hmm, sry to keep adding the tag Xp - Spirou 19:26, 25 July 2011 (EDT)
Pfft. That's not a tenth of the articles we have. Heck, it's not even a tenth of your edits so far! --GreenReaper(talk) 22:16, 25 July 2011 (EDT)
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Free horn girl web chate Tchat girls
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How do you treat an anal fissure?
Answers a question about the treatment for anal fissure. Importance of fiber from diet; Ointments that ease symptoms; Information on sphincterectomy.
Hemorrhoid help
Affecting half of all Americans by age 50, hemorrhoids are swollen veins in the rectum and anus that can cause the surrounding tissues to burn, itch, or bleed. Common causes include continual sitting, straining during bowel movements, obesity, and pregnancy and childbirth. Eating plenty of fiber (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and staying hydrated helps. You could also light a candle to Fiacre, the patron saint of hemorrhoids, as you try these natural remedies to soothe, shrink, and prevent this uncomfortable condition.
A - what
B - Sitz Bath
C - Horse Chestnut
D - Witch Hazel
Horse chestnut seeds provide hemorrhoid relief
Reports on the use of horse chestnut seeds for relief of hemorrhoids which are enlarged or varicosed veins of the anus and rectum. Active ingredients in horse chestnuts including hydroxycoumarin...
Hemorrhoids are a nuisance. While they are occasionally alarming, they'll never kill us. In fact, the greatest risk of hemorrhoids is the possibility of attributing symptoms of serious conditions like colorectal cancer to them.
What they are
"Hemorrhoids" is a term describing enlarged veins in the rectum and anus. The majority of hemorrhoids, and those responsible for the most frequent symptoms, are internal, that is, they are inside the anus. The remainder, external hemorrhoids, are under the skin around the anus.
Syndicate content
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Sunday, August 10, 2008
Soul Men: Cursed?
In the last two days, two Hollywood legends have passed away. Bernie Mac, the original King of Comedy died from pneumonia complications, and soul singer and actor Issac Hayes was found in his house after collapsing while running on his treadmill. Both of these men have something in common: the upcoming movie Soul Men.
Bernie was first, followed by Issac (as eerily illustrated in this promotional picture). Is Samuel L. Jackson next? Let's hope not. Conspiracy theories aside, you have to admit, this is a bit fishy. I'm not going to poke fun at the deceased or anything, but the paranoid side of me thinks Samuel will die tomorrow. If this happens, news stories will erupt around the country, and Soul Men will become the most famous movie of all time, beating out Titanic and The Dark Knight (which only had one dead star). I'll keep you all updated on Sammy J's condition.
JScully said...
A very interesting theory indeed.
Anonymous said...
i only heard like, tonight Bernie died,
but Issac, too?
that's scary.
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Isocyanate Explained
Isocyanate is the functional group with the formula R–N=C=O. Organic compounds that contain an isocyanate group are referred to as isocyanates. An isocyanate that has two isocyanate groups is known as a di-isocyanate. Di-isocyanates are manufactured for reactions with polyols in the production of polyurethanes, a class of polymers.
Isocyanates should not be confused with cyanate esters and isocyanides, whose behaviors are very different. The cyanate (cyanate ester) functional group (R–O–C≡N) is arranged differently from the isocyanate group (R–N=C=O). Isocyanides have the connectivity R-N≡C, lacking the oxygen of the cyanate groups.
Isocyanates are produced by treating amines with phosgene:
RNH2 + COCl2 → RNCO + 2 HClThese reactions proceed via the intermediacy of a carbamoyl chloride (RNHC(O)Cl). Owing to the hazards associated with phosgene, the production of isocyanates requires special precautions.
Reactions with nucleophiles
Isocyanates are electrophiles, and as such they are reactive toward a variety of nucleophiles including alcohols, amines, and even water. Upon treatment with an alcohol, an isocyanate forms a urethane linkage:[1]
ROH + R'NCO → ROC(O)N(H)R' (R and R' are alkyl or aryl groups)If a di-isocyanate is treated with a compound containing two or more hydroxyl groups, such as a diol or a polyol, polymer chains are formed, which are known as polyurethanes. Isocyanates react with water to form carbon dioxide:
RNCO + H2O → RNH2 + CO2This reaction is exploited in tandem with the production of polyurethane to give polyurethane foams. The carbon dioxide functions as a blowing agent.[2]
Isocyanates also react with amines to give ureas:
R2NH + R'NCO → R2NC(O)N(H)R'The addition of an isocyanate to a urea gives a biuret:
R2NC(O)N(H)R' + R"NCO → R2NC(O)NR'C(O)NHR"Reaction between a di-isocyanate and a compound containing two or more amine groups, produces long polymer chains known as polyureas.
Isocyanates also can react with themselves. Aliphatic di-isocyanates can form trimers, which are structurally related to cyanuric acid. Isocyanates participate in Diels-Alder reactions, functioning as dienophiles.
Rearrangement reactions
Isocyanates are common intermediates in the synthesis of primary amines via hydrolysis:
Common isocyanates
The global market for diisocyanates in the year 2000 was 4.4 million tonnes, of which 61.3% was methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), 34.1% was toluene diisocyanate (TDI), 3.4% was the total for hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI) and isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI), and 1.2% was the total for various others.[7] A monofunctional isocyanate of industrial significance is methyl isocyanate (MIC), which is used in the manufacture of pesticides.
LD50s are typically several hundred milligrams per kilogram.[8] Despite this low acute toxicity, an extremely low short-term exposure limit (STEL) of 0.07 mg/m−3 is the legal limit for all isocyanates (except methyl isocyanate: 0.02 mg/m−3) in the United Kingdom.[9] These limits are set to protect workers from chronic health effects such as occupational asthma, contact dermatitis or irritation of the respiratory tract.[10]
Methyl isocyanate was the chemical released in the Bhopal disaster causing the death of nearly 4000 people.
Polyurethanes have variable curing times, and the presence of free isocyanates in foams vary accordingly.[11]
All major producers of MDI and TDI are members of the International Isocyanate Institute, whose aim is the promotion of the safe handling of MDI and TDI.
See also
External links
Notes and References
1. Christian Six, Frank Richter "Isocyanates, Organic" in Ulmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, 2005, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim.
2. Book: Fundamentals to Polymer Science, An Introductory Text. 39. Paul Painter and Michael Coleman. Second.
3., Ch20Handout, University of Massachusetts Boston
4. Book: Mann. F. G.. Saunders. B. C.. [ Practical Organic Chemistry, 4th Ed.]. 1960. Longman. London. 9780582444072. 128.
5. Book: Cohen, Julius. [ Practical Organic Chemistry 2nd Ed.]. 1900. Macmillan and Co., Limited. London. 72.
6. Baumgarten, Henry. Smith, Howard. Staklis, Andris. Reactions of amines. XVIII. Oxidative rearrangement of amides with lead tetraacetate. The Journal of Organic Chemistry. 1975. 40. 24. 3554–3561. 10.1021/jo00912a019. 19 December 2013.
7. Book: Randall, D. 2002. The Polyurethanes Book. Wiley. 0-470-85041-8.
8. Allport DC, Gilbert, DS and Outterside SM (eds) (2003).MDI and TDI: safety, health & the environment: a source book and practical guide. Chichester, Wiley.
11. Risk of isocyanate exposure in the construction industry. Riedlich, C. CPWR - The Center for Construction Research and Training. 1–8. 2010.
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Autoimmune Th17 cells induced synovial stromal and innate lymphoid cell secretion of GM-CSF to initiate and augment autoimmune arthritis (Sakaguchi Group, in Immunity)
Hirota and Sakaguchi’s group showed arthritogenic Th17 cells stimulated fibroblast-like synoviocytes via interleukin-17 (IL-17) to secrete the cytokine GM-CSF and also expanded synovial-resident innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in inflamed joints.
Commentary (PDF)
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Living in Wonju South Korea, These Many Long Years
Sunday, November 25, 2012
This morning over breakfast the youngest informed me that today was a very special day: the sprout's birthday.
How old is it sweetheart. Uh, I think, it is one month old.
Didn't look like a month old to me. But I sat down during the tea party the girls put together. It's not everyday you celebrate a sprout's birthday after all.
Monday, November 19, 2012
Mountain Bear!
An actual conversation, Saturday night at Piers 8, Itaewon. Waeg is happy drunk and dancing. He does not give a shit about much of anything. He is approached by two men:
You know, in the gay community, you're known as a bear. We like bears, don't we?
Oh yes we do. Bears are grrrrreat hahahahahaha.
They each tweak one of waeg's nipples. He laughs.
Thanks guys, I'm flattered, guess I still got it. But sorry, not gay.
Are you sure? We could have a lot of fun you know.
Oh yes we could. Don't knock it till you try it!
Waeg laughs again, keeps dancing. At the end of the song he heads to the bathroom. One of the men follow him.
Mmmm you are just deeelish. Are you sure you're not gay?
Haha, thanks friend, you've made my night, but no, not my thing. But thanks, seriously.
He heads to the bar and gets another drink. When he gets to the table, he relays the story. The group laughs at him.
Hahahaha Gangwon country boy mountain bear! The group roars. For a moment he knows: I am bear. Generally solitary, avoiding large groups of people, somewhat cantankerous at times, behavior affected by fermented fruits and grains. He laughs again.
The conversation moves on to other things, but waeg doesn't hear; only the music fills his head.
He gets up to dance.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Lamb Stew!
For dinner, I made a big old pot of lamb stew. This time around I got distracted and put a bit too much salt in. It isn't horrible, but it now resembles more of a soup than a stew.
As usual, June refused to eat it. She hates lamb, which I can get.
The girls devoured each a full bowl. While we ate, I shared how when I went to buy the lamb, I saw a woman in burqa. We talked about what that meant, and how years ago in Korea women also had to wear clothes that pretty much fully covered their faces.
Everyone is quiet and sated at this point.
The Morning After
A bottle of "Condition" and some eggs Benedict nearly brought me out of it.
A quick stop at the international food store for some lamb, then train to the Wonj. Fitful sleep, as the train now only takes an hour from Seoul.
Home. Time to make some lamb stew.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
The Big Smoke!
Today I'm up to the big smoke for a meet and greet with clients at a swanky hotel.
I feel somewhat unprepared, as I have not brought any little plastic bags to fill full of expensive food. I know this is what is expected, as I've seen it happen at more than a few do's over the years. Ostensibly, you are supposed to be somewhat surreptitious, although this is waived if you are adjumma.
After, I plan on hittin' the 'twon to meet up with some peeps. I'll be the guy wearing tweed.
Friday, November 16, 2012
So many kinds of wrong
Been home nasty sick the last couple of days. In between bouts of sleep, had a chance to catch up on some vids from the internetz. Hence, here we have a long overdue extended edition of
So many kinds of wrong
lucky you!
Friday, November 2, 2012
It started as a night on the Wonj like any other; get primed at Rumboat by playing darts and winning a bunch of free beers, head over to the Kraken for some top shelf single malt. At the bar, a couple of waegs are sitting musing on life.
I'm telling you, being married to a Korean woman is hell! All she does is take my cash, berate me when I can't give her more, all the while leaving me with the biggest case of blue balls this side of the Han river! Thank god she lives in the US with the kids; at least my spawn won't end up thinking like they do here! So I decide to take matters into my own hands, you know? Meet someone here. I mean cmon, I'm alone, it's been years. So I meet this very nice married woman, similar situation, doesn't get along with her husband. It being a small town, now everyone knows, and now I'm a pyrriah, the lowest scum on earth.
He's telling this to a fairly attractive woman. I hear you mate, but moaning on about it isn't going to make it better and will only make you look insecure and foolish, and it certainly won't help you score with the ladies. Instead of saying all this I lean in:
Dude, you already are the lowest of the low, you're a waeg in Korea. Sure some might get all starry eyed with you from time to time, but when push comes to shove you are dirt. Why rant on about it?
Guy buys me a beer and then we have another. After a round at the tent bar, I decide I should head out. He suggests we hit the disco, but discos in the Wonj generally don't let waegs in. Even if they did, I'm not in the mood to drop another couple hundred.
As I walk home, I think of nothing in particular. The streets are full of people living life. So many stories, so little fucks to give.
As I walk by a Family Mart, I accidently bump into a guy milling about. Sorry, and I keep walking. Apparently this isn't enough for him as he and a buddy decide to take offence.
Hey, you, waeg! Why did you bump into me? Why are you so clumsy?
Yeah, sorry about that. Good night fellas.
They run up to me and one of them grabs my arm. Hey! Why are you so rude, you should apologize to my friend. What is your job?
His fingers grip my arm tight. I yank hard and something in me snaps.
My job? My job? What does it matter what my fucking job is? What is your fucking job? I apologized already, it was an accident, get over it. Why are you guys being such assholes?
Ashhole? You call me ashhole? Dude then calls the police to report a crazy waeg walking on the streets of the Wonj. I encourage him. Yes, call the police. That will be a nice conversation to have, how you accosted me and are acting like complete twats.
His friend tries to get him to stop the call, but buddy is adament and won't let it go. I press my advantage:
How old are you muppets? Cmon how old are you? 32 and 33. Great. Guess what, I'm older than you by about ten years, so why don't you go drink a big old cup of shut the fuck up? What is your job? Computer programmers both. Ha. Too much time as netizens, staring at a little screen. Just shut the fuck up. At this point I'm yelling in English, as I can't get the Korean out fast enough, I'm too angry. They actually do speak fairly good English though, which is fine by me.
The cops show up in record time. I'm impressed. I calm right the fuck down and when they approach I am serenity incarnate. When the cop asks what's going on I very calmly state:
I was walking and accidently bumped into this man. I apologized and kept walking. They started following and yelling at me. I thought of running as there were two of them and I am a foreigner, but this man roughly grabbed my arm and started yelling rude language at me.
This sends the two guys into an apoplectic fit. Their bodies are flaying as they claim I shoved him, spoke rudely, was generally a public nuisance. I remain calm.
Cop quickly assesses the situation and tells the two dudes to calm down and go home. He says they are making themselves look like idiots, and they should have just accepted my apology. They are acting like racist morons. The two dudes looked almost as shocked as I am, then they are embarrassed. They apologize to me and leave. He apologizes and off I go.
Sometimes life is just and good I think as I walk the last 2 kilometers home.
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What are your service standards?
We unfortunately can't provide guaranteed delivery times, we do however have delivery standards. These are the standards by which you can expect the majority of your parcels to be delivered.
To find out the delivery standards, you can use our quick quote.
© Fastway Couriers (New Zealand)
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6973
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Back to All Events
Sales Empowerment for Women
• Salvation Arts 1371 H Street Northeast Washington, DC, 20002 United States (map)
An Introduction to Sales free workshop with Kim Fredrich!
This 2 hour workshop will teach you the basics and get you started on your way to selling your product or service confidently. Because it’s all about the revenue. And since women naturally sell differently, your female instructor will cover skills and strategies developed specifically for women. On with your success!
You’ll learn:
• Why women are more successful salespeople
• Which skill is the key to selling well (hint: you already have it)
• How to identify your prospects
• The right questions to ask
• How to create value
• Why you shouldn’t be afraid of closing
• The importance of delivery
• How to create a follow up system
Earlier Event: May 18
Her Healing with RaNubi
Later Event: May 19
Her Healing with RaNubi
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Page 1 of 1
Rename gestures all named "empty"
PostPosted: 30 Jul 2010, 09:06
by David.P
Hi forum,
how can I give all those "empty" gestures in the MyGesture Editor meaningful names?
And how come that most of the gestures have green text, only some of them not? (contrary to the screenshot, it's not only the "empty" ones that are green).
Thanks and Cheers David.P
PostPosted: 30 Jul 2010, 09:34
by ivanw
Hi David, the green entries are those you modified with the editor.
The Empty keywords shows you've cleared the factory default behavior of those entries.
If you are curious to learn more, you can search the Wiki for a better understanding of what we've collected, a good start would be there:
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6988
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Sunday, September 27, 2009
just a few pics
Thought I'd post a few pics of the family since it's been awhile:
Maiya in the Circle of Neglect:
Jacob in a rare quiet moment... (he just woke up... lol)
And I think one of my favourite photos.... Daddy and Maiya enjoying the sunset together from our window... xo
1. circle of neglect..i like
2. he he...... it's where I stick her when I need to go to the bathroom..... although I will have to retire that circle soon since she's too tall for it now and can practically climb out of it anyway........
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6989
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Discuss as:
Dead heat in Iowa... still
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Obama and Clinton on the Democratic side and Romney and Huckabee on the Republican side are in dead heats in Iowa, according to a new poll out conducted by Strategic Vision, a Republican pollster.
First Read got a look at some of the numbers, and they show Romney at 26%; Huckabee at 24%; Giuliani at 14%; Thompson at 10%; McCain at 7%. On the Democratic side, Clinton and Obama are tied at 29%; and Edwards is slightly behind at 23%.
The poll was conducted from Nov. 23 to 25 with a sample size of 600 likely caucus goers from each party and has a margin of error of +/- 4.5%.
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/6998
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Wednesday, November 05, 2008
And one other thing
I've been reading (I know that's ill-advised) message board postings that are slamming Obama and declaring his election the end of the world. Oh, you backwards cocksuckers. My favorite was "socialism didn't exactly work for the USSR, did it?" First of all, stupid, that was Communism and no one is asking you stand in line for three hours for cheese and toilet paper. The same poster went so far as to say that "the blacks have taken over" and we're all doomed because hey, look at the state of Africa. Ohhhhhh, right. Africa. A continent that struggles everyday with rocky, makeshift governments and TRIBES. They have TRIBAL WARFARE, you ridiculous, racist shithead. When's the last time you saw a TRIBE running around America? Indian tribes? Yeah, there aren't a whole shitload of those roaming the plains anymore, right? Because we fucking killed them all. Stop making sociopolitical references you don't understand.
No comments:
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/7002
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Saturday, January 7, 2012
for Monday (January 9) Gospel: baptized...
Scripture: Mark 1:7-11 7 And he [John the Baptist] preached, saying, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the thong of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit." 9. In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opened and the Spirit descending upon him like a dove; 11 and a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
Why did Jesus, the Sinless One, submit himself to John’s baptism? John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). In this humble submission we see a foreshadowing of the “baptism” of his bloody death upon the cross.
Jesus’ baptism is the acceptance and the beginning of his mission as God’s suffering Servant. He allowed himself to be numbered among sinners. Jesus submitted himself entirely to his Father’s will. Out of love he consented to this baptism of death for the remission of our sins. Do you know the joy of trust and submission to God?
The Father proclaimed his entire delight in his Son and spoke audibly for all to hear. The Holy Spirit, too, was present as he anointed Jesus for his ministry which began that day as he rose from the waters of the Jordan river. Jesus will be the source of the Spirit for all who come to believe in him.
At his baptism the heavens were opened and the waters were sanctified by the descent of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, signifying the beginning of a new creation. How can we enter into the mystery of Jesus’ humble self-abasement and baptism?
Gregory of Nazianzus, a seventh century Church father tells us: “Let us be buried with Christ by Baptism to rise with him; let us go down with him to be raised with him; and let us rise with him to be glorified with him."
Do you want to see changes in your life? And do you want to become a more effective instrument of the gospel? Examine Jesus’ humility and ask the Holy Spirit to forge this same attitude in your heart. As you do, heaven will open for you as well.
The Lord is ever ready to renew us in his Spirit and to anoint us for mission. We are called to be “light” and “salt” to those around us.
The Lord wants his love and truth to shine through us that others may see the goodness and truth of God’s message of salvation.
Ask the Lord to fill you with his Holy Spirit that you may radiate the joy of the gospel to those around you.
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Beta 12.8 of C#/XAML for HTML5 released (EXPERIMENTAL: New Simulator Renderer!)
JS-Support @Userware
Site Admin
Posts: 885
Joined: Tue Apr 08, 2014 3:42 pm
Postby JS-Support @Userware » Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:49 am
Dear CSHTML5 users,
We are pleased to inform you that the Beta 12.8 of C#/XAML for HTML5 - the extension for Visual Studio that lets you build cross-platform HTML5 apps in standard C# and XAML - is available for download!
(60.98 MiB) Downloaded 104 times
Learn More about C#/XAML for HTML5.
Here is what's new (since Beta 12.7):
• Brand new Simulator renderer !!! It is now based on Chrome 60 instead of Chrome 18. It supports all the latest HTML5 specs, including the CSS Grid and its RowSpan/ColumnSpan, meaning that the layout in the Simulator will now be identical as the one in the browser. Furthermore, more extensions and 3rd party libraries will work in the Simulator (we are going to progressively update the extensions to enable them to run in the browser, such as the OpenFile and SaveFile extensions).
• Support for UIElement.AddHandler and RemoveHandler, including support for catching Handled events
• New option in the Simulator "Tools" menu (bottom-left corner of the Simulator) to help debug the "Interop.ExecuteJavaScript" calls. When enabled, a folder named 'TempDebugCshtml5' is created on your desktop that contains a file named 'index.html' and a JS file that contains all the Interop.ExecuteJavaScript calls. Just open that file with your browser and use the Browser Developer Tools to debug the code. In particular, you can look for errors in the browser Console output, and you can enable the 'Pause on caught exceptions' option in the Developer Tools to step into the code when an error occurs.
• Improved TypeScript Definitions Import tool (fixed issues when importing the WebGL TypeScript definitions - an example will come soon)
• Clicking outside a templated ComboBox closes its drop-down menu
• Support for ServiceKnownType attribute with WCF services
• DataContractSerializer now support deserializing objects without the type being specified (using KnownTypes instead)
• WebClient now correctly throws an Exception when the server returns an error (the response has a status between 400 and 600)
• Fixed "e.OriginalSource" in the event args of the pointer event handlers
• Fixed an error in browsers related to "NumericTypes" (was a warning in the Console)
• Fixed default Namespace in XName to match WPF's behaviour
• Fixed DataContractSerializer issue when the actual type was the same as the memberType
• Fixed an issue where a single character string was serialized as a char.
Note: with the new WCF stack recently introduced, you can now remove the [XmlSerializerFormat] attribute that is located in the service class (on the server-side) (and don't forget to "update the service reference" in the CSHTML5 app) and benefit from faster application loading, faster WCF, smaller WCF-related output code, and improved compatibility.[/list]
Here is a small sample WCF project to test the new WCF stack:
(65.96 KiB) Downloaded 43 times
We are also working on many other features and we will release them as soon as they are ready.
You may also be interested to read:
Notes about installation:
Thank you.
Return to “Pre-Releases, Downloads and Announcements”
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/7057
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Game Desert Warfare online
Game Desert Warfare
Game Desert Warfare online.
In the battle with a dangerous opponent, the most important and difficult task was to find him, and only then destroy. You are armed and are in a deserted room, which is steeped in the smell of death. Inspects, turning at different angles, and then move to the exit. You'll get a memorable battle in which you have to be a winner.
You have no games in which you played.
yet bookmarks.
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/7074
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The Reality of God (Part 3)
by Rayola Kelley
“God,” this very word brings some kind of mental picture or reaction to a person. Who would think that a small three-letter word would conjure up a variety of images, attitudes, and responses? The concept of God can be vague, rendering Him into some impersonal force, it can become sentimental in light of a baby in a manger or the brutality of Calvary, or it can cause anger, resentment, and rage in those who judge God according to the insane, cruel injustice of the world we live in.
Regardless of how people try to deny the existence of God or make God into a mere conjunction of ideas, sentiments, and imaginations, there is no getting around the fact that even the unbelief of the atheist towards God, in essence declares that some God exists. After all, how can you hold to unbelief towards something if it does not exist in the first place? How can you make it a cause to get rid of something that does not exist? How can you erect a belief system that rejects the essence of a holy, just God if He does not exist? According to Romans 1:20, we have the very witness of creation that declares that there is a powerful God, and that in the end there will be no excuse for not believing what it declares about His existence, His nature, and His power. It is for this reason that Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 make the same declaration, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.”
There is evidence enough that there is a God. The question is why is the fool bent on rejecting Him? Psalm 14:1 explains that such a fool is corrupt and has done abominable works. Jesus stated that man refuses to believe because his deeds are evil and he wants to hide them beneath a covering of darkness (John 3:18-20).
The question is what is in a name? Many in the world are trying to live up to some name. Most of you probably know what I am talking about. You may have even heard it. You are so and so; therefore, you need to do right by your name. And, yet what is in a name? In such cases as the above example, it is almost as if you fall into some vacuum. What determines how a name should be expressed in one’s life to ensure that it is being presented in a proper way? No doubt there is reputation and association attached to names. For example, the name of Hitler definitely arouses some type of response in people, but in most instances a name is a name. It is generic because it is often faceless. It is insignificant because there are unknown dynamics to it that keep the person who is attached to it vague to those who are not personally acquainted with him or her. Such people may cross our path but they will always be standing outside the inner circle and functions of our life.
This brings us back to what is in a name? The idea of a name is to establish identity. A person who possesses a name is identified to family, to some type of roots, and status. A name distinguishes the existence of an individual. For example, the one thing I hear about my first name is that it is unusual or beautiful, but in our society, people’s real association has to do with their last names, not their first name. I am associated with some unusual last names such as Meuleman and Bywater. In fact, if I hear these names, which I rarely do, I know I am related to that person in some way.
The other aspect of our names is that it is associated with our roots, where we came from. From my limited understanding of my roots on my father’s side, they go back to Belgium, but on my mother’s side it is a European mix, which probably is trumped by predominate English and possibly some Danish roots. Although genealogy is interesting, and no doubt ancestors have passed down genes that may in some way influence our likes and dislikes, our talents and preferences, it will not determine our character or final destination.
In America, the government has clearly changed the dynamics of people’s identity. They have put American citizens under the Department of Agriculture and simply given them a number (Social Security). This godless defining of people basically strips them of their personhood, identity, and roots making them a commodity that can be used, traded, and sold to the highest bidder. No doubt this fact may shock some people in America, but it is the harsh reality of a government that ceases to exist for the people and becomes an indifferent self-serving, tyrannical entity unto itself.
It is for the above reason that I am thankful for my citizenship in the kingdom of God. Names mean nothing in this present world and roots are easily severed by the claims of the world upon our souls. However, in the kingdom of God, our identity has been established by adoption in the highest court—that of heaven, and our roots go back to Calvary where they are forever grounded in redemption. As a result, as believers, we are taking on a new likeness, and in the end we will be given a new name that is only going to be known between the Lord and us. It is for this reason that I have concurred that no matter how great or unusual my present name is my heavenly citizenship has declared I have a new name, yet to be revealed.
This brings me to the name of God. Unlike people, God does not have to live up to some vague notion about His name; rather His name describes Him. Could this also be true for the unknown, new name of believers? Will it describe them, their life and works? For God, His name is all inclusive, but yet it contains many different aspects, dimensions, and dynamics.
In the Jewish language, there are no vowels in the name attributed to the English name, “Jehovah” (LORD in Scripture). It is spelled “Yhwh,” but along the way vowels were inserted in what I refer to as the silent spaces, and by doing so we have the word, “Yahweh.” But think about the silent spaces in the Hebrew spelling of Yahweh. To me those spaces represent the unknown, mysterious aspects of God that cannot be defined by finite man or comprehended; therefore, they remain hidden from him. There is no way that we in our present condition can ever comprehend the fullness of God, let alone describe who He is and His ways in a just, deserving manner. On the other hand, the consonants in Yahweh graciously remind me that the Lord can be known because He is a person with a personality and identity.
Because God has a mysterious quality to His name, there are cults that make the sacredness of His name a matter of their worship rather than the actual person of God. They strive to get His name right, but fail to establish themselves in a growing productive relationship with Him. They want to major in the right pronunciation of His name, but they minor in studying the attributes that are attached to the various renditions of His name. They have zeal towards the name of God, but they are void of understanding Him in terms of mercy, grace, godliness, and righteousness. They are ever striving to gain a greater understanding of His name, but never actually come to a real solid knowledge of Him.
It is true that God’s name is sacred, but its sacredness is not to create some mysterious cloud around the reality of God; rather, it is to create a right attitude towards God that will cause man to approach God in a worshipful way. God’s name is not some secret word that ushers one into a clandestine society or group. He is not some vague concept, nor should He be counted among the endless gods erected by man. He alone is the true God and the various aspects of His name speak of His nature, works, and ways. God has made Himself recognizable so that we can discern Him. He has made Himself available so we draw near to Him. He has let His name be known so that we can know Him.
The first name we come face to face with is the word “God.” The actual word “God” points to deity, that which is divine in nature and all of His ways. “Divine” points to that which possesses a celestial, heavenly nature and is marvelous in His ways. In fact, the word “divine” places the one who possesses this stature above this earth.
However, wherever the name of “God” is placed and depending on how it is presented (all caps or lower case etc.) will determine the Jewish name that is attached to it. For example, the Jewish name attached to God in Genesis 1:1 is Elohim. The “el” is the name for God in Hebrew. Good examples of “el” being used in words are Immanuel and Bethel. Immanuel means “El” GOD is with us. Bethel means house of “El” or house of GOD.” There is also El Shaddai, GOD ALMIGHTY. (Note: The Companion Bible distinguishes “el” in the above usage with all caps, while other translations may have their own code as to properly identifying God according to His associations and works.) It is clear that whatever has been added or attached to His name will associate Him with His position or works. For instance, the name of God, Elohim, (lower case) in Genesis 1:1 is strictly associated with His work of creation, and according to Bible Scholars, Elohim occurs 2,700 times in Scripture.
When you come to the presentation of the word “God” in lower case, and consider it in light of the text, you will see that the presentation of God is in relationship to His creation, which points to the name of Elohim, the One who created everything.
Clearly, the names of God are designed to bring about the right association with who He is and with His ways in order to create a right attitude and environment in which man is to approach Him. Because God is our creator, He deserves the proper recognition and respect from His creation.
Regardless of the world’s attempt to mock, downplay, or deny that God is Elohim, creator of all, Romans 1:20 clearly states the contrary. We are told that creation declares the existence of its Creator, and due to such discoveries as DNA, many scientists have had to rethink what they have advocated and eat humble pie as they agree that creation speaks of an Intelligent Designer (ID).
There is much significance attached to God as our creator. When God created everything, He did so with a plan and order in mind. It is important for us to understand this plan. In the next article I am going to touch on this importance. However, my hope at this time is that each reader will come to terms with the importance that God existed in the beginning and was, and still exists in the present and is, and will continue to exist in the future. He is our Creator and He has a plan in mind for each of us.
As a born again, blood-bought saint, have you discovered your potential in the Lord?
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GMAT makes official releases to the public approximately once every 6-12 months.
Official Releases
The primary release of GMAT R2014a is for Microsoft Windows 7, 32 bit. While GMAT is a cross-platform application, we are not currently addressing any bugs or issues that are unique to Mac and/or Linux and binaries on those platforms are considered to be in alpha form. For other platforms, see below to start from source. The latest official version is R2014a, released July 21, 2014.
Note that if you wish you use the MATLAB interface, some additional configuration is necessary. See the MATLAB Interface documentation for details.
Source Code
If you use Mac or Linux, or if you just want the latest code, you can choose to build GMAT yourself. Our public code is hosted in a Git repository on SourceForge:
git clone git://git.code.sf.net/p/gmat/git gmat-git
See Development for compiling instructions.
Internal Users
Internal (NASA GSFC) users can download GMAT from the project's network share.
Internal Releases
We have special installers and binaries for internal users that contain some extra plugins we don't yet have permission to release. Browse to this location:
The following files are available:
• gmat-internal-winInstaller-i586-R2014a.exe: Windows installer (internal version)
• gmat-internal-win-i586-R2014a.zip: Windows zip distribution (internal version)
• internalplugins.zip: extra plugins for the public releases. Extract this file over your existing GMAT installation to add the extra plugins, then uncomment the appropriate PLUGIN lines in <GMAT>\bin\gmat_startup_file.txt to enable them.
Daily Builds
We post daily development builds to the following location:
This location contains these folders:
• LatestCompleteVersion: the latest full GMAT instance. Copy this to your computer and run LatestCompleteVersion\bin\GMAT.exe.
• YYYY-MM-DD folders: compiled files only from that day's build. To use this, copy the contents over your existing GMAT installation. Note that if the two versions are very different, changes in other files may render your GMAT installation inoperable. If this happens, start with LatestCompleteVersion, above.
Source Code
The main source code repository is the public SourceForge-hosted one above. Certain internal plugins and other unreleased files are stored in the following internal repository:
See the GMAT development team for access.
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February 3, 2011
Poetic License
A sweet sampling of an art journal page featuring
Monsieur Walt Whitman, a personal fave of mine.
Love this guy.
I used to tote his, "Leaves of Grass" to work with me,
back when I had a stressful ad agency job
and it was like an hour of yoga.
Very calming!
1 comment:
Jillayne said...
I'm not familiar with that one - I'll check it out on Google - I do like Walt Whitman too. Sometimes I find I know them, but not the title (I'm especially bad for that with songs!).
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Monday, March 14, 2016
How to set EntityCollection output parameters in custom actions
One of the greatest things about custom actions is that they support defining input and output arguments of type EntityCollection. However, because the process designer does not support UI for consuming this type then we have to do it via code. This article explains some tips if you think that could be useful for you.
If you are familiar with custom actions introduced in CRM 2013, you might have noticed that they have input and out parameters. What is interesting is that a data type “EntityCollection” is supported which means your action can take as input a number of entities or it can produce a number of entities as the result (like RetrieveMultiple). The first thing you might wonder is why the heck would you want to use EntityCollection as output arguments, it if can’t even be consumed from the workflow designer. But if you are reading this post chances are you have a scenario in mind. In many cases you might want EntityCollection as input parameters, but is more unusual to need an output of EntityCollection. I can think of a few scenarios, and most recently I had to use this for encapsulating a set of business logic in a custom action which would then return a set of entities. This custom action might be consumed from external systems and makes it simple to implement all the business logic in a custom action so from the external clients it will be straight-forward to consume this action without having to call various SDK operations and implementing the logic at the client.
Once you have identified the scenario you need to keep in mind that the result (output) of your custom action will need to be consumed only from code (external client, JavaScript, plugins, etc.) because unfortunately the CRM native process designer is still incapable of understanding entity collections. Now, how can you set an output parameter in your custom action that is type of EntityCollection if you cannot do that via the process designer?
My first instinct was to implement a custom workflow activity and then insert it in the action definition as a custom process step:
Inside the custom workflow activity, you have full access to the IExecutionContext, including the InputParameters and OutputParameters collections. Therefore, I assumed I you could set your EntityCollection output parameter via code as seen below:
While technically this compiles and executes fine, I was surprised to see that when calling my action, the output parameter was blank, even though I was setting the value from the custom workflow activity. I imagine this might be due to the fact that output parameters are only set after the main pipeline operation and perhaps the custom workflow activity is executing a little bit before that thus all output parameters get wiped after the main operation but before the value is returned to the client.
Therefore, I had to change my approach. I implemented the exact same code, but this time I used a plugin registered on the PostOperation of my custom action, this way I can make sure that the main operation has already passed and whatever I store in the output parameters collection will be returned to the calling client. This finally worked!
So the lesson here is that setting output parameters (in general) must be done in the PostOperation part of the pipeline, therefore it can only be done via plugins!
Keep in mind that setting input parameters as EntityCollection is more trivial because it is up to the calling client to pass those parameters, and in this case, although you cannot consume those input parameters inside the action process designer, you will be able to access them from either a custom workflow activity inside your action or from plugins. I tend to prefer custom workflow activities because this way your entire logic is defined inside the action itself and there is no additional logic running in plugins, but it depends on the scenario and complexity too.
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Conington, Huntingdonshire
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Connington)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Place name sign in Conington
Conington is located in Cambridgeshire
Conington shown within Cambridgeshire
Population 209 (2011)
OS grid reference TL176860
Shire county
Country England
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Post town Peterborough
Postcode district PE7
EU Parliament East of England
List of places
52°27′30″N 0°16′12″W / 52.45831°N 0.27°W / 52.45831; -0.27Coordinates: 52°27′30″N 0°16′12″W / 52.45831°N 0.27°W / 52.45831; -0.27
Conington is a village and civil parish in Cambridgeshire, England.[1] Conington lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of Peterborough and 3 kilometres (2 mi) north of Sawtry, within earshot of Ermine Street, now called the Great North Road. Conington is situated within Huntingdonshire which is a non-metropolitan district of Cambridgeshire as well as being a historic county of England.
Conington was listed in the Domesday Book in the Hundred of Normancross in Huntingdonshire; the name of the settlement was written Coninctune in the Domesday Book of 1086,[2] when there was just one manor at Conington; the annual rent paid to the lord of the manor in 1066 had been £9 and the rent was the same in 1086.[3]
The Domesday Book also records that there were 27 households at Conington.[3] Estimates for the average size of a household at that time range from 3.5 to 5.0 people.[4] These yield a population estimate of 94–135. The survey records there were 15 ploughlands at Conington in 1086.[3] In addition to the arable land, there were some 40 acres (16 hectares) of meadow.[3] The total tax assessment for the manor at Conington was nine geld.[3] By 1086 there was already a church and a priest.
The Cotton Baronetcy of Conington was created in the Baronetage of England on 29 June 1611 for the antiquary Robert Bruce Cotton (1570–1631), who also represented five constituencies in the House of Commons.[5] The novelist and editor Henrietta Maria Bowdler was born in Conington in 1750.[6]
In the Second World War, Conington was located next to Royal Air Force Station Glatton. RAF Glatton was constructed to Class "A" standards to support heavy bombers in 1943 with the intention of being used by the US Army Air Forces. The 457th Bombardment Group (Heavy) arrived on 21 January 1944. The recognisable tail code of the 457th was the "triangle U" painted on the vertical stabilizers of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses which operated from the air base. The 457th Bomb Group operated from RAF Glatton from January 1944 until 20 April 1945, when it completed its 237th and last combat mission at the conclusion of the war. In All Saints Church, Conington is a memorial to the 457th Bomb Group.[7]
As a civil parish, Conington has an elected parish council. It consists of five members. Conington was in the historic and administrative county of Huntingdonshire until 1965. From 1965, it became part of the new administrative county of Huntingdon and Peterborough. Then in 1974, following the Local Government Act 1972, Conington became part of the county of Cambridgeshire, with Huntingdonshire District Council as its second tier. Conington lies in the district ward of Sawtry. It is represented on the district council by two councillors as part of the electoral division of Sawtry and Ellington,[8] and is represented on the county council by one councillor. It lies the parliamentary constituency of North West Cambridgeshire,.[8] The member has been Shailesh Vara (Conservative) since 2005. For the European Parliament Conington is part of the East of England constituency, which elects seven MEPs by the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
In the period 1801 to 1901 the population of Conington was recorded every ten years by the UK census. During this time the population was in the range of 154 (in 1801) and 319 (in 1851).[9]
From 1901, a census was taken every ten years with the exception of 1941 (due to the Second World War).
Conington 261 259 245 348 290 247 219 209 216 209
All population census figures from report Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011 by Cambridgeshire Insight.[9]
In 2011, the parish covered an area of 3,173 acres (1,284 hectares)[9] and so the population density for Conington in 2011 was 42.2 persons per square mile (16.3 per square kilometre).
See also
External links
• Page at GENUKI – confusingly the church here was dedicated to St Mary which is the dedication of the church in the other Conington
• Cambridge Military History Page
1. ^ Ordnance Survey: Landranger map sheet 153 Bedford & Huntingdon (St Neots & Biggleswade) (Map). Ordnance Survey. 2013. ISBN 9780319231722.
2. ^ Dr Ann Williams, Professor G.H. Martin, eds. (1992). Domesday Book: A Complete Translation. London: Penguin Books. p. 1333. ISBN 0-141-00523-8.
3. ^ a b c d e Professor J.J.N. Palmer, University of Hull. "Open Domesday: Place – Conington". Anna Powell-Smith. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
4. ^ Goose, Nigel; Hinde, Andrew. "Estimating Local Population Sizes" (PDF). Retrieved 23 February 2016.
5. ^ ODNB: Stuart Handley, "Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce, first baronet (1571–1631)" Retrieved 14 March 2014, pay-walled.
6. ^ M. Clare Loughlin-Chow, "Bowdler, Henrietta Maria (1750–1830)" Retrieved 14 March 2014, pay-walled.
7. ^ 457th Bomb Group (H) and RAF Glatton Cambridge Military History Research Site
8. ^ a b "Ordnance Survey Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2016.
9. ^ a b c "Historic Census figures Cambridgeshire to 2011" (xlsx – download). Cambridgeshire Insight. Retrieved 12 February 2016.
Retrieved from ",_Huntingdonshire&oldid=827639356"
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Downing Street Declaration
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The Downing Street Declaration (DSD) was a joint declaration issued on 15 December 1993 by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, John Major, and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland, Albert Reynolds at the British Prime Minister's office in 10 Downing Street.
The declaration affirmed both the right of the people of Ireland to self-determination, and that Northern Ireland would be transferred to the Republic of Ireland from the United Kingdom only if a majority of its population was in favour of such a move. It also included, as part of the prospective of the so-called "Irish dimension", the principle of consent that the people of the island of Ireland, had the exclusive right to solve the issues between North and South by mutual consent.[1][2]
The latter statement, which later would become one of the points of the Good Friday Agreement,[3] was key to produce a positive change of attitude by the republicans towards a negotiated settlement. The joint declaration also pledged the governments to seek a peaceful constitutional settlement, and promised that parties linked with paramilitaries (such as Sinn Féin) could take part in the talks, so long as they abandoned violence.[4]
The declaration, after a meeting between Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams and American congressman Bruce Morrison, which was followed by a joint statement issued by Adams and John Hume, was considered sufficient by the Provisional Irish Republican Army to announce a ceasefire on 31 August 1994[5] which was then followed on 13 October by an announcement of a ceasefire from the Combined Loyalist Military Command.[6]
See also
1. ^ Peatling, Gary (2004). The failure of the Northern Ireland peace process. Irish Academic Press, p. 58; ISBN 0-7165-3336-7
2. ^ Cox, Michael, Guelke, Adrian and Stephen, Fiona (2006). A farewell to arms?: beyond the Good Friday Agreement. Manchester University Press, p. 486; ISBN 0-7190-7115-1
3. ^ Clark, Desmond and Jones, Charles (1999). The rights of nations: nations and nationalism in a changing world. Palgrave Macmillan, p. 168; ISBN 0-312-22595-4
4. ^ Cox & Guelke, pp. 487-88
5. ^ Rowan, Brian (1995). Behind the lines: the story of the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires . Blackstaff Press, Chapter 8. ISBN 0-85640-564-7
6. ^ CAIN- Chronology of the Conflict 1994,; accessed 4 March 2016.
External links
• Photos & Recordings of the Inaugural Meeting of the College Historical Society held on the Downing Street Declaration, reuniting Sir John Major, Sir Roderic Lyne and Martin Mansergh in November 2007.
• Downing Street Declaration. Department of Foreign Affairs. Ireland.
• House of Commons Hansard Debates for December 15, 1993. The Prime Minister speaks to the House of Commons about the Downing Street/Joint Declaration.
• Research guide from University of Ulster on The Troubles,; accessed 4 March 2016.
Retrieved from ""
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This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article "Downing Street Declaration"; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA). You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA
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global_01_local_2_shard_00001658_processed.jsonl/7179
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University of Utah
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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University of Utah
University of Utah seal.svg
Former names
University of Deseret[1]
Type Public
Established February 28, 1850 (1850-02-28)[1]
Academic affiliations
Utah System of Higher Education
Endowment $1.08 billion (2016)[2]
Budget $3.55 billion (2014)[3]
President Ruth Watkins
Provost Daniel A. Reed
Academic staff
3,421 (Fall 2015)[4]
Administrative staff
17,498 (Fall 2015)[4]
Students 31,860 (Fall 2015)[4]
Undergraduates 23,789 (Fall 2015)[4]
Postgraduates 8,071 (Fall 2015)[4]
Location Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.
Campus Urban
1,534 acres (6.21 km2)[5]
Colors Red, White[6]
Nickname Utes
Sporting affiliations
NCAA Division I FBS / Pac-12
Mascot Swoop[7]
University of Utah horizontal logo.svg
The University of Utah (also referred to as the U, U of U, or Utah) is a public coeducational space-grant research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. As the state's flagship university, the university offers more than 100 undergraduate majors and more than 92 graduate degree programs.[8] The university is classified in the highest ranking: "R-1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity" by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The Carnegie Classification also considers the university as "selective", which is its second most selective admissions category.[9] Graduate studies include the S.J. Quinney College of Law and the School of Medicine, Utah's first medical school.[10] As of Fall 2015, there are 23,909 undergraduate students and 7,764 graduate students, for an enrollment total of 31,673.
The university was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (/dɛz.əˈrɛt./ (About this sound listen)[11]) by the General Assembly of the provisional State of Deseret,[1] making it Utah's oldest institution of higher education.[8] It received its current name in 1892, four years before Utah attained statehood, and moved to its current location in 1900.[1]
The university ranks among the top 50 U.S. universities by total research expenditures with over $518 million spent in 2015.[12] 22 Rhodes Scholars,[13] four Nobel Prize winners,[14][15][16][17] two Turing Award winners,[18][19] eight MacArthur Fellows,[20][21] various Pulitzer Prize winners,[22][23][24] two astronauts,[25][26] Gates Cambridge Scholars,[27] and Churchill Scholars have been affiliated with the university as students, researchers, or faculty members in its history.[28][29] In addition, the university's Honors College has been reviewed among 50 leading national Honors Colleges in the U.S.[30] The university has also been ranked the 12th most ideologically diverse university in the country.[31]
The university's athletic teams, the Utes, participate in NCAA Division I athletics (FBS for football) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Its football team has received national attention for winning the 2005 Fiesta Bowl[32] and the 2009 Sugar Bowl.[33]
University Hall in Salt Lake City, the first permanent home of the University of Deseret (later the University of Utah)
The Block U has overlooked the university since 1907[37]
The University of Utah campus in the early 1920s
The university grew rapidly in the early 20th century but was involved in an academic freedom controversy in 1915 when Joseph T. Kingsbury recommended that five faculty members be dismissed after a graduation speaker made a speech critical of Utah governor William Spry. One third of the faculty resigned in protest of these dismissals. Some[who?] felt that the dismissals were a result of the LDS Church's influence on the university, while others[who?] felt that they reflected a more general pattern of repressing religious and political expression that might be deemed offensive. The controversy was largely resolved when Kingsbury resigned in 1916, but university operations were again interrupted by World War I, and later The Great Depression and World War II. Student enrollment dropped to a low of 3,418 during the last year of World War II, but A. Ray Olpin made substantial additions to campus following the war, and enrollment reached 12,000 by the time he retired in 1964. Growth continued in the following decades as the university developed into a research center for fields such as computer science and medicine.[1][38]
During the 2002 Winter Olympics, the university hosted the Olympic Village,[39] a housing complex for the Olympic and Paralympic athletes, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.[40] Prior to the events, the university received a facelift that included extensive renovations to the Rice-Eccles Stadium,[40] a light rail track leading to downtown Salt Lake City,[41] a new student center known as the Heritage Center,[39] an array of new student housing,[42] and what is now a 180-room campus hotel and conference center.[43]
The University of Utah Asia Campus opened as an international branch campus in the Incheon Global Campus in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea in 2014. Three other European and American universities are also participating.[44] The Asia Campus was funded by the South Korean government.[45][46]
A view of lower campus
Campus takes up 1,534 acres (6.21 km2), including the Health Sciences complex, Research Park, and Fort Douglas.[5] It is located on the east bench of the Salt Lake Valley, close to the Wasatch Range and approximately 2 miles east of downtown Salt Lake City.
The health sciences complex, at the northeast end of campus, includes the University of Utah Medical Center, Primary Children's Medical Center,[49] the Huntsman Cancer Institute, the Moran Eye Center, and the Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library.[50] South of the health sciences complex, several university residence halls and apartments are clustered together near Fort Douglas and the Heritage Center, which serves as a student center and cafeteria for this area.[51] In addition, there are 1,115 university apartments for students, staff, and faculty across three apartment complexes on campus.[52] At the southeast end of campus is Research Park, which is home to research companies including ARUP Laboratories, Evans & Sutherland,[53] Sarcos, Idaho Technology, and Myriad Genetics.
Courses are also held at off-campus centers located in St. George and Sandy.[54]
In July 2017, the Academic Senate bestowed the designation of tobacco-free campus on the university, but rules were not enforced until 2018. The rule prohibits students and faculty from "smoking or using chewing tobacco, electronic cigarettes and all other recreational nicotine-delivery products on any property owned, leased or controlled by the University of Utah."[55]
Student residences
The Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community.
The University of Utah provides student housing in a 33-building housing complex on campus. The complex consists of eight housing areas: Chapel Glen, Gateway Heights, Sage Point, Officer's Circle, Benchmark Plaza, Shoreline Ridge, the Donna Garff Marriott Honors Residential Scholars Community (MHC for short), and the Lassonde Studios. The MHC is a dormitory strictly for honors students and was completed in fall 2012.[56] Built in 2016, the Lassonde Studios is part of the Lassonde Entrepreneur Institute and houses 400 students; the studios also feature a "creative garage" with 3D printers and spaces for startups.[57]
UTA TRAX services the university and other parts of Salt Lake City
A number of campus shuttles, running on biodiesel and used vegetable oil,[58] circle the campus on six different routes.[59] The Utah Transit Authority (UTA) runs several buses through the university area as well as the TRAX Red Line (light rail), which runs to South Jordan. Riders can travel downtown, to FrontRunner (commuter rail), to West Valley, to the Salt Lake City International Airport, or to Sandy by transferring to the TRAX Green or Blue lines. Students and staff can use their university IDs to ride UTA buses, TRAX, and FrontRunner.[60]
The university is ranked 3rd by the EPA for annual green power usage among universities, with 31% of its power coming from wind and solar sources.[64] Other sustainability efforts include a permanent sustainability office, a campus cogeneration plant, building upgrades and energy efficient building standards, behavior modification programs, purchasing local produce, and student groups, as well as a branch of the Salt Lake City Bicycle Collective.[58] Sustainability and transportation are also a large part of the university's campus master plan.[65] The Sustainable Endowments Institute gave the university a "B+" in its College Sustainability Report Card 2011, with A's for climate change and energy, food and recycling, student involvement, and transportation.[66]
The expanded recycling program launched on July 1, 2007. Since its launch, the program has continued to grow and refine its procedures to better accommodate a growing campus' needs. Currently there are programs in place for paper, cardboard, aluminum, batteries, glass, printer cartridges, wooden pallets and plastics #1 and #2.[67][68]
Renewable energy
The University of Utah is governed by a 10-member Board of Trustees, 8 of whom are appointed by the Governor of Utah with the consent of the Utah Senate. The President of the University of Utah Alumni Association serves as the 9th member, and the President of the Associated Students of the University of Utah (ASUU) serves as the 10th member. The 8 appointed members serve for four-year terms, four expiring on June 30 of each odd-numbered year. The two ex officio members serve for the terms of their respective offices.[74] Subject to the Board of Trustees, the university faculty have authority to legislate on matters of educational policy via the Academic Senate. The Senate is composed of 100 faculty members proportionally representing and elected by their respective colleges, 2 elected deans, and 18 students from the ASUU, one from each college and the ASUU president. The Senate also includes the University President, Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Senior Vice President for Health Sciences, and all non-elected deans as ex officio members who may debate and present motions but do not vote. Much of the actual Senate work is carried out by 12 Senate-elected committees which work on the central academic issues of the institution. The committees report to the full Senate and the Senate often acts on their proposals as well as on issues brought to its attention by the administration.[75]
University rankings
ARWU[76] 50
Forbes[77] 159
U.S. News & World Report[78] 111
Washington Monthly[79] 39
ARWU[80] 100
QS[81] 391
Times[82] 201-250
U.S. News & World Report[83] 125
The University of Utah is a public flagship four-year research university accredited through the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities since 1933.[84] The U organizes its 150 academic departments and programs into 17 colleges and schools.[85]
The University operates on a semester calendar with the rest of the Utah higher education system.[86] Undergraduate tuition and fees for 2015–2016 were $8,240 for Utah residents (about 325% the cost of tuition and fees in 2000, $2,534 for 13 credit hours per semester, 2 semesters), and $26,180 for non-residents per 12-credit-hour semester.[87]
Admissions and demographics
For the Class of 2020 (enrolling Fall 2016), Utah received 14,308 applications and accepted 10,934 (76.4%), with 3,601 enrolling.[88] The middle 50% range of SAT scores for enrolling freshmen was 520-640 for critical reading, 530-660 for math, and 500-620 for writing.[88] The middle 50% ACT composite score range was 21-27, 20-27 for math, and 21-28 for English.[88] The average high school grade point average (GPA) was 3.61.[88]
The university uses a holistic admissions process and weighs ACT/SAT standardized test scores, GPA, grade trend, rigorous AP/IB/Honors classes taken in high school, academic achievements, along with other "personal achievements and characteristics".[89]
In Fall 2015, the undergraduate and graduate student body was 31,551, with 23,794 undergraduate students and 7,757 graduate students; 73% of students were full-time, 56% were male and 44% female, and 82% were Utah residents.[4] The undergraduate student body was 69% white, 11% Hispanic, 6% non-resident alien, 5% Asian, 4% two or more races, 1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander, 1% black, and 1% Native American. Ethnicity or citizenship was unknown for 2%.[4]
Notable programs
The Sorensen Arts & Education Complex.
The Department of Ballet offers the top ranked ballet and ballroom dance program in the United States and is one of the oldest and most reputable university ballet departments in the country.[90] The Department was founded by William F. Christensen in 1951, who also founded the San Francisco Ballet and Ballet West companies.[91]
The university has made unique contributions to the study of genetics due in part to long-term genealogy efforts of the LDS Church, which has allowed researchers to trace genetic disorders through several generations. The relative homogeneity of Utah's population also makes it an ideal laboratory for studies of population genetics.[92] The university is home to the Genetic Science Learning Center, a resource which educates the public about genetics through its website.[93]
In March 2012, the university received unanimous approval from the board of trustees to create a new academic college, the School of Dentistry, which is the university's first new college in sixty years.[94] The new school has received funding for a new structure and has started as a debt-free program.[94] The new school enrolled its first students for the fall semester of 2013 and averages the same cost as the university's medical school tuition.[95]
Computer science
Merrill Engineering Building
The University of Utah was one of the original four nodes of ARPANET, the world's first packet-switching computer network and embryo of the current worldwide Internet.[96] The School of Computing produced many of the early pioneers in computer science and graphics, including Turing Award winner Alan Kay, Pixar founder Ed Catmull, Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, and Adobe founder John Warnock.[97] Notable innovations of computer science faculty and alumni include the first method for representing surface textures in graphical images, the Gouraud shading model, magnetic ink printing technology, the Johnson counter logic circuit, the oldest algebraic mathematics package still in use (REDUCE), the Phong reflection model, the Phong shading method, and the rendering equation.[98] Through the movement of Utah graduates and faculty, research at the University spread outward to laboratories like Xerox Parc, JPL, and the New York Institute of Technology.[99] Present graphics research is focused on biomedical applications for visualization, scientific computing, and image analysis at the Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute.[100]
The S.J. Quinney College of Law.
The S.J. Quinney College of Law, founded in 1913,[101] was the only law school in Utah until the 1970s.
The University of Utah has the only accredited allopathic medical school in the State of Utah.[10] The medical school has made several notable contributions to medicine, such as establishing the first Cerebrovascular Disease Unit west of the Mississippi River in 1970 and administering the world's first permanent artificial heart, the Jarvik-7, to Barney Clark in 1982.[102]
The University of Utah College of Pharmacy is 4th in the nation for NIH research grants.[103] The department of Pharmacology and Toxicology within the School of Pharmacy is world-renowned for research in epilepsy treatment with their Anticonvulsant Drug Development (ADD) program.[104]
Political Science
The university is host to the Neal A. Maxwell Lecture Series in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics, a forum for political theorists to share their newest theoretical work,[105] and is home to the Hinckley Institute of Politics, which places more than 350 students every year in local, state, national, and global internships.[106]
Jon M. Huntsman Center serves as a basketball and gymnastics venue
The university has 7 men's and 11 women's varsity teams.[107] Athletic teams include men's baseball, basketball, football, golf, skiing, swimming/diving, and tennis and women's basketball, cross country, gymnastics, skiing, soccer, softball, swimming/diving, tennis, track and field, and volleyball.[108] The school's sports teams are called the Utes, though some teams have an additional nickname, such as "Runnin' Utes" for the men's basketball team.[109] The university participates in the NCAA's Division I (FBS for football) as part of the Pac-12 Conference.[110] When they were in the same conference, there was a fierce Utah–BYU rivalry, and the Utah–BYU football game, traditionally the season finale, has been called the "Holy War" by national broadcasting commentators.[111] The university fight song is "Utah Man", commonly played at athletic games and other university events.[7] In 1996, Swoop was introduced as the new mascot of the University of Utah. Because of relationships with the local Ute Indians, Utah adopted a new mascot. While still known as the Utes, Utah is now represented by the Red-tailed Hawk known for the use of his tail feathers in Ute head-dresses, and said he "Reflects the soaring spirit of our state and school"[112]
In 2002, the university was one of 20 schools to make the U.S. News & World Report College Sports Honor Roll.[113] In 2005, Utah became the first school to produce No. 1 overall draft picks in both the NFL draft and NBA draft for the same year.[114] Alex Smith was picked first overall by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2005 NFL Draft,[115] and Andrew Bogut was picked first overall by the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2005 NBA Draft.[116] The university has won ten NCAA Skiing Championships, most recently in 2017,[117] as well as the 1977 AIAW National Women's Skiing Championship.[118]
Men's basketball
The men's basketball team won the NCAA title in 1944[119] and the NIT crown in 1947.[120] Arnie Ferrin, the only four-time All-American in Utah basketball history, played for both the 1944 and 1947 teams. He also went on to help the Minneapolis Lakers win NBA Championships in 1949 and 1951.[121] Wat Misaka, the first person of Asian descent to play in the NBA, also played for Utah during this era.[122]
Rice-Eccles Stadium during a football game
Marching band
The university marching band, known as the "Pride of Utah",[128] perform at all home football games, as well as some away games and bowl games. They performed at the 2005 BCS Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the 2009 BCS Allstate Sugar Bowl, and the Inaugural Parade of President Barack Obama.[128]
The band began as a military band in the 1940s. In 1948, university president A. Ray Olpin recruited Ron Gregory from Ohio State University to form a collegiate marching band. Support for the band dwindled in the 60s, and ASUU (the Associated Students of the University of Utah) discontinued its funding in 1969.[7] The band was revived in 1976 after a fund raising effort.[7] under the direction of Gregg I. Hanson.[129] As of 2011, the band is under the direction of Dr. Brian Sproul.[130]
Men's rugby club
Student life
Student Life Center at the University of Utah.
A. Ray Olpin University Union and courtyard.
Close to 50% of freshman live on campus, but most students choose to live elsewhere after their first year, with 13% of all undergraduates living on campus.[132] The university is located in a large metropolitan area, but many students live in the neighborhoods immediately surrounding the university. An additional 1,115 family apartments are available to students, staff, and faculty. One of the university's primary four goals for long-term campus growth is to increase student engagement through the addition of on-campus housing, intramural fields, athletic centers, and a new student activity center.[133]
The current student activity center, the A. Ray Olpin University Union, is a common gathering place for university-wide events such as Crimson Nights, roughly monthly student activity nights; PlazaFest, a fair for campus groups at the start of the school year; and the Grand Kerfuffle, a concert at the end of the school year. The building includes a cafeteria, computer lab, recreational facilities, and a ballroom for special events. The Union also houses the Lowell Bennion Community Service Center, CESA (Center for Ethnic Student Affairs) which provides an inclusive space for students and houses various advising programs of the Office of Equity and Diversity, the Union Programming Council which is in charge of promoting student life on campus through events like Crimson Nights, and ASUU (the Associated Students of the University of Utah), which is responsible for appropriating funds to student groups and organizations on campus.[134] ASUU holds primary and general elections each year for student representatives, typically with 10–15% of the student population voting.[135]
Due to the large number of LDS Church members at the university, there is an LDS Institute of Religion building near main campus, as well as several LDS student groups and 46 campus wards.[136] Approximately 650 students are part of 6 sororities and 8 fraternities at the university, most of which have chapter houses on "Greek Row" just off campus.[137][138]
The University of Utah has a dry campus, meaning that alcohol is banned on campus.[139] In 2004, Utah became the first state with a law expressly permitting concealed weapons on public university campuses.[140] The University of Utah tried to uphold its gun ban but the Utah Supreme Court rejected the ban in 2006.[141]
Eccles Broadcast Center is home to three broadcast stations
The university has several public broadcasting affiliations, many of which utilize the Eccles Broadcast Center. These stations include KUED channel 7, a PBS member station[142] and producer of local documentaries; KUEN channel 9, an educational station for teachers and students from the Utah Education Network; KUER 90.1 FM, a public radio affiliate of National Public Radio, American Public Media, and Public Radio International;[143] and K-UTE 1620.
NewsBreak is the student-run television newscast on campus.[144] During 2011, the program celebrated its 40th anniversary.[145] Broadcasts air every Thursday night at 10 pm during the fall and spring semesters on KUEN.
The Daily Utah Chronicle, also referred to as the Chrony,[146] has been the university's independent, student-run paper since 1890.[147] It publishes daily on school days during fall and spring semesters and weekly during summer semester.[148] The paper typically runs between eight and twelve pages, with longer editions for weekend game guides. The paper converted to a broadsheet format in 2003 when the Newspaper Agency Corporation began printing it.[146] The Society of Professional Journalists selected the newspaper as one of three finalists for best all-around daily student newspaper in the nation in both 2007 and 2008.[149][150] Staff from the Chronicle feed into Utah journalism circles, some of them rising to considerable prominence, such as former editor Matt Canham, whose work with The Salt Lake Tribune earned him the Don Baker Investigative Reporting Award from the Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.[151]
The University of Utah Press, the oldest press in Utah and now part of the J. Willard Marriott Library, publishes books on topics including the outdoors, anthropology and archaeology, linguistics, creative nonfiction, Mesoamerica, Native American studies, and Utah, Mormon, and Western history.[152][153] The university is also home to a national literary journal, Quarterly West.[154]
Notable alumni and faculty
Notable alumni include politicians Rocky Anderson, Bob Bennett, E. Jake Garn, Jon Huntsman, Jr., Karen Morgan, Frank E. Moss, and Karl Rove;[155] recent LDS Church presidents Gordon B. Hinckley[156] and Thomas S. Monson;[157] historian and Pulitzer Prize for History laureate Laurel Thatcher Ulrich;[158] authors Orson Scott Card,[159] Stephen Covey, Terry Tempest Williams, and Wallace Stegner; R Adams Cowley, William DeVries, Russell M. Nelson,[160] and Robert Jarvik in medicine; historian Richard Foltz; educators Gordon Gee [161] and Ann Weaver Hart;[162] reporter Martha Raddatz;[163] and speed reading innovator Evelyn Nielsen Wood.[164]
Notable science and engineering alumni include Jim Blinn; Mark W. Fuller, CEO of WET Design; Jim Clark, founder of Silicon Graphics, Netscape Communications Corporation, myCFO, and Healtheon; Gretchen W. McClain, former NASA Deputy Associate Administrator of Human Space Exploration and Chief Director of the International Space Station; Henri Gouraud; John C. Cook who played a crucial role in establishing the field of ground-penetrating radar;[165] Ralph Hartley;[166] rocket scientist Joseph Majdalani;[167] Alan Kay; Simon Ramo; and John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Systems.
Notable entrepreneur and business leader alumni include Alan Ashton, co-founder of WordPerfect and Thanksgiving Point; Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese; Ed Catmull, co-founder of Pixar; J. Willard Marriott, founder of Marriott International; Robert A. "Bob" McDonald, CEO of Procter & Gamble;[168] David Neeleman, founder of JetBlue; and Telle Whitney, CEO and President of the Anita Borg Institute[169]
Notable faculty in science and engineering include David Evans and Ivan Sutherland, founders of Evans and Sutherland; Bui Tuong Phong, pioneer of computer graphics; Henry Eyring, known for studying chemical reaction rates;[171] Stephen Jacobsen, founder of Sarcos;[172] Jindřich Kopeček and Sung Wan Kim, pioneers of polymeric drug delivery and gene delivery;[173] Suhas Patil, founder of Cirrus Logic; Stanley Pons, who claimed to have discovered "cold fusion" in 1989;[174] Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, later co-winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry;[175] and Thomas Stockham, founder of Soundstream.[169] In medicine, notable faculty include Mario Capecchi, the co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine;[176] Willem Johan Kolff;[177] and Russell M. Nelson.[160] Biologist Ralph Vary Chamberlin, founding dean of the Medical School, professor, and later historian of the University, was also an alumnus.
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42. ^ Roche, Lisa R. (January 10, 2002). "The Olympic Village: World's elite athletes to have rooms with a view, pizza with goat cheese". 2002 Salt Lake Winter Olympic Games. Deseret News and KSL. Retrieved May 14, 2009.
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Can I Separate Christmas Cactus?
Christmas cacti (Schlumbergera hybrids) are succulents with the delightful habit of blooming just in time for Christmas. Although you can grow them outdoors in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 10 through 12, they usually are grown as houseplants. The plants last five or six years, and with good care, they grow to fill a very large pot. You can separate a Christmas cactus in late spring or early summer.
Dividing Christmas Cactus
Christmas cacti like a tight pot, so select containers just large enough to accommodate the roots with no more than an inch of space between the roots and the side of the pot. Separate the plant carefully to prevent unnecessary root damage. Christmas cactus is susceptible to root. While you have the plant out of the pot, clip off dark, slimy, rotting pieces of root. Repot the plant in a good quality, general purpose potting soil with a handful of sand mixed in to improve the drainage.
References (2)
• The Complete Houseplant Survival Manual; Barbara Pleasant
• How to Grow Fresh Air; Dr. B.C. Wolverton
About the Author
Photo Credits
• Brand X Pictures/Brand X Pictures/Getty Images
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Thursday, August 5, 2010
Mendacious metaphors
Inception, this summer's sci-fi thriller blockbuster, ranks at the time of writing at number 3 in the all-time movie rankings on IMDB. A similar phenomenon was seen two years ago with director Christopher Nolan's Batman relaunch sequel The Dark Knight, which reached similarly dizzying heights on IMDB and has only now fallen out of the top 10. While The Dark Knight does not pretend to be anything but a well thought out take on a classic comic book action story, Inception broaches far more philosophical topics and has loftier ambitions. Though it is a textbook example of narrative complexity, and derives tremendous tension from its pinnacle of quadruple jeopardy, in essence it says absolutely nothing. Though the script is full of references to the subconscious, and the entire story takes place in a multi-layered dream, the movie makes no effort to discuss the importance or relevance of dreams or what psychologists call the subconscious, they are mere tools and excuses used to create dramatic tension. It is an outstanding example of modernist filmmaking, concerned only with form, only with the cinematic experience of watching it. Philosophically speaking, it is totally vacuous. The concepts and references are just there for the sake of creating a point in the story where the success or failure of the protagonists rests not on a single or dual factors, but on a succession of well-sychronised 'kicks' that wake our heroes from several successive 'levels' of 'dream state'. The twist at the end appears to be the rather obvious in-story joke that the entire thing is one big dream of Leonardo Dicaprio's character. As far as cop-out, obviously leaving it open for a lucrative sequel endings go, it was a tour de force of which Nolan is presumably very proud.
The movie is a well designed trick. It convinces people that it must be about something, because there's always something going on and you have to add it all up to make sure you follow the plot correctly. But that is all it is about - the plot itself. As an intellectual experience, it is completely insular. An analysis of the essential plot points and creative decisions made in the story telling process illustrate that this can only be intentional. The movie is ostensibly set in a world different to ours, but the only exploration of the way in which it is different is the existence of a technology that allows people to enter other people's dreams. Basically they all sit in a room together, wired up to a silver suitcase. The only other information that we're offered about the world is when a Japanese businessman (cliche alert!) hires Dicaprio and his anonymous, one dimensional band of associates to attempt 'inception', the use of the technology to try to plant an idea in a rival businessman's head.
Briefly, it is explained that the rival is about to inherit a monopolistic energy company with which no one can compete, and so the Japanese businessman wants to implant the idea that the rival should split up the monopolistic company and sell it off. This is the only other information we're given about the 'real' world in which the story occurs. Unlike virtually every other sci-fi story set in a different world, the narrative conceit of setting isn't used to say anything about our own world. It simply isn't part of the story.
Instead we are invited to try to get interested and engaged by Dicaprio having a dead wife, who for reasons that are too tedious to get into, he is wrongly thought to have killed and hence he is separated from his children. The last Dicaprio movie I watched was Shutter Island, which also involved having to sit through two hours of his shitly-bearded face try to convey the emotion of having a dead wife. The central character in Memento (which is identical to Inception in several regards) also has a dead wife. As does as least one contestant on The X-Factor every year. Indeed, the story of 'man with dead wife' is about as overused as having a fat black guy play the busdriver. There is, incidentally, a lovely moment in season two of The Wire where McNulty jokes about having a dead wife in a playful attempt to curry interest from Beadie. Nolan himself shows that he knows this is a cliche by making this plot element entirely subservient to the story. That is to say, there is no exploration of the experience of a man who has lost his wife, it is merely a fact that is necessary for the climax to happen in the way that it does.
Indeed, several other factors are likewise subservient, to the extent that the entire plot is supporting one climactic sequence of cutting between successfully dependent events. Ignoring the storyteller's mantra to 'show' rather than 'tell', we are told virtually the whole story explicitly through dialogue to make sure that even the thickos at the back can grasp what's going on. We are told that in order to plant the idea (incept? inceive?) in the business rival's head they need a three-layered dream - a dream within a dream within a dream - so they can ensure the idea goes 'deep' enough. (This is only one of a dozen different uses of the word 'deep' in the script, more on that lower down) Why is this the case? Why a three-layered dream? Purely because the plot demands it. We are told that three layers is highly unstable. Why is this the case? Why would dreaming within dreaming within dreaming involve experiencing a reality that is less stable than mere dreaming within dreaming? No explanation is given. It is purely because the plot demands it.
So, they drug the target with a powerful sedative, and drug themselves with it too. Once in the first level of the dream, we are told that because of the sedative if they 'die' in the dream that they won't wake up, but will go into another, apparently parallel, dream state they call 'limbo'. No one bothers to ask 'what happens if you die in limbo, do you wake up then?' which is important, because the film has no answer for that rather obvious question, at least at that point in the story. Again, the whole 'limbo' diversion is an excuse for something else that needs to happen so that the narrative conclusion can be what the writers want it to be. It isn't saying anything about the nature of experiencing death within a dream, or being conscious of experiencing death in a dream, and it sure as hell isn't saying anything about humans being the only creatures that know that they are going to die. It's just a piece of a jigsaw. If people are satisfied with themselves for having put the jigsaw together by the end of the movie then they will go home happy with the cinematic experience, happy to have consumed Inception as a product.
And here is the crucial factor in the deception of Inception. It isn't even Titanic. Titanic was a largely meaningless blockbuster, also starring Dicaprio, but at least it gave its audience a good emotional work out. It may not have taught them anything, it may not have informed them, it may not have inspired them, but at least it made people feel something. Inception doesn't even accomplish that. All it is offering its audience is the prize of being able to follow the plot, which isn't even that complex relative to, just for example, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. It is the cinematic equivalent of a Sudoku puzzle. In many tabletop games, in particular most board games, the multiplayer aspect means that one is testing oneself against other people within the framework of the rules. There is an unpredictable exchange that requires an ad hoc mental process. In Sudoku, either one 'gets' it and completes the puzzle, or one doesn't. In Inception, either you follow the plot, or you don't. In a movie where so much is at stake for the characters, virtually nothing is at stake for the watching audience.
Indeed, even the title is misleading gibberish. The word 'inception' means the beginning of something. It does not mean planting an idea in someone's mind through their subconscious. 'Insertion' would be more accurate. However, Nolan clearly isn't concerned with actually using words to mean what they mean, but solely with finding a single-word, cool sounding title for a movie that says nothing about anything. Calling a movie 'insertion' would make it sound like an unimaginative porn film, presumably based around people placing objects in their bodily orifices. The title 'Inception' plays the same role as the sunglasses and long leather jackets in The Matrix. It is almost empty data - signifying nothing other than the filmmaker's desire to be thought of as having made a cool movie. All the talk, in both films, of perception of reality is not an effort to explore ontology through cinema, but as part of a carefully arranged group of symbols which are collectively meaningless but individually compelling enough to appear meaningful at least for the duration of the film. The film is not only driven by almost pure formalism, it engages in a form of psychological deception.
That is not to say people shouldn't find the movie enjoyable, more so that they should realise what it is that they are enjoying. That is, their own ability to follow a reasonably complex plot, their own capacity to solve a puzzle so that they can buy into the dramatic tension of the climactic sequence. Inception does make its audience work a little harder than most mainstream action thrillers, but this is only to make the film more compelling as a physical, formal experience. It's the equivalent of using more contrasting colours in a painting, or slightly cruder language in a sitcom. Not subtle, not particularly clever and most certainly not philosophical. David Denby of the New Yorker twigged this:
Christopher Nolan(...) appears to believe that if he can do certain things in cinema—especially very complicated things—then he has to do them. But why? To what end? His new movie, “Inception,” is an astonishment, an engineering feat, and, finally, a folly...
...“Inception” is a stunning-looking film that gets lost in fabulous intricacies, a movie devoted to its own workings and to little else...
...Bizarre oddities, which complicate the puzzle but are meaningless in themselves, flash by in an instant. The actors, trying to suggest familiarity with the task of dream invasion, spin off gibberish in the most casual way. Parodies, I assume, will follow on YouTube...
...But who cares if Cobb gets back to two kids we don’t know? And why would we root for one energy company over another? There’s no spiritual meaning or social resonance to any of this, no critique of power in the dream-world struggle between C.E.O.s. - Inception review, New Yorker
There is something much more important at stake than Nolan's aesthetic philosophy, and that is that Inception works as a corporate psychological operation, as mass propaganda. This is most obvious in its treatment of dreams-within-dreams. The characters are seen entering a dream, and then falling asleep within it and entering another dream, and then falling asleep within that and entering another dream. These dreams are arranged in a linear, vertical formation so to fully wake up they need to wake up from the 'deepest level' (3rd dream) to the 'deeper level' (2nd dream) to the merely 'deep level' (1st dream) and from there wake up to reality. The neat planning and execution of these four successive 'wake ups' is what creates the quadruple jeopardy - to successfully wake up, all four must work in the right way and the right order.
However, this isn't how dreams work. No one falls asleep in a dream and finds themself in another dream. Sometimes, people experience 'waking up' in a dream but that is usually the beginning of the dream (insofar as they remember it), not a transition from a prior dream state, and certainly not a passage up some imaginary ladder of different dream states. No one actually experiences lucid dreaming in the manner portrayed in Inception. The film is also asexual. Aside from Dicaprio's dead wife, there is no indication that any of the characters even have a sexuality or any kind of romantic emotion whatsoever, and yet this is perhaps the number one topic for real dreams. This confirms that Nolan has no interest in discussing people's real experience of dreams.
In reality, most people experience dreams within dreams laterally, not vertically. As is portrayed in the far superior film based on a very, very similar premise Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we tumble sideways, never in full control, finding the world of our own mind a constantly shifting, unsteady ground, rather than the rigid military formation demanded by Nolan's plot. But Nolan could have created the same quadruple jeopardy without arranging the dreams vertically. Had the various dreams been parallel, he could have simply had the characters explain with their psychobabble that they needed to exit the dreams simultaneously at the same time as the target, the rival businessman, so he didn't realise he'd been in a dream all along while they were planting the idea. Or whatever. It could have not been dreams at all, but three or four events needing to happen in different places for the desired conclusion to happen. Instead of parallel dream states one could have Sliders-style parallel universes, causally interconnected. There are an infinite number of possible scenarios where four stories or situations have mutually dependent influence.
So why all the crap about dreams, the subconscious, perception of reality, and saying 'levels' and 'deep' like there's a legal quota to be hit? Two key reasons springs to mind. The first is to make the film appear to be about far more than it really is. Bombard people with words that sound clever, and a fair number of them will think you are being clever. Whether you are saying anything meaningful is irrelevant. It's akin to the infamous Milgram Experiment in the 1960s, where participants were told they were to give electric shocks to subjects. The experiment found that in a scientific setting, told to do so by an apparent authority figure, the majority of people would gladly administer what they believed were lethal electric shocks. This experiment has been recreated several times, including by the BBC:
In these experiments, the symbols of authority are that of science. The authoritarian white, middle aged male wearing a lab coat, in a room with the sort of functional equipment one would expect in a lab experiment. In Inception, the symbols of authority are those of science fiction, pseudo-psychological and technical dialogue, paradoxically complex plots reminiscent of those in the Back to the Future films, and pretty young things/swarthy middle aged hacks doing the walking and talking. But Inception is solely concerned with its own exposition, with blending the established elements of the sci-fi thriller in a sufficiently familiar but sufficiently fresh way to attain blockbuster status. It is an exercise in the balance of entropy and redundancy, the predictable and the unpredictable.
As such, using metaphors like 'deep' and 'levels' to describe different dream states/parts of the story is a reasonably cunning move. These are extremely common metaphors, the Swiss Army Knives of critical language. 'On one level' 'an another level' 'on different levels' are used to fill in spaces in sentences where the analysis is lacking, or even where it fails. Commonly, 'deep' is used to mean 'profound' but, significantly, it is also often used to mean 'compelling'. The two meanings are quite different. An illusion can be compelling, people who think they've seen ghosts and UFOs (or maybe actually have seen ghosts and/or UFOs) find their visions compelling. Whether those visions are profound, or the results of a superficial failure of the senses, or a deliberate illusion, or of a willing mind seeing what it wants to see, remains uncertain. Inception plays on this dual meaning, as it is very compelling to watch, but ultimately lacks any kind of profundity. Its adherents will defend it, claiming to see all sorts of fabulous and wonderful meanings (or just appreciating it technically) but the conjunction of the signs in the film show that this is probably not the case.
'Subconscious' and 'subconsciously' are likewise overused, from pop-psychological studies of why women eat less when men are around to highly convenient and misleading explanations of what motivates terrorists. Again, the 'sub' prefix implies a vertical arrangement, a hierarchy, though ironically most claims about the subconscious grant it great authority. The word 'subconscious' is mentioned throughout Inception, but no notable exploration of its role takes place. It is merely the place where the anonymous team of nubiles and veterans have to plant the idea in the target. All this language firmly encourages the audience to phrase their thoughts, not just about the film, in a language which presumes hierarchy, which presumes authority, which assumes some kind of chain of command. Shit rolls downhill.
Of course, people repeat this nonsense, further encouraging these thought patterns. People come to accept the hierarchy, because they find it difficult to articulate thoughts in the absence of such hierarchical metaphors. Not only does Inception dupe its audience into thinking it is about far more interesting and complex things than it really is about, it further encourages them to accept a top-down order of things, by further propagating and entrenching a vocabulary that wholly presumes and affirms such an order. That it does so while satisfying people through the use of their own minds, feeling as though they are getting a mental workout when they are actually being blinded by propaganda, makes Inception a work of supreme doublethink. It rewards you for accepting its precepts and presumptions, which themselves entail you thinking in such a way that is wholly unrewarding. Well done for staying in your designated place. We thank you for not smoking.
I refer again to George Orwell's essay Politics and the English language. In the essay, Orwell criticises several passages of writing for their 'staleness of imagery' and 'is lack of precision'.
Inception is guilty of many of the charges Orwell was levelling at writers several decades ago, in particular 'dying metaphors' ('deep') and 'pretentious diction' ('subconscious'). My interpretation of the film outlined above is not an exposition of a meaning contained within it, but of the role it plays linguistically. It has a carefully arranged veneer of appearing meaningful, but is ultimately meaningless. Yet in duping its audience in this way, it makes use of words (and indeed, images and plot elements) that maintain in the audience habits of thinking that keep them susceptible to this sort of deception. Indeed, 'deception' would be a far more accurate title for the film.
Ultimately, Inception makes a philosophical error common to many sci-fi films, namely of upholding the dualism and binary opposition of appearance and reality. The danger implicit (and sometimes explicit) in the movie's dramatic height is that while the characters could simply be woken from their dream state, that they would have lost their grip on reality. The conceit at the end of the film indicating that Dicaprio is still in a dream, having lost that grip, firmly upholds this opposition and dualism. But dreams are not mere appearance, they are compelling fantasy, apparent visions that we generate for ourselves when asleep. They conform to a different logic to waking life, but they aren't the opposite of waking life. They are experienced in much the same way, and have very real effects, perhaps more than we presently understand. It is an opposition of convenience - asleep/awake appearance/reality falsity/truth - but not one that is easily upheld. You can dream and know you are dreaming. You can be awake and think you are still dreaming. The line is far from clear, without the need for any ludicrous, convoluted, jargon-laden exposition through cinema.
The most famous assault on this binary opposition came a century before poststructuralism in the works of Friedrich Nietzsche. He argued that there is only appearance, that when we replace one 'appearance' with 'reality' (for example, due to a new observation or deduction) then all we are doing is replacing one appearance with another. The metaphysical realism and rationalism of Immanuel Kant in particular would have us believe that if only we use our faculty of reason to disengage from our particular subjective motives and interests is the knowledge we produce an adequate presentation of reality. This understanding has reality as a thing in itself, out there, which we generally only understand through the veil of our subjective perceptions of it. For Nietzsche, this distinction is a nonsense, an attempt by philosophers to look round a corner they haven't reached. Appearance is reality, as far as we can ever know. While this idea is contested and explored through Nietzsche's work, perhaps his most simple deconstruction of the opposition of appearance and reality came in Twilight of the Idols:
1. The true world — attainable for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man; he lives in it, he is it.
2. The true world — unattainable for now, but promised for the sage, the pious, the virtuous man ("for the sinner who repents").
(Progress of the idea: it becomes more subtle, insidious, incomprehensible — it becomes female, it becomes Christian. )
3. The true world — unattainable, indemonstrable, unpromisable; but the very thought of it — a consolation, an obligation, an imperative.
4. The true world — unattainable? At any rate, unattained. And being unattained, also unknown. Consequently, not consoling, redeeming, or obligating: how could something unknown obligate us?
5. The "true" world — an idea which is no longer good for anything, not even obligating — an idea which has become useless and superfluous — consequently, a refuted idea: let us abolish it!
(Noon; moment of the briefest shadow; end of the longest error; high point of humanity; INCIPIT ZARATHUSTRA.) - Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
And so, as he concluded:
The antithesis of the apparent world and the true world reduced to the antithesis "world" and "nothing." - Nietzsche, Will to Power §567
As such, I am not calling Inception 'shallow' or 'superficial' as these are analogies of the same type, language from the same wrongheaded conceptual scheme Nolan seems to subscribe to. Rather, the film is vapid, meaningless and willfully deceitful, a carefully constructed psychological operation that will only contribute to a world of mendacious metaphors that make clarity of thought and word that much harder.
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11 Lose Your Man Boobs With Garry Davidson 21
How To Eliminate Man Boobs: Give Me A Few Weeks And I'll Give You A Flat Chest!
How To Eliminate Man Boobs - PecsYes, you heard it – in just a few weeks from now you can be walking around in a T-shirt or topless at the beach with people seeing you as a man for a change!
By following the correct step-by-step method your body will have no choice but to burn that chest fat!
...and reveal the truly masculine frame you were meant to have.
See, there's a reason why man boobs are on the rise and were more or less unheard of 100 years ago. Modern technology, food processing, the use of the contraceptive pill by women, the use of preservatives in food and cosmetics, and many more factors are to blame!
How are they to blame do you ask?
Well the reason you have man boobs is because there's too much of the female hormone oestrogen in the environment – and in your body.
“Man Boobs Are In The Food You Eat!”
Your food is poisoned with preservatives that give it a longer shelf-life. These preservatives contain oestrogen-like particles, which give you man boobs.
“Yes, They're Also In The Water You Drink!”
Even your water supply contains oestrogen – thanks to the oral contraceptive pill, more than 70% of women in the west are peeing oestrogen-laden urine into our water system. Currently there appears to be no government scheme in the world which considers oestrogen in their water purification system.
“No, Surely... Not In The Very Air We Breathe???”
Yup! Car exhaust fumes contain oestrogen-like particles which give you man boobs. The incidence of man boobs in bus drivers is extremely high. And it's a proven fact that man boobs are much more common in busy cities than in people living out in the country.
“So What's Next? My Deodorant?”
Well hate to break it to you, but yes! More than 90% of cosmetics contain preservatives and other oestrogen-like particles. Of particular concern is the use of deodorants! By applying deodorants under your armpit, these particles bypass the body's metabolism and are directly absorbed into your chest, where they cause the develop of female breast tissue.
The reason man boobs are on the rise is the same reason female breast cancer (male breast cancer too!) rates are shooting up. We are being exposed to dangerous levels of oestrogen in our daily lives and no government that I know of has decided to take a stance against it.
“So How Do I Eliminate Man Boobs In Just A Few Weeks?”
It's simple! Avoid as much of the oestrogen around you as is humanly possible. Of course, if it's in the air you breathe, you'll only be able to avoid it to a certain extent, that's why you have to employ every strategy you can.
And unfortunately this involves exercise. Yup, I'm afraid it's true. Fat cells contain the enzyme aromatase, which converts the male hormone testosterone into the female hormone oestrogen. Getting rid of as much fat as possible from your body will help you tremendously in your struggle against your boobs.
If you want to learn everything you need to avoid oestrogen in your environment and finally eliminate those man boobs forever, then Click Here to visit How To Lose Man Boobs Naturally.
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Watch me like a hawk
Meaning: to watch very carefully
Example: When the boy and his friends has a party, his mother told him that she was going to watch them like a hawk to see that they didn't go bananas and make a mess of the house.
See this Idiom in a story: It's a Home Run
Submit a Drawing
What country are you from?
How old are you?
watch me like a hawk
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home about-us mesa links local attractions contact us
Okay, we are so so sorry. We apologize. What was I thinking???
Full feed is up and running.
And no more having to type verification words before you comment (sorry, didn't realize that one was on there).
Thanks for letting us know.
Oh, and shirts are uni-sex, so they run normal for sizing.
- The IHM team
Kate said...
Wow, that was so fast! Thanks! You have lots of fans. ;)
Side by Side said...
Thank you!
I check out your blog in a reader and so appreciate the full feeds again!
Thanks, thanks, thanks!!!!
Kayla said...
I love you for this.
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PHP 7.3.0 alpha 2 Released
OOP Changelog
Changes to the PHP 5 OOP model are logged here. Descriptions and other notes regarding these features are documented within the OOP 5 documentation.
Version Description
7.0.0 Defining (compatible) properties in two used traits no longer triggers an error.
5.6.0 Added: The __debugInfo() method.
5.5.0 Added: The ::class magic constant.
5.5.0 Added: finally to handle exceptions.
5.4.0 Added: traits.
5.4.0 Changed: If an abstract class defines a signature for the constructor it will now be enforced.
5.3.3 Changed: Methods with the same name as the last element of a namespaced class name will no longer be treated as constructor. This change doesn't affect non-namespaced classes.
5.3.0 Changed: Classes that implement interfaces with methods that have default values in the prototype are no longer required to match the interface's default value.
5.3.0 Changed: It's now possible to reference the class using a variable (e.g., echo $classname::constant;). The variable's value can not be a keyword (e.g., self, parent or static).
5.3.0 Changed: An E_WARNING level error is issued if the magic overloading methods are declared static. It also enforces the public visibility requirement.
5.3.0 Changed: Prior to 5.3.0, exceptions thrown in the __autoload() function could not be caught in the catch block, and would result in a fatal error. Exceptions now thrown in the __autoload function can be caught in the catch block, with one provison. If throwing a custom exception, then the custom exception class must be available. The __autoload function may be used recursively to autoload the custom exception class.
5.3.0 Added: The __callStatic method.
5.3.0 Added: heredoc and nowdoc support for class const and property definitions. Note: heredoc values must follow the same rules as double-quoted strings, (e.g., no variables within).
5.3.0 Added: Late Static Bindings.
5.3.0 Added: The __invoke() method.
5.2.0 Changed: The __toString() method was only called when it was directly combined with echo or print. But now, it is called in any string context (e.g. in printf() with %s modifier) but not in other types contexts (e.g. with %d modifier). Since PHP 5.2.0, converting objects without a __toString method to string emits a E_RECOVERABLE_ERROR level error.
5.1.3 Changed: In previous versions of PHP 5, the use of var was considered deprecated and would issue an E_STRICT level error. It's no longer deprecated, therefore does not emit the error.
5.1.0 Changed: The __set_state() static method is now called for classes exported by var_export().
5.1.0 Added: The __isset() and __unset() methods.
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Matching 'Bryan Greenberg' Pick a random title6 matches
Released 2017
Random Tropical Paradise 2017 Play Amazon Page NR HD
3.5/5 (23) After finding out five minutes before, and five feet from, where he was supposed to get married that his bride-to-be was cheating on him, a groom takes his best man on the... Bryan Greenberg FilmBuff 101 minutes comedy, independentfilm
Released 2016
Flock of Dudes 2016 Play Amazon Page NR HD
3.5/5 (37) A party guy must “break up" with his friends in order to finally grow up. Starring a riotous cast including Chris D'Elia, Hannah Simone, Bryan Greenberg, Eric Andre with Skylar... Chris D’Elia 100 minutes comedy, independentfilm, romance
Released 2015
A Year and Change 2015 Play Amazon Page TV-14 HD
3.5/5 (948) IMDb 6.5/10 (128) An all-star cast headlines this critically-acclaimed story about a young man who, after falling off a roof at a New Year's party, decides it's time to make some changes in his... Bryan Greenberg Vision Films 92 minutes comedy, drama
Released 2012
The Kitchen 2012 Play Amazon Page SD
2.5/5 (178) IMDb 5.0/10 (1.4k) A young woman's 30th birthday party becomes a comic disaster as disloyal friends, a cheating ex, a loud-mouth sister, dueling bands, random strangers and a manic-depressive party... Laura Prepon monterey media 79 minutes
Released 2010
How to Make It in America: Season 1 2010 Play Amazon Page TV-MA HD
4.5/5 (474) IMDb 8.0/10 (13k) In the bohemian subculture of downtown NYC, two friends plot to achieve the American Dream...on their own terms. Bryan Greenberg and Victor Rasuk star in Season One of this HBO... Bryan Greenberg HBO comedy, drama
The Good Guy 2010 Play Amazon Page R SD
3.5/5 (568) IMDb 5.9/10 (7.7k) The rules of dating spin wildly out of control in this unconventional New York romance starring Alexis Bledel (“Gilmore Girls”), Scott Porter (“Friday Night Lights”) and Bryan... Alexis Bledel Lionsgate 90 minutes comedy, drama, romance
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Wednesday, 26 October 2011
Tunisians in France will have 10 seats in the Tunisian parliament. Am I the only one who finds it creepy that Europe's Muslim colonists are increasingly being accorded voting rights in their countries of origin as well as here? (There are similar initiatives for the Turks in Germany, for example.) Areas of France will now have political representation in Tunisian politics. You could have a towel-wearing member for Paris North standing up to give a speech in the Tunisian parliament! This is an outrageous subversion of national integrity that vividly encapsulates the Muslim imperialism that Europe is forced to undergo.
The jihadist party Ennahda won 33.70% of the Tunisian vote in northern France and 30.23% in southern France, capturing 4 of the 10 French seats. This compares to around 40% in Tunisia itself.
How does the xenomaniac elite explain this? They are always telling us that only a "tiny minority" support the "islamists". Now we have cast iron proof to the contrary. Oh, I know. It must be the racism and islamophobia that drive all those moderate Muslims into the hands of the extremists.
Source: France24
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» Jease » Documentation
Want to contribute?
Jease allows you to send emails via a general mail service. In order to enable the mail service (e.g. to get notifications about added comments), you have to configure access to a SMTP-server.
Therefore you have to create a new parameter called JEASE_SMTP_PROPERTIES via CMS » System » Parameter and fill in the corresponding Java-Mail-Properties.
Here's an example which shows how to use the GoogleMail as SMTP-Server for your site:
mail.smtp.host smtp.googlemail.com
mail.smtp.auth true
mail.smtp.port 465
mail.smtp.socketFactory.port 465
mail.smtp.socketFactory.class javax.net.ssl.SSLSocketFactory
mail.smtp.socketFactory.fallback false
mail.smtp.user [email protected]
mail.smtp.password topsecret
Sending Mails
In order to send an email, you can simply call the mail service from Java/JSP/Script after it has been configured:
"The Subject",
"The body of your Email"
Please note: Mails.dispatch(...) sends the email in a separate thread, so the program execution isn't blocked while the SMTP-server is connected. If you want to send an email synchronously (e.g. useful for testing), you can use Mails.send().
Last modified on 2011-04-24 by Maik Jablonski
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Jim at Largo 28k
Photo by Can Soylu
Bay Area Renissance Festival 2000. Michael Marzella, in addition to his abilities as an actor, has one of the most profound bass voices in the world. He has anchored several of Jim's vocal recordings. The man on whistle is none other than the famous Rafferty the Piper.
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Beware of Facebook Page Poachers
securityRecently, I set up a Facebook page for a client of mine who owns a consignment shop called Fabulous Findz. We have been doing a ton of online marketing including pay per click advertising on Facebook, Bing, Google and using various other tools that have increased traffic to both the website and the store’s Facebook page. When I went into the Facebook page today to see if there had been any more traffic, I noticed that a competitor became a “fan” of the page. At first I thought it quite neighborly that a competing store owner should join our fan page and make a contribution to our site. But then a few minutes later, I had a friend request in my own inbox from that very same competitor. Apparently, this competitor (and I won’t mention who) sent friend requests to all our fans.
Now, I’m a marketer and I know the only way to survive these days is to get creative and push the envelope, so I do applaud this competitor’s creativity and determination. However, I wasn’t very happy with them trying to poach our fans. So I deleted the competitor from our page, banned them from ever returning and asked our fans to ignore the friend request (unless of course they knew this person).
I guess the moral of the story is twofold, make sure that you are really friends with someone before you accept a friend request and, most importantly, be kind to your neighbors.
Leave a Reply
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How to Optimize Your Youtube Channel
YouTube LogoAre you using your YouTube channel to its fullest?
If your organization is anything like mine, you probably use YouTube to host your videos and embed them on your website. It’s a good strategy and makes for very easy hosting capabilities. But are you taking the time to optimize them so they can also be found outside your website?
YouTube alone has over a billion users worldwide. And every day, people spend hundreds of millions of hours watching videos. If you’re not optimizing for them, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity.
Continue reading “How to Optimize Your Youtube Channel”
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Keith Kaminska
Diabetes Foot Problems Neuropathy
What Can Induce Heel Spur
Heel Spur
A heel spur is a buildup of calcium or a bone hook on the heel bone. This is typically the source of most heel pain. It usually takes an X-ray to see the heel spur protruding from the heel. Without proper heel spur treatment, a heel spur cause inflammation and lead to other ailments like plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendonitis. It is important to be examined by an orthopedic specialist.
Bone spurs form in the feet in response to tight ligaments, to activities such as dancing and running that put stress on the feet, and to pressure from being overweight or from poorly fitting shoes. For example, the long ligament on the bottom of the foot (plantar fascia) can become stressed or tight and pull on the heel, causing the ligament to become inflamed (plantar fasciitis). As the bone tries to mend itself, a bone spur can form on the bottom of the heel (known as a ?heel spur?). Pressure at the back of the heel from frequently wearing shoes that are too tight can cause a bone spur on the back of the heel. This is sometimes called a ?pump bump,? because it is often seen in women who wear high heels.
Calcaneal Spur
Non Surgical Treatment
Surgical Treatment
Approximately 2% of people with painful heel spurs need surgery, meaning that 98 out of 100 people do well with the non-surgical treatments previously described. However, these treatments can sometimes be rather long and drawn out, and may become considerably expensive. Surgery should be considered when conservative treatment is unable to control and prevent the pain. If the pain goes away for a while, and continues to come back off and on, despite conservative treatments, surgery should be considered. If the pain really never goes away, but reaches a plateau, beyond which it does not improve despite conservative treatments, surgery should be considered. If the pain requires three or more injections of "cortisone" into the heel within a twelve month period, surgery should be considered.
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Wednesday, August 10, 2005
New Developments on the Silverfish Defense Front
Lespisma sacchrina
Ugh!! I have been battling these insects since we moved in here in 2003, and by battling, I mostly mean waging war when we come into contact with each other. I tend to not like to kill things, in the event that some larger swarm of family might come to avenge their death.
I am reading some pretty disturbing and disgusting facts about these most creepy of bugs.
They are silvery brown and wingless, and covered in scales from head to toe.
They are called living fossils, because they are basically pre-insect, which usually tend to have wings.
Apparently they are classed as "chewing insects", meaning that they literally are sucking and rasping their little hearts out in my house. In the dark. At night. At which time the light exposes them, and they try to slither away.
They move FAST!
They are everywhere.
And I am FORCED to co-exist with them.
I have been reluctant to use any toxic product, as I am phobic of chemicals, but I have a fantastic tip that might rid me of a few million of them.
So before you go to bed, roll up a newspaper,wet it, and leave it out somewhere where you've seen them slithering.
In the morning...and I would suggest to move fast and be ready.
You just grab the newspaper and dispose of it into a plastic bag and be rid of it.
This should draw hoards and hoards of them out from their hiding places.
It sounds heinous to even suggest doing such a thing, but they are such a nuisance, that it must be done.
I can imagine how the ink draws them out, because I've seen them scuttle out of the freshly printed paper that might have been lying on the floor for a time.
It's gross.
I even had one pass over the next page in my hardcover that was in bed with me.
I EVEN have a bad flashback to the time I found one on little e's back in bed with me.
It was reminiscent of something from David Cronenburg.
Wish me luck...
Jeremy Stevens said...
Insecticide is not a crime. I think I would last about thirty seconds in sufferage of those insideous beasts.
And before you judge me, I am the type to collect a spider and put it outside, instead of smashing it into a small paste. Those Silverfish are pests. You serve no one by allowing them to propogate. Kill them, and be done with it. Your neighbors will thank you.
kntgrl said...
My neighbours probably have mice.
we'll see.....
Claire Nixon said...
Paper attracts them... they are an interesting pest. Best to be rid of them... before they take over your home...
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Movies, books, poetry, dirty jokes
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Pink propaganda
twentyseven bums give a prostitute the once
-over, fiftythree(and one would see if it could)
eyes say the breasts look very good:
firmlysquirmy with a slight jounce,
thirteen pants have a hunch
admit in threedimensional distress
these hips were made for Horizontal Business
(set on big legs nice to pinch
assiduously which justgraze
each other). As the lady lazily struts
thicklish flesh superior to the genuine daze
of unmarketable excitation,
whose careless movements carefully scatter
pink propganda of annihilation
goodby Betty,don't remember me
pencil your eyes dear and have a good time
with the tall tight boys at Tabari'
s,keep your teeth snowy,stick to beer and lime,
wear dark,and where your meeting breasts are round
have roses darling,it's all i ask of you--
but that when light fails and this sweet profound
Paris moves with lovers,two and two
bound for themselves,when passionately dusk
bring softly down the perfume of the world
(and just as smaller stars begin to husk
heaven)you, you exactly paled and curled
with mystic lips take twilight where i know:
proving to Death that Love is so and so.
E.E. Cummings
(thanks to tee)
1 comment:
Samila said...
there you have a blog!
after one thousand years...
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K and R Consulting
K and R Consulting
Infor ION
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jeudi 2 juin 2011
The Fallacy of Faith | The Damned
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The Fallacy of Faith
What’s so good about Faith?
Faith: The thing held most dearly and proudly by the ‘faithful’; the means by which the ‘faithful’ know things without evidence; the means by which no evidence is needed to believe in a god, the nature of gods, and that the things attributed to gods were indeed performed by them.
Faith: The knowledge of things not seen.
For a Christian, faith is the means by which they know with complete confidence that there is a god and a heaven and the ONLY way to get to Heaven is by acceptance of God’s son, Jesus and by following his teaching as revealed in the Bible which faith tells them was unquestionably either dictated by or at least inspired by the god in Heaven.
Faith is also the means by which Christians know with absolute confidence that all the other religions are wrong.
For a Moslem, faith is the means by which they know with complete confidence that there is a god and a heaven and the ONLY way to get to Heaven is by acceptance that Mohammed was the last prophet of that god and wrote a book with clear and concise instructions which must be followed without question.
Faith is also the means by which Moslems know with absolute confidence that all the other religions are wrong.
For a Jew, faith is the means by which they know with complete confidence that there is a god and a heaven and the ONLY way to get to Heaven is by following the laws and rules as revealed by God to Moses, Elijah and other prophets and which include strict dietary rules, dress codes and observance of special days when life is lived differently to normal days.
Faith is also the means by which Jews know with absolute confidence that all the other religions are wrong.
For a Sikh… but you’re probably getting bored by now and have recognised a pattern here.
But hold on! If faith is telling different people completely contradictory things and leading them to mutually exclusive conclusions, how can it be the sure and certain way to know the truth?
Clearly it can’t, so what good is faith as a measure of physical reality, or even of mystical ‘transcendent reality’?
Let’s do a little mind experiment.
Imagine you’re the unfortunate victim of mistaken identity and find yourself in a court of law, charged with some offence or other of which you are completely innocent. Your defence team has brought in expert witnesses who have presented undeniable scientific evidence showing that, not only could you not have committed the crime, but you weren’t even in the same town at the time the offence was committed.
Well, that’s just about clinched it, hasn’t it? Innocence proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. Case dismissed! Phew! I expect you’re wondering why you were ever prosecuted in the first place. And you WOULD be so acquitted in a society in which guilt or innocence is decided by a rational examination of evidence and logically deduced conclusions from that examination.
But hold on. Imagine now you live in a society which holds that faith is a superior form of knowledge; that faith is a sure and certain way to determine the truth. So sure and certain in fact that evidence is regarded as inferior and not to be trusted, especially when it contradicts faith; a society which is, in fact, founded on good Christian, Islamic and/or Jewish principles; principles which were used to justify society having that form in the first place. A society founded on the faith of the faithful.
And the prosecution have put up a witness who has sworn on a holy book that he has faith that you are guilty. He freely admits he has no evidence but explains that his faith is strong; he has no doubt at all that you are guilty because this has been revealed to him by faith. Since faith is superior to evidence as a measure of reality, the jury should ignore the defence evidence and go with faith. In fact, he argues, it would show a lack of faith amounting to heresy to believe mere scientific evidence in the face of strong faith. So weak is mere evidence compared to faith that he didn’t even bother to look for it nor at the defence evidence. He had no need. His faith is strong. The jury should understand, as good followers of the faith, that all the so-called defence ‘evidence’ shows is just how misleading science is and why it should not be trusted… and anyone who doesn’t see that is showing suspiciously heretical arrogance and is betraying the oath they swore when they entered the jury box…
Who would you want the jury to believe?
Oh dear! Suddenly faith is not so reliable after all, is it? Faith can lead to completely wrong conclusions. Faith can convict the innocent and free the guilty. Faith can lead to wrong being mistaken for justice.
Faith can lead the faithful to convict those with the ‘wrong’ faith of being unfaithful…
And that’s why the same process of faith leads Christians, Jews, Moslems, Sikhs, and all the other religions, and every different sect to conclude that they, and they alone, are right and all the others are wrong.
Faith is a trap set to catch the unwary. It was invented by religious leaders because they had no evidence. Had they had real evidence, you can be sure they would be forever trumpetting that fact and citing it at every opportunity. Children the world over would be herded in droves to see this wonderful evidence. “There’s you reason to believe”, then priests would shout. “You don’t need ‘faith’! We have the evidence!”
Faith is not a virtue; faith is unquestioning obedience to dogma and that is a sin. To believe through faith alone is to make the assumption that something MUST be true just because you believe it. The arrogance of that belief would be breathtaking if the notion of faith had not poisoned our culture to the extent that this arrogance is considered an admirable quality; that being ‘faithful’ is assumed to equate to being good.
Faith is the trick by which the unscrupulous control the credulous and gullible, and make people ashamed and guilty for having doubt and asking questions.
Faith is the means by which Jewish, Islamic, Christian and other religion’s clerics and theologians have sought to exercise control and hold back human cultural, ethical and scientific development to a level it attained in the Bronze Age, at the nomadic pastoralist stage, when the myths and superstitions were first written down.
Faith is the means by which charlatans seek to prevent us asking the questions and accepting the answers which would break their grip on society.
Faith is the mind-numbing toxin of the religion parasite, in whatever form it takes.
Do not have faith in faith for that way leads to insanity.
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Faith, that begged question, means the we just say so of credulity! Science observes Sydney Hook, is acquired knowledge whilst faith begs the question of being knowledge. Reason moves mountains of ignorance whilst faith rests on the argument from ignorance!
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Sunday, August 24, 2008
Two Years Later: Not Gone, Not Forgotten
Two years have now passed since the debacle conducted by the IAU at its General Assembly in Prague, and amazingly, the debate over the status of Pluto simply refuses to die. In spite of all the misguided efforts by those seeking "closure," planet Pluto has continued to stir passions, inspire discussion, and remain in the public eye as a not just a scientific issue but a cultural icon.
The latest IAU bungle by creation of the term "Plutoids," which no one, even supporters of the dynamical planet definition that leaves us with eight planets, likes, has only fueled the fire over the highly flawed planet definition crafted by 424 astronomers in an equally flawed process two years ago.
Just this month, the Great Planet Debate at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland, brought this issue to the forefront of public attention once more.
I always cringe upon hearing or reading that a student was given a lower grade because he or she included Pluto in a school project on the solar system. It is inconveivable that teachers would unquestioningly rely on a so-called authority, whether a textbook or the IAU, to promulgate one side of an ongoing debate as fact. Naturally, the teachers who attended the Great Planet Debate understand the importance of teaching the controversy in all its complexity; otherwise, they would not have taken the time to attend the conference.
However, all too often, teachers, especially here in the US, where they are constrained by federal and state mandates and the priority on standardized tests, teach the minimum students need to pass these tests in any subject. Some have criticized the argument that Pluto's demotion would lead to children learning less about the solar system as not a valid argument for keeping Pluto in the planet category. Certainly, this is not the main argument; there are plenty of scientifically valid reasons discussed here and on many other web sites. Yet it is a point we need to consider. Under time and curricular constraints, teachers all too often resort to teaching only the basics of any subject, which under the IAU definition, would likely include only the eight major planets.
Even a teacher who believes in the dynamical classification adopted by the IAU does a disservice to his or her students by reducing a grade for those whose projects include more than the minimum. A student who on his or her own chooses to include the dwarf planets in a discussion of our solar system should receive credit for going beyond the minimum rather than be punished for including additional information.
We lost a golden opportunity to excite children and adults about the discovery of Eris, a new planet in our solar system, by centering the discussion on taking Pluto away rather than on adding Eris and the entire new category of planets it has introduced to us. The real world, practical result in education was a shrinkage of knowledge about the solar system when we could have had the exact opposite, a broadening of and increase in such knowledge.
Last year, I listed various songs, poems, and advocacy web sites inspired by Pluto. With the passage of time, even more have sprung up. Here are some of the more recent ones:
The Great Planet Debate (transcripts of sessions and of the Tyson-Sykes debate forthcoming):"Keep Pluto Alive," an advocacy site by astronomy educator Steve Kates, aka Dr. Sky: and Telescope interview with Dr. Alan Stern: in The Telegraph, a British newspaper, "Pluto Should Get Back Planet Status, Astronomers Say":, "Demotion of Pluto Still Stirs Passionate Debate":"Pluto Still Attracting Attention," by New Mexico syndicated columnist Jay Miller: Geographic, "'Pluto Huggers' Fight to Renew Planet Status":"It's Still A Planet In My Heart," advocacy site by Adrian Speyer: of Facebook's largest groups, with over 1.3 million members, "When I Was Your Age, Pluto Was A Planet": Web Site Tribute to Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto:
"Pluto's A Planet," a song by Tom Knutson:
”Ode to Pluto,” a song by Mark Burrows:
And of course, there is the official web site of NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto, which predates the demotion (the spacecraft was launched in January 2006):
As a writer, I cannot help but view this phenomenon from a literary perspective. In "Star Trek," Kirk and Spock make the interesting observation that every myth has some modicum of truth in it. I have always had a personal fascination with mythology, and Pluto, named after the Greek/Roman lord of the underworld, has a wealth of mythological folklore associated with it. The underworld, viewed as the abode of the dead, also represented to ancient peoples the physical underground where seeds lie buried in the winter--and sometimes for many years--only to germinate and be "reborn" when spring comes or when sunlight long blocked by a tree or other object finally reaches that seed. In Babylonian mythology, the spirit of vegetation was represented by the god Tammuz, who descended to the underworld as summer ended, the harvest commenced, and the sun began to wane.
This connection with the seasonal cycle continued in the Greek/Roman myth of Pluto's abduction of Persephone, the maiden of spring. In the wake of Persephone's having been abducted, her mother, the grain goddess Demeter, also known as Ceres, in her grief withheld her bounty and refused to allow anything to grow, thus leading to the desolation of winter. Only when a compromise was reached, and Persephone was permitted to spend a portion of the year above ground with her mother, did Demeter allow vegetation to return and even teach agriculture to human civilization.
Ancient peoples resorted to stories to explain the cycle of the seasons because they knew these phenomena occurred but did not fully understand why. Yet these myths contain within them a greater truth, an understanding of life as a cycle of death and rebirth in which nothing is truly lost, only transformed.
At the Great Planet Debate, one participant asked whether any of us interpreted any symbolism in the banishment of the planet named after the lord of the dead. That's the type of question literary types like me love to ponder. Pluto was named after the god of the underworld by 11-year-old Venetia Burney, a child fascinated by both mythology and astronomy, because it is a dark and cold place. Though it is not scientific, in my literary mind, I think there is significance in our effectively banishing the planet that represents the unknown, the dark, the enigmatic, the mysterious, the intense representation of death and new life, to some sort of astronomical netherworld. Both the mythology and the astronomy of Pluto challenge the limits of what we know and make us think about subjects that make us uncomfortable, subjects we often would rather stay buried.
Symbolically, Pluto's refusal to "die" as a planet fits beautifully with the entire mythology and folklore for which it is named. In this era when education focuses on learning across the disciplines, namely examining the same subject in the areas of science, math, history, literature, art, music, etc., it will make a fascinating research paper topic for students.
Speaking of literature, I would like to share, with proper attribution, a poem I found online linking Pluto the planet with Pluto the god of the underworld and with Tammuz, the Babylonian vegetation deity. It is titled, "The Death of Pluto."
"The Death of Pluto"
Adapted by Robert Croog (by substituting Pluto for Tammuz) from the poem by Saul Tchernichowsky, "The Death of Tammuz," Hebrew, translated by L. V. Snowman, published in A Treasury of Jewish Poetry from Biblical Times to the Present, edited by Nathan and Marynn Ausubel."Pluto is dead," Mike Brown of the California Institute of Technology, discoverer of Eris, told reporters in a teleconference, August 25, 2006.
"And behold, there sat the women, weeping." Ezekiel 8:14
"Go, daughters of Zion
And weep you for Pluto,
For Pluto, the beautiful Pluto is dead;
And days dark with cloud and eclipse of the soul,
Autumn days endless the days are ahead.
Let us rise with the sun
In the spring of the morning,
To the forest where lingers the
darkness of night,
To the forest where visions and secrets are hidden,
To the altar of Pluto-- high place of the light.
What dance shall we dance
Around the high altar?
What dance shall we dance for
Pluto this day?
To the left, to the right, and sevenfold seven,
We shall bow to him, calling 'return to our play.'
To the left, to the right,
And seven by seven,
But hand in hand straightly, and
footing it slow;
Pluto wherever he be we shall seek him,
The lads and the maidens apart they will go.
We have sought on the roads
And the highways for Pluto,
Where the crossroads lie bathed in the
light of the sun,
Sweet to the heart in their warmth and their peace,
The sparrows fly there and the larks carillon.
We have sought Pluto
In thickets where leaves fall,
In mazes of holly and forests of pine;
Peradventure he sleeps among incense
of spices,
In the circle of toadstools, the faery shrine.
We have sought Pluto
But vain 'twas to find him,
We clambered the hills and came down
through the dell,
We followed the traces of all mystic wonders--
The abode of the gods and wherever they dwell;
In the grove, in the hedges,
By trees that are altar fuel,
The woodland recesses-- all fodder for
But only the sparrows cried in their hunger
About the high place-- ruins trodden in mire.
No trace of the fairies
Was found in the meadows,
With the whispering brook their
laughter ceased, too,
Calves graze in the meadows and there the lambs frolic
Round the springs and the wells with fall of the dew.
O, daughters of Zion,
Go mourn in beholding
How the world on its course dull and
troublous is sped,
The distress of a world whose spirit is darkened,
For Pluto, the beautiful Pluto, is dead."
The comment below is by Philip Brown, who quoted the above poem:
"I am inspired by this poem and its themes which are symbolic of Pluto: death, youth, hidden and mysterious places, occult energy and return to the Earth, decay and regeneration in nature, and a playful sense of foreboding. It is apropos of Pluto's recent demotion from planetary status, and the comments of Mike Brown."
On a personal note, while I wish Pluto's demotion had never happened, I am immensely grateful for the many wonderful people I have met in the quest to get this decision reversed; for the knowledge it has brought and love for astronomy it has rekindled in my life; for the numerous experiences I have had that would otherwise never have come my way--everything from the wonderful club known as Amateur Astronomers, Inc., in Cranford, NJ; to new friends around the world; to the opportunity to see Jupiter, Saturn, the Ring Nebula, and so many other celestial objects through a telescope; even to reconnect with various members of my family. Pluto's plight has also inspired the artist in me; the result is I have written a play of more than 100 pages incorporating the mythology and symbolism of Pluto in a fantasy-drama tale of its demotion and reinstatement. Just this Friday, I received the official copyright certification for this play, which I hope to publish and someday bring to production. It is no understatement to say that Pluto has changed my life.
The poem above is powerful, but I am as convinced as ever that Pluto is not dead, that this is not the end. It may not be a scientific assertion, but I believe Pluto the planet will follow the archetype of death and rebirth for which it is named, the death of winter giving way to the rebirth of spring.
Pluto is not gone or forgotten, and it never will be. It is not a TNO or planetoid or plutoid or asteroid or comet or minor object in any way. It is a planet. Ultimately, history will vindicate this. So to Dr. Brian Marsden, who promised Clyde Tombaugh he would someday give Pluto an asteroid number even if Tombaugh did not live to see it, I have my own promise: Whether or not you live to see it, I and the many like-minded citizens of the world will see Pluto reinstated to full planet status. You can take that to the bank.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Is Pluto Really A Kuiper Belt Object?
Since the discovery of the first Kuiper Belt Objects in 1992, some astronomers have argued that Pluto is just one of many objects in the Kuiper Belt, now referred to as Kuiper Belt Objects, or KBOs. The Kuiper Belt is named for Gerard Kuiper, who in the 1950s postulated the existence of a second belt of asteroids beyond the orbit of Neptune.
Of course, most KBOs are small, shapeless asteroids too small to have attained hydrostatic equilibrium, the condition at which differentiation and geophysical processes begin to occur on such bodies. The largest ones such as Eris, Pluto, and Makemake are different from the majority in that they are in hydrostatic equilibrium, which is why simply grouping them with the KBOs without distinguishing them for their roundness is not an accurate portrayal.
The argument made by supporters of the geophysical definition of planet, which states that the only criteria for planethood are that an object be non-self luminous, in hydrostatic equilibrium and orbiting a star, is that these round objects have a sort of dual citizenship as both KBOs and planets (of the dwarf planet subcategory), as does Ceres, which is unique as a round object in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.
Now, the latest research into the area beyond Neptune's orbit suggests that the term Kuiper Belt may have been used too broadly to describe the large region beyond Neptune. That region, it turns out, is actually a composite of several distinct sub-regions. Its central area, the Kuiper Belt proper, where most KBOs are located, is at quite a distance beyond Pluto and the small objects that along with it orbit in a 3:2 resonance with Neptune, known as the plutinos (literally meaning little Plutos).
In a diagram presented on Saturday at the educators' workshop of the Great Planet Debate, the division of what is commonly described as the Kuiper Belt into three separate areas was obvious. The first area, where Pluto and the plutinos are located, is at the very edge of this region. Significantly further is the area most densely populated with objects while even further is an area of objects scattered at various orbital inclinations. These objects in the third region, which include the round Sedna, are known as Scattered Disk Objects, or SDOs.
This means that while all objects in this area can be accurately termed Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs), that broad term encompasses objects in three separate regions, which in each case have characteristics like other objects in their regions but not necessarily like TNOs in other regions. The question arises, should this entire huge area, which is also the source of short term comets, be classified as the Kuiper Belt, or should that term be reserved for the central region where most TNOs are clumped, a region of which Pluto and the plutinos are clearly not a part.
Our understanding of this far-removed region is constantly evolving as more discoveries are made. These discoveries are now coming in at a very rapid pace. Only this week, a new object called 2006 SQ372, made of rock and ice and estimated to be only 50-100 kilometers across, was detected by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The object is comet-like but has no tail as it never comes near the sun. Its orbit is extremely elliptical, taking it as far as 150 billion miles away (compare that with Pluto, which is 3.6 billion miles from the sun) at its furthest, and within the orbit of Neptune, where it is now, at its closest. It takes a whopping 22,500 years to orbit the sun (compare that with Sedna, which takes 10,000 years, Eris, which takes 550 years, and Pluto, which takes 248 years).
What is this object? We have no category in which to place it. It has an orbit like that of a comet and a composition like that of an asteroid, yet it is different from both of these. Astronomers theorize that it originates in the inner Oort Cloud, a still theoretical region that is believed to be the source of long period comets. Yet even at the most distant point in its orbit, 2006 SQ372 is ten times closer to the sun than the main Oort Cloud area is estimated to be. This object and Sedna are the only ones we know of that appear to have originated from the Oort Cloud.
Clearly, new discoveries will present the need for new categories and new classifications. A great deal of the controversy over these objects stems from the fact that there is too much about them and their regions that we simply don't know. What has been viewed as the Kuiper Belt may actually be several separate regions, and there may yet be more regions beyond that. In these cases, the best option for scientists, educators, textbooks, and web sites is to present what we do know while explaining that there is far more we don't know, which will likely inform future classifications. That is a far better option than to leap to conclusions when major pieces of the puzzle are still unknown to us. Even children can understand that there is still a lot that even the best minds and experts in the world do not yet know.
As for Pluto, not only is its status as a KBO in question; its classification as a Plutoid is clearly problematic. The suffix "oid," when added to a word, means a thing like the original word; hence, "humanoid" means a life form akin to humans in body shape, composition, etc. By calling Pluto a Plutoid, the IAU is saying what--that Pluto is like itself??? Also, Plutoids are defined by the IAU as objects with a semi-major axis greater than the orbit of Neptune, meaning they orbit beyond Neptune. But for 20 of its 248-year orbital period, Pluto's eccentric orbit actually takes it closer to the sun than Neptune. Does that mean that Pluto is a Plutoid for 228 years but not a Plutoid for the other 20? Again, we have a definition that makes very little sense.
Also discussed at the Great Planet Debate were the asteroids Vesta and Pallas. These objects are not round but a look at images of them illustrate they are far closer to being round than the other, many shapeless asteroids between Mars and Jupiter. In fact, Vesta appears to have been round at one time only to have been hit by an asteroid that lopped off its south pole. Does that mean it was a dwarf planet once but is so no longer? Do Vesta and Pallas have geophysical properties like the planets, and if they do, doesn't classifying them as asteroids blur that distinction? We will learn some answers when Dawn gets to Vesta in 2011. In the meantime, we have yet another gray category, with objects that do not clearly fit into any of the classifications we have created.
What makes something a planet or a comet or a KBO; what makes an entire area part of a belt as opposed to a separate region with its own characteristics? If there is one thing these questions bring to bear, it is that there is far more that we don't know than what we do know. In light of that, some definitions and classifications will have to remain in a state of flux until we learn more. This is another important lesson the IAU needs to take into account. Better than endorse the false perception of a dichotomy (planet vs. not planet), they should keep the subject open with the recognition that only with time and research will we have enough data to make these determinations. Between New Horizons, Dawn, and new discoveries from earth and space-based telescopes, there is no reason to rush to judgment.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Pettiness, Politics, Pluto, and Prague
The Great Planet Debate presented a wealth of information about issues of planet formation and migration, asteroids, extra-solar planets, objects that straddle the border between categories, and of course, the core dispute at the root of this issue, the dynamical versus geophysical perspectives of viewing our solar system.
But there also was another side, an uglier side of the planet debate and the fateful events in Prague two years ago that came to light during this conference. It is not pretty, and it is not science. It is a tale of pettiness and politics coming together and how they motivated the most crass, base motivations for the flawed planet definition adopted by the IAU.
On a personal level, I take no joy in reporting these events. I wish none of what I am about to relate were true. But the facts are, these things did happen, and citizens of the world have the right to know the truth about the way in which an organization that claims to be the authority on astronomical matters came by a decision that has worldwide implications.
I will emphasize that none of these petty or political considerations were present at the Great Planet Debate, where even professionals holding opposing views treated each other congenially and with a sense of humor, even having drinks together at night after the official conference proceedings.
But back to Prague. There are three specific incidents of pettiness and politics that clearly motivated the vote and therefore, in effect should be considered to render it illegitimate.
A. For unknown reasons, Dr. Brian Marsden, British astronomer and Director of the Minor Planet Center at Harvard University (the Minor Planet Center falls under the auspices of the IAU), has harbored a personal grudge against Clyde Tombaugh, discoverer of Pluto, since at least 1980. People with firsthand knowledge of the situation confirmed this at the conference. Apparently, on numerous occasions, Marsden expressed to Tombaugh his determination to "torpedo your planet," vowing that he would make sure Pluto was given an asteroid number even though Tombaugh might not live to see it.
The Minor Planet Center assigns numbers to asteroids and, since 2006, to dwarf planets as well. Marsden obviously pursued his goal rigorously and achieved it two years ago. Yet the motivation for his hostility toward Tombaugh remains unknown. What is known is that a personal vendetta rather than science motivated Marsden in his quest.
B. After the IAU's Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature recommended a schematic with 12 planets, including Ceres, Charon, and Eris, a few dynamicists began a revolt that ultimately shot down that proposal and replaced it with the one eventually adopted, going against the IAU's own rules by proposing a resolution in real time without it having first been vetted by the appropriate committee(s). One of the ringleaders in this effort is reported to have said that if the provision allowing dwarf planets to be classified as a subcategory of planets were adopted, his life's work would be ruined. This almost certainly was a melodramatic exaggeration, likely a guilt trip to bully other IAU members into going along with the replacement resolution that precluded dwarf planets from being considered planets. However, it is extremely noteworthy because here we have a scientist clearly motivated not by science but by concerns centered around his own ego.
C. European astronomers in general, French astronomers in particular, repeatedly bullied American astronomers at the General Assembly telling them that Pluto was going down because of their anger over US policy in the Middle East. Many have suspected the IAU vote had been motivated by anti-American sentiment, as Pluto is the only planet discovered by an American. But to hear that such blatant political statements were made, with no attempt to even be subtle or conceal these motives behind scientific jargon, is tremendously disturbing. The IAU wants citizens of the world to view it as the authority on astronomical matters, yet its members openly and publicly proclaimed their plans to seek a pre-determined outcome based on politics, not science. How can anyone view the IAU as a legitimate arbiter of celestial definitions after its members have so compromised their commitments to science and objectivity?
The above may sound like a rant; it may sound like a conspiracy theory, but the fact remains that all these incidents have been confirmed by people who experienced them firsthand. Before educators of the world rush to change textbooks and lessons, they need to hear this truth, however painful it is, about the personal and political manipulation that directly led to the pronouncement that "Pluto is not a planet."
Two years ago, in my first blog entry on this topic, I commented, "The IAU decision, made in a highly political context on the last day of its conference, with a very small minority of members even taking part in the vote, tells us more about old-fashioned human weaknesses than it does about the outer solar system. Even in our most educated circles, we still have ego issues, factional disputes, and individuals vying for personal recognition." There is no "I told you so" here, just infinite sadness that this statement so captured the reality, that the events that took place in Prague two years ago are so much more a study in psychology than in astronomy.
Knowing these truths of what really happened only make the case for reversing the IAU's 2006 planet definition more compelling. In fighting for such a reversal, the words of a song from the play "Rags," in which I performed in 1990, come to mind. That play is a historical musical depicting the lives of Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants in New York City in 1910. One of the characters, Saul, a labor union organizer against sweatshop abuses, sings the following:
"If it's wrong, you can fix it. If you can't, you can fight it. If you don't like to fight, you can learn. You don't need to be blind here. You can open your mind here. Better than see the light--help it burn!"
In this case, our choices are attempting to get the IAU to "fix" its broken planet definition of 2006, or, if that fails,to fight in the public arena for a better one. This is an effort that calls not just to scientists but to all citizens of the world to contribute our efforts, our input, our insights, to help the light of truth burn.
The reality of what happened two years ago is painful, but knowing it is the first step to undoing it, as recognition of any problem is the first step toward addressing that problem. As a Lebanese activist once said about injustices committed in his country, "It must be told. The world must know."
Sunday, August 17, 2008
It Shouldn't End
"It just won't end. Two years after the International Astronomical Union demoted Pluto from a planet to a dwarf, the bickering goes on." So begins an online article by on The Great Planet Debate.
There is a very strong case to be made that it shouldn't end. We are continually discovering new data about Pluto, the Kuiper Belt, Ceres, Vesta, exoplanets, etc., all of which must go into informing our concept of what makes something a planet. I cannot understand this need to artificially end what is clearly an open discussion, largely because we just don't have sufficient data yet about some of these bodies to draw firm conclusions. What the IAU did was horrible--a linguistically nonsensical definition brought about through a highly flawed process that did not even adhere to the recommendations of its own committee. Should we just leave things in this mess because "the IAU has spoken" (well, four percent of them, anyway). What about the fact that most planetary scientists, those whose expertise and research specifically deal with planets, are not IAU members? Shouldn't these be the people making such a decision if it is made at all? There is a very real dichotomy between two strains of thought--dynamicists, who look at where objects are, and planetary scientists, who look at what they are. In an age where new knowledge is constantly pouring in, of course such definitions will be in flux.
What if we had decided to "cut off debate" and end discussion of what a planet is after the discoveries of Uranus and Neptune or after the 17th century revolution in which we realized the sun is the center of the solar system? How would we incorporate new information? What's wrong with the debate being ongoing???
Even more significantly, we have one spacecraft en route to Vesta and Ceres and another en route to Pluto. Dawn will arrive at Vesta in 2011 and at Ceres in 2015, the latter being the same year as New Horizons' rendezvous with Pluto. This means we know that within seven years, an entire new set of data will become available to us about these objects, data that is likely to surprise us and could very well change how we view and classify these objects. Knowing this data is coming makes the idea of shutting down the debate even more incomprehensible.
As for education, what is wrong with teaching that there are two schools of thought, and both are equally valid? What is wrong with discussing something that excites people about astronomy? Like it or not, the subject of Pluto evokes passion. Why not use that passion as a stepping stone to introduce astronomy to many people who have had little or no previous exposure to it? NASA submitted sample lessons for teaching the controversy at the second through fifth grade level and again at the high school level. The lesson plan for younger children calls for the teacher to introduce a new term, such as "dwarf planet," have the students explain the term in their own words, have them create a non-linguistic representation of the term, engage in activities that help them understand the term, discuss the term with one another, and engage in games that allow them to play with the term.
In another lesson, the students are asked to compare characteristics of Earth, Ceres, Vesta, and Pluto--location relative to other solar system bodies, size and shape, mass and gravity, density, presence or lack of water, internal structure, surface features, number of moons, presence or lack of magnetic field, length of day, length of year, and presence or lack of atmosphere--and are then presented with both the IAU definition and a contrasting definition based on an object's geophysical characteristics. This opens debate on the issue, followed by a written exercise in which students explain how their understanding of a planet has changed or not changed as a result of the lesson.
At the high school level, students are presented with the case of the discovery of a hypothetical planet and then given a list of that planet's characteristics as compared with those of the known planets, dwarf planets, various of the planets' moons and asteroids. They are then asked to classify the new object using these many characteristics. The lesson then proceeds to a debate with some students representing the IAU viewpoint and others taking the opposing position. Both sides are evaluated on clarity and coherence of their arguments and rebuttals, teamwork, and adherence to rules regarding each person's time to speak and their opening and closing statements.
Has our culture become so focused on needing and seeking "closure" to everything that we cannot comprehend the utility of discussion that goes on for decades, centuries, or even indefinitely?
One online comment in a forum discussing the Great Planet Debate is especially troubling. The poster states that the IAU has spoken; they are the authority and the experts, and therefore, we should follow what they say. This sentiment was echoed by one of the dynamicists at the Great Planet Debate, who stated that while he would have preferred that the IAU come up with a better definition, one that includes dwarf planets as a subclass of planets, now that they have done something else, we need to recognize their definition and work with it to avoid chaos and a situation in which multiple planet definitions are used.
The same speaker said he believes some decisions by authoritative bodies are so wrong that they beg for revolution and/or resistance, but this one does not rise to that occasion.
We clearly have a cultural issue here, and it centers on how people respond to authority. American education is supposed to prepare students to be active participants in democracy, which requires critical thinking skills. Those skills can and do often involve the need to question authority, even to question the legitimacy of those who claim to be in authority. Development of these skills mandates that the goal of education be teaching students how to think rather than what to think.
Blind obedience to any authority is dangerous because it turns people into automatons, easily enabling the rise of dictatorships and the perpetration of all sorts of injustices. Opposition to such blind obedience is inherent in American culture and can be seen on both sides of the US political divide. Whether the issue is the decision to have an abortion or the right to own guns, the American people largely do not like being told what to do.
However, resistance to blind obedience in general and to the IAU decision in particular are not, as some claim, occurring only in the US. Astronomy educators in England and Australia have discussed their own opposition to the IAU's planet definition in online blogs and report just as much resistance to it from their own populations.
The writer of the article in argues that the Great Planet Debate is about maintaining status for New Horizons and even about making money through books, T-shirts, and bumper stickers. These arguments are highly questionable and sound a lot like ways of dodging the very real issue at hand. There are always people who will use controversy to sell objects and make money; if this controversy didn't exist, they would likely find something else. And the fact that so many people continue to buy items supporting Pluto's planet status is a statement in and of itself. People vote with their dollars; their purchase of these items is their expression, through the market, of displeasure with the IAU decision.
As for New Horizons, the mission hardly needs to manufacture publicity. It is already fully funded, and its stunning Jupiter flyby images speak for themselves. NASA has active Solar System Ambassadors and Educators, some of whom specifically focus on educating the public on the New Horizons mission. This debate was not done to promote New Horizons. It was done because there is a need for open, participatory debate on the issue of what constitutes a planet, a process not provided by the IAU. In effect, the Great Planet Debate did what the IAU should have done but failed to do.
These discussions can and should continue, and they should involve not just professional astronomers but amateurs and members of the public as well. The goal is to get people thinking, questioning, evaluating, and re-evaluating their positions on this topic. If that results in a planetary version of the Boston Tea Party and a throwing of the IAU definition into bodies of water, so be it.
In short, it's all good.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
A Genuine Learning Experience
I've just spent the last two days here in the city of my namesake in an intensive and exhilarating learning experience. The time has flown by. Both days were so filled with seminars, discussions, and evening socializing that I've barely had time to open up my laptop except to save the audiotaped sessions from my digital tape recorder. So while I promised to blog from the conference, the entries are a bit delayed, as this is the first time I've had any significant free moments to process everything I have experienced and share it with readers.
This will be the first of several entries on the conference, which still lasts one more day. Tomorrow's portion is geared toward educators and focuses on how to teach the planet controversy along with updates on the Dawn and New Horizons missions. But like my early research and outreach efforts two years ago, what started as advocacy for a cause evolved into so much more, into a genuine, never-ending learning experience.
In a very open, friendly environment, those of us at this conference learned so much about the solar system--about planetary formation; solar system dynamics; asteroids such as Ceres, Pallas and Vesta; properties of jovian and terrestrial planets; diverse exoplanets; classification schemes; a first hand account of events at the fateful IAU General Assembly two years ago, and so much more. We learned not just from the professionals, but from one another. Participants ranged from professional astronomers to teachers to writers to interested members of the public, to Clyde Tombaugh's daughter Annette--also a teacher--as well as her husband and grandson.
And we had the both educational and highly entertaining opportunity to witness a lively debate between Dr. Neil de Grasse Tyson and Dr. Mark Sykes on planet definition and, of course, Pluto. They may not have agreed with one another, but neither was especially enthusiastic about the IAU planet definition. Tyson wants to toss the term planet entirely, claiming it no longer has any meaning. Sykes, one of the conference organizers, advocates keeping the term but differentiating the many diverse types of planets by creating subcategories.
On a personal level, I learned so many new things about the solar system--how orbital resonance works, the fact that Vesta and Pallas are closer in composition to planets than to asteroids, the decaying orbit of Triton that will eventually crash it into Neptune, the existence of Earth's "second moon," a tiny object orbiting our planet, and much, much more. Among family and friends, I like to play the "know it all" about the solar system, but here, like almost all participants, I found out how much I didn't know.
The social networking opportunities during the breaks were less formal, but equally enlightening learning experiences. In addition to meeting my personal equivalent of celebrities--leaders of the movement to overturn the IAU's demotion of Pluto, who are leading experts in their fields--and the daughter of Pluto's discoverer, I and the other attendees got the chance to chat with these leading minds in a relaxed setting, to tell jokes and "hang out" while at the same time sharing insights into the planet definition issue and each of our individual perspectives.
My grandmother often says she would rather be the least intelligent person in a group full of very bright people than the most intelligent person in any group. That kind of sums up our experience here at this conference. We were all privileged to not just meet but spend time conversing with some of the greatest minds in planetary science and with a general group of highly intelligent people. After all, how many people would choose to spend three days of their summer vacation in seminars discussing what is a planet?
In the education field, the buzzword today is lifelong learning, meaning learning does not stop once one graduates from high school, college, or graduate school. Instead, learning is a lifetime activity, as important and meaningful for adults as for children.
I came here to fight for Pluto, and I did--in my oral and poster presentations, in question and answer sessions, in personal discussions, even in lobbying the professionals who are members of the IAU to go to next year's General Assembly in Rio and stage a revolt to get dwarf planets recategorized as planets. But in the process of doing all this, I got the opportunity to take part in what amounts to a summer enrichment course in planetary science and have personal discussions with some of the key players in this drama, including some who hold views supporting the opposing side. By enhancing my knowledge of the subject matter, I know I have better positioned myself to be not just an advocate, but a well-informed one.
A lot was said about culture, the fact that "planet" is a cultural term as well as a scientific one, and the need for professional astronomers to take this into account. This is something the IAU failed to do in making its decision in spite of the fact its own committee charged with developing a planet definition recommended doing just that. In upcoming entries, I will discuss the issue of the term planet in culture and why this aspect is something astronomers ignore at their own peril.
In the meantime, I want to thank APL, Dr. Hal Weaver, and all the organizers of this conference for opening attendance and even participation to all interested parties, for providing us this opportunity to have input into this issue and play a role in this important dialogue about just what makes something a planet. Hopefully, this conference will be the first of many that will succeed in this endeavor, which the IAU so utterly failed to do.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Getting Ready for the Big Event
The excitement is a lot like that felt on the approach of a birthday, special personal occasion, or New Year's Eve. An event I've known about, anticipated, and planned for over a long period of time is fast approaching as reality. The Great Planet Debate is scheduled to take place in less than three days in Laurel, Maryland.
Originally announced in the wake of the IAU vote demoting Pluto and scheduled for 2007, this conference for so long seemed just an abstract idea. There were many times I wasn't even sure it would really happen though I kept on hoping. And now, it's real, not abstract, something brought home in the necessary last minute preparations for the long awaited trip to Maryland.
Unlike the IAU General Assembly, this conference is open to the public. In fact, not only is attendance open to the public, so is participation. I am deeply honored at being given the opportunity to do a five-minute presentation on Friday morning as well as a poster presentation on both days. Not being a scientist, I do not have prior experience with such presentations and posters, and I am deeply grateful to Dr. Hal Weaver, who patiently answered my many questions and helped me through the process of preparing these. The thought that I, a writer from New Jersey who feels passionately about Pluto, could have a say at a major event like this one speaks volumes about the openness of the organizers to a multiplicity of participants and perspectives.
One of the most exciting things about the Great Planet Debate is that it has once again ignited discussions all over the Internet about Pluto and the larger question of what is a planet. IAU officials who stand by the untenable definition created by four percent of their organization in 2006 are right to be concerned. That definition, flawed, sloppy, and rejected by scientists and lay people alike, has only a very shaky leg on which to stand. Its eventual overturning is all but inevitable.
Facts cannot be dictated by fiat or by the vote of a committee or even that of an organization such as the IAU. The concept that any object starts or stops being a planet at the stroke of a pen or count of a vote is ludicrous. The only thing that pen stroke or vote accomplishes is the statement of a belief that the object in question has changed. We cannot vote Pluto out of being a planet any more than we can vote that the Earth rather than the sun is the center of the solar system.
It seems like the IAU has gone from being a scientific organization that centralizes naming and cataloguing in astronomy to a priesthood dictating by fiat what is and is not reality. How can any scientist expect people, whether other scientists or lay people, to blindly accept that an object is no longer what it used to be, not because something about that object changed, but because this small, closed group has decreed it so?
If the IAU has become this out of touch with the public and with members of its own field, then maybe it's time for another group, a more open, more professional, and less political group, to take its place.
Some IAU supporters are ridiculing the conference as "The Great American Planet Debate," as if this conference were open only to Americans. That is not the case. In fact, both the dynamical defintion of planet as well as the geophysical one will be presented and discussed. The initial call for abstracts by those interested in presenting did not preclude anyone from making a presentation defending the IAU position.
It is true that a large percentage of American astronomers are planetary scientists while a large percentage of European astronomers are dynamicists. But that has nothing to do with nationality. Who would know better how to classify planets than those who study planets? (as opposed to those who study neutron stars, quasars, black holes, cosmology, etc.). The nationality of these planetary scientists is completely irrelevant, just as is their religion, race, ethnicity, etc. The attack on the conference because its organizers are Americans is based on completely flawed logic. Additionally, there are many planetary scientists who are not members of the IAU, and they too deserve to be heard on this matter, as this is the field in which they specialize.
Getting back to my own involvement, and my presentations, whose topic will be "Planet Definition Is Important," I find the openness and receptivity of the organizers to be most refreshing and very welcoming. These are obviously people who want to engage the general public with astronomy as opposed to keeping the community of people involved with the field small and closed.
On a personal level, I want to thank some very, very special friends who have made this trip possible for me. On July 24, my hard drive crashed, and as a result, a lot of my information was lost. Thanks to the efforts of Mark Barry, Eileen Marville, Karl Hunting, Siobhan Elias, and Dr. Alan Stern, I was able to get back much of the Pluto-related information that had been on that hard drive. For help with the Power Point presentations, I especially thank Amateur Astronomers, Inc. in Cranford, New Jersey, and the members who worked with me in the computer room on getting everything right in the presentation. There are many other ways these wonderful friends have made it possible for me to attend this event and do my best to take part in it, and for them, I will be forever grateful.
It is exhilarating to know that one can make a real difference, especially when one is not even a professional in the field. Without the Internet, none of the worldwide discussions about Pluto by ordinary people would be possible. Without the Internet, no one but IAU members in a particular room on a particular day could have a say on this matter. How amazing it is to live in an age where everyone can contribute to such discussions, provide input, and have their input valued and incorporated into such major decisions.
Throughout this week, I will be blogging on this site about the progress of the conference. Stay tuned as the fight to reinstate Pluto goes into high gear. The best is yet to come.
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Wednesday, December 21, 2016
Winter Solstice: A New Cycle Begins
The wonderful aspect of anything cyclic is that at the end, we always return to the starting point. For Earth’s solar year, many consider that starting point to be Sun’s nadir in the Northern Hemisphere, the paradoxical darkest night that is also the symbolic birthday of the Sun.
For space and astronomy, it has been a tremendous year. New Horizons finished sending back all data taken during the Pluto flyby, and the studying of that data has only just begun. Pluto appears to be one of the solar system’s many water worlds—planets and spherical moons with subsurface liquid oceans that could potentially harbor life.
The abundance of these water worlds in our solar system has been an ongoing theme of discovery this year.
We’ve learned about Ceres, Enceladus, Europa, Titan, and Mars; we’ve discovered a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, one of three stars that comprise the nearest star system to our own, and we’ve continued to find more strange and unusual exoplanets in places many thought they could not exist.
But in the broader world, it has been a difficult year. Much attention has been given to those things that divide us even as our own planet has passed dangerous climate thresholds that should be uniting us in an effort to preserve its habitability for humanity and for its many other species.
Winter Solstice is a time for transcending divisions, a time that naturally brings us together because we all experience the cold and dark. It reminds us that our lives and our fates are intertwined with that of our home planet, that whatever we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.
And just as we all experience the cold and the dark, we all long for the warmth and the light. For thousands of years, this has been considered a time of miracles because collectively, we experience the greatest miracle of all, the renewal of our source of life—the Sun—from its weakest point.
Just as the Moon appears to grow from nothing to crescent to half to gibbous to full, then wane back through those phases to the point of disappearance, so the Sun appears to go through a cycle of waxing to its prime, then waning back to near disappearance. In that moment of transition from dark to new, a new cycle, whether month (lunar) or year (solar) begins.
Many astronauts who have had the good fortune to observe the Earth from space emphasize the powerful, profound experience that is. Out there, no national or ethnic boundaries are visible, just one beautiful blue, fragile marble floating in the darkness.
Until most of us get the chance to venture to space, the closest we can come to this experience are beautiful pictures and videos and experiences like the seasonal markers to bring us together, to remind us that we are all one planet.
Here is hoping that this new year that starts as the Sun begins waxing again is one in which we genuinely experience, appreciate, and value that awareness.
Happy Solstice!
Wednesday, October 26, 2016
DPS/EPSC update on New Horizons at the Pluto system and beyond: Last week's Division for Planetary Sciences/European Planetary Science Congress meeting was chock-full of science from New Horizons at Pluto.
Wednesday, October 12, 2016
Alan Stern and the New Horizons Team Receive Cosmos Award
Alan Stern: Alan Stern and the New Horizons mission team are the newest recipients of The Planetary Society's Cosmos Award for Outstanding Public Presentation of Science.
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
Pluto: Ten Years Since the IAU's Epic Fail
After the 1920s debate over whether the universe is composed of one galaxy—the Milky Way—or of many galaxies was resolved with definitive evidence for the latter position, the controversy was resolved.
Our universe contains billions of galaxies, including structures once referred to as “spiral nebulae” erroneously thought to be located within the Milky Way.
After observations conducted during the May 1919 total solar eclipse confirmed Einstein’s theory of general relativity, showing the position of stars near the Sun slightly shifted from their actual locations, general relativity was accepted worldwide as being true—and as the reason for the strange precession of the planet Mercury’s perihelion (point closest to the Sun).
But ten years after the controversial and highly problematic planet definition adopted by four percent of the IAU, most of whom were not planetary scientists but other types of astronomers—that definition remains as contested as it was on day one.
Rather than bringing a resolution to the debate, as did the evidence in the two previous examples, the IAU vote heightened that debate and resolved nothing.
It actually did harm to science by confusing the public into thinking science is done by voting and by imposing a definition that contradicts everything people see when observing close-up photos of Pluto.
Back in 2006, no such close-ups of Pluto existed. However, the IAU knew fully well that the New Horizons probe, launched seven months before that year’s General Assembly, was on its way to Pluto and would provide a wealth of images and data in July 2015.
They also knew that the Dawn mission was scheduled for a launch the following year, and it would visit Ceres and Vesta, two objects that orbit between Mars and Jupiter, both of whose statuses as asteroids were questionable.
The scientifically correct action would have been to wait until the data from these missions came in before trying to classify objects no one ever viewed as more than tiny dots.
Unfortunately, several astronomers, motivated by their own personal agendas, did not want to wait for the results. Leading that group was the late Dr. Brian Marsden, who had expressed his desire to see Pluto demoted from planethood to discoverer Clyde Tombaugh back in 1980.
When a team of three astronomers discovered a planet beyond Pluto initially thought to be bigger than Pluto, now known as Eris, some of these astronomers jumped at the opportunity to use the discovery as a means of imposing their agenda.
They claimed that if the new object is larger than Pluto and yet is not a planet, then Pluto could not be a planet either.
In 2010, when Eris occulted a star, a different group of astronomers led by Dr. Bruno Sicardy determined it is marginally smaller than Pluto though 27 percent more massive.
Even if Eris were larger than Pluto, why would its discovery prompt any sense of necessity to come up with a specific definition of planet? So what if our solar system has 10 planets or 11, or 50? Most people actually find it exciting to learn that the solar system has many more planets than anyone ever thought.
What should have happened is that Eris should simply have been added as yet another solar system planet.
But in addition to personal agendas, some astronomers came up with the ridiculous idea that our solar system cannot have “too many planets” because kids won’t be able to memorize all their names.
That argument is no more rational than stating we have to limit the number of stars and galaxies to something countable, or that we have to limit Jupiter’s moons to four because no one can memorize the names of 67.
Memorization is not critical to learning. Once upon a time, little was known about the planets other than their names, their order from the Sun, and estimates of their sizes. At that point, there wasn’t much else to teach about them.
Today, things couldn’t be more different. With the dawn of the space age, we have robotically visited every single one of the nine classical planets as well as Ceres and Vesta. We know the complex processes many of them and many of their moons undergo, their compositions, and their surface features.
Instead of asking children—and adults—to memorize a list of names, we can teach them the characteristics of the different subclasses of planets such as terrestrials, gas giants, ice giants, dwarf planets, proto-planets, super Earths, hot Jupiters, hot Neptunes, etc.
The latter three are not present in our solar system but do exist in other star systems.
Ten years ago, in essence, the IAU concocted a reason to issue a decree that was never needed. Its members then set out to craft a definition that achieved the results they desired, namely excluding Pluto.
And they established a definition with a requirement that set Pluto’s status in stone. No matter what would be discovered by New Horizons, Pluto could never again be a planet because its intrinsic characteristics meant nothing. The only thing that counted was whether it cleared its orbit.
Orbit clearing may be useful in terms of understanding the effects celestial objects have on other objects, but making it a requirement for planet status makes absolutely no sense.
The further an object orbits from its parent star, the larger an orbit it has to clear. That makes the definition inherently biased against planets in distant orbits from their stars.
Furthermore, it perpetuates an erroneous conception of objects like Pluto and Ceres, leading people to think these worlds are surrounded by numerous objects in their orbits in an asteroid field similar to the one through which Luke Skywalker piloted the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars.
Yet nothing could be further from the truth. Both the asteroid and Kuiper belts are huge, with vast distances between objects residing in them. This is why New Horizons did not have to use one of its contingent trajectories to fly through the Pluto system. Those trajectories were based on a need to avoid debris that might be floating around near Pluto.
But there was no such debris, which New Horizons scientists attribute to Pluto’s large moon and binary companion Charon having swept it all from the system.
If KBOs were really so close to one another in a crowded belt, why could only the Hubble Space Telescope find a few close enough KBOs in New Horizons’ path for a visit after Pluto? From the way people talk about the Kuiper Belt, one would have thought there were numerous small objects nearby.
Haumea, Makemake, Eris, and other, more recently discovered dwarf planets are not in Pluto’s orbit unless one counts the entire Kuiper Belt as part of Pluto’s orbit—a proposition that makes no sense, as the belt is huge, and the majority of it is located well beyond Pluto.
Yet, because of the IAU definition, many people are under the misconception that many objects larger than Pluto have been discovered in the Kuiper Belt and that the entire region is a zone crowded with ice balls and rocks.
While there could be planets larger than Pluto out there, so far none has been discovered.
Astronomer Mike Brown, who co-discovered Eris, earlier this year publicly hypothesized the existence of a large planet far beyond Pluto, which, to add insult to injury, he deliberately referred to as “Planet Nine,” clearly for no other reason than to snub those who still consider Pluto a planet.
Now, when we have a wealth of data and images about Pluto, certainly sufficient new information to re-open the planet debate yet again, the IAU has no interest in doing so. Why does some new data in 2006 justify IAU action yet a huge inundation of new information in 2016 not inspire similar action?
It is not just the IAU that is at fault here. The media has been misrepresenting this issue for a decade now. From day one, they should have questioned the IAU definition and consulted the many planetary scientists who signed a petition disagreeing with it. Instead, they reported the decision as fact, calling Pluto an “ex-planet,” and stating that textbooks and teachers now have to change their teaching of the solar system to one of eight planets.
The media also unprofessionally blindly accepted Brown’s use of the term “Planet Nine” for the hypothesized large planet yet to be discovered when what they should have done is referred to it by the standard appellation for undiscovered worlds, which is “Planet X.”
Where the media failed big time is in accepting the IAU decree at face value instead of critically pointing out that science is not determined by “authority” but by a preponderance of evidence for a theory or position.
They also failed to inform the public that most of the 424 IAU members who voted in 2006 were specialists not in planetary science but in completely different fields of astronomy. Why would a person who studies black holes be considered an expert on planetary science? Would the media accept a decree by planetary scientists about the nature of black holes?
The fact that the IAU definition is still so contentious a decade after its adoption is itself evidence that it was and is an epic fail.
Interestingly, even children born after the vote still consider Pluto a planet. When I worked as a performer in the New Jersey Renaissance Faire playing a court astronomer/astrologer, I asked children what their favorite planet was, and Pluto was the number one answer, followed by Earth.
That is usually when I shared that in the 1560s, calling Earth a planet was considered controversial, as it amounted to an affirmation of Copernicanism, which stated the Sun is the center of the solar system and the Earth simply a planet orbiting the Sun.
New Horizons Principal Investigator Alan Stern reports that the status issue is raised at every single talk he gives about New Horizons and Pluto, even if he does not mention the controversy in his presentation.
Because planetary scientists do not have a formal organization like the IAU, they do not have a means to organize and promote an alternative point of view. That, however, does not mean that that alternative view does not exist.
As for the claim that Pluto cannot be considered a “major planet” due to its small size, the real problem is the false dichotomy inherent in using the terms “major” and “minor” planet. As David Weintraub notes in his book Is Pluto A Planet, the term “minor planet” has been used for more than a century to refer to asteroids and comets, objects too small to be rounded by their own gravity. These are the objects the IAU accurately refers to as “Small Solar System Bodies.”
But Pluto and Ceres—and all dwarf planets—are not asteroids, so the term “minor planet” is not appropriate for them. A better schematic is to do away with the terms “major” and “minor” planet altogether and replace them with terrestrials, jovians, and dwarf planets, all of which fall under the umbrella of planets. Objects like Vesta and Pallas, which are larger and more complex than asteroids, could comprise yet another planetary subcategory, “proto-planets.”
A decade after a controversial vote allegedly changed everything about the way we understand our solar system but really changed nothing, planetary scientists, professional and amateur astronomers, and members of the public overwhelmingly continue to view Pluto as a planet, especially in light of the geologically complex world New Horizons found.
Public usage, not a decree from an isolated, self-appointed group of “experts,” will determine which view enters into posterity. From the last ten years, it is clear that when it comes to Pluto, that view will not be the one advocated by four percent of the IAU.
Adored worldwide, the little planet that would not die is so very special that it will be there for eternity.
Ten years later, IAU Pluto vote remains controversial
Ten years later, IAU Pluto vote remains controversial
Friday, July 15, 2016
Pluto Flyby, One Year Later
Can it really be a year since that fateful, long-anticipated, wondrous day, July 14, 2015, when New Horizons flew by Pluto, giving humanity its first detailed glimpse of that mysterious world? One commenter on Facebook said it seems like just a few months, a sentiment that I share.
One year ago, after a journey of nine-and-a-half years and three billion miles, the world witnessed the culmination of a dream that began 25 years earlier and of two-and-a-half decades of persistence by Pluto scientists to make that dream a reality.
One year ago, on one of the most exciting days of my life, I joined thousands of cheering supporters in a New Year’s Eve-style countdown beginning with “9” instead of “10,” to 7:49 AM, the moment of the spacecraft’s closest approach. About 13 hours later, I celebrated with a tired but exuberant crowd at mission headquarters in Laurel, Maryland, as the spacecraft’s signal that it had successfully traversed the Pluto system arrived.
I was blessed to have the opportunity to cover the mission for the website “Spaceflight Insider,” which allowed me to attend as media and spend the interim hours in the media area, both writing and talking with scientists and journalists from around the country and the world.
After the moment of closest approach had passed, the New Horizons team shared a fascinating finding with us. It was official: Pluto is bigger than previously thought, marginally bigger than Eris. In the long run, that might seem trivial, but it put a definitive end to the claim that Eris is bigger, and if it cannot be classed as a planet, neither can Pluto. The 2006 estimates of Eris’s size were wrong; Bruno Sicardy’s 2010 measurements were correct.
We also were shown the last photo of Pluto sent back before the encounter, so in case the worst happened, and the spacecraft was destroyed by impact with debris, at least the mission had some images successfully returned.
It was a beautiful image, with the heart feature, Tombaugh Regio, front and center.
Since then, Pluto has continually surprised everyone, both scientists and lay people. Numerous predictions were proven wrong. Pluto is not a highly cratered, dead world but a geologically active one. Its atmosphere is not escaping as it recedes from the Sun. It has floating mountains and glaciers, ice volcanoes, and very likely a subsurface ocean.
Pluto’s interaction with the solar wind is far more like that of the larger planets than like that of a comet.
Ironically, every discovery has seemed skewed toward the characteristics of planet, almost as if Pluto itself were having the last laugh in response to a small number of astronomers who attempted to classify it without even seeing it.
And the world became enchanted with Pluto, which made the covers of numerous newspapers and magazines. Even Google did a special doodle for the flyby.
The only ones who didn’t seem impressed were those who attended the IAU General Assembly one month after the flyby. Their biggest concern was that the New Horizons team was using names for sites on Pluto and its moons without “official” IAU approval.
Those wedded to the notion that a planet must “clear the neighborhood of its orbit” wrote numerous articles stating that the flyby showed an object does not have to be a planet to be interesting. And therein, they missed the point. All the features and processes revealed by New Horizons are those of planets. Yet somehow, none of these intrinsic factors matter to those whose minds are made up.
By making “clearing its orbit” a requirement for planethood, four percent of the IAU essentially assured that no matter what is happening on Pluto’s surface and atmosphere, no matter what the New Horizons mission found, Pluto would forever be precluded from being classed as a planet and their position would always “win.”
That might be a clever political move, but it certainly is not a smart scientific one, especially since it amounts to reaching a conclusion first and only afterwards making sure the evidence fits that desired conclusion.
The fact that New Horizons flew by the Pluto system without encountering any debris actually calls the claim that it doesn’t clear its orbit into question. Pluto’s immediate vicinity was likely cleared of debris by its large moon and binary companion, Charon.
An “un-cleared” orbit calls to mind the asteroid field navigated by Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, where the Millennium Falcon has to weave and dodge to avoid hitting the many asteroids clustered together. This was hardly the case for New Horizons as it flew through the Pluto system.
One has to ask, do those who require “orbit clearing” see the entire Kuiper Belt as Pluto’s “neighborhood?” The Kuiper Belt is huge, most of it stretching far beyond Pluto. The New Horizons team needed to use the Hubble Space Telescope just to find an object on the spacecraft’s trajectory to visit after Pluto, and that object is a billion miles beyond the planet!
Eighty percent of the data from last year’s flyby is now back, and the remaining 20 percent is expected to be returned sometime this fall.
Pluto so thrilled and excited the world that there already has been talk of returning, this time with an orbiter. Principal investigator Alan Stern told the audience at this spring’s Northeast Astronomy Forum (NEAF) that the technology for an orbiter already exists.
To get the ball rolling on a potential orbiter, advocates need to make it a priority in the next Decadal Survey, a list of goals prepared under the guidance of the National Research Council once every ten years.
NASA will start outreach to the council in 2018 or 2019 to begin this process, with the next Decadal Survey expected to be released in 2022. This means it is not too early to start seriously advocating a return to the Pluto system.
“I think Pluto is indeed an object we’re going to need to know more about,” NASA Director of Planetary Science Jim Green said last year.
“I think the excitement is there, the details, in terms of the science, will come out…and they’re going to be pushing for what might be the next steps, you bet.”
For now, to celebrate this momentous anniversary, the New Horizons mission has published a list of its top 10 Pluto pictures, a survey of its top ten discoveries from the flyby, and a stunning video compiled from more than 100 images taken during approach simulating what one would see upon arriving at the planet.
“Just over a year ago, Pluto was a dot in the distance. This video shows what it would be like to ride aboard an approaching spacecraft and see Pluto grow to become a world, and then swoop down over its particular terrains as if we were approaching some future landing on them,” Stern said.
Friday, July 1, 2016
New Horizons Receives Mission Extension to Kuiper Belt, Dawn to Remain at Ceres: Following its historic first-ever flyby of Pluto, NASA’s New Horizons mission has received the green light to fly onward to an object deeper in the Kuiper Belt, known as 2014 MU69.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
What's Over the Horizon? - Fall/Winter 2015
What's Over the Horizon? - Fall/Winter 2015: AS HARVEY MUDD STUDENTS SETTLED INTO THEIR dorms to start the 2009–2010 academic year—some a tad homesick no doubt—Pluto-bound spacecraft …
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Good Article on the State of the Pluto Planet Debate
This is a good article that presents both sides of the planet debate with up to date information, including quotes from Alan Stern. Check out the comments too!
Thursday, February 18, 2016
86 Years After Discovery, Data Shows Pluto is a Planet
Today marks the 86th anniversary of the discovery of planet Pluto in 1930 by 24-year-old Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Sometime around 4 PM on that day, while using a blink comparator to move between two photographic plates depicting the same part of the sky taken several days apart a month earlier, Tombaugh detected a tiny dot that moved against the background stars.
That dot was Pluto. The fascinating story of its discovery is described here: .
“I have found your Planet X,” the young astronomer told Lowell Observatory director Vesto Slipher, ending the decades-long search for a trans-Neptunian planet initiated by observatory founder Percival Lowell.
Over the past year, we have had the opportunity to do what Clyde Tombaugh could only dream of—transform that tiny dot he found, not even large enough to be resolved into a disk with the most powerful telescopes of the day—into a living, breathing planet.
We are now into the “Year of Pluto 2,” and the amazing images and information keep coming and will continue to do so through most of this year.
This anniversary is an appropriate occasion to re-examine, in light of all these new findings, the claim that Pluto is somehow “different” from the solar system’s eight larger planets.
Let’s start with the often repeated, “Pluto is very different from the ‘big eight.’”
First, there are no “big eight,” unless one lumps together two very different types of worlds—the rocky, terrestrial planets on one hand, and the gas giants and ice giants on the other.
Any classification system that puts Earth and Jupiter in the same category but excludes Pluto overlooks an important fact, specifically, that Earth has far more in common with Pluto than it does with Jupiter.
Gas giants Jupiter and Saturn and ice giants Uranus and Neptune have no known solid surfaces. Both have extensive systems of rings and moons that are almost their own “mini-solar systems.” Jupiter and Saturn are composed primarily of hydrogen and helium, much like the Sun.
Like Earth, Pluto is rocky and geologically differentiated into core, mantle, and crust. Like Earth, it is geologically active. It has far more water ice than previously thought, and its geological processes suggest an internal heat source that could possibly support a subsurface ocean.
Some scientists see evidence for such an ocean in the faults and fissures on Pluto’s surface and in the planet’s lack of an equatorial bulge.
Equatorial bulges are created by the spin of rotating spherical objects. Because water moves more easily than ice, an underground ocean would reduce any bulge by acting against rotational forces.
Both Earth and Pluto have nitrogen in their atmospheres. The only other solar system world with a nitrogen atmosphere is Saturn’s moon Titan.
Both Earth and Pluto have large moons formed via a giant impact very early in the solar system’s history.
Pluto was initially thought to be larger than it is because until 1978, scientists did not realize they were looking at two objects rather than one when they observed Pluto through a telescope. The planet and its largest moon Charon, which is half its size, are separated by just 12,196 miles (19,640 km), the smallest separation between any planet and moon in the solar system.
And because Pluto and Charon orbit a center of gravity, known as a barycenter, outside of Pluto, between the two objects, they can genuinely be considered a double or binary planet system.
New Horizons’ findings indicate Pluto actually has more in common with Earth than anyone imagined.
Instead of the dead world many expected, Pluto has revealed itself to be “a world of unexpected complexity and riches,” mission principal investigator Alan Stern commented.
Among the small planet’s stunning array of terrains are wind-blown dunes similar to those on Earth and on Jupiter’s moon Europa. Worlds with atmospheres as thin as Pluto’s do not usually have dunes, suggesting Pluto’s atmosphere may once have been a lot thicker.
Pluto’s famous “heart,” named Tombaugh Regio for discoverer Tombaugh, has a young surface with no craters.
Ice floating on the left side of side of Tombaugh Regio, known as Sputnik Planum, flows in a manner similar to the movement of glaciers on Earth. Only two other worlds in the solar system, Earth and Mars, experience this type of activity.
The fact that Sputnik Planum’s terrain is constantly being reshaped suggests tectonic forces (geological forces that cause movements of a planet’s crust) are at work, possibly caused by internal heating produced through radioactive decay of rocky material in Pluto’s core.
“The Pluto system surprised us in many ways, most notably teaching us that small planets can remain active billions of years after their formation,” Stern said.
Pluto’s layered, atmospheric haze is similar to that seen on Titan. It is also far more complex than scientists anticipated. Pluto’s sky appears blue at sunrise and sunset because its haze particles scatter blue light. Which other planet has a blue sky?
Two mountains on the Pluto’s encounter side (that observed in most detail by New Horizons), Wright Mons and Picard Mons, appear to be ice volcanoes, also known as cryovolcanoes. These mountains have broad, gentle slopes, characteristic of what are known as shield volcanoes.
The only other shield volcanoes in the solar system are on Earth and Mars.
Pluto’s active geology and possibly cryovolcanism could be driven by a mix of ammonia and water ice in its mantle.
Located between the inner crust and outer core, that mantle may be experiencing convection, a process through which hot material rises up while cooler material sinks down.
On Earth, convection drives the movement of tectonic plates.
Networks of eroded valleys on Pluto’s surface, described by some scientists as “hanging valleys,” resemble similar features seen on Earth in Yellowstone National Park.
The point in emphasizing these detailed features is that Pluto may have more in common with Earth than with any other solar system planet.
The abundance of water ice on its surface and the possibility of a subsurface ocean add Pluto to the solar system’s leading contenders for microbial life, a list that includes Europa and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, both of which are believed to have subsurface oceans.
Data sent back by New Horizons just this week indicates Charon, which is also geologically active, once had a subsurface ocean too.
Nine and a half years ago, four percent of the IAU decided they knew how to best classify Pluto in spite of the fact that they had never seen it up close and knew nothing of its features. Even today, apologists for the IAU claim that their decision stands, that Pluto is not a planet because astronomy’s “ruling authority” said so.
Yet Pluto’s surface and atmosphere tell a very different story.
"I naturally refer to Pluto as a planet because that seems like the right moniker,” New Horizons project scientist Cathy Olkin states. “It has an atmosphere; it has interesting geology; it orbits the sun; it has moons. ‘Planet’ just seems right to me."
If Clyde Tombaugh had lived to see the glorious beauty of the tiny dot he discovered, he would have been truly amazed.
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Super Earth May Exist, but It's NOT "Planet Nine"
The potential discovery of a Super Earth in the outer solar system made huge headlines today. Inferred from the eccentric orbits of several tiny objects in the Kuiper Belt, this planet is estimated to orbit 19 billion miles or 200 astronomical units (AU) from the Sun, with one AU equal to the Earth-Sun distance of approximately 93 million miles.
This distant world, which would take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to orbit the Sun, is estimated to have a mass ten times that of the Earth.
Significantly, this planet has not been observed or actually detected. Its existence is inferred solely through computer simulations.
Unfortunately, one of the two scientists conducting the study, Mike Brown, who has spent a decade obsessed with the very unprofessional claim that he “killed” planet Pluto, decided to take a page from the presidential candidates and use this possible discovery to promote his own personal agenda.
He did this by naming the potential object “Planet Nine,” a deliberate affront to those who reject the IAU planet definition just one day after the tenth anniversary of New Horizons’ launch.
By using this name on a press release distributed to countless media outlets, Brown assured that his version of the solar system would be repeated again and again in article headlines as the only view of the solar system.
It is a view based on the highly emotional, unscientific premise that our solar system cannot have “too many planets,” so artificial lines have to be drawn to keep the number of planets small.
By referring to any new planet discovered as “Planet Nine,” he is inherently denying the existence of the ongoing debate over planet definition and over the number of planets our solar system has.
According to the geophysical planet definition, held by many planetary scientists, a planet is any non-self-luminous celestial spheroidal body orbiting a star, free floating in space, or even orbiting another planet. If an object is not a star itself and is large enough and massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, it is a planet.
That means, as I have often stated before, that dwarf planets are planets too. Alan Stern, the person who coined the term “dwarf planet” intended it to refer to a third class of planets in addition to terrestrials and jovians.
According to this definition, there is no requirement that an object “clear its orbit” to be considered a planet.
So for the many scientists and members of the public who adhere to the geophysical planet definition, our solar system has a minimum of 13 planets, 14 if we count Charon as part of a binary system with Pluto. In order from the Sun, these are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Ceres, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Charon, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris.
Inner Oort Cloud Object Sedna and the recent, distant discovery known as 2012 VP113 and nicknamed “Biden,” are likely spherical as well, raising that count to 16. As Alan Stern noted, “If they do find it (this proposed object), it’ll be more like Number 19, not Number 9.”
Unfortunately, very few media outlets chose to seek the geophysical point of view. Instead, most simply more repeated the nonsense that Brown is “the Pluto Killer” and quoted only him and his research partner, Konstantin Batygin.
And Brown made sure to get in as many digs at Pluto and at denying the existence of the ongoing planet debate as possible, making statements such as, “There have only been two true planets discovered since ancient times, and this would be the third.”
Over and over, he presented his opinion as fact, and few journalists even thought to question it. From the geophysical view, more than two planets have been discovered since ancient times because Ceres, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake, and Eris are true planets too.
Brown and Batygin supposedly considered other names for this possible new object, including George, Planet of the Apes, Jehoshaphat and Phattie. Any one of these would have been better than “Planet Nine,” which is not really a name but a statement saying his view of the solar system is the only view.
Most following the New Horizons mission now know just how much of a planet Pluto is. It is more geologically active than Mars and has features such as flowing ice and likely cryovolcanoes, which strongly suggest an internal heat source no one anticipated.
There is complex interaction between its atmosphere and surface, and there may even be an underground ocean that could harbor microbial life. A good number of New Horizons scientists have commented that given these features, there isn’t anything else they can call this world other than a planet.
None of this apparently makes any difference to Brown, but then again, he doesn’t study Pluto. So insistent is he on the controversial “requirement” of orbit clearing that he states of the potential discovery, “The fact that it could affect the orbits of other objects over such a wide area would make it “the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system.”
Why should an object’s effect on other objects make it more “planet-y” than its intrinsic properties?
Theories positing the existence of a large planet far beyond Pluto have been around for a long time. Announcing that a computer simulation points to this possibility is an ideal opportunity to excite the public about space exploration and what might be out there.
Instead, Brown effectively hijacked this story to promote himself, his imagined accomplishment of having “killed” Pluto, and his subjective view of our solar system, conveniently ignoring that his view is just one in an ongoing debate.
The first principle of propaganda is, “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth.” Another is “He/she who defines the terms wins the debate.”
Brown may repeatedly attempt to pass off his view of the solar system as the only view, but that does not mean the media or the public has to accept it. The story of a possible new solar system planet can stand on its own, without endless promotions of Brown and his book, parts of which stray so far from astronomy to the point that he actually devotes an entire chapter to engagement rings!
If I read a book about the solar system, the only rings I want to learn about are those around planets or asteroids. I suspect many other astronomy enthusiasts share that view.
One of the view journalists who did go out of his way to be fair and balanced in this story is Alan Boyle, author of the book The Case for Pluto. His article can be found at .
In that article, Alan Stern discusses what an actual discovery of a large outer solar system planet would mean from the geophysical point of view. He says, “And if it is found, it’ll confirm lots of work predicting the Oort Cloud is littered with planets, and the solar system made dozens to hundreds of them.”
Anyone who rejects the IAU planet definition or even just wants to acknowledge that planet definition is an ongoing debate should simply refuse to call this object “Planet Nine,” especially if it is actually found. Do not give Brown the power he seeks to define the terms and thereby win the debate.
This object would in no way replace Pluto, and its discovery has nothing to do with Pluto; it would simply be a fascinating addition to our solar system, which has room for many planets. That in itself makes for a fascinating story.
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