The Medusa Frequency

The Medusa Frequency is a 1987 novel by Russell Hoban. Written in a lyrical, often magic realist style, it crosses a number of genres including comedy and fantasy without fitting easily into any. Its themes include loss, fidelity, mythology, perception and creativity.
Plot summary.
Narrator Herman Orff is a London-based freelance writer of comics and an unsuccessful novelist. He is preoccupied by Vermeer's "Girl with a Pearl Earring", an ex-girlfriend called Luise von Himmelbett, and characters from mythology including The Kraken. His own name is a reference to Hermes and Orpheus.
Lacking inspiration to write his third novel, he responds to a leaflet put through his letterbox advertising a treatment for blocked artists. The procedure turns out to be the invention of an old friend who was once also Luise's lover. Following the treatment, Orff periodically hallucinates, finding that spherical found objects (a stone on the banks of the River Thames, a football, a cabbage) appear to him as the dismembered head of Orpheus. Through a series of surreal scenes, the head tells Orff its "story", namely how he started playing the lyre, met Eurydice and lost her. In Hoban's retelling, Eurydice was not bitten by a snake and did not descend to the Underworld, but rather Orpheus was unfaithful to her and she left him for Aristaeus. This reflects Orff's own experience of being unfaithful to Luise.
The scenes retelling the Orpheus myth are interspersed with Orff's daily life as he finds a new girlfriend, is hospitalised after suffering an attack of angina, bumps repeatedly into a character referred to as "Gom Yawncher" who turns up in various guises throughout London, and travels to The Hague to see the Vermeer painting in the Mauritshuis. When he gets to The Hague he finds the painting is on loan to the US, and meets a man in the gallery who claims to be another of Luise's ex-lovers. On returning to his hotel he unexpectedly bumps into Luise herself, who he finds is happily married.
On Orff's return to London, his new girlfriend breaks up with him. Orff turns down lucrative offers of work adapting the Orpheus myth into a tacky cartoon strip and a pretentious film, and instead develops his own original science fiction comic strip. The Orpheus hallucinations come to an end and the slim memoir of this strange story effectively becomes the third novel he has been trying to write.
Interpretation.
The novel's title is on one level a reference to Orff's preference for sitting up late at night listening to female classical singers on shortwave radio. During one of Orff's "conversations" with The Kraken, it tells him that Medusa is the only woman, or female archetype, to whom he can be truly faithful.
Reception.
Although never a big seller, the book was well received critically, with The Listener commenting: "in the course of this tour through the imaginative outback of Mr. Hoban's mind, we are treated to brilliant flashes of mordant humour, not to mention splendidly baroque evocations of present day London" while The New York Times remarked "There's a sense of wonder in these passages...a love of fantasy and myth-making, an interest in language and puns, and a concern with philosophic speculation and the pyrotechnics of storytelling."
Dave Langford reviewed "The Medusa Frequency" for "White Dwarf" #99, and stated that "The book is souffle rather cornflakes: a light and tasty treatment of material which could be depressingly Heavy."
The Russell Hoban resource website The Head of Orpheus (named after the character in the book) comments, "for those of us who read a book not to get to the end of it, but rather to savor its humor, wisdom, eloquence and insight, The Medusa Frequency is a priceless treasure. The sort of book that may take a little concentration to get through the first time, but after that never manages to sit on your bookshelf long enough to acquire a respectable film of dust before you pull it down to re-read passages at random, or look up a particular line or incident that's stuck in your mind."
Crossovers.
Most of Hoban's novels explore common themes and are set in the same area of west London. Characters from "The Medusa Frequency" made brief appearances in Hoban's later novels "Fremder" and "Linger Awhile".


List of Cynic philosophers

This is a list of Cynic philosophers, ordered (roughly) by date. The criteria for inclusion in this list is fairly mild. "See also ".


Anagrams of Desire

Anagrams of Desire is an academic textbook about Angela Carter's media writings. Written by Charlotte Crofts and published by Manchester University Press in 2003, the full title is "Anagrams of Desire: Angela Carter's Writing for Radio, Film and Television".
The book examines Carter's five radio plays, her two film adaptations, "The Company of Wolves" (1984) and "The Magic Toyshop" (1987) and discusses the critically neglected television documentary "The Holy Family Album" (1991) and the BBC 2 "Omnibus" documentary about Carter: "Angela Carter's Curious Room" (1992). The book concludes with a brief discussion of Carter's unrealised dramatic writings, a libretto of Virginia Woolf's "", a stage adaptation of Frank Wedekind's "Lulu" plays ("Erdgeist" et al.) and an unproduced screenplay entitled "The Christchurch Murders", based on the Parker-Hulme New Zealand murders, the same incident which influenced Peter Jackson's film "Heavenly Creatures".
According to Michael Pye of "The Scotsman" Crofts has "an excellent idea - a strong case for Carter’s less-discussed, less-remembered writing, especially her radio plays - and who writes good, sharp prose when she gets a chance, and who is full of proper doubts about the bigger, more flatulent generalisations that pass nowadays for "theory"."
According to Liz Milner "Croft's book is of limited appeal to a general reader and is best suited to academics interested in Media Studies and Feminism."
The title refers to a line from Carter's short story "The Merchant of Shadows", which concerns film-making and film-makers.


Mixed logit

Mixed logit is a fully general statistical model for examining discrete choices. It overcomes three important limitations of the standard logit model by allowing for random taste variation across choosers, unrestricted substitution patterns across choices, and correlation in unobserved factors over time. Mixed logit can choose any distribution formula_1 for the random coefficients, unlike probit which is limited to the normal distribution. It is called "mixed logit" because the choice probability is a mixture of logits, with formula_1 as the mixing distribution. It has been shown that a mixed logit model can approximate to any degree of accuracy any true random utility model of discrete choice, given appropriate specification of variables and the coefficient distribution.
Random taste variation.
The standard logit model's "taste" coefficients, or formula_3's, are fixed, which means the formula_3's are the same for everyone. Mixed logit has different formula_3's for each person (i.e., each decision maker.)
In the standard logit model, the utility of person formula_6 for alternative formula_7 is:
with
For the mixed logit model, this specification is generalized by allowing formula_10 to be random. The utility of person formula_11 for alternative formula_12 in the mixed logit model is:
with
where "θ" are the parameters of the distribution of formula_10's over the population, such as the mean and variance of formula_10.
Conditional on formula_18, the probability that person formula_6 chooses alternative formula_12 is the standard logit formula:
However, since formula_18 is random and not known, the (unconditional) choice probability is the integral of this logit formula over the density of formula_18.
This model is also called the random coefficient logit model since formula_25 is a random variable. It allows the slopes of utility (i.e., the marginal utility) to be random, which is an extension of the random effects model where only the intercept was stochastic.
Any probability density function can be specified for the distribution of the coefficients in the population, i.e., for formula_26. The most widely used distribution is normal, mainly for its simplicity. For coefficients that take the same sign for all people, such as a price coefficient that is necessarily negative or the coefficient of a desirable attribute, distributions with support on only one side of zero, like the lognormal, are used. When coefficients cannot logically be unboundedly large or small, then bounded distributions are often used, such as the formula_27 or triangular distributions.
Unrestricted substitution patterns.
The mixed logit model can represent general substitution pattern because it does not exhibit logit's restrictive independence of irrelevant alternatives (IIA) property. The percentage change in person formula_6's unconditional probability of choosing alternative formula_12 given a percentage change in the "m"th attribute of alternative formula_30 (the elasticity of formula_31 with respect to formula_32) is
where formula_34 is the "m"th element of formula_3. It can be seen from this formula that a ten-percent reduction for formula_31 need not imply (as with logit) a ten-percent reduction in each other alternative formula_37. The reason is that the relative percentages depend on the correlation between the conditional likelihood that person formula_6 will choose alternative formula_39 and the conditional likelihood that person formula_6 will choose alternative formula_41 over various draws of formula_42.
Correlation in unobserved factors over time.
Standard logit does not take into account any unobserved factors that persist over time for a given decision maker. This can be a problem if you are using panel data, which represent repeated choices over time. By applying a standard logit model to panel data you are making the assumption that the unobserved factors that affect a person's choice are new every time the person makes the choice. That is a very unlikely assumption. To take into account both random taste variation and correlation in unobserved factors over time, the utility for respondent n for alternative i at time t is specified as follows:
where the subscript t is the time dimension. We still make the logit assumption which is that formula_44 is i.i.d extreme value. That means that formula_44 is independent over time, people, and alternatives. formula_44 is essentially just white noise. However, correlation over time and over alternatives arises from the common effect of the formula_3's, which enter utility in each time period and each alternative.
To examine the correlation explicitly, assume that the "β" 's are normally distributed with mean formula_48 and variance formula_49. Then the utility equation becomes:
and "η" is a draw from the standard normal density. Rearranging, the equation becomes:
where the unobserved factors are collected in formula_53. Of the unobserved factors, formula_54 is independent over time, and formula_55 is not independent over time or alternatives.
Then the covariance between alternatives formula_56 and formula_57 is,
and the covariance between time formula_59 and formula_60 is
By specifying the X's appropriately, one can obtain any pattern of covariance over time and alternatives.
Conditional on formula_10, the probability of the sequence of choices by a person is simply the product of the logit probability of each individual choice by that person:
since formula_64 is independent over time. Then the (unconditional) probability of the sequence of choices is simply the integral of this product of logits over the density of formula_3.
Simulation.
Unfortunately there is no closed form for the integral that enters the choice probability, and so the researcher must simulate Pn. Fortunately for the researcher, simulating Pn can be very simple. There are four basic steps to follow
1. Take a draw from the probability density function that you specified for the 'taste' coefficients. That is, take a draw from formula_67 and label the draw formula_68, for formula_69 representing the first draw.
2. Calculate formula_70. (The conditional probability.)
3. Repeat many times, for formula_71.
4. Average the results
Then the formula for the simulation look like the following,
formula_72
where R is the total number of draws taken from the distribution, and r is one draw.
Once this is done you will have a value for the probability of each alternative i for each respondent n.


Richard Barsam

Richard Barsam (born 8 November 1938), author and film historian, is Professor Emeritus of Film Studies at Hunter College of The City University of New York (CUNY).
Early life and education.
Barsam was born in Glendale, California. He attended the University of Southern California, earning a PhD degree in English literature in 1967. Concurrently, he was encouraged by two film professors (Arthur Knight and Richard Dyer MacCann) to attend without credit film history and other courses in the USC School of Cinema (now the School of Cinematic Arts), an experience that was to influence his further academic career significantly.
Career.
In 1967, he joined the faculty of Richmond College, CUNY, where initially he taught courses both in English literature and film studies, eventually specializing exclusively in the latter.
Between 1984 and 1991, he held executive management positions at CUNY, including University Dean for Faculty and Research and University Dean for Executive Search and Evaluation. Between 1991 and 1992, he served as Provost of Pratt Institute.
In 1994, he resumed his teaching career as Professor of Film Studies at Hunter College, CUNY, and retired in 2001.
Personal life.
Barsam's partner of thirty-nine years was the art historian Edgar Munhall.


Emanuel Bronner

Emanuel Theodore Bronner (, born February 1, 1908 – March 7, 1997) was the maker of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps. He used product labels to promote his moral and religious ideas, including a belief in the goodness and unity of humanity.
History.
Bronner was born in Heilbronn, Germany, to the Heilbronner family of soap makers. He emigrated to the United States in 1929, dropping "Heil" from his name because of its associations with Nazism. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States in 1936. As the family was Jewish, he pleaded with his parents to emigrate with him for fear of the then-ascendant Nazi Party, but they refused. His last contact with his parents was in the form of a censored postcard saying, "You were right. —Your loving father." His parents were murdered in the Holocaust.
Career.
He started his business making products such as castile soap by hand in his home. The product labels are crowded with statements of Bronner's philosophy, which he called "All-One-God-Faith" and the "Moral ABC", both of which he included on the label of every soap bottle he produced. Many of Bronner's references came from Jewish and Christian sources, such as the Shema and the Beatitudes; others from writers such as Rudyard Kipling and Thomas Paine. On his labels, he referred to the Jewish sage Hillel the Elder as "Rabbi Hillel" and to Jesus Christ as "Rabbi Jesus." The labels became famous for their idiosyncratic style, including hyphens to join long strings of words and the liberal use of exclamation marks.
In 1946, while promoting his "Moral ABC" at the University of Chicago, Bronner was arrested for refusing to leave the dean's office, despite the fact he was invited to the campus to lecture by a local student group, and then committed to the Elgin Mental Health Center, a mental hospital in Elgin, Illinois, from which he escaped after shock treatments. Bronner believed those shock treatments brought about his eventual blindness.
After moving his family several times, he settled in Escondido, California, where eventually his soap-making operation grew into a small factory. At his death in 1997, it produced more than a million bottles of soap and other products per year, but was still not mechanized. The firm has been the subject of many published articles and has supported many charitable causes.
Legacy.
After Bronner's death, his family has continued to run the business. His grandson David Bronner is currently CEO.
His life was the subject of a 2007 documentary film, "Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox", which premiered on the Sundance TV channel, on 3 July 2007.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a ship, the , donated by the soap company.


Michael Paxton

Michael Paxton (born March 29, 1957) is an American filmmaker and writer. He has directed, produced, and written several films, both live action and animated, as well as plays and books. His feature documentary "" received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature and a Golden Satellite Award for Best Documentary film in 1997. Paxton currently works as Multimedia Producer for the Ayn Rand Institute.
Early life and education.
Michael Paxton was born Michael Anthony Palumbo on March 29, 1957 in Kingston, New York.
In 1975, Paxton began attending the University at Albany, SUNY, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in philosophy in 1979.
He then attended the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where he received a Master of Fine Arts in for Film & Television in 1988. Paxton's graduate thesis film, "Forbidden Fruit", won awards for Best Screenplay and Best Editing at the 1988 NYU Film Festival.
Career.
In 1989, Paxton co-produced and directed the world premiere of Ayn Rand's play "Ideal" at the Melrose Theater in Hollywood, and in 1991, he adapted and directed a dramatic presentation of Rand's futuristic novella "Anthem". In 1995, he was the assistant director on the live-action/animated feature "The Pagemaster" for Turner Pictures.
In November 1996, Paxton released the feature documentary "". The documentary takes its name from the concept of a "sense of life", a concept that Ayn Rand developed and defined as a "pre-conceptual equivalent of metaphysics, an emotional, subconsciously integrated appraisal of man and of existence. It sets the nature of a man’s emotional responses and the essence of his character." In 1997, "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 69th Academy Awards. It also won the Golden Satellite Award for Best Feature Documentary of 1997.
Paxton also co-produced the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack to "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life" and was Visual Effects Supervisor on "Stuart Little 2". He was the Associate Producer on "The Lion King 1½" for Disney, "" for Miramax, and "Smallville Legends: Kara and the Chronicles of Krypton" for The CW.
In addition to his film and theater work, Paxton has written four books: "Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (The Companion Book)" and three children's books for Disney based on classic animated features: "Cinderella", "The Rescuers Down Under", and "The Aristocats".


The Dark Other

The Dark Other is a horror novel by Stanley G. Weinbaum. It was first published in 1950 by Fantasy Publishing Company, Inc. in an edition of 700 copies. The manuscript, written in the 1920s, was originally titled "The Mad Brain". With permission of his widow, Forrest J Ackerman edited it, modernizing the manuscript to remove some of the "anachronisms"
of the 20s.
Plot introduction.
The novel concerns Patricia Lane who is in love with Nicholas Devine, a quiet and gentle writer. Devine undergoes sudden changes, becoming cold and calculating. Frightened by this, Lane consults psychologist Dr. Carl Horker, who rescues her from Devine while under the influence of one of his spells. Devine again attacks Horker, and overcomes him. He is then shot by Lane and rushed to a hospital where a second brain is discovered and removed.


Open JTAG

The Open JTAG project is an open source project released under GNU License.
It is a complete hardware and software JTAG reference design, based on a simple hardware composed by a FTDI FT245 USB front-end and an Altera EPM570 MAX II CPLD. The capabilities of this hardware configuration make the Open JTAG device able to output TCK signals at 24 MHz using macro-instructions sent from the host end.
The scope is to give the community a JTAG device not based on the PC parallel port: Open JTAG uses the USB channel to communicate with the internal CPLD, sending macro-instructions as fast as possible. The complete project (Beta version) is available at OpenCores.org and the Open JTAG project official site.


Hinduism in Mauritius

Hinduism in Mauritius began when Indians were brought as indentured labor to colonial French and later in much larger numbers to British plantations in Mauritius and neighboring islands of the Indian Ocean. The migrants came primarily from what are now the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
Hinduism is the largest religion in Mauritius, with Hindus representing approximately 48.5% of the population in 2011, according to The World Factbook. This makes the Mauritius islands in the Indian Ocean as the country having highest percentage of Hindus in Africa and third highest percentage of Hindus in the world after Nepal and India.
History.
The European colonial powers banned slave capture and trading in the first half of the 19th century, with the British Empire banning it in the early decades. However, the demand kept rising for low cost, high intensity labor in colonial plantations of sugarcane, cotton, tobacco and other cash crops. The British Empire substituted the slave labor supplies from Africa with indentured labor supplies from India.
The indentured people brought from India included primarily Hindus, but also included Muslims and Christians. They were subject to indenture, a long-established form of contract which bound them to forced labour for a fixed term; apart from the fixed term of servitude, this resembled slavery. The first ships carrying indentured labourers from India left in 1836. Sugarcane, a crop that is native to India, does not grow in the cold latitudes such as those found in Europe, but grows in tropical latitudes, were grown in large colonial tropical plantations to meet the growing European and American demand. It is these sugarcane and other tropical cash crop plantations that brought the indentured Hindus and other migrants from India to Mauritius, and other island countries such as Fiji, Jamaica, Trinidad, Martinique, Suriname and others.
The Hindus, and non-Hindus, who accepted indentured labor contracts and were brought to Mauritius, faced difficult conditions in India. Poverty in colonial India, starvation, epidemics and severe periodic famines in British Raj were rampant during the colonial rule. Millions of Indians died from mass starvation during the 19th-century British India. The extreme circumstances broke families, villages and triggered migrations. By 1839, Mauritius already had 25,000 Indians working in slave-like conditions in its colonial plantations, but these were predominantly males since colonial labor laws prevented women and children from accompanying the males. In the 1840s a severe shortage of cheap labor in British plantation colonies led to systematic shipment of large number of indentured laborers to Mauritius, both men and women, particularly from the ports of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. According to Michael Mann – a professor of Sociology, the Hindus and non-Hindus of India who arrived in Mauritius were a small percentage of the over 30 million indentured Indian workers shipped around the colonial world between the 18th and early 20th century (many of whom returned after serving for years as plantation labor).
By the time Mauritius gained independence from the British Empire, a majority of its population were from Indian heritage. According to Patrick Eisenlohr, about 70% of Mauritius' total population is of Indian origin. Those who identify themselves as Hindus constitute about 48% of the total population, or about 69% of those of Indian origin.
Language.
The major languages spoken by Hindus in Mauritius, at home and in commerce, are Creole, Bhojpuri, Tamil and Hindi. The politically active Hindus, states Eisenholr, have attempted to preserve Hindi by calling it their "mother tongue" and "ancestral language", as well as an assurance against the colonial discrimination they faced, but most Hindus mainly use Creole in their daily lives – a syncretic language of Indians and Africans that has developed on the island.
The island nation carries many Bhojpuri-language television programs on Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation, the channel controlled by the Mauritius government. Hindus in Mauritius that widely use Bhojpuri include the rural south and north-central region near . These settlements are of Hindus primarily from Gangetic plains regions of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, and their language is a modified form – a koiné in linguistic studies – of the original Bhojpuri.
Social stratification.
According to Oddvar Hollup and other scholars, Hindus that settled in Mauritius did not observe caste system and intercaste restrictions have been unimportant in Mauritius. Most scholars, states Hollup, observe that this may be because "the economic and political conditions in the host societies where indentured Indian laborers were introduced had conditions that were not conducive to the maintenance of caste", and that caste was not a principle of social organization as all Indian laborers (coolies) were "doing the same kind of work and sharing the same living conditions".
Major Hindu festivals.
One of the biggest Hindu festivals on the island is Maha Shivaratri ("Great Night of Shiva"). During this annual Hindu celebration, which takes place in the months of February and March, four to nine days of ceremony and fasting lead up to an all-night vigil of Shiva worship.
Other important Hindu festivals in Mauritius include:
Temples in Mauritius.
The International Society for Krishna Consciousness maintains several temples in Mauritius.


James Clavell

James Clavell (born Charles Edmund Dumaresq Clavell, 10 October 1921 – 7 September 1994), was an Australian (and later naturalized American) novelist, screenwriter, director, and World War II veteran and prisoner of war. Clavell is best known as the author of his Asian Saga novels, a number of which have had television adaptations. Clavell also authored such screenplays as those for "The Fly" (1958) (based on the short story by George Langelaan) and "The Great Escape" (1963) (based on the personal account of Paul Brickhill). He directed the popular 1967 film "To Sir, with Love" for which he also wrote the script.
Biography.
Early life.
Born in Australia, Clavell was the son of Commander Richard Charles Clavell, a Royal Navy officer who was stationed in Australia with the Royal Australian Navy from 1920 to 1922. Clavell was educated at Portsmouth Grammar School, after which he returned to Australia.
World War II.
During 1940, Clavell joined the Royal Artillery. Though trained for desert warfare, after the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 he was sent to Singapore to fight the Japanese. The ship taking his unit was sunk en route to Singapore, and the survivors were picked up by a Dutch boat fleeing to India. The commander, described by Clavell years later as a "total twit", insisted that they be dropped off at the nearest port to fight the war despite having no weapons.
Imprisoned in Changi.
Shot in the face, he was captured in Java in 1942 and sent to a Japanese prisoner of war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore, where only 1 in 15 prisoners survived.
In 1981, Clavell recounted: "'Changi became my university instead of my prison. Among the inmates there were experts in all walks of life -the high and the low roads. I studied and absorbed everything I could from physics to counterfeiting, but most of all I learned the art of surviving, the most important course of all." Prisoners were fed a quarter-pound of rice per day, one egg per week and occasional vegetables. Clavell believed that if atomic bombs were not dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki he would not have survived the war."
Clavell did not talk about his wartime experiences with anyone, even his wife, for 15 years after the war. For a time he carried a can of sardines in his pocket at all times and fought an urge to forage for food in trash cans. He also experienced bad dreams and a nervous stomach kept him awake nights.
Post-war career.
By 1946 Clavell had become a captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. He enrolled with the University of Birmingham, where he met April Stride, an actress, whom he married in 1949 (date of marriage sometimes given as 1951). He would visit her on set while making films and began to be interested in becoming a film director.
Early work on films.
Clavell entered the film industry via distribution and worked at that in England for a number of years. He tried to get into producing but had no luck so started writing screenplays. In 1954 he moved to New York, then to Hollywood. While trying to break into screenwriting he paid the bills working as a carpenter.
In 1956, he sold a script about pilots to RKO, "Far Alert". The same year Michael Pate bought a story of his, "Forbidden Territory", for filming.
Neither was filmed but "Far Alert" kept being sold and re-sold. "In 18 months it brought in $87,000", he later said. "We kept getting paid for writing it and rewriting it as it went from one studio to another. It was wonderful." It was later sold to Fox where it attracted the attention of Robert L. Lippert who hired Clavell to write the science-fiction horror movie "The Fly" (1958). This became a hit and launched Clavell as a screenwriter.
He wrote "Watusi" (1959) for director Kurt Neumann, who had also made "The Fly".
Clavell wrote "Five Gates to Hell" (1959) for Lippert, and when they could not find a suitable director, Clavell was given the job.
Paramount hired Clavell to write a film about the Bounty mutineers. It ended up not being made. Neither was a proposed movie about Francis Gary Powers made. Clavell did write, produce, and direct a Western at Paramount, "Walk Like a Dragon" (1960).
In 1959, Clavell wrote "Moon Landing" and "First Woman in the Moon", two episodes of "Men into Space", a "day after tomorrow"-style science fiction drama, which depicted, in realistic terms, the (at the time) near future of space exploration.
In 1960, he had written a Broadway show with John Sturges, "White Alice", a thriller set in the Arctic. It was never produced.
Early prose and screenplay work.
In 1960, the Writers Guild went on strike, meaning Clavell was unable to work. He decided to write a novel, "King Rat", based on his time at Changi. It took him three months and several more months after that to rework it. The book was published in 1962 and sold well. It was turned into a film in 1965.
In 1961, Clavell announced he had formed his own company, Cee Productions, who would make the films "King Rat", "White Alice" and "No Hands on the Clock".
In 1962, he signed a multi picture contract with a Canadian company to produce and direct two films there, "Circle of Greed" and "The Sweet and the Bitter". Only the second was made and it was not released until 1967.
He wrote scripts for the war films "The Great Escape" (1963) and "633 Squadron" (1964).
He wrote a short story, "The Children's Story" (1964) and the script for "The Satan Bug" (1965), directed by John Sturges who had made "The Great Escape". He also wrote "Richard Sahib" for Sturges which was never made.
Clavell wanted to write a second novel because "that separates the men from the boys". The money from "King Rat" enabled him to spend two years researching and then writing what became "Tai-Pan" (1966). It was a huge bestseller, and Clavell sold the film rights for a sizeable amount (although the movie would not be made until 1986).
Leading film director.
Clavell returned to filmmaking. He wrote, produced and directed "To Sir, With Love" (1967), featuring Sidney Poitier and based on E. R. Braithwaite's semiautobiographical 1959 book. It was a huge critical and commercial success.
Clavell was now in much demand as a filmmaker. He produced and directed "Where's Jack?" (1969), a highwayman film which was a commercial failure. So too was an epic film about the Thirty Years' War, "The Last Valley" (1971).
Career as novelist.
Clavell returned to novel writing, which was the focus of the remainder of his career. He spent three years researching and writing "Shōgun" (1975), about an Englishman who becomes a samurai in feudal Japan. It was another massive best seller. Clavell was heavily involved in the 1980 miniseries which starred Richard Chamberlain and achieved huge ratings.
In the late 1970s he spent three years researching and writing his fourth novel, "Noble House" (1981), set in Hong Kong in 1963. It was another best seller and was turned into a miniseries in 1986.
Clavell briefly returned to filmmaking and directed a thirty-minute adaptation of his novelette "The Children's Story". He was meant to do a sequel to "Shogun" but instead found himself writing a novel about the 1979 revolution in Iran, "Whirlwind" (1986).
Clavell eventually returned to the "Shogun" sequel, writing "Gai-Jin" (1993). This was his last completed novel at the time of his death.
Films.
and, along with the former King Rat, based on his Asian trilogy:
Novelist.
"The New York Times" said that "Clavell has a gift. It may be something that cannot be taught or earned. He breathes narrative ... He writes in the oldest and grandest tradition that fiction knows". His first novel, "King Rat" (1962), was a semi-fictional account of his prison experiences at Changi. When the book was published it became an immediate best-seller, and three years later it was adapted as a movie. His next novel, "Tai-Pan" (1966), was a fictional account of Jardine Matheson's successful career in Hong Kong, as told via the character who was to become Clavell's heroic archetype, Dirk Struan. Struan's descendants were characters in almost all of his following books. "Tai-Pan" was adapted as a movie in 1986.
Clavell's third novel, "Shōgun" (1975), is set in 17th century Japan, and it tells the story of a shipwrecked English navigator in Japan, based on that of William Adams. When the story was made into a TV miniseries in 1980, produced by Clavell, it became the second highest rated miniseries in history with an audience of more than 120 million, after "Roots".
Clavell's fourth novel, "Noble House" (1981), became a bestseller that year and was adapted into a TV miniseries in 1988.
Following the success of "Noble House", Clavell wrote "Thrump-o-moto" (1985), "Whirlwind" (1986), and "Gai-Jin" (1993).
Peter Marlowe.
Peter Marlowe is Clavell's author surrogate and a character of the novels "King Rat" and "Noble House" (1981); he is also mentioned once (as a friend of Andrew Gavallan's) in "Whirlwind" (1986). Featured most prominently in "King Rat", Marlowe is an English prisoner of war in Changi prison during World War II. In "Noble House", set two decades later, he is a novelist researching a book about Hong Kong. Marlowe's ancestors are also mentioned in other Clavell novels.
In "Noble House" Marlowe is mentioned as having written a novel about Changi which, although fictionalized, is based on real events (like those in "King Rat"). When asked which character was based on him, Marlowe answers, "Perhaps I'm not there at all", although in a later scene, he admits he was "the hero, of course".
Novels.
The Asian Saga consists of seven novels:
Politics and later life.
In 1963 Clavell became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Politically, he was said to have been an ardent individualist and proponent of "laissez-faire" capitalism, as many of his books' heroes exemplify. Clavell admired Ayn Rand, founder of the Objectivist school of philosophy, and sent her a copy of "Noble House" during 1981 inscribed: "This is for Ayn Rand—one of the real, true talents on this earth for which many, many thanks. James C, New York, 2 September 81." Between 1970 and 1990, Clavell lived at Fredley Manor near Mickleham, located in Surrey in South East England.
Death.
In 1994, Clavell died in Switzerland from a stroke while suffering from cancer. He died one month before his 73rd birthday. After sponsorship by his widow, the library and archive of the Royal Artillery Museum at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, in southeast London, was renamed the James Clavell Library in his honour. The library was later closed pending the opening of a new facility in Salisbury, Wiltshire; however, James Clavell Square on the Woolwich riverside remains.


Exact statistics

Exact statistics, such as that described in exact test, is a branch of statistics that was developed to provide more accurate results pertaining to statistical testing and interval estimation by eliminating procedures based on asymptotic and approximate statistical methods. The main characteristic of exact methods is that statistical tests and confidence intervals are based on exact probability statements that are valid for any sample size.
Exact statistical methods help avoid some of the unreasonable assumptions of traditional statistical methods, such as the assumption of equal variances in classical ANOVA. They also allow exact inference on variance components of mixed models.
When exact "p"-values and confidence intervals are computed under a certain distribution, such as the normal distribution, then the underlying methods are referred to as exact parametric methods. The exact methods that do not make any distributional assumptions are referred to as exact nonparametric methods. The latter has the advantage of making fewer assumptions whereas, the former tend to yield more powerful tests when the distributional assumption is reasonable. For advanced methods such as higher-way ANOVA regression analysis, and mixed models, only exact parametric methods are available.
When the sample size is small, asymptotic results given by some traditional methods may not be valid. In such situations, the asymptotic "p"-values may differ substantially from the exact "p"-values. Hence asymptotic and other approximate results may lead to unreliable and misleading conclusions.
The approach.
All classical statistical procedures are constructed using statistics which depend only on observable random vectors, whereas generalized estimators, tests, and confidence intervals used in exact statistics take advantage of the observable random vectors and the observed values both, as in the Bayesian approach but without having to treat constant parameters as random variables. For example, in sampling from a normal population with mean formula_1 and variance formula_2, suppose formula_3 and formula_4 are the sample mean and the sample variance. Then, defining Z and U thus:
and that
Now suppose the parameter of interest is the coefficient of variation, formula_7. Then, we can easily perform exact tests and exact confidence intervals for formula_8 based on the generalized statistic
where formula_10 is the observed value of formula_3 and formula_12 is the observed value of formula_13. Exact inferences on formula_8 based on probabilities and expected values of formula_15 are possible because its distribution and the observed value are both free of nuisance parameters.
Generalized "p"-values.
Classical statistical methods do not provide exact tests to many statistical problems such as testing Variance Components and ANOVA under unequal variances. To rectify this situation, the generalized "p"-values are defined as an extension of the classical "p"-values so that one can perform tests based on exact probability statements valid for any sample size.


Dan Wikler

Wik
Daniel I. Wikler (born 1946) is an American public health educator, philosopher, and medical ethicist. He is currently the Mary B. Saltonstall Professor of Population Ethics and Professor of Ethics and Population Health in the Department of Global Health and Population of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston. He is Director and a core faculty member in the Harvard Program in Ethics and Health (PEH). His current research interests are ethical issues in population and international health, including the allocation of health resources, health research involving human subjects, organ transplant ethics, and ethical dilemmas arising in public health practice, and he teaches several courses each year. He is a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution.
Career.
Wikler is the son and third child of the late Abraham and Ada Fay Wikler. He was born and raised in Lexington, Kentucky, where he was graduated from Henry Clay High School.
Wikler earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1967. He served for two years (1968–1970) as Social Science Analyst in NIMH, the National Institute of Mental Health, in Washington, DC. He completed his doctorate in philosophy at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1976.
Early career.
From 1972 to 1975, he was also awarded a Teaching Fellowship in the Department of Philosophy. He began his career working on natural language semantics at the intersection of philosophy, linguistics, and mathematics.
At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he was professor of philosophy in the UW-Madison Department of Philosophy, professor in the Department of the History of Medicine's Program in Medical Ethics, and professor in the medical school of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, serving from 1975 to 2002.<br>From 1980 to 1981, he served on the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine in Washington, D.C., as Staff Philosopher for Biomedical and Behavioral Research.
He served as the first staff ethicist for the World Health Organization, and remains a consultant to several WHO programs. Prof. Wikler was co-founder (with Peter Singer and Helga Kuhse) and second president of the International Association of Bioethics and has served on the advisory boards of the Asian Bioethics Association and the Pan American Health Organization (AHO) Regional Program in Bioethics.
While at the World Health Organization, he instituted an international collaboration among philosophers and economists on ethical, methodological, and philosophical issues raised by WHO's work in measurement of the global burden of disease and in developing methods for improving health resource allocation.
Harvard University.
Wikler writes, lectures, and advises in bioethics and professional ethics, both internationally and in Greater Boston, including at Harvard. During the summers, he also attends and teaches at a summer program at Fondation Brocher | Accueil outside Geneva. He is considered a world expert on ethics of the medical definition of death, specifically related to the dead-donor rule with regard to organ transplantation.
He serves on numerous Harvard University and other professional committees and advises several student groups, including the Harvard Undergraduate Bioethics Society (HUBS), sponsor in March 2008 of the National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference.
Until 2010, Wikler was the co-director of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Program on Ethical Issues in Global Health Research (formerly Program on Ethical Issues in International Health Research, through June 2008), a program of both empirical and theoretical research on ethical issues in health research, particularly in developing countries. Versions of the course have been taught in over a dozen developing nations, including Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, India, Pakistan, and UAE. The Program offered fellowships for scholars in developing countries and sponsored an intensive each year for an international clientele. A version of that program is now operated by Harvard Chan School's ORARC (which nicknames it 'eager' - EIGHR).
Personal life.
Wikler is married to Lynn McDonald, a professor of psychology and United Nations consultant. Their son, Ben Wikler, is a political executive who has served as Chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin since 2019 and previously worked as a Senior Advisor at MoveOn.
Select publications.
In collaboration
References.


The Magnificent Ambersons (film)

The Magnificent Ambersons is a 1942 American period drama written, produced, and directed by Orson Welles. Welles adapted Booth Tarkington's Pulitzer Prize–winning 1918 novel, about the declining fortunes of a wealthy Midwestern family and the social changes brought by the automobile age. The film stars Joseph Cotten, Dolores Costello, Anne Baxter, Tim Holt, Agnes Moorehead and Ray Collins, with Welles providing the narration.
Welles lost control of the editing of "The Magnificent Ambersons" to RKO, and the final version released to audiences differed significantly from his rough cut of the film. More than an hour of footage was cut by the studio, which also shot and substituted a happier ending. Although Welles's extensive notes for how he wished the film to be cut have survived, the excised footage was destroyed. Composer Bernard Herrmann insisted his credit be removed when, like the film itself, his score was heavily edited by the studio.
Even in the released version, "The Magnificent Ambersons" is often regarded as among the greatest films of all time, a distinction it shares with Welles's first film, "Citizen Kane". The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and it was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 1991.
Plot.
The Ambersons are by far the wealthiest family in their Midwestern city in the last few decades of the 19th century. As a young man, Eugene Morgan courts Isabel Amberson, but she rejects him after he publicly embarrasses her. She instead marries Wilbur Minafer, a passionless man she does not love, and spoils their child, George. The townspeople long to see George get his "comeuppance."
In the early 20th century, Major Amberson gives a large party at the Amberson Mansion for George, who is home from college for the holidays. Eugene, now a widower who has just returned to town after 20 years, attends. George dislikes Eugene, whom he sees as a social climber, and ridicules Eugene's investment in the automobile. He instantly takes to Eugene's daughter Lucy.
The next day, George and Lucy take a sleigh ride. They pass Eugene, his aunt Fanny, Isabel, and Isabel's brother, Jack. Eugene's "horseless carriage" has gotten stuck in the snow, and George jeers for them to "get a horse." The Amberson sleigh then overturns, and Eugene, after his vehicle now mobile again, gives everyone a ride back home. George is humiliated by the incident and angered by Eugene's attentions toward Isabel and his mother's obvious affection for Eugene.
Wilbur Minafer loses a substantial amount of money on bad investments and soon dies. George is largely unmoved by his father's death. The night after the funeral, George teases Fanny, who is besotted with Eugene.
Time passes, and Eugene becomes very wealthy manufacturing automobiles, and again courts Isabel, who refuses to risk George's disapproval by telling him about their love. Lucy rejects George's marriage proposal by saying that he has no ambition in life other than to be wealthy and keep things as they are, and she leaves town. The Ambersons invite the lonely Eugene to dinner, where George, blaming him for turning Lucy against him, criticizes automobiles. The Ambersons are shocked by his rudeness, but Eugene says that George may turn out to be right.
That evening, George learns from Aunt Fanny that Eugene has been courting Isabel. Enraged, he rudely confronts a neighbor for spreading gossip about his mother. The next day, George refuses to let Eugene see his mother. Jack tells Isabel about George's terrible behavior, but she declines to do anything that might upset her son. Eugene writes to Isabel and asks her to choose between her son and his love. Isabel chooses George.
Lucy returns home to find that George is taking his mother to Europe on an extended trip. George talks to Lucy in an attempt to discover if she loves him. She feigns indifference, and they part. Lucy is heartbroken, however, and faints.
Months pass, and Isabel is seriously ill, but George will not allow her to come home for fear that she will renew her relationship with Eugene. He relents only when she starts to die. George refuses to let Eugene into the house to visit Isabel on her deathbed although she begs to see Eugene one last time.
After Isabel's death, Major Amberson sinks into senility and dies. His estate is worthless. Jack leaves town to take a job in another city. George intends to live on Fanny's income while he trains to be a lawyer, but she reveals that she lost everything in bad investments, and they are left with only a few hundred dollars to live on for the rest of the year.
Eugene asks Lucy if she will reconcile with George. Lucy instead tells her father a story about an American Indian chief who was "pushed out on a canoe into the sea" when he became too obnoxious, which Eugene understands to be an analogy for George.
Penniless, George gives up his job as a law clerk and finds higher paying work in a chemical factory, which gices him enough money for himself and Fanny to live on. George wanders the city and is dazed by the modern factories and slums, which have grown up around him. In his last night in the Amberson mansion before it is sold, George prays by his dead mother's bed. The narrator says that no one is around to see him receive his comeuppance.
George is seriously injured by an automobile. Lucy and Eugene go to see him at the hospital and reconcile with him. In a hospital corridor, Eugene tells Fanny that Isabel's spirit had inspired Eugene to bring George "under shelter again," which implies that his and Fanny's financial security was assured.
Production.
Adaptation history.
Welles first adapted "The Magnificent Ambersons" for a one-hour radio drama performed October 29, 1939, by his Mercury Players on "The Campbell Playhouse", with Orson Welles portraying George Minafer, and providing narration. While Welles supplied narration to the film adaptation, Ray Collins was the only actor from the radio production to appear in the film.
Production history.
"The Magnificent Ambersons" was in production October 28, 1941 – January 22, 1942, at RKO's Gower Street studios in Los Angeles. The set for the Amberson mansion was constructed like a real house, but it had walls that could be rolled back, raised, or lowered to allow the camera to appear to pass through them in a continuous take. RKO later used many of the film's sets for its low-budget films, including a series of horror films produced by Val Lewton.
Location shooting took place at various places around the Los Angeles area, including Big Bear Lake, the San Bernardino National Forest, and East Los Angeles. Snow scenes were shot in the Union Ice Company ice house in downtown L.A. The film was budgeted at $853,950 but this went over during the shoot and ultimately exceeded $1 million.
In a 1973 interview with Dick Cavett, Moorehead recalled the arduous work involved before filming her climactic scene where she sinks against the unheated boiler. In rehearsal, Welles told Moorehead (who was still a novice to film acting) to "play it like a little girl," a characterization which went against what Moorehead had prepared. Then Welles told her to play "like an insane woman." Following that, Welles told her to play it "like she's absolutely inebriated." Then he said to play with "an absolutely vacuous mind." Moorehead was thinking to herself, "What in the world does he want?" She did the scene 11 times, each with a different characterization. For the twelfth time, Welles told Moorehead: "Now play it." After those rehearsals, her playing the scene had "a little bit of the hysteria, it had a little bit of the insanity, it had a little bit of the little girl...[H]e had mixed it all up in my mind so that the characterization that I played had a little bit of all of these; and it was terribly exciting." Moorehead continued reflecting on Welles's directorial abilities: "He never directed obviously; he always directed in some strange oblique way where you thought 'Well, that isn't right at all.' But if you put your career or the role in his hands he loved to mold you the way he wanted and it was always much better than you could do yourself. He was the most exciting director that you could possibly imagine."
The original rough cut of the film was approximately 135 minutes in length. Welles felt that the film needed to be shortened and, after receiving a mixed response from a March 17 preview audience in Pomona, film editor Robert Wise removed several minutes from it. The film was previewed again, but the audience's response did not improve.
Because Welles had conceded his original contractual right to the final cut (in a negotiation with RKO over a film which he was obliged to direct but never did), RKO took over editing once Welles had delivered a first cut. RKO deleted more than 40 additional minutes and reshot the ending in late April and early May, in changes directed by assistant director Fred Fleck, Robert Wise, and Jack Moss, the business manager of Welles's Mercury Theatre. The retakes replaced Welles' original ending with a happier one that broke significantly with the film's elegiac tone. The reshot ending is the same as in the novel.
Welles did not approve of the cuts, but because he was simultaneously working in Brazil on "It's All True" for RKO—Nelson Rockefeller had personally asked him to make a film in Latin America as part of the wartime Good Neighbor Policy—his attempts to protect his version ultimately failed. Details of Welles's conflict over the editing are included in the 1993 documentary about "It's All True".
"Of course I expected that there would be an uproar about a picture which, by any ordinary American standards, was much darker than anybody was making pictures," Welles told biographer Barbara Leaming. "There was just a built-in dread of the downbeat movie, and I knew I'd have that to face, but I thought I had a movie so good—I was absolutely certain of its value, much more than of "Kane" ... It's a tremendous preparation for the boardinghouse ... and the terrible walk of George Minafer when he gets his comeuppance. And without that, there wasn't any plot. It's all about some rich people fighting in their house."
Welles said he would not have gone to South America without the studio's guarantee that he could finish editing "The Magnificent Ambersons" there. "And they absolutely betrayed me and never gave me a shot at it. You know, all I could do was send wires ... But I couldn't walk out on a job which had diplomatic overtones. I was representing America in Brazil, you see. I was a prisoner of the Good Neighbor Policy. That's what made it such a nightmare. I couldn't walk out on Mr. Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy with the biggest single thing that they'd done on the cultural level, and simply walk away. And I couldn't get my film in my hands."
The negatives for the excised portions of "The Magnificent Ambersons" were later destroyed in order to free vault space. A print of the rough cut sent to Welles in Brazil has yet to be found and is generally considered to be lost, along with the prints from the previews. A documentary team led by Joshua Grossberg and backed by Turner Classic Movies plans a search for the rough cut in September 2021. Filmmaker Brian Rose revealed on January 2021 he hopes to restore the original version of the film by use of animation. However, his plan does not yet have the backing of the rights holder.
The film features what could be considered an inside joke: news of the increase in automobile accidents is featured prominently on the front page of the "Indianapolis Daily Inquirer", part of the fictional chain of newspapers owned by mogul Charles Foster Kane in "Citizen Kane". Also appearing on the front page is the column "Stage News", by the fictional writer Jed Leland, with a photo of Joseph Cotten, who portrayed Leland in the earlier film.
Budget.
The budget for "The Magnificent Ambersons" was set at $853,950, roughly the final cost of "Citizen Kane". During shooting the film went over budget by 19 percent ($159,810), bringing the cost of the Welles cut to $1,013,760. RKO's subsequent changes cost $104,164. The total cost of the motion picture was $1,117,924.
Score.
Like the film itself, Bernard Herrmann's score for "The Magnificent Ambersons" was heavily edited by RKO. When more than half of his score was removed from the soundtrack, Herrmann bitterly severed his ties with the film and promised legal action if his name was not removed from the credits.
Spoken credits.
"The Magnificent Ambersons" is one of the earliest films in movie history in which nearly all the credits are spoken by an off-screen voice and not shown printed onscreen—a technique used before only by the French director and player Sacha Guitry. The only credits shown onscreen are the RKO logo, "A Mercury Production by Orson Welles", and the film's title, shown at the beginning of the picture. At the end of the film, Welles's voice announces all the main credits. Each actor in the film is shown as Welles announces his or her name. As he speaks each technical credit, a machine is shown performing that function. Welles reads his own credit — "My name is Orson Welles" — over top of an image of a microphone which then recedes into the distance.
"I got a lot of hell because of that," Welles later said of his verbal sign-off. "People think it's egotistic. The truth is, I was just speaking to a public who knew me from the radio in a way they were used to hearing on our shows. In those days we had an enormous public — in the millions — who heard us every week, so it didn't seem pompous to end a movie in our radio style."
Welles's 1970s revisit.
In conversations (1969–1975) with Peter Bogdanovich compiled in "This Is Orson Welles", Welles confirmed that he had planned to reshoot the ending of "The Magnificent Ambersons" with the principal cast members who were still living:
<poem>Yes, I had an outside chance to finish it again just a couple of years ago, but I couldn't swing it. The fellow who was going to buy the film for me disappeared from view. The idea was to take the actors who are still alive now—Cotten, Baxter, Moorehead, Holt—and do quite a new end to the movie, twenty years after. Maybe that way we could have got a new release and a large audience to see it for the first time.
You see, the basic intention was to portray a golden world—almost one of memory—and then show what it turns into. Having set up this dream town of the "good old days," the whole point was to show the automobile wrecking it—not only the family but the town. All this is out. What's left is only the first six reels. Then there's a kind of arbitrary bringing back down the curtain by a series of clumsy, quick devices. The bad, black world was supposed to be too much for people. My whole third act is lost because of all the hysterical tinkering that went on. And it "was" hysterical. Everybody they could find was cutting it.</poem>
Reception.
Box office.
By January 1943, the film managed to earn $1 million in box office rentals in Northern America. However, it was not enough to recoup the film's cost and it recorded a loss of $620,000.
Critical reception.
Contemporary reviews.
Thomas M. Pryor of "The New York Times" praised "The Magnificent Ambersons" as "an exceptionally well-made film, dealing with a subject scarcely worth the attention which has been lavished upon it." He further praised the performances from the cast highlighting Dolores Costello as being "too beautiful and capable an actress to remain inactive for such long periods. Agnes Moorehead, playing the role of a romantically frustrated aunt, is splendid. Other fine performances are contributed by Ray Collins, Anne Baxter and the veteran Richard Bennett as the grandfather." "Time" heralded the film as "a great motion picture, adult and demanding. Artistically, it is a textbook of advanced cinema technique. The novel use of sidelighting and exaggerated perspective that made "Kane" seem unlike any other movie floods "Ambersons" with the same revealing eloquence, examining faces, bathrooms, streets, the cluttered detail of the "Ambersons" magnificence, from a viewpoint so fresh that it creates a visual suspense in the very act of clarification." "Harrison's Reports" positively wrote the film "is an artistic achievement, excelling in every department—that of direction, acting, production, and photography."
Herm Schoenfeld of "Variety" unfavorably compared the film to "The Little Foxes" (1941), writing that it is "without the same dynamic power of story, acting, and social preachment. Also unlike 'Foxes,' this film hasn't a single moment of contrast; it piles on and on a tale of woe, but without once striking at least a true chord of sentimentality." Mae Tinée of the "Chicago Tribune" wrote "All the acting is commendable, but somehow for me, the characters seldom 'came alive.' ... And I guess I wasn't alone in that action, because people sitting near me exhibited a baffled restlessness." Manny Farber, reviewing for "The New Republic", criticized Welles's radio-style approach writing: "...at the times when something is on the screen and Welles tells you what for. Meanwhile, for something to do, you count the shadows. Theater-like is the inability to get the actors or story moving, which gives you a desire to push with your hands. There is really no living, moving or seeing to the movie; it is a series of static episodes connected by narration, as though someone sat you down and said "Here!" and gave you some postcards of the 1890s."
Retrospective reviews.
In "The Los Angeles Times", Kevin Thomas argued, "Although reams have been written about the mutilation of Orson Welles's second feature, what remains of it is nevertheless a major accomplishment". Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" called its mise-en-scène "extraordinary" and wrote that the film contains some of the finest acting in American cinema.
In 1991, "The Magnificent Ambersons" was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 1998 "Time Out" conducted a poll and the film was voted 62nd greatest film of all time. The film was included in "Sight and Sound"'s 1972 list of the top 10 greatest films ever made, and again in the 1982 list. In 2000, the film was ranked at No.25 in "The Village Voice"s 100 Greatest Films list, "The Magnificent Ambersons" placed 81st in the 2012 "Sight & Sound" critics' poll of the greatest films ever made; it also received four directors' votes, one of which was that of Terence Davies. In 2015, the film ranked 11th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.
Film memorabilia.
In an auction of April 26, 2014, a script of "The Magnificent Ambersons" was sold for $10,625 and a collection of approximately 275 stills and production photos sold for $2,750. The materials were among those found in boxes and trunks of Welles's personal possessions by his daughter Beatrice Welles.
Soundtrack releases.
A CD of the soundtrack to this film was released in 1990 in the US. The pieces were entirely re-recorded.
All pieces by Bernard Herrmann. Re-recorded by the Australian Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tony Bremner.
2002 remake.
In 2002, "The Magnificent Ambersons" was made as an A&E Network original film for television, using the Welles screenplay and his editing notes. Directed by Alfonso Arau, the film stars Madeleine Stowe, Bruce Greenwood, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Gretchen Mol, and Jennifer Tilly. This film does not strictly follow Welles's screenplay; it omits several scenes included in the 1942 version and has essentially the same happy ending.


Sondra Marshak

Sondra Marshak (née Hassan; born ) is an American science-fiction writer. She is most well known for her work with writing partner Myrna Culbreath, and for the fandom reference book "Star Trek Lives!" (1975), co-written with Jacqueline Lichtenberg, and television producer Joan Winston. She was an early promoter of "Star Trek" fan culture, and a publisher of fan fiction.
Upon being introduced to "Star Trek", she was struck by the "powerful relationship between Kirk and Spock and the focus on moral and philosophical issues." Marshak is an avowed objectivist (a devotee of Ayn Rand), and she believes "Star Trek" advances objectivist ideals.
Early life.
Marshak was born to Albert Hassan and Anna Tornheim in 1942. Little is known of her early life. In an interview for "Voyages of Imagination" (2006) by Jeff Ayers, Myrna Culbreath explained that Marshak had earned a master's degree in history, with "straight-A honors," prior to their meeting, and that Marshak had planned to enter a doctoral program. She married LSU professor Alan Marshak, and had one son.
Fannish activity.
Following her introduction to "Star Trek", Marshak was explored to the series' fandom via a growing network of fan-published magazines. She began writing fiction based on the series, and submitted it to fanzines, where she met Jacqueline Lichtenberg. Marshak's first fan-published work was "Spock's Decision," originally written by Lichtenberg in 1971. The new edition contained extensive rewrites by Marshak, and was anthologized in the fanzines "Berengaria" #2 () and "Kraith Collected" #4 (). Her other writings, also with Lichtenberg, were set in the "Kraith" alternate "Star Trek" universe.
During the mid-to-late 70's, Marshak along with her writing partner Myrna Culbreath was a regular guest of honor at science fiction conventions, often joined by her mother, whom she addressed as "Mama."
Career.
Marshak's first professional publication was the reference work "Star Trek Lives!" (1975), co-written with Lichtenberg and Joan Winston. The ninth chapter, "Do-It-Yourself Star Trek," discussed structure and themes in fan fiction and how they may reflect the cultural and sexual ideas of the fans who write them. The book, and in particular the book's final chapter, inspired Francesca Coppa to call Marshak and her fellow authors "the foremothers of 'fanfiction scholarship'" in "The Fanfiction Reader" (2017).
Marshak co-wrote six "Star Trek" tie-in books with her writing partner, Myrna Culbreath, in addition to the William Shatner biography "Shatner: Where No Man…" (). In "Voyages of Imagination", both Culbreath and Marshak described their writing partnership as "virtually a Vulcan mind-meld." She also contributed trivia to "The Star Trek Puzzle Manual" (1976) by Jeff Razzi.
In the author's notes for "The Fate of the Phoenix" (1979), several projects were listed as forthcoming. In addition to follow-ups to "The New Voyages" series, Marshak and Culbreath announced a fictional travel guide, "Mr. Spock's Guide to the Planet Vulcan", a new novel co-written by Nichelle Nichols, "Uhura!", and a non-"Star Trek" science fantasy novel co-written by William Shatner, "The Power". None of the books were realized, nor published if completed.
Marshak has not published any new fiction since 1983, nor has she given any interviews since 2006. She was interviewed by the "Orange County Business Journal" in 2000 where she promoted Culbreath's "PhonicsOpoly" (1999) reading game. Jacqueline Lichtenberg wrote a comment on a blog written by literary critic Steve Donoghue in 2012 concerning Marshak's lack of an online presence.


Camille Jullian

Camille Jullian (15 March 1859 – 12 December 1933) was a French historian, philologist, archaeologist and historian of literature.
A Professor of ancient history and classics at the University of Bordeaux from 1891, Jullian was awarded a chair at the Collège de France in 1905, where he taught national antiquities until 1930. He was made Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1926, and was elected to the Académie française in 1924.
Jullian is the author of a monumental "Histoire de la Gaule", published in eight volumes between 1907 and 1928, which has influenced Celtic studies throughout the 20th century.
Biography.
Jullian was born on 15 March 1859 in Marseille, the son of Camille Jullian, a merchant and banker, and Marie Rouvière. Jullian came from a Protestant family of farmers originally from Calvisson, Gard. He attended the lycée of Marseille between 1864 and 1877, then the École Normale Supérieure, where he earned an agrégation in history and geography in 1880. Jullian was a member of the École française de Rome between 1880 and 1882. He became Doctor in Literature in March 1884.
He taught ancient history and classics at the University of Bordeaux between 1883 and 1905, becoming Professor in 1891, then was elected to the Collège de France in 1905, where he taught national antiquities until 1930. Jullian became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in 1908, was made Grand Officier de la Légion d'Honneur in 1926, and was elected to the Académie Française in 1924.Jullian was involved with the controversy over the archaeological findings at Glozel in France; he was among those who believed the artefacts recovered were faked.
He died on 12 December 1933 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris.
Personal life.
Jullian was a Protestant. He held liberal and patriotic views.
In April 1890, Jullian married Jeanne Azam, the daughter of Étienne Azam, Professor of Medicine, and Anne Rolland. They had a daughter named Suzanne. The latter married a man named Simounet, a war veteran who ended his life in poverty; their son, the author Philippe Jullian, took instead his grandfather's name.


John Russell Taylor

John Russell Taylor (born 19 June 1935) is an English critic and author. He is the author of critical studies of British theatre; of critical biographies of such important figures in Anglo-American film as Alfred Hitchcock, Alec Guinness, Orson Welles, Vivien Leigh, and Ingrid Bergman; of "Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Emigres 1933–1950" (1983); and several books on art.
Personal.
Taylor was born in Dover, the son of Arthur Russell and Kathleen Mary (Picker) Taylor and now lives in London and West Wales. He attended Dover Grammar School, took a double first in English at Jesus College, Cambridge and studied Art Nouveau book illustration at the Courtauld Institute of Art. In 2006 he entered a Civil Partnership with his longtime companion, prize-winning artist and photographer Ying Yeung Li.
Career.
In the 1960s Taylor wrote on cinema for "Sight and Sound" and the "Monthly Film Bulletin", on the theatre in "Plays and Players", on television for "The Listener" and the "Times Educational Supplement", and on various subjects relating to the arts for "The Times Literary Supplement". From the late 1950s he began writing anonymously on television and theatre for "The Times", and by 1962 he had become the paper's film critic, initially anonymous but later named after the paper abandoned its anonymity rule in January 1967 when William Rees-Mogg became editor. During this era he wrote a number of books including "Anger and After: A Guide to the New British Drama" (1962), titled "The Angry Theatre" in the USA; revised and expanded and published in paperback (1969); "Anatomy of a Television Play" (1962), concerning the "Armchair Theatre" productions "Afternoon of a Nymph" and "The Rose Affair"; "Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear: Some Key Film-Makers of the Sixties" (1964); and "The Art Nouveau Book in Britain" (1966). Subsequently, he wrote "The Penguin Dictionary of the Theatre" (1966), "The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play" (1967), "The Art Dealers" (1969) and "The Hollywood Musical" (1971), as well as British Council monographs on Harold Pinter, Peter Shaffer and David Storey. He also edited the film criticism of Graham Greene in "The Pleasure Dome" (1972, called "Graham Greene on Film" in the USA).
In 1969, he was a member of the jury at the 19th Berlin International Film Festival, and since then has frequently been on juries at other festivals, including Delhi, Venice, Kraków, Cork, Istanbul, Troja, Parnu, Rio de Janeiro, Montreal and, several times, the Chicago International Film Festival.
In the early 1970s Taylor wrote the book "The Second Wave: British Drama of the Sixties", a follow-up to "Anger and After", and several television plays, including a version of "Dracula" with Denholm Elliott in the title role, which was praised by Kingsley Amis as the best version ever. In 1972, he moved to California, to teach film at the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles, serving as a Professor of Cinema from 1972 to 1978, while continuing to contribute to "The Times", as its American Cultural Correspondent, "Sight and Sound", "The New York Times", and the "Los Angeles Times". During this period, he wrote "Directors and Directions: Cinema for the Seventies" (1975).
Having developed a friendship with Alfred Hitchcock during the 1970s, he became Hitchcock's authorised biographer. In 1978, after publishing "Hitch", Taylor returned to the UK, becoming the art critic for "The Times", a post that he held until 2005. His other books since 1978 include "Strangers in Paradise: The Hollywood Emigres 1933–1950" (1983), and bio-critical studies of Ingrid Bergman (1983), Alec Guinness (1984), Vivien Leigh (1984), Orson Welles (1986), Elizabeth Taylor (1991), film historian John Kobal (2008) and the artists Edward Wolfe (1986), Peter Samuelson (1987), Robin Tanner (1989), Bernard Meninsky (1990), John Copley (1990), Muriel Pemberton (1993), Ricardo Cinalli (1993), Claude Monet (1995), Bill Jacklin (1997), Cyril Mann (1997), Peter Coker (2002), Zsuzsi Roboz (2005), Peter Prendergast (2006), Panayiotis Kalorkoti (2007), Carl Laubin (2007), Philip Sutton (2008), Kurt Jackson (2010), Philip Hicks (2013) and Paul Day (2016). More general books on art include "Impressionist Dreams" (1990) and "Exactitude: Hyperrealist Art Today" (2009).
Since 2005 he has contributed frequently to "The Times" on art and film subjects and to "Apollo" on art, and reviewed drama regularly for "Plays International". He was also editor of the magazine "Films and Filming" from 1983 until its closure in 1990. In 2013 an e-book edition of "Hitch" with a long introductory chapter giving the history of his relationship with Hitchcock was published, and five of his early books, "Anger and After", "The Rise and Fall of the Well-Made Play", "The Second Wave", "Cinema Eye, Cinema Ear" and "Directors and Directions", were reprinted as part of the Routledge classic critical text series.


Bob Thomas (reporter)

Robert Joseph Thomas (January 26, 1922 – March 14, 2014) was an American Hollywood film industry biographer and reporter who worked for the Associated Press from 1944.
As of 2014, he was twice listed in the "Guinness World Records", for the longest career as a reporter, and for the most consecutive Academy Awards shows covered by an entertainment reporter.
Personal life.
Born in San Diego in 1922, he grew up in Los Angeles, where his father was a film publicist. He attended UCLA. He lived in Encino with his wife, Patricia. They had three daughters. Thomas, aged 92, died on March 14, 2014 at his home.
Writing career.
Thomas made his mark by engaging celebrities in activities that brought out their personalities, whether by measuring their waistlines after childbirth (as he did with Betty Grable) or testing just how tall a leading lady needed to be by kissing her himself (as he did with June Haver). Acclaimed as the dean of Hollywood reporters, Bob Thomas had been writing about the movie business for the Associated Press since the days when Hollywood was run by the men who founded it: Jack L. Warner, Darryl F. Zanuck, Harry Cohn, and Louis B. Mayer.
During his long history of reporting for the AP, Thomas authored at least 30 books. Many in the film industry credit his 1969 biography of producer Irving G. Thalberg as sparking their interest in pursuing a career behind the scenes. The subjects of other Thomas biographies include Liberace, Joan Crawford, Marlon Brando, David O. Selznick, Walter Winchell, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Howard Hughes, Abbott and Costello, and Walt Disney.
His biographies on Howard Hughes and Abbott & Costello have been made into television movies.
Awards.
For contributions to the motion picture industry, Thomas received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (the first author-reporter to be given this honour), which was paid for by his friends in advance and placed at 6879 Hollywood Boulevard. In 2009, in recognition of over 60 years of covering the entertainment business for the Associated Press, the Publicists Guild awarded him its Lifetime Achievement Award.


Roger Pearson (literary scholar)

Roger Pearson is a professor of French at the University of Oxford and a fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. His research focuses on eighteenth and nineteenth century French literature and has worked particularly on Voltaire, Stendhal, Émile Zola, Guy de Maupassant and Stéphane Mallarmé. Pearson has also worked as a French to English translator.
Pearson did his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at Exeter College, Oxford. He then became a College Lecturer at The Queen's College in October 1973. In 1977 he became a full University Lecturer and was appointed professor in 1997. In 2005 he was appointed Officer in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques by the French government.
Pearson's book "Mallarmé and Circumstance: The Translation of Silence" was awarded the 2005 R. H. Gapper Book Prize by the UK Society for French Studies. This prize recognises the work as the best book published by a scholar working in Britain or Ireland in French studies in 2004.
Publications.
Authored Books
Translations


Leo Weisgerber

Johann Leo Weisgerber (25 February 1899, Metz – 8 August 1985, Bonn) was a Lorraine-born German linguist who also specialized in Celtic linguistics. He developed the "organicist" or "relativist" theory that different languages produce different experiences. He was the son of a village teacher who served as a young man in the German army in Flanders, so could not return to his home city. During World War II his pan-Celticist ideology was co-opted to support the German war effort, as did pro-Polish and pro-Czech ideology on the side of the allies.
Scholarly career.
After studying in Bonn (1918–), Weisgerber taught as a professor of general and comparative linguistics at Rostock University (1927–), Marburg University (1938–) and Bonn University (1942–). He was an editor of the journal "Wörter und Sachen", which he used as a vehicle for his ideas. After the Second World War he taught mainly in Bonn. He wrote prolifically throughout his career. Among other activities he founded the modern German language journal "Wirkendes Wort" and was a co-founder of the Institut für Deutsche Sprache (Mannheim).
Theory of language.
Reacting to older linguists' emphasis on form (especially phonology and morphology), Weisgerber initiated what he called "inhaltbezogene Grammatik" ('content-related grammar'). Starting from the study of translation problems and of colour amnesia, he contributed notably to the theory that language determines and structures our apprehension of reality. This was initially influenced by the structuralist theories of Ferdinand de Saussure, but Weisgerber's theory soon took him far beyond the simple Saussurean linkage of (linguistic) form and (semantic) content. His other debts were to Wilhelm von Humboldt (notably the insight that language diversity implies a diversity of world-views) and Jost Trier (concurrently with whom he developed the structuralist idea of a word-field or lexical field).
Weisgerber argued that each language community has its own perception of the world, different from that of other groups:
In this respect, languages imply a "world view" that can produce sustained cultural differences.
Centrally, Weisgerber contended that each language community was engaged in a process of 'wording the world' ("Worten der Welt") by means of its mother tongue. Mediating between the forms (i.e. words and grammatical structures) of a language and the external world, there was a 'linguistic inter-world' ("sprachliche Zwischenwelt"), which operates directly, indirectly and in part autonomously, in ways peculiar to that language. In acquiring a specific mother tongue, a speaker will also unconsciously acquire and be influenced by its distinctive categorizations and structures. These effects permeate the entire community and shape its perceived world.
From 1925 through into the 1970s, Weisgerber repeatedly cited colour terms in support of his views. Categorisation of colour impressions under a small number of generally applicable ("abstract") terms like "blau" and "rot" was, for him, the outcome of long evolutionary development, and only a minority of languages had achieved this. Specifically, he found it remarkable that the German language had mastered ("bewältigt") the entire world of colour with only eight abstract colour words.
Weisgerber claimed in 1929 to have discovered a significant restructuring in the field of visual impressions. Simplistically, he reported a decline since ancient Germanic times in the verbal expression of colour, with objects nowadays perceived as colour-bearers, not colour-transmitters ("Farbträger, nicht Farbsender"). Empirical evidence for this has since proved to be contradictory. Better supported, but still in need of verification, was his converse hypothesis of a corresponding historical shift in the expression and perception of "Glanz" (a term comprising 'shininess', 'radiance' etc.). These non-chromatic light phenomena had earlier been freely rendered adjectivally, but were now mainly expressed in modern German 'Glanzverben' like "glänzen" and "schimmern".
Weisgerber's conception of linguistic relativity was more extreme than that of Benjamin Lee Whorf or Edward Sapir, with whom the theory is most often associated. Resonance in the Anglo-Saxon world was limited partly by Weisgerber's arcane terminology, but more by his French-German ethnic background in an "Americanized scientific community", dominated by structuralist universalists like Noam Chomsky. In Germany he remained a significant figure in German linguistics well into the 1960s, when politically as well as linguistically his views fell into scientific discredit. His theory was then overtaken by new structuralist and universalist approaches from Britain and America, as well as elsewhere in Europe – "history" was out, "structure" was in. One of his pupils, Helmut Gipper, prominently developed his ideas in modified form, in a series of articles and as co-editor of the Duden "Grammatik" from the late 1950s onwards. Gipper was also influential as co-editor of an extensive bibliography on "Sprachinhaltsforschung", as linguistics broadly within the Weisgerber tradition has come to be known.
Weisgerber can be seen as an epigonic scholar of the German idealistic and romantic traditions alike, that insisted on the compatibility of reason and history and did not play off the first contra the latter. That he did not resist narrowing it down to irrational and silly Germanicism/Celtism does not distinguish him from the academic climate of his times.
Pan-Celticism.
Before World War II, Weisgerber established links with Celtic nationalists in Ireland, Britain and Brittany, which were seen as a threat to national unity by the respective majority governments (the British Crown and the Centralist French Republic). The Breton nationalists joined Germany at the beginning of the war, at least some of them. After the Fall of France, Weisgerber initiated the creation of the and directed the radio station "Radio Rennes Bretagne" (Radio Rennes of Brittany) which broadcast the first radio transmissions in the Breton language, something that most Bretons had been waiting for unsuccessfully for decades.
These ventures, which were supported by the Ahnenerbe, were perceived by the French Resistance as German-sponsored propaganda organizations, which they in fact were, promoting the relationship between language and "Volk" and supporting Breton autonomy from France. This "augmenting – assumed or real – ethnic fractions in enemy states" was a political tactic supported by the German Society for Celtic Studies, under the remit of the Ahnenerbe. This tactic was used by many war-faring states, Weisgerber thus being in a line with Lawrence of Arabia, the Germans supporting Irish independence or the British supporting Polish or Czech independence – it is not genuinely Nazi, nor does it hint at a character/scientific flaw in Weisgerber. The counter-tactic was employed by Americas ally Joseph Stalin, who deported hundreds of thousands of non-Russians, mostly by means of American military logistics. Roosevelt agreed after the war that all ethnic non-Russians that had fled or otherwise collaborated with the Germans be handed over to the Russians (especially Ukrainians and Polish), where most were either actively killed or starved to death in work-camps.
After the defeat of the Nazis, Weisgerber assisted the members of the Breton Bezen Perrot SS militia, led by Célestin Lainé, providing them with false papers to allow them to escape to Ireland with the help of other Celticists, a practice that can be seen both critically political and/or humane.


Turiyatitavadhuta Upanishad

The Turiyatitavadhuta Upanishad (, IAST: Turīyatītāvadhūta Upaniṣad) is a medieval era Sanskrit text and is one of the minor Upanishads of Hinduism. The text is attached to the Shukla Yajurveda, and is one of the 20 Sannyasa (renunciation) Upanishads.
The Upanishad is notable for its description of the nature and life of a self-realized monk called "Turiyatita-Avadhuta", literally a totally liberated man, also called a "Avadhuta" or Jivanmukta. Such a person, asserts the text, is rare. The self-realized individual does not perform any rituals or rites, nor chant mantras, discriminate against or for others, and is beyond the Turiya state of consciousness. In the Paramahamsa state, he is devoted to non-dualism, is always soul-driven, is Brahman and syllable Om. The exact distinction between Paramahamsa, Avadhuta and Turiyatita-Avadhuta states is obscure, states Patrick Olivelle, but these concepts represent an attempt in the Hindu traditions to comprehend, refine and describe the inner and outer state of self-realization and the highest monastic life.
This text is a part of the collection of ancient and medieval Sannyasa Upanishads, most of which are premised entirely on the Advaita Vedanta philosophy. However, unlike other Sannyasa Upanishads, the Turiyatita text uses some Vaishnavism terminology, but not to the same extent as the Sannyasa-related "Shatyayaniya Upanishad". This text also emphasizes nondualism.
History.
The date or author of "Turiyatitavadhuta Upanishad" is unclear, but given its literary style and the texts it references, it is likely a medieval era text. Olivelle and Sprockhoff date it around 14th- to 15th-century.
Manuscripts of this text are also found alternatively titled as "Turiyatita Upanishad", and "Turiyatitavadhutopanisad". The text is listed at number 64 in the Telugu language anthology of 108 Upanishads of the Muktika canon, narrated by Rama to Hanuman.
Contents.
The text is structured as a discourse from Narayana (Vishnu) to Brahma, about the monastic life and state of Avadhutas (highest liberated Hindu monks). Such liberated persons are rare, states the text. They, asserts the Upanishad, are an incarnation of knowledge, of detachment, of inner purity. He alone is the man of the Vedas, translates Olivelle.
The monastic life of the "Avadhuta" starts as "Kutichaka" monk, who then becomes "Bahudaka" monk, thereafter reaching the "Hamsa" state of monastic life. Beyond that, he becomes "Paramahamsa" monk, wherein he has deeply contemplated on his own nature and thus has discovered the entire universe, states the text. Thereafter, he becomes "Avadhuta" where he abandons everything, he gives up shaving, vertical line symbols on his forehead and outer symbolism of any sort.
He never blames anyone, states the Upanishad, neither praises nor criticizes anyone, he is free of deceit and arrogance, he has no hate or love for anyone, he neither gets angry nor excited by anything, he just eats if he finds something and goes hungry if he does not, asserts the Upanishad. There is no superior or inferior for such a liberated man, states the text, he sees everything as nondual, he understands and lives by the divine secret and ancient value that "there is no one else different from me". He fears no one, he fears no pain, he fears no pleasure, he has no longing for love, he is at rest in his innermost core, states the Upanishad.
The Avadhuta wanders, alone. He appears like a fool to others, asserts the text, but he doesn't care. He meditates on his own nature to find the ultimate truth Brahman, states the text; he is lost in the Brahman, his own self is all he is, he is one with Om. Such is the "Avadhuta", states the Upanishad, he has done all there is to do. Thus ends the Upanishad.


Richard Roeper

Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for "The Chicago Sun-Times". He co-hosted the television series "At the Movies" with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's successor. From 2010 to 2014, he co-hosted "The Roe and Roeper Show" with Roe Conn on WLS-AM.
On October 19, 2015, Roeper was selected as the new host of the FOX 32 morning show "Good Day Chicago." He served as host until October 2017.
Early life and education.
Roeper was born in Chicago, Illinois. He grew up in south suburban Dolton, Illinois and attended Thornridge High School, before graduating from Illinois State University in 1982 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.
Career.
Roeper began working as a columnist for "The Chicago Sun-Times" in 1987. The topics of his columns ranged from politics to media to entertainment.
He has also written seven books on topics ranging from movies to urban legends to conspiracy theories to the Chicago White Sox. In 2009, Roeper appeared on Howard Stern's show and said he had written a book on gambling, entitled "Bet the House", which was released in the first quarter of 2010.
Roeper was a radio host on WLS AM 890 in Chicago. He also hosted shows on WLUP-FM, WLS-FM, and WMVP-AM in Chicago. He won three Emmy awards for his news commentaries on Fox in the 1990s and was the film critic for CBS in Chicago for three years in the early 2000s. He won the National Headliner Award as the top newspaper columnist in the country in 1992 and has been voted the best columnist in Illinois by the Associated Press on numerous occasions.
His columns have been syndicated by "The New York Times" to publications throughout the world. Roeper has written for a number of magazines, including "Esquire", "Spy", "TV Guide", "Playboy", "Maxim", and "Entertainment Weekly". He was once named one of People magazine's most eligible bachelors.
Roeper was a frequent guest on "The Tonight Show", "Live with Regis and Kelly", "The O'Reilly Factor", and countless other national programs. He also hosted "Starz Inside", a monthly documentary series that aired on the Starz network. Roeper appeared on the first episode of the fifth season of Entourage, where he reviewed a fake movie titled "Medellin" with Michael Phillips on "At the Movies". In April 2008, Roeper was the central figure on an episode of "Top Chef", where contestants served up movie-themed dishes to Roeper and his friends (including Aisha Tyler).
In February 2009, Roeper launched his own website, which features movie reviews, blog entries, photos, and Twitter posts. In December 2009, he launched a video section, which featured on-camera reviews of movies. The video segments were originally produced in partnership with the Starz premium cable channel. Roeper announced that the reviews would appear first on his site, then on the Starz channel.
In December 2009, it was reported that Roeper had signed with ReelzChannel to be a regular contributor. Beginning in December 2010, Roeper began producing video reviews for ReelzChannel. He stopped reviewing movies for ReelzChannel in February 2015; his final review was for the Jude Law disaster film "Black Sea".
In October 2015, he joined the cast of the Fox Chicago morning TV show. He continues to review movies for the "Chicago Sun-Times", and he also publishes videos of his reviews to YouTube. Roeper signed off from Fox Chicago's morning TV on October 18, 2017.
Roeper was suspended from the "Sun-Times" on January 29, 2018, pending an investigation into allegations that he had purchased Twitter followers. On February 2, the "Sun-Times" released a statement stating that their investigation did find that Roeper purchased over 25,000 fake followers. He was later reinstated by the paper, though he was required to begin using a new account on which he was explicitly disallowed from buying followers.
Film critic.
After Gene Siskel of "Siskel & Ebert" died on Saturday, February 20, 1999, Roger Ebert co-hosted the show with nearly 30 guest critics. After ten appearances on the program, Roeper was offered the opportunity to permanently co-host the popular film review show with Ebert. The series was renamed "Ebert & Roeper and the Movies" in 2000. The title was shortened to "Ebert & Roeper" in 2002.
Beginning in August 2006, while his co-host Roger Ebert was recovering from cancer surgery, Roeper was joined by numerous guest critics, including "Clerks" director Kevin Smith, "The Tonight Show" host Jay Leno, and singer-songwriter John Mellencamp. On Sunday, July 20, 2008, Roeper announced that he was leaving the show in mid-August and would return with a new show later in the year. However, plans for a new program starring Roeper failed to materialize.
Between 2009 and late 2010, Roeper contributed video reviews to Starz. In December 2010, he moved to ReelzChannel, where he contributed a segment titled "Richard Roeper's Reviews" every weekday at 5:00 PM ET. Roeper remained with the network until early 2015. In January 2013, Roeper began contributing film reviews to RogerEbert.com. In August 2014, Roeper became first-string film critic for "The Chicago Sun-Times", where he made his debut reviewing "Guardians of the Galaxy".


New York City Conflicts of Interest Board

The Conflicts of Interest Board (NYC COIB) is the independent New York City agency tasked with administering, enforcing and interpreting Chapter 68 of the New York City Charter, the City's Conflicts of Interest Law, and the City's Annual Disclosure Law. The agency has made news for its active Twitter feed, encouraging those within its jurisdiction to contact the agency via memes.


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