The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan

The Two Worlds of Jennie Logan is a 1979 American made-for-television drama film which is an adaptation of David L. Williams' 1978 novel "Second Sight". The film stars Lindsay Wagner in the title role. It also stars Marc Singer, Linda Gray, Alan Feinstein and Henry Wilcoxon. Directed by Frank De Felitta, who also adapted Williams's novel into this screenplay.
A woman finds an antique dress in her attic, and after putting it on, finds herself flashing back 80 years in the past, where she falls in love with a grieving painter. Soon she finds herself bouncing back and forth between the two realities, and becomes obsessed with solving an 80-year-old murder.
Plot.
Michael Logan and his wife, Jennie, are trying to salvage their marriage after Jennie finds out about Michael's infidelity. They move into an old Victorian house in rural New England. In the attic, Jennie, who is a Victorian at heart, finds an authentic Victorian white dress under a protective cover, thick with dust. The dress is intact except for one small tear in the fabric at the shoulder.
After having the dress repaired, Jennie decides to wear it and admires herself in the mirror in the attic. She begins experiencing excruciating headaches, and the room swirls around her. When the headache ceases, she finds herself still up in the attic, in the dress, yet the attic is now an artist's studio, complete with Victorian artifacts. Upon hearing muffled sounds from below, she hears a woman scream, as a man's voice downstairs is yelling, "Pamela." Terrified, Jennie shuts her eyes and finds herself back in the spot she was, in the present.
At first she assumes she is either dreaming or hallucinating, yet Jennie experiences further similar episodes. She is initially terrified of finding herself in an unfamiliar situation and hysterical once she is pulled back into the present. After experiencing this a couple of times, she decides to explore the history of her new house in more detail. She goes to the local historical museum where an elderly curator named Mrs. Bates explains to her that the house belonged to artist David Reynolds in the year 1899. She explains how David reports that he saw the ghost of his dead wife several times and called out to her, but she disappeared each time. David died under mysterious circumstances on the night of the turn of the century. Legend has it that either he was murdered during a duel, or that it was the woman he loved who killed him. However, no-one knows for certain. Also on the wall of the museum is a portrait painting which the old woman mistakes for David's dead wife Pamela. Mrs. Bates remarks how much of a striking resemblance the portrait bears to Jennie.
Intrigued by this, Jennie keeps going back and forth between the two worlds by wearing the antique dress to meet David, who is grieving for his dead bride Pamela. When David first sees her again, he mistakes her for Pamela but quickly realises that it isn't her after Jennie introduces herself. Jennie realizes that what David mistook for his wife's ghostly appearances were really Jennie appearing in and out of time.
When Jennie confides in her husband Michael, he doesn't believe her when she reveals to him about her time travels, and thinks that she is going crazy. He urges her to go see a psychiatrist, Dr. Erica Lauren.
Mrs. Bates takes Jennie to see "Aunt Betty", an extremely old woman on her death bed who is senile but was alive at the time of David's murder. However, she is unable to shed any light on the situation.
Jennie and David fall in love in 1899, but David's sister-in-law, Elizabeth Harrington, is also in love with him. However, her father, disapproves of David and blames him for Pamela's accidental death.
During their time together, David reveals to Jennie that he is working on a portrait. It is the same one that Jennie saw in the museum in the present which she assumed to be David's late wife Pamela. The painting is in fact a portrait of Jennie, which explains why it resembles her so closely.
Pamela's father later challenges David to a duel on the night of the turn of the century, which is the night that David died.
In the present, Jennie tries to find out how she can prevent David's death and save his life. Michael still doesn't believe Jennie. He gives her a locket which she promises she will always wear. Mrs. Bates later calls Jennie and says that "Aunt Betty" is dying and wants to make a death bed confession. "Aunt Betty" reveals that she is really Elizabeth and that she is actually responsible for David's murder. During the duel, Elizabeth was hiding with a gun which she used to shoot David.
Jennie rushes to save David in the past but she is confronted by Michael, who suspects her of inventing the entire delusion to cover up for an ordinary affair with someone in their time. He tries to prevent her from going up to the attic, in the process ripping the shoulder of Jennie's dress, and bringing it back to the state in which it was originally found. He chases her up the stairs, but she manages to block his path by locking the door, which he tries to break down. In the meantime, Jennie has already escaped from the present world, and into the past world to stop the duel and try to save David's life. Jennie spots Elizabeth, but appears to be shot when she tries to prevent the murder.
In the present, Michael manages to break into the attic, but he is too late. He discovers the lifeless body of Jennie lying on the bed. He grieves her death and she is later buried.
Later, as Michael is preparing to move, the movers stumble onto a number of paintings in the attic. He goes through them, only to see that they are of his wife, wearing the locket he gave her and showing the life she led in the past with David. They include a portrait of Jennie on a ship, her holding a child in a room in Paris, and Jennie in old age. Michael remembers everything Jenny said, and begins to cry, finally realizing that his wife was right the entire time.
Differences from the novel.
In the novel, Jennie merely finds a drawing of the dress and has a replica made, whereas in the film she finds an actual dress.
There is also no duel in the book and no turn-of-the-century ball; an old news clipping reveals that David was killed outside a hotel in the town. The events leading up to his death are considerably more complicated in the novel, involving a younger sister of his deceased wife's whom David tries to help elope with her boyfriend.


Homosynaptic plasticity

Homosynaptic plasticity is one type of synaptic plasticity. Homosynaptic plasticity is input-specific, meaning changes in synapse strength occur only at post-synaptic targets specifically stimulated by a pre-synaptic target. Therefore, the spread of the signal from the pre-synaptic cell is localized. Another type of synaptic plasticity, heterosynaptic plasticity, is not input-specific and differs from homosynaptic plasticity in many mechanisms.
In addition to being input-specific, the strengthening of a synapse via homosynaptic plasticity is associative, because it is dependent on the firing of a presynaptic and postsynaptic neuron closely in time. This associativity increases the chances that the postsynaptic neuron will also fire. These mechanisms are theorized to underlie learning and short-term memory.
Overview.
Hebb's postulate.
Donald Hebb theorized that strengthening of synaptic connections occurred because of coordinated activity between the pre-synaptic terminal and post-synaptic dendrite. According to Hebb, these two cells are strengthened because their signaling occurs together in space and/or time, also known as coincident activity. This postulate is often summarized as "Cells that fire together, wire together", which means that the synapses that have neurons with coincident firing are strengthened, while the other synapses on these neurons remain unchanged. Hebb's postulate has provided a conceptual framework for how synaptic plasticity underlies long-term information storage.
Mechanisms for input-specificity.
Changes in plasticity often occurs via the insertion or internalization of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) into the postsynaptic membrane of the synapse undergoing a change in connective strength. Ca2+ is one signaling ion that causes this AMPA receptor density change by inducing a cascade of biological changes within the cell. To induce long-term potentiation (LTP), Ca2+ activates CAMKII and PKC, causing phosphorylation and insertion of AMPARs, while long-term depression (LTD) occurs by Ca2+ activating protein phosphatases, which dephosphorylate and cause internalization of AMPARs.
In order to create input-specific changes in synaptic strength, the Ca2+ signal must be restricted to specific dendritic spines. Dendritic restriction of Ca2+ is mediated by several mechanisms. Extracellular Ca2+ can enter the spine through NMDA receptors (NMDARs) and voltage gated Ca2+ channels (VGCCs). Both NMDARs and VGCCs are concentrated on dendritic spines, mediating spine specific Ca2+ influx. Intracellular stores of Ca2+ in the endoplasmic reticulum and mitochondria may also contribute to spine restricted signaling, although some studies have failed to find evidence for this. Clearance of Ca2+ is controlled by buffer proteins, which bind to Ca2+ and keep it from trickling out to other spines. Restricted diffusion of Ca2+ across the neck of the dendritic spine also helps isolate it to specific dendrites.
Another mechanism for input-specific long-term potentiation is temporal. NMDARs require both depolarization, to remove their magnesium block, and glutamate activation, to open their channels, to allow Ca2+ influx. LTP is thus localized at sites where NMDA channels are opened by active synaptic inputs that are releasing glutamate and causing depolarization of the postsynaptic cell, and will not affect nearby inactive synapses.
Maintaining Long-Term Changes.
In order to stabilize LTP and make it last longer periods of time, new proteins supporting this change are synthesized in response to stimulation at a potentiating synapse. The challenge that arises is how to get specific, newly synthesized proteins to the correct input-specific synapses they are need at. Two solutions to this problem include "synaptic tagging" and "local protein synthesis".
Synaptic Tagging.
"Synaptic tags" mark where synaptic plasticity has occurred and can thus provide information on synaptic strength and potential for long-term plastic changes. The tag is temporary and involves a large number of proteins, activated by the influx of Ca2+ into the postsynaptic cell. In addition, depending on the type and magnitude of synaptic change, different proteins are used for tagging. For example, when plastic changes lead to long-term depression, calcineurin is used. Conversely, when plasticity leads to long-term potentiation, CaMKII is used. In order for synaptic plasticity to be input-specific, these synaptic tags are essential on post-synaptic targets, to ensure synaptic potentiation is localized. These tags will later initiate protein synthesis that will in turn cause synaptic plasticity changes at these activated neurons.
Local Protein Synthesis.
Protein synthesis at dendrites is necessary for homosynaptic plasticity. The depolarization and resulting activation of AMPA and NMDA receptors in the postsynaptic cell causes endocytosis of these receptors. Local protein synthesis is required to maintain the number of surface receptors at the synapse. These new proteins help stabilize the structural changes induced by homosynaptic plasticity. There is evidence of ribosomes in dendrites, which can manufacture these proteins. Furthermore, there is also evidence of granules of RNA in dendrites, which indicates the presence of newly made proteins. LTP can be induced from dendrites severed from the soma of the post-synaptic target neuron. Contrarily, LTP can be blocked in these dendrites by protein synthesis blockers, such as Endomyacin, which further indicates a site for local protein synthesis. This evidence shows local protein synthesis is necessary for L-LTP to be stabilized and maintained.


Sudoku Challenge!

Sudoku Challenge! is a WiiWare sudoku game developed by Digital Leisure. The game was released in North America on November 24, 2008 and in the PAL region on December 19, 2008 and costs 500 Wii Points. The DSiWare version has been released in North America on November 30, 2009 and in the PAL region on May 14, 2010.
The game includes three difficulty levels, Original and Grand Sudoku game modes (where the player has to complete five intersecting Sudoku boards at the same time), and over 100,000,000 sudoku puzzles.
Reception.
WiiWare World gave the game 6 out of 10, believing "Sudoku Challenge" to be an acceptable puzzler but with still room for improvement. Commenting that the presentation was functional and that most players will be satisfied with what was on offer, with the sudoku puzzles varying in difficulty to challenge players of all skill levels, they were also impressed with the number of puzzles included and claimed that, at 10 minutes a puzzle, it would take a player at least 1900 years to complete all the puzzles included on the game.


Robin Stacey

Robin Chapman Stacey in an American medievalist and celticist based at the University of Washington, Seattle. After finishing her undergraduate life, she attended the University of Oxford where she complete her M. Litt. under Thomas Charles-Edwards, learning Welsh with the tutorship of David Ellis Evans. In 1986 she completed a Ph.D. with a thesis on Irish and Welsh law at Yale University, under John Boswell. Since 1988 she has been teaching at the University of Washington, where she is now a Professor in history.
In addition to many individual scholarly articles, she is the author of the following monographs:
"Dark Speech" was a winner of the American Conference for Irish Studies' James S. Donnelly, Sr. Prize for Books on History and Social Sciences in 2007.
Stacey is a recipient of the University of Washington's Distinguished Teaching Awards. Her husband, Robert Stacey, is a divisional dean, and Stroum Endowed Chair, in the Dean's Office of the University of Washington's College of Arts & Sciences.


Isha Upanishad

The Isha Upanishad (Devanagari: ईशोपनिषद् IAST "") is one of the shortest Upanishads, embedded as the final chapter ("adhyāya") of the Shukla Yajurveda. It is a "Mukhya" (primary, principal) Upanishad, and is known in two recensions, called Kanva (VSK) and Madhyandina (VSM). The Upanishad is a brief poem, consisting of 17 or 18 verses, depending on the recension.
It is a key scripture of the Vedanta sub-schools, and an influential Śruti to diverse schools of Hinduism. It is the 40th chapter of Yajurveda. The name of the text derives from its incipit, "", "enveloped by the Lord", or "hidden in the Lord (Self)". The text discusses the Atman (Soul, Self) theory of Hinduism, and is referenced by both Dvaita (dualism) and Advaita (non-dualism) sub-schools of Vedanta.
It is classified as a "poetic Upanishad" along with Kena, Katha, Svetasvatara and Mundaka by Paul Deussen (1908).
Etymology.
The root of the word Ishvara comes from "īś-" (ईश, Ish) which means "capable of" and "owner, ruler, chief of", ultimately cognate with English "own" (Germanic "*aigana-", PIE "*aik-"). The word "Isha" (ईश) literally means "ruler, master, lord". The term "vāsyam" (वास्य) literally means "hidden in, covered with, enveloped by".
Ralph Griffith and Max Muller, each interpret the term "Isha" in the Upanishad interchangeably as "Lord" and "Self" (one's soul). Puqun Li translates the title of the Upanishad as "the ruler of the Self".
The Upanishad is also known as "Ishavasya" Upanishad and "Vajasaneyi Samhita" Upanishad.
Chronology.
The chronology of Isha Upanishad, along with other Vedic era literature, is unclear and contested by scholars. All opinions rest on scanty evidence, assumptions about likely evolution of ideas, and on presumptions about which philosophy might have influenced which other Indian philosophies.
Buddhism scholars such as Richard King date Isha Upanishad's composition roughly to the second half of the first millennium BC, chronologically placing it after the first Buddhist Pali canons.
Hinduism scholars such as Stephen Phillips note the disagreement between modern scholars. Phillips suggests that Isha Upanishad was likely one of the earliest Upanishads, composed in the 1st half of 1st millennium BCE, after Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, but before Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Kena, Katha, Manduka, Prasna, Svetasvatara and Maitri Upanishads, as well as before the earliest Buddhist Pali and Jaina canons.
Earlier 19th- and 20th-century scholars have similarly expressed a spectrum of views. Isha Upanishad has been chronologically listed by them as being among early Upanishads to being one among the middle Upanishads. Deussen suggested, for example, that Isha was composed after ancient prose Upanishads – Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki and Kena; during a period when metrical poem-like Upanishads were being composed. Further, he suggests that "Isha" was composed before other prose Upanishads such as Prasna, Maitri, Mandukya and all post-Vedic era Upanishads.
Winternitz, suggests that Isha Upanishad was probably a pre-Buddha composition along with Katha, Svetasvatara, Mundaka and Prasna Upanishad, but after the first phase of ancient Upanishads that were composed in prose such as Brihadaranyaka, Chandogya, Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki and Kena. Winternitz states that Isha was likely composed before post-Buddhist Upanishads such as Maitri and Mandukya.
Ranade posits that Isha was composed in the second group of Upanishads along with Kena Upanishad, right after the first group of Brihadaranyaka and Chandogya, but chronologically before Taittiriya, Aitareya, Kaushitaki, Katha, Mundaka, Svetasvatara, Prasna, Mandukya and Maitrayani.
Structure.
Isha Upanishad is the only Upanishad that is attached to a Samhita, the most ancient layer of Vedic text known for their mantras and benedictions. Other Upanishads are attached to a later layer of Vedic texts such as Brahmanas and Aranyakas. Max Muller notes that this does not necessarily mean that Isha Upanishad is among the oldest, because Shukla Yajur Veda is acknowledged to be of a later origin than textual layers of other Vedas such as the Rig Veda.
The 8th-century Indian scholar Adi Shankara, in his "Bhasya" (review and commentary) noted that the mantras and hymns of Isha Upanishad are not used in rituals, because their purpose is to enlighten the reader as to "what is the nature of soul (Atman)?"; the Upanishad, thus, despite Yajurveda Samhita's liturgical focus, has not historically served as a liturgical text. Isha Upanishad is a philosophical text.
Difference between recensions.
The Isha Upanishad manuscript differs in the two shakhas of the Shukla Yajurveda. These are called the Kanva (VSK) and Madhyandina (VSM) recensions. The order of verses 1–8 is the same in both, however, Kanva verses 9–14 correspond to Madhyandina verses 12, 13, 14, 9, 10, 11. Madhyandina verse 17 is a variation of Kanva 15, Kanva verse 16 is missing in Madhyandina, and Kanva verses 17–18 correspond to Madhyandina 15–16.
In both recensions, the Isha Upanishad is the 40th chapter of Shukla Yajur Veda. Versions with 18 verses refer to Kanva, while those with 17 verses are referring to the Madhyandina.
Content.
Monism versus theism.
The Isha Upanishad is significant for its singular mention of the term "Isha" in the first hymn, a term it never repeats in other hymns. The concept "Isha" exhibits monism in one interpretation, or a form of monotheism in an alternative interpretation, referred to as "Self" or "Deity Lord" respectively.
Ralph Griffith interprets the word "Isha" contextually, translates it as "the Lord", and clarifies that this "the Lord" means "the Soul of All, and thy inmost Self – the only Absolute Reality". The term "This All" is the empirical reality, while the term "renounced" is referring the Indian concept of sannyasa, and "enjoy thyself" is referring to the "blissful delight of Self-realization".
The Advaita Vedanta scholar Shankara interprets the above hymn 1 as equating "the Lord" as the "Atman" (Soul, Self). In contrast, Madhvacharya, the Dvaita Vedanta scholar interprets the hymn as equating "the Lord" as Vishnu, or a monotheistic God in a henotheistic sense. Other interpretations have also been suggested. For example, the more recent scholar Mahīdhara suggested that hymn 1 may be referring to Buddha, an interpretation that Max Muller stated was inadmissible because of the fundamental difference between Hinduism and Buddhism, with Hinduism relying on the premise "Soul, Self exists" and Buddhism relying on the premise "Soul, Self does not exist".
Pursuit of Karma versus pursuit of Self.
The Isha Upanishad, in hymns 2–6, acknowledges the contrasting tension within Hinduism, between the empirical life of householder and action (karma) and the spiritual life of renunciation and knowledge (jnana).
Adi Shankara suggests that "he" in hymn 6 (last sentence in above quote) is the "seeker of emancipation, on a journey to realize Self and Oneness in innermost self and everyone, and includes those in sannyasa"; while Madhvacharya suggests "he" is "the individual soul in loving devotion of God, seeking to get infinitely close to the God soul".
Max Muller, in his review of commentaries by many ancient and medieval Indian scholars, states that these verses of Isha Upanishad are proclaiming the "uselessness of all rituals, whether related to sacrifices or precepts of dharma", but simultaneously acknowledging the "harmlessness and necessity of social activity, that may be seen as potentially intermediate preparation to the path of Knowledge". The Isha Upanishad, is reminding the reader that neither routine life and rituals are right nor are they wrong, states Max Muller. They may be necessary to many, nevertheless, to prepare a person for emancipation, to show the path where cravings feel meaningless, and to produce a serene mind that longs for meaning and one that can discern highest knowledge. Ralph Griffith suggests the verses 2–6 of Isha Upanishad are condemning those who perform "Karma" in order to "get future advantages in life or to gain a place in heaven", because that is ignorance. The avoidance of "soul knowledge and its eternal, all-pervasive nature" is akin to "killing one's soul" and living a dead life states Isha Upanishad, states Griffith. The pursuit of Self is the seeking of the eternal, the whole, the all-transcending, the self-depending, the Oneness and law of all nature and existence.
Vidya versus Avidya.
The Isha Upanishad suggests that one root of sorrow and suffering is considering one's Self as distinct and conflicted with the Self of others, assuming that the nature of existence is a conflicted duality where one's happiness and suffering is viewed as different from another living being's happiness and suffering. Such sorrow and suffering cannot exist, suggests the Upanishad, if an individual realizes that the Self is in all things, understands the Oneness in all of existence, focuses beyond individual egos and in the pursuit of Universal values, the Self and Real Knowledge.
The Isha Upanishad, in hymn 8 through 11, praises the study of "Vidya" (Real Knowledge, eternal truths) and "Avidya" (not Real Knowledge, empirical truths). It asserts that to he who knows both "Vidya" and "Avidya", the "Avidya" empowers him to overcome death (makes one alive), while "Vidya" empowers him with immortality. The Real Knowledge delivers one to freedom, liberation from all sorrows and fears, to a blissful state of life. Mukherjee states that Isha Upanishad in verse 11 is recommending that one must pursue material knowledge and spiritual wisdom simultaneously, and that a fulfilling life results from the harmonious, balanced alignment of the individual and the social interests, the personal and the organizational goals, the material and the spiritual pursuits of life.
The hymns 12 through 14 of Isha Upanishad, caution against the pursuit of only manifested cause or only spiritual cause of anything, stating that one sided pursuits lead to darkness. To be enlightened, seek both (उभय सह, "ubhayam saha"), suggests the Upanishad. It asserts that he who knows both the Real and the Perishable, both the manifested not-True cause and the hidden True cause, is the one who is liberated unto immortality.
Virtue versus vice.
In final hymns 15 through 18, the Upanishad asserts a longing for Knowledge, asserting that it is hidden behind the golden disc of light, but a light that one seeks. It reminds one's own mind to remember one's deeds, and accept its consequences. The Madhyandina recension and Kanva recension vary in relative sequencing of the hymns, but both assert the introspective precept, "O "Agni" (fire) and mind, lead me towards a life of virtues, guide me away from a life of vices", and thus unto the good path and the enjoyment of wealth (of both karma's honey and Self-realization). The final hymns of Isha Upanishad also declare the foundational premise, "I am He", equating one soul's oneness with cosmic soul.
Reception.
Mahatma Gandhi thought so highly of it that he remarked, "If all the Upanishads and all the other scriptures happened all of a sudden to be reduced to ashes, and if only the first verse in the Ishopanishad were left in the memory of the Hindus, Hinduism would live for ever."
Paul Deussen states that the first verses are notable for including ethics of one who knows the Ātman.
Swami Chinmayananda in his commentary states "The very first stanza of this matchless Upanishad is in itself a miniature philosophical textbook. Besides being comprehensive in its enunciation of Truth, it provides a vivid exposition of the technique of realising the Truth in a language unparalleled in philosophical beauty and literary perfection. Its mantras are the briefest exposition on philosophy and each one is an exercise in contemplation." Swami Chinmayananda notes in his commentary that the 18 verses (VSK recension) proceed over 7 "waves of thought" with the first 3 representing 3 distinct paths of life, 4–8 pointing out the Vision of Truth, 9–14 revealing the path of worship leading to purification, 15–17 revealing the call of the Rishis for man to awaken to his own Immortal state, and verse 18 the prayer to the Lord to bless all seekers with strength to live up to the teachings of the Upanishad.


Red Sorghum (novel)

Red Sorghum: A Novel of China or Red Sorghum Clan () is a Chinese language novel by Mo Yan. Published in 1986, it was Mo's first novel and remains one of his best-known works.
The novel consists of the volumes "Red Sorghum", "Sorghum Wine", "Dog Ways", "Sorghum Funeral", and "Strange Death", which were first serialized in various magazines in 1986. "Dog Ways" was published in the April 1986 issue of "Shiyue" ("October" magazine); "Sorghum Wine" in the July 1986 issue of "PLA Arts", "Sorghum Funeral" in the August 1986 issue of "Beijing Wenxue" and "Strange Death" in the November–December issue of "Kunlun" magazine. It was the magazine serializations before the publication of the full novel in 1987 which were seen by director Zhang Yimou, who immediately proposed to Mo Yan to make the novel into a film. The next year the novel was published, and almost simultaneously the 1987 Chinese-language film "Red Sorghum" was released. In 1988 it was presented during the competition and won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It was initially given an ad hoc English title "The Red Sorghum Clan" in some sources (Wang 1996) but was translated from the Chinese by Howard Goldblatt in 1993 with the subtitle "Red Sorghum - A Novel of China".
Red Sorghum's plot revolves around three generations of the Shandong family between 1923 and 1976. The narrator tells the story of his family's struggles, first as distillery owners making sorghum wine and then as resistance fighters during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The novel also details civil disputes between warring Chinese groups, including rival gangs and political powers. The book also refers to the Cultural Revolution and the 1972 resumption of diplomatic relations between China and Japan.
Mo Yan employs a terse style in the novel that is characterized by brevity and non-chronological storytelling written in the first-person. The work contains elements of folk-tale that blend into myth and superstition, placing it in the magic-realist genre.
As the principal crop of Shandong province's Northeast Gaomi Township (the author's hometown), red sorghum "(sorghum bicolor)" frames the narrative as a symbol of indifference and vitality. Amidst decades of bloodshed and death, it grows steadfast to provide food, shelter, wine and life.


Dziga Vertov

Dziga Vertov (, born David Abelevich Kaufman, , and also known as Denis Kaufman; – 12 February 1954) was a Soviet pioneer documentary film and newsreel director, as well as a cinema theorist. His filming practices and theories influenced the cinéma vérité style of documentary movie-making and the Dziga Vertov Group, a radical film-making cooperative which was active from 1968 to 1972. He was a member of the Kinoks collective, with Elizaveta Svilova and Mikhail Kaufman.
In the 2012 "Sight & Sound" poll, critics voted Vertov's "Man with a Movie Camera" (1929) the 8th best film ever made.
Vertov's younger brothers Boris Kaufman and Mikhail Kaufman were also noted filmmakers, as was his wife, Yelizaveta Svilova.
Biography.
Early years.
Vertov was born David Abelevich Kaufman into a family of Jewish lineage in Białystok, Poland, then a part of the Russian Empire. He Russified his Jewish name David and patronymic Abelevich to Denis Arkadievich at some point after 1918. Vertov studied music at Białystok Conservatory until his family fled from the invading German Army to Moscow in 1915. The Kaufmans soon settled in Petrograd, where Vertov began writing poetry, science fiction, and satire. In 1916–1917 Vertov was studying medicine at the Psychoneurological Institute in Saint Petersburg and experimenting with "sound collages" in his free time. He eventually adopted the name "Dziga Vertov", which translates loosely from Ukrainian as 'spinning top'.
Early writings.
Vertov is known for many early writings, mainly while still in school, that focus on the individual versus the perceptive nature of the camera lens, which he was known to call his "second eye".
Most of Vertov's early work was unpublished, and few manuscripts survived after the Second World War, though some material surfaced in later films and documentaries created by Vertov and his brothers, Boris Kaufman and Mikhail Kaufman.
Vertov is known for quotes on perception, and its ineffability, in relation to the nature of qualia (sensory experiences).
After the October Revolution.
After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, at the age of 22, Vertov began editing for "Kino-Nedelya" (, the Moscow Cinema Committee's weekly film series, and the first newsreel series in Russia), which first came out in June 1918. While working for "Kino-Nedelya" he met his future wife, the film director and editor, Elizaveta Svilova, who at the time was working as an editor at Goskino. She began collaborating with Vertov, beginning as his editor but becoming assistant and co-director in subsequent films, such as "Man with a Movie Camera" (1929), and "Three Songs About Lenin" (1934).
Vertov worked on the "Kino-Nedelya" series for three years, helping establish and run a film-car on Mikhail Kalinin's agit-train during the ongoing Russian Civil War between Communists and counterrevolutionaries. Some of the cars on the agit-trains were equipped with actors for live performances or printing presses; Vertov's had equipment to shoot, develop, edit, and project film. The trains went to battlefronts on agitation-propaganda missions intended primarily to bolster the morale of the troops; they were also intended to stir up revolutionary fervor of the masses.
In 1919, Vertov compiled newsreel footage for his documentary "Anniversary of the Revolution;" he also supervising the filming of his project "The Battle for Tsaritsyn" (1919). in 1921 he compiled "History of the Civil War." The so-called "Council of Three," a group issuing manifestoes in LEF, a radical Russian newsmagazine, was established in 1922; the group's "three" were Vertov, his (future) wife and editor Elizaveta Svilova, and his brother and cinematographer Mikhail Kaufman. Vertov's interest in machinery led to a curiosity about the mechanical basis of cinema.
His statement "We: Variant of a Manifesto" was published in the first issue of Kino-Fot, published by Aleksei Gan in 1922. It commenced with a distinction between "kinoks" and other approaches to the emergent cinematic industry:
"Kino-Pravda".
In 1922, the year that "Nanook of the North" was released, Vertov started the "Kino-Pravda" series. The series took its title from the official government newspaper "Pravda". "Kino-Pravda" (literally translated, "film truth") continued Vertov's agit-prop bent. "The Kino-Pravda group began its work in a basement in the centre of Moscow", Vertov explained. He called it damp and dark. There was an earthen floor and holes one stumbled into at every turn. Vertov said, "This dampness prevented our reels of lovingly edited film from sticking together properly, rusted our scissors and our splicers.
Vertov's driving vision, expounded in his frequent essays, was to capture "film truth"—that is, fragments of actuality which, when organized together, have a deeper truth that cannot be seen with the naked eye. In the "Kino-Pravda" series, Vertov focused on everyday experiences, eschewing bourgeois concerns and filming marketplaces, bars, and schools instead, sometimes with a hidden camera, without asking permission first. Usually, the episodes of "Kino-Pravda" did not include reenactments or stagings. (One exception is the segment about the trial of the Social Revolutionaries: the scenes of the selling of the newspapers on the streets and the people reading the papers in the trolley were both staged for the camera.) The cinematography is simple, functional, unelaborate—perhaps a result of Vertov's disinterest in both "beauty" and the "grandeur of fiction". Twenty-three issues of the series were produced over a period of three years; each issue lasted about twenty minutes and usually covered three topics. The stories were typically descriptive, not narrative, and included vignettes and exposés, showing for instance the renovation of a trolley system, the organization of farmers into communes, and the trial of Social Revolutionaries; one story shows starvation in the nascent Communist state. Propagandistic tendencies are also present, but with more subtlety, in the episode featuring the construction of an airport: one shot shows the Tsar's tanks helping prepare a foundation, with an intertitle reading "Tanks on the labor front".
Vertov clearly intended an active relationship with his audience in the series—in the final segment he includes contact information—but by the 14th episode the series had become so experimental that some critics dismissed Vertov's efforts as "insane". Vertov responded to their criticisms with the assertion that the critics were hacks nipping "revolutionary effort" in the bud, and concluded an essay with a promise to "explode art's tower of Babel". In Vertov's view, "art's tower of Babel" was the subservience of cinematic technique to narrative—what film theorist Noël Burch terms the institutional mode of representation—which would come to dominate the classical Hollywood cinema.
By this point in his career, Vertov was clearly and emphatically dissatisfied with narrative tradition, and expresses his hostility towards dramatic fiction of any kind both openly and repeatedly; he regarded drama as another "opiate of the masses". Vertov freely admitted one criticism leveled at his efforts on the "Kino-Pravda" series—that the series, while influential, had a limited release.
By the end of the "Kino-Pravda" series, Vertov made liberal use of stop motion, freeze frames, and other cinematic "artificialities", giving rise to criticisms not just of his trenchant dogmatism, but also of his cinematic technique. Vertov explains himself in "On 'Kinopravda' ": in editing "chance film clippings" together for the Kino-Nedelia series, he "began to doubt the necessity of a literary connection between individual visual elements spliced together... This work served as the point of departure for 'Kinopravda' ". Towards the end of the same essay, Vertov mentions an upcoming project which seems likely to be "Man with the Movie Camera" (1929), calling it an "experimental film" made without a scenario; just three paragraphs above, Vertov mentions a scene from "Kino Pravda" which should be quite familiar to viewers of "Man with the Movie Camera": the peasant works, and so does the urban woman, and so too, the woman film editor selecting the negative... "
"Man with a Movie Camera".
With Lenin's admission of limited private enterprise through the New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1921, Russia began receiving fiction films from afar, an occurrence that Vertov regarded with undeniable suspicion, calling drama a "corrupting influence" on the proletarian sensibility ("On 'Kinopravda' ", 1924). By this time Vertov had been using his newsreel series as a pedestal to vilify dramatic fiction for several years; he continued his criticisms even after the warm reception of Sergei Eisenstein's "Battleship Potemkin" (1925). "Potemkin" was a heavily fictionalized film telling the story of a mutiny on a battleship which came about as a result of the sailors' mistreatment; the film was an obvious but skillful propaganda piece glorifying the proletariat. Vertov lost his job at Sovkino in January 1927, possibly as a result of criticizing a film which effectively preaches the line of the Communist Party. He was fired for making "A Sixth Part of the World: Advertising and the Soviet Universe" for the State Trade Organization into a propaganda film, selling the Soviet as an advanced society under the NEP, instead of showing how they fit into the world economy.
The Ukraine State Studio hired Vertov to create "Man with a Movie Camera". Vertov says in his essay "The Man with a Movie Camera" that he was fighting "for a decisive cleaning up of film-language, for its complete separation from the language of theater and literature". By the later segments of "Kino-Pravda", Vertov was experimenting heavily, looking to abandon what he considered film clichés (and receiving criticism for it); his experimentation was even more pronounced and dramatic by the time of "Man with a Movie Camera", which was filmed in Ukraine. Some have criticized the obvious stagings in this film as being at odds with Vertov's credos of "life as it is" and "life caught unawares": the scene of the woman getting out of bed and getting dressed is obviously staged, as is the reversed shot of the chess pieces being pushed off a chess board and the tracking shot that films Mikhail Kaufman riding in a car filming a third car.
However, Vertov's two credos, often used interchangeably, are in fact distinct, as Yuri Tsivian comments in the commentary track on the DVD for "Man with the Movie Camera:" for Vertov, "life as it is" means to record life as it would be without the camera present. "Life caught unawares" means to record life when surprised, and perhaps provoked, by the presence of a camera. This explanation contradicts the common assumption that for Vertov "life caught unawares" meant "life caught unaware of the camera". All of these shots might conform to Vertov's credo "caught unawares". His slow motion, fast motion, and other camera techniques were a way to dissect the image, Mikhail Kaufman stated in an interview. It was to be the honest truth of perception. For example, in "Man with a Movie Camera", two trains are shown almost melting into each other. Although we are taught to see trains as not riding that close, Vertov tried to portray the actual sight of two passing trains. Mikhail spoke about Eisenstein's films as being different from his and his brother's in that Eisenstein "came from the theatre, in the theatre one directs dramas, one strings beads". "We all felt...that through documentary film we could develop a new kind of art. Not only documentary art, or the art of chronicle, but rather an art based on images, the creation of an image-oriented journalism", Mikhail explained. More than even film truth, "Man with a Movie Camera" was supposed to be a way to make those in the Soviet Union more efficient in their actions. He slowed down his movements, such as the decision whether to jump or not. You can see the decision in his face, a psychological dissection for the audience. He wanted a peace between the actions of man and the actions of a machine, for them to be, in a sense, one.
"Cine-Eye".
"Cine-Eye" is a montage method developed by Dziga Vertov and first formulated in his work "WE: Variant of a Manifesto" in 1919.
Dziga Vertov believed his concept of "Kino-Glaz", or "Cine Eye" in English, would help contemporary "man" evolve from a flawed creature into a higher, more precise form. He compared man unfavorably to machines: "In the face of the machine we are ashamed of man’s inability to control himself, but what are we to do if we find the unerring ways of electricity more exciting than the disorderly haste of active people [...]" As he put it in a 1923 credo, "I am the Cine-Eye. I am the mechanical eye. I the machine show you the world as only I can see it. I emancipate myself henceforth and forever from human immobility. "I am in constant motion..." My path leads towards the creation of a fresh perception of the world. I can thus decipher a world that you do not know."
Like other Russian filmmakers, he attempted to connect his ideas and techniques to the advancement of the aims of the Soviet Union. Whereas Sergei Eisenstein viewed his montage of attractions as a creative tool through which the film-viewing masses could be subjected to "emotional and psychological influence" and therefore able to perceive "the ideological aspect" of the films they were watching, Vertov believed the Cine-Eye would influence the actual evolution of man, "from a bumbling citizen through the poetry of the machine to the perfect electric man".
Vertov surrounded himself with others who were also firm believers in his ideas. These were the Kinoks, other Russian filmmakers who would assist him in his hopes of making "cine-eye" a success.
Vertov believed film was too "romantic" and "theatricalised" due to the influence of literature, theater, and music, and that these psychological film-dramas "prevent man from being as precise as a stopwatch and hamper his desire for kinship with the machine". He desired to move away from "the pre-Revolutionary 'fictional' models" of filmmaking to one based on the rhythm of machines, seeking to "bring creative joy to all mechanical labour" and to "bring men closer to machines".
In May 1927 Vertov moved to Ukraine, and the Cine-Eye movement broke up.
Late career.
Vertov's successful career continued into the 1930s. "Enthusiasm: Symphony of the Donbass" (1931), an examination into Soviet miners, has been called a 'sound film', with sound recorded on location, and these mechanical sounds woven together, producing a symphony-like effect.
Three years later, "Three Songs about Lenin" (1934) looked at the revolution through the eyes of the Russian peasantry. For his film, however, Vertov had been hired by Mezhrabpomfilm, a Soviet studio that produced mainly propaganda efforts. The film, finished in January 1934 for Lenin's obit, was only publicly released in the Soviet Union in November of that year. From July 1934 it was shown at private screenings to various high-ranking Soviet officials and also to prominent foreigners including H. G. Wells, William Bullitt, and others, and it was screened at the Venice Film Festival in August 1934. A new version of the film was released in 1938, including a longer sequence to reflect Stalin's "achievements" at the end of the film and leaving out footage of "enemies" of that time. Today there exists a 1970 reconstruction by Yelizaveta Svilova. With the rise and official sanction of socialist realism in 1934, Vertov was forced to cut his personal artistic output significantly, eventually becoming little more than an editor for Soviet newsreels. "Lullaby", perhaps the last film in which Vertov was able to maintain his artistic vision, was released in 1937.
Dziga Vertov died of cancer in Moscow in 1954.
Family.
Vertov's brother Boris Kaufman was a cinematographer who worked with Jean Vigo on "L'Atalante" (1934) and much later for directors such as Elia Kazan in the United States who won an Oscar for his work on "On the Waterfront". His other brother, Mikhail Kaufman, worked with Vertov on his films until he became a documentarian in his own right. Mikhail Kaufman's directorial debut was the film "In Spring" (1929).
In 1923, Vertov married his long-time collaborator Elizaveta Svilova.
Influence and legacy.
Vertov's legacy still lives on today. His ideas are echoed in cinéma vérité, the movement of the 1960s named after Vertov's "Kino-Pravda". The 1960s and 1970s saw an international revival of interest in Vertov.
The independent, exploratory style of Vertov influenced and inspired many filmmakers and directors like the Situationist Guy Debord and independent companies such as Vertov Industries in Hawaii. The Dziga Vertov Group borrowed his name. In 1960, Jean Rouch used Vertov's filming theory when making "Chronicle of a Summer". His partner Edgar Morin coined the term "cinéma vérité" when describing the style, using direct translation of Vertov's "KinoPravda".
The Free Cinema movement in the United Kingdom during the 1950s, the Direct Cinema in North America in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the "Candid Eye" series in Canada in the 1950s all essentially owed a debt to Vertov.
This revival of Vertov's legacy included rehabilitation of his reputation in the Soviet Union, with retrospectives of his films, biographical works, and writings. In 1962, the first Soviet monograph on Vertov was published, followed by another collection, "Dziga Vertov: Articles, Diaries, Projects". In 1984, to recall the 30th anniversary of Vertov's death, three New York cultural organizations put on the first American retrospective of Vertov's work.
New Media theorist Lev Manovich suggested Vertov as one of the early pioneers of database cinema genre in his essay "Database as a symbolic form".


Oswal

The Oswal (sometimes spelled Oshwal or Osval) are a Jain community with origins in the Marwar region of Rajasthan and Tharparkar district in Sindh. They claim to be of Rajput descent.


Gian-Carlo Rota

Gian-Carlo Rota (April 27, 1932 – April 18, 1999) was an Italian-American mathematician and philosopher. He spent most of his career at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked in combinatorics, functional analysis, probability theory, and phenomenology.
Early life and education.
Rota was born in Vigevano, Italy. His father, Giovanni, a prominent antifascist, was the brother of the mathematician Rosetta, who was the wife of the writer Ennio Flaiano. Gian-Carlo's family left Italy when he was 13 years old, initially going to Switzerland.
Rota attended the Colegio Americano de Quito in Ecuador, and graduated with an A.B. in mathematics from Princeton University in 1953 after completing a senior thesis, titled "On the solubility of linear equations in topological vector spaces", under the supervision of William Feller. He then pursued graduate studies at Yale University, where he received a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1956 after completing a doctoral dissertation, titled "Extension Theory Of Ordinary Linear Differential Operators", under the supervision of Jacob T. Schwartz.
Career.
Much of Rota's career was spent as a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was and remains the only person ever to be appointed Professor of Applied Mathematics and Philosophy. Rota was also the Norbert Wiener Professor of Applied Mathematics.
In addition to his professorships at MIT, Rota held four honorary degrees, from the University of Strasbourg, France (1984); the University of L'Aquila, Italy (1990); the University of Bologna, Italy (1996); and Brooklyn Polytechnic University (1997).
Beginning in 1966 he was a consultant at Los Alamos National Laboratory, frequently visiting to lecture, discuss, and collaborate, notably with his friend Stanisław Ulam. He was also a consultant for the Rand Corporation (1966–71) and for the Brookhaven National Laboratory (1969–1973). Rota was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1982, was vice president of the American Mathematical Society (AMS) from 1995–97, and was a member of numerous other mathematical and philosophical organizations.
He taught a difficult but very popular course in probability. He also taught Applications of Calculus, differential equations, and Combinatorial Theory. His philosophy course in phenomenology was offered on Friday nights to keep the enrollment manageable. Among his many eccentricities, he would not teach without a can of Coca-Cola, and handed out prizes ranging from Hershey bars to pocket knives to students who asked questions in class or did well on tests.
Rota began his career as a functional analyst, but switched to become a distinguished combinatorialist. His series of ten papers on the "Foundations of Combinatorics" in the 1960s is credited with making it a respectable branch of modern mathematics. He said that the one combinatorial idea he would like to be remembered for is the correspondence between combinatorial problems and problems of the location of the zeroes of polynomials. He worked on the theory of incidence algebras (which generalize the 19th-century theory of Möbius inversion) and popularized their study among combinatorialists, set the umbral calculus on a rigorous foundation, unified the theory of Sheffer sequences and polynomial sequences of binomial type, and worked on fundamental problems in probability theory. His philosophical work was largely in the phenomenology of Edmund Husserl.
Rota founded the "Advances in Mathematics" journal in 1961.
Death.
Rota died of atherosclerotic cardiac disease on April 18, 1999, apparently in his sleep at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


Charles Arthur Moser

Charles Arthur Moser (January 6, 1935 – December 11, 2006) was an American literary critic and political activist. As a literary critic he is known for his interests in Russian and Bulgarian literatures and cultures. His political views are described as conservative.
Biography.
In 1956, Charles Moser earned his B.A. (summa cum laude) in Slavic Languages from Yale University. In 1958 he earned his M.A. in Slavic Languages from Columbia University. The thesis of his 1962 Ph.D. (Columbia University) was "Antinihilism in the Russian Novel of the 1860s".
During 1958-1959 he studied at Leningrad State University, as part of the first graduate student exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union.
After teaching at Yale (1960-1967), he joined the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the George Washington University, where he was chairman during 1969-1974 and 1980–1989.
He founded and cofounded a number of organizations, including University Professors for Academic Order (1970), Committee for a Free Afghanistan, and Freedom League. In 1986 and 1987 President Ronald Reagan nominated Charles Moser for membership on the National Council for the Humanities, however the nominations were rejected by the Senate.
In 1992, in Bulgaria, Moser founded the Free Initiative Foundation, to promote the transition of Bulgaria to democracy.
Personal life.
Moser was born in Knoxville, Tennessee the son of Arthur Hurst Moser, Professor of Classics at the University of Tennessee and Sara Ridlehoover Moser. His wife, Anastasia Dimitrova-Moser was the daughter of Bulgarian politician G. M. Dimitrov. in 1992, after Anastasia Moser was elected General Secretary of the Bulgarian Agrarian Union, the Mosers moved to Sofia, Bulgaria.


Edward Pols

Edward Pols (1919–2005) was an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at Bowdoin College. He was a president of the Metaphysical Society of America.
He won the J.N. Findlay Award of the Metaphysical Society of America in 1994 for "Radical Realism" (1992).


Robert Poulet

Robert Poulet (4 September 1893 – 6 October 1989) was a Belgian writer, literary critic and journalist. Politically he was a Maurras-inspired integral nationalist who became associated with a collaborationist newspaper during the occupation of Belgium by Nazi Germany.
Literature.
Educated at the Faculté des Mines in his hometown, Poulet served in the First World War and before taking odd jobs in Belgium and France. He began writing for a number of literary reviews in the 1920s and published his first novel, the surrealist "Handji", in 1931. He became a part of the 'Groupe du Lundi' that built up around Franz Hellens which attacked the regional novels prevalent in France at the time and instead endorsed magic realism. As a literary critic he became noted for his rejection of female authors, dismissing them as "midinettes en diable".
Politics.
Poulet was involved in politics during the early 1930s when he was a member of the corporatist study group "Réaction". Although not altogether enamoured of Nazism he became the 'political director' of "Le Nouveau Journal", a collaborationist paper launched by Paul Colin in October 1940. A strong supporter of Belgian independence, he was heavily influenced by Charles Maurras and the "Action Française" and by 1941 was in agreement with Raymond de Becker that a corporatist, authoritarian party of state should be created. His idea was soon abandoned however when the Nazis decide to instead back Léon Degrelle and Rexism, a philosophy to which Poulet was opposed.
Despite all of this Poulet never opposed the Nazis and frequently wrote in support of them during his time at "Le Nouveau Journal". He also praised them in their war against the Soviet Union due to his own strict anti-communism. He was sentenced to death in October 1945 for collaboration but, after serving six years imprisonment, ostensibly on 'death row', he was released and allowed to return to France.
Later years.
Following his move to France he published a number of autobiographical novels in which he sought to justify his war-time collaboration as merely trying to safeguard the monarchy and Belgian independence. He would also act as a reader at Éditions Denoël and Plon, as well as writing for the far right journal "Rivarol", the Catholic paper "Présent" and "Ecrits de Paris", amongst other publications. He was a close friend and supporter of Robert Faurisson and joined him in advocating Holocaust denial. Despite Poulet's controversial opinions, famed "The Adventures of Tintin" cartoonist Hergé, who worked for Poulet during the war, maintained a lifelong friendship with Poulet until Hergé's death in 1983. Poulet's autobiography, "Ce n'est pas un vie", appeared in 1976. He died in 1989.


Richard Dien Winfield

Richard Dien Winfield (born April 7, 1950) is an American philosopher and Distinguished Research Professor of Philosophy at the University of Georgia. He has been president of the Society for Systematic Philosophy, the Hegel Society of America, and the Metaphysical Society of America. Winfield was a candidate for U.S. Representative from Georgia's 10th congressional district in 2018 and for U.S. Senate during the 2020–21 United States Senate special election in Georgia.
Career.
Winfield graduated from Yale University in 1977. His doctoral thesis was "The Social Determination of Production: The Critique of Hegel's System of Needs and Marx' Concept of Capital"; his advisers were Louis Dupré and Andrzej Rapaczynski. In 1982 Winfield won the Roe Foundation Hegel Prize for his essay "Hegel's Challenge To The Modern Economy". In 1990 he was elected to the executive council of The American Hegel Society. He was the Member of Boards of Consultants of The Owl of Minerva from 1990 to 1996, and is a founding editorial board member of the journal "Social Concept". In 2001 he received the title of Distinguished Research Professor from the University of Georgia.
Personal life.
Winfield has been married to Sujata Gupta Winfield since 1983 and they have three children. As of 2020, they live in Athens, Georgia. In 2019, Winfield founded the nonprofit organization "Alliance for a Social Bill of Rights", which advocates social rights such as a federal job guarantee, Medicare for all, and legal care for all.


Newtonian motivations for general relativity

Some of the basic concepts of general relativity can be outlined outside the relativistic domain. In particular, the idea that mass–energy generates curvature in space and that curvature affects the motion of masses can be illustrated in a Newtonian setting. We use circular orbits as our prototype. This has the advantage that we know the kinetics of circular orbits. This allows us to calculate curvature of orbits in space directly and compare the results with dynamical forces.
The equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass.
A unique feature of the gravitational force is that all massive objects accelerate in the same manner in a gravitational field. This is often expressed as "The gravitational mass is equal to the inertial mass." This allows us to think of gravity as a curvature of spacetime.
Test for flatness in spacetime.
If initially parallel paths of two particles on nearby geodesics remain parallel within some accuracy, then spacetime is flat to within that accuracy. [Ref. 2, p. 30]
Two nearby particles in a radial gravitational field.
Newtonian mechanics for circular orbits.
The geodesic and field equations for circular orbits.
Consider the situation in which there are two particles in nearby circular polar orbits of the Earth at radius formula_1 and speed formula_2. Since the orbits are circular, the gravitational force on the particles must equal the centripetal force,
where "G" is the gravitational constant and formula_4 is the mass of the earth.
The particles execute simple harmonic motion about the earth and with respect to each other. They are at their maximum distance from each other as they cross the equator. Their trajectories intersect at the poles.
From Newton's Law of Gravitation the separation vector formula_5 can be shown to be given by the "geodesic equation"
where formula_7 is the curvature of the trajectory and formula_8 is the speed of light c times the time.
The curvature of the trajectory is generated by the mass of the earth formula_4. This is represented by the "field equation"
In this example, the field equation is simply a statement of the Newtonian concept that centripetal force is equal to gravitational force for circular orbits. We refer to this expression as a field equation in order to highlight the similarities with the Einstein field equation. This equation is in a much different form than Gauss's law, which is the usual characterization of the field equation in Newtonian mechanics.
Relationship between curvature and mass density.
Mass can be written in terms of the average mass density formula_11 inside a sphere of radius formula_1 by the expression
The field equation becomes
The curvature of the particle trajectories is proportional to mass density.
Local measurements.
A requirement of General Relativity is that all measurements must be made locally. We can therefore imagine that the particles are inside a windowless spacecraft co-orbiting the earth with the center of mass of the spacecraft coincident with one of the particles. That particle would be at rest with respect to the spacecraft. An observer in the spacecraft would have no indication that the craft was orbiting the earth. The observer is only allowed to measure the behavior of the particles in the frame of the craft.
In this example, we can define a local coordinate system such that the formula_15-direction is toward the ceiling of the craft and this is directed along formula_16. The formula_17-direction is toward the front of the craft and is in the direction of formula_18. The formula_19-direction is toward the left side of the craft.
In this frame, the vector formula_5 is the position vector for the second particle. An observer in the craft would think the second particle was oscillating in a potential well generated by a gravitational field. This is an example of a coordinate acceleration due to the choice of frames as opposed to a physical acceleration due to actual forces.
General motion in the earth's gravitational field.
Elliptic and hyberbolic trajectories.
More generally, particles move in elliptic or hyberbolic trajectories in a plane that contains the earth center. The orbits need not be circular. One can obtain intuitive geodesic and field equations in those situations as well [Ref 2, Chapter 1]. Unlike circular orbits, however, the speed of the particles in elliptic or hyperbolic trajectories is not constant. We therefore do not have a constant speed with which to scale the curvature. Therefore, in anticipation of the transition to relativistic mechanics, the trajectories and curvatures are scaled with the speed of light formula_21.
From Newton's Law of Gravitation
one can obtain the geodesic equation for the separation of two particles in nearby trajectories
and the field equation
if the particle separation is perpendicular to formula_16 and
if the separation is parallel to formula_16. In the calculation of formula_28 the radius was expanded in terms of formula_5. Only the linear term was retained.
In the case that the separation of the particle is radial, the curvature is negative. This will cause the particles to separate rather than to be drawn toward each other as in the case in which they have the same radius. This is easy to understand. Outer orbits travel slower than inner orbits. This leads to particle separation.
Local coordinate system.
A local coordinate system for a space craft co-moving with one of the particles can again be defined. The formula_15-direction, toward the ceiling, is in the direction of formula_16. The formula_17-direction, toward the front of the craft, is perpendicular to formula_16 but still in the plane of the trajectory. Unlike in a circular orbit, this craft no longer necessarily points in the direction of the velocity. The formula_19-direction is toward the left side of the craft.
Tensor description.
Simple diagonal frame.
The geodesic equation in a radial gravitational field can be described succinctly in tensor notation [Ref. 2, p. 37] in the co-moving frame in which the ceiling of the space craft is in the formula_35 direction
where the Latin indices are over the spatial directions in the co-moving system, and we have used the Einstein summation convention in which repeated indices are summed. The curvature tensor formula_37 is given by
and the separation vector is given by
where formula_40 is the component of formula_5 in the formula_42 direction, formula_43 is the component in the formula_44 direction, and formula_45 is the component in the formula_46 direction.
In this co-moving coordinate system the curvature tensor is diagonal. This is not true in general.
Arbitrary orientation of the local frame.
The co-moving spacecraft has no windows. An observer is not able to tell which direction is the formula_35 direction, nor can he/she know which direction is the velocity with respect to earth. The orientation of the spacecraft may be quite different from the simple coordinate system in which the ceiling is in the formula_35 direction and the front of the craft is in a direction coplanar with the radius and the velocity. We can transform our simple coordinates to an arbitrarily oriented coordinate system through rotations. This, however, destroys the diagonal nature of the curvature matrix.
Rotations are performed with a rotation matrix formula_49 such that the separation vector formula_50 is related to the separation vector before rotation formula_5 by the relation
The inverse formula_53 of formula_54 is defined by
which yields
Here formula_57 is the Kronecker delta.
A simple rotation matrix that rotates the coordinate axis through an angle formula_58 about the formula_17-axis is
This is a rotation in the y-z plane. The inverse is obtained by switching the sign of formula_58.
If the rotation matrix does not depend on time then the geodisic equation becomes, upon rotation
where
The curvature in the new coordinate system is non-diagonal. The inverse problem of transforming an arbitrary coordinate system into a diagonal system can be performed mathematically with the process of diagonalization.
Time dependent rotation of the local frame: Christoffel symbols.
The space craft may tumble about its center of mass. In that case the rotation matrix is time dependent. If the rotation matrix is time dependent, then it does not commute with the time derivative.
In that case, the rotation of the separation velocity can be written
which becomes
where
is known as a Christoffel symbol.
The geodesic equation becomes
which is the same as before with the exception that the derivatives have been generalized.
Arbitrariness in the curvature.
The velocity in the frame of the spacecraft can be written
The geodesic equation becomes
In an arbitrarily rotating spacecraft, the curvature of space is due to two terms, one due to the mass density and one due to the arbitrary rotation of the spacecraft. The arbitrary rotation is non-physical and must be eliminated in any real physical theory of gravitation. In General Relativity this is done with a process called Fermi–Walker transport. In a Euclidean sense, Fermi–Walker transport is simply a statement that the spacecraft is not allowed to tumble
for all i and j. The only time-dependent rotations allowed are those generated by the mass density.
General geodesic and field equations in a Newtonian setting.
Geodesic equation.
where
and formula_74 is a Christoffel symbol.
Field equation.
where formula_76 is a rotation matrix and the curvature tensor is
The curvature is proportional to the mass density
Overview of the Newtonian picture.
The geodesic and field equations simply are a restatement of Newton's Law of Gravitation as seen from a local frame of reference co-moving with the mass within the local frame. This picture contains many of the elements of General Relativity, including the concept that particles travel along geodesics in a curved space (spacetime in the relativistic case) and that the curvature is due to the presence of mass density (mass/energy density in the relativistic case). This picture also contains some of the mathematical machinery of General Relativity such as tensors, Christoffel symbols, and Fermi–Walker transport.
Relativistic generalization.
General relativity generalizes the geodesic equation and the field equation to the relativistic realm in which trajectories in space are replaced with world lines in spacetime. The equations are also generalized to more complicated curvatures.


Iimani David

Iimani David (born December 15, 1969) is an American poet and author of literary fiction whose novels and short stories are often branded as an extreme form of impressionism and are known for their sociopolitical commentary and metaphysical bent.
Biography.
David was born in New York City in 1969. He owned a poetry club in Brooklyn, Cafe Iimani's, from 2000 to 2006. David is best known for his work "Anathema Rhodes: Dreams" which was nominated in 2009 for book of the year by ForeWord Magazine. He is the President of The New York Literary Society.
Artistic Influences.
David claims his works are more influenced by filmmakers than literary figures and cites the early works of Roman Polanski, David Lynch, and Krzysztof Kieslowski as sources of inspiration.


Hinduism in Colombia

Hinduism is a minority faith in Colombia represented mainly by the Hare krishna devotees and Indian expats. The ISKCON has temples in 20 cities in the country. with about 700 members.


Tine Hribar

Tine Hribar (born 28 January 1941 as Velentin Hribar) is a Slovenian philosopher and public intellectual, notable for his interpretations of Heidegger and his role in the democratization of Slovenia between 1988 and 1990, known as the Slovenian Spring. He is the husband of author, essayist and political commentator Spomenka Hribar.
He was born in the small village of Goričica near Ihan in central Slovenia (then part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). He studied philosophy and sociology at the University of Ljubljana. He continued his studies at the University of Zagreb under the supervision of Croatian phenomenologist philosopher Vanja Sutlić. In 1971 he started teaching philosophy and sociology at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana. In 1975 he was fired from the University, together with fellow sociologist Veljko Rus, because of his non-Marxist attitudes. In 1981 he co-founded the alternative journal "Nova revija".
In 1987 Hribar was among the editors of the famous "Contributions to the Slovenian National Program", published in a special number of the journal "Nova revija", in which sixteen authors demanded a democratic and sovereign Slovenia. Between 1989 and 1991 he was an active member of the Slovenian Democratic Union, one of the central parties within the DEMOS coalition that won the first free elections in Slovenia in April 1990. Hribar and Peter Jambrek and France Bučar were the party's main strategists. After the party broke up in 1991, Hribar joined the left liberal Democratic Party, but withdrew from active engagement in politics.
In 1992 Hribar became a professor at the University of Ljubljana again. In 1995 he became a member of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts.
Political commentator.
Hribar's role in Slovenian public life after 1991 caused controversy. In the early 1990s he warned against the recurrence of clericalism in Slovenia, and was critical of his former coalition partners of the Slovene Christian Democrats, especially the former Prime Minister Lojze Peterle. After 1994 he became a critic of conservative opposition leader Janez Janša, his former party colleague and close collaborator between 1989 and 1991. In the 1990s Hribar supported the ruling centre-left Liberal Democracy of Slovenia. In 2004 however, he turned against the ruling left-wing coalition, accusing it of fostering a "vulgar type of liberalism". He co-founded the liberal conservative civic platform Rally for the Republic, which publicly supported the centre-right electoral coalition led by Janez Janša. This sudden and radical turn in Hribar's political affiliation was widely criticized, especially by post-Marxist philosopher Slavoj Žižek, Hribar's former collaborator from the late 1970s.
Between 2004 and 2008, Hribar was relatively supportive of the policies of Janša's government, especially the Slovenian Democratic Party, which he had fiercely criticized in the 1990s. He has nevertheless maintained his thoroughly anti-clerical and, to a certain extent, anti-Catholic position.
After the parliamentary elections of 2008, which brought the left wing to power in Slovenia, Hribar adopted critical stance towards the Slovenian left, accusing it of abusing power for personal privileges. He maintained a critical, but substantially favourable attitude towards the Slovenian secular right wing parties, especially to the Slovenian Democratic Party and its leader Janez Janša, whom he nevertheless accused of an excessively moralizing political discourse.


Gladys Turquet-Milnes

Gladys Rosaleen Turquet-Milnes (21 April 1887 – 17 January 1977) was a British academic and author. She was Professor of French Language and Literature at Bedford College, University of London, from 1934–52, having been Head of the French Department at Westfield College from 1916 to 1934.
Her obituary in "The Times" described her as "a remarkably effective teacher, who loved the literature she taught but not uncritically, and communicated her zest and her assessments with vitality and style". She published several scholarly books on French and Belgian writers, some of which have been reprinted in the 2010s, and a book of poems and an autobiographical work.
Turquet-Milnes was born in Wandsworth, Surrey, the daughter of Dr Alfred and Helena Emily Milnes. Her husband, André Turquet (1869-1940), ran Scoones' training school for the diplomatic service and was appointed an honorary CBE in 1936 for "his work in the services of Franco-British relations"; he predeceased her. Her son Dr Pierre Turquet (1913-1975), a psychiatrist and Olympic fencer, died in a traffic accident. She died in Sussex aged 89 and was survived by her daughter-in-law, three grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Her death notice in "The Times" uses the name "Gladys Mary Turquet", although she appears to have published as "Gladys Rosaleen Turquet-Milnes".


My Driver

My Driver is a novel by English author Maggie Gee, and is the sequel to "My Cleaner". It was first published in 2009 by Telegram Books.
The novel is set in Uganda in the lead-up to the 2007 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala.
The book has three main characters :
Three other narratives make occasional appearances


Black hole complementarity

Black hole complementarity is a conjectured solution to the black hole information paradox, proposed by Leonard Susskind, Larus Thorlacius, and Gerard 't Hooft.
Overview.
Ever since Stephen Hawking suggested information is lost in an evaporating black hole once it passes through the event horizon and is inevitably destroyed at the singularity, and that this can turn pure quantum states into mixed states, some physicists have wondered if a complete theory of quantum gravity might be able to conserve information with a unitary time evolution. But how can this be possible if information cannot escape the event horizon without traveling faster than light? This seems to rule out Hawking radiation as the carrier of the missing information. It also appears as if information cannot be "reflected" at the event horizon as there is nothing special about it locally.
Leonard Susskind proposed a radical resolution to this problem by claiming that the information is both reflected at the event horizon "and" passes through the event horizon and cannot escape, with the catch being no observer can confirm both stories simultaneously. According to an external observer, the infinite time dilation at the horizon itself makes it appear as if it takes an infinite amount of time to reach the horizon. He also postulated a stretched horizon, which is a membrane hovering about a Planck length outside the event horizon and which is both physical and hot. According to the external observer, infalling information heats up the stretched horizon, which then reradiates it as Hawking radiation, with the entire evolution being unitary. However, according to an infalling observer, nothing special happens at the event horizon itself, and both the observer and the information will hit the singularity. This isn't to say there are two copies of the information lying about — one at or just outside the horizon, and the other inside the black hole — as that would violate the no cloning theorem. Instead, an observer can only detect the information at the horizon itself, or inside, but never both simultaneously. Complementarity is a feature of the quantum mechanics of noncommuting observables, and Susskind proposed that both stories are complementary in the quantum sense.
An infalling observer will see the point of entry of the information as being localized on the event horizon, while an external observer will notice the information being spread out uniformly over the entire stretched horizon before being re-radiated.
To an infalling observer, information and entropy pass through the horizon with nothing strange happening. To an external observer, the information and entropy is absorbed into the stretched horizon which acts like a dissipative fluid with entropy, viscosity and electrical conductivity. See the membrane paradigm for more details. The stretched horizon is conducting with surface charges which rapidly spread out over the horizon.
Recently, it appears that black hole complementarity combined with the monogamy of entanglement suggests the existence of a "firewall".


Prater Violet

Prater Violet (1945) is Christopher Isherwood's fictional first person account of film-making. The Prater is a large park and amusement park in Vienna, a city important to characters in the novel for several reasons. Though Isherwood broke onto the literary scene as a novelist, he eventually worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter. In this novel, Isherwood comments on life, art, commercialization of art and Nazism.
Structure.
A short novel without chapter divisions, "Prater Violet" follows Isherwood's involvement in the creation of the eponymous film. Much of the novel records the remarks of people working in the film industry and Isherwood's conversations with a brilliant Austrian film director, Friedrich Bergmann. Only at the conclusion of the novel does Isherwood significantly separate his voice from the stream of dialogue to provide a deeper commentary and to ask, "What makes you go on living? Why don't you kill yourself? Why is all this bearable? What makes you bear it?" (154).
Themes.
The novel depicts England before the Second World War, the rise of Nazism and the world of film-making. Isherwood uses his characters to express varying views about Hitler, and most are shown to be alarmingly indifferent.
Characters.
Minor characters.
Mr Patterson (journalist), Lawrence Dwight (headcutter), Fred Murray (gaffer), Mr Harris (art director), Mr Watts (lighting technician), Mr Pfeffer (musical director), Roger (sound recordist), Teddy (boomer), Joyce (continuity girl), Clark (clapper boy), Jack (camera man), Eliot (assistant director), Timmy (make-up man), Anita Hayden (actress), Arthur Cromwell (actor), Eddie Kennedy (director)
The main character, Isherwood himself, is a moderately successful author of fiction. He is a close observer of the film-making process and the gathering war. Eventually he becomes frustrated by his rather passive role in life, but finds consolation in the dramatic personalities he meets.
Friedrich Bergmann is a film director. Just as Isherwood translates Bergmann's poor English into film script, Isherwood comes to understand the true horror of Nazism through Bergmann's fear for his family in Austria.
As Hitler lays the foundation for war, movie executives such as Mr Chatsworth stress over the timely production of the film "Prater Violet".
Ashmeade, the story editor, who we are led to believe is Isherwood's first, meaningless lover, and Dorothy, the secretary, both fade into a cast of minor characters who fail to comprehend the truth of life.
The only exception to this monochrome cast is Lawrence Dwight, the head cutter at Imperial Bulldog Pictures. He sees life as a quest for efficiency through establishing patterns.
Based on Isherwood's film work.
"Prater Violet" is based on Isherwood's experience as a screenwriter on the British Gaumont film "Little Friend" (1934), directed by Berthold Viertel, and starring Matheson Lang and Nova Pilbeam.


Peter Biskind

Peter Biskind is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of "Premiere" magazine from 1986 to 1996. He wrote several books depicting life in Hollywood, including "Seeing Is Believing," "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls," "Down and Dirty Pictures," and "Gods and Monsters," some of which were bestsellers. In 2010 he published a biography of director and actor Warren Beatty, entitled "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America."
Biskind is a contributing editor at "Vanity Fair". His work has appeared in a number of publications that include "Rolling Stone", "The Washington Post," "Paris Match," "The Nation," "The New York Times," "The Times" (London), and the "Los Angeles Times," as well as in film journals such as "Sight and Sound" and "Film Quarterly".
He served as the editor-in-chief of "American Film" from 1981 to 1986.
Biskind's books have been translated into more than thirty different languages.
Criticism.
Roger Ebert had been critical of Biskind since the publications of "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" and "Down and Dirty Pictures", saying: "Biskind has a way of massaging his stories to suit his agenda." In particular, Ebert drew attention to an alleged encounter with director Todd Haynes at a film festival, where Haynes presented his film "Poison". Biskind claimed Ebert declared: "Who the hell is Todd Haynes?" when introduced to him, and snatched his hand away from an offered handshake. Ebert denies this event ever took place, as did Christine Vachon, Biskind's alleged source of the anecdote.