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What is the message of Hair musical?
1 What is the message of Hair musical?
2 Is Hair based on a true story?
3 Why is the musical Hair called Hair?
4 Who wrote the lyrics for Hair?
5 Why was Hair the musical so controversial?
6 What was the movie Hair about?
7 What was the point of bad hair?
8 When was hair invented?
9 What was so controversial about the musical Hair?
10 Who did the song hair?
11 Who performed hair?
12 What happens to Claude at the end of hair?
He feels that the message today may be "to let the younger people know what their parents were going through at that time (the '60s)." Part of the value of "Hair", according to Gardner, is to help viewers "to remember how young and innocent the people who died in the war were."
Is Hair based on a true story?
It tells the story of a small band of Central Park flower children during the Vietnam War, who are loosely led by George Berger, played by actor Treat Williams in the 1979 film. Williams says Hair still resonates today because it's a story about "kids finding their strength and independence."
Why is the musical Hair called Hair?
The hippies' long hair – and the title of the show – was a symbol of their defiance. "You would have had to have your hair cut when going into the military and therefore the name Hair is highly symbolic," says Geoffrey Marsh, director of the V&A's Department of Theatre and Performance.
Who wrote the lyrics for Hair?
Gerome Ragni
James Rado
Hair/Lyricists
Why was Hair the musical so controversial?
The musical's profanity, its depiction of the use of illegal drugs, its treatment of sexuality, its irreverence for the American flag, and its nude scene caused much comment and controversy.
What was the movie Hair about?
In New York City for the first time while on his way to enlist in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, Oklahoma farm hand Claude Hooper Bukowski (John Savage) meets up with a freewheeling group of Central Park hippies led by the irrepressible George Berger (Treat Williams). When the unlikely friends meet upper-middle-class debutante Sheila Franklin (Beverly D'Angelo), sparks fly between the country boy and the city girl, and Berger's troupe attempts to keep the young lovers together.
Hair/Film synopsis
What was the point of bad hair?
She says "just put someone else's hair on my head!" Bad Hair is using its folktale concept to explore the expectations on Black women to forfeit their own roots for someone else's.
When was hair invented?
about 300 million years ago
Evolution. Hair has its origins in the common ancestor of mammals, the synapsids, about 300 million years ago.
What was so controversial about the musical Hair?
Who did the song hair?
Hair/Artists
Who performed hair?
Hair (Hair song)
Song by Original Broadway cast
Label RCA
Composer(s) Galt MacDermot
Lyricist(s) James Rado Gerome Ragni
What happens to Claude at the end of hair?
In the film, he sacrifices himself for Claude. The biggest change from the musical to the film is the character death. In the musical, Claude finally decides to go to Vietnam, where he is killed. The soldiers are deployed that night, and Berger, still posing as Claude, is the one who gets killed in Vietnam.
By Lucia Mack 22/02/2021 Miscellaneous
What should I put on my resume for projects?
How do you put cooking hobbies on a resume?


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Afrobeats with Afro B 11pm - 1am
Abracadabra Rexxie, Naira Marley & Skiibii Download 'Abracadabra' on iTunes
16 Kanye West Styles To Inspire Your 2015 Autumn/Winter Wardrobe
Kanye's come a long way since his 'College Dropout' days of bright polo necks and Louis Vuitton backpacks. Love him or hate him, it's hard to deny that Yeezy is making his mark on the fashion industry. Be it the latest bomber, hottest trainers or trendiest jeans, there's a lot to be learnt from 'Ye's new found style.
1. Cover Up In Camouflage.
Camouflage is a stand-out look for 2015/16 (ironic, right?) and no one is lapping up all of the amazing items on offer more than Yeezy. Whether you're wearing trousers, a coat or a tee - team with black, white and grey to keep the look classic, or if you're feeling adventurous, add a dash of bright red or orange.
2. The Contrasting Collar.
Kanye blends several trends together by donning not only a camel colour, long-length coat, but by putting a twist on a classic style by incorporating a contrasting colour. Kanye's particular coat (pictured left) is Maison Martin Margiela for H&M, but for a more casual look, try out a denim jacket with sheep-skin collar.
3. Timberlands.
One of the more affordable brands that Kanye West wears; Timberlands have stood the test of time and it's safe to say they're here to stay. You can wear the high-quality boot come Autumn, Winter, Spring or Summer. So even if the £100-£200 price-tag is more than you'd usually splash out on some footwear, really, these are an investment (that's what you should tell yourself, anyway).
4. Maroon Velvet.
Kanye West has literally not stopped wearing this maroon velvet hoody since its first appearance on him at the 2015 Grammy awards in February - and who can blame him? The colour and fabric are fashion-world soulmates. There's plenty copycats of Kanye's fave hoody floating around on the web, including one on Elwood clothing for $50.
5. Get your ankles out.
It's not just the particular pieces he wears that makes Kanye stand-out amongst the rap-crowd, it's also how he wears them. Recently, 'Ye's ditched the outdated classic rap 'baggy jeans' look in favour of a rolled-up jean or trouser to show off some flesh (and of course, his latest footwear!)
6. The Suede Boot.
As Kanye shows, the suede boot is an essential addition to your Autumn/ Winter wardrobe for 2015. At some events (dinner at your partners parents? Drinks in town? A work meeting?) trainers just aren't going to cut it. This suede Chelsea style goes with t-shirts, jumpers and smarter jackets. Go for a neutral tone to allow yourself to mix and match.
7. The Bomber Jacket.
If there is one must-have for Autumn/Winter, it's a stylish bomber jacket. We recommend going for a classic black, grey or khaki style if you want to be able to throw it on over anything. But if the rest of your look is usually quite plain, then experiment with a metallic, camouflage or textured style.
8. Ripped Jeans.
Hardly revolutionary, but still worth a mention. Find yourself a good-fitting pair of slim/skinny ripped jeans for A/W and your wardrobe is already 50% sorted. Opt for darker colours, such as black, grey or a deep blue denim for winter.
9. The Camel Coat.
Kanye's fast becoming the king of the camel over-coat. Classic, smart and neutral, it's worth bagging one for your everyday look-book. From Burberry to Zara to Primark, this popular style is available for all budgets.
10. Leather Trousers.
It's a look that some people won't touch, but if you're brave enough, buy a pair of leather or leather-look trousers this winter. They're more comfortable than they look, they smarten up any outfit and they go with pretty much everything.
11. The velvet Jumper.
It's not just maroon velvet jumpers Ye loves. He's also kind of obsessed with this black velvet crewneck jumper, which he wore to two fashion show— first Dries van Noten and then Balmain. If the all-black look is your thing, throwing together some clashing fabrics like Yeezy does is a great way to add some character to your classic style.
12. Tie-dye
It's not an easy look to pull off, but Kanye somehow managers to. If you remember, he wore tie-dye pieces from designer Angelos Frentzos during the European leg of his Yeezus tour, and also whilst holding on to Kim Kardashian in his viral 'Bound 2' music video, as well as at multiple other shows (pictured left). The best thing about tie-dye is that all you need is a plain t-shirt, some dye and some rubber bands and you can make your own unique pieces.
13. Layering.
All hail the king of layering. Rarely will you see 'Ye donning an oversized jumper without a matching tee hanging out underneath. Not only does it look effortlessly cool, it's practical too. Add a scarf and a coat or gilet to complete the look.
14. The Fur Coat.
Yeezy's had this particular fur coat for years now. He was first spotted wearing it back in 2011 and more recently at the Givenchy Fall/Winter 2014 Menswear Presentation in Paris. Understandably, a full-blown three-quarter length coat might be a bit adventurous (not to mention expensive) for most. The best way to experiment with fur is to look for it on a collared black bomber jacket.
15. 'Moonrock' Yeezy Boost 350 trainers
It wouldn't be a Kanye West fashion round-up without a piece designed by the man himself. These 'Moonrock' Yeezy Boost 350's are released this weekend (14/15 Nov 2015) and have a price tag of $200 (approx £130).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I was interested to read that Richard Branson does not like the travel advisories issued by the UK Foreign Office. His argument centres around the position that more travel is the best way to defeat terrorism. He believes that, "The right thing is for every country to not put out advisories against nations that suffer terrorist attacks, but instead continue to aid them, through tourism and trade"; Richard is entitled to his opinion.
The problem with this argument can be summed up in two words – Insurance & Choice!
The other issue that I have with Richard is this; travel advisories are not just about 'terrorism', they should also be concerned with the general safety in that country or resort, whether that 'risk' results from mass illness, crime or civil disorder.
It seems to me that if this argument, coming from one of the most successful travel industry personalities succeeds, then how long will it take for the pressure on government to take out warnings for these 'extended' risk areas?
Would it then be the case that travel consumers would have to rely solely on the 'intelligence' sources of the travel company?
How long would it be before Travel Insurance companies would include complex 'get-out-of-jail' clauses to prevent claims being made by Consumers caught up in these risk events?
During the uprisings in Egypt and Tunsia, many UK holidaymakers were subjected to contradictory and unsatisfactory advices from UK tour operators and in the early stages, holidaymakers found themselves caught in the middle of some very frightening situations. It was clear to us, having been provided with evidence from holidaymakers, that travel companies understood what was happening in these areas as they were issuing printed warnings for holidaymakers who had just arrived, not to leave the hotel complex!
So in those situations, we wanted to know why, if they knew that there was a risk before the holidaymakers arrived, they were not warned before they left home? It will not surprise the reader to know that we never received an answer to that question!
In those same situations, holidaymakers experienced problems with their travel insurance companies, either trying to resist paying out claims or simply withdrawing cover before travel. In the latter scenario, travel companies simply stated that their own travel insurance would cover them, but we did not speak with any holidaymaker who had that confirmed in writing!
"The security situation outside the resort areas in the Governorate of South Sinai has deteriorated since early 2012 and there have been a number of hijacks, robberies and kidnaps in the interior of the Governorate".
We know from other areas of the world, including within the UK, terror activity is often associated with crime!
So I ask the question, how long is it before those engaged in criminal activities start to venture into the coastal areas and extend their sphere of influence?
Is it not ridiculous to suggest that such a small area, with so much risk around it, is safe to travel to?
Judging by the negative comments made by the public to Richard, there is an opinion expressed that he only represents the commercial position. He is entitled to make or take the position he does and I suspect his comments were made as a contribution to the ground-swell of revulsion following the bombs in Boston.
I say that we should not be placing Consumers on the front-line in holiday destinations and certainly not making them the foot-soldiers in the so-called 'war on terror'.
I believe that trying to create 'normal' trading conditions does not help a country in strife. Where problems exist beyond the 'terror' label, the pressure of a lack of trade is surely the best pressure upon an errant government and the best support you can give to a people exhausted by years of mismanagement of their affairs and in some cases, a failure to guarantee their human rights?
I would be happy to extend this debate with Richard, because whilst he makes a valid series of points from his perspective, there is a need to engage with those of us at the coalface of the Consumer experience and understand fully why Consumers might just be annoyed whenever they are sold a holiday to a risk area without adequate warnings!


For anyone who has been looking for an excuse to finally hit up the definitely-not-closed Cynic Cave, here it is: comedian Rye Silverman is performing there tomorrow night. Silverman has been featured on the Todd Glass Show, Jordan Jesse GO!, and the RISK! podcast, and this will be her first show in San Francisco (she is based out of Los Angeles).
San Francisco-based comic Nato Green, who has performed with Silverman in the past, described her style to Uptown Almanac.
Tickets are $12, and you can buy them here.
Lost Weekend Completed Its Remodel & Got Permitted By The Entertainment Commission, So Why Does Everyone Think They're Closed?


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Temporal Anomalies
Discussing Time Travel Theory
Other Films
Perpetual Barbecue
See also entries under the
Temporal Anomalies/Time Travel
category of the
mark Joseph "young"
elsewhere on this site.
Quick Jumps
As to the Name
The Propagation Problem
Personal Timelines
The Nature of Free Will
Quantum Theory and Randomness
Equations, Not Programs
The Problem of the Universal Now
Supertime Theory Considered
Theory Pages
in no particular order
A Primer on Time
The Science of Time Travel
The Two Brothers
The Spreadsheet Illustration
The Uncaused Cause
Mass Suicide and the Grandfather Paradox
Toward Two-Dimensional Time
A Critique of the Spreadsheet Theory
Response to A Critique
Temporal Theory 101
Temporal Theory Questions
(From The Examiner)
Movies Analyzed
in order examined
Addendum to Terminator
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator Recap
Back To The Future III
Star Trek Introduction
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: First Contact
Addendum to 12 Monkeys
Flight Of The Navigator Addendum
Peggy Sue Got Married
Kate and Leopold
S. Darko
Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban
Primer Questions
Bender's Big Score
Popular Christmas Movies
The Butterfly Effect 2
The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations
The Lake House
The Hot Tub Time Machine
Premonition
Los Cronocrimines a.k.a. TimeCrimes
A Sound of Thundrer
About Time Travel
Blackadder Back & Forth
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
La Jetée
Meet the Robinsons
H. G. Wells' The Time Machine
The Philadelphia Experiment II
TimeCop
Free Birds
Project Almanac
O Homem Do Futuro
a.k.a. The Man from the Future
Abby Sen
The temporal anomaly terminology used here is drawn from Appendix 11: Temporal Anomalies of Multiverser from Valdron Inc, and is illustrated on the home page of this web site. This site is part of M. J. Young Net.
Books by the Author.
Temporal Anomalies in Time Travel Movies
A Response by M. Joseph Young
A Critique of the
Spreadsheet Theory
by Sergiy Koshkin
Sergiy Koshkin read several pages on this web site, and sent me a letter praising my insights, while at the same time attaching a paper extensively challenging them. I was impressed with his input and his ideas, but find first that he does not fully understand some points about what he is criticizing, and second that I do not find his solutions satisfactory. Thus I am responding to his comments, which are posted under the title A Critique of the Spreadsheet Theory elsewhere on this site. In posting his Critique I have taken the liberty to add footnotes, asterisks which are links to sections here, and to include links here back to those points in the other page, to make it possible for a reader to read each page in its entirety or to move between pages, as preferred.
Mr. Koshkin consistently refers to the theory on this site as The Spreadsheet Theory. He cannot be faulted for this, as for years the site has promoted a theory without giving it a name. It has only been within the past year or so that I have begun referring to it as The Replacement Theory, and I am not even certain I have used the term in any page on the site. Thus Mr. Koshkin could not be faulted for not knowing that I had named the theory something else, and it does not in one sense matter what he calls it. He is addressing the theory I present and defend on this site.
At the same time, the fact that he has used this name is problematic, because it appears to me to indicate a fundamental misunderstanding of the theory itself.
Clearly he took the name from one page in the Theory section, entitled The Spreadsheet Illustration of Temporal Anomalies. That page attempts to illustrate concepts of time travel from a perspective in which time is taken as a static dimension, something which exists through which we move. Much as a road exists and we drive from one end to the other, but the road has always existed and we could in theory teleport from one end to the other, so too time is treated as fully existing from beginning to end, and time travel as hopping from point to point along that road. The spreadsheet illustration is not the basis for the theory nor a completely adequate explanation of it. It is what it purports to be: an illustration, a metaphor to help some people understand aspects of the theory that are confusing. For some people, the illustration is very helpful, as they understand this notion of history being fully formed; for others, it is yet the more confusing, as for them time is something living and moving. Whether time is the one or the other does not matter, because the replacement theory can be understood either way. Koshkin, though, appears to take the spreadsheet illustration as the theory itself, and so rejects the theory based on his understanding of the illustration. The impact is not total; his critique is still quite insightful. It does, however, suffer some from this incongruity.
Back to Critique page
Back to top of this page.
Koshkin writes, "One problem is that this account is incompatible with relativity. Let us analyze the situation from the point of view of a distant observer far removed from the place where the time machine is activated. It would take light a significant time to travel from that point to the observer and nothing can travel faster than light." He is not the first to suggest this as a problem with the theory, and it is difficult for me to explain this; but Koshkin is also a mathmatician, so perhaps I can explain it differently.
I am not speaking of an effect which spreads outward from a point to impact every object in the universe. I am speaking of something which in one sense does not affect any object in the universe. There is no "sudden death", as he puts it. All this theory says is that when you reach the moment from which a time traveler moves to the past, the next moment for the entire universe is a moment in the past.
I can think of two imperfect ways to illustrate this; they will have to suffice.
One can begin to understand this through the notion of clock arithmetic. Everyone knows that eleven plus three is fourteen, but that if you add three hours to eleven o'clock you get two o'clock. The number system is such that it loops, such that the number after twelve is one. What a time travel event does is change the number line itself, such that the instant after midnight January 1st 2010 is midnight January 1st 2000, what we would call ten years earlier. It does not actually change the universe at all; it simply changes the number line along which the universe is moving. Since that temporal number line exists as an independent dimension, its physical distance from the point at which the time travel event occurs is 0; since it is not a spatial dimension, limitations on the speed at which change can move through space are irrelevant to it. It is not where the change occurs but when it occurs that is impacted.
Alternately, anyone who played early video games will understand the concept of "screen wrap". I have written a number of articles in my Game Ideas Unlimited series at Gaming Outpost in which this concept has been explored. In essence, in early versions of games like Tank it was possible to fire a missle or even drive a tank off one side of a screen and have it appear on the other side. For video game designers this was a simple solution to the problem of edges. In the programming it was a simple matter to instruct the system that when the X or Y coordinate reached its maximum value plus one, it was reset to zero, and when it reached negative one it was reset to its maximum value. What time travel does is create that edge, that boundary on the universe, setting the maximum value for time, and changing the programming such that the next number is whatever the destination value is of the time traveler. Thus once that boundary has been set, everything that crosses that line emerges in the past, but as it was at that moment in the past.
Thus I think that objections based on the speed of light carrying information throughout the universe miss the point entirely. No information need move through space at all; it need only touch the non-spatial temporal dimension.
Mr. Koshkin then suggests that the notion that one individual could change the entire universe is "absurd", and that it would require "infinite energy" to do so. Since, as already mentioned, we are not really changing anything inside the universe, but only the temporal track along which the universe moves, we cannot guess how much energy might be required. However, his answer seems at least as absurd as my own.
It seems more plausible that your description applies to time traveler's worldline only. For him there is no future after 2030, for him the history ends and rewinds, but the rest of the universe continues merrily on its way, just without the time traveler.
He addresses this more fully later, but the solution seems absurd.
Put simply, the kind of multiverse which Mr. Koshkin proposes here could not be entertained seriously. It suggests that I did change the universe, but only really succeeded in creating my own private version thereof. He objects that my scenario requires a tremendous amount of energy, but the creation of an entire duplicate universe would require that all the matter and energy in the current universe be consumed to create all the matter and energy in the new universe, and that without any loss in the process.
What is really being proposed here is a kind of divergent dimension theory, that a time traveler creates a new version of history without impacting the old one at all. I have already shown the flaws in such a theory; such concepts are not time travel but dimension travel. I cannot have my own personal universe. Even if there are dimensions we cannot perceive, there is ultimately only the one universe, or at least as far as we can determine that is the case. If there is another, it is completely unlike this one; and it is certainly beyond any power we will ever control to create another universe on any scale remotely comparable to this one.
Back to Critique page.
Mr. Koshkin attacks in passing one of the most difficult and critical points in the theory, and that is that it maintains both complete free will and complete determinism. Many readers balk at this, quite apart from the rest of the theory, and I have addressed it uncounted times in e-mail and kept promising myself I would put an answer on the web someday when I had time. It appears that time has come today, as the old song once said.
He writes:
I do not see why after 2nd, 3rd or 17th run along the C-D timeline the traveler will do exactly (or even 'mostly') the same thing as the 1st time. As you yourself say when criticizing the fixed timeline theory, this goes against 'even the most conservative understanding of free will'.
It is certainly a fair question, and we would all like to believe that the nature of our "free will" is such that we really could do anything we chose to do, and that we really could choose to do otherwise. I am persuaded, however, that this is not the case. I have a number of examples which I have used to illustrate this, but I usually begin with my shoes.
Each day I get dressed in my office. My office has moved since I first started answering these questions, but it is still in my home (which has also moved) and I still dress there. Each night I remove my shoes and drop them into a space where I will find them the next day, and the next day that is where they are.
At one time the space was such that one shoe was always atop the other, and I noticed that in the morning I would don the top shoe first. There was nothing preventing me from donning the bottom shoe first, but I never did. Something in my psychological makeup--call it laziness, if you like--caused me to select the top shoe first, every time.
Certainly I could have selected the bottom shoe, and I was free to do so, in every sense that mattered. I could don whichever shoe I preferred. Had I thought about it, had I wanted to change my routine, I could have pulled the bottom shoe from beneath and donned it. Yet even here, the point remains. It would have required that I think about it and that it mattered to me. Since it never mattered, I did automatically what came naturally.
Yet what if it mattered? Had I stopped and thought about it, would this not mean that I might choose either shoe? In fact, it would not; when it matters, that is when my "freedom" is most determined. Suppose instead of which shoe to don first, my question is whether to steal some money left on a table or countertop. At that point, even if were to I steal it on impulse, the forces that are involved become much more complex. My moral sense takes one position, my needs and greeds take another, my fear of being caught becomes involved, and whether over several minutes or in a flash of decision, those factors come to a balance and I make my choice.
In both cases, whatever I choose to do is exactly what I have freely chosen to do; and in both cases, whatever I choose to do is completely determined by the psychological factors within me that have brought me to that choice.
This means that if we could rewind and completely erase everything that has happened to me up to the moment of that choice, and then replay it without changing any of the psychological factors, as if it were the first time, I would make exactly the same choice the first time as I did the first time.
Certainly if I face the same choice again, I could choose to do otherwise; but the point of the theory is that I am not facing the same choice "again". Because time has been erased, I have never faced this choice before, and am facing it for the first time; and because I am exactly the same person I was in the previous pass through time, the exact same person is making the exact same choice based on the exact same factors and influences. The result is that he will do exactly the same thing.
I have occasionally had the opportunity to play chess with a very brilliant chess player, my good friend the Reverend David D. Oldham. I am not a brilliant chess player, but an adequate one; he defeats me simply, and I learn almost nothing from my losses. I have learned, however, that David knows how to manipulate me on the board. He can make a move and know to a very high degree of probability what move I will make in response. (He sometimes fails because he assumes I am a better player than I am, so I make moves that are not as smart as the ones he had intended for me; that, though, does not matter to the point.) My responses, thus, are completely predictable, given sufficient knowledge about me. If you knew me well enough, you would know how to persuade me to lend or give you money, how to induce me to change my clothes, how to tempt me into questionable conduct, and what you could not by any means get me to do. My actions, even my well-considered actions, are responses, reactions, to conditions and events around me, and given sufficient information they are completely predictable.
That they are completely predictable means that as free as I am to choose whatever I choose, what I choose is also completely determined by who I am. In one sense I can do whatever I choose; in another, I can do nothing other than what I in fact choose. I am totally free and completely limited at the same time.
What, though, if I rebel against these restrictions? What if I break out of my bonds and do something completely irrational? This, too, is part of the psychological framework that controls my choices. I chose to do what I thought unreasonable, what I thought I would never do, precisely because my psychology at that moment goaded me into doing something different. And that, too, would be predictable, given sufficient information about what is happening inside me; it merely requires much more information. Yet it, too, is determined.
I maintain that this internal determinism controls everything we do, from such autonomic functions as our heartbeats and breathing to whether we fall in love to whether we pull the trigger to fire the bullet that kills Joseph Stalin. I maintain that we are completely free in our choices, because we will choose to do exactly what we determine to do, and that at the same time our choices are fully predictable. Further, because these actions are fully predictable, they are fully determined, and no matter how many times the exact same person goes through the exact same events for the first time, as long as it is always the first time and he is the exact same person, he will, completely of his own free choice, do exactly the same thing.
Mr. Koshkin returns to the notion of free will and determinism later, in discussing Supertime, where he writes:
Spreadsheet theory assumes (I think) that the past stays frozen until being reactivated after a time jump. It is not clear what to think about the future. If it is already 'there' we have a grand illusion of living, while simply retracing predestined events. Then time travelers, and they only, would have a singular ability to break this chain of predestinations.
To my mind, the difference between the future and the past is that we do not know the future, because we have not yet experienced it. It is completely true that we by our choices will impact the form of that future; it is equally true that we by our choices have impacted the form of the past. This does not mean that our choices are predestined or predetermined; it means that our experience of them occurs in time. From a metaphysical (or if you like, "supertime") perspective, we have already made all the choices we will ever make within time; some of those choices are behind our present point and some are ahead. All are just as flexible as they are fixed, that is, any of them could have been made otherwise, and all of them were already known and completed.
If, theoretically, I could travel to 1955, and observe my own life without in any way interfering or being detected, I would observe myself making choices, completely freely, many of which I as observer would remember having made, and so would know to a certainty what I as the observed would choose. My knowledge of his choices does not in any way constrain his choices; he chooses as freely as I did when I made those same choices. Yet his choices are determined and certain. In the same way, if a future version of me were to come back from 2035 (assuming I live so long) and similarly observe my actions now, he would recall having made many of the choices I am now making, and know how I chose and what consequences flowed from those choices and what choices I faced next week. That does not constrain my choice in the least; it merely means that all of my freely-made decisions have already been recorded for the entire expanse of my life, but my consciousness exists at a single point along that timeline, recalling all that precedes and anticipating all that antecedes that point of consciousness. Arguably, my consciousness, too, exists at every point along my lifetime; I experience it moment by moment. The choices I will make tomorrow I have in some sense already made, completely freely. Tomorrow I will in making those choices discover what it is that I completely freely chose.
This is difficult for many of my readers. Yet perhaps I can analogize it to a simple game of chess. Let us suppose that I sacrifice my knight to capture David's queen. David then says, "I knew you would do that," and three moves later has me in checkmate. In what sense was my choice to sacrifice the knight not freely made? I cannot now change it, but that does not mean I was forced to do it. Further, the fact that David (whom as I mentioned is an extremely good chess player) predicted that I would make that move does not mean the move was predestined. The difficult step is here: if time is a dimension, then the future exists as surely as the past, and even before I had experienced making the decision to sacrifice the knight, that decision and its consequences already existed in the future.
This is not predestination, as demonstrated by the very concept of the replacement theory. If somehow before I sacrificed the knight I received a message from the future warning me that by sacrificing the knight I would lose the game in three moves, I could take that information into account in making the decision what to do next. That, though, simply means that the data available to me has changed, and I am freely choosing based on different information. The fact that I can change the past demonstrates that my choices, and everyone else's, are perfectly free despite the fact that they are already made and awaiting our experience of them.
This is entirely different from the problem posed in the Granfather Paradox, of whether I can choose to do one thing or another. To say that it would not be possible for some specific person to decide to kill his grandfather is one thing; to say that it would not be possible for anyone ever to decide to do this is quite another. Free will means that we can choose the things we would choose. It does not mean we necessarily could have chosen otherwise, from the perspective of who we are, but only that we could have chosen otherwise from the perspective of universal possibilities. I do not believe it would be possible for me to choose to kill a grocery store clerk; that does not mean no one could ever choose to do so.
I admit at this point to being out of my depth. Mr. Koshkin works in the realm of mathematical physics; I work in the realms of metaphysics and theology. He asserts that at the quantum level there are genuinely random events, and that these will result in slight changes to the timeline in each iteration, forcing all such anomalies to become sawtooth snaps. If he is correct, I concur: genuine randomness at the quantum level would mean a single time travel event would result in infinitely varying histories of the universe, an eternal sawtooth snap. It is a very unfortunate end of the world, but it is a logical conclusion from the theory, given true randomness in any aspect.
For most of my readers, some discussion of the concept of true randomness will be necessary to follow the logic from here.
We speak of certain things being random when we mean more precisely that they are unpredictable; further, we mean that they are unpredictable by us. A good example of this is the throw of dice in a game. We can predict the statistically most and least probable totals, based on an assumption of randomness; but any physicist will admit that the throw of dice is not true randomness. Were one able to track the starting position of the dice, the movement and force of the hand or cup, the trajectory, and the elasticity of all the surfaces, one could calculate which way the dice would land quite precisely. What makes such throws seem random to us is that we cannot possibly gather that information and perform those calculations, let alone control them adequately to get a desired outcome.
So, too, with chaos theory we do not have genuine randomness. We are told that the flap of a single butterfly's wings in the Amazon Delta can be the deciding factor in whether there is a hurricane in the Carribean Sea, and thus that it is impossible to account for all the causes and their effects in predicting weather; but the fact that the hurricane is dependent on whether or not that butterfly flaps its wings shows that this is all part of specific causal chains, that the hurricane is an effect of a combination of causes, even if we cannot identify all those causes.
What is argued in quantum physics is that there are some quantum events, notably the decay of an unstable atomic nucleus, which do not have causes, in the sense that we cannot know when they will happen not because we have insufficient information but because the event itself is genuinely random. I am told that there is a proof of this, a proof that demonstrates that there cannot be a cause of this moment of atomic decay, that there cannot be a trigger event. That makes atomic decay a truly random event, which in theory could happen at a different moment in a repeated version of history.
I have also corresponded with physicists who do not believe this. Their position is certainly comprehensible, and I would think it defensible. They maintain that there is a difference between not knowing the immediate cause of an event and knowing that there is no immediate cause. That is, just as we cannot trace the hurricane back to the flap of the butterfly's wings, it may be that atomic decay is triggered by some cause thus far indetectible to us. To say that there is no cause merely because we do not know the cause is arrogant.
I cannot settle the debate here; I do not know even what kind of mathmatical arguments might be able to prove that there is no cause of an event. Perhaps Mr. Koshkin is familiar with those proofs and is persuaded by them; perhaps it is only that he has been told that these events are genuinely random and has accepted on faith that those who told him were correct. I can assert that the matter is not settled even among physicists, and as long as it is not settled all that we can say is that if time travel proves to be possible (which as I say in the opening page of this site is not a position to which I am committed--only that I wish to explore what would happen if it were), and if quantum events are truly random, then Mr. Koshkin's prediction of an infinitely cycling sawtooth snap from any and every time travel event (of which there then would logically in all probability be only one) is inescapable. If either of the premises are false, though--and each of them might be--then this is not a fatal argument. Time travel could be possible under the replacement theory if time travel is possible and quantum events are unpredictable but not random.
Mr. Koshkin summarizes what he thinks of my theory thus:
Perhaps the spreadsheet analogy illustrates too much too well. The reason a spreadsheet can change all the values instantly is that it is run by a central processor that has direct access to each cell. It can precalculate all the values along the sequence and then enter them simultaneously. I find this instantaneous causality that enacts changes in sequence to be the most obscure part of the theory. The only way I can imagine this working on spacetime is through a central processor of its own, an Invisible Hand, omnipresent and omnipotent, transcendent and eternal, that has direct access to its every point. In other words, God makes the changes.
In fairness, I believe in God; but my theory is not in any way dependent upon His intervention to make it work. I am in fact surprised that Mr. Koshkin has this specific problem, because the notion of a computerized spreadsheet program is already a step away from the point of the illustration, and that point is the mathematics of the system which the spreadsheet represents.
Let us take a simple equation for an example, but one with variables. We'll take A+B+C=D. Now let us give these variables meaning. A will be the number of apples on the shelf, B the number of bananas, C the number of cantalopes, and I wish I had a nice mnemonic name for D, but it will have to be pieces of fruit. If we have 5 apples, 8 bananas, and 3 cantalopes, we have 5+8+3=16. We calculate this by starting with 5, adding 8 to get 13, then adding 3 to get 16. Our spreadsheet program does exactly the same thing, but it does it faster.
What Mr. Koshkin is thinking, though, is patently false given this example. If we take away two of the bananas, we now have 5+6+3, and we can add 5+6=11, 11+3=14. By Mr. Koshkin's reasoning, we cannot have 14 pieces of fruit until we have done the math. The point is, though, that absent those two bananas we actually do have 14 pieces of fruit; the part that is absent is that we do not yet know it, because we haven't done the math.
In the same way, the spreadsheet illustration is intended to show how when one variable in history is changed, all the variables dependent upon that one variable are also changed, instantly. I remember working with Lotus 1-2-3 on computers with what must have been 286 processors, and you would enter the numbers and click the command to do the processing, and sometimes have to do the processing again because some of the equations had not been completed on the first pass. It has been a long time since I have had a computer so slow and an equation so complex that the rendering was not instantaneous, and modern spreadsheets rely on processing power sufficient to make the updates on the fly, as it were, as the numbers are entered. I chose to use the computer spreadsheet to illustrate the matter because for most of my readers, that would show an instantaneous change in all the results, while on reflection they would realize that that change had to occur in sequence.
Mr. Koshkin, though, is actually too clever for the illustration. He recognizes that the seemingly instantaneous rendering of all the corrected numbers is a function of the central processor choosing to do this in that way, and in the process overlooks the much more fundamental fact--that once we have changed the number of bananas, we have changed the total number of pieces of fruit, and the result is already altered instantly even though we do not know what the result is. Mr. Koshkin, please forget all about the spreadsheet illustration. It has caused you to completely misunderstand what it was trying to illustrate. For you, time makes more sense as a moving transport than as a static dimension. The spreadsheet illustration does not work for you.
There has been so much in Mr. Koshkin's critique that I neglected to examine his problem with the "universal now". In brief, he maintains that
In relativity there is only here-and-now for each observer, but there is no universal here and certainly no universal now.
This is a mistake that students of relativity make concerning their own theory. They understand how time dilation impacts various objects in the universe such that elapsed time for each object will differ; they then draw the incorrect conclusion that there is no uniform "now" because of that. Hopefully I can illustrate how this is mistaken. To do so, I will have to give what is undoubtedly a very elementary explanation of time dilation.
Let us suppose that we launch a spaceship toward a point in space which is five light years distant. Our spacehip is able to travel at an enormously quick speed, half the speed of light; thus it will reach its destination in what is for us ten years. Let us suppose that by some miraculous future technology this ship is able to accelerate to that velocity instantaneously and upon reaching the destination turn on a dime and return at the same rate. It will return to us in what for us is twenty years. They have raced a beam of light and lost, but got there in only twice the time it took the beam of light to do so.
For those on the ship, though, their perception of that beam of light must be that it is moving at the speed of light. Just as we perceive it as moving one hundred eighty-six miles every thousandth of a second, they too must see it moving at the same speed. The beam of light cannot travel at two different speeds, and the distance cannot change, so what changes is the length of the second. For those on the ship, half a second elapses for every second of ours, and in that half second they perceive the light beam as moving ninety-three thousand miles (as they have covered the other ninety-three thousand themselves). Then the beam continues another light second relative to us and another half a light second relative to them, the second half of their second ticks, and they experience one second to our two. The result is that they cover the distance in half the time, returning to earth in what they have experienced--not exactly subjectively, but objectively and really as measured by any device or process we know--as ten years.
Thus were we to launch this ship in 3000, by earth-based chronometers it would reach its destination in 3010 and return to us in 3020, but by ship-based chronometers it would reach its destination in 3005 and be back in 3010.
However, even though time is moving at different rates in these distinct locations, for any given now in either location there is a corresponding now in the other. When the ship returns to the earth, it does not return in 3020 for the people on earth and 3010 for the people on the ship--two different times. It returns at exactly one moment which the people on the earth call 3020 and those on the ship call 3010. Further, at the moment the ship arrived at its destination, even though no one on earth would know that it had happened successfully until light arrived five years later, it was perfectly reasonable for people on earth in 3010 to say, "They have arrived now." Now has meaning throughout the universe. The very fact that it has meaning is what makes it possible for us to say that the light from a distant star originated fifty or a hundred or ten thousand years ago, because when it was now for us ten thousand years ago it was also now for that star, and however many years the star has experienced since then, it has been ten thousand for us.
Nowhere in the replacement theory is this concept rejected. It is only that in describing the effects of the theory, local time is used. That is, we say that all time moves from 2010 to 2000, but what that means is that all of time moves from that now which is locally identified as 2010 to that now which is locally identified as 2000. It does not mean that everything in the universe goes back in time ten years by its reckoning; it means that everything in the universe goes back however far it is by its reckoning to that moment that was now ten years ago at the target destination by the local reckoning.
A planet is like an orange in some ways. I can slice the peel of an orange from stem to bottom, and do so again in another location, and so remove a bit of the peel. Solar light creates lines similar to those cuts across the surface of the earth as the earth rotates. The distance between a specific pair of those lines in Nome, Alaska, is a lot shorter than the distance between the same pair in Honolulu, Hawaii; yet we do not have any trouble speaking of the movement of sunrise from one meridian to the next. In that case movement of the same object at the same speed for the same time results in different distances covered. In the case of time, it is measured lengths of time between the end points which are different; the end points are still the same.
When we speak of the state of the universe now, that has meaning. When we ask what is happening on Mars or at Alpha Centauri or in the Andromeda Galaxy now, that has meaning. Time might be moving at a different rate in those places, but that does not prevent a time traveler from moving from one universal now to another, nor does it prevent the entire universe from displaying the other now as it was then.
Certainly there are many things about relativity which I do not understand, but I do understand that the astronauts do not return to earth twice. When they parted, it was now; when they returned it was now. Now in both instances was the same moment for both, even though the temporal distances between those nows was different for them. It makes sense that there was a now when the astronauts reached their destination, at which moment there was a matching now on earth. They experience a different length of time, but they exist in the same now.
The Time Traveler's Memories
Before addressing Mr. Koshkin's proposed alternate theory, I need to address one point he raises in passing while expressing it.
But if the metaphysical goal is to have causally consistent timestreams only, it is subverted anyway by the time traveler himself. He pops up out of nowhere, he acts on causes inexplicable in the new history, he is the old history inserted into the new one, he is the uncaused cause. Thus, old and new histories co-exist even in the spreadsheet theory, except the old history is entirely concentrated in the person of the time traveler. He singularly remembers the old future and acts on causes derived from it.
That does not describe the norm for the replacement theory; it misunderstands a fundamental principle of it.
It is stated quite repeatedly in describing N-jumps that they will occur when, and only when, the traveler leaving from point D (the future end of the altered history) is exactly the same in every pertinent way as the traveler leaving from point B (the future end of the original timeline). "Every pertinent way" would include the traveler's memories and knowledge. Thus there are three ways in which this condition can occur:
If arriving in the past, the traveler's impact is sufficiently minimal that nothing he has changed will ever touch the life of his now younger self, then the version of himself which will leave from that future will not have been altered. That means that there will have been changes to history, but the traveler's knowledge will not be different. How much change is too much we cannot easily guess, and it will depend on many factors. If, for example, the time machine is designed to displace the traveler spatially as well as temporally, and our traveler lands on Triton a hundred years ago and does nothing that would be noticed by our own observers, his ability to change the universe without affecting himself is fairly broad. If he lands in the same room ten minutes before his departure, it may be very difficult to isolate his alternate self from any knowledge or suspicion of this. Yet what matters is not that the universe did not change, but that the change did not in any way affect the traveler or the trip.
Given that that scenario may be somewhat improbable, the next best hope is stabilization of a short sawtooth snap. That is, as suggested in the analysis of Back to the Future Part I, the original traveler might have altered his own life significantly, but as he ceases to exist and is replaced by an altered version of himself, that altered version might succeed in creating his own history, becoming the supporting cause of the world he knows. This has the appearance of Uncaused Cause of fixed time theory stories, but resolves them by extrapolating an original now erased history which provided the original cause, that cause replaced by the new cause. While this is yet more improbable, it is not impossible. Simply recognizing that the formation of the future he knows depends on him could be sufficient to ensure that it occurs.
In a variation of the first option, it could be possible to isolate the time traveler sufficiently that he is not exposed to the events he is altering. For this, perhaps an example is needed.
I am fond of the television series Seven Days, despite its flaws. Having given it much thought, I have decided that there is a way for a government agency to run such a program without creating the infinity loops that show appears to create week after week.
The program would require four separate teams: the research team, the time travel team, the response team, and the coordinating team. The most critical aspect of this is that the time travel team is in complete isolation at all times. Any member of that team that visits the outside world is quarantined for seven days (the maximum possible jump to the past) before being returned to sequestration. All incoming communications and media are delayed by a similar time. No one in that unit knows anything that has happened over the most recent week.
When a disaster occurs, the research team immediately gathers all the information available, and delivers it, in a data format that can be protected, copied, and carried easily, to the coordinating team. The coordinating team copies this material to a durable medium, something like a compact disk, and delivers it to the time travel team. The two teams have no contact but for the delivery of the disk; the time travel team thus does not know whether this is the first time through this history or the thirtieth, but they know only what is on the disk. They in turn send their courier back seven days to deliver that same disk to the coordinating team. The coordinating team copies that data and gives the original to the response team, which takes the suggested action to prevent the disaster. The coordinating team also takes the copy of the research--identical even to the fact that this will be the top disk in their bin, the same disk they used in the previous history--and delivers it at the same second to the time travel team. At this point, no one on the time travel team knows that the disaster has been averted, so they take the same actions they took in the previous history, delivering the data to the coordinating team, who also does not know that this has all happened "before" and delivers it in turn to the response team. The response team has exactly the same information under exactly the same conditions, and so takes exactly the same actions, with exactly the same outcome. The coordinating team again forwards an original copy of the data to the time travel team, and history is now fully self-supporting. We have an N-jump termination.
All of which is to say that the time traveler in the timeline that marks the final, stable history of the world knows nothing about any previous history of the world but what he has learned from his predecessor or deduced from such data as apparent uncaused causes. This time traveler has no first-hand knowledge of the original history; that version of him was erased along with everything else in that universe, replaced by the version of himself originating from the universe that remains.
Mr. Koshkin moves from his critique of his understanding of the replacement theory to developing his own theory, which he dubs Supertime. That theory has some similarities to the concept of two-dimensional time which I explore in the page Toward Two-Dimensional Time, and so it must be said in fairness to both of us that at the time Mr. Koshkin was preparing his treatise I was writing mine, and that the original form of my article, A Draft: Toward Two-Dimensional Time, appeared on Gaming Outpost mere days before his first letter appeared in my inbox, but he was not aware of that article. Thus the similarities are not exactly coincidental, but are due to parallel independent consideration of some of the same difficulties suggested by time travel.
Mr. Koshkin subsequently read that article at Gaming Outpost and commented on it there, and I responded there to his comments. Those comments are relevant to this discussion, but not precisely on point.
It is at this point, though, that I shift from explaining and defending the replacement theory, to presenting what I see as the essential flaws of the supertime theory. This would ordinarily, I expect, lead to extended discussion, were it being done by e-mail, as Mr. Koshkin would answer my objections either by explicating or by modifying his theory; to some degree it is regretable that that discussion cannot occur here for the benefit of the general readership. However, the length of Mr. Koshkin's combination critique and presentation as well as the format in which he originally sent it (as a paper in PDF, not as an e-mail) have made this the best format in which to respond, and in the process perhaps curtailed some of the discussion. I welcome anyone who wishes to discuss the matter to e-mail me or to post at Gaming Outpost's official Multiverser forum; I cannot speak for Mr. Koshkin's availability or involvement.
I appreciate the fact that Mr. Koshkin sees his concept of supertime incipient in the replacement theory; indeed, there is a sense in which history existed "before" the time travel event, and in that sense there is some metaphysical reality to what I consider the erased universe. It is the more obvious in the explorations of two-dimensional time, where I use the phrase "lateral time" in much the same sense. However, what appears to me to distinguish the supertime theory from either of those is the insistence that the original history of the universe still not only exists but continues, that the departure of the time traveler from any point along that original history is nothing other than his disappearance from that universe and subsequent appearance in another.
This, to my mind, makes this a variant of parallel or divergent universe theory. It suffers from most of the same flaws considered in The Two Brothers: Why Parallel Dimension Theory Is Not Time Travel. Mr. Koshkin does not deny this, but embraces it as inherent in his theory, and suggests that time travel develops progressively across lateral time--the last experiment in each universe fails, but succeeds in the next universe, leading to a next experiment in that universe. This is not impossible, and it will be admitted that in those branching universes time travel will continue to be explored at least until something like our two brothers paradox or a grandfather paradox disrupts the entire concept.
What is more problematic for me is not so much that history will be created beyond the time traveler's departure, but that the arrival of the time traveler at some point in the past begins to create the new history from that point, moving at the speed of time. This bothers me because it means that time travel to the future is and will always be inherently impossible, even as a return from the past, except in the most peculiar of conceptions.
The first of those conceptions is the simple leaps to the future made in such stories as (most famously) Buck Rogers, where the time traveler is in suspended animation, frozen in time, as it were, not aging or decaying or experiencing the effects of time at all, for the duration. This is not really time travel, but it does have a similar effect, as the traveler arrives in the future without experiencing the intervening time. Perhaps the most significant aspect of this concept is that it is not reversible; one cannot go back to the starting point by a similar process. That is not fatal, but it does illumine the point that this is not really time travel. In any case, under the supertime theory any traveler wishing to travel to the future must in essence wait for the future to arrive. It does not yet exist, and will not exist until it has been created, moment by moment, from the actions in the present. This is true even if the traveler came from an existing future; that is the future of a different history, and not the future of this history.
The second concept of travel "to the future" that is possible on this version of time is that the time traveler can travel to the present in that other timeline. Here Koshin is a bit unclear. It seems on one hand that that history still exists as a separate dimension; it also seems that the part of that future that is still future from the perspective of the time traveler's position in the past is the future of this dimension, existing in the old form until altered by the progression of events moving from the present. Thus it might be that someone who jumped from 1985 to 1955, changed the world, and then jumped back to 1985, would find that the world was unchanged, and if he stayed with time as it moved forward from 1985 it would be as if he had not changed anything--but if he traveled from 1995 to 1965, he would find time changing around him, consequent of his acts in 1955, the wave of change having moved ten years in the ten years since he initiated it.
It seems to me, then, that Mr. Koshkin's "supertime" requires three temporal dimensions.
Time is the medium within which we understand and perceive change. Ordinary linear time requires that we accept change moving in one direction, as we move from past to future. Fixed time theory also maintains a single linear dimension of time, but allows that causes and effects might not be in sequence along it, as the perception of time is not the reality. Parallel and divergent time requires two dimensions, in that each alternate history lies alongside an original; it is possible in divergent dimension theory to make changes moving in this lateral dimension. As Mr. Koshkin observes, replacement theory also has some sense of a second dimension of time, in that there is change from one history to the next, even though only one dimension is perceived and there is only one linear history of the universe.
However, the way supertime theory works, there is linear time, a coherent history from past to present which is being created into the future; and there is lateral time, as universes branch from an arrival point much as in divergent dimension theory, but there is a third axis: at the moment of the branching, the future history of this new universe already exists as identical to the future history of the universe from which the time traveler originated, but as linear history forms the new timeline that future history is changed to conform to the new version of time. This is not an easy image to grasp, but consider it thus. If our time traveler goes from 2010 to 2000, the history of the new world is the new history at 2000, but is still the old history at 2001; it takes a year of movement for 2001 to become the new history, but 2002 is still the old history; it again takes another year for 2002 to become the new history, and still 2003 is the old history. Second by second, the history of the new timeline is being replaced; second by second the complete history of the universe is changing. That change, though, must occur atop the existing timeline, neither in linear time (because in the base universe the future does not yet exist, and linear time is the medium which creates it) nor in lateral time (because lateral time is the creation of new universes themselves) but overlaying this, the medium within which the future history of a secondary universe changes from what it was to what it is becoming.
Further, because of Mr. Koshkin's commitment to true randomness at the quantum level, it must also be the case that all histories of all worlds are constantly undergoing this process, becoming different in unexpected ways. We have constantly multiplying universes, because history keeps changing, but the original history remains. More surprisingly, no two such universes will ever be alike, perhaps not in our age remotely similar, because instant by instant billions of random quantum events are happening throughout the universe, and thus the universe is splitting into billions to the power of billions of different universes. These quantum events do impact the larger world, in releasing subatomic particles which can destabilize other nuclei, mutate cells, or conceivably alter thought processes. The universe we passed through yesterday is already unrecognizably different from that which we remember, because in supertime it is constantly in flux. We cannot easily travel to our own past, because our own past has been replaced a billion times by altered versions. What we mean by time travel is genuinely impossible. The past as we knew it does not exist; we would arrive somewhen else.
I have sometimes been criticized for failing to retain the law of conservation of matter and energy; I have always answered that this law is maintained in the replacement theory: all matter and energy are reconfigured to a position they held elsewhere on the timeline, and that which constitutes the time traveler himself, an increase in matter at the point of his arrival, is simply displaced from the future, and so is balanced by a corresponding decrease in matter at the point of his departure. It is not different from moving an object from one room to another: the matter is in a different location along the temporal dimension, but its displacement will be corrected. The divergent dimension theory is much more susceptible to this criticism, as it appears that the entire universe must be doubled each time someone travels to a point in the past. Yet Mr. Koshkin's Supertime has the total matter and energy doubling innumerable times per second, as random events which could have been otherwise cause the universe to split.
Mr. Koshkin invokes Occam's Razor, the principle that the simplest explanation should always be preferred. There are two problems with that principle. One is that the simplest explanation is not always the correct one, particularly when we do not have all the possible data. It is entirely possible that the truth is much more complicated than the simplest explanation allows. The other is that perfectly reasonable intelligent individuals may reach very different conclusions concerning what is the simplest explanation of any given data set. I will not say that Mr. Koshkin's supertime does not appear simpler to him than my replacement theory does to me; I will say, though, that invoking this three-dimensional time makes it appear much more complicated to me.
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The 14th Annual Webby Awards: Here Are the Nominees
By Samuel Axon 2010-04-13 15:00:25 UTC
The nominees for the 14th Annual Webby Awards have just been announced. For 13 years, the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences has given out Webby Awards to blogs, web TV shows and other new media that has set a standard of excellence in web content.
Nominees who appear in multiple categories include The New York Times (15), College Humor (6), The Onion (6), Next New Networks (6), Funny or Die (5), Crackle (5), NPR (5) and the Cheezburger Network (4).
Mashable is also nominated in three categories: "Best Cultural Blog," "Best Business Blog" and "Best Copy/Writing."
It's hard to miss the prominence of web video in that list. Mobile applications and services have a chance to break out, too. There's a whole group of categories for mobile, including "Best Use of GPS or Location Technology," "Social Networking" and "Best Mobile Entertainment." You'll find entries like Foursquare and Texts From Last Night among the nominees in those categories.
Academy members will select the winners and announce them in a ceremony in New York City on June 14. In the meantime, you can vote in the People's Voice Awards until April 29. Webby Awards winners are asked to make five-word acceptance speeches. For example, previous winner Jimmy Fallon said, "Thank God Conan got promoted" and Al Gore went with, "Please don't recount this vote."
Academy members include Martha Stewart, David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Harvey Weinstein, Biz Stone, Matt Groening, Vint Cerf, Bob Greenberg and Richard Branson.
Here's the complete list of nominees.
For more social media coverage, follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook
Samuel Axon
Samuel Axon is a digital content producer in New York City. He has worked as an editor at Engadget, Mashable and the Joystiq network, and currently leads content strategy as Editorial Director at Sprout Social.
Topics: auto-tune the news, Business, Celebrities, cheezburger network, college humor, crackle, Foursquare, funny or die, NPR, Social Media, social networking, Startups, texts from last night, The New York Times, the onion, web, web 2.0, Web Apps, webby awards, wonderwall.com


Let's face it: Getting sick is the worst. And that stinging feeling in your throat that makes it painful to talk, sleep, or basically move. That's why you need to know about the best teas to relieve a sore throat. (And if you're particularly wise, you'll keep them in the house for when a moment of illness strikes.) So why is tea such a great natural remedy? It has to do with the ingredients or a specific blend of herbs that works to soothe pain and kill bacteria.
Key ingredients in soothing teas include slippery elm, licorice, marshmallow root, peppermint, and turmeric. Slippery elm comes from the bark of a tree and when mixed with water produces a tacky substance called mucilage (a calming salve that was used by soldiers during the American Revolution to treat wounds). In fact, marshmallow root—not to be confused with its sweet form—contains a sticky healing substance similar to that of slippery elm. And when it comes to adding some peppermint, it all has to do with menthol, which works to thin mucus and soothe irritation.
Licorice root has also been proven effective in treating sore throats when mixed with water and gargled. Lastly, turmeric (as you've likely heard) is a key anti-inflammatory.
Now that you know more about these ingredients, scroll through to see some of the top-rated teas that contain them (and their healing properties).
Soothe your throat with tea made from slippery elm, licorice, and marshmallow root. "I've been using it for years—it also helps when you have a stuffy nose," says one Reddit reader.
Turmeric is an amazing anti-inflammatory and can be particularly helpful in healing a sore throat, according to Mia Finkelston, MD, a family physician. In addition to the spice, this tea also contains yummy ingredients like rooibos, vanilla bean, and cinnamon.
"My wife got her degree in vocal performance, so taking care of her voice was crucial," explains one Reddit user, "[This is the] best tea." It's a classic European blend made primarily of elder, yarrow, and calming peppermint.
One reviewer says, "The herbs in this tea help to keep the throat moist and get rid of phlegm and sore throat. I like to take it with honey and propolis." These benefits are likely due to its ancient formula which includes Sterculia, asparagus root, peppermint, and licorice.


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Marc Boblet (born 1 September 1971) is a French Olympic dressage rider.  Representing France, he competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing where he finished 20th in the individual competition and 6th in the team competition.

Boblet also competed at 2014 World Equestrian Games and at two European Dressage Championships (in 2009 and 2013). Boblet qualified for the 2014 edition of Dressage World Cup Final, where he achieved 9th place.

References

Living people
1971 births
Equestrians at the 2008 Summer Olympics
French male equestrians
French dressage riders
Olympic equestrians of France

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text:
Куршу́н-Джами́ (, в переводе «cвинцовая мечеть») — бывшая крымскотатарская мечеть, которую относят к концу XIV века. Расположена в городе Старый Крым (ул. Ленина, 18 / ул. Стамова, 40). В настоящее время лежит в руинах. Имеет статус объекта культурного наследия.

История
Развалины мечети находятся на территории бывшего имения художника Ивана Айвазовского. Название «свинцовая мечеть» может быть связано с тем, что при строительстве мечети облицовочные камни скреплялись свинцовыми перемычками, либо из-за свинцового покрытия купола.

По сведениям Эвлии Челеби, мечеть была построена в 1396 году по указанию внучки Кутлуг Тимура Бай Буглы Хатун и первоначально являлась текие (обителью дервишей). В 1398 году она стала квартальной мечетью.

Архитектура
Сооружение прямоугольное в плане (12,5 × 17,5 м). При строительстве использовался рваный (грубый) камень на известковом растворе и квадратный кирпич. Вход в мечеть устроен в виде портала, обрамлённого пилонами. Важной особенностью архитектуры этой мечети являются парные каменные контрфорсы, усиливающие западную и восточную стены — такие же вертикальные выступы, укрепляющие внешнюю стену, были в мечети Аль-Акмар, построенной 1125 году в Каире. Ещё один контрфорс расположен на южной стене позади ниши михраба. Эта ниша изначально была прямоугольной, но затем изменила очертания, став многоугольной. Минарет располагался в северо-восточном углу, где сохранились остатки его основания. Внутреннее помещение мечети разделялось на две различные по площади части: большое квадратное помещение (10,5 × 10,6 м) с михрабом, перекрытое куполом, и малая прямоугольная северная комната (10,5 × 4,5 м), перекрытая тремя полукруглыми сводами.

Примечания

Мечети Старого Крыма
1396 год в Крыму


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Home > Events > Catalan Film Festival 2020 > The Year of the Discovery
-6.233406-35.049906
Sunday December 6, 2020 12:00 am
live Screening Online Screening Get Directions
The Year of the Discovery
The Year of the Discovery (El Año del Descubrimiento)
Director: Luis López Carrasco
Duration: 200 min Language: Spanish
27-29 November (UK Only). Get your tickets here
In Cinemas:
Glasgow GFT – Sunday 29 Nov. Tickets TBC
In 1992, when the Olympics and the Expo at last presented Spain as an emerging new democracy, Spanish liberal government pushed for an accelerated process of de-industrialisation in the name of a supposed economical progress, leaving the working class in distraught and the trade unions left behind. Sounds familiar?
El Año del Descubrimiento provocatively blends past and present, portraying Spain after the deindustrialization of the 1980s and after the 2008 global financial crisis through the eyes of working-class people in bars and cafes in the southern city of Cartagena.
The Year of the Discovery Recovers a Piece of Spanish History with a Formally Audacious
Perspective (The Film Stage)
A film that sponge up some of the anxieties of the day – from Brexit to the rise of the alt-right, from the
fate of trade unions to that of the EU (Senses of Cinema)
Festivals: Cinéma du Réel Paris – Best Film, Grand Prix Winner, NYFF- New York Film Festival, IFFR – Rotterdam Film Festival, IndieLisboa Independent Film Festival, Thessaloniki Documentary Film, Jeonju Film Festival – Special Jury Prize, Winner
DON'T MISS | LIVE TALK WITH STUC AND WORKERS ASSOCIATIONS
Off the Hook. A conversation with the film co-writer Raul Liarte on the relationship between cinema, workers rights and the (mis)representation of workers in films. Speakers: Raul Liarte (Co-writer of the film), Tommy Breslin (Scottish Trades Union Congress) David Archibald (University of Glasgow), Bechaela Walker (Workers' Educational Association)
Monday 30 November, 6pm – Live on CinemaAttic and STUC Facebook and Youtube channels
We're proud to offer this Live Talk in collaboration with Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC)
CinemaAttic wants to thank all the institutions, partners and friends who made the Catalan Film Festival in this challenging year:
The Year of the Discovery
In 1992, when the Olympics and the Expo at last presented Spain as an emerging new democracy, Spanish liberal government pushed for an accelerated process of de-industrialisation in the name of a supposed economical progress, leaving the working class in distraught and the trade unions left behind. Sounds familiar?El Año del Descubrimiento provocatively blends past and present, portraying Spain after the deindustrialization of the 1980s and after the 2008 global financial crisis through the eyes of working-class people in bars and cafes in the southern city of Cartagena.The Year of the Discovery Recovers a Piece of Spanish History with a Formally AudaciousPerspective (The Film Stage)A film that sponge up some of the anxieties of the day – from Brexit to the rise of the alt-right, from thefate of trade unions to that of the EU (Senses of Cinema)
ShortFilms
iSapiens
Events Categories
ShortFilms (1)
Register for Event: The Year of the Discovery
If you would prefer to call in your registration, please call 1800.785.876
Meaning of Cinemaattic
Cinemaattic fights the dullness of current cinema listings with pop up events showcasing the best on independent cinema form IberoAmerica.
@r_alberola 🍷🍷🍸🍸🍤🍤Jan. 20, 2021
18/3 Dundonald Street
Edinburgh EH3 6RY
info@cinemaattic.com
Cinemaattic is a trade mark of cinemaattic productions CIC registered in company house (SC464771)


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Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association
Chinese Communists Arrest Underground Priests, Nuns, and Seminarians
Security officials of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forcibly carried off three underground Catholic priests and more than a dozen nuns and seminarians last Monday in Baoding, according to local sources.
Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.
7 Nov 2020, 11:42 AM PST
Cardinal Zen: Chinese Underground Church More and More 'Abandoned'
The redoubtable Cardinal Joseph Zen has once again denounced Vatican diplomacy with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying it has left the underground Catholic Church "more and more" abandoned.
Vatican Bishop: 'China Trusts Pope Francis'
A top Vatican bishop has confirmed Pope Francis' wish to visit Beijing and establish formal diplomatic ties with the country, as reported Monday in China's state-run Global Times.
9 Dec 2019, 4:56 AM PST
Gov't-Approved Chinese Bishop Insists State Is Above Religion
Chinese Bishop John Fang Xingyao, president of the state-run Catholic Patriotic Association, said last week that allegiance to the nation must always predominate over allegiance to God.
Chinese Authorities Abduct Underground Bishop for 'Isolation and Indoctrination'
Government officials arrested a bishop of the "underground" Chinese Catholic Church on Friday, sentencing him without trial to a period of "isolation and indoctrination" following the signing of an accord between the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
10 Nov 2018, 10:32 AM PST
Chinese Government Removes Underground Priests for Holding Summer Youth Camp
Communist officials have replaced two underground Gansu province parish priests who were accused of holding a summer camp for a youth group at their church.
Donald Trump Leaves Washington, DC: 'We'll Be Back in Some Form'


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With few travellers, Thailand turns airport into vaccination centre
The inoculations provided a buzz of activity seldom seen this past year at Suvarnabhumi Airport, which has been hit by a dramatic slump in passengers and air traffic from weaker demand and tighter entry curbs.
April 29, 2021, 09:00 IST
People get vaccinated against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok, Thailand April 28, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva
Long queues have returned to Thailand's unusually quiet international airport this week, after it converted its check-in area into an immunisation centre as part of efforts to speed up its COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Cordons and suitcases were replaced with evenly-spaced chairs at check-in counters, where immigration and airport staff and cabin crew lined up to register for the vaccines, of which more than 1,000 will be administered each day.
In 2019, before the pandemic came, Thailand welcomed nearly 40 million tourists, mostly through the main gateway. Thailand had only 6,737 visitors in March.
Staff member Siwaporn Singkhrut, who was among the first of more than 30,000 set to receive vaccines at the airport, said there was plenty of room to expand the service to more people.
"Now, only a portion of the airport is in operation, and it would be even better if it were to fully open to the public so people can come and get vaccinated," she said.
After a year of relatively minor outbreaks, Thailand is experiencing its biggest and fastest spread of the coronavirus, with cases more doubling since the start of April to nearly 61,699, with 178 fatalities.
It recorded 2,012 new cases and 15 more deaths on Wednesday.
Thailand's government has yet to start mass vaccinations and is rushing to secure vaccine supplies to supplement those set to be manufactured locally from June.
covid second wave


Regency Isle 1008 is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom Gulf front condo located in Orange Beach!
Regency Isle is a Gulf Front condo building located in Orange Beach, Alabama between the Perdido Pass Bridge and the Alabama/Florida State line. Condo #1008is a large 2-bedroom, 2 bath condo located on the 10th floor. Each bedroom has it own private bathroom! The kitchen is fully stocked and has a full appliance package and has a breakfast nook with small table as well as a large dining room table. There is also a wet bar in the hallway with a free standing ice maker. The living room has comfortable seating, a large flat screen TV, and offers amazing views of the ocean through the floor to ceiling windows. The oversized balcony has 2 lounge chairs and 4 top table and chairs!
Master Bedroom - King Bed, closet, private bathroom with Shower and separate tub, and private balcony access (South Balcony).
Guest Bedroom 1 - King Bed, closet, private bathroom with shower/tub combo, and private balcony access (North Balcony).


At Lakeshore Gastroenterology and Liver Disease Institute we strive to make patients and their families feel as comfortable as possible while at our offices. We have provided a photo tour of our locations so you may become familiar with some of the common areas in our practice.
We have convenient locations in the near Northshore and Chicago's Northwest Suburbs. See our Des Plaines and Oak Park Offices here in the photo gallery.


Completing a project in my shop usually plays out like this: first, I dance around and scream "It's finished, it's finished!" as loud as I can. I'm ecstatic that I managed to finish the damn thing so I can move on to something else. Once I realize that no one else in the house actually cares, I stop screaming and start to feel a little sad. I've invested a lot of effort and emotion into the project which can make it difficult to move on.
My curved-front desk project came to a close over the holidays. It was a long and complex project, and I have a lot of memories stored up in it. My projects act like a real-world version of Professor Dumbledore's Pensieve. Every piece of the project triggers a vivid recollection of my state of mind, surroundings, and worries at the time that I made it. It's a lot like hearing a song from years ago that instantly transports you back to that time in your life.
A hand-made piece of furniture isn't just some planks of wood stuck together. Its a culmination of dozens of hours of work and thousands of decisions. Everything I've ever made is a physical representation of that period of my life capable of transporting me back through time. And that is one thing I know I'll never get from a store-bought piece of furniture.


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Tracy Chamoun
For Lebanon
Same Old – Same Old Government – By Tracy Chamoun
TIME TO STOP DREAMING AND FACE THE SISYPHEAN REALITY OF LEBANON TODAY – BY TRACY CHAMOUN
A RECIPE FOR THE DECIMATION OF THE NATION: DESPOTISM AND STUPIDITY – By Tracy Chamoun
Finance Card For The Poor – A Mirage In The Lebanese Desert Of Incompetence. By Tracy Chamoun
MARITIME BORDER NEGOTIATIONS – IS IT A FAMILY BUSINESS? BY TRACY CHAMOUN
Afif Bou Nassif on Same Old – Same Old Gove…
Richard Edward Jaoud… on Same Old – Same Old Gove…
TRACY DANY CHAMOUN on Same Old – Same Old Gove…
Lilian on Same Old – Same Old Gove…
merachidsaab on A RECIPE FOR THE DECIMATION OF…
Marc Haddad on Finance Card For The Poor – A…
Toni on MARITIME BORDER NEGOTIATIONS…
merachidsaab on MARITIME BORDER NEGOTIATIONS…
Henry Elkhoury on Wanted in Lebanon: An interim…
Lena Gedeon on Let them eat cake…No governmen…
Reflections on the unintended consequences of the recent chaos in the Middle East
In scientific thought, a main component of "Chaos Theory" is the idea that even very small events can cause very complex results. It also posits that these events can never be sufficiently articulated to allow for long-range predictions.
With that in mind, my return to Lebanon two years ago coincided with the escalation of the war in Syria and the subsequent chaos that has followed in both countries – Lebanon and Syria. Who could have imagined that the systematic destruction of a nation like Syria could lead to a series of such monumental unintended consequences, as we are witnessing today?
Some of these unintended consequences are:
The changing role of US foreign policy concerning Israel.
The dominance of Russian Diplomacy in the Middle East.
The rise of Persian and Shia influence in the area.
The breakdown of the decades long Saudi–US alliance.
The spread and organization of Al Qaeda and their affiliates in the region.
The destabilization of Lebanon with the unregulated influx of over a million refugees representing one fourth of the population.
The breakdown of the Lebanese political system.
The survival of President Bashar El-Assad against all odds.
To name but a few…
In hindsight, from the beginning I could see that things were not as they were portrayed, and that behind the Syrian crisis was the planned destruction of a nation led by extremists who's foreign sponsors manipulated the world media to justify their actions.
This strategy formed the basis for a long-range directive to fragment the region into confessional enclaves. The latest Shia / Sunni divide is a by-product of such a man-made crisis in the region. The raging conflict and terrorist based strife that it has generated, has played into the "divide to rule" adage, which has systematically been at the forefront of Zionist tactics in the Arab world since Israel's inception.
Naomi Klein describes these man-made crises in her book "The Shock Doctrine" as a strategies to facilitate the financial and political exploitation of war-torn, socially destroyed nations, in order to push through controversial change and exploitative policies, while citizens are too weak to create an effective resistance.
In any event, the western medias' portrayal of the systematic breakdown of the traditional Arab leaderships in the Levantine world (Note I am not referring to the Arabian Peninsula where the most repressive regimes still exist impervious to popular uprisings) and their ensuing chaos has been from the outset propagandist distortions of the realities on the ground. The western media cleverly dubbed the fracturing of nations an Arab spring!
Neither in Libya, Egypt, or Tunisia can we call the outcomes spring-like at all. In Egypt we witnessed instead the planned takeover of the Moslem Brotherhood who had been preparing in hiding for this day, for decades. When finally, the opportunity came with Qatari backing to exert their power, what had been portrayed as a popular uprising, became an opportunity for these religious zealots to impose their rule. The Egyptian army subsequently overthrew them and quashed their ambitions with the acquiescence of the West, where ironically, the military intervention in a popular uprising was accepted for Egypt, but was not so for Syria.
In Jordan, interestingly the political thrust of the Moslem Brotherhood was contained. To an outsider, one could speculate that a line in the sand had been drawn as far as, toppling a monarchy with ancestral origins that linked them to Mecca and the Prophet. Maybe, the Saudis and Qataris could not risk setting a precedent by the toppling a historic monarchy for fear that it could ultimately happen to them. King Abdullah had a close call, but the attempt of the Moslem Brotherhood to topple him for was temporarily eliminated. However, Syria was not so lucky.
For whatever reason the problems escalated in Syria, including:
The initial mismanagement of the government forces' use of violence to repress unrest.
The underestimation by the government of the scale of the problem at hand.
The initial miscalculation by the government of the degree of implication of foreign powers in the financing and arming of the rebellion.
The commitment of the West to continue to escalate the violence by sending foreign fighters and technology to Syria, in order to topple the Assad regime.
The tactical usurpation of the rebels' cause by extremist factions funded by Qatar and Saudi Arabia to pursue their Jihad.
The reluctance of Saudi Arabia to concede defeat in the call for Assad's resignation and their continued funding of the war.
All these elements have succeeded in ushering in a series of unintended outcomes that have completely overturned the balance of power on the world stage, and have introduced a new order that will have untold repercussions in the whole region.
The question becomes when do unintended consequences become an opportunity for positive change? And how does one take control of one's destiny in the reshuffling of the deck?
Tags al Qaeda, Bashar al-Assad, Chaos Theory, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, Syria


King Abdullah, who is currently ruling Jordan, is married to Rania al-Abdullah of Palestinian origin. He is the first king of Jordan who has never had more than one wife. They have four children: (Crown) Prince Hussein (born 28 June 1994), Princess Iman, Princess Salma and Prince Hashem (fun fact Prince Hashem shares a birthday with his dad).
Jordan is strategically located at the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, the capital, Amman, is Jordan's most populous city as well as the country's economic, political and cultural center.
You can see a beautiful mix of cultural in Jordan, where you can find the beautiful Bedouins with their traditions north and south the country, where people live simple Bedouin lives along with farms and big traditional houses.
Jordan has been inhabited by humans since the Paleolithic period. Three stable kingdoms emerged there at the end of the Bronze Age: Ammon, Moab and Edom. Later rulers include the Nabataean Kingdom, the Roman Empire, and the Ottoman Empire.
Petra, one of the world's new 7 wonders originally known to the Nabataeans as Raqmu, is a historical and archaeological city in southern Jordan. The city is famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system. Another name for Petra is the Rose City due to the color of the stone out of which it is carved, visiting Petra is one experience you can never relive anywhere else, starting from the siq where you walk between two reddish stoned mountains, until you reach the treasurer which is a spectacular art piece carved in pink stones, trust me when I say I have seen many beautiful things, but nothing was compared to the moment I saw the first glance of the treasurer!
Along with this, Petra has many beautiful places you need to see, (qaser el bnet, el mudarraj, and Indiana johns) and always remember there is so much more to a site than what we can see in confines of a screen or read in black and white letters on a page.
Along with petra, there many magical places in Jordan that are a must go destinations! stay tuned for more articles about the beautiful Jordan!


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« 133 Lectures about the Foundations of Modern Physics (Stanford Courses – Prof. Leonard Susskind)
Vinod Khosla: "20% doctor included": speculations & musings of a technology optimist or "Technology will replace 80% of what doctors do" »
Graphene Becomes Magnetic for First Time
May 13, 2013 by 2012pharmaceutical
See on Scoop.it – Amazing Science
Researchers from both the University of Madrid Complutense and the Universidad Autonoma working together at the IMDEA-Nanociencia Institute in Spain have for the first time given graphene magnetic properties, opening up the potential that the material can find new applications in future spintronic devices. Unlike electronics in which an electron's charge-carrying capabilities are exploited to create circuits, spintronics involves the quantum mechanical property of electrons to spin, which creates a magnetic moment that makes the electrons behave briefly like magnets. When in the presence of a magnetic field the spin of the electrons moves either into a parallel or antiparallel position in relation to the field. This positioning can be translated into a binary signal.
The trials and tribulations trying to make graphene applicable to electronics despite its lack of an inherent band gap have been well documented. However, what many have overlooked in the quest to bring graphene to electronics is that it doesn't really lend itself very well to spintronics either. Since 2007, researchers have looked at graphene as the material for channels in spintronic devices. At this function, it appears to excel. In fact, just this yearrecord distances were achieved for carry information using the spin of electrons.
Unfortunately, when two-dimensional graphene is laid out flat, the motion of electrons moving through the material doesn't influence the spin of other electrons that they pass. Instead the direction and the spin of electrons remain random rather than patterned. More than two years ago, researchers at the University of Copenhagen discovered that that all changed if you curved the graphene into a cylinder. In that shape, the movement of electrons did influence the spin of other electrons, opening the door to their potential in spintronics.
In order for a material to be have magnetic properties a majority of the electrons in the material must be spinning in the same direction. Despite the work of the Copenhagen researchers and many others, it has remained a challenge to get graphenes' electrons to spin in the same direction instead of just randomly. But the Spanish researchers believe they have accomplished it.
"In spite of the huge efforts to date of scientists all over the world, it has not been possible to add the magnetic properties required to develop graphene-based spintronics. However these results pave the way to this possibility," says Prof. Rodolfo Miranda, Director of IMDEA-Nanociencia, in a press release.
The research, which was published in the journal Nature Physics ("Long-range magnetic order in a purely organic 2D layer adsorbed on epitaxial graphene"), first grew ultra pure graphene film over a crystal inside of a vacuum. While still in the vacumm, the researchers evaporated molecules of a semiconductor on the graphene's surface. When they observed the material with a scanning tunneling microscope, they were surprised to discover that the semiconductor molecules were organized and regularly distributed across the surface of the graphene and its crystal substrate.
Since spintronics hasn't really progressed beyond its application into devices beyond hard-disk drives, the ability to give graphene magnetic properties likely won't bring spintronic devices into other applications any sooner. But these kinds of breakthroughs do have a way of opening up unexpected possibilities.
See on spectrum.ieee.org


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Q: How to prevent creating a new item in UpdateItem if the item does not exist I am running an AWS Lambda service written in Node.js that interacts with a DynamoDB database. One of my methods performs an update (AWS.DynamoDB.DocumentClient().update) on DynamoDB to update a specific item. My problem is, however, that when I try to update an item and that item does not exist, then the update method adds this new item to my table. This behavior is the default described in the documentation too.
I do not want my method to create a new item if it does not yet exist. I want this to be an update only if the record exists. If it doesn't exist it must do nothing. How do I achieve this? I expect I should be able to use a ConditionalExpression to achieve this, but the attempts I've made at doing this have not been successful.
An example of current parameters I'm sending to the update function is given below. In this example I want to update the user that has userId 123 and I want to set the isActive field to 'false' for this user (but I only want to do this if user 123 actually exists!)
const params = {
    TableName: 'users',
    Key: {
        userId: '123',
    },
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
        ':isActive': 'false'
    },
    UpdateExpression: 'SET isActive = :isActive',
    ReturnValues: 'ALL_NEW',
};

A: You can use ConditionExpression for this. The update will happen if the key (i.e. userId) is present and update attribute (i.e. isActive) is not equal to the new value that you are trying to update.
ConditionExpression: "userId = :userIdVal and isActive <> :isActiveVal",
ExpressionAttributeValues: {
    ':isActive': 'false',
    ':userIdVal': '123'
},

EDIT:-
This should work. It should be ConditionExpression (not ConditionalExpression).
var params = {
    TableName: 'users',
    Key: {
        'userId': '123'
    },
    UpdateExpression: 'SET isActive = :isActiveVal',
    ConditionExpression: 'userId = :userIdVal and isActive <> :isActiveVal',
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
        ':userIdVal': '123',
        ':isActiveVal': 'false'
    },
    ReturnValues: "ALL_NEW"
};

Update, 2020:
You can use attribute_exists in ConditionExpression to check if the item exists or not. (Sources: 1, 2)
const params = {
    TableName: 'users',
    Key: {
        'userId': '123'
    },
    UpdateExpression: 'SET isActive = :isActiveVal',
    ConditionExpression: 'attribute_exists(userId)',
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
        ':isActiveVal': 'false'
    },
    ReturnValues: "ALL_NEW"
};

A: ConditionExpression is the way to go, but you can also use the attribute_exists function :
ConditionExpression: 'attribute_exists(userId)'

It will only update the line with the correct key and throw a ConditionalCheckFailedException if requested key doesn't exist.
The goal is more obvious and you can skip the extra userId binding.
ref : https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/Expressions.OperatorsAndFunctions.html

A: I bumped into a somehow similar problem using attribute_exists, the only difference is, I need to query from the table and get only the record that does have the attribute I need. Using ConditionExpression did not work for me. Thought of sharing it here in case someone is in need.
Here, if the subscriberKey is equal to given param and the attribute_exists (mobileNumber) within the record, it returns true, false otherwise.

var params = {
    TableName : table_name,
    IndexName: "subsciberKey-index",
    KeyConditionExpression: "subscriberKey = :subscriberKey",
    FilterExpression: "attribute_exists(mobileNumber)",
    ExpressionAttributeValues: {
        ":subscriberKey": subscriberNo
    }
};

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