text:
DFW lies in the arms of sleep's cousin. I think suddenly of the work of David Lewis on modal realism. My friend Peter King summarises:
When I profess realism about possible worlds, I mean to be taken literally. Possible worlds are what they are, and not some other thing. If asked what sort of thing they are, I cannot give the kind of reply my questioner probably expects: that is, a proposal to reduce possible worlds to something else.
I can only ask him to admit that he knows what sort of thing our actual world is, and then explain that possible worlds are more things of that sort, differing not in kind but only in what goes on at them.
(Lewis [1973], p.85)
This passage contains, or implies, the heart of David Lewis's modal realism. It explicitly states three of his six central doctrines about possible worlds, and implies at least one of the remaining three. The three doctrines explicitly formulated are:
1. Possible worlds exist -- they are just as real as our world;
2. Possible worlds are the same sort of things as our world -- they differ in content, not in kind;
3. Possible worlds cannot be reduced to something more basic -- they are irreducible entities in their own right.
From these three claims (and from the second in particular) we can see that, when we talk of our own world as being the only actual world, we cannot be asserting that our world has a special property not found in (or instantiated by) any other world - the property of actuality - but that we must be using the term `actual' much as we use the term `here' or `now' -- to indicate our position. This gives us Lewis's fourth doctrine:
4. `Actual' is indexical. When we distinguish our world from others by claiming that it alone is actual, we mean only that it is ours -- we live here.
Here, where we live, DFW wrote unselfconsciously about the elitism of professional tennis, the sport he knew best. Writing about Michael Joyce, then #64 in the world, at the Canadian Open, he said that he realised that he did not even play the same game as J; that he did not mention that he had played tennis, that Joyce, being a nice guy, would probably have been happy to hit a few balls back and forth, but to do so, to go on the same court with him, would have been obscene. (Here's DFW on Roger Federer as Religious Experience; an assessment of DFW as sportswriter can be found here.)
Here, where we live, DFW did not bring the same standards to writing. He disliked texts that show contempt for the reader, whether by being unabashedly avant-garde or unabashedly commercial. He wanted to write texts that would challenge readers but be enjoyable enough to encourage them to take up the challenge - no easy proposition.
I contemplate this; I then contemplate, with some bafflement, critical response to DFW's collection of stories, Oblivion, generally perceived as difficult. Wyatt Mason, in the LRB, described them as "uncompromisingly difficult", went on to gesture at the immense effort required of the reader to puzzle out what was going on:
Imagine a reader being schooled by Wallace. See the reader sit there, Oblivion in hand, already crafting an official complaint in his head, unconvinced before an apparently pompous narrator. Let's acknowledge and appreciate this reader's inability to see such a narrator otherwise. For why should the reader be swayed? Why should he grant Wallace any of his demands for surfeit goodwill, when the reader feels, not unreasonably, that Wallace is making unreasonable demands?
and concluded:
Wallace has the right to write a great book that no one can read except people like him. I flatter myself to think that I am one of them, but I haven't any idea how to convince you that you should be, too; nor, clearly, does Wallace. And it might not be the worst thing in the world, next time out, when big novel number three thumps into the world, were he to dig deeper, search longer, and find a more generous way to make his feelings known.
This (just to be clear) was a sympathetic review defending DFW from misunderstanding and hostility from James Wood.
Well, this is the world we live in, brothers and sisters. It's a rum old place. Oblivion doesn't strike me as a difficult, never mind uncompromisingly difficult, book. Plato can be difficult; the speeches in Thucydides drive strong men to drink; Kant is difficult, Wittgenstein is difficult, David Lewis is not for the faint of heart. But Oblivion? DFW had a ravishingly lovely gift for voice; he took the sort of pleasure in variety that we see in (say) Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition or Debussy's Preludes. Why would a reader labour grumpily through the stories in search of hidden meanings? Let alone blame the profligate author for lack of generosity? I've no idea, but one thing is certain: in this world, here, now, there is no place for a Roger Federer among writers.
If David Lewis was right, there are an infinite number of possible worlds as real as this one; there are an infinite number of possible worlds with a person genetically identical to DFW. If you believe in modal realism, suicide in the particular world you happen to inhabit probably doesn't look like that big a deal: in this particular world, through circumstances beyond my control, I find myself cabined, cribbed, confined, but an infinite number of alter egos have different histories. If there is any set of circumstances at all in which a person genetically identical to me can be a great writer, that person actually exists in at least one other possible world. Perhaps there is no set of circumstances in which this person, here, now, can match that alter ego or even come close. But if those infinite others all exist, perhaps it doesn't matter if one dies here, now. (I'm not convinced that this is rational - it's a bit like saying that I don't mind dying as long as my twin has a wonderful life on Mars - why exactly does bringing my twin into the picture make a difference? Rational or not, the thought that this particular botched self might not be all that there is is strangely comforting. [I am not, of course, referring at this point to DFW.])
To the best of my knowledge, David Lewis was unique in being a true believer in modal realism. Most people who work in this field use possible worlds as some kind of figure of speech; they don't think they're as real as Canada or Mars. So there's no reason whatever to think that DFW was a modal realist. On the contrary, he probably thought that this world, here, now, was all there is. This world, here, now, was self-evidently not good for him; there were things he needed that it didn't give him. But he seems to have thought that in this world, here, now, many people had been cheated by the educational system into thinking they didn't like literature; that many people could be brought to surpass what they thought they could do, if someone was willing to take the trouble. We were lucky to have had him.
Posted by Helen DeWitt at 2:08 PM
Labels: David Foster Wallace
Mithridates said...
Evan Lavender-Smith said...
I think that many readers -- even otherwise pretty smart readers -- cannot seem to accept that density or maximalism in prose or thought might actually serve as an invitation to something very simple: healthy mental activity. When people speak of difficulty in Wallace -- in Wallace especially -- they are speaking either out of 1) ignorance, or 2) fear. I think it's the latter that is most common, at least where I live: so many of us are so very certain that beauty and truth must arise from what is simple and obvious, so many are afraid of entertaining the possibility that the discovery of beauty or truth might require a bit of patience or thought or activity. One of the very last things I said to him was that as I've become more engaged in politics I've become more willing to cast my thinking about writers and readers in political terms: the vast majority of "writers of literary fiction" and "readers of literary fiction" are staunch conservatives, pure and simple, unwilling, unwavering, they know what they like and they want to keep it that way. He didn't really buy it. I don't know that I do either: most readers crave the kind of boldness and difference and complexity that requires something more than they're accustomed to giving, they just don't know that they crave it because they don't seek it out and rarely if ever happen upon it. That was one of his greatest gifts to his readers, as I see it: he reminded so many people how fun it can be to think when they read.
Helen DeWitt said...
Mith, what are you doing?
evan, Wallace often writes very long sentences, but it seems to me that the reader who trusts him normally finds that it all makes sense in the end - and that the sense is not, for the most part, one that is difficult to grasp. I got the impression from Mason that he was somehow taking the simple fact of sentence length as in itself a source of difficulty. Another perceived source of difficulty was the use of an unsympathetic narrator - both Mason and Wood seem to have thought this would put readers off.
It's a bit depressing to see this kind of thing. Modern readers are not very likely to catch allusions to Greek myths, but they tend to be sophisticated in recognising the clichés and jargon of our time; I wonder how many would really find Wallace difficult if they had not been told that this was a very very difficult writer.
You may be right that readers are put off by ignorance or fear.
"Now he is scattered among a hundred cities
Are modified in the guts of the living."
Regardless of how difficult or challenging or worthwhile or masturbatory DFW's prose was, he was one of the few who worked hard to push the novel someplace new. I think his work fell victim in some degree to marketing. He was marketed as a "challenging new writer for our time," and it became very difficult to read what he actually wrote through that hype. In another possible world, perhaps everything is the same except he got Alice Sebold's publicist, and is now a beloved author of the Winfrey set.
Maybe I'm just a grim writer who believes few readers see anything that publicists don't tell them to see, but I like to imagine a world where the "hard" novels just get to be novels.
nsiqueiros said...
damn.
Sorry, Helen. I didn't like my comment. The point of it was that I don't understand Mason. He tells us in his latest post to read Emerson on Goethe and Montaigne, but if he looked at Emerson beyond the self-help nuggets, he might see that Emerson can actually be quite difficult to follow. It's difficult to restate some of his 'arguments' beyond plucking out quotations. Montaigne and Goethe could also be considered difficult. Montaigne wrote a very long book of essays with lots of quotations from classical sources and arguments that evolve in complex ways; Goethe wrote one of the most autistic play ever, Faust Part 2. Goethe in particular could be extremely ungenerous. If we used Mason's standards here to judge literary merit not only would there be no Goethe, there'd be no Emerson to write about him. Mason admires Rimbaud. I don't see how someone who admires Rimbaud could demand that contemporary authors be more generous. (Not that I myself think DFW ungenerous.)
Helen, question: are you implying in that the cliches and jargon are in DFW or in Wood and Mason?
I don't know, I can't read Wood and haven't read much Mason. I suppose I was just riffing. (These are among my first www blog comments ever, Helen; I've had an incredibly difficult weekend and this seems to help somehow ... I'm occupied.) I believe I have difficulty with the word difficulty when it's used to talk about writing. The pejorative connotations: tedious, impenetrable, etc. Some of the writers you mention, like Kant and Wittgenstein, are not particularly difficult, as I see it -- they are challenging, certainly, and the excitement of the challenge, for me, tends to defeat any occasional "difficulty." Wallace never challenges me as a reader the way Kant or Wittgenstein does, but I believe he challenged form and thought in similar ways. I'm just not a fan of the word, I guess: difficulty. Is Bernhard difficult? No way. Anyone can read and understand Bernhard. (This despite what Ben Marcus says; I thought that was a huge misstep in his essay: Correction, now there's a difficult novel. I remember feeling like he hadn't even read the book.) Does Bernhard challenge me as a reader? Not really. But Bernhard and Wallace (and Kant and Wittgenstein) all challenge presuppositions about form and thought and language, they all challenge themselves, they all challenge me as a writer, certainly. In my experience as a reader of Ulysses, for example, I feel occasional challenge and little difficulty; in my experience as a reader of Finnegans Wake -- and lots of pretty famous 20th-century poetry -- I feel regular difficulty and occasional challenge. (This speaks to my deficiencies as a particular reader, I'm sure, and is probably not generalizable. I'd like to imagine that Finnegans Wake will some day, after I've become a better reader, move a bit further into the challenging column.) Infinite Jest was very rarely difficult for me, as a reader, and, as reader, challenging only in its length -- I had other non-reading responsibilities while reading, etc. And I'm certainly no gifted reader, only an enthusiastic one. As a writer, on the other hand, Infinite Jest and Oblivion have posed monumental challenges for me, harrowing difficulties.
While I'm at it, Wood seems to like unsympathetic narrators and characters. I remember his praise of Roth's Sabbath's Theater and Hamsun's Hunger. Perhaps Wood's problem is that Wallace's narrators put him off because they so thoroughly embody these voices, speaking in what he would call a debased language.
I know some really stupid people who like to read wallace, and some smart ones. But the really stupid ones are like, really stupid.
Roger Penrose in a book from the nineteen eighties offered, maybe he was quoting, an experiment: record to the minutest detail the components of the human body, transport that information to a far-away place, say Mars, and then put that info to work and design, construct a human body replica, atom-by-atom, proton-by-proton or whatever happens to be the most basic element. Then what? Would there be two of you?; would you just destroy the original and call it transport? And then wake up in the new exact replica?
I wonder whether taking comfort in or embracing the possibility of nearly parallel selves is rooted in the same sort of, spare me, metaphysics that allows the Penrose puzzle to make sense at all.
Second and generally since I just stumbled here recently, Arabic and Hebrew are interesting -- though I can't speak at all for the latter, just assuming similarity -- but I get the impression that while sentence structure is weird and some of the verb forms in Arabic are fun -- the one for verbs of color, for instance -- they're not really that radical face-to-face with English grammar.
When I think of big breaks the two languages that come to my mind (and probably no one else's) are Thai, because it might not have pronouns (think translating Descartes here, the imagine the historical impact) and Klamath, because it might not have verb stems, or its verb stems might always require two fundamental parts which could be interchangeable.
This just counts if distance of difference is what we're going for.
Lachmann Research Fellowship at LSE
Caderno de Saramago
iterated polarisation games
fiddling while Rome...
that is not what I meant, at all
appalled
against mimesis
chartjunk of the day


The diocese of evansville has released a list of what they call 'credible' allegations against the clergy?
44news reporter joylyn bukovac is live now with an update and the diocese's response?
The catholic diocese of evansville hired a private investigator to review all priests dating back to 1944.
That's when the diocese was founded.
The investigation started in october.
The report released today includes the names of 12 priests who are accused of sexually abusing minors.
There are 42 allegations in total.
About half of these priests were either removed or dispensed from the clergy.
One priest had 18 allegations against him but admitted to none.
Of the 42 total allegations only six were admitted to.
One priest was even convicted back in 1?96 but returned to active ministry three years later.
Most of the allegations happened decades ago.
Some dating back to 75 years ago when the diocese was founded.
Two of the priests on the list died before the investigation even started.
Bishop siegel says he ask the forgiveness of those who suffered sexual abuse by members of the clerg?
No matter how long ago, as well as of all the people of the church.
The full list of names can be found on our website?


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Change!… Jihadist Mastermind Behind Sadat Assassination Is Now Part of Egyptian Political Process
Published December 4, 2011 at 3:44pm
Aboud al-Zumour, the jihadist mastermind behind the assassination of Anwar Sadat, is now out of jail and ready to participate in the Egyptian political process.
Anwar Sadat was assassinated on October 6, 1981 during a military parade. He signed a peace treaty with Israel a year earlier, on March 26, 1979.
Aboud al-Zumour, the mastermind behind the assassination, is looking forward to participating in Egyptian politics.
The Telegraph reported, via Atlas:
Aboud al-Zumour is one Egyptian prisoner over whose long incarceration by the Mubarak regime few human rights groups or American diplomats shed a tear.
Convicted of masterminding the assassination of the late President Anwar Sadat, he was a close friend of Ayman Zawahiri, the man now leading al-Qaeda. He still speaks with admiration of his former cell-mate, who he says is a "very kind and nice man".
He backs "resistance" against the "occupiers" in the Middle East – America and Israel. In his ideal Egypt, the sale of alcohol would be banned, beaches would be segregated and thieves would have their hands cut off – though, he says "it would not happen because no-one would steal".
Until last week Islamists like him were at the radical fringe, but the first results from last week's election have shown a staggering success for Islamist parties like Mr Zumour's…
…"We want to join a coalition," he told The Sunday Telegraph in an interview at his modest apartment not far from the pyramids of Giza.
"People must learn to trust and be comfortable with our Islamic vision, and know that we value peace and mercy and justice and development."
Mr Zumour spent 30 years in prison for the Sadat killing before being released after the revolution that toppled Mr Sadat's successor, Hosni Mubarak. He is now on the council of Gamaa Islamiya, another militant group previously responsible for numerous murderous attacks on tourists and civilian targets that has, like him, "gone straight".
Arab Spring.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Below is a link to a terrific discussion with Moms -- who speak from personal experience -- about factors that affect fertility and a healthy pregnancy; including diet, nutritional supplements and factors that reduce risks in pregnancy, gestational diabetes, C-sections, pre-eclampsia, low birth weight, premature births and more. This is valuable information for expectant moms and dads and those who hope to be one day. Please listen in and share.
My recent post, "Does An Apple A Day Keep Statins Away?" referred to a study by a prominent British doctor and his research team, published in the British Medical Journal, that showed that eating an apple a day (in place of less healthy foods) may be just as effective as statin drugs at reducing your risk of cardiovascular death without the side effects and cost of the drugs. Just yesterday, I came across an article, "An Apple A Day Helps Prevent Heart Disease In Just One Month", which referenced an Ohio State University study recently published online in The Journal of Functional Foods on this very same topic.
Are you Exposing Your Children or Grandchildren to a "Toxic Brew" In Your Home?
Statins are among the most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S. Just the other day, I learned of another friend whose doctor has recommended a statin drug to reduce cholesterol levels. Below, Dr. Steve Chaney reports on studies that show the benefit of dietary fiber from apples to lower cholesterol and the risk of heart attack and cardiovascular disease without the often serious side effects of statin drugs.
I know of many people who suffer from and undergo surgery for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. In today's Health Tips from the Professor, Julie Donnelly, LMT, a Deep Muscle Massage Therapist with 20 years of experience specializing in the treatment of chronic joint pain and sports injuries, tells you how to stop carpal tunnel syndrome pain without drugs or surgery. Scroll all the way down for Julie's tips for dealing with hip pain, foot pain (plantar fasciitis) and trigger therapy; and to get a free copy of Julie's eBook, "Stop Pain FAST". To quote the Professor, Dr. Steve Chaney, "Whenever, I have pain and stiffness I use her techniques. They work!"
For many of us, it's been a very cold and snowy winter. I'm fortunate to work from home so when weather conditions make it difficult to get out, I don't really mind; however, I know that for many, being stuck inside contributes to the "winter blues" which are very common during January and February after the fun and festivities of the holidays are over. According to Michael Holick, PH.D., M.D. (The Vitamin D Solution), the onset of a more serious condition, "Seasonal Affective Disorder" or "SAD" tends to coincide with the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year holidays. Anti-depressants -- the second most prescribed medications in the U.S. after cholesterol medications -- are often prescribed for "SAD". Fortunately, there are safe and natural ways to beat the "winter blues." Read below for "10 Simple Solutions" and listen to the audio, "Staying Cheery During The Dark Days of Winter" for a discussion about the nutritional connection to mood swings, depression and low energy, especially during the dark days of winter. Please share this post with others who might benefit and enjoy what's left of the winter!
It's that time of year when people are coughing, sneezing, coming down with colds, flu, stomach bugs and more. A strong immune system -- not a flu shot -- is the key to staying healthy. Supported by four human clinical studies, Shaklee's NutriFeron helps your immune system perform at its peak so you stay healthy and strong. It is a MUST for travelers! Take NutriFeron daily for best results. Shaklee members save 15% to 25% and now, for a limited time, you can join free and receive a free gift. Read below for details.


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Shabbat HaGadol 5774 – Becoming Elijah
Eliyahu Ha-navi
Eliyahu Ha-Tishbi
Eliyahu, Eliyahu, Eliyahu ha-Gil'adi
Bimheira b'yameinu, yavo eileinu
Im mashiach ben David, im mashiach ben David.
Elijah the Prophet.
Elijah the Tishbite.
Elijah the Gileadite.
Speedily, in our days, may he come to us
with the Messiah, son of David.
We'll be singing these words at the end of our meals in just a couple of days as we invite the biblical prophet Elijah to join us at our Seder for a drink.
When we actually read the stories about Elijah in the Bible, though, he seems like an unlikely drinking buddy.
Elijah lived in the ninth century, b.c.e., during the reign of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Jezebel is a Pheonician princess who brings her worship of Baal with her. Her devoted husband Ahab even builds a Temple where Israelites can worship the God of Israel and Baal side-by-side.
Elijah is not happy. He challenges the four hundred fifty prophets of a Baal to a showdown on Mount Carmel, and invites all of Israel to watch. It's a great scene, one that always reminds me of a professional wrestling match. In bombastic language, Elijah challenges the audience: "How long will you keep hopping between two opnions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him." (I Kings 18:21)
The silence is deafening.
The four hundred fifty prophets set out their sacrifices and pray to their god to send fire down to consume them… and nothing happens. Elijah taunts them: "C'mon you guys. Baal can't hear you. Maybe he's asleep, or on a journey. Shout louder." So they scream and shout, and gash themselves with knives. Nothing happens.
Now it's Elijah's turn. He sets out his sacrifices, and then turns on the fire hose. He douses everything with water until it's streaming in rivulets down the mountain. Elijah then prays to God, and fire shoots down from heaven, consume the burnt offering in an instant. The crowd goes wild. At Elijah's command, they slaughter the prophets of Baal.
Jezebel is not happy, so she puts a bounty on Elijah's head. Elijah flees to the South, arriving at Mount Horeb, otherwise known as Sinai, where he stays for forty days and forty nights and encounters God in the midst of a storm. Sound familiar?
Elijah eventually returns to Israel, where he continues his prophesizing and miracle-working. He takes on an apprentice named Elisha. Before he leaves with his new master, Elisha wants to gives his mother and father a hug and say goodbye. Elijah does not approve.
Elijah grows old, but he does not die. Instead, a fiery chariot with flaming horses scoops him up and carries him off into the sky. It's the ninth century b.c.e. version of a Harley Davidson.
That's Elijah. He is not a patient prophet. He is zealous for God, but does not relate well to people. He sees the world in black and white. You are either for God, or for Baal. Elijah does not seem to understand that life is full of gray zones.
After his fiery exit into the heavens, legends about Elijah begin to emerge.
We hear of Elijah later on in the Bible from the prophet Malachi, in a passage that we read today in the conclusion of the Haftarah for Shabbat HaGadol.
Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. He shall reconcile parents with children and children with their parents, so that, when I come, I do not strike the whole land with utter destruction. (Malachi 3:23-24)
Elijah is said to not have died (one of only two biblical figures, the other being Enoch). Instead, he is wandering the earth, waiting for the time when he can announce the coming of the Messiah and the redemption of the world.
Elijah is invoked at particular moments in Jewish life: at the Passover Seder; during Havdallah at the end of Shabbat; and at a brit milah.
The speech I give at a bris goes like this: It is said that in every generation there is a potential messiah in hiding. It could be this new baby, who holds in him the potential to redeem the world. That is why we set aside a special chair for Elijah and invite him to the bris. We want them to meet each other, just in case.
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin offers a slightly darker interpretation. Eliyahu's presence at a brit milah is in fact a punishment. Elijah in the Bible demonstrates little understanding of the relationship between parents and children. He constantly complains to God that the people Israel have abandoned the covenant and turned to idol worship – every single person except for him. And so, because of his excessive zeal, Elijah will have to stick around through the millenia. Telushkin writes:
He who sees himself as the last Jews is fated to bear constant witness to the eternity of Israel, to be present when every male Jewish child enteres the covenant, and when every family celebrates the Seder… Elijah stands in a long line of despairing Jews who erroneously have prophesied the end of the Jewish people. (Joseph Telushkin, Biblical Literacy, pp. 257-258)
His eternal life is a kind of curse. He has to wander the earth and wait, watching, always watching, bearing witness to humanity's imperfections, to the inability of people to get along, to the ever-present divisions between parents and children.
This helps us understand Malachi's prediction, that Elijah will be the one who brings about reconciliation between parents and children. The prophet who would not allow his disciple and successor, Elisha, to say goodbye to his parents, will have to correct the misunderstanding and act with compassion to save humanity. For the world to be redeemed, it is Elijah himself who must also be redeemed.
He is sentenced to be the great reconciler. He is cursed, but it is a hopeful curse.
There is more to the legend of Elijah. More folktales of Elijah exist than any other biblical figure.
He usually appears in disguise, his identity revealed only at the end. He is often a beggar, dressed in rags, or else a kind and wise old man. He tends to play one of several different roles. He visits a downtrodden person or family whom he helps out through gifts, treasure, the granting of a child, and so on. He often performs miracles.
Other times, he comes to teach a lesson of compassion by punishing the unjust, often a wealthy person, or a supposedly-wise Torah scholar.
There are also stories in which a particular Rabbi knows Elijah's secret identity, and consults him on some matter relating to the readiness of humanity for redemption. The answer is always the same. We're not ready yet.
Finally, there are times when Elijah shows up in shul on Yom Kippur to be the tenth person, the one to make the minyan.
In this way, Elijah is "the Jewish alter-ego, the symbol for the whole people; exiled and tortured, but alive and hopeful." (Gerson D. Cohen, Studies in the Variety of Rabbinic Cultures, p. 35)
So why does Elijah visit us during Passover? We take it for granted that opening the door for Elijah is one of the central components of the Seder, but doesn't it seem kind of odd? Elijah does not play any role in the Passover story. In fact, he was born about 300 years after it took place. If we were going to pick somebody to visit us, I can think of better candidates: Moses, Aaron, Miriam.
A midrash from the tenth century predicts that Elijah will appear on the eve of Passover. (Exodus Rabbah 18:12) It makes a certain sense. The Exodus from Egypt is the prototype for every subsequent act of redemption. It is not farfetched to imagine that the final redemption will occur on Passover.
The tradition of opening our doors and reciting the biblical verses beginning with Sh'fokh chamat'kha – "Pour out Your wrath," most likely began in the Middle Ages, in the wake of the Crusades. This is how the tradition goes: After we have finished eating, we open the door and recite several biblical passages. Here's the first one:
Pour out Your wrath on the nations that do not know You, upon the kingdoms that do not invoke Your name, for they have devoured Jacob and desolated his home. (Psalms 79:6-7)
Some of us are a little uncomfortable with the violence of these words, and yet it is important to consider the context. The Jews who first introduced this tradition into the Seder had experienced wave after wave of anti-Semitic pogroms and faced the constant threat of the blood libel. Every year, around this time, there was a very real fear that a dead Christian baby would be planted on the doorstep of a Jewish home to incite the mob against the community.
For Jews to pray for God to punish their tormentors in times like these is understandable. Even today, let's acknowledge that there is terrible evil in the world. Is it so unreasonable to recite these words asking God (not human beings mind you, but God) to bring the perpetrators of evil to justice?
Opening our doors is a symbolic act of faith. To open the door is to trust that God will protect us, even though we expose the safety of our homes to the danger and uncertainty of an unpredicable world. It is also a statement of faith in the ultimate redemption.
It is not surprising that traditions about Elijah came together with traditions of opening our doors and praying for redemption. Folktales are told of Elijah as something of a Medieval superhero, coming to defend Jewish communities under attack by the blood libel.
Elijah's Cup is the fifth cup of wine, the cup of future redemption that we do not drink, because the world, and we, are not yet ready. By inviting Elijah to join our Seder to partake in that fifth cup, we express our hopes for the coming of the Messiah and the final redemption of the world. When Elijah finally comes to drink that cup, we will be able to join him. Then he will make a great drinking buddy.
On the other hand. perhaps we ought not take our invitation for Elijah to join us quite so literally.
Menahem Mendel of Kotzk, the great Hassidic Rebbe of the early 19th century, warned that "we err if we believe that Elijah the Prophet comes through the door. Rather, he must enter through our hearts and souls." (Yitzhak Sender, The Commentator's Pesach, p. 220)
There is a nice custom that has developed in recent years. Just before we open the door for Elijah, we pass around his empty cup. Each person at the table then pours a little bit of wine (or grape juice) from his or her own cup. It symbolizes that we all have a role to play. To fill up the fifth cup, the cup of future redemption, will require the combined contributions of every one of us.
To illustrate this, I'll end with a story of Elijah told in Hassidic circles. (from Aharon Wiener, The Prophet Elijah in the Development of Judaism, p. 139)
A pious and wealthy Jew asked his rabbi, "For about forty years I have opened the door for Elijah every Seder night waiting for him to come, but he never does. What is the reason?"
The rabbi answered, "In your neighborhood there lives a very poor family with many children. Call on the man and propose to him that you and your family celebrate the next Passover in his house, and for this purpose provide him and his whole family with everything necessary for the eight Passover days. Then on the Seder night Elijah will certainly come."
The man did as the rabbi told him, but after Passover he came to the rabbi and claimed that again he had waited in vain for Elijah.
The rabbi answered: "I know very well that Elijah came on the Seder night to the house of your poor neighbor. But of course you could not see him."
And the rabbi held a mirror before the face of the man and said, "Look, this was Elijah's face that night."
When we open our doors to invite Elijah to our Seders this year to herald our redemption, may we merit to see his face reflected in ourselves.
(Many of the ideas and sources for this D'var Torah are from David Arnow's Creating Lively Passover Seders, pp. 301-315.)


On Oct. 9, longtime Gambian President Yahya Jammeh quietly signed into law a new bill that carries a penalty of life imprisonment for "aggravated homosexuality." The renewed crackdown on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Gambia has justifiably earned the West African nation an outsize reputation as one of the most repressive countries on the continent. Far from being an isolated campaign, his assault on LGBT rights is part of a wave of human rights abuses prevailing in the country. Jammeh, who came to power in 1994 after toppling a democratically elected president, is responsible for countless atrocities, including torture, arbitrary executions and disappearances of critics, while crippling civil society through a raft of repressive laws and routine intimidation.
To be sure, Jammeh is not the only African despot targeting vulnerable groups to deflect attention from his excesses and failures. Uganda's Yoweri Museveni and Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe have also used convenient scapegoats to stir up populist sentiment and extend their rule. Jammeh's recent rhetorical venom is an expedient gambit to divert attention from his regime's abuses as well as the imminent threat of food shortages and famine and a rapid decline in the value of the country's currency.
He has always been hostile to LGBT rights and is prone to bizarre public outbursts. However, his recent statements and collusion with the state media, which is busy trumpeting dangerous stereotypes about gay people and peddling hate speech, have coincided with crackdowns. At least 15 LGBT people are being detained incommunicado — a grim predicament in a country whose prisons are among the world's worst. Many more people have fled to neighboring Senegal. The regime is also said to be working off a list of 200 alleged homosexuals, who are targeted for arrest. Even minors have not been spared during this nationwide roundup. For example, a 16-year-old boy was recently detained for nearly two weeks on "suspicion of being gay." The National Intelligence Agency, a unit infamous for carrying out disappearances, torture and extrajudicial executions, is leading this effort.
For too long, Jammeh and his purveyors of terror in Gambia received a free pass from the international community for their heinous crimes. It is time for the United States and its allies to break their silence and take action. The European Union has already withdrawn significant financial support because of Gambia's poor human rights record. On Dec. 4, the White House issued a statement expressing dismay over rampant human rights violations and the persecution of LGBT people. But press statements and finger wagging will not suffice. Continue reading at Al Jazeera.


text:
Tobie Puttock, né en 1974, est un chef cuisinier australien originaire de Melbourne, dans l'État du Victoria.

Il doit une partie de sa notoriété à ses apparitions régulières dans plusieurs émissions culinaires, notamment en Australie où il a longtemps présenté la version locale de Ready, Steady, Cook.

En 2006, il contribue au lancement du restaurant « Fifteen » de Melbourne, sous l'impulsion de son ami et confrère Jamie Oliver. Ses tribulations sont filmées et diffusées sous la forme d'une série de dix épisodes intitulée : Jamie's Kitchen : Le défi australien (en version originale : Jamie's Kitchen Australia).

Originellement diffusée sur la chaîne australienne Network Ten, la série est ensuite reprise par plusieurs médias à travers le globe.

Biographie sommaire

Tobie Puttock naît à Melbourne, métropole du sud-est de l'Australie où il passe la majeure partie de son enfance et de son adolescence. Se découvrant une passion pour la cuisine, il s'inscrit au Box Hill Institute, qu'il quitte en 1992. Peu après, il débute comme commis dans un restaurant de South Yarra, dans la banlieue sud de Melbourne, le « Caffe e Cucina ».

À l'issue de cette première confrontation aux réalités de la vie professionnelle, il effectue différents stages en Australie, puis tente l'aventure en Europe. Il s'installe à Londres en 1999, trouvant un emploi au « River Café », l'un des principaux restaurants italiens de la capitale britannique. Il y fait la connaissance d'un jeune commis alors totalement inconnu du grand public, Jamie Oliver. Dans son temps libre, il voyage afin de laisser libre cours à l'une de ses passions, le snowboard.

Lorsque son contrat de travail arrive à son terme, il part de nouveau en Australie où fort de son expérience européenne, il ouvre son premier restaurant, le « Termini ». Dans le même temps, il fait ses premières armes à la télévision australienne, devenant l'un des présentateurs de l'émission Ready, Steady, Cook, un divertissement calqué sur le modèle de l'émission britannique homonyme.

En 2001, il est contacté par Jamie Oliver. Ce dernier lui propose de participer à un projet à vocation caritative baptisé « Projet Fifteen ». L'enjeu : ouvrir un restaurant dont le personnel serait exclusivement formé de jeunes en situation précaire. Tobie Puttock est chargé par Jamie d'encadrer ces nouveaux apprentis.En 2002, le restaurant Fifteen ouvre ses portes dans le quartier de Hoxton, à Londres.

En 2003, il devient le parrain de la fille de Jamie Oliver, Daisy Boo.

Après avoir travaillé quelques années au sein du Fifteen, Tobie propose à Jamie Oliver de créer un restaurant de la même enseigne à Melbourne. Le projet est accepté et Tobie Puttock est chargé de mettre en œuvre ce nouveau projet.En 2006, Fifteen Melbourne ouvre ses portes, sous la supervision de Tobie, nommé chef de ce nouvel établissement. Parallèlement, il écrit son premier livre, entièrement consacré à la cuisine italienne : Daily Italian.

Le , Tobie Puttock épouse Georgia Katz, sa compagne depuis cinq ans.

Notes et références

Liens externes

Cuisinier australien
Naissance en 1974

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


"The Institute of Unnecessary Research presents a new paradigm in the way artists are engaging with the world through transdisciplinary practice and connective aesthetics. Bringing together art, science and philosophy by creating participatory audience experiences, performances and installations. Sometimes humorous and sometimes grotesque, their work pushes the boundaries and critically questions the means of knowledge production in the 21st Century.
Artists are innovators, if a new piece of technology or a new medium, becomes available; artists want to try it, to experiment with it- from microbiology to robotics; from tissue culture to neuroscience. Some artists take on the role of a scientist in almost a performative way and some scientists become artists themselves. Philosophy and ethics is always at its core and the work unpacks the instrumentalization of science for commercial and political ends. Forms of "connective aesthetics" are used to engage the audience in a participatory experience that extends and generates new outcomes throughout the exhibition and go beyond simple interactivity, throwing authorship into question, as members of the audience are inspired to become Unnecessary Researchers in their own rights.
The IUR is a hub for researchers and artists working experimentally and deeply engaged with their specific research areas. We present our research through performative and experiential methods, engaging the public and new audiences in our ideas. We organise performance events (many of which can be seen here) in art galleries and other non-traditional settings (including: universities, businesses, schools and festivals) to engage the public in our research and meta-research."
"Anna Dumitriu (1969) is British artist whose work fuses craft, sculpture & BioArt to explore our relationship to the microbial world, medicine & technology. She has a strong international profile, having exhibited at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, the Science Gallery in Dublin, the Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei, Waag Society Amsterdam, Art Laboratory Berlin, & V & A Museum. Her work is held in several major public collections, including the Science Museum London & Eden Project in Cornwall. She has presented her projects at venues including Tate Modern, Princeton University, UCLA & Ars Electronica. Dumitriu founded The Institute of Unnecessary Research in 2004 and continues to direct and curate the group."
"Make Do and Mend" references the 75th anniversary of the first use of penicillin in a human patient in 1941 and takes the form of an altered antique wartime women's suit marked with the British Board of Trade's utility logo CC41, which stands for 'Controlled Commodity 1941' meaning that the use of materials has been deemed meet the government's austerity regulations. The holes and stains in the suit have been patched and embroidered with silk patterned with E. coli bacteria grown using a dye-containing growth medium, forming pink colonies or spots. The genomes of these E. coli bacteria have been edited using a technique called CRISPR to remove an ampicillin antibiotic resistance gene and repaired using a technique called homologous recombination to scarlessly patch the break with a fragment of DNA (converted into ASCII code and then to base 4) encoding the WWII slogan "Make Do and Mend", which encouraged housewives to repair their clothes during the wartime rationing period."
This page was last edited on 16 December 2018, at 05:20.


text:
Q: The introduction rule for implication The introduction rule for implication says that you can prove a statement of the form $P \implies Q$ by assuming $P$ and deducing $Q$. (Btw. I don't know why it's called an introduction rule - you don't introduce the implication, you eliminate it.)
My question is: can the introduction rule for implication be proven? If yes, how?

A: When are you entitled to assert a conditional $P \to Q$? Precisely when, given $P$ as an assumption, you are in a position to assert $Q$. The natural deduction rule "conditional proof" or "$\to$-introduction" encapsulates that fundamental assumption about the meaning of the conditional. It's an introduction rule because it tells you that when you can argue from $A$ to $C$ you are entitled to discharge the assumption and deduce a proposition $A \to C$ whose main connective is the conditional, thereby introducing a conditional where there wasn't one before.
And the "modus ponens" or  "$\to$-elimination" rule is in harmony with introduction rule. For if someone asserts $P \to Q$ they represent themselves as being in a position, given the assumption $P$ to infer $Q$. So if you tell them the assumption $P$ is indeed true, they are committed to $Q$.
You need, contra @rewritten, to clearly distinguish the introduction rule proper (which belongs to a collection of introduction and elimination rules constituting a natural deduction system, for arguing inside a deductive system) from the deduction theorem (which is a meta-theorem which looks at an axiomatic system from outside and says "if there is such-and-such axiomatic proof, then there will also be an axiomatic proof related so-and-so").

A: Named "introduction rule for implication", it's just what it says, it's the syntactical rule for which we introduce the symbol $\implies$ to signify that actually assuming $P$ one can deduce $Q$.
If you instead name it "deduction theorem" (DT, it's actually a metatheorem) you can follow the proof in wikipedia, on how to convert a proof using DT to a proof that doesn't use DT, provided your logic system has other axioms, of course). Thus, you see that DT is no necessary for the whole deduction process, so it is a theorem, and not an axiom.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Wake Forest University asks judge to dismiss lawsuit from 2018 shooting of WSSU student
Wake Forest University disputing allegations by Jemel Dixon, mother of WSSU football player Najee Ali Baker
2 PEOPLE WERE KILLED 25 OTHERS WERE HURT.AND DOZENS OF BUSINESSES WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. LAWYERS FOR WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY WANT A FEDERAL JUDGE TO DROP A LAWSUIT. STEMMING FROM A DEADLY SHOOING ON CAMPUS BACK IN JANUARY OF 20-18. WINSTON-SALEM STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL PLAYER NAJEE BAKER WAS SHOT TO DEATH AS HE LEFT A PARTY AT A VENUE ON WAKE'S CAMPUS. THE 22-YEAR-OLD'S MOTHER FILED A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE SCHOOL. SAYING THE UNIVERSITY DID NOT PROVIDE ENOUGH SECURITY AT THE ON-CAMPUS EVENT. IN ITS MOTION. WAKE FOREST ATTORNEY SHANA FULTON SAYS EVEN IF THE ALLEGATIONS ABOUT SECURITY ARE TRUE. THE LAWSUIT FAILS TO PROVE THAT ANYTHING THE UNIVERSITY DID DID NOT DO HAD ANYTHING TO DO WITH BAKER'S DEATH. TWO MEN ARE CHARGED IN BAKER'S DEATH. JAKIER AUSTIN IS ACCUSED OF PULLING THE TRIGGE
A North Carolina university is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from a fatal shooting on its campus in 2018.The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Wake Forest University is disputing the allegations lodged by Jemel Dixon, the mother of Winston-Salem State University football player Najee Ali Baker. He was shot and killed as he walked away from a party venue.Dixon's lawsuit says school officials ignored a report calling for university police to provide equal security at all student events and of failing to provide enough security measures to prevent the shooting.In its motion, Wake Forest attorney Shana Fulton says even if the allegations are true, the lawsuit fails to prove that anything the university did or didn't do had anything to do with Baker's death.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —
A North Carolina university is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit stemming from a fatal shooting on its campus in 2018.
The Winston-Salem Journal reports that Wake Forest University is disputing the allegations lodged by Jemel Dixon, the mother of Winston-Salem State University football player Najee Ali Baker. He was shot and killed as he walked away from a party venue.
Dixon's lawsuit says school officials ignored a report calling for university police to provide equal security at all student events and of failing to provide enough security measures to prevent the shooting.
In its motion, Wake Forest attorney Shana Fulton says even if the allegations are true, the lawsuit fails to prove that anything the university did or didn't do had anything to do with Baker's death.


text:
The deadly toll of illegal street racing in Los Angeles
Phil Lavelle
@phillavelle
Movie fans may be used to seeing cars racing through Los Angeles. But it's a very real problem for the city's residents.
Since the turn of the century, at least 179 have died in illegal street races in-and-around LA. Racers say they want legal avenues to pursue their passion. But it's not a simple proposition, nor is it cheap, as CGTN's Phil Lavelle reports.
High-speed races are a staple of Los Angeles life, be they police chases on TV news bulletins, or in blockbuster movies. The "Fast and the Furious" franchise has been one of Hollywood's most successful exports of all time. But it's a scourge of real life for the city's residents who can find entire roads taken over when illegal races spring up.
According to research from the Los Angeles Times, at least 179 people have been killed in suspected street racing accidents since 2000.
It's hard to gauge an exact number because many of the crowds flee after an accident, leaving police unsure if a crash was caused merely by a driver going too fast, or somebody who fatefully accepted a challenge that cost their lives.
Lili D'Alessandro knows about the horrors of illegal racing. She lost her teenage daughter, Valentina, in 2013.
Valentina had been at a friend's house and accepted a ride home from a friend. During the journey, the friend was challenged to a race and accepted, with horrendous consequences.
"He was going extremely fast, over 100 mph," she told CGTN. "He crossed the red light, crashed against an SUV and then against the fence and Valentina was partially ejected from the window.
She's the only one who passed away. Had he not taken the challenge of this street race, my daughter would still be alive. He was just taking her home."
Lili now spends her time traveling around LA, talking to teenagers, warning them of the dangers of street racing. She shows them pictures of her daughter before she died and talks about the moment she found out what had happened to Valentina, in the hope that the shock will make them take notice when they're faced with a split second decision.
Her challenge is competing against an adrenaline rush that many teenagers find too appealing to resist.
Mario Saggiani Jr. likes to race and has been to his share of illegal races. "Everyone's out there having a good time," he told us. "But it becomes worrisome if someone wrecks or the police come. You get your car impounded or go to jail yourself."
Saggiani is an advocate of legal racing, where drivers can push their cars to the limits at a sanctioned track.
The problem is that Los Angeles doesn't have many, much to the frustration of Donald Galaz, a veteran street racer who acts as spokesperson for the International Brotherhood of Street Racers.
He tells CGTN, "We have done illegal events, illegal organized events, and I'm not ashamed to admit it. We go to industrial areas, we take them to areas where there are no houses around and we try to do it as safe as possible. To put a dent in it, you have to open more local raceways and have more outlets for not just youngsters but older people who are into the culture. The more facilities, the more outlets you have, the more people you will get off the streets. You won't completely stop it. But you will get them to the tracks. All of a sudden, there's not going to be anybody to race out there because they'll be on the track racing. So it'll be tough to find someone to race on the streets if there are more facilities."
Galaz says he has spent years trying to get the message through to local politicians, but has not made much headway.
Los Angeles City Council Member Mitchell Englander said the primary reason for a lack of tracks is money. "We used to have them, some here in Los Angeles," he told us. "The problem is that the land is so cost prohibitive. Private operators don't wanna operate them, and you've got a liability issue." But he said there may yet be hope for the racers, acknowledging this an issue unlikely to go away.
"First of all, we have got to uphold the law and we take this incredibly seriously," he told said. "That said, the other idea, if somebody can put up the money, is to try to find opportunities where we can either shut down local streets or do something on an interim basis, if it's infrequent, just to get people to do that and have a safe place to do that."
Suicide bombers attack Indonesian churches, killing at least 13 and wounding 40 »


text:
namespace Nektar
{

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void NekMultiplyUnspecializedMatrixType(DataType* result,
                                            const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                                            const DataType* rhs)
    {
        for(unsigned int i = 0; i < lhs.GetRows(); ++i)
        {
            DataType accum = DataType(0);
            for(unsigned int j = 0; j < lhs.GetColumns(); ++j)
            {
                accum += lhs(i,j)*rhs[j];
            }
            result[i] = accum;
        }
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void NekMultiplyDiagonalMatrix(DataType* result,
                                   const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                                   const DataType* rhs)
    {
        int n = lhs.GetRows();
        for(unsigned int i = 0; i < n; ++i)
        {
            result[i] = lhs(i,i)*rhs[i];
        }
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType>
    void NekMultiplyDiagonalMatrix(DataType* result,
                                   const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, StandardMatrixTag>& lhs,
                                   const DataType* rhs)
    {
        int n = lhs.GetRows();
        const DataType* mat_ptr = lhs.GetRawPtr();
        Vmath::Vmul(n, mat_ptr, 1, rhs, 1, result, 1);
    }

    template<typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void NekMultiplyBandedMatrix(NekDouble* result,
                    const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                    const NekDouble* rhs,
                    typename boost::enable_if
                    <
                        CanGetRawPtr<NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType> >
                    >::type* p=0)
    {
        int m  = lhs.GetRows();
        int n  = lhs.GetColumns();
        int kl = lhs.GetNumberOfSubDiagonals();
        int ku = lhs.GetNumberOfSuperDiagonals();
        double alpha = lhs.Scale();
        const double* a = lhs.GetRawPtr();
        int lda = kl + ku + 1;
        const double* x = rhs;
        int incx = 1;
        double beta = 0.0;
        double* y = result;
        int incy = 1;
        Blas::Dgbmv('N', m, n, kl, ku, alpha, a, lda, x, incx, beta, y, incy);

    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType>
    void NekMultiplyBandedMatrix(DataType* result,
                    const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, BlockMatrixTag>& lhs,
                    const DataType* rhs,
                    typename boost::enable_if
                    <
                        boost::mpl::not_<CanGetRawPtr<NekMatrix<LhsDataType, BlockMatrixTag> > >
                    >::type* p=0)
    {
        NEKERROR(ErrorUtil::efatal, "Banded block matrix multiplication not yet implemented");
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsInnerMatrixType>
    void FullBlockMatrixMultiply(NekVector<DataType>& result,
                     const NekMatrix<LhsInnerMatrixType, BlockMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekVector<DataType>& rhs)
    {
        unsigned int numberOfBlockRows = lhs.GetNumberOfBlockRows();
        unsigned int numberOfBlockColumns = lhs.GetNumberOfBlockColumns();
        DataType* result_ptr = result.GetRawPtr();
        const DataType* rhs_ptr = rhs.GetRawPtr();

        for(unsigned int i = 0; i < result.GetDimension(); ++i)
        {
            result_ptr[i] = DataType(0);
        }
        Array<OneD, DataType> temp(result.GetDimension());
        DataType* temp_ptr = temp.get();

        unsigned int curResultRow = 0;
        for(unsigned int blockRow = 0; blockRow < numberOfBlockRows; ++blockRow)
        {
            unsigned int rowsInBlock = lhs.GetNumberOfRowsInBlockRow(blockRow);

            if( blockRow != 0 )
            {
                curResultRow += lhs.GetNumberOfRowsInBlockRow(blockRow-1);
            }

            if( rowsInBlock == 0 )
            {
                continue;
            }

            DataType* resultWrapper = result_ptr + curResultRow;

            unsigned int curWrapperRow = 0;
            for(unsigned int blockColumn = 0; blockColumn < numberOfBlockColumns; ++blockColumn)
            {
                if( blockColumn != 0 )
                {
                    curWrapperRow += lhs.GetNumberOfColumnsInBlockColumn(blockColumn-1);
                }

                //const boost::shared_ptr<const LhsInnerMatrixType>& block = lhs.GetBlock(blockRow, blockColumn);
                const LhsInnerMatrixType* block = lhs.GetBlockPtr(blockRow, blockColumn);
                if( !block )
                {
                    continue;
                }

                unsigned int columnsInBlock = lhs.GetNumberOfColumnsInBlockColumn(blockColumn);
                if( columnsInBlock == 0 )
                {
                    continue;
                }

                const DataType* rhsWrapper = rhs_ptr + curWrapperRow;
                Multiply(temp_ptr, *block, rhsWrapper);
                for(unsigned int i = 0; i < rowsInBlock; ++i)
                {
                    resultWrapper[i] += temp_ptr[i];
                }
            }
        }
    }

    template<typename LhsInnerMatrixType>
    void DiagonalBlockMatrixMultiply(NekVector<double>& result,
                     const NekMatrix<LhsInnerMatrixType, BlockMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekVector<double>& rhs)
    {
        unsigned int numberOfBlockRows = lhs.GetNumberOfBlockRows();
        double* result_ptr = result.GetRawPtr();
        const double* rhs_ptr = rhs.GetRawPtr();

        std::fill(result.begin(), result.end(), 0.0);

        unsigned int curResultRow = 0;
        unsigned int curWrapperRow = 0;
        for(unsigned int blockRow = 0; blockRow < numberOfBlockRows; ++blockRow)
        {

            if( blockRow != 0 )
            {
                curResultRow += lhs.GetNumberOfRowsInBlockRow(blockRow-1);
            }

            unsigned int blockColumn = blockRow;
            if( blockColumn != 0 )
            {
                curWrapperRow += lhs.GetNumberOfColumnsInBlockColumn(blockColumn-1);
            }

            unsigned int rowsInBlock = lhs.GetNumberOfRowsInBlockRow(blockRow);
            if( rowsInBlock == 0 )
            {
                continue;
            }

            unsigned int columnsInBlock = lhs.GetNumberOfColumnsInBlockColumn(blockColumn);
            if( columnsInBlock == 0 )
            {
                continue;
            }

            const LhsInnerMatrixType* block = lhs.GetBlockPtr(blockRow, blockColumn);
            if( !block )
            {
                continue;
            }

            double* resultWrapper = result_ptr + curResultRow;
            const double* rhsWrapper = rhs_ptr + curWrapperRow;
            Multiply(resultWrapper, *block, rhsWrapper);
            //resultWrapper = (*block)*rhsWrapper;
        }
    }

    void NekMultiplyLowerTriangularMatrix(NekDouble* result,
                     const NekMatrix<NekDouble, StandardMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekDouble* rhs)
    {
        int vectorSize = lhs.GetColumns();
        std::copy(rhs, rhs+vectorSize, result);
        int n = lhs.GetRows();
        const double* a = lhs.GetRawPtr();
        double* x = result;
        int incx = 1;

        Blas::Dtpmv('L', lhs.GetTransposeFlag(), 'N', n, a, x, incx);
    }

    void NekMultiplyLowerTriangularMatrix(NekDouble* result,
                     const NekMatrix<NekMatrix<NekDouble, StandardMatrixTag>, ScaledMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekDouble* rhs)
    {
        NekMultiplyLowerTriangularMatrix(result, *lhs.GetOwnedMatrix(), rhs);

        for(unsigned int i = 0; i < lhs.GetColumns(); ++i)
        {
            result[i] *= lhs.Scale();
        }
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void NekMultiplyLowerTriangularMatrix(DataType* result,
                    const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                    const DataType* rhs)
    {
       for(unsigned int i = 0; i < lhs.GetRows(); ++i)
       {
           DataType accum = DataType(0);
           for(unsigned int j = 0; j <= i; ++j)
           {
               accum += lhs(i,j)*rhs[j];
           }
           result[i] = accum;
       }
    }

    void NekMultiplyUpperTriangularMatrix(NekDouble* result,
                     const NekMatrix<NekDouble, StandardMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekDouble* rhs)
    {
        int vectorSize = lhs.GetColumns();
        std::copy(rhs, rhs+vectorSize, result);
        int n = lhs.GetRows();
        const double* a = lhs.GetRawPtr();
        double* x = result;
        int incx = 1;

        Blas::Dtpmv('U', lhs.GetTransposeFlag(), 'N', n, a, x, incx);
    }

    void NekMultiplyUpperTriangularMatrix(NekDouble* result,
                     const NekMatrix<NekMatrix<NekDouble, StandardMatrixTag>, ScaledMatrixTag>& lhs,
                     const NekDouble* rhs)
    {
        NekMultiplyUpperTriangularMatrix(result, *lhs.GetOwnedMatrix(), rhs);

        for(unsigned int i = 0; i < lhs.GetColumns(); ++i)
        {
            result[i] *= lhs.Scale();
        }
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void NekMultiplyUpperTriangularMatrix(DataType* result,
                    const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                    const DataType* rhs)
    {
       for(unsigned int i = 0; i < lhs.GetRows(); ++i)
       {
           DataType accum = DataType(0);
           for(unsigned int j = i; j < lhs.GetColumns(); ++j)
           {
               accum += lhs(i,j)*rhs[j];
           }
           result[i] = accum;
       }
    }

    template<typename InnerMatrixType, typename MatrixTag>
    void NekMultiplyFullMatrix(NekDouble* result, const NekMatrix<InnerMatrixType, MatrixTag>& lhs, const NekDouble* rhs,
        typename boost::enable_if
        <
            CanGetRawPtr<NekMatrix<InnerMatrixType, MatrixTag> >
        >::type* p=0)
    {
        int m = lhs.GetRows();
        int n = lhs.GetColumns();

        char t = lhs.GetTransposeFlag();
        if( t == 'T' )
        {
            std::swap(m, n);
        }

        double alpha = lhs.Scale();
        const double* a = lhs.GetRawPtr();
        int lda = m;
        const double* x = rhs;
        int incx = 1;
        double beta = 0.0;
        double* y = result;
        int incy = 1;

        Blas::Dgemv(t, m, n, alpha, a, lda, x, incx, beta, y, incy);
    }

    template<typename InnerMatrixType, typename MatrixTag>
    void NekMultiplyFullMatrix(NekDouble* result, const NekMatrix<InnerMatrixType, MatrixTag>& lhs, const NekDouble* rhs,
        typename boost::enable_if
        <
            boost::mpl::not_<CanGetRawPtr<NekMatrix<InnerMatrixType, MatrixTag> > >
        >::type* p = 0)
    {
        NekMultiplyUnspecializedMatrixType(result, lhs, rhs);
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void Multiply(DataType* result,
                  const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                  const DataType* rhs)
    {
        switch(lhs.GetType())
        {
            case eFULL:
                NekMultiplyFullMatrix(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eDIAGONAL:
                NekMultiplyDiagonalMatrix(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eUPPER_TRIANGULAR:
                NekMultiplyUpperTriangularMatrix(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eLOWER_TRIANGULAR:
                NekMultiplyLowerTriangularMatrix(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eSYMMETRIC:
                NekMultiplyUnspecializedMatrixType(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eBANDED:
                NekMultiplyBandedMatrix(result, lhs, rhs);
                break;
            case eSYMMETRIC_BANDED:
            case eUPPER_TRIANGULAR_BANDED:
            case eLOWER_TRIANGULAR_BANDED:
            default:
                NekMultiplyUnspecializedMatrixType(result, lhs, rhs);
        }
    }

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    void Multiply(NekVector<DataType>& result,
                  const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
                  const NekVector<DataType>& rhs)
    {

        ASSERTL1(lhs.GetColumns() == rhs.GetRows(), std::string("A left side matrix with column count ") +
            boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(lhs.GetColumns()) +
            std::string(" and a right side vector with row count ") +
            boost::lexical_cast<std::string>(rhs.GetRows()) + std::string(" can't be multiplied."));
        Multiply(result.GetRawPtr(), lhs, rhs.GetRawPtr());
    }

    NEKTAR_GENERATE_EXPLICIT_FUNCTION_INSTANTIATION_SINGLE_MATRIX(Multiply, NEKTAR_STANDARD_AND_SCALED_MATRICES, (1, (void)), (1, (NekVector<NekDouble>&)), (1,(const NekVector<NekDouble>&)));

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsInnerMatrixType>
    void Multiply(NekVector<DataType>& result,
                  const NekMatrix<LhsInnerMatrixType, BlockMatrixTag>& lhs,
                  const NekVector<DataType>& rhs)
    {
        if( lhs.GetStorageType() == eDIAGONAL )
        {
            DiagonalBlockMatrixMultiply(result, lhs, rhs);
        }
        else
        {
            FullBlockMatrixMultiply(result, lhs, rhs);
        }
    }

    NEKTAR_GENERATE_EXPLICIT_FUNCTION_INSTANTIATION_SINGLE_MATRIX(Multiply, NEKTAR_BLOCK_MATRIX_TYPES, (1, (void)), (1, (NekVector<NekDouble>&)), (1,(const NekVector<NekDouble>&)));

    template<typename DataType, typename LhsDataType, typename MatrixType>
    NekVector<DataType>
    Multiply(const NekMatrix<LhsDataType, MatrixType>& lhs,
             const NekVector<DataType>& rhs)
    {
       NekVector<DataType> result(lhs.GetRows(), DataType(0));
       Multiply(result, lhs, rhs);
       return result;
    }

    NEKTAR_GENERATE_EXPLICIT_FUNCTION_INSTANTIATION_SINGLE_MATRIX(Multiply, NEKTAR_ALL_MATRIX_TYPES, (1, (NekVector<NekDouble>)), (0, ()), (1,(const NekVector<NekDouble>&)));

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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text:
Become Nurse in Georgia: Requirements & Licensing
Georgia offers diverse employment opportunities for nurses at all education and experience levels. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Atlanta ranks among the cities in the U.S. with the highest employment levels of licensed practical nurses and licensed vocational nurses (LPNs and LVNs).
Some 9,980 LPNs and LVNs work in Georgia's metropolitan areas of Atlanta, Sandy Springs, and Roswell. Atlanta also boasts being in the top 10 cities with the highest employment of nurse practitioners (NPs).
After earning licensure through endorsement or by taking the NCLEX, nurses wanting to kick-start careers in the Peach State can earn lucrative salaries. The BLS shows that Georgia NPs make a mean annual salary of $105,670. LPNs and LVNs earn a mean wage of $42,570 per year in Georgia, which U.S. News & World Report ranks as the 9th best state for fiscal stability and the 11th strongest economy in the nation.
This guide provides details about becoming a registered nurse in Georgia, including the state's online nursing programs and licensure requirements.
How to Become a Nurse in Georgia
Aspiring nursing professionals can take advantage of multiple entry points to become a registered nurse in Georgia. Nurses might enter the workforce after high school or pursue an advanced degree at an online nursing school.
The educational requirements necessary to obtain a Georgia nursing license depend on the specific career an individual chooses. Below, we have outlined the various paths that lead to nursing jobs, such as positions as an RN or LPN.
Choose the Path That's Right for You
The minimum requirement for an RN in Georgia is an associate degree in nursing (ADN), but practical nurses can qualify with an LPN degree. LPN programs are often certificate programs that offer shorter paths to a career, but their graduates have fewer opportunities for advancement.
Graduates of an associate program may work as RNs, school nurses, and travel nurses. However, if you're seeking an advanced position with higher pay and more career options, you should consider earning a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree.
Earn Your Nursing Degree
Earning a nursing degree at a college or university usually requires a high school diploma or GED certificate, with prerequisites like English, mathematics, and science. Schools may also require ACT or SAT scores for admission.
Depending on which degree you pursue, your education can last anywhere from 2-11 years. You can earn an associate degree in two years, a bachelor's in four years, a master's in six years, and a doctorate in 9-11 years. Most nursing degrees include onsite clinical training in their curricula.
Pass the Licensing Exam and Earn Your License
After earning your degree, you must pass the NCLEX-RN or NCLEX-PN before you can work as an RN or LPN in Georgia. Students should spend at least two months studying for the exam, reviewing written materials, and completing practice questions. The NCLEX-RN takes six hours to complete, while the NCLEX-PN takes five hours.
How Do Online Nursing Degree Programs Work?
Students with jobs, family obligations, or other commitments, along with those who don't live near nursing schools, should consider online RN programs in Georgia. Distance learning can offer more flexible and affordable options than the traditional, on-campus experience.
Some online nursing schools follow a set schedule, where students log in at specific times, while others allow enrollees to access lectures at any time. Hybrid delivery models include a mix of online and classroom learning, and some programs offer accelerated options.
Georgia schools offer online nursing programs at all levels. Distance learners typically complete their coursework online but must also log clinical hours in person at local hospitals or medical facilities to graduate.
Certified nursing assistant (CNA) certification programs can take as little as 6-8 weeks to complete. An associate degree requires 1-2 years, and a bachelor's degree generally takes students four years of full-time enrollment. A master's degree typically requires 2-4 years, and a doctorate can last 3-4 years or more to complete. Admission requirements for online nursing programs generally mirror those of traditional programs.
Nursing Licensure in Georgia
The state board of nursing grants Georgia nursing licensure for RNs, LPNs, and NPs. CNAs should apply for certification from the Georgia Department of Community Health after completing a state-approved nurse aide program. The Nurse Practice Act governs the profession in Georgia.
Licensure requirements and scopes of practice vary by type of license. For example, Georgia imposes strict practice and prescriptive authority regulations on NPs, who must work under a protocol agreement with a supervising physician and cannot prescribe certain medications. The section below details the requirements for each nursing license available in Georgia.
Georgia nurses can take advantage of assistance programs, such as a mentoring program for public health nurses, and the Georgia Nurses Association Peer Assistance Program, which helps nurses keep their licenses while undergoing treatment for substance abuse disorders.
State Requirements by Nursing Type
Below, you can find information about the Georgia nursing licensure requirements for each license type, including required education and training, work experience, examinations, renewal, and continuing education credits for license maintenance.
Certified Nurse Assistant
Students can obtain state-approved CNA training in acute care facilities, high schools, home care agencies, nursing homes, postsecondary schools, and technical schools. As part of these programs, each student must log 16 hours in topics like communication and interpersonal skills, infection control, safety, and law and ethics. Students also learn basic nursing skills, such as taking and recording vital signs, recognizing abnormal changes, and providing restorative care.
Candidates must pass the NNAAP exam within one year of completing their training to become certified as a nurse aide and be added to the Georgia nurse aide registry. Exam costs vary depending on the testing site, and the exam itself consists of written and skills portions.
Biennial renewal requires documentation of working as a paid CNA for a minimum of eight hours each renewal period. If a CNA falls short of eight hours, they must retake the NNAAP exam. Georgia does not impose renewal fees.
After completing a qualifying nursing program, LPN candidates register for the NCLEX-PN exam, pay a fee, and submit their fingerprints to the state board for a background check. They must also provide proof of graduation from a nursing program in the form of transcripts. The NCLEX-PN tests entry-level nursing competency and takes six hours to complete.
Out-of-state LPNs can apply for Georgia licensure by endorsement. They must submit a fee, transcripts, verification of licensure from their licensing state(s), and documentation of graduation from nursing school. They are also required to document 500 hours of experience as a practicing LPN within the previous four years — or, if it's been longer than four years, they can apply for re-entry.
For maintaining licensure, acceptable continuing education providers include national credentialing organizations, the Georgia Nurses Association, the American Nurses Association, and Area Health Education Centers. Examples of non-acceptable continuing education courses include those of less than 30 minutes in duration, workplace orientations, or on-the-job training concerning new equipment, policies, or procedures.
RNs must earn an ADN or higher degree. They must apply to the nursing board online and submit their fingerprints along with a fee. Each online program graduate must also provide transcripts and apply with a paper form.
The NCLEX-RN, which RNs must take, also has an associated fee. This six-hour exam tests nursing competency. RNs must also complete a 30-minute special research section, which does not count toward their score but informs future exam content.
Active RNs from other states can apply for licensure by endorsement with a paper application, academic transcripts, and a fee. To renew their licenses, each RN must complete 30 credits of continuing education from approved providers, such as those listed in the LPN section above. Alternatively, they may provide one of the following:
Verification of current certification from a national organization;
Coursework at an accredited academic program in respiratory therapy, informatics, or healthcare or business administration;
Proof of competency and 500 documented hours of active practice; or
Proof of completion of a board-approved re-entry or nursing education program.
NPs must first become licensed RNs, as outlined above, then earn a master of science in nursing (MSN) or doctor of nursing practice (DNP). NPs must apply to the nursing board to become advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs).
They must also submit a Georgia RN license, official transcripts, verification of NP-level national certification in their specialty area, and a fee. Approved organizations for national certification include the American Association of Nurse Practitioners and the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
Out-of-state NPs undergo the same process, but must hold a Georgia RN license when they apply. Georgia NPs must enter into a collaborative agreement with a physician to practice.
Those who want to prescribe medication must also submit an Advanced Practice Registered Nurses Protocol form to the Georgia medical board and apply for registration with the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The same license renewal process applies to RNs and NPs in Georgia.
What nursing field makes the most money?
NPs and other APRNs, such as nurse anesthetists and nurse midwives, make among the highest salaries in nursing. While APRNs make the most money, they also require the highest level of education. NPs must hold a master's degree, an RN license, and certification. After the investment in time, NPs earn significantly more than CNAs, LPNs, and RNs.
Can someone become a nurse in two years?
Yes. In two years someone can earn an associate degree and become an RN or LPN. In 12 weeks or less, high school graduates can become CNAs. Nurses can advance in the field with an associate degree, but obtaining a four-year bachelor's degree provides access to more opportunities in the field. RNs can take advantage of bridge programs to advance their careers.
Does an online nursing degree have the same value as an on-campus degree?
Yes. Online degrees hold the same value as traditional degrees, as they operate by the same curriculum standards. Earning an online nursing degree also builds additional time management skills and independence.
How hard is it to get into nursing school in Georgia?
Admission standards vary by school and nursing degree level. Online nursing programs in Georgia use competitive admissions processes that require a minimum GPA of 2.75-3.0. Applicants must also complete prerequisite courses, such as psychology, biology, and chemistry.
Is Georgia a nurse compact state?
Yes. Nurses can apply for multi-state licenses in Georgia. Georgia is a member of the Enhanced Nurse Licensure Compact along with 18 other states. Nurses who want to work in other states can, under the compact, work with their Georgia RN license in member states.
Georgia Nurse Salaries and Employment Trends
Nursing wages correlate to education, experience, and credentials, such as licenses and certifications. Nursing professionals can earn a range of wages depending on experience, from modest incomes to six-figure salaries.
Georgia CNAs, according to the BLS, earn an annual median wage of $29,640, while the 90th percentile of CNAs take home $36,500 per year. NPs earn an annual median salary of $104,110 in Georgia, with the 90th percentile of earners making $140,620 per year.
On trend with national projections, Georgia can expect to experience a slight workforce shortage of RNs and LPNs, translating into a need for nursing professionals. While the RN shortfall in Georgia (a 2% difference between the supply and demand) pales in comparison to national shortages, it is projected to reach 10,500 positions by 2030.
Nursing Resources for Georgia
As a chapter of the American Nurses Association, GNA supports the state's RNs with educational and networking events, job postings, professional development webinars, and political advocacy. The association also provides discounted continuing education opportunities.
Georgia Coalition of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses
This coalition represents more than 20 APRN associations across the state and advocates for Georgia's estimated 8,000 licensed APRNs, lobbying for legislation that removes barriers to advanced nursing practice.
Georgia Board of Nursing
The state nursing board licenses LPNs, RNs, and APRNs. The board also provides information on board-approved education, examinations, certifications, and continuing education providers, along with laws, rules, and policies applicable to the nursing profession.
United Advanced Practice Registered Nurses of Georgia
A member of CAPRN, this organization works to improve Georgians' access to healthcare while supporting and advocating for APRNs. Members can also access a career center, conference information, event listings, and news briefs.
Georgia Nursing Leadership Coalition
This coalition seeks to implement the Institute of Medicine's recommendations for the future of the nursing profession through leadership and collaboration with partners in healthcare, government, education, and consumer groups.


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