text:
\section{Methods}

Mechanisms that control mass transport across membranes are responsible for many interesting non-equilibrium dynamics. Proteins embedded in biological membranes contribute to mass transport in novel ways, pumping ions against the electrochemical gradient, and relying on various signaling pathways to trigger voltage-gated ion channels that rapidly discharge the membrane capacitance \citep{doi:10.1146/annurev.biochem.77.062706.154450}. At the mesoscopic scale these effects can be modeled by controlling the direction-dependent membrane permeability, noting that the membrane properties may vary in space (e.g. due to the protein composition within the membrane) as well as time (e.g. due to dynamically triggered effects). Mass transport across the membrane is coupled to diffusion in the cell exterior and interior, and a complete model must include both aspects of the physics. Here we develop a generic mesoscopic formulation to model these effects, relying on three fundamental pieces:
(1) a model for electro-diffusion in the bulk regions;
(2) data structures to represent the membrane geometry; and
(3) a closure rule to predict mass transport across the membrane according to customizable rules.

\subsection{Lattice Boltzmann Formulation}

Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBMs) are a flexible class of numerical method that are capable of modeling a wide range of complex transport phenomena \citep{PhysRevE.56.6811,shan_yuan_chen_2006}.
Due to favorable computational characteristics, LBMs are able to model mesoscopic dynamics at length and timescales that are presently inaccessible to any other numerical method.
In terms of the scale of representation, LBMs are most similar to finite-element methods (FEM) and finite-volume methods (FVM) \citep{10.3389/fninf.2020.00011,doi:10.1063/5.0033608,Mori_Peskin_2009}.
LBMs differ from these approaches because closure rules are typically developed from coarse-grained quasi-molecular interaction models rather than from continuum approximations.
Furthermore, because the LBM is a discrete solution to the Boltzmann transport equation,
non-ergodic transport behaviours can be treated
based on quasi-molecular rules developed from a lower level in the modeling hierarchy, relying on fewer assumptions about the underlying processes.

A model to recover the non-equilibrium electrical behavior within a cell
must describe the transport of charged chemical species as well
as account for their effect on the electric field and associated forces.
The electric potential $\psi$ satisfies the differential form of Gauss's law,
\begin{equation}
    \nabla^2 \psi = -\frac{\rho_e}{\epsilon_r \epsilon_0} \;,
    \label{eq:Poisson-Boltzmann}
\end{equation}
where $\epsilon_0$ is the permittivity of free space and
$\epsilon_r$ is the material-dependent relative permittivity.
Solution of Eq. \ref{eq:Poisson-Boltzmann} is coupled to ion transport
based on  the charge density $\rho_e$, which can be computed directly  based on the distribution of ions in the system,
\begin{equation}
    \rho_e = \sum_k F z_k C_k\;,
    \label{eq:charge-density}
\end{equation}
where Faraday's constant is given by $F=eN_A = 96485$ C/mol, $z_k$ is the valence charge of $k$th ion species, $C_k$ is the associated concentration, and $N_A$ is the Avogadro constant.
The evolution for each ion concentration $C_k$ satisfies the Nernst-Planck equations,
\begin{eqnarray}
    && \frac{\partial C_k}{\partial t} + \nabla \cdot \mathbf{j}_k = 0\;,  \\
    && \mathbf{j}_k = C_k \mathbf{u} - D_k \Big( \nabla C_k + \frac{z_k C_k}{V_T} \nabla \psi\Big)\;,
    \label{eq:Nernst-Planck}
\end{eqnarray}
where $D_k$ is the diffusion coefficient for ion $k$.
The thermal voltage is defined as $V_T=RT/F$ based on the ideal gas constant $R$ and temperature $T$.
The mass flux $\mathbf{j}_k$ includes contributions from advection
as well as from the gradients in the chemical and electric potential.
The velocity $\mathbf{u}$ can be determined from separate solution of
a momentum equation. For the cases considered in this work
$\mathbf{u}$ is set to zero for simplicity, on the basis that mass of  ions is small compared to the mass of the electrolyte.

The solution procedure for Eqs. \ref{eq:Poisson-Boltzmann} and
\ref{eq:Nernst-Planck} is defined based on the lattice Boltzmann method. The LBM is constructed as an approximation to the continuous Boltzmann transport equation, utilizing Gauss-Hermite quadrature to formulate a discrete representation for the molecular velocity distribution \citep{shan_yuan_chen_2006}.
To develop a solution procedure for Eq. \ref{eq:Poisson-Boltzmann}, we rely on
a three dimensional approximation involving nineteen discrete velocities (D3Q19), given by
\begin{eqnarray}
\bm{\xi}_{q} &=& \left\{
\begin{array}{r} 0 \\ 0 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 1 \\ 0 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} -1 \\ 0 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0 \\ -1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0 \\ 0 \\ 1 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0 \\ 0 \\ -1 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 1 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} -1 \\ -1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 1 \\ -1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} -1 \\ 1 \\ 0 \end{array}
\right .
\nonumber \\
&&
\left .
\begin{array}{r} 1 \\ 0 \\ 1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} -1 \\ 0 \\ -1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 1 \\ 0\\ -1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} -1 \\ 0\\ 1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0\\ 1 \\ 1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0\\ -1 \\ -1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0\\ 1 \\ -1  \end{array}
\begin{array}{r} 0\\ -1 \\ 1  \end{array}
\right \} \; \frac{\Delta x}{\Delta t}. \nonumber
\label{eq:discrete-velocity}
\end{eqnarray}
the quadrature scheme leads to an associated set of discrete distributions
$g_q$, $q=0,1,\ldots,19$. The discrete representation can be used to construct efficient models for a wide range physics, including implementations that provide numerical solution of Poisson's equation \citep{WANG2006729,WANG2008575,WANG2010728,CHEN2014186,ZHANG2017219}. In our case,
effects of anisotropy can be significant due to the shape of the membrane;
a particular choice of weights is selected to minimize these effects.
The weights associated with a D3Q19 approximation to the Laplacian
are given by \cite{OReilly2006AFO},
\begin{eqnarray}
    \nabla^2_{fe} \psi (\mathbf{x}_i) &=& \frac{1}{6 \Delta x^2}
    \Bigg( 2 \sum_{q=1}^{6} \psi(\mathbf{x}_i + \bm{\xi}_q \Delta t) \nonumber \\
     && +  \sum_{q=7}^{18} \psi(\mathbf{x}_i + \bm{\xi}_q \Delta t)
   - 24 \psi (\mathbf{x}_i) \Bigg) \;.
\end{eqnarray}
Consistent with this approximation, we define the equilibrium functions
\begin{equation}
    g_q^{eq} =  w_q \psi\;, \quad   w_q =  \left \{
    \begin{array}{cl}
    \frac {1}{2} & \mbox{for $q=0$} \\
    \frac {1}{24} & \mbox{for $q=1,\ldots,6$}  \\
    \frac {1}{48} & \mbox{for $q=7,\ldots,18$} \\
    \end{array}
    \right.
    \label{eq:geq}
\end{equation}
which implies that
\begin{equation}
    \psi = \sum_{q=0}^{Q} g_q^{eq}\;.
\end{equation}
Given a particular initial condition for $\psi$, let us consider application of the standard D3Q19 streaming step based on the equilibrium distributions
\begin{equation}
    g_q^\prime(\mathbf{x}, t) = g_q^{eq}(\mathbf{x}-\bm{\xi}_q\Delta t, t+ \Delta t)\;.
\end{equation}
Due to the choice of weights, after streaming an approximation to the Laplacian
is easily obtained
\begin{equation}
  \nabla^2_{fe} \psi (\mathbf{x}_i) =
8 \Big[ -g_0 +  \sum_{q=1}^Q g_q^\prime(\mathbf{x}, t) \Big] \;,
\end{equation}
Relative to the solution of Gauss's law, the error is given by
\begin{equation}
  \varepsilon_{\psi} =
8 \Big[ -g_0 +  \sum_{q=1}^Q g_q^\prime(\mathbf{x}, t) \Big]
+ \frac{\rho_e}{\epsilon_r \epsilon_0} \;.
\end{equation}
Using the fact that $f_0 = W_0 \psi$, we can compute the value
$\psi^\prime$ that would kill the error. We set $\varepsilon_{\psi}=0$
and rearrange terms to obtain
\begin{equation}
\psi^\prime (\mathbf{x},t) = \frac{1}{W_0}\Big[   \sum_{q=1}^Q g_q^\prime(\mathbf{x}, t)
+ \frac{1}{8}\frac{\rho_e}{\epsilon_r \epsilon_0}\Big]  \;.
\end{equation}
The local value of the potential is then updated based on a relaxation scheme, which is controlled by the relaxation time $\tau_\psi$
\begin{equation}
\psi(\mathbf{x},t+\Delta t) \leftarrow \Big(1 - \frac{1}{\tau_\psi} \Big )\psi (\mathbf{x},t)
+ \frac{1}{\tau_\psi} \psi^\prime (\mathbf{x},t)\;.
\end{equation}
The algorithm can then proceed to the next timestep based on
Eq. \ref{eq:geq}.

A LBM solution to recover Eq. \ref{eq:Nernst-Planck} is developed using a three-dimensional, seven velocity (D3Q7) lattice structure, which correspond to $q=0,1,\ldots,6$ from
Eq. \ref{eq:discrete-velocity}. Each distribution is associated with a particular discrete velocity, $f^k_q$. The concentration is given  by their sum,
\begin{equation}
    C_k  = \sum_{q=0}^{6} f^k_q \;.
\end{equation}
Lattice Boltzmann equations (LBEs) are defined to determine the
evolution of the distributions $f_q^k$,
\begin{equation}
    f^{k}_q (\mathbf{x}_n + \bm{\xi}_q \Delta t, t+ \Delta t)-
        f^{k}_q (\mathbf{x}_n, t) = \frac{1}{\lambda_k}
        \Big( f^{k}_q - f^{eq}_q \Big)\;,
             \label{eq:mass-LBE}
\end{equation}
where the relaxation time $\lambda_k$ controls the bulk diffusion coefficient,
\begin{equation}
    D_k = c_s^2\Big( \lambda_k - \frac 12\Big)\;.
\end{equation}
The speed of sound for the D3Q7 lattice model is $c_s^2 = \frac 14$ and the weights are $W_0 = 1/4$ and $W_1,\ldots, W_6 = 1/8$.
Equilibrium distributions are established from the fact that molecular velocity distribution follows a Gaussian distribution within the bulk fluids,
\begin{equation}
          f^{eq}_q = W_q C_k \Big[ 1 + \frac{\bm{\xi_q}\cdot \mathbf{u}^\prime}{c_s^2} \Big]\;.
\label{eq:LBE-equilibrium}
\end{equation}
The velocity $\mathbf{u}^\prime$ is given by
\begin{equation}
    \mathbf{u}^\prime = \mathbf{u} - \frac{z_k D_k}{V_T} \nabla \psi \;.
    \label{eq:LBE-u}
\end{equation}
Solution of Eqs. \ref{eq:mass-LBE}--\ref{eq:LBE-u} will recover the Nernst-Planck Equations \citep{chapman1990mathematical}.
Combined with a numerical scheme to solve Eq. \ref{eq:Poisson-Boltzmann} this is sufficient to define a model for electrodiffusion within the bulk fluids
\citep{WANG2006729,WANG2008575,WANG2010728,CHEN2014186,ZHANG2017219}. Novel rules must be developed to model transport across the membrane, since
the local diffusion properties will differ substantially from the behavior within the  bulk fluids.

\subsection{Membrane representation and closure rule}

\begin{figure}[b]
\includegraphics[width=1.0\linewidth]{Figures/fig_1.png
\caption{\label{fig:membrane} Representation of a membrane (dashed-line) within lattice Boltzmann models: all discrete velocity links that cross the membrane are identified  and stored in a dedicated data structure. Transport behavior for membrane links (open sites and associated bold arrows)
are determined independently from the rules used for normal links (solid sites and light arrows). Distribution
$f^k_q (\mathbf{x}_{q\ell})$ is on the interior side of the membrane, and $f^k_p (\mathbf{x}_{p\ell})$ is on the exterior side.
}
\end{figure}

The numerical representation for membrane structure is the critical factor to implement general whole-cell modeling capabilities. Due to scale separation it is advantageous to represent a biological membrane as a two-dimensional entity. The length scale for most cells falls within the range of $1$ $\mu$m to $1$ mm. In contrast, the thickness of the lipid bilayer is $~5$ nm, below the resolution for many relevant optical techniques. Accurately representing the membrane location can be accomplished by using signed distance functions, which are widely used in front-tracking algorithms. Given an observed structure, a distance map $\mathcal{D}(\mathbf{x})$ can be generated using approaches developed for level set methods \citep{Sethian1591}. The membrane location corresponds to $\mathcal{D}(\mathbf{x}) = 0$, which can be used to inform the lattice Boltzmann model. This is sufficient to capture the core function of the membrane as being a barrier to mixing within the system. Based on this representation, we may take advantage of the LBM data structures to enforce local rules that govern mass transport across the membrane. This is accomplished by considering the symmetry of the lattice based on the discrete velocity vectors $\bm{\xi}_q$, noting that for each distribution $f_q(\mathbf{x}_{q\ell},t)$ carrying mass out of the cell, there is an opposing distribution $f_{p}(\mathbf{x}_p,t)$ that will transport mass into to the cell, with $\mathbf{x}_p = \mathbf{x}_q+\bm{\xi}_q\Delta t$. This is depicted in Figure \ref{fig:membrane}. The standard lattice Boltzmann streaming step would propagate $f_q(\mathbf{x}_{q\ell},t)$  to site $\mathbf{x}_{p\ell}$ at time $t+\Delta t$, while $f_{p}(\mathbf{x}_{p\ell}, t)$ will propagate to site $\mathbf{x}_{q\ell}$. Based on the structure of the discrete velocity set, each distribution will be paired with exactly one other distribution, which we call a link. This symmetry can be exploited when considering the membrane representation. Links that cross the membrane can be determined by using the distance map to identify all lattice links that cross the membrane, as shown in Figure \ref{fig:membrane}. With the discrete velocity $\mathbf{\xi}_q$ pointing out of the membrane, membrane links $\ell$ uniquely satisfy the condition $\mathcal{D}(\mathbf{x}_{q\ell}) \mathcal{D}(\mathbf{x}_{p\ell}) < 0 $. The bounce-back rule is applied to exclude membrane links from participation in the streaming step \citep{Maier_1996}. A separate list is formed to store the membrane links, which are then treated according to an alternative closure rule.
All mass transfer across the membrane occurs across these links. Manipulation of the lattice Boltzmann data structures is thereby able to incorporate the membrane geometry into the mesoscale representation.
Mass transport across these links can then be governed by local closure rules.

\begin{algorithm}[H]
\caption{\label{alg:link-update} Membrane link update rule to govern mass transport of component $k$.}
\begin{algorithmic}
\For{$\ell=0,1,\ldots,L$}
    \State { $f_{q}^{k \prime} (\mathbf{x}_{q\ell})  \gets (1-\alpha^k_{\ell q}) f_{q}^{k} (\mathbf{x}_{q\ell}) + \alpha^k_{\ell p } f_{ p}^{k}  (\mathbf{x}_{p\ell})$ }
    \State {$f_{p}^{k \prime} (\mathbf{x}_{p\ell})  \gets (1-\alpha^k_{\ell p}) f_{p}^{k} (\mathbf{x}_{p\ell}) + \alpha^k_{\ell q } f_{q}^{k}  (\mathbf{x}_{q\ell})$}
\EndFor
\end{algorithmic}
\end{algorithm}

In this work we consider the membrane location to be static, since our primary objective is model mass diffusion across the membrane. The membrane inhibits mass transport and normal diffusion statistics may consequently break down in its vicinity. Behavior may be non-ergodic due to the role played by the membrane in preventing mixing in the system, and due to the anomalous diffusion properties associated with protein-mediated transport \citep{Weigel_etal_2011}.
It is therefore appropriate to formulate the link update rule in a way that allows mesoscopic rules to deviate from those dictated by equipartition of energy. A coarse-grained strategy is defined by considering the net rate of mass transport across the membrane over the simulation timestep $\Delta t$.
This can be embedded in the membrane permeability for each ion, which may vary with both
time and space. Since the permeability may also be direction-dependent, independent coefficients $0 \le \alpha^k_{\ell q } \le 1$ and $0\le \alpha^k_{\ell p}\le 1$ are defined to control the fraction of mass that crosses the membrane from either side. The mass flux out of the cell across link $\ell$ is
\begin{equation}
    \mathbf{j}_k^\ell  = \big(\alpha^k_{\ell q } f^k_q  - \alpha^k_{\ell p } f^k_p \big) \bm{\xi}_q \;.
    \label{eq:membrane-permeability}
\end{equation}
Algorithm 1 summarizes how the closure rule is implemented to move each ion
across the membrane. Since Eq. \ref{eq:membrane-permeability}
is tied to the physical transport of ions
across the surface, it has a straightforward interpretation that may
be easily generalized to describe a wide range of non-equilbrium membrane
transport behaviors. Rules can be customized to consider the direction-dependent
membrane permeability to vary as a function of the local voltage, concentration, etc.
\begin{equation}
     \alpha^k_{\ell q} =  \alpha^k_{\ell q} (\psi, C_j, \ldots)\;, \quad
     \alpha^k_{\ell p} =  \alpha^k_{\ell p} (\psi, C_j, \ldots)\;.
\end{equation}
To understand the relationship between the  coefficients and the local diffusion coefficient,
consider the distribution $f_{q}^k(\mathbf{x}_{q\ell})$. Particles transported across the membrane
are displaced from $\mathbf{x}_{q\ell}$ by $\Delta \mathbf{x}_q = \bm{\xi}_q \Delta t$. The displacement for remaining particles is zero.
Since $\alpha^k_{\ell q}$ is the fraction of particles that cross
the membrane, the mean squared distance traveled
by particles associated with the direction of travel $\bm{\xi}_q$ is
\begin{equation}
  \mbox{MSD}_{\ell q} = \alpha^k_{\ell q} ( \Delta \mathbf{x}_q)^2 \;.
  \label{eq:MSD}
\end{equation}
The diffusion properties can therefore be controlled independently for
each link, and are de-coupled from the bulk diffusion coefficient $D_k$. The formulation can even be applied to consider the case where $\alpha^k_{\ell q}$ is different from $\alpha^k_{\ell p}$, which corresponds to the situation where ion $k$ is subjected to active transport rather than passive transport. The representation
is coarse-grained based on the timestep $\Delta t$, which will generally
be relatively large as compared to the molecular timescale. Approaches
to measure direction-dependent diffusion statistics in the vicinity of
the membrane (e.g. single molecule tracking \cite{Weron_etal_2017}) can thereby be linked to
Eq. \ref{eq:MSD} in a straightforward way.

\section{Results}

We consider multi-ion transport based on constant membrane permeability as a means to demonstrate the basic features of the developed model, and to demonstrate that the non-equilibrium electrical response can be recovered from first-principles. Ion $k$ diffuses across the membrane based on the effective diffusion coefficient for the membrane $\tilde{D}_k$,
which together with the membrane thickness $h$ defines the membrane
permeability $p_k$. The coefficients are chosen such that bi-directional transport is unbiased, and capture the tendency for the membrane
to inhibit diffusion for ion $k$,
\begin{equation}
  \alpha^k_{\ell p } = \alpha^k_{\ell q } = \frac{\tilde{D}_k}{D_k}
   = \frac{{p}_k {h}}{D_k}\;.
   \label{eq:membrane-diffusion}
\end{equation}
This also provides the basis to choose the coefficients in Algorithm 1
for situations where $\tilde{D}_k$ can be measured experimentally.
From a fundamental perspective, it is differences in the permeability of the membrane to different ions that produce the resting membrane potential \citep{10.1085/jgp.27.1.37}. In this situation, a gradient in ionic strength will spontaneously produce a membrane voltage. Under
stationary conditions, the concentration difference for each ion is determined by the membrane permeabilities. On this basis, the Goldman equation predicts the associated membrane potential. The familiar form for the Goldman equation considers three ion species, $\mbox{Na}^{\tiny{+}}$, $\mbox{K}^{\tiny{+}}$ and $\mbox{Cl}^{\tiny{-}}$, corresponding to the three most prevalent ions in cells. The Goldman potential $\psi^*$ can be predicted according to the associated permeabilities,
\begin{equation}
    \frac{\psi^*}{V_T}= \ln \frac {
    {p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{K}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{K}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}}
    +{p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{Na}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{Na}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}}
    +{p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}}
    }
    {    {p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{K}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{K}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}}
    +{p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{Na}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{Na}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}}
    +{p}_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}}{C_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}}^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}}
    }  \;.

    \label{eq:goldman}
\end{equation}
When the membrane is permeable only to a single ion $k$ (setting $p_j=0$ for $j\neq k$), the Goldman equation reduces to the Nernst potential,
\begin{equation}
  z_k \frac{\psi^*}{V_T} = \ln \frac{C_k^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}}{C_k^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}} \;.
    \label{eq:Nernst-potential}
\end{equation}

\begin{figure*
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{Figures/Nernst-potential-r3.png}
\caption{(a)--(c) Ion concentration and (d) electric potential for a 1D membrane that is permeable to a single ion species. Simulation results are shown with the circle symbol, and analytical solution are solid lines. A background ion is used to initialize from an electroneutral condition on either side of membrane; (e) simulated electric potential and ion concentration fields.
}\label{fig:Nernst}
\end{figure*}

To verify that expected stationary behavior is recovered, we simulate a planar membrane as shown in Figure \ref{fig:Nernst}. The initial ion concentration is piece-wise constant, with a different concentration on either side of the membrane. Three different simulations are considered, separately
considering the Nernst potential for $\mbox{Na}^{\tiny{+}}$, $\mbox{K}^{\tiny{+}}$ and $\mbox{Cl}^{\tiny{-}}$. Background ions with opposite charge are added to enforce electrical neutrality, meaning that there is a gradient in ionic strength across the membrane but no net charge in the simulation domain. The membrane is impermeable to the background ion, ${p}_{j} = 0$. With $p_k  > 0$ the ion $k$ is free to establish a stationary profile across the membrane. The permeable ion will diffuse across the membrane, driven by the gradient in chemical potential. Stationary profiles are obtained when diffusion is balanced by the drift current driven by the electric potential that is established as charges accumulate on both sides of membrane. Since the background ion is impermeable, it acts as a constraint on the permeable ion. Figure \ref{fig:Nernst}(a)--(d) shows the simulated ion concentration and electric potential plotted against the analytical solution reported by \cite{membrane_1d_analytical}. Ion concentration in the Gouy-Chapman layer closely matches the analytical solution. The ability to resolve the Guoy-Chapman layer is critical, since this region determines the surface charge density and plays a major role in determining the transient responses of the membrane.

 Eqs. \ref{eq:goldman} and \ref{eq:Nernst-potential} are non-equilibrium expressions that describe a stationary state. They cannot be used to predict general non-equilibrium responses that occur based on ion transport. Mesoscopic simulation provides broad capabilities to model these dynamics. As an example, we simulate the charging dynamics due to diffusion of potassium, sodium and chloride ions based on a simple membrane shape, as shown in Figure \ref{fig:Goldman}(a)--(e). The length of the cell is $0.9$ $\mu$m and a maximum diameter of $0.36$ $\mu$m, which is comparable to the size for a typical bacteria. Simulations were performed on a 3D image of $128 \times 64 \times 64$ voxels with a resolution of $10$ nm. Initial concentrations were established based on the values listed in Table \ref{tab:table1}, with the membrane transport coefficients chosen based on Eq. \ref{eq:membrane-diffusion}. The diffusion coefficient $D_k = 1.0 \times 10^{-9}$ $\mbox{m}^2/\mbox{s}$ is applied for all ions $k$. Since the  relaxation process is dominated by the slower timescales associated with diffusion of $\mbox{Na}^{+}$ and $\mbox{K}^{+}$ across the membrane, the bulk diffusion coefficients play only a minor role in determining responses in the system.

\begin{table}[h]
\begin{center}
\caption{Initial and final conditions for simulation results
shown in Figure \ref{fig:Goldman}. The membrane permeability is directly proportional to $\tilde{D}_k$. Final concentration values
are used to compute the Goldman equation.
}\label{tab:table1}
\begin{tabular}{@{}lccccc@{}}
\toprule
Ion &${\tilde{D}_k}/{D_k}$
&  $C_k^{\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}(t_0)$  & $C_k^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}(t_0)$  &  $C_k^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(in)}}{5pt}}$  & $C_k^{*\scaleto{\mbox{(out)}}{5pt}}$ \\
\hline
$\mbox{Na}^{+}$  & $0.005$ & 15 mM & 20 mM  & 35.2 mM & 11.2 mM \\
$\mbox{K}^{+}$ & $0.1$ & 150 mM & 4 mM  & 63.0 mM & 2.0 mM \\
$\mbox{Cl}^{-}$  & $1.0$ & 10 mM & 16 mM & 6.7 mM & 19.5 mM \\
\botrule
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\end{table}

\begin{figure*
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{Figures/Figure3.png}
\caption{Recovery of Goldman potential based on a simple membrane geometry:
(a)--(d) ion concentrations and
(e) electric potential resulting from stationary conditions;
(f) concentration reaches stationary values following a multi-ion relaxation process;
(g) based on differing membrane permeability, the relaxation timescale for $\mbox{Na}^{\small{+}}$ is significantly slower than for $\mbox{K}^{\small{+}}$;
(h) the Goldman potential is recovered from the stationary solution,
with hyper-polarization due to the combined effect of the two
relaxation times.
}\label{fig:Goldman}
\end{figure*}

For a membrane that is permeable to a single ion $k$, the charging dynamics can be predicted based on an associated relaxation time $\tau_k$,
\begin{equation}
\frac{\psi(t) - \psi^*}{\psi^*} =\exp{ \Big[\frac{t-t_0}{\tau_k}\Big]}\;,
\label{eq:membrane-relaxation}
\end{equation}
where the initial condition is given by $\psi(t_0) = 0$. The stationary cell
potential is $\psi^*$, with $t^*$ the time required to
achieve stationary conditions, such that $\psi(t)=\psi^*$ for $t>t^*$. In the mesoscopic model,
$\tau_k$ is controlled by the membrane permeability for ion $k$. When the membrane is permeable to multiple ions, multiple relaxation timescales will coexist. First principles simulation provides a natural mechanism to directly resolve these non-equilibrium physics, with minimal simplifying assumptions.

A non-dimensional timescale is obtained by normalizing with respect to the
fastest relaxation rate, $\tau_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}}$. Taken independently, the
relaxation rate for the two positive ions is shown in Figure \ref{fig:Goldman}(f).
These rates are controlled by choosing the membrane permeability.
Given a particular membrane structure, the relaxation rate for ion $k$ can be determined by setting $p_j=0$ for $j \neq k$, retaining the same initial condition. The relaxation rates depicted in Figure \ref{fig:Goldman}(f) are obtained by combining this condition with the
initial ion concentrations listed in Table \ref{tab:table1}.
For this situation Eq. \ref{eq:membrane-relaxation} will hold and the relaxation rate
is easily identified. For this system the relative relaxation rates are
$\tau_{\scaleto{\mbox{K}}{4pt}} / \tau_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}} = 2.2$ and $\tau_{\scaleto{\mbox{Na}}{4pt}} / \tau_{\scaleto{\mbox{Cl}}{4pt}} = 10.9$.
When multiple ions relax simultaneously,
as in Figure \ref{fig:Goldman}(f), the charging dynamics are no longer
governed by a single parameter. Figure \ref{fig:Goldman} (h) shows that the system relaxes to the Goldman potential based on the combination of both timescales, with the fast dynamics determined by $\mbox{K}^{\tiny{+}}$ and the slower dynamics determined by $\mbox{Na}^{\tiny{+}}$. Hyper-polarization is observed as a direct consequence of the two relaxation timescales. The observed behavior is consistent with the refractory period in real cells. Defining the timescale to achieve stationary conditions as $t^*$, the final ion concentrations determined from simulation are listed in Table 1.

\section*{Summary}

We develop a mesoscopic representation for membrane diffusion based on lattice Boltzmann methods.
The method is designed to complement experimental imaging protocols,
so that non-equilibrium responses can be understood in the context of real cell geometries.
The method provides way to model how protein-mediated
diffusion phenomena influence cellular responses based on a coarse-grained representation,
providing a way to model cellular systems at biologically relevant length and timescales.
Membrane transport coefficients are theoretically linked with the membrane diffusion coefficient for each chemical species, which can be measured or inferred from other experimental and computational approaches. Given a particular ion concentration field, chemical and electrical responses can be determined based on particular membrane transport properties. Transport in the bulk regions is determined from the Nernst-Planck Equations and Gauss's law using a coupled solution procedure.
Inputs for the model are the initial concentration field and closure relationships for the membrane
permeability. Transient responses for the concentration field and electrical potential
are outputs from the simulation.

Our approach is able to recover both equilibrium and non-equilibrium behavior
from first principles. We verify that simulations are able to recover the Nernst reversal potential when the membrane is permeable to a single ion, and the Goldman potential when the membrane is permeable to multiple ions. We show that the approach can be used to identify time constants associated with membrane charging, and that simulations for multi-ion transport can predict non-linear membrane dynamics. Hyper-polarization is observed based on the charging dynamics for multiple ions relaxing at different timescales. The formulation can support many different applications for lattice Boltzmann methods,
and consider wide range of biological and engineered systems.

\section*{Author's Contributions}

\noindent Both authors contributed equally to this work.

\begin{acknowledgments}
\noindent This research used resources of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725. This research was also undertaken with the assistance of resources and services from the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI), which is supported by the Australian Government.
\end{acknowledgments}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


A professional performance review is essential not just for the effective operation of a business; it is also important for the continuous dialogue between managers and employees. The primary goal of a performance review is for the manager and the employee to come to an understanding of the job responsibilities and the expected performance followed by an assessment of this performance. Reviews should encourage employees to improve performance and show that managers are able to work effectively with the employees.
Prepare for the performance review; record commendable performances and poor performances of the employee over a specific period of time (quarterly, for example). Observe the employee, talk to his supervisor and keep a file to track performance. Bring these performance records to the actual review session.
Offer constructive criticism when you state the areas of the employee's performance that need improvement. Focus on skills or competencies and not on the personality of the employee. Encourage the employee to come up with solutions to the poor performance by making inquiries such as: "I can see the effort you have made but it is still not up to standards. What would you have done differently in this task?" Note the responses on the performance review form.
Set goals for the coming quarter, before the next performance review. Focus on a few and specific areas that need improvement. Present the goals as tentative goals rather than firm goals restricted by time limits. For example: "You will be able to enhance your time management skills if you reply to emails in the mornings only." Note the goals on the performance review form.
Allow the employee's input before finalizing the performance review session. Ask the employee what concerns he has and what his views are about the performance review session. Do this, for example, by stating: "I welcome any input, questions or comments about your work and the review session we have had." Listen without interrupting and note the facts of the employee's responses. Let the employee sign the performance review form and you do the same.


text:
package gov.nist.javax.sip.header;

public class Credentials
  extends SIPObject{
  // Fields

  protected java.lang.String scheme;

  protected gov.nist.core.NameValueList parameters;

  // Constructors

  public Credentials(){
    super();
  }
  // Methods

  public java.lang.Object clone(){
    return (java.lang.Object) null;
  }
  public java.lang.String encode(){
    return (java.lang.String) null;
  }
  @com.francetelecom.rd.stubs.annotation.FieldGet("scheme")
  public java.lang.String getScheme(){
    return (java.lang.String) null;
  }
  public void setScheme(@com.francetelecom.rd.stubs.annotation.FieldSet("this.scheme") java.lang.String arg1){
  }
  @com.francetelecom.rd.stubs.annotation.FieldGet("parameters")
  public gov.nist.core.NameValueList getCredentials(){
    return (gov.nist.core.NameValueList) null;
  }
  public void setCredentials(@com.francetelecom.rd.stubs.annotation.FieldSet("this.parameters") gov.nist.core.NameValueList arg1){
  }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


It is imperative that we pay attention to school superintendents.
Superintendents are highly paid and visible district leaders responsible for ensuring all students receive a high-quality education aligned to state and federal laws as well as the values and interests of their community.
Most superintendents are determined, highly competent, and dedicated educators who inherit complex challenges. Leading a district is a not an easy job and superintendents regularly make tough, time-sensitive decisions with limited resources in a very political context.
In El Paso and across the country, superintendents have sometimes failed to improve their districts or used their position to advance their personal career to produce quick results but predictably cause long-term problems.
A small number of superintendents have engaged in cheating and financial mismanagement. In many of these instances, superintendents could engage in unethical or illegal conduct because the community were not watchful of superintendents and school boards.
Therefore, it is imperative that we pay attention to superintendents. To do so, we should be knowledgeable about the superintendency.
First, superintendents are responsible for district goal-setting, allocating resources to support goals, and monitoring progress.
Second, superintendents should demonstrate knowledge of curriculum, teaching and evaluation practices, and educational research. They should be able to communicate with diverse groups, listen to different perspectives, and use reason and expertise to facilitate contentious decisions.
The combination of instructional knowledge and communication skills is important because business leaders, textbook companies, state policymakers, parents, teachers, local universities, and school board members often have different interests and expectations for what constitutes the best curriculum or reform. A superintendent should display the skills necessary to reach a consensus that serves students.
Third, superintendents should be informed about law, school finance, and administrative duties to guarantee the ethical and efficient operation of schools. This means ensuring money is not carelessly spent and that resources are distributed in a fair and transparent manner.
Finally, superintendents should demonstrate the political skills necessary to engage in shared decision-making processes and establish positive relationships with school board members who can be politically motivated or self-interested.
This means superintendents do not just listen to the loudest or most powerful special interests like a local chamber of commerce or philanthropist, but also to low-income families that have historically been removed from the decisions that impact their children.
The need for superintendent accountability is especially important in El Paso. Mexican-American students and immigrant students have at times been under-educated in unequal schools, victimized by district policies, and educated in ways that neglect their linguistic assets.
• Review your district's website to learn about goals, priorities, and long-term district plans. You should also find a biography on your superintendent.
• Contact your child's teacher or principal to ask about their biggest challenges and most innovative teaching programs. If needed, follow up with your district to raise a question or offer your support.
• Recruit neighbors and friends to attend school board meeting or schedule a meeting with the superintendent to discuss concerns.
• If you ask to speak to your superintendent, understand they are very busy. However, it is a good sign if they are accessible and open to a brief but meaningful conversation.
• If a superintendent's actions seem questionable, contact the district or your school board representative and ask them how the superintendent's actions are aligned with the district's mission.
• Share your feelings and experiences with school board members because they make determinations about superintendent hiring, evaluation, and termination as well as other policy related decisions.
While paying more attention to these issues and asking tough questions requires effort, it will help to ensure superintendents are meeting local expectations and help school board members make important decisions.
David DeMatthews is an assistant professor of education leadership at the University of Texas at El Paso.


What you see depends on what you look for, and if you really open your eyes, something new may come into view. That was the case for Robin Warren, 2005 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, when he recognized bacteria living in the stomach. In this conversation he talks about the long time spent convincing the scientific community, and how, once the importance of the discovery was finally recognized, he got the Nobel Prize call from Stockholm while being served fish and chips in a pub in Perth together with his co-laureate Barry Marshall.
Interview with the 2005 Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine, J. Robin Warren and Barry J. Marshall, by journalist Rupini Bergström, 6 December 2005.
The Laureates talk about their impressions of Sweden during wintertime, their collaboration during the years (1:17), the discovery of the bacteria Helicobacter Pylori (5:02), how the Nobel Prize has affected their lives (9:55), treating H. Pylori in the developing countries (19:47), and what makes a scientist succeed (24:19).
The Nobel Laureates of 2005 met at the Bernadotte Library in Stockholm in December 2005 for the traditional round-table discussion and TV show 'Nobel Minds'. The programme presenter is Nik Gowing, principal programme anchor for the BBC's international television news channel BBC World. Among other things the Laureates talk about competition versus co-operation and the need of mentoring in scientific research.
Telephone interview with Dr J. Robin Warren following the announcement of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 3 October 2005. The interviewer is science writer Joanna Rose.


Before we start talking about the New Year Parties in Sentosa let us first get to know why this particular island in Singapore is considered to be one of the hottest destinations in Asia to be in on the New Year's Eve.
Sentosa welcomes tourists from all over the world all the year round not only for the exotic charm that the scenic beauty exudes, but also for the wonderful people of the island who make warm company. Apart from the sand and sea, the island is also home to many forms of entertainment.
Sentosa promises that once someone visits the island the person would leave with an indelible impression in his/ her mind and also with the urge to keep coming back for more. New Year is a popular time for the island to host a lot of guests who join hands with the residents to enjoy some of the most famed parties of the season. The tourists also take advantage of enjoying the local attractions like The Wax Museum, Water World, Marine Aquarium, Pink Dolphins Lake and much more.
If you are someone who would like to have your share of fun on the New Year's Eve without too much of a pocket pinch, then you should visit the Merlion Park on the Marina Bay. The beautiful pedestrian walkway stretches for about 120 meters, and is beautifully decked up in colorful fountains. Behold the graceful Merlion, the symbol of Singapore's pride. As the evening gets dark enjoy a spectacular view of the well lit Singapore Skyline with the stars above your head.
Sentosa is a party destination all through the year. Pubs and clubs are sizzling year round for providing people with a hip n happening evening. Naturally these places feel more excited to host people on the New Year's Eve. If you are visiting the island and are not too knowledgeable about the hot places to hang out, or if you are a regular but would like to give the reigns to someone else for a relaxed evening, the Sentosa Pub Crawl is just meant for you. You can go bar hopping with some cool people and may make some awesome friends too. Over five hours to pub experience would include a pool party, exciting games, exclusive drinks, discounts at the bars, and much more making your New Year's Eve a memorable one.
You get to usher in the New Year in this beautiful property on the Sentosa Island where the party hoppers are welcomed from 10 at night to 2 in the morning. The perfect ambiance of the property would create the right mood for you to celebrate this joyous occasion. Revel at the Pavilion in the Hollywood Style Countdown party complete with performers appearing as Hollywood stars. You can simply relax to let your hair down as the renowned DJs spin out the year's latest hits that would make you feel like hitting the dance floor quite often.
You also would get to enjoy performances by Live Entertainers like juggler and close up magician. There would also be a musical performance by a three piece band. Get your face painted or get a smashing airbrush tattoo to feel like a fashion trendsetter. As the midnight comes, experience the gala balloon drop as you raise your glass of favorite liquor to toast the upcoming New Year. Well, no party is complete without feasting. Naturally the Hotel has taken care of that, and you get to enjoy a sumptuous buffet spread for dinner. They have thought of it all so that you can have the best night out experience. But make sure you make your reservations early before it gets all sold out.
The Siloso beach party at Sentosa Island has the reputation of going bigger and bolder with each passing year. This one is labeled as the grooviest celebration in Asia. Rain or shine you shall get to party under the stars on the New Year's Eve in a party zone that is spread across 1.2 km on the exotic beach turned dance and partying arena that comprises of five different zones, each unique from the other. The hallmark of the Sentosa New Year's Eve Beach Bash is however the very popular foam pool. But the attractions do not stop just there. Apart from the numerous fringe attractions, sandy dance floors, a wide selection of foods and beverages, and a spectacular display of fireworks, you also get to enjoy nonstop music played by reputed disc jockeys, a mesmerizing show of pyrotechnics, and much more.
So you can simply party wild all the night long as you witness the old year fade away making way for a brand new chapter. Join hands with thousands of people and make new friends too as you party till the crack of dawn. Remember to dress appropriately for a beach themed party and carry cash to buy food or beverages. Since there would be a maddening crowd it is best for you to leave your valuables home. Wondering about the pocket pinch? The Siloso Beach party passes if bought in advance would cost you S $58 and would include a standard drink. If you are willing to dish out more you can buy the VIP pass at the Online Exclusive rate of S $98 to have fast entry to the party on a priority basis enabling you to avoid the mad rush, access to the VIP lounging zone and enjoy three standard drinks.


text:
Review – "Dungeons & Dragons": Young Adventurer's Guides
Home » Movies » Massive Script Re-Writes Hurt "Men in Black: International"
Massive Script Re-Writes Hurt "Men in Black: International"
Posted by Kaitlyn Booth June 18, 2019 Comment
The summer blockbuster season is all about franchises and reboots (these days) so no one was particularly surprised when Sony Pictures announced that there was going to be another entry in the Men in Black series. It was one of the big "unknowns" when it came to movies this summer with no one particularly sure how critics or audiences were going to react to the relaunch. With an opening weekend of $30 million domestic and a lackluster score on Rotten Tomatoes, it seems that this gamble didn't work out the way the studio wanted it to. However, some new details are coming out about the production and the sources that spoke The Hollywood Reporter told a very common story about a troubled production.
It came down to script rewrites as it often does in this business. It didn't start out that way though. One of the reasons people were excited about this movie was the reteaming of Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson after Thor: Ragnarok.
"The script was good," says one insider. "You don't attract Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson if the script isn't good."
However, things quickly went off of the rails after that with rewrites happening the day of shooting which is never a good sign for a production. THR's sources say that Hemsworth and Thompson also hired their own dialogue writers on top of the rewrites that were already happening doing away with the scripts original nuance which allegedly focused more on modern-day immigration issues.
One source says new pages arrived daily for the actors, causing a certain amount of confusion, as well as stripping away what some considered the more modern sensibilities. Thompson and Hemsworth then hired their own dialogue writers. (Both [script writers Art] Marcum and [Matt] Holloway were on set even as [produer Walter] Parkes looked to dictate rewrites, another source notes, seconding that multiple dialogue writers served stints on set for the actors.)
The sources claim that this friction with the script caused issues with director F. Gary Gray whom they say nearly left the production multiple times. From there the story takes an interesting turn. Unlike the usual story where the studio is behind-the-scenes meddling with things, in this case, Sony wasn't around much at all.
"The studio was an absentee landlord. They were nowhere to be found," says one International insider, pointing to the lack of guidance from Sony over multiple disagreements that had broken out between Parkes and Gray.
That isn't what we usually hear when it comes to troubled productions which goes to show how important that leadership from studios is. There is a happy medium in there balancing letting the creatives achieve their artistic vision and keeping things running smoothly.
"The urgency to see this was never there, and the movie needed a greater reason to be," says a Sony exec. … "Aliens walking among us is at its core a great idea," this Sony exec adds. "Men in Black will be revisited again at one point, either as a series, as streaming, or as another movie."
So it's another troubled production where audiences didn't care enough to show up to the box office that has come out this month alone [with Dark Phoenix being the other one]. It will be interesting to see if these flops have any impact on the overall box office of 2019 and if either studio will course correct to avoid these issues on future projects.
Summary: The Men in Black have always protected the Earth from the scum of the universe. In this new adventure, they tackle their biggest threat to date: a mole in the Men in Black organization.
Men in Black: International, directed by F. Gary Gray, stars Chris Hemsworth, Tessa Thompson, Rebecca Ferguson, Liam Neeson, Emma Thompson, and Kumail Nanjiani. It's out now.
About Kaitlyn Booth
Kaitlyn is the Editor-in-Chief at Bleeding Cool. She loves movies, television, comics, and political satire. She's a member of the UFCA and the GALECA. Feminist. Writer. Nerd. Follow her on twitter @katiesmovies and @safaiagem on instagram. She's also a co-host at The Nerd Dome Podcast. Listen to it at http://www.nerddomepodcast.com
twitter facebook square instagram globe
A Hunger Games Prequel is Coming Out, Lionsgate Shopping the Movie Rights
New Image from "The Lion King" and Bringing Back James Earl Jones

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Home » 2013 » ZZ Gundam
ZZ Gundam
Name: ZZ Gundam
Char. Design: Mika Akitaka
Real Robot
Review by VF5SS
Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ is many things to many people. For some it's the lighthearted sequel to the often grim Mobile Suit Gundam Z, to others it is another case of director Yoshiyuki Tomino making a wacky, zany TV show. However, I think everyone can agree that it is most definitely not an anime.
See? It says so right in the theme song. And to think the man who wrote the lyrics later became an integral part in creating AKB48.
Bandai's Robot Damashii line is a little bit easier to pin down. These premier mecha action figures seek to combine amazing articulation with excellent build quality and to do so in a way that captures the "soul" of the character they depict. While most of the time they're quite good, sometimes their fidelity to the source material can affect the final product. The Robot Damashii ZZ Gundam (pronounced "Double Zeta") is a good example of a more experimental way of capturing the look of a particular giant robot in a physical product. When is a toy both an anime and not an anime? Let's take a closer look and find out.
The titular ZZ Gundam is a chunky hunk of hard plastic who stands almost seven inches tall from the bottom of his feet to the tip of his beam sabers. Due to his sheer bulk, it has a good amount of weight to him despite being an all plastic figure.
When I look at this particular ZZ Gundam, I can't help but notice it is going for a much more stylized portrayal of the design that isn't adhering to the stock artwork. As a result, it can look kind of odd when put in static poses as the smallness of its chest and largeness of its thighs and lower torso become more readily apparent. Parts of it look like they were meant for a slightly larger ZZ Gundam toy, while other parts match the approximate 1/144th scale look one would expect for a figure this size. While the quality of its aesthetics are up to debate, it is interesting to see a Robot Damashii figure lean more in the direct of Revoltech-esque stylized sculpt. You often see Bandai doing this with certain figures if they are being released within a few months of an equivalent High Grade kit of the same design. The HGUC ZZ Gundam is certainly a bit more "normal" than the Robot Damashii figure.
I must point out that unlike what you saw in the show's opening, this ZZ Gundam cannot transform into G-Fortress mode or separate into its two component Core Top and Core Base fighters.
As I mentioned previously, I don't think these changes are really good or bad but some parts of this figure are kind of a head scratcher. For example, the backpack attaches to the lower body at an odd angle and cannot be adjusted any other way. The backpack actually come separate from the figure while it's all still in the box and simply plugs into the back of the lower body. It seems like it would have been easy enough to make the backpack movable on its mount or at the very least include an option to set it at a different angle.
The end result is the backpack always looks kind of weird. I'm guessing they wanted it look properly dynamic while still being separate from the ZZ Gundam's upper back but also with little to no gap in between. The backpack does not have functional missile pods nor does it have any way to display the missile launchers as being open.
Still the backpack has some nice details like fully painted engine nozzles and movable wings. Sadly the nozzles do not move.
Other than its off model proportions, the ZZ Gundam is fairly detailed figure with plenty of sharp paint applications and some panel lining for the facial features. Strangely enough there is no black lining done for the ZZ Gundam's trademark forehead High Mega Cannon so the tiny etched detailing can get kind of lost.
The ZZ Gundam comes with a good amount of accessories that represent its standard armament. You get the Double Beam Rifle, two additional Hyper Beam Sabers with removable blades, and a bevvy of optional hands. The hands include two for holding the gun, two for the beam sabers, and a pair of splayed hands. The figure also comes with a Tamashii Stage Act 5.
The Act 5 display base is designed to be used with heavier figures and features a ratcheted joint at the base of the main arm. The ZZ Gundam comes with a custom groin clip for attaching it to the stand.
You can also pop out these tiny plugs in the stand to expose more mounting points for the main arm.
This is handy if you want to shift the weight of the figure while maintaining a stable display.
You also get the standard articulated claw for use with other figures. I must admit I didn't notice an essential part was still in the package and nearly chucked it in the garbage. Clear parts inside a clear plastic bag are masters of stealth.
I found the extra adapter piece to be quite handy as it happily passes my test of "can be used for Muv-Luvs."
When looking over the ZZ Gundam's articulation, I noticed it has a very strange elbow joint. A lot of 80's mecha design had subtle contradiction with how the elbows were supposed to bend where sometimes it was done opposite of what appeared to be an obvious joint (see any old artwork of a Scopedog). So here in an effort to preserve the anime-esque look, this ZZ Gundam bends its arms with its gauntlet pointing outward. The upper red piece slides into the forearm as it bends. The mechanism isn't quite perfect though as I find myself having to push the exposed gray portion back into the arm to get everything to reset when the arm is outstretched.
The head has an adequate range of motion that is accomplished via a pair of ball-joints in the base of the neck and swivel right under the chin. The ZZ Gundam only has a hard plastic V-Fin with no soft PVC option like some other Gundam figures.
The whole arm can move around via ball-jointed shoulders that are attached to an addition inner swivel to bring them forward and back. The hands move around via a ball-joint in the wrists. Also I noticed there's an errant splotch of white paint on one of the fists...
A bicep swivel in each arm lets the ZZ Gundam do some morning stretches.
The figure has a ball-jointed waist that is limited could twist in a full circle but is limited by the backpack and the shape of the rear skirt armor.
There is also a working ab crunch that makes the big red cockpit hatch appear to shrink inward when you use it.
The legs are a cornucopia of ambitiously engineered gimmicks with lots of sliding panels that move when the knee is bent. Note the white block that is just ahead of the gray knee joint.
When the knee is bent that white block actually slides into the lower leg. On one of the legs, that white block would get caught on the inner detail piece in the knee guard. This required me to lightly push on that piece to let the white block slide past and return the leg to a normal position. The rest of the lower leg also pivots along the main calve blocks which have a grooved track the lower leg moves on.
Also be advised that the movable shin guards like fall off with the slightest touch. With a shin guard detached, you see the inner ankle joint which features a separate forward and back tilt just above the main ball-joint.
The hips use a combination ball-joint attached to a pull down hinge to add some crazy dimensions during posing. This allows the legs to actually grow a bit in length if you pull them away from the groin.
The legs also feature a thigh swivel where the gray part of the hips meet the upper thigh.
All of these joints working together let the ZZ Gundam kneel down like a champ.
Or let it soar into the air on its massive boosters. Also check out how the feet have movable toes that can move inward or outward. Additionally the calve mounted fins can also hinge up or down so they don't bump into the heels or the back of the thighs.
The beam saber racks can swivel downward for when the ZZ Gundam uses them in beam cannon mode. It's also handy when it wants to reach up and unsheathed its energy blades.
You actually get two pairs of beam sabers, one pair with notched handles and one pair without. Both types do fit into the racks so it's mostly a matter of aesthetics. Only the notched sabers work with the specially designed hands that have a tab that attaches securely into the indents.
The removable blades really put the "hyper" in Hyper Beam Saber as they are about as long as the whole figure is tall.
I really love the look of this guy with these massive hand and a half style beam sabers. It's just like in Mobile Suit Gundam: Gundam vs. Zeta Gundam (a Gundam game) for the PS2 where the ZZ could run around brandishing one of these sci-fi Zweihänder and ineffectually chop at Big Zam's ankles.
Even the mighty Stark Jegan cannot compete with the overpowering presence of the Hyper Beam Saber.
While the ZZ Gundam can utilize both beam sabers at once...
They're actually too heavy for the shoulder joints to handle for long. Since the shoulders are attached with ball-joints, it is possible to stiffen them up with the usual methods but it is kind of a downer the Gundam known for big weapons is unable to heft them them indefinitely.
For some of these poses I had to position the upper arm just right so the shoulder didn't flop around due to the weight of the weapons. Again it still looks great but takes some preparation.
The Double Beam Rifle is another big ol' gun that features a movable handle and gun barrels that can swivel inwards. The weapon itself still has the cockpit detailing for when it forms the nose of the Core Top fighter. Sadly the handle attaches to a hinged block via a somewhat weak ball-joint connection which can be frustrating to deal with when you try to put the gun into the ZZ Gundam's specially designed gun-holding hands.
While it is best to thread the handle into the hand before reattaching it to the gun, oftentimes the sheer bulk of the arms interferes with getting the handle to click firmly back into the socket. This also makes it easy to knock the gun off its handle when posing the figure. You can finagle it so the ZZ Gundam can hold the rifle with the butt pointing away from the elbows...
Or being held straight outward in a cool dynamic pose. Try to avoid sticking the butt end under the ZZ Gundam's armpits or you will most likely knock the gun off its handle and possibly start cursing.
One reason they included a stand with the ZZ Gundam is so you can replicate this shot from the opening credits and transformation sequence.
This is the best I could do with the figure given that its head and waist can't move nearly as much. Also the floppy arms are irksome for a pose like this. It's a noble effort for both Bandai and myself.
As large as the ZZ Gundam is it still cannot compete with the king of mid-series upgrades that is the L-Gaim Mk II, seen here in Robot Damashii form. The L-Gaim Mk. II figure provides an interesting contrast to the ZZ Gundam as it carries its size a lot better and isn't nearly as stylized. Granted the Mk. II is not know for being drawn too far outside of Nagano's carefully laid out design whereas the ZZ Gundam was at the mercy of Sunrise's finest animators.
Overall the Robot Damashii ZZ Gundam is a mixed bag. While it carries the impressiveness of the the design, the stylized sculpt and odd engineering choices make it less than the sum of its parts. In the end the whole package is good but rather underwhelming for a Gundam that is the titular Mobile Suit of a show. In a lot of ways the off model sculpt seems disconnected from a lot of the really good engineering like the knees for example. A lot of that simply comes from the fact this ZZ Gundam doesn't transform and can therefore afford better articulation. I can't help but feel that the need to distinguish it from the concurrent HGUC model kit had a negative affect on the figure. It doesn't help that HGUC is roughly the same size as the Robot Damashii and has twice the features and gimmicks for half the price. While the Robot Damashii ZZ Gundam is still a sturdy, well built toy it seems more like an odd experimental variant than the proper mainline version of the character. When you add in some irksome flaws, the whole experience tends to falter. In the end, I think the best way to sum it up is this is a nonessential piece instead of what should be the definitive ZZ Gundam action figure.
Posted 30 October, 2013 - 07:33 by VF5SS
Thanks for the Luv test!
I really like it. Looks like a genuinely fun TOY rather than a fragile display figure.
I also appreciated the Luv-test for the base! I've been wondering what Stages would work best for some of my Muv Luvs as well...
Posted by AcroRay on 30 October, 2013 - 08:55
So this is closer to the size
So this is closer to the size of the 2003 Chogokin version?
Posted by VZMK2 on 30 October, 2013 - 12:02
Yeah it's about the same
Yeah it's about the same size.
Posted by VF5SS on 30 October, 2013 - 13:54
"However, I think everyone
"However, I think everyone can agree that it is most definitely not an anime. See? It says so right in the theme song. And to think the man who wrote the lyrics later became an integral part in creating AKB48."
And yet... now AKB84 is an anime...
Posted by recognizer on 30 October, 2013 - 14:34
The fixed backpack and the
The fixed backpack and the non opening missile compartments are just bizarre omissions. It makes me think that even Bandai thought that most people would pass on this and wait for the Full Armor v2.
Posted by SpaceRunaway on 30 October, 2013 - 16:35
I noticed the backpack has
I noticed the backpack has little tabs underneath that look like they're supposed to connect to something. Like how the backpack usually tabs into the legs for G-Fortress mode. Maybe they wanted it to transform?
Well, they just can't seem to
Well, they just can't seem to make a toy of this one without similar problems! I was hoping this one would solve a lot of the MSiA problems, but it sounds like your complaints are pretty much the same complaints I have with the MSiA version! The gun is just one of those things that cannot work in physical form. For the longest time I thought I was just doing it wrong, somehow, since I got the figure loose and didn't have the directions. Turns out the gun is just awkward and annoying!
Ah well, still nice looking and certainly moves better than the MSiA, at least. Doesn't look worth an upgrade for me, though.
Posted by Alexx on 31 October, 2013 - 14:51


If it's all about who you know, Immy is a great person to be connected to. He's a super connector with an innovative mindset striving for excellence in everything he sets out to accomplish. Immy stresses the importance of people's time, advising thorough research about their offerings and background when it comes to introducing people and asking for advice.
By expanding the possibilities currently existent in one's field through connections, he sees how to structure his network to provide massive value and recognize opportunities in advance. Listen for the thing that lights someone up. What are they interested in? How might you be able to support them in this desire or dream? How might they be able to contribute to your life? Who or what do you know that they absolutely need to be in touch with to further their career? There is an opportunity in every interaction, seek to find the gems.
You're continuously impacting the people you meet, regardless of the business you're in. Upon listening to Immy, I'm reminded of the Maya Angelou quote, "People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". It's clear that Immy strives to create pleasurable experiences with the people he meets by the amount of time he invests in truly getting to know someone.
When you're working with a client, collaborating on a project, or simply meeting someone for the first time, invest in truly getting to know what they are about. What do you want this person to remember about you? What quality of conversation do you wish to be having? What could you share with this person that would make a difference in their life? It's easy to understand the impact that Immy had when he met Jules and asked what he could do for her. How might you offer your expertise and knowledge?
By tapping into desired outcomes, he's able to find solutions and simplify the order of operations. Immy enjoys finding his client's SEO problems to provide tools that alleviate any frustrations or confusion they may have been having. In this case, Immy's superpower shines while his clients benefit from the invaluable addition he provides. A win-win for all parties involved is the aim of the game.
What do you have to offer? What do you love to share that can make a difference in another person's life? There is something only you have to give in the exact way you do. Seek out the opportunity, invest in your relationships, and offer your unique solutions.


The qualifications are suitable for those already working as learning support staff in schools.
Working with children is highly rewarding, but also demanding and a huge responsibility. These qualifications help you to achieve your career ambitions.


The pain is still pretty raw around here, i have lost 18 kits out of 29, which is hard enough. But when I woke up yesterday to find that my favorite rabbit (Physik) was going to die, I started crying… the losses were just too much! He gets his own post in the near future, when I am ready.
However, the mystery illness is back… I lost a buck to pasturella back in July, but that was the end of it, or so I thought.
Until Friday night, when they stopped eating all together.
That spells death to a rabbit. By Sunday, the ones that stopped eating were showing a loss of condition, and then pasturella. As previously mentioned, all rabbits are believed to have it, and it comes out under stress. The rabbitry is clean, but humid, damp air is enough to stress anyone.
So I had to make the choice to cull any rabbit that stopped eating, or had white snot (not clear discharge from the eye or nose ). This is a horrid choice, because each of these animals is worth $35-$50, and I hand picked them as my breeding stock. Only to kill them.
I lost two American Blue does. Brat and Sauerkraut. Pretzel is in quarentine, as she has runny eyes, but is eating well.
The painful losses were my American Chinchillas… my first, my favorite breed, and one that is critically endangered on the livestock conservancy list. I lost Physik, culled Queste (she was an underperforming doe anyways), and lost their daughter Pathfinder.
Buckbeak, Warlock, and Buck all have runny eyes, but are eating well.
Magyk and Granain are being force fed, as I observed them eating less than normal. They do not appear to be sick.
I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is temporary and associated with our awfully warm weather…. they are all getting VetRX for rabbits (herbal remedy for upper respiratory issues), spinach, and ecinecia in their water.
Oh please let this be temporary…. the losses both financially and on my heart are too high.


Is that a result of immigration? As everyone keeps saying, the vast majority of immigrants tend to flock to the cities as that's where the jobs are at. Our countryside being overtaken, if it is, seems much more a result of this insane Free Market philosophy of the public should own nothing, and everything, from our eyelids to our toenails, should have a price tag on it. I've actually walked from Brighton to around Newcastle before (I was gunning for Scotland, but bottled out) and the actual size of cities and towns in relation to the surrounding countryside tends to be surprisingly small. Not that most of the locals know that- they're so ensconced in their Kafka world of bricks they mentally imagine the world is built of wall-to-wall cities. They have that effect on you. There are so many ways we could improve housing if we were willing to do things like implement caps on how many you can own, and how much you can charge for them, as well as utilise some of the land (generally not country soil) councils own, but we're living in the demented philosophy of cats like Milton Friedman and Adam Smith, so that's not likely to happen until someone like Corbyn gets to flex his muscles.


"Home is where you make it yours"
There is a certain amount of emotion involved when you are buying or selling a home. You may be leaving memories or excited to start new ones. Honesty and Integrity are our core values and we would be honoured to provide support during this sometimes stressful, but at the same time exciting transition. It is our job to make sure you have nothing but the best advice while moving through this transition. If dealing with down to earth "REAL" REALTORS® is what you are looking for... then you've found US!


Ever wanted to create your own hand-drawn patterns for clothing, wallpaper, or even giftwraps? In this course you'll learn how to transform your sketches into print-ready patterns.
This class is for pattern designers, graphic designers, illustrators, artists, crafters and anyone else who is interested in pattern design using hand-drawn techniques and Adobe Photoshop.
The Manual Repeat Technique. How to prepare a hand-drawn illustration or painting for digital repeat.
Digital Repeat Technique. How to turn a hand-drawn illustration or painting into a digitally repeating pattern using Adobe Photoshop.
Using Photoshop Layers to Create Multiple Colorways. How to use layers in Adobe Photoshop to create multiple colorways for designs.
Applying Completed Repeat Patterns To Product Templates. How to apply completed repeat patterns to product templates for mockups.
The Importance of File Types, Color Modes, and Resolution. The difference between files types, resolutions, and color modes, and the importance of saving files under the correct settings for different uses.
From hand drawing to product printing, you'll learn the essentials of pattern design. We'll start working with analog materials then refine and muliply your basic pattern in Photoshop. By the end of this course you will have a digital repeat pattern ready for printing on a product of your choice. Apply what you learn in this class to deck out your wallpaper, iPhone, fabric, jigsaw puzzle, or more!


C. S. Lewis's unfinished second novel, The Dark Tower (c. 1938-9), recasts the global crisis at the beginning of the Second World War as a battle of the books, a cosmic contest over the writing of twentieth-century history. Two different iconographies are at stake in Lewis's text. The first is the iconography of what he called 'scientific humanism' (Letters 368) – as represented by the socialist future histories of J. B. S. Haldane, H. G. Wells and Olaf Stapledon – which embraces the radical changes brought about by the political, technological and cultural revolutions of the twentieth century. The second is the iconography of Renaissance Christian poetry, through which Lewis rejects these revolutions as manifestations of totalitarianism, and with which he seeks to supplant the scientific humanist iconographies. In The Dark Tower Lewis pitches these two literary modes against one another, ranging them about the grotesque figure of an automaton-dictator called the 'Stingingman', who has been spontaneously generated by the forces of modernity but whose physical characteristics make him equally at home in both iconographies. In charting the course of this battle Lewis offers us a vivid conservative vision of the struggle for control of the future in mid-century Europe.
With minor variations Lewis reworks the themes of this letter in nearly every account he gives of his science fiction: the notion, for instance, that the socialist 'hope of perpetuating and improving the human species' by technological means represents a crude and highly dangerous pastiche of the Christian hope of an afterlife; that twentieth-century Christians are an embattled minority contending against 'great ignorance' – a tiny civilized community holding back the massed forces of barbarism; or that the weapons of the science-worshippers might profitably be used against them. Lewis's exploitation of the radio for purposes of 'evangelization' was one practical result of this final conviction, reclaiming a small portion of the airwaves for Christian propaganda. Another was his effort, through his science fiction, to colonize the planets in the name of Christianity – or rather, to represent himself as a strenuous resister of the scientific project of 'interplanetary colonization'. To understand the reasons for his resistance, and the path it took, we need to begin with a brief examination of the socialist colonialist enterprise as Lewis encountered it.
A succinct summary of the enterprise was provided in an essay by the biologist J. B. S. Haldane, 'The Last Judgment', from his book Possible Worlds (1927). The essay presents itself as an alternative vision of the end of the world to set alongside the visions offered by the major Western religions. The problem with the Christian account of the Last Judgment, says Haldane, is the vast scale on which it is conceived. It seems to him improbable in the extreme that the actions of so diminutive a species as the human race should provoke an omnipotent creator into wiping out the 'entire stellar system', as happens in the Book of Revelation. Instead Haldane proposes an end of the world – that is, of planet earth alone, not the solar system it is part of – on a much more modest scale; an Armageddon brought about by technology, whose disastrous effects on humanity may in turn be evaded, or at least deferred, by technological means. He postulates a time about forty billion years hence when human beings will have found the key to individual happiness – largely through the judicious manipulation of human biology known as eugenics – and when all the energy they need is supplied through the harnessing of the 'tide-power' of the world's oceans. The effect of the 'tide-machines' is to disturb the orbit of the moon, and a crisis arises as that satellite drifts slowly closer to the earth and starts to show signs of breaking up. It becomes clear that the only chance of surviving the impending catastrophe is for the human race to abandon its home planet and launch itself into space.
At this point the work of the eugenicists changes as they begin to devote their research towards the task of refashioning the human body and mind to cope with the rigors of interplanetary travel. The instinctual drive to individual happiness is bred out of them, together with cognate emotions such as pride, a personal preference concerning the choice of sexual partners, and pity, 'an unpleasant feeling aroused by the suffering of other individuals' (Haldane 303). In their place the drive towards self-sacrifice for the collective good of the species – modeled on the selfless behaviour of the heroes and martyrs of history – is made the dominant characteristic of the race. Huge numbers of people sacrifice themselves in the effort to make the planet Venus habitable for humanity, an effort that also entails the eradication of all native life on the planet.
Once the exodus to Venus has been satisfactorily accomplished, the process of forging the species into a 'super-organism or deity, possibly the only one in space-time' is brought to fruition (Haldane 304). Telepathic communication enables all men and women to participate in a fully communal life. Plans are made for spreading the powers of the human super-organism throughout the galaxy, at the expense, where necessary, of other life forms. And after that, Haldane's little parable concludes, 'there are other galaxies' (309). In this version of the future, humanity enjoys the prospect of occupying 'eternity and infinity' without assistance from non-human deities.
The quotations from St Paul here declare the ambition of the scientific humanists to write what is in effect a modern Bible, a new spiritual history of which the Bible itself is only an infinitesimal building block, one of several textual 'glasses' (mirrors) which have given the people of the past a distorted glimpse of the infinite possibilities available to the species. Haldane, Stapledon and Wells aspire to colonize not only the planets but the philosophical and religious texts that have helped to shape Western culture.
If the scientific humanists express (through mimicry and selective quotation) a qualified admiration for the Christian tradition, Lewis professes a similarly qualified admiration for the grand narratives of 'Wellsianity'. His science fiction novels freely acknowledge their debt to Wells and Stapledon, and in a paper delivered to the Oxford Socratic Club in 1944 he speaks of having been 'deeply moved' by the heartbreaking beauty of the godless 'world drama' constructed by the socialist mythmakers. But his project in his science fiction is the reverse of theirs: it is to rehabilitate ancient classical mythology and the Christian religion as still valid keys to the trajectories of past, present and future history. One might say that he colonizes the planets that had been seized as their territory by the socialists, but it would be more accurate in his terms to say that he reclaims them. In Out of the Silent Planet (1938) it is the visionary socialist scientist Weston who uses the vocabulary of imperialist aggression, while the Christian academic Ransom 'goes native', as Weston puts it (155); that is, he finds himself to be thoroughly at home in a universe which he finds he has been studying all his life. Lewis has him exclaim with pleasure as he examines a visual history of the universe sculpted by the Martians, 'what an extraordinary coincidence […] that their mythology, like ours, associates some idea of the female with Venus' (Silent Planet 129). Ransom discovers, in fact, that the iconography of the ancient world as reconfigured by Medieval and Renaissance Christian thinkers accurately represents the actual social, spatial and spiritual structure of the universe, and that Spenser and the Florentine Neoplatonists offer a more trustworthy account of human history than any 'world drama' concocted by modern scientists. As a result, each time Ransom returns to earth in between his adventures he lapses into a state of nostalgic yearning for the not-so-alien planets he has visited. They are his worlds, not the Wellsians'; he speaks their language, as Weston does not; and they represent the supreme affirmation of his lifelong work as a Cambridge philologist. In wandering the exotic landscapes of Mars and Venus he is wandering the pages of the old books he (or rather Lewis) loves, come alive and bursting with energy, and continuing to participate, now as when they were written, in the eternal cosmic struggle.
This is particularly clear when Ransom finds himself on Venus in the second of Lewis's completed novels, Perelandra [aka Voyage to Venus] (1943). What he finds there is, on the one hand, a series of echoes of Stapledon – or rather, echoes of Stapledon's echoes of Haldane, since Stapledon's treatment of Venus in Last and First Men is clearly modeled on Haldane's 'The Last Judgment'. Here, as in Haldane, the first human act of interplanetary colonization is driven by the urge to preserve the species in the face of imminent extinction: the moon shows signs of colliding with the earth, and human biology is reengineered to make it capable of adapting to conditions on Venus (Stapledon 243ff.). An aggressive but intelligent native species – shaped something like a swordfish – is wiped out to make the transference possible; and many generations later, after another interplanetary leap and numerous physical and psychological changes, humanity achieves the capacity to think collectively as a quasi-divine 'racial mind' (Stapledon 299ff.). The Perelandra discovered by Lewis's Ransom shares many characteristics with Stapledon's Venus. The surface of both worlds is mostly ocean, and the ocean is pleasantly unsalted. Both atmospheres are subject to cataclysmic storms, and floating islands dot the storm-tossed waves, although in Stapledon's Venus the islands are artificially constructed for the benefit of humanity, while in Lewis's they are natural. Finally, both worlds are exposed to the threat of colonization. The physicist Weston arrives on Perelandra soon after Ransom and announces his allegiance to a Stapledonian philosophy: 'To spread spirituality, not to spread the human race, is henceforth my mission' (Perelandra 81-2). The spirituality he advocates is the disembodied variety to which Haldane alludes at the end of 'The Last Judgment': 'the emergence of a new kind of being which will bear the same relation to mind as do mind to life and life to matter' (311-2). Haldane (and Stapledon after him) freely acknowledges the hostility that such visions of the future will arouse in even the most progressive twentieth-century thinkers (309-10); and Lewis's hostility soon becomes vigorously apparent, as he brings the scientific humanist future histories into explosive contact with the Christian narrative.
In appearing on Perelandra at all, we learn, Weston has inadvertently thrown himself into a very old story of which the 'new' one he tells is no more than a feeble travesty. Venus is populated with the stuff of ancient myth: from obedient fish (benign counterparts of Stapledon's aggressive swordfish), which carry men as a dolphin once carried the musician Arion, to mermaids, subterranean monarchies and dragons. Above all there is a new Adam and Eve, into whose tale all other mythologies have been incorporated, and in whose revised authorized version of Genesis Weston is to play the part of the satanic serpent. Soon after explaining his philosophy, Weston finds his body possessed by one of the characters (Satan) from the book he had planned to appropriate for his own ends, the Bible, and compelled to reenact the very myth that had been most decisively consigned to the realm of fantasy by the rise of evolutionary theory in the nineteenth century – the theory which serves as the foundation of his commitment to the perpetual improvement of the human species, as it did of Stapledon's. Weston's 'great ignorance' of religious history (Lewis once accused Haldane of being as ignorant of history as Lewis was of science) has left him vulnerable to a singularly nasty form of spiritual colonization. And the retribution for his ignorance is horribly enacted on the body he had hoped to discard: he is beaten to a pulp by Ransom in an extended fist-fight. It is difficult to imagine a more aggressive conclusion to what many readers might see as a merely academic, or bookish, quarrel.
But of course for Lewis the Bible is not just a book; it is the book, to which all others are no more than footnotes or polemical responses. Lewis's science fiction is no fiction in the sense that a thriller or a chivalric romance is fiction; it participates in actual events on a more than cosmic scale that for him are taking place right here, right now, as he writes and as we read. We ourselves are part of the story they tell, which is a chapter in the 'universal story' described in Miracles (1947) of which 'we are not, perhaps, very attentive readers' (103). This conviction provides the driving force behind the extraordinarily vibrant descriptions of planetary and interplanetary life that unfold in paragraph after paragraph of the four science fiction novels: the invitations to feel the cosmic rays that permeate space or 'heaven' on Ransom's journey to Mars, to taste the fruits he plucks on Perelandra, to wince as his open wounds adhere to the skin of the Perelandran fish he is riding, or to be overwhelmed by the most ancient of languages as it emerges 'like castles' from the mouth of Dimble in That Hideous Strength (228). All these are attempts to make us feel with our bodies a life that lies beyond the text – not just in the 'other world' of dreams or the imagination, but in the everyday world we inhabit and in the spiritual world that touches it at every point. The conviction that his writing is a contribution to living history is what renders Lewis's writing iconographic.
In his science fiction Lewis begins to flesh out a twentieth-century iconography of the sort he refers to in this final sentence. He achieves the iconographic effect of 'art jutting out into life, and life turning into art' (Images 11) by insisting that his readers are actively involved in the events he describes, as Weston is, whether they like it or not. In Out of the Silent Planet the angelic being Oyarsa tells Ransom, and in doing so tells the reader, that the events in the novel are part of the pageant of human history: 'The year we are now in – but heavenly years are not as yours – has long been prophesied as a year of stirrings and high changes' (166). Later the narrator Lewis tells us that these cosmic changes have overtaken his readers even before they began to read: 'What neither of us foresaw was the rapid march of events which was to render the book out of date before it was published' (180). An even more daring shift in narrative perspective occurs in The Dark Tower, when the narrator (again Lewis) suddenly reveals that the story will not have ended after the last page has been written. The Tower of the story's title is still standing; 'the things I am describing are not over and done with' (32). Scudamour's diagnosis of the relationship between his companions – a group of scholars gathered in Cambridge to witness an experiment – and the alternative world they are privileged to view by means of the experiment, is equally applicable to Lewis's readers. There are, Sudamour says, 'bits of our world in there, or bits of it out here among us' (48). Lewis's science fiction aspires to 'jut out into life' as obtrusively as an Elizabethan stage jutted into its audience.
In fact, the quasi-scientific premise at the centre of The Dark Tower derives from a twentieth-century text which suggests that the dividing line between 'fiction' and 'real life' is a good deal less clear-cut than much of our thinking tends to suggest. The scholars at Cambridge find themselves confronted with a 'chronoscope' (19), a device for seeing into other times – past, future, or concurrent with their own; and the inspiration for the chronoscope came, they are told, from a celebrated book by the aeronautical inventor J. W. Dunne, An Experiment with Time (1927). Dunne's book sets out to offer empirical evidence that future events may be 'previsioned' by the sleeping mind – that dreams are made up in approximately equal parts of memories of time past and foreshadowings of time to come – and furnishes a theory to account for such prevision. Both Stapledon and Wells made use of Dunne's book in their future histories as a means of marking the difference between these narratives and the conventional novel. Last and First Men and The Shape of Things to Come present themselves as visions from another epoch, obtained through one of the feats of inverted remembering of which An Experiment with Time offers so many strange examples. Stapledon's narrative purports to have been directly transmitted to the author's brain by a future human inhabitant of the planet Neptune, as part of an immense scheme to educate the primitive earlier generations of humankind in the philosophical principles held dear by the Neptunians; while Wells's text poses as the inadequate transcription of a book read in a dream by a man with the ominous name of Raven, who died before his transcriptions reached print. In The Dark Tower, then, Lewis took over what he may have seen as the most 'iconographic' element of his rivals' fictions: a chronic theory which proposed direct contact between the imaginative faculties and 'real' future events, between art and life, and which aimed to demonstrate the plausibility of the claims of the prophets, mystics, poets and dreamers who were the object of Lewis's more than scholarly interest. Lewis's, Wells's and Stapledon's fictions depend on a text – Dunne's book – which roots their extravagant speculations in the mysterious common ground of the living human brain.
The Dark Tower can be read, of course, as a speculative fiction concerning the nature of time, but we might also think of it as a meditation on the act of reading in the twentieth century. The location where the action begins – a scholar's study in the University of Cambridge – is a space dedicated to reading, and although the chronoscope resembles a cinema projector rather than a book (it works by throwing moving images onto a screen, and the dominant image recalls the futuristic buildings of Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) or William Cameron Menzies's Things to Come (1936)), many of the pictures it shows have literary associations. The Tower itself, as it appears on the screen, is a gloomy simulacrum of the recently completed tower of Cambridge University Library – a building Lewis abominated; and although the Othertime Tower is not a library, it contains a room full of books to which the story's protagonist, the young scientist Scudamour, inevitably makes his way. Here he settles down, at the end of the surviving fragment, to read a history of the time into which he has plunged, and he is immersed in the business of reading when we leave him.
Scudamour enters the Othertime projected by the chronoscope through what might be called a spontaneous act of the readerly will – an accomplishment that a combative scholar like Lewis would no doubt have given his right arm to reproduce. Enraged by something he sees on the screen, Scudamour hurls himself at it, as if to engage in an ungainly academic wrestling-match with his demonic double in Othertime – the Stingingman – of the kind Lewis later took to its bloody conclusion in Perelandra. In the process he somehow swaps souls with the Stingingman, and finds himself in the alternative world he had reacted against so violently, trapped in another man's body, his tongue constrained by another man's language. It is tempting to see this as Lewis's take on the readerly encounter with a disturbing but horrifically vigorous text – an encounter of the sort he describes with such passion in his essay 'On Stories'. For Lewis, certain ancient and modern adventure stories took on the quality of a lived experience – just as the inventor of the chronoscope in The Dark Tower suggests that certain memories of the past and future constitute direct encounters with other times. 'On Stories' indicates that in 1940 some at least of the stories uppermost in Lewis's mind were scientific romances: Lindsay's Voyage to Arcturus (1920), Wells's The First Men in the Moon (1901) and The War of the Worlds (1897). These, indeed, are just three of the texts into which Scudamour rashly launches himself; his experiences in Othertime, for instance, closely resemble the adventures of Wells's Time Traveller among the Eloi and the Morlocks. But the texts that really stir his soul to rage are the future histories of Stapledon and Wells.
The Dark Tower itself seems to have been plucked wholesale from an episode in Last and First Men – the same episode Lewis later used as the basis for his last work of science fiction, That Hideous Strength (1945). As the unfinished narrative unfolds we learn that the Tower houses a Big Brain, although we never get to meet it. The servants of the Brain – the Stingingman and his minions – are men and women reduced to the condition of automata. Readers of Stapledon's text should recognize at once the society of the Fourth Men, a particularly grim stage in the evolution of the interplanetary human race. The Fourth Men are a community of giant brains, each housed in an artificial cranium in the form of a tower, a 'roomy turret of ferro-concrete some forty feet in diameter' (211). These 'preposterous factories of the mind' are serviced by the docile relics of the previous stage in human evolution, the Third Men, whose telepathic link to their masters suppresses their individuality and makes them 'an army of […] perfect slaves' (218). By entering the Dark Tower, then, Scudamour enters one of the gloomiest literary forecasts of the scientific humanists – much as Weston was later to enter the living world of Christian myth. And the longer he stays there the more deeply he becomes enmeshed in the scientific humanist vision. When he visits the room full of books and begins to read the history of Othertime he is duplicating the feat of the man called Raven in The Shape of Things to Come: studying an unfamiliar civilization in a text from another time. And the history he reads is once again an adaptation of a story told in Last and First Men. It concerns a culture as obsessed with the workings of time as our own is obsessed with the workings of space: and that culture is instantly recognizable as that of Stapledon's Fifth Men, who 'as a race […] were peculiarly fascinated by time' (231), and whose researches are devoted to the exploration of cultures of the past by means of the mental time-travel pioneered by Dunne. Like Dunne, the scientists of Lewis's Othertime convince themselves that dreams contain images of other times besides the past, and like Stapledon's Fifth Men they are prepared to experiment on children to test their theory. Stapledon's narrator shows the same horrific detachment from the effects of these experiments as does the Othertime historian; he states simply that '[t]he experience seemed to set up a progressive mental disintegration which produced first insanity, then paralysis, and, within a few months, death' (239). The Dark Tower closely paraphrases this sentence: 'The experiences of these children had very disagreeable effects, leading to extreme terror and finally to insanity, and most of those whom he used had to be destroyed before they reached maturity' (Tower 89). And the ends to which the Othertime experiments tend – the achievement of a kind of immortality by leaping from time to time rather as Stapledon's people leap from planet to planet – recall the vision of immortality vouchsafed to the Eighteenth and final variety of the human species in Last and First Men, for whom cosmic events recur in a never-ending cycle throughout eternity (305-6).
The scientist Scudamour finds himself as disgusted as Lewis by this kind of immortality: 'I'd sooner go to a heaven of harps and angels like what they used to tell me about when I was a boy. […] I'd sooner have anything than go round and round that way like a rat in a bucket of water' (Tower 88). His repugnance resembles the repugnance occasionally felt by the scientific humanists themselves at the future they had imagined. Haldane, for instance, expresses his personal distaste for the Venusian mentality he conjures up in 'The Last Judgment', where humans have become 'mere components of a monstrous ant-heap' (309-10). In Stapledon's Last and First Men the merciless annihilation of the natives of Venus by a supposedly enlightened human race plunges all humankind into a state of collective depression that lasts for millennia (252-3). Wells's Raven is unable to copy out the later stages of his dream-history of time to come, appalled – perhaps mentally unhinged – by the atrocities that will have been perpetrated in the struggle to bring about the utopian World State (Wells 331-4). For Lewis, of course, the distaste of the scientific humanists for their own workmanship is a natural reaction to its violation of the universal moral order; and in That Hideous Strength he explores the possibility that this repulsion might form the basis for the conversion of modern scientists from their atheism. The social scientist Mark Studdock begins his conversion during a visit to a repulsive room very like the one where Scudamour first encounters the Stingingman; and presumably Scudamour's visit to the Dark Tower will end in a similar conversion. We must return to the Stingingman and his room, though, to understand the nature of the conversion Scudamour is to undergo.
 For Lewis's response to Haldane's essay see 'A Reply to Professor Haldane' (Lewis, Of This and Other Worlds 97-109).
 See also Haldane's essay 'On Scales' (1-6).
 The term 'Wellsianity' seems to have been invented by someone who attended a talk by Lewis, 'Is Theology Poetry?', given to the Oxford Socratic Club in 1944 (They Asked for a Paper 154n).
 See They Asked for a Paper, 154-6, which offers Lewis's version of the Wellsian 'world drama'. I am grateful to my friend and colleague Donald Mackenzie for drawing this text to my attention.
 On the relation of this passage to Stapledon's philosophy see Fiedler, 130-3).
 'My science is usually wrong. Why, yes. So is the Professor's history' (Lewis, Of This and Other Worlds 98).
 For Stapledon's use of Dunne, see Fiedler, 58ff. Wells refers to Dunne in Things to Come, 16-17. For Dunne's reply to Wells's criticisms of his book see Dunne, 211-4.
 For Lewis's possible debt to Metropolis see Kegler, 119-37.
 See Lewis, Of This and Other Worlds, 25-45. See also his essay 'On Science Fiction', ibid, 80-96, esp. 93.


text:
Painted On is a 2005 studio album by Texas based blues rock band The Fabulous Thunderbirds. It was produced by Steve Berlin of Los Lobos and features Rachel Nagy of The Detroit Cobras.

Track listing
 "Hard Knock"
 "Got to Get Out"
 "Two-Time Fool"
 "Love Speaks Louder Than Words"
 "Painted On"
 "Feeling My Way Around"
 "Rock Candy"
 "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line"
 "Postman"
 "Wild Cherry"
 "You Torture Me"
 "When I am Gone"

References

External links
Official Site

2005 albums
The Fabulous Thunderbirds albums
Rykodisc albums
Artemis Records albums

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia