text:
Berkeley, Laws of Nature, and Occasionalism
It has been a while since I've said anything about this weblog's namesake, so I've decided to remedy that by presenting the following three passages from Berkeley's Siris, my favorite Berkeleyan work. Siris gives us a chance to see a side of Berkeley that is often neglected; it enables us to see the Berkeley who thought that Stoic and Platonic metaphysics, however speculative, were worth taking seriously, and were probably on to something. (This side peeps into his better known works, the Principles and the Three Dialogues, as well as into the also-neglected Alciphron, but is easily missed. It could hardly be missed in Siris, however, where it comes out in full, and somewhat overwhelming, array.) In a reversal from the usual usage on this site, my comments are in italics.
1. The principles whereof a thing is compounded, the instrument used in its production, and the end for which it was intended, are all in vulgar use termed causes; though none of them be, strictly speaking, agent or efficient. There is not any proof that an extended corporeal or mechanical cause doth really and properly act; even motion itself being in truth a passion. Therefore, though we speak of this fiery substance as acting, yet it is to be understood only as a mean or instrument; which indeed is the case of all mechanical causes whatsoever. They are, nevertheless, sometimes termed agents and causes, although they are by nomeans active in a strict and proper signification. When therefore force, power, virtue,or action is mentioned as subsisting in an extended and corporeal or mechanical being, this is not to be taken in a true, genuine, and real, but only in a gross and popular sense, which sticks to appearances, and doth not analyze things to their first principles. In compilance with established language and the use of the world, we must employ the popular current phrase. But then in truth we ought to distinguish its meaning. It may suffice to have made this declaration once for all, in order to avoid mistakes. [Siris 155]
'Mechanical' here means roughly what we would call 'physical'. Berkeley's claim that motion is properly only a passion, something undergone, rather than a genuine action, is a common one in the period. The reference to 'this fiery substance' is a reference to what Berkeley has been discussing. Berkeley is much taken with the notion of a World Soul that is a 'pure aethereal fire'; and has been speculating (Siris is explicitly a speculative work, put forward not dogmatically but as food for thought) about its role in the functioning of the cosmos. This is part of the general drift of the work: from the properties of tar-water to the properties of mechanical causes to cosmic operations (the world soul) to minds to the divine mind to the Trinity. He has been treating the 'pure aethereal fire' (which he also calls 'light') as a cause, and is clarifying the sense in which he does not mean it.
2. The mind of man acts by an instrument necessarily. The το 'ηγεμονικον, or Mind presiding in the world, acts by an instrument freely. Without instrumental and second causes there could be no regular course of nature. And without a regular course, nature could never be understood; mankind must always be at a loss, not knowing what to expect, or how to govern themselves, or direct their actions for the obtaining of any end. Therefore in the government of the world physical agents, improperly so called, or mechanical, or second causes, or natural causes, or instrumetns, are necessary to assist, not the governor, but the governed. [Siris 160]
As we shall see in the next passage, there is more to this passage than meets the eye. The idea only hinted at here, that the laws of natures are rules we formulate to help us know what to expect, govern ourselves, and obtain our ends, is a key part of Berkeley's view of the laws of nature.
3. Mechanical laws of nature or motion direct us how to act and teach us what to expect. Where intellect presides there will be method and order, and therefore rules, which if not state and constant would cease to be rules. There is therefore a constancy in things, which is styled the Course of Nature (sect 160). All the phaenomena in nature are produced by motion. There appears an uniform working in things great and small, by attracting and repelling forces. But the particular laws of attraction and repulsion are various. Nor are we concerned at all about the forces, neither can we know or measure them otherwise than by their effects, that is to say, the motions; which motions only, and not the forces, are indeed in the bodies (sect. 155). Bodies are moved to or from each other, and this is performed according to different laws. The natural or mechanic philosopher endeavours to discover those laws by experiment and reasoning. But what is said of forces residing in bodies, whether attracting or repelling is to be regarded only as a mathematical hypothesis, and not as anything really existing in nature. [Siris 234]
As he goes on to note in section 235, this means that we can't suppose that there is any sort of real power in the particles composing bodies; so we come up here against Berkeley's occasionalism. Notice the emphasis again on the physical laws of nature being rules directing us with regard how to act and what to expect; on Berkeley's view, laws of nature are very closely analogous to grammatical rules. Like grammatical rules they are formulated after the fact, on the basis of the language they are interpreting; like grammatical rules they are pragmatically oriented, being primarily for use; like grammatical rules they are simply hypotheses that save the phenomena for practical purposes; and like grammatical rules we shouldn't take too seriously the fact that they posit something to exist. On the other hand, it must be understood that Berkeley is not, strictly speaking, an anti-realist about laws of nature, for he thinks there really are rules that constitute the 'course of nature': namely, the rules God uses in communicating to us the course of nature. This aspect of Berkeley's view goes back to some of his earliest thinking and is argued for in his first published work, the New Theory of Vision, when he argues that vision is, quite literally, a form of communication between the divine mind and the minds of creatures.
Aquinas on Spiritual Light
The following is one of my favorite articles in the Summa Theologiae, ST 1.67.1. I think that, among other things, it identifies a feature of language that is too often overlooked, namely, that some words can be taken figuratively or literally without change in their basic meaning if they are taken figuratively and literally in different senses. I also have a general interest in the theological theme of light.
The translation is mine, and thus rough (practice, one might say); it should be taken with a grain of salt. The Latin is here; the Dominican Fathers translation is here.
Thus we proceed to the first.
It seems that light is properly said of spiritual things. Thus Augustine says (Gen. ad Litt. IV) that in spiritual things is a better and more certain light, and that Christ is not said to be light in the same sense that he is said to be stone, but the former properly, the latter figuratively.
Further, Dionysius (Div. Nom. IV) places Light among the intelligible names of God. But the intelligible names of God are properly said of spiritual things. Therefore light is properly said of spiritual things.
Further, the Apostle says (Eph. 5), all that is manifested is light. But manifestation is more properly in spiritual things than in corporeal things. Therefore so also with light.
But against this is the fact that Ambrose (De Fide) places splendor among those things that are said of God metaphorically.
I respond that it must be said that some names are appropriately said in two ways: in one way according to their first imposition, in another way, according to the use of the name. Thus it is clear in the word 'vision' that by first imposition it signifies the act of the sense of vision [ad significandum actum sensus visus]; but according to the dignity and sureness of this sense, this word is extended, according to spoken usage, to all the cognition of the other senses (thus it is said, "Seeing how it tastes" or "seeing how it smells" or "seeing how it is hot") and further to intellectual cognition, as in Matt. 5: "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God." And similarly this must be said of the word 'light'. For firstly it is instituted to signify what makes manifest in the sense of vision; but afterward it is extended to signify what makes manifest according to any cognition. If, therefore, the word 'light' is taken according to its first imposition, it is said metaphorically of spiritual things, as Ambrose says. But if it is taken according to its spoken usage, extended to all manifestation, it is properly said of spiritual things.
And from this the response to the objections is clear.
UPDATE: Corrected several typos; and fixed a mistranslation of 'certior' and improved (although not entirely to my satisfaction) the translation of the above Latin phrase (thanks to Ocham for pointing out both of these weaknesses in the original post).
On Interpreting Scripture
The third Biblical Studies carnival is up at "ricoblog".
For the occasion I leave you with this tale from the Desert Fathers. Some of the elders once visited Saint Anthony the Great, and along with them came the abbot Joseph. Saint Anthony, having seen in his lifetime many men of very different qualities, decided to determine what manner of men had come to him. He proposed to them a passage of Scripture, asking for its meaning. One by one they gave their opinions; and to each of them, he said, "You have not found it." At last the question came to abbot Joseph.
"What is the meaning of this passage?" Saint Anthony said to abbot Joseph.
"I do not know," said abbot Joseph to Saint Anthony.
Then Saint Anthony turned to the elders and said, "Truly I say to you, the abbot Joseph has learned the only way in which Scripture can be interpreted. For when he does not know, he acknowledges his own ignorance."
I remember that, speaking of his fellow Americans, especially of American youth, a great friend of mine said to me one day: "They have no roots." The worst scoundrel in Europe has roots; there is some old human legacy to which he can stick, for better or for worse. Here there is, it seems to me, a certain instability, or fleetingness, in the life of individuals; one is less sure that "it will last," that they will carry through, I don't say with the job they are determined to do, I would rather say with the inner purpose they have formed as to the direction of their own personal life.
That is why, among the general features of American psychology, and despite many exceptions, of course, I think we can observe a certain proneness to a peculiar sort of impatience, and, as a result, a proneness also to quick discouragement. Let me make my thought clearer. I just said that the impatience in question is a peculiar sort of impatience. American crowds (when waiting for a train, for instance or inconvenienced by any of the multiple regulations of our modern life, or plagued by red tape) are incomparably more patient than French crowds. Men and women in this country confront suffering with great courage, and often a strange Stoic resignation. In emergencies they manifest admirable endurance. But they are not patient with life.
They are not patient with their own life, as a rule. And they get disturbed and discouraged very soon, if the work they have undertaken is slow to succeed. The American artist, the American painter, would like to have his work satisfy him rapidly and give immediate results, whereas a French painter, a Cézanne, a Rouault -- disregarded, spurned by all for perhaps thirty or forty years -- remains bent on working with furious patience. As a rule, I think, a young American would be afraid that such an attitude marked only presumptuous stubbornness. If he is not recognized, he starts doubting himself. He thinks he is a failure.
Jacques Maritain, following in the French tradition of Chateaubriand and Tocqueville, in Reflections on America. In context he is discussing weaknesses in American society. And there's no doubt that this is one.
UPDATE: Another great line. This time Maritain is discussing deep-rooted American illusions. The fifth is this:
Americans seem sometimes to believe that if you are a thinker you must be a frowning bore, because thinking is so damn serious.
This one's more serious, though. It's number seven:
A number of Americans seem to consider that marriage must be both the perfect fulfillment of romantic love and the pursuit of full individual self-realization for the two partners involved.
Hume on the Components of Causal Inference
What do we do when we engage in causal inferences? One of Hume's important claims is that chains of causal inferences must be 'fixed' in some impression or memory. Hume establishes this by a regress argument. If Hume is right, any causal inference will involve the following:
(A) An originating impression of the thing
(B) A transition to the idea of the connected cause or effect
(C) The idea of this connected cause or effect
What is more, causal inferences can induce belief, and this is an important feature of them, given that they are only way (besides impressions) that we can gain the knowledge that something exists. Hume uses these insights to divide his discussion in the Treatise into the following parts:
1) The analysis
1a) The nature of the impressions (1.3.5)
1b) The nature of the inference (1.3.6)
1c) The nature of the idea or belief (1.3.7)
1d) How belief is induced (1.3.8)
5) Relevant objections
5a) How can Hume's analysis distinguish causal inference from other inferences? (1.3.9)
5b) How can Hume's analysis account for the immense and important effects of belief? (1.3.10)
6) Confirmation of Hume's analysis by application to different types of causal reasoning
6a) 'Probability of chances' (1.3.11)
6b) 'Probability of causes' (1.3.12)
6c) 'Unphilosophical probability' (1.3.13)
At this point, Hume uses his analysis to return to his original question, namely, the nature of the necessary connection between cause and effect. One advantage of laying out the argument in this way is that it enables us to see just how beautifully organized the argument really is. It sprawls considerably, so on a first reading, or, for that matter, on multiple readings, it is very easy to regard it as one long ramble. In fact, it is a brilliantly organized argument, despite its apparent digressions. Hume has a particular analysis of causal inference, which is important for answering the question he wants to answer. He recognizes, however, that the analysis is likely to be controversial, so he does his best to show just how strong it can be by answering the chief objections and showing how fruitful it is. It is, if I may interject a personal note here, a breathtaking instance of one of the great rewards of doing history of philosophy; at times one comes across an argument, perhaps unclear or rambling or apparently confused, that, laid out correctly, shows itself to be truly beautiful. If this is rambling, would that more philosophers rambled!
Of course, I think for various reasons that Hume's analysis fails, particularly with regard to the induction of belief; but it's a genuinely noble attempt.
Champion of the Single Christ
One of the most important (post-NT) theologian in the history of Christianity is almost unknown in the West. St. Cyril of Alexandria died in 444. His thought dominated four ecumenical councils (Ephesus, Chalcedon, II Constantinople, and III Constantinople) and several of his letters are simply affirmed by these councils as orthodox.
He is best known for being, as Patriarch of Alexandria, the opponent of Nestorius, the Patriarch of Constantinople. It was a very serious dispute, since the four major Patriarchs were split : Antioch (whose bishop was John) and Constantinople were Nestorian, Alexandria and Rome (whose bishop was Celestine) were Cyrilline. So serious was the dispute that, to keep the peace, the Emperor Theodoret had to call a council. The outcome was the Council of Ephesus, where Nestorius was deposed as bishop. The Antiochene delegation was delayed to the Council, and Cyril made the serious error of opening the council instead of waiting. In response, John and his supporters formed a counter-council that issued a declaration saying that Memnon (bishop of Ephesus) and Cyril were deposed. Eventually, the counter-council's deposition was considered invalid and John and Cyril were reconciled; Cyril's letter to John upon reconciliation was accepted by the Council of Chalcedon.
Thanks to the Internet you can have easy access to translations of the conciliar decrees and some of Cyril's most important works.
Council of Ephesus
Council of Chalcedon
II Constantinople
III Constantinople
Cyril of Alexandria
Cyril's writings at Early Church Fathers
Aquinas on Faith, Hope, and Love
Our blessings or goods consist especially in faith, hope, and the love of charity: for by faith we have a knowledge of God; by hope we are raised up to him; but by the love of charity we are united to him. As we read: "So faith, hope, love, abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13).
Aquinas, Commentary on Colossians (PDF)
On Time Again
The recent discussion of eternity and time both here and at FQI has made it clear to me that a major issue in the debate is the question of what we should see a theory of time as doing. I would suggest the following considerations as food for thought. All of them are rough, and most of them are controversial.
(1) It's actually very difficult to distinguish the two major theories of time. Everyone agrees that time is characterizable in terms of past-present-future (tensed properties); and everyone agrees that time is characterizable in terms of earlier-later (the so-called 'tenseless properties). Thus, the usual way of distinguishing the two theories in these terms doesn't actually shed much light on the subject at all. Claims that the two forms of characterization are not intertranslatable have always turned out at some point to fail; and while this is not proof that the claim is simply false, it should make us very wary of people who attempt to do philosophy of time by way of grammar.
(2) It goes without saying that a theory of time can only tell us about temporal things. Thus, we cannot assume that someone with either theory will hold that his theory of time covers everything that exists, unless it can be assumed that everything is temporally conditioned. In some contexts -- like questions of divine eternity, or mathematical truths, for instance -- this cannot be assumed.
(3) The common idea that the Special Theory of Relativity can't be accepted in a realist way by a presentist is simply false, as can be seen in the case of process philosophers, who (universally) are presentists and (generally) accept the Special Theory of Relativity in a realist fashion, because they follow Whitehead's recognition that presentism doesn't require one to say there is only one privileged present -- in other words, you can be a presentist and hold that there are many privileged presents. The common claim assumes that to have a privileged present you can only have one present (otherwise it's not privileged); but the process view recognizes, rightly, that an A-theorist only has to view the present as privileged over the past and future. To put the matter crudely, an A-theorist can believe in a 'smeared' or even a disjointed present. An A-theorist does not require absolute simultaneity. And, strictly speaking, an A-theorist doesn't even have to privilege the present at all. Some A-theorists, e.g., growing block theorists, privilege the past as well as the present -- they simply deny privileges to the future. It is possible, as well, to have an A-theorist who doesn't do so, but grants privileges to all times. See the following paper by Dean Zimmerman on this point: The A-theory of time, the B-theory of time, and 'Taking Tense Seriously' (PDF). Most card-carrying A-theorists are presentists; but not all. This has to do with the problem of distinguishing the positions, which I discuss below.
(4) The idea, occasionally (but fortunately not commonly) found, that the B-theorist is somehow arguing that time is illusory is not even coherent. The B-theory is not an argument that there is no time; it is a theory of time, and thus presupposes that there is time.
(5) What, then, is the real difference between A-theory and B-theory? My suggestion is that there is no clear difference, has never been a clear difference, and that the distinction is just not a useful one to make because it can only be made in superficial, purely verbal, ways that have nothing to do with the price of potatoes. That's a highly controversial claim to make; but I've never seen any reason to think otherwise. The original distinction was made in terms of translation, which made sense: it was just a distinction between two views about whether 'past-present-future' (PPF) or 'earlier-later' (EL) were superior ways of talking about time. The A-theorists were ones who claimed that some facts characterizable in PPF format were not characterizable at all in EL format; and the B-theorists held the reverse. These were, it should be noted, not the only possible positions; it is also possible to hold to the position that PPF and EL are, given reasonable suppositions, perfectly intertranslatable, and the only translation difference between them is the commonplace one that for identifying some facts PPF is simpler and for identifying others EL is simpler; likewise, it is possible to hold that each is able to characterize facts that the other is not, and thus that neither was superior. But one can see how the distinction makes a certain amount of sense. If PPF is able to characterize facts EL is not, or vice versa, then those facts in contention could serve to distinguish the two theories. If people privilege PPF over EL in characterization, they are A-theorists; if the reverse, they are B-theorists.
At some point, however, probably with Mellor, it was recognized that, while the translation approach made sense, it couldn't do what it was supposed to do without begging the question. As Mellor noted, suppose we have a statement in PPF format that can't be translated into EL. What difference does it make? A statement that can't be translated into EL could still be made true by a fact that is more adequately characterized in EL format. In the same way, a materialist might hold that while first-person talk can't be adequately fleshed out by any translation into third-person talk of which we are aware, we nevertheless have good reasons to think that all first-person talk is made true by facts most adequately characterizable in a third-person way. In other words, an inability to translate everything sayable in PPF into EL could be due to a defect or limitation in the PPF format (vagueness, or simplification, or whatever). So the translation approach fails to give us an interesting distinction. However, what are we left with? Not much. For we need some non-question-begging way to identify whether a given fact that makes a statement true is more adequately characterized in PPF or EL, regardless of whether the statement (if in PPF format) is translatable into EL format, or vice versa. We have (let us face it) no way of doing this.
(6) The distinction, then, is one that deserves to die. But I don't expect many people will be rushing to kill it. Nonetheless, it is possible to work with it if we see the distinction not as a a theory of time but as a grammar of temporal existence. The difference will be this: The A-theorist holds that, for temporal things, those things are most properly said to actually exist or occur that are present. The B-theorist holds that all things at any time are equally properly said to actually exist or occur (with the understanding that they do so at the time they do). The difference is one of emphasis; the dispute is a purely pragmatic one; it has its uses, but let's not get very excited about it. It turns out to be entirely a matter of convenience of analysis.
Reading for Ash Wednesday
Remember that you are dust; to dust you shall return.
We are Dust! at "Rebecca Writes"
Ash Wednesday Notes at "Hugo Schwyzer"
Ash Wednesday: Practice and Meaning at "Mark D. Roberts"
Reflection on the Ashes at "Dappled Things"
Rend Your Hearts, Not Your Garments at "Flos Carmeli"
The First Day of Lent at "Magic Statistics"
Penitence, Fasting, and Pride at "GetReligion"
If you've come across any good and timely posts on the subject, let me know.
'Peer Review'
One thing that has recently come to bother me is that the public at large doesn't know what peer review is. (This becomes very clear in, for example, discussions of whether Wikipedia or blogs are peer-reviewed.) Most people think it means 'review by a peer', which is understandable; but, of course, no academic would consider the fact that their paper was looked over by a colleague, no matter how thoroughly or expertly, 'peer review'. Of course, such a thing is neither necessary nor sufficient for reasonable quality control. Academics, of course, always mean refereeing, where the contribution is officially referred to relevant experts for review in order to determine suitability for publication. It occurs to me that academics should drop the phrase 'peer review' altogether, despite how common it is, as a phrase that just confuses communication between academia and the larger public. (And if you think that it's a trivial issue, I remind you of just how much confusion is engendered in the public in the intelligent design controversy over whether an article was 'peer-reviewed'.)
History Carnival #26
History Carnival #26 is up at "World History Blog". I found the post on Newfoundland vs. Iceland particularly interesting. Also recommended is When Scientists Dabble in History.
A New Poem Draft
Electakyria
the garden fountains pour
living streams refreshed by shower
greening leaf and blooming flower
around the lily white
fresh and dewy-petalled light
surrrounds her, silver scented
where God on earth is tented
spreading grace and fire
calming wrath and fear
see her many-gifted hand
spreading graces dear
granting merci to her knights
vital sips of paradise
vivid dreams of sainted lands
beyond the ken of learning wise
see how beneath the maddened moon
in lights bewitching to a swoon
she walks on rain-wet paths
through shades of minds demented
boiling with an inner wrath
calming with her touch and song
the ache of heart that, maddened, longs
for better world and wonder
as the mover moves the stars
as cloud to earth calls in thunder
she calls, she moves, she draws
the knight to learn of loving awe
making every heart renewed
a fresher flower touched by dew
inspires she to seek the true
by gentle kiss of breath
a wind outracing wings of death
bringing hoping heart to light
speaking troth and giving life
Ordinary Language
The Maverick Philosopher has had a series of posts on ordinary language philosophy. I'm in full sympathy with his position. It just reminded me, however, that some time ago I summarized Gilbert Ryle's article, "Ordinary Language," on this weblog, because I thought that it presented an interestingly different take on ordinary language philosophy than I had previously come across. The post originally also had an evaluation of Ryle's argument, but (for some reason) I put it in the comments. Since I have Haloscan Basic, the comments are long gone. I also must apologize for the many typos in the post.
I think Ryle's approach would lead to ordinary language philosophy meeting up in some ways with the sort of philosophical approach to which Vallicella is contrasting it. (Of course, there would still be legitimate questions. For example, is Ryle's characterization an idealized version of ordinary language philosophy, a sort of dream of what it might be or become; or was it a realized project, something ordinary language philosophers were actually and systematically doing? And in what ways does ordinary language philosophy, understood in this way, also suffer from limitations?)
For some reason I remember Ryle saying in this article that the phrase 'ordinary language' in 'ordinary language philosophy' meant not 'standard language' but 'language set in order'. This would be a fascinating take, if so; but as I can't find any hint of it in the summary, there's a good chance I'm misremembering.
Rethinking the World
"This is what you're to do," God said. "You will help humankind to survive its greedy, murderous, wasteful adolescence. Help it to find less destructive, more peaceful, sustainable ways to live."
Martha stared at him. After a while, she said feebly, "… what?"
"If you don't help them, they will be destroyed."
"You're going to destroy them … again?" she whispered.
"Of course not," God said, sounding annoyed.
From Octavia Butler, The Book of Martha
So That's What Leads to Philosophy Majors
The TWoP recap for last week's Battlestar Galactica had a hilarious passage in it that I just had to quote. Tom Zarek, of course, is talking to Gaius Baltar:
"You'd be surprised how many people crave the assurances of cold science, as opposed to the superstitious ravings of the Geminese," says Zarek, and sits, because if there's one thing anarchists know, it's that the quickest way to an atheist's heart is through his deep superiority to everybody else. "I know there's no Santa Claus! Everybody else in the whole first grade is stupid babies!" Which has a cuteness grace period of exactly one semester from starting college, and can sometimes lead to a Philosophy major, if not down the Ayn Rand road, which is like atheism squared in precisely this way.
The New Hume
One of the major disputes in Hume scholarship in the past twenty years or so has been the "New Hume" position. On the older reading of Hume, often called the 'Postivist' or the 'orthodox' view Hume denies that there are real causal connections among external objects. The New Hume interpretation is a popular counter-interpretation, which holds that Hume does not deny that there are real causal connections among external objects. Rather, he is a "Skeptical Realist" about them: real causal connections exist, but we 'cannot conceive them'. Part of the inspiration for this is that Hume does talk a lot about the 'hidden powers' of things, and one way to take these statements is to interpret them as affirmations that there are hidden powers.
I tend Old Hume myself, and in any case I think it matters less than most people seem to think; but one argument that can't be used against the New Hume interpretation is that, since Hume says we can't conceive of what real causal connections are, it makes no sense for him to believe there are real causal connections. What this overlooks is that Hume does on occasion allow that we can suppose things to exist that we can't conceive -- for example, we can't conceive of an exact standard of equality, but we can suppose one to exist.
Incidentally, you can get back issues of Hume Studies online; the newer issues are restricted to members of the International Hume Society, but the older ones are public. (If you do work in Hume or involving Hume and are not a member of the Hume Society, you need to be; it's a great group.)
Twelve Tribes Wandering in the Desert
An interesting article at Beliefnet.com tries to divide up the complicated American religious-political landscape (HT: GetReligion). Using poll results relative to the last election, it divides Americans into twelve tribes. I've arranged them from smallest to largest. My summaries may be a little misleading in parts, due to diversity in the groups; see the article for further details.
Jews (about 1.7% of the voting population)
46% liberal, 36% moderate, 68% Democrat. Heavy emphasis on foreign policy.
Muslims and Other Faiths (about 3% of the voting population)
Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, and other smaller groups. 46% moderate, 44% liberal, 55% Democrat. Heavy emphasis on the economy.
Spiritual but not Religious (about 5.3% of the voting population)
Most report spiritual beliefs--85% believe in God and more than half are sure there is some kind of life after death--but they don't much like houses of worship or organized religion. They report no formal religious affiliation and a majority report seldom or never attending worship services. 47% are under age 35. 49% moderate, 37% Independent, 35% Democrat.
Latinos (about 7.3% of the voting population)
Majority Catholic, but with a large Protestant minority. Fairly conservative in practice (53% report attending worship once a week or more) and belief (60% of the Catholics agreed with papal infallibility; 58% of the Protestants are biblical literalists). 45% moderate, 54% Democrat. Heavy emphasis on the economy, but also a strong emphasis on the importance of faith to politics.
White Bread Protestants (about 8% of voting population)
The core members of the Protestant "mainline" churches-- United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church in the USA, American Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ, and so forth. About one-quarter report regular church attendance and just 19% are biblical literalists; 47% agree that "all the world's great religions are equally true and good." 43% moderate, 37% conservative, 46% Republican, 33% Democrat. Liberal on social issues, conservative on economic issues; heavy emphasis on the economy.
Convertible Catholics (about 8.1% of voting population)
The core of the white Catholic community, they outnumber conservative Catholics by nearly two to one. Religiously moderate in practice (42% claim to attend worship weekly) and belief (less than one-half agree with papal infallibility). 52% agree that "all the world's great religions are equally true and good." 49% moderate, 47% Democrat, 34% Republican. Heavy emphasis on the economy.
Black Protestants (about 9.6% of the voting population)
Fairly conservative in practice (59% report attending worship once a week or more) and belief (56% are biblical literalists). However, the experience of slavery and segregation has produced a distinctive theology. 48% moderate, 71% Democrat. Heavy emphasis on the economy, but highly conservative on social issues, and comfortable with religious involvement in politics.
Seculars (about 10.7% of the voting population)
Non-religious, atheists, and agnostics. 48% moderate, 35% liberal, 47% Democrat. Liberal on social issues; 47% young.
Moderate Evangelicals (about 10.8% of voting population)
These white evangelical Protestants hold less conservative religious beliefs (54% are biblical literalists) and don't show up in church quite as often as the "religious right" (35% go weekly or more often), but they belong to evangelical churches and regard themselves as born-again Christians. 48% conservative, 47% Republican, 31% Democrat. Heavy emphasis on economic issues. Support religious involvement in politics, but tend not to say that their faith is important to their politics.
Heartland Culture Warriors (about 11.4% of voting population)
Conservative Catholics and conservative mainline Protestants, Latter-day Saints, and other smaller groups. Slightly less conservative than the Religious Right (54% of the Protestants are biblical literalists; 60% of the Catholics agree with papal infallibility) and more theologically diverse. But they are regular churchgoers (three-quarters report attending worship service weekly or more often). 50% conservative, 41% moderate, 54% Republican. Heavy emphasis on social issues.
Religious Left (about 12.6% of the voting population)
Theologically liberal Catholics, mainline and evangelical Protestants. Less church-bound (less than one-quarter report weekly worship attendance) and pluralistic in their beliefs (two-thirds agree that "all the world's great religious are equally true and good".) 50% moderate, 51% Democrat. Liberal on social issues; tend to oppose religious involvement in politics.
Religious Right (about 12.6% of the voting population)
Religiously conservative white evangelical Protestants: 88% believe the Bible is literally true; 87% report attending worship once a week or more; 44% live in the South. 66% conservative, 70% Republican. Strongly supportive of religious involvement in politics. Heavy emphasis on social issues.
Of course, as one might expect with this sort of thing, it's entirely possible to criticize various aspects of the division. But it's an interesting thing to think about, and is much better than the simplistic dichotomies that are usually used. (One of my particular frustrations with the usual ways of classifying this sort of thing is that Latino Christians and Black Protestants tend to drop out of consideration entirely, despite the fact that they are essential for understanding the interaction between religion and politics in the U.S.)
I'm in a discussion at Fides Quaerens Intellectum about what the relation is between the two following positions:
(1) God is atemporal.
(2) A tenseless theory of time is true.
Johnny-Dee had suggested that they are biconditional (assuming we are talking about theists): God is timeless if and only if time is tenseless. I disagreed since I don't think (1) commits one to any particular theory of time, and this is being discussed in the comments. I'm having difficulty with the comments over there today, however, so I thought I'd put my comment here as well, just in case. It's almost long enough for its own post, anyway.
"God exists now" is not the same proposition as "God's existence is tensed". The former only implies that "God exists" is true now. The latter implies that God's existence exhibits the same limitations in virtue of tense that the existence of temporal things does. Atemporalists shouldn't have any problem with saying that God exists now, any more than they should have a problem with saying that God exists with regard to any creaturely feature. God's existence is logically and metaphysically prior to the existence of anything He creates, so no matter what the difference between God and creatures may be, God exists. To suggest that God's duration is measured out according to a privileged temporal present, however, is a very different thing, requiring a very different (and rather difficult) set of arguments before it can be established.
As Xavier implies, it's fairly common among atemporalists to deny that the relation of creatures to God is perfectly symmetric with God's relation to creatures: in a sense the relations of creatures to God all partake of the limits and nature of creatures, whereas the relation of God to creatures partakes of the attributes of God. Or, in other words, creatures are related to God in a creaturely way (tensed, if creatures are tensed) and God is related to creatures in a divine way (eternal, if God is eternal).
Incidentally, with regard to Johnny-Dee's original point, I think there is a significant issue on which tenseless vs. tensed theory of time will affect one's view of God and time: someone who believes in a tenseless theory of time will see eternity as a rigorous analogue of omnipresence, while someone who believes in a tensed theory of time will at most consider it analogous in a more loose and indirect way.
Propositional Modality vs. Predicate Modality
Need these two be interpreted in the same way?
(A') I could believe that a unicorn exists on the Mongolian plains.
(B') It is possible that I believe that a unicorn exists on the Mongolian plains.
Now, as a matter of fact, (B') is false given that I believe no unicorns exist, and recognize that this implies that none exist on the Mongolian plains, and don't believe explicitly contradictory things. But (A') is true, because I could believe it, even granted that (in fact) I believe no unicorns exist and recognize that this implies none existing on the Mongolian plains and don't believe explicitly contradictory things. For (B') to be true on the suppositions, there must be a possible world in which the suppositions are true but "I believe that a unicorn exists on the Mongolian plains" is also true. For (A') to be true it simply has to be true, in this actual world, that it would be possible for me to believe that a unicorn exists on the Mongolian plains even though the suppositions are true. Indeed, the fact that we are able to make sense of this 'even though' shows that we have to be able to distinguish (A') and (B') in some cases.
(A') basically says: With regard to me this is not impossible: believing that p. (B') basically says: This is not impossible: I believe that p. Colloquially we can treat them the same, but when we are more precise the two are not really the same, and they don't combine with other propositions in the same way. There is a set of propositions S such that S + (B') leads to a contradiction, but S + (A') does not.
Presumably there is some connection between (A') and (B'). But it isn't, I would suggest, equivalence. If this is true, it would seem to be quite general.
Gipsy-Cursed Bunny Slippers
A great slapstick parody of Angel:
Cherub: The Vampire with Bunny Slippers
They've put up three episodes; another comes out March 6. There will be twelve episodes in all for the first season; each episode is about 4-7 minutes. But beware that dark force of evil, Johnny Mildly-Irritating.


The annual travelling Christmas Tree for the VOICE support group is in Lafayette.
Thursday, the tree will be gathering ornaments at the Lafayette Police Department. The ornaments are to remember family members who have died because of violent acts.
Pictures and ornaments in remembrance of those who have died will be accepted at the Lafayette Police Department at 6:30 pm. All those wanting to view the tree are welcome to join the group.
The Lafayette Police Department says that Cpl. Michael Middlebrook was added to the book of fallen victims.
The traveling tree tradition according to VOICES was started in 2004 in hopes to unite those people who lost family members to violence.
For more on the VOICES group, visit their Facebook page here.


The BlackBerry Bold 9000 Amzer Aluminum Case is manufactured with 100% anodized aircraft grade aluminum and the design of the case is form fitting for the BlackBerry Bold 9000 devices. The neoprene lining located on the top, bottom, and side holds the handheld securely in place. The BlackBerry Bold 9000's LCD screen is protected by a clear hard plastic to prevent scratches. The lock on the side holds the top and bottom of the case tightly together and prevents the case from accidentally opening. With this form-fitting metal aluminum case, your investment is protected.


The owners of this lovely home in South Orange, New Jersey wanted silver siding to further emphasize the red doors in the back of the house. To ensure the durability of this classy modern look, they invested in a permanent exterior paint application from Rutgers.
The classic, calming colors used on this home really bring out its unique style while building around the character of the vibrant back doors. Best of all, the high quality of our exterior paint and application process means that these homeowners will enjoy their house's flawless color for years to come.
Like all homes painted by Rutgers, the permanent exterior paint on this house is backed by our guarantee that our work will last for up to twenty years, depending on the warranty you choose.
See the effect that our permanent paint can have on your home by calling us to schedule a free consultation.


text:
Q: How to justify $\int D\phi\exp[-\frac{1}{2} \int d^4 x'\int d^4 x\phi(x')M(x',x)\phi(x)]$ It's related to a homework and exercise. The homework was more complicated, but I needed this to figure out the convention that was used.
Consider the integral
$$\int D\phi\exp[-\frac{1}{2} \int d^4 x'\int d^4 x\phi(x')M(x',x)\phi(x)]=\frac{1}{\sqrt{\det M}}$$
in the standard QFT where $\phi$ were fields and $D\phi$ represented the functional integral over the fields, and $M(x',x)$ being the operator of the green's function and with the inverse being the denominator of the propagator. On the right hand side there might possible be a multiple of an infinite number.
The intuition was to use the Gaussian integral formula to integrate the matrix of the form $$\exp[-\frac{1}{2}X^TMX]$$
However, the functional integral was different because there were double integral inside the exponential, and no matter which approach to take, such as the taylor expansion, it was not easily removed.
There was an integration appendix where on page 6, where they wrote
$$\int d^4 x\rightarrow \sum_i \Delta v_i$$
with $N=(L/\epsilon)^4$.
In this way,
$$\int d^4 x'\int d^4 x\phi(x')M(x',x)\phi(x)=\sum_i^N \Delta v_i \sum_j^N \Delta v_j \phi(x_i) M(x_i,x_j) \phi(x_j)$$
could be viewed as a matrix, which then the Gaussian integral apply.
But this also rised issues when taking a closer look. For example, if one view the integral to be of one field, excluded all the possible configuration and in contrast to the definition of $D\phi$, then the degree of freedom of the "vector" $\phi(x_i)$ was hard to explain.
If one adapt the $\phi_i=\phi(x_i)$, the integral was in fact over the field, then there would be a infinite cut off dependent number $$\Pi_{ij}(\Delta v_i \Delta v_j)$$ over the denominator, in contrast to that of a standard gaussian integral.
How to justify $\int D\phi\exp[-\frac{1}{2} \int d^4 x'\int d^4 x\phi(x')M(x',x)\phi(x)]$?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Your search for guns of world war ii matched article(s).
American Rifleman Television
Ammunition Information & Reviews
ARTV Preview: NRA Rules for Safe Gun Handling, Hornady 6 mm ARC and the Soviet DP-28
On this week's episode of American Rifleman TV, NRA's Larry Quandahl walks us through the...
Rifle Information & Reviews
Unsung: The AN/M2 .50-cal. Machine Gun in World War II
From Pearl Harbor until the Japanese surrender, the AN/M2 .50-cal. Browning machine gun served in...
Handgun Information & Reviews
"V" Is For Victory: The Smith & Wesson Victory Model Revolver
Although the M1911A1 was the standard U.S military sidearm during World War II, more than...
The Battle of Peleliu and Its Relics
American Rifleman Field Editor Martin K. A. Morgan tells the story of the nearly three-month-long...
'Tanker Garands': The Real Story
Most "Tanker Garands" were made for commercial sale, but a few are genuine. This is...
M1 Garand Rebuilds: History & Markings
Collectors today often look down their noses at "rebuilt" M1 Garands, but hundreds of thousands...
Shotgun Information & Reviews
Savage Arms Shotguns: A Brief History
Savage Arms entered the shotgun market in 1920. One hundred years later, the company continues...
Vietnam: The Short-Range Shooting War
In 1969, Brig. Gen. S.L.A. Marshall took a comprehensive look at the state of marksmanship...
At The Range: L2A3 Sterling Mk. 4 Submachine Gun
Watch this American Rifleman "At The Range" video segment above to learn about the British...
The Model 1911 in Vietnam
Here we take a look back at the use of the M1911 and other sidearms...
High Standard: Gone But Not Forgotten
High Standard was a prominent company in the mid-20th century and had many great models,...
Review: IWI Tavor 7 Bullpup
In this review we take a look at the IWI Tavor 7 semi-automatic bullpup rifle...
This Old Gun: Smith & Wesson .455 Hand Ejector
For many, the Smith & Wesson Triple Lock, also known as the Hand Ejector First...
Rifleman Q&A: Where Did the USAF Combat Masterpieces Go?
In the mid-20th century, The U.S. Air Force had many Combat Masterpiece revolvers in its...
This Old Gun: Beretta Model 1938 Submachine Gun Series
Taking a look back at the Italian Beretta Model 1938 submachine gun series used in...
Royal Tiger Imports M1 Carbine: Examination & Range Experience
American Rifleman staffers got a chance to shoot a representative example of one of the...
Lee-Enfield No. 5 'Jungle Carbine:' An Exploded View
During World War II, the British military concluded that they needed a rifle shorter and...
The Military Model 70: A Forgotten Sniper Rifle
Although the "Rifleman's Rifle" is unquestionably one of the greatest hunting rifles of all time,...
The Pedersen Device: A Secret Weapon of WWI
Though never used in combat, the innovative Pedersen Device was a potential solution to the...
This Old Gun: M1919 Browning Machine Gun
The M1919 Browning was the workhorse machine gun of the U.S. Military during World War...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
17 celebrities who went to school in Surrey – Get Surrey
We will use your email address only for the purpose of sending you newsletters. Please see ourPrivacy Noticefor details of your data protection rights
Thank you for subscribingSee our privacy notice
It's not unusual to spot a celebrity in Surrey, with the county's proximity to London and amazing vistas, plus its 'posh' areas like Oxshott which are a magnet for the rich and famous.
Some celebrities have even settled down in Surrey like Dame Judi Dench, Tom Hardy and Eric Clapton.
But plenty of athletes, TV personalities and actors are much more familiar with the area, having grown up in Surrey.
Below we rounded up 17 celebrities you may not have known went to school in Surrey.
1. Tom Felton
Tom Felton skyrocketed to fame with his role as Draco Malfoy in the Harry Potter movies.
The star, who now lives in Venice Beach, California, also had roles in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and The Flash TV series.
Born in Epsom, Felton spend part of his school days at Howard of Effingham School.
2. George Kruis
George Kruis is a professional rugby union player for England and Saracens.
Kruis, who is playing in the Rugby World Cup 2019, joined Saracens full-time from July 1, 2009.
A highlight of his early career was when he appeared in all five matches in the 2010 World Rugby Junior World Championship.
He then became a member of the squad for the 2014 QBE Internationals and won his first four caps off the bench.
Kruis' Rugby World Cup debut was off the bench against Australia eight months later and scored his maiden test try against Scotland in the opening match in the 2016 Six Nations Championship.
He was born in Guildford and educated at St John's School, Leatherhead.
3. Bill Nighy
The beloved actor, known for his role as Billy Mack in Love Actually, was born in Caterham.
Although he went to The John Fisher School in nearby Croydon as a child, he returned to Surrey to launch his acting education and attended the Guildford School of Acting to train for stage and film.
4. Celia Imrie
Actress and author Celia Imrie was born in Guildford and went to Guildford High School and continued her education at Guildford School of Acting.
She's best known for her roles in the Bridget Jones film series, Calendar Girls (2003), Nanny McPhee (2005), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015), Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018) and Malevolent (2018).
You may also recognise her from her work with Victoria Wood, including Victoria Wood as Seen on TV (1985–87), the sitcom Dinnerladies (1998–2000) and Acorn Antiques: The Musical (2005).
5. Emily Blunt
Born in Wandsworth, the BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning actress spent her school days at Hurtwood House in Holmbury St Mary, Dorking.
Blunt's film appearances include her roles in The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria, Looper and The Girl on the Train.
The British-American actress now lives in New York with her husband actor John Krasinski.
6. Ray Mears
TV survival expert Ray Mears has starred in and presented numerous travel and survival shows on both the BBC and ITV since the late 90s.
The 55-year-old, who was born in Coulsdon, spent his school days at Reigate Grammar School. He spent his youth wandering through the woods of the North Downs and honing his outdoor skills.
7. Ben Edwards
The Formula 1 racing commentator, who attended Reigate Grammar School, has voiced television coverage of Formula One, Superleague Formula and the British Touring Car Championship for both the BBC and Channel 4 since 2012.
Before his move to commentator, Edwards was a mechanic for Formula Ford teams in 1982, and had a career as a racing driver.
He won the very first Formula First championship, a now defunct championship for new drivers.
8. Clarissa Dickson Wright
One half of TV cookery duo, Two Fat Ladies, Clarissa Dickson Wright presented three series of the programme in the mid-90s on the BBC alongside Jennifer Paterson.
Dickson Wright died aged 66 in Scotland in 2014 but originally hailed from St John's Wood in London.
She attended Woldingham School when it was known as The Convent of the Sacred Heart.
9. Kay Wilson
Rugby player Kay Wilson was part of the 2014 World Cup-winning England squad. She scored four tries in the tournament and played the whole match in the final.
In March 2017 she made seven tries against Scotland during a 64–0 win by England in the Six Nations at Twickenham. This contributed to her position as top scorer in the six nations that year.
Wilson, who played her junior rugby for Old Caterhamians, Warlingham and Dorking rugby clubs, is a former pupil of St Bede's School, Redhill.
10. Carey Mulligan
Famous for her roles in The Great Gatsby, Far From the Madding Crowd, Suffragette and Mudbound, Carey Mulligan spent her early years in Düsseldorf, Germany.
When she was eight, her family moved back to England and she attended Woldingham School as a teenager.
Mulligan's breakthrough performance was as Jenny Mellor in the coming-of-age drama (2009), for which she won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role , and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress .
11. David Walliams
David Walliams got his breakthrough on British television as co-creator of sketch show Little Britain.
Now a judge on Britain's Got Talent, Walliams is also the author of children's books which have sold more than 12 million copies and been translated into 46 languages.
Walliams was born in Merton and is a former pupil of Reigate Grammar School.
12. Barry Norman
Barry Norman was one of the best-known film critics on British television before his death at the age of 83 in 2017, after presenting on BBC One between 1972 and 1998.
His show, Film 72, with the year changing in the title up until the final episode of Film 98, saw him speak about cinema to a mass audience in a way that also appealed to other critics.
Norman spent some of his early school years at St John's School, Leatherhead.
13. Jamie Mackie
Oxford United footballer Jamie Mackie signed for the club in 2018 after spells at Queen's Park Rangers and as a Scotland international.
But he was actually born in Dorking and attended The Ashcombe School.
He began his football career playing for Leatherhead and has since represented Wimbledon, Nottingham Forest and Reading as well as playing for his national side.
14. Robert Emms
Emms, born in Horley, went to the local secondary school, Oakwood School. You'll know him from the lead role in The National Theatre's production of War Horse, as well starring in the 2011 Stephen Spielberg film adaption of the story.
He will also be known to British TV viewers for playing Pythagoras in the BBC fantasy adventure series Atlantis between 2013 and 2015.
Real name Robert James MacPherson, he most recently starred in the smash hit drama Chernobyl.
15. Warwick Davis
The English actor and producer starred in two of the biggest film franchises of all time in his role as Wicket the Ewok in Star Wars and in playing Professor Filius Flitwick and Griphook in the Harry Potter films.
Born in Epsom, Davis attended both City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead and Chinthurst School in Tadworth.
One of his first major roles was in the 1988 fantasy adventure film Willow, which is now being turned into a TV series, which he is also due to star in.
16. Andrew Garfield
BAFTA-winning actor Andrew Garfield played the title role in two Spider-Man films and has also had roles in blockbusters such as The Social Network and Hacksaw Ridge.
Garfield was born in Los Angeles but moved to Epsom when he was three years old. He attended City of London Freemen's School in Ashtead.
He started honing his acting skills in youth drama productions while still at school, according to his IMDB account.
17. Hans Zimmer
German-born, Oscar-winning film composer Hans Zimmer has composed the scores for iconic films such as The Lion King, Gladiator, Inception and 12 Years A Slave.
You'll be hard pressed to find a major production that hasn't had either him or John Williams involved in it, such is his reputation for incredible compositions.
Zimmer moved to London as a teenager when he attended Hurtwood House School in Holmbury St Mary.
PreviousNo-deal Brexit will slash 10% off UK house prices, says top credit agency
NextDay/Night Test a good move as long as dew isn't a factor, believes Sachin Tendulkar | Sports News, The Indian Express
7 WEIRDEST Things Celebrities Have Bought
Devil's Advocate: Should we obsess over celebrities?
Celebrities are asking Brits to go vegan for 24 hours on World Vegan Day
11 Oriental haircare pointers as well as secrets from K-Pop idolizers and celebs that are actually really easy to adhere to


text:
New answers tagged poetry
What is the meaning of "They talked of love and preached of love, But did not act so lovingly" in 'Childhood'?
Love is a very ambiguous word. Ancient Greek philosophy, for example, distinguished several categories of love, including the following: érōs: desire; sensual or passionate love (etymological source of the adjective "erotic"). agapē: unconditional love; also, especially in a Christian context, "the love of God for man and of man for God"....
meaning poetry markus-natten
answered yesterday
Tsundoku♦
Children's poem about a boy stuck between the tracks on the underground
This is Michael Rosen's poem "Nightmare", found in his book Mustard, custard, grumble belly and gravy, which is available to borrow on the Internet Archive: I'm down I'm underground I'm down the Underground Waiting Waiting for a train There's the platform There's the lines There's the tunnel There's the lines. I'll wait down there Down between the ...
identification-request poetry
What kind of sonnet is Sonnet 24 of Sidney's "Astrophel and Stella"?
The rhyme scheme is ABAB ABAB CDCD EE, which, superficially at least, corresponds to three quatrains and a couplet. The rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet uses two "closed quatrains" for the first eight lines and typically goes ABBA ABBA CDC CDC or ABBA ABBA CDE CDE (with other variations for the sestet). The rhyme scheme of an English or ...
poetry astrophel-and-stella philip-sidney
What does "ceremony of innocence" mean In "The Second Coming"?
The 'ceremony of innocence' is baptism, the ceremony that takes place at the baptismal font, a time of rejoicing. At this baptism, however, it is anything but a joyous occasion as the baptism of innocence is itself 'baptized", drowned in the blood-dimmed tide of mere anarchy that has been loosed upon the world. Powerful imagery, and regrettably, all too ...
poetry william-butler-yeats
Noel Quinn
Why "in the midst of alarms" in William Cowper's poem "The Solitude of Alexander Selkirk"?
TL;DR: William Cowper's "dwell in the midst of alarms" is a re-working of William Wilkie's "dwell amidst alarms". Wilkie's Epigoniad (1757) was an epic poem in heroic couplets telling the story of the Epigoni, the sons of the Seven against Thebes. The phrase "dwell amidst alarms" appears twice. In book III, the Argive hero Diomedes has challenged Leophron, ...
poetry wording-choice william-cowper
Gareth Rees
What is the correspondence of flowers with the spirit-world in Elizabeth Browning's "Aurora Leigh"?
Browning is alluding here to the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg, a mystical Christian philosopher, who propounded the doctrine of correspondence: Moreover, there is no one thing existing in the created world, which has not correspondence with the things existing in the spiritual world, and which does not thereby, in its manner and measure, represent ...
meaning poetry elizabeth-barrett-browning aurora-leigh
What inspired the "fakir in a box" in Elizabeth Browning's "Aurora Leigh"?
Browning alludes here to the biblical account of the raising of Lazarus in John 11. But the details don't come from John, in whose account Lazarus's tomb is closed with a stone (11:38), not a locked door; Jesus calls Lazarus forth (11:43) instead of anointing him with "chrism" (consecrated oil); and there is no mention of Lazarus's eyes or tongue. There are, ...
poetry inspiration elizabeth-barrett-browning aurora-leigh
1955 in Otro poema de los dones by Jorge Luis Borges
I assume it is indeed a historical reference. The year 1955 was double relevant to Borges: He had been an anti-Peronist [1], so he welcomed the Revolución Libertadora of 16 September 1955. In fact, the Wikipedia about Borges notes: According to [Borges biographer] Williamson, Borges shouted, "Viva la Patria", until his voice grew hoarse. [2] ...
poetry historical-context spanish-literature jorge-luis-borges
Does the original German version of Fontane's Tay Bridge poem contain the same literary references?
The original German text begins with the following lines: »Wann treffen wir drei wieder zusamm'?« »Um die siebente Stund', am Brückendamm.« »Am Mittelpfeiler.« »Ich lösche die Flamm'.« Compare this with the opening lines of the translation by Dorothea Tieck, first published in 1832 (in: Shakspeare's dramatische Werke. Übersetzt von August ...
poetry translation german-literature theodor-fontane
Why does George Eliot call night "bright" and "radiant"?
There seems to be a basic misconception in the question: namely, that the narrator of the poem is Eliot herself (or else, why would it be relevant whether Eliot "was an night owl"?). I feel that you wouldn't make this mistake if it were prose: you wouldn't read the first sentence of Moby-Dick and ask "why is Melville asking us to 'call him Ishmael' when his ...
meaning poetry george-eliot
Where is "Keumgang-Gul / Diamond Cave"?
The place you seek is actually better transliterated as "Geumgang-Gul". Geumganggul Cave is a cave located in Seoraksan National Park, in Sokcho, South Korea... It was once a place of worship and contains a Buddha stone. - Wikipedia It's located very far northeast of the country. . You can walk there from a famous temple called the Sinheungsa ...
poetry setting korean-literature ko-un
North Læraðr
How do you become aware "of the earth as poetry"?
Poetry doesn't have to rhyme or scan or have any of the attributes that we conventionally associate with a "poem". True poetry is something that conveys ideas and feelings that can't be attributed directly to the words. For instance a poem can describe an experience without ever mentioning the author's feelings; yet the reader will end up feeling ...
meaning poetry henry-beston
Ray Butterworth
What is Litigious Little Bow in the Welsh poem "The Wind"?
Bwa Bach ("Little Bow") was a nickname for Morfudd's husband Cynfrig Cynin, referring perhaps to his crooked or hunched back. His jealousy of Dafydd led to the latter being exiled from his home in Ceredigion ("society and its goods are closed to me"). The lines quoted in the question are: Yn glaer deg, yn eglur dôn. Nac aro di, nac eiriach, Nac ofna er Bwa ...
meaning poetry dafydd-ap-gwilym welsh-literature
This seems to be a reference to a person, also translated, less poetically, as 'little hunchback'. The first reference I found was in 'Bardic museum of primitive British literature and other admirable rarities ' which translates the poem as: Tell me never resting friend, of the journey on some northern blast, over the dale. Ah, friend, go from Aeron ...
Spagirl
The second line of "God's Grandeur"
When you take a sheet of metal foil and shake it vigorously, the metal sparkles as the light catches it. Here is an example of gold foil being shaken. The left edge of the foil in particular is reminiscent of flames: As you can see, the light glitters and shines off the foil in an active way. That's what Hopkins means: God's grandeur is actively reflected ...
meaning poetry gerard-manley-hopkins
verbose
What's the connection between millennia of time travel and waiting for a bus?
Standing at a bus stop waiting for your bus to come is one of the most frustrating and boring activities known to man. The author is saying that it can seem like a thousand years pass.
poetry korean-literature ko-un
Your speculations in the question about what the contrast might mean are on point. Specifically, the poem moves from grandiose claims to mundane reality. The claims are about the past (recall) or the future (next thousand years); the reality is the present (am waiting). That the day is windy underlines the contrast between reality (cold wind) and the claims (...
poetry × 461
meaning × 121
identification-request × 38
symbolism × 37
interpretation × 34
meter × 18
william-blake × 17
robert-frost × 17
terminology × 14
john-keats × 13
spanish-literature × 12
t-s-eliot × 12
songs-of-experience × 11
walt-whitman × 11
bengali-literature × 11
rabindranath-tagore × 10
history-of-literature × 9
translation × 9
william-wordsworth × 9
william-shakespeare × 8
inspiration × 8
elizabeth-barrett-browning × 8
samuel-taylor-coleridge × 8
quote-source × 8
german-literature × 7


text:
The Afterglow are an Italian rock band with clear English influences founded in 1998.

History
Founder members the half-English frontman Dave Timson and guitarist Mik Lennard, who started the band in 1998. After a few line up changes drummer Alex Cherry, joined in 2002. The band decided to base themselves partially in Italy and partially in the UK on account of their sound which it was felt was more akin to an English four-piece than to a typical Italian band. Timson's ability to write and speak fluent English on account of a Sheffield-born mother was the principal reason for this. From 2004 to 2010 The Afterglow have been managed by Ethnoworld/Silent Revolution partner and managing director Valerio Meletti.

Their first official four-Track EP Modern Life Virus was published by the London-based record label Silent Revolution Ltd (who discovered the band after getting a copy of their previous unofficial EP) in 2004, with the release of debut single Journey.  Their second Ep Love's The Cure (2005) contained the single Love, receiving much critical acclaim in both the UK and Italy and featured on MTV. This was the first release from the band after they had signed to EMI Publishing UK. 2006 proved to be a fundamental year for the band, extensively on tour in both Italy and United Kingdom, when their debut album Decalogue Of Modern Life mixed by Steve Orchard (U2, Travis, McCartney, Coldplay), was released in November. The album received airplays across the world including the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Italy and other European countries, while the third single Setting Sun was broadcast on MTV amongst others. Following the departure of former bassist David Madson, the band kept playing live as a three-piece including appearing at the HUB Festival In Liverpool for the third consecutive year, with Timson taking the role of singer-bass player. The band settled on their current four-piece lineup in May 2008, when they welcomed back former guitarist Alberto Garau (who had had a stint with the band in 2001).

The band released their second studio album Sorry, in June 2009. The album has been recorded and mixed at Suonovivo Studios (Bergamo, Milan) by Dario Ravelli (mix assistant for the first album), and production was assigned to Dave Timson and Mik Lennard.

On February 2, anticipating the album's worldwide release, five different singles were taken and launched in different countries (US, UK, Italy, Japan, Australia) where the band had been successful with their debut album.
The release of Sorry was followed by a promotional tour in which the band played in several well known UK venues (such as 'The Fly', in London, 'The Cavern', in Liverpool and 'The Classic Grand' in Glasgow). During that tour, the band played their first live gigs in Belgium (the Beursschouwburg in Brussels among the others) and The Netherlands.

All of You (Piss me off), Merry-Go-Round, Your heart plastic skin became video tapes directed by Davide Valle, a young and talented film-maker who followed the band all along their European tour. Sorry's latest single ("Before the Afternoon") has been widely airplayed on many international radios, all across Europe (Virgin Radio-Italy-, XFM-UK-, BBC6-UK- to name but a few).

Sorry recently reached the considerable number of 20,000 downloaded copies.

In May 2011, the band's website announced a new side-project called Adam Frei, launched by Rat Singer, an ironic, politically incorrect animated videoclip.

In 2012, after three and a half years of activity with the band, Alberto left for professional reasons, to dedicate his full efforts to other projects. The band decided to keep going as a trio.

In 2018, after fifteen years, Alex Cherry left the band to dedicate himself to a solo project.

Discography

Albums

Decalogue of modern life (2006, Silent Revolution Ltd/EMI Publishing UK) - Produced by The Afterglow, recorded by Dario Ravelli, mixed by Steve Orchard, mastered by Kevin Metcalfe.
Sorry. (2009, Doublemind Records Ltd/EMI Publishing UK/Ethnoworld Publishing) - Produced by The Afterglow, recorded and mixed by Dario Ravelli, mastered by William Halfpenny.
Things I've Lost 2004-2013 The Greatest Hits
Gemini (2020, Ignoreland)

EPs

Modern Life Virus(2004, Silent Revolution Ltd) - Produced by The Afterglow, mixed by Dario Ravelli.
Love's The Cure (2005, Silent Revolution Ltd/EMI Publishing UK) - Produced by The Afterglow, mixed by Dario Ravelli.
Pills, Parents And Pigs (2014)

Singles

"I Still Go" (November 2012 Ethnoworld/EMI) – recorded and produced by Steve Orchard, Smokehouse Studios, London.
"X- Song" (April 2013 Ethnoworld/EMI) – recorded & produced by Steve Orchard, Smokehouse Studios, Londonprecedes the release of "things i've lost", a collection of past hits out this September!
"Everything" (November 2013 Ethnoworld/EMI)
"Fuckinbloody Young / Rage" (February 2019 The Afterglow)

References

External links
Band Facebook Profile
Spotify Profile

Italian musical groups
1998 establishments in Italy

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Educational Research and Reviews (ERR) is a peer reviewed open access journal. The journal is published twice monthly and covers all areas of the subject such as comparative education, early childhood education, adult education, special education, teachers' training, vocational education, educational technology, educational administration and management, curriculum development, education policies and management.
The Educational Research and Reviews is an Open Access journal. Abstracts and full texts of all articles published in this journal are freely accessible to everyone immediately after publication without any form of restriction.
The Educational Research and Reviews is a RoMEO green journal. This permits authors to archive any version of their article they find most suitable, including the published version on their institutional repository and any other suitable website.
The Educational Research and Reviews is committed to the long-term preservation of its content. All articles published by the journal are preserved by Portico. In addition, the journal encourages authors to archive the published version of their articles on their institutional repositories and as well as other appropriate websites.
The manuscript handling fee for ERR is $550 (USD).


OKLAHOMA CITY – A litter of orphaned mountain lion cubs has found a new home at the Oklahoma City Zoo, according to KFOR.
In late January, the Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden received three 9-week-old mountain lion cubs, two males and one female.
Officials said the cubs were found by game wardens with the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Game wardens discovered the cubs' mother was dead, and, knowing they were too young to survive on their own, immediately began caring for the cubs.
The Oklahoma City Zoo learned of the cubs' situation and offered to take in the litter. The female cub will eventually be relocated to a Waco zoo this summer.
"By bringing these orphaned cubs to the OKC Zoo and providing them with the care, veterinary monitoring and enriching environment needed to thrive we are ensuring their survival." said Tyler Boyd, OKC Zoo animal curator.
All three mountain lion cubs are healthy, extremely energetic and weigh about 10 pounds each.
Once the cubs complete their 30-day quarantine, they will be on public view.


The third edition of the DASH and QuickDASH Outcome Measure User's Manual is available. It has been designed to help clinicians, researchers and others who use the DASH and QuickDASH tools.
This new edition has been revised to include the QuickDASH and to incorporate the latest research available on the DASH. It has also been expanded to include new chapters on the cross-cultural use of the DASH/QuickDASH outcome measures and the DASH Optional Modules. The current edition is expected to make understanding and using the DASH/QuickDASH easier and more accessible.
For those who are most interested in how to use the DASH, Chapters 1 and 2 are the most relevant. Chapter 1 provides the information needed to start using the DASH immediately. Chapter 2 describes important details about administering the DASH and includes answers to frequently asked questions. Those who are interested in the rationale behind developing the DASH and/or are searching for reliability, validity and responsiveness statistics will find Chapters 3 to 8 to be must reads.
The DASH and QuickDASH Outcome Measure User's Manual can be ordered as a digital download or as a full print version. To order it online please visit the secure product catalog of the Institute for Work & Health.


text:
Cheer squad heads to state, brings back sixth place
Lica Rosa, Staff Writer|December 18, 2018
After almost 15 years, the Warsaw cheer squad brings back the competitive spirit and place sixth at State level competition.
"It was really cool to get the opportunity to go to State because it has been fourteen or fifthteen years since Warsaw has even competed on a state level," junior Samantha Blake said. Blake is a backspot in the squad.
In her third year coaching, Rachel Eichler, who was a cheerleader at Warsaw herself, has been following the steps of her high school coach, Carolynn Fisher, as a strategy to lead the victory for the cheer squad.
"My coach had been coaching for a very long time so it was a well established program, and she retired after my senior year. I think it has been on and off for the past 14 or so years, so I'm just trying to install what my coach had in the program and bring that back, and it is working," said Eichler.
Carolynn Fisher was both a middle school and high school cheer coach at Warsaw for about 23 years.
"Hearing that cheerleaders were making a state appearance made me thrilled, for not only cheerleading, but for their coach as well. You have to have everyone on the squad buy in, show up and work hard. My huge congratulations to both the squad and their coach! Good job!" Fisher said.
The preparation for the state routine was very intense and required a lot of hard work and dedication from the whole team.
Blake said the squad took the scores from the regional competition to make improvements for state.
"Instead of having practice only two days a week, we practiced every school day and sometimes on Monday," Blake said.
"All the practice was definitely worth it. It paid off in the end," senior captain and main base Helena Givens said.
The night before state, however, there was a minor occurrence that brought some uneasiness to the team, but luckily didn't affect the squad's performance the next day.
Sophomore Darby Mostaffa, who is a flyer, was dropped during a stunt and had a minor injury.
"I really pride myself in safety, and this girls are very fabulous stunters and it was three small mistakes by each of the bases and it turned into a big one. That has never happened under my watch before, so I was very upset." Coach Eichler said.
"I was really stressed out because I thought I wasn't gonna get to participate and compete, but after I realized that my injury wasn't as bad as it seemed and that I was fine, I could do what I needed to do it was all good," said Mostaffa said.
The creation process of the routine was a joint effort between the cheerleaders, represented by their captain and the coach.
"For the routine I basically accessed their skills as a team and what they were capable of, and my philosophy was to get a nice solid routine with the skills that they are capable of instead of a mediocre advanced routine with something that they haven't necessarily mastered yet," Eichler said.
"For State, we put our routines together and saw how it looked, and if we wanted to make changes we discussed it with each other and changed it. We both put our ideas in and modificated it during practice, so if something didn't look good we would cut it out and add something instead," Givens said.
Competing at State was a first experience for the whole squad, and they were all excited and nervous about it.
"Going to State was very cool, I didn't expect it to be happening, I thought we would go to Regionals and see it as an experience, so it did pay off all of the hard work," freshman flyer Natalie Johnson said.
"I was really nervous about obvious little things, like whether or not we were gonna hit the stunts at the same time, or if our counting would be off, but we did really well," Blake said.
The routine included basic tumbling skills, toe touches, intermediate to advanced stunts, a cheer, and a dance.
"They did well, so we just had one little mishap in the end which cost us five points as a deduction, but other than that they had a nice clean performance and placed sixth out of 11, so I was very very happy with that," said Eichler. The squad competed in 2A Small. 2A is based on the enrollment of our school. So we competed against other school with a similar number of students. And small means 12 or less- we have 10 girls.
State ended up not being just a competition, but also an awesome experience for all parts of the team.
"I'm just really happy that I got to be a part of team that is finally taking Warsaw cheer and bringing it back to what it used to be, and getting the actual recognition that cheer is a sport and can be really competitive," said Blake.
"The best part of State was just getting to know each other as a team, and now we don't argue as much as we used to," said Johnson.
"I'm just very proud of them in general, this program has grown a lot this year and I'm excited to see how it continuous to go," Eichler said.
Lica Rosa, Staff Writer
Junior Lica Rosa is interested in the journalism class because she enjoys descriptive writing and displaying the emotions of people through the art of...
Student hunters find success in 2020 deer season
Archers new, old start practices before first shoot of the season
Team advances to second round of district play
Cheerleaders gain positive experiences with four different squads this year.
Three runners head for state this week


BA has created a pretty little app, but this seems like a project driven by an exec saying "we need another app" rather than something that meets a real customer need.
British Airways customers on the move can now capture and share their own ideal personalised travel guides and more, with the launch of a new Perfect Day app for iPhones.
It follows last year's launch of the Perfect Days app on Facebook, which has enabled hundreds of British Airways customers to share how they would spend their Perfect Days in locations around the world flown to by the airline.


The best 80 phpBB Website Free no Ads SSL Certificates .
Compare the best website hosting providers of 2019 for students: Free cloud cpanel hosting for wordpress 30 Email accounts 50 GB Space.
The Best 35 Free Web Hosting Sites without Ads in 2019.: cpanel web hosting free download 110 Sub-domains TXT Records.
If you think VPS will be more suitable for you check out our cheap VPS hosting plans here. For webmasters, using a VPS means that they get the administrative power of a dedicated hosting setup, including the ability to customize their server to suit them. With a VPS, you're still sharing some resources because that's determined by the hardware, but the software itself is set up in such a way that one machine acts like multiple different servers, providing a different virtual server for every user.
Free web hosting earn money: 80 GB Traffic Free Bonuses 3 Hosted Domain(s).
Best HTMLy Hosting in 2019: Top 10 Comparison & Reviews.
000webhost offers you only their own, custom client panel where you can both manage your client account and also some technical details of your hosting setup. This is starting to be a trend here with this free WordPress hosting platforms, but each of them has a different spin on their client - user panels. While you're setting up your hosting account, you'll also want to have WordPress installed.
Compare VistaPanel Hosting with the best website hosting providers of 2019 amazon: Each Reseller account allows you to create an individual cPanel account for each each individual domain using the WHM control panel. We configured your cPanel Reseller Account within WHM to have permission to create "packages." As an example, we created a 2GB hosting package for you. In order to create a cPanel reseller hosting account, you need to find a reseller hosting provider, which offers the features you need at a price that suits your budget. websites of free online movies 16.
Best reseller hosting unlimited bandwidth Web Hosting No Ads: SMF - With a reseller account, we manage the server environment so you are free to fully focus on your business and online projects. 5 Is Softaculous included on your reseller hosting servers? Our web hosting plans now feature all new SSD disk systems, with 24+ CPU cores per server, and Gigabit network speeds - for blazing fast performance to host your web sites and applications such as Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal, and much more! - We'll bill you directly for your reseller hosting plan and you'll be responsible for billing your own clients. Moving your clients' sites across to your new tosHost reseller hosting plan is on the house. A OHosti reseller plan is a great way for you to earn money on the side, or even become your own full-time web hosting company.
How to Start with Free Hosting.
Tired of frequent downtime and inferior technical support with your present web hosting company? free web hosting bluehost, free hosting of wordpress site Web Hosting Comparison & Reviews.
Copyright 2019 © The best 80. Best Blesta Free Website Hosting. Blesta Web Hosting Comparison & Reviews. 6 Hosted Domain(s), SMTP Server, , PluXml. free web hosting bluehost, free hosting of wordpress site Web Hosting Comparison & Reviews. All Rights Reserved.


New day. New Blog. New me. Same God.
To come upon a door that is stunningly beautiful requires walking through all it's predecessors. What's behind each door will bend us, but God won't let us break.
Every door is a new beginning. It holds a start, a middle, and an end. The ending depends on time, and how much is needed. We can let the door shut, or wedge something in there before it closes completely. Some will slam shut, but there are tools for that! A hammer, and nails can reinforce it, making it difficult to reopen, but a crowbar can pry it open.
Lay the crowbar aside, rest, and wait for a new door. They become prettier with time, and it will speak to your heart. What's on the other side serves as practice for what's next; growing us in strength, and character. Stay the full journey; being mindful, brave and present. Be grateful, and your heart will feel it start to close giving you time to exit gracefully.
A door opened in May 2014 to begin writing at https://letitgocoach.com/ In May 2015, this domain name was established, and you can see God's timeline in the About section. The past 3 years of writing came from walking through doors, and they were nothing like this beautiful one pictured above.
Hello first post, indeed. Worthy of new beginnings and second chances. I will bend but I will not break. Love it. Love you.
Love it!!!! Oh the doors of life!!!


Freedman, Lawrence R., "Influence of experimental acidosis on glucose tolerance in normal and adrenalectomized dogs and observations on the decreased ability of the latter to restore serum bicarbonate" (1951). Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library. 2611.


text:
Emergent Tech
Deepfake 3.0 (beta), the bad news: This AI can turn ONE photo of you into a talking head. Good news: There is none
Watch Rasputin sing like, uh, Beyonce, Einstein natter away...
By Katyanna Quach 19 Jun 2019 at 00:30
46 SHARE ▼
Videos Remember that artificially intelligent software that could transform lifeless still images, such as portrait paintings, into moving heads? Well, you can now take a single photo or picture of someone and animate it to make them say specific words and sentences, using AI algorithms.
This machine-learning code can take a person's mouth and lip-synch it to a given spoken-word audio track, effectively forcing the subject to speak the supplied recording and say things they never actually uttered. The ways in which this could be abused to trick audiences are endless.
This new development, like the research preceding it, feeds into the hand-wringing frenzy over deepfakes, a term that describes content, whether it be images, videos, or audio, that has been doctored and twisted by machine-learning algorithms.
The internet freaked out over portraits of Mona Lisa and photos of dead celebrities like Marilyn Monroe suddenly coming to life, reanimated by the cold clammy hands of neural networks and code. Their eyes blinked, and their mouths moved, but no sound came out.
Now, researchers at the Samsung AI Center, and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, have gone one step further. They have created fake talking heads that really can speak. Listen to Einstein discussing the wonders of science below. Yes, it's his face and his voice, but it's still fake, and clearly fake, nevertheless.
The audio was sourced from a recording of a speech by the E-mc2 super-boffin, and his face is from a photograph. Here's one that's more obviously bogus: it's a photograph of Grigori Rasputin singing popstar Beyonce's smash hit Halo...
The images are pretty grainy, obviously manipulated in some way, and they're amusing enough to not really be taken seriously. However, here's another clip that shows why this type of technology is potentially dangerous:
Normal people like you or me can therefore be visually manipulated, and the doctoring is not always obvious. In the video above, people's faces are animated by the AI software to repeat neutral sentences such as "it's eleven o'clock" or "I'm on my way to the meeting" with a range of facial expressions, from happy and sad to scared.
Right now, these videos, produced as a result of early academic research, are impressive from a technical standpoint, though ultimately not always entirely convincing.
However, imagine a future in which these fake computer-crafted videos are good enough to fool enough of the population to spread fake news, or doctor evidence to frame people for crimes they haven't committed – all automatically at the press of a few buttons.
Generators and discriminators
As we've said, the output of the technology described in the team's arXiv paper, emitted this month, is isn't entirely convincing yet. The resulting video footage is low quality, and lacks small facial movements and features such as the small wrinkles that pool around the nose and lips when real people natter away. The eyes are also lacklustre.
However, considering that the model can create a talking head from just a single input image and audio file, it's not too bad at this stage. The researchers built the software on top of a generative adversarial network (GAN) that featured one generator and three discriminator networks. This approach pitted the generator against the trio of discriminators: the generator has to produce streams of material, from input pictures and audio, that is convincing enough to get past the discriminators.
The discriminators therefore had to be taught to differentiate between real and fake videos "based on the synchrony or the presence of natural facial expressions," according to the paper. A total 164,109 samples taken from four datasets of people speaking were used to train the model, and 17,753 clips were used for testing.
A diagram of the different components in the model ... Image credit: Vougioukas et al.
During training, the generator took a still input picture and an audio clip, and from these two sources outputted a series of frames derived from that input snap, with each frame corresponding to a 0.2-second snippet from the input audio. In each frame, the mouth and face were slightly altered to match the associated brief audio sample.
Those frames were then passed into two of the discriminators, which checked the audio and lip movements were aligned; if not, the stream was rejected as fake or unrealistic, with feedback passed to the generator so that it can improve. The third sequence discriminator looked at the video as a whole to see if the transitions between each frame were smooth so that the generated clip looked realistic; if not, it was rejected, and the generator informed.
Once training is complete, the GAN should be good enough to take any input image and audio and synch them up into a deepfake talking head video.
The still images and audio fed into the generator were encoded by two separate convolutional neural networks. To top it all off, there was also a noise generator in the mix to generate filler frames containing eye blinking and other facial motions.
"Our model is implemented in PyTorch and takes approximately a week to train using a single Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPU," the researchers wrote in their paper. Fake clips of talking heads can be created in real time: a video containing about 75 frames can be generated in just half a second using a GTX 1080 Ti GPU, though it takes longer if a CPU is used.
When the researchers asked 66 people to watch 24 videos – 12 are real, and 12 deepfakes – people could only label them as real or fake correctly about 52 per cent of the time. "This model has shown promising results in generating lifelike videos, which produce facial expressions that reflect the speakers tone. The inability of users to distinguish the synthesized videos from the real ones in the Turing test verifies that the videos produced look natural," the researchers concluded.
They hope to make their results more convincing in future with more realistic movements. At the moment, for instance, the fake talking heads can't really move their heads much. ®
Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business
Tips and corrections
More from The Register
Are you an AI guru? Can you teach ML skills to Register readers? Great! Our MCubed call-for-papers is open for you
Event We want to hear you share your insights, experiences, and plans
Two in five 'AI startups' essentially have no AI, mega-survey of nearly 3,000 upstarts finds
One pint of beer please, Mr Barman. I am 18 today, honest!
You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: A quirky investigation into why AI does not always work
Book review Flaws are 'far beyond merely inconvenient', writes Janelle Shane
Amazon sticks AI inference chip up for rent in the cloud for machine-learning geeks
re:Invent AWS subscribers, you can forget GPUs (unless you need to train your models)
I spy, with my little satellite AI, something beginning with 'North American image-analysis code embargo'
Vendors will have to apply for permission to sell tools to customers outside of the US and Canada
Intel is doing so well at AI acceleration, it's dropped $2bn on another neural-net chip upstart (third time's a charm)
Habana joins the ranks of runaway successes Movidius and Nervana
RISC-V business: SiFive and CEVA join forces to enable the development AI-amenable, edge-oriented processors
System-on-a-chip IP partnership seeks to create more smart home, automobile, robotics, IoT, and industrial applications, among others
Is this paragraph from Trump or an AI bot? You decide, plus buy your own AI for $399
Roundup Also Uber to Waymo - I wish I could quit you!
CrowdStrike Falcon Complete
Guidance for taking any organization to the highest level of endpoint protection regardless of internal resources.
Evolving Datacenters without Complexity
In this session, we'll talk about how IT leaders are advancing the capabilities of their datacenters to rise to today's challenges. Our guest speaker, Chris Bradford, Product Manager at DataStax will bring first-hand expertise to a discussion with The Register host Elena Perez.
Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business
If security by obscurity is no longer an option, and inaction is a risk in itself, what can smaller enterprises do to protect themselves? Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) solutions can go a long way towards minimising the level of threat, but they need to be chosen and used in the right way.
SANS Institute: Cloud Security Survey Results
Over 47 percent of surveyed organizations store sensitive business intelligence and IP in the cloud ... yet in 2018, a quarter of respondents realized security events due to poor configuration and insecure APIs.
Get The Register's Headlines in your inbox daily - quick signup!


text:
package main

import (
	"bytes"
	"flag"
	"fmt"
	"github.com/tvdburgt/passman/crypto"
	"github.com/tvdburgt/passman/store"
	"github.com/tvdburgt/passman/term"
	"log"
	"os"
	"os/user"
	"path/filepath"
	"strings"
)

const (
	storeFilePerm       os.FileMode = 0600 // Store only requires rw perms for owner
	storeFileCreateFlag             = os.O_WRONLY | os.O_CREATE | os.O_TRUNC
	storeFileEnvKey                 = "PASSMAN_STORE"
	storeFileDefault                = "$HOME/.pass_store"
)

// Global variable for filename of the passman store. This value defaults
// to the storeFileDefault constant or the value of the environment variable with the
// key in storeFileEnvKey (if set). The filename can be overridden with the
// global -f or -file flag.
var storeFile string

// Commands lists the available commands and help topics.
// The order here is the order in which they are printed by 'passman help'.
var commands = []*Command{
	cmdGet,
	cmdSet,
	cmdClip,
	cmdInit,
	cmdImport,
	cmdExport,
	cmdList,
	cmdStat,
	cmdGen,
	cmdDelete,
}

// Set default store file
func init() {
	if v := os.Getenv(storeFileEnvKey); v != "" {
		storeFile = v
	} else {
		u, err := user.Current()
		if err != nil {
			panic("failed to get current user: " + err.Error())
		}
		mapping := func(s string) string {
			switch s {
			case "HOME":
				return u.HomeDir
			default:
				return ""
			}
		}
		storeFile = filepath.FromSlash(storeFileDefault)
		storeFile = os.Expand(storeFile, mapping)
		// fmt.Println(storeFile)
	}
}

// A Command is an implementation of a subcommand. The subcommand pattern
// code is taken from the Go source ($GOROOT/src/cmd/go).
type Command struct {
	// Run runs the command.
	// The args are the arguments after the command name.
	Run func(cmd *Command, args []string)

	// UsageLine is the one-line usage message.
	// The first word in the line is taken to be the command name.
	UsageLine string

	// Short is the short description shown in the 'go help' output.
	Short string

	// Long is the long message shown in the 'go help <this-command>' output.
	Long string

	// Flag is a set of flags specific to this command.
	Flag flag.FlagSet
}

func readVerifiedPassphrase() []byte {
	for {
		p1 := term.ReadPassphrase("Enter passphrase: ")
		p2 := term.ReadPassphrase("Verify passphrase: ")
		if bytes.Equal(p1, p2) {
			if len(p1) == 0 {
				// fatalf("Invalid passphrase, aborting.")
			}
			crypto.Clear(p2)
			return p1
		}
		crypto.Clear(p1)
		crypto.Clear(p2)
		fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "Passphrases do not match, try again.")
	}
}

func writeStore(s *store.Store, passphrase []byte) {
	file, err := os.OpenFile(storeFile, storeFileCreateFlag, storeFilePerm)
	if err != nil {
		fatalf("Unable to write to store: %s", err)
	}
	defer file.Close()

	// Generate a new random salt
	err = crypto.ReadRand(s.Header.Salt[:])
	if err != nil {
		fatalf("Failed to generate salt: %s", err)
	}

	err = crypto.WriteStore(file, s, passphrase)
	if err != nil {
		fatalf("Failed to write to store: %s", err)
	}
}

func readStore(passphrase []byte) (s *store.Store, err error) {
	file, err := os.Open(storeFile)
	if err != nil {
		return
	}
	defer file.Close()

	s, err = crypto.ReadStore(file, passphrase)
	if err != nil {
		return
	}

	return
}

// Helper function for reading both passphrase and store.
func openRwStore() (s *store.Store, passphrase []byte) {
	for {
		passphrase = term.ReadPassphrase("Enter passphrase for %q: ", storeFile)
		s, err := readStore(passphrase)
		if err == nil {
			return s, passphrase
		}
		crypto.Clear(passphrase)
		if err == crypto.ErrWrongPass {
			fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "Incorrect passphrase. Try again.")
			continue
		}
		fatalf("Failed to open store: %s", err)
	}
}

func openStore() *store.Store {
	s, passphrase := openRwStore()
	crypto.Clear(passphrase)
	return s
}

// Name returns the command's name: the first word in the usage line.
// TODO: 'go help cmd' should suffix cmd.Short with 'passman' (see go source)
func (c *Command) Name() string {
	name := c.UsageLine
	i := strings.Index(name, " ")
	if i >= 0 {
		name = name[:i]
	}
	return name
}

func (c *Command) Usage() {
	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "usage: %s\n\n", c.UsageLine)
	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%s\n", strings.TrimSpace(c.Long))
	os.Exit(1)
}

func usage() {
	fmt.Fprintln(os.Stderr, "passman usage")
	os.Exit(1)
}

func fatalf(format string, args ...interface{}) {
	log.Printf(format, args...)
	os.Exit(1)
}

// Adds global flags for store-specific commands.
func addFileFlag(cmd *Command) {
	cmd.Flag.StringVar(&storeFile, "f", storeFile, "")
	cmd.Flag.StringVar(&storeFile, "file", storeFile, "")
}

// Makes sure the store file path is absolute
func fixStoreFile() {
	var err error
	storeFile, err = filepath.Abs(storeFile)
	if err != nil {
		panic(err)
	}
}

func main() {
	flag.Usage = usage
	flag.Parse()

	args := flag.Args()
	if len(args) < 1 {
		usage()
	}

	// Don't include date etc. in log output
	log.SetFlags(0)

	for _, cmd := range commands {
		if cmd.Name() == args[0] && cmd.Run != nil {
			// cmd.Flag.Usage = func() { cmd.Usage() }
			cmd.Flag.Usage = cmd.Usage
			cmd.Flag.Parse(args[1:])
			fixStoreFile()
			args = cmd.Flag.Args()
			cmd.Run(cmd, args)
			os.Exit(0)
		}
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, "%[1]s: unknown subcommand %q\nRun '%[1]s help' for usage.\n",
		os.Args[0], args[0])
	os.Exit(1)
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub