I’ll tell you in a nutshell – I think Stephen King is secretly writing or overseeing the writing of Lost. Sometime later next year, after the first wave of box sets has sold, there will be an announcement. They’ll break the story that Stephen King had a hand in it, and then they’ll release another box set, with Stephen King doing a commentary.
By then it will be obvious, for two reasons. First, the end is going to be awful. Stephen King’s idea of wrapping up a huge convoluted story is usually a lot of what I’m seeing on Lost right now – powerful unseen forces manipulate the giant cast of characters through the use of incredible coincidences, which are then supposed to be accepted not as lazy or contrived, but as a mind-boggling feature – and further evidence of – the powerful unseen forces. Another thing Stephen King characters like to do is “know” things, and then solemnly tell other characters, “I don’t know how I know it, but I’m sure.” And then they all nod gravely – again as evidence to the powerful unseen forces, not the way people would really react to a sentence like that. These people are acting exactly like Stephen King characters, and I don’t think he’s ended a book well since Misery.
Second, Lost is going to end with open tie-ins to another Stephen King project, so that an unbelievable and unprecendented spinoff happens. See, I don’t think people would get on board for a standard Lost spinoff – who wants to go through this again? But what’s going to happen is, they’ll spinoff into another Stephen King series. Listen.
Stephen King – according to my wild, speculative theory – was brought on board by JJ Abrams, to help him tie the crazy plotlines together that he had developed. They did this secretly, because the show was already a runaway hit and they didn’t need King’s name and because the secret itself would be worth money down the road.
Stephen King loves to reference himself. You’ll find a copy of his books in any movie he has a hand in – and he’ll frequently do a cameo, too. He referenced Stephen King in his Bachman books, too – in Thinner for instance, someone says, “You sound like a character in a Stephen King novel.” For crying out loud, he writes himself literally into The Dark Tower – the characters come out of their world and interact with him, the writer – because he’s the most important person in the universe!
When the Man In Black shows up in Lost, that’s when Stephen King really has his hooks in it. I’d say, when he came on board in Season Two, Abrams and his crew already had some plotlines laid out, and it made sense to keep them.
The Man in Black, especially in the form of Locke, is exactly like Randall Flagg, Stephen King’s favorite villain. The scene in which The Man In Black releases chained-up Richard from The Black Pearl mirrors the scene in The Stand, when Randall Flagg releases Lloyd Henreid from jail. This is also when the psychic people show up, the people who can see dead people, the series of jaw-dropping coincidences being mystically accepted as “fate” – all staples of Stephen King.
I could go on for a long time about these similarities, but for now, that’s all they are is similarities, so they aren’t important. I’m just seeing Stephen King’s fingerprints all over this thing.
What is important is motive. Why would J.J. Abrams do this, and why would Stephen King?
J.J. Abrams is the executive producer of the show, and his motivation for seeking out Stephen King, and for doing so secretly, is pretty simple. First, he admitted when the show began, they had no idea where it was going. They filmed a few episodes, not knowing if it would take off or not, and when it did, they were under the gun, finishing scripts within hours of filming. Pulling things like polar bears and feral French women right out of their butts.
Once the show took off, J.J. Abrams was a pretty big name. He started to get other projects, and the job of sitting down, pulling all these random plotlines together – that was a lot of work. It would be an obvious move for him to bring someone else in, and a big name he respected would be ideal. Stephen King, for reasons I’ll go into later, was probably jumping at the project. They had a meeting, made a deal.
So maybe you’re thinking, why wouldn’t they then slap Stephen King’s name on it, since he’s a huge name in publishing? Well, because this isn’t publishing, it’s television, and Stephen King is not a big name in television. He’s had a lot of books adapted to television, but usually someone else writes the screenplay. And they don’t usually win any awards, or rake in ratings on the level of Lost.
There would be no initial benefit to Abrams, in saying, “Good news, I’m handing this off to Stephen King.” Because although he sells a lot of books, his name doesn’t mean “good quality television” or “good quality film” to most people. His name at that point would have had a negative effect. It was already one of the top shows, and had no place to go, really, but down.
But there would be a benefit down the road – because that’s a second wave of DVD box sets. Just like when Stephen King wrote as Richard Bachman for several years, not making much money – until the secret was out.
Which brings me to Stephen King, and his motivation.
Well, first, Stephen King seems to like to write for television. He’s not particularly renowned for it, sure, and when his books are adapted for television, he’s rarely the one to write the screenplay.
But there was Rose Red in 2002, and Kingdom Hospital in 2004 – right before Lost began. What on earth could his motivation have been then? Whatever it was, that’s part his motivation now, except with a bonus. The bonus is, he doesn’t have to work under his own name, with all the baggage that comes along with it – and the project starts out as giant and lucrative.
But that’s not the main reason he’d do it.
Stephen King likes to Show Everybody, that’s the main reason he’d do it.
I’ve read about twenty-five of his books, and I know this guy. He’s self-conscious about being typed as a horror novelist, as a fiction-by-the-pound page factory, who could phone in a book and watch it take off. People say he doesn’t have to really write anymore, since everything that flies out of his computer is solid gold.
That’s the reason he started writing as Richard Bachman In the eighties to Show Everyone. At the time, he had written so many best sellers, people were saying, “Stephen King could publish his laundry list, and it would be a best seller.” So, he says, he decided to write under a pseudonym, and Show Everyone.
He wrote them, sold them as Bachman books, almost got one on the bestseller list, and then someone busted him out. And if you asked him at that point, what was your motivation, Stephen King – he’d say, watch this. Because right when he was busted he published all of them again with his own name on them, and made about five zillion dollars.
And he made sure to tell us, in The Bachmnn Books introduction “Why I Was Bachman,” that he had published them secretly, to Show Everyone.
He also insisted on directing Maximum Overdrive. To Show Everyone. Not so much money on that, probably. Kind of backfired. But we’re talking about motivation, and that particular crapfest is a good example of Stephen King wanting to Show Everyone, whether it made perfect sense to do so or not.
The Bachmann books are also a good answer to anyone who doesn’t believe such a secret could truly be kept. You might think, there’s no way we wouldn’t have heard about it by now, someone would have squealed.
Well, of course there was no internet at the time, but he managed to keep the Richard Bachmann secret for five novels. And it wasn’t like he was the only guy who knew – there was an agent, a publisher, a wife, three little kids, probably some personal assistants, etc. They kept that secret for years.
Stephen King is probably not too motivated by money – he’s got more of it than God – but it couldn’t hurt that there was a stack of cash involved. So Stephen King’s motivation would be money – now and down the road – and his intense desire to Show Everybody.
Pure speculation, I know. I was half-joking at first. But then as I was writing, I figured I’d look up the writers of Lost, and cross reference their filmographies, see if they linked up with a bunch of Stephen King movies.
The link reveals that J.J. Abrams bought the rights to Stephen King’s The Dark Tower – a seven novel series which leaps around in time and space and parallel worlds, and whose villain is none other than Randall Flagg – also known as The Man In Black.
Which reveals a very believable motivation for Stephen King’s collaboration on Lost. It’s a believable motivation for Stephen King getting involved – because he’s going to use Lost to springboard his Dark Tower series to television.
And it’s also a believable motivation for J.J. Abrams bringing Stephen King. He bought the rights to a whole new show, while he was at it. The Dark Tower is seven novels – it could be a LOT of shows. And now he has a Lost spinoff which will hold onto the diehard viewers, and gain every Dark Tower fan in the world!
Yeah, but that was a few years ago, when they first made their secret deal. Since then, JJ Abrams has sold the rights to Ron Howard, who is working directly with Stephen King. They’re talking about making a television series and a movie trilogy, without Abrams. My guess is, the reason that Abrams sold back the rights, was that he was not at all impressed with the crappy ending that Stephen King has provided, and is no longer interested in working with Stephen King.
But I’ll bet the tie-in remains, and I’ll bet that Terry O’Quinn (the guy who plays Locke), will get cast as Randall Flagg/The Man In Black in The Dark Tower television series, and I’ll bet there’s a good chance that another Lost actor – possibly Sawyer – gets cast as The Gunslinger. That they literally end up on another parallel world in their last scenes, via one of the Island’s Wheels or Towers or Machines, and that The Man In Black will flee across a desert, the gunslinger following.
Or a simpler version is, the writers of this show admire Stephen King WAY too much. Because I’m watching the show, and I feel like I’m reading a Stephen King book right now, and I’ve been plowing through it because I just have to know how it ends, but the pages are dwindling, and I’m starting to realize, there’s no way he’s wrapping this up. He’s just going to take a little statue of a turtle, or a key carved out of wood, or a bunch of refrigerator magnets, or something mundane and he’s going to solemnly and mystically bestow upon it mystical powers, and it’s going to be like the Emperor’s New Clothes.
When you point out that it isn’t an answer and doesn’t make sense, the idea will be that you just didn’t get it.
But that’s not going to be it. Right now, they’re spending an unbelievable amount of time telling me the geographic location of every single character, and then sliding the characters from one side of the board to the other, and I get from the preview for next week, that’s what’s going on. Jacob and The Man In Black are playing a game, and the people are the pieces.
Why not just have them all blast out of the wardrobe, say they were in Narnia, call it a day?
I think a better end would be this: The sideways timeline, caused by the atomic bomb, results in everybody getting back to the island and attempting to stop the atomic bomb, which causes the explosion of another atomic bomb. And then the sideways timeline causes the regular timeline, which causes the sideways timeline, which locks everybody in a loop forever.
Then Hurley does something cool, gets them all out of it.
I don’t know. But I’m not going to count this Lost rant as a full day of Future Tom. It’s just me freaking out. Sometimes, I don’t have any idea what to write, and so earlier this week, this is what I started, freaking out about Lost. I don’t know how I’m going to handle this horrible, horrible beating I’ve got coming at the hands Of JJ Abrams. How could he do this to me? I was defending him when people were sitting around in effing polar bear cages, when he took a whole season just to open the hatch door – and then didn’t show us what was in it – BECAUSE HE DIDN’T KNOW!
While I’m on the subject, you know why the Others were taking the kids in Season One? Did they even tell us, I can’t remember.
They were taking kids because a whole year was going to go by before Season Two, and the kids would look a lot older then, and the characters weren’t going to age.
Like Hurley, not losing weight. Hurly should lose weight, if Sawyer got to work out and suddenly show off his chest all the time.
And Mr. Eko?! Did you know he left not because the script called for it, but because he decided to leave and they hadn’t nailed down his contract! Maybe a DUI or something, I can’t remember, but how do you claim you had the story going the whole time, and then lop off a character and start wandering elsewhere?
I am going to systematically lose it for the next month. If you see me out, wandering about, babbling, please put me in a cab or something. Thanks for listening.


Presenters directly name or describe how the problem being discussed is impactful to their lives and matters to them in a real way.
Video Example 1: This example is exceptional because students clearly connect their topic directly to their local context (high school, city, community). Students also highlight how they conducted their research, worked with other high schoolers, and faced obstacles within their own local context.
Video Example 2: The presenters do an excellent job establishing a personal connection to their topic, gentrification. The young man addresses why the group chose the topic and how they arrived at a research problem that could be tackled in the allotted time frame for the project. Two of the young women share personal stories of how gentrification has impacted their lives and will continue to do so.
Video Example: In this presentation, the students feature the video of peer recounting his experience with bullying and share statistics of how many young people are impacted by bullying. However, it is not clear if the presenters themselves have a personal connection to the topic other than making an inference based on they themselves being in high school.


Does an All Around Handgun Exist?
Does a do-it-all handgun exist?
Thing about guns is that they are mere tools. They are many other things to people, but functionally they are tools for doing certain jobs much like other EDC gear one might carry. Hitting targets, certainly, but those targets can include critters that one may eat or critters that may mean you harm, such as the malevolent among the human population and those four-legged animals that can likewise pose a threat.
Is there a handgun that can all around handgun? One wonders. You can usually find one that's good at one or two functions, such as concealed carry, target shooting, handgun hunting and so on, but is there one that can all around handgun?
A all around handgun pistol would have to be capable of doing everything a handgun is intended to do. It should function reliably, and shoot accurately for certain. It should be capable of being placed in a holster, fastened to the wearer with a gun belt to be carried, including in concealment if desired.
It should be chambered for a round that is capable of defending the person who carries it against threats to their life and limb. If called upon, it should be capable of hunting as well.
Now, a lot of handguns could be carried, but not all can be easily concealed. There are a good number of hunting handguns, but few are really CCW-capable. Plenty of CCW guns abound, but few are appropriate for handgun hunting.
What would those few be?
Okay, so what would a handgun jack of all trades look like?
First, it would have to be compact but not too compact. Such a pistol would have to have the requisite barrel length for accuracy at distances beyond, say, 15 yards, as well as getting the most out of the ammunition it fires without being impractical. The happy medium has long been held to be between 3.5 inches and 4 inches. Any longer and the gun gets unwieldy, any shorter and accuracy and performance suffer.
As to caliber, 9mm is a great defense round but is a lousy hunting round, and the same goes for .40 S&W and .45 ACP. There are some heavy-for-caliber hardcast rounds for the latter two that are serviceable, but leave much to be desired.
The larger magnum revolvers are going to be out, as a .41 or .44 Magnum can only be downsize so far.
The .357 Magnum, 10mm and .357 Sig rounds are better fits, as all three are capable (and proven) in both roles. An extremely hot .38 Special (such as a .38 Special +P+) may also serve, but a .38 Special +P+ is still eclipsed by most .357 Magnum loads. A .38 Super would also be a good candidate, but ammunition selection is lacking...unless you happen to be/are good friends with a capable handloader.
All three of the above-mentioned calibers are available in service pistols, all three are available in compacts as well. Granted, finding a compact .357 Magnum with a 3.5-inch to 4-inch barrel is a bit harder to feat to manage, though there are a few that come very close.
As to 10mm and .357 Sig pistols, Glock has the market cornered for each though the .357 Sig family (Glocks 31, 32 and 33) are their 9mm-frame size, with the 32 and 33 being the same dimensionally as the Glock 19 and Glock 26. The Glock 10mm family of pistols are available in compact and subcompact guises, but are their large frame pistols. The Glock 29, their 10mm compact, is the 10mm twin of the 36 in .45 ACP.
A few other 10mm compacts are out there, such as the EAA Witness Steel Compact, one of Tanfoglio's CZ-75 compact clones. However, the 10mm firearm market is heavily represented among 1911s, and the Government frame is one of the most popular full-size pistols for concealed carry due to the slim width. You may even find a few Commanders in 10mm as well.
As to .357 Sig, Sig Sauer still makes a few pistols chambered for its own round. The P226 is too big for a daily carry gun, but the P229 and P239 would both make good all around carry guns...if you're comfortable with the price tag. There are also a number of pistols that can be converted by dropping a .357 Sig barrel in a gun chambered for .40 S&W.
Discussing whether there's a good do-it-all handgun is all well and good, but the reality is that it's much like any other "do it all gun." A handgun is a tool, and ultimately, you want the best tool for the job at hand.
The closest thing in practical terms to an all around gun is a 12-gauge shotgun. A decent pump gun can defend your home and put all manner of meat on the table, from upland birds to waterfowl to deer if you swap the smoothbore for a rifled slug barrel. No good for concealed carry, obviously, but it's the closest thing to it.
As to handguns, you could have a handgun that you can conceal and carry, hunt with or use as a backup gun in the woods. However, it won't necessarily be as good as a dedicated hunting handgun for that task nor as a defense gun in bear country (spray works better anyway) and due to the size, won't be as comfortable to carry as a proper CCW pistol.
Besides, if you only got one handgun that means you don't give yourself a good reason to buy more.
Concealed Carry With A .357 Magnum?


You participated in an effective lynching of an innocent man over allegations that stemmed entirely from unscrupulous political hacks and ideologically corrupt "supporters"
Certain actors on the left got women besides their main accuser to falsify testimony against Kavinaugh. If they did this, it has to be because they knew already that their main accuser wasn't even legitimate so they embellished their lies with more lies. The reinforcement of a lie with more lies.
Still Kavanaugh is in, and there's not much can change that now. Obviously some people are very happy and some are miserable. Sometimes we have to live with ambiguity.
It's impossible to disprove. The claim was something happened somewhere, on a day in this 3 year period, maybe in the summer maybe not, there was between 4 and 6 people there, and none of them will remember it.
How can that claim be disproven?
As for the deadline, the FBI did not even go to the deadline. There was literally nothing to investigate, the investigation was artificial and was meant to stall.
Can you give me a single good reason why none of them did, even when told they could? I can think of a glaring one.
My personal belief is something happened to her. It was not Kavanaugh who did it. I don't think she even believes it to be Kavanaugh, although it's possible she does.
Certain actors on the left got women besides their main accuser to falsify testimony against Kavinaugh.
There was literally nothing to investigate, the investigation was artificial and was meant to stall.


I've been looking at Coq and automatic theorem proving for a while, although I'm not sure if I completely understand it. From what I can tell, the idea is to create a core set of routines from which a function can be proven correct, given a detailed specification of what it should do. Is this right, or am I completely off track?
I'd phrase it this way: you specify what your function does in an impractically-powerful type system (the Calculus of Inductive Constructions), then you prove that your specification is sound by implementing it in the proof language (gallina). Thanks to the Curry-Howard Isomorphism, this really is "defining the type of a function and implementing the function." Then you can extract your function to O'Caml, Haskell, or Scheme. Since O'Caml and Haskell are statically typed, but with weaker type systems than Coq's, the extracted code may not be typable in those type systems, and so might have to rely on unsound mechanisms (Obj.magic in O'Caml; Unsafe________ in Haskell), but it's OK because the operations have been proven sound in a richer type system. In Scheme, of course, no such magic is necessary.
If you're seriously exploring Coq, then I think Coq'Art is a must have.
Finally, a minor point: Coq is not an automated theorem prover, but rather a proof assistant: it supports interactive, rather than automated, theorem proving. This is a perhaps subtle, but crucial, distinction: Coq's logic/type system is so powerful that it can't automagically prove most theorems of any interest, although auto with... and eauto with... are awfully impressive!
I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly. If you eventually export to a programming language, doesn't that make it one itself?
Curtis W: I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly. If you eventually export to a programming language, doesn't that make it one itself?
It's one itself whether it allows you to extract to another programming language or not; that's the meaning of the Curry-Howard Isomorphism. Put another way, all programming languages are theorem provers (the popular ones being theorem provers for relatively weak logics), and all theorem provers are programming languages (albeit generally impractical ones; try timing Coq's "eval compute in..." sometime). See Djinn for another excellent example of the ramifications of this. Another good one is Oleg Kiselyov's De-typechecker.
Coq < Eval compute in (2 + 2).
This simple interaction hides a stupendous amount of expressive power! Consider, for example, that "nat" is not a primitive type in Coq (in fact, the Calculus of Inductive Constructions has no primitive types); that "compute" is short for "cbv beta delta iota zeta," that is, "use call-by-value employing the beta, delta, iota, and zeta reduction strategies;" and that addition isn't primitive in Coq. Heck, even "2" is just syntactic sugar for (S (S O)), likewise "4" is sugar for (S (S (S (S O)))). No, I'm not kidding.
Isn't it very hard to comprehend things that have gone wrong in Coq? Deciphering the tracebacks appears not to be pleasurefull. I checked out Alloy once for model checking and besides some awkwardness of the mental translation of the pseudo-OO notations into the underlying relational logics I found the relation graphs close to be incomprehensible for non-trivial models.
PS. I've sent a message to Avi Pfeffer the author of IBAL. I asked him whether IBAL is still maintained because the last release was old and it didn't even built correctly. He responded that IBAL is continued to be maintained and he updated the release to include the /Tests directory now.
Kay Schluehr: Isn't it very hard to comprehend things that have gone wrong in Coq? Deciphering the tracebacks appears not to be pleasurefull.
If you mean "if I develop a function in Coq and evaluate it and it doesn't work, isn't it very hard..." I have to imagine that the answer is yes, given the extremely high level of abstraction of the concepts being employed both in the expression and in the evaluation of it. Coq'Art makes very clear that Coq isn't really intended to be used for programming itself for this reason: it's both hard to figure out what's going on when things don't go as you expect and it's really slow, both as consequences of its extreme abstraction.
But so far, I haven't used Coq that way. I'm using it purely as an interactive theorem prover (from which I can then extract code). In that process, Coq really shines: I can undo the application of tactics that didn't help when I thought they would, I can restart the entire proof from scratch, I can take a detour to identify and prove a lemma and then use that lemma in my main proof... and I have a slew of ready-to-use tactics for various situations and, if I need, a pretty extensive library of user contributions in various domains. I'm enjoying it a lot, and looking forward to studying Xavier Leroy's work on implementing a compiler in Coq.
I think I get what you're saying, although I'm still having trouble grasping what Coq is proving if you're just giving it a program. Surely you have to provide it with a spec of what the code should be doing, or am I just completely misunderstanding what it does?
Curtis W: I think I get what you're saying, although I'm still having trouble grasping what Coq is proving if you're just giving it a program. Surely you have to provide it with a spec of what the code should be doing, or am I just completely misunderstanding what it does?
The theorems are as expressive as the entirety of constructive mathematics, and if you want, you can even add the axioms necessary to support classical logic, at the expense of extractability. That is, if you stick to constructive (also called "intuitionistic") logic, you can extract correct code, whereas classical logic lacks this capability. You've seen me refer to the Calculus of Inductive Constructions, which is the logic underlying Coq. It might be helpful to note that the CiC lies at the "top right rear" corner of the Barendregt Cube, which is kind of a neat visualization of various typed lambda calculi and how they relate to each other in expressive power. In other words, Coq's type system is as expressive as it gets. By comparison, it's worth noting that Standard ML and O'Caml sit at the "bottom left front" corner of the cube. Their type systems are relatively impoverished!
Proving things is almost always harder than you think. Try proving that 1+1=2 sometime! The miracle of modern computing is precisely that we don't have to do this stuff from first principles; the miracle of a proof assistant like Coq is that we can when we want or need to.
If you work through Types and Programming Languages or its ilk, you'll be writing a lot of proofs. Doing them by hand is tedious and error-prone; doing them with an assistant helps ensure accuracy and tends to be faster, at least once you have some experience with the assistant. In this case, being able to extract, e.g. a working type checker or inferencer from your proof might just be a bonus, or it might be the point of the exercise.
I think that's enough for starters. The crucial take-away, IMHO, is that Coq's type system is wildly more expressive than that of any programming language except those that are also based on dependent types—and some such programming languages, e.g. Epigram, impose restrictions in order to keep type inferencing decidable. As Phillipa Cowderoy said in another thread (I'm paraphrasing wildly): if it can't be proven in the Calculus of Inductive Constructions, chances are it can't be proven, period, since you essentially have all of constructive mathematics to work with. And again, thanks to Curry-Howard, we have theorems <-> types, and proofs <-> programs, which Coq's extraction facilities exploit to give us O'Caml, Haskell, or Scheme code. So you can prove things about data structures and algorithms involved in, e.g. distributed systems, cryptographic protocols, information flow, etc. that simply can't be expressed in any popular programming language, and then extract code that uses Obj.magic/Unsafe__________ but has been proven to do so correctly.
It might be helpful to note that the CiC lies at the "top right rear" corner of the Barendregt Cube, which is kind of a neat visualization of various typed lambda calculi and how they relate to each other in expressive power. In other words, Coq's type system is as expressive as it gets.
The Barendregt Cube is far from comprehensive, e.g. Pure Type Systems do not fit into it. That said, CiC should do you.
As well as net you a 1,000,000 USD. P v. NP (a more computational oriented result) is also one of the problems.
Derek Elkins: The Barendregt Cube is far from comprehensive, e.g. Pure Type Systems do not fit into it. That said, CiC should do you.
Good point. I can't recall; are Pure Type Systems actually more expressive than the Calculus of Constructions (inductive or otherwise)? I recall reading them characterized as "a generalization of the Lambda Cube," but it wasn't clear to me from that reading whether they added expressive power or not. Regardless, the Open Calculus of Constructions, CINNI, Uniform Pure Type Systems, and Maude all do seem quite fascinating, and seem to me as if they could serve as an excellent alternative to Coq and the CiC.
It might be helpful to note that the CiC lies at the "top right rear" corner of the Barendregt Cube, which is kind of a neat visualization of various typed lambda calculi and how they relate to each other in expressive power. In other words, Coq's type system is as expressive as it gets. By comparison, it's worth noting that Standard ML and O'Caml sit at the "bottom left front" corner of the cube. Their type systems are relatively impoverished!
That is not true. ML subsumes a significant subset of System F_omega (with higher-order modules, it actually contains F_omega), so if the CoC lies "top right rear", then ML lies close to "top right front" (or "top left rear", or "bottom right rear", depending on how you rotate it).
"Bottom left front" is the simply typed lambda calculus, corresponding to a boring language like Pascal or C.
Yep, you're right; I misspoke and said "Standard ML and O'Caml," when I should have said "Core ML." Very definitely, with their module systems, Standard ML and O'Caml give us universal and existential quantification and a host of other goodies that make them more expressive than Core ML! Thanks for cleaning up after me!
Just to clarify a bit more :-), even Core ML is "almost" F_omega. The missing bit is that type lambdas (on both term and type level) are restricted to first-order. More precisely, polymorphic types have to be in prenex form (rank 1 polymorphism) and type constructors cannot be higher-order. Moreover, type lambdas on term level - like all types there - are implicit.


A complete sentence has both a subject and a conjugated verb. A fragment is missing either the subject or the verb.
Right: Adam ate the apple.
Wrong: Because Adam ate the apple.
Substituting a semicolon for a comma may also create a fragment.
Wrong: Adam worked in the garden; content with his role.
Right: Adam worked in the garden, content with his role.


Despite industry initiatives to address it, ad fraud is a massive issue.
In fact, the cost of ad fraud is expected to have topped $19 billion by the end of 2018, which means all players in the digital advertising ecosystem need to be proactive against it.
To get a better look at the problem, we talked to Rich Kahn, CEO and co-founder of eZanga and Anura.io, who shared his new ad fraud report with us.
DMT: If you could summarize the white paper into one sentence, what would it be?
Kahn: There’s a common narrative that all ad fraud originates from certain regions of the world; however, as fraudsters become more sophisticated, that myth is quickly being debunked.
DMT: What are three key points from the report that you want readers to takeaway?
Kahn: Point 1: Fraudsters aren’t limited to one location of operations or form of attack. For example, they are attacking from data centers using sophisticated methods to hide their origins.
Point 2: Fraudulent traffic has a negative effect on both branding marketers and performance-based marketers. Branding marketers rely heavily on click-through rate (CTR), which is the number-one metric target for fraudsters. Performance-based marketers are spending money on lead generation techniques, only to find that ad fraud is watering down their ROI.
Point 3: While tech states like California and Texas not surprisingly ranked in the top three U.S. states with bad web traffic, Florida also appeared in our data. The commonality between the three states: They each have a large concentration of data centers. This large concentration of data centers was also the commonality for our European findings, where the largest sources of fraudulent traffic growth were countries with data centers (e.g., Germany, France, and the United Kingdom).
DMT: Were there any new ad fraud trends uncovered in the report?
Kahn: Attacks from data centers are popular due to the large number of data centers around the globe. New and unknown data centers are constantly popping up, making it difficult for some companies to accurately identify data center traffic.
Places you wouldn’t think (for example, Florida) are now hotbeds for bad web traffic due to their large concentration of data centers.
DMT: Were any past ad fraud trends debunked or confirmed in the report?
Kahn: The traditional narrative is that Russia, China, and India generate the bulk of fraudulent traffic. But our findings showed the biggest region of fraudulent web traffic growth during that time period was Europe, specifically Germany, France, and United Kingdom.


Ribbon Boards is a craft page. It is categorized as: Orthodox chess, .
Ribbon Boards. Make light, handsome, reshapable Chess variant boards out of Christmas ribbons.
Browse items that also start with the letters Rib.
I think the technique you describe for making a ring board won't consistently use the same two colors for the outer ring. It will sometimes use some of the inner colors. If you want a board that consistently uses different colors for the outer ring, you can add attachments to the ends of the strips you use for the inner board. These attachments would be in the colors of the outer ring. To make it look seamless, you would have to staple the attachments on in places that go underneath overlapping ribbons.
By a ring board, do you mean what is used for Jumping Chess and Rococo? The boards lie about as flat as the surface you lie them on. Parts of the board become elevated and tilted only when you fold the board into other dimensions by folding part of the board underneath the rest of the board. As a test, I just folded my 12x12 board into an 8x8 board on my bed, whose surface is a memory foam mattress pad, and set up some small hollow plastic pieces. Several of them fell down. I then removed that board and placed my 8x8 Cavalier Chess board in the same place, and set up the same pieces. I shook my bed, which has springs underneath, and the pieces remained standing. As long as you lie the board on a flat surface, such as a table, and don't fold the board, it should be as flat and stable as you need it to be. If folding the board makes it too unstable for your pieces, then you can make more boards of smaller sizes, which you don't have to fold.
This looks like a neat approach, and very portable. You could make a ring board with this technique by using a third and fourth colors for the outer ranks and files. Using red, green, white and silver, for example, use:

 r g g g g g g g g r

 for the files, and

 s w w w w w w w w s

 for the ranks.
 The only question I have is how flat do the boards lie? Is it necessary to use weighted Chess pieces, or will even light-weight plastic pieces remain reliably upright?
 Oh, and some pictures might be nice.


That Are Florida Ga Line?
Country radio is experimenting having a large amount of new sounds today. Jason Aldean has launched an edgy rock with a trace of rap. Taylor Swift and her followers are mixing inside of a healthful dose of Pop, and now a different duo referred to as Florida Ga Line is making an juiced up redneck arena rock seem that is definitely contrary to the rest out of Nashville.
Florida Georgia Line is really a state rock band led through the duo Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelly. The origin of your title http://lukebryantour.tripod.com is straightforward: Hubbard is from Macon, Georgia and Kelley hails from Ormond Beach front, Florida.
The two fulfilled in Nashville whilst both attending Belmont College and commenced crafting alongside one another and possess been enjoying at any time due to the fact.
Florida Ga Line's subsequent swelled on Facebook in early 2012 and on July 16th 2012 they signed a history deal with Republic Nashville. Portion from the prosperous Huge Equipment Label team which is also house to functions much like the Band Perry.
The bands initial one was an pretty much prompt achievements by place radio criteria exactly where new teams in many cases are shunned. Nonetheless, the speedy admirer enchantment towards the hooky and modern day sounding "Cruise" acquired them quite brief airplay and lovers in the place programming environment hungry for tempo.
In considerably less than 20 five months the music reached the pinnacle of radio airplay charts whilst defining a whole new youthful party refreshing sound for the group. The results of your solitary bodes effectively for the long term income on the groups 1st major album "Here's to the Great Moments." The collection involves 5 tracks from their "It'z Exactly what We Do" EP and injects some extra celebration favorites like "Hell Raising Warmth With the Summer" and "Party People today."
The new album also weaves some juiced up output to the blend courtesy of popular producer Joey Moi that has worked using the likes of rock acts like Nickleback, Daughtrty, Hinder and Santana.
The band continues to gasoline their newfound publicity with big touring slots opening for CMT On Tour with Jake Owen and Love and Theft plus Luke Bryan's Dirt Highway Diaries Tour. They also churn out an exciting and viral weekly world wide web series "Inside The Line" on YouTube and are highlighted in Jake Owen's new "Endless Summer" EP by using a Cruise-like sounding "Summer Jam." In addition they get songwriting credit history (and publishing hard cash) for "Black Tears" on Jason Aldean's platinum offering "Night Prepare."
A short while ago the team has acquired some further attention for ushering in a new acceptance of rap overtones in historically white bread place tunes. FGL, coupled with other individuals like Jason Aldean, Jake Owen, and Colt Ford are actually heard rapping lyrics to solid supporter response in reside exhibits.
This page was last modified on 9 April 2014, at 00:08.


This postcard from 1914 shows the harbour and the fleet at Cromarty. In the early eighteenth century Cromarty was already an international port trading with Norway, Sweden and Holland as well as England. Timber, iron, gin and coal were imported and grain and salted fish exported. The harbour was built between 1781and 1784 when the original stone jetty was extended and a new pier and breakwater added. It was paid for by George Ross of Pitkerie who bought Cromarty Estate and redeveloped the town.
Cromarty was an important port and for a time very prosperous. Flax was imported from the Baltic for the hemp factory, also built by George Ross, to make rope and cloth. There was a thriving fishing community which boomed in the seventeenth and eighteenth century when there was an abundance of herring.
In the nineteenth century emigrants set sail from Cromarty to Canada, North America and Australia. However improved rail and road links brought an end to Cromarty's importance as a port.
The Cromarty Firth provided a deep, natural harbour. In 1912 it became a naval base and provided a safe anchorage for the Navy's fleet in both world wars. Cromarty's harbour was once again much in use. More recently the Cromarty Firth has been used for the construction, repair and mothballing of North Sea oil rigs.
This postcard from 1914 shows the harbour and the fleet at Cromarty. In the early eighteenth century Cromarty was already an international port trading with Norway, Sweden and Holland as well as England. Timber, iron, gin and coal were imported and grain and salted fish exported. The harbour was built between 1781and 1784 when the original stone jetty was extended and a new pier and breakwater added. It was paid for by George Ross of Pitkerie who bought Cromarty Estate and redeveloped the town.

 Cromarty was an important port and for a time very prosperous. Flax was imported from the Baltic for the hemp factory, also built by George Ross, to make rope and cloth. There was a thriving fishing community which boomed in the seventeenth and eighteenth century when there was an abundance of herring.

 In the nineteenth century emigrants set sail from Cromarty to Canada, North America and Australia. However improved rail and road links brought an end to Cromarty's importance as a port.

 The Cromarty Firth provided a deep, natural harbour. In 1912 it became a naval base and provided a safe anchorage for the Navy's fleet in both world wars. Cromarty's harbour was once again much in use. More recently the Cromarty Firth has been used for the construction, repair and mothballing of North Sea oil rigs.


Heading back into rehearsals for our new and improved street-dance and circus Jungle Book I'm feeling very proud of having created a theatre company that can accommodate the particular caring responsibilities not only of it's two Artistic Directors (we have two little boys - Noah and Finn) but also of our employees. The initial Jungle Book rehearsals back in March spanned the Easter holidays so we were joined by the wonderfully well behaved daughter of our lead performer for two whole weeks. Similarly during tech she and the daughter of our costume designer were made to feel very welcome by the Theatre Royal Windsor as they ran around backstage. Tech week is always a hard time to juggle family and work commitments - especially as a single parent (which both costume designer and lead performer are) so I hope our example helps both parents and the sector realise that family friendly working practices don't always necessitate huge costs, simply a little thought, care and flexibility. And being prepared to schedule in advance and not change rehearsal calls at the last minute - yes it takes a bit more organisation but it's perfectly achievable.
As we're now deep into summer holidays the children will be pretty much permanently in attendance during the next three weeks when we take over London Wonderground. It helps of course that Jungle Book is a family title so there will be hundreds of other children also running amok, so we've also decided to deck the kids out in some bespoke Metta branded t-shirts to help us keep tabs on them all among the melee.
With the wonderful PIPA campaign raising awareness and campaigning on behalf of parents in the performing arts and Family Arts Campaign doing similar work across the sector for family audiences it's a great time to be sharing family-friendly practices. Contrary to popular belief we don't often have our own children in rehearsals - they're still a bit too young not to be a distraction - but having an 11-year-old in the room for two weeks of the process not only made it possible for our lead performer to accept the role at all, but crucially gave us a wonderful sounding board for the work. I would definitely welcome children in the room again, and would recommend it to any company considering employing a parent.
I've long extolled the virtues of babies in meetings - ours have been in countless meetings with venues, funders - in several instances our Arts Council Relationship Manager meeting us in playgrounds to accommodate this - even on occasion with potential cast members. Not everyone is as happy mixing their professional and personal lives - as someone who runs a company with her husband that was always going to be a given for me. Including our family in the process of making theatre has enriched our work, has enriched our brand (several years later there are still venues who remember us as 'the ones with the baby') and has enriched the lives of our children who are exposed to an extraordinary range of experiences and are also now highly fluent in circus terminology.
So if you're a parent in the performing arts - it's all possible.
And also - come and see Jungle Book - you and your children will all be very welcome.
Over the course of my first few weeks here in London, I have had the privilege to see what happens behind the scenes at a theatre company in ways that I never imagined. A few months ago, when I got my internship assignment, I had only a list of responsibilities to clue me in to what I had I store for these six weeks. Those descriptions did not do the job justice. I am one of the 3% of students that intern abroad. Of that 3%, many students will find that their internship sites will not give them enough responsi bility and they may end up feeling like a burden. From the first day here at Metta, I have been welcomed with open arms and handed responsibilities as if they trusted me simply by the smile and eager look on my face. I have been doing tasks that range from emailing theatre contacts in regards to our tour of Jungle Book to analyzing sales reports, knitting and hand sewing props for our upcoming production of Blown Away, to interviewing audience members in Oxford after finally seeing Jungle Book for the first time. Now that I have finally seen Jungle Book and processed all my emotions and thoughts on it, I must say that it is an incredible spectacle of dance and unlike any production I have seen in my life. I never knew the depth of attention that is required to keep a theatre company running, let alone thriving. Knowing how much goes into helping this production tour across England and Ireland, I have so much more respect for the administrative work that Anthea, Poppy, and Will tirelessly powered through to make this tour run as smoothly as possible. Despite the small imp act that I had on Jungle Book, every bit that I can pitch in and help out with is met with enthusiasm and appreciativeness from the entire team. At times, it can feel a bit like I have been asked to paint a Fresco after having one introductory painting class, but with every stroke of my brush, I feel more confident and I can see the impact of my hard work; that has made an incredible difference in me.
I am approaching my senior year in University and it seems like everyone has an opinion about theatre majors and our job outlook after graduation. I would like to refute all their doubts, and my own. Metta has shown me that I am more than just a silly twenty-something who majored in theatre and has limited job prospects when I enter the real world. This internship and my theatre education has taught me that I can handle anything thrown at me and the skills I have obtained during my education will allow me to go anywhere and do anything if I set my mind to it. I may just need to trust the guidance of a few painting masters along the way.
Acrobatics - Spectacular floor based gymnastic feats. In Jungle Book mostly used by Mowgli, but almost all the performers have some acrobatic moments in the show (the monkeys flip out, Kaa and Bagheera have an acrobatic chase sequence, and much of Akela's break-dance solo crosses over into acrobatics).
Aerial hoop - a metal hoop suspended from a single point (or sometimes two points) in and around which circus artists move, creating shapes in the air. In Jungle Book it symbolises the coin thrown to the homeless Vulture girl Vee. Our hoop sequence is a doubles hoop (because there are two of them) and it's also often performed as a solo act.
Ballet - a traditional dance form characterised by graceful movements and gestures. In Jungle Book, Mowgli performs a short ballet sequence when Messua is trying to integrate her into the world of the suits.
Break-dancing (also known as B-Boy or B-Girl) - A form of non-rhythmic urban dance characterized by acrobatic and gymnastic movements. Akela and the wolves use break-dancing in Jungle Book, often on skateboards!
Charleston -a vigorous, rhythmic ballroom dance popular in the 1920s. This is also performed by Mowgli when trying to fit into the suit world.
Chinese Pole - Chinese poles are rubberised vertical poles on which circus performers climb, slide down and hold poses. They can be static or spinning - ours does both! In Jungle Book Kaa the snake is a pole artist, combining Chinese Pole and shiny pole (pole dance - which uses a bare metal bar) technique.
Contemporary - a style of expressive dance that combines elements of several dance genres including modern, jazz, lyrical and classical ballet. Mowgli uses contemporary dance throughout Jungle Book, particularly when she discovers the ‘red flower’ that she can use against Shere Khan.
Dance trapeze - a form of aerial circus where an artist performs on a horizontal bar suspended by two ropes. A dance trapeze (sometimes known as a single point trapeze) is rigged to a single point so that it can spin, sometimes very very fast. Mowgli conjures the 'red flower' on a double bar dance trapeze.
Fosse - a choreographic style based on the choreographer Bob Fosse. The waiters in the restaurant combine locking with a Fosse posture.
Funk - a dance genre that uses a mixture of soul music, jazz, and rhythm and blues (R&B). Baloo uses funk when trying to persuade the wolves to accept Mowgli.
Gangster Rap - Gangsta rap or gangster rap is a subgenre of hip hop music with themes and lyrics based on the "thug" or "gangsta" lifestyle. In Jungle Book Shere Khan is a Gangster rapper.
Graffiti - a style of writing or drawing often sprayed in a public place as a form of artistic expression. In Jungle Book, Bagheera is a graffiti artist panther.
Grime - a form of rap music influenced by UK garage, characterized by machine-like sounds. In Jungle Book the monkeys are a grime crew, spitting about how they are shunned by the rest of society.
Hip hop - a style of popular music and dance featuring rap with an electronic backing. It is also used as an umbrella term for the many subgenres or urban or street dance. Hip hop styles are used throughout Jungle Book.
Krump - a dance style which is characterised by exaggerated, and highly energetic movement including stamping. Shere Khan uses krumping to depict his anger and struggle when he has been arrested.
Locking (see popping) - a style of funk dance, which includes freezing from a fast movement and "locking" in a certain position. The Suits movement is based on locking to show their robotic characteristics.
Parkour [also known as free-running] - Parkour is a discipline using movement which aims to get from one point to another in a complex environment, without any equipment. Bagheera uses lamp posts and railings for parkour in Jungle Book.
Popping (see locking) - a street dance style which goes hand in hand with locking. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body. It is also used by the suits to add to their robotic appearance.
Puppetry - a classical art form in which performers manipulate an inanimate object to give it the semblance of life. Baby Mowgli is a stick and rod puppet, designed to be manipulated by multiple puppeteers - rather like the traditional Japanese bunraku puppets who have three operators - one on the head and right hand, one on the back and left hand and one on the feet.
Rap (see gangster rap and grime) - a type of popular music in which words are recited rapidly and rhythmically over an instrumental backing. In Jungle Book, Shere Khan is a gangster rapper.
Skateboarding - the sport or pastime of riding on a skateboard. Akela, Raksha and the wolves are a skateboarding pack and often break dance on them.
Spoken word - an oral art that focuses on the aesthetics of word play and intonation and voice inflection. It is a 'catchall' that includes any kind of poetry recited aloud, including hip-hop, jazz poetry, poetry slams, traditional poetry readings and can include comedy routines and 'prose monologues’. In Jungle Book Baloo uses spoken word narration to explain the story of the show.
Street dance - a 'street dance' is a dance style that evolved outside dance studios in any available open space such as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks, school yards, raves, and nightclubs. The term is used to describe vernacular dances in urban context, and like 'hip-hop’ serves as an umbrella term for many subgenres.
Urban - Any of various dances influenced by the rhythms and techniques of funk and hip-hop music, such as locking, popping, or b-boying.
Waltz - a dance in triple time performed by a couple; this is another dance form which Mowgli performs when trying to fit into the suits world.
Waacking - a form of dance which consists of moving the arms to the music beat,typically in a movement of the arms over and behind the shoulder. Waacking also contains other elements such as posing and footwork. Bagheera uses waacking throughout the production, with her spray can in her hand ready to graffiti the streets.


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What Clothes Did Colonial Children Wear?
When most people think about children's clothing, they picture contemporary, store bought items like t-shirts, jeans and sneakers. However, during Colonial times, from the late 1600s to the early 1700s, children dressed much differently than children do today. Women usually made the clothing worn by their children and other family members at home. Some clothing, however, was imported from Europe, especially when colonists first began building their homes and settlements.
Colonial infants wore long gowns and a warm hat called a biggins. Toddler gowns often included leading strings attached to the shoulders and a padded roll to protect the head in case of fall. Young boys wore doublets before graduating to breeches and shirts. Young girls wore smocks topped with corsets and coats. Wool petticoats and aprons protected young girls during household chores.
During the colonial times, both male and female infants wore the same type of clothing. Babies most commonly wore gowns, which were a one-piece item with a long skirt and long sleeves. Parents used a "biggins" to keep a baby's head warm. A biggins was a type of hat made of linen or wool and tied under the chin. Babies also wore aprons to keep their gowns from getting dirty.
When babies began learning to walk, their mothers sewed strips of fabric called leading strings to the shoulders of the gowns. This allowed the person walking with the toddler to guide the child and prevent them from falling. A toddler might also wear a "pudding" on his forehead, which was a padded roll used to protect the head from injury.
Boys began to wear doublets once they were around the age of four. Doublets consisted of fitted, long-sleeved jackets and petticoats. More grown-up looking clothes were given to boys when they were approximately six years old. When a boy began to wear breeches, this meant that he was not a baby anymore, and the family often celebrated this day. Along with breeches, boys wore button-up shirts that were sometimes ruffled around the collar and cuffs. A coat completed the outfit. Shoes were normally dark brown and made of leather.
Girls wore a stay, or corset, on top of a smock. Over the stay, they wore a waistcoat, which looked much like a snug, long-sleeved jacket. Some of the items of clothing worn by girls served useful or protective purposes. For instance, the addition of one or more wool petticoats under the skirt, depending on temperature, protected young girls from fire during cooking. Girls also wore aprons to protect their clothing when they were cooking and cleaning. Girls generally used dark leather shoes similar to what the boys wore, but sometimes the girls' shoes had a small heel.
Sutton, Amy. "What Clothes Did Colonial Children Wear?" Synonym, https://classroom.synonym.com/what-clothes-did-colonial-children-wear-12082963.html. 25 June 2018.


Happy Birthday to Me is an often neglected and seldom viewed 80's cinema gem. It is a damn shame that it has not received the cult status it so solidly deserves. The plot involves cliques, prep schools, and a very weird birthday party, but that is not what is important here. What matters is all the stops director J. Lee Thompson pulled out to make this into a near masterpiece of the slasher genre.

Let's begin with the topnotch cast. Melissa Sue Anderson (of Little House on the Prairie) bravely fills a leading role that is decidedly unclear about whether it is that of a protagonist or antagonist. Whichever way you look at it, Anderson acts with aplomb! Secondly, there is veteran thespian Glenn Ford who, despite what some overzealous critics said, gives a fine performance as the doctor in addition to adding a sense of dignity to the proceedings. Also of note is the luminary Lenore Zann (a multi talented wonder who has sadly never enjoyed the success she deserves). Her enlightened performance is both savvy and sensible and she brings a sense of validity to a character that other actress would have simply let fade away into the background as it seems the misguided script intended. Another unforgettable personality is Sharon Acker. Seen only in flashbacks, she takes the role of the overbearing mother to new heights: a sheer classic in overacting! For those familiar with Sleepaway Camp (another piece of great 80's horror) Acker's whacked out mother just might rival Desiree Gould's Aunt Martha. While these are the players who really stand out, also of note are Lawrence Dane (as the enigmatic father), Frances Hyland (the headmistress), and Lesleh Donaldson (who makes the most out of her '1st victim' cameo).

But enough about acting, on to the gore! And oh, what a gory movie Happy Birthday to Me is. The film skillfully manages to be bloody and raw, without becoming revolting. In fact, the grisliest scene is not a murder at all, but rather a realistic medical procedure! That's not to say there are no shocking murders, however. There are 6 bizarre murders as the poster promises, with the notorious shish kabob scene remaining one that will always live in infamy. The only thing more delightful than these sadistic killings is, of course, the twist ending! A real twist ending! What a twist! The twist is virtually unpredictable as it comes almost entirely out of left field and scarcely even makes sense! Oh, but it's just terrific! And let's not forget about the theme song that one hears shortly after. As an audience member, one barely has time to compose themselves after the twist when they're treated to one of the eeriest songs ever composed during the end credits.

In short, Happy Birthday to Me delivers on all levels and now that it is easily accessible on DVD, you'd have to be a fool to let this unparalleled work remain unwatched.
I may take a lot of grief for saying this, but I firmly believe that Happy Birthday to Me is one of most intelligent and well acted slasher films of the 80's. I think the reason that it never made as much of an impact as films like Friday the 13th and Prom Night, which were released around the same time, is that is was just TOO intelligent for its time. It was released around the time when gore and body count is what made a slasher succeed. HBTM relied on plot twists and character development. This film is comparable to something that would be released and be successful today, where plot twists are what make a "slasher movie." Melissa Sue Anderson gives a excellent performance as Virginia, a member of the elite "Crawford 10" who suffered injuries in a car accident just months before the start of the film. At the approach of her 16th birthday, her fellow classmates begin to get butchered. Yes, a lot of things about this film are very confusing, and the ending can be tricky at best to figure out, but overall it plays out well and provides just enough gore and suspense to satisfy the slasher fans, but also tries to appeal to those who want more than just a bunch of murders on film. Highly recommended. Intelligent, and very well acted by Melissa Sue Anderson. Just remember this film was made in 1981. Way ahead of its time.


Q. What hours/days is the library open?
The Library hours during the Fall and Spring semesters are Monday - Thursday 7:30am - 9:00pm, Friday 7:30am - 12:30pm, and Sunday 4:00pm - 9:00pm. Closed Holiday weekends.
The Library is also open in the summer Monday - Thursday 7:30am - 5:00pm and Friday 7:30am - 12:30pm. Closed on the weekend.


What's the risk of a natural disaster in New Zealand and around the world? New Zealand is precariously situated, jutting skyward between two colossal tectonic plates, slap bang in the middle of a deep ocean, and vulnerable to tsunami, earthquakes, storms, floods, and volcanic activity. A deadly natural disaster is possible. So what's the risk? Hundreds of deadly natural disasters occur around the world each year.
A devastating landslide obliterated the Ngati Tuwharetoa village of Te Rapa on the south-west shore of Lake Taupo. Sixty people were killed, including the paramount chief Mananui Te Heuheu Tukino II. This remains New Zealand’s highest death toll from a landslide.
Te Rapa sat below the volcanic springs of Mt Kakaramea. The missionary Richard Taylor recorded that an ‘unusually rainy season occasioned a large landslip’ on the mountain. The slip dammed a stream which, three days later, ‘burst its barriers, and, with irresistible force, swept rocks, trees and earth with it into the lake’. The avalanche of debris buried Te Rapa and only a few people managed to escape.
In 1910, another landslide killed one person in a new village near the old site of Te Rapa. After this second event, the village was abandoned. The source of landslides is an unstable geothermal area known as the Hipaua Steaming Cliffs. This still causes problems for engineers working on State Highway 41, which passes between the cliffs and Lake Taupo. Waihi village now stands on the lakeside.
In 1855 a magnitude 8.2 earthquake – the most powerful ever recorded in New Zealand – rocked the southern part of the North Island. Caused by movement along a fault in Palliser Bay, it altered the landscape of the Wellington region and affected its subsequent urban development.
Shortly after 9 p.m. on evening of 23 January 1855 a violent earthquake began; in Wellington the main shock lasted for at least 50 seconds. People fled outdoors, where they remained for the night in tents and makeshift beds, as incessant aftershocks rocked the area – one person counted 250 in the first 11 hours. The aftershocks would continue for months.
On 3/4 February a violent storm swept across much of the country, wrecking 12 ships – including the Star of Tasmania and Water Nymph at Oamaru – and causing flash floods. More than 40 lives were lost.
On 14 May a sudden storm wrecked two large sailing ships, the City of Perth and Ben Venue, in Timaru’s exposed roadstead. Nine lives were lost. Among the dead were the port’s harbourmaster and five local watermen, who had tried to rescue the ships’ crews.
On 10 June the volcanic Mt Tarawera, south-east of Rotorua, erupted spectacularly, killing perhaps 120 people and burying the famed Pink and White Terraces on Lake Rotomahana. The eruption lasted six hours and caused massive destruction. It destroyed several villages, along with the famous silica hot springs known as the Pink and White Terraces. Approximately 120 people, nearly all Maori, lost their lives.
In the early hours of 10 June, people awoke to earthquakes, lightning, fountains of molten rock, and columns of smoke and ash up to 10 km high. People as far away as Blenheim heard the eruption. Some thought it was an attack by a Russian warship.
A 17-km-long rift split Mt Tarawera and extended as far south as Waimangu. The eruption covered land with millions of tonnes of ash and debris, transformed lakes, and flattened bush. It was over by dawn, though ash made day as dark as night. Men from Rotorua and Ohinemutu formed rescue parties and began digging out survivors and casualties. Settlements at Te Tapahoro, Moura, Te Ariki, Totarariki, Waingongongo and Te Wairoa were destroyed or buried. Te Wairoa, known as ‘The Buried Village’, later became a tourist attraction.
On 10 September 10 sulfur miners were killed on White Island when part of the crater wall collapsed, causing a landslide. The only survivor was the mining company’s cat, Peter the Great. White Island, in the Bay of Plenty 50 km from Whakatane and Opotiki, is New Zealand’s most active volcano. Sulfur mining on White Island recommenced in the late 1920s but proved uneconomic and ceased in the early 1930s. A total of 11,000 tonnes had been obtained. Today the island is a privately owned scenic reserve and tourism venture.
On 17 June 1929, at 10.17 a.m. an earthquake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale struck the north of the South Island, killing 17 people. The shock was felt throughout New Zealand but centred on the Murchison area, where it caused massive landslides. For days preceding the earthquake, booming noises had been heard in the hills around Murchison. The earthquake itself was exceptionally noisy: rumblings were heard in New Plymouth, over 250 kilometres away. When the main shock struck, wooden homes warped, twisted and shifted from their piles, and chimneys and water tanks collapsed. People scrambled outdoors, but once there found they were unable to stand.
On Tuesday morning, 3 February 1931, at 10.47 a.m, New Zealand’s deadliest earthquake devastated the cities of Napier and Hastings. At least 256 people died in the magnitude 7.8 earthquake – 161 in Napier, 93 in Hastings, and 2 in Wairoa. Many thousands more required medical treatment.
As buildings began to disintegrate, many people fled outdoors into a lethal rain of chunks from ornate facades, parapets and cornices. Buildings swayed violently, and their walls bulged and collapsed into the streets in avalanches of brick and masonry that crushed vehicles and people.
Within minutes of the earthquake, fire began in the business district. Firefighters were almost helpless – water pressure faded to a trickle as the reservoir emptied. After the earthquake most homes lacked water, electricity, sewerage and chimneys, and people camped in open areas as continuous tremors made it dangerous to stay inside.
On 19 February a flash flood swept away a Public Works railway construction camp on the East Coast. Twenty men and one woman drowned when a cloudburst sent a wall of water surging through a public works camp in the Kopuawhara Valley, near Mahia. Located on the banks of the Kopuawhara Stream, the no. 4 camp accommodated workers building the Wairoa–Gisborne railway.
Although the stream was in flood after heavy rain, the 5-m-high wall of water that hit the camp sometime after 3 a.m. took everyone by surprise. Water began pouring across the campsite, sweeping away everything in its path.Some men took refuge on the roofs of huts, but most of these structures collapsed.
On 24 May an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck the Inangahua area on the West Coast. Three people were killed. The Inangahua tremors triggered numerous landslides in the surrounding mountains. A huge landslide dammed the Buller River above Inangahua Junction. The rising water backed up for 7 kilometres, raising the river 30 metres above its normal level. If the landslide dam had burst, the river would have flooded not only Inangahua but also Westport. Everyone in its path had to be evacuated.
On 4 September 2010 at 4.35 a.m, the Canterbury region was struck by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake. Although there were no deaths, this was – at the time – the largest to affect a major urban area since the 1931 Hawke’s Bay quake. Many thousands of people faced a massive clean-up, the rebuilding of their homes and businesses, and a lengthy process of physical and psychological recovery - while being jolted by aftershocks, and living in fear of another large earthquake.
At 12.51 p.m. on 22 February a 6.3 magnitude earthquake struck 10 km south-east of central Christchurch at a depth of only 5 km. The death toll was 185 making it New Zealand’s worst natural disaster in terms of loss of life since 1931. Although not as powerful as the magnitude 7.1 earthquake on 4 September 2010, this earthquake occurred on a shallow fault line that was close to the city, so the shaking was particularly destructive.The earthquake brought down many buildings damaged the previous September, especially older brick and mortar buildings. Heritage buildings suffered heavy damage.
Liquefaction was much more extensive than in September 2010. Shaking turned water-saturated layers of sand and silt beneath the surface into sludge that squirted upwards through cracks. Thick layers of silt covered properties and streets, and water and sewage from broken pipes flooded streets. House foundations cracked and buckled, wrecking many homes. Irreparable damage led to the demolition of several thousand homes, and large tracts of suburban land were subsequently abandoned. Power companies restored electricity to 75 per cent of the city within three days, but re-establishing water supplies and sewerage systems took much longer.
At 12.02 a.m. on 14 November a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck New Zealand, causing significant damage to buildings and infrastructure in southern Marlborough and northern Canterbury. Landslides cut off road and rail links to Kaikoura, stranding large numbers of visitors in the popular tourist town. Two people lost their lives: one at a property in Mt Lyford as a result of a heart attack and another when a homestead collapsed in Kaikoura.


Sleepless nights are generally the tell-tale symptom of a guilty conscience, but for Jermaine Jenas a few hours of tossing and turning was a small price to pay for one of the most satisfying evenings of his professional life.
It was already gone midnight on Thursday when the 25-year-old returned home to reflect on Tottenham's 4-4 draw with Arsenal but there was only thing on his mind: to relive those 90 minutes in all their breathless brilliance.
'I couldn't wait to watch it again,' Jenas said, his eyes sparkling despite the bags. 'The moment I got in, I put on a recording of the game - the whole match, not just the highlights.
Jenas was probably not alone in wanting to study video footage of Tottenham's remarkable resurrection in the 143rd north London derby.
We can feel the belief coming back, Spurs star Jenas hails Redknapp impact How HAS Harry turned Bentley from being unwanted at Udinese to essential at the Emirates?
But there it is, in stark black and white: Arsenal 4 Tottenham 4, with goals from Jenas (89) and Lennon (90) already etched into the capital's sporting folklore. It is the kind of result on which seasons turn.
Beating Bolton in Harry Redknapp's first match in charge felt like a formality: scrubbing out a two-goal deficit in the back-yard of your fiercest rivals suggests Tottenham's recovery will be permanent.
Jenas is more circumspect, observing that the late flurry of goals at the Emirates still yielded just a point, but there can be no denying the pep such a result can provide for morale.
'We've been through a lot of tough times over the last couple of months and a lot of defeats,' he added.
Already, it appears 'Harry Houdini' has delved into his box of tricks and Spurs Lodge has a brighter feel.
Juande Ramos' strict dietary routine has been relaxed, fringe players such as Paul Stalteri, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Hossam Ghaly, who had been training with the youth team, have been handed squad numbers and players who looked frightened a fortnight ago are now daring to express themselves.
'There's been a completely different attitude around the place,' Jenas admitted, at the opening of the Puma store in Westfield London yesterday.
'It's much more relaxed and a lot of players have reacted well.
Jenas is one of the few Tottenham players who did not need a pick-me-up from Redknapp, the club's worst ever start to a League campaign a poor return for perhaps his finest displays since joining in 2005.
There has also been a toughening in his attitude. This season, the nice, well-spoken boy from Nottingham has learned how to snarl.
'I'm two people - one guy off the pitch and another different one on it,' he said. 'I've gone into games with some of my best friends and as soon as the whistle goes, I've just smashed them.
'It might be to do with age. I've always wanted to take games by the scruff of the neck and make something happen.
Jenas is already targeting England's international friendly in Germany next month as Fabio Capello has vowed to blood some of his fringe players.
But first there is the visit of Liverpool, the Premier League leaders, to White Hart Lane tomorrow.
After Arsenal, it seems anything is possible.


The Rugby Football Union confirm Stuart Lancaster as England's full-time coach after impressive Six Nations campaign.
Stuart Lancaster was named England's full-time rugby coach on Thursday after restoring the team's shattered morale and reputation and winning over the previously disillusioned fans in his short but impressive role as caretaker.
championship, had been appointed to the post until the end of January 2016.
"We have been through a rigorous and global selection process and are confident that Stuart is the right person to lead England Rugby forward into the 2015 Rugby World Cup," RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie said in a statement.
"We have a massive task ahead of us in South Africa this summer and we have 37 games before that first World Cup match on home soil, so every second counts in developing players who can win that tournament"
"He has shown throughout the RBS 6 Nations and subsequently in both interview and other conversations I, as chairman of the advisory panel, have had with him that he has the skills and vision needed in the England head coach."
Lancaster, chosen ahead of former South Africa and Italy coach Nick Mallett, said in a statement: "I am immensely honoured and proud to accept this role.
"We have a massive task ahead of us in South Africa this summer and we have 37 games before that first World Cup match on home soil, so every second counts in developing players who can win that tournament - which has to be the ultimate aim," he said.
The RFU said it would hold a news conference at Twickenham at 1500 GMT.
England's poor World Cup campaign in New Zealand.
He had previously led England's second-string Saxons team and was working for the RFU as head of elite development.
Those positions gave him in-depth knowledge of the up-and-coming players available to England and he took full advantage by handing out seven new caps in his first game in charge, away to Scotland.
England won that match, their first in Edinburgh in four attempts, and followed up with another win in Rome.
Lancaster's first outing at Twickenham ended in a last-gasp defeat to eventual grand slam champions Wales but he finished impressively with victory in France and then a 30-9 home thumping of Ireland.
showing on the back of their flat World Cup displays.
England's fans embraced Lancaster's willingness to throw in the new faces and were equally impressed by the way he turned around the team's attitude following the stream of negative headlines during the World Cup.
From the day he took charge Lancaster made it his stated aim to "restore the pride in wearing the England shirt" and ensure the players reconnected with the grass-roots game.
He took them for a week's training camp at a junior club in Leeds, northern England, and brought in motivational speakers from other sports.
Scrum coach Graham Rowntree, the only survivor from the World Cup coaching team, said last week that Lancaster had "dragged England out of the gutter" and that the Six Nations campaign had been the "perfect interview".
fledgling players into an experienced 600-cap group perfectly placed to make an assault on the 2015 World Cup.


In my previous post, I tried to argue that limited definitions of the humanities may make those who use who practice them feel good -- à la Stanley Fish, we can say "I engage in a life of pure contemplation" -- but that is a minimal, one-sided, and impoverished conception of what the humanities are and why they are important. My point here is specific: I am not trying to say that Stanley Fish is wrong when he asserts that contemplation (whatever this might mean in practice) is a key part of the humanities. I am trying to say that it is not the only part and, hence, Fish's contention that anything that diverges from pure contemplation is somehow debased relies on an artificial distinction that he himself has, in fact, created. Fish's conception of the humanities is, in other words, not inherent to the humanities themselves. Indeed, I tried to argue that Fish's conception of pure contemplation relies on the very skills -- the very practical values -- that he abhors. Feel free to disagree with me.
In this post, I want to turn away from the humanities in general to what is called the "digital humanities," which are a particularly target of Fish's vindictive. His argument is that the digital humanities are not, in fact, humanistic. And, that they really don't work. They are tools that are used -- to helps with analysis, at best -- but they cannot run by themselves. They require someone to analyse the patterns they discover or someone, in different words, to program the computer. For this reason, they fail.
My problem with this argument is this: who ever said that the digital humanities functioned as a form of AI? Fish is hunting a paper tiger because he is arguing that the digital humanities fail because they have not fulfilled a promise that they, in fact, never made. I don't work in the digital humanities myself -- although I have some ideas that I might start to implement sometime in the future -- but no one who I know ever argued that they living human beings were not part of the process of analysis. I edit a journal called Acadiensis and we have published a couple of pieces in the digital humanities in the past little while in which historians have used computer-assisted analytic tools (specifically with regard to social network analysis). These are good pieces but none of the historians who conducted this analysis ever said that a human being did not actually conduct the analysis. To argue that analysis still requires human thought is not a discover or a damning criticism. It is, in fact, to miss what the digital humanities are, in fact, all about.
There is a lot of this going around, at least in my neck of the woods. I've heard colleagues reject the digital humanities as little more than web page development, where a bunch of primary sources are posted. It does not, in their view, promote any useful skill. I don't believe that the digital humanities are necessarily the future of the humanities. There will always be scholars who reject the very idea of digital humanities and take a measure of pride in their rejection. They might even claim -- like Fish implies -- that they alone are staying true to the inherent and fundamental basis of the humanities.
First, think about how much of our lives as scholars has changed in terms of how we conduct our work. I am writing this post, for instance, on computer. It will never see a hard copy. It will never be written in cursive. I communicate with my students using various means, which include good old fashioned sitting down and talking, but I also semi-look after a Facebook page and I write a lot of emails. Colleagues text me. Acadiensis maintains a vibrant social media engagement connected to other social media institutions in our field. So, whether we like to admit it or not, shifting communications technologies have changed the way we work and how communicate to students, colleagues, and the broader public.
Second, digital humanities is not about simply creating web sites that archive or list primary documents or sources, but these are useful. The ability to access sources more easily should not be something that we shoot down. Indeed, judging from my own experiences (always a dangerous thing, I admit), many of my colleague and a great many of my students become frustrated when they cannot relatively easily access sources. It is a different technology but is this now part of what libraries and archives and museums were (and continue to be!) about. My town has a local library that is well used. It does a bunch of things (including a children's summer programme), but one of the things that it does it make it easier for people to get hard covers of books that they otherwise would not have access to in Sackville. (Indeed, the digital world of new communications technologies is so prevalent that many people might not remember a day before Amazon and Indigo online sales. Some towns had a local bookstore. Some didn't.) While using the internet as an archival space is not the be-all-and-end-all of digital humanities (and, again, to the best of my knowledge no one ever actually said it was), there is nothing particularly wrong with this use.
In fact, one might go further, some of the larger projects (online exhibitions developed by archives, early Canadiana.org, the CBC's online archive, material made accessible via the NFB, along with a bunch of others), is really useful. A paper recently published in Acadiensis made really effective use of online genealogy sources. The author told me that he could not have written this paper -- at least in its current form -- without these sources.
This ability to store and access information is, then, not a bad thing. It is something we, as a society, have, in fact, been doing for a long time. It is one of the functions of libraries, archives, and museums, and is something that, as with those institutions, requires specialized skills. One does not just pop a bunch of stuff up on a web page and call it a day. There need to be standard approaches, for instance, to searching for materials.
Moreover, the skill needed for such things as a search (if it is not to become a completely over-the-top time consuming type of thing) is something that those of us who teaching in the humanities know about first hand because many of our students often do a pretty poor job of conducting online searches and so end up with weak sources and weaker papers than they could have otherwise written. Learning something about digital literacy does not replace other forms of literacy -- knowing about culture, history, information in general -- because it is consistent with it. It aids what we do and what we are asking our students to do.
This is my point: even in its most basic form -- providing access to information -- the digital humanities are useful, are consistent with what we generally do in the humanities, and can facilitate the very types of skills (assessing information) that is part of what we seek to do in our classes.
Third, this is important because we cannot stick our heads in the sand. Much of the information we access today as a society comes via new communications technologies: aka, the internet. Is the medium the message? I don't know and I don't tend to make that argument. Content, I usually argue, is important regardless of the medium in which it is conveyed. But, more and more of our content comes to use via the internet and so an ability to grasp what that is, search it, assess it, and engage it is important for our jobs. We can, and will, use more traditional technologies. I still go to historic sites and art galleries, libraries and archives and museums. I still read hard cover books. I don't see that changing and no one in the digital humanities is asking for that.
But, are we to ignore the fact that more and more of our journals are online? A good one here in New Brunswick (NB Studies) is online only and I've read about others contemplating going precisely in that direction as well. Conferences are streamed. I still want to be there in person but I do watch the streams (particularly archived versions when I can't make it.) Web archives are also being made accessible by a range of scholars. Should we ignore this information? Would you council a history student to ignore an accessible primary source? Would a student in literature be told to ignore a short story by an author who was central to their honours thesis? Would we suggest that one could study world music and ignore an easy way to hear what that music actually sounded like? And ... well ... you get the point.
Finally, digital humanities, I should say, are not a singular thing. I've focused on one particular type -- archiving -- because it struck me that much of the discussion I hear about it is misguided. Again: it is not the answer to the future of the humanities but it is not inconsistent with what we are doing in the humanities either. Other forms of digital humanities, as I've indicated above, use tools to help conduct analysis. These tools -- say, specific software packages or search analytics -- don't work by themselves. But, learning how to use them can help with the data we will have in our times, with data that is already being and has been digitized, it can help ask questions that we might otherwise ask of sources.
I read a piece a couple of years ago that made use of qualitative analysis software to assess the frequency with which certain key words were used in federal publications for newcomers who wanted to become citizens (or, more simply, in citizenship guides). To be sure, the analysis did not tell me anything that I did not already suspect, but it caught a few things -- say, inconsistencies in the use of certain words -- that I might otherwise have missed. The authors still had to do the analysis but the tools they used enriched and that has been my experience in history. Digital tools don't replace historical research but they can facilitate it. And, looked at in this light, the digital humanities are something other than a failure.


Question E: What is the function of the first principle of morality?
1. The principles of practical reasoning considered so far do not tell us what is morally good. Rather, they generate the field of possibilities in which choices are necessary. At the same time, when choices are made, the goodness of goods is never directly challenged. In making life and death decisions, for instance, no one assumes that life as such is bad and death good; choices to let die or even to kill are instead made on other grounds, such as the limitation of suffering or the justice of punishing criminals. Evidently, then, there is a need for moral norms which will guide choices toward overall fulfillment in terms of human goods.
3. St. Thomas holds that the precepts of charity (see Mt 22.37–39) are the primary and general moral principles of natural law, and the Ten Commandments, which he also thinks belong to natural law, follow from these primary precepts as conclusions from principles (see S.t., 1–2 q. 100, a. 3, ad 1; cf, q. 98, a. 1; q. 99, a. 1, ad 2; q. 99, aa. 2–3).25 As St. Paul points out, love fulfills the law because one who loves certainly avoids harm to any neighbor and seeks the neighbor’s good (see Rom 13.8–10; 1 Thes 5.15).
4. Vatican II also has a formulation of the basic moral principle. The Council notes that human activity is important not only for its results but because it develops persons. The person is more important for what he or she is, than for what he or she has. Justice and friendship are more important than technical progress; the latter is only instrumental. Growth in human fulfillment is more important than any sort of riches. “Hence, the norm of human activity is this: that in accord with the divine plan and will, it should harmonize with the genuine good of the human race, and allow men as individuals and as members of society to pursue their total vocation and fulfill it” (GS 35). This has the merit of reflecting a nonproportionalist understanding of morality. Good human acts will harmonize with—not necessarily realize—the true good of humankind.26 Besides trying to realize some good in fact, one must maintain a dynamic openness to fulfillment, since the total human vocation goes beyond measurable goods.
5. The functions of a first principle of morality are indicated by the formulations proposed by St. Thomas and Vatican II. It must provide the basis for guiding choices toward overall human fulfillment. As a single principle, it will give unity and direction to a morally good life. At the same time, it must not exclude ways of living which might contribute to a complete human community.
6. Still, the formulations of St. Thomas and Vatican II are not entirely satisfactory for purposes of ethical reflection and moral theology. To serve as a standard for practical judgment, a formulation must refer to the many basic human goods which generate the need for choice and moral guidance. In short, there appears to be a need for a formulation which is related more closely to the principles of practical reasoning.
The meaning of Vatican II’s formulation of the norm of human activity is clarified by consideration of the context of this formulation and some of its applications. The Council’s effort in Gaudium et spes is to clarify the service the Church offers to humankind. Hence, the hinge of the treatment is “man himself, whole and entire” (GS 3). It belongs to God’s plan that human persons flourish and build up their world (see GS 34). Hence, objective standards of morality in respect to the regulation of births are based upon the nature of human persons and their acts (see GS 51). “In the socio-economic realm, too, the dignity and total vocation of the human person must be honored and advanced along with the welfare of society as a whole. For man is the source, the center, and the purpose of all socioeconomic life” (GS 63). Productivity must serve integral human fulfullment: Its purpose “. . . must be man, and indeed the whole man, viewed in terms of his material needs and the demands of his intellectual, moral, spiritual, and religious life. And when we say man, we mean every man whatsoever and every group of men, of whatever race and from whatever part of the world” (GS 64).
24. Max Scheler, Formalism in Ethics and Non-Formal Ethics of Values: A New Attempt toward the Foundation of an Ethical Personalism (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1973), 23–30, 42, and 206, proposes a basic moral principle radically opposed to proportionalism, namely, that moral goodness is in a preference for the positive value of a higher ranking. Dietrich von Hildebrand, Christian Ethics (New York: David McKay, 1952), 39–45, rightly objects that this proposal leaves out of account the pivotal distinction between the objectively valuable and the merely subjectively satisfying and is inherently unworkable. Von Hildebrand himself distinguishes (280–81) between moral values as such and other morally relevant values (such as human life itself) and proposes that moral goodness is in appropriate response to morally relevant values together with a will to be morally good. With this position one cannot quarrel, but its circularity makes it an unhelpful way of formulating basic moral principles.
25. In Summa theologiae, 1–2, q. 100, a. 11, c., St. Thomas suggests that there are other very general moral principles on a par with the precepts of charity. It is impossible to tell for certain what he had in mind, but one possibility is that he was aware that the fundamental principle of morality can be formulated in other propositional forms. Another possibility is that he had some inkling of the intermediate principles I call “modes of responsibility,” recognizing, for instance, that the Golden Rule is more basic and obvious than the specific norms of the Ten Commandments.
26. Hans Küng, On Being a Christian, trans. Edward Quinn (New York: Doubleday, 1976), 534, states a criterion of morality: “The morally good then is what ‘works’ for man, what permits human life in its individual and social dimensions to succeed and to work out happily in the long run, when freedom and love are engendered.” On this basis, he affirms proportionalism and reduces all specific norms to hypothetical imperatives: “All these precepts and prohibitions are valid therefore, not however for their own sake, but for the sake of realizing the greater good” (537). Of course, proportionalism is unworkable, so in practice Küng opts for a form of cultural relativism (540–41). In this way Küng attempts to justify his endorsement as normative for the Church of secular conceptions of social organization, women’s rights (including a “right” to ordination), and the new sexual morality for young and old (526–27).


The design of experiments (DOE, DOX, or experimental design) is the design of any task that aims to describe or explain the variation of information under conditions that are hypothesized to reflect the variation. The term is generally associated with true experiments in which the design introduces conditions that directly affect the variation, but may also refer to the design of quasi-experiments, in which natural conditions that influence the variation are selected for observation.
In its simplest form, an experiment aims at predicting the outcome by introducing a change of the preconditions, which is reflected in a variable called the predictor. The change in the predictor is generally hypothesized to result in a change in the second variable, hence called the outcome variable. Experimental design involves not only the selection of suitable predictors and outcomes, but planning the delivery of the experiment under statistically optimal conditions given the constraints of available resources.