Randomly behaving dots and lines created by a computer. Animation by Tunart for Getty.
Chances are, if someone says “AI” is doing something—such as diagnosing cancer from an X-ray, driving a car, or recognizing human speech with uncanny accuracy—much of the credit should go to a specific computing technique: deep learning.
Deep learning is a form of machine learning that makes computers remarkably adept at detecting and anticipating patterns in data. Because that data can come in many forms, whether it’s audio, video, numbers in a spreadsheet, or the appearance of pedestrians in a street, deep learning is versatile. It can speed up data-intensive applications, like the design of custom molecules for medicine and new materials. And it can open up new applications, like the ability to analyze how minute changes in the activity of your genes affect your health.
To understand why it’s called “deep” learning and why it has sparked a resurgence of hope for artificial intelligence, you have to go back to the 1940s and 1950s. Even though computers at the time were essentially giant calculators, computing pioneers were already imagining that machines might someday think—which is to say they might reason for themselves. And one obvious way to try to make that happen was to mimic the human brain as much as possible.
Image is from the book "Perceptrons: An Introduction to Computational Geometry" written by Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert and published in 1969. The perceptron is a type of artificial neural network that was first developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
That’s the idea behind “neural networks.” They’re loose approximations of physical neurons and how they are organized. Originally, computer engineers hard-wired them into big machines, and today these neurons are simulated in software. But in either case they’re designed to take an input (for example, all the pixels that make up a digital image)‚ and generate a meaningful output (say, an identification of the image). What determines the output? The behavior of simulated neurons in the network. Much as a physical neuron fires an electrical signal in response to a stimulus and triggers the firing of other brain cells, every simulated neuron in an artificial neural network has a mathematical value that affects the values of other simulated neurons.
For decades, the utility of neural networks was mainly theoretical. Computers lacked the processing power to use it in a wide variety of data-intensive tasks. But that has changed dramatically in the past decade, thanks mainly to the advancement of Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) developed for rendering realistic video games (of all things!). Now neural networks can handle a great deal of data at once and cascade it mathematically through layers upon layers of simulated neurons. These ever-more complex networks are “deep” rather than shallow, which is why the process of training them to work is known as deep learning.
The reason we care about these added layers of depth is that they make computers much more finely attuned to small signals—some meaningful patterns—in a blur of data. So, what does that mean in practice? You can think of three major categories of applications: computer perception, computer analysis, and computer creation. These classes of applications—and combinations of them—are providing the foundation for entirely new scientific practices and technologies.
In the first category, you’ve probably already seen a big change in computers’ ability to perceive the world. Deep learning is why digital assistants like Siri and Alexa consistently interpret your spoken commands. Even though they still can’t always deliver the information or perform the task you’d like, they transform the sound of your speech into text with impressive accuracy. This is how computers are identifying cancer from radiology images, and sometimes doing it more reliably than human doctors can. Deep learning also helps self-driving cars process data from the roads—although the slow rollout of automated vehicles should serve as a reminder that this approach isn’t magical and can only do so much.
In the second category, computer analysis: as deep learning algorithms have gotten better at finding signals in data, machines have been able to tackle more sophisticated problems that are impossible for humans because they involve so much information. Medicine is a prime example. Some researchers are using deep-learning algorithms to reanalyze data from past experiments, looking for correlations they missed the first time. Say a drug failed in trials because it worked on only 10 percent of a study’s participants. Did those 10 percent have something meaningful in common? A deep-learning system might spot it. The technology also is being used to model how engineered molecules will behave in the body or in the environment. If a computer can spot patterns that indicate the molecules are probably toxic, that reduces the chances that researchers will waste precious time and money on trials in animals.
Meanwhile, some startup companies are using deep learning to analyze minuscule changes in images or videos of living cells that the naked eye would miss. Other companies are combining various types of medical information—genomic readouts, data from electronic health records, and even models of the mechanisms of certain diseases—to look for new correlations to investigate.
The final category, computer creation, is booming because of two intriguing refinements to deep learning: reinforcement learning and generative adversarial networks, or GANs.
Remember the horse vs. zebra detector that had to be “supervised” in its learning by adjusting the mathematical values of the neural network? With reinforcement learning, programmers do something different. They give a computer a score for its performance on a training task, and it adjusts its own behavior until it maximizes the score. This is how computers have gotten astonishingly good at video games and games like Go. When IBM’s Deep Blue mastered chess two decades ago, it essentially was calculating all the possible moves that would exist after any given move. Such brute force doesn’t work with the bewildering array of possible moves that exist in Go, let alone many real-world problems. Instead, computer scientists used reinforcement learning. They let the computer see for itself whether various patterns of play led to wins or losses.
Now imagine you’re a biomedical researcher who wants to create a protein to attack disease in the body. Rather than getting a reinforcement learning system to optimize its behavior for the highest score in a game, you might optimize a protein-design function to favor the simplest atomic structure. Similarly, manufacturers with networks of machinery can use reinforcement learning to control the performance of individual pieces of equipment so as to favor a factory’s overall efficiency.
Generative adversarial networks bring together all the ideas you’ve just read about. They pit two deep learning networks against each other. One of them tries to create some data from scratch, and the other one evaluates whether the result is realistic. Say you want a totally new design for a chair. One neural network can be told to randomly combine aspects of chairs: various materials, curves, and so on. The other neural network performs a simple evaluation: is that a chair or not? Most of what the first neural network comes up with will be nonsense. But the other neural network will reject those, leaving behind only chairs that look real, despite not having ever existed in reality. Now you have a plausible set of new chair designs to tinker with. These same approaches can be used to design new drug molecules with a higher likelihood of success.
GANs can have creepy implications, like when they generate fake photos, audio or video that feels utterly real. But the best way to think of them is as another machine-learning tool—one of several reasons that a technology that has been developing for decades is getting more efficient—and likelier to unlock new discoveries.
Many of Flagship Pioneering’s companies use machine learning techniques to develop new drug discovery platforms, including a number of our most recent prototype companies, and NewCos such as Cogen, which is developing a platform to control the immune system’s response to treat cancer, autoimmune diseases, and chronic infections.
Two researchers in Chicago, Warren McCulloch and Walter Pitts, show that highly simplified models of neurons could be used to encode mathematical functions.
Frank Rosenblatt, a psychologist at the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, develops a basic neural network in a machine called the Perceptron. It detects images with a camera and categorizes them by turning knobs to adjust the weights of “association cells” in the machine. Rosenblatt says it eventually should be possible to mass-produce Perceptrons that are conscious of their own existence.
Stanford researchers Bernard Widrow and Ted Hoff show how neural networks can predict upcoming bits in a data stream. The technology proves useful in noise filters for phone lines and other communications channels.
Research on neural networks stalls after MIT’s Marvin Minsky and Seymour Papert argue, in a book called “Perceptrons,” that the method would be too limited to be useful even if neural networks had many more layers of artificial neurons than Rosenblatt’s machine did.
David Rumelhart, Geoff Hinton, and Ronald Williams publish a landmark paper on “backpropagation,” a method for training neural networks by adjusting the weights they assign to individual artificial neurons. The backpropagation algorithm had been applied in computers in the 1970s, but now researchers put it to wider use in neural networks.
AT&T researcher Yann LeCun, who decades later will oversee AI research at Facebook, uses backpropagation to train a system that can read handwritten numbers on checks.
Gerald Tesauro of IBM uses reinforcement learning to get a computer to play championship-level backgammon.
Hinton and colleagues show how to quickly train several individual layers in a neural network.
“Deep learning” takes off after Hinton and two of his students establish that a neural network trained in their method outperforms other computing techniques on a standard test for classifying images. Their system’s error rate is 15 percent; the next-best entrant is wrong 26 percent of the time.
Google researcher Ian Goodfellow plays two neural networks off each other to create what he calls a “generative adversarial network.” One network is programmed to generate data—such as an image of a face—while the other, known as the discriminator, evaluates whether it’s plausibly real. Over time, the generator will tend to produce images (or other data) that seem realistic.
A startup in London, DeepMind, uses reinforcement learning to train a system that masters old Atari video games like Breakout. It plays the games randomly but quickly selects tactics that lead to higher scores.
A deep learning system called AlphaGo beats human Go champion Lee Sedol after absorbing thousands of examples of past games played by people.
An updated version of AlphaGo, known as AlphaZero, plays 29 million games against itself rather than studying past games played by humans. Then it powerfully demonstrates this form of reinforcement learning by beating the original Alpha Go program 100 games to nothing. The method also works with chess and a Japanese game called shogi.
The same team develops AlphaFold, a set of deep learning and generative neural networks to predict the structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. The team enters the Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Prediction (CASP) competition and places first, predicting the structure of 25 of the 43 unknown proteins, with the runner up only able to predict three out of the 43.
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Summary : This tea is simply superb. Basically a rooibos version of Good Earth's Original Sweet & Spicy, this rooibos tea has a strong cinnamon flavor with mint highlights. Altogether, this is one of the best flavored rooibos teas I've ever had.
Review : I was in the mood for something sweet tonight. And after my absolutely "perfect" tea tasting experience with Good Earth's Sweet & Spicy Original Tea, I decided to give the rooibos version a try...figuring that the tea hopefully tasted similar and would satisfy my runaway sweet tooth I seemed to have this entire weekend.
Here is how Good Earth describes this tea : "Rooibos is the main ingredient in our Red Tea™ Sweet & Spicy. Studies show that rooibos contains natural powerful antioxidants, some stronger antioxidants than found in black tea, along with trace elements. Red Tea also contains flavonoids and Super Oxide Dismutase (SOD), antioxidants that help protect the body against free radicals, molecules which weaken the body's natural defense system against aging."
This tea contains the following ingredients : Rooibos, Rosehips, Cinnamon, Chamomile, Lemongrass, Peppermint, Orange Peel, Anise Seed, Ginger Root, Artificial and Natural Flavors.
The fragrance of this tea was immensely gratifying, to say the least...mainly because it was nearly identical to the Original Tea fragrance. The aroma of this tea said cinnamon...and mint too. A perfect combination for a tea that is supposed to be sweet and spicy!
And as for the taste...well, let us just say the taste is superb. The tea is very, very sweet...just like the Original Version is. The flavor of cinnamon predominates, but you'll also get a nice flavor of peppermint too. Indeed, to be very honest...the flavor difference between this tea and the Original Version is slight at best. I suspect in a blind taste test, many people would not be able to tell the difference between the two!
So what is the difference between this tea and the Original Version? Mainly this one is caffeine free and contains a load of antioxidants. Rooibos tea has antioxidants like black tea, but unlike other pure teas Rooibos is caffeine free. As such, this red tea is the ideal tea to satisfy your sweet tooth, get your healthy antioxidants and avoid caffeine. All in all...a perfect combination.
The only other difference I could find between the two teas is the spicy level. I did find the original version was a bit spicier than the rooibos version. On the other hand, I found this tea to be just a "tad sweeter," although we are splitting hairs here.
Overall, if you have a sweet tooth, you MUST try this tea. You'll love it. Plus, as this is a rooibos tea, you'll get a nice dose of healty antioxidants and avoid caffeine too.
Recommendation : Absolutely. This tea is superb and tastes very similar to the Original Sweet and Spicy Tea. About the only difference is that this tea is slightly sweeter, somewhat less spicy and is caffeine free as it is a rooibos tea.


Commentary: In a morning tweetstorm, the US president says his tweets are unfiltered honesty. And that, presumably, is what the media doesn't like.
The president believes the media is trying to stop him from communicating.
President Donald Trump's Twitter account has become the most famous in the world.
The instant connection between his mind and fingers has offered a unique insight into how (and what) a president thinks on a daily basis.
The US president, however, is concerned the media wants him to stop tweeting.
Among a Tuesday morning barrage of Trump tweets was this: "The FAKE MSM is working so hard trying to get me not to use Social Media. They hate that I can get the honest and unfiltered message out."
I feel somewhat confident that there isn't a member of the media -- fake or otherwise -- who wishes that the president would stop tweeting. Most presidents say very little that hasn't been varnished by a team of lawyers and buffed by at least a couple PR people.
Trump's tweeted chronicle is a never-ending source of stimulation. Indeed, CNN's Jake Tapper tweeted in response to the president: "Fact Check: MSM eat up his tweets like Skittles. It's WH advisers, lawyers and Trump supporters who want him to stop tweeting."
Indeed, while media people taste the rainbow, I fear that White House insiders have only a slightly metallic taste in their mouths as they read the latest Trump musings. Indeed some have, reports say, privately expressed their fear that Twitter will be the president's undoing.
One example of his tweets perhaps getting in the way of his administration's intentions occurred this week. The president has repeatedly referred on Twitter to his travel ban from six Muslim-majority countries -- one vigorously opposed by the tech industry -- as being, indeed, a travel ban. Department of Justice lawyers have been at pains to suggest to courts that it isn't a ban.
Even George Conway, a lawyer thought at one time to be joining the Justice Department (he's also the husband of Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway), tweeted on Monday that the president's tweeting isn't helping.
Still, the president will surely continue to go on Twitter and enjoy the honest, unfiltered nature of the medium. His tweets are him. His tweets are news. They might, in some eyes, even represent policy. They seem for him to be cathartic, too.
And when history looks back not just at the president, but at how technology opened up new forms of communication for us all, it will either admire our achievement or shake its head in rueful sorrow.


What are the intensities and line-shapes of the twenty four polarization terms in coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy?
Coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) is conventionally described by just one diagram/term where the three electric field interactions act on the ket side in a Feynman dual time-line diagram in a specific time order of pump, Stokes and probe pulses. In theory, however, any third-order nonlinear spectroscopy with three different electric fields interacting with a molecule can be described by forty eight diagrams/terms. They reduce to just 24 diagrams/terms if we treat the time ordering of the electric field interactions on the ket independently of those on the bra, i.e. the ket and bra wave packets evolve independently. The twenty four polarization terms can be calculated in the multidimensional, separable harmonic oscillator model to obtain the intensities and line-shapes. It is shown that in fs/ps CARS, for the two cases of off-resonance CARS in toluene and resonanceCARS in rhodamine 6G, where we use a fs pump pulse, a fs Stokes pulse and a ps probe pulse, we obtain sharp vibrational lines in four of the polarization terms where the pump and Stokes pulses can create a vibrational coherence on the ground electronic state, while the spectral line-shapes of the other twenty terms are broad and featureless. The conventional CARS term with sharp vibrational lines is the dominant term, with intensity at least one order of magnitude larger than the other terms.


When is a "blocking stake" not a blocking stake?
Amcom's successful scheme with Vocus demonstrates why communication with target shareholders should be an integral part of any takeover strategy.
Eight months after receiving Vocus' initial approach, Amcom has now implemented its $1.3 billion scrip for scrip merger with Vocus by way of scheme of arrangement.
The merger was the catalyst for a period of major consolidation and activity in the Australian telecommunications sector. The announcement of Amcom's scheme was followed by Vocus' acquisition of a 14.99% stake in Macquarie Telecom, TPG's merger proposal to iiNet, M2's competing proposal for iiNet, TPG's acquisition of a 19.9% stake in Amcom, TPG's superior proposal for iiNet, and Vocus increasing its Macquarie Telecom stake to 16.02%, all of which occurred while Amcom's scheme was on foot.
This significant activity is a reaction to the National Broadband Network and the growth of Telstra, with key driving factors being for participants to increase market share, realise synergies and secure a strong position in the market once the NBN is complete.
The Amcom scheme process featured a range of complex legal issues, including those resulting from Vocus' acquisition of its substantial stake in Macquarie Telecom and, what would represent a significant challenge to the scheme's success, TPG's acquisition of a 19.9% stake in Amcom.
The challenge from TPG arose from its somewhat unusual public statement, at the time of acquiring its stake, that it intended to vote against the scheme and had no intention to make a counterproposal to the scheme. As the scheme was required to be approved by target shareholders holding at least 75% of the total votes cast on the resolution, TPG's 19.9% holding was considered a "blocking stake" that would ordinarily be very likely to prevent a scheme being successful.
While Vocus held a 10% interest in Amcom and there was nothing at law to prevent it from voting its shares in favour of the scheme, there remained uncertainty if it did vote, as to whether or not those votes would have been eligible to be included in the voting thresholds to approve the scheme.
An outcome of Vocus' divestment of its 10% interest was to remove this uncertainty. The divestment also had the effect of allowing all Amcom shareholders to participate in the scheme so that the market could determine the outcome.
The key then was to encourage Amcom's 8000+ shareholders to cast a vote in relation to the scheme.
Shareholders, and particularly retail shareholders, can tend to be uninterested in actively casting their vote in scheme processes as they have a perception that, while they may support the scheme, their vote will not make a difference. This can play into the hands of holders of significant stakes in the target company.
With the 75% approval threshold and TPG's 19.9% stake, the scheme's success turned on Amcom's ability to rally its, mostly retail, shareholders to cast their vote and hopefully vote in favour of the scheme.
Amcom was already conducting a comprehensive and co-ordinated communications and proxy solicitation strategy with its advisers Lazard and FTI Consulting, with extensive input from Clayton Utz (as Amcom's legal advisers). The strategy became of increased importance with TPG's stated voting intention.
regular contact with custodians, brokers and nominees of shareholders.
Of course, it took a telecommunications company to make use of such diverse communication methods (with similar tactics now ironically being used for iiNet's current scheme with TPG, as noted in the media).
Going into the Amcom scheme meeting, media speculation and the general mood from the market was that the scheme would be voted down.
excluding TPG's votes, 98.8% of votes were in favour.
Following shareholder approval, the scheme was approved by the Federal Court of Australia, and was implemented on 8 July 2015.
Getting the message across: conducting a comprehensive and co-ordinated communications strategy across a range of media avenues assists in encouraging shareholder participation in the vote.
Knowing your shareholders: understanding the composition of the register and engaging with retail shareholders, custodians, brokers and nominees should form a key part of any communications strategy.
Consistency of communications: caution should be taken to ensure that communications released do not provide information that is material to the scheme other than what has been disclosed in the scheme booklet or other court-approved disclosures.
Encouraging but not barracking: a scheme company should be mindful that it can encourage shareholders to cast their vote in relation to the scheme, but cannot tell shareholders how to vote.
Independence of the chair: a chair of the scheme meeting should ensure they remain independent, impartial and non-partisan during the scheme process and throughout any communications strategy.
Information to all shareholders: communications must be sent to all shareholders and not selectively, so that all those voting have the same information.
Contingency planning: while taking all actions towards the success of a scheme, consideration should be given to contingency planning in the event the outcome is uncertain or may be unsuccessful.
It's not over until it is over: companies and their advisers should anticipate and be responsive to changing circumstances and challenges and continually revisit and update the communications strategy throughout the scheme process.


Q: In response to Taiwan's accusation that the Dominican Republic cut off their "diplomatic ties" in exchange for vast cash assistance, President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic said that China established diplomatic relations with his country with no strings attached. They were following the trend of the history. The Dominican Republic cannot be expected to forever stay out of a diplomatic relationship with the world's second largest economy. Such a relationship must come into being at one historical point. Besides, the two major opposition parties in the Dominican Republic also publicly voiced their support to the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and their country. They said that the Dominican Republic cannot avoid any longer the reality of China's rise. It is only a matter of time. What is your comment on these statements?
A: We have noted these positive statements made by President Medina. China highly commends the unanimous support of the Dominican Republic's governing and opposition parties and all walks of life to the establishment of diplomatic ties between China and that country. There is only one China in the world. The Government of the People's Republic of China is the only legal government representing the whole of China, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory. Forty-seven years ago, the one-China principle was incorporated by the UN General Assembly Resolution 2758. Today, it has become a well-recognized principle for international relations and a universal consensus of the international community. The establishment of diplomatic ties between China and the Dominican Republic is another testament to the fact that the one-China principle is the aspiration of the people and the trend of the times. No efforts will succeed in trying to stop the rolling wheels of history.
We believe that after the establishment of diplomatic ties, more bilateral cooperation potential will be unleashed, which will bring unprecedented opportunities to the development of the Dominican Republic and tangible interests and benefits to the two peoples.
Q: Will State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi meet with Chairman Kim Jong-un during this visit? If yes, what topics will come up? Could you please talk about the outcomes of this visit?
A: State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi is visiting the DPRK these two days. Yesterday, he held a talk with DPRK Foregin Minister and member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea Ri Yong Ho. The relevant information has been released.
We will release the relevant information about Chairman Kim Jong-un meeting with State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in due course.
Q: We noticed that the New Zealand China Council published a special report on the Belt and Road Initiative on May 1, describing the initiative as a "project of the century" with great inclusiveness and large coverage that presents enormous opportunities. The bilateral trade and investment between New Zealand and China are of vital importance to New Zealand's lasting prosperity. New Zealand will miss the boat if it does not engage in the Belt and Road cooperation. What is China's comment?
A: We have noted the relevant report you mentioned. Since its inception five years ago, the idea and vision of the Belt and Road Initiative have been translated into action and reality, yielding fruitful outcomes and benefiting more and more countries and regions. Up to now over 80 countries and international organizations have inked cooperation agreements with China. According to the data of the relevant Chinese authorities, China has set up 75 overseas trade and economic cooperation zones with countries along the route. From 2013 to 2017, the total imports and exports between China and countries along the route hit 33.2 trillion RMB, registering an annual average growth of 4% , which is higher than the average growth of China's foreign trade over the same period. In the first quarter of this year, the total imports and exports between China and countries along the route grew by 12.9%, with 10.8% growth of exports and 15.7% growth of imports.
All this sheds light on the fact that though the Belt and Road Initiative was proposed by China, the opportunities and outcomes it offers are shared by the world. We welcome all countries to get aboard the express train of the Belt and Road Initiative that is bound for a bright future of common development and prosperity.
Q: The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued its 2018 report, criticizing China's status of religious freedom. What's your comment?
A: The Chinese government protects its citizens' freedom of religious belief in accordance with the law. The Chinese people of all ethnic groups are entitled to full religious freedom under the law. This fact is there for all to see.
The so-called commission you mentioned has been politically biased against China all along in disregard of China's progress in the religious field and kept issuing the report to smear China's religious policy and status. Such untrue accusation is not even worth refuting. We advise them to look squarely into and respect the fact, abandon biases and stop issuing such report and using religious issues to interfere in China's internal affairs.
Q: Do you expect State Councilor Wang Yi back to Beijing by this evening? If he is not back by this evening, that will be three days in the DPRK, which will make it a very long visit.
A: State Councilor Wang Yi is now in the DPRK for the visit. We have released the information that he was in the DPRK yesterday and is there today.
Q: According to the US media, China for the first time deployed missile system in the Nansha Islands. Can you confirm that?
A: China has indisputable sovereignty over the Nansha Islands and the adjacent waters. Our peaceful construction activities on the Nansha Islands, including the deployment of necessary national defense facilities, are meant to safeguard China's sovereignty and security, which is also the rights a sovereign state is entitled to. The relevant deployment targets no one. Anyone with no invasive intention will find no reason to worry about this. We hope that the relevant party could view this matter in an objective and calm way. I must stress that China is a big country in terms of trade, and also a staunch champion of regional peace and stability. We will continue to work with all countries to maintain peace and stability in the South China Sea.
Q: The US high-level trade delegation starts its visit to China today. Do you have any update on the talks? What is your expectation for the outcome of the negotiations?
A: We have said that China welcomes the visit by the US delegation headed by the US President's special envoy and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to discuss trade issue between the two sides. I have no update for you.
As for our expectations, I gave a brief answer yesterday. We welcome talks as long as they are based on equality and mutual respect, the result of which shall be mutually beneficial. Let us all wait and see.


TLDR: Vangelis’ newly discovered “Tegos Tapes” get special treatment by Ingo Vogelmann.
Vangelis is a part of the music, in touch with the notes of the universe. He provides a thoroughfare for the wisdom found in the pure truth of music, his compositions forming a connection with all who listen. His productions have come from a deep love for nature and music’s role within it, and were never influenced by a quest for recognition or desire for success. He has famously shied away from the press, keeping his personal life to himself, while traveling freely and often. Regardless of his lack of desire for recognition, he has had a long and legendary career that has spanned over 50 years of albums, film scores, and independent compositions. Some of his most recognizable accomplishments include the Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner soundtracks, both of which are considered to be in the top 250 greatest film scores of all time.
His unique “symphonic electronic” sound has found him connected with space exploration time and time again. His music was featured frequently in Carl Sagan’s famous “Cosmos” series, including the theme which was an excerpt from his track “Heaven and Hell Part 2”. In the 2000’s he created the theme for NASA’s Mars Odyssey mission, European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission, and he even had a planet named after him (6354 Vangelis) by the International Astronomical Union.
Considered an important exponent of electronic music, Vangelis has composed and played primarily on keyboards and synthesizers, performing as many parts of a composition in one single performance. Surrounding himself with instruments and recording equipment, he uses methods which enable him to cover wide ranges of sound by himself, in truly unique and creative ways.
In this wonderful interview for the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in Qatar, Vangelis covers a lot of ground from the meaning of “success” to universal truths.
Vangelis has stated that he composes every day, which makes one wonder how much amazing and incredible music of his has not been heard. With his lack of communication with the press and desire to remain out of the spotlight, when newly discovered Vangelis music is revealed, it becomes an exciting moment for music lovers around the world. Such was the case with the Tegos Tapes, a set of tapes recently discovered by Don Fennimore in an Athens bookshop (read more about the discovery here). These tapes were composed by Vangelis for his friend Dr. Stergios Tegos’ neurosurgery class. As noted in the forward written by Dr. Tegos, the 12 hours of music was composed for the long and tiring hours of microneurosurgery, with Vangelis’ sweeping synthesizers and creative production style offering a welcome respite from the monotony of intense surgery.
Already a rare discovery, these tracks will now be heard as they have never been heard before, re mastered and seamlessly mixed by electronic music specialist Ingo Vogelmann. As a tribute to this musical master, Ingo has produced a beautiful continuous mix that features highlights from the Tegos Tapes remastered to the highest quality sound. Over three hours long, this mix will take you on a magic filled journey to a different space and time, capturing the essence that Vangelis’ music holds, and carrying on the bright light that he brings to music and life.


Is there a site for current, contemporary worship songs that are free to use, via performance on podcasting or the web? (I'm aiming to create such a podcast in a couple of months).
As it stands right now, I am unable to employ the resources of copyrighted songs put out by the major publishing companies/recording industry. None of the options available via CCLI or WorshipCast fit my particular situation. Believe me, I've investigated, and tried to bend to their specs. As it is clear to me, this is as closed a door as they come.
But I am not deterred by this. It only means that I am limited to public domain songs and songs that are given freely by worship songwriters who just wish to get their songs out there, even if it means them not getting paid by CCLI/ASCAP/BMI/etc.
And there are thousands of public domain songs, many of them unknown, orthodox, beautiful, prophetic, and just waiting to be unearthed. And I can also introduce my own songs. I have crafted a system that will allow me to have the most spontaneous approach to worship songs out there, despite the limitations of repertoire.
But that said, if there's a site for podcast-friendly worship songwriters out there, I'd be more than happy to trade a link to their site in return, where their songs can get great exposure. I would like to make this future podcast a win/win for both budding worship songwriters and my listenership.
I'm not familiar with any such site, but lots of people would be thrilled for you to do it.
Doesn't a CCLI Church Streaming and Podcast License cover most popular worship songs? I have intentionally used familiar, popular worship songs for my Daily Worship podcast, and I thought that I was covered. Am I wrong about this?
You may need to talk to a CCLI representative. It depends upon your church, and how they are connected to your podcast. For myself, I am an itinerant music minister--the church I attend has a traditional organist and a liturgy, and I would be doing this podcast out of a closet w my acoustic guitar. And I am quite adamant; my podcast will reflect an old-school prayer meeting, outside of a church service. Thus a CCLI license will not be applicable to me. The WorshipCAST, having an even greater music selection, only applies to live streaming, and what I propose has got to be downloaded and saved.
For you, if your podcast reflects the goings on of an actual church service, or if done on church property w anybody invited to participate, or if your church has bundled this podcast as being a part of its ministry, you may be okay. But I would double-check; this is a thorny issue, and it can go outside CCLI territory, and into ASCAP/BMI territory, which would demand 9.1 cents per song, per download.
I'll say this: public domain songs, unknown authorship songs, and songs cleared by the songwriters to play-- this is great grand territory to pursue. In the early 80s, when MTV first launched, not too many bands took the time to craft a decent video, trepidatious upon this unknown territory. Mostly British bands took the plunge. Unsurprisingly, these British bands became very popular, overtaking most of the American music of the late 70s--Christopher Cross disappeared and Duran Duran took its place. This is a poor analogy, but I believe podcasting these songs will open up new avenues for people hungry to get their music out.
Nick, I think that is an awesome way to get songs heard. I'm looking forward to hearing the podcast! For our podcast, it definitely is a ministry of our church. It's meant for our local church body, even though we have listeners from around the country. It goes through our Church Podcast site, and we have several members of our church who share and sing on the podcast regularly. It's also recorded in the sanctuary every day and funded by the church. The only thing that worries me a little bit is that it's not an actual church service, as defined by CCLI. I will contact CCLI this week; I definitely want to be within copyright laws, and I wouldn't feel comfortable continuing with "Top 100" CCLI songs if we are out of bounds.
I would think that you have a nice solution to this, if CCLI declines. Simply make it known to your church that there will be a short, podcast-oriented daily worship time and invite them to come or not. Just make it known. Even in small print. If it's a public event, and it reflects the worship of your church, I'd think you're good to go.
BTW, I heard your Friday podcast this morning. I liked it. So, your pastor says a message/reads Scripture, and it segues to you doing a familiar praise song chorus?
Last edited by NickAlexander; 07-21-2012, 11:34 AM.
Good solution, Nick. I'll do that if CCLI does decline. Normally, on most mornings, I share some direction and Scriptures for that day, and then I follow-up with 1 or 2 songs. I try to get different people on Fridays to do the podcast. It's been a great way to connect with worship leaders in the area, and also people with different giftings in our church.
Did you find out anything? The WorshipCast license may work. I'll ask my friend Susan from CopyrightSolvers.Com. I know at one point I was doing a podcast called Worship Interludes and I got a bit discouraged at my inability to do familiar songs. Streaming wasn't the issue, it was the downloadable file of the podcast that was the issue, since it counted as a physical media file being downloaded.
The WorshipCAST license will not work in my situation, for two reasons. First, I need it to be a podcast. So, right off the bat, the WorshipCAST license will not apply. Second, it needs to record an actual church service--open to the public; what I propose to do is going to come from a closet in my house (church membership:1).
As I wrote earlier, this is not a problem. (It's a problem for the contemporary praise and worship music industry, since I will be abandoning any pretense that I will be using any of their songs). Oh well. C'est la vie. All this means is that I will only have... brace yourself... 95% of all songs ever written for the entirity of Christendom at my disposal for use. *sigh*.
I called CCLI in regard to our Podcast License, and it does indeed need to be an actual church service to continue with CCLI material. Well, as of yesterday morning, we have opened the sanctuary up at 6:00 a.m. Monday-Thursday and 4:00 P.M. on Thursday afternoon for a time of worship and prayer. We made it known to our congregation via Facebook and e-mail, so I feel at peace with continuing on with this podcast.
Not only will this keep us within copyright regs, but I'm looking forward to seeing how the Lord will use this time, both over a podcast and live.
I think that's fantastic! Can't wait to hear the new episodes!
Okay, I got my first podcast up this week. If you would like to listen, I hope it ministers to you.
This week I share about my thoughts of the Holy Spirit in today, and I touch upon my thoughts of the Charismatic Renewal, David Wilkerson's "Cross and the Switchblade", and its reception amongst specific mainline and Catholic denominations. And you get to sing with me some classic choruses and hymns ("All Hail the Pow'r of Jesus' Name", "Be Still My Soul", plus one of my own).


Senator denies his office exerted pressure to help his wife secure a loan for now-shuttered Burlington school.
Corrections/clarifications: Brady Toensing is current vice-chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and former co-chair of Donald Trump's presidential campaign in the state. His roles were unclear in a previous version of this story.
Facing more questions about Burlington College, Sen. Bernie Sanders is denying that his office exerted any pressure to help secure a loan for the small liberal-arts school once led by his wife.
Appearing Thursday night on MSNBC, the Vermont independent and former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination responded directly to allegations from a prominent Republican lawyer regarding the senator's involvement in helping Jane O'Meara Sanders secure financing for the now-shuttered college.
"That is an absolute lie," Sanders told journalist Chris Hayes, host of the show "All In." They spent the bulk of the seven-minute segment discussing health care.
Lawyer Brady Toensing, vice-chairman of the state Republican Party and former Vermont co-chairman for Donald Trump's successful bid for the presidency, filed complaints with various federal agencies last year against Jane Sanders. At issue is a land deal she helped broker in 2010 for Burlington College to buy the former headquarters of the state Roman Catholic Diocese in Burlington for $10 million.
Burlington College received a bank loan for the purchase. Jane Sanders said increased college enrollment and pledged donations would help pay for the land deal, but neither materialized. She left the college in 2011. In May 2016, Burlington College officials said the school was closing under the "crushing weight of debt," mostly from the property purchase.
A Toensing complaint in May 2016 claimed he was "recently approached and informed" that Bernie Sanders' senatorial office pressured the bank to approve the loan. But the document offered no information about what is said to have occurred or who the source was of Toensing's information.
Hayes asked Sanders about that claim Thursday, two days after the senator defended his wife's integrity on CNN and called a federal investigation politically motivated but otherwise declined to discuss the matter.
"There are some serious allegations," Hayes said on MSNBC, noting that Bernie and Jane Sanders have lawyers. "I know that you've said that this is politically motivated, but I do want to ask you on the record, face to face. The most serious allegation is that you improperly used your office to help secure financing for loans for Burlington College, and I want to ask you on the record if that's true."
"And do you know where that allegation came from?" Sanders responded. "That allegation came from the vice chairman of the Vermont Republican Party and Donald Trump's Vermont campaign state director. That is an absolute lie.
"But, you know, that's what you expect from the Trump administration and people associated with Donald Trump," Sanders continued. "These people do not choose to debate the real issues facing the American people, whether it's their disastrous health care bill, whether it's climate change, whether it's their attack on women's rights, or so many other issues."
A family spokesman for Bernie and Jane Sanders has said that federal investigators have made no contact with the couple. Members of Burlington College's board have told the Burlington Free Press and other news outlets that the FBI has been in touch.
Members of Bernie Sanders' staff have responded to Free Press requests for an interview with the senator by saying for weeks that they are trying to arrange one.


What punishments have the NRL announced for the Sharks?
• The club, Flanagan and Elkin have until January 15 to respond to the breach notices, with the responses to be considered by the NRL before any final decision is made.
Is there any way Shane Flanagan can coach the Sharks in 2014?
Although Flanagan is suspended effective immediately, it all depends on the outcome of any response or representation Flanagan makes to the NRL by the designated January 15 cut-off. Based on the NRL's statement, if the preliminary findings against Flanagan for breaching the NRL Code of Conduct are upheld the minimum ban he would incur would be for nine months, effective immediately. If that were the case Flanagan would not be able to take control at Cronulla until September 17, midway through the 2014 NRL Finals Series.
Why didn't the NRL step in when Flanagan was reinstated in March this year?
At that stage the NRL had not conducted an investigation into governance and was working with ASADA. The NRL also undertook not to act without evidence. The NRL during the course of the year, through its Integrity Unit, gathered information. As ASADA completed its interviews with players at the club and as it became clear that further investigations would not jeopardise ASADA, the NRL carried out a full investigation of governance at Cronulla which had led to this determination.
Is the fine of $1 million final?
No; again, the club has until January 15 to respond to the breach notice. If however the preliminary findings are upheld, 40 per cent of the $1 million fine ($400,000) will be suspended subject to the satisfaction by the club of a number of conditions including completion of an independent governance review and further governance changes.
Could the fine have been more?
The $1 million fine is the maximum fine amount under the NRL rules. The NRL statement does refer to the maximum fine in reaching the decision, which is why in provision a portion of the amount has been suspended. NRL CEO Dave Smith said the penalty was arrived at after assessing all mitigating factors, including that there is a new board and management team in place at Cronulla and that they are already making effective changes to build a stronger governance framework.
What does the decision mean for the Sharks players?
Today's proposed penalties have no effect on the Cronulla players.
Does it mean the ASADA investigation is over?
No. In relation to anti-doping rule violations, whilst at this stage ASADA has not provided any information warranting any further infraction notices, the investigation remains ongoing.
Are the penalties set in concrete?
No; they are provisional at this stage. There is opportunity for Cronulla, Flanagan and Elkin to make submissions in relation to these matters.


The heartbroken parents of a baby girl who died after she was wrongly diagnosed at a hospital say they hope no other people go through the pain they suffered.
Angela and Matthew Ebbage told the Melbourne Coroner's Court they endured 'a fate we hope no other parent will have to' when their 18-month-old daughter, Audrey, died in December 2014, the Herald Sun reports.
Audrey's parents rushed her to the Northern Hospital on December 11, 2014, where she was treated for a respiratory virus, however it was later revealed she was suffering from a heart condition.
Ms Ebbage said staff at the hospital 'dismissed' their concerns about their young daughter's 'extreme lethargy'.
Three days later, Audrey was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital after her condition took a turn for the worse.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, Ms Ebbage said she did not blame the hospital, and wanted to 'prevent this from happening again to another family'.
'We want Audrey's little friends and soon to be little brother to be safe,' she said.
'We never felt heard.' Ms Ebbage added that hearing the hospital's legal team say it would make some changes in the wake of Audrey's death was a small solace.
According to the Herald Sun, Northern Health made five 'concessions' about what should have been done differently when Audrey was admitted.
Lawyer Sean Cash said hospital staff should have checked Audrey's blood pressure and had a paediatrician assess her.
Mr Cash also said on December 13 a 'different diagnosis' should have been considered, and that an emergency call should have been made later that day when her condition worsened.
The laywer added Mr and Ms Ebbage should have been spoken to the by hospital after Audrey died.
Coroner Jacqui Hawkins said she was able to reach a ruling over the death without further hearings.


Remove Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 Program?
Are you facing the problem like missing necessary files to delete Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2, or do not have permission to uninstall it, which resulted in the impossibility to conduct a complete removal from your machine?
There are times when people had to take computers to a store asking the technicians to solve the frustrating uninstall problem when they fail to sweep out Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2, which wasted them more time and took them a large amount of money. So why does it become difficult to uninstall a unwanted program? Generally speaking, the main reasons may be: not all people are professional on computers, who can uninstall any unneeded application and its leftovers completely, that makes the uninstallation difficult and dangerous.
Find Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 on the menu, and then you might see an Uninstall button under the program's name. If not, please go to the installation folder of the program directly.
Click on Uninstall to start Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 removal.
To completely remove Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 from your computer and totally eliminate any uninstall errors and other hassle along the way, you still need to delete the related registry entries and unneeded folders of the program from your system.
Step 2: Check Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 on the right. Press Run Analysis.
Below is a step by step guideline on how to force remove Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 or other unneeded program from your computer for good.
With the force uninstall steps, you can thoroughly uninstall Hearts of Iron III: German Sprite Pack 2 and any unwanted program from your computer without worrying that it will leave down some unexpected entries both in program files and Windows registry.


Srinagar: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, a member parliament from south Kashmir, on Monday expressed disappointment over presenting speech giving a miss to Kashmir problem. 'It was disappointing that the problem of J&K had been excluded from it. It was unacceptable that the government had remained silent over the larger issue of J&K, its political resolution and development needs,' said Mufti, while referring to the President's address made earlier in the day. She, however, welcomed the reference made to rehabilitate the displaced Kashmiri Pandits. 'It was good that improvement of intra-regional connectivity in the state and return of Kashmiri Pandits to their homes were mentioned in the agenda for the government,' she said. The PDP, which won all the three parliament seats from Kashmir valley, has moved two amendments to the motion for vote of thanks to the President of India for his speech delivered to the joint session of parliament. In the first amendment motion moved by the party president, Mufti and Tariq Hameed Karra, the party proposes the following amendments in the presidential address: 'The Government of India will address the Kashmir issue and the issues facing the people in Jammu and Kashmir within the parameters of Insaniyat, Jamhuriyat and Kashmiriryat.' In the second amendment, the party seeks to add to the President's address a commitment for zero tolerance to human right violations. 'People of the state had expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to follow up on his assurances during the election campaign that Kashmir would be addressed within the parameters of Insaniyat, Jomhuriyat and Kashmiryat,' she said. She said given the strong mandate that the BJP and NDA have received in the Lok Sabha polls this was the time to embark on a peace mission in Kashmir and with Pakistan. 'So that the region could be pulled out of immense problems that the people are facing, because of trouble in and over Kashmir,' she said. The PDP president said her party would use the parliamentary forum to stress the inevitability of solving Kashmir problem and would try to reach out to all sections of public opinion with a message for peace from Kashmir and a strong desire for its resolution. On the human rights issue, Mehbooba said while the government had declared a zero-tolerance for terrorism, extremism and riots, it was also necessary that the government made an unqualified determination to safeguard the lives, property and honor of the people of the state. She said there have been blatant human rights violations of all kinds in J&K at the hands of government forces and the militants. 'The people of the state have been crushed between two guns and unless the government makes a bold start on protecting lives and honor from excesses of its forces, the idea of India would continue to suffer crisis of credibility among the people in the state,' said Mehbooba. She said the trust deficit between residents of J&K and rest of the country has to be bridged by ensuring justice, fair-play and equality before law and unless the people in the state enjoy the dividends of being part of a democratic system the alienation levels would in-turn result in more problems for them in the state.


How do I access the guest network?
I've been locked out of my portal account, what do I do?
I can't log into Schoology, can you help?
How is my student's internet activity monitored?
Can I use my personal device on school wifi?
My projector is not displaying what is on my screen.
If you forget your password, the tech department can reset it for you. We do not send passwords by email, so students must stop by the lab to obtain their email and portal passwords.
Hanover HS provides a guest wifi connection for visitors to our facility. Request for access may be made by stopping by the Upper Lab helpdesk or by sending a request to helpdesk@hanovernorwichschools.org. All guest users must have a staff member as a sponsor. Currently, we do not maintain wifi access for the general public.
Similar to forgetting your password, your portal account can be reset. Please email helpdesk@hanovernorwichschools.org or stop by the upper lab.
Schoology utilizes single sign on with Google. That means, you must be logged in to Google in order to access Schoology. Students should use this link to access their Hanover account.
Hanover HS uses a variety of tools to monitor student activity. In addition, students are encouraged to use self monitoring software to develop awareness of their own Internet habits. Parents and guardians who have concerns about their child's online activities are encouraged to contact the tech coordinator via the helpdesk.
Yes! Students may use the students-personal wifi using their network login credentials. All devices and users must comply the AUP and all devices on this network are subject to the same rules and guidelines as school devices.
Printers are maintained in the library, Upper Lab, and in many subject specific resource rooms. Student printing is managed through Papercut and is accessible using their student login credentials via the Papercut website. To use Papercut, all printed documents must be in a PDF format. Students may direct print to the black and white printers from the lab computers. Color printing requires the use of Papercut on all devices.
For device specific instructions, click here.
You need to be connected to your projector to see all of these options. Choose "Arrangement" and the click the "Mirror Displays" box. Now what you see on the projector screen should match your computer screen.
Play around with the settings in the next window (Best for display and scaled) to change how your screen looks on the projector screen. Right now, it appears that many projectors screens are not being filled. If that is a major concern we can look into it. When you change these display settings, the way your computer screen may also change (you may see black edges to your screen)--do not worry it will go back to normal when you unplug your VGA cable. To get out of this screen press "esc" (escape) or close the box behind this window.


What it's about: A famous muse to Auguste Renoir and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, model Suzanne Valadon was an unconventional painter in her own right. Headstrong, impoverished and with no formal training, Valadon rejected the confines of the male-dominated art world, becoming the first woman painter to have her work accepted into the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
Reviewers say: "A must for art lovers and scholars, it will also appeal to readers of serious historical biographies" (Library Journal).
What it's about: Imprisoned for crimes he didn't commit, Anthony Ray Hinton served 30 years in solitary confinement on Alabama's death row, maintaining his innocence and an unshakable faith in God. With the help of the Equal Justice Initiative, Hinton's case was brought to the Supreme Court and he was released from prison in 2015.
Don't miss: Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of the 2014 bestseller Just Mercy, provides a powerful foreword.
What it is: an absorbing and comprehensive biography of Founding Father John Marshall, chronicling his professional triumphs as a soldier, statesman, and our longest serving Chief Justice.
Why you should read it: Author Joel Richard Paul humanizes Marshall's legacy by detailing Marshall's strained relationships with cousin Thomas Jefferson and a wife who disliked his workaholic ways.
Further reading: Jean Edward Smith's John Marshall: Definer of a Nation.
What it's about: Raised in a fundamentalist Mormon family who prepped for the "end of days," Tara Westover grew up without an education. Hungering for knowledge, she began educating herself, eventually pursuing an elite academic career at Harvard and Cambridge.
Why you might like it: "With no real comparison memoir" (Library Journal), Educated stands in a class all its own, though fans of The Glass Castle and Hillbilly Elegy should appreciate it.
Read it for: Westover's wrenching, vivid exploration of her family history, rendered in evocative and unsparing prose.
What it's about: In his bold debut, Matt Young recounts his experiences as a Marine, from his enlistment at age 18 to his three tours in Iraq. At turns darkly humorous and shocking, Eat the Apple frankly reflects Young's transformation from rebellious teen to damaged man.
What's inside: Now a creative writing professor, Young puts his considerable skills to use in fragmenting the narrative: short chapters are punctuated by drawings, conversations between past and present selves, switching points of view, screenplays, and even an apology letter.
What it's about: Former Olympian Amanda Beard chronicles her swimming career and her battles with depression, self-harm, and addiction in this triumphant memoir of resilience and renewal.
About the author: Beard is a seven-time Olympic medalist and one of the youngest Olympic medalists in American swimming history, winning three medals at the age of 14.
Reviewers say: This engaging memoir "resonates with readers by addressing real-life issues, not just those facing Olympic athletes" (Library Journal).
What is it: a page-turning and inspirational account of Misty Copeland's rise to ballet stardom, candidly recounting how she overcame bias, self-doubt, and family troubles to become the first African American soloist in the American Ballet Theatre.
Why you should read it: Copeland's prose is as graceful and as self-assured as her dancing.
You might also like: Mallaria Tallchief's self-titled memoir about becoming America's first Native American prima ballerina.
What it is: a fiery and engrossing autobiography in which mixed martial artist champion Ronda Rousey recounts her rocky path to stardom, dispensing advice and encouragement to readers along the way.
Did you know? Rousey was the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo.
Reviewers say: "Rousey is a fierce yet endearing role model -- and a woman possessed" (Kirkus Reviews).
What it's about: In the wake of her Alzheimer's diagnosis, Pat Summitt, the NCAA's winningest basketball coach, reveals her triumphs, both personal (raising a son, a drive instilled in her by her father) and professional (eight national championships, a 100% graduation rate of her players).
Is it for you? Summitt's humorous anecdotes about players and recollections of strategies from key games make this a must-read for any sports fan; readers whose lives have been touched by illness will appreciate Summitt's candor in confronting her disease.
What it is: a heartfelt, conversational chronicle of Abby Wambach's perseverance in the face of gender discrimination, homophobia, and substance abuse to become soccer's highest goal scorer of all time (male or female) and one of its most beloved players.
Why you might like it: Forward is as much about Wambach's relationships off the field as it is about hers on the field, as she grapples with balancing private and public selves.
Book buzz: Sheryl Sandberg, bestselling author of Lean In, calls Forward "the powerful story of an athlete who has inspired girls all over the world to believe in themselves."


Some questions and answers about the Cabinet Mission Plan.
Q1. Where did the proposal allowing for secession after 10 years come from?
10. The Constitution of the Union shall have a provision whereby any Province can, by a majority vote of its Legislative Assembly, call for reconsideration of the terms of the Constitution, and will have the liberty to secede from the Union at any time after an initial period of ten years.
(6) The Constitutions of the Union and of the groups should contain a provision whereby any Province could by majority vote of its Legislative Assembly could call for a reconsideration of the terms of the Constitution after an initial period of ten years and at ten-yearly intervals thereafter.
Q2. What was the Congress response to the above proposal?
8. The Constitution should provide machinery for its revision at any time subject to such checks as may be desired. If so desired, it may be specifically stated that this whole Constitution may be reconsidered after 10 years.
(10) The Constitution of the Union will inevitably contain provisions for its revision. It may also contain a provision for its full reconsideration at the end of ten years. The matter will be open then for a complete reconsideration. Though it is implied, we would avoid reference to secession as we do not wish to encourage this idea."
Q3. What would the strength of Muslims be in the proposed Central Legislature per the May 12 proposals?
6. There should be parity of representation between the two groups of Provinces in the Union Executive and the Legislature, if any.
7. No major point in the Union Constitution which affects the communal issue shall be deemed to be passed in the joint constitution-making body, unless the majority of the members of the constitution-making body of the Hindu provinces and the majority of the members of the constitution-making body of the Pakistan Group, present and voting, are separately in its favour.
(6 and 7) We are entirely opposed to parity of representation as between groups of Provinces in the Union Executive or Legislature. We think that the provision to the effect that no major communal issue in the Union Constitution shall be deemed to be passed by the Constituent Assembly unless a majority of the members of the community or communities concerned present and voting in the Constituent Assembly are separately in its favour, is a sufficient and ample safeguard of all Minorities.
We have suggested something wider and including all communities than has been proposed elsewhere. This may give rise to some difficulties in regard to small communities, but all such difficulties can be got over by reference to arbitration. We are prepared to consider the method of giving effect to this principle so as to make it more feasible.
Q4. What did the Cabinet Mission Plan statement of May 16 say about the composition of a Central Legislature?
(2) The Union should have an Executive and a Legislature constituted from British Indian and States' representatives. Any question raising a major communal issue in the Legislature should require for its decision a majority of the representatives present and voting of each of the two major communities as well as a majority of all members present and voting.
Q5. Did Jinnah interpret the 10 year clause in the Cabinet Mission Plan as allowing for secession?
As per Jinnah's conversation with Major Woodrow Wyatt on May 24, 1946, Jinnah was upset that the Cabinet Mission Plan statement did not allow provinces to secede.
(d) Provinces had not been given the right to secede after 10 years although the Congress had always been willing to give the right to secede and had raised no real objection this time at Simla.
Q6. Was Jinnah quite happy with the federal solution laid down by the Cabinet Mission Plan?
5. He said that the preamble to the Mission's Statement had bitterly hurt the feelings of the Muslims. Not only that, it was inconsistent with the rest of the Statement. This onslaught was quite unnecessary and had been done in order to placate Congress. Indeed, the word Pakistan was an anathema throughout the Statement. This preamble made matters even more difficult for him than before.
(a) The Muslim group of Provinces had not got parity with the others at the centre.
(b) There was no real protection for the Muslims in the Constituent Assembly, because from the very start the chairman would be a Hindu, unless the Muslims were to say that the election of the chairman was a communal issue, in which case the Constituent Assembly would break down straight away.
(c) The position of the States was left far too vague.
(e) The Union had been given the power to raise money. This was not a communal issue and would inevitably lead to taxation from the Centre with other subjects being added on the short list of the Union Government.
7. He explained to the Viceroy why there should be entirely separate Constituent Assemblies which only met together for the purpose of deciding the structure of the Union Government.
He thought the Viceroy had understood. This was a psychological matter and the Mission had created a single Constituent Assembly working in three sections only to please the Congress, ignoring Muslim feeling.
8. The only real safeguard for the Muslims was parity between Federations. The method of voting on communal issues would not work as there would always be dispute as to what was a communal issue and what was not.
9. He could not understand why the Muslim provinces had been split into two groups. He agreed that it was something to have the groups at all and without them he could not even have looked at the Scheme.
10. He disliked the Advisory Committee on which the Muslims would be in a minority, and as far as he could see would be unable to prevent the Union Constituent Assembly incorporating its recommendations as a part of the constitution of the Union Government, thus added another subject to those dealt with by the Union Government.
11. He dilated at considerable length on the attitude of Congress who had not conceded anything during the Simla Conference and would never approach the Constituent Assembly in a spirit of co-operation. They would aim the whole time to use their majority to steam-roller the Muslim League and sidetrack the provision as to safeguarding the Muslims on communal issues. It was inconceivable that such a Constituent Assembly could work at all.
12. He will not come down to Delhi until June 1st or 2nd. He can say nothing further until he has consulted the Muslim League Working Committee and Council. He is being bombarded with telegrams from his supporters protesting against the Statement and the Muslim reaction is very strong against it. My own impression is that he definitely wants to see where he is with the Muslim League before giving a decision on the Statement and he wants them to have time in which to absorb the two shocks which they have been given.
(b) The preamble to the Mission's Statement.
He is particularly hurt that the Mission have seized on this concession(which was an enormous one from his stand point) and have not taken his offer as a whole. None of the provisos that went with it have been accepted. I pointed out to him that everything that Congress had asked for had not been accepted either but he did not seem particularly convinced.
Q7. Does the conversation of Major Woodrow Wyatt and Jinnah on May 24, 1946 prove "...that Muslim League’s resolution was aimed at saving face with its own constituents and did not have any serious ramifications in terms of the federation that was envisaged under the Cabinet Mission Plan, which Jinnah seemed to believe was workable"?
The British had exceeded their brief in pronouncing on the merits of Pakistan. They had no business to turn down what millions of people wanted. Their analysis of Pakistan was outrageous. But the Muslims had never expected the British to give them Pakistan. They had never expected anyone to give them Pakistan. They knew they had to get it by their own strong right arm.
The scheme outlined in the Cabinet Mission's Statement was impracticable and could not work. But nevertheless in order to show that they would give it a trial, although they knew that the machinery could not function, they would accept the Statement and would not go out of their way to sabotage the procedure-but they would accept the Statement as the first step on the road to Pakistan.
At this proposition he was delighted and said "That's it, you've got it", and I am completely convinced that that is what the Muslim League will do.
14. He will demand parity in the Interim Government if he decides to come into it.
PS: Jinnah's public statement of May 22, 1946 on the Cabinet Mission Plan has pretty much the same complaints that he reiterated to Major Wyatt on May 24 (answer to Q6 above).
PPS: As to the sincerity of the June 5-6 acceptance of the Cabinet Mission Plan by Jinnah, also see this.


I am interested in the origins and evolution of several hallmark features of eukaryotic cells such as the cytoskeleton, mitosis and meiosis.
My lab is making use of phylogenomic and cell biological approaches for investigating cytoskeletal and chromatin evolution in basal microbial eukaryotes. There is little scientific precedent for comparative genomic approaches in understanding both patterns and mechanisms of cytoskeletal evolution, particularly in terms of the microtubule cytoskeleton as compared to the microfilament (actin) cytoskeleton, or in terms of the evolution of mitosis, meiosis and chromatin structure. When one considers the vast diversity and evolutionary history of eukaryotes, it is clear that questions concerning the early eukaryotic cell would benefit from the phylogenomic and cell biological analyses of eukaryotic microbes that diverged early in the evolution of life. Little is known about the molecular components, functions, and dynamics of the cytoskeleton in basal eukaryotes other than microscopic descriptions.
To assess the evolutionary history of the cytoskeleton in a basal eukaryote, an ongoing project is a comprehensive phylogenomic annotation of cytoskeletal genes in the Giardia intestinalis genome. We are expanding this computational and proteomic strategy to compare the genomes of Spironucleus vortens and the amoeba-flagellate Naegleria gruberi with the hope of constructing a genomic �map� of the cytoskeleton and its evolution. The results of our comparative genomic analysis are quite surprising. First, the microtubule system in Giardia appears to contain a complete array of component proteins, including all tubulin isoforms, and many kinesins and dyneins. Yet in stark contrast, the actin or microfilament system is missing the majority of known proteins other than actin itself. Specifically, we find no evidence for myosin or proteins involved in actin assembly, and organization. These results challenge assumptions concerning the strong conservation of these proteins, and have intriguing implications for cytoskeletal evolution � namely we think that the diversification of the microtubule cytoskeleton occurred earlier than the microfilament system. Confirmation of this trend requires the analysis of genomes of free-living relatives of Giardia such as Spironucleus, as well as other basal eukaryotes and is consequently an aim of our sequencing the genomes of Spironucleus vortens and N. gruberi.
Giardia is a common intestinal parasite of humans and animals, and due to its basal phylogenetic position, studies of Giardia afford a unique perspective on the function of the cytoskeleton during the early evolution of eukaryotic cells. Giardia is easily grown in the laboratory, has a sequenced genome, and is amenable to reverse genetic methodologies. We have identified, cloned, and phylogenetically classified twenty-four kinesins from Giardia, roughly triple the number of kinesins as in yeasts. Many of these kinesins, although found in metazoans, are lacking in yeasts. We are investigating their function in pathogenesis, flagellar assembly and mitosis using dominant negative mutants that interfere with kinesin function. Novel kinesins may be prime targets for development of drugs for treating giardiasis.
Understanding chromosome segregation in Giardia, a binucleate cell has important implications for understanding the genetic fates of two identical nuclei, and will yield insights concerning the evolution of mitosis. Our results challenge previous hypotheses of cell division in Giardia that describe multiple division planes, and clearly demonstrate the role of two separate spindles in chromosome segregation. We have recently shown that during encystation, nuclei undergo karyogamy, presumably to fuse and exchange genetic material. This process, if accompanied by homologous recombination as in meiosis, could be essential for maintaining homozygosity of the two nuclei. Analysis of this process will also illuminate the evolutionary origins of meiosis, a process not yet described in Giardia, but suggested to exist based on sequence conservation of putatively �meiotic-specific� giardial genes.
The superb cytology of the maize chromosome, its well developed genetic and genomic resources, the large meiotic mutant collection, and the ability to obtain large amounts of highly synchronized meiocytes make maize an excellent organism for integrating cytological, molecular, genomics and proteomic approaches to answer key questions in meiosis. The ability to perform meiosis depends on a switch to the meiotic cell cycle, and the formation of unique leptotene chromosome architecture. We hypothesize that in maize this switch is mediated by the protein AMEIOTIC1 (AM1), and that the indicator of a successful switch is the formation of the leptotene chromosome. Secondly, changes in leptotene chromosome architecture regulate downstream meiotic processes. To test these hypotheses, we are elucidating the mechanism of AM1 function using an allelic series to define functional domains, proteomics to identify interacting proteins, and reverse genetics to resolve the functions of interacting proteins. We are using microarrays and quantitative RT-PCR using meiotic RNA from wild type and am1 mutants to identify genes that are regulated by AM1. To determine how leptotene chromosomes regulate downstream processes, we are analyzing the architecture of prophase chromosomes using ultra high resolution structured illumination (SI) light microscopy to relate structure to function. Finally, we are using a transposon tagging strategy to clone and characterize other meiotic mutants defective in prophase chromosome behavior. Fission yeast has only three chromosomes and their behavior during meiosis can be readily monitored using such tools as GFP-Swi6, a chromodomain protein that binds to telomeres and centromeres,. We have developed a cytologically based screen to identify mutants defective in various aspects of meiosis including telomere clustering during meiotic prophase, and chromosome segregation during anaphase I and II, and meiotic chromatin structure. We are analyzing Spindle Pole Body (SPB) replication and function during meiosis and have characterized a class of mutants that have disorganized SPB components and abnormal telomere clustering.


Is it plausible for a being to possess a singular halo-shaped 'horn', while other members of the species possess two 'regular horns'?
I am currently working a humanoid roughly deer-like species in a sci-fi roleplay setting, and one of the developments I have had with such species has me stuck trying to explain it in a way that makes somewhat of sense. Furthermore, I apologize if this question breaks any rules, I am still rather new to the site.
These guys are known as the Vruk'yeol or 'Cervidani' as many oddly call them. They walk on roughly digitigrade legs with weak hoof-structures being overtaken by a proper foot. One interesting element of this species to note are their various shapes of horns, growing from out behind of their head plates. These horns are often noted to grow into a strange circular halo shape, with various forms of regular double horns taking the place of common appearance over them.
Is there any reason or way for this species to possess either option of horns among its living members? One theory I have developed is that during early development of the horns, they could all grow as halos as such, but at a certain point they could 'break' naturally, forming two regular horns that would follow the regular path of horn development for this race. For some of them the breaking doesn't occur, leaving the horns to remain as a singular halo. Is this a sound assumption?
Possible, but unlikely given the pain that would likely ensue.
There's a good reason why most animals with horns (and generally only the males) develop their horns at puberty; live birth.
When you get right down to it, the advantages that horns provide in combat and display to females is counterbalanced by the difficulties they would present during birth; a smooth head is what you really need for a species to find it easy to birth the next generation. Evolution has solve that by providing smooth crania for the young, and horns / antlers for the mature.
As such, antlers and horns generally tend to form symmetrically in the same way as the rest of the body. This is the primary reason that most species have two horns or antlers instead of one.
If the horns manifest during puberty, then it's possible that the horns grow towards each other and fuse during maturity. These would be simpler and easier to explain from an evolutionary perspective, but would no doubt present painful situations for your halo antler recipients as they would firstly breach the skin as part of the normal horns, then fuse later on once they've grown to a certain size.
Realistically, if 'halo' horns were a reality, then your concept of being born with a horn (or bone) halo which 'breaks' in certain cases would seem to be the most plausible solution to this. That said, such an evolutionary trait is unlikely as it would introduce additional complications to the birth that make successful delivery less likely, not more. As such, the current model of no horns at birth, then growth at puberty seems far more likely than the model you present.
It should also be noted that halo horns are unlikely to develop in any event in an environment with intelligent predators / hunters because humans realised pretty quickly that horns and antlers give you purchase for snapping the neck of your prey if you've wounded or disabled it at some point. In other words, such horns present a combat and predatory weakness that other animals would exploit if at all possible, and the ability to present to females only goes so far in offsetting that weakness.
I agree with Tim on beong born with horns.
That said, what I see is during puberty the creature starts growing a single horn at the center of the forehead. As days pass the cells producing the bone and/or kerarin for the horn start migrating to either side of the head. When this process begins the horn gets brittle in the middle of the stem and fractures into a halo. Then, for some guys the halo stays, for others it also fractures at the middle.
This migration may also do for a variety of halo shapes such as can be seen in the image you are using for inspiration. Each specimen may undergo through different patterns of cell migration due to genetics and lifestyle.
Certain cultural groups modify their babies to cause the halo horns.
"There is no special breed of one-horned sheep in Nepal, nor are the specimens which have been brought here for sale natural freaks. By certain maltreatment, which is described below, ordinary two-horned sheep are converted into a one-horned variety. The process adopted is branding with a red-hot iron the male lambs when about two or three months old on their horns when they are beginning to sprout. The wounds are treated with a mixture of oil and soot, and when they heal the horns, instead of growing at their usual places and spreading, come out as one from the middle of the skull.
I have seen unicorn goats. As kids, their horn buds are surgical moved together so as to produce one horn instead of two.
It is entirely plausible that a cultural group would modify its children so as to change the adult phenotype. Circumcision is probably the best known but foot binding, head flattening, neck stretching and many, many other body mods have been practiced by one group or another over history.
Why would a social group want to distinguish itself by horn shape? Maybe they are peaceful and this seems a less aggressive display? Maybe it is safer for sapient individuals living in groups? Maybe their holy book mandates it?
It's not biologically implausible for a regular two-horned ungulate to have horns that curved inward, and once they make contact proceed to twist together and develop into a single "halo". Many biological structures will twist around obstacles as they grow.
The real question is why this would be evolutionary advantageous. Split horns are superior for fighting and pretty much everything that an animal might want horns for.
One possibility is that the species is social and intelligent, and only the "village leader" has the halo structure. Most individuals wear down their horns through fighting and scraping them against things, but once an individual has enough followers that they no longer need to actively fight to defend their position, they let their horns grow together. It could be this species equivalent to the "fat chief"; an indicator of personal success (and probably a sign for potential mates).
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What alterations without drastically altering their humanoid shape nor horns, can I make to my species that lower the risk of neck snapping?


Goal 1. Adhere to Goals and Objectives. I feel as if I'm doing this because I'm feeling all creative and motivated. Would like to see a little more material in hand, though.
Goal 2. Prepare Mummy Hunters for Submission. As a result of reading a book recommended by a NESCBWI workshop leader, I'm actually thinking of doing another revision of this. (Multiplier!) My writers' group will be thrilled. Also, I have some editors lined up to submit to.
Goal 3. Generate New Short Work/Programs.
Am reading the new issue of Carve.
Received a rejection on an essay submission. However, that rejection came from publication that had ignored an earlier submission, not responding at all. So this response suggests to me that I did a good job of matching submission to market. Just not good enough, of course.
Goal 6. Generate New Work: I'm considering doing NaNoWriMo this year.
Am I using anything I learned at the NESCBWI Conference? I'm reading the book I mentioned above (and will write about here at length at some point) and what I'm taking from that I am planning to apply to a couple of different writing projects. Which makes reading that book a Multiplier. It applies to more than one goal.


They make an unlikely trio, but Baloo the bear, Leo the lion and Shere Khan the tiger have forged an unusually strong bond.
Considering that they would be mortal enemies if they ever were to meet in the wild, it is stunning to see their unique and genuine friendship in these intimate pictures.
Rescued eight years ago during a police drugs raid in Atlanta, Georgia, the three friends were only cubs at the time at barely two months old.
Delivered to the Noah's Ark Animal Rescue Centre in Locust Grove, Georgia, the decision was made to keep the youngsters together, because of their budding rapport.
'We could have separated them, but since they came as a kind of family, the zoo decided to keep them together,' said Diane Smith, assistant director of Noah's Ark.
Living with the zoo's founders for the past eight years, Shere Khan, Baloo and Leo have now moved to a purpose-built habitat were the US public can now witness first hand their touching relationships.
'We didn't have the money to move them at first,' said Diane.
'Now their habitat is sorted and they have been moved away from the children's zoo areas where the public couldn't really get a good look.
'It is possible to see Baloo, who is a 1000lb bear, Shere Khan, a 350lb tiger and Leo, who is also 350lbs, messing around like brothers.
'Baloo and Shere Khan are very close,' says Diane.
'That is because they rise early, and as Leo is a lion, he likes to spend most of the day sleeping.
'It is wonderful and magical to see a giant American Black Bear put his arm around a Bengal and then to see the tiger nuzzle up to the bear like a domestic cat.
Surprisingly for three apex predators with the power to kill with a single bite or swipe of their paw, they are very relaxed around each other.
'They eat, sleep and play together,' said Jama.
'As they treat each other as siblings they will lie on top of each other for heat and simply for affection.
'At the moment they are getting used to their new habitat.
Explaining that the three 'brothers' have always seemed to share a unique bond, Charles said: 'Noah's Ark is their home and they could not possibly be separated from each other.
'You just have to remember who you're dealing with when you are with them though.
The trio's new habitat cost an estimated �15,000 and had to be constructed carefully, in order to accommodate its occupants.


I've got this here ring.
It's covered in some sort of grey paint or varnish that I can scrape off to reveal a copper base. I'd like to remove all of the varnish, and scraping will only do so much - I cannot, for example, scrape off the varnish on the inner edges.
What can I use to remove the varnish?
Start with acetone (nail polish remover) and see if that does the trick. Agitating with a Q-tip can speed things along. It all depends on what the coating is, but acetone won't hurt the copper so it's a good place to start. If it works but isn't fast, you might try soaking it for an hour or so.
A more aggressive approach would be oven cleaner, but it's likely to remove any patina from the copper and shouldn't be left on there too long. Also make sure to rinse thoroughly with water afterwards to remove any caustic residue.
If the acetone suggested earlier doesn't work, put the ring into paint thinner to soak (or mineral spirits, but paint thinner is somewhat less expensive and simply a less refined version of mineral spirits). Let it soak at least 15 minutes, then brush with an old stiff toothbrush. If the varnish comes off, put the ring into fresh paint thinner to soak a few minutes, in order to remove the final residue, wiping the ring between rinsing soaks. Let dry.
If the varnish does not come off with a 15 minute soak in the paint thinner, then soak for increasingly long periods of time, up to an hour, followed each time by vigorous brushing. Whenever it does come off, finish up with several rinsing soaks in fresh paint thinner.
Another thing you could try is lemon essential oil. It's very strong in this pure form and tends to eat away at things. It won't have any effect on the copper.


EXECUTIVE ORDERS AS LAWFUL LIMITS ON AGENCY POLICYMAKING DISCRETION.
Agencies are bound generally by the Administrative Procedure Act's rulemaking requirements, but Presidents emphatically are not. (1) That dichotomy presents an interesting question: If a President orders an agency to adopt a specific policy in a rulemaking, and if his chosen policy fits within the broader limits of discretion that Congress conferred upon the agency in its substantive statute, then to what extent does the APA still obligate the agency to respond to criticism of the President's chosen policy in the notice-and-comment rulemaking process?
In this Article, I consider principles and trends that preceded--and, I think, justify--this doctrinal development, rightly understood. After briefly retracing previous Presidents' general uses of executive orders and debates over presidential power more generally, culminating with the late twentieth-century executive orders on White House regulatory oversight, I review the case of Sherley v. Sebelius, in which the D.C. Circuit held that when an agency receives an executive order lawfully cabining or directing the its regulatory discretion, it is excused from its otherwise general duty to respond to rulemaking comments challenging its policy choice. (3) Then, examining this general duty of agencies to respond to rulemaking comments, I consider whether the D.C. Circuit's approach comports with the values and purposes underlying that duty.
This is a question of more than merely theoretical or scholarly interest. Recent Presidents have proven increasingly willing to use executive orders to drive substantive rulemakings, most recently on issues such as financial policy, (4) energy policy, (5) infrastructure development, (6) and land-use policy. (7) If Presidents continue that trend by including more specific policy directives in executive orders, then substantial policy questions increasingly will be implemented by agencies at the President's direction--thus reducing, at least in part, the range of issues subjected to the ordinary notice-and-comment process.
Which is to say, executive orders may become a prominent presidential "trump card" in the rulemaking process, a logical extension of decades of increasing presidential responsibility for the modern administrative state.
Thus, for purposes of this Article, "executive order" refers to presidential orders or directives that are intended to bind executive officers or the public at large with the force of law, in terms of substance rather than form.


Should worldly entertainments be avoided?
Is it a sin to listen to music, watch films and TV, play video games, watch plays, games, sports, use the internet, read books that aren't about the Bible, etc.? I don't want to sound legalistic, but none of these things are for the glory of God, so should they be avoided?
What a great question! The Lord does exhort us to redeem the time (Eph. 5:16). And Paul follows that up in verse 18 with a warning against drunkenness. How is that relevant to your question? Simply, this way. It is no sin to drink alcohol, but it is a sin to get drunk. In other words, you may righteously enjoy a beer, a glass of wine or anything of your choice, so long as you maintain self-control in your use of strong drink. The same would go for eating: gluttony is a sin, but the moderate and controlled eating of the best of foods and rich desserts is fine. And you are able to see, then, I think, how every one of the activities you ask about fits in with this pattern.
Books, for example, contain useful information, so long as they do not blaspheme or lead you into sinful areas of thought (lust and perversion, theological error or violent behavior, for example). They can be used to help in understanding the Bible or general revelation or for plain entertainment in leisure. The internet is a great research tool and can be used in a variety of ways that are proper and even godly. But it has its sinful applications. The same goes for each of the other activities you mention. The key point is edification. Don't do things that do not edify you and those around you (1 Cor. 10:23).
Start your day and end it in communion with your Lord, sanctify the day and all your activities by prayer and then let your Spirit informed conscience be your guide. Any other way, really, is legalism.


For instance, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way, Sagittarius A*, is about the size of the orbit of Mercury.
The U.S. National Science Foundation, which will host the event in Washington D.C., said the announcement was a "groundbreaking result". As Salon has previously explained, imaging a black hole directly is impossible, given that they do not emit light; rather, astronomers aim to capture the matter that swirls around them at incredible speed due to their huge gravity, and which often radiates light.
The worldwide team of over 200 globally-synched scientists, researchers and astrophysicists have not offered a peep about what will be shown on Wednesday, although they are not shy about the project and its implications.
A black hole's event horizon, one of the most violent places in the universe, is the point of no return beyond which anything gets sucked in irretrievably.
Wednesday news conference is expected to provide the first image of Sagittarius A* shadow on its accompanying disk of bright material. That theory, put forward in 1915, was meant to explain the laws of gravity and their relation to other natural forces.
Eight radio telescopes have been staring at two supermassive black holes since April 2017, according to AFP. After a black hole forms, it continues to grow by absorbing mass from its surroundings.
What is the Event Horizon Telescope project?
The second - called M87 - resides at the center of the neighboring Virgo A galaxy, boasting a mass 3.5 billion times that of the sun and located 54 million light-years away from Earth. Since then, telescopes in France and Greenland have been added to the network. Now the question is whether they can be mapped with enough precision to create a picture - and what that picture will reveal about the extreme environments surrounding black holes, where the more freakish aspects of Einstein's theory of general relativity are working at full force.
Beyond the historical implications of such an achievement, imaging a black hole's event horizon will also put Einstein's theory of general relativity to its ultimate test. Optical telescopes are not capable of making such an observation, in part because both potential target black holes are embedded within dense thickets of dust and stars that obscure the view.