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We are the manufacturing enterprise combined with raising industry in China. We specialized in designing and producing automatic poultry farm equipment. 20 Years' Equipment Producing Experience. Focusing on manufacturing, researching and developing automatic layer, broiler and pullet raising equipment and Naira account automatic chicken cage farm, GOLDENEGG provides customers with poultry farming solutions, including product research and development, project design, production, installation and service.
full automatic poultry farm. Jump to. Create New Account. See more of Best chicken cage and equipment for poultry farm on Facebook.
. Plastic Broiler Chicken Carriage Cage & Transport Cage for Chicken Farm Account Registered in: Automatic Layer Chicken Cage System for Poultry Farmer.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 5,669
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Homepage > Joss Whedon's Tv Series > Firefly > Interviews > Beta version of the Firefly online game ready for 2008 ?
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Gamingangels.com
Beta version of the Firefly online game ready for 2008 ?
Platform: PC - ERSB: TBD - Genre: MMO
Number of Players: Open space
Publisher: Mutliverse Network
Exclusive Interview with Corey Bridges, co-founder and executive producer, of The Multiverse Network about Firefly MMOG
Writers: Trina
Joss Whedon's much beloved Firefly may have found a new media to keep it alive for all the Browncoats that can't get enough of the metaverse. On December 8,2006 The Multiverse Network, Inc., announced that it optioned the rights to develop an MMOG based on Firefly the television series. The game itself is in the early beginning planning stages, but I had to interview Mr. Bridges about the concept and how he would bring the beloved characters and story to the gaming world.
Firefly is such a beloved tv show, how do you plan to capture that essence in the game?
Joss Whedon created a phenomenal, unique show. The characters were amazing but so was the feel of the show—the sense of adventure, and quirky humor—and that sense of being on the frontier, where there's unknown danger just past the edge of camp. An MMO can do a good job conveying those aspects of the show. You can't play as Captain Mal Reynolds—but you might meet him in the game. And maybe you could accept a smuggling mission from Badger or, if you're kinda nuts, from Niska. Just don't fail. We'd love for cast and crew from the show to be involved in the game. We just finalized our partnership with Fox, so now we are able to reach out to cast and crew, and see if they are interested in being involved in this project.
I read that you will be providing the tools for the game to be made. Do you have a team of developers ready to work on this game?
That's right. What we're doing at Multiverse is actually building a whole network of MMOs and other virtual worlds. You'll be able to use one installed program—the Multiverse Client—to play any game that's built with our world-creation tools. So that's what Multiverse does. But in our discussions with Fox, this opportunity arose to enable a Firefly game to be made, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to make that happen. We'll be hiring an independent team—someone who has the vision worthy of Firefly—to make the game.
So you were a Browncoat yourself?
Yep. Although I have to say, I didn't really know true Browncoat spirit until I went to a Firefly convention last weekend. It was remarkable—the convention's organizers cancelled the show at the last minute. But the Browncoats, who are used to people cancelling things things they love, said, "The hell with that—we're going to hold our convention anyway." So a replacement show sprang up from the ashes. People from all around the world—who weren't even at the convention—donated money so that the fans who were already in the hotel would have their show. Actors from the show—even though they'd been stiffed by the original convention's organizers—showed up out of the goodness of their hearts, to hang out with people, sign autographs, take pictures, and so forth. It was incredibly inspiring.
Is there any sort of time line on the game? Would you hope to show a test at next year's E3?
You'll be able to play at least a beta in 2008. That's a pretty short timeframe, compared to traditional MMO development, but the Multiverse technology platfrom saves at least a couple years in development time. We haven't decided whether we'll show anything at E3. In the meantime, look to the Firefly fan sites for news. We'll be keeping them in the loop because without the Browncoats, we wouldn't have had the inspiration to make this project happen.
Thank you Mr. Bridges for your time and for chatting with us about the verse! I look forward to reporting here what happens with the game.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 4,248
|
"""A library of basic combiner PTransform subclasses."""
# pytype: skip-file
from __future__ import absolute_import
from __future__ import division
import heapq
import operator
import random
import sys
import warnings
from builtins import object
from builtins import zip
from typing import Any
from typing import Dict
from typing import Iterable
from typing import List
from typing import Set
from typing import Tuple
from typing import TypeVar
from typing import Union
from past.builtins import long
from apache_beam import typehints
from apache_beam.transforms import core
from apache_beam.transforms import cy_combiners
from apache_beam.transforms import ptransform
from apache_beam.transforms import window
from apache_beam.transforms.display import DisplayDataItem
from apache_beam.typehints import with_input_types
from apache_beam.typehints import with_output_types
from apache_beam.utils.timestamp import Duration
from apache_beam.utils.timestamp import Timestamp
__all__ = [
'Count', 'Mean', 'Sample', 'Top', 'ToDict', 'ToList', 'ToSet', 'Latest'
]
# Type variables
T = TypeVar('T')
K = TypeVar('K')
V = TypeVar('V')
TimestampType = Union[int, float, Timestamp, Duration]
class Mean(object):
"""Combiners for computing arithmetic means of elements."""
class Globally(ptransform.PTransform):
"""combiners.Mean.Globally computes the arithmetic mean of the elements."""
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombineGlobally(MeanCombineFn())
class PerKey(ptransform.PTransform):
"""combiners.Mean.PerKey finds the means of the values for each key."""
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombinePerKey(MeanCombineFn())
# TODO(laolu): This type signature is overly restrictive. This should be
# more general.
@with_input_types(Union[float, int, long])
@with_output_types(float)
class MeanCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for computing an arithmetic mean."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return (0, 0)
def add_input(self, sum_count, element):
(sum_, count) = sum_count
return sum_ + element, count + 1
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
sums, counts = zip(*accumulators)
return sum(sums), sum(counts)
def extract_output(self, sum_count):
(sum_, count) = sum_count
if count == 0:
return float('NaN')
return sum_ / float(count)
def for_input_type(self, input_type):
if input_type is int:
return cy_combiners.MeanInt64Fn()
elif input_type is float:
return cy_combiners.MeanFloatFn()
return self
class Count(object):
"""Combiners for counting elements."""
class Globally(ptransform.PTransform):
"""combiners.Count.Globally counts the total number of elements."""
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombineGlobally(CountCombineFn())
class PerKey(ptransform.PTransform):
"""combiners.Count.PerKey counts how many elements each unique key has."""
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombinePerKey(CountCombineFn())
class PerElement(ptransform.PTransform):
"""combiners.Count.PerElement counts how many times each element occurs."""
def expand(self, pcoll):
paired_with_void_type = typehints.Tuple[pcoll.element_type, Any]
output_type = typehints.KV[pcoll.element_type, int]
return (
pcoll
| (
'%s:PairWithVoid' % self.label >> core.Map(
lambda x: (x, None)).with_output_types(paired_with_void_type))
| core.CombinePerKey(CountCombineFn()).with_output_types(output_type))
@with_input_types(Any)
@with_output_types(int)
class CountCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for computing PCollection size."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return 0
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
return accumulator + 1
def add_inputs(self, accumulator, elements):
return accumulator + len(list(elements))
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
return sum(accumulators)
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return accumulator
class Top(object):
"""Combiners for obtaining extremal elements."""
# pylint: disable=no-self-argument
class Of(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Obtain a list of the compare-most N elements in a PCollection.
This transform will retrieve the n greatest elements in the PCollection
to which it is applied, where "greatest" is determined by the comparator
function supplied as the compare argument.
"""
def _py2__init__(self, n, compare=None, *args, **kwargs):
"""Initializer.
compare should be an implementation of "a < b" taking at least two
arguments (a and b). Additional arguments and side inputs specified in
the apply call become additional arguments to the comparator. Defaults to
the natural ordering of the elements.
The arguments 'key' and 'reverse' may instead be passed as keyword
arguments, and have the same meaning as for Python's sort functions.
Args:
pcoll: PCollection to process.
n: number of elements to extract from pcoll.
compare: as described above.
*args: as described above.
**kwargs: as described above.
"""
if compare:
warnings.warn(
'Compare not available in Python 3, use key instead.',
DeprecationWarning)
self._n = n
self._compare = compare
self._key = kwargs.pop('key', None)
self._reverse = kwargs.pop('reverse', False)
self._args = args
self._kwargs = kwargs
def _py3__init__(self, n, **kwargs):
"""Creates a global Top operation.
The arguments 'key' and 'reverse' may be passed as keyword arguments,
and have the same meaning as for Python's sort functions.
Args:
pcoll: PCollection to process.
n: number of elements to extract from pcoll.
**kwargs: may contain 'key' and/or 'reverse'
"""
unknown_kwargs = set(kwargs.keys()) - set(['key', 'reverse'])
if unknown_kwargs:
raise ValueError(
'Unknown keyword arguments: ' + ', '.join(unknown_kwargs))
self._py2__init__(n, None, **kwargs)
# Python 3 sort does not accept a comparison operator, and nor do we.
# FIXME: mypy would handle this better if we placed the _py*__init__ funcs
# inside the if/else block below:
if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
__init__ = _py2__init__
else:
__init__ = _py3__init__ # type: ignore
def default_label(self):
return 'Top(%d)' % self._n
def expand(self, pcoll):
compare = self._compare
if (not self._args and not self._kwargs and pcoll.windowing.is_default()):
if self._reverse:
if compare is None or compare is operator.lt:
compare = operator.gt
else:
original_compare = compare
compare = lambda a, b: original_compare(b, a)
# This is a more efficient global algorithm.
top_per_bundle = pcoll | core.ParDo(
_TopPerBundle(self._n, compare, self._key))
# If pcoll is empty, we can't guerentee that top_per_bundle
# won't be empty, so inject at least one empty accumulator
# so that downstream is guerenteed to produce non-empty output.
empty_bundle = pcoll.pipeline | core.Create([(None, [])])
return ((top_per_bundle, empty_bundle) | core.Flatten()
| core.GroupByKey()
| core.ParDo(_MergeTopPerBundle(self._n, compare, self._key)))
else:
return pcoll | core.CombineGlobally(
TopCombineFn(self._n, compare, self._key, self._reverse),
*self._args,
**self._kwargs)
class PerKey(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Identifies the compare-most N elements associated with each key.
This transform will produce a PCollection mapping unique keys in the input
PCollection to the n greatest elements with which they are associated, where
"greatest" is determined by the comparator function supplied as the compare
argument in the initializer.
"""
def _py2__init__(self, n, compare=None, *args, **kwargs):
"""Initializer.
compare should be an implementation of "a < b" taking at least two
arguments (a and b). Additional arguments and side inputs specified in
the apply call become additional arguments to the comparator. Defaults to
the natural ordering of the elements.
The arguments 'key' and 'reverse' may instead be passed as keyword
arguments, and have the same meaning as for Python's sort functions.
Args:
n: number of elements to extract from input.
compare: as described above.
*args: as described above.
**kwargs: as described above.
"""
if compare:
warnings.warn(
'Compare not available in Python 3, use key instead.',
DeprecationWarning)
self._n = n
self._compare = compare
self._key = kwargs.pop('key', None)
self._reverse = kwargs.pop('reverse', False)
self._args = args
self._kwargs = kwargs
def _py3__init__(self, n, **kwargs):
"""Creates a per-key Top operation.
The arguments 'key' and 'reverse' may be passed as keyword arguments,
and have the same meaning as for Python's sort functions.
Args:
pcoll: PCollection to process.
n: number of elements to extract from pcoll.
**kwargs: may contain 'key' and/or 'reverse'
"""
unknown_kwargs = set(kwargs.keys()) - set(['key', 'reverse'])
if unknown_kwargs:
raise ValueError(
'Unknown keyword arguments: ' + ', '.join(unknown_kwargs))
self._py2__init__(n, None, **kwargs)
# Python 3 sort does not accept a comparison operator, and nor do we.
if sys.version_info[0] < 3:
__init__ = _py2__init__
else:
__init__ = _py3__init__ # type: ignore
def default_label(self):
return 'TopPerKey(%d)' % self._n
def expand(self, pcoll):
"""Expands the transform.
Raises TypeCheckError: If the output type of the input PCollection is not
compatible with Tuple[A, B].
Args:
pcoll: PCollection to process
Returns:
the PCollection containing the result.
"""
return pcoll | core.CombinePerKey(
TopCombineFn(self._n, self._compare, self._key, self._reverse),
*self._args,
**self._kwargs)
@staticmethod
@ptransform.ptransform_fn
def Largest(pcoll, n):
"""Obtain a list of the greatest N elements in a PCollection."""
return pcoll | Top.Of(n)
@staticmethod
@ptransform.ptransform_fn
def Smallest(pcoll, n):
"""Obtain a list of the least N elements in a PCollection."""
return pcoll | Top.Of(n, reverse=True)
@staticmethod
@ptransform.ptransform_fn
def LargestPerKey(pcoll, n):
"""Identifies the N greatest elements associated with each key."""
return pcoll | Top.PerKey(n)
@staticmethod
@ptransform.ptransform_fn
def SmallestPerKey(pcoll, n, reverse=True):
"""Identifies the N least elements associated with each key."""
return pcoll | Top.PerKey(n, reverse=True)
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(Tuple[None, List[T]])
class _TopPerBundle(core.DoFn):
def __init__(self, n, less_than, key):
self._n = n
self._less_than = None if less_than is operator.le else less_than
self._key = key
def start_bundle(self):
self._heap = []
def process(self, element):
if self._less_than or self._key:
element = cy_combiners.ComparableValue(
element, self._less_than, self._key)
if len(self._heap) < self._n:
heapq.heappush(self._heap, element)
else:
heapq.heappushpop(self._heap, element)
def finish_bundle(self):
# Though sorting here results in more total work, this allows us to
# skip most elements in the reducer.
# Essentially, given s map bundles, we are trading about O(sn) compares in
# the (single) reducer for O(sn log n) compares across all mappers.
self._heap.sort()
# Unwrap to avoid serialization via pickle.
if self._less_than or self._key:
yield window.GlobalWindows.windowed_value(
(None, [wrapper.value for wrapper in self._heap]))
else:
yield window.GlobalWindows.windowed_value((None, self._heap))
@with_input_types(Tuple[None, Iterable[List[T]]])
@with_output_types(List[T])
class _MergeTopPerBundle(core.DoFn):
def __init__(self, n, less_than, key):
self._n = n
self._less_than = None if less_than is operator.lt else less_than
self._key = key
def process(self, key_and_bundles):
_, bundles = key_and_bundles
def push(hp, e):
if len(hp) < self._n:
heapq.heappush(hp, e)
return False
elif e < hp[0]:
# Because _TopPerBundle returns sorted lists, all other elements
# will also be smaller.
return True
else:
heapq.heappushpop(hp, e)
return False
if self._less_than or self._key:
heapc = [] # type: List[cy_combiners.ComparableValue]
for bundle in bundles:
if not heapc:
heapc = [
cy_combiners.ComparableValue(element, self._less_than, self._key)
for element in bundle
]
continue
for element in reversed(bundle):
if push(heapc,
cy_combiners.ComparableValue(element,
self._less_than,
self._key)):
break
heapc.sort()
yield [wrapper.value for wrapper in reversed(heapc)]
else:
heap = []
for bundle in bundles:
if not heap:
heap = bundle
continue
for element in reversed(bundle):
if push(heap, element):
break
heap.sort()
yield heap[::-1]
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(List[T])
class TopCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn doing the combining for all of the Top transforms.
This CombineFn uses a key or comparison operator to rank the elements.
Args:
compare: (optional) an implementation of "a < b" taking at least two
arguments (a and b). Additional arguments and side inputs specified
in the apply call become additional arguments to the comparator.
key: (optional) a mapping of elements to a comparable key, similar to
the key argument of Python's sorting methods.
reverse: (optional) whether to order things smallest to largest, rather
than largest to smallest
"""
# TODO(robertwb): For Python 3, remove compare and only keep key.
def __init__(self, n, compare=None, key=None, reverse=False):
self._n = n
if compare is operator.lt:
compare = None
elif compare is operator.gt:
compare = None
reverse = not reverse
if compare:
self._compare = ((
lambda a, b, *args, **kwargs: not compare(a, b, *args, **kwargs))
if reverse else compare)
else:
self._compare = operator.gt if reverse else operator.lt
self._less_than = None
self._key = key
def _hydrated_heap(self, heap):
if heap:
first = heap[0]
if isinstance(first, cy_combiners.ComparableValue):
if first.requires_hydration:
assert self._less_than is not None
for comparable in heap:
assert comparable.requires_hydration
comparable.hydrate(self._less_than, self._key)
assert not comparable.requires_hydration
return heap
else:
return heap
else:
assert self._less_than is not None
return [
cy_combiners.ComparableValue(element, self._less_than, self._key)
for element in heap
]
else:
return heap
def display_data(self):
return {
'n': self._n,
'compare': DisplayDataItem(
self._compare.__name__ if hasattr(self._compare, '__name__') else
self._compare.__class__.__name__).drop_if_none()
}
# The accumulator type is a tuple
# (bool, Union[List[T], List[ComparableValue[T]])
# where the boolean indicates whether the second slot contains a List of T
# (False) or List of ComparableValue[T] (True). In either case, the List
# maintains heap invariance. When the contents of the List are
# ComparableValue[T] they either all 'requires_hydration' or none do.
# This accumulator representation allows us to minimize the data encoding
# overheads. Creation of ComparableValues is elided for performance reasons
# when there is no need for complicated comparison functions.
def create_accumulator(self, *args, **kwargs):
return (False, [])
def add_input(self, accumulator, element, *args, **kwargs):
# Caching to avoid paying the price of variadic expansion of args / kwargs
# when it's not needed (for the 'if' case below).
if self._less_than is None:
if args or kwargs:
self._less_than = lambda a, b: self._compare(a, b, *args, **kwargs)
else:
self._less_than = self._compare
holds_comparables, heap = accumulator
if self._less_than is not operator.lt or self._key:
heap = self._hydrated_heap(heap)
holds_comparables = True
else:
assert not holds_comparables
comparable = (
cy_combiners.ComparableValue(element, self._less_than, self._key)
if holds_comparables else element)
if len(heap) < self._n:
heapq.heappush(heap, comparable)
else:
heapq.heappushpop(heap, comparable)
return (holds_comparables, heap)
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators, *args, **kwargs):
if args or kwargs:
self._less_than = lambda a, b: self._compare(a, b, *args, **kwargs)
add_input = lambda accumulator, element: self.add_input(
accumulator, element, *args, **kwargs)
else:
self._less_than = self._compare
add_input = self.add_input
result_heap = None
holds_comparables = None
for accumulator in accumulators:
holds_comparables, heap = accumulator
if self._less_than is not operator.lt or self._key:
heap = self._hydrated_heap(heap)
holds_comparables = True
else:
assert not holds_comparables
if result_heap is None:
result_heap = heap
else:
for comparable in heap:
_, result_heap = add_input(
(holds_comparables, result_heap),
comparable.value if holds_comparables else comparable)
assert result_heap is not None and holds_comparables is not None
return (holds_comparables, result_heap)
def compact(self, accumulator, *args, **kwargs):
holds_comparables, heap = accumulator
# Unwrap to avoid serialization via pickle.
if holds_comparables:
return (False, [comparable.value for comparable in heap])
else:
return accumulator
def extract_output(self, accumulator, *args, **kwargs):
if args or kwargs:
self._less_than = lambda a, b: self._compare(a, b, *args, **kwargs)
else:
self._less_than = self._compare
holds_comparables, heap = accumulator
if self._less_than is not operator.lt or self._key:
if not holds_comparables:
heap = self._hydrated_heap(heap)
holds_comparables = True
else:
assert not holds_comparables
assert len(heap) <= self._n
heap.sort(reverse=True)
return [
comparable.value if holds_comparables else comparable
for comparable in heap
]
class Largest(TopCombineFn):
def default_label(self):
return 'Largest(%s)' % self._n
class Smallest(TopCombineFn):
def __init__(self, n):
super(Smallest, self).__init__(n, reverse=True)
def default_label(self):
return 'Smallest(%s)' % self._n
class Sample(object):
"""Combiners for sampling n elements without replacement."""
# pylint: disable=no-self-argument
class FixedSizeGlobally(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Sample n elements from the input PCollection without replacement."""
def __init__(self, n):
self._n = n
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombineGlobally(SampleCombineFn(self._n))
def display_data(self):
return {'n': self._n}
def default_label(self):
return 'FixedSizeGlobally(%d)' % self._n
class FixedSizePerKey(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Sample n elements associated with each key without replacement."""
def __init__(self, n):
self._n = n
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | core.CombinePerKey(SampleCombineFn(self._n))
def display_data(self):
return {'n': self._n}
def default_label(self):
return 'FixedSizePerKey(%d)' % self._n
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(List[T])
class SampleCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for all Sample transforms."""
def __init__(self, n):
super(SampleCombineFn, self).__init__()
# Most of this combiner's work is done by a TopCombineFn. We could just
# subclass TopCombineFn to make this class, but since sampling is not
# really a kind of Top operation, we use a TopCombineFn instance as a
# helper instead.
self._top_combiner = TopCombineFn(n)
def create_accumulator(self):
return self._top_combiner.create_accumulator()
def add_input(self, heap, element):
# Before passing elements to the Top combiner, we pair them with random
# numbers. The elements with the n largest random number "keys" will be
# selected for the output.
return self._top_combiner.add_input(heap, (random.random(), element))
def merge_accumulators(self, heaps):
return self._top_combiner.merge_accumulators(heaps)
def compact(self, heap):
return self._top_combiner.compact(heap)
def extract_output(self, heap):
# Here we strip off the random number keys we added in add_input.
return [e for _, e in self._top_combiner.extract_output(heap)]
class _TupleCombineFnBase(core.CombineFn):
def __init__(self, *combiners):
self._combiners = [core.CombineFn.maybe_from_callable(c) for c in combiners]
self._named_combiners = combiners
def display_data(self):
combiners = [
c.__name__ if hasattr(c, '__name__') else c.__class__.__name__
for c in self._named_combiners
]
return {'combiners': str(combiners)}
def create_accumulator(self):
return [c.create_accumulator() for c in self._combiners]
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
return [
c.merge_accumulators(a) for c,
a in zip(self._combiners, zip(*accumulators))
]
def compact(self, accumulator):
return [c.compact(a) for c, a in zip(self._combiners, accumulator)]
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return tuple(
[c.extract_output(a) for c, a in zip(self._combiners, accumulator)])
class TupleCombineFn(_TupleCombineFnBase):
"""A combiner for combining tuples via a tuple of combiners.
Takes as input a tuple of N CombineFns and combines N-tuples by
combining the k-th element of each tuple with the k-th CombineFn,
outputting a new N-tuple of combined values.
"""
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
return [
c.add_input(a, e) for c,
a,
e in zip(self._combiners, accumulator, element)
]
def with_common_input(self):
return SingleInputTupleCombineFn(*self._combiners)
class SingleInputTupleCombineFn(_TupleCombineFnBase):
"""A combiner for combining a single value via a tuple of combiners.
Takes as input a tuple of N CombineFns and combines elements by
applying each CombineFn to each input, producing an N-tuple of
the outputs corresponding to each of the N CombineFn's outputs.
"""
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
return [
c.add_input(a, element) for c, a in zip(self._combiners, accumulator)
]
class ToList(ptransform.PTransform):
"""A global CombineFn that condenses a PCollection into a single list."""
def __init__(self, label='ToList'): # pylint: disable=useless-super-delegation
super(ToList, self).__init__(label)
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | self.label >> core.CombineGlobally(ToListCombineFn())
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(List[T])
class ToListCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for to_list."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return []
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
accumulator.append(element)
return accumulator
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
return sum(accumulators, [])
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return accumulator
class ToDict(ptransform.PTransform):
"""A global CombineFn that condenses a PCollection into a single dict.
PCollections should consist of 2-tuples, notionally (key, value) pairs.
If multiple values are associated with the same key, only one of the values
will be present in the resulting dict.
"""
def __init__(self, label='ToDict'): # pylint: disable=useless-super-delegation
super(ToDict, self).__init__(label)
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | self.label >> core.CombineGlobally(ToDictCombineFn())
@with_input_types(Tuple[K, V])
@with_output_types(Dict[K, V])
class ToDictCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for to_dict."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return dict()
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
key, value = element
accumulator[key] = value
return accumulator
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
result = dict()
for a in accumulators:
result.update(a)
return result
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return accumulator
class ToSet(ptransform.PTransform):
"""A global CombineFn that condenses a PCollection into a set."""
def __init__(self, label='ToSet'): # pylint: disable=useless-super-delegation
super(ToSet, self).__init__(label)
def expand(self, pcoll):
return pcoll | self.label >> core.CombineGlobally(ToSetCombineFn())
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(Set[T])
class ToSetCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn for ToSet."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return set()
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
accumulator.add(element)
return accumulator
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
return set.union(*accumulators)
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return accumulator
class _CurriedFn(core.CombineFn):
"""Wrapped CombineFn with extra arguments."""
def __init__(self, fn, args, kwargs):
self.fn = fn
self.args = args
self.kwargs = kwargs
def create_accumulator(self):
return self.fn.create_accumulator(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
return self.fn.add_input(accumulator, element, *self.args, **self.kwargs)
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
return self.fn.merge_accumulators(accumulators, *self.args, **self.kwargs)
def compact(self, accumulator):
return self.fn.compact(accumulator, *self.args, **self.kwargs)
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return self.fn.extract_output(accumulator, *self.args, **self.kwargs)
def apply(self, elements):
return self.fn.apply(elements, *self.args, **self.kwargs)
def curry_combine_fn(fn, args, kwargs):
if not args and not kwargs:
return fn
else:
return _CurriedFn(fn, args, kwargs)
class PhasedCombineFnExecutor(object):
"""Executor for phases of combine operations."""
def __init__(self, phase, fn, args, kwargs):
self.combine_fn = curry_combine_fn(fn, args, kwargs)
if phase == 'all':
self.apply = self.full_combine
elif phase == 'add':
self.apply = self.add_only
elif phase == 'merge':
self.apply = self.merge_only
elif phase == 'extract':
self.apply = self.extract_only
elif phase == 'convert':
self.apply = self.convert_to_accumulator
else:
raise ValueError('Unexpected phase: %s' % phase)
def full_combine(self, elements):
return self.combine_fn.apply(elements)
def add_only(self, elements):
return self.combine_fn.add_inputs(
self.combine_fn.create_accumulator(), elements)
def merge_only(self, accumulators):
return self.combine_fn.merge_accumulators(accumulators)
def extract_only(self, accumulator):
return self.combine_fn.extract_output(accumulator)
def convert_to_accumulator(self, element):
return self.combine_fn.add_input(
self.combine_fn.create_accumulator(), element)
class Latest(object):
"""Combiners for computing the latest element"""
@with_input_types(T)
@with_output_types(T)
class Globally(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Compute the element with the latest timestamp from a
PCollection."""
@staticmethod
def add_timestamp(element, timestamp=core.DoFn.TimestampParam):
return [(element, timestamp)]
def expand(self, pcoll):
return (
pcoll
| core.ParDo(self.add_timestamp).with_output_types(
Tuple[T, TimestampType]) # type: ignore[misc]
| core.CombineGlobally(LatestCombineFn()))
@with_input_types(Tuple[K, V])
@with_output_types(Tuple[K, V])
class PerKey(ptransform.PTransform):
"""Compute elements with the latest timestamp for each key
from a keyed PCollection"""
@staticmethod
def add_timestamp(element, timestamp=core.DoFn.TimestampParam):
key, value = element
return [(key, (value, timestamp))]
def expand(self, pcoll):
return (
pcoll
| core.ParDo(self.add_timestamp).with_output_types(
Tuple[K, Tuple[T, TimestampType]]) # type: ignore[misc]
| core.CombinePerKey(LatestCombineFn()))
@with_input_types(Tuple[T, TimestampType]) # type: ignore[misc]
@with_output_types(T)
class LatestCombineFn(core.CombineFn):
"""CombineFn to get the element with the latest timestamp
from a PCollection."""
def create_accumulator(self):
return (None, window.MIN_TIMESTAMP)
def add_input(self, accumulator, element):
if accumulator[1] > element[1]:
return accumulator
else:
return element
def merge_accumulators(self, accumulators):
result = self.create_accumulator()
for accumulator in accumulators:
result = self.add_input(result, accumulator)
return result
def extract_output(self, accumulator):
return accumulator[0]
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 5,277
|
require "contracts/rspec/version"
require "contracts/rspec/mocks"
module Contracts
module RSpec
# Your code goes here...
end
end
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 1,056
|
You can purchase the SpyderX at our exclusive affiliate partner Adorama.
I have a spyder2, but replaced it with a system which also calibrates prints.
If it only included the ability to calibrate a TV, it would be a killer app. What I mean is, I'm still happy with my Spyder 4, getting accurate prints at the end of the workflow. Being able to use it for something in addition would compel me to upgrade now.
I'm sure it's entirely capable of calibrating a TV; a display is a display. Send the color patches over HDMI rather than USB.
I need Windows 10 to be fixed! It keeps unloading my color profile which makes editing photos an insanely difficult situation.
I also have a spyder 4 and I have used to calibrate a couple of TV's. In order to do this though your TV needs to have the relevant controls. On the Samsung TV's I have worked on you can manually adjust the RGB values of 10 points along the gamma curve. At the end of the day the calibration isn't as good as what you can get using a calibrated PC monitor but it is still a drastic improvement.
What you need to do is get HFCR software.
Place your calibrator on the TV and use HFCR to generate the patches, the beauty is that it can measure in real time so you can then adjust the settings until it matches the reference you select.
You can also do this using a DVD (or flash drive) that contains the patches if you don't have a PC to connect to the TV.
I found the following guide which has quite a significant amount of handy info. Feel free to ask me about any points that are unclear.
As for the topic I don't yet see the point in updating my spyder 4, it will be interesting to see how the new one compares with the xrite devices which seem to have a much better reputation (although my spyder has served me well).
Are you, by chance, using a laptop with intel graphics AND an nVidia GPU? I've got an Asus set up this way. After it boots, I get the correct ICC for a few minutes, then it pops to the default, which is noticeably cooler.
I have to go into Control Panel > Color Management, choose the Devices tab, then set the ICC profile from the calibration as the default again. And then it "sticks" until I reboot.
What a pain, but it is a work-around working for me.
Thanks Keith. I was hoping to see a comparison with the older Spyders or the X-rite i1Display, but did not see that.
Me too, although I ordered one anyway cause it was 50$ cheaper than x-rite. If spyder 5 is 80% or x-rite this might be 95%?
Unfortunately, I don't have the equipment (or number of sample calibrators) to do a meaningful comparison.
To do so would take a strictly defined test methodology and careful testing.
If you do find comparisons, then any without a true statistical analysis should be treated, if not as suspect, but at least with a pinch of salt.
The new sensor is faster and I've seen some work to suggest that it is better at shadow detail, but I have no figures that I'd include in a review.
I now bought and tried the SpyderX pro.
I used a laptop with a B156HAN04.5 panel. Originlly I could not find any review of this monitor on Notebokcheck, hence would like to have it calibrated.
The notebookcheck icm file is the clear better choice.
So it seems datacolor spyderX software and the new puck is nowhere near x-rite.
displayCAL also is not yet compatible with spyderX.
Cannot recommend this one unless someone can help me understand if I calibrated on top of an existing icm hence the very varying results.
Black Friday: Calibrate Your Display for as low as $99.99!
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 2,273
|
Knowledge, Knower, & What is to be Known #246
There are many triputis, or triple teachings, in the dharma, which help the practitioner to overcome the deluding pairs of opposites. Few of these are more profound and powerful than Knowledge, The Knower, and What is to be Known. It is a teaching from the Bhagavad Gita by Sri Krishna. As the seeker rolls his or her eyes over the teachings on this wisdom chart, everything is placed into right and proper perspective. The teaching informs and purifies the mind, heals rifts in duality, and reveals the secret of nonduality as well. Looking at this dharma art wisdom chart every day, observing its instructions, and meditating upon the Lord and Mother of the Universe, will take the soul inward and render it undeniably and irretrievably unified with Brahman.
Knowledge, Knower, & What is to be Known #246 quantity
Lack of Spiritual Success & Its Causes #100
A common occurrence and complaint among aspiring sadhikas and practitioners, in every age, is the lack of any appreciable progress along the path, sometimes even in the face of an active and ongoing spiritual practice. In the Vivekachudamani, Shankara takes this problem to task for the benefit of sincere seekers after Enlightenment. Most often it is an unclear or distorted perspective that hampers advancement, so the seeker, obtaining right guidance from the preceptor, must look both backwards and inwards to effect a solution. Then, and as long as the courage of one's convictions remains steady and long-lived, certain signs appear that allow the practitioner to move forward with all assurance. All of this, and more is outlined in Shankara's indepth scrutiny of all aspects surrounding this problem.
Qualification is King #33
For the consummate spiritual aspirant who desires freedom more than anything else in the three worlds, Mother India's storehouse of wisdom teachings represent a golden opportunity to qualify oneself in this rarest and most precious of all attainments. For the sincere, adamant seeker, this chart can act as a complete map in the luminous lands of higher wisdom and eternal dharma.
The Five Kinds & Twelve Types of Sacrifice #76
An intregal part of the sadhana of every living being in olden days in India, much of which has been lost or forgotten in this day and age, the principle and practice of Yagna, daily sacrifice, is sorely wanted and needed in today's spiritual arenas. Record of its glory is to be found in the Bhagavad Gita, where Sri Krishna outlines the art of it via utilizing acknowledgement and practice of worshipping and serving the gods, the rishis, the ancestors, human kind, and the subhuman species as well. A plethora of other noble and worthy selfless efforts are also to be found in this dharmic teaching, inspiring humanity to turn back to practices that will benefit rather than harm all sentient beings.
4 Sensitivities, 4 Attitudes, & 4 Perfections #163
Systems of religion and philosophy that coalesce several smaller systems have always been a particularly effective way of communicating spiritual truth and its wisdom in India. In this dharma art wisdom chart, three such systems have been brought together to lend more depth and intensity to the spiritual path, and to the ongoing sadhana that opens it for daily exploration.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 8,760
|
Farewell to St. Petersburg is a 1972 Soviet biopic film directed by Yan Frid. The film is about the Austrian composer Johann Strauss's stay in Russia, his concerts in Pavlovsk in the summer of 1857, and his love towards the Russian aristocrat Olga Smirnitskiy, to whom he dedicated several works.
Cast
Girt Yakovlev - Johann Strauss (voiced by Aleksandr Demyanenko)
Tatyana Bedova - Olga Smirnitskaya, Russian aristocrat
Tatyana Piletskaya - Natalia G. Smirnitskaya
Vasili Merkuryev - Leybrok
Pavel Kadochnikov - Pavel Maksimov
Igor Dmitriev - Grand Duke
Sergey Karnovich-Valois - manager
Yelena Anderegg as Olga Nikolayevna (as Ye. Anderegg)
Viktoriya Gorshenina
Pavel Kashlakov as Nechayev
Awards
Director Yan Frid received honorary diplomas at the Film Festival of Workers in Czechoslovakia (1973).
References
External links
Films directed by Yan Frid
1970s biographical drama films
Soviet biographical drama films
1970s musical drama films
Soviet musical drama films
Russian biographical drama films
1970s Russian-language films
1970s romantic musical films
Films set in the 19th century
Films about classical music and musicians
Films about composers
Biographical films about musicians
1972 drama films
1972 films
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
}
| 7,733
|
MALE/female APPLICANT CAN APPLY FOR THIS POST.
Candidate should be Tech Savvy and fluent in English.
Industry Preference - Manufacturing, Construction, Engineering etc.
Managing the documentation of the Sales Orders.
Managing a team of Execution officers (Sales support Dept).
Managing the follow up of Payments and Documentation with the clients.
Cooperation with the co worker in the Factory for Dispatch.
Travelling Outside Kolkata for Commercial work.
KRA - Execution of the Assignment within the stipulated time period, related to completion of Order and managing a team size of 10 people.
Should be excellent in English correspondences.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 474
|
Q: tomcat 8 throws 400 errors when dealing with get requests it seems to be a problem with the curly brackets {} that are used.
I have tried changing the connector that is in server.xml by adding relaxedPathChars='{ | }' relaxedQueryChars='{ | }' but hasn't fixed the issue. also added URIEncoding="UTF-8" useBodyEncodingForURI="true" to the same connector.
I am unable to change the curly brackets myself as its coming from an external script and i cannot change the url string beforehand, so i am trying to change settings within tomcat to allow {} but no luck so far.
This is all on a nginx web server, if that helps.
A: Newer versions of Tomcat are trying to comply with RFC7230 / RFC3986 (limiting which characters can be used in URL). But it causes problems with some older apps and there is now a way how to override those rules. (see discussion here: https://bz.apache.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=62273)
There were some changes of this behaviour in recent versions of Tomcat.
In current versions (8.0.53, 8.5.34, 9.0.12) you can use relaxedPathChars and relaxedQueryChars attributes of Connector in server.xml:
<Connector port="8080" protocol="HTTP/1.1" connectionTimeout="60000"
relaxedQueryChars='^{}|[]'
redirectPort="8443" />
In older versions, this behaviour was set up by now deprecated(!) system property tomcat.util.http.parser.HttpParser.requestTargetAllow (https://tomcat.apache.org/tomcat-8.5-doc/config/systemprops.html)
Note, that there are some Tomcat versions which implement strict rules, but don't have this option yet.
(I have also seen Tomcat version that was older, but patched - this behaviour was changed to address possible vulnerability - http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2016-6816)
A: You cannot use curly brackets in a URL
RFC1738 lists them as being unsafe characters, and says unsafe characters must always be encoded within a URL.
You will have to find a way of changing { to %7B and } to %7D before passing the request or by design the request will never work.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 6,811
|
This is a simple game from [Udacity](https://www.udacity.com) Front-end Nanodegree project 3: Arcade Game
===============================
## Getting started
1. Use narrow keys to control the sprite, trying to go to the river(blue areas)
2. Avoid collision against enemies(bugs) when running
3. You have 3 chances(heart) in a rotation
4. After 3 times losing heart, or when winning the game, press enter to restart
## Resources
* [Udacity package](https://github.com/udacity/frontend-nanodegree-arcade-game)
* [Google Fonts: Sigmar One](https://www.google.com/fonts#QuickUsePlace:quickUse/Family:Sigmar+One)
* [MDN collision logistic](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Games/Techniques/2D_collision_detection)
* [onerror method to show cover letter](http://goo.gl/1JAuCn) and [demo](http://jsfiddle.net/g6LyK/). By [a paid nerd](http://stackoverflow.com/users/102704/a-paid-nerd)
## Tecniques
* HTML5 canvas
* Object Oriented JavaScript
* Time Delta
* [setTimeout with bind method](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Function/bind)
## Thanks!
Thanks for the Udacity coach: Susan Smith! Thank you for your capable support and great patience!
## Bugs
1. When winning, the player can stand on the river, but the alert window shows 3 times, which is not right.
## Rubric and Guide from Udacity
Students should use this [rubric](https://review.udacity.com/#!/projects/2696458597/rubric) for self-checking their submission.
For detailed instructions on how to get started, check out this [guide](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1v01aScPjSWCCWQLIpFqvg3-vXLH2e8_SZQKC8jNO0Dc/pub?embedded=true).
## License
Arcade-game is under the [MIT license](http://choosealicense.com/licenses/mit/). Copyright (c) 2016 [shisaq](https://github.com/shisaq).
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 2,168
|
<?php
namespace Sonata\AdminBundle\Tests\Fixtures\Admin;
class PostWithCustomRouteAdmin extends PostAdmin
{
protected $baseRoutePattern = '/post-custom';
protected $baseRouteName = 'post_custom';
}
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 6,689
|
\section{Introduction}
Technological advances of the past decade have made it possible
to construct clean electronic devices of a linear size smaller
than their elastic mean free path, but still much larger than the
Fermi wavelength \cite{Revdot1,Revdot2,Revdot3}. The motion of the
electrons in these {\it quantum dots} is thus ballistic, and
determined by an externally imposed confinement potential. On the
classical level the dynamics can vary between two extremes,
according to whether the confinement potential gives rise to
integrable or chaotic motion \cite{Lichtenberg,Ott}. This
classification is carried over to the quantum dynamics
\cite{Bar93,Mar93,Haake,stoeckmann}, with most of the theoretical
efforts focusing on the chaotic case. It has been conjectured
\cite{BGS,Ber85} that chaotic quantum dots fall into the same
universality class as random disordered quantum dots. The latter
exhibit a degree of universality which is well captured by
random-matrix theory (RMT) \cite{RMT1,RMT2,Ben97}. Starting, e.g.,
from the scattering theory of transport \cite{scatg1,scatg2}, RMT provides a
statistical description, where the system's scattering matrix is
assumed to be uniformly distributed over one of Dyson's circular
ensembles \cite{blum90,Meh91,Guh98}. This sole assumption allows
to calculate transport quantities such as the average conductance,
shot noise, and counting statistics, including coherent quantum
corrections such as weak localization and universal conductance
fluctuations \cite{RMT1,RMT2,Ben97}. RMT can also be extended to
the energy dependence of the scattering matrix by linking it to a
random effective Hamiltonian of Wigner's Gaussian universality
classes \cite{Ben97,Guh98,efetovbook}. This allows to investigate
quantum dynamical properties such as time delays and escape rates
\cite{FS}, as well as the density of states of
normal-superconducting hybrid structures \cite{Mel96}.
RMT assumes that all cavity modes are well mixed, hence, that the
system displays well-developed wave chaos. Impurities serve well
for this purpose, since s-wave scattering couples into all
directions with the same strength. Indeed, RMT enjoys a well-based
mathematical foundation for disordered systems
\cite{efetovbook,efetov,piet95}. In ballistic chaotic systems, the
scattering is off the smooth boundaries, which is not directly
diffractive in contrast to the scattering from an impurity. On the
other hand, classical chaos is associated to a strong sensitivity
of the dynamics to uncertainties in the initial conditions, which
are amplified exponentially with time $\sim \exp(\lambda t)$
(where $\lambda$ is the Lyapunov exponent). Hence, there are
little doubts that RMT also gives a correct description for
ballistic systems where this sensitivity yields to well-developed
wave chaos.
The precise conditions under which wave chaos emerges
from classical chaos are however just being uncovered. Generically, RMT is
bounded by the existence of finite time scales. In closed chaotic
systems, for instance, spectral fluctuations are known to deviate
from RMT predictions for energies larger than the inverse period
of the shortest periodic orbit \cite{Ber85}. For transport through
open chaotic systems, classical ergodicity clearly has to be
established faster than the lifetime of an electron in the system.
Accordingly, the dynamics should not allow for too many short,
nonergodic classical scattering trajectories going straight
through the cavity, or hitting its boundary only very few times
\cite{Naz03}. This requires that the inverse Lyapunov exponent
$\lambda^{-1}$ and the typical time $\tau_{\rm B}$ between bounces
off the confinement are much smaller than the dwell time
$\tau_{\rm D}$, hence $\lambda^{-1}, \tau_{\rm B} \ll \tau_{\rm
D}$. In practice, these conditions are fulfilled when the openings
are much smaller than the linear system size $L$. RMT universality
also requires that
$\lambda^{-1}$, $\tau_{\rm B}$, and $\tau_D$ are
smaller than the Heisenberg time $\tau_{\rm H}=h/\Delta$ (with
$\Delta$ the mean level spacing). The condition $\tau_{\rm
H}\gg\tau_{\rm B}$ guarantees that a large number of internal
modes $M={\rm Int}[\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm B}]$ are mixed by the
chaotic scattering (RMT is then independent of microscopic details
of the ensemble \cite{Ben97}). The condition $\tau_H\gg\tau_D$
translates into a large total number of open scattering channels
in all leads, $N_{\rm tot}={\rm Int}\, [\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm
D}]$, such that details of the openings can be neglected. Together
with the condition $\tau_B\ll\tau_D$, this implies $1\ll N_{\rm
tot} \ll M$. The limit $M\to\infty$, $M/N_{\rm tot}={\rm const}$
is equivalent to the semiclassical limit of a small Fermi wave
length $\lambda_{\rm F}/L \to 0$, all classical parameters
being kept fixed. These requirements have been thoroughly
investigated in the past \cite{Ben97,piet95,Lew91}.
More recently, following the seminal work of Aleiner and Larkin
\cite{Ale96}, it has become clear that a new time scale,
associated to the {\em quantum-to-classical correspondence} of
wave-packet dynamics (and in this sense, the validity of
Ehrenfest's theorem), also restricts the validity of the RMT of
ballistic transport. This time scale $\tau_{\rm E}$, usually
referred to as the Ehrenfest time, is roughly the time it takes
for the chaotic classical dynamics to stretch an initially narrow
wave packet, of Fermi wavelength $\lambda_{\rm F}$, to some
relevant classical length scale ${\cal L}$ (cf.\ Fig.\
\ref{fig:sketch}). Since the stretching $\propto \exp[\lambda t]$
is exponential in time, one has $\tau_{\rm E}\propto\lambda^{-1}
\ln[{\cal L}/\lambda_{\rm F}]$ \cite{Berman78}. The Ehrenfest time
poses a lower limit to the validity of RMT because wave chaos is
associated to the splitting of wave packets into many partial
waves, which then interfere randomly. In ballistic chaotic
systems, the wave packet splitting is only established when
initial quantum uncertainties blow up to the classical level. For
shorter times, the quantum dynamics still bears the signatures of
classical determinism, which is not captured by RMT.
When $\lambda_{\rm F}$ is decreased, all classical parameters
being kept constant -- the very same semiclassical limit
purportedly required for RMT universality -- $\tau_{\rm E}$
becomes parametrically larger than $\tau_{\rm B}$ and
$\lambda^{-1}$, and indeed may start to compete with the dwell
time $\tau_{\rm D}$. One may thus wonder what is left of the RMT
universality of open systems, and more generally of quantum
effects in that limit. Indeed, there are many instances where
quantum-to-classical correspondence at finite $\tau_{\rm E}$ leads
to strong deviations from the universal RMT behavior. Such
deviations are not only of fundamental interest, but also provide
practical mechanisms to suppress or accentuate quantum properties.
This short review provides a survey of the current knowledge of
the quantum-to-classical correspondence in open ballistic systems,
focusing on the deviations from RMT due to a finite Ehrenfest
time.
We start with a brief general classification of the Ehrenfest time
for different physical situations such as transport, escape, and
closed-system properties (section \ref{ehrenfest}). We then turn
our attention to three specific applications where deviations from
RMT universality occur once the relevant Ehrenfest time is no
longer negligible. First (section \ref{transport}), we discuss
transport properties in a two-terminal geometry.
Quantum-to-classical correspondence is reflected in the
distribution of the transmission eigenvalues, and results in the
suppression of electronic shot noise and the breakdown of
universality for sample-to-sample conductance fluctuations. Second
(section \ref{decay}), we discuss the decay modes (quasi-bound
states) of the system. Escape routes faster than the Ehrenfest
time give rise to highly localized, ballistically decaying
quasi-bound states, while the density of long-lived quasi-bound
states is renormalized according to a fractal Weyl law. Finally
(section \ref{andreev}), we investigate the excitation spectrum of
normal-metallic ballistic quantum dots coupled to an $s$-wave
superconductor (the mesoscopic proximity effect). The presence of
the superconducting terminal introduces a new dynamical process
called {\it Andreev reflection} (charge-inverting
retroreflection), which induces a finite quasiparticle lifetime
and opens up a gap in the density of states around the Fermi
energy. The size and shape of the gap show deviations from the RMT
predictions when the Ehrenfest time is no longer negligible
against the lifetime of the quasiparticle. Conclusions are
presented in section \ref{conclusions}.
Because of the slow, logarithmic increase of $\tau_{\rm
E}\propto\ln M$ with the effective size $M$ of the Hilbert space,
the ergodic semiclassical regime $\tau_{\rm E} \gtrsim \tau_{\rm
D}$, $\lambda \tau_{\rm D} \gg 1$ is unattainable by standard
numerical methods. The numerical results reviewed in this paper
are all obtained for a very efficient model system, the open
kicked rotator \cite{Jac03,Two03,Bor91,Oss02}, which we briefly
describe in the Appendix.
\section{Classification of Ehrenfest times \label{ehrenfest}}
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=14cm]{fig1.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:sketch} Sketch of the dynamics of a wave
packet in the phase space of an open system. The left and middle
panels apply to the case of transport. The initial wave packet is
maximally stretched along the stable manifold without substantial
leakage out of the shaded rectangular area, which represents an
opening of the system. After five bounces the wave packet returns
to the opening, now being elongated along the unstable manifold
(dashed lines; the sketches neglect the bending of the manifolds).
In the left picture, the transport Ehrenfest time $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}$ is larger than the dwell time $\tau_{\rm D}$. The
returning wave packet still fits through the opening, with only
minimal leakage. Hence, the particle leaves the system
deterministically, as prescribed by the classical dynamics of the
wave-packet center (dots).
The middle picture corresponds to a more chaotic system (with
larger Lyapunov exponent), resulting in $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)} <
\tau_{\rm D}$. The stretching is stronger and the wave packet is
not fully transmitted. In the subsequent dynamics, the partially
reflected wave components will interfere randomly, which gives
rise to wave chaos.
In the escape problem, the initial wave packet can be squeezed
more closely to the stable manifold, and the associated Ehrenfest
time $\tau_{\rm E}^{(1)}$ is larger than the transport Ehrenfest
time. This is illustrated in the right panel. }
\end{figure}
The relevant Ehrenfest time depends on the physical situation at
hand, but follows a very simple classification.
Quantum-to-classical correspondence is maximized for wave packets
that are initially elongated along the stable manifold of the
classical dynamics, so that the dynamics first yields to
compression, not to stretching (see Fig.\ \ref{fig:sketch}). The
initial extent of elongation along the stable manifolds is limited
either by the linear width of the openings $W$, or the linear
system size $L$, depending on whether the physical process
requires injection into the system or not. In the same way, the
final extent of the wave packet has to be compared to $W$ or $L$
depending on whether the physical process requires the particle to
leave the system or not. For sufficiently ergodic chaotic dynamics
($\lambda^{-1}$, $\tau_{\rm B} \ll \tau_{\rm D}$, which implies
$W\ll L$) and in the absence of sharp geometrical features
(besides the presence of the openings), the resulting Ehrenfest
time can be expressed by the three classical time scales and the
Heisenberg time $\tau_{\rm H}$ \cite{Berman78,Vav03,Scho04}:
\begin{equation}
\tau_{\rm E}^{(n)}=\lambda^{-1}\ln
\left[\frac{\tau_{\rm H}}{\tau_{\rm B}}\left(\frac{\tau_{\rm B}}{\tau_{\rm D}}\right)^n\right]
\;\;\; ; \;\;\; n=\left\{
\begin{array}{cc}
0 & {\rm closed \; system}, \\
1 & {\rm escape}, \\
2 & {\rm transport}.
\end{array}
\right.
\label{eq:lyapexp}
\end{equation}
Here $n$ gives the number of passages through the openings
associated to the physical process. Expression (\ref{eq:lyapexp})
holds for two-dimensional systems such as lateral quantum dots
\cite{Revdot1,Revdot2,Revdot3} or microwave cavities
\cite{stoeckmann}, as well as for the stroboscopic one-dimensional
model systems often used in the numerical simulations ($\tau_{\rm
B}$ is then the stroboscopic period; see the Appendix). Expression
(\ref{eq:lyapexp}) also holds for three-dimensional systems (such
as metallic grains) with two-dimensional openings when $\lambda$
is replaced by the sum of the two positive Lyapunov exponents.
The difference between the three Ehrenfest times can be attributed
to the additional splitting of a wave packet into partially
transmitted and partially reflected waves at each encounter with
an opening. Transport involves two passages via the openings. The
first passage, at injection, determines the initial spread of the
associated wave packet. The Ehrenfest time is then obtained by
comparing the final spread to the width of the opening at the
second passage, where the electron leaves the system. This results
in the transport Ehrenfest time $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}=\lambda^{-1}
\ln[\tau_{\rm H}\tau_{\rm B}/ \tau_{\rm D}^2]$. The same Ehrenfest
time also affects the excitation spectrum of normal-metallic
cavities which are coupled by the openings to an $s$-wave
superconductor, for which the relevant physical process is the
consecutive Andreev reflection of the two quasi-particle species
at the superconducting terminal ($\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ was actually
first derived in that context \cite{Vav03}). In the escape
problem, the electron is no longer required to originate from an
opening. This lifts the restriction on the initial confinement of
the wave packet and allows to squeeze it closer to the stable
manifolds, as its elongation is not limited by the width of the
opening but by the linear system size. Hence, the escape Ehrenfest
time is larger than the transport Ehrenfest time by a factor
$\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}$ in the logarithm: $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(1)}=\lambda^{-1}\ln [\tau_{\rm H} / \tau_{\rm D}]$. This
value is exactly in the middle of the transport Ehrenfest time
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ and the conventional Ehrenfest time
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(0)}=\lambda^{-1} \ln[\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm B}]$
for closed systems \cite{Berman78}, for which initial and final
extents of the wave packet must be compared against the linear
size of the system.
The semiclassical limit is achieved for $\tau_{\rm H}\to\infty$
while the classical time scales $\lambda^{-1}$, $\tau_{\rm B}$,
and $\tau_{\rm D}$ are fixed. The Ehrenfest time then increases
logarithmically with $\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm B}$, which is
$\propto L/\lambda_{\rm F}$ for two dimensions and $\propto
(L/\lambda_{\rm F})^2$ for three dimensions. In this paper, we
will denote this limit by $M\to\infty$ while keeping $M/N_{\rm
tot}$ fixed, where $M={\rm Int}[\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm B}]$ is the
effective number of internal modes mixed by the chaotic
scattering, and $N_{\rm tot}={\rm Int}[\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm
D}]\ll M$ is the total number of open channels.
\section{Quantum-to-classical crossover in transport \label{transport}}
A rough classification distinguishes transport properties whose
magnitude can be expressed by classical parameters from
quantities that rely on quantum coherence \cite{Ben97}. Examples
of the former class are the conductance $G\sim\rho e v_{\rm F}/V$
(where $\rho$ is the electronic density in an energy interval $eV$
around the Fermi energy, $V$ is the voltage, and $v_{\rm F}$ is
the Fermi velocity) and the electronic shot noise $P\sim P_0=2 e^2
G V$. The latter class is represented by the weak localization
correction to the conductance
and the universal conductance fluctuations, which in
RMT are both of the order of a conductance quantum $G_0=e^2/h$. In
the presence of a finite Ehrenfest time, a much richer picture
emerges: in particular the sample-to-sample conductance
fluctuations are elevated to a classical level, while the shot
noise is suppressed.
The origin of these strong deviations from universal RMT behavior
can be traced down to the distribution of transmission
eigenvalues. We specifically consider transport through a chaotic
cavity in a two-terminal geometry, and restrict ourselves to the
case where the number of open channels leading to the electronic
reservoirs are the same, $N_{\rm L} = N_{\rm R} \equiv N = N_{\rm
tot}/2$. The scattering matrix ${\cal S}$ is a $2N \times 2N$
matrix, written in terms of $N \times N$ transmission (${\bf t}$
and ${\bf t}'$) and reflection (${\bf r}$ and ${\bf r}'$) matrices
as
\begin{eqnarray}\label{blocks}
{\cal S}= \left( \begin{array}{ll}
{\bf r} & {\bf t}' \\
{\bf t} & {\bf r}'
\end{array}\right).
\end{eqnarray}
The system's conductance is given by $G/G_0 = {\rm Tr} ({\bf
t}^\dagger {\bf t}) = \sum_n T_n$ \cite{scatg1,scatg2}, where the
$T_n\in [0,1]$ are the transmission eigenvalues of ${\bf
t}^\dagger {\bf t}$. In the limit $N \rightarrow \infty$ and
within RMT, their probability distribution is given by
\cite{RMT1,RMT2,Ben97}
\begin{equation}\label{probt}
P_{\rm RMT}(T) = \frac{1}{\pi} \frac{1}{\sqrt{T(1-T)}} \;\;\;\;\;\;
; \;\;\;\;\;\; T \in[0,1].
\end{equation}
Equation (\ref{probt}) requires that the standard conditions for RMT universality discussed in the
introduction are met, $\lambda^{-1},\tau_{\rm B}\ll\tau_{\rm D}\ll\tau_{\rm H}$ (hence, $1\ll N \ll M$).
However, even when those conditions apply, it has recently
been observed that
strong deviations from Eq.~(\ref{probt}) occur
in the semiclassical limit $M\to\infty$ \cite{Jac04}.
This is illustrated in Fig.~\ref{transmission}, which shows the results of a numerical investigation of
the open kicked rotator (described in the Appendix).
Instead of Eq.~(\ref{probt}),
the transmission eigenvalues appear to be distributed according to
\begin{equation}\label{probtalpha}
P_{\rm \alpha}(T) = \alpha P_{\rm RMT}(T) +\frac{1-\alpha}{2}
\left[\delta(T)+\delta(1-T)\right].
\end{equation}
The presence of $\delta$-peaks at $T=0$ and $T=1$ in
$P_{\rm \alpha}(T)$ becomes more evident once the integrated distribution
$I(T)=\int_0^T P(T') dT'$ is plotted. From Eq.~(\ref{probtalpha}) one has
\begin{equation}\label{iprobtalpha}
I_{\rm \alpha}(T) = \frac{2 \alpha}{\pi} \arcsin \sqrt{T} \; + \;
\frac{1-\alpha}{2} (1 + \delta_{1,T}),
\end{equation}
so that $I_{\rm \alpha}(0)=(1-\alpha)/2$ vanishes only for
$\alpha=1$. For the data in Fig.~\ref{transmission}, it turns out
that the parameter $\alpha$ is well approximated by $\alpha
\approx \exp[-(\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}+\tau_{\rm B})]/\tau_{\rm D}]$
\cite{Jac04}, with the transport Ehrenfest time $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}$ given in Eq.\ (\ref{eq:lyapexp}). Hence, for a
classically fixed configuration (i.e. considering an ensemble of
systems with fixed $\lambda$, $\tau_{\rm B}$, and $\tau_{\rm D}$),
the fraction $f=1-\alpha$ of deterministic transmission
eigenvalues with $T=0,1$ approaches $f=1$ in the semiclassical limit
$M\to\infty$, $M/N={\rm const}$.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=14cm]{fig2.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{transmission} Left panel: Integrated probability
distribution $I(T)$ of transmission eigenvalues for open kicked
rotators with $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=25$ and $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)} \simeq 0$ (empty circles; distribution calculated over
729 different samples); $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$, and
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm B}=0.16$ ($\times$; 1681 samples),
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm B}=1.5$ (black diamonds; 729
samples), $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm B}=2.8$ (empty squares; 16
samples), and $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm B}=4.1$ (black
triangles; 2 samples). The blue, violet, yellow, green and red
lines give the distribution $I_{\alpha}$ of
Eq.~(\ref{iprobtalpha}), with $\alpha \approx 0.98$, 0.81, 0.6,
0.45 and 0.385 respectively. Right panel: Probability distribution
$P(T)$ of transmission eigenvalues for the same set of parameters
as in the main panel (data for $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$ and
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm B}=1.5$ have been removed for
clarity). The blue solid line gives the universal distribution
$P_{\rm RMT}$ of Eq.~(\ref{probt}) while the red dashed line
corresponds to Eq.~(\ref{probtalpha}), with $\alpha = 0.39$. Note
that $P(T)$ is symmetric around $T=0.5$.}
\end{figure}
The emergence of classical determinism in the semiclassical limit
reflects the fact that short trajectories are able to carry a wave
packet in one piece through the system, provided that the wave
packet is localized over a sufficiently small volume (see Fig.\
\ref{fig:sketch}). Equation (\ref{probtalpha}) moreover suggests
that the spectrum of transmission eigenvalues is the sum of two
independent contributions, precisely what would happen if the
total electronic fluid of the system would split into two
coexisting phases, a classical and a quantal one \cite{caveat2}.
This splitting leads to a two-phase fluid model. It has been
surmised that the quantal phase can be modelled by RMT
\cite{Sil03}, which results in an {\it effective random-matrix
model} with renormalized matrix dimension $\alpha N$. Since
$\alpha N\propto N^{1-1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}}\to\infty$ in the
semiclassical limit (see the related discussion of the fractal
Weyl law in section \ref{decay}), effective RMT predicts that the
universality of quantum interference such as weak localization and
parametric conductance fluctuations is not affected by a finite
Ehrenfest time. This model is supported by a semiclassical theory
based on the two-fluid model \cite{Whi05}. On the other hand, a
stochastic quasiclassical theory which models mode-mixing by isotropic
residual diffraction predicts that quantum interference effects
are suppressed for a finite Ehrenfest time
\cite{Ale96,Bro05,Bro05b,Ada03}.
Numerical investigations on parametric conductance
fluctuations \cite{Jac04,Bro05b,Two04cond} give support for the RMT universality
of the quantal phase (see Sec.\ \ref{sec:ucf}),
and variants of the effective RMT
model have been successfully utilized beyond transport
applications (see Secs.\ \ref{decay}, \ref{andreev}).
On the other hand, while an
earlier numerical investigation of the weak-localization
correction \cite{Two04} reported no clear dependence of the
magnetoconductance $\delta G=G(B=0)-G(B=\infty)$
on the Ehrenfest time, very recent investigations \cite{Bro05,Bro05b} find
a suppression of $\delta
G$ for an increasing Ehrenfest time. The observed suppression is in agreement with the
prediction $\delta G \propto \exp[-\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/ \tau_{\rm
D}]$ of a modified quasiclassical theory \cite{Bro05b} in which
the suppression results from electrons
with dwell time between $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ and $2\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$.
However, the quasiclassical theory cannot explain why the parametric conductance
fluctuations are not suppressed. It also does not yet deliver as many predictions beyond
transport as the effective RMT (for quasiclassical predictions of the mesoscopic
proximity effect, see Sec.\ \ref{andreev}).
At present, both effective RMT as well as the quasiclassical theory
have to be considered as phenomenological models, as they involve
uncontrolled approximations.
Clearly, a microscopic theory for the quantal phase which
establishes the extent of its universality is highly desirable.
This poses a considerable theoretical challenge considering that
even in the limit of a vanishing Ehrenfest time a microscopic
foundation for RMT in ballistic systems is only slowly emerging
\cite{Richter}. In this section, we focus
on the consequences of the emergence of deterministic transport
modes for the shot noise and the conductance fluctuations, as most
of these consequences are largely independent of the precise
degree of universality among the non-deterministic transport
modes.
\subsection{Suppression of shot noise}
Shot noise is the non-thermal component of the electronic current fluctuations
\cite{Bla00}
\begin{equation}
P(\omega)=2\int_{-\infty}^\infty \langle \delta I(t)\delta I(0) \rangle \exp(i\omega t)\,dt
,
\end{equation}
where $\delta I(t) = I(t)-\bar I$ is the deviation of the current
from the mean current $\bar I$, and $\langle \ldots \rangle$
denotes the expectation value. This noise arises because of
stochastic uncertainties in the charge carrier dynamics, which can
be caused by a random injection process, or may develop during the
transport through the system. For completely uncorrelated charge
carriers, the noise attains the Poissonian value $P_0=2 e^2 G V$.
Deviations from this value are a valuable indicator of
correlations between the charge carriers.
Phase coherence requires sufficiently low temperatures, at which
Pauli blocking results in a regular injection and collection of
the charge carriers from the bulk electrodes. The only source of
shot noise is then the quantum uncertainty with which an electron
is transmitted or reflected. This is expressed by the quantum
probabilities $0 \le T_n \le 1$. In terms of these probabilities,
the zero-frequency component of the shot noise is given by
\cite{buettiker}
\begin{equation}
P(\omega=0)=2 G_0 e V\sum T_n(1-T_n).
\label{eq:noise}
\end{equation}
This is always smaller than the Poisson value,which can be attributed to the Pauli blocking.
In RMT, the universal value of shot noise in cavities with
symmetric openings follows from Eq.~(\ref{probt}),
$P(\omega=0)=\frac{1}{4}P_0$ \cite{RMT1}. It was predicted by Agam
{\em et al.} \cite{Aga00} that shot noise is further reduced below
this value when the Ehrenfest time is finite,
\begin{equation}
P(\omega=0)=\frac{1}{4}P_0\exp(-\tau_{\rm E}/\tau_{\rm D}).
\end{equation}
The RMT value has been observed by Oberholzer {\em et al.} in
shot-noise measurements on lateral quantum dots \cite{Obe00}. The
same group later observed that the shot noise is reduced below the
universal RMT result when the system is opened up (which reduces
$\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}$, not $\tau_{\rm H}/\tau_{\rm B}$)
\cite{Obe02,BeenToday}.
Equation (\ref{eq:noise}) certifies that classically deterministic
transport channels with $T_n=0$ or $T_n=1$ do not contribute to
the shot noise \cite{Bee91}. Ref.\ \cite{Aga00} is based on the
quasiclassical theory \cite{Ale96} which models mode-mixing by
residual diffraction, and equates the Ehrenfest time with the
closed-system Ehrenfest time $\tau_{\rm E}^{(0)}$. The discussion
of the formation of the deterministic transport channels suggests
that this has to be replaced by the transport Ehrenfest time
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ \cite{Vav03}. Subsequent numerical
investigations have tested this prediction for the open kicked
rotator \cite{Two03}. Results for various degrees of chaoticity
(quantified by the Lyapunov exponent $\lambda$) and dwell times
$\tau_{\rm D}$ are shown in Fig.\ \ref{fig:noise}. The shot noise
is clearly suppressed below the RMT value as the semiclassical
parameter $M$ is increased. The right panel shows a plot of $-\ln
(4P/P_0)$ as a function of $\ln N^2/M\sim \ln (\tau_{\rm
H}\tau_{\rm B}/4\tau_{\rm D}^2)$. The data is aligned along lines
with slope $1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}$. This confirms that the
suppression of the shot noise is governed by $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$,
in agreement with the distribution (\ref{probtalpha}) of
transmission eigenvalues.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=10.5cm]{fig3a.eps}
\includegraphics[width=5cm]{fig3b.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:noise} Left and middle panels: dependence of
the shot noise on the semiclassical parameter $M\sim \tau_{\rm
H}/\tau_{\rm B}$ for two different Lyapunov exponents $\lambda$
and three different dwell times $\tau_{\rm D}$ of the open kicked
rotator (as indicated in the plots). The solid line is the
prediction from RMT. The dashed lines are obtained from a
semiclassical estimate of the number of deterministic transport
channels \cite{Sil03}. Right panel: rescaled data in a
double-logarithmic plot, together with lines of slope
$1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}$. Figures adapted from Ref.~\cite{Two03}.}
\end{figure}
\subsection{From universal to quasiclassical conductance fluctuations \label{sec:ucf}}
Universal conductance fluctuations are arguably one of the most
spectacular manifestations of quantum coherence in mesoscopic
systems \cite{ucf}. In metallic samples, the universality of the
conductance fluctuations manifests itself in their magnitude,
${\rm rms}\, G = O(G_0)$, independently on the sample's shape and
size, its average conductance or the exact configuration of the
underlying impurity disorder. In ballistic chaotic systems, a
similar behavior is observed, which is captured by RMT
\cite{RMT1,RMT2,Ben97}. At the core of the universality lies the
{\it ergodic hypothesis} that sample-to-sample fluctuations are
equivalent to fluctuations induced by parametric variations (e.g.
changing the Fermi energy or applying a magnetic field) within a
given sample \cite{ucf}.
\begin{figure}
\vspace{2.cm}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=9.5cm]{fig4.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:ucf} Variance $\sigma^2(G)$ of the conductance
vs. the rescaled effective Hilbert space size $M/M_c$ in the open
kicked rotator for parameters $K \in [9.65,27.65]$, $\tau_{\rm
D}/\tau_{\rm B} \in [5,25]$, and $M \in [128,16384]$. The scaling
parameter $M_c= 2\pi(\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B})^2
\exp(\lambda\tau_{\rm B})$ varies by a factor $70$. The solid and
dashed lines indicate the classical, sample-to-sample behavior
$\propto M^2$, and the universal behavior $\sigma^2(G)=G_0^2/8$,
respectively. Inset: unscaled data for $K=9.65$ and $\tau_{\rm D}/
\tau_{\rm B}=5$ (circles), 7 (squares), 10 (diamonds), 15 (upward
triangles) and 25 (downward triangles). Figure taken from
Ref.~\cite{Jac04}.}
\end{figure}
Three numerical works explored the quantum-to-classical crossover
of conductance fluctuations \cite{Jac04,Bro05b,Two04cond}. Their
findings are consistent with each other and support the conclusion
that (i) the ergodic hypothesis breaks down once $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}$ is no longer negligible; (ii) under variation of a
quantum parameter such as the energy, the conductance fluctuations
stay at their universal value, independently on $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D}$; and (iii) sample-to-sample fluctuations
increase sharply above the universal value, $\sigma^2(G) \propto
G_0^2(M/M_c)^2$, when $M$ becomes larger than $M_c =
2\pi(\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B})^2 \exp(\lambda\tau_{\rm B})$.
Findings (i)-(iii) are illustrated in Fig.~\ref{fig:ucf}, which presents results obtained from the open kicked rotator model.
They can
be understood on the basis of the two-phase dynamical fluid discussed above.
The deterministic transport channels are insensitive to the variation
of a quantum parameter that influences the phase accumulated on
an unchanged classical trajectories. However, once one changes the
sample configuration, all classical trajectories are scrambled and
huge classical conductance fluctuations result.
The size of the classical fluctuations is determined by the
quantum mechanical resolution of classical phase space structures
corresponding to the largest cluster of fully transmitted or reflected
neighboring trajectories (see Ref.~\cite{Sil03}), which yields the scaling with $M$
(inset of Fig.~\ref{fig:ucf}) and $M_c$ (main panel of Fig.~\ref{fig:ucf}).
When a quantum parameter is varied, the
conductance fluctuates only due to
long, diffracting trajectories with $t>\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$, which build
up the quantal phase. With the further
assumption that the quantal phase is described by the effective
RMT model, it follows that the parametric fluctuations are
universal, independently on $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ (crosses in the
main panel of Fig.~\ref{fig:ucf}). These conclusions are also
supported by the observation in Ref.~\cite{Jac04} that the energy
conductance correlator $F(\varepsilon) = \sigma^{-2} (G) \;
\langle \delta G(\varepsilon_0) \delta
G(\varepsilon_0+\varepsilon) \rangle$ decays on the universal
scale of the Thouless energy, $\propto h/\tau_{\rm D}$,
independently on $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$.
\section{Decay of quasi-bound states \label{decay}}
Suppose that the particle is not injected by one of the openings
but is instead prepared (e.g., as an excitation) inside the system
and then escapes through the openings (we will consider the case
of a single opening with $N_{\rm tot}\equiv N$ channels). Instead
of the transport modes, this situation leads us to consider the
decay modes of the system, determined by the stationary
Schr{\"o}dinger wave equation with outgoing boundary conditions.
In contrast to the hermitian eigenvalue problem for a closed
system, an open system with such boundary conditions features a
non-selfadjoint Hamilton operator with complex energy eigenvalues
and mutually non-orthogonal eigenmodes, called quasi-bound states
\cite{Guh98,FS,narimanov}. The imaginary part of the complex energy
$E=E'-i\frac{\hbar \Gamma}{2}$ of a quasibound state is associated
to its escape rate $\Gamma$ (hence, all eigenvalues lie in the
lower half of the complex-energy plane). These energies coincide
with the poles of the scattering matrix, which establishes a
formal link between transport and escape. Since RMT encompasses
also the energy dependence of the scattering matrix, it delivers
precise predictions for the escape rates and wave functions of the
quasi-bound states. Hence, we are again confronted with the issue
to determine the range of applicability of these predictions in
light of the signatures of classical determinism observed in the
short-time dynamics up to the characteristic Ehrenfest time for
the escape problem.
The universal RMT prediction for the escape rates can be obtained via two routes.
The standard route relates
the scattering matrix ${\cal S}$ to an effective
$M \times M$-dimensional Hamiltonian matrix $H$ representing the closed billiard, and
$M \times N$-dimensional matrices $W$ that couple it to the openings \cite{Guh98},
\begin{equation}\label{heidelberg}
{\cal S}(E) = 1 - 2 \pi i W^T (E-H+i \pi W W^T)^{-1} W.
\end{equation}
The superscript ``$T$'' indicates the transpose of the matrix. The
poles of the scattering matrix are then obtained as the
eigenvalues of the non-hermitian matrix $H-i \pi W W^T$. Assuming
that $H$ is a random Gaussian matrix, one can obtain detailed
predictions of the density of these eigenvalues for arbitrary
coupling strength \cite{FS}. For $1\ll N\ll M$, the probability
density of decay rates is then given by
\begin{equation}
P(\Gamma)=\frac{1}{\tau_{\rm D}\Gamma^2}\Theta(\Gamma-\tau_{\rm D}^{-1}),
\label{eq:pgamma}
\end{equation}
where $\Theta$ is the unit step function.
The second route to the distribution of decay rates is particularly adaptable for the case of
ballistic dynamics. It starts from the formulation of the scattering matrix in
terms of
an {\em internal} $M \times M$-dimensional scattering matrix $U(E)$,
which describes the return amplitude to the confinement of the system
\cite{prange,almeida,fyodorov}. For ballistic openings one has
\begin{equation}\label{smatrixdecay}
{\cal S}(E) = P U(E) [1 - (1-P^T P)U(E) ]^{-1} P^T,
\end{equation}
where $P\propto W$
such that $P^TP$ is an idempotent projector onto the leads.
The poles of the scattering matrix are obtained as the
solutions of the determinantal equation ${\rm det}\, [1-(1-P^T P)U(E) ]=0$.
In the semiclassical limit $M\to\infty$, the matrix $U(E)$ carries
an overall phase factor $\exp(i\nu(E))$ with phase velocity
$d\nu/dE=\tau_{\rm B}/\hbar$, equivalent to a level spacing
$\Delta=h/M\tau_{\rm B}=h/\tau_{\rm H}$. In RMT, the distribution
of the poles is obtained under the assumption that $U(E)=F\exp(i E
\tau_{\rm B}/\hbar)$ is proportional to a random unitary matrix
$F$. The truncated unitary matrix $(1-P^T P)F$ has eigenvalues
$\mu=\exp[-(i E'/\hbar+\gamma/2)\tau_{\rm B}]$, where the decay
constant $\gamma$ is related to the decay rate by
$\Gamma=\frac{1}{\tau_{\rm B}}\left(1-e^{-\gamma\tau_{\rm
B}}\right)$. The distribution of these decay constants is given by
\cite{zyc}
\begin{equation}
P(\gamma)=\frac{\tau_{\rm B}^2}{4\tau_{\rm
D}\sinh^2(\gamma\tau_{\rm B}/2)} \Theta(1-e^{-\gamma\tau_{\rm
B}}-\tau_{\rm B}/\tau_{\rm D}),
\end{equation}
which is equivalent to Eq.\ (\ref{eq:pgamma}).
RMT does not account for escape routes with a lifetime shorter
than the Ehrenfest time. Recently, it has been found that these
routes induce the formation of anomalously decaying quasi-bound
states, with very large escape rate $\Gamma$ \cite{Scho04}. The
semiclassical support of the associated wave functions is
concentrated in a small area of phase space, (their total number
is much larger than according to Weyl's rule of one state per
Planck cell). For illustration, Fig.~\ref{fig:decay1} shows
classical regions of escape after a few bounces in the open kicked
rotator, along with two examples of anomalously decaying
quasi-bound states, which are both localized in the same region of
classical escape after one bounce. These states are contrasted
with a slowly decaying state, which displays a random wave
pattern.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=3.5cm]{fig5a_reduced.eps}
\includegraphics[width=3.5cm]{fig5b.eps}
\includegraphics[width=3.5cm]{fig5c.eps}
\includegraphics[width=3.5cm]{fig5d.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:decay1} Panel (a): Classical regions of escape
after one to four bounces (color code) in an open kicked rotator
with $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$ and $K=7.5$ ($\lambda\tau_{\rm
B}\approx 1.3$). Panels (b) and (c): Husimi representations of two
anomalously decaying quasi-bound states for $M=160$. Panel (d):
Husimi representations of a slowly-decaying quasi-bound state.
Figure adapted from Ref.\ \cite{Scho04}.}
\end{figure}
In order to discuss these observations, let us assume that the
particle is initially represented by a localized wave packet
$\chi_0$ (such as sketched in Fig.\ \ref{fig:sketch}). The
evolution of this wave packet from bounce to bounce with the
confinement is given by
\begin{equation}
\chi_m=[(1-P^T P)U(E)]^m\chi_0.
\label{eq:scprop}
\end{equation}
When the final wave packet fits well through the opening the decay is sudden, hence not exponential at all.
For such sudden escape the wave packets generated by the dynamical evolution all are associated to rather special eigenstates of the truncated operator $(1-P^T P)U(E)$: If the escape occurs after $n$ bounces, then
\begin{equation}
[(1-P^T P)U(E)]^{n-m}\chi_m = 0
\label{eq:scleak}
\end{equation}
(neglecting the exponentially suppressed leakage out of the opening area). This corresponds to a highly degenerate eigenvalue $\mu=0$,
hence, $\Gamma=\infty$.
Obviously, the (algebraic) multiplicity of this eigenvalue is at
least $m$. However, in the semiclassical construction there is
only one true eigenstate associated to this eigenvalue, namely,
$\chi_{n-1}$. This deficiency is a consequence of the
non-normality of the truncated unitary operator, for which the
existence of a complete set of eigenvectors is not guaranteed. The
degeneracy of the states is lifted beyond the semiclassical
approximation, due to leakage out of the opening area. Hence, in
practice one finds a complete set of eigenstates associated to
this escape route, but the states are almost identical and hence
are all supported by the same area in phase space.
As a consequence of the strong overlap of the anomalously decaying
states, Weyl's rule of covering the support of the states by
Planck cells (of size $\sim 1/M$) cannot be used to estimate their
number. The $m$ states $\chi_{n}$, however, are semiclassically
orthogonal, and Eqs.\ (\ref{eq:scprop}) and (\ref{eq:scleak})
imply that they span the same eigenspace as the nearly degenerate
eigenstates (they provide a Schur decomposition). The
orthogonality of these states reinstates the applicability of
Weyl's rule. When we further observe that the semiclassical
construction requires a reliable quantum-to-classical
correspondence of the wave packet dynamics ($m\tau_{\rm
B}<\tau_{\rm E}^{(1)}$), one can estimate the relative fraction
$f$ of ballistically decaying states by the probability to escape
faster than $\tau_{\rm E}^{(1)}$. Under the assumption of well
developed classical ergodicity ($\tau_{\rm D}\gg\tau_{\rm
B},\lambda^{-1}$), this probability is given by
\begin{equation}
f=1-\exp(-\tau^{(1)}_{\rm E}/\tau_{\rm D}), \label{eq:f}
\end{equation}
with the escape Ehrenfest time given in Eq.\ (\ref{eq:lyapexp})
\cite{Scho04}.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=12cm]{fig6.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:decay2} Ordered decay factors
$|\mu_n|=\exp(-\gamma_n\tau_B/2)$ for an open kicked rotator with
$\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$ and $K=7.5$ ($\lambda\tau_{\rm
B}\approx 1.3$) as a function of the relative indices $n/M$ [panel
(a)] and $n/\overline M$ [panel (b)], for $M=2^m\times 80$,
$m=0,1,2,\ldots,8$. The solid line in panel (a) is the RMT result
of Eq.\ (\ref{eq:zycz}) with $\overline{M}=M$. The solid line in
panel (b) is the same result with $\overline M$ given by
Eq.~(\ref{eq:Mbar}--\ref{eq:weyl}). For the dashed line, this
effective dimension has been fitted to the data. Figure adapted
from Ref.\ \cite{Scho04}.}
\end{figure}
Equation (\ref{eq:f}) has been tested numerically in the open
kicked rotator by sorting all decay factors
$|\mu_n|=\exp(-\gamma_n\tau_{\rm B}/2)$, $n=1,2,3,\ldots,M$,
according to their magnitude (see Fig.\ \ref{fig:decay2}). The
data approximately collapses onto a single curve when the relative
index $n/M$ is rescaled with $\exp(-\tau^{(1)}_{\rm E}/\tau_{\rm
D})$. For small decay rates, the scaling function follows closely
the RMT curve \cite{zyc}
\begin{equation}
n(|\mu|)=\overline M[1-\frac{\tau_{\rm B}}{\tau_{\rm
D}}(1-|\mu|^2)^{-1}] \quad (|\mu|^2>1-\tau_{\rm B}/\tau_{\rm D}),
\label{eq:zycz}
\end{equation}
where the matrix dimension is rescaled to
\begin{equation}\label{eq:Mbar}
\overline M=M\exp(-\tau^{(1)}_{\rm E}/\tau_{\rm D}) .
\end{equation}
This equation can be rewritten as
\begin{equation}
\overline M=M^{1-1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}} (\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B})^{1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}},
\label{eq:weyl}
\end{equation}
which is precisely of the form of a fractal Weyl law
\cite{lu,non}. More generally, the exponent of $M$ in this law is
related to the fractal dimension of the repeller in the system.
Equation (\ref{eq:weyl}) applies under the conventional conditions
for RMT universality ($\tau_{\rm B},\lambda^{-1}\ll\tau_{\rm D}\ll
\tau_{\rm H}$), for which the low fractal dimensions can be
approximated by $d=1-1/\lambda\tau_{\rm D}+O((\lambda\tau_{\rm
D})^{-2})$ \cite{beck}. For a discussion of $d$ and the scaling
function outside this universal regime see the article of
Nonnenmacher and Zworski in the present issue \cite{non}.
\section{Quantum-to-classical crossover in the mesoscopic proximity effect \label{andreev}}
We finally consider the situation of a ballistic metallic cavity
in contact with a conventional superconductor, a so-called {\it
Andreev billiard} \cite{Kos,carlorev}. Compared to the normal
billiards considered so far, the presence of superconductivity
induces a new dynamical process called Andreev reflection, that
is, retroreflection accompanied by electron-hole conversion
\cite{Andreev}. This process prevents individual low-energy
quasiparticles from entering the superconductor.
For chaotic billiards it has been found that an excitation gap is
formed as a consequence of the Andreev reflection, in that the
Density of States (DoS) in the cavity is suppressed at the Fermi
level. The energetic scale of this gap is the ballistic Thouless
energy $E_{\rm T}=\hbar/2\tau_{\rm D}$, where $\tau_{\rm D}$ is
the average time between two consecutive Andreev reflections
\cite{Mel96}. For simplicity we consider the case of a single
superconducting terminal with $N_{\rm tot}\equiv N$ open channels
at the Fermi energy.
\subsection{Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization versus random-matrix theory}
In an ergodic cavity, all classical trajectories except a set of
zero measure eventually collide with the superconducting
interface. Andreev retroreflection is perfect at the Fermi energy,
where the hole exactly retraces the electronic path. For a nonzero
electronic excitation energy $E>0$, electron-hole symmetry is
broken, and consequently there is a mismatch between the incidence
and the retroreflection angle. For the lowest excitation energies
$\propto E_{\rm T}$ in the limit $\lambda \tau_{\rm D} \gg 1$,
this mismatch is a small parameter. Consequently, all
electron-hole trajectories become periodic. In the semiclassical
limit where both the perimeter $L$ of the cavity and the width $W$
of the contact to the superconductor are much larger than
$\lambda_{\rm F}$ (hence $M,N\gg 1$), the semiclassical
Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule relates the mean DoS to the
return probability $P(t)$ to the superconductor \cite{Mel96},
\begin{equation}
\rho(E) = N \int_0^\infty {\rm d} t P(t) \sum_{m=0}^\infty
\delta\left[E-(m+\frac{1}{2}) \frac{\pi \hbar}{t}\right].
\label{bs_quant}
\end{equation}
The shift by $1/2$ inside the $\delta$-function
is due to two consecutive phase shifts of $\pi/2$
at each Andreev reflection. This ensures that no contributions
with an energy smaller than $E_{\rm min}(t) = \pi\hbar /2 t$
emerge from trajectories of duration $t$. Since a chaotic cavity
has an exponential distribution of return times $P(t) \propto
\exp[-t/\tau_{\rm D}]$ \cite{Bertsch}, Eq.~(\ref{bs_quant})
predicts an exponential suppression of the DoS in the chaotic case
\cite{Sch99},
\begin{equation}\label{bs_expdos}
\rho(E) = \frac{N \tau_{\rm D}}{\pi } \frac{
(2 \pi /E \tau_{\rm D})^2 \cosh (2 \pi /E \tau_{\rm D})}
{\sinh^2 (2 \pi /E \tau_{\rm D})}.
\end{equation}
The DoS can also be calculated in the framework of RMT. The
excitation spectrum is obtained in the scattering approach from
the determinantal quantization condition \cite{Ben97}
\begin{equation}\label{det_andreev}
{\rm Det}[1+{\cal S}(E) {\cal S}^*(-E)] = 0.
\end{equation}
By Eq.~(\ref{heidelberg}), the scattering matrix ${\cal S}$ is
then related to a Hamiltonian matrix $H$. For low energies, Eq.\
(\ref{det_andreev}) can be transformed into an eigenvalue equation
for an effective Hamiltonian \cite{Fra96}
\begin{eqnarray}\label{andreev_eff}
{\rm Det}[E-H_{\rm eff}] = 0 \;\; , \;\;\;\;\;\;
H_{\rm eff} = \left(
\begin{array}{cc}
H & -\pi P P^T \\
-\pi P P^T & -H^*
\end{array}
\right).
\end{eqnarray}
Assuming that $H$ is a random matrix, it has been found that the
excitation spectrum exhibits a hard gap with a ground-state energy
$E_{\rm RMT}\approx 0.6\,E_{\rm T}$ \cite{Mel96}. At first glance,
both the Bohr-Sommerfeld and the RMT approach are expected to
apply for chaotic cavities with $\lambda^{-1}$, $\tau_{\rm B}
\ll\tau_{\rm D}$. The hard gap prediction of RMT has thus to be
reconciled with the exponential suppression (\ref{bs_expdos}) from
Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization.
A path toward the solution to this {\it gap problem} was suggested
by Lodder and Nazarov \cite{lodder}, who argued that the
Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization is valid only for return times
smaller than the relevant Ehrenfest time, which was later
identified with $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ [given in Eq.\
(\ref{eq:lyapexp})] \cite{Vav03}. For $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D} \gg 1$, it was predicted that the hard RMT
gap opens up at an energy $\simeq \hbar/\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ in the
Bohr-Sommerfeld DoS. A mechanism for the opening of this gap was
soon proposed by Adagideli and Beenakker \cite{Inanc}.
Constructing a perturbation theory, they showed that diffraction
effects at the contact with the superconductor become singular in
the semiclassical limit, which results in the opening of a gap at
the inverse Ehrenfest time. More recent analytical and numerical
works confirm that the solution to the gap problem lies in the
competition between the Ehrenfest time and dwell time scales
\cite{Jac03,Vav03,Altland,Sil03b,Goo03,Goo05,kormanyos}.
\subsection{Ehrenfest suppression of the gap}
At present there are two theories for quantizing Andreev billiards
in the deep semiclassical limit. The first one proceeds along the
lines of the two-phase fluid model and the effective RMT discussed
in Section~\ref{transport}, but extended to take the energy
dependence of the scattering matrix into account
\cite{Sil03b,Goo05}. The system's scattering matrix is decomposed
into two parts,
\begin{equation}
S_0(E) = S_{\rm cl}(E) \oplus S_{\rm qm}(E),
\end{equation}
where the classical part $S_{\rm cl}(E)$ of dimension $M
(1-\exp[-\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D}])$ is complemented by a quantal part
$S_{\rm eff}(E)$ of dimension $M \exp[-\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D}]$.
The excitation spectrum hence splits into
classical contributions originating from scattering trajectories
shorter than the Ehrenfest time, and quantum contributions supported
by longer trajectories for which diffraction effects are important.
An adiabatic quantization procedure allows to extract the classical
part of the excitation spectrum, while diffraction effects
are included in the theory via effective RMT,
$S_{\rm qm}(E)= \exp[i E \tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\hbar] S_{\rm RMT}$, where $S_{\rm RMT}$
is a random matrix from the appropriate circular
ensemble, while the factor $\exp[i E \tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\hbar]$ accounts
for the delayed onset of random interference.
The second theory, due to Vavilov and Larkin \cite{Vav03}, is
based on the quasiclassical theory of Ref.~\cite{Ale96}, which
models the mode mixing in the long time limit by isotropic residual
diffraction, with the diffraction time set to $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)}$. Standard techniques based on ensemble averaging can
then be applied. In the limit $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)} \ll \tau_{\rm
D}$,the predictions of both theories for the gap value (given by
the smallest excitation energy $\epsilon_0$) differ by a factor of
$2$ \cite{carlorev},
\begin{equation}\label{gapfction}
\frac{\epsilon_0}{E_{\rm RMT}}=1-
\frac{\alpha \tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}}{2 \tau_{\rm D}}, \;\;\;\;
\alpha = \left\{
\begin{array}{cc}
2\sqrt{5}- 4& {\rm effective \; RMT}, \\
\sqrt{5}-2 & {\rm quasiclassical \; theory}.
\end{array}
\right.
\end{equation}
In the other limit $\tau_{\rm
E}^{(2)} \gg \tau_{\rm D}$, both theories predict
$\epsilon_0=\pi\hbar/2\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}$ \cite{carlorev}. In the
transient region $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)} \simeq \tau_{\rm D}$, the two
theories are parametrically different. These discrepancies have
motivated detailed numerical investigations (based on the Andreev
kicked rotator described in the Appendix) which we now review
\cite{Jac03,Goo03,Goo05}.
\begin{figure}
\vspace{0.5cm}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=9cm]{fig7.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{andreev_gap}
Main plot: Dependence of the mean Andreev gap on the system size $M$, for open kicked rotators with
$\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$ and $K=14$. Averages have been calculated
with 400 (for $M=512$) to 40 (for $M > 5 \cdot 10^5$) different positions
of the contacts to the superconductor. The error bars represent the
root-mean-square of $\epsilon_0$. The dashed line is the
RMT prediction and the solid line is a linear fit to the data points.
Inset:
Dependence of the mean gap on $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}$ for $K=14$ and
$M=524288$. The dashed line is the RMT prediction and the solid
curve is given by Eq.\ (\ref{gapfction}),
with coefficients extracted from the linear fit
in the main plot. Figure adapted from Ref.~\cite{Jac03}.}
\end{figure}
We first show in Fig.\ \ref{andreev_gap} the systematic reduction
of the excitation gap observed upon increasing the ratio
$\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D}$. The data corresponds to fixed
classical configurations (dwell time and Lyapunov exponent) with
variation of the semiclassical parameter $M$. The main panel is a
semi-logarithmic plot of $\epsilon_0/E_{\rm T}$ as a function of
$M \in [2^9,2^{19}]$, for $\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$ and
$K=14$, well in the fully chaotic regime ($\lambda\tau_{\rm B}
\approx 1.95$). The data has been fitted to
\begin{eqnarray}\label{gapfctionnum}
\frac{\epsilon_0}{E_{\rm RMT}}=1- \frac{\alpha}{2 \lambda
\tau_{\rm D}} \left[ \ln (N^2/M) - \alpha' \right],
\end{eqnarray}
as implied by Eq.~(\ref{gapfction}) (the parameter $\alpha'$
accounts for model-dependent subleading corrections to the
Ehrenfest time). We find $\alpha=0.59$ and $\alpha'=3.95$. Once
$\alpha$ and $\alpha'$ are extracted, one obtains a parameter-free
prediction for the dependence of the gap on $\tau_{\rm
D}/\tau_{\rm B}$, which is shown as the solid line in the inset to
Fig.\ \ref{andreev_gap}. We conclude that Eq.\ (\ref{gapfction})
gives the correct parametric dependence of the Andreev gap for
small Ehrenfest times. Within the numerical uncertainties, the
value of $\alpha$ conforms with the prediction of effective RMT.
Similar conclusions were drawn in Ref.~\cite{kormanyos} from
numerical investigations of Sinai billiards.
\subsection{Quasiclassical fluctuations of the gap}
The distribution $P(\epsilon_0)$ of the Andreev gap has been calculated within
RMT in Ref.~\cite{Vav01}. It was shown to be a universal function
of the rescaled parameter $(\epsilon_0-E_{\rm RMT})/\Delta_N$,
where $\Delta_N=0.068 N^{1/3} \Delta$ gives the mean level spacing
right above the gap in terms of the bulk level spacing $\Delta$. Similarly, the standard deviation of the distribution
is given by $\sigma(\epsilon_0) = 1.27 \Delta_N$.
The universality of the gap distribution is violated when the
Ehrenfest time is finite. As in the case of the conductance, the
sample-to-sample gap fluctuations are then dominated by classical
fluctuations. In a simple approximation, the effective RMT model
gives a qualitative prediction for the gap value in the crossover
from a small to a large Ehrenfest time \cite{Sil03b},
\begin{equation}\label{gap_taus}
\epsilon_0 = \frac{E_{\rm RMT}}{1+\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm
D}}.
\end{equation}
A more precise form of the gap function was derived in
Ref.~\cite{carlorev}. Sample-to-sample fluctuations can be
incorporated into the effective RMT model when one replaces the
dwell time in Eq.~(\ref{gap_taus}) by the mean dwell
time of long trajectories, that is one makes the substitution
\begin{equation}\label{inverseT}
(\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)} + \tau_{\rm D}) \rightarrow \langle t
\rangle_* = \int_{\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}}^{\infty}{\rm d} t\,t P(t) \; \Bigg/ \;
\int_{\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}}^{\infty}{\rm d} t\, P(t).
\end{equation}
This was done in
Ref.~\cite{Goo03}. The result with the correct gap function from
Ref.~\cite{carlorev} is shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:Egap}
\cite{Goothesis}. It is seen that the gap fluctuations are greatly
enhanced to the same order of magnitude as the gap itself. It was
indeed found that $\sigma(\epsilon_0)$ becomes a function of
$\tau_{\rm D}$ only in the limit of large $M$. From
Fig.~\ref{fig:Egap}, correlations between sample-to-sample
variations of $\epsilon_0$ and $\langle t \rangle_*^{-1}$ are
evident, clearly establishing the classical origin of the
sample-to-sample fluctuations in the large $M$ regime.
\begin{figure}
\begin{center}
\includegraphics[width=8cm]{fig8.eps}
\end{center}
\caption{\label{fig:Egap} Quantum mechanical gap values
$\epsilon_0$ of the Andreev kicked rotator as a function of the
position $p_{\rm{lead}}$ of the center of the interface with the
superconductor, for parameter values $M=131072$, $\tau_{\rm
D}/\tau_{\rm B}=5$, $K=14$. The solid line uses
effective RMT to relate the gap fluctuations to the fluctuations
of the
mean dwell time $\langle t \rangle_*$ of long classical
trajectories, defined in Eq.~(\ref{inverseT}).
Figure courtesy of Marlies Goorden \cite{Goothesis}.
}
\end{figure}
Together with the average value and sample-to-sample fluctuations
of $\epsilon_0$, additional numerical evidence for the validity of
the two-phase fluid model in Andreev billiards was presented in
Refs.~\cite{Goo03,Goo05}. Most notably, the critical magnetic
field at which the gap closes was found to be determined by the
competition between two values, $B_c^{\rm{eff}}$ and
$B_c^{\rm{ad}}$. These fields correspond, respectively, to the
disappearance of the gap for the quantum, effective RMT part and
the classical, adiabatically quantized part of the spectrum.
Moreover, Ref.~\cite{Goo05} showed how most of the full density of
states at finite $\tau_{\rm E}^{(2)}/\tau_{\rm D}$ can be obtained
from the effective RMT model. It would be desirable to have
similar predictions from the quasiclassical theory that could be
checked against numerical data. The excellent agreement between
the numerical data and the predictions from the effective RMT
model in Andreev billiards only adds to the intriguing controversy
about the universality of the quantal phase in the two-fluid
model, which we encountered at various places in this review.
\section{Summary and conclusions\label{conclusions}}
We gave an overview over recent theoretical and numerical
investigations which address the emergence of quantum-to-classical
correspondence in mesoscopic systems with a finite Ehrenfest time.
By now there is overwhelming evidence that the quasi-deterministic
short-time dynamics up to the Ehrenfest time jeopardizes the
universality otherwise exhibited by quantized open chaotic
systems. This was illustrated in the discussion of three different
physical situations: transport, decay of quasi-bound states, and
the mesoscopic proximity effect.
While there is consensus over the role of deterministic transport
and decay modes, there are two competing theoretical frameworks
with different predictions for the degree of wave chaos in the
long-time dynamics beyond the Ehrenfest time, namely, the
effective random-matrix theory \cite{Sil03} and the stochastic
quasiclassical theory \cite{Ale96}. Both theories incorporate the
deterministic short-time wave-packet dynamics in similar ways, and
correctly explain the suppression of shot-noise power as well as the
emergence of classical sample-to-sample fluctuations in the
semiclassical limit. However, the two theories model the long-time
dynamics in different ways, namely, via a random-matrix of reduced
dimension or via
residual diffraction. Consequently, the effective RMT predicts
that quantum interference corrections like the weak-localization
correction and parametric conductance fluctuations stay universal
deep in the semiclassical limit, while the quasi-classical theory
predicts a suppression of these effects in this limit. Moreover,
there is conflicting numerical evidence for these coherent
effects,
with all the indications that more surprises are likely
to be uncovered. In view of this intriguing situation, more
theoretical and numerical efforts to uncover the limits of
universality in mesoscopic systems, while challenging, are clearly
desirable.
\section{Acknowledgements}
We thank \.I. Adagideli, C. Beenakker, P. Brouwer, M. Goorden, E.
Sukhorukhov, A. Tajic, J. Tworzyd\l{}o and R. Whitney for fruitful
collaborations on projects related to the topics discussed here.
C. Beenakker and P. Brouwer provided useful comments on several important points.
M. Goorden kindly provided us with Fig.~\ref{fig:Egap} from her PhD
thesis \cite{Goothesis}. This work has been supported by the Swiss
National Science Foundation and the Max Planck Institute for the Physics
of Complex Systems, Dresden.
\section*{Appendix: open kicked rotators}
The logarithmic increase of the Ehrenfest time with the effectuve
Hilbert space size $M$ requires an exponential increase in the
latter to investigate the ergodic semiclassical regime $\tau_{\rm
E} \gtrsim \tau_{\rm D}$, $\lambda \tau_{\rm D} \gg 1$, in which
deviations from RMT universality emerge due to
quantum-to-classical correspondence. The numerical results
reviewed in this paper are all obtained for a particular class of
systems, the open kicked rotator \cite{Jac03,Two03,Bor91,Oss02},
for which very efficient methods based on the fast-Fourier
transform exist. Combined with the Lanczos exact diagonalization algorithm,
as first suggested in Ref.~\cite{ketzmerick}, these methods allowed to reach
system size in excess of $M=10^6$ for the Andreev billiard
problem \cite{Jac03}.
The classical dynamics of the closed system are given by a symmetrized
version of the standard
map on the torus $x,p \in[0,2 \pi]$ \cite{Lichtenberg},
\begin{eqnarray}\label{clkrot}
\left\{\begin{array}{lll}
\bar{x} & = & x + p + \frac{K}{2} \sin x\quad(\,{\rm mod}\, 2 \pi) \\
\bar{p} & = & p + \frac{K}{2}(\sin x+ \sin\bar{x}) \quad(\,{\rm
mod}\,2 \pi).
\end{array} \right.
\end{eqnarray}
Each iteration of the map (\ref{clkrot}) corresponds to one
scattering time $\tau_{\rm B}$ off the boundaries of a fictitious
cavity. The dynamics of this system ranges from fully integrable
($K=0$) to well-developed chaos [$K \ge 7$, with Lyapunov exponent
$\lambda\approx\tau_{\rm B}^{-1}\ln (K/2)$].
The map (\ref{clkrot}) can be quantized by discretization of the
space coordinates $x_m=2 \pi m/M$, $m=1,\ldots M$. The quantum
representation is then provided by a unitary $M \times M$ Floquet
operator $F$ \cite{Haake}, which gives the time evolution for one
iteration of the map. For our specific choice of the kicked
rotator, the Floquet operator has matrix elements
\begin{eqnarray}\label{kickedU}
F_{m,m'} &=& M^{-1/2} \exp \{-(iMK/4\pi) [\cos(2\pi m/M)+\cos(2\pi m'/M)] \}
\nonumber \\
& & \times \sum_l \exp[2 \pi i l(m-m')/M] \exp[-(\pi i/2M) l^{2}].
\end{eqnarray}
The spectrum $\exp(-i E_n\tau_B/\hbar)$ of $F$ defines a discrete
set of $M$ quasienergies $E_n \in[0,h/\tau_B)$ with an average
level spacing $\Delta = h/M\tau_B$.
For the transport problem, the system is opened up by
defining two ballistic openings via absorbing phase space strips
$[x_L-\delta x,x_L+\delta x]$ and $[x_R-\delta x,x_R+\delta x]$,
each of a width $2 \delta x=\pi\tau_{\rm B}/\tau_{\rm D}$.
Much in the same way as in the Hamiltonian case \cite{Guh98}, a
quasienergy-dependent $2N \times 2N$ scattering matrix can be determined
from the Floquet operator $F$ as \cite{fyodorov}
\begin{equation}\label{smatrix}
{\cal S}(E) = P [\exp(-i E\tau_B/\hbar) - F (1-P^T P)]^{-1} F P^T.
\end{equation}
The $2N \times M$-dimensional matrix $P$
describes the coupling to the leads, and is given by
\begin{eqnarray}\label{lead}
P_{n,m}=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}
1& \mbox{if $n=m \in \{(x_{\rm R,L}-\delta)M/2\pi,x_{\rm R,L}+\delta)M/2\pi\}$}\\
0& \mbox{otherwise.}
\end{array}\right.
\end{eqnarray}
The number of channels in each opening is given by $N=\,{\rm
Int}\,[\delta M/\pi]$. An ensemble of samples with the same
microscopic properties can be defined by varying the position
of the two openings for fixed
$\tau_{\rm D}/\tau_{\rm B}$ and $K$, or by varying the energy $E$.
For the escape problem, $P$ couples only to a single opening, and
the quasibound states are obtained by diagonalization of the
truncated quantum map $(1-P^TP) F$.
So far we described particle excitations in a normal metal. In
order to model an Andreev billiard \cite{Jac03}, we also need hole
excitations. A particle excitation with energy $E_{m}$ (measured
relatively to the Fermi level) is identical to a hole excitation
with energy $-E_{m}$ which propagates backwards in time. This
means that hole excitations in a normal metal have Floquet
operator $F^{\ast}$. Andreev reflections occurs at the opening to
the superconducting reservoir, which is again represented by the
matrix $P$. The symmetrized quantum Andreev map is finally
constructed from the matrix product
\begin{eqnarray}
{\cal F}={\cal P}^{1/2}
\left(\begin{array}{cc}
F&0\\
0&F^{\ast}
\end{array}\right) {\cal P}^{1/2} ,\;\;
{\cal P}=\left(\begin{array}{cc}
1-P^{\rm T}P&-iP^{\rm T}P\\
-iP^{\rm T}P&1-P^{\rm T}P
\end{array}\right).\label{calFdef}
\end{eqnarray}
The excitation spectrum is obtained by diagonalization of ${\cal
F}$, whose quasienergy spectrum exhibits two gaps at $E = 0$ and
$E = h/2\tau_{\rm B}$. It can be shown that the excitation
spectrum is identical to the solutions of the conventional
determinantal equation ${\rm det}\,[1+{\cal S}(E){\cal
S}^*(E)]=0$, where the scattering matrix is given by Eq.\
(\ref{smatrix}).
\\[2cm]
|
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The New York State corrections commissioner announced yesterday that he had banned the sale of artwork created by prison inmates, saying the benefits of such sales are not worth the anguish they cause to crime victims and their families.
The decision by Commissioner Glenn S. Goord ends an annual spring art show, ''Corrections on Canvas,'' that had been held for 35 years in the Legislative Office Building in Albany. Mr. Goord's decision also eliminates the sale or display of inmates' art in galleries or at arts and crafts shows.
The state's 67,000 inmates are free to produce any kind of art, but they can no longer profit from it, said James Flateau, a spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services. Since 1996, inmates have kept half the profits from most art sales, with the rest going to the state's Crime Victims Board. Last year, the Albany show earned $5,394 for the state.
Last year there were protests after the Albany show featured work by Arthur Shawcross, a serial killer who was convicted of killing 11 women in the Rochester area in the 1980's and is now serving a 250-year sentence at the Sullivan Correctional Facility in the Catskills. Mr. Shawcross's artworks included sketches of Princess Diana and Santa Claus, with asking prices of more than $500 each, far more than those for most of the other artworks on display.
After the show opened, Gov. George E. Pataki told Mr. Goord to ban notorious violent felons from future shows. Mr. Goord, who had always been uncomfortable with the show, decided several months ago to go further, banning all violent criminals, Mr. Flateau said. He then decided to ban the sale of all inmates' art.
He added that many inmates were in prison for nonviolent offenses, and that to penalize them along with serial killers like Mr. Shawcross was unfair.
Anthony Papa, a former convict who studied art at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility and who gained wide acclaim after his self-portrait was exhibited in the Whitney Museum, said: ''This is unbelievable. Once this program falls in one state, it could happen all over.
|
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{"url":"https:\/\/courses.cs.washington.edu\/courses\/cse373\/18wi\/resources\/eclipse-setup.html","text":"# CSE 373, Winter 2018: Eclipse setup guide\n\n## Step 0: Installing Java\n\nBefore you start installing Eclipse, make sure that you have the Java Development Kit (the JDK) installed on your system. If you're not sure, it's safe to just try installing it again. (If you already have the JDK installed, installing it again will just update you to a slightly newer version.\n\nNote: while the latest version of Java is Java 9, we strongly recommend you use Java 8 in this class. While our course projects in theory work with Java 9, they have only been tested with Java 8. The link above will take you to the Java 8 download page.\n\n## Step 1: Installing and configuring Eclipse\n\nNOTE: if you used Eclipse before, you may have an older version installed. If so, we strongly recommend you uninstall it and install the latest version for maximum compatibility.\n\n### Step 1b: Installation\n\n1. Run the Eclipse installer. You should see a window like the one below; Select the first \"Eclipse IDE for Java Developers\" option.\n\n2. After that point, you can keep hitting \"yes\" and select all the default options (unless you want to change something).\n\nYou should eventually see a screen like this. Click the \"Launch\" button.\n\n### Step 1c: Configuration\n\n1. When you run Eclipse, it'll ask you where you want your workspace to be (see screenshot below for example). Your workspace will be the location where Eclipse will add any new projects you create. You can change the location of the workspace if you want: just make sure you remember what you picked.\n\n2. Once you're done, you should see a \"Welcome\" screen like below. Close the \"welcome\" tab to open the regular editor.\n\n3. Next, select \"Windows > Preferences\" in the menu. Then, select \"Java > Installed JREs\":\n\n4. Click the \"Search\" button and select the \"Java\" folder. This folder should contain your installed JRE and JDK. (If it contains only the installed JDK, that's also ok). You can probably find this folder located at:\n\n\u2022 Windows: C:\\Program Files\\Java\n\u2022 Mac: \/Library\/Java\n\nFor example, on Windows:\n\n5. After hitting \"ok\", you should see a screen with a line for either both the JRE and the JDK, or just the JDK. Select the line for the JDK:\n\n6. Click the \"Apply and close\" button.\n\n7. Eclipse, by default, contains a fair degree of clutter. If you want to minimize the clutter, feel free to close the \"Task List\" and \"Outline\" tabs\/views to the right.\n\n## Step 2: Configuring checkstyle\n\nWe will start by installing a plugin named 'checkstyle', which when run will check your code for different style issues.\n\n### Step 2a: Installing the plugin\n\n1. In the menu bar, click \"Help\" > \"Eclipse Marketplace\"\n\n2. Search for \"checkstyle\" (the search bar is near the upper-left). You should now see something like this:\n\n3. Select the option labeled \"Checkstyle Plug-in 8.x.x\". (The exact version number may be different from our screenshot). Click the \"Install\" button in the lower-right of that option. You should ignore any other plugins that show up.\n\nAt some point, Eclipse will ask you to accept some license agreements. Accept them, and move on.\n\n4. Once you are done, Eclipse will tell you that it needs to restart to make sure all changes take effect. Click the \"Restart Now\" button.\n\n### Step 2b: Loading the CSE 373 style rules\n\n1. Once Eclipse has finished restarting, we need to load our CSE 373 specific rules.\n\nStart by downloading and saving our checkstyle rules. Make sure you remember where you saved the file! You probably want to save these rules someplace on your computer that's stable to make sure you don't delete it by accident later.\n\n(Note: if you previously had the checkstyle plugin installed before starting this class, you will most likely need to update it so that it can understand our rules file.)\n\n2. In the menu bar, click \"Window\" > \"Preferences\". Navigate to the \"Checkstyle\" option. You should see a window that looks like this:\n\n3. Click the \"New...\" button. In the window that appears...\n\n\u2022 Set the \"Type\" to \"External Configuration File\".\n\u2022 Set the \"Name\" to \"CSE 373 Style\" (or any other name you want).\n\u2022 Set the \"Location\" to wherever the XML file you just downloaded is located.\n\u2022 Check the \"Protect Checkstyle configuration file\" option at the bottom.\n\nYour screen should look like this:\n\n4. After clicking \"OK\", you should now be back to the \"Preferences\" window. Select the configuration we just uploaded, and click the \"Set as Default\" button. Your screen should now look like this:\n\n5. Click \"Apply and Close\".\n\n## Step 3: Adjust Eclipse defaults\n\n### Step 3a: Enable stricter generics checks\n\nThe next step is to configure Eclipse so it catches a common generics-related issue:\n\n1. In the menu bar, click \"Windows\" > \"Preferences\"\n\n2. Within the left sidebar, expand \"Java\" > \"Compiler\" > \"Errors\/Warnings\".\n\n3. Within that window, expand the \"Generic types\" section and change the \"Usage of a raw type\" option from \"Warning\" to \"Error\". After making these changes, your screen should look like this:\n\n4. Click \"Apply\".\n\n### Step 3b: Indent using spaces\n\nA common point of contention among programmers is whether we should indent code using the \\t character, or by using some number of spaces instead. Personally, we don't really care, but the code we've provided you consistently uses 4 spaces per indent.\n\nUnfortunately, Eclipse defaults to using the \\t character instead. This is annoying because it causes the indentation in your codebase to be inconsistent. The next step is to modify Eclipse so it matches our class standard.\n\n1. At this stage, you should still have the window from step 3a open. If you closed it by accident, reopen it by clicking \"Windows\" > \"Preferences\" from the menubar.\n\n2. Within the left sidebar, expand \"Java\" > \"Code Style\" > \"Formatter\". You should see a window like this:\n\n3. Click the \"Edit\" button, in the upper-right corner of the screen.\n\n4. In the window that appears, edit the Profile name in the top of the screen to \"CSE 373 Styles\" (or something similar).\n\n5. Next, in the \"General settings\" section (upper-left of the screen, under \"Profile name\"), change the \"Tab policy\" option to \"Spaces only\". Your screen should look like the following:\n\n6. Click \"Ok\".\n\n7. Click \"Apply and Close\".","date":"2022-10-02 00:03:30","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.2902222275733948, \"perplexity\": 5184.592506509193}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.3, \"absolute_threshold\": 20, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2022-40\/segments\/1664030336978.73\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20221001230322-20221002020322-00099.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
Alan Dean Farner
Alan Dean Farner, 86, of New Smyrna Beach Florida, died January 13, 2011 of natural causes at the Hospice Care Center in Edgewater. Life Celebration will be 3:30 PM Monday, January 17, 2011 at Baldwin Brothers Heritage Place 1 North Causeway New Smyrna Beach FL. The family will receive friends from 1:30 until service time on Monday. Alan Dean Farner was born in New York City on August 26, 1924 to Eugene and Beulah May Farner as the youngest of 4 children. He grew up in New Jersey where he attended West Orange Public Schools, participating in high school football, baseball, basketball and track. After his high school graduation he enlisted in the Marines, was stationed in the South Pacific during WWII, and served his country from 1943-1946. Following his military service, Alan worked as a physical therapist at Kessler Institute and the Veteran's Hospital in New Jersey. He attended Panzer College in East Orange where he received his B.S. in Physical Education. He received his M.A. in Elementary Education from Newark State College in Union, New Jersey. Alan taught history, mathematics and science in Mendham and Millburn public schools for 30 years, where he also coached both football and track. Beginning early in life, Alan's great passion was his music. He began performing professionally at the age of 8, singing in the church choir for 25 cents. He went to the Eastern Conservatory of Music in Roselle, New Jersey and received private vocal instruction in New York City. He performed professionally in New Jersey as a tenor soloist and chorus member at St. Luke's Church and The First Congregational Church, both in Montclair, at Christ Church in Short Hills, and at First Presbyterian Church in Tenafly. Alan's most significant soloist performances include: Handel's Messiah at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fischer Hall in New York City, as well as the Symphony Hall in New Jersey; and Stabat Mater, Elijah, Requiem, The Creation, The Holy City, Love Immortal, Hymn of Praise, Hora Novissima, Song of Thanksgiving, Olivet to Calvary, The Seven Last Words of Christ, There Came Wise Men, and The Crucifixion at a variety of venues. Among Alan's other professional affiliations were performances with the Oratorio Society of New Jersey, Morristown Masterworks Chorus, Ars Musica, and The New Jersey Symphony – all of which were a great joy to him. Alan's operatic performances include roles in the operas Madame Butterfly, Un Ballo in Mashera, La Boheme, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tosca, Amahl and the Night Visitors, Romeo and Juliet, Aida, La Traviata, and The First President. His musical theatre experience consist of roles in South Pacific, Where's Charlie?, Fiddler on the Roof, Oliver, Man of LaMancha and Damn Yankees. In 1985 Alan retired and moved to Florida where he married Barbara Hughes on April 23, 1987. He was an avid and accomplished golfer. Some of his golfing successes were winning the Habitat for Humanity Tournament in 1990 and hitting a hole in one twice - once on the New Smyrna Beach Golf Course and once at Deltona Hills. He received a "Certificate of Merit" from the Senior Members Golf Association for extraordinary accomplishments and personal dedication as liaison coordinator for the New Smyrna Beach golfing community. After retirement to Florida, Alan continued his musical passion by performing professionally as a soloist with the Methodist Church in New Smyrna Beach, the Seabreeze United Church in Daytona, and The First Church of Christ Scientist in New Smyrna Beach. He joined the Bel Canto Singers and the Orlando Opera Camerata Chorus and performed 3 concerts with them. Alan was selected as part of the chorus in the performance of the Verdi Requiem with the University of Central Florida Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Conductor Dorothea Tonnesen. He continued improving his voice under the direction of Gail Robinson-Oturu of Bethune-Cookman College. Alan also sang several times with his wife at the piano for the New Smyrna Beach Regional Library and at Bishop's Glen. He had roles in three musicals with the Seaside Music Theatre: 1776, Of Thee I Sing and the Christmas Carol. In 1999, he was in the chorus of the Orlando Opera production, The Flying Dutchman. His other passions included his political party involvement where he was an active member of the South East Volusia County Democratic Party. Alan also loved the beach and never lost his passion for the New York Yankees. Throughout his life, Alan enjoyed the Metropolitan Opera, the Orlando Opera, the London Symphony and local symphony concerts - particularly ones featuring piano concertos. Alan is survived and will be missed dearly by his loving wife, Barbara Farner of New Smyrna Beach, and his four children from his first marriage: daughter Christine Farner of New Jersey, daughter Robin and son-in-law Joel Gillis of North Carolina, son Alan Farner Jr. and daughter-in-law Robin of New Jersey, and son Glenn Farner of North Carolina. Also surviving are grandson Donald Zayacz II, granddaughter Megan Farner, grandson Michael Farner, sister Ruth Bluhm, sister-in-law Eleanor Farner, and niece and nephew, Gigi and John Bluhm, all of New Jersey. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Alan Farner's name to the Hospice of Volusia Southeast Care Center 4140 South Ridgewood Avenue Edgewater FL 32141 or Habitat for Humanity, New Smyrna Beach, Florida. 3:30 at Baldwin Brothers Heritage Chapel 1 North Causeway New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 on January 17, 2011 (map/driving directions) 1:30 to 3:30 at Baldwin Brothers Heritage Chapel 1 North Causeway New Smyrna Beach, FL 32169 on January 17, 2011 (map/driving directions) Edgewater - New Smyrna Cemetery 700 Ridgewood Avenue Edgewater, FL 32132 (map/driving directions)
John Bluhm says:
will miss uncle knobby. was a great uncle always fun to be around. deepest sympathy to Barbara and all my cousins.
he will be missed by all that knew him.
Gary and Clara Kerke says:
We believe that when we lose someone close to us they still live through us and give us strength. You are in our thoughts and prayers.
Deb & Pat Pope says:
Dearest Friend,
We are so sorry to hear of your Dad's passing. In reading his obituaries, what a wonderful and full life he lived. It seems he shared his God given talent with others, what a blessing. We will keep you and your family in our thoughts and prayers. Let us know if there is anything we can do for you, our love to you!
Linda (Foster) Sharkey says:
Barbara,
You and Alan shared a wonderful marriage and I hope your memories of the happiness and the music you shared helps you through this dark corner of your life. Linda
Gail Robinson-Oturu says:
My deepest condolences to you and the family on the passing of Alan. He, as an octogenarian, was such an inspiration as he continued to study and to sing publicly. I will always remember his sense of humor and incredible youthful spirit. Your devotion, support, and commitment to him did not go unnoticed. May fond memories help to sustain during your loss.
Pat Lauber says:
I am so sorry for your great loss. My prayers are for you and Alan's dear family. I have many happy memories of singing with Alan and you, Barbara playing the piano for us.
Robin- I am so sorry for your loss but am so thankful you shared this with me. May God give you sweet memories and His wonderful peace during this time. We will keep you in our hearts and in our prayers. Love ya girl!!
Gail Murphy says:
I am so very sorry for your great loss. My prayers are with you all and with our dear Robin.
Mary Beth Mattson says:
Praying for all of you.
Tina Smith says:
I am so sorry for your loss. You are in my prayers.
Christine Farner says:
Dad - Miss you and love you....
See you in Heaven!!!
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Q: How to get second numeric textbox value which is inside gridview on client side? I have 1 RadNumericTextBox in my GridView in which i will allow user to enter some positive value(numbers only).
Code:
<telerik:RadGrid ID="rgCalculation" datakeynames="ID" runat="server" OnItemDataBound="rgCalculation_ItemDataBound">
<MasterTableView AutoGenerateColumns="false" ClientDataKeyNames="ID">
<telerik:GridTemplateColumn HeaderText="Amount" HeaderStyle-Width="20%">
<ItemTemplate>
<telerik:RadNumericTextBox ID="txtAmount" ClientEvents-OnValueChanged="OnClientValueChanged" MinValue="0" MaxValue="999999999" runat="server" AutoPostBack="true" OnTextChanged="txtAmount_TextChanged" />
</ItemTemplate>
</telerik:GridTemplateColumn>
This is my Grid:
Records like Interest and Worth are being loaded on ItemDataBound events from database.
Now when textbox1 value is changed i want to compare textbox1 value with textbox2 and if textbox1 value is smaller than texbox2 value then i want to display alert to user that textbox1 value cannot be less than texbox2 and also i want to display alert to user if user enter negative value in any of texbox1 or textbox2.
but here problem is that as both textbox would have same id then how would i get 2nd textbox value.
This is How i am getting first textbox value:
function OnClientValueChanged(sender, args) {
alert(args.get_newValue())
}
So how to get 2nd numeric textbox value??
A: You can get the cells/rows client-side according to their index or data key value: http://docs.telerik.com/devtools/aspnet-ajax/controls/grid/rows/accessing-cells-and-rows#accessing-cells-and-values-in-client-side-code
Here is the basic concept:
var grid = $find('<%= RadGrid1.ClientID %>');
var masterTable = grid.get_masterTableView();
var item = masterTable.get_dataItems()[3]; //replace 3 with the index you need (probably 1, judging from the screenshot)
var cell = masterTable.getCellByColumnUniqueName(item, "ShipCountry"); //replace ShipCountry with the unique name of your column
You may find the entire article useful in the future as well.
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\section{Introduction}
Recent results from Femi-Lat data have confirmed the existence of GeV scale
$\gamma$-ray excess which appear to be emerging from the region of galactic
centre (GC) \cite{Goodenough:2009gk}-\cite{Daylan:2014rsa}.
The annihilation of dark matter at the galactic centre may well be a
cause for such excesses. The $\gamma$-ray peak in the energy range 1-3 GeV of
gamma rays observed by Fermi-Lat to have come from the direction of
galactic centre is addressed in a recent work by Dan
Hooper et al \cite{Daylan:2014rsa}. In that work they show that a dark matter
candidate within the mass range of 31-40 GeV primarily
annihilating into $b \bar b$ or a 7-10 GeV dark matter primarily
annihilating into
$\tau \bar \tau$ \cite{Daylan:2014rsa}-\cite{Kong:1404} that eventually
produce gamma, can well explain this
observed phenomenon of excess gamma in 1-3 GeV energy range.
Some works \cite{Hooper:2013rwa}-\cite{Huang:2013pda} even suggest a DM
candidate with
mass $61.8^{+6.9}_{-4.9}$ can also explain this observed excess when
their annihilation cross-section
$\langle \sigma v\rangle _{b \bar b}$ to
$b \bar b$ is
$\sim 3.30^{+0.69}_{-0.49}\times 10^{-26} {\rm cm^3/s}$.
Different particle physics models are studied and proposed in the literature
in order to explain the anomalous excess of gamma ray in the energy range
$\sim$ 1-3 GeV \cite{Kaye:1310}-\cite{Basak:1405}.
In this work we attempt to explore whether a dark matter candidate
within the framework
of the inert doublet model (IDM) \cite{ma}-\cite{borah} can explain
this gamma ray excess in the gamma energy region of 1-3 GeV.
In the inert doublet model, an additional scalar SU(2) doublet
is added to the Standard Model (SM) which is assumed to develop
no vacuum expectation value (VEV).
An unbroken $Z_2$ symmetry ensures that the added scalar is stable
and does not interact with the SM fermions (inert).
The lightest stable inert particle (LIP) in this model can be
a viable DM candidate.
We show in this work that although LIP dark matter in IDM model
may indeed provide a 31-40 GeV dark matter which satisfies observed DM relic
density, but this candidate (of mass $\sim 31-40$ GeV) does not
withstand the latest bounds from dark matter direct detection
experiments as well as the LHC bound on $R_{\gamma\gamma}$.
We then propose in this work, an extension of this IDM model whereby
an additional singlet scalar is added to the IDM model mentioned above.
This newly added scalar singlet acquires a non zero
VEV and mixes up with the SM Higgs, thus provides an extra scalar boson and
scalar resonance. The LIP dark matter candidate
In this resulting extended IDM, as we show in this work, one can
obtain an LIP dark matter candidate
in the mass range of 31-40 GeV which sumultaneously satisfy the
relic density bound from Planck experiment, direct detection experimental
results and the bound on $R_{\gamma\gamma}$ from LHC experiment.
We show that the calculation of gamma ray flux obtained from the annihilation
of such a dark matter from the extended IDM model proposed in this work
can explain the 1-3 GeV $\gamma$-ray excess observed
by Fermi-LAT from GC region.
The paper is organised as follows : In
Section~\ref{S:IDM}, we revisit the Inert Doublet Model of dark matter and show
that for a 31-40 GeV DM, IDM cannot satisfy the constraints obtained from recent
direct detection bounds on DM nucleon scattering cross-section $\sigma_{\rm SI}$
and is also inconsistent with the LHC constraints. In Section~\ref{S:SIDM}, we
propose the singlet extended IDM and study the viability of the model to provide
a DM candidate in the mass range 31-40 GeV that yields the right annihilation
cross-section to $b \bar b$ final state ($\langle \sigma v\rangle _{b \bar b}$)
required to explain the observed $\gamma$-ray excess in the energy range 1-3 GeV.
We constrain the model
parameter space by various experimental results such as DM relic density
obtained from Planck, DM-nucleon scattering cross-section bound from
XENON, LUX experiments
and bound on the SM-like scalar given by LHC.
In Section \ref{S:flux}, the gamma ray flux is calculated for the dark
matter candidate in our proposed model and is compared with the observed
results by Fermi-LAT.
Finally we summarise
the work in Scetion~\ref{S:summary}.
\section{Dark Matter in Inert Doublet Model and Fermi-LAT observed
gamma ray excess}
\label{S:IDM}
IDM is a simple extension of SM of particle physics which includes an
additional Higgs doublet that acquires no VEV. The added doublet do not
interact with the SM sector due to imposition of a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry
under which all the SM particles are even but the doublet is odd. The most
general CP conserving potential for IDM is given as,
\begin{eqnarray}
V &=& m_{11}^2 {\Phi_H}^\dagger {\Phi_H} + m_{22}^2 {\Phi_I}^\dagger {\Phi_I}
+ \lambda_1 ({\Phi_H}^\dagger {\Phi_I})^2
+ \lambda_2 ({\Phi_I}^\dagger {\Phi_I})^2 + \lambda_3
(\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_H)(\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_I) \nonumber \\ &+&
\lambda_4 (\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_H)(\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_I) + {1 \over 2} \lambda_5
[(\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_H)^2 + (\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_I)^2],
\label{1}
\end{eqnarray}
where ${\Phi_H}$ is the SM Higgs doublet and ${\Phi_I}$ is the
inert doublet assuming all the
couplings ($\lambda_i,\,\, i=1,5$) in Eq.~\ref{1} are real. After
spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB), $\Phi_H$
generates a VEV $v=246$ GeV whereas the inert doublet does not produce
any VEV. The $Z_2$ symmetry remains unbroken. The doublets are given as
\begin{eqnarray}
\Phi_H = \left( \begin{array}{c}
\chi^+ \\
\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(v+h+i\chi^0)
\end{array} \right) \, ,
&& \Phi_I =\left( \begin{array}{c}
H^+ \\
\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(H_0+iA_0)
\end{array} \right) \, ,
\label{2}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\chi^+$ and $\chi^0$ are absorbed in $W^\pm$, $Z$ after
spontaneous symmetry breaking.
After SSB, the masses of various scalar particles obtained are given as,
\begin{eqnarray}
m_h^2&=&2 \lambda_1 v^2 \nonumber \\
m_{H^{\pm}}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+\lambda_{3}\frac{v^{2}}{2} \nonumber \\
m_{H_0}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+(\lambda_{3}+\lambda_{4}+\lambda_{5})\frac{v^{2}}{2} \nonumber \\
m_{A_0}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+(\lambda_{3}+\lambda_{4}-\lambda_{5})\frac{v^{2}}{2}\,\, .
\label{3}
\end{eqnarray}
where $m_h=125$ GeV, is the mass of newly found SM Higgs boson $h$, as observed
by LHC experiments CMS \cite{cms} and ATLAS \cite{atlas}.
With $\lambda_5 < 0$, the lightest
inert particle (LIP) $H_0$ is the stable DM candidate in the model. The potential
described in Eq.~\ref{1} must be bounded from below and the corresponding
vacuum stability conditions are given as,
\begin{eqnarray}
\lambda_1,\,\lambda_2 > 0\, , ~~~~~~
\lambda_3 + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2} > 0\, , ~~~~~~~
\lambda_3 +\lambda_4 -|\lambda_5| + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2} > 0\, .
\label{4}
\end{eqnarray}
Apart from the bounds obtained from vacuum stability, there are several other
constraints on the model such as perturbative bounds requiring all the
couplings $\Lambda_i$ to be less than 4$\pi$. From LEP \cite{lep}
experiment constraints of the
$Z$ boson decay width and charged scalar mass $m_{H^{\pm}}$, we have
\begin{eqnarray}
m_{H_0} + m_{A_0} > m_Z \,\, , \nonumber \\
m_{H^{\pm}} > 79.3 ~\rm{GeV}.
\label{5}
\end{eqnarray}
Apart from the constraints presented
in Eqs.~\ref{3}-\ref{4}, the present DM candidate $H_0$ must
also satisfy the correct relic abundance of DM obtained from PLANCK \cite{planck}
\begin{equation}
\Omega_{\rm DM} h^2 = 0.1199{\pm 0.0027}\,\, ,
\label{6}
\end{equation}
where h is the Hubble parameter in the unit of 100 km~s$^{-1}$~Mpc$^{-1}$.
Dark matter relic density is obtained by solving the Boltzmann equation for
the DM species and is given as
\begin{eqnarray}
\frac{{\rm d} n_{H_0}}{{\rm d} t} + 3 {\rm H}n_{H_0} &=& - \langle \sigma {\rm v} \rangle (n_{H_0}^{2}-n_{H_0\rm{eq}}^{2})\,\, .
\label{7}
\end{eqnarray}
In Eq.~\ref{7} $\langle \sigma {\rm v} \rangle$ is the total annihilation cross-section
of the DM summing over all possible annihilation channels, $n_{H_0}$ is the
number density of dark matter particle $H_0$ and $n_{H_0\rm{eq}}$ is the equilibrium
number density of the same. The Hubble parameter is denoted as H in Eq.~\ref{7}.
For the case of low mass dark
matter scenario ($m_{H_0}\leq m_W$, $m_W$ is the mass of $W$ boson),
total annihilation cross-section of DM
candidate $H_0$ to SM particles expressed as
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle{\sigma {\rm{v}}}_{H_0 H_0\rightarrow f\bar f}\rangle &=& n_c\sum_f\frac{{m^2_f}}{\pi}
\beta_f^{3}
\frac{(\lambda_L/2)^2}{(4{m^2_{H_0}}-{m^2_h})^2+\Gamma_h^2 m_h^2}\,\, .
\label{8}
\end{eqnarray}
In Eq.~\ref{8} above, $\Gamma_h$ is the total decay width of SM Higgs boson
(including the contribution from invisible decay channel), $m_f$ is the mass of
the fermion species involved with $\beta_f = \sqrt{1-\frac{m_f^2}{m_{H_0}^2}}$.
The Higgs-DM coupling denoted as $\lambda_L$ in Eq.~\ref{8} is of the form
$\lambda_L = (\lambda_3 + \lambda_4 + \lambda_5)$ and $n_c$ is the colour
quantum number with $n_c=3$ for quarks and $n_c=1$ for leptons respectively.
Invisible decay width of Higgs boson to DM particle as also the
branching fraction ${\rm Br}_{\rm inv}$ for such invisible decay
is written as
\begin{eqnarray}
\Gamma^{\rm{inv}}(h \rightarrow H_0H_0)&=&
\frac{\lambda^2_{L} v^2}{64\pi m_h}\sqrt{1-\frac{4m^2_{H_0}}{m^2_h}}\, ,
\nonumber \\
{\rm Br}_{\rm inv} &=& \frac {\Gamma^{\rm{inv}}(h \rightarrow H_0H_0)}
{\Gamma_h}\, .
\label{9}
\end{eqnarray}
DM relic density is then calculated by solving the Boltzmann
equation expressed in Eq.~\ref{7}, is given as
\begin{eqnarray}
\Omega_{\rm{DM}}{\rm h}^2 &=& \frac{1.07\times 10^9 x_F}
{\sqrt{g_*}M_{\rm Pl}\langle \sigma {\rm v} \rangle}\,\, ,
\label{10}
\end{eqnarray}
where $x_F = m_H/T_F$ is the freeze out or decoupling temperature of the DM
species $H_0$, $M_{Pl}$ is the Planck mass
($M_{\rm Pl}=1.22\times 10^{19}$ GeV) and
$g^*$ is the number of effective degrees of freedom. The quantity $x_F$
(and subsequently the freeze out temperature $T_f$) can be
obtained from the iterative solution to the equation
\begin{eqnarray}
x_F &=& \ln \left ( \frac{m_H}{2\pi^3}\sqrt{\frac{45M_{\rm{Pl}}^2}{2g_*x_F}}
\langle \sigma \rm{v} \rangle \right )\,\, .
\label{11}
\end{eqnarray}
The relic density of the dark matter can be obtained
using Eqs.~\ref{8}-\ref{10} (and Eq.~\ref{11}) with the constraints
given in Eqs.~\ref{4}-\ref{6}.
It is to be noted that in addition to the constraints mentioned above,
the present DM
candidate must also satisfy the DM direct detection experimental
limits provided by the experiments like XENON \cite{xenon12}, LUX \cite{lux}.
The experiments provide the upper bound of dark matter scattering
cross-sections for different dark matter masses.
The spin independent
direct dark matter-nucleon scattering cross-section for the LIP
dark matter $H_0$ of mass $M_{H_0}$ is expressed as
\begin{eqnarray}
\sigma_{\rm {SI}}= \frac{\lambda_L^2}{4\pi}\frac{1}{m_h^4} f^2
\frac{m_N^4}{(m_{H_0}+m_N)^2},
\label{12}
\end{eqnarray}
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\subfigure[]{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{idma.png}}
\subfigure []{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{idmb.png}}
\caption{The left panel shows the $m_{H_0}-\sigma_{\rm SI}$ space allowed by DM
relic density obtained from PLANCK. The right panel presents the variation of
invisible decay branching ratio ${\rm Br}_{\rm inv}$ with DM mass $m_{H_0}$ for the same.}
\label{fig1}
\end{figure}
where $m_N$ is the mass of scattering nucleon and $f$ is related to the matrix
element of Higgs-nucleon coupling is taken to be $\simeq 0.3$ \cite{hall}.
We further
restrict the allowed model parameter space by assuming the invisible decay
branching ratio of SM Higgs ${\rm Br}_{\rm inv} < 20\%$ \cite{Belanger}. The
branching ratio ${\rm Br}_{\rm{inv}}$ is the ratio
of the Higgs
invisible decay width to the total Higgs decay width as discussed below.
We compute, using Eq.~\ref{12} and with the constraints given in
Eqs.~\ref{4}-\ref{6}, the LIP dark matter scattering
cross-section, $\sigma_{\rm SI}$ for different values of LIP dark matter
mass, $m_{H_0}$. It is therefore ensured that these calculations are
performed for those LIP dark matter masses for which the relic
density criterion (Eq.~\ref{6}) is satisfied.
The results are plotted in Fig.~\ref{fig1}a
(in $\sigma_{\rm SI}~ - ~ m_{H_0}$ plane). Superimposed
on this plot in Fig.~\ref{fig1}a are the
the bounds obtained from XENON100 (red line) and LUX (green line)
experimental results for comparison.
It is clear from Fig.~\ref{fig1}a that an LIP dark matter within the
framework of IDM does not have a mass region in the range
31-40 GeV that satisfies the allowed bounds given by
both the XENON100 and LUX experiments in
$\sigma_{\rm SI}~ - ~ m_{H_0}$ plane.
One may recall that the previous analysis to explain the
Fermi-LAT $\gamma$-ray excess in the gamma ray energy range
of $1-3$ GeV \cite{Daylan:2014rsa} from the aniihilation of dark matter at the
galctic centre requires a dark matter candidate having mass
in the range $31-40$ GeV.
We also compute the Higgs
invisible decay branching ratio ${\rm Br}_{\rm inv}$ for different
$m_{H_0}$ using Eq.~\ref{9} imposing the same constraints as above
(Eqs.~\ref{4}-\ref{6}) and the results are plotted in Fig.~\ref{fig1}b.
It is also evident from Fig.~\ref{fig1}b that the LIP mass
($m_{H_0}$) in the range 31-40 GeV
does not satisfy the ${\rm Br}_{\rm inv}$ limit of
${\rm Br}_{\rm inv} < 20\%$.
Thus from both Fig 1a and Fig 1b, it can be concluded that an LIP
dark matter in the inert doublet model cannot account for a viable
dark matter candidate in the mass range of 31-40 GeV.
However, from Fig 1a and 1b, it is clear we have a viable dark matter candidate
in the IDM framework in the region of Higgs resonance
with mass ($m_{H_0}\simeq m_h/2$) that not only satisfies the relic density
bound for dark matter but also is consistent with DM direct
detection results and the bounds for Higgs invisible decay as well.
Earlier model independent analysis
\cite{Hooper:2013rwa}-\cite{Huang:2013pda} have reported that a
dark matter with mass near Higgs resonance
can produce the observed excess of $\gamma$-ray in the gamma energy range
$1-3$ GeV if the secondary $\gamma$-ray is produced out of the
primary annihilation process ${\rm DM}~{\rm DM} \rightarrow b \bar{b}$
with the annihilation cross-section
$\langle \sigma v \rangle_{b \bar b} \sim 3.30^{+0.69}_{-0.49}\times
10^{-26}~{\rm cm^3/s}$.
However for IDM with mass $m_{H_0} \sim m_h/2$, the respective
annihilation cross-scetion of LIP dark matter $H_0$ into $b \bar b$
channel is found to be
result $\langle \sigma v \rangle_{b \bar b}
\sim 1.7 \times 10^{-26}$ which is almost half the required
annihilation cross-section. Hence the gamma-ray flux computed
for this LIP dark matter (with $b \bar{b}$ to be the primary
annihilation channel)
does not comply with the observed excess in $\gamma$-ray.
Thus it is apparent that a viable dark matter
candidate (mass $\sim m_h/2$) in the IDM
model discussed so far where only an inert SU(2) doublet is added
to SM, fails to explain the excess
gamma ray in the energy range 1-3 GeV as observed by Fermi-LAT
in the direction of galactic centre. Hence we consider a feasible
extension of the model.
\section{Inert Doublet Model with additional singlet scalar}
\label{S:SIDM}
We modify the IDM formalism given in Sect. 2 by adding another singlet
scalar with the model. The resulting theory now includes an inert SU(2)
doublet as before and an additional scalar singlet added to the Standard
Model. The newly added scalar singlet
generates a VEV and is even under the discrete $Z_2$ symmetry.
The LIP of the inert doublet is the dark matter candidate in this
formalism too. We demonstrate that our proposed extended IDM
provides a viable LIP dark matter candidate in the mass range of
$31-40$ GeV and the annihilation cross-section to $b \bar{b}$ channel
for such a candidate can be calculated to be in the right ball park required
to explain the excess $\gamma$ peak from GC seen by Fermi-LAT in 1-3 GeV
energy range and is also consistent with the LHC constraint.
The most
general potential for the model is
\begin{eqnarray}
V &=& m_{11}^2 {\Phi_H}^\dagger {\Phi_H} + m_{22}^2 {\Phi_I}^\dagger {\Phi_I} + {1 \over 2}
m_s^2 S^2 + \lambda_1 ({\Phi_H}^\dagger {\Phi_H})^2
+ \lambda_2 ({\Phi_I}^\dagger {\Phi_I})^2 + \lambda_3
(\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_H)(\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_I) \nonumber \\ &+&
\lambda_4 (\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_H)(\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_I) + {1 \over 2} \lambda_5
[(\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_H)^2 + (\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_I)^2] + \rho_1
(\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_H) S + \rho'_1 (\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_I) S \nonumber
\\ &+& \rho_2 S^2 (\Phi_H^\dagger \Phi_H) + \rho'_2
S^2 (\Phi_I^\dagger \Phi_I) +{1 \over 3} \rho_3 S^3 + {1 \over 4} \rho_4 S^4 ,
\label{13}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\Phi_H$ and $\Phi_I$ are the same as in Eq.~\ref{1} with
$S= s+v_s$, $v_s$ being the VEV of the singlet scalar. All the parameters in
Eq.~\ref{13} are assumed to be real. The newly added scalar singlet $s$ mixes
with the SM Higgs $h$ resulting in two physical scalar bosons $h_1$ and $h_2$
and they are expressed as,
\begin{eqnarray}
h_1=h~\cos\alpha - s~\sin\alpha \, , \nonumber \\
h_2=h~\sin\alpha + s~\cos\alpha \, ,
\label{14}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\alpha$ is the angle of mixing. Minimising the potential in
Eq.~\ref{13} we obtain the conditions,
\begin{eqnarray}
m_{11}^2+\lambda_1 v^2+ \rho_1 v_s + \rho_2 v_s^2 = 0 \, ,\nonumber \\
m_s^2+ \rho_3 v_s + \rho_4 v_s^2 + \frac{\rho_1 v^2}{2v_s} + \rho_2 v^2 =0 \, .
\label{15}
\end{eqnarray}
The mass terms for the scalars can be obtained as
\begin{eqnarray}
\mu_h^2&=&2 \lambda_1 v^2 \nonumber \\
\mu_s^2&=&\rho_3 v_s + 2\rho_4 v_s^2 - \frac{\rho_1 v^2}{2 v_s} \nonumber \\
\mu_{hs}^2&=&(\rho_1+ 2 \rho_2 v_s) v \nonumber \\
m_{H^{\pm}}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+\lambda_{3}\frac{v^{2}}{2}+\rho'_1 v_s+\rho'_2 v_s^2 \nonumber \\
m_{H_0}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+(\lambda_{3}+\lambda_{4}+\lambda_{5})\frac{v^{2}}{2}+\rho'_1 v_s+\rho'_2 v_s^2 \nonumber \\
m_{A_0}^{2}&=&m_{22}^{2}+(\lambda_{3}+\lambda_{4}-\lambda_{5})\frac{v^{2}}{2}
+\rho'_1 v_s+\rho'_2 v_s^2\,\, .
\label{16}
\end{eqnarray}
As in Sect. 2, the lightest inert particle or LIP is $H_0$
when $\lambda_5 < 0$ and is the candidate for dark matter in this
extended IDM formalism also.
Masses of physical scalars $h_1$
and $h_2$ derived using the mass matrix are,
\begin{equation}
m^2_{1,2}=\frac{\mu_h^2+\mu_s^2}{2}\pm\frac{\mu_h^2-\mu_s^2}{2}\sqrt{1+x^2},
\end{equation}
\label{17}
where $x=\frac{2\mu^2_{hs}}{(\mu^2_h-\mu^2_s)}$.
We consider $h_2$ with mass $m_2$ to be the SM-like Higgs boson having
mass 125 GeV and we assume $m_2>m_1$ where $m_1$ is the mass of the
singlet scalar. Vacuum stability conditions
for this singlet extended IDM are given as \cite{kannike},
\begin{eqnarray}
\lambda_1,\,\lambda_2,\,\rho_4 > 0\, , ~~~~~~
\lambda_3 + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2} > 0\, , ~~~~~~~
\lambda_3 +\lambda_4 -|\lambda_5| + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2} & > & 0\, ,
\nonumber\\
\rho_2 +\sqrt{\lambda_1\rho_4} > 0\, , ~~~~~~~~~~~~
\rho_2' +\sqrt{\lambda_2\rho_4} > 0\, ,~~~~~~~~~~~~
\nonumber \\
2 \rho_2 \sqrt{\lambda_2} +2 \rho_2' \sqrt{\lambda_1} + \lambda_3 \sqrt{\rho_4} \hskip12pt\nonumber \\
+ 2 \left(\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2\rho_4} \right.
\left.
+ \sqrt{\left(\lambda_3 + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2}\right)
\left(\rho_2 +\sqrt{\lambda_1\rho_4}\right)
\left(\rho_2' +\sqrt{\lambda_2\rho_4}\right)}\right) & > & 0\,
\nonumber \\
2 \rho_2 \sqrt{\lambda_2} +2 \rho_2' \sqrt{\lambda_1} + (\lambda_3+\lambda_4-\lambda_5) \sqrt{\rho_4} \hskip12pt\nonumber \\
+ 2 \left(\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2\rho_4} \right.
\left.
+ \sqrt{\left(\lambda_3+\lambda_4-\lambda_5 + 2\sqrt{\lambda_1\lambda_2}\right)
\left(\rho_2 +\sqrt{\lambda_1\rho_4}\right)
\left(\rho_2' +\sqrt{\lambda_2\rho_4}\right)}\right) & > & 0\,.
\label{18}
\end{eqnarray}
Imposing the vacuum stability conditions (Eq.~\ref{18}) and applying the
perturbative bounds and
constraints from Eqs.~\ref{5}-\ref{6} we solve the Boltzmann equation
in Eq.~\ref{7}. Note that, for the proposed extended IDM model,
both the annihilation cross-section
$\langle{\sigma {\rm{v}}}_{H_0 H_0\rightarrow f\bar f}\rangle$
and the invisible decay width
$\Gamma^{\rm{inv}}_i(h_i \rightarrow H_0H_0)$ must be modified.
The thermal averaged annihilation
cross-section for the LIP dark matter in the present model is expressed as
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle{\sigma {\rm{v}}}_{H_0 H_0\rightarrow f\bar f}\rangle &=& n_c \sum_f\frac{{m^2_f}}{\pi}
\beta_f^{3}
\left|\frac{\lambda_{h_1H_0H_0}\cos{\alpha}}{4{m^2_{H_0}}-{m^2_1}+i\Gamma_1 m_1}
+\frac{\lambda_{h_2H_0H_0}\sin{\alpha}}{4{m^2_{H_0}}-{m^2_2}+i\Gamma_2 m_2}\right|^2 \,\, .
\label{19}
\end{eqnarray}
In Eq.~\ref{19} above, $\Gamma_i$ (i=1,2) is the total decay width of $h_i$
and the coupling $\lambda_{h_1H_0H_0}$, $\lambda_{h_2H_0H_0}$ are
\begin{eqnarray}
\lambda_{h_1H_0H_0}v=\left(\frac{\lambda_L}{2}c_{\alpha}-\frac{\lambda_s}{2}s_{\alpha}\right)v \, ,\nonumber \\
\lambda_{h_2H_0H_0}v=\left(\frac{\lambda_L}{2}s_{\alpha}+\frac{\lambda_s}{2}c_{\alpha}\right)v
\label{20}
\end{eqnarray}
with $\lambda_L=\lambda_3+\lambda_4+\lambda_5$ and $\lambda_s=\frac{\rho_1'+2 \rho_2' v_s}{v} $.
Invisible decay width of $h_1$ and $h_2$ are given as
\begin{equation}
\Gamma^{\rm{inv}}_i(h_i \rightarrow H_0H_0)= \frac{\lambda^2_{h_iH_0H_0} v^2}{16\pi m_i}\sqrt{1-\frac{4m^2_{H_0}}{m^2_i}}\, .
\label{21}
\end{equation}
The LIP-nucleon spin independent (direct detection) cross-section
in this singlet scalar extended IDM is modified as,
\begin{eqnarray}
\sigma_{\rm {SI}}= \frac{1}{\pi}\frac{m_N^4}{(m_{H_0}+m_N)^2} f^2
\left(\frac{\lambda_{h_1H_0H_0}\cos\alpha}{m_1^2}+
\frac{\lambda_{h_2H_0H_0}\sin\alpha}{m_2^2} \right)^2.
\label{22}
\end{eqnarray}
As before, we restrict the model parameter space using the conditions from
vacuum stability (Eq.~\ref{18}), unitarity, LEP, DM relic density
from PLANCK. In addition,
we also take into account the
modification of signal strength of SM Higgs ($h_2$) to any particular channel
that may occur due to the mixing with other scalar ($h_1$).
The signal strength to any specific channel is given as,
\begin{eqnarray}
R &=& \frac {\sigma} {\sigma^{\rm SM}} \frac {\rm Br} {{\rm Br}^{\rm SM}}
\label{23}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\sigma$ and ${\sigma^{\rm SM}}$ are the Higgs production
cross-section in the present model and in SM respectively whereas
Br and ${\rm Br}^{\rm SM}$ are the respective branching ratios
to any channel for the present model and SM.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\subfigure[]{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{idmsa.png}}
\subfigure []{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{idmsb.png}}
\subfigure[]{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{35c.png}}
\subfigure []{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{35d.png}}
\caption{The upper panel shows the valid $m_{H_0}-\sigma_{\rm SI}$ plane
obtained for $m_2=70$ GeV with
$\cos\alpha=9.0\times 10^{-3}~{\rm and}~3.5\times10^{-2}$.
The lower panel shows the variation of signal strength $R_2$ with $
\sigma_{\rm SI}$ for $m_{H_0}=35$ GeV for the same. }
\label{fig2}
\end{figure}
As the present model (extended IDM) involves two scalars $h_1$
and $h_2$, signal strengths $R_1$ and $R_2$ for both the scalars are
given as
\begin{eqnarray}
R_1 = \frac{\sigma^1(pp\rightarrow h_1)}
{\sigma^{\rm SM}(pp\rightarrow h_1)}
\frac{{\rm Br}(h_1 \rightarrow xx)}{{\rm Br}^{\rm SM} (h_1\rightarrow xx)},
\hskip 10pt
R_2 = \frac{\sigma^2(pp\rightarrow h_2)}
{\sigma^{\rm SM}(pp\rightarrow h_2)}
\frac{{\rm Br}(h_2 \rightarrow xx)}{{\rm Br}^{\rm SM} (h_2\rightarrow xx)}
\label{24}
\end{eqnarray}
where $xx$ is any SM final state with $\frac{\sigma^i}{\sigma^{\rm SM}} =
\cos^2\alpha~{\rm or}~\sin^2\alpha$ for $i=1,2$ respectively.
Since $h_2$ is the SM-like
scalar with mass $m_2=125$ GeV, we take $R_2\geq 0.8$ \cite{atlas3}
for SM-like scalar to satisfy LHC results.
It is to be noted that some of the channels ($\gamma Z,~\gamma \gamma$) will
suffer considerable changes due to the presence of inert charged scalars
($H^{\pm}$) addressed in \cite{arhrib,maria,goudelis,banik}.
Effect of the charged scalars on those channels
are also taken into account (see Appendix A). We put further bound on model
parameter space from the experimental limits for Higgs to diphoton signal
strength
$R_{\gamma \gamma}$ given by ATLAS \cite{atlas1} and CMS \cite{cms1}.
Our calculation yields that for the allowed parameter space obtained from
vacuum stability, relic density, LEP constraints as also with the condition
$R_2\geq 0.8,~{\rm Br}_{\rm{inv}}\leq0.2$,
the Higgs to diphoton
signal strength predicted by ATLAS is not favoured by the present model
and hence we constrain
the model with the experimental value of $R_{\gamma \gamma}$ only from CMS
experiment.
Taking all these constarints into account,
we now compute the LIP dark matter
(in extended IDM) scattering cross-sections
$\sigma_{\rm SI}$ (Eq.~\ref{24}) for the LIP masses ($m_H$)
for two different mixing angles $\alpha$ given by
$\cos \alpha = 9.0\times 10^{-3}~{\rm and}~3.5\times10^{-2}$.
The results for two chosen mixing angles are plotted in
Fig.~\ref{fig2}a and Fig.~\ref{fig2}b respectively in $m_{H_0}-\sigma_{\rm SI}$
parameter space. The calculations are performed with a chosen value
$m_1 = 70$ GeV for the mass of the scalar singlet $h_1$.
Diret detection bounds from XENON100 and LUX are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig2}a-b
with the same color definitions used in Fig.~\ref{fig1}a.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{3570.png}}
\caption{Allowed parameter space in $R_1-\sin\alpha$ plane for $m_2=70$ GeV.
Also shown in blue corresponds to the parameter space for $m_{H_0}=35$ GeV.}
\label{fig3}
\end{figure}
It is clear from Fig.~\ref{fig2}a-b that
apart from obtaining a LIP dark matter of mass $\sim m_2/2$ (Higgs resonance)
allowed by both XENON100 and LUX, we also obtain another allowed LIP mass of
35 GeV (due to the resonance of the added scalar involved
in the model). Thus, the present modified inert doublet model
produces a viable DM candidate with a mass of 35 GeV.
Figs.~\ref{fig2}a-b also indicate that the resonant behaviour is prominent
for smaller values of mixing angle $\alpha$. Increase in the mixing angle
broadens the allowed $m_{H_0}-\sigma_{\rm SI}$ parameter space with appreciable
increase in DM-nucleon cross-section.
In Fig.~\ref{fig2}c-d we show the variation of $R_2$ with $\sigma_{\rm SI}$
where LIP dark matter mass $m_{H_0}=35$ GeV is considered for the
two mixing angles as chosen for Fig.~\ref{fig2}a-b.
Horizontal lines in green and black are the values of
$\sigma_{\rm SI}$ as obtained from the allowed regions from
LUX \cite{lux} and XENON1T \cite{xe1T} respectively for the dark matter mass
of 35 GeV. Fig.~\ref{fig2}c shows that
as $R_2$ approaches
to unity there is a sharp decrease in $\sigma_{\rm SI}$.
A similar conclusion also follows from the nature of Fig. \ref{fig2}d.
Observation of Fig. \ref{fig2}c-d reveals that a 35 GeV DM satisfying
relic density obtained from PLANCK and direct detection bounds
from LUX and XENON1T does not affect
the signal strength ($R_2 \sim 1$) of the SM Higgs observed in LHC.
Fig.~\ref{fig2}c-d clearly demonstrate that the presence of a
low mass scalar is
necessary in order to achieve a DM of mass$\sim35$ GeV that (a) satisfy PLANCK
relic density result, (b) agree with the latest dark matter
direct detection experimental
bounds and also (c) yields the experimental bound for
Higgs invisible decay.
Since the model
involves an additional scalar of low mass, yet undetected by LHC, the
corresponding signal strength for that singlet like scalar must remain small
compared to that of $h_2$. In order to demonstrate this, we compute
the signal strength $R_1$ (Eq.~\ref{24}) for different values of
the mixing angle $\alpha$.
In Fig.~\ref{3} we plot the results in
$R_1-\sin\alpha$ plane for low mass DM ($\leq m_W$). These results
satisfy the conditions $R_2\geq 0.8$ \cite{atlas3}
and ${\rm Br}_{\rm{inv}}\leq 0.2$ \cite{Belanger} with $m_1=70$ GeV and also
consistent with relic density
reported by PLANCK. Scattered blue region in Fig.~\ref{fig3} corresponds to 35
GeV DM mass ($m_{H_0} = 35$ GeV) with
$<\sigma v>_{b \bar b}~\sim(1.62-1.68)\times 10^{-26}
{\rm cm^3/s}$. We show latter in this in Sec. \ref{S:flux} that such a value for
$<\sigma v>_{b \bar b}$ in case of a dark matter mass of 35 GeV
can indeed explain the Fermi-LAT observed excess of $\gamma$-ray in
the energy range of 1-3 GeV.
Variation of $\sin\alpha$ with $R_1$ in Fig.~\ref{fig3} depicts
that for the parameter space constrained by different experimental
and theoretical bounds, the value of the
signal strength $R_1$ remains small ($\leq 0.2$). Therefore,
non-observance of such a scalar by LHC is justified and can possibly
be probed in future experiment.
\section{Calculation of gamma ray flux}
\label{S:flux}
In this section we calculate the gamma ray flux from the
galctic centre due to the annihilation
of 35 GeV dark matter in the
extended IDM discussed in Sect.\ref{S:SIDM}.
The gamma ray flux produced from DM annihilation in galactic centre
is given by
\begin{eqnarray}
\Phi=\frac{\langle \sigma v\rangle}{8\pi m_{DM}^2}
\frac{dN}{dE_{\gamma}} J(\psi)\,\, .
\label{25}
\end{eqnarray}
In Eq.~\ref{25}, $\langle \sigma v\rangle$ is the annihilation cross-section,
$m_{DM}$ is the mass of the dark matter ($m_{H_0}$ in the present scenario),
$\frac{dN}{dE_{\gamma}}$ is the
spectrum of photon produced due to DM annihilation.
The factor $J(\psi)$ in Eq. \ref{25} is the line of sight integral given as
\begin{eqnarray}
J(\psi)=\int_{\rm los}\rho^2(l,\psi)dl\, ,
\label{26}
\end{eqnarray}
where $\psi$ is angle between the line of sight of an observer at Earth
at a distance $\ell$ from the GC and the direction from GC to Earth,
$l$ is the distance from line of sight.
We use the generalised NFW \cite{nfw} halo profile for the DM distribution $\rho(r)$
given by
\begin{eqnarray}
\rho(r)=\rho_0\frac{{r/r_s}^{-\gamma}}{{1+r/r_s}^{3-\gamma}}\, .
\label{27}
\end{eqnarray}
In Eq.~\ref{27}, $\rho_o= 0.3~{\rm{GeV~cm^{-3}}}$ is the
local DM density at a distance 8.5 kpc from GC. For the present work
we consider $r_s= 20$ kpc and $\gamma=1.26$ \cite{Daylan:2014rsa}.
For the calculation of gamma ray flux using Eqs.~\ref{25} - \ref{27},
we consider two values of mixing angles given by
$\cos \alpha = 0.9\times10^{-3}~{\rm{and}}~2.5\times10^{-2}$
for $m_{DM} = m_{H_0} = 35$ GeV. A chosen set of values for other
parameters and the corresponding calculated values of
$\langle \sigma v\rangle_{b \bar b}$ and $\sigma_{\rm{SI}}$
for each of these two mixing angles
are tabulated in
Table 1. The gamma ray flux is now calculated
\begin{table}
\begin{center}
\vskip 0.5 cm
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
\hline
& & & & & & & \\
$m_1$ & $m_{H_0}$ & $m_H^{\pm}$ & $\cos\alpha$ & $\lambda_L$ & $\lambda_s$ &$\langle \sigma v\rangle_{b \bar b}$ & $\sigma_{\rm{SI}}$ \\
in GeV & in GeV & in GeV & & & &in $\rm{cm^3/s}$ & in $\rm{cm^2}$ \\
\hline
& & 174.0 & 0.9$\times10^{-3}$ & -7.89e-05 & -7.91e-02 &1.66$\times10^{-26}$ & 4.58$\times10^{-49}$ \\
70.0 & 35.0 & & & & & & \\
& & 110.0 & 2.5$\times10^{-3}$ & 7.87e-04 & 1.26e-02 &1.65$\times10^{-26}$ & 2.52$\times10^{-48}$ \\
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
\caption{Bencmark points of singlet extended IDM with DM mass $m_{H_0} = 35$ GeV.}
\label{tab1}
\end{table}
for the LIP dark matter in our model, in case of each of these
two set of parameter values given in Table 1 and the
results are plotted in Fig.~\ref{fig4}.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
{
\includegraphics[height=7 cm, width=7 cm,angle=0]{35flux.png}}
\caption{$\gamma$-ray flux obtained from the benchmark points in Table\ref{tab1}
and compared with the results from \cite{Daylan:2014rsa}.}
\label{fig4}
\end{figure}
In Fig.~\ref{fig4} the green and blue lines correspond to the
mixing angles given by
$\cos \alpha = 0.9\times10^{-3}~{\rm{and}}~\cos \alpha = 2.5\times10^{-2}$
respectively. Also shown in Fig.~\ref{fig4}, the data points for the
observed $\gamma$-ray by Fermi-LAT for comparison. These data points
are obtained from Ref. \cite{Daylan:2014rsa}. Fig.~\ref{fig4} clearly
demonstrates that the viable LIP
DM candidate in our model can very well explain the observed $\gamma$-ray flux
and its excess in the 1-3 GeV energy range while remain consistent
with the bounds from LHC and DM direct search
experiments.
\section{Summary}
\label{S:summary}
In this paper we have revisited the inert doublet model (IDM) of dark matter
and test the viability of the model to provide a suitable explanation for the
observed excess in low energy (1-3 GeV) $\gamma$-ray emission from GC
assumed to have originated out of the annihilation of dark matter in the mass
range 31-40 GeV DM, into $b \bar b$. We show that a dark matter candidate
within mass range 31-40 GeV
in IDM cannot satisfy the latest direct detection bounds on DM-nucleon
cross-section predicted by experiments like LUX or XENON100 and also is inconsistent
with the limits on Higgs invisible decay. Our calculation also yield that
although IDM can provide a DM of mass $\sim m_h/2$ ($m_h$ is the mass of SM Higgs)
that is consistent with direct detection and invisible decay bounds but eventually
fails to produce the exact value of $\langle \sigma v\rangle_{b \bar b}$
required to explain the excess emisson of $\gamma$-ray.
In order to comply with the observed $\gamma$ emission results as obtained from
Fermi-LAT in 1-3 GeV energy range,
we extend the IDM with an additional singlet scalar and explore the
viability of the model. The extension of IDM provides an additional scalar singlet
that mixes with the SM-Higgs. We found that prescence of a low mass singlet like
scalar in the model can yield a 31-40 GeV DM that satisfy relic density bounds
from PLANCK and
direct detection cross-section constarints from LUX or XENON experiments that
and also yields the right DM annihilation cross-section
$\langle \sigma v\rangle_{b \bar b}$ that would explain
the observed excess in $\gamma$-ray. The weakly coupled singlet like scalar due to
small mixing with SM-Higgs acquires a very small signal strength which is beyond
the present LHC detection limit and can be probed
in future collider experiments.
\vskip 2mm
\noindent {\bf Appendix A}
\vskip 2mm
The inert chraged scalar will contribute to Higgs decay channels like $\gamma
\gamma$ and $\gamma Z$ through the charged scalar loop involved in the process.
Decay widths of $h_i\rightarrow\gamma \gamma,~\gamma Z$ ($i=1,2$) are given as
\begin{eqnarray}
\Gamma(h_i\rightarrow \gamma\gamma)&=&\frac{G_F\alpha_s^2m_i^3}{128\sqrt{2}\pi^3}
\left |c_i\left(\frac{4}{3} F_{1/2}\left(\frac{4m_t^2}{m_i^2}\right)
+ F_1 \left(\frac{4m_W^2}{m_i^2} \right)\right)
+\frac{\lambda_{h_iH^+H^-}v^2}{2m_{H^{\pm}}^2}
F_0 \left(\frac{4m_{H^{\pm}}^2}{m_i^2}\right)
\right |^2, \nonumber \\
\Gamma(h_i\rightarrow \gamma Z) &= &\frac{G_F^2\alpha_s}{64\pi^4} m_W^2 m_i^3 \left(1-\frac{m_Z^2}{m_i^2}\right)^3
\left|-2c_i \frac{1-\frac{8}{3}s^2_W}{c_W}
F_{1/2}'\left(\frac{4m_t^2}{m_i^2},\frac{4m_t^2}{m_Z^2}\right) \right. \nonumber \\
&& \left .
-c_i F_1'\left(\frac{4m_W^2}{m_i^2},\frac{4m_W^2}{m_Z^2}\right)
+\frac{\lambda_{h_iH^+H^-}v^2}{2m_{H^{\pm}}^2}
\frac{(1-2s^2_W)}{c_W}I_1\left(\frac{4m_{H^{\pm}}^2}{m_i^2},\frac{4m_{H^{\pm}}^2}{m_Z^2}\right)
\right|^2, \nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
where $G_F$ is the Fermi constant and $s_W$ ($c_W$) is
$\sin\theta_W$ ($\cos\theta_W$) with $\theta_W$ represnting the weak mixing
angle. Factor $c_i$ in the above is given as $\cos\alpha$ or $\sin\alpha$
for $i=1,2$.
Couplings $\lambda_{h_1H^+H^-}$ and $\lambda_{h_2H^+H^-}$ in the expressions of
decay widths are of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\lambda_{h_1H^+H^-}v=\left(\lambda_{3}c_{\alpha}-{\lambda_s}s_{\alpha}\right)v \, , \nonumber \\
\lambda_{h_2H^+H^-}v=\left(\lambda_{3}s_{\alpha}+{\lambda_s}c_{\alpha}\right)v. \nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
Various loop factors corresponding to the $h_i\rightarrow \gamma
\gamma$ process are expressed as \cite{higgshunter,djouadi1,djouadi2},
\begin{eqnarray}
F_{1/2}(\tau)&=&2\tau[1+(1-\tau)f(\tau)],\nonumber\\
F_1(\tau)&=&-[2+3\tau+3\tau(2-\tau)f(\tau)],\nonumber\\
F_0(\tau)&=&-\tau[1-\tau f(\tau)],\nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
where the function $f(x)$ is given as
\begin{eqnarray}
f(x)=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll}
\arcsin^2\left(\frac{1}{ \sqrt{x} }\right) & {\rm{for}}~~~~x \geq 1,\\
-\frac{1}{4}\left[\log\left(\frac{1+\sqrt{1-x}}{1-\sqrt{1-x}}\right)-i\pi\right]^2 & {\rm{for}}~~~~ x<1.
\end{array} \right.
\nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
Similarly the loop factor for $h_i\rightarrow \gamma Z$ channel are \cite{higgshunter,djouadi1,djouadi2}
\begin{eqnarray}
F_{1/2}'(\tau,\lambda)&=&I_1(\tau,\lambda)-I_2(\tau,\lambda),\nonumber\\
F_1'(\tau,\lambda)&=&c_W\left\{4\left(3-\frac{s^2_W}{c^2_W}\right)I_2(\tau,\lambda)+
\left[\left(1+\frac{2}{\tau}\right)\frac{s^2_W}{c^2_W}-\left(5+\frac{2}{\tau}\right)\right]I_1(\tau,\lambda)\right\}.\nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
Expressions of the factors $I_1$ and $I_2$ are of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
I_1(a,b)&=&\frac{ab}{2(a-b)}+\frac{a^2b^2}{2(a-b)^2}\left[f(a)-f(b)\right]+\frac{a^2b}{(a-b)^2}\left[g(a)-g(b)\right],\nonumber\\
I_2(a,b)&=&-\frac{ab}{2(a-b)}\left[f(a)-f(b)\right].\nonumber
\end{eqnarray}
where $f(x)$ is same as used in $h_i\rightarrow \gamma \gamma$ channel and $g(x)$ is given as
\begin{eqnarray}
g(x)=\left\{ \begin{array}{ll}
\sqrt{x-1}\arcsin\sqrt{\frac{1}{x}}& {\rm{for}}~~~~x \geq 1,\nonumber\\
\frac{\sqrt{1-x}}{2}\left(\log\frac{1+\sqrt{1-x}}{1-\sqrt{1-x}}-i\pi\right)&{\rm{for}}~~~~x<1.
\end{array} \right.
\end{eqnarray}
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaArXiv"
}
| 9,308
|
Home ›› The Spitfire Grill (MOD)
The Spitfire Grill (MOD)
Percy Talbott (Alison Elliott) has had few choices in her twentysomething life, but she'll make the most of this one. She's chosen Gilead, Maine, as her new home. The town's Spitfire Grill has offered her a second chance. It's not just the burnt toast at the diner, owned by feisty Hannah Ferguson (Academy Award winner Ellen Burstyn), that has folks wondering about Percy. It's that she's been in prison the last five years. This 1996 Sundance Film Festival Audience Award winner embraces viewers with its tender spirit. Moving performances, Lee David Zlotoff's sensitive script and direction, the glowing New England landscape coalesce into a movie of genuine and generous feeling.
Actors: Alison Elliot, Ellen Mcrae, Marcia Gay Harden, Will Patton, Kieran Mulroney,
Directors: Lee David Zlotoff,
Writers: Lee David Zlotoff,
Theatrical Release Date: 1/01/1996,
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 4,472
|
Attacks Are Getting Pricier: Average Ransomware Payment Ramped Up By 60%
Ransomware is a severe and recurring cyberattack nowadays. It happens when a cyber threat actor locks a company's data with...
Cryptocurrency Scammers Defaced Donald Trump's Campaign Website
For less than 30 minutes hackers took over and defaced Donald Trump's campaign website. The incident took place at the...
Be Aware of Bluetooth Attack
Nowadays, there are various Bluetooth headsets, Bluetooth bracelets, car Bluetooth and so on. Since the advent of Bluetooth technology, it...
Only 3 of the Top 100 International Airports Meet Basic Cybersecurity Requirements
In recent research, the world's top 100 international airports were tested for checking if they meet the basic cybersecurity requirements....
2020 Elections Targeted By The Russians
The 2020 elections are a year away and preparations have come underway. After the last election cycle, the FBI is...
Shutdown Leaves Dozens of Federal Websites Vulnerable
As the partial government shutdown nears 21 days, dozens federal websites have become vulnerable to attack. According to Netcraft, who...
Republican Party Emails Hacked
Hackers breached thousands of emails belonging to Republican party members. This is major hack was reported by The National Republican...
Trump Blames China for Hacking Hillary Clinton's Private Email Server
U.S. President Donald Trump claimed China – not Russia – hacked the emails of 2016 Presidential candidate and rival Hillary...
Trump Signs Presidential Executive Order to Strengthen US Cyber Defenses
US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order on Thursday that aims to improve and bolster the cyber defenses...
Hacked New York Post Sends out 'Heil President' Push Alert
The New York Post app has apologized after sending compromised push notifications to subscribers, one of which read "Heil President...
Trump Campaign Advisor Engaged in Twitter Exchange with DNC Hackers
President Trump's former campaign advisor Roger Stone has admitted to having conversations with the perpetrator behind the hack of the...
'Nothing is Impossible' Writes Hacker After Defacing Trump Campaign Website
A hacker who goes by the pseudonym "Pro-Mast3r" has reportedly defaced a fundraising website linked to the campaign of President...
Two Arrests in London over Washington CCTV Hack Pre-Trump Inauguration
Two people in London have been arrested in connection with the hack of Washington DC's CCTV video recorders in the...
US Intelligence Agencies Have Been Investigating Russia's State-Sponsored Hacking
A group of intelligence agencies and law enforcement authorities have, for months, led investigations into the possibility of hackers paid...
Trump's Cybersecurity Advisor Rudy Giuliani Runs an Insecure Website
Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor who is now appointed by President-elect Donald Trump as his special advisor on...
President-elect Donald Trump: "No Computer is Safe"
President-elect Donald Trump has expressed skepticism about the security of electronic communications, stating that no computer is safe from hacking....
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 5,332
|
Chelsea has announced the signing of a France starlet
Breaking: Chelsea has announced the signing of a France starlet.
Deal completed and confirmed! Christopher Nkunku, a winger from France, will join Chelsea in July. Blues will give Leipzig €70M. Term of agreement: 2028.
For the month of June 2023, Chelsea has 'nearly' signed RB Leipzig's Christopher Nkunku. The deal is done, so let's get started.
Chelsea is now in negotiations to sign Josko Gvardio after securing Nkunku. They continue to communicate with RB Leipzig and individuals close to the player. Following the Nkunku transaction, Chelsea and Leipzig had a fantastic working relationship.
I'm sure Chelsea will try to sign Gvardiol similarly to how they did with Nkunku: by having the medical completed ahead of schedule, paying the release clause, and letting him remain at RB Leipzig through the summer of 2023. I'm confident Todd & Co. will close this deal.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 3,933
|
Q: USing XPath to get the text inside a parent Node for example, I get the html string like this:
<p><br><a href=\"http://www.hello.com/en/\">www.hello.com</a></p>
And i want to get the result like this:
<br><a href=\"http://www.hello.com/en/\">www.hello.com</a>
But I finally get "www.hello.com" when using the the XPath statement
//p/text()
any ideas?
A: Use this:
//p
It wiil select p element.
A: But I finally get "www.hello.com" when using the the XPath statement
//p/text()
This selects any text node that is a child of a p element in the document.
However, you want not only the text node children, but any children, including elements, such as <br> and <a>.
Solution:
Use:
/p/node()
when this XPath expression is evaluated against the provided XML (corrected to be made well-formed XML document):
<p><br/><a href="http://www.hello.com/en/">www.hello.com</a></p>
the following two nodes are selected:
<br/><a href="http://www.hello.com/en/">www.hello.com</a>
XSLT - based verification:
This transformation:
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0"
xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">
<xsl:output omit-xml-declaration="yes"/>
<xsl:template match="/">
<xsl:copy-of select="/p/node()"/>
</xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>
when applied on the provided XML document:
<p><br/><a href="http://www.hello.com/en/">www.hello.com</a></p>
copies the selected nodes to the output:
<br/><a href="http://www.hello.com/en/">www.hello.com</a>
A: /p/*
Will retrieve all elements that are element p children. That is what you want.
Warning. Your element <br> is not well formed. You should close it so it can be a well formed empty element <br/>
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 8,143
|
\section{Superfluid NM and the BCS Theory}\label{sec:bcs}
\subsection{Overview of BCS Theory}
The BCS theory describes superfluid fermionic gases as condensates of Cooper pairs. The ground state of these systems is the fully paired condensate that minimizes the free energy corresponding to the pairing Hamiltonian, i.e.,~the one neglecting all normal state~interactions:
\begin{equation}
\hat{H}_{\textrm{pair}} = \sum_{\mf{k}\sigma}\epsilon_\mf{k}\cts{k}^\+ \cts{k} + \sum_{\mf{k}\mf{l}} V_{\mf{k}\mf{l}}\ctu{k}^\+\mctd{k}^\+\mctd{l}\ctu{l}~. \label{eq:H_pair}
\end{equation}
Here, $\epsilon_{\mf{k}}$ signifies the single-particle energy of a free particle with momentum $\mf{k}$, in a box of length $L$ under Periodic Boundary Conditions (PBC), and the matrix elements $V_{\mf{k}\mf{l}}$ are those of the pairing interaction, the attractive interaction responsible for the creation of the Cooper pairs. The BCS ground state for systems with even and odd particle numbers, can be written as:
\begin{align}
\ket{\psi_{\textrm{BCS}}}_{\rm even} &= \prod_{\mf{k}}\left(\uk{k} + \vk{k}\ctu{k}^\+\mctd{k}^\+\right)\ket{0}~, \label{eq:BCS_gs} \\
\ket{\psi_{\textrm{BCS}}^{\mf{b}\gamma}}_{\textrm{odd}} &= \hat{c}_{\mf{b}\gamma}^\+\prod_{\mf{k}\neq \mf{b}}\left(\uk{k} + \vk{k}\ctu{k}^\+\mctd{k}^\+\right)\ket{0}~. \label{eq:BCS_gs_o}
\end{align}
where, the distribution $\vk{k}$ ($\uk{k}$) is the probability amplitude for (not) finding a pair with momenta and spin $\mathbf{k} \uparrow$, $-\mf{k}\downarrow$ and so it is normalized to unity, $\uk{k}^2+\vk{k}^2 = 1$. Hence, the distribution $v_\mf{k}$ completely defines the BCS ground state and it is determined so that the state in Equation~(\ref{eq:BCS_gs}) minimizes the free energy. This condition leads to the BCS gap equations which determine the gap function $\Delta_\mf{k}$, corresponding to half the binding energy of a $\mf{k}$-pair, and the quasiparticle excitation energy,
\begin{equation}
\Ek{k} = \sqrt{\left(\epsilon_{\mf{k}}-\mu\right)^2 + \Dk{k}^2}~, \label{eq:Ek}
\end{equation}
where $\mu$ is the chemical potential. These in turn define the distribution $\vk{k}=[1-(\epsilon_\mf{k}-\mu)/{\Ek{k}}]/2$.
A key signature of pairing correlations is the existence of a minimum non-zero energy required to create an excitation by breaking apart a pair. This is called the pairing gap and, in the BCS theory, it corresponds to the minimum of the quasi-particle excitation energy:
\begin{align}
\Delta_{\textrm{MF}}=\textrm{min}_\mf{k}\Ek{k}~. \label{eq:gap_mf}
\end{align}
Here the subscript ``MF'' refers to the mean-field nature of the BCS theory. This can be seen by performing a Bogolyubov transformation and describing the theory in terms of non-interacting quasi-particles moving in an average field ~\cite{Rickayzen:book}.
\subsection{BCS Theory for NM and Cold Atoms}
The BCS theory can provide a phenomelogical description of the $^1$S$_0$ pairing in low-density NM, where neutrons form spin-singlet ($S=0$) pairs. In such a description, we can model the neutron-neutron (NN) interaction with a simple potential that is tuned to reproduce the $^1$S$_0$ scattering length ($a\approx-18.5~\rm{fm}$) and effective range ($r_{\rm{e}}\approx 2.7~\rm{fm}$) of the NN interaction: Such a potential should produce indistinguishable results for low-density NM where the details of the functional form of the interaction are irrelevant and the physics is captured by $a$ and $r_{\rm e}$. We choose the form of a modified P\"{o}schl--Teller potential:
\begin{equation}
V(r) = -\frac{\hbar^2}{m}\frac{\lambda(\lambda-1)\beta ^2}{\cosh^2(\beta r)}~, \label{eq:potential}
\end{equation}
where the parameters $\lambda$ and $\beta$ are tuned to reproduce the $^1$S$_0$ scattering length and effective range of NM. This potential has been used successfully before in phenomenological studies of pairing in NM~\cite{Palkanoglou:2020, Palkanoglou:2021, Gezerlis:2010}.
For cold atoms, the interaction's scattering length can be tuned using Feshbach resonances~\cite{Ketterle:2008}. For low densities, the functional form of the interaction is irrelevant and the inter-atomic potential can be modeled by Equation~(\ref{eq:potential}). To study atoms close to unitarity, we tune the parameters $\beta$ and $\lambda$ to yield a small effective range (smaller than the inter-particle distance) and the appropriate scattering length. Therefore we can treat NM and cold atoms, at low densities, on equal footing when formulating a description within the BCS theory.
Since we aim for a description of the $^1$S$_0$ pairing, all BCS equations need to be expanded in partial waves where only the $S$ wave is to be kept, leading to the angle-averaged BCS gap equations, for even systems,
\begin{align}
\Delta_{\rm{even}}(k) &= -\frac{2\pi}{L^3}\sum_p M(p)V_0(k,p)\frac{\Delta (p)}{E(p)}~, \label{eq:gap1_A} \\
\mv{\hat{N}}&=\sum_pM(p)\left(1-\frac{\epsilon(p)-\mu}{E(p)}\right)~, \label{eq:gap2_A}
\end{align}
and for odd systems,
\begin{align}
\Delta_{\rm{odd}}(k) &= -\frac{2\pi}{L^3}\sum_{p\neq b} M(p)V_0(k,p)\frac{\Delta (p)}{E(p)}~, \label{eq:gap1_o_A}\\
\mv{\hat{N}}-1&=\sum_{p\neq b}M(p)\left(1-\frac{\epsilon(p)-\mu}{E(p)}\right)~, \label{eq:gap2_o_A}
\end{align}
and the angle-averaged version of the ground state energies,
\begin{align}
E^{\rm{BCS}}_{\rm{even}}(N) &= \sum _p M(p) \epsilon(p) 2v(p)^2 + \notag\\
&\quad +\frac{4\pi}{L^3}\sum _{kp}M(k)M(p) V_0(k,p)u(k)v(k)u(p)v(p)~, \label{eq:energy_A}\\
E^{\rm{BCS}}_{\rm{odd}}(N) &= \sum _{p\neq b} M(p) \epsilon(p) 2v(p)^2 + \epsilon(b) \notag\\
&\quad +\frac{4\pi}{L^3}\sum _{kp\neq b}M(k)M(p) V_0(k,p)u(k)v(k)u(p)v(p)~. \label{eq:energy_o_A}
\end{align}
In this angle-averaged expression of BCS, the population function $M(k)$ counts the number of $\mf{k}$ states in the momentum shell with $|\mf{k}|=k$, and all functions of $\mf{k}$ have been replaced by their angle-averaged counterparts which are functions of just the momentum's magnitude $k$. It should be noted that, in the expressions for odd systems, only a single state with momentum $\mf{b}$ is excluded from the sum rather than the entire $|\mf{k}|=b$ shell. The potential $V_0$ is that of the $^1$S$_0$ channel of the potential in Equation~(\ref{eq:potential}), i.e.,~the $S$ wave term in its partial wave expansion, $V_0(k,p) = \int_0^\infty drr^2j_0(kr)V(r)j_0(pr)$, where $j_0$ is the zero-th order spherical Bessel function. For a complete derivation of the angle-averaged version of BCS, see Ref.~\cite{Palkanoglou:2020}.
While the formulation of BCS presented until this point describes a finite number of neutrons or atoms in a cubic box of length $L$, a formulation for a superfluid system at the Thermodynamic Limit (TL), such as NM found in the inner crust of NSs, can be retrieved by taking the limit of $L\to \infty$ while keeping the particle density constant, i.e.,~$n = \left<N\right>/L^3=\textrm{const}$. The distinction between even and odd systems is irrelevant at the TL therefore \mbox{Equations~(\ref{eq:gap1_A}),~(\ref{eq:gap2_A}), and~(\ref{eq:energy_A})}, and \mbox{Equations~(\ref{eq:gap1_o_A}),~(\ref{eq:gap2_o_A}), and~(\ref{eq:energy_o_A})} have the same large-$N$ limit.
\subsection{PBCS: Particle-Number Projected BCS}
The BCS ground state in Equations~(\ref{eq:BCS_gs})~and~(\ref{eq:BCS_gs_o}) does not conserve the particle number and, therefore, it describes a linear combination of states with an average particle number of $\mv{N}$. Quantum Monte Carlo calculations deal with states of a well-defined particle number. To connect such calculations to values at the TL, we need to study the superlfuid FSE in a particle-conserving theory. Since, particle-number conservation is a symmetry of the Hamiltonian (cf. Equation~(\ref{eq:H_pair})), we can use symmetry-restoration techniques to restore this symmetry in the BCS ground state, which amounts to projecting out of the ground state the component that corresponds to the proper eigenstate of the number operator~\cite{Dietrich:1964, Bayman:1960}:
\begin{align}
\ket{\psi_N}&=C\int _0^{2\pi} d\phi e^{-i\frac{N}{2}\phi} \prod_{\mf{k}}\left(\uk{k}+e^{i\phi}\vk{k}\ctu{k}^\+\mctd{k}^\+\right)\ket{0}~, \label{eq:pgs}\\
\ket{\psi^{\mf{b}\gamma}_N}&=C(\mf{b})\hat{c}^\+_{\mf{b}\gamma}\int _0^{2\pi}d\phi e^{-i\frac{N}{2}\phi} \prod_{\mf{k}}\left(\uk{k}+e^{i\phi}\vk{k}\ctu{k}^\+\mctd{k}^\+\right)\ket{0}~. \label{eq:pgs_o}
\end{align}
Here, $C$ and $C(\mf{b})$ are the normalization of the projected BCS state for even and odd systems, respectively. In principle, one must treat the states in Equations~(\ref{eq:pgs})~and~(\ref{eq:pgs_o}) as variational wavefunctions and determine the distributions $\uk{k}$ and $\vk{k}$ that minimize the energy of each state, an approach called variation after projection (VAP) or full BCS (FBCS). An alternative route is to use the distributions $\uk{k}$ and $\vk{k}$ that solve the BCS gap equations, which amounts to the projection after variation (PAV) or projected BCS (PBCS). The PBCS ground states are an approximation of the FBCS ones, in the sense that the distributions $\uk{k}$ and $\vk{k}$ are not optimized to yield minimum energy. However, the error introduced is small for strongly paired systems~\cite{Bayman:1960}, such as NM.
Dealing with $S$ wave superfluidity, we must again isolate the $S$ wave terms from a partial wave expansion, and so the energy of the PBCS ground states for even and odd systems are:
\begin{align}
E_{\rm{even}}^{\rm{PBCS}}(N) &= \sum _k M(k)\epsilon(k) 2v(k)^2\frac{R_1^1(k)}{R_0^0} \notag \\ &\quad +\sum_{kp}M(k)M(p)V_0(k,p)u(k)v(k)u(p)v(p)\frac{R_1^2(k\,p)}{R_0^0}~, \label{eq:energy_pbcs.s}\\
E_{\rm{odd}}^{\rm{PBCS}}(b;N) &= \sum _{k\neq b} M(k)\epsilon(k)2v^2(k)\frac{R_1^2(b\, k)}{R^1_0(b)} \notag \\ & \quad +\sum_{kp}M(k)M(p)V_0(k,p)u(k)v(k)u(p)v(p)\frac{R_1^3(b\,k\,p)}{R^1_0(b)}~. \label{eq:energy_pbcs_o.s}
\end{align}
where we defined the residuum integrals,
\begin{align}
R^m_n(\mf{k}_1\,\mf{k}_2\dots\mf{k}_m) = \int_0^{2\pi} \frac{d\phi}{2\pi}e^{-i(\frac{N}{2}-n)\phi} \prod_{\mf{k}\neq \mf{k}_1,\mf{k}_1,\dots \mf{k}_m}\left(\uk{k}^2 + e^{i\phi}\vk{k}^2\right).
\end{align}
The energy per particle calculated with Equations~(\ref{eq:energy_pbcs.s}) and~(\ref{eq:energy_pbcs_o.s}), or Equations~(\ref{eq:energy_A}) \mbox{and~{(\ref{eq:energy_o_A})}}, for a given density is not equal to the TL value of the energy, as is the case with any intensive quantity of a finite system. This is known as the finite-size effects (FSE) and they can be seen in the left panel of Figure~\ref{fig:fse}. By studying the FSE of intensive quantities, we can prescribe extrapolation schemes to the TL and estimate their accuracy. In the case of superfluidity, pairing tends to create smooth FSE for the energy with no abrupt changes, compared to the FSE of the free Fermi gas. This can be most clearly seen in a comparison of the superfluid kinetic energy with that of the free Fermi gas, plotted in Figure~\ref{fig:kinetic}. This can be attributed to the pairing's smearing of the Fermi surface (see Figure~\ref{fig:v2k}). When studying the FSE, the particle-number projection of PBCS should be seen as separating the contribution of a system with $N$ neutrons from the linear combination of systems with average particle-number $\left< N\right>$, that is the BCS state. As such, the PBCS curves in \mbox{Figure~\ref{fig:fse} and \ref{fig:kinetic}} represent more well-defined FSE curves compared to the BCS ones. A detailed study of the FSE in BCS and PBCS for NM was carried out in Ref.~\cite{Palkanoglou:2020}.
The prescription of the pairing gap defined in the BCS theory in Equation~(\ref{eq:gap_mf}) cannot be applied in the PBCS theory. Alternatively, one can define the odd-even staggering (OES),
\begin{equation}
\Delta (N) = \frac{(-1)^N}{2}\left[2E(N) - E(N+1)-E(N-1)\right]~, \label{eq:oes}
\end{equation}
inspired by the odd-even mass staggering of nuclei. It has been demonstrated that for the $^1$S$_0$ pairing gap in NM, $\Delta _{\rm{MF}}$ and $\Delta$ are probing the same physical quantity and \mbox{Equations~\mbox{(\ref{eq:gap_mf})~and~(\ref{eq:oes})}} can be used interchangeably~\cite{Palkanoglou:2020}, as shown in the right panel of \mbox{Figure~\ref{fig:fse}}. Since the pairing gap is an intensive quantity, it generally suffers from larger FSE than the energy (see the right panel of Figure~\ref{fig:fse}).
\clearpage
\end{paracol}
\begin{figure}[H]%
\widefigure
\begin{minipage}{0.45\columnwidth}%
{\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth,clip=]{E_TL.pdf}}%
\end{minipage}
\qquad
\begin{minipage}{0.45\columnwidth}%
\includegraphics[width=1\columnwidth,clip=]{N_D_020304.pdf}
\end{minipage}%
\caption{{\textbf{(Left~panel)}:} The finite-size effects (FSE) for the energy in BCS and Projected BCS (PBCS) for densities corresponding to $k_\textrm{F} = 0.2$, $0.3$, $0.4~\textrm{fm}^{-1}$. (\textbf{Right panel}): The FSE of the pairing gap in BCS as the minimum of the quasiparticle excitation energy (blue squares) and in PBCS as the odd-even staggering (OES), corresponding to $k_\textrm{F} = 0.2$, $0.3$, $0.4~\textrm{fm}^{-1}$, in ascending order.
\label{fig:fse}
\end{figure}
\begin{paracol}{2}
\switchcolumn
\begin{figure}[H]
\includegraphics[width=.95\linewidth]{FSE_KTL__FG_BCS_PBCS.pdf}
\caption{The FSE of the superfluid kinetic energy compared to those of the free Fermi gas. The inset focuses on the region of $N=47$, the region explored by the auxiliary field diffusion Monte Carlo (AFDMC) calculations in Section~\ref{sec:results-energy}.}
\label{fig:kinetic}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[H]
\includegraphics[width=.95\columnwidth]{v2k_BCS_psiT.pdf}
\caption{The pair probability distribution used in this work (solid line) and the pairing function of the BCS ground state (dashed line) for $N=40$ particles at $k_\textrm{F}=0.4~\textrm{fm}^{-1}$.} \label{fig:v2k}
\end{figure}
\section{Ab Initio: DMC and AFDMC}\label{sec:qmc}
While the mean-field description, given by BCS, provides a qualitative understanding of strongly paired systems, accuracy demands that we treat pairing correlations from first principles. For NM, this can be done by numerically solving Schr{\"o}dinger's equation for the nuclear Hamiltonian, to find the ground state of a finite number of neutrons, and then extrapolating the results to the TL. We employ the non-relativistic nuclear Hamiltonian:
\begin{equation}
\label{hamiltonian}
H=-\frac{\hbar^2}{2m}\sum_{i=1}^N\nabla_i^2+\sum_{i<j}v_{ij}
+\sum_{i<j<k}V_{ijk} \,,
\end{equation}
where $m$ is the mass of the neutron, and $v_{ij}$ and $V_{ijk}$ are two-
and three-body potentials. All the results presented in this paper have been
obtained using the Argonne AV8' and the Urbana-IX (UIX)~\cite{Wiringa:2002,Pudliner:1995}. The AV8' belongs to the Argonne family of realistic two-nucleon potentials, which are generated by high-precision fitting of experimental scattering data. The functional form of the AV8',
\begin{equation}
v_{ij}=\sum_{p=1}^{8}v_p(r_{ij})O^{(p)}(i,j)~\label{eq:av8}~,
\end{equation}
contains eight two-particle operators: The four central components $\boldsymbol{1},\, \boldsymbol{\tau}_i\cdot\boldsymbol{\tau}_j,\,\boldsymbol{\sigma}_i\cdot\boldsymbol{\sigma}_j,\,(\boldsymbol{\tau}_i\cdot\boldsymbol{\tau}_j)(\boldsymbol{\sigma}_i\cdot\boldsymbol{\sigma}_j)$, the tensor $S_{ij}$ and the tensor-$\tau$ $S_{ij}(\boldsymbol{\tau}_i\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}_j)$ components, the spin-orbit $\boldsymbol{L}_{ij}\cdot\boldsymbol{S}_{ij}$, and the spin-orbit-$\tau$ $\boldsymbol{L}_{ij}\cdot\boldsymbol{S}_{ij}(\boldsymbol{\tau}_i\cdot \boldsymbol{\tau}_j)$ components (where $S_{ij}=3(\boldsymbol{\sigma}_i\cdot\hat{r}_{ij})(\boldsymbol{\sigma}_j\cdot\hat{r}_{ij})-(\boldsymbol{\sigma}_i\cdot\boldsymbol{\sigma}_j)$ and $\boldsymbol{L}_{ij}$, $\boldsymbol{S}_{ij}$ are the relative angular momentum and the total spin of the particle $ij$). The UIX is a three-body potential,
\begin{equation}
V_{ijk} = V_{2\pi}+V_{\rm R}~, \label{eq:uix}
\end{equation}
which describes the exchange of two pions between three nucleons
via a spin-isospin dependent term~\cite{Fujita:1957}
and it is fit to reproduce the correct triton energy in Green's function Monte Carlo calculations and the expected saturation energy of nuclear matter in the Fermi hypernetted-chain approximation~\cite{Pudliner:1995}. The remaining term is a phenomenological part that sums other neglected terms. We have also considered two- and three-body local interactions
constructed within chiral effective field theory~\cite{Gezerlis:2014,Lynn:2016},
but the results are very similar.
This is expected as this study is dedicated to low-density NM. The ground-state is calculated using the AFDMC method, and then compared to earlier ab initio results obtained by the DMC method. Both of these methods are members of the QMC family of ab initio approaches, which solve the many-body Schr{\"o}dinger's equation stochastically.
The DMC approach is a projector method, which uses imaginary-time propagation to extract the ground-state of a Hamiltonian from a trial state. The method relies on the fact that, in imaginary time, Schr{\"o}dinger's equation turns into a diffusion equation where the large-time limit of any initial state (not orthogonal to the ground state) is the ground state of the system:
\begin{align}
\lim_{\tau \to \infty}e^{-(\hat{H}-E_{\rm T})\tau}\ket{\Psi _T}\propto \ket{\Phi _0}.
\end{align}
The speed of the convergence depends on the choice of the trial state, which should capture the qualitative features of the problem at hand. In practice, the DMC method is applied by distributing particles according to the trial wavefunction and then propagating them in space by sampling the short-time propagator. The spin of each particle is considered `frozen', i.e.,~different spin-projections define different species of particles. This means that this method is most suitable for systems with spin-independent interactions. The antisymmetry of the fermionic wavefunctions creates regions where the trial wavefunction is negative, which complicates the interpretation of Schr{\"o}dinger's equation as a diffusion equation. This is known as the fermion sign problem and in DMC, it is typically addressed by fixing the nodal surface of the wavefunction ($\Psi=0$) to be the same as that of the trial wavefunction. This corresponds to separating the simulation space in regions where the trial wavefunction has a definite sign (nodal pockets) and evolving each one independently. Therefore, the large-time limit of the initial configuration of particles corresponds to the state with the lowest energy and the same nodal surface as the trial wavefunction. The energy of this state provides an upper-bound to the true ground state energy. The DMC method has been used in the past to calculate the $^1$S$_0$ pairing gap of low-density NM and cold atoms~\cite{Gezerlis:2008}. For a review of DMC, see Ref.~\cite{Foulkes:2001}.
The AFDMC approach is built on the same underlying principle as the DMC method: A ground state is projected out of a trial wavefunction via imaginary-time propagation. In contrast to DMC, the AFDMC time propagation can alter the spin-projection of the particles. When done naively, the inclusion of spin degrees of freedom has an unfavorable scaling behavior. This is mediated in AFDMC by applying a Hubbard--Stratonovich transformation to the short-time propagator, expressing the action of an operator $\exp{(-\lambda \hat{O}^2/2})$ as:
\begin{equation}
e^{-\lambda \hat{O}^2/2} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}\int_{-\infty}^\infty dx e^{-{x^2}/{2}}e^{x\sqrt{-\lambda}\hat{O}}~,
\end{equation}
thus improving the scaling behavior at the cost of additional integrations over auxiliary fields.
This makes AFDMC the method of choice for systems with spin-dependent interactions, like nuclear systems (for a more detailed description of AFDMC, see Refs.~\cite{Carlson:2015,Lonardoni:2018}). This method has been applied in the past to
calculate the energy and pairing gap of low density neutron
matter~\cite{Fabrocini:2005,Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009}.
The trial wavefunction $\Psi _T$ of $N$ neutrons in AFDMC is typically of the form:
\begin{equation}
\label{psi_T}
\Psi_T(R,S)=\left[\prod_{i<j}f(r_{ij})\right] \Phi(R,S) \,,
\end{equation}
where $R$ and $S$ represent the $3N$ spatial coordinates and $3N$ up- and down-spin
components of the neutrons, and $f(r)$ is a two-body spin-independent correlation (see Ref.~\cite{Carlson:2015} for details).
The antisymmetric part $\Phi$ of the trial wave function is usually given
by the ground state of non-interacting Fermions (Fermi gas), which is
written as a Slater determinant of single particle functions.
In the case of superfluid systems, the function $\Phi$ must include pairing correlations.
For spin-independent interactions, like ultra-cold Fermi gases, pairing correlations
can be included by using a Slater determinant~\cite{Carlson:2003}. However, in the case of a
realistic nuclear interaction that can exchange the spin of neutrons, a pfaffian
wave function must be used instead:
\begin{equation}
{\rm Pf}A={\cal A}[\phi(1,2),\phi(3,4) \dots \phi(N-1,N)]~.\label{eq:pfaffian}
\end{equation}
The details on how to calculate the pfaffian above are given in Ref.~\cite{Gandolfi:2009}.
The pairing functions $\phi(r)$ are:
\begin{align}
\phi(i,j)&= \sum_\alpha c_\alpha \exp\left[i \mathbf{k}_\alpha\cdot\mathbf{r_{ij}}
\right] \chi(s_i,s_j)~,
\label{eq:phi}
\end{align}
where sum over $\alpha$ indicates the $k$-space shells of the cube with $\mf{k}$ values:
\begin{equation}
\mf{k}= \frac{2\pi}{L}
(n_x \hat x + n_y \hat y + n_z \hat z)
\end{equation}
for integer $n_x$, $n_y$, and $n_z$, and $L$ is the simulation box size.
The function $\chi$ is the spin-singlet wave function for two neutrons:
\begin{equation}
\chi(s_i,s_j)= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}
\left(\langle s_i s_j |\uparrow \downarrow\rangle
-\langle s_i s_j |\downarrow \uparrow\rangle\right) \,.
\end{equation}
Note that if the pairing coefficients
$c_\alpha$ are zero for all $|\mf{k}_\alpha| > k_F$, the pfaffian in Equation~(\ref{eq:pfaffian}) turns into a Slater
determinant of spin-up and spin-down neutrons filling the Fermi sea, and
the pfaffian form goes over to the normal liquid state.
We calculate the superfluid pairing gap and the EoS for the ground state of NM. The pairing gap is evaluated by taking the difference of the total energy of systems with even and odd particle numbers, as per Equation~(\ref{eq:oes}), which makes the calculation very sensitive to the error-bars of the energy. The AFDMC method involves the constrained-path approximation to control the sign problem, and the results depend upon the quality of the trial wave function used to model the system.
In several cases, an unconstrained path evolution is possible, giving exact results
for the ground-state energy within (usually large) statistical error bars~\cite{Lonardoni:2018}.
Thus, unconstrained-path calculations of the pairing gap
would give very large error bars.
In addition, it is reasonable to assume that the quality of the constrained-path approximation
is similar for systems with $N-1$, $N$, and $N+1$ neutrons, so the systematic uncertainties
would cancel. However, the results for the energy, and in particular for the pairing gap,
ultimately depend on the trial wave function.
In the old calculations of Refs.~\cite{Fabrocini:2005,Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009},
the parameters $c_\alpha$ were
chosen by performing a correlated basis function
calculation~\cite{Fabrocini:2005,Fabrocini:2008}. Old results showed a pairing gap very close to the one predicted by the BCS theory, and
predicted a higher EoS with respect to other~calculations.
In this study, we improved the trial wave function by performing
a variational search of the optimal $c_\alpha$ parameters using the
stochastic reconfiguration method~\cite{Sorella:2001}. As will be discussed in Sections~\ref{sec:results-energy} and \ref{sec:results-gap}, this yields a state that captures the appropriate correlations of superfluid NM and thus yields a ground state with lower energy and results consistent with the accurate DMC calculations at
very low-densities performed by Gezerlis and Carlson~\cite{Gezerlis:2008,Gezerlis:2010}. The pairing functions in Equation~(\ref{eq:phi}), once properly normalized, can be connected to a BCS state, like the one in Equation~(\ref{eq:BCS_gs}), through the $c_\alpha$ parameters,
\begin{equation}
c_\alpha =\frac{v_{\mf{k}_\alpha}}{u_{\mf{k}_\alpha}}~.\label{eq:ctov}
\end{equation}
This allows us to compare the pairing functions and pair probability distributions corresponding to the pairing function of Equation~(\ref{eq:phi}) for $40$ neutrons to those of the BCS ground state in Figure~\ref{fig:v2k} and \ref{fig:pair-func}. We find that the BCS state defined by the $c_\alpha$ parameters yields a pair probability distribution with a slightly higher spread around the Fermi surface, describing higher pairing correlations. This is reflected in the optimized state's pair function which decreases slowly with the particle separation (see Figure~\ref{fig:pair-func}). This suggests that a pair of particles remains correlated at larger separations. Additionally, we find that the optimized state's pair function is less isotropic compared to the BCS ground state, owing to the non-central components of the nuclear force described by the richer operator-structure of the AV8' potential.
\begin{figure}[H]
\includegraphics[width=.95\columnwidth]{phi04.pdf}
\caption{The pairing function used in this work (solid lines) and the pairing function of the BCS ground state (dashed lines) in the $[100]$, $[110]$, and $[111]$ directions inside the box, for $N=40$ particles at $k_\textrm{F}=0.4~\textrm{fm}^{-1}$.} \label{fig:pair-func}
\end{figure}
\section{Equation of State}\label{sec:results-energy}
We first examine the EoS of low-density NM. In Figure~\ref{fig:eos}, we present our AFDMC calculations with the better optimized trial wavefunction and we compare with the old AFDMC calculations from Refs.~\cite{Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009}, where correlated basis function calculations prescribed the pairing functions, and the results from Ref.~\cite{Gezerlis:2008}, where the DMC method was used instead and the pairing functions were determined by minimizing the trial state's energy. The results display the correct behavior at low densities, i.e.,~\mbox{$E/E_{\rm FG}\to 1$}, where pairing becomes less prevalent.
Evidently, the better optimization of the pairing functions in the trial wave function of AFDMC provides a better description of superfluid NM yielding a EoS consistent with the DMC calculations of Ref.~\cite{Gezerlis:2008} for low and intermediate densities. Our work then extends these results to higher densities.
\begin{figure}[H]
\includegraphics[width=.95\columnwidth]{eos-new_mod.pdf}
\caption{The equation of state (EoS) of NM, in units of the free Fermi gas energy, as
a function of $k_\textrm{F}$. The results of this work (black circles) are compared to the old EOS of Ref.~\cite{Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009} (blue squares) and to
quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) calculations of Ref.~\cite{Gezerlis:2008} (orange diamonds).
}
\label{fig:eos}
\end{figure}
Our energy results have been obtained by simulating a system using $N=40$ neutrons under periodic boundary conditions.
By choosing this specific particle number, we avoid closed-shell configurations e.g., $N=38$ or $66$. This functions to test that the pfaffian wave function with a properly optimized pairing functions that can reproduce open-shell configurations. It should be noted that, as demonstrated in Figure~\ref{fig:v2k}, superfluid systems do not yield a well-defined Fermi surface, and so all mentions to closed- and open-shell configurations refer to free systems with the same particle number. Certain closed-shell configurations are seen to produce minimum superfluid FSE (see Figure~\ref{fig:kinetic}) making them a common choice for QMC calculations~\cite{Gezerlis:2008, Gandolfi:2008}. Studying the TL with open-shell configurations would otherwise require the use of twist-averaged boundary conditions, as has been demonstrated for normal-state NM~\cite{Riz:2020} and superfluid NM~\cite{Palkanoglou:2021}. For some density, we changed $N$ from 40 to 66, without finding any dependency to $N$. This is because for such small densities, the box size is large enough to avoid FSE due to the truncation of the interaction. This has also been verified for ultra-cold Fermi gases with strong interactions~\cite{Forbes:2011}. The choice of $N=40$ is additionally motivated by overall efficiency: The optimization of the variational parameters becomes much harder for large $N$. As seen in Figure~\ref{fig:kinetic}, the FSE of the kinetic energy are smeared, compared to that of the free Fermi gas, due to the pairing correlations, providing smoother FSE to the total energy as well, as seen in the left panel of Figure~\ref{fig:fse}. From these calculations, we expect that the energy of a system with $N=40$ neutrons is within $\sim$2.5\% from its TL value.
\section{Pairing Gap}\label{sec:results-gap}
We have also performed calculations of the pairing gap using the better optimized trial state. The pairing gap is calculated using Equation~(\ref{eq:oes}) for an odd number of neutrons~$N$:
\begin{align}
\Delta(N) = E(N)-\frac{1}{2}\left[E(N+1) + E(N-1)\right] ~.
\label{eq:qmc.gap}
\end{align}
The results are shown in Figure~\ref{fig:gap}.
Since the pairing gap is calculated as differences between the total energy of the system, the result is that the uncertainty associated grows with $N$ making the use of large systems impractical. For most of the results presented here, we chose $N=47$ to get a reliable pairing gap and to minimize any possible bias due to closed shells. This is particularly important for lower densities where the pairing is suppressed. We tested the consistency of our results by performing simulations
at different numbers of neutrons up to $N=68$. Additionally, based on PBCS calculations of the pairing gap, we expect the pairing gap at $N=47$ to be close to the TL. In fact, the FSE, which for low densities and at small $N$, appear to be insensitive to density variations, suggest that the pairing gap of a system with $N=47$ neutrons is within $\sim 5\%$ from the TL (see the right panel of Figure~\ref{fig:fse}).
The results of the pairing gap are presented in Figure~\ref{fig:gap} where we
also show the pairing gaps of Ref.~\cite{Gezerlis:2008} calculated using DMC and the old AFDMC results
of Refs.~\cite{Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009}. At low densities, the AFDMC calculations are in reasonable agreement with DMC calculations.
For higher densities, the AFDMC results depart from the BCS prediction as the mean-field approximation becomes less accurate. In this work, we find a sizable pairing gap up to $k_F\sim 1.3$ fm$^{-1}$,
in contrast to the previous AFDMC calculations that seem to drop around $k_F=0.8~\textrm{fm}^{-1}$ because of the much
simpler variatinal wave function employed.
This again is a consequence of the better optimization of the pairing functions that we adopted
in this work; we are capturing more of the essential correlations found in the ground state of superfluid NM. Overall, we find a moderate suppression of the pairing gap predicted by the mean-field BCS.
\begin{figure}[H]
\includegraphics[width=.95\columnwidth]{gap-new_mod.pdf}
\caption{The pairing gap calculated at constant density with (black circles) and without (red triangles) the correction described in the text. Our calculations are compared to the old AFDMC results of Refs.~\cite{Gandolfi:2008,Gandolfi:2009}, and to those of Ref.~\cite{Gezerlis:2008}. The brown dashed curve shows the pairing gap predicted by BCS.
}
\label{fig:gap}
\end{figure}
The calculations of the energies in Equation~(\ref{eq:qmc.gap}) are typically performed by simulating the system at a constant density in order to minimize
the FSE due to the truncation of the potential energy in the periodic box.
However, for the free Fermi gas, this procedure would give a non-zero pairing gap. We corrected our results of the pairing gap by subtracting that of the free Fermi gas obtained at constant densities. The correction is negligible at low densities, as can be seen in Figure~\ref{fig:gap}, and within error bars at large densities. In a few cases, we also performed simulations at a constant volume instead of constant density and the results are very similar to corrected constant-density ones.
In summary, we performed a detailed ab initio study of the $S$ wave pairing in low-density NM found in the inner crust of cold NSs. We calculated the EoS and the pairing gap by means of AFDMC simulations for a range of densities, using a variationally optimized trial state benchmarked against previous calculations at low densities. A study of the FSE within a symmetry-restored mean-field treatment shows that the AFDMC energies and pairing gaps are within $\sim$2.5\% and $\sim$5\% from the TL, respectively. Our AFDMC pairing gaps show a modest suppression with respect to the mean-field BCS values. These results can be used in calculations of the thermal properties of NSs and be indirectly tested in cold atom experiments utilizing the universality of the unitary Fermi gas.
\authorcontributions{All authors have contributed to the investigation and to the writing of the article. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.}
\funding{The work of J.C. and S.G. has been supported by the NUclear Computational
Low-Energy Initiative (NUCLEI) SciDAC project and by the
U.S.~Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Nuclear Physics, under
contracts DE-AC52-06NA25396.
The work of S.G. has also been supported by the DOE Early Career research program. The work of K.E.S. has been supported by the NSF Award DBI-1565180.
The work of G.P. and A.G. has been supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada,
the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), and the
Early Researcher Award (ERA) program of the Ontario
Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Science. Computational resources were provided by SHARCNET and
NERSC.
This research used resources provided by
the Los Alamos National Laboratory Institutional Computing Program,
which is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy National Nuclear
Security Administration under contract no. 89233218CNA000001.
\conflictsofinterest{The authors declare no conflict of interest.}
\end{paracol}
\reftitle{References}
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Q: pointer initialization and allocation issue I don't understand this:
compiler is fine with
int *p_x=&x;
but not this
int *p_x,x;
*p_x=&x;
It is confusing to me. What is the difference? Is this only a initialization convention?
A: The token * has two meanings.
In the second example it is the dereferencing operator, which gets the value a pointer points to:
int *p_x,x;
*p_x=&x;
p_x is a pointer to int.
x is an int.
&x is the address of x (pointer to int).
*p_x is the value p_x points to (an int). * here is the dereference operator.
You are trying to assign a pointer &x to an int.
In the first example int *p_x = &x the token * actually belongs to the type, which is int*, a pointer to int. It is not the dereferencing operator here. Therefore the assignment is to p_x and not to *p_x. This becomes clearer if you write the line as int* p_x = &x. Assigning &x to p_x is fine, because both are of type pointer/address to int.
The simplest way to fix the second example is to rewrite *p_x = &x to p_x = &x. Then &x is again assigned to the pointer instead of the value the pointer points to.
A: Here:
int *p_x=&x;
You're declaring p_x as a pointer to int and assigning the value of p_x to the address of x which is legal.
But here:
int *p_x,x;
*p_x=&x;
You're declaring p_x as a pointer to int and x as an integer. Then you're trying to assigne the address of x to the object pointed to by p_x which means, assigning the address of x to x which is not legal as x is not a pointer. And it will generate an error: invalid conversion from 'int*' to 'int'.
A: int *p_x,x;
Is the equivalent of:
int *p_x;
int x;
So you actually want to remove the leading * for this to be valid:
p_x = &x;
This is essentially the same as int *p_x=&x;, I would punctuate this as int* p_x = &x to clarify that p_x is of type int*.
A: int *p_x=&x;
Make a variable named p_x type (int *) (which is pointer to integer) and then set its value to the address of x.
int *p_x,x;
*p_x=&x;
Make a variable named p_x type (int *) (which is pointer to integer, or in other words an address) and a variable named x type integer.
Where p_x is pointing (random location, because it wasn't initialized), put the address of x;
It's unfortunate that pointer types are defined with * and to access an address you also use *.
A: Although this is common (and I use it myself):
int *p;
it's actually a little misleading. We're not declaring an int named "*p", we're declaring an int* named "p".
This:
int *p_x=&x;
is equivalent to this:
int* p_x;
p_x=&x; // perfectly correct
But this is incorrect:
int *p_x,x;
*p_x=&x; // ouch!
You're assigning an address to an int (and even if you cast it correctly, you're dereferencing an uninitialized pointer, which causes Undefined Behavior).
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{"url":"https:\/\/www.aimsciences.org\/article\/doi\/10.3934\/dcdsb.2019179?viewType=html","text":"# American Institute of Mathematical Sciences\n\nJanuary\u00a0 2020,\u00a025(1):\u00a0223-240. doi:\u00a010.3934\/dcdsb.2019179\n\n## Global attractor of multi-valued operators with applications to a strongly damped nonlinear wave equation without uniqueness\n\n School of Mathematics and Statistics, Zhengzhou University, No.100, Science Road, Zhengzhou 450001, China\n\n* Corresponding author: Zhijian Yang\n\nReceived\u00a0 December 2018 Revised\u00a0 March 2019 Published\u00a0 July 2019\n\nFund Project: This work is supported by NSFC (Grant No. 11671367)\n\nThe paper investigates the existence of global attractors for a few classes of multi-valued operators. We establish some criteria and give their applications to a strongly damped wave equation with fully supercritical nonlinearities and without the uniqueness of solutions. Moreover, the geometrical structure of the global attractors of the corresponding multi-valued operators is shown.\n\nCitation: Zhiming Liu, Zhijian Yang. Global attractor of multi-valued operators with applications to a strongly damped nonlinear wave equation without uniqueness. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2020, 25 (1) : 223-240. doi: 10.3934\/dcdsb.2019179\n##### References:\n\nshow all references\n\n##### References:\n [1] Zhijian Yang, Zhiming Liu. Global attractor for a strongly damped wave equation with fully supercritical nonlinearities. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2017, 37 (4) : 2181-2205. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2017094 [2] Nicholas J. Kass, Mohammad A. Rammaha. Local and global existence of solutions to a strongly damped wave equation of the $p$-Laplacian type. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2018, 17 (4) : 1449-1478. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2018070 [3] Piotr Kokocki. Homotopy invariants methods in the global dynamics of strongly damped wave equation. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2016, 36 (6) : 3227-3250. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2016.36.3227 [4] Yejuan Wang, Peter E. Kloeden. The uniform attractor of a multi-valued process generated by reaction-diffusion delay equations on an unbounded domain. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2014, 34 (10) : 4343-4370. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2014.34.4343 [5] Dalila Azzam-Laouir, Warda Belhoula, Charles Castaing, M. D. P. Monteiro Marques. Multi-valued perturbation to evolution problems involving time dependent maximal monotone operators. Evolution Equations & Control Theory, 2020, 9 (1) : 219-254. doi: 10.3934\/eect.2020004 [6] Cedric Galusinski, Serguei Zelik. Uniform Gevrey regularity for the attractor of a damped wave equation. Conference Publications, 2003, 2003 (Special) : 305-312. doi: 10.3934\/proc.2003.2003.305 [7] Boling Guo, Zhaohui Huo. The global attractor of the damped, forced generalized Korteweg de Vries-Benjamin-Ono equation in $L^2$. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2006, 16 (1) : 121-136. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2006.16.121 [8] Fengjuan Meng, Chengkui Zhong. Multiple equilibrium points in global attractor for the weakly damped wave equation with critical exponent. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2014, 19 (1) : 217-230. doi: 10.3934\/dcdsb.2014.19.217 [9] Filippo Dell'Oro. Global attractors for strongly damped wave equations with subcritical-critical nonlinearities. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2013, 12 (2) : 1015-1027. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2013.12.1015 [10] Yejuan Wang, Lin Yang. Global exponential attraction for multi-valued semidynamical systems with application to delay differential equations without uniqueness. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - B, 2019, 24 (4) : 1961-1987. doi: 10.3934\/dcdsb.2018257 [11] Fabrizio Colombo, Davide Guidetti. Identification of the memory kernel in the strongly damped wave equation by a flux condition. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2009, 8 (2) : 601-620. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2009.8.601 [12] Pengyan Ding, Zhijian Yang. Attractors of the strongly damped Kirchhoff wave equation on $\\mathbb{R}^{N}$. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2019, 18 (2) : 825-843. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2019040 [13] Chien-Hong Cho, Marcus Wunsch. Global weak solutions to the generalized Proudman-Johnson equation. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2012, 11 (4) : 1387-1396. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2012.11.1387 [14] Limei Dai. Multi-valued solutions to a class of parabolic Monge-Amp\u00e8re equations. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2014, 13 (3) : 1061-1074. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2014.13.1061 [15] Tom\u00e1s Caraballo, David Cheban. On the structure of the global attractor for non-autonomous dynamical systems with weak convergence. Communications on Pure & Applied Analysis, 2012, 11 (2) : 809-828. doi: 10.3934\/cpaa.2012.11.809 [16] Fuqin Sun, Mingxin Wang. Non-existence of global solutions for nonlinear strongly damped hyperbolic systems. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2005, 12 (5) : 949-958. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2005.12.949 [17] Milena Stanislavova. On the global attractor for the damped Benjamin-Bona-Mahony equation. Conference Publications, 2005, 2005 (Special) : 824-832. doi: 10.3934\/proc.2005.2005.824 [18] Siegfried Carl, Christoph Tietz. Quasilinear elliptic equations with measures and multi-valued lower order terms. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - S, 2018, 11 (2) : 193-212. doi: 10.3934\/dcdss.2018012 [19] St\u00e9phane Gerbi, Belkacem Said-Houari. Exponential decay for solutions to semilinear damped wave equation. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - S, 2012, 5 (3) : 559-566. doi: 10.3934\/dcdss.2012.5.559 [20] A. Kh. Khanmamedov. Global attractors for strongly damped wave equations with displacement dependent damping and nonlinear source term of critical exponent. Discrete & Continuous Dynamical Systems - A, 2011, 31 (1) : 119-138. doi: 10.3934\/dcds.2011.31.119","date":"2019-12-06 21:15:47","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 1, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.4841654300689697, \"perplexity\": 3526.025423242382}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2019-51\/segments\/1575540490972.13\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20191206200121-20191206224121-00334.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
American Half-tracks of the Second World War
Among the most successful armoured vehicles produced by American industry - known as the Arsenal of Democracy - during the Second World War were the M2 and M3 half-tracks.
color & black and white illustrations
Binding. : Paperback
Dimensions : 11.5 X 9.25 inches
Among the most successful armored vehicles produced by American industry – known as the Arsenal of Democracy – during the Second World War were the M2 and M3 half-tracks. They served on every battlefront and were as recognizable as other famous American wartime vehicles like the Sherman and the Jeep, and around 40,000 were produced between 1941 and 1945. They were easy to assemble, operate and maintain, and their versatility allowed them to fulfill a variety of purposes. This volume in Pen & Sword's LandCraft series traces the design, development and manufacturing history of the M2/M3 and describes its operational role within the Allied armies.
A selection of archive photographs showing the M2/M3 in action gives a graphic impression of how adaptable these vehicles were and records the range of equipment they could carry. The book is an excellent source for the modeler, providing details of available kits, together with specially commissioned color profiles demonstrating how the M2/M3 used by different units and armies appeared.
Robert Jackson is the author of over eighty books on military, aviation, naval and scientific subjects. He was defense and science correspondent for a major British newspaper publishing group.
"This book is an excellent source for the modeler, providing details of available kits, together with specially commissioned color profiles demonstrating the M2/M3 used by different units and armies."
- AMPS Indianapolis
M2/M3 Reviews
Churchill and Stalin
Martin Folly, Geoffrey Roberts, Oleg Alexandrovich Rzheshevsky
Fallschirmjäger. Volume 2
Franҫois Cochet
The Fallen Few of the Battle of Britain
Norman Franks, Nigel McCrery
Watford at War 1939–45
Dr Eugenia Russell, Dr Quentin Russell
The Kaiser's Captive
Albert Rhys Williams
If Rome Hadn't Fallen
Timothy Venning
Murderous Tommies
Mark Dunning, Julian Putkowski
Walking the London Blitz
Clive Harris
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
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| 6,878
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Eric Akis is back, with the long-awaited compendium of his bestselling Everyone Can Cook? series. From his original book, Everyone Can Cook, to his subsequent guides to cooking midweek meals, slow cooker meals, appetizers, seafood and cooking for celebrations, Eric Akis has been lauded by food writers across the country for delivering recipes that really work.
Everyone Can Cook Everything collects the best of over 10 years of Eric Akis—240 recipes—in one beautiful 400-pagesplus hardcover volume. This anthology is a must-have for any Akis fan and the perfect introduction for those who are just discovering Eric's straightforward and down-to- earth recipes.
The book's numerous chapters provide concise recipes and cooking tips for preparing a vast array of meals—breakfasts and brunches, appetizers, soups, salads, noodle and rice dishes, vegetarian entrées, seafood, poultry and meat dishes, condiments and side dishes, baked goods and desserts. Meals that can be cooked in a slow cooker are highlighted with a special icon.
Everyone Can Cook Everything is the perfect gift for the home cook, no matter what their skill level. With this book's detailed instructions, exact preparation and cooking times, serving sizes, and many full-colour photographs, Eric Akis continues to prove that everyone really can cook everything!
Can everyone cook? That's a question I've frequently been asked. It seems prepared food marketers have been ultra-successful in convincing many that preparing a meal at home requires a culinary school diploma and a whole lot of time. To me, it's not whether or not you can cook; it's whether or not you have the desire, the confidence and the inspiration. If you have those traits, learning to cook, or improving the cooking skills you already have, can be much easier than you think and a rewarding, taste filled experience.
Eric Akis has been food writer for the Victoria Times Colonist since 1997. His columns are published in newspapers across Canada. Prior to becoming a journalist, Akis trained to become a professional chef and pastry chef. He worked for 15 years in a variety of operations in Ontario and British Columbia, from fine hotels to restaurants to catering companies. In 2003, his experiences as a chef and food writer inspired him to create the bestselling Everyone Can Cook series of cookbooks, which includes Everyone Can Cook, Everyone Can Cook Seafood, Everyone Can Cook Appetizers, Everyone Can Cook Midweek Meals, and now Everyone Can Cook for Celebrations. Eric Akis was born into a military family in Chicoutimi, Quebec, and has lived in six provinces. Victoria, BC, where he moved in 1992, is now officially home, where he lives with his wife, Cheryl Warwick, also a chef, and son, Tyler.
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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MBLA Past President Abim Thomas has joined Vertex Pharmaceuticals as Head of Global Litigation.
On June 28, 2017 Casebia Therapeutics, announced the hiring of MBLA member, Robin A. Walker as the company's Vice President, Head of Legal.
The MBLA 2017 Annual Meeting, at which Officers and Directors will be elected, will be held on Tuesday, April 18, at the Boston Bar Association, 16 Beacon Street, Boston, MA 02108 at 6:00 p.m. The MBLA is now accepting applications for Officer, Director and Board Committee leadership positions for the 2017-2018 administrative year.
Application materials for elected positions must be submitted by Friday, April 7, at noon EST. For appointed positions, the submission deadline is Friday, April 21, at noon EST.
Current Board Member and Community Service Committee Co-Chair Stesha Emmanuel has been selected as an Up & Coming Lawyer by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly and will be among those honored at the 2017 Excellence in the Law Awards. Congratulations Stesha!
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 5,332
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Q: How can I encrypt existing data in ALL Azure storage accounts across multiple subscriptions There is old, unencrypted data that has to be encrypted. I enabled encryption for future data but want to make sure all data across storage accounts is encrypted at rest.
I know that I can use AZCopy to move data, but is there a way to keep the current storage accounts but encrypt the data inside?
A: Currently there is no other way to encrypt existing data.
SSE only encrypts newly created data after the encryption is enabled. If for example you create a new Resource Manager storage account but don't turn on encryption, and then you upload blobs or archived VHDs to that storage account and then turn on SSE, those blobs will not be encrypted unless they are rewritten or copied.
A: Only option to encrypt the data within the same Storage Account is to copy the data to another container.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-service-encryption
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 9,258
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Curramore Sanctuary is a 1.75 km2 nature reserve in south-east Queensland, Australia, 75 km north-north-west of Brisbane on the western edge of the Blackall Range. It is owned and managed by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. It is mainly covered with rainforest and tall eucalypt forest.
Fauna
Notable birds found on Curramore include the grey goshawk, red-browed treecreeper and sooty owl. Notable mammals include the grey-headed flying-fox.
References
External links
Australian Wildlife Conservancy
Nature reserves in Queensland
Australian Wildlife Conservancy reserves
2004 establishments in Australia
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
}
| 8,264
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As the Lord's Ambassadors we are called to be His witnesses. What a glorious honor to proclaim the mystery of the Gospel. One on One witnessing is a very effective way to fulfill the great commission. Think about it the Lord has placed you in unique situations and circumstances unlike any one else. You will have opportunities to share with people that no one else would.
What are some basic ideas to help you? One is to use tracts as a means of an ice breaker. So many times if we could just get the conversation started we would be able to share with them. How do we overcome this? Tracts are a unique way to do this. Simply hand the person a tract, tell them it talks about eternity, have them read it and then ask what they think about it. In this situation, use tracts that are fairly short, but clear and Biblical. After they have read it see what they think and be prepared to give an answer for the hope that is in you.
Another way that I have found to be effective is to ask them a general question in regards to spiritual matters. In other words bait the hook and throw out the line to see if they are biting. For instance, asking them if they ever think about eternity and where they might spend it, is a very general non-offensive question that will help you discern if you should go any further, etc..
If someone is open, perhaps start out by sharing your testimony and then use Biblical principles to show them their need of Christ. The principles I'm speaking of are; man's original righteousness-Gen 1:26-27, man's fall from righteousness-Gen. 3:9-10, man's attempt at righteousness through religion--Romans 10:3, the law which reveals our unrighteousness-Rom. 3:19-20, Gal. 3:24, and then God's gift of righteousness--Romans 5:17-18.
Please see the article on "Righteousness is the issue" for help in understanding the principles of witnessing. May the Lord bless you in your efforts.
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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| 3,902
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Q: Most recent record on left join I am using mysql, i have table A which has account information and B table which has demographic information such as date of birth, address, and insurance policy information(primary,secondary).Table B's insurance feilds is updated so i want the most recent data from table B.Table B dont have any date feild. So how do i get the most recent record from B which is to be joined with A later.
select
A.num,
A.openingamount,
A.action,
A.current_status,
B.dob,
B.primary_policy,
B.secondary_policy
from A
left outer join B
on (B.uniqueid = A.ponum)
where A.num ='123'
A: juergen d is correct in eir comment above, stating that you need some ordered column in table B to determine what is the most recent. If B.uniqueid is an auto-incrementing column, then you can use that; if it isn't then you'll need to add a new column by which to order B.
Then, you can get the data with a double-join to B, where the second join is used to find B rows that are greater than the max uniqueid (i.e. to find nothing).
SELECT
A.num, A.openingamount, A.action, A.current_status,
B.dob, B.primary_policy, B.secondary_policy
FROM A
LEFT JOIN B ON (B.a_ponum = A.ponum)
LEFT JOIN B2 ON (B2.a_ponum = A.ponum AND B2.uniqueid > B.uniqueid)
WHERE
B2.uniqueid IS NULL
AND A.num ='123'
A: If you don't have a date column, you need an increment column:
select
A.num,
A.openingamount,
A.action,
A.current_status,
B.dob,
B.primary_policy,
B.secondary_policy
from A
left outer join B
on (B.uniqueid = A.ponum)
where A.num ='123'
order by B.increment_id desc
A: You also may want to add an auto-updated TIMESTAMP field -
ALTER TABLE B
ADD COLUMN ts
TIMESTAMP NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP ON UPDATE CURRENT_TIMESTAMP;
Automatic Initialization and Updating for TIMESTAMP.
Then use this field to find the most recent record.
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 1,084
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Chamaebatia australis is a species of aromatic evergreen shrub in the rose family known by the common names southern mountain misery and southern bearclover. This uncommon shrub is native to the chaparral slopes of southern California and northern Baja California. It has very dark bark, and is covered in a foliage of 2-pinnate leaves, meaning leaves which are made up of small leaflets which are further divided themselves into tiny leaflets, giving the foliage a fernlike appearance. Each leaf is a gland-dotted frond of 3 to 8 centimeters in length. The flowers are roselike with small rounded white petals and yellow centers filled with many stamens. The fruit is a leathery achene.
References
External links
Jepson Manual Treatment
Photo gallery
Dryadoideae
Flora of California
Flora of Baja California
Flora without expected TNC conservation status
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
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| 6,128
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Вирус може да се отнася за:
Вирус в биологията, паразитираща частица по-малка от бактерия, която може да се възпроизвежда само след като инфектира гостоприемна клетка
Компютърен вирус в компютърната наука, зловредна компютърна програма, която може да се предава между компютри
Думата произлиза от лат. virus, us — отрова.
Вижте също
Virus – компютърна игра
Virus (албум на Хевънли) – на Френската пауър метъл група Хевънли (Heavenly)
Virus (албум на Хипокриси) - на шведската дет метъл група Хипокриси
Virus (звукозаписна къща) – английска звукозаписна къща Virus или Virus Recordings
Virus — сингъл на Айрън Мейдън
Virus (KMFDM) - песен на немската рок метъл група KMFDM
Virus (Лука Турили) - песен на Luca Turilli's Dreamquest
Virus (аржентинска група) – аржентинска ню уейв група
Virus (норвежка група) – норвежка авангард джаз рок група
Virus (руска група) – руска техно поп група
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
}
| 2,517
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Q: DSpace: How does text_lang get set during item submission? When submitting new items into DSpace, I have discovered inconsistencies in the text_lang column of the metadatavalue table.
I created a new submission and populated a value into every field on the item submission screen. When the submission was completed, I ended up with the following results.
*
*Most entries had a text_lang of "en"
*dc.date.* entries had a null text_lang (This applied to user-generated and system-generated dates)
*most dc.identifer.* entries had a text_lang of null
*dc.identifier.bibliographicCitation had a text_lang of "en"
*dc.relation.ispartofseries had a null text_lang
*dc.relation.uri has a text_lang "en"
Is there a property in one of the item submission workflows that controls how the text_lang column is set when a new item is created?
A: Terry,
There is no magic property. You will find that this DCValue/MetadataValue attribute is populated differently in different DSpace applications (SWORD, LNI, XMLUI, JSPUI, CLI).
In each of the cases where the application code sets the language, there are several methods in the DSpace Item class responsible for populating metadata values, to find the cases you are seeking, you will need to dig deeply into the applications usage of these org.dspace.content.Item.java methods:
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L608
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L631
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L660
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L706
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L800
https://github.com/DSpace/DSpace/blob/dspace-4.2/dspace-api/src/main/java/org/dspace/content/Item.java#L832
This is an area that could stand to have vast improvement made in DSpace, to add to your examples, there are places in DSpace where an "*" is placed into the lang field which is also incorrect.
Ideally, DSpace MetadataValue should place some validation/control on this attribute to assure that it is being populated with correct values.
Regards,
Mark
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 586
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Q: Is there a diff tool in GIT, which can just show textual changes and no formatting changes We had a formatter.xml file introduced in our eclipse project to auto format the code. The problem we are having is now after formatting we see a lot of differences in the unchanged file when we do a
$git diff <file>
it shows few lines added and same number of lines removed, though there was no change introduced in the code.
My question is there a command which can just show what actually changed and will not show the changes like the curly braces moved one line above because of auto formatting.
An example below:
-public class PPCCustomerFacadeImpl<T extends PPCCustomerData> extends
DefaultCustomerFacade implements PPCCustomerFacade<T>
{
+public class PPCCustomerFacadeImpl<T extends PPCCustomerData> extends
DefaultCustomerFacade implements
+ PPCCustomerFacade<T> {
A: If the only differences are changes in the whitespace within individual lines, then git diff provides options that can help you; you might try --ignore-all-space. Here's a link with more information. If you want to make it easier to type, you can create an alias:
git config --global alias.diffis 'diff --ignore-all-space'
Then git diffis will run the diff with the option.
However, I believe it is impossible to ignore changes that move non-whitespace text to a different line, as in your example. Tracking changes by lines is a fundamental principle of git.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 5,277
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Donald James McCrimmon (March 1, 1918 – November 8, 1992) was a provincial level politician from Alberta, Canada. He served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta from 1971 to 1982 sitting with the governing Progressive Conservative caucus. During his time in office McCrimmon was appointed by Premier Peter Lougheed to serve a term in the Executive Council of Alberta as a Minister without portfolio responsible for native affairs from 1979 to 1982.
Political career
McCrimmon ran for a seat to the Alberta Legislature in the 1971 Alberta general election. He won the electoral district of Ponoka defeating incumbent Neville Roper in a hotly contested four way race. His win helped the Progressive Conservative caucus form government that year.
The 1975 Alberta general election would see McCrimmon run against two challengers. He was returned easily to his second term after winning a slightly higher popular vote while the opposition vote would remain unchanged. McCrimmon would stand for a third term in office in the 1979 Alberta general election. His popular vote would remain almost unchanged from the 1975 election while his opponents would make gains but the vote was heavily divided.
After the election Premier Peter Lougheed appointed McCrimmon to the Executive Council of Alberta as Minister without portfolio responsible for Native Affairs. He held that portfolio until he retired from the Assembly at dissolution in 1982.
References
External links
Legislative Assembly of Alberta Members Listing
1918 births
1992 deaths
Members of the Executive Council of Alberta
People from Red Deer, Alberta
Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta MLAs
|
{
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| 1,660
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Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates
Issa El-Hussain*, Zaid Al-Habsi, Khalid Al Bloushi, Rachid Omira, Ahmed Deif, Maria Ana Baptista, Adel M.E. Mohamad
Destructive tsunamis were reported in the Oman Sea after large earthquakes. The Northern Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were subjected to two confirmed tsunamis on 27 November 1945, caused by an Mw 8.1 earthquake in Makran subduction zone, and on 24 September 2013 following the Mw 7.7 Baluchistan earthquake. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments are performed for the coasts of Diba-Oman and Diba-UAE, which are located on the western coast of the Oman Sea. The tsunami risk of these coasts increases due to the construction of many infrastructures and urban concentration in these localities. The study focuses on earthquake-induced tsunamis, thus requiring the estimation of the maximum credible earthquake. The generation area is the Makran subduction zone, which is divided herein into EMSZ (East Makran subduction zone) and WMSZ (West Makran subduction zone). The maximum credible earthquakes of Mw 8.8 for the EMSZ and Mw 7.2 for the WMSZ are utilized as specific scenarios for the deterministic approach. The Mw 8.8 EMSZ scenario results in a maximum tsunami inundation distance of more than 300 m. Maximum inundation distance larger than 300 m occurs due to the Mw 7.2 western MSZ scenario. For these scenarios, numerical simulations show a maximum flow depth exceeding 1.75 m. The probabilistic hazard assessment utilizes the logic tree approach to estimate the probability of exceedance of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 m wave height in 100 and 500 years exposure times. This analysis indicates that the likelihood that a maximum wave height exceeds 0.5 m ranges from 10 to 40% in 100 years and from 30 to 80% in 500 years.
Arabian Journal of Geosciences
Deterministic tsunami
Diba
Makran subduction zone
Probabilistic tsunami
Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
El-Hussain, I., Al-Habsi, Z., Al Bloushi, K., Omira, R., Deif, A., Baptista, M. A., & Mohamad, A. M. E. (2021). Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates. Arabian Journal of Geosciences, 14(10), [831]. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-07137-9
Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates. / El-Hussain, Issa; Al-Habsi, Zaid; Al Bloushi, Khalid; Omira, Rachid; Deif, Ahmed; Baptista, Maria Ana; Mohamad, Adel M.E.
In: Arabian Journal of Geosciences, Vol. 14, No. 10, 831, 05.2021.
El-Hussain, I, Al-Habsi, Z, Al Bloushi, K, Omira, R, Deif, A, Baptista, MA & Mohamad, AME 2021, 'Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates', Arabian Journal of Geosciences, vol. 14, no. 10, 831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-07137-9
El-Hussain I, Al-Habsi Z, Al Bloushi K, Omira R, Deif A, Baptista MA et al. Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates. Arabian Journal of Geosciences. 2021 May;14(10). 831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-021-07137-9
El-Hussain, Issa ; Al-Habsi, Zaid ; Al Bloushi, Khalid ; Omira, Rachid ; Deif, Ahmed ; Baptista, Maria Ana ; Mohamad, Adel M.E. / Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates. In: Arabian Journal of Geosciences. 2021 ; Vol. 14, No. 10.
@article{9fb239825c084a5cb0430710417bc4b0,
title = "Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates",
abstract = "Destructive tsunamis were reported in the Oman Sea after large earthquakes. The Northern Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were subjected to two confirmed tsunamis on 27 November 1945, caused by an Mw 8.1 earthquake in Makran subduction zone, and on 24 September 2013 following the Mw 7.7 Baluchistan earthquake. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments are performed for the coasts of Diba-Oman and Diba-UAE, which are located on the western coast of the Oman Sea. The tsunami risk of these coasts increases due to the construction of many infrastructures and urban concentration in these localities. The study focuses on earthquake-induced tsunamis, thus requiring the estimation of the maximum credible earthquake. The generation area is the Makran subduction zone, which is divided herein into EMSZ (East Makran subduction zone) and WMSZ (West Makran subduction zone). The maximum credible earthquakes of Mw 8.8 for the EMSZ and Mw 7.2 for the WMSZ are utilized as specific scenarios for the deterministic approach. The Mw 8.8 EMSZ scenario results in a maximum tsunami inundation distance of more than 300 m. Maximum inundation distance larger than 300 m occurs due to the Mw 7.2 western MSZ scenario. For these scenarios, numerical simulations show a maximum flow depth exceeding 1.75 m. The probabilistic hazard assessment utilizes the logic tree approach to estimate the probability of exceedance of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 m wave height in 100 and 500 years exposure times. This analysis indicates that the likelihood that a maximum wave height exceeds 0.5 m ranges from 10 to 40% in 100 years and from 30 to 80% in 500 years.",
keywords = "Deterministic tsunami, Diba, Makran subduction zone, Probabilistic tsunami",
author = "Issa El-Hussain and Zaid Al-Habsi and {Al Bloushi}, Khalid and Rachid Omira and Ahmed Deif and Baptista, {Maria Ana} and Mohamad, {Adel M.E.}",
note = "Funding Information: This study was funded by Sultan Qaboos University in joint grant with UAE University (project CL/SQU-UAEU/16/06). The authors appreciate the Earthquake Monitoring Center computing facilities. The authors acknowledge the FCT-Portugal (Funda{\c c}{\~a}o para a Ci{\^e}ncia e Tecnologia) support through the project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021, Saudi Society for Geosciences.",
journal = "Arabian Journal of Geosciences",
T1 - Site-specific deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment for Diba-Oman and Diba-Al-Emirates
AU - El-Hussain, Issa
AU - Al-Habsi, Zaid
AU - Al Bloushi, Khalid
AU - Omira, Rachid
AU - Deif, Ahmed
AU - Baptista, Maria Ana
AU - Mohamad, Adel M.E.
N1 - Funding Information: This study was funded by Sultan Qaboos University in joint grant with UAE University (project CL/SQU-UAEU/16/06). The authors appreciate the Earthquake Monitoring Center computing facilities. The authors acknowledge the FCT-Portugal (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia) support through the project UIDB/50019/2020 – IDL. Publisher Copyright: © 2021, Saudi Society for Geosciences.
N2 - Destructive tsunamis were reported in the Oman Sea after large earthquakes. The Northern Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were subjected to two confirmed tsunamis on 27 November 1945, caused by an Mw 8.1 earthquake in Makran subduction zone, and on 24 September 2013 following the Mw 7.7 Baluchistan earthquake. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments are performed for the coasts of Diba-Oman and Diba-UAE, which are located on the western coast of the Oman Sea. The tsunami risk of these coasts increases due to the construction of many infrastructures and urban concentration in these localities. The study focuses on earthquake-induced tsunamis, thus requiring the estimation of the maximum credible earthquake. The generation area is the Makran subduction zone, which is divided herein into EMSZ (East Makran subduction zone) and WMSZ (West Makran subduction zone). The maximum credible earthquakes of Mw 8.8 for the EMSZ and Mw 7.2 for the WMSZ are utilized as specific scenarios for the deterministic approach. The Mw 8.8 EMSZ scenario results in a maximum tsunami inundation distance of more than 300 m. Maximum inundation distance larger than 300 m occurs due to the Mw 7.2 western MSZ scenario. For these scenarios, numerical simulations show a maximum flow depth exceeding 1.75 m. The probabilistic hazard assessment utilizes the logic tree approach to estimate the probability of exceedance of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 m wave height in 100 and 500 years exposure times. This analysis indicates that the likelihood that a maximum wave height exceeds 0.5 m ranges from 10 to 40% in 100 years and from 30 to 80% in 500 years.
AB - Destructive tsunamis were reported in the Oman Sea after large earthquakes. The Northern Sultanate of Oman and United Arab Emirates (UAE) were subjected to two confirmed tsunamis on 27 November 1945, caused by an Mw 8.1 earthquake in Makran subduction zone, and on 24 September 2013 following the Mw 7.7 Baluchistan earthquake. In this study, deterministic and probabilistic tsunami hazard assessments are performed for the coasts of Diba-Oman and Diba-UAE, which are located on the western coast of the Oman Sea. The tsunami risk of these coasts increases due to the construction of many infrastructures and urban concentration in these localities. The study focuses on earthquake-induced tsunamis, thus requiring the estimation of the maximum credible earthquake. The generation area is the Makran subduction zone, which is divided herein into EMSZ (East Makran subduction zone) and WMSZ (West Makran subduction zone). The maximum credible earthquakes of Mw 8.8 for the EMSZ and Mw 7.2 for the WMSZ are utilized as specific scenarios for the deterministic approach. The Mw 8.8 EMSZ scenario results in a maximum tsunami inundation distance of more than 300 m. Maximum inundation distance larger than 300 m occurs due to the Mw 7.2 western MSZ scenario. For these scenarios, numerical simulations show a maximum flow depth exceeding 1.75 m. The probabilistic hazard assessment utilizes the logic tree approach to estimate the probability of exceedance of 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1.0 m wave height in 100 and 500 years exposure times. This analysis indicates that the likelihood that a maximum wave height exceeds 0.5 m ranges from 10 to 40% in 100 years and from 30 to 80% in 500 years.
KW - Deterministic tsunami
KW - Diba
KW - Makran subduction zone
KW - Probabilistic tsunami
JO - Arabian Journal of Geosciences
JF - Arabian Journal of Geosciences
|
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{"url":"https:\/\/www.asianinstituteofresearch.org\/EQRarchives\/Statistics-as-Measurement%3A-4-Scales%2FLevels-of-Measurement-","text":"## ISSN 2621-5799\n\nPublished: 03 September 2020\n\n# Statistics as Measurement: 4 Scales\/Levels of Measurement\n\n### Patricia E. Allanson, Charles E. Notar\n\nLiberty University, Jacksonville State University\n\n10.31014\/aior.1993.03.03.146\n\nPages: 375-385\n\nKeywords: Statistics, Measurement, Levels of Measurement\n\nAbstract\n\nThis article discusses the basics of the \u201c4 scales of measurement\u201d and how they are applicable to research or everyday tools of life. To do this you will be able to list and describe the four types of scales of measurement used in quantitative research; provide examples of uses of the four scales of measurement; and determine the appropriate measurement scale for a research problem. The article is designed to present an overview of statistical methods in order to better understand research results. Formulas and mathematical computations will not be presented, as the goal for this article is to merely provide a basic understanding of statistical measurement.\n\nReferences\n\n1. Introduction to Measurement and Statistics (n. d). Retrieved from\n\n2. Merriam-Webster. Statistics. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved from\n\n3. Science Struck. Descriptive vs. inferential statistics: Know the difference. Retrieved from\n\n4. Difference Between.com (2012). Difference between descriptive and inferential statistics. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.differencebetween.com\/difference-between-descriptive-and-vs-inferential-statistics\/\n\n5. Study Lecture Notes. (2020). Educational measurement: Definition & concept of educational measurement. Retrieved from\n\n6. Khaneja, K. Center for Innovation in Research and Teaching. Quantitative scales of measurement. Retrieved from\n\n7. M & E Studies. Scales of measurement. Retrieved from\n\n8. AllPsych: Psych Central\u2019s virtual psychology classroom. (2018). Descriptive statistics. Retrieved from\n\n9. Lumen Learning: Introduction to Statistics. Scales of measurement. Retrieved from https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/odessa-introstats1-1\/chapter\/frequency-frequency-tables-and-scales-of-measurement\/\n\n10. QuestionPro. Yahoo images. [Chart]. 4 levels of measurement. Retrieved from shorturl.at\/vzUV0\n\n11. Market Research Guy. Types of data & measurement scales: Nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Retrieved from\n\n12. The Glossary of Education Reform for Journalists, Parents, and Community Members. (2013). Measurement error. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.edglossary.org\/measurement-error\/\n\n13. Math and Stats. Measurement scales. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.csse.monash.edu.au\/~smarkham\/resources\/scaling.htm\n\n14. Bhat, A. (2020). Nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio scales with examples. Retrieved from\n\n15. Calkins, K. G. (2005) Definitions, uses, data types, and scales of measurement. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.andrews.edu\/~calkins\/math\/edrm611\/edrm01.htm\n\n16. Crossman, A. (2019). ThoughtCo. Understanding levels and scales of measurement in sociology. Retrieved from http:\/\/sociology.about.com\/od\/S_Index\/g\/Scale-Of-Measurement.htm\n\n17. Fife-Schaw, C. (2006). Levels of measurement. Retrieved from:\n\n18. Garger, J.(2010). 4 Scales of measurement in social science research. Retrieved from https:\/\/johngarger.com\/articles\/methodology\/4-scales-of-measurement-in-social-science-research\n\n19. Glen, S. (2020). Statistics how to: Variables. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.statisticshowto.datasciencecentral.com\/discrete-vs-continuous-variables\/\n\n20. Helmenstine, A. M. (2019). Measurement definition in science. Retrieved from\n\n21. Newsome, J. T. (2007). Types of scales and levels of measurement. Retrieved from http:\/\/web.pdx.edu\/~newsomj\/pa551\/lecture1.htm\n\n22. Raghunath, D. (2019). Summary of descriptive statistics & graphical summaries for the four scales of measurement.\n\n23. Regoniel, P. A. (2012). Four statistical scales of measurement. Retrieved from\n\n24. Surbhi, S. (2017). Difference between discrete and continuous variable. Retrieved from\n\n25. Taylor, C. (2018). ThroughtCo. The scales of measurement in statistics. Retrieved from https:\/\/www.thoughtco.com\/differences-in-descriptive-and-inferential-statistics-3126224\n\n26. Trochim, W. M. (2002) as cited in Notar, 2013 EFD 632.\n\n27. Volchok, E. (2015). Measurement and measurement scales. Retrieved from http:\/\/media.acc.qcc.cuny.edu\/faculty\/volchok\/Measurement_Volchok\/Measurement_Volchok5.html\n\n### Engineering and Technology Quarterly Reviews\n\nThe Asian Institute of Research is an online and open-access platform to publish recent\u00a0research and articles of scholars worldwide. Founded in 2018 and based in Indonesia, the Institute\u00a0serves as a platform for academics, educators, scholars, and students from Asia and around the world, to connect with one another. The Institute disseminates research that is proven or predicted to be of significant influence for the general public.","date":"2020-09-23 13:26:04","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": false, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.9293270111083984, \"perplexity\": 9887.124980023056}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.3, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2020-40\/segments\/1600400210996.32\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20200923113029-20200923143029-00450.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
This year, I have seen Indonesia take incredible steps to protect these fascinating — and valuable — creatures.
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A top scientist discusses some of his most important research.
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If sharks were to disappear, it would be bad news for all of us.
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|
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Zestawienie spotkań reprezentacji Meksyku pod wodzą Jesúsa Ramíreza.
Oficjalne międzynarodowe spotkania
Bilans
Rekordy
Największe zwycięstwo: z Belize – 7:0 (22.06.2008, San Nicolás de los Garza)
Największa porażka: z Argentyną – 1:4 (04.06.2008, Bridgeview)
Najdłuższa seria zwycięstw: 3 (Peru, Belize, Belize)
Najdłuższa seria bez porażki: 3 (Peru, Belize, Belize)
Najszybciej strzelony gol: Fernando Arce – z Peru (5 min.)
Najszybciej stracony gol: Nicolás Burdisso – z Argentyną (11 min.)
Najlepszy strzelec: Fernando Arce (4 bramki)
Strzelcy
Szczegóły
Meksyk: Oswaldo Sánchez – Leobardo López, Fausto Pinto – Adrián Aldrete, Patricio Araujo, Jorge Hernández (46. José Joel González), Zinha (88. Christian Bermúdez), Luis Ernesto Pérez, Sergio Amaury Ponce (52. Omar Esparza), César Villaluz (90. Pablo Barrera) – Sergio Santana (74. Juan Carlos Cacho)
Chiny: Song Zhenyu – Cao Yang, Wang Xiao (17. Wu Hao), Xin Feng – Hu Zhaojun (53. Li Jianhua), Zhao Junzhe (82. Lin Yang), Sun Ji, Wu Wei'an (70. Lu Feng), Xiao Zhanbo – Gao Lin (62. Yan Li), Qu Bo (74. Wang Song). Trener: Vladimir Petrović
Meksyk: Oswaldo Sánchez – Jonny Magallón, Ricardo Osorio, Carlos Salcido (60. Fernando Arce) – Andrés Guardado (56. Adrián Aldrete), Zinha, Luis Ernesto Pérez (66. Jared Borgetti), Sergio Amaury Ponce (46. Aarón Galindo), Gerardo Torrado (73. Gonzalo Pineda) – Sergio Santana (46. César Villaluz), Carlos Vela
Argentyna: Roberto Abbondanzieri – Nicolás Burdisso, Fabricio Coloccini, Martín Demichelis, Javier Zanetti – Fernando Gago (78. Éver Banega), Javier Mascherano, Maxi Rodríguez (73. Jonás Gutiérrez) – Sergio Agüero (85. Lisandro López), Julio Ricardo Cruz (60. Fernando Cavenaghi), Lionel Messi (85. José Ernesto Sosa). Trener: Alfio Basile
Meksyk: Oswaldo Sánchez – Aarón Galindo, Jonny Magallón, Ricardo Osorio (65. Óscar Rojas), Carlos Salcido (83. Héctor Moreno) – Fernando Arce, Andrés Guardado (72. Adrián Aldrete), Zinha (51. César Villaluz), Luis Ernesto Pérez, Gerardo Torrado (59. Patricio Araujo) – Carlos Vela (68. Sergio Santana)
Peru: George Forsyth – Luis Daniel Hernández (46. Juan Manuel Vargas), Guillermo Salas (59. Ámilton Prado), Walter Vílchez, Miguel Villalta – Juan Comínges (61. Hernán Rengifo), Juan Carlos Mariño (70. Rinaldo Cruzado), Nolberto Solano, Rainer Torres (43. Miguel Cevasco) – Daniel Chávez (46. Donny Neyra), Paolo Guerrero. Trener: José del Solar
Belize: Shane Orio – Ian Gaynair (53. Ryan Simpson), Trevor Lennen, Elroy Smith, David Trapp – Denis Benavides (87. Daniel Jimenez), Harrison Roches, Lester Serrano, Harrison Tasher – Deon McCaulay (80. Jeromy James), Víctor Morales. Trener: Palmiro Salas
Meksyk: Oswaldo Sánchez – Aarón Galindo, Jonny Magallón, Ricardo Osorio, Carlos Salcido – Fernando Arce, Andrés Guardado, Zinha (62. César Villaluz), Luis Ernesto Pérez, Gerardo Torrado (46. Gonzalo Pineda) – Carlos Vela (77. Jared Borgetti)
Meksyk: Oswaldo Sánchez – Aarón Galindo, Jonny Magallón, Óscar Rojas, Carlos Salcido – Fernando Arce (52. Jared Borgetti), Andrés Guardado (48. Ricardo Osorio), Luis Ernesto Pérez, Gonzalo Pineda (14. Zinha), César Villaluz – Carlos Vela
Belize: Shane Orio – Ian Gaynair, Daniel Jimenez, Trevor Lennen, Bernard Linarez, Elroy Smith (46. Albert Thurton) – Harrison Roches (53. Jeromy James), Lester Serrano, Ryan Simpson (76. Dennis Serrano), Harrison Tasher – Deon McCaulay. Trener: Palmiro Salas
Przypisy
Meksyk, Ramirez
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Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace
Creating a New Marketplace (PDF, 1065K)
Lex Frieden, Chairperson
This report is also available in alternative formats and on NCD's award-winning Web site (/).
The views contained in the report do not necessarily represent those of the administration, as this and all NCD reports are not subject to the A-19 executive branch review process.
Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement by the National Council on Disability.
On behalf of the National Council on Disability (NCD), I am submitting a report entitled, Design for Inclusion: Creating a New Marketplace. This report aims to educate designers and manufacturers about the way electronic and information technology (E&IT) intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities, and how designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for E&IT.
Designing with access in mind can be accomplished through Universal design. Universal design is a process to ensure that electronic and information technology is inclusive, accessible, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Incorporating universal design processes when developing E&IT is one solution to accommodating people with disabilities that also improves the usability of the products for the rest of the population. NCD's research attempts to understand the market for universally designed mainstream consumer products and services, document successful universal design development processes, understand consumer needs, understand universal design facilitators and barriers, and identify and address current issues in universal design.
This research falls at a time when understanding and incorporating universal design into the development process are most crucial. We are in the window of opportunity for implementing Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended). Section 508 requires the Federal Government to purchase accessibly designed E&IT. If progress is not made quickly in improving the skills of government and industry employees on accessibility issues, the window will soon shut with little having been accomplished.
Progress must be made now, and the purpose of this report is to present the information and recommendations that will guide this progress.
(The same letter of transmittal was sent to the President Pro Tempore of the U.S. Senate and the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.)
Julie Carroll, Attorney Advisor
This National Council on Disability report is dedicated to Ronald Mace, "a nationally and internationally recognized architect, product designer, and educator whose design philosophy challenged convention and provided a design foundation for a more usable world. He coined the term 'universal design' to describe the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life" (Center for Universal Design).
The National Council on Disability (NCD) wishes to express its appreciation to W. Bradley Fain of Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), who was the principal investigator for this project. Researchers in GTRI's Electronic Systems Laboratory performed the work documented in this report. NCD acknowledges the contributions of Steve Jacobs of the Ideal Group, who performed the market definition and research for this report. NCD also acknowledges the participation of the industry partners that supported the industry study portion of this research. The industry partners provided invaluable insight into the impact of section 508 on business and the barriers and facilitators relating to the adoption of universal design principles. NCD also acknowledges the donation of equipment and services utilized during the user study portion of the research. The following companies provided products and services, at no cost to the project, for user testing: HP, Nokia, and SENCORE Electronic Test Equipment.
NCD would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Gerry Field, WGBH Boston, for providing the closed-captioned test stream used in user testing.
Important Findings and Recommendations
Definition of Universal Design
Role of Assistive Technology in Universal Design
II. Market Definition and Research
Market Forces
Local Environment
Standards and Guidelines
Other Customer Markets
ATM Machines
Personal Digital Assistants
Definition of the Market Environment Customer Analysis
Analysis of Market Trends
III. Product Analysis
Distance Learning Software
Voice Recognition Software
Product Line Assessment Methodology
Product Line Assessments
IV. Industry Study
Design Facilitators
Organizational Facilitators
Informational Facilitators
Financial Facilitators
Legal Facilitators
Design Barriers
Organizational Barriers
Informational Barriers
Financial Barriers
Legal Barriers
Strategy/Policy
Resource Allocation/Funding
Organization/Staff
Training/Awareness
Demand/Legislation
Customers/People with Disabilities
Analysis of Facilitators and Barriers to Accessible Design Industry Study Data Collection Methodology
Analysis of Industry Data: Factors Influencing Adoption of UD Practices Analysis of the Industry Study Findings
V. Discussion
A Sizable Market Exists for Universally Designed Products and Services
Universal Design Principles Can Be Easily Incorporated into Current Design Practices
Products Designed To Be Accessible Sometimes Do Not Meet the Needs of Users
Legislation Is Currently Both a Facilitator and a Barrier to Universal Design
Government, Industry, and Consumers Have Important Roles To Play in Promoting Universal Design
Industry and Consumers Would Benefit from Better Industry Coordination with AT Vendors
VI. Conclusions
Analysis of Purchase Decisions for Accessible Products
Comparison of Strategies To Promote Universal Design and Strategies To Promote Safety
Analysis of the Market for Universally Designed Products and Services
Analysis of the Impact of Section 508
Analysis of Industry Practices
Analysis of Consumers of Universally Designed Products and Services
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Table 1. Accessibility Grades for Each Target Population for the Six Product Lines
Table 2. Comparison Between Promotion of Consumer Product Safety and Accessibility
Designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for electronic and information technology (E&IT). Good business practice dictates that designers and engineers avoid unintentionally excluding large populations of consumers from accessing and using the E&IT they develop and manufacture. People with disabilities are at the highest risk of exclusion. Other consumer groups are also at risk. They are—
Individuals 65+ years old
Consumers living in low-bandwidth information infrastructures
People who never learned to read
Users of English as a Second Language (ESL)
Tourists and people living in multilingual societies
Consumers living in high-density populations
Designing with access in mind can be accomplished through universal design (UD). Universal design is a process to ensure that E&IT is inclusive, accessible, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Accessible design is a step forward when developing E&IT products, but it tends to lead to technologies that will be used separately, or in addition to, the main E&IT product, which diminishes the effectiveness of designing for all. Incorporating UD processes when developing E&IT is one solution to accommodating people with disabilities that also improves the usability of the products for the rest of the population.
The National Council on Disability (NCD) undertook this research to understand the market for universally designed mainstream consumer products and services, document successful UD development processes, understand consumer needs, understand UD facilitators and barriers, and identify and address current issues in universal design. This research comes at a time when understanding and incorporating UD into the development process are most crucial. We are in the window of opportunity for implementing section 508. If progress is not made quickly in improving the skills of government and industry employees on accessibility issues, the window will soon shut with little having been accomplished. If industry does not see that federal agencies are serious about implementing section 508 in a consistent manner, companies will shift the monetary and human resources needed for improving accessibility to product development opportunities that offer a higher return on investment. Progress must be made now, and the purpose of this report is to present the information and recommendations that will guide this progress.
Through this research, NCD aims to educate designers and manufacturers about how electronic and information technology intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities. In addition to providing knowledge about disabilities, we see the importance here and now of educating individuals on universal design. Currently, many business people have never heard of UD, and many of those who have do not understand that it is more than just a design for disability. This research aims to provide businesses with the knowledge of UD methods they need to clearly see how their complex products can be made accessible in a cost-effective way.
As part of this research, six product lines were analyzed from the telecommunications, software, consumer electronics, and digital services industries for both accessibility and usability. We estimated how useful these products are to people with disabilities and whether the products conformed to section 508 standards and section 255 guidelines. We were able to present recommendations for improving such products. At a time when the incorporation of universal design is crucial, NCD hopes that the information provided in this report will motivate and drive the development of more universally, accessibly designed E&IT.
User Study. The purpose of the user study was to document and understand user experiences with the six product lines under study. The experiences and thoughts of the consumer with a disability provided important insight into the future design of accessible products and can potentially influence the universal design process. The key findings of the user study are as follows:
Users with disabilities are often asked to pay high prices for phones with feature sets that are not useful to them.
Rapid changes in technology often cause decreases in accessibility.
Users are reluctant to adopt technologies that have proven frustrating in the past.
Users have difficulty finding devices that match their functional capabilities because of the lack of familiarity sales associates have with accessibility features.
Users are reluctant to invest in technologies that have an unproven accessibility record.
Accessibility solutions must consider the needs of the individual with disabilities.
Substantial increases in accessibility will be required before increased sales to members of the disability community are realized.
Product Analysis. A detailed product line analysis was conducted for each of the product lines selected for study. The purpose of this research was to document accessibility issues that prevent people with disabilities from fully accessing the selected products and to document accessibility features that either are currently offered or could be offered by manufacturers. The end result of this product analysis was the assignment of an accessibility grade to each product line for each disability group. These grades may be useful to designers and manufacturers to identify the target populations that should be consulted during the design process so that more accessible design features are incorporated into new products.
Industry Study. The purpose of the industry study was to document UD practices within industries represented by the six product lines selected for study. Five categories of facilitators and barriers to accessible design were examined: design, organizational, informational, financial, and legal. A discussion of these barriers and facilitators as experienced by the six companies is included in this section.
In addition, 11 business concerns were identified as having an influence on UD practices within an organization. Each business concern had a different level of influence, depending on the strength of the other factors. The factors influencing the adoption of UD practices included the business case, strategy and policy, demand and legislation, marketing and sales, research, design, testing, resource allocation and funding, organization and staff, training, and the customer and consideration of people with disabilities.
All the companies that participated in the industry study have made strategic decisions to address the accessibility of their products and services. A few of the companies had long-standing accessibility programs that were reinvigorated by the technical requirements of section 508. Other companies initiated their accessibility activities while planning for their response to section 508. In both cases, section 508 clearly has had an impact on the way accessibility and UD are being addressed by industry. The industry study found that the most common approaches to addressing accessibility issues are—
Increasing awareness of employees
Integrating accessibility requirements into the design process
Performing accessibility verification testing
Establishing an accessibility program office
Discussion. Through this research, we have come to better understand the market for universally designed mainstream consumer products and services, documented successful universal design development processes, achieved a better understanding of consumer needs, analyzed UD facilitators and barriers, and identified and addressed current issues in universal design. This research program has found that—
A market for universally designed products and services exists.
UD principles can be easily incorporated into current design practices.
Products designed to be accessible sometimes do not meet the needs of users.
Legislation is currently both a facilitator and a barrier to UD.
Many barriers to UD remain and must be addressed before significant progress can be made.
Several important recommendations can be made from this research for designers, developers, federal agencies, and companies striving to incorporate universal design into their development process:
Strategies for Government and Industry to Promote Universal Design
Recommendation #1. Use standards (government or industry) to prohibit nonessential features that pose accessibility problems unless an alternative interface that solves the problem is provided.
Recommendation #2. Use standards (government or industry) to eliminate interoperability problems that create accessibility problems.
Recommendation #3. Use market forces to regulate features that pose intermediate levels of accessibility problems. Require labeling and other information to be provided, and allow recourse through tort (warranty) as well as through general demand, as reflected in consumer purchases.
Recommendation #4. Develop training materials and educational articles documenting the market potential for UD products and services.
Strengthening the Impact of Section 508
Section 508 was developed to govern the purchase of accessible electronic and information technology purchased by the Federal government. Despite having been in place for nearly three years, section 508 has yet to reach its potential. One of the greatest shortfalls of Section 508 is the lack of understanding of and attention to the functional performance requirements.
Recommendation #5. Institute procedures designed to ensure that due diligence is given to section 508 procurement requirements. Perform an internal analysis of the impact of section 508 on the procurement of actual products. Publish the results of the analysis as a way of convincing industry that the Federal Government is committed to section 508.
Recommendation #6. Consider requesting supporting evidence for claims made on voluntary product accessibility templates (VPATs) from all vendors responding to bid proposals.
Recommendation #7. Develop a quick accessibility checklist for specific product lines likely to be procured by the Federal Government. The quick accessibility checklist would assist procurement officials in market research by providing them with a list of items that they can inspect themselves when procuring products. The checklist would be tailored to specific product lines and would not require detailed expertise to evaluate.
Recommendation #8. Develop guidance for reporting conformance with functional performance criteria guidelines.
Recommendation #9. Support the coordination of state and local government adoption of section 508 technical requirements. Provide state and local governments with documents and training programs designed to ensure unification of technical requirements.
Recommendation #10. Study and document the nontechnical aspects of accessibility, including social, psychological, and organizational accessibility. Promote UD solutions that consider all aspects of accessibility.
Promoting the Inclusion of Universal Design in Industry Practices
Companies are not aware of the design process modifications needed to incorporate universal design principles. The Federal Government should support the refinement of specific design process interventions that can easily be incorporated.
Recommendation #11. Develop, test, and disseminate methodologies for integrating UD into existing design practices.
Recommendation #12. Support the development of university-level training materials that could be incorporated into the curriculums of existing design-oriented degree programs. The training materials should include awareness-expanding videos and other teaching resources that illustrate the potential impact of key design process interventions on the lives of people with disabilities and other beneficiaries of UD.
Recommendation #13. Develop, test, and disseminate design reference users to illustrate the range of functional capabilities and limitations typical among people with disabilities. Design reference users (popular in specifying the target population in Department of Defense acquisitions) is a set of descriptions of prototypical users who, taken together, express the range of functional capabilities and limitations of the population that must be accommodated by the design project. The use of design reference users would greatly simplify the need for designers to research and integrate information pertaining to the functional limitations and capabilities of people with disabilities.
Recommendation #14. Develop a standard methodology for testing accessibility and comparing the accessibility of similar products.
Recommendation #15. Coordinate with industry to promote the integration of accessibility concepts, principles, and guidelines into the development tools used by designers to develop products.
Creating a New Marketplace
Consumers with disabilities find many E&IT products to be inaccessible. A sizeable un-tapped market for universal design products and services exists. However, few companies appreciate the size of the market or know how to tap its potential.
Recommendation #16. Develop an information clearinghouse where users can obtain information about accessibility issues and the features designed to address the issues for specific product lines. Educate consumers on how to shop for UD products and services. List vendor resources where consumers can obtain more information about UD products.
Recommendation #17. Develop marketing strategies and approaches that will facilitate a connection with people with disabilities.
Recommendation #18. Train people with disabilities to become subject-matter experts for the purpose of participating in design focus groups and accessibility evaluations.
Recommendation #19. Create job-related outcomes for bulk purchasers for the successful procurement of products and services with UD features.
People with disabilities want to use the same products that everyone else uses. They do not want to be limited to specialized products that are more costly. Implementation of UD is the best way to satisfy this desire of people with disabilities, while also providing more cost-effective products for all users. While it is impossible to satisfy the needs of all users, products and services that come closer to accommodating a variety of physical and cognitive differences will benefit both users and companies.
The explosive development of information technology is rapidly changing the way we work, shop, communicate, and play. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, our grandparents saw America change from an agrarian society to an industrial one. We are now in the middle of a second transformation, from an industrial society to an information society, sparked by the development of information science, microprocessors, and wireless technology. Information technology and telecommunications are now relied upon for routine daily activities that contribute to overall quality of life, such as making doctor's appointments, obtaining directions, and purchasing goods and services. Companies are increasingly expanding their presence into emerging markets. As the National Council on Disability (NCD) points out, "Companies are serving populations they have never before served" (NCD, 2002).
Every consumer is different. No two people have the exact same set of learning styles, abilities, experiences, and educational background. What used to be one market of billions of consumers is evolving into billions of markets of one consumer, as computer technology makes it economical for products to be customized to meet the user's needs. This marketing shift is a dramatic change from a few short years ago. To remain competitive, companies must learn to develop products that accommodate the wants, needs, and preferences of as many individual consumers as is technically possible and economically feasible.
Designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of targeted markets for electronic and information technology (E&IT). Good business practice dictates that designers and engineers avoid unintentionally excluding large populations of consumers from accessing and using the E&IT they develop and manufacture. People with disabilities are at a high risk of exclusion. Other consumer groups are also at risk. They are—
Universal design (UD) has been proposed as a means to meet needs of consumers, including those with special needs, while maximizing a company's potential to develop a marketable, easy-to-use product. The purpose of this research program is to understand the market for universally designed mainstream consumer products and services, document successful UD development processes, understand consumer needs, understand UD facilitators and barriers, and identify and address current issues in universal design.
The future of design for inclusion is in jeopardy. We are in the window of opportunity for implementing section 508. If progress is not made quickly in improving the skills of government and industry employees on accessibility issues, the window will soon shut with little having been accomplished. If industry does not see that federal agencies are serious about implementing section 508 in a consistent manner, companies will shift the monetary and human resources needed for improving accessibility to product development opportunities that offer a higher return on investment. Progress must be made now, and the purpose of this report is to present the information and recommendations that will guide this progress.
Through this research, NCD aims to educate designers and manufacturers about how electronic and information technology intersects with the needs of individuals with disabilities. In addition to providing knowledge about disabilities, we see the importance here and now of educating individuals on universal design. Currently, many people business people have never heard of UD, and many of those who have do not understand that it is more than just a design for disability. This research aims to provide businesses with the knowledge of UD methods they need to clearly see how their complex products can be made accessible in a cost-effective way.
This study examined the philosophical, economic, and technological rationales that currently drive the development of UD and identified specific barriers to increased implementation, while also addressing commonly held assumptions about universal design. Six product lines were analyzed from the telecommunications, software, consumer electronics, and digital services industries for both accessibility and usability. We estimated how useful these products are to individuals with disabilities and whether the products conform to section 508 requirements and section 255 guidelines. In doing so, we were able to present recommendations for improving such products. This report aims to aid industry in adopting UD practices by using the information obtained on current industry practices, barriers, and facilitation factors to investigate methods for motivating companies to incorporate UD methods in product development.
At a time when the incorporation of universal design is crucial, NCD hopes that the information provided in this report will motivate and drive the design for more universally designed E&IT.
Universal design, or design for inclusion, is a process to ensure that E&IT is inclusive, accessible, and usable by everyone, including people with disabilities. Accessible design is a step forward when developing E&IT products, but it tends to lead to technologies that will be used separately, or in addition to, the main E&IT product, which diminishes the effectiveness of designing for all. Incorporating UD processes when developing E&IT is one solution to accommodating people with disabilities that also improves the usability of the products for the rest of the population.
The above definition encapsulates what it means to design with universal access in mind. UD has been referred to as many things and has been defined in many ways and with many perspectives. Despite the differences in interpretation and definition, one thread that ties the perspectives together is that all people, young and old, with and without disabilities, can have access to the same opportunities. Some alternative terms that have been used to refer to UD are inclusive design, design for inclusion, lifespan design, transgenerational design, barrier-free design, design-for-all, and accessibility. The first four terms have their roots in accomplishing social inclusion, the next two have their roots in design of the built environment, and the last is linked to legislated requirements for accommodation (Ostroff, 2001).
The term universal design was originally coined in the 1970s by Ronald Mace.
Ron Mace was a nationally and internationally recognized architect, product designer, and educator whose design philosophy challenged convention and provided a design foundation for a more usable world. He coined the term "universal design" to describe the concept of designing all products and the built environment to be aesthetic and usable to the greatest extent possible by everyone, regardless of their age, ability, or status in life (Center for Universal Design, n.d.).
Other characteristics of UD are summarized, in part, from interviews with visionaries regarding accessibility and UD (Fain et al., 2001). The visionaries talked about including a wide range of individuals in all stages of the design process; integrating accessible features so they don't stand out (resulting in social integration); and creating things so that they can be made available "out of the box," enabling as many people as possible to use them. It is considered a design methodology and an extension of the user-centered design process. Additional variations include the following:
…[T]he practice of designing products or environments that can be effectively and efficiently used by people with a wide range of abilities operating in a wide range of situations (Vanderheiden, 1997, p. 2014).
…[B]uilding products that are robust and accommodating. Universal designs take account of differences in sight, hearing, mobility, speech, and cognition. Universal design helps not only people with disabilities, but also any of us when we're tired, busy, or juggling many tasks (Francik, 1996).
…[T]he design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. The intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications, and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities (Center for Universal Design, n.d.).
A much greater awareness of disabilities has evolved in the last century, in part as a result of a significant increase in the human lifespan. The general population has had greater exposure to human limitation as the people around them have aged and developed limitations, while at the same time living outside institutions and becoming more independent. This exposure has increased awareness of limitations that can impede the average individual and has led to design changes in products to help overcome these limitations. Initially, these design changes were implemented as special features that added to the cost and stood out as features for people with special needs. Over time, designers began to recognize that many design changes could be made on a larger scale, reducing the cost and benefiting a larger portion of the population (Center for Universal Design, n.d.). Research led to the formulation of design principles that describe the objectives of UD.
In 1997, North Carolina State University's Center for Universal Design documented and published seven Principles of Universal Design (1997):
Equitable Use: The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities.
Flexibility in Use: The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities.
Simple and Intuitive Use: Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.
Perceptible Information: The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities.
Tolerance for Error: The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions.
Low Physical Effort: The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue.
Size and Space for Approach and Use: Appropriate size and space are provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use, regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility.
These principles serve as guidelines for the designers of accessible products. If these principles are incorporated into and considered during the design process, the result will be products that are accessible to a wide range of users. In addition to principles such as the ones mentioned above, standards have been and will continue to be developed that serve as guidelines for designers and manufacturers. These standards mandate that products, services, or places are accessible to particular groups of people and provide requirements that must be met. Universal designers must incorporate these principles and standards and use them for guidance when developing products and services to be accessible to the wide population.
The definition of UD must address the population it is intended to benefit. Consideration must be given to various disability groups—blind, low vision, deaf, limited hearing, limited manual dexterity, limited cognition, and lack of reading ability—keeping in mind that these limitations may result from situational constraints rather than a formally defined disability, as defined below:
OPERABLE WITHOUT VISION = is required by people who are blind – and – people whose eyes are busy (e.g., driving your car or phone browsing) or who are in darkness.
OPERABLE WITH LOW VISION = is required by people with visual impairment – and – people using a small display or in a smoky environment.
OPERABLE WITH NO HEARING = is required by people who are deaf – and – by people in very loud environmentsor whose ears are busy or are in forced silence (library or meeting).
OPERABLE WITH LIMITED HEARING = is required by people who are hard of hearing – and – people in noisyenvironments.
OPERABLE WITH LIMITED MANUAL DEXTERITY = is required by people with a physical disability – and – people in a space suit or chemical suit or who are in a bouncing vehicle.
OPERABLE WITH LIMITED COGNITION = is required by people with a cognitive disability – and – people who aredistracted or panicked or under the influence of alcohol.
OPERABLE WITHOUT READING = is required by people with a cognitive disability – and – people who justhaven't learned to read this language, people who are visitors, people who left reading glasses behind (Vanderheiden, n.d.).
While there is no strong basis for characterizing UD and discriminating UD products from non-UD products, a few sets of evaluation criteria have been identified. The Center for Universal Design has developed two versions of Universal Design Performance Measures. The consumer version helps guide personal purchasing decisions. The designer's version "…provides a good relative assessment of universal usability, but the measures are not an absolute tool for achieving universal design" (Story, 2001). These measures consider questions for phase of use of commercial products: packaging, instructions, product installation, use, storage, maintenance, repair, and disposal. In addition, Vanderheiden (2001) has identified three levels for evaluating products. Level 1 is assigned for features that, if not implemented, will cause a product to be unusable for certain groups or situations. Level 2 is assigned for features that, if not implemented, will make the product very difficult to use for some groups and situations. Level 3 is assigned for features that, if implemented, will make the product easier to use but do not make it usable or unusable.
Now that UD definitions, principles, and evaluation techniques have been discussed, the question becomes, "What is the reality of UD?" In other words, "Is UD achievable?" The answer to this question depends, in part, on how UD is defined. On the one hand, there is Ronald Mace's definition, which indicates that people from all walks of life should have the same opportunities. At some level, this is achievable. Consider the curb cut. Curb cuts came about because of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), but it turns out that they are beneficial to all of society: people pushing baby strollers or using roller blades, for example. The curb cut is most definitely considered to have achieved UD. On the other hand, one viewpoint of UD suggests the ideal that designs should be usable by individuals under every circumstance. While it's true that many things are usable by a range of individuals, not all of those things are designed in an ideal manner for those same individuals. It is not possible to account for every variation in human ability, need, and preference. As stated by Story, Mueller, and Mace (1998),
It is possible to design a product or an environment to suit a broad range of users, including children, older adults, people with disabilities, people of atypical size or shape, people who are ill or injured, and people inconvenienced by circumstance. [Yet,] it is unlikely that any product or environment could ever be used by everyone under all conditions. Because of this, it may be more appropriate to consider universal design a process, rather than an achievement.
According to the U.S. Assistive Technology Act of 1998,
The term assistive technology means technology designed to be utilized in an assistive technology device or assistive technology service. The term assistive technology device means any item, piece of equipment, or system, whether acquired commercially, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities (Assistive Technology Act, 1998).
People with disabilities are commonly aided by the use of assistive technology (AT). Users with visual impairments may benefit from the use of the following ATs:
Speech input and synthesized speech output
Screen projectors
Signage and text printed in Braille and large letters with high contrast, standardized keyboards and keyboard layout with landmarks
Visual, acoustic, and tactile feedback and alert signals
Smart cards that provide a preferred user interface and output
Audio recorded information
Users with hearing impairments may benefit from the use of the following ATs:
Text telephones
Nonverbal information
Adjustable signal level and tone on audio devices
Adjustable temporal and spatial resolution in visual communications
Additional earpieces
Provisions for inductive coupling to hearing aids
Users with mobility impairments may benefit from the use of the following ATs:
Tilting keyboards and keypads
Hands-free data entry and response selection
Speech input
Intelligent word prediction software
Alternative pointing devices, such as mouth sticks
Body position switches
Book holders and page turners
Users with cognitive disabilities may benefit from the use of the following ATs:
Standardized icons
Tactile cues
Landmarks, both visual and tactile
Speech-synthesized output
Visual examples using drawings and icons for help systems
Some of these assistive technologies can be designed into the product lines themselves; others must be used externally to the device. There is an ongoing debate regarding the role of AT in universal design. At the core of the issue is whether the capabilities of AT should be built into mainstream products (those designed for the general public) or whether they should be separate products that can be used with mainstream products by those who need them. There are three schools of thought regarding the use of AT:
1. AT should be the primary solution to providing people with disabilities access to E&IT.
2. E&IT manufacturers should enhance the accessibility of their products to extents that are technically possible and economically feasible. Beyond this, AT should be used.
3. E&IT manufacturers should make all their products accessible by everyone, under all circumstances, in any situation.
While it is clear that a single design cannot accommodate all individuals in all contexts (Stephanidis, 2001; Vanderheiden, 1990), an inclusive design can accommodate a larger number of people than one designed for the "average" user. In addition, ATs themselves cannot readily accommodate the needs of all users, and it is burdensome and costly for AT to keep up with changing mainstream technologies. On the other hand, AT developers have detailed knowledge about the needs of users with various functional limitations, and they can develop better products if they can focus on the needs of their target users.
Some believe that the solution is for AT developers to develop better products rather than mainstream developers trying to design products that are useful to everyone. However, with this approach, people who need assistive technology are required to purchase AT products in addition to the mainstream products. They must also carry their AT device around so that they always have the capability to use a product. The best solution is, perhaps, a middle ground, keeping in mind that part of UD is ensuring compatibility with some types of AT (e.g., touchsticks), but UD doesn't have to require the use of AT.
…[U]niversal design in [information technology and telecommunications] IT&T products should not be conceived as an effort to advance a single solution for everybody, but as a user-centered approach to providing products that can automatically address the possible range of human abilities, skills, requirements, and preferences (Stephanidis, 2001).
Assistive technology development, whether or not it is integrated in mainstream products, is critical. The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-394) provides federal support for research and promotion of AT; Title II specifically relates to coordinating research for assistive technology and universal design (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003).
There are a number of arguments against the design of AT as separate products:
AT requires added cost on top of the mainstream products and is affected, in part, by insurance reimbursement policies (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003).
AT is sometimes prohibitively expensive, even without the cost of the mainstream products.
It is not always possible for a person to carry around all necessary AT products.
AT is focused on a limited audience.
Different AT is needed to accommodate different functional limitations.
The economics of ATs are such that the limited market and limited purchasing power of the market will likely limit the abilities of AT companies to keep up with the pace of mainstream technologies.
Often when an innovation in mainstream technology takes place, an update in the AT is required; this results in extra cost for the person requiring AT or, at the very least, introduces risk. For example, installation of a new software product may interfere with the operation of existing AT. Technology is changing so rapidly that once an access problem is solved, it is common for a new access problem to surface (Stephanidis, 2001; Emiliani, 2001).
While ATs can be portable, security concerns may prohibit their use; for example, a library may prohibit the installation of a screen magnifier on a public computer.
AT companies do not have the resources needed to work closely with companies to ensure compatibilities with their products or to do product testing (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003).
AT companies often do not share the features they have planned for their products with other companies until the AT is released. While industry would like to have the data sooner, AT companies are reluctant to promise technologies that they might not be able to deliver.
Arguments favoring the design of ATs as separate products include the following:
AT allows companies to focus on the development of their specialized products, thus resulting in a better job of handling the accessibility issues to meet the needs of people with disabilities.
It is possible for AT to become so mainstream that it is no longer considered AT. Eyeglasses, for example, are no longer thought of as assistive technology, and closed-captioning and voice recognition software are becoming more commonplace.
AT is better equipped to handle specialized or rare needs of people with disabilities, and there will likely always be a need for some forms of assistive technology. In addition, AT can be tailored to address unique needs (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2003).
Arguments for integrated AT and UD include the following (Vanderheiden, 1990; Winograd, 1997):
Many product adaptations necessary to accommodate some functional limitations can be implemented in mainstream products at little or no extra cost.
Many product adaptations necessary to accommodate some functional limitations can also facilitate use by the general population (e.g., the curb cut). Some benefits of implementing accessibility features that have a more global benefit include lower fatigue, increased speed, and lower error rates.
AT cannot accommodate the needs of the many individual subgroups that have special needs (e.g., mild versus severe hearing loss).
Special features can be integrated into mainstream products so they are transparent to users who don't need them (e.g., "sticky keys").
Regardless of how people with disabilities use the technology, it will have a large impact on their independence and ability to fully participate in society, resulting in an added cost benefit to society as a whole (Vanderheiden, 1990). The population of people who may require some sort of accommodation is ever-growing with the increase of the elderly population, so much so that the term "general population" possibly should be redefined in the minds of designers. Although the market potential for products is great, the limited population for any given AT creates financial constraints for small companies that focus on AT development. Large companies typically have the finances but not the expertise to address a wide range of needs (AAATE, 2003). Complications stem not only from the wide variety of functional limitations but also from the ever-increasing need for rapid configuration of technologies to accommodate environmental and other contextual needs. The increasingly mobile society, for example, may mean that individuals need specialized accommodation over a period of a day or even hours, while a more fixed environment may require little variation in configuration. "…[I]n the context of the emerging distributed and communication-intensive information society, users are not only the computer-literate, skilled, and able-bodied workers driven by performance-oriented motives, nor do users constitute a homogeneous mass of information-seeking actors with standard abilities, similar interests, and common preferences with regard to information access and use" (Stephanidis, 2001, p. 6). The AT industry alone cannot address the variable contexts that create a need for more customized situational technologies.
If products are not going to be designed with AT built in, they need to be designed from the ground up to be fully compatible with AT, and AT needs to be designed so well that people with disabilities no longer have accessibility issues with products. If products are designed with UD principles in mind, they will likely be accessible to a large number of people with disabilities without the use of AT. Regardless of the resolution to this debate, if any, AT and mainstream developers must work together to achieve the greatest accommodation possible and to develop adaptors, when necessary. "The use of an adaptor is appropriate when two systems cannot otherwise accommodate each other; this is the case when accessibility problems are alleviated by the choice of alternative input/output devices or by communication via an alternative modality" (Benyon, Crerar, and Wilkinson, 2001). Thus, there is a place in society for both integrated AT and UD, as well as for separate AT products.
An extensive research program was conducted to complete each of the research activities documented in this report. This research program was conducted by examining the roles and perspectives of industry, Federal Government, and consumers with respect to the six product lines that are important to people with disabilities. The six product lines studied were automated teller machines (ATMs), cellular phones, distance learning software, personal digital assistants (PDAs), televisions, and voice recognition technologies. For more information about the research process undertaken in preparing this report and additional information, please consult the online version of the report at http://www.ncd.gov.
Electronic and information technology is driving the creation of new communities that are forever changing the way people live, learn, work, and play. Companies are increasingly expanding their presence in emerging markets. Businesses are serving populations they have never served before. Every consumer is different. No two people have the same set of characteristics, learning styles, abilities, experiences, or educational backgrounds. Developing products that accommodate the wants, needs, and preferences of as many individual consumers as is technically possible and economically feasible can greatly enhance a company's competitive advantage.
Designing with access in mind can significantly increase the size of E&IT markets on a global basis. Good business practices dictate that designers and engineers avoid excluding large groups of consumers from accessing and using E&IT. Groups at the highest risk of unintentional exclusion are—
Consumers living within low-bandwidth information infrastructures
Tourists traveling to nonnative language destinations
This market analysis examined many aspects of manufacturing "more accessibly designed" E&IT. This analysis was intended to help answer questions such as the following:
Is there a market for more accessibly designed products?
Does the capacity exist to develop more accessibly designed products in each of the presented product lines?
What factors influence the market for more accessibly designed products for each of the product lines presented?
All the product lines reviewed in this report are manufactured by members of the E&IT industry. Naturally, in order for these products to be manufactured, the E&IT industry must exist. In order to exist, it must be profitable. A question often asked by the disability community is, "How can we ensure that the E&IT products and services being manufactured are accessible to people with disabilities?" E&IT manufacturers pose a similar question. They ask, "How can we ensure that the E&IT products and services we manufacture are accessible and usable by as many people as is technically possible and economically feasible without the need for customization?" The questions are different. The motivations are different. The market drivers are different. The solutions can be remarkably similar.
Definition of the Market Environment
Historically, the primary forces driving the manufacture of more accessible E&IT products and services have been legal, moral, social, and ethical. The assumption was that if legal, moral, social, and ethical issues no longer existed, the motivation to manufacture more accessible E&IT would all but disappear. The next two sections discuss the reasons why nothing could be further from the truth.
In contrast to the historical notion of what the primary forces driving the manufacture of accessible E&IT are, in actuality a majority of the forces driving demand for more accessibly designed E&IT fall into the following five categories:
Market forces consistently drive the demand for more accessibly designed E&IT. Market forces include the need to respond to consumer behavior, the work of federal agencies, legislation mandating developments in the accessibility of E&IT, changing marketing philosophies (from mass marketing to a one-on-one marketing philosophy), competition within the market, emerging technology trends, and economic expansion. These market forces are discussed below in terms of how they drive the markets for more accessibly designed E&IT products.
E&IT is prevalent in schools, libraries, individuals' homes, work environments, places of recreation, banks, and even supermarkets. It is because of this widespread presence that consumers are more technically literate than they were five years ago. Devices such as cell phones, PDAs, voice recognition systems, and the wireless Web enable us to carry our offices with us when we travel. We are more mobile now than ever before. Consumers have become accustomed to getting the information they need when they need it and where they want it. This has created an expectation of immediacy. When consumers don't get what they want quickly, they become impatient. E&IT designers need to respond to consumer behavior by providing products and services that not only meet but exceed the high expectations of a technically literate, mobile consumer base. Increasing the accessibility of information services and mobile technologies increases access to the information demanded by consumers with high expectations.
The Federal Government serves as a catalyst for more accessibly designed E&IT products through its buying power, the development of legislation, and the support of AT accommodation labs. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act amendments of 1998 mandates the purchase of accessibly designed E&IT. As a result, all federal agencies appointed section 508 coordinators (Section 508, 2003). Those coordinators are responsible for organizing and supporting the implementation of section 508 in their respective departments and agencies, and they serve as the central point of contact for information concerning accessibility issues and solutions. In addition to section 508, other legislation provides guidelines for designing more accessible E&IT. The Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (Access Board) developed the ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG), and the Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines (section 255) mandates the design of more accessible E&IT products and services. There are also presidential initiatives driving the design of more accessible E&IT. These initiatives include the President's New Freedom Initiative (White House, 2001), the No Child Left Behind Initiative (U.S. House of Representatives, 2002), and the disabilityinfo.gov Web site (DisabilityInfo.gov, 2003).
In addition to these acts and initiatives, many federal agencies have created AT accommodation labs. These labs serve as focal points for information regarding accommodations, disabilities, and assistive technology. These resources include the following:
Department of Agriculture's TARGET Center
http://www.usda.gov/oo/target
Department of Education's Assistive Technology Program
http://www.ed.gov/offices/OCIO/programs_services/assistive_technology/index.html
Department of the Interior's Accessible Technology Program
http://www.doi.gov/atc
Department of Transportation's Disability Resource Center
http://www.drc.dot.gov
Department of Labor's Job Accommodation Network
http://www.jan.wvu.edu
The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, U.S. Department of Education's ABLEDATA database of assistive technologies
http://www.abledata.com
Department of Veterans' Affairs Adaptive Training Program
http://www.va.gov/oirm/itss/itc/brochsb.htm
General Services Administration's Center for Information Technology Accommodations (CITA)
http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentId=9815&contentType=GSA_OVERVIEW
Clearly, the Federal Government is an important market force for driving accessibility requirements.
Marketing Philosophies
Marketing philosophies have changed radically over the past 35 years. The marketing philosophy of the 1960s was mass marketing (Mass Marketing Definition, 2003), in which the seller views the market as a homogeneous whole and, therefore, has only one marketing program (the same product, the same price, the same promotion, and the same distribution system) for everyone in the population. This type of marketing is also referred to as unsegmented or undifferentiated marketing.
Marketing philosophies of the 1970s included product line extension (Product Line Stretching Definition, 2003) and market segmentation (Market Segmentation Definition, 2003). Product line extension adds depth to an existing product line by introducing new products in the same product category. Market segmentation is the division of a totally heterogeneous market into groups or sectors with relatively homogeneous needs and wants.
In the 1980s, the marketing philosophy shifted to one of niche marketing (Niche Marketing Definition, 2003). Niche marketing or concentrated marketing is a marketing segmentation strategy in which the firm focuses all its efforts and resources on serving one segment of the market.
In the 1990s, value-added marketing became popular. Value-added marketing is a strategy in which a company buys products, customizes them for a particular application, and then resells them. There was also a shift toward marketing to individual customers rather than to the larger mass. Don Peppers and Martha Rogers invented the phrase "one-to-one" marketing (Peppers and Rogers, 1997) to illustrate the revolutionary concept of treating different customers differently. One-to-one marketing supports the establishment of permanent relationships with your customers. One-to-one subscribes to providing products and services to customers according to their individual wants, needs, and preferences. "Share of customer" replaces market share. The marketing focus shifts from institutions to individual consumers.
Once a company acquires the knowledge and experience required to manufacture more accessibly designed E&IT, it can take an asset marketing approach (Asset-Based Marketing Definition, 2003) to providing its E&IT products globally. Asset marketing uses the knowledge and skills a company has already developed as the basis for growth. For example, a company that is skilled in developing kiosks that are accessible to people who are blind can market kiosks designed in a similar manner to countries that have high populations of people who have never learned to read. This global marketing (Global Marketing Definition, 2003) philosophy enables companies to sell the same, or very similar, products to world markets with essentially the same promotion. This marketing approach is also commonly referred to as international marketing.
Competition in the E&IT industry is fierce. The industry is constantly looking for ways to increase efficiency, competitive advantage, sales, market shares, and profitability. It is also looking to cut costs. Businesses are constantly developing new and innovative products and services with the hope of achieving these objectives, and adding functionality that enhances the accessibility and usability of a product can be very beneficial. In extremely competitive markets, several companies have correctly identified UD as a potential market discriminator. When highly similar product lines are all competing for the same customer, a product designed with access in mind may have the needed advantage required to outbid the competitors.
A variety of rising mainstream technology trends fuels the need for more accessibly designed E&IT. The functionalities of multiple individual devices are now being integrated into a single device, including pagers, cell phones, PDAs, palmtop computers, smart phones, MP3 players, and so on. This trend is creating a dependence on one device to accomplish multiple functions. Thus, if not more accessibly designed, this multiple functionality precludes the use of such devices by certain segments of the population, for example, people 65+ years of age. Developing and manufacturing an accessible interface for a device that provides multiple functions is less expensive than developing and manufacturing an accessible interface for multiple single-function devices.
Decreasing costs are making E&IT devices more affordable to emerging markets, which have the greatest concentration of individuals with low income and a greater concentration of individuals who are unable to read and write. E&IT manufacturers need to move into emerging markets in order to increase sales and gain competitive price advantage through economies of scale.
Increasing processing power, disk storage, memory capacity, and battery life are enabling developers to integrate advanced access technologies (speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, projected displays, etc.) into devices where it had not previously been technically possible to do so. In addition, the Internet and the World Wide Web are now being used as a primary infrastructure for education, government services, news, and business. Customers' technical knowledge and expectations are constantly increasing, along with the use of wireless Internet appliances and wireless infrastructures. Legal mandates to manufacture more accessibly designed E&IT in support of people with disabilities are a driving force behind these technological trends.
The strength of our global economy is, to a great extent, the result of the investment in and application of new technologies by governments, businesses, and individuals. Technology is the foundation upon which developing countries can build thriving, financially independent, self-sufficient economies. The technologies that build this foundation include computers, networks, ATMs, wired and wireless information infrastructures, wireless handheld Internet appliances, and cellular telephones, to name a few. Applications include online banking, distance learning, e-government, and e-commerce (World Information Technology, 2003).
Another force that drives the market for accessibly designed E&IT is local environments. The following is a discussion of two environmental factors: variances in bandwidth and tourism.
As of May 2004, more than half (51.39 percent) of home Internet users in the United States relied on dial-up modems of 56Kbps or less. Of all U.S. home Internet users, 42.53 percent used 56Kbps modems, 6.52 percent used 28/33.3Kbps modems, and 2.34 percent used 14.4Kbps modems (Nielsen/NetRatings, 2004).
Computers using dial-up connections cannot handle graphics as quickly and efficiently as computers connected via broadband. It is for this reason that dial-up users surf the Internet with graphics turned off. They do this to speed up downloads. Low-bandwidth connections do not lend themselves to a lot of graphic images, video-based information, or streaming audio. Multimedia content can be problematic for users with slower connections. Wireless devices communicating with the Internet at slow connect speeds can also be a source of accessibility and usability problems.
There are solutions to these problems. Some companies have the ability to control the settings on the browsers used on their employees' PCs. When available corporate Intranet bandwidth is at a premium, these companies can simply issue a central command to turn off graphics on all client PC browsers. This can immediately free up as much as 80 percent of available bandwidth. Designing Web sites for low-bandwidth access tends to increase accessibility for users with disabilities. For example, a graphics- or animation-intensive site often requires high bandwidth and is inaccessible to those who are blind. In contrast, a text-based site loads quickly and is accessible to screen readers. Dial-up environments will continue to drive the development of more accessible E&IT in the foreseeable future.
During the first quarter of 2004, the United States welcomed 8 million international visitors. This was an increase of 12 percent compared to the first quarter of 2003.
Visiting tourists often make use of ATMs, self-service kiosks, ticketing kiosks, and other tourism-related information technologies. Many tourists use English only as a second language. Content written in simplified English is more understandable to users of ESL. Simplified English content has other significant benefits. For example—
It reduces the cost of language translation.
It reduces ambiguity.
It speeds reading.
It reduces liability associated with misunderstandings.
The use of simplified content was originally included in various accessibility design guidelines in support of people with cognitive reading disabilities. Using simplified language has now evolved into a market force driving the design of more accessible E&IT.
Aside from forces stemming from the market and the environment, many of the forces driving the accessible design of E&IT fall under aspects of the human condition. E&IT products must be designed with people of different disabilities, various age groups, various levels of literacy, various languages, different learning styles, and different experience levels with activities such as using the Internet in mind. These aspects of the human condition bring with them the demand for accessible E&IT products that cater not just to one category but to many different types of users. Below is a summary of the forces that drive the demand for E&IT that is accessible to a wide range of users.
Census 2000 counted 54 million people in the United States with some type of long-lasting condition or disability (NCD, 2004). These individuals represented 19.3 percent—nearly one in five people—of the 257.2 million people age five and older in the civilian, noninstitutionalized population. Their conditions included a wide range of disabilities, not all of which precluded the use of E&IT. Within this population, Census 2000 found—
9.3 million (3.6 percent) with a sensory disability involving sight or hearing
21.2 million (8.2 percent) with a condition limiting basic physical activities, such as walking, climbing stairs, reaching, lifting, or carrying
12.4 million (4.8 percent) with a physical, mental, or emotional condition causing difficulty in learning, remembering, or concentrating
6.8 million (2.6 percent) with a physical, mental, or emotional condition causing difficulty in dressing, bathing, or getting around inside the home
18.2 million of those age 16 and older with a condition that made it difficult to go outside the home to shop or visit a doctor (8.6 percent of the 212.0 million people this age)
21.3 million of those ages 16 to 64 with a condition that affected their ability to work at a job or business (11.9 percent of the 178.7 million people in this age group)
E&IT products and services that are accessible to people with disabilities appeal to the wider population as well. Accessible design can significantly enhance the sales of a product. For example, all of the following products were first developed in support of people with disabilities and are now used by the wider population:
Auto-dialers
Talking ATMs
Talking caller ID
Vibrating pagers
There are 36 million consumers 65 years of age and older living in the United States (Population, 2003). People 65+ years of age are often not able to see, hear, think, or move about as easily as they did when they were younger. In order to enable people 65+ years of age to access and use E&IT, these differences must be accommodated. In addition, 52 percent of people 65+ years of age have some type of disability. Thirty-three percent of persons 65+ years of age have a severe disability.
By 2030, there will be about 70 million older persons, more than twice the number in 2000. People 65+ represented 12.4 percent of the population in the year 2000, but are expected to grow to 20 percent of the population by 2030 (Administration on Aging, 2002). Furthermore, individuals who are accustomed to operating E&IT will demand accessible E&IT as their functional capabilities diminish.
Language is certainly a driving force in today's market for more accessible E&IT. According to Global Reach, there are 262 million English-speaking people online. Non-English-speaking populations online are 474 million. By the end of 2005, the ratio of English-speaking to non-English-speaking users will decrease significantly (Global Reach, 2003).
Sixty-four percent of people who visit the Internet seek sites in languages other than English (Global Reach, 2003). In a world where International Data Corporation (IDC) predicted that Internet spending outside the United States will have exceeded $914 billion in 2003, effective Web site globalization is the next imperative of Internet enterprises (IDC, 2000). Despite the vast international opportunities projected, few U.S. companies appear poised to take advantage of them. More than half (55 percent) of U.S. companies do nothing to customize their Web sites for foreign visitors; less than one-quarter even allow a choice of language, according to recent IDC Internet Executive ePanel research. With such minor globalization efforts, it is not surprising that 72 percent of U.S. companies that are online currently draw only 10 percent or less of their e-commerce revenue from outside the United States. To increase their e-commerce revenue, companies must strive to design Web sites that are accessible to the non-English-speaking population.
There are three major types of learning styles (Live Text, 2000). They are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. Visual learners need to see a person's body language and facial expression to fully understand the content of what is being said. They tend to prefer sitting at the front of a classroom, play, or lecture hall to avoid visual obstructions (e.g., people's heads). They may think in pictures and learn best from visual displays, including diagrams, illustrated textbooks, overhead transparencies, videos, flipcharts, and handouts. During a lecture or classroom discussion, visual learners often prefer to take detailed notes to absorb the information. Auditory learners learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through, and listening to what others have to say. Auditory learners interpret the underlying meanings of speech through listening to tone of voice, pitch, speed, and other nuances. Written information may have little meaning until it is heard. These learners often benefit from reading text aloud and using a tape recorder. Tactile/kinesthetic learners learn best through a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods and may become distracted by their need for activity and exploration. Enabling people to acquire information in the manner most appropriate to their learning style(s) enhances the effectiveness of E&IT and accommodates users with sensory disabilities.
Many people who are learning to use an application on the Web for the first time want all the help they can get. There will come a time, however, when the extra help is no longer needed or desired. One of the benefits of accessible design practices is having the ability to customize user interfaces based on the wants, needs, and preferences of individual users.
The following is a summary of key laws, statutes, and standards that have improved accessibility for individuals with disabilities in this country. Each law is summarized, followed by a discussion of who is primarily affected by the law and the law's approach toward addressing accessibility issues. These laws and standards are a driving force in the market for accessibly designed products, as they set the standards and guidelines for what must be done by the government and industry to accommodate the needs of individuals with disabilities.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that when federal agencies develop, procure, maintain, or use E&IT, they must ensure that individuals with disabilities have access to and use of information that is comparable to the access and use by federal employees who do not have disabilities, unless an undue burden (significant expenses or difficulties) is imposed on the agency. The law also requires that individuals with disabilities in the general public seeking information or services from a federal agency have access to information and services comparable to that provided to individuals without disabilities, unless undue burden is imposed on the agency. When compliance does impose an undue burden, agencies must still provide disabled individuals with the information and data by allowing them to use it by an alternative means of access (e.g., captioning, audio description).
Section 508 covers E&IT such as computer hardware, software, networks, ancillary equipment, firmware, technology services, telecommunications products, information kiosks and transaction machines, World Wide Web sites, multimedia, and office equipment such as copiers and fax machines. Section 508 does not cover equipment that contains embedded information technology that is used as an integral part of the product but the principal function of which is not the acquisition, storage, manipulation, management, movement, control, display, switching, interchange, transmission, or reception of data or information (e.g., HVAC equipment and medical equipment). As a guideline, E&IT systems can be considered to be accessible to individuals with disabilities if they can be used in a variety of ways that do not depend on a single sense or ability.
Section 508 has the potential to greatly improve accessibility to E&IT for individuals with disabilities. The Federal Government will likely become a better employer to the many people with disabilities who work for it, as well as a model employer for industry. In addition, members of the public with disabilities will have greater accessibility to government information and services related to technology.
Those affected directly by section 508 include federal departments and agencies and vendors that serve the Federal Government. The initial impact is at the procurement stage. Section 508 must be integrated into the procurement process by determining which technical provisions from section 508 apply in a given situation, performing market research to determine the availability of products and services that meet the applicable technical provisions, deciding which technical provisions, if any, do not apply due to an exception, and submitting technical specifications and minimum requirements to a contracting officer.
Private companies and software developers are also affected by section 508. Although section 508 does not require private companies to alter their products, full implementation of the law may provide an incentive for companies that want to do business with the government to build better accessibility features into their products. Currently, however, there is a perception by some in industry that section 508 conformance is being "rubber stamped" by procurement officials and that the content of documents describing section 508 conformance, such as voluntary product accessibility templates (VPATs), is not important as long as it is merely offered. If section 508 is fully addressed by procurement officials, accessibility will become a key discriminator for federal sales. Increased competition will raise the bar for hardware and software vendors that want to create new and innovative solutions to addressing accessibility issues. Software developers are affected by section 508 in that they are now trying to integrate the applicable section 508 provisions into their entire software development life cycle. Developers are faced with the challenge of either making their software compatible with assistive technology or making software products accessible without the aid of other AT.
In contrast to other federal laws that take a "push" approach toward improving the accessibility of E&IT by mandating that new, better technologies are manufactured and adopted, section 508 does not explicitly require manufacturers to make their products more accessible. Rather, section 508 uses a "pull" approach, in which the federal agencies are responsible for seeking better products to address accessibility problems by procuring products that comply with the provisions when such products are available in the commercial marketplace or when such products are developed in response to government solicitation.
Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act
Section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 requires that telecommunications products and services be accessible to people with disabilities, to the extent that such access is readily achievable. If manufacturers cannot make their products more accessible, they must design products to be compatible with adaptive equipment used by people with disabilities when it is readily achievable to do so.
Telecommunications products covered under this Act include wired and wireless telecommunication devices such as telephones, pagers, and fax machines; products that have a telecommunication service capability such as computers with modems; and equipment that carriers use to provide telecommunications services, which includes the software integral to that equipment. Also covered are basic and special telecommunication services, including regular telephone calls, call waiting, speed dialing, call forwarding, computer-provided directory assistance, call monitoring, caller identification, call tracing, repeat dialing, interactive voice response systems, and voice mail.
The implementation of section 255 of the Telecommunications Act stands to improve access and the number and range of accessible products in the telecommunications industry. Companies that manufacture telecommunications products or provide telecommunications services are expected to shift toward a more universal, inclusive design process in the development of new products and services. Those affected by section 255 include manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment as well as the providers of telecommunications services. Companies must research ways to make their products more accessible and provide training for their staffs on accessibility. Manufacturers must modify their design processes to ensure that accessibility and usability are considered in the earliest design phases of a product. The law has been beneficial to manufacturers and service providers because they have found that by making products easier to use for people with disabilities, the products often are easier for everyone to use.
Section 255 takes more of a push approach toward improving accessibility by establishing a set of guidelines that manufacturers in this industry must follow in designing new products and services. Companies are advised to use these guidelines and implement training procedures as specified by the law. Section 255 is related to section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act in that the U.S. Access Board has incorporated the language of the guidelines specified in section 255 into the 508 standard. This consistent language has enabled companies to develop products that meet both the design requirements of the manufacturers and the procurement requirements of the federal agencies.
The Hearing Aid Compatibility (HAC) Act of 1988 requires that the Federal Communications Commission ensure that all telephones manufactured or imported for use in the United States after August 1989, as well as all "essential" telephones, are hearing aid compatible. "Essential" telephones have been defined as coin-operated telephones, telephones provided for emergency use, and other telephones frequently needed for use by persons with hearing aids. This includes telephones in the workplace, in confined settings such as hospitals or nursing homes, and in hotel and motel rooms.
Telephone manufacturers are directly affected; they must design phones with volume control and other features for users with hearing aids. Owners of hospitals, hotels, and other places with "essential" telephones must ensure that the telephones they purchase for their buildings are hearing aid compatible. Employers must ensure that all telephones in both common and noncommon areas in their workplaces are hearing aid compatible and that any new telephones they purchase are hearing aid compatible.
Unlike section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, in which companies must ensure that their products are accessible to hearing aid users only if it is readily achievable for them to do so, under the HAC Act this requirement is absolute. Like section 255 of the Telecommunications Act, section 255 takes a push approach, mandating that corporations and business owners purchase telephones that are hearing aid compatible and that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) ensure that all essential telephones and telephones manufactured or imported for use in the United States are hearing aid compatible.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 recognizes and protects the civil rights of people with disabilities. It provides protection from discrimination against individuals on the basis of disability. Covered under the ADA are a wide range of disabilities, and a person with a disability is defined as anyone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. These include physical conditions that affect mobility, stamina, sight, hearing, and speech, as well as emotional illnesses and learning disorders. The ADA addresses access of individuals with disabilities to the workplace (Title I), state and local government services (Title II), and places of public accommodation and commercial facilities (Title III). In addition, phone companies are required, under the ADA, to provide telecommunications services for people who have hearing or speech impairments (Title IV).
Title I, which deals with employment of individuals with disabilities, requires that employers do not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities and that they reasonably accommodate the disabilities of qualified applicants and employees by modifying work stations and equipment, unless undue burden should result. Title II, which deals with public services, requires that state and local governments do not discriminate based on disability and that they ensure that their buildings are accessible, that new and altered streets and pedestrian walkways contain curb cuts at intersections, and that each service or program is operated so that it is readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. In addition, this title requires that transit facilities, buses and rail vehicles, key stations in rail systems, Amtrak stations, and vehicles for demand response systems be made accessible, unless certain exceptions apply. Title III, which deals with public accommodations, requires that restaurants, hotels, theaters, shopping malls, retail stores, museums, libraries, parks, private schools, and day care centers, among other places of public accommodation, do not discriminate based on disability. Any alterations to existing places of public accommodation are required to be done in an accessible manner. Moreover, new busses for specified public transportation must be accessible, and elevators must meet certain conditions. Title IV, which covers telecommunications, states that telephone companies must provide telecommunications relay services for hearing-impaired and speech-impaired individuals 24 hours per day.
The ADA has had a significant impact on American society, allowing individuals with disabilities to pursue opportunities that were not available to them in the past. One of the largest groups affected by the ADA is employers, who must both reasonably accommodate the needs of employees with disabilities and refrain from discriminating against them. If an employer fails to comply with the ADA, the employee can sue, forcing the company to comply or pay damages. In addition, state and local government bodies, educational institutions, and virtually any place of public accommodation or employment are directly affected by the ADA and must comply with the regulations.
The Annenberg Washington Program, a nonprofit institute in communication studies, met in 1994 and expanded upon a previously published white paper in which it stated its initial findings that the average cost of most ADA accommodations was approximately $36, a much lower amount than many anticipated. The program found that the impact of the ADA on American businesses did not create onerous legal burdens, as many believed would be the case, but rather has provided a framework for employers and employees for dispute avoidance and resolution. Overall, the ADA has had a positive impact on society.
The ADA has also taken a push approach toward addressing issues of accessibility. The push is for the businesses and organizations themselves to devise solutions based on the requirements set forth in the ADA.
Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) Standards: EIA- 608 and EIA-708
The EIA-608 standard specifies the use of closed-captions in analog TV signals. EIA-608 addressed the lack of standards for Line 21 closed-captioning, to ensure that new decoders would all work the same way and that captioners could create captions that would appear in a consistent and predictable manner on every TV set. The Television Data Systems Committee of the EIA enhanced the Line 21 system by adding new characters and assigning codes that would allow the center of the screen to be used for captioning. They also allowed roll-up captions, for the first time enabling real-time captions to be placed somewhere other than the bottom of the screen. This work became known as the EIA-608 standard, and all captioning software and all TV receivers built after July 1993 were required to comply with it.
When digital television (DTV) was developed, a new need arose for the ability to change the size of the caption display—making the captions larger and more readable or smaller and less obtrusive. The conversion of closed-captions for service with digital was necessary. This need could not be accommodated in the EIA-608 standard, and thus the EIA-708 standard was introduced. The current version, EIA-708B, covers two areas. It defines how captioned data are to be encoded and transmitted (known as the transmission protocol or transmission layer). It also defines where in a DTV signal the caption data are to be placed, the bandwidth allocated, and the format of the data. The second area is the display protocol, which determines how captions are displayed on the screen of a DTV. The 708 captioning format was designed to allow for the use of the entire unicode set, which includes every character in the alphabet in any language plus the complete range of symbols. Almost any program can thus be captioned.
Many groups are affected by the introduction of the EIA-708 standard. Manufacturers are affected because the Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 states that "[d]igital television receivers and tuners must be capable of decoding closed-captioning information that is delivered pursuant to the industry standard EIA-708-B." This Act requires the FCC to update its rules for decoders as new technologies such as DTV are developed. Television broadcasters are also largely affected by the new 708 captioning format, because the pressure is building to produce new programming with digital closed-captions based on this standard. Broadcasters and producers must begin devising plans to make this move and invest in the equipment they will need to do so. Also significantly affected are the viewers with auditory impairments who will benefit from much greater flexibility and a higher quality of captioning with the EIA-708 standard.
A push approach toward the development of a new standard has been taken in the movement from EIA-608 to EIA-708 captioning. After developing the new standard, the EIA put the responsibility on the broadcasters and producers to comply with these standards in their captioning. This push to move from EIA-608 (analog) to EIA-708 (digital) has brought many improvements to closed-captioning. Television viewers can now control the size of the caption text. In addition, EIA-708 offers more letters and symbols, supports multiple fonts and text and background colors, and allows the viewer to replace the traditional black-box background with a colored box or do away with it entirely. Also, EIA-708 increases the data rate by 16 times over that provided by EIA-608, allowing DTV captions to contain much more information. However, most DTV content currently still relies on the EIA-608 standard captions that have been converted to the EIA-708 format, because the consumer base of DTV receivers is not yet high enough to justify the added expense of native EIA-708 encoding.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was first enacted in 1975. The Act was passed to ensure that students with disabilities receive free, appropriate public education and the related services and support they need to achieve in the least restricted environment appropriate to their individual needs. IDEA was created to help states and school districts meet requirements for educating children with disabilities and to pay part of the expenses of doing so. IDEA consists of three parts: Part B provides grants to states for services for preschool and school-age children, Part C funds early intervention services for infants and toddlers, and Part D supports national activities to improve the education of children with disabilities, including research and professional development programs.
IDEA covers children with disabilities until they graduate from high school or until they are 22 years of age if graduation is delayed. Students who may have a covered disability must be evaluated. If it is determined that the student does have a disability covered by IDEA, the school is required to annually develop an individualized education program (IEP) for the student and place him or her in a regular classroom setting when possible. Amendments to the Act adopted in 1997 have shifted the focus of IDEA from merely providing children with disabilities access to an education to improving results for all children in the education system.
The primary group affected by and benefiting from IDEA are children with disabilities. As a result of IDEA, students with disabilities now learn among their peers. U.S. Senator Jim Jeffords reports that since the initiation of IDEA, dropout rates for students with disabilities have significantly declined and graduation rates have gone up. The percentage of college freshman with disabilities has tripled as a result of the improved education children with disabilities have available to prepare them for college. Teachers and parents of children with disabilities are also significantly affected by IDEA. These two groups play a large role in the development of a child's IEP. Teachers have had to adjust to having children with disabilities in the same classroom as children without disabilities, learning together. Others involved in the public education system are certainly affected as well.
The enactment of IDEA has followed a push approach in requiring that public schools make free education that adheres to the provisions set forth in the Act available to students with disabilities. The legislation places the responsibility upon the schools and provides them with the requirements they must meet, while providing some financial assistance.
Instructional Material Accessibility Act
The purpose of the Instructional Material Accessibility Act of 2003 (IMAA) is to improve access to printed instructional materials used by students in elementary and secondary schools who are blind or have other visual disabilities. The Act creates an efficient system for the acquisition and distribution of instructional materials in the form of electronic files suitable for conversion into a variety of specialized formats. IMAA requires one national file format and a single national repository for files, which simplifies the process of obtaining materials for students with disabilities. Having a national file format will make the conversion process for producing specialized formats more efficient by reducing the amount of human intervention necessary. Having one national file format will make it easier for states, publishers, Braille software developers, and Braille transcribers to work with files. Braille transcribers will have more time to use their expertise in formatting and proofing files, leading to high-quality Braille. Students will directly benefit because the national file format will eliminate needless steps in scanning and reformatting files. Teachers will benefit, as well, by having materials available in specialized formats for their students who have disabilities at the same time they are available to their other students.
State and local education agencies that receive federal funding under IDEA are responsible for developing a statewide plan within two years of the enactment of IMAA to ensure that printed materials required for classroom instruction in elementary and secondary schools are available in specialized formats to individuals with disabilities at the same time they are made available to students without disabilities.
This Act is a push approach toward improving access to printed instructional materials for visually impaired students. IMAA requires all the states to adopt the national file format.
Video Description Restoration Act
The Video Description Restoration Act (VDRA), which is pending in Congress, would restore the FCC's video description rules that were overturned in federal court on November 8, 2002. The Act would guarantee TV access for individuals who are blind or visually impaired through video description. The FCC would be expressly granted authority to restore its minimum requirements, with increased access over time. Those minimum requirements mandated that the major networks and cable channels in the top 25 television markets present at least four hours of described programming per week and that video-described programs be made available in smaller markets where TV stations have the equipment to do so. VDRA has been rigorously supported by the American Council for the Blind and other blind and deaf organizations, because they feel that video description will achieve for people who are blind what closed-captioning does for individuals who are deaf.
The community of people who are blind or visually impaired would benefit from VDRA by once again having video description available to them, affording them the same access to information on television as sighted viewers. Also affected would be the television program providers and owners who would be required to offer video description for a portion of their programming. VDRA permits an exemption if the provision of video description would be unduly burdensome to the provider or owner, or if video description is not necessary to achieve video programming accessibility by persons who are blind or otherwise visually impaired.
VDRA would restore the FCC's rule for the minimum requirements major networks and cable channels must meet in terms of the amount of video description they provide. This push approach taken by the FCC would ensure that at least a portion of programs would be made available for the visually impaired through video description. The number of hours of video description mandated by the FCC may grow larger, leading to increased access to television programming for the visually impaired over time.
In addition to the laws mentioned in the previous section, standards and guidelines exist that drive more accessibly designed E&IT. These are discussed below.
ADA Accessibility Guidelines
The Access Board's guidelines, issued under the Americans with Disabilities Act, are to be completely updated and revised. The ADA Accessibility Guidelines (ADAAG) cover the construction and alteration of facilities in the private sector (places of public accommodation and commercial facilities) and the public sector (state and local government facilities). The accessibility guidelines issued under the Architectural Barriers Act (ABA) primarily address facilities in the federal sector and other facilities designed, built, altered, or leased with federal funds. The guidelines under both laws are being updated together in one rule that contains three parts: a scoping document for ADA facilities, a scoping document for ABA facilities, and a common set of technical criteria that the scoping documents will reference. As a result, the requirements for both ADA and ABA facilities will be more consistent. The guidelines also include new scoping and technical provisions for accessible housing that derive from requirements for "Type A" dwelling units contained in the 1998 edition of the ICC/ANSI A117.1 standard, "Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities." Of specific interest is 4.34.5 Equipment for Persons with Vision Impairments. Instructions and all information for use must be made accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments.
Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines
On February 3, 1998, the Access Board issued its final guidelines for the accessibility, usability, and compatibility of telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment covered by section 255 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (Telecommunications Act Accessibility Guidelines, 1998). The Act requires manufacturers of telecommunications equipment and customer premises equipment to ensure that the equipment is designed, developed, and fabricated to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if readily achievable. When it is not readily achievable to make the equipment accessible, the Act requires manufacturers to ensure that the equipment is compatible with existing peripheral devices or specialized customer premises equipment commonly used by individuals with disabilities to achieve access, if readily achievable.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
These guidelines explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, 1999). The guidelines are intended for all Web content developers (page authors and site designers) and for developers of authoring tools. The primary goal of these guidelines is to promote accessibility. However, the adoption of these guidelines will also make Web content more available to all users, no matter what user agent they are using (e.g., desktop browser, voice browser, mobile phone, automobile-based personal computer) or constraints they may be operating under (e.g., noisy surroundings, under- or over-illuminated rooms, in a hands-free environment). The adoption of these guidelines will also help people find information on the Web more quickly. These guidelines do not discourage content developers from using images, video, and so on, but rather explain how to make multimedia content more accessible to a wide audience.
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
This specification provides guidelines for Web authoring tool developers (Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, 2000). Its purpose is twofold: to assist developers in designing authoring tools that produce accessible Web content and to assist developers in creating an accessible authoring interface. Authoring tools can enable, encourage, and assist users ("authors") in the creation of accessible Web content through prompts, alerts, checking and repair functions, help files, and automated tools. It is just as important that all people be able to create content as it is for all people to have access to it. The tools used to create this information must therefore be accessible. Adoption of these guidelines will contribute to the proliferation of Web content that can be read by a broader range of readers and authoring tools that can be used by a broader range of authors.
User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological disabilities (User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, 2002). User agents include HTML browsers and other types of software that retrieve and render Web content. A user agent that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility through its own user interface and through other internal facilities, including its ability to communicate with other technologies (especially assistive technologies). Furthermore, all users, not just users with disabilities, should find conforming user agents to be more usable. In addition to helping developers of HTML browsers and media players, this document will also benefit developers of assistive technologies because it explains what types of information and control an AT may expect from a conforming user agent. Technologies not addressed directly by this document (e.g., technologies for Braille rendering) will be essential to ensuring Web access for some users with disabilities.
XML Accessibility Guidelines
This document by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) provides guidelines for designing Extensible Markup Language (XML) applications that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with visual, hearing, physical, cognitive, and neurological disabilities (XML Accessibility Guidelines, 2002). XML, used to design applications such as XHTML, SMIL, and SVG, provides no intrinsic guarantee of the accessibility of those applications. This document explains how to include features in XML applications that promote accessibility.
The purpose of this section is to highlight the consumer markets targeted by the industries being studied. A more detailed customer analysis can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
Estimates vary greatly on the number of persons with disabilities living within the United States and worldwide. The latest Census Bureau disability statistics report, Characteristics of the Civilian Noninstitutionalized Population by Age, Disability Status, and Type of Disability: 2000, estimates that there are 49.7 million people with disabilities living in the United States (Age Structure, 2003). Applying the disability percentages presented in this report to the age structures categorized by the World Factbook (including populations less than five years of age), results in a figure of 54 million, which is often cited as the actual number of people with disabilities living in the United States. This is the figure reported by the NCD (2004). Comparing the U.S. disability statistics with those of other countries indicates that China, India, Russia, Mexico, and Turkey have greater instances of disabilities for any age category because they have poorer health care than the United States. The market for universally designed products and services seems clear when global disability statistics (498 million people) are analyzed for these countries, which currently have the top five emerging markets. A detailed look at these emerging markets can be found in the appendix to this report online.
The specific customer populations of interest for the purpose of this study are people with the following disabilities or conditions:
Hard of hearing
Upper-mobility impaired
Lower-mobility impaired
Each of the above conditions is defined in terms of a loss of functional capability that may be temporary or permanent or may develop as a natural part of the aging process. The functional limitations may be caused by genetics, disease, traumatic injury, aging, environmental or situational factors, or some combination of multiple factors. In other words, the analysis is not restricted to functional limitations resulting from what is traditionally termed a disability. This approach, espoused by the functional model of disabilities (Kaplan, n.d.), allows us to consider a wide segment of the population who could truly benefit from universal design.
It is important to understand the functional capabilities and limitations, as well as alternative strategies of access, of the target population in order to properly assess the impact of various accessibility features on mainstream products. Each of the target populations has different functional capabilities and limitations and thus experiences different issues with the product lines under study.
Visual Impairments
In general, people with impaired vision may have difficulty perceiving visual detail, focusing on objects either close up or at a distance, separating objects that do not have sufficient contrast, perceiving objects in both central and peripheral vision, perceiving color and contrast brightness, adapting to different light levels, tracking moving objects, and judging distances (Story, Mueller, and Mace, 1998).
Hearing Impairments
In general, people who are deaf and hard of hearing may have difficulty localizing the source or direction of sound, filtering out background sound, perceiving both high- and low-pitched sounds, and carrying on a conversation (Story, Mueller, and Mace, 1998).
Mobility Impairments
In general, people with impaired mobility may have difficulty with tasks requiring range of motion, coordination, strength, and balance. More specifically, difficulties may be apparent in the following areas: reaching, pushing, pulling, lifting, lowering, carrying, grasping, squeezing, rotating, twisting, and pinching (Story, Mueller, and Mace, 1998).
Cognitive Disabilities
In general, people with cognitive disabilities may have difficulty "…receiving, comprehending, interpreting, remembering, or acting on information" (Story, Mueller, and Mace 1998). More specifically, difficulties may be apparent in the following areas: beginning a task without a prompt or reminder, responding within an appropriate time frame, concentrating, comprehending visual or auditory information, understanding or expressing language, following procedures or doing things in order, organizing information, remembering things, making decisions and solving problems, and learning new things and doing things a new or different way (Story, Mueller, and Macel, 1998).
In addition to people with disabilities, other customer markets targeted in this study include the following. A discussion of each of these customer populations can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
Individuals 65+ years of age
People who have never learned to read
Users of ESL
Consumers in situations that reduce sensory or visual capabilities
The market for E&IT products is constantly changing and evolving as new product trends arise. New trends in cellular phones, ATMs, PDAs, televisions, speech recognition technology, and distance learning are changing the way we learn, do business, store data, bank, communicate with others, and entertain ourselves. There are many market forces that reflect the desires of the E&IT industry (such as gaining a competitive advantage and complying with U.S. laws) and of the consumer (such as wanting easy-to-use products that are efficient and increase the user's safety). These forces create the demand for more accessibly designed products. New products are consistently emerging with the aim of serving a wider population of users, including users with various disabilities, and increasing the overall ease of use for everyone. Current trends in the industries for the six product lines presented in this report are discussed below, along with the market forces that create the demand for those products. Information in this section of the report comes from many different sources, all of which are cited in the text.
Scarborough Research, the nation's leader in local, regional, and national consumer information, estimates that "almost two-thirds (62 percent) of American adults own a cell phone" (McFarland, 2002). Most cell phones are used to make telephone calls, surf the Web, and receive messages. Cell phones are invaluable in an emergency. They have helped save people's lives, whether assisting in locating people involved in an airplane crash or enabling people to call for help when faced with a medical emergency. Many people use them for long-distance calling instead of signing up for a long-distance plan through their home telephone service provider. Cell phones give people the ability to surf the Web without a computer, take a photo and immediately send it to someone else, and receive messages, stock quotes, news, and other information anywhere, anytime.
Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessibly Designed Cell Phones
1. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage and increase profits. Desire on the part of consumers to purchase the most convenient and easy-to-use cell phone. Examples of these market forces include the following innovations:
— Easier data entry: The desire to enter text into a cell phone easily was a major market driver in making cell phones more accessible. Until recently, entering a single character (i.e., A–Z) into a cell phone required up to six key presses. For example, you would have to press the #2 key six times and then the #key to select and enter a capital C. Here is, in order, what each key press would do: First press = a, second press = A, third press = b, fourth press = B, fifth press = c, sixth press = C, and # enters the character. Consumer demand led to the development of new cell phone keypads. For example, the Fastap™ keypad is an extremely simple, intuitive, and powerful computer interface that fits in a small mobile phone. Modern phones offer a lot more than just voice communication. Mobile phones are data devices with the ability to write messages, collect and store information, and buy things. They are essentially networked computer terminals. Alphanumeric keypads make a cell phone easier to use for people with low vision (Fastap, n.d.).
— Voice dialing: Voice dialing is a common feature on most digital cell phones. The technology has gone even further. iVoice, Inc., recently released a new hands-free feature to its Speech Enabled Auto Attendant that allows outbound callers to speak the number they wish to dial (iVoice, Inc., 2003).
— Talking caller ID: Most people would like to know who is calling them before answering their cell phone, especially if they are occupied in an eyes-busy, hands-busy, environment. Lucent Technologies offers talking caller ID in support of helping wireless network operators rapidly deploy new features and generate new revenues (Cambridge Telecom Report, 2000).
— Automatic ring mode adjustment: A cell phone that is aware of where it is and adjusts its ring mode accordingly is being patented by IBM's research lab in Winchester, MA. The new system uses global positioning system (GPS) technology to switch the phone's ringing modes. In "region definition" mode, the phone stores its current GPS coordinates while the owner tells it whether to ring loudly, quietly, vibrate, or divert to an answering service. This can be done separately in several locations—home, work, church, and your favorite bar, for example—so the phone knows exactly how to behave at that location. (Note: The cell phone industry is already building GPS receivers into handsets so that emergency services can locate callers.)
— Large fonts: Samsung's SCH-T300 can display numbers in a large font. (Samsung, n.d.).
— Bluetooth communications: Bluetooth comes built into products consumers use every day—like cell phones, headsets, PDAs, laptops, and, yes, even cars—and it allows devices that have Bluetooth built in to "talk" to each other without a wire connection. If a cell phone and headset both have Bluetooth built in, the user could put the headset on and leave the phone in his or her pocket. Bluetooth can also connect a car to the driver's Bluetooth-enabled cell phone. The phone in this scenario connects to the car's audio system, and dash-installed controls take over the function of the phone. Calls are made and retrieved using voice recognition, and the user never has to touch the actual phone (Auto Channel, 2003).
2. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to comply with federal laws. The desire on the part of consumers to be safe, get help in case of an emergency, and maintain contact with young children, aging parents with Alzheimer's, or others at risk. Examples of these market forces include the following advancements:
— Global positioning system feature: Facing a federal requirement to provide location data to 911 dispatch centers by 2005, cell phone carriers have developed a GPS system to track wireless calls. A special chip in the phone times the signals from three satellites to calculate its position, which is relayed to the nearest 911 center (LaGeese, 2003). GPS-equipped cell phones can also be used to maintain contact with young children, aging parents with Alzheimer's, or others at risk, or to find out if your children are where they say they are when you call them.
— Cellular phone with built-in optical projector for display of data: A patent for a cellular phone that is compact in size and weight includes a mechanism for displaying received wireless data in its original page format, as sent from the original source. This allows for viewing each original page as a whole page, rather than as a series of partial pages. The phone also allows the display of received wireless visual data with characters in their true original size, thus allowing for ease of reading and use.
Market Forces Reducing the Accessibility of Cell Phones
1. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage through innovation. Desire on the part of consumers to purchase distinctive cell phones suited to a personal sense of style. Examples include the following:
— Miniaturization. Many cellular phones are being designed to be more portable and less obtrusive. As a result, keypads have shrunk, making it difficult for users who are blind to tactilely identify keys. In addition, users without fine motor control skills have difficulty activating the smaller keys.
— Nonstandard keypads. Some stylized phones have keypads arranged in a circular pattern or other nonstandard layout. Users who are blind find it difficult to identify the keypad keys because they are not arranged in the familiar layout.
2. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage and increase profits. Desire on the part of consumers to purchase the most advanced, feature-rich cell phone. The following is an example:
— Smart phones. There is a trend to integrate PDA functionality with cellular phones. The complexity of the user interface and the dexterity required to operate the smart phone may place the phone beyond the capabilities of some users.
The classic definition of an automated teller machine (ATM) is an unattended machine, external to a bank, that dispenses money when a personal coded card is used. There are more than 200 million users of ATMs in the United States. Billions of transactions are processed in the United States yearly. According to Grant Thornton LLP, there are 350,000 ATMs in the United States; 250,000 are in nonbank locations, and 150,000 of these ATMs are owned by nonfinancial companies (Grant Thornton, 2003).
ATMs have revolutionized the way most people do their banking. Customers can take care of financial transactions at any time of the day or night without having to go to a bank building per se, since ATMs are readily available at supermarkets, convenience stores, shopping malls, hotels, and many other public places. ATMs are used for cash withdrawals, transferring money between accounts, looking up account balances, depositing cash and checks, purchasing money orders, obtaining credit-card advances, and purchasing stamps. Talking ATMs have enabled people who are blind to experience the convenience of anytime banking. In the future, ATMs will be able to send person-to-person "cash" payments, cash checks, deposit cash immediately into your account, and be accessed by a cell phone or PDA.
Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessibly Designed ATMs
1. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to comply with U.S. and international laws. Examples of legal requirements that have prompted accessibility include the following:
— United States: ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG) as amended through September 2002: Section 4.34 Automated Teller Machines [4.34.5] Equipment for Persons with Vision Impairments states, "Instructions and all information for use shall be made accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments (Access Board, n.d.).
— United States: Section 707 of ICC/ANSI A117.1 Standard on Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities is entitled "Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) and Fare Machines." Although the 2003 version of this document has not yet been finalized or published, the following is an example of preliminary wording (in part): "Speech Output Machines shall be speech enabled. Operating instructions and orientation, visible transaction prompts, user input verification, error messages, and all displayed information for full use shall be accessible to and independently usable by individuals with vision impairments. Speech shall be delivered through a mechanism that is readily available to all users including, but not limited to, an industry standard connector or a telephone handset. Speech shall be recorded or digitized human, or synthesized" (International Code Council, n.d.).
— Australia: The Australian Bankers' Association (ABA), the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC), and the Accessible E-Commerce Forum worked with representatives from member banks, other financial institutions, community groups, suppliers and retailers, and the National Office for the Information Economy's (NOIE) Access Branch to develop a set of voluntary industry standards to improve the accessibility of electronic banking (Australian Bankers' Association, n.d.).
— United Kingdom: Access to ATMs: UK Design Guidelines provides research-based information to ensure that ATMs meet the needs of all users. The guidelines are based on ergonomic research and testing, offering design principles and guidance for those who design, manufacture, install, and maintain ATMs. The 2002 edition reflects and builds on the experience gained from advances in the design of ATMs and the practical application of the 1999 edition (Feeney, 2003).
2. The desire on the part of the United Nations and the World Bank to reduce poverty in developing countries by helping those countries grow and prosper. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage and generate revenue from emerging markets. The desire on the part of consumers in developing countries to have the basic necessities of life. Examples of these market forces at work include the following:
— The unbanked: ATMs can be a channel for the flow of money that is being kept "under the pillows" of billions of people living in emerging market areas who do not have a bank account. There also are about 11 million consumers in the United States who do not have bank accounts (Cipherwar.com, 2000). Delton Yuen, NCR's vice president, Financial Solutions Division, Asia-Pacific, stated, "If every household saves money in pillowcases or a cookie jar, the economic system is going to have less money to go around to fund capital investments. For countries to ensure that the economy grows, they need capital. And when the money within a country is not channeled into the financial system or banking system, that capital is circulating less and less" (McGill, 2002).
— Talking ATMs: Although these devices are being developed for people who are blind, they can also accommodate people who cannot read. There are 440 million people who cannot read living in the top five emerging markets.
PDAs store, analyze, and retrieve needed information on demand, anytime and anywhere. A PDA can be used as a calculator, address book, calendar, memo pad, expense tracker, and an electronic information storage device. They serve as portable personal computers and augmentative communications devices. Some of the many industries using PDAs are health care, building/construction, engineering, restaurant, and sales. PDAs are useful for dispatching crews and managing mobile personnel. While they are particularly useful in the business world, they are excellent memory aids for individuals. Information can be transferred between the PDA and a personal computer, providing portable access to information. PDAs are also being used for leisure-time activities. They can provide golfers with distance measurements and scorecards. It is also possible to watch a movie on your PDA. Gartner Group predicted worldwide PDA revenue would be $3.53 billion in 2003, or approximately 10 million new units shipped worldwide (Directions Magazine, 2003a).
Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessibly Designed PDAs
The primary force is the desire to minimize the cost of doing business. PDAs are now replacing what were once expensive, proprietary, industry-specific telecommunication devices. Another force is the desire of consumers to maximize the ease of use of PDAs in eyes-busy, hands-busy environments. Professionals using PDAs in eyes-busy, hands-busy environments are likely to find PDAs more user-friendly and easier to use if they are equipped with voice recognition and text-to-speech technologies. Examples of improvements resulting from these market forces include the following:
Health care: Wireless-equipped PDAs have been embraced by the medical community to access medical records, write electronic prescriptions, and use as a portable nursing-unit terminal. PDAs are also replacing high-cost medical devices. CardioNet developed a proprietary PDA-type electrocardiogram monitoring device connected to electrodes on a patient's chest. The PDA receives signals from the electrodes and transmits data to the PDA device (CardioNet, n.d.).
Public safety: Field officers use Internet-ready PDAs to access remote records from management databases. This helps to improve the efficiency of creating incident reports. It also optimizes the transfer of queries and responses (Directions Magazine, 2003b).
Workforce management: Cobb EMC is an electric cooperative serving more than 170,000 customers in five metropolitan Atlanta counties. Cobb EMC uses PDAs to dispatch crews. The cooperative claims that this has helped to streamline work processes and increase service reliability (Directions Magazine, 2003c).
Military: Applications and devices developed for use by the military include the V3 Rugged PDA; industry-leading handheld capabilities; integrated Bluetooth for wireless link to phones, printers, and PCs; TFT screen with 64K colors; Windows CE-based Pocket PC with IBM ViaVoice, MS Pocket Office, and other applications (General Dynamics, n.d.).
Multimedia industry: Pocket PC Films, in Sherman Oaks, California, uses PDA technology to distribute video content for Pocket PC and Palm OS devices. Film fans can buy CD-ROM titles, load them on their computers, and sync them into their handheld devices. Pocket PC Films now distributes 25,000 titles. The huge potential market to use PDAs to view high-quality multimedia has led manufactures to equip them with high-quality audio capabilities. For more information, access the following Web site: http://store.yahoo.com/pocketpcfilms/xsxtremwinsp.html.
Assistive technology industry: In order to reduce the cost of their products, several AT vendors are replacing their proprietary augmentative communications device hardware with PDAs. The touchscreen, text-to-speech, and voice recognition capabilities of PDAs make this possible. Two vendors in particular are pioneering this trend. They are Enkidu Research with its Palmtop Portable and Saltillo with its ChatPC.
Simplified writing interfaces: Written Chinese has 6,000 characters. A computer keyboard has 47 character keys. Chinese data entry is so difficult that there is an entire industry of people who make their living as typists. Someone who is really good with the Chinese version of Microsoft Word (which takes the simplified "pinyin" transliteration and guesses at the character the writer means) can type maybe 20 words a minute. Until, that is, PDA manufacturers started to equip PDAs with better chips and faster algorithms. Voice interfaces are becoming so powerful that the Mandarin PDA-based language recognizer can distinguish about 40,000 words and still not tax the memory or processing power of the PDA (Kumagai, n.d.).
A television is technically described as a telecommunication system that receives, decodes, and displays images and plays audio of objects, stationary or moving, broadcast from a separate transmitter. Television is the medium that entertains, informs, and educates; it can also serve as a companion to people who, because of circumstances beyond their control, are confined to their homes. Traditionally, people have used TVs to get news reports and watch movies, sports events, and sitcoms. Cable TV is a telecommunication system that receives, decodes, and displays images and plays audio of objects, stationary or moving, broadcast over cable directly to the receiver. With cable TV, people have many more options of channels to watch, some devoted to a particular subject of interest, such as HGTV for the home and garden enthusiast or news broadcasts 24 hours a day. In addition, movies can be purchased on a pay-per-view basis. Technologically advanced TV systems allow viewers to play interactive games, take a distance learning course, send instant messages, surf the Web, send an email, and shop for and purchase products, including movie tickets and CDs from talk shows and concerts.
HDTV (high-definition television) is a system that has more than the usual number of lines per frame, resulting in pictures that show more detail. Interactive television (iTV) provides richer entertainment, interaction, and more information pertaining to the shows, props, and people involved in its creation. In a sense, it combines traditional TV viewing with the interactivity enjoyed by those communicating through a network, such as the Internet. According to Disney, its iTV program, "Disney Active Portal on Sky Digital," is a major step forward. It offers Disney more flexibility and control of its interactivity in terms of design and dynamic update. The new application empowers kids, giving them the opportunity to participate in shows while still being able to watch the action on screen.
Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessibly Designed Televisions
1. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to comply with U.S. laws. Examples of how these market forces resulted in enhanced products and services include the following:
— Emergency programming: FCC rules require broadcasters and cable operators to make local emergency information accessible to persons who are deaf or hard of hearing and to persons who are blind or have visual disabilities. This means that emergency information must be provided both orally and in a visual format. Video programming distributors include broadcasters, cable operators, satellite television services (such as DirecTV and the Dish Network), and other multichannel video programming distributors (FCC, 1999).
— Captioning: Congress first instituted the requirement that television receivers contain circuitry designed to decode and display closed-captioning. As of July 1993, the FCC required that all analog television sets with screens 13 inches or larger sold in the United States contain built-in decoder circuitry that allows viewers to display closed-captions. Beginning July 1, 2002, the FCC also required that digital television (DTV) receivers include closed-caption display capability. As part of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, Congress instructed the FCC to require video program distributors (cable operators, broadcasters, satellite distributors, and other multichannel video programming distributors) to phase in closed-captioning of their television programs. In 1997, the FCC implemented rules to provide a transition schedule for video program distributors to follow in providing more captioned programming. The rules require that distributors provide an increasing amount of captioned programming according to a set schedule. All English language programming prepared or formatted for display on analog television and first shown on or after January 1, 1998, as well as programming prepared or formatted for display on digital television that was first published or exhibited after July 1, 2002, is considered "new programming" and must be captioned according to benchmarks set by the FCC. The following benchmarks establish how much new programming must be captioned each calendar quarter:
> January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2001: 450 hours of programming per channel per quarter
> January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2005: 1350 hours of programming per channel per quarter
> January 1, 2006, and thereafter: 100 percent of all programming, with some exemptions
— Digital television TV mandate: The FCC has issued a ruling that requires DTV licensees to simulcast 50 percent of the video programming of their analog channel on their DTV channel by April 1, 2003. This requirement increases to 75 percent on April 1, 2004, and 100 percent on April 1, 2005. The simulcasting requirement was intended to ensure that consumers enjoy continuity of free, over-the-air video programming service when the analog spectrum is reclaimed at the end of the transition. With digital transmission, a TV broadcaster will be able to
> Send multiple programming at the same time over the same channel
> Improve the quality of the transmission with options not available with analog transmission
> Offer digital data services, which will allow the TV broadcaster to send out virtual newspapers and other types of services directly to your TV
2. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage and generate revenue.
— Word-search videos using closed-captions: The need to produce just-in-time news stories used to cause problems for broadcasters. When a major event occurred, news programs would have to scramble around looking for some footage that supported the subject of the news story. For example, when an entertainer passes away, news programs might show a clip or two of the last interview with that individual. It could be very time-consuming to search through logs and libraries to find the appropriate footage. That is, until broadcasters gained the ability to both store digital copies of their broadcasts on computers and conduct word searches on them using the captions. Captioning their programming has enabled many news broadcasters to achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace by being the first to announce a breaking event with the appropriate video content.
Voice recognition technology (VRT) by itself is neither accessible nor inaccessible. It is the integration of VRT into other products and services that can help to make those products and services more accessible and usable. VRT, also referred to as speech recognition technology (SRT), provides telecommunications and computing devices with the ability to recognize and carry out voice commands or take dictation. VRT is generally identified as either being speaker dependent or speaker independent. Speaker-dependent systems recognize only a particular individual's voice and are often used in dictation products. Speaker-independent systems can recognize multiple voices. Speaker-dependent systems are better able to process an individual's quirky speech patterns, but they can take a significant amount of time to train. There are also continuous versus discrete speech recognition systems, in which, respectively, the user can talk at a normal rate or is required to talk with pauses between words.
Voice recognition enhances quality of life and independence for many people. Users do not have to use their hands when operating a telecommunications device that incorporates VRT. This technology is also useful in a hands-busy environment, such as when a radiologist analyzes x-rays by holding them up to the light and verbally dictates the results to a computer. It is also helpful when operating small devices such as cell phones and PDAs.
Many industries are adding VRT to their communication systems as a way to lower operational expenses by cutting the costs of call handling. In 1996, Charles Schwab became the first major consumer company to offer voice recognition for its customers to get stock quotes and other information at the customer's convenience. In addition to brokerage houses, the banking, health care, law enforcement, travel, transportation, and entertainment industries, to name just a few, are also incorporating VRT.
The Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessible and Usable VRT
1. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to achieve competitive advantage. The desire of consumers to purchase easy-to-use and convenient products. The following is an example of an innovation resulting from these market forces:
— Voice dialing: People trying to operate a cell phone in an eyes-busy, hands-busy, environment might experience difficulty. This market factor led to the incorporation of VRT into cell phones and the development of hands-free accessories for cell phones. People with upper mobility disabilities, people with low vision, and many senior citizens can also benefit from voice dialing. Voice dialing is a common feature on most digital cell phones. PCS-Direct, an Internet-based phone store, carries nine different cell phones equipped with voice dialing (PCS-Direct, n.d.).
2. The desire on the part of the E&IT industry to reduce cost and employee turnover. The desire on the part of call-center agents to make their jobs as pleasant and nonrepetitive as possible. Examples of innovations resulting from these market forces include the following:
— Interactive voice response (IVR) systems: To date, companies have attempted to handle interactions with their customers using touch-tone IVR systems, but customers are not entirely satisfied with this form of interaction. Touch-tone interfaces are both frustrating and ineffective. In order to support customer interactions more quickly and efficiently, companies are beginning to move to speech recognition systems. Many call centers use systems that combine digitized speech and speech recognition. Using IVR systems costs much less than using call-center agents. Thanks to IVR, customer requests can be handled with little human intervention. Call-center agents can then become more productive doing other things. Another benefit of IVR is that agents no longer need to repeat the same information to each caller, over and over again. This tends to increase employee satisfaction and reduce turnover. "Following this, the market is believed to be on its way to being worth $43 billion by 2007" (Telecomworldwire, 2002).
— Web-based voice portals: VRTs can be used to enable people to access a Web site using a telephone. Extending access to a commercial Web site by telephone can attract new customers who may not be in a position to use a computer connected to the Internet. There are many instances of this use. For example—
> People operating from within low-bandwidth infrastructures
> People who never learned to read
> Mobile professionals who need quick access to information while on the go
> Senior citizens who recognize the value of the Internet but are simply more comfortable using a telephone
> People who are blind or visually impaired
> People who are traveling and don't have access to their PCs
— VoiceXML standards: The VoiceXML Forum is an industry organization established to promote VoiceXML as the universal standard for speech-enabled Web applications. The VXML Forum "aims to drive the market for voice- and phone-enabled Internet access by promoting a standard specification for VXML, a computer language used to create Web content and services that can be accessed by phone." Following standards breeds success and enhances the compatibility and interoperability of your system with others. Systems that have been developed according to standards are easier and less expensive to maintain.
— Dictation, voice recognition, and transcription: Many professions require the transcription of voice-recorded data. These professions include law enforcement, medicine, and the legal profession. The financial pressures to drive transcription costs down and productivity rates up helped to fuel the $8 billion speech recognition industry.
"Distance learning is used in all areas of education, including pre-K through grade 12, higher education, home school education, continuing education, corporate training, military and government training, and telemedicine" (USDLA, n.d.). Students participating in distance learning can use the learning style of their choice. Audio-based classes can consist of recordings, synthesized speech, and audio-conferencing. Video-based learning includes video and videoconferencing and Webcasting. Print-centered techniques include online texts, books, and handouts. Employers also benefit when their employees participate in distance learning courses. "Travel expenses are reduced or eliminated, there is increased productivity as employees don't need to leave the office for extended periods of time, teams are brought together without restrictions on schedule or location, and it provides the ability to reach geographically dispersed populations with a uniform and consistent approach" (Thunderbird, n.d.). Also, higher education facilities are finding that distance learning is less expensive to support than traditional classroom learning.
The types of technologies for implementing distance learning include "two-way video with two-way audio (two-way interactive video), one-way video with two-way audio, one-way live video, one-way prerecorded video (including prerecorded videotapes provided to students and TV broadcast and cable transmission using prerecorded video), two-way audio transmission (e.g., audio/phone conferencing), one-way audio transmission (including radio broadcast and prerecorded audiotapes provided to students), Internet courses using synchronous (i.e., simultaneous or real-time) computer-based instruction (e.g., interactive computer conferencing or Interactive Relay Chat), Internet courses using asynchronous (i.e., not simultaneous) computer-based instruction (e.g., e-mail, listservs, and most World Wide Web-based courses), CD-ROM, multimode packages (i.e., a mix of technologies that cannot be assigned to a primary mode), and other technologies" (Tabs, 2003, p. 11). Online education is now offered at more than 56 percent of the nation's two- and four-year colleges and universities, with distance learning beginning to extend to high schools and lower.
Market Forces Creating Demand for More Accessibly Designed Distance-Learning Technology
1. The World Bank and its members want to reduce poverty and strengthen emerging economies:American businesses have invested more than $250 billion in the top 15 emerging markets with the sincere belief that they will yield significant returns on their investment. Distance education is a critical success factor in human development in emerging markets. Some call it the foundation of business success in emerging markets. Education provides the high-level skills necessary to establish a growing, self-sustaining E&IT labor market. It can also provide the training required by engineers, doctors, teachers, nurses, business entrepreneurs, social scientists, and many other professionals critical to the success of maturing a developing economy.
The information infrastructures supporting a majority of distance learning activities in emerging markets are low-bandwidth environments. Many of their resources will need to operate over wireless devices. This means that the content will need to be developed in an accessible manner.
Billions of workers live in emerging markets. They are the individuals who ultimately benefit from an effective distance-learning infrastructure. However, in the top five emerging markets, there are 440 million people who can't read. In order to benefit from distance learning, the materials need to be provided in alternate formats.
2. Corporations want to educate their employees more effectively and less expensively: Distance learning produces a 60 percent faster learning curve than traditional instruction. More than 6,000 U.S. companies offered distance learning courses to their employees in 2003, up from 391 in 1998. The U.S. corporate skills business training market is projected to reach $18.3 billion by 2006 (compounded annual growth rate [CAGR] of 13.3 percent). Worldwide, the distance-learning IT education and training market is projected to reach $28.6 billion by 2006 (CAGR of 7.1 percent).
3. Universities want to reduce costs, increase enrollment, and still offer a quality education.Conservatively, there are 45 million users of online higher education. By 2025, the global demand for online education is forecast to reach 160 million students. For every foreign student studying in the United States, there are three to five students who would access U.S. education online if they could (Moe, 2002).
4. The law: Many countries have policies relating to Web accessibility. They are Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The European Union also has Web-access policies. Distance learning usually takes place via the Web (Web Accessibility Initiative, n.d.). Several countries have detailed policies that specifically apply to education, as described here:
— Australia has a Disability Discrimination Act (1992) that applies to education.
— Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees the basic rights and freedoms important to Canada as a free and democratic society. The Canadian Government has also established a Common Look and Feel for Canadian Government Web sites, which includes accessibility provisions.
— The UK's Special Educational Needs and Disability Act took effect on September 1, 2002. The Act removes the previous exemption of education from the Disability Discrimination Act (1995), ensuring that discrimination against students with disabilities will be unlawful. Institutions incurred additional responsibilities in 2003, with the final sections of legislation coming into effect in 2005.
The following U.S. policies make accessibility a requirement for distance learning:
— ADA and section 504: Two federal laws govern accessibility of education: Title II of the ADA and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (as amended in 1998). All elementary, secondary, and postsecondary educational institutions are regulated under these laws. A useful legal analysis of the requirements is provided in the California Community Colleges' Distance Education Access Guidelines (California Community College, 1999).
— Section 508: To ensure that its technology is accessible to its own employees and to the public, the Federal Government has created regulations based on section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act that require that E&IT developed, procured, maintained, or used by the Federal Government be accessible to people with disabilities. These regulations apply to all federal purchases of technology. Requirements in section 508 may also affect state colleges and universities, pending policy decisions from the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.
— California higher education requirements: The California Community College system has released Distance Education Access Guidelines and Alternate Media Access Guidelines. The Alternate Media Access guidelines serve as a guide for the implementation of California Law AB422, requiring publishers to provide textbooks in electronic format to the three systems of higher education in California (the University of California, the California State University, and the California Community Colleges). The Distance Education Access Guidelines include a summary of legal requirements as well as access guidelines for specific modes of distance education instructional delivery. These documents and other resources are available from the High Tech Center Training Unit of the California Community Colleges.
— Texas K-12 textbook adoptions: Texas has for several years been studying the issue of access to electronic books and educational software for students with disabilities. Two reports, one issued in 1997 and one in 1999, provide information on how educational materials can be made accessible. Texas requires publishers to provide electronic files for adopted print materials and is in the process of incorporating the federal section 508 requirements as an optional part of its adoption process for interactive educational software and electronic textbooks. Further information about Texas textbook accessibility is available from the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
This section documents the primary findings of a detailed product line analysis for each of the product lines selected for study. The purpose of this research is to document accessibility issues that prevent people with disabilities from fully accessing the selected products and to document accessibility features that are either currently offered or potentially could be offered by manufacturers. For a more detailed discussion of the product line analysis, including a discussion of the product lines broken down according to different disability types, consult the appendix to the online version of this report at http://www.ncd.gov.
The accessibility of a given product is based primarily on a determination of access to core features of the product, with some consideration for additional features that enhance the product but are not necessary for use of the product for its primary purpose. For this research, both accessible and UD features are considered. Accessible design is defined as the design of products that makes them accessible to people with disabilities without requiring the purchase of additional equipment or specialized training. Universal design, or design for inclusion, is the design of products and environments to make them usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. A disability is considered any restriction or lack of ability, resulting from an impairment, to perform an activity in the manner or within the range of activity considered standard for a human being.
Under section 508, each federal department or agency, including the U.S. Postal Service, when developing, procuring, maintaining, or using E&IT, must ensure that the E&IT allows—
Federal employees with disabilities to have access to and use of information and data comparable to the access to and use of information and data by federal employees who do not have disabilities.
Individuals with disabilities who are members of the public seeking information or services from a federal department or agency to have access to and use of information and data comparable to the access to and use of information and data by members of the public who are not disabled.
Section 508 applies without regard to the medium of the technology. However, section 508 permits exceptions if an undue burden would be imposed upon the agency or department.
In general, section 508 requires that products be—
Usable by people who are blind
Usable by people with low vision without relying on audio
Usable with little or no color perception
Usable by people who are deaf
Usable by people with limited hearing
Usable by people with limited manual dexterity, reach, and/or strength
Usable with time-dependent controls or displays
Usable by people without speech
Usable by people with limited cognitive or memory abilities
Usable by people with language or learning disabilities
Available with audio cutoff (private listening)
Designed to prevent visually induced seizures
Available with biometric identification/activation bypassing
Usable by people with upper extremity prosthetics
Hearing aid compatible
Usable from a wheelchair or similar personal vehicle
Also, section 508 requires compatibility with peripheral devices and that accessibility of information, documentation, labeling, and support be provided to customers. Section 508 provides guidelines for software applications and operating systems, Web-based Internet information and applications, telecommunications products, video and multimedia products, self-contained closed products, desktop and portable computers, and functional performance criteria.
Product designers should consider features that facilitate the following capabilities: Users with visual impairments need to be able to identify, differentiate, and operate all controls and displays, without accidentally activating undesired controls; they should be able to detect control activation and outcome; they should not be required to depend on color to differentiate control and display states to successfully use the device. Users with hearing impairments need to be able to acquire information via a nonauditory format, detect control activation and outcome, and use assistive listening devices. Users with mobility impairments need to be able to view, reach, and activate all controls and displays; manipulate levers, drawers, panels, and all controls; activate controls without accidentally activating adjacent controls; activate controls with the use of an assistive device; and have sufficient time to enter commands. Finally, users with cognitive disabilities need to be able to understand the controls and displays and have sufficient time to enter commands.
The product line assessment provides an identification of accessibility issues within each product line and an assessment of accessibility features designed to address specific issues. The assessment of accessibility issues involves the calculation of an "impact score" for each issue and target population. The impact score is an estimation of the affect of a particular accessibility issue on a particular target population. The score is calculated at the task level based on two separate dimensions. The first dimension, task priority, is defined as a measure of task importance. High-priority tasks are those that are essential to the device, while low-priority tasks are defined as those that are not essential or would not be expected to be performed by the end-user. The second dimension, accessibility, is defined as an estimation of the ability of a user with a given set of functional capabilities and limitations to satisfactorily complete a given task. Accessibility is classified at three levels: little or no difficulty, some difficulty, or great difficulty. After impact scores are calculated from the priority and accessibility level for each task, they are used to assign an accessibility grade to each product line for each target population.
The sections below describe the results of the product line assessments. Each product line section is organized as follows: background, accessibility features, compliance with government regulations, and conclusions.
Part of the product line assessment included conducting a task-based accessibility analysis for each product line. A detailed discussion of this task-based accessibility analysis is available in the appendix to the online version of this report. The task-based accessibility analysis consists of identifying the core functionality (tasks) for the product line, identifying the priority level for each task, and assigning a task-accessibility estimation for each task. The task-accessibility score is derived from expert evaluations, a Georgia Tech survey on universal design, and user testing. The combination of the task-priority levels and the task-accessibility estimation is used to calculate an impact score, which is then used to create an accessibility grade for the product line. These accessibility grades appear at the conclusion of this section of the report.
Please note that reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply endorsement by the National Council on Disability.
Despite their popularity and capabilities, ATMs are not accessible by everyone. People who have visual disabilities may have difficulty reading the display and providing accurate inputs. People who have a mobility disability may have difficulty approaching the device, reaching the controls, and reading the display. People who have cognitive disabilities may have difficulty reading the display and understanding the options. Each of these challenges can be overcome, to some extent, through proper design.
Task-Based Accessibility Analysis
The core functionality considered necessary to effectively use an ATM consists of the following:
Locating an ATM
Locating an accessible AT
Inserting the bank car
Remembering a personal identification number (PIN
Entering a PIN numbe
Making a cash withdrawa
Making a deposi
Transferring mone
Printing a statemen
Retrieving a receip
Retrieving the bank car
Reading a receipt
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, or the design of the ATM. Accessibility issues for the disability population were identified, along with an impact rating for each issue. The disability populations include people who have an impairment resulting from environmental or situational factors. The issues identified and impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various ATM manufacturers' marketing data produced a number of features identified as accessible design components. Each of these components is listed, along with a description of the component and an assessment of the usefulness of the feature for disability groups. Some of these features may have been designed with a particular disability population in mind; others may have been designed simply as desirable features. In many cases, the accessibility features benefit or are used by a variety of people, and they may be considered to provide universal access.
Large sunlight-readable color display: ATM displays can be very difficult for the average person to use simply because of lighting issues, natural or otherwise. Sunlight often creates glare on electronic displays, sometimes making it impossible to even discern that any text appears on the display. In some cases this can be overcome by shifting the viewing orientation, but this is not an option for all people. Sunlight-readable displays can increase accessibility by preventing glare. With the exception of people who are blind, this will have a medium impact for all users and will help solve the problem of not being able to receive visual information.
Touchscreen display: Touchscreens provide the manufacturer with a method of creating a dynamic display, providing more information in less space. Touchscreens can be designed with large, high-contrast buttons or icons that can provide an alternative solution for those with partial visual impairment or motor disabilities. Selection via large touch areas on the screen may be preferable to some users as an alternative to keyboard or function key input. Additionally, for users with complete vision loss, touchscreen functions can be mapped—or directed—down to the tactile keyboard. But unless the functions are mapped in this way, or an alternative audio interface is provided, touchscreens are not accessible to people who are blind and will have a negative impact. If keyboard mapping is implemented or an alternative audio interface is provided, touchscreens will have no impact on people who are blind. They will have a medium impact for those with low vision and mobility impairments if implemented with large touch areas and text or graphics. If good graphical metaphors are used, touchscreens will have a medium positive impact for the cognitively disabled. They will help solve the problem of making inputs and possibly of receiving and interpreting visual information.
Talking ATM: A talking ATM is one with voice displays. Talking ATMs are useful in circumstances in which it is difficult to read the text display because of a visual impairment, low reading ability, significant glare on the screen, or possibly having to view the screen from a seated position. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision or cognitive disability, and a low impact for all other users. It will help solve the problem of receiving and interpreting visual information.
Private headphone jacks for talking ATM: Voice instructions can be provided publicly, or privately through the use of headphones. Voice instructions can help guide the user through the transaction and provide information such as feedback on keypress entries and account balance (things that would typically be presented visually). This would allow a person who is blind to perform an ATM transaction independently, although it is likely that audio feedback would not be available for PIN entry for security reasons. This would probably be an inconvenience for the user but would not prevent use of the ATM. Implementation in design will have a high impact for people who are blind, a medium positive impact for users with low vision, and a neutral impact for other users. Choice of private audio will help solve the problem of not being able to receive auditory or visual information.
Mapping function keys to the keypad: This is a software feature that allows the function keys at the side of the ATM display to be mapped, or directed, down to the keyboard. This means that the user can perform the entire transaction from the keyboard, which minimizes the distance a user has to stretch to reach the keys. It also helps people who are blind by providing a more familiar key layout to use for input. Function key mapping will have a medium impact for people who are blind and people who have upper or lower mobility impairments, and a neutral impact for all others. It will help solve the problems of not being able to locate or identify controls and not being able to make inputs.
Raised tactile symbols: Raised tactile symbols help those with visual impairments, particularly if they are blind, distinguish keys that most people differentiate through a text label or graphic. In some cases, these symbols may include a Braille keypad, although Braille proficiency is not widespread. Other alternatives include protruding keytips, which enable the visually impaired to feel the edge of individual keys and so determine the end of one key and the start of another, and increased character size, to assist those with visual impairments. Implementation in design has a neutral impact for most users, but a medium impact for those who are vision impaired. It will help solve the problem of not being able to locate and identify controls.
Raised area (nib) on the "5" key: A nib is a raised area that helps users identify the location of the center of the keypad so they can then determine the position of the remaining keys. Given a standard telephone keypad layout with the addition of nonnumeric keys, the nib helps the user (particularly the user with a visual impairment) find the "5" key, from which the remaining numeric keys can be easily identified. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a neutral impact for other users. It will help solve the problem of not being able to locate and identify controls.
Keys on the keypad that are discernible by touch: Tactile separators typically provide either raised or indented spaces between controls to assist in tactile differentiation of numeric keys from other keys. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with upper mobility impairments, and a low impact for all others. It will help solve the problems of not being able to locate and identify controls and not being able to make accurate inputs.
Tactile feedback keypad: Tactile feedback results from the keys springing back to position once pressed, indicating that a key has been pressed and input accepted. Touchscreens, for example, do not have tactile feedback. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people who are blind, a medium positive impact for those with low vision, and a low impact for other users.
User-controllable playback speed: User-controllable speed allows the user to make adjustments to auditory output to meet information processing needs. Visual output tends to be available until the next selection is made, but auditory output is temporal, and user control allows review of information as needed. This is particularly beneficial to people who are blind and perhaps to some users with low vision or cognitive disabilities. Implementation in design will have a medium positive impact for people who are blind and a low impact for other users. It will help solve the problem of difficulty receiving auditory information.
User-controllable volume: Volume control allows the user to make adjustments to auditory output to meet sound level needs, particularly in noisy environments. This is particularly beneficial to the hard of hearing. Implementation in design will have a high positive impact for the hard of hearing and a low impact for other users. It will help solve the problem of difficulty receiving auditory information.
Visual alert: Visual alerts may be in the form of a change in text display or a light. They serve as an alternative or supplement to vibrating and auditory alerts. Visual indicators are particularly beneficial for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are deaf, a medium impact for those who are hard of hearing, and a low impact for all others. They will help solve the problem of not being able to receive auditory information.
Pause control for talking ATM: Pause control allows the user to pause the verbal output from the device. This is helpful to give one time to write something down or to think about what option might be desired. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind and a low impact for all other users. Pause control will help solve the problem of not being able to read text on the screen.
Replay control for talking ATM: Replay control allows the user to listen to a message more than once. This is helpful if the voice output was not understood or could not be heard over environmental sounds. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind or hard of hearing and a low impact for all other users. Replay control will help solve the problem of not being able to read text on the screen.
Voice recognition for talking ATM: Voice recognition allows a user to speak in his or her voice to make inputs to the device. This is particularly useful for those who cannot physically activate the controls or who cannot tactilely differentiate the controls to know, for example, which button to press. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind, a medium impact for users with low vision and upper mobility impairments, and a low impact for all others. Voice recognition will help solve the problems of not being able to locate, identify, and activate the controls.
ATM that can be controlled by a cell phone or PDA: External control of the ATM allows individuals to use their own personal accessible device to interact with an ATM that may not otherwise be accessible for a particular disability type. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment and a low impact for all other users. PDA or cell phone control will help solve the problems of not being able to read text on the screen or to locate, identify, and activate the controls.
Large keys for the keypad: Large keys on the keypad increase the ability to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have poor fine motor control and a low impact for all other users. It will help solve the problem of having difficulty making accurate inputs.
Large fonts on the display: Large fonts on the display increase the text size for circumstances in which small text is difficult to read. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision, a low impact for users who are blind, and a medium impact for all other users. It will help solve the problem of not being able to read text on the screen.
Large display screen: Large display screens reduce screen clutter and increase the space available for larger text and graphics. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for low-vision users and a low impact for all others. It will help solve the problem of not being able to read text on the screen.
High-contrast display: High contrast provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background colors so that the text stands out from the background, increasing readability. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. High contrast will help solve the problem of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to request additional time: Ability to request additional time allows the user to complete a transaction despite the need to use more than the normal amount of allotted time to complete individual transaction components. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for most users, depending on the output mode (visual or auditory) from the device. Additional time will help solve the problems of not being able to receive visual or auditory information, not being able to reach controls, and not being able to grasp objects.
Graphical instructions: When good metaphors are used and display resolution is sufficient, graphical instructions may be easier to see than text instructions, particularly if the font size for text is small. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who have low vision and a low impact for all other users. Graphical instructions will help solve the problem of not being able to read text on the screen.
Text equivalents for auditory information: Text equivalents are a means of providing redundant information so that someone who has difficulty with one sense (in this case, hearing) has an alternative method of obtaining the information being provided (in this case, through eyesight). Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are deaf or hard of hearing and a low impact for all other users. Text equivalents will help solve the problem of not being able to receive auditory information.
Detachable controls: Detachable controls provide the option for individuals to place the control panel in their laps, for example, limiting the amount of reach required to activate the control, increasing the ability to support the hand and arm, and possibly making the difference between being able to use the device or not. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with those with a lower mobility impairment or any user operating the ATM while seated in a wheelchair, and a low impact for all other users. Detachable controls will help solve the problem of not being able to reach the controls from a seated position.
More space between keys on the keypad: More space between the keys increases the ability to differentiate the keys by touch and to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. It will help solve the problem of having difficulty locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Concave keys on the keypads: Concave or curved-inward keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. This type of key also increases the ability to differentiate the keys from each other and from the surrounding area on the device. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Concave keys will help solve the problem of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Keys that can be operated without human contact: Some individuals use pointing devices or other mechanisms to help them reach or activate controls. Some devices require moisture content or heat (characteristics of touch) to activate the controls; these devices cannot be used by someone who needs to use an alternative input device. Controls that are operable without physical human contact will have a high impact for someone with an upper mobility impairment and a low impact for all other users.
Rubberized keys: Rubberized keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. Textured keys also help the user differentiate the key itself from the surface of the device, particularly if the keys are not raised sufficiently. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Rubberized keys will help solve the problem of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Additional features that may enhance accessibility include the following:
Type of card reader—swipe, dip, or motorized: These are typically accompanied by tactile indicators and flashing lights to assist in card insertion. People with different capabilities may benefit more from one type of reader than another. For example, a vertical card swipe may be difficult for someone with limited reach. It may be difficult for users without fine motor control to retrieve a fully inserted card (dip card reader) from the device. Users who are blind may have difficulty finding the card reader or determining the proper orientation of the card. Implementation of a certain style will have a high impact for users who are blind or have upper mobility impairments. Use of a motorized reader or a horizontal swipe with tactile cues will help solve the problem of having difficulty inserting the ATM card into the machine.
Customer telephone: This can be used to acquire human assistance if the customer has difficulties using the ATM. A customer telephone will have a low impact for all users. It can help solve the problems of not being able to receive visual information or not being able to locate and identify controls.
Digital video camera: This can be used in conjunction with the customer telephone to allow the customer service representative to see the customer's difficulty. A digital video camera will have a low impact for all users. This can help solve the problems of not being able to receive visual information or not being able to locate and identify controls.
Multilingual capability: Multilingual capabilities will help those who have difficulty operating the ATM because of unfamiliarity with the language. This will have a medium impact for users with cognitive disabilities. It may help solve the problem of not being able to interpret visual information.
LED indicator: LEDs provide a visual indication of status information, or they may provide guidance on what to select next or where to insert an object. They serve as an alternative or supplement to vibrating and auditory alerts. Visual indicators are particularly beneficial for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They will have a low impact for all other users, and will help solve the problem of not being able to receive auditory output.
User manuals in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind or have low vision and a neutral impact for other disability populations. It will help solve the problems of not being able to read or handle printed materials.
Compliance with Government Regulations
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to ATMs address self-contained, closed products (1194.25); functional performance requirements (1194.31); and documentation (1194.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another.
The following section 508 regulations are seen as issues for ATMs:
Verify that all controls and keys are tactilely discernible without activating the controls or keys. Some ATMs only use touchscreens, which are counter to this regulation.
Verify that at least one mode of operation and information retrieval is provided that does not require user vision or, alternatively, that support is provided for assistive technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired. The majority of ATM information is provided through a text display, which cannot be seen by a user who is blind.
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 must be provided through audio and enlarged print output working together or independently; otherwise, support for AT used by people who are visually impaired must be provided. ATMs do not always provide voice output and often use font sizes smaller than 14 points, which is inadequate for someone with low vision.
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require fine motor control or simultaneous actions and that is operable with limited reach and strength must be provided. ATMs are often mounted at a height that is difficult or impossible for people in a seated position to access. The level of the display and control panel varies from one ATM to the next, and some are better suited to individuals in wheelchairs than others.
Despite their popularity and their capabilities, cell phones are not accessible to everyone. There are limitations that make cell phones either inaccessible or difficult to use (and, therefore, possibly undesirable). People who have visual impairments may have the most difficulty reading the display and accessing visual information. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may have difficulty carrying on a verbal conversation and detecting auditory alerts. People with a mobility disability may have difficulty making accurate inputs and simultaneously handling the phone and manipulating the controls. People who have cognitive disabilities may have difficulty understanding metaphors that are used and remembering how to access information. Each of these problems can be overcome, to some extent, through proper design.
Digital cellular telephone service is growing rapidly in the United States because of the advantages it offers over older analog service. Digital service allows for more users, less expensive service, higher sound quality, more features, and better security. There are different types of digital cellular technology, including code-division multiple access (CDMA) and several varieties of time-division multiple access (TDMA), global system for multiple communications (GSM), and integrated digital enhanced network (iDen). The particular type of digital technology in use varies by service provider.
The introduction of digital cellular telephone service in the mid-1990s also introduced a new access barrier for people who wear hearing aids. Analog systems work fairly well with teletype devices (TTYs). Some phones have built in modular jacks into which a TTY can be plugged; other phones can be used with an adapter. Initially, digital systems did not work well with TTYs. Digital wireless transmissions inherently contain errors, but error correction techniques can reduce the problem for speech. Digital networks are less forgiving in the case of the tones generated by TTY devices, however, and the transmission errors can cause characters to be lost or changed, resulting in unintelligible messages.
When digital cellular telephones are in close proximity to hearing aids, interference may be heard through the hearing aid. The interference may be perceived as a buzzing, humming, or squealing inside the hearing aid. This interference does not occur with all combinations of telephone, hearing aid, and cellular service; but when it does occur, it can make use of the telephone annoying, difficult, or impossible. In general, older, larger hearing aids are more susceptible to interference than newer models. Studies have shown that a distance of one to two feet between the phone and the hearing aid will reduce or eliminate the interference in most cases.
The electromagnetic field surrounding the antenna of the telephone is the primary source of interference. Moving the antenna farther from the hearing aid may reduce or eliminate interference. The loudness of the interference also depends on the power of the transmission, which in turn varies with the distance from the telephone to the cellular base station. "Flip phone" designs may reduce interference by placing the antenna farther from the hearing aid and by shielding the hearing aid from the antenna. But the antenna is not the only source of interference; internal telephone electronics, such as the back light on the screen, can also cause interference.
Possible solutions from the cellular industry may include reducing the required transmission power by adding more base stations, improving antenna technology and shielding the telephone, and providing accessories such as neckloops that induce sound into the T-coil of hearing aids without requiring proximity of the telephone to the hearing aid.
Possible solutions from the hearing aid industry include increased shielding of hearing aids and modification of the circuitry and design of hearing aids to minimize interference.
Digital Cell Phone Compatibility with TTY
In 1996, the FCC issued a requirement that wireless carriers be capable of connecting 911 calls over a digital wireless network for callers using a TTY. The deadline for compliance was extended repeatedly as various wireless carriers worked to provide a solution.
Since September 1997, the TTY Forum (sponsored by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, or ATIS) has worked to develop technically feasible solutions that will enable TTY users to make TTY calls over digital wireless systems. The TTY Forum is composed of various stakeholders, including wireless carriers, wireless handset manufacturers, wireless infrastructure manufacturers, manufacturers of TTYs, 911 and telecommunications relay service providers, and consumer organizations representing people with hearing and speech disabilities.
In January 2000, Lucent Technologies announced a solution for TTY access using digital cellular telephones. The solution was developed by the Bell Labs Speech and Audio Processing Technologies group; it involves upgrading software in both the network and the handset. The software detects the TTY characters being sent and repeatedly transmits those characters to the receiving end, allowing the receiving end to correctly regenerate the tones corresponding to the characters.
At its meeting on June 4, 2002, the TTY Forum announced that many wireless service providers were prepared to meet the FCC's June 30, 2002, deadline for TTY compatibility, and that testing had shown that digital wireless TTY consistently performed better than TTY over analog circuits. To enable the TTY calls over digital voice channels, digital wireless handsets and networks had to be redesigned to accommodate the speed and tone of TTY Baudot signals. Numerous problems had to be overcome, including setting standards for the interface between TTY devices and digital wireless mobile phones operating with several different digital standards.
However, while wireless TTY compatibility services work well for nonemergency communication, at the time of the announcement there were some remaining issues for emergency situations. Wireless 911 TTY calls may suffer high character error rates when received by some public service answering points (PSAPs). Test results from the ATIS-sponsored TTY Technical Standards Implementation Incubator show that the problem encountered may be related to older and nonstandardized TTY equipment or software used by some PSAPs. The wireless telecommunications industry performed due diligence to ensure that the digital network would be capable of transmitting TTY calls by the June 30, 2002, deadline and was committed to continue to work to provide access to 911 for its customers using TTYs. There is some indication that wireless networks now support digital TTY with compatible phones, but this cannot be verified since it is illegal to test 911 services. A number of carriers petitioned the FCC for an extension to the 911 requirements.
Hearing Aid Compatibility with Cellular Telephones
The Hearing Aid Compatibility Act of 1988 (HAC Act) required the FCC to ensure that all telephones manufactured or imported for use in the United States after August 1989, and all "essential" telephones, were hearing aid compatible. Secure telephones and mobile telephones were exempt from the HAC Act, however.
In November 2001, the FCC released a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to reexamine the exemption of mobile phones from the requirements of the HAC Act. On August 14, 2003, the FCC released a Report and Order modifying the exemption for wireless phones under the HAC Act to require that digital wireless phones be capable of being used effectively with hearing aids.
The FCC ruling requires digital wireless phone manufacturers to make available within two years at least two HAC-compliant handsets with reduced radio frequency (RF) emissions for each air interface (e.g., CDMA, TDMA, GSM) they offer. It also requires each carrier providing digital wireless services, except for nationwide (Tier I) wireless carriers, to make available to consumers within two years at least two HAC-compliant handset models with reduced RF emissions for each air interface it offers.
Nationwide (Tier I) wireless carriers must offer within two years two HAC-compliant handset models with reduced RF emissions for each air interface they employ or ensure that one quarter of their total handset models are HAC-compliant with reduced RF emissions within two years, whichever option yields a greater number of handsets.
Digital wireless phone manufacturers must make available to carriers within three years at least two HAC-compliant models with telecoil coupling for each air interface they produce, and each carrier providing digital wireless access must make available to consumers within three years at least two HAC-compliant handset models with telecoil coupling for each air interface it offers.
Further, one-half of all digital wireless phone models offered by a digital wireless manufacturer or carrier must be compliant with the reduced RF emissions requirements by February 18, 2008. Manufacturers must label packages containing compliant handsets and must make information available in the package or product manual. Service providers must make available to consumers the performance ratings of compliant phones.
In addition, the FCC established an exemption for digital wireless manufacturers and carriers that offer a minimal number of handset models. The FCC encourages digital wireless phone manufacturers and service providers to offer at least one compliant handset that is a lower-priced model and one that has higher-end features, and encourages hearing aid manufacturers to label their precustomization products according to the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard.
On September 5, 2003, ATIS established the ATIS Hearing Aid Compatibility Incubator. The ATIS HAC incubator consists of a diverse mix of wireless service providers, wireless manufacturers, hearing aid manufacturers, and other parties. The mission of the HAC incubator is to investigate performance between hearing aids and wireless devices to determine methods of enhancing interoperability and usability for consumers with hearing aids.
On October 1, 2003, DAMAX, a manufacturer of cellular telephone antennas, announced a line of directional antennas that show promise for improving the hearing aid compatibility of existing handsets.
The core functionality considered necessary to effectively use a cell phone consists of the following:
Locating the cell phone
Identifying the current state of the phone: on or off
Turning the phone on and off
Locking the phone
Unlocking the phone
Dialing numbers on the keypad
Storing a phone number
Recalling a stored phone number
Receiving a phone call
Receiving caller-ID information
Accessing voice mail
Attaching a headset
Using a headset
Determining battery status
Determining signal strength
Detecting when the phone is in roam mode
Receiving a text message
Sending a text message
Charging the phone
Additional functionality that is typically inherent in cell phone design includes the following:
Using a calculator
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, and the design of the phone. Accessibility issues for each disability population were identified, along with an impact rating for each issue. The disability populations include people who have an impairment resulting from environmental or situational factors. The issues identified and impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various cell phone manufacturers' marketing data produced a number of features identified as accessible design components. Each of these components is listed, along with a description of the component and an assessment of the usefulness of the feature for disability groups. Some of these features may have been designed with a particular disability population in mind; others may have been designed simply as desirable features. In many cases, the accessibility features benefit or are used by a variety of people, and they may be considered indicative of universal access.
Loopset for hearing aids: A loopset is an accessory that increases clarity and reduces background noise when translating from sound over the telephone line to a hearing aid device. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are hard of hearing and who use T-coil equipped hearing aids and will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive verbal information. Availability of loopsets will have no impact for other disability populations.
Voice dialing: Voice dialing provides users with the option to speak the name of the person they want to call rather than using numeric dialing or accessing a name from the directory. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people who are blind and a medium positive impact for users with low vision and upper mobility impairments. It will have a low impact for other disability groups. All users (except perhaps the speech impaired) may find the feature useful. Although voice dialing is not likely to increase accessibility under general circumstances, it will in some situational contexts in which the user's hands are unavailable. This is an example of a feature that is nearly universally usable, but it should not replace traditional dialing methods; voice dialing may be problematic for people without speech, people with laryngitis, or in noisy environments. Voice dialing will help resolve the issues of not being able to locate or identify controls and not being able to make accurate inputs.
Adjustable contrast: Adjustable contrast provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background colors on the display screen to increase clarity and readability. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. Adjustable contrast will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Roller key: The roller key provides an alternative to successive button presses, allowing the user to slide the thumb or finger over a roller in order to scroll through contents on a screen. This is an example of a feature that is nearly universally usable, but it should not replace traditional navigation methods. Inclusion in design will have a low impact for all disability groups.
User manual in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision and a neutral impact for other disability populations. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to read or handle printed materials.
One-touch dialing: One-touch dialing provides the option to map phonebook entries to numeric keys. Once programmed, the key can be pressed for an extended period of time to dial the phone number rather than dialing in full or navigating through the phonebook. This is a desirable feature for all people, regardless of disability. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people with upper mobility impairments (if they can sustain the key press) and visual impairments and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of locating or identifying controls and making accurate inputs.
Customized ring tones/alerts: Ring-tone options provide the user with a choice regarding the ring sound that is heard when there is an incoming call. In some cases, the phone can be set to ring differently for different callers. Customized alerts provide the user with a choice of the sound or tone that is heard when different alerts (e.g., reminders) are triggered. This user profiling is particularly useful for individuals who are blind who may not otherwise be able to determine the source of an incoming call, and inclusion in design will have a medium-high positive impact. Certain ring tones may be more perceptible than others for the hard of hearing, and inclusion of ring-tone options in design will have a medium impact for this group and will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive acoustic alerts and signals. While inclusion for other disability groups does not affect accessibility, ring-tone options are a highly desirable feature. Different ring tones also help users distinguish their own cell phone ring from someone else's.
Text-based functionality: Similar to sending email, text messaging via cell phone provides a mobile communication mechanism and has become highly popular. It allows individuals to communicate in noisy environments and when verbal conversations are inappropriate. It is particularly beneficial for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, who may not be able to hold a verbal conversation. Cell phones with text messaging and dedicated text messaging devices are very popular among users who are hearing impaired. However, text messaging is a somewhat slower communication method, and it is difficult to share and perceive emotion accurately from text messaging. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and low impact for other population groups. Text messaging will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information by providing a viable alternative.
Vibrating alerts and visual indicators: Vibrating alerts are an alternative to auditory alerts. Vibrating alerts are valuable for all users in various situational contexts, such as a business meeting; but they really enhance accessibility for people who are hard of hearing and deaf, who may not otherwise be able to detect an incoming call. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are deaf, a medium impact for users who are hard of hearing, and a low impact for all other users. Vibrating alerts will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information. Visual indicators may be in the form of a change in text display or a light. They serve as an alternative or supplement to vibrating and auditory alerts. Visual indicators are particularly beneficial for people who are deaf or hard of hearing . Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are deaf, a medium impact for those who are hard of hearing, and a low impact for all others. Visual indicators will also help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Cradle that attaches to mobility aid: A mobile holder is a mounting mechanism that can be attached to a wheelchair or other mobility aid or installed in a car to provide a consistent, secure place to store the cell phone. It also facilitates one-handed dialing by eliminating the need to simultaneously hold the phone and manipulate the controls. Mobile holders are particularly useful for people with upper mobility impairments. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for this group and a low impact for other groups, and it will help resolve the issue of not being able to lift and hold the device.
Raised area (nib) on the "5" key: A nib is a raised area that helps users identify the location of the center of the keypad so they can then determine the position of the remaining keys. Given a standard telephone keypad layout with the addition of nonnumeric keys, the nib helps the user (particularly the user with a visual impairment) find the "5" key, from which the remaining numeric keys can be easily identified. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to locate and identify controls.
Keypress feedback: Tactile feedback results from the keys springing back to position once pressed, and it is typically accompanied by a clicking sound. Both feedbacks are indicators that the key has been pressed and input accepted. Touchscreens lack both tactile and tonal feedback. Inclusion of keypress feedback in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a low impact for other users.
TTY compatibility: A TTY is a small device with a keyboard that allows the user to type input rather than speak. This is then transmitted to the person on the other end of the line, who must also have a TTY device or use a relay service to translate from text to voice. Inclusion of TTY compatibility in design will have a high impact for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and a neutral impact for other users. It will help solve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information. Text messaging is a good alternative to TTY if all parties have access to it.
Voice tag for menu navigation: Voice tags are spoken commands that can be used to bypass keypress inputs to control the phone. Voice tag use is quite common, though it is most beneficial for those with vision and mobility impairments who might otherwise not be able to make accurate inputs. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for these groups and a low impact for all others. It will resolve the issues of not being able to locate and identify controls, not being able to receive visual information, difficulty with inputting information, and difficulty finding desired features.
Zoom display: A zoom display provides the option to increase the text size, reducing the number of lines of text available at any given time. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users with low vision and a low impact for others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Brightly backlit display: Backlighting provides the option to adjust the screen lighting to accommodate low-light conditions. This is useful for all individuals in some contexts and is useful for users with low vision in a wider variety of conditions. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users with low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Adjustable volume: Volume control is important for both auditory alerts and conversation. It is particularly important for hard-of-hearing people, but it is useful for all. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for hard-of-hearing people and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Icon/graphic menu: Pictorial representations as text alternatives generally allow for more information to be presented on a single screen. They are particularly useful for people who might have a reading impairment. They also provide the opportunity to declutter the screen, which is useful for users who have low vision or cognitive disabilities (if good metaphors are used). Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users with low vision and users with cognitive disabilities (unless implemented with poor metaphors, in which case it may have a negative impact for users with cognitive disabilities). This will help resolve the accessibility issue of difficulty interpreting textual information.
Audio cue capability: Audio alerts are typically used to identify conditions such as a low battery. They are most useful for those with vision impairments and others in low-light conditions. Other people enjoy auditory displays and will use them, though they do not enhance their accessibility. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision or upper mobility and cognitive disabilities, and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
External audio output (via headset): External audio output allows the user to carry on a conversation without needing to hold the phone. Amplified headsets enhance the sound output to increase the clarity of the information. Amplification is not strictly volume level, but more an intensity of different signals. Headsets help to concentrate the sound at the ear while blocking out some environmental noises. External audio is particularly useful for people who have upper mobility disabilities; if implemented in design, it will have a high impact. If the headset is amplified, it will have a high impact for hard-of-hearing users and will help resolve the issue of not being able to understand speech information. It will have a low impact for other users.
Keys on the keypad that are discernible by touch: Tactile separators typically provide either raised or indented spaces between controls to assist in tactile differentiation of numeric keys from other keys. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with upper mobility impairments, and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to locate and identify controls and not being able to make accurate inputs.
Voiced menu options: Voiced menu options provide verbal output of the different menu screens, allowing the user to make appropriate inputs without having to see the display. This greatly increases the number of features that benefit a visually impaired user, in particular. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision, a medium impact for those with upper mobility impairments, and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to read text on the screen or to locate and identify controls.
Screen magnifiers: Screen magnifiers increase the size of the text on the display. Inclusion in the design will have a high impact for those who have low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Larger keys on the keypad: Larger keys on the keypad increase the ability to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have poor fine motor control and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty making accurate inputs.
More space between keys on the keypad: More space between the keys increases the ability to differentiate the keys by touch and to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Talking battery-level indicators: Talking battery-level indicators provide users who cannot see the screen with necessary information about the need to charge the phone. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind and have low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read the display.
Talking signal-strength indicators: Talking signal-strength indicators provide users who cannot see the screen with necessary information about the availability of coverage to successfully make and receive calls. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind and have low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read the display.
Talking caller-ID: Talking caller-ID provides users, particularly those with visual impairments, with information about an incoming call. Caller-ID allows users to identify the caller before answering the phone, permitting the user to decide not to answer without worrying about missing an important call. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Large fonts on the display: Large fonts increase the text size on the display. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision, a low impact for users who are blind, and a medium impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Large display screens: Large display screens reduce screen clutter and increase the space available for larger text and graphics. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for low vision users and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Simplified connector for power: Simplified connectors for power allow the user to use a single hand with minimal pinching or grasping to connect the power cord to the device. Simplified connectors are not limited to insertion in a single orientation. Inclusion in design with have a medium impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users.
Simplified connector for headsets: Simplified connectors for headsets allow the user to use a single hand with minimal pinching or grasping to connect the headset cord to the device. Simplified connectors are not limited to insertion in a single orientation. Inclusion in design with have a medium impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users.
Hearing aid compatibility: Hearing aid compatibility includes both the ability for someone using a hearing aid to use the cell phone without interference and the ability to be in proximity of someone else using a cell phone without experiencing interference. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are hard of hearing and a low impact for all others. Hearing aid compatibility will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Concave keys on the keypads: Concave or inwardly curved keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. This type of key also increases the ability to differentiate the keys from each other and from the surrounding area on the device. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Concave keys will help resolve the issue of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Rubberized keys: Rubberized keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. Textured keys also help the user differentiate the key itself from the surface of the device, particularly if the keys are not raised sufficiently. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Rubberized keys will help resolve the issues of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Speakerphone: A speakerphone allows the user to carry on a conversation without needing to hold the phone. This is particularly useful for people who have upper mobility disabilities; if implemented in design, it will have a high impact. It will have a low impact for other users. A speakerphone will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Additional features that may enhance accessibility are described in this discussion of an accessible phone: http://www.trace.wisc.edu/docs/phones/tcrd1/summary/index.htm. These features include:
Key shape: Keys can be shaped to be associated with their function. This can help someone relying on the tactile sense to better differentiate keys and may help those with cognitive disabilities to learn the appropriate use of various controls. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for people who are blind, a medium impact for people who have cognitive disabilities, and a low impact for all others.
Help request key: A help request key allows the user to press a designated key and then press another key to get information (verbal output), such as the status of a function or the function name for the selected key. Implementation in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind and a neutral impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to locate and identify controls or not being able to receive visual information.
Key confirmation: Key confirmation provides feedback about the selected option before activation of the control. It then requires the user to confirm the selection to implement activation. Key confirmation helps to prevent accidental activation, which is especially common for those who are blind or have upper mobility impairments. Implementation in design will have a medium impact for both of these groups and a neutral impact for others. (If key confirmation is not optional, it might have a negative impact for other users by slowing their transactions.) It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty locating controls and making accurate inputs.
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to cell phones address telecommunications (1194.23), self-contained closed products (1194.25), functional performance requirements (1194.31), and documentation (1194.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another.
The following section 508 regulations are seen as issues for cell phones:
TTY compatibility.
Verify that all controls and keys are tactilely discernible without activating the controls or keys. Many of the keys on cell phones do not have adequate tactile separators or a sufficient nib on the "5" key to facilitate tactile differentiation.
The status of all locking or toggle controls or keys must be visually discernible and discernible either through touch or sound. The status of the phone when it is locked is available only visually.
When products provide auditory output, the audio signal must be provided at a standard signal level through an industry standard connector that will allow for private listening. Some cell phones use proprietary connectors
Verify that at least one mode of operation and information retrieval is provided that does not require user vision or, alternatively, that support is provided for assistive technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired. The majority of information is provided through a text display on the cell phone, which cannot be seen by a user who is blind
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 must be provided in audio and enlarged print output, working together or independently, or support for AT used by people who are visually impaired must be provided. Cell phones do not provide voice output, and they typically do not use more than a 10-point font, which is inadequate for someone with low vision.
Where audio information is important for the use of a product, at least one mode of operation and information retrieval shall be provided in an enhanced auditory fashion, or support for assistive hearing devices must be provided. While many cell phones are designated as hearing aid compatible and loopsets are available for some phones, they do not work for all people with hearing aids. Some cell phones also provide insufficient volume control to assist those with hearing impairments.
Distance learning is an excellent option for people with limited mobility or restricted schedules and those not near an educational provider. There are some human limitations, however, that make distance learning either inaccessible or difficult to use. People who have visual impairments may have difficulty accessing visual information and making accurate inputs. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may have difficulty accessing auditory information. People who have a mobility disability may have difficulty making accurate inputs and responding quickly enough to prompts. People who have cognitive disabilities may have difficulty understanding the language and responding quickly enough to prompts. Each of these challenges can be overcome, to some extent, through proper design (Tabs, 2003).
Streaming media are audio and video distributed in real time over the Internet. "Streaming" means the file can be viewed and heard before it is fully downloaded. An initial portion of the file is downloaded, or buffered, and begins playing, while the remainder of the file arrives in a continuous stream. Streaming media often refers not only to media distributed in real time, but to any media downloaded from the Internet.
In general, two sets of users will benefit most from streaming video that is accessible: people who are deaf or hard of hearing, and those who are blind or have low vision. People who are deaf or hard of hearing rely on captions to understand the audio content. People who are blind or have low vision rely on an audio description of the video content. However, as with all universal design, everyone benefits when streaming media is made accessible, even the provider of the streaming media. For example, captions can be made searchable, allowing for a much more elaborate video clip search and retrieval system. Captions also make streaming media more accessible for individuals who do not speak English, those for whom English is their second language, and those for whom printed English is more accessible than spoken English. Captions have also been shown to consistently improve reading retention of presented material.
There are two main pieces of legislation that dictate accessibility of streaming media. The most obvious is the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, which requires that all public programs and services be accessible to people with disabilities. The second and most relevant piece of legislation is section 508, which was signed into law in August 1998 and became effective in June 2001. Section 508 requires that E&IT used by the Federal Government be accessible by people with disabilities and that accessibility must be comparable to that provided to the public without disabilities.
The provision of captioning for Internet video streams is still in its infancy when compared to the captioning of television programming. In some ways, captioning video streams is a more challenging problem because of the number of different video formats that must be considered. There is not at present any single, predominant standard for the captioning of Internet video streams. Several similar but distinct techniques are used; the techniques that are available depend on the format of the video stream. Three major formats are Apple's Quicktime, Microsoft's Windows Media, and Real's RealPlayer. Each format has software bugs and some level of unreliability with respect to captioning.
Windows Media
Windows Media Player adds captions using Microsoft's Synchronized Accessible Media Interchange (SAMI). SAMI is an extensible markup language (XML) based text language. SAMI files contain the actual captions, as well as information about when and how the captions should display. SAMI is structured very similarly to hypertext markup language (HTML), and many HTML formatting tags are allowed in SAMI. Broadly speaking, SAMI files consist of caption text with tags specifying the appearance of the text and time tags that control when each caption should be displayed (in terms of elapsed milliseconds from the start of the media file). SAMI files can be created in any text editor, though using a captioning program such as MAGpie to enter caption times simplifies the process.
There are two ways of adding captions to a media file. If the media file is embedded in a Web page (a practice that is not recommended for accessibility), code can be added to the Web page to display the captions along with the video. The recommended method involves creating a third file, called an active streaming XML (ASX) file. The ASX file is a pointer file that contains details about the media presentation and tells Windows Media Player which files (media and captions) to retrieve and play.
RealPlayer uses the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL), developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), to choreograph the presentation of video and captions. SMIL is written as an XML application.
To caption a RealPlayer file, a RealText file containing caption text, timing, and formatting information is created. The RealText file can be created in any text editor, but using a captioning program such as MAGpie to enter caption times simplifies the process. Next, an SMIL file must be created that links the video (RealPlayer) file and the caption (RealText) file, and creates the screen regions in which the video and caption files will be played. Links to the SMIL files must be provided in the form of real audio movie (RAM) files. The link points to the RAM file, which in turn points to the SMIL file, which in turn points to the RealPlayer and RealText files. The video file can also be embedded in a Web page, but this practice is not recommended because of the accessibility problems it creates.
There are two methods for captioning Quicktime movies. The first involves creating a Quicktime text track and making it a part of the Quicktime movie. The result is a single file that contains audio, video, and captions. Quicktime Pro is required for this method. The second method involves creating a text track movie as a separate file, which is then synchronized with the movie with SMIL (as described above for RealPlayer).
In either case, a caption file must be created. This file can be created using any text editor or by using MAGpie. In the first method, Quicktime Pro is used to convert the caption file to a text track and merge it with the video file. In the second method, a separate SMIL file is created. There are a number of ways to access captioned Quicktime movies. If the captions are embedded in the movie, a direct link to the movie can be provided. Quicktime movies (or SMIL files) can be embedded into Web pages; this is an accessible option for Quicktime, because there is an option to make the control bar visible on the screen. Code can also be included in a Web page that will open a Quicktime movie or SMIL presentation in the Quicktime player.
The core functionality considered to be necessary to effectively use distance learning programs consists of the following:
Logging in to the system
Obtaining content—text, auditory, visual (graphics, videos)
Reading email messages
Using Instant Messaging software
Reading documents in Microsoft Word format
Reading documents in Adobe PDF format
Viewing presentations in Microsoft PowerPoint format
Using chat software
Additional functionality that is typically inherent in distance learning design includes the following:
Participating in audio or video conferencing
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, and the design of the system being used. Accessibility issues for each disability population were identified, along with an impact rating for each issue. The issues identified and the impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various distance learning providers' marketing data produced features identified as accessible design components. Each of these components is listed, along with a description of the component and an assessment of the usefulness of the feature for disability groups. Some of these features may have been designed with a particular disability population in mind; others may have been designed simply as desirable features. In many cases, the accessibility features benefit or are used by a variety of people, and they may be considered to provide universal access. Each of the accessibility features listed below is a function of the distance learning software as well as the content developed by an administrative user of the software. Each of the features has the capability to be implemented in distance learning if the content developers include it in the course materials. Distance learning vendors provide guidance for course developers that addresses many of these issues.
Use of alt tags: Alt tags provided with images allow screen reader users to obtain information about the images that are present on the page. Without alt tags, a blind person using a screen reader may know only that an image is present but will have no idea what it represents. In addition, alt tags can be used as a means to ignore images that exist for aesthetic reasons and do not provide important information by providing blank or null alt text for the image, which simplifies the process of obtaining information through a screen reader. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issue of being unable to receive important visual information, and in some cases, of having difficulty interpreting visual information.
Synchronized multimedia: Multimedia can consist of text, video, audio, and other content. Sometimes multiple sensory outputs are provided but not directly in parallel, which can be confusing for the individual performing multiple sensory processing. Multimedia should be synchronized with the material, or there should be linked multimedia files containing synchronized equivalent alternatives to assist those who may benefit from redundant information sources. Synchronized multimedia will have a medium impact on most users.
All information conveyed with color is also available without color: Color is a very good tool for grouping controls or identifying important information, as long as the viewer can see and differentiate color. Color provides a means to create contrast, code objects, and provide meaning without words. However, some people with visual impairments cannot benefit from the use of color, and the meaning may be lost to some people with cognitive disabilities. Therefore, while color is useful and should be used, it should not be the only means to differentiate objects, provide structure, or present useful information. Anything represented with color should also be available without color. Following this guideline in design will have a high impact for users who are blind or have low vision, a medium impact for users with cognitive difficulties, and a low impact for other users. Ensuring that no information is conveyed with color alone will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive important visual information and not being able to interpret some visual information.
Documents are organized so they are readable without requiring an associated style sheet: When documents require style sheets, individuals may not be able to control the appearance (font size, etc.) of the information on the page or to use their own customized style sheet. This may create problems for those who use screen readers. Implementing pages that are readable without style sheets will have a high impact for those with visual impairments. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Only client-side image maps are used (or, redundant text links are provided for each active region of a server-side image map): Client-side image maps make information available to people browsing with nongraphical user agents and offer immediate feedback as to whether or not the pointer is over an active region. Implementation of only client-side image maps in design will have a high impact for users who are blind and a medium impact for those with low vision. There will be a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Row and column headers are provided for data tables in order to take advantage of newer screen reader capabilities to process this additional information: Tables that are not constructed in an organized fashion with headers to describe the row and column contents are very difficult to interpret for someone relying on a screen reader. Headers can help the individual determine the organization of the information being presented. This facilitates navigation through the table and comprehension of the information contained in the table. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a neutral impact for all others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Framesets are titled to facilitate identification and navigation: Frame titles let users know, for example, whether they are in the navigation frame or the content frame. Providing titles helps a person using a screen reader distinguish the organization of the information and facilitates navigation. Implementation in design will have a high impact for people who are blind and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Pages are designed to avoid causing the screen to flicker with a frequency greater than 2 Hz and lower than 55 Hz:Some flicker frequencies can induce visual seizures. Flicker is most often an issue for animations, and pages should be designed so that only appropriate animations are used. Moving content can cause difficulty for people with low vision and cognitive disabilities, particularly if they must react at the same speed to click an object, for example. In addition, screen readers cannot read moving text. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are susceptible to visual seizures; a medium impact for those who have low vision, cognitive disabilities, or upper mobility impairments; and a low impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information, having difficulty interpreting visual information, and having difficulty making inputs, particularly when there is a time constraint.
Dynamic scripting is not used for content presentation: Dynamic scripting can be problematic for screen readers, sometimes providing an inaccurate description of the page content and preventing the user from receiving the same information that can be obtained visually. Implementation in design will have a high impact for users with no vision, a medium impact for users with low vision, and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Plug-ins are supported as embedded content or as automatically launched files: Some plug-ins that require interaction will only work with mouse input, which excludes a large number of users. Appropriately applied plug-ins implemented in design will have a high impact for those who are blind or have upper mobility impairments, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a neutral impact for the remainder of users. They will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information and make appropriate inputs.
Form labels are placed next to the form input elements that are referenced, including input boxes and radio buttons:This allows screen reader users to appropriately associate labels with the form elements. A user should be able to fill out the form with either keyboard or mouse input. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who have visual or cognitive disabilities and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and of having difficulty interpreting visual information.
For navigation links located in the body of the main content page, code exists to allow screen readers to detect and skip the navigation links: When navigation links are in the main content page, they are read each time the page is accessed. This can be very time-consuming and unnecessary for someone using a screen reader to find or review a part of the page. Providing a means for the user to skip over the navigation links allows the user to read through the page and get to the needed information more easily and quickly. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind and a medium impact for those with low vision. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Session timeout settings can be modified by the system administrator to allow for more time, if necessary: Some systems require an input within a certain amount of time before they end the session; this provides security and helps free up access to others. However, some people cannot respond in appropriate time limits because they are using a screen reader, which takes longer than expected to process the page; they themselves are slow to process the page content; or they have difficulty with fine motor control and making appropriate inputs. If time-dependent settings can be controlled as needed for individuals, it will have a high impact for those who are blind or have cognitive disabilities or upper mobility impairments. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and having difficulty making inputs.
Online help documentation is provided describing layout, context, functionality of each feature, and instructions for using the features: Some systems may use functionality that is atypical or not intuitive, particularly for those who cannot visually explore the contents. Implementation of online help documentation will have a medium impact for those with visual or cognitive disabilities and a low impact for all other users.
Additional features we feel would make a distance learning program accessible include the following:
Screen reader compatibility: Screen readers allow users to obtain information without visually perceiving it. Visual information is translated into auditory output that is read to the user. The most common users of screen reading technology are those who are blind or have low vision. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a neutral impact for all others. Screen reading compatibility will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Printed materials available in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. They mostly benefit users with visual impairments, providing a high impact for that user group. Distribution of documents in an accessible electronic format that is convertible is often preferred. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Uncluttered pages, pages that are well organized, and pages that don't have backgrounds that interfere with processing foreground information: Pages with a lot of information, colors, patterns, and movement can be very difficult for some people to process. Avoiding these things in design will have a medium impact on those with low vision and cognitive disabilities. It will help resolve the issues of having difficulty receiving and interpreting visual information and having difficulty finding desired features.
Consistent layouts from page to page: Information that is organized in a similar fashion from one page to the next helps the user to quickly find items of interest. Implementation in design will have a medium impact for those who have a cognitive disability and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of having difficulty receiving and interpreting visual information and having difficulty finding desired features.
Closed-captioned video: Videos, audio clips, and live presentations naturally have audio output, but they do not readily have comparable visual output available. Graphics and text to describe the audio information, particularly direct transcriptions, can greatly enhance the accessibility of this information for those with hearing impairments, having a high impact for this population of users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
A text-only page, with equivalent information or functionality, should be provided when accessibility cannot be achieved in any other way: The content of the text-only page should be updated whenever the primary page changes. This will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a low impact for other users. It will help solve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
User manuals in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Inclusion in design will have a high positive impact for users who are blind or have low vision, possibly the same for those with hearing impairments (depending on the original format), and no impact for other disability populations. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual (and possibly auditory) information.
Screen magnifier compatibility: A screen magnifier increases the size of the display and button labels to enhance the readability for those with low vision. It is an alternative, particularly if adjustable screen resolution and font size are unavailable. Implementation in design will have a medium impact for those with low vision and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and not being able to locate and identify controls.
Adjustable font sizes: Small fonts are very difficult to read for users with low vision, who typically need to squint or use a magnifying glass to read them. They are also more difficult to read under low-light conditions and when users are fatigued. Implementation in design of adjustable font sizes will have a high impact on users with low vision and, with the exception of people who are blind, a low impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Adjustable contrast: Adjustable contrast provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background colors to increase clarity. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. Adjustable contrast will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Graphics that are described in detail: Graphics may be impossible to see for a person who is blind, difficult to see and interpret for those who have low vision, and difficult to understand for those who do not learn well from pictures. Inclusion of detailed descriptions will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision, and a low to medium impact for all other users. Described graphics will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Video that is described in detail: Video may be impossible to see for a person who is blind and difficult to see for those who have low vision or are limited to small video screens with insufficient resolution. Inclusion of detailed descriptions will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision, and a low impact for all other users. Described video will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Adjustable volume: Volume control is important for auditory information and alerts. This is particularly important for hard-of-hearing people, but it is useful for all. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for hard-of-hearing people and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Ability to request additional time: Ability to request additional time allows the user to be able to complete a transaction despite the need to use more than the normal amount of allotted time to complete individual transaction components. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for most users, depending on the output mode (visual or auditory) from the device. Additional time will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual or auditory information and having difficulty with control inputs.
Voice recognition: Voice recognition allows the user to provide inputs verbally rather than through mechanical keypresses. Voice recognition is particularly useful for those who cannot see to make the correct inputs or cannot reach or have difficulty activating mechanical controls. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those who have low vision or an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of having difficulty entering/inputting information, difficulty making accurate inputs, difficulty lifting and holding the device, and possibly difficulty finding desired features and interpreting visual information.
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to distance learning address software applications and operating systems (1194.21), Web-based Intranet and Internet information and applications (1194.22), video and multimedia products (1194.24), functional performance requirements (1191.31), and documentation (1191.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another.
The following section 508 regulations are seen as issues for distance learning:
Sufficient information about a user interface element, including the identity, operation, and state of the element, must be available to assistive technology. When an image represents a program element, the information conveyed by the image must also be available in text. The creators of distance learning content do not always provide text equivalents for graphical information. Some features of the software interface are not recognized by screen readers.
A text equivalent for every nontext element must be provided (e.g., via "alt," "longdesc," or in-element content). The creators of distance learning content do not always provide text equivalents for graphical information.
Equivalent alternatives for any multimedia presentation must be synchronized with the presentation. Equivalent alternatives are often not provided and are typically not synched when they are available.
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval must be provided that does not require user vision or, alternatively, that support for assistive technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired is provided. Much content is provided in a graphical fashion that cannot be seen by those with visual limitations and that cannot be read by a screen reader.
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user hearing must be provided, or support for AT used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing must be provided. Distance learning content is often provided in an auditory fashion without closed-captioning or text to accompany the output.
Despite their popularity and their capabilities, PDAs are not accessible to everyone. There are some human limitations that make PDAs either inaccessible or difficult to use (and therefore perhaps undesirable). People who have visual impairments may have difficulty accessing visual information and providing accurate inputs. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may have difficulty detecting auditory alerts. People who have a mobility disability may have difficulty simultaneously handling the PDA and manipulating the controls. People who have cognitive disabilities may have difficulty understanding metaphors and jargon and remembering how to access information. Each of these challenges can be overcome, to some extent, through proper design.
Personal digital assistants are popular for both personal and business use. There are thousands of applications available for PDAs, many of them free, that support a wide range of activities. PDAs have the potential to provide benefits to individuals with disabilities, but they are not currently accessible to all users. Users generally interact with PDAs by use of a small stylus for input and a small screen for output, producing barriers for users with visual or mobility impairments in particular.
Text Input and Output
To assist people who are unable to use the stylus, nearly all PDAs support the attachment of various types of keyboards, including those that support one-handed typing such as the halfkeyboard.
The AlphaPad is a software application for PalmOS and Window CE that uses a 12-key keyboard along with word prediction software. The keyboard is displayed on a touchscreen, so fine motor control is necessary, but it could be useful for low-mobility users. Thumbscript is another text-entry system that uses gestures on a nine-button grid to produce characters. It is compatible with any device having eight actuation points arranged radially around a center and may be useful for users with mobility impairments. There are a number of other variations on stylus-based text entry, as well.
Several products provide some degree of voice interaction with PDAs. IBM has released a version of its ViaVoice application for Pocket PCs. This application serves as a text-to-speech screen reader and also allows user input utilizing a limited command vocabulary. ScanSoft's Dragon PDsay provides similar functionality for Pocket PCs. Both of these products are command-based and don't support dictation or application-specific functionality beyond a basic core set of popular applications.
TealMagnify is a screen magnifier for PalmOS that may be of use to people with visual impairments, although it requires users to touch a button on the PDA to activate it and apparently produces rather pixilated results.
For users with low vision, many PDAs are now available with bright color displays. Palm claims that some (but not all) of its color models provide a variety of color and contrast adjustments for users with visual impairments, and there are a number of third-party applications that allow customization of display colors. Pocket PCs apparently can also be modified to provide a higher contrast color scheme.
PDAs Designed Specifically for Users with Disabilities
Enkidu makes a line of portable communication devices known as the IMPACT family that is designed specifically for users with various disabilities. These devices provide speech output and support input via touchscreen, integrated buttons, keyboard, or external switches.
The core functionality considered to be necessary to effectively use a PDA consists of the following:
Locating the PDA
Turning the PDA on and off
Storing an appointment
Recalling an appointment
Viewing the calendar
Using the calculator
Making and retrieving a memo or notes
Storing contact information
Recalling contact information
Reading/composing/sending email
Making and retrieving a TO DO list entry
Syncing with a computer
Adjusting screen contrast
Adjusting font sizes
Receiving an alert
Detecting battery status
Charging or replacing batteries
Installing software
Additional functionality that is typically inherent in PDA design includes the following:
Tracking expenses
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, and the design of the PDA. Accessibility issues for each disability population were identified (taken in part from www.techdis.ac.uk/PDA/front.htm), along with an impact rating for each issue. The disability populations include people who have an impairment resulting from environmental or situational factors. The issues identified and the impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various PDA manufacturers' marketing data produced few features identified as accessible design components. Each accessibility feature is listed, along with its description, a determination of availability in the product line, and an assessment of whether the feature actually improves accessibility.
Screen reader compatibility: Screen readers allow users to obtain information without the need to perceive it visually. Visual information is translated into auditory output that is read to the user. The most common users of screen reading technology are people who are blind or have low vision. Implementation in design will have a high impact for these groups and a neutral impact for other groups. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information. Jaws and other screen readers are not available for mainstream PDAs. ViaVoice is available, but it is designed more for voice input than output, and output is very limited. ViaVoice provides some options for a person who is blind trying to use a PDA, but it is not a substitute for a screen reader.
Additional features that would make a PDA accessible include the following (taken in part from www.techdis.ac.uk/PDA/front.htm):
Adjustable display resolution: Display resolution affects the quality of the visual images provided as well as the amount of information that can be seen at a single time. Someone with low vision, for example, may need a lower display resolution, which increases the size of the images, in order to clearly interpret the information provided. Thus, allowing the display resolution to be adjusted enhances the accessibility for various individuals. If implemented in design, it will have a high impact on those with low vision and, with the exception of people who are blind, a medium impact on other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Adjustable font size: Small fonts are very difficult to read for users with low vision, who typically need to squint or use a magnifying glass to read them. They are also more difficult to read under low-light conditions and when users are fatigued. Implementation in design of adjustable font sizes will have a high impact on users with low vision and, with the exception of people who are blind, a low impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Adjustable contrast control: Adjustable contrast provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background shades to increase clarity. Ease of contrast adjustment, for example, through a hardware control, greatly improves the accessibility for many individuals, but it could mean the difference between being able to use the PDA and not for a low-vision user. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. Adjustable contrast will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to adjust screen colors: Adjustable color provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background colors to increase clarity. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and for most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. Adjustable color will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Good screen lighting: Adjustable screen lighting accommodates low-light conditions. This is useful for all individuals in some contexts and can also be useful for users with low vision in a wider variety of conditions. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users with low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Buttons with good tactile quality: Buttons that have texture and are not slick are easier to distinguish by feel and to use without slipping and accidentally activating an adjacent control. Implementation in design will have a medium impact on those who are blind and those with upper mobility impairments. It will help resolve the issues of having difficulty locating and identifying controls and difficulty making accurate inputs.
Adequately sized button labels and symbols: Users with low vision may have difficulty reading small labels or interpreting small symbols, particularly under low-light conditions. Implementation in design of adequately sized text and graphics on buttons will have a high impact on users with low vision and, with the exception of people who are blind, a low impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and not being able to locate and identify controls.
Voice recognition: Voice recognition provides the option to provide inputs verbally rather than through mechanical keypresses. This is particularly useful for those who cannot see to make the correct inputs or cannot reach or have difficulty activating mechanical controls. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those who have low vision or an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of having difficulty entering/inputting information, difficulty making accurate inputs, difficulty lifting and holding the device, and possibly the difficulties of finding desired features and interpreting visual information.
Screen magnifier compatibility: An external screen magnifier increases the size of the display and button labels to enhance the readability for those with low vision. It is an alternative, particularly if adjustable display resolution and font size are unavailable. Implementation in design will have a medium impact for those with low vision and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and not being able to locate and identify controls.
Good use of visual metaphors; simple graphical navigational aids: Graphics are very useful for people who have difficulty reading text. Graphics can help declutter a display by reducing the need for text. Implementation in design will have a high impact on the cognitively disabled, a medium impact for those with low vision, a neutral impact for people who are blind, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive or understand visual information and not being able to find desired features.
Clear menu structures: Simple menus and information organization help all users find the information they are looking for in a timely fashion. They require fewer inputs, which can be very beneficial for those who have trouble finding or manipulating controls. Implementation in design will have a high impact for all users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive or understand visual information and not being able to find desired features.
Auditory, visual, and vibrating alerts: Alerts provided in a redundant fashion assist users with specific physical impairments as well as those who encounter a situation in which the normal alerting mode is insufficient. Implementation in design will have a high impact for users who are visually or hearing impaired and a medium impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Use of simple language (not PDA-specific technical jargon): Some individuals may have difficulty using a device simply because they do not understand the terms that are used to refer to various features. Implementation of simple language will have a high impact on users who have a cognitive disability and a medium impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to respond in the allotted period of time or not being able to interpret visual information.
Minimal force requirement for activating controls: The effort required to activate a control may be more than an individual can provide, preventing that individual from using the device. Implementation of minimal force will have a high impact for users with upper mobility impairments and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to make inputs.
Input alternatives other than stylus and touchscreen controls (e.g., keyboard): Users who cannot see or who have difficulty controlling certain input devices benefit from having an alternative input mechanism. Implementation in design will have a high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment. It will have a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to provide inputs.
Choice of stylus size and style: A stylus is typically a very thin, smooth-surfaced pointing device, which can be difficult for some individuals to hold onto. Implementation of choice of styli will have a high impact on those with upper mobility impairments and a neutral impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to make accurate inputs.
PDA cases designed with materials that increase friction and grip: A PDA case typically houses the PDA device, even while in use. The case adds to the size and potentially awkward shape of the device, which can be cumbersome for some users. Implementation of friction in design will provide a medium impact for users with upper mobility impairments and a neutral impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to lift and hold the device.
An overall shape and size (weight) that allows the device to be comfortably held in the average adult hand: The shape and size of a PDA can affect the ability to hold the device and, specifically, to hold and manipulate the device simultaneously. A lightweight contoured shape will have a high medium impact on users with upper mobility impairments and a low impact on all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to lift and hold the device.
The availability or feasibility of mounting brackets for use with a desk or wheelchair or in a fixed location: A mobile holder is a mounting mechanism that can be attached to a wheelchair or other mobility aid or installed in a car to provide a consistent, secure place to store the PDA. When using a PDA, people often hold the device with one hand and make inputs with the other. This is problematic for people who may be unable to hold and manipulate the device simultaneously. However, if the device were constructed so it could be secured to another surface to handle the "holding component" of using the PDA, it would increase the accessibility for those with an upper mobility impairment. If implemented in design, this feature will have a high impact for those with upper mobility impairments and a low impact for other groups. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to lift and hold the device.
Adjustable zoom: A zoom display provides the option to increase the text size predefined amounts, reducing the number of lines of text available at any given time. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users with low vision and a low impact for others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Availability of user-defined alerts: Auditory alerts sometimes accompany visual alerts, which can help differentiate one from another. For those who cannot see, however, or for people who are hard of hearing, a way to make the alerts more distinct and meaningful for will increase the user's ability to process and make use of the auditory alerts by themselves. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are hard of hearing or have visual impairments and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information and difficulty receiving auditory information.
User manuals in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind or have low vision, a medium impact for users with upper mobility impairments, and no impact for other disability populations. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to read or handle printed materials.
Large fonts on the display: Large fonts on the display increase the text size for circumstances in which small text is difficult to read. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision, a low impact for users who are blind, and a medium impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Large display screens: Large display screens reduce screen clutter and increase the space available for larger text and graphics. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for low vision and cognitively disabled users and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
High-contrast displays: High contrast provides the option for users to adjust the color or brightness of the foreground and background colors so that the text stands out from the background, increasing readability. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those with low vision and most users under very bright- or low-light conditions. It will have a low impact for other disability populations. High contrast will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Large keys: Large keys on the keypad increase the ability to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have poor fine motor control, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty making accurate inputs.
More space between keys: More space between the keys increases the ability to differentiate the keys by touch and to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty locating controls and making accurate inputs.
Keys that are discernible by touch: Tactile separators typically provide either raised or indented spaces between controls to assist in tactile differentiation of numeric keys from other keys. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with upper mobility impairments, and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to locate and identify controls and not being able to make accurate inputs.
Simplified connector for power: A simplified power connector allows the user to use a single hand with minimal pinching or grasping to connect the power cord to the device. Simplified connectors are not limited to insertion in a single orientation. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users.
Simplified connector for headsets: A simplified headset connector allows the user to connect the headset cord to the device with a single hand with minimal pinching or grasping. Simplified connectors are not limited to insertion in a single orientation. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users.
Adjustable timeouts: Adjustable timeouts allow the individual to set the amount of time for features that have timeout settings. This accommodates those who may be slower in making inputs or who prefer to minimize the number of inputs, which may increase when a setting times out. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have upper mobility impairments. Adjustable timeouts will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual information or to respond within an allotted period of time.
Ability to request additional time: Ability to request additional time allows the user to complete a transaction despite the need to use more than the normal amount of allotted time to complete individual transaction components. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for most users, depending on the output mode (visual or auditory) from the device. Additional time will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual or auditory information, not being able to reach controls, and not being able to grasp objects.
Adjustable volume: Volume control is important for auditory alerts. It is particularly important for hard-of-hearing people, but it is useful for all. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for hard-of-hearing people and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Keys that can be operated without human contact: Some individuals use pointing devices or other mechanisms to help them reach or activate controls. Some devices require moisture content or heat to activate the controls; these devices cannot be used by someone who needs to use an alternative input device. Controls that are operable without physical human contact will have a high impact for someone with an upper mobility impairment and a low impact for all other users.
Rubberized keys: Rubberized keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. Textured keys also help the user differentiate the key itself from the surface of the device, particularly if the keys are not raised sufficiently. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Rubberized keys will help resolve the issue of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to PDAs address self-contained closed products (1194.25), functional performance requirements (1191.31), and documentation (1191.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another.
The following section 508 regulations are seen as issues for PDAs:
Verify that all controls and keys are tactilely discernible without activating the controls or keys. Since the PDA system is primarily touchscreen-based, it is not possible to have tactilely discernible controls unless they are redundant with hardware controls.
Verify that this self-contained product is usable by people with disabilities, without requiring the end-user to attach assistive technology to the product. There is very little a user who is blind can accomplish with a PDA without the assistance of voice output. Unfortunately, screen reader software is not yet available for a PDA.
Verify that at least one mode of operation and information retrieval is provided that does not require user vision or, alternatively, that support for AT used by people who are blind or visually impaired is provided. As indicated above, there is very little a user who is blind can accomplish with a PDA without the assistance of voice output. Unfortunately, screen reader software is not yet available for a PDA.
Provide at least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require visual acuity greater than 20/70 in audio and enlarged print output, working together or independently, or provide support for AT used by people who are visually impaired. PDAs do not provide voice output, and they typically do not use more than a 10- or 12-point font, which is inadequate for someone with low vision. Increased font size is available only for a limited application set.
There are some human limitations that make TVs either inaccessible or difficult to use. People who have visual impairments may have difficulty perceiving visual information and providing accurate inputs. People who are deaf or hard of hearing may have difficulty perceiving auditory information. People who have a mobility disability may have difficulty activating controls. People who have cognitive disabilities may have difficulty understanding control options.
Television is the medium that entertains, informs, and educates; it can also serve as a companion to people who, because of circumstances beyond their control, are confined to their homes. Traditionally, people have used TV to get news reports and watch movies, sports events, and sitcoms. However, televisions are not currently accessible to all users. Certain services have become available to make television more accessible to users with disabilities. Closed-captioning and real-time captioning for live broadcasts have made televisions more accessible to users with hearing impairments by allowing them to understand the auditory portion of television programs. Descriptive video services have increased accessibility for users with visual impairments by allowing them to better understand the visual portion of television programs. New challenges to accessibility have been posed with the rise of digital television and interactive services, but accessible design solutions have been proposed to overcome the barriers associated with this new technology.
Closed-Captioning
In 1970, the National Bureau of Standards began investigating the possibility of using a portion of the network television signal to broadcast time information in a part of the signal not used for picture information. The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) network took part in this project; and although the project didn't work, ABC suggested that it might be possible to send captions in the unused bandwidth.
In 1971, two captioning technologies were demonstrated at the First National Conference on Television for the Hearing Impaired. A second demonstration was held at Gallaudet College on February 15, 1972. In the second demonstration, ABC presented closed-captions embedded in the normal broadcast of The Mod Squad. The Federal Government agreed to fund the development and testing of captioning.
In 1973, engineers at the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) started working on the project under contract to the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The closed-captioning system was successfully tested that year in Washington, D.C., with the captions being broadcast using Line 21 of the vertical blanking interval. In 1976, the FCC set aside Line 21 for the transmission of closed-captions in the United States.
The first closed-captioned television series was broadcast on March 16, 1980. In 1982, the National Captioning Institute (NCI) developed real-time captioning for use in newscasts, sports events, and other live broadcasts.
NCI partnered with the ITT Corporation in the late 1980s to develop the first caption-decoding microchip that could be built directly into new television sets in 1989. In 1990, the Television Decoder Circuitry Act was passed. This Act mandated that, by mid-1993, all new television sets 13 inches or larger manufactured for sale in the United States must contain caption-decoding technology.
Also in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed. Title III of the ADA requires that public facilities, such as hospitals, bars, shopping centers, and museums (but not movie theaters), provide access to verbal information on televisions, films, or slide shows. (Captioning is considered one way of making this information available.) Federally funded public service announcements must also be captioned.
To implement the closed-captioning requirements of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the FCC established rules and implementation schedules for the captioning of television programming. These rules went into effect on January 1, 1998, and established an eight-year transition period for new programming. (At the end of the transition period, 100 percent of nonexempt new programs must be captioned.) A similar schedule was established for the captioning of Spanish-language programming.
Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, as strengthened by the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, requires that federal agencies make their E&IT accessible to people with disabilities, including employees and the general public. The requirements of section 508 apply to an agency's procurement of E&IT, as well as to the agency's development, maintenance, or use of E&IT. All training and informational video and multimedia productions that support the agency's mission, regardless of format, must be open- or closed-captioned if they contain speech or other audio information necessary for the comprehension of the content. All training and informational video and multimedia productions that support the agency's mission, regardless of format, must include an audible description of the video content if they contain visual information necessary for the comprehension of the content.
By 1998, new standards for captioning in high definition television (HDTV) were being created. These new standards greatly expanded the capabilities of captioning for HDTV, including—
Variable-size captions
Multiple fonts and colors
Different font and background styles
More information bandwidth
A larger symbol set
In addition to the obvious benefits to deaf and hard-of-hearing persons, captioned television is a valuable tool for young children who are learning to read, illiterate adults who are learning to read, children and adults with learning disabilities, people in public places, and people learning English as a second language.
Descriptive Video Service
Descriptive video information or descriptive video service (DVS) enables visually impaired people to better understand the visual portions of television programs. A TV program with DVS has an additional audio track with a narrator describing the setting, what actions are taking place, who is talking, and any other important information that a visually impaired person would not be able to see. The narration is timed so that the narration does not interfere with dialog.
The roots of DVS date back to the 1960s, when some attempts were made to fill in the gaps for Star Trek episodes through audio cassettes. In the 1970s, a former radio broadcaster began describing movies on a radio station in Philadelphia. In 1981, Margaret Pfanstiehl began describing live theatrical performances in Washington, D.C., and later developed descriptive techniques and described some programs that were broadcast over the radio reading service.
In 1985, stereo television broadcasting began. WGBH, a Boston public television station, began exploring possible ways to use the secondary audio program (SAP) audio channel to carry narrated descriptions of a program's key visual elements. The goal was to eliminate the need for a specially developed assistive device in order to receive the descriptions.
In 1988, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting awarded WGBH a grant to develop a complete business and operational plan for the permanent establishment of DVS. At the same time, WGBH funded all aspects of a national test of the service that was conducted in conjunction with PBS and other groups.
In 2000, spurred by the major networks' failure to voluntarily offer DVS, the FCC mandated the provision of DVS by broadcasters; but various groups (including the National Association of Broadcasters, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association) challenged the mandate in court. They claimed that the FCC exceeded its authority and, by compelling speech, violated the First Amendment. The core of the issue appeared to be one of cost.
Under the FCC measure, network affiliates would have to offer four hours a week of prime time or children's shows by June 2002; cable and satellite operators would have a similar requirement for top networks. Certain programming, including live news, sports, and talk shows, would be exempt.
There were a number of legal decisions between 2000 and 2002, with courts variously upholding and overturning the FCC mandate. In mid-June 2003, Senator John McCain introduced a bill (S. 1264, FCC Reauthorization Act of 2003) that would reinstate the FCC mandate. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and is now awaiting approval by the full Senate. There is no House bill as of this printing.
The application of DVS is still somewhat limited compared to closed-captioning, consisting mainly of programming on PBS and a few other networks. Certain movies for which descriptions have been developed are available by direct mail, in libraries, and in video rental stores.
Real-Time Captioning
In 1982, NCI developed real-time captioning, a process for captioning newscasts, sports events, specials, and other live broadcasts as the events are being televised. In real-time captioning, court reporters who have been trained as real-time captioners type at speeds in excess of 225 words per minute to give viewers instantaneous access to live information. The viewer sees the captions within two to three seconds of the words being spoken, with the delay resulting from the time it takes the captioner to hear the words spoken and then key the words, and for the captions to be encoded.
Real-time captioners write what they hear phonetically, using a stenotype machine (also known as a shorthand machine), which has only 24 keys and a number bar. The basic concept behind machine shorthand is phonetic, where combinations of keys represent sounds, but the theory is much more complex than straight phonics. Multiple keys can be depressed simultaneously on steno machines to create different word combinations. No two captioners write exactly the same way, so each has a custom dictionary (typically containing 50,000 to 100,000 entries) composed of the phonetics and their corresponding English that the captioner uses to build words and create punctuation. The steno then goes into a computer system, where it is translated into text and commands. The captioning software on the computer formats the stream of text into captions and sends them to a caption encoder.
Accessibility of Digital Television and Interactive Services
Interacting with a modern television set, even for an action as basic as selecting a program, has become far more complex with the advent of digital television. The digital set-top boxes (STBs) used to access digital programming offer access to a large amount of information, entertainment, and services via electronic program guides (EPGs), which require users to scroll through lots of on-screen text and graphics to select programs or access advanced features such as parental controls and advance scheduling. The highly visual nature of this style of interface has created serious barriers for consumers who are blind or have low vision.
These barriers are similar in nature to those that were created by graphical user interfaces for computer operating systems and by the rise of the World Wide Web. Over time, screen readers and other technologies emerged to provide access to these environments, but so far those solutions have not been applied to STBs for digital television. The automatic conversion of EPGs to synthesized speech has proven problematic.
In February 2001, the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at Boston public broadcasting station WGBH partnered with America Online to explore ways to make interactive TV accessible to audiences who are blind or visually impaired, focusing initially on making the EPG more accessible. The assumption was that the majority of the solutions required to make the EPG accessible will also apply to making other content accessible with the STB. Funding for the research was provided by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.
In August 2003, NCAM published A Developer's Guide to Creating Talking Menus for Set-top Boxes and DVDs (NCAM, 2003). This document discusses the accessibility problems posed by the EPG and presents possible technological solutions to the problems and guidelines for content development.
According to the Guide, there are challenges in finding the best strategy for translating on-screen visual information into a spoken equivalent, and there are also technological challenges in actually delivering the spoken information. The primary technological challenges result from the operating constraints of current STB hardware. The computers inside American STBs are too primitive to support the additional capability needed to provide voice output.
The Guide states that speech synthesis is a far more feasible solution than the use of prerecorded speech, because the number of audio samples that would be required in the latter case would be unworkable. A system could be designed where the synthesized speech is provided from a central server along with the current program guide information, but the bandwidth and storage requirements of this approach make it unfeasible. The STB itself could perform the speech synthesis, which is a trivial task for most modern computers, but until the computing power of STBs catches up with that of desktop systems, this approach is not possible.
Some other alternatives include using a more powerful third-party STB—such as a TiVO or other personal digital recorder—to do the speech synthesis, or to dispense with the STB altogether and route the cable signal through a desktop computer.
For users with low vision and/or other disabilities, the ability to adjust various aspects of the display (such as font sizes and text/background contrast settings) would be beneficial. In the article "Interactive Digital Television Services for People with Low Vision," Sylvie Perera (n.d.) advocates the use of a smart card identification system to allow low-vision users to set personal preferences for such features as text size, content layout, speech output, audio description, color combinations, timeouts, reminders, and alerts. This scheme could also be extended to assist users with other disabilities by allowing the smart card preferences to include subtitles, signing, and other features.
The core functionality considered to be necessary to effectively use a TV consists of the following:
Turning the TV on and off
Changing the input source
Changing the channel
Adjusting the volume
Activating closed-captioning (CC)
Accessing the EPG
Activating DVS
Adjusting picture quality settings
Using picture-in-picture (PIP) features
Additional functionality that is typically inherent in TV design includes the following:
Setting the time
Automatically or manually adding/deleting channels
Setting the TV to turn on and off automatically
In many cases, these functions require or are facilitated by use of the remote control.
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, and the design of the TV. Accessibility issues for each disability population were identified, along with an impact rating for each issue. The disability populations include people who have an impairment resulting from environmental or situational factors. The issues identified and the impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various TV manufacturers' marketing data produced a single feature identified as an accessible design component. This component is listed, along with a description of the component and an assessment of the usefulness of the feature for disability groups. While this feature was designed with a particular disability population in mind, it turns out that it benefits and has been used by a much wider variety of people than anticipated and may be considered a universal design feature.
Closed-captioning: Information can be obtained from TV both visually and auditorily, but the visual information is very limited for something like a news show, for example, which inhibits hearing-impaired people from benefiting from the TV as an information source. The Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990 requires decoder chips in U.S. TVs; as of 1993, all 13-inch or larger TVs were required to have decoder circuitry built in to provide CC. A phase-in is under way to make CC available for all TV programming. In addition to helping people who are deaf or hard of hearing, CC benefits those whose native language differs from the programming language and children or others who are learning to read (http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/closedcaption.html). CC has greatly enhanced the accessibility of TV for people who are deaf or hard of hearing, having a high impact if implemented in design, and serves as a useful feature with low impact for the population as a whole. It helps resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Additional features that would make a TV more accessible include the following:
Selection of SAP via a dedicated button on the remote control: SAP is an often-used feature, most commonly used for translation of English programming into Spanish or, less commonly, to provide sign language interpretation. Access to this programming option is often nonintuitive and cannot be done quickly. Access through a dedicated remote control button would greatly enhance accessibility for those challenged by sound or cognition, having a medium impact for these groups if implemented in design and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to interpret auditory or visual information.
Selection of DVS via a dedicated button on the remote control: Access to DVS is typically through a menu structure that is often nonintuitive and cannot be done quickly. Access through a dedicated remote control button would greatly enhance accessibility for those who are blind or have low vision, having a high impact for these groups if implemented in design and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to interpret visual information.
Selection of CC via a dedicated button on the remote control: Access to CC is typically through a menu structure that is often nonintuitive and cannot be done quickly. Access through a dedicated remote control button would greatly enhance accessibility for those challenged by sound, having a medium impact for this group if implemented in design and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to interpret auditory information.
Vivid picture for clarity of CC: CC is typically provided in all capital letters, which is harder to read than mixed capital and lowercase letters. In addition, the readability varies with the quality of the television on which it is viewed. For example, HDTV sets offer a higher resolution image and typically greater clarity of CC material. Good picture quality can greatly enhance accessibility of information provided textually. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those with visual and hearing impairments and a low impact for all others. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive auditory and visual information.
High-quality audio system: For those people who depend on the auditory output of the TV to obtain information, quality of audio output can have a large impact on ability to accurately perceive information, especially for those who have a visual disability and cannot benefit from the redundancy provided by the images. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those who are hard of hearing and a medium impact for all other users, with the exception of those who are deaf. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty receiving auditory information.
User manuals in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Accessible electronic formats are also often acceptable. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind or have low vision and a neutral impact for other disability populations. It will help resolve the issues of being unable to read or handle printed materials.
Voice-activated remote controls: A voice-activated remote control will allow the user to provide all inputs via voice rather than through mechanical key presses. If implemented in design, this will have a high impact for people who are blind and those with upper mobility impairments, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issues of not being able to locate or identify controls, not being able to lift and hold the remote control, and not being able to make accurate inputs, and it may help with not being able to find desired features or respond within the allotted time.
Talking remote controls: A talking remote control is one with voice displays. Talking remote controls are useful in circumstances in which it is difficult to make control inputs or read the text display because of a visual impairment, significant glare on the screen, or possibly having to view the screen from a seated position. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind, a medium impact for those with low vision, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of receiving and interpreting visual information.
Large buttons on the remote: Large keys on the keypad increase the ability to accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have poor fine motor control, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty making accurate inputs.
More space between keys on the remote: More space between the keys increases the ability to differentiate the keys by touch and accurately press the desired key without inadvertently pressing any adjacent keys. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for those who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty locating controls and making accurate inputs.
DVS: DVS provides auditory output of key visual elements in visual programming. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision and a low impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Voiced on-screen menus: Voiced on-screen menus provide verbal output of the visual displays from the TV, allowing a user to become familiar with the menus without having to see them. On-screen menus are used for functions such as controlling TV features (such as CC or DVS) and setting up a VCR to tape a program. Inclusion in design of voiced menus will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision and a low impact for all other users. Voiced menus help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Voiced program guides: Voiced program guides provide verbal output of the programming available on the TV. Inclusion in design of voiced program guides will have a high impact for those who are blind or have low vision and a low impact for all other users. Voiced program guides help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to adjust program guide font size: Adjustable font size allows the user to set the size of the program guide lettering so that it is comfortable to read. Font size can be an issue for those with visual disabilities and for anyone who is seated at a fair distance from the TV. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who have low vision and a low impact for all other users. Adjustable font size will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to adjust program guide font color: Adjustable font color can be used to increase contrast for text information. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who have low vision and a low impact for all others. Adjustable color will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to adjust program guide background color: Adjustable background color can also be used to increase contrast for text information. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who have low vision and a low impact for all others. Adjustable color will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
Ability to adjust CC font size: Adjustable font size allows the user to set the size of the CC lettering so that is comfortable to read. Font size can be an issue for those with visual disabilities and for anyone who is dependent on using CC. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are deaf and hard of hearing, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a low impact for all other users. Adjustable font size will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Ability to adjust CC font color: Adjustable font color can be used to increase contrast for text information. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are deaf and hard of hearing, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a low impact for all other users. Adjustable font size will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Ability to adjust CC background color: Adjustable background color can also be used to increase contrast for text information. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are deaf and hard of hearing, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a low impact for all other users. Adjustable CC background color will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Ability to adjust CC display rate: Adjustable display rate allows the user to set the speed at which CC is displayed. All people read at different rates, and those who have a visual impairment in addition to a hearing impairment may need some additional time to process the CC information. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for those who are deaf or hard of hearing, a medium impact for those who have low vision, and a low impact for all other users. Adjustable CC display rate will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Concave keys on remote control: Concave or inwardly curved keys help prevent fingers from slipping off the keys, which often results in inadvertent activation of adjacent keys. This type of key also increases the ability to differentiate the keys from each other and from the surrounding area on the device. Inclusion in design will have a medium to high impact for users who are blind, have low vision, or have an upper mobility impairment, and a low impact for all other users. Concave keys will help resolve the issue of locating controls and making accurate inputs.
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to TVs address video and multimedia products (1194.24), self-contained closed products (1194.25), functional performance requirements (1191.31), and documentation (1191.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another. The following section 508 regulation is seen as an issue for TVs:
At least one mode of operation and information retrieval that does not require user hearing must be provided, or support for assistive technology used by people who are deaf or hard of hearing must be provided. Not all programs are captioned, and there are many inaccuracies and lapses in captioning when it is available.
There are some human limitations that make voice or speech recognition software either inaccessible or difficult to use (and therefore, perhaps, undesirable). While there are very few limitations for any one disability population, all groups may be challenged by getting the software trained, making accurate inputs, overcoming problematic voice characteristics, and dealing with noisy environments. Some of these issues can be overcome through proper design.
The core functionality considered to be necessary to effectively use speech recognition programs consists of the following:
Using automatic voice recognition phone attendants
Understanding computerized voices
Using your voice to control your computer
Using voice recognition software in public settings
Using voice recognition software over a headset
Activating voice input
Providing appropriate voice input (consider training, vocabulary, speech characteristics)
Correcting errors
People may have difficulty accomplishing these basic tasks, depending on functional limitations resulting in an impairment, environmental or situational factors that create barriers, and the design of the voice recognition software. Accessibility issues for each disability population were identified, along with an impact rating for each issue. The disability populations include people who have an impairment resulting from environmental or situational factors. The issues identified and the impact ratings assigned for each disability group can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report.
A review of various speech recognition software manufacturers' marketing data failed to identify any features as accessible design components. Features that would make speech recognition accessible include:
Automatic suggestion of alternatives for voice recognition errors: A dictionary is available from which words can be suggested that resemble those that are not understood by the software. If the software is capable of providing good alternatives, this prevents the user from having to continue to attempt the speech input. Implementation in design will have a high impact for people who have cognitive disabilities and a medium impact for all other users. It will help resolve the issue of having difficulty entering information.
Ability to filter out background noise: Noise filters help prevent accidental and perhaps inappropriate input that may go undetected or may cause the user to enter a different mode than desired. Implementation in design will have a high impact for all users and will help resolve the issues of not being able to receive visual or auditory information.
Availability of macros: Macros can be used to enter groupings of information that are often used as input, such as name and address. One voice command is used to cue the system to enter the data set, greatly reducing the amount of verbal input required and reducing error. Implementation in design will have a high impact for all users.
Readback options: Readback allows the user to get feedback on how the voice input has been interpreted. It may be provided as each input is given or after multiple inputs to allow for more continuous data entry. Implementation in design will have a high impact for those with visual impairments and a neutral impact for other users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive visual information.
User manuals in alternative formats: Alternative formats include large print, Braille, and audio. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for users who are blind or have low vision, a medium impact for those who have an upper mobility impairment, and a neutral impact for other disability populations. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to read or handle printed materials.
Ability to pause voice messages: Pause control allows the user to pause the verbal output from the device. This is helpful to give some time to write something down or to think about what option might be desired. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind and a low impact for all other users. Pause control will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Ability to replay voice messages: Replay control allows the user to listen to a message more than once. This is helpful if the voice output was not understood or could not be heard over environmental sounds. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for users who are blind and hard-of-hearing users and a low impact for all other users. Replay control will help resolve the issue of not being able to read text on the screen.
Ability to change voice types: Voice types may consist of male or female, for example. Some voices are more comfortable for a user to listen to; some are better understood by one user than by another. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for all users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Ability to adjust the speed of voice messages: A speed that is too slow can negatively affect productivity, but a faster speed may not be well understood by all users. Adjustable speed of voice messages allows the user to set the level that is comfortable for him or her. Inclusion in design will have a medium impact for all users. It will help resolve the issue of not being able to receive auditory information.
Headset compatibility: Headsets provide privacy for the user and reduce distraction to neighboring individuals. Headsets also help to control environmental noises that may be misinterpreted by the voice recognition software. Inclusion in design will have a high impact for all users.
Adjustable microphone: Adjustable microphones allow users to reposition the microphone so that the device is at a comfortable level for the user. Users with lower mobility impairments will benefit from the design.
Wireless microphone: Wireless microphones allow users to move about without being directly attached to the device that is being controlled. Users with lower mobility impairments will benefit from the added freedom of movement.
The primary parts of section 508 that are applicable to voice recognition software address software applications and operating systems (1194.21), functional performance requirements (1191.31), and documentation (1191.41). Many of these regulations have an impact on all users; others have a larger impact on one disability group than another.
The following section 508 regulation is seen as an issue for voice recognition software:
Verify that at least one mode of operation and information retrieval is provided that does not require user vision or, alternatively, that support for assistive technology used by people who are blind or visually impaired is provided.
The final result of the analysis of each product line is the accessibility grade. The overall accessibility grade for a product line is an index of the cumulative impact of all accessibility issues. The accessibility grade is a letter grade on the familiar scale of A, B, C, D, and F. The following definitions are offered for each grade:
A = Excellent accessibility. Users with an impairment are generally able to make full use of the product, with few limitations.
B = Good accessibility. Users with an impairment are able to make good use of the product, but some areas of product functionality are not accessible.
C = Fair accessibility. Users with an impairment can access some of the functionality of the device, but many aspects of product functionality are not accessible.
D = Poor accessibility. Users with an impairment can make use of a small proportion of the functionality of a device, but most aspects of product functionality are not accessible.
F = Accessibility failure. Users with an impairment are generally not able to use the product.
The accessibility letter grades are assigned according to the impact scores calculated for each target population. Details on how these grades were calculated and the task priorities, accessibility levels, and impact scores for each target population for each product line can be found in the appendix to the online version of this report. Accessibility grades may be useful to industry in prioritizing UD efforts and identifying what target populations should be consulted during the design process so that more accessible design features are incorporated into new products.
Upper Mobility
Lower Mobility
As these results indicate, certain product lines are very accessible to some target populations but largely inaccessible to others. It would be helpful in informing the UD process and developing products that are more accessible to people with disabilities if designers consulted the target populations for which a product line received accessibility grades of D or F during future product development. For ATMs, users who are blind will likely be unable to use an ATM or portions of the core functionality because of a lack of accessibility features; blind users should be considered in the design of new features for ATMs. Cellular phones are largely inaccessible to users who are blind and users who are deaf. Incorporating more features that make this product line more accessible to these users will expand the market for cellular phones. Distance learning software is largely inaccessible to users who are blind and users who are deaf. Adhering to accessibility regulations and guidelines for designing software will improve the accessibility of distance learning software for these user groups. PDAs are largely inaccessible to users who are blind and users with upper mobility impairments. Televisions were found to be most inaccessible to users who are blind because of an inability to locate, access, and read information, features, and controls. Voice recognition software is largely inaccessible to users who are blind, hard of hearing, or deaf.
The purpose of the industry study was to document universal design practices within industries represented by the six product lines selected for study. Six different companies, representing each of the six product lines, were selected as industry partners. Selection of industry partners was primarily based on their leadership in the marketplace and their ability to deliver candid representations of their experiences with UD. During data collection, every effort was extended to foster an environment in which companies would be able to deliver documentation of actual processes and experiences.
Each company was individually approached by Georgia Tech and asked to participate in the research program. Nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) were signed to assure the companies that Georgia Tech would protect any proprietary data disclosed during the course of the study, as well as to foster a general environment of open and frank discussions. Full disclosure was critical to the success of the industry study, because it was important that actual experiences be documented, as opposed to ideal situations or marketing hype. The NDA restricts Georgia Tech from releasing any proprietary information belonging to the industry partners. Therefore, it is not the intent of this study to provide detailed descriptions of experiences recorded as part of the research. This section documents the general experiences of companies that are representative of the six product lines selected for analysis and provides a basis for identifying candidate interventions or approaches for the promotion of UD.
As part of the industry study, we investigated the presence of barriers and facilitators to accessible design. When an industry partner indicated experiences with a particular barrier, key personnel were interviewed to determine the policies and procedures that were used to overcome the barrier. Before interviewing the industry partners, we identified a candidate list of facilitator and barriers.
Analysis of Facilitators and Barriers to Accessible Design
Source materials, generated as part of the Information Technology Technical Assistance and Training Center (ITTATC), were reviewed to identify potential facilitators to accessible design. Facilitators are defined as concepts, procedures, or actions that can be employed by industry that might result in the development of accessible technologies. We read the needs assessment literature review, a survey of ITTATC National Advisory Committee participants, and a survey of accessibility visionaries in order to create the initial list of facilitators. The list was supplemented by our experience consulting with industry and our preliminary findings from the ITTATC case studies project.
The list of facilitators is divided into five categories: design, organizational, informational, financial, and legal facilitators. Design facilitators are methods or tools that can be implemented in the design process to possibly achieve a more accessible design. Organizational facilitators include augmentations to communications and infrastructure that may enhance the effectiveness of an accessibility program in a company. Informational facilitators address the lack of knowledge in accessible design and the continuation of common misperceptions. Financial facilitators include factors that make accessibility appear to be fiscally attractive. Finally, legal facilitators include legal positions that make accessibility easier to achieve.
Integrate accessibility into engineering processes. Often accessibility of a product can be improved by integrating the consideration of the product's accessibility as a formal step in the engineering design process. The most desirable outcome is usually observed when accessibility is addressed very early in the design process.
Develop standardized mechanisms for connecting assistive technologies. A common complaint from industry is that it is difficult to ensure that their products successfully interface with AT, because not enough is known about the detailed interface requirements of the variety of AT products on the market.
Make technological advancements for handling adaptive devices and flexible design. For example, develop smaller components for connecting assistive devices so that products can be smaller and lighter.
Develop innovative strategies to promote awareness and understanding of universal design issues. For example, a company could sponsor a design challenge contest to address a specific accessibility concern or award bonuses to those who significantly contribute to the design of a more accessible product.
Share ideas, concepts, and research with other organizations, including encouragement of peer-reviewed research. Two possible means to accomplish this are by hosting a conference or publishing a journal of accessible design.
Develop awareness of efforts in accessible design from competing companies.
Develop accessible design standards and guidelines.
Develop a tool to help individuals understand their role in universal design.
Provide training for understanding accessible design, including demonstrations of why a particular approach may not work for an individual with a particular limitation. This will help the designers adjust their approach to thinking about accessible design and developing accessibility design practices in the early phases.
Fund the acquisition of ergonomic and human performance data for people with disabilities.
Develop methods for measuring accessibility and comparing the accessibility of two similar products. One approach to addressing these issues would be to start or participate in a working group to develop standardized measurement methods.
Develop a working group to formulate a clear definition of design goals related to accessibility.
Promote the benefits of UD. Accessible design is likely to benefit a much larger population than the target group.
Perform accessibility evaluations on new and existing products and services.
Include elderly individuals and individuals with disabilities in the design process. Get input from them early and recruit them to participate in evaluations. This can be done through prototype and product testing, focus groups, direct contact with the designers, discussion forums, and other mechanisms.
Test for product compatibility with assistive technologies.
Hire product designers with disabilities or with experience in creating universally designed products.
Hire support personnel with disabilities to work directly with designers.
Designate an accessibility coordinator to monitor accessibility issues and become familiar with related standards and guidelines.
Provide concrete design examples of universally designed products.
Share accessibility information companywide, and make it part of the culture. Ensure that all departments have the same understanding of accessibility requirements.
Educate the company on the tangential benefits of accessible design. While most companies recognize that increased accessibility will result in an increase in the user base, some do not realize the benefit of UD for the existing user base.
Increase diversity in the workforce.
Develop brown bag and discussion groups regarding accessibility efforts so that upper management has the opportunity to learn about these efforts and factor this information into corporate decisions.
Ensure that the personnel responsible for making marketing, product development, and design decisions are educated about accessibility and accessible design.
Educate middle management on how accessible design can be made part of the design process without burdening schedule and budget requirements.
Recognize accessibility as a necessity for the general population rather than as an exception.
Incorporate accessibility standards into quality assurance programs.
Educate employees that people with disabilities have the same wants and needs as people without disabilities (e.g., communication, bill paying, travel). Remind them that the general population suffers from a number of temporary disabilities as well as disabilities related to aging.
Recognize that relatively small changes can have a large impact on accessibility. Something as simple as reducing the force required to press a button can greatly increase the usability of a product for all potential users without taking away from design creativity.
Provide accessibility training for managers, designers, sales representatives, customer service personnel, and any other groups that may benefit from the knowledge.
Advertise accessibility features of products, and emphasize the benefits for everyone.
Gather as much information about accessibility and disabilities as possible. Survey employees, canvas disability groups for information, hold community meetings to get direct input from people familiar with disabilities, and provide a Web link and/or phone number dedicated to obtaining feedback on product accessibility.
Form partnerships/relationships with organizations devoted to promoting accessibility.
Provide information to consumers about their rights under section 508 and section 255 and the company's efforts to comply with those regulations. Complete voluntary product accessibility templates (VPATs) for products so that consumers can make informed decisions.
Purchase assistive technologies for designers to work with, and train them to use the devices properly.
Increase exposure of engineers and designers to accessible design. Train them when they're hired, develop a short course that can be made available through local universities, and encourage someone in the company to teach at local universities to increase exposure at the university level.
Recruit employees who have a background in universal design.
Ask employees (particularly those with temporary or permanent disabilities) to comment on the usability of products they use and to provide design suggestions. Establish a mechanism for employees to provide feedback, and possibly develop a discussion forum from which additional informal feedback can be acquired. Use the people already in the company, as many of them may have experiences with others who have limitations.
Recognize accessibility as a product enhancement, not as a prohibitive-cost retrofit.
Market products with accessible features to a large population, not just to the target market for which they are believed to be appropriate.
Use employees to reduce costs associated with funding research in accessible design.
Include accessible design as a regular part of the design process rather than as a feature that needs to be addressed separately at added cost.
Factor accessibility upgrades into the cost of other important upgrades.
Study the cost of not designing accessible products. For example, revenue may be lost because of the inability to effectively market to a federal customer.
Demonstrate efforts to comply with section 508. Create VPATs.
Review consumer complaints received by legislators and industry.
Designate an accessibility expert to monitor government regulations.
Pressure the government for more detailed requirements that industry must meet or guidelines for satisfying the regulations.
The process used to identify candidate barriers was similar to the process used to identify candidate facilitators. Source materials, generated as part of ITTATC, were reviewed to identify potential barriers to accessible design. Barriers are defined as potential roadblocks to a successful accessibility program. We read the needs assessment literature review, a survey of ITTATC National Advisory Committee participants, and a survey of accessibility visionaries in order to create the initial list of barriers. The list was supplemented by our experience consulting with industry and our preliminary findings from the ITTATC case studies project.
Similar to the list of facilitators, the list of barriers is divided into five categories: design, organizational, informational, financial, and legal barriers. Design barriers are obstacles in the design process that may result in difficulty in achieving an accessible design. Organizational barriers include impediments to communications and infrastructure that may limit the effectiveness of an accessibility program in a company. Informational barriers have to do with the lack of knowledge about accessible design and the continuation of common misperceptions. Financial barriers include factors that make accessibility appear to be fiscally unattractive. Finally, legal barriers include factors that make accessibility difficult to implement because of litigation concerns.
Some of the barriers are merely perceived barriers, resulting from a lack of knowledge of or insufficient experience in accessibility. Other barriers represent more significant challenges to the accessibility community in general.
Marketing and technology trends sometimes run counter to accessibility requirements. For example, the cell phone industry has followed a trend in miniaturization that has resulted in the creation of a smaller keypad that is difficult to use for individuals with some types of upper mobility impairments. The font size used for the labels on these keypads has been reduced as well.
There is a general lack of peer-reviewed research in accessible design. Many human factors professions complain of the lack of human performance research to support design in general. Even fewer studies focus on human performance issues for people with disabilities. In addition, little information exists about standard practices and methods of accessible design in the open literature. Designers simply do not have access to information they need to create accessible products.
There is a lack of realistic standard guidelines and principles of accessible design.
Designers lack an understanding of accessible design and what can be achieved if products are designed from the beginning with accessibility in mind. Very few commercially available products exist that represent successful exercises in accessible design.
Designers do not have access to information about people with disabilities in a format usable to them. Designers often require human performance and ergonomic data in an easy-to-use format to support design decisions. Unfortunately, human performance and ergonomic data for special populations, including people with disabilities, are not a part of the standard data sets. Designers must consult outside sources and attempt to compile the necessary data from a wide variety of technical reports and published articles. The compilation of these data is extremely time-consuming and often unfeasible.
A standard accessible design process has not been documented, tested, or verified.
Implementation of multiple methods of display and control may make it difficult to create a streamlined user interface. Many feel that the addition of accessibility features creates an unwieldy user interface.
There is no standardized method of measuring accessibility or comparing the accessibility of two similar products. Designers do not have a way of determining whether their designs have met their accessibility goals.
Many feel that there is no clear definition of how accessible a product has to be in order to be considered an accessible design.
Many designers equate accessible design with designing products for the lowest common denominator.
Individuals with disabilities are not integrated into the design or evaluation process.
There is a lack of tools and resources useful for efficiently creating accessible products.
Often there is a lack of communication across departments about accessibility requirements. A few pockets of accessibility awareness seem to exist in many companies, but there is a lack of structure integrating a comprehensive accessibility program.
Many companies lack accessibility champions who are in a position to influence company decisions. In many cases, personnel responsible for a company's accessibility efforts come from human factors, usability, or disability support groups. In general, these groups do not have a large amount of input in corporate decisions.
Often personnel responsible for making accessibility decisions have little knowledge about accessibility or accessible design.
Middle management often perceives accessible design to be in direct conflict with schedule and budget requirements.
Accessibility is often a minor concern compared with other corporate issues, especially in today's economy.
There is a lack of infrastructure to support accessible design.
Some view people with disabilities as not having the same wants and needs as people without disabilities.
Sometimes designers fail to consider the possibility that someone with a disability would attempt to use the products they design.
Sometimes accessibility features are poorly communicated to the consumers who require the features.
Specific information about accessibility and disabilities, in general, is not easy to obtain.
Companies often do not know how to market to people with disabilities.
Consumers are not familiar with their rights under section 508 and section 255.
Some designers do not have sufficient access to assistive technology interface requirements.
Engineers and designers are not sufficiently exposed to accessible design at the university level.
Accessibility is often interpreted narrowly to include only physical access to the technology.
The cost of developing new technologies associated with accessibility is often seen as prohibitive.
The target market for accessible design is not well understood or defined.
There is a general lack of sources of funding for research in accessible design.
Some people feel that the business case for accessibility is weak.
It is difficult for companies to market to consumers with disabilities.
The cost associated with retrofitting existing products is significant.
The cost associated with purchasing accessible products is often not affordable by people with disabilities.
The technology required to produce accessible products is not available at a reasonable cost.
Some companies feel that they are under pressure to self-certify compliance with section 508 in order to compete.
Some feel that federal regulation does not go far enough in detailing the requirements that industry must meet. Others feel that the regulations unnecessarily restrict creative design and innovation.
Exploration of the federal requirements through litigation is both time-consuming and costly.
Some companies believe their competition is incorrectly representing its product's accessibility.
Procurement officials do not understand accessibility requirements to a sufficient degree. Officials may not be able to recognize when an accessibility claim is false.
Section 508 is either not being adhered to or is being adhered to inconsistently.
Industry Study Data Collection Methodology
Six companies or industry partners were selected for participation in the study. Once the companies were identified and the points of contact (POCs) established, each was given a list of topics related to accessibility in the company. Georgia Tech requested initial reactions during preliminary phone interviews and then conducted onsite visits and in-person interviews with various individuals involved in the accessibility program. Some industry partners chose to provide detailed documentation and formal responses to our initial inquiries before the interviews. The purpose of the in-person interview was to obtain additional information and documentation to enhance the initial responses provided on the topics of interest.
The data collected were based on a series of topics related to accessibility in each company. The type and format of data requested in response to each of the 10 topic areas is listed below:
1. Documentation of current design practices, with emphasis on user interface design and other aspects of products related to accessibility and UD.
2. Documentation of current product evaluation practices, with emphasis on accessibility and UD.
3. Key personnel who make decisions about product design, product selection, and/or marketing related to accessibility and UD.
4. Current products (fielded or in development) with specific accessibility features or other direct relationship to accessibility.
5. Lessons learned in developing accessible products. Focus on organizational barriers encountered, technical challenges, financial barriers, informational barriers, and legal challenges.
6. Company forecasts of demand and requirements for products with accessibility features.
7. Company training materials related to accessibility and UD.
8. Company-funded research into accessibility and UD.
9. Company contact with members of the disability community relevant to product accessibility and usability by individuals with disabilities.
10. Company position on product accessibility and UD.
Georgia Tech scheduled an initial meeting with the company POC, during which the industry study objectives and data requirements were reviewed in detail. Any readily available information was collected, and the company POC was charged with identifying sources for archival data and arranging personal interviews with individuals qualified to supply the required information. The information analyzed in this summary is based on materials provided directly from the company, notes from the in-person meeting, and publicly available materials.
Analysis of Industry Data: Factors Influencing Adoption of UD Practices
As defined by Tobias and Vanderheiden (1998), the primary factors that influence the adoption of UD principles are government regulation (or the threat of regulation) and profitability. The purpose of the industry study was to build upon previous work and understand how the perception of profitability affects UD. Eleven business concerns have been identified as having an influence on UD practices in an organization. Each business concern has a different level of influence, depending on the strength of the other factors. The factors influencing the adoption of UD practices include the business case, strategy and policy, demand and legislation, marketing and sales, research, design, testing, resource allocation and funding, organization and staff, training, and the customer and consideration of people with disabilities. Detailed descriptions of the impact of each business concern on UD are described below.
The business case is the financial justification and plan for including accessibility in product design. Central to consideration of the adoption of UD principles for all six industry partners was the identification of a compelling business case to justify committing the required resources to the effort. Someone at a company wishing to add accessibility features to an existing product or to add schedule and budget to accommodate building accessibility into the design of a new product is often required to justify the added expense by producing either a formal or informal business case for accessibility.
There are several methods that might be used to construct a business case. Each method relies on the interpretation of market forecasts and sales data and is, therefore, somewhat subjective. For example, a senior manager might look at federal sales data and determine that the number of sales at risk because of the production of inaccessible products is negligible and therefore produce a very weak business case for accessibility. A second senior manager might look at the same data and see great potential for increasing the market share of federal sales by enhancing accessibility, therefore determining that the business case for accessibility is strong.
The industry study identified the following primary justifications for the business case for UD:
Increase market share to include people with disabilities
Increase federal sales market share
Reduce risk of losing market share
Increase overall usability of the product or service
Reduce risk of costly legal action
Increase status as a corporate citizen
While increasing market share in general is traditionally regarded as a strong justification for a business case, the potential to increase market share by extending the market focus to cover people with disabilities is often seen as a relatively weak business case, primarily for two reasons. First, the market for people with disabilities is highly segmented. The cost associated with developing a product for users with various disabilities and levels of functional capabilities is not justified by the potential of direct sales to people with disabilities. Second, the amount of disposable income available to people with disabilities is not perceived to be great. The additional cost associated with producing accessible products cannot be passed along directly to consumers with disabilities.
Companies do not appear to fully appreciate the potential value of extending their market share to nontraditional markets through UD. Universal design is generally associated with design for inclusion of people with disabilities. The market analysis documented elsewhere in this report illustrates that this view of the market for UD products is unnecessarily restrictive. Companies representing the six product lines selected for analysis have failed to embrace the extended market perspective for UD products.
The introduction of section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act, requiring federal agencies to consider accessibility in the procurement of most products and services, should have had a direct impact on the calculation of the market size of UD products. Sales to the Federal Government represent a significant portion of sales for many companies producing E&IT products and related services. Based on the face value of section 508, businesses wishing to increase federal sales might do so by developing a more accessible product than the competition and using accessibility as a key discriminator on competitive bids. However, many of the industry partners failed to recognize the potential increase in federal sales as a strong business case, perhaps because of the perception that procurement officials are not consistent in enforcing section 508.
Perhaps more compelling than the potential increase in federal sales is the threat of loss of Federal Government market share to a competitor. A company that enjoys a large share of the federal market could lose market share if a competitor creates an accessible product that federal procurement officials choose over the traditional supplier in an effort to conform to the requirements of section 508. In reality, none of the companies participating in the industry study were aware of any lost sales that could be attributed directly to an attempt of a procurement official to conform to the requirements of section 508.
Business cases are sometimes generated in response to less tangible benefits and threats that are not directly related to a company's market position. For example, one of the companies in the industry study referred to corporate citizenship as a justification for research into accessibility and UD. Another company perceived accessibility as clearly being related to usability, which had been identified as a key market discriminator. Finally, one company mentioned a concern about avoiding future legal actions as a motivator for accessibility.
Strategy is the high-level plan for UD or the implementation of accessible design features. A policy is a written a statement that is a reflection of corporate strategy. Most industry partners had an informal or formal policy statement approved by senior management; however, they differed widely in their content and implementation. External policy statements tended to be used primarily for marketing and had little overall impact on processes and procedures. When an internal policy statement was drafted and issued to employees, it usually had the effect of temporarily increasing awareness of accessibility; but a sustained, corporatewide commitment is rare without the dedication of resources. Internal policy statements that lack an associated commitment of resources are rarely enforced.
An effective policy must reach the level of a corporate instruction or directive and address inclusion of people with disabilities in design and evaluation of products, increased training, incorporation of documented standards and guidelines, increased research and development, increased marketing of accessibility features and efforts, and lowered costs for products with accessibility features. The policy must also be associated with an implementation plan and a commitment of needed resources.
Corporate culture had a strong influence on accessibility. In two of the six companies in the industry study, employees reported that the corporate culture was such that accessibility was expected to be considered when making design decisions. A strong corporate culture was generally associated with a strong customer voice requiring that accessibility be considered. Accessibility will be considered, independent of policy, if the customer demand is great. Policy tended to be more entrenched in corporate culture if someone from senior management experienced a disability or a close relationship with someone with a disability.
Resource allocation and funding was the single most frequently identified reason for the failure of accessibility policy. Four of the six companies had money earmarked for staffing accessibility program offices; however, the program offices were often underfunded and did not have sufficient resources to effect change in the corporation. In some cases, the accessibility program office consisted of only one or two individuals who served as the focal point for accessibility concerns throughout the company. Only one company earmarked money specifically for accessibility research. Outreach to employees was also severely limited. The accessibility program offices often developed plans for implementing universal or accessible design but lacked funding to appropriately implement the plans.
At least one company that decided to commit to accessibility and establish an accessibility program office was reevaluating the commitment of resources because of an inability to demonstrate return on investment (ROI). The company cited a lack of impact of accessibility features on federal procurement decisions as the primary motivator for reconsidering its commitment to accessibility. Companies spending less money on accessibility were not perceived to suffer decreased sales as a result of section 508 procurement regulations.
Several methods of staffing for accessibility issues were observed. The most common staffing organization, used by four of the six companies, involved the development of an accessibility program office responsible for UD and accessibility issues throughout the corporation. The size of the accessibility program offices varied from a single member to a staff of five or six with a background in accessibility issues. In other cases, responsibility for accessibility was integrated into existing groups, such as marketing or human factors.
Two staffing trends were noted. First, the presence of a single accessibility champion or a small number of accessibility champions was very common among the industry partners. The success of the accessibility program in a company that must rely on the work of a very small number of accessibility champions was directly related to the workload or attrition of the champions. Loss of an accessibility champion could result in a major setback of accessibility objectives. Second, the accessibility program office may become a place to assign nonproductive personnel. While the majority of accessibility program offices are staffed by competent individuals capable of advancing UD principles if given adequate resources, some companies have assigned accessibility to individuals who are either transitioning between departments or are experiencing difficulty marketing themselves within the company.
The mission of the accessibility program offices also varied widely. In some cases, the program offices were mostly reactive, responding to requests for information or to particular accessibility concerns. In other cases, the accessibility program offices were very proactive and focused on developing and testing new technologies that might be integrated into future products. In reality, a balanced approach is required. The group charged with accessibility should be able to respond to the immediate needs of the corporation as well as contribute to future planning and development of universally designed products.
Unfortunately, the accessibility program office in the four companies that had program offices demonstrated very little control over design decisions that directly affected the accessibility of the final product. The accessibility program office should be constructed to include groups (or individuals) who have decision-making responsibilities to influence product accessibility. This may include a human factors group or an accessibility group, or even an oversight group that can serve as a resource for other groups in the company. It also helps for accessibility awareness to be widespread throughout the company. One method of accomplishing this is to have staff in each group or available to each group who have more extensive training and who can advocate for inclusion of accessibility features.
Another staffing mechanism for enhancing accessibility practices in the company is to hire people with various disabilities and ensure that they are involved with the design and evaluation of products. However, this mechanism can be used inappropriately. For example, it would be inappropriate to send a new product to a single employee with a disability and ask the employee to quickly review the product rather than conducting more extensive product testing. This approach is especially problematic if the employee has other responsibilities, has little experience with product evaluations, and is not prepared to comment on the accessibility of the product beyond his or her personal experiences.
Some corporate accessibility training was offered to employees; however, training relating to UD and accessibility is not widespread. The most common type of training was aimed at increasing employee awareness of section 508, accessibility policy, people with disabilities, and the specific accessibility issues associated with the products that the company produces. An important function of several accessibility program offices was to provide targeted training to key decision makers, as needed. The targeted training was largely informal and usually conducted on a rather limited basis. The training offered was generally focused on program managers and design teams. Very little training was offered to sales or marketing teams.
Typically, accessibility awareness is made available on an as-needed basis and is specific to a project. In some cases a brief introduction is provided to all employees regarding the importance of UD, but sometimes it is simply awareness through diversity training. Training materials may include an overview of the range of disabilities (including situational disabilities), assistive technologies, principles of UD, minimal design requirements, business and consumer arguments for addressing accessibility, consequences of not addressing accessibility, a review of accessibility features, legal requirements, and barriers and lessons learned.
Training of staff is one of the best mechanisms for getting accessibility included in product design. Often accessibility is overlooked because of a lack of awareness of the issues. People do not realize how inaccessible products can be to individuals with disabilities and they do not understand how much an individual's life can be improved with the availability of more accessible products. Training can greatly affect accessibility practices through increasing awareness of disability issues, increasing awareness of standards and guidelines, and providing tools (processes and checklists, for example) to facilitate accessibility implementation.
Companies should be aware of hidden messages in corporate training. For example, if a company emphasizes section 508 conformance over accessibility in general, employees may come to view UD and accessibility as a federal sales issue. Designers may choose to ignore accessibility requirements if they know that their product is not likely to be marketed to the Federal Government.
To be effective, training should be tailored for the decision makers who routinely affect accessibility in the corporation. Technical staff might like to consider the needs of people with disabilities, but they are junior staff members who do not have the power to implement major design decisions. Technical staff training is effective if concrete design examples and information about integrating UD guidelines into the design process are offered. However, changes to the design process are often resisted by middle managers, who argue that extra development time would be required, that money must be expended, or that these changes are not relevant to the target market. The key decision makers are the key product team members and the personnel who are responsible for defining the products' functional requirements.
One successful method of providing UD and accessibility awareness training is to incorporate basic constructs into employee induction training. Other successful training methods include alternative delivery methods, such as a video, on the importance of UD and the impact of inaccessibility on the lives of people with disabilities. Computer-based training materials have also been used to increase general awareness of accessibility issues.
With one notable exception, the accessibility program offices of the four companies participating in the industry study were not directly linked with corporate research. One company was able to successfully integrate personnel with research experience into the accessibility program office. This integration allowed the program office to offer design solutions to the accessibility problems that it identified through testing. However, most accessibility program offices were not in a position to influence research priorities or review research before it was integrated into a product development cycle.
Several companies successfully employed external consultants to assist with UD or accessibility research. However, externally funded research tended to be more exploratory in nature and less focused on design-oriented solutions.
Research into accessibility issues is dependent on available funding. Much design work is dependent on research of the best way to implement accessibility features, compatibility with assistive technologies, and development of emerging technologies. Advanced and ongoing research can influence accessibility implementation through identification of features that are useful for the disability community, cost-effective, and appealing to a wide population.
In many cases, accessibility processes are in place for both design and quality assurance, including user-centered design, but are either not documented or not followed consistently. Accessibility requirements are not well integrated into existing design processes. For those companies that do include accessibility requirements in the design process, the requirements are typically tailored to the specific product line or range of product lines produced by the company.
Design decisions are made by a range of personnel. Industrial designers or design management teams typically handle display and control layout. Product managers or core team members detail the design and ensure manufacturability. Some design decisions are made at the engineering level. Typically, decisions about trade-offs are made at an upper-management level. Decisions about product requirements are typically handled at the marketing level. Accessibility champions can have some influence over the design, independent of the above-mentioned roles.
All six companies participating in the industry study adopted some variant of a product development or life cycle design process. However, the companies varied in the extent to which they followed engineering process manuals. Smaller projects and internal research and development projects tended to operate outside the formally defined development process. None of the companies reported immediate changes to the development process in response to section 508. Rather, UD and accessibility requirements have slowly been integrated into the development process, mainly in response to efforts from members of the companies' internal accessibility program offices. Three of the six companies reported that accessibility was addressed in its formal engineering product manuals. However, two of those three companies reported that their formal engineering process simply required that accessibility be considered at some point in the design process. In general, detailed requirements or checklists relating to accessibility were not found in formal design documents.
The product life cycle design process is intended to manage the product from its inception through its retirement and eventual cessation of support. Although different companies have different names for their design processes, the processes all generally follow these steps:
Product planning
Requirements definition
Verification and testing
End-of-life management
In order for UD principles to be incorporated into the final product, the principles must be considered at the very beginning of design. Accessibility must be considered during product planning. Companies that relied solely on accessibility testing after product development were unable to have a substantial impact on the overall accessibility of the product. Product planners must decide very early whether accessibility will be considered in the design of the product and to what extent the product will meet or exceed accessibility technical guidelines. Companies that failed to consider accessibility early in product development often failed to have a significant impact on the accessibility of the final design.
In the requirements-definition phase, it is important to define objectively testable requirements for accessibility. It is not sufficient to require that the product be accessible, because doing so provides little information to designers and prevents accessibility verification testing. Vague accessibility requirements are more likely to be ignored in both the development and the verification and testing phases of design. Proper accessibility requirements should be defined in the form of the incorporation of relevant section 508 technical requirements or specific functional performance requirements. For example, the requirements document could incorporate specific paragraphs from section 508 technical requirements that apply to the specific product under development, or it could require that specific user tasks must be able to be performed by a given population of users with specified functional capabilities and limitations.
During the product-specification phase, the functionality and appearance of the product is defined in accordance with the definition of product requirements. Personnel with expertise in UD must be available to assist in defining the specifications, reviewing the product specifications that affect accessibility, and determining whether the accessibility-related product requirements are met by the product specification. Major changes to the product design are unlikely after the product specification has been produced, so it is critical that accessibility be considered before moving on to the design phase.
During development, the design is conceptualized, produced, and prototyped. Typically, a project leader will arrange a multidisciplinary team that might involve members of engineering, computer science, industrial design, human factors, quality assurance, and marketing. At least one member of the development team should have an understanding of the accessibility issues related to the product under development. Iterative testing and development are important during this phase.
Companies participating in the industry study routinely performed usability testing, but they rarely included users with disabilities in usability testing and rarely conducted user testing for accessibility. Accessibility evaluations are different from standard usability evaluations in at least three ways. First, accessibility evaluations measure the degree to which a specific impairment restricts the operation of a device. In addition to measuring how effective a device is, usability evaluations also tend to measure customer satisfaction and efficiency. While satisfaction and efficiency data may be collected during an accessibility evaluation, this type of data is not the primary focus. A device that has usability issues may still remain accessible, as long as the usability problems do not disproportionably affect the ability of a user with an impairment to accomplish a given task. Second, accessibility evaluations are, in general, performance-based rather than subjective. The focus of an accessibility evaluation is generally on measuring functional performance. Finally, the primary motivation for performing an accessibility evaluation is compliance with government regulations. While technical standards and guidelines for usability certainly exist, there are few legal requirements that must be met in order for a device to be considered usable.
Federal procurement officers, in an attempt to comply with section 508, routinely request information about the accessibility of a product before a purchase. All the companies that participated in the industry study reported some level of UD or accessibility testing. However, the depth and breadth of the testing varied widely. Most testing was performed in order to fill out a voluntary product accessibility template. One company's engineering process required that a VPAT be constructed before launching the product. Although it is unlikely that an unfavorable evaluation would delay product launch, requiring the VPAT prior to launch does force the design team to consider accessibility. VPATs are often requested by federal procurement officers as part of their required market research. Two of the six companies performed quality assurance or requirements-verification testing as part of the normal design process.
Testing was generally restricted to an inspection for conformance with the technical requirements of section 508. Notably, the functional performance requirements of section 508 were often overlooked. The functional performance requirements are perceived as being difficult to test. The most effective method of testing these requirements involves user-in-the-loop testing with representative members of the disability community. Use of a task-based approach is critical to accurately measure accessibility and directly compare the accessibility of more than one similar product. None of the industry partners routinely performed user testing for the purpose of measuring conformance with the functional performance requirements of section 508.
The industry partners were split regarding a preference for internal or independent third-party testing. Three companies preferred to keep testing in-house, and three companies preferred to contract an independent lab to perform testing.
As with any kind of testing, accessibility evaluations are more effective if they are conducted in conjunction with an iterative design process. Testing can have the greatest impact on accessibility if people with disabilities are included in the evaluation process and have the opportunity to do early testing to facilitate design changes.
Demand is affected by consumer needs and interest as well as legislation requiring accessibility. Demand can influence the presence of UD features in three ways. First, consumers may voice their interest in products with accessibility features. If customer demand is great enough, companies are likely to address accessibility issues. Second, some companies primarily market to other companies. For example, cell phone manufacturers market their products to cellular network providers. The purchaser—the cellular network provider in this example—is in a strong position to pass along requirements for UD to the manufacturer. Finally, if enforceable legislation requires the government to purchase accessible products or requires a minimal level of accessibility, industry will not be able to ignore the need to incorporate accessibility features into its products.
However, legislation has not been extremely effective in increasing demand for accessible products. Many problems stem from conflicting requirements. Local and global requirements may differ. The business customer's requirements may differ from other requirements that support accessibility for the end-user. In addition, the regulations do not change as quickly as technology does, limiting the development of enhanced capabilities. Not all consumers have the latest version or model, rendering some applications inaccessible for those using older technologies. To complicate the issues further, the federal requirements are too general to be extremely useful and lend themselves to various interpretations. Some companies even misrepresent accessibility of their products; they claim to be 100 percent accessible but fail to deliver an accessible product or deliver only a partially accessible product.
One method of increasing demand involves adequate marketing of products with accessibility features. Often, companies develop products that have accessibility features, but they are not marketed as features that support the needs of a particular disability population. Unless the consumer does extensive research, it may not be evident that the features exist. Consumers do not always know what to ask for or how to ask, so unless the products are marketed appropriately or the sales staff are trained to identify features that may benefit a particular user, awareness of those features will remain low. Sales staff should be trained to discuss accessibility features with consumers, to spot consumers who may benefit from particular features, and to relay customer requests back to designers or another appropriate department in the company that will get those requests factored into design considerations.
Some companies do not have any forecasts for accessibility marketing. There is considerable recognition that the aging population is increasing and will need to be accommodated, though this is not addressed in the current marketing strategy. There is also increased recognition for accommodation of temporary disabilities resulting from a physical or mental impairment or from an environmental or situational limitation.
The final influences on accessibility are the customer—whether a business customer (for example, the carrier, in the case of cell phones) or the end-user. When a business customer is the major driver of product requirements, UD solutions are not likely to be integrated into a product if they are not requested.
End-users, including people with disabilities, can influence the design process by supporting companies in their efforts to generate products that include accessibility features. Customers can also influence the design process by making their problems and successes known to the companies so the designers can build on that knowledge and improve the process for future product development. However, there were few examples of customer feedback resulting in a change to the design of a product.
Many companies shy away from direct interaction with people with disabilities or disability advocacy groups. Companies often perceive that inclusion of people with disabilities is complicated, perhaps even aversive in nature. As an alternative, they sometimes have phone contact with accessibility organizations that assist them in understanding the needs of users with various functional limitations. The quantity and quality of the guidance received from the advocacy group is perceived to be largely dependent on who happens to answer the phone on a given day.
Companies are often hesitant about interaction with disability advocacy groups unless the technology they are developing is perceived to be accessible. Companies often seek an advocacy group's "stamp of approval" but rarely interact directly with the group to improve the accessibility of an inaccessible product. Some companies interact specifically with employees with disabilities but do not involve outside individuals. Other interaction is through conferences, workshops, and trade shows. Some companies perform user testing internally or through outside consultants, and this occasionally involves people with disabilities.
Analysis of the Industry Study Findings
All the companies that participated in the industry study have made strategic decisions to address the accessibility of their products and services. A few of the companies had long-standing accessibility programs that were reinvigorated by the technical requirements of section 508. Other companies initiated their accessibility activities while planning for their response to section 508. Regardless, section 508 has clearly had an impact on the way accessibility and UD are being addressed in industry. The most common approaches to addressing accessibility issues were—
Increasing the awareness of employees
All six companies in the industry study provided training, formally or informally, to a subset of their employees. Three of the companies have integrated accessibility guidance, particularly the technical requirements of section 508, into their design process. Four of the six companies performed accessibility verification testing for the purpose of generating a VPAT for federal procurement officials. Finally, three of the industry study partners established accessibility program offices to coordinate accessibility activities in the company.
The industry study has identified a number of situations in which UD principles have been successfully integrated into corporate culture; however, there are still numerous opportunities for improvement. First, government legislation has had an impact on the accessibility of E&IT but has fallen far short of its potential to inspire universally designed products. Second, the industry study identified a number of barriers to accessibility experienced by the study participants. Some issues were associated with specific industries; however, the vast majority of barriers are common to all industries represented by the six product lines selected for study. The potential to develop interventions that are likely to have a profound effect on a large number of companies producing E&IT products and services is significant.
A research project studying the barriers to UD was conducted from 1996 to 1998 by Dr. Pieter Ballon, Dr. Gerd Paul, Dr. Leslie Haddon, and Dr. Monique van Dusseldorp under the European Union's Telematics Applications for the Integration of Disabled People and the Elderly (TIDE) program. The team interviewed 68 managers from telecommunications, computer hardware, software, electronic commerce, public information services, Internet, broadcast, and interactive services firms. The interviewees were middle- and high-ranking managers from marketing, product management, design, and usability departments, primarily in the Netherlands, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Ballon's team found that there was a low awareness of UD among these upper- and mid-level managers. Few of them believed that UD would improve industry's development practices.
The researchers did find a number of positive factors. Many of the managers understood and appreciated the concept of UD, because it fit with their existing criteria for good design. At the same time, UD is compatible with trends in the IT industry to offer solutions that adapt to users' preferences, experience levels, and task requirements. Finally, the researchers found interest in the possibility of expanding markets to include older people and people with disabilities.
The researchers felt that the quality of marketing information concerning the needs of real and potential users was comparatively low in the E&IT industry compared with other, more mature consumer goods industries. In most E&IT industry sectors, information and guidelines on inclusive design are lacking. They found that larger companies have more means and procedures with which to consider the user and his or her needs in the design process than small enterprises, especially start-up firms in software and Web design.
The research identified nine types of barriers to the implementation of UD principles. At the most general level are barriers relating to a failure to sufficiently consider or involve any end-users in the design process. More important, companies fail to consider or involve older people and end-users with disabilities in the design process. Some general developments in the E&IT industry also have a negative impact on implementation: the speed of product development, market trends, and industry organization.
For this industry study, a list of potential barriers to UD was reviewed with each of the industry partners. The industry partners were asked to comment on their experiences and to report methods, if any, that were used to overcome the barriers. The purpose of the study was to build upon the findings of the TIDE program by reviewing an extensive list of accessibility barriers with E&IT companies competing in the U.S. market. The following barriers were common to most of the companies participating in the industry study:
Some people feel that the business case for UD and accessibility is weak.
There is a lack of realistic standards, guidelines, and principles for accessible design.
There is no standardized method of measuring accessibility or comparing the accessibility of two similar products.
Many feel that there is no clear definition of how accessible a product has to be to be considered an accessible design.
Often there is a lack of communication across departments regarding accessibility requirements.
Many companies lack accessibility champions who are in a position to influence company decisions.
Individuals with disabilities are not integrated into the design or evaluation processes.
Common barriers identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs:
Section 508 is either not being adhered to or is being adhered to inconsistently. Inconsistent application of section 508 by federal procurement officials was the most commonly heard complaint among the industry partners. As might be expected, the industry partners that did not market to the Federal Government were less concerned about section 508 issues.
Two of the industry partners did not market to the Federal Government, and four of the partners produced products that were directly marketed to the Federal Government. The industry partner representing a distance learning software company markets its products mainly to universities. The company perceived that it must conform with the technical requirements of section 508 because its customers were demanding conformance; however, the company was technically not obligated to develop products in conformance with section 508. The company made a decision to design to section 508 because its customers incorrectly assumed that section 508 applied to them because they received federal funding as public universities. The company representing cell phone manufacturing had little experience with section 508, mainly because it marketed its products almost exclusively to the cellular network carriers and did not feel much pressure to conform to section 508 requirements.
The four remaining companies that did market to the Federal Government expressed discontent with the way federal procurement officials have procured products and services under section 508. In general, companies responded to section 508 in one of two ways. Some adopted a "wait and see" attitude while minimally responding to the requirements of section 508. Such companies might produce VPATs, but they were unlikely to invest resources in developing products to conform to section 508 until the cost could be justified. Companies in this category have yet to experience either lost or increased sales to Federal Government customers because of section 508. There is a perception by some in industry that section 508 conformance is being "rubber stamped" by procurement officials and that the content of the VPAT is not important as long as a VPAT is offered.
Other companies have been very proactive in their response to section 508. Two of the companies in the industry study have incorporated section 508 requirements into their design process. However, at least one company is currently reconsidering its accessibility program investment in response to section 508 because it has not realized increased federal sales from its increase in overall accessibility. Furthermore, the company did not observe a reduction in federal sales for competitors that were perceived as producing less accessible products. In short, accessibility seems to have failed to become a key discriminator, as promised under section 508.
Some people feel that the business case for UD and accessibility is weak. All six companies reported that they struggled with the business case for universally designed products and services. Most companies could not report specific instances in which accessibility was a key discriminator in a federal procurement. In the absence of data suggesting that federal sales could be increased with UD or data suggesting that federal sales were at risk because of nonconforming products, companies were reluctant to use federal sales figures in developing a business case for UD.
A standard accessible design process has not been documented, tested, or verified. Several companies have attempted to integrate UD into their standard product development process. Process interventions typically include prompts to consider accessibility during design, the addition of accessibility requirements to requirements-definition documents, and limited testing with users with disabilities. However, no one has been able to determine if the interventions are sufficient or if additional interventions are required to produce accessible products and services. The impact of the integration of candidate accessibility interventions into the design process has not been studied extensively.
There is a lack of realistic standards, guidelines, and principles of accessible design. Accessibility design guidelines that are currently available are not sufficiently detailed to have a profound effect on the overall accessibility of all E&IT products. Some guidance does exist, such as the technical requirements associated with sections 508 and 255; however, the guidance is sometimes ambiguous or subject to alternative interpretations.
There is no standardized method of measuring accessibility or comparing the accessibility of two similar products. The industry partners struggled with the issue of measuring accessibility of products or comparing the accessibility of two similar products. An industry agreed-upon accessibility metric does not exist. In addition, industry has not identified a standard method of measuring accessibility. Currently, accessibility is measured only in terms of section 508 conformance. The VPAT is currently the agreed-upon vehicle for reporting accessibility. It does not, however, necessarily reflect the actual accessibility of the product it was created for, nor does the VPAT allow procurement officials to directly compare the accessibility of two similar products.
Many feel that there is no clear definition of how accessible a product has to be to be considered an accessible design.Many people see UD as a goal. The goal is to create a product that is usable by as many people in as many situations as possible. Given that complete accessibility is either impossible or cost-prohibitive, companies are struggling to determine just how accessible their products need to be to be considered accessible. The problem is compounded by the fact that companies do not have useful methodologies for measuring accessibility.
Often there is a lack of communication across departments regarding accessibility requirements. Communication between the accessibility program offices and other departments was limited by the resources of the program office. While some proactive outreach activities were observed, the accessibility program offices were generally reactionary in nature. Most of the decisions that affect accessibility take place within product design teams working on specific projects and outside the influence of the program office. Also, sales departments in two of the industry partners were not well connected with the personnel making decisions about new product development. In two companies, the demand for accessible products was great, but that demand was not communicated to the group defining the requirements for the next-generation products.
Many companies lack accessibility champions who are in a position to influence company decisions. Accessibility champions working within the companies participating in this study had diverse backgrounds and job responsibilities. The accessibility champion, to be truly effective, must be able to influence corporate decisions for the purpose of setting priorities and securing resources to further UD efforts.
Middle management often perceives accessible design to be in direct conflict with schedule and budget requirements.Project managers are responsible for making sure that a development project comes in on time and on budget. Because accessibility generally does not have a specific budget, the project manager perceives the research required to identify accessibility requirements and integrate them into the design as a threat to his or her objectives. If accessibility features can be developed without adversely affecting budget or schedule, they have a chance of being integrated into the product; however, accessibility activities are often the first to be cut if budget or schedule is threatened.
Individuals with disabilities are not integrated into the design or evaluation processes. Many of the industry partners did not include people with disabilities in either the design phase or the testing and evaluation phase of product development. Tight schedules or limited resources were the most common reasons cited for lack of integration of people with disabilities into the design process. Other problems exist because of the accessibility barriers themselves. For example, it would be difficult to find a user who is blind who has extensive experience with computer-based training software if computer-based training software is generally inaccessible to users who are blind. Also, very few users with disabilities are experienced in participating in design focus groups or accessibility evaluations. Industry partners that perform user testing with people with disabilities typically perform only very limited or sporadic testing.
ATM Industry UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the ATM industry were—
The cost of developing and fielding new technologies associated with accessibility is often seen as prohibitive.
Personnel responsible for making accessibility decisions often have little knowledge about accessibility or accessible design.
Barriers specific to the ATM industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
A standard accessible design process has not been documented, tested, or verified. Factors beyond the immediate control of manufacturers of ATMs often affect the accessibility of ATMs. For example, while the manufacturer supplies guidelines for placement of the ATM, the purchaser of the ATM may choose to install the ATM in an inaccessible location. Furthermore, the purchaser often insists on loading custom software onto the ATM that may or may not take advantage of the built-in accessibility features of the device.
Sometimes accessibility features are poorly communicated to the consumers who require the features. Some users may not be fully aware of the accessibility features available on ATMs. UD features may not be used if users are unable to identify ATMs that possess the features or understand how to use them. While manufacturers often create end-user instruction materials and product brochures, the applicability of the materials is limited by the extent of software customization performed by the purchaser.
The cost of developing and fielding new technologies associated with accessibility is often seen as prohibitive. ATMs represent a substantial investment for the purchaser. Replacement of ATMs is often cost-prohibitive or extremely difficult. Furthermore, the life expectancy of ATMs is such that they rarely need a full replacement. Product components are simply replaced as needed or as substantially upgraded functionality is made available. Accessibility enhancements are unlikely to justify replacement of an existing ATM or even provide justification for replacing key ATM components. However, if the accessibility enhancements are bundled with security or performance enhancements, purchasers may find the upgrade more attractive.
Personnel responsible for making accessibility decisions often have little knowledge about accessibility or accessible design. Banks may place the ATM in an inaccessible location, may design inaccessible screens, or may design the pathway to the ATM in such a way as to make it inaccessible.
Accessibility is often interpreted narrowly to include only physical access to the technology. During a normal design process, the total user experience is often considered; however, it may be overlooked when the design is focused on accessibility. For example, when addressing access issues for individuals in a seated position, the inability of the user to privately enter the user PIN is overlooked. A seated person cannot conceal the keypresses in the same manner as someone standing. Accessibility evaluations should address the total user experience and not just the physical access issues.
Cell Phone Industry UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the cell phone industry were—
Marketing and technology trends sometimes run counter to accessibility requirements.
The cost associated with purchasing accessible products is not affordable by people with disabilities.
Barriers specific to the cell phone industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
Marketing and technology trends sometimes run counter to accessibility requirements. Several marketing trends run counter to UD in cell phones. Miniaturization is currently driving the development of most cell phones. As the form factor of cell phones is reduced, the space available for both the display and the keypad is reduced. Users who have difficulty reading information on small displays or users who have difficulty selecting small keys have difficulty using small cell phones. In addition, there is a current trend to expand the capabilities of phones to include PDA functionality. The "smart phones" are controlled by complex menu structures that may be difficult for some users to navigate.
Sometimes accessibility features are poorly communicated to the consumers who require the features. Cell phone manufacturers build phones to the requirements specified by the carriers and often have little interaction with end-users. In general, the cellular network providers are the exclusive customers of the cell phone manufacturers. The cell phone manufacturers have little control over how their products are marketed to end-users. Therefore, accessibility features built into cell phones are often not communicated to the end-user.
Companies often do not know how to market to people with disabilities. In the cell phone industry, this issue applies to the cellular network providers rather than the manufacturers. The sales staff members of the cellular network providers are often not familiar with the accessibility features of the phones operating on their networks and are incapable of advising people with disabilities about their purchase decision.
The cost associated with purchasing accessible products is not affordable by people with disabilities. Accessibility features tend to be added to the high-end products, which are typically not subsidized by the carrier. Higher processing speeds and greater memory are often required to operate accessibility features such as voiced menu options. Phones containing adequate processing and storage resources tend to be relatively expensive. Customized third-party software designed to increase the accessibility of programmable phones is also expensive and therefore out of reach of most users with disabilities.
Distance Learning Software Industry UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the distance learning software industry were—
Designers lack an understanding of accessible design and what can be achieved if products are designed with accessibility in mind from the beginning.
The amount of time required to produce accessible products is prohibitive.
Barriers specific to the distance learning software industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
Designers lack an understanding of accessible design and what can be achieved if products are designed with accessibility in mind from the beginning. Although developers of the core distance learning software seem to understand and design for accessibility, the developers of course content may not have the same appreciation for UD. Professors, teachers, instructors, and teaching assistants are responsible for the development of the vast majority of distance learning course content. The content may consist of videotaped lectures, audiotapes, transcripts of lectures, PowerPoint presentations, PDF documents, multimedia presentations, streamed video, and electronic texts. Each content type is associated with very specific accessibility issues. For example, streamed video should be closed-captioned and, in some cases, audio described in order to be considered accessible. Unfortunately, few content providers are able to commit the necessary resources required to develop fully accessible content.
There is a lack of tools and resources useful for efficiently creating accessible products. The tools available to content providers offer little assistance in creating accessible content. Often content must be recoded manually in order to be accessible. For example, the effort required to design and develop an accessible slide presentation is often many times greater than the effort required to create the presentation without the accessibility features. Presentation software such as Microsoft's PowerPoint does not natively generate accessible content. Therefore, the content provider must work outside the presentation software to develop an accessible HTML representation of the original presentation.
The amount of time required to produce accessible products is prohibitive. It can take an experienced professional as much as 14 hours to caption 1 hour of video. Content providers simply do not have the time, resources, or tools to create fully accessible distance learning content.
PDA Industry UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the PDA industry were—
Barriers specific to the PDA industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
Marketing and technology trends sometimes run counter to accessibility requirements. The primary interface for most PDA devices, such as Palm OS or Pocket PC–based products, is a touch-sensitive stylus interface. The touch-sensitive interface, like the touchscreen interface, is not accessible to people who are blind. Low-vision users may find it difficult to use assistive technologies, such as a magnifying lens, while holding the device and using the stylus. Users with fine motor control limitations will find it extremely difficult to select items from the on-screen menus because of the precise motor control movements required to use a touch-sensitive stylus interface. Although the potential for use of a PDA by people with disabilities is great, the technology is currently inaccessible to many users.
Many of the elements needed for the development of an accessible PDA are already embedded in existing products. Technologies for voice recognition interfaces—such as microphones, speakers, storage, and a sufficiently fast processor to process the voice recognition algorithms—are generally built into many PDAs. However, the software required to fully implement the technology in an accessible manner has not yet been developed. As an alternative to using the stylus interface, some programs support navigation using the hardware keys found on many PDAs. Keypress navigation is available for some applications, but adoption of the alternative navigation scheme is not widespread among software developers.
Companies often do not know how to market to people with disabilities. Perhaps because of the inaccessibility inherent to the touch-sensitive stylus interface, the accessibility of mainstream PDAs seems to have been overlooked. Therefore, PDAs are generally not marketed to people with disabilities, nor is the potential for PDAs to improve the lives of people with disabilities recognized.
The cost associated with purchasing accessible products is not affordable by people with disabilities. While the cost of PDAs has been reduced, they still represent a substantial investment for consumers. People with disabilities are reluctant, and rightly so, to invest in technologies with unproven track records on accessibility. Accessible devices with PDA functionality, such as Freedom Scientific's PACMate, can cost up to 10 times the price of a standard PDA. Therefore, few people with disabilities are able to afford the devices without assistance.
Designers lack an understanding of accessible design and what can be achieved if products are designed with accessibility in mind from the beginning. Because of the touch-sensitive stylus interface, many see the PDA as inherently inaccessible, just as a digital camera is inherently inaccessible to a person who is blind. PDAs, particularly as storage capacities and processing power increase, are gradually becoming true handheld personal computers. It is reasonable to assume that a capable PDA could employ some of the same mechanisms for accessibility as personal computers. For example, voice displays used in conjunction with keypad navigation could be used in a similar manner to the way screen readers are used with personal computers. Voice recognition technologies could provide access to users who are unable to interact with the screen or keys. Screen magnifiers could be employed to assist users with low vision. Cooperation among hardware manufacturers, operating system developers, software application developers, and AT software developers will be needed to produce a fully accessible PDA. Currently, hardware manufacturers are reluctant to change their products unless the necessary accessibility features are built into the operating system and there is demand from software application developers.
Television Manufacturing Industry UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the television manufacturing industry were—
There is a lack of realistic standards, guidelines, and principles of accessible design.
Barriers specific to the television industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
Personnel responsible for making accessibility decisions often have little knowledge about accessibility or accessible design. Accessibility of television sets depends on the cooperation of television manufacturers, content distributors, and content developers. Television manufacturers are responsible for developing hardware designs to take advantage of accessibility features, such as closed-captioning and descriptive audio, added by content developers. Content distributors must be aware of the accessibility features and deliver the content so it does not interfere with these features. Design decisions made by television manufacturers, content distributors, and content developers often are made for technological, financial, or creative reasons without consideration for accessibility.
There is a lack of realistic standards, guidelines, and principles of accessible design. While standards and guidelines exist for some aspects of television accessibility, such as closed-captioning, very little guidance is available for the accessibility of most television components. For example, little if any guidance is available for the accessibility of remote controls or on-screen menus.
Voice Recognition Software UD Barriers. The most important barriers to UD expressed by the industry partner representing the voice recognition software industry were—
Barriers specific to the voice recognition software industry identified during the industry study are discussed in detail in the following paragraphs.
The technology required to produce accessible products is not available at a reasonable cost. Great advances in technology have improved both response time and accuracy of voice recognition software. However, frequent errors and recognition delays greatly affect the overall usability of voice recognition software. There are two basic types of voice recognition software. Natural language recognition software, such as Dragon Naturally Speaking or IBM ViaVoice, attempts to process and recognize a vast vocabulary of words. Such software can be used to navigate computer programs as well as produce text. In general, the user is required to tune the voice recognition software to the nuances of his or her voice in order to obtain acceptable levels of voice recognition accuracy. In contrast, limited vocabulary voice recognition software, such as an automated phone attendant, improves accuracy by constraining the number of words that the system can recognize. Limited vocabulary systems are speaker-independent and do not require tuning to the user's voice.
Natural language voice recognition software is still perceived as being too inaccurate and slow for use as an alternative to keyboard and mouse input. Users with disabilities who have used the technology in the past are reluctant to purchase additional software because of past disappointments. However, user perception of limited vocabulary voice recognition software is changing. Specialized voice recognition software can be embedded in common products such as digital copiers and public kiosks to provide access to a device that would otherwise be inaccessible.
The cost of developing and fielding new technologies associated with accessibility is often seen as prohibitive.Although the pathway to embedding voice recognition technology in common E&IT products is understood, implementation of the integration can be challenging. The embedded voice recognition system typically consists of a voice recognition algorithm, audio input and output circuitry, a processor to execute the voice recognition algorithms, and a software vocabulary. The audio circuitry and processor represent a nontrivial production cost. The cost to develop the voice recognition algorithms (or to license existing ones) and capture needed samples of the vocabulary can also be high.
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{"url":"http:\/\/www.mjdenny.com\/getting_started_with_GERGM.html","text":"# Background\n\nThis vignette is designed to introduce you to the GERGM R package. GERGM stands for Generalized Exponential Random Graph Model. This class of models was developed to characterize the structure of networks with real-valued edges. GERGMs represent a generalization of ERGMs, which were developed to model the structure of networks with binary edge values, and many network statistics commonly included in ERGM specifications have identical formulations in the weighted case. The relevant papers detailing the model can be found at the links below:\n\n\u2022 Bruce A. Desmarais, and Skyler J. Cranmer, (2012). \u201cStatistical inference for valued-edge networks: the generalized exponential random graph model\u201d. PloS One. [Available Here]\n\u2022 James D. Wilson, Matthew J. Denny, Shankar Bhamidi, Skyler Cranmer, and Bruce Desmarais (2017). \u201cStochastic weighted graphs: Flexible model specification and simulation\u201d. Social Networks, 49, 37\u201347. [Available Here]\n\u2022 Matthew J. Denny (2016). \u201cThe Importance of Generative Models for Assessing Network Structure\u201d. [Available Here]\n\n## Installation\n\nThe easiest way to do this is to install the package from CRAN via the standard install.packages command:\n\ninstall.packages(\"GERGM\")\n\nThis will take care of some weird compilation issues that can arise, and is the best option for most people. If you want the most current development version of the package, you will need to start by making sure you have Hadley Wickham\u2019s devtools package installed.\n\nIf you want to get the latest version from GitHub, start by checking out the Requirements for using C++ code with R section in the following tutorial: Using C++ and R code Together with Rcpp. You will likely need to install either Xcode or Rtools depending on whether you are using a Mac or Windows machine before you can install the GERGM package via GitHub, since it makes use of C++ code to speed up inference. That said, the development version often has additional functionality not found in the CRAN release.\n\ninstall.packages(\"devtools\")\n\nNow we can install from Github using the following line:\n\ndevtools::install_github(\"matthewjdenny\/GERGM\")\n\nOnce the GERGM package is installed, you may access its functionality as you would any other package by calling:\n\nlibrary(GERGM)\n\nIf all went well, check out the vignette(\"getting_started\") which will pull up this vignette!\n\n## Basic Usage\n\nWe begin by loading in some example network data. In our case, these data are (logged) aggregate public and private lending volumes between 17 large countries from 2005. The data are included in the GERGM package and were used in the Wilson et. al. study listed at the beginning of this vignette. In addition to the network (a square matrix) we are also going to load in some node-level covariate data, and a network covariate: the normalized net exports between these countries in 2005. WE will make use of this data in fitting our example GERGM model.\n\nThe GERGM package provides a plot_network() function, which we can use to visualize the network as follows:\n\nlibrary(GERGM)\nset.seed(12345)\ndata(\"lending_2005\")\ndata(\"covariate_data_2005\")\ndata(\"net_exports_2005\")\nplot_network(lending_2005) \n\nAlternatively, if we prefer a white background, and no legend, we can select options for this as well. Typing ?plot_network into the console will pull up a manual for this function.\n\nHaving plotted the raw network data, we can now proceed to model it using the gergm() function. Detailed documentation for this function (along with a large number of advanced options) can be accessed by typing ?gergm into the console. We are going to focus on a simpler version of the application from the Wilson et. al. paper, that will highlight creating a formula object with node and network level covariates, as well as endogenous (network) effects. While this model will not provide a perfect fit to the data, it serves to illustrate a number of key concepts. If we look at the first couple of rows of the covariate_data_2005 object, we can see that it include information about each country\u2019s log GDP and whether it was a member of the G8.\n\nhead(covariate_data_2005)\n## GDP log_GDP G8\n## ARG 2.229108e+11 26.13004 No\n## AUS 6.933386e+11 27.26478 No\n## BRA 8.921068e+11 27.51685 No\n## CAN 1.164144e+12 27.78301 Yes\n## PRC 2.268594e+12 28.45018 No\n## FRA 2.203679e+12 28.42115 Yes\n\nTo model this network, we are gong to include an edges term, which functions similarly to an intercept term in a regression model and parameterizes the density of the network. We are also going to include sender and receiver effects for a country\u2019s GDP. These effects are designed to capture the effects of having a large economy on the amount of lending a borrowing a country does. We are also going to include a Nodemix term to capture the propensity for members and non-members of the G8 to lend to each other, compared to the base case of non-G8 to non-G8 member lending. The final covariate effect we are going to include in the model is a netcov, or network covariate term, capturing the effect of the structure of the international trade network on the international lending network. Finally, we are going to include one endogenous statistic in the model, to capture the degree of reciprocal lending in the network. For this endogenous statistic, we are also going to include an exponential down-weight. this means that when the value of the network statistic is calculated, it will then be raised to the power of (in this case) 0.8. This will have the effect of reducing its value, but more importantly of smoothing out statistic values as the GERGM parameter controlling the propensity for mutual dyads in the network carries. Practically, this can make it easier to get starting values for the mutual dyads parameter that are in the right ball park, aiding in the estimation process. The formula object is defined below:\n\nformula <- lending_2005 ~ edges + mutual(alpha = 0.8) + sender(\"log_GDP\") +\nreceiver(\"log_GDP\") + nodemix(\"G8\", base = \"No\") + netcov(net_exports_2005) \n\nNote that the terms used in GERGM formulas are analogous to those used in the ergm package, and are documented in greater detail in the ?gergm help file.\n\nIf you are interested in experimenting, try setting alpha = 1 and rerunning the model. You will see lots of error messages, and output indicating that your parameter estimates have zoomed off to infinity. If you are familiar with ERGMs (for binary network data), you may have heard of an issue these models can run into called \u201cdegeneracy\u201d, which can make certain models impossible to estimate. In this particular example, as with all GERGM specifications we have tried so far, the GERGM does not seem to suffer from this issue. However, as the experiment described above can attest, GERGMs can still be difficult to estimate. This is primarily due to challenges in getting good starting values for our model parameters. The current implementation of the GERGM software does so using maximum pseudo likelihood (MPLE), which does a pretty good job in many cases. However, in some cases, such as the example here, it can be enough off the mark that the initial parameter guesses from MPLE simulate networks that look a lot different from the observed network. This can cause the optimizer in R (which is used to update our estimates of the model parameters) to zoom off to infinity.\n\nIf this happens to you, do not (immediately) panic! This usually means you are dealing with a tricky network, or a tricky specification (typically one with lots of endogenous statistics included). The first thing to do is try to use alpha weighting. A good rule of thumb is to set alpha = 0.8 for all of the endogenous statistics included in the model. Note that these currently include: out2stars, in2stars, ctriads, mutual, and ttriads (or just twostars and ttriads if your network is undirected). If this does not work, you can try cranking down the weights to around 0.5. If this still does not work, you will need to explore the theta_grid_optimization_list option in the gergm documentation, which should always work if given enough time (although this could be weeks, depending on how complex your model is). A fuller example is provided at the end of this vignette.\n\nHaving addressed the challenges that come with estimating a GERGM model, lets try and example!\n\ntest <- gergm(formula,\ncovariate_data = covariate_data_2005,\nnumber_of_networks_to_simulate = 40000,\nthin = 1\/100,\nproposal_variance = 0.05,\nMCMC_burnin = 10000,\nseed = 456,\nconvergence_tolerance = 0.5)\n\nThe output displayed in this vignette only includes diagnostic plots, and not all of the information that would be spit out by the gergm() function if you were to run this code on your computer. All of that output is meant to help you track the estimation process (which can take days or weeks for larger networks), and diagnose issues with the estimation. Note that if you wish to tweak some of the parameters in the diagnostic and estimate plots, you may do so and regenerate the plots after estimation is complete using the following functions:\n\n# Generate Estimate Plot\nEstimate_Plot(test)\n# Generate GOF Plot\nGOF(test)\n# Generate Trace Plot\nTrace_Plot(test)\n\nIn particular, we might want to make a nicer looking estimate plot. We can do this using the following block of code, where we leave out the intercept estimate, and provide a custom list of parameter names to produce a publication quality plot:\n\nEstimate_Plot(test,\ncoefficients_to_plot = \"both\",\n\"log(GDP) Sender\",\n\"intercept\",\n\"Normalized Net Exports\",\n\"Dispersion Parameter\"),\nleave_out_coefficients = \"intercept\")\n\nIn order to verify the claim made earlier in this vignette that the current model is not degenerate, just hard to fit, we can generate a hysteresis plot for this model using the hysteresis() function. This function simulates large numbers of networks at parameter values around the estimated parameter values and plots the mean network density at each of these values to examine whether the model becomes degenerate due to small deviations in the parameter estimates. See the following reference for details:\n\n\u2022 Snijders, Tom AB, et al. \u201cNew specifications for exponential random graph models.\u201d Sociological methodology 36.1 (2006): 99-153.\n\nSo long as we see a smooth upward sloping series of points, we have strong evidence that the specification is not degenerate.\n\n# Generate Hysteresis plots for all structural parameter estimates\nhysteresis_results <- hysteresis(test,\nnetworks_to_simulate = 1000,\nburnin = 300,\nrange = 8,\nsteps = 20,\nsimulation_method = \"Metropolis\",\nproposal_variance = 0.05)\n\nAs we can see this specification does not display signs of degeneracy, even though we needed to use exponential down-weighting in order to fit the model.\n\n### Edge Prediction\n\nFollowing on from the example above, we can also predict individual edge values, conditioning on the rest of the observed edges and estimated parameters. We can then calculate the mean edgewise mean squared error (MSE) for these predictions, and compare it against the MSE from a null model with no parameters included. First we generate the conditional edge predictions:\n\ntest2 <- conditional_edge_prediction(\nGERGM_Object = test,\nnumber_of_networks_to_simulate = 100,\nthin = 1,\nproposal_variance = 0.05,\nMCMC_burnin = 100,\nseed = 123)\n\nNext we can calculate the MSE of these predictions and compare it to the null model predictions.\n\nMSE_results <- conditional_edge_prediction_MSE(test2)\n## Mean MSE for Predicted Edge Values: 8099.79\n## Mean MSE for Max Ent Predicted Edge Values: 42927.12\n## This represents a 81.13 percent reduction in the average edgewise MSE when using the GERGM model.\n\nAs we can see, this model does significantly better in terms of conditional edgewise predictive performance than the null model.\n\n### Correlation Matrix Estimation Functionality\n\nThe GERGM development team has recently added functionality to estimate GERGMs on correlation matrices, as well as simulation functionality. The GERGM can therefore be used both to assess the structural properties of correlation matrices, but also as an infinitely flexible prior for correlation matrices. To access the this functionality, set the optional argument beta_correlation_model = TRUE. Covariate effects are modeled using a Beta regression and then the correlation matrix is transformed onto an unconstrained space of matrices on [0,1], where stadard GERGM modeling takes place. The resulting simulated networks can then be transformed back onto the correlation space. Correlation matrix estimation functionality is the same as with other undirected networks. More information on this model will be made available in mid 2017 with the publication of a paper that is now under review. Please contact the package maintainer with further questions.\n\n set.seed(12345)\n# Function to generating a random positive-definite matrix with user-specified\n# positive eigenvalues. If eigenvalues are not specified, they are generated\n# from a uniform distribution.\nPosdef <- function (n, ev = runif(n, 0, 10)) {\nZ <- matrix(ncol=n, rnorm(n^2))\ndecomp <- qr(Z)\nQ <- qr.Q(decomp)\nR <- qr.R(decomp)\nd <- diag(R)\nph <- d \/ abs(d)\nO <- Q %*% diag(ph)\nZ <- t(O) %*% diag(ev) %*% O\nreturn(Z)\n}\n\n# Generate eignevalues\nx <- rnorm(10)\n# generate a positive definite matrix\npdmat <- Posdef(n = 10)\n# transform to correlations\ncorrelations <- pdmat \/ max(abs(pdmat))\ndiag(correlations) <- 1\nnet <- (correlations + t(correlations)) \/ 2\n\ncolnames(net) <- rownames(net) <- letters[1:10]\n\n# correlation GERGM specification\nformula <- net ~ edges + ttriads\n\n# model should run in under a minute\ntest <- gergm(formula,\nestimation_method = \"Metropolis\",\nnumber_of_networks_to_simulate = 100000,\nthin = 1\/100,\nproposal_variance = 0.2,\nMCMC_burnin = 100000,\nseed = 456,\nconvergence_tolerance = 0.5,\nbeta_correlation_model = TRUE)\n\n## Common Problems and Errors\n\nERGMs and GERGM tend to be more challenging to fit to real world data than many other classes of models, due to the dependence between observations. We have sought to make the GERGM package as easy to use as possible, but it is likely that the user may still encounter some difficulties in fitting complex models, especially to large networks. Below, we outline several common challenges and errors a user may encounter and our advice for dealing with them. As a general note, always make sure the verbose option is set to TRUE when you are trying to diagnose any estimation problems, as this will give you much more information to work with.\n\n\u2022 Time: The GERGM naturally has at least order N squared time complexity (where N is the number of nodes in the network), which means that runtime increases exponentially as the network gets bigger. It may also take a large number of iterations for the model to reach the target distribution (a long burnin), and a large number of parameter updates for the model to converge. It is not uncommon for the model to run for a week or two, even on networks as small as 50 nodes. Runtime can also be dramatically increased by using some of the features we have built to aid in model fitting. To some degree, this is just part of the process, and the user should plan to run their analyses on a computer that will not be unplugged or restarted for a few weeks. Additionally, the user may use parallelization to help speed up this process. By setting parallel_statistic_calculation = TRUE and the cores argument to a number greater than one, a speedup in estimation may be achieved, particularly for larger networks (more than 50 nodes).\n\u2022 Zero Acceptance Rate: The Metropolis Hastings estimation algorithm works by simulating a large sample of networks from the GERGM generative process to approximate the normalizing constant. However, if the proposal_variance is too large or the model is very complex, then the algorithm may never be able to accept a new network proposal, which will cause the estimation procedure to fail. This will be evidenced by the following line in the model output, near where an error occurs Metropolis Hastings Acceptance Rate (target = 0.25 ): 0. The error that actually stops estimation will usually be of the form: Error in if (abs(geweke_stat) > 1.7) { : because all network samples will be identical, so the convergence diagnostic statistic will be undefined. To deal with this error, try reducing the proposal variance by at least an order of magnitude. You can also set hyperparameter_optimization = TRUE, and the software will try to find an optimal proposal variance for you. However, you can speed things up by reducing the initial proposal variance yourself.\n\u2022 Poor Initialization: While Wilson et al. (2017) show that the GERGM does not seem to exhibit classical likelihood degeneracy for most model specifications, if a particularly bad initialization for the parameters is selected by MPLE, then the Metropolis Hastings procedure may simulate networks such that the observed network is outside the convex hull of the simulated networks. If this happens, the optim function in R (which we use to update the parameter estimates) will tend to zoom off to infinity in an effort to correct the error, and the estimation procedure will crash. This is desirable behavior because such parameter estimates (on the order of 1,000,000,000) will be meaningless. You can tell that the model is displaying this sort of behavior if the final value after the line reading Optimizing theta estimates... in the R output is equal to something like -100000000000. One way to deal with this is to set hyperparameter_optimization = TRUE, which will try to automatically apply exponential down weights, optimize the proposal variance, and increase the number of iterations (but only if stop_for_degeneracy = FALSE, the default value) until the model is able to simulate networks where the observed network is inside the convex hull of simulated networks. Alternatively, the theta_grid_optimization_list option may be used, as in the example in the next section. This is a brute force approach which basically tries a number of parameter combinations around the MPLE estimates to find a combination that is good enough that the optimizer can do its work. The downside si that this requires a lot of computational power (and time), but this slowdown and be dramatically reduced by using multiple cores and parallelization. Adding more node level covariate effects to the model may also increase stability, but should not be done if those covariates are not theoretically justified.\n\nWhile the above issues are not an exhaustive list, they are the most common ones we have encountered. Please check that your issue does not fall under one of the above categories (or that the solution described above does not work) before contacting the package maintainer.\n\n## Bonus: A More Complex Model\n\nHere we have included code to run the full model which appears in the Wilson et al. paper. It requires a 30 core machine to run as currently specified, and can take several days to weeks to run, depending on your computer setup. We include this more complex specification to highlight the flexibility the GERGM package gives users to deal with more difficult to model data. These more advanced features are covered in the ?gergm documentation, and will be the subject of future vignettes.\n\nformula <- net ~ mutual(0.8) + ttriads(0.8) + out2stars(0.8) +\nsender(\"log_GDP\") + netcov(net_exports) +\nreceiver(\"log_GDP\") + nodemix(\"G8\", base = \"No\")\n\nresult <- gergm(formula,\ncovariate_data = covariate_data_2005,\nnumber_of_networks_to_simulate = 400000,\nthin = 1\/100,\nproposal_variance = 0.05,\nMCMC_burnin = 200000,\nseed = 456,\nconvergence_tolerance = 0.8,\nhyperparameter_optimization = TRUE,\ntarget_accept_rate = 0.25,\nweighted_MPLE = TRUE,\ntheta_grid_optimization_list = list(grid_steps = 2,\nstep_size = 0.1,\ncores = 30,\niteration_fraction = 1))","date":"2017-11-20 18:44:36","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.5669955611228943, \"perplexity\": 1169.2357008611011}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2017-47\/segments\/1510934806124.52\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20171120183849-20171120203849-00278.warc.gz\"}"}
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You are here: Home / Blog / Here's a Closer Look at Downtown's Drake Bridge Commons Project
Here's a Closer Look at Downtown's Drake Bridge Commons Project
James Rambin April 30, 2019 Comment
The Drake Bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake. That's the W Austin in the background. Image: Wikimedia Commons
The bridge carrying First Street across Lady Bird Lake has held the official title of the "Drake Bridge" for 63 years of its 65-year existence — in other words, not exactly breaking news. Still, I'd bet my life that a vast majority of Austinites have no idea this is the case, perhaps even many of the people who were actually alive during the mayoral term of William Sherman Drake, Jr., who held office here at the time of the bridge's completion in 1954.
A post shared by The Trail Foundation (@thetrailfoundation)
This uphill battle of public awareness is currently a major concern for the folks at the Trail Foundation, the organization tasked with the stewardship of Austin's much-loved Hike and Bike Trail. The foundation, which recently celebrated its 15th anniversary, is preparing to kick off the first project under the umbrella of its Corgan Canopy Fund initiative — the Drake Bridge Commons, an effort to revitalize the area of the trail beneath the bridge on the north shore of the lake.
The current state of the trail segment underneath the Drake Bridge. Image: The Trail Foundation
"Most Austinites know Drake Bridge as the 1st Street Bridge, and there is little sense of the Trail at Drake Bridge as a place or destination."
— The Trail Foundation
At present, this space is unlit, undeveloped, and relatively forgettable — a condition that, for what it's worth, reflects the bridge's own current anonymity in terms of low public awareness regarding its name or historic context.
A current view from the shore at the space underneath the Drake Bridge. Image: The Trail Foundation
With the help of Los Angeles-based design firm Rios Clementi Hale Studios, which established an Austin office earlier this year, the foundation recently unveiled two potential design concepts for improving the area underneath and around the bridge, creating a more memorable public space for downtown by literally bringing this part of the trail out of the shadows.
At a public engagement event held at the space last weekend, representatives of the foundation and RCH Studios presented their visions in an unorthodox way. Sure, they had renderings of the concepts on big boards like we're used to, but they also hired a trio of improv actors to portray three historic Austinites — the aforementioned Mayor William Drake, Emma Long, and Walter Seaholm — all of whom played roles in local politics during the time of the bridge's construction.
It's kinda like that time Jim hired a Ben Franklin impersonator to troll Dwight, but it's probably a better way to get people involved than making them stare at a bunch of boards. Anyway, here's a closer look at the two design options for the Drake Bridge Commons, as presented last weekend:
Option One – "Drake Dock"
Click for a larger view. Image: Austin Parks and Recreation / The Trail Foundation / Rios Clementi Hale Studios
The centerpiece of this design, as implied by the name, is a set of dock structures that extend diagonally into the lake on both sides from underneath the bridge. The western "dry" dock is designed for lake access, offering city views and easy kayak launches, while the eastern "wet" dock is partially submerged and enables a wetland environment with aquatic plants and more limited access via stepping stones.
The materials of the dock extend to the area underneath the bridge itself, which the plan describes as a "sanctuary," providing a lot of seating and climbable surfaces, along with space for potential events or other activation. The slide below also gives us a better view of the "wet" dock area:
For safety purposes as well as fun, the space under the bridge will include dramatic lighting, as seen in the night shot provided below — along with an actual climbing wall, which will probably appeal to both kids and inner kids:
Option Two – "Drake Rock"
The "Drake Rock" design, focused on ecology and downtown access, feels more restrained than the dock option — though its improvements are equally expansive.
This plan would create a series of terraces on the eastern side of the bridge connecting the area to downtown, with a focus on landscaping including climbable rocks and other natural features. Lighting and water elements — as in, stuff kids can play with — are also listed as priorities for this configuration.
The space underneath the Drake Bridge itself also feels slightly more restrained than the other configuration, with an amphitheater space and seating permitting event programming, plus lighting, a boat launch, and a possible concessions area.
While both designs would obviously be huge improvements for the area, we're not afraid to wear our hearts on our sleeve regarding our favorite between the two — it's absolutely Drake Dock. The dock configuration is a truly inspired piece of design that meaningfully connects its visitors to the physical environment of Lady Bird Lake, and its features remind us of our favorite unused proposals from back in 2013 for the adaptive reuse of the Seaholm Intake.
Bottom line, either proposal will make the Drake Bridge a destination in its own right, but for us, the winner is clear. Anyway, you've got until May 13 to make us proud by taking the Trail Foundation's survey on your preferred design for this space — either by clicking this link or filling out the form below:
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Taking a Train to New York City
United States New York New York City
All New York City
Trains offer stress-free travel to New York City
Heather Cross
Heather Cross is a longtime New York resident who has written about the city since 2002. She is also a travel agent and NYC & Company-certified New York City specialist.
Vin Ganapathy
Trains can be a great way to travel to New York City. For visitors from nearby states like Connecticut (and of course, New Jersey), commuter trains offer convenient, affordable access to the city without the hassle of driving through the city or the expense of parking once you arrive. For visitors coming from further away, train travel offers travelers a great chance to see the United States up-close and is an adventure in itself. It's also a good option for people who are scared of flying, who want to reduce their carbon footprint, or who appreciate the convenience of arriving directly into the city center, since NYC-area airports are all located outside of Manhattan. Train travel is also getting faster and more comfortable as companies are investing more in maintaining and expanding railways.
Pros of Train Travel
Flexibility in travel plans—other than at peak travel times (holidays, especially Thanksgiving/Christmas), it's usually pretty easy to book a last minute train trip. It's also easier to change your departure time or cancel the trip without extravagant fees.
Quicker travel times than buses, as they aren't affected by traffic.
No need to make your way from the airport to the city, as trains bring you directly to the city center.
Higher chance of having a row to yourself,
Food service and sleeping accommodations on longer routes.
More opportunity to see the country's landscapes.
Reliable Wi-Fi available on most long routes from departure to arrival.
Cons of Train Travel
Expensive—depending on when you buy your ticket, it can be cheaper to fly than to take the train long distances.
Limited space to walk around, on certain trains.
Longer travel times than planes.
Long distance service can have limited availability/scheduling.
Commuter trains can be crowded at peak times.
What To Know About Train Travel to NYC
Reserving seats on commuter trains is not possible—arrive early at peak times to get a seat.
Some Amtrak trains offer or require seat reservations.
Commuter trains offer discounts during off-peak times and on weekends.
You may be asked to present photo ID when boarding Amtrak.
Commuter trains don't have checked luggage facilities or luggage assistance.
Most trains have a bathroom on board.
On long train rides, there is often food service in a designated food car.
Trains allow you to bring along your own food and non-alcoholic beverages on board.
Many commuter rail stations offer free parking on weekends—check in advance to find out parking policies if you plan to park at a station.
National Train Services
Amtrak: Amtrak is the United States largest train network—with a 22,000-mile route system including 500 stations in 46 states. Long distance routes typically offer dining cars and sleeping accommodations. There are also rail passes available for International visitors and other travelers looking to explore the United States and/or Canada. Trains arrive at New York City's Penn Station. There are 14 Amtrak routes that connect to New York City. If New York is one of several cities you plan to visit you can purchase a multi-city pass. To save a bit of money, there is a 25 percent discount on regional tickets purchased at least 14 days in advance and cross-country travelers can get a discount by purchasing a USA Rail Pass.
Commuter Train Services
Long Island Rail Road: Daily commuter service from Long Island and Brooklyn into New York City's Penn Station.
MetroNorth: Daily commuter service from north of New York City, including upstate New York and Connecticut into Grand Central Terminal
New Jersey Transit: Daily commuter service from throughout New Jersey, including connections to Philadelphia arriving in New York City's Penn Station. Service also connects to Newark Airport.
PATH: Daily commuter service from several New Jersey cities through Manhattan. There are three lines and six stops in Manhattan.
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How to Get from Washington, D.C. to NYC by Car, Bus, Train, or Plane
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4 Ways to Travel Between NYC and Hartford
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How to Get From Heathrow to Gatwick
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| 7,807
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Q: cocoa-applescript: Determinate progress indicator I am making an application using Cocoa-Applescript which identifies local IP addresses which are up and running, by pinging x.y.z.[1-255] and appends running IPs to a text file. I already have a GUI for choosing x, y and z and have already made the script to ping each address:
repeat 255 times
try
do shell script "ping -o -t 1 -c 1 " & ipstamp & num4
do shell script "echo " & ipstamp & num4 & " >>/Users/DJ/Desktop/GoodIPs.txt"
end try
set num4 to (num4 + 1)
end repeat
Where ipstamp is x.y.z and num4 is the [1-255]. But now I want a progress indicator to show where it is up to in the process. I know how to get an indeterminate indicator which simply starts and stops:
ProgressBar's startAnimation_(ProgressBar)
## code to ping IP address
ProgressBar's stopAnimation_(ProgressBar)
But that is only indeterminate and I can not find any info on setting determinate ones in Cocoa-Applescript, setting their maximum steps and setting their current step - much like in regular Applescript's:
set progress total steps to x
set progress completed steps to y
Except it is in the GUI, and so i need to use NSProgressIndicators to do it. So summed up, how do you make a determinate progress bar, how do you set its total steps and how do you update its current step?
EDIT
It can be changed to determinate in the menu builder's Attribute Inspector, as can max, min and current steps. However I do need to be able to change the maximum and current steps from within the script, so those still apply.
A: Well you can make a Determinate progress indercator but the problem is you have to repeat telling it to go to a certain lenght by using the
setDoubleValue_()
message, but anyway here is a simple script to tell it to go to go up to 100
property MyProgressBar : missing value -- Progress Bar IB Outlet
on applicationWillFinishLaunching_(aNotification)
set c to 0
repeat 100 times
set c to c + 1
delay 0.2
tell MyProgressBar to setDoubleValue_(c) -- Tells Progress bar the % to go to
if c > 99 then
exit repeat -- If current repeat is 100 or more then cancels adding more
end if
end repeat
end applicationWillFinishLaunching_
Hope this helped!
A: just do:
set progress total steps to -1
-- do something
set progress total steps to 0
Remember, that the visualization depends on how the script is executed.
|
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| 6,993
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{"url":"https:\/\/socratic.org\/questions\/how-do-you-write-0-007-in-scientific-notation","text":"# How do you write 0.007 in scientific notation?\n\nJul 13, 2015\n\nFor scientific notation you need one non-zero digit in front of the decimalpoint.\n\n#### Explanation:\n\nIn order to get there you have to move the dp 3 places to the right, in other words, you can rewrite as:\n\n$= \\frac{7}{1000} = \\frac{7}{10} ^ 3 = 7 \\cdot {10}^{-} 3$","date":"2022-10-02 03:41:16","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 1, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 1, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.6179805994033813, \"perplexity\": 506.48001291431007}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 20, \"end_threshold\": 5, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2022-40\/segments\/1664030337244.17\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00191.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
Running USA Announces Rising Star and Women's Leadership Awards Nomination Window is Open
Honorees will be feted at the 2020 Industry Conference in Las Vegas, Feb. 9-11, 2020
(Oct. 4, 2019) – Running USA is pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the Rising Star Awards and the Women's Leadership Award.
These prestigious awards are two of 5 that will be presented at the largest running industry conference in the world. This year's conference is set for Feb. 9-11, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Rising Star Award honors an up-and-coming professional in the running industry. This honor recognizes a professional in the sport who has demonstrated strong leadership, initiative, entrepreneurship and exceptional contributions early in their career.
Pete Hess of San Diego Running was the 2019 recipient of the Rising Star Award. He commented:
"I was blown away to receive the Rising Star Award at the 2019 Running USA Conference. To be recognized in a room full of individuals who have had and continue to have such a major impact on the running industry was a great honor. We've taken great strides over the years at San Diego Running Co. which is a testament to the teachings and collaboration of ideas that we've been a part of each year at the Running USA Conference."
Nominate a Rising Star Award candidate here.
The Women's Leadership Award honors a woman who has been a leader and a pioneer in the sport and has served the sport with distinction,
Amy Frostick, co-owner of J&A Racing, was the 2019 recipient of the Women's Leadership Award. She commented:
I was honored to receive the Women's Leadership Award in 2019 to be included with a select group of inspirational women. This was one of my highlights of my running industry career. Thank you, Running USA, for all you do for our sport."
Nominate a Women's Leadership Award candidate here.
Nominations for other conference awards are upcoming and open. The Allan Steinfeld Conference Scholarship is now open for nominations. The Hall of Champions and Youth Award nomination period will open soon.
Nomination submissions for the Conference Scholarship program must be completed by Friday, Nov. 8 at 5pm EST.
If you have any questions about the awards program, please contact Leah Etling at leah@runningusa.org
About the Industry Conference
Since its origins as a small gathering of Running USA's founders in Southern California in 2004, the Running USA annual conference has grown to becoming the best-attended, most esteemed gathering of running industry professionals from around the USA and the world. Now moving locations each year, the conference has been held in Los Angeles, San Diego, Savannah, Houston, San Antonio, Orlando, New Orleans, San Juan, Puerto Rico and now Las Vegas, Nevada. Register here.
About Running USA
Running USA is a tax-exempt, not-for-profit organization devoted to improving the status and experience of distance running and racing in the United States through collective marketing and promotions, information and communications within the industry and to the national media, services to events and industry members, and the development of American world class stars. It seeks the advancement of the sport and the provision of value to each of its members' events and businesses. For more information, visit RunningUSA.org
|
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| 7,108
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Kaku: 画 (かく) - stroke (of a kanji, etc.), picture, drawing
https://kaku.fuwafuwa.ca/
Kaku is a fast, powerful Japanese dictionary that stays on top of all your apps. It uses optical character recognition (OCR) technology to recognize kanji on the device screen for you (rather than the slowww tedious process of looking up individual characters manually), making it perfect for Japanese learners who want to study by reading raw manga, play untranslated games, and so on without the hassle of switching apps.
[<img src="https://fdroid.gitlab.io/artwork/badge/get-it-on.png"
alt="Get it on F-Droid"
height="80">](https://f-droid.org/packages/ca.fuwafuwa.kaku/)
[<img src="https://play.google.com/intl/en_us/badges/images/generic/en-play-badge.png"
alt="Get it on Google Play"
height="80">](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.fuwafuwa.kaku)
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
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| 3,921
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They Went To Bat For Our Country, Time To Round The Bases For Our Military
Home » They Went To Bat For Our Country, Time To Round The Bases For Our Military
Photo courtesy of TK Klund
By Kim Constantinesco
A crack of the bat, a ball to the mitt, a slide into home. Of all the sounds, the most meaningful one on a late August afternoon was that of the national anthem.
Two teams, the PX3 Patriots and the Danny Dietz Frogmen, stepped onto the diamond for a charity softball game in Colorado Springs, Colo. to support combat veterans, and really, to back all of those who go to bat for our country.
Veterans with prosthetic legs and scars from violent burns and bombs took on former athletes and celebrities like Evan Oglesby, who once suited up for the Dallas Cowboys, and Chris Browning, who played "Morrison" in Terminator Salvation.
Of course a win would mean bragging rights, but what this game was all about was raising money for the PX3 Foundation, which empowers veterans with evidenced-based solutions that improve physical and mental health.
Like a Ninja
Tim "T.K." Klund was stationed in Colorado Springs with the Air Force before becoming a director at the PX3 Foundation.
He and the PX3 Foundation are donating breathing orthotics to combat veterans to improve their overall health.
"It's a bite regulator," Klund said. "The U.S. Air Force Academy Human Performance Lab was able to prove that the PX3 Bite Regulator can increase the VO2 max in the athlete and in the warrior by substantially more than 5%. When people get more oxygen to the brain and body, they get better sleep, helps with overall recovery and it makes the body more efficient."
With the money raised through the softball game, PX3 will be able to fit more than 50 combat veterans for bite regulators — a home run in anyone's book.
Photo courtesy of Tim Klund
The first PX3 Patriots Celebrity Softball Game was held in Houston in 2015, with Marcus Luttrell and the Lone Survivor Foundation.
The event was made free to the public in Colorado Springs as a way to give back to the military community, showcasing gratitude to its military men and women serving, as well as their families. It went so well that the PX3 Foundation planned two more games for 2016 — one in Colorado Springs and one in Dallas on October 29.
PX3 partnered with the Danny Dietz Memorial Fund for the Colorado Springs game. The organization, named after U.S. Navy SEAL Danny Dietz, who was killed in action in 2005, enriches the lives of young people through strenuous physical and mental training.
Dietz, a native of Colorado, was a member of SEAL Team 10, which was featured in the movie, Lone Survivor. He was the first SEAL killed during the team's mission to capture a high-ranking Taliban leader.
"I don't think anything else in life would have fit him," his sister, Tiffany Dietz-Bitz said. "From a very young age, he made the decision he wanted to do something. First he thought he was going to be a ninja when he grew up. When he grew up and realized he couldn't actually be a ninja for work, he chose the next best thing — being a Navy Seal."
Former Sergeant Justin Feagin spent six years in the Army, with two deployments to Iraq (2007) and Afghanistan (2010). During his final deployment, he was hit by a dismounted IED.
"I lost my left leg below my knee," Feagin said. "I had shrapnel damage all over, I fractured several fingers on both hands, and I lost my hearing in my right ear."
Feagin grew up playing sports, so his rehabilitation was focused on getting him "back out there."
And the PX3 Patriots' annual softball game has been a great testing ground.
"I get to come out and play for a team of like-minded veterans," Feagin said. "It's cool to have something like this to look forward to.
"I wear my PX3 daily when sleeping and working out, and for sure when I'm playing softball," Feagin added. "It has made a tremendous difference in my life."
Eric Morante, a retired Marine Corp. sergeant feels the same way. He served for three and a half years before a truck carrying 3,000 pounds of explosives detonated underneath a bridge he and his team were on just outside of Fallujah, Iraq in 2007.
With the bridge crumbling on top of them, Morante lost his leg, shattered his wrist and cheek bones, broke his jaw and his teeth, and suffered a scratched cornea. Multiple surgeries and years of rehabilitation have allowed him to start playing sports again.
In fact, Morante is a big-time boxer, who started a nonprofit called the National Amputee Boxing Association, which is the first in the U.S. allowed to promote amateur boxing for amputee athletes.
"I'm very grateful because we're not being treated like the Vietnam vets, who have paved the way for us," Morante said. "I'd love to get the public more involved with the guys that are coming back from overseas. I've been trying to showcase that even though we're injured, we can still get out there and be part of the community and be accepted. We can still fight — fight for a cause."
Eric Morante having some fun at the game. Photo: Reflections by Rachel
Freedom That's Not Free
Former pro baseball player and current CEO of Athletes Brand Kyle Mauch flew in from Arizona to lace up his cleats for the cause. His grandfather was a WWII veteran on the U.S.S. Carolina.
"I really want anything to do with helping the veterans," Mauch said. "Opportunities like this game is where it's more personal. You see veterans face-to-face. You see that they're actually sacrificing. Until you see the injuries that they have, there's no way to relate or understand, so this is an opportunity to be part of something special."
Former NFL player Evan Oglesby hopped on a flight from his home in Georgia to take part. He wore the PX3 Bite Regulator during his final years in the NFL, so he knows what the veterans are getting.
"I can tell you there is a noticeable difference when wearing your PX3 and when you aren't wearing it."
Because Oglesby believes in what the company is offering, he was willing to drop everything to make sure our country's bravest are taken care of.
"You see these soldiers, putting their life on the line and they're coming back minus something [a limb] that they went over there with," Oglesby said. "You have people over here on our side, and they're taking life for granted. I'm learning a lot from these guys and how they overcome adversity."
That's the thing. Many U.S. citizens don't understand what goes into making country "free."
"So many times, people take for granted the luxuries we have in life," Dietz-Bitz said. "We forget about those who are out there putting their life on the line and sacrificing so that we can continue to have the life that we do. We need to make people aware that the fight is still going on out there."
"I believe we as a community need to let the military know that they're appreciated," Tiffany and Danny Dietz's mother, Cindy, added. "Freedom is not free. There is someone out there every day paying the price."
And that's the truth.
To learn more about the PX3 bite regulator, visit www.px3.com for more information on the product.
By Kim Constantinesco|2016-09-08T10:37:09+00:00September 8th, 2016|The Big Play|Comments Off on They Went To Bat For Our Country, Time To Round The Bases For Our Military
|
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| 5,487
|
Raquel Pierotti (born December 17, 1952, Montevideo, Uruguay) is a mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in coloratura roles in the Rossini and Handel repertoire.
Biography
Raquel Pierotti was born in Montevideo, Uruguay where she got her graduation at the National Opera School and made her operatic debut in 1973 as Damigella nuziale in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro. During the next six years she worked in many operatic productions singing Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Rigoletto as well as in many chamber and symphonic concerts. She won the First Prize in the "Maurice Ravel National Contest" and in the "Artigas - Washington Contest". In 1979 she moved to Spain. She won the "Plácido Domingo Award" in 1979 and the 2º Grand Prix in 1980 both in the "Francisco Viñas Singing Competition". In the same year she won the First Prize in the "Mozart Singing Competition" organized by Barcelona's Mozarteum and the Gold Medal from Radio Nacional de España (Spanish National Broadcasting) given to the most promising debutant of the season.
In 1980 made her operatic début in Spain at the Gran Teatro del Liceo in Barcelona as Lola in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana. The following year she made her European débuts at the Opera de Paris as Rosina in Rossini's Barber of Seville, as well as at La Scala, Milan, as Marcellina in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro. Since then she has been a frequent guest at La Scala where she sang Clarice in La pietra del paragone (Rossini), Smeton in Anna Bolena (Donizetti), Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Rossini), Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Maddalena in Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini), Cecilio in Lucio Silla (Mozart), and Fenena in Nabucco (Verdi) for the 1986/1987 Season Opening Night as well as in the tournées in Berlin, Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Yokohama) and Bulgaria (Sofia, Varna).
On November 2. 1988 she was invited to sing in a concert celebrating the birthday of Her Majesty the Queen of Spain Doña Sofía.
She has worked with renowned conductors as Riccardo Muti, Claudio Abbado, Gianandrea Gavazzeni, Riccardo Chailly, Julius Rudel, John Eliot Gardiner, Jesús López Cobos, Sir John Pritchard, Alain Lombard, Lorin Maazel... and directors as Giorgio Strehler, Jean Pierre Ponnelle, Eduardo De Filippo, Patrice Chéreau, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Roberto de Simone, Luca Ronconi, Lluis Pasqual, Jérôme Savary, Beni Montresor, Gabriele Lavia, Jorge Lavelli, José Carlos Plaza...
She has appeared at most of the well-known opera houses in Italy such as Milan, Rome, Naples, Pesaro, Bologna, Florence, Turin, Genoa, Parma, Palermo and Verona among others as well as outside Italy in Barcelona, Sevilla, Madrid, Vienna, Stuttgart, Munich, Brussels, Geneva, Paris, Lyon, Lisbon, Buenos Aires, Santiago de Chile, Montevideo, Mexico, Caracas, Pretoria, Tokyo, Washington...
Among her activities are recitals of Spanish and Latin American music as well as "Zarzuela".
She has created the role of "Tatula" from the opera Divinas palabras in the opening season (1997/ 98) at the Teatro Real (Madrid), singing with Plácido Domingo.
In 1999 she sang La vida breve in Lyon, Grenoble and La Coruña, and El amor brujo and Siete conciones Populares Españolas in Lyon, Palermo, Montevideo, Porto Alegre, Varsaw, Dortmund and Pamplona.
In 2000 she sang a concert in Hannover, representing Spain in occasion of the World Fair.
In April 2002 and 2004 she sang Babel 46 (Montsalvatge) and L'enfant et le sortilèges (Ravel) at the Teatro Real (Madrid) and Liceo de Barcelona.
She sang the role of Mariana (Luisa Fernanda) in Scala di Milano (2003), Teatro Real (Madrid) (2006) and Theathr an der Wien (Vienna) (2008) all with Plácido Domingo.
In 2004 and 2007 she sang Boris Godunov (Nurse) at Liceo de Barcelona and Teatro Real (Madrid).
In August 2009 she sang the leading role of "La casa de Bernanda Alba" (Bernarda), created by the young Spanish composer Miquel Ortega, in Santander Festival and Perelada Festival.
In 2005 she has been member of the jury in the prestigious "Francisco Viñas" and "Manuel Ausensi" singing contests.
Roles
During her career she sang : Sextus and Cornelia (Giulio Cesare); Siebel (Faust); Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro); Cecilio (Lucio Silla); Dorabella (Cosi fan tutte); Zerlina (Don Giovanni); Angelina (La Cenerentola); Arsace (Semiramide); Isabella (L'Italiana in Algeri); Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) Andromaca (Ermione); Maddalena (Il viaggio a Reims); Clarice (La pietra del paragone); Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice); Fidalma (Il matrimonio segreto); Leonora (La Favorita); Adalgisa (Norma); Smeton (Anna Bolena); Elisabetta (Maria Stuarda); Carmen (Carmen); Sara (Roberto Devereux); Romeo (Capuleti e Montecchi); Agnese (Beatrice di Tenda); Giulietta (Les contes d'Hoffmann); Salud and la Abuela (La vida breve); Ottavia (L'incoronazione di Poppea); Preziosilla (La forza del destino); Meg and Quickly (Falstaff ); Climene (Saffo); Suzuki (Madama Butterfly); Berenice (Il Farnace); Vagans (Juditha triumphans); Mrs. Slender (Falstaff-Salieri), Cecilia (Las Golondrinas), Zulima (Los amantes de Teruel), Aurora (Doña Francisquita), Señá Rita (La verbena de la Paloma), Mariana (Luisa Fernanda), Nurse (Boris Godunov)...
Symphonic Repertoire
Rossini: Stabat Mater, Petite Messe Sollennelle, Argene e Melania and Giovanna D'Arco
Haendel: Messiah
Mozart: Coronation Mass and Requiem
Beethoven: Symphony nª 9
Pablo Casals: El pessebre
Pergolesi: Stabat Mater
Stravinsky: Pulcinella
Bach: Magnificat
Jaume Alaquer: Requiem
Tomás Bretón: Apocalipsis
Verdi: Requiem
Mendelssohn: Paulus
Vivaldi: Juditha Triumphans
Recordings
Il barbiere di Siviglia - Berta (Riccardo Chailly)
Il viaggio a Reims - Maddalena (Claudio Abbado)
Le comte Ory - Ragonde (John Eliot Gardiner)
Giulio Cesare - Cornelia (Marcello Panni)
The Concert Mozart for Africa with Montserrat Caballé
Doña Francisquita - Aurora with Alfredo Kraus, (Antoni Ros-Marbá)
La verbena de la Paloma - Señá Rita and La Dolores-Gaspara both with Plácido Domingo (Antoni Ros-Marbá)
Viento es la dicha de amor-Amor (Christophe Coin)
El pessebre (Lawrence Foster);
Il Farnace - Berenice (Massimiliano Carraro)
El llibre vermell (Antoni Ros-Marbá),
Requiem - Jaume Alaquer (Joan Company)
Luisa Fernanda - Mariana (Jesús López Cobos)
Falstaff - Meg (Daniel Oren)
Nabucco - Fenena (Riccardo Muti)
Hommage à Rossini (TV 1985)
Awards
Maurice Ravel National Contest
Artigas - Washington Contest
Plácido Domigo Award
Francisco Viñas Singing Competition
Mozart Singing Competition, Barcelona's Mozarteum
Gold Medal from Radio Nacional de España
Alas Awards 2010
Intendencia de Montevideo Homage
References
External links
Raquel's Discography at CD Universe
Raquel's Discography at Amazon
Raquel's Discography at Deutsche Grammophon
Raquel sings with Placido Domingo
1952 births
Living people
Operatic mezzo-sopranos
Singers from Montevideo
20th-century Uruguayan women singers
Uruguayan opera singers
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{"url":"https:\/\/nest-simulator.readthedocs.io\/en\/stable\/auto_examples\/repeated_stimulation.html","text":"Repeated Stimulation\u00b6\n\nSimple example for how to repeat a stimulation protocol using the origin property of devices.\n\nIn this example, a poisson_generator generates a spike train that is recorded directly by a spike_detector, using the following paradigm:\n\n1. A single trial last for 1000 ms.\n\n2. Within each trial, the poisson_generator is active from 100 ms to 500 ms.\n\nWe achieve this by defining the start and stop properties of the generator to 100 ms and 500 ms, respectively, and setting the origin to the simulation time at the beginning of each trial. Start and stop are interpreted relative to the origin.\n\nFirst, the modules needed for simulation and analyis are imported.\n\nimport nest\nimport nest.raster_plot\n\n\nSecond, we set the parameters so the poisson_generator generates 1000 spikes per second and is active from 100 to 500 ms\n\nrate = 1000.0 # generator rate in spikes\/s\nstart = 100.0 # start of simulation relative to trial start, in ms\nstop = 500.0 # end of simulation relative to trial start, in ms\n\n\nThe simulation is supposed to take 1s (1000 ms) and is repeated 5 times\n\ntrial_duration = 1000.0 # trial duration, in ms\nnum_trials = 5 # number of trials to perform\n\n\nThird, the network is set up. We reset the kernel and create a poisson_generator, in which the handle is stored in pg.\n\nThe parameters for rate and start and stop of activity are given as optional parameters in the form of a dictionary.\n\nnest.ResetKernel()\npg = nest.Create('poisson_generator',\nparams={'rate': rate,\n'start': start,\n'stop': stop}\n)\n\n\nThe spike_detector is created and the handle stored in sd.\n\nsd = nest.Create('spike_detector')\n\n\nThe Connect function connects the nodes so spikes from pg are collected by the spike_detector sd\n\nnest.Connect(pg, sd)\n\n\nBefore each trial, we set the origin of the poisson_generator to the current simulation time. This automatically sets the start and stop time of the poisson_generator to the specified times with respect to the origin. The simulation is then carried out for the specified time in trial_duration.\n\nfor n in range(num_trials):\nnest.SetStatus(pg, {'origin': nest.GetKernelStatus()['time']})\nnest.Simulate(trial_duration)\n\n\nNow we plot the result, including a histogram using the nest.raster_plot function. Note: The histogram will show spikes seemingly located before 100 ms into each trial. This is due to sub-optimal automatic placement of histogram bin borders.\n\nnest.raster_plot.from_device(sd, hist=True, hist_binwidth=100.,\ntitle='Repeated stimulation by Poisson generator')\n\n\nTotal running time of the script: ( 0 minutes 0.000 seconds)\n\nGallery generated by Sphinx-Gallery","date":"2021-03-06 02:04:56","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.5405765175819397, \"perplexity\": 2464.6295371898623}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": false, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2021-10\/segments\/1614178374217.78\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20210306004859-20210306034859-00063.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
Q: How do I connect to the database MS Access? I have a Maven Project and I am trying to create a connection to my MS Access db. The problem is that it does not open.
I do not receive any type of error, but the program remains active without returning the connection. I tried to stay on hold two hours but nothing. The databaseProduction WellSys is linked to ProdWheelTableMasterSys and WhellDemand.
My code is:
package com.sealed.air.SealedAir;
import java.sql.Connection;
import java.sql.DriverManager;
import java.sql.SQLException;
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
String conex = "jdbc:ucanaccess://";
String url = "C:/DB/ProductionWhellSys.accdb";
try {
System.out.println("Connecting");
Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection(conex+url);
System.out.println("Connected");
} catch (SQLException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
And the result in the console is:
Connecting
My DB MS access properties:
console.bat output:
saved query in Access:
I have tried changing the "" in '' but I do not understand because it gives me the same error. Another mistake I found was:
Error message was: unexpected token: , required: )
A: It looks like you reported two different issues:
*
*the first one is that the "the program remains active without
returning the connection" but seeing your App test, this doesn't seem due to ucanaccess... did you set Openexclusive=true?
|
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PyroMystic wrote: And can someone give me simple explanation about Quantum Mechanics in general? I watched and read some popular science book on this but some say that that's unscientific and not what scientists understand about Quantum Mechanics.
If your thesis depends on a proper understanding, I highly suggest reading more books on the topic instead of relying on a Chinese history forum. Not that people here lack knowledge about it (I have some since I have studied causation both in and out of schooling, though only theoretically and not mathematically), but because QM is very difficult to explain simply, and especially because writing a thesis requires proper sourcing.
One book I personally own is "Quantum Physics: A First Encounter: Interference, Entanglement, and Reality" by Valerio Scarani. Unlike many other books on the topic, he doesn't get deep into the mathematics; you can get by with just a basic high school level algebraic understanding. He has other good introductory books as well.
If you have a more solid mathematical background, then "Introduction to Quantum Mechanics" by David Griffiths is widely popular, and is used in schools as well. It requires basic calculus, but it isn't overwhelming like many other books of this level and takes time to thoroughly explain topics.
My personal go-to is purely theoretical, though maybe not good for thesis work: "Quantum Psychology" by Robert Anton Wilson. He's primarily a satirist writer so he's a bit off the wall at times but he explains things like non-local causes and "effects without causes" better than most other books I've read. It's an older book though so it doesn't get into more modern ideas like string theory. I just didn't want to neglect recommending Wilson when I get the chance because he's a fav author.
Thank you for your recommendation! On a side note, though, as you said that you have studied causation both in and out of schooling, though only theoretically and not mathematically, do you study philosophy as well?
PyroMystic wrote: Thank you for your recommendation! On a side note, though, as you said that you have studied causation both in and out of schooling, though only theoretically and not mathematically, do you study philosophy as well?
I do! I have some formal education from schooling as well as a general interest in it outside of schooling. I can't say I'm an expert by any means though, as I tend to get bored quickly and move on to the next thing. When it comes to philosphical topics I'm mainly educated in the mind-body problem and causation, in addition to their relation to theology.
I spent a lot of years in religious debate clubs online and "in real life". At least 10 years or so. I got a bit burnt out which is why I mostly just study Chinese history these days. Though even in that avenue I tend to read about the mystical side of Chinese history, so there's some overlap.
Also I lack education in the mathematical side because I hate math so I just don't apply myself to learning it. As soon as they started putting letters into my number problems, my brain high-tailed.
I used to love maths! Even liked those random letters being inserted in. What I hated was when they introduced tables to everything. I still can't read anything but the most basic of bar tables.
I also study theology. I'm at a seminary training to be a vicar, but had also studied theology previously at a secular institution. This probably isn't the right thread to discuss this in though.
I am mostly self-taught too. My schooling was primarily in the ethics side of philosophy; my studies of causation and mind came afterwards as a hobby, outside of covering some of the basics in school. I definitely dove deeper into philosophy outside of school, but it helped having the foundation from schooling.
I am very familiar with Christian apologetics because that was one of the areas I debated against on occasion, so I had to learn a lot of it. My main opponents were atheists though, because the clubs I belonged to were more theists vs. atheists than theists vs. theists. I agree that theology debates can often lead to enemies; for many years I'd go to bed with high blood pressure due to the inevitable squabbling. Eventually I just sought people who wanted to discuss theology out of interest or hobby, without the need to "score points" or "win the argument", and it was much more satisfying.
I'm not sure if I'm more of an analytical or continental philosopher; I think it'd depend on the subject. I've never really thought about which branch(es) of philosophy I'd belong too; I just kinda exist with my beliefs.
Too many books to count! I'd suggest reading through the list of my "library" that's linked in my signature. I have a lot of books about daoist mysticism and otherwise supernatural events.
I probably couldn't do a basic algebra problem anymore either. I took a ton of statistics courses in college but I've probably forgotten most of that too. All those years of teachers insisting I'd absolutely use algebra and calculus and statistics in real life were lying.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 2,673
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namespace pegasus {
namespace {
TEST(ParsingUtilsTest, SentenceSegment) {
std::vector<std::string> segs = SentenceSegment("This is? what what.");
CHECK_EQ(segs[0], "This is? ");
CHECK_EQ(segs[1], "what what.");
}
TEST(ParsingUtilsTest, SentenceNoSegment) {
std::vector<std::string> segs = SentenceSegment("This is.what what? ");
CHECK_EQ(segs[0], "This is.what what? ");
}
} // namespace
} // namespace pegasus
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 5,273
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FOR
Jennifer Lynn Pelka & Emily Arden Wells
BON VIVANTS, EPIC IMBIBERS,
AND TREASURED FRIENDS
Copyright © 2012 by Lesley M. M. Blume.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-4521-2128-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available under ISBN 978-1-4521-0826-1.
DESIGNED BY SUPRIYA KALIDAS
ILLUSTRATIONS BY GRADY MCFERRIN
Chronicle Books LLC
680 Second Street
San Francisco, California 94107
www.chroniclebooks.com
> CONTENTS
>
>
>
> Introduction
>
> **BOTTOMS UP:** One Hundred and Forty-Four Drinks to Be Revived & Occasions Upon Which to Revive Them
>
> Further Reading
>
> Acknowledgments
>
> Index
INTRODUCTION
IT IS OFTEN SAID THAT HISTORY EDITS ITSELF FOR A REASON. The same can be said for the by-products of each epoch's popular culture—and delectables, confections, and libations are no exception, including the realm of cocktails. As food critic and historian William Grimes once noted:
ixed drinks tend to be invented on a whim, named as an afterthought, consumed on the spot and forgotten in an instant. Like... movies, cartoons, television commercials, and funny T-shirts, most cocktails earn their oblivion."
Yet even the best editors sometimes make misjudgments, and history is no exception. Plenty of splendid cocktails have been rudely shunted aside after falling out of vogue—and their successors often do not hold a candle to the drinks they replace.
Introducing Let's Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition, a celebration of once-the-height-of-fashion, now-largely-forgotten beverages from bygone eras that should be reintroduced today—or remembered at the very least. The selections in the following pages—culled from ancient times through the 1960s—are by turns fizzy and flat, sweet and sour, lethal and prim. Some of them are absurd, others sentimental, and yet others outright scandalous.
At heart, this book aims to exalt the humor that has always permeated the world of mixology, something strongly reflected in the colorful nomenclature of mixed drinks over the years—and it is in part on this nomenclature that the following drinks have been selected. Among the honorifics assigned to the included cocktails, we find impishness, encounter poignancy, and detect feigned modesty. Thumbing through this tome should feel like meeting a roster of high-spirited, eccentric characters at a party: the Bosom Caresser, for instance, is a charming rake; the Salomé is a sensual, dangerous lady; the Runt's Ambition, you'll find, is quite a little dictator. Holly Golightly could hardly have pulled together a more jovial guest list.
Gravely serious mixologists might bristle at the idea of a compendium of cocktails curated by the merits of their names—but rest assured that most of these old-fangled drinks are actually quite delicious as well (with the exception, perhaps, of the Gingivitis Cocktail, but that concoction has been included for reasons other than its palatability). However, this seems like a good moment to present certain caveats about this book:
Firstly, Let's Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition is not meant to be an all-inclusive catalog of history's cocktails; nor is it meant to be an in-depth how-to manual. You will not be instructed on the perfect shaking technique here; nor will you be pestered with a soulful deliberation of the olive versus the twist. Store bookshelves teem with such works, published by some of history's legendary bartenders. Seek these out and you will find a bevy of gifted mentors.
Nor is this book meant to be an earnest history of the evolution of cocktails; again, countless books and Web sites devote themselves to chronicling the origins of classic libations (often without much success, for ascertaining the accurate biographies of cocktails can be a maddening quagmire). Likewise, you should look elsewhere to find recipes for mainstay classic drinks that have already been revived in spades, such as Manhattans, Sidecars, Martinis, and Ward 8's. The drinks celebrated here are more obscure—and yet each brims with personality and eagerly awaits its moment of rediscovery.
But don't worry: This book doesn't leave you in the lurch after making introductions. Each entry also offers its readers guidance about occasions on which to revive each drink. Staring at a long list of forgotten cocktails, how on earth are you supposed to choose one? This is where Let's Bring Back: The Cocktail Edition comes in handy. For example, you will be instructed to sip an Algonquin Cocktail when you want to feel witty, revive the Gold Cocktail to celebrate a windfall, and nuzzle a Poor Dear Old Thing Cocktail when you're feeling neglected and woeful (again). Each drink listed in these pages has been assigned that sort of duty, as a way to make itself useful to the modern imbiber.
It's great fun not only to revisit the stories behind the creation of these cocktails, but also to imagine the millions of narratives caused by the drinking of them. The following libations caused faces to be slapped, tears to be shed, babies to be made, fox trots and the Twist to be danced, marriage proposals to be uttered (and perhaps rescinded), and so on. The people who drank these drinks during the heights of their popularity did so for the same reasons we guzzle today's trendy cocktails: to celebrate, to escape, to drown sorrows, to feel bigger, to feel glamorous—or feel nothing at all.
People have drunk for these reasons since the beginning of time, and will continue to do so as long as booze can be squeezed out of grapes and grains. That's one thing that the past will always have in common with the present and the future. The only thing that changes over time is the chariot used to spirit imbibers down intoxication's giddy path.
Without further ado, let's get down to the business of rediscovering some of history's more entertaining concoctions. From the Algonquin to the Zombie, there are many delights to be shaken, stirred, poured, and enjoyed once again.
We stopped and had a drink.
'Certainly like to drink,' Bill said.
'You ought to try it sometime, Jake.'
'You're about a hundred and forty-four ahead of me,' [I said.]
Ernest Hemingway • THE SUN ALSO RISES
BOTTOMS UP
ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-FOUR DRINKS
TO BE REVIVED & OCCASIONS UPON
WHICH TO REVIVE THEM
ALGONQUIN
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU FEEL WITTY
Drink this vintage concoction to invoke Dorothy Parker and the cruel wits of the famed Algonquin Round Table, of which Parker was the undisputed queen. This delicious viper's nest of writers, critics, and other creative luminaries met daily for an insult-laden luncheon at New York City's Algonquin Hotel, at which wit was the currency. You always had to be on your toes, or you were bled in full view of the others.
Parker herself never disappointed. For example, once during a word game, Parker was asked to use the word "horticulture" in a sentence. Without missing a beat, Parker responded: "You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think."
Dorothy Parker • ON THE SUBJECT OF MARTINIS •
"Three and I'm under the table
Four and I'm under the host."
Mixing together the following ingredients will immediately augment your own wit factor:
1 OUNCE RYE
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE PINEAPPLE JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a forked tongue.
Serves 1
ANGEL'S TIT
Cocktail
TO SHOCK GOODY-GOODIES
People loved to scandalize in the 1920s. This outrageous Prohibition favorite is a sensory way to evoke the madcap antics of the time—and scandalize contemporary prisses. Think of it as an impish version of a Shirley Temple.
Those too sanctimonious to suckle an Angel's Tit can seek out the recipes of the more demure Angel's Blush cocktail or an innocent Angel's Wing cocktail.
1 OUNCE MARASCHINO LIQUEUR
WHIPPED CREAM
RED CHERRY
Pour liqueur into a chilled pousse-café glass, top with whipped cream, and place a red cherry exactly in the middle.
Serves 1
BYGONE BENDERS
HISTORICAL EUPHEMISMS FOR
THE WORD "Drunk"
Over the centuries, thousands of colorful words and phrases have been coined to describe the (sometimes-joyous, often-ignoble) state of inebriation. A sampling thereof:
86'ed
Back teeth afloat
Banged up to the eyes
Bent
Blind
Blotto / Blotto'd
Can't see a hole in a ladder
Dull-eyed
Fogged
Full of Dutch courage
Gone a peg too low
Half-seas-over
Holding up the lamppost
In bed with one's boots on
In drink
In one's cups
In the suds | On a jag
On a tear
On a toot
Ossified
Pickled
Pie-eyed
Razzle-Dazzled
Seeing two moons
Sozzled
Spifflicated
Stewed
Stinko
Three sheets to the wind
(number of sheets varies)
Tight
Tip merry
Tying one on
Zozzled
---|---
[ PLATE 1 ]
Ants in the Pants
ANTS IN THE PANTS
Cocktail
TO TREAT RESTLESSNESS
The Prohibition era certainly embraced twitching nervousness as a cornerstone of the popular culture: Not only did that epoch give us the wild jitterbug dance, it offered up the now-forgotten Ants in the Pants Cocktail. Examining the ingredient list, however, it appears that the effects were likely curative instead of causal.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE GRAND MARNIER
½ OUNCE SWEET VERMOUTH
1 DASH FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon peel twist. Administer at first signs of antsiness, butterflies, or heebie-jeebies.
Serves 1
ARSENIC
&
Old Lace
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU ARE FEELING
BENEVOLENTLY HOMICIDAL
An old-fashioned concoction named after the iconic 1941 play (and also the 1944 film starring Cary Grant) of the same name. This murder farce featured the antics of two sweet little old ladies who occupy their days baking goodies, hosting the local minister, tending to ill neighbors—and "compassionately" poisoning homeless, family-less old men who happen to shamble into their lace-filled lair.
Have a look at the ingredients below: The gin and absinthe combination provides an excellent "This won't hurt a bit" anesthetic, while the crème de violette adds the perfect dash of old-biddy sweetness.
1½ OUNCES GIN
½ OUNCE ABSINTHE
3 DASHES FRENCH VERMOUTH
3 DASHES CRÈME DE VIOLETTE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve to victims with a look of cherubic innocence.
Serves 1
ASTOR
Painless Anesthetic
Cocktail
THE PERFECT PRE-DENTAL VISIT LIBATION
Speaking of anesthetics (see Arsenic and Old Lace Cocktail, opposite), any dentist looking to boost his or her practice should serve up these old cocktails instead of employing the same old boring Novocain. Created originally by the Stork Club for Mary Astor of the venerable Astor clan, this drink packs a wallop and will banish toothaches—and any other sort of aches—in no time at all.
3 OUNCES GIN
1 OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1 OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 OUNCE COGNAC
1 DASH ORANGE BITTERS
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
SUGAR FOR SPRINKLING
Shake well with ice cubes, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, garnish with the lemon peel twist and a sprinkling of sugar.
Use to rinse your mouth twice daily after brushing your teeth.
Serves 1
PASS THE BUBBLY
SUBLIME, OLD-FASHIONED WAYS TO USE CHAMPAGNE
Our wise ancestors knew that there really should be an infinite number of ways to enjoy Champagne, and created all sorts of Champagne-related diversions, rituals, and recipes. Some revival-worthy examples:
**CHAMPAGNE CROQUET**
Croquet used to be wildly popular during the late 1800s, when the lack of air conditioning meant outdoor living and amusements in the summer. A more mischievous way to enjoy the sport involved spending an evening playing the game indoors, with empty Champagne bottles as stakes.
**CHAMPAGNE COUPES**
Also known as fingerbowl glasses—very Fitzgeraldian. Common Champagne flutes, by comparison, feel rather 1980s and invoke all sorts of _Working Girl_ office party imagery.
Legend has it that the shape of the Champagne coupe glass was modeled on the breasts of Marie Antoinette or one of a variety of other French aristocrats, including Madame du Pompadour and Madame du Barry. At other times, the shape is attributed to Helen of Troy; supposedly her lover, Paris, made wax molds of the glorious breasts that "launched a thousand ships" and used the molds to make drinking glasses. None of these rumors is likely true, but who cares? The _idea_ is enough: it emphasizes the sensuality with which fine Champagne should be consumed.
**CHAMPAGNE-GLASS TOWERS**
On the note of fingerbowl glasses, let's bring back Champagne-glass towers: a round pyramid of stacked coupes, in which Champagne is poured into the top glass and eventually trickles down to the ones on the lower tiers. Popular in the 1920s, such towers are the prettiest monuments to decadence.
**CHAMPAGNE JELLY MOLDS**
Jelly—i.e. gelatin—molds used to wobble with cheerful regularity on banquet tables. Among the most festive: ones that contained Champagne as the headlining ingredient; they also often sported strawberries, gooseberries, and raspberries in their shimmering golden bellies.
**CHAMPAGNE MIDNIGHT SUPPERS**
Throw one of these Champagne-drenched feasts—which begin at the stroke of midnight—to usher in your next birthday. Such fêtes should be reminiscent of society doyenne Caroline Astor's extravagant Gilded Age midnight suppers, in which she lavished hundreds of night-owl guests with bubbly and multiple courses following the latest masquerade in her famous ballroom.
ATLAS
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU SHOULDER BURDENS
Supporting the heavens on your shoulders might sound like a rather presidential prestige job, but in Greek mythology, the assignment was actually considered a punishment. In this case, the condemned man was Atlas, a Titan who unwisely rebelled against Zeus: always a no-no.
Sip his namesake cocktail to assist you in bearing your own worldly burdens.
1 OUNCE APPLEJACK
½ OUNCE RUM
½ OUNCE COINTREAU
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice; strain through a back brace into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serves 1
ATTA BOY
Cocktail
TO GIVE ENCOURAGEMENT
This beverage can be administered to anyone in need of a little morale boost: Gulp one for courage before a big game, a lofty presentation, an inspiring oration, pre-Bar exam, pre-marriage proposal, and so on.
1½ OUNCES DRY GIN
¾ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
2 OR 3 DASHES GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with side of spinach, Wheaties, or other fortifying fare.
Serves 1
BALD HEAD
Cocktail
TO CONSOLE ABOUT FOLLICULAR LOSS,
REAL OR IMAGINED
This cocktail may have been named after Bald Head Island in North Carolina, but let's be juvenile and assume that it was created by a bartender with a glistening cranium.
Use this drink to provide comfort when your own fine head of hair is blowing away like the seeds of a late-summer dandelion. As you drain your glass, make sure to watch an old-guard flick exalting Men of Character Who Also Happen to Be Bald (like Yul Brynner in The Magnificent Seven, or any other of his films for that matter). A humorous alternative: Watch the I Love Lucy episode in which Lucy gives Ricky a vigorous home treatment for hair loss. When she was done with him, he likely could have used one of these.
½ OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 DASH ABSINTHE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain through a toupee into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serves 1
BATTERY CHARGER
Cooler
THE ORIGINAL ENERGY DRINK
Run down? Worn thin? Tuckered out? Forget Starbucks, and eschew Red Bull. What follows is the mid-century no-nonsense approach to resuscitation:
1 OUNCE PERNOD
¼ OUNCE GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
SELTZER
Pour Pernod and grenadine into a highball glass filled with ice; stir. Fill with seltzer (from an old-fashioned seltzer bottle, of course). You will be able to perform Herculean tasks within approximately three minutes of consuming.
Serves 1
THINK PINK
OLD-FASHIONED DRINKS WITH
A DECIDEDLY ROSY HUE
Although drinking was traditionally deemed a masculine occupation, an inordinate number of pink cocktails have been created over the years, perhaps in a bid to draw ladies to the bar. One of these drinks gets a delightfully scornful mention in the book _Auntie Mame_ (1955):
" [Agnes] ordered something called a Pink Whiskers, which made the waiter blanch. [It] looked kind of nasty to me, but she sipped it ostentatiously, still wearing her gloves and with a great crooking of her little finger, and pronounced it extremely refreshing."
Refreshing or nasty? Judge for yourself:
THE PINK WHISKERS COCKTAIL
¾ ounce apricot brandy
¾ ounce dry vermouth
2 dashes white crème de menthe
1 teaspoon grenadine
2 tablespoons orange juice
Ice cubes
1 ounce port |
Combine all ingredients except the port in a cocktail shaker and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass. Delicately float the port on top.
SERVES I
---|---
Other blush-colored beverages from the past:
Pink Baby Cocktail
Pink Elephant Cocktail
Pink Garter Cocktail
Pink Gin Cocktail
Pink Goody Cocktail | Pink Lady Cocktail
Pink Lady Fizz
Pink Pearl Cocktail
Pink Rose Cocktail
Pink Squirrel Cocktail
Pink Top Cocktail
---|---
BEE'S KNEES
Cocktail
TO EXPRESS ADMIRATION
Instead of sending a thank-you note, messenger someone a mason jar filled with the Bee's Knees Cocktail (as in, "You're the bee's knees—absolutely the best"). The 1920s offered up all sorts of these delightfully inane animal kingdom compliments, including:
"The Cat's Meow"
"The Cat's Pajamas"
"The Cat's Whiskers"
"The Duck's Quack"
"The Elephant's Instep"
"The Snake's Hips"
A sneaky little secret about this Prohibition favorite: The added teaspoon of honey supposedly masks the smell of the booze on one's breath.
1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 TEASPOON HONEY
½ OUNCE GIN
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled "elephant's instep."
Serves 1
BETWEEN–THE–SHEETS
Cocktail
THE PERFECT NIGHTCAP FOR TWO
The origin of this suggestively named cocktail is hotly contested, with several bartenders from various world capitals having claimed parentage. Some passionately believe that it was first poured in Harry's Bar in Paris; others would bet their firstborns that it was invented by a Mr. Polly, manager of the Berkeley Hotel, London, in 1921.
In any case, this sassy, pre–World War II favorite is the perfect pre-bedtime libation for two, either to help you both get your Zzzzs—or your jollies.
¾ OUNCE LIGHT RUM
¾ OUNCE BRANDY
¾ OUNCE COINTREAU
1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Leftover cocktail can be used as massage oil.
Serves 1
LOVE POTIONS
VINTAGE DRINKS WITH SUGGESTIVE NAMES
Forget what's been written about bygone eras being prudish: If the following cocktail names—some of which date back to colonial times—are any indication of popular mindset, sex has _always_ been on everyone's minds—and lips. Some of them are not exactly subtle, such as the "Bosom Caresser," which was so popular that it enjoyed a heap of variations. One version:
THE BOSOM CARESSER COCKTAIL
1 ounce brandy
1 ounce Madeira
1 dash grenadine
1 dash curaçao
1 egg yolk
Ice cubes |
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
SERVES I
---|---
Other libations with naughty connotations—at least within the context of today's vernacular:
Angel's Tit _(see recipe)_
Between-the-Sheets _(see recipe)_
Bosom Climax
Hanky Panky _(see recipe)_
Nude Eel
Small Dinger
Spread-Eagle Punch (this name was likely more patriotic than dirty, but still worth including)
Symphony of Moist Joy _(see recipe)_
Turkish Harem
Up in Mabel's Room
Whoopee Highball
BIG BAD WOLF
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO BLOWHARDS
Variations of the big bad wolf have appeared in folk and children's tales for hundreds of years: Aesop featured them prominently, as did the Grimm brothers. Practically everyone has heard Sergei Prokofiev's symphony and the tale of "Peter and the Wolf."
The story that you should keep in mind while serving the cocktail below: "The Three Little Pigs," in which a swaggering wolf menaces three sweet little piggies who've constructed houses from straw, sticks, and bricks respectively. Upon being barred entrance from each habitat, the wolf promises that he will "huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow your house in."
We all know what happens to the pigs who lived in the straw and stick houses. But when the wolf swung around to the brick house, he couldn't blow it down, and had to resort to plunging down the chimney. Waiting for him in the hearth below: a pot of boiling water—and the third little pig enjoyed Wolf à la King that night for dinner.
Serve the old-fashioned Big Bad Wolf Cocktail to outsmartable, boastful bosses; braggart neighbors; and blusterers at large.
1 OUNCE BRANDY
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
1 TEASPOON GRENADINE
1 EGG YOLK
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with a side of ham.
Serves 1
Serve alongside the Three Little Pigs Cocktail
THRE LITTLE PIGS COCKTAIL
1 OUNCE GRENADINE
1 OUNCE WHISKEY
1 OUNCE GINGER ALE
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice and serve with squeals.
Serves 1
BISHOP
Cocktail
TO BRING TO A CHURCH SUPPER
History has provided many drink recipes for when you're in a holier-than-thou sort of mood (see the "Saints and Sinners" roster of biblically inspired cocktails, page 110). Yet this mid-nineteenth-century cocktail seemed particularly fetching, thanks to its mix of wholesome and sinful ingredients, and the instruction that it is "to be drunk while in a state of froth" (Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks, 1869)—rather like a clergyman delivering an especially brimstone-filled sermon.
The recipe below makes enough for the whole congregation:
8 WELL-BEATEN EGGS
4 CUPS BOILING MILK
8 CUPS WHISKEY
SUGAR
1 DASH NUTMEG
10 CRUSHED CLOVES
Add the milk to the eggs, then stir in the whiskey.
Sweeten with sugar to taste; add the nutmeg and crushed cloves.
Think only pure thoughts while sipping.
Serves 20-25
BLOODHOUND
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU RECOVER LOST OBJECTS
This is essentially a strawberry Martini; it reached its height of popularity in the 1920s. Not only is the Bloodhound Cocktail the perfect summer drink, it also bestows upon its drinker the uncanny ability to locate misplaced keys, money-clips, grocery lists, lost loves, and the like.
1½ OUNCES GIN
¾ OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
¾ OUNCE SWEET VERMOUTH
2 OR 3 CRUSHED STRAWBERRIES
ICE CUBES
FRESH STRAWBERRY FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled coupe
Champagne glass. Garnish with a fresh strawberry and serve with an air of omniscience.
Serves 1
PARISIAN BARS PATRONIZED
BY THE LOST GENERATION
Back in the 1920s, Gertrude Stein sat Ernest Hemingway down in her Paris salon and informed him that he was a member of a génération perdue:
"'That's what you are. That's what you all are,' Miss Stein said. 'All of you young people who served in the war. You are a lost generation.'
'Really?' [Hemingway] said.
'You are,' she insisted. 'You have no respect for anything.
You drink yourselves to death.'"
Well, to be fair, if you were going to drink yourself to death, 1920s Paris was glamorous enough a place to do so. Here is a short list of Parisian bars and cafés closely associated with Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and other debauched Jazz Age expats; several of these establishments are still open today.
LA CLOSERIE DES LILAS
Long-gone patrons of this Montparnasse "lilac garden"—founded in 1847—included Miss Stein herself (and her lover, Alice B. Toklas), Henry James, Pablo Picasso, Lenin, and Trotsky. It is often said that Hemingway penned much of The Sun Also Rises at this café.
LE SELECT
Apparently when Hemingway and Picasso weren't at Closerie, they were here. Founded in 1923, the Select was open twenty-four hours a day and became wildly popular with the bohemian crowd. In The Sun Also Rises, Lady Brett Ashley and Jake Barnes taxi to the café and they meet up with a "little Greek portrait painter whom everyone called Zizi" and a Count Mippipopolous, "who wore an elk's tooth on his watch-chain."
LES DEUX MAGOTS
The denizen of intellectuals and Surrealists, Les Deux Magots counted among its patrons Simone de Beauvoir, Françoise Giroud, Paul Morand, and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. According to the restaurant, Jean-Paul Sartre "would take his seat at Les Deux Magots and write for hours, often without pause." Of course, Hemingway imbibed there too—but where _didn't_ he drink?
HARRY'S NEW YORK BAR
Just over a century ago, a New York City–based bar was dismantled, shipped over to France, and reassembled in Paris. The resulting _boîte_ —Harry's New York Bar—served up stiff drinks and American food to the usual suspects: Hem, F. Scott, and Miss Stein, among others.
F. Scott Fitzgerald • THE GREAT GATSBY •
"I had taken two finger-bowls of champagne, and the scene had changed before my eyes into something significant, elemental, and profound."
BLUE BLAZER
Cocktail
SIMULTANEOUSLY IMPRESS AND TERRIFY YOUR GUESTS
Created circa 1850 by legendary bartender Jerry Thomas (see "An Ode to Professor Jerry Thomas," page 114, and "Knickerbocker Cocktail," page 104), it would be hard to overstate how famous this cocktail became in the second half of the nineteenth century. Supposedly a customer clomped into San Francisco's El Dorado gambling saloon, where Thomas tended bar, and shouted,
"Bar-keep! Fix me up some hell-fire that'll shake me right down to my gizzard."
Thomas complied. After announcing to his bar patrons that they were about to witness the birth of a new beverage, he ignited the concoction that he'd whipped up. According to one history of the incident, "blue flame[s] shot toward the ceiling and...Thomas hurled the blazing mixture back and forth between two mugs, with a rapidity and dexterity that were well nigh unbelievable."
Upon sampling the newly minted "Blue Blazer," the customer who'd demanded its creation "swayed in the wind," "shivered from head to foot," batted his eyes, and endured rattling teeth. Once these symptoms subsided, he cleared his throat and declared:
"He done it! Yes, sir, right down to my gizzard!"
Revive the Blue Blazer to tempt the gizzards of your nearest and dearest when the next November fog rolls in.
2 HEATED MUGS
2½ OUNCES BOILING WATER
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
2½ OUNCES HEATED WHISKEY
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
In the first mug, dissolve the sugar in boiling water. In the other mug, pour the whiskey and set it on fire. Pour the ingredients from one mug to another. As Thomas wrote in The Bon Vivant's Companion, "If well done this will have the appearance of a continued stream of liquid fire." Pour the mixture into a heated wineglass and adorn with the lemon peel twist.
Make sure that your home insurance policy is intact.
Serves 1
BROKEN SPUR
Cocktail
TO TAKE A BREAK FROM THE CATTLE DRIVE
If cowboys rely on spurs to put a little oomph in their horses' get-along, then a broken spur implies an involuntary slowdown. In our never-slow-down contemporary world, which speeds up ever-faster by the millisecond, a vintage Broken Spur Cocktail might be just what we need.
1 OUNCE GIN
1 OUNCE WHITE PORT
1 DASH ANISETTE
1 EGG YOLK
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled ten-gallon hat.
Serves 1
GAG REFLEX
THE LEAST APPETIZING DRINK NAME IN HISTORY?
Let's just cut to the chase: Who in their right mind would ever order this drink? Unless he or she was trying to sabotage a blind date, _pronto_.
THE GINGIVITIS COCKTAIL
1 ounce gin
½ ounce grenadine
1 teaspoon cream
Ice cubes
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a strand of dental floss.
SERVES 1
BULLSHOT
Cocktail
TO CONSOLE YOU ON A DAMP NOVEMBER DAY
Served warm, this old-fashioned drink is splendidly consoling on a wet autumn or winter day (a perfect "way to keep warm at a cold ballgame," advised legendary bartender Trader Vic). Long a staple of gentlemen's clubs, the Bullshot is a sophisticated version of the Bloody Mary, in which the tomato juice is swapped out for beef bouillon.
½ CUP BEEF BOUILLON
¼ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 TEASPOON WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
1 DASH TABASCO
A PINCH CAYENNE PEPPER
A PINCH SALT
2 OUNCES VODKA
1 LEMON SLICE FOR GARNISH
Combine all the ingredients except the vodka and lemon slice in a small pan and warm over medium heat, stirring constantly.
Pour into a small mug over the vodka, mix with a spoon, and adorn with the lemon slice.
Serves 1
If you want to make the recipe particularly special and vintage-y, use Marlene Dietrich's recipe for beef broth below:
MARLENE DIETRICH'S BEEF TEA (OR "LIQUID STEAKS")*
"4 pounds round steak cut into cubes; put into a mason jar. Heat the closed jar in a pot of water slowly, boiling for 4 hours. The liquid that you will find in the jar is enough food for a daily ration of a grown-up. Add salt and pepper {or} vegetable salt."
Serves 1
* Excerpted from Marlene Dietrich's ABC (1961)
CHANTICLEER
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO EXCESSIVE FLATTERERS
The word "chanticleer"—another term for rooster—has its roots in medieval fables, particularly Chaucer's "The Prologue of the Nun's Priest." This Canterbury Tale features a rooster named Chanticleer whose comb is "redder than fine coral, his beak is black as jet, his nails whiter than lilies, and his feathers shine like burnished gold." Naturally, Chanticleer is terribly vain and quite literally rules the roost.
Along slinks a fox who thinks that Chanticleer would make quite a tasty nibble. He flatters Chanticleer's singing so much that the rooster—bursting with pride—stretches his neck and crows loudly. The fox leaps forward, grabs him by the neck, and splits for the woods.
The moral of the story: never to trust a flatterer. Serve Chanticleer's namesake cocktail to anyone who meets this description, and let him know that you're on to his game.
Ethelind Fearson • THE RELUCTANT HOSTESS (1954) •
"Any party stands or falls by the nature and excellence of its drinks. For all cocktails, economy is fatal."
1 OUNCE ORANGE GIN
OR ANOTHER LIGHT ORANGE LIQUEUR
1 OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1 EGG WHITE
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass.
The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935) instructs readers to "Add a Cock's Comb if desired."
Serves 1
**A HISTORICAL NOTE /** In the mid-1800s, a newspaper suggested the term "Chanticleer" as a more refined alternative to the word "cock tail," which it deemed vulgar. Clearly the motion was never carried.
THE MUDDLED ORIGIN AND VARIOUS MEANINGS OF THE WORD "COCKTAIL"
The term came into popular use in the nineteenth century, but language experts say that its origins are unclear. Of course, this doesn't prevent people from positing theories:
• • • **SOME ARE CONVINCED** that an innkeeper named Betsy Flannigan is responsible for the word: She apparently used cock tail feathers as swizzle sticks when serving drinks during the American Revolution. (Her inn is variously placed in Virginia or Pennsylvania, depending on who's recounting the story.) According to one version of the tale, the spirited Ms. Flannigan roasted a rooster stolen from a Loyalist and festooned the accompanying drinks with the cock's feathers.
• • • **ANOTHER CAMP ASSERTS** that the word stems from an old French recipe of mixed wines called _coquetel_ , which may have been carried to America by General Gilbert du Motier de Lafayette in the late 1700s.
• • • **OTHERS CLAIM** that "cocktail" comes from cock _tailings_ , i.e., the dregs or "tailings" of spirits casks, which would be drained out through their spigots (also known as "cocks"), stirred together, and sold as a cheap beverage.
• • • **ANOTHER THEORY:** The term arose from a West African word _kaketal_ (scorpion). The drink may have borrowed its name from the scorpion-like sting it delivers.
What fewer people know: The word "cocktail" has a variety of delightful secondary meanings, including:
1 / A horse with a docked tail.
2 / A horse that is not a thoroughbred, with unknown or mixed breeding.
3 / A man of little breeding who pretends at being a gentleman.
CHARLIE CHAPLIN
Cocktail
WHEN YOU NEED ABSOLUTE SILENCE
While most of us have seen at least one Marx Brothers film, fewer have likely seen the work of Charlie Chaplin, one of the greatest stars of the silent film era.
Once ranked by the American Film Institute as one of the ten greatest male screen legends of all time, this comedic actor is perhaps best remembered for his role as The Tramp—a character that re-emerged in dozens of short- and feature-length films. Chaplin's Tramp was best described as a gentlemanly vagrant, who sported elegant but endearingly ill-fitting clothes, a derby hat, and a tidy mustache. When sound came to movies, Chaplin refused to make the Tramp speak on film; he finally retired the character in 1936 with the aptly named film Modern Times.
Serve Chaplin's pre–Prohibition era cocktail—once a favorite at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria—when you need a break from the white noise of modern times. It's been proven to quiet even the most egregious of loud-talkers and monologuers.
¾ OUNCE FRESH LIME JUICE
¾ OUNCE GIN
¾ OUNCE APRICOT BRANDY
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a whangee cane.
Serves 1
"The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind."
Humphrey Bogart • ACTOR
CORPSE REVIVER
Cocktail
TO USE WHEN THE OUIJA BOARD
ISN'T WORKING
This drink will come in very handy when you need to find a deceased relation's lost insurance policy and the Ouija board is being unresponsive. Whip up a batch of the recipe below, and pour glasses of it onto the grave of the dearly departed (making sure that you employ a "one for you, one for me" policy as you go) until the promised revival takes place.
However, the Corpse Reviver recipe listed in The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930) comes with the caveat that "four of these taken in swift succession will unrevive the corpse again"—so work fast.
¾ OUNCE LILLET BLANC
¾ OUNCE COINTREAU
¾ OUNCE GIN
¾ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 DASH ABSINTHE
Stir well with a shovel and strain into a cocktail glass.
Serves 1
[ PLATE II ]
Corpse Reviver Cocktail
ALL THAT GLITTERS
DRINKS NAMED AFTER OLD HOLLYWOOD'S SILVER SCREEN GODDESSES
Back in the day, most of the film-going public could never have hoped for the privilege of kissing a glamorous movie star. The next best thing: sipping a cocktail named after one of these iconic beauties:
Ginger Rogers / pg. 189
Jean Harlow
Lupe Vélez
Mae West / pg. 116 | Marlene Dietrich
Mary Pickford
Rosalind Russell
---|---
Perhaps the most amusingly named cocktail in this category: the **GARBO GARGLE**. It should be noted that when Garbo made the leap from silent star to talkie legend, her first spoken line was:
"Give me a whiskey, ginger ale on the side, and don't be stingy, baby." (Anna Christie, 1930)
THE GARBO GARGLE COCKTAIL
1 ounce brandy
¼ ounce fresh orange juice
¼ ounce grenadine
¼ ounce dry vermouth
1 dash crème de menthe
Ice cubes
1 dash port wine
Shake the brandy, orange juice, grenadine, vermouth, and crème de menthe with ice; strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Float the port on top.
SERVES 1
DAMN-THE-WEATHER
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING DEFIANT
One can imagine Winston Churchill or Theodore Roosevelt uttering this phrase under adverse circumstances. Guzzle these cocktails to shore up your courage when you need to charge uphill—literally or figuratively—under perilous circumstances.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
¼ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
SEVERAL DASHES CURAçAO
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a bulletproof chilled cocktail glass.
Serves 1
Winston Churchill • FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER •
"Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me."
DANDY
Cocktail
TO CHANNEL OSCAR WILDE
The dandy—an endangered species—has the following definition: "A man who is excessively concerned about his clothes and appearance; a fop," but everyone knows that a dandy's pre-occupation with beauty goes far beyond his garb. A dandy is concerned with living Life as Art—as playwright, aesthete, and dandy poster boy Oscar Wilde once wrote: "One should either be a work of Art, or wear a work of Art." Additional essential components of the dandy's persona: use of terribly refined language, the cultivation of leisurely hobbies, and the affectation of nonchalance.
Traditionally, a true dandy has also been obligated to plunge himself into a gilt state of bankruptcy and die in the poorhouse, with only the memories of his glory days to sustain him.
The Dandy Cocktail is best enjoyed in palm-and-art-filled salons:
1 OUNCE RYE
1 OUNCE DUBONNET
1 TEASPOON COINTREAU
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
1 PIECE LEMON PEEL
1 PIECE ORANGE PEEL
Stir with a walking stick and strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with a monocle and serve with a side of withering witticisms.
Serves 1
DIPLOMAT
Cocktail
TO IMPROVE YOUR INTERNATIONAL APPEAL
According to Cocktails: How to Mix Them (1922), this drink was "very well-known in the French Diplomatic Service"—and it likely sated countless FSOs from other nationalities as well.
Sip one to silkify your own skills of international negotiation. The French and Italian vermouths listed in the recipe will clearly make you particularly convincing to citizens of those respective countries:
2/3 OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1/3 OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
2 DASHES MARASCHINO LIQUEUR
ICE CUBES
1 MARASCHINO CHERRY FOR GARNISH
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Stir the vermouths and liqueur with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Add the cherry and lemon twist, and sprinkle with state secrets.
Serves 1
DOLLY O'DARE
Cocktail
TO FIGHT AGAINST CRIMINAL ELEMENTS
Named after an obscure but intriguing mid-century comic book character, Dolly O'Dare earned her keep as a top sleuth for the police department, where she battled a criminal adversary called the Baron Blue.
Commemorate her contribution to the forces of good by resurrecting her namesake cocktail:
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE APRICOT BRANDY
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Consume only in dark alleyways and abandoned, fog-wrapped docks.
Serves 1
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 1
THE FIZZ
Some drinks deserved to be relegated to the ashbin of history, but the refreshing, ebullient Fizz was not one of them. The perfect libation for the languorous dog days of summer—or celebrations during any season—the Fizz should be brought back right away.
Fizzes likely first appeared in the mid-nineteenth century: six recipes for these concoctions were included in _The Bon Vivant's Companion_ (1862), the earliest cocktail book ever printed. They became hugely popular in New Orleans, whose Ramos Gin Fizz arguably rivaled the Mint Julep and Sazerac as the city's mascot cocktail.
What is a Fizz exactly? Once cited by legendary bartender Trader Vic as "an early-morning drink with a definite purpose—a panacea for hang-overs," the Fizz includes the following ingredients: liquor, lemon or lime juice, and sugar, which are shaken with ice, strained into a cocktail or Collins glass, and topped off with fizzing seltzer. Eggs are often added, cutting the sharp taste of the gin and citrus, and endowing the Fizz with a unique velvety-yet-light texture.
A "Silver Fizz" uses only egg whites; a "Golden Fizz" includes an egg yolk; and a "Royal Fizz" greedily incorporates a whole egg. And then, there is the queen of all Fizzes: the Diamond Fizz, which calls for Champagne instead of humble old seltzer. Resurrect the following recipe for your next fancy garden party:
THE RASPBERRY DIAMOND FIZZ
2 ounces gin
1 tablespoon raspberry liqueur
Juice from ½ lemon
1 egg white
8 fresh raspberries, quartered
Crushed ice
Champagne
Shake all ingredients except Champagne with plenty of crushed ice, strain into a chilled Champagne coupe, and top with a splash of Champagne.
SERVES 1
DU BARRY
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO YOUR MISTRESS
This cocktail shares its name with Madame du Barry, who arguably rivals Cleopatra as the most famous mistress of all time. Born into less-than-regal circumstances as the illegitimate child of a seamstress, Madame du Barry later became a prostitute; she eventually managed to capture the affections of sexually voracious French King Louis XV. Swiftly rewarded for her efforts, she became one of France's wealthiest women under the patronage of her royal lover. Yet her story doesn't exactly have a fairytale ending: The "cake-eating" masses—unimpressed by her ascent—lopped off her head during the French Revolution.
Yet du Barry was great while she lasted. Next time you liaise with your undoubtedly equally talented mistress or illicit lover, mark the occasion with her namesake love potion:
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1 TEASPOON PERNOD
A DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a plush feather and a garter belt.
Serves 1
R-E-M-O-R-S-E • A POEM FROM _THE STAG'S HORNBOOK_ (1918) •
The cocktail is a pleasant drink,
It's mild and harmless, I don't think.
When you've had one, you call for two,
And then you don't care what you do.
Last night I hoisted twenty-three
Of these arrangements into me;
My wealth increased, I swelled with pride;
I was pickled, primed and ossified.
R-E-M-O-R-S-E!
Those dry martinis did the work for me;
Last night at twelve I felt immense;
To-day I feel like thirty cents.
At four I sought my whirling bed,
At eight I woke with such a head!
It is no time for mirth or laughter—
The cold, grey dawn of the morning after.
EARTHQUAKE
Cocktail
TO MAKE YOU INVULNERABLE TO DISASTER
Next time tremors rumble along the fault line upon which your house is perched, reach for your cocktail shaker and the recipe below. As noted by The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930):
"[The cocktail is] so-called because if there should happen to be an earthquake when you are drinking it, it won't matter."
Presumably it protects you in other similar natural (and unnatural) disasters as well.
½ OUNCE WHISKEY
½ OUNCE ABSINTHE
½ OUNCE GIN
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, serve in a cocktail glass—and voilà! Instant fallout shelter.
Serves 1
[ PLATE III ]
Earthquake Cocktail
ONE FOOT IN THE GRAVE
OLD-FASHIONED DRINKS FOR THE MORBID
Consistently gloomy? More gothic than Edgar Allan Poe? Don't fret: The bartenders of the past thoughtfully accommodated people of all dispositions. For the morose at heart, consult _The Savoy Cocktail Book_ , first published in 1930, which cheerfully recommends the THIRD RAIL COCKTAIL. It's apparently "better than 11,000 volts":
THE THIRD RAIL COCKTAIL
½ ounce rum
½ ounce apple brandy
½ ounce brandy
1 teaspoon absinthe
Ice cubes
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a plugged-in hairdryer.
SERVES 1
Other "See You on the Other Side" concoctions include:
Corpse Reviver / pg. 50
Death in the Afternoon / pg. 66
Death in the Gulf Stream
Fare Thee Well
Hari Kari
Last Thought
Six Feet Under
Swan Song / pg. 178
Suicide
FANCY FREE
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING "ROMANCY"
This old-guard cocktail evokes the lyrics of "No Strings," the now-classic bachelor anthem sung by Fred Astaire in the 1935 film Top Hat:
No strings
And no connection
No ties to my affections
I'm fancy free
And free for anything fancy
With his "decks cleared for action," Astaire's freedom makes him feel "romancy."
Modern imbibers of the drink commemorating this state of mind will instantly feel equally unmired and amorous.
2 OUNCES BOURBON
½ OUNCE MARASCHINO LIQUEUR
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
1 DASH ORANGE BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a tap shoe, and serve with gaiety and lightheartedness.
Serves 1
ALSO SEE / Top Hat Cocktail on page 188 and Ginger Rogers Cocktail on page 189.
FARE THEE WELL
Cocktail
TO DULL THE HEARTACHE OF SAYING GOODBYE
Heaven knows that poor Lord Byron might have appreciated some liquid consolation after separating from his wife, Annabelle; he wrote a poem titled "Fare Thee Well" (1816), which contained the following heart-wrenching stanza:
Fare thee well! thus disunited,
Torn from every nearer tie,
Sear'd in heart, and lone, and blighted,
More than this I scarce can die.
To assuage a similar separation anxiety, employ the following recipe:
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE SWEET VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
½ TEASPOON CURAÇAO
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass whose rim has been swirled in bittersweet memories.
Serves 1
FLOOR POLISH
Cocktail
A CHEERFUL HOUSEKEEPING AID
Either drink this concoction yourself to cheer you during spring cleaning, or have it at the ready when your maid arrives each week: It will make you as cheery as a 1950s housewife.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE SWEET VERMOUTH
OUNCE PINEAPPLE JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a mop bucket; swab floor and repeat until a high sheen is achieved.
Serves 1
NOTABLE DRINKS OF EPIC IMBIBER ERNEST HEMINGWAY
Ernest Hemingway once asserted that "a man does not exist until he is drunk." What follows is a short list of drinks popularly associated with the great author:
Cocktail No. 1
DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON
Named after Hemingway's 1932 book about bullfighting, the "Death in the Afternoon" cocktail was contributed by the writer to a 1935 collection of celebrity recipes. In it, he instructed brave souls to "Pour one jigger of absinthe into a Champagne glass. Add iced Champagne until it attains the proper opalescent milkiness. Drink three to five of these slowly." Death in the afternoon, indeed.
Cocktail No. 2
THE MOJITO
This drink was reportedly invented at La Bodeguita del Medio in Havana, Cuba, where Hemingway—as a local resident—gulped them down regularly.
Ice cubes
6 ounces light rum
12 fresh mint sprigs
1 ounce lime juice
4 tablespoons sugar
Crushed ice
Club soda
Lime wedges for garnish
Place ice in shaker; add the rum, mint sprigs, lime juice, and sugar. Shake vigorously, and serve over crushed ice in a highball glass. Top off each glass with a splash of club soda and a lime wedge.
SERVES 4
Cocktail No. 3
THE PAPA DOBLE
Some enthusiastic aficionados have asserted that Papa—as Hemingway was often called—invented the daiquiri. While this is unlikely, a particular variation bears his name: the "Papa Doble," or the Hemingway Daiquiri. According to legend, the author created the following recipe at Sloppy Joe's Bar in Key West: "Mix 2 ounces of white or light rum, the juice from two limes, and the juice from half a grapefruit. Add a dash of Maraschino liqueur on the top, and serve it over crushed ice." Anyone who drinks a few of these will be seeing "doble" in no time.
FLU
Cocktail
A ZIPPY ALTERNATIVE TO NYQUIL
Everyone knows about the curative qualities of an old-fashioned hot toddy, but it's a pansy drink compared to the Flu Cocktail. This concoction—a favorite at The 19th Hole, a famous New York City speakeasy immortalized by caricaturist Al Hirshfeld—will absolutely slay any cold symptoms you might be harboring.
Or, at the very least, it will knock you out until the illness has run its course.
2 OUNCES RYE
1 TEASPOON GINGER BRANDY
1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 TEASPOON ROCK CANDY SYRUP
1 DASH GINGER EXTRACT
Stir and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with sniffles and consume with an air of woeful self-pity.
Serves 1
FLUFFY RUFFLES
Cocktail
TO TRANSPORT YOU BACK TO TAP DANCE CLASSES
This Prohibition-era favorite may have been named after an obscure musical that ran briefly in 1908. As a work of performance art, Fluffy Ruffles might have deserved its place in the ashbin of history, but the scrumptious lime-flavored cocktail sharing its title does not.
½ OUNCE RUM
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
ICE CUBES
1 LIME OR LEMON PEEL FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon or lime peel; sip while humming "The Fluffy Ruffle Girls Rag" and doing a Broadway shuffle.
Serves 1
FRANKENSTEIN
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING GOTHIC
Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley is generally considered to be a landmark work of romantic and gothic literature, and also a forerunner in the science fiction genre (also see H.G. Wells Cocktail, page 86). You probably know the storyline: A scientist cobbles together a man from dead body parts (among other unspecified materials) and is rightly horrified by his creation—especially when the creature decides to rub out Frankenstein's family and friends, thus shrinking the list of people likely to give the scientist birthday and Christmas presents.
Despite its surprisingly cheery ingredients, Frankenstein's namesake cocktail is obviously best enjoyed in an atmosphere of degeneration, fear, and decay.
½ OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE GIN
¼ OUNCE APRICOT BRANDY
¼ OUNCE COINTREAU
Stir with "bones from charnel-houses" and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a "profane finger."
Serves 1
A RIVALRY COMMEMORATED
"OLD" VERSUS "NEW" MONEY
Few figures in New York City's history figure as prominently as Caroline Astor—the onetime self-appointed arbiter of America's Gilded Age society—who once asserted that only four hundred families met the criteria for membership in the city's elite social echelons. This just happened to be the capacity of her private ballroom, and she guarded access to this realm with the ferocity of Cerberus.
Then along came the Vanderbilts, whose wealth was a generation newer than that of the Astor clan. Mrs. Astor considered this family to be a horde of nouveau riche climbers to be fended off with every weapon in her arsenal—and a great American rivalry was formed.
At your next hoity-toity affair, serve both the Astor Cocktail and the Vanderbilt Cocktail.
ASTOR COCKTAIL
2 ounces gin
1 teaspoon fresh orange juice
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Ice cubes
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve swathed in a beaver pelt.
VANDERBILT COCKTAIL
1 ounce cherry brandy
1½ ounces brandy
2 dashes simple syrup
2 dashes Angostura bitters
Shake and strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a railroad spike.
each serves 1
FROTH BLOWER
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING CHARITABLE
At first glance, one might assume that "Froth Blowers" would be rather frivolous creatures; however, historically speaking, it appears that these creatures devoted themselves to some serious tasks. In the UK, during the 1920s, an organization calling itself the "Ancient Order of Froth Blowers" was established to raise funds for various charities. It wasn't all stern do-gooding, however: There appears to have been a boisterous imbibing element to the organization as well (hence the name, which evokes the blowing of froth off the top of a pint of ale).
In a pamphlet, the A.O.F.B. members described their outfit:
"A sociable and law abiding fraternity of absorbitive Britons who sedately consume and quietly enjoy with commendable regularity and frequention the truly British malted beverage as did their forbears and as Britons ever will, and be damned to all pussyfoot hornswogglers from overseas and including low brows, teetotalers and MP's and not excluding nosey parkers, mock religious busy bodies and suburban fool hens all of which are structurally solid bone from the chin up."
The cocktail bearing the same name has nothing to do with the "truly British malted beverage", but it will still immediately make you want to contribute to the March of Dimes right away.
2 OUNCES GIN
1 TEASPOON GRENADINE
1 EGG WHITE
ICE CUBES
Shake vigorously with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and sip while reading the memoirs of Mother Teresa
Serves 1
GOAT'S DELIGHT
Cocktail
TO INVOKE YOUR INNER STABLEHAND
Who doesn't like a goat? Even the Devil is fond of them, for goodness sake; as described by master storyteller Natalie Babbit, the Devil "always has one or another somewhere about, kept on as sort of a pet... [he] likes them so much [because] goats are one hundred percent unsentimental."
To be fair, the goat for which this cocktail was originally named was likely a human goat (a tertiary definition of the word includes "A lecherous man"). The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935) informs its readers that "As to who was the original 'goat' cheered by this cup, records are at least vague."
Still, it's more fun to imagine a delighted animal goat as you drink this cocktail.
¾ OUNCE BRANDY
¾ OUNCE KIRSCHWASSER
½ TEASPOON CREAM
1 DASH PERNOD
1 DASH ORGEAT (ALMOND-FLAVORED) SYRUP
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice using a pitchfork, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with strands of hay.
Serves 1
[ PLATE IV ]
Goat's Delight Cocktail
COCKTAIL CORNUCOPIA
THE ART OF FROSTED FRUIT
When you serve your next round of summer cobblers (see page 142) or set out a bowl of summer punch, forgo boring old chunks of ice and swap in frosted peaches, pears, cherries, berries, grapes, and plums—whatever fruit you fancy.
This suggestion comes courtesy of a Mrs. Marion W. Flexner, author of _Cocktail-Supper Cookbook_ (1955), who implores her readers to place unwrapped, unpeeled fruit on a tray or "a piece of foil covered cardboard" in the freezer for about two hours. When removed from the freezer, "as soon as air strikes the fruit, it acquires a flattering coat of bloom," she promises. Place the fruit in the punch bowl or cocktail glasses immediately.
Served in a glistening silver punch bowl, such an arrangement makes a spectacular centerpiece.
GLOOM LIFTER
Cocktail
TO CHASE AWAY THE MEAN REDS
Not to be confused with plain old blues, for which nearly any old form of booze will suffice. The mean reds, as described by Breakfast at Tiffany's heroine Holly Golightly, are far worse:
"The blues are because you're getting fat or maybe it's been raining too long. You're sad, that's all. But the mean reds are horrible. You're afraid and you sweat like hell, but you don't know what you're afraid of."
The only things that assuaged Holly's angst was a trip to Tiffany & Co., of course—but if you're not in striking distance of the jewelry franchise, a Gloom Lifter will do the trick too.
1½ OUNCES IRISH WHISKEY
½ TEASPOON BRANDY
½ TEASPOON SUGAR
1 EGG WHITE
JUICE FROM ½ LEMON
1 DASH RASPBERRY SYRUP
1 DASH GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a large chilled cocktail glass. If gloom does not abate, chase with a Gloom Raiser Cocktail and then a Gloom Chaser until mean reds subside.
Serves 1
GOLD
Cocktail
TO CELEBRATE A WINDFALL
Within a few years of the fateful 1848 discovery of gold in northern California, hundreds of thousands of gold-diggers had flocked to the territory-turned-state, and gold worth billions of dollars in today's money had been yanked out of the ground. America went gold-crazy, and bars across the nation were often frontline recipients of newly found wealth.
The bar of the once-lavish and now-extinct original Waldorf-Astoria Hotel (which was supplanted by the Empire State Building) was no exception; it created a Gold Cocktail named "after the product of 'them thar hills,' finders of which came to the Bar in great numbers."
Revive its recipe to celebrate any jackpot moments in your own life.
½ OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 DASH ORANGE BITTERS
Stir with a pick-ax, strain through a screen, and serve in a miner's pan.
Serves 1
THE GREAT ZIEGFELD
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING SHOWY
This drink is named for legendary showman Florenz Ziegfeld, the force of nature behind the Ziegfeld Follies. These lavish, wildly creative Broadway revue productions—which ran from 1907 to 1931—are likely most remembered today for the beautiful, extravagantly clad chorus girls, nicknamed the "Ziegfeld girls."
One of the most famous Ziegfeld starlets, Billie Burke, did Ziegfeld the favor of becoming his wife; she then did us the favor of preserving his favorite concoction for posterity. The recipe follows, in narrative form from Mrs. Ziegfeld:
"[Ziggy] used to prepare 2/3 gin and 1/3 pineapple juice, with the rim of the glass moistened in lemon juice or lime and then twirled in powdered sugar, served very cold. At least he always twirled the first two or three in powdered sugar. After that, it didn't matter."
GREEN-EYED MONSTER
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO A JEALOUS FRENEMY
It's a rather erudite way to one-up an envious acquaintance discreetly; after all, the phrase "green-eyed monster" was coined by Shakespeare and uttered by Iago in Othello:
O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;
It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock
The meat it feeds on.
A repulsive modern version calls for buckets of Everclear alcohol, Mountain Dew, and pineapple juice, but the past offers a more refined recipe:
½ OUNCE IRISH WHISKEY
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE PERNOD
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Reserve enough to spill into the crotch of the imbiber—accidentally, of course.
Serves 1
COMPARATIVE DRUNKENNESS
Over the years, the intoxicated have been compared to some rather unlikely creatures, objects, and personae. For example, circa 1386, Chaucer used the phrase "dronke... as a Mous" (apparently that epoch's mice had the unfortunate habit of plunging into beer vats). Another still-used phrase—"drunk as a lord"—emerged in the 1600s, and may allude to the fact that in those days noblemen could afford to drink more than commoners, and regularly overindulged to prove the point.
Some amusing/bemusing historical expressions of comparative drunkenness:
Drunk as a beggar
Drunk as a billy goat
Drunk as a boiled owl
Drunk as a brewer's horse
Drunk as a broom
Drunk as dancing pigs
Drunk as a devil
Drunk as a drowned rat
Drunk as a Dutchman | Drunk as a fiddler
Drunk as a hog / sow / swine / pig
Drunk as a monkey
Drunk as a nurse at christening
Drunk as a poet
Drunk as a pope
Drunk as a sailor
Drunk as a skunk
Drunk as a wheelbarrow
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[ PLATE V ]
Hanky Panky Cocktail
HANKY PANKY
Cocktail
TO AID MISCHIEVOUS LOVEMAKING
Invented in London by the Savoy Hotel bar's earliest mistress—Ada Coleman—this cocktail was named by Sir Charles Hawtrey (a clever chap who just happened to be Noël Coward's mentor). Ms. Coleman described the drink's genesis to a newspaper in 1925:
"Charles... was one of the best judges of cocktails that I knew. Some years ago, when he was overworking, he used to come into the bar and say, 'Coley, I am tired. Give me something with a bit of punch in it.' It was for him that I spent hours experimenting until I had invented a new cocktail. The next time he came in, I told him I had a new drink for him. He sipped it, and, draining the glass, he said, 'By Jove! That is the real hanky-panky!' And Hanky-Panky it has been called ever since."
But we can assume that it re-earned its name many times over, thanks to all of the naughty behavior it has surely inspired in its devotees.
1 OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 OUNCE DRY GIN
2 DASHES FERNET-BRANCA
ICE CUBES
1 ORANGE PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice, and strain over ice into a highball glass. Garnish with the orange peel twist and serve with a spanking.
Serves 1
DAMN THE TORPEDOES
HISTORICAL DRINKS WITH
WAR-ORIENTED NAMES
War and drinking go hand in hand. We drink to get through wars; we drink to get over them; and then we drink as we strategize the next military entanglement.
A list of old-guard cocktails for the bellicose:
Army Cocktail
Artillery Cocktail
Blood and Sand Cocktail
Captain's Blood Cocktail
Death in the Afternoon
Cocktail / pg. 66
Death in the Gulf Stream Cocktail
Depth Bomb Cocktail | Guided Missile Cocktail
Platoon Cocktail
Retreat from Moscow Cocktail
Shrapnel Cocktail
T.N.T. Cocktail / pg. 184
Torpedo Cocktail
War Days Cocktail
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HELL
Cocktail
AN EARLY RESPONDER IN HELLISH SITUATIONS
Serve this admittedly bizarre, old-fashioned concoction immediately upon signs of:
1 / Arrival of jury duty summons
2 / Arrival of audit from the I.R.S.
3 / Nearing of any sort of destiny-determining test
4 / Implosion of home sewage system
5 / Post-traumatic stress induced by irreparable bad haircut
¾ OUNCE BRANDY
¾ OUNCE CRèME DE MENTHE
ICE CUBES
1 PINCH RED PEPPER
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass; sprinkle with red pepper before serving. Drink until your hair grows out or the case is dismissed.
Serves 1
H. G. WELLS
Cocktail
TO BE TRANSPORTED TO ANOTHER WORLD
Not that H. G. Wells (often called the "Father of Science Fiction") ever needed any assistance transporting his readers. For example, on October 30, 1938, millions of listeners heard radio news alerts of a violent Martian attack on Earth; many ran out of their homes screaming while others packed up their cars and fled. What they were really hearing: Orson Welles's radio adaptation of H. G. Wells's iconic novel The War of the Worlds.
This mid-century recipe is strong enough to be used as fuel for the rockets sometimes featured in Wells's writings:
1 OUNCE BOURBON
½ OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
1 DASH PERNOD
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with the lemon peel twist and a spritz of misanthropy.
Serves 1
HIGH HAT
Cocktail
TO SERVE AT A TONY AFFAIR
In bygone eras, to "give someone the high-hat" meant to treat him condescendingly, just as a "high-hatted" person was a snob.
Serve the High Hat Cocktail at a party to turn it into an exceedingly haughty event (it will positively reek of the royal enclosure at Royal Ascot in no time).
Alternatively, if you are a guest at such an affair, and are not particularly happy about being there, you can set up shop near the bar and slug down these surprisingly refreshing drinkies to help you muddle through.
¾ OUNCE BRANDY
¾ OUNCE FRESH GRAPEFRUIT JUICE
½ TEASPOON SIMPLE SYRUP
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled hand-cut crystal cocktail glass.
Discard—with great disdain—any ingredients not handled with white gloves.
Serves 1
SO HAPPY TOGETHER
OLD-FASHIONED DRINKS THAT GO HAND IN HAND
Inseparable Combination No. 1
DUKE COCKTAIL
1 egg
½ ounce Cointreau
¼ ounce fresh orange juice
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
¼ ounce maraschino liqueur
Ice cubes
Shake with ice and strain into a polo helmet, and top off with Champagne.
&
DUCHESS COCKTAIL
½ ounce Pernod
½ ounce sweet vermouth
½ ounce dry vermouth
Shake with iced emeralds and strain into a large glass.
EACH SERVES 1
Inseparable Combination No. 2
EVERYTHING BUT COCKTAIL
¾ ounce gin
¾ ounce bourbon
¼ ounce apricot brandy
¾ ounce fresh lemon juice
¾ ounce fresh orange juice
1 egg
¾ tsp sugar
Shake in an iced cocktail shaker and strain into an absolutely enormous cocktail glass. Garnish with a rubber band ball, a sprinkling of paper clips, and any other random objects found in your junk drawer.
&
KITCHEN SINK COCKTAIL
Same as above, substituting rye for bourbon. The latter will be noticeably sweeter.
EACH SERVES 1
Inseparable Combination No. 3
HARVARD COCKTAIL
¾ ounce brandy
¾ ounce sweet vermouth
2 dashes Angostura bitters
1 teaspoon simple syrup
Ice cubes
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve alongside a Hasty Pudding.
&
PRINCETON COCKTAIL (One variation thereof)
1½ ounces gin
2 dashes of orange bitters
Ice cubes
1 ounce port
Shake the gin and bitters with ice; strain into a chilled cocktail glass; add the port last. Garnish with a tiger's tooth and serve with a heavy course load.
&
YALE COCKTAIL
1½ ounces gin
¾ ounce dry vermouth
1 dash maraschino liqueur
1 teaspoon simple syrup
2 dashes orange bitters
Ice cubes
Stir with ice, skulls, and bones, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
EACH SERVES 1
Inseparable Combination No. 4
GODFATHER COCKTAIL
1 ounce Scotch whisky
1 ounce amaretto
Stir with a crowbar and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
&
GODMOTHER COCKTAIL
1 ounce vodka
1 ounce amaretto
Ice cubes
Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve with list of wishes to be granted.
EACH SERVES 1
"HOOP LA!"
Cocktail
TO CREATE A COMMOTION
Definitions for the word "hoopla" include "sensational publicity" or "bustling excitement or activity; commotion." Equally delightful, old-fashioned synonyms: hullabaloo, brouhaha, and ballyhoo.
The basis for the "Hoop La!" recipe below comes to us—complete with quotations and exclamation point—courtesy of the old Savoy Hotel, which presumably saw quite a bit of hullabaloo and brouhahas over the years. Consuming this beverage—a cousin to the Sidecar—will immediately encourage you to create a ruckus, distraction, or hubbub.
½ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
½ OUNCE LILLET BLANC
½ OUNCE COINTREAU
½ OUNCE BRANDY OR COGNAC
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve while in a state of frenzied excitement.
Serves 1
HORSE'S NECK
Cocktail
TO ACCESSORIZE YOUR JODHPURS
This was apparently a booze-free drink when it first became popular in the late nineteenth century, consisting of a mild combination of ginger ale, lemon peel, and ice. Yet somebody figured out that it tasted better with bourbon; the new-and-improved version was requested by the updated name "Horse's Neck with a Kick." Serve it at your next Kentucky Derby party, or bring a thermos of it to the races.
1 FULL LEMON PEEL CUT INTO A SPIRAL
ICE CUBES
2 OUNCES BRANDY
1 OR 2 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
GINGER ALE
Place the peel in a highball glass; make sure the end hangs over the edge of the glass. Fill it with ice. Add the brandy and bitters, and fill the rest of the glass with ginger ale.
True aficionados drink it from a dressage boot.
Serves 1
Another 1932 recipe—courtesy of the bartender of New York City's Prohibition-era Ship Ahoy speakeasy—calls for a teaspoon of sugar and a "glass of gin," to be topped with ginger ale.
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 2
THE CRUSTA
"An improvement on the cocktail," declared iconic bartender Jerry Thomas (see "An Ode to Professor Jerry Thomas" on page 114), who defined the Crusta as a fancy cocktail with a small piece of ice and some lemon juice added. Nearly a century later, bartending legend Trader Vic added that a drink could only be considered a "legitimate" Crusta if it involved "a frosted wineglass and the entire peeling of a lemon or orange fitted right into the glass."
The peeling of the fruit in one aesthetically pleasing piece is naturally the most challenging aspect of re-creating a Crusta. But if you have a steady hand and are feeling ambitious, here's a recipe for a brandy version:
THE BRANDY CRUSTA
---
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice, plus extra for coating the glass's rim
Powdered sugar
1 lemon for peeling
1½ ounces brandy
½ ounce curaçao
2 dashes Angostura bitters
2 dashes maraschino liqueur
Ice cubes| | Chill one wineglass and frost it by dipping the rim first in fresh lemon juice and then swirling it in powdered sugar. Somehow manage to peel a whole lemon in one piece; slide the peel into the wineglass, making sure that it stays below the sugared rim. In his version of this recipe, Trader Vic sternly instructs his readers to "cover the entire inside of the glass [with the peel]." Shake the remaining ingredients with ice and pour carefully into the prepared glass.
SERVES 1
INCOME TAX
Cocktail
TO ASSIST YOU WITH THE INEVITABLE ANXIETY OF APRIL 15
For millennia, death and taxes have been the only certainties in life. Happily, bartenders of yore have both categories covered. For the first, they created cocktail fare such as the Six Feet Under, the Suicide, the Last Thought, and so on (see "One Foot in the Grave: Old-Fashioned Drinks for the Morbid," page 62).
For the latter category, revive the following recipe on Tax Day. It is appropriately strong for the occasion—and also has a cheering splash of zesty orange.
1 OUNCE GIN
¼ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
¼ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 DASH ANGOSTURA BITTERS
JUICE FROM ¼ ORANGE
ICE CUBES
1 ORANGE PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with the orange peel twist, a calculator, and a small noose.
Serves 1
[ PLATE VI ]
Jabberwock Cocktail
JABBERWOCK
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING BEASTY
You'll surely recall the fearful Jabberwock conjured up in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), with its "jaws that bite," "claws that catch," and "eyes of flame." For generations, its eponymous cocktail has either tamed one's inner beast—or taunted it. You stand warned.
The original recipe calls for Caperitif, which is no longer manufactured; swap in Lillet Blanc or Dubonnet instead.
½ OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE DRY SHERRY
½ OUNCE LILLET BLANC OR DUBONNET
1 DASH ORANGE BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice using a vorpal sword and galumph into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serves 1
JUNE BRIDE
Cocktail
TO GET YOU DOWN THE AISLE
With her pre-wedding jitters, literary iconess and June bride Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby likely could have used a few of these. Instead, she got "drunk as a monkey" courtesy of a bottle of Sauternes on the eve of her betrothal:
"''Gratulate me,' she muttered. 'Never had a drink before, but oh how I do enjoy it... Tell 'em all Daisy's change' her mine. Say: "Daisy's change' her mine!" '"
It is simply good common sense for any maid of honor to have the following vintage cocktail handy (along with spirits of ammonia and a cold compress), lest she face the unenviable task of hooking a skittish June bride into her white gown.
1½ OUNCES GIN
½ EGG WHITE
½ TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
½ TEASPOON SUPERFINE SUGAR
2 DASHES LIQUEUR OF CHOICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a very big chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with a pre-nup.
Serves 1
PUNCH DRUNK
Punch bowls are the Lolitas of serving ware: filled with pink party punch, they look dainty and sweet and innocent, but portend all sorts of naughty behavior. They used to be the heart and soul of the party; now hardly anyone has them in their cupboards anymore. Fashionable since the 1600s, they've only recently fallen out of vogue for some unfathomable reason.
In you're wondering what constitutes a punch, here's some help from a 1757 ode to punch, attributed to Bostonian Samuel Mather:
_You know from Eastern India came
The skill of making punch as did the name
And as the name consists of letters five,
By five ingredients is it kept alive._
The word "punch" was derived from the Sanskrit _pancha_ , which meant "five"—and in those days, the five ingredients included tea (particularly green), arrack (an alcohol made from coconut flowers, sugarcane, or grain in Southeast Asia), sugar, lemons, and water. Teas—particularly green teas—were often also added to the concoctions.
Some of the more memorably named punches due for a revival:
Bengal Lancers' Punch | Scorpion Punch
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Chickadee Punch | Shark's Tooth Punch
Fish House Punch | Stag Special Punch
Kill Devil Punch / pg. 100 | Tip-Top Punch
Knickerbocker Punch | Whirligig Punch
Mother's Ruin Punch | Zombie Punch / pg. 199
JUNGLE FIRE
Sling
TO ADD EXOTICISM TO EVEN THE TAMEST FêTE
Sadly, there are no fires involved in the making of this mid-century cocktail (see the Blue Blazer, page 38, to satisfy any pyro-libation cravings)—but if you wanted to extend the Jungle Fire Sling's name into a party theme, the possibilities are endless. Strew tangles of jungle vines across the floor and periodically set things aflame throughout the evening. Your guests will never forget it.
1 OUNCE CHERRY BRANDY
1 OUNCE BRANDY
½ OUNCE BENEDICTINE
½ OUNCE PARFAIT D'AMOUR
SHAVED ICE
GINGER ALE
Stir the brandy and liqueur with a spear, pour into a tall glass filled with shaved ice, and top off with ginger ale.
Garnish with a sprinkling of giant ants.
Serves 1
KICKING COW
Cocktail
THE PERFECT SUNDAY MORNING BREAKFAST
Our forebears considered breakfast time to be a perfectly appropriate cocktail hour (see "Hair of the Dog: Socially Acceptable Morning Cocktails," page 169). The following mid-century drink—served at the Stork Club, among other boîtes—makes an excellent alternative to syrup-drenched pancakes when you're feeling too lazy to make the batter:
2/3 OUNCE WHISKEY
1/3 OUNCE MAPLE SYRUP
1/3 OUNCE CREAM
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cereal bowl.
Best consumed in front of Saturday morning television cartoons.
Serves 1
KILL DEVIL
Punch
A HELPFUL AID FOR HOME EXORCISMS
In the late 1600s, thanks to the introduction of trade with the West Indies, rum made its appearance on the shores of New England. Described in the parlance of the day as "that cussed liquor" or "Rumbullion alias Kill Divil—a hot hellish and terrible liquor," it became incredibly popular with the colonial crowd; by 1728, more than two million gallons had been imported. It was only a matter of time until "Kill Divil" found its way into a punch bowl.
Below is an adaptation of an eighteenth-century rum punch; keep it handy in case any wayward spirits or demons make their way into your home.
• Old adage •
"At the punch-bowl's brink
Let the thirsty think
What they say in Japan:
'First the man takes a drink,
Then the drink takes a drink,
Then the drink takes the man!'"
ONE 750-ML BOTTLE COLD CHAMPAGNE
1½ CUPS LIGHT RUM
JUICE OF 1 LEMON
2 CUPS BREWED GREEN TEA
SUGAR OR SIMPLE SYRUP
CAKE OF ICE
Mix the first three ingredients together; add in the green tea and sugar. Pour into a punch bowl containing a cake of ice, and store in your refrigerator until serving. Ladle out quickly in the case of any head-spinning or speaking-in-tongues.
Serves 10
KING'S RUIN
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU CONQUER RIVAL MONARCHS
A sneaky way to take advantage of your royal competitors: Ply them with this cocktail, and you'll be able to outwit them in no time. It apparently earned its name because in the old days, few monarchs could resist it; many of the "old, bearded kings of Europe who used to frequent Foyot's, the Café de Paris, Maxim's, and the Ritz" counted the King's Ruin as a favorite libation, according to Stork Club chronicler Lucius Beebe.
1½ CUPS ICED CHAMPAGNE
2 OUNCES GOOD COGNAC
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Pour into a tall Collins glass with 1 or 2 cubes of ice.
Garnish with lemon peel twist and serve swaddled in ermine.
Serves 1
LIQUID ASSETS
VINTAGE DRINKS STEEPED IN RICHES
History's bartenders created a bevy of transporting drinks for millionaires—actual and aspiring. From a certain point of view, they made access to wealth relatively democratic: For a buck, anyone could buy an "Emerald," or spend some time in the presence of an English king, an Indian prince, or a Wall Street robber baron.
Astor Cocktail / pg. 71 | Millionaire Cocktail
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Coronation Cocktail | Prince Cocktail
Gold Cocktail / pg. 80, | Rajah Cocktail
Duke Cocktail / pg. 88 | Rolls-Royce Cocktail / pg. 157
Duchess Cocktail / pg. 88 | Ruby Cocktail
Emerald Cocktail | Silver Cocktail
Green Jade Cocktail | Vanderbilt Cocktail / pg. 71
Million Dollar Cocktail | Wall Street Cocktail
KNICKERBOCKER
Cocktail
TO CHANNEL OLDE NEW YORK CITY
A Dutch surname sported by some of New York's earliest colonists, the word "Knickerbocker" has since become a widely recognized emblem of the great city. In fact, the cocktail bearing the name is still served and consumed zealously at the famous, grand Knickerbocker Club (known affectionately by its gentlemen members as the "Knick") on Manhattan's Upper East Side, and should be more widely reintroduced to the rest of the world.
What follows is an 1862 recipe by America's so-called Father of Mixology, Jerry Thomas, who categorized the Knickerbocker as a "Fancy Drink" rather than a "Cocktail." One sip will cart you back to the (very) sweet old days.
Will Rogers • COWBOY, PERFORMER, AND COMEDIAN •
"Prohibition is better than no liquor at all."
½ LIME, OR LEMON; SQUEEZE OUT THE JUICE,
AND PUT THE RIND AND JUICE INTO THE GLASS
2 TEASPOONFULS OF RASPBERRY SYRUP
1 WINEGLASS (4 OUNCES) SANTA CRUZ RUM
½ TEASPOON OF CURAçAO
SHAVED ICE
BERRIES FOR GARNISH
Shake well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with berries in season. If this is still not sweet enough for you, pour out the cocktail and drink straight from the bottle of raspberry syrup.
Serves 1
BACCHANALIAN BROUHAHAS
WINE DRINKS OF ANCIENT ROME
While it would be nice to have the Roman gods in our lives again (they were always up to something inspiringly naughty), it's questionable whether the wines of the ancient Romans would appeal to modern tastes. They often had to dilute their wines with water (and sometimes seawater), sweeten them with honey, and temper them with lemon juice and spices—just to get them to the point of palatability. What a shame that Bacchus never got to experience a simple, lovely glass of Cabernet Sauvignon.
Yet if you decide to stage an ancient Roman orgy of some variety, here's a modern recreation of the sweet Roman drink _mulsum_ , a mixture of wine and honey.
ANCIENT ROMAN MULSUM
Warm ½ cup clear honey. Add one bottle of medium-dry white wine and stir. Chill before serving.
SERVES 4-5
Benjamin Franklin
• STATESMAN, DIPLOMAT, INVENTOR, AND AMERICAN FOUNDING FATHER •
"Wine [is] a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy."
LANDLADY
Cocktail
HANDY WHEN YOU'RE LATE WITH THE RENT
When you've blown the month's rent on a pair of red-soled stilettos or a new golf club, and the landlady comes knocking, be prepared. Sit her down on the sofa, inquire after her health and family, complement her frock, and ply her with several glasses of the vintage cocktail detailed below. A rent extension will materialize in no time.
1 OUNCE GIN
1 TEASPOON GRENADINE
½ EGG WHITE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with lots of solicitous, apologetic smiles and nods.
Serves 1
LAUGHING SOUP
Cocktail
TO IMBIBE WHEN YOU'VE BOTCHED DINNER
Down this drink upon discovering that you've burned the roast, overcooked the chicken, or scalded the soup (or, as in the case of a certain Author Who Shall Remain Anonymous, managed unwittingly to cook a stainless-steel spoon in a vat of squash soup for two hours). It makes a nice laugh-it-off preamble to the ensuing restaurant dinner, or companion beverage to the pizza you order instead.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
½ TEASPOON POWDERED SUGAR
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with a good, old-fashioned, reliable frozen dinner.
Serves 1
LAWYER'S REVENGE
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING LITIGIOUS
This old-guard drink will be useful whether the lawyer in question is avenging on your behalf (to put additional fire in your belly and aid the Great Cause), or directing his or her wrath at you (courage-provider/coping mechanism).
½ OUNCE REGULAR WATER
¼ TEASPOON SUGAR
1 PIECE ORANGE PEEL
ICE CUBES
1 OUNCE PORT WINE
1 DASH VICHY WATER
Combine the sugar and the orange peel with the regular water and mix well. Pour this over ice in a Collins glass, and add the wine. Add a dash of Vichy and a snippet of oratory swagger.
Serves 1
Other trial-related cocktails to keep the Lawyer's Revenge company:
Crook Cocktail | Straight Law Cocktail
---|---
Defender Cocktail | Third Degree Cocktail
Judge Cocktail
|
SAINTS AND SINNERS
BYGONE COCKTAILS WITH
RELIGIOUS UNDERTONES
The story of the tangled relationship between temptation and resistance, indulgence and penitence, is one of the oldest in the book. Here is a short list of cocktails that positively brim with hellfire and holiness:
The Abbey Cocktail | Fig Leaf Cocktail
---|---
Angel Cocktail | Garden of Eden Cocktail
Archbishop Punch | Hell Cocktail / pg. 85
Beadle Cocktail | Pope Cocktail
Bishop Cocktail / pg. 34 | Puritan Cocktail
Bishop's Cooler | St. Francis Cocktail
Cardinal Cocktail | St. John Cocktail
Christ Cocktail | St. Peter Cocktail
Church Parade Cocktail | Satan Cocktail
Churchwarden Cocktail | Satan's Whiskers Cocktail
Devil's Cocktail | (straight) / pg. 167
Devil's Leap Cocktail | Satan's Whiskers Cocktail
Devil's Tail Cocktail | (curly) / pg. 167
Eve's Garden Cocktail | Temptation Cocktail
Fallen Angel Cocktail | Vesper Cocktail
LEAVE-IT-TO-ME
Cocktail
A BRAVADO ENHANCER
This must-bring-back early twentieth-century mixed drink serves two ever-relevant purposes:
1 / To put you in a take-charge mood when a difficult task needs doing and everyone else around you is an idiot,
or,
2 / To convince someone to leave you a desired object or raft of funds in his or her Last Will and Testament. Note that some of the ingredients are appropriately sugary to help you sweeten your case.
1½ OUNCES GIN
2 TEASPOONS RASPBERRY SYRUP
1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 DASH MARASCHINO LIQUEUR ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Mist with self-conviction—or dot with doe-eyes—and serve.
Serves 1
[ PLATE VII ]
Loud-Speaker Cocktail
LOUD-SPEAKER
Cocktail
TO HELP MAKE YOURSELF HEARD
Apparently the Loud-Speaker Cocktail has long been on hand to assist those with meek speaking habits or enunciation issues. Many voice-reliant professionals have used it as a lubricating crutch, according to The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), which asserts:
"[The Loud-speaker] gives to Radio Announcers their peculiar enunciation. Three of them will produce oscillation, and after five it is possible to reach the osculation stage."
Daily consumption of this cocktail will immediately render your vowels crisp, your voice distinctive, and give you a ringing projection. Plus, it's cost efficient as well, compared to the services of an elocution expert.
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE BRANDY
¼ OUNCE COINTREAU
¼ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Gargle several times daily to achieve maximum loud-mouth effect.
Serves 1
AN ODE TO PROFESSOR JERRY THOMAS
America's "Father of Mixology"
In 1862, Jerry Thomas published _The Bon Vivant's Companion... or... How to Mix Drinks_ , the first cocktail book to be issued in America. In an introduction to a 1928 edition of the landmark tome, writer Herbert Asbury described its author in the following way:
"Briefly, Jerry Thomas was a bartender. But _what_ a bartender! His name should not be mentioned in the same breath with that of the frowsy gorilla who, in these dark days of Prohibition, may be found lounging behind the bar of a dingy basement speakeasy."
Indeed, far from an unkempt monkey, "Professor" Thomas, as he was nicknamed, was an "imposing and lordly figure of a man... possessed of immense dignity." Visitors to his famed post in the El Dorado gambling saloon in San Francisco encountered a man sporting a spotless white jacket, a diamond-festooned shirt front, and an impressive walrus mustache—or so the legend goes. As the _New York Times_ would later say of Thomas: "Like Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, and Buffalo Bill Cody, he was the sort of self-invented, semi-mythic figure that America seemed to spawn in great numbers during its rude adolescence."
Dandy-ish adornments aside, Thomas took the business of mixing drinks very seriously and pioneered a variety of concoctions that became national sensations (see the Blue Blazer Cocktail, page 39, and the Knickerbocker Cocktail, page 104). He even embarked on an international tour, reportedly towing with him a glistening set of solid silver bar utensils worth $4000 and astounding "the effete drinkers of the Old World with... his virtuosity," according to Asbury.
His successors have bowed at his altar for generations; _The Savoy Cocktail Book_ (1930) calls him "the greatest Bartender of the Past." Let us continue to _salaam_.
MAE WEST
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING BAWDY
Widely regarded as Old Hollywood's Queen of Sassy One-Liners, Ms. West (1893–1980) managed to get herself banned from NBC Radio after a scandalous, double-entendre-laden guest appearance in 1937. Many young people today would recognize her famous quips, but are less likely to be familiar with the woman who uttered them:
"I used to be Snow White, but I drifted."
"Too much of a good thing can be wonderful."
"A hard man is good to find."
"When I'm good, I'm very good—but when I'm bad, I'm better."
"Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere else."
"When women go wrong, men go right after them."
"I've been in more laps than a napkin."
When you next find yourself in a ribald mood, honor her memory by sipping this namesake cocktail. Note that it's flavored with an appropriate punch of cayenne pepper.
1 OUNCE BRANDY
½ EGG YOLK
½ TEASPOON SUGAR
ICE CUBES
1 DASH CAYENNE PEPPER
Shake the brandy, egg yolk, and sugar with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Add the dash of cayenne pepper and a dollop of naughtiness.
Serves 1
MAIDEN'S BLUSH
Cocktail
FOR DEMURE LASSES
Ladies: Whether you genuinely are demure or are attempting to seem demure, the old-fashioned Maiden's Blush Cocktail will bestow upon you the qualities of shyness, modesty, and reserve. An excellent complement to a pastel chiffon dress and a lily of the valley corsage.
1½ OUNCES GIN
2 TEASPOONS GRENADINE
2 TEASPOONS CURAçAO
1 DASH FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve with suppressed giggles.
Serves 1
COME HELL OR HIGH WATER
WEATHER-OR NATURAL-DISASTER-EVOKING LIBATIONS
History's bartenders commemorated nature in all of her states. When the sun pierced through the clouds, they were on hand with the "Sunshine Cocktail." When it poured, they handed you a "Cloudy with Showers." Hurricanes gave people an excuse to empty out everything in their liquor cabinets, or to head to the nearest grand hotel bar to ride out the storm in style (and not surprisingly, a "Hurricane Cocktail" adorned countless early- and mid-century bar cocktail menus).
Some vintage weather-inspired potations:
Cloudy Sky Rickey | Hurricane Punch
---|---
Cloudy with Showers Cocktail | London Fog Cocktail / pg. 169
Damn-the-Weather | Sunshine Cocktail
Cocktail / pg. 53 | Thunder Cocktail
Earthquake Cocktail / pg. 60 | Thunder and Lightning Cocktail
Fair and Warmer Cocktail | Thunderclap Cocktail
Fair Weather Cocktail | Weather-Be-Damned Cocktail
Heat Wave Drink | Whispers of the Frost Cocktail
Hurricane Cocktail
|
MONKEY GLAND
Cocktail
AN UNLIKELY FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH
The name of this drink has been making people blanch and/or snicker for nearly 100 years. Invented in Paris in the 1920s, it referenced the work of Dr. Serge Voronoff, who grafted monkey testicles onto the testicles of men in an effort to combat signs of aging. While Dr. Voronoff denied that the precious monkey glands functioned primarily as an aphrodisiac, the masses assumed that the glands would turn their new owners into King Kongs in the sack; men lined up out the door and around the block to undergo the procedure.
The experiments caused an international sensation (poet e.e. cummings wrote of "that famous doctor who inserts monkey-glands in millionaires"), and various bartenders claimed to have been the first to create a cocktail commemorating the glandular vogue.
2 OUNCES DRY GIN
1 OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
2 DASHES GRENADINE
1 DASH ABSINTHE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Sip, grip a mirror, and watch your wrinkles and sags melt away.
Serves 1
[ PLATE VIII ]
Monkey Gland Cocktail
MOTHER-IN-LAW
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING SPITEFUL
This hilarious recipe was uncovered in the rather ancient cocktail book Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks (1869). You can serve it to the mother of your husband or wife and smolder with impish satisfaction as she sips it—or guzzle it yourself to recover from the latest obligatory visit.
1 PART OLD ALE
1 PART BITTER ALE
Mix and pour.
MY OWN
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING UTTERLY POSSESSIVE
One of the most boring lessons of growing up: learning to share. People who come from large families with heaps of possession-sharing siblings will appreciate this vintage cocktail. Make sure to prepare it while hidden in a closet or squirreled away in a locked bathroom. If discovered, clutch the glass and shaker to your chest, and offer none to anyone else.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE COINTREAU
1 TEASPOON FRESH ORANGE JUICE
½ TEASPOON POWDERED SUGAR
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Store any leftover cocktail in a chain-bound refrigerator.
Serves 1
[ PLATE IX ]
90 Degrees in the Shade Cocktail
90 DEGREES IN THE SHADE
Cocktail
FOR THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER
After all, when it gets that hot outside, what else is there to do but lie in the shade of a magnolia tree, fan yourself while reading Faulkner, and drink yourself into a pleasant stupor? The "lemon ice" in this variation adds a delightful element of childhood innocence to this whiskey-and-soda recipe:
CLUB SODA
2 OUNCES LEMON ICE OR LEMON SORBET
2 OUNCES WHISKEY
Put the club soda into the freezer until ice flecks just begin to form in the bottle. Place the lemon ice in a Collins glass; pour in the whiskey and top with the iced club soda. Accessorize with a hand-held fan and an air of languor.
Serves 1
William Faulkner • AUTHOR •
"Civilization begins with distillation."
NINOTCHKA
Cocktail
TO UPGRADE YOUR SENSE OF HUMOR
Once again, you've been accused of being humorless, a wet blanket, a moping Eeyore.
Take solace: Many glamorous people have found themselves in the same pickle—including the great Greta Garbo, whose legendary onscreen world-weariness eventually began to drag on her box-office ratings as well. Hollywood execs decided to shine a ray of light into the Garbo gloom by releasing the 1939 film Ninotchka, her first comedy—and such a stark departure from her previous roles that the publicity campaign's tagline was, "Garbo laughs!" People around the world flocked to theaters to behold the upturned corners of Garbo's mouth.
Like Garbo, you can prove to your naysayers that you're not a stick in the mud: After downing several Ninotchkas, you're guaranteed to transform into a one-man vaudeville show.
2 OUNCES VODKA
½ OUNCE WHITE CRèME DE CACAO
½ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
Shake with ice and a tablespoon of knock-knock jokes; strain into a cocktail glass.
Serves 1
ROSE-LIPPED MAIDENS
OLD-FASHIONED COCKTAILS
CELEBRATING THE MOUTH
EXALTING PEARLY WHITES
Broadway Smile Fancy Drink
Royal Smile Cocktail
Prince's Smile Cocktail
Smiler Cocktail
EXALTING KISSES
Angel's Kiss Fancy Drink
Last Kiss Cocktail
Hobson's Kiss Mixed Drink
Soul Kiss Cocktail
Kiss Cocktail
Sour Kisses Cocktail
Kiss from Heaven Cocktail
Stolen Kisses Cocktail / pg. 176
Kiss-Me-Quick Fancy Drink
Widow's Kiss Cocktail / pg. 153
EXALTING BREATH
Panther's Breath Cocktail / pg. 130
Sheik's Breath Cocktail / pg. 171
OLD SALEM
Smash
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING WITCHY
Most of us associate the Salem of yore with a certain nasty spate of witch trials in the late 1600s, but the town was renowned for other things as well, as this splendid old-guard refreshment shows. One can almost see ole' Abigail Williams and Betty Parish secretly sipping these behind the barn after a hard day of finger-pointing.
2 TABLESPOONS SUGAR
2 TABLESPOONS WATER
4 SPRIGS FRESH MINT
½ GLASS SHAVED ICE
2 OUNCES DARK RUM
Put the sugar into a tall glass and add the water.
Add the mint, the shaved ice, and rum, then mix well.
A large-volume recipe can also be made in an iron cauldron and mixed with a broom.
Serves 1
OYSTER
Cocktail
TO SHOW THAT YOU'VE ARRIVED
Some sources say that this drink originated as a San Francisco delicacy in the 1860s, where it was allegedly favored by just-struck-it-rich California gold miners who considered oysters to be edible status symbols (see also: Gold Cocktail on page 80). After all, didn't oysters appear on the menus of the East Coast's most hoity-toity restaurants?
Originally, the Oyster Cocktail apparently did not contain alcohol, as demonstrated in this 1895 recipe from Modern American Drinks: How to Mix and Serve All Kinds of Cups and Drinks:
"A few dashes lemon-juice in a tumbler, add a dash of Tabasco [sic] sauce, a teaspoon of vinegar, a few dashes tomato catchup, six Blue Point oysters, with all their liquor; season to taste with pepper and salt. Mix."
The concoction was served in a glass with a spoon. However, later aficionados took the Oyster Cocktail from a G-rating to adult status by adding an ounce or two of vodka to the recipe.
Remember to make this drink yourself when you eventually catch up with the Joneses.
PANTHER'S BREATH
Cocktail
AN ALTERNATIVE TO BREATH MINTS
According to one source, the breath of the panther was once considered "a sweet odour, as if it were a mixture of every perfume." If that is the case, the cocktail detailed below should be on offer in any and every contained, crowded space (i.e. elevators, subway cars, etc.) in which the bad breath of your neighbors is a menace.
½ OUNCE CURAçAO
½ OUNCE CREAM
1 DROP ANGOSTURA BITTERS
Pour the curaçao into a chilled sherry or cocktail glass; float the cream on top. Add the drop of bitters, and serve.
Sip before making any amorous moves on a first date.
Serves 1
PARISIEN
Cocktail
TO TRANSPORT YOU TO BELLE EPOQUE PARIS
France's Belle Epoque (or "Beautiful Era") period lasted from the late nineteenth century until World War I. When you are in the mood to swap out status updates, digitally downloaded music, and McDonald's for brilliant cabaret theater, opera gloves, and Champagne-soaked dinners at Maxim's, sip one of these shimmeringly decadent concoctions.
A member of the pousse-café family (in which each ingredient is added from densest to the least dense to achieve a layered effect), the Parisien Cocktail should be sipped (preferably through a sterling silver or gold straw) one liqueur at a time.
¼ OUNCE FRAMBOISE
¼ OUNCE MARASCHINO LIQUEUR
¼ OUNCE CURAçAO
¼ OUNCE GREEN CHARTREUSE
¼ OUNCE CHAMPAGNE
With a steady hand, pour the ingredients carefully into a chilled pousse-café glass in the order listed, making sure that they don't mix. Best when shared with a demimondaine.
Serves 1
PARKEROO
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU COMPLETE YOUR HOME REPAIRS
The old-fashioned Parkeroo Cocktail will become an invaluable component in your tool shed. After all, as Parkeroo creator Willard Parker once noted:
"While painting a picket fence around my house, I discovered that after two Parkeroos I could remain standing and let the fence revolve around the brush."
If only Tom Sawyer had known about it!
2 OUNCES DRY SHERRY
1 OUNCE TEQUILA
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST
SHAVED ICE
Pour this concoction over shaved ice, allow it to chill, pour it into a thermos, and attach to your tool belt. Use any leftover cocktail to clear clogged drains, remove floor scuffs, and clean jewelry.
Serves 1
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 3
THE CUP
A satisfying beverage made from iced wine and fruit. Said The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book (1935), "In olden times, vegetables were also included, particularly cucumbers." In England, the refreshing Pimm's Cup—usually garnished with cucumber and bits of cut-up fruit—remains something of a national emblem, and is even downed between sets of civilized grass-court tennis matches.
For more formal occasions, bring back the sophisticated Claret Cup, featuring red wine from the Bordeaux region of France. The recipe below will fill a punch bowl and serve at least ten people.
**CLARET CUP**
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ cup water
One 750-ml bottle Claret
2 ounces brandy
1½ ounces Benedictine
1½ ounces maraschino liqueur
One 33.8-ounce bottle of seltzer
Lemon and orange slices or frosted fruit |
Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan; bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for five minutes. Set aside to cool. In a large punch bowl, mix together the wine, brandy, Benedictine, maraschino liqueur, and cooled sugar water. Cover and refrigerate. To serve, pour in the seltzer, and decorate with either the lemon and orange slices or the frosted fruit (see "Cocktail Cornucopia: The Art of Frosted Fruit" on page 76).
SERVES 10
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PASSENGER LIST
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU SAIL AWAY
It would have been sublime to sip one of these while coasting across the Atlantic between New York and England in a magnificent 1930s Cunard liner with all of the fixings: bon voyage parties, cabin-warming parties, flowers sent to cabins, black-tie dinners, invitations to sit at the captain's table, and ballroom dancing.
The next best thing: sipping one of these vintage cocktails while watching old films about romantic transatlantic crossings, such as:
Shall We Dance (1937) with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers
An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr
A Night at the Opera (1935) with the Marx Brothers
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) with Marilyn Monroe
Sabrina (1954) with Audrey Hepburn
The Lady Eve (1941) with Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda
A mid-century version of the Passenger List Cocktail:
½ OUNCE BRANDY
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE PARFAIT D'AMOUR
½ OUNCE YELLOW CHARTREUSE
1 DASH PERNOD
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Use this beverage for a bon voyage toast, preferably while perched dockside upon your exquisite stack of Goyard traveling trunks.
Serves 1
Elsa Maxwell • HOSTESS, AUTHOR, AND GOSSIP COLUMNIST •
"Though wars are fought, famines endured, monarchs overthrown, it is the givers of pleasure, the bringers of beauty, the gay at heart who endure. These are history's darlings."
ALL THE BETTER
TO SEE YOU WITH
OLD-FANGLED DRINKS NAMED
AFTER BODY PARTS
In the film Out of Africa (1985), Robert Redford (as Denys Finch Hatton) notes how many poems have been devoted to celebrating different parts of human anatomy. "Lips, eyes, hands, face... hair, breasts... legs, arms, even the knees," he muses. "But not one verse for the poor foot."
History's mixologists have been no less attentive to the body—and unlike their poet counterparts, at least one of them did manage to create a cocktail containing the word "foot":
| **TANGLEFOOT COCKTAIL**
---|---
1 ounce Bacardi rum
1 ounce Swedish punsch
½ ounce orange juice
½ ounce lemon juice |
Ice cubes
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
serves 1
Other physique-referencing libations:
Angel's Lips Cocktail | Beauty Spot Cocktail
---|---
Angel's Tit Cocktail / pg. 16 | Glad Eye Cocktail
Baby's Fingers Cocktail | Lady Fingers Cocktail
Baby Titty | Maiden's Hair Cocktail
Bald Head Cocktail / pg. 26 | Tiptoes Cocktail
Bosom Cocktail | Twinkle Toes Cocktail
PLATINUM BLONDE
Cocktail
TO EVOKE YOUR INNER MARILYN MONROE
Whether you're too lazy to touch up your roots or simply want to find out if gentlemen really do prefer blondes, this vintage cocktail will spare you a trip to the salon.
½ OUNCE LIGHT RUM
½ OUNCE CURAÇAO
½ OUNCE LIGHT CREAM
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Festoon the glass rim with voluptuous red lipstick imprint and sprinkle with breathless exclamations.
Serves 1
[ PLATE X ]
Poet's Dream Cocktail
POET'S DREAM
Cocktail
FOR A LITERARY SLUMBER
This old-guard cocktail sounds perfectly romantic at first—after all, might it not be named for the work of English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley?
"The Poet's Dream" (1875)
On a Poet's lips I slept
Dreaming like a love-adept
In the sound his breathing kept;
Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,
But feeds on the aerial kisses
Of shapes that haunt Thought's wildernesses [...]
One hopes this is the case, as it would likely be far less pleasant to be trapped in the dream of Allen Ginsberg:
"Howl" (1956)
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, [...]
Either way, sipping one before bedtime will surely have you dreaming in iambic pentameter:
½ OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE BENEDICTINE
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Adorn with the lemon peel twist.
An optional addition: 2 dashes orange bitters, and a handful of adjectives.
Serves 1
• Ogden Nash •
"Candy
Is dandy
But liquor
Is quicker."
HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB
THE MILTOWN COCKTAILS
In the 1950s, screen siren Marilyn Monroe pronounced that diamonds were a girl's best friend—but the more ubiquitous accessory of the era was the Miltown, a tiny white tranquilizer pill. Those babies were everywhere, and everyone tried to profit from the phenomenon. The Age of Anxiety, a book documenting America's post-H-bomb fears, reports that in the mid-1950s even Tiffany & Co. cashed in, doing "brisk sales of 'ruby-and-diamond-studded pill coffers for those who wished to glorify their new-found happiness.'"
Since pills and booze have often gone hand-in-hand in fashionable society, it was fairly inevitable that the chicly anxious would create a Miltown Cocktail. The most popular version consisted of vodka, tomato juice, and a single Miltown pill.
A second variation known as the Guided Missile ("popular among the late-night crowd on the Sunset Strip," noted one historian) contained two shots of vodka and two Miltowns.
Perhaps the most outrageous offering of the genre: the Miltini, a dry martini in which a Miltown wallowed in the bottom of the glass instead of an olive.
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 4
THE COBBLER
A drink served in a tall glass, filled with shaved or cracked ice, fruit, and liquor. "A swell drink to coast on," commented Trader Vic in his 1947 _Bartender's Guide._
Serve the following old-guard Champagne Cobbler to celebrate a summer birthday or anniversary:
**CHAMPAGNE COBBLER**
Cracked or shaved ice
¼ ounce fresh lemon juice
¼ ounce curaçao
Champagne
1 orange slice for garnish
1 pineapple slice for garnish
Fill a tumbler halfway with cracked or shaved ice; add the lemon juice and curaçao. Top with Champagne and stir. Garnish with the orange and pineapple slices.
serves 1
POLLYANNA
Cocktail
TO GIVE YOU A JOLT OF OPTIMISM
The old-fashioned term "Pollyanna" refers to "a person who is constantly or excessively optimistic," inspired by the title character in a best-selling 1913 novel by Eleanor Porter. In this book, Pollyanna's philosophy of life centers on what she chirpily calls "The Glad Game," which consists of finding something to be glad about in every situation, no matter how dire. For example, when stashed in an attic by a dour aunt, Pollyanna delights in the view from her perch. Nothing gets this dame down—not even a car accident that breaks both of her legs. (Pollyanna's take on that situation: Well, I'm glad that I had legs that worked, at least.)
The ingredients in her namesake cocktail are in equal parts delusion-inspiringly strong and girlishly sweet.
3 SLICES ORANGE
3 SLICES PINEAPPLE
2 OUNCES GIN
½ OUNCE SWEET VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
Muddle the fruit in a shaker; then add the remaining ingredients. Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Festoon with an additional slice each of orange and pineapple, and drink it in a blindingly sunny room filled with daisies and rainbows.
Serves 1
POOP-POOP-A-DOOP
Cocktail
TO CHANNEL YOUR INNER FLAPPER
While it might seem that this cocktail was created by new parents overwhelmed by the travails of diaper changes, it was actually a glamourous concoction popular among the 1930s bon ton. For example, the Poop-Poop-a-Doop was featured in a delightful 1933 book called Hollywood Cocktails: Over 200 Excellent Recipes, which sported the following subtitle:
Hollywood's Favorite Cocktail Book,
Including a Cocktail Served at Each of the
Smartest Stars' Rendezvous
(Whenever It Becomes Legal to Serve)
The cocktail's name evoked the flapperish cry immortalized by Jazz Age cartoon Betty Boop; the internationally famous exclamation even served as a movie title (Boop-Oop-A-Doop, 1932), in which the curvaceous Miss Boop stars as a circus lion tamer and fights off the lecherous ringmaster.
½ OUNCE RUM
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE SWEDISH PUNSCH
1 DASH APRICOT BRANDY
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and sprinkle with coquettish glances.
Serves 1
• Old saying •
"Martinis are like a woman's breasts: one is not enough.
Two: perfect, and three is too many."
POOR DEAR OLD THING
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING NEGLECTED & UNPOPULAR
This old-fashioned cocktail is your new go-to consolation when the phone has stopped ringing, invitations have stopped coming in, you've been given a Siberia table in your favorite restaurant, and not even your kisses-for-everyone Golden Retriever looks up when you come into the room.
1 OUNCE RUM
½ OUNCE SHERRY
½ TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with the lemon peel twist. Certain to be a hit among mothers whose children "never write or call."
Serves 1
POUSSE L'AMOUR
Fancy Drink
AN IMBIBABLE WORK OF ART
Another member of the pousse-café family, in which each ingredient is added from densest to the least dense to achieve the layered effect (see also the Parisien Cocktail, page 131, and the Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink, page 182).
Serve this eighteenth-century French libation to a fashion- and décor-minded group; fans of Piet Mondrian will especially appreciate the painstakingly achieved color-blocking of the drink.
1 ounce maraschino liqueur
1 egg yolk
1 ounce vanilla cordial
1 ounce cognac
In a sherry glass, pour in the maraschino liqueur, and then gently spoon the yolk on top—without disturbing the maraschino or breaking the yolk. Then carefully add the vanilla cordial, and top with the cognac. This drink will "push love" into your life—as the name "Pousse l'Amour" suggests—within 30 minutes of consumption.
Serves 1
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 5
THE DAISY
A tall potation made of liquor, lime or lemon juice, and grenadine—which is occasionally replaced by a cordial or liqueur. Think of it as a Shirley Temple for chic adults.
A delicious Daisy standard:
**RUM DAISY**
2 ounces light rum
½ ounce grenadine
1 ounce fresh lime juice
½ teaspoon sugar
Ice cubes |
Shake with ice and pour into an ice-filled tumbler. Can be adorned with fruits and berries.
serves 1
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PRAIRIE CHICKEN
Cocktail
TO ACCESS YOUR INNER HOMESTEADER
It's hard to imagine Ma or Pa Ingalls sipping cocktails out on the Kansas plains—but perhaps their live-wire, high-living, dancing-and-singing neighbor Mr. Edwards would have appreciated this pre–Prohibition era beverage. That is, if he ever made it out east to the refined bar of New York City's Waldorf-Astoria, where the Prairie Chicken was served:
1 ounce gin
1 egg
Salt
Pepper
Slide the yolk, unbroken, into a red wine glass, and cover it with the gin. Sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper. Best enjoyed at dawn, when it will help you recover from a night of fiddling under the harvest moon, and fortify you for a day of log-cabin building.
Serves 1
PRAIRIE OYSTER
Cocktail
TO SPEED ALONG REPENTANCE
Bestowed upon the world by the Savoy, the Prairie Oyster was treated for years as the ultimate hangover cure. Like the Martini in the sixties and the Cosmopolitan in the nineties, the Prairie Oyster accrued a certain cultural currency, and always seemed to end up in the clutches of glamorously decadent literary and cinematic characters. James Bond confessed in Thunderball that his breakfast often consisted of "a couple of aspirins and a prairie oyster." Sally Bowles—the scandalous heroine of the famous film Cabaret and the book Goodbye to Berlin—downs them left and right:
"'Would you like a Prairie Oyster?' [Sally] produced glasses, eggs and a bottle of Worchester sauce from the boot cupboard under the dismantled washstand: 'I practically live on them.' Dexterously, she broke the eggs into the glasses, added the sauce, and stirred up the mixture with the end of a fountain pen: 'They're about all I can afford.' She was back on the sofa again, daintily curled up."
As one journalist once wrote of the cocktail, "it will either restore you—or finish you off." Either way, you'll be relieved of the hangover.
1 EGG YOLK, UNBROKEN
2 DASHES VINEGAR
1 TEASPOON WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
1 TEASPOON KETCHUP
BLACK PEPPER
Gently slide the egg yolk into a highball glass. Pour the Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, and ketchup over the yolk; add one dash of black pepper. Some recipes also call for a dash of celery salt. Bravely gulp it down without breaking the yolk. Use any leftovers to spackle cracks of your driveway.
Serves 1
• OLD SAYING ABOUT THE CORRECT DRINKING SEQUENCE OF WINE •
"White 'ere red, steady head
Red 'ere white, one hell of a night."
RED SNAPPER
Cocktail
FOR THE ALIAS-ORIENTED
Historians of the bar have long bickered about the origins of the Bloody Mary. While the name of the first genius to combine tomato juice and vodka remains unclear, the St. Regis Hotel of New York City certainly played a role in popularizing the drink—albeit under a different moniker. In 1934, St. Regis bartender Fernand Petiot was asked by a prominent Russian patron to replicate a certain vodka cocktail he had sampled in Paris. Petiot obliged, adding his own combination of salt, pepper, lemon, and Worcestershire sauce. Dubbed the "Red Snapper," it remains a patron saint cocktail of the St. Regis today.
The original 1934 recipe:
1 OUNCE VODKA
2 OUNCES TOMATO JUICE
1 DASH FRESH LEMON JUICE
2 DASHES SALT
2 DASHES BLACK PEPPER
2 DASHES CAYENNE PEPPER
3 DASHES WORCESTERSHIRE SAUCE
ICE CUBES
1 CELERY STALK FOR GARNISH
Mix and serve in a tall Collins glass filled with ice. Garnish with the celery stalk and a placard proclaiming, "I am Not a Bloody Mary."
Serves 1
THE GRIEVING WIFE
HISTORICAL ALCOHOLIC ODES
TO THE BEREAVED FEMALE
In the popular imagination of yesterday's bartenders, widows had a grand old time. In drinks commemorating them, these ladies dreamed soulfully, kissed sweetly, and generally made merry.
**THE MERRY WIDOW COCKTAIL**
(one variation)
½ ounce French vermouth
½ ounce Dubonnet
Ice cubes
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
**THE WIDOW 'S KISS COCKTAIL**
1 ounce Calvados
½ ounce yellow Chartreuse
½ ounce Benedictine
1 dash Angostura bitters
Ice cubes
**THE WIDOW 'S DREAM COCKTAIL**
1 ounce Benedictine
1 egg
Ice cubes
Cream
Shake the Benedictine and egg with ice and strain into a lowball glass.
Float a little bit of cream on the top.
each serves 1
REFORM
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU MEND YOUR SORRY WAYS
This drink is especially handy just after the New Year, when you are attempting to uphold a lengthy list of ambitious resolutions. The old-fashioned Reform Cocktail helps build that precious resolve to lose weight, learn French, save more money, write more often to Mother, and other admirable pipe dreams.
1 OUNCE SHERRY
1 OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
2 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
ICE CUBES
1 ORANGE PEEL FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with the orange peel, a twist of self-reproach, and a teaspoon of self-discipline.
Serves 1
RHETT BUTLER
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU FRANKLY DON'T GIVE A DAMN
Serve this cocktail to a cocksure, suave, independent gentleman in your life—or sip it to shore up your own measure of irreverence. While you're imbibing, take a moment to recall that Rhett's famous give-a-damn line is nothing compared to one of his other gems:
"With enough courage, you can do without a reputation."
1½ OUNCES SOUTHERN COMFORT BOURBON
¼ OUNCE CURAçAO
½ OUNCE FRESH LIME JUICE
½ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
½ TEASPOON SUGAR
SHAVED ICE
Mix and pour into a Champagne glass filled with shaved ice.
Serve alongside the Scarlett O'Hara Cocktail
SCARLETT O'HARA COCKTAIL:
1½ OUNCES SOUTHERN COMFORT BOURBON
1 OUNCE CRANBERRY JUICE
1 DASH FRESH LIME JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain through a green velvet curtain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Each Serves 1
ROBINSON CRUSOE
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE DETERMINED TO BECOME A HERMIT
In this era of over-communication, over-connectedness, and over-sharing, who on earth doesn't occasionally want to get shipwrecked on an uncharted, un-peopled island? Although admittedly it would be nicer to shack up on a slightly less violent island than the one that hosted Robinson Crusoe himself in his eponymous 1719 novel; after all, he had to deal with surly cannibals, mutineers, and all sorts of other nuisances.
To simulate the castaway experience without the inconveniences, simply toss your handheld into the sea and mix yourself one of these transporting vintage concoctions.
1½ OUNCES RUM
1½ OUNCES PINEAPPLE JUICE
ICE CUBES
1 COCONUT SHELL
Stir the rum and pineapple juice together with ice, pour into the coconut shell, and serve.
Serves 1
ROLLS-ROYCE
Cocktail
TO MAKE YOU TO FEEL FILTHY RICH
The Rolls—that status car driven by film stars, tycoons, and dictators for nearly a century—has long been such an emblem of luxury that it's used as a standard against which other luxuries are measured, as in, "So-and-so is the Rolls-Royce of Champagnes" or "XYZ is the Rolls-Royce of pens."
Even if your budget is more Mazda than Rolls, the latter's namesake cocktail will leave you feeling like a million bucks.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
1 DASH BENEDICTINE
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. The hand with which you grip this glass should be absolutely heaving with rocks—whether real or aspirational.
Serves 1
GUNPOWDER AND
CASHEW NUTS
IMPROBABLE INGREDIENTS REQUIRED
BY SOME BEVERAGES OF YORE
**BISCUITS**
All sorts of nineteenth-century concoctions call for the inclusion of biscuits and bread in their preparations. _The Family Receipt Book_ (1819), for example, includes a drink recipe called "Drink for the Summer." Into a vat of sherry, "cyder," "perry," and brandy, one was instructed to "toast a biscuit very brown and throw it hot into the liquor."
**CASHEW NUTS**
These were used in an alcoholic drink called "Balm of Mankind," along with Peruvian balsam and dried heads of wormwood, according to _The Art of Confectionary_ (1866).
**OATMEAL**
It was plunked into a drink called "White Caudle" in a recipe from _Practical Housewife_ (1860).
**POWDERED FLORENCE IRIS**
Rather difficult to find today, this ingredient was used in an "Anisette" recipe in _The Art of Confectionary_ (1866). Another anisette calls for musk-seed and pearl gunpowder tea.
**SCURVY-GRASS**
Also known as "spoonwort," this roughage was used to make "Scurvy-Grass Wine" in a recipe from _Mackenzie's 5000 Recipes_ (1829).
**SEAWATER**
This was an ingredient in an ancient Roman wine mixture, along with pine resin.
**TOPS OF FIR**
Ambitious homemakers would add these to a potion of "wheaten malt," oatmeal, ground beans, and "ten new laid eggs," with the aim of producing "German Liquor Mum."
[ PLATE XI ]
Runt's Ambition Cocktail
RUNT'S AMBITION
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO MEN WITH NAPOLEON COMPLEX
Although he was the average height of a man of his era (various accounts place the exact measurement between 5'2" and 5'7"), French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte has gone down in history as a rather squat individual. The affliction known as "Napoleon Complex" is generally said to be endured by certain short men tortured about their height (or lack thereof), who in turn overcompensate in other aspects of their lives.
Serving an ambitious runt this vintage concoction could have either one of two effects:
1 / It might take the edge off for the evening and help him forget his woes,
or,
2 / It might give him courage to invade a vulnerable country.
2 OUNCES RUM
2 OUNCES GIN
2 OUNCES WHISKEY
2 OUNCES PORT WINE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Can also be served in a chilled Champagne coupe glass, the shape of which is sometimes said to have been inspired by the breast of Empress Josephine, Napoleon's wife.
Serves 2
• Napoleon Bonaparte •
"I drink Champagne when I win, to celebrate... and I drink Champagne when I lose, to console myself."
THREE HUNDRED YEARS
OF DRUNKENNESS
AMERICA'S OLDEST BAR
This honorific is usually bestowed upon Laffite's Blacksmith Shop Bar, located on the corner of Bourbon and St. Philip Streets in New Orleans. It is alternatively cited as the oldest structure used as a bar in the United States, the oldest continually occupied bar, and the oldest building in the French Quarter.
Built between 1722 and 1732, the building somehow survived two near-disastrous fires and was allegedly used by two pirate brothers extraordinaire—Jean and Pierre Lafitte—as a base (or a "blind") for their smuggling operations in the late eighteenth century. There were, of course, related rumors that the Laffites had buried riches in the yards surrounding the shop, prompting generations of treasure-hunters to scavenge the area.
Some claim that Jean Laffite has never left the bar: Reported sightings of his ghost are frequent. Occasionally his apparition is spotted twirling his moustache in the dark corners of the first floor; at other times, he is seen hanging from the rafters. According to one local historian of the paranormal, "The privateer's frequent appearance in the women's restroom suggests that Laffite's interest in the ladies has not diminished over the years."
Writers Tennessee Williams and Lucius Beebe frequented Laffite's and reportedly drank on the house. At night, the bar is still lit only by candlelight, and its past never feels far away.
Salomé
Cocktail
TO RELEASE YOUR INNER SEDUCTRESS
One of history's more storied seductresses, Salomé first turned up in the Bible and has inspired countless works of art ever since.
Here she is mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew:
"[O]n Herod's birthday, the daughter of Herodias danced before them: and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath, to give her whatsoever she would ask of him. But she being instructed before by her mother, said: Give me here in a dish the head of John the Baptist. And the king was struck sad: yet because of his oath, and for them that sat with him at table, he commanded it to be given. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison."
Playwright Oscar Wilde (see Dandy Cocktail, page 54) later put his own psychological twist on the scenario: In his play Salomé (1891), the title character takes a carnal interest in John the Baptist, who spurns her affections. She then very reasonably demands that he be executed. At the play's conclusion, the triumphant Salomé holds up John's severed head and kisses it.
Her namesake cocktail—once served at many of the early twentieth century's great bars and hotels—is perfect for those who wish to tap into their hidden wells of dangerous eroticism.
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE DUBONNET
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain through seven veils into a platter.
Serves 1
• The Savoy Cocktail Book •
"Wine was created for the solace of man, as a slight compensation, we are told, for the creation of woman."
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 6
THE FLIP
You don't see Flips around much anymore, but they should hasten back to bar menus, _tout de suite_. Usually made with one egg, one teaspoon of sugar, and two ounces of liquor, they "combine the curative properties of an Egg Nog and a Fizz, are good early-morning or bedtime drinks, and considered good builder-uppers," asserts legendary bartender Trader Vic in his 1947 _Bartender's Guide_.
What follows: a couple of old-fashioned flips that would likely appeal to modern palates.
CHAMPAGNE FLIP
2 ounces champagne
½ teaspoon simple
syrup
1 egg yolk
ice cubes |
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled Champagne coupe glass. Trader Vic recommends that you also "add a dash of brandy."
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CHOCOLATE FLIP
1 ounce yellow Chartreuse
1 ounce maraschino liqueur
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 egg
Ice cubes |
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled wine goblet
---|---
each serves 1
SATAN'S WHISKERS
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING DEVILISH
Bartenders of bygone eras have conjured up the Devil with a plethora of cocktails: the Satan Cocktail, the Devil Cocktail, the Diablo, Devil's Leap, and so on (see "Saints and Sinners: Bygone Cocktails with Religious Undertones," page 110). They have even commemorated Satan's various body parts (the Devil's Tail, Devil's Fingers, etc.), but few are more spirited than the cocktails named for the Devil's whiskers.
Amusingly, you can order these whiskers "straight" or "curled":
FOR STRAIGHT SATANIC WHISKERS
½ OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE ITALIAN VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
¼ OUNCE GRAND MARNIER
¼ OUNCE ORANGE BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a large chilled cocktail glass.
FOR CURLED SATANIC WHISKERS
Simply swap in orange curaçao for the Grand Marnier.
Each serves 1
SCHNORKEL
Cocktail
TO GO DEEP-SEA DIVING—WITHOUT THE OCEAN
Not to be confused with the "Schnozzle cocktail," this old-fangled drink—reportedly named after a historical submarine—will send you straight to the lagoon, figuratively speaking. Perfect for times when you are hankering after a maritime vacation, but are too short on funds.
2 OUNCES RUM
½ OUNCE PERNOD
1 OUNCE FRESH LIME JUICE
1 TEASPOON SUGAR
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a highball glass.
Best accessorized with a scuba suit.
Serves 1
HAIR OF THE DOG
SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE
MORNING COCKTAILS
According to conventions of yore, the practice of morning drinking hasn't always been a sure-fire sign that you should be sliding down the banister straight into an AA meeting.
"The mid-morning slug" might seem like "an eminently unchristian practice," wrote Lucius Beebe in his seminal bartending bible, _The Stork Club Bar Book_ (1946), but in the nineteenth century, "mid-morning was the first well-established cocktail hour."
"Hardy souls had a slug of rock and rye while shaving," he continued, "and [they] brushed their teeth in a light Moselle."
For Beebe, acceptable "restoratives" and "pick-me-ups" included the Manhattan, the dry Martini, Milk Punch, the Sherry Flip, and a bawdy beverage called the Rosalind Russell.
But the "most heroic of remedies," he contended, was the
London Fog cocktail.
LONDON FOG COCKTAIL
1½ ounces gin
½ ounce Pernod
Shaved ice |
Frappé gin and Pernod with shaved ice and "serve while still frothing."
SERVES I
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SCOFFLAW
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING REBELLIOUS
Here is an old-fashioned word that absolutely must stage a comeback: "Scofflaw" means "a person who flouts rules, conventions, or accepted practices." Downing the word's namesake cocktail will immediately give you courage to:
1 / Wear white after Labor Day
2 / Eat dessert before supper
3 / Don a red dress to a wedding
4 / Order a small, medium, or large coffee at Starbucks instead of a "tall," "grande," or "venti"
5 / Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on seafood pasta
... and all sorts of comparable acts of insurrection.
1½ OUNCES RYE
1 OUNCE DRY VERMOUTH
¾ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
¾ OUNCE GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
1 LEMON PEEL TWIST FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.
Garnish with a twist of lemon and a pair of handcuffs.
Serves 1
SHEIK'S BREATH
Cocktail
TO CONJURE UP A ROMANTIC ARABIAN ADVENTURE
Of course, it would help matters considerably if the sheik in question looked like Omar Sharif in his Lawrence of Arabia garb.
The recipe below—fished out of the depths of Trader Vic's 1947 Bartender's Guide—calls for the use of an ingredient called "caloric," also known as Swedish punsch. So make sure to pick some up next time you skip through Stockholm.
½ ounce gin
½ OUNCE CALORIC
½ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Best enjoyed while reclining in the Bedouin tents of the Jordanian desert.
Serves 1
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 7
THE SHRUB
A concoction composed of brandy or rum, stewed fruits, and sugar; these ingredients were brewed together, aged in a sealed container, and then usually bottled. They were served hot in the winter and cold in the summer. The following 1829 recipe for Currant Shrub appeared in _MacKenzie's 5000 Receipts:_
"Take white currants, when quite ripe, pick them off the stalks, and bruise them; strain out the juice through a cloth, and to two quarts of the juice put 2 lbs. of loaf sugar; when it is dissolved add to it a gallon of rum, then strain it through a flannel bag that will keep in the jelly, and it will run off clear; then bottle it for use."
If this is all too nineteenth century for you, try this more manageable, modernized version:
CURRANT SHRUB
8 cups currant juice
1½ pounds sugar brandy
Mix the currant juice and sugar in a large saucepan; boil it for ten minutes. Let the mixture cool, and for every two pints of sweetened juice, stir in 2 ounces of brandy. Bottle.
To serve shrub hot, pour two ounces of shrub mixture into a mug and top with boiling water. To serve it cold, pour two ounces of shrub into a tumbler or highball glass; add a few ice cubes and top off with seltzer.
SMART ALEC
Punch
TO SERVE TO KNOW-IT-ALLS
The phrase "Smart Alec" (meaning "an obnoxiously conceited and self-assertive person with pretensions to smartness or cleverness") makes a quaint alternative to its contemporary version, i.e., the comparatively crude "smart ass."
Other equally endearing, old-fashioned synonyms include:
Clever-clogs
Clever Dick
Smart nose | Smarty pants
Wiseacre
Wise guy
---|---
For eons, bartenders have had to contend with people of these descriptions, so it's hardly surprising that the phrase Smart Alec ended up commemorating a libation. Serve it to the "swellheads" in your life.
¾ OUNCE COGNAC
½ OUNCE COINTREAU
½ OUNCE YELLOW CHARTREUSE
1 DASH ORANGE BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and garnish with a pair of smarty pants.
Serves 1
SOVIET
Cocktail
TO HELP YOU FORMULATE A FIVE-YEAR PLAN
When the future feels entirely too up-in-the-air and you become determined to impose a little structure, this drink will help you map it all out.
Another nifty attribute of the Soviet Cocktail: It has proven helpful in providing a release to those whose lives are feeling entirely too bureaucratic.
1 OUNCE VODKA
¾ OUNCE SHERRY
¾ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and drink among comrades.
Serves 1
SPLITTING HEADACHE
Punch
ADVIL'S ANCESTOR
This drink hails from the early nineteenth century, when headache remedies were likely limited to lying in dark rooms on fainting couches, with lace draped over one's eyes. While it's unclear whether the Splitting Headache Punch was considered curative or causal, we can surmise that it would have offered headache sufferers at least a brief respite from their ailments.
Happily, the recipe below makes enough to treat a whole village:
½ CUP RUM
½ DOZEN CRUSHED CLOVES
A PINCH EACH CINNAMON, GINGER, AND NUTMEG
½ TEASPOON FRESH LIME JUICE
2 QUARTS (8 CUPS) BOTTLED ALE
Mix the rum, cloves, and spices together and strain into a punch bowl; add the lime juice and bottled ale.
Dunk your whole head into the bowl to experience the full medicinal effect.
Serves 10–12
STOLEN KISSES
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING SURREPTITIOUS
One of the great joys in life: stealing a kiss from a forbidden lover. The original version of this cocktail was composed of nothing less than the distilled essence of every romantic stolen kiss since the beginning of time. Since that recipe proved impossible to replicate in any great quantity, a gifted bartender formulated the following approximation:
¾ OUNCE PERNOD
¾ OUNCE GIN
½ EGG WHITE
½ TEASPOON SIMPLE SYRUP
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Female imbibers should reapply lipstick after each sip so as not to look suspicious.
Serves 1
CERTAIN UNCONFIRMABLE
RUMOR ABOUT THE
EVOLUTION OF THE MARTINI
The following assertion comes courtesy of a former bartender at the once-legendary Cedar Tavern in New York City (see "Bars of the Modern Art Movements," page 194).
The reason that so many people have forsaken gin Martinis for vodka Martinis over the years: Disapproving bosses and clients back at the office can smell gin on one's breath after a three-Martini lunch, but the odor of vodka cannot be detected.
Is this the true cause behind the vodka Martini's rise in popularity? Perhaps. Evidence of sensible strategizing? Absolutely.
SWAN SONG
Cocktail
TO MAKE YOUR EXIT MEMORABLE
The official definition of a swan song: "The last act, appearance, performance, or utterance of a person before retirement or death." According to an old European myth, swans sing as they die; not just any old tune, but a wrenching, captivating song.
The bottom line: We all have to go sometime; one might as well make a memorable last impression. What follows is a short list of deathbed swan-song lines allegedly uttered by luminaries over the centuries:
"Et tu, brute?" • JULIUS CAESAR
"Either those curtains go, or I do." • OSCAR WILDE
"I never should have switched from Scotch to martinis." • HUMPHREY BOGART
"Friends applaud; the comedy is finished." • LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
"I'm bored with it all." • WINSTON CHURCHILL
"Good night, my darlings. I'll see you tomorrow." • NOëL COWARD
"I must go in; the fog is rising." • EMILY DICKINSON
"Why not? Yeah." • TIMOTHY LEARY
"God bless... God damn." • JAMES THURBER
"Last words are for fools who haven't said enough." • KARL MARX
To inspire your own swan song:
½ OUNCE BRANDY
½ OUNCE APPLEJACK
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
2 DASHES GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
Stir with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Serve with an air of profundity.
Serves 1
ATTRIBUTED TO AUTHOR • W. Somerset Maugham •
"To drink a glass of sherry when you can get a dry martini is like taking a stagecoach when you can travel by the Orient Express."
OBSCURE MIXED DRINK CATEGORY NO. 8
THE RATAFIA
A homemade mainstay in 19th century America and a centuries-old specialty in Italy and France, the Ratafia was a sweet cordial made from wine, brandy, or another spirit, and flavored with fruit, almonds, seeds, or fruit kernels. A fairly typical Ratafia recipe comes to us courtesy of _The Art of Confectionary_ (1866):
JUNIPER-BERRY RATAFIA
"Take eight ounces of juniper berries, one drachm of cinnamon, two drachms of coriander, and half a drachm of mace; bruise the whole, and steep them for fifteen days in fourteen pints of brandy; squeeze through a cloth, and add a syrup made with seven pounds of sugar, and filter."
A modern champion of the Ratafia was culinary writer Jane Grigson, who wrote beautifully about them in her now-classic cookbook, _Good Things_ (originally published in 1971). Consult it to acquaint yourself with how to make delectable Quince Ratafia and a splendid Ratafia of Red Fruits. A warning: they are only to be attempted by the patient at heart: Grigson advised that Ratafias only reach their mellowest and most subtle after "a month or two or three."
SWEET PATOOTIE
Cocktail
TO EXPRESS NOURISHING AFFECTION
This phrase is 1920s slang for "sweetheart" or "pretty girl." Word historians believe that it perhaps stemmed from a corruption of the word "potato." If true, the so-called corruption was an improvement: Ladies likely far preferred being kissed and squeezed and called a "sweet patootie"than referred to as a lumpen potato.
1 OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE COINTREAU
½ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a heart-shaped candy box.
Serves 1
SYMPHONY OF MOIST JOY
Fancy Drink
LIQUID BEETHOVEN
One of the more curiously named old-guard cocktails out there. Whether you attribute cultivated or lewd connotations to it is your prerogative. If your inclination is the former, serve this drink at an at-home concert or musical evening. But take care not to invite too many people, for the Symphony of Moist Joy is damn hard to make; after all, it's yet another member of the pousse-café family, in which each ingredient is added from densest to the least dense to achieve the layered effect (see also the Parisien Cocktail, page 131, and the Pousse l'Amour Fancy Drink, page 147).
½ OUNCE GRENADINE
½ OUNCE YELLOW CHARTREUSE
½ OUNCE CRèME DE MENTHE
½ OUNCE COGNAC
Pour ingredients carefully into a chilled pousse-café glass in the order listed, making sure that they don't mix.
Festoon with cherries, eighth notes, and a twisted violin string.
Serves 1
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT
Cocktail
TO SERVE WHEN MAKING ULTIMATUMS
Clearly this cocktail shows that you mean business. Carry a thermos of it for ultimatums made on the run. The apricot brandy and grenadine provide just enough sugar to sweeten the deal.
1 OUNCE DRY GIN
½ OUNCE APRICOT BRANDY
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1 DASH FRESH LEMON JUICE
1 DASH GRENADINE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Make sure to slam the glass down on the bar emphatically when finished.
Serves 1
T.N.T.
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING DESTRUCTIVE
Also handy when you feel the need to start something from scratch: your relationship, your job, your house, your whole life. Blow it up and begin anew. This drink will give you the cojones to do so.
1 OUNCE WHISKEY
1 OUNCE ABSINTHE
Shake well and pour over a stick of dynamite.
Set aflame and stand back.
Serves 1
[ PLATE XII ]
T.N.T. Cocktail
THE GREEN CURE-ALL
UNLIKELY USES FOR ABSINTHE
OVER THE CENTURIES
An extremely strong, anise-flavored alcoholic drink, absinthe derives its famous particularity from the flowers and leaves of the bitter herb _Artemisia absinthium_ (i.e., wormwood). So popular in nineteenth-century France that the time between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. became known as "l'heure verte" (the Green Hour), absinthe also made its way to American shores and was particularly exalted in New Orleans by a chicly degenerate creative class.
Usually bright green (earning it the moniker _La Fée Verte_ , or "The Green Fairy"), this drink also contained trace elements of the chemical thujone, whose occasionally hallucinogenic effects gave absinthe a reputation for causing madness; the beverage was slapped with a nearly century-long ban in much of the Western world that lasted until the 1990s.
It is ironic, then, that before it became a recreational libation, absinthe was considered a cure-all for many different ailments, ranging from indigestion to hubris:
• • • In ancient Greece, wormwood leaves soaked in wine or spirits were reportedly prescribed as a cure for rheumatism, jaundice, and anemia.
• • • Ancient Romans used it to smite out bad breath—and as an elixir of youth.
• • • According to one source, an ancient Roman custom at the end of chariot races involved having the champion drink a cup of wormwood leaves soaked in wine "to remind him that even glory has its bitter side."
• • • In the early 1800s, absinthe was prescribed to French troops in North Africa and Indochina to fight off malaria and dysentery; its apparent success in this regard imbued the drink with patriotic connotations. (Another absinthe irony: A century later, the drink would be blamed for French defeats during World War I and stripped of its halo.)
Truman Capote • _MUSIC FOR CHAMELEONS_ •
She is a Martinique aristocrat who lives in Fort de France but also has an apartment in Paris. We are sitting on the terrace of her house, an airy, elegant house that looks as if it was made of wooden lace: it reminds me of certain old New Orleans houses. We are drinking iced mint tea slightly flavored with absinthe, [which] she pours from a dazzling emerald green decanter.
TOP HAT
Cocktail
TO HONOR THE LEGENDARY FRED ASTAIRE
When tasked with describing Astaire (1899–1987), screen siren Marlene Dietrich came up with the following three words:
"Elegant! Elegant! Elegant!"
Some actors become forever associated with specific items of clothing, and for dancer and film star Fred Astaire, that wardrobe item was the top hat. Both garment and wearer epitomized Old Hollywood at its most suave and glamorous. Astaire starred in a now legendary 1935 film called Top Hat, which featured timeless classic tunes "Cheek to Cheek" and "Top Hat, White Tie, and Tails." Sip this cocktail while watching his whole roster of films and reveling in his inimitable sophistication and wit.
W.C. Fields • COMEDIAN, ACTOR, AND WRITER •
"T'was a woman who drove me to drink.
I never had the courtesy to thank her."
2 SLICES PINEAPPLE
1 SLICE LEMON
1 SLICE ORANGE
1½ TEASPOONS GRENADINE
1½ OUNCES RUM
SHAVED ICE
Muddle the fruit and the grenadine. Add the rum and shaved ice, and then shake well. Strain into a large chilled cocktail glass. Be sure to serve it alongside a Ginger Rogers Cocktail.
GINGER ROGERS COCKTAIL
½ OUNCE GIN
½ OUNCE APRICOT BRANDY
½ OUNCE FRENCH VERMOUTH
1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
1 MARASCHINO CHERRY FOR GARNISH
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Garnish with a maraschino cherry and a satin dancing slipper.
Each Serves 1
UP-TO-DATE
Cocktail
TO DRAG YOU OUT OF THE DARK AGES
It doesn't matter how hopelessly last-season your wardrobe is, or that your idea of contemporary fiction is Edith Wharton. Upon sipping this concoction, you will instantly be transformed into a savvy trendsetter, abreast of the latest vogues. Tried-and-true, the Up-to-Date has been rendering its drinkersau courant since the World War I era.
Keep the recipe a secret, however—true tastemakers must remain ahead of the pack, not a part of it.
1 OUNCE RYE OR BOURBON
1 OUNCE SHERRY
2 DASHES GRAND MARNIER
2 DASHES ANGOSTURA BITTERS
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Serve with a superior, knowing, envy-inspiring smile.
Serves 1
VERITAS
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU NEED A STRAIGHT ANSWER
Veritas means "truth" in Latin, so administer this vintage cocktail right away when someone is beating around the bush.
A short list of ideal Veritas Cocktail recipients:
1 / Witnesses under cross-examination
2 / Suspect lovers who are being evasive about their last-night whereabouts
3 / Roommates who may or may not have consumed your Fruity Pebbles
4 / Spouses who may or may not have read your diary
5 / Landlords who are dodging the question about whether your rent will be raised next year
To create the truth serum:
¾ OUNCE COINTREAU
¾ OUNCE GIN
¾ OUNCE FRESH LIME JUICE
¼ OUNCE CRèME DE CASSIS
Shake first three ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Float the crème de cassis on top, and prepare to receive confession.
Serves 1
WELCOME STRANGER
Cocktail
TO DEMONSTRATE HOSPITALITY
The American South has long been concerned with pleasing strangers. One particularly lovely Southern hospitality ritual: leaving an empty space at the dinner table, in case a hungry, unexpected guest shows up. It's no wonder such an effort is made, either: Let us not forget the famous utterance of Blanche Dubois—an emblem of Southern womanhood—during her final scene of A Streetcar Named Desire:
"Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers."
Her swan song reminds us that we might all end up one day at the mercy of strangers, so let's reinstate a little kindness toward one another—starting with the Welcome Stranger Cocktail. Have a vat of it waiting in the front foyer at all times, as sort of a karmic insurance.
Bette Davis • _OLD ACQUAINTANCE_ , (1943) •
"There comes a time in every woman's life when the only thing that helps is a glass of champagne."
¼ OUNCE SWEDISH PUNSCH
¼ OUNCE BRANDY
¼ OUNCE GIN
¼ OUNCE GRENADINE
¼ OUNCE FRESH ORANGE JUICE
¼ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICE
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Seat the cocktail at the table's place of honor, and tuck it to sleep in a feather bed.
Serves 1
BARS OF THE MODERN ART MOVEMENTS
For hundreds of years, certain bars, hotels, and restaurants have co-opted the auras of the famous artists who frequented the establishments. In Paris, the Dingo and La Closerie des Lilas became synonymous with Hemingway. In New York City, the Algonquin is now forever linked with Dorothy Parker and her vicious Round Table; the same goes for the Plaza Hotel and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Following World War II, three Manhattan bars played particularly crucial roles as incubators, in which important subsequent art movements were created:
CEDAR TAVERN
A storied dump, the Cedar Tavern occupied several locations throughout its history, but its heyday took place at 24 University Place, where it became the 1950s hangout for a rowdy crowd of painters and writers, including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Frank O'Hara, and LeRoi Jones.
The Tavern's most celebrated patron, Pollock, was reportedly banned after ripping the men's room door from its hinges; ditto for Kerouac, who allegedly peed in an ashtray. The neighborhood was dangerous, muggings were common, and the early allure of the Tavern appears to have been its cheap alcohol; still, historians consider it an important incubator of the now-iconic Abstract Expressionist movement.
MAX'S KANSAS CITY
"Max's Kansas City was the exact place where Pop Art and Pop Life came together," Pop Art icon Andy Warhol once said. A favorite haunt of Warhol and his entourage from the Factory during the 1960s and 70s, the nightclub—located at 213 Park Avenue South—also hosted artists Robert Rauschenberg, Larry Rivers, Patti Smith, Robert Mapplethorpe, and Roy Lichtenstein. The Velvet Underground, Iggy Pop, and David Bowie all played there, and Max's Kansas City became seen as the crucible of the rebellion art and punk rock of that era.
MAGOO'S
In the early 1980s, Tribeca was one of the last affordable Manhattan neighborhoods in which New York artists could set up camp. Real artists had decamped from SoHo years earlier, and Magoo's was one of the few artists' bars with real street credibility left; it became a crucible for the "Pictures Generation" of photographers, including the legendary Cindy Sherman. The bar's owner would reportedly settle tabs with art instead of currency.
WINCHELL
Cocktail
FOR WHEN YOU'RE FEELING GOSSIPY
Although officially described in biographies as a newspaper and radio commentator, Walter Winchell (1897–1972) began his journalism career as an old-fashioned, vituperative gossip columnist. He got his start in 1924 at the late tabloid Evening Graphic, and became quip-famous on the topic of his new profession ("Gossip is the art of saying nothing in a way that leaves practically nothing unsaid"; "The same thing happened today that happened yesterday, only to different people"; "Today's gossip is tomorrow's headline").
Winchell was said to be fond of the Pink Lady Cocktail (a concoction of apple brandy, dry gin, lemon juice, grenadine, and egg white), but a different mid-century cocktail with a more masculine roster of ingredients bore his name. Use it to get others plastered and tease out their deepest secrets:
1 OUNCE COGNAC
1 OUNCE DRY GIN
¼ OUNCE COINTREAU
¼ OUNCE FRESH LEMON JUICEA
ICE CUBES
Shake with ice, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and contrive to look trustworthy.
Serves 1
X.Y.Z.
Cocktail
TO SERVE TO ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHERS
This mid-century drink will certainly take the edge off tense parent-teacher conferences and diffuse tensions when served at PTA meetings. And—as a bottled teacher gift from junior—it makes an excellent alternative to the been-there-done-that red apple.
X.Y.Z. COCKTAIL:
1 ounce rum
½ ounce Cointreau
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
Shake with ice, chalk, and pencil shavings; strain into a thermos bearing Peanuts or Star Wars imagery.
In case of emergencies, serve the X.Y.Z. in conjunction with its sister libation, the 1.2.3. Cocktail.
1.2.3. COCKTAIL:
1 ounce bourbon
½ ounce cream
1 teaspoon honey
Freshly ground nutmeg
Shake with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Sprinkle with nutmeg and serve with an extra-credit assignment.
Each Serves 1
HEAR ME ROAR
OLD-GUARD COCKTAILS NAMED
AFTER ANIMALS
Depending on the dispenser and the drinker, booze can float like a butterfly or sting like a bee. It comes as no surprise, then, that so many historical cocktails reference creatures of the Amazon, the barnyard, and all of the feral places in-between.
Alligator Cocktail | Horse's Neck Cocktail
---|---
Baby Kitty Cocktail | Jack Rabbit Cocktail
Barking Dog Cocktail | Kicking Cow Cocktail / pg. 99
Bee's Knees Cocktail / pg. 27 | Kitty Cocktail
Big Bad Wolf Cocktail / pg. 33 | Lamb's Wool Cocktail
Bloodhound Cocktail / pg. 35 | Leap Frog Cocktail
Boa Constrictor Cocktail | Lizard Skin Cocktail
Bulldog Cocktail | Monkey Gland Cocktail / pg. 128
Cat's Eye Cocktail | Mule Cocktail
Caterpillar Cocktail | Mule's Hind Leg Cocktail
Crow Cocktail | Panther's Breath Cocktail / pg. 130
Dog's Nose Cocktail | Peacock Cocktail
Eagle's Dream Cocktail | Prairie Chicken Cocktail / pg. 149
Elephant's Ear Cocktail | Serpent's Tooth Cocktail
Elephant's Milk Cocktail | Shark's Tooth Punch
Elk Cocktail | Swan Cocktail
Flying Fish Cocktail | Tiger's Milk Cocktail
Goat's Delight Cocktail / pg. 75 | White Elephant Cocktail
Grasshopper Cocktail | White Lion Cocktail
Hop Frog Cocktail | Yellow Parrot Cocktail
Hop Toad Cocktail | Yellow Rattler Cocktail
ZOMBIE
Punch
TO QUASH AN OVERLY WILD FÊTE
Any time a party gets out of hand and a police visit is nigh, whip up a batch of this: Zombie Punch is a surefire guarantee that your fête will make the turn from Animal House to Night of the Living Dead in no time.
The recipe—adapted from one found in Trader Vic's 1947 Bartender's Guide—will subdue approximately sixty people:
Two 750-ml bottles Jamaican rum
Four 750-ml bottles Puerto Rican rum
One 750-ml bottle Demerera rum
Two 750-ml bottles curaçao
3 quarts fresh lemon juice
3 quarts fresh orange juice
1 quart grenadine
2 ounces Pernod cake of ice
Mix ingredients thoroughly; chill with a large cake of ice in an oversized punch bowl. Let it stand an hour or two before serving. If party is still out of control, consider turning to any one of the Miltown cocktails detailed on page 141.
Serves at least 60
| dash | 6 drops | |
---|---|---|---|---
| 1 tsp (bar spoon) | ⅙ oz |
| 1 tbsp (3 tsp) | ½ oz |
| 2 tbsp (pony) | 1 oz |
| 3 tbsp (jigger) | 1½ oz |
| ¼ cup (4 tbsp) | 2 oz | 60 ml|
| ⅓ cup (5 tbsp) | 3 oz | 75 ml|
| ½ cup | 4 oz | 120 ml|
| ⅔ cup | 5 oz | 165 ml|
| ¾ cup | 6 oz | 180 ml|
| 1 cup | 8 oz | 240 ml|
| 1 pt (2 cups) | 16 oz | 480 ml|
| 1 qt (4 cups) | 32 oz | 960 ml|
| 750 ml bottle | 25.4 oz |
| 1 liter bottle | 33.8 oz |
| 1 medium lemon | 3 tbsp juice |
| 1 medium lime | 2 tbsp juice |
| 1 medium orange | ⅓ cup juice |
INDEX
The index entries below are as they appeared in the print version of the book and are included here for your reference. Please use the search function on your eReader to search for terms of interest.
A
absinthe
Death in the Afternoon,
Earthquake Cocktail,
T.N.T. Cocktail,
uses for, 186–87
ale
Mother-in-Law Cocktail,
Splitting Headache Punch,
Algonquin Cocktail, 14–15
amaretto
Godfather Cocktail,
Godmother Cocktail,
Ancient Roman Mulsum,
Angel's Tit Cocktail,
Ants in the Pants Cocktail,
apple brandy
Third Rail Cocktail,
Widow's Kiss Cocktail,
applejack
Atlas Cocktail,
Swan Song Cocktail, 178–79
apricot brandy
Charlie Chaplin Cocktail, 48–49
Dolly O'Dare Cocktail,
Everything But Cocktail,
Frankenstein Cocktail,
Ginger Rogers Cocktail,
Kitchen Sink Cocktail,
Pink Whiskers Cocktail,
Take It or Leave It Cocktail,
Arsenic and Old Lace Cocktail,
Astaire, Fred, , ,
Astor, Caroline, ,
Astor Cocktail,
Astor Painless Anesthetic Cocktail,
Atlas Cocktail,
Atta Boy Cocktail,
B
Bald Head Cocktail,
bars
America's oldest,
of modern art movements, 194–95
Parisian, 36–37
Battery Charger Cooker,
Beebe, Lucius, , ,
Bee's Knees Cocktail,
Benedictine
Poet's Dream Cocktail, 139–40
Widow's Dream Cocktail,
Widow's Kiss Cocktail,
Between-the-Sheets Cocktail,
Big Bad Wolf Cocktail, 32–33
Bishop Cocktail,
Bloodhound Cocktail,
Blue Blazer Cocktail, 38–39
Bosom Caresser Cocktail,
bourbon
Everything But Cocktail,
Fancy Free Cocktail,
H. G. Wells Cocktail,
1.2.3. Cocktail,
Rhett Butler Cocktail,
Scarlett O'Hara Cocktail,
Up-to-Date Cocktail,
brandy. See also cognac; individual fruit-flavored brandies
Between-the-Sheets Cocktail,
Big Bad Wolf Cocktail, 32–33
Bosom Caresser Cocktail,
Brandy Crusta,
Currant Shrub,
Garbo Gargle Cocktail,
Goat's Delight Cocktail,
Harvard Cocktail,
Hell Cocktail,
High Hat Cocktail,
"Hoop La!" Cocktail,
Horse's Neck Cocktail,
Jungle Fire Sling,
Juniper-Berry Ratafia,
Loud-Speaker Cocktail,
Mae West Cocktail, 116–17
Passenger List Cocktail, 134–35
Swan Song Cocktail, 178–79
Third Rail Cocktail,
Vanderbilt Cocktail,
Welcome Stranger Cocktail, 192–93
Broken Spur Cocktail,
Bullshot Cocktail, 42–43
C
Cedar Tavern, ,
Champagne
Champagne Cobbler,
Champagne Flip,
Death in the Afternoon,
Kill Devil Punch, 100–101
King's Run Cocktail,
Parisien Cocktail,
Raspberry Diamond Fizz,
uses for, 22–23
Chanticleer Cocktail, 44–45
Charlie Chaplin Cocktail, 48–49
Chartreuse
Chocolate Flip,
Parisien Cocktail,
Passenger List Cocktail, 134–35
Smart Alec Punch,
Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink,
Widow's Kiss Cocktail,
cherry brandy
Jungle Fire Sling,
Vanderbilt Cocktail,
Chocolate Flip,
Claret Cup,
Closerie des Lilas, La, ,
Cobbler,
cocktails. See also _individual drinks_
actress-inspired,
with animal names,
with body part names,
etymology of,
improbable ingredients for, 158–59
for millionaires,
for the morbid,
morning,
mouth-celebrating,
pink,
with religious undertones,
secondary meanings of,
with suggestive names,
with war-oriented names,
weather-inspired,
cognac
Astor Painless Anesthetic Cocktail,
"Hoop La!" Cocktail,
King's Run Cocktail,
Pousse l'Amour Fancy Drink,
Smart Alec Punch,
Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink,
Winchell Cocktail,
Cointreau
Between-the-Sheets Cocktail,
Corpse Reviver Cocktail,
Duke Cocktail,
Frankenstein Cocktail,
"Hoop La!" Cocktail,
Loud-Speaker Cocktail,
Smart Alec Punch,
Sweet Patootie Cocktail,
Veritas Cocktail,
Winchell Cocktail,
X.Y.Z. Cocktail,
Corpse Reviver Cocktail,
crème de menthe
Hell Cocktail,
Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink,
Crusta,
Cup,
curaçao
Brandy Crusta,
Champagne Cobbler,
Curled Satan's Whiskers Cocktail,
Panther's Breath Cocktail,
Parisien Cocktail,
Platinum Blonde Cocktail,
Rhett Butler Cocktail,
Zombie Punch,
Currant Shrub,
D
Daisy,
Damn-the-Weather Cocktail,
Dandy Cocktail,
Death in the Afternoon,
Deux Magots, Les,
Dietrich, Marlene, , ,
Diplomat Cocktail,
Dolly O'Dare Cocktail,
"drunk"
comparative phrases for,
euphemisms for,
Du Barry Cocktail,
Dubonnet
Dandy Cocktail,
Jabberwock Cocktail,
Merry Widow Cocktail,
Salomé Cocktail, 164–65
Duchess Cocktail,
Duke Cocktail,
E
Earthquake Cocktail,
Everything But Cocktail,
F
Fancy Free Cocktail,
Fare Thee Well Cocktail,
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, , , ,
Fizz,
Flip,
Floor Polish Cocktail,
Flu Cocktail,
Fluffy Ruffles Cocktail,
framboise
Parisien Cocktail,
Frankenstein Cocktail,
Froth Blower Cocktail, 72–73
fruit, frosted,
G
Garbo, Greta, ,
Garbo Gargle Cocktail,
gin
Ants in the Pants Cocktail,
Arsenic and Old Lace Cocktail,
Astor Cocktail,
Astor Painless Anesthetic Cocktail,
Atta Boy Cocktail,
Bald Head Cocktail,
Bee's Knees Cocktail,
Bloodhound Cocktail,
Broken Spur Cocktail,
Chanticleer Cocktail, 44–45
Charlie Chaplin Cocktail, 48–49
Corpse Reviver Cocktail,
Damn-the-Weather Cocktail,
Dolly O'Dare Cocktail,
Du Barry Cocktail,
Earthquake Cocktail,
Everything But Cocktail,
Fare Thee Well Cocktail,
Floor Polish Cocktail,
Frankenstein Cocktail,
Froth Blower Cocktail, 72–73
Ginger Rogers Cocktail,
Gingivitis Cocktail,
Gold Cocktail,
Great Ziegfeld Cocktail,
Hanky Panky Cocktail,
Income Tax Cocktail,
Jabberwock Cocktail,
June Bride Cocktail,
Kitchen Sink Cocktail,
Landlady Cocktail,
Laughing Soup Cocktail,
Leave-It-to-Me Cocktail,
London Fog Cocktail,
Loud-Speaker Cocktail,
Maiden's Blush Cocktail,
Miltini,
Monkey Gland Cocktail,
My Own Cocktail,
Passenger List Cocktail, 134–35
Poet's Dream Cocktail, 139–40
Pollyanna Cocktail,
Poop-Poop-a-Doop Cocktail, 144–45
Prairie Chicken Cocktail,
Princeton Cocktail,
Raspberry Diamond Fizz,
Rolls-Royce Cocktail,
Runt's Ambition Cocktail, 161–62
Salomé Cocktail, 164–65
Satan's Whiskers Cocktail,
Sheik's Breath Cocktail,
Stolen Kisses Cocktail,
Sweet Patootie Cocktail,
Take It or Leave It Cocktail,
Veritas Cocktail,
Welcome Stranger Cocktail, 192–93
Winchell Cocktail,
Yale Cocktail,
Ginger Rogers Cocktail,
Gingivitis Cocktail,
Gloom Lifter Cocktail,
Goat's Delight Cocktail,
Godfather Cocktail,
Godmother Cocktail,
Gold Cocktail,
Grand Marnier
Straight Satan's Whiskers Cocktail,
Great Ziegfeld Cocktail,
Green-Eyed Monster Cocktail,
grenadine
Gingivitis Cocktail,
Rum Daisy,
Scofflaw Cocktail,
Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink,
Three Little Pigs Cocktail,
Welcome Stranger Cocktail, 192–93
Zombie Punch,
Guided Missile,
H
Hanky Panky Cocktail,
Harry's New York Bar, ,
Harvard Cocktail,
Hell Cocktail,
Hemingway, Ernest, , 36–37, 66–67,
H. G. Wells Cocktail,
High Hat Cocktail,
"Hoop La!" Cocktail,
Horse's Neck Cocktail,
I
Income Tax Cocktail,
Irish whiskey
Gloom Lifter Cocktail,
Green-Eyed Monster Cocktail,
J
Jabberwock Cocktail,
June Bride Cocktail,
Jungle Fire Sling,
Juniper-Berry Ratafia,
K
Kicking Cow Cocktail,
Kill Devil Punch, 100–101
King's Run Cocktail,
Kirschwasser
Goat's Delight Cocktail,
Kitchen Sink Cocktail,
Knickerbocker Cocktail, 104–5
L
Laffite's Blacksmith Shop Bar,
Landlady Cocktail,
Laughing Soup Cocktail,
Lawyer's Revenge Cocktail,
Leave-It-to-Me Cocktail,
Lillet Blanc
Corpse Reviver Cocktail,
"Hoop La!" Cocktail,
Jabberwock Cocktail,
London Fog Cocktail,
Loud-Speaker Cocktail,
M
Madeira
Bosom Caresser Cocktail,
Mae West Cocktail, 116–17
Magoo's,
Maiden's Blush Cocktail,
maraschino liqueur
Angel's Tit Cocktail,
Chocolate Flip,
Duke Cocktail,
Parisien Cocktail,
Pousse l'Amour Fancy Drink,
martinis, evolution of,
Max's Kansas City,
Merry Widow Cocktail,
Miltini,
Miltown Cocktail,
Mojito,
Monkey Gland Cocktail,
Monroe, Marilyn, , ,
Mother-in-Law Cocktail,
My Own Cocktail,
N
Napoleon Bonaparte, 161–62
90 Degrees in the Shade Cocktail,
Ninotchka Cocktail,
O
Old Salem Smash,
1.2.3. Cocktail,
Oyster Cocktail,
P
Panther's Breath Cocktail,
Papa Doble,
Parfait d'Amour
Passenger List Cocktail, 134–35
Parisien Cocktail,
Parker, Dorothy, ,
Parkeroo Cocktail,
Passenger List Cocktail, 134–35
Pernod
Battery Charger Cooler,
Duchess Cocktail,
Green-Eyed Monster Cocktail,
London Fog Cocktail,
Stolen Kisses Cocktail,
Pink Whiskers Cocktail,
Platinum Blonde Cocktail,
Poet's Dream Cocktail, 139–40
Pollyanna Cocktail,
Poop-Poop-a-Doop Cocktail, 144–45
Poor Dear Old Thing Cocktail,
port
Broken Spur Cocktail,
Lawyer's Revenge Cocktail,
Pink Whiskers Cocktail,
Princeton Cocktail,
Runt's Ambition Cocktail, 161–62
Pousse l'Amour Fancy Drink,
Prairie Chicken Cocktail,
Prairie Oyster Cocktail, 150–51
Princeton Cocktail,
punches,
Kill Devil Punch, 100–101
Splitting Headache Punch,
Zombie Punch,
punsch
Poop-Poop-a-Doop Cocktail, 144–45
Sheik's Breath Cocktail,
Tanglefoot Cocktail,
Welcome Stranger Cocktail, 192–93
R
Raspberry Diamond Fizz,
Ratafia,
Red Snapper Cocktail,
Reform Cocktail,
Rhett Butler Cocktail,
Robinson Crusoe Cocktail,
Rogers, Ginger, , ,
Rolls-Royce Cocktail,
Rome, wine drinks of ancient,
rum
Between-the-Sheets Cocktail,
Fluffy Ruffles Cocktail,
Kill Devil Punch, 100–101
Knickerbocker Cocktail, 104–5
Mojito,
Old Salem Smash,
Papa Doble,
Platinum Blonde Cocktail,
Poop-Poop-a-Doop Cocktail, 144–45
Poor Dear Old Thing Cocktail,
Robinson Crusoe Cocktail,
Rum Daisy,
Runt's Ambition Cocktail, 161–62
Schnorkel Cocktail,
Splitting Headache Punch,
Tanglefoot Cocktail,
Third Rail Cocktail,
Top Hat Cocktail, 188–89
X.Y.Z. Cocktail,
Zombie Punch,
Runt's Ambition Cocktail, 161–62
rye
Algonquin Cocktail, 14–15
Dandy Cocktail,
Flu Cocktail,
Kitchen Sink Cocktail,
Scofflaw Cocktail,
Up-to-Date Cocktail,
S
Salomé Cocktail, 164–65
Satan's Whiskers Cocktail,
Savoy Hotel, , , ,
Scarlett O'Hara Cocktail,
Schnorkel Cocktail,
Scofflaw Cocktail,
Scotch
Blue Blazer Cocktail, 38–39
Godfather Cocktail,
Select, Le, 36–37
Sheik's Breath Cocktail,
sherry
Jabberwock Cocktail,
Parkeroo Cocktail,
Reform Cocktail,
Soviet Cocktail,
Up-to-Date Cocktail,
Shrub,
Smart Alec Punch,
Soviet Cocktail,
Splitting Headache Punch,
Stein, Gertrude, ,
Stolen Kisses Cocktail,
Stork Club, , , ,
Swan Song Cocktail, 178–79
Sweet Patootie Cocktail,
Symphony of Moist Joy Fancy Drink,
T
Take It or Leave It Cocktail,
Tanglefoot Cocktail,
tequila
Parkeroo Cocktail,
Third Rail Cocktail,
Thomas, Jerry, , , , 114–15
Three Little Pigs Cocktail,
T.N.T. Cocktail,
Top Hat Cocktail, 188–89
Trader Vic, , , , , , ,
U
Up-to-Date Cocktail,
V
Vanderbilt Cocktail,
Veritas Cocktail,
vermouth
Astor Painless Anesthetic Cocktail,
Atta Boy Cocktail,
Bald Head Cocktail,
Bloodhound Cocktail,
Chanticleer Cocktail, 44–45
Diplomat Cocktail,
Dolly O'Dare Cocktail,
Duchess Cocktail,
Fluffy Ruffles Cocktail,
Frankenstein Cocktail,
Ginger Rogers Cocktail,
Gold Cocktail,
Green-Eyed Monster Cocktail,
Hanky Panky Cocktail,
Harvard Cocktail,
Income Tax Cocktail,
Merry Widow Cocktail,
Pink Whiskers Cocktail,
Poet's Dream Cocktail, 139–40
Reform Cocktail,
Rolls-Royce Cocktail,
Salomé Cocktail, 164–65
Satan's Whiskers Cocktail,
Scofflaw Cocktail,
Soviet Cocktail,
Take It or Leave It Cocktail,
Yale Cocktail,
vodka
Bullshot Cocktail, 42–43
Godmother Cocktail,
Guided Missile,
Miltown Cocktail,
Ninotchka Cocktail,
Oyster Cocktail,
Red Snapper Cocktail,
Soviet Cocktail,
W
Waldorf-Astoria, , , , , ,
Warhol, Andy,
Welcome Stranger Cocktail, 192–93
Wells, H. G.,
West, Mae, ,
whiskey. See also bourbon; Irish whiskey; rye; Scotch
Bishop Cocktail,
Earthquake Cocktail,
Kicking Cow Cocktail,
90 Degrees in the Shade Cocktail,
Runt's Ambition Cocktail, 161–62
Three Little Pigs Cocktail,
T.N.T. Cocktail,
Widow's Dream Cocktail,
Widow's Kiss Cocktail,
Wilde, Oscar, , ,
Winchell Cocktail,
wine. See also Champagne; Madeira; port; sherry
Ancient Roman Mulsum,
Claret Cup,
X
X.Y.Z. Cocktail,
Y
Yale Cocktail,
Z
Ziegfeld, Florenz,
Zombie Punch,
FURTHER READING
Several of these books are out of print, but can be easily scouted through secondhand book vendors or accessed in library archives. Some of the older titles below have been re-issued, but the date listed here indicates the earliest date of publication—usually the edition used to research this book.
**ADAMS, JAD.**
Hideous Absinthe: A History of the Devil in a Bottle.
New York: I.B. Taurus & Co., Ltd., 2004.
**BEEBE, LUCIUS.**
The Stork Club Bar Book.
New York: Rinehart & Co., 1946.
**BROWN, JOHN HULL.**
Early American Beverages.
New York: Bonanza Books, 1966.
**CASE, CARLETON B.**
The Big Toast-Book: A Compendium of the Best New and Old Toasts, Sentiments, Quotations and Merry Quips.
Chicago: Shrewesbury Publishing Co., 1927.
**CRADDOCK, HARRY.**
The Savoy Cocktail Book.
London: Constable & Company, 1930.
**CROCKETT, ALBERT STEVENS.**
The Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book, With Amendments
Due to the Repeal of the XVIIIth.
New York: A.S. Crockett, 1935.
**EDITORS OF ESQUIRE MAGAZINE.**
Esquire's Handbook for Hosts.
New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1949.
**FIELD, COLIN PETER.**
The Cocktails of the Ritz Paris.
New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
**FLEXNER, MARION W.**
Cocktail-Supper Cookbook.
New York: M. Barrows and Company, Inc., 1955.
**HIRSCHFELD, AL.**
The Speakeasies of 1932 (Original title: Manhattan Oases).
New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc., 1932.
**TERRINGTON, WILLIAM.**
Cooling Cups and Dainty Drinks.
New York: George Routledge and Sons, 1869.
**THOMAS, JERRY.**
The Bon Vivant's Companion... Or... How to Mix Drinks.
New York: Dick and Fitzgerald, 1862.
**TRADER VIC.**
Bartender's Guide By Trader Vic.
New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1947.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my appreciation to the fellow imbibers who contributed their thoughts, suggestions, recipes, and well-wishes: Emily Haynes, Kate Lee, Gregory Macek, Luke Ives Pontifell, Slater Gillin, Glynnis MacNicol, Jesse Sheidlower, Thom Collins, Sarah Rosenberg, Jennifer Lynn Pelka, Cator Sparks and Emily Arden Wells.
Heartfelt thanks as well to the New York Public Library; the St. Regis New York; Thornwillow Press, Ltd.; Eleven Madison Park; Left Bank Books; Gastronomista; Bonnie Slotnik Cookbooks; and Joanne Hendricks Cookbooks, whose resources and troves of literature about historical libations greatly informed this work.
Lesley M. M. Blume
Lesley M. M. Blume is an author, journalist, and cultural observer based in New York City. Her first edition of Let's Bring Back—an encyclopedia celebrating hundreds of forgotten-yet-delightful objects, fashions, culinary delectables, and personalities—debuted to critical acclaim in 2010 (The New Yorker).
She adores a Gin Fizz in the summer, a Hot Toddy in the winter, and a fine glass of Champagne at any time of the year.
Learn more about her at www.lesleymmblume.com.
"whimsical... comical... delightful." the new yorker
The original let's bring back also available wherever ebooks are sold.
www.chroniclebooks.com
PRAISE FOR LESLEY M. M. BLUME AND _LET'S BRING BACK_
A tongue-in-cheek sparkler of an encyclopedia. Upon reading, you may find yourself in the kitchen, dressed in a silk lap robe and glamour slippers, stirring up a Tipsy Parson that would make Tallulah Bankhead proud.
_W MAGAZINE_
A humorous ode to preservation and the art of rediscovery. Heartily recommended.
_THE WALL STREET JOURNAL_
Whimsical... comical... delightful... Blume's book is about more than just populating your life with antique trinkets; it's about curating your own charming lifestyle while celebrating the Wildean ideals of life as art.
_THE NEW YORKER_
If you're feeling lousy and you read this book, it awakens you to things that have made you happy in your life. It reminds you of a time when certain things, ideas, gestures got you through. [ _Let's Bring Back_ ] promotes and revels in an idea of life that's lived in 3-D, not 2-D, a life lived civicly and civil-y. And that is a very wonderful thing.
SALLY SINGER, Editor, _T:_ _THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE_
Elegant... whimsical... As Blume herself might put it, we just think this book is the bee's knees.
_O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE_
Wistful... zeitgeisty... charming... Let's Bring Back is like a stroll down memory lane. Whether you'd carry a parasol down 5th Avenue or plop it in your caipirinha there's something for everyone.
_ELLE_
A charming slip of a book... that quite deliciously and convincingly has the romantics among us pining for the ways of the dearly held past.
_CHICAGO TRIBUNE_
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaBook"
}
| 4,698
|
{"url":"https:\/\/www.youdict.com\/etym\/s\/counterpoint","text":"### messianic\n\n[,mesi'\u00e6nik]\n\u00ab\n1 \/ 10\n\u00bb\nmessianic \u6551\u661f\u7684\n\n1831, from Modern Latin messianicus, from Messias (see messiah).\n1. The cult leader saw himself as a Messianic figure.\n\n2. The reforms were carried out with an almost messianic zeal.\n\n3. The book proved such a success that the authors followed it up with \"The Messianic Legacy\".\n\n4. The defeated radicals of the French Revolution were the first to have this messianic vision in 1794.\n1794\u5e74\u6cd5\u56fd\u5927\u9769\u547d\u4e2d\u5931\u8d25\u7684\u6fc0\u8fdb\u5206\u5b50\u6700\u5148\u9884\u89c1\u5230\u4e86\u793e\u4f1a\u4f1a\u53d1\u751f\u6839\u672c\u6539\u53d8\u3002\n\n5. He did so, moreover, with a nearly messianic fervor and aplomb.","date":"2021-09-26 21:39:21","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": false, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.8959751725196838, \"perplexity\": 13848.962917674677}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2021-39\/segments\/1631780057973.90\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20210926205414-20210926235414-00446.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
class Ey::Core::TokenAuthentication < Faraday::Response::Middleware
attr_reader :token
def initialize(app, token)
super(app)
@token = token
end
def call(env)
env[:request_headers]["X-EY-TOKEN"] = token
super
end
end
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 9,374
|
'use strict';
//Birthday Fund service used to communicate Birthday Fund REST endpoints
angular.module('birthdayFunds').factory('BirthdayFunds', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
return $resource('birthdayFunds/:birthdayFundId', { birthdayFundId: '@_id'
}, {
update: {
method: 'PUT'
}
});
}
]).factory('BirthdayFundBegin', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
return $resource('createBirthdayFunds/:birthdayFundId', { birthdayFundId: '@id'
}, {
update: {
method: 'PUT'
}
});
}
]).factory('BirthdayFundChange', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
return $resource('editBirthdayFund/:birthdayFundId', { birthdayFundId: '@id'
}, {
update: {
method: 'PUT'
}
});
}
]).factory('CollectableUsers', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
return $resource('usersToCollect/:birthdayUser',{birthdayUser: '@userName'});
}
]).factory('BirthdayFundEdit', ['$resource',
function($resource) {
return $resource('editBirthdayFund/:birthdayFundId', { birthdayFundId: '@_id'
}, {
update: {
method: 'PUT'
}
});
}
]);
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 6,713
|
Attorney Christie Ryan, J.D.
Attorney Saba Toor
Tess Gahagan
Heather Cathey, Paralegal
Establishing Parentage
Specific Purpose Representation
Termination & Adoption
Possession and Visitation
Strive to Protect Your Family & Your Future CONTACT US NOW
How long does a divorce take to be finalized?
I have heard of a no-fault divorce, is there also a "fault "divorce?
What is community property and how much does each spouse get?
What is separate property?
Do I qualify to receive alimony? Or – will I have to pay alimony?
What are my rights regarding my children?
What is "primary custody?
The only appropriate answer that can be given to this question is, it must be at least 60 days from the date the petition for divorce is filed. Texas law requires that the divorce be on file with the Court for at least 60 days prior to the divorce being granted. Beyond the 60-day waiting period however, it really depends on the type of case – how contested is it? Are there children? If the case isn't heavily contested or there are not many assets or children, these cases normally do not take more than 3-4 months. The opposite is obviously true as well – the more issues, assets, children, and litigation between the parties, the longer the case will take to finalize.
Under the Texas Family code, you are required to tell the court in the petition for divorce why you and your spouse are divorcing. These are called the "grounds" for divorce. There is no-fault ground (you and your spouse don't get along anymore) or you can have a divorce granted on a "fault" ground. The grounds for no-fault divorce are in supportability (you don't get along anymore and there is no hope of reconciliation) and separation.
The fault grounds for marriage include adultery, cruelty, abandonment, and insanity.
Community property under Texas Law simply means "any property acquired by a couple during their marriage (with a few exceptions) is equally owned by both spouses." Anything and everything that you and your spouse own at the time of the divorce is presumed to be community property. When it comes to community property, the Court is to divide community property in a "fair and just manner." "Fair and Just" is normally interpreted by Texas courts as an equal division between the parties of assets and debts.
What if my spouse cheated on me or committed bad actions that caused the marriage to end – does the Court still give each spouse 50% of the community property? The answer to this question is – the Court can consider bad actions of the spouses when dividing community property. If there is significant bad action on the part of one spouse, the Court can choose to make an unequal division between the parties, awarding the non-offending spouse a larger portion of the community property.
Separate property is defined under the Texas Family Code into three categories:
the property owned or claimed by the spouse before marriage.
the property acquired by the spouse during marriage by gift, devise, or descent; and
the recovery for personal injuries sustained by the spouse during marriage, except any recovery for loss of earning capacity during marriage.
Each spouse carries the burden of proving what is his or her separate property.
There are two types of spousal support that exist in Texas: "court ordered spousal maintenance" and "contractual alimony." There are major differences between these two categories, including the length of payment, amount of payment and other conditions. Texas law does not favor awarding spousal maintenance or alimony. There are very few circumstances under the law where a spouse will qualify for maintenance –if you are unable to support yourself due to a disability, or unable to work because you must care for a child with a disability, or if your spouse has been physically abusive to you, the court may award some type of maintenance.
In a divorce, if both parents are fit and safe, it is presumed that they will be appointed "Joint Managing Conservators" of the child. This term means the parents have joint legal rights and duties with regards to the child. Below are the joint legal rights and duties that each joint managing conservator has regarding the child under the Texas Family Code:
to receive information from any other conservator of the child concerning the health, education, and welfare of the child.
to confer with the other parent to the extent possible before deciding concerning the health, education, and welfare of the child.
of access to medical, dental, psychological, and educational records of the child.
to consult with a physician, dentist, or psychologist of the child.
to consult with school officials concerning the child's welfare and educational status, including school activities.
to attend school activities, including school lunches, performances, and field trips.
to be designated on the child's records as a person to be notified in case of an emergency.
to consent to medical, dental, and surgical treatment during an emergency involving an immediate danger to the health and safety of the child; and
to manage the estate of the child to the extent the estate has been created by the parent or the parent's family.
Texas Family Code Section 153.023
And the parent also has the following rights and duties of the child during his or her possession of the child:
the duty of care, control, protection, and reasonable discipline of the child.
the duty to support the child, including providing the child with clothing, food, shelter, and medical and dental care not involving an invasive procedure.
the right to consent for the child to medical and dental care not involving an invasive procedure; and
the right to direct the moral and religious training of the child.
Even if both parents are appointed joint managing conservators of the child, there is still normally one parent that is considered the "primary parent" in a divorce or child custody order. The right that makes a parent "primary" is the "right to designate the primary residence of the child," and this right is found in section 153.132 of the Texas Family Code. This right to designate the primary residence of the child is not automatically awarded by the Court to the mom as you will often hear from non-lawyers. In fact, under the law, the Court cannot consider gender or marital status when making a custody determination. In many cases, the parents agree as to which parent gets to be the "primary" parent. If the parents cannot agree as to which parent gets this right, the Court will look at the facts and the evidence presented by the parties and decide as to who shall get this right. A parent can also ask under Texas law that neither parent have this primary right to designate, but instead the child's residence would be restricted to a certain location, such as a school district or a county. Another important aspect of this "primary right" is that the court can restrict the location in which the residence of the child is designated, such as McLennan or Harris County. Even if you are a parent who has agreed to give the other parent this primary right, make sure to remember about location and geographic restrictions on this right.
There are other rights and duties under section 153.132 that are very important and are NOT automatically awarded equally to both parents. The following rights and duties can be exercised exclusively by one parent, or by both parents after agreement, or by each parent independently.
the right to designate the primary residence of the child.
the right to consent to medical, dental, and surgical treatment involving invasive procedures.
the right to consent to psychiatric and psychological treatment.
the right to receive and give receipt for periodic payments for the support of the child and to hold or disburse these funds for the benefit of the child.
the right to represent the child in legal action and to make other decisions of substantial legal significance concerning the child.
the right to consent to marriage and to enlistment in the armed forces of the United States.
the right to make decisions concerning the child's education.
the right to the services and earnings of the child.
except when a guardian of the child's estate or a guardian or attorney ad litem has been appointed for the child, the right to act as an agent of the child in relation to the child's estate if the child's action is required by a state, the United States, or a foreign government; and
the right to:
apply for a passport for the child.
renew the child's passport; and
maintain possession of the child's passport.
Fill out this form to begin the process.
Give a brief explanation of your case. Please specify if your case is Family or Special Education law related.
Ryan Law
By Appointment Only | Call or Text Any Time
© 2022 Ryan Law
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 5,856
|
Q: App Crashing when main returns with "Should've been invalidated" App crashing when main returns.
Does anyone know what the console message "Should've been invalidated" means? I ran Clang and received a clean test result. I am successfully parsing JSON with Stig Brautaset's library like so:
- (void)connectionDidFinishLoading:(NSURLConnection *)connection {
...
NSDictionary *results = [responseString JSONValue];
...
}
Error:
EXEC_BAD_ACCESS
Console Message
2012-01-21 08:57:55.817 wftd-remote-json[14190:707] Should've been invalidated
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>
#import "AppDelegate.h"
int main(int argc, char *argv[]){
@autoreleasepool {
return UIApplicationMain(argc, argv, nil, NSStringFromClass([AppDelegate class]));
}
}
Console Message
2012-01-21 08:57:55.817 wftd-remote-json[14190:707] Should've been invalidated
Thanks for looking at this
A: By using Instruments, I was able to find the Zombie object and correct my error. All fixed. Thanks to TriPhoenix for the suggestion.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 3,383
|
/**
* \file src/pt2pt/mpidi_callback_ssm.c
* \brief The standard callback for a new short message
*/
#include "mpidimpl.h"
/**
* \brief Callback for incoming SSM CTS message.
* \note Because this is a short message, the data is already received
* \param[in] clientdata Unused
* \param[in] msginfo The 16-byte msginfo struct
* \param[in] count The number of msginfo quads (1)
* \param[in] senderrank The sender's rank
* \param[in] sndlen The length of the incoming data
* \param[in] sndbuf Where the data is stored
*/
void MPIDI_BG2S_SsmCtsCB(void * clientdata,
const DCQuad * msginfo,
unsigned count,
size_t senderrank,
const char * sndbuf,
size_t sndlen)
{
// const MPIDI_DCMF_MsgInfo *m = (const MPIDI_DCMF_MsgInfo *)msginfo;
SSM_ABORT();
}
/**
* \brief Callback for SSM Ack to indicate that the put is done.
* \note Because this is a short message, the data is already received
* \param[in] clientdata Unused
* \param[in] msginfo The 16-byte msginfo struct
* \param[in] count The number of msginfo quads (1)
* \param[in] senderrank The sender's rank
* \param[in] sndlen The length of the incoming data
* \param[in] sndbuf Where the data is stored
*/
void MPIDI_BG2S_SsmAckCB(void * clientdata,
const DCQuad * msginfo,
unsigned count,
size_t senderrank,
const char * sndbuf,
size_t sndlen)
{
// const MPIDI_DCMF_MsgInfo *m = (const MPIDI_DCMF_MsgInfo *)msginfo;
SSM_ABORT();
}
/**
* \brief Message layer callback which is invoked on the origin node
* when the message put is done
*
* \param[in,out] sreq MPI receive request object
*/
void MPIDI_DCMF_SsmPutDoneCB (void *clientdata, DCMF_Error_t *err)
{
SSM_ABORT();
}
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 7,812
|
The Aloha Friday Conversation: Giving voice to Hawaiʻi's lands
Published January 14, 2022 at 1:34 PM HST
Kahu Roddy Kamawailualani Kawehi Akau is Konohiki, or steward of Moanalua. In 2015, he outlined his concerns about the Navy's Red Hill fuel tanks in a newspaper editorial.
Kahu Roddy Kamawaelualani Kawehi Akau shares stories of stewardship and spirituality in Moanalua Valley | Full Segment
Attorney Tim Vandeveer represents advocates with Wai Ola Alliance fighting for a court-supported deadline to defuel the Red Hill Underground Bulk Storage Facility | Full Article
Singer Starr Kalahiki brings to life Queen Liliʻuokalani's compositions | Full Segment
The ConversationNavy Red Hill Underground Fuel Storage FacilityQueen Lili'uokalaniAloha Friday
Noe Tanigawa covers art, culture, and ideas for Hawai'i Public Radio. Noe began working in news at WQXR, the New York Times' classical station in New York City, where she also hosted music programs from 1990-94. Prior to New York, Noe was a music host in jazz, rock, urban contemporary, and contemporary and classic Hawaiian music formats in Honolulu. Since arriving at HPR in 2002, Noe has received awards from the Los Angeles Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists Hawai'i Chapter, and an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for coverage of the budget process at the Hawai'i State Legislature. Noe holds a Masters in Painting from UH Mānoa. She maintains an active painting practice, and has recently returned from a 2015 residency with the U.S. Art in Embassies program in Palau. Noe is from Wailupe Valley in East O'ahu.
See stories by Noe Tanigawa
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 8,426
|
{"url":"https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/questions\/21485769\/how-to-label-axes-in-matplotlib-using-latex-brackets","text":"# How to label axes in Matplotlib using LaTeX brackets?\n\nHow to label axes in Matplotlib using LaTeX expression $\\langle B_{\\mathrm{e}} \\rangle$? I need to label my axis with nice looking \"<\" and \">\" LaTeX brackets.\n\nTry ax.set_ylabel(r'$\\langle B_{\\mathrm{e}} \\rangle$') for labeling Y-Axis or ax.set_title(r'$\\langle B_{\\mathrm{e}} \\rangle$') for the title of the axes.","date":"2019-07-18 12:44:05","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 1, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.9592035412788391, \"perplexity\": 4061.9902631477507}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.3, \"absolute_threshold\": 20, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2019-30\/segments\/1563195525627.38\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20190718104512-20190718130512-00461.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
/*global describe, it*/
'use strict';
var superagent = require('supertest');
var app = require('../src/app');
function request() {
return superagent(app.listen());
}
describe('Routes', function () {
describe('GET /', function () {
it('should return 200', function (done) {
request()
.get('/')
.expect(200, done);
});
});
});
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 9,491
|
Home Arts UR's Basketball Overhaul
UR's Basketball Overhaul
by Jack Cooksey
On the basketball court and off, the University of Richmond's Robins Center has been buzzing like a beehive — quite literally — as the Spiders near their season's first home-game tipoff on Nov. 8.
When head coach Chris Mooney and his team started practices in late September, the 40-year-old arena was undergoing a $17 million overhaul. Players taking the court were surrounded by construction crews in the frenzied process of gutting the Robins Center to add a host of amenities. As work machinery whined, clacked and rumbled, Mooney struggled to be heard by his players. The team resorted to putting a wireless microphone on the coach, who was amplified by court-side speakers.
Teams don't often get to practice their mental game against the kinds of distractions and decibels you might get from having a chip hammer or belt sander in the house. And given the new seating configuration that's moving more spectators onto the court while taking away space higher up in the arena, the Spiders will have to contend with more noise.
The refurbished center will get its "official" unveiling on Jan. 8, 2014, when UR faces the University of Dayton in a nationally televised Atlantic 10 Conference game.
UR spokesman David Walsh describes the new Robins Center as "more intimate" — it's losing about 2,000 seats to make way for hospitality suites and huge video displays, among other features. The 7,000 seats that remain took a trip to Michigan and back for new padding and upholstery. "With the smaller capacity, we'll have more and more home games that do sell out," Walsh notes.
The university also has taken pains to keep up with ADA regulations by adding elevators to the upper levels of the house as well as some prime seating for fans in wheelchairs.
The four large video displays in the upper corners measure 15 feet by 32 feet — some of the largest on the East Coast. And 40 new LED lights over the court should add a clearer view to the live action for everyone. One might even consider an informal bit of research into the lighting's effect on the Spiders: Could the men's and women's teams see their shooting percentages spike this year?
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 2,968
|
import parse from './parse.js'
const addDurations = function (View) {
/** phrases like '2 months', or '2mins' */
class Durations extends View {
constructor(document, pointer, groups) {
super(document, pointer, groups)
this.context = {}
}
/** overload the original json with duration information */
json(opts = {}) {
return this.map(m => {
let json = m.toView().json(opts)[0] || {}
if (opts && opts.times !== true) {
json.duration = parse(m)
}
return json
}, [])
}
/** easy getter for the time */
get(options) {
let arr = []
this.forEach((doc) => {
let res = parse(doc)
arr.push(res)
})
if (typeof options === 'number') {
return arr[options]
}
return arr
}
}
/** phrases like '2 months' */
View.prototype.durations = function (n) {
let m = this.match('#Value+ #Duration (and? #Value+ #Duration)?')
// add '20mins'
m = m.concat(this.match('(#Duration && /[0-9][a-z]+$/)'))
// not 'in 20 minutes'
m = m.notIf('#DateShift')
if (typeof n === 'number') {
m = m.eq(n)
}
return new Durations(this.document, m.pointer)
}
}
export default addDurations
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
| 4,012
|
{"url":"https:\/\/vsoch.github.io\/2019\/go\/","text":"Infinite complexity\nI\u2019ve found in your bytes\nSo totally not used to\nHaving to declare types\nOn Monday I was trying to compile\nOn Wednesday I had read a file\nOn Thursday I just about knew\nGoLang, I\u2019d fallen for you\n\n# A Love for Programming\n\nThis week, I couldn\u2019t step away. I programmed for about 6 hours each day, not wanting to stop, possibly unable to stop. It was fulfilling, exciting, challenging and fun. I can wear many hats and do different things, but I know my soul is strongly software engineer because I am so madly addicted to programming. When I possibly wanted to stop I didn\u2019t; there was more to be done. It\u2019s infatuation, and it\u2019s addiction, and it\u2019s the routine that drives my confidence and purpose. The result of this particular week of transfixion is a relatively complete library in GoLang, over 4K lines of beauty represented across 58 files. I had the best week ever, and this experience, I want to share with you, because ones like it are rare and hard to find.\n\n## Say What?\n\nI wrote the goLang Library for the Scientific Filesystem, and it totally rocked my socks. To be transparent, I finished the entire client along with containers and a simple continuous integration setup, but I have more work to do with Go specific documentation and writing tests. My first goal is to provide a library in GoLang to support adding the Scientific Filesystem to the OpenContainers Initiative as a specification.\n\nThere is more to do, but no matter! Today I want to tell you the story of learning a language. This was an interesting experience for me, because it\u2019s not every day that you get to do this. If you want to jump into my head for a romantic story, see the next two sections, Background and Story. If you want more realistic details about what it actually means to learn a new language skip down to the Details.\n\n## Background\n\nA lot of people experience joy when they socialize, go to new places, or otherwise act as a consumer. I find that wherever I go, there I am. You do not find happiness by changing location, items that you own, or what you are adorned with. You can distract yourself from facing the present by thinking about the future or immersing yourself in pleasurable experiences, but I\u2019ve found that these distractions make me feel empty. The meaning that I find is with me wherever I go, and it\u2019s enabled when I touch my fingers to a keyboard. Learning new programming languages are consistently the most satisfying experiences that I can remember.\n\n## The Story\n\nThis is the story, the journey, of learning a new programming language.\n\n### 1. The Decision\n\nYou start with a goal. You want to build something that you have no idea how to build. It exists as a vision in your head, and you don\u2019t have any skill to do it, so the most that you can do is decide to do it. You make this decision. You create an empty directory, GitHub repository, and then you just start.\n\n### 2. The Dark Forest\n\nIt starts out confusing and twisty. Nothing has rule or reason, and you are largely wandering in a lost forest, and looking at the trees. You spend days on end trying to solve the tiniest problems like \u201cWhere do I put this? How does this build?\u201d and you learn by looking at the other trees (examples) and trying things.\n\n### 3. Starting to See\n\nAt some point you put two twigs together, and they don\u2019t fall apart. Your eyes start to adjust, and you see things more clearly. It\u2019s still dark, but you start to have vision for how you might construct a skeleton for a structure.\n\n### 4. Your Little House\n\nYour first little dwelling is rough around the edges. You are constantly putting sticks together, taking them apart, and sometimes the entire structure falls down. This is where it starts to get fun. You\u2019ve seen enough different structures around the woods to have many things to try, and once you try them, you start to form preferences. You realize that the first structure was way too complicated for what you want to achieve. The second had an entire room that was expected, but completely unnecessary given your goals.\n\n### 5. Falling in Love\n\nThis is when you start to fall in love. Maybe love has a place in this little house, so we can say this is where you start to fall. The construction is no longer confusing and new, it\u2019s turned into a rhythm. It beats with your heart, and it starts to flow from your fingers. The ideas that were just faint vision start to form in front of you. At this point your fear is fading, and you are intimately attached to your work. Hours, days, weeks can go buy, and the more that you build, the more that you learn. There is no forest, only this. You feel strong, empowered, and inspired.\n\nThis is largely what happens to me with learning a new language, and it most definitely happened with GoLang here. Before this, I had only done small pull requests to repositories. I had a really hard time understanding the organization and evokation pathways of most programs. I can\u2019t say that I am now (or ever will be) an expert, but I can assert that I have grown. There are no apologies for being new, or doing anything suboptimal.\n\nThrowing yourself in and accepting vulnerability for doing it wrong is a way to grow.\n\n## The Details\n\n### 1. Work on Tiny Pieces First\n\nIf you\u2019ve never looked at, read about, or otherwise interacted with the language, then starting a library from nothing is not the first step you want to take. I most definitely didn\u2019t start learning from zero to this. If this is true for you, you should go find a repository on GitHub with the language you want to learn, find a small issue such as adding a command line flag or anything flagged with \u201cgood first issue\u201d and try working on small pieces first. When you do this, you\u2019ll unconsciously be figuring out how the software flows, how files work together, and how to define variables and functions, and do basic for loops and if statements.\n\n### 2. Find an Example\n\nI was so confused, generally, by the organization of these projects, that I first found an empty project template and cloned it with a simple goal - to create a client entrypoint that then called some set of library functions. Since I was working with the scientific filesystem the client would be scif and the functions would be the commands to install, run, etc. So this is probably the first important advice:\n\nYou need to want to accomplish a goal that you care about.\n\nIf you find tutorials or similar online, how could that be so interesting if the person who created it has already solved it? How can it really challenge and help you learn if there is complete certainty? It won\u2019t. Following tutorials is usually fairly dull, and nothing sticks because you aren\u2019t the one asking the questions and deeply wanting answers. I chose this particular template repository because it didn\u2019t give me any tutorial or questions - it gave me a starting structure. It would help to teach me about organization, but also shower me with different examples (each folder has a README.md that explains why it\u2019s there, and a huge list of repos to look at as examples).\n\n### 3. Understand the Structure\n\nI\u2019m one of those developers that spends an inordinate amount of time thinking about organization. I want the files to be located where they would intuitively be looked for. I want the organization to be simple and (as much as it could be) be self documented. Thus, I read through the (original) README.md for a high level overview of the structure, and started to rewrite sections (read here) to further develop my own understanding. This was a bit of a Rosetta stone - I was taking a strange and confusing thing and writing it into my own words. I also read through this post carefully to understand the repository structure, and what should go in each folder. For each section, I would inspect my cloned repository, and look at the README.md in the folder of inspection. The mindset I had was to try and understand the folder\u2019s purpose, and then see a lot of examples to confirm or deny if this was logical. For each, I only stopped looking when I sort of \u201cgot it.\u201d\n\n### 4. You Need a Build Script\n\nWe have the basic understanding that files are going to be compiled to generate an entrypoint. It actually doesn\u2019t matter how broken your code is, you need to first have a build strategy for generating errors for you to work with. I wound up trying about 5-10 different building methods, but ultimately found a gist that was simple and easy to understand (and thus good to start with). Once I wrote my Makefile and was able to run a simple \u201cmake build\u201d and spit out errors with the library, I was off to a start! This is the biggest difference between interpreted languages (e.g., Python) and compiled. You can\u2019t test things interactively with a compiled language, you need to build every time, so it\u2019s a little bit harder. Thus\n\nYou need to optimize your build->run steps to make development easy.\n\nOnce you have your Makefile and can compile to generate errors, make changes, and then do it again, you\u2019re ready to start thinking about the code itself. This is where thinking about the evocation pathway of the program comes into play. I knew that I would want to call some binary \u201cscif\u201d and then have arguments processed, and the environment looked at, and then based on what the user requested, pass that on to client functions. To be fair, I had originally started development using the \u201cbest practices\u201d example, such as putting minimal code in the cmd folder. As I was working on this, I was unhappy with the confusing organization of the folders. It was too scattered, and I could never find things where I expected them to be. Since this all gets compiled into a binary anyway, the organization should be for the human. So I decided on the following (more intuitive) structure:\n\n#### cmd\n\nThis is where I expect to find commands, organized by folders. So the main scif entrypoint (scif) would be here:\n\ncmd\/\nscif\/\nmain.go\n...\ndocs\nrun.go ---) entrypoint to call a function in pkg\/client\/run.go\n\n\nI also moved the \u201cdocs\u201d folder to be part of the main package above, because 100% of the content provided there was for the command entrypoint. Everything you see under \u201cscif\u201d above is package \u201cmain.\u201d The flow then moves into the client package, where files are named to match the file with the calling function. I won\u2019t go into further detail about where I put files, but generally, the point is that where a developer expects something to be is where it should be found.\n\n### 5. The First Compile\n\nWhen you start, your client is likely to include just one command group, and have a main execution function to print something to the screen. But the moment when the thing first compiles, and you can run that thing? It\u2019s amazing. There is nothing that feels better. I kept the memory, for posterity.\n\n### 6. Milestones\n\nAfter the first compile, your slowly rolling garden cart starts to pick up speed. You blink, and it\u2019s now a tiny car, and then a slowly moving train! The point is that you suddenly get it. You no longer are struggling with basics of the language, but the ideas in your head start to flow from your fingers fluidly. The development workflow is comfortable and easy. Sure, you still do a lot of Googling to look up functions and usage, but that\u2019s just a part of programming. You then start to make new milestones! For example, the first time you read in a file:\n\nAnd then when you parse the thing, and create your filesystem!\n\nAnd the first time you interact with the filesystem, and run an application!\n\nLook at this beautiful thing! I can\u2019t wait to test it against the equivalent Python version. I know Go will be faster :)\n\n### 6. Add Meat\n\nNow it gets easier, because you have a method. You can add something, build it, and then try running it. For details on strategies for this, see the development docs. I had it easy, because I had already developed the (general) flow of the library in Python, and simply was figuring out how to reproduce it in GoLang (without proper classes!) I largely stuck to developing on my local machine, and then added some Docker containers to mix things up.\n\n## What just Happened?\n\nThe entire week went by in a blink. This experience is like running a race because you blink, and then you made it! You don\u2019t remember when the language used to look like Chinese characters to you (because it did, just 5 days ago). My gosh, I am so in love with building this library. I am so in love with programming. I am so lucky to have found this love\u2026 it\u2019s driven me to write stories and poems.\n\nPathetic dinosaur\u2026\n\nI\u2019ll have none of that, insightful indented comment voice! I\u2019ll have more in the coming weeks on this library, ohman, I can\u2019t wait to dive into how to properly write Go Docs, and create some beautiful ones.\n\nSuggested Citation:\nSochat, Vanessa. \"Writing a GoLang Library in a Week.\" @vsoch (blog), 19 Apr 2019, https:\/\/vsoch.github.io\/2019\/go\/ (accessed 28 Nov 22).","date":"2022-12-04 15:34:44","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.26653483510017395, \"perplexity\": 1196.4059982953147}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.3, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2022-49\/segments\/1669446710974.36\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20221204140455-20221204170455-00259.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
\section{Introduction}
One dimensional quantum integrable models are special many body systems, which allow for exact solutions of their
dynamics. Their study goes back to the solutions of the Heisenberg spin chain by H. Bethe in 1931 \cite{Bethe-XXX} and
the exact
treatment of the 2D classical Ising model by L. Onsager in 1944 \cite{Onsager-Ising}. It was understood in the 60's
and 70's that a key element appearing in various types of quantum integrable models is the Yang-Baxter
equation, independently discovered by C. N. Yang \cite{Yang-nested} and R. Baxter \cite{Baxter-Book}.
A common algebraic framework was afterwards developed by the L. Faddeev and the Leningrad group (see for example the
historical review \cite{faddeev-history}). These elements of integrability connect seemingly different types of models,
such as the 2D integrable statistical physical models (for example the six vertex and eight vertex models), the famous
integrable spin chains such as the Heisenberg model or the Hubbard model, non-relativistic quantum gas models
\cite{lieb-liniger}, and integrable Quantum Field Theories (iQFT) \cite{mussardo-review}.
A re-occurring question over the decades has been the classification of (quantum) integrable models, together with an
attempt to give a precise definition of what integrability actually is. It appears that there is no single definition
encompassing all possible integrable models, but there are two very common elements appearing in integrable
models: the existence of a large set of extra conservation laws, and a completely elastic and factorized scattering of
the physical excitations \cite{caux-integrability}. Then the attempts for the classification can proceed along the lines
of either the charges \cite{caux-integrability}, or by finding all possible factorized $S$-matrices as
in iQFT \cite{mussardo-review}.
Focusing on quantum spin chains two big families of models have been studied extensively: those with nearest neighbor (n.n.)
interactions, and some long range models. In the latter case spins at an arbitrary distance can interact, although with strongly
decreasing coupling constants. The n.n. chains can be treated with the algebraic methods developed by the Leningrad
group \cite{faddeev-how-aba-works}, which are routinely used today. On the other hand, the treatment of the long range
chains is typically more involved. Examples are the Haldane-Shastry chain \cite{haldane-sashtry-1,haldane-sashtry-2} or
the Inozemtsev chain \cite{inozemtsev-chain} or long range version of the Hubbard model \cite{Hubbard-book}. In such
cases the construction of the exact eigenstates and also the charges is typically more complicated than in the
n.n. chains, see for example \cite{haldane-shastry-conserved,YB-longrange,Inozemtsev:2002vb}.
Returning to the nearest neighbor chains, partial classifications have been achieved in certain specific
cases. Integrable nearest neighbor Hamiltonians are intimately connected with so-called regular solutions of the
Yang-Baxter (YB) equation. Thus a classification can proceed by finding all solutions of the YB equation; this is
possible within restricted parameter spaces.
For example it was understood very early that solutions
can be found by assuming underlying group or quantum group symmetries
\cite{kulish-sklyanin-YB,kulish-resh-sklyanin--fusion,jimbo-quantum-groups,Kennedy-all-su2-chains,Mutter-Schmidt-classification}.
However, the (quantum) group symmetric cases do not exhaust all possibilities,
and it is also desirable to find the remaining models. It
is not possible to list here all known integrable n.n. chains, therefore we just mention a few works that performed
classifications with certain restrictions \cite{classi1,classi2,classi3,classi4,classi5,Vieira-classification}.
More recently a systematic method was worked out in
\cite{marius-classification-1,marius-classification-2,marius-classification-3,marius-classification-4,sajat-lindblad},
based on well established ideas \cite{integrability-test} but leading to more detailed classifications than in prior
works.
Despite all of this progress there is a class of models which has so far received relatively little attention:
Translationally invariant spin
chains where the Hamiltonian has a finite interaction range $\ell\ge 3$. We call these models
``medium range spin chains'' to distinguish them both from the nearest neighbor and the long range cases. It is
important that we are interested in models where the finite range Hamiltonian is the smallest dynamical charge, so we
dismiss those cases when the Hamiltonian is chosen as a linear combination of some of the short range charges of a
n.n. interacting chain. These cases can be interesting on their own right (see for example \cite{Kluemper-GGE}), but
we are looking for models with genuinely new interactions. We also exclude those models, where the Hilbert space is a
constrained subspace of the usual tensor product space of the spin chains; an important example is the constrained XXZ
model and its generalizations treated for example in
\cite{constrained1,constrained5,constrained-multi,constrained2,constrained3,pronko-abarenkova-ising-limit,xxz-triple-point}
or the supersymmetric spin chains studied in \cite{susy-constrained-lattice-hopping1,susy-constrained-lattice-hopping2}. Such
constraints are non-local, and we are looking for strictly local models with the usual tensor product Hilbert space.
There are various reasons why the medium range models can be interesting. First of all there is the obvious academic interest: If
one was to uncover all possible integrable spin chains, then clearly one should consider these models as
well. We can expect that as we increase the interaction range, more and more possibilities open up, and a full
classification becomes less and less feasible in practice. Nevertheless it is desirable to develop a general theory
for such models, and at least some key ideas for the classification, which can be applied in restricted parameter
spaces. As a second motivation we can mention various recent research directions where medium range models were
encountered.
\subsection{Medium range spin chains in the literature}
An early example for an interacting medium range spin chain is the Bariev-model, which has a three site Hamiltonian
\cite{bariev-model}. Generally the three site models can be pictured as a zig-zag spin
ladders, and this was also used in the presentation of the Bariev model. In this work we stick to the translationally invariant
representations. The algebraic explanation of the integrability of the Bariev model was given in
\cite{bariev-lax-1,bariev-lax-2}.
Recently there was interest in medium range chains which can be solved by free fermions of parafermions. A specific
three-site model was found in \cite{fendley-fermions-in-disguise} with generalizations studied later in
\cite{alcaraz-medium-fermion-1,alcaraz-medium-fermion-2,alcaraz-medium-fermion-3}. In these models the fermions are ``in
disguise'', which means they are not obtained by the usual Jordan-Wigner transformation. A more general theory for such
models was initiated in \cite{fermions-behind-the-disguise}.
A specific medium range model called the ``folded XXZ model'' was investigated in the recent works \cite{folded1,folded2,sajat-folded,folded-jammed}. There are two
formulations of the model, and the dynamical Hamiltonian is a four-site or three-site operator, depending on the
formulation used. In the three-site formulation the model is seen as a special point of the Bariev model. It was shown
in \cite{sajat-folded} that the model exhibits Hilbert space fragmentation, and it can be considered as a hard rod
deformation of the XX model. Furthermore, its real time dynamics can be solved
exactly in certain special quench problems, thus the model can be considered as one of the simplest interacting spin
chains. It is remarkable that a spin chain with four site interactions has a simpler solution than the famous
XXZ chains. This shows that it is worthwhile to explore the medium range chains.
In the recent work \cite{clifford1} a family of unitary transformations was studied which can generate a medium range
chain starting
from a nearest neighbor model. The techniques applied here originate in quantum information theory,
and the transformations are members of the discrete Clifford group.
\subsection{Integrable quantum circuits}
We should also mention the recent interest in integrable quantum circuits and classical cellular automata. This is a topic
closely connected to integrable Hamiltonians, and some of the models in the literature have medium range interactions.
The interest in quantum gate models is motivated in part by experimental advances, but also
by surprising theoretical results. For example it was found that simple (non-integrable) models with random unitary
gates can lead
to exact solutions, see for example
\cite{2015PhRvB..92b4301C,random-circuit-1,random-circuit-2,random-circuit-3,random-circuit-4,random-circuit-5,random-circuit-6}. In the
integrable setting there is interest for quantum circuits with unitary gates that span two, three of four sites (in the
following we will often use the short term ``unitary'' instead of ``unitary gate'').
First of all, a quantum circuit model with two-site
unitaries was developed in \cite{integrable-trotterization}: the model serves as an integrable Trotterization (discrete
time analog) of the XXZ spin chain. This idea goes back to the light cone regularization of integrable
QFT's \cite{DdV0,Volkov,Faddeev-Volkov}. More recently the same idea was also applied to dissipative systems
\cite{lindblad-circuit}. The key observation in these works is that the so-called $R$-matrix itself can be used as a
two-site quantum gate, and in certain cases this leads to discrete unitary time evolution with well defined
integrability properties. The original integrable spin chains can be recovered in the continuous time limit of the
quantum gate models.
An important family of quantum circuits falls outside the realm of nearest neighbor
models. These are the elementary cellular automata on light cone lattices classified in \cite{rule54}, which can be considered
quantum circuits with special three site unitaries. The most important example is
the Rule54 model, which is often called the simplest interacting integrable model \cite{rule54-review}. It is a
very special model with soliton-like behaviour, which allows for exact solutions
\cite{katja-bruno-lorenzo-rule54,katja-bruno-rule54-ghd,rule54-entangl} and integrable quantum deformations
\cite{vasseur-rule54} (see also \cite{sarang-rule54}). However, the connection with the standard Yang-Baxter
integrability remained unknown.
Very recently a new algebraic framework was proposed for these cellular automata \cite{prosen-cellaut}, by making connection to the so-called Interaction Round-a-Face (IRF) models of statistical
physics (see for example \cite{RSOS-1,RSOS-2,IRFetiology,RSOS-H}). In \cite{prosen-cellaut} new transfer matrices were developed for the classical cellular automata and
certain quantum
deformations of them, and it was conjectured that the new construction gives new quasi-local conserved charges in these
models, thus proving their integrability. These IRF models are such that the three site quantum gates
have two control bits on the two sides and one action bit in the middle. If these IRF models are indeed integrable,
then they could serve as integrable Trotterization of some
spin chains with three site Hamiltonians, likely having a very similar structure. However, such connections have not yet
been found.
In the recent work \cite{sajat-cellaut} a cellular automaton was found with a four site update
rule, such that it can be considered as an integrable
Trotterization of the folded XXZ model mentioned above. However, the construction in \cite{sajat-cellaut} had some
drawbacks: it did not have space reflection symmetry, and the integrability was only proven for a certain
diagonal-to-diagonal transfer matrix, which is not adequate to treat the Cauchy problem. Nevertheless
the results of \cite{sajat-cellaut} indicate that the cellular automata and medium range spin chains are indeed closely related,
and can be treated with the usual algebraic methods of integrability.
We should also note that there exists a family of classical cellular automata, where the integrability properties are
well understood: these are the so-called box ball systems \cite{box-ball,box-ball-review}. Here the update rules are
non-local in the sense that they can not be formulated using a simultaneous action of local update rules;
instead, they belong to the class of the so-called filter automata \cite{filter1,filter2,filter3,filter4}.
The box-ball models are noteworthy, because they display solitonic behaviour, and they are connected to a number of
question in representation theory of quantum groups, combinatorics, and classical integrability
\cite{box-ball-review}. Recently the hydrodynamic behaviour of these models was also studied in \cite{box-ball-ghd}. In
our paper we do not treat these models, because we are interested in strictly local systems.
\subsection{The goals of this paper}
Motivated by the findings discussed above, in this paper we strive towards a general theory for medium range integrable
models. It is our goal to
develop the common algebraic structures, which will be generalizations of the known methods applied for nearest
neighbor models. We stress that up to now there has been no general framework for the medium range models, and even in those
cases where the algebraic background was developed (see for example the Bariev model \cite{bariev-lax-1,bariev-lax-2}),
it was based on ad hoc ideas lacking a general understanding. In contrast, in this work we establish the key relations
for the medium range models, focusing in particular on the three site and four site interacting cases. A special
emphasis will be put
on the IRF models treated in \cite{prosen-cellaut}: we show that they can be embedded into our framework,
and we disprove some of the conjectures made in \cite{prosen-cellaut}. In particular, we argue that the Rule54 model is
not in the family of the three site interacting Yang-Baxter integrable models, but we do not exclude integrability with
longer interaction ranges.
In Section \ref{sec:main} we set the stage for our computations: we introduce the main concepts and also explain and
summarize some of our key results. The algebraic structures of integrability are then introduced in Section
\ref{sec:int}, which also includes our main results about the medium range spin chains. Integrable quantum circuits of
various types are constructed in Section \ref{sec:circuit}. The special class of models related to the elementary
cellular automata are considered in Section \ref{sec:IRFsec}. Here we also treat the results of
\cite{prosen-cellaut}. In Section \ref{sec:four} we study the four site interacting models.
Open questions are discussed in \ref{sec:disc}, and we present some of the technical computations
in the Appendices.
\section{Preliminaries}
\label{sec:main}
In this Section we introduce the key concepts regarding integrable spin chains, and we summarize our new results
for the medium range cases. We also introduce the quantum circuits, which can be considered as the discrete time
versions of the spin chain models. In this Section we avoid the algebraic treatment of the integrability properties,
instead we focus on the overall physical properties of these models, most importantly on the set of conserved charges.
First we introduce some notations that we use throughout the work, and afterwards we discuss the spin chains and the
quantum circuit models. The algebraic structures behind the integrability are presented later in Sections \ref{sec:int}
and \ref{sec:circuit}.
\subsection{Notations}
We consider homogeneous spin chains with translationally invariant Hamiltonians. The local Hilbert spaces are
$V_j=\mathbb{C}^d$ with some fixed $d\ge 2$. The full Hilbert space of the model in finite volume $L$ is
$\mathcal{H}=\otimes_{j=1}^L V_j$. The majority of our abstract results will not depend on the actual value of the local
dimension $d$, but in the concrete examples we consider $d=2$.
We say that an operator $\mathcal{O}(j)$ is local if its support is restricted to a limited
number of sites starting from $j$, such that the support does not grow with $L$ as we consider longer and longer
chains. We use notation $|\mathcal{O}(j)|$ for the range of the local operator (which we also call length). This means that
the support of $\mathcal{O}(j)$ with $|\mathcal{O}(j)|=\ell$ is the segment $[j,\dots,j+\ell-1]$.
If a local operator has a fixed small range $\ell$, we will also use an alternative notation where we spell out the
sites on which it acts. For example for two-site operators we also write $\mathcal{O}_{j,j+1}$, for three site operators
$\mathcal{O}_{j,j+1,j+2}$, and so on. We will switch between the two notations depending on which is more convenient for the
actual computation.
In our concrete examples we will treat spin-1/2 chains. In these cases we use the standard basis of the up and down
spins, but we will use the notations $\ket{\circ}=\ket{0}$ (empty site) and $\ket{\bullet}=\ket{1}$ (occupied site) for
these basis states, respectively. We use the
standard Pauli matrices $\sigma^{x,y,z}$ and also the standard ladder operators $\sigma^\pm$, together with the
following projectors
onto the basis states:
\begin{equation}
P^\circ=P^0=\frac{1+\sigma^z}{2},\qquad P^\bullet=P^1=\frac{1-\sigma^z}{2}.
\end{equation}
An important operator that we will use often is the cyclic shift operator $\mathcal{U}$ that translates the finite chain of
length $L$ to the right by one site.
\subsection{Integrable spin chains with nearest neighbor interactions}
In the literature there is no single definition for quantum integrability. However, it is generally accepted that one of the
key properties of integrable models is the existence of a large set of additional conserved charges, which commute with
each other. Then the integrable
models can be classified according to the patterns of how these charges appear in the model \cite{caux-integrability}.
In this paper we focus on local spin chains, where the Hamiltonian is given by a strictly local Hamiltonian density:
\begin{equation}
H=\sum_j h(j).
\end{equation}
Here $h(j)$ is a local operator with some range $\ell$. Periodic boundary conditions are understood throughout this
work.
The additional conserved charges are a set of operators $Q_\alpha$, where $\alpha$ is a label which we discuss below.
We require that each charge should be extensive with a local
density:
\begin{equation}
Q_\alpha=\sum_j q_\alpha(j).
\end{equation}
In this work we restrict ourselves to these strictly local charges, even though it is known that in certain cases
so-called quasi-local charges also play an important role \cite{JS-CGGE,prosen-enej-quasi-local-review}. Furthermore,
there are integrable models where the
charges typically grow super-extensively with the volume, see for example the discussion of the Haldane-Shastry chain in
\cite{caux-integrability}. Nevertheless, in this work we focus only on the
extensive cases.
It is generally required that the conserved charges commute
\begin{equation}
[Q_\alpha,Q_\beta]=0,
\end{equation}
and the Hamiltonian should be a member of the set. The commutativity has to hold in every volume $L$ large enough so
that both charges fit into the system.
If these requirements are met, then generally the label $\alpha$ can be chosen simply as the length of the charge
density, therefore we will use the convention throughout this work
\begin{equation}
|q_\alpha(j)|=\alpha.
\end{equation}
Within this class of models the most studied ones are nearest neighbor interacting ones, thus
we can identify $H=Q_2$. In such cases the allowed values for $\alpha$ are the integers starting from 2. If there is
also a global $U(1)$-symmetry then $\alpha=1$ is also allowed.
Within this class the most important cases are the spin-1/2 chains, for which a full classification
(including non-Hermitian cases) was performed in
\cite{marius-classification-1,marius-classification-2}. We do not treat the classification here, instead we just mention
the most important examples.
Let us start with a generic (non-integrable) spin-1/2 chain and let us require space reflection invariance. Then it can
be shown that the most general nearest neighbor Hamiltonian (apart from global $SU(2)$ rotations) is the XYZ model with
magnetic fields:
\begin{multline}
\label{XYZh}
H=\sum_j \left( J_x \sigma^x_{j}\sigma^x_{j+1}+J_y \sigma^y_{j}\sigma^y_{j+1}+J_z \sigma^z_{j}\sigma^z_{j+1}\right.+\\
+\left. h_x \sigma^x_j+h_y \sigma^y_j+h_z \sigma^z_j\right).
\end{multline}
This model is not integrable except for special cases \cite{xyz-not-int}.
One integrable family is when $h_x=h_y=h_z=0$, and the couplings $J_{x,y,z}$ are arbitrary, this is known as the XYZ
model. A special point with $U(1)$ symmetry is the XXZ chain with $J_x=J_y$, which allows for a non-zero $h_z$. A
further special point is the $SU(2)$ invariant Heisenberg spin chain with equal couplings, which allows for arbitrary
magnetic fields.
An other special integrable family within \eqref{XYZh} are the so-called XYh models, where $J_z=0$ and
$h_x=h_y=0$. A special model of this family is the quantum Ising chain where also $J_y=0$. The XYh family can be solved
by free
fermion techniques \cite{XYh-Fan-Wu}.
\subsection{The Reshetikhin condition}
A common property of the nearest neighbor models is that they satisfy the so-called Reshetikhin condition of
integrability. There are
multiple formulations of this condition, and now we review the most general one. The algebraic background is treated
later in Section \ref{sec:int}.
First of all we quote a Conjecture that was presented in \cite{integrability-test}. We put this in a slightly modified
form:
\begin{conjecture}
\label{conj:1}
A nearest neighbor spin chain with a
dynamical Hamiltonian $H$ is integrable iff there exists an extensive 3-site charge $Q_3$ which is functionally
independent from $H$ and the possible one site charges of the model, and which commutes with $H$ for every volume $L\ge
3$.
\end{conjecture}
As far as we know no counter-examples have been found so far, but the Conjecture has not yet been proven
either. It is important that we added the condition that the Hamiltonian should be dynamical: If this condition is not
satisfied, then simple counter examples can be found, see the discussion in Appendix \ref{sec:counter}.
Now we also present the Reshetikhin condition in a rather general form:
\begin{conjecture}
\label{conj:2}
If there exists a conserved charge $Q_3$ commuting with the dynamical two-site Hamiltonian $H=\sum_j h(j)$, then it can
be written as $Q_3=\sum_j q_3(j)$ with
\begin{equation}
\label{q3f}
q_3(j)=[h(j),h(j+1)]+\tilde h(j),
\end{equation}
where $\tilde h(j)$ is also a two-site operator.
\end{conjecture}
It might appear that the Conjecture allows for a lot of freedom due to the presence of $\tilde h(j)$, but the fact that
this operator has to be a two-site operator is rather restrictive.
The conjecture can be proven backwards: If the spin chain is Yang-Baxter integrable, then the precise form of the
density $q_3(j)$ follows from the underlying algebraic objects, and it has precisely the form \eqref{q3f}. However, it
is not known how to prove the Conjecture without assuming Yang-Baxter integrability. We put forward that $\tilde
h(j)=0$ in models where the so-called $R$-matrix is of {\it difference form}; this corresponds to the original
Reshetikhin condition treated in \cite{integrability-test}. On the other hand,
$\tilde h(j)\ne 0$ in other models such as the Hubbard model \cite{hubbard-boost}.
Conjecture \ref{conj:2} was used in the recent works
\cite{marius-classification-1,marius-classification-2,marius-classification-3,marius-classification-4,sajat-lindblad}
for the classification of integrable nearest neighbor chains in various circumstances. We will not review this
classification here, instead we will focus on the generalization of the Reshetikhin condition to medium range spin chains.
\subsection{Medium range spin chains}
In this work we treat integrable spin chains and closely related quantum gate models where the interaction range is
$\ell\ge 3$. We call these models ``medium range chains''. We propose the following definition:
\begin{definition}
A medium range integrable spin chain is a model which has an infinite set of commuting local
charges $\{Q_\alpha\}$ where $\alpha\in \mathcal{S}$ with $\mathcal{S}\subset \mathbb{Z}^+$, such that the lowest dynamical
charge (which is regarded as the Hamiltonian) has a range $\ell \ge 3$.
\end{definition}
Once again it is important to add the requirement of having a dynamical charge as the Hamiltonian. A good example for
the usefulness of this requirement is the so-called ``folded XXZ model'' treated in \cite{folded1,folded2,sajat-folded},
where the first four charges are
\begin{equation}
\label{foldedQ}
\begin{split}
Q_1&=\sum_{j=1}^L \sigma^z_j,\qquad
Q_2=\sum_{j=1}^L \sigma^z_j\sigma^z_{j+1},\\
Q_3&=\sum_j
i (\sigma^z_j+\sigma^z_{j+3})(\sigma^+_{j+1}\sigma^-_{j+2}-\sigma^-_{j+1}\sigma^+_{j+2}),\\
Q_4&=\sum_{j=1}^L (1+\sigma^z_j\sigma^z_{j+3})( \sigma^+_{j+1}\sigma^-_{j+2}+ \sigma^-_{j+1}\sigma^+_{j+2}).
\end{split}
\end{equation}
Based on the existence of the charge $Q_2$ one could regard this model as nearest neighbor interacting, but $Q_2$ does
not generate dynamics. Instead, in this model $Q_4$ is regarded as the Hamiltonian, because $Q_4$ is the first parity
symmetric dynamical charge of the model.
\subsection{Three site models -- general remarks}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\columnwidth]{zigzag.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of a zigzag spin ladder. It is natural to expect three site interactions for each
plaquet.}
\label{fig:zigzag}
\end{figure}
Let us focus on the case with $\ell=3$. In this case we identify $H=Q_3$ and we also write
\begin{equation}
\label{HQ3}
H=\sum_j h_{j,j+1,j+2},
\end{equation}
where $h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ is the three site Hamiltonian density.
Such models can be interpreted very naturally as a zig-zag spin ladder. See figure \ref{fig:zigzag}. However, we will focus on the
translationally invariant representation \eqref{HQ3}.
Our main results are finding the general algebraic structures behind the three site models, which lead to a
generalization of the Reshetikhin condition. We formulate the following conjecture:
\begin{conjecture}
\label{conj:q5}
A three site Hamiltonian is integrable, iff the charge $Q_5=\sum_j q_5(j)$ defined by
\begin{multline}
\label{q5d}
q_5(j)=[h_{j,j+1,j+2},h_{j+1,j+2,j+3}+h_{j+2,j+3,j+4}]+\\
+ \tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}
\end{multline}
commutes with the Hamiltonian in every volume $L\ge 5$. Here $\tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ is an other three-site operator.
\end{conjecture}
Clearly, this is a generalization of Conjecture \ref{conj:2}. The construction of $Q_5$ through \eqref{q5d} is one of our key
results. Its derivation from an underlying algebraic theory is presented in Section \ref{sec:Q5}. We stress again that
this result is very restrictive: it uses two three-site operators $h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ and $\tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ to
generate a five site charge.
Based on this result it is possible to perform a classification of integrable spin chains with 3-site interactions. This
is rather analogous to the ideas used in \cite{Kennedy-all-su2-chains,Mutter-Schmidt-classification} and later in
\cite{marius-classification-1,marius-classification-2,marius-classification-3,marius-classification-4,sajat-lindblad}.
The
idea is to make an Ansatz for $h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ and $\tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}$, possibly including a number of free
parameters, to construct $Q_5$ using
\eqref{q5d} and to check the commutation relation $[H,Q_5]=0$ on spin chains with medium length. We implemented this
strategy using the program \texttt{Mathematica} and performed partial classifications on spin 1/2 chains. The generic density
$h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ has a total number of $8^2=64$ parameters, which is a too large parameter space for practical
computations. Therefore we performed partial classifications along restricted subspaces which can bear physical
relevance. The results are presented in Subsections \ref{sec:classification} and \ref{sec:IRFH}.
\subsection{Quantum gates and cellular automata}
\label{sec:qgatesintro}
We also consider brickwork type quantum circuits, where the fundamental local unitaries have a support of
$\ell$ sites. The interest in such models is manifold: On the one hand, they can be understood as integrable models
in discrete time, or alternatively as integrable Trotterizations of the continuous time spin chain
models. On the other hand, they are interesting because they can lead to classical cellular automata, thus presenting
one more link between the worlds of quantum and classical integrability. Finally, they are also relevant to quantum
computing and real world experiments.
Let us sketch the general schemes behind our quantum circuit models. First we present the abstract formulation of the
update rules, and we give more concrete examples later. It is necessary to start with the most general form, because
later in this work we consider multiple types of constructions.
We build systems with Floquet-type discrete time
evolution, such that the equal time update rules are given by local unitaries. Let us fix an interaction range $\ell$,
and consider a local unitary $U^{(\ell)}(j)$ which acts on the segment $[j,\dots,j+\ell-1]$ of the spin chain. Typically
these unitaries will also depend on a continuous parameter $u$ (the spectral parameter) and on a small number of extra
parameters characterizing a family of models. Then we construct a brickwork type update rule for the whole spin chain
using the single unitaries. We build a Floquet-type cycle with time period $\tau$:
\begin{equation}
\label{floquet}
\mathcal{V}=\mathcal{V}_\tau\dots\mathcal{V}_1,
\end{equation}
such that each update step $\mathcal{V}_j$ with $j=1\dots \tau$ is a product of commuting local unitaries acting at the
same time. We formalize it as
\begin{equation}
\label{Vj}
\mathcal{V}_l=\prod_{k} U^{(\ell)}(x_k+\Delta_l).
\end{equation}
Here $x_k$ are coordinates that specify the placement of the local unitaries within a single time update, and
$\Delta_l$ is a displacement which depends on the discrete time index $l$, signaling the position within the
Floquet-type cycle.
The local unitaries within a given time step should commute with each other, such that the order of the product
\eqref{Vj} does not matter. This requirement can be important for practical purposes (implementation of the quantum
circuits in experiments), but also for theoretical reasons. In the most general case the commutativity holds if
the supports are non-overlapping, i.e. $x_{k+1}\ge x_k+\ell$. Nevertheless the supports can have a non-zero overlap, if the
commutativity is guaranteed by other means, for example if the local unitaries act diagonally on the overlapping
sites.
The simplest example for the brickwork construction discussed above is the alternating circuit discussed for example in
\cite{integrable-trotterization}. In this case $\tau=2$, we can choose $x_k=2k$, and $\Delta_l=l$ with $l=1,2$. For a
graphical representation see Figure \ref{fig:2siteQgates} later in Section \ref{sec:circuit}. We can build similar
structures with interaction range
$\ell=3$, the most obvious choice is $\tau=3$, $x_k=3k$, and $\Delta_l=l$ with $l=1,2,3$ (see Figure
\ref{fig:3siteDiag2Diag}). Such a brickwork circuit was introduced in
\cite{sajat-cellaut}.
Later we will also present other types of constructions.
As mentioned earlier, the local unitaries typically have a spectral parameter $u$ which can be tuned freely. This means
that we can build families of quantum circuits. These families can have special points with very specific physical behaviour.
For example, in the most typical case the unitaries become equal to the identity at
the special point $u=0$. Furthermore, the first order expansion in $u$ gives a local Hamiltonian
$h$ with interaction range $\ell$. Assuming $u\in\mathbb{R}$ this is formalized as
\begin{equation}
U^{(\ell)}(u|j)=1+iu h_{j,\dots,j+\ell-1}+\mathcal{O}(u^2).
\end{equation}
In such a case the Floquet circle $\mathcal{V}$ can act as a Trotterization of the global Hamiltonian $H$:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}=1+iuc H+\mathcal{O}(u^2),
\end{equation}
where $c$ is a real number that depends on the details of the construction, such as the Floquet period $\tau$, the coordinate
differences $x_{k+1}-x_k$ and the displacements $\Delta_l$ in \eqref{Vj}.
We intend to construct quantum circuits with precisely such a behaviour, so that $H$ is one of our medium range
integrable Hamiltonians. Furthermore we require that the quantum circuit itself should have certain integrability
properties. These depend on the particular construction, and will be discussed in detail in
\ref{sec:circuit}; the local unitaries will be derived from the so-called Lax operators
of the medium range model.
In some models the local unitaries become deterministic for a special value $u$ of the rapidity parameter. This means
that $U^{(\ell)}(j)$ simply just permutes the states in the computational basis (possibly with some phases added),
without creating any linear combinations. The states of the computational basis can be considered {\it classical}, because
every spin has a fixed value; if the local unitaries are deterministic then classical states are mapped to classical
states during time evolution. This means that the quantum circuit can be considered a {\it classical cellular automaton} at
this special point $u$. An integrable example for such model was presented recently in \cite{sajat-cellaut}. An
other important class for such models are the Interaction-Round-A-Face models treated in \cite{prosen-cellaut},
which lead to the elementary cellular automata on light-cone lattices. In the Subsection below we discuss these models
in detail.
\subsection{Elementary cellular automata on light cone lattices}
\label{sec:cellintro}
These are classical 2-state models where the variables are defined on a light cone lattice, see
Fig. \ref{fig:rombus}. The vertical
dimension is interpreted as the direction of time. Each cell is updated depending on the state of
its 3 neighbors (to the South-west, South, and south-East), and the update rules are homogeneous both in space and
time.
Accordingly, there are $2^{2^3}=256$ such models, and they have been studied and classified in the seminal works
\cite{cellaut-class,rule54}. The nomenclature for these models follows the original proposal of Wolfram
\cite{wolfram-cellaut1} (see also \cite{rule54}).
Recently these cellular automata attracted considerable attention due to the integrability properties
of some of its members: the Rule54, Rule150 and Rule201 models (see the review \cite{rule54-review} and
also \cite{rule150-markov,rule201} ).
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.85\columnwidth]{rombus.pdf}
\caption{The light cone lattice for the elementary cellular automata. We assign coordinates $(t,x)$ to the sites, where
$t$ is interpreted as a time variable. The $x$ coordinates are increased by steps of 2, and they take even (odd)
values if the $t$ coordinate is odd (even), respectively. The update of the cellular automata proceeds in the time
direction upwards, and each spin is given a new value using the state of 3 of its neighbors (to the directions
South-West, South, and South-East). For example, the spin at position $(3,2)$ is given a value using the spins at
$(2,1)$, $(1,2)$ and $(2,3)$.
}
\label{fig:rombus}
\end{figure}
As the update rules depend on 3 bits, it is tempting to look for a connection with our 3-site interacting Hamiltonians
and quantum gate models. Therefore we provide here a formulation of the models which fits into the
framework given above. Afterwards we provide a simple classification of the physically interesting
models. Finally we summarize our main results, with the technical computation presented later in Section \ref{sec:circuit}.
First we transform the light cone lattice into a regular rectangular lattice. The idea is to add new sites to the
light cone lattice to the centers of the faces, see Fig. \ref{fig:rect}.
Then on this rectangular lattice we formulate a Floquet-type update rule
with period $\tau=2$, such that at each step the odd or even sites are updated, respectively. In this formulation the
local update is performed by a three-site $U^{(3)}$ which is actually deterministic in the computational
basis. Furthermore, it has a structure which was discussed already for the IRF type Hamiltonians above: The quantum gate
acts diagonally on the first and last bits, whereas it has an action bit in the middle. In the particular case we have
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFU}
U^{(3)}(j)=\sum_{a,b=0,1} P_j^a f^{ab}_{j+1} P^b_{j+2},
\end{equation}
where $P^a_j$ is a projector to basis state $a$ acting on site $j$, and $f^{ab}_{j+1}$ is a collection of 4 matrices
acting on site $j+1$. Then the full update rule is specified by
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFV}
\mathcal{V}=\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFVj}
\mathcal{V}_l=\prod_{k=1}^{L/2} U^{(3)}(2k+l),\qquad l=1,2.
\end{equation}
The neighboring three site unitaries overlap at one site, but they commute because they act diagonally on the boundary
sites. Thus \eqref{IRFVj} is well defined without specifying the order of the action the quantum gates.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\columnwidth]{rect.pdf}
\caption{Two different representations for the cellular automata on the light cone lattices. -- On the top we
complement the original arrangement into a rectangular lattice, by adding new sites to the centers of the
faces of the original lattice. The spins at the newly added sites are taken to be identical with those immediately
below them, for example the state of the new site at $(2,2)$ is copied from the spin at $(1,2)$. This way we can
formulate an update rule using three site unitaries on a rectangular lattice. For example the spin at $(3,2)$ is given
a value using the three spins $(2,1)$, $(2,2)$ and $(2,3)$ from the previous row. The gray triangles show the direction
of the update steps. -- On the bottom we show a representation using quantum gates. Now the spin variables live on the
vertices and three site unitaries update them. The unitary gates are placed so that the neighboring pairs overlap at a
control bit, which are shown by the darker shaded circles.}
\label{fig:rect}
\end{figure}
Let us now discuss the classification of these models. We wish to have deterministic time evolution (without phases),
and we also require time
reversibility, which follows from the requirement of unitary. Therefore
the only possibilities are
\begin{equation}
\label{fabch}
f^{ab}=1\quad\text{or}\quad f^{ab}=\sigma^x.
\end{equation}
The choices \eqref{fabch} leave us
with $2^4=16$ models. If we also require space reflection invariance we end up with $2^3=8$ models.
Those two models where all $f^{ab}$ matrices are identical are completely
trivial, which leaves us with 6 models. Out of these 6 models we can choose the following 4, which are not related to
each other by overall spin reflection \cite{prosen-cellaut}:
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:rule54}
\text{Rule54: } f^{00}=1, \quad f^{01}=f^{10}=f^{11}=\sigma^x
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:rule105}
\text{Rule105: } f^{00}=f^{11}=\sigma^x, \quad f^{01}=f^{10}=1
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:rule150}
\text{Rule150: } f^{00}=f^{11}=1, \quad f^{01}=f^{10}=\sigma^x
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:rule201}
\text{Rule201: } f^{00}=\sigma^x,\quad f^{01}=f^{10}=f^{11}=1.
\end{equation}
Additional two new models can be obtained by a complete spin reflection of the Rule54 and Rule201 models.
The Rule105 and Rule150 models are not completely independent either, because their $f$-matrices are obtained from each
other by a multiplication with $\sigma^x$. This means that
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}_k^{(150)}=X_k \mathcal{V}_k^{(105)}= \mathcal{V}_k^{(105)} X_k, \qquad k=1,2,
\end{equation}
where we defined
\begin{equation}
X_k=\prod_{j=1}^{L/2} \sigma^x_{2j+k}, \qquad k=1,2.
\end{equation}
We can also observe the commutation relations
\begin{equation}
[ \mathcal{V}_1^{(105)},X_2]=[ \mathcal{V}_2^{(105)},X_1]=0,
\end{equation}
and similarly for the operators of the Rule150 model. Altogether this implies that the combined Floquet steps are
related as
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}^{(150)}=X \mathcal{V}^{(105)},
\end{equation}
where $X$ is the global spin reflection operator given by
\begin{equation}
X=X_2X_1=\prod_{j=1}^{L} \sigma^x_{j}.
\end{equation}
From these relations we can also derive
\begin{equation}
\left( \mathcal{V}^{(150)}\right)^2=\left( \mathcal{V}^{(105)}\right)^2.
\end{equation}
Thus the physical behaviour of the two models could be considered the same, up to a staggered global spin
reflection.
An important property of these models is that the two different possibilities for the Floquet time step
are actually inverses of each other:
\begin{equation}
\label{Vinv}
\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2=\left(\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1\right)^{-1}
\end{equation}
which follows simply from
\begin{equation}
(\mathcal{V}_1)^2=(\mathcal{V}_2)^2=1.
\end{equation}
As a result the two Floquet operators actually commute
with each other:
\begin{equation}
\label{Vcomm}
[\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2,\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1]=
[\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2,\mathcal{U}^{-1}\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{U}]
=0.
\end{equation}
The four models listed above have been studied in a number of works recently (see the review \cite{rule54-review} for
the Rule54
model and also \cite{rule150-markov,rule201} for the Rule150 and Rule201 models), nevertheless the algebraic background
for
their observed integrability properties was not understood for a long time. Recently a new framework was introduced in
\cite{prosen-cellaut} which claimed to solve this problem. We also treat these cellular automata; our main results are as follows.
We find that the Rule105 and Rule150 models can be embedded into our framework of three-site interacting models.
We find a rapidity dependent family of commuting transfer matrices which includes the time evolution operator of the model as
a particular case. This family of transfer matrices is regular, and we derive a set of local conserved charges that
commute with the discrete time evolution operator of the cellular automata. Even though we use a different formalism, we show
explicitly that our construction is identical to that one of \cite{prosen-cellaut} for these special class of models.
On the other hand, for the Rule54 and Rule201 we find that they are not in the family of three site
interacting integrable models. In the case of the Rule54 model we also show that the transfer matrices of
\cite{prosen-cellaut} are
algebraically dependent on three known conserved charges of the model, therefore those transfer matrices do not yield new
information; this is presented in Subsection \ref{sec:prosen}.
\section{Integrability structures}
\label{sec:int}
In this Section we present the integrability structures behind the spin chains under consideration. We start with a
brief treatment of the nearest neighbor chains, and afterwards we turn to our new results.
\subsection{Nearest neighbor interacting spin chains}
We construct a transfer matrix which serves as a generating function for the conserved charges of the model under
consideration. For an introduction into the methods we refer the reader to
\cite{faddeev-how-aba-works,Korepin-Book}.
First we construct the monodromy matrix as follows. We take an auxiliary space $\mathbb{C}^{d'}$.
The Lax operator $\mathcal{L}_{a,j}(u)$ acts on the tensor product of the auxiliary space (denoted by the index $a$) and a physical space
with site index $j$. The variable $u$ is called spectral parameter. In those cases when the transfer matrix generates
the Hamiltonian and the other charges we have $d'=d$.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.6\columnwidth]{Rconv.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of the operators $\check R_{1,2}$ and $R_{1,2}$; we suppressed the dependence on the
rapidity parameters. On the left we show the usual notation which comes from the vertex models. On the right we depict
the same operators as quantum gates. The two matrices differ in a permutation, and in this notation $\check R_{1,2}$
acts such that the two vector spaces are kept in place.}
\label{fig:Rconv}
\end{figure}
The monodromy matrix for a finite volume $L$ is defined as
\begin{equation}
M_a(u)= \mathcal{L}_{a,L}(u)\dots \mathcal{L}_{a,2}(u)\mathcal{L}_{a,1}(u),
\end{equation}
and the transfer matrix is
\begin{equation}
\label{teredeti}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_a\ M_a(u).
\end{equation}
The transfer matrices form a commuting set of operators if the Lax operators satisfy the following
exchange relations, where $a$ and $b$ denote two auxiliary spaces:
\begin{multline}\label{RLL}
R_{b,a}(\nu,\mu) \mathcal{L}_{b,j}(\nu) \mathcal{L}_{a,j}(\mu)=\\= \mathcal{L}_{a,j}(\mu) \mathcal{L}_{b,j}(\nu) R_{b,a}(\nu,\mu).
\end{multline}
Here $R(u,v)$ is the so-called $R$-matrix which satisfies the Yang-Baxter relations
\begin{multline}
\label{YB}
R_{12}(\lambda_{1},\lambda_2)R_{13}(\lambda_1,\lambda_3)R_{23}(\lambda_2,\lambda_3)=\\
=R_{23}(\lambda_2,\lambda_3) R_{13}(\lambda_1,\lambda_3) R_{12}(\lambda_{1},\lambda_2).
\end{multline}
The figure \ref{fig:Rconv} shows the graphical presentation of the $R$-matrix.
In the models of physical relevance the $R$-matrix also satisfies the so-called regularity property
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:regular}
R_{ab}(u,u)\sim \mathcal{P}_{ab},
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{P}_{ab}$ is the permutation operator acting on the tensor product space.
If the regularity condition holds then the following inversion can be established:
\begin{equation}
\label{Rinv}
R_{12}(\lambda,\mu)R_{21}(\mu,\lambda)\sim 1,
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
R_{21}(\mu,\lambda)=\mathcal{P} R_{12}(\mu,\lambda)\mathcal{P}.
\end{equation}
For the sake of completeness we present the derivation of \eqref{Rinv} using the Yang-Baxter equations and
\eqref{eq:regular} in Appendix \ref{sec:inv}.
One can use the $R$-matrix itself as a Lax operator:
\begin{equation}
\label{xi0}
\mathcal{L}_{a,j}(\mu)=R_{a,j}(\mu,\xi_0),
\end{equation}
where $\xi_0$ is a fixed parameter of the model. In such a case the YB relation is equivalent to the RLL relation and the transfer matrix reads as
\begin{equation} \label{eq:transfer}
t(u) = \mathrm{Tr}_a R_{a,L}(u,\xi_0) \dots R_{a,2}(u,\xi_0) R_{a,1}(u,\xi_0).
\end{equation}
There is an alternative way to define a transfer matrix, where the ordering of the sites is the opposite, and the role
of the auxiliary and physical spaces is exchanged:
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:transferRev}
\bar t(u) = \mathrm{Tr}_a R_{1,a}(\xi_0,u) R_{2,a}(\xi_0,u) \dots R_{L,a}(\xi_0,u).
\end{equation}
It can be proven using the Yang-Baxter relation that
\begin{equation}
[t(u),\bar t(v)]=0.
\end{equation}
In some of our constructions below it will be more convenient to use \eqref{eq:transferRev} instead of
\eqref{eq:transfer}.
In figure \ref{fig:transfer} and \ref{fig:transferRev} we can see the graphical presentations of these two transfer matrices.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth]{transfer.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of transfer matrix \eqref{eq:transfer}. Here $a$ denotes the auxiliary space. The first
representation is the usual from the literature, which shows the transfer matrix as a concatenation of Lax
operators. The second picture shows the same object using a succession of quantum gates. The two representations are
not very different, but generalizations of the second one will be more convenient in the more complicated cases that
will follow.}
\label{fig:transfer}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth]{transferRev.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of transfer matrix \eqref{eq:transferRev}.}
\label{fig:transferRev}
\end{figure}
The regularity condition ensures that at the special point $\xi_0$ we have the initial conditions
\begin{equation}
t(\xi_0)=\mathcal{U}, \qquad \bar{t}(\xi_0)=\mathcal{U}^{-1}
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{U}$ is the cyclic shift operator on the chain.
A commuting set of local charges is then constructed as
\begin{equation}
\label{Qalphadef}
Q_\alpha\quad\sim\quad \left.(\partial_u)^{\alpha-1}\log(t(u)) \right|_{u=\xi_0}.
\end{equation}
In many models the $R$-matrix is of difference form, which means
\begin{equation}
R(u,v)=R(u-v).
\end{equation}
In such a case the parameter $\xi_0$ is irrelevant, and it is conventional to set it to $\xi_0=0$. However, we will
consider the generic case where the $R$-matrix is not necessarily of difference form.
Let us investigate the first few charges in detail. Performing the first derivative of \eqref{Qalphadef} we get the
nearest neighbor Hamiltonian
\begin{equation}
H=Q_2=\sum h_{j,j+1}
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
h_{j,j+1}=\left.\partial_u \check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1}(u)\right|_{u=\xi_0},
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1}(u)=\mathcal{P}_{j,j+1} R_{j,j+1}(u,\xi_0).
\end{equation}
For this operation it is crucial that the regularity condition is satisfied.
For the third charge we get the general expression
\begin{equation}
\label{Q3form1}
Q_3=\sum_j [h_{j,j+1},h_{j+1,j+2}]+ \check \mathcal{L}''_{j,j+1}(\xi_0)- h^2_{j,j+1}.
\end{equation}
We can see that in addition to the commutator we have two-site operators, and altogether this expression takes the form
\eqref{q3f} announced earlier.
Assuming that the $R$-matrix has difference form and setting $\xi_0=0$ then the following inversion relation holds:
\begin{equation}
\label{Linversion}
\check \mathcal{L}(u)\check \mathcal{L}(-u)=1.
\end{equation}
This implies that the last two terms in \eqref{Q3form1} cancel, which can be seen after taking the second derivatives of
\eqref{Linversion} with respect to $u$ and substituting $u=0$. In this case we end up with
\begin{equation}
\label{Q3form2}
Q_3=\sum_j [h_{j,j+1},h_{j+1,j+2}].
\end{equation}
We can see that \eqref{Q3form2} follows from \eqref{Rinv} if the $R$-matrix is of difference form.
However, in
other cases it does not hold generally. Perhaps the most famous example where it does not hold is the Hubbard model and
its inhomogeneous versions \cite{Murakami-Hubbard-inhom}.
The form \eqref{Q3form1} yields the original version of the Reshetikhin condition used for example in
\cite{integrability-test}.
\subsection{Three site interactions}
\label{sec:threesite}
Let us now consider a three site interacting model, defined by the Hamiltonian
\begin{equation}
\label{H3}
H=\sum_j h_{j,j+1,j+2}.
\end{equation}
Below we conjecture a generic form of the Lax operator for such models. We motivate our conjecture by some simple
ideas. We do not assume the existence of a proper translationally invariant Lax operator from the start, instead we
develop arguments that motivate its existence and its properties.
The key idea is to build a nearest neighbor chain out of our model by grouping together (or gluing) every two spins into
blocks.
Therefore we consider our spin chain in an even volume $L=2k$.
We pair the spins, and label the pairs using the original coordinates, for example $(j,j+1)$. Then we obtain a new model
with $k$ sites and local dimension
$d^2$. The Hamiltonian for the new model can be written as
\begin{equation}
\tilde H=\sum_{j=1}^{L/2} \tilde h_{j,j+1},
\end{equation}
where we can choose for example
\begin{equation}
\tilde h_{j,j+1}=h_{2j,2j+1,2j+2}+h_{2j+1,2j+2,2j+3}.
\end{equation}
Similarly we can construct commuting higher charges for the glued model by using the charges of the original one, and
thus we obtain a nearest neighbor
integrable chain with local dimension $d^2$. In our arguments below we will switch back and forth between viewing the
spin chains and the charges in the original and the glued representations. This will gives us crucial clues about the
integrability structures.
First we look at the glued chain. It has a set of commuting local charges, thus we can assume that it is Yang-Baxter
integrable in the usual way. Thus there should
exist an auxiliary space $A$ and an $R$-matrix which generates the charges for this glued chain.
The auxiliary
space should have the same dimension as the physical spaces, which are now the tensor product spaces
$(j,j+1)$. Therefore we construct the auxiliary space $V_A$ as $V_a\otimes V_b$ where the two spaces labeled $a$ and $b$
are isomorphic to the physical spaces of the original chain. This way we obtain
a commuting set of transfer matrices
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:transfer3site}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_A R_{A,(L-1,L)}(u,0)\dots R_{A,(3,4)}(u,0)R_{A,(1,2)}(u,0),
\end{equation}
which generate the Hamiltonian and the charges of the glued chain.
Here we used the same letter for the $R$-matrix as before; the distinction between the different $R$-matrices is made by
denoting
explicitly the indices of the spaces on which they act.
Above we set the inhomogeneity parameter of the $R$-matrix to $\xi_0=0$, which is just a choice for the zero point of the
rapidity parameters. Generally we can consider families of models by varying $\xi_0$, see for example
\cite{Murakami-Hubbard-inhom}
for deformations of the Hubbard model. However, picking a particular model we are always free to set $\xi_0=0$ by a
re-parametrization.
Since the glued chain is a nearest neighbor interacting model we can assume that the $R$-matrix is regular i.e.
\begin{equation}
R_{(a,b),(j,j+1)}(0,0)=\mathcal{P}_{(a,b),(j,j+1)} = \mathcal{P}_{a,j} \mathcal{P}_{b,j+1}.
\end{equation}
Now let us return to the original spin chain. The transfer matrix constructed above can be understood as a non-local
operator acting on the original Hilbert space. The Taylor expansion of $t(u)$ on the glued chain gives the glued
charges, and if we view $t(u)$ as an operator acting on the original chain, then we see that it generates the charges of
the original model. This is a crucial observation.
In the original spin chain all charges are translationally invariant, but the gluing procedure explicitly breaks this
invariance. The transfer matrix \eqref{eq:transfer3site} enjoys two-site invariance by construction:
\begin{equation}
t(u)=\mathcal{U}^{-2} t(u) \mathcal{U}^2,
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{U}$ is the translation operator of the original chain, thus $\mathcal{U}^2$ describes a single
site translation in the glued chain.
However, the charges of the original chain are one site invariant, and they are the Taylor coefficients of $t(u)$ if
viewed as an operator acting on the original chain.
This leads to the conclusion that the transfer matrix should also be translationally invariant:
\begin{equation}
t(u)=\mathcal{U}^{-1} t(u) \mathcal{U}.
\end{equation}
This is a very strong condition. It implies that the two different gluing procedures (where we group sites $(2j,2j+1)$ or
$(2j+1,2j+2)$, respectively) should lead to the same global transfer matrix:
\begin{multline}
\label{Reltolt}
\text{Tr}_{a,b} R_{(a,b),(L-1,L)}(u,0)\dots R_{(a,b),(1,2)}(u,0)=\\
\text{Tr}_{a,b} R_{(a,b),(L,1)}(u,0)\dots R_{(a,b),(2,3)}(u,0).
\end{multline}
This relation motivates the existence of a proper Lax operator for the original chain, so that we could bypass the
gluing procedure. We expect that the only way that
\eqref{Reltolt} can be satisfied is if the corresponding $R$-matrix factorizes into a product of Lax operators. We
formulate the following:
\begin{conjecture}
\label{conj:fact}
If the condition \eqref{Reltolt} holds in every even volume $L$ then the $R$-matrix of the glued
chain factorizes as
\begin{equation}
\label{Rfact}
R_{(a,b),(j,j+1)}(u,0)=\mathcal{L}_{a,b,j+1}(u)\mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u),
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u)$ is a proper Lax operator for the original chain
which satisfies the following $RLL$ relation
\begin{multline}
\label{eq:RLL}
R_{AB}(u,v)\mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u)\mathcal{L}_{B,j}(v)=\\=\mathcal{L}_{B,j}(v)\mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u) R_{AB}(u,v),
\end{multline}
where $A$ and $B$ stand for pairs of auxiliary spaces, and $j$ labels a physical space.
\end{conjecture}
We did not find a proof for this Conjecture, but it is easy to see that the assumption \eqref{Rfact} naturally satisfies
\eqref{Reltolt}.
It is a simple consequence of Conjecture \ref{conj:fact}. that if the glued $R$-matrix is regular then the Lax operator
satisfies the three-site regularity condition
\begin{equation}
\label{Linit}
\mathcal{L}_{ab,j}(0)=\mathcal{P}_{a,j}\mathcal{P}_{b,j}.
\end{equation}
This follows simply from the observation
\begin{multline}
R_{(1,2),(3,4)}(0,0) = \mathcal{P}_{2,4}P_{1,3} =
\mathcal{P}_{2,4} \mathcal{P}_{1,2} \mathcal{P}_{1,2} \mathcal{P}_{1,3}=\\
=\left(\mathcal{P}_{1,4}\mathcal{P}_{2,4}\right) \left(\mathcal{P}_{1,3}\mathcal{P}_{2,3}\right)=
\mathcal{L}_{1,2,4}(0)\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(0).
\label{eq:R0}
\end{multline}
In general the RLL equations do not have unique solutions (up to normalization) if the R-matrix has gauge invariance
\begin{equation}
[ R_{A,B}(u,v),G_A(u)G_B(v)] = 0
\end{equation}
where $G_A(u)$ is a spectral parameter dependent $d\times d$ matrix. Indeed, assuming the gauge invariance the following transformed Lax operator
\begin{equation}
G_A(u) \mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u)
\end{equation}
is also a solution of the RLL equation \eqref{eq:RLL}. For the practical examples such symmetry of $R$-matrix is excluded and only global symmetry (spectral parameter independent symmetry) is allowed. In the following we concentrate on $R$-matrices with no gauge invariance.
Although we cannot prove Conjecture \ref{conj:fact}, we can prove the reverse statement:
\begin{theorem}
\label{thm:fact}
Taking a regular $R$-matrix $R_{A,B}(u)$ with no gauge invariance and a Lax operator $\mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u)$ which satisfy the $RLL$ relation \eqref{eq:RLL} and the regularity condition \eqref{Linit} then the $R$-matrix is factorized as \eqref{Rfact}.
\end{theorem}
The proof is presented in Appendix \ref{sec:factproof}.
Let us now consider the transfer matrix of the original three-site interacting case.
We can now write it as
\begin{equation}
\label{tL3}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_{a,b}\mathcal{L}_{a,b,L}(u)\dots \mathcal{L}_{a,b,1}(u).
\end{equation}
This representation of the transfer matrix is manifestly translationally invariant; the formula already appeared in
\cite{sajat-cellaut}.
The relation \eqref{Linit} leads to the initial condition
\begin{equation}
\label{t0UU}
t(0)=\mathcal{U}^2.
\end{equation}
Let us now define the operator $\check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u)$ through
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u)=\mathcal{P}_{a,j}\mathcal{P}_{b,j} \check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u).
\end{equation}
The condition \eqref{Linit} leads to
\begin{equation}
\label{Lchinit}
\check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(0)=1.
\end{equation}
Computing the first logarithmic derivative of the transfer matrix as
\begin{equation}
H=t^{-1}(0)\left. \partial_u t(u)\right|_{u=0}
\end{equation}
we obtain \eqref{H3} with
\begin{equation}
\label{Lderiv}
h_{j,j+1,j+2}=\left. \partial_u \check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(u)\right|_{u=0}.
\end{equation}
Here we used
\begin{equation}
\label{ti0}
t^{-1}(0)=\mathcal{U}^{-2}.
\end{equation}
Summarizing these findings we formulate the following:
\begin{conjecture}
\label{conj:3site}
Every integrable three-site Hamiltonian \eqref{H3}
has a three-site Lax operator in the form
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(u)= \mathcal{P}_{13} \mathcal{P}_{23}(1+uh_{123}+\mathcal{O}(u^{2})),
\end{equation}
and there exists an $R$-matrix for which the $RLL$-relation is satisfied
\begin{multline}
R_{AB}(u,v)\mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u)\mathcal{L}_{B,j}(v)=\\=\mathcal{L}_{B,j}(v)\mathcal{L}_{A,j}(u) R_{AB}(u,v),
\end{multline}
such that the $R$-matrix factorizes as \eqref{Rfact}. In the RLL relation above $A$ and $B$ stand for pairs of auxiliary spaces.
\end{conjecture}
Let us now also discuss two trivial solutions to the above relations, which bring us back to the nearest neighbor
chains.
We can choose
\begin{equation}
\label{Labjtrivial}
\mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u)=\mathcal{L}_{a,j}(u)\mathcal{L}_{b,j}(u),
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{L}_{a,j}(u)$ is a Lax operator of a n.n. model. This choice satisfies all the requirements listed above. If we
denote by $t^{(3)}(u)$ the transfer matrix constructed out
of \eqref{Labjtrivial} using \eqref{tL3} and by $t^{(2)}(u)$ the simple transfer matrix constructed from $\mathcal{L}_{a,j}(u)$
according to \eqref{teredeti}
then we obtain the relation
\begin{equation}
t^{(3)}(u)=\left(t^{(2)}(u)\right)^2.
\end{equation}
This implies that from $t^{(3)}(u)$ we would obtain the same nearest neighbor Hamiltonian as from $t^{(2)}(u)$, but
multiplied with factor of 2.
An alternative trivial choice is
\begin{equation}
\label{Labjtriv2}
\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c}(u)= \mathcal{P}_{a,b} \mathcal{L}_{a,c}(u)
\end{equation}
It can be seen that this leads to two decoupled spin chains that are placed on the odd and even sub-lattices of the
original spin chain, such that we have nearest neighbor interactions within each sub-lattice.
These trivial examples bring us to an important conclusion: {\it the real source of the three site interaction is a
coupling of the auxiliary
spaces which can not be factorized as in \eqref{Labjtrivial} or as in \eqref{Labjtriv2}}.
\subsection{Conserved charges in the three-site interacting case}
\label{sec:Q5}
Let us now consider the higher conserved charges in the three-site interacting models, which are computed from the
higher logarithmic derivatives of the transfer matrix. The next charge is computed from
\begin{equation}
(\partial_u)^2 \log(t(u))=t^{-1}(u)t''(u)-(t^{-1}(u)t'(u))^2
\end{equation}
after taking the derivatives and eventually substituting $u=0$. Taking into account the definition \eqref{tL3}, the initial
conditions \eqref{Linit} and also the inverse \eqref{ti0} we obtain a 5 site operator, which can be written as
\begin{multline}
\label{Q5a}
Q_5=\sum_j [h_{j,j+1,j+2},h_{j+1,j+2,j+3}+h_{j+2,j+3,j+4}]-\\
- (h_{j,j+1,j+2})^2+ \check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}''(0).
\end{multline}
This is a generalization of formula \eqref{Q3form1} to the three site interacting case. We see that the density of $Q_5$
depends on a term which is completely determined by the Hamiltonian density, but it also includes an additional
three-site operator, which was included in the equation \eqref{q5d} that we announced earlier.
The simplest cases are those when the following inversion relation holds:
\begin{equation}
\label{L3inv}
\check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(u) \check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,j}(-u)=1.
\end{equation}
Taking second derivative in $u$ and substituting $u=0$ we obtain that the last two terms in \eqref{Q5a} cancel.
At present it is not clear whether all three-site interacting models satisfy \eqref{L3inv}. In our classification we
found that we can always choose conventions such that \eqref{L3inv} holds. In the case of the $U(1)$-invariant models we
actually allowed for an additional three-site
operator in the density of $Q_5$, performed the classification using the condition $[H,Q_5]=0$ and did not find
additional models. However, this might be a peculiarity of the $U(1)$-invariant models.
We also note a gauge freedom which does actually change the representation of the charge $Q_5$. Considering a Hamiltonian
density $h_{1,2,3}$ we can construct a new one by
\begin{equation}
\label{h123v}
h'_{1,2,3}=h_{1,2,3}+g_{1,2}-g_{2,3},
\end{equation}
where $g_{1,2}$ is an arbitrary two-site operator. Clearly, the density $h'_{1,2,3}$ leads to the same global
Hamiltonian, because the additional terms add up telescopically to zero. However, the commutator in \eqref{Q5a}
will be a different operator. The dependence on $g_{1,2}$ does not drop
out, whereas the global $Q_5$ charge can not change. This paradox is resolved by noting that the three-site
operator in the second line of \eqref{Q5a} also changes, because the Lax operator needs to be modified so that its first
derivative can reproduce \eqref{h123v}. Altogether this modification cancels the additional terms that appear from the
commutator in \eqref{Q5a}, so that $Q_5$ does not change as expected. In our concrete
examples we always found a gauge where \eqref{L3inv} holds.
Let us now also consider the higher charges. Taking further derivatives we see that the range of the charges increases
by two sites after every new derivative. This
means that the allowed indices $\alpha$ for the charges $Q_\alpha$ are $3,5,7,\dots$ with $H=Q_3$. This is clearly
different from the n.n. chains where typically all integers are allowed.
In specific cases it can happen that there is a one-site or a two-site charge commuting with the transfer matrix
above; examples will be shown below.
In all such cases we found that the smaller charges are not dynamical. If they are non-trivial then the model has to be
nearest neighbor interacting.
\subsection{Partial classification for three site interacting spin-1/2 chains}
\label{sec:classification}
Our method is to make an Ansatz for $h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ and $\tilde
h_{j,j+1,j+2}$, to compute
$Q_5$ through \eqref{q5d}, and finally to enforce the commutativity $[H,Q_5]=0$. We find that this relation indeed gives
us a number of interesting new models. Afterwards we also look for the corresponding Lax operators and $R$-matrices. The
idea for finding the Lax operator is rather simple: We are looking for a one-parameter family of three-site operators,
within the specified Ansatz, and we enforce that the transfer matrix \eqref{tL3} commutes with the
Hamiltonian. Afterwards we also check the initial condition \eqref{Linit} and the first derivative according to
\eqref{Lderiv}. Finally the $R$-matrices can be found simply from \eqref{RLL} which becomes a linear equation for
them. The Yang-Baxter relation for the $R$-matrices can be checked afterwards.
It is important for the classification to exclude ``trivial'' solutions which would not lead to new physical
behaviour. Such trivial cases include simply taking a nearest neighbor Hamiltonian density $h^{(nn)}_{j,j+1}$ and
choosing either $h_{j,j+1,j+2}=h^{(nn)}_{j,j+1}$ or $h_{j,j+1,j+2}=h^{(nn)}_{j,j+2}$. The first choice simply just gives
back the original two-site model, whereas the second choice gives two decoupled nearest neighbor chains living on the
odd and even sub-lattices of the new model. We encountered both cases among the results of the classification, but we
will not include them in the lists to be presented below.
Curiously we found that in some restricted parameter spaces $\tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}=0$, for example this holds for all
$U(1)$-invariant models. However, at present we can not exclude models in other classes with a non-zero $\tilde
h_{j,j+1,j+2}$.
We performed the classification in three specific cases.
\subsubsection{$SU(2)$ invariant models}
It is relatively easy to impose $SU(2)$ invariance on the three-site Hamiltonian density $h_{j,j+1,j+2}$: we require that
it has to be built as a sum of permutation operators that act on the three sites $j,j+1,j+2$. We do not impose space
reflection invariance. With these conditions we found {\bf no non-trivial three site models}. Trivial solutions include
$h_{j,j+1,j+2}=\mathcal{P}_{j,j+1}$ which describes the Heisenberg spin chain, $h_{j,j+1,j+2}=\mathcal{P}_{j,j+2}$ which describes two
independent Heisenberg chains on two sub-lattices, and $h_{j,j+1,j+2}=q_3(j)$ with $q_3(j)$ being the density of the
third charge in the Heisenberg chain.
\bigskip
\subsubsection{$U(1)$ invariant models with space reflection invariance}
We investigated models where the Hamiltonian commutes with the charge $Q_1=S_z$, which generates a global $U(1)$
group. We also required space reflection invariance, but allowing for a gauge freedom of the type \eqref{h123v}.
We found two families of models.
{\bf The Bariev model.} It is given by the Hamiltonian
\begin{equation}
\label{Hbariev}
H=\sum_j
\left[\sigma^-_j\sigma^+_{j+2}+\sigma^+_j\sigma^-_{j+2}\right] \frac{1-U\sigma^z_{j+1}}{2},
\end{equation}
where $U$ is a coupling constant. The model was first proposed in \cite{bariev-model} as a zig-zag spin ladder. Special
points of the model are $U=\pm 1$
where it becomes identical to the folded XXZ model in the bond picture \cite{folded1,folded2,sajat-folded}. We
investigated the fundamental Lax and $R$-matrices of the model given in \cite{bariev-lax-1} and found that they satisfy
the equations derived above, including the initial condition \eqref{Linit} and the factorization \eqref{Rfact} (for the
Lax operators see also \cite{bariev-lax-2,bariev-lax-3}). To
obtain the desired formulas we just applied certain permutations on the basis vectors so that
\eqref{Linit} and \eqref{Rfact} would hold in the form given above.
{\bf The hard rod deformed XXZ model.} It is given by
\begin{multline}
\label{Hhrdef2}
H=\sum_j \left[\sigma^-_jP^\bullet_{j+1}\sigma^+_{j+2}+\sigma^+_jP^\bullet_{j+1}\sigma^-_{j+2}\right.\\
\left. -\Delta (P^\circ_j P^\bullet_{j+1}P^\bullet_{j+2}+P^\bullet_j P^\bullet_{j+1}P^\circ_{j+2})\right].
\end{multline}
Here $\Delta$ is a coupling constant. Up to our best knowledge this is a new model, but it is closely related to the
so-called constrained XXZ model treated earlier in
\cite{constrained1,constrained2,constrained3,pronko-abarenkova-ising-limit,xxz-triple-point}. The complete solution of
the new model and the discussion of
its special physical properties will be discussed in an upcoming publication. We note that at the special point
$\Delta=0$ this model also becomes equal to the folded XXZ model in the bond picture. Thus these two families of models
intersect at the points $\Delta=0$ and $U=1$.
\subsubsection{Hamiltonians of the IRF type}
\label{sec:IRFH0}
A further special class of models are those when the three-site operator
$h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ acts diagonally on the first and the last sites. This means that the spins at site $j$ and $j+2$ can be
considered as control bits that influence the action on the site $j+1$. The most general form for such an operator is
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFh}
h_{j,j+1,j+2}=\sum_{a,b=0,1} P^a_j h^{ab}_{j+1} P^b_{j+2},
\end{equation}
where now $h^{ab}$ stands for a collection of four Hermitian matrices corresponding to the indices $a,b=0,1$.
The search for such Hamiltonians is motivated by recent studies on quantum gates and cellular automata, which we
discussed in Section \ref{sec:cellintro}.
In particular, such Hamiltonians can be considered as continuous time version of the IRF models treated in
\cite{prosen-cellaut}.
We treat these models separately in Section \ref{sec:IRFH}.
\section{Integrable quantum circuits}
\label{sec:circuit}
In this Section we present our results for the brickwork type quantum circuits. We introduce a number of closely related
constructions, with different types of integrability properties.
Let us recall the general formulas for the brickwork circuits as explained in \ref{sec:qgatesintro}. We are building
Floquet-type cycles with time period $\tau$:
\begin{equation}
\label{floquetb}
\mathcal{V}=\mathcal{V}_\tau\dots\mathcal{V}_1
\end{equation}
with the update steps being
\begin{equation}
\label{Vjb}
\mathcal{V}_l=\prod_{k} U^{(\ell)}(x_k+\Delta_l).
\end{equation}
Here $x_k$ are coordinates for the unitaries and
$\Delta_l$ are the displacements that distinguish the different single step updates within the Floquet cycle.
\subsection{Integrable Trotterization for nearest neighbor interacting chains}
Here we review the construction of \cite{integrable-trotterization}, which can be applied for integrable nearest
neighbor chains; the key ideas go back to the light cone regularization of the Quantum Field Theories, see for example
\cite{DdV0,Volkov,Faddeev-Volkov}.
We build a brickwork quantum circuit using two-site unitaries ($\ell=2$) with Floquet period $\tau=2$. Correspondingly, the
coordinates for the unitaries are $x_k=2k$ and the shift is $\Delta_l=l$, see Figure \ref{fig:2siteQgates}.
The starting point is the
$R$-matrix $R(u,v)$ which is supposed to be a regular solution of the YB equations \eqref{YB}. We do not assume that the
$R$-matrix is of difference form.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\columnwidth]{trotter.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of transfer matrices $t(u)$, $t(\mu)$ and $t(\nu)$. The corresponding spectral
parameters of black, red and blue lines are $u$, $\mu$ and $\nu$, respectively. The line avoidings are a result of the
regularity condition \eqref{eq:regular}.}
\label{fig:trotter}
\end{figure}
On a chain of length $L=2k$ we build an {\it inhomogeneous} transfer matrix with alternating inhomogeneities $\mu,\nu$ as
\begin{multline}
\label{inhom}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_a \Big[R_{a,L}(u,\nu)R_{a,L-1}(u,\mu) \dots \\
\dots R_{a,2}(u,\nu)R_{a,1}(u,\mu)\Big].
\end{multline}
Using the regularity condition \eqref{eq:regular} we obtain two special points for the transfer matrix, where it becomes
a product of distinct quantum gates multiplied by an overall translation (see figure \ref{fig:trotter})
\begin{align}
t(\mu) &= \mathcal{U} \check R_{L-1,L}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{1,2}(\mu,\nu),\\
t(\nu) &= \mathcal{U} \check R_{L,1}(\nu,\mu) \dots \check R_{2,3}(\nu,\mu).
\end{align}
Let us assume that the inversion relation \eqref{Rinv} holds without scalar factors
\begin{equation}
\label{Rchinv}
\check R_{1,2}(u,v) \check R_{1,2}(v,u) = 1.
\end{equation}
Then we obtain
\begin{equation}
( t(\nu))^{-1}= \check R_{L,1}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{2,3}(\mu,\nu) \mathcal{U}^{-1}.
\end{equation}
Finally we see that the operator product
\begin{equation}
( t(\nu))^{-1} t(\mu)
\end{equation}
can be interpreted as a period-2 Floquet cycle of the form \eqref{floquet} with a two-site gate
\begin{equation}
U^{(2)}(j)=\check R_{j,j+1}(\mu,\nu),
\end{equation}
see figure \ref{fig:2siteQgates}.
The requirement of unitarity puts constraints on the $R$-matrix and the spectral parameters $\mu,\nu$. However, in the
typical cases there are simple choices which fulfill unitarity, which depend on the real analyticity of the
$R$-matrix. It follows from \eqref{Rchinv} that the $R$-matrix is unitary for a pair $\mu,\nu$ if
\begin{equation}
\left( \check R_{1,2}(\mu,\nu)\right)^\dagger= \check R_{1,2}(\nu,\mu).
\end{equation}
In the simple case of the XXZ spin chain with $\Delta=\cosh(\eta)$ we can choose the following representation of the $R$-matrix:
\begin{equation}
\label{XXZRcheck}
\check R(\mu,\nu)=
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & & & \\
& c(\mu-\nu) & b(\mu-\nu) & \\
& b(\mu-\nu) & c(\mu-\nu) & \\
& & & 1\\
\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
c(u)=\frac{\sinh(\eta)}{\sinh(u+\eta)},\qquad b(u)=\frac{\sinh(u)}{\sinh(u+\eta)}.
\end{equation}
It can be seen that $\check R(\mu,\nu)$ is unitary if either $\eta$ is real ($\Delta>1$) and $\mu-\nu$ is purely
imaginary, or if $\eta$ is purely imaginary ($\Delta<1$) and $\mu-\nu$ is real.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.6\columnwidth]{2siteQgates.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of the period-2 Floquet cycle $( t(\nu))^{-1}t(\mu)$.}
\label{fig:2siteQgates}
\end{figure}
\subsection{Integrable quantum circuits for three-site models -- Construction 1}
\label{sec:threegates}
Now we construct quantum circuits for the three site interacting models, which
can be applied for every model which fits into our framework laid out in Section \ref{sec:int}. The specific case of the
IRF type models is treated later in \ref{sec:IRFgates}, where we present a different type of quantum circuit adapted
to the special form of those Lax operators.
We present two different Floquet circles for the three site models. In the first case we
generalize the
results from the previous Subsection to the present case: this is a rather straightforward construction from a technical
point of view, but it leads to brickwork circuits with ``untouched'' sites.
An alternative construction is presented in the next Subsection. That one leads to a tightly packed brickwork circuit,
but its integrability structure is more involved.
In the first case we use the glued chain, where we group together pairs of sites of the
original chain, see the
derivations in Section \ref{sec:threesite}. Then the idea is to generalize the definition \eqref{inhom} to the present
case with the grouped sites. This way we obtain a quantum circuit with 4-site unitaries, because the $R$-matrix of
the glued chain acts on pairs of sites. However, at special points we can make use of the factorization \eqref{Rfact} in
order to obtain the three site unitaries.
We take a chain of length $L=4k$ and construct an inhomogeneous transfer matrix for the grouped sites with alternating
inhomogeneities $\mu,\nu$:
\begin{multline}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_{ab} \big[R_{(a,b)(4k-1,4k)}(u,\nu)\dots
\\ \dots R_{(a,b)(3,4)}(u,\nu)R_{(a,b)(1,2)}(u,\mu)\big]
\end{multline}
Here $a,b$ stand for the two auxiliary spaces of the model.
This family of transfer matrices is commuting.
Special points are $u=\mu,\nu$ with
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
t(\mu)&=\mathcal{U}^2 \check R_{(4k-3,4k-2)(4k-1,4k)}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{(1,2)(3,4)}(\mu,\nu),\\
t(\nu)&=\mathcal{U}^2 \check R_{(4k-1,4k)(1,2)}(\nu,\mu) \dots \check R_{(3,4)(5,6)}(\nu,\mu).\\
\end{split}
\end{equation}
Note the appearance of $\mathcal{U}^2$, the translation operator by two sites.
Similar to the nearest neighbor case, we take now the inverse of $t(\mu)$, which becomes
\begin{equation}
t^{-1}(\nu)= \check R_{(4k-1,4k)(1,2)}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{(3,4)(5,6)}(\mu,\nu) \mathcal{U}^{-2}.
\end{equation}
Finally we define the Floquet cycle as
\begin{multline}
\label{4FV}
\mathcal{V}=t^{-1}(\nu) t(\mu)=\\
=\check R_{(4k-1,4k)(1,2)}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{(3,4)(5,6)}(\mu,\nu) \times\\
\times \check R_{(4k-3,4k-2)(4k,4k-1)}(\mu,\nu) \dots \check R_{(1,2)(3,4)}(\mu,\nu).
\end{multline}
This can be understood as a cycle with period $\tau=2$ and with the four site gates
\begin{equation}
U^{(4)}(j)=\check R_{(j,j+1)(j+2,j+3)}(\mu,\nu).
\end{equation}
The coordinates of the gates are $x_k=4k$ and the displacements are $\Delta_l=2l$ with $l=1,2$. Similar to the nearest
neighbor cases we need to impose restrictions on $\mu,\nu$ to obtain a gate which is unitary. This restriction depends
on the model.
A quantum circuit with three site gates is obtained by substituting $\nu=0$. Then we use the factorization
\begin{equation} \label{eq:RLch}
\check R_{(j,j+1),(j+2,j+3)}(\mu,0) =
\check \mathcal{L}_{j+1,j+2,j+3}(\mu)\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(\mu).
\end{equation}
which follows from \eqref{Rfact}. For a graphical interpretation of this relation see Figure \ref{fig:RLch}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth]{Lconv.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of operators $\check \mathcal{L}_{123}$ and $\mathcal{L}_{123}$.}
\label{fig:Lconv}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.8\columnwidth]{RLch.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of eq. \eqref{eq:RLch}.}
\label{fig:RLch}
\end{figure}
Substituting this factorization into \eqref{4FV} we obtain a Floquet cycle with period $\tau=4$, three-site gates
\begin{equation}
\label{U3La}
U^{(3)}(j)=\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(\mu),
\end{equation}
coordinates $x_k=4k$ and displacements $\Delta_l=l$ with $l=1,2,3,4$. For a graphical interpretation of this quantum
circuit see Figure \ref{fig:3siteQgates}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.99\columnwidth]{3siteQgates.pdf}
\caption{In the top of the figure we can see the period 2 Floquet cycle for the glued chain. We changed the
$R$-matrices from Fig. \ref{fig:2siteQgates} to $\check R_{(12),(34)}(\mu,\nu)$. In the bottom we substitute $\nu=0$
and use the factorization
property \eqref{eq:RLch}. Thus we get a period 4 Floquet cycle with 3-site gates so that every fourth spin is
untouched at every step. }
\label{fig:3siteQgates}
\end{figure}
Disadvantages of this construction are that the
quantum circuit does not have left-right symmetry, and that the three-site unitaries are not tightly packed: every fourth
spin is left untouched at every time step.
\subsection{Integrable quantum circuits for three-site models -- Construction 2}
Now we also present a quantum circuit which is tightly packed.
We take three site gates defined by \eqref{U3La} and construct a circuit with period $\tau=3$, coordinates $x_k=3k$ and displacements
$\Delta_l=l$ with $l=1,2,3$. For a graphical interpretation see Fig. \ref{fig:3siteDiag2Diag}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.99\columnwidth]{3siteDiag2Diag.pdf}
\caption{A tightly packed quantum circuit with three site gates. This network has periodicity 3 in both the space and
time directions. Accordingly, we can prove the existence of commuting transfer matrices built from three rows.}
\label{fig:3siteDiag2Diag}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.39\columnwidth]{diag2diag.pdf}
\caption{Graphical interpretation of diagonal to diagonal transfer matrices, which are identical to those defined in
\eqref{tL3}, but drawn simply in a different arrangement, compare also with Fig. \ref{fig:transfer}. This transfer
matrix can also be used to build the circuit shown in \ref{fig:3siteDiag2Diag}, this was first worked out in
\cite{sajat-cellaut}.
}
\label{fig:diag2diag}
\end{figure}
Such a circuit was already introduced in \cite{sajat-cellaut}, however, the integrability was only shown for the
diagonal-to-diagonal transfer matrices, which are identical to the ones defined by \eqref{tL3} (for a pictorial
interpretation see Fig. \ref{fig:diag2diag}). Now we also develop the
commuting row-to-row transfer matrices for this quantum circuit.
We start with the three site Lax operator $\check \mathcal{L}(u)$ and the associated $R$-matrix $\check R_{ab,(j,j+1)}(u,v)$.
We construct an operator acting on 5 spaces
\begin{align}
\check \mathcal{R}_{1,2,3,4,5}(\theta,u)
&= \check \mathcal{L}^{-1}_{1,2,3}(u) \check R_{2,3,4,5}(\theta,u) \check \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(\theta) \nonumber\\
&=\check \mathcal{L}_{3,4,5}(\theta) \check R_{1,2,3,4}(\theta,u) \check \mathcal{L}^{-1}_{3,4,5}(u).
\end{align}
For the transfer matrices we will also need an operator which acts on one more space with a permutation, therefore we define
\begin{equation}
\label{R6}
\mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),(4,5,6)}(\theta,u)= \mathcal{P}_{1,4} \mathcal{P}_{2,5} \mathcal{P}_{3,6}
\check \mathcal{R}_{1,2,3,4,5}(\theta,u).
\end{equation}
This matrix satisfies the YB equation
\begin{multline}
\label{YB6}
\mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),A}(\theta,u) \mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),B}(\theta,v) \mathcal{R}_{A,B}(u,v) = \\
\mathcal{R}_{A,B}(u,v) \mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),B}(\theta,v) \mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),A}(\theta,u),
\end{multline}
where $A=(4,5,6)$ and $B=(7,8,9)$ stand for additional two triplets of auxiliary spaces. Relation \eqref{YB6} can be
checked by direct substitution of the definitions above, and making use of the RLL relations \eqref{RLL}
and YB relations \eqref{YB} applied to the $R$-matrix in question.
Then we a construct a transfer matrix for our chain after grouping together triplets of physical spaces.
The precise formula with auxiliary space $A=(a,b,c)$ reads
\begin{multline}
\label{eq:IRFtransfer5}
t(u) =
\mathrm{tr}_{A} \bigl[
\mathcal{R}_{(1,2,3),A}(\theta,u) \mathcal{R}_{(4,5,6),A}(\theta,u) \dots \\
\mathcal{R}_{(L-5,L-4,L-3),A}(\theta,u) \mathcal{R}_{(L-2,L-1,L),A}(\theta,u) \bigr].
\end{multline}
Note that the relative ordering of the physical triplets is such that we proceed backwards on the chain, as in
\eqref{eq:transferRev}.
This is due to certain technical details, so that in the end we can
obtain the desired quantum circuit.
These transfer matrices commute, if we regard $\theta$ as a fixed parameter.
The special point $u=\theta$ gives the translation operator by three sites:
\begin{equation}
t(\theta) = \mathcal{U}^{-3}.
\end{equation}
The other special point is obtained by setting $u=0$. In this case we get
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:update3site}
t(\theta)^{-1} t(0) = \mathcal{V}_3\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1.
\end{equation}
where the equal time update steps $\mathcal{V}_j$ are defined by
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}_j=\prod_{k} U^{(3)}(3k+j), \quad U^{(3}(j)=\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(\theta).
\end{equation}
For the proof of the initial condition \eqref{eq:update3site} we need to use the factorization condition \eqref{Rfact}
which eventually leads to
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{R}_{1,2,3,4,5}(\theta,0) =
\check \mathcal{L}_{3,4,5}(\theta) \check \mathcal{L}_{2,3,4}(\theta) \check \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(\theta),
\end{equation}
where we also used the initial condition $\check \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(0)=1$. A graphical interpretation of this equation (applied
for the six-site object $\mathcal{R}_{1,2,3,4,5,6}$) is given in Fig
\ref{fig:RR}. Multiplying the operators thus obtained, together with the permutations introduced in \eqref{R6} will
eventually lead to \eqref{eq:update3site}. A graphical proof is shown on Fig. \ref{fig:3siteSzoros}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.7\columnwidth]{RR.pdf}
\caption{Graphical representation for the factorization of $\mathcal{R}_{1,2,3,4,5,6}(\theta,0)$ into the three site gates given
by $\mathcal{L}(\theta)$. Note that the last vector space is also involved in the permutations, which is
necessary in order to build the desired transfer matrix.}
\label{fig:RR}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.99\columnwidth]{3siteSzoros.pdf}
\caption{Graphical proof of eq. \eqref{eq:update3site}. The labels $(a,b,c)$ stand for the triplet of auxiliary spaces which are
present in the definition \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer5}. The big lightly shaded rectangles stand for the action of the $\mathcal{R}$
operators. Within each big rectangle we denoted the factorization into the product of $\mathcal{L}$ operators, as shown in
Fig. \ref{fig:RR}. Then the quantum circuit of Fig. \ref{fig:3siteDiag2Diag} is obtained by ``straightening out'' the
angles of the three site gates, noticing that they perfectly fit together to build the tightly packed circuit. Notice
that this circuit also inlcudes a translation by 3 sites, which is canceled by $t^{-1}(\theta)=\mathcal{U}^{3}$ in \eqref{eq:update3site}.}
\label{fig:3siteSzoros}
\end{figure}
\section{Interaction-round-a-face type models}
\label{sec:IRFsec}
In this Section we study the IRF type models. Our motivations come from recent results in the literature about
elementary cellular automata, see the discussion in Section \ref{sec:cellintro}. It is our goal to embed these models
into the algebraic framework of medium
range models. We will see that the special structure of these models leads to unique constructions for the quantum
circuits, and also to the discovery of new algebraic structures that are connected to the ``face weight formulation'' of
the Yang-Baxter relation.
We are looking for three site integrable models where the Lax operator has the special form
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFLax}
\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(u)=\sum_{a,b=0,1} P_j^a f^{ab}_{j+1}(u) P^b_{j+2},
\end{equation}
where $f^{ab}(u)$ is a collection of four $u$-dependent matrices. Such Lax operators will be used to build quantum
circuits: they will play the role of the three-site unitaries $U^{(3)}(j)$. The assumption \eqref{IRFLax} leads to
unique algebraic constructions and quantum circuits, which
would be meaningless without the special structure of the Lax operator.
Later in Subsection \ref{sec:IRFH} we
perform a classification of such models, and in \ref{elementarycellaut} we also discuss the concrete cases that
eventually lead to the elementary
cellular automata.
\subsection{Integrability structures and quantum circuits}
\label{sec:IRFgates}
In general we have $R$- and Lax-matrices which satisfy the $RLL$ relation which we now write in the form
\begin{multline}
\label{RLLch}
\check{R}_{23,45}(u,v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(v)=\\=\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(u)\check{R}_{12,34}(u,v).
\end{multline}
It follows from \eqref{IRFLax} that now the Lax-operators satisfy an extra condition
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFLcomm}
[\check \mathcal{L}_{123}(u), \check \mathcal{L}_{345}(v)] = 0.
\end{equation}
Using this requirement the $RLL$ relation reads as
\begin{multline}
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(u)^{-1}\check{R}_{23,45}(u,v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(v)= \\
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(v)\check{R}_{12,34}(u,v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u)^{-1}.
\end{multline}
We can see that the l.h.s. and the r.h.s. act trivially on the spaces $1$ and $5$ respectively, therefore they have to
be equal to
a three-site operator which we denote as $\check \mathcal{G}_{234}$. Thus we find
\begin{align}
\check \mathcal{G}_{234}(u,v) &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(u)^{-1}
\check{R}_{23,45}(u,v) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(v), \label{eq:Gdef}\\
\check \mathcal{G}_{234}(u,v) &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(v)
\check{R}_{12,34}(u,v) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u)^{-1}. \label{eq:Gdef2}
\end{align}
We can express the $R$-matrices with $\mathcal{G}$ and $\mathcal{L}$ in two ways:
\begin{align}
\check{R}_{12,34}(u,v) &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(v)^{-1}
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u,v) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u),\label{eq:RG2}\\
\check{R}_{23,45}(u,v) &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(u)
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u,v) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{345}(v)^{-1},
\end{align}
or equivalently
\begin{equation} \label{eq:RG1}
\check{R}_{12,34}(u,v) = \check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(u)
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u,v) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(v)^{-1}.
\end{equation}
The consistency of the two expressions for the $R$-matrix leads to the equation
\begin{multline}
\label{eq:GLL}
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u,v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(v)=\\=\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(v)\check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(u)\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u,v).
\end{multline}
This relation is similar to eq. \eqref{RLLch}, but there are important differences: Here the supports for the Lax
operators overlap at
two spaces at both the l.h.s. and the r.h.s., whereas in \eqref{RLLch} they overlap only at a single space. We call this
equation the GLL
relation. Below we show that it is equivalent to the ``face weight'' formulation of the RLL relation.
We can easily calculate this $G$-operator at special values of spectral parameters. Using the regularity of the
$R$-matrix and eq. \eqref{eq:Gdef} we get
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(v,v) = 1.
\end{equation}
Using the factorization of the $R$-matrix and eqs. \eqref{eq:RG1} and \eqref{eq:RG2} we obtain that
\begin{align}
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(u,0) &= \check \mathcal{L}_{123}(u),\\
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(0,v) &= \check \mathcal{L}_{123}(v)^{-1}.
\end{align}
From \eqref{eq:Gdef} we can also derive the inversion property of the $G$-operator
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(u,v) \check \mathcal{G}_{123}(v,u) = 1.
\end{equation}
The equations \eqref{eq:RG1},\eqref{eq:RG2},\eqref{eq:Gdef} and \eqref{eq:Gdef2} imply that the $R$- and $G$-operators act diagonally on the first and last sites.
We also know that the $R$-matrix satisfies the YB equation
\begin{multline}
\check{R}_{34,56}(u_{1},u_{2})\check{R}_{12,34}(u_{1},u_{3})\check{R}_{34,56}(u_{2},u_{3})=\\
\check{R}_{12,34}(u_{2},u_{3})\check{R}_{34,56}(u_{1},u_{3})\check{R}_{12,34}(u_{1},u_{2}).
\end{multline}
Substituting \eqref{eq:RG1},\eqref{eq:RG2} we can easily show that the $G$-operator also satisfies a YB type equation
\begin{multline}
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u_{1},u_{2})\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u_{1},u_{3})\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u_{2},u_{3}) =\\
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u_{2},u_{3})\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(u_{1},u_{3})\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u_{1},u_{2}).
\end{multline}
Below we show that this is equivalent to the ``face weight'' formulation of the Yang-Baxter relation.
To see this we introduce a new notation for the Lax operator, by making use of its special form:
\begin{equation}
\label{Larep}
\check{\mathcal{L}}(u) =\sum_{i,j,k,l}M_{kj}^{il}(u)P_{i}\otimes E_{\:k}^{l}\otimes P_{j}.
\end{equation}
Assuming that the $G$-operator has a similar form we write it as
\begin{equation}
\label{Garep}
\check{\mathcal{G}}(u,v) =\sum_{a,b,c,d}(g_{bc})_{d}^{a}(u,v)
P_{a}\otimes E_{\:b}^{c}\otimes P_{d}.
\end{equation}
Then the GLL relation is expressed as
\begin{multline}
\label{IRFYB}
\sum_{s}(g_{bs})_{r}^{i}(u,v) M_{sj}^{il}(u)M_{rq}^{sj}(v)= \\
\sum_{s}M_{bs}^{il}(v)M_{rq}^{bs}(u)(g_{sj})_{q}^{l}(u,v),
\end{multline}
which is a relation used in \cite{prosen-cellaut}. This connection will be discussed further in Section \ref{sec:prosen}.
Let us now focus on the quantum circuits. We intend to build brickwork circuits which can accommodate the elementary
cellular automata. It is clear that the constructions discussed in Section \ref{sec:circuit} are not appropriate for
this purpose, because there
the local unitaries are too far away from each other. Instead, we need to build ``tightly packed'' quantum circuits
where every pair of neighboring quantum gates is overlapping at the common
control bit. This will enable us to treat some of the elementary cellular automata discussed in Section \ref{sec:cellintro}.
Motivated by the discussion in Section \ref{sec:cellintro} we build a Floquet-type time evolution operator as
\begin{equation}
\label{IRFV2}
\mathcal{V}=\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1,
\end{equation}
where the operators $\mathcal{V}_{1,2}$ are built from three site unitaries that we choose as
\begin{equation}
U^{(3)}(j)=\check \mathcal{L}_{j,j+1,j+2}(\theta)
\end{equation}
The number $\theta$ will be a fixed parameter of the quantum circuit.
The update steps are then given by
\begin{equation}
\begin{split}
\mathcal{V}_1 &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{1,2,3}(\theta) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{3,4,5}(\theta) \dots
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{L-3,L-2,L-1}(\theta) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{L-1,L,1}(\theta) \\
\mathcal{V}_2 &= \check{\mathcal{L}}_{2,3,4}(\theta) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{4,5,6}(\theta) \dots
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{L-2,L-1,L} (\theta) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{L,1,2}(\theta).
\end{split}
\end{equation}
Notice that every pair of neighboring Lax operators overlaps at a common site. For a graphical interpretation see
see Fig. \ref{fig:LaxrepFo}.
The complete Floquet time step can be expressed alternatively as
\begin{multline}
\mathcal{V}= \mathcal{U}^{2}
\mathrm{tr}_{ab} \bigl[
\mathcal{L}_{1,2,b} \mathcal{L}_{1,2,a} \mathcal{L}_{3,4,b} \mathcal{L}_{3,4,a} \dots \\
\mathcal{L}_{L-3,L-2,b} \mathcal{L}_{L-3,L-2,a} \mathcal{L}_{L-1,L,b} \mathcal{L}_{L-1,L,a}\bigr].
\end{multline}
For simplicity we suppressed the dependence on $\theta$.
For a graphical proof of the rewriting see Fig. \ref{fig:graphProof}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\columnwidth]{LaxrepFo.pdf}
\caption{Lax representation of the time evaluation operator $\mathcal V_2$.}
\label{fig:LaxrepFo}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\columnwidth]{graphProof.pdf}
\caption{Lax representation of the time evaluation operator $\mathcal V_2\mathcal V_1$.}
\label{fig:graphProof}
\end{figure}
We can now use the factorization of the $R$-matrix, which we write in the form
\begin{equation}
\label{tRfact}
R_{(12),(34)}(\theta,0) = \mathcal{L}_{1,2,4}(\theta)\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(\theta).
\end{equation}
Using this relation we can express the Floquet update step as
\begin{multline}
\mathcal{V} = \mathcal{U}^{2}
\mathrm{tr}_{A} \bigl[
R_{(1,2),A}(\theta,0) R_{(3,4),A}(\theta,0) \dots \\
R_{(L-3,L-2),A}(\theta,0) R_{(L-1,L),A}(\theta,0) \bigr],
\end{multline}
where $A=(a,b)$ stands for a pair of auxiliary spaces. Defining the transfer matrix
\begin{multline}
\label{eq:IRFtransfer}
t(u) =
\mathrm{tr}_{A} \bigl[
R_{(1,2),A}(\theta,u) R_{(3,4),A}(\theta,u) \dots \\
R_{(L-3,L-2),A}(\theta,u) R_{(L-1,L),A}(\theta,u) \bigr]
\end{multline}
we obtain that
\begin{equation}
\mathcal V = t(\theta)^{-1} t(0),
\end{equation}
where we used that
\begin{equation}
t(\theta) = \mathcal U^{-2}.
\end{equation}
The transfer matrices \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer} form a commuting family:
\begin{equation}
[t(u),t(v)]=0.
\end{equation}
The variable $\theta$ plays the role of an inhomogeneity parameter for this commuting family. Note that
\eqref{eq:IRFtransfer} is a generalization of \eqref{eq:transferRev}, and not of \eqref{eq:transfer}.
We can also define the rapidity dependent update rule
\begin{equation}
\mathcal V(u) = t(\theta)^{-1} t(u).
\end{equation}
Clearly, these operators commute with each other, and thus they commute also with the ``physical'' update step which is
obtained at $u=0$.
The operators $\mathcal V(u)$ are non-local for generic $u$. However, similar to the case of a standard transfer matrix
they lead to extensive and local charges. The initial condition $\mathcal{V}(\theta)=1$ and the
definition of the transfer matrix $t(u)$ lead to the extensive four-site operator
\begin{equation}
\label{Q4v}
Q'_4=\left.\partial_u \mathcal V(u)\right|_{u=\theta}.
\end{equation}
The transfer matrix is only two-site invariant, which is inherited by $Q_4'$. Therefore $Q_4'$ is not translationally
invariant, similar to the update rule $\mathcal{V}$ which is not translationally invariant either.
Higher charges could be obtained from the derivative of the logarithm of the transfer matrix, or with the boost operator method
\cite{hubbard-boost}
applied to transfer matrix \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer}.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1.0\columnwidth]{transzWthG.pdf}
\caption{Graphical illustration of the transfer matrix \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer}. The blue, red and green boxes are the
operators $\check \mathcal{L}(\theta)$, $\check \mathcal{G}(\theta,u)$ and $\check{\mathcal{L}}(u)^{-1}$, respectively. We use the
commutativity \eqref{IRFLcomm} to separate the action of the upper (blue) layer of gates. However, the lower layer can
not be simplified further, because there the consecutive operators overlap at two sites each.}
\label{fig:transzWthG}
\end{figure}
Simplified formulas for the transfer matrix can be obtained using the $\check \mathcal{G}$ operators introduced above.
We substitute the expression
\begin{equation} \label{eq:RGL}
\check{R}_{12,34}(\theta,u) = \check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(\theta)
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(\theta,u) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{234}(u)^{-1}
\end{equation}
into the definition \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer}.
This substitution is depicted pictorially in the top of the figure \ref{fig:transzWthG}.
We can see here that the transfer matrix can be written as
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:transferIRF}
t(u) = \mathcal{V}_2 \tilde{t}(u),
\end{equation}
where
\begin{multline}
\label{sajatI}
\tilde t(u) = \\
\mathrm{tr}_{a,b} \bigl[
\mathcal{G}_{1,a,b}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{2,a,b}(u)^{-1}
\mathcal{G}_{3,a,b}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{4,a,b}(u)^{-1} \dots \\
\mathcal{G}_{L-1,a,b}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{L,a,b}(u)^{-1} \bigr].
\end{multline}
For this rewriting we used again the fact that the $\check \mathcal{L}$ operators commute if they share a control bit.
The operator $\tilde t(u)$ is completely identical with the transfer matrices defined in \cite{prosen-cellaut}, which can
be seen after proper identifications are made. To this order we need to use the representations \eqref{Larep} and
\eqref{Garep} for the $\check\mathcal{L}$ and $\check\mathcal{G}$ matrices. After substitution we obtain a formula identical to the one
presented in \cite{prosen-cellaut}, see eq. \eqref{prosenI} below.
Our derivation in this Subsection assumed the regularity condition for the $R$-matrix, which leads to the factorization
\eqref{tRfact}. However, an alternative derivation is also possible, without this assumption. We could start with the
definition \eqref{eq:IRFtransfer} for a proper $R$-matrix, and we then could
still derive the alternative form \eqref{eq:transferIRF}. In concrete cases it could be shown that this transfer matrix
is related to cellular automata. Such a derivation would completely bypass the requirement of the regularity. However,
in this work we are interested in cases which yield local conserved charges. Furthermore we found that if the regularity
condition does not hold then the concrete models do not have more conserved charges at all, see the example of the Rule54
model in \ref{sec:prosen}. Therefore we do not discuss solutions without the regularity condition.
\subsection{Partial classification}
\label{sec:IRFH}
Here we perform a partial classification of three site models, where the Lax operators have the special structure
\eqref{IRFLax}. The methods for the classification are essentially the same as in Section \ref{sec:int}. We are looking
for Lax operators satisfying the RLL relations, and we perform a classification based on the Hamiltonian densities that
are derived from the Lax operators: we apply the
generalized Reshetikhin condition to find the integrable cases.
It is important the Hamiltonians that we find this way
don't commute with the transfer matrices defined in the previous Subsection, because the transfer matrices involve the
inhomogeneities as well.
The Hamiltonians only commute with homogeneous transfer matrices as defined in \eqref{eq:transfer3site}.
However, we can also regard the Hamiltonians we find below as new integrable models on their own right.
It follows from the Ansatz \eqref{IRFLax} and the derivation rule \eqref{Lderiv} that
the Hamiltonians in question have the structure given by \eqref{IRFh} with the action matrices being
\begin{equation}
h^{ab}=\left.\partial_u f^{ab}(u)\right|_{u=0}.
\end{equation}
Therefore we need to classify three-site Hamiltonians with the particular structure given by \eqref{IRFh}, where the
outer two spins act as control
bits, and the middle spin is an action bit. For this special class of models we assume that the inversion relation
\eqref{Linversion} holds, therefore we exclude the possibility of having a non-zero $\tilde h_{j,j+1,j+2}$ in the construction
of $Q_5$, see \eqref{q5d}.
The Ansatz \eqref{IRFh} has a total number of 16 real parameters, because there are 4 $g$-matrices which are Hermitian.
Subtracting the identity component and performing a $U(1)$ rotation the number of
parameters could be narrowed down to 14. However, we found this parameter space to be too big for a first classification
attempt. Instead, we selected an
even more restricted Ansatz given explicitly by
\begin{multline}
\label{IRFAnsatz}
h_{123}=A \sigma^x_2+B \sigma^z_2+C\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2+D \sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3+\\
+E\sigma^z_1\sigma^z_2\sigma^z_3+
F\sigma^z_1\sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3+G \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3.
\end{multline}
Apart from an overall multiplicative normalization this Ansatz has 6 free parameters, which makes the classification of
integrable cases relatively easy. A Hermitian operator is obtained if all parameters are real, and in this case all
matrix elements are real in the computational basis.
Within this parameter space we found three non-trivial integrable models.
Now we list these models together with a brief discussion of their main properties. Their application as quantum gate
models and classical cellular automata is discussed later in Subsection \ref{elementarycellaut}; here we focus on their
properties as integrable Hamiltonians.
We put forward that two of the models can be related to nearest neighbor chains by a bond-site
transformation. This transformation was used recently in \cite{sajat-folded,sajat-cellaut} and it is explained in detail in
Appendix \ref{sec:bond}.
\subsubsection{The bond-site transformed XYZ model}
In this case the Hamiltonian density is written in the compact form
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:BIM}
h_{123}=
J_x \sigma^x_2 -
J_y \sigma^z_1\sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3+
J_z \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3.
\end{equation}
This model can be seen as the bond-site transformed version of the XYZ model (we suggest to call it the bXYZ model). The
Hamiltonian satisfies the requirements
of the bond-site transformation discussed in Appendix \ref{sec:bond}: it is spin reflection invariant and the first and
last bits are control bits. Using the formulas \eqref{bond-site-op} for the transformation of the operators we see
immediately that in the bond picture the model becomes identical to the XYZ model with the couplings as given
above. Thus it describes interacting dynamics of Domain Walls, where the creation and annihilation of pairs of DW's
is also allowed.
A special point of the model is when $J_x=J_y$, which becomes the bond-site transformation of the XXZ model. In this
case the Hamiltonian commutes with the $U(1)$-charge
\begin{equation}
\label{Q2zz}
Q_2=\sum_j \sigma^z_j \sigma^z_{j+1},
\end{equation}
which is interpreted as the Domain Wall number, which is conserved. This model was already presented in
\cite{pollmann-bond-site-xxz,clifford1}.
An other special case is when $J_y=0$. In this case the model describes two decoupled quantum Ising chains on the even
and odd sub-lattices, such that the parameter $J_x$ can be interpreted as a magnetic field. Switching on $J_y\ne 0$ we
obtain a Bariev-type coupling between the two sub-lattices, therefore we could also call this system the Bariev-Ising model.
The Lax operator is found using the known solution for the XYZ model and the bond-site transformation:
\begin{multline}
\label{ans1}
\check\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(u)=
\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mathrm{sn}(\eta)+\mathrm{sn}(u) \sigma_2^x}{\mathrm{sn}(\eta)+\mathrm{sn}(u)}
(1-\sigma_1^z\sigma_3^z) + \\
\frac{1}{2}\frac{\mathrm{sn}(u+\eta)+k\mathrm{sn}(\eta)\mathrm{sn}(u)\mathrm{sn}(u+\eta)\sigma_2^x}{\mathrm{sn}(\eta)+\mathrm{sn}(u)}
(1+\sigma_1^z\sigma_3^z),
\end{multline}
where $\mathrm{sn}(u)=\mathrm{sn}(u;k)$ and
\begin{equation}
\frac{J_y}{J_x} = \frac{1-k\mathrm{sn}^2(\eta)}{1+k\mathrm{sn}^2(\eta)} \qquad
\frac{J_z}{J_x} = \frac{\mathrm{cn}(\eta)\mathrm{dn}(\eta)}{1+k\mathrm{sn}^2(\eta)}.
\end{equation}
This Lax operator satisfies the inversion relation \eqref{L3inv}
\begin{equation}
\check\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(u)\check\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(-u) = 1.
\end{equation}
In this model the $G$-operator can be obtained from the Lax operator in a very natural way
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(u,v) = \check \mathcal{L}_{123}(u-v).
\end{equation}
Taking $k\to0$ we obtain the XXZ limit of the model
\begin{multline}
\label{BIlax2}
\check\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(u)=
(P_1^\circ P_3^\circ+P_1^\bullet P_3^\bullet)
\frac{\sin(u+\eta)}{ \sin(u)+\sin(\eta)} +\\
+ (P_1^\circ P_3^\bullet+P_1^\bullet P_3^\circ)
\frac{\sin(u) \sigma^x_2+\sin(\eta)}{ \sin(u)+\sin(\eta)}.
\end{multline}
We can also take the XXX limit as $\eta\to 0$ and $u=\eta v$. We obtain the following Lax matrix
\begin{multline}
\label{BIlax3}
\check\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3}(v)=
(P_1^\circ P_3^\circ+P_1^\bullet P_3^\bullet)+\\
+ (P_1^\circ P_3^\bullet+P_1^\bullet P_3^\circ)
\frac{v \sigma^x_2+1}{v+1}.
\end{multline}
\subsubsection{Twisted XX model with n.n.n. coupling}
\label{sec:twistedXX}
In this model the Hamiltonian density is
\begin{equation}
\label{2A2B}
h_{123}=
\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2+\kappa \sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3+G \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3.
\end{equation}
These are actually two different models depending on the sign $\kappa=\pm 1$; the real parameter $G$ is a coupling constant.
The form of the Hamiltonian density respects the
Ansatz
\eqref{IRFAnsatz}, but perhaps a more familiar way of writing the global Hamiltonian is
\begin{equation}
H=\sum_j \sigma^x_j \sigma^y_{j+1}\pm \sigma^y_j\sigma^x_{j+1}+G \sigma^x_j\sigma^x_{j+2}.
\end{equation}
Here we performed a rotation such that the Pauli matrices are cyclically exchanged as
$\sigma^x\to\sigma^y\to\sigma^z$. In the case of a minus sign we can further express this as
\begin{equation}
H=\sum_j 2i(\sigma^+_j \sigma^-_{j+1}- \sigma^-_j\sigma^+_{j+1})+G \sigma^x_j\sigma^x_{j+2},
\end{equation}
which can be interpreted as a twisted XX model with a next-to-nearest neighbor interaction term.
In the case of a plus sign in \eqref{2A2B} we do not get such an interpretation.
An alternative interpretation of the model is found by performing a bond-site transformation. First we perform a
transformation $\sigma^x\leftrightarrow\sigma^y$ so that the Hamiltonian density becomes
\begin{equation}
h_{123}=
\sigma^z_1 \sigma^y_2+\kappa \sigma^y_2\sigma^z_3+G \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3.
\end{equation}
This operator is spin flip invariant therefore we can apply the bond-site transformation discussed in Section
\ref{sec:bond}.
Then we obtain a two site interacting model with Hamiltonian density
\begin{equation}
\label{h12b}
h_{12}=
\sigma^y_1 \sigma^x_2+ \kappa \sigma^x_1\sigma^y_2 + G \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_2.
\end{equation}
If $\kappa=-1$,
then the original Hamiltonian commutes with the $U(1)$-charge given by \eqref{Q2zz}, and the model defined by
\eqref{h12b} commutes with the global $S^z$ operator.
In fact, this case can be interpreted as the XXZ model with a homogeneous twist, where the kinetic term is the
Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya interaction term. Thus the model describes the interacting dynamics of the Domain Walls, with a
twisted kinetic term.
For the model with $\kappa=1$ we did not find a translationally invariant $U(1)$-charge, and the kinetic term describes
the creation and annihilation of pairs of Domain Walls.
We found the Lax operator for both models. It is given by
\begin{multline}
\check\mathcal{L}_{123}(u) =
G \frac{e^{2u}-1}{(e^u-1)^2-4G^2} \times \\
\left( \frac{2G\kappa}{e^u-1}+
\left(\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2 +\kappa \sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3\right)+
\frac{e^u-1+2G^2}{G(e^u+1)} \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3 \right).
\end{multline}
Relation \eqref{L3inv} holds with this parametrization. This operator is unitary if $u$ is purely imaginary.
The $G$-operator (which immediately gives the $R$-matrix as well)
reads as
\begin{multline}
\check \mathcal{G}_{123}(u,v) =
\kappa\frac{(4G^2-1)e^v-e^u+e^u e^v+1}{2G(e^u-e^v)}+\\
\left(\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2 +\kappa \sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3\right) +
G\frac{(4G^2-3)e^v+e^u+e^u e^v+1}{(2G^2-1)(e^u+e^v)+e^u e^v+1} \sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3.
\end{multline}
Substituting the special point $G=1$ we get
\begin{multline}
\label{model2G1}
\check\mathcal{L}_{123}(u) =
\frac{e^{u}-1}{e^u-3} \times \\
\left( \frac{2\kappa}{e^u-1}+
\left(\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2 +\kappa \sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3\right)+
\sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3 \right),
\end{multline}
A special point is $u=i\pi$, at which the unitary operator becomes
deterministic; this will lead to an elementary cellular automata, see Section \ref{elementarycellaut} below.
\subsubsection{Integrable deformation of the PXP model}
This model has no free parameters, just a sign $\kappa=\pm 1$:
\begin{equation}
\label{PXP}
h_{123}=\sigma^x_2+\kappa(\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2+\sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3)+\sqrt{2}\sigma^z_1\sigma^z_2\sigma^z_3
-\sigma^z_1\sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3.
\end{equation}
In the case of $\kappa=1$ the Hamiltonian density can be expressed as
\begin{equation}
h_{123}=
-4P^\bullet_1\sigma^x_2P^\bullet_3+2\sigma^x_2 +\sqrt{2}\sigma^z_1\sigma^z_2\sigma^z_3,
\end{equation}
while for $\kappa=-1$ we would obtain a similar model with $P^\bullet$ replaced by $P^\circ$.
These models can be seen as an integrable deformation of the PXP model \cite{PXP}. However, if we remain in the
parameter space
of our Ansatz, then there is no free parameter, so we can not tune the ``operator distance'' from the PXP Hamiltonian.
It is likely that the models \eqref{PXP} are just particular cases of a continuous family of models which stretches
outside our Ansatz. We leave the exploration of the bigger parameter space to future works.
For this model we find the Lax operator
\begin{equation}
\check \mathcal{L}_{123}(u) = \frac{1 + u h_{123}}{1+\sqrt{6} u}.
\end{equation}
Simple computation shows that
\begin{equation}
(h_{123})^2=6.
\end{equation}
This implies that \eqref{L3inv} is satisfied. In this case a unitary gate is obtained for $u$ being purely imaginary.
For this specific model we did not find a bond-site transformation, which would make it locally equivalent to a n.n. chain.
\subsection{Elementary cellular automata}
\label{elementarycellaut}
The construction of Subsection \ref{sec:IRFgates} can be applied for every IRF type 3-site model
treated in Section \ref{sec:IRFH}: this way we obtain families of quantum cellular automata with varying numbers of free
parameters. All of these models are Yang-Baxter integrable. Now we are looking for specific cases that can accommodate the
elementary cellular automata discussed in Section \ref{sec:cellintro}.
First we consider the bXYZ model \eqref{eq:BIM} at the special point $J_x=J_y=J_z$, in which case the Lax operator is given by
\eqref{BIlax3}. Taking the $v\to \infty$ limit we obtain the three site unitary
\begin{multline}
\label{cellautM1s}
U^{(3)}(1)
= (P^\bullet_1P^\circ_3+P^\circ_1P^\bullet_3)\sigma^x_2 + P^\bullet_1P^\bullet_3+P^\circ_1P^\circ_3.
\end{multline}
We recognize that this is the update rule for the classical Rule150 model given by \eqref{eq:rule150}. Thus we
obtained a Yang-Baxter integrable three parameter family of quantum cellular automata (with the parameters being
$J_y/J_x$, $J_z/J_x$ and $v$, or alternatively $k$, $\eta$
and $v$), which includes the Rule150 model at special points. At this special point the first non-trivial local conserved charge is
\begin{multline}
\label{Q4v1}
Q'_4 = \sum_{j} \sigma_{2j}^x \sigma_{2j+1}^x +
\sigma_{2j-1}^z \sigma_{2j}^y \sigma_{2j+1}^y \sigma_{2j+2}^z +\\
+ \sigma_{2j-1}^z \sigma_{2j}^z \sigma_{2j+1}^z \sigma_{2j+2}^z.
\end{multline}
Let us now perform the bond-site transformation of Appendix \ref{sec:bond} directly on the quantum cellular automata. In
the bond picture we obtain two-site gates that are given directly by the $R$-matrices of the XXX, XXZ and XYZ
models. In the XXZ case the two-site gate is given by \eqref{XXZRcheck}, unitary
time evolution is obtained if $\eta\in\mathbb{R}$ and $v\in i\mathbb{R}$ or vice versa. The classical Rule150 model is obtained
after taking the special limits $\eta\to 0$ and $v\to \infty$, in which case the $R$-matrix \eqref{XXZRcheck} becomes a
permutation operator (swap gate). This implies that the Rule150 model describes free movement of Domain Walls. The XXZ
version can be seen as an interacting deformation where the total number of DW's is conserved. Finally the XYZ case is
the most general model in this family, where Domain Walls can be created or annihilated in pairs.
Let us also consider the Model of Section \ref{sec:twistedXX} with the sign $\kappa=1$ and the coupling constant $G=1$,
for which the Lax operator and thus the three-site unitary is given by \eqref{model2G1}.
Further substituting $u=i\pi$ we obtain
\begin{multline}
\label{model2G1b}
U^{(3)}(1) =
\frac{1}{2}
\left( -1+
\sigma^z_1 \sigma^x_2 +\sigma^x_2\sigma^z_3+
\sigma^z_1\sigma^z_3 \right),
\end{multline}
This is also a deterministic quantum gate, which gives the $f$ matrices
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:rule105b}
f^{00}=-f^{11}=\sigma^x, \quad f^{01}=f^{10}=-1.
\end{equation}
We can see that apart from simple signs these $f$-matrices are equal to those of the Rule105 model given by
\eqref{eq:rule105}. As already argued in \cite{sajat-cellaut}, if the quantum gates are deterministic, then the phases are
irrelevant for the simulation of a classical cellular automata. Thus the two-parameter family of quantum gates
\eqref{model2G1} can be considered as a deformation of the actual Rule105 model, which is included at the special point
$G=1$ and $u=i\pi$.
For this model and the specific values $G=1$ and $u=i\pi$ the definition \eqref{Q4v} gives the local conserved charge
\begin{multline}
\label{Q4v2}
Q'_4 =
\sum_{j} \sigma_{2j}^y \sigma_{2j+1}^y
+ \sigma_{2j-1}^z \sigma_{2j}^x \sigma_{2j+1}^x \sigma_{2j+2}^z +\\
+ \sigma_{2j-1}^z \sigma_{2j}^z \sigma_{2j+1}^z \sigma_{2j+2}^z.
\end{multline}
Performing the transformation $\sigma^x\leftrightarrow\sigma^y$ mentioned above we obtain the same charge as in
\eqref{Q4v1}.
The charges \eqref{Q4v1} and \eqref{Q4v2} commute with the time evolution of the update rules given by
\eqref{eq:rule150} and \eqref{eq:rule105b}, respectively. The update rules are
deterministic, therefore if we choose a ``classical'' initial state (an element of the computational basis) then it will
stay classical. This also means that for the classical time evolution we can disregard the
the $\sigma^x$ and $\sigma^y$ operators, because their mean values in the classical states are zero. This leads to the
following classical charge for the Rule105 and Rule150 models:
\begin{equation}
Q^{(cl)}_4 =
\sum_{j}
\sigma_{2j-1}^z \sigma_{2j}^z \sigma_{2j+1}^z \sigma_{2j+2}^z.
\end{equation}
This charge is conserved by both classical cellular automata. Taking further derivatives of the logarithm of the
transfer matrix we could obtain further quantum and classical charges for these models. If we consider the quantum
models then the relative signs in \eqref{eq:rule105b} have to be taken into account. So far we have not yet found a
quantum model which would describe the Rule105 model without these signs, but this could be just a limitation of our
Ansatz \eqref{IRFAnsatz}.
Regarding the Rule54 and Rule201 models we did not find any three-site Hamiltonian, which would lead to Lax operators
and transfer matrices
that would actually accommodate these classical cellular automata. This is in accordance with the findings of
\cite{prosen-cellaut}. Regarding the Rule54 model it was claimed in \cite{prosen-cellaut} that there are no
translationally invariant local
charges up to interaction range $\ell=5$. This clearly shows that for the Rule54 model we can not have a Lax operator
acting on three sites, because it would give a translationally invariant charge $Q_4'$ with range $\ell=4$. The alerted
reader might object that our $Q_4'$ derived in \eqref{Q4v} is invariant with respect to a two site shift
only.
However, in the case of these cellular automata we also have the inversion relations \eqref{Vinv} which implies that
the
two-site invariant charge $Q_4'$ commuting with $\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1$ has to commute with
$\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2$ as well, leading eventually to a translationally invariant version of $Q_4'$
commuting with
both $\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1$ and $\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{V}_2$. Altogether we reach the Conclusion that the Rule54
model is not Yang-Baxter integrable with three site interactions.
In Subsection \ref{sec:prosen} below we also analyze the recent construction of
\cite{prosen-cellaut} for these
models, and we reach the same conclusion: the transfer matrices built in \cite{prosen-cellaut} only have a diagonal
dressing using a known charge and thus do not lead to extra conserved charges.
However, it is known that there is a local conserved charge for the Rule54 model with interaction range $\ell=6$: it is
the Hamiltonian derived in \cite{vasseur-rule54}. This suggests that perhaps the true algebraic background for the model
lies within the family of 6-site interacting models. We return to this question in the Discussions (Section \ref{sec:disc}).
\subsection{Discussion of the results of \cite{prosen-cellaut} for the IRF models}
\label{sec:prosen}
Recently an algebraic framework for the integrability of the Rule54 and related models was proposed in
\cite{prosen-cellaut}. Here we review this construction, we point out connections with our results, and we also disprove
some of the conjectures made in \cite{prosen-cellaut}.
Let us start with a brief discussion of integrable 2D statistical physical models.
There are three different sorts of commonly used models: spin models, vertex models, and interaction round a face (IRF)
models. Accordingly, there are three different types of Yang-Baxter equations, one for each family. The different
formulations can always be transformed into each other, although this might not be convenient and it can lead to an
increase in the local dimensions. For a summary of the different formulations see the introductory Sections of
\cite{star-triangle-review1,star-triangle-review2}.
Nowadays the most commonly used formulation is the one based on vertex models; this is also what was used throughout the
present work. It was a new idea of \cite{prosen-cellaut} to construct transfer matrices for the classical cellular
automata (and for certain deformations thereof) using the IRF language.
Now we review the construction of \cite{prosen-cellaut}, by focusing on the Rule54 model without deformation. We will
show that the transfer matrices of \cite{prosen-cellaut} have an identical structure as in our quantum circuits discussed above.
The time evolution operator of \cite{prosen-cellaut} is built exactly in the same way as in \eqref{IRFV}-\eqref{IRFVj}
with the three site gates having the structure given by \eqref{IRFU}. Afterwards a commuting family of transfer matrices
is built using two matrices $L^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)$ and $M^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)$ which describe {\it
face weights} in the IRF language. Both matrices have four indices ranging from 1 to 2, and they can be represented
most easily as
$4\times 4$ matrices using the conventions for the tensor product:
\begin{equation}
L=\left(\begin{array}{cccc}
L_{0,0}^{0,0} & L_{0,0}^{0,1} & L_{0,0}^{1,0} & L_{0,0}^{1,1}\\
L_{0,1}^{0,0} & L_{0,1}^{0,1} & L_{0,1}^{1,0} & L_{0,1}^{1,1}\\
L_{1,0}^{0,0} & L_{1,0}^{0,1} & L_{1,0}^{1,0} & L_{1,0}^{1,1}\\
L_{1,1}^{0,0} & L_{1,1}^{0,1} & L_{1,1}^{1,0} & L_{1,1}^{1,1}
\end{array}\right).
\end{equation}
The number $\lambda$ is interpreted again as a
spectral parameter. The explicit form of the $L$ and $M$ matrices is given by
\begin{equation}
L(\lambda)=
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & & 1 & \\
1 & & 1 & \\
& \lambda^2 & & \lambda \\
& \lambda & & 1 \\
\end{pmatrix},
\end{equation}
\begin{equation}
M(\lambda)=
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & & 1 & \\
& 1/\lambda & & 1/\lambda \\
& 1 & 1/\lambda & \\
1 & &1/\lambda & \\
\end{pmatrix}.
\end{equation}
The transfer matrices $\mathcal{I}(\lambda)$ are defined component-wise as
\begin{equation}
\label{prosenI}
\mathcal{I}^{j_1,j_2,\dots,L}_{i_1,i_2,\dots,i_L}(\lambda)=
\prod_{x=1}^{L/2} M^{j_{2x-1},j_{2x}}_{i_{2x-1},i_{2x}}(\lambda)
L^{j_{2x},j_{2x+1}}_{i_{2x},i_{2x+1}}(\lambda).
\end{equation}
There is no summation over repeated indices.
It is then proven in \cite{prosen-cellaut} that the transfer matrices commute with each other and also with the time
evolution operator:
\begin{equation}
[ \mathcal{I}(\lambda),\mathcal{V}]=0.
\end{equation}
This is shown using the ``face weight'' formulation of the Yang-Baxter relation discussed above.
This construction of \cite{prosen-cellaut} is completely identical with our quantum circuits of Section \ref{sec:IRFgates}
after proper identifications are made. It was already shown in Section \ref{sec:IRFgates} that our GLL and GGG relations
are identical to the ``face weight'' formulation of the Yang-Baxter relation given by eq. \eqref{IRFYB}. Furthermore, we recognize
the structural similarity between the transfer matrices \eqref{sajatI} and \eqref{prosenI}. This leads to the following
correspondences:
\begin{align}
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(\theta) &\equiv f \\
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{123}(u) &\equiv M \\
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{234}(\theta,u) &\equiv L \\
\check{\mathcal{G}}_{123}(u_{1},u_{2}) &\equiv g,
\end{align}
where on the l.h.s. we listed our operators, and the r.h.s. contains the objects defined in \cite{prosen-cellaut}. For
the identification of the indices see eqs. \eqref{Larep} and \eqref{Garep}.
Let us now show that in the particular case of the Rule54 model the transfer matrix \eqref{prosenI} does not yield new
conserved charges.
First of all we consider two known conserved operators in this model: the translation operator $\mathcal{U}$ and
the particle current defined as
\begin{equation}
\label{prosenJ}
\mathcal{J}=\sum_{x=1}^{L/2} \big(\sigma^z_{2x-1}\sigma^z_{2x}-\sigma^z_{2x}\sigma^z_{2x+1}\big).
\end{equation}
This operator anti-commutes with both the shift and the single step update operators:
\begin{equation}
\label{Janticomm}
\{ \mathcal{J},\mathcal{U}\}= \{ \mathcal{J},\mathcal{V}_1\}= \{ \mathcal{J},\mathcal{V}_2\}=0
\end{equation}
It follows that it commutes with the Floquet-cycle operator $\mathcal{V}=\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1$:
\begin{equation}
[ \mathcal{J},\mathcal{V}]=0.
\end{equation}
The translation operator intertwines the two update steps:
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}_1\mathcal{U}=\mathcal{U} \mathcal{V}_2,
\end{equation}
Strictly speaking $\mathcal{U}$ is not conserved by the Floquet cycle $\mathcal{V}$, because it interchanges the odd and even
sites. On the other hand, $\mathcal{U}^2$ is conserved.
It was conjectured in \cite{prosen-cellaut} that new quasi-local charges can be obtained from the transfer
matrix \eqref{prosenI}.
On the contrary, we show here that $\mathcal{I}(\lambda)$ is functionally dependent on the time evolution operator and
the two conserved operators $\mathcal{U}$ and $\mathcal{J}$.
First we note that the matrix $L^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)$ is diagonal in the indices $j_2\leftrightarrow i_1$, and
it can be factorized as
\begin{equation}
L^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)=\delta_{i_1,j_2} \lambda^{A^{j_1}_{i_1}+B^{j_2}_{i_2}},
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation} \label{eq:defAB}
A^{j_1}_{i_1}=\delta_{j_1,0}\delta_{i_1,1},\qquad
B^{j_2}_{i_2}=\delta_{j_2,1}\delta_{i_2,0}.
\end{equation}
The factorization above means that the $\lambda$-dependence can be separated into index pairs to the left and to the right. It follows that
the transfer matrix \eqref{prosenI} can be written as
\begin{equation}
\label{prosenI2}
\mathcal{I}^{j_1,j_2,\dots,j_L}_{i_1,i_2,\dots,i_L}(\lambda)=
\prod_{x=1}^{L/2} \tilde M^{j_{2x-1},j_{2x}}_{i_{2x-1},i_{2x}}(\lambda)
\delta_{i_{2x},j_{2x+1}},
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\tilde M^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)=
\lambda^{B^{j_1}_{i_1}} M^{j_1,j_2}_{i_1,i_2}(\lambda)\lambda^{A^{j_2}_{i_2}}.
\end{equation}
Once again there is no summation over repeated indices.
Furthermore, the same operator can be written as $\mathcal{I}(\lambda)=\mathcal{U} \tilde{\mathcal{I}}(\lambda)$, where now the
components of $\tilde{\mathcal{I}}(\lambda)$ are
\begin{equation}
\label{prosenI3}
\tilde{\mathcal{I}}^{j_1,j_2,\dots,L}_{i_1,i_2,\dots,i_L}(\lambda)=
\prod_{x=1}^{L/2} \tilde M^{j_{2x-2},j_{2x-1}}_{i_{2x-1},i_{2x}}(\lambda)
\delta_{i_{2x},j_{2x}}.
\end{equation}
We can see that this operator acts as the identity on the even sites, which become control bits for the action on the
odd sites. To be more precise, the same operator can be written as a product of commuting three-site unitaries
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\mathcal{I}}(\lambda)=\prod_{x=1}^{L/2} U^{(3)}(2x|\lambda),
\end{equation}
where $U^{(3)}(2x|\lambda)$ has the form of \eqref{IRFU} with the $\lambda$-dependent $f$-matrices given through the
matrix elements
\begin{equation}
\big(f^{ab}(\lambda)\big)_{i}^j =\tilde M^{aj}_{ib}(\lambda).
\end{equation}
Considering the concrete components of $\tilde M$ we can write the individual $f$-matrices as
\begin{equation}
f^{11}=\sigma^x,\quad f^{00}=1
\end{equation}
and
\begin{equation}
f^{10}=
\begin{pmatrix}
\lambda & \\ & 1/\lambda
\end{pmatrix}\sigma^x,\quad f^{01}= \begin{pmatrix}
1/\lambda & \\ & \lambda
\end{pmatrix}\sigma^x.
\end{equation}
Comparing to \eqref{eq:rule54} we see that these are $\lambda$-deformed versions of the original $f$-matrices of the
model. Thus we can write
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\mathcal{I}}(1)=\mathcal{V}_2,
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{V}_{1,2}$ are the two operators that define the update rules, see \eqref{IRFV}-\eqref{IRFVj}.
Collecting the factors of $\lambda$ as we multiply the equal time quantum gates we obtain
\begin{equation}
\tilde{\mathcal{I}}(\lambda)=\lambda^{\mathcal{J}/2}\ \mathcal{V}_2,
\end{equation}
where $\mathcal{J}$ is the particle current operator defined in \eqref{prosenJ}.
Going back to the actual transfer matrix we get
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{I}(\lambda)=\mathcal{U}\ \lambda^{\mathcal{J}/2}\ \mathcal{V}_2.
\end{equation}
This formula means that the transfer matrix $\mathcal{I}(\lambda)$ is functionally dependent on three known operators:
the cyclic shift, the conserved particle current, and the single step update rule. From this formula it follows that
$\mathcal{I}(\lambda)$ is unitary if $|\lambda|=1$; this was an unexplained observation of
\cite{prosen-cellaut}. Finally, for the product of two transfer matrices we obtain
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{I}(\lambda_2) \mathcal{I}(\lambda_1)= \mathcal{U}^2 (\lambda_1\lambda_2)^{-\mathcal{J}} \mathcal{V}.
\end{equation}
Here we used the anti-commutation relations \eqref{Janticomm} and the definition of the Floquet cycle
$\mathcal{V}$. This proves the commutativity of the transfer matrices. Furthermore, choosing $\lambda_1=\lambda_2$ we find
that the squared transfer matrix is simply just a combination of the two-site translation, the conserved
particle current, and the Floquet update rule.
We interpret this result as follows: Even though the Rule54 model seems integrable, the construction of
\cite{prosen-cellaut} can not be considered as a proof of it, because \cite{prosen-cellaut} fails to introduce new
charges on top of the existing ones.
The same conclusion can be reached for the deformed Rule54 model, where the $M$-matrices are modified but the
$L$-matrices are kept the same \cite{prosen-cellaut}, so that the key steps of our computation here can be applied in
the same way.
\section{Four site interactions}
\label{sec:four}
It is relatively straightforward to generalize the results of the previous Sections to models with four site
interactions. In Section \ref{sec:threesite} the key ideas were obtained after we constructed a nearest neighbor chain
by gluing pair of sites together. In the case of four site interactions we need to group together triplets of spins,
thus obtaining a nearest neighbor chain for the glued sites. This n.n. chain is integrable, therefore we expect
that it has a regular $R$-matrix. We have glued together three sites, therefore the auxiliary space for this $R$-matrix
has to be a tensor product of three auxiliary spaces $a,b,c$. We can then construct transfer matrices in an analogous
way as in \eqref{eq:transfer3site} but now with $R_{(a,b,c),(j,j+1,j+2)}(u,0)$ which acts on the triplets of
physical sites and auxiliary spaces.
Going further, we need to satisfy the condition that the charges of the original chain are translationally invariant,
and as an effect we expect that the transfer matrix will also be translationally invariant. This condition leads to the
factorization of the $R$-matrix as
\begin{multline}
\label{R4fact}
R_{(a,b,c),(j,j+1,j+2)}(u,0) =\\
=\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j+2}(u) \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j+1}(u) \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(u).
\end{multline}
Here $\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(u)$
is the Lax operator acting on three auxiliary spaces and a single physical space.
The transfer matrix is then constructed as
\begin{equation}
\label{tL4}
t(u)=\text{Tr}_{a,b,c}\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,L}(u)\dots \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,1}(u).
\end{equation}
The regularity condition for the $R$-matrix implies the initial condition
\begin{equation}
\label{Linit2}
\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(0)=\mathcal{P}_{a,j}\mathcal{P}_{b,j}\mathcal{P}_{c,j},
\end{equation}
which leads to
\begin{equation}
t(0)=\mathcal{U}^3.
\end{equation}
Writing the Lax operator as
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(u)=\mathcal{P}_{a,j}\mathcal{P}_{b,j}\mathcal{P}_{c,j} \check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(u)
\end{equation}
we compute the four site Hamiltonian density as
\begin{equation}
h_{1,2,3,4}=\left. \partial_u \check \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3,4}(u)\right|_{u=0}.
\end{equation}
For the Lax operator we expect the inversion relation
\begin{equation}
\label{L4inv}
\check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(u) \check \mathcal{L}_{a,b,c,j}(-u)=1.
\end{equation}
From this we can compute the next conserved charge from the transfer matrix. It will be a 7-site operator
\begin{equation}
Q_7=\sum_j q_7(j)
\end{equation}
with
\begin{equation}
\label{q7}
q_7(1)=\left[h_{1,2,3,4},
\sum_{k=1}^3 h_{1+k,2+k,3+k,4+k}\right].
\end{equation}
The commutativity of $H$ and $Q_7$ can be used as an integrability criterion, which can serve as a starting point for
classifying four site interacting models.
As an initial step in this direction we classified all $SU(2)$ invariant models with space reflection symmetry. Sorting
out the trivial cases we found only one new model, with the Hamiltonian density being
\begin{equation}
\label{foursitemodel}
h_{1,2,3,4}=2\left(\mathcal{P}_{1,4}-1\right)\left(\mathcal{P}_{2,3}-1\right)-\mathcal{P}_{1,3}-\mathcal{P}_{2,4}.
\end{equation}
Given the huge literature of integrable models we can not be entirely certain that the model has not yet appeared in the
literature, possibly in some other form. In any case it appears to be new.
Going further in the classification, an obvious next step is to consider the $U(1)$-invariant models. This opens up a
bigger parameter space, and we leave its exploration to future works. We note that the folded XXZ model treated
in \cite{folded1,folded2,sajat-folded} belongs to this class, and its Hamiltonian is the four-site charge $Q_4$ of
\eqref{foldedQ}. In the next Subsection we derive an integrable quantum circuit for this particular model.
Finally we stress that (in parallel with the three site interacting case) we were not able to prove the factorization
\eqref{R4fact}, therefore we regard it as a
conjecture. Furthermore, it is not clear whether all integrable solutions can be put in a form which satisfies the
inversion relation \eqref{L4inv}. We leave these problems to future research.
\subsection{Integrable quantum circuit for the folded XXZ model}
\label{sec:folded}
A brickwork type quantum circuit for the folded XXZ model was introduced in \cite{sajat-cellaut}. The idea is to build a
Floquet cycle of length $\tau=3$, with four site unitaries $U^{(4)}$ placed at coordinates $x_k=3k$ and with the
displacements $\Delta_l=l$ (see Section \ref{sec:qgatesintro} for the explanation notations). The four-site unitaries
are given by the Lax operator, which reads \cite{sajat-cellaut}
\begin{multline}
\label{foldedU4}
U^{(4)}(j|u)=\check \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3,4}(u)=P^\bullet_j P^\circ_{j+3}+P^\circ_j P^\bullet_{j+3} +\\
+\left(P^\bullet_j P^\bullet_{j+3}+P^\circ_j P^\circ_{j+3} \right) U^{(2)}_{j+1,j+2}(u),
\end{multline}
where $U^{(2)}_{j+1,j+2}(u)$ is a two site unitary given by the explicit matrix representation
\begin{equation}
\label{U2}
U^{(2)}(u)=
\begin{pmatrix}
1 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\
0 & \text{sech}(u) & i\tanh(u) & 0\\
0 & i\tanh(u) & \text{sech}(u) & 0\\
0 & 0 & 0 & 1\\
\end{pmatrix}.
\end{equation}
This matrix is obtained simply from the known $R$-matrix of the XX model. Note that \eqref{foldedU4} has the same
structure as the corresponding charge $Q_4$: it has two control bits and two action bits. As an effect, the unitaries
commute even if they overlap at the control bits. This enables us to build a Floquet cycle which has periodicity 3 both
in the temporal and the spatial directions.
With this we have completely specified the quantum circuit. For a graphical interpretation see the upper graph in
Fig. \ref{fig:4Qgates}.
In \cite{sajat-cellaut} the integrability of this circuit was established in the bond picture (after performing the
bond-site transformation discussed in \ref{sec:bond}), where the building blocks are three site unitaries. In
\cite{sajat-cellaut} diagonal-to-diagonal transfer matrices were constructed, in the same way as in Section
\ref{sec:threegates}.
Now we show that there exists a commuting family of row-to-row transfer matrices in the original picture of this model.
This complements the results of \cite{sajat-cellaut}.
First we start with the discussion of the integrability properties of the special class of four site models, where
the Lax operators satisfies an additional condition
\begin{equation}
[\check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(u),\check \mathcal{L}_{4567}(v)] = 0,
\end{equation}
i.e. the first and the last sites are control bits. The consequence of this property is that there exists an five site
operator $\check \mathcal{G}$ for which the $R$-matrix factorizes as
\begin{align} \label{eq:4siteRG}
\check R_{123456}(u,v) =&
\check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(v)^{-1} \check \mathcal{G}_{23456}(u,v) \check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(u)= \nonumber\\
=& \check \mathcal{L}_{3456}(u) \check \mathcal{G}_{12345}(u,v) \check \mathcal{L}_{3456}(v)^{-1}.
\end{align}
The consistency of these factorizations requires the GLL relation
\begin{multline}
\check \mathcal{G}_{23456}(u,v) \check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(u) \check \mathcal{L}_{3456}(v) = \\
\check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(v) \check \mathcal{L}_{3456}(u) \check \mathcal{G}_{12345}(u,v).
\end{multline}
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.99\columnwidth]{4Qgates.pdf}
\caption{Time step operator and its transfer matrix representation. This construction applies to models with four site
interactions where
the outer two spins are control bits. These control bits are depicted as shaded circles in the figure above.
An example is the folded XXZ model.}
\label{fig:4Qgates}
\end{figure}
Let us now construct the single step update rule as
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V}_1 = \check{\mathcal{L}}_{1,2,3,4}(\theta) \check{\mathcal{L}}_{4,5,6,7}(\theta) \dots
\check{\mathcal{L}}_{L-2,L-1,L,1}(\theta),
\end{equation}
where $\theta$ will be a fixed parameter of the quantum circuit. For the Floquet cycle we obtain
\begin{multline}
\mathcal{V} =\mathcal{V}_3\mathcal{V}_2\mathcal{V}_1 = \mathcal{U}^{3}\times \\
\mathrm{tr}_{abc} \bigl[
\mathcal{L}_{1,2,3,c}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3,b}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{1,2,3,a}(\theta) \\
\mathcal{L}_{4,5,6,c}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{4,5,6,b}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{4,5,6,a}(\theta) \dots \\
\mathcal{L}_{L-2,L-1,L,c}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{L-2,L-1,L,b}(\theta) \mathcal{L}_{L-2,L-1,L,a}(\theta) \bigr].
\end{multline}
Applying the factorization formula
\begin{equation}
\check R_{123456}(\theta,0)
=\check \mathcal{L}_{3456}(\theta) \check \mathcal{L}_{2345}(\theta) \check \mathcal{L}_{1234}(\theta)
\end{equation}
we can define a transfer matrix (with auxiliary space $A=(a,b,c)$)
\begin{multline}
\label{eq:IRFtransfer4}
t(u) =
\mathrm{tr}_{A} \bigl[
R_{(1,2,3),A}(\theta,u) R_{(4,5,6),A}(\theta,u) \dots \\
R_{(L-5,L-4,L-3),A}(\theta,u) R_{(L-2,L-1,L),A}(\theta,u) \bigr],
\end{multline}
which generates the time step as
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{V} = t^{-1}(\theta)t(0).
\end{equation}
These transfer matrices commute:
\begin{equation}
[t(u),t(v)]=0.
\end{equation}
With this we have established a commuting family of transfer matrices that includes the update rule of the quantum
circuit at the special point $u=0$.
\begin{figure}
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.99\columnwidth]{4QgateswG.pdf}
\caption{Transfer matrix with the operator $\check \mathcal{G}$.}
\label{fig:4QgateswG}
\end{figure}
The transfer matrix can be rewritten using the factorization \eqref{eq:4siteRG}. We find
\begin{equation}
\label{eq:transferIRF4s}
t(u) = \mathcal{V}_3 \tilde{t}(u),
\end{equation}
where
\begin{multline}
\label{sajatI4}
\tilde t(u) = \\
\mathrm{tr}_{a,b,c} \bigl[
\mathcal{G}_{1,2,a,b,c}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{3,a,b,c}(-u)
\mathcal{G}_{4,5,a,b,c}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{6,a,b}(-u) \\
\dots \mathcal{G}_{L-2,L-1,a,b,c}(\theta,u) \mathcal{L}_{L,a,b,c}(-u) \bigr],
\end{multline}
where
\begin{equation}
\mathcal{G}_{1,2,3,4,5}(\theta,u) = \mathcal{P}_{1,5}\mathcal{P}_{2,5}\mathcal{P}_{3,5} \mathcal{P}_{1,4}\mathcal{P}_{2,4}\mathcal{P}_{3,4}
\check \mathcal{G}_{1,2,3,4,5}(\theta,u).
\end{equation}
\section{Discussion}
\label{sec:disc}
In this paper we treated integrable spin chains with medium range interaction, focusing on cases with three-site and
four site
interactions. We presented a new algebraic framework which can lead to a classification of such models, and to the
construction of new quantum and classical cellular automata.
As it was explained in the Introduction, one of the most
general problems in the field of integrability is the
{\it classification of all integrable models}, and clarifying the essential features of integrability. Our results can
be seen as a contribution to this multi decade endeavor. In the paper we treated the three site and four site
interacting models in
detail, but the generalization to longer interaction ranges is rather straightforward.
We presented partial classifications for the three site and four site spin-1/2 models, and we found a
number of new models. Given the enormous literature of integrable models it is always difficult to know whether a model
is indeed new; we did our best in the search of the literature and our models appear to be new. We recall that our
models are translationally invariant, and in the three site interacting case they can be pictured as zig-zag spin
ladders. To our best knowledge the only translationally invariant integrable three site chain the literature is the
Bariev model \cite{bariev-model}; other constructions naturally involve a staggering of some of the parameters (see for example
\cite{zigzag1a,zigzag2,zigzag3,zigzag4}) and thus
they are not in the category of models that we are investigating.
In the family of $SU(2)$-invariant spin chains with reflection symmetry we did not find a non-trivial three site model, and we found only one new four site
model given by \eqref{foursitemodel}. In the family of $U(1)$-invariant three site chains (again with space reflection
symmetry) we found two families: the
Bariev model and the hard rod deformed XXZ model given by \eqref{Hhrdef2}. The latter will be analyzed in detail in an
upcoming publication.
A further interesting family of models is that of the IRF
type Hamiltonians and quantum gates. These theories are very similar to known Restricted Solid on Solid (RSOS) models \cite{RSOS-1,RSOS-2},
their Hamiltonians have the same structure, see for example
\cite{RSOS-H}. However, in the case of the RSOS theories the Hilbert space is restricted (it consists of certain paths),
while in our case it is simply the tensor product space of the spin chains.
For these models
we also used the same formulation of our algebraic
methods, as opposed to the ``face weight'' formulation of the Yang-Baxter relations typically used in the RSOS (or IRF)
framework. However, in Section \ref{sec:IRFgates} we showed that the two formulations are indeed identical in these
special cases. This also implies that our
models are solutions to the ``face weight'' formulation of the Yang-Baxter relation.
We believe that the connection between the RSOS models and our new Hamiltonians deserves further study.
The family of the IRF type Hamiltonians accommodates some of the elementary cellular automata that have been
studied recently \cite{rule54-review,prosen-cellaut}. We found that out of the classical cellular automata treated in
\cite{prosen-cellaut} the Rule150 and Rule105 models are Yang-Baxter integrable, and they can be deformed into quantum
cellular automata. We also gave a recipe for computing extensive local charges for
these quantum and classical cellular automata, and we derived the concrete formulas for the first charge of the Rule150
and Rule105 models.
Putting everything together, our construction can be seen as a remarkable
link between classical and quantum integrable models.
In contrast, we did not find such three site structures for the
famous Rule54 model.
We pointed out that the
construction of \cite{prosen-cellaut} does not yield new conserved charges on top of the known ones, and the transfer
matrices derived there are functionally dependent on the known charges.
Thus the problem of the integrability of the Rule54 model is still open.
A very important piece of the puzzle was presented in \cite{vasseur-rule54}, where a six site interacting Hamiltonian
was constructed, which commutes with the Floquet update rule of the Rule54 model. This suggest that the model could lie
in the family of six site interacting models. Preliminary computations show that this is indeed the case:
we found a new local extensive charge with interaction range $\ell=10$
using the proper generalization of our methods.
We will present this result in a future work.
It would be interesting to continue the partial classification of medium range models, extending our results to more
complicated three site or four
site interacting cases or to higher dimensional local spaces. In both cases a much
larges parameter space opens up, and a clear physical motivation is needed to formulate the restrictions for the
Hamiltonians. Symmetries can
be chosen as guiding principles, together with special assumptions on the structure of the Hamiltonian. A known four site
interacting model is the folded XXZ model treated in \cite{folded1,folded2,sajat-folded}. This Hamiltonian has a
particular structure: it has two control bits and two action bits, and its algebraic treatment leads to a Yang-Baxter
integrable classical cellular automaton (see \cite{sajat-cellaut} and Section \ref{sec:folded}). It would be interesting to
classify models with a similar structure, potentially leading to new cellular automata with four site update rules.
An other interesting question is whether our constructions exhaust all possibilities for integrable quantum circuits.
The IRF type circuits show very clearly that if the Lax operators have a
special structure, then this allows the construction of special brickwork circuits, which would be meaningless for
other types of Lax operators. Therefore it can not be excluded, that some other sorts of special circuits can be built if we impose some
other special structure on the building blocks.
In this regard let us return to the so-called box-ball systems mentioned in the Introduction \cite{box-ball,box-ball-review}. These are classical
cellular automata with a less local update procedure, which is performed by acting with a certain transfer matrix which
does not factorize into commuting local unitary operators. Theses systems are special cases of so-called filter automata
\cite{filter1,filter2,filter3,filter4}. The crucial ingredient of such a construction is a Lax operator which becomes
deterministic at some special points, but the regularity condition (that would lead to strictly local update rules)
is not required. Our solutions for the integrable Lax operators could also be used to construct such filter automata.
In this paper we discussed the
physical properties of our models only in passing. We explained that the bond-site transformed XYZ model of Section
\ref{sec:IRFH} describes interacting dynamics of Domain Walls, with or without Domain Wall number conservation.
And we will publish a paper dealing specifically with the hard rod deformed XXZ model found in Section
\ref{sec:classification}.
We believe that the other new spin chain and quantum gate models also deserve further attention.
Finally let us mention that our methods could be relevant for also the AdS/CFT conjecture. It is known that in the planar limit
the dilatation operator of the gauge theory is essentially an integrable Hamiltonian with long range interaction
\cite{beisert-dilatation0,beisert-dilatation}. The spectrum of this Hamiltonian is
now understood using the so-called quantum spectral curve method \cite{qsc1,qsc2,gromov-spectral-curve-intro}, but there
is no clear understanding of the actual
Hamiltonian on the operator level. It is known that it is a long range deformation of an integrable nearest neighbor
chain, but it is not clear how to perform the long range deformation in a finite volume \cite{beisert-long-range-2}. Our
methods could give a recipe for
this problem: perhaps there is a truncation scheme where we could gradually increase the
interaction range of the chains while still using our present methods at each step. This appears to be a promising
direction for future work.
\begin{acknowledgments}
We are thankful to Toma\v{z} Prosen for useful discussions, and to
D\'avid Sz\'asz-Schagrin for computing the level spacing statistics of a spin chain treated in Appendix
\ref{sec:counter}. We are also thankful to Arthur Hutsalyuk and Levente Pristy\'ak for useful comments on the
manuscript.
\end{acknowledgments}
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Crossing Borders Timeline
Interview 1: Dr Barri Phatarfod #docsofdetention
Interview 2: Professor Elizabeth Elliot
Interview 3: Professor Jon Jureidini
Interview 4: Dr Jill Devlin
Interview 5: Christine Cummins
Doctors of Detention
AMSA Advocates
Interview 3: Professor Jon JureidiniMichelle Foo2016-06-26T19:59:20+10:00
The most recent case I've been involved in where someone has been in immigration detention is actually a couple of years ago now, because there's no detention centres in Adelaide anymore. So this was at Inverbrackie detention centre, which on the whole was probably the nicest detention centre in the system if you just look at the quality of accommodation that was available. And I saw a couple of children, one I think about 2 and the other about 6 or 7 who were extremely damaged by their experience both in transition to Australia but more worryingly by the experience of being in immigration detention. So in trying to understand how they got to be so damaged, one of the children, the smallest child, nearly fell overboard on the boat, so that was quite a traumatising experience for the whole family – but one that you would expect the family to overcome if they were then cared for appropriately. They were in Darwin detention centre for a while, during which time the mother discovered she was pregnant and much against her ethics and beliefs, she decided to have an abortion because she decided she could not have another child in those circumstances. So the mother became unavailable really, and quite damaged by the process – again something that she would be able to work through in different circumstances, but because of the circumstances it had much more of a long term effect.
By the time they arrived in Inverbrackie they were very vulnerable. Inverbrackie was an army accommodation, basic but nice houses in a very nice environment – it wasn't surrounded by wire and locked up. And there were actually sufficient housing units for each family to have their own house, but policy was that you'd fill up each house to the absolute brim before moving on to the next one. So this family was forced to share with another family and it seemed that very little thought went into who you might share with so it was not a very comfortable living arrangement for either family. By the time they were referred to me, the little girl, the 2 year old who had nearly fallen overboard was extremely anxious and couldn't sleep except when she was in skin-to-skin contact with the mother, so you could imagine the mother who was herself quite miserable at the time and underperforming in terms of her maternal function because of the damage that had been done to her, struggling to get this baby to sleep. Then as soon as she did fall asleep, something would interrupt her. And that something, too often was a guard coming into the premises.
At the time, the policy was that a head count had to happen 3 times a day and when as part of the Human Rights Commission, the Immigration Department was asked how often over the years they had an incorrect head count, they replied "never". So they were applying these head counts – whereby guards would sometimes stomp into bedrooms and turn on lights and count the number of people there – they were conducting these 3 times a day although they'd never found any discrepancies. And you couldn't really think that was in the best interests of security, that was quite clearly part of the dehumanising experience, the kind of bureaucratic cruelty that people were subjected to. What you had was an environment where there could potentially have been some healing for this family if they'd been put into a house by themselves, if they'd been treated generously and humanely then even in a detention environment there could have been some scope for recovery but everything is so set up in the environment to be, I don't know if that often people set out to be cruel, but the environment becomes increasingly cruel for people.
And you can't look at one individual aspect and say "that's torture". But the overall effect is that people are tortured by their experience and so they couldn't heal in that environment. That family ultimately were released into detention and put into community detention, but by the time they got there they were so damaged that the children didn't make as much of a recovery and they've gone to a different state now and I've lost track of them. But I did keep track of them for a while and they were doing very poorly and that need not have happened. Even in cases where there hasn't been any individual terrible thing happen to people in detention, they've been very damaged by the process.
Copyright 2015 Crossing Borders for Health | All Rights Reserved | Powered by WordPress | Theme Fusion
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
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FactoryGirl.define do
factory :pw_recipient do
association :pw_sender
email "email@example.com"
end
end
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaGithub"
}
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Q: XMLDocument.Save adds return carriages to XML when elements are blank I'm loading a XML Document that has some tags that have no innertext.
If I populate the innertext with some data then it works as needed (you get opening tag, innertext and closing tag all on one line) like the following...
<root>
<element>value</element>
</root>
The problem arises with tags with no values. These SHOULD be displayed in the same way as above with the exception of no value of coarse, like the following...
<root>
<element></element>
</root>
However, when the innertext has an empty string it adds a carriage return & line feed which is not what is expected! It ends up looking like the following...
<root>
<element>
</element>
</root>
This is my current code that yields the above results...
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load(@"C:\test.xml");
//Save the xml and then cleanup
xmlDoc.Save(@"C:\test.xml");
A: This fixed it for me...
XmlDocument xmlDoc = new XmlDocument();
xmlDoc.Load(@"C:\test.xml");
//Save the xml and then cleanup
XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings { Indent = true };
XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(@"C:\test.xml", settings);
xmlDoc.Save(writer);
A: You control that through the XMLWriter within the Settings Property.
Check out this example along with the following references.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms162618.aspx
Refernces
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlwriter.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlwritersettings.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.xmlwritersettings.newlinehandling.aspx
A: Probably too late, but I referred to the solution given by Arvo Bowen.
Arvo's solution is in C#, I wrote the same in Powershell Syntax
# $dest_file is the path to the destination file
$xml_dest = [XML] (Get-Content $dest_file)
#
# Operations done on $xml_dest
#
$settings = new-object System.Xml.XmlWriterSettings
$settings.CloseOutput = $true
$settings.Indent = $true
$writer = [System.Xml.XmlWriter]::Create($dest_file, $settings)
$xml_dest.Save($writer)
$writer.Close()
It solved my two problems:
*
*One, problem stated above i.e. newline character being added to null/empty values.
*Second, no end tag being created for null/empty values.
ex: <tag1>$null</tag1> would actually be written in file as <tag />
Refer this thread:
Can we force XmlWriter to issue <my-tag></my-tag> rather than <my-tag/>?
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
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\section{Introduction}
\label{}
The problem of upper bounding
\begin{equation} \label{sum version}
\text{Prob}\left[ \sum_{i=1}^n X_i \geq \sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}(X_i) + \delta \right].
\end{equation}
for independent random variables $X_i$ and a given constant $\delta>0$, has been studied for years.
Many classic tail bounds of this type, such as Markov's inequality, Chebyshev's inequality \cite{lin2011probability}, Hoeffding's inequality \cite{hoeffding1963}, Bennett's inequality \cite{bennett1962probability} and Bernstein's inequality \cite{bernstein1924modification} and applications have been well-studied in literature and textbooks \cite{boucheron2013concentration,lin2011probability}. However, those inequalities are designed when $\delta$ is large. For example, Hoeffding's inequality indicates the following:
\begin{equation*}
\text{Prob}\left[ \sum_{i=1}^n X_i \ge \sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}(X_i) + \delta \right] \le e^{-\frac{2\delta^{2}}{\sum_{i=1}^n (b_i - a_i)^{2}}}.
\end{equation*}
where $X_i \in [a_i, b_i]$. If $\delta$ is a relatively small constant, this inequality only provides bounds that are not so sharp. In particular, when $\delta$ is $0$, it yields a trivial bound.
\begin{table*}
\caption{: Feige's bound in literature and our paper.}
\label{tab1}
\centering
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{9mm}{
\begin{tabular}{cccc}
\hline
Name&Bound&Method&Theorem\\
\hline
Feige \cite{Feige04onsums}& $\frac{1}{13}$&\\
He \cite{he2010}&0.125& approximate MP(1,2,4) &\\
Garnett \cite{GARNETT2020105119}& 0.14 & approximate MP(1,2,3,4) & \\
\multirow{4}*{Our paper}&0.1536& approximate MP(1,2,4) and B-E& Theorem \ref{thm3}\\
&0.1541& MP(1,2,4) and B-E & Theorem \ref{thm2}\\
&0.1587& MP(1,2,3,4) and B-E& Theorem \ref{thm4}\\
&0.1798& MP(1,2,3,4) and B-E with refinement& Theorem \ref{thm5}\\
\hline
\end{tabular}}
\end{table*}
In this context of small deviation, which is widely applied in graph theory \cite{Feige04onsums} and inventory management \cite{wang2015process}, there are limited general tools to derive such bound. One approach is to formulate this problem as a moments problem (MP). Given the moments information, we can further derive an equivalent semidefinite programing (SDP) problem to the original moments problem through duality theory \cite{bertsimas2005optimal} and sum-of-square technique \cite{Lasserre07}, based on the classical theorem established by the great mathematician Hilbert in 1888 as the univariate case of Hilbert's 17th problem, which states that an univariate polynomial is nonnegative if and only it can be represented as sum of squares of polynomials.
It is also worth to mention that Berry-Esseen theorem, a uniform bound between the cdf of sum of independent random variables and the cdf of standard normal distribution, is a quite powerful inequality, no matter $\delta$ is large or small. Specifically, we can define a random variable $S=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^n X_i}{\sqrt{\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X_i^2]}}$ with $\text{Var}[S]=1$ to represent the normalized sum, and a third moment bound $\psi_0=\frac{\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[|X_i|^3]}{(\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X_i^2])^{3/2}}$. Then Berry-Esseen theorem indicates the following:
\begin{equation}
\sup_{x \in \mathbb{R}} |F(x)-\Phi(x)| \leq c_0 \psi_0
\end{equation}
where $F(x)$ and $\Phi(x)$ are the cdf of $S$ and standard normal distribution respectively with best known $c_0=0.56$ \cite{Shevtsova2010An}. Unsurprisingly, if all random variables are independent identically distributed, then central limit theorem states that their properly scaled sum tends to towards a normal distribution. Berry-Esseen theorem just provides a quantitative rate of convergence.
Therefore, it is a nature idea to combine moment approach and Berry-Eseen theorem to achieve a better bound of small deviation problems.
As an application to better illustrate the way of combination, Feige\cite{Feige04onsums} first established a bound $\alpha=\frac{1}{13}$ and conjectured the true bound to be $\alpha=\frac{1}{e}$ of the following small deviation problem:
\begin{equation} \label{Feige}
\text{Prob}\left[ \sum_{i=1}^n X_i \geq 1 \right] \leq 1-\alpha > 0
\end{equation}
where $X_1,X_2,...,X_n$ are independent random variables, with $\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X_i]=0$ and $X_i \geq -1$ for each $i$. This inequality has many applications in the field of graph theory \cite{ferber2019uniformity}, combinatorics \cite{Alon2012}, and evolutionary algorithms \cite{Corus2014}.
One contribution of this paper is to improve the Feige's bound from best-known $\alpha=0.14$ to $0.1798$ step by step as it is shown in Table \ref{tab1}.
The other contribution of this paper is to introduce a general approach to bound probability of small deviation by merging the moment problem approach and the Berry-Esseen Theorem. Suppose we have a sequence of independent random variables $X_i$ and a constant $\delta$, and define $\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}(X_i^2)=D$. Here is the guideline of our approach.
\begin{itemize}
\item In order to achieve the upper bound of (\ref{sum version}), without loss of generality, we can assume $X_i$ has support set of at most $k$ discrete points where $k$ is the number of given moment information (including the trivial $0$-th order moment) on $\sum X_i$ by constructing an associated linear programming. This insight is an extension of lemma 6 in Feige \cite{Feige04onsums}, and has been established by Bertismas et. al. \cite{bertsimas2005optimal}.
\item For both the Berry-Esseen theorem and moment approach, it requires the distributions $X_i$ has bounded support, i.e., there exists a certain constant $K$ such that $|X_i| \leq K$ for all $i$. When the distributions are not bounded, we divide the distributions into bounded and unbounded groups, and treats the unbounded group separately as in \cite{he2010}.
\item We can derive a bound of (\ref{sum version}) by Berry-Esseen theorem. Suppose we have $|X_i| \leq K$ for all $i$. Then $\psi_0 =\frac{\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[|X_i^3|]}{D^{3/2}}\leq \frac{K}{D^{1/2}}$. When $D$ is large, it follows that $\psi_0$ is relatively small, and therefore Berry-Esseen theorem can provide a rather tight bound.
\item We can also bound (\ref{sum version}) by the moment approach. In particular, when the distributions are bounded, we can bound the third moment or above through the second moment $D$. Theorem \ref{more} indicates the more moments we use, the better bound we can achieve. In addition, when $D$ is small, the bound of moment approach is often better as it is shown in theorem \ref{thmMono}.
\item We observe that often the worse-case scenario of these two approaches do not agree with each other, which provides us a great opportunity to merge these two methods together to further improve the bound estimation. In Section 3 and 4, we discuss how to synthetically merge these two approaches together to achieve better results.
\end{itemize}
\section{An SDP formulation of the moment problem}
In this section, we introduce the classical SDP formulation of the moment problem.
Supposing $X$ is a real random variable and $P$ is a set of given moments, then we formulate moments problem as the following.
\begin{equation}\label{MP}
\begin{aligned}
\max_X & &\text{Prob}[X \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} & & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i]=M_i, & \text{ where } i \in P
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Note that $M_0=1$. The corresponding dual problem is
\begin{equation}\label{SPD}
\begin{aligned}
\min_y \,\,\, & & \sum_{i \in P} y_i M_i & \\
\text{subject to} & & \sum_{i \in P} y_i x^i \geq \text{\bf 1}_{x \geq 0}, & \,\,\,\text{ for all } x \in R
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
where $\text{\bf 1}_{x \geq 0}$ is an indicator function.
This is an well-studied optimization problem and the dual formulation was first established in \cite{isii1960extrema} and treated extensively in \cite{bertsimas2005optimal}. In fact, the property of strong duality was shown in \cite[Theorem 2.2]{bertsimas2005optimal}. Moreover,
the dual constraint requires the polynomial function to be nonnegative,
which is equivalent to certain matrices being positive semidefinite, as it is shown in the following theorem.
\begin{theorem}\cite[Section 3.a]{reznick2000some}\label{sos}
\noindent A real polynomial function $f(x) =\sum_{r=0}^{2n} y_rx^r$ is nonnegative if and only if $f(x) = g(x)^2 + h(x)^2$ for some polynomial function $g(x)$ and $h(x)$. Furthermore, the nonnegativity of $f(x)$ implies the existence of an $(n + 1) \times (n + 1)$ positive semidefinite matrix $V$ such that $f(x) = X^TVX$ with $X = (1,x,x^2,...x^n)^{T}$.
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
(SOS Decomposition): If $f(x)=g(x)^2+h(x)^2$, then it is obviously nonnegative.
If $f(x)$ is nonnegative, then all real roots of $f(x)$ are of even multipliers, because otherwise $f(x)$ will be negative locally. By the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra, $$f(x)=\prod_{j=1}^m (x - r_j)^{2n_j}\prod_{i=1}^{n-\sum_{j=1}^{m} n_j}(x - z_i)(x - \overline z_i).$$ Notice that $(x - z_i)(x - \overline z_i) = (x - a_i)^2 + b_i^2$, $f(x)$ can be decomposed as products of sum square of two functions. Since $(a^2 +b^2)(c^2+d^2) = (ac+bd)^2 + (ad-bc)^2$, then we can reformulate $f$ into $g^2 + h^2$.
(SDP Representation): Suppose $f(x) = g(x)^2 + h(x)^2$, and the coefficient vector of $g$ and $h$ are $u$ and $v$, respectively. Then $g(x) = (1,x,x^2,...x^n)u$, and $h(x) = (1,x,x^2,...x^n)v$. Let $V=uu^T + vv^T$, and we have $f(x) = g(x)^2 + h(x)^2 = X^Tuu^TX + X^Tvv^TX = X^T(uu^T+vv^T)X = X^TVX$.
\qed
Theorem 2.1 is the univariate case for Hilbert's 17th problem. In fact, this theorem together with the further work by Lasserre \cite{Lasserre07} can help us transform the dual problem into a semidefinite program, as it is shown in the following proposition.
\begin{prop}\cite[Proposition 3.1]{bertsimas2005optimal} \label{Prop}
\begin{itemize}
\item The polynomial $g(x)=\sum_{r=0}^{2n}y_rx^r$ satisfies $g(x) \geq 0$ for all $x \in R$ \text{\bf if and only if} there exists a positive semidefinite matrix $V=[v]_{i,j=0,1,...,n}$ such that
$$y_r= \sum_{i,j:i+j=r}v_{ij}, \,\, r=0,...,2n $$
\item The polynomial $g(x)=\sum_{r=0}^{n}y_rx^r$ satisfies $g(x) \geq 0$ for all $x \geq 0$ \text{\bf if and only if} there exists a positive semidefinite matrix $V=[v]_{i,j=0,1,...,n}$ such that
$$0= \sum_{i,j:i+j=2l-1}v_{ij}, \,\, l=1,...,n $$
$$y_r= \sum_{i,j:i+j=2l}v_{ij}, \,\, l=0,...,n $$
\end{itemize}
\end{prop}
In all, moments problem (\ref{MP}) can be solved by its SDP formulation.
One key property of the moments problem is to achieve a better bound by taking advantage of additional moment information, as extra moment information yields a more restrictive constraint set in the moment problem.
\begin{theorem} \label{more}
Given a real random variable $X$, consider the primal problem
\begin{equation*}
\begin{aligned}
\text{\bf opt }(P)=\max_X & \,\,\,\,\, \text{Prob}[X \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} & \,\,\,\,\, \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i]=M_i, & \text{ where } i \in P
\end{aligned}
\end{equation*}
Supposing we have $P_1 \subset P_2$, then $\text{\bf opt }(P_1) \geq \text{\bf opt }(P_2)$.
\end{theorem}
Similarly, the following theorem explores the monotonicity of the moments problem with upper and lower bounds, as the feasible region enlarges as $D$ grows larger.
\begin{theorem} \label{thmMono}
Given a real random variable $X$ and mutually exclusive sets $P_1, P_2, P_3$, consider the primal problem where $B_i$ and $L_i$ are the upper and lower of moments in a function of a real number $D$.
\begin{align*}
\text{\bf opt }(D)= \max_X & &\text{Prob}[X \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} & & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i]=M_i, & \text{ where } i \in P_1 \\
& & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i] \leq B_i(D), & \text{ where } i \in P_2 \\
& & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i] \geq L_i(D), & \text{ where } i \in P_3
\end{align*}
Supposing we have
\begin{itemize}
\item $B_i(D) \geq 0$ and $B_i(D)$ is an increasing function in $D$ for all $i \in P_2$;
\item $L_i(D) \leq 0$ and $L_i(D)$ is an decreasing function in $D$ for all $i \in P_3$,
\end{itemize}
then $\text{\bf opt }(D)$ is an monotonically increasing function in $D$.
\end{theorem}
\section{A combination of moment approach and Berry-Esseen theorem}
\begin{theorem} \label{MPBE}
Let $X=\sum_{i=1}^n X_i$, and $D=Var(X)=\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[ X_i]^2$ for independent random variables $X_i$ with bound $|X_i| \leq K$. In addition, suppose there exist mutually exclusive sets $P_1=\{0,1,2\}$, $P_2$, $P_3$ with increasing nonnegative functions $B_i(D)$ for $i \in P_2$ and decreasing nonpositive functions $L_i(D)$ for $i \in P_3$.
Then
$$\text{Prob}[X \geq 0] \leq \min_{D > 0}\max\{\text{\bf opt}(D), F(D)\}$$
where
$$F(D)=0.5+0.56 \frac{K}{D^{1/2}}$$
and
\begin{align*}
\text{\bf opt }(D)= \max_X & \,\,\,\, \text{Prob}[X \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} \,\,\,\, & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^0]=1, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X]=\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X_i], & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^2]=D, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i] \leq B_i(D), & \text{ where } i \in P_2 \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[X^i] \geq L_i(D), & \text{ where } i \in P_3
\end{align*}
Moreover, $\arg\min_{D > 0}\max\{\text{\bf opt}(D), F(D)\}$ is at the intersection of function $\text{\bf opt}(D)$ and function $F(D)$, if it exists.
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
We can apply Berry-Esseen theorem on $\text{Prob}[X \geq 0]$.
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[X \geq 0] & \leq 1 - \Phi(0) + c_0 \psi_0 \\
& \leq 0.5 + 0.56 \frac{\sum_{i=1}^n |X_i|^3}{D^{3/2}} \\
& \leq 0.5+0.56 \frac{K}{D^{1/2}} = F(D)
\end{align*}
When $D$ is large, Berry-Esseen theorem is effective, because $F(D)$ is a decreasing function. When $D$ is small, the moments problem performs well because $\text{\bf opt}(D)$ is an increasing function by theorem \ref{thmMono}.
Therefore, if $\text{\bf opt}(D)$ and $F(D)$ exists an intersection, then it is the optimal solution of $\min_{D > 0}\max\{\text{\bf opt}(D), F(D)\}$ due to the monotonicity of these two functions.
\qed
\section{Example: improve the bound of Feige's inequality}
In this section, we will show that a combination of moment approach and Berry-Essen theorem can improve Feige's bound.
As we see, Feige's conjecture (\ref{Feige}) has no assumptions on the upper bound of each random variable, though we know the lower bound is $-1$. The following theorem \ref{thm1} allows us to transform such variables $X_i$ into a group of corresponding $Y_i$ with both upper and lower bounds, through truncating the sufficiently large negative part of $X_i$ and rescale the rest. Similar technique was used in \cite{he2010, GARNETT2020105119}. In this way, we can apply the inequalities of sum of independent random variables with both upper bound and lower bound, as theorem \ref{MPBE} indicates.
\begin{theorem}\label{thm1}
Supposing for $m$ random variables $Y_1$, $Y_2$,...,$Y_m$ with mean zero and $ -\xi \leq Y_i \leq 1$ for some fixed $0 < \xi \leq 1$, there exists an universal bound $\omega>0$ independent of $m$ and the choice of $Y_i$ such that
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^m Y_i \leq \xi] \geq \omega$$.
Then, consider $n$ random variables $X_1$, $X_2$,...,$X_n$ with mean zero and $X_i \geq -1$.
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{- {\xi} } \cdot \omega$$
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
As it is shown in \cite{Feige04onsums}, without loss of generality, we can assume $X_i$ follows a two-point distribution.
Therefore, we can assume that there exists $0<a_i \leq 1$ and $b_i >0$ such that
$$X_i=\left\{
\begin{array}{c l}
-a_i \text{ with probability } \frac{b_i}{a_i+b_i}\\
\\
b_i \text{ with probability } \frac{a_i}{a_i+b_i}
\end{array}\right.$$
given $E[X_i]=0$.
Suppose $b_1 \geq b_2 \geq ... \geq b_n$. Then we consider to make a partition and define $A=\{1,2,...,N\}$ and $B=\{N+1,...,n\}$ by a fixed number $\tau>1$ where
$$N=\max\{\,0,\,\max\{\,k \,|\, b_k \geq \tau (\sum_{i=1}^k a_i), 1\leq k \leq n\}\}$$
Define $a=\sum_{i=1}^k a_i$ and we have
\[b_i \geq b_N \geq \tau a
, \text{ for every } i \leq N\]
\[b_i \leq b_{N+1} \leq \tau(a+a_{N+1}) \leq \tau(a+1)
, \text{ for every } i > N\]
If $N >0$, then
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^N X_i=-a ] &= \Pi_{i=1}^N \text{Prob}[X_i=-a_i]\\
&=\Pi_{i=1}^N (1-\frac{a_i}{a_i+b_i}) \geq \Pi_{i=1}^N (1-\frac{a_i}{a_i+\tau a})\\
& \geq \Pi_{i=1}^N e^{-\frac{a_i}{\tau a}}=e^{-\frac{1}{\tau}}
\end{align*}
Therefore,
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i < 1 ] & \geq \text{Prob}[\sum_{i \in A} X_i=-a ] \text{Prob}[\sum_{i \in B} X_i < a+1 ]\\
& \geq e^{-\frac{1}{\tau}} \text{Prob}[\sum_{i \in B} X_i < a+1 ]
\end{align*}
Let $Y_i=\frac{1}{\tau} \frac{X_i}{a+1}$ for $i \in B$. Note that $$Y_i =\frac{1}{\tau} \frac{X_i}{a+1} \leq \frac{1}{\tau} \frac{\tau (a+1)}{a+1}=1$$ and
$$Y_i =\frac{1}{\tau} \frac{X_i}{a+1} \geq -\frac{1}{\tau}.$$
Then, if we set $\xi=\frac{1}{\tau}$,
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i < 1 ] & \geq e^{-\frac{1}{\tau}} \text{Prob}[ \sum_{i \in B} X_i < a+1 ] \\
&= e^{-\frac{1}{\tau}} \text{Prob}[ \sum_{i \in B} Y_i < \frac{1}{\tau} ] \\
& \geq e^{- \xi} \cdot \omega
\end{align*}
\qed
For the rest of work, we will consider the following problem: Let $Y_1,Y_2,...,Y_n$ be independent random variable with mean zero and $-\xi \leq Y_i \leq 1$ for some $0< \xi \leq 1$. Without loss of any generality, we can assume
\begin{equation} \label{setupY}
Y_i=\left\{
\begin{array}{c l}
-a_i \text{ with probability } \frac{b_i}{a_i+b_i}\\
\\
b_i \text{ with probability } \frac{a_i}{a_i+b_i}
\end{array}\right.
\end{equation}
where $0 \leq a_i \leq \xi$ and $0 \leq b_i \leq 1$. Then for any $n$, we are interested in the lower bound of
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n Y_i \leq \xi] , $$
as a key to improve Feige's bound $\alpha$ in (\ref{Feige}).
\subsection{Grouping the first, second and fourth moment information} \label{124}
When it comes to Feige's bound (\ref{Feige}), He and et al. improved it to $1/8$ by solving the moments problem with the first, second and fourth moment information. Therefore, we only consider the same moment information in this subsection as a fair comparison.
Suppose we have $Y_1,Y_2,...,Y_n$ be independent random variables with mean zero and $-\xi \leq Y_i \leq 1$ for some $0< \xi \leq 1$, as it is stated in (\ref{setupY}). Let $Y=\sum_{i=1}^n Y_i$ and $D=Var(Y)=\sum_{i=1}^n E(Y_i^2)=\sum_{i=1}^n a_ib_i$. Berry-Esseen theorem implies the following:
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[ Y \leq \xi ] &=\text{Prob}[ \frac{Y}{\sqrt{D}} \leq \frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}} ] \\
& \geq \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}}) - c_0 \psi_0 \\
& \geq \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}}) - 0.56 \frac{\sum_{i=1}^n E[|Y_i^3|]}{D^{3/2}} \\
& \geq \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}}) - 0.56 \frac{\max_i\{|Y_i|\} \sum_{i=1}^n E[|Y_i^2|]}{D^{3/2}} \\
& = \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}}) - 0.56 \frac{1}{\sqrt{D}}
\end{align*}
Define
\begin{equation} \label{F1}
F_1(\xi,D)=\Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}}) - 0.56 \frac{1}{\sqrt{D}}
\end{equation}
as a lower bound of $\text{Prob}[ Y \leq \xi ]$.
For moments problem, we can define $Z=Y-\xi$. Then:
\begin{itemize}
\item $M_1=\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z]=-\xi$
\item $M_2=\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^2]=D+\xi^2$
\item $M_4 = \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^4] $
\begin{align*}
&=3D^2+6\xi^2D+\xi^4+\sum_{i=1}^n(\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^4]-4\xi \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^3]-3(\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^2])^2)\\
&=3D^2+6\xi^2D+\xi^4+\sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i(a_i^2+b_i^2-4a_ib_i-4\xi(b_i-a_i))
\end{align*}
\end{itemize}
Since $a_i^2+b_i^2-4a_ib_i-4\xi(b_i-a_i)$ is a convex function of $a_i$ when $b_i$ and $\xi$ are fixed, and is a convex function of $b_i$ when $a_i$ and $\xi$ are fixed. Then supposing we fix $\xi$, the optimal solution of
$$\max_{0 \leq a_i \leq \xi, 0 \leq b_i \leq 1} a_i^2+b_i^2-4a_ib_i-4\xi(b_i-a_i)$$
is in the set $\{(0,0), (\xi,0),(0,1),(\xi,1)\}$ with the optimal value $S(\xi)$.
It follows that
$$M_4 \leq 3D^2+6\xi^2D+\xi^4+S(\xi) D$$
Let $\text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)$ be the optimal value of the following moments problem given $\xi$ and $D$.
\begin{equation*}
\begin{aligned}
\text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)=\max_X & \,\,\,\, \text{Prob}[Z \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} \,\,\,\, & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^0]=1, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z]=-\xi, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^2]=D+\xi^2, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^4] \leq 3D^2+6\xi^2D+\xi^4+S(\xi) D, &
\end{aligned}
\end{equation*}
Define
\begin{equation} \label{F2}
F_2(\xi,D)=1- \text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)
\end{equation}
to be another lower bound of $\text{Prob}[ Y \leq \xi ]$. In addition, we can calculate $F_2(\xi,D)$ numerically by solving a corresponding SDP problem introduced in proposition \ref{Prop}, when $\xi$ and $D$ are fixed.
\begin{theorem}\label{thm2}
Let $X_1$, $X_2$,...,$X_n$ be n independent random variables with $E[X_i]=0$ and $X_i \ge -1$ for each $i$ and let $X = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i$, then $$\text{Prob}[X \le 1] \ge 0.1541.$$
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
Set $\xi=0.2$. Then $S(\xi) \leq 0.2$.
\begin{itemize}
\item If $D \geq 2.374$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}F_1(0.2, 2.374) >0.1541,$$
as $F_1(0.2,D)$ is an increasing function in $D$.
\item If $D \leq 2.374$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}F_2(0.2, 2.374) > 0.1541,$$
as $F_2(0,2,D)$ is an decreasing function in $D$ by theorem (\ref{thmMono}).
\end{itemize}
In figure \ref{sosBE}, we plot $F_1(0.2, D)$ and $F_2(0.2,D)$ over the value of $D$.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\caption{: Feige's bound by $F_1(0.2, D)$ and $F_2(0.2, D)$.}
\includegraphics[width=9cm]{SOSvsBE.png}
\label{sosBE}
\end{figure}
In all, the bound is improved to 0.1541.
\qed
Instead of achieving bound 0.1541 numerically, we can roughly verify this result by an approximation of $F_2(\xi, D)$ in an explicit form. Specially, we can derive bound 0.1536 exactly as theorem \ref{thm3} indicates in the appendix.
\subsection{Add the third moment information}
Recently, Garnett improved Feige's bound to 0.14 by a finer consideration of first four moments of the corresponding moments problem \cite{GARNETT2020105119}. If adding the third moment information, then we have the following lower bound in the same set-up as the previous section.
\begin{equation}\label{M3}
\begin{aligned}
M_3 & = \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^3]\\
& = -\xi^3-3\xi D +\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^3] \\
& = -\xi^3-3\xi D - \sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i ( a_i-b_i)\\
& \geq -\xi^3-3\xi D -\xi D = -\xi^3-4\xi D
\end{aligned}
\end{equation}
Let $\text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)$ be the optimal value of the following moments problem given $\xi$ and $D$.
\begin{equation*}
\begin{aligned}
\max_X & \,\,\,\, \text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)=\text{Prob}[Z \geq 0] & \\
\text{subject to} \,\,\,\, & \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^0]=1, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z]=-\xi, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^2]=D+\xi^2, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^3] \geq -\xi^3-3\xi D -\xi D = -\xi^3-4\xi D, & \\
& \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^4] \leq 3D^2+6\xi^2D+\xi^4+S(\xi) D, &
\end{aligned}
\end{equation*}
Define
\begin{equation} \label{F4}
F_4(\xi,D)=1- \text{\bf opt}(\xi,D)
\end{equation}
to be another lower bound of $\text{Prob}[ Y \leq \xi ]$.
Unsurprisingly, $F_4(\xi,D)$ should be better than $F_2(\xi,D)$.
\begin{theorem}\label{thm4}
Let $X_1$, $X_2$,...,$X_n$ be n independent random variables with $E[X_i]=0$ and $X_i \ge -1$ for each $i$ and let $X = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i$. Then $$\text{Prob}[X \le 1] \ge 0.1587.$$
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
Set $\xi=0.2$. Then $S(\xi) \leq 0.2$.
\begin{itemize}
\item If $D \geq 2.464$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}F_1(0.2, 2.464) >0.1587,$$
as $F_1(0.2,D)$ is an increasing function in $D$.
\item If $D \leq 2.464$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}F_4(0.2, 2.464) > 0.1587,$$
as $F_4(0.2,D)$ is an decreasing function in $D$ by theorem \ref{thmMono}.
\end{itemize}
In figure \ref{sosThird}, we plot $F_1(0.2, D)$ and $F_4(0.2,D)$ over the value of $D$.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\caption{: Feige's bound by $F_1(0.2, D)$ and $F_4(0.2,D)$.}
\includegraphics[width=9cm]{SOSvsThird.png}
\label{sosThird}
\end{figure}
In all, the bound is improved to 0.1587.
\qed
As we see, from 0.1541 to 0.1587, the Feige's bound was improved only a little. The reason is that we bound $M_3$ purely by $a_i - b_i \leq 1$ in (\ref{M3}), which is not enough. In fact, we observe that often the worse-case scenario of bound $M_3$ and the bound of Berry-Esseen term $\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[|Y_i^3|]$ do not agree with each other. Therefore, we are able to better bound $M_3$ through the term $\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[|Y_i^3|]$ (which is bounded as $\max{|Y_i|} \cdot D$ through this paper).
In general, this technique is significant to improve our result when we hybrid the moments method and Berry-Esseen theorem.
\begin{theorem}\label{thm5}
Let $X_1$, $X_2$,...,$X_n$ be n independent random variables with $E[X_i]=0$ and $X_i \ge -1$ for each $i$ and let $X = \sum_{i=1}^n X_i$. Then $$\text{Prob}[X \le 1] \ge 0.1798.$$
\end{theorem}
\noindent{\bf Proof.}
Define
$T_B=\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^3]=\sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i \frac{a_i^2+b_i^2}{a_i+b_i}$
in the same set-up as (\ref{setupY}). When applying Berry-Esseen theorem, we can define $\hat{F}_1(\xi,D,T_B)$ to be following
\begin{align*}
\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n Y_i \geq \xi] & \geq \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}})-0.56\frac{\sum_{i=1}^n \mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Y_i^3] }{D^{3/2}} \\
& = \Phi(\frac{\xi}{\sqrt{D}})-0.56\frac{T_B}{D^{3/2}} = \hat{F}_1(\xi,D,T_B).
\end{align*}
At the same time, define $T_M=\sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i (a_i - b_i)$, and we have
$$M_3=\mathop{\mathbb{E}}[Z^3]= -\xi^3-3\xi D - T_M.$$
Note that
$$T_B+T_M = \sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i \frac{2a_i^2}{a_i+b_i} \leq \sum_{i=1}^n a_i b_i \cdot 2a_i \leq 2 \xi D $$
In this way, we can better bound the third moment $M_3$.
\begin{itemize}
\item If $T_B=D$, then the Berry-Esseen bound remains the same i.e. $F_1(\xi,D)=\hat{F_1}(\xi,D,D)$. In this way, $T_M \leq (2\xi-1)D$ implying $M_3 \geq -\xi^3-3\xi D -(2\xi-1)D = -\xi^3-5\xi D +D$.
\item If $\xi D \leq T_B \leq D$, then the Berry-Esseen bound improves i.e. $F_1(\xi,D) \leq \hat{F_1}(\xi,D,T_B)$. In this way, $T_M \leq 2\xi D- T_B$ implying $M_3 \geq -\xi^3-3\xi D -(2\xi D -T_B)=-\xi^3-5\xi D +T_B$.
\item If $T_B < \xi D$, then the bound $T_B+T_M \leq 2 \xi D $ is no longer effective. We have $M_3 \geq -\xi^3-3\xi D -(2\xi D -T_B)=-\xi^3-4\xi D$, the same as the bound as (\ref{M3}) when $T_B=\xi D$.
\end{itemize}
For each given $T_B$, we can achieve corresponding bound of $M_3$ by the analysis above. Then we can define $\hat{F_4}(\xi,D,T_B)$ in a similar way.
Fix $\xi=0.2$. Suppose $T_B=s \cdot D$ for some $0 < s \leq 1$. Define function possible Feige's bound $g(s)$ to be the following: $$g(s) = \min_{D}\max\{e^{-0.2} \cdot \hat{F_1}(0.2,D,sD), \,\, e^{-0.2} \cdot \hat{F_4}(0.2,D,sD)\}$$
Figure \ref{sosTB} plots the value of g(s) under different value of s.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\caption{: Feige's bound under different s.}
\includegraphics[width=9cm]{SOSTB.png}
\label{sosTB}
\end{figure}
Note that $\hat{F_1}(0.2,D,sD)$ is a decreasing function in $s$ for each given $D$, and $\hat{F_4}(0.2,D,sD)$ is an increasing function in $s$ for each given $D$. Figure \ref{sosTB} indicates the influence of improving Berry-Essen bound $\hat{F}_1$ dominates the influence of improving moment bound $\hat{F}_4$.
Therefore, we can set $T_B=D$.
\begin{itemize}
\item If $D \geq 2.938$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}\hat{F_1}(0.2, 2.938, 2.938) >0.1798,$$
as $\hat{F}_1(0.2,D,D)$ is an increasing function in $D$.
\item If $D \leq 2.938$, then
$$\text{Prob}[\sum_{i=1}^n X_i <1] \geq e^{-0.2}\hat{F}_4(0.2, 2.938,2.938) > 0.1798,$$
as $\hat{F}_4(0.2, D,D)$ is an decreasing function in $D$.
\end{itemize}
In figure \ref{sosThird(Interplay))}, we plot $\hat F_1(0.2, D, D)$ and $\hat F_4(0.2,D, D)$ over the value of $D$.
\begin{figure}[h!]
\centering
\caption{: Feige's bound by $\hat F_1(0.2, D, D)$ and $\hat F_4(0.2, D, D)$.}
\includegraphics[width=9cm]{SOSvsThird_Interplay.png}
\label{sosThird(Interplay))}
\end{figure}
In all, the bound is improved to 0.1798.
\qed
\section{Summary}
\label{}
In this paper, we show that the combination of Berry-Esseen theorem and moment approach can better bound probability in small deviation. As an application, we improve Feige's bound from 0.14 to 0.1798 using first four moments. However, there is still a gap between 0.1798 to the conjectured $\frac{1}{e}$. Due to the length of this paper, we leave the readers to further improve it by including higher order moments, or better bounding fourth moment via $T_B$.
More importantly, we expect this common approach to be widely applied on other interesting small deviation problems. For example, Ben-Tal and et al. \cite{ben2002robust} conjectured the following: Consider a symmetric matrix $B \in R^{n\times n}$, and let $\xi=(\xi_1,\xi_2,...,\xi_n) \in R^n$ with coordinates $\xi_i$ of $\xi$ being independently identically distributed random variables with
$$Pr(\xi_i=1)=Pr(\xi_i=-1)=\frac{1}{2}.$$
Then,
$$Pr(\xi^T B\xi \leq Tr(B))\geq \frac{1}{4}.$$
Define the lower bound
$$y(n)=\inf_{B \in S^{n \times n}} Pr(\xi^T B\xi \leq Tr(B)).$$
The best known of result is $y(n) \geq \frac{3}{100}$ \cite{he2010}. Besides, Yuan showed the upper bound of $y(n)$ is $\frac{14}{64}$ by an example \cite{yuan2013counter}. Straightforward application of the approach in this paper leads to improved bound of $\frac{6}{100}$ at least. Due to the space limitation, and since we believe finer consideration could vastly improve that bound, we omit the detailed proof and leave it for future research.
In all, it will be interesting to see our approach substantially sharpening inequality bound of small deviation problems and facilitating their applications.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaArXiv"
}
| 267
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\section{Introduction}
The Vicsek model~\cite{Reynolds1987,Vicsek1995} and related continuous-time variations~\cite{Romanczuk2012} have been used to model flocking in a variety of systems, from birds~\cite{Ballerini2008} to cells~\cite{Szabo2006} to \emph{in vitro} cellular components~\cite{Schaller2010,Sumino2012} and synthetic swimmers~\cite{Bartolo2013}.
These are examples of active systems, consisting of individually driven, dissipative units that exhibit coordinated motion (flocking) at large scales~\cite{Marchetti2013,Ramaswamy2010}. In the Vicsek model the active units are described as point particles with overdamped dynamics carrying a velocity vector of fixed magnitude, hence ``flying spins''. Each spin tends to align with its neighbors, but makes errors, modeled as angular noise~\cite{Vicsek1995}.
{\color{black} The system exhibits a liquid-gas phase transition from a disordered gas state to a polar liquid state as the noise is decreased or the number density is increased, with microphase separation in the coexistence region \cite{Solon2015}.} The existence of the transition has been put on firm grounds by a large number of numerical studies~\cite{Vicsek1995,Gregoire2004}. Toner and Tu also proposed a continuum version of the model inspired by dynamical field theories of condensed matter systems~\cite{Toner1995,Toner2005}.
Recent work \cite{Attanasi2014} has suggested that the description of the observed collective turning of bird flocks requires a modification of the Vicsek model to include angular inertia in the dynamics. This allows propagation of angular correlations through the flock on large scales via spin-wave-like excitations~\cite{Cavagna2014}.
In this paper we derive the continuum equations for such an ``inertial spin model" by explicitly coarse-graining the microscopic dynamics. The resulting equations (Eqs.~\ref{eq:rho}-\ref{eq:spin}) generalize the Toner-Tu model to account for turning modes by incorporating the dynamics of the spin angular momentum of the flock. These equations, governed by only \black{two dimensionless parameters}, are the first important result of our work. They contain new terms as compared to the phenomenological model of Ref.~\cite{Andrea2015}, most importantly a nonlinear friction that couples spin and density fluctuations to bend and splay deformations of the order parameter.
{\color{black} This new coupling transforms the propagating density bands ubiquitously observed in flocking models into turning bands of spin currents, driving the transition to a novel state of continuously swirling and rotating flocks, where turning information are transmitted by anisotropic propagating spin waves. The predicted sound speeds could in principle be measured in experiments.}
\begin{figure}[!h]
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{Fig1.pdf}
\caption {Flocking patterns obtained via numerical solutions of Eqs.~\ref{eq:rho} -\ref{eq:spin} \black{(top \& middle rows) and via} particle simulations using Eqs.\ref{eq:ri}-\ref{eq:si} (bottom row). The \black{left/right} columns show the patterns obtained at points $A/B$ of the phase diagram Fig.\ref{fig:PD}a, corresponding to {\color{black} the spinodal portion of the coexistence region of traveling bands of polar liquid and disordered gas and to the region of the spin-wave instability}, respectively. \black{The snapshots (a-d) are obtained with $\tilde{\gamma}=2.0$, $\tilde{\chi}=0.5$ (a,c) and $\tilde{\gamma}=7.6$, $\tilde{\chi}=1.7$ (b,d) on a 300 by 300 grid lattice with grid size $0.1$, integration time step $0.002$ and periodic boundary conditions. The particle simulations are performed with $3000$ particles in a box of size $L=10$ with periodic boundary conditions. Simulation parameters are $R=1$, $\epsilon=2.0$, $v_0=2.0$, $\chi=1.0$, $\eta=1.0$ and $\gamma=0.16$ (e) and $\gamma=0.80$ (f). The integration time step is $0.01$.} a-d: the arrows represent the local polarization, with length proportional to the polarization strength. The color indicates spin current density in a-b and number density in c-d. e-f: the arrows represent polarization of individual particles (see Supplementary Movies).}
\label{fig:numerical}
\end{figure}
Our starting point is the continuous-time model of inertial spins proposed by Cavagna \emph{et al.}~\cite{Cavagna2014}, where $N$ point particles in a two-dimensional box of area $L^2$, with average number density $\rho_0=N/L^2$, interact via a pairwise aligning interaction.
Each particle is described by its position $\bm r_i$ and the direction of its velocity, identified by a unit vector $\hat{\bm e}_{\theta_i}=\left(\cos\theta_i,\sin\theta_i\right)$ in 2D. The dynamics of the $i$-th spin is described by
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:ri}
\frac{d\bm r_i}{dt}=v_0\bm \hat{\bm e}_{\theta_i}\;,~~~~~\frac{d\theta_i}{dt}=\frac{1}{\chi}s_i\;,\\
\label{eq:si}
\frac{ds_i}{dt}=\gamma\sum\limits_{j}\tilde{F}(\theta_j-\theta_i,\bm r_{ji})-\frac{\eta}{\chi}s_i+\sqrt{2\epsilon}~ \xi_i(t)\;,
\end{gather}
with $\bm r_{ji}=\bm r_j-\bm r_i$, $v_0$ the self-propulsion speed, $s_i$ the spin angular momentum and $\chi$ the spin moment of inertia. The spin is an internal angular momentum that generates the self-rotation, and is distinct from the angular momentum of the center of mass. The polar aligning interaction of strength $\gamma$ is given by $\tilde{F}(\theta,\bm r)=\sin(\theta)/(\pi R^2)$ if $|\bm r|\le R$ and zero otherwise, with $R$ the range of interaction. This form of the interaction used before in the literature~\cite{Farrell2012} allows us to make analytical progress in the derivation of the continuum equations.
Finally, $\eta$ is a friction and $\epsilon$ describes the strength of the angular noise, with $ \xi_i(t)$ a Gaussian white noise with zero mean and unit variance.
On time scales large compared to the relaxation time $\tau_\eta=\chi/\eta$, one can neglect the time derivative on the left hand side of Eq.~\eqref{eq:si} and eliminate the spin angular momentum, $s_i$, from the angular dynamics. This yields a continuous-time version of the Vicsek model, with effective alignment strength $\gamma/\eta$ and effective angular noise $\epsilon/\eta^2$.
Two additional time scales govern the dynamics of the system: the effective rotational diffusion time, $\tau_{\epsilon}=\eta^2/\epsilon$, and the alignment time, $\tau_{\gamma}=\eta/(\gamma\rho_0)$.
Following standard methods~\cite{Dean1996,Zwanzig2001}, one obtains the noise-averaged Fokker-Planck equation associated with the microscopic dynamics described by Eqs.~\eqref{eq:ri} and \eqref{eq:si}, as
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:FP}
\left(\mathcal{D}_t+\frac{s}{\chi}\partial_\theta\right){P}=\partial_s\left[(\eta\frac{s}{\chi}+T[P])P\right]+\epsilon\partial^2_s P\;,
\end{gather}
where $\mathcal{D}_t=\partial_t+v_0\bm e_{\theta}\cdot\bm \nabla$ is the material derivative, $P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)$ is the probability density of particles at position $\bm r$, with velocity in direction $\theta$ and spin $s$ at time $t$, and $T[P]$ is the aligning torque
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:tau}
T[P]=-\gamma\int_{\theta'}\int_{s'}F(\theta'-\theta)P(\bm r,\theta',s',t)\;.
\end{gather}
For simplicity we have assumed $\tilde{F}(\theta,\bm r)=\delta(\bm r)F(\theta)$, with $F(\theta)=\sin(\theta)$, \black{neglecting interaction between pairs at different positions}.
We describe the large-scale dynamics in terms of a few coarse-grained fields that vary slowly relative to microscopic time scales. For polarized flocks in addition to the number density, $\rho(\bm r,t)$, of active units and their polarization current density, $\bm w(\bm r,t)$, we include the spin angular momentum density, $S(\bm r, t)$. These are obtained from the probability density $P$ as
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:fields}
\left(\begin{array}{c}
\rho(\bm r,t)\\
\bm w(\bm r,t)\\
S(\bm r,t)
\end{array} \right)
=\int_\theta\int_s
\left(\begin{array}{c}
1\\
\bm{\hat{e}}_\theta \\
s
\end{array}\right)
P(\bm r,\theta, s,t)\;.
\end{gather}
To obtain a closed set of hydrodynamic equations for $\rho$, $\bm w$ and $\bm S= S\bm{\hat z}$, we combine moment techniques used to approximate the velocity-dependent part of the Fokker-Planck equation~\cite{Risken1988} with the closure developed in Ref.~\onlinecite{Bertin2009,Chate2014} to handle kinetic equations of active systems (see Supplementary Material). To minimize the number of parameters, we nondimensionalize the equations by scaling time with $\tau_{\epsilon}=\eta^2/\epsilon$, length with \black{$v_0\tau_{\epsilon}$} and density with $\rho_0=N/L^2$. The resulting equations are controlled by only two dimensionless parameters $\tilde{\chi}=\tau_{\eta}/\tau_{\epsilon}$ and $\tilde{\gamma}=\tau_{\epsilon}/\tau_{\gamma}$\black{~\footnote{See the SI for a description of our choice of parameters.}}. For simplicity, we drop the tildes and all parameters are dimensionless in the following discussion unless otherwise noted. The continuum equations are given by
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:rho}
\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}=-\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w\;,\\
\label{eq:w}
\mathcal{D}_t^{w}\bm w=-\left[\alpha(\rho)+\beta|\bm w|^2\right]\bm w-\frac{1}{2}\bm \nabla\rho+\lambda_2\bm w(\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w)\notag\\+\Omega_1\bm S\times\bm w+\Omega_2\bm \nabla\times\bm S+D_w\nabla^2\bm w\;,\\
\mathcal{D}_t^{s}\bm S=-\bm \nabla\times\left[\left(\alpha(\rho)+\beta|w|^2\right)\bm w\right]+\Omega_3\bm w\times\nabla^2\bm w\notag\\-\lambda_s(\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w)\bm S-\xi\bm S+D_s\nabla^2\bm S\;,
\label{eq:spin}
\end{gather}
where $\mathcal{D}_t^w=\partial_t+\lambda_1\bm w\cdot\bm \nabla$ and $\mathcal{D}_t^s=\partial_t+\lambda_s\bm w\cdot\bm\nabla$ are convective derivatives, $\alpha(\rho)=(1-\frac{\gamma\rho}{2})/(1+\chi)$, $\beta=\gamma^2/[8(1+\chi)]$ \black{and $\xi=1/\chi$.} Explicit expressions for all other dimensionless parameters are given in the supplementary material. A pressure-type term $\lambda_3\nabla|w|^2$ has been neglected in Eq.(7) because this term is known to lead to a spurious instability even in the overdamped limit when $\lambda_3$ is evaluated with the closure used here \cite{Mishra2010,Chate2014}. This instability has not been observed in particle simulations of Vicsek models. We have also verified that it is not obtained in particle simulations of the inertial spin model.
Equations (\ref{eq:rho}-\ref{eq:spin}) augment the flocking model of Toner and Tu~\cite{Toner1995} by incorporating the dynamics of the spin current. When $\bm S$ is neglected, these equations reduce to the Toner-Tu equations as derived by Farrell \emph{et al.}~\cite{Farrell2012} (but in the case of constant self-propulsion speed). As in the Toner-Tu model, the vector field $\bm w$ plays the dual role of polarization density and flow velocity. In equilibrium systems of rotors both the equations for the spin and the velocity field $v_0\bm w$ would contain dissipative couplings describing friction with the substrate proportional to the combination $\bm{S}/\chi-\frac{v_0}{2}\bm\nabla\times\bm w$, guaranteeing that the angular velocity $\bm S/\chi$ and the vorticity $\frac{v_0}{2}\bm\nabla\times\bm w$ be equal when the whole system is rotating as a rigid body~\cite{Lubensky2005,Braun1997}. In the nonequilibrium system considered here, in contrast, frictional terms proportional to angular velocity and vorticity will in general appear with different coefficients. The first term on the right hand side of Eq.~\eqref{eq:spin} was not included in previous phenomenological model \cite{Andrea2015} and has a natural interpretation of a nonlinear, velocity-dependent vortical friction.
The ``self-spinning'' term $\bm S\times\bm w$ couples the center-of-mass motion to the turning dynamics. In contrast to systems of passive rotors~\cite{Weinberg1977,Lubensky2005}, in the self-propelled particle model considered here, these two degrees of freedom are coupled because the spinning angle also controls the direction of translational motion~\cite{Cavagna2014}.
We expect these equations will provide useful to describe a number of active systems where collective turning controls the large-scale dynamics.
The homogeneous steady states of the continuum equations have uniform density, $\rho=1$, and zero mean value of the spin, $\bm S=0$. As in the Toner-Tu model with no angular inertia, there are two such states: an {\color{black}isotropic gas state}, with $\bm w=0$, and a {\color{black} polarized liquid} or flocking state, with $\bm w=w_0\bm{\hat{x}}$ and $w_0=\sqrt{-\alpha_0/\beta}$, where $\alpha_0=\alpha(\rho=1)$. We have chosen the $\bm{\hat{x}}$ axis along the direction of spontaneously broken symmetry. The isotropic state is always \black{linearly stable for $\gamma<2$.}
We examine below the linear stability of the polarized state by considering the dynamics of fluctuations. We let $\bm w=w_0 \hat{\bm x}+\delta\bm w$, $\rho=1+\delta \rho$, $\bm S=\hat{\bm z}\delta s$ and introduce Fourier amplitudes $(\delta \rho,\delta \bm w,\delta s)=\sum_{\bm q}(\rho_{\bm q},\bm w_{\bm q},s_{\bm q})e^{i\bm q\cdot \bm r+\sigma t}$ to obtain a set of linearized equations in Fourier space (see Supplementary Material).
For spatial variations along the direction of broken symmetry ($\bm q=q\bm\hat{\bm x}$),
$w_{\bm q}^y$ and $s_{\bm q}$ decouple from $\rho_{\bm q}$ and $w_{\bm q}^x$.
The coupled linear dynamics of fluctuations in the density and the magnitude of polarization ($w_{\bm q}^x$) is unaffected by angular inertia and is controlled by a longitudinal propagating mode, with propagation speed $c_\rho=|\alpha_{\rho}|/(2\beta w_0)$, where $\alpha_{\rho}=\partial_{\rho}\alpha$. This mode goes unstable when $\gamma<8/3$, corresponding to region A in Fig.\ref{fig:PD}a. This instability is known in Vicsek and Toner-Tu models as banding instability, {\color{black} but has recently been identified as the spinodal boundary within the liquid-gas coexistence region} (Fig.1 left column) ~\cite{Bertin2006,Bertin2009,Mishra2010,Solon2015}.
The coupled dynamics of spin and bending fluctuations ($w_{\bm q}^y$) gives rise to overdamped, finite-wavelength spin waves that mediate the propagation of turning information throughout the flock with wave speed $c_s=w_0\sqrt{\Omega_1\Omega_3}$ that increases with alignment strength. The existence of such propagating spin waves has been demonstrated on the basis of general arguments~\cite{Cavagna2014} and phenomenological continuum models~\cite{Andrea2015}, where they were dubbed ``second sound''.
For wavevectors along any directions other than the direction of broken symmetry, all four equations are coupled and the analysis of the modes is rather cumbersome. For small wavevectors, we find two
stable and relaxational modes that will not be discussed further and two hydrodynamic propagating modes, with dispersion relation
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:spin-t}
\sigma^{\pm}(q,\theta)=\ i c^\pm(\theta)q-\mathcal{D}_{sw}(\theta)q^2+\mathcal{O}(q^3)\;,
\end{gather}
and wave velocity
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:cpm}
c^{\pm}(\theta) = \frac{\alpha_{\rho } \cos (\theta )\pm \sqrt{\alpha _{\rho }^2 \cos ^2(\theta )+8 \beta ^2 w_0^2 \sin ^2(\theta )}}{4 \beta w_0},
\end{gather}
where $\theta$ is the angle between the direction of $\mathbf{q}$ and the direction of broken symmetry. The full expression for the damping $\mathcal{D}_{sw}(\theta)$ is not instructive thus is not given here.
For $\theta=0$, $c^-(0)=\alpha_{\rho}/(2\beta w_0)$ and the mode $\sigma^-$ yields the banding instability {\color{black} that delimits the spinodal region of microphase separation~\cite{Solon2015}}. For arbitrary angle $\theta$, however, both modes are propagating with anisotropic speed and describe coupled fluctuations of density, spin, and bend/splay deformations of the polarization field. The angular dependence of the instability is shown in Fig.\ref{fig:PD}b that displays the regions where $\mathcal{D}_{sw}<0$. At small angles the instability is driven by density fluctuations, as in the Toner-Tu model. At large angles the instability is dominated by spin fluctuations. At $\theta=\pi/2$ the longitudinal banding instability is suppressed and the dynamics is controlled by transverse spin wave propagating at speed $|c^\pm(\pi/2)|=1/\sqrt{2}$.
In terms of our dimensionless parameters, this transverse spin wave is unstable for $\gamma>(1+4\chi)(1+\chi)/(8\chi^2)+4$, corresponding to region B in Fig.\ref{fig:PD}a. The instability is driven by the growth of bend $-\bm \nabla\times\left[\left(\alpha(\rho)+\beta|w|^2\right)\bm w\right]$ and splay $\lambda_2\bm w(\bm\nabla\cdot\bm w)$ deformations augmented by the spin wave through the self-rotation term $\Omega_1 \bm S\times \bm w$. This long-wavelength instability of the ordered state is a new result of our work and will be referred to as spin-wave instability. It leads to a complex spatio-temporal dynamics with large density and spin fluctuations characterized by continuously turning and swirling flocks as confirmed by numerical solutions of the hydrodynamic equations and particle simulations (see Fig.\ref{fig:numerical} right column).
By carrying out the small wavevector expansion of the dispersion relation Eq~\eqref{eq:spin-t} up to fourth order in $q$ we can identify the wavector $q_c$ of the fastest growing mode corresponding to the maximum of $Re[\sigma_t^{\pm}(q)]$ shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:PD}c and d for various values of $\gamma$ and $\chi$. \black{This defines the characteristic length scale $\lambda_c \sim 1/q_c$ that can be thought of as controlling the size of the turning flock {\color{black} at the linear level}.}
\begin{figure}[!h]
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{Fig2.pdf}
\caption{a. Phase diagram in the plane of dimensionless $\gamma$ and $\chi$. b. Phase diagram in the plane of dimensionless $\gamma$ and $\theta$ at $\chi=1.0$. {\color{black} The shaded region A is the spinodal portion of the region of coexistence of disordered gas (existing for $\gamma<2$) and traveling bands of polar liquid (existing for $\gamma>8/3$). The coexistence region is delimited by the binodals (not shown) and extends inside the white regions, both to the right and to the left of region A, as verified via particle simulations. The shaded region B corresponds to the region where the homogeneous polar liquid is linearly unstable to spin-waves} as shown in Fig.\ref{fig:numerical}. c. Real part of the dispersion relation of the transverse mode $\sigma_t^{\pm}=\sigma^{\pm}(\pi/2)$ at $\chi=1$ and $\gamma=7.0, 8.0, 9.0, 10.0$. d. Real part of the dispersion relation of the transverse mode $\sigma_t^{\pm}=\sigma^{\pm}(\pi/2)$ at $\gamma=9$ and $\chi=0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0$.}
\label{fig:PD}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[!h]
\includegraphics[width=1.00\columnwidth]{Fig3.pdf}
\caption{a: Snapshot of the anisotropic spin wave in the polarized state at $\gamma=7.0$ and $\chi=2.0$. Color indicates the spin current density. b: Speed of spin waves in the polarized state as a function of alignment strength $\gamma$ for $\chi=1.0,1.5,2.0$ (red, blue, black) in the directions longitudinal (circles) and transverse (squares) to that of mean polarization. The dashed line is the transverse speed $|c^{\pm}(\pi/2)|$ in Eqn.\ref{eq:cpm}. The system is evolved for 5000 time steps.}
\label{fig:wave_speed}
\end{figure}
To gain more insight on the complex spatio-temporal structures that emerge in the unstable regions of parameters and to confirm the results of the linear stability analysis, we have solved numerically Eqs.~(\ref{eq:rho}-\ref{eq:spin}) with periodic boundary conditions {\color{black}starting from the homogeneous polar state with small perturbations}.
The results are summarized in the phase diagram of Fig.\ref{fig:PD}a. {\color{black} The shaded region A is bounded to the left by the line $\gamma=2$ where the disordered gas is linearly unstable and to the right by the line $\gamma=8/3$ where the homogeneous polar liquid is linearly unstable to longitudinal fluctuations (the banding instability). These instability lines delimit the spinodal portion of the gas/liquid coexistence region and are distinct from the binodal lines that mark the boundaries of such a region~\cite{Solon2015}. In fact particle simulations reveal that the coexistence region extends to the left and right of region A. The squares in Fig.\ref{fig:PD}a correspond to mean density fluctuations $\Delta {\rho}=\sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\sum_{\bf r}<(\rho(\bm r)-\rho_0)^2>}/\rho_0=0.003$, with $N$ the number of grid points, evaluated in the continuum model, starting in a uniform polar state. The shaded region B is the region where the homogenous polar liquid is linearly unstable to spin wave fluctuations.
Again, particle simulations show that the inhomogeneous spinning bands are found beyond the linear stability boundary that delimits region B, suggesting that this region is also a spinodal region.} {\color{black}The diamonds correspond to spin fluctuations $\Delta S=\sqrt{\frac{1}{N}\sum_{\bf r}<(S(\bm r)-<S>)^2>}=0.0003$}. \black{In the overdamped limit $\chi\rightarrow 0$, the spin-wave instability vanishes due to the rapid decay of spin current fluctuations over time $\chi/\eta$, and the dynamics of the system is controlled solely by a rescaled alignment strength $\gamma$, with a generic banding instability close to the flocking transition, as in the Vicsek and the Toner-Tu models ~\cite{Bertin2006,Bertin2009,Mishra2010}. Our result, together with Ref.~\cite{Andrea2015}, highlights for the first time the importance of inertia in controlling dynamics of active polar systems at large length scales.}
To understand the nature of the spin waves that mediate the transfer of turning information within the flock, we study the propagation of the spin waves numerically with Eqs.~(\ref{eq:rho}-\ref{eq:spin}) by initializing the system in the uniformly polarized state, with a concentrated spin current at the center (Fig.~\ref{fig:wave_speed}a). We measure the longitudinal and transverse speed as a function of alignment strength $\gamma$ for various $\chi$ and plot the results in Fig.~\ref{fig:wave_speed}b. The longitudinal speed (circles) increases with the strength of alignment interaction while the transverse speed (squares) stays approximately constant over the range of parameters.
In the longitudinal direction, where $\delta w_y$ and $\delta s$ decouple from $\delta w_x$ and $\delta \rho$, the spin wave is governed by a damped wave equation at finite wavelength with wave speed $c_s=w_0\sqrt{\Omega_1\Omega_3}$ proportional to alignment strength. In the transverse direction, all fluctuations are coupled and the dynamics is governed at long wavelength by the hydrodynamic mode (Eq.\ref{eq:spin-t})
with an angular-dependent propagating speed that reduces to $|c^{\pm}(\pi/2)|=1/\sqrt{2}$ in the transverse direction as given in Eqn.\ref{eq:cpm}, and fits the data quantitatively in Fig.\ref{fig:wave_speed}b.
We have derived continuum equations that generalize the Toner-Tu model of flocking to incorporate turning inertia by coarse-graining the active inertial spin model proposed recently by Cavagna \emph{et al. }\cite{Cavagna2014}. The coarse-graining simplifies the analysis by shrinking the number of independent parameters to two. The interplay between rotational inertia and bending elasticity of a polarized flock provides a mechanism for the propagation of turning information through the flock in the form of collective spin-wave excitations. By studying the continuum equations analytically and numerically, we predict a new instability of the polarized state associated with large density and spin current fluctuations that leads to complex spatio-temporal patterns of continuously swirling and rotating flocks. This long-wavelength instability is associated with the growth of anisotropic spin waves and is referred to as\emph{ spin-wave instability}.
\vspace{0.2in}
We thank Sriram Ramaswamy and Andrea Cavagna for useful discussions. The research leading to this work was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) awards DMR-1305184 and DGE-1068780 at Syracuse University and NSF award PHY11-25915 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Grant No. 2919 at the KITP at the University of California, Santa Barbara. MCM also acknowledges support from the Simons Foundation.
{\color{black}
\section{Appendix A: Dimensionless parameters}
It is useful to clarify our choice of dimensionless parameters by making contact with the non-inertial Vicsek model familiar from the literature. The continuous-time Vicsek model can be obtained from Eqs.~(1) and (2) of the main text by letting $\chi=0$ and eliminating $s_i$, with the result,
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:ri_a}
\frac{d\bm r_i}{dt}=v_0\bm \hat{\bm e}_{\theta_i};,\\
\label{eq:thetai_a}
\frac{d\theta_i}{dt}=\frac{\gamma}{\eta}\sum\limits_{j}\tilde{F}(\theta_j-\theta_i,\bm r_{ji})+\sqrt{\frac{2\epsilon}{\eta^2}}~ \xi_i(t)\;,
\end{gather}
where $\tilde{F}(\theta)=F(\theta)/(\pi R^2)$ for $|\mathbf{r}_{ij}|\leq R$ and zero otherwise, with $F(\theta)=\sin\theta$. The non-inertial limit corresponds to a Vicsek model with alignment strength $\gamma/\eta$ and noise amplitude $\epsilon/\eta^2$. The additional parameters in Eqs.~\eqref{eq:ri_a} and \eqref{eq:thetai_a} are $v_0$, the mean density $\rho_0=N/L^2$, and the radius $R$ of the interaction. If we scale lengths with $R$ and times with $R/v_0$ the continuous time Vicsek model described by Eqs.~\eqref{eq:ri_a} and \eqref{eq:thetai_a} contains three dimensionless parameters: the scaled noise, $\epsilon R/(\eta^2 v_0)$, the scaled alignment strength, $\gamma/(\eta Rv_0)$, and the mean density $\rho_0R^2$. The discrete time Vicsek model can be recovered by assuming that the alignment is instantaneous, i.e., $(\gamma/\eta R^2)^{-1}$ is short compared to all other times scales (specifically $\tau_\epsilon=\eta^2/\epsilon$ and the time step for updating the dynamics). The resulting model contain two dimensionless parameters: the mean density $\rho_0R^2$ and the noise $\epsilon R/(\eta^2 v_0)$, as expected.
Alternatively, in Eqs.~\eqref{eq:ri_a} and \eqref{eq:thetai_a} we can scale times with $\tau_\epsilon$ and lengths with $v_0\tau_\epsilon$. The microdynamics then takes the form
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:ri_a_scaled}
\frac{d\bm r_i}{dt}=\bm \hat{\bm e}_{\theta_i};,\\
\label{eq:thetai_a_scaled}
\frac{d\theta_i}{dt}=\frac{\gamma\eta}{\epsilon}\sum\limits_{j\in C_{\tilde{R}}}{F}(\theta_j-\theta_i)+\sqrt{2}~ \xi_i(t)\;,
\end{gather}
where $\mathbf{R}_i$ and time are now all dimensionless, $F(\theta)=\sin\theta$ and we have made explicit the dependence on the interaction range, with $C_{\tilde{R}}$ a circle of radius $\tilde{R}=R\tau_\epsilon/v_0$.
The mean field limit of these equations will only depend on the dimensionless parameter $\gamma\eta\rho_0/\epsilon=\tau_\epsilon/\tau_\gamma$.
There are, however, two additional parameters that provide cutoffs to the mean-field theory: the interaction range at small scales and the system size at large scales, both scale with $v_0\tau_\epsilon$. In other words, although seemingly magically rewritten in terms of a single parameter, the model still contains three independent parameters. {\color{black} When comparing to solution of the nonlinear PDE's obtained in mean-field to the results of particle simulations where we set $R=1$ one should think of the density $\rho_0R^2$ and $\gamma\eta/(\epsilon R^2)$ as independent parameters.}
For the inertial continuous time model described by Eqs. (1) and (2) of the main text, the same transformation yields a mean field theory that contains only two dimensionless parameters, defined as $\tilde{\gamma}$ and $\tilde{\chi}$ in the main text. To these, however, we must add the two cutoffs at large and small scales. The non-inertial limit is recovered for $\tilde{\chi}=0$.
}
\section{Appendix B: Derivation of the hydrodynamic equations}
The Fokker-Planck equation for the one-particle probability density $P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)$ associated with Eqs. (1) and (2) of the main text is given by
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\dot{P}(\bm r,\theta,s,t)+\bm v_{\theta}\cdot\nabla P=-\frac{\partial}{\partial\theta}(\frac{1}{\chi}sP)+T(\theta,\bm r,t)\frac{\partial P}{\partial s}+\frac{\partial}{\partial s}(\frac{\eta}{\chi}sP)+\epsilon\frac{\partial^2 P}{\partial s^2}\:,
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
where $T(\theta,\bm r,t)=-\gamma\int_{-\pi}^{\pi}d\theta' F(\theta'-\theta)p_0(\bm r,\theta',t)$ is the torque. We have assumed local interaction $F(\theta,\bm r)=\delta(\bm r)$sin$(\theta)$ and defined $p_0(\bm r,\theta',t)=\int_{s}P(\bm r,\theta',s,t)$~\footnote{This interaction does not describe the mean polarization deep in the ordered state. We have verified that better behaved models such as $F(\theta)\sim\sin(\theta/2)$, give equations of the same structure and do not affect the qualitative behavior and instabilities.}. To make the notation more compact, we define the Fokker-Planck operator as
\begin{gather}
L_k=L_{rev}+L_{ir}\:,\\
L_{rev}=-\frac{s}{\chi}\frac{\partial}{\partial\theta}+T(\bm r,\theta,t)\frac{\partial}{\partial s}-\bm v_{\theta}\cdot\bm\nabla\:,\\
L_{ir}=\frac{\eta}{\chi}\frac{\partial}{\partial s}(s+s_{0}^2\frac{\partial}{\partial s})\:,
\end{gather}
where $L_{rev}$ and $L_{ir}$ represent the reversible and irriversible part of the Fokker-Planck operator respectively, and we have introduced the steady state value of the spin $s^2_{0}=\epsilon\chi/\eta$. In the absence of interaction and activity, the steady state distribution of the spin, obtained by setting the time derivative to zero, has a Maxwell-like form, given by
\begin{gather}
P_0(s)=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi s^2_{0}}}\exp(-\frac{s^2}{2s^2_{0}}).
\end{gather}
Following standard methods~\cite{Risken1988}, we transform the Fokker-Planck operator by multiplying it from the right and the left by $\phi_0(s)=P_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(s)$ and $\phi_0^{-1}(s)=P_0^{-\frac{1}{2}}(s)$, respectively, with the result
\begin{gather}
\bar{L}_k=\phi_0^{-1}(s)L_k \phi_0(s)=\bar{L}_{rev}+\bar{L}_{ir}\:,\\
\bar{L}_{ir}=-\frac{\eta}{\chi} b^+b\:,~~\bar{L}_{rev}=-bD-b^+\hat{D}-\bm v_{\theta}\cdot\bm \nabla\:,
\end{gather}
where $b^{+}$ and $b$ are creation and annihilation operators, respectively.
\begin{gather}
b^+\phi_n(s)=\sqrt{n+1}\phi_{n+1}(s)\:,\\
b\phi_n(s)=\sqrt{n}\phi_{n-1}(s).
\end{gather}
$D$ and $\hat{D}$ are the differential operators, with the latter containing the information of the interaction,
\begin{gather}
b^{+}=-s_{0}\frac{\partial}{\partial s}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{s}{s_{0}}\:,~~~~~b=s_{0}\frac{\partial}{\partial s}+\frac{1}{2}\frac{s}{s_{0}}\:,\\
D=\frac{s_{0}}{\chi}\frac{\partial}{\partial\theta}\:,~~~~~\hat{D}=\frac{s_{0}}{\chi}\frac{\partial}{\partial\theta}+\frac{T(\theta,\bm r,t)}{s_{0}}.
\end{gather}
The normalized eigenfunctions $\phi_n(s)$ of the operator $\bar{L}_{ir}=-\frac{\eta}{\chi} b^+b$ are defined by the eigenvalue equation
\begin{gather}
\bar{L}_{ir}\phi_n(s)=-\frac{\eta}{\chi} n\phi_n(s)\:,
\end{gather}
with
\begin{gather}
\phi_n(s)=(b^+)^n\phi_0(s)/\sqrt{n!}\:,\\
\phi_0(s)=\exp(-\frac{s^2}{4s^2_{0}})/\sqrt{s_{0}\sqrt{2\pi}}.
\end{gather}
Finally, $\phi_n(s)$ are related to the physicists' Hermite polynomials $H_n(x)=\left(2x-\frac{d}{dx}\right)^n\cdot 1$ as
\begin{gather}
\phi_n(s)=H_n(\frac{s}{\sqrt{2}s_{0}})\exp(-\frac{s^2}{4s^2_{0}})/\sqrt{n!2^n s_{0}\sqrt{2\pi}}.
\end{gather}
We now expand the probability distribution function in terms of $\phi_n(s)$,
\begin{gather}
P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)=\phi_0(s)\sum_{n=0}^{\infty}p_n(\bm r,\theta,t)\phi_n(s)\:,
\end{gather}
and we insert the expansion into the \black{Fokker-Planck} equation,
\begin{gather}
\partial_t P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)=L_k P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)\:,
\end{gather}
where the \black{Fokker-Planck} operator is obtained after an inverse transformation, as
\begin{gather}
L_k=\phi_0(s)(-\frac{\eta}{\chi} b^+b-bD-b^+\hat{D}-\bm v\cdot\bm \nabla)\phi_0^{-1}(s).
\end{gather}
Using the properties of the operators and the orthogonality of the Hermite polynomials, we obtain a hierachy of equations for the moments $p_n(\bm r,\theta,t)$,
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:moments}
\mathcal{D}_t p_n(\bm r,\theta,t)=-\frac{\eta}{\chi} np_n(\bm r,\theta,t)-\sqrt{n+1}Dp_{n+1}(\bm r,\theta,t)-\sqrt{n}\hat{D}p_{n-1}(\bm r,\theta,t)\:,
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
where $\mathcal{D}_t=\partial_t+\bm v_{\theta}\cdot\bm \nabla$ is the material derivative. Explicitly, the equations for the first three moments are given by
\begin{gather}
\mathcal{D}_t p_0=-Dp_1\:,\\
\mathcal{D}_t p_1=-\frac{\eta}{\chi} p_1-\sqrt{2}Dp_2-\hat{D}p_0\:,\\
\mathcal{D}_t p_2=-\frac{2\eta}{\chi} p_2-\sqrt{3}Dp_3-\sqrt{2}\hat{D}p_1.
\end{gather}
The first two moments are related to the probability density $c(\bm r,\theta,t)$ of finding a particle at $\bm r$, with velocity directed along $\theta$ at time $t$ and the spin current $j(\bm r,\theta,t)$ as
\begin{gather}
c(\bm r,\theta,t)=p_0=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}P(\bm r,\theta,s,t)ds\:,\\
j(\bm r,\theta,t)=s_{0}p_1=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}sP(\bm r,\theta,s,t)ds.
\end{gather}
To obtain closed equations for $c$ and $j$, we set $\mathcal{D}_t p_2=0$ for times long compared to $\chi/2\eta$, and let $p_n=0$ for $n\ge 3$. We then eliminate $p_2$ in favor of $p_0$ and $p_1$ to obtain closed equations. The equations for density and current are then given by
\begin{gather}
\mathcal{D}_t c(\bm r,\theta,t)=-\frac{1}{\chi}\frac{\partial j}{\partial \theta}\:,\\
\mathcal{D}_t j(\bm r,\theta,t)=-\frac{\eta}{\chi}j+\frac{\epsilon}{\eta^2}\frac{\partial^2 j}{\partial \theta^2}+\frac{1}{\eta}\frac{\partial [T(\bm r,\theta,t) j]}{\partial \theta}\\\notag-\frac{\epsilon}{\eta}\frac{\partial c}{\partial \theta}-T(\bm r,\theta,t) c.
\end{gather}
The goal is to obtain closed equations for the number density $\rho(\bm r,t)$, polarization density $\bm w(\bm r,t)$ and spin current $S(\bm r,t)$, which are the conserved, symmetry-breaking and relevant dynamic variables in the flocking system, respectively. Generalizing the method described in Ref.\cite{Bertin2009}, we introduce the angular Fourier transform of $c$ and $j$ as
\begin{gather}
c_k(\bm r,t)=\int_{-\pi}^{\pi} c(\bm r,\theta,t)e^{ik\theta}d\theta\:,\\
j_k(\bm r,t)=\int_{-\pi}^{\pi}j(\bm r,\theta,t)e^{ik\theta}d\theta\:,
\end{gather}
which are related to $\rho(\bm r,t)$, $\bm w(\bm r,t)$ and $S(\bm r,t)$ by
\begin{gather}
\rho(\bm r,t)=c_0(\bm r,t)\:,~~~~S(\bm r,t)=j_0(\bm r,t)\:,\\
w_x(\bm r,t)=Re[c_1(\bm r,t)]\:,~~~~w_y(\bm r,t)=Im[c_1(\bm r,t)]\:,
\end{gather}
whose dynamic equations are
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\partial_t c_k(\bm r,t)+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^* c_{k+1}+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_{k-1}=\frac{ik}{\chi}j_k\:,\\
\partial_t j_k(\bm r,t)+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^* j_{k+1}+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla j_{k-1}=-\frac{\eta_k}{\chi}j_k+\frac{ik\epsilon}{\eta}c_k+\frac{ik\gamma}{2\pi\eta}\sum_{m}j_{k-m}F_{-m}c_{m}+\frac{\gamma}{2\pi}\sum_{m}c_{k-m}F_{-m}c_m\:,
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
where $\nabla=\partial_x+i\partial_y$, $\nabla^*=\partial_x-i\partial_y$ and $F_{\pm 1}=\pm i\pi$. We have introduced an effective friction
$\eta_k=\eta+k^2\epsilon\chi/\eta^2$.
Explicity, the equations for $c_0$, $c_1$ and $j_0$ are given by
\begin{gather}
\partial_t c_0+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*c_1+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c^*_{1}=0\:,\\
\partial_t c_1+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*c_2+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_{0}=\frac{i}{\chi}j_1\:,\\
\partial_t j_0+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*j_1+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla j^*_{1}=-\frac{\eta}{\chi}j_0.
\end{gather}
To close these equations, we need to express $j_1$ and $c_2$ in terms of $c_0$, $c_1$ and $j_0$. To do so, we consider the equations for $j_1$, $j_2$ and $c_2$,
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\partial_t j_1+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*j_2+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla j_0=-\frac{\eta_1}{\chi}j_1+\frac{i\epsilon}{\eta}c_1-\frac{\gamma}{2\eta}(j_2c^*_1-j_0c_1)+\frac{i\gamma}{2}(c_2c^*_1-c_0c_1)\:,\\
\partial_t j_2+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*j_3+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla j_1=-\frac{\eta_2}{\chi}j_2+\frac{2i\epsilon}{\eta}c_2-\frac{\gamma}{\eta}(j_3c^*_1-j_1c_1)+\frac{i\gamma}{2}(c_3c^*_1-c_1c_1)\:,\\
\partial_t c_2+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*c_3+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_1=\frac{2i}{\chi}j_2.
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
For times long compared to $\chi/\eta$, we set $\partial_t j_1=\partial_t j_2=0$. Retaining terms up to first order in $\chi/\eta$ we obtain the expression for $j_1$ and $j_2$,
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
j_1=\frac{\chi}{\eta_1}\left[\frac{i\epsilon}{\eta}c_1+\frac{\gamma}{2\eta}j_0c_1+\frac{i\gamma}{2}(c_2c^*_1-c_0c_1)-\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla j_0\right]+\mathcal{O}(\chi^2),\\
\label{eqn:j2}
j_2=\frac{\chi}{\eta_2}(\frac{2i\epsilon}{\eta}c_2-\frac{i\gamma}{2}c_1^2)+\mathcal{O}(\chi^2).
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
Inserting Eq.~\ref{eqn:j2} into the equation for $c_2$, we obtain,
\begin{gather}
\partial_t c_2+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla^*c_3+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_1=\frac{\gamma}{\eta_2} c_1^2-\frac{4\epsilon}{\eta\eta_2}c_2.
\end{gather}
For times long compared to $\eta\eta_2/(4\epsilon)$, we follow the method of Ref.~\cite{Bertin2009, Chate2014} and set $\partial_t c_2=0$ and $c_n=0$ for $n\ge 3$ to obtain the expression for $c_2$,
\begin{gather}
c_2=\frac{\gamma\eta}{4\epsilon}c^2_1-\frac{v_0\eta\eta_2}{8\epsilon}\nabla c_1.
\end{gather}
Using the expressions for $j_1$ and $c_2$, we obtain the closed equations,
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\frac{\partial c_0}{\partial t}+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c^*_1+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_1=0\:,\\
\frac{\partial c_1}{\partial t}+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla c_0+\frac{v_0\gamma\eta}{8\epsilon}\nabla^*c_1^2=\left(\frac{\gamma}{2\eta_1}c_0-\frac{\epsilon}{\eta\eta_1}-\frac{\gamma^2\eta}{8\epsilon\eta_1}|c_1|^2\right)c_1+\frac{i\gamma}{2\eta\eta_1}j_0c_1\notag\\-\frac{iv_0}{2\eta_1}\nabla j_0+\frac{\gamma v_0\eta\eta_2}{16\epsilon\eta_1}c^*_1\nabla c_1+\frac{v_0^2\eta\eta_2}{16\epsilon}\nabla^2 c_1\:,\\
\frac{\partial j_0}{\partial t}+\frac{i\chi\gamma v_0^2\eta\eta_2}{32\epsilon\eta_1}\left(\nabla\left[(\nabla^*c_1^*)c_1\right])-\nabla^*\left[(\nabla c_1)c_1^*\right]\right)=-\frac{v_0\gamma\chi}{4\eta_1}\left[i\nabla (c_0c^*_1)-i\nabla^*(c_0c_1)\right]-\frac{v_0\epsilon\chi}{2\eta\eta_1}\left(-i\nabla c^*_1+i\nabla^*c_1\right)\\-\frac{v_0\gamma^2\eta\chi}{16\epsilon\eta_1}\left[-i\nabla(|c_1|^2c^*_1)+i\nabla^*(|c_1|^2c_1)\right]-\frac{v_0\gamma\chi}{4\eta\eta_1}\left[\nabla (c^*_1j_0)+\nabla^* (c_1j_0)\right]+\frac{\chi v_0^2}{2\eta_1}\nabla^2 j_0-\frac{\eta}{\chi}j_0.
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
Using the following identities,
\begin{gather}
\nabla^*c^2_1=\left[2(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm w+2\bm w(\nabla\cdot\bm w)-\nabla|w|^2\right]\:,\\
ic_1j_0=\bm S\times\bm w\:,\\
i\nabla j_0=-\nabla\times\bm S\\
i\nabla (c_0c^*_1)-i\nabla^*(c_0c_1)=-2\nabla\times(\rho\bm w)\:,\\
-i\nabla c^*_1+i\nabla^*c_1=2\nabla\times\bm w\:,\\
-i\nabla(|c_1|^2c^*_1)+i\nabla^*(|c_1|^2c_1)=2\nabla\times (|w|^2\bm w)\:,\\
\nabla (c^*_1j_0)+\nabla^* (c_1j_0)=2\bm S\nabla\cdot\bm w+2(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm S\:,\\
c^*_1\nabla c_1=(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm w-\bm w(\nabla\cdot\bm w)+\frac{1}{2}\nabla |\bm w|^2\:,\\
i\left(\nabla\left[(\nabla^*c_1^*)c_1\right])-\nabla^*\left[(\nabla c_1)c_1^*\right]\right)=-2\bm w\times\nabla^2\bm w,
\end{gather}
we finally obtain the hydrodynamic equations~\footnote{An alternative closure proposed in \cite{Bartolo2013} yields continuum equations with the same structure as those obtained here, but with different coefficients.},
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}=-\nabla\cdot(v_0\bm w)\:,\\
\frac{\partial \bm w}{\partial t}+\frac{v_0}{2}\nabla\rho+\frac{v_0\gamma\eta}{8\epsilon}\left[2(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm w+2\bm w(\nabla\cdot\bm w)-\nabla|w|^2\right]=
\left(\frac{\gamma}{2\eta_1}\rho-\frac{\epsilon}{\eta\eta_1}-\frac{\gamma^2\eta}{8\epsilon\eta_1}|w|^2\right)\bm w\\+\frac{\gamma}{2\eta\eta_1}\bm S\times\bm w+\frac{v_0}{2\eta_1}\nabla\times\bm S+\frac{\gamma v_0\eta\eta_2}{16\epsilon\eta_1}\left[(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm w-\bm w(\nabla\cdot\bm w)+\frac{1}{2}\nabla |w|^2\right]+\frac{v_0^2\eta\eta_2}{16\epsilon}\nabla^2\bm w\:,\\
\frac{\partial \bm S}{\partial t}=\frac{v_0\gamma\chi}{2\eta_1}\nabla\times(\rho\bm w)-\frac{v_0\chi\epsilon}{\eta\eta_1}\nabla\times\bm w-\frac{v_0\gamma^2\chi\eta}{8\epsilon\eta_1}\nabla\times(|w|^2\bm w)-\frac{v_0\gamma\chi}{2\eta\eta_1}\bm \left[\bm S(\nabla\cdot\bm w)+(\bm w\cdot\nabla) \bm S\right]\notag\\+\frac{\chi\gamma v_0^2\eta\eta_2}{16\epsilon\eta_1}\bm w\times\nabla^2\bm w+\frac{\chi v_0^2}{2\eta_1}\nabla^2\bm S-\frac{\eta}{\chi}\bm S.
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
\section{Appendix C: Mode analysis}
We start with the dimensionless hydrodynamic equations. Time is scaled by the rotational diffusion time $\tau_{\epsilon}=\eta^2/\epsilon$ and length by the persistence length \black{$v_0\tau_{\epsilon}$}. $\bm w$ and $\rho$ are scaled by the average number density $\rho_0$ and $\bm S$ by $\rho_0\chi/\tau_{\epsilon}$, leading to~\footnote{If we neglect $\partial_t\bm S$ in Eq.~\eqref{eq:spin_dimless} and use the resulting equations to eliminate $\bm S$ in favor of $\rho$ and $\bm w$, the resulting continuum equations have the same structure as those obtained in \cite{Farrell2012}, with $\mathcal{O}(\tau_\eta/\tau_\epsilon)$ corrections to various coefficients.}
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\frac{\partial \rho}{\partial t}=-\nabla\cdot\bm w,\\
\frac{\partial \bm w}{\partial t}+\lambda_1(\bm w\cdot\bm \nabla)\bm w=-\left[\alpha(\rho)+\beta|w|^2\right]\bm w-\frac{1}{2}\bm \nabla\rho+\lambda_2\bm w(\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w)+\Omega_1\bm S\times\bm w+\Omega_2\bm \nabla\times\bm S+D_w\nabla^2\bm w,\\
\label{eq:spin_dimless}
\frac{\partial \bm S}{\partial t}+\lambda_s(\bm w\cdot\nabla)\bm S=-\bm \nabla\times\left[(\alpha(\rho)+\beta|w|^2)\bm w\right]+\Omega_3\bm w\times\nabla^2\bm w-\lambda_s\bm S(\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w)-\xi\bm S+D_s\nabla^2\bm S.
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
All parameters are related to two microscopic dimensionless variables: the scaled alignment strength $\tilde{\gamma}=\tau_{\epsilon}/\tau_{\gamma}$ and inertia $\tilde{\chi}=\tau_{\eta}/\tau_{\epsilon}$, where $\tau_{\epsilon}=\eta^2/\epsilon$, $\tau_{\eta}=\chi/\eta$ and $\tau_{\gamma}=\eta/(\gamma\rho_0)$ are the three natural timescales in the system corresponding to rotational diffusion, frictional dissipation and alignment interaction.
We drop the tilde in the following discussion for simplicity of notation.
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\alpha(\rho)=\frac{1}{1+\chi}(1-\frac{\gamma\rho}{2}),~~\beta=\frac{1}{1+\chi}\frac{\gamma^2}{8},\notag\\
\Omega_1=\frac{\chi\gamma}{2(1+\chi)},~~\Omega_2=\frac{\chi}{2(1+\chi)},~~\Omega_3=\frac{\gamma}{16}(\frac{1+4\chi}{1+\chi}),\notag\\
\lambda_1=\frac{\gamma}{4}-\frac{\gamma}{16}(\frac{1+4\chi}{1+\chi}),~~\lambda_2=-\left[\frac{\gamma}{4}+\frac{\gamma}{16}(\frac{1+4\chi}{1+\chi})\right]\lambda_s=\frac{\chi\gamma}{2(1+\chi)},\notag\\
\xi=\frac{1}{\chi},~~D_w=\frac{1+4\chi}{16},~~D_s=\frac{\chi}{2(1+\chi)}.\notag
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
To perform linear mode analysis, we restrict ourselves to the 2D planar case. The isotropic state is always linearly stable therefore trivial, and we focus on the uniformly polarized state for $\gamma>2$ with the direction of spontaneous broken symmetry along $\hat{x}$. Perturbing around the polarized state $\rho=1+\delta\rho$, $\bm w=w_0\hat{x}+\delta\bm w$ and $\bm S=\delta S\hat{z}$, we arrive at the linearized equations
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\frac{\partial \delta\rho}{\partial t}=-\nabla\cdot\delta \bm w,\\
\frac{\partial \delta\bm w}{\partial t}+\lambda_1 w_0\partial_x\delta\bm w=\left(\mu_1\delta\rho+\mu_2\delta w_x\right)w_0\hat{x}-\frac{1}{2}\bm\nabla\delta\rho+\lambda_2 w_0\hat{x}\bm\nabla\cdot\delta\bm w+\Omega_1\delta S\hat{z}\times w_0\hat{x}+\Omega_2\bm\nabla\times\delta S\hat{z}+D_w\nabla^2\delta\bm w,\\
\frac{\partial \delta S\hat{z}}{\partial t}+\lambda_sw_0\partial_x(\delta S_z\hat{z})=\nabla\times\left[(\mu_1\delta\rho+\mu_2\delta w_x)w_0\hat{x}\right]+\Omega_3 w_0\hat{x}\times\nabla^2\delta w-\xi\delta S\hat{z}+D_s\nabla^2(\delta S\hat{z}),
\label{eqns_linearized}
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
where $\mu_1=-\partial_{\rho}\alpha=\frac{\gamma}{2(1+\chi)}$, $\mu_2=-2\beta w_0=-\frac{w_0\gamma^2}{4(1+\chi)}$ and $w_0=\left[(\frac{\gamma}{2}-1)\frac{8}{\gamma^2}\right]^{1/2}$.
\subsection{Longitudinal mode $q=q_x$}
Considering mode along the direction of broken symmetry, we obtain
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\sigma\delta\rho=-iq\delta w_x,\\
\sigma\delta w_x=\mu_1 w_0\delta \rho+\mu_2 w_0\delta w_x-\frac{iq}{2}\delta\rho+iq(\lambda_2-\lambda_1)w_0\delta w_x-D_w q^2\delta w_x,\\
\sigma\delta w_y=-iq\lambda_1 w_0\delta w_y+\Omega_1 w_0\delta S-iq\Omega_2\delta S- D_wq^2\delta w_y,\\
\sigma\delta S=-q^2\Omega_3 w_0\delta w_y-\xi\delta S-iqw_0\lambda_s\delta S-D_sq^2\delta S
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
\paragraph{\bf{``Banding Instability"}} Notice that $\delta\rho$ and $\delta w_x$ decouple from $\delta w_y$ and $\delta S$, leading to the dispersion relation
\begin{gather}
\sigma_l(q)=\frac{i\mu_1}{\mu_2}q+\frac{1}{\mu_2 w_0}\left[\frac{(\lambda_2-\lambda_1)w_0\mu_1}{\mu_2}+\frac{1}{2}-\frac{\mu_1^2}{\mu_2^2}\right]q^2+\mathcal{O}(q^3).
\end{gather}
Fluctuations in density and magnitude of polarization lead to the ``banding instability" close to the isotropic-polar phase transition as generally observed in polar active fluid, the condition of which is given by
\begin{gather}
\frac{(\lambda_2-\lambda_1)w_0\mu_1}{\mu_2}+\frac{1}{2}<\frac{\mu_1^2}{\mu_2^2}.
\end{gather}
In terms of the microscopic parameters, it reads
\begin{gather}
\gamma<\frac{8}{3}.
\end{gather}
\paragraph{\bf{Spin wave}} Dynamics of $\delta w_y$ and $\delta S$ gives rise to the spin wave, carrying the information of turning. Neglecting convections and diffusion, the dispersion relation for the spin wave is
\begin{gather}
\sigma_s^{\pm}=-\frac{\xi}{2}\pm c_sq\sqrt{\frac{[\xi/(2c_s)]^2}{q^2}-1},
\end{gather}
where
\begin{gather}
c_s=w_0\sqrt{\Omega_1\Omega_3}=\left[(\frac{\gamma}{2}-1)\frac{\chi(1+4\chi)}{4(1+\chi)^2}\right]^{\frac{1}{2}}
\end{gather}
is the wave speed.
\subsection{Transverse mode $q=q_y$}
\paragraph{\bf{Transverse instability}}Transverse mode is governed by the full coupled equations:
\begin{widetext}
$$\begin{pmatrix} 0&0&-iq&0\\\mu_1 w_0&\mu_2w_0-D_wq^2&iq\lambda_2 w_0&iq\Omega_2\\-\frac{iq}{2}&iq\lambda_sw_0&-D_wq^2&\Omega_1w_0\\-iqw_0\mu_1&-iqw_0\mu_2&-q^2\Omega_3w_0&-\xi-D_sq^2\end{pmatrix}\begin{pmatrix}\delta\rho\\\delta w_x\\\delta w_y\\\delta S\end{pmatrix}=\sigma_t(q)\begin{pmatrix}\delta\rho\\\delta w_x\\\delta w_y\\\delta S\end{pmatrix},$$
\end{widetext}
which leads to the dispersion relation once treated perturbatively in the long wavelength limit:
\begin{widetext}
\begin{gather}
\sigma_t^{\pm}(q)=\pm \frac{\sqrt{2}i}{2}q+\frac{1}{\xi}\left(\frac{w_0\mu_1\Omega_1}{2\mu_2}-\frac{\Omega_1\Omega_3 w_0^2}{2}-\frac{\lambda_2 w_0^2\Omega_1}{2}-\frac{D_w\xi}{2}\right)q^2+\mathcal{O}(q^3),
\end{gather}
\end{widetext}
\black{from which the condition for transverse instability is obtained as}
\begin{gather}
\label{eqn:transverse_cond}
\frac{w_0\Omega_1\mu_1}{\mu_2}-\lambda_2 w_0^2\Omega_1>D_w\xi+\Omega_1\Omega_3 w_0^2,
\end{gather}
or in terms of microscopic parameters
\begin{gather}
\gamma>\frac{(1+4\chi)(1+\chi)}{8\chi^2}+4.
\end{gather}
The phase diagram is plotted in Fig.2a in the main text, with quantitative agreement between the numerical and analytical phase boundaries. This transverse instability renders the system spatially inhomogeneous with large density and spin fluctuations characterized by continuously turning and swirling flocks with propagating spin waves. Therefore, we term it the spin-wave instability. The spatial-temporal patterns have been observed from both the numerical simulations of the hydrodynamic equations and particle simulations \footnote{We have performed extensive particle simulations that confirm the existence of a region of turning flocks and large spin density fluctuations at large $\gamma$. Typical snapshots from simulations are shown in Fig. 1 in the main text, but the full simulation results will be reported elsewhere.}.
To understand the origin of the instability, we write down the minimal equations that yield this instability. For clarity, we write down the dimensionful form.
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:w}
\partial_t\bm w=-\beta|\bm w|^2\bm w+\lambda_2\bm w(\bm \nabla\cdot\bm w)+\Omega_1\bm S\times\bm w\;,\\
\partial_t\bm S=-v_0\chi\bm \nabla\times\left(\beta|w|^2\bm w\right)-\xi\bm S\;,
\label{eq:spin_simp_vect}
\end{gather}
where $\lambda_2=-v_0\gamma\eta/(4\epsilon)-\gamma v_0\eta\eta_2/(16\epsilon\eta_1)<0$, $\beta=\eta\gamma^2/(8\epsilon\eta_1)$, $\Omega_1=\gamma/(2\eta\eta_1)$ and $\xi=\eta/\chi$. The linearized equations are
\begin{gather}
\label{eq:w}
\partial_t\delta w_x=\mu_2 w_0\delta w_x+\lambda_2 w_0\partial_y\delta w_y\;,\\
\partial_t\delta w_y=\Omega_1 w_0\delta s_z\;,\\
\partial_t\delta s_z=-\mu_s w_0\partial_y\delta w_x-\xi\delta s_z\;,
\label{eq:spin_simp}
\end{gather}
where $\mu_2=-2\beta w_0<0$ and $\mu_s=v_0\chi \mu_2<0$. They lead to the dispersion relation
\begin{gather}
\label{eqn:transverse3}
\sigma_t(q)=-\frac{w_0^2\lambda_2\mu_s\Omega_1}{\xi\mu_2}q^2+\mathcal{O}(q^3),
\end{gather}
which yields the instability condition
\begin{gather}
\label{eqn:transverse3}
\frac{w_0^2\lambda_2\mu_s\Omega_1}{\xi\mu_2}<0.
\end{gather}
This condition can be interpreted as the growth of bend and splay deformations augmented by the spin wave. If we include the density-dependent alignment interaction, rotational diffusion and spin elasticity, all of which serve as stabalization factors, we recover the full condition \ref{eqn:transverse_cond}. The competition among these effects yields the spin-wave instability, which is model-dependent.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaArXiv"
}
| 5,130
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Q: Is there a good way to use Active Directory authentication with nestjs? I'm in the process of creating a login system using nestjs framework as my back-end. As part of the process, my system has to communicate with Active Directory in order to authenticate a group of users. I was googling for a good amount of time and I couldn't find any way to integrate Active Directory with nestjs. Any kind of suggestion is encouraged.
A: The easiest way is to use the Passport utility module for nestjs:
https://github.com/nestjs/passport
Using passport you can implement the active directory strategy.
var passport = require('passport')
var ActiveDirectoryStrategy = require('passport-activedirectory')
passport.use(new ActiveDirectoryStrategy({
integrated: false,
ldap: {
url: 'ldap://my.domain.com',
baseDN: 'DC=my,DC=domain,DC=com',
username: 'readuser@my.domain.com',
password: 'readuserspassword'
}
}, function (profile, ad, done) {
ad.isUserMemberOf(profile._json.dn, 'AccessGroup', function (err, isMember) {
if (err) return done(err)
return done(null, profile)
})
}))
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 31
|
Diospyros bibracteata est une espèce de plantes de la famille des Ebenaceae.
Publication originale
Gardens' Bulletin, Straits Settlements 7: 165–166. 1933.
Notes et références
Liens externes
Ebenaceae
Espèce d'Angiospermes (nom scientifique)
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
}
| 4,902
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Toronto Raptors Odds & Predictions
Toronto went wild when the Raptors won their first ever NBA title in 2019. But since then the Toronto Raptors have struggled quite a bit. In these 2 years a new coach has come in who is trying to develop a new generation of players for the team.
However, it seems like things haven't been going exactly to plan, but for what it's worth, the Raptors are far from a team of pushovers.
A peek at the Raptors' odds will show you that they don't have a good shot at winning the division this year let alone the NBA title. Will the Raptors beat the odds in the 2021/22 NBA season? Let's find out…
Toronto Raptors schedule for the 2021/22 season
At the time of writing the Raptors have stayed under .500 so far, but that could change soon if they win some important games. The Raptors beat Grizzlies by 13 points in the beginning of November. They also beat the Wizards who currently the second best team in the Eastern Conference.
Although the Raptors have been in a poor form they can still things around as the 2021/22 progresses.
Looking ahead to December, the Raptors' schedule is a mixed bag.
There will be games they can win (against the Grizzlies and Magic), and tough matches against championship favorites such as the Nets, Bulls, Bucks, and Warriors. The schedule seems to lessen a bit toward the end of the month, but the team has a lot of work ahead.
Toronto Raptors latest standings in the 2021/22 season
At the moment, the Toronto Raptors are sitting under the playoff line. They are locked in at the 12th spot with a negative record of 9-12.
It's reflected in the odds of making the playoffs – as things stand now, the Raptors are more likely to miss out on the playoffs at (-335) than making them (+240). Of course, a string of wins can change that, but the team will need everyone performing at full strength for that to happen.
Raptors Odds for the 2021/22 NBA season
As things stand right here are the odds for the Raptors in the 2021/22 NBA season at Unibet:
Raptors Odds of winning the Atlantic Division
The Raptors odds to win the Atlantic Division put the team dead last in the race. The Nets are the leaders at -500, while Toronto's odds are +6000.
Raptors Odds of being conference champions
As things stand right now the Raptors are long shot when it comes to winning the conference champions. In fact, the Raptors currently have the lowest odds of winning the Eastern conference with odds of +8000.
Raptors odds for making it to the 2022 NBA playoffs
Will the Raptors reach the NBA playoffs this season? With the team performing like it is at the moment, it is seems highly unlikely that Raptors make it to the NBA playoffs in 2022. The odds for the Raptors for not making the playoffs are -335 with the opposite option at +240.
Raptors odds for making it to the NBA 2022 Championships
The current Raptors odds to win the NBA 21/22 title are +15000. The number makes it clear they're not favorites at all, being caged in with similar teams such as the Timberwolves and Hornets.
A $1 bet on the Raptors today will get you a $151 if the Raptors pull off a miracle and get their second ever NBA title in 2022 at our Canadian Sportsbook.
Raptors Predictions for the NBA 2021/22 season
We believe that the Raptors are still a solid team that will outperform the current odds for winning the Atlantic Division. The schedule hasn't exactly been great for the team so far. Once it gets better, the Raptors can tie a few wins together and hopefully improve the current standings.
When it comes to the Eastern Conference standings, the Raptors won't shine. The Raptors surely won't win the Eastern Conference until it makes significant changes to the roster around the All-Star break.
Will the Raptors make it to the 2022 NBA playoffs?
The Toronto Raptors might book one of the last two spots for the 2022 NBA Playoffs. IF the team manages to do that, we see them losing to the top Eastern teams in the first round.
Will the Raptors win the NBA 2022 Championships?
The Raptors have won the title a few years ago thanks to Kawhi Leonard's heroics and MVP season, but the team is far from that level. Toronto might reach the playoffs, but winning the NBA championship is a no-go, especially now when the power has shifted to the East.
Best players for the Raptors so far in the 2021/22 NBA Season
While no MVP rewards will be won by a Raptors member, there have been a few players posting great stats so far. Toronto has got a few gems in young players such as Precious Achiuwa acquired in the Dragic trade with the Miami Heat for Kyle Lowry.
The core is still solid with Fred VanVleet and OG Anunoby leading the way. Those players, along with this year's Nr. 4 pick Scottie Barnes, should form the new Raptors core moving forward.
With Lowry gone, it was only natural for VanVleet to take the leader role. He has slightly upped his numbers this year, leading the team in points as expected. After 20 games, VanVleet and OG Anunoby have the share points per game average at 20.1.
As the season moves forward, we expect VanVleet to get those numbers up by a point or two. He's a great player entering his prime and one of the best ones to go undrafted in the NBA. He now has more freedom with Lowry sent to the Heat, allowing VanVleet to shine.
OG Anunoby is in a similar spot. The forward is entering his 4th year in the league and showing all the talent he possesses. He's averaging a career-best 20.1 points per game, shooting 43% from the field and just under 37% from range.
Along with VanVleet, they are the only two players that can be in MVP contention, but both are long shots.
The great news is that Scottie Barnes is showing a glimpse of what's to come for the Raptors, topping the rookie ladder.
His season stats are currently around 15 points per game, and he's set to take that number higher. While no Raptors might win MVP awards, Barnes can earn the ROY title.
Did you like our predictions for the Raptors?
Check out NBA betting guide for some NBA betting tips. If you are looking for some NBA betting promotions check out our promotions page. Check out our bonuses page to grab your Unibet Canada sports betting welcome bonus.
Feel free to check out the latest NBA odds in Canada on our sportsbook.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 3,455
|
Writing is an essential component of the GCE "O" Level Examination. The secondary school students' ability to produce texts that are coherent, organised and following the convention of the genre are very important in determining if the written text is successful or not. This is especially evident in the case of the expository discourse. The secondary school students who move on to the polytechnic or the pre-university to continue their education, will need to know how to write expository texts as they will have to write assignments of the expository genre in these institutions. Those students who lack the strategies of communicating the information in the appropriate manner will find themselves at a disadvantage and will not be able to put forward a convincing argument in relation to the given task.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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| 3,023
|
Q: Why does this code Fail once i add validation in laravel 8? I am just starting to learn Laravel and I am a little lost here. This code works without validation.
The task is to build a website with user registration Posting data to an already existing database. As I have pointed, without validation it works just fine but when i add validation it fails.
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\Member;
class RegController extends Controller
{
public function store(Request $request) {
Member::create([
'fname' => $request ->fname,
'lname' => $request ->lname,
'gender' => $request ->gender,
'msisdn' => $request ->msisdn,
'email' => $request ->email,
'status' => $request ->mstatus,
'no_of_children' => $request ->kids,
'occupation' => $request ->profession,
'age' => $request ->age,
'bna' => $request ->bna,
'residence' => $request ->residence,
]);
return redirect('/members/register');
}
}
But this doesn't...
namespace App\Http\Controllers;
use Illuminate\Http\Request;
use App\Models\Member;
class RegController extends Controller
{
public function store(Request $request) {
$request->validate([
'fname' => 'required',
'lname' => 'required',
'gender' => 'required',
'msisdn' => 'required|unique:members_tbl',
'email' => 'required|unique:members_tbl',
'status' => 'required',
'kids' => 'required',
'profession' => 'required',
'age' => 'required',
'bna' => 'required',
'residence' => 'required',
],
[
'fname.required' => 'Please Enter your First Name',
'lname.required' => 'Please Enter your Last Name',
'gender.required' => 'Please Enter your Gender',
'msisdn.required' => 'Please Enter your Phone Number',
'msisdn.unique' => 'A user has already registered with the phone Number',
'email.unique' => 'A user has already registered with the email',
'email.required' => 'Please enter a valid email address',
'status.required' => 'Please Let us know your marital status',
'kids.required' => 'Please fill out this field',
'profession.required' => 'Please fill out this field',
'age.required' => 'Please fill out this field',
'bna.required' => 'Please fill out this field',
'residence.required' => 'Please let us know where you live',
]);
Member::create([
'fname' => $request ->fname,
'lname' => $request ->lname,
'gender' => $request ->gender,
'msisdn' => $request ->msisdn,
'email' => $request ->email,
'status' => $request ->mstatus,
'no_of_children' => $request ->kids,
'occupation' => $request ->profession,
'age' => $request ->age,
'bna' => $request ->bna,
'residence' => $request ->residence,
]);
return redirect('/members/register');
}
}
What am i missing? The code works well without the validation but just redirects back to the form when validation is added.
Here is my Model
<?php
namespace App\Models;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Factories\HasFactory;
use Illuminate\Database\Eloquent\Model;
class Member extends Model
{
use HasFactory;
public $timestamps = false;
protected $table="members_tbl";
protected $fillable =[
'fname',
'lname',
'gender',
'msisdn',
'email',
'status',
'no_of_children',
'occupation',
'age',
'bna',
'residence'
];
}
This is the result of var_dump($request)
public 'request' =>
object(Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\InputBag)[44]
protected 'parameters' =>
array (size=13)
'_token' => string 'DuNeITGaDF9K7eEMmU4HwX7nVLJUYDaZ1iYGT4dw' (length=40)
'fname' => string 'Joe' (length=3)
'lname' => string 'Peski' (length=5)
'gender' => string 'male' (length=4)
'msisdn' => string '254722000001' (length=12)
'email' => string 'joetry@hotmail.com' (length=18)
'residence' => string 'New Place' (length=9)
'age' => string 'teen' (length=4)
'bna' => string 'no' (length=2)
'mstatus' => string 'single' (length=6)
'kids' => string '4' (length=1)
'profession' => string 'IT' (length=2)
'submit' => string 'Submit' (length=6)
A: I believe it's working as intended. If you are not repopulating the fields with the old values then it looks like the page just gets redirected. Also you need to display the validation messages on the page.
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/validation#repopulating-forms
https://laravel.com/docs/8.x/validation#quick-displaying-the-validation-errors
A: Validator doesn't read your status. Make sure you have a default value for this field.
If status is not required, you can change required to nullable, then create a default value after validation.
You need to display an error message to know what the error is.
$errors = $validator->errors();
Usually, this case occurs when you use a select box, check box, or something that can't read a value or empty, null.
The solution is to add a default value or add a hidden field with a default value.
<input type="hidden" name="status" value="0">
<select name="status">
...
</select>
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 6,649
|
Die Caron & Guay de Beaupré () waren eine kanadische Eishockeymannschaft aus Beaupré, Québec. Das Team spielte von 1999 bis 2001 in der Québec Semi-Pro Hockey League.
Geschichte
Das Franchise der As de Québec aus der Québec Semi-Pro Hockey League wurde 1999 nach Beaupré umgesiedelt und in Caron & Guay de Beaupré umbenannt. Die Mannschaft, die ihren Namen zur Saison 2000/01 in As de Beaupré änderte, gehörte in der LHSPQ zu den schwächeren Mannschaften und belegte in den beiden einzigen Spielzeiten ihres Bestehens den sechsten bzw. siebten Platz ihrer Division (bei jeweils sieben Mannschaften).
Im Sommer 2001 kehrte die Mannschaft nach Quebec City zurück und spielte fortan wieder unter dem Namen As de Québec.
Team-Rekorde (Caron & Guay de Beaupré)
Karriererekorde
Spiele: 38 Sébastien Lefrançois
Tore: 24 Rejean Dufour
Assists: 29 Martin Pouliot
Punkte: 49 Rejean Dufour
Strafminuten: 414 André Falardeau
Weblinks
The Internet Hockey Database – Statistik Caron & Guay de Beaupré
The Internet Hockey Database – Spielerliste Caron & Guay de Beaupré
The Internet Hockey Database – Statistik As de Beaupré
The Internet Hockey Database – Spielerliste As de Beaupré
Beaupre, Caron & Guay de
Beaupre, Caron & Guay de
Capitale-Nationale
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
}
| 7,044
|
Happy New Year 2010 T-Shirt or Tank!
Order your personalized t-shirt or tank soon to ensure you can ring in the new year in style! Order ASAP to ensure delivery by 12/31---item can ship same day if ordered by noon pst. Order one for you and your friends. You pick the style and color of shirt as well as the rhinestone color! Makes a great gift idea, too!
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
| 5,277
|
Q: how to extract "value" from a table tag using class name with jsoup When I try to extract value of tag using class name within Table tag, I get something like this:
<input class="TGNDateInput" type="text" name="txtDate" size="10" maxlength="10" value="2015/08/06">
Using jsoup, how can I extract just the date value ("2015/08/06")?
Here is my code:
System.out.println(table.getElementsByClass("criteriatext").get(1).getElementsByAttribute("value"));
Actual table on web page:
<table BORDER=0 WIDTH=40%>
<tr>
<td class=criteriatext>Date:</td>
<td class=criteriatext>
<input class=DateInput type=text name=txtDate SIZE=10 MAXLENGTH=10 VALUE="2015/08/05">
<span class=textsmall>(yyyy/mm/dd)</span>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
A: You should get it directly using selector:
Element txtDateInput = document.select("input[name=txtDate]").first();
String txtDate = txtDateInput.attr("value");
A: To get value of attribute from Element use Element#attr("attributeName") so in your case it could simply add it after your selector like:
String date = table.getElementsByClass("criteriatext")
.get(1)
.getElementsByAttribute("value")
.attr("value");
System.out.println(date);// -> 2015/08/05
You could probably also simply select input which is placed inside td of class criteriatext and have attribute value like
String date = table.select("td.criteriatext > input[value]").attr("value");
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 9,085
|
{"url":"http:\/\/mathhelpforum.com\/latex-help\/90908-latex-symbols-guide.html","text":"# Thread: LaTeX Symbols Guide\n\n1. ## LaTeX Symbols Guide\n\nFor those of you who have $\\text{\\LaTeX}$ installed on your computer, this symbol guide may come in handy. It also shows examples of font styles and the packages needed to use them.\n\n2. Thanks for the link\n\n3. Given that the anteater wrote it, it really should be called LameTeX.","date":"2018-02-23 20:56:02","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 1, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.8593663573265076, \"perplexity\": 3062.8957346110005}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.3, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2018-09\/segments\/1518891814833.62\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20180223194145-20180223214145-00747.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
Team Runway Square
Hello! The Runway Square team is excited that you're here and we would love to hear what you have to say about this story. Leave a comment below or holler at us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram :*.
LOVE LINKS – The Sisterhood of 'Firgun' Ft. Tillotama Shome & Kalki Koechlin
The Gucci x Runway Square anthology 'LOVE LINKS' puts a spotlight on lesser known, yet enduring bonds shared by known faces. This is the story of Tillotama Shome and Kalki Koechlin.
Share this story, share the love.
The world knows them as doyens of their art, creative extraordinaires, and cultural icons. But beyond that, in an industry that is constantly pitting women against each other, Kalki Koechlin and Tillotma Shome have nurtured a friendship of honesty, respect, and immense love. Their bond is that of sisterhood, of being each other's emotional safety net, even disagreements and differences but also of learning and growing together. From the pomp and glamour of the sets to the caravan lifestyle of the stage to being each other's rock, Kalki and Tillotama's relationship has traversed professional work events, sharing a stage, heart-to-hearts over whiskey to now being entertainers to Kalki's little one, Sappho. Of their sisterhood Tillotama says, "What a powerful, nourishing force the solidarity of women can be!"
As an ode to love, and a celebration of Gucci's first-ever fine jewelry collection launch in India – Link To Love, we explore the many different bonds shared amongst and as friends, father and daughter, artists, collaborators, or with our own selves through Runway Square X Gucci LOVE LINKS Anthology wherein we tell five beautiful stories to honour these connections. We live multiple lives in a lifetime, but love was, is, and always will be there – and that's why this anthology puts a spotlight on the lesser-known, yet enduring connections shared by these known faces. And this is the story of Tillotama Shome and Kalki Koechlin.
RSQ: What was your first meeting like?
Tillotama: It was one of those work events, I think. I saw an actor with her guard up very high and I was dealing with my own insecurities, and that was that.
Kalki: No idea. My memory is worse than Tilly's. I do remember having some good conversations during the shoot of Shanghai.
RSQ: How did the friendship grow from there?
T: I started to get to know Kulks much later when we started shooting for 'A Death in the Gunj'. Some whiskey and tears later she opened up about matters of the heart and it's been all heart since. We did Rajat Kapoor's play 'Macbeth' which made us travel together for months in caravan style. And over time, the friendship went beyond the work that got us together.
K: It took many years of bumping into each other and working together.
RSQ: 'Sisters' are a term that is linked with family, majorly. How and when did you come to realize that you share a bond of sisterhood and not just two very good friends?
T: Sisters/Sisterhood go beyond the traditional notion of genetics. The idea of what a family looks like is also so vastly diverse. Like a bunch of us girls organically came together and became a part of a group called Firgun (means "the genuine, unselfish delight or pride in the accomplishment of another" in Hebrew; an emotion for which there is no word in English) – and this very fitting Hebrew word was found by Kalki for us all. I hadn't been part of such a group before, as I generally avoid 'groups'. But our meetings made me realize in my gut the need for sisterhoods. What a powerful, nourishing force the solidarity of women can be!
K: For me, it was when I saw Tilly getting ready for something fancy, can't remember if it was a shoot or event, but she opened a trunk of sarees, went to one tiny mirror in her bathroom, and got ready in a few minutes. I know I do the same, spend the least possible amount of time on these things. But there were landmarks to our growing friendships, like the time I had a breakdown in the van while shooting for 'A Death in the Gunj' and she came in and gave me a cuddle and a good pep talk. Or, the time when she couldn't get her cue right in Macbeth and came and let it all out after a rehearsal.
RSQ: You are contemporaries in the industry. Does your work/ the industry ever get in the way of your relationship?
T: No, it has never come in the way because we have been so honest with each other. If someone is going through a lean phase, we are acutely aware of it. We are open about feeling insecure, jealous, afraid… Everyone knows the feeling because everyone has been there.
K: Not really, although she said when she first met me she thought I was basically a b****, I know she said in a nice way; my guards were up. I think I just didn't really have space for friends because I was in a consuming relationship at that point. We all learn. I learnt the value of sisters only in my thirties.
Tillotama Shome and Kalki Koechlin, dressed in Gucci Overture collection and Link To Love Jewelry.
RSQ: Sisters love and support each other in equal measures as they fight and critique each other. Is that the case with you as well? Do you agree with each other on most things, or do you also share differences?
T: Of course, we critique each other, especially when it comes to our work. Finally, a space where one can openly speak about what they really thought about a film whether it has you in it or your friend. And as far as our differences, I think too much and I feel Kalki is more spontaneous, without the affliction of analysis paralysis.
K: Yeah, we don't always agree, I think we felt that sometimes, like during the 'MeToo' movement we both felt differently about certain things and spoke about how we handled a certain situation. I think many times it's secondhand news that makes for confusion though and if two people are straight up with each other (and we were), these differences can be respected and accepted.
RSQ: What's the most cherished memory you have of each other?
T: I remember this moment when I was sitting in Kalki's car and she showed me this drawing that she made on a big piece of paper. A drawing that captured the upheaval within her during her pregnancy. I remember at that moment feeling so lucky to have this woman in my life. Of course, seeing Guy and her with Sappho in the clinic was indescribable.
K: Sitting in traffic on the way to Bandra in a cab, and discussing somebody else's love life? I don't know, there's no 'most cherished memory'; there's a series of little conversations and experiences we share that have accumulated over the years to trust and love each other.
RSQ: What are your hangouts like?
K: Sunset, smoke (pre baby, of course), talking about insecurities, or sharing news good and bad, or period problems or watching in amusement our partners not being able to understand each other's accents.
RSQ: According to you, what are some of Tillotama/Kalki's best qualities as a sister/friend?
T: She makes the big decisions with such ease and makes it look so effortless. Shooting, newborn infant, breast pump at work and yet, all smiles. She is inspiring! I also love how she, with her long legs, can curl up like a cat and go to sleep just about anywhere, even on a tiny flight seat.
K: Tilly is always double-checking her conscience; she really thinks about the choices she makes. And that makes me want to pull up my socks. Also, her diligent work on Hindi, on prepping for a role is inspiring and frankly, makes me a little jealous.
RSQ: Do you help her with work-related advice or do you keep those conversations at bay?
T: We talk about work very openly. Share the issues at hand, seek advice. We have spoken openly about how much we are getting paid. If we feel someone is being taken for a ride, we won't hide behind the silence of indifference. The silence between women, an absence of a community that shares information, enables the patriarchal system to perpetuate its unfair practices.
K: Yes, sometimes we discuss things. I wouldn't call it advise so much as a sounding board.
RSQ: What relationship does Sappho share with her?
T: It's pure magic to see Kalki with Sappho. She makes it look like a fairy tale; it is all very French, musical, hippie, and easy.
K: She's fascinated with this enthusiastic Bengali who jumps around her. Tilly dedicates immense energy into entertaining Sappho.
RSQ: Have you ever had disagreements? How do you work through them?
T: Have we? We must have, but nothing sticks. Must have been insignificant. Actually, all disagreements become insignificant when you respect the person in front of you.
K: Yes, we have. We talk it through.
RSQ: What is your favorite quality of her as an actor?
T: She keeps doing things, growing, not sitting still. If she is not shooting for a film, the poet in her will write and perform really smart pieces which are not just 'cool' and honest, but primarily really well written. She also just wrote a book about her pregnancy.
K: Her diligence. Not just when she had got a role to prepare for but in the long months, maybe even the years that she has waited for work, she is always honing her craft.
RSQ: Which is her best work, according to you?
T: She has been sublime in all her plays with Rehaan Engineer and I love the spoken word piece called Printing Machine.
K: She is pretty damn brilliant in 'Sir'.
~fin~
Editor + Creative Director: Charu Gaur
Photographer + Videographer + Art Director: Pretika Menon
Stylist: Ekta Rajani
Junior Editor + Creative Assistant: Karishma Gulyani
Make-up + Hair + Manicure: Jean-Claude Biguine India
Text: Shubhanjana Das
Styling Assistant: Swity Shinde
Photography Assistant + Photo Editor: Karan Sarnaik
Music: JBABE / Third Culture
Set Designer: Jangu Sethna
Production House: Anomaly Production Pvt. Ltd.
Artworks: Shaista Syed / Kitsuné India
Hello! The Runway Square team is excited that you're here and we would love to hear what you have to say about this story. Leave a comment below or holler at us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram :*
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We Want To Send You LOVE!
|
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| 7,336
|
Enigma Alliance is a Chelsea Group company
Chelsea Village: the importance of feeling at home in field operations
Latest News September 01, 2017
Those working in field operations would agree – humanitarian work is stressful. Your day job involves helping those emerging from conflict, natural disasters, hunger and disease. Your surroundings are fragile environments, where poverty is rife. Workloads can be heavy, with long hours and often your accommodation is not of the highest standard.
Chelsea Village, our secure accommodation camp in the Mogadishu International Airport zone, hosts aid-workers and other international agencies who are helping to lay the foundations for a brighter Somalia. The camp is designed by people who have spent years working in remote and challenging locations around the world – our NapCap container accommodation is exceptionally comfortable (with double beds, satellite tv, work spaces and en-suite bathrooms) and there are constant upgrades
"The Chelsea Village team knows first hand what it's like to work in these environments and we are always considering our guests' wellbeing," says Costa Yiannakis, Chelsea Village manager.
"The Chelsea Village team knows first hand what it's like to work in these environments and we are always considering our guests' wellbeing," says Costa Yiannakis, Chelsea Village manager. "How can we do this better? What will help people to relax? The village is constantly evolving and we continue to improve our facilities, giving our guests more areas to socialise and chill out."
New additions to the camp include our pirate ship coffee shop and roof terrace chill out zone. And in September, our first GymCap will be arriving. A custom-made gym, designed by a team experienced in supporting military programmes in remote locations around the world, the GymCap will provide guests with a superior exercise space. Post-workout, guests can pick up a coffee and head to the rooftop to check out the view.
AirProxima takes off with top tech experts, offering six billion private charter flights
Ghanaian Student awarded with MAiSI scholarship
Enigma Alliance is a member of the Chelsea Group (RW Chelsea Holdings Ltd), a family of companies offering a breadth of services and end-to-end solutions.
hello@enigma-alliance.com
Copyright © 2022 Enigma Alliance. All rights reserved.
Site crafted by Simplr.
|
{
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| 2,088
|
The Critical Mass Energy Project was formed by Ralph Nader in 1974 as a national anti-nuclear umbrella group. It was probably the largest national anti-nuclear group in the United States, with several hundred local affiliates and an estimated 200,000 supporters. Part of Nader's support comes from a Green agenda and the belief that "the most important office in America for anyone to achieve is full-time citizen." The organization's main efforts were directed at lobbying activities and providing local groups with scientific and other resources to campaign against nuclear power.
The first national anti-nuclear conference, "Critical Mass '74" was held in Washington D.C. under the sponsorship of Ralph Nader. Workshops were held and groups throughout the United States learned about forming anti-nuclear organizations. At about the same time, Karen Silkwood, a nuclear plant worker, was killed in a car accident while investigating her nuclear energy company. There was speculation that the accident may have been intended.
The second Critical Mass conference was held in November 1975, and this involved a candlelight vigil in front of the White House for Karen Silkwood.
See also
Anti-nuclear groups in the United States
Anti-nuclear movement in the United States
References
Anti-nuclear organizations
Nuclear history
Ralph Nader
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaWikipedia"
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| 1,793
|
Swift's Auto Sales has been owned and operated by the Swift Family for over 40 years. David S. Swift the current owner/operator. David is a tip notch mechanic . He checks out each vehicle before it goes on the lot for sale.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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| 8,003
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Restless Spirits - Big Band Ritmo-Sinfonica Città di Verona plays the music of Roberto Magris è un album discografico registrato da Roberto Magris con la Big Band Ritmo-Sinfonica Città di Verona ed è stato pubblicato dalla casa discografica Velut Luna nel 2009. Il disco è dedicato alla musica di Roberto Magris, arrangiata per grande orchestra e comprende, come ospiti, lo stesso Magris, il trombettista Massimo Greco ed il percussionista Sbibu. Restless Spirits - Big Band Ritmo-Sinfonica Città di Verona plays the music of Roberto Magris è stato inserito da Ken Franckling's Jazz Notes nell'elenco dei 10 migliori dischi jazz del 2009.
Tracce
Solisti ospiti
Roberto Magris – pianoforte e piano elettrico
Massimo Greco – tromba
Sbibu – percussioni
Musicisti
Marco Pasetto – direttore d'orchestra e sax soprano (brano 8)
Patrizia Ballardini – flauto
Franco Lissandrini – flauto
Beatrice Maistri – flauto
Barbara Mazzon – flauto
Giulia Realdini – flauto
Elena Zavarise – flauto
Matteo Costanzi – tromba
Giorgio Fiorini – tromba
Davide Gagliardo – tromba
Sandro Gilioli – tromba
Marco Sorio – tromba
Giovanna Bissoli – sax soprano
Emanuele Ballini – sassofono contralto
Paolo Girardi – sassofono contralto
Paolo Pesenti – sassofono contralto
Orazio Boscagin – sassofono tenore
Stefano Buttura – sassofono tenore
Sandro Avesani – sassofono baritono
Filippo Borgo – clarinetto
Caterina Gatto – clarinetto
Elisabetta Grego – clarinetto
Alessandro Manfredi – clarinetto
Nicola Zeggio – clarinetto
Paolo Delaini – clarinetto basso
Marco Finato – clarinetto basso
Anna Vittoria Zanardi – fagotto
Saulo Agostini – trombone
Linda Anzolin – trombone
Gino Farenzena – trombone
Giorgio Morelato – trombone
Giordano Bruno Tedeschi – trombone
Ester Anzolin – corno
Denis Cavallini – corno
Graziana Marchioni – corno
Marco Pallaver – corno
Mario Cracco – basso tuba
Ivo Bonazzi – chitarra elettrica
Daniele Rotunno - tastiera
Giuseppe Gasperini - basso elettrico
Luca Zoccatelli - basso elettrico
Giorgio Buttura – glockenspiel
Stefano Zuffellato – batteria
Stefano Sartori – percussioni
Note
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Finding its origin in the Yoruba word for honey, Oyin is a colorful line of natural care products born from the passion of Jamyla and Pierre Bennu. Their goal is to develop healthy, delicious and chemical-free products to cater to the needs of their family and yours. They believe in the power and benefit of honey as mother nature's natural humectant, anti-microbial and anti-oxidant. Their values revolve around providing safe and handmade unisex products that satisfy adults and children. Their fun loving family spirit is represented in the vibrant design and tasty smells of their products. From their incredible Nourishing Hair Spray, to their hydrating Hair Dew leave-in, Oyin will cherish your and your family's beautiful natural hair.
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
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| 8,652
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4 Most Common Greek Myths
Ancient Greek myths are some of the most popular out there, and many have put it down to the intriguing selection of scary creatures. Ancient Greece has taught Western culture a great deal of lessons regarding morals and respect. Not only that, but the culture as a whole inspired a significant amount of modern technology and scientific advancements.
Because of the influence that Ancient Greece has had on the modern world, it is important to consider the impact that certain myths have had. These are some of the most common Greek myths that are still highly popular today. Some have even influenced iconic artwork as well as dramatic representations.
Perseus And Medusa
Firstly, Medusa was a widely feared figure in Ancient Greece. She was one of three gorgons with the face of a woman, and could turn anybody that looked directly at her into stone. She was a mortal who was cursed by Athena to have a head full of snakes, eternal life, and turning anyone who looks at her into stone.
In order to save his mother, Perseus was ordered to kill Medusa. This was done using a magic sword provided by Hermes, and with the reflection of a polished shield from Athena. Winged sandals and a cap of invisibility were also received during this quest. Eventually, Perseus found Medusa while she was sleeping.
Without looking directly at her, Perseus severed Medusa's head and returned it to Athena in order to save his mother.
Another Greek myth that is commonly told or referred to today is Theseus and the Minotaur. In a dungeon of Minos' palace, there was a carefully constructed maze in which the Minotaur was. This creature was half man and half bull, and ate children.
Theseus was given a magic string in order to find his way back after killing the Minotaur. After successfully entering the maze and killing the creature, Theseus retraced his steps with the magic string and saved captive Athenian children from the maze.
On the way back to his father, Theseus had forgotten to change the sail color to indicate that his journey was successful. As a result, Theseus' father, Aegeus believed that his son was dead, and threw himself into the sea. Ever since, this was known as the Aegean Sea.
Most commonly known as the boy who flew too close to the sun, Icarus is an example of a moral warning. Having placed the blame of the Minotaur's death on Daedalus, Icarus' father, and the one who invented the maze which it had been trapped in, was kept prisoner.
Daedalus was given no food or water, and kept at the top of the highest tower in the palace at Knossos. However, he was cunning and determined to provide a better life for his son Icarus. This happened when the two collected feathers from sleeping pigeons on the rafters and wax from an abandoned bee hive.
Thanks to the leather straps of their sandals, they crafted wings and were able to escape. They beat the wings over their shoulders and flew towards Sicily. However, Icarus was warned not to get too close to the sun and melted the beeswax that was the foundation of his wings.
Despite the warning from his father, Icarus did not listen. His wings fell off after flying too close to the sun, and he fell and crashed into the sea.
After demanding that his father was reinstated as the rightful king of Iolcos, Jason was sent to Colchis on the Eastern coastline to find a magical golden fleece. He gathered some help before heading on this journey, and they sailed on the Argo ship. Hence, they were Argonauts.
Once the crew eventually reached Colchis, the king was unwilling to give up his golden fleece and set Jason the task of plowing a field using dragon teeth. This was thought to be an impossible task, but Jason was given divine intervention. The king's daughter Medea fell in love with Jason and aided with the task.
She then sang the dragons who were guarding the fleece to sleep, and helped Jason with his quest. After sailing back to Iolcos, Jason, Medea and his crew of Argonauts claimed his father's throne back from his greedy uncle.
There are many myths within Ancient Greece that are interesting for a range of reasons. The mythical creatures and moral lessons taught are unique, and it is certainly worth learning more about these.
Sofiadate.com review: The dating process, prices, messaging, and much more
Raffi Sarian Shares Three Important Trends All Entrepreneurs Need To Know About
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"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
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| 5,157
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{"url":"https:\/\/math.meta.stackexchange.com\/questions\/19231\/duplicate-shows-as-on-hold-in-favourite-list","text":"# Duplicate shows as \u201con hold\u201d in favourite list\n\nToday, I favourited this question on my phone in order to hunt for a duplicate later. After the question was closed as a duplicate, I saw the following in my favourites list:\n\nAs you can see, it is not listed as [duplicate], but as [on hold].","date":"2020-02-17 21:03:43","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 0, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 1, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.41506701707839966, \"perplexity\": 1213.1843370383654}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2020-10\/segments\/1581875143373.18\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20200217205657-20200217235657-00197.warc.gz\"}"}
| null | null |
Normain Heights Historic District is a national historic district located at Mishawaka, St. Joseph County, Indiana. The district encompasses 224 contributing buildings and 1 contributing site in a planned post-World War II residential subdivision of Mishawaka. It was developed between 1946 and 1951, and includes notable examples of Modern Movement architecture. They are in seven house types randomly scattered throughout the district and were designed for families with low-to-moderate incomes.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
References
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana
Modernist architecture in Indiana
Historic districts in St. Joseph County, Indiana
National Register of Historic Places in St. Joseph County, Indiana
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{
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| 6,118
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Dacoderus es un género de coleóptero de la familia Salpingidae.
Especies
Las especies que conforman este género son:
Dacoderus acanthomma
Dacoderus laevipennis
Dacoderus rossi
Dacoderus sleeperi
Dacoderus steineri
Dacoderus striaticeps
Dacoderus werneri
Referencias
Dacoderus
|
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| 3,337
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Q: ExtJS 4: Changing Store param names Right now I'm running into a problem where I can't seem to change the param names page, start, limit, and dir for a Ext.data.Store.
In ExtJS 3 I could do this:
paramNames :
{
start : 'startIndex',
limit : 'pageSize',
sort : 'sortCol',
dir : 'sortDir'
}
I tried adding this configuration to the Ext.data.Store for ExtJS 4 however 'start', 'limit', 'sort', and 'dir' still show up as the default param names. I need to be able to change this as the server side functionality requires these param names. This also causes paging and remote sorting to not work since the param names don't match what the server side resource is expecting.
So is there a new way in ExtJS 4 to change these param names like in ExtJS 3?
A: take a look at Proxy,
see http://docs.sencha.com/ext-js/4-0/#/api/Ext.data.proxy.Server
directionParam,limitParam...
A: Use this code:
proxy: {
type: 'ajax',
url: '/myurl',
method: 'GET',
**extraParams: { myKeyword: 'abcd' },**
reader: {
type: 'json',
root: 'rows'
}
}
Now you can change your myKeyword value from abcd to xyz in following way.
gridDataStore.proxy.extraParams.keyword='xyz';
gridDataStore.load();
this will set your parameters' value and reload the store.
A: To dynamically modify the parameters just before the load of a store you can do this:
/* set an additional parameter before loading, not nice but effective */
var p = store.getProxy();
p.extraParams.searchSomething = search;
p.extraParams.somethingelse = 'This works too';
store.load({
scope : this,
callback: function() {
// do something useful here with the results
}
});
A: The keys were renamed and moved to the Ext.data.Proxy object. Here's a simple example that tells ExtJS to use the default Grails parameter names:
Ext.create('Ext.data.Store', {
// Other store properties removed for brevity
proxy: {
// Other proxy properties removed for brevity
startParam: "offset",
limitParam: "max",
sortParam: "sort",
directionParam: "order",
simpleSortMode: true
}
});
I also set the simpleSortMode so that each of the parameters are sent to the server as discrete request parameters.
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{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 5,638
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{"url":"https:\/\/www.hepdata.net\/record\/ins2087127","text":"Azimuthal transverse single-spin asymmetries of inclusive jets and identified hadrons within jets from polarized $pp$ collisions at $\\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV\n\nThe collaboration\nPhys.Rev.D 106 (2022) 072010, 2022.\n\nAbstract (data abstract)\nThe STAR Collaboration reports measurements of the transverse single-spin asymmetries, $A_N$, for inclusive jets and identified `hadrons within jets' production at midrapidity from transversely polarized $pp$ collisions at $\\sqrt{s}$ = 200 GeV, based on data recorded in 2012 and 2015. The inclusive jet asymmetry measurements include $A_N$ for inclusive jets and $A_N$ for jets containing a charged pion carrying a momentum fraction $z>0.3$ of the jet momentum. The identified hadron within jet asymmetry measurements include the Collins effect for charged pions, kaons and protons, and the Collins-like effect for charged pions. The measured asymmetries are determined for several distinct kinematic regions, characterized by the jet transverse momentum $p_{T}$ and pseudorapidity $\\eta$, as well as the hadron momentum fraction $z$ and momentum transverse to the jet axis $j_{T}$. These results probe higher momentum scales ($Q^{2}$ up to $\\sim$ 900 GeV$^{2}$) than current, semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering measurements, and they provide new constraints on quark transversity in the proton and enable tests of evolution, universality and factorization breaking in the transverse-momentum-dependent formalism.\n\n\u2022 Figure 4\n\nData from Figure 4\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t1\n\nDistribution of the normalized jet yield as a function of detector jet-$p_{T}$ in 2015 data and simulation. The lower panel...\n\n\u2022 Figure 5\n\nData from Figure 5\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t2\n\nComparison of data with simulation for charged hadrons within jets in the 2015 data as a function of the hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 6\n\nData from Figure 6\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t3\n\nComparison of data with simulation for charged hadrons within jets in the 2015 data as a function of the hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 10 TOP\n\nData from Figure 10 TOP\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t4\n\nInclusive jet asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of...\n\n\u2022 Figure 10 Bottom\n\nData from Figure 10 Bottom\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t5\n\nInclusive jet asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of...\n\n\u2022 Figure 11 TOP\n\nData from Figure 11 TOP\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t6\n\n\u2022 Figure 12 TOP $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 12 TOP $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t8\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 12 TOP $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 12 TOP $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t9\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 12 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 12 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t10\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 12 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 12 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t11\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t12\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t13\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t14\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t15\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t16\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t17\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t18\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t19\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t20\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t21\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t22\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 13 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 13 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t23\n\nCollins-like asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-2\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 TOP-2015 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 14 TOP-2015 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t24\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 TOP-2015 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 14 TOP-2015 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t25\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 TOP-2012 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 14 TOP-2012 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t26\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 TOP-2012 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 14 TOP-2012 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t27\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 Bottom-2015 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 14 Bottom-2015 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t28\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 Bottom-2015 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 14 Bottom-2015 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t29\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 Bottom-2012 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 14 Bottom-2012 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t30\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 14 Bottom-2012 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 14 Bottom-2012 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t31\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$ separately for the 2012 and 2015 data. The bars show the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 15 TOP $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 15 TOP $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t32\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 15 TOP $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 15 TOP $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t33\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 15 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 15 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t34\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 15 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 15 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t35\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$. The bars show the statistical uncertainties, while the size of the...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t36\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t37\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t38\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t39\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t40\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t41\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t42\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t43\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t44\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t45\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t46\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 16 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 16 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t47\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t48\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t49\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t50\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t51\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t52\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t53\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t54\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t55\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t56\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t57\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t58\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 17 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 17 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t59\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Top $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Top $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t60\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Top $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Top $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t61\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Mid Up $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Mid Up $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t62\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Mid Up $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Mid Up $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t63\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Mid Down $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Mid Down $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t64\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Mid Down $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Mid Down $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t65\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t66\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 18 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 18 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t67\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 19, pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 19, pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t68\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet $x_{T}~(= 2 p_T\/\\sqrt{s}$). The solid points show the results from this...\n\n\u2022 Figure 19, pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 19, pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t69\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet $x_{T}~(= 2 p_T\/\\sqrt{s}$). The solid points show the results from this...\n\n\u2022 Figure 19, pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 19, pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t70\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet $x_{T}~(= 2 p_T\/\\sqrt{s}$). The solid points show the results from this...\n\n\u2022 Figure 19, pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 19, pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t71\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet $x_{T}~(= 2 p_T\/\\sqrt{s}$). The solid points show the results from this...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, TOP pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, TOP pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t72\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, TOP pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, TOP pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t73\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Mid pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Mid pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t74\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Mid pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Mid pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t75\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Bottom pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Bottom pp200 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t76\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Bottom pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Bottom pp200 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t77\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, TOP pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, TOP pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t78\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, TOP pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, TOP pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t79\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Mid pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Mid pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t80\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Mid pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Mid pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t81\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Bottom pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Bottom pp500 $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t82\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 20, Bottom pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 20, Bottom pp500 $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t83\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Left\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Left\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t84\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Left\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Left\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t85\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Mid\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Mid\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t86\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Mid\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Mid\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t87\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Right\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{+}$, Right\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t88\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Right\n\nData from Figure 21, $K^{-}$, Right\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t89\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Proton, Left\n\nData from Figure 21, Proton, Left\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t90\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Left\n\nData from Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Left\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t91\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Proton, Mid\n\nData from Figure 21, Proton, Mid\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t92\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Mid\n\nData from Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Mid\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t93\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Proton, Right\n\nData from Figure 21, Proton, Right\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t94\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Right\n\nData from Figure 21, Anti-Proton, Right\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t95\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of particle jet-$p_{T}$, hadron-$z$, and hadron-$j_{T}$ for charged kaons (upper panels) and protons (lower...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t96\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t97\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t98\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t99\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t100\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t101\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t102\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t103\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t104\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t105\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t106\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 22 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 22 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t107\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's longitudinal momentum fraction, $z$, in different jet-$p_{T}$ bins. The bars...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t108\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t109\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t110\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t111\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t112\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 TOP-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t113\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t114\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Left $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t115\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t116\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Mid $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t117\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t118\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 23 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 23 Bottom-Right $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t119\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different jet-$p_{T}$...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Top $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Top $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t120\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Top $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Top $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t121\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Mid Up $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Mid Up $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t122\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Mid Up $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Mid Up $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t123\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Mid Down $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Mid Down $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t124\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Mid Down $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Mid Down $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t125\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Bottom $\\pi^{+}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t126\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...\n\n\u2022 Figure 24 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\nData from Figure 24 Bottom $\\pi^{-}$\n\n10.17182\/hepdata.130778.v1\/t127\n\nCollins asymmetries, $A_{UT}^{\\sin(\\phi_{S}-\\phi_{H})}$, as a function of the charged pion's momentum transverse to the jet axis, $j_{T}$, in different hadron...","date":"2023-03-24 19:33:52","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": 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Infuse your home with the casual vibe of the Maire table lamp. Black finish is elevated with a goldtone circular pattern. Its slightly urban industrial design brings balance and brightness to your room with double the style.
I purchased this lamp for the holidays and it looks perfect in my living room. I just love it. I am so pleased with my purchase. It arrived on time and was nicely packaged. I will be buying another one soon.
Love these lamps. The shades are kinda short and squatty instead of narrow and tall. The base is really pretty. They are really light weight though. Wish they were a heavier lamp.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaC4"
}
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{"url":"https:\/\/gmatclub.com\/forum\/in-the-figure-above-if-zv-4-uz-5-and-zy-15-what-is-the-ratio-275832.html","text":"GMAT Question of the Day - Daily to your Mailbox; hard ones only\n\n It is currently 13 Nov 2018, 12:25\n\n### GMAT Club Daily Prep\n\n#### Thank you for using the timer - this advanced tool can estimate your performance and suggest more practice questions. We have subscribed you to Daily Prep Questions via email.\n\nCustomized\nfor You\n\nwe will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History\n\nTrack\n\nevery week, we\u2019ll send you an estimated GMAT score based on your performance\n\nPractice\nPays\n\nwe will pick new questions that match your level based on your Timer History\n\n## Events & Promotions\n\n###### Events & Promotions in November\nPrevNext\nSuMoTuWeThFrSa\n28293031123\n45678910\n11121314151617\n18192021222324\n2526272829301\nOpen Detailed Calendar\n\u2022 ### Essential GMAT Time-Management Hacks\n\nNovember 14, 2018\n\nNovember 14, 2018\n\n07:00 PM PST\n\n08:00 PM PST\n\nJoin the webinar and learn time-management tactics that will guarantee you answer all questions, in all sections, on time. Save your spot today! Nov. 14th at 7 PM PST\n\n# In the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio\n\nAuthor Message\nTAGS:\n\n### Hide Tags\n\nMath Expert\nJoined: 02 Sep 2009\nPosts: 50572\nIn the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio\u00a0 [#permalink]\n\n### Show Tags\n\n11 Sep 2018, 02:02\n00:00\n\nDifficulty:\n\n25% (medium)\n\nQuestion Stats:\n\n94% (01:26) correct 6% (01:38) wrong based on 17 sessions\n\n### HideShow timer Statistics\n\nIn the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio of the area of triangle XYZ to triangle UVZ?\n\nA. 9 : 1\nB. 7 : 2\nC. 3 : 1\nD. 4 : 3\nE. 2 : 1\n\nAttachment:\n\n8294_image.png [ 6.32 KiB | Viewed 312 times ]\n\n_________________\nSenior Manager\nJoined: 18 Jul 2018\nPosts: 377\nLocation: India\nConcentration: Finance, Marketing\nWE: Engineering (Energy and Utilities)\nRe: In the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio\u00a0 [#permalink]\n\n### Show Tags\n\n11 Sep 2018, 02:13\ntriangle XYZ to triangle UVZ are right angled triangle.\n\nFrom Pythagoras theorem UV = 3\n\nFrom triangle XYZ. YZ = 15.\n\nThen Base XY becomes 9\nHeight XZ becomes 12 (From Pythagoras theorem)\n\nratio of the area of triangle XYZ to triangle UVZ becomes 12*9 : 3*4 = 9:1\n\n_________________\n\nWhen you want something, the whole universe conspires in helping you achieve it.\n\nDirector\nJoined: 20 Feb 2015\nPosts: 797\nConcentration: Strategy, General Management\nIn the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio\u00a0 [#permalink]\n\n### Show Tags\n\n11 Sep 2018, 02:20\n1\nBunuel wrote:\n\nIn the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio of the area of triangle XYZ to triangle UVZ?\n\nA. 9 : 1\nB. 7 : 2\nC. 3 : 1\nD. 4 : 3\nE. 2 : 1\n\nAttachment:\n8294_image.png\n\nusing similarity of triangle (AAA)\nangle Z=Z, V=X ,and U=Y\nboth the triangles are similar.\n\n$$\\frac{(UZ)^2}{(ZY)^2}$$ = $$\\frac{area of UVZ}{area of XYZ}$$ ( this is a property) =$$\\frac{25}{225}$$= $$\\frac{1}{9}$$ =A\nIn the figure above, if ZV = 4, UZ = 5, and ZY = 15, what is the ratio &nbs [#permalink] 11 Sep 2018, 02:20\nDisplay posts from previous: Sort by","date":"2018-11-13 20:25:21","metadata":"{\"extraction_info\": {\"found_math\": true, \"script_math_tex\": 0, \"script_math_asciimath\": 0, \"math_annotations\": 0, \"math_alttext\": 0, \"mathml\": 0, \"mathjax_tag\": 0, \"mathjax_inline_tex\": 1, \"mathjax_display_tex\": 1, \"mathjax_asciimath\": 0, \"img_math\": 0, \"codecogs_latex\": 0, \"wp_latex\": 0, \"mimetex.cgi\": 0, \"\/images\/math\/codecogs\": 0, \"mathtex.cgi\": 0, \"katex\": 0, \"math-container\": 0, \"wp-katex-eq\": 0, \"align\": 0, \"equation\": 0, \"x-ck12\": 0, \"texerror\": 0, \"math_score\": 0.7622290253639221, \"perplexity\": 8967.166259236314}, \"config\": {\"markdown_headings\": true, \"markdown_code\": true, \"boilerplate_config\": {\"ratio_threshold\": 0.18, \"absolute_threshold\": 10, \"end_threshold\": 15, \"enable\": true}, \"remove_buttons\": true, \"remove_image_figures\": true, \"remove_link_clusters\": true, \"table_config\": {\"min_rows\": 2, \"min_cols\": 3, \"format\": \"plain\"}, \"remove_chinese\": true, \"remove_edit_buttons\": true, \"extract_latex\": true}, \"warc_path\": \"s3:\/\/commoncrawl\/crawl-data\/CC-MAIN-2018-47\/segments\/1542039741491.47\/warc\/CC-MAIN-20181113194622-20181113220622-00307.warc.gz\"}"}
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WOLF
Also by Jim Harrison
FICTION
Wolf: A False Memoir
A Good Day to Die
Farmer
Legends of the Fall
Warlock
Sundog
Dalva
The Woman Lit by Fireflies
Julip
The Road Home
The Beast God Forgot to Invent
True North
The Summer He Didn't Die
Returning to Earth
The English Major
The Farmer's Daughter
The Great Leader
The River Swimmer
Brown Dog
The Big Seven
CHILDREN'S LITURATURE
The Boy Who Ran to the Woods
POETRY
Plain Song
Locations
Outlyer and Ghazals
Letters to Yesenin
Returning to Earth
Selected & New Poems: 1961–1981
The Theory and Practice of Rivers & New Poems
After Ikkyū & Other Poems
The Shape of the Journey: New and Collected Poems
Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry, with Ted Kooser
Saving Daylight
In Search of Small Gods
Songs of Unreason
ESSAYS
Just Before Dark: Collected Nonfiction
The Raw and the Cooked: Adventures of a Roving Gourmand
MEMOIR
Off to the Side
JIM HARRISON
WOLF
Copyright © 1971 by Jim Harrison
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Your support of the author's rights is appreciated. Any member of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or anthology, should send inquiries to Grove Atlantic, 154 West 14th Street, New York, NY 10011 or permissions@groveatlantic.com.
eISBN 978-0-8021-9006-2
Grove Press
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groveatlantic.com
TO
TOM McGUANE
and
In Memoriam, MISSY 1966-1971
When you wake up, with the remains of a paradise half-seen in dreams hanging down over you like the hair on someone who's been drowned . . .
—JULIO CORTAZAR, Hopscotch
AUTHOR'S NOTE
When the dog barks or growls her warning in the night I question whether it will be a stray cat, a skunk, a killer or a ghost. It occurred to me the other morning that people don't talk about death because even to the simplest of them death isn't very interesting. Of course this all changes when it draws near to the particular individual but until then death has the probability, the actuality of our moon shot to a zebra. There must be reasons why I seem to closet funerals and weddings and love affairs together: mortal accidents, simply the given on which a shabby structure may be subtracted or added. Even now the challenge of having risked a pomposity and perhaps won its opprobrium is a signal that a new shower of lint and sulphur should fall to further laminate the human condition in its habitual shield of filth. An obtuse paragraph is always toxic. But to get on with the story—I'm not going to talk about death. This is a memoir dealing mostly with the years 1956-1960 written from the vantage of the present—it is a false memoir at that and not even chronological and its author is a self-antiqued thirty-three, a juncture when literary souls always turn around and look backward. Most of the poisons have been injected, some self-inflicted; how does one weigh mental scar tissue? I'm sure a device will finally be invented but at this point in history we must settle for prose, and no matter how many fans they have, nature, love and bourbon have been proven failures as cancer cures. My name happens to be Swanson, neither a very true nor honorable name—not true because the name had been given my grandfather, a Swede, on Ellis Island: immigration officials had decided that too many Nordic immigrants possessed the same or similar names and it would be much simpler if they were changed totally or new ones found somewhere in the ancestry. Each entering soul was given a polite three minutes to think it over. Swanson it became though hardly the grandson or son of swan; my first is Carol, to be avoided as feminine, the second, Severin, is too arch and foreign, so I am insistently Swanson to myself and to anyone who cares to call me anything. And not honorable because no one in the short, rather known, history of my family has done anything worth taking note of—the births mostly took place in the home and the marriages were hurried private affairs often with the question of the legitimacy of a child imminent. My one grandfather was a failed farmer with over a half century given to a nearly arid sixty acres. He died without having managed the price of a tractor and left an unpaid mortgage to his heirs. The other grandfather was a retired lumberjack, troublemaker, farmer, lout, drunk. An aunt given to fripperies claims that a distant relative had graduated from Yale early in the nineteenth century but nobody believes her. My father was the first on either side of the familial fence to graduate from college; he became a government agriculturist during the Great Depression and died in a violent accident, by any fair estimation an unhappy man. In deference to the cult of star buffs, I was born a Sagittarian deep in the unusually nasty winter of 1937; my childhood was pleasant and completely unremarkable and will barely be touched upon again.
Anyway, here is the story, the fiction, the romance—"My frame was wrenched by a woeful agony which forced me to tell my tale," someone said a long time ago. I've never seen a wolf—zoo beasts are not to be counted; they are ultimately no more interesting than dead carp, sullen, furtive, morose. Perhaps I'll never see a wolf. And I don't offer this little problem as central to anyone but myself.
WOLF
I
HURON MOUNTAINS
You could travel west out of Reed City, a small county seat in an unfertile valley with a small yellow brick courthouse and a plugged cannon on its lawn next to a marble slab with the names of the World War One and Two dead inscribed in gold and the not dead plainly inscribed with the suspicious neatness of cemetery script, those who served, farther west through fifty miles of pine barrens dotted with small farm settlements often of less than thirty people, or merely a grocery store and gas station adjoined by a shabby aluminum trailer or a basement house with the first and perhaps second stories awaiting more prosperous times, the stores themselves with little and aged stock—lunch meat, bologna pickled in a jar, Polish sausage, tinned foods covered with dust, plaquettes of fish lures, mosquito repellent in aerosol cans, live bait and a pop cooler outside the door—but not many of these—a narrow road through mixed conifers, cedar and jack pine, some stunted scrub oak, birch, and the short-lived poplar, a pulp tree usually living less than twenty years and clotting the woods floor with its rotting trunks and branches, and west through the low pelvic mysteries of swamps divided invisibly from the air by interlocking creeks and small rivers, made unbearable in spring and summer by mosquitoes and black flies, swamps dank with brackish water and pools of green slime, small knolls of fern, bog marshes of sphagnum, spongelike and tortuous to the human foot and bordered by impenetrable tamarack thickets: in short a land with no appreciable history and a continuously vile climate, lumbered off for a hundred years with few traces of the grand white pine which once covered it, an occasional charred almost petrified stump four feet in diameter, evidence of trees which rose nearly two hundred feet and covered the northern half of the state and the Upper Peninsula, razed with truly insolent completeness by the lumber barons after the Civil War with all the money going to the cities of the south—Saginaw, Lansing, Detroit—and east to Boston and New York; and the houses, even the large farmhouses on reasonably good land, sloppily built, ramshackle and craftless compared to Massachusetts or Vermont; west to Lake Michigan then to turn north along its coast to the Straits of Mackinac, cross the mammoth bridge, travel west another three hundred miles through the sparsely populated Upper Peninsula and then north again into the comparatively vast, the peopleless Huron Mountains.
I crawled out of the sleeping bag and dipped a cup of water from a small tin pail but the water had warmed and a breeze during the night had blown some ashes into it and they mixed there in the surface film with dead mosquitoes. I drew on my pants and boots and walked to the creek. Dew had soaked the grass and ferns, made the leaves limp under my feet; earth was pale green a half hour before the sun would come up and over and through the ridge of trees to the east. I knelt and drank from the creek, the water so cold the teeth ached. I closed the tent flaps, gathered my binoculars (which I would quickly lose) and a worthless .30-30 rifle with bad sights my father had owned, and took a compass reading which I knew would be inaccurate and pointless as the ground in the area was full of varying amounts of iron ore. But I fixed on a knoll a mile or so away and then on the supposed direction of the car several miles directly south by southwest and set out for a hike. Two hours later I was unfathomably lost.
There is a brief time when first lost that you are sure you will be lost forever. Your heart flutters and you become winded with little walking and everything you know or think you know about the woods is forgotten, or you aren't sure you ever knew enough in the beginning. The compass reads an impossible direction. The view from the treetop you reach with effort reveals only the tops of other trees, or if you follow a stream you know you are walking at least three times further than necessary as the stream winds and twists, makes heavy-growthed flats with hairpin bends and builds swampy areas that make walking very wet and the footing unsure, the mosquitoes clouding around your head as you move. It is first of all embarrassment mixed with a little terror; when the frantic pumping ceases and you regain your breath it is easy enough to turn around and retrace the path you've thrashed through the brush. The rare deaths that do occur are simply a matter of the lost waiting too long to turn around.
I lay along a tree trunk fallen half across the stream, its roots weakened by the undercut bank. I dozed for a while in the sun, then upon waking sighted the rifle from this prone position at a leaf, then at a large cropping of rocks downstream from the tree.
I had wanted to move farther upstream and set up camp on higher ground to get some breeze and to be less vulnerable to the bugs but I only found the tent in the middle of the evening. It was ten o'clock and still not quite dark when I ate my supper of boiled pinto beans and onions. I doused the entire plateful with red pepper sauce and lay back against a tree thinking how much I wanted a drink, a large water glass filled with warm whiskey, or a succession of doubles with beer used as a chaser. I thought back to the Kettle of Fish bar on Macdougal Street where I first began drinking in earnest. Everyone there seemed twice my age (I was eighteen) and I could get dizzy on four glasses of ale. Eighty cents. But habits are of interest only to the habitual-fat men talk about their diets for hours without boredom, shedding imaginary pounds. I took a long drink of water to wash the fire from my throat and looked at my watch in the firelight. Stopped again; I slipped the watch off noticing the strip of white skin beneath it on the wrist somehow not related to the rest of my body. A friend had a pachuco cross carved beneath his watchband. I flipped this seven-dollar special into the fire thinking idly that in the heat the hands might whirl backwards or in reverse of those old movie montages where a calendar's pages are flipped and trains crisscross the nation from corner of screen to corner of screen, from triumph to triumph with a star's name growing ever larger on the billboards and marquees. I rubbed mosquito dope onto my hands and face and neck and crawled into the sleeping bag.
We drove down a gravel road bordered on both sides with Lombardy poplars which had begun to die with leaves gone on the topmost branches. My father fiddled with the radio then said no ballgame today it's Monday. We turned into a driveway and moved jouncing over ruts to a farmhouse which from the road had been concealed in a grove of elm and maple trees. When we stopped two dogs rushed out from under the porch as if to devour the car to get at us. My father got out and said come along but I stayed in the car, in part not to get my new shoes dirty which since we left town I had been rubbing busily against the back of my pantleg for a shine. He left and the dogs didn't bother him. They looked like they were from the same litter—half collie and half shepherd—I had had a similar dog a few years before, Penny, but she had bitten the mailman and we had to give her to a farmer who I learned later shot her for killing chickens. I heard laughter and turned in the car to see in the far corner of the shaded yard three girls playing with a swing. There was an elm tree and from a lower branch a rope was suspended with a tire attached to it; they were taking turns swinging, and the oldest had to lift the smallest who was about five up into the tire which she straddled, a leg on either side. The little one had lost three fingers on one hand and had some lilacs between the thumb and forefinger, holding the swing with the other hand. The lilacs were growing along a ditch on the far side of the house. It was May and they were blooming white and purple in great clumps and their heavy scent mixed with the smell of wild mint from the ditch. The house was covered with brown imitation brick siding, nearly a trademark for the poor, with a cement porch darkened with tall honeysuckle bushes. The oldest girl who looked about twelve got into the swing and pulled herself higher and higher, the little one holding her ears as if something were going to explode. She straddled the swing and her dress fluttered higher with each pass. I looked down at my shoes again then played with the radio dial. I looked back at her and I could see her legs and hips all the way up to her panties and waist. I felt cloudy and giggly and had an urge to go over and talk to them. But then my father returned from the barn and shook hands with a man and we left.
I awoke no later than midnight and the fire was out what with only pine to burn, a nearly heatless wood compared to beech or maple. I thought I heard something and I reached for the rifle which lay along the sleeping bag. I got up and started a fire and decided to make coffee and stay up all night rather than be attacked by nameless beasts all of which were in my head and were due, I'm sure, to my brain drying out. "There stands the glass that will ease all my pain," sang Webb Pierce. It would begin to get light before four A.M. I'v always been immoderately clock-oriented. But that was part of what seemed wrong with my infrequent periods of actual labor: the deadly predictability of jobs everyone sighs about, a glut of clocks and my thin neck twisting to their perfect circles, around and around and around. I remembered working in an office in Boston and during the second week there I looked up at the clock on the wall and it was two-thirty instead of the expected four-thirty. I began weeping real salt tears (partly the five doubles for lunch no doubt). A clock-torn child of twenty-seven with tears rolling down his plump cheeks onto his shirt collar, the shirt unbuttoned because it was too small, taken from a dead father's dresser drawer.
The creek roared and tumbled past boulders where I dipped the coffeepot, the noise concealing the movements of the gryphon on the verge of leaping and tearing out my throat. The pink-elephant bit for d.t.'s is bullshit. I was thinking of sauterne and California. It took almost a month to hitch home and I had gone there for no reason anyway, or as Tom Joad had said, "There's something going on out there in the West." Certainly is. In San Francisco in a deserted building called the Hanging Gardens by those who slept there we had split a hundred peyote buttons four ways, small cacti which after peeling remind one of gelatinous rotten green peppers. I chewed up an overdose of twenty buttons raw, one after another as if they were some sort of miraculous food then vomited out a window repeatedly for hours. When my mind finally refocused my bedroll was gone. And I walked for what seemed like a year down to Hosmer to catch the labor bus for the bean fields outside of San Jose. A strange form of poison. Not to be recommended, at least not in such large doses. The experience isn't verbally transferable—I've never read a record that came close. Years afterward a small part of my brain still felt the effects.
I drank several cups of coffee looking off into the moonless cloudy dark beyond the fire. As long as you have to die anyway it may as well be between a grizzly's jaws but they're a thousand miles farther west. In the peyote trance the naked chorus girls foolishly summoned up were peeled and beet-red with snatches an inky and oily black, hard as basalt. The old joke of a woman strangling a rat between her legs. In bars all over the country they are beaver pie poontang pussy quiff cunt shag clam and so on. That thirty-eight-year-old woman in Detroit with violently teased hair and a beer-fed roll of fat around her middle, red mouth like a war wound winks at you in the mirror above the bottles and you wink back with your blind eye and buy her a drink, schnapps on the rocks, and you light her cigarette and look at her fingers which have claws that remind you of a leopard. She has an ankle bracelet announcing BOB in silver. She pouts and babytalks about the movies and whatever happened to Randolph Scott and she says she is a cosmotologist. She knows the cosmos. A home permanent. A Toni. Dressing hair & girl talk. You go into the toilet and look at yourself in the mirror and think that if you were a real American, maybe a marine or a paratrooper or a truckdriver, you would screw her. But you're not so you hover over the urinal and by now your cock has almost shrunk back in your body in reverse lust and you think of excuses. She probably has syph! Or she hasn't showered in a week, she's an old lizard skin, or if she had as many pricks sticking out of her as she's had stuck in her she would look like a porcupine, or she's simply too fat. But it doesn't work so you come out of the toilet and she's following your movement in the mirror as you bolt through the door and into the street, feeling somehow not very virile but safe, thinking it would have been like fucking a vacuum cleaner, thinking of cool monasteries in the country with birds singing sweetly outside the windows and the Mother Superior kneeling before you after vespers. No nuns in monasteries. Or at least a cheerleader after a high school football game sincere about love with a cedar hope chest begun, some homemade bleached muslin pillow cases folded in the bottom with his and hers needleworked in mauve. And as she makes love with no interest she talks of the funny experiment in chemistry class that was so stinky. Naked from waist to bobbysocks.
I checked my trotlines, a simple device to catch fish without fishing. You bait the small hook and tie the line to a tree or low-hanging branch. The first line held nothing but a bare hook but the second had a small brook trout, the stupidest of trout, about nine inches long. I cleaned it and let the guts wash away in the creek not wanting to attract raccoons who seem able to smell fish guts from miles away. I put the trout in foil and let it steam with a slice of onion then ate it with bread and salt. For dessert I stuck my finger in a small jar of honey and licked it off. The sky was barely beginning to lighten and invisible birds sang, rather as we are told now, to warn other birds away.
I slept a few hours after the sun came up; strange about night fears and how my courage strengthens by noon. I had hummed my soaked brain to sleep with "The Old Rugged Cross," the equivalent for me of a trench confession. A woman sang it at the funeral in a clear tremulous whine, a wet wind coming through barn slats. But the grandmother had insisted on this anachronism and it was her oldest son. I sang many hymns during a summer in New York City in a room on Grove Street that looked out onto a six-by-six air vent the bottom of which was covered with newspapers, bottles and old mopheads. Rats crawled there in daylight. I couldn't handle the city; it seemed consistently malefic and I wanted to be elsewhere but I couldn't go home, having announced I had left forever. Old songs learned as a fifteen-year-old Baptist convert: "There's a Fountain Filled with Blood" (drawn from Emmanuel's veins), or "Safe Am I" (in the hollow of His hand), or the best one, "Wonderful the Matchless Grace of Jesus." I simply had no business there in Sodom but refused at nineteen to accept the fact. Sally salved me, Grace greased me home. No control over my cheap sense of such words as destiny and time. I wrote lists of things I wanted or missed for want of the ability to complete a sentence; always half drunk in airless heat as if the words were squeezed out through the knuckles:
sun bug dirt soil lilac leaf leaves hair spirea maple thigh teeth eyes grass tree fish pine bluegill bass wood dock shore sand lilypads sea reeds perch water weeds clouds horses goldenrod road sparrows rock deer chicken-hawk stump ravine blackberry bush cabin pump hill night sleep juice whiskey cards slate rock bird dusk dawn hay boat loon door girl bam straw wheat canary bridge falcon asphalt fern cow bees dragonfly violets beard farm stall window wind rain waves spider snake ant river beer sweat oak birch creek swamp bud rabbit turtle worms beef stars milk sunfish rock-bass ears tent cock mud buckwheat pepper gravel ass crickets grasshopper elm barbed-wire tomatoes bible cucumber melon spinach bacon ham potatoes flesh death fence oriole corn robin apple manure thresher pickles basement brush dog-wood bread cheese wine cove moss porch gulley trout fish-pole spaniel mow rope reins nose leek onion feet
When finished I had a choking sensation and walked around with it for days. I would start on West Forty-second and walk along the docks under the highways, always as close to the water as possible, around the tip of the island and the Battery then up to East Forty-second, scarcely noticing or remembering anything. I couldn't return home as a failure, having sold my graduation suit and pawned my graduation watch. The salutatorian's speech was "Youth, Awake." A busboy, then washing the inside windshields at a carwash, then a bookstore clerk for a dollar twenty an hour. I always was as stealthy as possible on Tenth Avenue, having seen Slaughter on Tenth Avenue years before.
By noon the air had become warm and still though far above great dark stratocumulus clouds rolled along from the northwest, across Lake Superior from Canada. There would be a bad storm and I wasn't ready for it; I jogged the three or four miles back to the tent, the first raindrops beginning to fall on the leaves and the wind gray and chilling. I gathered as much kindling as possible and threw it in the tent, then began digging a ditch around the tent with a hatchet, scooping the dirt and roots with my hands for want of a shovel. By the time I was finished my clothes and skin were soaked and I crawled into the tent and stripped, shivering while the storm roared along, a cloudburst that bent trees and broke limbs, made creeks through the woods. I slept in exhaustion and awoke about evening and saw through the flaps a puddle where my fire had been. It was still raining, though now softly, and very cold. I wanted suddenly to be in a hotel in New York or Boston, to be warm after sleeping off lunch and to take the cellophane off a glass in a yellow bathroom and pour whiskey in the glass then add a half inch or so of chlorinated water and plan the evening.
When Marcia went to California I followed a week later but missed her in Sacramento from which she traveled south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. I was broke by Sacramento and had in any event lost interest in her; seeing new country or a new city has always wiped the immediate past clean. I didn't have a picture of her and when I tried to envision her, the features would change vaguely and then I would have to start over as if dressing a bald mannequin, but then an eye would drop to the floor or the mouth would enlarge or the ears would disappear. When I tried to imagine her with someone else I felt nothing; she had mentioned several times that she wanted to make love to an Indian someday, not, of course, ever having met one; a Cheyenne brave with full war regalia blasting her. Then he takes her scalp and she lookes like a shaved bloody collaborator after World War Two in France, in black and white in Life magazine. Nothing, no feeling. Perhaps it could have been different had we stayed together but I didn't want to marry; I wanted to save money and go to Sweden where I would see if any distant relatives looked like me and when I discovered that they didn't, I would go to a small island in the Stockholm archipelago and learn to be a fisherman, and spend my life on a boat catching cod. The Baltic would always be cold and the beaches covered with black stones. After a decade or so I would write a note home in broken, misspelled Swedish which my family would take to a local college to get translated. I would announce that I had decided to follow the trade of my great-grandfather and had already fathered a brood of towheaded idiots by a fat woman who ate nothing but butter and fried salt herring.
The last evening I spent with Marcia was melancholy and sweet. We sat on the porch swing at her house until it began to get dark; then we walked across the lawn and down the driveway to my old Plymouth. It was still very warm, a dry August evening when darkness does nothing to freshen the air. We drove the ten miles to the cabin in silence and when we pulled up in front of the cabin I missed his motorcycle by inches. I thought Victor must have walked to the tavern down the road. She got out before I could open the door for her. The lights weren't on but I found the switch near the door with no difficulty. The cabin had been cleaned, though hastily. The walls halfway to the ceiling were paneled in cheap knotty pine and above that a bright yellow paint on uneven plaster. There were no curtains on the windows. The linoleum was florid red and worn bare in front of the sink. I poured her a glass of beer and drank the rest from the bottle as there was only one clean glass. She seemed quite comfortable despite the ugliness of the room, walking around rather gracefully, looking at Victor's photos of his women and sipping the beer. I asked her if she wanted some more beer and she said she didn't care. Then she walked into the bathroom and said that there were bugs in the sink. I went in and we stood looking down at the cold whiteness of the sink and the moths and dead mosquitoes around the drain. We looked up simultaneously—the mirror looked back at us with a terrifying clarity—her face, less tanned in the bright light, damp brow, her long hair caught up in a bun. I stood behind her with a look of such patent absurdity that she laughed. I felt that I had attained consciousness for the first time in weeks, that her beauty had previously been only an idea. She slipped off her blouse and then let her skirt drop to the floor. I felt light, airy as if I were watching the scene from a distance or in a dream. She turned to me and put her face against my neck. I kissed her briefly and looked into the mirror. In the bottom of the mirror the cheeks of her buttocks were pressed tightly by our weight against the sink, then her back, smooth but surprisingly well muscled, and my hands darker against her white skin. Then I saw my face poised over her shoulder and I smiled and stuck out my tongue.
Much later, after I had taken her home and returned to the cabin, I thought that I had never had such great pleasure with so little thought, that all of what occurred had done so in a sensual haze interrupted only by drinks of cold water and a few cigarettes. Even the trip back to her house had been diffuse, hypnotic. It is strange to know a girl you can love without words, with whom language is only an interference. It was always so with Marcia. We talked and laughed and walked around a great deal but when we began caressing it became an utterly wordless rite. The first time we made love there had been blood but she apparently had not thought her virginity worth mentioning.
Now with the kindling from the tent I made a dim sputtering fire, barely enough to boil the coffee. My breath rose from the tent mouth, the air not much less than freezing in June. In New York the people with money would have that spavined look of being on the verge of summer vacation whether for two weeks or a month or the whole summer for some wives. Barbara would be leaving for Georgia with the child, perhaps leaving the child there on her way to Europe. She had seemed so hopelessly corrupt when I first met her, strangely lamblike but with an aggressive decadence that confessed real planning, as a few girls of a particular sort of literary bent plotted their lives on the bases of novels they had read. I met her at Romero's, a mixed race bar in the Village where she had come with a lanky Negro from her painting class. She had been loudly and hysterically drunk within an hour and her friend had left in embarrassment.
—Are you part Mexican? she had asked.
—No, I had said, nearly immobilized by shyness.
—Well, you look it. Are you sure?
—Maybe ever so little bit, I lied. I wanted to please her. She looked like a fashion model, easily the most beautiful creature I had ever met.
We talked senselessly for a few minutes and I ordered her another drink but the bartender refused. She left abruptly and I followed, very sure that I would trip between the stool and the door. The bartender grinned. I felt old and sophisticated but still clumsy. We walked a few blocks, she in wobbling silence, to a luncheonette where we had coffee and where the counter waitress told me to get the girl out of there before she puked. When we got to my room she quickly stripped and put on a T-shirt of mine for lack of pajamas then threw herself into bed. Asleep before I could focus my eyes on her body or say anything. I got naked into bed and touched her belly but she was already snoring. I felt curiously numb and giddy as I had a year or so before when I put my equipment on before a football game knowing I would spend the next few hours getting the shit kicked out of me. I lay there for a while touching her legs and breasts and sex, where I left my hand, thinking that this was actually the first time I had slept all night with a girl and that it was unmanly to take advantage of a drunk woman. Her stomach growled beneath my hand and I hoped she wouldn't throw up as it was four days before I was due for clean sheets. Then I got up and turned on the light and looked at her, first from a distance then very closely, an inch or two away to be exact. I thought my heart would explode, I got back in bed and hovered over her trying to enter but I finished at touch.
I awoke at dawn feeling very depressed and guilty and watched her from a chair by the window. Her breathing was deep and steady in the shadows, the sheet drawn back far enough to show a smooth hip and white buttock, the remnant of a suntan on her back. I got up early out of habit but disliked doing so in the city, the clank and hiss of the garbage truck on empty Houston Street, the soiled light, even in the summer the sun never quite clear, the air smelling as if it had been sprayed with some oily chemical. She moved slightly then turned over on her belly, the sheet twisting about her, pulling farther down until it encircled her thighs. Like a picture in a dirty magazine. No excitement but an unexpected deadness. She seemed to radiate heat and sleep with her had been suffocating—the strange sweet odor of her, the perfume wearing thin, the room shrinking in bitter sleeplessness with first light. I dozed in the chair for an hour or two, waking to the full noise of the street. She still slept though covered now. I went out in the hall and took a shower and when I returned she stood in front of the hotplate on the dresser making coffee.
—Those niggers tried to get me drunk, she said smiling.
—I don't remember it that way.
She cooled her coffee with water, drank it hurriedly. Then she wrapped herself in the loosened sheet.
—I want a shower.
I told her where it was and to be careful as the hot water, when there was any at all, was scalding. A girl naked or practically, the important part naked anyway, drinking coffee in my room. I almost wanted to go back home and tell an old friend. I got into the bed which was warm and smelled beery.
I lay there in my trousers breathing deeply to quiet my nervousness. When she returned in what seemed an hour she stood completely naked beside the bed combing her hair with short nervous strokes, looking down at me. I reached out and touched her. She turned, dropped the comb, and got in bed beside me, reaching her one hand down and unzipping my pants. I took them off quickly and we kissed. I entered her without pausing though she wasn't nearly ready.
Early that evening I walked her down to the corner of Macdougal so she could hail a taxi. We watched some children playing basketball in a small park behind a high fence. She gave me her phone number and address. I felt different and wondered if anyone would notice. We had alternately screwed and slept and smoked throughout the day with a short trip out to a delicatessen. She put my prick in her mouth which had only happened once before with a whore in Grand Rapids, and I went down on her which I had never done before, though I had read about it with my friends back home. We all assumed that everyone had eaten a woman and when some poor freak admitted he hadn't we all laughed knowingly whether in the locker room or on the farm. I felt sore and raw. At nineteen one day's worth of screwing had nearly equaled all that had occurred in my life up to that date. Every curiosity was settled for the moment and I could still smell her on my hands and lips. And nose. I walked into the Kettle of Fish bar and loudly ordered an ale which was a definite change as I usually mumbled in bars with a sort of hick Herb Shriner accent that New Yorkers had difficulty understanding.
I used the rest of the kindling and dried a small log into burning. I fried some potatoes and onions and ate them out of the pan. It was barely light but clear and the first shafts of sunlight caught the mist rising up through the brush and trees. As it did in the Black Forest in 1267 with peasants rising early, drawing on their boots in the wet dawn. I wiped the rifle with my shirt, the beads of moisture that had formed on its cold steel barrel, and began walking upstream again to continue where the rain had interrupted me the day before. By the look of the conservation map it was the deepest part of the forest unmarked even by log roads, and with the unnamed creek I camped beside running from the closest of two small lakes in a thin crooked trickle, widening gradually as it poured northward to Lake Superior.
About a mile from the tent I came upon a conical pile of fresh bear crap. Eating thimbleberries, must be. It took a few moments to recover from the shock but then I knew black bears scarcely ever bothered anyone. I walked quietly through the wet ferns which had soaked me to the waist, then saw perhaps a hundred yards ahead on a hummock on the edge of a small marsh the bear. He suddenly turned to me, catching my scent, then with an almost indiscernible speed crashed and whuffed off into the marsh.
All of them were the same. Convinced of this, they revolved their particularities around a single head, the body's parts too were interchangeable. When young there was the breathlessness of looking up the word "sin" in the dictionary after a morning spent in Bible school. Jezebel, Mary Magdalene, Ruth at my feet, Lot's daughters, Solomon's concubines. They caused the frenzy at Gadara when the madman, who broke his bonds over and over, was healed and the spirits went into a herd of swine, three thousand of them, and they cast themselves into the sea and drowned. Froth and waves from pigs drowning. I multiplied the pigs in the pen next to the corncrib. There were eight of them and it was difficult to imagine thousands each with the spirit of an evil woman. When you have changed and cleansed yourself of all vileness the dozen or so women around the country you have mistreated will know this and cast themselves into the Red Sea or into the pigpen. They could be pinpointed on a map of the United States and Canada. I would that you were either hot or cold in Laodicea. Underpants drawn down the thighs behind a chicken coop. She said at twelve see my ass. In front of your eyes and no one to confess it to. The dead woman who played the piano for Wednesday night prayer meeting is in heaven now and can see what you do to yourself at night and what you do to others at home or work or play. Nothing can be hidden from the dead and they can't help us though they must weep for us. You could hear the chickens clucking, the ground scratched bare underfoot. You have no hair I have some. I will get mine after my next birthday I'm told. Uncles at war in Guadalcanal might die. You touched her thing. At the Nazarene Revival the preacher said in the circus tent the young couple's little daughter fell into the pigpen and was eaten by the pigs in punishment. He turned to drink and women. She turned to drink and other men. Then they heard a hymn on the radio and many had prayed for them especially their mothers and they wept by the radio and asked for forgiveness. Soon they had a new child. God works in many ways His wonders. I'll go to Africa and be a missionary and save the heathen Negro savages though fraught with dangerous lions and snakes. Her ass is bare, the chickens clucking in circles thinking we're going to feed them. The missionary played the accordion and sang a hymn in the African language and showed slides of the Dark Continent. And of a leper with a giant jaw and one ear missing who had been brought to Christ at the mission. The girls were forced to marry at ten, in the fourth grade only. I found a book of Flash Gordon in my cousin's desk where in the rocket ship Flash Gordon put his thing all the way through the woman and out the other side where a man had it in his mouth. In one place and out the other. Joe Palooka too with boxing gloves on, trunks around his knees before the fight with famous people at ringside. A friend of mine had given their Negro maid five dollars of Christmas money to raise her dress way up. What did she look like I don't know her underpants were on underneath the dress. Five dollars. In summer rowing down the lake at night we looked in the window and she had no clothes on at all. Tm not sure they are all like that, if their hair is a different color they are certain to be built differently. But when I came up through the waters in my white flannel pants everything was new and the Holy Ghost was in the baptismal font felt in my chest which was at bursting. Maybe held the breath too long. It lasted, the ghost, for a week or so even if my father said you wont have to take a bath joking. Or am I a heathen? Billy Sunday saved my father for two days but he got drunk on the third. Backsliding they call it.
Now at noon a breeze blew up from the southwest and the day became warm and humid. I sat against a stump and watched the small lake rippling. When I reached the lake I shot a turtle off a distant log in disgust and fatigue, the sweat dripping down into eyes and in the swamp I passed through, clouds of black flies and mosquitoes, an eye nearly swollen shut with bites. The turtle had exploded with the force of the 180-grain bullet. Pointless cruelty. In the family, or the choking I felt was not consistent with the past. Hounds in the dark leaping against the tree and in the beam of the flashlight a raccoon looks down, is blasted from the tree and torn in pieces by the hounds. Whets their appetite to let them eat one once in a while.
I shot five times into a bee swarm once, hanging clotted in a tree, a huge cluster of small moving grapes and the queen deep in the center being fed and protected by them all. They closed around the shots, the dead falling to the ground. The cheapness in my family, to spend your first fourteen years in the nineteenth century, and then be swept into the twentieth; and at shock point to become a Baptist and study to be a preacher. Many are called but few are chosen, they said. Two years in a church the soul swollen and bitten by it. The black woman sang, "I'm going to tell God how you treat me." In Philippians or Ephesians. Paul taught us. Purify my thoughts O Christ. Better to burn than to perish, holding the unloaded shotgun across the lap in despair of becoming pure. We didn't come from apes to act like gods, the world was born six thousand years ago Bishop Ussher proved and only Satan would have us think otherwise. Our Country had gone wrong and when the Hoover Dam was built eight or nine men died and were buried in its cement from our lust for money. Christ don't let these pictures tempt me. Brains rot with self-abuse. Euclidean it was and an absorbed millennium of cruelty; the shame for my family and relatives, only my father had been to college and he studied agriculture and had bad grammar. How could anything come to this, rather from it, with years spent on milking cows, cutting down trees or eating herring. A whole stretch of them quit school at sixteen out of religious conviction, wanting no more than the law required; Mennonites, ignorant and harmless, they kept to themselves and refused to seek the law with one another. They invented crop rotation and the women wore black and black skull caps. That is all that could be said about them.
It was warm and breezy enough for the mosquitoes and flies to disappear. I shed my clothes and walked into the water, gingerly stepping on the lake's soft bottom; at chest depth I began swimming, the water icy and clear, toward the log. There were a few pieces of the turtle flesh and then one large chunk of turtle shell I could see on the bottom by shading my eyes. Put it back together. My heart was in the egg and it dropped to the floor. I floated on my back and saw one still cloud. Where would the turtle have died otherwise? In winter deep in the mud. As bears do, dying in their sleep from age. There were thousands of undiscovered bodies in America, on railroad sidings and in rented rooms, in culverts, in the woods.
When I got back to the tent I dozed in the late afternoon sun. I wanted one place. Lost all character in travel; in one thousand miles, even less, one could become something because there was nothing to displace. Stay here. The streets of Laredo, Texas, festered and kept to themselves. You were sure that everyone would start shooting if they could do so with impunity. But maybe that was true of any state. A sailor on the sidewalk in a circle of the curious on Saturday night in Scollay Square in Boston, the handle of a screwdriver sticking out of his cheek. They tore it down, Scollay Square. In the West Forties near Ninth Avenue the policeman clubbed the Puerto Rican on the felt hat. The hat dropped bloody in front of a $1.19 steak house. Another policeman stood by the squad car watching the Puerto Rican on his hands and knees dripping gore. Then they took him off in the car. The small crowd left and I looked at the hat for a moment. What happened to it? A friend who had been shot said it felt like being slugged though not too hard. A safe place in Utah, where I worked for a farmer for a week. Ate with the family. They were impressed that I had been to college. I said my wife had died and they were very nice to me. This will to lie gratuitously is handy.
The night was liquid and warm. I threw a handful of green ferns on the fire to smoke away the mosquitoes and the smoke curled and hovered over the fire and the tent and finally sought out the roof of boughs above me. A moonless night. In Spain where I had never been I slept under a lemon tree with a viper nestled in my lap for warmth. Smelled like a muskmelon I broke over a tractor fender, the juice and seeds dripping on the ground. I took off all my clothes and walked around the fire in my boots, staring past the perimeter of darkness. A thin dog bark in the distance. Coyote. Might be quite close as the creek's steady rush hid noises. I shivered and moved closer to the fire, standing in the plume of smoke until my eyes watered. If there was fire in the middle of earth why wasn't the ground warm. No brain for science or perhaps anything else, only what stuck like a burr to clothes. Or was sufficiently bizarre. I ran my hands over my body as a doctor might looking for something awry. In the new world muscles would be freakish. Nothing for bulges to do, no mindless labor but something of another kind. Work. Helping my dad and grandfather get in the hay. Pitch it with forks onto the wagon until the pile looked huge and unsteady, then the horses would pull the wagon to the barn where the hay would be pitched into the mow. So young the fork felt heavy to lift. After supper I would follow my grandfather to the barn and watch the cows be milked. Four tits. Milk would never come for my own fingers, though I had secretly tried. My grandfather would aim the tit and squirt me in the face or squirt a stream of milk into the mouth of a barn cat which would always be waiting. Throw some hay down, spread it in the long trough in front of the stanchions, and some for the horses. I hated to walk behind the horses but the one hoof cocked was to rest. There were stories of the killed and maimed, one lack did it, knocked through the side of the barn. The bull tethered, led by the ring in its nose was safe. Work dulled the brain, left the brain elsewhere seeking a sweet place to forget tiredness. Had to fill in around the foundation by hand as the bulldozer might buckle the wall, a week's worth of shoveling. The well pit kept caving in until we dug a hole ten feet by ten by ten. No timbers to shore it. Laying a thousand feet of irrigation pipe when it was brutally hot, a dollar per hour and no overtime, or unloading a fertilizer truck in the metal Quonset shed with a gas mask on as the bags sometimes broke. And the hardest work, handling twelve-inch cement blocks, seventy pounds apiece, for a house that would have brick facing, perhaps a thousand of them in the walls. Unloaded in a day thirty-five tons by hand. Too tired to screw or go fishing or to the movies, the hands numb and raw. Someone has to do it. Not me again. Near Stockton the bean field stretched out past seeing. We picked in rows for two cents a pound. I made seven dollars in a twelve-hour day while the Mexican girl I met in Salinas averaged fourteen dollars a day. Found a job running a forklift in a cannery in San Jose.
In the sleeping bag the smell of smoke on my body was overpowering. Asleep on the skin and awake at center I thought of the drive up past Toledo and Detroit and Lansing, finally reaching the country I liked north of Mount Pleasant and Clare where I turned left to drive the eighty miles through Evart to Reed City. Past the road that led to the cabin. Where a witch, a true one, lived in a shack in the woods and lived on berries and boiled opossum or any animal found freshly run over by a car on the road. Three hundred and fifty million animals dead on roads each year. I counted eighty once on a summer night on a stretch of road west of Clare. They could not learn the world wasn't theirs. Over the earth perhaps a billion a year struck down. I hit a fox years before in Massachusetts, swerved to a halt and saw it scrambling in a tight circle on the shoulder of the road. And beat its skull in with a tire iron because its back was broken and one hind leg dragged askew. The fox snarled then whimpered trying to retreat. Couldn't let it take days to die—they ran about freely, less wary than usual, in February and March when they mated.
Reed City where I had spent my best years seemed crabbed and ugly and small and I drove quickly through it. Nothing more tiresome than the idyll of someone's youth. The world from three or four feet high with all things remembered in unique wonderment, pored over in late years, confessed, hugged, wrung of their residue in disgust with the present. How hopeless to live it over and over again, to savor only the good parts, forgetting the countless wounds which seemed to lie deeper and were kept masked with force. Though the one clinical psychologist I had been to persuaded me I lived like a child. That was why I didn't need my childhood to assuage or heal present griefs. I was still a child with small chance of being anything else, perhaps. Fine. Always quitting, schools, jobs, hunting or fishing or walking, as a child gorges on candy or new games. On occasion I even climbed trees when I was sure I wasn't watched. Novelty they called it, a victim of change, a new street to walk down in a new city to a new bar or new river with a new bridge to look off and a new author to read late at night in a new room. In Waltham by the Charles it had been Dostoevsky for weeks on end after I finished work as a busboy in an Italian restaurant. Boston became St. Petersburg with two feet of snow in a single night. I moved to St. Botolph street and quit my job after saving a hundred dollars. The room was so ill-heated I wore my father's cast-off overcoat the entire month, even to bed, and when the heat came on intermittently I would take it off and hang it out the window to air. The wino in the next room pissed out the window to avoid walking downstairs to the toilet. I wrote down my thoughts on two pages of a yellow law tablet and moved again to New York City in the spring where I hoped to leave for Sweden when enough money had been saved. After five months of unemployment and Tokay in New York I left for Michigan where in another four months I was able to save seventy dollars and hitchhike to California. All drifters dream of mountains of gold hidden in the greenery of Peru, Lafitte's treasure in some coral reef off the Tortugas, finding a thick billfold in a gutter or becoming an overnight movie star after someone had discovered their interesting face or becoming a rich woman's lover. She was beautiful but until she had him no man had been able to satisfy her whimsical tastes. Then he saw the world by sheer cock power—Biarritz, Marrakesh, Saipan, Hong Kong. Through the draperies he looked out on the Avenue des Cochons, his body pillaged but happy. Behind him on a Louis Quatorze bed she held the now dead duck to her breast. Then she plucked the feathers from the duck with her teeth as a falcon would, in quick jerking motions. He only endured such perversities for the thousand dollars a week allowance she gave him and sometimes the small pleasures which she offered in return. He would sell her to some Bedouins when they reached Somaliland for the fall shooting, first taking her jewels and as much cash as possible. Back in my room I felt drugged with fantasy. I wanted to find a real muddy billfold in a real gutter. Flushed with sauterne I felt my life about to change. You will cross an ocean or a body of water and find love with a woman who speaks a strange tongue, said a girl who read my horoscope. Or as the president of a giant corporation I would institute fair employment practices. Widows of those accidentally killed by being sucked into the blast furnaces of my steel mills would blush at my generosity, often bend over the desk for a quick one. All fantasies ruined by the errant detail. Early in high school I entered a UAW (United Auto Workers) essay contest on labor history: "Eugene Debs sat mutely in his jail cell. Whither labor? he queried himself." My brother had won the American Legion contest for the "best essay on a theme of patriotism" and had read it from a stage in a school assembly, the setting symmetrical with two uniformed men on each side of the podium and two flags. I thought success at writing might run in the family and had waited anxiously for the mail to bring news of my trip to Washington (first prize) and then my predestined rise through the ranks until I was an equal, then a successor to Walter Reuther. Reuther would say, "Glad to have you aboard," or something like that with misty eyes. No one could see the scars the shotgun blast had left, fired by goons through the kitchen window. Goons would stop at nothing, not even murder. The Ford, Dodge and Mott families and others lived in porcine splendor on unpaid wages while the Leader lay bleeding on the linoleum. Years later at a socialist meeting in New York City short, homely people read from L'Humanité and laughed. I didn't know French and the poster said it was supposed to be a social occasion. Orange drink and doughnuts. It was to be my only political meeting though I signed petitions and protest statements around Washington Square daily. I heard rumors about Eisenhower and Madame Chiang and how the oil depletion allowance financed private Texan armies which would eventually take over the country. Or that the Rosenbergs were framed and that serious people, especially young men, should try to join Fidel Castro in the Oriente Province. I believed everything and even attended a secret meeting of Castro sympathizers in Spanish Harlem, though the plotting was in Spanish and I understood no Spanish save vaya con Dios, gracias, and in my adobe hacienda. After five months of New York I weighed thirty pounds less and after four months of California, ten pounds further down the scale. Ideally I would have weighed nothing in a few more years.
There were scars along the creek bank from the spring runoff, scattered driftwood and uprooted yellow beech in piles and clots, and watermarks on trees. Late winter here would be strange, the local record was close to three hundred inches of snow, with temperatures running if rarely to forty below zero. The deer would yard up deep in cedar swamps and scour the limited browse and often if there were a spring blizzard, starve to death by the thousands. Even the bobcats would deplete the supply of snowshoe hares; a few years back an estimated fifty thousand deer died, driven into submission by a March blizzard when they were at their weakest. In spring all creeks would become torrents, heaving and turbulent, fed by melting snow and ice and rain. I wanted to see it but the country would be impenetrable in winter, except by snowmobile, a machine that horrified me and seemed to accelerate the ruin of all places not normally reached. There were no inviolate places, only outposts that were less visited than others. The Arctic was drilled for oil, great pools of waste oil seeping through glaciers. The continent was becoming Europe in my own lifetime and I felt desperate. The merest smell of profit would lead us to gut any beauty left, there was no sentimentality involved. We had been doing so since we got off the boat and nothing would stop us now. Even our instincts to save were perverse; we made parks which in fact were "nature zoos" crossed by superhighways, and in the future large areas would be surrounded by narrow gauge fence so that the animals wouldn't be harried and stared to death. It was almost a comfort to think of how many people the grizzlies with their sense of property might take with them in their plummet to extinction. I had read a story about a woman who proudly told of shooting one while it slept. Small pocket of fur flew, a .375 Magnum slug tearing through the beast in a split second. Odd how they know when they're being hunted, even as a fox does when he doubles back to watch his pursuers draw close. They run fox to exhaustion with snowmobiles then club them to death. Moose in Ontario killed at close range floundering in the snow, also run to fatigue by machines. Elephants know that they're being shot at as the Indian women did at Cripple Creek and whales are familiar with the fatal accuracy of the modern harpoon. And the wolf was destroyed because it killed game animals from hunger, perhaps fifty left in the Upper Peninsula, rarely seen as they had the wit to recognize their enemy. The feral dogs living in swamps returning to their ancient home in a single generation understood when they were shot for killing deer. But there were a few places like this one that would yield up little profit and was at least temporarily safe since the rivers had recovered from the widespread mining fifty years before and the cutting of pulp fed deer with new growth.
Of what use was a mountainside blotched with chalets, and ski people, certainly the most insensate group of chichi morons I'd ever met. They had their "right" as did the lumber and mining and oil interests. But I did not have to like them for it. There was an amusing irony in the fact that the land would be fucked up before the blacks would have the leisure to enjoy it, one more piece of subtle genocide.
My brain felt cold and weak from this war with everyone; I found most of those who agreed even less palatable than the destroyers. No matter how deeply one went into the forest or into the mountains a jet contrail would somehow appear as a wound across the sky. But I had no talent for reform and could not stop pouring whiskey into my face unless it was miles away, flatly unreachable. Those born in big cities, some of them, tried to save cities. I could not dry out my brain long enough to regard any day with total focus. Others in my generation took drugs and perhaps expanded their consciousness, that was open to question, and I drank and contracted my brain into halts and stutters, a gray fist of bitterness.
The woods were warm and lovely again with the sun on the ground mottled by the small leaves of the birch waving slightly above the tent in the light breeze. I drowsed and dozed. Once on the grass I saw the moon between Marcia's thighs, ear against leg and one cloud beneath it. May, and the cherry tree beyond my feet had lost all but a few of its blossoms, the petals were a cushion on the ground. Her tame pigeons croaked in the cage behind the garage and the noise purled in the warm air. Grass sweet eat some, face wet with her warmth. Car passes on the gravel road, its headlights sweeping above our bodies. The stains of green on my knees and back from the wheatfield across the road where we went to hide when it was still daylight. Soil was damp and I was the blanket. She sat there and one might think there was a girl over there sitting in the wheatfield. On me. Glut of aimless splendid fucking in the car, on couches, in a shower, in locked bathrooms at parties, in the clump of lilacs and beneath the cherry tree. It is so far away and makes my brain ache. And in the spring when I felt melancholy for weeks, faintly insane with pockets bulging with picked flowers. We never talked very much and I wish that I could remember more now. And only that spring of fog and sleep with her as if we were living under warm flowing water. She waited on the ground while I sat in the crotch of a tree and drank the wine, the whole bottle in two or three gulps. So it would work quickly and well. Even then.
Waking from a nap in middle evening and the light almost gone. A new moon and the wood was dry enough to burn. I ate three trout not much larger than smelt and the last of the bread. Two tins of meat left and I'd have to hike back to the car for food if I could find it. Perhaps I would shoot something or diet or walk north to the Huron River and try to catch some larger trout. That is, if I could find the river; maps made terrain so simple but four or five miles through the woods with no visible landmarks was a different matter. I dipped three fingers into the honey jar noticing that my hand was filthy. Fools drank water from a stream going through a cedar swamp and often were violently ill far from help. Unless the stream is big, has a strong current, is far from civilization, you should boil all water. Found a cool spring coming through rock on the Escanaba. I once drew water fifty yards downstream from a deer carcass half in the stream and stinking. I admired the easy competency of my older brother and father in the woods, or what had been my father before the accident. Filth, smoke and disorder everywhere. Bah bah black sheep. Fuckup. Sweat and bug repellent stinging in scratches. I almost savored my pigginess which I viewed as central to my character. Where were the pig hocks and sauerkraut and black beer? And tripe and calves' brains and liver? Lydia, Lydia my sweet, bring me your gland. Night falleth with long hair. No soap could be found for my hands anyhow. Ashes work or fine wet sand. When we used to get weed stains from pulling weeds we broke open tomatoes and they cleaned the stains away.
II
BOSTON
I'm not very interested in my opinion of Boston. I've lived there twice and both times quite miserably. At nineteen I lived for a month on the Charles in Waltham thinking it was all somehow Boston. I heated Campbell's soup in the sink in my room and opened it only when I presumed the hot water had melted its jelled substance. I even tried the alphabet type but the can was incomplete, lacking the letters that would enable me to eat my name and be whisked to Lapland where I might consult the final shaman. I also dwelled on a prominent local suicide which had taken place three decades before. What local bridge did Quentin Compson use?
Then I moved to St. Botolph Street, the area is torn down now, and felt much better. Here would be my true hot center of anguish—January at its coldest, a hunchback for a landlady, an immediate neighbor with a cleft palate who as an unemployed merchant seaman told me that "drinking doesn't pay dividends." But there was such warmth in Tokay or sauterne, Thunderbird as they called it, fortified sherry with the maximal alcohol, hence warmth, at a minimal price. I worked as a busboy in an Italian restaurant and ate food off the plates of others, once in famished greed getting a filter tip cigarette butt caught in my throat. Hidden in a chicken wing. The money was good when you added the portion stolen from the waiter's tips. The waiter whose area I serviced was a homosexual Arab with less than totally clean immigration papers. He suspected me of stealing but I told him I would either kick his face in or make an anonymous call to certain high-placed authorities at which point he would be returned to whatever filthy little country he came from. The jig was up as they don't say any more when his day-off replacement, an Italian housewife with hair on her ankles, caught me and I was fired by the manager. He talked to me in his office the walls of which were covered with autographed pictures of show business personalities, minor ones (Jerry Vale, Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson, Gisele Mac-Kenzie, Julius LaRosa) who rarely make the late night TV shows. He wrote a check for twelve dollars, the amount owed me, and told me I was through as a busboy in Boston. He had connections. Everyone in Boston has connections down to the crummiest night porter who bets fifty cents a week on the numbers. They think about their connections on the subway to Dorchester.
I had by this time saved two hundred dollars which I intended as a stake for New York City but instead blew it in three days on a young Armenian belly dancer who was closely watched by two enormous hairy brothers. She let me have her for thirty dollars in the back of a taxicab after my face had become familiar enough in the club. She had to be sure I wasn't a freak, that my love for her and the Levantine music she undulated to didn't conceal some dangerous fetish. I understood her precautions. Boston is the sort of city where much of the population strangles cats. Or it is easy to imagine Bostonians lashing their own feet with coat hangers, screwing holes in cabbages, having nightly dreams of back-scuttling Magdalene or some poor nun spied upon on the street. On the Common one morning I watched a priest crazily eating daffodils on his hands and knees and then throwing up a stream of yellow petals in the swan pond. A passing cop only said, "Good morning, father," as if this were normal behavior. Much later in my life I got the same sensation walking around Dublin; a chill in my body knowing that if these dark energies were ever released the power would equal that of an unpunctured baked potato exploding in an oven.
Three days here now and I had begun to think I'd have enough to eat. My confidence in my ability to find the car with ease is nil. Touch my shrinking belly but I'm anyway thirty pounds overweight—the creeping fat started back in Boston where I drank all those numberless cases of ale. Delicious. Wish I had a case cooling in the creek, a TV commercial. And I wanted to stay at the very least seven days for the sake of numerology. Maybe I'll shoot a deer and eat it all, eyes, rumen. Make hoof soup out of hoofs.
It was uncomfortable stretched out along the top of the radiator in her apartment with each cast-iron ridge making a painful but warm indentation in my back. So warm, unlike my Botolph room. And dreaming of the Yucatan, Merida, Cozumel, which even though infested with vipers and tarantulas would be warm and steamy. I would suspend myself in a hammock to be safe from snakes and construct metal rat catchers like they do with ships to keep the scorpions and tarantulas away. Can tarantulas crawl up smooth-metal? Do they have gluey feet? I once went sixty-nine with a beautiful girl in a hammock and we became too preoccupied and violent and the hammock tipped us over onto the floor, at least a four-foot drop. She landed on top of me which made the etiquette of the accident proper but my shoulder was painfully wrenched. She thought it was very funny and was still juiced up but the pain in my bruised lips and nose and shoulder had unsexed me: full mast half mast no mast. O storm and all of that. I took a hot bath and put a heating pad over my face up to my nose. She cooked some bratwurst for dinner but it was difficult to chew so I drank two bottles of wine with a straw and let her soothe me by her bobbing head which I scratched alternately in lust, diffidence and pain.
Off Newbury Street again and up the stairs where she waited. All faint and pink as a quartz mine. No aquacities here. Corn shucks. Tamales.
—Don't do that, she said.
—What?
—That.
—Why?
—Because. Just because.
Really too hot for fuckery. Room livid and airless. We lay there sweating as animals apparently don't. I heard only through their mouths: running dogs pink tongue. I ached as metal might.
—It's still hard, she said.
—A mistake.
Her buttocks were squishy but still somehow appealing. Needed rigorous exercise, less pasta and cream in the coffee.
—Your ass is like grape jelly. Did anyone ever, tell you that?
—Fuck you. I've seen dozens bigger than yours.
—No doubt. You've looked at so many. The Army Corps of Engineers said I'm high average.
Waitresses smelling of lamb stew. I dressed quickly and went down the stairs and into the street. I went into the first bar and drank two glasses of beer then a shot of bourbon dropped into the third glass as they do in Detroit. A time bomb. For hygiene. In the toilet I aimed at the shrinking deodorant puck then a cigarette butt. In youth they were Jap airplanes to be shot at. A witticism at eye level on the wall: "Boston College eats shit." No doubt about that, Jesuits with platesful. The cook ladled seconds. Lurid goo us, they say, gimme all the luv ya got.
And more: she raises herself on an elbow. Her eyes narrow and focus in the dim light of the room.
—Why aren't you up yet? she asks.
—It would disappoint you. You come in here, take off your clothes and ask me why I'm not up. I'm nothing more than a flange banger for old lizard skins.
—Can't you be a little bit nicer?
Thirty-third repeat. She is active in ward politics in a serene way being a Smith graduate with a sensible wardrobe. She is an ardent feminist, divorced from a "phony" in advertising. She believes we are not making love but relating physically. She sees an analyst and says the analyst advises against our relationship. I tell her often that she only comes around in hopes of collecting the four hundred I owe her.
—What did you do last night? she asks, patting my shoulder.
—Buggered a beautiful high school sophomore I met weeping on the Common. She was a virgin and was afraid it would hurt.
—I don't know why I put up with you. I know a lot of men that would like to be in your shoes.
Still more and I wanted romance. I unlocked the door; there was no question about it, she was on her hands and knees with the lax look of a depraved Confederate officer, all blond stringy hair, a bit of a mustache, skin blotches, a coat of sweat on which a name could be written.
—Why didn't you come when you called? I've been waiting.
—Obviously.
I walked around behind her. She had fixed this surprise at least an hour before and perhaps resumed the posture with each step on the stairway.
—Can you fix me something to eat first?
—What's wrong with you? she choked, rising to her feet clumsily. From the bathroom her boo-hoos were crisp and defined as good smoke rings.
I fried some eggs and ate them in silence while she looked out the window at the snow-covered parking lot three floors below.
I dreamed of whiskey again and when I awoke it was cold and raining steadily. I sank farther into my sleeping bag warming myself with moist breath. So cold and it is summer; better check trotlines, run in circles, dig with hatchet near a pine stump for pitch to start a fire. I dressed awkwardly in the tent then jogged to the creek; the first line was weightless, the bait gone, but the second held a brook trout close to a foot long. Breakfast. The rain slackened and the wind began to change directions, a vague warming from the southwest.
A diversion or digression here: loving openly and nearly the beloved. Anyone's rum-soaked brain might own such a thing in his past. It scarcely matters if the loved one is an aunt with the incipient threat of incest, or the druggist's daughter behind the soda counter, or as in my own case a cheerleader in the tenth grade. And another, this one. A girl at a summer cottage on a lake up near West Boylston, Massachusetts. She was fifteen and I was seventeen. Later on, not even much later on in life, one misses this sense of life horribly. So absent when we are merely glands with small brutish brains attached. Loving as if we were fictional creatures, geometrical, pure, diamonds to be looked at through many clear and open facets, but still human; the throat constricts, the tear glands overwhelm, the world is tactile and fresh again and we return to it over and over, willfully recapturing a beautiful but senseless dream:
I awoke shortly after dawn to a ring tapping the window. I saw her framed in the darkened parlor window—I was sleeping on a cot on the porch—motioning for me to get up. I regretted my promise. I didn't ride well and was sure I would look foolish, perhaps fall off and dash my brains out against a rock or tree. It was delicious to lie on the porch a.t dawn with the chattering of birds coming up from the lake, and the raindrops falling lightly off the still leaves. I remembered vaguely a brief thunderstorm during the night: the lightning illumined the leaves of the sugar maple tossed by the breeze and the tree looked white and ghostly. She tapped again and I got up, dressing slowly as my clothes were cool and damp. The morning was darkly overcast and through the pearls of raindrops on the screen I could see mist move in coils across the lake.
She waited impatiently while I drank some instant coffee, made before the water had come to full boil. I had to explain in a whisper that it was inconceivable to leave the house without coffee. We paused to listen to her father snore then someone turn in a creaking bed then back to silence. She was dressed in a loose-fitting pullover sweater, the sort Irish peasants knit to earn their mashed potatoes, and light tan riding breeches. When she stood at the stove trying to scrape a teaspoonful of coffee out of the jar she dropped the spoon and I was brought out of my drowsiness by the sight of her stooping figure, the breeches pulled tightly across her buttocks, and the lines where the panties pressed into the flesh. Only fifteen years old.
I closed the door softly and followed her up the driveway to the gravel road. Still a light sprinkle of rain but mostly off the trees and the mist drifting now across the marsh and into the woods. The dampness entered my bones and I shivered.
She bent to pick up a stone, the breeches drawn tightly again. Let's play dog or doctor or something, I thought.
—Here. Throw this at the birds, she said, handing me the stone.
I threw at a blackbird sitting on a mailbox some fifty yards away.
—Why didn't you dance with me last night? I said, watching the stone sail into a thicket.
—Because you were drunk and disgusting and I'm going steady.
—You're a bitch.
She turned to me, shocked. —You swore at me.
We took a shortcut, crossing a field and wetting ourselves to the knees with rain-soaked grass and weeds. I began to feel lightheaded, loony, with a hangover but still somehow exhilarated.
I stopped to light a cigarette and she turned and paused looking at her wet boots.
—If we don't hurry you'll get a bad horse.
—All horses are bad.
God protect me from large animals that cause pain. I could already feel the inevitable shock waves of pain up my spine, my head joggling or my neck snapping like a snake's if the horse jumped over anything higher than a footprint. Riding wasn't totally unpleasant if the saddles had horns but this was to be "English" and I thought of them and why they hadn't won the war by themselves. No saddlehorns of course. Bad food and teeth though I had never met one. Back home they were more sensible and rode "Western" and had no pretensions and had things to hold on to when they were up in the air.
Later in the afternoon after we returned I put on my bathing suit and walked down to the dock. My hangover had gone to my stomach, rather my stomach shared in it, both head and trunk queasy and faintly ringing. The goddamn horse had run to keep up with hers no matter how hard I jerked at the reins. In fact the first time I jerked, the horse had moved sideways with startling speed and I thought I might return to the church and not drink any more beer or smoke if God would get me off the horse and home safely and in my own bed without pain. My mother would call me for breakfast and I would say an invisible grace over the bacon and my brain would be as pure as the moon.
She was sitting at the end of the dock and I walked past her without a word, my legs unsteady and aching, and let myself off backwards into the water. She said nothing so I swam head down out toward the raft watching the light sandy bottom disappear, the water growing darker. When I got to the raft I let my feet trail downward into the colder water while the warm encircled and glistened around my chest. I imagined a water of perfect coldness that would be solid ice near bottom in reverse of illogical nature. I saw that she wasn't watching so I swam idly back to shore, partly on my back, looking directly at the sun. In grade school there had been an albino who could stare at the sun longer than anyone else. This trick was his only token of respect and he bored everyone with his "Come watch me stare at the sun I bet you can't." He disappeared in the sixth grade, some said to the school for freaks in Lapeer, others said to the school for the blind in Lansing.
When I reached the dock she was still sitting with her elbows propped on her knees with the book close to her chest. I stood in the shallow water, leaned a bit and impulsively put my head against the inside of her knee. She squirmed from the water trickling down her thigh then suddenly grasped my head between her knees.
—I've caught a sea serpent.
My ears hurt but I forgot them looking down her thighs to the small pubic bunch where they met in her swimsuit. At the moment I didn't even desire her. The antipathy of the horseback ride and the dance the night before was too fresh. And her apparent scorn or distance was difficult to understand, the way she mimicked my midwestern drawl. And the dance smelling of the polished hardwood floor and my awkward beery drunk self watching the others dance so gracefully. Later the decision to drive two hundred miles to New York City, sobriety setting in when someone puked in the back seat. The car seemed cold and it began to rain. One of the droplets trickled into her crotch. Then she released my head and I pulled myself up on the dock and let myself dry in the sun alongside of her with my eyes shielded by my forearm.
—Do you sleep with that guy?
—Where?
—I mean do you make love?
—It's none of your business.
I looked at her back, the gentle way her butt met the dock. She was fairly tall and wasp-waisted but otherwise seemed so ample for her age.
—I just wondered. Nothing personal.
—We're going to wait until I'm sixteen.
She turned and put the book down on my legs and took off her sunglasses.
—Do you have many girls?
—Quite a few, I lied.
—Do you respect them?
—Of course. What do you think they're for?
She turned back to the lake and lifted the book from my thighs. I quivered and felt my cock begin to enlarge, like her or not. She glanced at my bathing suit then put her hand directly on me.
—Men are made so funny.
She gathered her towel and book and walked up the dock to the path to the cottage.
After dinner we sat around, seven of us including her parents and brother and sister and my friend, and listened to Berlioz' Requiem. I was bored and tired and said I had a headache and was going to get some fresh air. I walked down to the lake feeling strange about her. She seemed too young, unfinished; her charm was girlish and at seventeen I had only dreams and visions of plump heavy-breasted women that supposedly would shriek and moan with pleasure. Earth seemed so quiet and expectant that night. It was the summer the H-bomb was announced and I remember how the idea fascinated me, the speculation in my naïve New Testament brain that the earth would burn like a tuft of cotton soaked in kerosene, the universe would split apart and Jesus would appear for the Second Coming, self-brilliant with the light of His head which was like the sun. Our own sun would be a charred disc and the cold moon blood-red reflecting the fire in the universe. On the dock though I had not connected myself in anyway with this disaster. I would live on with my own particular expectancies and ambitions intact. My senses were those of a child, my ears flooded with frogs croaking, and there was still the smell of bathing suits drying. Someone far out in the lake was trolling for bass in the full moon. Their voices were inaudible but I could hear the creaking of the oarlocks. They lit a match and the small flare made them briefly visible in a small circle of light.
I heard steps behind me but didn't turn. I thought it was only my friend and didn't want to encourage conversation. But then there was a smooth hand on my neck and she asked me for a cigarette which surprised me. In my hometown it would have been scandalous for a girl of fifteen to smoke. She smoked the entire cigarette before saying anything then she said that they had been talking about me up in the cottage and how utterly rude I was. How I didn't wash in the morning and I bit my fork when I ate and said "huh" and "yah" and so on. And didn't help out. I told her that as a future great poet I was obligated to leave civilities to the civilized. She said I didn't look like a poet—my skin was the color of cocoa from working on construction and my hair close-cropped as a burdock. Her tone indicated that in her own mind my destiny was settled—I was a yokel, a clyde, as we teased those in high school who showed up with manure still on their boots.
—I think you're all a bunch of fuckheaded phony creeps.
—Why be impolite? I just said what they said.
—What do you think?
—I don't know.
I drew in my breath and felt as angry as I had ever been. The sort of anger that precedes a fist fight when your eyes tinge all outlines in red. I had felt the same way in football when a halfback had gotten past me on a quick-opener. The next time whether he had the ball or was simply blocking I would necktie him from my middle linebacker position out of simple generalized anger at being fooled. Or in Colorado when another busboy who turned out to be a NCAA boxer jabbed me fifty times before I could raise my hands and I grabbed him and ran his face along a stucco-walled building until much of the skin came off and he looked peeled.
—I'm leaving in the morning.
—Why?
I put my hand on her shoulder and turned her toward me and kissed her. She was stiff and didn't open her lips. Then we kissed again lying back on the dock, this time with her mouth open. We necked and embraced for about an hour until my lips felt bruised but she wouldn't let me take off her underpants. I rubbed my cock against them with her legs wrapped around me until I came off against her stomach. We separated then and I gave her my handkerchief and lit a cigarette for her and one for myself.
—I love you, I said.
—No you don't.
End of idyll. I could not continue to live without them. The three or four in my life have maintained my balance. We left at dawn the next morning. I slid a note under her bedroom door telling her again that I loved her. The door abruptly opened and she came into my arms in her pale blue summer nightie. We embraced and I let my hands slide under and across her bare back and lower to her thighs then in front to her sex and breasts not ceasing the kiss. Then I walked away through the screen door without looking back and got into the car. My friend drove a steady ninety miles an hour to New York City where we checked into a shabby hotel and wandered around the Village for two days until we had only enough money to drive home. The first night the elevator operator said he would bring us a whore. When she knocked we were a bit frightened but then we were eased by drinking most of a bottle of brandy. "French for five, full screw for ten." The two of us reconnoitered in the bathroom while she chugged the brandy. We decided a combined twenty would cut too deeply into our funds so that we would have to settle for a blowjob. We flipped and I was to be first. I walked back into the bedroom and took off all my clothes except my socks and handed her five dollars. She said that I had a nice tan and that she often took a few days off and went out to Jones Beach. I lay back and imagined it was the girl, that each sliding and collapse of the lips was hers rather than the whore's which only accelerated the bargain. I felt mildly weepy and melancholy and dressed and went for a walk while my friend took his pleasure.
I walked over to Washington Square where a large crowd had gathered for a chamber music concert. I listened to a Telemann then a Monteverdi piece which only accentuated my melancholy. When I got back home to Michigan we wrote to each other for a year or so and when I moved to New York City at nineteen she came for a visit but never found me as I changed rooms often to avoid back rent. When a long letter from her was finally forwarded to me I wept. She said that she had taken a suitcase and wanted to stay with me a week or so before going off to school, that she had covered her activities through a friend and her parents wouldn't have known. On violet stationery with small flowers in the upper corner and scented with lavender. I read it dozens of times until it was stained with ale and coffee and sweat, rumpled from being stuffed in my billfold. I read it in bars, near fountains, in Central Park, in museums, in the grass on the bank of the Hudson near George Washington Bridge, and most often in my room, over and over in my room. There was a terrible finality to it, something missed permanently. She would begin seeing her old friend and I was to have been some sort of interim, like sleeping with a gypsy. I didn't care. At nineteen a body is so total. What else is there? The gift of the body and aimless nights of love. I sent her my prized Gallimard Rimbaud as a parting gift, leather-bound, onionskin paper with a crabbed love note on the flyleaf. "Should you change your mind . . ." Final end of idyll.
A half dozen years later I heard she was married. Nine years later I passed her home in Worcester, Massachusetts. I went into a neighborhood grocery store for cigarettes hoping to meet her by mistake even if she was pushing a baby carriage with quadruplets in it. I was amazed at the trembling sensation I felt at being so close to her after so many years, a mere block away. But she didn't appear and I finally drove away.
The cheap pup tent had begun to leak where I had scraped against it on the inside. Canvas does this. I was thinking of the expensive nylon tent I would buy someday, one piece with a floor, weighing only five pounds instead of twenty pounds of molding canvas. But the weather had turned warmer and the breeze had become soft and slight. Through the flaps I watched a doe, perhaps a hundred yards away, approach the creek for a drink in the twilight. Diurnal. Why no faun? She was plump and her summer coat was a deep reddish brown. Then she scented me and bounded soundlessly off into the brush the white underside of her tail flagging into the greenery. I got up when the rain stopped and boiled some pinto beans and chopped onion into which I dumped a tin of unhealthy-looking Argentine beef. Probably have to be shot for hoof and mouth disease. Buried by a bulldozer driven by God wearing bronzed sunglasses as in the movie Hud. Destroy this animal.
In the morning the sun was shining and it was warm so I decided to find the car and pack in the rest of my food. And resist driving fifty miles, one hundred miles round trip, for four fifths of whiskey, or five fifths, or even more. With whiskey I would become weeping and incompetent, perhaps chop off a toe with the hatchet or roll in some poison oak or get cramps and drown in the lake. I wanted to go back to the lake; on the other side, in the distance, I thought I saw what must be an osprey nest rising above the reeds on a gray pine stump. There are very few osprey left and I wanted to watch one at close range.
My second session in Boston came after an unsuccessful college career and two years of unemployment. Between jobs, you know. Looking for something better from a base of zero. Nowadays education is the ticket to the future. I don't scorn these clichés which express our fondest hopes and dreams. I've long realized that if in addition to a thousand or so song lyrics they composed my sole continuous vocabulary I would be famous and rich, rich and famous. Rather than being turned away at the Ritz for having bucked teeth, a single eye, and a butter-smeared face and lapel, I would be welcomed with cymbals and snare drum and Benny Goodman's clarinet. The butter was of course not real butter or even margarine, but a badge of identity. As long as I lived within the pages of a white-on-white comic book I needed some sort of identification. Butter it would be. Or a suspicious approximation gotten, the accusation goes, on muff-diving expeditions on Memorial Drive. Radcliffe girls were narcissistic and less than totally hygienic. Thus my other notorious badge. A galvanized pail of hot water laced with Duz or Fab and a sponge and Brillo Pads. Difficult but worthwhile to carry. I'm sure you'll understand. This was before the days of Raspberry or Champagne douche, before the halcyon days when mice were transfigured into ultra-violet pom-poms. So I was an unlicensed scrubwoman far from home on my knees without portfolio, a sponge in one hand, in the other an angry red fist holding the apple of uncontrollable peace.
Anyway, on this second trip when I was trying to make a new start, collect myself, get my head above water, I would sit every morning in a Hayes-Bickford cafeteria reading the want ads in the Globe. This situation is too familiar to be amusing. Bank teller trainee $333 per month. I read an article in the Boston Globe on how while the locally unemployed were "miserable" they were not "desperate" and made a notation on the back of an application blank to check the difference in the Oxford Unabridged when I passed the library again. I always had at least ten of these blanks on my person. They tended to get frayed after a while and when I discarded them, a great deal of time had to be spent transferring my notes. I admit that I spent more time making notes than filling out applications. I could write my name with a great flourish at the top, but then begin to hedge at the address, home and local, and by the time I reached the social security line my energy would be sapped. All before reaching previous job experience, spouse, mother-in-law's maiden name, references. I waited for a time somewhere in the future when in a gratuitous burst of energy I would fill them out by the dozens, get a job, and move to the top. Once I was twelve stories above ground in a personnel office waiting to be interviewed for a creative opening in direct mail advertising. I sat reading business magazines for an hour, secretively licking my hand in order to brush down my cowlick. My stealth was unnecessary, the receptionist seemed to have forgotten my presence. I noticed that my lapel bulged unattractively from all the blanks stuffed in the pocket. I looked for a wastebasket but realized that it must be on the other side of the receptionist's desk or concealed in the room as furniture. Beside me was a window and I stood feigning interest in the street below. I took the sheaf of application blanks out and nudged them off the sill letting them slide as a group to death in the streets. They clung together for several stories but then a gust of wind caught them and they spread, floating gently as paper airplanes. If only an astronaut had been passing in parade. Several people looked up including a policeman on the other side of the street. I hastily backed away from the window.
—I saw you do that, the receptionist said.
I thought of shooting myself when the food ran out but immediately recognized the thought as literary. I would stick around until 2000 if only to tell my grandchildren I was right in 1970. The country by then totally denatured, lacking even the warmth of a pigpen, the humanity of a cow stanchion. Barns would be shrines and their gray leatherish boards would be licked and prayed to. I'm signing my body over to a medical school and using the cash, I think a hundred dollars, for dynamite. I can't though redress that grizzly shot while taking a nap or the Cripple Creek or the Sand Creek massacre. I dreamed of the latter once but the Sioux women had become flour-white and danced around a fire with black and green flames. For punishment the country of course has become Germany with the Mississippi our Ruhr, the Ohio the Rhine, My father who was a conservationist told me so twenty years back but that was his profession. It is good that he died in '63 before the extremity of the damage became apparent, before the bandwagon would appear with its load of politicians farting and bleating out slogans and obtusities. A sonic boom crushes a baby mink's skull. We know that. Isn't it enough? If I were to shoot myself I would be obligated to burn or bury my clothes and equipment, perhaps dig a deep hole like a garbage pit in which to fall or a hole in which, naked, I could drop the rifle with my last movement. Flesh is reasonably good fertilizer, or even better, predator food. A family of coyotes would live off the carcass for a few days. Then the grass and ferns would grow up through the skeleton until the porcupines had gnawed it away for its salt content. That is why you find few deer antlers in the woods. But this is largely romance. I like French restaurants. This is reason enough not to kill myself; a mousse of pike, noisettes de veau, Alsatian snails, fish soups. Or my own Mexican cooking, crepes stuffed with chicken with a hot chilli sauce and sour cream to assuage the bite of the red peppers. Or wine. Or gallons of amber whiskey. Or my old remedy for colds used in New York, Boston, San Francisco and home: first a quart of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, then a half gallon of lukewarm water to further cleanse the system. After two hours' rest in a dark room broil a two-to-three-pound porterhouse rare and eat it with your hands with no salt. After this with your stomach swollen, distended, an extremely hot bath in the dark in which you slowly sip the best bourbon you can afford, at least a fifth, until the bottle is empty. This might take four hours depending on your capacity. Then you sleep for twenty-four hours and when you awake the world will be new and you won't have a cold. Some people with weak systems will have hangovers but that is not my fault. I'm not a doctor. Go to your own doctor. You can go through this whole process even if you don't have a cold and it's equally pleasurable. I sometimes add a Havana cigar to the bath section but they are very expensive now and hard to come by. This prescription also cures melancholy and makes you a mad fucker for days afterwards. Oysters don't. When flush I once ate four dozen oysters in a Union Oyster House in Boston and then went over to Edward's Western Bar and was unable to drink anything because I knew some of the oysters were still alive, if vaguely, swishing around in my stomach with every movement. Made for a bad evening at a nudie movie with my Bostonian neighbors jacking off under newspapers. Rattle rattle crinkle went the newspapers in the dark theater. Besides I've had bad shellfish and vomited in complete, gymnastically exact somersaults on the streets of Gloucester. A moderately large crowd gathered. And I held a friend's hand in a hospital as he died from hepatitis and complications. He kept whispering, "Spread the word to artists everywhere, even on the Continent and South America. No shellfish and dirty needles. Take your speed orally. No oysters if they're peeking and no clams in months without an r." His hand loosened in mine. Our tears had fallen with metronomic steadiness but now his stopped. I wailed while he grew to stone within his body, his liver yellow and bald, an encephalitic head spewing poison even after death. I drew the sheet over his face and buzzed for a nurse. The protuberance of his liver under the muslin made it appear that he died with a football on his stomach, appropriate, as he used to love touch football in Central Park. Then the nursed entered.
—The poet is morte.
—What?
—This guy is dead.
She looked at his face, drawing back the sheet.
—Right you are. Are you his doctor?
—In a very real way, yes. I practice only in special cases.
She took two twenty-dollar gold pieces and placed them over his sightless eyes and left the room. I pocketed the gold pieces immediately and tried to pull down his eyelids but they snapped back like rubber bands or a condom rolled down backwards. Finally I settled for a nickel and a rabbit's foot I had been carrying for years. The rabbit's foot looked a bit strange; it was from a snowshoe rabbit rather than a cottontail and was long enough to stretch down to his nose tip. I replaced the sheet.
Goodbye dearest friend, you till the farthest field now. Say hello to Villon and Yeats. I'm sure you would want me to have the gold pieces. These snazzbo hospitals go over-board.
A wordless yes to the gold piece question seemed to fill the hallowed room as I left.
I once years back had an older but much unwiser professorial friend who told me after his seventh bloody mary:
—All you have to do is tell it like it is.
—But nothing is like anything, I replied with a very precise Oriental smile.
My compass wasn't in my pack or jacket pocket. I dragged out my sleeping bag and found it wedged in the ferns I had put down to absorb moisture. The dial was steamed up like a cheap watch often gets. It was a very expensive German compass given to me for Christmas. Not very subtle sabotage. The krauts are losing the touch, I thought, staring through the glass-encased fog, the red needle wavering. When I finally got a reading I didn't believe it and had known four days before that I wouldn't. But I put a package of raisins in my pocket, filled my World War Two canteen at the creek and set out for my car which I estimated to be about seven miles south-southwest. When I would reach the log road there'd be the question of which way to turn, left or right. Or maybe a Finn pulp cutter had broken a window and hot wired the car. A strange people, the Finns in the Upper Peninsula. They feed entirely on pasties—meat and rutabaga and potatoes wrapped in pie dough. They drink a great deal and when angry fight with axes and deer rifles. They aren't very inventive—even the pastie recipe was brought over from Cornwall during the copper boom in the last century. The Finns were imported as coolie labor and stuck to the area because of the snow and cold and short summers. It reminded them of another uninhabitable planet, their homeland. I met one in a bar who had chewed down a small cedar tree on a bet the year before and had pictures to prove it. He was virtually toothless having left his teeth in the wood to win his case of beer. I also had danced with a Finnish woman who showed me where her left tit had been shot off in a deer-hunting accident. The scar was an exact, a mirror image replica of the extinct Lassen volcano crater. I asked her if she would be willing to be shipped to the Smithsonian for verification.
What would happen to me if there were no woods to travel far back into — or when there is no more "backcountry" what will I do. Not that I am competent at it or feel truly comfortable. It is after all an alien world still existing, though truncated, in many places but its language largely forgotten. Someone has suggested that the will toward this world might be genetic. One of my grandfathers was a lumberjack, the other a farmer, ergo, when I am in New York seven or fifteen floors above ground I get vertigo. I simply can't adjust to layers and layers of people below and above me. I suffer excruciatingly in airplanes though I'm scarcely unique in this; but I crashed in a small plane at Meggs Field in Chicago when I was twelve or so. A strong cross wind off Lake Michigan caught us, tipped the plane and it cartwheeled down the runway shearing off the wings and settling finally a few feet from the breakwater upside down. A fire truck covered us with foam. I was hanging by my seatbelt, my shoes torn off by the impact and my brain pinwheeling in technicolor. We got our picture in the Chicago Tribune for surviving.
There is no romance in the woods in opposition to what fools insist. The romance is in progress, change, the removing of the face of earth to install another face. Our Indians were and still are great anti-romantics. Anyone who disagrees should be parachuted or landed by float plane in the Northwest Territory for a dose of romance. I'm not talking about Wordsworth's Lake Country which is beautiful, cute, cuddly, winsome, entirely housebroken. On Whitsun a hundred thousand Englishmen trip around those hills bumping into one another and pissing on one another's boots.
If I were an arrogant heartless billionaire it would be amusing to "plant" a hundred or so grizzlies or Kodiak bears between Windermere and Penrith. But we don't have many left ourselves, at least not enough to spare on a nation that gobbles horsemeat, lets dogs get fat on candy and subject to coronary attack.
I was especially desperate and lonely one week in April. Boston was swimming under three feet of rain in two days so I called an acquaintance in Vermont, a teacher at one of those small colleges in New England that turn out a distinctive brand of adult by the cultivation of a certain style of inclusive discipline. The point is not like the Marines, to make "a man out of you," but to make a gentleman with isolatable characteristics. Later, after they graduate, these young men recognize each other, without previously meeting, as "Tulipberg Men." They avert their eyes and blush, then slam together in an arcane embrace yelling secret words and exchanging earlicks. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth are less obvious about such things. The superiority is assumed and they are "old school" until they die, even if in secret while masquerading as radicals or poor people. A Dartmouth junior on a United flight to San Francisco told me that "Rocky" had been a Dartmouth "man." It is this splendid, worthless sort of camaraderie, Teutonic in origin, that lets these jerks mentally clusterfuck in the State Department while the world dies somewhere in the distance. Anyway I took the bus up to see Stuart and his wife. He told me on the phone, happily, that he was already an assistant professor with tenure. I said I was happy for you and yours and that I was currently living in Boston to straighten out the psychic knots in my life. I knew this would get me an invitation–Stuart is one of those people who like to talk things over with people and help them get up on their feet so they can meet the shit monsoon face to face. I bought a ticket with the last of my money at the bus station, telling the agent that there certainly seemed to be a long, long road winding to the land of my dreams.
I slept all the way up to Vermont forgetting to look at the heraldic, storied countryside. We stopped in each little village to pick up auto bumpers which the driver would slam into the baggage compartment and perhaps a single passenger. The streets of each village would be lined entirely with antique shops and the people, the few I could see through the blue-tinted window, reminded me of Georgians or Kentuckians. If you fuck your cousins for three hundred years something goes awry. This is true in parts of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania too where couples have been known to breed a half dozen albino dwarfs. When we finally reached Tulipberg I asked the driver how to get to the college and he pointed over my left shoulder and said, "Depends on how you want to go." These smartasses have read about themselves in magazines and like to affect the sort of taciturn dignity that they imagine their pilgrim forefathers had. I thanked him in a slow Texas drawl and said something to the effect that you Yankees "shore are chucklebait." And that down home even a greaser would have the sense to kick the shit out of you for a stupid, impolite answer. His hazel eyes flickered like a mink's at knifepoint.
I began to walk up the long hill to the college after rechecking my billfold for the address. It was hard to imagine the school existed; the buildings were so covered with ivy that they formed a single huge green mound if one squinted. I asked a student for further directions and he called me sir. A boy with a future.
I rang the doorbell and Mona answered saying you look so skinny while pecking my nose. She said he's teaching now but will be home for lunch and that there was a couch in his study where I could rest from my trip. I lay back on the couch and had a long, exhaustively boring fantasy about what it would be like to screw Mona while the papa bear was off teaching English 304. The worm failed to stir. The prospect was lard. I got up and went over to the desk delighted with the idea of snooping through the business with an ear toward the door in case Mona should check on me. Perhaps she had thoughts of using my poor body for a morning hog wallow.
Stuart's really the same as before, I thought. The desk was covered with check stubs and dental bills, a colorful ad for a socially reliable reading plan, and under that in a red manila folder what looked like a play but turned out to be a movie scenario written by the assistant prof himself. Visions of spreading out into the "media" I bet. Told to no one at the faculty club of course because tenure had been gained on an unfinished manuscript dealing with William Dean Howells' boyhood days. I began reading the script with forced interest. There was to be a close-up of children trampling snow behind a billboard, then a young man locked in a kitchen and asking plaintively for his mother. I read with insufficient attention to keep the story organized, remembering parts of the script as one remembers a collage looked at hastily. Outside the window a forsythia hummed with bees, the curtain billowed in the warm spring air. Through the door small-craft warnings could be heard on the radio. "Thunder rolls over Lake Winnipesaukee" as a Harvard poet once said. I read on until a shot "rang out" and I had to turn back several pages to find out who was in the room other than the leading man. No one. Suicide. Curtain, rather "pan" to the dead man's nostrils which will never again flare in anger. It all fitted back into the folder, packed full of modish grief and academic surrealism. I grabbed a men's magazine off the file cabinet. There was a three-page foldout of an emetic, extremely top-heavy blonde. Gargantuan tits. The girl-next-door look on her face assuming next door were a sideshow or whorehouse. An accompanying statement said the girl loved music, both classical and Dixieland, pizza, Kahlil Gibran, cheeseburgers with extra pickles, and intellectuals who wore Continental clothing and drove MGs. Startling contrasts. An evening with her beginning with Cozy Cole and a cheese-burger pizza, then in the cramped MG, flubbering and mooing between the huge udders. But then on a hot afternoon the week before in Cambridge I had seen a girl in engineer boots and a mu-mu fixing her Triumph 650-cc. motorcycle.
The radio now blared a hip version of "Greensleeves" and then the phone rang and she turned it down. It seemed strange that such a song would persist through the ages, coming into the twentieth century with its full weight of melancholy intact. The melody was muted by the walls of the study but with the odor of forsythia and sea rose and blooming fruit trees in the yard I saw feudal England with her forests of primary green and a woman, her finery faintly soiled by the smoke of war and the dust of carriages but still lovely. Irrelevant along this seaboard glutted with people, not an acre of free soil between Boston and Washington. I cautioned myself about such thoughts, their weight of utter pointlessness. The humor in the new bridge that collapsed, seen on television. The bridge writhed and bucked like a rattlesnake with its head freshly cut off, then collapsed into the river. Small engineering error. The stress of the times. Struts akimbo, cable whipping.
She came to the door of the study and told me that Stuart would be another hour. It was preregistration week at the college and his advisees had to be counseled. Take four courses of flummery then take it in the ass. I could smell her motherhood through the door—baby food, piss, Pablum, the pail of diapers in the potty. Takes so much less time to housebreak a dog. She had modeled for a large department store in Milwaukee before marrying Stuart. She deftly brought up her "modeling days" in conversation again and again as if it ameliorated the horror with which she regarded her two children and the shabby rented house. She was still attractive in a retired show girl way, but the floozy in the future was clearly visible in the fat she was putting on.
The evening's dinner terminated the weekend. After Stuart returned from school hours late and I had had a nap ruined by his little daughter poking a dirty finger in my eye, we launched into a long cocktail hour. At least six martinis apiece and she mixed herself doubles. She blabbered on about her lineage, Estonian nobility, who had flown the coop as always on the eve of the Great War. She was hurt when I giggled at the idea. You know all the phrasing, refugees of high birth trotting across the Carpathians through Transylvania, past the ruins of the Baron von Frankenstein's castle, always with their pockets stuffed with jewelry and Sèvres eggs, and alabaster dildos polished with use. She became angry at me and asked about my ancestors. I said that I had none who had ever set eyes on so much as a crypto-duchess. My ancestors were pig thieves and herring eaters who worked as little as possible and burned cow dung in their pot-bellied stoves because wood chopping was too onerous a chore. They often sat in barrels of potato and raisin wine, drawing the liquid osmotically up through their asses when they were too drunk to lift a glass.
She wasn't amused. Through all of this Stuart continued talking about his students and his progress on the Howells book. Some truly little-known facts about the boyhood of this fabulous author would be revealed. The book would "shake" to its foundations Howells scholarship in this country and abroad.
—Do you really give a fuck about him?
Stuart blanched and took a long drink.
—Somebody has to set the record straight.
Then porky chimed in in defense of her husband. How could a bum question an ambitious man? And in his own home. I apologized. My years since college were fraught with mental problems, anxieties that made me forget the grandness in our traditions of scholarship. We then sat down and ate Bengal curry which was tepid and a chocolate cake covered with stale grated coconut on the butterscotch frosting. She looked at my plate.
—Aren't you hungry?
—Sure but that curry was a belly packer and I've never been a dessert man.
Then a protracted argument about ghosts began over brandy. And astrology. She believed and he didn't. As the brandy bottle emptied, they were drinking it in gulps, the argument grew heated.
—You're a stupid cunt, Stuart said.
—That word! she screamed leaping at him and slapping his face.
He grabbed a wet diaper beside his chair and snapped it at her knocking off her glasses. Then they slapped at each other with a general windmill effect until she yanked his hair backwards over the couch and his mouth opened wide in a voiceless scream. She released her grip and they cried and embraced. I went to bed on the studio couch to the noise of their lovemaking on the dining-room floor.
From a promontory in a grove of birch trees I took another compass reading: by my own reckoning I should have covered a little over half the distance to the car. I had not stopped for even a short rest because a small cloud of deer flies were following me and I had forgotten to apply any bug dope before I left. These little mistakes can cause great pain—a deer fly looks like a rather large common house fly but their sting draws blood. I understand that only the female has a stinger and that the male wanders around sucking on leaves mutely hoping for a mid-air collision with the female. After their little fun in the sky the female eats the male, rather draws out his small quantity of blood through his soft underbelly. I've invented the latter bit of information to substantiate the old Hollywood "kiss of death" idea. If Lana or Faith Domergue kisses you there's no chance for survival. My compass reading gave my position as thirty degrees or so in the wrong direction. But it was easier walking that way. I aimed my tired body again, the empty pack flapping on my back, the day unpleasantly warm. My down-hill imaginary path would, I knew, lead me to a swamp or a marsh. There are hundreds of them in the area, at one time they were lakes but over the years they have gradually silted, become weed-choked, and the cedars took hold of the spongy soil and some tamarack also grew. I wanted to find a small creek and walk parallel to it on higher ground until it led me inevitably to the headwaters of the Huron River where my car was parked off a log road under a mammoth white pine tree.
It occurred to me that all my miseries in Boston were invented and geographical—a simple move to New York City would change everything. I would meet a Vogue model (a trifle fleshier than the usual) and she would take me into her very pleasant though modest three-room apartment on East Seventy-seventh Street and keep me forever safe. Daily rubdowns with coconut butter and drone bee excrement would keep me young and attractive, and a diet of steak crawling with wheat and other vegetable germs would assure my health and consistent potency. She might be a few inches taller than my five ten so after a hard day's work splayed before Avedon she would let herself in with her own key and I would jump up and down to kiss her much like a toy poodle greets its master. After she had a snack of poached broccoli lashed with native crude oil her large eyes would darken, dart to my silk bell bottoms wondering if I were ready to administer the hot beef injection. Sometimes I would prove kittenish and she would have to chase me, her long legs and big feet flapping over the carpet in pursuit.
Too homely to be a kept man. The last time I had been in New York I had worked for a small building demolition company at non-union wages. Sledging plaster.
I walked across the Charles Street bridge with a thirty-cent box of caramel corn. If you drank from that river death would come convulsively within the hour. The caramel corn was a little stale. Last night's. Don't buy caramel corn in the morning or you'll get some from yesterday's last batch. Too chewy having absorbed some Bostonian moisture during its night alone. I was headed for the Oxford Grill and a budget lunch with five glasses of ale. I would read the New York Times want ads to see if my future was waiting for me in Manhattan.
Up the avenue past MIT where secret very important killing machines were being invented almost daily by unscrupulous but very honest scientists. They commute daily from Lexington and Concord, Weston and Lincoln, where they live in colonial exactness. We've been told so often what their wives conceal under the skin. And I don't mean the PTA though that's part of it. A tear shed for the grocery boy. Cantaloupe with ice cream at mid-morning coffee and a heavy use of the telephone to exchange chitchat with soul sisters. Past the Necco plant with many wafers for a nickel. Then the dangerous streets where young wop thugs beat up students. Often deservedly I think. If you're unemployed and your head is weighted down with hair grease you resent those slumming fops with five-hundred-dollar watches, long hair, five-dollar trousers and hundred-dollar sport coats who call the subway station a "kiosk." Lucky I was dressed anonymously in a Marimekko jump suit. Really stinking Levi's and a black T-shirt with cigarettes rolled up in one short sleeve and hair cut close to the scalp. Looked like an unemployed busboy which I was.
At the Grill I exchanged pleasantries with a bartender who hated the "frigging" students and commuted from Somerville where he lived with his mother. He gave me daily unasked-for tips on the horses. Back across the river in my local Allston bar there were five pay phones for those timely calls. Sharkskin suits drinking "Cutty" and ginger ale. Or scotch and cream. Social mobility I suppose but now the upper classes drink cheap bourbon with tap water and a sprig of ragweed. The poor are always fooled. Even when they become rich. I had my first two ales and ordered scrod with parsley butter and mashed potatoes that inevitably came with chicken or beef gravy in most places, ham or fish notwithstanding. Two girls entered and took a seat in the booth behind me. I swiveled and took a look; one was painfully thin and would remain so until her light casket was lowered, the other smiled at me attractively with bucky beaver teeth like my own. A pendulum of gold around her neck which banker dad gave her for being good. Could she cover those teeth at important moments? I smiled back and approved of her with all of my weak, starved heart—her knee-high boots could support me for two weeks. The meal came and I covered the plate with catsup which is very nutritional besides being a family habit. I cleaned my plate quickly merging the fish with the caramel corn. I swiveled again and flashed another harmless smile at beaver girl but she had turned and was putting on her coat having finished her crème de menthe frappé. The making of the drink had sent my friend the bartender into a fit of spite; I told him to put bitters in it and next time she would order something civilized. Out the door. Will we meet again preferably down by the riverside. A tea-head friend entered and ordered sandwich and pop. He was halfway up in the air and needed no alcohol. He called me baby and invited me to a party to be held that night. I said that I'd come, then broke my promises and slid my single hidden five out of my billfold and had three double bourbons in quick succession. Then I walked down Boylston, crossed Memorial Drive and fell woozily asleep in the dirty grass near the crew boathouse.
I woke up in time to catch dinner at my brother's, Cornish game hens basted with peach brandy. Goody. He is a librarian and has repressed his lowlife instincts for a good marriage, reading, fine food and hard work. I admire him without reservation and never forget that back home he had been an Eagle Scout whereas I had been ousted from the troop as a chronic malcontent. He'd been kind to take me in for a while on various past occasions so I could keep my head above water and look for a job, loaning me a suit for imaginary interviews and other niceties I didn't deserve. Such grief I've caused everyone with nervous breakdowns during three successive Februaries. I simply can't get through the month without a brush with the booby hatch; I'm sure it's climatic, seasonal. The ice is breaking up so I can live again. Meanwhile a litter of weeping wife and mom and all of that which I don't take callously. Then I'd be driven to the bus station, given a pittance in addition to the ticket and urged in family conferences to try to make my way at something. My brother though enjoys hearing stories that I tell about the subterranean layers of drugs and sodomy that exist in his adopted city. Instance: I was offered the chance for five dollars to watch two lesbians couple. The bar was closing and a wizened little Greek had thus far collected an audience of five sailors. I was curious but didn't have five dollars. However I tell my brother I went and watched two rather frail girls on a couch while the sailors cheered them on which they no doubt did. And the secret Radcliffe rooming house for ultrarich girls where they have five Dobermans and a housemother who wears patent leather hip boots.
Near the edge of the marsh among the cattails there was a flock of redwing blackbirds: the vermilion cusp under their wings brilliant against the green whenever they flew from stalk to stalk. I want to be decorated, a ridge along my back with fur on it, hackle of orange under my ears, long pointed molars, rooster comb of aquamarine down the center of my head and the whole body feathered in burnt sienna. That would show them, the frightening toast of the nation.
I stopped after encircling half the marsh and found with another compass reading that I was heading radically left from my mark. I turned in a march right and sighted on the tip of a dead tree perhaps a mile away then sat down and ate some raisins and dried beef and a swig from my canteen. The water was warmish, tasting of tin. The canteen had no doubt been left out in the sun at Guadalcanal or Bataan and perhaps a baby viper had nested in it when it was left capless. Or a family of spiders that specialized in eating insects off cobras' backs. My calculations were leaving me two hours behind, at least four by the time I reached the car; the sun looked high noon and heated my scalp around which flies buzzed landing momentarily until I would brush them off. There is a local miniscule bug wittily called "no-see-ums" which also tormented me with small red dots on my flesh. I itched everything until I had counted the night before in fire-light one hundred thirty-three scabs, large and small, both actively suppurating and lightly irritating. I felt at the time that nature should build me a sidewalk to the car and a pair of moderately expensive roller skates should appear by my side and a beautiful girl to lace them up tightly. I would say how about the next dance and we would Skater's Waltz to the car where even though hot and tired I would bang at her unmercifully in the back seat. One of her legs would be draped over the front seat with the rollers continuing to roll and the music going on as if she had a stereo cassette in the crack of her ass.
I got up painfully. O lord how long? Around the tree and in serpentine curl in the distance the green was a bit darker. Perhaps the creek I was looking for. The map anyway was inaccurate and I planned a stop at the conservation head-quarters where I had gotten the map: This is a piece of inaccurate shit, I would say, balling it up and throwing it in his face. There would be no retaliation—the forty pounds of chromium steel flamethrower would be so clearly visible on my back. I wanted a polite "we're sorry sir" then a promise for a massive effort to rectify the inaccuracies no matter the cost. I'll ship you lazy assholes a helicopter f.o.b. so you can look at your territory. Get your boots muddy, son, your hands are bleached and have paper burns. Then I would tear the patch off the shoulder of his uniform, kiss his neck and slide off into the dark leaving behind a changed officer.
I finally reached the tree and as I had suspected a small creek did burble by it; I walked along its bank, thrashing through the brush with an eye out for wolf tracks on any sand bars. There were supposedly a dozen or so in the area and I wanted to see one desperately. I met a hunter in Ishpeming who had once heard a wolf howling in the area, and an answering howl from another hill. But this was on the Yellow Dog plains some twenty miles to my east. There are only three or four hundred native wolves left in the United States. They are rarely heard and even more rarely seen, except in unnatural circumstances as on Isle Royale during the winter from a plane. I felt that if I could see one all my luck would change. Maybe I would track it until it stopped and greeted me and we would embrace and I would become a wolf.
I estimated that it was nearly five o'clock when I stumbled onto the rutted log road and saw my car blue and innocent sitting under the tree. Ten hours to walk seven miles. An ignorant maze path through the woods. I would have to sleep in the car rather than chancing the walk back before dark.
I got to the party very late having napped again after dinner. My sister-in-law is a light feeder so I had two game hens to myself, and even though they weren't cooked quite long enough for my taste I ate them down to their little pink bones and gristle. Even chewing the "pope's nose" which was what we always called the knobby bung bud. The walk to the party was close to fifty blocks of sweet drowsiness, my head just drunken enough to not quite perceive my feet. A half gallon of cheap rosé. A polite glass for the others then a ten-ounce water glass for me. Many of them. How well rosé goes with the spring, I had quipped, drenching my third napkin with sauce and fowl fat, my mustache stiff with it. Smelling of peach brandy now as I walked crushing fallen maple buds. So happy I could kiss a fireplug if there were no dogs on earth. A mustache enables one on waking to scent last night's sins. On a dark corner near the Cambridge-Somerville line I pissed on a fireplug. Will puzzle the neighborhood dogs for weeks no doubt. They'll transmit questions through Morse code type barks and whines. Where is this new creature?
The party was obviously descending from its apex when I arrived. Dozens of people sprawled on the floor or sat limply. Absolutely stoned. Who wrote about the frangipanic clock? An eager undergraduate type said to me, I'm Bob who are you? I'm Swanson, prince d'Allston. OK. A bookish vulgar type he was with Bass Weejuns customized to allow a Kennedy half dollar. Air very heavy with cannabis. I found my friend sitting in a bedroom with eyes so dull and rheumy they looked like they were painted with snot. His right hand held a bomber which I lifted and lit, inhaling three enormous drags and choking. A girl sitting at a dresser said that there was hash in there too. Good for me, I'll catch up I thought. She was a little too round-faced to be attractive and talked out of the corner of her mouth, a characteristic the eastern upper class shares with gangsters and pimps.
—A lovely night, I said.
—Is it? she replied smartly.
—It would be if you stuck your fat face out the window.
I cased the living room for female probabilities. None. Either soiled, ugly or taken. I returned to the bedroom changing my tune and exchanged pleasantries with moon-face. She had evidently forgotten I had been with her a few minutes before.
—You guys must have had a wonderful time, I said over the deafening sound of the Beatles singing "Michelle." I bet your name is Michelle.
—I wish it was. She looked down at her very distant feet tapping and swinging.
I suggested a little walk for fresh air and she followed me listlessly down the back stairs and out the door. No grass of any kind here. An alley with seventy-seven garbage cans stretched out. Hash now in my eyeballs. Better get to work. We necked and I looked around for a comfortable spot but there wasn't any. Boobies bare to street lamp at alley's end. I turned her around and lifted her skirt, no panties only the nest. I reached down to see if my prick was there. The drug made my zipper sound like a machine gun. My prick was there but further away than usual. I bent her over and entered working in a tireless slow motion. She said wow once or twice and hummed a little. Smack smack. When I came I stumbled backwards falling on my ass and felt no pain. She turned and looked at me idly, straightened her skirt and went back up to the party. I got up slowly nearly tripping on my pants which were strangling my ankles. The corrugated edges of a bottle cap stuck in the cheek of my ass. I pulled up my pants very dizzily and then walked out the alley and turned toward Harvard Square.
The inside of the car was very hot and stale-smelling. There was a choice of keeping the windows closed and dying of asphyxiation or opening them and being bitten to death. Bugs are God's creatures too, only less so than we are we have to assume if we have any sense. I opened a tin of Vienna sausages, teeny weenies in a brackish warm sauce. Flies buzzed in the open door and one malevolent wasp with a howtizer stinger hanging from its tail. I walked down to the creek which was wider in this location having been fed by springs in smaller creeks in the higher country. There was a small waterfall and a deep pool where the water plunged with a fine steady roar. Nice to sleep to. No night noises, the bear or leviathan to slide its paw in the car window. I rinsed out a piece of cheesecloth I had used to wipe the windshield and intended to wrap around my head as a bug protector. Then I quickly shed my clothes and dove into the eddy, swimming under the turbulent water of the falls. I opened my eyes in the white oxygenated icy water and then let its force carry me downstream a hundred feet or so. Numb, I'll float to the ocean. Lake Superior first, though. But snags, deadfalls would catch me, or a slippery boulder would receive my head and put the lights out. Floater dies in downward trip to sea. Remains were not found by anyone. No one was looking except a single angry kingfisher. I got out and walked back upstream on a bed of pine needles, cold to the bones. I stood naked on the log road for a moment lighting a cigarette in the sun. Still four hours or so before absolute dark which falls up here at about ten o'clock. I would go to sleep early and leave at dawn for my camp.
Curled at twilight in the back seat of the car and trying to breathe through the musty cheesecloth. Smell of lint and cleaning fluid, chalk dust, Spanish rice in high schools throughout the nation. Siss boom bah siss boom bahhh they yell at basketball games. Walking way out Boylston in Boston until it turned into Route 9. A right at Chestnut Hill Road and watching a beautiful tanned girl at Longwood Cricket Club bounce a tennis ball off the far cement wall. Hair drawn back to keep it out of her eyes during the up-coming match with Bryce Porker, depraved but handsome coupon clipper. Sing of injustice all ober dis land, especially here where I am behind the fence watching her long smooth brown legs and how they aim upwards to her ass. Sleeveless blouse and graceful arms. Fairly tall and high-waisted with a startling face. Like Lauren Hutton's the Vogue model. I read Seventeen in drugstores a little furtively. She glanced at me and scowled. Private club with a waiting list of 66,333. I have twelve cents exactly and will buy you a lemon Coke. I held on to the fence with my fingers, a prisoner of war and poverty, and, of course, hunger. She turned again with a cool stare, not thirty-three feet away then walked toward the distant clubhouse without a backward glance. I flopped in the car seat nose pointed downward to the seat back, a single mosquito now inside the cloth searching for my eyeball. She doesn't evidently want my wordless lemon Coke. Come back Bonnie. Right now. I wouldn't stare, I'll look up in the sky at no birds. Probably is a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence and is interested in the urban crisis. Fucks a fifty-five-year-old political science professor, dodo Mr. Chips with a gray goatee and he plied her at afternoon coffee with a vial of cantharides. In the future I'll meet her by accident at a party in New York. I'll shun her. Maybe slap her face with just the tips of my fingers. She'll ask for forgiveness and say I wish I had had that lemon Coke now that I know you're famous. Precisely. After a week of discipline and endless strategic caresses I'd give her to a barnstorming soccer team from Africa. Or maybe to the Harlem Globetrotters. She had her chance and didn't blow it. Walking through Chestnut Hill, gardeners eyed me suspiciously and mastiffs were released to chase me back to my own pitiful neighborhood. Dear girl if you read this you'll recognize yourself. Remember me and how I pressed my face against the Cyclone fence until it was covered with red trapezoids. Remember? I wish you a colostomy, piles, pyuria, and a short-peckered lisping husband. May you rot between Dover and Dedham. May you fall off your horse. Don't try to approach me. I have an unlisted number and no phone and it's much, much too late.
I couldn't sleep in the car. I sat up and lit a cigarette blowing smoke at the nearest mosquitoes. I got out of the car and walked up the road until I was out of reach of the pounding sound of the waterfall. A full moon, wolfbane blooms tonight. I imagined, or was the figure real, that I saw a large dog cross the road in the distance. A coyote or a wolf. But my scent had to drive wolves away. No dogs here. A coyote or a hallucination. The wolf to count had to be seen clearly in daylight.
At dawn I packed the food and filled the canteen in the creek after only an hour's restless sleep. My tracks on the log road were covered here and there by those of a small bear. Smelled the food. I locked the car and set out for my tent and made the site before noon, less than half the time it had taken me to find the car. My shoulders were sore from the straps of my cheap pack and my body dead from the night's nightmarish lack of sleep.
Boston. The night before I intended to leave I got horribly drunk at Jake Wirth's and ate a half dozen frankfurters and a blue cheese and Bermuda onion sandwich on dark bread. That in addition to twelve double Jim Beams and a few steins of beer put quite a dent in my savings. But there were nutritional benefits I'm sure. I slept on the floor of my room having arrived there by the grace of some strange power; perhaps it was . . . but no it couldn't be. Sometime before dawn I awoke suddenly, thinking someone was in the room with me. The door was open. I felt that either something horrible was happening to me or would happen that day. I got up from the floor and slammed the door shut and then tried to sleep again. But I couldn't sleep so I sat naked before the open window facing the roofs of the apartments across the street. Perhaps this meant that I was going to die today—the bus would carom across the median and roll over. But I quickly forgot about death. I've had hundreds of intuitions of death and none of them, fortunately, were accurate.
A sea breeze began. The room had been stuffy and damp but the breeze was stiff, cool and strong in the darkness and flooded me with fresh air. I heard a crow and saw it dimly against the sky which owned a thin pale line of red in the east. Then the other birds started but the crow's cawing was first. I remembered that when you see a single crow he is a scout but then none followed. A lone crow.
I got up from the chair and walked to the stove, stepping over my suitcase. I had inherited the suitcase from my dad and it was fake leather with many cracks showing the cardboard beneath. Linoleum cracks and shows the black pitch beneath where crows are born and dwell. I wanted some coffee and when I lit the gas my belly and genitals and thighs turned blue. What color are the dead? A blue crow now with the price of a ticket to New York. A bus ticket. No tribe or fellow crows. Then I turned on the lamp out of fright and looked at my arms, the veins in the forearms thick and knotted and blue. Blood ready to clot without warning. A blue lump will float upward and around the shoulder to the heart's bull's-eye. Biliously drank the instant coffee and put on my clothes. The sun was now an orange oblong of light on the far wall. Rattle of milk bottles below. I was way back in my youth hiding in the reeds and lily pads with only my scalp and nose and eyes above the water line. My friend, the girl in the next cabin, was entering the water hesitantly. She was twelve, nearly hairless below the neck, plump, pink, very pretty with long black hair in pigtails. We greeted each other underwater and when we came up for air holding each other there were crows above the swamp across the lake.
A foul unseasonable cold was hanging in the air, rain which was almost sleet falling steadily. Boston lying out there, a dead wet cod with buggy eyes. The suitcase was heavy and cumbersome to carry; I shouldered it, then tried holding it in front of me as a buffer against the wet wind. Full of dirty clothes and too many books. I felt like pitching it in the gutter and starting clean. I caught the trolley for Park Street and was happy when it descended out of the ugliness into the dark hole at Kenmore Square. I got out at Copley impulsively and glanced up Huntington at Storyville which had gone out of business, a club where all the jazz greats had given their drugged and frantic hearts to the sybarites, sets so grand that hearts should have broken openly and blood poured to the floor. I crossed Copley Square against the traffic—everyone beeped but I somehow didn't care whether I was hit or not. Giant lawsuit frees man forever from financial grief headlined the Globe. An airport limousine pulling up before the Plaza barely missed me. I had been in there only once, proposing marriage to a girl while we sat at an ornately canopied bar that revolved like a merry-go-round. I'd too much to drink and had asked the bartender if he couldn't pull the plug and stop the god-damned thing. And we were asked to leave and she cried not because we were kicked out but that my proposal had been so flip. I shifted the suitcase to my shoulder again and stared at the public library where I had spent so much time reading magazines and writing my history of rain and grief. So many freaks in libraries. Same in New York and Frisco. They shit on the toilet floor and blabber incoherently, pestering everyone. Once I saw a young man yell look" in the lobby and let his prick hang out; he closed his overcoat then and tried to run out the door, rather swirled clumsily in the revolving door. One woman screamed but most people shrugged. Depressing. He needed help. A lock on his zipper for beginners.
Down Park Street to the bus station where I sat on a bench and waited for the hourly New York shuttle. No spiff here. Those most likely to spit or vomit ride buses; inmates of any institution, freshly released, crisscross the country in buses, all stations with the stink and mumbling woven in, the smell of diesel exhaust and free exchange of terminal viruses at the lunch counters, drinking fountains and rest rooms. I sat next to a black soldier and we talked about the Bruins and Patriots; sports are a common harmless interest in waiting rooms. And all the pointy loafers cruising past with eyes on crotch bulge, hanging around to find a friend in need. Pop goes the weasel.
I had a cup of wretched acidic coffee, then finally boarded. A lovely girl got on at the Newton stop but there was no way to get near her so I looked at her neck until we reached the Connecticut border and I fell asleep. Then, further on, at a lunch stop near Hartford I got a closer look and saw that her face was covered with an even sheen of pimple hider. On certain days it seems that all loveliness has fled the earth. Upper lip over her teeth but one protruded with a suspicion of fang and vampire far in the past, a predisposition not to be changed by the sociology text she read in half-sentence snatches before looking up again. The poor are broke, they say. The upper class tends toward tennis and expensive water sports. And air travel while the poor ride buses. Immigrants tend to learn the language. Finally down Ninth Avenue to the beige colonic Port Authority. New York. I intended to stay for only a few days; see some people, and there was a very wan hope that I might collect a debt from an old friend. Then I would go home to Michigan, work up a grubstake, and perhaps head out for San Francisco where I would start another new life.
III
THE WEST
If you look at a map of the American West closely (I mean by West all land on the far side of Kansas City) you'll find an unequivocal resemblance to the topography of Siberia or the Urals. But television of course has proven this notion untrue—those thin blue and black and red lines on maps indicating rivers, roads and boundaries tell less than the whole story as we say. I'm not talking about the grandness of the Louisiana Purchase, the trek of Lewis and Clark, the endless string of wagon trains, the Donner party (quite a party) or the TV program Low Cheapwhorehole. Or even that dead bird Route 66, not the road but the program. And I'm not dealing here with the vicious average, the West as the result of a genocidal march, or the Turner Thesis with the West rolling up finally into a ball of tinsel glued with the blood of Chicanos and Indians. This is all the job of historians. Universities are littered with them and their disputes over what area belongs to which prof; there are the usual mimsy slap and molasses quarrels about who is going to teach Louisiana Territory 503. But then they deserve their own trifling smegma quarrels. We will wait until one of them tells the true story in a monumental ten-volume study, The Drek Trek: The Westward Surge of Pigshit to the Pacific's Watery Lip. You must note that academic book and paper titles uniformly own full colons. This fact can be considered a key to what they are teaching our children. Inflation is eating up our savings. The colon is both full and empty. An implosion rather than explosion is due. Perhaps deep in the bowels of Montana in a vast cavern the absence of buffalo prepares a non-stampede. Crazy Horse watches over them, still digesting Cluster's heart.
Hard to be bitter with the warm evening sun dappling down through the birches, mottling tent and ground with yellow. I would shoot a doe and eat fresh meat but much of it would rot. Better to eat roots and leave deer for the necessary sportsman. A sweet story of how one booster type, rich, owned a small herd of buffalo, raising them as a hobby and culling (selective killing) when there were too many. Buffalo steaks for sale and not bad tasting, somewhat like old moose, better for pot roast than steak. Anyway an archer bought an animal "on the hoof to kill a trophy. After shooting over thirty arrows into the beast from fairly close range the buffalo failed to die and resembled a giant sparsely quilled porcupine. The state police were called and a trooper fanned his .38 into the slumping body, down on the front knees. The buffalo then rolled over in its death throes crushing many valuable arrows. End of anecdote. Suggested punishment? Devise your own. Anyway the great outdoors must have shrunk visibly and if you were an astronaut looking down from a half thousand miles some sort of tremor or shudder must have been apparent. This is dead-end romanticism of course. Nothing happened. The trooper trooped home after work and told his wife. The owner shook his head and said "golly." The archer told his friends that buffalo were tough, dangerous ole hombres and hard to bring down.
When I first reached Laramie I bought a cowboy shirt and a high-crowned hat. My boots were still stiff, bought back in Fort Morgan, Colorado, where I got off the bus. End of the line—with my money low I thought I could hitchhike from there to California, only fourteen hundred miles down the road and this was my second trip. Seasoned. On the first trip I had taken a bus to the Michigan border and spent all day getting to Terre Haute. I had to walk across most of Indianapolis; the roads confused me and when I finally got them straightened out a young couple picked me up and gave me a ride to Terre Haute. I stood about three hours before anyone stopped. This time it was a mechanic from Pittsburgh who said he was going to L.A. They never say Los Angeles—they say L.A. I intended to go to San Francisco, or I had the day before, but the long ride was tempting. By Joplin we knew each other well and he admitted the car was "hot" and that he was a bigamist and would disappear in L.A. Maybe go to Mexico until things cooled off. He shared his cache of little white pills and we stayed awake from Indiana to California, losing control of the car only once in the Panhandle and then it was a harmless short screaming trip out through the mesquite and back onto the road without stopping.
I put all my food that wasn't tinned in an onion sack and tied the opening with a rope which I threw over a tree limb and secured. When I had gotten back to the tent there were raccoon tracks all over and I didn't want all my remaining food hauled away while I hiked back to the lake. I thought of my wife for a few moments. Fine girl who strangely didn't want to be married to a drunk. She wasn't, however, jealous of tents. I had been by now four and one half full days without a drink—certainly my most extended sequence in ten years. It wasn't so bad as long as there weren't people around. I put some fishing line, hooks, sinkers in the pouch I carried at my waist. No need for the canteen.
The hike to the lake was easy and familiar. I saw my tracks on the sand bar from which I had shot the turtle. Hadn't carried the gun lately, useless heavy baggage. Smarter to carry it in Oakland. I shaded my eyes and looked at the far shore toward where I thought I had spotted an osprey nest; the nest was there and I wondered what would be the shortest, easiest way around the lake. If I had been smart enough to bring binoculars I could have glassed both shores and found out but then I had left in a hurry. Crazy guy flees. I chose left, walking along the lake's edge with a wary eye cocked for water snakes. I can bear almost any sort of snake except rattlers and water snakes though I'm not partial to blue racers either because of their agility. Often while trout fishing I've seen them fat and thick and blue ten feet up in a cedar tree. I came to where a swamp abutted the lake and sat down and took off my boots, tying their laces together and slinging them around my neck. I waded gingerly at first but the bottom was solid though my feet were numbing from the cold water. I came around a point of firs jutting out into the water, by this time thigh deep in a patch of lily pads with their huge white flowers and smaller yellow flowers. On the far side of the point a creek emptied into the lake and even next to shore it was too deep to wade. Probably good fishing here but I wanted to reach the nest before noon. I pulled myself up into a thicket and sat down on a fallen tamarack and put on my boots. It was hot and I was sweating and the sweat washed the mosquito dope into my eyes which felt red and stung.
I stayed over night in Laramie in a fleabag hotel down near the railroad yards. Cowshit in the air and switching diesels all night. The hotel apparently doubled as the local cut-rate whorehouse. The room clerk, as usual tubercular and middle-aged, had looked at me inquiringly. Then there was laughter and drunken shouting throughout the night. I was going to go back to Cheyenne the next day to see the big rodeo I had heard about in a bar that evening. When I got into bed I slid my billfold down into my shorts. Then I got up and propped a chair under the doorknob kicking at the rungs until the wedge was solid. I smoked for a while and then got up again and looked out the window and watched the switching engines with their single headlights bobbing and the cars banging together, "Route of the Eagles" and "Route of the Phoebe Snow" and "Lackawanna" were my favorite car names. I took the pint of whiskey from my bedroll and drew heavily on it. Only half left and no chaser. I drank again until it was gone then slept peacefully to the varied noises, only discomfited by the cattle bawling in their cattle cars. On the way to the knife in St. Louis or Chicago.
Let's admit that Cheyenne is a cow plot. And Denver too for that matter. They were dropped on earth from a particular height and spread as a cow plot does in the grass. Plop plop plop. Deranged and headless, oil poured on still water; the skirt of the city with the motels, car lots, hamburger driveins, gas stations with hundred-foot-high signs visible from the freeways, and thousands of indefinable small businesses in one-story brick or cement-block buildings. In the latter dark purposes are carried out. Real estate and unreal estate. Toilet fixtures. The House of a Thousand Lamps. Brad's Steak 'n' Egg Stop. But we know all about this and there's no way to start over again.
About five A.M. I walked out to a Route 90 interchange after having a good breakfast at the Switchman's Cafe with the stools lined with railroad men in blue-and-white-striped bib overalls and engineer caps on. Pancakes with a slice of ham on top and three eggs on the slice of ham. Insulin shock and drowsiness barely after whippoorwill's rest. I stood for only a few moments with my thumb out before an Oldsmobile, late model, fishtailed crazily to a stop. I trotted about a hundred yards and got in the open door without looking. There were three young men, two in the front and one in back, the air heavy with liquor fumes and the radio blaring Patsy Cline's "The Last Word in Lonesome Is Me." As the car shimmied and approached a hundred miles an hour it became obvious that no one had been to bed. The driver had his Stetson pulled down to the ridge of his sunglasses, driving full blast into the morning sun which was a round red ball at the end of the road. Johnny Cash sang "I Walk the Line." Nobody had spoken to me yet.
—You going to Cheyenne? I asked, voice slightly wavering.
—Yup, said the driver.
The cowboy next to me awoke with some drool coming out of the corner of his mouth which he wiped off with his shirt-sleeve. Some puke on his car window. He began singing or droning, "The last time I seen her and I ain't seen her since, she was jackin' off a nigger through a barbed-wire fence, singa kiyiyippee," etc. Over and over until the driver turned and said shut up and he went back to sleep. His boots were blue and heavily tooled with an American eagle near the top. A month's wages for boots.
We reached Cheyenne in less than an hour and I jumped out at the first stoplight and saluted with my bedroll. Jesus I might have been killed. Like the droll Yankees they watch movies of themselves and take it from there. After I saw The Wild One with Lee Marvin and Marlon Brando I rode a bike inadvertently through a cornfield. Enough for me. Stop this goddamn thing Oh please. I stuck with my James Dean red jacket and perpetual sneer, a '49 Ford with straight pipes and Hollywood mufflers that would do seventy-five in second.
I walked up the creek until it began to narrow passing a small beaver pond with its lodge of sticks jutting above the water line. Active, many small trees were cut and their branches stripped. Symmetrical cuts as if someone had wielded a miniature but very sharp ax. On the way back from the nest I would stalk the pond in hopes of sighting the beaver at work. I had seen them swimming before but had only watched them cut trees from a distance through binoculars. Alarming how fast they fell a tree. At my great-uncle Nelse's we had once eaten fried beaver tail, a great delicacy he claimed but Nelse was a functioning hermit and would eat nearly anything. Drink anything too. Some loathsome homemade raspberry wine. Maybe runs in the family. Flavor of a popular mouthwash.
I crossed the creek on some rocks, slipping and getting one boot wet, and sought higher ground in order to approach the nest from deep in the woods. I looked up—if the osprey were soaring I could be spotted from a distance of miles. Read somewhere that if our eyes were as large as a hawk's proportionately they would be big as bowling balls. And have three smooth holes in them. I suffered now from a pussy trance. They come without warning in everyone's technicolor memory—in the woods, the taiga, the Arctic, to fighter pilots and perhaps senators and presidents. Homosexuals no doubt are struck by cock trances. No relief in trees. A high school girl pumping at a movie, a drive-in movie with two six-packs of beer bought with false ID. Had expected the real thing but she had her period. A friend's class ring on her finger with tape wrapped around it and painted with nail polish so it would fit. That tape rubs me the wrong way darling. A change of hands and very awkward. She sips from a can and watches the movie. Hand knowingly speeds up to groans. Oh argh. Messy isn't it. She used my handkerchief without taking her eyes off the screen. A rerun later but no "head" as it was once called. I see this repeated over a nation with all those girls in pale blue summer dresses. Not any more perhaps. They all fuck like minks with the pill: revolving sexually. And are criticized as if fucking cheapens fucking. Wait until you can enjoy it in your own home with your own car in your own driveway on Elm or Maple or Oak Street.
I was forgetting to stalk in my reverie and reverence for glorious girl bum pie. Should sit and wait and listen now, not a quarter mile from the nest. Most of my sightings of animals have been accidental and caused by exhaustion—I sit down and doze or daydream until I catch my breath and often after an hour a deer or several of them appear. I saw a fox once this way playing with a mouse he had caught, tossing it into the air then pouncing on it again. And a bobcat approach a stream during a lunch break while trout fishing. Four sandwiches and as many swigs of brandy on a cool day only to awake and see this large cat gently licking water a hundred yards downstream. I lit a cigarette and looked at my hands closely. They were blackened by pine gum and the dirt it accumulates and smelled of gin, the only form of alcohol I despised. Caused by drinking a fifth and washing my hands with pine-scented soap the next day, vomiting rather forcefully against my image in the mirror. If I order a vodka gimlet or a vodka martini and am brought gin instead I suffer temporary nausea. Very temporary though. Please return and make as directed quickly quickly.
If the osprey is there I'll salute God and report it to the authorities. Few of the eggs survive; DDT has somehow affected the reproductive cycle and the eggshells are too thin to withstand the weight of the parent. Might have looked into the fact before marketing. Maybe human children with thin skulls in the future shattered by an errant marshmallow or Ping-Pong ball. Preferably stockholders' children but not possible. I put the cigarette carefully out in the damp humus beneath the leaves. A blue jay was shrieking above me but then I noticed it was a Canadian jay. They serve as an air raid siren in the woods. A few red squirrels scampered around having decided I was harmless. I never felt more harmless in my life. Not consciously killing myself with booze anyway. Wish I had some hash to make the stalk timeless. Or a moderate two peyote buttons to remember the veins in the osprey's eye or make it a pterodactyl. Even a little grass would help—I could float over the noisy twigs and leaves and brush and my stalk would be noiseless and perfect in my imagination anyway. But fuck drugs and alcohol. This brain expands by itself and sees enough ghosts. For years now I've found the earth haunted. Azoological beasts rage in untraceable configurations. They are called governments. Wounds made that never heal on every acre and covered with the scar tissue of our living presence. The argument at bedrock: I don't want to live on earth but I want to live.
By mid-morning I was already juiced and had walked all around Cheyenne and turned my thumb down on the whole mess. In one bar I had seen the three cowboys I rode into town with but they were glassy-eyed and didn't recognize me. The singer was still singing his delightful little song. At the Silver Boot I struck up a long conversation with a florid rancher from Greeley, Colorado, and we drove over to the rodeo grounds together. He was totally unreconstructed, hating the government, religion, war, his wife and even his cattle. He liked horses though and talked interminably about his quarterhorse mare Sunstroke. I asked him why he had called her Sunstroke and he said, "That's a story in itself." Mysterious. We became unglued at the grounds by mutual boredom. I walked around to the chutes area and watched the unloading of stock. They had a semi-truck backed up to a paddock and were unloading some Brahma bulls, certainly unregenerate-looking creatures with a great hump behind the shoulders. Would ride one for a cool million in advance. Foaming in anger and red-eyed. In another enclosure an enormous top-heavy cowboy in a ragged denim shirt was sorting out broncs with a whip. They were running around kicking with their ears flattened while he looked them over. His right whip arm flexed nervously and looked capable of strangling a lion or gorilla. Wranglers rarely do calisthenics but somehow develop muscular arms and shoulders. Hard work, pure and simple. When you drive through Montana, Wyoming or Colorado and see those immense stacks of hay bales, dear traveler, pause a moment and understand that the hay did not stack itself. Many of the broncs had large open sores on their flanks where the spurs had struck too many times; each sore the size of a hand, a raw fumarole, covered with flies. Keeps them on their toes as it were. I've always preferred the small local rodeo where the stock tends to be fresher. I left the grounds and walked out to the highway. I wanted to reach Salt Lake City by the next morning.
No osprey there. But the nest looked fresh, rather used recently. I thought I could see feathers and part of a fish tail over the edge through my circle of leaves some fifty yards back in the woods. A fish hawk. Once I saw one hover over a pond, tuck its wings and hurtle down in free drop and the last moment braking with its wings, talons extended. Hitting the water with a blast and a foot long pike for its efforts.
My position in a half stoop was uncomfortable. I uprooted a large bunch of ferns and crept closer and covered myself with them. Please no snakes. A mosquito entered my ear and I mashed it with a forefinger. The wax in there is to keep bugs out I understand. I would give the bird an hour or so to appear then I would go back to the creek entrance and try to catch a trout or two. I've always liked hawks, even the ordinary redtail though my favorite bird is the loon. It is the loon's voice I like—the long, coiling circular wail. Somewhere between laughter and madness. There were so many evenings on the lake when I was young that I heard them and at dawn when I might rise to go fishing I would often see them though they kept their distance. We had a small cabin my father and uncles built, with no electricity or running water and a deep well that took no less than a hundred strokes of the pump to bring up the water. Ghastly work. Took turns with my brother and it often brought fights, rolling and slugging in the dirt. We spent much of our time killing. Frogs and snakes and turtles. We weren't ever allowed BB guns so all the killing had to be done by hand. We cleared the shore of water snakes by grabbing them and whipping them against a tree or snapping them like a whip which would break their necks. We ate the frog legs in prodigious quantities, joined by my little sister who at the age of six was the acknowledged champion frog killer with a day's record in the hundreds. She would spend hours cleaning them and skinning the legs, then my mother would fry the legs and she with her friends would eat the whole lot. I had a difficult time thinking about her; she was killed at nineteen along with my father in a car accident. Both death certificates read "macerated brain" as the cause of death. They were on their way north to go deer hunting though they tended to hunt in a desultory way with more interest in the walking than the kill. Rare for a father and daughter to hunt together. By mistake in the lawyer's office I saw the state police photos of the accident, the car tipped over with its engine driven into the trunk by impact. Impossible to tell who had been driving. In one photo I caught sight of her, in a split-second glimpse—I saw her forehead upside down with a single thin trickle of blood on it, an irregular black line. A man had hit them head-on going ninety or they had hit the other car. With everyone dead the facts were difficult to establish. My initial enraged reaction was to travel north and shoot him whether he was dead or not. When the state police returned my father's wallet and, oddly, his broken false teeth I took the teeth out in back and threw them in the swamp we had planted years before with multi-flower rose for game cover. For a year afterwards I slept with my hands tightly clenched to my chest so that in the morning my arms and shoulders would be sore from the exertion.
I was still watching the nest but my eyes were sightless, thinking of my sister. I hoped she had made love to someone before she was killed. I've always felt that the draft should begin with fifty-year-old men and descend in age. Give young men a chance to live a little, taste things, before they get their asses shot off in Asia. Also draft at least 25 per cent of Congress. Let them draw straws for front line duty. I suspect then that the vote for entering a war would be a trifle more cautious. Any fifty-year-old that can play eighteen holes of golf can certainly use his weak forefinger to pull a trigger and his chubby legs to hike through swamps. Have to write some crank letters about this. Nobody's exempt. Even the president of the chamber of commerce in every little town. Considerably less American then, I bet. If they want to wave flags so badly let them wave it where it counts, in the enemy's face. Lots of whooping and whining: But I'm a stockbroker or a chemist or a dentist with my hands fresh from a mouth. Precisely. Give the young a chance to eat and fuck and drink and love and travel and have children. If they're not effective, we'll send more of these pot bellies. Of course I speak from a tender 4-F vantage point, having had my eye nearly gored out by a broken beaker in back of a hospital when I was five. A little girl did the job. Since then my left eye has looked outward and upward in a googly trance of its own. Nearly sightless it moves to the strongest light and only sees the full moon clearly. I've often told girls when they asked about it that it was put out in a fight with broken bottles in East St. Louis. Then I am properly mothered. Tits perk and droop and perk to caresses and sad, lonesome tales. Eastern college girls especially like the part Indian bit. My dark complexion and vaguely Laplander or laplaper features have always made this possible. I vary with tribes from Cheyenne to Cherokee to Apache. Makes it harder to hitchhike though. Dirty minorities. I've been asked the question a thousand times: Are you part Indian or Mexican? Yes and no and none of the above. Was happy in England to remind a burly cricket player while we drank that my forefathers the Vikings had a splendid time scaring the shit out of midget limeys. He somehow took offense. But I reminded him that Britannia had conquered mighty India with her starving, pathetic, pacifist millions and that was no mean feat. Righto. And look who gave the world kidney pudding. And fish and chips in old newspapers. And cricket! I had won his heart. There's always some smartass Englishman coming over here and telling us we're mean and vulgar. I agree. But they showed their hand way back during the Irish potato famine as instinctual Nazis.
Two hours at the interchange without a ride. All the cars going the wrong way, toward the rodeo. I walked across the road and into a Shell station where I bought a Coke and asked for a map. The man charged me a dime for the map. Little did he know that a few years later I would run up $283 on a Shell credit card and totally outwit their collectors until my mother paid them off stupidly when the representative appeared at the door early one morning with a phony legal document. Ho hum. I've always wanted one of those really zippy big-time all-inclusive credit cards but have been turned down over and over. A pickup truck driven by an old man stopped.
—How far you going? he asked.
—California.
—That's a long ways. He actually said "a fer piece" but no literate person would believe anyone still talks this way. Truly literate people hang around their own kind and talk in jingoes and arcane shorthand. Raising a single eyebrow may involve many subtleties. That's why I always preferred to smoke grass by myself—I simply can't bear the cultish mummery, giggling, meaningful glances, the "oh wows" and transference of energies by mutters. We're way up here and ain't we neat. Not especially.
The old man pushed the pickup to eighty. Wyoming is full of berserk drivers. Read of one who drove into a herd of antelope crossing the road and killed sixteen. The meat is usually too smashed up to eat. The radio was giving the livestock report: Choice at $32 per hundredweight, commercial and cutters at $24. The rancher's stockmarket. Hay going at $22 per ton.
—How far you going? I asked.
—Creston which is thirty miles past Rawlins.
Probably a tiny town. No traffic but cars going by with blurring speed. Got there two hours later deep into the afternoon with hardly a word exchanged. He told me he was partly deaf from the First World War. I delivered some books to a VA hospital once and got a quick tour. Wreckage. Former soldiers in there for ten, twenty, thirty years, maybe only incurable fright. A friend of mine lasted only a moment in the Korean War—at the first bullet fired in his direction he said he dove under a truck and started screaming and pissing and shitting from fright. Got a medical discharge finally after they were sure he wasn't faking. A second lieutenant tried to persuade him to come out from under the truck hours later after the skirmish was over. He said he was still blubbering for his mom and dad and the good old U. S. A. He told the shrink that he was afraid of the dark, dogs, snakes, electric appliances and women, the last the only lie in the bunch. The shrink asked him then if he masturbated to which he replied, "Frequently and inconclusively." Then he told the psychiatrist that from youth he had dreamed only of marrying a pro football player and the psychiatrist said he was a bullshitting coward but he got the medical discharge anyway and with body intact. Now he is an insurance adjuster and talks about his invented war experiences. He averts his eyes when we meet by accident on our hometown streets, though he goes through the insurance man courtesy of saying, "Wanna have a cuppa of java?" No, please.
I went into a diner in Creston and had a hot pork sandwich with plenty of beef gravy. A plaque above the cash register said, "In case of atomic attack, pay bill and run like hell." Ho ho ho. I played "Theme from Picnic" and mused about the tragic life of a wanderer. When I saw the movie I got a crush on Susan Strasberg. Maybe in some town I'll look like William Holden and a beautiful girl will take me down by the riverside and offer her own peculiar kind of vittles.
I was only back out on the freeway for a few moments when some college students with New York plates picked me up. The two of them sat in the front seat chattering about school. They were driving straight through to Salt Lake City to visit a friend, then on to California.
—Are you a cowboy? the driver asked.
—Yup, I said pulling my hat down and falling asleep.
The hawk was sitting on the nest. I cursed myself for not seeing him land. He looked around with a short jerky motion of his neck and then seemed to doze as I had done, missing his arrival. There's more than a small portion of shabbiness to my love of nature; on most pack trips I've been on I've loaded in cumbersome fifths of bourbon, so heavy but necessary. Always have to ration it so I don't get greedy and have to leave the woods early. You shouldn't ever drink while you're hunting but I often do secretively from a small flat aluminum flask. I sat in a duck blind with a friend on a very cold day and we finished a bottle and awoke in the dark. Much trouble stumbling through the woods to find the car and so cold we trembled running into invisible trees. Stopped at a tavern for a pick-me-up and discussed the non-hunt. Had ducks come in during our partly comatose sleep? Might be. We played pool for many hours and shook hands and made promises that we wouldn't drink the next time we hunted duck. Could hurt ourselves, you know. A sixteen gauge with Magnum number fours will cut a man in half at close range. What if in unsettled sleep a safety had been clicked, a trigger pulled by mistake. Blam. Or blam blam blam if it's a semi-automatic. Hunter slain in accident.
I watched the bird for a half hour and then he must have sensed my movement. He flapped upward, a five-foot wing-spread beating the air, and covering my presence in higher and wider circles. Nearly as big as an eagle which often steals from the osprey, the more effective hunter. A golden eagle from close range is awesome. In Texas there is a special club of rancher pilots who shoot thousands of golden eagles in flight from airplanes. Must protect the sheep. They have noticed strangely enough that fewer of the eagles appear during their migratory period. Be glad to be a Robin Hood for eagles and shoot their filthy Cessnas out of the sky.
Salt Lake City at dawn while lovers snuffle in pillows and wait for the alarm. The Mermaids conquered this valley thousands of moons ago, prospered by the ardent ficky-fickery of many wives, and the hard work of tilling the Indian's untilled soil. And then a great crise, as the French call it, arose a valley-wide horror, scarcely global, over a cloud of locusts darkening the sun. They prayed to the Angel Moroni (catch the name) and sho'nuf the seagulls buzzed in in formation, a million gobbling-bird Messerschmitts. The valley was saved and the Mermaids swore off coffee, tea, cigarettes and alcohol. Slight misrepresentation here but I cherish the essence of history, the main arteries rather than the niggling individual cells. The truth is, as we know now, that each bird ate exactly one hundred grasshoppers and then flew away. Many prayers were offered the next day over morning coffee which was expensive anyway, the freight costs alone from St. Louis running about three dollars a pound. The Mermaids gave up their expensive vices and stimulants in thanks for the seagulls' arrival. The sacrifice seems inappropriate in that seagulls don't drink or smoke. Then a great tuberknuckle was built in the middle of town, and it was decided that no one could enter this building except the chosen. You can go into an adjacent building and see a museum full of pioneer artifacts or hear the choir sing "Battle Hymn" but don't try to get into the temple. It is guarded by a giant race of seagulls trained like hunting falcons—the "white" equivalent of those ageless ravens that guard the Tower of London. Some gossip about how Negroes can't attain priesthood because they're children of Ham, and not ham hocks and butter beans. The Old Testament Ham which the chosen people wouldn't eat, though some of them secretly liked it and ate it in the night. They were discovered and rather than giving up their favorite recipes they traveled out of Judea, south into Africa where years of equatorial sun darkened their skins. And that is why they can't be priests now. Oddly enough the Mermaids are great ham eaters now but the times change. It is difficult to speak against these wholesome folk—I've known some of them as friends and watched their pained wincing when I drank coffee with cream or sugar or black. If anyone though named Smith or Jones or Brown digs up some more stone tablets we should put our foot down before the whole thing gets out of control. Sanka is a moot point.
I had a quick cup of coffee then asked the waitress how I could catch 40-80 out of town for the long desolate haul across Nevada to Reno. She said that though she had lived here all her life she never had gotten the roads straightened out in her mind. She knew the road to Provo and the road to Heber but that was the wrong direction. Her brain was full of seagull droppings and grasshopper butter, probably why she was a counter girl in a diner.
—Nice town you got here, I said.
—We think so, she replied covering her teeth with her lips when she smiled. Vaguely greenish they were. Lack of calcium?
I walked around until I found a jolly policeman and asked him for directions. He looked at me as though my bedroll might be concealing tommy guns and poison adders, but he pointed the way with a courtesy uncommon in eastern cities. Wholesome folks hereabouts I thought again—no buggery, incest, dope, pornography, all the kitchens spic and span and the girls fresh and capable of making their own gravy. It took me at least two hours to get to an interchange but the walk past dewy emerald-green lawns and cozy bungalows had been pleasant with the exception of a brush with an early-rising cur. I palmed my five-inch switchblade and walked backwards for a block while the dog snarled and barked. Weird-looking hound and terrier cross. If he jumped I would be forced to give him a single lightning slash across his furry throat. Actually he would have had my arm before I could open the knife. Quick rascals. And I couldn't walk with the knife open and outstretched or every mom on the street, awake and making breakfast, would have called the police and my bonehandled Neapolitan switchblade is held suspect by the law.
I stopped at a truckers' cafe near the highway, had coffee and looked imploringly at the truckers. I knew though that they couldn't give me a ride for "insurance" reasons, a NO RIDERS decal on every windshield. I sat down next to a middle-aged beatnik type who glanced at me briefly through his wrap-around shades.
—How about a ride?
—Got any gas money?
—Sure.
Finally highballing it across Nevada in a decrepit Dodge with an unemployed musician. Didn't feel comfortable until we got past the Great Salt Lake and through Wendover and into Nevada which runs Texas a close second as the most hostile place in the nation. By the time we reached Elko and stopped for something to eat we had talked about jazz for four hours and were absolutely stoned on what he called Yucatan Gold. In another twenty-four hours we would cross the Bay Bridge into San Francisco, assuming the car held up in the hundred-degree Nevada heat.
When I left my blind of ferns I estimated it to be about mid-afternoon, the sun warm and hazy and a slight breeze controlling the mosquitoes. The lake was rippling now and the water pushed by the wind cast small waves on the far shore. I felt exhilarated for no particular reason—for all it mattered on earth the forest I was standing in could have been a far province of China four thousand years ago. Not even a jet contrail to befoul the sky, the birds in their afternoon silence and a single turkey buzzard so high that it was scarcely visible. Maybe I'll talk in Chinese to myself and see if the FBI has infiltrated the swamps. I thought of continuing on around the lake to look at new territory but dropped the idea in favor of fishing at the creek mouth or in the beaver pond. I wanted enough fish to glut myself for dinner, then sleep would come easily without fantasies of whiskey.
The water near the creek mouth turned out to be fairly rough, lacking the pellucid clarity of the morning. Writers for "outdoor" magazines are always referring to "gin clear" water. Switch that to vodka clear for my own taste. But then the great majority of these writers are lame brains with no real knowledge of the prey they speak of except how to catch or kill it. I moved on up to the beaver pond slowly, cautiously avoiding noise. I heard the warning "flap" before the pond was visible. Dad beaver on the lookout and now they're down in their lodge wondering who's interfered with their privacy. Sounds like slapping the water with the side of an oar. Row quietly, my father said, or you'll scare the bass. The heat lightning scared me and I forgot. His favorite curse came, used only in male company, "Jesus-fucking-Christ-on-a-flatcar." I've used it to blank stares. I began swearing at five and applications of soap and disapprobation never discouraged me. A girl said, My dad never uses that word. I'm not your dad or I wouldn't be humping here in a Buick Dynaflow. Or she said in the Russian Tea Room, Sex can be so boring. In an old-age home or with colon carcinoma. I dug around a stump looking for a worm or grub or centipede. I don't like to handle centipedes or hellgrammites but they make good bait if your hook is small enough. Deceit to eat. I'll trick the fish and eat its body. Sit in the swamp until a partridge trotted out then shoot off its head, spear the bird with a green willow stick after plucking it, then the roasting. We always ended up eating them half raw out of impatience. Tearing at the blackened skin in the way we imagined savages once did where we sat. An odd sensation when you find an arrowhead in a plowed field or in a gulley or ravine where the ground has been eroded. If you're young you consider all of the woods a "hunting ground" and the evidence of the arrowhead and the presence of earlier hunters stuns you. There's almost a curse now to have read in prepuberty Seton, Curwood, Jack London, all of Zane Grey, Kenneth Roberts, Walter Edmonds. And I'm not even a conservationist. My father gave his life over to the land and got little joy for his efforts. My pitifully radical sensibilities run to dynamite or plastic explosives. But I've no urge to hurt people, the idea repels me. And there's more implicit drama here than I deserve: I mean if I could blow up Dow or Wyandotte Chemical I might if no one were to be hurt or go jobless. Beneath the Christmas tree there are no presents, some creep has blown up Daddy's factory and there's no money. A-dinner of food surplus lard and navy beans. Complexions turn sallow. Or on the way to the factories I'd stop at a tavern and have a few doubles and listen to Buck Owens sing, "It's crying time again, you're going to leave me," lump in the throat music for me; still can't listen to Stravinsky's Petrouchka, my sister's favorite record. Before I first left for New York City we would burn a red candle and listen to the record together. And read Walt Whitman and Hart Crane. I was eighteen and she was thirteen. But if you've read all those Zane Grey novels and others I've mentioned at a vulnerable age you simply can't get along in the present. Where's the far field? Neither can you march even as a radical to protect your ancient turf or bring peace to earth. I've never felt solidarity except while making love, or with a tree or animal or while utterly alone on a river or in a swamp or in the woods. I don't propose this as a virtue but as a matter of rude fact. A liberal magazine once used the word "spiv" to describe this state of being. I thought I liked Kropotkin for a while. My ancestors, inasmuch as they were literate, were Populists. There's no romance in being alone.
San Francisco. Now here is my golden city I hope. Look at the people bustle at noon on Geary Street. They're wearing wool like the guidebook instructs and very elegant. Probably not my part of town. The musician told me when he dropped me off that he had a "gig" promised at the Blackhawk and to drop by. Not likely on my funds. One necktie strangled into a rope in the bedroll which I stuffed into a locker at the bus station. If you lose the key you're out seventeen dollars' worth of gear. Pretty girls everywhere and I'm going to get me one I hope. Up Polk, over Sacramento, up Grant with its yellow threat to Green near the beach. Crossing Columbus, nearly hit by cab. Knocking on the door where a former friend should be and where I can lay my head. Man with girlish hair answers with suspicion. Seems my friend went to Vancouver a month ago. What will I do now? Nothing but buy a paper and look for a room.
I walked until I wanted to throw away my boots. I could feel blisters leaking into my socks. These boots are made for riding horses and nothing else. I finally found a room two or three blocks from the Opera House under a highway over-pass on Gough Street. It was cheap even considering the cars and trucks roaring overhead. I retrieved my bedroll, paid two weeks in advance, which left me seven dollars to live on forever. I drank with long gulps from a bottle of sauterne, my sleeping pill, and got into bed. When I awoke about midnight my billfold was gone from the dresser and the door was slightly ajar. How dumb. Probably someone with a small celluloid ruler slipped the lock. Sixty-six cents in change and no papers to say who I am.
I caught a mess of brook trout from the beaver pond and regretted not having my fly rod. Where are the parents of these little fish? I packed them in grass and ferns in my pouch and started the hike back to the camp. If I were a crow I could get there in a minute or two.
Something had been pawing around the tent but all was intact, the small cache of food hanging beyond any animal's reach or intelligence. A monkey would have figured out the rope. Be nice to import some Japanese snow monkeys and let them run amok up here. I stuck my head in the creek and drank, then washed myself. I fried all of the fish long enough to brown them and ate them with salt and honey and bread. I checked the rifle, wiping the moisture from the barrel with my bandana, and working the action quickly to watch the shells pop out. Eat lead death Commie, I said, aiming at my smoldering fire. Let's control guns and stop shooting heroes. Let only police and soldiers have guns, then they can shoot who they want at will. Cavalry shooting with Springfields at Indians armed with hatchets, bows and arrows. Shot a Sharps buffalo gun once. Adequate for rhino with a shell as heavy as a doorknob. I'm not going to shoot any presidents or leaders may I keep my guns. Outlaw all pistols though. Creep machines. Everyone in Detroit carries one now after the riots. May they shoot off their toes. They aren't any good anyway unless you have had considerable practice. It's been ten years since I shot at a mammal. I thought of bow hunting but even that seemed unfair. An expert archer can kill anything, even an elephant—a liver shot with a weighted arrow. So many deer in an unnatural balance with all predators dead so that they have to be hunted. When you hang up a deer and strip its hide it looks a bit too human for my taste; in the hanging position the front feet appear to be atrophied human arms with the skin peeled back, striated with muscle, tendons, ligaments and a little yellow fat. The heart is large and warm. When you reach up into the cavity you've slit in the belly and cut the esophagus you rip downwards and all the guts come tumbling out. Then you carefully cut around the anus avoiding the bladder and colon and then you have a, deer ready for butchering. The guts always vanish by the next day, a nice meal for a fox or two. The liver is especially tasty if the deer is young but my favorite meal is when you strip the loins and broil them. I've eaten fried heart but its resemblance to my own took some of the pleasure from the meal. I imagine that there would be more vegetarians if everyone slaughtered their own meat. The English and French eat horse meat but when you talk to them it is subtly self-explanatory. A friend of mine in Montana lost a horse he had hobbled near a stream bank; the horse tripped in the night, stumbling down the bank and breaking its neck against the rocks in the stream. It was a beautiful horse and my friend was sad for weeks. When he came back the day after the horse was killed it was gone. A grizzly had dragged the horse a quarter of a mile or so up the creek through the brush and had eaten everything but the rumen. A feat of strength and appetite. Paw marks of two cubs too but a second-year cub weighs several hundred pounds. This may sound pointlessly sentimental but I would rather shoot a human than a grizzly or a wolf. Of course I would never shoot any of the three unless attacked and wolves never attack humans despite the falsities spread about them. Grizzlies have been known to attack humans and of course humans attack humans with considerable regularity. I don't mean during wars but in the daily life of the street. The executive bares his teeth and bites down on his partner's neck. The secretary says, Mr. Bob you've got blood on your Countess Mara tie. Fist fights. Holdups. Gang fights. Birmingham. Detroit. Chicago. Bar fights. Crestfallen wife slaps husband. Husband punches wife in snotlocker. The habit of child beating widespread.
I sat there on the bed feeling very stupid, distraught, near panic: I wanted to be home in Michigan, upstairs in my own bed with my olive-colored World War Two wool blanket pulled up under my chin. But my father had said something pointed though humorous when I left: "You can stay until the piss-ants carry you out through the keyhole." Country humor, local color. This city is probably full of thieves. Cutpurses they called them long ago, lucky I wasn't stabbed in the eye like Marlowe while I slept innocently. Hope he uses the seven dollars on wine then falls neatly under a cable car, his body sliced in three sections. An old woman in my home town had committed suicide by placing her neck over the railroad track, the head dribbling like a basketball down the tracks until it rested at a crossing a hundred yards from her body. A much discussed incident. The coroner discovered that her suicide note was written entirely in consonants and wondered if a code might be involved but decided she was merely insane. Earlier that morning when I first saw the Golden Gate Bridge I thought of all those pitiful creatures who had flung themselves over the rail. From that height water is as hard as cement and if you jump too close to a piling, it is cement. Broke, thinking of suicide and far from home, finishing my sauterne. The trouble is it would hurt. During a football practice I had gotten a compound fracture across the bridge of my nose—bones sticking through and the blood a geyser. Wore an odd T-shaped cast the rest of the season. Have to meet this whole problem head-on.
I left the rooming house and walked over toward Market Street where I intended to blow my monstrous sixty-six cents on pancakes, the cheapest way to fill an empty stomach. Starch. Manioc and pan bread, pinto beans, potatoes, pasta to swell the tummy for next to nothing. I want a whole smoked ham like Grandpa hung in his cellar to season. Slabs of bacon there too, potatoes and cabbages in the cooler, deeper, root cellar. Chop off the chicken's head and watch it trot uncackling in a parabola like a boomerang back to my feet and eat it fried a few hours later. Passing the Opera House and the square with beautiful flowers. I'll never be driven up in a limousine with Wanda the debutante to hear Lambasta's intricate Lo Pigro. Apply for a job. I'd yodel for free sir if you throw in the meals. At the cafeteria I ordered my pancakes, salivating as I watched them on the dirty griddle. Then a triple dose of syrup for energy, and a cup of thin coffee stoked with chicory. Must use the grounds over and over. Some Chicanos in the corner laughing. Pickers no doubt up for the evening. I finished my sickening meal and approached them. They fell silent as I asked where to get work. They stared at me until I was on the verge of walking away, then one of them smiled and told me that labor trucks left daily from Hosmer Street across from the church at four A.M. A farm labor office was there, compliments of the State of California. I walked over and cased the location three hours early, then walked down Market to kill time.
I've always liked the mad-dog atmosphere of cities after midnight: Times Square, Rush Street, Pershing Square, now Market Street. The maimed that come out only when the sun goes down. Cruisers cruise. Prostitutes look for marks—I'm only glanced at, it's obvious that I'm a poor prospect. Movie lets out and the good citizens rush to their cars to split the neighborhood. Don't blame them. If you take me home I'll mow your lawn. A faggot twitters hello cowpoke at me and I wish I had left this fucking stupid hat in my room but I might need it tomorrow. I want to marry adventure and this isn't it. I should be up in the Sierras standing on a mountain-top so that I can kiss dawn full on her lips. Fresh air and no blind accordionists playing "Dance, Ballerina, Dance." Should tell him that's Vaughn Monroe's trademark as far as I'm concerned.
Back at the labor office and still an hour early. A few people begin to arrive. Winos mostly. And then some black men and women with lunches packed. What will I eat—my fingers? The jobber's truck arrives, a canvas-covered flatrack. Then a rickety bus pulls up. There are at least fifty of us now murmuring in the half-light. The Catholic church across the street is pink stucco and the first pale light strikes the belfry where dozens of pigeons are cooing and chucking. The jobber is a mountainous black who tells me to get into the truck after making sure I'm not drunk. Three winos have been rejected and stand at a distance cursing. It is dark in the truck and I can only see the tips of lit cigarettes. The truck starts and we pull away. I watch the street recede and wonder where I'm going, what I'll be picking in what field. I ask the man next to me on the bench where we're headed and he says in a ghetto gibberish I can scarcely understand that you never know but you're always back in Frisco by dark.
I got up in the middle of the night and started a fire after hearing what I thought were footsteps in the brush. A dream I suppose. The fire burned quickly and with a roar, big chunks and strips of dry pine ripped easily off a stump. The tree cut how long ago? My mind was sinking into a small black ball. With no prospects how will I ever travel first class anywhere? I want to go to San Francisco again someday and stay at the Palace or Fairmont or Mark Hopkins or the St. Francis. Fuck steerage and the contempt of everyone. Held for vagrancy in Fraser, Colorado, once because I lacked two dollars of the needed amount to make one an ordinary citizen. And in a small town outside of Topeka questioned by a bored deputy in an old car with "Deputy Sheriff" hand painted on the door. He only wanted to talk. And the usual homosexual ride that begins with "Do you have a girl friend?" Yes of course and a ponderous cock and you can't have a single solitary bite. They're uniformly nice about the whole thing. Pun intended. One in Waltham with a St. Christopher statue on the dashboard. Should have a tiny blindfold so he doesn't have to watch blowjobs. Saints deserve some consideration. And an actual pass made by a war-torn veteran who had to speak through a battery-operated amplifier held against his throat. Sounded like a faulty growling tape recorder—the obscene question drawn out, a forty-five rpm played at thirty-three. Would have been more interesting if the machine accelerated the voice into insane chipmunk talk. My brain shrank perceptibly again. I felt a whirling sort of nausea, facing the fire in the darkness and wondering if I were meant to be one of those fragile individuals who shrink into dustballs from generalized pain and are swept into asylums. No Heathcliff with ten hounds and vast moor. Where is a "she" to retrieve me, draw me out of the riddle that only leads to another. I have lost my faith I thought in "figuring things out," the various tongues in my skull that spoke daily of alternatives, counterploys, divisions, instructions, directions. All the interior sensuosities of language and style. And I live the life of an animal and transmute my infancies, plural because I always repeat never conquer, a circle rather than a coil or spiral. I've talked myself into the woods up here and will there be a common language when I return? Or is there a need for one or was there ever such a language in any world at any time? I think so. Before the gibbet or guillotine the cheers take the same arc of sound and come from a single huge throat. No king to require a spokesman. Off in the dark there is a wolf who speaks his limited instincts to another. I imagine he knows that there are few of his own kind left. On Isle Royale they control their population without help. I'll talk to Villon or Marlowe tonight when the fire goes out. I've only floated.
My next few days revolved around trips to Stockton, Modesto, San Jose and their limitless hot string-bean fields. I picked very slowly, fatigued by the heat and scratching all the itches caused by the bean dust and pesticides. When I filled a basket full of thirty pounds of beans I would get either sixty cents cash on the line or have a ticket punched. The grower's man preferred the tickets to keep pickers around. The first day I brought four dollars and twenty cents back to Frisco with me. After that day and its initial boredom and exhaustion I averaged about seven dollars a day. Many of the Chicanos made fifteen dollars a day but they had the truly questionable benefit of years of experience. I was bullied by the jobber a great deal but only grinned like an idiot. Later when I became straw boss on a farm in Michigan I acted the same way, walking around swearing at the dawdlers. Picking apples is the only civilized form of such work—it is fall, the weather is cool and no stoop labor is involved. Cucumbers are lowest on the rung of preference.
On the fourth day I didn't take the truck back but instead walked the half dozen or so miles into San Jose. I stopped at a store on the outskirts of town and bought three grapefruit which I ate on the way. There was a continuous rustling in the ditch which would stop when I stopped. I spotted the small lizards that were making the noise and threw a few stones. No one would pick me up and a car full of teenagers having fun threw a firecracker, narrowly missing my head. I looked at the car closely thinking that I might meet them in San Jose and get the chance to kick the shit out of somebody. The grapefruit were delicious, the juices soaking my shirt front, my best white shirt which had hung on a fencepost all day while I picked barebacked. There was to be a dance that night and I wanted to look good. I felt flush with a twenty-dollar bill in my right sock and a few bucks in my pocket. A diesel truck passed me so closely that I teetered in the wind. Pigfucker might have aimed. I felt a great empathy then with all the cocoa-colored people in America. Work hard and try to play hard. Scorned if you don't save the meager wages and live like they do in Middletown, U. S. A. I thought of one of my uncles who lived back in the woods preferring the company of his redbone and bluetick hounds to people. His lovely wife, my aunt, died of cancer and his oldest son fatally injured in a car wreck. No marks on his body, the neck broken neatly and invisibly. At the funeral I looked at him closely and decided he wasn't dead. When his mother died, though, there was no mistaking it—she had dropped from a hundred thirty to seventy pounds, dying at home on the couch while her children played pinochle next to her. They were able to kiss her goodbye.
I got a very cheap hotel room after being turned down at two places for unknown reasons. I took a bath and looked at myself in the mirror. Color of coffee and the grapefruit stains dry. I walked over to a park and sat on a bench beneath a palm tree with a copy of Life. A family I picked with waved to me and I felt good about it. I know somebody out here in the golden West. The magazine made me feel that I was missing opportunities—a special on this year's crop of starlets, one of them beautiful indeed. She has since dropped out of sight. Where do all the starlets go that drop out of sight? To Vegas and Manhattan where they command fees of five hundred dollars a night for perverse gymnastics involving electrical apparatus and hundreds of yards of mauve velvet. When I'm chairman of some kind of board I'll meet a has-been starlet, twenty-seven years old, and propose something truly infamous, an act so imaginative that her eyes will pop out like Satchmo's. Have to involve pushing a dead cow off a skyscraper roof. A gray-haired gentleman with jism splotches all over his cotton trousers sat down beside me. Go away or I'll call the vice squad, I said. Wonder how much movies have directed my affections, heartsick with love for screen stars; chronologically, Ingrid Bergman, Deborah Kerr (in Quo Vadis when she is almost gored by the bull), Ava Gardner, Lee Remick, Carol Lynley, and years later, Lauren Hutton who is a model and comparative unknown. If they only knew how pleasant my company would be. Uta Hagen, Shelley Winters and Jeanne Moreau scare me. Catherine Deneuve is too aggressively depraved in that Bunuel movie.
The next day I got up about noon with an incredible hangover. The dance had been a relative flop; the girl I had spotted in the field and so carefully nurtured with polite talk had a boy friend. The Mexican music was too melancholy and I spent most of my time and money in a bar next door to the dance hall. I drank tequila and played country music on the jukebox and talked mostly to a drunk Filipino picker who claimed the Chicanos were against him. Then I ate a huge combination plate at a Mexican restaurant and had difficulty finding the hotel. When I flipped on the light switch exactly ten thousand cockroaches dove for cover. Lucky I'm not shy of bugs, even spiders. Before I fell asleep I heard the ticking sound they made when they dropped off the ceiling onto the bed. I yelled "shoo" but it didn't disturb them. I took a bus back to the city, deftly seating myself next to a pretty girl who refused to speak to me. Yes my little one I am a psychotic and rapist and thimble freak. Back in my Gough Street room I watched the taxis and trucks pass and the lordly messengers on their high monkey-bar motorcycles. My bedroll was intact in the closet and I was a week ahead on the rent with seven dollars again to blow on the delights of the city. Early next morning I bought a city map and started walking.
There is a constant urge to re-order memory—all events falling between joy and absolute disgust are discarded. Some even favor leaving out disgust. I think often though of rather ordinary kindnesses, a waitress letting me sleep on a table in the back room of a restaurant outside of Heber, Utah. Or sitting with a rancher's children in the back of a pickup on hay bales and the way he passed back a bottle, driving full tilt through the Uinta and Wasatch mountains. Or an old high school friend sending me fifty dollars because if "you go into art you can have a bad time of it." The friend had recently seen a film biography of Vincent van Gogh. Or a woman I met near Sather Gate at Berkeley when I was roaming around and fearfully trying to use the university library. No one asked questions though. She was an assistant librarian and spent hours digging up material on Provencal poets for me. I wasn't interested but it seemed like a good idea. During a noon hour I talked to her walking around through a garden near the library and offered to take her to dinner. We sat on the grass and she finally said no, that I probably couldn't afford to take anyone to dinner. I said I was saving money by living in an abandoned apartment house off Green Street with eight or nine other bums, mostly young and rootless tea heads. She was a trifle homely but very pleasant. After work we went to her apartment and I took an hour-long shower and put on her husband's pajamas, while she washed my clothes. They were separated and getting a divorce. She was about thirty-five and a little bit plump for my taste but strangely the best lover I've ever had. Very straightforward with none of the oblique difficulties of young girls. When I left after a week I felt no particular loss because I had never really been attracted to her—very adult with a nice kiss of farewell and the bus back across the bay, at least seven pounds heavier from decent food and soapy smelling from daily showers. Sated.
Odd about older women, I mean between thirty-five and fifty or sixty. It's nice to be appreciated and not practice hours of beggary to get near the snuffbox. There's no condescension here at all, only an observation arrived at at age twenty-one. None of those long agonizing sessions of petting and waddling home with the ache of the malady known as lover's nuts. Swollen with no release. Probably less of this nowadays with the mink culture going full tilt. I remembered standing in a bookstore and reading the entirety of Lolita in two hours, then walking out onto the street with glazed eyes, a full-fledged ravenous nympholeptic. The power of literature. Or what did Earwicker say in Finnegan—"I learned all the rules of the gamest of games from my old Norse Ada." We all know firm young tanned or pink unblemished bodies are sweet, peach melba or crepes suzette. But they involve a Don Juanish career that wastes a lot of time and there's something suspicious about always wanting to poke the unpoken. Bob said I was first I was first I was first as if a country or a vaccine had been discovered. An archeologic instinct I suppose. An urge to squeeze rather than plunge in; and how can you be less than adequate if you're among the first to tup the heifer. I remembered the year before coming up from Barstow by bus after midnight through the invisible greenery of the San Joaquin Valley, sitting next to a girl fresh out of Vegas and a semi-pro with white satin dress and glass high heels. Long brown legs. I don't know why I do this, she said after an hour's prattle and we began necking. I burned my fingers holding a marvelous french kiss all the way through a cigarette. Couldn't drop it on her dress. Difficult to operate on a bus seat, finally impossible for more than her deft palm. Disgruntled senior citizens surrounding us in the dark. Three of my fingers were wet, salving the burn—a revolutionary medicine, healed by dawn.
I got back to the Hanging Gardens and found that my bedroll had been stolen. Went down to Broadway and Columbus with a friend from Albuquerque and we panhandled enough money for some food, a matchbox, and a gallon of wine. A week before we had stolen a gallon of wine from a grocer but that involved a ten-block full-blast run through Chinatown and my friend lost one of his sandals. We stashed the food except for a package of sweet rolls, the grass and wine and climbed up to Coit Tower for a little picnic in the shrubbery. We got awesomely high and drunk at the same time watching a huge Matson Line ship back out of the dock far below. Someday this will all be yourn May Lou. All of it. Two police coming toward us in the shrubbery and Walter swallowed the last roach. What are you guys doing? Looking at the beauty of the city, officer. It sure is a lovely view up here. Best to be coquettish with the police—it often flusters them. They might be former marines but they remember the playfulness in the tents back in their Boy Scout days. Walter handles them beautifully—they move on in search of actual criminals which we are when Walter offers to recite a poem he has spontaneously written called "The Men in Blue." They tell us to get out of here or we might get mugged. Golly it's dangerous in this city, I said.
We walked down the hill and over to title Co-existence Bagel Shop where an English reporter bought us beer and macaroni salad for the real lowdown on the recently vaunted San Francisco Renaissance. Walter claimed that the true Renaissance was in Kansas City and that he should catch the next plane before it disappeared. I had another quick order of the macaroni salad before the patron disappeared. A man sitting at the next table in a business suit hid behind a newspaper. We told the reporter that he was a federal narcotics agent and that as an Englishman he could be deported for carrying a full kilo in his briefcase. We left and stood around on the corner in front of the shop for hours talking to unnamed acquaintances. The most interesting of them was Billy the Pimp who often bought us meals for companionship. He had a common-law wife who worked the conventions for fifty-dollar tricks. A few times he gave me a twenty with a reminder that some hard work was behind the money. Billy also had two college girls "turned out" in secret whorehouses in Chinatown where he said they would be held for at least two years. By then he could depend on them since he was the only white man they ever saw. He claimed he usually grossed five hundred a day which I believed, in that his heroin bit cost him at least a hundred and he was always beautifully dressed. I had dinner with him and his wife one evening and we talked most of the night popping bennies. Billy maintained that as long as his wife balled for money it was OK but that if she ever went to bed with anyone for free it would be adultery and need punishing. The whole idea boggled my Protestant mind. Truly depraved people and I'm sitting in the room talking to them. She laughed and told stories about the "Johns," how most of the paunchy conventioneers never even got hard-ons but wanted their friends to think they were cocksmen. Easy work, she said, and they always begged her not to tell on them. Who would she tell? she wondered aloud. I left when I got angry about the college girls who were trapped. Billy said they got used to it and looked forward to his weekly visits but if they somehow got away he would "cut" them—this meant a slash with a knife or razor along the nose and through the upper and lower lip. Difficult for a doctor to mend neatly and Billy said this was the usual treatment for extremely recalcitrant whores. I was repelled I think more than I had ever been before. Poor girls with a line of Chinese. Snow pea breath. I avoided Billy after that evening.
We leaned against a car and talked about the St. Anthony's Mission where a free lunch was served at noon every day. Some of the bums brought jars to take home the food their rotting stomachs couldn't receive. I had eaten there several times with Walter and other malcontents from North Beach and enjoyed talking to the monks. You got a vitamin pill with the meal and often a dish of ice cream. But the life of the streets had begun to pall after a few months. At a party in Fillmore that had lasted three days I had witnessed an unsavory gang bang. The girl was too young and completely out of her head though very lovely. Bongo drums and gin and the whole bag. I looked into the bedroom where her blond hair was spread out damply on a pillow and her eyes squeezed shut in apparent pain. There were five or six still to be served. I left at about three A.M. in order to catch the labor bus and earn some honest money to rent a room of my own again, Maybe go back to Berkeley and try to start up with the librarian. Or earn a small stake and hitch back to Michigan.
I worked four loathsome days with a group of Okies who lacked the Chicanos' grace and good humor. They were living in Oakland and hadn't lived in California long enough to collect welfare. I remembered going through Atlanta in a bus late at night and seeing them with their pale faces and long sideburns and thin lips. The oldest Americans. Standing in front of a honky-tonk smoking, the musicians in string ties taking their break. But I like the music and if you could fold over the country horizontally in the middle you would find that northern rural people mirror their southern counterparts. Poor. Often vicious to outsiders. Contempt for the law. The mainstay for some is alcohol, for the others, that "old time" fundamentalist religion. I liked a few of them though, a vague sort of recognition when we talked about hunting and fishing at noon. They were quick to admit they hated Oakland but there was no work back home. So they came west. That Big Eight-Wheeler Running Down the Tracks. As the Joads had come thirty years before and had adapted to chrome and neon instead of gutted cotton land. Ignorance only gradually accrues, builds up—as sediment collects at a river's mouth. The poor are instinctively suspicious but then so are the rich, and the middle-class more suspicious than either.
That night around my fire I heard howling far to the west of me, perhaps several miles away. Sure as God a wolf. All my side trips had been east to the lake or southwest to the car. Tomorrow I would go up to the higher ground to the north and west of my campside. They figure Indians took copper out of this area four or five thousand years ago, before Jesus rode the donkey into Jerusalem for his last session of confrontation politics. Any radicalism in my head was got initially from the Bible. Coming to maturity in the full syrup of the Eisenhower lassitude fed the fire. A moonless hiatus when energies built in people to whom life was merely a succession of injustices. A false period of light and comparative quietude with the powers in the nation playing golf and collecting billions, Congress collectively picking its nose, oinking out grotesqueries and sloth. The nation continued shitting in its own sandbox and only recently has noticed it. And this long after obvious greed had been purged and was merely called business. The business of business is business. Sowing wind. Hard to understand how a nation conceived in rapine and expanded in slaughter could last anyway. But there's no sense of Old Testament doom—the doom is contemporary and earned daily. Pull off the face and you see the skull is Naugahyde. Cheyenne autumn. And the holds of ships with millions of slaves mentally rotting toward servitude. With a base this questionable, how can one conceive of a nation at peace? I saw a picture in the paper a week ago of the President and the Vice President at sport. They looked like barbers on a Sunday outing, tits sagging a bit in their golf shirts. And a supercharged cart behind them to carry the eminences from hole to hole. The world with wall to wall war, the ocean lidded with oil and most whales dead. Her prophets whine and play patty-cake patty-cake. M. L. King dead after seeing God's face, his eyes seeing the glory. The dead-end apocalypticism of the young fed by hard rock and amphetamines. And though I'm barely over thirty I come from the nineteenth century and a somnolent world with a top on it. I feel destined not to do anything about anything. Perhaps resuscitate a few animal skins stolen from coat racks and parlor floors. Pile them in a giant mound by the thousands until I sense that there are enough for a proper funeral. Douse with kerosene. Light it with a burning arrow of course and sit with my dogs and watch the conflagration and if I have had enough to drink I'll take off my clothes and dance around this monstrous fire, singing and howling with my dogs until the animals either come back to life or I watch their souls and ghosts float upwards in the plumes of smoke. I'll roll in the ashes and it will begin raining and never stop.
I looked at my tattered map and plotted the next day's trip, how far and in what general directions I would walk and where I might find water or catch a few fish. Someday I intended to walk the circumference of Lake Superior. Maybe walk straight north to the pole, or walk into a cave and refuse to come out until the back wall of the cave reflected a livable earth, or the brilliant orange anti-shadow of the earth exploding.
I threw another log on my diminishing fire and went down to the creek to prepare for bed. First a long drink and a wash with the small sliver of soap I had left. I was giggling about my romanticism and wondering if my brain would ever be able to expand beyond all those oblique forms of mental narcissism I practiced daily. And did I feel deeply anything other than an urge to survive. Yes. Add eating, drinking and fucking, and a peopleless forest. With a weekly visit of a beautiful maiden who would float down the creek to me in gossamer on a raft made of rushes and bound together with human hair. She would look suspiciously like my mental image of Ophelia and we would make love until, naturally, we would bleed through the eyes and pores. Various animals would sit in a circle and watch—raccoons, opossums, coyotes, fox, deer, wolves, and many varieties of snakes and insects. When we finished making love we would bathe in the creek in the dawn light and she would lie back down on her raft and float downstream out of my field of vision. Then I would fill a huge golden bowl with milk from which all the above creatures would drink in harmony. If an inept viper or mouse fell in, a fox would gently lift it out. Then I would sleep for three days and three nights and roll the stone back up the hill until she arrived again.
In a week of stupefying labor I managed to save forty dollars. I hitched into Frisco to collect my belongings and to spend two days saying goodbye to inanimate presences. I spent a day in Golden Gate thinking this was the end of it all. I could hear the Pacific out there while gliding through all the crazy unfamiliar flora and fauna. A dozen or so motorcyclists passed me on a bordering street with "SKULLS" on the back of their jackets. Sleeveless leather jackets and hair-bands with hair flowing out behind, a bush-league Gestapo. I re-entered the tropics following some faint music, arriving at a sunlit bandshell where there was a Strauss concert in progress. I waltzed a little and an old couple sitting on a bench grinned and waved at me. I signaled to the old lady and she got up and we made a few gliding slow trips around the bench while her husband clapped. I actually hated waltz music but it seemed appropriate today. Farther on I sat down on the grass and turned to look up a pretty girl's legs. White ninety-nine-cent lollipop panties. Oh darling if only. Thighs ever so slightly parted and eyes closed in rapt attention to the music. Should crawl over there barking and mount. I went into the DeYoung Museum and looked at the Medici statue. Power, that's what I wanted. With power I would fly home rather than hitchhike. Slight chance though that during the Renaissance I wouldn't have been a prince but would have been up on the Baltic in a smoky log hut. At the end of the park I looked out at the Pacific and greeted her with a sigh. Across there in the Orient the Orientals are being Oriental. Huge breakers swept in. Two girls were racing down the beach far below. The whole continent is at my back I thought and I turned and left.
Out on Green Street I couldn't find anybody in the floating world to say goodbye to. The Hanging Gardens were empty—probably someone got busted and they all left. I walked down Grant to Geary then over again through the garden giving the Opera House a wanton high sign. Fuck opera. Who needs it? La Bohème indeed. With a garnish of resolute turkey cream pie. I bought an old metal air force suitcase thinking it would help get me rides in preference to a smelly bedroll.
I caught a ride on 80 to Sacramento with a businessman who thought I was in the air force and perhaps on leave. I said no and he accused me of false advertising. He was in the service during World War Two, he said, and always liked to give our boys a break by picking them up when he saw them hitchhiking. I told him my father had died on the Bataan death march which changed his attitude. He patted my arm and said that Burma took a heavy toll. I had become OK with a gratuitous lie. The Nips sure were a tough bunch of yellow bastards. He went on and on while I dozed. By Sacramento I felt sick with what I suspected was mild food poisoning. It was late evening and I snuck across the State Capitol lawn and vomited in the bushes repeatedly. I finally curled up on the grass and slept fitfully wondering if a policeman would disturb my rest.
I emerged from the bushes early and thought how appropriate a place to get sick I had found—I was amused even though I had mild stomach cramps. All state houses should be turned into vomitoriums and then they could start over in a place that didn't overwhelm them. Say in a big field all votes would be taken while the lawmakers were crawling naked on their hands and knees yelling yes or no. A new perspective. Proper humility in their concerns for millions of helpless citizens. If you've ever taken a trip to Washington you perhaps may gather this meaning—how can anything less than pompous or idle or torpid result from that giant cluster of marble and monuments. The buildings create a self-importance that is destructive. I propose that the whole compound be leveled except the Lincoln Monument and the mall and pond in front of it. And that some adept sculptor do a prone M. L. King to lay across Lincoln's lap in the manner of La Pietà. Only with a big hole in the head. We are mortal O lord. Trigger fingers itch and squeeze, itch and squeeze.
In the first light I had three cups of tea at an all-night cafe and read the Sunday paper without remembering anything but a bikini clad model in the travel section who said in an artful blib, "COME TO BERMUDA." Be glad to. O island in the sun chigadigdigdo. I caught a ride across the Sierras from a Frisco cab driver with two days off and headed to Reno to beat Harold's Club with a new system. Upon my promise not to tell anyone he explained the questionable mathematics of blackjack and gobbled up a hundred miles of fine scenery. He pointed out the gorge where the Donner party had come to their end eating each other. Literally. Have a piece of Mama's liver, Brad. John Muir walked around here peacefully years ago but now people trample each other and scramble for campsites. In Rocky Mountain National Park I was way up in the "high lonesome" sleeping near a glacier when I heard the strains of "You Are My Sunshine." Nice family packing in a battery-operated record player. From Scarsdale no less. I was sixteen at the time and feisty beyond belief and told them that I was going to kick their little machine to pieces if they didn't turn it off. On the way out of the woods I was stopped at a ranger station and asked to fill out a long questionnaire on the general quality of the services and pleasures in the park. This request got a shrieking "fuck you" and the other campers that had gathered and the ranger gave me that look of "Well here's a mad dog let's hope he goes away." The hotel where I worked had recently fired then rehired me over my abortive attempt to unionize the dining room labor. We all worked a triple split shift and the manager of the hotel offered me three hundred dollars to call the thing off. The option was a quick and forceful trip to Denver with a local deputy. I called off the walkout but didn't accept the money which was a fortune to me at the time. I felt laved in honor and pride. They're not buying off Reuther Junior goddamnit. I hoped Steffens and Herbert Croly were watching me from Labor Heaven. Of course I was a chickenshit and should have taken the ride to Denver with the cop. But he might have hurt my body. I got back at the management by organizing pilferage, pulling the plug on the ice machine, and serving raw eggs on my room service trips. I was ashamed during a room service breakfast trip to betray a homely old lady who had treated me well in the past. I served her two absolutely raw eggs then raced back to the kitchen to the phone in order to receive her complaint. Seems her husband who I had heard showering didn't like his eggs raw. Would you please bring two more. Yes of course in a concealed voice then to the refrigerator for two hard-boiled eggs and sending them up with another waiter. Desperation would set in but then a fifteen-hour day wasn't my idea of acceptable working conditions. My most courageous action was the dropping of a full tray of silverware during a muted lovely dinner hour with the sun glinting off Longs Peak. Horrid noise with diners' necks jerking around. Might cause whiplash. I picked up the silverware slowly while the maitre d'hotel and the headwaiter stood nearby cursing.
In the tent cross-legged looking at the maps in the dark by a gradually dimming flashlight. I plotted a ten-mile circle which would start out toward the west, then north and back east and south back to the tent. It wouldn't be a bad walk assuming I began at dawn and assuming again that I didn't get lost. I turned off my flashlight and lay back on my sleeping bag. I seemed to be losing weight but it might just be liquid from not drinking. I felt my chest and stomach and their layer of fat which had gathered slowly over the years. From the vantage point of 1970 it appeared that all my movements since 1958 had been lateral rather than forward. I had printed three extremely slender books of poems which took up approximately an inch of shelf space. A succession of not very interesting nervous breakdowns. The reading of perhaps a few thousand books and the absorption of no wisdom at all from them. I no longer carried books around as a walking blood bank, a purgative for sorrow. Swallow when needed. Take when lost and Bo-Peep will find you as she finds all lost sheep. I heard of a man who traced mandalas by riding the New York City subway. I had become covert about the past to the extent that my interest in it slackened. And the future was even more oblique. Not that I was unhappy or particularly upset about its prospects. I had once planned to walk the periphery of the United States but then I had also planned a trip on the Trans-Siberian Express, the Orient Express, and a tracing of Rimbaud's path into Africa. But these intentions had become all gaggle and gilt from planning. I was twelve years old again sharpening broadhead arrows in my bedroom while someone said downstairs that Ike's going to get us out of Korea. Where and why was Korea or Panmunjon? Across the flat blue ocean on a map, across the Marianas Trench. Stop in Hawaii where there were bared belly buttons. I knew I was dying daily day per day. At an acceleration rate of twenty-four-hour units. A trip to Jerusalem to see where Jesus walked. It occurred to me that I was still an orthodox Christer and believed in the Second Coming. Lion of Judah. I still read the last book of the Bible with fright, the Book of Revelation. I had lost my urge to chat with Gandhi or Ramakrishna. Only Shakespeare or Apollinaire would do and the exchange of information would be nominal and diffident. They would be curious about color TV and freeze-dried foods as great artists always seemed to devour particulars. If I found wolf tracks tomorrow or even spotted a wolf or found the impossible den that would scarcely change the fact that my first love had betrayed me. My real griefs were over the dead and the prospects of a disastrous future; my affection for the presentness of the woods was easily accounted for. Trees offer no problems and even if all wilderness is despoiled I'll settle for a hundred acres and hide within it and defend it with howls perfected by operatic training. I'll hand-roll Bugler tobacco and become a hermit. They'll parachute starlets into my outpost to be reseeded—the poor girls will wander about aimlessly for a few hours wondering what the hell it's all about and I'll follow them like a male Rima the birdman sizing up the cut of their haunches. Sex enters. To mate not once but a thousand times. And one turns out to be quite enough if you give yourself over to her and if you can give yourself over to anything. The urge seems so atavistic and never leaves for more than a day at a time except during illness and then the lovely worm stirs again with no sense of aim. I sat up trying to catch a new sound, almost a bark but guttural. Probably a bear raiding a honey tree at night and getting stung around the nose and mouth. I cut a honey tree down during winter when the bees were sluggish and almost dormant, dropping out of the hole to the ground where they froze instantly in the near zero cold. I chopped with an ax until I reached the cache of honey which was after all their food. I took off a glove and scooped up a handful. Not very good, almost rank with a buckwheat flavor. Put sticky hand back in glove and walked away on my snowshoes. You spot honey trees in the summer and come back when it's cool enough not to get stung. Rabelais said a cunt was a honeypot, but no bees of course. The first time you enter and the breathless hammering of your heart in your chest. Dwell on the sexual as it is not yet totally atrophied by our progress. We would be looked upon strangely by those in the past who might be busy building a civilization. How to make bricks with no straw they said in Egypt to the Pharaoh before the long walk out and north. I ran my hand along the barrel of the rifle and thought of its pitiless machinery. Leakey crept up on a deer and stabbed it with a knife chipped from stone to show it was possible. The final sport will be throwing stones at stars, super refined with an earth population of fifty billion and the falling stones bringing an anonymous and non-selective death. I turned over in sleeplessness, reached out for an imaginary bottle. Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. Even earth is a she. Millions kissed her daily before it occurred to Raskolnikov as an act of penance. Real grass still grows. That girl you knew in 1956 lasted a year with heroin until she was found in the East River her head nearly severed from the body. Not dooms. Hapless accident walked into if you turn tricks for any habit as my brain shrank with a succession of jobs in pastel offices here and there in cities. If the wanderings were traced on a map I would hope the connecting numbers would spell something but I'm sure they don't. Mouse or ground squirrel outside the tent. God I told you I didn't want a full moon tonight or I wanted it covered. The woman I read about in the Brooks Range, now littered with oil and barrels and derricks, had her howling answered by wolves. Silver light through tent front. I got up into a crouch and loaded the rifle, then crawled out of the tent. No clouds or slightest breeze. Wolfbane blooming in the Carpathians. I sighted on the moon with the rifle uncocked then racked a shell into the chamber, aiming at a gray mottled area on the moon's surface. If I squeezed now I would see blue flame and hear the noise until morning. I gently released the hammer and added a log to the fire, chilled now with only my shorts on. I tested the rifle's length for suicide turning the end of the barrel against my forehead where its cool tip further chilled me. Thinking of how Hemingway in unthinkable pain, mental and physical, picked the shotgun from the cabinet that morning. I smiled to myself. How far again I was from taking my life with the woods covered with the skin of moonlight. The log began to take, a flame shooting up from one side of the bed of hot coals. I squatted close to the fire and then stood and took off my shorts and squatted again as near to the flame as I could bear. I looked down in a vague wonderment—walking around putting that thing in girls. How pleasant. I thought of howling against the improbable chance of getting an answer but then I knew if I howled I would frighten myself. I remembered wrestling with a friend after football practice and a quarrel and getting a chokehold on him, holding it until his face changed color. I was afraid, losing my anger instantly. When we got up he looked at me strangely and we scarcely ever spoke again. Something moved in the brush and trees near the creek and I wished that I had brought along my predator call which is a small wooden whistle-type object that when blown into properly makes the sound of a dying rabbit. A horrid strangling sound, closest to high-pitched child-weeping. A porcupine when mortally wounded makes a similar sound when he falls from the tree. They are vastly overpopulated because their predator, the marten, has been trapped to extinction for its beautiful fur. Hard to get close to one—I've pulled quills from a dog's mouth a number of times. You trim the ends to let air into the hollow quill then twist and jerk. Out comes the barbed quill and a gout of blood, very painful to the dog but they seem to know the process is necessary. I want to draw false conclusions about everything and obvious scientific facts will not change my weak mind and its continuous droning monologue against itself. I left the circle of light the fire cast and walked slowly toward the creek to find the source of the noise. Nothing there—probably moved on when I arose. If I were to live here long enough many of the animals would adjust to my harmless presence. Many frogs along the creek and the raccoons eat them. And are always cleansing themselves as a falcon does to avoid fleas. I went back to the tent and got into my sleeping bag which was cheap and serviceable but useless when the weather turned cooler. Sleeping in a down mummy bag in the Absarokas thinking that a grizzly might tear off my face as one did to those two girls at Glacier. Sleeping on picnic tables in Hastings, Nebraska, and near Brainerd, Minnesota. Better sleeping with that girl who wouldn't sleep when I awoke in the morning and I was a house guest and she was nimbly curious. Only fourteen and I didn't enter but may as well have, when she brought orange juice and coffee. Me with the sheet bound around my feet when she entered the room and the pillow over my eyes, daughter of an acquaintance when I read poems in Wisconsin to a collection of general dimwits, speed and acid freaks and dazed graduate students. She's looking at my lighthouse giggling. How old are you. Fooling around necking. She held it too hard. What if your parents. I never tell them anything they're creeps. Dress so short and when I push it up I bury my face then pull off panties. She's laughing because it tickles. Of course it does and she has too many teeth and I can't hold anything. I'll suffocate here now that she is silent and wriggles hike all her older sisters on earth and then when I finish she is on her hands and knees still squirming. After I wash myself and come back into the room she is on her back, dress still up, looking at the pictures in my billfold, panties around an ankle smiling at me—"That was fun I love to pet." Maybe I wasn't first I didn't ask. We used to say seventeen will get you twenty and meant statutory rape is frowned upon but how can you tell nowadays anyway? Put it there for a moment rubbing it back and forth madly with her legs up as we kiss open mouth and nearly enter the nether place to conclude. Frightened but she wasn't at all, only saying your coffee is cold now I'll get you some more. I love you of course I thought and will return when you're less old enough to be my daughter or were half my age. More fleece. Will you be spoiled and I have spoiled you. John Calvin is back there in my brain and sweating in guilt a dozen times since. I carry a small school photo of her with her small empire curls before her ears and light brown hair. Smooth, brown, strong, she played tennis all the time but her buttocks so white. Should confess to her parents and whisk her to Virginia where that age isn't rare and fuck until my brain is sated and built of honeysuckle flowers which was her scent. First color of dawn now and I can't bother with sleep if I'm going to make my circle.
Reno, Fallon, Austin, Ely. God I took the wrong way with nearly a week to reach Salt Lake City again. I see why they test atomic bombs in this state—if they didn't I would, only in more central locations. Reno a remuda of divorcees. I arrived at noon with three dollars and by one o'clock I had only fifty cents what with the nickel misery of slot machines and an aluminum roast beef sandwich sprayed with tabasco to make it a tabasco aluminum roast beef sandwich. And iced tea in a small foggy plastic glass with a trace of lipstick on it. Whose lips and I wonder who is kissing her now and where precisely. Out on the hot asphalt street a policeman parked at the curb looks at me from an air-conditioned squad car. I mill about close to a tourist family staring in shop windows at cowboy hats and beaded moccasins and turquoise amulets. Through the door of a club I watch a woman working two slot machines at once with a big pile of silver dollars. Probably from Dayton, Ohio, come here for a divorce because marriage hasn't in fifteen marfak years fulfilled her life or widened her horizons. Turning around I see that the squad car is now on the other side of the street and I'm sure now that I'm being watched. His small face and big sunglasses remind me of an enlarged photo of the head of a fly. A fuzz buzz. On the corner in vacant lot there is a mobile glass cage. I walk up to it and smell the cotton candy, caramel corn and hot dogs. I ask a girl in a white uniform for a glass of water and she says, Coke rootbeer orange Pepsi RC Dr Pepper Seven-Up lime cherry cream soda.
—I'll just take a glass of water.
—No water, she says looking a half foot above my head.
—Coke with no ice.
I drink it in three gulps and hand her the cup. She points wordlessly to a garbage pail on my left.
—Water, I ask.
She fills the cup with ice water.
—We can't make a dollar on water.
—Thanks.
I begin to walk away when I hear a "hey you." The cop of course. I sit in his chilled car while he pokes around in my billfold. I explain the theft in San Francisco thus little identification. The radio rasps. Nice cool place to sit. He calls in my name and then we wait for fifteen minutes or so until I am cleared from nameless deeds.
—I'm going to give you a ride.
—That's nice of you.
—Don't get smart.
When we drive away I nod at the pop-stand girl and she waves, smiling.
—Where we going? I ask.
He doesn't answer. He drives with his left hand and keeps his right on his holster. A quick-draw champ no doubt. Matt Dillon and Robert Mitchum in a hundred-thirty-pound sack of kidney beans. If one were interested in martyrdom it would be nice to quietly draw a Beretta out of your pocket and fan him six times in the bread basket where the badge wouldn't deflect the lead. But then he is probably a Methodist and church usher and an Eagle, Moose and Lion with a wife and little eaglets at home who love his steely bravado. At the edge of town he tells me to get out and start walking because hitchhiking is against the law. I stand there while he turns the car around in a swirl of gravel and dust and peels a few yards of rubber on the way back into town. Oh for a bazooka. Or to pull the pin of a grenade as I got out of the car and just as he shifted into second to see and hear the car shatter in an orange explosion. I started walking and with only forty cents after my Coke, at least a hundred degrees of heat and my mouth already dry as the pavement. About two thousand miles from home.
So dumb of me to take 50 on the split instead of 40-95 up through Winnemucca and Elko, the main route. A ride into Fallon for buying some teenagers beer and I wasn't twenty-one myself but evidently looked it. Two cases and a buck for the effort. I walked around Fallon then out the other side standing a few brief minutes until I got a lift to the entrance of a secret air base where two guards stood in the heat with white helmets glinting. I walked down the road a few hundred yards farther and began to wait. The desert around me seemed so immense, hostile, nature at total war with herself and the road such a thin strip of civility through so many measureless miles of sand and umber rock. I've been told there's life out there and the desert owns all these mysteries but they aren't my own and I must have green. I stood there twelve hours with only three or four cars passing, until my bottom lip cracked and I became dizzy from the lack of food and water and though evening had come the air had not cooled. Breathing in a furnace. Holes out there that go down to the center of the earth. I crossed the road and began to walk back toward Fallon and I could not quite feel my teeth or tongue or my hands swinging at my sides. After a few miles I heard a car coming but doubted my senses—earlier in the day the few cars seemed to ride on a cushion of air, a wave of heat. But they stopped. A man and his wife and when I got in they looked at me and she said, Jesus Christ. He gave me a lukewarm can of beer which I drank in a few swallows and then another. No more you need water, his wife said, look at your face. I looked in the rearview mirror and my lips were black and had cracked in three places and the whites of my eyes were shot with blood. Toasted. They let me out and I went into a cafe that was half casino. I drank water until I was swollen after ordering a cup of coffee. The place was nearly empty and a man came over to me while the waitress changed the grounds in the coffee maker. He asked if I had gotten stuck out there and I said yes. Then he said the northern route is best and I answered that I had by now figured that out. I asked him about the telegraph office and when it opened and then went over and made a collect call to Michigan to an old friend. Couldn't call my dad as he usually had less money than I did. I told him I was stuck in Fallon, Nevada, and then to juice it up a bit I told him the police at gun point said I had to be out of here close after dawn and that I only had thirty cents. He giggled and asked if there were any whorehouses in the town and I said yes but not for a man with two bits. He said he would wire two hundred dollars right away and I said make it a hundred fifty. I went back to the counter and had some more water and started talking to the waitress and the owner. She put a hamburger before me and I said I had no money. He waved his arm and said he had heard my call and the bus didn't leave until ten next morning and I could pay him back after I cashed my wire. Three Paiutes entered and bought some wine to go. They were nearly in rags but one had an unblocked Stetson. When the owner got back from selling them the wine he told me a story of how he got out of the army after World War Two and was hitchhiking back home when outside of Topeka he lipped off at two cops and they beat him until he had to have his jaws wired back together in a VA hospital. All this after he had taken part in the Normandy invasion and swept across France and was one of the first to enter Paris. He said he always did want to get back to Paris because he drank himself silly and fucked the thankful French girls until he lost ten pounds. Then he said he always planned to take his antelope rifle, a .270 Weatherby back to Topeka and get both cops in the cross hairs of his four-power Bushnell scope. They would be head shots. But he never got around to it. I left the casino after he told me I could sleep in the park and if the police came to tell them "Bob" had sent me over. Some fine people left, a bond of voyagers no matter how far in the past it was. Funny how many people with tattoos and muscles give you rides. Not afraid of anything. I remembered how with a few friends we had terrified some college students at a bar. It was summer and I was chewing tobacco to try to kick cigarettes and the students were slumming and rather deftly beat us at the pool table. My friend stooped behind the most arrogant one and I pushed him over and spit tobacco in his face then my friend planted a boot in his ribs. We were ashamed after they fled. Bad losers and we were part-time students too only hated it. When we had a few more drinks my friend said he wouldn't have put the boot to him but was trying to kick off his fraternity pin.
I watched the locals leave the second movie—one girl in particular with long blond hair and incredibly tight Levi's. Take me home. The marquee lights went off and a pickup roared down the main street narrowly missing some movie-goers. I walked a few blocks over to the park. Nice with a cool breeze and clumps of cottonwood trees. I hear crickets and cars accelerating from town which is an orange haze. It is moonless. There is a street lamp at the entrance of the park and beer cans all over the ground. I lie back on the picnic table but then am startled from the beginning of sleep by some roaming dogs. Out with the knife. The largest of them, part collie and part shepherd I think, approaches the table snarling. I say, Come boy, in a soft voice and he starts wiggling and wagging his tail. Now four of them are around the table all jumping to be petted. Then a car swerves into the park and the dogs run off. Country music again from the radio and two couples drinking and I'm in their headlights now. A man calls out, Hey kid, what you doing? Sleeping. They laugh and tell me to get out because they're going to have a little party. I get up and walk out of the park as far from their car as possible. No trouble please—so tired that if someone hit me I would put the knife in to the handle. I walk a dozen or so blocks until I reach a school and walk across the green lawn to the bushes that surround it. I crawl into the shrubbery and make myself comfortable watching the same four dogs trot down the middle of the street. My friends. School daze. The girl in those Levi's now or beneath lilacs in a greener country. Take bus the hell out of here and sleep all the way to diesel roar on the back wide seat. Think I can smell chalk dust and cleaning fluid from the building. All schools smell the same, don't they? Hope that there're no rattlesnakes in town like the one I saw crushed on the road covered with flies. Fat with large head. I cut off the stinking rattles and put them in my pocket. Rotten cucumber smell. Won't rattle them now or its brothers and sisters might hear and come in from the desert for a visit. Strange to wake up with a blanket of rattlesnakes. Or a large ball of hibernating rattlesnakes for a pillow as they get in a ball to hibernate in prairie dog holes. Scare people in town when I carried them in for breakfast. Little sleep for four days and my adrenaline glands as large as a baby's head. Girl with Levi's will find me but we'll discover the trousers won't come off and I'll have her between the breasts like the Berkeley librarian in the morning and I could watch each involuntary mindless thrust. I want some fried eggs or a steak. I turned over and faced the street and slept with my blind eye open to the lamp on the corner.
I ate a tin of Argentine beef and kicked some dirt over the coals of the fire. Smokey the Bear is always watching. Canteen full and only a package of raisins and peanuts in my pouch with the fish line. I made another inept attempt at a compass reading—perhaps I would miss the juncture of my circle and be lost all night seven hundred feet from my tent. I was lost at twelve in an impenetrable swamp, my clothes covered with ooze, and then I heard a car on a log road only a few invisible feet away. And how could I be truly lost when there was only a tent to find and it was summer and there was food in the woods and I could make a lean-to out of cedar or birch poles. Being lost somehow presupposes a distant location that you are trying to find, a warm center where a door will open, a screen door at that with a piece of cotton on it to keep off the flies, and into a yellow kitchen where a woman is cooking at the stove. When she turns around you'll be able to tell if it's your mother, wife or mistress. Or some dark lady you haven't met yet who will lead you to another, more evil life. When I set out toward the hills barely visible in the west I had the feeling that I wouldn't make it back to the tent that evening. I was momentarily angry at the wolves—I knew they were out there and they were aware of my presence but had learned through generations not to reveal themselves to anyone who walks upright. I felt peaceful again when I thought of the Arctic wolf that had weighed a hundred ninety pounds, exactly my own weight. How pleasant to have him as a companion walking with you, his back higher than your waist and his head and teeth rubbing and caressing your shoulder. They can be vaguely domesticated but only on their own terms and should be left where they belong. Of course they only knew it weighed that much after they shot it. Heat rising to the head now, a thin red line of anger encircling my vision of the woods ahead of me. I could do less with my life than go to Alaska and shoot down the airplanes from which they shoot the wolves. I think here I have found a worthy cause, a holy war I can adapt myself to—I suppose it would be less significant than taking part in the other horrors but it's something I might do well.
IV
NEW YORK CITY
Midnight now. Only for you Lucia I'll take my wounds from the light. Here in the rain and half asleep. Then from the hill in the first milky light I could see the cars leaving. All the sailors were gone and only one toll booth on each side of the turnpike was open. There was a fine needle mist in the air—it had rained sporadically through the night with some thunder and lightning in the distance dimming the flames of the steel mills, dimming the headlights of the trucks, the arc lights above the booths, brightening the grass and the leaves of the elm under which I lay curled and wet. Late the night before there had been too many hitchhikers, mostly sailors, so I had walked two miles back along an access highway toward Pittsburgh and bought a hamburger and a pint of whiskey. Then back to the hill where I lay in the first drops of rain hoping the May night would stay warm, drinking the whiskey in sips and thinking that for a dollar extra I could have bought a brand that wouldn't burn and stop at the back of my throat before it went down. In the future all amber liquids would be silken and come in crystal decanters and be poured for me by Annabel Lee. When the whiskey was gone I slept then awoke thinking the sailors might be gone but there were still five of them so I went to sleep again to the sounds of crickets, arc lights hissing in the rain, a single whippoorwill somewhere back in the hills behind me, and the huge diesel trucks switching gears a dozen times to reach their running speed.
She had asked me to come in a letter with a single paragraph on stationery that was off-pink and smelled of nasturtiums or skunk cabbage. I suppose violets were intended. I thought about her for several days then hurled my school books off a bridge—I was studying art history and working part time as a carpenter. I had chosen art history because it involved sitting in a large darkened room and looking at slides of paintings and buildings I someday wanted to see. I had saved a thousand dollars two years before to go to France but blew it all on an involved eye operation. Took three years to save the money and the kindly surgeon got it all in three hours for an incredibly unsuccessful hatchet job. Nice that he should get three hundred and thirty-three dollars an hour for knowing all about eyeballs. He considered me pointlessly hostile—no promises had been made. I left on a Friday after I picked up my check which was small because we had been rained out for several days. I tried to borrow enough to take the bus or train but my few friends were broke and the bank asked me what I had to offer as security. On foolish evenings I had planned bank robberies with a friend and I thought when I walked out of that particular bank after being refused I would come back one day and hold it up. Remember me? You wouldn't give me a loan. Blam blam blam blam capitalist pigfucker. Maybe I would simply fire into the floor near his feet. I didn't want to hurt anyone. But so far the trip had been pleasant and the rides easy. I liked the verdant Ohio countryside, the hay dryers giving off their smell of rotting alfalfa. A green, hot smell. Even Pittsburgh looked kindly for a change, a stiff breeze blowing the filth elsewhere. But now hung-up because people always pick up soldiers and sailors first. America first or IMPEACH EARL WARREN, as the signs say outside of Kalamazoo—"Kalamazoo" is Indian for "sneeze" and "stink pot."
At last the fighting boys were out of the way and I walked down the hill and vaulted the Cyclone fence, something I can't do any more along with hopscotching parking meters or chinning myself a hundred times with one arm. My how bodies calcify then rot. Within a few moments I was picked up by a chemical engineer who was very methodic in his questioning. Where was my suitcase? Stolen. Satisfied. What did I do? I worked for a demolition company tearing down old buildings. Hard work? Yes a twelve-pound sledge tends to get heavy. Good pay? Yes four dollars an hour. Then he says the unions are going too far too far too far. How much do you make? None of your business. Oh. Where were all the unions going? I wondered. Then he said if there was a radio in the car we could listen to music or a ball game but it was a company car. I said you should unionize and demand radios. Wise guy, he said. Then he began his life story as if it were obligatory—his rise through the management ranks of a Cincinnati soap factory and about his three children and how property and income taxes were a real pinch. Also a convention he had been to in San Francisco that was a real ball and I mean a real ball with beautiful high-priced prostitutes. You rich guys have all the luck, I said, getting to travel and putting ass on the tab. Golly. But we work hard and have to let off steam and by gosh when it comes down to brass tacks soap means a lot. Very handy to wash with I thought to myself. He sighed and asked if I had many girl friends. I said only one and we were saving ourselves for marriage. I didn't want to get into an aimless sex conversation. I began to doze, the chill going out of my wet clothes which were drying in the sun coming through the windshield. I thought of her in odd ways—she was birdlike thus became a bird, her head jerking and darting as she spoke. Her panties looked heavy with feathers beneath them and her breast was large and single, soft with down. Then soapy said the weather has been rainy in Cincy and sports in general and then we had a long argument on farm parity. I thought of her again and who I would see first and whether I would ask Barbara if the child was mine or skip seeing her altogether. There's a mindless promiscuity girls from Mississippi or Louisiana develop when they get to New York. Need for warmth I suppose after a secure home and good schools and money and all they have left in the city is money and their instinctive charm and aimlessness. He lets me off in Harrisburg even though I know he's going farther. All the jackoff business types and I wish I were that sure of myself. Wanting to know if I took "dope." Of course of course and lots of it. Well, he says, I'm a chemist and it's a scourge. Nice word scourge, I said, but I thought you made soap not dope. I'm management, he says, and work downtown, the factory is on the outskirts. I only waited in Harrisburg a half hour before I caught a ride from a young man with a package of Luckies rolled up in the sleeve of his T-shirt and an eagle tattooed on his forearm. He had the radio turned on too loud for much talk except when the hourly news came on and then he would talk. He was fresh out of the navy and said all the women in Norfolk, Virginia, were clapped up but if you went to Richmond on a weekend pass you could score with a nice country girl. I had never been to Richmond but as we talked I began to believe that I had been there and agreed with everything he said and added my own obscene embellishments. Later that evening when we had reached Staten Island I hoped that someday I might go to Richmond and meet fresh country girls who weren't like the clapped-up fat-ankled hogs in Norfolk.
At Staten Island I caught a cross-island bus and walked to the ferry from town after having a few drinks. The bartender asked if I had been to Florida what with my nice tan and I said no I had been working outdoors where the sun tends to be most of the time. He sagely agreed. I waited about an hour for the ferry in the cavernous terminal, keeping an eye on one group of Negroes who were terribly drunk but laughing, and two pasty-faced sullen young men who glared at everyone with little eyes set in pizza faces. When we boarded I immediately went up the stairs and out to the rail where I watched the dimly lit island recede, and then to the prow where I watched Manhattan slowly draw closer. Such black, black water beneath us. I've little confidence in the ability of any boat to float. How old is this ship sir that I've been on dozens of times with this and that girl? The first time with a girl I was living with and telling her I had seen a real author that day during noon hour: Aldous Huxley standing tall and gaunt and foggy-eyed on the corner of Fifty-seventh and Fifth, with a young girl holding his hand. She was very pretty, the young girl, and I followed them down Fifth until they turned down Fifty-third and went into the Museum of Modern Art to which I didn't have the price of admission. I wanted to overhear their conversation—to see if he said witty things as he did in Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point and all the other books where the young men of my age had souls that were "tenuous membranes." I had fashioned myself on one of those young men during my last year of high school adding a large dose of Stephen Dedalus for a bouquet garni. I only saved myself from being a snot and prig by moving on to an absolute absorption with Whitman, Faulkner, Dostoevsky, Rimbaud, and then Henry Miller who was like a continuous transfusion, food to avoid melancholy. If you're eighteen or nineteen you read for strength more than for pleasure. On a string stretched across my little room I had taped two portraits, one of Rimbaud and the other a yellowish line drawing of Dostoevsky with his high globed forehead containing it seemed all the evils and joys man had ever known, a simultaneous jubilance and doom. But then the primacy was always owned by life herself and if you're a busboy or you're hoeing or bucking hay bales the presentness of the labor overwhelms the loftiness of your reading. To an outsider from the midlands who is broke the first hot pastrami sandwich at a delicatessen is an unbelievable wonder. Why don't they make this sort of food back home? Or the lions in front of the library seemed so magnificent and the idea that I was allowed to wander around the library at will where I saw a manuscript in the handwriting of Keats. Truly a golden city I thought. And the splendor of my first marijuana in a dark corner of the Five Spot where Pepper Adams was playing with Alvin Jones taking thirty-minute drum solos growling and sweating all the way through his blue suit until it turned black. At eighteen I was ill prepared to absorb anything and walked around in a dreamlike stupefaction with the city.
And now two years later on the ferry drawing closer to the Battery the city looked flat and painted, a decal on the horizon, suppurating in filth and cold evil. No promise or future in her. I would get in and out with dispatch after two short visits. Or I would be happy to see her leveled by a giant tidal wave caused by a comet plunging into the Atlantic a few miles off shore, the harbor clogged with dead squid. The water beneath me was dank and smelly—the engines roared in reverse as the ferry nosed into the berth. I'll catch a train to midtown and walk around until dawn. Oddly I've never felt threatened in New York City. Perhaps my innocence while walking around Harlem and Spanish Harlem and the Lower East Side, and of course shabby, anonymous clothing makes you appear a poor mark. Even sitting on a park bench in what I later found out was Needle Park. Talking easily with the whores and junkies, curious to see how they live and think. A friend told me that I was never approached because my googly eye made me look hostile and criminal in itself. How many times have I asked strangers questions to startle them and to watch them look over their right shoulders to see if I'm talking to someone else. Anyway I felt safe. And never hesitated to go where I wanted. In the three times I've lived in the city I've only been involved in two incidents that could be thought of as violent. On the way to a party in Far Rockaway some young hoods were tearing up subway seats with their knives and then after we were well into Brooklyn they pried a door open and brought in some snow from the platform. There were five of us, three girls from Barnard and a friend of mine, a sandal maker from the Village. His girl told one of the creeps not to throw any snow at her which he immediately did just as we reached another stop. We chased them out of the car and down the platform where my friend upended one of them by the hair and I chased the other off the end of the platform where I yelled, I hope you hit the third rail, cocksucker. But he ran across the tracks and climbed a fence. When I got back up the platform the conductor was holding the train and the other creep was sitting on the cement blubbering. My friend stood there waiting for me with a handful of hair he had jerked out when he had stopped the chase. He said he slapped him a few times but that was all. When we got back with the girls, mine told me that I should never do that or I might get stabbed. But then I had seen within a few months the most insane brutality on subways without a conductor or any subway employee ever interfering. The other incident was unpleasant inasmuch as it was my own fault. I was sitting with some people at a bar that was popular with painters. I went to the toilet and a well-dressed man standing next to the urinal said, You queers really like this bar don't you. I hit him full blast in the ear while he was combing his hair then a few more times about the head and shoulders and kneed him in the solar plexus on the way down. I then stomped on his glasses which had fallen to the floor. He sat there looking stupidly at me holding his hands out and said again I was a queer so I stuck his head in the toilet bowl which had something in it and walked out and back to my table. But then he emerged and talked to the bartender who came over and said that I shouldn't have beaten up a regular customer. Then one of the painters said that it was the guy's "bit" to get beat up in toilets. I felt very embarrassed but then they went back to talking about de Kooning and let the subject drop. I've always hated any sort of violence to the extent that I feel vaguely jittery and nauseated when watching a fist fight.
After a few hours of walking in a generally westerly direction I realized how hot it was going to become. The Huron Mountains are on approximately the same latitude as the city of Quebec but when the wind off Lake Superior ceases the summer weather can become dense and unbearable. The year before camped on the pine barrens of the Yellow Dog plains I had spent much of my time lolling in the cool river. The heat was so intense and the forest so baked and dry that a single match would have created a firestorm, an animal Dresden with the fire moving at two hundred miles per hour in great orange leaps, the same speed incidentally as an avalanche moves. Some false conclusions should be drawn from this. Never forget that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. And vice versa. Gourd in her great widowdom creates worlds daily with mathematical verisimilitude. A plowed furrow resembles an open vagina and so on. A rifle is a false prick and a prick is a false rifle, useless if the Nips invade California. I was told only last week that we live in apocalyptical times. Perhaps the "last days." Yes of course, I'm making a caul, a necklace with a pendant built out of a chocolate-covered horse turd to ward off evil. The problem is suffocation by chintz not apocalypse—too many rats in the grain bin and many are becoming enfevered and will die from stress, death of the mind first, the body goes more slowly. I climbed a hill with effort, up through a windfall of poplar and aspen, until I reached the summit and sat down on a moss-covered rock. Nothing but green, encircled by forest and no sign of man visible though they were out there somewhere cutting pulp for the paper mills. Or cutting cedar logs to build cabins for auto workers in Detroit a comfortable six hundred miles south of me. When I caught my wind I headed north down the hill toward a small lake I spotted perhaps three miles distant. Take a dip there and turn east. I noticed that I had forgotten to smoke for several hours and looked down at the cordovan tobacco stains on my fingers and the way my shrinking lungs had to suck in air to feed my heart oxygen. A short fit then as I stomped on a half pack of cigarettes and ground them into the dry leaves. Ugly package. I knelt and scooped a small hole with my fingers and buried it knowing that I would regret the action by the time I reached the lake. I began to feel a total enervation again and thrashed through the woods as fast as I could walk. The anger fed by the thought of a girl trying to guess my birth sign. Fuck horoscopes. But I remembered dreaming of running through a swamp as a centaur, then plunging into a river to wash the mud from my flanks. Also taking the bow from my shoulder and unsheathing an arrow which I shot at a tree for no particular reason. But it's the daily gab and trash of the astrology thing. The alchemists had sense enough to conceal themselves just as the true satanists remain anonymous and work their wonders privately. I said I was a spy thus revealing that I wasn't despite my Luger and Burberry trenchcoat. The black arts including astrology require an apprenticeship and great study from their novitiates. Then you discover that there are no secrets or true mysteries but a Secret, no holy books but the unwritten one hidden from us at earth's center. The dark side of the moon is merely dark and cold and Jupiter and Saturn only distant flecks of brain hurled out before time was. I lost control of my feet and slid down a ferny bank and into the trunk of a tamarack knocking myself windless. I lay there wheezing and soaked with sweat, the local mosquitoes and flies finding me effortlessly. Are you a Pisces? she asks. No, I say, slapping her face with a schmaltz herring swung deftly by the tail. Can I eat your Libra pussy, RSVP? Backscuttle your Scorpio bum? Drive Mr. Powerful down your silly Taurus throat? I rolled over reaching automatically for the cigarettes that wouldn't be there. Maybe I could climb back up the hill and find their little grave. Salvage even one. That will teach me. I could see the sunlight barely reaching through the ferns and the straight, slight stalks. Mary Jane and Sniffles the mouse go down the hole in the stump. Miniaturization by magic sand. No one ever sticks his hand in the dark hole of a stump. A witless naturalist maybe who deserves a bite on the fingers. I thought of the mountain lion bounty hunter I met near Duchesne, Utah. Long greasy hair down over his shoulders and a stained buckskin shirt. While we drove along in his ancient Plymouth he complained that none of the Mormon women would fuck him because they stick to their own kind. When the mountain lion business got slow he would catch two or three burlap bags full of rattlesnakes and sell them to a college in Provo for medical research. Five bucks apiece. We failed to make one mountain grade but a county road truck came along and pushed us over. He said that he usually lived with his brother who was a rancher near Roosevelt but he preferred sleeping outdoors. He could ride seventy-five miles north into Wyoming without seeing a soul. Or south farther than that along the Green River and Tavaputs Plateau. He gave me the address of a girl in Vernal who might just possibly be "nice" to me. But my next ride had been a Catholic priest who let me sit in the car in Vernal while he ate. Trusts me in the car with the keys in his pocket but won't buy me lunch. His voice was highly nasal and he preached to me until it sounded like a duck's voice, either Donald's or Daisy's. But then we became friendly after he bought me dinner and I told him about all the lies Baptists used to spread about Catholics—the tunnel between the nunnery and the monastery with the tunnel floor littered with the bones of babies. He took this very seriously and said we must pray for them. Lying in the ferns I was happy that there were no poisonous snakes this far north. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to wallow around in the leaves with safety or impunity. I finally got up when my sweat had begun to dry and I had eaten some raisins with a slug of warm water. Oh God I'd give a healthy tooth for a cigarette. My hair flopped irritatingly across my eyes and I stopped and took out my knife and cut the front shock off, then made a sweat-band out of my red handkerchief. Natty Bumppo wants tobacco. And a porterhouse and a bottle of Chateau Margaux and a horse to ride back to camp where he would pack, back to the car where the horse would be abandoned and the car driven straight through to New York City to the Algonquin or the Plaza where he would send an underling over to Bonwit's Bill Blass shop with his measurements and get out-fitted for outrageous high-class low-down gluttony and fuckery. Tiresome. I mean fine places and coming down to the Edwardian Room for breakfast, forgetting your tie and having the waiter whip one on you before you could fart or whistle. The rich never forget their ties and my dad tied mine for me until I was nineteen because I simply couldn't get the hang of it. I was walking into a lower, swampier area and knew the lake couldn't be far away now. I skirted the swale for a few hundred yards then plunged in, in despair of finding an open path to the water. I reached a knoll and shimmied up a birch tree from which I spotted the water not far ahead. The birch was too thick to swing from—it's a dangerous sport in that if the tree is a bit too thick your downward swing stops too far in the air and there is no retreat. You have to drop. Be smart to break a leg here and crawl for a week to reach the car. My boyhood hero Jim Bridger would never be caught in such an act but neither would he have entered the Plaza without a tie except perhaps to set a fire or hit somebody. Still some of his kind left. A friend had seen a halfbreed near Timmins, Ontario, portage two miles with four hundred pounds of moose meat on his back. I reached the lake and spotted a sand bar to my left down the shore where I could sit and take off my clothes for a swim.
I went into a bar near the Battery and had my pastrami sandwich and five double bourbons. Health creeping back in the blood stream after last night's chill and discomfort. There were only a few nondescript old men in the place mumbling to themselves—New York has the highest concentration of mumblers per square acre in the world. A Bulova after working for the city until sixty-five and then the mumbling begins. Shirts spittle-flecked from it. The bartender was intently watching the Jack Paar show where a celebrity was lashing out at the phoniness of Hollywood. Yum what wit. I want to go out there someday and take a room and wander around and challenge Esther Williams to a swimming race, three miles into the Pacific with the fate of the world as a prize. A thousand movies have poisoned the mind. James Dean, O James Dean, where are you now? Six feet under Indiana's lid. I'm not like Robert Mitchum in Thunder Road. We didn't get a TV until I was on the verge of leaving home at eighteen. Still don't like it because the screen is so small and the people might be that size if you went into the studio. I asked for a glass of water and popped three bennies. Here we go folks. Out onto the street and toward the subway and the hum beginning.
I got off the train at Sheridan Square and walked down Grove to look at the building I had lived in the year before. Tears of stupidity formed. As they do during the national anthem at a football game. I looked at the Barrymore house and then turned around and went back to the Square where I had coffee at Rikers. A queen next to me with false eyelashes asked for the sugar. Flutter flutter. I felt warmly toward him—why should we care who they fuck and why. All the legislatures with their Robert's Rules of Love. I have it on good authority that there are proportionately more transvestites and flaming rim queens in Congress than in Laredo, Texas; Springfield, Mass.; or Malibu Beach. A sub rosa report filed under "China" at the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the collective wisdom of which organization could varnish a Ming vase with bubbles. Of course singly the members are alpha types but at election time the daisy chain sets in and whirl herself nose picks the unworthy first. Finished my coffee. Three bennies were two too many. If I walk at the speed of light it's my business. I was aiming generally at Sullivan Street where she lived in the squalor she loved and deserved. If she wasn't there I would lick my name on the door and she would never know unless she got there before the saliva dried. Down West Fourth with all that apparel to determine the real you. Opera buffs eating manicotti, breaking into song spontaneously with their mouths full of marinara sauce. Music comes from blood-soaked holes. If I were drafted I'd carry catsup and play dead until they let me go. A girl at the mailbox on Sixth Avenue, led there by her elegant Afghan hound. So beautiful with long legs and high butt and hips. Please be mine and would someone introduce us right now. She walks away with her globes rubbing each other where my nose or hose could be. Wish I could ditch the chemistry and come back to earth. I want to go back home and pound nails into two-by-fours and carry my empty lunch bucket to the car and have Mama say how did it go today. Bad very badly. I hit my thumb twice and very hard. Tore off three fingernails the first day on an irrigation job. A scream across the dry field which the water sprinkled and dispersed in my blood. Finally across Washington Square and to her street. People playing chess in the dark and a dozen studs along the meat rack. To be yodeled for a fee. I bought a sack of pistachios and sat on a bench to collect what was left of my thoughts. When I'm rich I'll hire a Pulitzer winner to do nothing but shuck my pistachios. The rest of the time must be spent in the henhouse clucking. He will not be allowed to touch the eggs.
Up the stairs. Zero hour and not a sensible word forming in my throat. Perhaps a Zen "I'm here because I'm here because I'm here." And then the master will run out of a broom closet and cudgel me to the floor with what is the sound of one flap clapping. Knock. This place smells of the usual cabbage soup. Knock. And fish and Roman Cleanser. A fat girl with puffy eyes opens the door.
—You woke me up.
—Swell. Is Laurie here?
—Who are you?
—Swanson.
—She gets off at three-thirty.
She begins to close the door.
—Wait a minute.
I push past her through a narrow hall and into the arty living room. There is a sofa along the far wall and I sit down then lay back.
The fat girl shrugs her shoulders under her robe and walks into another room. I try to close my eyes but they are gritty. There are books and records and magazines strewn over the floor and theater programs pasted on the wall. And a Moses Soyer painting of a girl whose thighs are askew where they enter her red dress. Larry Rivers print. An imitation Chaim Gross piece on a corner table. Laurie is a counter girl at a big East Side delicatessen catering to the rich Temple Emanu-El crowd. I met her the first time I came east when I intended to go to Washington and had a letter recommending my character from a prominent businessman to a Congressman. But I got sidetracked in Philadelphia and pawned my high school graduation Wittnauer watch and came to New York City. The room grows dimmer, my nerves die a little, my body softening into the couch. Fatty puts a record on in the next room—low and sweet and Latin and I see Mexicans and am back in San Jose covered with palm fronds. Standing then in the hot asphalt parking lot of the bus station. Palm trees with naked trunks like elephant hide and pineapples. Eating tripe stew, menudo, I love to eat menudo with the kernels of hominy and red peppers.
Laurie wakens me. I know I've slept only a short time but my neck aches from the cramped couch. She is a trifle thinner and her freckles don't seem to show as much. She smells of tongue and pastrami.
—What are you doing here?
She speaks softly, her voice always sounded like a child's, a baby-oil voice.
—I was resting. I take her arm and move over so she can sit on the couch next to me.
—Did you get married? she asks.
—I just hitched in. Took me four days.
—Let me change my clothes. She walks over to a rickety wardrobe and takes out jeans and a sweater. I feel sleep coming on again but then her white uniform drops to the floor.
She stoops and picks it up. Oh my God.
—Why don't you come here a minute?
She turns and smiles and walks over to me in her panties and bra. How lovely her belly. She stretches out along my side and we kiss and don't stop kissing while I undo my belt and push down my trousers and her panties and take off her bra and rip my shirt off, my hands against her breasts. Then she sits up and grinds it in and smiles at me again and then leans down and we kiss until we are finished. I am overwhelmed with love for her. I've never felt distant after making love to her because I loved her. We talked pointlessly about what had gone wrong before. Me. I hated New York City and I slapped her one day. And I met her parents who hated me and wouldn't speak—I wasn't Jewish. I kissed her neck and she slid down my belly and aroused me a second time with her mouth. I kicked off my boots and trousers and entered a second time rocking slowly with her heels in my back and kissing again. Then I slept.
I sat on the sand bar and smoked an imaginary cigarette. It must be seventy-seven degrees and I stood and shed my clothes and did a little circular toe dance on the sand. Dum dum dum dum I'm a thirty-two-year-old Indian and nature herself sees my berserk bare ass and doesn't care. Enough of a breeze to keep the bugs away. I walked out into the cold water with an involuntary shudder. Like peeing outdoors on a cold day. A Cheyenne Indian at that because they had the finest country to live in, Montana for a few thousand years before it was Montana. I let go with a long Cheyenne shriek and dove into the water swimming under it with eyes open to the blurred bottom. I popped up and looked back to shore, not bad. When we were twelve we swam around our lake twice without parental knowledge or consent and it took nine hours. He said to her, "Do the backstroke." Bad thing though to put the firecracker in the frog's mouth. Where did the frog go? Everywhere and in pieces.
I swam idly out into the middle of the lake and looked down at the black invisible bottom and wished there were a sea creature to struggle with. When I swam back to shore I got a cramp in my left calf and let the leg trail slackly. Lay back on the sand with my head on my clothes and massaged the muscle until the cramp disappeared. Peter will get sunburned a bit. I raised myself by skull and heels. Where's my squaw now that I may diddle her? Pocahontas and her splendid cartwheels. It's a matter of contention now who got fucked over the most, the blacks brought here as slaves or the Indians who were totally dispossessed. Sand Creek. Harper's Ferry. Like asking who in a war was murdered the "deadest." Tell those who pass by I lie here, my skull's mouth open in perpetual curse. All coming true and without romance. Why can't they learn to be nice boys and girls? Blankets purposely infected with smallpox, rapine, marches, slaughter, greed, and a hundred million pelts shipped back east. Those Paiutes let me off then turned left onto a gravel road which went thirty miles into the desert where they lived in metal government surplus Quonset huts. Had a tendency to stay hot in summer and cold in winter. We passed a bottle, laughing at a song on the radio sung by a champagne lady. Car filthy and heated smell of exhaust fumes and raven black hair. I wrote my first name on my stomach with a handful of sand. A low-flying plane will read it and be alarmed. The dark orphaned prince is on the loose again. Lock up the women and children. Form a posse. Like Cleaver he is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. I rolled over in the sand then rolled like a log into the water and drank some. Delicious. A spring-fed lake. Wish my dad were here, bringing fly rods to see if there were trout. He would emerge from the woods in the hunting clothes he left in on that November morning. And my sister farther back in the woods could pick flowers and then some mushrooms to eat with the trout. Seven years ago. I wouldn't tell anyone they were still alive. Or that they could walk on the water and over the tops of trees in long floating strides. Or Dolly Parton, my favorite since Patsy Cline died with Cowboy Copas in the plane crash, sings, Daddy come and get me, it's not my mind that's broken it's my heart. The point is that she's love crazed and is in an asylum. Meaulnes never found the girl again and when Heathcliff dug up Cathy it was cold necromancy. Still chills me to think of it or when the mastiff bit her lovely leg. I paddled over to a patch of reeds and looked at their stalks and roots under the water.
When I wake up this time I'm trembling. Poisons in the body. Laurie comes into the room and hands me a cup of coffee. Then she walks over to a desk and intently rolls a joint tapping some crumbled hash in it, wasteful way to use hash but nice. She lights the joint and hands it to me.
—It's all yours. I had some while you were asleep.
I drew heavily and choked holding the sweet smoke as long as possible, exhaled and then drew again. Finally down to the nubbin and I chewed the bitter resinous roach. Now I am way up in the air but nicely this time. I get up and go into the toilet and wash my distant face and hands which don't belong to me and look at my red eyes in the mirror. And my chest—my tits could be mistaken for baboon eyes I think and my belly button goes through to the other side. When I come back the fat girl is talking to a young man with a stringy yellow beard which should be torn off immediately. Creep clergy out of Chaucer. They look at me, I'm naked, and disappear. I glance down at my worn-out cock and it appears to have been recently tied on. Laurie begins talking of the past year and I don't hear much of what she says. I drink coffee from the stained plastic cup and watch it run down the pipe into my stomach where it makes a small black lake.
—What have you been doing?
—What?
—What have you been doing?
—Nothing. The usual.
—Oh.
Then she began talking of an affair with a painter and that it took a few weeks to get used to the way someone else made love. And a man tried to attack her in the subway but when his pants dropped she pushed him over. Almost a nervous breakdown and now she carries a long hatpin to discourage such people. And remember how we used to carry the mattress up to the roof on Grove and roll a bomber and ball to the street sounds and soot settling on us if we stayed too long. I remember how the roof was coarse to my bare feet. I could feel it now like walking up a warm plank in bare feet or scratching a blackboard with my fingernails. She was sitting next to me now crying and sniffling and talking in a choked voice about how I should stay this time and it would be much better than before.
—You got anything to eat? I asked.
She was startled by the obtusity of my question and shook her head. I said I would go out and get some Chinese food and I dressed quickly putting on my boots without socks. Buttons gone on my shirt, three left.
—You'll be back?
—Of course, don't be stupid.
She followed me to the door and kissed me. I walked out without looking back and by the time I hit the street I knew I wouldn't return. I wandered around looking for an uptown train. On a corner three junior delinquents lean against a mailbox and nudge each other as I approach. My body seems to tighten though I'm still floating from the hash and I put my right hand in my pocket and cradle the knife. When I pass one of them spits and narrowly misses my boots. I walk on waiting for any footsteps. Be strange to catch three of them with one wide swipe. But then I might get it too and I could almost feel the stitch of pain in my side that a knife or zip gun would make.
Now up in the East Seventies where everything is sweet and safe. The first door was open but the second was locked. I look at the names. Number 24. I press the button. A walled city.
—Yes? from the speaker.
—It's me.
The door buzzes and clicks. The lobby is marbled and smells of precisely nothing. Two tricycles in a corner for fun. I press another button and hear the self-service elevator sliding down toward me and cables rattling. Near dawn now and not very many birds singing. Up in the pastel cage with a mirror in the corner to see if a rapist is crouched drooling. Go away bad man. Your dingle dangle is not wanted. Elevator stops. She's standing by her apartment door smoking a cigarette. Well. We embrace but my eyes are open and I watch her outstretched hand keeping the cigarette away from us. Then we break away and go into the apartment. She looks at me closely.
—You're stoned and you smell.
—Nice place you got here. Raise in the allowance?
—Yes but they don't want me back if I bring the baby.
—I want to see it.
I follow her through the bedroom into a smaller adjoining bedroom thinking the apartment must cost at least three hundred a month or perhaps more. My dad's house payments were only sixty-six dollars. There is a crib in the corner and other baby accouterments and that strange generalized sweet smell that a baby creates in what surrounds "it." I hear breathing but I don't really see the child. Vague outline of a little head.
—Is it mine?
She lights another cigarette and we move quietly back into the living room. Her robe is a beautiful yellow pattern and the carpet is thick and very soft and I feel weightless. We sit down and look at each other.
—I guess I don't know. My parents think it is.
—How many possibilities are there?
—None of your business.
Her face becomes flushed and she looks at the ceiling. The room is at a dead stop.
—Can I have a drink?
She pours me some bourbon with an inch of water on top and no ice like I used to drink it. She begins talking about her problems getting help to clean and stay with the child and cook dinner. There's an extra bedroom but nobody will "live in." I feel very concerned and attentive and drink the bourbon in a few swallows. More chemicals and my body is shredding itself in fatigue for beef jerky. She's still looking at the ceiling and now talking about how much she loves the baby and about her parents' last visit and how she might move to San Francisco and find some sort of career. The robe is parted to her knee and despite the action with Laurie I'm beginning to warm up. I walk over to her and lean down and kiss her throat. Salt and perfume.
—You should sleep.
She stands up and leads me into the spare bedroom. I take off my clothes and she tells me to take a shower or I might permanently harm the room. In the shower I nearly fall asleep in the rain of steaming water. Back in the room she watches as I dry myself and get into bed where I fall instantly asleep.
When I got out of the water I could see by the shadows the sun cast that I was well behind my schedule, the intended circle only half completed. If I began jogging now I would be lucky to reach my camp before dark. Then I ate the rest of my raisins and thought how totally unimportant the problem was; true wilderness might destroy me within a month if I committed such fuckups. The only points in my favor were nonchalance and reasonably good health but I had none of the constant wariness owned by all good woodsmen. A case here where God doesn't love fools and drunks. Or care if they make feed and fertilizer for the beasts. At the far end of the lake I saw a flash of a black animal. Harmless black bear that didn't catch my scent until he reached the lake's edge. I simply didn't have the functional intelligence of the explorer, the voyager and had only met a few people who were unilaterally stable in the wilderness. You have to know a great deal about food and shelter and the stalking of game and many of the aspects of this knowledge come only through astute, almost instinctive openness to your surroundings. In Montana I nearly walked off a cliff dreaming of the peculiar flat shape of a whore's ass. Too much muscle like a ballerina. Next time I go back I'll pick a different one and then before my feet a thousand-foot gorge of nothing. What roots do I eat? What does my body live on after I use up the twenty pounds of fat around my belly? Spare tire as they say. I imagined myself crawling around in hunger and in a snarling rage attacking a sick old opossum and losing the fight. Paws and face badly bitten by it. I cast out my sinker and line hoping that my swimming hadn't driven all of the fish to the other end of the lake. Then I went back into the swamp and began to gather as much firewood as possible for what I knew would be a long uncomfortable night.
Barbara woke me up with tomato juice and coffee and two aspirin which she felt with accuracy that I might need. Late afternoon and a rusty spike driven into each temple.
—Bring me a drink.
—No. Eat something first.
—No. The water.
She brought me a glass of ice water and sat down on the edge of the bed. I put my pillow over my face and started moaning. I needed chemicals.
—Shut up. The maid's still here.
An old Negro woman poked her head in the door and said the baby was asleep and that she was leaving. Barbara left and I turned over and listened to my brain cry and rub and creak. My stomach was bilious and I could still taste a mixture of hash and bourbon in my throat. I got up and brushed my teeth and noticed that my skin had a yellowish cast. Back in bed I wanted the bed to be my own and I peeked out beneath the pillow to make sure again where I was. O God I'll never put anything in my mouth again except food and water. In painful dark. Squeeze the eyes and see stars and red dots and little filaments free-float in vitreous humor. Blind eye sees more interesting things when closed tight or can turn around and paint on the back of the skull. I heard the door open again and lifted the pillow. She handed me an eggnog.
—I'll buy you a plane ticket.
—Oh fuck off.
—I don't want you to stay here. I can't stand it.
—I'm not. Cramp your gentlemen to have me sneaking around.
—Shut up.
—You already said that today.
She looked like she was going to cry so I turned over andasked her to rub my back. She went into the bathroom and got some lotion and began a long slow massage of my lower back and shoulders. We used to massage each other and pretend we had no sexual intentions until a moment would arrive and we could no longer bear to wait.
—You can sit on my head if you want.
—No.
—Why?
—I don't know. I don't feel like it.
—Please.
—Why should I?
—Because you like to be licked.
—You have a filthy mouth.
—Then blow me.
—Can't you be nice?
—It would be nice of you to blow me. My head hurts.
She got up from the edge of the bed and went to the windows and drew the shades. I could hear the rush hour, the cross-town traffic. Home for dinner in scab city after a day of boredom and paper burns. Bob lick these envelopes and fill the water cooler with ink. Yes sir. She knelt beside the bed and drew back the sheet. My toes are going to curl and do at the first wet heat and nudge of tongue and teeth. Farther please and I like the warm noise. A finger where it ought to be and thumb twitching. Please get up on the bed and I'll do you. Muffled no. Say Patrice Lumumba or Robert Ruark like the old joke. Wordless. I watch then as best I can in the dim light but can't hold it long. Vision makes me explode. She goes into the bathroom and I hear water running, my hangover considerably diminished, and the pillow back over my face in perfect, soft darkness. Barbara comes back into the room, turns on the light and smiles. I feel the ache I often felt the year before. She's lovely, winsome, demure, and her brain is a shabby, torpid mess; enough money goes to her analyst per week to support someone handsomely. And her diffidence about who she gave her body to not so much that it hurt her but that it abraded my vaguely Calvinist center. She said she would stop if we married but that many of them were merely old friends from Atlanta. And she couldn't deny them because they were so sweet and had been her friends so long. She came to the bed and asked me what I wanted for dinner. I couldn't think about food or going home or anything else. I took her wrist and drew her down toward me; she resisted.
—No.
—Why?
I forced her onto the bed. I thought that I only wanted to see her body one last time but I knew it was a lie—I wanted revenge for being cuckolded, for the sheer exhausting hours of jealousy.
—Will you take them off?
She stood and quickly took off her skirt and sweater then walked toward the lamp in her undergarments. The panties were a pale blue.
—No. Don't turn it off.
She stopped with her hands on her hips and then turned and walked back to the bed with her head down. I knew she was beginning to cry. I got up and took off her bra very deliberately and then kneeled and pulled down her panties. She was standing very stiffly and wouldn't move her feet so I tore the panties in half while I was kneeling there. I kissed her with my hands on her hips—her sex tasted deliciously of the violet bath salts she always used. Then I kissed and licked her in every position I could think of for I don't know how long. She finally relaxed but said nothing. She acted like the ballerina I had seen in the movie of Tales of Hoffmann. I put her on her hands and knees and kissed then entered her with force watching myself, her smooth buttocks and my hands against their whiteness, and her lovely back. I withdrew and slowly entered her anally which I knew she despised. She was crying and I began to lose heart. I sat back on my heels and she collapsed onto her side. We looked at each other for several moments and then she held out her arms to me.
I lay there listening to her in the bathroom again and I felt so generally melancholy that I couldn't swallow. She passed through the room in her yellow robe without looking at me. I got up and dressed and lit a cigarette and looked out the blinds at the street below. A French restaurant across the street and people getting dropped at the curb; a nasty place where I would be seated in a toilet stall and the food heaved over the top. We ate there with her parents and they were gentle and kind to me without condescension. Surprised me as her father was a broker in Atlanta and apparently didn't have to work. But they probably knew that she had been sleeping with blacks and I appeared as a perhaps obvious improvement. They seemed sad but then she was their only child and I supposed at the time that no matter how much money and power you have your children will bring you to grief over and over. My own parents were poor and I managed nicely to make them unhappy. Her father asked me what I was going to do with my life. Or do without it, I thought at the time, because we were on our fourth bottle of wine and had guzzled several martinis before dinner in the first nervousness of meeting. I announced that I planned a career in the United Nations. It simply came out of my mouth and the three of them looked at me strangely. Her father said that the UN would provide an interesting if not very profitable career while I ate a chocolate mousse with a fork which I bit uncontrollably with each mouthful. I wanted to tell them that their daughter had bought me the sport coat I was wearing that morning at Tripler's. I stood outside the store and waited for her. And I didn't have the guts to tell them I intended to write an epic parable on the decline of the West not to speak of the North and South, in fact the whole fucking world. Her mother was unspeakably elegant and showed no sign of the amount she had to drink. We parted affably outside after Barbara arranged to shop with her mother the next day and off they went to the Pierre while we went back to the apartment and dog-fucked in front of the hall mirror. The United Nations indeed and she asked me to give a sample speech. I pretended I was a giant and my cock was a microphone and I gave a speech about what the world needed was desegregated toilets. Never mind food. That would come naturally afterwards.
I went into the kitchen where we ate some scrambled eggs and bacon. We talked idly for a while then I went into the living room and picked up my jacket. At the door we kissed and she asked me to accept sixty dollars to fly home instead of hitchhike. I looked down at the three twenties and kissed her again with the choking sensation returning. I wanted to tell her that I still loved her but it was assumed and pointless. She walked me to the elevator and my last look was her yellow robe between the doors as they slid toward each other.
Enough wood gathered to keep a fire going all night and I wished that I had brought a sweatshirt along. I tore off dead twigs and branches from a pine tree for kindling. I had at least two more hours of daylight but I wanted to be completely ready. The moon was already over the tops of the trees at the far end of the lake and I could see through her as if she were a disc of tracing paper. My trotline moved and I grabbed for it but there was no pull at the end so I drew in the line and rebaited. Something out there hopefully not a minnow. I watched the line carefully—the prospect of sitting up all night on a totally empty stomach appalled me. Heard that lily pad roots were good food but the evening was cooling and I didn't want to go back in the water. I would spend the night watching the moon bury herself in the water and wish I were elsewhere, even on the moon in a space vehicle while she buried herself in the lake. Drowned on the waterless moon. I started the kindling and slowly added sticks and rotten but dry stump slabs until the fire roared and then I pushed on a huge piece of driftwood which I knew would burn all night. I began to think of venison chops and then a saddle of venison I had eaten at Lüchow's. Nearly destroyed the meal with their swarm of minstrels. I had hoped the huge Christmas tree would fall over on them. The line moved again but this time the hook caught and I had a small brook trout. It would take ten of them to make a decent meal but I took a green stick and shoved its pointed end through the trout lengthwise and began roasting it. Very clumsy and if I had taken some foil I would eat finely steamed rather than scorched fish. And if I had salt with me I would have eaten the fish raw; I had done so a number of times with a little vinegar and salt after the experience of eating in a Japanese restaurant. The herring we always ate on Saturdays and Sundays were raw in their soup of brine. My father ate sandwiches made of the roe with raw onion, and my grandfather would often eat fried salt herring for breakfast. Strange how he lived to eighty-eight eating so much fried pork and side pork too, which is unsmoked bacon. And his cheek always filled with tobacco and steady quantities of cheap whiskey neat. A neighbor went blind over a bad batch of the homemade but then he already had a metal plate in his head from World War Two. Not much mourned—we suspected him of poisoning dogs and exposing himself to school children and screwing his Guernsey calves. I never had an urge for animals but I've read that it's not unusual. Urp. A nice sow. Pigs are so frantic and the boar shudders convulsively, kicking his pink legs when he's all done. A chunk of smoked ham would be nice now, chewing on it without cooking and snarling into the dark beyond the fire. Mine mine mine. My pigmeat. I've always liked pigs and wish the radicals would call cops sheep or zebra or robin redbreast. The first robin means a snowstorm within twenty-four hours. I eat my tiny fish even though it is only partially cooked. Take a caravan out for salt for Christ's sake. I move further back from the fire and lie down on the bed of ferns I'd gathered to protect myself from ground moisture. I want my sleeping bag and my rifle because I'm afraid of the dark and the moon is still almost full. Or maybe the Vogue model will walk out of the swamp and coolly ask where the hell she is. She'll think I'm a dark, incredibly romantic savage and we'll play wood nymph. A short doze then awake to some noise back in the brush, my knife open and outstretched before I'm fully conscious. No noise. I need a bodyguard. My body is sore and covered with bug bites and I need lotion and cigarettes and a night light. I stood up and stretched and checked my line again. The moon had moved fifteen feet and was under water again. This time I had a larger trout and cooked and devoured it with great haste. A plate of pasta with a garlic sauce and grated aged romano please. Not cool fish flesh tasting of smoke. I stirred my big driftwood log and propped it with another log to give it more air. I did a little dance around the fire and howled as loudly as I could. I howled and howled until I felt sure that all beasts in my area were adequately warned. Couldn't do this in New York City or the zebras would say we better haul this fucking howler up to Bellevue. Visited Cindy Blank (must protect her identity) after she had overdosed on downers. Seems she didn't want to live any longer which I understood. She was brilliant but very homely and kept trying to change her life style in order to get a permanent lover. I told her that when she got out I would make love to her for seven days and seven nights but I could only muster a single trip. I'm very selective and must have a Beatrice or a Juilet. Throw in an Anouk Aimee. I curled up again on my ferns in love with the warmth of fire.
I had a small room on Valentine Avenue in the Bronx for a few weeks—I was eighteen and had moved to New York City to live forever away from the vulgarities of the Midwest. It took only a few days for me to realize that the Bronx wasn't exactly the center of cosmopolitan activity. I only stuck out those few weeks because I lived three blocks from Edgar Allan Poe's cottage where he had lived with his thirteen-year-old bride. Besides I didn't have any money to move and I was waiting for a delayed pay check for some construction work in Michigan. And so I waited and it was July and miserably hot and I took the D train to Manhattan several times but no one would hire me because I didn't know how to do anything. The room was about seven by ten with a single chair, a dresser and an uncomfortable bed. The window looked out into an alley and another row of tenements precisely like my own. My food allotment was only a dollar a day and after I bought a quart of Rheingold which I would drink quickly for a buzz I had only enough money for a sandwich. I lost weight at an alarming speed even though I spent most of my days lying in bed and sweating or walking over to the Botanical Gardens. Sex and power fantasies—King of the State, then the country, then the world. Or to be simply a financier like the one I had seen in a limousine on Wall Street talking on a phone in the back seat, giving no doubt global instructions before he returned to his penthouse to fuck a beautiful girl many years his junior. Sold my high school graduation suit for five dollars and pawned my watch in Philadelphia. I once had an honest-to-God pen pal in Davenport, Tasmania; we exchanged small photos and she was fairly pretty. I wanted her to be with me on Valentine Avenue but we had been out of touch for several years and Tasmania is further away than Mongolia where old men hunt wolves using golden eagles as falcons. I spent a lot of time with the lights out trying to get a peek at a naked woman across the alley but everyone's shades were drawn and most of the women I had seen on the streets I didn't want to see naked. I created varied lives for myself to take place in Argentina or Florence or, and this was the best one, Thessalonica, though I knew nothing of the place but was attracted by the name. I would have tended goats or sheep or juniper trees or spent ten hours a day casting out nets and drawing them in laden with the fruits of the sea. Fish are unmistakable and if you fish all day your continuous sanity is assured. Or even in northern Michigan for which I felt the acute pain of homesickness: I would have dogs and cats and horses and children in a big dilapidated farmhouse. I would have a yard covered with tangled laurel and lilacs and quince and flowering almond but behind the house the ground would be scratched bare by the chickens. I would like a barn with a fat rich manure pile and cows and near the manure pile the grass would be a richer and darker green. Some of the boards on the barn would be rotten and the red paint would be faded flaking off in small red bits at touch. There would be a small orchard which I would prune each February and I would prune my grapes back late in the fall, each brown corded vine being limited to seven shoots for maximum health. In the orchard there would be goldenrod and Queen Anne's lace and brake which smells like thyme. Next to the granary there would be a small pigpen because I like to watch pigs eat, the way their powerful jaws strip the kernels from a hardened ear of corn and chew the corn with crunching smacking noises: they root in the mud and when their snouts get covered with mud they blow out their noses to loosen the mud clogged there. My wife would be a buxom hundred and sixty-six pounds and laugh all the time. I would be lazy and giggle much of the day and night and only cut enough hay for the horses, plant a few acres of oats and few acres of corn for the hogs, plant a small garden which my wife would tend—sweet corn, string beans, peas, tomatoes, radishes, potatoes, cucumbers, leaf lettuce, cabbage and some turnips. I would spend most of my time walking around smelling the lilacs and watching the swallows swoop, drift and float and flutter around in the barn, ride my horse around the edge of a lake always in about a foot of water so the horse could bury his feet in the cool mud. I would watch the nests of birds and when I walked through the woods among the ferns and wet matted leaves the scream of a blue jay would follow me and I would wade knee deep in cedar swamps and watch the water snakes glide and wiggle over the green skin of algae. There would be a single cow for milk and each fall a hog would be slaughtered and most of it hickory-smoked by a neighbor. And fifty gallons of apple wine: to the juice in a wooden charcoal-lined barrel add twenty-five pounds of sugar and five pounds of raisins. Wait three months and drink in large quantities. Very nice but such dreams are long ago. Speaks of softness, is dulcet and umbrous and I'm suffocating in geometry. Soft ripe grapes, sweet scent of rotting pine on the bottom of the wood pile, soft yellow belly of the garter snake, the flank of a horse sweating and corseted with muscle, the green moss wavering in the current of a creek and the sound of ten million bees in the lilacs and in the field of flowering buckwheat across the fence. Though I know this life I always leave it and where do I live when I leave home over and over on small and brutally stupid voyages.
I spoke to the landlord daily and he reminded me that I had "kitchen privileges" but I had nothing to cook, didn't know how to cook and had no utensils to cook with. He was Italian but most of the tenants were Jews. He warned me of the Irish girl next door who though only fifteen had showed him her breasts when he painted the apartment. He giggled and told me to tell no one. With whom would I share this secret? I told him that I had got a note from one of the occupants saying that I had used his frying pan and if I did so again I would be sorry. I collected a handful of dead roaches and went into the kitchen and sprinkled them in his frying pan. The common toilet is always unoccupied and I suspected that most of the tenants, at least the ones I saw, were too old to use it. I felt that they had ceased to function as complicated biological organisms and that they were aged dolls. If they tripped and fell on the sidewalk they would break revealing either cotton stuffing or a rubberish-smelling dust. I was enfeebled too. At absolute zero where the body is likely to crystallize and shatter. Flakes of bowels and iced splinters of throat. I thought I could descend no further and had the constant image in mind that I was pelagic and would one day soon rise up through the water from the depths at tremendous speed disemboweling whales or sharks or any other creature that blocked my inevitable ascent.
During my third week my luck changed a trifle. A woman down the hall asked me to take care of her child for several evenings and to take her over to the park in the morning so that the woman could sleep. She was blond and frowsy and chain-smoked. She called me "kid" which vaguely offended me but the baby-sitting money allowed me to eat better and wander around Manhattan during the summer afternoons. The child was a little girl of three named Sharon and was easy to care for. It took me several days to realize that her mother was turning tricks rather than acting as a hostess in a restaurant. One night she returned late and very drunk and offered to lay me for ten bucks. I tried to explain that I didn't have ten dollars to spend but she kept on saying blearily, "What are you, queer?" until I walked down the hall to my room. I lay in bed depressed at being called a queer but wishing I had the money to go back down and bang her. I had seen her nearly nude several times when I would pick up Sharon in the morning to take her to the park. She would unlock the door and flop back into bed while I gave the child some cereal and dressed her. By the time we would leave the apartment, perhaps within fifteen minutes, Carla would be snoring. One especially hot morning I studied her pink dimpled ass from a range of three feet while Sharon ate breakfast. Too many puckers on it. How many men have plumbed there for how much money. I carried Sharon piggy-back to the gardens pondering the dimples and patch I had seen. We found a deserted well-shaded place which was easy on weekdays, almost like not being in New York. It was beginning to get hot and I was already hotter than a two-peckered goat as my dad used to say from seeing Carla's ass. I dozed on the blanket while Sharon picked dandelions; she picked them until the blanket was covered and her hands were yellow from yellow stains. Rub them under your nose and see if you eat butter. Down the hill on a sidewalk a girl was pulling a small boy in a red wagon. She turned onto the grass and started to pull up the hill but she had sneakers on and her feet kept slipping on the grass. Sharon was near them so I walked down to get her out of the way. When I reached them I saw that the girl was pretty and that she wouldn't make it up the hill without dropping from exhaustion so I grabbed the handle and pulled the wagon, nearly running, up to the shade tree where our blanket lay covered with dandelions. She kept saying no, no, no as I ran and I turned around to bawl the kid out when I saw that his legs were withered and short, protruding weakly from his hips. He smiled at me and shrugged. I was embarrassed and turned to her to apologize but she smiled too so we sat and talked and shared a Coke I had brought along. Sharon began filling the wagon with the dandelions from the blanket and the little boy said thank you with each new handful.
Cold fog. Awake and damp and cold. The fire was nearly out, faintly smoldering and hissing, the log devoured. I heard a loon, the cry muffled by the fog from the far end of the lake. I was curled and shivering but accepted the loon as a good omen for the day. I got up and then noticed three deer at the lake's edge not a hundred yards away. We stared at each other for a moment and then they disappeared soundlessly into the brush. I threw some kindling and sticks onto what was left of the fire and then hopped around to get warm. Get your knees higher, said the coach. When my blood warmed up I checked my line. Nothing. No breakfast for the poor wayfaring stranger. Shit. The Indian needs food for his hike back to the tent at least ten miles to the southeast. I felt giddy from hunger, a slight headache just above the eyes. Oh for a cigarette. When I got back to camp I intended to smoke ten in a row until I fell into a terminal fit of coughing and nicotine poisoning. Trade many dollars and shoes and shirt for tobacco. I took off my shirt and waved it over the fire to dry and stood close enough to nearly scorch my pants. Then I scooped sand over the fire to make sure it was out and set off for my long, hungry walk back to the tent. First a hot pan of refried beans into which I would dump a tin of beef and chop some onion over the whole mess and pig it down in minutes. I reached the edge of the swamp where I had entered the day before and took a compass reading. I trotted the first mile with my pantlegs wet and flapping from the dew and my lungs heaving for air. I had stupidly forgotten to fill my canteen before leaving the lake and was already thirsty from exertion. Short prayer for a creek and a permanently healed brain.
Luck changed—the check came and also an odd-looking package from a friend in New Orleans. I opened it to find only a pack of Cajun cigarettes but then upon opening them I found that I was the proud owner of twenty round, fully packed fat joints. I sat in my room and smoked one lazily and looked at the check which was for nearly a hundred dollars. Moving money. I went downtown immediately with a tremendously aerated brain—my first D train while absolutely stoned. Naturally took a lot longer. I found the room on Grove Street with no difficulty, first looking at a larger room on Macdougal which was too expensive but strangely the place I would end up with Barbara six months later. I paid for the room for a month in advance before I could blow the money, then went back up to Valentine Avenue to get my belongings. Rush hour and packed in like an anchovy tight against a skinny man face to face who peered fixedly over my shoulder. Jesus how terrible to ride this thing every day and I don't understand anyone who would put up with such punishment. I stopped at a place on the Grand Concourse and ate an enormous meal, my first in weeks—some kind of strange Jewish flank steak and some barley soaked with beef juices and garlic and strawberries with sour cream. These bastards knew how to cook—back in Michigan you have a choice of cheeseburgers or chicken fried in rancid batter. When I got back to the room I packed hurriedly stuffing everything in my large cardboard box and binding it with clothesline. I felt terribly sad for a moment—my father standing with me on the platform of the Greyhound bus station and my kissing him on the forehead to say goodbye. When I finished packing I treated myself to another joint which I smoked all the way down to a very small roach, popping it in my mouth with a glass of water. No matter the wild hum, whiskey's still my medicine. Can't help it. A little rest and dreams of my new room and Europe. I lay back on the bed and desperately wanted back the grand I blew on the operation. Take a boat. Too stoned now to do anything but lie back in this rank heat. Cross the big water for the first time for anyone in my family since Grandpa came over from Goteborg in 1892. When they reached the basement of the ghost ship they passed through the galley where tall thin Negroes in red stovepipe hats were boiling tripe for fifth class passengers. Much of the tripe seemed to be slipping off the formica counters onto the bloody and onionskin-strewn cement floor. The bottom of a ship shouldn't be cement? The steward paused long enough to strike the handsomest cook lightly across the neck with a handful of chits. They gazed at each other soulfully and the cook said, "De often dat gar bis bis," in a heavy Cruzán accent, his face shiny with tripe steam. What did he say? I wondered. But the steward was far ahead with his flashlight beam in the dark corridor. Led into the dark room then the steward said, "Everything A-OK?" Found a cot and listened to the choke and bark of the engines above me, the steady hummer-booger-rak hummer-booger-rak-rak of the pistons in the night, or day, who knew? Then morning, a dim light from the hall under the door. Water rushing past the closed porthole. Below waterline. The cabin was four by six and the light switch was on the floor under the cot. Another cot next to mine with a crone either asleep or dead beneath a sheet printed gaily with blue flowers. I arose from the cot and opened the porthole hoping to see at least a fish but the water rushed by too quickly. I pressed my fingers against the cold moist side of the ship and it crinkled like an oilcan.
I got up and looked out my window for the last time. Must be about midnight. I left a note with my forwarding address on the bed for the landlord and my room key. I carried my box down the hallway and knocked on Carla's door. She answered quickly and I could see the "gentleman" on the bed behind her. I said goodbye but she was merely pissed off at losing a baby sitter. I walked over to the Concourse and caught the downtown train making sure my new room key was safely in my pocket.
I reached the tent by late afternoon, my clothes soaked through to the skin—it had been raining lightly but steadily since mid-morning. My feet were a mess. The wet boots had ground and rubbed large blisters in each heel. I stopped and put on some filthy but dry clothes and ate the refried beans cold out of the can. No dry kindling in the tent. I'm going to get out of this fucking place. I smoked three cigarettes in a row and felt a little better though I was dizzy from hunger waiting for the bean energy to occur. Rain pattering on the leaves and tent roof. I opened a can of tinned beef and finished the whole thing in moments with salt spread on it like a white crust. On the way down to the creek for water I crossed some deer tracks—they had snooped around in my absence. Probably a doe. A buck sends the doe along or across a clearing first as a decoy to make sure the path is safe. Sensible. I wanted though to be a lion in the hot Kenyan sun napping while my assorted mates brought me a juicy gazelle; my only function would be to roar warnings to any intruders and screw and eat. Maybe help out with a sturdy Cape buffalo or charge an Abercrombie Fitch hunter from deep cover and bat off his head with one swipe of a paw. I had been in the store a dozen times in the past decade since Barbara first took me there but never had the money to buy anything but a few trout flies. Condescending employees, some of them anyway. To one in the camping department I had said, Look asshole I've been in the woods since I was five and I don't need a snakebite kit in Michigan. Alarmed him. In six days I hadn't so much as seen a wolf track, only the perhaps imaginary shadow crossing the log road near the source of the Huron. I should have stayed there all night and looked at the tracks in the morning or driven the car up the road and looked at them in the headlights but I hadn't thought of it. They certainly had a right not to let me see them. My scent has a bad record for potshotting anything that moves. I checked the tracks again in Olaus Murie, the only book I had brought along.
As it began to get dark I managed a small fire despite the dampness. There was a slight warm breeze from the south but not enough to drive away mosquitoes so I gathered some ferns to smoke them away. I sat by the fire thinking of how few women I had truly known in my life. If you stood on the corner of Lexington and Fifty-seventh for a day a hundred beautiful women you might wish to know would pass. But the greatest share of them might be vapid, torpid whiners with air-brushed brains. So why should one know many women. A few of my friends were known as "cocksmen" but there was a particular form of boredom that always seemed to accompany their success. Perhaps I was naturally monogamous but it was frightening in some respects to be owned by a single woman. I had no taste though for more than one over any period of time. I was either trembling like a whippet dog over some girl or almost completely turned off. How many endless love letters have I written and I could list those to whom they were sent and the list would number less than ten. When I think of the snickering, giggling, elbowing, guffawing that goes on in bars, barbershops, locker rooms, club-houses, dormitories, I'm appalled that I've habitually taken part in it. Simply part of not growing up assuming there's a point to grow towards. Never read anything very sage on the matter. Testing one two three. Distances. Coming together but one of you is still on Saturn and the other on Jupiter. Bull elk bugling. We could hear it miles away in the Tom Miner basin. Who wants to come challenge me for my absence of harem. I should be one of those Indians who combined magic and witchcraft and buffoonery by doing everything backwards.
I lit the only cigar I had brought along. Addictive. Used to smoke twenty Dutch Master panatellas a day. I explored my muscles again—they were strangely more there than six days ago but then I must have dropped ten pounds of lard out here looking for a beast that is said to exist. Not even a scat. Melancholy. Laurie's plump butt, white teeth, precocious senility being beaten down to insanity in New York. As I had gone goony for sequences in my life and would only refer to myself in the third person and change my signature every day. Or where are the three of them now and does it matter? Think of the grove of willows by that creek and the tubular stalks of what we called snake grass. Her wet violet smell and the light from the next room passing between her thighs through which I could see the couch and a book on a pillow. I'm never cool enough but jerk around, a horse in double hobbles. That girl in high school burned me but got knocked up by a fireman and is probably happy now. Perhaps Mrs. Chief. The great gush out of the pig's throat when Walter cut it and again the wet throat of the stillborn calf in a pen in the barn, the mother bawling horribly. Twenty-five years later I can hear her bawl and I told grandfather I was sorry he lost the calf while he ate his herring the next morning and I carried the slop pail to the hogs. Nature doesn't heal, it diverts and because we are animals too all this silence is a small harmony. If I stayed I would go berserk and shrink into a wooden knot. I once thought there were only two natural courses for a man, savior or poet; now at its vulgarest level either voting or not bothering to. I don't care about anyone's problem only the occasional luminescence we offer to each other. Fifty grand worth of creature comforts. Yes of course but a poor thing to trade a life for I think. And do options exist and if they did would I see them? When I proselytized I gave bad advice from boredom with giving advice. Taught one course but I can't be a walking blood bank. I let myself be transfused by winter and seven feet of snow and crossing comparatively trackless wastes in both winter and summer. Barring love I'll take my life in large doses alone—rivers, forests, fish, grouse, mountains. Dogs.
I thought I heard something and received the accompanying split-second shot of adrenaline, the hand reaching for the rifle. Nothing beyond the pale light of the fire. And a hundred years ago or more I might have been the sort of person who fucked it up for the Indians blazing ignorantly the way for waves of settlers to follow. Or I always wanted to be a cowboy but those I know only break horses, adjust the irrigation, put up hay, drink, and hit each other. Inside a butcher shop I see a side of prime beef on a huge maple block. Crawl up on it and start chewing with a case of red wine and a salt shaker and see how much I could eat. Then have a three-dollar Havana cigar, purged of human problems; only beef problems and those briefly solved with the taste of steer, wine, salt and fine Havana leaf in my mouth. And the smell of the cedar box the cigar came in. Then a lovely janitress would come in with her broom and see me there and I'd push what was left of the carcass off onto the floor and she would get on and draw off all the poison left. I told a girl once that it backs up and gives you migraine headaches so please co-operate. Push her off onto the carcass when we finished. Not quite a prime beef janitress. Picked cherries all day once thinking of Laurie a thousand miles away, a hot afternoon, hands and arms sticky with red juice, clothes wet with itching sweat. I climbed up the water tank used to fill the sprayers and slid into the water down to the bottom, looking up at the wide circle of light above me and wanted to be a fish.
I met her in Bryant Park behind the library where I had brought a sandwich during my lunch hour. First three doubles at a White Rose on Sixth then a sandwich in the park. I was reading Henry Miller's biography on Rimbaud and she was with a group of a half dozen young people who were obviously what the press liked to call "beatniks." She came up to me and said directly into my face, "I've read that book."
I was so startled I couldn't answer. She was very pretty and you usually have to approach pretty girls, they don't approach you.
—We're going up to the park. Want to come?
—I have to work.
I paused then and looked at her closely to see if she was putting me on. The rest of them approached us and started talking about Miller and Céline, then about Kerouac whose On the Road had appeared that year. They seemed very friendly and intense but unassuming.
—Wait three minutes. I'll tell my boss I'm sick.
I ran across Forty-second Street and told my boss at Marboro's where I worked as a stock clerk that I had just puked all over the park and was going home for the afternoon. He waved me away with a "so OK." I rejoined them in the park and we headed up Fifth.
We were together constantly after that initial meeting. I stopped seeing a girl from Nebraska who lived on Perry Street and who was only using me anyway—her fiancé worked out on the tip of Long Island and every Friday afternoon we would have a drink at Penn Station and say goodbye for the weekend. And I had already met Barbara but it was only for one night and day and I had no idea she would reappear. I had moved out of my Grove Street room for the better one on Macdougal with its little black rat hole in the corner over which I put the grate from the oven.
We stuck it out through a mutual sense of melancholy, a total unhappiness with everything. She was much brighter than I was and had read more of everything. So we made endless trips to everything that was cheap especially the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She was the first Jewish girl I had ever known. She wasn't terribly interested in sex but I was insistent in my own neurotic confusion—a number of homosexuals had made passes and I had worried that there was something in my conduct that made them see the potential homosexual in me. So I was bent on proving I wasn't queer to myself by getting into every girl in the Village I could get my hands on. I was very close to proposing when Barbara entered the store on an October afternoon and coolly took over again.
I began packing at dawn. It was cold and very windy, the weather changing in the middle of the night. February and November have always been my worst months in Michigan because of the wind. It deafens and depresses me and I can usually do nothing but drink and look out the window waiting for a change. If I didn't despise the act of asking for help I long ago would have asked a psychiatrist if climatic changes affected many people. I knew that a disproportionate number of people died between three and five in the morning. Stig Dagerman whose work I was very much taken with committed suicide in the winter even though Harriet Anderson was his lover. I had absorbed too much Strindberg and there were many suicides in my family history, either by the long route of alcohol or the short one of the shotgun pressed to the head. Bang, his brains were still hearing it, synapses ringing, as they flecked the wall. Wish I could ask him what he's doing now. Absolutely nothing. Seven to one odds on nothing, over and over. Keep the bet open. I gathered everything into a pile and rolled up the sleeping bag and tent—the tent was too goddamn heavy and wet, a surplus pup tent and I wondered if any soldiers had spent their last night in it before emerging at dawn to slay either Nips or Nazis. O Tojo. What fear we once felt at his name, apocalyptic samurai. I stomped on and crushed the tin cans and then with a great deal of effort and broken fingernails dug a hole with my hatchet and hands. I hacked away at the ground as if I were trying to murder it until I had a hole deep enough to cover all the refuse with a foot of dirt. In high school if I felt bad enough I would come home and dig a garbage hole at the end of my father's garden deep enough to bury myself. Digging soothes as does crawling. Stalking a fox as a recipe—crawl a hundred yards through brake, sumac, vetch and when you stand again your brain will be at ease. Wish I could jettison the tent. The total pack weighed over sixty pounds and ditching the tent would cut the weight in half. Fucking wind rising to thirty knots from the southwest—look at those tree tips bend with gusts and the roar of it. Even with two pairs of dry socks my heels ached from the blisters.
By mid-morning I was ready, with the campside looking as if no one had been there, the effect I wanted. No scars. I think of my brain as striated with scar tissue the color of the marl you can dig up from lake bottoms. I even dusted the ground with a handful of branches.
The pack had a body-formed aluminum frame but after three miles I was in wheezing pain. I lay back on it against a birch tree and had a cigarette and then had to struggle like an overturned turtle to get up. My feet seemed wet and I was sure the blisters were raw enough to have started bleeding. I headed more directly west hoping to pick up the log road and follow it south to the car. There was a vague chance too that I might see some tracks crossing the road. God send a helicopter and I'll become a missionary to the heathen wherever you want me to go. Accept this small bribe and you won't be sorry. Silence except for wind's Wailing and I looked at the dark cumuli scudding above me. And don't let it start raining until I get to the car, that's an order gourd and salute. A sense of blasphemy from all that time spent with the Bible—at fifteen I intended to become a Baptist evangelist. I stumbled onto the log road sooner than I expected so I stopped to take a compass reading—it might be the wrong log road. But it ran north and south so I figured it had to at least lead to the right road. Within a few hundred yards I came upon an old bulldozer the pulp people used to reach new stands of timber. LeTourneau diesel. Wonder if I could start it—used to be able to hot-wire cars. I shed my pack and got upon the seat. Rummmmm rummmm, I yelled, tinkering with the throttle and the two steering handles and the handle to hydraulically lift the blade. Then I rememberd that bulldozers of that size have a small auxiliary gas engine to get their huge diesels started. I got down and found the small Briggs-Stratton but the gas tank was empty. I impulsively dumped a handful of sand in it and another handful in the diesel oil tank. Could see it thrashing to a stop after a hundred yards with all that sand in the workings. Ho ho. Don't cut down my trees even if they're useless poplar. I thought of dropping a match in the oil tank then hesitated—I didn't want to start a forest fire. I smoked another cigarette sitting in the comfortable seat and making noises then got down and unstrapped my tent and threw it over the seat. A gift to the pulpers to keep their seats dry. The change in load made me happy and I quickened my pace despite the pain in my feet. I sang the national anthem but forgot the words toward the end and invented my own. I sang Buck Owens' "It's Crying Time Again" and Dolly Parton's "Blue Ridge Mountain Boy" and finally Schiller's "Ode to Joy" from Beethoven's Ninth, and hummed a Schutz and a Buxtehude piece. By the time I reached the car I was just finishing "The Old Rugged Cross" after a quick run through the Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." I was considerably more than ten feet tall. I quickly took off my clothes and ran down the creek bank and jumped in beneath the waterfall. The water seemed colder than three days before. I rubbed my hands and body with wet sand then got out and sat on the warm car hood until the wind dried my body, raising goose pimples. Where's my coryphee now that I want her wantonly here—into the warm back seat for pushups and pushdowns and other good time-proven variations the Creator put in our heads to cause joy. My small share in it must be enlarged I think, pleasure up thirty-three points on the small board. And the use of dynamite. For charming nature back to her own sweet self. Take that rush of water as an exhilarant. A premier danseur of I'm not sure and perhaps never will be. Light fuses alone with a single match. Romance. Bloodless though as too much blood has been let. Just a few dams, bridges, signs, machines.
When I left New York City after my first nine months I had only two people to say goodbye to, a tribute to my own grotesque hostility and to the skin of ice that covers nearly everyone there. Acrid is the word. And talk because there's no other movement to make and the subways are clogged with geese. I watched them ice skating at Rockefeller Center and at the mangy terrifying children's zoo in Central Park. Tchelitchew-painting children with glass brain covers. A city of clanking manholes. We dragged an old man into the store who had been blasted up onto our doorway by a taxicab. The driver naturally said the "fucka" crossed against the light and I said there was no light out there. Meanwhile blood and vomit were pouring out of the man's mouth and around a metal book rack. Blood out of the ears and nose too. DOA at bookstore and a crowd looking in. I opened his jacket and saw that his shirt was wet; he must have turned and caught three thousand pounds in the chest. When the police ambulance came there were no witnesses not that it mattered. I went over to a bar near Forty-second and Eighth Avenue and put my brain to sleep.
Things were over with Barbara. She had left for East Hampton two weeks before with a junior broker type from Mississippi. She called me at the store and asked if she could come back and I said no very kindly and that I would call her if I ever returned to the city. I called Laurie three times over a period of days before she would consent to say goodbye. We had coffee at a White Tower restaurant near Hudson Street, and then went over to the White Horse where she asked for a Coke and I had a half dozen Margaritas. Then we had a very strained, expensive dinner where she was weepy and barely touched her food. I was all packed and was in the process of spending my bus money. I'll have to hitchhike home and she won't even eat the food. In fact I took a train to Philadelphia then walked all the way up Broad Street to Roosevelt Boulevard where I stood for two hours before I got a ride out to the turnpike. When we said goodbye I told her that I would come back in a few months and marry her. I liked happy endings especially when drinking.
V
HOME
Certain memories have the quality of an alabaster trance—you float into their places in the brain where they sit, a white temple or pavilion in a grove of trees. After I started the car still shivering a bit from my bath I totally lost my sense of panic and realized I had been worrying about whether the car would start without consciously knowing it; the threat, a fifty-mile walk, was too grand to even consider. I began driving very slowly and came to a full stop where the shadow had crossed the road three nights before; no tracks but with the wind blowing this hard and then some rain—I couldn't prove to myself that I had seen a ghost. I remembered Barbara having nightmares and deciding to sit up all night because if she slept during the daylight she thought the nightmares wouldn't return. And I awoke to her voice thinking a visitor had come but when I opened my eyes it was dawn and she was sitting in a chair before the window, the open Venetian blinds casting stripes of pink light across her body, one stripe across her hair, then her throat and breasts and stomach and knees. I called her over to the bed and she fell asleep instantly. I felt sorry then looking at her face against the pillow for all creatures who are afraid of the dark or the things that must be "in" the darkness. Another such memory only involved lying on the grass at the Cloisters with my head on Laurie's thigh listening to a Gregorian chant and watching a maple bud fall out of a tree above us, falling with infinite softness toward my head and missing it by a few feet but in a split-second pause in the music I heard the bud land on the grass just as I had once heard a sparrow's feet touch a limb while sitting in the woods. The third temple involved a sort of terror I couldn't bear, the mixture though they were years apart of two visions which had married in my brain: the first in Nevada, washing my face in an irrigation ditch and suddenly seeing a rattlesnake close by and my exploding backward up the bank; the image of this was accompanied by being lost while deer hunting when I was fourteen. It was dark and cold and the trees were black columns in front of me and when I fired the agreed-upon three quick successive shots blue flame came out of the rifle tip and blinded me while the delayed sound deafened me. Then before the echoing stopped I heard my father's rifle answer and I quickly turned toward the source of the sound so I wouldn't be fooled by echoes.
Driving out of the woods I felt a new and curious calm but doubted that it would last: I had changed my life so often that I finally decided there'd never been anything to change—I could make all the moves I wished to on the surface as if I were playing Chinese checkers but these moves were suspended on a thin layer that failed to stir anything below. A sort of mordant fatalism I lived within concerning geometrical matters—jobs, alcohol, marriage and the naturally concomitant joblessness, drunkenness, infidelity. Perhaps all true children of Protestantism are victims of such self-help—the notion of the law of life involving steps, paths, guideposts, ladders. St. Paul out in the red rock wilderness trying not to think about women. Just as I thought now of whiskey. When I reached the main road I would stop at a gas station and make a reservation at a hotel in Ishpeming and when I got there I knew I would shower and go down to the bar and drink myself into the comatose state I knew I deserved. Consciousness is simply the kind of work I can't make a continuous effort at—a disease causing giddiness, brain fever, unhappiness. Maybe King David drank heavily in his canopied tent the night before battle.
There were washouts in the road where there hadn't been seven days before. I took the first few too fast and on one bottomed out on the gas tank. I got out to check damage but there wasn't any other than a raw scrape. Relief. I proceeded more slowly until I came over the crest of a hill where the road crossed over an unused beaver dam with a swamp on the left and a pond on the right. An overflow from the pond had worn a deep trench in the road and I knew I hadn't the slightest chance without an hour's work. I cursed the loggers for not grading the road I didn't want them to use. I tiptoed down the hill in my bare feet—I wanted my red heels to dry —and looked at the miniature ravine and the trickle of clear water flowing into the swamp. I heard a splash in the pond and saw the widening ripple and then farther out another occurred. Trout. And no rod. I felt pissed enough to shoot at them with the rifle. The last-minute claustrophobia that made me leave things behind in hopes of discovering something else. Fuck all gurus on earth and advice and conclusions. I put my boots on with considerable pain and began dragging any dead logs I could find down the hill, trimming the dry branches with the hatchet. I was so angry my vision seemed rimmed with red and I took off my shirt which had become soaked with exertion. I filled the hole in about an hour, gunned the car as if I were on a drag strip and crashed over the pile, nearly losing control. There was an ugly clunking sound as I drove on, either a wheel bearing or the universal joint. I had hated cars all my life; a friend and I had dismantled a '47 Plymouth years before at sixty miles an hour while drunk. We were working as carpenters at the time and we flailed away with hammers at the windows and dashboard and when we got to his place shot out the tires with a pistol.
I checked the speedometer. I figured it was about thirty more miles to the main road and mid-afternoon. I would reach Ishpeming in time to buy a clean shirt and pants. The hotel catered mostly to mining engineers or those who had business with Cleveland Cliffs. The ore had finally become low grade but someone had discovered the taconite process so the town was booming again. I once noted the resemblance between Ishpeming and Houghton and English mining towns: even the people had the same denuded, milky-eyed look of those who spend a third of their life underground. Part of the reason there are so many strikes is that miners reach a point occasionally when it's no longer possible to continue the life of a mole. Calumet-Hecla had closed a copper mine after a two-year strike. The mine filled with water and the lives of thousands became virtually dead.
I slowed down again to cross a rut and thought I saw some tracks in the reddish sand. I took the Murie book from my pack but they belonged to a coyote. I was still generally angry and it occurred to me as I finally drove out on the main road that I felt none of my usual fears. A cautionary feeling. Fuck the dark, cars, electricity, fire, police, Chicago, Agnew, universities, pain, death, Marine mentality. Even the earth as a rotting tomato, death by implosion, slow rot at the core. I turned on the radio and caught the end of a Creedence Clearwater Revival hit. Strutting music. Who can put on his grandpa's boots? Or is this again the cowboy stupidity that brought us to where we were? I stopped at a gas station and made a phone call for reservations. My first words to another human in a full week were "Fillerup check the oil."
—Why don't we get married?
—Because you're a whore.
—I'll stop being a whore.
—You can't.
—I'll get a job or money and we'll go to Mexico.
—I don't want to go to Mexico and we don't have a car.
I only wanted a 500-cc. Triumph. I had three dollars and they cost eight hundred. I turned in the bed and looked into her eyes which as usual in these discussions were twin pools of hazel tears. Hazel eyes are rare.
—I don't want a job and I'll never have one.
—I don't think you love me.
—Right.
I got up and drank a cup of lukewarm coffee. Total mess everywhere—the remains of a party and stale smoke sticking to the skin. I went out into the ozone air and walked over to Fifth. Servants entering apartment houses for the day's work. I looked across the street at the Metropolitan and at the third step where I had sat so often with Laurie, and out into the park beyond. Not a square inch without a cigarette butt. We made love against Cleopatra's needle and against benches and fences and on the grass, behind rocks, against trees. Once we almost tripped over a faggot daisy chain over near Central Park West. Ho hum. I walked down to the East Side Terminal and caught a bus for La Guardia. Forty-eight hours to find that I'm in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reasons again. I was stunned with boredom and slept all the way to Detroit, the most wretched of our cities. Then a flight to Lansing with some apparent legislators who looked even more bored. It was March when everyone is bored and wants to emerge from a cold muddy hole and shed a skin. My last exploratory trip. On the phone Laurie's mother wouldn't give me her address with a nasal Bronxian "Haven't you done enough harm." No, of course not. Ill return as a five-star Wac and then you'll be sorry. Mrs. Menopause. Mothers protecting twenty-year-old daughters with daily litmus tests to see what they've been up to. I got into my car and drove home, picked up my gear in total silence and headed north. Then turned back south when I saw how much snow there was. I slept for three months before making another move.
Standing before a full-length mirror in the bathroom with new chinos and a Hawaiian style short-sleeved shirt, a three-dollar special on the shirt. In the mirror I saw the same me with a bit more tan and windburn and perhaps ten pounds lighter; a characterless slack jaw and the left eye bobbing off on its own sightless adventures. Five grand minimum for a cornea transplant. I wanted to be in San Francisco with a necklace on, fucking a starlet with a hash pipe still smoldering in an ashtray. Dopey dipadick. You can't take everything at once, Brad. Settle on your poison. I got a bad table in the corner in the dining room, reserved for criminal types and less than stylish fishermen; in fact the same table I had two years before. I held up a forefinger and a waitress approached.
—Planked whitefish and a rare T-bone.
—Both?
—Yes.
—At once?
—And a triple bourbon with water and no ice.
—Appetizer?
—No.
I drank the bourbon with three long swallows. Oh what incredible, easeful warmth. Up with whiskey. Within a few moments I got what my druggie friends call a "rush," a slight dizzying hollow vacuum in the brain pan. Feet numbing. I ate the fish first and with haste in great gobbling chunks, then loitered over the T-bone. Rare enough for a change and coolish in the center, I picked up the bone and chewed on it to the disgust of Mr. and Mrs. America at the next table. Mom's birthday or an anniversary I bet. Get her away from that old hot stove for an evening and let her put on the Easter dress and hat. I stood and loosened an uncontrollable, resounding belch that echoed back at me from the far end of the dining room. Many stares and I salute with slight embarrassment. Sorry folks. Now for a walk and buy all the magazines and newspapers available in this company town and tour the bars.
Life, Time, Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Playboy, Cavalier, Adam. I passed over Outdoor Life, Sports Afield and Fortune. Wish they had some clam magazines. I forgot what one looked like. Three bars so desolate and crumby it was hard to finish a drink and Finnish accents sing-songy, stumbling in the air. I returned to the inn and the bar on its first floor with its beautiful gleaming murals of trout fishing, and mining machinery. I was greeted with an affable "Hello sport" from the young bartender.
—Double Beam with water and no ice.
—Catching many?
—Only small ones.
We lapsed into an involved conversation about U.P. rivers and several other men entered it too. All the names, so beautiful and round to the tongue: Black, Firesteel, Salmon, Huron, Yellow Dog, Sturgeon, Baltimore, Ontonagon, Two Hearted, Escanaba, Big Cedar, Fox, Whitefish, Driggs, Manistique, Tahquamenon. I told a moderate, polite number of lies and they returned equally specious tales of fishing. Very friendly buying of rounds until I felt my brain was numb enough for sleep. Into the room dumping the sack of magazines on the bed and a single nightcap swig from a fresh pint for the drive tomorrow. I thumbed through the magazines from pictures to news to sports to air-brushed tits and jokes that weren't funny. Another drink. I didn't want to be here. Where is my musty tent—over the bulldozer seat. And where is my mind and why won't it die now. Fantasy of British Columbia and packing in for three months with a .44 Colt Magnum in case of feisty grizzlies. Take the coast boat to Bella Coola and set out to the east, guideless, with pack rod and dried food. A hermit. Five pounds of tobacco, Bugler, and Zig-Zag papers but no grass or whiskey. Meet Indian girl and ficky-fick. Prick dead. Or get back with wife and forget a decade, written off as they say, a bad time was had by all. I want twenty years ago and milking cows in the evening before dinner, pitch the silage in trough before stanchions. Oats for horses with the hay. Alfalfa too thick to walk through now. How long has it been since I've been home where no one lives now anyway?
An average hangover breakfast with too many glasses of ice water. I asked for ham and eggs and potatoes and a double bloody mary.
—The bar's closed.
—May I see the manager?
—He isn't here.
—The assistant manager?
I got the desk clerk who went downstairs and made the drink. I tipped him a buck and leaned back in my chair. Two men at the far end of the dining room reading their separate Wall Street Journals and so far from New York. They glanced at me with evident distaste when I entered and I gave them a quick finger but they were back at their papers and didn't catch it.
I made the Mackinaw Bridge in record time driving at eighty in my old car and finishing the pint in the first hour. Nice buzz now. Hello woods and water and hello bridge. I crossed it with averted eyes—I'm terribly afraid of bridges especially the Verrazano Narrows and the Mackinaw. Too long. Somehow the Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate seem sturdier. Maybe I'll move to Frisco and take dope but I need seasons and the alternating rain and fog depress me. I reached Grayling by dinnertime and detoured to pass the house I was born in but was disgusted with the way the merchants had attempted to turn the town into an "alpine village" by putting false-front shingled mansard roofs on their stores. Holy shit upon birthplace but I felt nothing and continued south after buying another pint.
My father placed me on the bank near a black hole in the bend of the river and I was told not to move. It was scarcely daylight and I stayed in the same place until later afternoon when he returned with a creel full of trout. But I had a half dozen trout and a few suckers which he threw down the bank for the blackbirds to eat. We drove back to the cottage from Luther to Bristol to Tustin to Leroy to the lake and ate the fish. Two parents and five children in a small cabin shingled with asbestos. We slept for a while then near midnight got up again to start bass season which began at twelve. I rowed around the lake and he cast hundreds of times with his favorite plug which was a jointed minnow. He caught four and I caught one. We ate them for breakfast with eggs and potatoes. I slept with my brother under the bare beams of the loft and the heat traveled up to us as did mosquitoes and the smell of wood smoke. And often rain beating madly on the roof a foot above my head and when it stopped, more rain blown off the tree branches in gusts. I never thought at the time of the people I was connected with—the family below me and the brother in bed. Or the ceaseless droning gatherings involving my mother's relatives or my father's relatives or the large yearly gathering of Mennonites we were connected to through my father. Related to hundreds of people with an old photo of Lincoln and in the background an ancestor smiling through an elaborate beard. And when my father died I stopped being connected to any of them, without effort except for an occasional funeral. I couldn't bear the way his mother, my grandmother, had an enlarged photo of him on the wall with old college photos surrounding it and sprigs of dried flowers and newspaper clippings. Some shrine she looked at until she died. I think families based on kinship are disappearing—slowly to be sure but they are still disappearing.
Cadillac, after Mancelona and Kalkaska, then Leroy and Ashton where I turned left on a gravel road for a quick detour to the lake. But I stopped after a few miles. It was over ten years since I had been there and I decided against seeing it again. Three blue herons were always in a particular giant fir across the lake. Two readily identifiable loons, male and female, a limited number of large snapping turtles which were nearly familiar enough to be named. And the first few years after the war a family of bobcats back in the woods with their own particular music, a high snarling shriek. Perhaps it meant I love you in bobcat language. I made a U-turn nearly getting stuck in the ditch. The second pint was beginning to do its splendid work. Then I became sensible again and threw it out the window into the ditch though it was half full. It was evening and I wanted to sleep. I parked in a farm lane and curled up in the back seat in my sleeping bag. If I want to be nothing it's my business. Absolutely nothing to which I may add something later but at the moment nothing. Wish I had some boiled pig hocks with bread and butter and hot mustard. Tentative: maybe I've had enough to drink like the apparent though mythic number of Chinese orgasms. My father and I had built a dormer on the house, an extra bedroom and a garage with a screened-in porch and patio. Took over a month, and then I stood on the roof we had built and decided to go to New York City. We sat in the yellow kitchen at the yellow kitchen table.
—Why do you want to go to New York?
—Because I don't want to stay here.
—You've been there once.
—I want to try it again.
—Where will you work?
—I don't know. I have ninety dollars.
Then I went upstairs and packed the carton. A few clothes that were ill fitting. My typewriter which he had bought for twenty dollars two years before. And five or six books—my Scholfield Reference Bible, Rimbaud, Dostoevsky's The Possessed, The Portable Faulkner, Mann's Death in Venice and Ulysses. Exactly. I got some clothesline rope in the basement and bound up the carton. My father was sitting at the kitchen table.
—You can have my suitcase.
—I can't get a typewriter into the suitcase. Besides you need it.
—I wish I had some money to give you.
—I don't need any.
We sat at the table and I drank a can of beer. We talked about the addition to the house we had built during his vacation. Then he got up and took a bottle of whiskey out of the broom closet and we each had a few shots. He went into the bedroom and got two of his ties and knotted them for me. I wedged them under the lid of my carton.
In the morning my mother and brothers and sisters wept because I was going away, except for my older brother who was in the navy and stationed at Guantanamo Bay, and my father drove me down to the bus station.
—You're always welcome at home.
I awoke in the middle of the night in the back seat with a very dry mouth and a measure of self-disgust. I started the car and turned on the radio to find out the time. Only eleven. The Everly Brothers sang "Love Is Strange." Yes it is providing you can manage it. I drove back through Reed City and had coffee at a cafe where twenty-five years before I had eaten cereal in the dark before going trout fishing. I was the envy of others in the first grade because I got to tag along like a dog on fishing trips. Buckhorn Creek and only a few small ones. Quickly past the old house and the violet glade near the row of huge willows. Nothing is haunted and sentiment is a lid I don't need to manage the present. Repainted linoleum and a pantry. Small hospital behind which in a woodlot and a pile of cinders my eye was put out with a broken bottle. Didn't seem to hurt but when I walked home there were screams. When I was "saved" at the Baptist church I stayed saved for two years and read the Bible a dozen times—church twice on Sunday and Wednesday night prayer meeting when people gave testimony to the matchless grace of Jesus in their day-by-day lives. I spoke to a group using Paul's Ephesians about putting on the whole armor of God. Religion enlivens loins—when it's forbidden even a small peek up the dress means instant hard-on. I wish you were hot or cold in Laodicea but since you're lukewarm I'll utterly cast you out. Torpor. Disinherited children. How true. Milling about the country, the pilgrims of the age who don't want to be insurance adjusters. You only say no, said someone, and the whole bloody fucking mess passes you by. Don't let its slipstream catch you. At the after-hours place in Lansing the Negro said to me, Don't cross that line and drew an invisible line with his foot. And I didn't but we got drunk and forgot about it. Ate big buffalo which is carp. But I'm not sure of myself like the young are. Pre-Sputnik. Can't manage to stay married. There is a woman out there in the passing dark I know but doubt it. There never was any question of co-operating after reading Isaiah and Jeremiah anyway. I heard there are Jesus freaks now but my mind is set convexly against the grain so keep out of my room. A true lapsarian with bugle breath. Horrified by Cain and Ishmael's mother. How could Abraham be willing to kill his son? Then I went to Colorado and lost my religion when she pulled down her Levi's in the abandoned fire tower. At least ten seconds of pleasure, then again and again. New discoveries. I pulled into the parking lot of the tavern in Paris, Michigan, a town of about two hundred. Another thirst coming upon me.
I slowed down by the fish hatchery. Despite night I should make them open it up at gunpoint and let me see the two sturgeons and all the huge brown and rainbow trout they use for breeding. Who said the predator husbands his prey? We didn't or said so because they weren't. I quit art history in disgust when I learned the temples hadn't been white but were garishly painted. Diana's red spangles and blue hounds. Years later I liked the idea. In an alley in New York the only time I sniffed cocaine I walked through a metal fire door into a room where in a far corner a man held a baby and seeing me, dropped it. The baby was yellow and I think a fake because its hollow head broke open on the floor. When I looked back up the man was gone and when I looked down the baby was gone. I was sure then that I hadn't seen anything but I turned around and the door wasn't there, then farther around and the room had disappeared. I clenched my fist but didn't have any and my teeth wouldn't click either. I wasn't any longer. Bad stuff, cocaine, and what is the American urge so stupidly put over and over: "I'll try anything once." The man who lived behind us had his ears flooded with gas in 1918 and never heard again but tended the largest raspberry patch in town. Across from his house in a meadow there was oil-drilling equipment and a steam engine you could climb into and lean against the boiler holes. Shot an arrow into the air and it came down sticking into my sister's head which was to be macerated fifteen years later. At the fish hatchery my uncle had been caught trying to pull a trout with hook and line up his pantleg in broad daylight. But the fish was too large and flopped madly and wetly around his cuff as he tried to run from the conservation officer, dragging the fish by his ankle. Poaching as always. Shining deer. Running into a grocery store with an oil truck. My dad tipped over a beer truck and spent a day cleaning up the mess at the main intersection in town. And he told me he once got drunk and crawled under another beer truck in the parking lot to go to sleep. Said somebody drove the truck away and the tire tracks missed his head by not more than three inches. Says the song "Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die." Ho. The tavern was empty except for one table of men playing euchre at the end of the bar. I had a double and bought some cigarettes, recognizing the bartender from years before. Might be a third cousin. We talked for a while and then played three games of pool and he won two. The house "stick" knowing even the slightest imperfections of the table, which cushions were dead, and where a ball would roll falsely because the table wasn't flawlessly level. I left at closing time with no sense of being juiced. I couldn't seem to get the whiskey past my Adam's apple so I drank several ginger ales.
Two years after I had seen Barbara for the last time I had a note forwarded with a "Just to let you know I'm married now and we have a son." Husband named Paul and the same apartment. Then I heard through a friend that Laurie was married. And my Worcester girl was married. And my wretched high school cheerleader sweetheart with her candy heart and sissbooombahs. Hands above the waist mister. There is something peculiar in the institution that makes talking about its problems bathetic. All the average griefs of the mating process. Smoke gets in your eyes. And the whole "our song" bit as if that were the end of the organic process. Cottage with myrtled lawn and cones of mauve wisteria. I've been an attendant in several divorces and it always resembles the kennel master or the veterinarian examining the puke or shit to see what's making the dogs sick. A thirty-three-foot tapeworm with sapphire eyes of course. All those people colliding and sticking for wordless reasons. The GNP people. I am one and over and above the average simplicities of love monogamy usually involves retreat and cowardice. Necessary. To be sure. Sirens and lotuses strewn. A mechanistic coil which has taken place, we're told, in only the last one-thousandth of human life of earth. Must carbon-date marriage, rain, homesickness, the hearth. Better to run around the tent three times and start over in the dark with no street lights, factories or bungalows. A Spanish cavalier. Strange how you can't say anything to most people without their assuming you mean it didactically as law. Thus I express a seven-word sentence about the Bill of Rights and a man turns from a bar stool and says, "You Abbie Hoffman commies ought to go to Russia." I offered obscenely to kick in his fat face. I'm talking about my own particular, harmless sort of freedom. I don't want anyone to adopt my mannerisms, or opinions. If I had those instincts I'd run for office. My interests are anachronistic—fishing, forests, alcohol, food, art, in that order. Kropotkin is fine but Nechayev is too programmatic. I don't think I'm meant to be part of anything or to raise my hand and ask a question.
I backtracked as far as the road that led past the house. No one had lived there since 1938 but it was still standing with a yard full of weeds, and glass from the broken windows, fallen eaves-troughs among the burdocks. A neighbor farmed the land desultorily but let most of it return to fern, sumac, canary grass. I turned off the car lights and sat in the total darkness listening to the engine ticking as it cooled and the crickets through the window. Something dank and sweet in the air, cattails and wild clover from the marsh across the road. And someone had taken in hay. My dad had been born in the house. I wanted the impact of this to sink in but nothing happened; further back in time his great-grandfather had homesteaded here after the Civil War but this meant nothing—I didn't remember the man's name. I didn't know my mothers ancestors either; if I ever went to Umshaldsvik in the north of Sweden on the coast I might find out. But it isn't the sort of journey I'm liable to take. A towhead comes over to escape the draft thirty years after another walked north exhausted from war. They settle finally thirty or so miles from one another, not knowing one another, and years later I am begot by their accidental conjunction. A lumberjack's son marries a farmer's daughter after meeting her at a dance in a roadhouse along the Muskegon River. Still nothing stirs; it would if I had a journal of their individual voyages, a topographical map of the clipper's route or a photo of a man walking. Where did he stop in Kentucky and Ohio each day? What did he eat and drink and what were his thoughts; and with the other, were there storms in the North Atlantic and what was the character of his fear? A grandfather and great-great-grandfather. Nothing could be expected, nothing in particular had been accomplished. A heritage of sloth and witlessness and poverty. Seemed splendid. A new freedom as when the father dies there is no one left to judge even though he didn't judge before death. An implicit "Do as you will." Generosity and arrogance and strength. In that farmer's house the mongoloid child sat with its forehead against the coolness of the pot-bellied stove. We pumped some cold water and they talked while we sat at a table covered with an oilcloth. A sticky fly strip hanging from a string, coated with trapped houseflies. The child crawled over and leaned its Oriental head against his father's knee and kept on staring at me. The house smelled like cow shit and milk and kerosene, a cream separator in the kitchen. I turned the one at my grandfather's then carried the pails of skimmed milk out to the calves and pigs.
Barely a quarter of a moon. I think of those years 1957 through 1960 as unbearably convulsive but then the years after that seem strangely blank and a few of them have no isolatable events. When books were physical events and capable of overwhelming you for weeks; they entered your breath and you adopted their conversational patterns and thoughts as your own. Tintype Myshkin. The laughter, actually extended hysterical laughter, when the funeral director said that all "cosmetic" efforts had failed and both caskets would have to be closed. Why not? A carcass is a carcass, asshole. A wish now to be in Antwerp in 1643. As our preacher said that Golgotha was in reality Jerusalem's garbage dump and I never went to a garbage dump again without thinking of that sermon, however obtuse and antique it became in my memory. Miscarriages, greenish lamb bones, entrails of goats and perhaps lepers wandering about with their bells tinkling, and the small hill or knoll with the crosses. Who could truly envision the crosses and this was the base of history since then. Someone said the science of what happened only once. You came over in the hold of the ship only once and you died in the hold of the ship only once. A sailor was drunk and gave you salt water by mistake. The squaw slit her baby's throat and then her own to avoid the indignity of capture. Twice in dreams the dead had become birds, one a mourning dove and the other a crow though both with human faces and flew away when I tried to talk to them.
I started the car and turned on the radio again. Three. It would begin to get light in another half hour; I turned on the lights briefly to see the house. The front door was open and I could walk through that black hole if I had any guts but the floors may not be solid and I would fall through to the basement and its dirt floor might give way to yet another, deeper basement. . . . A kerosene lamp at the table with the wick burning brightly. I was fifteen and they took all my money playing poker and tripoli. My father and two of his brothers. A quarrel about who got "into" a girl first twenty years before. Cheap A & P beer and a fifth of rye. They were experienced and got my money after I drank too much of the beer and then a single shot of rye sent me puking out into the snow which they thought was very funny. I went up to the loft and in the morning tried to avoid going hunting by saying I was sick. More laughter: Get up it's only a hangover. God it is cold. And when we left I was the only one without a deer. I missed three running shots.
Whippoorwill now. Always thought them errie. Only snow haunts—if I were here in winter when it was below zero and the snow was a bluish white drifting across the yard into the open door and broken windows. Old newspapers in one of the upstairs bedrooms will reveal that nothing has changed except the entire world and at the speed of light. I was at the other place the day after the barn blew down and my grandfather was already salvaging lumber to build a garage. He was straddling the ridge beam and we all asked him to please get off the roof because he was eighty-five and senile. He wouldn't come down so we went into the house and had a nervous lunch while he tore off roof boards from his precarious height. An aunt reported the progress of her father from the window with her mouth full of food. He built a garage against the back of the house, out of plumb and tilted crazily and leaky. Then he drove into it too fast one day and wedged the car hopelessly against the side. He died two years later after walking home twelve miles in the middle of the night in his hospital nightdress. Buried him in a small country cemetery next to his daughter Charlotte who died from the flu during World War One. Many graves added now. I thought stupidly that when everyone I know is dead there will be no more cause for grief. Up the road in the schoolhouse there were Communist Party meetings during the Depression.
A little light in the east now and I got out of the car and stretched, wishing I hadn't thrown away my bottle. Like burying the cigarettes that morning. Willing to shed this old skin and add a new one within hours. Exhausted from volatility. I want something more final but doubt I'll get it barring dying. I walked from the cottage to a farm to pick up a sack of groceries the farmer's wife bought for us in Ashton and on the way back I took a shortcut through the woods. It was very hot so when I reached a favorite clearing I picked a milkweed pod and sat down and broke it open; glaucous milk and sticky with light fluffy down on the inside and a nest of dark brown seeds. Then the breeze changed and there was a stench in the air and I walked over to the far edge of the clearing toward a mound of fur: a deer with eyes gone and insects in the sockets and grizzled muzzle from age, a cavity torn open in the stomach probably by a fox and in the cavity an incredibly thick pile of white maggots working at the meat. I remembered that in the grocery sack there was a can of lighter fluid for my father. I knelt and ripped and dug the dry grass away and took out the can of fluid from between the hamburger and milk and squirted its contents all over the maggots and the flies who bred them and then touched a match to the whole mess and backed away. A horrible stink from the burning which didn't last long. I walked back over to the carcass and already live maggots were working up through the scorched surface of the dead ones. When I got back I told my mother that the woman must have forgotten the lighter fluid. Odd to remember something for the first time—no particular hate for the maggots but a curiosity about burning them.
I lit a cigarette and had a fit of coughing which left my throat raw and dry. There was more light in the air now, smeared and pearlish. A cat crossed the road behind me. Ground mist was floating across the road and around my waist from the marsh, past the car and through the weeds around the house, one slender flume entering the door. I lit another cigarette and wondered why I was standing before an empty house at dawn as if I expected my father to appear at the door in his cavalry breeches from college inviting me in for coffee. He wouldn't recognize me as his son because of course he wasn't married yet and I'd already be ten years older than he. His own father would be up getting ready for the rural mail route he got after the timber gave out. He would tell my dad to take off those goddamn silly breeches and to cultivate the corn on the front forty. I would follow my father to the barn where he would spend a half hour harnessing the horses. Then while we were talking he would lean against the fencepost and tell me he would be glad to get back to college because farm work was boring. I agreed—it was hard and the pay was low. Then he would hitch up the cultivator and walk off with the horses and I would say pleasant talking to you and walk back out to my car.
Someone drove past on the road and beeped at me. I waved. Another early riser. I got back into the car and drove off back toward Reed City.
In the spring of 1960 I went back to New York City for want of any place else to go—I had gone generally berserk in three consecutive Februaries and had grown to expect it. I had found two girls to love back home and when I thought of them they seemed to resist each other's presence on earth with perfect balance. And the duplicity had settled in a sweet contradictory syrup in my brain so I chose the alternative of leaving them both. I walked from Penn Station down to East Eleventh Street and stayed overnight with an old friend, a brilliant homosexual who taught design at Cooper Union. We had had many quarrels and discussions about his sexual tastes—he was terribly handsome and I thought if I were that handsome I would have only the finest of women. Even on a purely physical level men offered one less possibility, a missing orifice. But he claimed he had known he was homosexual at thirteen and began having "affairs" at that tender age when most young men were still jacking off over Miss April.
When I arrived he and two friends, a lover and a young French girl who was living with them, were getting ready to go out for dinner. They dragged a mattress out of the closet and made up a bed for me on the kitchen floor and left me alone with no invitation to join them. Probably going to a freak orgy. I snooped around with a tumbler of vermouth in hand. Nothing but vermouth and gin in the cupboard. While looking through some books I found a manila envelope of photos, Polaroid photos of naked men. There must have been a hundred of them and the background in the pictures was easily recognizable as the apartment I was standing in. I immediately envied this rapacious sexuality. A uniform set of silly grins, some with organs erect, others at limp rest. My goodness. If I started at that moment and devoted all my time to it, years would be needed for that many conquests. I drank the whole bottle of vermouth and went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. I'm not handsome—maybe a few grand worth of plastic surgery. Tsk. Then I went back to the photos and mused about all the extant cock myths. None of them were particularly large when erect. I looked out the window feeling moderately juiced and high average. Using it not owning it, that's important. For years now all over the world people are doing it to each other, gland in gland. In caves and in mountain top chalets in Switzerland; fifteen minutes before death by stroke old Mr. Piggy Businessman is banging away and squealing. Give my love to a perfect rose.
I overcame my aversion to gin by mixing it with some bitters and fruit punch. When I finished the half bottle of gin I washed up and prepared for my humble bed on the kitchen floor. Another peek at the photos and I lapsed into uncontrolled giggling. There must be more to do on earth than wag our humble tools at other girls and boys. I thought of all the times when deep in romance I had gazed at a girl with heat, all asmarm with lust and bleary-brained. Goodrich rubber love. Launch with an ooga ooga and perhaps the mind on a movie star. Was it good indeed? Cornstarch with water for your thoughts.
I heard them enter after I slept a few hours but pretended I was asleep. There was talk about having a nightcap and I spied the lover in his nifty clothes putting on a record. Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin. Then my friend said, "That bitch finished everything in the house." I closed my eyes as tightly as possible sensing shoes near me. Poor wanderer has drink and suffers abuse. With only cheese and celery in the refrigerator for dinner. Worn out celery at that. They pattered through both sides of the record and I waited to hear something bad said about me whereupon I intended to jump up and tell them to fuck off but they only talked about their dinner host. And what part did the French girl play in their dark pursuits and may I watch. Farm boy molested by three-some, one toothsome. Can't tell what these dirty savages are up to behind my back—maybe she'll look at the pictures and attack my sleeping body. No luck. I slept before the mandarin struck home.
Mumbling in the room, coffee perking and teeth being brushed. I opened my eyes and stared up into the bare ass of the French girl who was leaning over the sink. But then my friend entered from the bedroom and glanced at me and told her that her ass was being started at by a gin pig. She tripped out of the room and I got up, yawned, and asked him why he had to ruin my small pleasures. He only laughed. We had coffee and I said I would replace the gin. He wondered how long I was going to stay and I said I was going home in the afternoon. He told me I would never be an artist if I stayed in the brutal Midwest. We all had a pleasant breakfast together—the lover had gone out to a bakery for croissants. I told the girl she had a beautiful ass but they shrugged in unison and looked at the Tiffany lamp above the table. A conspiracy against me. Cinch I couldn't work into their combination nohow as farmers say. Then I said that oddly enough her ass resembled those owned by American girls and that you couldn't tell by looking at it that she lived on snails and the Marshall Plan. This statement elicited an "Oh lordy" and a shush from my friend. She was embarrassed and I felt that I had forever lost my place in the art world.
I stopped at the fish hatchery again but got out this time and walked around the cement-wall-enclosed ponds and watched the huge trout slide along beneath the surface, gliding slowly, effortlessly with slight strokes of their tails. Someone shouted "hey" at me and I turned—a green-suited man told me officiously that it was six and the hatchery didn't open until eight. I introduced myself and I saw his face brighten up. He told me that he went to grade school with my father; we went into the hatchery building and looked at the tanks of minnows most of which were rainbows. They're a pleasant fish to catch but don't compare with brown trout for intelligence. We went into a back room where there was a coffeepot on a hotplate and a card table with a lunch bucket on it and some chairs. We sat and talked and he said that everyone was sorry about the accident. Fucking cars. The world's not fit to live in. Fucking war and politicians. Seven years since the accident. Yes. What do you do? Not much. Oh. Well back to work, you know.
I drove south again toward Big Rapids and turned east on impulse toward the other farm. May as well say hello to my grandmother who was eighty-three and lived alone now. An old black-top road with many potholes, a few meager-looking farms to each section. I passed a driveway into the woods where a great-uncle had lived as a hermit for fifty years. Drank a lot. Ate animals freshly run over on the road and trapped some, tilled a large garden and canned his food. He was always very jolly at family gatherings and liked to be teased about a near miss with marriage and responsibility that had taken place in 1922. He ate and drank himself into a giggling somnolence when food and drink were available, and then accused the others of cheating at the pinochle games that always followed dinner. Nelse, Olaf, Gustav, Victor, John, all over here by 1910 to escape the draft in Sweden. Tables turned now. Difference in that they don't chew tobacco any more and some of the Populist spirit is missing. And crazy gaiety about life. No three-day polka parties with tubs of herring and barrels of beer. I turned into the driveway with a terrible pull of homesickness in my chest. A shabby small brown-shingled farmhouse and are the cattle skulls still out there at the edge of the pond? I hope she's up but then she has been getting up at dawn all her life. The barn wasn't there but the granary and the remains of the pigpen and the chicken coop were. I turned and she was looking at me out the kitchen window. I went in and she fixed me breakfast and we talked slowly about the living and the dead. Her ancient blue liquid eyes and Norse accent. The house still the same except in 1956 my father had installed inside plumbing and there was no longer a wood stove in the kitchen. They had later rejected the gift of a TV set—too late in life to start something new. Some relatives had thought them thankless. I went upstairs and looked at some of the Seton and James Oliver Curwood books and then an entire shelf of Zane Grey novels. I opened a Swedish Bible and wished that I knew the language. Christ in Odin's language. In the attic I looked out at the granary and then at my feet saw the heavy brass spittoon my grandfather used and in the corner there were two steamer trunks that had carried belongings to America seventy years before. Never a cash income over a thousand a year. I went back downstairs and out through the barnyard to the granary. In the corner on a pile of old shelled corn was the harness for the two Belgian horses my grandfather once used, never having raised the price of a tractor. I dragged the harness back and threw it in the car—might bring it back to useless life with saddle soap. I said goodbye to her. We never kissed. Perhaps she had kissed me as a child.
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaBook"
}
| 5,963
|
Q: Need to convert entire case statement to varchar Writing a SQL extract for NACHRI submission. SSMS v17.6
Need weight in ounces converted to grams (whole number only), with an additional clause to change NULL values to '----' (four dashes-no quotes). This four dashes bit is causing the whole thing to need to be VARCHAR but I am not sure how to do that with a numeric equation.
I am getting
Error converting data type varchar to numeric
in the following case statement:
',CASE WHEN baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT > 0 THEN CEILING(baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT/0.035274)
when baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT is null then '----' end as weight_gm'
Examples of correct answers would look like this:
3534,
'----',
2784,
3556,
'----'
----
----
A: Use cast():
(CASE WHEN baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT > 0
THEN CAST(CEILING(baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT/0.035274) as VARCHAR(255))
WHEN baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT IS NULL
THEN '----'
END) as weight_gm
Or, assuming that weights are always greater than 0 (reasonable), then just use COALESCE():
COALESCE(CAST(CEILING(baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT/0.035274) as VARCHAR(255)), '----')
Note that you still need the CAST().
A: It would be better if you share table structures of baby.
Do you need the values as comma separated single field? Then use below query:
SELECT distinct
abc = STUFF(
(SELECT ',' + (CASE WHEN baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT > 0
THEN CAST(CEILING(baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT/0.035274) as VARCHAR(255))
WHEN baby.OB_DEL_BIRTH_WT IS NULL
THEN '''----'''
END) FROM baby FOR XML PATH ('')), 1, 1, ''
)
FROM baby
This will return a single row like this 3534, '----',2784,3556,'----'
|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaStackExchange"
}
| 39
|
living without microsoft
K Desktop Environment
I am an avid technophile. I currently have an iMac with Mac OS X and Mac OS 9.1 and an HP Pavilion PC running Win98 and Red Hat Linux 7.1. However, as much as people refer to Linux as a hackers' OS, the K Desktop Environment brings an altogether refreshing and — dare I say it? friendly interface to any Linux distribution, something so simple that even my mother prefers KDE to the Mac.
While at first glance this environment appears very similar to the various Windows GUI's, there is a lot more here than meets the eye. Unlike Windows KDE puts power in the hands of users instead of making potentially incorrect assumptions. Many areas, such as the the Panel (Taskbar in Winspeak) can be used in the same way as their Microsoft counterparts but do in fact offer a lot more options. For example, like the Windows taskbar the panel can be set to hide automatically but it can also be hidden temporarily using the left- or right-hand arrows. Just like the Windows version it allocates space for links to applications and documents but it also allows you to change between four different desktop spaces (if you are in need of more screen space), lock your screen, power off your computer and add functional modules called applets.
The desktop and the look and feel of the environment can be used in ways familiar to Windows users but they can also be extended and tweaked to an extent unknown in any proprietary software. And while the environment may at times be very similar in appearance and function to Windows it is not built on a legacy codebase so the interface runs more smoothly and uses system resources more efficiently.
In some areas KDE simply surpasses anything available commercially. For example, the open nature of Linux and many Linux utilities allows a lot of configuration for different programs to be done from a consolidated Control Center (known in the Windows world as Control Panel). This means you can install the drivers for a network adapter, set up your bootloader, configure your browser, add modules to your kernel, etc., all from one graphical window.
Another advantage of running on an open source OS with largely open source applications is the ability to include applications like KOffice, a suite of programs that (successfully) imitate the Microsoft Office suite, all bundled with KDE and all free. These applications duplicate all of MS Office's capabilities such as spreadsheets, presentations, word processed documents, and databases as well as adding a few new ones for good measure. The same concept is true for KDevelop an IDE for programming graphical and console applications that could successfully compete with MS Visual C++.
Overall Windows and KDE would perhaps be neck and neck in the race for GUI superiority were it not for KDE's inherently more stable, more efficient Linux foundation. Anything Windows can do KDE can do better.
PrevPreviousLiving Without the Desktop
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|
{
"redpajama_set_name": "RedPajamaCommonCrawl"
}
| 5,170
|
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