by nato ’ s powerful forces against a small country like serbia. “ i told him i was against all kinds of genocide or slaughters, regardless of the perpetrator, and that all ethnic groups and religions, without exception, are deserving of the right to life, culture and peace. “ if i have taken the liberty of explaining this, it is because i feel it is my duty to warn you of these dangers and of the need to solve them. to lay these issues on the table does no harm to anyone and can, on the contrary, benefit everyone. i again expressed my conviction that the serbs would resist, and that a peaceful settlement was, in my opinion, feasible, even though negotiating with a country on which thousands of bombs had been dropped and whose honor, dignity and economy had been dealt a harsh blow was by no means easy. “ nato has practically no more military targets to strike, perhaps only concentrated or moving troops remain, and the easiest thing for these troops would be to split up to wage another type of war in which they cannot be destroyed by air strikes. “ europe knows that ground combat would be very costly in terms of human lives and, what ’ s more, futile. i added that, were the serbs to deploy the strategy we would use in our country in the event of an invasion by the united states, an area in which they have already shown extraordinary experience, nato ’ s war would be futile and repulsive, an act of genocide in the heart of europe destined to be condemned everywhere ”. today is a glorious day for our country, the day on which carlos manuel de cespedes began cuba ’ s war of independence against the spanish metropolis. he was a source of inspiration for the generations of cubans who came after him. what he taught us was the duty to reflect on and confront the dangers that menace the human species today. fidel castro ruz october 10, 2007


the namespace contains windows desktop speech technology types for implementing speech recognition. the windows desktop speech technology software offers a basic speech recognition infrastructure that digitizes acoustical signals, and recovers words and speech elements from audio input. applications use the namespace to access and extend this basic speech recognition technology by defining algorithms for identifying and acting on specific phrases or word patterns, and by managing the runtime behavior of this speech infrastructure. you create grammars, which consist of a set of rules or constraints, to define words and phrases that your application will recognize as meaningful input. using a constructor for the grammar class, you can create a grammar object at runtime from grammarbuilder or srgsdocument instances, or from a file, a string, or a stream that contains a definition of a grammar. using the grammarbuilder and choices classes, you can programmatically create grammars of low to medium complexity that can be used to perform recognition for many common scenarios. to create grammars programmatically that conform to the speech recognition grammar specification 1. 0 ( srgs ) and take advantage of the authoring flexibility of srgs, use the types of the system. speech. recognition. srgsgrammar namespace. you can also create xml - format srgs grammars using any text editor and use the result to create grammarbuilder, srgsdocument, or grammar objects. in addition, the dictationgrammar class provides a special - case grammar to support a conventional dictation model. see create grammars in the system speech programming guide for. net framework 4. 0 for more information and examples. manage speech recognition engines you can use the speechrecognizer class to create client applications that use the speech recognition technology provided by windows, which you can configure through the control panel. such applications accept input through a computer ' s default audio input mechanism. for more control over the configuration and type of recognition engine, build an application using speechrecognitionengine, which runs in - process. using the speechrecognitionengine class, you can also dynamically select audio input from devices, files, or streams. see initialize and manage a speech recognition engine in the system speech programming guide for. net framework 4. 0 for more information. respond to events speechrecognizer and speechrecognitionengine objects generate events in response to audio input to the speech recognition engine. the audiolevelupdated, audiosigna


in recent years, interest in increasing the use of technology in elementary and secondary education has grown. numerous initiatives - both public and private - have provided discounted or free computers and internet access to schools and have encouraged the provision of technology - focused teacher professional development and training ( trotter 1999 ). these initiatives were predicated on the expectation that the use of technology in education can lead to a number of beneficial outcomes. in getting america ' s students ready for the 21st century, for example, the u. s. department of education ( 1996 ) asserts that technology has the potential to enhance the achievement of all students, increase families ' involvement in their children ' s schooling, improve teachers ' skills and knowledge, and improve school administration and management. to track changes in the availability of and access to technology, the national center for education statistics ( nces ) since 1994 has conducted a series of surveys of public and private elementary and secondary schools. this issue brief provides results from the most recent survey of technology in private schools, focusing on trends in the availability of and access to technology from 1995 to 1998. 1 in addition, this issue brief reports on the future connectivity plans of private schools not connected to the internet and on the advanced telecommunications training opportunities private schools offer their teachers. the number of students per computer is the measure commonly used to provide an indication of the prevalence of computers in schools. in 1998, there was an average of six students per computer in private schools, down from nine students per computer in private schools in 1995 ( table 1 ). in 1995 and in 1998, nonsectarian schools reported fewer students per computer on average than did catholic schools and other religious schools, and the student - to - computer ratio was lower on average in private secondary than in private elementary schools. another common measure of the prevalence of computers in schools is the number of students per instructional computer. 2 this measure excludes computers that may be used exclusively for administrative or other noninstructional purposes. in 1998, the average number of private school students per instructional computer was eight ( table 1 ). in public schools, there was an average of six students to each instructional computer in 1998 ( rowand 1999 ). non - sectarian private schools had a lower average student - to - in - structional computer ratio ( 6 : 1 ) than did catholic schools ( 8 : 1 ) and other religious schools ( 9 : 1 ). in addition, the student - to - instructional computer ratio was higher in private elementary schools ( 8 : 1 ) than in private secondary


you are here montana ' s house bill 183, which purports to " encourage critical thinking regarding controversial scientific theories " such as " biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, random mutation, natural selection, dna, and fossil discoveries, " was tabled in the house education committee on february 5, 2013. a montana legislator is preparing a bill to require the teaching of " intelligent design " along with evolution. house joint resolution 21, introduced by representative robin hamilton ( d - district 92 ) on january 26, 2007, in the montana house of representatives and referred to the committee on education, would, if enacted, express the montana legislature ' s recognition of the importance of separation of church and state and support of the right of local school board trustees to adopt a science curriculum based on sound scientific principles. two evolution - related measures have failed to progress through the montana legislature and are dead for this session. march 1 was the deadline for bills to pass in their first house. one potential bill, known by its draft number of lc1199, was never formally introduced. sponsored by rep. roger koopman, the bill had a short title reading : " allow teaching competing theories of origin ". this bill apparently never completed the drafting process. following last year ' s debate over evolution education in the small montana town of darby, two bills have been proposed in the montana legislature which take diametrically opposed stands on the place of evolution in the science classrooms of the state ' s public schools. on july 5, 2004, the school board in darby, montana voted 3 - 2 not to adopt a proposed " objective origins policy " on its second reading. the policy had been tentatively approved on february 2 at its first reading, but is now rejected. the proposal sparked intense local controversy and national media attention earlier this year. the fate of the policy became the central issue in the may school board election, where two policy supporters were decisively defeated by opponents, resulting in the change in board majority from " pro " to " anti ". after the may 4, 2004, school board election in darby, montana, the proposed " objective origins " policy is likely to be dead in the water. roxanne cleasby, a parent in helena, montana, was attempting to have a book about horses ( juliet clutton - brock ' s horse ) removed from her local elementary school library because it devotes two pages to discussing equine evolution. a parent in helena, montana, is attempting to have a book about horses removed from her local


the icm and the igm show metal lines in the x - ray spectra. these metals cannot have been produced in the gas, but they must have been produced in the galaxies and subsequently transported from the galaxies into the icm / igm by certain processes like e. g. ram - pressure stripping, galactic winds, galaxy - galaxy interaction or jets from active galaxies. the metallicity is the best indicator for finding out which of these processes are most important. of special interest is the distribution of metals. so far there are only few examples of measured metallicity variations in real 2d maps and not only profiles. in cl0939 + 4713 we find different metallicity in the different subclusters ( de filippis et al. 2002 ). in the perseus cluster also clear metallicity variations were found ( schmidt et al. 2002 ). 1d profiles are not very useful in this context because photons from regions in the cluster which are very far apart are accumulated in the same spectrum. apart from the metallicity distribution also the evolution of the metallicity is interesting. as soon as enough xmm and chandra observations of distant clusters are available we can compare the metallicities in these clusters with those of nearby clusters. this is another way of distinguishing between the enrichment processes as different processes have different time dependence. in addition element ratios can be derived, e. g of fe and - elements to get information on the different types of supernovae that have contributed to the metal enrichment. various processes have been suggested for the transport of gas from the galaxies to the icm / igm. 30 years ago gunn & gott ( 1972 ) suggested ram - pressure stripping : as the galaxy moves through the cluster and approaches the cluster centre it feels the increasing pressure of the intra - cluster gas. at some point the galaxy is not able anymore to retain its ism. the ism is stripped off and lost to the icm and with it all its metals. many numerical simulations have been performed to investigate this process, first 2d models ( takeda et al. 1984 ; gaetz et al. 1987 ; portnoy et al. 1993 ; balsara et al. 1994 ). with increasing computing power also more detailed 3d models could be calculated ( abadi et al. 1999 ; quilis et al. 2000 ; vollmer et al. 2001 ; schulz & struck 2001 ; toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). in fig. 6 such a simulated stripping process is shown for an elliptical galaxy. figure


1999 ; quilis et al. 2000 ; vollmer et al. 2001 ; schulz & struck 2001 ; toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). in fig. 6 such a simulated stripping process is shown for an elliptical galaxy. figure 6. gas density ( grey scale ) and pressure ( contours ) of a galaxy moving downwards towards the cluster centre. the arrows show the mach vectors ( white when m > 1, black otherwise ). the gas of the galaxy is stripped due to ram pressure ( from toniazzo & schindler 2001 ). another possible process is galactic winds e. g. driven by supernovae ( de young 1978 ). also for this process simulations have been performed on order to see whether only winds can account for the observed metallicities. the results were quite discordant as the following two examples show. metzler & evrard ( 1994, 1997 ) found that winds can account for the metals, while murakami & babul ( 1999 ) concluded that winds are not very efficient for the metal enrichment. in the simulations of metzler & evrard quite steep metallicity gradients showed up which are not in agreement with observations. a third possible process is galaxy - galaxy interactions, like tidal stripping or galaxy harassment. also during these interactions a lot of ism can be lost to the icm and igm. this process is very likely more efficient in groups of galaxies, because in these systems the relative velocities are smaller and therefore the interaction timescales are longer. the ram - pressure stripping on the other hand is probably less efficient in groups because not only the pressure of the igm is lower than that of the icm, but also the velocities are smaller. this is also very important as the stripping is about proportional to gas v2. a forth possible mechanism is jets emitted by active galaxies. these jets can also carry metals. fig. 7 shows the interaction of jets with the icm as it was discovered by x - ray observations. in the cluster rbs797 minima in the x - ray emission have been detected in a chandra observation ( schindler et al. 2001 ). the x - ray depressions are arranged opposite with respect to the cluster centre. it is very likely that the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas. preliminary radio observations with the vla confirm this hypothesis. figure 7. chandra image of the central part of the cluster rbs797 (


that the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas. preliminary radio observations with the vla confirm this hypothesis. figure 7. chandra image of the central part of the cluster rbs797 ( from schindler et al. 2001 ). there are depressions in the x - ray emission which are located opposite to each other with respect to the cluster centre ( see arrows ). these depressions can be explained by an active galaxy in the centre of the cluster, which has two jets. the pressure of the relativistic particles in the jets push away the x - ray gas resulting in minima in the x - ray emission. simulations with different enrichment processes were also performed on cosmological scales. also here quite discordant results have been found as the two following examples show. gnedin ( 1998 ) found that galactic winds play only a minor role, while galaxy mergers eject most of the gas. in contrary to these results aguirre et al. ( 2001 ) concluded that winds are most important and ram - pressure stripping is not very efficient. the reason for these differences are probably the large ranges in scale that are covered by these simulations, from cosmological scale down to galaxy scales. therefore only a small number of particles are left for each single galaxy and hence galaxies are not well resolved. this can be the reason for the discordant results. in order to clarify this we are currently performing comprehensive simulations, which include the different enrichment processes.


this might be a rare case about which einstein was wrong. more than 60 years ago, the great physicist scoffed at the idea that anything could travel faster than light, even though quantum mechanics had suggested such a condition. now four swiss researchers have brought the possibility closer to reality. testing a concept called " spooky action at a distance " - - a phrase used by einstein in criticizing the phenomenon - - they have shown that two subatomic particles can communicate nearly instantaneously, even if they are separated by cosmic distances. alice ' s wonderland had nothing on quantum physics, which describes a bizarre state of matter and energy. not only can the same atom exist in two locations at once, but merely attempting to observe a particle will alter its properties. perhaps least intuitive is the characteristic called entanglement. as described by quantum mechanics, it means that two entangled particles can keep tabs on each other no matter how far apart they are. physicists have been trying for decades to determine whether this property is real and what might cause it. in the process, they ' ve uncovered evidence for it but not much about its properties. physicist nicolas gisin and colleagues at the university of geneva in switzerland split off pairs of quantum - entangled photons and sent them from the university ' s campus through two fiber - optic cables to two swiss villages located 18 kilometers apart. thinking of the photons like traffic lights, each passed through specially designed detectors that determined what " color " they were when entering the cable and what color they appeared to be when they reached the terminus. the experiments revealed two things : first, the physical properties of the photons changed identically during their journey, just as predicted by quantum theory - - when one turned " red, " so did the other. second, there was no detectable time difference between when those changes occurred in the photons, as though an imaginary traffic controller had signaled them both. the result, the team reports in tomorrow ' s issue of nature, is that whatever was affecting the photons seems to have happened nearly instantaneously and that according to their calculations, the phenomenon influencing the particles had to be traveling at least 10, 000 times faster than light. given einstein ' s standard speed limit on light traveling within conventional spacetime, the experiments show that entanglement might be controlled by something existing beyond it. gisin says that once the scientific community " accepts that nature has this ability, we should try to create models that explain it. " although the research doesn ' t demonstrate spooky action


yahweh had forbidden israel all kinds of oracles in vogue among the pagans. if, for a time, he consented to reply by urim and thummim ( apparently a species of sacred lots which the high - priest carried in the cincture of his ephod, and consulted at the request of the public authorities in matters of graver moment ), yet he always abominated those who had recourse to divination and magic, practiced augury and enchantment, trusted in charms, consulted soothsayers or wizards, or interrogate the spirits of the dead ( deuteronomy 18 : 9 sqq. ). speaking of orthodox yahweism, balaam could truthfully say " there is no soothsaying in jacob, nor divination in israel. in their times it shall be told to jacob and to israel what god hath wrought " ( numbers 23 : 23 ). for the absence of other oracles, the chosen people were indeed more than compensated by a gift unique in the annals of mankind, to wit, the gift of prophecy and the prophetic office. ( 1 ) general idea the hebrew prophet was not merely, as the word commonly implies, a man enlightened by god to foretell events ; he was the interpreter and supernaturally enlightened herald sent by yahweh to communicate his will and designs to israel. his mission consisted in preaching as well as in foretelling. he had to maintain and develop the knowledge of the old law among the chosen people, lead them back when they strayed, and gradually prepare the way for the new kingdom of god, which the messias was to establish on earth. prophecy, in general, signifies the supernatural message of the prophet, and more especially, from custom, the predictive element of the prophetic message. ( 2 ) the hebrew names the ordinary hebrew for prophet is nabi '. its etymology is uncertain. according to many recent critics, the root nabi, not employed in hebrew, signified to speak enthusiastically, " to utter cries, and make more or less wild gestures ", like the pagan mantics. judging from a comparative examination of the cognate words in hebrew and the other semitic tongues, it is at least equally probable that the original meaning was merely : to speak, to utter words ( cf. laur, " die prophetennamen des a. t. ", fribourg, 1903, 14 - 38 ).


, it is at least equally probable that the original meaning was merely : to speak, to utter words ( cf. laur, " die prophetennamen des a. t. ", fribourg, 1903, 14 - 38 ). the historic meaning of nabi ' established by biblical usage is " interpreter and mouthpiece of god ". this is forcibly illustrated by the passage, where moses, excusing himself from speaking to pharao on account of his embarrassment of speech, was answered by yahweh : " behold i have appointed thee the god of pharao : and aaron thy brother shall be thy prophet. thou shalt speak to him all that i command thee ; and he shall speak to pharao, that he let the children of israel go out of his land " ( exodus 7 : 1 - 2 ). moses plays towards the king of egypt the role of god, inspiring what is to be uttered, and aaron is the prophet, his mouthpiece, transmitting the inspired message he shall receive. the greek prophetes ( from pro - phanai, to speak for, or in the name of someone ) translates the hebrew accurately. the greek prophet was the revealer of the future, and the interpreter of divine things, especially of the obscure oracles of the pythoness. poets were the prophets of the muses : inspire me, muse, thy prophet i shall be " ( pindar, bergk, fragm. 127 ). the word nabi ' expresses more especially a function. the two most usual synonyms ro ' eeh and hozeh emphasize more clearly the special source of the prophetic knowledge, the vision, that is, the divine revelation or inspiration. both have almost the same meaning ; hozeh is employed, however, much more frequently in poetical language and almost always in connexion with a supernatural vision, whereas ra ' ah, of which ro ' eh is the participle, is the usual word for to see in any manner. the compiler of the first book of kings ( ix, 9 ) informs us that before his time ro ' eh was used where nabi ' was then employed. hozeh is found much more frequently from the days of amos. there were other less specific or more unusual terms employed, the meaning of which is clear, such as, messenger of god, man of god, servant of god, man of the spirit, or inspired man, etc. it is only rarely, and at a later period,


or more unusual terms employed, the meaning of which is clear, such as, messenger of god, man of god, servant of god, man of the spirit, or inspired man, etc. it is only rarely, and at a later period, that prophecy is called nebu ' ah, a cognate of nabi ' ; more ordinarily we find hazon, vision, or word of god, oracle ( ne um ) of yahweh, etc. ( 1 ) the first person entitled nabi ' in the old testament is abraham, father of the elect, the friend of god, favoured with his personal communications ( genesis 20 : 7 ). the next is moses, the founder and lawgiver of the theocratic nation, the mediator of the old covenant holding a degree of authority unequalled till the coming of jesus christ. " and there arose no more a prophet in israel like unto moses, whom the lord knew face to face, in all the signs and wonders, which he sent by him, to do in the land of egypt to pharao, and to all his servants, and to his whole land, and all the mighty hand, and great miracles, which moses did before all israel " ( deuteronomy 34 : 10 sqq. ). there were other prophets with him, but only of the second rank, such as aaron and maria, eldad and medad, to whom yahweh manifested himself in dreams and vision, but not in the audible voice with which he favoured him, who was most faithful in all his house ( numbers 12 : 7 ). of the four institutions concerning which moses enacted laws according to deuteronomy ( 14 : 18 - 18 ), one was prophecy ( 18 : 9 - 22 ; cf. 13 : 1 - 5, and exodus 4 : 1 sqq. ). israel was to listen to the true prophets, and not to heed the false but rather to extirpate them, even had they the appearance of miracle - workers. the former would speak in the name of yahweh, the one god ; and foretell things that would be accomplished or be confirmed by miracles. the latter were to come in the name of the false gods, or teach a doctrine evidently erroneous, or vainly endeavour to foretell events. later prophetic writers added as other signs of the false prophets, cupidity, flattery of the people or the nobles, or the promise of divine favour for the


a doctrine evidently erroneous, or vainly endeavour to foretell events. later prophetic writers added as other signs of the false prophets, cupidity, flattery of the people or the nobles, or the promise of divine favour for the nation weighed down with crime. balaam is both a prophet and a soothsayer ; a professional soothsayer it would seem, of whom yahweh makes use to proclaim even in moab the glorious destiny of the chosen people, when he was about to lead them into the promised land ( numbers 22 - 24 ). in the time of the judges, in addition to an unnamed prophet ( judges 6 : 8 - 10 ), we meet with debbora ( judges 4 - 5 ), " a mother in israel ", judging the people, and communicating the divine orders concerning the war of independence to barac and the tribes. the word of god was rare in those days of anarchy and semi - apostasy, when yahweh partly abandoned israel to render it conscious of its feebleness and its sins. in the days of samuel, on the contrary, prophecy became a permanent institution. samuel was a new but lesser moses, whose divine mission it was to restore the code of the elder, and to supervise the beginning of the royalty. under his guidance, or at least closely united to him, we find for the first time the nebi ' im ( 1 samuel 10 : 19 ) grouped together to sing the praises of god to the accompaniment of musical instruments. they are not prophets in the strict sense of the word, nor are they disciples of the prophets destined to become masters in their turn ( the so - called " schools of prophets " ). did they wander about spreading the oracles of samuel among the people? possibly ; at all events, in order to waken the faith of israel and increase the dignity of divine worship, they seem to have received charismata similar to those bestowed upon the early christians in the apostolic days. they may not ineptly be compared with the families of singers gathered around david, under the direction of their three leaders, asaph, heman, and idithum ( 1 chronicles 25 : 1 - 8 ). doubtless the bene - nebi ' im of the days of elias, and eliseus the " disciples of the prophets ", or " members of the confraternities of the prophets ", forming at least three communities, domiciled respectively at gilgal, bethel, and


them the warnings he was to receive. the other prophets are silent on the subject of their vocation ; doubtless they also received it as clearly and irresistibly. to the preaching and predictions of the false prophets uttering the fancies of their hearts and saying " the word of yahweh " when yahweh spoke to them not, they fearlessly oppose their own oracles as coming from heaven and compelling under penalty of revolt against god. and the manifest sanctity of their lives, the miracles wrought, the prophecies accomplished demonstrate to their contemporaries the truth of their claims. we also separated from them by thousands of years should be convinced by two irrefragable proofs among others : the great phenomenon of messianism culminating in christ and the church, and the excellence of the religious and moral teaching of the prophets. ( 2 ) supernatural knowledge : inspiration and revelation ( a ) the fact of revelation the prophet did not receive merely a general mission of preaching or predicting in yahweh ' s name : each of his words is divine, all his teaching is from above, that is, it comes to him by revelation or at least by inspiration. among the truths he preaches, there are some which he knows naturally by the light of reason or experience. it is not necessary for him to learn them from god, just as if he had been entirely ignorant of them. it suffices if the divine illumination places them in a new light, strengthens his judgment and preserves it from error concerning these facts, and if a supernatural impulse determines his will to make them the object of his message. this oral inspiration of the prophets bears an analogy to the scriptural inspiration, in virtue of which the prophets and hagiographers composed our canonical books. the entire contents of the prophetic message is not, therefore, within the compass of the natural faculties of the divine messenger. the object of all strictly so - called prediction requires a new manifestation and illumination ; unaided the prophet would remain in more or less absolute obscurity. this, then, is revelation in the full sense of the term. ( b ) manner of the revelatory communications ; canons for the interpretation of the prophecies and their fulfilment in the words of st. john of the cross and the doctors of mysticism have a special right to be heard in this matter " god multiplies the means of transmitting these revelations ; at one time he makes use of words, at another of signs, figures,


of god any erroneous interpretation. it has likewise been long known that the vision very frequently disregards distances of time and place, and that the messias or the messianic era almost always appears on the immediate horizon of contemporary history. if to this we add the frequently conditional character of the oracles ( cf. jeremiah 18 ; 24 : 17 sqq. etc. ), and remember moreover that the prophets convey their message in words of eloquence, expressed in oriental poetry, so rich in striking colours and bold figures, the pretended distinction between realized and unrealized prophecies, predictions substantially accurate but erroneous in detail, will disappear. ( c ) state of the prophet during the vision ordinarily the vision occurred when the prophet was awake. dreams, of which the false prophets made ill use, are scarcely ever mentioned in the case of true prophets. much has been said about the ecstatic state of the latter. possibly the soul of the prophet may have been at times, as happened to the mystics, so absorbed by the activity of the spiritual faculties that the activity of the senses was suspended, though no definite instance can be cited. in any case, we must remember what st. jerome ( in isaiam, prolog. in p. l., xxiv, 19 ) and st. john chrysostom ( in i cor. homil. xxix in p. g., lxi, 240 sqq. ) remarked that the prophets always retained their self - consciousness and were never subject to the disordered and degrading psychic conditions of the pagan soothsayers and pythias ; and, instead of enigmatical and puerile sybilline oracles, their pronouncements were often sublime and always worthy of god. ( 1 ) the exterior form they usually taught orally. to this they often added symbolical acts which accorded with oriental tastes and caught the attention of their hearers. jeremias, for instance, wandered through jerusalem under a wooden yoke, symbolizing the approaching subjugation of the nations by the king of babylon. the false prophet hananias, having taken this yoke and broken it on the ground, receives this answer, in the name of yahweh " thou hast broken chains of wood, and thou shalt make for them chains of iron " ( xxviii, 13 ). jeremias and ezechiel make frequent use of this method of instruction. amos


ad ’ ihani pentathlon ( sometimes quadrathlon ) is a multi - discipline winter sport developed in ad ’ ihan that is widely practised in both ad ’ ihan and liventia. the sport was first created in ad ’ ihan in 2129 and quickly became popular in present - day liventia, which sees more winter weather and had more winter sports facilities than its then - island territory. it is sometimes referred to as a " winter pentathlon ", although there are different variations on the disciplines which make up a winter pentathlon. ad ’ ihani pentathlon consists of five disciplines, two of which are combined into a single discipline thus leading to the sport also being called a quadrathlon. the five disciplines are alpine skiing, ski jumping ( for men ) / skeleton ( for women ), speed skating, cross - country skiing and shooting, with the latter two being component disciplines of biathlon. the alpine skiing discipline has always been run as a downhill event and ski jumping has traditionally taken place on the normal hill. the distance of the speed skating race is always 1000 metres, regardless of gender, while the biathlon race is always held at sprint distance, meaning 7. 5 km for women and 10 km for men. records are not kept in the sport as the layouts of alpine skiing, skeleton and biathlon courses change from location to location, although the ad ’ ihani pentathlon sport union ( apsu ) recognises location records. where there is no biathlon shooting range available, the apsu allows for that discipline to be contested in its component parts as a 10 km ( for men ) or 7. 5 km ( for women ) cross - country skiing race with a separate shooting event held at an indoor range, with time penalties added to the cross - country timing for missed shots. the quadrathlon / pentathlon operates a points system as in heptathlon or decathlon, rather than a combined time system as in triathlon or a points system equalised prior to the final event as in modern pentathlon. similar to heptathlon or decathlon, the points system follows the formula pts = a × ( b - t ) c, where t is the timed performance in seconds ( for downhill, biathlon, speed skating and skeleton ) and pts = a × ( s − b ) c where s is the score the athlete has received for his ski jump. where an athlete fails to start, fails to finish or


these days, the use of database stored procedures is regarded by many as a bad practice. those that dislike stored procedures tend to regard them as incompatible with the three - tier architecture : by breaking up an application into tiers, developers only have to modify or add a specific layer, rather than have to rewrite the entire application over. there should be a presentation tier, a business or data access tier, and a data tier. this is illustrated as follows : note that the " tiers " in the figure should actually be labelled " layers ", for as the accompanying wikipedia article says : the concepts of layer and tier are often used interchangeably. however, one fairly common point of view is that there is indeed a difference, and that a layer is a logical structuring mechanism for the elements that make up the software solution, while a tier is a physical structuring mechanism for the system infrastructure. in fact, those that argue that stored procedures are bad tend to equate the three logical layers with three physical tiers : - data layer = data tier ( database ) - logic layer = middle tier ( application server ) - presentation layer = presentation tier but if we accept the above definition of " layers " and " tiers ", it is obvious that the following is a valid mapping as well : - data layer = data tier ( database ) - logic layer = data tier ( database ) - presentation layer = presentation tier in other words, the database becomes our " logic layer " through the use of database stored procedures, which, as the name implies, are physically stored ( and executed ) in the database. ( and although i use the term " stored procedure ", i ' m primarily talking about oracle and pl / sql, where the pl / sql code should be put in packages rather than stand - alone procedures. ) but why is this a bad idea? in fact, as it turns out, it might not be a bad idea at all. the usual reasons given against the use of stored procedures for " business logic " ( or for anything at all, really ) tend to be myths ( or outright lies ), repeated so many times that they are taken as the truth. so let ' s bust these myths, once and for all. and whenever someone argues against stored procedures using one of these myths, just give them a link to this blog post. ( and leave comments to prove me wrong, if you will. ) myth # 1 : stored procedures can ' t be version controlled stored procedure code lives in text files, which can


it is claimed that putting logic in the database " mixes concerns ", which must be a bad thing. the problem with " business logic " is that nobody has a clear definition of what it is ( but " you ' ll know it when you see it " ). for example, where do you draw the line between " data logic " and " business logic "? primary keys, foreign key constraints, unique key constraints, not null constraints, check constraints - - are these " data logic " or " business logic "? " discount must be between 0 % and 5 % ", is that a business rule or a data constraint, and / or is it a validation rule in the presentation layer? the fact is, if you move all your logic into stored procedures, you entirely avoid the " mixing of concerns " between the data tier and the logic tier. ( and if you think such an approach dooms your project to failure, consider the next myth, which features an example of a massive [ and wildly successful ] application written entirely in the database. ) oh, and by the way, if your business logic is somewhere else than in the database, you always run the risk of someone or something bypassing your middle tier ( for example by logging in with sql * plus ), directly updating the database and possibly corrupting the data. so let ' s turn this around and conclude instead that : " if your business logic is not in the database, it is only a recommendation. " myth # 11 : stored procedures can ' t scale a frequent argument against stored procedures is that by placing all the work in the database server, your solution won ' t be able to scale up, because you need " application servers " in the middle tier to do that. the scalability of the database is limited by the fact that you can only have a single database server ( or you need to rewrite your code to work with partitioned / sharded databases like facebook have done ). of course, a lot of the people who throw around this kind of argument have never worked on an application or website which needed to scale up to millions of users ( and to be clear, neither have i ). that ' s because the vast majority of us work on much smaller enterprise business systems or " normal " websites ( perhaps even the kind of website that can be well served with free database software on a server with less juice than your laptop ). but stored procedures can scale. it ' s only a matter of money. and if you have millions of users,


due process as separation of powers nathan s. chapman stanford constitutional law center michael w. mcconnell stanford law school february 14, 2012 yale law journal, forthcoming stanford public law working paper no. 2005406 from its conceptual origin in magna charta, due process of law has required that government can only deprive persons of rights pursuant to a coordinated effort of separate institutions that make, execute, and adjudicate claims under the law. originalist debates about whether the fifth or fourteenth amendments were understood to entail modern " substantive due process " have obscured the way that many american lawyers and courts understood due process to limit the legislature from the revolutionary era through the civil war. they understood due process to prohibit legislatures from directly depriving persons of rights, especially vested property rights, because it was the court ' s role to do so pursuant to established and general law. this principle was applied against insufficiently general and prospective legislative acts under a variety of state and federal constitutional provisions through the antebellum era. contrary to the claims of some scholars, however, there was virtually no precedent before the fourteenth amendment for invalidating laws that restricted liberty or the use of property. contemporary resorts to originalism to support modern due process doctrines are therefore misplaced. understanding due process as a particular instantiation of separation of powers does, however, shed new light on a number of key 20th century cases which have not been fully analyzed under the requirements of due process of law. number of pages in pdf file : 116 keywords : constitution, due process, due process of law, separation of powers, legislative power, constitutional history, originalismaccepted paper series date posted : february 19, 2012 © 2013 social science electronic publishing, inc. all rights reserved. this page was processed by apollo2 in 0. 437 seconds


cross - posted at grist. a recent post on grist attempted to dismantle the intellectual foundations of free market environmentalism — the application of markets and property rights to solve environmental problems. but far from toppling a burgeoning movement within modern environmentalism, it succeeded only in misrepresenting the subject. to recap : clark williams - derry claimed that while free market environmentalism may be effective in some areas of the environment ( e. g., fisheries management ), its reliance upon unrealistic assumptions about the real world largely relegates it to useless intellectual theorizing. in particular, the coase theorem — an important component of market - based environmentalism named for nobel prize - winning economist ronald coase — amounts to “ a quirky but not particularly relevant bit of theoretical math. ” while there is certainly much more to free market environmentalism than the work of coase ( see terry anderson and donald leal ’ s book free market environmentalism for more details ), i focus here mostly on the misinformed critique of coase that has been used to discredit free market environmentalism. so, who is coase, what is his theorem, and what does it have to do with free market environmentalism? ronald coase ’ s 1960 paper “ the problem of social cost ” challenged the way economists thought about competing uses of resources. in short, the coase theorem states that if property rights are fully specified and the costs of coordinating transactions between agents are zero, bargaining will lead to an efficient outcome, regardless of how rights are initially assigned. to illustrate : suppose a farmer and a refinery are both located along a river. according to the coase theorem, as long as property rights to the use of the river are clearly defined and the costs of transacting with one another are zero, the amount of effluent disposed in the river by the refinery will be the same regardless of who has the property right. if the farmer had the right to have the river ’ s water free of the refinery ’ s waste, the refinery could compensate him in exchange for a partial right to discharge effluent into the river. if the refinery had the right to use the river for effluent discharge, the farmer could compensate the refinery in exchange for less effluent released into the river. in this stylized example, voluntary negotiations between the farmer and the refinery will result in the optimal amount of effluent discharged in the river, as long as property rights are defined to


in exchange for less effluent released into the river. in this stylized example, voluntary negotiations between the farmer and the refinery will result in the optimal amount of effluent discharged in the river, as long as property rights are defined to one of them. this would occur without taxes imposed, water - use regulations devised, or subsidies doled out to try to control the use of the river. but as was correctly noted ( and astute readers have no doubt picked up on ), the real world is much more complex ; negotiation is costly, multiple agents are often affected, and information is diffuse. so, coase ’ s theorem — and free market environmentalism in general — is irrelevant in the real world, right? wrong. coase ’ s chief accomplishment was to encourage the economics profession to move away from the abstract mathematical tinkering that often bears no resemblance to the real world. he introduced the world to the reality of transaction costs, the costs of coordinating exchanges in the market. for decades, economists had devised policy prescriptions based on faulty assumptions of perfect competition, complete information, and, although it wasn ’ t framed in these terms, zero transaction costs. as coase later wrote, “ what my argument does suggest is the need to introduce positive transaction costs explicitly into economic analysis so that we can study the world that exists. ” despite the claim that his theory is “ mathematical, ” coase ’ s work lacks even a single equation. coase ’ s ideas are about reality, not theoretical math – a reason why he rejects what he calls “ blackboard economics ” because “ it does not study the real world. ” building upon coase ’ s essay on social cost, economists began focusing attention on property rights institutions and their ability to lower transaction costs. free market environmentalism recognizes that when property rights are well defined, disputes over resource use can often be resolved locally and cooperatively. this is in sharp contrast to the conventional command - and - control approach to environmentalism that is characterized by top - down management, special interests, and zero - sum “ i - win - you - lose ” outcomes. this is not to say free market environmentalists don ’ t believe in the presence of high transaction costs. to be sure, sufficiently high transaction costs can present significant hurdles for market - based solutions. but oftentimes, this presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs to step in and define property rights that lower such costs. these environmental entrepreneurs, call them “ enviropreneurs, ” are the often - unreco


for market - based solutions. but oftentimes, this presents an opportunity for entrepreneurs to step in and define property rights that lower such costs. these environmental entrepreneurs, call them “ enviropreneurs, ” are the often - unrecognized agents of change that contract with rights holders to keep water instream for fish and wildlife habitat, compensate livestock owners for their losses due to wolf depredation, and develop ecosystem services markets for water quality and endangered species habitat. of course, the transaction costs associated with some environmental problems can be too high for even entrepreneurs to handle. for property rights and markets, the atmosphere is in many ways the new frontier. however, in such instances, the common law legal system historically played an important role in resolving resource conflicts in a coasean manner. before being shoved aside in the 1970s by the more politically attractive federal statute law, common law made it clear that no polluter had the right to impose unwanted costs on the owners of private property. centuries of legal precedence affirmed that people had a legal right to have their property free from pollution. upon examining the history the common law, economists roger meiners and bruce yandle concluded that the common law “ can protect the environment more effectively and fairly than can congressional statutes and bureaucratic regulations. ” when property rights are well defined, the free market environmentalism approach is bottom - up, not top - down. this addresses the key knowledge problem that plagues much of environmental policy. how do distant policymakers possess the information necessary to design the “ socially optimal ” tax, regulation, or subsidy that will result in the optimal level of pollution? it is here that the ideas of another, perhaps more important, luminary of free market environmentalism, f. a. hayek, come to light. knowledge in society is dispersed and “ not given to anyone in its totality, ” he wrote in his seminal 1945 article. hayek suggested that the information required to effectively allocate resources depends on very specific circumstances of time and place. because of this fact, the spontaneous ordering among the many supersedes the special wisdom of the few. hayek ’ s emphasis on market institutions and decentralized decision making is the essence of free market environmentalism. curiously, many discussions of environmental policy ignore hayek ’ s knowledge problem, assuming instead that regulators and politicians will yield effective environmental results. but alas, much server space has been occupied by those frustrated with the sad result of political environmentalism. critics admonish free market environmentalism because “


an international research team has discovered that a pervasive human rna modification provides the physiological underpinning of the genetic regulatory process that contributes to obesity and type ii diabetes. european researchers showed in 2007 that the fto gene was the major gene associated with obesity and type ii diabetes, but the details of its physiological and cellular functioning remained unknown. now, a team led by university of chicago chemistry professor chuan he has demonstrated experimentally the importance of a reversible rna modification process mediated by the fto protein upon biological regulation. he and 10 co - authors from chicago, china and england published the details of their finding in the oct. 16 advance online edition of nature chemical biology. he and his colleagues have shown, for the first time, the existence of the reversible rna modification process called methylation and that it potentially impacts protein expression and function through its action on a common rna base : adenosine. the process is reversible because it can involve the addition or removal of a methyl group from adenosine. the team found that the fto protein mediates cellular removal of the methyl group. " an improved understanding of the normal functions of fto, as exemplified by this work, could aid the development of novel anti - obesity therapies, " said stephen o ' rahilly, professor of clinical biochemistry and director of the metabolic research laboratories at the university of cambridge. o ' rahilly, a leading researcher in obesity and metabolic disease who also has studied fto, was not directly involved in he ' s project. " variants around the fto gene have consistently been associated with human obesity and artificial manipulation of the fto gene in mice clearly demonstrates that fto plays a crucial role in the regulation of body weight, " o ' rahilly explained. " however, the development of a deeper understanding of the normal biological role of fto has been challenging. " scientists already had demonstrated that fto removes methyl groups from nucleic acids, but only on one rare type of dna or rna methylation. the new research from he and his colleagues shows that fto also acts on the common messenger rna modification called n6 - methyladenosine, o ' rahilly said. the paper arose from he ' s investigations of the alkb family of proteins that act on nucleic acids. based on this work, he and his collaborators proved that human cells exhibit reversible methylation of rna bases, which significantly impact critical life processes. important but mysterious every human messenger rna carries on average three to six


that act on nucleic acids. based on this work, he and his collaborators proved that human cells exhibit reversible methylation of rna bases, which significantly impact critical life processes. important but mysterious every human messenger rna carries on average three to six methylations on adenosine. scientists knew these methylations were extremely important but their function remained a mystery, he said. " for the first time, we show that these methylations are reversible and play a key role in human energy homeostasis, " the process by which the body maintains a complex biochemical dynamic equilibrium. the modification of n6 - methyladenosine in messenger rna is pervasive throughout the mammal kingdom and many other organisms. despite its abundance, this modification ' s exact functional role remains unknown, he said. but his team ' s discovery strongly indicates that the modification has major roles in messenger rna metabolism. the finding may open a new research field rna epigenetics for delving into the realm of biological regulatory processes, he said. the epigenetics of dna and histones ( proteins that package dna in human cells ) have become well - explored topics on the frontiers of biological research over the last 10 to 20 years. " it is safe to say 50 percent of biologists work on subjects related to epigenetics one way or another, " he said. dna ( deoxyribonucleic acid ) for decades has reigned as king over biological research on epigenetics of nucleic acids, as he noted in the december 2010 issue of nature chemical biology. rna ( ribonucleic acid ) modification was regarded more as a vassal that merely fine - tunes gene expression and regulation, until this recent discovery, which confirms the speculation by he and others that rna modification has secretly wielded a far greater genetic influence than anyone had previously suspected. that ' s why, as he wrote last year, " reversible rna modification might represent another realm for biological regulation in the form of ' rna epigenetics. ' " explore further : scientists develop advanced biological computer more information : " n6 - methyladenosine in nuclear rna is a major substrate of the obesity - associated fto, " by guifang jia, ye fu, xu zhao, qing dai, guanqun zheng, ying yang, chengqi yi, tomas lindahl, tao pan, yun - gui yang and chuan he, nature chemical biology, advance online publication oct. 16, 2011. " rna epigenetics


( physorg. com ) - - technology developed at the university of nottingham will be giving james bond the edge over his enemies when the latest high octane 007 adventure hits cinema screens later this week. when daniel craig reprises the role of fleming ' s iconic superspy in the quantum of solace, he will continue the franchise ' s special relationship with aston martin by taking the wheel of their flagship model, the dbs. and a new lightweight but super strong material developed by researchers in the university ' s polymer composites group, in collaboration with aston martin engineers, will be helping to ensure that any high - speed chases leave him stirred, but not shaken. underneath the cool, sleek exterior of the dbs is a highly engineered body structure which contains components made using a unique process, directed carbon fibre preforming ( dcfp ). during the process, carbon fibres are placed by a robot into a carefully controlled form and epoxy resin is injected around the fibres to create a carbon fibre composite component. the dcfp process produces a material that is both light and incredibly strong and is able to withstand huge impacts in the event of a crash, making it ideal in the use of high performance cars like the dbs. in addition to this, the material is greener than many of its mainstream counterparts as it can be recycled in accordance with european vehicle end of life directives. professor nick warrior, in the university ' s faculty of engineering, said it was exciting to think that technology which originated in nottingham would be seen by cinema - goers around the world. he added : “ the high strength and low weight characteristics of the dcfp have enabled the aston martin designers to increase the performance of the dbs reduce its fuel consumption and ultimately minimise 007 ' s carbon footprint — we hope to be able to spin - out dcfp to more affordable vehicles in the near future. ” the dcfp process is part of a longstanding research collaboration between the university of nottingham and aston martin. a unique carbon fibre 3 - d braiding process, developed by the research group, was an integral component used in the windscreen pillar of the aston martin vanquish, seen in the 20th james bond film, die another day. the dcfp technology was also used in the aston martin dbsv12 car seen in daniel craig ' s first outing as bond, casino royale. the car was seen in a spectacular crash in which stunt driver adam kirley used an air cannon behind the driver ' s seat to propel the


a theoretical analysis of recent experiments suggests that a key feature of a topological quantum computer — the unusual statistics of quasiparticles in the quantum hall effect — may finally have been observed. by exploiting the concept of particle - hole duality, one can realize a point junction between integer and fractional quantum hall phases, which constitutes a crucial building block towards possible applications of the quantum hall effect. the fractional quantum hall effect, thought to be special to two dimensions, may also flourish in three, providing a possible explanation for anomalies observed in certain 3d materials in high magnetic fields. physics2, 24 ( 2009 ) – published march 30, 2009 the surprising prediction that currents can flow forever in small normal metal rings was confirmed almost twenty years ago. highly precise new experiments find good agreement with theory that was not seen till now. h. a. fertig, physics2, 15 ( 2009 ) – published february 23, 2009 measurements of the heat transport at the edges of two - dimensional electron systems appear to provide explanations about the quantum hall state that have not been forthcoming via charge transport experiments. crystalline structures have been observed in nanoislands of electrons floating above superfluid helium. the energy required to add or subtract an electron from these quantum - dot - like islands agrees well with theory. physics1, 36 ( 2008 ) – published november 24, 2008 the esoteric concept of “ axions ” was born thirty years ago to describe the strong interaction between quarks. it appears that the same physics — though in a much different context — applies to an unusual class of insulators. graphene has been idealized as a two - dimensional electron system in which the electrons behave like massless fermions, but how “ perfect ” is it? scientists now show they can prepare free - standing sheets of graphene that have some of the highest electron mobilities of any inorganic semiconductor. a decade ago, experimentalists showed that persistent currents can flow in nonsuperconducting mesoscopic metal rings, but there was no theory that correctly explained the magnitude or direction of the unexpectedly large currents. theorists are now proposing a simple idea that may at last explain these results. electrons in graphene can be described by the relativistic dirac equation for massless fermions and exhibit a host of unusual properties. the surfaces of certain band insulators — called topological insulators — can be described in a similar way, leading to an exotic metallic surface on an otherwise “ ordinary ” insulator.


- the role of religious epistemology in inter - religious dialogue ( 2012 ) - from the dawn of civilization, a multitude of religious has developed each very complex. these great differences among religions make it difficult to find a least common denominator or to talk at length of religion in general. on the other hand, focusing on just one specific religion often causes us to ignore or underestimate some of the very broad traits that religions seem to share. the fact remains that we will make no headway into the question of what makes a specific religion a religion if we do not seek some characteristics common to all religions. religion is usually associated with the supernatural or the divine. 505 however, the notion of a supernatural realm does not occur in the non - theistic schools of buddhism and functions in very different ways, say, in taoism, hinduism, and islam. these shortcomings suggest that religion is notoriously difficult to define. to me, religion is any action taken through every aspect of our being to release us from our weakness or imperfection, and bring us closer to the divine reality. in other words, it is a human inner desire or activity to unite with an absolute being. the examination of the intellectual dimension of religion that is, its key beliefs is most beneficial when it is guided and informed. since epistemology is the theory of knowledge, one would therefore expect epistemological discussions of religion to concentrate on the question whether one could have knowledge of religious beliefs. religious epistemology is simple to say that it is the epistemology of distinctively religious beliefs, but that will not be helpful in the absence of a definition of religious beliefs. philosophers of religion might consider the epistemology of religious belief, pondering questions about the sources and justifications of religious knowledge. fundamental questions regarding the nature of knowledge are likely to arise in any culture. after all, everyone has some stake in distinguishing truth from error, wisdom from ignorance, and the path to knowledge from the path to ignorance. epistemologists have discussed, in addition to the defining conditions and the sources of knowledge, the extent of human knowledge. they have asked how far human knowledge can extend. many philosophers find it obvious that we know 505 see michael peterson, william hasker, bruce reichenbach david basinger, reason and religious belief : an introduction to the philosophy of religion, 4. 186 at least some things, if only things about personal experiences or household physical objects. others have claimed, however, that we really have no knowledge. such philosophers admit


reason. the kind of justification crucial to knowledge is called epistemic justification. even if knowledge requires justification, a justified belief can be false. in allowing for justified false beliefs, contemporary epistemologists endorse fallibilism about justification. reformed 506 see paul k. moser dwayne h. mulder j. d. trout, the theory of knowledge ; a thematic introduction ( oxford university press, 1998 ), 4. 507 ibid., 77 - 78. 187 epistemologists contend that belief in the existence of god can, in some circumstances, have an epistemic status high enough to render it worthy of acceptance even if it has no support from the arguments of natural theology or from any other beliefs. the views of alston and mavrodes are sometimes said to display an affinity with reformed epistemology, and nicholas wolterstorff has made significant contributions to its development. but plantinga has clearly been the leading contemporary advocate of this school of thought in religious epistemology. during the earlier phase of their development, plantinga concentrated on defending the view that theistic belief can be in certain conditions, is justified or rationally held even in the absence of any propositional evidence or supporting argument. 508 for the conviction that theistic belief is properly basic, foundationalists carry out a reconstructive project that would put our revised doxastic structures on foundations so firm that they could withstand rather than ignore skeptical challenges. that is, for the classical foundationlist theistic belief requires support from propositional evidence or argument if it is to be rationally or justifiably held. however, it is fairly clear that belief in god ’ s existence does not satisfy this criterion ; it is neither self - evident nor incorrigible nor evident to the sense for humans at any time in this life. the question of justification attracts philosophers especially in contemporary epistemology. and controversy of this question focuses on the meaning of ‘ justification ’ as well as on the substantive conditions of a belief ’ s being justified in a way appropriate to knowledge. william alston, for instance, has introduced a non - deontological normative concept of justification that relies mainly on the notion of what is epistemically good from the view - point of maximizing truth and minimizing falsity. alston link epistemic goodness to a belief ’ s being based on adequate grounds in the absence of overriding reason to the contrary. but for some epistemologists “ ep


point of maximizing truth and minimizing falsity. alston link epistemic goodness to a belief ’ s being based on adequate grounds in the absence of overriding reason to the contrary. but for some epistemologists “ epistemic justification ” means simply “ evidential support ” of certain sort. 509 to say that s is epistemically justifiable to some extent for you is, on this view, just to say that s is supportable to some extent by your overall evidential reason. according to epistemologist, knowledge entails beliefs, so that i cannot know that such and such is the case unless i believe that such and such is the case. robert audi mentioned that knowledge arises in experience. it is constituted by conclusively 508 see ibid., 525 - 26. 509 see robert audi, the cambridge dictionary of philosophy, 233 - 35. 188 justified true belief, meaning that : the believer may be justified by psychological certain of the true proposition in question and this proposition is so well - grounded as to be itself propositionally certain. and knowledge constitute by such belief may be called epistemic certainty. when we come to religious knowledge, audi says that religious propositions are simply beyond the scope of human knowledge. but the point is why would it be thought that no religious propositions are known? the most common ground for holding this view is namely, that religious propositions, such as that god exists, cannot be known either a priori or on the basis of experience. the concept of justification or evidence would occur with the concept of belief in a more complex analysis of the concept of knowledge. 510 in recent decades, questions of knowledge seem to have been marginalized by question of justification. as a matter of fact, however, epistemological discussion of religious belief, at least since the enlightenment has tended to focus, not on the question whether religious belief has warrant, but whether it is justified. more precisely, it has tended to focus on the question whether those properties are enjoyed by theistic belief - the belief that there exists a person like the god of traditional christianity, judaism, and islam : an almighty, all knowing, wholly benevolent and loving spiritual person who has created the world. the main epistemological question about religious belief, therefore, has been the question whether or not religious belief in general and theistic belief in particular is rational or rationally acceptable, or whether it is justified? in its primary sense, rationality is a normative concept


way or if it is based on the wrong sort of evidence. according to swinburne beliefs are rational in so far as they are based on investigation which was, in the believer ’ s view, adequate, and if the believer believes it to be rational. swinburne understand by religious beliefs as about transcendent reality, including his belief about whether or not there is a god, and his beliefs about what properties god has ( what god is like ) and what actions he has performed. 514 according to john hick, the issue is not whether it can be established as an item of indubitable public knowledge that god ( or the divine or the transcendent ) exists, or most probably exists, but whether it is rational for those who experience some of life ’ s moments theistically to believe that god exists, and to proceed to conduct their lives on that basis. hick looks at a rational belief in general way. for him “ belief ” can mean a proposition believed or it can be defined as an act or state of believing. the idea of evidence normally presupposes a gap between an observed fact, or body of facts, and an inferred conclusion. therefore, our ordinary moment - to moment perceptual beliefs contradict the principle that all rational believing must be based upon adequate evidence. it is not that they are based upon inadequate evidence, but rather that the model of evidence - inference - belief does not apply here. ordinary perceptual beliefs arise directly out of our experience, and it is entirely appropriate, proper, and rational to form these beliefs in this way. the relationship between experience and belief 513 see, an essay by william p. alston, epistemic desiderata, philosophy and phenomenological research l iii / 3 ( sep. 1993 ). and nicholas wolterstorff, divine discourse, ( cambridge : cambridge university press, 1995. 514 see richard swinburne, faith and reason, ( published in the united state by oxford university press, new york walton street, oxford : ox 2 6 dp. press, 1981 ), 55 & 72. 190 has been much debated in recent work in the philosophy of religion. this discussion has focused upon specifically theistic belief and hick discusses also in these terms and his argument is that it is rational to believe in the reality of god. alvin plantinga argues on these manifestation - experiences that they are properly basic. 515 that is to say, it is as rational for


hick discusses also in these terms and his argument is that it is rational to believe in the reality of god. alvin plantinga argues on these manifestation - experiences that they are properly basic. 515 that is to say, it is as rational for religious persons to hold these basic religious beliefs as it is for all of us to hold our basic perceptual beliefs. but, more basically, it is the biblical assumption translated into philosophical terms. according to plantinga this experience is what justifies me in holding ( the belief ) that is the ground of my justification, and by extension, the ground of the belief itself. he then applies this principle to religious beliefs. in philosophy, experience is generally what we perceive by the senses what we learn from others, or whatever comes from external sources or from inner reflection. in the sense, experience is associated with observation and experiment. empiricism stresses that our knowledge must be based on experience, but rationalism claims that experience is a potential source of error and prefers rational certainty to mere empirical generalization. in ordinary usage, for every experience there must be something experienced that is independent of the subject of experience. but in philosophy, the relation between experience as a state of consciousness and independent objects of experience becomes a focus of debate. there are many different kinds of experiences, but it is religious experiences that interest me here. from the point of view of epistemology the modifications of consciousness consisting our apparently perceptual experience are of importantly different kinds. in addition to true perceptions there are misperceptions, illusions, and hallucinations. therefore, if anyone misled by any of these forms of perceptual error, he or she is then deluded. in each case the delusion consists in a mistaken implicit belief about the cause of the experience : applying this concept of delusion to the realm of religious experience, we have to ask whether those who assume that their experience of living in god ’ s presence is caused by their being in god ’ s presence are believing truly or are, on the contrary, under a delusion. in modern philosophy of mind a major theme which bears on many theoretical issues, concerns the alleged privacy of an experience as an event knowable only to its possessor and 515 see alvin plantinga and nicholas wolterstorff, reason and belief in god, in faith and rationality, 78 - 91. see also john hick, philosophy of religion, 76. 191 the possibility of public access to that experience. there is much philosophical debate concerning


nicholas wolterstorff, reason and belief in god, in faith and rationality, 78 - 91. see also john hick, philosophy of religion, 76. 191 the possibility of public access to that experience. there is much philosophical debate concerning precisely how perception is to be analyzed. in particular, questions are raised concerning the status of the phenomenon. but there is general agreement that in perception, objects present themselves to us in ways that enable us to know them. similarly, in religious experience god presents himself in ways that enable us to know him and his actions. for alston there are, it seems, important differences between ordinary perceptual or sense experience and religious experience. sense perception is a common experience, whereas religious experience is less common, perhaps, even rare, sense perception yields a great deal of information about the world, whereas religious experience yields apparently little information about god, all humans have the capacity for sense perception, but many seem not to have the capacity for religious experience. these differences, however, do not show that religious experience has a structure unlike perception. for one thing, neither the frequency of an experience nor the amount of information it yields tells us anything about its structure. on the other hand, the limitation of the rationalist way is that the only truths capable of being strictly proved are analytic and ultimately tautological. but we cannot by logic alone demonstrate any matter of fact and existence ; these must be known through experience. for sure if nothing were given through experience in its various modes, we should never have anything to reason about. this is as true in religion as in other fields. if god exists, god is not an idea but a reality outside us, in order to be known to men and women, god must therefore become manifest in some way within their experience. this conclusion is in line with the contemporary revolt against the rationalist assumptions which have dominated much of western philosophy since the time of descartes. 516 descartes held that we can properly be said to know only truths that are self - evident or that can be reached by logical inferences from self - evident premises. therefore, those who stress faith and attack reason often place a great deal of emphasis on religious experience. however, religious experience is by no means a purely emotional “ happening ” ; rather, it involves concepts and beliefs about the being that is experienced. if we tried to separate religious experiences from such concepts and beliefs - from the religious belief - system, as we shall call it - then there would be no way saying who or what is


, it involves concepts and beliefs about the being that is experienced. if we tried to separate religious experiences from such concepts and beliefs - from the religious belief - system, as we shall call it - then there would be no way saying who or what is that is experienced, or of explaining what sort of difference the experience ought to make to the person who has it. however, such a religious belief system needs to be understood ; at least to 516 john hick, philosophy of religion, 69. see also descartes, discourse on method and meditation. 192 some degree - it is hard to see how understanding it is not going to involve the use of reason. for rationalisms, in order for a religious belief - system to be properly and rationally accepted, it must be possible to prove that the belief - system is true. rationalism in this sense implies a reliance on reason, or intelligence, in deciding our beliefs and actions. the central idea of strong rationalism was stated forcefully by w. k. clifford. according to his opinion, no religious belief - system is capable of meeting the high standard of proof that should govern all of our believing, and so a reasonable ( and moral ) person must do without religious beliefs. among the objections to christian belief, as well as to judaic and muslim, characteristic of the modern intelligentsia is the objection that it is no longer rational, if ever it was, to believe that god exists. therefore, the rational person will have to make his way in the world without supposing that there exists any god in whom he could trust. 517 however, according to nicholas wolterstorff, to believe in god is our fundamental human obligation. central to christianity, judaism, and islam alike is the conviction that we as human beings are called to believe in god to trust in him, to rely on him, to place our confidence in him. central also is the conviction that only by believing in god can the deepest stirrings of the human heart be satisfied. duty and fulfillment here coalesce. the rationality of trusting someone presupposes the rationality of believing that person exists. john locke was among the first to formulate articulately the evidentialist challenge to theistic belief. reason is reasoning for locke, and clearly he thinks of it as one among others of our belief - forming processes. faith is another belief - forming process. it, by contrast, consists in accepting something “ as coming from god. ” 518 however, for locke it still belongs to


clearly he thinks of it as one among others of our belief - forming processes. faith is another belief - forming process. it, by contrast, consists in accepting something “ as coming from god. ” 518 however, for locke it still belongs to reason to judge of the truth of its being a revelation, and of the signification of the words wherein it is delivered. for evidentialist, one ’ s belief that god exists is rational only if it is formed or sustained by good inference by inferring it from others of one ’ s beliefs, which in fact provide adequate evidence for it. but, wolterstorff, see no reason what so ever to suppose that by the criterion 517 see william k. clifford, the ethics of belief, in george i. mavrodes, ed., the rationality of belief in god, ( englewood cliffs, nj : prentice - hall, press, 1970 ), 159 - 60. see also michael peterson, william hasker, bruce reighenbach, david basinger ; reason and religious belief, 34. 518 see alvin plantinga and nicholas wolterstorff, faith and rationality, 137. 193 offered the evidentialist challenge is tenable. he see no reason to suppose that people who hold as one of their immediate beliefs that god exists always have adequate reason to surrender that belief or ought to believe that they do. however, for him those abstract and highly general theses of evidentialism no longer look very interesting, once we regard them in the light of the criterion offered. therefore, for him the fact that it is not rational for some person to believe that god exists does not follow that he ought to give up that belief. but can we accept the principle of credulity? one problem is that whereas there is a fundamental uniformity about the way we report both ordinary perceptual experiences and the beliefs about objects of those experiences, there is quite a diversity of reports about religious experiences and the claim based on them. person give incompatible descriptions of the reality experienced. therefore, where perceptions yield conflicting testimony, we must turn to other experiences and rational arguments to determine the truth of the various claims. that is, where there are different accounts, additional considerations must be introduced to help decide which, if any, of the religious experiences are veridical. although the reports provide a prima facie ground for their acceptance, not all beliefs based on such experiences are true. just as we at times doubt perceptual claims for good reason,


if any, of the religious experiences are veridical. although the reports provide a prima facie ground for their acceptance, not all beliefs based on such experiences are true. just as we at times doubt perceptual claims for good reason, we might do the same for claims based on religious experience. according to hick, religion constitutes our varied human response to transcendent reality. religious experience then is structured by religious beliefs which are implicit within religious experience. but the question is if this complex of experience and beliefs that takes place in different shapes within the different traditions, is to be regarded simply as a human creation or as our response to a transcendent reality, even if a response whose particular forms always involve the creative activity of the human imagination. of course the problem of terminology is obvious as we see in many parts of philosophy, and without explanatory gloss none of the available descriptive labels for these two possibilities is entirely adequate. much of the philosophical discussion of religious diversity continues to centre on the work of john hick. 519 he is not interested in the question of what can justifiably be affirmed in the face of such diversity, rather, he is primarily concerned with the question of which justified response is most reasonable. moreover, on this question, he leaves no doubt as to his opinion : 519 see john hick, an interpretation of religion : human response to the transcendent, ( new haven : yale university and london : macmillan press, 1989 ), 172. 194 religious pluralism is by far the most plausible explanation for the pervasive religious diversity we encounter. many westerners will best understand the emergence of inclusivism and pluralism in terms of the history of christianity. for most of its history, christianity has been resolutely exclusivist. in late antiquity, it was a new religion, struggling to establish itself in the face of criticism and persecution. it is not surprising to find it making exclusive claims on behalf of its charismatic founder, jesus of nazareth. of course, christianity is not the only religion to have fostered exclusivist attitudes. in their more militant movements, muslims have done the same. some jews cherish an ethnically exclusive identity as god ’ s chosen people, and some hindus revere the vedas as a source of absolute truth, buddhists often see in the teachings of gautama the only dharma that can liberate humans from illusion and suffering. hick has set forth a philosophically sophisticated pluralistic hypothesis that may avoid problems


vedas as a source of absolute truth, buddhists often see in the teachings of gautama the only dharma that can liberate humans from illusion and suffering. hick has set forth a philosophically sophisticated pluralistic hypothesis that may avoid problems of this sort. 520 as he sees it, each of the major religious traditions offers a path to salvation or liberation that involves a transformation of human existence from self - centeredness to reality - centeredness. religious plurality is simply a fact. there are religious traditions that differ deeply in terms of their doctrines, practices, institutions, scriptures, experiences, and hope. according to pluralism, a single ultimate religious reality is being differently experienced and understood in all the major religious traditions ; they all, as far as the philosophers can tell, offer equally effective paths to salvation or liberation. according to harold coward, judaism is an appropriate tradition in which to begin the stay of religious pluralism and the world religions. the experience of being a minority group in other cultures, which becoming more common place for all the world religions as religious pluralism spreads, has been the norm for judaism for countless generations. from the biblical period to the present, judaism has had to formulate its beliefs and practices in the face of challenges from other cultures and religions. the viewpoint of the modern jew opens the way for relations with christianity, islam, and perhaps hinduism ; however, buddhism - especially mahayana buddhism may prove to be in a separate category. the buddhist consciousness in which no transcendent god is recognized and the mahayana awareness of the divine in the 520 ibid. 195 secular may be judged by the jewish philosopher as a modern idolatry. therefore, perhaps the most serious challenge for judaism comes in its response to buddhism. as long as a religion is founded on the experience of a transcendent god, judaism seems to be able to enter into spiritual partnership with it. but if that experience does not hold true for the buddhist - if it is not a transcendent god that is being experienced - can the jew still embrace the buddhist as a spiritual partner? this question has yet to be faced by judaism. 521 the relationship between christianity and the other religions is one of the key issues in christian self - understanding. perhaps pluralism is so pressing a challenge because of the exclusivist missionary approaches adopted by christianity over the past several hundred years. in the rapidly expanding body of literature resulting from the encounter with other religions, many christian theologians are concluding that christian theology cannot continue to be formulated in isolation from the other religions,


challenge of religious pluralism is to encourage the inquiring spirit and devotion to truth that is larger than any individual tradition. the buddhist attitude to other religions has been described as “ critical tolerance ” 523 combined with a missionary goal. buddhism has demonstrated a remarkable degree of tolerance and flexibility throughout the course of its expansion. unlike some other religious expansions, the spread of buddhism has been accomplished more through the dissemination of ideas than by migration of peoples. buddhism rejects the worship of god or gods and the performance of religious rituals as a means to release. it also rejects speculations about ultimate beginnings, especially about whether the self and the world were eternal, and a number of speculations about the ultimate state of the self in the future. the tolerant but critical attitude of the buddha toward the plurality of religious views is shaped into a rigorous philosophic approach by the madhyamika buddhists. if, as the buddha discovered, the goal of religion is compassion, then, say the madhyamika, the biggest obstacle to realizing that goal is attachment to our own religious beliefs in such a way as to make them absolute. based on this understanding, the madhyamika buddhist ’ s attitude towards other religions is one of openness and indeed a “ missionary desire ” 524 to enter into dialogue. the inherent desire to conceptualize and share religious experience is too deeply ingrained in 522 ibid., 63 - 80. 523 see k. n. jayatilleke, the buddhist attitude to other religions ( kandy, sri lanka : buddhist publication society, 1975 ). and see also harold coward pluralism : challenge to world religions, 81. 524 see harold coward, pluralism : challenge to world religions, 88. 197 human nature to render silence an acceptable answer. in fact the madhyamika himself has been far from silent. his prescription of silence was only intended to apply to claims of absolute knowledge. as long as the limitation is honored, then discussion, including theological discussion, could take place. the dialogical approach opens the way for the meeting of christians with jews, muslims, and hindus. however, the theocentric premise could become an obstacle to meaningful encounters with buddhists and advaita vedantists. therefore, an unresolved problem for all of these approaches is the buddhist and even those with considerable exposure to buddhism and hinduism seem almost willfully to turn a blind eye to this problem. one possible exception might be found in tillich ’ s formulation of the “ god above gods ” as the “ ground of being.


the work of courts and offices, everything would become topsy - turvy. in an inversion of the actual power structure of society at the time ( typical of the svang [ * ] — see chapter 2 ) maharaja righteous - rule brings the case to a close with his judgment, made in accordance with the sacred law of the hindus : let urdu be cast out and nagari take her place ( datta 188? : 13 – 14, 16 ). language and the formation of community identity many studies of the hindi movement have focused on the political aspects, especially at the national level, and have dealt primarily with the twentieth century ( for example, brass 1974 ; das gupta 1970 ; gopal 1953 ; harrison 1960 ; kluyev 1981 ; lutt 1970 ; s. misra 1956 ; narula 1955 ; nayar 1969 ; smith 1963 ; tivari 1982 ; l. varma 1964 ). the great majority of these have used chiefly english sources, and few of them have thoroughly surveyed the relevant sources for the nineteenth century. almost no studies have attempted to trace the detailed history of the voluntary language associations that played such major roles in the development of hindi. in this essay i examine not only the political but also the social and cultural aspects of the hindi movement, particularly on the local and provincial levels, and deal chiefly with the nineteenth century. moreover, i have made extensive use of both hindi and english sources, including a thorough search of official records, such as education reports, publication statistics, and the like. finally, i stress the importance of voluntary language associations, which both reflected and intensified the hindi movement ( see also king 1974 ). the play described above well illustrates the social, cultural, and political matrix from which the hindi movement arose, namely, the growing split between indo - persian and hindu merchant culture characteristic of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century in north india. as bayly ( 1983 ) has shown in his analysis of eighteenth - and nineteenth - century north india, these two " conflicting forms of urban solidarity " served as the foundations of the later - developing nationalism and religious communalism, which so dramatically affected events in the twentieth century. urdu effectively symbolized the dominant indo - persian culture of north india in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, for it formed one of the major parts of this blend. the attack on urdu and the strong support for nagari ( a term that encompassed both language and script ) evident in the play became important elements in the process by which a self - conscious hindu nationalism emerged in north india.


and muslim camps must be dated much earlier than is commonly supposed " ( bayly 1983 : 455 ). similarly, as we shall see, considerable evidence indicates that the potential for linguistic controversy stretched back to the early nineteenth century and before. we must ask, then, what influences kindled underlying differences into open conflict in the 1860s. in general, the pace of economic and social development in the province quickened after the rebellion of 1857 in a wide variety of ways ( see bayly 1983 : 427 – 40 ). most important for our purposes, however, was the rapid post - rebellion expansion of the three closely related areas of government service, education, and publication ( all discussed below ). each of these institutionalized the most refractory difference between hindi and urdu — script — and each became an arena of competition in a mutually reinforcing and ever - expanding spiral. definition against external rivals : the hindi - urdu controversy the hindi - urdu controversy, as the long and heated exchange of opinions between opposing supporters of hindi and urdu came to be known, began in the 1860s and continued right up to independence. confined largely to u. p. in the nineteenth century, the controversy gradually assumed national proportions in the twentieth. on both the provincial and the national level, a major portion of the debate focused on the question of the proper language and script for government courts and offices. the center of the hindi side of the controversy lay in the eastern districts of the province and especially in the cities of banaras and allahabad. the themes announced early in the controversy appeared again and again with wearying consistency. the protagonists of hindi argued : the bulk of the population used hindi ; the urdu script had a foreign origin, and also made court documents illegible, encouraged forgery, and fostered the use of difficult arabic and persian words ; the introduction of the nagari script into government courts and offices would give considerable impetus to the spread of education by enhancing the prospects for public service ; and experienced hindi scribes could write just as fast as their urdu counterparts. the supporters of urdu maintained : even the inhabitants of remote villages spoke urdu fluently ; the urdu language had originated in india even though its script may have come from outside ; any script could lend itself to forgery ; the numerous dialects of hindi lacked standardization ; and hindi had an impoverished vocabulary, especially in scientific and technical terms. one of the most often repeated arguments for hindi appeared in blunt numerical terms, where speakers were identified by religious community. an 1873 issue of the kavi vachan such


of students and teachers in the persian and hindi schools ( the great majority of the total ) of agra district fairly represented the general situation in other districts. muslims and kayasths composed the great majority of teachers and students of persian, and brahmins, baniyas, and rajputs, of hindi. moreover, all but a handful of muslims studied persian, while most hindus ( with the notable exception of kayasths ) studied hindi ( nwp educ rpt 1844 – 1845 : appendix i ). another aspect of language study patterns appears in statistics for government schools in 1859 – 60. in the western part of the province students learning islamic - heritage languages were a slight majority, while in the central and eastern parts those learning hindu - heritage languages were large majorities ( nwp educ rpt 1859 – 1860 : appendix a, 2 – 62 ). similar figures for awadh in 1869 show a pattern very close to that of the western n. w. p., with slightly more than half the students learning islamic - heritage languages, a little more than a third, hindu - heritage languages, and the remainder, english ( oudh educ rpt 1868 – 1869 : appendix a ). in both awadh and the n. w. p. another pattern appeared in education statistics during this period : the higher the level of education, the greater the proportion of students taking islamic - heritage languages and english, and the smaller the proportion taking hindu - heritage languages ( see king 1974 : 84 – 91 ). when we put these patterns together, a picture emerges which correlates quite well with the distribution of hindi and urdu publications discussed above : hindi in a subordinate position in government institutions, contrasted with urdu well entrenched in the higher reaches of education and administration ; hindi supported by castes associated with sanskrit learning and resistance to muslim rule in the past, versus urdu upheld by muslims and those hindu castes ( chiefly kayasths ) with a vested interest in indo - persian culture ; hindi whose stronghold lay in the eastern part of the province where the hindu merchant tradition was more powerful vis - a - vis urdu, whose strength lay in awadh and the western part of the province where the indo - persian service tradition was more dominant ( bayly 1983 ) ; and finally, hindi and urdu studied almost entirely by high - caste hindus and muslims. the vernaculars and employment in 1877 the provincial government first prescribed a successful performance in either the middle class vernacular or the middle class anglo - vernacular examination as a qualification for government service.


and kayasths, succeeds in passing through one of these more distant gates, labeled subordinate judicial and executive services, but many others are turned aside. among these, numbers of brahmins, rajputs, khatris, and baniyas, as well as a few muslims, succeed in crossing the portals of a large gate labeled educational department. others, among them many muslims, manage to enter a smaller gate labeled police department. some of the remaining crowd enter through other, smaller gates, but many fail to pass through any gate and straggle off into the surrounding countryside. here live millions unacquainted with either sanskritized hindi or persianized urdu who come from the lower levels of hindu and muslim society — ahirs, chamars, bhangis, and many others. this fanciful portrait is meant to suggest that many non - kayasth hindus found that their best hope for government service lay in the newer educational department rather than in the older, more presti - gious, and more remunerative revenue or judicial departments. from the ranks of such hindus came many leaders of the hindi movement. the three founders of the nps, for example, included a brahmin, a rajput, and a khatri ; all three made their careers in education — two in government service, and one in both government and private service. our portrait also suggests that the great majority of the population, the repository of popular culture, did not share the concerns of the vernacular elite. yet another aspect of the relationship between education, language, and employment appeared in the results of an investigation ordered by the provincial lieutenant - governor in may 1900, a month after he had issued a resolution ostensibly granting equal status to the two vernacular languages and scripts. this investigation, which included the courts and offices of the judicial and revenue departments from the highest to the lowest level in each district, aimed at determining the respective numbers of hindu and muslim clerks familiar with hindi or urdu or both ( nwp & o gen admin progs october 1900 : 111, 119, 122 – 24 ). the results showed that most hindus knew at least some hindi, and even more knew at least some urdu. on the other hand, fewer than half of the muslims knew at least some hindi, while all knew at least some urdu. to put matters differently, almost all the hindus knew urdu well, and the majority knew hindi well too. while almost all the muslims knew urdu well, only a small minority knew hindi well. contemporary observers suggested with