Renowned physicist, professor Stephen Hawking at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, June 20, 2010.

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS, nytimes.com:

TEMPE, Ariz. — Like Einstein, he is as famous for his story as for his science.

At the age of 21, the British physicist Stephen Hawking was found to have amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s disease. While A.L.S. is usually fatal within five years, Dr. Hawking lived on and flourished, producing some of the most important cosmological research of his time.

In the 1960s, with Sir Roger Penrose, he used mathematics to explicate the properties of black holes. In 1973, he applied Einstein’s general theory of relativity to the principles of quantum mechanics. And he showed that black holes were not completely black but could leak radiation and eventually explode and disappear, a finding that is still reverberating through physics and cosmology.

Dr. Hawking, in 1988, tried to explain what he knew about the boundaries of the universe to the lay public in “A Brief History of Time: From Big Bang to Black Holes.” The book sold more than 10 million copies and was on best-seller lists for more than two years.

Today, at 69, Dr. Hawking is one of the longest-living survivors of A.L.S., and perhaps the most inspirational. Mostly paralyzed, he can speak only through a computerized voice simulator.

On a screen attached to his wheelchair, commonly used words flash past him. With a cheek muscle, he signals an electronic sensor in his eyeglasses to transmit instructions to the computer. In this way he slowly builds sentences; the computer transforms them into the metallic, otherworldly voice familiar to Dr. Hawking’s legion of fans.

It’s an exhausting and time-consuming process. Yet this is how he stays connected to the world, directing research at the Center for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge, writing prolifically for specialists and generalists alike and lecturing to rapt audiences from France to Fiji.

Dr. Hawking came here last month at the invitation of a friend, the cosmologist Lawrence Krauss , for a science festival sponsored by the Origins Project of Arizona State University. His lecture, “My Brief History,” was not all quarks and black holes. At one point, he spoke of the special joys of scientific discovery.

“I wouldn’t compare it to sex,” he said in his computerized voice, “but it lasts longer.” The audience roared.

The next afternoon, Dr. Hawking sat with me for a rare interview. Well, a kind of interview, actually.

Ten questions were sent to his daughter, Lucy Hawking, 40, a week before the meeting. So as not to exhaust her father, who has grown weaker since a near-fatal illness two years ago, Ms. Hawking read them to him over a period of days.

During our meeting, the physicist played back his answers. Only one exchange, the last, was spontaneous. Yet despite the limitations, it was Dr. Hawking who wanted to do the interview in person rather than by e-mail.

Some background on the second query, the one about extraterrestrials. For the past year, Lucy Hawking was writer in residence at the Origins Project at Arizona State University. As part of her work, she and Paul Davies, a physicist at Arizona State, started a contest, “Dear Aliens,” inviting Phoenix schoolchildren to write essays about what they might say to space beings trying to contact Planet Earth.

Q. Dr. Hawking, thank you so much for taking time to talk to Science Times. I’m wondering, what is a typical day like for you?

A. I get up early every morning and go to my office where I work with my colleagues and students at Cambridge University. Using e-mail, I can communicate with scientists all over the world.

Obviously, because of my disability, I need assistance. But I have always tried to overcome the limitations of my condition and lead as full a life as possible. I have traveled the world, from the Antarctic to zero gravity. (Pause.) Perhaps one day I will go into space.

Q. Speaking of space: Earlier this week, your daughter, Lucy, and Paul Davies, the Arizona State University physicist, sent a message into space from an Arizona schoolchild to potential extraterrestrials out there in the universe. Now, you’ve said elsewhere that you think it’s a bad idea for humans to make contact with other forms of life. Given this, did you suggest to Lucy that she not do it? Hypothetically, let’s say as a fantasy, if you were to send such a message into space, how would it read?

A. Previously I have said it would be a bad idea to contact aliens because they might be so greatly advanced compared to us, that our civilization might not survive the experience. The “Dear Aliens” competition is based on a different premise.

It assumes that an intelligent extraterrestrial life form has already made contact with us and we need to formulate a reply. The competition asks school-age students to think creatively and scientifically in order to find a way to explain human life on this planet to some inquisitive aliens. I have no doubt that if we are ever contacted by such beings, we would want to respond.

I also think it is an interesting question to pose to young people as it requires them to think about the human race and our planet as a whole. It asks students to define who we are and what we have done.

Q. I don’t mean to ask this disrespectfully, but there are some experts on A.L.S. who insist that you can’t possibly suffer from the condition. They say you’ve done far too well, in their opinion. How do you respond to this kind of speculation?

A. Maybe I don’t have the most common kind of motor neuron disease, which usually kills in two or three years. It has certainly helped that I have had a job and that I have been looked after so well.
I don’t have much positive to say about motor neuron disease. But it taught me not to pity myself, because others were worse off and to get on with what I still could do. I’m happier now than before I developed the condition. I am lucky to be working in theoretical physics, one of the few areas in which disability is not a serious handicap.

Q. Given all you’ve experienced, what words would you offer someone who has been diagnosed with a serious illness, perhaps A.L.S.?

A. My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit, as well as physically.

Q. About the Large Hadron Collider, the supercollider in Switzerland, there were such high hopes for it when it was opened. Are you disappointed in it?

A. It is too early to know what the L.H.C. will reveal. It will be two years before it reaches full power. When it does, it will work at energies five times greater than previous particle accelerators.

We can guess at what this will reveal, but our experience has been that when we open up a new range of observations, we often find what we had not expected. That is when physics becomes really exciting, because we are learning something new about the universe.

Q. I’m wondering about your book “A Brief History of Time.” Were you surprised by the enormous success of it? Do you believe that most of your readers understood it? Or is it enough that they were interested and wanted to? Or, in another way: what are the implications of your popular books for science education?

A. I had not expected “A Brief History of Time” to be a best seller. It was my first popular book and aroused a great deal of interest.

Initially, many people found it difficult to understand. I therefore decided to try to write a new version that would be easier to follow. I took the opportunity to add material on new developments since the first book, and I left out some things of a more technical nature. This resulted in a follow-up entitled “A Briefer History of Time,” which is slightly briefer, but its main claim would be to make it more accessible.

Q. Though you avoid stating your own political beliefs too openly, you entered into the health care debate here in the United States last year. Why did you do that?

A. I entered the health care debate in response to a statement in the United States press in summer 2009 which claimed the National Health Service in Great Britain would have killed me off, were I a British citizen. I felt compelled to make a statement to explain the error.

I am British, I live in Cambridge, England, and the National Health Service has taken great care of me for over 40 years. I have received excellent medical attention in Britain, and I felt it was important to set the record straight. I believe in universal health care. And I am not afraid to say so.

Q. Here on Earth, the last few months have just been devastating. What were your feelings as you read of earthquakes, revolutions, counter-revolutions and nuclear meltdowns in Japan? Have you been as personally shaken up as the rest of us?

A. I have visited Japan several times and have always been shown wonderful hospitality. I am deeply saddened for my Japanese colleagues and friends, who have suffered such a catastrophic event. I hope there will be a global effort to help Japan recover. We, as a species, have survived many natural disasters and difficult situations, and I know that the human spirit is capable of enduring terrible hardships.

Q. If it is possible to time-travel, as some physicists claim, at least theoretically, is possible, what is the single moment in your life you would like to return to? This is another way of asking, what has been the most joyful moment you’ve known?

A. I would go back to 1967, and the birth of my first child, Robert. My three children have brought me great joy.

Q. Scientists at Fermilab recently announced something that one of our reporters described as “a suspicious bump in their data that could be evidence of a new elementary particle or even, some say, a new force of nature.” What did you think when you heard about it?

A. It is too early to be sure. If it helps us to understand the universe, that will surely be a good thing. But first, the result needs to be confirmed by other particle accelerators.

Q. I don’t want to tire you out, especially if doing answers is so difficult. But I’m wondering: The speech you gave the other night here in Tempe, “My Brief History,” was very personal. Were you trying to make a statement on the record so that people would know who you are?

A. (After five minutes.) I hope my experience will help other people.

Learning English by doing pdf

Did you make any new year’s resolutions (sich etwas gutes vornehmen)for 2011?
Are you going to start a diet, stop smoking, learn a new skill (Fähigkeit) like English or maybe do something green?

This year I would like to buy as many organic (bio) products as possible. I have already been doing so for a long time but this year I want to see if I can go completely green!

With the dioxin scandal in Germany this month I think it is the only way to prevent (verhindern) poisoning (vergiften) yourself through food.

Wikipedia gives some interesting facts about Dioxin:

“The most toxic (giftig) dioxin, (TCDD), became well known as a contaminant (Verunreinigung) of Agent Orange, a herbicide (Unkrautvertilgungsmittel) used in the Vietnam War.

In 1963, a dioxin cloud escaped after an explosion in a Philips-Duphar plant (now Solvay Group) near Amsterdam. The plant was so polluted with dioxin after the accident that it had to be dismantled (demontieren), embedded (einbetten) in concrete (beton), and dumped (loswerden) into the ocean.

More recently, dioxins have been in the news with the poisoning of President Viktor Yushchenko of Ukraine in 2004, the Naples Mozzarella Crisis, the Irish pork crisis of 2008, and today’s German feed crisis (pork and poultry) (schweinefleisch und geflügel) of 2011. See also a video about the latter on:

Some of the symptoms (krankheitszeichen) of dioxin poisoining are:

Nausea (Übelkeit), vomiting (erbrechen), stomach pains (bauchschmerzen) and loss of appetite (Appetitverlust).“

Well, I must admit that I have been nauseous for the past two weeks, so I do hope that I haven’t been poisoned through eating eggs. You don’t hear any warnings for not eating cakes and here in Germany ‘Kaffee und Kuchen’ after a nice walk through the woods, is the most popular Sunday pastime (Zeitvertreib).

I wish you all lots of success with learning English this year and being environmentally friendly (Umweltfreundlich) before we poison ourselves.

By JulietteH – October 21, 2010, greenpeace.org:

“Six months. It’s been six months since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico took fire, blew and sank, causing the biggest accidental oil spill in history.

It certainly feels like longer. Was it really six months ago that BP was claiming that any day now, the leak would be plugged? Even less than six months ago that everyone was Googling hopefully for “top kill”? Six months ago that Obama called for a moratorium on deepwater drilling? Six months ago that everyone was making promises to do more, better, faster to end our dependency on dirty oil?

And yet, in six months, while people all over the world were claiming for better fuel economy, for renewable energy and electric cars, politicians all over the world did nothing. In fact, polticians did worse than nothing: they lifted the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, authorised more deepwater drilling in pristine and threatened places, they refused to put a moratorium on deepwater drilling in the North East Atlantic, and kept subsidising oil companies to keep us addicted to dirty energy.

In the meantime, scientists on board the Arctic Sunrise, the Greenpeace ship currently in the Gulf of Mexico, are still finding oil on the bottom of the sea.

So what difference can six months make? Well, a lot in that special place known as politician-world.

Apparently, it causes amnesia, because I can’t believe if they could really remember Deepwater Horizon, they would be doing all this. They’d be putting their money on renewable energy and more efficient cars.

Otherwise, to be this irrational, they’d have to be dishonest and/or paid off by oil companies. But surely, that can’t be the case.”

Nature on this coast of the US isn’t likely to recover from this disaster for decades to come and what better way to keep the world focused on it than with the crayon drawings of this remarkable girl.

Maybe there’s hope for the future when initiatives like these by Olivia’s family are still emerging in this world where greed and short term profits still rule.

 Read all about it in below article from The Independent online newspaper:

 

Olivia Bouler, an 11-year-old from Long Island, is the one good news story to emerge from the Gulf spill

When Olivia Bouler saw birds coated in oil she began selling her art to save them. $180,000 later, David Usborne meets her. Saturday, 17 July 2010

Only two things are holding back Olivia Bouler, an 11-year-old from Long Island with a passion for birds and a talent for drawing them.

While she can finish a picture, she says, in “seven to five minutes”, her wrist gets tired after a while and she has to rest. And then there are all the pesky media intrusions.

This week has been the maddest, with a two-day trip to Washington DC with her family where she cast a vote for her local congressman on the floor of the House of Representatives and had face-time with the Secretary of the Interior, Ken Salazar, to discuss oil and how America can stop drinking it.

But the project that has really consumed her and her family since late April has been selling her art to raise money for the Gulf clean-up effort.

Her parents are clear this was all her idea. She saw the first images of the BP blowout and spill on television and was immediately gripped with worry for the birds in the Gulf. Maybe if she drew a few pictures someone would give her money and she could donate it. And so, as any little girl with lots of initiative would do, she wrote to the National Audubon Society and asked if they would be interested.

On Thursday night, Olivia was in the trendy Meatpacking District of Manhattan for a rooftop party at the red-hot fashion shop Ports 1961.

Sitting at a quiet corner table before the throngs arrived to offer silent bids on three of her original drawings, a composed Olivia insisted that when she embarked on this she was hardly thinking six figures in terms of what she could raise. “A hundred dollars would have been over the roof,” she said. “I think about now I am going to Pluto.”

Well, why shouldn’t she? All these weeks later Olivia’s artwork has raised nearly $180,000, all going to Audubon, which has taken the lead in the Gulf rescuing birds that have become coated in oil.

Olivia says it is the birds that interest her first – she sees ornithology in her future – and the art second. So far, roughly a hundred different species have been represented in her drawings, some black and white but mostly in crayon colours. “I have to look up some of the birds now in a book,” she concedes.

The drawing seems to come naturally to her. (Some at Ports unkindly speculate that the lines on her pelicans and herons especially seem a little too expert for someone so young. If the media have seized on Olivia, it is because hers is also the only positive story to emerge from the BP mess. Ten days ago, she was ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange. She has appeared on Larry King Live on CNN (she managed to produce nine pictures while on the air), the Today Show with NBC and news bulletins for CBS, CBC of Canada and the BBC. “There is word of Jay Leno,” her mother, Nadine, whispers a little conspiratorially. “But we will see where that goes.”

After Audubon agreed to accept donations in exchange for Olivia’s pictures, local media on the Gulf Coast got wind of what she was doing and everything else followed. She has a Facebook page with 29,000 followers. AOL created an Olivia page on its artists’ profiles section and as of yesterday morning it had received 142 million different hits. That is a lot.

As the Boulers arrived at Ports they learnt that BP had managed for the first time to stem its leak. “Finally,” was Olivia’s first response. “I was afraid that somehow the whole well would collapse in on itself and everything would spew out and there would be no way to stop it.”

The plugging of the well did not mean the end of the battle, she noted. “It’s ultimately good but what we have to do now is the cleanup and restoration.” And if we “can go off topic”, she also wants to underscore “to get off oil”. This, she confirms, is what she wanted to tell Mr Salazar. The problem, she says, is that Americans are afraid to quit oil “because it’s off their routine”.

Olivia herself discloses that her father, James, is an architect who specialises in green buildings, so her inspiration is not altogether her own. Her parents are a little shy about being depicted as having pushed their daughter into the spotlight. That said, Nadine admits that she wouldn’t mind doing a publishing deal with the Audubon Society on behalf of her daughter for an ornithology book for youngsters.

It seems a plausible dream. The Audubon Society, after all, could hardly be more delighted to have met the young girl. “This is new. To have this kind of … response, it’s very unique,” spokesman Delta Willis said. “I’ve never seen an outpouring like this. It’s a beautiful gesture.”

With only six weeks of the summer holidays left – she starts a new school in September – Olivia meanwhile has lots of work to do. Of the 500 original drawings that were promised to donors she has done just 200. Perhaps better she skips Leno and the fancy Manhattan parties and gets out her crayons.

Has someone played a trick on you today?

I thought for a minute someone had positioned a snow machine outside my window today but alas, it was real.

When, oh when, will spring finally shower us with warm sun rays?

I played a trick on myself today, you could say, by imagining I could copy a Van Gogh painting for hanging in the corridor.

But the snowy weather didn’t inspire me to get the colour mix quite right to show blazing sun light on my sunflowers.

The weather did however, kindle an interest in me to move to the South of France or Italy in winter just to warm up.

Anyway the result of my day dreams was a painting that is at least glowing in sunny tones to liven up my hallway.

Just don’t look too closely at the brush work…

Happy Easter everyone! Go easy on the eggs.

Chris

I probably should have looked up this Easter bun recipe before I surprised my friends with my home baked Easter bread. Mine (made from the instructions on the flour pack) turned out a bit on the dark and chewy side, but hey, all good intentions and made from scratch with organic ingredients. What more can you ask for?

To be honest, I wouldn’t have had the time to make it as intricate as the below instructions recommend, so who am I kidding. I did have time to enjoy the explanation of the origin of hot cross buns though, another mystery resolved.

For all of you who have time over Easter however, have a go, it looks scrumptious. And don’t forget to play the tune while you’re making it. Nursery rhymes are a time-proven way of learning a language, well, for children anyway.

Here’s a little glossary for the recipe (explanations are taken from
www.thefreedictionary.com by Farlex, do go there to press on the little speaker phones to listen to the correct pronunciation. It’s cool, you can choose between British or American):

Yeast: is used in bread production for one. It causes the dough to expand or rise as the carbon dioxide (CO2) forms pockets or bubbles.

There is either an equinox (autumn and spring) or a solstice (summer and winter) on approximately the 21st day of the last month of every quarter of the calendar year

Cinnamon: a small evergreen tree native to Nepal, India and Bangladesh, The bark is widely used as a spice due to its distinct odour.

Nutmeg: the nut-shaped seed of a tree, similar to the cinnamon tree, and is another spice from the above Asian area.

Zest: the outer peel of a citrus fruit

Serrated: a serrated blade is a type of blade used on saws and on some knives or scissors. Also known as a dentated or toothed blade.

To convert cups to metric measures:

1 cup of milk = 240 ml
1 cup of flour = 120 gr
1 cup of sugar = 100 gr
1 cup of butter = 240 gr

I have added temperatures in Celsius for those of us in Europe within the recipe text.

Hot cross buns recipe:

Servings: 24
Author Notes: A traditional favorite on Good Friday in England, Hot Cross Buns are a spicy currant or raisin studded yeast bun, topped with a “Cross” of lemon flavored icing. While Christians have adopted the cake and the symbolism of the cross, it wasn’t always so. To Pagans, then as now, the cross was/is representative of the sun wheel, which symbolizes perfect balance at the time of the Spring Equinox.

Hot Cross Buns were probably originally used in ceremonies and rituals and the Christian Church attempted to ban the buns, although they proved too popular. Left with no alternative but defeat, the church did the next best thing and “Christianized” the bread with Queen Elizabeth I passing a law which limited the bun’s consumption to proper religious ceremonies, such as Christmas, Easter or funerals.

Ingredients: 1 cup milk
2 tablespoons yeast
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
4 eggs
5 cups flour
1 1/3 cups currants or raisins
1 egg white

Glaze
1 1/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons finely chopped lemon zest
1/2 teaspoons lemon extract
1- 2 tablespoons milk

Instructions: In a small saucepan, heat milk to very warm, but not hot (110 °F/ 40 degrees Celsius if using a candy thermometer). Fit an electric mixer with a dough hook. Pour warm milk in the bowl of mixer and sprinkle yeast over. Mix to dissolve and let sit for 5 minutes.

With mixer running at low speed, add sugar, salt, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg and eggs. Gradually add flour, dough will be wet and sticky, and continue kneading with dough hook until smooth, about 5 minutes. Detach bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let the dough “rest” for 30-45 minutes.

Return bowl to mixer and knead until smooth and elastic, for about 3 more minutes. Add currants or raisins and knead until well mixed. At this point, dough will still be fairly wet and sticky. Shape dough in a ball, place in a buttered dish, cover with plastic wrap and let rise overnight in the refrigerator (see note at right if you’re in a hurry). Excess moisture will be absorbed by the morning.

Let dough sit at room temperature for about a half-hour. Line a large baking pan (or pans) with parchment paper (you could also lightly grease a baking pan, but parchment works better). Divide dough into 24 equal pieces (in half, half again, etc., etc.). Shape each portion into a ball and place on baking sheet, about 1/2 inch apart. Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

In the meantime, pre-heat oven to 400 ° F/200 degrees Celsius.
When buns have risen, take a sharp or serrated knife and carefully slash buns with a cross. Brush them with egg white and place in oven. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350° F/ 175 degrees C., then Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes more. Transfer to a wire rack. Whisk together glaze ingredients, and spoon over buns in a cross pattern. Serve warm, if possible.

My favourite fictive barrister, Horace Rumpole, can be seen and more importantly heard in this video, giving a most profound speech to the British jury about the Law versus morale justice.

What a delight to be able to watch this free on YouTube!

Especially now that the lovable and talented author of this hero of mine, John Mortimer, has passed away last year and therefore, we will have to cherish this treasure chest of Rumpole stories he created.

What a relief to hear someone with the courage to make a stand against the establishment. Hear, hear!
So watch and enjoy I would say.

See my transcript of his speech below, I have given a few synonyms or explanations of words in red in brackets.

For further explanations of unknown words, go to www.thefreedictionary.com by Farlex.

If you are a Rumpole fan like I am, then here’s a fun quiz to do.

A big thank you to my great lawyer friend and fellow Rumpole fan who spotted this and sent it to me over the weekend.

Transcript of Rumpole’s speech

Rumpole:

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,

Miss Mary Skelton (not sure about the name) , the cashier, was in love.

She was in love with her boss, that larger than life cook and character Jean-Pierre Aulegins (again not sure about the name, sorry).

People do many things for love. They commit suicide, they leave home, sometimes they simply pine away. (to pine away=to become very sad and weak as a result of a loss you feel)

It was for love that Miss Mary Skelton caused a life mouse to be served up at the Maison Jean-Pierre after having paid the station waiter a considerable sum to perform the trick.

She it was that wanted to ruin the restaurant so that my client’s vengeful wife, Siobhan, should get nothing out of it.”

Judge: “Mr Rumpole!”

Rumpole: “ But I deny you nothing of this dire (=dreadful, terrible) plot, he was entirely innocent.(entirely=completely) “

“Mr Rumpole! If a restaurant serves unhygienic food, the proprietor (=owner) is guilty, in Law!”

Rumpole: “You are not concerned with the law, members of the jury, you are concerned with justice!”

Judge: “That is a quite outrageous (=shocking and unacceptable) thing to say! On the admitted facts of this case Mr Aulegins is clearly guilty!”

Rumpole: “No British judge has the power to direct a British jury to find a defendant guilty!” (defendant = person in a trial of Law who is accused of committing a crime or who is being sued by another person)

Judge: “I warn you, Mr Rumpole, I shall tell the jury that he is guilty in Law!”

Rumpole: “His Honour may tell you that to his heart’s content, what you do, members of the jury, is a matter between God and your consciences (=moral senses)! Can you in all conscience find a man guilty and condemn (=sentence, say what punishment will be) him to ruin, when he was as free of criminal intent and conspiracy (=plot, secret plan) as the innocent little mouse itself? Can any of you! Can you!?”

The facts of the matter in this case are in your hands and your hands alone, members of the jury. My task is done. The future of that great maitre-de-cuisine, Jean-Pierre Aulegins, is in your hands and your hands alone.”