AcharyaChanakya/simple-wikipedia huggingface dataset:
Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya is a Hindu religious leader. He is also an educator, composer, skilled public speaker, and philosopher. He was born on 14 January 1950. His birth name was Giridhar Mishra (IAST: Giridhara Miśra). He can speak 22 languages. He lives in Chitrakuta, Uttar Pradesh, India.
In 1988 he became one of the four "Jagadguru Ramanandacharyas", the leaders of the Ramananda order. He is the founder of Tulsi Peeth which is a religious and social service organization. It is in Chitrakuta. It is named after the saint Tulsidas. He is the founder and lifelong chancellor of the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University. It is a university in Chitrakuta and it gives graduate and postgraduate courses entirely to the four types of disabled students, having a poor physical or mental ability. Jagadguru Rambhadracharya became blind at the age of two months. He has never used Braille or any other help to learn or compose. He can speak 22 languages, and he is a self-produced poet ("Ashukavi"). He is a composer in Sanskrit, Hindi, Avadhi, Maithili and many other languages. He has written more than 80 books, which include four story telling poems (two in Sanskrit and two in Hindi), a Hindi series of comments on the Ramcharitmanas, a Sanskrit series of comments on the Ashtadhyayi, and a Sanskrit series of comments on the "Prasthanatrayi" religious books (the Brahma Sutra, the Bhagavad Gita and the main Upanishads). He is seen as one of the greatest sources of information on Tulsidas in India, and he is the editor of a critical edition of the Ramcharitmanas. He is a famous Katha artist for the Ramayana and the Bhagavata. His Katha programmes are held regularly in different cities in India and in other countries. They are shown on many television channels like Sanskar TV and Sanatan TV.
Jagadguru Rambhadracharya was born in Shandikhurd village of Jaunpur district in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. His family was a Saryupareen Brahmin family of Vasishtha "Gotra". His birth time was 10:34 pm and he was born on the Makar Sankranti day of Saturday, January 14, 1950 (Magha Krishna Ekadashi). His mother was Shachidevi and his father was Pandit Rajdev Mishra. His name "Giridhara" was named by his father's aunt, a cousin of his grandfather Pandit Suryabali Mishra. His father's aunt was an admirer of Mirabai, a female saint of the Bhakti age in middle India, who used the name Giridhara for Krishna in her compositions.
Giridhara became blind in March 1950 when he was aged two months. When he got the eye disease trachoma, there was no medical care in his village. He was taken to a local woman who was known to cure Trachoma. She dropped a hot medicine into his eyes to break the Trachoma lumps, but his eyes started bleeding and he became blind. His family took him to many Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Allopathic and medical doctors in Sitapur, Lucknow and Mumbai, but there was no help. He cannot read or write, as he does not use the Braille system, but learns by listening and composes by dictating to secretaries.
As Giridhara's father used to work in Bombay, his early learning was at home from his grandfather. During afternoons, his grandfather used to tell him various parts of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other books like "Vishramsagar", "Sukhsagar", "Premsagar", and "Brajvilas", etc. When he was of 3 years, Giridhara made his first poem in Hindi (Avadhi), which was the following "pada". He spoke it to his grandfather. In this poem, Yashoda is fighting with a Gopi for causing pain to Krishna.
Devanagari<br>
"मेरे गिरिधारी जी से काहे लरी ।"
"तुम तरुणी मेरो गिरिधर बालक काहे भुजा पकरी ॥"
"सुसुकि सुसुकि मेरो गिरिधर रोवत तू मुसुकात खरी ॥"
"तू अहिरिन अतिसय झगराऊ बरबस आय खरी ॥"
"गिरिधर कर गहि कहत जसोदा आँचर ओट करी ॥"
IAST<br>
mere giridhārī jī se kāhe larī ।
tuma taruṇī mero giridhara bālaka kāhe bhujā pakarī ॥
susuki susuki mero giridhara rovata tū musukāta kharī ॥
tū ahirina atisaya jhagarāū barabasa āya kharī ॥
giridhara kara gahi kahata jasodā āŉcara oṭa karī ॥
Having a great memory, Giridhar learnt all 700 verses of Bhagavad Gita at in 15 days when he was 5 years old. His neighbour, Pandit Murlidhar Mishra, helped him. On the Janmashtami day in 1955, he read out the whole Bhagavad Gita. By accident, 52 years after the day he learnt the Gita, he released the first ever Braille form of Gita at New Delhi on November 30, 2007, with the real Sanskrit text and a Hindi series of comments. When Giridhara was seven years old, he learned the whole Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (close to 10,900 verses) in 60 days. His grandfather helped him. On Ram Navmi day of 1957, he spoke the whole book while not eating food because of religious reasons. After that, Giridhara went on to learn the Vedas, Upanishads, books on Sanskrit grammar, the Bhagavata Puran, all books of Tulasidas and many other books.
His "Upanayana" (A sacred thread ceremony) was done on the Nirjala Ekadashi day of June 24, 1961. On this day, he got the Gayatri Mantra, and he was given Diksha into the Mantra of Rāma by Pandit Ishvardas Maharaj of Ayodhya. After learning Gita and Ramcharitmanas to high level of skills at a very young age, Giridhara started visiting the Katha programmes held one time in 3 years (in the Purushottama month) near his village. When he went to the third event, he showed a Katha on Ramcharitmanas which was highly respected by many famous representers of the Katha art.
On 7 July, 1967, Giridhara Miśra joined the Adarsh Gaurishankar Sanskrit College in Jaunpur to study Sanskrit Grammar as well Hindi, English, Maths, History and Geography. As he has the ability to memorize everything by just listening it one time, he never used Braille or other help to learn. In three months, he had learned the whole Laghusiddhāntakaumudī of Varadarāja to a high level. He was the best student and got most marks in tests in his class for four years, passing the primary to secondary tests in Sanskrit with best grades and a thing which makes him better than others.
When Girihara was in Adarsh Gaurishankar Sanskrit College, he learnt the eight Gaṇas while learning "Chandaprabhā", a book on Sanskrit poetic metre. On the next day, he made his first Sanskrit poetic form, in the "Bhujaṅgaprayāta" metre.
"महाघोरशोकाग्निनातप्यमानं"
"पतन्तं निरासारसंसारसिन्धौ ।"
"अनाथं जडं मोहपाशेन बद्धं"
"प्रभो पाहि मां सेवकक्लेशहर्त्तः ॥"
mahāghoraśokāgninātapyamānaṃ
patantaṃ nirāsārasaṃsārasindhau ।
anāthaṃ jaḍaṃ mohapāśena baddhaṃ
prabho pāhi māṃ sevakakleśaharttaḥ ॥
In 1971, Giridhara Miśra entered at the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University in Varanasi for higher learning of Vyākaraṇa. He got most marks in the final test for the "Śāstrī" (three years' first degree) in 1974. He then registered for a Master's degree at the same university. While trying to get the master's degree, he went New Delhi to take part in many national contests at the "Akhila Bhāratīya Sanskrit Adhiveśana" (All-India Sanskrit Conference). There he won five gold medals in Vyākaraṇa, Sāṅkhya, Nyāya, Vedānta and Sanskrit Antyākṣarī out of eight. Then the Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, gave the five gold medals with the "Calavaijayantī" prize for Uttar Pradesh to Giridhara. Surprised by his abilities, Indira Gandhi gave him the offer to send him to the United States of America for medical care of his eyes, but Giridhara Miśra did not accepted this offer. In 1976, he got most marks in the final "Ācārya" (two years' Master's degree) tests in Vyākaraṇa, he also won seven gold awards and the "Chancellor's gold award". In an uncommon achievement, though he had registered for a master's degree in Vyākaraṇa only, he was made "Ācārya" of all subjects which were taught at the university for his all-round qualities on April 30, 1976.
Giridhara began studying for a PhD also at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. Pandit Ramprasad Tripathi supervised his studies. Giridhara got a scholarship from the "University Grants Commission" (UGC) by passing an examination. However, he had money problem for several years. He completed his PhD in Sanskrit grammar on October 14, 1981. He wrote about the language of the poet Pāṇinī in the Ramayana. UGC then offered him a job as head of the Vyākaraṇa department of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit University. However, Giridhara Miśra did not take the job. He decided to give his life to the service of his religion, the world, and the disabled.
In 1997 he was awarded the post-doctorate Vācaspati (DLitt) degree by Sampurnanand Sanskrit University for his lecture called "Search into spoken knowledge of every Sūtra of the Aṣṭādhyāyī" in English (Original title: "Aṣṭādhyāyyāḥ Pratisūtraṃ Śābdabodhasamīkṣaṇam"). He described each phrase of the sutra carefully. He told about Pāṇinī's grammar and use of Sanskrit poetic forms.
In 1976, Giridhara Miśra said aloud a Kathā on Rāmcaritamānasa to Svāmī Karapātrī. Svāmī Karapātrī advised him not to marry, to live a lifelong Brahmacārin, and to take start in a Vaiṣṇava Sampradāya. Giridhara Miśra took Vairagi start (Virakta Dīkṣā) in the Rāmānanda Sampradāya (monastic order) on the Kārtika full-moon day of November 19, 1983 from Śrī Śrī 1008 Śrī Rāmacaraṇadāsa Mahārāja Phālāhārī. He now came to be known as Rāmabhadradāsa.
Rambhadradas had a six month "Payovrata", which is a diet only of milk and fruits, at Chitrakoot in 1979 per the following fifth verse of the "Dohavali" made by Tulsidas.
In 1987 Rambhadradas established a religious and social service institution in Chitrakoot, where, as per the Ramayana, Rama had spent twelve out of his fourteen years of exile. Its name is Tulsi Peeth (the seat of Tulsi). As he is the founder of the institution, Sadhus gave him the title of "Śrīcitrakūṭatulasīpīṭhādhīśvara" (which means the God of the Tulsi Peeth at Chitrakoot). In the Tulsi Peeth, there a temple of Rama and Sita, and its name is Kanch Mandir ("glass temple").
Rambhadradas was made Jagadguru Ramanandacharya seated at the Tulsi Peeth by the Kashi Vidwat Parishad in Varanasi on 24 June 1988, and this order was supported by the "Mahants" of three "Akharas", the four sub-"Sampradayas", the "Khalsas" and saints of the Ramananda Sampradaya on 3 February 1989, at the "Kumbh Mela" in Allahabad. On 1 August 1995 he was anointed as the "Jagadguru Ramanandacharya" in a ritual manner in Ayodhya by the "Digambar Akhara". After that he is known as "Jagadguru Ramanandacharya Swami Rambhadracharya".
Swami Rambhadracharya started the Tulsi School for the Blind in Chitrakoot on 23 August 1996. He also started the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University in Chitrakoot on 27 September 2001. This is the first university in the world entirely for disabled students. It was created by a local law of the Uttar Pradesh Government, which was afterwards accepted as the Uttar Pradesh State Act 32 (2001) by the Uttar Pradesh legislature. This act assigned Jagadguru Rambhadracharya as the chancellor of this university for his entire life. The university offers graduate, post-graduate and doctorate degrees in many arts and sciences. The university is planning to give courses in Ayurveda and Medical Sciences from 2013. The permission to enter into the university is limited to only four types of disabled students – those who are blind, or have difficulty in hearing, having difficulty in walking or having some mental illness, as defined in the Disability Act (1995) of the Government of India. According to the Government of Uttar Pradesh, the university is one of the main education institutes for Information Technology and Electronics in the state. Various degrees were given to 354 disabled students in the second graduation ceremony of the university which was held in March 2010. In the third graduation ceremony which was held in January 2011, 388 disabled students were given degrees.
Rambhadracharya also founded an organisation. Its name is Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Viklang Seva Sangh. Its based in Satna, Madhya Pradesh. Its mission is to make community awareness and to start child development programs in Indian villages. Its main aim is to support the education programs of Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University. It helps disabled children get a good education by making access to education easier. Rambhadracharya also runs a hundred-bed hospital in Gujarat.
Tulsidas wrote the epic poem Ramcharitmanas in the late sixteenth century. It has been very popular in northern India ever since. Some Western scholars have called it the "Bible of northern India". Many different poets have created their own versions of the poem.
Molecular orbital
In chemistry, a molecular orbital (or MO) explains what happens to electrons when atoms join together in a molecule. A MO is a mathematical function which describes the wave-like behaviour of an electron in a molecule. The functions can tell the probability of finding an electron in any specific region. Chemists use such functions to predict or explain chemical and physical properties.
Chemists usually build mathematical models of molecular orbitals by combining atomic orbitals. Hybrid orbitals from each atom of the molecule, or other molecular orbitals from groups of atoms can also be used. Computers can work on these functions. Molecular orbitals allow chemists to apply quantum mechanics to study molecules. MOs answer questions about how the atoms in molecules stick together. The various rounded shapes in an orbital diagram indicate where electrons would most likely be found in an atom.
The word "orbital" was first used in English by Robert S. Mulliken. The German physicist Erwin Schrödinger wrote about MOs earlier. Schrödinger called them "Eigenfunktion".
Physicist Max Born described the theory behind molecular orbitals in 1926. Today, it is known as Born's rule and is part of the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. When initially proposed, this theory did not agree with the atom model of Niels Bohr. Bohr's model described electrons as "orbiting" the nucleus, as they moved around in circles. However, the Born model eventually gained popular support because it was able to describe the locations of electrons within molecules and explained a number of previously inexplicable chemical reactions.
Atomic orbitals predict the position of an electron in an atom. Molecular orbitals are created when atomic orbitals are brought together. A molecular orbital can give information about the electron configuration of a molecule. The electron configuration is the most likely position, and the energy of one (or one pair of) electron(s). Mostly a MO is represented as a linear combination of atomic orbitals (the LCAO-MO method), especially in approximate use. This means that chemists assume the chance of an electron being at any point in the molecule is the sum of the probabilities of the electron being there based on the individual atomic orbitals. LCAO-MO is a simple model of bonding in molecules, and is important for studying molecular orbital theory.
Theoretical chemists use computers to calculate the MOs of different molecules (both real and imaginary). The computer can draw graphs of the "cloud" to show how likely the electron will be in any region. The computers can also give information about the physical properties of the molecule. They can also say how much energy is required to form the molecule. This helps chemists say whether some small molecules can be combined to make bigger molecules.
Most present-day ways of doing computational chemistry begin by calculating the MOs of a system. Each MO's electric field is generated by the nuclei of all the atoms and some average distribution of the other electrons.
Understanding MOs is like the task of knowing where each employee is in a large home improvement store (without looking inside the store). An analyst knows the number of employees working at the store and each employee's department. He also knows that employees do not step on each other toes and employees stand in the aisle rather than on the merchandise shelves. Employees leave their own department to help customers locate merchandise in other departments or to check inventory. An analyst giving the location of all employees in the store at a selected moment without looking inside is like a chemist calculating the MOs of a molecule. Just as MOs cannot tell the exact location of each electron, the exact location of each employee is not known. An MO having a nodal plane is like the conclusion that employees walk down aisles and not through shelves. Although electrons are contributed from a specific atom, the electron fills an MO without regard to its source atom. This is like an employee leaving his department to walk elsewhere in the store during the day. So, an MO is an incomplete description of an electron just as the analyst's calculations about the unseen store is an incomplete guess about employee locations.
Theoretical chemists have invented rules for calculating MOs. These rules come from an understanding of quantum mechanics. Quantum mechanics helps chemists to use what physics said about electrons to work out how the electrons behave in molecules.
Molecular orbitals form from "allowed" interactions between atomic orbitals. (The interactions are "allowed" if the symmetries (determined from group theory) of the atomic orbitals are compatible with each other.) Chemists study atomic orbital interactions. These interactions come from the overlap (a measure of how well two orbitals constructively interact with one another) between two atomic orbitals. The overlap is important if the atomic orbitals are close in energy. Finally, the number of MOs in a molecule must equal the number of atomic orbitals in the atoms being brought together to form the molecule.
Chemists need to understand the geometry of MOs in order to discuss molecular structure. The LCMO (Linear combination of atomic orbitals molecular orbital) method gives a rough but good description of the MOs. In this method, the molecular orbitals are expressed as linear combinations of all of the atomic orbitals of each atom in the molecule.
Molecular orbitals were first introduced by Friedrich Hund and Robert S. Mulliken in 1927 and 1928.
The linear combination of atomic orbitals or "LCAO" approximation for molecular orbitals was introduced in 1929 by Sir John Lennard-Jones. His ground-breaking paper showed how to derive the electronic structure of the fluorine and oxygen molecules from quantum principles. This qualitative approach to molecular orbital theory is part of the start of modern quantum chemistry.
Linear combinations of atomic orbitals (LCAO) can be used to guess the molecular orbitals that are made when the molecule’s atoms bond together. Similar to an atomic orbital, a Schrodinger equation, which describes the behavior of an electron, can be constructed for a molecular orbital as well. Linear combinations of atomic orbitals, (the sums and differences of the atomic wavefunctions) provide approximate solutions to the molecular Schrodinger equations. For simple diatomic molecules, the wavefunctions that you get are represented mathematically by the equations
Ψ = cψ + cψ
Ψ* = cψ - cψ
where Ψ and Ψ* are the molecular wavefunctions for the bonding and antibonding molecular orbitals, respectively, ψ and ψ are the atomic wavefunctions from atoms a and b, respectively, and c and c are adjustable coefficients. These coefficients can be positive or negative, depending on the energies and symmetries of the individual atomic orbitals. As the two atoms become closer together, their atomic orbitals overlap to produce areas of high electron density. So, molecular orbitals are formed between the two atoms. The atoms are held together by the electrostatic attraction between the positively charged nuclei and the negatively charged electrons occupying bonding molecular orbitals.
When atomic orbitals interact, the resulting molecular orbital can be of three types: bonding, antibonding, or nonbonding.
Bonding MOs:
Antibonding MOs:
Nonbonding MOs:
Each molecular orbital has its own energy level. Chemists sort the MOs by energy levels. Chemists assume that the electrons will fill the lowest energy level MOs first. For example, if a molecule has electrons to fill 15 orbitals, the 15 MOs with the lowest energy levels will be filled. The 15th MO on the list would be called the "highest occupied molecular orbital" (HOMO) and the 16th MO on the list would be the "lowest unoccupied molecular orbital" (LUMO). The difference in the HOMO's energy level and the LUMO's energy level is called the band gap. The band gap can sometimes serve as a measure of the excitability of the molecule: the smaller the energy, the more easily it will be excited. When the electron is excited, it will jump to an unoccupied MO. For example, this can help guess whether something will give out light (luminescence).
Woodward–Hoffmann rules
The Woodward–Hoffmann rules are a set of organic chemistry rules to predict the stereochemistry of pericyclic reactions. Pericyclic reactions are usually rearrangement reactions where the molecule is a ring (e.g. benzene ring). They were written by Robert Burns Woodward (a chemistry professor at Harvard University) and Roald Hoffmann (a chemistry professor at Cornell University). Hoffmann was awarded the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for this work, shared with Kenichi Fukui who developed a similar model. Woodward did not share the prize because he died two years before. Generally, the Nobel Prize is awarded only to living people. Woodward had already won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a different discovery.
A recent paper in the journal "Nature" describes how mechanical stress can be used to reshape chemical reaction pathways to lead to products that apparently violate Woodward–Hoffman rules.
Stereochemistry is the study of how molecules are affected by the way their atoms are arranged in space. It is also known as 3D chemistry as the word "stereo" means "three dimensional". Using stereochemistry, chemists can work out the relationships between different molecules that are made up from the same atoms. They can also study the effect on the physical or biological properties these relationships give molecules. When these relationships influence the reactivity of the molecules it is called dynamic stereochemistry.
In chemistry, some molecules have more than one isomer. This means that molecules can have different forms, even though all the forms made up of the same atoms. There are two kinds of isonomers. Constitutional isomers have the same atoms, but they are joined differently. Stereoisomers have the same atoms, they are joined the same way, but the atoms are arranged differently in space. An important part of stereochemistry is the study of chiral molecules. These molecules look almost identical, except that one molecule is the mirror image of the other.
In most chemical bonds, the atoms of a molecule free to move around without breaking the bonds. When a molecule has a double bond or a ring structure, the molecule can be sorted into different isomers. These are molecules with the same chemical structure but different forms.
The study of stereochemical problems covers the entire range of organic, inorganic, biological, physical and supramolecular chemistries.
Louis Pasteur was the first person to study stereochemistry. He observed in 1849 that salts of tartaric acid collected from wine-making equipment could rotate plane polarized light, but that salts from other sources did not. This property was the only difference between the two types of salt. It is due to optical isomerism. In 1874, Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff and Joseph Le Bel discovered the difference was caused by the way that the atoms bonded to carbon in a tetrahedral (four faced) shape.
Stereochemistry was important in solving the thalidomide disaster in the 1960s. Thalidomide is a drug that was first produced in 1957 in Germany. Doctors used it to treat morning sickness in pregnant women. Later, the drug was shown to cause deformations in babies. One isomer of the drug was not dangerous, but the other caused serious genetic damage to the embryos. In the human body, thalidomide undergoes racemization: even if only one of the two stereoisomers enters a human body, the body changes some of it to other one. The thalidomide disaster caused governments to test drugs more carefully. Selected people take new drugs in an experiment (clinical trial) first before the drug is made available for public use. Thalidomide is now used as a therapy for leprosy. Women must use it with contraceptives to prevent pregnancy.
When an atom can have other atoms connect to it in more than one way, it is called a stereocenter. For example, if a carbon atom has four different groups attached to it, it becomes a stereocenter.
Cahn-Ingold-Prelog priority rules are part of a system for describing a molecule's stereochemistry. They rank the atoms around a stereocenter in a standard way. This allows the relative position of these atoms in the molecule to be described very clearly. A Fischer projection is a simplified way to show the stereochemistry around a stereocenter.
Cornel West
Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, author, critic, actor, and civil rights activist. He is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America. West is the Class of 1943 University Professor at Princeton University. He teaches in the Center for African American Studies and in the Department of Religion. West is known for his combination of political and moral insight and criticism and his contribution to the post-1960s civil rights movement. Much of West's work focuses on the role of race, gender, and class in American society and the means by which people act and react to their "radical conditionedness". West draws intellectual contributions from such diverse traditions as the African American Baptist Church, pragmatism and transcendentalism.
West was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and grew up in Sacramento, California, where his father was a general contractor for the Defense Department and his mother was a teacher and a principal. Irene B. West Elementary School, Elk Grove, California, is named for her. While West was a student, he marched in civil rights demonstrations. As the class president in his high school, West organized protests demanding black studies courses. He later wrote that, in his youth, he admired "the sincere black militancy of Malcolm X, the defiant rage of the Black Panther Party [...] and the livid black theology of James Cone."
In 1970, West graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. He enrolled at Harvard University and took classes from philosophers Robert Nozick and Stanley Cavell. In 1973, he graduated "magna cum laude" in Near Eastern Languages and Civilization. "Owing to my family, church, and the black social movements of the 1960s", he says, "I arrived at Harvard unashamed of my African, Christian, and militant de-colonized outlooks. More pointedly, I acknowledged and accented the empowerment of my black styles, mannerisms, and viewpoints, my Christian values of service, love, humility, and struggle, and my anti-colonial sense of self-determination for oppressed people and nations around the world."
In 1980, he earned a Ph.D. from Princeton, where he was influenced by Richard Rorty's pragmatism. The title of his dissertation was "Ethics, historicism and the Marxist tradition", which was later revised and published under the title "The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought".
In his mid-20s, he returned to Harvard as a W. E. B. Du Bois Fellow before becoming an Assistant Professor at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. In 1985, he worked at Yale Divinity School in what eventually became a joint appointment in American Studies. While at Yale, he participated in campus protests for a clerical labor union and divestment from apartheid South Africa. He was arrested and jailed at one of the protests. As punishment, the University administration canceled his leave for Spring 1987, leading him to commute from Yale in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was teaching two classes, across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Paris.
He then returned to Union and taught at Haverford College in Pennsylvania for one year before going to Princeton to become a Professor of Religion and Director of the Program in African-American Studies (1988–94). He worked with novelist Toni Morrison to improve the Princeton program.
In 1994, West accepted an appointment as Professor of African-American Studies at Harvard University, with a joint appointment at the Harvard Divinity School. West taught one of the University's most popular courses, an introductory class on African-American Studies. In 1998, he was appointed the first Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. This professorship allowed West to teach both African-American studies and Divinity, Religion, and Philosophy.
In 2001, after an argument with Harvard President Lawrence Summers, West returned to Princeton, where he has taught ever since.
The recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees and an American Book Award, he is a long-time member of the Democratic Socialists of America, for which he now serves as Honorary Chair. He is also a co-chair of the Tikkun Community and the Network of Spiritual Progressives. West is on the Board of Directors of the International Bridges to Justice, among others. West is also much sought-after as a speaker, blurb-writer, and Honorary Chair.
Critics, most notably "The New Republic" Literary Editor Leon Wieseltier, have charged him with opportunism, crass showmanship, and lack of scholarly seriousness.
West remains a widely cited scholar in the popular press in African-American Studies and Studies of Black Theology.
West is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He is a member of the fraternity's World Policy Council, a think tank whose purpose is to expand Alpha Phi Alpha's involvement in politics and social and current policy to encompass international concerns.
West appears in both "The Matrix Reloaded" and "The Matrix Revolutions", playing Councilor West, who serves on the council of Zion. West's character advises that "comprehension is not a requisite of cooperation." In addition, West provides philosophical commentary on all three Matrix films in The Ultimate Matrix Collection, along with integral theorist Ken Wilber.
Cornel West has also made several appearances in documentary films, such as the 2008 film "Examined Life", a documentary featuring several academics discussing philosophy in real-world contexts. West, "driving through Manhattan, . . . compares philosophy to jazz and blues, reminding us how intense and invigorating a life of the mind can be."
He also appears in conversation with Bill Withers in the Bill Withers documentary, "Still Bill".
West also makes frequent appearances on the political talk show "Real Time with Bill Maher".
On the musical front, West recorded a recitation of John Mellencamp's song "Jim Crow" for inclusion on the singer's box set "On the Rural Route 7609" in 2009.
In 2010, he completed recording with the Cornel West Theory, a Hip Hop band endorsed by West. He has also released two hip-hop/soul/spoken word albums, one under "Cornel West" (entitled Street Knowledge), the other under "Cornel West & B.M.W.M.B." (entitled Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations). Both works are musical expressions of West's personal politics and beliefs which he has enunciated in his previous written works.
In 2000, economist and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers became president of Harvard. In a private meeting with West, Summers allegedly rebuked West for missing too many classes, contributing to grade inflation, neglecting serious scholarship, and spending too much time on his economically profitable projects. Some people say that Summers allegedly suggested that West produce an academic book (work that is typical of senior Harvard professors). West had written several books, some of them widely cited, but his recent output consisted primarily of co-written and edited volumes. According to some reports, Summers also objected to West's production of a CD, the critically panned "Sketches of My Culture", and to his political campaigning. According to West's book "Democracy Matters," Summers wrongly accused him of canceling classes for three straight weeks during 2000 to promote Bill Bradley's presidential campaign. West contends that he had missed one class during his tenure at Harvard "in order to give a keynote address at a Harvard-sponsored conference on AIDS." Summers also allegedly suggested that since West held the rank of Harvard University Professor and thus reported directly to the President, he should meet with Summers regularly to discuss the progress of his academic production.
West contends that popular coverage of the controversy obscured the true issues at stake in his dispute with Summers. West argues that Summers's vision of academia is corrosive to a deep democratic commitment that strives to connect the academy with society at large, so as to fulfill its calling to educate the public. He contends that the controversy with Summers was indicative of the fact that "a market-driven technocratic culture has infiltrated university life, with the narrow pursuit of academic trophies and the business of generating income from grants and business partnerships taking precedence over the fundamental responsibility of nurturing young minds." According to West, during the controversy he was highly regarded in the academic community, "had more academic references than fourteen of the other seventeen Harvard University Professors", and "had nearly twice as many such references as Summers himself." At the time, West had been focused on reaching wider audiences as part of his effort to encourage civic engagement—especially amongst youth—in the hope of revitalizing what he calls a deep democratic commitment that would counteract the encroaching political nihilism that he argues threatens the future of American democracy. While West does not deny the importance of academics engaging the more specialized concerns of their fields, he strongly opposes the sentiment that academia must limit itself to those rarefied interests. Academia and academics, he contends, have an important role to play in promoting public discourse that cannot be achieved if professors lock themselves in their ivory towers instead of engaging society-at-large and the salient issues of the day. Ultimately, this was the root of the quarrel, according to West.
Summers refused to comment on the details of his conversation with West, except to express hope that West would remain at Harvard. Soon after, West was hospitalized for prostate cancer. West complained that Summers failed to send him get-well wishes until weeks after his surgery, whereas newly installed Princeton president Shirley Tilghman had contacted him frequently before and after his treatment. In 2002 West left Harvard University to return to Princeton. West lashed out at Summers in public interviews, calling him "the Ariel Sharon of higher education" on NPR's "Tavis Smiley Show". In response to these remarks, five Princeton faculty members, led by professor of molecular biology Jacques Robert Fresco, said they looked with "strong disfavor upon his characterization" of Summers and that "such an analogy carries innuendoes and implications... that many on the Princeton faculty find highly inappropriate, indeed repugnant and intolerable."
Harvard University's undergraduate student newspaper, "The Harvard Crimson", suggested in October 2002 that the premise of "" episode "Anti-Thesis" was based on West's conflicts with Summers.
West publicly supported 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama. He spoke to over 1,000 of his supporters at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, N.Y.C. on November 29, 2007. However, West now calls Obama a "black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats." In an interview, West said:As a young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he's always had to fear being a white main with a black skin. All he has known culturally is white.West's comments about President Obama have drawn criticism from other African-Americans, including Melissa Harris-Perry and Al Sharpton.
West criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be "a war president with a peace prize".
West recanted his support for Obama in an April 2011 interview, in which he said Obama is merely a "black mascot" for America's elites and also "a black muppet of corporate plutocrats."
West has called the U.S. a "racist patriarchal" nation where "white supremacy" continues to define everyday life. "White America," he writes, "has been historically weak-willed in ensuring racial justice and has continued to resist fully accepting the humanity of blacks." This has resulted, he claims, in the creation of many "degraded and oppressed people hungry for identity, meaning, and self-worth." Professor West attributes most of the black community's problems to "existential angst derive[d] from the lived experience of ontological wounds and emotional scars inflicted by white supremacist beliefs and images permeating U.S. society and culture."
In West's view, the September 11, 2001 attacks gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the United States—feeling "unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred" for who they are. "The ugly terrorist attacks on innocent civilians on 9/11," he said, "plunged the whole country into the blues."
West has described himself as a "non-Marxist socialist" (partly due to Marx's opposition to religion) and serves as honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America, which he has described as "the first multiracial, socialist organization close enough to my politics that I could join". He also described himself as a "radical democrat, suspicious of all forms of authority" on the "Matrix"-themed documentary "The Burly Man Chronicles" (Found in "The Ultimate Matrix Collection").
West believes that "the overthrow of Saddam Hussein's ugly totalitarian regime was desirable," but that the war in Iraq was the result of "dishonest manipulation" on the part of the Bush administration. He asserts that Bush Administration hawks "are not simply conservative elites and right-wing ideologues", but rather are "evangelical nihilists — drunk with power and driven by grand delusions of American domination of the world". He adds, "We are experiencing the sad gangsterization of America, an unbridled grasp at power, wealth, and status." Viewing capitalism as the root cause of these alleged American lusts, West warns, "Free-market fundamentalism trivializes the concern for public interest. It puts fear and insecurity in the hearts of anxiety-ridden workers. It also makes money-driven, poll-obsessed elected officials deferential to corporate goals of profit — often at the cost of the common good."
West has been involved with such projects as the Million Man March and Russell Simmons's Hip-Hop Summit, and worked with such public figures as Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton, whose 2004 presidential campaign West advised.
In 2000, West worked as a senior advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Bill Bradley. When Bradley lost in the primaries, West became a prominent endorser of Ralph Nader, even speaking at some Nader rallies. Some Greens sought to draft West to run as a presidential candidate in 2004. West declined, citing his active participation in the Al Sharpton campaign. West, along with other prominent Nader 2000 supporters, signed the "Vote to Stop Bush" statement urging progressive voters in swing states to vote for John Kerry, despite strong disagreements with many of Kerry's policies.
In April 2002 West and Rabbi Michael Lerner performed an act of civil disobedience at the U.S. State Department "in solidarity with suffering Palestinian and Israeli brothers and sisters". West said, "We must keep in touch with the humanity of both sides." In May 2007 West joined a demonstration against "injustices faced by the Palestinian people resulting from the Israeli occupation" and "to bring attention to this 40 year travesty of justice". In 2011, West called on the University of Arizona to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
West also serves as co-chair of the Tikkun Community. He co-chaired the National Parenting Organization's Task Force on Parent Empowerment and participated in President Clinton's National Conversation on Race. He has publicly endorsed "In These Times" magazine by calling it: "The most creative and challenging news magazine of the American left". He is also a contributing editor for "Sojourners Magazine".
West supports of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA.) in its Kentucky Fried Cruelty campaign, aimed at eliminating what PETA describes as KFC's inhumane treatment of chickens. West is quoted on PETA flyers: "Although most people don't know chickens as well as they know cats and dogs, chickens are interesting individuals with personalities and interests every bit as developed as the dogs and cats with whom many of us share our lives."
In 2008, West contributed his insights on the current global issue of modernized slavery and human trafficking in the rockumentary Call+Response.
During the 2016 United States presidential election, West was a strong supporter and campaigned for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders. After Sanders lost the Democratic nomination, West supported Jill Stein of the Green Party.
Juno (spacecraft)
Juno is an unmanned NASA New Frontiers spacecraft. It studies the planet Jupiter from orbit. It is the first mission to an outer planet to use solar panels for power instead of a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. The spacecraft was launched on August 5, 2011 from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and entered a polar orbit of Jupiter on July 5, 2016. Scott Bolton is leading the mission.
Juno's main goal is to understand the origin and evolution of Jupiter. Juno will also study the planet's atmospheric composition, gravity field, magnetic field, and polar magnetosphere.
Mark Holton
Mark Holton is an American actor. His movies include "Hoboken Hollow" (2007), "Gacy", "The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle" (2000) and "Little Giants" (1994).
Holton went to school at Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma.
The Toyota Prius is a hybrid automobile from the Japanese automobile producer Toyota. It is called 'hybrid' because it has two different engines: a gasoline engine (combustion engine) and an electric motor. Because of the electric motor, it uses less fuel than a normal gasoline automobile when driving at low speeds (for example in the city). The electric motor uses batteries for its power, and these batteries are charged by a dynamo when the gasoline engine is used at higher speeds. The first generation launched in Japan in December 1997, then it reached the rest of the world in 2000. It entered its second generation in 2003 and it began to become more popular with buyers. The third generation arrived in 2009 and grew larger in size. The current fourth generation appeared in December 2015.
Upper Palaeolithic
The Upper Palaeolithic (Upper Paleolithic or Late Stone Age) is the third and last part of the Palaeolithic period. It lasted from about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. Humans used tools for hunting and fishing. They also developed cave paintings. In this period, the Neanderthal man completely disappeared, leaving Homo sapiens as the only surviving species in the human genus.
In Europe, Asia and Africa, this time is known as the last part of the Old Stone Age.
The first "modern humans" found in Western Europe date back to about 36,000 years ago. Those fossils were found in the south-west of Romania. The founds were made in a stone cave called Peștera cu Oase.
The Lascaux cave paintings are from this time period. They are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1979 and are in France.
Evidence for belief in the afterlife in the Upper Palaeolithic: appearance of burial rituals and ancestor worship.
Adams Morgan
Adams Morgan is a culturally diverse neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C.. It is centered at the intersection of 18th Street and Columbia Road. Adams Morgan is the center of Washington's Hispanic immigrant community. It is a major night life area with many bars and restaurants, particularly along 18th Street (the primary commercial district) and Columbia Road. Much of the neighborhood has 19th- and early 20th-century row houses and apartment buildings.
Adjacent to Adams Morgan is Dupont Circle to the south, Kalorama-Sheridan to the southwest, Mount Pleasant to the north, and Columbia Heights to the east. The neighborhood is bounded by Connecticut Avenue to the southwest, Rock Creek Park to the west, Harvard Street to the north, 16th Street to the east, and Florida Avenue to the south.
The name Adams Morgan was originally hyphenated. It is derived from the names of two, formerly segregated area elementary schools—the older, all-black Thomas P. Morgan Elementary School (now defunct) and the all-white John Quincy Adams Elementary School. Pursuant to the 1954 "Bolling v. Sharpe" Supreme Court ruling, District schools were desegregated in 1955. The Adams-Morgan Community Council, comprising both Adams and Morgan schools and the neighborhoods they served, was formed in 1958. The city drew boundaries of the neighborhood through three preexisting neighborhoods – Washington Heights, Lanier Heights, and Meridian Hill – naming the resulting area after both schools.
In the late 1960s, a group of residents organized and worked with city officials to plan and construct a new elementary school and recreational complex that was conceived as a community hub, a concept that 40 years later has become a favored one in public school facilities design. The development was named the Marie H. Reed Learning Center after Bishop Reed, a community activist, minister and leader. It featured a daycare center, tennis and basketball courts, a solar-heated swimming pool, health clinic, athletic field and outdoor chess tables.
Adams Morgan, together with the nearby Mount Pleasant and Columbia Heights, serve as a gateway community for immigrants. Since the 1960s, the predominant international presence in both communities has been Latino, with the majority of immigrants coming from El Salvador, Guatemala and other Central American countries. Since the early 1970s, like other areas of the nation, Adams Morgan had seen a growing influx of immigrants from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, as well. Gentrification and the resulting high cost of housing, however, have displaced many immigrants and long-time African American residents, particularly those with young children. Many small businesses have also been displaced. The community still retains a degree of diversity, most evident in its array of international shops and restaurants. Restaurants in Adams Morgan offer ethnic cuisines, among them Spanish, Ethiopian, Guatemalan, Mexican, Italian, Dutch, Vietnamese, Ghanaian, Cajun, Brazilian, Palestinian, Peruvian, Pakistani cuisine, Thai, Lebanese, Somali, and Chinese.
Adams Morgan also has become a thriving spot for night life, with a number of bars and clubs featuring live music. Over 90 establishments possess liquor licenses, putting it on level with other popular nightlife areas like Georgetown and Dupont Circle. Local stores along the 18th Street corridor were rapidly replaced with late-night establishments, leading to a moratorium on new liquor licenses by the Alcohol Beverage Control Board in 2000 after successful lobbying by resident groups. The moratorium was renewed in 2004, but eased to allow new restaurant licenses.
Although many immigrants and African-American residents have left Adams Morgan, the long-time institutions that meet the needs of Latinos and other non English-speaking residents ontinue to serve immigrants and their families. Adams Morgan is home to Mary's Center, a clinic focusing on healthcare delivery to Spanish-speaking patients, and the Latino Economic Development Corporation, as well as numerous businesses and churches that employ and cater to immigrants. Adjacent Mt. Pleasant also hosts a number of commercial enterprises, social service agencies and other institutions that help to anchor local immigrants to the area.