text:
"I Am Jack's Younger Self":
By Galvin P. Chow
In the movie Fight Club, the real name of the protagonist (Ed Norton's character) is never revealed. And while some feel the only reason behind this is to give the character more of an "everyman" quality, I say, do not be deceived. Because it's obvious to anyone with working eyes that "Jack" is actually someone whom many of us grew up with, someone who might've been present at all your childhood breakfasts of Sugar Frosted Chocolate Bombs. You see, "Jack" from Fight Club and Calvin from the greatest comic strip ever, "Calvin and Hobbes," are in fact the exact same person! You have doubts, I'm sure. Well, that's to be expected. But laugh now, for by the time you finish reading this page, I will prove to you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ed Norton is indeed playing the part of grown-up Calvin.
We start with the most obvious bit.
Picture this: a hyper, self-absorbed child initially concocts an imaginary friend as the ideal playmate, to whom more realistic qualities soon become attributed. This phantasm becomes a completely separate personality, with his own likes, dislikes, temperament -- and the imaginer and the imagined clash and argue constantly, though remaining fast friends. This pattern continues to the point where the child begins to perceive what was originally mere fantasy to be _reality_. So, in short...
...Calvin has an imaginary jungle-animal friend named Hobbes, whom everyone else believes to be nothing but a stuffed toy...
"There are EIGHT rules of Fight Club!"
...just as Tyler is Jack's imaginary cool-guy friend, whom no one but Jack can see.
"Mmm, fresh swordfish steaks!"
In both cases, the entity that began as the ideal companion soon took on a more realistic, 3-dimensional quality. In other words, they became REAL. This is evident in that both Hobbes and Tyler also began to function as scapegoats for their creators. For instance, consider that Calvin often blames broken lamps and other assorted household mischief on Hobbes, and that Jack is inclined to believe that Fight Club and other various anti-society mischief is brought about by Tyler, not himself. Calvin claims Hobbes pounces on him every day after school, Jack believes Tyler beats him up next to 40 kilotons of nitroglycerin in a parking garage -- the list goes on and on. The relationships between the two sets of friends are the exact same. And is this mere coincidence? I think not.
Now then, filling in the time-gap between Calvin and Jack, we can imagine the story as something like this: Once Calvin reaches the hostile environment known as the 7th grade, the constant teasing from the other students and the frustrated concern of his parents finally becomes too much, and a reluctant, disillusioned Calvin is finally forced to grow up, or at least begin to. This decision is sealed by one of the hardest things young Calvin will ever have to do in his life -- un-imagining Hobbes, an act which to Calvin is essentially no different from murder. After being Calvin's best friend for over a decade, Hobbes is packed away in a box, or tossed carelessly into a garbage bag, perhaps even stuffed under the same bed that once contained so many monsters. This is all of course, very painful for Calvin, so much so that he represses it all in shame. So little did Calvin suspect, that while he was busy learning to tie ties, asking someone out to his first dance, deciding what "dinette set defines him as a person," and basically growing up, Hobbes is in fact doing the same thing, in a dark, hidden corner of Calvin's mind, waiting for the moment when he can be free again.
It's worth noting that during these 20 or so years, Hobbes never bore a grudge against Calvin nor wished any ill upon him. Back in their prime, though they bickered constantly, the pair truly did deeply care for each other. And Hobbes, knowing this, resents being put away, but he does not hate Calvin. Rather, he hates the society that MADE Calvin put him away. Hobbes, being inside Calvin's mind, sees and experiences all that Calvin does -- and truly despises all of it. He witnesses a bright, superbly imaginative kid (with a genius-level vocabulary, I might add) reduced to nothing more than another nameless cog, and fighting off the tears wept for his best friend, resolves to one day set him free. And perhaps pays special attention when a bored, college freshman Calvin idly looks up homemade-napalm recipes on the internet, wistfully fantasizing about the freedom he traded in all for the sake of "growing up"...
Flash forward to the timeframe depicted in "Fight Club." Jack, or should I say, "Rupert," or "Cornelius" has reached an all-time low. Even though he had done everything he was supposed to have done, and wound up completely miserable. Which is when Hobbes, newly adjusted as "Tyler Durden" (after all, grown-up Calvin would no longer accept a jungle animal walking, talking, and eating canned tuna), re-enters Calvin/Jack's life. He's going to show Calvin everything he's done wrong, whether Calvin likes it or not.
Tyler to Jack: "I look like you wanna look, I fuck like you wanna fuck, I'm smart, capable, and most importantly, I'm free in all the ways you wish you could be." And to anyone who argues that Calvin never secretly idolized Hobbes, I point you towards the storyline wherein Calvin dresses up like a tiger and attempts to live in the woods, as collected in "Weirdos From Outer Space!" Moreover, Hobbes was always smarter than Calvin, often served as his social conscience -- yet was not above mischief, often because he knew Calvin would be the only one taking the blame. Both Hobbes and Tyler are cool, collected, intelligent and very cerebral, and share a distaste for man's self-importance, as shown in the panel below:
"You are NOT a beautiful and unique snowflake"...early signs of Tyler?
And, let's not forget that Tyler wants to move back to a more primal, hunter-gatherer society...in other words, an environment in which an animal, i.e., a tiger, would be very much at home. Given the evidence, it's VERY likely that Tyler is indeed an updated version of Hobbes, twisted after so many years trapped inside Calvin/Jack's brain. Just as Calvin is Jack, Hobbes IS Tyler.
Want further proof? Look at Tyler's relationship with the only woman in Jack's life: Marla.
= ?
Dual Victims of Testicular Cancer?
Okay, I know what you're thinking.
"All right," you say, "Calvin being Jack is a stretch, Hobbes being Tyler is even more of a stretch, but Susie being Marla? Simply impossible! For one thing, their personalities are nothing alike, and also, Marla is not imaginary nor does she remain unnamed throughout the film!"
To which I respond, oh ye, of little faith. Imagine, please, the following:
Somewhere between the end of high school and beginning of college, uptight, grade-obsessed Susie Derkins loses her way. The pressure to get good grades, the pressure to succeed, simply becomes too much for her, and she snaps. Free from the protective bonds of her parents' guidance and the bland safety of her suburban home, she loses her moral bearings entirely and sinks into a dark, seamy, grim world of sex, drugs, and eccentric Albert-Einstein-like hair. And, her transformation being so complete that she no longer even remotely resembles the upright citizen that her parents and society, not necessarily she herself, wanted her to be, she also changes her name. Like Calvin, she has become a misfit, one of society's lost lambs. It is for this reason that she soon finds herself frequenting support groups such as "Remaining Men Together." Fate has brought her back to Calvin, whom maybe she even spurned back in junior high. But the two have changed so much that they no longer recognize each other!
Also I'd like to point out that the pink dress Marla wears in one scene slightly resembles something that "Binky Betsy," Susie's favorite childhood doll, might wear. You remember, the one Calvin once stole and attempted to ransom, but...oh never mind.
All right, so it's a BIT of a stretch, but it could happen! And regardless of whether Marla is indeed the twisted, fallen-from-grace future of Susie "Straight-and-Narrow" Derkins, the fact remains that the two girls play similar roles in the lives of their respective male counterparts, AND with their imaginary friends. Which is to say, that while Calvin and Susie mostly teased and tortured each other, HOBBES, on the other hand, actually quite fancied the raven-haired beauty. Accordingly, Jack despises Marla, whereas Tyler takes an *ahem* sort of interest in her that is definitely NOT appropriate for the Sunday Funnies. And it is through the examination of these relationships in which we can find further evidence that "Jack" is the matured Calvin.
When first we are introduced to Marla, she is but a tumor on Jack's slowly deteriorating world. She is disenfranchised, morbid, socially apathetic -- and Jack despises her because she is a mirror image of himself, his own female double. On the other hand, Calvin hates Susie because she is his exact opposite: Bright, obedient, demure -- the unruly Calvin has every reason to hate her. However, certain strips definitely infer that Calvin has somewhat of a crush on Susie, and some even imply that Susie shares these latent feelings. But as a cootie-fearing grade-schooler, Calvin may only express these strange feelings through attention-getting antagonisms such as constant snowballs to the head, ransoming her dolls -- AND through his separate, conveniently more mature other personality -- Hobbes.
Above: The grown-up versions of Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie restart their old relationships.
Unlike Calvin, Hobbes has never been bashful about showing his affection for Susie. Calvin's imaginary tiger-friend has called her a "cutie," worn swim jams to impress her ("Girls flip for guys in jams"), and even claimed he would betray their club's secret code if she gave him a tummy rub (which is one of the key differences between Tyler and Hobbes). Naturally, all of this confuses and frustrates Calvin beyond words, even though Hobbes is really nothing more than a product of his own mind! And though Hobbes and Susie never consummated their love for each other (he's a stuffed tiger and she's a kid, you sicko!) this is, of course, the EXACT same deranged love-triangle that is shared between Jack, Tyler, and Marla, or at least a natural progression thereof. Perhaps Marla puts up with Jack/Tyler's apparent nonsense for so long, because it's the sort of thing she became used to as a child? And perhaps, in the end, Jack finds solace in Marla because it's the exact same connection he should've made long ago, in his suburban youth. A connection that may have saved them both.
A minor loophole here is Marla's line, "I haven't been fucked like that since grade-school." Well, besides that line having been substituted by David Fincher, not the writer, for another ("I want to have your abortion"), it's more than likely Marla was simply exaggerating, or even considers "Susie" to have never existed.
A lot of people think that the creation of something like "Fight Club," by which I mean the actual club and not the movie, would be a frighteningly revolutionary thing. But this is not so. Because when you boil it down, the fighting-club that Jack and Tyler start is really just an odd sort of boys' club -- no ovaries allowed -- where men can be men, and the so-called stronger of the sexes can take solace in the fact that, even in our politically correct times, some exclusivities of manhood still remain. (As a side note, imagine how much more controversy the movie would have generated if it involved scenes of men fighting women on equal ground!) And clubs like this, of course, have their beginnings in backyards, tree houses and garages all over America. Clubs where boys can be boys, clubs made just to exclude girls. And, not surprisingly, Calvin, and Hobbes, started such a club when he was 6 years old. Little did anyone realize that he would construct another one much later in his life, again with the aid of an imaginary friend. For just as Calvin, Hobbes, and Susie have dark future versions in Jack, Tyler, and Marla respectively, GROSS -- Get Rid of Slimy girlS -- has the same in Fight Club.
Above: In a scene eerily reminiscent of Fight Club, Hobbes blithely informs a sulking Calvin that he decides his own level of involvement in GROSS.
GROSS shares many characteristics with Fight Club. Among them:
Clearly, in GROSS can be seen the roots Fight Club. Calvin shows his penchant for such male-oriented, destructive organizations. Also, just like cardboard-box-time-machines and water-gun-transmogrifiers, GROSS was likely created as an escape, a release. As, of course, was Fight Club.
Okay, so Robert "Moe" Paulson, Calvin's grade-school bully, becomes a six-time weight-lifting champion, and somewhere along the line develops large man-boobs as a result of testicular cancer. This of course leads him to his support group, where he is shocked to find Calvin. Moe greatly regrets his bullying days, but too ashamed to reveal his true identity to Calvin, he instead offers his ample bosom for him to cry on, as a measure of retribution. From there...just kidding! Just kidding! Perhaps the conspiracy doesn't run THIS deep.
But *coughcough* Chloe is actually Calvin's old babysitter Rosalyn. Seriously. The evidence is all there, but no one believes me. Fools, all of you!
Although we've already learned of the fates of Hobbes, Susie, and even Moe and Rosalyn (sort of...), there are a couple of other people important to Calvin that are missing. People that even more integral to his development than (arguably) Hobbes. And these people, are of course, his parents. Namely...
His father, Mr...uhm...
...and his mom, otherwise known as...uh...gimme a sec here...
Okay, I forgot, they don't have names. But then again, we don't NEED to know them. Because in the comic strip, they're not supposed to be important characters in their own right. They only matter in regards to how Calvin is directly effected by them; an effect which, by the time of the movie, doesn't seem to have been very positive. From what Jack mentions, he's not exactly what could be called close to his parents, particularly not his dad, on whom he seems to pin many of his problems. And this matches perfectly with the relationship depicted in the comic, as well as with what I believe to have happened afterwards (in Part I). Let's take a closer look.
We'll begin with Calvin's mom, since she seems the less consequential. In the strip, she appears to be an ordinary housewife, nothing more, nothing less. She comforts or scolds Calvin as needed, goes to many parent-teacher meetings, and seems to enjoy gardening, and that's about all we know. She doesn't seem to be a particularly weak woman, as she seems on fairly equal ground with her husband, in terms of intelligence and personality. Nevertheless, locked in the passive role of a housewife, she appears to have had relatively little effect on Calvin's development.
Now Calvin's dad, on the other hand, seems to have done quite a number on his son. As stated, it was probably at his urging that Calvin "grew up," by which I mean, finally started to try and play by society's rules, which is something that we know never quite worked out. Of course, he wasn't without his playful side -- good-naturedly teasing Calvin at every opportunity -- but perhaps this is why Jack resents him so. For maybe, after Jack reached the end of the path of that was decided for him, only to find emptiness as his reward, perhaps he thought back to when his father told him that the sun sets down somewhere in Arizona every night. "Maybe," thought Calvin, "maybe ALL of it's been just another one of Dad's cruel jokes."
In the "bathtub" scene of Fight Club, Jack and Tyler discuss their parents. In this scene, key information arises, as do, apparently, large inconsistencies. First the latter. Jack claims his father left when he was six, an age when Calvin's was obviously still around, but this statement is contradicted soon after, when Tyler mentions his own dad telling him to get married when he was 30, to which Jack responds, "mine said that TOO." So what this probably amounts to is the self-pitying Jack attempting to garner additional sympathy from his newfound friend by making his childhood sound worse than it actually was. But even more interesting is Tyler's hostility towards his father: when Jack asks him who he would fight, if he could fight anyone, he answers, "I'd fight my father." But, since Tyler is only a figment of Jack's imagination, we can only assume he's referring to JACK'S father. And while this hatred would only make sense given that the two are sharing the same brain, why is it that Tyler seems to hate Jack's father even more vividly than Jack himself does? Well, maybe it's because Tyler hasn't forgotten who's ultimately responsible for the de-imagining that took place years before...maybe he's still not too happy about it...
...and maybe he's got some pretty good ideas for revenge.
So, as you can see, the role of Calvin's father in all of this is no small one. Other than to "save" Calvin, it's entirely possible that Tyler's real motivation for taking down civilization is simply to get back at Calvin's father. For by destroying the society that forced Calvin into repressing Hobbes, he's also destroying the society that Calvin's father, after all, epitomizes. And this of course, allows Hobbes an indirect measure of revenge. But we're getting off track again. Because with all this talk of secondary characters, we're forgetting the one person that's at the center of all of this:
As we've already thoroughly examined all the secondary members of the cast, and analyzed them in light of their various relationships with the protagonist, actually putting Calvin himself under the microscope, at this point, seems largely unnecessary. After all, there already seems to be abundant evidence of the connections between Fight Club and Calvin and Hobbes. However, there do remain some key points that rest only within Calvin, and only with Calvin, himself. So, examine we shall.
Although the personality differences between Calvin in the comic strip and Calvin in the movie are pretty large, it can be explained as easily as taking Id and introducing him to Superego (Jack actually seems to have sort of a Super-Superego). Nearly all people go through the same thing when first confronted with the crushing grind of reality. But, as they say, the bigger they are, the harder they fall -- and in terms of imagination and dreams, Calvin was a giant.
Above: Calvin displaying an early distaste for institution
Still, it's not as though no common traits between Calvin-Calvin and Jack-Calvin can be identified at all. Besides a preference for imaginary friends over real ones, and an ability to express affection for girls, Calvin has never done well when forced to play by any sort of rules. Take, for instance, his utter inability in any sort of organized sport, compared to his unbridled joy while playing the make-it-up-as-you-go-along "Calvinball." Furthermore, even at age 8 Calvin never exactly thrived in stifling, authoritarian establishments (i.e., school), and he's always had clashes with authority figures since the strip began (his parents, the doctor, his teacher, Rosalyn) -- which actually may have initially planted the seeds for Tyler. Beyond that, his excellent vocabulary and way with words is still with him in the voice-over narration of Fight Club, and the rampant materialism that started with mail-order propeller-beanies ended with yin-yang shaped tables. I'm sure I'm even forgetting a few of the similarities -- as for the differences, they can be credited to the demoralizing effect of reality.
Of course, there IS the issue of Calvin's trademark spiky blond hair, noticeably absent on Jack. But, many adult brunettes were blondes as children, and furthermore, notice how Tyler, Jack's image of an ideal male, does possess the hairstyle in question.
So, when it all comes down to it, what do the events of Fight Club mean to Calvin? Two words: "Personal Responsibility." For although Fight Club and Project Mayhem were both mostly Tyler's doing, by the end of the movie, Jack readily accepts his own part of the blame, as Tyler is his creation. And by doing so, he's also accepting responsibility for the undesirable condition of his own LIFE -- his father may have pushed him, but Calvin himself was the one who chose to obey. It is through this newfound self-accountability that Calvin/Jack is able to take control of his own life at last. As skyscrapers flash and crumble in the background, and blood oozes from the bullet hole in his head, Calvin says that he is "okay." And we are apt to believe him.
Despite my exhaustive research, there are still some oddities and disparities along the way from Calvin to Jack. None of them are too important, so I'll just list them briefly:
"Stay away from me, Tyler!"
Tyler Durden says: "You've read this far, you may as well finish it!"
*Whew* That was quite a trip, wasn't it? We've come a long way, and you're probably more than a little confused. So, let's finish off with some brief explication.
To look at it one way, Calvin's world in the comic strip is pure, romanticized idealism, whereas in the movie, he lives in gray, bleak reality. Within the safety of the panel, Calvin is perpetually eight years old, terrible things can never happen, and no matter how crazy a stunt he pulls, everything always returns to status quo. Because of this, our hero is free to do as he wishes, free to chase his dreams as wildly as he desires, never having to worry about tomorrow because there essentially will never BE one -- unless it's part of a continuing storyline. This makes the reality of Fight Club all the bleaker, because it depicts what happens when you take someone weaned on dreams and limitless possibilities and jam him into a cramped cage confined by rules and regulations. It probably only took poor Calvin a few years in the adult world (or growing-up world) to fully make the sad change. Watching his dreams be crunched into dust by cold reality, he must have felt a little like Icarus after flying too close to the sun.
In closing, we must remember that the transition from Calvin to Jack is not a terribly unique one. Because really, the same probably would happen to any fantasy character suddenly finding himself in reality. Little Nemo became a banker, Peter Pan became a lawyer, and Garfield was caught and butchered by the chef of a Chinese restaurant. (One exception to this would probably be Charlie Brown, who from all indications, was mentally middle-aged at the time of his birth) Reality bites, kiddies, and Calvin in Fight Club is proof of that.
So there you have it. Incontrovertible evidence, laid out in detail, that the so-called "Fight Club" is indeed a disguised, live-action movie version of Calvin and Hobbes. Perhaps now that this is exposed, David Fincher can come clean and released a director's cut version called It's a Magical Fight Club, or perhaps Fight Club is Under the Bed and Drooling; a special edition that will include, among other things, actual video footage of C&H creator Bill Watterson making a rare venture away from his hermitage so he can go to the 20th Century Fox offices and grumpily tear up his royalties check. Hey, if a stuffed tiger can start a bloody underground ring of would-be pugilists, anything can happen.


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Asger Hartvig Aaboe
Quick Info
Copenhagen, Denmark
North Haven, Connecticut, USA
BiographyAsger Aaboe's father was an officer in the Danish Army whose family came from Egaa, a small village which lies on the banks of Aarhus bay to the north of Aarhus city centre. The 'aa' in both Aaboe and in Egaa means 'brook' [2]:-
... as Asger once explained, his family name means 'one who lives by (boe) the brook (aa)'.He attended the Ostre Borgerdyd Skole in Copenhagen, a famous school where J L Heiberg, who produced masterly editions of Greek mathematical and astronomical classics, had been headmaster from 1884 to 1896. Aaboe graduated in 1940 and entered the University of Copenhagen.
Earlier in the same year, on 9 April, Germany had invaded Denmark. Danish institutions continued to function relatively normally, however, as a result of the cooperative attitude of the Danish authorities. By the summer of 1943 there was increasing hostility towards Germany and the Danish government was dissolved. However Aaboe was able to study mathematics, astronomy, physics, and chemistry at the University, being particularly influenced by his mathematics lecturer Harald Bohr. He graduated from Copenhagen with a Candidatus Magisterii in 1947 after presenting a thesis The Determination of Areas and Volumes in Antiquity, Especially in the Works of Archimedes. In 1948 he went to the United States where he had been appointed to a visiting lectureship at Washington University in St Louis. There he met Joan Armstrong; they were married in 1950 and had four children, Kirsten, Anne, Erik, and Niels.
Later in 1948 Aaboe returned to Denmark to take up a position at Birkerod Statsskole where he was appointed Adjunkt in Mathematics. He remained there until 1952 when he emigrated to the United States on being offered a position as Instructor in Mathematics at Tufts University near Boston. In fact when Aaboe was appointed the institution was known as Tufts College, changing its name to Tufts University in 1954.
Aaboe continued with his interest in the history of mathematics and published the paper Al-Kashi's iteration method for the determination of sin 1° in 1954. In addition to holding the Instructorship at Tufts, he enrolled as a Ph.D. student at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1955. There was good reason for Aaboe to register for a Ph.D. at Brown University for although he became the only graduate student in the History of Mathematics Department, he became a student of the eminent historian of mathematics Otto Neugebauer who had been Professor of the History of Mathematics at Brown University since 1947. Steele writes [3]:-
Few combinations of student and supervisor can have been as profitable as that between Neugebauer and Aaboe. When Aaboe first came to Brown, Neugebauer was in the final stages of preparing his groundbreaking study of Babylonian mathematical astronomy, Astronomical Cuneiform Texts (1955). This work would put research into Babylonian astronomy on a firm foundation through the publication and systematic analysis of more than three hundred texts found on cuneiform tablets held in the British Museum, the Oriental Institute at Chicago, the Louvre in Paris, the Staatliche Museen in Berlin, the Arkeoloji Müzeleri in Instanbul, and several smaller collections in Europe and the United States. It was natural, therefore, that Aaboe would work on Babylonian astronomy for his PhD.Given Neugebauer's interests it will not be a surprise to learn that the title of Aaboe's doctoral thesis, submitted in 1957, was On BabyIonian Planetary Theories.
Now Neugebauer was not the only influence of Aaboe from his time at Brown University. The Assyriologist Abraham Sachs was also at Brown and had worked with Neugebauer on Babylonian mathematical texts. Sachs had become interested in Babylonian astronomy and had gained access to hundreds of astronomical cuneiform tablets kept in the British Museum in London [3]:-
Sachs passed on to Aaboe a list of tablets that were clearly related to the mathematical astronomical texts published by Neugebauer but did not appear to be part of the known systems of planetary or lunar theory. This list of tablets would provide the stimulus for much of Aaboe's research for the rest of his career.Aaboe was promoted to Associate Professor at Tufts in 1959, then two years later accepted an invitation to join the newly created Department of the History of Science and Medicine at Yale. In 1962 he became an Associate Professor in both this department and also in the Mathematics Department at Yale. He was promoted to full Professor in both departments in 1967, and ten years later became a professor in a third Yale department, namely the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. He remained in these professorial positions until he retired in 1992.
Let us now look at some of Aaboe's publications. In 1963 he published On a Greek qualitative planetary model of the epicyclic variety. O Schmidt writes in a review:-
In a Greek papyrus of the second century A.D. there is evidence of a planetary model of epicyclic type in which the planet travels on the epicycle in the opposite direction to that correctly adopted by Ptolemy. In the paper under review it is shown that assuming the angular velocities of the centre of the epicycle and the angular velocities of the planet on the epicycle to be the same as those in Almagest Ⓣ (and this is a very reasonable assumption), a model of the above mentioned type can make neither Venus nor Mars retrograde.In 1964 he wrote the book Episodes from the early history of mathematics. Steele writes [3]:-
Aaboe took this opportunity to write a history of mathematics text that was accessible to school-children and yet still dealt with the technical details of ancient mathematics. In carrying off this challenge Aaboe displayed his gift for explaining complicated matters in clear, charming, and witty prose. His success can be seen by the fact that the book has been translated into Swedish, Danish, Spanish, Turkish, Polish and Japanese.It is a beautifully written book which the authors of this biography have read several times during their writing of articles for this archive.
In Some Seleucid mathematical tables (Extended reciprocals and squares of regular numbers) (1965) Aaboe looks at eight mathematical cuneiform tablets, three of which had not previously been published. In the same year he published On period relations in Babylonian astronomy which made new conjectures based on texts that Abraham Sachs had found. In the following year he published the paper Some dateless computed lists of longitudes of characteristic planetary phenomena from the late-Babylonian period based on fourteen texts kept in the British Museum. This source of texts also led to Some lunar auxiliary tables and related texts from the late Babylonian period (1968) while the paper Two atypical multiplication tables from Uruk published in the following year examined one previously unpublished paper and one which had been misidentified by Neugebauer. In A computed list of new moons for 319 B.C. to 316 B.C. from Babylon: B.M. 40094 (1969) he gave photographs with a translation of a cuneiform tablet in the British Museum which gives the moment of conjunction of sun and moon each month over a three year period. Its interest lies mainly in its early date. He continued to publish papers on these topics throughout his life.
In 2001 Aaboe published Episodes from the early history of astronomy, a companion volume to his 1964 Episodes from the early history of mathematics. J P Britton writes in a review :-
This slim, elegantly written volume by Asger Aaboe might have been more accurate titled 'Highlights of Planetary Theory from Babylon to Kepler' since that is in fact its subject. ... [it] provides a clear, authoritative, and frequently original introduction to the principal elements of planetary theory before Newton, which experts will find rewarding and novices accessible.Aaboe's wife Joan died in 1990 and he retired two years later. Steele writes [3]:-
Despite his retirement in 1992, Aaboe maintained his interest in Babylonian astronomy, continuing to publish important studies, and encouraging younger scholars in their work. I was fortunate to be one of the beneficiaries of Asger's encouragement, and spent several happy days staying with him in North Haven, discussing Babylonian astronomy, eating his fine home made bread, sailing on his boat, and listening to his stories of Sachs, Neugebauer and the other great scholars of Babylonian astronomy.He remarried in 2006 to Izabela Zbikowska and died at his home in January of the following year after a brief illness.
References (show)
- L Berggren, Asger Hartvig Aaboe : 26 April 1922 to 19 January 2007, Centaurus 49 (2) (2007), 172-177.
- J P Britton, In memoriam Asger Hartvig Aaboe (26 April 1922-19 January 2007), Aestimatio 3 (2007), 118-121.
- J Steele, In memoriam Asger Aaboe (1922-2007). Historia Math. 34 (4) (2007), 377-379.
Additional Resources (show)
Other websites about Asger Aaboe:
Written by J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Last Update July 2008
Last Update July 2008

subset: commoncrawl


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Projections vs. Reality
An article in the July 24 Detroit Free Press reported, "Companies are searching for a billion-dollar breakthrough in battery design. General Dynamics is working on a zinc-air cell battery. Ford is actively interested in a sodium-sulfur cell. Gulton Industries and General Motors are tinkering with lithium…All the activity is bound to pay off probably within the next five years..."
The promise sounds so bright that readers might imagine that the Michigan Legislature's recent authorization of $500 million worth of subsidies and tax breaks for car battery makers is a good investment. Unfortunately, that article appeared on July 24, 1967.
Regrettably, too many politicians see no difference between projections and reality. For example, while it has been demonstrated that only 29 percent of the jobs promised in Michigan Economic Development Corp. press releases ever materialize, Gov. Jennifer Granholm in a recent op-ed titled "How to win the race for jobs," ignored this and restated her vision of a state government active in picking economic winners and losers. Echoing those wide-eyed projections from the 1960s, Granholm wrote, "In Michigan, we…focused on the lithium-ion advanced battery for electric cars, a high-tech product previously manufactured almost exclusively in Asia."
The Governor explained that government "created" jobs by offering "irresistible state tax incentives" and "pancaked our state incentives on top of the competitive federal Department of Energy grants to advanced-battery companies and suppliers" to create "robust public-private partnerships" that are "projected to create 63,000 private-sector jobs in Michigan." (Emphasis added)
It's not hard to understand Gov. Granholm wanting to put a positive spin on her failed eight-year effort to correct Michigan's dismal economic performance, but once again these political projections are almost certainly an expensive illusion; her past projections have turned out to be almost always wrong.
There are good reasons for why giving bureaucrats the power to pick and choose winners and losers in the market place always fails to "create jobs" on a net basis. Among many other economists, Thomas Sowell has described that reason: "It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong."
Granholm concluded her article with this: "If the states are the laboratories of democracy, Washington can take a lesson from what is happening in Michigan."
But since Michigan is the leader in per-capita job loss over the past decade, it is a bad role model and perhaps Washington should do the opposite.
Instead of playing corporate welfare games for the past eight years, the people of this state would be better off had government stuck to its proper role of providing a fair field for all businesses with no favors for a politically faddish industry or well-connected few.
Jarrett Skorup is research associate for online engagement at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a research and educational institute headquartered in Midland, Mich. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is hereby authorized, provided that the author and the Center are properly cited.
Michigan Capitol Confidential is the news source produced by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Michigan Capitol Confidential reports with a free-market news perspective.


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If you get caught in a carpool lane, you face a hefty fine.
We met a Bay Area man who intentionally drove alone in the carpool lanes in hopes of getting a ticket - not to pay the fine, but to prove a point.
San Rafael's Jonathan Frieman is now fighting a ticket he received for driving alone in the carpool lane, saying that he did have a passenger at the time he was pulled over. That passenger was his corporation papers, which he carried with him in the passengers seat.
Frieman sees the ticket as a chance to legally comment on the definition of a corporation as being a person.
He got the ticket back in October, but he claims he wasn't really driving alone because he had his corporation papers with him and a corporation is a person under the law.
Frieman says his fight isn't about traffic, but about corporate power.
"I'm just arresting their power and using it for my service to drive in the carpool lane," Frieman said.
USF law professor Robert Talbot says the point is a little bit of a stretch.
Talbot said the point of the carpool lane law is to get cars off the road and Frieman is steering away from the intent of the law.
"A court might say well it says person and a corporation is a person so that'll work for the carpool lane it's possible but I doubt it," Talbot said.
Frieman said he is hoping to take his case well beyond a Marin County traffic hearing, which is scheduled for Monday.
He wants corporate personhood and the protections corporation have to be debated in a higher court. He says he wants to turn that legal definition on its head.


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Africa's oldest synagogue is playing host to that rarity in the Arab world - a religious gathering of hundreds of Jews drawn from Europe and Israel.
Guarded by armed Tunisian police, Jewish revelers chant and dance in a three-day pilgrimage to the El Ghriba synagogue at an island resort 500 km south of Tunis.
In 2011, after the uprising that toppled former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the annual celebration was canceled and in 2012 only a few dozen Jews attended out of fear of possible attacks by hardline Islamists.
In 2002 militants linked to al Qaeda attacked the synagogue with a truck bomb killing 21 Western tourists. Security for this year's pilgrimage is tight, with hundreds of police on duty.
"The strong presence of security is a positive step and sends a message to the Jews in the world that Tunisia protects us even if its leaders are Islamists", Perez Trabelsi, the head of the Jewish community in Djerba, told Reuters.
"Jews in the world will see the government's efforts to make the celebration safe and will return in their thousands over the next few years and will not pay attention to any threat," he added.
On Sunday Tunisia's tourism minister is due to take part in the celebrations, which have attracted dozens of Tunisian Muslims.
"We are here to send a message of peace and tolerance embracing everyone," said a Tunisian woman named Zahayra Lakhel, putting on a Jewish head scarf before she entered the synagogue.
"We also want to change the image of Muslims who have been associated with violence and terror. The Jews have been our friends for years and we are here to remember old and beautiful memories away from religious and political tensions."
Mainly Muslim Tunisia is home to one of North Africa's largest Jewish communities. Though they now number less than 1,800 people, Jews have lived in Tunisia since Roman times.
The El Ghriba synagogue, home to most of Tunisia's Jews, is built on the site of a Jewish temple that is believed to date back almost 1,900 years.


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Messrs. Jacob B. Engel and Jacob John Lazaroe for appellant.[ Houghton v. Burden 228 U.S. 161 (1913) ]
[228 U.S. 161, 164] Mr. John J. Crawford for appellee.
Mr. Justice Lurton delivered the opinion of the court:
This is an appeal from a decree determining a controversy arising in a bankruptcy proceeding. The origin of the matter was this: Canfield, the bankrupt, was a merchant in New York. He borrowed from Burden the sum of $ 10,000, and as security assigned to him certain book accounts, aggregating the sum of $14,000, and agreed to act as agent for Burden in their collection. Shortly afterwards he was adjudicated a bankrupt. The receiver obtained possession of the bankrupt's books and held onto the assigned accounts, and proceeded to collect them upon the claim that the contract was usurious and void under the law of New. York.
In this situation Burden intervened in the Bankruptcy case and filed a petition, in which he asserted his title to the assigned accounts and to any proceeds collected by the receiver. The district court, upon a final hearing, upheld the contention of the bankrupt's receiver, now the trustee, and dismissed the intervening petition. This decree was reversed by the circuit court of appeals, that court holding that the defense of usury had not been satisfactorily made out.
The appellant contends that the controversy having been heard by the district judge without a jury, the circuit court of appeals had no authority to review the facts. For this, 566, Revised Statutes (U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 461), is cited, and also the case of Campbell v. United States, 224 U.S. 99 , 56 L. ed. 684, 32 Sup. Ct. Rep. 398, which construes that section. But that provision only requires that the trial of issues of fact in the district court, except in cases in equity and admiralty, and except as otherwise provided in proceedings in bankruptcy, shall be by jury. But the district court is, by 2 of the bankrupt act of 1898 [30 Stat. at L. 545, chap. 541, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 1491 ], when sitting [228 U.S. 161, 165] as a bankrupt court, given jurisdiction in law and equity for the purpose of collecting and distributing the estate of a bankrupt, and for the purpose of determining controversies relating thereto, except as otherwise provided. The exception has no application here, as Burden voluntarily came into the bankrupt proceeding and submitted his claim to the adjudication of the bankrupt court. Such an intervention for the purpose of asserting a title or claim to property in the possession of the bankrupt's trustee is an intervention in equity, and a decree is reviewable by appeal to the circuit court of appeals in the exercise of its general appellate powers in equity cases under 24a of the bankrupt act. Loveland, Bankr. 4th ed. 826 to 829; Hewit v. Berlin Mach. Works, 194 U.S. 296, 300 , 48 S. L. ed. 986, 987, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 690; Knapp v. Milwaukee Trust Co. 216 U.S. 545 , 54 L. ed. 610, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 412. Upon such an appeal the law and the facts are open for reconsideration, and from the decree of the circuit court of appeals, it not being final ( 128, new Judicial Code [36 Stat. at L. 1133, chap. 231, U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 193]), an appeal may be taken under 241 of the same Code.
Being an appeal from a decree in a controversy arising in a bankruptcy proceeding, and therefore, an appeal under 24a, and not under 25b, general order 36, made under the latter section, and requiring a finding of facts, has no application, and the appeal opens up the whole case as in other equity cases. Hewit v. Berlin Mach. Works, supra; Coder v. Arts, 213 U.S. 223 , 53 L. ed. 772, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 436, 16 Ann. Cas. 1008, and Knapp v. Milwaukee Trust Co. supra.
Coming now to the merits. The single question is one of usury in the contract. The lawful rate of interest in New York is 6 per cent. By 3731 of the general business law of New York it is provided:
Canfield was a reputable merchant engaged in business in New York. Burden was a retired merchant and an experienced accountant, who wished to secure light employment. To secure such employment he advertised that he would lend from $10,000, to $20,000, at 6 per cent, to a merchant whose rating was good, if the loan would secure such employment. Through a broker, compensated by Canfield, negotiations were opened with Burden, who proposed the loan provided he could get light employment in Canfield's office as a financial man. But the financial statement of Canfield exhibited to Burden was nearly a year old, and this did not satisfy Burden, and the negotiations fell through partly for that reason, and partly because the parties could not agree upon the position Burden desired. Some weeks later the negotiations were resumed, the broker saying that he might get additional security through an indemnity bond, by which the validity of the book accounts which were agreed to be assigned might be guaranteed as well as the payment of collections made by Canfield as agent. Canfield agreed to furnish such a bond. The proposed bond required the obligee to watch the shipping receipts and to make monthly minute examinations of Canfield's books, showing the several assigned accounts. Finding this requirement to be a condition of such a bond, Burden demanded that he should be compensated for the service he would be required to render to keep the bond in force, and a compensation of 1 per cent per month upon the amount of the uncollected accounts at the end of each month was agreed upon. Thereupon the contract in question was executed, a bond of indemnity was given to Burden, and something like 100 accounts, aggregating about $ 14,000, were duly assigned, upon which an advance of $10,000 was made.
The contract is elaborate and too lengthy to be set out [228 U.S. 161, 167] in full. In substance it provided for a loan of $10,000 at 6 per cent upon assigned accounts against reputable merchants, the loan not to exceed 75 per cent of the face value of the accounts. Canfield agreed to act as burden's agent in collecting, and to guarantee the payment of each account so assigned. The contract also provided that after the payment of the money borrowed and interest, and costs and expense of collection, and the compensation to Burden for his services as required by the bond, the remaining accounts should be reassigned to Canfield. The clause in regard to this compensation gives rise to the claim of usury. It was in these words:
The indemnity bond, styled an 'assignedaccounts bond,' is in the usual form, and is undoubtedly a device resorted to, to enable merchants to use book accounts as collateral for money advanced or loaned. The principal condition was in these words:
That this contract upon its face is absolutely legal there can be no serious doubt. A material part of the security which Canfield proposed to give was the bond by which the collection of 75 per cent of the face value of the assigned accounts was guaranteed, to the extent of $7,500, as well as that Canfield would promptly pay over any money and checks collected by him as agent for Burden. But a condition of this security was that the obligee should keep a watchful guard over the accounts assigned, and make monthly inspection of the books of Canfield. That this would necessitate several days' work each month, if actually done with fidelity, is clearly shown. That little service was rendered under this provision, aside from the examination of the accounts and shipping receipts as they were assigned at different times, was due to the bankruptcy ensuing within a very short time, and the seizure of the bankrupt's books by his receiver.
The contention is that this provision for compensating Burden for the service required by the indemnity bond was a mere cover for unlawful interest, and that it was never intended or expected that any such service would be given. This is sought to be shown by alleged oral declarations of Canfield. Thus, Canfield says that when [228 U.S. 161, 169] he was about to sign the contract, he asked Burden what the clause about services to be rendered meant, and that he replied, 'that that was simply to get around the usury law; there were no services to be rendered at all.' Canfield's bookkeeper, a Miss Herzog, after saying that, in the negotiations prior to the day the agreement was signed, that she had heard Burden say that he must have a bonus of 1 or 2 per cent a month as usury, testified as to what she overheard through an open window between her office and that occupied by Canfield at the time the bond was signed, as follows:
Q. Isn't it a fact that Mr. Canfield asked Mr. Burden what was meant in this agreement concerning services and charges for services to be rendered by Mr. Burden?
Mr. Crawford. Objected to as leading.
The Referee. Sustained.
Q. What did you hear Mr. Canfield say concerning this agreement shown you.
A. I don't remember.
Q. Well, did Mr. Canfield say anything about services, or did Mr. Burden say anything about services to be rendered?
A. Well, Mr. Burden said he would like to have about an hour's work to do in our establishment every day, and then Mr. Canfield told him we would not have any use for him there.
Burden, when recalled, testified to his good faith, and that the compensation agreed upon was to be for the service required by the contract and bond, and would be worth what he was to receive. He denied in most emphatic terms that he ever demanded a bonus or used the word 'usury' in any of the negotiations, or that he had ever made any such statement or declaration as testified to by Canfield. He was supported in his denial by Koehler, the broker who negotiated the loan for Canfield. All of this evidence was excepted to as contradicting the written agreement and was admitted over objection. Where the inquiry is whether the contract is one forbidden by law, [228 U.S. 161, 170] it is open to evidence dehors the agreement to show that, though legal upon its face, it was in fact an illegal agreement. Otherwise the very purpose of the law in forbidding the taking of usury under any cover or pretext would be defeated. The defense is one which the debtor may make even though it contradicts the agreement. Scott v. Lloyd, 9 Pet. 418, 9 L. ed. 178.
It has been suggested that there is a distinction between the admissibility of evidence dehors the contract which is intended to show the whole and true nature of the transaction, and mere declarations made by the lender in the nature of a confession that the agreement for services required to maintain the obligation of the indemnity bond was a mere scheme to cover usury, and that no service was to be rendered. We notice the distinction and pass it by, for the reason that, assuming the evidence to be competent, it is not so convincing as to justify a disagreement with the view of the circuit court of appeals that the defense of usury has not been satisfactorily made out.
The instrument upon its face is not usurious. Of course, if the service to be rendered should be made to appear trivial and of no real importance, the inference might be drawn that the agreement in that particular was a sham and device to cover a mere usurious contract, such as we are asked to believe Burden declared it to be. Burden's plan was that the loan should carry with it light work, such as a retired business man might do,-one or two hours of office work each day, as he explained. But he also requested security for his money. Open book accounts might answer if the borrower had a satisfactory business rating. The latter means everything to business men. Canfield's rating was not late enough to satisfy Burden and the negotiations fell through, and were not resumed for a month or more. Then Koehler, who had before negotiated loans for Canfield, suggested that he should also [228 U.S. 161, 171] give Burden the indemnity bond. Burden examined the form of such bond, and finding that one of its conditions was his own watchfulness over collections and minute inspections of Canfield's books, he proposed to make the loan upon the assigned accounts and the indemnity bond, provided he was compensated for the service the bond required from him. The amount agreed upon, Burden claims, was no more than a fair return for what Judge Hand, who, in the district court, sustained the defense, describes as 'work which was undeniably substantial and vexatious.'
To hold the agreement void would seem to require that we shall accept as true that there was no such service expected or required, and that the clause was inserted to cover a usurious bonus. But as the indemnity bond was conditioned upon Burden doing the very things which he is said to have declared were not to be done, of what value would that security become? The natural presumption is that Burden was endeavoring to put his contract in such shape that Canfield could not defeat his obligation by the defense of usury. Yet we are asked to believe that he deliberately declared to the debtor that the agreement as to services was a device to defeat the law, and that he was not to render any such service. The incredibility of such a declaration by Burden to Canfield, the debtor, seems obvious. Upon this point Judge Coxe, for the circuit court of appeals, said:
Canfield is supported by his bookkeeper, though her account of the matter is materially different from his. Burden is supported by Koehler, the broker, who was in the negotiations throughout, and so far as appears, absolutely disinterested. There are two witnesses against two, and the burden to make out the usury is strongly upon the appellant. Stillman v. Northrup, 109 N. Y. 473, 478, 17 N. E. 379; White v. Benjamin, 138 N. Y. 623, 624, 33 N. E. 1037. In the case last cited, it was said:
This the appellant has not done.
Decree affirmed.
Mr. Justice Pitney dissents.
[ Footnote 1 ] Consol. Laws 1909, c. 20.
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Citation: 228 U.S. 161
Docket No: No. 591
Argued: January 07, 1913
Decided: April 07, 1913
Court: United States Supreme Court
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text:
Peacetime Veteran\'s Buyback Bill
Governor George E. Pataki Senator Joseph L. Bruno Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Subject: \"Peacetime Veteran\'s Buyback Bill\" Sirs, The existing state law concerning purchase of civil-service pension credit by veterans for their previous military service is flawed, inconsistent and unfair and should be amended. The current law applies two totally different eligibility criteria within the body of the same law. One group of veterans is deemed eligible for benefits based solely on the time of their service (1963 to 1975) regardless of what they actually did while on active duty. Other groups of veterans who served from 1982 to 1984, in 1989 and in 1991, are deemed eligible only if they were awarded certain Expeditionary Medals, again regardless of what they actually did. This inconsistency has created a situation where many veterans are excluded from benefits, while others who rendered similar and even lesser service to the United States are eligible. Furthermore, the Expeditionary Medal is awarded for \"30 days consecutive service...\" or less, if the operation concerned lasted less than 30 days. Once deemed eligible by virtue of this commemorative award, however, the veteran may now claim up to three years of state credit. Short of engaging in actual combat, which is not a qualifying criteria of the current state law, the service and sacrifice of our honorably-discharged veterans is roughly equal across the board. The United States Government does not make arbitrary distinctions amongst honorably-discharged veterans the way the State of New York has. We all served, we all deserve the same benefits. We, the undersigned petitioners, urge you to support the passage of the Peacetime Veteran\'s Buyback Bill (formerly Assembly Bill a.6281, Senate Bill s.3214) which will remedy the unfairness of the existing law.


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From ESPN:
ATLANTA — A 20-year-old Atlanta man was charged Tuesday with murder in the shooting death of ex-boxing champion Vernon Forrest, although authorities said they do not believe he was the triggerman.
Demario Ware was also charged with aggravated assault and armed robbery, Atlanta police Lt. Keith Meadows said. The 38-year-old Forrest was shot to death on July 25 after he chased a man who robbed him of his championship ring and Rolex watch, police said.
Police said Ware was responsible for the robbery but that they were still looking for the shooter and at least two other suspects. Ware is expected to have a bond hearing on Wednesday. Police said he had a lawyer but were unsure of a name.
Forrest was robbed at a gas station, pulled a gun from his waistband and began chasing the robber across a bridge, police have said.
Shortly after they got across, Forrest lost sight of him but then encountered a second person with a gun and exchanged words with him, police said. Forrest turned and walked away and was shot several times in the back, police said.
Forrest, a native of Augusta, Ga., who lived in Atlanta, was a member of the 1992 Olympic team along with Oscar De La Hoya. The popular fighter later won welterweight and junior middleweight titles and compiled a professional record of 41-3 with 29 knockouts.
In 2002, Forrest gained notoriety when he became the first boxer to defeat Shane Mosley.
Some 1,500 friends, family and fellow athletes attended Forrest's funeral on Monday. Many remembered him as a soft-spoken, modest competitor known more by his work helping others than his victories in the ring.


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River cruising grows in popularity every year. Because the river cruise experience is so unique, the choices and process of selecting the perfect itinerary and the ideal ship seems daunting, even for experienced travelers and cruisers.
Let us take the mystery out of the decision making process.
As a starter, below are some of the most frequently asked questions. Then give us a call. We want you to benefit from our knowledge about the cruise lines, the ships, the destinations, and our exclusive offers. As your river cruise expert, we will ensure that you get the best value for your vacation.
Where do river cruises go?
River cruises travel along many of the major rivers in the world. The Danube is one of the most popular rivers, and often river cruisers first experience, but the Main, Rhine, Moselle, Elbe, Rhone, Saone and Seine are also options in Europe.
Elsewhere in the world, the Nile River in Egypt, the Yangtze River in China and the Mekong River in Vietnam and Cambodia are also popular river cruise destinations.
I've been told that shore excursions are included. Is that true?
Yes! It's one of the best things about river cruising. Unique experiences and amazing value. The carefully crafted, included shore excursions, which are led by experienced English-speaking local guides, give you an in-depth, authentic view of the cultures and histories you will visit. You will discover the area's highlights, as well as places only the locals know about.
What amenities are there on river cruise ships?
Amenities vary, but standard on most river cruise ships are a restaurant, bar and lounge, library and sky deck.
Most river cruise ships have a fitness center and possibly a sauna. There is often either a hair salon and/or a masseuse on board.
Some ships might have a whirlpool; others, like those on the Nile, almost always have a dipping pool on the top deck.
Increasingly in Europe, ships are adding elevators and smaller, alternative dining lounges at the aft of the ship. Outdoor grilling on the top deck is also becoming more popular on newer ships.
Complimentary bicycles are available on most of the Europe river boats.
What is the river cruising clientele? Who will I be cruising with?
River cruising appeals to a wide range of travelers of all ages who have an interest in art, history, food, wine and architecture.
Some river cruise companies have family-friendly sailings for people traveling with children. The introduction of bikes on board is also enticing younger cruisers.
There is also a wide range of nationalities on board, generally from English-speaking countries, including the U.S., Canada, England, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.
While the size of the ships vary, generally your ship will accommodate 100 to 200 passengers.
Is river cruising kid-friendly?
Some river cruise companies have family-friendly sailings for people traveling with children. There is not much for younger children to do on board, in terms of games or activities and most river cruise companies do not have third berth capacity in the staterooms.
A good rule of thumb when planning any family vacation, especially when traveling with children, is to involve everyone in the planning and decision making process. Talk about the on board experience and the highlights of the itinerary. Discuss what you'll see and what you'll do as a family, and then let their level of interest and excitement shape your decision.
What is the dress code on board?
Country club casual is recommended for dinner. Guest typically wear dressier attire for the Captain's Dinner or occasions like concerts or performances on shore.
What should I wear on shore?
Comfortable, sporty, smart-casual daywear is appropriate both onshore and onboard. Basic pants, khakis, walking shorts and everyday skirts/dresses are recommended. For warmer temperatures and summer departures, lightweight clothing that can be layered, such as a mix of sweaters, lightweight knit shirts, pants and walking shorts. For early spring and late fall departures, sweatshirts, heavier cotton or wool tops, long-sleeved shirts and corduroy or heavy khaki pants are suitable. You will find a significant amount of walking over uneven terrain during your time ashore, so bring comfortable walking shoes with good ankle support.
I have some physical limitations and may not be able to participate in all the activities. What do you suggest I do?
If you have any mobility concerns or require a mobility device, such as a wheelchair, motorized scooter or walker, please discuss these issues with your travel expert before booking your trip. Some areas may not be accessible.
What about tipping on board and on tours?
On European cruises aboard AmaWaterways and Uniworld, three Euros per passenger per day for the Cruise Manager and 10 to 12 Euros per passenger per day is recommended for the crew. For tours, tipping standards vary somewhat by country. Your travel expert or cruise operator will provide you with guidelines for appropriate gratuities for various services, from baggage handling to restaurant servers, tour drivers and guides to room staff. Your generosity is appreciated and should always be based on the quality of service.
Is there Internet on board?
How do I book optional shore excursions?
Optional shore excursions can only be booked once on board. Optional shore excursions can change based on itinerary direction, weather and group size.
Click Here to see what clients have to say about their river cruise.


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Florida's Going Broke Trying to Give Prisoners Tasty Kosher Meals
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott's plan to turn the American dong into a tea party utopia has hit two snags: Jews and the irascible human desire for food that doesn't look and taste like a whale's duodenum.
The Sunshine State is home to the country's third-largest prison system—one whose budget the conservative Scott vowed to slash by $1 billion, which is tough to do when you privatize most of that system and find that it suddenly costs more to run than when it was state-administered.
Florida's stab at thriftiness was blocked again last month when a federal judge ruled that its prisons had to offer inmates a kosher alternative to their usual meals. The problem: Providing those meals would cost the state 4 bucks a day per prisoner, more than double the $1.52 it's currently spending on three squares per prisoner per day. "You're talking about a lot of money," the state prison chief said. Also, everybody wants them, according to the Tampa Bay Times:
...prison officials anticipated 300 inmates to demand kosher meals, but 4,417 of them are on a list to get them, because specially prepared kosher meals taste better than run-of-the-mill prison food that includes staples such as a "meat supplement" known as PVT. Most are not Jewish...
What the hell is PVT? If you find out, let me know. I couldn't find anything about it in a quick search of FDA and agricultural databases, but I can confirm that the first five Google hits for "meat supplement" pertain to dog kibble, and hit No. 6 is for "Wholesale meat supplement from China." So, uh, yeah, Baruch atah adonai, motherfuckers. Where's my Salisbury steak?
[Photo credit: AP]
Update: Thanks to commenters AbleBaker and peroxyacid, we're pretty sure the Tampa Bay Times meant TVP, or textured vegetable protein, which still, ugh.


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It is perhaps the curse of the successful explorer that, after new lands have been found and the surveys made, his own writings become collections of obvious cliches and bizarre assertions. Surely Christopher Columbus felt this. In 1492 you are a visionary and a hero. But by 1505 everyone knows there is a large landmass west of Europe, and no one believes it is China.
Herbert Simon's The Sciences of the Artificial is, objectively, one of the worst books I have ever read.
There is some obvious discussion of local maxima and satisficing (picking the best solution you can find, rather than holding out for the perfect one), some more-or-less obvious if somewhat simplistic speculations about how business functions (it might be modeled as a problem-solving entity), and an incredibly tedious discussion of "standard social sciences model" (SSSM) psychology, in which some early psychology studies are tortuously interpreted to imply that the human mind runs on a relatively small number of simple algorithms, albeit in a complex environment.
(If you read the Wikipedia page on SSSM , you will find criticisms that the SSSM is a ridiculous straw-man, and that it was "comical" to assert anyone believed it. But Herbert Simon, very definitely pushes such a view in his book.)
Indeed, Simon's discussion of psychology is so dangerously wrong-headed I will spend a paragraph here refuting it. Simon describes the human memory system, and describes two systems long-term memory (which he is generally accurate about) and "short term memory" (which appears to be a confused mix of working memory, associated with general intelligence, and sensory memory, which provides the awareness of taste, etc). In mainstream psychology, long-term-memory and working-term memory as associated with the automatic, highly parallel, intuitive, and effortless "System 1" cognition system, and the manual, serial, logical, and painfully slow "System 2" cognition system. In academia these two systems are often studied under "dual-process theory," and in the military, they are described as part of the OODA loop."
While Simon does not use the "System" nomenclature, his description of it is oddly incomplete, basically missing the most important studies of the last few decades to provide an oddly limited view of human thinking. The only mental processes he implies occurs in System 1 is the passive maintenance of memories. And while he cites such famous studies as "The Magic Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" (a measure of the range of working memory) and B.F. Skinner," influential System 2 studies simply do not occur.
Now…. the reason for this is that Simon wrote The Sciences of the Artificial in 1969, and the last edition was published in 1996, perhaps the last year that his view on psychology could be taken seriously. Simon is a Nobel prize winner and, even more prestigious, a Turning Award winner. The reason for his digressions into "satisficing" and "organizational behavior" is he coined the term satisficing and is a founding father of organizational behavior. The Sciences of the Artificial is like a letter from Columbus in 1505, describing his views on geography: Cliched, tired, ridiculous, and an artifact of a pathfinder.
I read The Sciences of the Artificial in the Nook edition.


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Back away slowly, America. These flavors — they are not for your ilk. Do not follow me into madness, for that way lies Mountain Dew flavored Cheetos and more than 127 million Japanese people.
Do not blame me for bringing this insanity upon us — my desperate hunger for new snacking experiences is an entity of its own, operating independently of any rational thought I may possess. Blame it, if you must. Or blame the J-List for making them available for purchase. Blame Tina Amini, who first alerted me to their presence and claims I never give her enough credit — here, Tina — the credit is all yours.
To the left, Mountain Dew. To the right, Mountain Dew Cheetos, sitting unassumingly in a container which, in America, is primarily used for Cup-O-Soup. If only it was.
Instead, it is a thing. A thing that normally goes well with the thing it sits next to, only now it's mimicking that thing for some sinister, Single White Female-esque purpose. They were the perfect pair, but one had to change. Now it's peanut butter and jelly, with peanut butter-flavored jelly. Ham and cheese with ham-cheese. Hall and Oates, only this Oates is taller, skinnier, blonde, and lacks a proper mustache.
Odds are you know the taste of Mountain Dew in its natural form. It's sweet, syrupy and just the slightest bit citrus-y. If you've not tasted it, we should throw you a f***ing party or something, Dr. Special Person, because you're made of magic. In fact, there is a party in your honor going on in the next room. We'll wait.
That was a room filled with angry, poisonous snakes. Brutal, sure, but still better than being intimately familiar with the taste of Mountain Dew we can all agree, and I refuse to imagine we cannot, to the point of self-delusion.
Since we all know the taste of Mountain Dew the beverage, it is easy to describe the taste of Mountain Dew the Cheetos — a lot like the soda, only slightly sharper, mildly sweeter, and with a crispy crunch that's the most out-of-place sensation in the entire universe.
Mountain Dew should not crunch. It should quickly pour down your throat, skipping over as many taste buds as it can in the process. Teeth should not have to be involved here. It's the crunch that should not be.
Imagine you've just broiled yourself a delicious steak (the vegetarians and vegans in the audience can imagine they are in another room, not having rocks thrown at them). Cooked to perfection, juices flowing, steam rising. You slice through it with your serrated steak knife, fashioning the perfect mouth-sized cube of beef. You raise your fork, taking it into your mouth — and it slides down your throat like oyster jelly.
That is the shock of Mountain Dew Cheetos.
The citrus taste is there, sweet and almost powdery. The carbonation is strong — that's right, these are carbonated Cheetos, sparkling in your mouth as if you'd just licked a Twilight vampire. The sharp tang quickly gives way to the meek, defeated sweetness of a stale breakfast cereal. The aftertaste is not unlike what your mouth tastes like after a fruity mixed drink bender and the resulting explosion of color-coded sick.
This one is for any American who's ever looked across the ocean towards Japan wistfully, dreaming of a land filled with colorful snack boxes with unintelligible markings on them. I know the ache — the desperate longing to taste the flavors that for some reason are forbidden to us. Know that in many cases we are not being punished — we are being protected.
Snacktaku is Kotaku's take on the wild and wonderful world of eating things, but not eating meals. Eating meals is for those with too much time on their hands. Past critiques can be found at the Snacktaku review archive.


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Fans throughout the world can enjoy watching the 2011 IIHF World Championship live and online, for less than one Euro per game. The dedicated online broadcast service of the event has been re-launched in an exciting, fan-friendly format, which has fully integrated in the IIHF event website. If you choose to take the "Tournament Pass", this provides you all 56 games for 39.95 Euros. The other options are to chose between "Follow your Team Pass" for 24.95 Euros or taking single games at 6.95 Euros each. All games are available as a high-quality video stream – Enjoy the show!All games can be watched live or delayed. Subscribers can also watch highlights, interviews, behind the scenes clips and extra material from around the event.Some restrictions do apply due to internet broadcasting rights (for further details please click here).If you need any assistance, our video service Customer Support is available 24/7 or e-mail to [email protected]!So, it could not be easier to catch all the excitement in the face off for the title Live and On Demand!
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John McAfee Accuses Vice Magazine of Revealing His Location On Purpose So They Could Film His Arrest
Grizzled geek paranoiac John McAfee (left, with Vice editor-in-chief Rocco Castoro) was arrested in Guatemala last week after Vice Magazine accidentally revealed his location by including his GPS coordinates in the photo above, which they posted while he was fleeing a murder investigation in Belize. That is crazy enough. But now McAfee, still being held in Guatemala, claims that Vice purposely set him up to score an exclusive.
Last week McAfee seemed to be cool with Vice even after editor in chief Rocco Castoro and photgrapher Robert King's spectacular fuck-up led Guatemalean cops right to his door. He let the journalists tag along and film him for an upcoming Vice documentary up until the minute he was arrested. But now McAfee has announced via blog post that he is "terminating his relationship to Vice Magazine" because he believes they ratted him out on purpose.
Due to information just received, It is no longer clear to Mr. McAfee that the "accidental" release of his co-ordinates due to Vice Magazine's editorial department's failure to remove location data from their now notorious photo, was indeed an accident. This incident led directly to Mr. McAfee's arrest. The reason, possibly, was that Vice wanted exclusive access to Mr. McAfee's arrest, which they in fact obtained and broadcast. This, and subsequent developments, including a breach of verbal contract, has led Mr. McAfee to terminate all contact with Vice.
While Vice may well be incompetent, it's hard to believe they'd so maliciously betray a source like this. McAfee has been muddled in his communications throughout the ordeal, making claims at almost the same time he retracts them, and this may be another stunt or... something else talking. Vice hasn't said much about the whole thing, issuing a non-revealing statement that they are going to "wait and talk to the people on our team who were on the ground" before drawing any conclusions.
In the meantime, McAfee, who is being held in a hospital awaiting extradition to Belize after complaining of chest pains, has sold the rights to a story that is still far from over to a TV production company.


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Berry Plastics Tufflite IV 6 mil 4 yr UV Protected Greenhouse Film 48 ft x 100 ft
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This Greenhouse Film covers all your needs whether it is for single season, full year or 4 year protection. Tufflite Greenhouse Film is a tri-layer polyethylene film for maximum protection and ease of installation. All Tufflite products offer high clarity to allow the most light possible. This film is UV protected and has a 6 mil thickness for strength.


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In 2003 the gunsmiths and engineers at Smith & Wesson wanted to deliver maximum power for serious handgun hunters. The power they sought required an entirely new frame, the massive "X-Frame™," and was the basis for the new Model S&W 500™, the most powerful production revolver in the world. Performance Center guns originate from standard designs or are created from the ground up. From hand-cutting and fitting to fine tuning for precision, these firearms are top performers. Products from the Performance Center are the ultimate expression of old-world craftsmanship blended with modern technology.
• Chrome Hammer
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• Muzzle Brake
• PC Tuned Action


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7-16-23- "An Amazing Divine Declaration"- Psalm 110
July 16, 2023
Psalm 110
Of David. A psalm.
1 The Lord says to my lord:[a]
"Sit at my right hand
until I make your enemies
a footstool for your feet."
2 The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying,
"Rule in the midst of your enemies!"
3 Your troops will be willing
on your day of battle.
Arrayed in holy splendor,
your young men will come to you
like dew from the morning's womb.[b]
4 The Lord has sworn
and will not change his mind:
"You are a priest forever,
in the order of Melchizedek."


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From Conservapedia
Tudor refers to that period in English history (1485 – 1603) during which the country was ruled by monarchs of the Tudor Dynasty.
In a turbulent, but ultimately successful, 118 years it saw:
- The end of the dynastic struggles known as the Wars of the Roses and the development of a strong central government in an age when the prosperity of a nation relied heavily on the ability of its ruler.
- England's first tentative moves towards the New World.
- The protestant reformation in England, brought about initially by Henry VIII's desire for a male heir; but only allowed to gain momentum through the will of the people and their desire for a genuinely English church. This was accompanied by the deaths of great men – notably Sir Thomas More, unfortunate women - Anne Boleyn, and the beginnings of truly autocratic rule in England.
- The rule of the staunchly catholic Mary I (Bloody Mary), the enforced reversion to Catholicism, her marriage to the hated Philip II of Spain, and the loss of England's last bastion in France (Calais) in 1558.
- The reign of Elizabeth I when England became an international power, not just through the daring of its commanders but the excellence of its quill on page or music score. Whilst her reign is famous for the deeds of her mariners, for the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the imprisonment and execution of the very romantic Mary Queen of Scots (almost inevitable under the circumstances); just as notable and more lasting are the names of Shakespeare, and Thomas Tallis, Christopher Marlow, and John Dowland and others who brought the English Renaissance to its climax during and after her death in 1603.
The Tudor period saw the death of the Middle Ages and the beginnings of the modern world.
"Oxford Companion to British History"