text:
Snelson Exhibition
Kenneth Snelson and Hans Christian von Baeyer: A Conversation
is Professor of Physics at The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg,
Virginia. He is well known to Academy members for his column Physika which appears
regularly in our magazine The Sciences. Attentive to the world Of art, he has
long been acquainted with Snelson's sculpture. To prepare himself~for their
conversation, however, he further familiarized himself~ with Snelson's work
at the Galerie Zabriskie in Paris (where he was on sabbatical during the 1986-87
academic year) and read Snelson's unpublished manuscript, which is the most
thorough nonvisual articulation of his ideas on the atom.
K.S.: ... and [snaps fingers] does it like that.
H.vB.: But doesn't that disturb you as a sculptor? Sculpture is an ancient craft.
K.S.: No, I find ... no, I'm not even sure I'm a sculptor. I'm interested in three dimensional space and this kind of spatial experience is exciting.
H.vB.: That's a good answer ... if you don't classify yourself as a sculptor. Then that makes sense.
K.S.: A lot of people have questioned it. There was a Times article some years back where I said I'm not interested in sculpture, I'm interested in structure.
H.vB.: If you are interested in structure then all these things make eminent sense, but if you call yourself a sculptor in the tradition of Phidias then this computer art doesn't.
K.S.: But I find this too extraordinary!
H.vB.: I have
always thought of sculpture as being something tangible, literally something
you can touch. And now this computer generated image I can't touch, I can only
look at. It's something else. K.S.: I've tried to create out of wood
or steel or plastic or God knows-what the three-dimensional picture of an atom
in my imagination and I've found it's quite impossible. The material objects
don't convince you of anything because they're always so klutzy. They always
look like hardware, whereas a proper atom enlarged to human scale should be
jointless, glueless, stringless, and not encumbered much by gravity.
K.S.: Yes, I guess there are ...
H.vB.: ... but now you're moving away from that. You're moving into a middle ground because these graphics are sort of halfway between the sculpture and the physics of it. They are very abstract. K.S.: The question is: Where is that entry level of the quality we call solidity? Right there's one of the important questions about the atom: the critical question. And it's really been that the supporting or insistent evidence for me in making this atom model has come from my own experience of making sculpture out of solid stuff. How matter occupies space, especially in my sculptures of metal tubes and wire ... it's a very simple idea. There must be some logical system, some mechanism for solidity - as much a first principles mechanism as that of magnetism or of electrostatics. It must be a structural first principle.
H.vB.: Others call it the Pauli exclusion principle."
K.S.: I agree it's the same, except that the Pauli principle certainly isn't interpreted in this same way, spatially, in the atom. What I'm suggesting through my model is that Pauli's exclusion principle is really telling us that electrons in their atomic orbits carve out space, and totally use that space to exclude one another.
H.vB.: But, you know, the exclusion principle is a central mystery of physics. You substitute another central mystery, that of impenetrability. You're not telling me why two steel swords cannot interpenetrate, you're just saying they're solid. And I'm saying two electrons can't be in the same wave function. But those are very deep mysteries and we have no idea why the Pauli exclusion principle is there. And you don't have any idea why two swords can be ...
K.S.: Well, no, and I don't have any idea what a magnetic field really is either. But I don't have to know what a magnetic field is to experience a magnet's force.
H.vB.: OK, let's back up. It seems to me a place where we could start, where I think we would both absolutely agree, is that the first step of what you're doing, which is imagining an atom - imagining how it looks, imagining the forces that keep it together, and so on - that first step is absolutely identical between what you are doing and what all the great people who wrote these physics books were doing. That's how they all start, all of them, from the 19th-century folks who thought in very concrete models to 20th-century people like Heisenberg, who ultimately was an extraordinarily abstract thinker. Nevertheless, scientists - all physicists - start the same way you are starting, which is to wonder what's down in there and to imagine some kind of a model and adduce all kinds of evidence and bring it in there and build themselves a model which may be more mathematical or less mathematical, more tangible or less tangible. The starting point for us and you is identical. We would also like to know what atoms are made of. But then comes the next step.
K.S.: Yes, maybe there are two or three levels to this: One thing is that I'm not a scientist. In some other far-off civilization at a different time, perhaps I would be a scientist, but I don't think it would be possible for someone with my visual bent ever to wade through quantum mechanics, non-visual as it is. What troubled me when I was doing a lot of reading was not only the lack of pictures but the general insistence that pictures are out of the question. They were almost naughty! I'm not troubled by not being a scientist! People do ask what I'm doing worrying about the atom - that, after all, I'm an artist and art shouldn't be involved with scientific subjects. I notice that when art brushes into the realm of science, it's always the kiss of death as far as the art world is concerned.
H.vB.: Why do you suppose that's so?
K.S.: Categories. One time the director of a major museum explained to me, "You know, we like to keep these things separate."
H.vB.: Really?
K.S.: Another reason I'm not a scientist is because I'm not good at math. I have a kind of block and that's the way life is. So I get around it by making things in space instead. But going back to the question of quantum mechanics and visual urges ... I bet a survey would turn up few visual people among quantum physicists. By natural selection it has weeded out visual types so it's no wonder you come across such warnings not to try visualizing atomic structure. In introductory chemistry and physics books, authors urge students to forget about pictures, to avoid thinking about that familiar logo atom - the Bohr model - a nucleus with orbiting electrons. But what if some very visual people had gotten in early on? Might there not be more visual models, might there not be more interest in finding one? Right now, there's little interest in that direction. The immediate reaction is we don't need them. We deal with these things through mathematics - and mathematics is quite enough.
H.vB.: Pauling is a very good counter-example: He did think of molecules in visual terms.
K.S.: There couldn't have been a more abstract, a more non-visual and mathematical group, though, than the men who caused the quantum revolution - the second wave - the new quantum group.
H.vB.: Right. Heisenberg.
K.S.: So we know fashions happen in all parts ... I want to bring visual models back. I started thinking about this sort of thing in 1960 when I discovered these magnetic phenomena. More than anything I'm trying to make them find their way into the models which exist ... or, I should say, the evidence which exists. [Brings out magnet models, above]
H.vB.: I'm sure you've checked out these magnetic fields, that they all really do fit in the right way.
K.S.: The gearing is just part of their binariness: They reverse-rotate in a checkerboard pattern, and alternate magnetically. I first discovered the group of eight magnets. I thought this must be the octet of the Periodic Table (I hadn't taken chemistry in high school, only physics). In reading chemistry books, though, I saw that shells and subshells of electrons exist in certain numerical patterns: There are not only eight - there are two, there are six, ten, 14, 18 and 32. Then, by playing more with the magnets, I began to identify the rest of the possible patterns. Two is obvious. But there was a group Of 14 and 18 and then 32. Every time I'd say: wrong, it couldn't exist, but then I'd come up with evidence that it did exist. Then I realized there was a ten-magnet group as well which completed the entire set of shells and subshells with the one exception: Six magnets (to represent the subshell from chemistry) wouldn't allow for alternating polarities. The nearest to six was this form with five. But then I constantly doubted the whole proposition, saying, as any reasonable person would: No, an electron can't move around the nucleus, off-center, like an astronaut circling just around the north pole. insane idea ...
H.vB.: ... unless something was holding it UP.
K.S.: OK, something else must be working. Then I read about de Broglie. The leap I take - and it is a leap - has to consider the obvious question: What would make it possible for the electron's orbit to move off-center like an astronaut circling only around the north pole? I say it can and does happen because the electron is committed to a marriage between its de Broglie wavelength - to lock that wavelength like a homing signal - into a quantized shell, that is, a nuclear electrical sphere. No matter then whether its path is around the equator. All it must do is maintain a keyed-in wavelength at whatever level it finds itself To move away from a great circle route, then, it needs to include fewer whole waves while keeping the same flight speed.
H.vB.: What's different about your thinking and de Broglie's thinking is that de Broglie still had very firmly in his mind a belief in classical mechanics. And classical mechanics makes the atom a ...
K.S.: Planetary system.
H.vB.: Yes, a rigid structure. De Broglie believed very firmly in equatorial planetary orbits, which have nothing to do with quantum mechanics or atoms, or anything like that. Then he superimposed the waves, but you're doing away with half of that underlying thinking and keeping the other half.
K.S.: Yes, I've been selective about what parts ... [laughter] I've tried to take the blind-men's elephant (from the folktale) and reconstruct it. One day I hope to find the right computer program to get me around the math (which I don't know) to tell me how much the electrons' magnetism contributes. I can't find anywhere in the books where orbital magnetism is believed to contribute to the electronic structure - only to spin magnetism. But one ought to look for a use in the atom for those strong orbital magnetic forces. it's that part of my - what I'll call the speculations of an artist - I've not had much success in talking to people about. The argument always is that orbital magnetism is so puny compared with the electrostatic repulsion.
H.vB.: You tried to get around that by saying that the electrostatics is sort of saturated by virtue of the nucleus being positive.
K.S.: Well, I see it as a good possibility that the electrons don't see one another as so repulsive in the atom as people assume since they're all swimming in a neutralized mush. I've been told that the magnets I'm interested in are ineffectual because, compared to the electrostatic forces, they are minuscule. I'm looking for a rational connection whereby ... Look, it's simply remarkable that those magnetic groups exist, and that only certain numbers of them exist. Intuition, romantic as it may be, says: "Nature wouldn't let this principle go to waste."
H.vB.: I would counter that by saying this is a very beautiful structure, but there are an infinite number of other structures that nature does waste.
K.S.: I've had some nice compliments over time and one of them was from a scientist who didn't believe in my atom at all. He said: "Just because it's beautiful doesn't make it right."
H.vB.: That's a flat-out contradiction to Dirac who said exactly the opposite: "If it's beautiful, it's got to be right." Yes, both the artist and the scientist seek beauty in their way. I see it more as a problem of process. As I said before, they both start exactly, identically, the same way. A crude example is Kekule's famous dream, but another example is the way Einstein thought. He really imagined shapes and things like that floating around. Then, it seen is to me, the next step is that the artist pursues one direction, which is visual expression of those realizations, and the physicist has to - and here comes that awful word - pursue a mathematical expression. That is absolutely necessary. And I know you've asked if that is the only way. Mathematics is the only way for physics.
K.S.: I understand that - that's not surprising to me. I think there's where I'm constantly at odds. For instance, my sculptures certainly have properties, many of them, which could be dealt with mathematically. I don't even know how many could be imagined. I wouldn't know how to calculate them, at any rate. But I can tell you my sculpture is likely to stand successfully because I've made lots of them and they do stand in many places. Tension is always in a contest with compression. The compression is pushing outward like the gas in a balloon, and the tension members surround it like the skin of a balloon. in this analogy, just like over-inflating a balloon, you could expand the compression system until finally a wire would break. Now, I confess I do take care, but any kid can blow up a balloon without knowing what mathematics may be involved.
H.vB.: OK, what you're saying is that mathematics is in everything. You're right. But the very precise question that the physicist asks after he makes the same model that you make is: What is the mathematical prediction I can make in the next experiment? And in your case, the next experiment for those atoms would be: What happens when 1, for example, shoot an electron into the thing? That's classically how we examine the structure of an atom, and that's where your model would fail and my model would not fail because I can tell that, for hydrogen in its ground state, there would not be any trace of a disk in the spray pattern. It would come out a nice sphere. It would come out beautifully spherical.
K.S.: Uh huh.
H.vB.: And then what do you say?
K.S.: I say there
has to be something that works as a mechanical
H.vB.: I agree with that, I completely agree with that. I think mechanical models are a wonderful thing, and an important thing and an instructive thing. I happen to think yours doesn't work very well, but I would love to see ... what you're talking about is what we call the physics. What's the physics of it? That's what we always ask. And in the case of the atom, I think your questions are right on the money. The atom is a structure. it holds up - it's the same question as you've asked in the macroscopic world. It's a structure. Structures usually (most structures we know of) are composed of two opposing forces - in the case of the balloon, you mentioned it. In the case of a star, it's gas pressure outward and gravity inward. in the case of your sculptures, it's tension and compression. What are the analogous balances and trade-offs inside an atom? Inward, there's certainly electrical attraction; outward, there's partly centrifugal force, and there's repulsion between electrons, and what else is there? One of these mysterious things is the Pauli exclusion principle ...
K.S.: ... and magnetism.
H.vB.: Magnetism, and so on. And then, based on that physics (not mathematics), one should be able to build a model. But that model then has to accord not only with the structural information but with such questions as: How do you excite the next state? Or a prediction: What happens when you shoot two atoms together? Or when you shoot an electron at an atom, at what angle will it come off? All that kind of stuff.
K.S.: The fact is, my model is an eclectic one ... de Broglie's model was a flat pancake model ...
H.vB.: Before you get into that ... Even now, without any waves at all, the electrons don't have to be in a pancake configuration: one can be above the equator and one below, so long as all the forces are in equilibrium. That's what's so beautiful about this kind of model - it's exactly like your sculptures, your structures. The forces though are explicit in that model: attraction to the nucleus, mutual repulsion which is electrical, and centrifugal force that you get whenever something is going around. And built into that is the tiny, tiny magnetism that is properly accounted for. But when you talk about your atom, you never talk about the centrifugal force, because you don't really have something going around the nucleus.
K.S.: I think there is a first principles phenomenon which is truly not known, unimagined, unrecognized, and there's no way to identify it. That doesn't mean it doesn't exist, however. Some other factor has to be at work for the electronic structure ... something that's not on the usual list. I think that Heisenberg* was quite right: We're lost when we try to see if there's a real orbit or not. Anything you use to look for it is going to wipe away the stuff you're trying to look at. But I think it's quite reasonable to imagine that it isn't a planetary system in a strict sense. The electron has a profession all its own and when it's around the nucleus, it must form a standing wave. It can form that standing wave only at a quantized energy level. Though its preference would be an equatorial orbit, it can't always find its way there because other electrons' orbits (according to my view of Pauli's principle) aren't allowed to be in the same piece of space at the same time. So when more than just a single electron is on a shell, then they've got to move over to make room. They're free to do that since it's not a simple planetary system - but a wave attaching itself to an energy surface.
H.vB.: OK, OK, you're essentially ignoring centrifugal force because you I re really rejecting orbits.
K.S.: I think it's not an orbit in that strict sense. I think it's a phenomenon that governs the electron and that's all that it can do, obey its own quantized rules. As I see it, if it can't form a standing wave on a shell, it isn't going to be in the atom. It's allowed in the atom only if it inhabits a standing wave, either equatorial, or small-circle and non-planetary - but always lying on a spherical electrical shell. H.vB.: Well, fair enough. I agree with you that we cannot follow those orbits so we shouldn't talk about the centrifugal force. The reason I was talking about it is because it turns out that these classical orbit calculations, the way I'm describing them with the centrifugal force, mock up the quantum mechanical calculations to a high degree of accuracy. The two questions are: What other a priori and unconventional kinds of forces do you have to build in, and, secondly, what are the predictions that your model makes? For example, one prediction your model of hydrogen makes is that the hydrogen atom is not spherically symmetrical. Is that part OK?
K.S.: No, no, no. No, no, no. I say the hydrogen atom is spherically symmetrical, that it has to do with gimbling ...
H.vB.: Precession.
K.S.: In other words, I don't think it turns out to be a flat pancake, although I think there is a circular motion. But it's a question of gimbling. You've got it moving like this, and the moment you have it moving in a second direction, you have a sphere. Now, considering how rapidly gas atoms move about in a chamber, it wouldn't be any marvel to find out that a hydrogen atom in a volume of gas seldom, if ever, appears as anything but a sphere.
H.vB.: It looks like a sphere, but you're not willing to admit that a ring is really an electron going around so fast that it looks like a ring. Why do you say in one dimension you want it to be fairly solid and you're allowing the other dimension to be taken care of by gimbling, but you're not willing to say: OK, it's only a particle going around so fast it looks like a ring.
K.S.: Oh, no. I do say that, but I say the particle's quite lost in there. But the difference, the big difference is that in its orbit the electron is constantly regenerating its de Broglie matter wave. In the gimbling motion, like flipping a coin, it's more analogous to an airplane propeller. Yes, the propeller does become a disk, in effect, just as the gimbling orbit becomes a sphere. But there's no standing wave involved in these cases. With the orbiting electron there is.
H.vB.: Fine.
K.S.: In the same way, each electron orbit fills space excluding its neighbors. It does what every hydrogen atom's electron is supposed to do, according to the standard explanation: It moves rapidly and carves out the space. The illusion of solidity starts with the individual electron's orbit.
H.vB.: Let's go to one of the things you said at the beginning: What about the spectrum? The spectrum of hydrogen was what got the whole shebang going. Do you worry about that at all when you're thinking about the structure?
K.S.: My hydrogen picture can't be too much different from the normal one. Mine has energy levels for transitions also. It offers the entire assortment. The excited states in my model portray the electron stretching to a new energy level with a wavelength that's correct for that higher shell. As with the original Bohr model, those changes relate to the distance from the nucleus - the atomic radius. So, presumably, I would end up with the same energy changes.
H.vB.: The same spectrum?
K.S.: The same spectrum. But, obviously, the spectral information is absolute. We're stuck with it. There's all the evidence, the hard evidence. And so whatever model you would make ...
H.vB.: That's true for a host of other data, too. Scattering information, for example. And that's the part that I find hard to believe, that even your helium model could agree in any way with the scattering evidence.
K.S.: I don't know [sigh]. I can't declare that it does and I can't assume it doesn't. There ought to be a single physical reality which is identifiable as a rabbit, or whatever. A rabbit is a rabbit, and any model you make of a rabbit would have to end up reflecting rabbitness.
H.vB.: What's the role in your mind of the intermediate thing, an abstract model of a rabbit? What's the role of the Schrödinger equation, which does describe the atom and which does in fact make exquisitely accurate predictions for a huge fat catalogue of observations? Did you just now admit that?
K.S.: Sure. Anything that's one-to-one with the experimental information, must, I guess, relate to the real atom. The pictures of the charge clouds that we're shown don't seem to me to be able to relate to the real atom.
H.vB.: No, but I'm talking about the intermediate thing now, the Schrödinger equation. No picture, just the mathematics.
K.S.: Well, I don't pretend to understand the Schrodinger equation. But from what I do understand, the Schrödinger equation has been able to give information about very simple atoms. The assumption is that it would be applicable to all atoms if we had big enough computers, and so forth. I understand, too, in regard to the charge cloud model, that the hydrogen model is the example and when other electrons are added, they are simply added together as if you added up hydrogen atoms. Am I correct?
H.vB.: Well ...
K.S.: So I think that hydrogen, as magnificently wonderful as it is, is awe inspiring and you'd think somehow that all atoms would imitate it, only with more complexity. But just don't believe it! I think there are systems which go to work as soon as you've got helium.
H.vB.: But back to your belief that there is some kind of an underlying model. Let's call it the rabbit - that it's really there. I believe that, too: There is an underlying reality. But what that rabbit looks like depends very much on how you look at it. Is it a rabbit as seen by x-rays, which is a very different thing from a rabbit seen with ordinary light, or a rabbit seen by neutrinos shining through, which is very ghostly and hardly seen at all?
K.S.: I understand what you're saying: It's true that it depends upon how you look at it.
H.vB.: And it would be very difficult for you to produce a model which is going to simultaneously produce all that information.
K.S.: Well, I
know that. I would have to say right away that I'm going to have to set aside
the neutrinos. I would figure most of all this is the kind of model one would
find in a book of chemistry or crystallography - in other words, a picture of
the atom which sits in the site and relates to the objects around it, the other
atoms. The charge cloud model portrayed in chemistry books is also static. I
know there are a lot of different ways of looking at the atom, that what I'm
saying is simplistic. It's got to be. Of course, it can't possibly be the actual
rabbit. But it might be the rabbit that would be projected on the wall if you
cast a light on it and let it sit still - then saw its ears wiggling. I suppose
that insofar as the chemistry book describes a three-dimensional object (not
to my satisfaction), this is the kind of limited model I would have.
H.vB.: I think it is very constructive to place what you're doing between the Bohr model that we all ...
K.S.: Love and hate ...
Love and hate, and let's call it the Schrödinger equation, just as a shorthand
- the mathematical description. I've said it several times: I think the idea
of making those models is important, it's useful and not only pedagogically.
When three-dimensional geometry gets so difficult, it's very helpful.
K.S.: I know, it's an ass-backward way of doing it but ...
H.vB.: I'm glad you said that! I don't understand.
K.S.: The reason I'm doing it is because I discovered the curious fact that magnets do what they do - circle magnets, current loop magnets. That provoked my interest. It's true, it's completely assbackward and I might be totally wrong. But I don't believe I'm wrong. If this idea has no merit, I'd at least appreciate the credit due me for having made a marvelous invention, totally artificial thoughts about the atom. To me there is enough of a correspondence. You say I'm not taking proper instruction from physicists ...
H.vB.: ... from the physical evidence ...
K.S.: OK, but the only people who give me that are physicists ... live human beings ... who write books. In fact, we've all read the same books. I was born just about the time the uncertainty principle was invented. I see what to me look like foot-faults, some mistakes. Since I'm not a scientist, yet I believe I've earned my spurs in the realm of structure, I see that the atom's set of forces could be described as I describe them-as a force-diagram in space that ought to be scale-independent, as far as I can tell. I think the atom as it's held together has got to be finally a force system in space.
H.vB.: I agree with that. I agree with that.
K.S.: So what I'm aiming for is a structural conception which must develop from one's imagination, but also, I confess, biased by this magnetic information, because I see as part of all of it a most extraordinarily flexible geometry. It's a universal Tinker-Toy for building spatial systems out of a hypothetical electronic structure.
H.vB.: OK. Let me say one thing you said earlier: It would be surprising or a pity if God had not made use of this nice structure and this nice geometry. And I completely agree with that. I can tell you, I would not at all be surprised someday to learn that these very structures exist in geology or chemistry or biology or at the molecular level. I would not be surprised. These are very wonderful structures and they have magical properties and they do balance in a very coherent fashion - stresses and strains, and so on. So I, too, would not be surprised if ...
K.S.: If nature didn't exploit them somehow.
H.vB.: Yes, the same way as Penrose's tiling patterns. He invented those and they were then found in nature (and it was very surprising because they violated everything that had been said until that time). But the one thing he did not do was he didn't pick the place where he said nature should repeat them. But you are picking the place!
K.S.: That's true. But that's what makes me an artist and not a scientist ...
H.vB.: Well, that's NOT what makes you an artist and not a scientist. But you are an artist. Just making those structures, and saying those are magnificent structures, and really understanding those structures in detail - that's all one thing. But then you put your finger down and say: "God, you'd better make atoms this way." Why aren't you saying, "God, you'd better make molecules this way, or AIDS viruses, or? . . ."
K.S.: Because I don't see any suggestion in the ultimate forms of those things. The reason I argue this case is because atoms are spherical. Each group of those magnets resides on a spherical surface, so that's one interesting relationship. An outstanding fact of the Bohr model was that the electron was in a stable state as long as it stayed a certain distance from the nucleus. To go up or down it had to do electrical work. This was an ideal principle - and it's still worthwhile to look for a geometry that would enable electrons to do that. And here is such a geometry. Primitive magnetic fields are caused by electrons in motion - rotating electrons - so I'm drawing on a geometry which lets them do that in some useful way. I'm taking the de Broglie wave idea literally and saying maybe there are real physical electron waves, not just waves of probability ...
H.vB.: But we've been doing that, too, for the last 20 or 30 years.
K.S.: Yes, I know. So my model corresponds to that. And then the spheres within spheres - energy levels; the Pauli exclusion principle causes electrons to fill what people call shells or energy levels. The electron waves, then, in order to be related to one another in that way would have to be individual items - atoms within the atom, if you will. They mustn't infuse through one another, as I see it. Electrons couldn't read one another as separate magnetic and electrical items unless they remain in individual domains - occupying different spaces - acting item to item. So there's another correspondence. For molecules and crystals, atoms need to link together in some geometrical fashion. Here's a structure that would make that eminently possible. So, I say, why not atoms? Why not atoms?
H.vB.: You left out one of your best pieces of ammunition yourself: your numbers.
K.S.: Ah, yes.
H.vB.: But I can't get too excited about the numbers because I would not be at all surprised if the mathematical structure of what you have here coincided with the mathematical structure to be found in real atoms. I would not be in the least bit surprised if that same underlying mathematical structure could be found in real atoms.
K.S.: I think that nobody knows whether an electron shell is a succession of the subshell groups or whether if, finally in a completed shell, they all collect into a single configuration.
H.vB.: What would you like to have happen with your atom? What's your fondest wish? I'm talking operationally. What would you like to have people do?
K.S.: Some of the most effective image makers today, icon makers, are doing computer graphics. With this elaborate new computer if I can produce a really astonishing animation of this model without voice-over, just visuals, so that people could say - ah, yes, now I understand how an atom works!
H.vB.: There's a leap there! There's a tremendous leap there, because as an artist you always try to persuade people. And when people look at your sculptures, they say: "Now, I can relate to this. I can feel this. I can kinesthetically climb into this." They say that, but you don't tell them what it is. The computer images you've shown us are already very beautiful and they can become more and more persuasive, but that's a totally different thing from saying also that this is what the atom is.
K.S.: No, Hans, it's presumptuous, quite obviously. But artists are presumptuous people. On the other hand, when people look at my sculptures of steel, I hope they are saying, "Ah, yes, now I know what that kind of structure is."
H.vB.: Well, Penrose was just doodling around from his intuition, his fascination, or whatever, and then came something which essentially overturned the established doctrine of crystallography: the dogma that there shall be no five-sided symmetry. I think there's absolutely nothing in principle for it to be impossible for finding structures, or even finding the right structures, for the atom.
K.S.: But you don't think this is it?
H.vB.: No, I don't. But I'll go further than I went before: I wouldn't be surprised to find these structures in chemistry or ...
K.S.: or radiolaria?
H.vB.: Oh, yes, you could find the most wonderful shapes in those little beasts. So if you had your druthers, you'd like to show a sexy computer animation of this model that's so persuasive people will say: "This is not only beautiful and logical - it is how atoms work."
K.S.: Well, sure. Ninety-nine percent of the population could draw a picture of an atom. They'd draw the old Bohr picture.
H.vB.: That's an icon.
K.S.: Right, that's why I'm talking about the computer. One fantasy is to change the icon. People would have a different icon.
H.vB.: But how would you present it? That brings us to the substrate: If you call it art, you're saying people aren't interested; if you call it science, the physicists are going to squawk at you.
K.S.: So I can't tell you it's going to help matters to invest several years of my life (which probably it will) to do this. But such is my interest.
H.vB.: But what do you care? Does it matter how it's accepted? You would like it to be seen, but ...
K.S.: Peculiar. I don't know where my interest started. A lot of people don't think there is any longer a riddle to the atom, that it's all known. Now, if there were not the familiar history of the Heisenberg affair and the debate with Bohr and Einstein and the changes which have lead people to believe that a visualization of the atom is out of the question, unnecessary, not wanted - then, I suppose I wouldn't pursue this with all this much energy.
H.vB.: Ferocity is the word!
K.S.: Ferocity, good! So, you say what is my fondest dream for this - it is built into that in some way, I'm sure.
H.vB.: Why are you stopping with the atom? Why aren't you asking the same thing about an electron?
K.S.: Because I somehow don't see a spatial order in the electron particle. Or you might ask why don't I start with the nucleus, for instance.
H.vB.: The nucleus is such a wonderful object.
K.S.: It is, but ... I don't understand it as a spatial object. I don't visualize it as a spatial object. Whereas the electronic architecture - connecting atom to atom, molecules, crystals, making these forms which are like my sculptures - pieces linked together - that I see as a spatial problem, a spatial riddle, a structural riddle.
H.vB.: You don't see the nucleus like that because you've been reading mostly atomic books? In nuclear physics books, the nucleus is so big ... big protons and neutrons, and ...
K.S.: [chuckle] There's no way to know how they order themselves in space. There's a reason for my casting about for structural principles. I think all things are made of items of one sort or another, items of form. When I see pictures of the charge cloud model with a set of six bonding orbitals, I ask: "Where are the rest of them?" You have to say: "They're in there, too, but of course we're only identifying these six for now." But I want to see the rest of them. I can't accept the notion that these six lobes, which look like individual items - two on the x-axis, two on the y-axis and two on the z - can occupy space while at the same time we know there are forty or sixty or however many electrons in there that are not in that picture. What people intuitively reach for in the charge cloud model are individual items, whether they are balloon-shaped, or whatever. A whole atom with just mush around it finally isn't aesthetically satisfying, at least it doesn't make a model builder happy. So what I'm looking for is one that satisfies my sense of structure, where separate parts come together.
H.vB.: The physicist would say that one difficulty about the inner thing is the indistinguishability of identical particles, which brings us back to the Pauli exclusion principle. But we have lots of evidence from all over physics that two electrons are indistinguishable. That's not true in our world: if you have two identical marbles, you can still distinguish them: right and left. They're identical but distinguishable. So when the electrons are inside there and you cannot distinguish them, that's so: You cannot distinguish them. If you give them labels, the wave function mixes the labels; the wave function is designed, is forced, is instructed to mix the labels in such a way that the wave function says to you: right-left or left-right.
K.S.: You can't tell one electron from the other.
H.vB.: Yes, in principle, you cannot say this is the right and this is the left. So your hope to identify the rungs of the ladder is kind of dashed by the insistence of the wave function, that you cannot tell the lines from one another. You can sort of tell the extremes because they lie outside the limits of the uncertainty principle, but you cannot - in principle - and that for us is the key (not just in practice because we're too dumb or too blind) but, in principle, you cannot tell that this is the upper rung and this is the lower rung.
K.S.: Nature might be able to tell. The electrons might be able to tell.
H.vB.: That might be so, but that desire to identify the pieces inside the atom runs counter to the experience we have from other places in physics. This indistinguishability principle really holds.
K.S.: Look, it's hard to doubt Heisenberg's principle insofar as it tells about the limits - the fringe of where we can no longer measure. And of course I wouldn't think of trying to identify each electron with a colored marker. What simply doesn't follow though is that the natural workings, the structural phenomena, are therefore inoperative below there. Maybe it's OK for physics, but it's unacceptable to me. I don't believe it's at all out of the question to listen to the noises coming from behind the curtain and to try to imagine what might make those sounds. But Schrödinger also was opposed to that other view, you know, despite the cornerstone equation with his name on it. He asked why it was that such speculations which were long considered OK in other disciplines - history, for example - were suddenly excluded from atomic physics in a single stroke with the Copenhagen view.
But anyway, as far as being unable to tell one electron from the next, I didn't mean that I want to identify the parts in a particular atom caught in a trap: I want to understand how the separate parts go together, the interlocking, the structural principle. I don't really have thoughts about distinguishing electrons in my model.
H.vB.: But don't you? Each one of those rings represents an electron. It is absolutely essential in this specific structure of yours that I can distinguish all these different rings from each other, otherwise I wouldn't have anything.
K.S.: In my sculptures" if I describe what those parts do in order for the piece to exist, I'll tell you that if I cut this wire, the whole thing would deform greatly. Therefore the wire is necessary. I know I need a minimum of three wires on any end of any stick; that's what's necessary. What the particular structure is doesn't really matter. It's a general rule.
I'm looking for the principles that might make up an electronic atom, the necessary ingredients. In order to keep it from collapsing, there has to be something better than a planetary system. If it were only the planetary orbiting principle causing the electrons to stay in position, they could easily be deflected, just as a Keplerian planet can be deflected. But it doesn't happen ... they are astonishingly stable. They keep their spherical form and reconstruct themselves if they're disturbed. So what kind of structure would do that? My sculptures won't. If you cut a wire you have to put a wire back.
H.vB.: It's not robust.
K.S.: Right. But In terms of the atom, I've tried to imagine a composite model to do all the things expected of an atom, or at least as many things as possible. If I've got some of it wrong, then I've got some wrong. But some of them seem right. All these metaphysical questions - really, metaphysical questions - about how to distinguish one electron from another in order to prove this or that - it doesn't really trouble me because it's a philosophical exercise more than anything ...
H.vB.: No, no, no. You can't get away with that! If I said to you this was a speculative philosophical argument, you would turn around and say: no, I really mean this to be a real atom.
K.S.: Oh, well. I do, but as far as proving it - of course I can't. All I can do is to propose a structure which seems to me likely to fill the bill. You say I don't have the answer. And maybe the Schrödinger wave equation isn't interested in the riddle of the mechanical structure of the atom. Anyway, I urge anyone else to come up with a different mechanical picture, especially one that reflects the atom's requirements better than mine. That would be interesting, for how many examples might there be ... the numbers and shells, the geometry, the magnetic aspects, and so forth? So I want to go on record - that's my fondest wish.
H.vB.: Well, you've done that with your patents.
K.S.: Yes, maybe there's more. I still haven't gotten anyone to agree.
H.vB.: On its own merit, without labeling it as an atom, it's a hell of an invention. I can go further: It would be very interesting to think about it as a visualization of some abstract variables that really do refer to real atoms. I still don't believe the literal interpretation you're putting to it in terms of magnetic fields. The objection that magnetic fields are weak compared to electrical forces is a very real objection. What I'm saying is that maybe if you picked a different variable for describing atoms - not charge, or mass, or position of the electron, but something altogether different -and you calculated the values of this variable from the Schrodinger equation, you might come up with something like your model. The trouble is, I don't know what the shells and halos mean. But I don't know what those different variables could be, either. It would be a fascinating exercise to ask that question ...
K.S.: How about asking your students?! [chuckle]
H.vB.: [clears throat]
K.S.: Hans, let's go have a drink upstairs.


text:
Q&A with What If I Go? author Polly White
Polly White talks about her debut book, What If I Go? – which shows the shocking, harsh reality of gangs, violence and drugs. White is married with one child. She lives in the East Midlands and works part-time in educational and vocational settings. What is your book, What If I Go?, about? The book is about the […]Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Why Purelistic?
When you buy hemp products online from Purelistic you aren't just getting the highest quality products, you're getting an opportunity to improve your life.
Our mission is simple: Enhance the quality of life for those who want to break free from synthesized medications, and mass-produced supplements with ingredient lists as shocking as president Trumps twitter feed. We want you to know that we take extreme measures and precautions to ensure the quality and safety of our products. Especially in this new industry, where the FDA has yet to create or enforce guidelines in the production and manufacturing of CBD products.
Our standard operating procedures are best in the industry. We use the highest quality cannabinoid extracts, natural and organic ingredients. Our team is present along all aspects of the production, formulation and distribution of our products so that our customers are receiving the best product possible that we stand behind.
We offer a range of full spectrum and CBD isolate hemp-based recovery products including tinctures and topicals crafted for your everyday lifestyle!
Purelistic CBD contains phytocannabinoids that replicate the body's natural cannabinoids, to restore bodily balance in your endocannabinoid system. An imbalance of your internal environment often triggers conditions like stress, anxiety, inflammation, insomnia, pain and much more. Upregulating your endocannabinoid system with CBD works to maintain your bodies state of homeostasis.


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The SEA-VIS enhanced aluminum front surface mirror is the best selling optical mirror from our extensive product range. It offers excellent reflection and high optical quality at a comparatively low cost.
The enhanced aluminum mirrors of the SEA-VIS and SEA-NIR series are protected by reflection-increasing dielectric thin-film layers coated on top of a highly reflective metallic aluminum coating. These thin dielectric coatings considerably improve the reflectance compared to bare aluminum and protected aluminum mirrors and protect the metal coating of the optics from oxidation and scratching. The SEA-VIS and the SEA-NIR coatings show much better resistance to humidity and abrasion than protected silver mirrors.
The aluminum coatings of the SEA-mirrors are vacuum deposited to a high-grade glass substrate material. Because the optically active mirror coatings are located directly on top of the glass substrate, our enhanced aluminum mirror achieves an excellent optical imaging quality. Ghost images or a phantom laser beam, which both are inherent to the functional principle of backside coated mirrors, are entirely avoided.
The SEA-VIS mirrors are economically priced optics. Therefore, these coatings are often the best choice for high volume applications. They have proven to be ideal for projects that require excellent optical reflectivity, imaging performance in the visible wavelength region, and high mechanical stability at a reasonable cost.
We optimized the SEA-NIR mirror coatings for applications in the near-infrared wavelength region. Hence, these optics are also a cost-effective alternative to gold-plated mirrors used in this spectral range.
For ultraviolet and broadband UV-VIS-IR wavelength applications, we have developed our SEA-UV-protected aluminum mirror (separate data-sheet), which has one thin protective SiO2 (quartz) coating on top of the metallic aluminum thin-film.
The SEA mirrors can be used as laser optics for beams with up to medium laser power. Please contact us to learn whether you can use our standard SEA enhanced aluminum mirror coatings with your laser application without modifications.
We can fabricate all of our enhanced aluminum front surface mirrors at large dimensions. If required, the protective overcoating layers can be optimized and modified to enhance the reflectance of the metallic coatings for particular optical wavelengths. In case you need mirrors with individually adapted optical coatings, please use our coating inquiry-form.
For more information about our enhanced aluminum SEA-VIS and SEA-NIR front surface mirrors, please visit our "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQ) web page. For additional support, please contact our engineers who are pleased to help you with the development of custom-designed enhanced aluminum mirror optics.
To quickly receive a quote for individually dimensioned SEA-VIS or SEA-NIR enhanced aluminum mirrors, please use the following buttons or select the desired thickness from the thickness table.
SEA-VIS & SEA-NIR reflection curves
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Thickness (mm)
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|The thicknesses marked with "✔" are also available within 48–h Express Service.
If you need engineering support or help in the development of your mirror optics, please do not hesitate to contact us.
You may be wondering why there is no shopping cart on our website. There is a good reason for this: Since every application requires different dimensions and our typical delivery time for individually sized optical mirrors and many other optics is less than a week, we have refrained from limiting ourselves to standard dimensions. A shopping cart for a few standard items with few limited fixed dimensions, which rarely represent an optimal solution for our customers, therefore, does not make sense.
Short lead times are also possible for more substantial quantities as our company has specialized in the fast production of mirrors and other optics with custom dimensions. Furthermore, we even offer our 48-h express service for the manufacturing and delivery of custom-sized optics within only two working days. This period is shorter than it usually takes to receive a price quotation for custom sized optics in the optical industry, and this is quicker than many retail companies can ship their catalog optics with fixed dimensions. So the shopping cart is no advantage if you quickly need optics that perfectly fit your needs.All given details and properties are mean reference values and are not guaranteed. Also, please consider our "Notes on technical specifications".
© 1994 - 2020 Präzisions Glas & Optik GmbH


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Sunday, March 6, 2011
Veggie Love
Looking over my food journal for the past week, I realized that I haven't been eating quite enough veggies. So, off to my local farmers market I went..
I came home with a big ol' bag of yummy fruits & vegetables, washed and prepared them all, then turned some of them into a huge salad.
While others, along with some peppers languishing in my crisper, got grilled and served alongside my Jenny Craig Lasagna.
I am amazed at the difference it makes when I "volumize" my meals with vegetables! I'm fuller, more satisfied and feel so good about putting more healthy stuff into my body!
Hope you're all having a wonderful, relaxing Sunday! Now, go eat your veggies! *smile*
4 comments:
rapunzel, I CAN NOT WAIT FOR SUMMER! I agree ... I have NOT been adding enough veggies to the meals. I need to get to the store TODAY for some. That looks delish! And you are so right, with smart choices of healthy foods , you can get SO much more to eat! Good girl!ReplyDelete
have a pretty day!
Oh YUM! I so envy your well stocked farmers market. Our winter markets are good fun, but we're a few months away from nice local produce being available. Have a great day!! Enjoy those veggies.ReplyDelete
Your veggies look wonderful and may I ask about the wonderful yellow plate you have pictured? I love the yellow, red and agua colors. Love to know where you bought the plate...ReplyDelete
I can't wait for the rain to stop so I can go to the farmers market more often. Take care, paula
Paula, I bought a small set of those plates at a thrift store, so wish I could find more of them! The pattern is Petit Jardin, made by Culinary Arts.ReplyDelete


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Tonight on ABC Station 19 returns with an all new Thursday, October 11, 2018, season 2 episode 2 premiere called, "Under the Surface" and we have your Station 19 weekly recap below. On tonight's Station 19 season 2 episode 2 as per the ABC synopsis, "It's a life-and-death situation when a young boy falls into water pipes beneath the city of Seattle. With the clock ticking, the firefighters of Station 19 jump into action to save his life."
Tonight's Station 19 season 2 episode 1 looks like it is going to be great and you won't want to miss it. While you're waiting for our recap make sure to check out all our TV recaps, news, spoilers & more, right here!
Tonight's Station 19 recap begins now – Refresh Page often to get the most current updates!
A little boy ran away from the Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital on tonight's all-new episode of "Station 19".
The kid's name was Max Forrester. He had gone to his hospital with his mother after she collapsed and he had been anxious to hear about her condition. Max was first taken care by the doctors and they told him what was happening and if his mother needed surgery, but then his father came to the hospital. Evan Forrester didn't believe anyone should worry his son and as his parent, he kept the doctors from talking to Max about the important things. Like how Natalie Forrester had suffered a mild heart attack several weeks ago and hadn't noticed. She just went about her day and unfortunately that allowed her condition to worsen. Natalie barely survived surgery and the doctors didn't believe she would ever wake up from her coma.
Evan heard about everything and thought his son shouldn't know. The father hadn't wanted to break the news to Max that his mother was dying and so he forbid the doctors to say anything while also asking said doctors to watch his son. Max was to be kept from his mother until she passed and Evan wanted to be by his wife's side to end however asking the doctors to take care of Max hadn't been easy because the kid realized something was happening. He wanted to be told the truth and got angry when no one would say anything. So that's when he ran off. Max wanted to leave behind his troubles and he thought the only way he could do that was by running away. He left the hospital and security had had to notify the police.
Several officers later caught sight of Max and tried to approach. The kid hadn't wanted to be found and he tried to run away though he hadn't seen the drain when he tried to run away. He just started running when BAM! He fell into the drain. Max fell in at an intersection that was rushing with water and the police couldn't easily reach him. They had to call the fire department and Station 19 was pulled in on this case. They were technically already on it because they had been the ones to take Natalie and Max to the hospital and so they were just following up with Max. No one had heard from him since he fell and they didn't know which direction he might have gotten pulled along. The new captain had broken the team into pairs and two of the doctors from the hospital had joined them.
Dr. Pierce and Dr. DeLuca blamed themselves for losing the boy. They had asked the fire department if they could help and surprisingly Captain Sullivan was okay with that. The new captain liked to micromanage everything, they constantly had his team running drills, and the only people he liked to see take the initiative were all doctors. Ben wasn't even allowed to come out on this call because he injured his hands and the captain said that a surgeon's hands need to be protected. The new captain also had no problem with shooting down any of Andy's ideas and was fine with DeLuca running around being an EMT for the day. It was like there were a different set of rules for the firefighters and the doctors.
Captain Sullivan bent the rules for one other person. He allowed Evan Forrester to ride in the truck with them and the concerned father wanted to be there when they found his son. He probably thought they would just go in and grab him, but there was a problem. The rushing water made it dangerous for anyone to go down there unless they had been harnessed and so the captain ordered Maya to get ready. She was supposed to go down there and she was fixing her harness when she realized her oxygen mask wasn't working. It would have taken Maya two seconds to fix it and so Andy not waiting was really on her. Andy jumped in without a harness and she tried to reach Max and couldn't.
Max got swept away before long and the team had needed to rescue Andy. Andy took a risk and it hadn't paid off for her. Yet no one had been angrier than Captain Sullivan. He blamed Andy for jeopardizing the child's life and didn't have her do anything besides drive the rig as they tried to track down Max again. They later found him a few blocks over and they had been told that was their last chance to grab Max. He was down a drain was the too small for an adult to go down and so they needed to convince him to grab the floaty they sent him. Max had been scared to let go and grab the floaty. He thought that he would miss it and so they called in his dad to talk to him. Evan tried pleading with him and, when that hadn't worked, Andy told Evan to be honest with Max.
Max knew that his dad had been lying to him and so when Evan finally admitted that Natalie Forrester was dying – Max decided to trust his father. Evan said grab the floaty and Max had been able to get in time though not everything was okay. Max was treated for the water he swallowed and he returned to the hospital to say goodbye to his mother. He and his father had been able to do that together while Station 19 packed it in for the day. They went back to their place believing that everything was okay and it wasn't because Andy almost cost them everything out in the field. She hadn't wanted to trust Maya for the job and had taken risks that came back to bite her. Her friend was angry with her and her captain reminded her that she has done nothing to earn any sort of goodwill from him.
It seems she just expected everything to carry on as normal and her captain was the one to inform her that things were different now!
The End
- 3Shares


text: Joining the Lights I have only a short run of cupboards and only one available plug socket. 3 lights would be too many on such a short run so would it be possible to join 2 single lights together? Answers Yes you could just use 2 single lights and 1 x 8 Watt LED Driver


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Copyright © 2010. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WORLDWIDE.
Sellers and buyers have different needs and motivations when it comes to the transfer of real property. One area which is often an issue is property condition. Sellers typically want to transfer property "as is," without warranties and with no obligation for repairs. Buyers, on the other hand, have an interest in acquiring property that is in the best possible condition for the price. They also want full disclosure of defects and needed repairs.
Residential Disclosure
The Texas Real Estate Commission promulgates a Seller's Disclosure of Property Condition form for use in residential real estate transactions (Go to www.trec.state.tx.us/forms). This form (TREC Form No. OP-H revised in 2010) is designed to be filled out by the seller and attached to the One to Four Family Residential Contract which is used by agents and brokers for transactions involving single family homes. It must be given on or before the effective date of the contract. The content of the form tracks Sec. 5.008 of the Texas Property Code, which states:
5.008(a) A seller of residential real property comprising not more than one dwelling unit located in this state shall give to the purchaser of the property a written notice as prescribed by this section or a written notice substantially similar to the notice prescribed the his section which contains, at a minimum, all of the items in the notice prescribed this section.
The purpose of the Seller's Disclosure is to make it clear what appliances, equipment, and features exist on the property; whether or not these items are in working condition; whether the seller knows of any defects or malfunctions in critical systems; if certain red-flag conditions like termite treatment, previous fires, or flooding have occurred; the need for repairs; and the existence of unpermitted additions, unpaid HOA fees, violations of deed restrictions, lawsuits, or any conditions that "materially affect the health or safety of an individual." In other words, the form is thorough.
Property Code Sec. 5.008(e) excludes the following residential transactions from the requirement that a Seller's Disclosure be provided:
- Pursuant to a court order or foreclosure sale;
- by a trustee in bankruptcy;
- pursuant to a deed in lieu of foreclosure;
- by a lien holder who has either purchased at a foreclosure sale or a sale pursuant to a court order or accepted a deed in lieu of foreclosure;
- by a fiduciary in the course of an administration of a decedent's estate, guardianship, conservatorship, or trust;
- from one co-owner to one or more other co-owners;
- made to a spouse or to a person or persons in the lineal line of consanguinity of one or more of the transferors;
- between spouses incident to divorce, legal separation or a property settlement agreement;
- to or from a governmental entity;
- a new residence of not more than one dwelling unit that has not been occupied for residential purposes;
- of real property where the value of any dwelling does not exceed five percent of the value of the property.
If the seller does not give the Seller's Disclosure as required, Property Code Sec. 5.008(f) permits the buyer to "terminate the contract for any reason for any reason within seven days after receiving the notice." However, if the failure to give the notice is coupled with fraud or failure to disclose defects, then other penalties may arise pursuant to the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Statutory Fraud Act (see below).
Commercial Disclosure
For commercial transactions, the Texas Association of Realtors has a Commercial Property Condition Statement which is an optional attachment to its standard commercial contracts. Its scope is broader than the residential Seller's Disclosure, since it addresses additional issues such as wetlands, underground storage tanks, toxic waste, and the like. Although the form is optional in commercial transactions, a careful buyer should generally require that the seller provide it.
TAR forms are available only to realtors.
The intent and purpose of both forms is the same: to induce the seller to make full disclosure of all material conditions, circumstances, and defects. For some reason, however, the drafters of these forms have seen fit to insert a statement at the top to the effect that the contents of the form do not constitute a warranty by the seller. This is entirely unsatisfactory from the buyer's point of view. Buyers should therefore negotiate a clause which essentially strikes this non-warranty statement and makes it clear that the seller is standing behind the truth of his disclosures. Buyers should not leave a seller any wiggle-room on this issue.
Note to buyers: obtaining either disclosure form is no substitute for getting a thorough professional inspection.
Note to sellers: advising the buyer to obtain an inspection is no substitute for making full disclosure.
Ongoing Duty to Disclose
The Seller's Disclosure form does not in and of itself impose an ongoing duty to disclose matters that may come to the Seller's attention after the form has been signed and delivered to the buyer. Bynum v. Prudential Residential Services, 129 S.W.3d 781,795 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 2004, pet denied). Although this may be strictly true as it relates to the form, it would not be wise for a seller to withhold material information that was subsequently discovered. There are too many other statutory avenues for an aggrieved buyer to pursue.
Broker Liability
Accurately completing the Seller's Disclosure is the responsibility of the seller. The seller's broker does not ordinarily become liable for the seller's wrongdoing in this regard. A broker "would have a duty to come forward only if he had any reason to believe that the seller's disclosures were false or inaccurate, and the only way he could be held liable for [the seller's] statement in the notice is if it were shown to be untrue." Sherman v. Elkowitz, 130 S.W.3d 316, 321 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2004, no pet.).
The Deceptive Trade Practices – Consumer Protection Act ("DTPA")
Failure to disclose material conditions and defects is a violation of the DTPA. In Sec. 17.46(a), the statute declares:
False, misleading, or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce are hereby declared unlawful and are subject to action by the consumer protection division under Sections 17.47, 17.58, 17.60, and 17.61 of this code.
The DTPA declares the following to be unlawful:
17.46(b)(5): representing that goods or services have sponsorship, approval, characteristics, ingredients, uses, benefits, or quantities which they do not have. . . .
17.46(b)(7): representing that goods or services are of a particular standard, quality, or grade, or that goods are of a particular style or model, if they are of another.
17.46(b)(10): advertising goods or services with intent not to sell them as advertised.
17.46(b)(24): failing to disclose information concerning goods or services which was known at the time of the transaction if such failure to disclose such information was intended to induce the consumer into a transaction into which the consumer would not have entered had the information been disclosed.
The DTPA applies to real estate transactions. The cases consistently declare that real estate is a "good" within the meaning of the DTPA. See Chastain v. Koonce, 700 S.W.2d 579, 582 (Tex. 1985).
Additionally, a consumer may file suit if the consumer has relied to that consumer's detriment upon:
17.50(B)(2) breach of an express or implied warranty;
17.50(B)(2) any unconscionable action or course of action by any person.
Statutory language does not get any broader or more potentially damaging than that. Seller beware: if you fail to disclose a material item, a jury can find that your action was "unconscionable" (an open-ended term by any definition) and award treble damages, attorney's fees, and court costs against you.
Statutory Fraud
Texas Business & Commerce Code Sec. 27.01 (the Statutory Fraud Act) is another potential pitfall for sellers who fail to make full disclosure:
(a)Fraud in a transaction involving real estate or stock in a corporation or joint stock company consists of a
- false representation of a past or existing material fact, when the false representation is
- made to a person for the purpose of inducing that person to enter into a contract; and
- relied on by that person in entering into that contract; or
- false promise to do an act, when the false promise is
- (A) material;
- (B) made with the intention of not fulfilling it;
- (C) made to a person for the purpose of inducing that person to enter into a contract; and
- (D) relied on by that person in entering into that contract.
(b) A person who makes a false representation or false promise commits the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and is liable to the person defrauded for actual damages.
(c) A person who makes a false representation or false promise with actual awareness of the falsity thereof commits the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and is liable to the person defrauded for exemplary damages. Actual awareness may be inferred where objective manifestations indicate that a person acted with actual awareness.
(d) A person who (1) has actual awareness of the falsity of a representation or promise made by another person and (2) fails to disclose the falsity of the representation or promise to the person defrauded, and (3) benefits from the false representation or promise commits the fraud described in Subsection (a) of this section and is liable to the person defrauded for exemplary damages. Actual awareness may be inferred where objective manifestations indicate that a person acted with actual awareness.
(e) Any person who violates the provisions of this section shall be liable to the person defrauded for reasonable and necessary attorney's fees, expert witness fees, costs for copies of depositions, and costs of court.
Observe the language contained in Coldwell Banker Whiteside Assocs. v. Ryan Equity Partners, 181 S.W.3d 879, 888 (Tex.App. – Dallas 2006, no pet.): "A misrepresentation may consist of the concealment or nondisclosure of a material fact when there is a duty to disclose. The duty to disclose arises when one party know that the other party is ignorant of the true facts and does not have an equal opportunity to discover the truth. A fact is material if it would likely affect the conduct of a reasonable person concerning the transaction in question."
Exemplary or punitive damages are available to plaintiffs who prevail: "A plaintiff is entitled to recover exemplary damages under statutory fraud if the false representation is made with actual awareness of the falsity of the representation." Hines v. Hash, 843 S.W.2d 464 (Tex.1992).
Common Law Fraud
The existence of the Statutory Fraud Act does not preclude a deceived buyer from filing suit on the grounds of common law fraud as well. In other words, the two causes of action can be pursued side-by-side. What is the difference? See Trinity Indus. v. Ashland, Inc., 53 S.W.3d 852, 867 (Tex.App. – Austin 2001, pet. Denied): "The elements of statutory fraud under Sec. 27.01 . . . are essentially identical to the elements of common law fraud except that Sec. 27.01 does not require proof of knowledge or recklessness as a prerequisite to the recovery of actual damages."
Any competent plaintiff's attorney will include as many causes of action as possible in his lawsuit against a non-disclosing seller.
Additional Liability for Real Estate Licensees
Agents and brokers who are also sellers need to be especially concerned about the consequences of failing to make full disclosure. The Real Estate License Act (Chap. 1101, Texas Occupations Code, referred to as "RELA") expressly prohibits any conduct by a licensed Texas real estate salesperson or broker that constitutes dishonest dealing, bad faith, or untrustworthiness. The language is broad. RELA is violated if:
15.(a)(3) the licensee, when selling, buying, trading, or renting real property in his own name, engaged in misrepresentation or dishonest or fraudulent action. . . .
In addition to civil liability for damages, a culpable licensee may be subject to having his or her license suspended or revoked by TREC.
"As Is" Transactions
Here is the question: Is it lawful to transfer property without disclosing material defects if the contract states that the transaction is "as is?" In other words, does use of the words "as is" or some similar phraseology relieve the seller of the obligation to disclose? The answer (as is true in many areas of the law) is "It depends."
The important case in this area is Prudential Insurance Co. v. Jefferson Associated Ltd., 896 S.W.2d 156 (Tex. 1995) which upheld "as is" clauses in certain narrow circumstances. Two things are critical if an "as is" clause is to be upheld: the specific wording of the "as is" clause and whether or not the buyer obtained an inspection. Also, in evaluating an "as is" transaction, courts look at the totality of the circumstances including these two main factors. Note that if the buyers consult an attorney before agreeing to an "as is" clause then a court is more likely to find the clause enforceable. Courts, as a rule, dislike situations where the parties are unequally informed of their rights. For this reason, it is more likely that an "as is" provision will be upheld in a commercial rather than a residential transaction since commercial buyers are presumed to be more sophisticated.
In 2007, the Dallas Court of Appeals said the following with regard to "as is" transactions involving residential property: "The nature of the transaction and the totality of the circumstances surrounding the agreement must be considered . . . Where the 'as is' clause is an important part of the basis of the bargain, not an incidental or 'boilerplate' provision, and is entered into by parties of relatively equal bargaining position, a buyer's affirmative agreement that he is not buying on the representations of the seller should be given effect. . . ." Kupchynsky v. Nardiello, 230 S.W.3d 685.
Generally speaking, "as is" transactions as a means of avoiding seller disclosure are problematic at best and should be avoided. No one, especially juries, likes a liar – whether the lie is by commission or omission. The best advice an attorney can give a seller is "disclose, disclose, disclose." If an "as is" clause is going to be included in a contract, the seller should get a real estate attorney to draft it.
Being sued is no picnic. Seller clients often ask, "Can they sue me if . . . .?" For lots of reasons that is the wrong question, since in this country anyone can sue anyone else for anything and incur little or no liability for doing so. The better approach is to deter suits in the first place by being open and above-board. For more information on lawsuits, go to our companion article, Litigation in Texas.
Buyers confronted by a seller who insists on an "as is" clause while attempting to avoid disclosure should be suspicious. In such a situation, the best course of action for the buyer is to walk away. Not every deal out there can or should be made. On the other hand, an "as is" clause combined with full disclosure by the seller should not be a problem so long as the buyer realizes that the he or she should get one or more thorough inspections of the property. Whenever a seller wants to include an "as is" clause in a sales contract, the buyer should respond by including a provision to the effect that such a clause does not relieve the seller of the obligation to disclose material conditions and defects. If the seller balks, the best solution (again) is to walk away.
Information in this article is proved for general educational purposes only and is not offered as legal advice upon which anyone may rely. The law changes. Legal counsel relating to your individual needs and circumstances is advisable before taking any action that has legal consequences. Consult your tax advisor as well. Reading this article does not make you our client. This firm does not represent you unless and until it is retained and expressly agrees in writing to do so.
Copyright © 2010 by David J. Willis. David J. Willis is board certified in both residential and commercial real estate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. More information is available at his web site, http://www.LoneStarLandLaw.com.


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105.2 Workexempt from permit. Exemptions frompermit requirements of this Code shall not be deemed to grant authorization forany work to be done in any manner in violation of the provisions of this Code.Permits shall not be required for the following:
No permitshall be required, in this or any of the following Sections, for generalmaintenance or repairs which do not change the Occupancy and the value of whichdoes not exceed fifteen-hundred dollars ($1,500) in labor and material asdetermined by the Building Official.
Applies to one- and two-family dwellings and townhouses not more than three stories:
Applies to: Commercial Projects, including those with Residential occupancies not covered by the Residential Code.
If a permit is not required, you may proceed with your project. Otherwise if a permit is required. For further question please contact the Building Division at (954) 457-1378 or email us at: email@example.com
Here is an electronic copy of the Florida Building Code (FBC) . You can also visit Broward County Board of Appeal for more information.
All the forms and applications needed for the Building Services Division are found at the Building Applications and Forms. Each permit application includes pertinent information about the permitting requirements for that type of permit. Generally a permit application, two copies of plans and supporting documents and processing fee are necessary to start the permit process.
Please read the Owner-Builder's Affidavit careful to know about the risks involved in acting as your own contractor.
If you own and occupy a one or two family house you may be eligible to act as your own contractor per State Statute (489.103(7). As an owner builder though, if you do not complete all of the work yourself, you must supervise the work, and hire licensed trade subcontractors (electrician, plumbing, a/c, and roof) in accordance with state law. Owners acting as their own contractor are required to personally appear for all permitting, provide proof that the property is properly insured and be present for all inspections. All the requirements are found on the Owner Builder Affidavit.
The Energov's Citizen Self Service (CSS) can perform robust searches across several key areas in CSS (i.e., permits, plans, inspections, addresses and parcels.) Users do not have to log into CSS to access the global search tool. Simply enter any of the following fields Inspection Number, Parcel Number or Address field and click on Search to display a list of results that meet your search criteria.
For questions please e-mail us at email@example.com
1.Inspection Requests are called into Building Division (954) 457-1312 prior to 4 pm the day before inspection day. Provide the following information: Permit Number, Inspection Type, Job Site Address, Return Phone Number, and access instructions.
2.Inspection Requests may be scheduled online via the Citizen Self Service (CSS) Portal prior to 4:00pm the day before inspection day
3.The Building Inspectors normally leave the office to perform inspections by 8am.
Timed inspections are not generally available and need to be arranged directly with the inspector; on a needs basis and as time permits. Call before 4pm the day before inspection day.
An inspector can arrive on site anytime between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.
The inspectors are in the office every morning between 7:30 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. to take phone calls concerning scheduling and routing.
The Building Inspectors normally leave the office to perform inspections by 8am.
◦(954) 457-3066 - Structural, Roofing, Signs, Fences
◦(954) 457-1388 - Plumbing,
◦(954) 457-1387 - Electric,
◦(954) 457-1302 - Mechanical,
When a building reaches 40 years or older a notice will be sent informing the building owner to have a structural inspection performed by an architect or engineer and an electrical system inspection performed by a license electrical contractor. The report produced will identify any deficiencies, which will necessitate a repair permit. Once the report is reviewed and any repairs made, the building will be certified safe for continued occupancy for the next ten years.
The 40 year and older Building Safety Inspection Program was created in 2005 and has become effective throughout Broward County in January 2006. Modeled after Miami-Dade County's program, which was established in the mid 1970s, Broward's program calls for structural and electrical safety inspections for buildings 40 years old or older and every ten years thereafter. One and two family dwellings, U.S Government, State of Florida buildings, schools under the jurisdiction of the B.C. School Board, and buildings built on Indian Reservations are exempt from this program. Miami-Dade County's effort exempts other buildings under 2,000 square feet while the Broward program excludes all buildings under 3,500 square feet. Both Counties have had instances of structural building failures. By having such a program in effect we are minimalizing the possibilities of future building failure and will be better prepared for hurricane winds.
Broward County 40 Year Building Safety Inspection Program Policy


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"The information required to exploit this vulnerability has been released before the patches have been completed. To allow customers to take action to protect themselves while the patches are built, Microsoft is releasing work-around information. Microsoft will update this bulletin to announce the availability of patches as soon as they are available," Microsoft wrote in a bulletin about the vulnerability and workaround, which can be found at www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/bulletin/MS02-027.asp.
Microsoft has been embroiled in a long-running dispute with a faction of the information security community about whether vulnerability information should be released before a vendor has a patch available. Microsoft's position is that such information should be withheld until fixes are ready.
The problem affects Internet Explorer, Internet Security & Acceleration Server 2000 and Microsoft Proxy Server 2.0.
An unchecked buffer in code that handles information returned from a server using the Gopher protocol allows for a buffer overrun attack.
On ISA and Proxy Server, the tactic could give an attacker complete control over the server, allowing the attacker to format the hard drive, add administrators to the system or whatever else the attacker wanted to accomplish. The vulnerability on Internet Explorer is more limited, allowing the attacker to run code in the user's context.
Most of the functions and capabilities of Gopher have been superceded by HTTP, Microsoft notes, adding that it might be a good best practice to close access to Port 70 for enterprises without known legitimate uses for the protocol.
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.
Microsoft is now planning to disable Basic Authentication use with its Exchange Online service sometime in the "second half of 2021," according to a Friday announcement.
Microsoft this week offered advice for organizations using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager with remote Windows systems that need to get patched, and it also announced Update 2002.
Azure Edge Zones, a new edge computing technology from Microsoft designed to enable new scenarios for developers and partners, emerged as a preview release this week.
Microsoft is shifting its big events this year to be online only, including Ignite 2020.
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I'm visiting my parents again. My dad is in a long queue for a new knee on the Spanish national health service, so after my conference I trotted a couple of hundred kilometres down the coast to boost his spirits … Continue reading
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Spain, I love you. But when it comes to any kind of vegetarian food, you drive me crazy. Even my one-time Spanish housemate – a vegetarian herself – declared that if she hadn't been brought up in the heart of … Continue reading
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining
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Legislature(2019 - 2020)
2019-05-20 House JournalFull Journal pdf
2019-05-20 House Journal Page 1102 HB 49 The Conference Committee with limited powers of free conference considering CSHB 49(FIN) am and SCS CSHB 49(FIN) am S recommends the following be adopted: CONFERENCE CS FOR HOUSE BILL NO. 49 "An Act relating to criminal law and procedure; relating to marriage as a defense to certain crimes of sexual assault; establishing the crime of possession of motor vehicle theft tools; relating to controlled substances; relating to electronic monitoring; relating to probation and parole; relating to sentencing; amending the definitions of 'most serious felony,' 'sex offense,' and 'sex offender'; relating to registration of sex offenders; relating to the automated victim notification system; relating to reporting child abuse or neglect; relating to Alaska Native organizations; relating to the village public safety officer program; relating to cancellation of a driver's license; relating to driving while license canceled; relating to operating under the influence; relating to restoration of a driver's license; relating to refusal to submit to a chemical test; relating to the use of headlights; relating to the powers and duties of the commissioner of corrections; relating to 2019-05-20 House Journal Page 1103 pretrial services; relating to the duties of a prosecuting attorney; relating to testing of sexual assault examination kits; relating to reports of involuntary commitment; amending Rules 6(r)(6) and 38.2, Alaska Rules of Criminal Procedure; and providing for an effective date." (technical title change) The report was signed by Representatives Claman (Chair), Kopp, Pruitt; and Senators Hughes (Chair), Shower, Wielechowski. The following fiscal note(s) apply to CCS HB 49: 1. Zero, Dept. of Health & Social Services 20. Fiscal, Dept. of Administration 21. Fiscal, Dept. of Administration 22. Fiscal, Dept. of Administration 23. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 26. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 29. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 30. Fiscal, Dept. of Health & Social Services 31. Fiscal, Dept. of Law 32. Zero, Dept. of Public Safety 33. Zero, Dept. of Public Safety 34. Zero, Dept. of Public Safety 35. Fiscal, Dept. of Public Safety 36. Zero, Dept. of Transportation & Public Facilities 38. Fiscal, Alaska Judiciary System 39. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 40. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 41. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections 42. Fiscal, Dept. of Corrections Representative Thompson moved that the House adopt the Conference Committee with limited powers of free conference report, thus adopting CCS HB 49. The question being: "Shall the House adopt the report?" The roll was taken with the following result: 2019-05-20 House Journal Page 1104 CCS HB 49 Adopt YEAS: 36 NAYS: 2 EXCUSED: 2 ABSENT: 0 Yeas: Carpenter, Claman, Drummond, Eastman, Edgmon, Fields, Foster, Hannan, Jackson, Johnson, Johnston, Josephson, Knopp, Kopp, Kreiss-Tomkins, LeBon, LeDoux, Lincoln, Merrick, Ortiz, Pruitt, Rauscher, Revak, Shaw, Spohnholz, Story, Stutes, Sullivan-Leonard, Talerico, Tarr, Thompson, Tilton, Tuck, Vance, Wilson, Zulkosky Nays: Hopkins, Wool Excused: Neuman, Rasmussen And so, the House adopted CCS HB 49. Representative Thompson moved and asked unanimous consent that the roll call on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call on the court rule changes. There being no objection, it was so ordered. Representative Thompson moved and asked unanimous consent that the roll call on the passage of the bill be considered the roll call on the effective date clause. There being no objection, it was so ordered. The Chief Clerk notified the Senate.


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The Letter to the Hebrews - which is not part of our readings today – tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way that we are, yet He never sinned. It seems, from today's Gospel, that He was also tempted in some ways that we are not. He is tempted to turn stones into bread, tempted to fall down and worship the devil, tempted to throw himself off the parapet of the temple and be caught by angels.
Now I have been tempted, many times and in many different ways, but never have I ever had the slightest temptation to turn stones into bread, nor to fall down and worship the devil, nor even to jump off the tower of our church. This makes it kind of hard to identify with this Gospel passage. Would it not have been more instructive for St. Luke to show us Jesus being tempted to gossip, or to anger, or to lust, or just to plain old laziness? What if the Devil said to Jesus, 'You've been pushing yourself pretty hard. Why don't you knock off for a couple of days and go fishing with the guys? There will be plenty of time to proclaim the Kingdom of God. Relax. Take it easy."
You know the temptations, the kind of things we face every day. And then see how Jesus deals with it. That would be more instructive for us. But turning stones into bread? What is going on here?
Well, first of all, the scene of the temptation is a highly stylized theological account. Much prayerful reflection has gone into the way St. Luke presents this material. This is not a newspaper report of just the facts, but a very deep spiritual reflection , and should be read in that light.
The passage begins, "Filled with the Holy Spirit, Jesus returned from the Jordan. " What was Jesus doing at the Jordan? Fishing?
NO, He was getting Baptized. And at His Baptism "the holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased."
This must have been a truly wonderful experience for Jesus. I mean, imagine if you heard a voice come from heaven declaring, "you are my beloved son/daughter, with you I am well pleased." Wouldn't it be easy for you to think, 'hey, I am pretty hot stuff? Somebody up there really likes me!' It would not be hard to feel proud and pretty soon start getting puffed up. "Hey, did ya hear what heaven said? I'm the beloved. The BIG guy is pretty pleased with me too."
It would be pretty easy for this to go to anybody's head, and that is true also for Jesus. The temptation would be to stay in that special, elite, proud feeling of being the Beloved Son.
The problem with that is that it keeps Jesus from entering fully into our human condition. If He emphasizes being the Beloved Son, the tendency will be to pull back from true solidarity with sinful and fallen human kind like you and like me.
And that is what I believe these temptations are all about. The temptation to turn stones into bread is a temptation for Jesus to rely on His power as Son of God, and not truly enter into the weakness and vulnerability of being authentically human. Jesus is tempted to escape human pain and physical hunger, including all the hungers of the heart, and just pretend to be truly human. Jesus would look human, but still rely on His divine power to protect himself and satisfy His needs. It would be only a charade.
The devil has more to offer Jesus. Having shown Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" the devil makes an offer many humans have, to one degree or another, accepted: Jesus can gain power and influence by worshiping at the altar of power, compromise and shady deals.
We are already being bombarded with continuous news stories about Presidential candidates for November. We hope that the candidates don't secretly prostrate themselves before "the powers that be" to get the dollars and votes that will enable them to seek the presidency, which, as the most powerful position in the world, gives a person "power and glory" over "the kingdoms of the world." But we know and fear than money and power is what politics is really all about.
In rejecting this temptation, Jesus chooses to live an ordinary life, to undergo the subjection endured by his neighbors in an occupied land. He will walk the path of the oppressed. Those without name recognition will see in him one who is totally faithful in his choice to be human.
The devil goes on: "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, 'God will command the angels concerning you, to guard you..." It is tempting to think that a proof of God's love for us is a comfortable and pain free life. Who would not want to be protected by a circle of angels??? Certainly this notion of a protected life, of expecting to be spared of all pain and disappointment as God's beloved, would be a temptation throughout Jesus' entire life. Remember Peter tempting Jesus against rejection and crucifixion, and Jesus telling him, "get behind me satan." And it is also a temptation for us.
Where is God when we are suffering? We say to ourselves: "I thought God loved me. If God really loved me I wouldn't be in this pain... this confusion ...failed at this project....been betrayed by those I trusted...etc."
But there is not an escape clause written into Jesus' being one of us. He didn't get out in just the nick of time; and so His followers must resist the temptation to opt out when the path of discipleship brings suffering. Standing in a protective circle of angels is not what it means to be human, and so that's not what it will mean for Jesus as he fulfills His word to truly and completely be one with us.
Through all the temptations, Jesus remained faithful to His mission, and faithful to His Father. He also remained faithful to us, sharing fully in our situation, truly being one of us, so that we could be one with Him.
Like Jesus are tempted to break faith, to not be true to God our Father or to ourselves. In these forty days of Lent, by our Lenten practices of penance, and by God's grace, we seek to uncover these temptations, and all the compromises we have made with evil, the little concessions we make with the devil, and then to cut them out and return to the path of faithfulness.
Jesus is our model. He is our source of strength. In Him, we can do it. Blessed Lent!