Among the most influential poets in the American canon, often called the father of free verse.
He was part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works.
Whitman was also a teacher, a journalist and for three years during the American Civil War, famously a volunteer nurse.
Seeing his brother George wounded at the Battle of Fredericksburg, while serving with the Union Army in 1862 motivated him to visit and care for wounded soldiers. Whitman estimated he made 600 hospital visits and visited 100,000 wounded Union and Confederate soldiers during this time.
”I am happy that I have managed to work since that dreadful day in September 1978 when I was diagnosed with MS. The twenty-five years have gone and, as predicted by the neurologist then, I now know the outcome.
I was not a bad case. I had attacks every 18 months from age 35 to 55, some quite bad, some small relapses. When I was 55 my neurologist put me into a trial for a new MS drug. This was very successful and opened up a whole new field of pharmacological drugs for the easing of MS.
Since then, I have been lucky in that I have never had another attack. I only battle the deadly fatigue that comes with the disease. I want to take this space to tell any budding scientist that, however bleak the future may seem due to illness or other problems, one cannot say you will not be successful.”
From 2016 Physics Laureate Michael Kosterlitz’s biography at Nobelprize.org: goo.gl/Q19mzE
"Can I have a collection of Bond?" I asked the shop man looking at the stack of books kept in the shelves of the Readers' Paradise, a mostly visited book shop at the Steel Market road in Durgapur.
The shop man ,a thin,oily-haired fellow all in powerful specs resting on his bulbous nose-tip scrutinized me briefly and asked,"For whom are you going to buy this one?"
"For my student," I replied somewhat surprised for I was hardly prepared for such an interrogation.
"Of which class?" he asked further looking through chink of his glass.
By the time the row of books displaying famous titles in bold letters of great authors like O Henry, Shakespeare,Saki,R.K.Narayan and many more were tempting me.But I answered,"She's in class eight."
The shop keeper disappeared soon after I finished my words behind a book shelf into darkness.
I found it somewhat strange.
After five or six minutes the man emerged from darkness to the LED light of the shop.
With his trembling, rickety fingers he was holding two books tha he put on the counter.
Now with a smile he told me,"Sir,ìf you take my suggestion you can have these ones...I think they're absolutely fit for your student."
I glanced at the titles.They were :THE ROOM ON THE ROOF and THE BLUE UMBRELLA.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because the writer has beautifully penned the emotions and excitement of the teenagers in these books.Actually, my own grand daughter is fond of the books."he expressed beaming at me.
I purchased both of them going with his suggestion.
After some weeks my student burst out in elation ,"Wow!sir.I've never read books like those you gifted me. They've simply jewels of thoughts and emotions.Ruskin Bond is a great writer!"
My gift was worthy of being called " A GIFT" at last.
Pieter Zeeman, born on 25 May 1865, was awarded the 1902 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Hendrik Lorentz. In 1892 Lorentz presented his electron theory, which posited that in matter there are charged particles, electrons, that conduct electric current and whose oscillations give rise to light. Lorentz's electron theory could explain Zeeman's discovery that the spectral lines corresponding to different wavelengths split up into several lines under the influence of a magnetic field, also called the 'Zeeman effect'.
Zeeman worked as a professor as well as Director of the Physics Laboratory at the University of Amsterdam / Universiteit van Amsterdam. In 1923 a new laboratory, specially erected for him, was put at his disposal, a prominent feature being a concrete block weighing a quarter of a million kilograms, erected free from the floor, as a suitable platform for vibration-free experiments. The institute became known as the Zeeman Laboratory of Amsterdam University. Many world-famous scientists visited Zeeman there or worked with him for some time.
Photo: Physicists Albert Einstein and Paul Ehrenfest visiting Pieter Zeeman at his laboratory in Amsterdam, circa 1920s.
Celebrating Africa Day and all our African Nobel Laureates, including Kofi Annan, Wangari Maathai, Nelson Mandela, Leymah Gbowee and Denis Mukwege who have all been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I was affected in this way for a very long period of time, like 25 years, so it was quite a portion of a life's history."
Nobel Laureate John Nash spent years living with schizophrenia. In 1994 he was awarded the Prize in Economic Sciences within the field of game theory. His famous equilibrium has found application in fields as diverse as computing, evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.
Today on #WorldSchizophreniaDay we remember Nobel Laureate John Nash, “a mathematical genius”.
Aviator Charles Lindbergh, in the Spirit of St Louis, lands in Paris after the first solo air crossing of Atlantic.
Grateful thanks to onthisday.com.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was an American aviator, military officer, author, inventor, and activist. At the age of 25 in 1927, he went from obscurity as a U.S. Air Mail pilot to instantaneous world fame by winning the Orteig Prize for making a nonstop flight from New York to Paris.
Nikola
Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox church and his mother
managed the family’s farm. In 1863 Tesla’s brother Daniel was killed in a
riding accident. The shock of the loss unsettled the 7-year-old Tesla, who
reported seeing visions—the first signs of his lifelong mental illnesses.
Tesla
studied math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and philosophy at
the University of Prague. In 1882, while on a walk, he came up with the idea
for a brushless AC motor, making the first sketches of its rotating
electromagnets in the sand of the path. Later that year he moved to Paris and
got a job repairing direct current (DC) power plants with the Continental Edison
Company. Two years later he immigrated to the United States.
NIKOLA
TESLA AND THOMAS EDISON
Tesla
arrived in New York in 1884 and was hired as an engineer at Thomas Edison’s
Manhattan headquarters. He worked there for a year, impressing Edison with his
diligence and ingenuity. At one point Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000
for an improved design for his DC dynamos. After months of experimentation,
Tesla presented a solution and asked for the money. Edison demurred, saying,
“Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.” Tesla quit soon after.
NIKOLA
TESLA AND WESTINGHOUSE
After
an unsuccessful attempt to start his own Tesla Electric Light Company and a
stint digging ditches for $2 a day, Tesla found backers to support his research
into alternating current. In 1887 and 1888 he was granted more than 30 patents
for his inventions and invited to address the American Institute of Electrical
Engineers on his work. His lecture caught the attention of George Westinghouse,
the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston and was
Edison’s major competitor in the “Battle of the Currents.”
Westinghouse
hired Tesla, licensed the patents for his AC motor and gave him his own lab. In
1889 Edison arranged for a convicted New York murderer to be put to death in an
AC-powered electric chair—a stunt designed to show how dangerous the
Westinghouse standard could be.
Buoyed
by Westinghouse’s royalties, Tesla struck out on his own again. But
Westinghouse was soon forced by his backers to renegotiate their contract, with
Tesla relinquishing his royalty rights.
In
the 1890s Tesla invented electric oscillators, meters, improved lights and the
high-voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil. He also experimented with
X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication two years before
Guglielmo Marconi and piloted a radio-controlled boat around a pool in Madison
Square Garden. Together, Tesla and Westinghouse lit the 1891 World’s Columbian
Exposition in Chicago and partnered with General Electric to install AC
generators at Niagara Falls, creating the first modern power station.
NIKOLA
TESLA’S FAILURES, DEATH AND LEGACY
In
1895 Tesla’s New York lab burned, destroying years’ worth of notes and
equipment. Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New
York in 1900. He secured backing from financier J.P. Morgan and began building
a global communications network centered on a giant tower at Wardenclyffe, on
Long Island. But funds ran out and Morgan balked at Tesla’s grandiose schemes.
Tesla
lived his last decades in a New York hotel, working on new inventions even as
his energy and mental health faded. His obsession with the number three and
fastidious washing were dismissed as the eccentricities of genius. He spent his
final years feeding—and, he claimed, communicating with—the city’s pigeons.
John
Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE was an English writer, poet, philologist, and
university professor, best known as the author of the classic high fantasy
works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion.
Born:
January 3, 1892, Bloemfontein, Free State
Died:
September 2, 1973, Bournemouth
Movies:
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return
Of The King, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Children:
Christopher Tolkien, John Tolkien, Priscilla Tolkien, Michael Tolkien
Education:
Exeter College, Oxford, University of Oxford
CHRISTOPHER
TOLKIEN
Christopher
Reuel Tolkien is the third and youngest son of the author J. R. R. Tolkien, and
is best known as the editor of much of his father's posthumously published
work.
Born:
November 21, 1924 (age 88), Leeds
Spouse:
Baillie Tolkien (m. 1967)
Children:
Simon Tolkien, Rachel Clare Reuel Tolkien, Adam Reuel Tolkien
Siblings:
John Tolkien, Priscilla Tolkien, Michael Tolkien
Parents:
Edith Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkien
Grateful
thanks to MiddleOfMiddleEarth and YouTube.
The
Genius of Srinivasa Ramanujan is a documentary film features well-known number
theorists from around the world associated with Ramanujan's oeuvre. Shot at
various locations in Chennai, Namakkal, Kumbakonam, Erode and Cambridge, it
highlights the trajectory of Ramanujkans’s seminal work and its relevance
today. His scientific legacy continues to grow well beyond anything that
previous generations of mathematicians could have ever imagined.
Production:
Vigyan Prasar and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune
Presenter:
A Raghuram, Dept. of Mathematics, IISER Pune
Director:
Nandan Kudhyadi
Science
Media Centre, IISER Pune
https://sites.google.com/acads.iiserp...
Grateful
thanks to Mr.A.aghuram, Mr.Nandan Kudhyadi,
Science
Media Centre, IISER Pune, Vigyan Prasar and Indian Institute of Science Education
and Research, Pune and YouTube.
This is what people close say about me: “Misfit, Dreamer, Impractical, Champion of lost causes, Always Wrong” etc. etc. Maybe they are right, maybe not. What do I think of myself? I am trying to find out.
