From Scripture to Midrash to Postmodern Fantasy: Adaptation as a Contemporary Continuation of Tradition

Producing my Honors Project was a fascinating and challenging experience, and certainly one-of-a-kind. It all started back when I was first introduced to the idea of the Project. It was my first year, and I sat in TRW agog with the possibilities. Right away, I was captured with the idea of writing a novel, probably fantasy. Over the years, I added and subtracted to this vision as my interests grew and changed. I became a Theology major in addition to English; I fell in love with the Hebrew Bible; I realized that one of my side-projects, a fantasy story I was writing in response to a recent film, fit snugly with the story of Exodus. While I toyed with the idea of this story, I was thrilled to collaborate with Dr. Colleen Carpenter on her work on the role of the Imagination within Theology. Here, I was introduced for the first time to Midrash, and made some first attempts at consciously writing my own. It was at this point that I decided that I wanted to expand my sketches of my Fantasy-Exodus story into a full-fledged novel based within Scripture, Biblical context, and Midrashim. I was exhilarated; for the first time, I would be working on something that I was truly and completely passionate about, able to move in any direction I chose. Books on Egyptian society and Jewish texts began accumulating in my room. While abroad in Ireland the Spring of my Junior year, I spent particularly rainy days tracking down and watching every documentary on Exodus, Egypt, and Jewish scholarship that I could find. I wrote, and I re-wrote, and I started everything over again. By the Fall of this, my Senior year, I had become aware of a major problem: I was afraid to actually write. I had, at this point, over a hundred pages of story, and I was nowhere close to finished. Instead of continuing off of what I already had, however, I obsessively rewrote what I had already written. The effect was that I successfully went nowhere, fast. With school back in full swing, I found it increasingly difficult to give myself over to my writing. After struggling for several months with the feeling that I needed to be working on something more productive whenever I sat down to write, I realized the source of my block. I have always been good at writing, but my training has been almost completely academic. Creative writing was something allotted to those moments when I was done with all of my required work. Even the work I had done for my Creative Writing classes had been short pieces, written for the class and my professors and not for me. Now, for the first time, I was allowed, even required, to write for myself – and I no longer remembered how to do it. Once I got past that struggle, there were other problems to deal with. I had been doing research for so long that I no longer knew where many of my ideas had originally come from, or if they were, in fact, originally mine. Similarly, much of my knowledge of postmodernism had been gleaned from years of observations and sources long since lost to time. On top of all the rest, my research into Midrash was going poorly. It seemed impossible to find a definitive definition of what Midrash was, and, once found, to actually find a source for the Midrashim on Exodus. Finally, in what was perhaps the most unexpected challenge of all, my committee returned my first draft to me with a great many questions, the central component of many being “Where are the women?” As someone would considers herself a feminist, I was horrified. For a while, I tried to make excuses – there were more women characters coming! – but I had to face the fact that, though I claimed to be writing a feminist interpretation, I had chosen a malecentered story. Though there were many opportunities in the text to center an adaptation on one of the women characters, or even to speak with her voice, I had chosen to write a narrative that focused on the relationship between two brothers. As much as I adore it, the Fantasy/Sci-Fi genre is not exactly a hotbed of feminist work. Until recently, women in Fantasy novels were often relegated to the roles of Princess-in-a- Tower, Witch/Evil Queen, or Amazonian temptress. Even Tolkien, the Father of the genre, has only minor roles for women, when they enter the picture at all. I was, unintentionally, following the same path; even though I was including women characters, and even giving them some important roles, women were not at the center of my work. They dogged the sidelines, waiting for their chance to step in for a moment of glory. Making my work more feminist has been a slow and painful process, and requires me to discard many previous plans. I finally started to find success in the character of Wendi, originally a bit part who decided she wanted to be much more. Much to my surprise as much as anyone, Wendi became one of the most motivated and interesting characters of the work so far. She reminded me that I do, in fact, have the capability to write rounded female characters, and that I enjoy it immensely. As I look back on the work I have done, I am ever more excited to continue. Writing fantasy as a continuation of Midrashic tradition is something that I can very willingly devote my life to doing. At the moment, I am looking to continue my studies of the Hebrew Bible, and I hope to one day read it in its original languages and understand the richness of its context. For now, I am pleased to have completed the work you read here. Included is a draft of a cover, the first part of the novel as completed for this project, and an appendix further outlining some of my sources. It is the culmination of many years of research and effort, and I hope very much that you enjoy it

The Head Up Display Concept : A Summary with Special Attention to the Civil Aviation Industry

This paper is a literature study of the Head Up Display (HUD) in general with focus on the HUD's role in the civil aviation industry in particular. The objective is to present the history of the HUD in brief, summarize the basic design, describe the HUD's role in today's civil aviation and present the HUD in a human factors concept. This includes describing the human information processing behavior and human spatial disorientations concerning instrument scanning techniques and the most common sensory illusions experienced. There is also a summary of HUD symbology in different phases of flight. Some of the main sources of information have been Richard L. Newman's book ?Head Up Displays: Designing the Way Ahead? (1995) and Stoke's ?Display Technology? (1990). The main conclusion is that the HUD aids the instrument scanning process in phases of flight with high workload, such as take off, approach and landing resulting in increased situational awareness, flight precision and flight safety. It also provides airlines with a cost effective alternate in reaching low visibility operations

The Mole: a pressure-sensitive mouse

The traditional mouse enables the positioning of a cursor in a 2D plane, as well as the interaction of binary elements within that plane (e.g., buttons, links, icons). While this basic functionality is sufficient for interacting with every modern computing environment, it makes little use of the human hand\u27s ability to perform complex multi-directional movements. Devices developed to capture these multi-directional capabilities typically lack the familiar form and function of the mouse. This thesis details the design and development of a pressure-sensitive device called The Mole. The Mole retains the familiar form and function of the mouse while passively measuring the magnitude of normal hand force (i.e., downward force normal to the 2D operating surface). The measurement of this force lends itself to the development of novel interactions, far beyond what is possible with a typical mouse. This thesis demonstrates two such interactions: the positioning of a cursor in 3D space, and the simultaneous manipulation of cursor position and graphic tool parameters

Rethinking the Adventure Education Experience: An Inquiry of Meanings, Culture and Educational Virtue

This study is an investigation of the adventure education (AE) experience with particular attention to what happens during the AE experience, the meanings participants ascribe to the experience, how personal backgrounds and institutional cultures coalesce in AE, and the significance of the AE experience for schooling. These topics are explored through observing and interviewing participants of adventure education programs under the qualitative framework of educational connoisseurship and criticism. The experiences at the three sites of study—an outdoor challenge course, a wilderness backpacking expedition and a summer adventure program—are described in detail and illustrated through the qualities of the experience (celebratory challenge, novelty, freedom and togetherness, aesthetic vitality, and great experience), cultural coalescence in AE (depicted through cultural rigidity and flexibility), and the participant perceptions of schooling. Findings are inferred through recommendations for AE, including consideration of the qualities of experience, striking a cultural balance in AE, and embodying a shift in thinking regarding the purpose of the AE experience. This study also provokes a reconsideration of contemporary educational paradigms, as the participant perceptions of schooling, when considered alongside the AE experience, provide a fresh perspective of the qualities of educational experience

Artistic Sensibility is Inherent to Research

Artistic sensibility is defined in this work as the sensitivity and capacity to appreciate and act upon concerns of or pertaining to art and its production. This article contends that artistic sensibility is inherent to research. This contention is supported through three points which reveal a fourth: (1) Research requires dissemination. (2) Dissemination requires representation. (3) Representation requires artistic sensibility. These three points considered in conjunction illustrate a fourth: (4) Research requires artistic sensibility. This argument has implications for research venues, evaluations of research, and the preparation of researchers in all research disciplines. Namely, certain tenets of arts-based research may be applied to a much broader array of research methodologies. Identifying, honoring, and harnessing artistic sensibility in research has the potential to improve research products and enrich discourse

mtDB: Human Mitochondrial Genome Database, a resource for population genetics and medical sciences

The mitochondrial genome, contained in the subcellular mitochondrial network, encodes a small number of peptides pivotal for cellular energy production. Mitochondrial genes are highly polymorphic and cataloguing existing variation is of interest for medical scientists involved in the identification of mutations causing mitochondrial dysfunction, as well as for population genetics studies. Human Mitochondrial Genome Database (mtDB) (http://www.genpat.uu.se/mtDB) has provided a comprehensive database of complete human mitochondrial genomes since early 2000. At this time, owing to an increase in the number of published complete human mitochondrial genome sequences, it became necessary to provide a web-based database of human whole genome and complete coding region sequences. As of August 2005 this database contains 2104 sequences (1544 complete genome and 560 coding region) available to download or search for specific polymorphisms. Of special interest to medical researchers and population geneticists evaluating specific positions is a complete list of (currently 3311) mitochondrial polymorphisms among these sequences. Recent expansions in the capabilities of mtDB include a haplotype search function and the ability to identify and download sequences carrying particular variant

Lower Clark Fork River Water Quality Monitoring

A large amount of public concern has been expressed in recent months over the general health of the lower Clark Fork River. Modification of the waste- water discharge permit for the Champion International kraft paper mill at Frenchtown has generated much of this concern. Other sources of wastewater, namely the City of Missoula wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and historic metals deposits originating upstream from Milltown Dam, have also been mentioned as possible sources of stress on the lower river. The preliminary environmental review of the proposed permit modification for Champion International (Water Quality Bureau, January 1984) outlined a water quality and biological monitoring program that would establish existing conditions and attempt to measure any changes that may result from the permit modification. This paper gives a brief description of the 2-year monitoring program that the Water Quality Bureau initiated in March 1984 and a summary of significant findings to date. Data from this monitoring program will be the technical basis of an environmental impact statement that will address the decision whether to renew the modified permit when it expires in April 1986

Negotiating political spaces : social and environmental activism in thechinese countryside

Studien utgår från fem föräldrar som har barn med ADHD och syftet har varit att undersöka vilka faktorer som har betydelse för dessa föräldrars stress. Internationella stu-dier har visat att föräldrar till barn med ADHD känner stress kopplat till föräldrarollen oftare än andra föräldrar. Studien har belyst orsaker till stressen, kopplat till barnets ADHD-diagnos. Föräldrarna i denna kvalitativa studie upplever sig ha en mer krävande roll än andra föräldrar. De upplever ständigt hög stress och orsaksfaktorerna kan delas in i sex huvudkategorier. Vad som stressar varje förälder inom kategorierna varierar. Konsekvenser-na av stressen ger både sociala och fysiologiska konsekvenser för föräldrarna

Exploring the social without a separate domain for religion: on actor-network theory and religion

In post-secular societies—after secularisation—it may increasingly be the case that the connecting and structuring of religious matter is done outsidedesignated religious sites and without appointed religious experts. The centres of calculation have changed and so the connections between these are different. The former ways of translation and ordering are transforming into new ones. By exiting the designated sites religious matter has found new freedom with the new associations and inventions in the processes of translation. Less control leads to more heterogeneous agencies and facilitates the mobility of religious materials. This less controlled mobility of religious actants can also produce an apparent increase of religious matter, but this does not necessarily mean the return of religion. In any case, this increased plurality combined with increased mobility calls for perspectives which can recognise novelty, andnot just in comparison with previous states of affairs. Actor-network theory (ANT) is about tracing the webs of associations between myriad actants whose collective actions produce what we call ‘society’. Dismissing the notion of ‘the social’ as a kind of ‘stuff ’, ANT insists that sociology should focus on the interactional processes—the circulation of ‘the social’ among human and non-human actants—collectively assembling emerging states of affairs