One Big Thing: Suffering as the Path to New Life in Crime and Punishment

After spending a whole semester reading and thinking about Dostoevsky, the main thing that has struck me about him is his treatment of the theme of suffering. Despite, and even through, his extremely complicated characters and events, he nevertheless focuses his novels, particularly Crime and Punishment, on presenting a nuanced yet unified picture of suffering. After a brief analysis of several of the relevant characters and plot points, his thoughts on what suffering does to and for the individual will be presented. In contrast to our culture’s almost idolization of suffering as an experience which gives one instant respect, authority, and a platform, Dostoevsky’s perspective is honest, informed, pragmatic, and thoroughly Christian

Browsing Room, Research 101 and Finals Study Break

Also, more exciting things have happened! I\u27ve completed more of the Research 101 guide, and I\u27m pretty close to finishing it. I have to say it has been a lot of fun to look at what information is the most useful when doing research, and the best way to phrase the ideas so that it is helpful for students. I think casual but informative is working pretty well. Also, images are a great bonus. Too much text and the reader gets bogged down and it is hard to focus on the options let alone absorb the material. My intern supervisor Clint and I have been working on cleaning up the page and using more images to make it more useful. Personally, I think it looks great. I learned how to use image catching tools too- the programs that let you take an image of your computer screen and add arrows and stuff to it. Definitely a very cool program to know how to use. I should finish the guide fairly soon and then the revised version will be a subject guide option on the Gettysburg library page. I\u27m really excited to finish it. The guide will be a physical representation of all the work I have been doing, and it makes me feel official to have something people will be able to look at. [excerpt

First Post

Hello! My name is Kelly and I am an intern in the reference department this semester, which is very exciting. I was thrilled when I found out that I was going to be working here this semester. This is exactly what I wanted to do during my senior year, since next year I am planning on going to grad school for library science. But before I applied, I wanted to make sure I had some experience under my belt, and that I had some idea of what I was getting myself into. Which, as it turns out, I only had some idea of. Library science and reference are harder than I thought. There is a lot of technology involved as well as a thorough knowledge of research techniques and the library catalogue itself. It may look easy when you see a librarian finding a book or pulling up information, but it\u27s not. There\u27s a reason I have to get a degree to know how to do it. The more I work, the more excited I am to go to grad school and experience it myself. [excerpt

Tidally Driven Oscillations in KIC 4544587: a δ Scuti Binary System

Binary modelling techniques and frequency analysis have been applied to the Kepler photometric observations of KIC 4544587 to determine information about the orbital characteristics, individual components and tidal interactions. The system contains an early A-type δ Scuti variable, which pulsates in both pressure and gravity modes, and a late F- to early G-type star, which is possibly a solar-like oscillator. The Wilson-Devinney code was used to model the Quarter 3.2 data and PHOEBE was used to model the Quarter 7 data; the results of these two methods were then compared. Using PHOEBE the rate of apsidal advance was determined to be 0.0001179(1) rad d-1, which gives 145.9(1) yr for a complete precession. Subsequently the binary model light curve was subtracted from the original data and frequency analysis was performed on the residuals. Fifteen frequencies were identified that are harmonics of the orbital period, 9 of which are in the g mode regime and 6 in the p mode regime. It was concluded that these frequencies are not an artifact of the model fit and thus are a signature of tidal resonance. It was also determined that many of the frequencies in the p mode regime are separated from the two dominant p modes by a multiple of the orbital frequency; six of the identified modes demonstrate this separation to an accuracy of 3 σ. As they are not orbital harmonics, the origin of these frequencies remains unknown. Currently we know of no other star demonstrating these characteristics