Mount Rushmore: A Tomb for Dead Ideas of American Greatness

The Mount Rushmore National Memorial stands in the Black Hills of South Dakota as a symbol of American greatness. However, the public perceptions of the greatness represented in this memorial do not take into consideration the ideals held by the three main contributors to the development of the mountain, Doane Robinson, Peter Norbeck, and Gutzon Borglum. An exploration into the lives and beliefs of these three men reveals that they possessed a specific definition of America greatness exemplified in the white male farmer of the American West. The four former presidents selected for carving symbolize a general American greatness, but more importantly they epitomize the specific version of greatness championed by the planners of the memorial. Yet, from the earliest perceptions of Mt. Rushmore, the public saw only the representation of a general American greatness that included all members of the nation and eventually the entire world. Visitors to Mount Rushmore do not see the specific ideas of American greatness intended by the planners of the memorial and these ideas of American greatness are now dead

The Arts: A Promising Solution to Meeting the Challenges of Today's Military, A Summary Report and Blueprint for Action

On November 15, 2012, a group of concerned and dedicated military, government, private sector and nonprofit leaders gathered at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC for the Arts & Health in the Military National Roundtable.The Roundtable represents the second step in the ongoing development of the multi-year National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military. The National Initiative was launched in January, 2012 based upon the groundbreaking success of the first National Summit: Arts in Healing for Warriors, held in October 2011 at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE). The 2011 Summit marked the first time various branches of the military collaborated with civilian agencies to discuss how engaging with the arts provide opportunities to meet the key health issues our military faces -- from pre-deployment to deployment to homecoming. We present this summary report and its recommendations for a "Blueprint for Action" with the intention to open the door for a national conversation and the development of a National Action Plan. What actions and strategies will be necessary over the next several years in order to expand the use of the arts and creative arts therapies across the military continuum: from the military service pre-deployment, deployment, post-deployment to veterans as well as families and caregivers? For the first time, this question is being addressed across military, government, and nonprofit sectors -- and with a sense of urgency that now is the time to get something done

Distributed State Machine Supervision for Long-baseline Gravitational-wave Detectors

The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) consists of two identical yet independent, widely-separated, long-baseline gravitational-wave detectors. Each Advanced LIGO detector consists of complex optical-mechanical systems isolated from the ground by multiple layers of active seismic isolation, all controlled by hundreds of fast, digital, feedback control systems. This article describes a novel state machine-based automation platform developed to handle the automation and supervisory control challenges of these detectors. The platform, called \textit{Guardian}, consists of distributed, independent, state machine automaton nodes organized hierarchically for full detector control. User code is written in standard Python and the platform is designed to facilitate the fast-paced development process associated with commissioning the complicated Advanced LIGO instruments. While developed specifically for the Advanced LIGO detectors, Guardian is a generic state machine automation platform that is useful for experimental control at all levels, from simple table-top setups to large-scale multi-million dollar facilities.Comment: Version 2: 11 pages, 9 figures. Submitted to Review of Scientific Instrument

The spectrum of certain singular selfadjoint differential operators

Ph.D

System for calibrating pressure transducer

A system for calibrating a pressure transducer which has a reference portion and an active portion is reported. A miniature selector valve is positioned immediately adjacent the pressure transducer. A reference pressure, known pressure, and unknown pressure can be selectively admitted to the active side of the pressure transducer by the selector valve to enable calibration of the transducer. A valve admits pressure to the selector valve which has a piston and floating piston arrangement which allows proper selection with very small linear movement