The Education of Indonesian Shi‘i Leaders

Amidst the Sunni majority in Indonesia, there exist a small number of Shi`i adherents that have increased quantitatively and qualitatively since the Iranian revolution of 1978-1979. To see the Shi`i community as a monolithic entity is misleading. In fact, this community is comprised of several groups that may not be united under a recognised single leader. Leadership in a community results partly from education, although the degree and extent of its influence remain questionable. In this regard, this article aims at analysing the education of Shi`i leaders in Indonesia. What types of education did they experience? In terms of education backgrounds, Shi`i leaders may be classified into the ustadhs and intellectuals. The ustadhs are those educated in institutions of Islamic learning and the majority are alumni of hawza ‘ilmiyya (colleges of Islamic learning) in Qum, Iran. Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic  of Iran in 1979, the number of Indonesian students studying in Qum has increased significantly and the hawza ‘ilmiyya of Qum have been very important in producing the Shi`i ustadh in Indonesia. On the other hand, the intellectuals are those who have graduated from secular universities but received religious instruction in non-formal education institutions. Although education is an important factor contributing to leadership, other factors have to be considered such as scholarship in religious sciences, involvement in da‘wa and education activities, leadership experience in education and socio-religious institutions, as the case of Jalaluddin Rakhmat has shown

On the Origin of the Clustered QSO Metal Absorption Lines

Observations show that there is significant clustering of QSO metal absorption lines within the range of velocity dispersion between 200km/sec and 600 km/sec. With a reasonable supernova rate, it is shown that high velocity gases driven by SNe and/or strong stellar winds could explain the clustered absorptions, provided that QSO metal-line absorbers are galactic halos or dwarf galaxies. Rich clusters of galaxies, on the other hand, cannot yield the observed clustering of QSO metal absorption lines.Comment: Revtex 15 pages, 2 ps figures available at ftp://astro.queensu.ca/pub/shi/, or at http://astro.queensu.ca/~shi/, or by request. Submitted to Ap. J

Investigation into the Strouhal numbers associated with vortex shedding from parallel-plate thermoacoustic stacks in oscillatory flow conditions

This paper investigates vortex shedding processes occurring at the end of a stack of parallel plates, due to an oscillating flow induced by an acoustic standing wave. Here the hot-wire anemometry measurement technique is applied to detect the velocity fluctuations due to vortex shedding near the end of the stack. The hot-wire fast time response enables obtaining detailed frequency spectra of the velocity signal, which can be used for identifying the dominant frequencies associated with vortex shedding, and thus allow calculating the corresponding Strouhal numbers. By varying the stack configuration (the plate thickness and spacing) and the acoustic excitation level (the so-called drive ratio), the impact ofthe stack blockage ratio and the Reynolds number on the Strouhal number has been studied in detail. Furthermore, in the range of the Reynolds numbers between 200 and 5,000 a correlation between the Strouhal number and Reynolds number has been obtained and compared with analogous relationships in the steady flow. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is also used to visualize the vortex shedding processes within an acoustic cycle, phase-by-phase, in particular during the part of the cycle when the fluid flows out of the stack – selected cases are shown for comparisons with hotwire measurements

Bowtie-free graphs and generic automorphisms

We show that the $\omega$-categorical existentially closed universal bowtie-free graph of Cherlin-Shelah-Shi admits generic automorphisms in the sense of Truss. Moreover, we show that this graph is not finitely homogenisable.Comment: 14 page

Trickster-Like Teachings in Tibetan Buddhism: Shortcuts towards Destroying Illusions

Trickster-like Dharma teachings in Tibetan Buddhism behave as a kind of shortcuts in the approach to leading people along the path of enlightenment. This essay collects three such teachings of different levels towards destroying illusions, i.e., Buddha’s silence, Guru’s paradox, and Ego’s kleshas. They are necessary as “an ace up the sleeve” for Buddha to destruct disciples’ metaphysical quagmire, for Guru to lead community toward perfect transcendence, and for individuals to attain self-consciousness

Neurophysiological defects in temperature-sensitive paralytic mutants of Drosophila melanogaster

A new temperature-sensitive paralytic mutant of Drosophila, comatose, is compared behaviorally and physiologically with the previously known types, para and shi. All three have different properties with respect to kinetics of paralysis at high temperature and recovery from paralysis; com is hypersensitive to paralysis by cooling. Neurophysiological experiments indicate different mechanisms for paralysis in each of the mutants