Dust in the Wind: A Definitive Hou/New Cinema Work

Book Summary: For younger critics and audiences, Taiwanese cinema enjoys a special status, comparable with that of Italian Neorealism and the French New Wave for earlier generations, a cinema that was and is in the midst of introducing an innovative sensibility and a fresh perspective. Hou Hsiao-hsien is the most important Taiwanese filmmaker working today, and his sensuous, richly nuanced films reflect everything that is vigorous and genuine in contemporary film culture. By combining multiple forms of tradition with a uniquely cinematic approach to space and time, Hou has created a body of work that, through its stylistic originality and historical gravity, opens up new possibilities for the medium. Chapter Summary: This chapter is part of the latest anthology devoted to Taiwan\u27s most famous director, Hou Hsiao-hsien. It argues that the lesser known Dust in the Wind is a definitive work for both Hou and the New Cinema movement that made him famous

To Treat or Not To Treat? Bioethics and the Handicapped Newborn

Reviewed Book: Sparks, Richard C. To Treat or Not To Treat? Bioethics and the Handicapped Newborn. New York/Mahwah: Paulist Press, 198

ERISA’s Title IV and the Multiemployer Pension Plan

Understanding the dynamics of thin elastic rods that are immersed in fluid is fundamental in explaining many problems that arise in biology, physics and engineering. Solving the coupled system of rod-fluid in 3D is usually very costly, however in case of low Reynolds number, the three-dimensional problem can be reduced a one-dimensional problem on the centerline of the rod. In this thesis we examine the method of regularized Stokeslets which is a numerical algorithm for an elastic rod immersed in viscous, incompressible fluid at zero Reynolds number governed by Stokes equations. In this method, the elastic rod is represented by a space curve corresponding to the centerline of the rod. In addition, an orthonormal triad is varying along the curve, with one vector being tangent to the curve, and the others describing the material twist. The model that is used for the elastic forces based on this, allows for natural configurations for the rods that are far from straight, as described by curvature and torsion. In this way, the basic or equilibrium configuration for the rod can be e.g. a helix. The linearity of Stokes equations allows us to evaluate the linear and angular fluid velocity only at centerline of the rod. We also examine the dependency to the numerical parameters together with the accuracy and convergence properties of the method. As a bench mark, we compare the numerical result of this method to those produced by the non-local slender body method for the case of elastic rods with no intrinsic curvature and twist inside a planar shear flow. We also present the simulation of the extension of helical rods when they are placed within a constant background flow and we provide a fast converging formula for the periodic summation of the fundamental solutions to the Stokes equations.  Förståelsen för dynamiken hos tunna elastiska fibrer eller stavar inuti en vätska är fundamental för att förklara många problem som uppstår inom biologi, fysik och ingenjörsvetenskap. Att lösa det sammanbundna stav-vätska systemet i 3D är vanligtvis väldigt kostsamt; men vid ett lågt Reynoldstal kan det tredimensionella problemet reduceras till ett endimensionellt längs stavens centrumlinje. I det här arbetet har vi undersökt metoden med regulariserande Stokeslets, vilken är en numerisk algoritm som används på elastiska stavar inuti en viskös, inkompressibel vätska med Reynoldstal noll, modellerad med Stokes ekvation. I den här metoden så är den elastiska staven representerad av en kurva i rummet som beskriver stavens centrumlinje. Dessutom används en ortogonal triad som varierar längs kurvan, och som beskriver materialets vridning. Med den modell som används för de elastiska krafterna baserat på detta, så kan stavarnas naturliga konfiguration vara allt annat än raka, och beskrivas med kurvatur och torsion. På detta sätt kan grundläget för staven vara tex spiralformad. Lineariteten av Stokes ekvation möjliggör att vi kan beräkna både den linjära och vinkel-flödeshastigheten endast längs med stavens centrumlinje. Vi undersöker också hur metoden beror av de numeriska parametrarna och metodens noggrannhets- och konvergens-egenskaper. Som ett riktmärke jämför vi de numeriska resultaten av metoden med resultaten producerade av den så kallade ”non-local slender body” metoden som använts för elastiska stavar utan naturlig kurvatur och vridning som placeras i ett plant skjuvflöde. Vi presenterar också simuleringar av utsträckning av spiralformade stavar då dessa är placerade i ett konstant bakgrundsflöde, och dessutom så tillhandahåller vi en snabbt konvergerande formel för den periodiska summeringen av de fundamentala lösningarna till Stokes ekvation

Child of the Long Take: Alfonso Cuaron\u27s Film Aesthetics in the Shadow of Globalization

Alfonso Cuaron\u27s 2006 film, Children of Men, not only suggests that the economic pressures on contemporary Hollywood directors differ little from those in the studio era, it also suggests that film style in the age of globalization is not as homogenized as many fear. The long take is the most prominent feature in Children of Men, including many which are digitally contrived. Lofty reasons by the filmmakers are given for these long lakes, but there are more pedestrian reasons behind this. Other examples past and present suggest that often the tong take serves the needs of both filmmakers and their producers, at least for awhile. Cuaron himself paid his dues over the years with more generic films, and is now making a bold auteurist declaration with these long takes. The question remains whether the economics of Hollywood will allow him to continue

Taiwanese Cinema

Like the island itself, the cinema of Taiwan has always been in a perpetual state of liminality. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for fifty years (1895–1945) and during that time no cinema that could be labeled as distinctively “Taiwanese” emerged. After World War II, Taiwanese cinema was still caught between a political rock and an economic hard place. Despite allowing some low-budget films to be made in the Taiwanese dialect, the Kuomintang (KMT, aka “Nationalist”) government made sure its cinema did not violate its core ideological tenets of a “Greater China.” This came largely at the expense of anything specifically “Taiwanese,” something the KMT saw as a threat to the legitimacy of its one-party rule over the island. Even when a commercial industry did slowly emerge in Taiwan in the 1960s, it still operated under the twin shadows of the government’s strict policies and the exporting prowess of Hong Kong, which dominated Taiwan’s Mandarin-language market. Moreover, Taiwan’s own private industry was in many ways an offshoot of that in Hong Kong, so much so that even in the late 1970s the annual International Film Guide continued to couple Hong Kong and Taiwan under a single entry. Only with the emergence of the Taiwanese New Cinema in the 1980s, with directors winning prizes at international film festivals, did a distinctively “Taiwanese” cinema begin to appear. Nevertheless, numerous ambiguities have persisted. Since the 1980s much of the literature outside of Taiwan tends to focus on this unexpected newcomer now making waves at film festivals across the globe. Within Taiwan, however, much of the literature often downplays such success when not denigrating it. Instead, much of the focus has been on why Taiwan—despite its economic prowess in other areas—could not match the commercial success enjoyed by Hong Kong and, more recently, South Korea. As a result, the literature on this subject is often Janus-faced, reflecting both the continued triumphs and the ongoing failures of Taiwanese cinema. [excerpt

This Time He Moves! The Deeper Significance of Hou Hsiao-Hsien\u27s Radical Break in Good Men, Good Women

Following the recent success of Taiwanese film directors, such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang, Taiwanese film is raising its profile in contemporary cinema. This collection presents an exciting and ambitious foray into the cultural politics of contemporary Taiwan film that goes beyond the auterist mode, the nation-state argument and vestiges of the New Cinema. Cinema Taiwan considers the complex problems of popularity, conflicts between transnational capital and local practice, non-fiction and independent filmmaking as emerging modes of address, and new possibilities of forging vibrant film cultures embedded in national (identity) politics, gender/sexuality and community activism. Insightful and challenging, the essays in this collection will attract attention to a globally significant field of cultural production and will appeal to readers from the areas of film studies, cultural studies and Chinese culture and society

Mariner IV Mission to Mars. Part I

This technical report is a series of individual papers documenting the Mariner-Mars project from its beginning in 1962 following the successful Mariner-Venus mission. Part I is pre-encounter data. It includes papers on the design, development, and testing of Mariner IV, as well as papers detailing methods of maintaining communication with and obtaining data from the spacecraft during flight, and expected results during encounter with Mars. Part 11, post-encounter data, to be published later, will consist of documentation of the events taking place during Mariner IV's encounter with Mars and thereafter. The Mariner-Mars mission, the culmination of an era of spacecraft development, has contributed much new technology to be used in future projects

Taiwanese Comedies Under the Shadow of the Chinese Market

Comedy is arguably the most local of genres. Tropical Fish (1995) is a Taiwanese comedy that made no effort to disguise its local flavour, and was largely unseen outside of Taiwan. Recent Taiwanese comedies such as You Are the Apple of My Eye (2011), The Wonderful Wedding (2015) and Our Times (2015) have achieved not only success in Taiwan, but also unprecedented box office in the mainland Chinese market. Compared to Tropical Fish, all three films also seemingly tone down the local flavour to varying degrees. This is due to the irresistible pull of recent opportunities posed by the astronomical growth of the mainland Chinese market. This paper will analyze the economic forces that have resulted in changes in Taiwanese comedies themselves while at the same time showing that there are varying textual strategies for dealing with the ‘local’ flavour in this new economic climate where the booming Chinese market now has become a major consideration