Ivan Ilych\u27s Death: Secular or Religious?

In his essay on Existentialism, William Barrett, after briefly summarizing the plot of The Death of Ivan Ilych, concludes, In the end Ivan Ilych dies content, because he has reached the point of knowing that the life he lived was empty, futile, and meaningless. R. F. Christian quotes D.F. Mirsky\u27s comment that Ivan Ilych, before his death, sees the inner light of Faith, renunciation and love, only to ask, But faith in what? And whom does he love? And how can he help renouncing life when he is at death\u27s door? Christian then goes on to contend that Tolstoy resists a facile \u27religious\u27 conclusion, and in his closing remarks on the story states that man\u27s situation is tragic and absurd -- but not hopeless. For Ivan Ilych the ray of hope comes too late to compensate for what he comes to regard as the futility of past existence. Irving Howe and Philip Rahv follow the same vein, with Howe commending Rahv\u27s remarks that we should not see what happened to Ivan Ilych as unsual; for, as Rahv puts it, Ivan Ilych is Everyman, and the state of absolute solitude into which he falls as his life ebbs away is the existential norm, the inescapable realization of mortality. Howe warns, let us not exaggerate and thereby pro- vide Ivan Ilych\u27s end with an \u27uplifting\u27 moral … only after he realizes, thereby in a sense forgiving himself, that it does not really matter anymore whether his life has been good -- can Ivan Illych surrender himself.

Teaching Spatial Data Analysis: A Case Study with Recommendations

Learning from data is a valuable skill for nonprofit professionals and researchers. Often, data have a spatial component, and data relevant to the nonprofit sector are no exception. Understanding spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector may provide immense value to social entrepreneurs, funders, and policy makers, by guiding programmatic decisions, facilitating resource allocation, and development policy. As a result, spatial thinking has become an essential component of critical thinking and decision making among nonprofit professionals. The goal of this case study is to support and encourage instruction of spatial data analysis and spatial thinking in nonprofit studies. The case study presents a local nonprofit data set, along with open data and code, to assist the instructors teaching spatial aspects of the nonprofit sector. Pedagogical approaches are discussed

Exploring Niche Alteration in Nonprofit Organizations

The organizational niche is a concept integral to organizational ecology, reflecting an organization’s mission, expertise, capacity, and resource requirements. The choice of niche is crucial to the viability of the organization; however, the reasons organizations alter their niche are poorly understood. We hypothesize that nonprofit organizations alter their niche to reduce environmental pressure and gain access to resources. The results indicate that niche alteration predicts increases in total revenue with average increases in revenue from program services and contributions (depending on the measure). Additionally, nonprofits that are younger, larger, and have more concentrated revenue, are more likely to alter their niche

Experimental investigation of high-dimensional quantum key distribution protocols with twisted photons

Quantum key distribution is on the verge of real world applications, where perfectly secure information can be distributed among multiple parties. Several quantum cryptographic protocols have been theoretically proposed and independently realized in different experimental conditions. Here, we develop an experimental platform based on high-dimensional orbital angular momentum states of single photons that enables implementation of multiple quantum key distribution protocols with a single experimental apparatus. Our versatile approach allows us to experimentally survey different classes of quantum key distribution techniques, such as the 1984 Bennett \& Brassard (BB84), tomographic protocols including the six-state and the Singapore protocol, and to investigate, for the first time, a recently introduced differential phase shift (Chau15) protocol using twisted photons. This enables us to experimentally compare the performance of these techniques and discuss their benefits and deficiencies in terms of noise tolerance in different dimensions.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Extra-Curricular Activities of the High Schools of Tipton County

Most educators are undecided as to the relative values of the various kinds of extra-curricular activities. As a result of this condition certain activities of doubtful value are greatly emphasized in many schools while other activities of more importance are not offered at all

Environmental pollutants from the Scott and Shackleton expeditions during the ‘Heroic Age’ of Antarctic exploration

Early explorers to Antarctica built wooden huts and brought huge quantities of supplies and equipment to support their geographical and scientific studies for several years. When the expeditions ended and relief ships arrived, a rapid exodus frequently allowed only essential items to be taken north. The huts and thousands of items were left behind. Fuel depots with unused containers of petroleum products, asbestos materials, and diverse chemicals were also left at the huts. This investigation found high concentrations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons in soils under and around the historic fuel depots, including anthracene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, chrysene, fluorene, and pyrene, as well as benzo[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene, and fluoranthene, which are recognized carcinogens. Asbestos materials within the huts have been identified and extensive amounts of fragmented asbestos were found littering the ground around the Cape Evans hut. These materials are continually abraded and fragmented as tourists walk over them and the coarse scoria breaks and grinds down the materials. A chemical spill, within the Cape Evans hut, apparently from caustic substances from one of the scientific experiments, has caused an unusual deterioration and defibration on affected woods. Although these areas are important historic sites protected by international treaties, the hazardous waste materials left by the early explorers should be removed and remedial action taken to restore the site to as pristine a condition as possible. Recommendations are discussed for international efforts to study and clean up these areas, where the earliest environmental pollution in Antarctica was produced