Ernest Hemingway （1899—1961) : one of the best known and most influential American novelis

l framework. Instead, when the subject demands it, he manages deftly to flit back and forth among the decades. Less satisfying is his account of Californias cultural progress in the 19th and 20th centuries: does he really need to invoke so many long-forgotten writers to accompany such names as Jack London, Frank Norris, Mark Twain or Raymond Chandler? But that is a minor criticism for a book that will become a California classic. The regret is that Mr. Starr, doubtless pressed for space, leaves so little room—just a brief final chapter—for the implications of the past for Californias future. He poses the question that most Americans prefer to gloss over: is California governable? "For all its impressive growth, there remains a volatility in the politics and governance of California, which became perfectly clear to the rest of the nation in the fall of 2003 when the voters of California recalled one governor and elected another.

pathological language defects, our language mechanism automatically equips us to say anything we need to say. This does not mean that I can talk about all the technicalities of company law or of central heating with the glibness of a solicitor or a plumber. What it does mean is that if my job or my hobby entailed knowledge of these activities, my language would rise to the occasion. We thus have the general truth that any normal person has the language tools to handle anything he needs to handle. But there are odd little exceptions. Let us consider, for instance, forms of address to strangers. Quite often we need to draw a persons attention to something that has just dropped out of pocket or handbag, or to the fact that he is just going to walk into a plate glass door. Not merely does English lack anything corresponding to the French attention, but we do not have the equivalent of Msieur or Madame or even Mademoiselle.

on. I do not know just how many parts the poem is supposed to have, but to me there are something like fifty parts which offer no bridges the one to the other and which are quite distinct in time, place, action, persons, tone and nearly all the unities to which art is accustomed. This discreteness reaches also to the inside of the parts, where it is indicated by a frequent want of grammatical joints and marks of punctuation; as if it were the function of art to break down the usual singleness of the artistic image, and then to attack the integrity of the individual fragments. I presume that poetry has rarely gone further in this direction. It is a species of the same error which modern writers of fiction practice when they laboriously disconnect the stream of consciousness and present items which do not enter into wholes. Evidently they think with Hume that reality is facts and pluralism, not compounds and systems. But Mr. Eliot is more enterprising than they, because almost in so many words he assails the philosophical or cosmical principles under which we form. the usual images of reality, naming the whole phantasmagoria Waste Land almost as plainly as if he were naming cosmos Chaos. His intention is evidently to present a wilderness in which both he and the reader may be bewildered, in which one is never to see the wood for the trees.

of Technology has been a unique institution. Great institutions of higher education are grounded in and learn from the past; interact to some degree with the world of the present; and aspires to influence the future. MIT is no exception, but in large measure, the institutes uniqueness derives from the unusual extent of our engagement with the present and dedication to the future. We apply our talents to problems posed by contemporary society—by its institutions of industry, commerce, arts, healing, and politics. Yet our minds are even more firmly engaged in shaping the future. This somewhat singular approach to our mission has enabled us, over the years, to define new forms of research and scholarship, and to establish new paradigms for education. MIT students, faculty, and staff are deeply engaged in the process of learning in the classroom, in the laboratory, and from each other. There is an exhilarating sense of being at the cutting edge in all that we do. You will find MIT to be intense and demanding, yet the atmosphere here is highly collegial. You will be a very important part of one of the worlds great institutions of learning and exploration.

like yourself; I have an intense objection to having my house demolished by a bomb from an aeroplane and myself killed in a horribly painful way by mustard gas. I have visions of streets heaped with mangled corpses in which children wander crying for their parents, and babies gasp and strangle in the clutches of dead mothers. That is what war means nowadays. This is what is happening in Spain and in China whilst I speak to you; and it may happen to us tomorrow. And the worst of it is that it does not matter two straws to Nature, the mother of us all, how dreadfully we misbehave ourselves in this way, or in what hideous agonies we die. Nature can produce children enough to make good any extremity of slaughter of which we are capable. London may be destroyed; Paris, Rome, Berlin, Vienna, Constantinople may be laid in smoking ruins and the silence of death. No matter. Mother Nature will replace the dead. She is doing so every day.

hs, but parents over the world love our children. We respect our mothers, our sisters and daughters. Fighting brutality against women and children is not the expression of a specific culture; it is the acceptance of our common humanity—a commitment shared by people of good will on every continent. Because of our recent military gains in much of Afghanistan, women are no longer imprisoned in their homes. They can listen to music and teach their daughters without fear of punishment. Yet the terrorists who helped rule that country now plot and plan in many countries, and they must be stopped. The fight against terrorism is also a fight for the rights and dignity of women. In America, next week brings Thanksgiving. After the events of the last few months, well be holding our families even closer, and we will be especially thankful for all the blessings of American life. I hope Americans will join our family in working to insure that dignity and opportunity will be secured for all the women and children of Afghanistan.

excited upon making novel discoveries and by finding means to explain yet unsolved questions. But scientists are normally not selfish; they like to share their excitement with other people. They publish their findings so that these become widely accessible to all those interested. In fact, they communicate their results also in their own interest. Scientists are eager to talk with other scientists working on the same and similar problems. By exchanging results and ideas, they have a better chance of success and they can reach their goal more rapidly. Most often the objectives of their study, being it in the fields of physics, chemistry or biology, share the same properties anywhere in the world. The laws of nature are the same in Europe and in China. For this simple reason the dialogue between scientists does not stop at political borders. Wherever in the world a scientist finds a colleague exploring the same problem, an exchange of their knowledge can help them to advance their studies. For these reasons international collaboration between scientists is flourishing.

r. Anyons brief discussion of her familys long history of involvement in radical social and political activism, and her commitment to anti-oppressive pedagogy, offers readers important insights into her social and political convictions. Toward the end of the chapter, Anyon explains that she sees her new book as a form. of "intervention" and struggle against social injustices. Anyon begins her book by examining the impact of macroeconomic policies including minimum wage, tax policies, housing, job training, educational policies and reform. initiatives. She argues that student underachievement, unequal funding of public schools and the high dropout rate among working class students and students of color are linked to macroeconomic policies that work toward maintaining and reproducing social inequities. She believes that the success of school reform. efforts depends in part on reforming macroeconomic policies at the state and federal level.

ll we put an end to the human race or shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative because it is so difficult to abolish war. The abolition of war will demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything else is that the term "mankind" feels vague and abstract. People scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly apprehended humanity. And so they hope that perhaps war may be allowed to continue provided modern weapons are prohibited. I am afraid this hope is illusory. Whatever agreements not to use hydrogen bombs had been reached in time of peace, they would no longer be considered binding in time of war, and both sides would set to work to manufacture hydrogen bombs as soon as war broke out, for if one side manufactured the bombs and the other did not, the side that manufactured them would inevitably be victorious...

overy Act creates jobs doubling our capacity to generate renewable energy; building a new smart grid that carry electricity from coast to coast; laying down broadband lines and high-speed rail lines; and providing the largest boost in basic research in history to ensure that America leads in the breakthrough discoveries of the new century, just as we led in the last. Because thats what we do best in America—we turn ideas into inventions, and inventions into industries. Now, history should be our guide. The United States led the worlds economies in the 20th Century because we led the world in innovation. Today, the competition is keener; the challenge is tougher; and thats why innovation is more important than ever. Thats the key to good, new jobs in the 21st Century. Thats how we will ensure a high quality of life for this generation and future generations. With these investments, were planting the seeds of progress for our country, and good-paying, private-sector jobs for the American people.