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Somewhere Over the Rainbow: A Search for Transcendence & Annihilation in New Zealand\u27s Hippie Paradise
No full textAnother look at 2019 energy benchmarking data for LEED-certified buildings in Washington
No full textAn article entitled 2019 energy benchmarking data for LEED-certified buildings in Washington, D.C.: Simulation and reality recently appeared in this journal. The central conclusion of that article was that LEED-certified offices in Washington DC used more site and source energy in 2019 than did similar offices that were not LEED-certified. Here I show that this conclusion is backwards, that the DC municipal benchmarking data show that in 2019 LEED offices used 14% less site energy and 12% less source energy than did other DC offices. My conclusion is supported by 1) a previously-published 2016 study of LEED offices in DC, 2) the identification of significant errors and inconsistencies in the 2019 energy benchmarking .... article and 3) my own analysis of the 2019 DC building benchmarking data
Artin presentations, triangle groups, and 4-manifolds
No full textGonzalez-Acuna showed that Artin presentations characterize closed, orientable 3-manifold groups. Winkelnkemper later discovered that each Artin presentation determines a smooth, compact, simply connected 4-manifold. We utilize triangle groups to find all Artin presentations on two generators that present the trivial group. We then determine all smooth, closed, simply connected 4-manifolds with second betti number at most two that appear in Artin presentation theory
Facile access to fused 2D/3D rings via intermolecular cascade dearomative [2+2] cycloaddition/rearrangement reactions of quinolines with alkenes
No full textHybrid fused two-dimensional/three-dimensional (2D/3D) rings are important pharmacophores in drugs owing to their unique structural and physicochemical properties. Preparation of these strained ring systems often requires elaborate synthetic effort and exhibits low efficiency,thus representing a limiting factor in drug discovery. Here,we report two types of energy-transfer-mediated cascade dearomative [2 + 2] cycloaddition/rearrangement reactions of quinoline derivatives with alkenes, which provide a straightforward avenue to 2D/3D pyridine-fused 6-5-4-3- and 6-4-6-membered ring systems. Notably, this energy-transfer-mediated strategy features excellent diastereoselectivity that bypasses the general reactivity and selectivity issues of photochemical [2 + 2] cycloaddition of various other aromatics. Tuning the aza-arene substitutions enabled selective diversion of the iridium photocatalysed energy transfer manifold towards either cyclopropanation or cyclobutane-rearrangement products. Density functional theory calculations revealed a cascade energy transfer scenario to be operative
Milking the Bodhi Tree: Mulberry for Disease Demons in Yosai\u27s \u3ci\u3eRecord of Nourishing Life by Drinking Tea (Kissa yojoki)\u3c/i\u3e
No full textIn light of new discoveries of his writings, recent studies on the medieval Japanese monk Yōsai (or Eisai; 1141–1215) have moved away from longstanding preoccupations with his role in establishing Zen in Japan and instead stress his career-long orientation as an esoteric Buddhist monk of the Tendai school. Although these revisions have led to innovative readings of his promotion of tea in the first fascicle of his Record of Nourishing Life by Drinking Tea (Kissa yōjōki), similar approaches have yet to be attempted for the second fascicle of this well-known work, in which Yōsai argues for the apotropaic efficacy of mulberry against pathogenic demons. In this article, I seek to remedy this gap firstly by situating Yōsai’s healing program within broader contemporary trends in esoteric ritual healing. Examining the place of mulberry across esoteric liturgical discourse reveals a rich semiotic network in which the tree was tied to three other key ritual and medicinal materials: milkwood, milk, and the bodhi tree. In the second half of the article, I explore the ways that Yōsai’s argument for mulberry’s efficacy was shaped by an “exoteric” source, namely the biography of Śākyamuni Buddha. In this way, my analysis of the Kissa yōjōki provides insight into the interplay of “esoteric” and “exoteric” elements in Yōsai’s thought and career, even as attention to the specificity of his therapeutic claims for mulberry encourages us to move beyond sectarian frameworks
Ovid\u27s Hermaphroditus and the Mollis Male
No full textFigures of intersexed individuals perhaps representing the minor Greek deity Hermaphroditus became, for reasons that are not entirely clear, strikingly popular in Roman sculpture and wall painting in the latter half of the first century CE. Depicting a fully bisexed human body, these figures have resulted in competing interpretations regarding their purpose, meaning, and effect. As it happens, we also have a text from the Augustan period that purports to explain not only the origin of the intersexed Hermaphroditus, but the production of future bisexed individuals, in Ovid\u27s Metamorphoses Book 4. When discussing the sculptures and wall paintings of Hermaphroditus, as a result, scholars have been inevitably drawn to Ovid\u27s narrative. The pull of Ovid is admittedly almost irresistible, and his reputation as a poet who challenges norms, conventions, and genres makes it attractive to see him as creating room for modern notions of gender fluidity. As Georgia Nugent argued more than thirty years ago, however, Ovid\u27s narrative is, in curious ways, a reductive version of the myth, ‘a paradigmatic example of how what is sexually threatening may be textually recuperated and stabilized’. I wish to reanimate Nugent\u27s arguments here, and to suggest that scholars’ regular invocation of Ovid when interpreting the products of Roman art is a mistake, for two reasons: first, the figure Ovid describes is, in fact, not typical of what we see in Roman sculptures and wall paintings; and second, Ovid presents a version of Hermaphroditus’ gender identity that is deliberately less challenging to the stability of sexual binarism—and to traditional gender roles—than are those material depictions. For those of us who wish to advocate for the rights of intersexed individuals, in other words, Ovid is the wrong champion
Pd/NHC-Controlled Regiodivergent Defluorinative Allylation of gem-Difluorocyclopropanes with Allylboronates
No full textControlling the selectivity of synthetically useful reactions has been a longstanding objective of organic chemistry. Wereport a regiodivergent synthetic protocol allowing access to diversefluorinated 1,5-dienes through Pd/NHC-catalyzed ring-openingallylation ofgem-difluorocyclopropanes. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations on regioselectivity-determining transitionstates provided critical insight into the design of the NHC ligand for switching regioselectivity. Consistent with the DFT predictions,N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands with bulkyorthosubstituents favored branched allylation, with the IHept ligand providing \u3e20:1 branched/linear regioselectivity. NHC ligands with less hinderedorthosubstituents such as IMes favored thethermodynamically more stable linear products. We were able to carry out late-stage modification of various complex moleculesusing this protocol. Our ligand-controlled approach provides efficient access to regioisomericfluorinated 1,5-dienes from the samestarting materials and constitutes a valuable addition to the toolbox of diversity-oriented synthesis
Response to Timothy Frye\u27s Review of Putin\u27s Labor Dilemma: Russian Politics between Stability and Stagnation
No full textTo create serious movement on climate change, we must dispel the myth of indifference Comment
No full textPublic underestimation of support for climate change policy is striking. Social science research tells us this is bad news, but also tells us what to do about it. Climate change communication must hammer home the overwhelming support for action