The story begins when a teenage high school boy named Rafi were sitting on the terrace of his house. Suddenly he saw a teen age were riding bikes and fell down right in front of his house. Fill a plastic bag and scattered the young man's spilled out. Without thinking, Rafi immediately help him. Rafi helped her up and collect his belongings that littered the street. Insect spray, rope, and a few other items that eventually brought the teenager has entered into a plastic bag again. Rafi also saw the young man's wounded leg, then make a quick stop Rafi asked for his wounds can be treated. Children ABG was agreed and they both go home.
Inside the house, Rafi chat with the child's high school who eventually known named Ridwan. Rafi long time chatting with Ridwan, they become instantly familiar, probably because they are almost the same age. They talked about school, hobbies, teachers, and other things that normal high school teenager told. Since the incident, they both become familiar and friendly with each other.
When graduating high school, children's story abg continued. The second youth was received at the same university. Their friendship even closer. Until he felt, the time graduation arrived. A few days before graduation Ridwan meet Rafi, as usual they are talking past each other.
"Hey, Rafi!" Said Ridwan, "Did you know that if you do not help me first, maybe forever, I will not know about you. You're my best friend. "
"Haha .. lets get regular. Lha emangnya why, anyway? "Rafi asked in reply.
"Sorry, if I never talk about this. The days of our first initial meeting is critical times in my life. "Ridwan began," At that time, my father went bankrupt business, he entwined much debt. While my mother actually ran away with another man. I always become victims of emotional father. At that time I was extremely disappointed with them and wanted to commit suicide. "
Ridwan continue, "But, time after buying poison insects and also rope to commit suicide, my bike even slipped in front of your house and you help me. Familiarity and ketulusanmu time as if told that there are still many good people around me. I do not feel alone anymore time. I see no hope. Jokes and attitude made me cancel the intention to kill myself. Thanks, bro! whether consciously or not, you've saved my life. "
(Translated and rewritten from 'The Gesture', Unknown Author)
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Take time to smile on one person that you do not know .. maybe that smile can be the only ray of sun is getting dark .. ^ ^
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
BIG STONE
BIG STONE
Several months ago a teacher at my school in BK SMA Negeri 42 Jakarta was giving lessons on time management in class XII science students first. As he stood in front of the class and said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he took out an empty bucket and put it on the table. Then he filled the empty bucket with rocks amounting sekepalan in hand he took from his briefcase. He continued to fill until no more stones enough to put in the bucket. He asked, "Do you think, if this bucket is full?"
All the kids classmates including me once said, "Yes!"
Teachers were asked again, "Sungguhkan so?" Then from the table he took out a bag of small pebbles. He poured gravel into buckets and then shake the bucket-ngocok so that the gravel down to the bottom to fill the spaces left between the rocks. Then, once again he asked, "Well, if this jar full?"
This time all the students fell silent. A friend of mine replied, "Probably not."
"Excellent," said the teacher. Then he took out a bag of sand and poured into the bucket. Falling sand to fill the gaps left between the rocks and gravel. Once again, he asked, "Okay, is this jar full?"
"No!" Said all the students in my class.
Once again he said, "Good. Very good. "Then he grabbed a bottle of water and began pouring water into the bucket to the brim. Then he turned to the class you asked, "Do you know what the purpose of this illustration?"
I am with the spirit of the finger and say, "That is not the slightest meremhkan it's because we do not know, so the bias of the little things that would become a determinant of success or the success of someone"
"Good-good, but not the point", said the teacher, "He no longer knows who else?"
Everything was silent, then the teacher started to say "Okey, if no one knows, the reality of this illustration teaches us is: if you do not enter the" big rocks "first, then you will not be able to enter them all."
What is the "Great Stone" in your life? Is your family; pair of you, you guys Education; The things that are important in your life; teach something to someone else; Doing work you love; time for yourself; your health, your friends, or all that valuable.
Remember to always include the "Big Stone" was first or you will lose everything. If you fill it with hakl little things (sort of gravel and sand), then your life will be full of little things that are troubling and should not be necessary. Because then you will never have the actual time you need for things big and important.
Therefore, every morning and evening, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself: "Is" Great Stone "in my life?" Then do it the first time. "
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Represent to the Vice
Represent to the Vice
Let us pause and reflect on God's power as Al Malik. He was the ruler of the macrocosm of designing and energizes the sky, the earth and everything in it. He is also a master who created and turn the microcosm of the cell, regulating the process of photosynthesis in plants and also the flow of blood in our body in very precise ...
With affection Ar-Rahman, Malik could be the power we feel in a variety of good and welfare of all around us, regardless of good or evil. We breathe fresh air, we're on the move without knowing the mechanism of muscle cells and in ourselves. We ate the food and drinks, every day, without thinking about their ecosystem chain ...
If so great that God can do, the question is why in the settlement of various matters we do not just ask God to solve it? Why are we often too "confident" to resolve things themselves? Why do we often "stubborn" get things done in our own way? God is also the ruler is not the incident? is not no events occur without his permission?
So, let us involve God in every pull of our breath. Because He is Al Wakiil, which will improve whatever we all started ...
When we intend for a particular charity, there may be a flaw in that intention, then we need God's intervention to make it right. When we do the obstacles may be so many faults so that the goals set by threatened not achieved, then we need to intervene The Ruler of Genesis to perfect ... However, in reality, we often do not take God as a 'backup' key, then we are stuck in stress due to stuck ... when in fact there is a God who is always ready to Al Wakiil open road and bring relief ...
That's called a trust, when we have an introduction to God as Al Wakiil, such that at each pull of breaths we always rely on God in every settlement of all things ...
Lord, help ya Rabb, consciousness is always present in us to always put their trust only to Thee ... Thee ...
Let us pause and reflect on God's power as Al Malik. He was the ruler of the macrocosm of designing and energizes the sky, the earth and everything in it. He is also a master who created and turn the microcosm of the cell, regulating the process of photosynthesis in plants and also the flow of blood in our body in very precise ...
With affection Ar-Rahman, Malik could be the power we feel in a variety of good and welfare of all around us, regardless of good or evil. We breathe fresh air, we're on the move without knowing the mechanism of muscle cells and in ourselves. We ate the food and drinks, every day, without thinking about their ecosystem chain ...
If so great that God can do, the question is why in the settlement of various matters we do not just ask God to solve it? Why are we often too "confident" to resolve things themselves? Why do we often "stubborn" get things done in our own way? God is also the ruler is not the incident? is not no events occur without his permission?
So, let us involve God in every pull of our breath. Because He is Al Wakiil, which will improve whatever we all started ...
When we intend for a particular charity, there may be a flaw in that intention, then we need God's intervention to make it right. When we do the obstacles may be so many faults so that the goals set by threatened not achieved, then we need to intervene The Ruler of Genesis to perfect ... However, in reality, we often do not take God as a 'backup' key, then we are stuck in stress due to stuck ... when in fact there is a God who is always ready to Al Wakiil open road and bring relief ...
That's called a trust, when we have an introduction to God as Al Wakiil, such that at each pull of breaths we always rely on God in every settlement of all things ...
Lord, help ya Rabb, consciousness is always present in us to always put their trust only to Thee ... Thee ...
Monday, June 14, 2010
Negotiating
Negotiating when you have nothing to give
How can you negotiate well when you have already been committed to a limit, either by your previous actions or by someone else?
Consider this example: a general contractor works out an agreement with a landowner to build a custom home at a remote location in a vacation area during the next building season. He lines up tradespeople, and gets commitments from them on costs and timing for their work. He enters into a fixed price contract with the owner based on these commitments. When the building season starts, he starts the project and for a few weeks all goes well. Then several of the tradespeople come to him and say they want more money.
The contractor is stuck: the tradespeople are in great demand, and if he alienates them he risks them walking off the job. In this situation he will not be able to complete the project, therefore becoming subject to penalties; just as importantly, he will lose credibility and reputation and future business. If he lets the tradespeople walk away or get more money, he fears being taken advantage of in the future by them. He is not willing to go back to the owner at this point because he has already committed to the price as a condition of the contract, and any change will result in a financial penalty. If he simply tries to absorb the cost increases, he will not make any money on the project himself.
He decides to have an initial conversation with the tradespeople to investigate the reasons for the demand. He decides not to express his concerns at the outset; instead, he resolves to take on an attitude of being curious, and to investigate without worrying about who is right or wrong or what the contract says. What he discovers after some digging is that the increase in the price of motor vehicle fuel between the time he set up the contracts and the time building started has created a significant burden for the tradespeople, who all have to drive their large vehicles and supplies to the remote worksite every day. With this information, he sits down with them and generates a new question: is there a way we can deal with the fuel price problem without me paying you more money? The solution they come up with together is to work a four day week: each day will be longer, so the total work time and the schedule for the project is the same, but the tradespeople save one round trip every week, or about 20% of their fuel use, and several hours of travel time in total.
With this change they end up receiving the profit they anticipated because they have lowered their costs, and the contractor fulfills all his interests in completing the house on time and on budget. During the long days of summer the tradespeople are happy to have Fridays off, and light and temperature conditions are safe to work in.
What can we take from this kind of example? First, don’t assume a preset limit or your constraints will automatically prevent you from dealing effectively with a situation: you must understand what is driving the constraint or demand, not just what the constraint or demand is. Second, look for creative solutions first, solutions that do not require you to give up your constraints or compromise to meet them, but solutions that allow you to accomplish your goals as you work within the constraints. To do this, you need to enlist the creativity of the other negotiator and frame the situation as a joint problem to be solved. Third, if there are no ideal solutions, work to find other measures to mitigate the impact of the limit: for instance, a budget freeze may still allow you to make non-monetary changes that benefit staff. Finally, even if compromises are necessary, searching sincerely with the other party for solutions can reinforce your good intentions and maintain your working relationships. People who are dealt with this way will remember your efforts, even if you are not completely successful, and work with you again in the future.
Frank Handy :: About Author :: Email
Share Your ideas
How can you negotiate well when you have already been committed to a limit, either by your previous actions or by someone else?
Consider this example: a general contractor works out an agreement with a landowner to build a custom home at a remote location in a vacation area during the next building season. He lines up tradespeople, and gets commitments from them on costs and timing for their work. He enters into a fixed price contract with the owner based on these commitments. When the building season starts, he starts the project and for a few weeks all goes well. Then several of the tradespeople come to him and say they want more money.
The contractor is stuck: the tradespeople are in great demand, and if he alienates them he risks them walking off the job. In this situation he will not be able to complete the project, therefore becoming subject to penalties; just as importantly, he will lose credibility and reputation and future business. If he lets the tradespeople walk away or get more money, he fears being taken advantage of in the future by them. He is not willing to go back to the owner at this point because he has already committed to the price as a condition of the contract, and any change will result in a financial penalty. If he simply tries to absorb the cost increases, he will not make any money on the project himself.
He decides to have an initial conversation with the tradespeople to investigate the reasons for the demand. He decides not to express his concerns at the outset; instead, he resolves to take on an attitude of being curious, and to investigate without worrying about who is right or wrong or what the contract says. What he discovers after some digging is that the increase in the price of motor vehicle fuel between the time he set up the contracts and the time building started has created a significant burden for the tradespeople, who all have to drive their large vehicles and supplies to the remote worksite every day. With this information, he sits down with them and generates a new question: is there a way we can deal with the fuel price problem without me paying you more money? The solution they come up with together is to work a four day week: each day will be longer, so the total work time and the schedule for the project is the same, but the tradespeople save one round trip every week, or about 20% of their fuel use, and several hours of travel time in total.
With this change they end up receiving the profit they anticipated because they have lowered their costs, and the contractor fulfills all his interests in completing the house on time and on budget. During the long days of summer the tradespeople are happy to have Fridays off, and light and temperature conditions are safe to work in.
What can we take from this kind of example? First, don’t assume a preset limit or your constraints will automatically prevent you from dealing effectively with a situation: you must understand what is driving the constraint or demand, not just what the constraint or demand is. Second, look for creative solutions first, solutions that do not require you to give up your constraints or compromise to meet them, but solutions that allow you to accomplish your goals as you work within the constraints. To do this, you need to enlist the creativity of the other negotiator and frame the situation as a joint problem to be solved. Third, if there are no ideal solutions, work to find other measures to mitigate the impact of the limit: for instance, a budget freeze may still allow you to make non-monetary changes that benefit staff. Finally, even if compromises are necessary, searching sincerely with the other party for solutions can reinforce your good intentions and maintain your working relationships. People who are dealt with this way will remember your efforts, even if you are not completely successful, and work with you again in the future.
Frank Handy :: About Author :: Email
Share Your ideas
Hypnosis
Hypnosis
You will probably have read or heard of hypnosis being used for a wide range of applications, such as quitting smoking, increasing confidence, and even passing a driving test. But to many, hypnosis still has an element of mystique about it. The article below is to give a brief introduction to hypnosis, so that you may have a better understanding of what hypnosis is really about.
Understanding Hypnosis
If you want to use hypnosis for therapeutic reasons, there are three personal assets you will need. They are: imagination, concentration, and a genuine motivation to be hypnotized. Each time someone works with a group to induce hypnosis, we can still justifiably say we are talking about self-hypnosis. It is every person’s individual option: they either wish to collaborate with the operator and experience hypnosis, or they do not.
Hypnosis involves releasing some of the power of your subconscious mind, and this takes time and practice. Once learnt, however, it can then be used to improve many aspects of your life. Therapeutic hypnosis is not accessible to everyone, but most of us can reach light or medium states through concentration, coupled with patience. Deep levels of hypnosis produce the best therapeutic results, but even beginners may reach healthy states of relaxation and inner peace.
At the lighter levels of hypnosis, their operators usually experience feelings of relaxation and calmness. It is also possible to perceive some physical changes. Some people, for example, may experience tingling sensations in the fingers, blinking eyelids, a sensation of weight in some parts of the body and others. The intensity of these early experiences is usually low, but a few weeks of practice can teach you how to develop these skills even further.
Another element that often relates to initial hypnosis is the distortion of time. Most people who undergo hypnosisl believe they were hypnotized for a shorter period of time than it was in reality. However, after they have experienced hypnosis a few times, a person will start to get a better perception of the passing time.
As the hypnosis subject progresses to medium levels of hypnosis, the altered state becomes more enhanced. Physical perceptions may gain more importance, and the subject may experience heightened tingling feelings or heaviness in the lower body. Some subjects experience floating sensations, and all these feelings are perceived as being very real by the one being hypnotized. This stage allows the hypnotist to suggest stronger visual images in the subject’s mind. At this level, creating illusions becomes more accessible. New thresholds that were unavailable previously now become apparent. Conscious awareness may fade for the subject when the level of hypnosis deepens.
A subject who reaches the somnambulistic levels of hypnosis, can achieve even better mental and physical responses. Several physiologic responses can be observed, such as the REM (rapid eye movement) usually associated with dreams during sleep. At this stage the patients may experience complete conscious amnesia, as if they are virtually absent from their surrounding reality. This is also the level where strong hallucinations can occur, not only during the actual hypnosis process, but even after it ends. Hypnosis can be viewed as the sleep of the nervous system. There is a decrease in the rate of respiration, but not as strong as the one experienced during sleep. Circulation also slows down, together with the brain waves.
Brain wave variations in intensity commence with beta, the fastest, then slow to alpha, theta and delta. Beta waves are primary when the mind is under a normal state of consciousness. Reduced levels of hypnosis decrease the brain wave activity to alpha, and deeper levels may take a subject’s brain waves all the way to theta.
You will probably have read or heard of hypnosis being used for a wide range of applications, such as quitting smoking, increasing confidence, and even passing a driving test. But to many, hypnosis still has an element of mystique about it. The article below is to give a brief introduction to hypnosis, so that you may have a better understanding of what hypnosis is really about.
Understanding Hypnosis
If you want to use hypnosis for therapeutic reasons, there are three personal assets you will need. They are: imagination, concentration, and a genuine motivation to be hypnotized. Each time someone works with a group to induce hypnosis, we can still justifiably say we are talking about self-hypnosis. It is every person’s individual option: they either wish to collaborate with the operator and experience hypnosis, or they do not.
Hypnosis involves releasing some of the power of your subconscious mind, and this takes time and practice. Once learnt, however, it can then be used to improve many aspects of your life. Therapeutic hypnosis is not accessible to everyone, but most of us can reach light or medium states through concentration, coupled with patience. Deep levels of hypnosis produce the best therapeutic results, but even beginners may reach healthy states of relaxation and inner peace.
At the lighter levels of hypnosis, their operators usually experience feelings of relaxation and calmness. It is also possible to perceive some physical changes. Some people, for example, may experience tingling sensations in the fingers, blinking eyelids, a sensation of weight in some parts of the body and others. The intensity of these early experiences is usually low, but a few weeks of practice can teach you how to develop these skills even further.
Another element that often relates to initial hypnosis is the distortion of time. Most people who undergo hypnosisl believe they were hypnotized for a shorter period of time than it was in reality. However, after they have experienced hypnosis a few times, a person will start to get a better perception of the passing time.
As the hypnosis subject progresses to medium levels of hypnosis, the altered state becomes more enhanced. Physical perceptions may gain more importance, and the subject may experience heightened tingling feelings or heaviness in the lower body. Some subjects experience floating sensations, and all these feelings are perceived as being very real by the one being hypnotized. This stage allows the hypnotist to suggest stronger visual images in the subject’s mind. At this level, creating illusions becomes more accessible. New thresholds that were unavailable previously now become apparent. Conscious awareness may fade for the subject when the level of hypnosis deepens.
A subject who reaches the somnambulistic levels of hypnosis, can achieve even better mental and physical responses. Several physiologic responses can be observed, such as the REM (rapid eye movement) usually associated with dreams during sleep. At this stage the patients may experience complete conscious amnesia, as if they are virtually absent from their surrounding reality. This is also the level where strong hallucinations can occur, not only during the actual hypnosis process, but even after it ends. Hypnosis can be viewed as the sleep of the nervous system. There is a decrease in the rate of respiration, but not as strong as the one experienced during sleep. Circulation also slows down, together with the brain waves.
Brain wave variations in intensity commence with beta, the fastest, then slow to alpha, theta and delta. Beta waves are primary when the mind is under a normal state of consciousness. Reduced levels of hypnosis decrease the brain wave activity to alpha, and deeper levels may take a subject’s brain waves all the way to theta.
Father's Day?
Did you ever wonder about the origin of Father's Day?
The idea for an official Father’s Day celebration came to a married daughter, seated in a church in Spokane, Washington, attentive to a Sunday sermon on Mother’s Day in 1910-two years after the first Mother’s Day observance in West Virginia.
The daughter was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd. During the sermon, which extolled maternal sacrifices made for children, Mrs. Dodd realized that in her own family it had been her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, who had sacrificed-raising herself and five sons alone, following the early death of his wife in childbirth. For Mrs. Dodd, the hardships her father had endured on their eastern Washington farm called to mind the unsung feats of fathers everywhere.
Her proposed local Father’s Day celebration received strong support from the town’s ministers and members of the Spokane YMCA. The date suggested for the festivities, June 5, Mrs. Dodd’s father’s birthdays were three weeks away-had to be moved back to the nineteenth when ministers claimed they need extra time to prepare sermons on such a new subject as Father.
Newspapers across the country, already endorsing the need for a national Mother’s Day, carried stories about the unique Spokane observance. Interest in Father’s Day increased. Among the first notables to support Mrs. Dodd’s idea nationally was the orator and political leader William Jennings Bryan, who also backed Mother’s Day. Believing that fathers must not be slighted, he wrote to Mrs. Dodd, "too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the relation between parent and child."
Father’s Day, however, was not so quickly accepted as Mother’s Day. Members of the all-male Congress felt that a move to proclaim the day official might be interpreted as a self-congratulatory pat on the back.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day. And in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that states, if they wished, should hold their own Father’s Day observances. He wrote to the nation’s governors that "the widespread observance of this occasion is calculated to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children, and also to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations."
Many people attempted to secure official recognition for Father’s Day. One of the most notable efforts was made in 1957, by Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who wrote forcefully to Congress that "Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable."
Eventually, in 1972-sixty-two years after it was proposed-Father’s Day was permanently established by President Richard Nixon. Historians seeking an ancient precedent for an official Father’s Day observance have come up with only one: The Romans, every February, honored fathers-but only those deceased.
In America today, Father’s Day is the fifth-largest card-sending occasion, with about 85 million greeting cards exchanged. Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati / Paperback - 480 pages Reissue edition (September 1989) / HarperCollins Discover the fascinating stories behind the origins of over 500 everyday items, expressions and customs.
The idea for an official Father’s Day celebration came to a married daughter, seated in a church in Spokane, Washington, attentive to a Sunday sermon on Mother’s Day in 1910-two years after the first Mother’s Day observance in West Virginia.
The daughter was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd. During the sermon, which extolled maternal sacrifices made for children, Mrs. Dodd realized that in her own family it had been her father, William Jackson Smart, a Civil War veteran, who had sacrificed-raising herself and five sons alone, following the early death of his wife in childbirth. For Mrs. Dodd, the hardships her father had endured on their eastern Washington farm called to mind the unsung feats of fathers everywhere.
Her proposed local Father’s Day celebration received strong support from the town’s ministers and members of the Spokane YMCA. The date suggested for the festivities, June 5, Mrs. Dodd’s father’s birthdays were three weeks away-had to be moved back to the nineteenth when ministers claimed they need extra time to prepare sermons on such a new subject as Father.
Newspapers across the country, already endorsing the need for a national Mother’s Day, carried stories about the unique Spokane observance. Interest in Father’s Day increased. Among the first notables to support Mrs. Dodd’s idea nationally was the orator and political leader William Jennings Bryan, who also backed Mother’s Day. Believing that fathers must not be slighted, he wrote to Mrs. Dodd, "too much emphasis cannot be placed upon the relation between parent and child."
Father’s Day, however, was not so quickly accepted as Mother’s Day. Members of the all-male Congress felt that a move to proclaim the day official might be interpreted as a self-congratulatory pat on the back.
In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson and his family personally observed the day. And in 1924, President Calvin Coolidge recommended that states, if they wished, should hold their own Father’s Day observances. He wrote to the nation’s governors that "the widespread observance of this occasion is calculated to establish more intimate relations between fathers and their children, and also to impress upon fathers the full measure of their obligations."
Many people attempted to secure official recognition for Father’s Day. One of the most notable efforts was made in 1957, by Senator Margaret Chase Smith, who wrote forcefully to Congress that "Either we honor both our parents, mother and father, or let us desist from honoring either one. But to single out just one of our two parents and omit the other is the most grievous insult imaginable."
Eventually, in 1972-sixty-two years after it was proposed-Father’s Day was permanently established by President Richard Nixon. Historians seeking an ancient precedent for an official Father’s Day observance have come up with only one: The Romans, every February, honored fathers-but only those deceased.
In America today, Father’s Day is the fifth-largest card-sending occasion, with about 85 million greeting cards exchanged. Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things by Charles Panati / Paperback - 480 pages Reissue edition (September 1989) / HarperCollins Discover the fascinating stories behind the origins of over 500 everyday items, expressions and customs.
Inspiration
Sources of Inspiration
Inspiration can have different meanings to different people. Also, inspiration can come from many sources: a sudden idea that wakes you in the middle of the night; a chance comment by a stranger that makes you realise something important; a written article or novel, or some other piece of art. Even the most common and mundane things can be inspirational sometimes.
Due to my desire to be a writer in my teens, I have long since associated inspiration with creativity, and in particular writing. Some moments of inspiration can be so profound they last for many years. One moment in my life I can remember with clarity happened 36 years ago. It was mundane, but for some reason inspirational.
I was 19 then and it was winter in England. It was cold outside; in fact, it was cold inside, there was no central heating in the house. It must have been about 4pm, which in the depths of winter was not long before dusk. I was lying on my bed, with a small one bar electric fire giving out a bit of warmth across the room.
I drifted into a sort of half asleep, half awake state. My awareness of all my physical surroundings seemed to dissipate like a morning mist. I knew nothing of meditation then, or yoga relaxation, but it was a similar state of mind I allowed to develop. While everything else dissipated, the light and warmth from the fire maintained a connection I was aware of at different levels of consciousness.
Whether or not I actually fell asleep or not, I don't know. However, the next time I was fully aware, dusk had passed into darkness. The moment I became "alert" again, I was very aware of the fire, providing both my warmth and light. Immediately, I had felt compelled to reach for my notebook and pen, to write down 1 line. I can still remember it even now:
"The fire is on; I see the darkness glowing in my fingertips."
Why I wrote that, I do not know, but it does not matter. I felt an intense need to write down those very words; it was inspired during the short rest I had just had. From then, I had to carry on and complete a poem that evening, with the very same first line.
I think the reason I remember this is the intensity of that inspirational moment. I did finish the poem, but it did not end there. After I slept that night, my subconscious must have been very busy. The next day, I went straight back to that poem. Within a few hours, I was immersed in writing my second novel. The poem I had written was just slightly reworded, and put into normal sentences. "I" became a middle aged recluse. The fire became his fire, the room became his room. The poem became the opening paragraph.
As it turned out, that was my best attempt at writing a novel. I even had one nice letter from a publisher, bestowing me with compliments; but no contract. The novel was not commercial enough for that publisher. It is my only novel that I feel I want want to be associated with. The others were very much those of a young, very inexperienced writer who wrote just for the sake of it. But for some reason, "Recluse" as it became known, was set apart. It was drawn from a very deep inspiration that carried right through to the very end.
Inspiration can have different meanings to different people. Also, inspiration can come from many sources: a sudden idea that wakes you in the middle of the night; a chance comment by a stranger that makes you realise something important; a written article or novel, or some other piece of art. Even the most common and mundane things can be inspirational sometimes.
Due to my desire to be a writer in my teens, I have long since associated inspiration with creativity, and in particular writing. Some moments of inspiration can be so profound they last for many years. One moment in my life I can remember with clarity happened 36 years ago. It was mundane, but for some reason inspirational.
I was 19 then and it was winter in England. It was cold outside; in fact, it was cold inside, there was no central heating in the house. It must have been about 4pm, which in the depths of winter was not long before dusk. I was lying on my bed, with a small one bar electric fire giving out a bit of warmth across the room.
I drifted into a sort of half asleep, half awake state. My awareness of all my physical surroundings seemed to dissipate like a morning mist. I knew nothing of meditation then, or yoga relaxation, but it was a similar state of mind I allowed to develop. While everything else dissipated, the light and warmth from the fire maintained a connection I was aware of at different levels of consciousness.
Whether or not I actually fell asleep or not, I don't know. However, the next time I was fully aware, dusk had passed into darkness. The moment I became "alert" again, I was very aware of the fire, providing both my warmth and light. Immediately, I had felt compelled to reach for my notebook and pen, to write down 1 line. I can still remember it even now:
"The fire is on; I see the darkness glowing in my fingertips."
Why I wrote that, I do not know, but it does not matter. I felt an intense need to write down those very words; it was inspired during the short rest I had just had. From then, I had to carry on and complete a poem that evening, with the very same first line.
I think the reason I remember this is the intensity of that inspirational moment. I did finish the poem, but it did not end there. After I slept that night, my subconscious must have been very busy. The next day, I went straight back to that poem. Within a few hours, I was immersed in writing my second novel. The poem I had written was just slightly reworded, and put into normal sentences. "I" became a middle aged recluse. The fire became his fire, the room became his room. The poem became the opening paragraph.
As it turned out, that was my best attempt at writing a novel. I even had one nice letter from a publisher, bestowing me with compliments; but no contract. The novel was not commercial enough for that publisher. It is my only novel that I feel I want want to be associated with. The others were very much those of a young, very inexperienced writer who wrote just for the sake of it. But for some reason, "Recluse" as it became known, was set apart. It was drawn from a very deep inspiration that carried right through to the very end.
Inspiration
Sources of Inspiration
Inspiration can have different meanings to different people. Also, inspiration can come from many sources: a sudden idea that wakes you in the middle of the night; a chance comment by a stranger that makes you realise something important; a written article or novel, or some other piece of art. Even the most common and mundane things can be inspirational sometimes.
Due to my desire to be a writer in my teens, I have long since associated inspiration with creativity, and in particular writing. Some moments of inspiration can be so profound they last for many years. One moment in my life I can remember with clarity happened 36 years ago. It was mundane, but for some reason inspirational.
I was 19 then and it was winter in England. It was cold outside; in fact, it was cold inside, there was no central heating in the house. It must have been about 4pm, which in the depths of winter was not long before dusk. I was lying on my bed, with a small one bar electric fire giving out a bit of warmth across the room.
I drifted into a sort of half asleep, half awake state. My awareness of all my physical surroundings seemed to dissipate like a morning mist. I knew nothing of meditation then, or yoga relaxation, but it was a similar state of mind I allowed to develop. While everything else dissipated, the light and warmth from the fire maintained a connection I was aware of at different levels of consciousness.
Whether or not I actually fell asleep or not, I don't know. However, the next time I was fully aware, dusk had passed into darkness. The moment I became "alert" again, I was very aware of the fire, providing both my warmth and light. Immediately, I had felt compelled to reach for my notebook and pen, to write down 1 line. I can still remember it even now:
"The fire is on; I see the darkness glowing in my fingertips."
Why I wrote that, I do not know, but it does not matter. I felt an intense need to write down those very words; it was inspired during the short rest I had just had. From then, I had to carry on and complete a poem that evening, with the very same first line.
I think the reason I remember this is the intensity of that inspirational moment. I did finish the poem, but it did not end there. After I slept that night, my subconscious must have been very busy. The next day, I went straight back to that poem. Within a few hours, I was immersed in writing my second novel. The poem I had written was just slightly reworded, and put into normal sentences. "I" became a middle aged recluse. The fire became his fire, the room became his room. The poem became the opening paragraph.
As it turned out, that was my best attempt at writing a novel. I even had one nice letter from a publisher, bestowing me with compliments; but no contract. The novel was not commercial enough for that publisher. It is my only novel that I feel I want want to be associated with. The others were very much those of a young, very inexperienced writer who wrote just for the sake of it. But for some reason, "Recluse" as it became known, was set apart. It was drawn from a very deep inspiration that carried right through to the very end.
Inspiration can have different meanings to different people. Also, inspiration can come from many sources: a sudden idea that wakes you in the middle of the night; a chance comment by a stranger that makes you realise something important; a written article or novel, or some other piece of art. Even the most common and mundane things can be inspirational sometimes.
Due to my desire to be a writer in my teens, I have long since associated inspiration with creativity, and in particular writing. Some moments of inspiration can be so profound they last for many years. One moment in my life I can remember with clarity happened 36 years ago. It was mundane, but for some reason inspirational.
I was 19 then and it was winter in England. It was cold outside; in fact, it was cold inside, there was no central heating in the house. It must have been about 4pm, which in the depths of winter was not long before dusk. I was lying on my bed, with a small one bar electric fire giving out a bit of warmth across the room.
I drifted into a sort of half asleep, half awake state. My awareness of all my physical surroundings seemed to dissipate like a morning mist. I knew nothing of meditation then, or yoga relaxation, but it was a similar state of mind I allowed to develop. While everything else dissipated, the light and warmth from the fire maintained a connection I was aware of at different levels of consciousness.
Whether or not I actually fell asleep or not, I don't know. However, the next time I was fully aware, dusk had passed into darkness. The moment I became "alert" again, I was very aware of the fire, providing both my warmth and light. Immediately, I had felt compelled to reach for my notebook and pen, to write down 1 line. I can still remember it even now:
"The fire is on; I see the darkness glowing in my fingertips."
Why I wrote that, I do not know, but it does not matter. I felt an intense need to write down those very words; it was inspired during the short rest I had just had. From then, I had to carry on and complete a poem that evening, with the very same first line.
I think the reason I remember this is the intensity of that inspirational moment. I did finish the poem, but it did not end there. After I slept that night, my subconscious must have been very busy. The next day, I went straight back to that poem. Within a few hours, I was immersed in writing my second novel. The poem I had written was just slightly reworded, and put into normal sentences. "I" became a middle aged recluse. The fire became his fire, the room became his room. The poem became the opening paragraph.
As it turned out, that was my best attempt at writing a novel. I even had one nice letter from a publisher, bestowing me with compliments; but no contract. The novel was not commercial enough for that publisher. It is my only novel that I feel I want want to be associated with. The others were very much those of a young, very inexperienced writer who wrote just for the sake of it. But for some reason, "Recluse" as it became known, was set apart. It was drawn from a very deep inspiration that carried right through to the very end.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), inspires in young people, their schools and communities an appreciation of science and technology, and how mastering these can enrich the lives of all.
Corporate America provides economic and professional support to FIRST. Many Fortune 500 companies have significantly helped FIRST grow and are committed to its continued progress. Government organizations such as NASA are key partners in this worthwhile cause. FIRST represents a cooperative team effort by students, teachers, communities, corporations, and our government.
FIRST Robotics Program
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, nationwide competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience—and a lot of fun. In 2002 the competition will reach more than 20,000 students on over 600 teams in 17 competitions. Our teams come from Canada, Brazil, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.
FIRST LEGO League
The FIRST LEGO League (FLL), considered the "little league" of the FIRST Robotics Competition, is the result of a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Company. FLL extends the FIRST concept of inspiring and celebrating science and technology to children aged 9 through 14, using real-world context and hands-on experimentation.
These competitions show students that the technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting.
For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST), inspires in young people, their schools and communities an appreciation of science and technology, and how mastering these can enrich the lives of all.
Corporate America provides economic and professional support to FIRST. Many Fortune 500 companies have significantly helped FIRST grow and are committed to its continued progress. Government organizations such as NASA are key partners in this worthwhile cause. FIRST represents a cooperative team effort by students, teachers, communities, corporations, and our government.
FIRST Robotics Program
The FIRST Robotics Competition is an exciting, nationwide competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. The program is a life-changing, career-molding experience—and a lot of fun. In 2002 the competition will reach more than 20,000 students on over 600 teams in 17 competitions. Our teams come from Canada, Brazil, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events, the result of lots of focused brainstorming, real-world teamwork, dedicated mentoring, project timelines, and deadlines.
FIRST LEGO League
The FIRST LEGO League (FLL), considered the "little league" of the FIRST Robotics Competition, is the result of a partnership between FIRST and the LEGO Company. FLL extends the FIRST concept of inspiring and celebrating science and technology to children aged 9 through 14, using real-world context and hands-on experimentation.
These competitions show students that the technological fields hold many opportunities and that the basic concepts of science, math, engineering, and invention are exciting and interesting.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
About Einstein
Inventor : Albert EinsteinCriteria : First practical.
Birth : March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany
Death : April 18,1955 in in Princeton, New Jersey
Nationality : German
Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate, best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity and for his bold hypothesis concerning the particle nature of light. He is perhaps the most well-known scientist of the 20th century.
Einstein was born in Ulm on March 14, 1879, and spent his youth in Munich, where his family owned a small shop that manufactured electric machinery. He did not talk until the age of three, but even as a youth he showed a brilliant curiosity about nature and an ability to understand difficult mathematical concepts. At the age of 12 he taught himself Euclidean geometry.
Einstein hated the dull regimentation and unimaginative spirit of school in Munich. When repeated business failure led the family to leave Germany for Milan, Italy, Einstein, who was then 15 years old, used the opportunity to withdraw from the school. He spent a year with his parents in Milan, and when it became clear that he would have to make his own way in the world, he finished secondary school in Arrau, Switzerland, and entered the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zürich. Einstein did not enjoy the methods of instruction there. He often cut classes and used the time to study physics on his own or to play his beloved violin. He passed his examinations and graduated in 1900 by studying the notes of a classmate. His professors did not think highly of him and would not recommend him for a university position.
For two years Einstein worked as a tutor and substitute teacher. In 1902 he secured a position as an examiner in the Swiss patent office in Bern. In 1903 he married Mileva Mariç, who had been his classmate at the polytechnic. They had two sons but eventually divorced. Einstein later remarried.
Early Scientific Publications
In 1905 Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zürich for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of molecules, and he also published three theoretical papers of central importance to the development of 20th-century physics. In the first of these papers, on Brownian motion, he made significant predictions about the motion of particles that are randomly distributed in a fluid. These predictions were later confirmed by experiment.
The second paper, on the photoelectric effect, contained a revolutionary hypothesis concerning the nature of light. Einstein not only proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles, but he also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. The formula for this is E = hu, where E is the energy of the radiation, h is a universal constant known as Planck's constant, and u is the frequency of the radiation. This proposal—that the energy contained within a light beam is transferred in individual units, or quanta—contradicted a hundred-year-old tradition of considering light energy a manifestation of continuous processes. Virtually no one accepted Einstein's proposal. In fact, when the American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan experimentally confirmed the theory almost a decade later, he was surprised and somewhat disquieted by the outcome.
Einstein, whose prime concern was to understand the nature of electromagnetic radiation, subsequently urged the development of a theory that would be a fusion of the wave and particle models for light. Again, very few physicists understood or were sympathetic to these ideas.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein's third major paper in 1905, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," contained what became known as the special theory of relativity. Since the time of the English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, natural philosophers (as physicists and chemists were known) had been trying to understand the nature of matter and radiation, and how they interacted in some unified world picture. The position that mechanical laws are fundamental has become known as the mechanical world view, and the position that electrical laws are fundamental has become known as the electromagnetic world view. Neither approach, however, is capable of providing a consistent explanation for the way radiation (light, for example) and matter interact when viewed from different inertial frames of reference, that is, an interaction viewed simultaneously by an observer at rest and an observer moving at uniform speed.
In the spring of 1905, after considering these problems for ten years, Einstein realized that the crux of the problem lay not in a theory of matter but in a theory of measurement. At the heart of his special theory of relativity was the realization that all measurements of time and space depend on judgments as to whether two distant events occur simultaneously. This led him to develop a theory based on two postulates: the principle of relativity, that physical laws are the same in all inertial reference systems, and the principle of the invariance of the speed of light, that the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant. He was thus able to provide a consistent and correct description of physical events in different inertial frames of reference without making special assumptions about the nature of matter or radiation, or how they interact. Virtually no one understood Einstein's argument.
Early Reactions to Einstein
The difficulty that others had with Einstein's work was not because it was too mathematically complex or technically obscure; the problem resulted, rather, from Einstein's beliefs about the nature of good theories and the relationship between experiment and theory. Although he maintained that the only source of knowledge is experience, he also believed that scientific theories are the free creations of a finely tuned physical intuition and that the premises on which theories are based cannot be connected logically to experiment. A good theory, therefore, is one in which a minimum number of postulates is required to account for the physical evidence. This sparseness of postulates, a feature of all Einstein's work, was what made his work so difficult for colleagues to comprehend, let alone support.
Einstein did have important supporters, however. His chief early patron was the German physicist Max Planck. Einstein remained at the patent office for four years after his star began to rise within the physics community. He then moved rapidly upward in the German-speaking academic world; his first academic appointment was in 1909 at the University of Zürich. In 1911 he moved to the German-speaking university at Prague, and in 1912 he returned to the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zürich. Finally, in 1913, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin.
The General Theory of Relativity
Even before he left the patent office in 1907, Einstein began work on extending and generalizing the theory of relativity to all coordinate systems. He began by enunciating the principle of equivalence, a postulate that gravitational fields are equivalent to accelerations of the frame of reference. For example, people in a moving elevator cannot, in principle, decide whether the force that acts on them is caused by gravitation or by a constant acceleration of the elevator. The full general theory of relativity was not published until 1916. In this theory the interactions of bodies, which heretofore had been ascribed to gravitational forces, are explained as the influence of bodies on the geometry of space-time (four-dimensional space, a mathematical abstraction, having the three dimensions from Euclidean space and time as the fourth dimension).
On the basis of the general theory of relativity, Einstein accounted for the previously unexplained variations in the orbital motion of the planets and predicted the bending of starlight in the vicinity of a massive body such as the sun. The confirmation of this latter phenomenon during an eclipse of the sun in 1919 became a media event, and Einstein's fame spread worldwide.
For the rest of his life Einstein devoted considerable time to generalizing his theory even more. His last effort, the unified field theory, which was not entirely successful, was an attempt to understand all physical interactions—including electromagnetic interactions and weak and strong interactions—in terms of the modification of the geometry of space-time between interacting entities.
Most of Einstein's colleagues felt that these efforts were misguided. Between 1915 and 1930 the mainstream of physics was in developing a new conception of the fundamental character of matter, known as quantum theory. This theory contained the feature of wave-particle duality (light exhibits the properties of a particle, as well as of a wave) that Einstein had earlier urged as necessary, as well as the uncertainty principle, which states that precision in measuring processes is limited. Additionally, it contained a novel rejection, at a fundamental level, of the notion of strict causality. Einstein, however, would not accept such notions and remained a critic of these developments until the end of his life. "God," Einstein once said, "does not play dice with the world."
World Citizen
After 1919, Einstein became internationally renowned. He accrued honors and awards, including the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, from various world scientific societies. His visit to any part of the world became a national event; photographers and reporters followed him everywhere. While regretting his loss of privacy, Einstein capitalized on his fame to further his own political and social views.
The two social movements that received his full support were pacifism and Zionism. During World War I he was one of a handful of German academics willing to publicly decry Germany's involvement in the war. After the war his continued public support of pacifist and Zionist goals made him the target of vicious attacks by anti-Semitic and right-wing elements in Germany. Even his scientific theories were publicly ridiculed, especially the theory of relativity.
When Hitler came to power, Einstein immediately decided to leave Germany for the United States. He took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. While continuing his efforts on behalf of world Zionism, Einstein renounced his former pacifist stand in the face of the awesome threat to humankind posed by the Nazi regime in Germany.
In 1939 Einstein collaborated with several other physicists in writing a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pointing out the possibility of making an atomic bomb and the likelihood that the German government was embarking on such a course. The letter, which bore only Einstein's signature, helped lend urgency to efforts in the U.S. to build the atomic bomb, but Einstein himself played no role in the work and knew nothing about it at the time.
After the war, Einstein was active in the cause of international disarmament and world government. He continued his active support of Zionism but declined the offer made by leaders of the state of Israel to become president of that country. In the U.S. during the late 1940s and early '50s he spoke out on the need for the nation's intellectuals to make any sacrifice necessary to preserve political freedom. Einstein died in Princeton on April 18, 1955.
Einstein's efforts in behalf of social causes have sometimes been viewed as unrealistic. In fact, his proposals were always carefully thought out. Like his scientific theories, they were motivated by sound intuition based on a shrewd and careful assessment of evidence and observation. Although Einstein gave much of himself to political and social causes, science always came first, because, he often said, only the discovery of the nature of the universe would have lasting meaning. His writings include Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1916); About Zionism (1931); Builders of the Universe (1932); Why War? (1933), with Sigmund Freud; The World as I See It (1934); The Evolution of Physics (1938), with the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld; and Out of My Later Years (1950). Einstein's collected papers are being published in a multivolume work, beginning in 1987.
Birth : March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany
Death : April 18,1955 in in Princeton, New Jersey
Nationality : German
Albert Einstein, German-born American physicist and Nobel laureate, best known as the creator of the special and general theories of relativity and for his bold hypothesis concerning the particle nature of light. He is perhaps the most well-known scientist of the 20th century.
Einstein was born in Ulm on March 14, 1879, and spent his youth in Munich, where his family owned a small shop that manufactured electric machinery. He did not talk until the age of three, but even as a youth he showed a brilliant curiosity about nature and an ability to understand difficult mathematical concepts. At the age of 12 he taught himself Euclidean geometry.
Einstein hated the dull regimentation and unimaginative spirit of school in Munich. When repeated business failure led the family to leave Germany for Milan, Italy, Einstein, who was then 15 years old, used the opportunity to withdraw from the school. He spent a year with his parents in Milan, and when it became clear that he would have to make his own way in the world, he finished secondary school in Arrau, Switzerland, and entered the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zürich. Einstein did not enjoy the methods of instruction there. He often cut classes and used the time to study physics on his own or to play his beloved violin. He passed his examinations and graduated in 1900 by studying the notes of a classmate. His professors did not think highly of him and would not recommend him for a university position.
For two years Einstein worked as a tutor and substitute teacher. In 1902 he secured a position as an examiner in the Swiss patent office in Bern. In 1903 he married Mileva Mariç, who had been his classmate at the polytechnic. They had two sons but eventually divorced. Einstein later remarried.
Early Scientific Publications
In 1905 Einstein received his doctorate from the University of Zürich for a theoretical dissertation on the dimensions of molecules, and he also published three theoretical papers of central importance to the development of 20th-century physics. In the first of these papers, on Brownian motion, he made significant predictions about the motion of particles that are randomly distributed in a fluid. These predictions were later confirmed by experiment.
The second paper, on the photoelectric effect, contained a revolutionary hypothesis concerning the nature of light. Einstein not only proposed that under certain circumstances light can be considered as consisting of particles, but he also hypothesized that the energy carried by any light particle, called a photon, is proportional to the frequency of the radiation. The formula for this is E = hu, where E is the energy of the radiation, h is a universal constant known as Planck's constant, and u is the frequency of the radiation. This proposal—that the energy contained within a light beam is transferred in individual units, or quanta—contradicted a hundred-year-old tradition of considering light energy a manifestation of continuous processes. Virtually no one accepted Einstein's proposal. In fact, when the American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan experimentally confirmed the theory almost a decade later, he was surprised and somewhat disquieted by the outcome.
Einstein, whose prime concern was to understand the nature of electromagnetic radiation, subsequently urged the development of a theory that would be a fusion of the wave and particle models for light. Again, very few physicists understood or were sympathetic to these ideas.
Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity
Einstein's third major paper in 1905, "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," contained what became known as the special theory of relativity. Since the time of the English mathematician and physicist Sir Isaac Newton, natural philosophers (as physicists and chemists were known) had been trying to understand the nature of matter and radiation, and how they interacted in some unified world picture. The position that mechanical laws are fundamental has become known as the mechanical world view, and the position that electrical laws are fundamental has become known as the electromagnetic world view. Neither approach, however, is capable of providing a consistent explanation for the way radiation (light, for example) and matter interact when viewed from different inertial frames of reference, that is, an interaction viewed simultaneously by an observer at rest and an observer moving at uniform speed.
In the spring of 1905, after considering these problems for ten years, Einstein realized that the crux of the problem lay not in a theory of matter but in a theory of measurement. At the heart of his special theory of relativity was the realization that all measurements of time and space depend on judgments as to whether two distant events occur simultaneously. This led him to develop a theory based on two postulates: the principle of relativity, that physical laws are the same in all inertial reference systems, and the principle of the invariance of the speed of light, that the speed of light in a vacuum is a universal constant. He was thus able to provide a consistent and correct description of physical events in different inertial frames of reference without making special assumptions about the nature of matter or radiation, or how they interact. Virtually no one understood Einstein's argument.
Early Reactions to Einstein
The difficulty that others had with Einstein's work was not because it was too mathematically complex or technically obscure; the problem resulted, rather, from Einstein's beliefs about the nature of good theories and the relationship between experiment and theory. Although he maintained that the only source of knowledge is experience, he also believed that scientific theories are the free creations of a finely tuned physical intuition and that the premises on which theories are based cannot be connected logically to experiment. A good theory, therefore, is one in which a minimum number of postulates is required to account for the physical evidence. This sparseness of postulates, a feature of all Einstein's work, was what made his work so difficult for colleagues to comprehend, let alone support.
Einstein did have important supporters, however. His chief early patron was the German physicist Max Planck. Einstein remained at the patent office for four years after his star began to rise within the physics community. He then moved rapidly upward in the German-speaking academic world; his first academic appointment was in 1909 at the University of Zürich. In 1911 he moved to the German-speaking university at Prague, and in 1912 he returned to the Swiss National Polytechnic in Zürich. Finally, in 1913, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin.
The General Theory of Relativity
Even before he left the patent office in 1907, Einstein began work on extending and generalizing the theory of relativity to all coordinate systems. He began by enunciating the principle of equivalence, a postulate that gravitational fields are equivalent to accelerations of the frame of reference. For example, people in a moving elevator cannot, in principle, decide whether the force that acts on them is caused by gravitation or by a constant acceleration of the elevator. The full general theory of relativity was not published until 1916. In this theory the interactions of bodies, which heretofore had been ascribed to gravitational forces, are explained as the influence of bodies on the geometry of space-time (four-dimensional space, a mathematical abstraction, having the three dimensions from Euclidean space and time as the fourth dimension).
On the basis of the general theory of relativity, Einstein accounted for the previously unexplained variations in the orbital motion of the planets and predicted the bending of starlight in the vicinity of a massive body such as the sun. The confirmation of this latter phenomenon during an eclipse of the sun in 1919 became a media event, and Einstein's fame spread worldwide.
For the rest of his life Einstein devoted considerable time to generalizing his theory even more. His last effort, the unified field theory, which was not entirely successful, was an attempt to understand all physical interactions—including electromagnetic interactions and weak and strong interactions—in terms of the modification of the geometry of space-time between interacting entities.
Most of Einstein's colleagues felt that these efforts were misguided. Between 1915 and 1930 the mainstream of physics was in developing a new conception of the fundamental character of matter, known as quantum theory. This theory contained the feature of wave-particle duality (light exhibits the properties of a particle, as well as of a wave) that Einstein had earlier urged as necessary, as well as the uncertainty principle, which states that precision in measuring processes is limited. Additionally, it contained a novel rejection, at a fundamental level, of the notion of strict causality. Einstein, however, would not accept such notions and remained a critic of these developments until the end of his life. "God," Einstein once said, "does not play dice with the world."
World Citizen
After 1919, Einstein became internationally renowned. He accrued honors and awards, including the Nobel Prize in physics in 1921, from various world scientific societies. His visit to any part of the world became a national event; photographers and reporters followed him everywhere. While regretting his loss of privacy, Einstein capitalized on his fame to further his own political and social views.
The two social movements that received his full support were pacifism and Zionism. During World War I he was one of a handful of German academics willing to publicly decry Germany's involvement in the war. After the war his continued public support of pacifist and Zionist goals made him the target of vicious attacks by anti-Semitic and right-wing elements in Germany. Even his scientific theories were publicly ridiculed, especially the theory of relativity.
When Hitler came to power, Einstein immediately decided to leave Germany for the United States. He took a position at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey. While continuing his efforts on behalf of world Zionism, Einstein renounced his former pacifist stand in the face of the awesome threat to humankind posed by the Nazi regime in Germany.
In 1939 Einstein collaborated with several other physicists in writing a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, pointing out the possibility of making an atomic bomb and the likelihood that the German government was embarking on such a course. The letter, which bore only Einstein's signature, helped lend urgency to efforts in the U.S. to build the atomic bomb, but Einstein himself played no role in the work and knew nothing about it at the time.
After the war, Einstein was active in the cause of international disarmament and world government. He continued his active support of Zionism but declined the offer made by leaders of the state of Israel to become president of that country. In the U.S. during the late 1940s and early '50s he spoke out on the need for the nation's intellectuals to make any sacrifice necessary to preserve political freedom. Einstein died in Princeton on April 18, 1955.
Einstein's efforts in behalf of social causes have sometimes been viewed as unrealistic. In fact, his proposals were always carefully thought out. Like his scientific theories, they were motivated by sound intuition based on a shrewd and careful assessment of evidence and observation. Although Einstein gave much of himself to political and social causes, science always came first, because, he often said, only the discovery of the nature of the universe would have lasting meaning. His writings include Relativity: The Special and General Theory (1916); About Zionism (1931); Builders of the Universe (1932); Why War? (1933), with Sigmund Freud; The World as I See It (1934); The Evolution of Physics (1938), with the Polish physicist Leopold Infeld; and Out of My Later Years (1950). Einstein's collected papers are being published in a multivolume work, beginning in 1987.
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