Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science-fiction author, aeronautical engineer, retired Naval officer. Sometimes called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was among the first to emphasize scientific accuracy in his fiction, was thus a pioneer of the subgenre of hard science fiction, his published works, both fiction and non-fiction, express admiration for competence and emphasize the value of critical thinking. His work continues to have an influence on the science-fiction genre, on modern culture more generally. Heinlein became one of the first American science-fiction writers to break into mainstream magazines such as The Saturday Evening Post in the late 1940s, he was one of the best-selling science-fiction novelists for many decades, he, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke are considered the "Big Three" of English-language science fiction authors. Notable Heinlein works include Stranger in a Strange Land, Starship Troopers and The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, his work sometimes had controversial aspects, such as plural marriage in The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, militarism in Starship Troopers and technologically competent women characters that were strong and independent, yet stereotypically feminine – such as Friday.
A writer of numerous science-fiction short stories, Heinlein was one of a group of writers who came to prominence under the editorship of John W. Campbell at Astounding Science Fiction magazine, though Heinlein denied that Campbell influenced his writing to any great degree. Heinlein used his science fiction as a way to explore provocative social and political ideas, to speculate how progress in science and engineering might shape the future of politics, race and sex. Within the framework of his science-fiction stories, Heinlein addressed certain social themes: the importance of individual liberty and self-reliance, the nature of sexual relationships, the obligation individuals owe to their societies, the influence of organized religion on culture and government, the tendency of society to repress nonconformist thought, he speculated on the influence of space travel on human cultural practices. Heinlein was named the first Science Fiction Writers Grand Master in 1974. Four of his novels won Hugo Awards.
In addition, fifty years after publication, seven of his works were awarded "Retro Hugos"—awards given retrospectively for works that were published before the Hugo Awards came into existence. In his fiction, Heinlein coined terms that have become part of the English language, including "grok", "waldo", "speculative fiction", as well as popularizing existing terms like "TANSTAAFL", "pay it forward", "space marine", he anticipated mechanical computer-aided design with "Drafting Dan" and described a modern version of a waterbed in his novel Beyond This Horizon. Although he never patented nor built one, his description in several stories caused the US patent office to refuse a patent attempt by Charles Hall, who created and marketed the waterbed we know today. In the first chapter of the novel Space Cadet he anticipated the cell-phone, 35 years before Motorola invented the technology. Several of Heinlein's works have been adapted for television. Heinlein, born on July 7, 1907 to Rex Ivar Heinlein and Bam Lyle Heinlein, in Butler, was the third of seven children.
He was a 6th-generation German-American: a family tradition had it that Heinleins fought in every American war starting with the War of Independence. He spent his childhood in Missouri; the outlook and values of this time and place had a definite influence on his fiction in his works, as he drew upon his childhood in establishing the setting and cultural atmosphere in works like Time Enough for Love and To Sail Beyond the Sunset. The 1910 appearance of Halley's Comet inspired the young child's life-long interest in astronomy; when Heinlein graduated from Central High School in Kansas City in 1924 he aspired to a career as an officer in the US Navy. However, he was prevented from attending the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis because his older brother Rex was a student there, regulations discouraged multiple family-members from attending the Academy simultaneously, he instead matriculated at Kansas City Community College and began vigorously petitioning Missouri Senator James A. Reed for an appointment to the Naval Academy.
In part due to the influence of the Pendergast machine, the Naval Academy admitted him in June 1925. Heinlein's experience in the Navy exerted a strong influence on his writing. In 1929, he graduated from the Naval Academy with the equivalent of a Bachelor of Arts degree in Engineering, ranking fifth in his class academically but with a class standing of 20th of 243 due to disciplinary demerits. Shortly after graduation, he was commissioned as an ensign by the U. S. Navy, he advanced to lieutenant, junior grade while serving aboard the new aircraft carrier USS Lexington in 1931, where he worked in radio communications in its earlier phases, with the carrier's aircraft. The captain of this carrier was Ernest J. King, who served as the Chief of Naval Operations and Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Fleet during World War II. Heinlein was interviewed during his years by military historians who asked him about Captain King and his service as the commander of the U. S. Navy's first modern aircraft carrier. Heinlein served as gunnery officer aboard the destroyer USS Roper in 1933 and 1934, reaching the rank of lieutenant.
His brother, Lawrence Heinlein, served in the U. S. Army, the U. S. Air Force, the Missouri National Guard, reaching the rank of major
The Economic Observer is an independent, weekly simplified-character Chinese newspaper published in the People's Republic of China since April 2001. The newspaper is considered by many people to be one of the top three economic-focused newspapers in China and is well regarded for its in-depth special features and commentary. Inspired by the British Financial Times, as of September 2001, the Economic Observer has been printed on salmon/peach-colored paper. Although the newspaper's editorial offices are based in Beijing, the newspaper is registered in Ji'nan, the capital of Shandong province; the Economic Observer Online was relaunched in March 2007 and offers subscribers access to all the newspaper's content. However, most of the articles from each week's newspaper appear on the website at no charge, along with web-only content, which includes commentary and op-ed pieces from guest columnists; the newspaper's English-language website, features select translations from the weekly newspaper and the website.
The paper is distributed on Saturday mornings but the official publication date is printed as the following Monday. Each issue sells for 5 Chinese yuan or 10 Hong Kong dollars; the newspaper's slogan is "rationality and constructiveness". Founded in August 2000, the Economic Observer began as a small news publication dedicated to supporting China's market liberalization and reporting on socioeconomic and political events with a stated commitment to journalistic integrity; the first issue was 24 pages. By December 2006, the newspaper had expanded to the current 56 pages; the Economic Observer features seven regular sections: News, Market, Automobile/Property, Lifestyle/Business Review. The Economic Observer is considered to take a noticeably independent approach to reporting the news in China; the newspaper has a reputation for being "pro-business" and in favor of the continuation of market reforms. On December 7, 2009, The Economic Observer was one of only two Chinese newspapers to publish a common editorial with 55 other newspaper around the world calling for action from the world leaders gathering in Copenhagen for the UN's climate change summit.
The idea for a common editorial was hatched by the British newspaper The Guardian. In March 2010, The Economic Observer published an editorial calling on representatives of China's legislature to adopt reforms to the country’s household registration system. In an unprecedented move, the editorial was simultaneously published by 13 other Chinese newspapers; the editorial was headlined, “Request for Representatives at the Two Meetings to Hasten Reform of the Household Registration System” A report in the New York Times said that one of the editors involved, Deputy Editor of the Economic Observer Online Zhang Hong, was removed from his position as punishment for his role in the publishing the editorial. According to an article on the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Blog, Zhang Hong hatched the plan to publish an editorial in collaboration with other media outlets after taking part in the Guardian's "Copenhagen" editorial the previous year. On July 30, 2011, a week after 40 people were killed in a high speed train collision near Wenzhou, the newspaper ignored a government censorship directive to publish an eight-page feature on the crash.
The front page story was presented as a letter to 2-year old survivor Xiang Weiyi, whose parents were killed. It described two images of China, “one blossoming in the midst of the people, the other hidden in officialdom,” and pledged “to advocate and act” for the people’s rights; the newspaper was fined and issued a warning over an inaccurate report published in June 2012 that said the Railway Ministry may be reformed. Authorities revoked the press pass of the reporter; the article claimed that the ministry may lose control of investment and railway operations. It said the ministry would establish and inject assets into three new companies, which would be overseen by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission; the original investment for the newspaper came from the Sanlian Group, a diversified state-invested company based in Shandong province. In May 2010, Xinhua Sports and Entertainment Limited sold the advertising rights and the distribution rights of the paper to private buyer Lu Zhiqiang, a real estate billionaire.
Lu Zhiqiang has full control of the Economic Observer. List of newspapers in the People's Republic of China Media of the People's Republic of China The Economic Observer Website The Economic Observer Website The Economic Observer on Facebook The Economic Observer on Twitter
Dmitry Borisovich Fuchs is a Russian-American mathematician, specializing in the representation theory of infinite-dimensional Lie groups and in topology. Fuchs received in 1964 his Russian candidate degree under Albert S. Schwarz at Moscow State University, where he taught thereafter. Schwarz conducted a seminar on algebraic topology with Vladimir Boltyanski. Fuchs participated in the seminar and, as a student, published papers with Schwarz, as did Askold Ivanovich Vinogradov a few years earlier. Fuchs received his Russian doctorate in 1987 at Tbilisi State University. Since 1991 he has been a professor at the University of Davis. With Israel Gelfand he introduced in 1970 the Gelfand-Fuchs cohomology of Lie algebras. Gelfand-Fuchs cohomology has applications in the proof of the Macdonald identities in combinatorics and in the calculation of characteristic classes of foliations. With Boris Feigin he determined the structure of Verma modules in the Virasoro algebra representation theory, which has applications in string theory and conformal field theory.
His students include Boris Feigin, Fedor Malikov, Sergei Tabachnikov, Vladimir Rokhlin, as well as Edward Frenkel for whom Fuchs was a second advisor. In 1978 he was an Invited Speaker with talk New results on the characteristic classes of foliations at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Helsinki. With Anatoli T. Fomenko, Viktor L. Gutenmacher: Homotopic topology. Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest 1986, ISBN 963-05-3544-0. Homotopical topology, 2nd edition. 2016. Cohomology of infinite-dimensional Lie algebras. Consultants Bureau, New York NY 1986, ISBN 0-306-10990-5. Singular extended Verma Modules. In: Dmitry Fuchs: Unconventional Lie Algebras. American Mathematical Society, Providence RI 1993, ISBN 0-8218-4121-1, pp. 65–74. With Serge Tabachnikov: Mathematical omnibus. Thirty lectures on classic mathematics. American Mathematical Society, Providence RI 2007, ISBN 978-0-8218-4316-1 Alexander Astashkevich, Serge Tabachnikov: Differential topology, infinite-dimensional lie algebras, applications.
D. B. Fuchs' 60th Anniversary Collection. American Mathematical Society, Providence RI 1999, ISBN 0-8218-2032-X. A tribute to Boris Feigin on his 50th birthday