Somnium is a novel written in 1608, in Latin, by Johannes Kepler. The narrative would not be published until 1634 by Ludwig Kepler. In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania from a daemon. Somnium presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the first works of science fiction; the story begins with Kepler reading about a skillful magician named Libussa. He falls asleep while reading about her, he recounts a strange dream from reading that book. The dream begins with Kepler reading a book about Duracotus, an Icelandic boy, 14 years old. Duracotus' mother, makes a living selling bags of herbs and cloth with strange markings on them. Duracotus is sold by Fiolxhilde to a skipper after cutting into one of these bags and ruining her sale, he travels with the skipper for a while until a letter is to be delivered to Tycho Brahe on the island of Hven.

Since Duracotus is made seasick by the trip there, the skipper leaves Duracotus to deliver the letter and stay with Tycho. Tycho asks his students to teach Duracotus Danish. Along with learning Danish, Duracotus learns of astronomy from his students. Duracotus enjoys the time they spend looking at the night sky. Duracotus spends several years with Tycho before returning home to Iceland. Upon his return to Iceland, Duracotus finds his mother still alive, she is overjoyed to learn that he is well studied in astronomy as she too possesses knowledge of astronomy. One day, Fiolxhilde reveals to Duracotus, she tells him about the daemons. These daemons can move her anywhere on Earth in an instant. If the place is too far away for them to take her, they describe it in great detail, she summons her favorite daemon to speak with them. The summoned daemon tells them, "Fifty thousand miles up in the Aether lies the island of Levania,", Earth's moon. According to the daemon, there is a pathway between the island of Earth.

When the pathway is open, daemons can take humans to the island in four hours. The journey is a shock to humans, so they are sedated for the trip. Extreme cold is a concern on the trip, but the daemons use their powers to ward it off. Another concern is the air, so humans have to have damp sponges placed in their nostrils in order to breathe; the trip is made with the daemons pushing the humans toward Levania with great force. At the Lagrangian point between the Earth and the Moon, the daemons have to slow the humans down lest they hurtle with great force into the Moon. After describing the trip to Levania, the daemon notes, they dwell in the shadows of the Earth, called Volva by the inhabitants of Levania. The daemons can rush to Volva during a solar eclipse, otherwise they remain hidden in shadows on Levania. After the daemon describes other daemons' behavior, she goes on to describe Levania. Levania is divided into two hemispheres called Subvolva; the two hemispheres are divided by the divisor.

Privolva never sees Subvolva sees Volva as their moon. Volva goes throughout the same phases as the actual Moon; the daemon continues the descriptions of Privolva. Some of these details are scientific in nature such as: how eclipses would look from the Moon, the size of the planets varying in size due to the Moon's distance from the Earth, an idea about the size of the Moon and more; some details of Levania are science fiction such as: descriptions of the creatures that inhabit Subvolva and Privolva, plant growth on each side, the life and death cycle of Levania. The dream is cut short in the middle of the description of the creatures of Privolva. Kepler wakes up from the dream because of a storm outside, he realizes that his head is covered and he is wrapped in blankets just like the characters in his story. Somnium began as a student dissertation in which Kepler defended the Copernican doctrine of the motion of the Earth, suggesting that an observer on the Moon would find the planet's movements as visible as the Moon's activity is to the Earth's inhabitants.

Nearly 20 years Kepler added the dream framework, after another decade, he drafted a series of explanatory notes reflecting upon his turbulent career and the stages of his intellectual development. The book was edited by Ludwig Kepler and Jacob Bartsch, after Kepler's death in 1630. There are many similarities to Kepler's real life in Somnium. Duracotus spends a considerable amount of time working for Tycho Brahe. Kepler worked under Tycho Brahe in 1600 before becoming Imperial Mathematician. Kepler's mother, Katharina Kepler, would be arrested on charges of being a witch. Kepler fought for five years to free her. After her death, Kepler wrote extensive notes to explain his narrative; the book was published posthumously in 1634 by Ludwig Kepler. Kepler uses a daemon to describe the island of Levania in many scientific ways; the fixed stars are in the same position as the Earth's fixed stars. The planets appear larger from Levania than from Earth due to the distance. Levania sees planetary motions in a different way.

For instance, Levania does not seem to move while the Earth is seen to move just as Earth does not seem to move when on Earth but the Moon is seen to move. This is an example of Kepler defending Copernicus' diurnal rotation; the inhabitants at the divisor see the planets different from the rest of the Moon. Mercury and Venus seem bigger to them. A day is around 14 Earth d

David Comes to Life is the third studio album by Canadian hardcore punk band Fucked Up. It was released on June 7, 2011 in North America and June 6, 2011 elsewhere on Matador Records in CD and double LP formats. David Comes to Life is an 18 song epic in four acts, it became Fucked Up's first charting album in the United States ranking at number 83 on the Billboard 200. The album is a rock opera set in 1980s England; the story involves meta-narrative plot devices. Drummer Jonah Falco described the album as a love story between the title character David and a girl named Veronica. David Comes to Life was first announced in March 2010, with guitarist Ben Cook describing the album as a musical; the album began recording in June 2010 in New York City and was finished in February 2011. The day before the album was released, the band took over Clint Roenisch Gallery in Toronto and turn it into a pop-up record shop, where they sold copies of David Comes to Life and 7" singles featuring other songs from the recording session.

The character of David Eliade had appeared in previous Fucked Up songs such as "David Comes to Life" and "David's Christmas". The reason Fucked Up made the album a rock opera was to contrast rock opera's perception as being indulgent with the rawness of hardcore punk; the music was written. Damian Abraham called the songs on David Comes to Life the most personal ones yet, saying "e could hide behind characters and pretend that we’re talking about David and Veronica when we’re talking about my breaking with my girlfriend or something We always wrote about things we’re passionate about, but we’re always writing it in the sort of'we','collective','us vs. humanity' type of thing. This time, it was much like'Here is what I am going through.' "On Record Store Day, Fucked Up released David's Town, a compilation of 11 songs purporting to be from bands in Byrdesdale Spa, the fictional town David Comes to Life is set in. Each song on the compilation featured a guest singer, including Danko Jones, Wesley Patrick Gonzalez, Dan Romano, Simone Schmidt, Cee Kay and Cloud Nothings.

David Eliade is a worker at a light bulb factory in late 70's, early 80's England. David meets Veronica Boisson, an activist, the two fall in love. Though David enjoys being in a relationship with Veronica, David starts to worry that something wrong is going to happen; the two build a bomb as a form of attempt to bomb the factory. The bomb fails to destroy the factory and ends up killing Veronica in the process. David feels sorrow for spending time with Veronica, thinking that it was all a waste, something the narrator agrees on. David feels guilty for causing Veronica's death; the story introduces an acquaintance of David named Vivian Benson, who tells David to not trust narration. David realizes that he is a character in a story, being controlled by Octavio St. Laurent, the story's narrator. David and Octavio fight for control over the plot, but David loses the fight and comes out feeling worse. Vivian reveals to David that she witnessed the bomb blast, that Octavio was the cause of Veronica's death.

Octavio accepts. However, Octavio defends his action, saying that because he was cast as a villain, he was doing his job and should not be blamed. Veronica's spirit returns to David and David realizes. David, glad with his experience, returns to the factory to relive everything again; the first music video from the album, "Queen of Hearts," was released on June 21, 2011. The video, directed by Scott Cudmore and shot in rural Ontario, features a children choir singing the song, with the boys singing Damien Abraham's part while the girls sing Madeline Follin's part; the second music video from the album, "The Other Shoe," was released on August 16, 2011. The video, directed by Matt Eastman, is set in the location of the album's story; the video features the characters David and Octavio, as well as the bomb that would kill Veronica. The video intercuts to footage of the band walking in slow motion; the third music video from the album, "Turn the Season," was released on December 12, 2011 on Spin's website.

The video features a photo shoot with the band intertwined with elements from the David Comes to Life story. On December 12, 2012, the fourth music video from the album, "Inside a Frame," premiered on Pitchfork.tv. David Comes to Life has received overwhelmingly positive reviews. On the review aggregate Metacritic, the album has a score of 86 out of 100, indicating "Universal acclaim."The A. V. Club's Steven Hyden gave the album a grade of "A," writing: "For a highfalutin concept record, the component parts of David Comes To Life are downright catchy. They're bracingly potent and screamingly vital. Brian Raftery of Spin praised the album, writing " is one of the most overly complicated hard-rock records of the past ten years. It's one of the best." Pitchfork's Larry Fitzmaurice gave the album a Best New Music designation, commenting on the album's length: "David Comes to Life is worth the commitment, a convincing demonstration of what can happen when a band works without limitations." AllMusic's Jason Lymangrover wrote "Guest backing vocalists Kurt Vile, Jennifer Castle, Madeline Follin give the songs a hint of melody, but otherwise, David Comes to Life is the musical equivalent of a bullhorn and a blender, all the more awesome for it."

Consequence of Sound's Adam Kivel, while criticizing the narrative, wrot

Serious Sam 3: BFE is a first-person shooter video game developed by Croatia-based indie development studio Croteam and published by Devolver Digital. It is the prequel to Serious Sam: The First Encounter; the game takes place in 22nd-century Egypt, during Mental's invasion on Earth, as implied in The First Encounter. The game features a 16-player online, as well as 4-player splitscreen co-op campaign mode; the game was first released for Microsoft Windows on 22 November 2011. The OS X support for the game followed shortly after and was released on 23 April 2012; the Linux version of the game started being worked on after a high number of requests, where the first Linux-related update was the porting of the game's dedicated server. The game itself, was released one day after Valve opened the beta branch for "Steam for Linux", namely 20 December 2012. Like previous titles in the series, Serious Sam 3: BFE involves fighting against many hordes of enemies in wide-open environments; however Serious Sam 3 has more closed environments than its predecessors in the early levels.

There are a larger number of enemies that can attack the player from a distance. The player can carry an unlimited number of weapons, including a minigun, rocket launcher, assault rifle and a cannon. There are 13 weapons in total; the signature close-combat weapons from the first game, the knife and chainsaw, have been replaced with a sledgehammer with three modes of attack. There is no regenerating health, instead there are health and armor power-ups scattered throughout the levels that the player must pick up. Additionally, the levels are full of secret areas, where health, ammo and in some cases, weapons from levels can be found, following the tradition of the previous games; some weapons such as the Lasergun and the Sniper Rifle and their respective ammunition pickups are in fact secret-only, otherwise are not found in the levels normally. There are no puzzles, however the player must find keys, pull levers and find environmental anomalies to progress. Classic enemies such as the Beheaded Kamikaze, Beheaded Rocketeer and Kleer Skeleton return in the game.

New ones include the Khnum and Scrapjack, as well as the cloned soldiers reminiscent of the Strogg from the Quake series. The Kamikaze has returned to his original design, rather than the Serious Sam II design; the Gnaar's design has radically been changed from the original game. It is now much larger, differently shaped and walks on all fours, unlike its bipedal counterpart in Serious Sam. Serious Sam 3 features some new gameplay mechanics such as iron sights. Unlike most other FPS games that have sprinting, you are able to sprint as much as you want, but cannot attack while sprinting; the pistol and assault rifle have the ability to aim down sights, which increases accuracy but only slightly. The player moves slower while making it impractical at close range; the player can perform hand kills or kick enemies to conserve ammo, depending on the weapon selected. For example, a Gnaar's eyeball can be ripped out or an Antaresian Spider's shell can be broken. Serious Sam 3: BFE serves as a prequel to the original Serious Sam: The First Encounter and depicts the events on Earth before Sam's journey into the past.

Prior to AD 2060, humanity had begun uncovering artifacts and ruins left behind in ancient times by the Sirians, the famous and long-thought extinct race from the place of Sirius. Mental has chosen this time to turn his attention upon Earth, he dispatches his space fleet carrying his endless hordes to attack Earth, leading a three-year conquest that has humanity driven to the point of extinction. In a last-ditch effort, the survivors turn to the Time-Lock, a excavated device capable of granting a single person the ability of time travel via an inter-dimensional portal. Through it, that person could alter events of the past, but as the device lies dormant, they must first discover a means to turn it on. Sam "Serious" Stone, part of the Earth Defense force, is dispatched with a detachment of soldiers in Alpha team to modern Egypt, occupied by Mental's alien army, their original mission is to recon and extract Bravo team who are protecting Dr Stein, a scientist carrying hieroglyphics believed to contain instructions for powering up the Time-Lock.

Sam's insertion goes haywire as his chopper is shot down and both teams are wiped out. However, he is able to recover the hieroglyphics from Stein's phone in the museum and transmit them to headquarters. Deciphering indicates. Sam descends into the Pyramid, he not only discovers the hidden chamber, but recovers crucial information and a bracelet device from the remains of what might have been Earth's last Sirian. In order to power the Time-Lock, two dormant but powerful plasma-energy generators need to be activated. Hellfire from Charlie team inserts Sam to bring both online; this is accomplished and Team Charlie is staged to enter the Time-Lock. Sam is relieved of duty and in the process of being extracted from Cairo, but is shot down once again and is forced to flee towards the lost ruins of Nubia. Traversing through more tombs, Sam gets back in touch with Hellfire and learns that Mental's forces have overrun the human military and killed them all shortly before dying herself. Now determined to finish what the Sirians has started, Sam vows to use the Time-Lock himself and kill Mental in the past before he can destroy h

Kevin Saunders is an American paralympian and author. He was the first person with a disability appointed to the President's Council on Fitness and Nutrition, remains the only person to serve two consecutive terms under different administrations, first under President George H. W. Bush, reappointed by President Bill Clinton; the youngest of three boys, Saunders was born to Donald and Freda Saunders, who owned a farm in north central Kansas. He enjoyed sports from an early age, by middle school and high school, he was involved with football, basketball and baseball. Saunders attended college on athletic scholarships for football and field, soccer, he transferred to Kansas State University. While at KSU, he joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and continued to play sports until graduating from the university in 1978. At graduation in 1974, Saunders met U. S. Senator Bob Dole, a fellow Kansan, who spoke at the commencement exercises for Downs High School. Twenty six years Dole would play a pivotal role in introducing Saunders to President George H. W. Bush, recommending him for the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition.

Saunders attended college on athletic scholarships for football and field, soccer. He transferred to Kansas State University. While at KSU, he joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and continued to play sports until graduating from the university in 1978. Kansas State University lists Saunders as a member of its Acclaimed Alumni in sports. After graduating from college, Saunders began training to become a federal inspector for the USDA. An accident in April 1981, at a grain elevator in Corpus Christi, wounded him and left him in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the chest down. After graduating from college, Saunders became a federal inspector for the USDA; as an inspector, Saunders was responsible for checking export grain elevators at major ports. His work assignments included locations throughout the Gulf Coast region, all along the eastern seaboard, from Florida to Nova Scotia. Corpus Christi Public Grain Elevator explosion On April 7, 1981, at the age of 23, Saunders identified and reported safety hazards at the Corpus Christi Public Grain Elevator, in Corpus Christi, Texas.

He submitted recommendations outlining a temporary shutdown of the facility, necessary repairs to resolve problems with the failing dust collection system. Management representatives met with the head engineer and declined to act on the inspection report, opting instead to continue normal operations; the next day, on April 7, an employee disregarded basic safety precautions during a routine Phostoxin pesticide application, triggering a spark in one of the silos with abnormally heavy grain dust concentrations. The suspended grain dust particles ignited, producing a series of powerful explosions that ripped through the facility at a speed calculated by experts at Texas A&M University to be in excess of 1,082 ft per second; the grain elevator’s silos were destroyed in seconds. There was massive loss of life as many grain elevator employees were either killed by the blast or succumbed to fatal injuries in the moments that followed. Many others suffered life-altering injuries requiring extended hospitalization.

Saunders was in the USDA government building. Having heard the sudden blasts erupting just yards away, his last recollection of the event is that “the walls blew out in my face; the crackling and popping of the concrete being blown apart was so loud it felt like it was going to split my head wide open.” He was knocked unconscious and was blown through the roof of the building. Paramedics found Saunders over 300 ft away, a crumpled mass lying in a pool of blood on a concrete parking lot. Saunders' injuries were so severe and not expected to survive; because all ambulances on the scene were occupied by other survivors, Saunders was placed into a station wagon and driven to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital. His injuries included a fractured skull, collapsed lungs, shattered scapulas, various internal and external injuries and a severed spine at, his body was broken over at the chest like most people bend at the waist when they bend to touch their toes. Doctors gave him less than 1% chance of survival.

As the explosion garnered national news coverage, doctors worked to first stabilize Saunders’ condition, to begin treating some of the injuries. He would spend nearly a year in the hospital and in rehabilitation, before being released in a wheelchair paralyzed from the chest down. Saunders faced a difficult transition to life as a paraplegic, experiencing bouts of depression and emotional distress. Saunders credits former rugby teammates and workout partners, Robert Hays and Bruce Acuna, with forcing him to get back into the gym where he began strength training. In 1983 Saunders, who had moved to Greenville, South Carolina, was persuaded by his brother Gerald to try entering his first wheelchair race, the Peachtree Road Race held in Atlanta, every year on July 4. Though untrained in the discipline and lacking proper material, he participated, this led to his entering competitions, finding success at the regional, national levels. In 1983 Saunders was persuaded by his brother Gerald to try entering his first wheelchair race, the Peachtree Road Race held in Atlanta, every year on July 4th.

Saunders signed up, though he had only participated in wheelchair basketball and had never trained for a whee

The 2008 Irish flash floods were a series of flash floods that occurred across the island of Ireland in August 2008. The floods and related weather conditions affected the following counties. Parts of Ireland's large urban centres, including Dublin and Belfast, were submerged, whilst Carlow town has experienced some of the worst flooding in the country. One person died, he went missing in the River Fergus, in Ennis, was found 6 days in the same river. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Rainfall in Cork for the month of July 2008 was the heaviest recorded since 1975; the combined total for June and July was more than twice the normal level of rainfall expected for that time period. Around the country the weather was wetter than normal for July with exceptional rainfall in County Limerick in the last 24 hours of July giving rise to this figure. Met Éireann described July as "a dull month generally"; the highest average temperature recorded in July was 15.7 degrees. The lowest air temperature since the early 1970s was recorded at Mullingar during July – a figure of 3.6 degrees was recorded on the 5th.

The greatest level of sunshine was in the east of the country – Dublin Airport recorded 156 hours of sunshine – whilst the lowest level of rainfall was recorded at Belmullet – 54 millimetres fell during July. County Limerick and County Cork were the first areas to be affected. On the night of 31 July/August 1, the River Blackwater in Cork burst its banks, causing severe flooding between Banteer and Mallow. Cork County Council issued a flood warning for Mallow on the morning of the 1st whilst council staff distributed sandbags. Bridge Street in Mallow was closed for a time but reopened for motorist use; the Town Park Road in Mallow was closed for a longer period. Flood relief works had been ongoing in Mallow for six months but were not expected to finish for another 18 months. Further downstream, floodwaters reached Fermoy at around 10 pm. In Limerick, it took several hours before electricity was restored to 3,000 homes in Newcastle West, where a major clear-up operation was underway after the River Arra burst its banks earlier in the morning.

Up to 20 homes were badly affected by "freak" flash flooding overnight, with residents having to be rescued from their houses. There were few injuries. Met Éireann said that the average rainfall for the last week of July was about 26mm – three times that amount dropped between 7 pm and midnighton 31 July in Newcastle West. At one rainfall station in the area, a measurement of 90.1mm was recorded in that time. Around 100mm of rain would be expected in one month; the rainfall was said to be "tropical-like in intensity". Limerick County Council issued a public drinking water notice residents of Newcastle West to boil their water before use; the areas affected by the boil notice included Newcastle West and Rathcahill and the Ballyine, Reens Kilscannell, Old Mill Road and Killeline Group Water Supply Schemes. The River Deel threatened to flood in County Limerick. Localised flooding occurred earlier in the day in the town; the Newcastle West Business Association called on the government to help those worst affected by the flash floods of the previous day.

Spokesman Pat O'Donovan stated that many businesses were uninsured or under-insured and needed financial assistance. A huge cleanup operation continued in parts of Cork, it was estimated. Met Éireann claimed that the area around Newcastle West experienced the equivalent of four weeks rain in five hours; the record for a single 24-hour period of rain in August was broken in Dublin. 56mm of rain fell on Dublin Airport in 24 hours. The record was set in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. Celbridge was flooded and nearby roads were impassable. Flooding was reported between Blessington. A river burst its banks along the Ballyroan to Portlaoise road at Cashel Cross in County Laois. Only one lane of the road was open to traffic at the time; the road between Portlaoise and Timahoe was badly flooded whilst the Stradbally Village to Athy road was impassable. Other roads closed included the N3, the M1, the M50 with diversions in place. Dart services were suspended between the Malahide and Howth junctions whilst there was disruption to Northern Commuter and Belfast rail services.

Garda diversions were put in place and long delays were to be had. Dublin Airport authorities asked passengers to give plenty of time to reach the airport and, if possible, to check their route before they leave. A football match between Shamrock Rovers and Sunderland, due to be played at Tolka Park at 7.30pm that evening, was cancelled due to the flooding. In Dublin, it was reported. "The combination of monsoon-like rain and a high-tide" prompted a spokesperson for Dublin Fire Brigade to report that crews spent most of the night rescuing people from houses and cars. He claimed that, between 4 pm and midnight, 800 calls were taken with 600 of these flood-related, going on to say: “We’ve never had anything like that. We wouldn’t get that many calls on Halloween.” Hundreds of Armagh Gaelic football fans, attending the All-Ireland quarter-final at Croke Park, were stranded by

Daylesford is an unincorporated community in Tredyffrin Township, Chester County, United States, in the southeastern part of the state, near Philadelphia. Located near the end of the Main Line, it is served by its own stop on the SEPTA Paoli/Thorndale Line. In 1954, the Norbertines opened a novitiate at the former Cassatt Estate in Daylesford. In 1963, the Norbertine community moved to neighboring Easttown Township, near the community of Paoli, established Daylesford Abbey