Now This Is A Room With A View, E.M. Forster.

(CIRCOLO)

“Don’t go fighting against the Spring.” ― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

(vía https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aC6zCkzPNK8)

(vía https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhXwwz5XsS0)

Exercising in Space

Are you hoping to get to the gym more often in 2016? While you work out on Earth, here are a few ways that astronauts stay fit on the International Space Station.

Exercise is an important part of the daily routine for astronauts aboard the International Space Station to prevent bone and muscle loss, and to maintain cardiovascular health. On average, astronauts exercise two hours per day. The equipment they use in space is different than what we use on Earth.

Lifting 200 pounds on Earth may be a lot of work, but in microgravity a 200 pound dumbbell would not weigh anything. Therefore, free weights do not serve as a good strength training tool for the astronauts in space.  That means exercise equipment needs to be specifically designed for use in space so astronauts will receive the workout needed.

What Equipment Do They Use in Space?

Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED)

The ARED hardware uses adjustable resistance piston-driven vacuum cylinders along with a flywheel system to simulate free-weight exercises in normal gravity. It’s primary goal is to maintain muscle strength and bone mass in astronauts during long periods in space.

Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation System (CEVIS)

CEVIS is very similar to a mechanical bicycle. It’s bolted to the floor, and astronauts snap their shoes on to the pedals. A seat belt can be used to hold them in position, and they can change the resistance for varying levels of difficulty.

Russian Treadmill (BD-2)

BD-2 is the treadmill that is found in the Russian segment of the space station. It allows crew members to walk and run with a speed from 2.4 to 20 km/hr. 

Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill (COLBERT)

COLBERT is the second generation U.S. treadmill on the space station. It features data collection devices that will allow scientists and doctors to evaluate how effective the exercise is in reducing the amount of bone and muscle density loss due to microgravity exposure. It allows crew members to walk and run with a speed from 4.8 to 20 km/hr. 

Why is it called COLBERT? 

The treadmill’s name was selected after comedian Stephen Colbert took interest in our online naming poll for Node 3 of space station. He urged his viewers to submit the name “Colbert.” Although we ended up choosing the suggested name “Tranquillity” for the node, we designated its new treadmill “COLBERT” in honor of the name that received the most entries.

VELO Ergomoeter Bike (VB-3)

VB-3 is used for aerobic training, medical tests and pedaling regimes. It is located in the Russian segment of the space station. 

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

CLASSIC OF THE DAY:

A Room with a View by E.M. Forster 

Romantic comedy this is not. The rosiness of a woman stumbling upon convenient fantasy fulfillment by marrying into privilege and bourgeois wealth do not tinge the themes of this classic. Rather this aspires to the novelty of a sort of female bildungsroman. A woman who is roused into the acknowledgement of her desires and self through the unwitting intervention of men considered unworthy of being even good travel companions - how many male authors/poets/dramatists of Forster’s generation have cared enough about class distinctions and gender inequality to fashion such a narrative?

Sexually and emotionally inhibited young woman savoring personal liberty for the first time through the love of a man of inferior social standing who assumes a consciously passive role in earning her affections - this was, perhaps, Forster’s way of contradicting and affirming Austenian values at the same time. The very possibility of the intersection of marital bliss and lack of wealth and connections in a prospective husband and disregard for societal approval lay well outside the limits of Austen’s imagination but she did endow her many women characters with enough dimensions to be keenly distinguishable from each other.

What else is there to say? Here’s to the unexpected joy of discovering another male author of the last century, who was effortlessly free of the abysmal sexism that is so regrettably palpable in the work of many novelists (of all genders) of the present. Here’s to a great story-teller who ventured beyond the narrow horizons conferred on him by his times.

by guest reviewer Samadrita 

Get the book here!

Read excerpts from the book here!

Download 700+ FREE eBooks here!

Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks!

College students with a .edu email address, click here!

Life is easy to chronicle, but bewildering to practice.

E.M. Forster, A Room With A View (via booksqouted)

Book review: A Room With A View by E.M. Forster

Thoughts and overview of assessment

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Written in 1908, E.M. Forster’s A Room With A View is about Lucy Honeychurch’s journey to self-awareness.  Forster was only  29 when it was published. Literary commentators have considered this to be Forster’s most “optimistic book.”

In the Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge I will tag this as a classic romance. The book could also be considered for the book written by someone under 30. This book 48 of 52 books I intend to read for the year. 

I am still uncertain if I truly felt the romance in this book. But is labelled as a classic romance and based on the time period I guess the label may apply.

Goodreads summary

This Edwardian social comedy explores love and prim propriety among an eccentric cast of characters assembled in an Italian pensione and in a corner of Surrey, England. A charming young English woman, Lucy Honeychurch, faints into the arms of a fellow Britisher when she witnesses a murder in a Florentine piazza. Attracted to this man, George Emerson, who is entirely unsuitable and whose father just may be a Socialist. Lucy is soon at war with the snobbery of her class and her own conflicting desires. Back in England she is courted by a more acceptable, if stifling, suitor, and soon realizes she must make a startling decision that will decide the course of her future: she is forced to choose between convention and passion. The enduring delight of this tale of romantic intrigue is rooted in Forster’s colorful characters, including outrageous spinsters, pompous clergymen and outspoken patriots. Written in 1908, A Room With A View is one of E.M. Forster’s earliest and most celebrated works.

Review

At the beginning of book, Lucy and her older cousin Charlotte are on vacation in Florence, Italy. In the opening scene the cousins are in the dining room of their villa, the Pension Bertolini,   discussing their disappointment  about not having rooms with views of the Italian countryside but instead their windows face the courtyard and as such they feel that they may as well still be in England as the layout and views are so similar. Their complaints are interrupted by an elderly man, Mr Emerson who is vacationing with his son George. Mr. Emerson offers to swap rooms with the young ladies so that they may enjoy the view that he and his son do not particularly require.   Miss Bartlett refused the offer, she thought the Emersons too forward and their behaviour unconventional. After an intervention by an elderly clergyman, Mr Beebe, the rooms are swapped.

The book is lighthearted and filled with odd characters with very strong opinions. There is coming of stronger coming of age narrative than any romantic elements. The main character Lucy is learning more about herself and the differences in opinions and world views that she must decipher. Lucy faces a continuous struggle throughout the novel, a struggle to maintain behaviours that reflect that which is expected and appropriate and those that are her natural inclinations. 

The motif of views, what is seen and how what is seen is absorbed and interpretated is evident in the representation of polarizing perspectives in the narrative.  For the time period,  very liberal opinions on the roles of women and their education are presented. Also women and  our rights to free thinking and movement and women as creators are also discussed.  One character, Miss Lavish, in the first part of the novel is ridiculed by men and women for wanting to write a novel. Later it is discovered that she did indeed write her novel but her nome de plume is distinctly masculine. There are vague themes of feminism that are introduced but not fully developed. 

One Goodreads reviewer, Samadrita describes the book as a sort of bildungsroman (a novel dealing with one person’s formative years or spiritual education) and I am inclined to agree with this assessment. 

This book is in the public domain and is available for free download on Bookshout.  I read listened to a dramatic Libriovox recording. Was such a great presentation. Here is a link to the Librivox reading:

 https://librivox.org/a-room-with-a-view-dramatic-reading-by-e-m-forster/

“… there are shadows because there are hills.” ― E.M. Forster, A Room with a View

This is the most beautiful picture

What's the coolest thing you've seen since you have been in space?

The Earth never fails to disappoint, but I’ve seen some pretty spectacular aurora from here.