Awakenings

Awakenings is a 1990 American drama film based on Oliver Sacks' 1973 memoir of the same title. It tells the true story of British neurologist Oliver Sacks, fictionalized as American Malcolm Sayer (portrayed by Robin Williams), who, in 1969, discovered beneficial effects of the drug L-Dopa. He administered it to catatonic patients who survived the 1917–28 epidemic of encephalitis lethargica. Leonard Lowe (played by Robert De Niro) and the rest of the patients were awakened after decades of catatonia and have to deal with a new life in a new time. The film was nominated for three Academy Awards.

Directed by Penny Marshall, the film was produced by Walter Parkes and Lawrence Lasker, who first encountered Sacks's book as undergraduates at Yale University and optioned it a few years later. Awakenings stars Robert De Niro, Robin Williams, Julie Kavner, Ruth Nelson, John Heard, Penelope Ann Miller, and Max Von Sydow. The film features a non-speaking cameo from jazz legend Dexter Gordon (who died before the film's release) and then-unknowns Bradley Whitford, Peter Stormare, and Vincent Pastore play a doctor, neurochemist, and psych-ward patient, respectively. Also, a then-unknown Vin Diesel was in the film playing a psych-ward orderly, but he was uncredited.

Awakenings (book)

Awakenings is a 1973 non-fiction book by Oliver Sacks. It recounts the life histories of those who had been victims of the 1920s encephalitis lethargica epidemic. Sacks chronicles his efforts in the late 1960s to help these patients at the Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Services) in the Bronx, New York. The treatment used the then-new drug L-DOPA.

In 1982, Dr. Sacks wrote:

The book inspired the 1982 play A Kind of Alaska by Harold Pinter, performed as part of a trilogy of Pinter's plays titled Other Places, and a documentary television episode, the pilot of the British television programme Discovery. It was also made into a 1990 Oscar-nominated film, Awakenings starring Robert De Niro and Robin Williams.

The 1976 edition of the book is dedicated to the memory of poet W. H. Auden, and bears an extract from Auden's 1969 poem The Art of Healing:

'Healing',
Papa would tell me,
'is not a science,
but the intuitive art
of wooing Nature.'

Prior to his 1973 death, Auden himself wrote: "Have read the book and think it a masterpiece".

List of Stargate Universe episodes

Stargate Universe is a Canadian-American military science fiction television series created by Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper as a spin off from its sister shows, Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis.

The show has stand-alone episodes as well as multi-part episodes, and it also has more season-long story and character arcs running through every episode than any other Stargate series. Brad Wright was hopeful that the show would last three or more seasons. On December 16, 2010, Entertainment Weekly reported that the show would end after the second season.

Series overview

Television series

Season 1 (2009–10)

The first season consists of 20 episodes. Brad Wright and Robert C. Cooper wrote the three-parter series opener named "Air", which was originally planned to be a two-parter. The first two parts of "Air" premiered on Syfy on October 2, 2009, with regularly weekly airing beginning on October 9, 2009. "Fire" was originally going to be the title for episode four, but the story and script was too big to be able to fit into one episode, so the producers changed it to become a two-parter called "Darkness" and "Light", therefore pushing all future episodes forward one slot. "Justice" was the mid-season finale. The back half of the first season aired on Friday April 2, 2010 on Space and Syfy.

Vada

Vada or Vayda may refer to:

People

Places

Other uses

Vada (food)

Vada [vəɽɑː] is a common term for many different types of savoury fritter-type snacks from South India with a set of common ingredients. Due to their popularity, they have spread throughout the world and are known by various names - for example in South Africa where a large south Indian population is found it is called Vade.

Description

Vada can vary in shape and size, but are usually either doughnut- or disc-shaped and are between 5 and 8 cm across. They are made from black grams and Bengal grams.

Vada is a traditional South Indian food known from ancient times. As well as being commonly prepared at home, vada are popular items in street stalls and in railway stations(including the Indian Railways). They are eaten throughout the day but most commonly as a part of breakfast alongside idlis with sambar. Vada are an indispensable part of the menu in Hindu festivals with garlands of Vada offered to Hanuman on auspicious days in South Indian Temples.

Preparation

Vada are generally prepared from a thick batter of Black gram or coarsely ground Bengal gram which has been fermented. This mixture is then seasoned by mixing with cumin seeds, onion, curry leaves (sometimes previously sauteed), salt, chillies and/or black pepper grains. Often ginger and baking soda are added to the seasoning in shops to increase the fluffy texture and improve fermentation for large batches. Homemade Vada generally do not incorporate baking soda and rely on natural fermentation (relatively easy in South India). The individual vada are then shaped and deep-fried.

Ulmus 'Wanoux' = Vada

Ulmus 'Wanoux' (selling name Vada™) is a Dutch hybrid cultivar arising from the crossing of 'Plantyn' with another selfed (self-pollinated) specimen of 'Plantyn'. Originally identified as clone No. 762, it was selected for assessment by the French Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), which patented it as 'Wanoux' (Vada) in 2006.

Description

Vada is a narrow tree primarily intended for street planting. The glossy, dark-green leaves, < 11 cm long by 8 cm wide, are coarsely toothed and have conspicuous venation Towards the end of the season however, the leaves suffer from various afflictions so they can appear shabby. Leafing is late, but not quite as late as its stablemate Lutèce. Many minor buds fail to burst, so that young plants are rather sparsely furnished; in combination with the tree’s limited lateral development, this can lead to a skeletal appearance.

Pests and diseases

Tests in France by INRA found the tree to be 'highly resistant' to Dutch elm disease, exhibiting the lowest wilting percentage of all the clones trialled, making it comparable with 'Sapporo Autumn Gold' However, the presence of U. wallichiana in the ancestry of Vada poses the risk of susceptibility to elm yellows (phloem necrosis), which seriously damaged its Dutch stablemate 'Lobel' used as a control in the Italian elm breeding programme.