--Stephen William Hawking--

Stephen William Hawking, CH, CBE, FRS, FRSA (born 8 January 1942) is a British theoretical physicist, whose world-renowned scientific career spans over 40 years. His books and public appearances have made him an academic celebrity and he is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a lifetime member of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, and in 2009 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States.
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Hawking was the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge for thirty years, taking up the post in 1979 and retiring on 1 October 2009. He is also a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and a Distinguished Research Chair at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Ontario. He is known for his contributions to the fields of cosmology and quantum gravity, especially in the context of black holes. He has also achieved success with works of popular science in which he discusses his own theories and cosmology in general; these include the runaway best seller A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times bestsellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
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Hawking's key scientific works to date have included providing, with Roger Penrose, theorems regarding singularities in the framework of general relativity, and the theoretical prediction that black holes should emit radiation, which is today known as Hawking radiation (or sometimes as Bekenstein-Hawking radiation).
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Hawking has a neuro-muscular dystrophy that is related to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a condition that has progressed over the years and has left him almost completely paralysed.
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~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking
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~http://www.hawking.org.uk/
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~http://www.hawking.org.uk/index.php/about-stephen

--清明時節雨紛紛，路上行人欲斷魂....--

在人们的印象中，无论东西方、海内外，祭祀先人都是一种很肃穆很庄严的仪式，为的是表达内心深处的怀念，一束鲜花，亦或一把纸钱烧起的一缕飘向天空的青烟，都承载和寄托了一片哀思，人们都会依据当地的习俗用各种方式来表达出这一人类真实的感情。
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还有几天就是中华民族的传统祭祀先人的节日清明节了，清明时节，天气转暖，进入春耕的季节，春耕之前，过去长期处于农耕社会的中国人，都会在此时候想到先祭祀自己的先人，企盼保佑五谷丰登，所谓“清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂”这句杜牧的诗在中国是家喻户晓，千百年来，一代又一代的中国人都会特地在这清明的同一天用各种方式祭祀自己的故去的亲人以及祖先或英烈，以这种方式印证了生生不息的中华民族代代相传的顽强生命力；于中国人而言，也许我们都会印象深刻的就是后人们举家上山挂青，倒上白酒，并烧纸钱也就是常说的冥币.