Saturday, June 29, 2019

Marriage Often a Trap

CONFESS ANONYMOUSLY

Marriage? No Thanks

Posted Jun 29, 2019 04:49 by anonymous
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Saturday, June 22, 2019

A Few Important Rules to Teach Your Daughter


July 16, 2018

By Sandy O'Neal

• Travel light through life. Keep only what you need.

• It’s okay to cry when you’re hurt. It’s also okay to smash (some) things; but, wash your face, clean your mess, and get up off the floor when you’re done. You don’t belong down there.

• Seek out the people and places that resonate with your soul.

• Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

• 5-second rule. It’s just dirt. There are worse things in a fast food cheeseburger.*don’t do this one lol** 

• Happiness is not a permanent state. Wholeness is. Don’t confuse these.

• Never walk through an alley alone. 

• Be less sugar, more spice, and only as nice as you’re able to without compromising yourself.

• Can’t is a cop-out. 

• Hold your heroes to a high standard. Be your own hero.

• If you can’t smile with your eyes, don’t smile. Insincerity is nothing to aspire to.

• Never lie to yourself.

• Your body, your rules.

• If you have an opinion, you better know why.

• Practice your passions. 

• Ask for what you want. The worst thing they can say is no. 

• Wish on stars and dandelions, then get to work to make them happen.

• Stay as sweet as you are.

• Fall in love often. Particularly with ideas, art, music, literature, food and far-off places.

• Say Please, Thank You, and Pardon Me, whenever the situation warrants it.

• Reserve “I’m sorry” for when you truly are.

• Naps are for grown-ups, too.

• You have enough. You are enough.

• You are amazing! Don't let anyone ever make you feel you are not. If someone does....walk away. You deserve better.

• No matter where you are, you can always come home.

• Be happy and remember your roots, family is EVERYTHING.

• Say what you mean and mean what you say.

• No one will ever love you more than I do.

• Be kind; treat others how you would like them to treat you.

• If in doubt, remember whose daughter you are and straighten your crown.

https://www.sandyoneal.com/blog/2018/7/16/a-few-important-rules-to-teach-your-daughter/
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32 Rules to Teach Your Son

1.   Never shake a man’s hand sitting down.

2.   Don’t enter a pool by the stairs.

3.   The man at the BBQ Grill is the closest thing to a king.

4.   In a negotiation, never make the first offer.

5.   Request the late check-out.

6.   When entrusted with a secret, keep it.

7.   Hold your heroes to a higher standard.

8.   Return a borrowed car with a full tank of gas.

9.   Play with passion or don’t play at all.

10. When shaking hands, grip firmly and look them in the eye.

11. Don’t let a wishbone grow where a backbone should be.

12. If you need music on the beach, you’re missing the point.

13. Carry two handkerchiefs. The one in your back pocket is for you. The one in your breast pocket       is   for  her.

14. You marry the girl, you marry her family.

15. Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like crazy underneath.

16. Experience the serenity of traveling alone.

17. Never be afraid to ask out the best looking girl in the room.

18. Never turn down a breath mint.

19. A sport coat is worth 1000 words.

20. Try writing your own eulogy. Never stop revising.

21. Thank a veteran. Then make it up to him.

22. Eat lunch with the new kid.

23. After writing an angry email, read it carefully. Then delete it.

24. Ask your mom to play. She won’t let you win.

25. Manners maketh the man.

26. Give credit. Take the blame.

27. Stand up to Bullies. Protect those bullied.

28. Write down your dreams.

29. Take time to snuggle your pets, they love you so much and are always happy to see you.

30. Be confident and humble at the same time.

31. If ever in doubt, remember whose son you are and REFUSE to just be ordinary!

32. In all things lead by example not explanation.

               http://www.terafiq.com/2018/12/32-rules-to-teach-your-son_10.html

 
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Friday, June 21, 2019

Universal Computer Memory

Lancaster University – June 20, 2019 -- A new type of computer memory which could solve the digital technology energy crisis has been invented and patented by Lancaster scientists. 

The electronic memory device – described in research published in Scientific Reports - promises to transform daily life with its ultra-low energy consumption. 

In the home, energy savings from efficient lighting and appliances have been completely wiped out by increased use of computers and gadgets, and by 2025 a ‘tsunami of data’ is expected to consume a fifth of global electricity. 

But this new device would immediately reduce peak power consumption in data centres by a fifth. 

It would also allow, for example, computers which do not need to boot up and could instantaneously and imperceptibly go into an energy-saving sleep mode – even between key stokes. 

The device is the realisation of the search for a “Universal Memory” which has preoccupied scientists and engineers for decades. 

Physics Professor Manus Hayne of Lancaster University said: “Universal Memory, which has robustly stored data that is easily changed, is widely considered to be unfeasible, or even impossible, but this device demonstrates its contradictory properties.” 

A US patent has been awarded for the electronic memory device with another patent pending, while several companies have expressed an interest or are actively involved in the research. 

The inventors of the device used quantum mechanics to solve the dilemma of choosing between stable, long-term data storage and low-energy writing and erasing. 

The device could replace the $100bn market for Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), which is the ‘working memory’ of computers, as well as the long-term memory in flash drives. 

While writing data to DRAM is fast and low-energy, the data is volatile and must be continuously ‘refreshed’ to avoid it being lost: this is clearly inconvenient and inefficient. Flash stores data robustly, but writing and erasing is slow, energy intensive and deteriorates it, making it unsuitable for working memory. 

Professor Hayne said: “The ideal is to combine the advantages of both without their drawbacks, and this is what we have demonstrated. Our device has an intrinsic data storage time that is predicted to exceed the age of the Universe, yet it can record or delete data using 100 times less energy than DRAM.” 

https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/news/-discovery-of-a-holy-grail-with-the-invention-of-universal-computer-memory
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Thursday, June 20, 2019

Plate Tectonics and "Cambrian Explosion"


University of Exeter – June 19, 2019 -- The quest to discover what drove one of the most important evolutionary events in the history of life on Earth has taken a new, fascinating twist.

A team of scientists have given a fresh insight into what may have driven the “Cambrian Explosion” – a period of rapid expansion of different forms of animal life that occurred over 500 million years ago.

While a number of theories have been put forward to explain this landmark period, the most credible is that it was fuelled by a significant rise in oxygen levels which allowed a wide variety of animals to thrive.

The new study suggests that such a rise in oxygen levels was the result of extraordinary changes in global plate tectonics.

During the formation of the supercontinent ‘Gondwana’, there was a major increase in continental arc volcanism – chains of volcanoes often thousands of miles long formed where continental and oceanic tectonic plates collided. This in turn led to increased ‘degassing’ of CO2 from ancient, subducted sedimentary rocks.

This, the team calculated, led to an increase in atmospheric CO2 and warming of the planet, which in turn amplified the weathering of continental rocks, which supplied the nutrient phosphorus to the ocean to drive photosynthesis and oxygen production.

The study was led by Josh Williams, who began the research as an MSc student at the University of Exeter and is now studying for a PhD at the University of Edinburgh. During his MSc project he used a sophisticated biogeochemical model to make the first quantification of changes in atmospheric oxygen levels just prior to this explosion of life.

Co-author and project supervisor Professor Tim Lenton, from the University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute said: “One of the great dilemmas originally recognised by Darwin is why complex life, in the form of fossil animals, appeared so abruptly in what is now known as the Cambrian explosion.

“Many studies have suggested this was linked to a rise in oxygen levels – but without a clear cause for such a rise, or any attempt to quantify it.”

Not only did the model predict a marked rise in oxygen levels due to changes in plate tectonic activity, but that rise in oxygen – to about a quarter of the level in today’s atmosphere – crossed the critical levels estimated to be needed by the animals seen in the Cambrian explosion.

Williams added: “What is particularly compelling about this research is that not only does the model predict a rise in oxygen to levels estimated to be necessary to support the large, mobile, predatory animal life of the Cambrian, but the model predictions also show strong agreement with existing geochemical evidence."

“It is remarkable to think that our oldest animal ancestors - and therefore all of us - may owe our existence, in part, to an unusual episode of plate tectonics over half a billion years ago” said Professor Lenton. A tectonically driven Ediacaran oxygenation event by Joshua Williams, Benjamin Mills and Tim Lenton is published in Nature Communications on Wednesday, June 19th 2019

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/featurednews/title_721383_en.html
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Wednesday, June 19, 2019

How Gas Bubbles Form in Liquids

Findings show how to make confined bubbles develop uniformly, instead of in their usual scattershot way.
David L. Chandler | MIT News Office

June 17, 2019 -- The formation of air bubbles in a liquid appears very similar to its inverse process, the formation of liquid droplets from, say, a dripping water faucet. But the physics involved is actually quite different, and while those water droplets are uniform in their size and spacing, bubble formation is typically a much more random process.

Now, a study by researchers at MIT and Princeton University shows that under certain conditions, bubbles can also be coaxed to form spheres as perfectly matched as droplets.

The new findings could have implications for the development of microfluidic devices for biomedical research and for understanding the way natural gas interacts with petroleum in the tiny pore spaces of underground rock formations, the researchers say. The findings are published today in the journal PNAS, in a paper by MIT graduate Amir Pahlavan PhD ’18, Professor Howard Stone of Princeton, MIT School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation Gareth McKinley, and MIT Professor Ruben Juanes.

The key to producing uniformly sized and spaced bubbles lies in confining them to a narrow space, Juanes explains. When air or gas is released into a large container of liquid, the dispersal of bubbles is scattershot. When released into liquid that is confined in a relatively narrow tube, however, the gas will produce a stream of bubbles perfectly matched in size, and forming at even intervals. This uniform and predictable behavior, independent of specific starting conditions, is known as universality.

The process of formation of droplets or bubbles is very similar, beginning with an elongation of the flowing material (whether it’s air or water), and eventually a thinning and pinch-off of the “neck” connecting the droplet or bubble to the flowing material. That pinch-off then allows the droplet or bubble to collapse into a spherical shape. Picture blowing soap bubbles: As you blow through the ring, a tube of soap film gradually extends outward in a long pouch before pinching off to form a round bubble that floats away.

“The process of a droplet dripping from a faucet is known to be universal,” says Juanes, who has a joint appointment in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. If the dripping liquid has a different viscosity or surface tension, or if the opening of the faucet is a different size, “it doesn’t matter. You can find relationships that allow you to determine a master curve or a master behavior for describing that process,” he says.

But when it comes to what is, in a sense, the opposite process to a dripping faucet — the injection of air through an opening into a large tank of liquid such as a Jacuzzi tub — the process is not universal. “So if you have irregularities in the orifice, or if the orifice is larger or smaller, or if you inject with some pulsation, all of that will lead to a different pinch-off of the bubbles,” Juanes says.

The new experiments involved gas percolating onto viscous liquids such as oil. In an unconfined space, the sizes of the bubbles are unpredictable, but the situation changes when they bubble into liquid in a tube instead. Up to a certain point, the size and shape of the tube doesn’t matter, nor do the characteristics of the orifice the gas comes through. Instead the bubbles, like the droplets from a faucet, are uniformly sized and spaced.

Pahlavan says, “Our work is really a tale of two surprising observations; the first surprising observation came around 15 years ago, when another group investigating formation of bubbles in large liquid tanks observed that the pinch-off process is nonuniversal” and depends on the details of the experimental setup. “The second surprise now comes in our work, which shows that confining the bubble inside a capillary tube makes the pinch-off insensitive to the details of the experiment and therefore universal.”

This observation is “surprising,” he says, because intuitively it might seem that bubbles able to move freely through the liquid would be less affected by their initial conditions than those that are hemmed in. But the opposite turned out to be true. It turns out that interactions between the tube and the forming bubble, as a line of contact between the air and the liquid advances along the inside of the tube, play an important role. This “effectively erases the memory of the system, of the details of the initial conditions, and therefore restores the universality to the pinch-off of a bubble,” he says.

While such research may seem esoteric, its findings have potential applications in a variety of practical settings, Pahlavan says. “Controlled generation of drops and bubbles is very desirable in microfluidics, with many applications in mind. A few examples are inkjet printing, medical imaging, and making particulate materials.”

The new understanding is also important for some natural processes. “In geophysical applications, we often see fluid flows in very tight and confined spaces,” he says. These interactions between the fluids and the surrounding grains are often neglected in analyzing such processes. But the behavior of such geological systems is often determined by processes at the grain-scale, which means that the kind of microscale analysis done in this work could be helpful in understanding even such very large-scale situations.

The bubble formation in such geological formations can be a blessing or a curse, depending on the context, Juanes says, but either way it’s important to understand. For carbon sequestration, for example, the hope is to pump carbon dioxide, separated out from power plant emissions, into deep formations to prevent the gas from getting out into the atmosphere. In this case, the formation of bubbles in tiny pore spaces in the rock is an advantage, because the bubbles tend to block the flow and keep the gas anchored in position, preventing it from leaking back out.

But for the same reason, bubble formation in a natural gas well can be a problem, because it can also block the flow, inhibiting the ability to extract the desired natural gas. “It can be immobilized in the pore space,” he says. “It would take a much greater pressure to be able to move that bubble.”

“This is a very nice and careful piece of work,” says Jens Eggers, a professor of applied mathematics at the University of Bristol, in the U.K., who was not involved in this research. “It almost goes without saying that a large part of the success of this paper is that it is backed up by careful and quantitative experiments.”

These findings, he says, reflect the fact that “there is a lot more complexity

to problems like pinch-off than previously thought.” Eggers adds that “Of course, understanding this complexity is crucial for applications, where one does not have a choice to pick a particularly simple part of the problem, but has to face all the complications.”
               http://news.mit.edu/2019/how-gas-bubbles-form-liquid-0617
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History of Juneteenth (June 19, 1865)

Juneteenth, also known as Juneteenth Independence Day or Freedom Day, is an American holiday that commemorates the June 19, 1865, announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas, and more generally the emancipation of enslaved African Americans throughout the former Confederate States of America. Its name is a portmanteau of "June" and "nineteenth", the date of its celebration. Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday or special day of observance in 45 states.

Observance is primarily in local celebrations. Traditions include public readings of the Emancipation Proclamation, singing traditional songs such as "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Lift Every Voice and Sing", and reading of works by noted African-American writers such as Ralph Ellison and Maya Angelou. Celebrations include rodeos, street fairs, cookouts, family reunions, park parties, historical reenactments, or Miss Juneteenth contests. The Mascogos, descendants of Black Seminoles, of Coahuila, Mexico also celebrate Juneteenth.

History of Juneteenth

During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862, with an effective date of January 1, 1863. It declared that all enslaved persons in the Confederate States of America in rebellion and not in Union hands were to be freed. This excluded the five states known later as border states, which were the four "slave states" not in rebellion – Kentucky, Maryland, Delaware, and Missouri – and those counties of Virginia soon to form the state of West Virginia, and also the three zones under Union occupation: the state of Tennessee, lower Louisiana, and Southeast Virginia.

More isolated geographically, Texas was not a battleground, and thus the people held there as slaves were not affected by the Emancipation Proclamation unless they escaped. Planters and other slaveholders had migrated into Texas from eastern states to escape the fighting, and many brought enslaved people with them, increasing by the thousands the enslaved population in the state at the end of the Civil War. Although most enslaved people lived in rural areas, more than 1,000 resided in both Galveston and Houston by 1860, with several hundred in other large towns. By 1865, there were an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in Texas.

The news of General Robert E. Lee's surrender on April 9 reached Texas later in the month. The Army of the Trans-Mississippi did not surrender until June 2. On June 18, Union Army General Gordon Granger arrived at Galveston Island with 2,000 federal troops to occupy Texas on behalf of the federal government. The following day, standing on the balcony of Galveston's Ashton Villa, Granger read aloud the contents of "General Order No. 3", announcing the total emancipation of those held as slaves:

The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freedmen are advised to remain quietly at their present homes and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere.

                                                          Ashton Villa in Galveston

Formerly enslaved people in Galveston rejoiced in the streets after the announcement, although in the years afterward many struggled to work through the changes against resistance of whites. The following year, freedmen organized the first of what became the annual celebration of Juneteenth in Texas. In some cities African-Americans were barred from using public parks because of state-sponsored segregation of facilities. Across parts of Texas, freed people pooled their funds to purchase land to hold their celebrations, such as Houston's Emancipation Park, Mexia's Booker T. Washington Park, and Emancipation Park in Austin.

Although the date is sometimes referred to as the "traditional end of slavery in Texas" it was given legal status in a series of Texas Supreme Court decisions between 1868 and 1874.

In the early 20th century, economic and political forces led to a decline in Juneteenth celebrations. From 1890 to 1908, Texas and all former Confederate states passed new constitutions or amendments that effectively disenfranchised black people, excluding them from the political process. White-dominated state legislatures passed Jim Crow laws imposing second-class status. The Great Depression forced many black people off farms and into the cities to find work. In these urban environments, African Americans had difficulty taking the day off to celebrate. The Second Great Migration began during World War II, when many black people migrated to the West Coast where skilled jobs in the defense industry were opening up. From 1940 through 1970, in the second wave of the Great Migration, more than 5 million black people left Texas, Louisiana and other parts of the South for the North and West Coast. As historian Isabel Wilkerson writes, "The people from Texas took Juneteenth Day to Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, and other places they went."

By the 1950s and 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement focused the attention of African-American youth on the struggle for racial equality and the future, but many linked these struggles to the historical struggles of their ancestors. Following the 1968 Poor People's Campaign to Washington, DC called by Rev. Ralph Abernathy, many attendees returned home and initiated Juneteenth celebrations in areas where the day was not previously celebrated.

Since the 1980s and 1990s, the holiday has been more widely celebrated among African-American communities. In 1994 a group of community leaders gathered at Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, Louisiana to work for greater national celebration of Juneteenth. Expatriates have celebrated it in cities abroad, such as Paris. Some US military bases in other countries sponsor celebrations, in addition to those of private groups.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juneteenth
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Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Trouble for European Banks

European Banks Sink to Dec 24, 2018
Level – First Seen in 1995
The benefit of NIRP [Negative Interest Policy]: There’s hell to pay – even the ECB admits it.
By Wolf Richter

June 15, 2019 -- European bank shares – which have been getting crushed and re-crushed for 12 years – are getting re-crushed again. On Friday, the Stoxx 600 Banks index, which covers major European banks, including our hero Deutsche Bank, dropped to an intraday low of 130.5 and closed at 131.2, thereby revisiting the dismal depth of December 24, 2018 (130.8).

European banks did not soar on the first trading day after Christmas, unlike other stocks. Instead they fell further and hit their multi-year low on December 27 (129). The index is down 21.5% from a year ago and 33% from January 2018.

The notable thing about European bank stocks is just how brutally they’ve gotten crushed and re-crushed since May 2007, when, after a blistering bubble run-up, the Stoxx 600 bank index topped out at 534, having quadrupled in the 12 years from October 1995, during the euro bubble when only the sky was still the limit.

Over the twelve years since May 2007, the index has plunged 75%, and is now back where it first had been in October 1995. A confluence of factors keeps banging up these bank stocks, including:

  1. In mid-2007, euro bank bubble begins to implode.
  2. In 2008, the Financial Crisis hits. Also, housing market begins to collapse in Spain, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, et al.
  3. In 2009, euro sovereign debt crisis along with Southern European banking crisis starts.
  4. June 2014, ECB’s Negative Interest Policy (NIRP) designed to solve these problems hits banks.
  5. In mid-2015, Italian banking crisis resurfaces because nothing was fixed, and NIRP was making things worse.
  6. In June 2016, a majority of British voters checked the Brexit box, which caused the Stoxx 600 Bank index to plunge 21% in two days, the worst two-day plunge ever.
  7. In early 2018, Deutsche Bank and other banks begin to re-spiral down.

So, given these events, that 33% drop from January 2018 is a minuscule dip in the long-term collapse-scenario going back to 2007.  Buy and hold, indeed. Back to the level first seen in October 1995.

Part of the problem for European banks is NIRP, which was never designed to boost the real economy or make banks healthier so that they could support a vibrant economy. It was designed to boost bond prices and thereby bring yields down, which lowers the costs of borrowing for debt-sinner countries such as Italy, and allows them to borrow for free, which even Italy’s government can do with maturities of up to one year. But there is a price to pay.

The ECB released a paper in August 2018 where it admits that NIRP could cause a financial crisis because it’s terrible for many banks. This is the chilling abstract of the paper:

We show that negative policy rates affect the supply of bank credit in a novel way. Banks are reluctant to pass on negative rates to depositors, which increases the funding cost of high-deposit banks, and reduces their net worth, relative to low-deposit banks.

As a consequence, the introduction of negative policy rates by the European Central Bank in mid-2014 leads to more risk-taking and less lending by euro-area banks with greater reliance on deposit funding. Our results suggest that negative rates are less accommodative, and could pose a risk to financial stability, if lending is done by high-deposit banks.

European banks have many other problems, including non-performing loans that after many years of jabbering about them still haven’t been cleaned up sufficiently, and that are now getting a new influx of non-performing loans. Italian banks are king of the hill in that department.

Several of the Italian banks have collapsed over the past few years and were resolved or bailed out, but the problems appear to have just been spread around rather than solved, and the index for Italian banks scampers from one hell to another. The FTSE Italia All Share Bank index fell 19% over the past two months and has plunged 58% since the Italian banking crisis has resurfaced in mid-2015.

Our hero among European banks, in particular because of its size, is Deutsche Bank. It fell to a new historic low of €5.81 on June 3, and on Friday closed at €6.03. Its shares have now plunged 95% from the peak in 2007.

One thing is clear: Deutsche Bank will not be allowed to collapse in a messy way. It’s too big, and it would take down the German economy with it. It will be rescued in some way, but it is likely that any rescue will further destroy current shareholders and holders of junior bonds, particularly holders of bonds designed to be bailed in under such conditions, such as the contingent convertible (Co-Co) bonds that, when push comes to shove and regulatory capital falls below certain levels, can be converted into equity or can just be canceled. They’re now trading at 86 cents on the euro, pricing in some probability that it might get ugly for them.

https://wolfstreet.com/2019/06/15/led-by-deutsche-bank-death-spiral-european-banks-sink-to-dec-24-level/
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Monday, June 17, 2019

Director Franco Zeffirelli Dies

Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli KBE, Grande Ufficiale OMRI Italian; 12 February 1923 – 15 June 2019), best known as Franco Zeffirelli, was an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator from 1994 till 2001 for the Italian centre-right Forza Italia party.

Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.

He was also known for several of the movies he directed, especially the 1968 version of Romeo and Juliet, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. His 1967 version of The Taming of the Shrew with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton remains the best-known film adaptation of that play as well. His miniseries Jesus of Nazareth (1977) won acclaim and is still shown on Christmas and Easter in many countries.

                                                             Franco Zeffirelli n2008
A Grande Ufficiale OMRI of the Italian Republic since 1977, Zeffirelli also received an honorary knighthood from the British government in 2004 when he was created a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He was awarded the Premio Colosseo in 2009 by the city of Rome.

Early Life

Zeffirelli was born Gian Franco Corsi Zeffirelli in the outskirts of Florence, Tuscany, Italy. He was the result of an affair between Florentine Alaide Garosi, a fashion designer, and Ottorino Corsi, a wool and silk dealer from Vinci. Since both were married, Alaide was unable to use her surname or Corsi's for her child. She came up with "Zeffiretti", which are the "little breezes" mentioned in Mozart's opera Idomeneo, of which she was quite fond. However, it was misspelled in the register and became Zeffirelli. When he was six years old, his mother died and he subsequently grew up under the auspices of the English expatriate community and was particularly involved with the so-called Scorpioni, who inspired his semi-autobiographical film Tea with Mussolini (1999).

Italian researchers found that Zeffirelli was one of a handful of living people traceably consanguineous with Leonardo da Vinci. He was a descendent of one of da Vinci's siblings.

Zeffirelli graduated from the Accademia di Belle Arti Firenze in 1941 and, following his father's advice, entered the University of Florence to study art and architecture. After World War II broke out, he fought as a partisan, before he met up with British soldiers of the 1st Scots Guards and became their interpreter. After the war, he re-entered the University of Florence to continue his studies, but when he saw Laurence Olivier's Henry V in 1945, he directed his attention toward theatre instead.

While working for a scenic painter in Florence, he was introduced to and hired by Luchino Visconti, who made him assistant director for the film La Terra trema, which was released in 1948. Visconti's methods had a deep impact upon Zeffirelli's later work. He also worked with directors such as Vittorio De Sica and Roberto Rossellini. In the 1960s, he made his name designing and directing his own plays in London and New York City and soon transferred his ideas to cinema.

Work in Operas

Zeffirelli was a major director of opera productions from the 1950s on in Italy and elsewhere in Europe as well as the United States. He began his career in the theatre as assistant to Luchino Visconti. Then he tried his hand at scenography. His first work as a director was buffo operas by Giacomo Rossini. He became a friend of Maria Callas and they worked together on a La Traviata in Dallas, Texas, in 1958. Of particular note is his 1964 Royal Opera House production of Tosca with Maria Callas and Tito Gobbi. In the same year, he created Callas' last Norma at the Paris Opera. Zeffirelli also collaborated often with Dame Joan Sutherland, designing and directing her performances of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959. Over the years he created several productions for the Metropolitan Opera in New York, including La bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Don Giovanni.

Film Career

Zeffirelli's first film as director was a version of The Taming of the Shrew (1967), originally intended for Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni but finally featuring the Hollywood stars Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in their stead. Taylor and Burton helped fund production and took a percentage of the profits rather than their normal salaries.

While editing The Taming of the Shrew, Zeffirelli's native Florence was devastated by floods. A month later, Zeffirelli released a short documentary, Florence: Days of Destruction, to raise funds for the disaster appeal.

Zeffirelli's major breakthrough came the year after when he presented two teenagers as Romeo and Juliet (1968). The movie is still immensely popular and was for many years the standard adaptation of the play shown to students. This movie also made Zeffirelli a household name - no other subsequent work by him had the immediate impact of Romeo and Juliet.

The film earned $14.5 million in domestic rentals at the North American box office during 1969. It was re-released in 1973 and earned $1.7 million in rentals.

Film critic Roger Ebert, for the Chicago Sun-Times wrote: "I believe Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet is the most exciting film of Shakespeare ever made".

After two successful film adaptations of Shakespeare, Zeffirelli went on to religious themes, first with a film about the life of St. Francis of Assisi titled Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), then his extended mini-series Jesus of Nazareth (1977) with an all-star cast. The latter was a major success in the ratings and has been frequently shown on television in the years since.

He moved on to contemporary themes with a remake of the boxing picture The Champ (1979) and the critically panned Endless Love (1981). In the 1980s, he made a series of successful films adapting opera to the screen, with such stars as Plácido Domingo, Teresa Stratas, Juan Pons and Katia Ricciarelli. He returned to Shakespeare with Hamlet (1990), casting the then–action hero Mel Gibson in the lead role. His 1996 adaptation of the Charlotte Brontë novel Jane Eyre was a critical success.

Zeffirelli frequently cast unknown actors in major roles; however, his male leads have rarely gone on to stardom or even a sustained acting career. Leonard Whiting (Romeo in Romeo and Juliet), Graham Faulkner (St. Francis in Brother Sun, Sister Moon) and Martin Hewitt (in Endless Love) all left the film business. The female leads in those films (Olivia Hussey and Brooke Shields) have attained far greater success in the industry.

                          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco_Zeffirelli

 
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Sunday, June 16, 2019

Allies Got Nazi Technology

Taking Nazi Technology: Allied Exploitation of German Science after the Second World War
(Hardcover – June 4, 2019)
A new book by Douglas M. O'Reagan

From Amazon.com:  During the Second World War, German science and technology posed a terrifying threat to the Allied nations. Combined with Germany's generations-old reputation for excellence in science and engineering, these advanced weapons, which included rockets, V-2 missiles, tanks, submarines, and jet airplanes, gave troubling credence to Nazi propaganda about forthcoming "wonder-weapons" that would turn the war decisively in the Axis' favor. After the war ended, the Allied powers raced to seize "intellectual reparations" from almost every field of industrial technology and academic science in occupied Germany. It was likely the largest-scale technology transfer in history.

In Taking Nazi Technology, Douglas M. O'Reagan describes how the Western Allies gathered teams of experts to scour defeated Germany, seeking industrial secrets and the technical personnel who could explain them. Swarms of investigators recruited from industry, military branches, and intelligence agencies invaded Germany's factories and research institutions. They seized or copied all kinds of documents, from patent applications to factory production data to science journals. They questioned, hired, and sometimes even kidnapped hundreds of scientists, engineers, and other technical personnel. They studied technologies from aeronautics to audiotapes, toy making to machine tools, chemicals to carpentry equipment. They took over academic libraries, jealously competed over chemists, and schemed to deny the fruits of German invention to any other land―including that of their allies.

Drawing on declassified records, O'Reagan looks at which techniques worked for these very different nations, as well as which failed―and why. Most importantly, he shows why securing this technology, how the Allies did and when they did, still matters today. He also argues that these programs did far more than spread German industrial science: they forced businessmen and policymakers around the world to rethink how science and technology fit into diplomacy, business, and society itself. A deeply researched comparative history of the American, British, French, and Soviet efforts to control and exploit German science and technology amid fierce internal and external competition, Taking Nazi Technology is the first history to capture the whole picture of this crucial period at the dawn of the Cold War.

https://www.amazon.com/Taking-Nazi-Technology-Exploitation-Science/dp/1421428873/ref=sr_1_1?crid=FWBH7OHN2NA8&keywords=taking+nazi+technology&qid=1560646980&s=books&sprefix=Taking+Nazi%2Caps%2C201&sr=1-1
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Saturday, June 15, 2019

How Heavy Metals Are Formed

Earth’s Heavy Metals Result of Supernova Explosion, Researcher Discovers

University of Guelph, June 13, 2019 -- That gold on your ring finger is stellar – and not just in a complimentary way.
In a finding that may overthrow our understanding of where Earth’s heavy elements such as gold and platinum come from, new research by a University of Guelph physicist suggests that most of them were spewed from a largely overlooked kind of star explosion far away in space and time from our planet.

Some 80 per cent of the heavy elements in the universe likely formed in collapsars, a rare but heavy element-rich form of supernova explosion from the gravitational collapse of old, massive stars typically 30 times as weighty as our sun, said physics professor Daniel Siegel.
That finding overturns the widely held belief that these elements mostly come from collisions between neutron stars or between a neutron star and a black hole, said Siegel.

His paper co-authored with Columbia University colleagues appears today in the journal Nature.
The research received coverage on CNET and ScienceAlert.

Using supercomputers, the trio simulated the dynamics of collapsars, or old stars whose gravity causes them to implode and form black holes.
Under their model, massive, rapidly spinning collapsars eject heavy elements whose amounts and distribution are “astonishingly similar to what we observe in our solar system,” said Siegel. He joined U of G this month and is also appointed to the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Waterloo, Ont.

Most of the elements found in nature were created in nuclear reactions in stars and ultimately expelled in huge stellar explosions.
Heavy elements found on Earth and elsewhere in the universe from long-ago explosions range from gold and platinum, to uranium and plutonium used in nuclear reactors, to more exotic chemical elements such as neodymium found in consumer items such as electronics.

Until now, scientists thought that these elements were cooked up mostly in stellar smashups involving neutron stars or black holes, as in a collision of two neutron stars observed by Earth-bound detectors that made headlines in 2017.
Ironically, said Siegel, his team began working to understand the physics of that merger before their simulations pointed toward collapsars as a heavy element birth chamber. “Our research on neutron star mergers has led us to believe that the birth of black holes in a very different type of stellar explosion might produce even more gold than neutron star mergers.”

What collapsars lack in frequency, they make up for in generation of heavy elements, said Siegel. Collapsars also produce intense flashes of gamma rays.
“Eighty per cent of these heavy elements we see should come from collapsars. Collapsars are fairly rare in occurrences of supernovae, even more rare than neutron star mergers – but the amount of material that they eject into space is much higher than that from neutron star mergers.”

The team now hopes to see its theoretical model validated by observations. Siegel said infrared instruments such as those on the James Webb Space Telescope, set for launch in 2021, should be able to detect telltale radiation pointing to heavy elements from a collapsar in a far-distant galaxy.
“That would be a clear signature,” he said, adding that astronomers might also detect evidence of collapsars by looking at amounts and distribution of heavy element s in other stars across our Milky Way galaxy.

Siegel said this research may yield clues about how our galaxy began.
“Trying to nail down where heavy elements come from may help us understand how the galaxy was chemically assembled and how the galaxy formed. This may actually help solve some big questions in cosmology as heavy elements are a nice tracer.”

This year marks the 150th anniversary of Dmitri Mendeleev’s creation of the periodic table of the chemical elements. Since then, scientists have added many more elements to the periodic table, a staple of science textbooks and classrooms worldwide.
Referring to the Russian chemist, Siegel said, “We know many more elements that he didn’t. What’s fascinating and surprising is that, after 150 years of studying the fundamental building blocks of nature, we still don’t quite understand how the universe creates a big fraction of the elements in the periodic table.”

https://news.uoguelph.ca/2019/06/earths-heavy-metals-result-of-supernova-explosion-u-of-g-researcher-discovers/
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Friday, June 14, 2019

2019 Hong Kong Protests

The 2019 Hong Kong anti-extradition bill protests are a series of demonstrations in Hong Kong and other cities around the world, demanding the withdrawal of the Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 proposed by the Government of Hong Kong. It is feared that the bill would cause the city to open up to mainland Chinese law and that people from Hong Kong could become subject to a different legal system.

Various protests have been launched in Hong Kong by the general public and legal communities. Among these, the 9 June protest organised by the Civil Human Rights Front (CHRF), which the organisation estimates was attended by 1.03 million people, has gained wide mass media coverage. Protests in other places were also staged by overseas Hongkongers and locals.

                                                              June 9, 2019 Protest

Despite the widespread demonstrations, the government insists on the bill's passage, stating that the bill is urgent and that the legal "loophole" should be fixed. The second reading was originally scheduled on 12 June but was not held due to protests, and a scheduled meeting on the next day, 13 June, was also postponed.

Background of the Protest

The Fugitive Offenders and Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Legislation (Amendment) Bill 2019 is a proposed bill regarding extradition to amend the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance (Cap. 503) in relation to special surrender arrangements and the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Ordinance (Cap. 525) so that arrangements for mutual legal assistance can be made between Hong Kong and any place outside Hong Kong. The bill was proposed by the Hong Kong government in February 2019 to request the surrender of a Hong Kong suspect in a homicide case in Taiwan. The government proposed to establish a mechanism for transfers of fugitives not only for Taiwan, but also for Mainland China and Macau, which are not covered under the existing laws.

  • First Protest: March 31
  • Second Protest: April 28
  • Lawyers’ Silent March June 6
  • Third Protest: June 9
  • Fourth Protest: June 12
  • Mothers’ Sit-In Protest June 14
Censorship

The protests were mostly censored from Mainland Chinese social media, such as Sina Weibo. Keyword searches of "Hong Kong," "HK" and "extradition bill" led to other official news and entertainment news. Accounts that posted content regarding the protest were also blocked.

Bloomberg stated that protesters had been using Telegram to communicate in order to conceal their own identity and prevent tracking by the Chinese government. The app's servers experienced a distributed denial-of-service attack (DDoS attack) on 12 June. The app's founder Pavel Durov identified the origin of the attack as China, and stated that it "coincided in time with protests in Hong Kong.”

Reactions to the Protests

HONG KONG:  Carrie Lam declined to answer questions at a public appearance in Ocean Park on 9 June afternoon. At 11 pm, the government issued a press statement, saying that it "acknowledge[s] and respect[s] that people have different views on a wide range of issues", but insisted the second reading debate on the bill would resume on 12 June. Following 10 June violent clashes, Lam spoke in the next morning along with Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng and Secretary for Security John Lee, stating that the size of the rally showed there were "clearly still concerns" over the bill but refused to withdraw it. In a video published by the Hong Kong government news agency, the Information Services Department, Carrie Lam blamed the protesters for "organising a riot" that posed a threat to the security of the people. In another interview with TVB, Lam said in tears that she had not "sold Hong Kong out", and that she loved and had made sacrifices for the city, but insisted that the bill would not be withdrawn. Democratic Party LegCo member James To responded that many people in society, including himself, felt that Lam loved power and approval more than Hong Kong.

PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA:  After the first protest, the Beijing government blamed "outside interference" and voiced its support to the Hong Kong administration. The Foreign Ministry accused opponents of the proposed legislation of "collusion with the West". State-run media such as China Daily cited more than 700,000 people backing the legislation through an online petition, "countering a protest by about 240,000 people" while the Global Times dismissed the mass demonstration on 9 June, stating that "some international forces have significantly strengthened their interaction with the Hong Kong opposition in recent months.”

REPUBLIC OF CHINA (TAIWAN):  President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-wen expressed her solidarity with the people of Hong Kong, remarking that Taiwan's democracy was hard-earned and had to be guarded and renewed, and pledged that one country, two systems would never be an option as long as she was President. She also posted on Instagram to provide support for "Hongkongers on the front line", saying that the Taiwanese people would support all those who fight for free speech and democracy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Taiwan stated that they stood shoulder to shoulder with the hundreds of thousands in Hong Kong fighting against the extradition bill and for rule of law, adding, "Taiwan is with you!”

UNITED STATES:  A U.S. State Department official voiced support for the 9 June protesters, saying that "the peaceful demonstration of hundreds of thousands of Hongkongers yesterday clearly shows the public's opposition to the proposed amendments." They also called on the Hong Kong government to ensure that "any amendments to the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance should be pursued with great care." United States House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi strongly condemned the bill and offered support to the protesters. "The hearts of all freedom-loving people were moved by the courage of the one million men and women of Hong Kong who took to the streets on Sunday to peacefully demand their rights, defend their sovereignty and denounce this horrific extradition bill" and that America stands with the people in Hong Kong.

UNITED KINGDOM:  Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt urged the Hong Kong government to listen to the concerns of the protesters, stating that "it is essential that the authorities engage in meaningful dialogue and take steps to preserve Hong Kong's rights and freedoms and high degree of autonomy, which underpin its international reputation". He added that upholding the one country, two systems principle, which is legally bound in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, is vital to Hong Kong's future success. The British Consulate in Hong Kong has also opened its doors for protesters needing sanctuary.

EUROPEAN UNION:  Parliamentary leader Guy Verhofstadt stated that scenes were inspirational for making a stand for human rights and the rule of law and that Europe was watching.

JAPAN:  Tarō Kōno, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Japan, said, "I strongly hope that things will be settled early and Hong Kong's freedom and democracy will be maintained.”

SOUTH KOREA:  The Bareunmirae Party, a minority party, stated that the party supports Hong Kong protesters, adding that the "Bareunmirae Party support the democratization movement in Hong Kong. We hear Hong Kong's cry for freedom and democracy with a strong echo.”

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Hong_Kong_anti-extradition_bill_protests

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June 15th update: Carrie Lam, the head of Hong Kong's government, has suspended the bill that would extradite defendants to mainland China, the New York Times reports.  See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/15/world/asia/hong-kong-protests-extradition-law.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

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June 16th update: Carrie Lam herself is under pressure to resign.  See https://apnews.com/b5c505dc1faa4af9a47de7282dd59ed6

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June 17th update: Protesters move to a city park.  See
https://apnews.com/6eb49002a4a3442f9d5555b81fa632b7

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Analysis from London and Oxford on June 17th: See

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hong-kong-mass-protests-are-just-start-wider-human-rights-n1018211

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Hong Kong erupted with new demonstrations on July 21, with some violence being demonstrated by both sides of the on-going controversy over Chinese law and rule-of-law.  There were some injuries.  The number of demonstrators appears to have been between 100,000 and 400,000.  See:


https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/07/22/clashes-involving-hong/


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Of course the Chinese central government is furious that their Hong Kong office was targeted.  See

https://apnews.com/43607d409ec84484aba9eb31d6debad2/




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