An Inherently Funny Concept: "Aunt Clara"

Marion Lorne (August 12, 1883 – May 9, 1968) was an American actress of stage, film, and television.

After a career in theatre in New York and London, Lorne made her first film in 1951, and for the remainder of her life, played small roles in films and television. Her recurring role, between 1964 and her death in 1968, as Aunt Clara in the comedy series, Bewitched (1964–1972) brought her widespread recognition, and for which she was posthumously awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series.

Career
Lorne debuted on Broadway in 1905; she also acted in London theaters, enjoying a flourishing stage career on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. After appearing in a couple Vitaphone shorts, Success (1931) starring Jack Haley and A Peach of a Pair (1934) starring Shemp Howard and Daphne Pollard, she made her feature film debut in her late 60s in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The role was typical of the befuddled, nervous, and somewhat aristocratic matrons that she usually portrayed.

From 1952-55, Lorne was seen as perpetually confused junior high school English teacher Mrs. Gurney on Mr. Peepers. From 1957–58, she co-starred with Joan Caulfield in the NBC sitcom Sally in the role of an elderly widow who happens to be the co-owner of a department store. Although afraid of live television, declaring "I'm a coward when it comes to a live [television] show", she was persuaded to appear a few times to promote the film The Girl Rush with Rosalind Russell in the mid-1950s. Between 1958–64, she made regular appearances on The Garry Moore Show (1958–64).

                                                   Marion Lorne in Sally in 1957
Her last role, as Aunt Clara in Bewitched, brought Lorne her widest fame as a lovable, forgetful witch who is losing her powers due to old age and whose spells usually end in disaster. Aunt Clara is obsessed with doorknobs, often bringing her collection with her on visits. Lorne had an extensive collection of doorknobs in real life, some of which she used as props in the series

Death
She appeared in twenty-seven episodes of Bewitched, and was not replaced after she died of a heart attack in her Manhattan apartment, just prior to the start of production of the show's fifth season, at the age of 84.

Posthumous
The producers of Bewitched recognized that Lorne's performance as Aunt Clara could not be replicated by another actress. Comedic actress Alice Ghostley was recruited to fill the gap as "Esmeralda", a different type of befuddled witch with wobbly magic whose spells often went astray. Coincidentally, Lorne and Ghostley had appeared side-by-side as partygoers in the iconic comedy-drama film The Graduate, made the year before Lorne's death. She received a posthumous Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her work on Bewitched. The statue was accepted by Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery.
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_Lorne

Afterword by the Blog Author
It might prove very tempting to dismiss this blog entry as a bit of historical fluff of no importance and no concern to the reader. I understand such an attitude but regard it as a serious mistake, because Lorne’s opus in theatre, film and television is important.
The ditzy and forgetful old woman Lorne played in Mr. Peepers, Sally, The Garry Moore Show and –perfectly!—as Aunt Clara in Bewitched represents splendid examples of what professional comedians often call "an inherently funny concept."

When Marion Lorne’s Aunt Clara stumbled onto the set of Bewitched, viewers knew it was going to be a funny half hour in which heroic efforts would be made to end Clara’s spells and bring things back to normal. This is important because the character appeared approximately seven times in each of the first four seasons of the show. Lorne thus helped bend the show toward being a comedy: the first six episodes of Bewitched showed a mismatched couple whose marriage was rocky and unstable. The show moved toward comedy because that was what worked – and Lorne was reliably, consistently hilarious as Aunt Clara.

There's a website devoted to Aunt Clara's appearances on Bewitched.  Click here:

http://harpiesbizarre.com/clara.htm

Evolution and Primate Brains

Analyses elucidate a part of the brain particular to primates The Current [University of California Santa Barbara], Thursday, February 27, 2014

New research by UC Santa Barbara’s Kenneth S. Kosik, Harriman Professor of Neuroscience, reveals some very unique evolutionary innovations in the primate brain.

In a study published online today in the journal Neuron, Kosik and colleagues describe the role of microRNAs — so named because they contain only 22 nucleotides — in a portion of the brain called the outer subventricular zone (OSVZ). These microRNAs belong to a special category of noncoding genes, which prevent the formation of proteins.

"It’s microRNAs that provide the wiring diagram, dictating which genes are turned on, when they’re turned on and where they’re turned on," said Kosik, who is also the co-director of UCSB’s Neuroscience Research Institute and a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. "There’s a core set with which all kinds of really complex things can be built, and these noncoding genes know how to put it together."

The researchers were looking for these noncoding genes, Kosik continued, because as organisms become more complex through evolution, the number of these noncoding genes has greatly expanded. "But the coding genes — the ones that make proteins — have really not changed very much," he said. "The action has been in this noncoding area and what that part of the genome is doing is controlling the genes."

Many of the microRNAs that Kosik’s team found and subsequently sequenced are newly evolved in primates. The work showed that these tiny control elements were overrepresented in the OSVZ of the developing macaque brain tissues they analyzed. The tissue samples were provided by a lab at the Stem-cell and Brain Research Institute near Lyon, France, headed by research director and co-author Colette Dehay.

Study results indicate that the appearance of the OSVZ is very much associated with the invention of new microRNAs. "There might be some relationship — although we can’t prove it — between the invention of some of these new noncoding genes, microRNAs, and the appearance of a new structure, the OSVZ," Kosik said. "Trying to connect an anatomical, morphological invention with genes is very difficult, but our work shows a possible molecular basis for the tools that were needed to build this novel structure."

The analysis found that these new microRNAs target old genes, many involved in the cell cycle, which is responsible for cell division (mitosis). "Nearly all cells throughout evolution have a cell cycle," Kosik explained. "We can watch the evolutionary process at a very molecular level, see what is novel and how molecular innovation affects what already exists, like the cell cycle. When new things are invented in evolution, they have to be integrated with what already exists.

"What I find fascinating is that the whole ancient cellular mechanism of cell division still has enough evolutionary space left to make something new and to make something new that’s really complex," he added. "The OSVZ gave rise to primates’ expanded brains and to the cells that ultimately brought us Shakespeare."

According to Kosik, the microRNAs he studied are a melding of molecular and anatomical information. "Some of the genes we found that are the targets of these new microRNAs are also involved in certain human developmental disorders that are genetic," he said.

"One place we would like to go with this information is to explore pathways that may be manipulated to help patients in some way," he said. "We know people with developmental disorders may be missing a critical gene involved in brain formation and wiring, so maybe if we understood the control of those genes — as these new data are pointing to — we might be able to do something that could be applied to a human condition."

http://www.news.ucsb.edu/2014/013971/study-reveals-evolution-work

Solar Storms Resemble Supernovae

University College London (UCL), 20 February 2014

Researchers at UCL have studied the behaviour of the Sun's coronal mass ejections, explaining for the first time the details of how these huge eruptions behave as they fall back onto the Sun’s surface. In the process, they have discovered that coronal mass ejections have a surprising twin in the depths of space: the tendrils of gas in the Crab Nebula, which lie 6500 light-years away and are millions of times larger.

On 7 June 2011, the biggest ejection of material ever observed erupted from the surface of the Sun. Over the days that followed, the plasma belched out by the Sun made its way out into space. But most of the material propelled up from the Sun’s surface quickly fell back towards our star’s surface.

For the solar physicists at UCL’s Mullard Space Science Laboratory, watching these solar fireworks was a unique opportunity to study how solar plasma behaves.

"We’ve known for a long time that the Sun has a magnetic field, like the Earth does. But in places it’s far too weak for us to measure, unless we have something falling through it. The blobs of plasma that rained down from this beautiful explosion were the gift we’d been waiting for", says David Williams, one of the study’s authors.

Since 2010, the NASA Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) has been constantly photographing the surface of the Sun. To our eyes, our star seems almost unchanging, with occasional fleeting sunspots the only changes that can be seen without special apparatus. But the SDO’s instruments can cut through the dazzling brightness, magnify the detail and see wavelengths of light which are blocked by the Earth’s atmosphere.

This combination of high-quality imaging and constant monitoring means that scientists can now see the detail of how the Sun’s dynamic surface changes over time.

The 7 June 2011 eruption was by some margin the biggest recorded since this constant monitoring began, meaning the huge cascade of matter that fell back into the Sun following the eruption was a unique opportunity to study, on an unusually large scale, the fluid dynamics of these phenomena.

"We noticed that the shape of the plume of plasma was quite particular," says Jack Carlyle, lead author of the study. "As it fell into the Sun, it repeatedly split apart like drops of ink falling through water, with fingers of material branching out. It didn’t stick together. It’s a great example of an effect where light and heavy fluids mix."

Less dense materials typically float on top of denser ones without mixing together, for example oil sitting on water, or layers of different liqueurs in a cocktail. Change the order by putting the denser fluid on top, however, and the denser one will quickly fall through the less-dense one until their positions are reversed.

The complex pattern formed by the denser fluid as it repeatedly splits and branches into ever-finer ‘fingers’ of matter, is caused by a phenomenon known as the Rayleigh-Taylor instability.

The team noticed in SDO’s high-resolution images that the falling plasma clearly underwent the Rayleigh-Taylor instability as it returned to the Sun’s surface. This is as would be expected – the solar plasma is denser than the solar atmosphere it is falling through. In space, a similar effect has been observed before, albeit on a much larger scale, in the Crab Nebula.

The Crab Nebula is the remnant of a supernova which exploded in the 10th century. In the millennium that has followed the explosion, denser matter has started to fall back into the centre of the nebula, exhibiting the same finger-like structures as the team observed in the Sun.

A major study of the Crab Nebula in 1996 found that the Rayleigh-Taylor instability in the Crab Nebula was actually slightly modified. The highly magnetised environment in the nebula changes the proportions of the fingers, making them fatter than they would be otherwise.

The UCL team found that the same effect was going on in the 7 June 2011 coronal mass ejection: even in an area where the Sun’s magnetic field was weak, it was modifying the Rayleigh-Taylor effect, changing the shape of the plume of plasma as it fell back into the Sun.

This is the most spectacular example of the effect ever observed on the Sun.

The study is published in the 20 February issue of the Astrophysical Journal.

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/maps-faculty/maps-news-publication/maps1407

Hundreds of New Exo-Planets Found

A Breakthrough in Planet Discoveries By Dr. Tony Phillips, NASA, Feb. 26, 2014

Years ago, before the launch of NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, astronomers were thrilled when they discovered a single planet.

Today, the Kepler team announced 715.

Kepler has always been good at finding planets. Even before the announcement, the observatory had confirmed 246 new worlds outside the solar system. The latest discoveries almost quadruple that number

Kepler works by looking for the slight dimming of starlight caused when a distant planet transits its parent star. Any dip in stellar brightness attracts the attention of the Kepler team, and can prompt them to declare a planet candidate. Verification of candidates can be a laborious process, proceeding slowly, planet-by-planet.

Now, however, a research team co-led by Jack Lissauer of the Ames Research Center has figured out a way to speed the process up.

"We've developed a procedure to verify multiple planet candidates in bulk to deliver planets wholesale, and have used it to unveil a veritable bonanza of new worlds," says Lissauer.

The technique is called "verification by multiplicity," which relies in part on the logic of probability. Out of the 160,000 stars Kepler has observed, a few thousand have planet candidates. But not all candidate systems are equal. A subset of the total, numbering in the hundreds, have not just one but multiple candidates. By concentrating on those busy systems, the team found 715 planets orbiting 305 stars.

The method of multiplicity can be likened to the behavior of lions and lionesses. Suppose that Kepler’s stars are like lions, and the planets are lionesses. If you see two big cats it could be a lion and a lioness or it could be two lions. But if more than two cats are gathered, then it is very likely a lion and his pride. Thus, through multiplicity, the lionesses—or planets—can be reliably identified.

All of the newly-discovered worlds are located in multi-planet systems. Nearly 95 percent of the planets are smaller than Neptune—that is, less than four times the size of Earth. This is a marked increase in the known number of relatively small planets.

"This study shows us that planets in multi-systems tend to be small and their orbits are flat and circular, much like the inner parts of our own solar system," says Jason Rowe a co-leader of the research at the SETI Institute.

Four of the new planets are less than two-and-a-half times the size of Earth. Moreover, they orbit in their sun's habitable zone, where the surface temperature of the planets may be suitable for liquid water, a key ingredient for life as we know it.

"The more we explore," concludes Rowe, "the more we find familiar traces of ourselves amongst the stars that remind us of home."

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2014/26feb_multiplication/

Positive Quiddity: Art Tatum

Music: Art Tatum

Sep 1, 2008 12:00 PM, By Blair Jackson

As many a frustrated pianist can tell you, it's nearly impossible to play like jazz piano immortal Art Tatum. Such was his improvisational genius and jaw-dropping dexterity that Tatum's peers shook their heads in disbelief at his prodigious keyboard feats. Yet now there's an amazing CD that captures every aspect of Tatum's brilliance — with no pianist in sight! Art Tatum: Piano Starts Here — Live at the Shrine is a remarkable modern "re-performance" of a 1949 Tatum concert LP (as well as four songs from a 1933 studio session), accomplished by programming every nuance of Tatum's playing on those recordings onto software that was then "read" by a Yamaha Disklavier Pro grand on the same L.A. Shrine Auditorium stage
that Tatum graced nearly 60 years ago.

"The Disklavier cannot do what we need so they built a different model called the Disklavier Pro," explains John Walker, whose Raleigh, N.C.-based Zenph Studios (www.zenph.com) software company is responsible for the sophisticated programming. "I wish they'd called them ‘Ford’ and ‘Ferrari,’ because that's how significant the difference is between those two instruments. Now that the Disklavier Pro exists, you can get thousands more levels of touch and nuance, so now we can really replicate what a musician does."

We're talking about a literally microscopic level of data analysis and coding — the tonal coloring, the attack and decay of each note, every pause and pedal move is exactly replicated on high-resolution MIDI files and then "played" back on the Yamaha (or new similar models from Steinway and Bösendorfer).

Piano Starts Here marks the second Zenph release for Sony BMG: Last year, a re-performance of Glenn Gould's 1955 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations came out to rave reviews. It was produced by Grammy-winning classical and jazz producer Steven Epstein and recorded by Epstein's longtime colleague, Richard King. They collaborated on the Tatum disc, as well.

In a sense, once the programming is perfected and tried at Zenph Studios, there's no mystery about the performance's quality to be recorded; the producer's role is mainly before the actual recording, "With the Tatum [album]," Epstein says, "because there wasn't really any written material, the idea was to become as familiar as possible with the original recordings to get a sense of any technical aberrations or musical quirks. Then it's a question of correlating those [original recordings] with what I heard in the concerts."

Sonically, the actual recording of two shows — complete with audience — at the Shrine in September 2007 could have been any other hi-res live session. Though the files created in North Carolina had been completed to everyone's satisfaction, there was still slight apprehension going into the Shrine. "It seemed almost too loud and forceful in the [Zenph] studio," Epstein says. "But Tatum knew what he was doing. He was projecting in this big place." Walker adds, "God bless Steve Epstein's ears — he found the right spot on the stage where everything worked musically — every accent, every rest, every pedaling."

King says, "The idea was to do a 5.0 surround recording as simply as possible to capture it as accurately as possible. So we had five microphones — transformerless DPA 4006TLs — straight to the [Millennia] mic preamp, straight into the Sonoma [DSD digital workstation]. As a safety net, we had a pair of Sennheiser MKH 40s deep in the piano — as you normally would for a jazz piano recording — and the [binaural] dummy head. We also added two Neumann cardioids for audience mics. When we went to mix [at Legacy Studios in New York City] we didn't use the piano mics at all and the audience mics were only brought in and out for applause, so they weren't part of the main pickups. It really ended up being the five-DPA array with a tiny amount of Lexicon 960 reverb. [The converters were Meitners.] Everyone was concerned with the sound matching timbre-ly the sound of the original live recording, but that was quite dirty and didn't have a lot of air in it so we had room for our own creativity."

The result is an astonishing re-creation — Tatum for the digital age. What's next for Zenph? Besides a new Tatum with Big Band disc, expect to hear re-performances of Rachmaninoff, Rubenstein, Ellington and others. They're close to perfecting their standup bass programming, and drums and horns aren't too far off. "We think voice may be 10 years away," Walker says. Don't bet against perfect Caruso in 2018.

http://mixonline.com/recording/mastering/music-art-tatum/

Russia and the Crimea

The 2014 Crimean Crisis unfolded in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, in which the government of President Victor Yanukovych was ousted. Protests were staged by groups of mainly ethnic Russians who opposed the events in Kiev and wanted close ties or integration with Russia, in addition to expanded autonomy or possible independence for Crimea. Other groups, including Crimean Tatars, protested in support of the revolution.

On 27 February, armed men wearing masks seized a number of important buildings in Crimea, including the parliament building and two airports. Kiev accused Russia of invading in Ukraine's internal affairs, while the Russian side officially denied such claims. On March 1, the Russian parliament granted President Vladimir Putin the authority to use military force in Ukraine. The international community widely condemned this move.

Background
Crimea had been part of Russia since the 18th century, although ethnic Russians did not become the largest population group in Crimea until the 20th century. Crimea had autonomy within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic from 1921 until 1945 as the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, when Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars majority and abolished Crimean autonomy. In 1954, the Soviet leadership under Khruschev transferred the Crimean Oblast from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. The Crimean Tatars were not permitted to return home, and became an international cause celebre. Crimea's pre-1945 autonomy was re-established in the final year of the Soviet Union's existence, 1991. Despite separatist tensions throughout the 1990s, Crimea has remained an Autonomous Republic within Ukraine.

According to 2001 census Ethnic Russians make up about 58% of the two million residents of Crimea. Ukranians make up 24%, while Crimean Tatars are 12%; Tatars have been returning since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, causing persistent tensions with Russians over land rights. In Sevastopol, ethnic Russians make up 70% of the city's population of 340,000.

According to Ukrainian-American academic Taras Kuzio, during the Viktor Yushchenko presidency (2005–10), Russia’s relations with Ukraine deteriorated, prompting the Russian security service (FSB) and Russian military intelligence (GRU) to expand their covert support for Russian nationalists in Southern Ukraine and Russian separatists in Crimea. Following the Orange Revolution and the 2008 Russia-Georgia war, American diplomatic cables later leaked to the public noted that Russian military action against Ukraine was "no longer unthinkable."

In the 2010 local parliamentary elections, the Party of Regions received 357,030 votes, with the second placed party, the Communist Party of Ukraine, receiving 54,172. Both parties were targeted by protesters during the 2014 Ukrainian revolution.

Revolution in Kiev
Towards the end of 2013, anti-government Euromaidan protests began over the issue of Accession of Ukraine to the European Union which President Viktor Yanukovich rejected. This was viewed by the media as a step closer towards Russia-Ukraine relations. As the protests escalated into 2014, it eventually led to deaths on 20 February as a result of violence. Parliament then voted to impeach Yanukovich on 21 February during the so-called 2014 Ukrainian revolution. Residents of the Eastern and Southern parts of the country, protested against the new regime in Kiev. The Parliament of Crimera called for an extraordinary session on 21 February. The leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People said he suspected that the session may ask for Russian military intervention. "Tomorrow may be a decision that will bring chaos and disaster to Crimea."

On 21 February 2014 the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that "it will use severe measures to prevent any action taken against diminishing the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine." The same day the biggest party in the Parliament of Crimea, Party of Regions, who held 80 of the 100 seats, did not discuss issues relating to the separation of Crimea from Ukraine and implied to be supportive of the deal struck between President Yanukovych and the opposition to end the crises signed in Kiev the same day.

On 27 February Vasvi Abduraimov, leader of the Crimean Tatar organization Milliy Firqa, said that his organization does not support association with the European Union, and claimed that a majority of Crimean Tatars support union with Russia. Also, he asked for protection from "bandits".

Reaction of the United States
Secretary of State John Kerry said in a press conference with German Foreign Minister Frank Walter Steinmeier on 27 February, "We all have to understand that nowhere is there a greater connection to or link to Russia in several different ways than there is in Crimea, but that as the days unfold, this should not become a tension or a struggle between the United States, Russia, East, West, et cetera. This is about the people of Ukraine being able to make their decisions." Kerry further urged Russia to respect Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity. The US offered Russia cooperation to resolve situation in Ukraine.

On 28 February, President Barack Obama’s statement was released warning Russia not to intervene in Crimea. The statement said that President Obama is "deeply concerned by reports of military movements taken by the Russian Federation inside of Ukraine." It added that "any violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity would be deeply destabilizing, which is not in the interest of Ukraine, Russia, or Europe" and that it would be "a clear violation of Russia's commitment to respect the independence and sovereignty and borders of Ukraine, and of international laws."

Commentary

Several scholars, including Alexander J. Motyl, Paul A. Goble, Timothy D. Snyder and Andreas Umland, have discussed the possibility of Russian military intervention in Crimea specifically, due to its unique geopolitical nature and demographics.

Volodymyr Panchenko, of the Kiev-based think-tank International Center for Policy Studies, says that the aim of Russia is for Crimea to be "more or less controlled by Russian troops," but that if or when a referendum is held "more than 80 percent" of votes would be for secession from Ukraine. The way events are unfolding in Crimea "is not a good precedent for the other provinces."
 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Crimean_crisis

Test Virus Attacks WiFi Users

Wifi virus latest threat to future IT security

University of Liverpool, Liverpool News, February 25 2014

Researchers at the University of Liverpool have shown for the first time that WiFi networks can be infected with a virus that can move through densely populated areas as efficiently as the common cold spreads between humans.

The team designed and simulated an attack by a virus, called Chameleon, and found that not only could it spread quickly between homes and businesses, but it was able to avoid detection and identify the points at which WiFi access is least protected by encryption and passwords.

Airborne virus

Researchers from the University’s School of Electrical Engineering, Electronics and Computer Science simulated an attack on Belfast and London in a laboratory setting, and found that Chameleon behaved like an airborne virus, travelling across the WiFi network via Access Points (APs) that connect households and businesses to WiFi networks.

Areas that are more densely populated have more APs in closer proximity to each other, which meant that the virus propagated more quickly, particularly across networks connectable within a 10-50 metre radius.
Alan Marshall, Professor of Network Security at the University, said: "When Chameleon attacked an AP it didn’t affect how it worked, but was able to collect and report the credentials of all other WiFi users who connected to it. The virus then sought out other WiFi APs that it could connect to and infect."

Chameleon was able to avoid detection as current virus detection systems look for viruses that are present on the internet or computers, but Chameleon is only ever present in the WiFi network. Whilst many APs are sufficiently encrypted and password protected, the virus simply moved on to find those which weren’t strongly protected including open access WiFi points common in locations such as coffee shops and airports.

Security vulnerabilities

Professor Marshall continued said: "WiFi connections are increasingly a target for computer hackers because of well-documented security vulnerabilities, which make it difficult to detect and defend against a virus.

"It was assumed, however, that it wasn’t possible to develop a virus that could attack WiFi networks but we demonstrated that this is possible and that it can spread quickly. We are now able to use the data generated from this study to develop a new technique to identify when an attack is likely."

The research is published in EURASIP Journal on Information Security.

http://news.liv.ac.uk/2014/02/25/wifi-virus-latest-threat-to-future-it-security/