Curio Cabinet
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January 29, 2023
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : January 29, 2023
rubric \ROO-brik\ noun
What It Means
Rubric is a somewhat formal word that is most often used to mean “an established r...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 29, 2023
rubric \ROO-brik\ noun
What It Means
Rubric is a somewhat formal word that is most often used to mean “an established r...
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FREEEngineering PP&T CurioFree1 CQ
On this day in 1986, the U.S. was in mourning. One day earlier, on January 28, the space shuttle Challenger had exploded after takeoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. Most Americans were in shock…but not engineer Allan J. McDonald. He had known that there were potentially deadly problems with the Challenger, and had tried to delay its launch. After the tragedy, McDonald and other like-minded engineers worked to expose those at NASA who had insisted on pressing forward with the launch in spite of safety concerns.
Born on July 9, 1937, in Coding, Wyoming, McDonald began working for Morton-Thiokol, Inc., a company specializing in rockets and propulsion systems, in 1959. He served as leader for all of Morton-Thiokol’s flight tests launched out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, where he would check the condition of missiles before they were launched for testing. In 1973, Morton-Thiokol was contracted by NASA to create solid rocket boosters for their space shuttles. McDonald led a team which assessed shuttles before their launches from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. It was up to McDonald to sign paperwork approving or disapproving each launch. He didn’t have the final say in whether launches moved forward, however. His opinion was considered alongside that of other engineers.
The space shuttle Challenger was built in 1983. Over its three years of service, it completed nine successful missions. Its tenth mission, designated STS-51-L, was originally scheduled for July, 1985. Assigning the crew took longer than anticipated, though, so the launch was rescheduled for November of that year. However, changes to the shuttle’s weight necessitated another delay, leading to the launch being set for January 28, 1986. Throughout the ongoing delays, McDonald and other engineers were tasked with inspecting Challenger, and they weren’t comfortable with what they found. The cold January weather made McDonald concerned about the O-ring seals in the shuttle's solid rocket booster joints. These O-rings were made from rubber, and were supposed to seal together joints in the boosters. Cold weather caused the rubber to stiffen. McDonald knew that this could lead to unsealed joints, and leaks of pressurized gas. Bob Ebeling, Arnold Thompson, and Roger Boisjoly, fellow engineers from Morton-Thiokol, agreed that the O-rings posed a serious problem. They, along with McDonald, told Morton-Thiokol officials of their concerns.
Unfortunately, pressure surrounded the mission. After all, Challenger’s launch had already been delayed, and the mission was highly-publicized due to the inclusion of school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the crew member meant to be America’s first civilian astronaut. When Morton-Thiokol brought their engineers’ concerns to NASA, they were dismissed. Days before launch, Morton-Thiokol asked McDonald to sign and submit an official form stating that the Challenger was safe to launch. He refused, but the launch moved forward anyway.
73 seconds after Challenger’s launch, the O-ring seals on the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster failed, having stiffened from the cold weather. Hot, pressurized gas from the boosters leaked through joints and into an external propellant tank. This caused an explosion and threw the shuttle into a rotation at nearly 1,500 miles per hour. It was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces, killing all seven crew members aboard. McDonald watched the tragedy unfold from Cape Canaveral.
Days later, he traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the Rogers Commission, a Presidential Commission meant to uncover the reasons behind the launch’s failure. McDonald listened as NASA officials failed to acknowledge his concerns leading up to the launch. Finally, he interrupted an official’s testimony by raising his hand to speak. He informed the commission that he and other engineers had recommended against the launch, refused to sign off on it, and had even sent NASA a letter of concern regarding the O-rings. The focus of the commission immediately shifted to focus on procedural failures at NASA. Afterward, Morton-Thiokol retaliated against McDonald by demoting him and several other engineers, including Roger Boisjoly. Boisjoly reported this to the commission, and Congress threatened to bar Morton-Thiokol from future federal contracts unless they reversed the demotions. In 1988, McDonald was placed in charge of creating new, safer rocket boosters for future shuttle launches.
Even after his retirement in 2001, McDonald remained committed to safety. He became a speaker on ethics and decision making, addressing engineers on the importance of both. Prior to his death in 2021, he donated his personal papers regarding the Challenger launch to Chapman University in the hope that they could prove useful to future researchers. No doubt they contain just as many lessons about leadership and heroism as they do about engineering.
[Image description: Allan J. McDonald gestures as he speaks at a conference in 2012.] Credit & copyright: NASA, Sean Smith, Wikimedia Commons, Public DomainOn this day in 1986, the U.S. was in mourning. One day earlier, on January 28, the space shuttle Challenger had exploded after takeoff, killing all seven crew members aboard. Most Americans were in shock…but not engineer Allan J. McDonald. He had known that there were potentially deadly problems with the Challenger, and had tried to delay its launch. After the tragedy, McDonald and other like-minded engineers worked to expose those at NASA who had insisted on pressing forward with the launch in spite of safety concerns.
Born on July 9, 1937, in Coding, Wyoming, McDonald began working for Morton-Thiokol, Inc., a company specializing in rockets and propulsion systems, in 1959. He served as leader for all of Morton-Thiokol’s flight tests launched out of Cape Canaveral, Florida, where he would check the condition of missiles before they were launched for testing. In 1973, Morton-Thiokol was contracted by NASA to create solid rocket boosters for their space shuttles. McDonald led a team which assessed shuttles before their launches from Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. It was up to McDonald to sign paperwork approving or disapproving each launch. He didn’t have the final say in whether launches moved forward, however. His opinion was considered alongside that of other engineers.
The space shuttle Challenger was built in 1983. Over its three years of service, it completed nine successful missions. Its tenth mission, designated STS-51-L, was originally scheduled for July, 1985. Assigning the crew took longer than anticipated, though, so the launch was rescheduled for November of that year. However, changes to the shuttle’s weight necessitated another delay, leading to the launch being set for January 28, 1986. Throughout the ongoing delays, McDonald and other engineers were tasked with inspecting Challenger, and they weren’t comfortable with what they found. The cold January weather made McDonald concerned about the O-ring seals in the shuttle's solid rocket booster joints. These O-rings were made from rubber, and were supposed to seal together joints in the boosters. Cold weather caused the rubber to stiffen. McDonald knew that this could lead to unsealed joints, and leaks of pressurized gas. Bob Ebeling, Arnold Thompson, and Roger Boisjoly, fellow engineers from Morton-Thiokol, agreed that the O-rings posed a serious problem. They, along with McDonald, told Morton-Thiokol officials of their concerns.
Unfortunately, pressure surrounded the mission. After all, Challenger’s launch had already been delayed, and the mission was highly-publicized due to the inclusion of school teacher Christa McAuliffe, the crew member meant to be America’s first civilian astronaut. When Morton-Thiokol brought their engineers’ concerns to NASA, they were dismissed. Days before launch, Morton-Thiokol asked McDonald to sign and submit an official form stating that the Challenger was safe to launch. He refused, but the launch moved forward anyway.
73 seconds after Challenger’s launch, the O-ring seals on the shuttle’s right solid rocket booster failed, having stiffened from the cold weather. Hot, pressurized gas from the boosters leaked through joints and into an external propellant tank. This caused an explosion and threw the shuttle into a rotation at nearly 1,500 miles per hour. It was ripped apart by aerodynamic forces, killing all seven crew members aboard. McDonald watched the tragedy unfold from Cape Canaveral.
Days later, he traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the Rogers Commission, a Presidential Commission meant to uncover the reasons behind the launch’s failure. McDonald listened as NASA officials failed to acknowledge his concerns leading up to the launch. Finally, he interrupted an official’s testimony by raising his hand to speak. He informed the commission that he and other engineers had recommended against the launch, refused to sign off on it, and had even sent NASA a letter of concern regarding the O-rings. The focus of the commission immediately shifted to focus on procedural failures at NASA. Afterward, Morton-Thiokol retaliated against McDonald by demoting him and several other engineers, including Roger Boisjoly. Boisjoly reported this to the commission, and Congress threatened to bar Morton-Thiokol from future federal contracts unless they reversed the demotions. In 1988, McDonald was placed in charge of creating new, safer rocket boosters for future shuttle launches.
Even after his retirement in 2001, McDonald remained committed to safety. He became a speaker on ethics and decision making, addressing engineers on the importance of both. Prior to his death in 2021, he donated his personal papers regarding the Challenger launch to Chapman University in the hope that they could prove useful to future researchers. No doubt they contain just as many lessons about leadership and heroism as they do about engineering.
[Image description: Allan J. McDonald gestures as he speaks at a conference in 2012.] Credit & copyright: NASA, Sean Smith, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain -
8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
A new paper in the journal “Nature” finds that the rate of scientific innovation has been on a steady decline, despite living in the most technologically adv...
A new paper in the journal “Nature” finds that the rate of scientific innovation has been on a steady decline, despite living in the most technologically adv...
January 28, 2023
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : January 28, 2023
doctrinaire \dahk-truh-NAIR\ adjective
What It Means
Doctrinaire is a formal word that means “stubbornly or excessively...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 28, 2023
doctrinaire \dahk-truh-NAIR\ adjective
What It Means
Doctrinaire is a formal word that means “stubbornly or excessively...
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
The Federal Reserve’s latest measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, this morning indicates that inflation tempered last mon...
The Federal Reserve’s latest measure of inflation, the Personal Consumption Expenditures price index, this morning indicates that inflation tempered last mon...
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FREERunning Daily CurioFree1 CQ
It’s a homecoming for this queen of track and field. The University of Southern California (USC) has named its track after Allyson Felix, an alumni and Olympic gold medalist. Part of USC’s athletics complex, Allyson Felix Field will be formally dedicated in the spring. It’s an unusual move for a college, since facilities are most commonly named after major donors, but it makes sense considering Felix’s ties to the school and her incredible accomplishments. Felix grew up in Los Angeles near the USC campus, which her brother attended before her. As a child, she used to take walks around the campus with her grandmother and her brother, eventually enrolling at the school herself. She went on to graduate in 2008 with a degree in education, all while competing in track and field, winning 20 medals at the World Athletics Championships and 11 gold medals in the Olympics. The last gold was for the 4x400 meter event in Tokyo, where she also set a new track and field record by medaling in five consecutive Olympics. While competing, Felix has also been an advocate for women and people of color in sports as well as maternal health. Funnily enough, Felix never ran for USC because she was already a professional by the time she enrolled. But no one seems to be holding that against her. Paula Cannon, a faculty member who spearheaded the effort to name the field after Felix, said in a statement, “Allyson is the ultimate Trojan.” Felix herself stated, “It’s such a huge honor to be a part of history in the campus, and it’s such a special place for me.” This sports star is clearly cool enough for school.
[Image description: Allyson Felix holds up an American flag in celebration after a race.] Credit & copyright: Eckhard Pecher, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
It’s a homecoming for this queen of track and field. The University of Southern California (USC) has named its track after Allyson Felix, an alumni and Olympic gold medalist. Part of USC’s athletics complex, Allyson Felix Field will be formally dedicated in the spring. It’s an unusual move for a college, since facilities are most commonly named after major donors, but it makes sense considering Felix’s ties to the school and her incredible accomplishments. Felix grew up in Los Angeles near the USC campus, which her brother attended before her. As a child, she used to take walks around the campus with her grandmother and her brother, eventually enrolling at the school herself. She went on to graduate in 2008 with a degree in education, all while competing in track and field, winning 20 medals at the World Athletics Championships and 11 gold medals in the Olympics. The last gold was for the 4x400 meter event in Tokyo, where she also set a new track and field record by medaling in five consecutive Olympics. While competing, Felix has also been an advocate for women and people of color in sports as well as maternal health. Funnily enough, Felix never ran for USC because she was already a professional by the time she enrolled. But no one seems to be holding that against her. Paula Cannon, a faculty member who spearheaded the effort to name the field after Felix, said in a statement, “Allyson is the ultimate Trojan.” Felix herself stated, “It’s such a huge honor to be a part of history in the campus, and it’s such a special place for me.” This sports star is clearly cool enough for school.
[Image description: Allyson Felix holds up an American flag in celebration after a race.] Credit & copyright: Eckhard Pecher, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
January 27, 2023
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
From the BBC World Service: In a special programme from Dresden in east Germany, we hear from one European green tech company – Solarwatt – who are calling f...
From the BBC World Service: In a special programme from Dresden in east Germany, we hear from one European green tech company – Solarwatt – who are calling f...
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day : January 27, 2023
wangle \WANG-gul\ verb
What It Means
Wangle means “to get (something) by trickery or persuasion.” It can also mean “to ...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 27, 2023
wangle \WANG-gul\ verb
What It Means
Wangle means “to get (something) by trickery or persuasion.” It can also mean “to ...
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FREEWorld History PP&T CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Born in 1928, Nobel-prize-winning author, professor, and social activist Elie Wiesel experienced firsthand the darkest horrors of the Holocaust as a mere juvenile. His memories of the ash and fire plagued him his entire life, causing him to recount his experiences in the autobiographical novel Night. Fueled by his past, Wiesel endeavored on a tireless, lifelong struggle to foster a harmonious global community.
Wiesel's life began in Sighet, Romania, and at a young age he leaned towards a pursuit in religious studies. But in 1940, Axis-aligned Hungary annexed Sighet, rounding up the Jewish population into a ghetto, including Wiesel and his family. There they remained until May 1944, when Nazis deported them to Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where 15-year-old Wiesel was separated from everyone but his father. From there, father and son labored at the brutal Buna Werke work camp until they were death-marched through snow to Buchenwald. There, Wiesel's father was beaten to death by a Nazi officer, just three months before the camp's liberation. Wiesel walked free in 1945, but out of his entire family, only two of his older sisters survived.
Picking up the pieces of his life, Wiesel moved to Paris to study journalism at Sorbonne in 1948. There, he befriended acclaimed French writer Francois Mauriac, who convinced him to write about his experiences. In 1958, Wiesel published a memoir called Night, or La Nuit in French: a solemn masterpiece considered a seminal Holocaust work.
By the time of Night's publishing, Wiesel had moved to New York City, where he would write a multitude of novels including two sequels for Night: Dawn (1961) and Day (1962). As Wiesel built a platform to speak from, he also began defending refugees of other war crimes, like those fleeing South Africa's apartheid, Bosnia's armed conflict, and the Rwandan genocide. To finance himself, he took jobs teaching in the philosophy and religion departments at Boston University and other prominent colleges.
In 1986, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace, the cherry atop a list of other prestigious forms of recognition, including the rank of Grand-Croix in the French Legion of Honor. He and his wife Marion went on to create The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with the prize's funds, an organization centered around fighting intolerance. On July 2, 2016, Wiesel passed away peacefully in his Manhattan home at 87—a fitting end for a soul that had endured so much.
Image credit & copyright: Michael Geissinger, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, Public Domain
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Born in 1928, Nobel-prize-winning author, professor, and social activist Elie Wiesel experienced firsthand the darkest horrors of the Holocaust as a mere juvenile. His memories of the ash and fire plagued him his entire life, causing him to recount his experiences in the autobiographical novel Night. Fueled by his past, Wiesel endeavored on a tireless, lifelong struggle to foster a harmonious global community.
Wiesel's life began in Sighet, Romania, and at a young age he leaned towards a pursuit in religious studies. But in 1940, Axis-aligned Hungary annexed Sighet, rounding up the Jewish population into a ghetto, including Wiesel and his family. There they remained until May 1944, when Nazis deported them to Auschwitz death camp in Poland, where 15-year-old Wiesel was separated from everyone but his father. From there, father and son labored at the brutal Buna Werke work camp until they were death-marched through snow to Buchenwald. There, Wiesel's father was beaten to death by a Nazi officer, just three months before the camp's liberation. Wiesel walked free in 1945, but out of his entire family, only two of his older sisters survived.
Picking up the pieces of his life, Wiesel moved to Paris to study journalism at Sorbonne in 1948. There, he befriended acclaimed French writer Francois Mauriac, who convinced him to write about his experiences. In 1958, Wiesel published a memoir called Night, or La Nuit in French: a solemn masterpiece considered a seminal Holocaust work.
By the time of Night's publishing, Wiesel had moved to New York City, where he would write a multitude of novels including two sequels for Night: Dawn (1961) and Day (1962). As Wiesel built a platform to speak from, he also began defending refugees of other war crimes, like those fleeing South Africa's apartheid, Bosnia's armed conflict, and the Rwandan genocide. To finance himself, he took jobs teaching in the philosophy and religion departments at Boston University and other prominent colleges.
In 1986, Elie Wiesel won the Nobel Prize for Peace, the cherry atop a list of other prestigious forms of recognition, including the rank of Grand-Croix in the French Legion of Honor. He and his wife Marion went on to create The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with the prize's funds, an organization centered around fighting intolerance. On July 2, 2016, Wiesel passed away peacefully in his Manhattan home at 87—a fitting end for a soul that had endured so much.
Image credit & copyright: Michael Geissinger, Wikimedia Commons, Library of Congress, Public Domain
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
In these uncertain times, Kishi Bashi remains one of the most hopeful voices in indie music. The singer-songwriter-violinist recently released For Every Voice That Never Sang as part of NPR's Morning Edition Song Project. The series features songs for the COVID era: in Bashi's case, his song became a reflection on the rise of anti-Asian hate in the U.S. In For Every Voice, Bashi layers his trademark violin parts and sings delicately in the chorus of his solidarity with those who have been isolated and victimized by hate speech. Having previously explored themes related to the World War II Japanese internment camps, Bashi is no stranger to processing grief in his music, though he does try to balance things out: "I think the sense of optimism is something that I've always tried to inject into my music. Because when you think about minority identity, you could go to town on how painful it is ... but a lot of people want to get out of that pain. They want things to heal them." Here's hoping For Every Voice That Never Sang makes listeners feel the sense of optimism that only a Kishi Bashi song can convey.[Image credit & copyright: William Neuheisel, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
In these uncertain times, Kishi Bashi remains one of the most hopeful voices in indie music. The singer-songwriter-violinist recently released For Every Voice That Never Sang as part of NPR's Morning Edition Song Project. The series features songs for the COVID era: in Bashi's case, his song became a reflection on the rise of anti-Asian hate in the U.S. In For Every Voice, Bashi layers his trademark violin parts and sings delicately in the chorus of his solidarity with those who have been isolated and victimized by hate speech. Having previously explored themes related to the World War II Japanese internment camps, Bashi is no stranger to processing grief in his music, though he does try to balance things out: "I think the sense of optimism is something that I've always tried to inject into my music. Because when you think about minority identity, you could go to town on how painful it is ... but a lot of people want to get out of that pain. They want things to heal them." Here's hoping For Every Voice That Never Sang makes listeners feel the sense of optimism that only a Kishi Bashi song can convey.[Image credit & copyright: William Neuheisel, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Title: Der Brückechor (The Brücke Chorus)
Artist: Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)
Created: 1983
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 110 x 177.1 in (279.5 x 450 cm)
Current location: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
This is one chorus we certainly won't be joining. For the generation of Germans born during and immediately after World War II, adolescence was an uneasy period marked by traumas and guilt—fevers that made it hard to appreciate heartwarming moments. Artist Georg Baselitz, born in 1938, witnessed the war as a small child, an experience that would deeply inform his art. Its influence shows in Der Brückechor, or "The Brücke Chorus." It's clearly a troubled piece; within it, Baselitz is attempting to celebrate the innocuous choir, but somehow we're left uneasy, as if we've received a terrible omen. The minimally rendered singers, suspended upside down, appear to be submerged under the black ripples of a waterline. Baselitz, like other Germans, found it difficult to champion maudlin scenes, and the merits of humanity, in general, with the Holocaust and other war atrocities just over his shoulder. Accordingly, he dedicated the last six decades of his life to unpackaging Germany's cultural baggage, leaving behind haunting reminders that even (seemingly) merry choir-goers may possess a wellspring of grief within their hearts.
Below: another of Baselitz's unnerving works, The Great Friends (1965);
Image credit & copyright: The Smithsonian / Frank Oleski, Köln / Saatchi Gallery / Art Institute of Chicago
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Title: Der Brückechor (The Brücke Chorus)
Artist: Georg Baselitz (b. 1938)
Created: 1983
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 110 x 177.1 in (279.5 x 450 cm)
Current location: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
This is one chorus we certainly won't be joining. For the generation of Germans born during and immediately after World War II, adolescence was an uneasy period marked by traumas and guilt—fevers that made it hard to appreciate heartwarming moments. Artist Georg Baselitz, born in 1938, witnessed the war as a small child, an experience that would deeply inform his art. Its influence shows in Der Brückechor, or "The Brücke Chorus." It's clearly a troubled piece; within it, Baselitz is attempting to celebrate the innocuous choir, but somehow we're left uneasy, as if we've received a terrible omen. The minimally rendered singers, suspended upside down, appear to be submerged under the black ripples of a waterline. Baselitz, like other Germans, found it difficult to champion maudlin scenes, and the merits of humanity, in general, with the Holocaust and other war atrocities just over his shoulder. Accordingly, he dedicated the last six decades of his life to unpackaging Germany's cultural baggage, leaving behind haunting reminders that even (seemingly) merry choir-goers may possess a wellspring of grief within their hearts.
Below: another of Baselitz's unnerving works, The Great Friends (1965);
Image credit & copyright: The Smithsonian / Frank Oleski, Köln / Saatchi Gallery / Art Institute of Chicago
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FREEWorld History Daily CurioFree1 CQ
It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Talk about a special K. During World War II, Italian doctors came up with an idea that saved dozens of Italian Jews from Nazi death camps. On October 16, 1943, Nazis raided a Jewish neighborhood in Rome near the Tiber River. As the German SS officers began rounding up the terrified residents, they sought refuge inside the walls of the nearby Fatebenefratelli hospital. Several doctors—including Dr. Adriano Ossicini, Vittorio Sacerdoti, and a surgeon named Giovanni Borromeo—came up with the idea of admitting them as patients, to hide them. Needing a way to indicate the Jews in hiding from actual sick patients, Ossicini began marking their charts with "Syndrome K," after Hitler's Italian-occupation commander: Albert Kesselring. The doctors put all the Syndrome K patients in a single room and, when the Nazi troops arrived to search the premises, warned them the disease was deadly, disfiguring, and highly contagiosissima. The troops wouldn't even enter the Syndrome K room after that. Doctors also coached young Jews hiding in the children's ward to cough violently.
Years later, Dr. Sacerdoti remembered that the Nazi soldiers "fled like rabbits" as if they could "immediately catch cancer or tuberculosis." While it's impossible to know how many Jews were ultimately saved by Fatebenefratelli's ingenious and brave doctors and nurses, estimates range from 50 to several hundred. The hospital was recognized as a "House of Life" by the Holocaust survivor advocacy group Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Dr. Sacerdoti, who was just 28 years old at the time, later said, "A person who lives only in the present and has not a full consciousness of what lies behind his back, is not fully human." Amen.It's Flashback Friday. In honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, today’s curios focus on the Holocaust and World War II.
Talk about a special K. During World War II, Italian doctors came up with an idea that saved dozens of Italian Jews from Nazi death camps. On October 16, 1943, Nazis raided a Jewish neighborhood in Rome near the Tiber River. As the German SS officers began rounding up the terrified residents, they sought refuge inside the walls of the nearby Fatebenefratelli hospital. Several doctors—including Dr. Adriano Ossicini, Vittorio Sacerdoti, and a surgeon named Giovanni Borromeo—came up with the idea of admitting them as patients, to hide them. Needing a way to indicate the Jews in hiding from actual sick patients, Ossicini began marking their charts with "Syndrome K," after Hitler's Italian-occupation commander: Albert Kesselring. The doctors put all the Syndrome K patients in a single room and, when the Nazi troops arrived to search the premises, warned them the disease was deadly, disfiguring, and highly contagiosissima. The troops wouldn't even enter the Syndrome K room after that. Doctors also coached young Jews hiding in the children's ward to cough violently.
Years later, Dr. Sacerdoti remembered that the Nazi soldiers "fled like rabbits" as if they could "immediately catch cancer or tuberculosis." While it's impossible to know how many Jews were ultimately saved by Fatebenefratelli's ingenious and brave doctors and nurses, estimates range from 50 to several hundred. The hospital was recognized as a "House of Life" by the Holocaust survivor advocacy group Raoul Wallenberg Foundation. Dr. Sacerdoti, who was just 28 years old at the time, later said, "A person who lives only in the present and has not a full consciousness of what lies behind his back, is not fully human." Amen.
January 26, 2023
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: A deal has finally been done to send American and German tanks to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky says they need to be deli...
From the BBC World Service: A deal has finally been done to send American and German tanks to Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky says they need to be deli...
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1 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree1 CQ
Word of the Day : January 26, 2023
knackered \NAK-erd\ adjective
What It Means
Knackered is an adjective mostly used informally in British English to mean...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 26, 2023
knackered \NAK-erd\ adjective
What It Means
Knackered is an adjective mostly used informally in British English to mean...
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FREEScience Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
Get Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart on the phone—the Earth’s core is acting up! In an event that mirrors the 2003 sci-fi B-movie The Core (rated 5.5 out of 10 on IMDb), the Earth’s molten iron core has stopped rotating before shifting gears, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience by geophysicists from Peking University. Fortunately, this isn’t a portend of the end of the world like in the movie (39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). In fact, the core is already rotating, just in the other direction. The spinning core of the Earth acts as a dynamo that creates a magnetic field, protecting its surface from dangerous radiation from outer space, but it’s not as consistent or unchanging as it would seem. Furthermore, the core has never completely stopped—it just slowed down in relation to the mantle. One of the authors of the paper, Xiaodong Song, stated, “We see strong evidence that the inner core has been rotating faster than the surface, [but] by around 2009 it nearly stopped. Now it is gradually mov[ing] in the opposite direction.” Song and his colleague went back to records of seismic waves dating back to the 1990s to determine the rate of the core’s rotation. By tracking the rate at which repeating earthquakes travel through the inner core, they found that the core was rotating slightly faster than the mantle and the surface. But that difference began disappearing around 2009 before reappearing—except this time, the core seems to be rotating in the opposite direction. The researchers inferred from their data that this may be part of a 70-year cycle, with the direction changing every 35 years or so. It’s enough to make your head spin.
[Image description: An illustration showing the layers of the earth, with the core represented as a yellow ball.] Credit & copyright: ArtsyBeeKids, Pixabay
Get Hilary Swank and Aaron Eckhart on the phone—the Earth’s core is acting up! In an event that mirrors the 2003 sci-fi B-movie The Core (rated 5.5 out of 10 on IMDb), the Earth’s molten iron core has stopped rotating before shifting gears, according to a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience by geophysicists from Peking University. Fortunately, this isn’t a portend of the end of the world like in the movie (39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes). In fact, the core is already rotating, just in the other direction. The spinning core of the Earth acts as a dynamo that creates a magnetic field, protecting its surface from dangerous radiation from outer space, but it’s not as consistent or unchanging as it would seem. Furthermore, the core has never completely stopped—it just slowed down in relation to the mantle. One of the authors of the paper, Xiaodong Song, stated, “We see strong evidence that the inner core has been rotating faster than the surface, [but] by around 2009 it nearly stopped. Now it is gradually mov[ing] in the opposite direction.” Song and his colleague went back to records of seismic waves dating back to the 1990s to determine the rate of the core’s rotation. By tracking the rate at which repeating earthquakes travel through the inner core, they found that the core was rotating slightly faster than the mantle and the surface. But that difference began disappearing around 2009 before reappearing—except this time, the core seems to be rotating in the opposite direction. The researchers inferred from their data that this may be part of a 70-year cycle, with the direction changing every 35 years or so. It’s enough to make your head spin.
[Image description: An illustration showing the layers of the earth, with the core represented as a yellow ball.] Credit & copyright: ArtsyBeeKids, Pixabay
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FREEMind + Body Daily Curio #2590Free1 CQ
There’s no use walking on eggshells in this economy. With egg prices hitting record highs, many shoppers are complaining about the cash they’re shelling out for their beloved staple item. Many are blaming inflation, but while inflation has indeed affected egg prices, the real culprit behind the dramatic price surge is an avian pandemic. The U.S. poultry population has been hit by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The disease began spreading across the country in 2022. Since the disease is frequently fatal, egg farmers around the country have been on the lookout for symptoms in their flocks. HPAI is a tricky pathogen to keep out of one’s flock because it’s spread by wild birds that can travel from town to town and farm to farm. Unfortunately, once symptoms are spotted at a poultry farm, the entire flock has to be culled to prevent its spread. Between February of 2022, when the USDA began tracking the spread of HPAI, and the final week of December, 43 million egg-laying hens were either killed by the disease or culled by farmers. But that’s not all there is to the story. The disease spread in two waves last year, first from spring to early summer and then again in late summer and winter. When the second wave hit, eggs were already in short supply, but the increase in seasonal demand during the holidays further drove up prices. It’s normal for egg prices to go up during this time every year, but holiday grocery shoppers in 2022 saw price tags around 210 percent higher than in 2021. There is light at the end of the eggshell-lined tunnel, though. Average egg prices hit $5.46 a dozen back in December, but they’ve been going down steadily since then to $3.67 in mid January. As long as HPAI doesn’t make a resurgence this year, prices should continue to go down. We’ll cross our fingers…but don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
[Image description: A close-up photo of brown eggs in a carton.] Credit & copyright: akirEVarga, PixabayThere’s no use walking on eggshells in this economy. With egg prices hitting record highs, many shoppers are complaining about the cash they’re shelling out for their beloved staple item. Many are blaming inflation, but while inflation has indeed affected egg prices, the real culprit behind the dramatic price surge is an avian pandemic. The U.S. poultry population has been hit by the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). The disease began spreading across the country in 2022. Since the disease is frequently fatal, egg farmers around the country have been on the lookout for symptoms in their flocks. HPAI is a tricky pathogen to keep out of one’s flock because it’s spread by wild birds that can travel from town to town and farm to farm. Unfortunately, once symptoms are spotted at a poultry farm, the entire flock has to be culled to prevent its spread. Between February of 2022, when the USDA began tracking the spread of HPAI, and the final week of December, 43 million egg-laying hens were either killed by the disease or culled by farmers. But that’s not all there is to the story. The disease spread in two waves last year, first from spring to early summer and then again in late summer and winter. When the second wave hit, eggs were already in short supply, but the increase in seasonal demand during the holidays further drove up prices. It’s normal for egg prices to go up during this time every year, but holiday grocery shoppers in 2022 saw price tags around 210 percent higher than in 2021. There is light at the end of the eggshell-lined tunnel, though. Average egg prices hit $5.46 a dozen back in December, but they’ve been going down steadily since then to $3.67 in mid January. As long as HPAI doesn’t make a resurgence this year, prices should continue to go down. We’ll cross our fingers…but don’t count your chickens before they hatch!
[Image description: A close-up photo of brown eggs in a carton.] Credit & copyright: akirEVarga, Pixabay
January 25, 2023
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: We hear from the Amazon workers in the UK who are staging their first strike in a dispute over pay and conditions. Plus, a German...
From the BBC World Service: We hear from the Amazon workers in the UK who are staging their first strike in a dispute over pay and conditions. Plus, a German...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : January 25, 2023
marginalia \mahr-juh-NAY-lee-uh\ noun
What It Means
Marginalia is a plural noun that refers to notes or other marks wri...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 25, 2023
marginalia \mahr-juh-NAY-lee-uh\ noun
What It Means
Marginalia is a plural noun that refers to notes or other marks wri...
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FREEWorld History Daily Curio #2589Free1 CQ
It's certainly not known as a cuddly era. The Middle Ages, also known as the medieval era, has a reputation for being a brutal time period in which elaborate torture devices abounded. In recent years, though, historians and history buffs like Spencer McDaniel of the website Tales of Times Forgotten have pointed out that most of these twisted instruments were actually the creations of Victorian con artists. One of the most infamous examples of a medieval torture device is the iron maiden—the metal sarcophagus lined with spikes that were supposedly used to contain and torment prisoners. This curious relic has fanned the flames of popular imagination, and appears in both fantasy and historical fiction. However, the earliest written record of an iron maiden comes from German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees, who lived in the 1700s, and he himself claimed that the device was used in the 1500s. Siebenkees might have been the first to mention some long-forgotten device from a bygone era, but it’s just as likely that he simply made it up. All known examples of iron maidens purported to have been used in the Middle Ages were “discovered” after the German wrote of it, and no extant versions can be dated before the 1800s. The same goes for other notorious medieval devices. Even the rack—a veritably real device that was used to stretch out prisoners as a punishment—needed a signed warrant to be used, which it rarely ever was. Most of the time, just the threat of the rack was enough to extract desired information. This stretching of the truth also extends to more conventional weapons of warfare supposedly used in the Middle Ages. The “morning star”, a flail with a spiked ball at the end of a chain, is claimed to have been used for both combat and intimidation. Although flailed weapons certainly existed, the heads of real flails usually resembled the heads of maces, meaning that the spiked ball (which would have been difficult to produce in medieval times) was likely the invention of curio dealers or misinformed artists. Maybe the supposedly-polite Victorians were just projecting their own bloodthirst onto their medieval forebears.
[Image description: A rusted iron maiden with its door open on display at a museum.] Credit & copyright: Gary Todd, Wikimedia Commons, Public DomainIt's certainly not known as a cuddly era. The Middle Ages, also known as the medieval era, has a reputation for being a brutal time period in which elaborate torture devices abounded. In recent years, though, historians and history buffs like Spencer McDaniel of the website Tales of Times Forgotten have pointed out that most of these twisted instruments were actually the creations of Victorian con artists. One of the most infamous examples of a medieval torture device is the iron maiden—the metal sarcophagus lined with spikes that were supposedly used to contain and torment prisoners. This curious relic has fanned the flames of popular imagination, and appears in both fantasy and historical fiction. However, the earliest written record of an iron maiden comes from German philosopher Johann Philipp Siebenkees, who lived in the 1700s, and he himself claimed that the device was used in the 1500s. Siebenkees might have been the first to mention some long-forgotten device from a bygone era, but it’s just as likely that he simply made it up. All known examples of iron maidens purported to have been used in the Middle Ages were “discovered” after the German wrote of it, and no extant versions can be dated before the 1800s. The same goes for other notorious medieval devices. Even the rack—a veritably real device that was used to stretch out prisoners as a punishment—needed a signed warrant to be used, which it rarely ever was. Most of the time, just the threat of the rack was enough to extract desired information. This stretching of the truth also extends to more conventional weapons of warfare supposedly used in the Middle Ages. The “morning star”, a flail with a spiked ball at the end of a chain, is claimed to have been used for both combat and intimidation. Although flailed weapons certainly existed, the heads of real flails usually resembled the heads of maces, meaning that the spiked ball (which would have been difficult to produce in medieval times) was likely the invention of curio dealers or misinformed artists. Maybe the supposedly-polite Victorians were just projecting their own bloodthirst onto their medieval forebears.
[Image description: A rusted iron maiden with its door open on display at a museum.] Credit & copyright: Gary Todd, Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain -
FREEEntrepreneurship Nerdy CurioFree1 CQ
Startups already face plenty of challenges, from creating new, innovative products to surviving the fierce competition of the business world. Now, though, a new obstacle has arisen that could stop many startups in their tracks: a lack of funding. Since most startups aren’t profitable for their first few years of operation, entrepreneurs have long relied on venture capital to get things off the ground. Venture capital is funding provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups that show potential for growth. When things go right, venture capitalists’ investments pay off when startups become successful and profitable. Recently, however, fears of a recession have made venture capitalists wary of investing. After all, launching a successful startup is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a recession. If you’re wondering what exactly a recession is, it’s defined as a prolonged, widespread downturn in economic activity. As for whether we’re heading for one, there’s no way to know for sure, but it’s not too surprising that some investors are choosing a “better safe than sorry” philosophy as the possibility looms. So, what are startups supposed to do in the meantime? One of the most common bits of advice is simply to pump the brakes. Even if the U.S. does suffer a recession, it’s likely the economy will improve again within two to three years, and funding might be easier to come by. It’s a hard pill to swallow for many entrepreneurs, but launching at the right time is sometimes just as important as launching the right product.
[Image description: A black-and-white screen showing charts monitoring investments.] Credit & copyright: 3844328, PixabayStartups already face plenty of challenges, from creating new, innovative products to surviving the fierce competition of the business world. Now, though, a new obstacle has arisen that could stop many startups in their tracks: a lack of funding. Since most startups aren’t profitable for their first few years of operation, entrepreneurs have long relied on venture capital to get things off the ground. Venture capital is funding provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups that show potential for growth. When things go right, venture capitalists’ investments pay off when startups become successful and profitable. Recently, however, fears of a recession have made venture capitalists wary of investing. After all, launching a successful startup is difficult at the best of times, let alone during a recession. If you’re wondering what exactly a recession is, it’s defined as a prolonged, widespread downturn in economic activity. As for whether we’re heading for one, there’s no way to know for sure, but it’s not too surprising that some investors are choosing a “better safe than sorry” philosophy as the possibility looms. So, what are startups supposed to do in the meantime? One of the most common bits of advice is simply to pump the brakes. Even if the U.S. does suffer a recession, it’s likely the economy will improve again within two to three years, and funding might be easier to come by. It’s a hard pill to swallow for many entrepreneurs, but launching at the right time is sometimes just as important as launching the right product.
[Image description: A black-and-white screen showing charts monitoring investments.] Credit & copyright: 3844328, Pixabay
January 24, 2023
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8 minFREEWork Business CurioFree5 CQ
From the BBC World Service: Twitter stands accused of skipping rent to King Charles III. The Crown Estate in the U.K., which manages property belonging to th...
From the BBC World Service: Twitter stands accused of skipping rent to King Charles III. The Crown Estate in the U.K., which manages property belonging to th...
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : January 24, 2023
balkanize \BAWL-kuh-nyze\ verb
What It Means
Balkanize is an often-capitalized verb meaning "to break up (a region, a g...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 24, 2023
balkanize \BAWL-kuh-nyze\ verb
What It Means
Balkanize is an often-capitalized verb meaning "to break up (a region, a g...
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FREEMusic Appreciation Song CurioFree2 CQ
Today we’re honoring legendary rocker David Crosby, who passed away on January 18. A founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, he managed to make music that changed with the times. From the folksy sound of the mid-1960s to the classic hard rock of the 70s and 80s, Crosby was there for it all. One of his most unique contributions to the rock world has to be 1969’s Wooden Ships, an over-five-minute-long jam full of wailing harmonies and heavy, distorted guitars. Though the song was written by David Crosby, Paul Kantner, and Stephen Stills together, most of the song’s lyrics came from Crosby, who fittingly penned them while cruising around on his real-life boat, The Mayan. They deliver a stark anti-war message via a sci-fi story in which most of humanity has been wiped out due to nuclear war. The singers serve as some of the last survivors, sailing off in a titular wooden ship. The song’s quirky subject matter did nothing to dull its popularity, as it was one of the few songs at Woodstock to be performed twice—once by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and once by Jefferson Airplane. Encore!
[Image description: A black-and-white photo of David Crosby singing at a microphone.] Credit & copyright: Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
Today we’re honoring legendary rocker David Crosby, who passed away on January 18. A founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash, he managed to make music that changed with the times. From the folksy sound of the mid-1960s to the classic hard rock of the 70s and 80s, Crosby was there for it all. One of his most unique contributions to the rock world has to be 1969’s Wooden Ships, an over-five-minute-long jam full of wailing harmonies and heavy, distorted guitars. Though the song was written by David Crosby, Paul Kantner, and Stephen Stills together, most of the song’s lyrics came from Crosby, who fittingly penned them while cruising around on his real-life boat, The Mayan. They deliver a stark anti-war message via a sci-fi story in which most of humanity has been wiped out due to nuclear war. The singers serve as some of the last survivors, sailing off in a titular wooden ship. The song’s quirky subject matter did nothing to dull its popularity, as it was one of the few songs at Woodstock to be performed twice—once by Crosby, Stills & Nash, and once by Jefferson Airplane. Encore!
[Image description: A black-and-white photo of David Crosby singing at a microphone.] Credit & copyright: Christopher Michel, Wikimedia Commons, image cropped for size.
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FREEMind + Body Daily Curio #2588Free1 CQ
It just makes sense for a hometown favorite to be homegrown. After relying on imports for most of the nation’s supply of buckwheat for generations, more farmers in the Netherlands are starting to grow the crop again, reaping the benefits of the plant’s historic and literal roots. While buckwheat is native to southwest Asia, the crop has been grown in Europe for millennia and was popular due to its short growing season. Moreover, it’s a crop with a number of uses and benefits rivaled by few other grains. In the U.S., Buckwheat is widely used as a cover crop, or a crop meant to slow soil erosion. Its roots also release acidic compounds that make phosphorus in the soil more available to the next crop. It’s also a popular ingredient in traditional Dutch cuisine, and buckwheat flour is used to make pancakes called pannenkoeke and poffertjes. The grain is also gluten-free, nutritious, and full of fiber, making it one of the healthier grains for human consumption.
In Asia, the hulls or tough outer layers of the grain, have been used as filling for pillows, and the practice is catching on in the U.S. and Europe. But it’s not just people who depend on the crop. Buckwheat blossoms attract and feed pollinators like bees, which have been in decline in Europe. Yet Dutch farmers stopped growing buckwheat long ago in favor of more profitable crops like potatoes. Now, the organic farmers aiming to bring buckwheat back to the Netherlands are facing their share of challenges. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when buckwheat was a staple food in the Netherlands, nearly every village had their own mill capable of hulling the grain. However, because buckwheat hasn’t been grown in any appreciable quantity in so long, there is little infrastructure to process the grain. The nearest mill with the equipment to hull buckwheat was located in Poland, until the Dutch farmers were able to convince a Dutch mill to re-tool their facilities. Seems like a hull lot of work!
[Image description: A crop of buckwheat with white flowers.] Credit & copyright: Efraimstochter, PixabayIt just makes sense for a hometown favorite to be homegrown. After relying on imports for most of the nation’s supply of buckwheat for generations, more farmers in the Netherlands are starting to grow the crop again, reaping the benefits of the plant’s historic and literal roots. While buckwheat is native to southwest Asia, the crop has been grown in Europe for millennia and was popular due to its short growing season. Moreover, it’s a crop with a number of uses and benefits rivaled by few other grains. In the U.S., Buckwheat is widely used as a cover crop, or a crop meant to slow soil erosion. Its roots also release acidic compounds that make phosphorus in the soil more available to the next crop. It’s also a popular ingredient in traditional Dutch cuisine, and buckwheat flour is used to make pancakes called pannenkoeke and poffertjes. The grain is also gluten-free, nutritious, and full of fiber, making it one of the healthier grains for human consumption.
In Asia, the hulls or tough outer layers of the grain, have been used as filling for pillows, and the practice is catching on in the U.S. and Europe. But it’s not just people who depend on the crop. Buckwheat blossoms attract and feed pollinators like bees, which have been in decline in Europe. Yet Dutch farmers stopped growing buckwheat long ago in favor of more profitable crops like potatoes. Now, the organic farmers aiming to bring buckwheat back to the Netherlands are facing their share of challenges. In the 18th and 19th centuries, when buckwheat was a staple food in the Netherlands, nearly every village had their own mill capable of hulling the grain. However, because buckwheat hasn’t been grown in any appreciable quantity in so long, there is little infrastructure to process the grain. The nearest mill with the equipment to hull buckwheat was located in Poland, until the Dutch farmers were able to convince a Dutch mill to re-tool their facilities. Seems like a hull lot of work!
[Image description: A crop of buckwheat with white flowers.] Credit & copyright: Efraimstochter, Pixabay
January 23, 2023
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2 minFREEHumanities Word CurioFree2 CQ
Word of the Day : January 23, 2023
endemic \en-DEM-ik\ adjective
What It Means
Endemic means “growing or existing in a certain place or region.” It can al...
with Merriam-WebsterWord of the Day : January 23, 2023
endemic \en-DEM-ik\ adjective
What It Means
Endemic means “growing or existing in a certain place or region.” It can al...
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FREEArt Appreciation Art CurioFree1 CQ
Hop into a fantastical scene. The Year of the Rabbit is here, so what better time to appreciate rabbits in art? The piece above, Ravel Rabbit, is a collage depicting an anthropomorphic rabbit toy standing in front of a body of water. The rabbit is wearing ornate, red robes, has a windup key on its back, and is holding a basket of vegetables. Behind the rabbit, the setting sun fills most of the sky. Joseph Cornell was considered eccentric in his time even by artistic standards, but his offbeat style also brought him notoriety and led to friendships with famous artists like Andy Warhol. Cornell worked in several different mediums, but was best known for his films, collages, and shadowboxes. His works blended fantasy and surrealism, so it’s no surprise that elements of both can be seen in the dreamlike Ravel Rabbit. Like the new year, the meaning of Cornell’s work is whatever you make of it.
Ravel Rabbit, Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), Collage, 9 x 7 in. (22.9 x 17.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum
Below: Another of Cornell’s collages, Americana: Natural Philosophy (What Makes the Weather?)
Hop into a fantastical scene. The Year of the Rabbit is here, so what better time to appreciate rabbits in art? The piece above, Ravel Rabbit, is a collage depicting an anthropomorphic rabbit toy standing in front of a body of water. The rabbit is wearing ornate, red robes, has a windup key on its back, and is holding a basket of vegetables. Behind the rabbit, the setting sun fills most of the sky. Joseph Cornell was considered eccentric in his time even by artistic standards, but his offbeat style also brought him notoriety and led to friendships with famous artists like Andy Warhol. Cornell worked in several different mediums, but was best known for his films, collages, and shadowboxes. His works blended fantasy and surrealism, so it’s no surprise that elements of both can be seen in the dreamlike Ravel Rabbit. Like the new year, the meaning of Cornell’s work is whatever you make of it.
Ravel Rabbit, Joseph Cornell (1903-1972), Collage, 9 x 7 in. (22.9 x 17.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum
Below: Another of Cornell’s collages, Americana: Natural Philosophy (What Makes the Weather?)
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7 minFREEWork Business CurioFree4 CQ
There’s more bad news out this morning for the embattled housing sector. Housing starts, the metric used to measure the number of new homes being constructed...
There’s more bad news out this morning for the embattled housing sector. Housing starts, the metric used to measure the number of new homes being constructed...
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FREEMusic Daily Curio #2587Free1 CQ
Who said class had to be boring? Founded by record executive Ahmet Ertegun, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, and a cohort of music industry executives and lawyers, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation inducted its inaugural class on this day in 1986. However, there wasn’t really a “hall” at that time, because the foundation hadn’t chosen a permanent physical location for a museum. After considering Detroit, New York and Los Angeles as the chief candidates, they eventually settled on Cleveland, Ohio, for the city’s historic ties to the early days of the genre. Even before a name for the genre existed, radio DJ Alan Freed was promoting musicians who were the forerunners of rock and roll during his time at WJW in Cleveland. Freed eventually coined the term “Rock and Roll” and even organized the Moondog Coronation Ball, which is considered the first major rock concert. Since its founding, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hasn’t been without controversy regarding its selection process, with some artists and fans criticizing the lack of transparency. The Sex Pistols notably rejected a nomination to be inducted because of their anti-establishment beliefs. Paul McCartney famously boycotted the ceremony when The Beatles were inducted in 1988 due to unresolved business differences with the other surviving members of the band. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane also sat out of the ceremony on principle when her band was inducted in 1996, citing her retirement from the business and her unwillingness to go on stage at her age. In 2015, she told Forbes, “All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire.” Still, there have been 351 acts and individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since its founding, and not all of them have been performers. The other awards categories are: the Award for Musical Excellence for songwriters, musicians, and other professionals who contributed to music as non-performers, the Early Influences Award for acts whose music and performance style contributed to the rock and roll genre, and the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performing industry professionals who promoted creative development. That’s a whole lot of rock, roll, pomp, and circumstance.
[Image description: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a black, pyramid-shaped building, lit up at night.] Credit & copyright: 12019, PixabayWho said class had to be boring? Founded by record executive Ahmet Ertegun, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, and a cohort of music industry executives and lawyers, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation inducted its inaugural class on this day in 1986. However, there wasn’t really a “hall” at that time, because the foundation hadn’t chosen a permanent physical location for a museum. After considering Detroit, New York and Los Angeles as the chief candidates, they eventually settled on Cleveland, Ohio, for the city’s historic ties to the early days of the genre. Even before a name for the genre existed, radio DJ Alan Freed was promoting musicians who were the forerunners of rock and roll during his time at WJW in Cleveland. Freed eventually coined the term “Rock and Roll” and even organized the Moondog Coronation Ball, which is considered the first major rock concert. Since its founding, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hasn’t been without controversy regarding its selection process, with some artists and fans criticizing the lack of transparency. The Sex Pistols notably rejected a nomination to be inducted because of their anti-establishment beliefs. Paul McCartney famously boycotted the ceremony when The Beatles were inducted in 1988 due to unresolved business differences with the other surviving members of the band. Grace Slick of Jefferson Airplane also sat out of the ceremony on principle when her band was inducted in 1996, citing her retirement from the business and her unwillingness to go on stage at her age. In 2015, she told Forbes, “All rock-and-rollers over the age of 50 look stupid and should retire.” Still, there have been 351 acts and individuals who have been inducted into the Hall of Fame since its founding, and not all of them have been performers. The other awards categories are: the Award for Musical Excellence for songwriters, musicians, and other professionals who contributed to music as non-performers, the Early Influences Award for acts whose music and performance style contributed to the rock and roll genre, and the Ahmet Ertegun Award for non-performing industry professionals who promoted creative development. That’s a whole lot of rock, roll, pomp, and circumstance.
[Image description: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a black, pyramid-shaped building, lit up at night.] Credit & copyright: 12019, Pixabay