ADA LOVELACE, A PIONEER ENGLISH SCIENTIST & WRITER

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have visited Ada Lovelace, the English mathematician and writer, and one of the most important figures in computing, together with Ramon Llull.

Before visiting Ada, the family has studied some English grammar with the First Conditional, and they have been talking about science and faith with Manel Esteller, Dana Scully and Fox Mulder, who are always fighting the future.

Finally, March, 8 is coming, and they have remembered some scientific women, who have been important for human development, and Susana Winsor has introduced an amazing post named Ciencia Radiante.

More information: First Conditional

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More information: The Jones and Ramon Llull, The Art of Learning

More information: March 8, When Women's Rights are Human Rights 

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815-27 November 1852) was an English mathematician and writer, chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed mechanical general-purpose computer, the Analytical Engine.

She was the first to recognise that the machine had applications beyond pure calculation, and published the first algorithm intended to be carried out by such a machine. As a result, she is sometimes regarded as the first to recognise the full potential of a computing machine and one of the first computer programmers.

Lovelace was the only legitimate child of poet Lord Byron and his wife Lady Byron. All of Byron's other children were born out of wedlock to other women. Byron separated from his wife a month after Ada was born and left England forever four months later. He commemorated the parting in a poem that begins, Is thy face like thy mother's my fair child! ADA! sole daughter of my house and heart?.

He died of disease in the Greek War of Independence when Ada was eight years old. Her mother remained bitter and promoted Ada's interest in mathematics and logic in an effort to prevent her from developing her father's perceived insanity. Despite this, Ada remained interested in Byron. Upon her eventual death, she was buried next to him at her request. Although often ill in her childhood, Ada pursued her studies assiduously. She married William King in 1835. King was made Earl of Lovelace in 1838, Ada thereby becoming Countess of Lovelace.

Her educational and social exploits brought her into contact with scientists such as Andrew Crosse, Charles Babbage, Sir David Brewster, Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday and the author Charles Dickens, contacts which she used to further her education. Ada described her approach as poetical science and herself as an Analyst & Metaphysician. When she was a teenager, her mathematical talents led her to a long working relationship and friendship with fellow British mathematician Charles Babbage, who is known as the father of computers. She was in particular interested in Babbage's work on the Analytical Engine. 

Lovelace first met him in June 1833, through their mutual friend, and her private tutor, Mary Somerville. Between 1842 and 1843, Ada translated an article by Italian military engineer Luigi Menabrea on the calculating engine, supplementing it with an elaborate set of notes, simply called Notes. These notes contain what many consider to be the first computer program -that is, an algorithm designed to be carried out by a machine.

 

More information: Famous Scientists

Other historians reject this perspective and point out that Babbage's personal notes from the years 1836/1837 contain the first programs for the engine. Lovelace's notes are important in the early history of computers. She also developed a vision of the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching, while many others, including Babbage himself, focused only on those capabilities. Her mindset of poetical science led her to ask questions about the Analytical Engine -as shown in her notes- examining how individuals and society relate to technology as a collaborative tool.

  

Lord Byron expected his child to be a glorious boy and was disappointed when Lady Byron gave birth to a girl. The child was named after Byron's half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and was called Ada by Byron himself. On 16 January 1816, at Lord Byron's command, Lady Byron left for her parents' home at Kirkby Mallory, taking their five-week-old daughter with her. Although English law at the time granted full custody of children to the father in cases of separation, Lord Byron made no attempt to claim his parental rights, but did request that his sister keep him informed of Ada's welfare.

Lovelace was often ill, beginning in early childhood. At the age of eight, she experienced headaches that obscured her vision. In June 1829, she was paralysed after a bout of measles. She was subjected to continuous bed rest for nearly a year, something which may have extended her period of disability. By 1831, she was able to walk with crutches. Despite the illnesses, she developed her mathematical and technological skills.

Lovelace became close friends with her tutor Mary Somerville, who introduced her to Charles Babbage in 1833. She had a strong respect and affection for Somerville, and they corresponded for many years. Other acquaintances included the scientists Andrew Crosse, Sir David Brewster, Charles Wheatstone, Michael Faraday and the author Charles Dickens. She was presented at Court at the age of seventeen and became a popular belle of the season in part because of her brilliant mind.

On 8 July 1835, she married William, 8th Baron King, becoming Lady King. They had three children: Byron; Anne Isabella; and Ralph Gordon. Immediately after the birth of Annabella, Lady King experienced a tedious and suffering illness, which took months to cure. Ada was a descendant of the extinct Barons Lovelace and in 1838, her husband was made Earl of Lovelace and Viscount Ockham, meaning Ada became the Countess of Lovelace.

 

More information: Jstor Daily

Throughout her illnesses, she continued her education. Her mother's obsession with rooting out any of the insanity of which she accused Byron was one of the reasons that Ada was taught mathematics from an early age. She was privately schooled in mathematics and science by William Frend, William King, and Mary Somerville, the noted 19th-century researcher and scientific author. One of her later tutors was the mathematician and logician Augustus De Morgan. From 1832, when she was seventeen, her mathematical abilities began to emerge, and her interest in mathematics dominated the majority of her adult life.

 

Lovelace believed that intuition and imagination were critical to effectively applying mathematical and scientific concepts. She valued metaphysics as much as mathematics, viewing both as tools for exploring the unseen worlds around us.

Lovelace died at the age of 36 -the same age at which her father had died- on 27 November 1852, from uterine cancer probably exacerbated by bloodletting by her physicians.

Throughout her life, Lovelace was strongly interested in scientific developments and fads of the day, including phrenology and mesmerism.

After her work with Babbage, Lovelace continued to work on other projects. In 1844 she commented to a friend Woronzow Greig about her desire to create a mathematical model for how the brain gives rise to thoughts and nerves to feelings -a calculus of the nervous system.

Lovelace first met Charles Babbage in June 1833, through their mutual friend Mary Somerville.

 

In 1840, Babbage was invited to give a seminar at the University of Turin about his Analytical Engine. Luigi Menabrea, a young Italian engineer and the future Prime Minister of Italy, transcribed Babbage's lecture into French, and this transcript was subsequently published in the Bibliothèque universelle de Genève in October 1842. Babbage's friend Charles Wheatstone commissioned Ada Lovelace to translate Menabrea's paper into English. She then augmented the paper with notes, which were added to the translation.

 

More information: History

 

Ada Lovelace spent the better part of a year doing this, assisted with input from Babbage. These notes, which are more extensive than Menabrea's paper, were then published in the September 1843 edition of Taylor's Scientific Memoirs under the initialism AAL.

Ada Lovelace's notes were labelled alphabetically from A to G. In note G, she describes an algorithm for the Analytical Engine to compute Bernoulli numbers. It is considered to be the first published algorithm ever specifically tailored for implementation on a computer, and Ada Lovelace has often been cited as the first computer programmer for this reason. The engine was never completed so her program was never tested.

In 1953, more than a century after her death, Ada Lovelace's notes on Babbage's Analytical Engine were republished as an appendix to B.V. Bowden's Faster than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines.  

The engine has now been recognised as an early model for a computer and her notes as a description of a computer and software.

Doron Swade, a specialist on history of computing known for his work on Babbage, analysed four claims about Lovelace during a lecture on Babbage's analytical engine:

-She was a mathematical genius.

-She made an influential contribution to the analytical engine.

-She was the first computer programmer.

-She was a prophet of the computer age.

More information: Gradiant

 

The Analytical Engine has no pretensions

whatever to originate anything.

It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform...

But it is likely to exert an indirect

and reciprocal influence on science itself.

Ada Lovelace

PROJECT BLUE BOOK, A STUDY ABOUT UFOS IN THE USA

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of two of her closest friends, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. They have been talking about Project Blue Book, the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on a day like today in 1969.

Project Blue Book was the code name for the systematic study of unidentified flying objects by the United States Air Force from March 1952 to its termination on December 17, 1969.

The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was initially directed by Captain Edward J. Ruppelt and followed projects of a similar nature such as Project Sign established in 1947, and Project Grudge in 1948. 

Project Blue Book had two goals, namely, to determine if UFOs were a threat to national security, and to scientifically analyze UFO-related data.

Thousands of UFO reports were collected, analyzed, and filed. As a result of the Condon Report, which concluded that the study of UFOs was unlikely to yield major scientific discoveries, and a review of the report by the National Academy of Sciences, Project Blue Book was terminated in 1969. The Air Force supplies the following summary of its investigations:

-No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force was ever an indication of threat to our national security;

-There was no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as unidentified represented technological developments or principles beyond the range of modern scientific knowledge; and

-There was no evidence indicating that sightings categorized as unidentified were extraterrestrial vehicles.

More information: Archives

By the time Project Blue Book ended, it had collected 12,618 UFO reports, and concluded that most of them were misidentifications of natural phenomena (clouds, stars...) or conventional aircraft.

According to the National Reconnaissance Office a number of the reports could be explained by flights of the formerly secret reconnaissance planes U-2 and A-12.

701 reports were classified as unexplained, even after stringent analysis. The UFO reports were archived and are available under the Freedom of Information Act, but names and other personal information of all witnesses have been redacted.

Public USAF UFO studies were first initiated under Project Sign at the end of 1947, following many widely publicized UFO reports. Project Sign was initiated specifically at the request of General Nathan Twining, chief of the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. Wright-Patterson was also to be the home of Project Sign and all subsequent official USAF public investigations.

More information: NSA

Project Sign was officially inconclusive regarding the cause of the sightings. However, according to US Air Force Captain Edward J. Ruppelt (the first director of Project Blue Book), Sign's initial intelligence estimate (the so-called Estimate of the Situation) written in the late summer of 1948, concluded that the flying saucers were real craft, were not made by either the Soviet Union or United States, and were likely extraterrestrial in origin. 

This was subsequently rejected by Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg, USAF Chief of Staff, citing a lack of physical proof. Vandenberg subsequently dismantled Project Sign.

 Project Sign was succeeded at the end of 1948 by Project Grudge, which was criticized as having a debunking mandate. Ruppelt referred to the era of Project Grudge as the dark ages of early USAF UFO investigation.

Grudge concluded that all UFOs were natural phenomena or other misinterpretations, although it also stated that 23 percent of the reports could not be explained.

 More information: National Archives Foundation

Below is the United States Air Force's official statement regarding UFOs, as noted in USAF Fact Sheet 95-03:

-From 1947 to 1969, the Air Force investigated Unidentified Flying Objects under Project Blue Book. The project, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, was terminated on December 17, 1969. Of a total of 12,618 sightings reported to Project Blue Book, 701 remained unidentified.

-The decision to discontinue UFO investigations was based on an evaluation of a report prepared by the University of Colorado entitled, Scientific Study of Unidentified Flying Objects; a review of the University of Colorado's report by the National Academy of Sciences; previous UFO studies and Air Force experience investigating UFO reports during 1940 to 1969.

-As a result of these investigations, studies and experience gained from investigating UFO reports since 1948, the conclusions of Project Blue Book were:

-No UFO reported, investigated, and evaluated by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our national security.

-There has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air Force that sightings categorized as unidentified represent technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge.

-There has been no evidence indicating the sightings categorized as unidentified are extraterrestrial vehicles.

More information: BBC

With the termination of Project Blue Book, the Air Force regulation establishing and controlling the program for investigating and analyzing UFOs was rescinded. Documentation regarding the former Blue Book investigation was permanently transferred to the Modern Military Branch, National Archives and Records Service, and is available for public review and analysis.

Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the Air Force.

There are a number of universities and professional scientific organizations that have considered UFO phenomena during periodic meetings and seminars. A list of private organizations interested in aerial phenomena may be found in Encyclopaedia of Associations, published by Gale Research.

Interest in and timely review of UFO reports by private groups ensures that sound evidence is not overlooked by the scientific community. Persons wishing to report UFO sightings should be advised to contact local law enforcement agencies.

More information: Popular Mechanics

I examined a lot of CIA declassified UFO files,
which are fascinating,
because there was a huge UFO craze going on in America.
There still is today, but it certainly started in '47.
And by the '50s, it was in full force.

Annie Jacobsen

JERRY HARDIN, UNFORGETTABLE 'DEEP THROAT' IN TXF

Jerry Hardin (born November 20, 1929) is an American actor.

Hardin has appeared in film and television roles, including the character nicknamed Deep Throat in The X-Files.

Hardin was born in Dallas, Texas and studied acting at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before beginning his acting career in New York. He is married with two children, one of whom is actress Melora Hardin.

Jerry Hardin was born in Dallas on November 20, 1929. His father was a rancher, and Jerry spent his youth actively involved with his local church and performing in school plays.

He attended Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, on a scholarship before going on to study at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, earning a scholarship there through the Fulbright Program. He spent several years there before returning to the United States to begin acting in New York, performing in regional theatre for twelve years.

Hardin began acting on television in the 1950s, mostly in character roles. He amassed over a hundred appearances by the early 1990s, in addition to more than seventy-five theatrical credits by the early 1960s.

His television appearances include roles in the 1976 western series Sara, Family Ties, The Golden Girls, World War III, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, Sliders, and Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Hardin appeared in such films as Thunder Road (1958), Our Time (1974), The Rockford Files (1977), Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), 1941 (1979), Reds (1981), Missing (1982), Tempest (1982), Honkytonk Man (1982), Cujo (1983), Mass Appeal (1984), Warning Sign (1985), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Let's Get Harry (1986), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1987), Little Nikita (1988), The Milagro Beanfield War (1988), Blaze (1989), The Hot Spot (1990), The Firm (1993).

More information: IMDB

His role in 1993's The Firm won Hardin the attention of television writer Chris Carter, who cast him in the recurring role of Deep Throat in the series The X-Files.

Hardin believed his initial appearance in the second episode of the first season, airing on September 17, 1993, would be a one-time role, but he soon found himself regularly commuting to the series' Vancouver filming location on short notice.

After filming the character's death in the first season finale, The Erlenmeyer Flask, Hardin was toasted with champagne, and told by Carter that no one ever really dies on X-Files. As such, Hardin made several more appearances as Deep Throat after this, seen in visions in the third season's The Blessing Way and the seventh season's The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, in flashbacks in the fourth season's Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, and as one of the guises assumed by a shapeshifting alien in the third season's finale, Talitha Cumi.

Deep Throat is a fictional character on the American science fiction television series The X-Files.

He serves as an informant, leaking information to FBI Special Agent Fox Mulder to aid Mulder's investigation of paranormal cases, dubbed X-Files.

Introduced in the series' second episode, also named Deep Throat, the character was killed off during the first season finale The Erlenmeyer Flask; however, he later made various appearances in flashbacks and visions. In the season 11 episode This, his real name is revealed to be Ronald Pakula.

The character of Deep Throat was portrayed by Jerry Hardin in all his appearances. After the character was killed, Steven Williams was introduced in the second season episode The Host to portray his successor, X.

The creation of Deep Throat was inspired by the historical Deep Throat, Mark Felt, who leaked information on the Watergate scandal, and by Donald Sutherland's character X in the film JFK.

Series creator Chris Carter has stated that the character of Deep Throat was of course inspired by the historical Deep Throat. The real Deep Throat was an informant leaking information on the FBI's investigation of the Watergate scandal to journalists Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward.

After the conclusion of The X-Files, this Deep Throat was later revealed to be FBI Associate Director Mark Felt. Also cited as an influence on the fictional Deep Throat was X, the character portrayed by Donald Sutherland in the 1991 Oliver Stone film JFK.

In the film, Sutherland's X reveals information about the possibility that the assassination of John F. Kennedy was orchestrated by elements within the American government. Carter felt he needed to create a character who would bridge the gap between FBI agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and the shadowy conspirators who were working against them; he conceived of a character who works in some level of government that we have no idea exists.

 More information: Twitter-The X Files

Carter was drawn to actor Jerry Hardin after seeing him in 1993's The Firm. Hardin believed his initial appearance would be a one-time role, although he soon found himself regularly commuting to the series' Vancouver filming location on short notice.

Producer Howard Gordon has spoken of the elusiveness of the character's allegiances, stating that during production, it was often left ambiguous whether he was ally or foe. After filming the character's death in the first season finale, The Erlenmeyer Flask, Hardin was toasted with champagne, and told by Carter that no one ever really dies on X-Files.

As such, Hardin made several more appearances as Deep Throat after this -seen in visions in the third season's The Blessing Way and the seventh season's The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati, in flashbacks in the fourth season's Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man, and as one of the guises assumed by a shapeshifting alien in the third season's finale, Talitha Cumi.

During the first season of The X-Files, Deep Throat provided Mulder and Scully with information they would have been otherwise unable to obtain. As a member of the then-unseen Syndicate, he was in a position to know a great deal of information. Deep Throat felt that the truth the Syndicate kept secret from the public needed to be known, and believed Mulder to be the one person capable of exposing this knowledge.

However, in E.B.E. Deep Throat provided Mulder with false information in order to divert him, later explaining that he believed the public was just not ready to know some truths.

During the Vietnam War, Deep Throat worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. When a UFO was shot down over Hanoi by US Marines, the surviving extraterrestrial was brought to Deep Throat, who executed it. He later claimed that his assisting Mulder was his way of atoning for his actions. He also stated that he was a participant in some of the most insidious lies and witness to deeds that no crazed man could imagine.

In the first season finale of The X-Files, The Erlenmeyer Flask, Mulder was taken hostage by a group of Men in Black operatives, following his investigation into an alien-human hybrid program. Fearing for Mulder's life, Deep Throat helped Scully gain access to a high containment facility, where she managed to secretly remove a cryogenically-preserved alien fetus for use as collateral in saving Mulder. In the subsequent meeting between the operatives and Deep Throat, he was gunned down by an assassin, the Crew Cut Man.

Deep Throat was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery. The character later appeared in dreams and visions experienced by Mulder during his recuperation on a Navajo reservation, and again years later while being experimented on by The Smoking Man.

The character of Deep Throat has been well received by critics and fans. Entertainment Weekly described Hardin's performance as world-weary and heavyhearted, and listed his appearance in the character's eponymous début episode as the 37th greatest television moment of the 1990s. However, they felt at times that his presence in episodes such as Ghost in the Machine seemed gratuitous.

 More information: Facebook-The X Files

Reviewing the character's début episode, the San Jose Mercury News called Deep Throat the most interesting new character on television.

Chris Carter has stated that Hardin's performance gave the series an element of believability that it needed; and felt that the episode E.B.E. was a great opportunity to expand the character's role.

Writing for The A.V. Club, Zack Handlen called Deep Throat's death a shocking moment, even when you know it's coming, praising the desperation evident in Hardin's performance, although lamenting the curse of continuity that led to the character being quickly replaced with Steven Williams' X.

Ben Rawson-Jones, writing for Digital Spy, felt that Deep Throat's tenure on The X-Files was arguably the show's peak, and praised Hardin's acting in the role. 

Brian Lowry, in his book The Truth Is Out There, has noted that the character helped establish a tone and undercurrent of gravity on The X-Files that was to provide the spine of the series.

More information: Youtube-The X Files

Mr. Mulder, they’ve been here for a long long time.

Deep Throat/Jerry Hardin

THE BEANS FIGHT THE FUTURE: WE CAN DO IT!

Naomi Parker Fraley

This morning, The Beans have visited two old friends, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the two FBI Special Agents who are specialized in The X Files events of paranormal activity. Both of them work in Washington, D.C. and have invited The Beans to their office to talk about the mysterious sinking of their boat in Liberty Island. 

Mulder and Scully have exposed their different future theories and they have talked about certainly things (will) and uncertainly (may).

More information: Future Simple (Will)

After visiting them, the family has been talking about ghosts, legends, equality of genre and poetry and The Grandma has remembered an old legend from Majorca located in the Serra de Tramuntana and its influences in tv series, literature and cinema.

The family has created a good reputation to the worst and most terrible characters and they have been talking about kind experiences in a try to create a standard story for their future exam.

Finally, The Grandma has talked about the importance of creating connections between different things and she has remembered one of her heroes of her childhood: Charlie Rivel.

Legends are all to do with the past and nothing to do with the present. 

Lauren Bacall

This afternoon, The Beans have visited Foggy Bottoms, one of the most beautiful neighbourhoods in Washington, D.C.

Foggy Bottom is one of the oldest late 18th- and 19th-century neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. Foggy Bottom is west of the White House and downtown Washington, in the Northwest quadrant, bounded roughly by 17th Street to the east, Rock Creek Parkway to the west, Constitution Avenue to the south, and Pennsylvania Avenue to the north. 

The Beans are visiting Foggy Bottom

Much of Foggy Bottom is occupied by the main campus of the George Washington University. Foggy Bottom is thought to have received its name due to its riverside location, which made it susceptible to concentrations of fog and industrial smoke, an atmospheric quirk.

The Foggy Bottom area was the site of one of the earliest settlements in what is now the District of Columbia, when German settler Jacob Funk subdivided 0.53 km2 near the meeting place of the Potomac River and Rock Creek in 1763. The settlement officially was named Hamburgh, but colloquially was called Funkstown where a German community was founded by many German immigrants.

By the 19th century, Foggy Bottom became a community of white and black laborers employed at the nearby breweries, glass plants, and city gas works. These industrial facilities are also cited as a possible reason for the neighborhood's name, the "fog" being the smoke given off by the industries.

Finally, The Beans have stayed in the neighbourhood having dinner and playing some word games that Natalia Bean has offered to her family while they have been talking about heroes and superheroes.

Download Play Games with English 1 , & 3 by Natalia Bean

 R2D2's Message for The Beans (MP3)

WASHINGTON, DC: FIGHT AGAINST GHOSTS AND DEMONS

The Grandma saying goodbye to Yasmina

After leaving Yasmina with the Amish Community in Lancaster, The Beans have arrived to Washington, DC. They are astonished with Yasmina's decision but, of course, they respect it. She has written a beautiful goodbye's letter to her family explaining her real reasons to not continue the rest of the journey with them. 

Yasmina tells that living with the Amish Community will allow her to have the healthiest life, in the quietest place with the most peaceful people who create their own clothes and grow their own food. She has been living a frenetic life as an individual athlete and now she only wants peace, relax and a life under the rules of a community.

The Beans are in the capital of the USA and they have chosen the shore of the Potomac to rest and review their English classes. Today, they have talked about Superlative Adjectives and Neither/Both of them before visiting the Washington National Cathedral.

More information: Superlative Adjectives

Washington, DC is a city that has been witness of hundreds of historical past events, lights and shadows of the American history, a city that resume the worst ghosts and demons from the past, lives an intense present and draw the future of millions of people around the world.

The Beans arriving to the White House

It has been a day of incredible surprises because after Yasmina's story, the family has known the last news about the Federal shutdown that affects the most part of places and sights that they wanted to visit. 

They don't understand this decision that puts in danger thousands of employments and changes the normal life of the most part of the Federal institutions like museums, monuments or national parks. 

This is the main reason because they have visited the White House to try to talk with their inhabitants and try to arrive to a deal to avoid this uncomfortable situation. As you know, all things that happen in the White House are top secret and nobody has access to them but, in that case, some people assure that they have heard an old female voice asking aloud what the hell was happening there and reclaiming her rights to visit the most important and historical places. Other people assure that they had heard sentences like "Do you want to make America great again? Sure? Then, end with the shutdown, pay your workers and open the public buildings now".

Download Washington, DC Guide by The Grandma

Tomorrow, the family is visiting some old Grandma's friends, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, because they need their help to try to solve the mystery of the sinking in Liberty Island, a real X-File. They're a little afraid because they are sure that a ghost rescued them. All of them heard the same song while they were swimming, Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, but as you know, this is impossible because ghosts don't exist, do they?

The truth is out there…

Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. 

They live inside us, and sometimes, they win.

Stephen King

GILLIAN ANDERSON: FROM THE X FILES TO THE FALL

Gillian Anderson

The Grandma is a great fan of Dana Scully, a fictional character played by Gillian Anderson, who celebrates today her birthday.
 

Congratulations!

Gillian Leigh Anderson (born August 9, 1968) is an American-British film, television and theatre actress, activist and writer. Her credits include the roles of FBI Special Agent Dana Scully in the long-running and widely popular series The X-Files and DSI Stella Gibson on the BBC crime drama television series The Fall.

More information:  The Official Gillian Anderson Website

Among other honours, Anderson has won a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards.

Gillian Anderson as Special FBI Agent Dana Scully

After beginning her career on stage, Anderson achieved international recognition for her role as FBI Special Agent Dana Scully on the American sci-fi drama series The X-Files. 

Anderson's character on The X Files initiated a phenomenon referred to as The Scully Effect; as the medical doctor and the FBI Special Agent inspired many young women to pursue careers in science, medicine and law enforcement, and as a result brought a perceptible increase in the number of women in those fields. The Scully Effect remains a subject of academic inquiry.

More information: The X Files

Her film work includes the dramas The Mighty Celt (2005), The Last King of Scotland (2006), Shadow Dancer (2012), Viceroy's House (2017) and two X-Files films: The X-Files: Fight the Future (1998) and The X-Files: I Want to Believe (2008). 

Gillian Anderson as DSI Stella Gibson

Other notable television credits include: Lady Dedlock in Bleak House (2005), Wallis Simpson in Any Human Heart (2010), Miss Havisham in Great Expectations (2011), Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier on Hannibal (2013–2015), and Media on American Gods (2017–present).

Aside from film and television, Anderson has taken on the stage and received both awards and critical acclaim. Her stage work includes Absent Friends (1991), for which she won a Theatre World Award for Best Newcomer, A Doll's House (2009), that earned her a Laurence Olivier Award nomination, and a portrayal of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (2014, 2016), for which she won the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actress and received her second Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best Actress. 

More information: The Telegraph

Anderson is the co-writer of The EarthEnd Saga novel trilogy and the self-help guide book WE: A Manifesto for Women Everywhere.

Anderson has been active in supporting numerous charities and humanitarian organizations. She is an honorary spokesperson for the Neurofibromatosis Network and a co-founder of South African Youth Education for Sustainability (SAYes). 

Dana Scully and The Grandma

Anderson was appointed an honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2016 for her services to drama.

Anderson is bidialectal. With her English accent and background, she was mocked and felt out of place in the American Midwest and soon adopted a Midwestern accent. To this day, her accent depends on her location, as she easily shifts between her American and English accents. 

In May 2013, during an interview with BlogTalkRadio, Anderson addressed the matter of her national identity: I've been asked whether I feel more like a Brit than an American and I don't know what the answer to that question is. I know that I feel that London is home and I'm very happy with that as my home. I love London as a city and I feel very comfortable there. In terms of identity, I'm still a bit baffled.

 More information: Gillian Anderson-Twitter

 Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, 

but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears. 

Gillian Anderson

UNMANNED AERIAL VEHICLE: REALITY VS. FICTION

Scully and Mulder watching UFO's in Deep Throat

September, 10 1993. 
Washington DC.

In the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Headquarters, special agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigate The X Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a medical doctor and a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries to debunk his work and thus return him to mainstream cases. 

More information: Mental Floss

Autumn 2016.  
Petworth, England. 

Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully are investigating some strange lights which appear in the English sky. Mulder believes they are UFO's, Scully believes they are UAV... 

Churchill and De Havilland Queen Bee drone, 1941

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without a human pilot aboard. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS); which include a UAV, a ground-based controller, and a system of communications between the two. 

The flight of UAVs may operate with various degrees of autonomy: either under remote control by a human operator or autonomously by onboard computers. 

Compared to manned aircraft, UAVs were originally used for missions too dull, dirty or dangerous for humans. While they originated mostly in military applications, their use is rapidly expanding to commercial, scientific, recreational, agricultural, and other applications, such as policing, peacekeeping, and surveillance, product deliveries, aerial photography, agriculture, smuggling, and drone racing. 

In 1849 Austria sent unmanned, bomb-filled balloons to attack Venice. UAV innovations started in the early 1900s and originally focused on providing practice targets for training military personnel. UAV development continued during World War I, when the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company invented a pilotless aerial torpedo that would explode at a preset time. More emerged during World War II, used both to train antiaircraft gunners and to fly attack missions. Nazi Germany produced and used various UAV aircraft during the war.  

Nevertheless, they were little more than remote-controlled airplanes until the Vietnam War. The War of Attrition (1967–1970) featured the introduction of UAVs with reconnaissance cameras into combat in the Middle East. In 1973 the U.S. military officially confirmed that they had been using UAVs in Southeast Asia (Vietnam) and in Yom Kippur War. 

Some UAVs saw service in the 1991 Gulf War. UAVs demonstrated the possibility of cheaper, more capable fighting machines, deployable without risk to aircrews. 

CAPECON was a European Union project to develop UAVs, running from 1 May 2002 to 31 December 2005. In 2013 at least 50 countries used UAVs. 

Here, we have the video which discovers the mystery.

More information: The Nation

 It is already clear that, because of advances in technology, 

drones are going to play an increased role in warfare in the years ahead. It is therefore vital that the legal frameworks governing 

their use are robust and internationally recognised. 

Douglas Alexander

ARISTOCRATIC SERIAL KILLERS: THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE

Mariona and Pedro Bond with a voodoo toy

Today, The Bonds are visiting Washington DC. They're interested in the historical buildings and they're comparing them with Comparative. They are also learning how to use the modal verb May and practising some Social English.

After that, the family is practising some vocabulary about Hotels and Tourism and they're meeting with Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully who are helping The Bonds to know more things about voodoo.

More information: Comparative

The Grandma is remembering some of her favourite singers and Irene Bond is explaining some experiences with one of them. Suddenly, they have received an unexpected visit, M, the partner of MJ, has appeared with some presents for the family. Thanks a lot MJ! We admire you and you know it!

In addition, The Bonds are discovering Ordesa, a beautiful natural reserve in the north of Aragon and they're connecting different stories.

Finally, the family are listening to The Grandma who is explaining some stories about blood and monarchies talking about Jack the Ripper, Vlad Tepes and Enriqueta Martí meanwhile Jaume Bond is adding a new name to this serial killers list: Elizabeth Báthory.

More information: Jack the Ripper

Tomorrow, the family has a meeting in The White House with the new president of the USA, a Juanjo Bond's old friend, and with the Queen Elizabeth II. They're going to talk about Middle Age and literature. 

Be polite and dress elegantly!

 My grandfather was a voodoo priest. A lot of my life dealt with spirituality. I can close my eyes and remember where I come from.
 

Wyclef Jean

012, EMERGENCY SERVICE: HOW CAN I HELP YOU?

Paula Bond and King Kong in NYC

Today, The Bonds are still in Washington. They are practising some vocabulary about justice and Social English about requesting and offering. 

They are very interested in creating good compositions, this is the reason because of they are working with the connectors.

More info: Justice System Vocabulary

Paula Bond is with the family again after spending some days in the Empire State with King Kong, her new friend from Skull Island. 

After talking about sugar and its benefits in our lives, remembering Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and his famous character Sherlock Holmes, the family are learning how to use their twitter accounts.

Jaume Bond and his new friend

After that, The Grandma is talking about Romanesque Art in the exile around the world because of the war and she is explaining a story about Roman superstitions.

Finally, Jaume Bond is explaining his experience face to face with a hurt bird which reborn after phoning to emergency services and The Grandma is remembering some beautiful songs of Leonard Cohen and Barbara.

Tomorrow, the family is meeting Fox Mulder and Dana Scully in the FBI Headquarters. Together, they're going to investigate voodoo practices and how to prevent them.

May you need some needles...

 No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky.

Bob Dylan

THE COMPLETE X-FILES: REVISED AND UPDATED EDITION

Fox Mulder and Dana Scully

The Grandma is on The Orient Express again. She has visited Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, and she's travelling to Istanbul in Turkey. She's not very happy about the idea of visiting Turkey because of the politic and social situation that this incredible country is living nowadays but it's the final stop. In some days, The Grandma is going to explain us things about Istanbul and about an ancient community, an opressed nation which lives distributed in Turkey, Siria, Iraq and Iran: Kurdistan. But today, The Grandma wants to talk about a new book The Complete X-Files, a complete guide about one of the best TV series ever  aired. 

Let's go to read a little about the series and the main characters, Fox Mulder and Dana Scully, the believer and the skeptic, who fought against paranormal activities and politic conspiracies and created one of the most popular sentences: The Truth is Out There.

More information: The X Files-Ultimate Collection

The X-Files is an American science fiction and horror drama television series created by Chris Carter, which originally aired from September 10, 1993 to May 19, 2002 on Fox. The program spanned nine seasons, included 202 episodes, and a feature film of the same name. 

Mulder, Scully and The Grandma

Later in 2008, a second film was made and preceded a tenth season revival, which consisted of six episodes, in 2016. The series revolves around FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) who investigate X-Files: marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. Mulder believes in the existence of aliens and the paranormal while Scully, a medical doctor and a skeptic, is assigned to make scientific analyses of Mulder's discoveries to debunk his work and thus return him to mainstream cases. Early in the series, both agents become pawns in a larger conflict and come to trust only each other and a very few select people. 

The X-Files was inspired by earlier television series which featured elements of suspense and speculative fiction, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Tales from the Darkside, and especially Kolchak: The Night Stalker. When creating the main characters, Carter sought to reverse gender stereotypes by making Mulder a believer and Scully a skeptic.

More information: Inside The X (Scripts)

The X-Files was a hit for the Fox network and received largely positive reviews, although its long-term story arc was criticized near the conclusion. Initially considered a cult series, it turned into a pop culture touchstone that tapped into public mistrust of governments and large institutions and embraced conspiracy theories and spirituality. Both the series itself and lead actors Duchovny and Anderson received multiple awards and nominations, and by the end it was the longest-running science fiction series in U.S. television history. The series also spawned a franchise which includes The Lone Gunmen spin-off, two theatrical films and accompanying merchandise.

The Complete X Files

The X-Files follows the careers and personal lives of FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. Mulder is a talented profiler and strong believer in the supernatural. He is also adamant about the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life and its presence on Earth.

This set of beliefs earns him the nickname Spooky Mulder and an assignment to a little-known department that deals with unsolved cases, known as the X-Files. His belief in the paranormal springs from the claimed abduction of his sister Samantha Mulder by extraterrestrials when Mulder was 12. Her abduction drives Mulder throughout most of the series. 

Because of this, as well as more nebulous desires for vindication and the revelation of truths kept hidden by human authorities, Mulder struggles to maintain objectivity in his investigations.

Agent Scully is a foil for Mulder in this regard. As a medical doctor and natural skeptic, Scully approaches cases with complete detachment even when Mulder, despite his considerable training, loses his objectivity. Her initial task is to debunk Mulder's theories, supplying logical, scientific explanations for the cases' apparently unexplainable phenomena. Although she is frequently able to offer scientific alternatives to Mulder's deductions, she is rarely able to refute them completely.

More information: The X Files Twitter

Resist or Serve 

The Red and the Black, The X Files