The Grandma has decided to return to Twin Peaks, a beautiful place in Washington where she lived incredible moments next to Special Agent Dale Cooper 25 years ago.
In
1989, logger Pete Martell discovers a naked corpse wrapped in plastic
on the bank of a river outside the town of Twin Peaks, Washington.When
Sheriff Harry S. Truman, his deputies, and Dr. Will Hayward arrive, the
body is identified as homecoming queen Laura Palmer. A badly injured
second girl, Ronette Pulaski, is discovered in a fugue state.
FBI
Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate. Cooper's initial
examination of Laura's body reveals a tiny typed letter "R" inserted
under her fingernail. Cooper informs the community that Laura's death
matches the signature of a killer who murdered another girl in
southwestern Washington the previous year, and that evidence indicates
the killer lives in Twin Peaks.
Twin Peaks is an American serial drama television series created by Mark Frost and David Lynch that premiered on April 8, 1990, on ABC. It was one of the top-rated series of 1990, but declining ratings led to its cancellation after its second season in 1991. It nonetheless gained a cult following and has been referenced in a wide variety of media. In subsequent years, Twin Peaks has often been listed among the greatest television dramas of all time.
FBI
Special Agent Dale Cooper
The series follows an investigation headed by FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper into the murder of homecoming queen Laura Palmer in the fictional town of Twin Peaks, Washington. The narrative draws on elements of crime drama, but its uncanny tone, supernatural elements, and campy, melodramatic portrayal of eccentric characters also draw on American soap operas and horror tropes. Like much of Lynch's work, it is distinguished by surrealism and offbeat humor, as well as distinctive cinematography.
Twin Peaks was followed by a 1992 feature film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, that serves as a prequel to the television series.
In October 2014, Showtime announced that the series would return as a limited series, which premiered on May 21, 2017. The limited series is written by Lynch and Frost and directed by Lynch.
Welcome to Twin Peaks. My name is Margaret Lanterman. I live in Twin Peaks. I am known as the Log Lady. There is a story behind that. There are many stories in Twin Peaks — some of them are sad, some funny. Some of them are stories of madness, of violence. Some are ordinary. Yet they all have about them a sense of mystery — the mystery of life. Sometimes, the mystery of death. The mystery of the woods. The woods surrounding Twin Peaks. To introduce this story, let me just say it encompasses the All — it is beyond the Fire, though few would know that meaning. It is a story of many, but begins with one — and I knew her. The one leading to the many is Laura Palmer. Laura is the one.
Tina Picotes is in Antwerpen, Belgium. She's visiting the Rubenshuis also known as the Rubens House where you can explore some pictures of Pieter Paul Rubens in the 377th anniversary of his death.
Pieter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577-30 May 1640) was a Flemish/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter. He is widely considered as the most notable artist of Flemish Baroque art school. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.
In addition to running a large studio in Antwerpen that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England. Rubens was a prolific artist.
Tina Picotes in the Rubenshuis, Antwerpen
His commissioned works were mostly history paintings, which included religious and mythological subjects, and hunt scenes. He painted portraits, especially of friends, and self-portraits, and in later life painted several landscapes. Rubens designed tapestries and prints, as well as his own house. He also oversaw the ephemeral decorations of the royal entry into Antwerpen by the Cardinal-Infante Ferdinand in 1635.
His drawings are mostly extremely forceful but not overly detailed. He also made great use of oil sketches as preparatory studies. He was one of the last major artists to make consistent use of wooden panels as a support medium, even for very large works, but he used canvas as well, especially when the work needed to be sent a long distance. For altarpieces he sometimes painted on slate to reduce reflection problems.
Rubens died from heart failure, a result of his chronic gout, on 30 May 1640. He was interred in Saint James' church, Antwerpen.
His epitaph read:
D.O.M./PETRVS PAVLVS RVBENIVS eques/IOANNIS, huius urbis senatoris/flfius steini Toparcha:/qui inter cæteras quibus ad miraculum/excelluit doctrinæ historiæ priscæ/omniumq. bonarum artiu. et elegantiaru. dotes/ non sui tantum sæculi,/ sed et omnes ævi/ Appeles dicit meruit:/atque ad Regum Principumq. Virorum amicitias/gradum sibi fecit:/a. PHILIPPO IV. Hispaniarum Indiarumq. Rege / inter Sanctioris Concilli scribas Adscitus,/ et ad CAROLVM Magmnæ Brittaniæ Regem/Anno M.DC.XXIX. delegatus,/pacis inter eosdem principes mox initæ/fundamenta filiciter posuit./ Obiit anno sal. M.DC.XL.XXX. May ætatis LXIV. Hoc momumenteum a Clarissimo GEVARTIO/olim PETRO PAVLO RVBENIO consecratum/ a Posteris huc usque neglectum,/ Rubeniana stirpe Masculina jam inde extincta/ hoc anno M.DCC.LV. Poni Curavit./ R.D. JOANNES BAPT. JACOBVS DE PARYS. Hujus insignis Eccelsiæ Canonicus/ ex matre et avia Rubenia nepos./ R.I.P.//
As to the 'St. Michael,' the subject is very fine, but very difficult, so I doubt that I shall find easily amongst my pupils one capable of carrying it out satisfactorily even after my own drawing. In any case, it will be necessary for me to touch it up carefully with my own hand.
Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon wants to talk about the theory of the relativity. He's in his native country in Switzerland where the CERN is located.
General theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and the current description of gravitation in modern physics. General relativity is considered as the most beautiful of all existing physical theories. General relativity generalizes special relativity and Newton's law of universal gravitation, providing a unified description of gravity as a geometric property of space and time, or spacetime. In particular, the curvature of spacetime is directly related to the energy and momentum of whatever matter and radiation are present. The relation is specified by the Einstein field equations, a system of partial differential equations.
Some predictions of general relativity differ significantly from those of classical physics, especially concerning the passage of time, the geometry of space, the motion of bodies in free fall, and the propagation of light. Examples of such differences include gravitational time dilation, gravitational lensing, the gravitational redshift of light, and the gravitational time delay. The predictions of general relativity have been confirmed in all observations and experiments to date. Although general relativity is not the only relativistic theory of gravity, it is the simplest theory that is consistent with experimental data. However, unanswered questions remain, the most fundamental being how general relativity can be reconciled with the laws of quantum physics to produce a complete and self-consistent theory of quantum gravity.
Albert Einstein
Einstein's theory has important astrophysical implications. For example, it implies the existence of black holes, regions of space in which space and time are distorted in such a way that nothing, not even light, can escape, as an end-state for massive stars. There is ample evidence that the intense radiation emitted by certain kinds of astronomical objects is due to black holes; for example, microquasars and active galactic nuclei result from the presence of stellar black holes and supermassive black holes, respectively. The bending of light by gravity can lead to the phenomenon of gravitational lensing, in which multiple images of the same distant astronomical object are visible in the sky.
General relativity also predicts the existence of gravitational waves, which have since been observed directly by physics collaboration LIGO. In addition, general relativity is the basis of current cosmological models of a consistently expanding universe.
Soon after publishing the special theory of relativity in 1905, Einstein started thinking about how to incorporate gravity into his new relativistic framework. In 1907, beginning with a simple thought experiment involving an observer in free fall, he embarked on what would be an eight-year search for a relativistic theory of gravity. After numerous detours and false starts, his work culminated in the presentation to the Prussian Academy of Science in November 1915 of what are now known as the Einstein field equations. These equations specify how the geometry of space and time is influenced by whatever matter and radiation are present, and form the core of Einstein's general theory of relativity.
Albert Einstein & Georges Lemaître
The Einstein field equations are nonlinear and very difficult to solve. Einstein used approximation methods in working out initial predictions of the theory. But as early as 1916, the astrophysicist Karl Schwarzschild found the first non-trivial exact solution to the Einstein field equations, the Schwarzschild metric. This solution laid the groundwork for the description of the final stages of gravitational collapse, and the objects known today as black holes. In the same year, the first steps towards generalizing Schwarzschild's solution to electrically charged objects were taken, which eventually resulted in the Reissner–Nordström solution, now associated with electrically charged black holes.
In 1917, Einstein applied his theory to the universe as a whole, initiating the field of relativistic cosmology. In line with contemporary thinking, he assumed a static universe, adding a new parameter to his original field equations—the cosmological constant—to match that observational presumption. By 1929, however, the work of Hubble and others had shown that our universe is expanding. This is readily described by the expanding cosmological solutions found by Friedmann in 1922, which do not require a cosmological constant.
Georges Lemaître used these solutions to formulate the earliest version of the Big Bang models, in which our universe has evolved from an extremely hot and dense earlier state. Einstein later declared the cosmological constant the biggest blunder of his life.
Georges Lemaître
During that period, general relativity remained something of a curiosity among physical theories. It was clearly superior to Newtonian gravity, being consistent with special relativity and accounting for several effects unexplained by the Newtonian theory. Einstein himself had shown in 1915 how his theory explained the anomalous perihelion advance of the planet Mercury without any arbitrary parameters, fudge factors. Similarly, a 1919 expedition led by Eddington confirmed general relativity's prediction for the deflection of starlight by the Sun during the total solar eclipse of May 29, 1919, making Einstein instantly famous.
Yet the theory entered the mainstream of theoretical physics and astrophysics only with the developments between approximately 1960 and 1975, now known as the golden age of general relativity. Physicists began to understand the concept of a black hole, and to identify quasars as one of these objects' astrophysical manifestations. Ever more precise solar system tests confirmed the theory's predictive power, and relativistic cosmology, too, became amenable to direct observational tests.
L'Aplec del Cargol or the Snail Festival in Lleida
Claire Fontaine visits Lleida, the capital of the county of El Segrià. Today, it celebrates l'Aplec del Caragol, the Snail Festival, a meeting that is held annually, on a weekend in May, on the banks of the river Segre and the Champs Elysees since 1980.
It is a gastronomic event where snails are the protagonists and which incorporates music, brass bands and parades through the city. In 2010 there were 200,000 visitors and twelve tons of snails were consumed.
Apart from the snail feast, the event includes numerous other activities such as concerts and charanga music, castells, performances, and competitions.
In 1980, with about 12 clubs an event which incorporated a parade through the city of Lleida was born. About 300 club members participated in the first Aplec and around 4,000 visitors attended the first gastronomic demonstration of Lleida.
L'Aplec del Cargol or the Snail Festival in Lleida
The club of the Order of Caragol was l’Aplec’s mother club. The Order of Caracol gathered a group of 18 clubs to spend the day on the shore of river Segre in the neighborhood of Cappont. On April 1, 1981, the Order of Caragol sent the first notice to the clubs where they informed of the main agreements adopted at the last meeting of representatives of clubs and of the registration of 34 clubs and 2,300 participants in the following Aplec del Caragol. Also in 1981, the Aplequet or Aplec de Tardor was born. In the first weekend of October, it gathered up to 60 clubs and 3,000 club members with a tribute to the origins of Aplec when it was a one-day celebration.
In the fourth celebration of l’Aplec del Caragol an album with folk songs from Lleida including one dedicated to the snail was recorded. In 1986, l'Aplec del Caragol was included in the program of la Festa Major de Lleida. A week before the celebration of l'Aplec, on May 8, 1988, Lleida entered the Guinness Book of Records with the achievement of a world record: the realization of the world's largest tray of snails. In 1990 a new edition of the album l’Aplec del Caragol was presented with nine popular songs from Lleida with lyrics and music of the brothers Angel and Joan Martinez and with the collaboration of Manuel Peralta, Eduardo Quijada and the Federation of Clubs of l'Aplec.
In 1994 the first democratic assembly of the Aplec is constituted. The Aplec of 1997 was starred with the celebration of the first Cultural Week and the first Caragol Rock.
Joseph de Ca'th Lon is studying the falcon population in Barcelona. Some years ago, a new programme about reintegration of this species started in this city and its surroundings, like Garraf range.
Today, the population is growing and every year we have to congratulate about the birth of new babies. Joseph has visited the falcon populations in the Sagrada Família; in Montjuïc Mountain; in the Mapfre Tower; in the Thermal Tower in Sant Adrià de Besòs; in the Realia building in Hospitalet and in the Garraf range.
The peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a widespread bird of prey in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey back, barred white underparts, and a black head. As is typical of bird-eating raptors, peregrine falcons are sexually dimorphic, females being considerably larger than males. The peregrine is renowned for its speed, reaching over 320 km/h during its characteristic hunting stoop, high speed dive, making it the fastest member of the animal kingdom. Experts recognize 17 to 19 subspecies which vary in appearance and range.
The peregrine falcon is a well respected falconry bird due to its strong hunting ability, high trainability, versatility, and in recent years availability via captive breeding. It is effective on most game bird species from small to large.
The peregrine falcon in Vilanova i la Geltrú
The peregrine falcon is a highly admired falconry bird, and has been used in falconry for more than 3,000 years, beginning with nomads in central Asia. Its advantages in falconry include not only its athleticism and eagerness to hunt, but an equitable disposition that leads to it being one of the easier falcons to train. The peregrine falcon has the additional advantage of a natural flight style of circling above the falconer for game to be flushed, and then performing an effective and exciting high speed diving stoop to take the quarry. The speed and energy of the stoop allows the falcon to catch fast flying birds, and to deliver a knock out blow with a fist-like clenched talon against game that may be much larger than itself.
Peregrine falcons handled by falconers are also occasionally used to scare away birds at airports to reduce the risk of bird-plane strikes, improving air-traffic safety. They were also used to intercept homing pigeons during World War II.
Native Americans of the Mississippian culture (c. 800–1500) used the peregrine, along with several other birds of prey, in imagery as a symbol of celestial power and buried men of high status in costumes associating to the ferocity of raptorial birds.
In the late Middle Ages, the Western European nobility that used peregrines for hunting, considered the bird associated with princes in formal hierarchies of birds of prey, just below the gyrfalcon associated with kings. It was considered a royal bird, more armed by its courage than its claws. Terminology used by peregrine breeders also used the Old French term gentil, of noble birth; aristocratic, particularly with the peregrine.
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.
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.
Star Wars is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas. The first installment in the Star Wars film series, it stars Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, and Alec Guinness. David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew co-star in supporting roles.
The galaxy is in the midst of a civil war. Spies for the Rebel Alliance have stolen plans to the Galactic Empire's Death Star, a heavily armed space station capable of destroying an entire planet. Rebel leader Princess Leia has the plans, but her ship is captured by Imperial forces under the command of the evil Darth Vader. Before she is captured, Leia hides the plans in the memory of an astromech droid, R2-D2, along with a holographic recording. R2-D2 flees to the surface of the desert planet Tatooine with C-3PO, a protocol droid.
The droids are captured by Jawa traders, who sell them to moisture farmers Owen and Beru Lars and their nephew Luke Skywalker. While cleaning R2-D2, Luke accidentally triggers part of Leia's message, in which she requests help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. The next morning, Luke finds R2-D2 searching for Obi-Wan, and meets Ben Kenobi, an old hermit who lives in the hills and reveals himself to be Obi-Wan. Obi-Wan tells Luke of his days as one of the Jedi Knights, former Galactic Republic peacekeepers with supernatural powers derived from an energy called The Force, who were all but wiped out by the Empire. Contrary to his uncle's statements, Luke learns that his father, Anakin, fought alongside Obi-Wan as a Jedi Knight. Obi-Wan tells Luke that Vader was his former pupil who turned to the dark side of the Force and killed Anakin. Obi-Wan then presents to Luke his father's weapon, a lightsaber.
Obi-Wan views Leia's complete message, in which she begs him to take the Death Star plans to her home planet of Alderaan and give them to her father for analysis. Obi-Wan invites Luke to accompany him to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Force. Luke declines, but changes his mind after discovering that Imperial stormtroopers searching for C-3PO and R2-D2 have destroyed his home and killed his aunt and uncle. Obi-Wan and Luke hire smuggler Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate Chewbacca to transport them to Alderaan on Han's ship, the Millennium Falcon.
R2D2 and C-3PO
Upon the Falcon's arrival at the location of Alderaan, the group discover that the planet has been destroyed by order of the Death Star's commanding officer, Grand Moff Tarkin, as a show of power. The Falcon is captured by the Death Star's tractor beam and brought into its hangar bay. While Obi-Wan goes to disable the tractor beam, Luke discovers that Leia is imprisoned aboard, and with the help of Han and Chewbacca, rescues her. After several escapes, the group makes its way back to the Falcon. Obi-Wan disables the tractor beam, and on the way back to the Falcon, he engages in a lightsaber duel with Vader. Once he is sure the others can escape, Obi-Wan allows himself to be killed. The Falcon escapes from the Death Star, unknowingly carrying a tracking beacon, which the Empire follows to the Rebels' hidden base on Yavin IV.
The Rebels analyze the Death Star's plans and identify a vulnerable exhaust port that connects to the station's main reactor. Luke joins the Rebel assault squadron, while Han collects his payment for the transport and intends to leave, despite Luke's request that he stay and help. In the ensuing battle, the Rebels suffer heavy losses after several unsuccessful attack runs, leaving Luke as one of the few surviving pilots. Vader leads a squadron of TIE fighters and prepares to attack Luke's X-wing fighter, but Han returns and fires on the Imperials, sending Vader spiraling away. Helped by guidance from Obi-Wan's spirit, Luke uses the Force and successfully destroys the Death Star seconds before it can fire on the Rebel base. Back on Yavin IV, Leia awards Luke and Han with medals for their heroism.
Tina Picotes is in New York City celebrating the anniversary of The Brooklyn Bridge. She wants to talk about it.
The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed suspension bridge in New York City and is one of the oldest bridges of either type in the United States. Completed in 1883, it connects the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn by spanning the East River. It has a main span of 486.3 meters and was the first steel-wire suspension bridge constructed. It was originally referred to as the New York and Brooklyn Bridge and as the East River Bridge, but it was later dubbed the Brooklyn Bridge, a name coming from an earlier January 25, 1867, letter to the editor of the The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and formally so named by the city government in 1915. Since opening, it has become an icon of New York City and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1964 and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark in 1972.
Although the Brooklyn Bridge is technically a suspension bridge, it uses a hybrid cable-stayed/suspension bridge design. The towers are built of limestone, granite, and Rosendale cement. The limestone was quarried at the Clark Quarry in Essex County, New York. The granite blocks were quarried and shaped on Vinalhaven Island, Maine, under a contract with the Bodwell Granite Company, and delivered from Maine to New York by schooner.
The bridge was built with numerous passageways and compartments in its anchorages. New York City rented out the large vaults under the bridge's Manhattan anchorage in order to fund the bridge. Opened in 1876, the vaults were used to store wine, as they were always at 16 °C. This was called the Blue Grotto because of a shrine to the Virgin Mary next to an opening at the entrance. When New York visited one of the cellars about 102 years later, in 1978, it discovered, on the wall, a fading inscription reading: Who loveth not wine, women and song, he remaineth a fool his whole life long.
Construction of the bridge began in 1869. The bridge was designed by German immigrant John Augustus Roebling, who had previously designed and constructed shorter suspension bridges, such as Roebling's Delaware Aqueduct in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, the Waco Suspension Bridge and the John A. Roebling Suspension Bridge between Cincinnati, Ohio, and Covington, Kentucky. While conducting surveys for the bridge project, Roebling sustained a crush injury to his foot when a ferry pinned it against a piling. After amputation of his crushed toes he developed a tetanus infection which left him incapacitated and soon resulted in his death in 1869, not long after he had placed his 32-year-old son Washington Roebling in charge of the project.
Sir Roger George Moore (October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He played the British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985. He is also known for playing Simon Templar in the television series The Saint between 1962 and 1969.
Moore took over the role of Bond from Sean Connery in 1972, and made his first appearance as 007 in Live and Let Die (1973). The longest serving Bond to date, Moore portrayed the spy in six more films.
Worldwide fame arrived after Simon Templar in a new adaptation of The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris. Moore said in an interview in 1963, that he wanted to buy the rights to Leslie Charteris's character and the trademarks.
It was only after Sean Connery had declared in 1966 that he would not play Bond any longer that Moore became aware that he might be a contender for the role. However, after George Lazenby was cast in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Connery played Bond again in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Moore did not consider the possibility until it seemed abundantly clear that Connery had in fact stepped down as Bond for good. At that point Moore was approached, and he accepted producer Albert Broccoli's offer in August 1972. In his autobiography Moore writes that he had to cut his hair and lose weight for the role. Although he resented having to make those changes, he was finally cast as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973).
Roger Moore playing James Bond
After Live and Let Die, Moore continued to portray Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); Moonraker (1979); For Your Eyes Only (1981); Octopussy (1983); and A View to a Kill (1985).
Moore was the oldest actor to have played Bond, he was 45 in Live and Let Die (1973), and 58 when he announced his retirement on 3 December 1985.
In 1976, he played the character of Sherlock Holmes in the film Sherlock Holmes in New York.
Moore's friend Audrey Hepburn had impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was the voice of Father Christmas or 'Santa' in the 2004 UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me.
His family announced his death in Switzerland on 23 May 2017.
Over the next two years UNICEF will focus on improving access to and the quality of education to provide children who have dropped out of school or who work during school hours the opportunity
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was a Scottish writer best known for his detective fiction featuring the character Sherlock Holmes. Originally a physician, in 1887 he published A Study in Scarlet, the first of four novels about Holmes and Dr. Watson. In addition, Doyle wrote over fifty short stories featuring the famous detective.
Mrs. Hudson, you're underfoot!
Sherlock Holmes's long-suffering landlady and housekeeper often saw, at close range, how impatient, insensitive, inconsiderate, and indifferent he could be with people.
His obsessive interest in the craft of crime-solving crowded out almost everything else from his life, including the possibility of warm and reciprocal relationships. His colleague Dr. John Watson was the only person privileged to share his personal space, with the possible exception of his brother Mycroft. And the relationship with Watson was bounded to that of wizard and apprentice.
These three core characteristics have led many to speculate that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, his creator, had, more or less unconsciously, diagnosed him with what's now known as Asperger's Syndrome.
Holmes was a fictional character, created for the amusement of Londoners in the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods. How can a fictional person be diagnosed with a developmental disorder?
So, how did Conan Doyle manage to craft this character over 100 years ago, considering that the Austrian psychiatrist Dr. Hans Asperger didn't show up to propose the syndrome until 1944?
Sherlock Holmes
Well, for starters, Conan Doyle had several of the elements of the character in his own experience, and possibly in his own head.
He was a brilliant intellectual, educated at the University of Edinburgh, in Scotland. He became a physician, which placed him in frequent contact with the whole spectrum of normal and abnormal people.
Conan Doyle was also a super-achiever, a polymath, proficient in many sports, keen to travel the world, and willing to relocate in the service of his developing career. Holmes was often characterized as wiry, unusually strong, and agile when dire circumstances demanded it.
As a writer as well as a trained scientist, I often ask Is fiction really fiction? Is our knowledge of human beings limited to the truths we discover in research laboratories, or would we be better advised to think of all of life as the laboratory?
The Grandma has taken advantage of the Museum Night and has visited the MNAC, her favourite museum.
She likes spending hours and hours contemplating The Apse of Sant Climent de Taüll, one of the most incredible and amazing Romanesque paintings that you can visit nowadays. She hasn't been alone. Claire Fontaine, Joseph de Ca'th Lon and Tina Picotes are in the Museum, too.
The Apse of Sant Climent de Taüll, Absis de Sant Climent de Taüll, is a Romanesque fresco in the National Art Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona. This is one of the masterpieces of the European Romanesque from which the unknown Master of Taüll takes his name. Painted in the early 12th century, it was in the church of Sant Climent de Taüll at the Vall de Boí, Alta Ribagorça in the Catalan Pyrenees until removed in 1919-1923, along with other parts of the fresco decoration.
The apse has been replaced in the church by a replica, and some original decoration remains there. MNAC Barcelona also has the paintings from the triumphal arches, a side apse, the consecration inscription and an earlier window.
Its genius lies in the way it combines elements from different Biblical visions (Revelation, Isaiah and Ezekiel) to present the Christ of the Day of Judgement. Christ appears from the background causing a movement outwards from the centre of the composition, which is presided by the ornamental sense of the outlines and the skilful use of colour to create volume. The exceptional nature of this work by the Ramon Mollet and its pictorial strength have reached out to modernity and fascinated twentieth-century avant-garde artists like Picasso and Francis Picabia.
Claire, Joseph, Tina and The Grandma
The central theme of the apse is a Theophany, or vision of God, at the end of time, based mainly on the text of Revelation. In the middle, Christ in Majesty inscribed in a mandorla, seated on the arc of Heaven and with the Earth at his feet, blesses with his right hand, while his left holds a book with the inscription EGO SUM LUX MUNDI, I am the light of the world.
On either side are the Alpha and the Omega, symbols that God is the
beginning and the end of all things. He is surrounded by the four
Evangelists. Saints, apostles and the Virgin Mary occupy the
semi-cylinder and several scenes from the Old and New Testaments are
depicted on the arches over the entrance to the apse. One scene that
stands out is of Lazarus the beggar at the door of the rich man Epulon’s
house, on the intrados of the arch, and at the top, the hand of God and
the Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God, symbolising the death and resurrection
of Christ.
To the right, an angel is seen beside the lion holding one of its hind legs, which is a symbol of St. Mark. To the left, an angel holding the tail of the bull is a symbol of St. Luke. The other two evangelists fit into the triangular space on either side of the mandorla. An angel holding the Gospel Book represents St. Matthew, and the other angel is St. John holding an eagle in his arms. Below the mural painting of Christ in the mandorla is St Thomas, St Bartholomew, Mother of God, St. John the Evangelist, St. James and St.Philip. The Mother of God holds a bowl where red rays emerge from it, which symbolize the blood of Christ.
The style combines the geometricisation of forms and the general symmetry of the composition with the decorativism in the details and ornamental elements.
The volume of the pronounced drapery is geometrical, emphasised by coloured lines and glazing, contrasting with the flat tones of the background. In addition, the symmetry, frontality, hieratic nature and the very representation of God could derive from Byzantine art, possibly via Italy. The bands of colour in the backgrounds, present in many Catalan Romanesque paintings.
The exceptional artistic nature and the high quality of these paintings have been corroborated by the study of the pigments, which are of better quality and preparation than in other Catalan churches. Some imported pigments have even been found. Through the use of superimposed layers, the painter obtains more intense chromatic effects. Thus blue, obtained from aerinite, is applied over a layer of black, and cinnabar is applied over haematite to get red.
Painted on one of the columns of the nave is the church’s inscription of consecration by bishop Ramon de Roda from Ribagorça on 10 December 1123. This reference is fundamental for dating the paintings, of which there are still remains in situ.
Today, Joseph de Ca'th Lon wants to talk about the metre, in its 142nd anniversary, and about its importance in our societies as a measure of distance.
The Metre Convention, Convention du Mètre or the Treaty of the Metre is an international treaty that was signed in Paris on 20 May 1875 by representatives of 17 nations.
The treaty set up an institute for the purpose of coordinating international metrology and for coordinating the development of the metric system. The treaty also set up associated organizations to oversee the running of the institute.
Initially it was only concerned with the units of mass and length but, in 1921, at the 6th meeting of the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), it was revised and its mandate extended to cover all physical measurements.
In 1960, at the 11th meetings of the CGPM, the system of units it had established was overhauled and relaunched as the International System of Units (SI).
Membership of the convention is restricted to countries who have diplomatic relations with France, but in 1999 the category of associate membership was introduced for those nations that wished to partake in the calibration and measurement aspects of the CIPM Mutual Recognition Agreement (CIPM-MRA) program without taking part in the activities of the BIPM.
Second CGPM, Pavillon de Breteuil, Paris
In England in 1215, clause 25 of the Magna Carta set out the standards of measure that were to be applied throughout the realm prefixed. The wording of the clause emphasised that There is to be a single measure ... throughout our realm.
Five centuries later, when in 1707 England and Scotland were united into a single kingdom, the Scots agreed to use the same units of measure that were already established in England.
During the eighteenth century, in order to facilitate trade, Peter the Great, Czar of Russia adopted the English system of measure.
Abuse of units of measures were one of the causes of the French Revolution and its reform was one of the items on the agenda of National Assembly. Talleyrand, an influential leader of the Assembly invited British and American participation in the establishment of a new system, but in the event, the Assembly went it alone and introduced the metre and the kilogram which were to form the basis of the metric system, manufacturing prototypes which, in 1799, were lodged with Archives.
Between 1850 and 1870, a number of countries adopted the metric system as their system of measure including Spain, many South American republics and many of the Italian and German states, the Netherlands had adopted the system in 1817. In 1863, the International Postal Union used grams to express permitted weights of letters.
Mesure d'un Arc du Grand Méridien
In 1867, at the second general conference of the International Association of Geodesy held in Berlin, the question of international length standard aroused with the concern for combining the measurments made in different countries in order to determine the size and shape of the earth.
The conference recommended the adoption of the metric system and the creation of an international metre commission.
In the 1860s, inspections of the prototype metre revealed wear and tear at the measuring faces of the bar and also that the bar was wont to flex slightly when in use. In view of the doubts being cast on the reproducibility of the metre and the kilogram and the threat that a rival standard might be set up, Napoleon III invited scientists from all the world's nations to attend a conference in Paris.
In July 1870, two weeks before the conference was due to start, the Franco-Prussian War broke out. Although the delegates did meet, without a German delegation, it was agreed that the conference should be recalled once all the delegates, including the German delegation, were present. France was defeated in the war, Napoleon went into exile and Germany and Italy, now unified nations, adopted the metric system as their national system of units, but with the prototype copy of the kilogram and metre under the control of the Third French Republic.
In 1872 the new republican government reissued the invitations and in 1875 scientists from thirty European and American countries met in Paris.
