2013, NASA LAUNCHES THE SPACECRAFT MAVEN TO MARS

Today, The Grandma has received the visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon. Joseph loves Astronomy and Science and they have been talking about MAVEN, the NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars, that was launched on a day like today in 2013.

MAVEN is a NASA spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of that planet's atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of the planet's climate and water.

The name is an acronym for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution while the word maven also denotes a person who has special knowledge or experience; an expert.

MAVEN was launched on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, on 18 November 2013 UTC and went into orbit around Mars on 22 September 2014 UTC.

The mission is the first by NASA to study the Mars atmosphere. The probe is analyzing the planet's upper atmosphere and ionosphere to examine how and at what rate the solar wind is stripping away volatile compounds.

The principal investigator for the mission is Shannon Curry at the University of California, Berkeley. She took over from Bruce Jakosky of the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado Boulder, who proposed and led the mission until 2021. The project cost $582.5 million to build, launch, and operate through its two-year prime mission.

Proposed in 2006, the mission was the second of NASA's Mars Scout Program, which had previously yielded Phoenix. It was selected for development for flight in 2008.

On 2 August 2013, the MAVEN spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center, in Florida to begin launch preparations.

On 1 October 2013, only seven weeks before launch, a government shutdown caused suspension of work for two days and initially threatened to force a 26-month postponement of the mission. With the spacecraft nominally scheduled to launch on 18 November 2013, a delay beyond 7 December 2013 would have caused MAVEN to miss the launch window as Mars moved too far out of alignment with the Earth.

However, two days later, on 3 October 2013, a public announcement was made that NASA had deemed the 2013 MAVEN launch so essential to ensuring future communication with current NASA assets on Mars -the rovers Opportunity and Curiosity-  that emergency funding was authorized to restart spacecraft processing in preparation for an on-time launch.

Features on Mars that resemble dry riverbeds and the discovery of minerals that form in the presence of water indicate that Mars once had a dense enough atmosphere and was warm enough for liquid water to flow on the surface. However, that thick atmosphere was somehow lost to space. Scientists suspect that over millions of years, Mars lost 99% of its atmosphere as the planet's core cooled and its magnetic field decayed, allowing the solar wind to sweep away most of the water and volatile compounds that the atmosphere once contained.

More information: NASA

The goal of MAVEN is to determine the history of the loss of atmospheric gases to space, providing answers about Martian climate evolution. By measuring the rate with which the atmosphere is currently escaping to space and gathering enough information about the relevant processes, scientists will be able to infer how the planet's atmosphere evolved over time. The MAVEN mission's primary scientific objectives are:

-Measure the composition and structure of the upper atmosphere and ionosphere today, and determine the processes responsible for controlling them

-Measure the rate of loss of gas from the top of the atmosphere to space, and determine the processes responsible for controlling them

-Determine properties and characteristics that will allow us to extrapolate backwards in time to determine the integrated loss to space over the four-billion-year history recorded in the geological record.

MAVEN launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) on 18 November 2013, using an Atlas V 401 launch vehicle. It reached Mars on 22 September 2014, and was inserted into an elliptic orbit approximately 6,200 km by 150 km above the planet's surface.

In October 2014, as the spacecraft was being fine-tuned to start its primary science mission, the comet Siding Spring was also performing a close flyby of Mars. The researchers had to maneuver the craft to mitigate harmful effects of the comet, but while doing so, were able to observe the comet and perform measurements on the composition of expelled gases and dust.

On 16 November 2014, investigators completed MAVEN's commissioning activities and began its primary science mission, scheduled to last one year. During that time, MAVEN had observed a nearby comet, measured how volatile gases are swept away by solar wind, and performed four deep dips down to the border of the upper and lower atmospheres to better characterize the planet's entire upper atmosphere.

In June 2015, the science phase was extended through September 2016, allowing MAVEN to observe the Martian atmosphere through the entirety of the planet's seasons.

On 3 October 2016, MAVEN completed one full Martian year of scientific observations. It had been approved for an additional 2-year extended mission through September 2018. All spacecraft systems were still operating as expected.

In March 2017, MAVEN's investigators had to perform a previously unscheduled maneuver to avoid colliding with Phobos the following week.

On 5 April 2019, the navigation team completed a two-month aerobraking maneuver to lower MAVEN's orbit and enable it to better serve as a communications relay for current landers as well as the rover Perseverance. This new elliptic orbit is approximately 4,500 km by 130 km. With 6.6 orbits per Earth day, the lower orbit allows more frequent communication with rovers.

As of September 2020, the spacecraft is continuing its science mission as well, with all instruments still operating and with enough fuel to last at least until 2030.

On August 31, 2021, Shannon Curry became the Principal Investigator of the mission.

NASA became aware of failures in the MAVEN's inertia measurement units (IMU) in late 2021, necessary for the probe to maintain its orbit; having already moved from the main IMU to the backup one in 2017, they saw the backup ones showing signs of failure.

In February 2022, both IMUs had appeared to lost the ability to perform its measurement properly. After doing a heartbeat termination to restore the use of the backup IMU, NASA engineers set to reprogram MAVEN to use an all stellar mode using star positions to maintain its altitude, eliminating the reliance on the IMUs. This was put into place in April 2022 and completed by May 28, 2022, but during this period, MAVEN could not be used for scientific observations or to relay communications to Earth from the rovers Curiosity and Perseverance and the Insight lander. Reduced communication was handled by other Mars orbiters.

In 2014, MAVEN researchers detected widespread aurora throughout the planet, even close to the equator. Given the localized magnetic fields on Mars (as opposed to Earth's global magnetic field), aurora appear to form and distribute in different ways on Mars, creating what scientists call diffuse aurora.

The fortuitous arrival of MAVEN just before a flyby of the comet Siding Spring gave researchers a unique opportunity to observe both the comet itself as well as its interactions with the Martian atmosphere.

In 2017, results were published detailing the detection of metal ions in Mars's ionosphere. This is the first time metal ions have been detected in any planet's atmosphere other than Earth's. It was also noted that these ions behave and are distributed differently in the atmosphere of Mars given that the red planet has a much weaker magnetic field than our own.

In September 2017, NASA reported a temporary doubling of radiation levels on the surface of Mars, as well as an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier. This occurred due to a massive, and unexpected, solar storm.

The observation provided insight into how changes in radiation levels might impact the planet's habitability, helping NASA researchers understand how to predict as well as mitigate effects on future human Mars explorers.

More information: NASA

 NASA is an engine of innovation and inspiration
as well as the world's premier space exploration agency,
and we are well served by politicians working
to keep it that way, instead of turning it
into a mere jobs program, or worse, cutting its budget.

 

Bill Nye

1869, THE SUEZ CANAL IS INAUGURATED IN EGYPT

Today, The Grandma has been reading about the Suez Canal, the artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, that was inaugurated on a day like today in 1869.

The Suez Canal, in Egyptian Arabic قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, Qanāt es-Suwais, is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia (and by extension, the Sinai Peninsula from the rest of Egypt). The 193.30 km long canal is a key trade route between Europe and Asia.

In 1858, Ferdinand de Lesseps formed the Suez Canal Company for the express purpose of building the canal. Construction of the canal lasted from 1859 to 1869. The canal officially opened on 17 November 1869.

It offers vessels a direct route between the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans via the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, avoiding the South Atlantic and southern Indian oceans and reducing the journey distance from the Arabian Sea to London by approximately 8,900 kilometres, to 10 days at 37 km/h or 8 days at 44 km/h.

The canal extends from the northern terminus of Port Said to the southern terminus of Port Tewfik at the city of Suez.

In 2021, more than 20,600 vessels traversed the canal (an average of 56 per day).

The original canal featured a single-lane waterway with passing locations in the Ballah Bypass and the Great Bitter Lake. It contained, according to Alois Negrelli's plans, no locks, with seawater flowing freely through it. In general, the water in the canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer. South of the lakes, the current changes with the tide at Suez.

The canal was the property of the Egyptian government, but European shareholders, mostly British and French, owned the concessionary company which operated it until July 1956, when President Gamal Abdel Nasser nationalised it -an event which led to the Suez Crisis of October-November 1956.

The canal is operated and maintained by the state-owned Suez Canal Authority (SCA) of Egypt. Under the Convention of Constantinople, it may be used in time of war as in time of peace, by every vessel of commerce or of war, without distinction of flag. Nevertheless, the canal has played an important military strategic role as a naval short-cut and choke point. Navies with coastlines and bases on both the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (Egypt and Israel) have a particular interest in the Suez Canal.

After Egypt closed the Suez Canal at the beginning of the Six-Day War on 5 June 1967, the canal remained closed for precisely eight years, reopening on 5 June 1975.

The Egyptian government launched construction in 2014 to expand and widen the Ballah Bypass for 35 km to speed up the canal's transit time. The expansion intended to nearly double the capacity of the Suez Canal, from 49 to 97 ships per day. At a cost of LE 59.4 billion (US$9 billion), this project was funded with interest-bearing investment certificates issued exclusively to Egyptian entities and individuals.

The Suez Canal Authority officially opened the new side channel in 2016. This side channel, at the northern side of the east extension of the Suez Canal, serves the East Terminal for berthing and unberthing vessels from the terminal. As the East Container Terminal is located on the Canal itself, before the construction of the new side channel it was not possible to berth or unberth vessels at the terminal while a convoy was running.

More information: Suez Canal

Ancient west-east canals were built to facilitate travel from the Nile to the Red Sea. One smaller canal is believed to have been constructed under the auspices of Senusret II or Ramesses II. Another canal, probably incorporating a portion of the first, was constructed under the reign of Necho II, but the only fully functional canal was engineered and completed by Darius I.

By the 8th century, a navigable canal existed between Old Cairo and the Red Sea, but accounts vary as to who ordered its construction -either Trajan or 'Amr ibn al-'As, or Umar. This canal was reportedly linked to the River Nile at Old Cairo and ended near modern Suez.

A geography treatise De Mensura Orbis Terrae written by the Irish monk Dicuil (born late 8th century) reports a conversation with another monk, Fidelis, who had sailed on the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea during a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the first half of the 8th century.

The Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this canal closed in 767 to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.

Despite the construction challenges that could have been the result of the alleged difference in sea levels, the idea of finding a shorter route to the east remained alive.

In 1830, General Francis Chesney submitted a report to the British government that stated that there was no difference in elevation and that the Suez Canal was feasible, but his report received no further attention. Lieutenant Waghorn established his Overland Route, which transported post and passengers to India via Egypt.

Linant de Bellefonds, a French explorer of Egypt, became chief engineer of Egypt's Public Works. In addition to his normal duties, he surveyed the Isthmus of Suez and made plans for the Suez Canal. French Saint-Simonianists showed an interest in the canal and in 1833, Barthélemy Prosper Enfantin tried to draw Muhammad Ali's attention to the canal but was unsuccessful. Alois Negrelli, the Italian-Austrian railroad pioneer, became interested in the idea in 1836.

In 1846, Prosper Enfantin's Société d'Études du Canal de Suez invited a number of experts, among them Robert Stephenson, Negrelli and Paul-Adrien Bourdaloue to study the feasibility of the Suez Canal, with the assistance of Linant de Bellefonds. Bourdaloue's survey of the isthmus was the first generally accepted evidence that there was no practical difference in altitude between the two seas. Britain, however, feared that a canal open to everyone might interfere with its India trade and therefore preferred a connection by train from Alexandria via Cairo to Suez, which Stephenson eventually built.

The canal opened under French control in November 1869. The opening ceremonies began at Port Said on the evening of 15 November, with illuminations, fireworks, and a banquet on the yacht of the Khedive Isma'il Pasha of Egypt and Sudan.

The royal guests arrived the following morning: the Emperor Franz Joseph I, the French Empress Eugenie in the Imperial yacht L'Aigle, the Crown Prince of Prussia, and Prince Louis of Hesse. Other international guests included the American natural historian H. W. Harkness. In the afternoon there were blessings of the canal with both Muslim and Christian ceremonies, a temporary mosque and church having been built side by side on the beach. In the evening there were more illuminations and fireworks.

When built, the canal was 164 km long and 8 m deep. After several enlargements, it is 193.30 km long, 24 m deep and 205 metres wide. It consists of the northern access channel of 22 km, the canal itself of 162.25 km and the southern access channel of 9 km.

The opening of the canal created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. Although the Red Sea is about 1.2 m higher than the eastern Mediterranean, the current between the Mediterranean and the middle of the canal at the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer.

More information: Marine Insight

The road to India, the Suez Canal,
the oil fields of Mosul, the whole complex
of political and strategic requirements
that drew Britain into Palestine in 1918,
began with the enterprise
of the Elizabethan merchant adventurers.

Barbara W. Tuchman

1992, THE HOXNE HOARD IS DISCOVERED BY ERIC LAWES

Today, The Grandma has received the visit of one of her closest friends, Joseph de Ca'th Lon. Joseph loves History and Archaeology and they have been talking about the Hoxne Hoard, the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered by Eric Lawes in Suffok, England, on a day like today in 1992.

The Hoxne Hoard is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by Eric Lawes, a metal detectorist in the village of Hoxne in Suffolk, England in 1992.

The hoard consists of 14,865 Roman gold, silver, and bronze coins and approximately 200 items of silver tableware and gold jewellery.

The objects are now in the British Museum in London, where the most important pieces and a selection of the rest are on permanent display. 

In 1993, the Treasure Valuation Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million (about £3.79 million in 2021).

The hoard was buried in an oak box or small chest filled with items in precious metal, sorted mostly by type, with some in smaller wooden boxes and others in bags or wrapped in fabric. Remnants of the chest and fittings, such as hinges and locks, were recovered in the excavation. The coins of the hoard date it after AD 407, which coincides with the end of Britain as a Roman province.

The owners and reasons for burial of the hoard are unknown, but it was carefully packed and the contents appear consistent with what a single very wealthy family might have owned. It is likely that the hoard represents only a part of the wealth of its owner, given the lack of large silver serving vessels and of some of the most common types of jewellery.

The Hoxne Hoard contains several rare and important objects, such as a gold body-chain and silver-gilt pepper-pots (piperatoria), including the Empress pepper pot. The hoard is also of particular archaeological significance because it was excavated by professional archaeologists with the items largely undisturbed and intact. The find helped to improve the relationship between metal detectorists and archaeologists, and influenced a change in English law regarding finds of treasure.

More information: Heritage Suffolk

The hoard was discovered in a farm field southwest of the village of Hoxne in Suffolk on 16 November 1992. Tenant farmer Peter Whatling had lost a hammer and asked his friend Eric Lawes, a retired gardener and amateur metal detectorist, to help look for it.

While searching the field with his metal detector, Lawes discovered silver spoons, gold jewelry, and numerous gold and silver coins. After retrieving a few items, he and Whatling notified the landowners (Suffolk County Council) and the police without attempting to dig out any more objects.

The following day, a team of archaeologists from the Suffolk Archaeological Unit carried out an emergency excavation of the site. The entire hoard was excavated in a single day, with the removal of several large blocks of unbroken material for laboratory excavation. The area was searched with metal detectors within a radius of 30 metres  from the find spot. Peter Whatling's missing hammer was also recovered and donated to the British Museum.

The hoard was concentrated in a single location, within the completely decayed remains of a wooden chest. The objects had been grouped within the chest; for example, pieces such as ladles and bowls were stacked inside one another, and other items were grouped in a way consistent with being held within an inner box. Some items had been disturbed by burrowing animals and ploughing, but the overall amount of disturbance was low. It was possible to determine the original layout of the artefacts within the container, and the existence of the container itself, due to Lawes' prompt notification of the find, which allowed it to be excavated in situ by professional archaeologists.

The excavated hoard was taken to the British Museum. The discovery was leaked to the press, and the Sun newspaper ran a front-page story on 19 November, alongside a picture of Lawes with his metal detector. The full contents of the hoard and its value were still unknown, yet the newspaper article claimed that it was worth £10 million.

In response to the unexpected publicity, the British Museum held a press conference at the museum on 20 November to announce the discovery. Newspapers lost interest in the hoard quickly, allowing British Museum curators to sort, clean, and stabilise it without further disruption from the press. The initial cleaning and basic conservation was completed within a month of its discovery.

A coroner's inquest was held at Lowestoft on 3 September 1993, and the hoard was declared a treasure trove, meaning that it was deemed to have been hidden with the intention of being recovered at a later date. Under English common law, anything declared as such belongs to the Crown if no one claims title to it. The customary practice at the time was to reward anyone who found and promptly reported a treasure trove with money equivalent to its market value, the money being provided by the national institution that wished to acquire the treasure.

In November 1993, the Treasure Trove Reviewing Committee valued the hoard at £1.75 million (about £3.79 million in 2023), which was paid to Lawes as finder of the treasure, and he shared it with farmer Peter Whatling. The Treasure Act 1996 was later enacted, allowing the finder, tenant, and landowner to share in any reward.

More information: The Guardian

The Roman Empire was very, very much like us.
They lost their moral core,
their sense of values in terms of who they were.
And after all of those things converged together,
they just went right down the tubes very quickly.

Ben Carson

ALBERTUS MAGNUS, SCIENCE & THEOLOGY IN THE 13 C.

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Albertus Magnus, the German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop, whose festivity is celebrated on a day like today.

Albertus Magnus (c. 1200-15 November 1280), also known as Saint Albert the Great, Albert of Swabia or Albert of Cologne, was a German Dominican friar, philosopher, scientist, and bishop.

Canonized in 1931 as a Catholic saint, he was known during his lifetime as Doctor universalis and Doctor expertus; late in his life the sobriquet Magnus was appended to his name. Scholars such as James A. Weisheipl and Joachim R. Söder have referred to him as the greatest German philosopher and theologian of the Middle Ages. 

The Catholic Church distinguishes him as one of the 37 (as of 2022) Doctors of the Church.

It seems likely that Albert was born sometime before 1200, given well-attested evidence that he was aged over 80 on his death in 1280. Two later sources say that Albert was about 87 on his death, which has led 1193 to be commonly given as the date of Albert's birth, but this information does not have enough evidence to be confirmed.

More information: Medieval Life and Times

Albert was probably born in Lauingen (now in Bavaria), since he called himself Albert of Lauingen, but this might simply be a family name. Most probably his family was of ministerial class; his familiar connection with (being son of the count) the Bollstädt noble family is almost certainly mere conjecture by 15th century hagiographers.

Albert was probably educated principally at the University of Padua, where he received instruction in Aristotle's writings. A late account by Rudolph de Novamagia refers to Albertus' encounter with the Blessed Virgin Mary, who convinced him to enter the Holy Orders. In 1223 (or 1229), he became a member of the Dominican Order, and studied theology at Bologna and elsewhere. 

Selected to fill the position of lecturer at Cologne, Germany, where the Dominicans had a house, he taught for several years there, as well as in Regensburg, Freiburg, Strasbourg, and Hildesheim. During his first tenure as lecturer at Cologne, Albert wrote his Summa de bono after having a discussion with Philip the Chancellor concerning the transcendental properties of being.

In 1245, Albert became master of theology under Gueric of Saint-Quentin, the first German Dominican to achieve this distinction. Following this turn of events, Albert was able to teach theology at the University of Paris as a full-time professor, holding the seat of the Chair of Theology at the College of St. James. During this time Thomas Aquinas began to study under Albertus.

Albert was the first to comment on virtually all of the writings of Aristotle, thus making them accessible to wider academic debate. The study of Aristotle brought him to study and comment on the teachings of Muslim academics, notably Avicenna and Averroes, and this would bring him into the heart of academic debate.

In 1254, Albert was made provincial of the Dominican Order and fulfilled the duties of the office with great care and efficiency. During his tenure, he publicly defended the Dominicans against attacks by the secular faculty of the University of Paris, commented on John the Evangelist, and answered what he perceived as errors of the Islamic philosopher Averroes.

In 1259, Albert took part in the General Chapter of the Dominicans at Valenciennes together with Thomas Aquinas, masters Bonushomo Britto, Florentius, and Peter (later Pope Innocent V), establishing a ratio studiorum or program of studies for the Dominicans that featured the study of philosophy as an innovation for those not sufficiently trained to study theology. This innovation initiated the tradition of Dominican scholastic philosophy put into practice, for example, in 1265 at the Order's studium provinciale at the convent of Santa Sabina in Rome, out of which would develop the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum.

In 1260, Pope Alexander IV made him bishop of Regensburg, an office from which he resigned after three years. During the exercise of his duties he enhanced his reputation for humility by refusing to ride a horse, in accord with the dictates of the Order, instead traversing his huge diocese on foot.

In 1263, Pope Urban IV relieved him of the duties of bishop and asked him to preach the eighth Crusade in German-speaking countries. After this, he was especially known for acting as a mediator between conflicting parties. In Cologne, he is known not only for being the founder of Germany's oldest university there, but also for the big verdict (der Große Schied) of 1258, which brought an end to the conflict between the citizens of Cologne and the archbishop. Among the last of his labors was the defense of the orthodoxy of his former pupil, Thomas Aquinas, whose death in 1274 grieved Albert.

More information: Science History Institute

Albert was a scientist, philosopher, astrologer, theologian, spiritual writer, ecumenist, and diplomat. Under the auspices of Humbert of Romans, Albert molded the curriculum of studies for all Dominican students, introduced Aristotle to the classroom and probed the work of Neoplatonists, such as Plotinus. Indeed, it was the thirty years of work done by Aquinas and himself that allowed for the inclusion of Aristotelian study in the curriculum of Dominican schools.

After suffering a collapse of health in 1278, he died on 15 November 1280 in the Dominican convent in Cologne, Germany. Since 15 November 1954 his relics are in a Roman sarcophagus in the crypt of the Dominican St. Andrew's Church in Cologne. Although his body was claimed to be incorrupt at the first exhumation three years after his death, at the exhumation in 1483 only a skeleton remained.

Albert was beatified in 1622. He was canonized and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 16 December 1931 by Pope Pius XI and the patron saint of natural scientists in 1941. St. Albert's feast day is November 15.

Albert's writings collected in 1899 went to thirty-eight volumes. These displayed his prolific habits and encyclopedic knowledge of topics such as logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, astrology, mineralogy, alchemy, zoology, physiology, phrenology, justice, law, friendship, and love. He digested, interpreted, and systematized the whole of Aristotle's works, gleaned from the Latin translations and notes of the Arabian commentators, in accordance with Church doctrine. Most modern knowledge of Aristotle was preserved and presented by Albert.

His principal theological works are a commentary in three volumes on the Books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Magister Sententiarum), and the Summa Theologiae in two volumes. The latter is in substance a more didactic repetition of the former.

In the centuries since his death, many stories arose about Albert as an alchemist and magician.

Albert was deeply interested in astronomy. Throughout the Middle Ages -and well into the early modern period- astrology was widely accepted by scientists and intellectuals who held the view that life on earth is effectively a microcosm within the macrocosm (the latter being the cosmos itself).

Albert is known for his commentary on the musical practice of his times. Most of his written musical observations are found in his commentary on Aristotle's Poetics.

Both of his early treatises, De natura boni and De bono, start with a metaphysical investigation into the concepts of the good in general and the physical good.

Albert devoted the last tractatus of De Bono to a theory of justice and natural law. Albert places God as the pinnacle of justice and natural law. God legislates and divine authority is supreme. Up until his time, it was the only work specifically devoted to natural law written by a theologian or philosopher.

Albert mentions friendship in his work, De bono, as well as presenting his ideals and morals of friendship in the very beginning of Tractatus II. Later in his life he published Super Ethica.

More information: Mysterium Academy

 Above all one should accept everything,
in general and individually,
in oneself or in others,
agreeable or disagreeable,
with a prompt and confident spirit,
as coming from the hand of his infallible Providence
or the order he has arranged.

Albertus Magnus

1997, MY HEART WILL GO ON BY CÉLINE DION IS RELEASED

Today, The Grandma has been listening to one of the most popular songs sung by Céline Dion, My Heart Will Go On included in the album Let's talk about love, that was released on a day like today in 1997.

My Heart Will Go On is a song recorded by Celine Dion as the theme for the film Titanic. 

It was composed by James Horner, with lyrics by Will Jennings. It was produced by Horner, Walter Afanasieff and Simon Franglen. My Heart Will Go On was released as a single internationally by Columbia and Epic on November 24, 1997, and was included on Dion's fifth English-language album, Let's Talk About Love (1997), released ten days before, and the Titanic soundtrack.

Horner composed the basis of My Heart Will Go On as a motif used in the film soundtrack, and suggested developing it into a song. The Titanic director, James Cameron, resisted, as he felt a pop song would be inappropriate for the film, but agreed to use it after hearing the demo. The final version was arranged by Afanasieff.

My Heart Will Go On is considered Dion's signature song. The song topped the charts in more than twenty-five countries. With worldwide sales estimated at over 18 million copies, it is the second-best-selling single by a woman in music history, and one of the best-selling singles of all time. It was also the world's best-selling single of 1998.

It was included in the list of Songs of the Century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the National Endowment for the Arts. The music video was directed by Bille Woodruff and released at the end of 1997. Dion performed the song to honour the 20th anniversary of the film at the 2017 Billboard Music Awards.

Before the release of the film Titanic, studio executives were worried that it would be a commercial failure. Sony had paid $800,000 for the rights to the soundtrack album and were hoping it would include a theme song. However, the director, James Cameron, did not want to end Titanic with a pop song, feeling it would be inappropriate.

James Horner initially composed the music for My Heart Will Go On as an instrumental motif for the film soundtrack. Wanting to prepare a vocal version to use during the end credits, he enlisted the lyricist Will Jennings, who wrote the lyrics from the point of view of a person of a great age looking back so many years.

More information: American Songwriter

Originally intended for the Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø, the song was given to Céline Dion instead. Simon Franglen, who was working with Horner on electronic textures and synthesizers for the film score, suggested Dion, with whom he had worked on many of her hits. Dion initially did not want to record it, as she had already recorded the film songs Beauty and the Beast and Because You Loved Me. However, her husband and producer, René Angélil, convinced her to record a demo.

Horner waited until Cameron was in an appropriate mood before presenting him with the demo. After listening several times, Cameron approved it, but worried that he might be criticized for "going commercial at the end of the movie". Cameron also wanted to appease the anxious studio executives and saw that a hit song from his movie could only be a positive factor in guaranteeing its completion.

The producer Walter Afanasieff was not impressed with the demo, finding it meandering and dreary, but agreed to arrange and produce the studio version. He replaced every part of Horner's demo, and was upset that Horner was given a co-producer credit.

The song is written in the key of E major. The verses follow the chord progression of E-Bsus4-Aadd9-E-B. The chorus has the chord progression of C♯m-B-A-B. The song modulates to A-flat major. It contains heavy emphasis on the instrumental arranging. Usage of Tin Whistle is prominent, backed by melodic use of strings and rhythm guitars. The song features both acoustic and electronic instrumentation. Dion's vocal performance is described as emotional and demanding by Pandora Radio.

The Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø was scheduled to record the song for the film in 1997, but Dion's vocals were preferred due to Horner's decision to support Dion's career.

In a December 2014 interview, Horner quotes: When I had completed the Titanic film, I had to decide for Céline Dion or Sissel's vocals. Sissel I am very close, while Céline I had known since she was 18, and I had already written three film songs for her. But that was before Céline was known and filmmakers and marketing people had not done what they should have done for Céline and her songs. So I felt I owed her a Titanic chance, but I could still have used Sissel there.

Instead, Kyrkjebø completed much of the score for the soundtrack album, Titanic: Music from the Motion Picture. Dion accepted to sing a demo for the film, despite being initially hesitant to record as she had already done three film songs earlier. Years later, Horner chose Kyrkjebø to perform My Heart Will Go On on both world premieres of Titanic 3D (2012) and Titanic Live (2015).

More information: The Crimson

 You're here, there's nothing I fear
And I know that my heart will go on
We'll stay forever this way
You are safe in my heart and
My heart will go on and on

Sissel Kyrkjebø / Céline Dion

LOS NEVADOS NATURAL PARK, VOLCANOES IN COLOMBIA

Today, The Grandma has been reading about one of the greatest catastrophes in the recent Colombian history, the eruption of Nevado del Ruiz on a day like today in 1985.

Los Nevados National Natural Park, in Spanish Parque Nacional Natural Los Nevados, is a national park located in the Cordillera Central of the Colombian Andes. The park surrounds the northern volcanic complex formed by Nevado del Ruiz, Nevado del Tolima, Nevado de Santa Isabel, the paramillos of Cisne, Santa Rosa and Quindío and the Cerro Bravo and Cerro Machín.

The park is located in the departments of Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda, Tolima and spans between the municipalities Manizales, Villamaría, Santa Rosa de Cabal, Pereira, Salento, Villahermosa, Anzoátegui, Santa Isabel, Murillo, Ibagué and Casabianca.

The park was temporarily closed by the authorities since March 31, 2023 because the Nevado del Ruiz Volcano has increased its activity and there are fears of a possible eruption.

Entrance through Brisas sector (northern sector of the Park) is only allowed to Valle de las Tumbas since the Servicio Geológico Colombiano has declared Nevado del Ruiz Volcano's activity at Orange Alert Level (level II). It is highly recommend for visitors to consult the state of volcanic activity in the Servicio Geológico Colombiano's web page before their visit.

Glacial activity has shaped the park's landscape 3,000 m above mean sea level, leaving U-shaped valleys and moraines behind. Extrusive igneous rock is dominant above 3,500 m on the eastern slopes and 2,200 m on the western slopes. The Otún Lake, which lies in an extinct volcano crater, and the Green Lake are located in the area.

More information: Earth Magazine

Nevado del Ruiz, also known as La Mesa de Herveo, is a volcano on the border of the departments of Caldas and Tolima in Colombia, about 129 km west of the capital city Bogotá. It is a stratovolcano composed of many layers of lava alternating with hardened volcanic ash and other pyroclastic rocks. Volcanic activity at Nevado del Ruiz began about two million years ago, since the Early Pleistocene or Late Pliocene, with three major eruptive periods. The current volcanic cone formed during the present eruptive period, which began 150,000 years ago.

The volcano usually generates Vulcanian to Plinian eruptions, which produce swift-moving currents of hot gas and rock called pyroclastic flows. These eruptions often cause massive lahars (mud and debris flows), which pose a threat to human life and the environment. The impact of such an eruption is increased as the hot gas and lava melt the mountain's snowcap, adding large quantities of water to the flow.

On November 13, 1985, a small eruption produced an enormous lahar that buried and destroyed the town of Armero in Tolima, causing an estimated 25,000 deaths. This event later became known as the Armero tragedy -the deadliest lahar in recorded history. Similar but less deadly incidents occurred in 1595 and 1845, consisting of a small explosive eruption followed by a large lahar.

The volcano is part of Los Nevados National Natural Park, which also contains several other volcanoes. The summit of Nevado del Ruiz is covered by large glaciers. The volcano continues to pose a threat to the nearby towns and villages, and it is estimated that up to 500,000 people could be at risk from lahars from future eruptions. Today, the Nevado del Ruiz volcano is constantly monitored by the Volcanic and Seismic Observatory of Manizales.

Nevado del Ruiz is one of several stratovolcanoes within Los Nevados National Natural Park, a national park located west of Bogotá in the centre of the Colombian Andes. The park is a popular tourist destination and contains several tourist shelters. The slopes of the volcano are used for winter sports, and nearby Lake Otún offers trout fishing. A number of commercially operated spas can be found nearby.

In 1868-1869, German geologists Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stübel were the first to attempt to climb Ruiz. 

In 1936, W. Cunet and Augusto Gansser-Biaggi made the first successful ascent, partly by ski; they repeated the ascent in 1939.

The first eruptions of Nevado del Ruiz occurred about 1.8 million years ago at the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch.

In October 2022, the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) listed Nevado del Ruiz as one of 100 geological heritage sites for being among the best-studied volcanoes in the world and a model for volcanic risk management.

More information: EOS

Scars are a truly beautiful thing.
Yes, they can be a little ugly on the outside,
but scars show that you're a survivor,
that you made it through something,
and not only did you make it through,
but now you're stronger and wiser
and more educated because of that
tough time that you went through.

Kyle Carpenter

MAYTE & CASTELLAR DE N'HUG, THE LLOBREGAT ORIGINS

Today, The Grandma has received some great news of Mayte, who is spending some days in Castellar de N'Hug, a beautiful Catalan village, cradle of the Llobregat River.

Castellar de n'Hug is a municipality in the comarca of the Berguedà in Catalonia. 

It is situated on the southern slopes of the pyrenean range of the Creueta. The Llobregat river has its source on the territory of the municipality. The village is served by the B-403 road, which links it with La Pobla de Lillet and which continues over the Creueta to the comarques of the Ripollès and the Cerdanya.

The Asland del Clot del Moro cement factory, now closed along with the railway line which linked it to Guardiola de Berguedà, is a notable example of Modernist industrial architecture. The Roman church of Sant Vincenç de Rus conserves some original mural paintings.

The Llobregat is the second longest river in Catalonia, after the Ter. It flows into the Mediterranean south of the city of Barcelona. Its name could have originated in an ancient Latin word meaning dark, muddy or slippery, or from Rubricatus, red.

The Llobregat originates at an elevation of 1,259 metres in the Serra del Cadí, within the limits of Castellar de n'Hug municipality, Berguedà comarca. The total length of the river is over 170 kilometres. 

At Martorell, the Roman Via Augusta crosses the river on the Devil's bridge, which dates from the High Middle Ages in its current form. The C-16 highway is also known as the 'Llobregat Axis', in Catalan Eix del Llobregat, for its largest stretch follows the valley of the Llobregat.

More information: Catalunya

The river ends in the Mediterranean Sea forming the Llobregat Delta, in the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona on the left bank. The delta provided a large extension of fertile land close to the city of Barcelona, but is now largely paved, urbanized and covered by infrastructure such as the Barcelona-El Prat international Airport.

The Llobregat is heavily managed in its lower course and water that was previously lost to the sea is now pumped upstream to increase the natural flow, recharge the river delta wetlands and control seawater incursion.

The Via Augusta (also known as the Via Herculea or Via Exterior) was the longest and busiest of the major roads built by the Romans in ancient Hispania (the Iberian Peninsula). According to historian Pierre Sillières, who has supervised excavation of Roman sites in Spain to identify the exact route followed by the Via Augusta, it was more a system of roads than a single road.

Approximately 1,500 km long, the Via Augusta was built to link Spain with Italy, running from the southwestern coastal city of Gades (Cádiz) to the Pyrenees Mountains along inland valleys parallel to the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. As the main axis of the road network in Roman Hispania, it appears in ancient sources such as the itinerary inscribed on the Vicarello Cups as well in as the Antonine Itinerary.

The highway was named after the emperor Augustus, who ordered reconstruction of the previously existing Via Herculea (or Via Heraklea), which ran from the Pyrenees to Carthago Nova, and extension of the arterial roadway as far as Gades.

The works were carried out between 8 BC and 2 BC, taking advantage of what remained of roads that had existed in the time of the Roman Republic. Subsequently, it became an important communications and trade route between the cities and provinces and the ports of the Mediterranean.

The Via Augusta was still used by the Muslim occupiers of southern Spain in the 10th century, who called it al-Racif. Its route is currently followed by the N-340 road and the A-7 highway. North of Tarragona there remains a Roman Triumphal arch, the Arc de Berà, around which the road divides. At Martorell, the ancient Via crosses the river Llobregat on the Pont del Diable, which dates from the High Middle Ages (circa 1289) in its current form.

More information: Fem Turisme

 It is only in appearance that time is a river.
It is rather a vast landscape
and it is the eye of the beholder that moves.

Thornton Wilder