After a few days of heavy rain, the sun has come out again in Barcelona and The Grandma wants to take advantage of this break to walk a little in the mountains and disconnect from the big city and the Christmas shopping frenzy.
There is nothing better than a good dose of reading and music surrounded by nature. The music most rooted in nature and our own culture is folk. The number of artists who have given this music is endless, from Americans like Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mercedes Sosa, John Denver, Emmylou Harris, Víctor Jara, Willie Nelson, Bob Seeger, Violeta Parra... to Europeans like The Chieftains, Kepa Junkera, Al Tall, Clannad, Luar Na Lubre, Vamp, Maria del Mar Bonet, Uxía, Xesco Boix, Alan Stivell, Al-Majurqa, Mari Boine, Fanfare Ciocărlia, Miquela Lladó, Mikel Laboa... the list is endless and there are many more than you can name, but today, TheGrandma has chosen one of her favourites, LillebjørnNilsen, the Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician, who was born on a day like today in 1950 and covered many Pete Seeger songs, including Andorra, one of the most beautiful and simple anti-war songs ever written.
Lillebjørn Falk Nilsen (born Bjørn Falk Nilsen; 21 December 1950-27 January 2024) was a Norwegian singer-songwriter and folk musician. He was considered by many to be a leading voice of Oslo, alongside Ole Paus, thanks to numerous classic songs about the city from the 1970s and onwards.
Bjørn Nilsen was born in Oslo and became known as Lillebjørn in the late 1960s when he and his namesake Bjørn Morisse performed as the folk duo The Young Norwegians. Because Morisse was the taller of the duo, he was nicknamed Storebjørn (Big Bjørn) while Nilsen was Lillebjørn (Little Bjørn), a stage name he kept throughout his career.
Nilsen was also a member of the Norwegian supergroupGitarkameratene with Jan Eggum, Halvdan Sivertsen and Øystein Sunde.
In 1987, he received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award.
Nilsen collaborated with his friend and idol Pete Seeger on numerous occasions. He adapted Pete Seeger's song My Rainbow Race into Norwegian as Barn av regnbuen(Children of the Rainbow).
Nilsen died in Oslo on 27 January 2024, at the age of 73.
Today, The Grandma has received sad news. Last Tuesday, Gil Gerard, the actor who immortalized the character of Buck Rogers,passed away. Buck Rogersin the 25th Century was one of the most successful TV series of the 80s and marked an entire generation eager to consume science fiction content.
Have a nice trip through space, friend Gil,
may the stars accompany you
on this eternal path.
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century is an American science fiction adventure television series produced by Universal Studios.
The series ran for two seasons between September 1979 and April 1981 on NBC, and the feature-length pilot episode for the series was released as a theatrical film before the series aired. The film and series were developed by Glen A. Larson and Leslie Stevens, based on the character Buck Rogers created in 1928 by Philip Francis Nowlan that had previously been featured in comic strips, novellas, a serial film, and on television and radio.
Originally intended as the pilot for the show and meant to air on television, the movie was, instead, released theatrically in March 1979 as Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. The film made $21 million at the North American box office, prompting Universal to move ahead with a weekly series later that year. The film, which was also released internationally, featured all of the main protagonist characters who would appear in the weekly series, and it also included Princess Ardala of the planet Draconia and her henchman, Kane.
The theatrical film also served as a pilot and two-part first episode for the series, entitled Awakening. Several scenes were edited, some to remove the more adult dialogue in the film, including when Buck refers to Wilma as ballsy, and later when he says shit, and a scene in which Buck kills Ardala's henchman, Tigerman, was edited to not show Buck kicking him in the groin.
Also, some new and extended scenes were added for the TV version, including several scenes within Buck's new apartment, which was the setting for a new final scene in which Dr. Huer and Wilma try to persuade Buck to join the Defense Directorate. This scene ends with Buck actually declining their offer, though he opts to join them in an unofficial capacity by the first episode of the series proper, Planet of the Slave Girls. In this unofficial role, Buck does everything from acting as a covert agent on various undercover assignments to assisting Wilma as a flight/combat instructor. Buck is, most often, partnered with Wilma, with whom he often shares a flirtatious relationship.
Including the two-part pilot episode, the first season consisted of 24 episodes, with four of the stories being two-parters. The tone of the series was lighter than the pilot movie and showed a more positive picture of future Earth. The Inner City was now known as New Chicago; human civilization was established as having spread once again across the planet and also to the stars. After the movie pilot, no reference to barren radioactive wastelands was made and, in several episodes, the world outside is shown as lush and green. The mutants seen in the pilot film were no longer seen, and Buck sometimes ventured outside New Chicago with no hazards encountered. As opposed to the isolationist planet seen in the film, Earth no longer has an invisible defense shield surrounding it and is shown to be the center of an interstellar, human-dominated government, sometimes called the Federation or the Alliance, with its capital at New Chicago. During the first season, references were also made to other new Earth cities such as New Detroit, New Manhattan, New Phoenix, New Tulsa, Boston Complex, and New London. A City-on-the-Sea was also seen, mentioned as being the former New Orleans.
Wilma Deering and Dr. Huer were the only Defense Directorate personnel seen in every episode, though several others were seen in individual episodes. Most Defense Directorate personnel regard Buck as being at least an honorary captain, in reference to his 20th-century U.S. military rank, but his membership in Earth's defense forces is unofficial. Nevertheless, Buck often flies with the fighter squadrons and uses his 20th-century U.S. Air Force background to assist in their training. Dr. Huer regularly meets, greets, and otherwise deals with representatives of other sovereign powers. Huer was also seen in military uniform (at formal occasions), thus indicating he is or was a member of the military.
Travel between the stars was accomplished with the use of stargates -artificially created portals in space (similar in appearance to wormholes), but referred to as warp travel on at least one occasion by Wilma Deering. Stargates appear as a diamond-shaped quartet of brilliant lights in space that shimmer when a vessel is making transit. Some people find the transit through a stargate to be physically unpleasant (transit resembling a spinning of the spacecraft). Buck's dislike of them is shown in part one of the episode Planet of the Slave Girls and again in part two of the episode The Plot to Kill a City.
To portray futuristic-looking buildings on Earth, the show used stock shots of the remaining national Expo 67 pavilions, particularly the French and British pavilions, as well as shots of the Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles.
Juanin Clay, who played Major Marla Landers in the first-season episode Vegas in Space, was originally cast as Wilma for the TV series. (Erin Gray had initially opted not to return after the pilot film, but she later changed her mind.) Wilma's personality was softened considerably in the series. While she was still seen as a strong, confident and consummate professional in her work, she had a much more relaxed attitude and a warmer relationship with Buck.
A potentially romantic relationship between Buck and Wilma was hinted at, but rarely expanded upon, and, in the first season, Buck was involved (to some degree) with a different woman almost every week. Producers demanded that Wilma have blonde hair, so dye jobs were needed to lighten Erin Gray's brunette locks. During the final episodes of the first season, Gray was allowed to return to her natural hair color, and Wilma was dark-haired throughout season two.
Buck's best-known enemy during the first season was Princess Ardala, played by Pamela Hensley, whose desire was to conquer and possess both Earth and Buck himself. She appeared in four separate stories, including the pilot film, two single episodes (Escape from Wedded Bliss and Ardala Returns), and the two-part first-season finale (Flight of the War Witch).
The opening title sequence for the series included stock footage from the Apollo 4 and Apollo 6 launches.
Today, The Grandma has been reading about Terra,the multi-national scientific research satellite, that was launched on a day like today in 1999.
Terra (EOS AM-1) is a multi-national scientific research satellite operated by NASA in a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth.
It takes simultaneous measurements of Earth's atmosphere, land, and water to understand how Earth is changing and to identify the consequences for life on Earth. It is the flagship of the Earth Observing System (EOS) and the first satellite of the system which was followed by Aqua (launched in 2002) and Aura (launched in 2004). Terra was launched in 1999.
The name Terra comes from the Latin word for Earth. A naming contest was held by NASA among U.S. high school students. The winning essay was submitted by Sasha Jones of Brentwood, Missouri. The identifier AM-1 refers to its orbit, passing over the equator in the morning.
The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 18th, 1999, aboard an Atlas IIAS vehicle and began collecting data on February 24th, 2000. It was placed into a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km, with a 10:30am descending node.
Terra carries a payload of five remote sensors designed to monitor the state of Earth's environment and ongoing changes in its climate system:
-ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer). ASTER creates high-resolution images of clouds, ice, water and the land surface using 3 different sensor subsystems. They are the Shortwave Infrared (SWIR); Thermal Infrared (TIR); and Visible and Near Infrared (VNIR). They cover 14 multi-spectral bands from visible to the thermal infrared. The SWIR stopped working in 2008. ASTER was provided by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry.
-CERES (Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System)
-MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere)
Data from the satellite helps scientists better understand the spread of pollution around the globe. Studies have used instruments on Terra to examine trends in global carbon monoxide and aerosol pollution. The data collected by Terra will ultimately become a new, 15-year global data set.
After launch, operators observed that high energy protons like those found over the South Atlantic Anomaly or the poles could induce single-event upsets that would cause the Motor Drive Assembly (MDA) Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) to turn off the MDA. These false shut-downs occur 12-14 times a month and eventually the operations team automated the recovery to reduce the impact of these shut-downs.
Starting in 2007, increased thermal resistance in the SWIR cryocooler of the ASTER instrument caused the temperature to gradually increase.
By 2008, despite frequent attempts to recycle the cryocooler the data began to significantly degrade and on January 12, 2009, ASTER managers declared the SWIR no longer functional due to anomalously high SWIR detector temperatures. Data gathered after April 2008 was declared not usable.
On October 13, 2009, Terra suffered a single battery cell failure anomaly and a battery heater control anomaly likely the result of a Micrometeoroid or Orbital Debris (MMOD) strike.
On February 27, 2020, the Terra flight operations team conducted Terra's last inclination adjust maneuver due to the satellite's limited remaining fuel. With no more such maneuvers, Terra's mean local time has begun to drift starting in April 2021 and with it, its data quality.
In October 2022, Terra is expected to reach and exceed a 10:15 AM MLT crossing which is expected to lead operators to initiate a constellation exit to a lower orbit altitude (694 km). Decommissioning would occur around 2025-26 followed by an un-controlled reentry several years later.
While Claire Fontaine rushes through the last few days of work and The Grandma prepares for her Christmas holidays, Joseph de Ca'th Lon has just arrived in Décines-Charpieu, Lyon to see the Northern Star who plays a very important match tonight. Joseph will be in this beautiful city until Sunday, enjoying its history and its endless cultural offer.
During the flight from Basel, he has been reading a new Astérix adventure, this time Astérix the Legionary.
Astérix the Legionary is the tenthAstérix book in the Astérix comic book series by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo.
It was first published as a serial in Pilote magazine, issues 368-389, in 1966.
This is the first time Astérix does not join the usual album-ending banquet (he is still visible in the final panel, albeit not at the banquet tables), an absence not repeated until Astérix and the Magic Carpet two decades later.
When the pirates are first sunk, the ship's wreckage is a parody of the 19th century painting The Raft of the Medusa. In the English version, the pirate captain even bemoans, We've been framed, by Jericho, a pun on the artist Géricault. In the French original, he says, Je suis médusé (I am dumbfounded, or, most literally, I am Medused).
The legionaries in Astérix's unit are comic stereotypes of various nationalities, which parodies the French Foreign Legion's recruitment of foreigners.
The hair of the Belgian legionary resembles that of the Belgian comic character Tintin.
In the later part of the story, the Egyptian makes comments in hieroglyphics about hairy body parts -this is based on a child's game in France that involves repeating back a rhyme of whatever was last said in the form of old hairy (body part).
The plot is partly inspired by a 1939 Laurel and Hardy film, The Flying Deuces (Les Conscrits), in which the pair join the French Foreign Legion after Hardy falls in love with a woman who turns out to have a husband in the legion. Laurel and Hardy later appeared as legionaries in Obélix & Co..
The line timeo Danaos et dona ferentes (I fear the Greeks, even those bearing gifts) is used as a standard mnemonic reference to Tragicomix's name.
Key Lessons From Astérix The Legionary
-Friendship and camaraderie. Astérix and Obélix's unwavering friendship is one of the key themes of the book. They stick together through thick and thin, supporting each other and facing challenges head-on.
-Perseverance and adaptability. The Gauls are known for their resilience and ability to overcome obstacles. In Astérix the Legionary, they join the Roman army as a means of rescuing their captured village mates. They have to adapt to the strict military lifestyle and face grueling training, but their determination allows them to succeed.
-Satire and humor. Just like in other Astérix books, Astérix the Legionary engages in satire and humor. It pokes fun at the Roman military and their bureaucratic system, making it an entertaining read for both children and adults.
-Loyalty and sacrifice. The book emphasizes the importance of loyalty, as Astérix and Obélix are willing to risk their lives to save their friends. They show selflessness and bravery, highlighting the power of sacrifice for the ones you love.
-Overcoming stereotypes. Astérix the Legionary challenges stereotypes and preconceived notions. Despite being Gauls, the protagonists prove their worth in the Roman army, debunking the notion that only Romans can be strong and skilled warriors. This theme promotes equality and challenges societal biases.
Someone told me long ago There's a calm before the storm I know, it's been comin' for some time When it's over, so they say It'll rain a sunny day I know, shinin' down like water
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin' down on a sunny day
Yesterday, and days before Sun is cold and rain is hard I know, been that way for all my time 'Til forever on it goes Through the circle, fast and slow I know, it can't stop, I wonder
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin' down on a sunny day
Yeah!
I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? I wanna know, have you ever seen the rain? Comin' down on a sunny day
It'll rain a sunny day I know, shinin' down like water
Today is a rainy day in Barcelona and The Grandma has decided to stay home in front of the fireplace reading about Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the French engineer who was born on a day like today in 1832.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel (15 December 1832-27 December 1923) was a French civil engineer. A graduate of École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, he made his name with various bridges for the French railway network, most famously the Garabit Viaduct. He is best known for the EiffelTower,designed by his company and built for the 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris, and his contribution to building the Statue of Liberty in New York. After his retirement from engineering, Eiffel focused on research into meteorology and aerodynamics, making significant contributions in both fields.
Alexandre Gustave Eiffel was born in Dijon, in the Côte-d'Or, the first child of Catherine-Mélanie and Alexandre Bonickhausen dit Eiffel. He was a descendant of Jean-René Bönickhausen, who had emigrated from the German town of Marmagen and settled in Paris at the beginning of the 18th century. The family adopted the name Eiffel as a reference to the Eifel mountains in the region from which they had come. Although the family always used the name Eiffel,Gustave's name was registered at birth as Bonickhausen dit Eiffel, and was not formally changed to Eiffel until 1880.
Eiffel went on to attend the Collège Sainte-Barbe in Paris, to prepare for the difficult entrance exams set by engineering colleges in France, and qualified for entry to two of the most prestigious schools -École polytechnique and École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures- and ultimately entered the latter. During his second year he chose to specialize in chemistry, and graduated ranking at 13th place out of 80 candidates in 1855. This was the year that Paris hosted a World's Fair, and Eiffel's mother bought him a season ticket.
After graduation, Eiffel had hoped to find work in his uncle's workshop in Dijon, but a family dispute made this impossible. After a few months working as an unpaid assistant to his brother-in-law, who managed a foundry, Eiffel approached the railway engineer Charles Nepveu, who gave Eiffel his first paid job as his private secretary.
At the end of 1866, Eiffel managed to borrow enough cash to set up his own workshops at 48 Rue Fouquet in Levallois-Perret. His first important commission was for two viaducts for the railway line between Lyon and Bordeaux.
The Exposition Universelle in 1878 firmly established his reputation as one of the leading engineers of the time. As well as exhibiting models and drawings of work undertaken by the company, Eiffel was also responsible for the construction of several of the exhibition buildings. One of these, a pavilion for the Paris Gas Company, was Eiffel's first collaboration with Stephen Sauvestre, who was later to become the head of the company's architectural office.
In 1879, the partnership with Seyrig was dissolved, and the company was renamed the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel.
The design of the Eiffel Tower was originated by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nouguier, who had discussed ideas for a centrepiece for the 1889 Exposition Universelle. In May 1884, Koechlin, working at his home, made an outline drawing of their scheme, described by him as a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals.
Initially Eiffel showed little enthusiasm, although he did sanction further study of the project, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre to add architectural embellishments. Sauvestre added the decorative arches to the base, a glass pavilion to the first level and the cupola at the top. The enhanced idea gained Eiffel's support for the project, and he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier and Sauvestre had taken out. The design was exhibited at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884, and on 30 March 1885, Eiffel read a paper on the project to the Société des Ingénieurs Civils.
In 1887, Eiffel became involved with the French effort to construct a canal across the Panama Isthmus. The French Panama Canal Company, headed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, had been attempting to build a sea-level canal, but came to the realization that this was impractical. The plan was changed to one using locks, which Eiffel was contracted to design and build. The locks were on a large scale, most having a change of level of 11 m. Eiffel had been working on the project for little more than a year when the company suspended payments of interest on 14 December 1888, and shortly afterwards was put into liquidation. Eiffel's reputation was badly damaged when he was implicated in the financial and political scandal which followed.
After his retirement from the Compagnie des Etablissements Eiffel, Eiffel went on to do important work in meteorology and aerodynamics. Eiffel's interest in these areas was a consequence of the problems he had encountered with the effects of wind forces on the structures he had built.
His first aerodynamic experiments, investigating the air resistance of surfaces, were carried out by dropping the surface to be investigated together with a measuring apparatus down a vertical cable stretched between the second level of the Eiffel Tower and the ground. Using this Eiffel definitely established that the air resistance of a body was very closely related to the square of the airspeed. He then built a laboratory on the Champ de Mars at the foot of the tower in 1905, building his first wind tunnel there in 1909.
The wind tunnel was used to investigate the characteristics of the airfoil sections used by the early pioneers of aviation such as the Wright Brothers, Gabriel Voisin and Louis Blériot. Eiffel established that the lift produced by an airfoil was the result of a reduction of air pressure above the wing rather than an increase of pressure acting on the under surface. Following complaints about noise from people living nearby, he moved his experiments to a new establishment at Auteuil in 1912. Here, it was possible to build a larger wind tunnel, and Eiffel began to make tests using scale models of aircraft designs.
Eiffel died on 27 December 1923, while listening to Beethoven's 5th symphony andante, in his mansion on Rue Rabelais in Paris. He was buried in the family tomb in Levallois-Perret Cemetery.
Ah, bien je prétends que les courbes des quatre areêtes du monument, telles que le calcul les a fournies, donneront une grand impression de force et de beauté.
Well, I think the curves of the four pillars of the monument, as the calculations have provided them, give it a great sense of force and beauty.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.png)
.jpg)
.jpg)