University College London changes names of three buildings that were named in honour of eugenicists – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted on by

University College London has denamed buildings which honour eugenicists as a step towards addressing its historic links with the movement.

Lecture theatres and a building named after prominent eugenicists Francis Galton and Karl Pearson have been given new names, the university announced.

The Galton Lecture Theatre has been renamed Lecture Theatre 115, the Pearson Lecture Theatre changed to Lecture Theatre G22 and the Pearson Building to the North-West Wing.

Victorian scientist Francis Galton coined the term eugenics and endowed UCL with his personal collection and archive along with a bequest for the country's first professorial chair of eugenics of which Karl Pearson was the first holder, the university said.

It said that signs on the building and lecture theatres will be taken down with immediate effect while other changes to the names on maps and signposts will take place as soon as "practicable".

UCL president and provost Professor Michael Arthur said he was "delighted" that the decision to "dename" the lecture theatres and buildings has been ratified by the university's council.

He said the move was an "important first step" for the university as it acknowledges and addresses its historic links with the eugenics movement.

"This problematic history has, and continues, to cause significant concern for many in our community and has a profound impact on the sense of belonging that we want all of our staff and students to have," he said.

"Although UCL is a very different place than it was in the 19th century, any suggestion that we celebrate these ideas or the figures behind them creates an unwelcoming environment for many in our community.

"I am also clear that this decision is just one step in a journey and we need to go much further by listening to our community and taking practical and targeted steps to address racism and inequality."

The decision was made by Prof Arthur and ratified by the university's council following a recommendation from its buildings naming and renaming committee.

The committee, made up of staff, students, and equality, diversity and inclusion representatives, will also oversee any future renaming of the areas, UCL said.

Professor of pharmaceutical nanoscience Ijeoma Uchegbu, the provost's envoy for race equality, said: "I cannot begin to express my joy at this decision.

"Our buildings and spaces are places of learning and aspiration and should never have been named after eugenicists. Today UCL has done the right thing."

The renaming follows a series of recommendations made by members of the inquiry into the history of eugenics at UCL, which reported back earlier this year.

A response group of senior UCL representatives, including academic staff, equality experts and the Students' Union, is being formed to consider all the recommendations from the inquiry.

The group will look at action such as funding new scholarships to study race and racism, a commitment to ensure UCL staff and students learn about the history and legacy of eugenics, and the creation of a research post to further examine the university's history of eugenics.

It will draw up implementation plan for consideration by the academic board and approval by UCL's council.

Excerpt from:

University College London changes names of three buildings that were named in honour of eugenicists - Telegraph.co.uk

Winston Churchill was many things but ‘racist’ was not one of them | TheHill – The Hill

Posted on by

It is a sign of these times that a statue to the man who made it possible for people around the world to protest police brutality and racism has been boarded up to protect it from these very same protesters.

Anticipating further demonstrations, authorities in London have put a barrier around the statue to Winston Churchill in Parliament Square. Why? Because, as protesters spray-painted on the statue last week, Churchill was a racist.

This accusation crossed the Atlantic when Aliyah Hasinah of Black Lives Matter U.K. was a guest on National Public Radios 1A program. According to Hasinah, every statue to Britains wartime leader should be torn down because Churchill gave Hitler his ideas and therefore had ideologically started World War II.

Hasinahs complaint centered on Churchills brief support of eugenics, the idea that undesirable traits could be bred out of the human race. Eugenics, and the racial undertones that accompanied it, sprang from Social Darwinism. Its adherents included the novelist H.G. Wells, the economist John Maynard Keynes and, on this side of the Atlantic, Theodore Roosevelt and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

They werent alone. NAACP founder W.E.B. DuBois was a eugenicist. So were two of the worlds foremost campaigners for womens reproductive rights: Marie Stopes in Britain and Margaret Sanger in the United States.

Would anyone seriously claim that Keynes or DuBois or Sanger were ideologically responsible for Nazism and the horrors of World War II?

Charges of racism against Churchill go beyond his brief affiliation with the eugenics movement. To quell an Arab uprising in newly acquired lands after World War I, but without the troops to do the job, Churchill then Britains secretary for war and for air power suggested that the Royal Air Force drop gas bombs on rebel towns. To this day, it is unclear how far Churchill was willing to take what he called this experimental work. In his own words, his aim was to use gas bombs that would cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those afflicted.

There is no way to justify this policy. But Churchills willingness to use poison gas hardly can be called racist when it is remembered that, as prime minister, he was fully prepared to unleash his countrys most lethal chemical weapons against the Germans, had they invaded Britain in 1940. The fact that the Nazi assault came to nothing doesnt detract from this point.

On the other side of the ledger, when British soldiers massacred nearly 400 people during a protest at Amritsar in India in 1919, Churchill, as war secretary, sacked the commanding officer, Reginald Dyer, and, in the House of Commons, condemned the use of military force against peaceful demonstrators for what it was and still is: terrorism.

India also is the place where Churchills critics accuse him not only of racism but of genocide. In 1943-44 a terrible famine hit the state of Bengal. Official estimates put the death toll at 1.5 million men, women and children; unofficial estimates put the figure at least twice as high.

What these critics conveniently forget when attacking the British response to this catastrophe is that a world war was taking place.

The Bengal famine resulted from a combination of poor harvests in India made worse by a major cyclone the year before. Previous food shortages had been alleviated by importing rice from Burma a recourse made impossible because the entire region was occupied by the Japanese army, which still aimed to conquer India.

Should more have been done to aid the Bengalis? Certainly. Could more have been done? That question isnt so easily answered. Throughout World War II, the Allies were confronted with a global shortage of shipping. Nowhere was this more acute than on the Southeast Asian battlefront, a theater of war that was as overlooked then as it is forgotten now. Hunger and starvation were twin features of this conflict in far too many places. To accuse Churchill of using this disaster to commit mass murder is a grotesque distortion of history.

It is easy to cherry-pick Churchills words to paint him in the worst possible light. His views often were controversial and they were public. Over the course of a very active life, he wrote 37 books, a record, according to one recent biographer, that surpasses the works of William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens combined. Separately, his speeches fill another eight volumes. Add to that more than 700 magazine and newspaper articles.

But the fact remains that when the world was confronted with fascism, the most deadly incarnation of racism ever known, he stood against it. While he was not alone, even his political opponents recognized that he was the indispensable man. During the Munich Crisis, one Labour parliamentarian told him: You, or God, will have to help if this country is to be saved.

Britain and, eventually the world, was saved.

Leaders of the current protests around the world are reminding everyone that we need to remember the past as it really was. True enough. But they also ought to follow their own advice.

Kevin Matthews is a professor of modern European history at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. He is the author of Fatal Influence: The Impact of Ireland on British Politics, 1920-1925. He is writing a book about Winston Churchill and Ireland.

Follow this link:

Winston Churchill was many things but 'racist' was not one of them | TheHill - The Hill

Eugenics Yesterday and Today (5): The Great Parenthesis of the Christian Era – FSSPX.News

Posted on by

Jacques Testart, the father of the first test-tube baby in France, in his book, Le dsir du gne(1992), wrote: With Christian evangelization the elimination of unwanted children disappeared, at least officially, until the Renaissance. This author is most unlikely to be suspected of benevolence towards the Church. He says of himself: When, as a militant Trotskyist, I deepened the principles of the permanent revolution... [Luf transparent]. It is one of the characteristics of evangelization to have been able to impose respect for enfants on peoples won over to the cause of eugenics in all its formsapart from the Jewish people who are custodians of the Old Testament, and to have defended them [enfants] against the crimes of which they were the object.

This defense of the little ones is both positive, encouraging the procreation and education of children, and negative, by banning infanticide and its substitutes.

From the first century, the Didache (around A.D.70) testified to an absolute prohibition: do not murder a child by abortion or kill a newborn (2,2). Shortly after, an author wrote (around A.D. 130): Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion, nor again shalt thou kill it when it is born (Epistle to Barnabas, 19:5). This warning came up very often in the following centuries, due to the entrenchment of barbaric habits among pagan nations which were converted only little by little.

St. Justin Martyr states (around A.D. 150): But as for us, we have been taught that to expose newly-born children is the part ofwickedmen. He gives several reasons: and this we have been taught lest we should do any one an injury, and lest we shouldsinagainstGod. But there is another reason, which reveals a terrible reality: first, because we see that almost all so exposed (not only the girls, but also the males) are brought up to prostitution so now we see you rear children only for this shameful use; And any one who uses suchpersons, besides the godless andinfamousand impure intercourse, may possibly be having intercourse with his own child, or relative, or brother (First Apology, chp. 27).

This is explained by the fate that often awaited abandoned children in Rome. When they were collected, they were sometimes adopted. But more often than not they fell into the worst abjection; these alumni (the name given to these abandoned and taken in children) became pleasure slaves, who were delivered to prostitution. Saint Justin is not the only one to note this fact.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215) writes: Besides, the wretchesknownot how many tragedies the uncertainty of intercourse produces. For fathers, unmindful of children of theirs that have been exposed, often without theirknowledge, have intercourse with a son that has debauched himself, and daughters that are prostitutes (The Instructor, Bk. 3, ch. 3). When you expose your children, adds Tertullian (155-220) in his Apology, counting on the compassion of others to collect them and give them better parents than you, do you forget the risks of incest, the awful chances that you make them run? Minucius Flix (died around 250) also says: You often expose the children born in your homes to the mercy of others; then you happen to be pushed towards them by a blind passion, to sin without knowing it towards your sons; so you prepare without being aware of the vicissitudes of an incestuous tragedy. Finally Lactantius (250-325): who is ignorant what things may happen, or are accustomed to happen, in the case of each sex, even through error? For this is shown by the example of dipus alone, confused with twofold guilt (The Divine Institutes, Bk.VI, ch. 20).

Christian charity intervened very early to save these unfortunates from their fate. The Apostolic Constitutions, at the beginning of the 4th century, warn the faithful that if When any Christian becomes an orphan, whether it be a young man or a maid, it is good that some one of the brethren who is without a child should take the young man, and esteem him in the place of a son (Bk.IV, #1). But charity did not extend only to Christian children, since Tertullian calls out the persecutors thus: our compassion spends more in the streets than yours does in the temples (Apology, ch. 42). And St. Augustine adds: sometimes foundlings which heartless parents have exposed in order to their being cared for by any passer-by, are picked up by holy virgins, and are presented for baptism by these persons (Letter 98).

Athenagoras (133-190) joins the prohibition of abortion to that of the exhibition: And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fetus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God's care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it (A Plea for the Christians, ch. 35). Take note of the vigorous affirmation of the humanity of the fetus and its intangibility, which contrasts with contemporary thought.

Tertullian also noted the crime of the pagans, and taking advantage of the accusation of the Thyestian Feast[1] launched against the Christians, he made this scathing retort: how many even of your rulers, notable for their justice to you and for their severe measures against us, may I charge in their own consciences with the sin of putting their offspring to death?

As to any difference in the kind of murder, it is certainly the more cruel way to kill by drowning, or by exposure to cold and hunger and dogs... In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in its seed (op cit ch. 9).

Minucius Flix also opposes this accusation: And now I should wish to meet him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant. Think you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of a man scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to birds; at another, that you crush them when strangled with a miserable kind of death. There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. It is from your gods that this barbaric use comes (op. cit. c. XXX).

Lactantius who influenced Constantine, sums up the arguments of the previous centuries: Therefore let no one imagine that even this is allowed, to strangle newly-born children, which is the greatest impiety; for God breathes into their souls for life, and not for death. But men, that there may be no crime with which they may not pollute their hands, deprive souls as yet innocent and simple of the light which they themselves have not givenWhat are they whom a false piety compels to expose their children? Can they be considered innocent who expose their own offspring as a prey to dogs, and as far as it depends upon themselves, kill them in a more cruel manner than if they had strangled them?... It is therefore as wicked to expose as it is to kill (op.cit.).

St. Jerome does not fail to castigate these abominable practices which alas! were also found among Christians: Some go so far as to take potionsand thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder (Letter 22:13).

St. Augustine sends a terrible warning to the prevaricators: Those who, either by bad will or by criminal action, seek to obstruct the generation of children, although called by the name of spouses, are really not such; they retain no vestige of true matrimony, but pretend the honorable designation as a cloak for criminal conduct. Having also proceeded so far, they are betrayed into exposing their children, which are born against their will. They hate to nourish and retain those whom they were afraid they would beget Well, if both parties alike are so flagitious, they are not husband and wife; and if such were their character from the beginning, they have not come together by wedlock but by debauchery (On Marriage and Concupiscence, Bk. I, ch. XV).

The Fathers also encourage two positive and complementary aspects to fidelity between spouses and to dignified and responsible procreation. St. Justin writes: But whether we marry, it is only that we may bring up children; or whether we decline marriage, we live continently (op. cit., ch. 29). We find the same doctrine in Athenagoras: Therefore, having the hope ofeternallife, we despise the things of this life, even to the pleasures of thesoul, each of us reckoning her his wife whom he has married according to thelawslaid down by us, and that only for the purpose of having children (op. cit., ch. 33).

[1] Thyeste, a mythological person, seduced his brothers wife; his brother then found out about his wife's affair with Thyeste and decided to take revenge. He killed all of his brother's sons, cooked them and served them to Thyeste as revenge. People accused the first Christians of this practice during the mysteries.

Follow this link:

Eugenics Yesterday and Today (5): The Great Parenthesis of the Christian Era - FSSPX.News

BELLY OF THE BEAST Director, Erika Cohn, Talks Eugenics & The Sterilization of Women Prisoners on Tom Needham’s SOUNDS OF FILM – Broadway World

Posted on by

Emmy Award-winning director/producer, Erika Cohn, joins Tom Needham for a shocking conversation about BELLY OF THE BEAST, a film about the mass sterilization of women of color in California's prison system on this Thursday's SOUNDS OF FILM.

When a courageous young woman and a radical lawyer discover a pattern of illegal involuntary sterilizations in California's women's prison system, they take to the courtroom to wage a near-impossible battle against the Department of Corrections. With a growing team of investigators inside prison working with colleagues on the outside, they uncover a series of statewide crimes - from dangerously inadequate health care to sexual assault to coercive sterilizations - primarily targeting women of color. But no one believes them. This shocking legal drama captured over seven years features extraordinary access and intimate accounts from currently and formerly incarcerated women, demanding our attention to a shameful and ongoing legacy of eugenics and reproductive injustice in the United States.

Tom Needham's SOUNDS OF FILM is the nation's longest running film and music themed radio show. For the past 30 years, the program has delivered a popular mix of interviews and music to listeners all over Long Island, parts of Connecticut and streaming live worldwide on the internet. Past people interviewed for the show include Kenneth Lonergan, Mike Leigh, Wallace Shawn, William H. Macy, Peter Yarrow, Melanie, Dionne Warwick, and Don McLean.

Go here to read the rest:

BELLY OF THE BEAST Director, Erika Cohn, Talks Eugenics & The Sterilization of Women Prisoners on Tom Needham's SOUNDS OF FILM - Broadway World

#ShutDownSTEM strike was a start, but real action on racism is needed – New Scientist News

Posted on by

By Layal Liverpool

Christopher Dilts/SIPA USA/PA Images

Thousands of scientists participated in a strike against racism in science and academia on 10 June, with prominent academic institutions and scientific journals pledging their support. While these statements have been welcomed, many are keen for institutions to go further. People are tired of seeing organisations that have released statements, but with no action plan in place, says Jasmine Roberts at The Ohio State University.

Black scientists who spoke to NewScientist had a number of suggestions for further action by scientific journals that supported thestrike, such as inviting more Black academics to write review articles, peer review scientific papers and serve on editorial boards.

There are currently no Black editors on the Nature journal, says Natures editor-in-chief Magdalena Skipper. The implications of the lackof Black representation in our editorial staff are not lost on us. Cell, another scientific journal, published astatement acknowledging that none of its editors are Black.

Advertisement

Journals cant solve this problem alone, however. Several universities have released statements condemning racism, but many were criticised for their failure to explicitly mention Black people or to lay out plans for addressing inequalities.

There is mounting pressure for universities to acknowledge their racist histories and incorporate this into their curricula. An inquiry into thehistory of eugenics at University College London (UCL), for example, was criticised earlier this year for failing to investigate the issue in sufficient depth.

On 11 June, UCL announced it would immediately start reviewing the names of spaces and buildings that were named after two prominent eugenicists, Francis Galton and Karl Pearson.

But UCL is just one of many institutions worldwide that have buildings, lecture theatres or statues dedicated to scientists or other historical figures who held racist views or participated in racist acts. Universities should stop celebrating individuals that are known to be racist, says Cassandre Coles at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

To tackle racial bias and discrimination, academic institutions should penalise academics who make racist comments or exhibit racist behaviour, says Amber Lenon at Syracuse University in New York.

Universities should also be more deliberate about increasing their representation of Black people. Fewer than 1 per cent of university professors in the UK are Black, according to recent figures from theUKs Higher Education Statistics Agency. In the US, less than 5 per cent of full professors are Black.

Allocating more funding towards equality, diversity and inclusion work is an important starting point, says Madina Wane at Imperial College London. Currently, much of this work is performed, with little recognition, by underrepresented groups in addition to their actual contracted work, she says.

Overall, many Black scientists see the 10 June strike as the start of a process. No one group has a monopoly on intelligence, creativity and ideas, says Nira Chamberlain, president of the UKs Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. As a scientific community, we must work much harder to create a more diverse workforce from the top to the bottom.

More on these topics:

See more here:

#ShutDownSTEM strike was a start, but real action on racism is needed - New Scientist News

IU to review all named buildings on its nine campuses – IndyStar

Posted on by

Buy Photo

Michael McRobbie has been IU's president since 2007.(Photo: Matt Detrich/IndyStar)

BLOOMINGTON In the wake of its decision to rename an on-campus recreational facility that once honored a segregationist for Bill Garrett, its first Black basketball player, IU plans an in-depth review of all named buildings and structures across its nine campuses.

Among those: a Bloomington lecture hall named for former university president David Starr Jordan, an ichthyologist who was a prominent academic supporter of eugenics.

Speaking at the June 12virtual board of trustees meeting, IU president Michael McRobbie applauded the board for its decision to approve the renaming of the building once known as the Ora L. Wildermuth Intramural Center to the Bill Garrett Fieldhouse. The decision ended years of controversy surrounding the name of the building, after a 2007 Indiana Daily Student story revealed Wildermuth himself an IU trustee supported segregation.

Jordan Hall on the IU campus(Photo: Zach Osterman/IndyStar)

As the resolution I present today suggests, we have, in recent years, taken a thoughtful approach to the names of buildings on campus, McRobbie said in remarks delivered to the board on June 12. However, recent events in our country have demonstrated once again the awful weight that racial discrimination has placed on our citizens, and how that legacy can be perpetuated through those we choose to honor, in our public art, our icons, and the names we put on buildings.

He continued: "Indiana University holds fast to the fundamental values of equity and inclusion. We cannot, in any way, be part of perpetuating this legacy."

McRobbie will have the naming committee review all buildings on the nine IU campuses and remove names of anyone whose statements and writings are judged unworthy of the recognition.

In those same remarks, McRobbie specifically references Jordan, who was inaugurated as the universitys seventh president on Jan. 1, 1885.

Just 34 years old when he assumed the universitys highest office, Jordan was the first layperson to serve in the position and the youngest university president in the country.

He oversaw IUs move to its present-day campus, then situated in an area of Bloomington known as Dunns Woods. And he introduced the major department system within the university structure that laid the foundation for a more modern liberal arts curriculum.

But Jordan also believed firmly in eugenics, the practice or advocacy of controlled selective breeding of human populations (as by sterilization) to improve the population's genetic composition, according to Merriam-Webster.

In his writing, The Blood of the Nation: A Study of the Decay of Races through the Survival of the Unfit, Jordan articulated a belief that humanity would thrive only if the fittest were promoted. He assigned the downfall of past civilizations to the corruption of that process.

David Starr Jordan, 7th president of Indiana University from 18841891(Photo: Moffett Studios)

McRobbies remarks last week mentioned Jordan by name, while empowering IUs naming committee to create whatever apparatus needed for its system-wide review.

We should not delude ourselves that this process can be carried out quickly or easily," McRobbie said. "There are hundreds of named buildings and structures across all the campuses of the university.Some of the historical figures for whom they are named, such as David Starr Jordan, are well known and currently being scrutinized closely. Others are obscure, and often all but unknown.

Jordan left IU in 1891 to become the first president of Stanford. He died in 1931.

His legacy is written across more than just Jordan Hall, which houses IUs biology department and includes its greenhouse.

Jordan Avenue, one of the Bloomington campuss primary north-south arteries, is named for him. So too is the Jordan River, a creek that runs through IUs campus. Jordan Field, IUs first football field, was named in his honor. Indiana University also helped endow the David Starr Jordan Prize, along with Stanford and Cornell, awarded approximately every three years to a young scientist who is making novel innovative contributions likely to redirect the principal focus of her/his field in one or more of Jordan's areas of interest: evolution, ecology, population, and organismal biology.

A California school board elected in 2018 to remove Jordans name from a middle school, citing his controversial beliefs.

Some will argue that weighing the views such figures may have sincerely held 100 years ago by the standards and values of the present is unfair, and that there may well be views that we think of as timeless and universal now that will likewise be poorly regarded 100 years hence, McRobbie said at the conclusion of his remarks on building names. Against this argument, however, are the claims of our faculty, staff, and students of color indeed, of us all who at this public university should be free to enter any public building without concern that it honors someone who would have held them in contempt on account of their race."

Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.

Follow this link:

IU to review all named buildings on its nine campuses - IndyStar

Roosevelt Statue to Be Removed From Museum of Natural History – The New York Times

Posted on by

The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down.

The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism.

For many, the Equestrian statue at the museums Central Park West entrance had come to symbolize a painful legacy of colonial expansion and racial discrimination.

Over the last few weeks, our museum community has been profoundly moved by the ever-widening movement for racial justice that has emerged after the killing of George Floyd, the museums president, Ellen V. Futter, said in an interview. We have watched as the attention of the world and the country has increasingly turned to statues as powerful and hurtful symbols of systemic racism.

Simply put, she added, the time has come to move it.

The museum took action amid a heated national debate over the appropriateness of statues or monuments that first focused on Confederate symbols like Robert E. Lee and has now moved on to a wider arc of figures, from Christopher Columbus to Thomas Jefferson.

Last week alone, a crowd set fire to a statue of George Washington in Portland, Ore., before pulling it to the ground. Gunfire broke out during a protest in Albuquerque to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oate, the despotic conquistador of New Mexico. And New York City Council members demanded that a statue of Thomas Jefferson be removed from City Hall.

In many of those cases, the calls for removal were made by protesters who say the images are too offensive to stand as monuments to American history. The decision about the Roosevelt statue is different, made by a museum that, like others, had previously defended and preserved such portraits as relics of their time and that however objectionable, could perhaps serve to educate. It was then seconded by the city, which had the final say.

The American Museum of Natural History has asked to remove the Theodore Roosevelt statue because it explicitly depicts Black and Indigenous people as subjugated and racially inferior, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a statement. The City supports the Museums request. It is the right decision and the right time to remove this problematic statue.

When the monument will be taken down, where it will go and what, if anything, will replace it, remain undetermined, officials said.

A Roosevelt family member, who is a trustee of the museum, released a statement approving of the removal.

The world does not need statues, relics of another age, that reflect neither the values of the person they intend to honor nor the values of equality and justice, said Theodore Roosevelt IV, a great-grandson of the 26th president and a member of the museums board of trustees. The composition of the Equestrian Statue does not reflect Theodore Roosevelts legacy. It is time to move the statue and move forward.

To be sure, the Roosevelt family did get something in return; the museum is naming its Hall of Biodiversity for Roosevelt in recognition of his conservation legacy, Ms. Futter said.

Ms. Futter also made a point of saying that the museum was only taking issue with the statue itself, not with Roosevelt overall, with whom the institution has a long history.

His father was a founding member of the institution; its charter was signed in his home. Roosevelts childhood excavations were among the museums first artifacts. The museum was chosen by New Yorks state legislature for Roosevelts memorial in 1920.

The museum already has several spaces named after Roosevelt, including Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall, the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda and Theodore Roosevelt Park outside.

Its very important to note that our request is based on the statue, that is the hierarchical composition thats depicted in it, Ms. Futter said. It is not about Theodore Roosevelt who served as Governor of New York before becoming the 26th president of the United States and was a pioneering conservationist.

Critics, though, have pointed to President Roosevelts opinions about racial hierarchy and eugenics and his pivotal role in the Spanish-American War.

The statue created by James Earle Fraser was one of four memorials in New York that a city commission reconsidered in 2017, ultimately deciding after a split decision to leave the statue in place and to add context.

The museum tried to add that context with an exhibition last year, Addressing the Statue, which explored its design and installation, the inclusion of the figures walking beside Roosevelt and Roosevelts racism. The museum also examined its own potential complicity, in particular its exhibitions on eugenics in the early 20th century.

The exhibition was partly a response to the defacing of the statue by protesters, who in 2017 splashed red liquid representing blood over the statues base. The protesters, who identified themselves as members of the Monument Removal Brigade, later published a statement on the internet calling for its removal as an emblem of patriarchy, white supremacy and settler-colonialism.

Now the statue is bleeding, the statement said. We did not make it bleed. It is bloody at its very foundation.

The group also said the museum should rethink its cultural halls regarding the colonial mentality behind them.

At the time, the museum said complaints should be channeled through Mayor de Blasios commission to review city monuments and that the museum was planning to update its exhibits. The institution has since undertaken a renovation of its North West Coast Hall in consultation with native nations from the North West Coast of Canada and Alaska.

In January, the museum also moved the Northwest Coast Great Canoe from its 77th Street entrance into that hall, to better contextualize it. The museums Old New York diorama, which includes a stereotypical depiction of Lenape leaders, now has captions explaining why the display is offensive.

Mayor de Blasio has made a point of rethinking public monuments to honor more women and people of color an undertaking led largely by his wife, Chirlane McCray, and the She Built NYC commission. But these efforts have also been controversial, given complaints about the transparency of the process and the public figures who have been excluded, namely Mother Cabrini, a patron saint of immigrants who had drawn the most nominations in a survey of New Yorkers.

On Friday, the Mayor announced that Ms. McCray would lead a Racial Justice and Reconciliation Commission whose brief would include reviewing the citys potentially racist monuments.

Though the debates over many of these statues have been marked by rancor, the Natural History Museum seems unconflicted about removing the Roosevelt monument that has greeted its visitors for so long.

We believe that moving the statue can be a symbol of progress in our commitment to build and sustain an inclusive and equitable society, Ms. Futter said. Our view has been evolving. This moment crystallized our thinking and galvanized us to action.

Read more from the original source:

Roosevelt Statue to Be Removed From Museum of Natural History - The New York Times

Letter to the editor: BLM a cover for marxists, anarchists – Canton Repository

Posted on by

SaturdayJun20,2020at9:00AM

It is troubling to witness how many companies and celebrities are kowtowing to pressure from people and organizations that want to ruin our country and our way of life.

They are useful idiots for Black Lives Matter, which is nothing but a "sympathetic" cover for marxists/anarchists who want the overthrow of capitalism. No thinking person condones the police killing an unarmed person black, red, yellow or white, but the protests regarding this crime are just an excuse to destabilize the country and improve socialists' chances of winning in November.

No, life is not perfect here and there will always be bad people, but all of the associated talk about white privilege and the horrible injustice in America is nothing more than sophistry being used to divide and conquer us. If black lives really mattered to this organization it would be protesting black murders in places like Chicago (of which there have been 30 in the last 12 days) or the racial genocide perpetrated by Planned Parenthood, an organization founded by a self admitted eugenicist, that aborts black babies at three times the rate of the black percentage of population. These are facts that can be easily confirmed by those who want to know the truth.

Any arcane nugget of rumor that is believed to possibly be defamatory to President Trump is pursued by reporters as if it were the Holy Grail. Wouldn't it be nice if the media would actually expose the truth about this issue and would stop condoning the ongoing destruction of The United States.

EDWARD GAYHART, LAKE TOWNSHIP

Continued here:

Letter to the editor: BLM a cover for marxists, anarchists - Canton Repository

Jamaica Is Now Open for Tourism Here’s What to Expect – Caribbean Journal

Posted on by

Some of Jamaicas most prominent resorts reopened today as the country reopened its borders for international travel, and more hotel reopenings are on the near horizon along with steady increases in flights from the U.S. to Jamaica.

Crucially, Jamaica will be testing all visitors with COVID-19 nasal swab tests at the airport.

And all travelers to Jamaica must complete a Travel Authorization Form in advance of their trip.

So whats open right now in Jamaica?

The Moon Palace resort in Ocho Rios, Sandals Montego Bay, Riu Ocho Rios, Holiday Inn Resort Montego Bay and Beaches Negril all are welcoming guests back as of June 15.

The Iberostar Grand Rose Hall, Montego Bay also reopened on 15, and several other resorts have targeted July 1 as their reopening date, including:

Sunset at the Palms Negril has announced July 9 as its reopen date. Sunset at the Palms appreciates the thought and planning from the government entities in Jamaica when deciding to re-open our airports to international travelers, said Carol Slee, senior VP sales and marketing for Sunset Resorts. From the beginning of COVID-19, our first concern has been for the health and safetyof our staff and guests. We are now prepared to open our resort with a complete array of enhanced protocols, which will help alleviate concerns and enable our guests to fully enjoy their stay with us.

For example, Sunset at the Palms will now offer in-room check-in, dining by reservation only, and will offer guests the option to forego daily housekeeping if they are reluctant to have staff enter their rooms.

The Royalton Negril Resort & Spa, Hideaway at Royalton Negril, and Grand Lido Negril will reopen on July 15. The Island Outpost group of resorts, which includes Goldeneye, The Caves, Strawberry Hill, and Fleming Villa, will open to guests on Aug. 1, while the luxury boutique Round Hill resort has atentative reopeningdate of Sept. 1.

In line with Jamaicas mandatory COVID-19 protocols, resorts have been quick to adopt cleanliness and safety as part of their branding. Couples Resorts, for example, is touting their Good Clean Fun program, while Royalton Resorts is touting Safety Assured Vacations.

The Couples program will include social distancing protocols in airport shuttles as well as in restaurants and in pool areas, for example; the resort also is including masks among its room amenities and has pledged only to work with excursion vendors who comply with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 safety protocols.

The clothing-optional Hedonism IIs Party Safely plan includes temperature checks, luggage disinfection, PPE and sanitizing stations, and frequent disinfecting of air conditioners and in room surfaces.

In anticipation of Hedonism IIs July 1re-opening, we have spent the last month undertaking preparations and consulting with local and international organizations to make sure our enhanced safety measures are up to the highest standards, said Kevin Levee, general manager of Hedonism II. We look forward to welcoming home our guests and are confident that the iconic Hedonism II experience will shine through, even if its with some adjustments.

Travelers heading to Jamaica from June 15 on can choose from American Airlines and Delta Air Lines flights from several major U.S. gateways. American is flying daily between Miami and Montego Bay, Miami and Kingston, Charlotte and Montego Bay, and Dallas Fort Worth and Montego Bay. Delta has daily flights between Atlanta and Montego Bay and Monday and Tuesday flights between Atlanta and Kingston.

JetBlue is resuming Montego Bay and Kingston flights from New York/JFK and Fort Lauderdale in June, with two or three flights weekly but a plan to ramp up to daily service in July and August.

Saturday-only flights from Boston to MoBay will resume in July as well, as will flights between Orlando and Montego Bay. JetBlues Fort Lauderdale-Kingston service will restart with three weekly flights in July and August.

Southwest Airlines intends to resume service to Montego Bay from Baltimore Washington International Airport and Orlando on July 1, and Spirit has plans to start flying again to Montego Bay and Kingston from Fort Lauderdale the same day. United Airlines daily service from Newark and Houston to MoBay will recommence on July 6.

Travelers returning to Jamaica will enjoy new features at several new properties, including the 57-room Eclipse at Half Moon resort enclave, a dozen new rooms (called the Marumba Studios) at the Geejam Hotel in Port Antonio, an organic restaurant at the Round Hill resort that serves uncooked vegetables and fruit, and a new beach club at the Tryall Club in Montego Bay.

More:

Jamaica Is Now Open for Tourism Here's What to Expect - Caribbean Journal

WBCN doc reaches a new audience while boosting community radio stations – The Boston Globe

Posted on by

Bostonians of a certain age fondly recall the heyday of WBCN and its anything-goes hedonism. But the station, which launched in 1968 and went off the traditional airwaves in 2009, was also groundbreaking for its commitment to social justice through independent reporting and commentary.

Thats the focus of WBCN and the American Revolution, the feature-length documentary directed by Bill Lichtenstein. He got his start in journalism as a 14-year-old correspondent for the station in 1970 and went on to become an Emmy-nominated producer for ABC News.

For the past year Lichtenstein has been screening his film to enthusiastic audiences at festivals and in theaters around the country. When the pandemic interrupted the rollout, he began offering the film to listener-supported community radio stations as a digital rental. The partnership has been mutually beneficial: nonprofit stations from Maine to Oregon have shared proceeds, while Lichtenstein has enjoyed a golden opportunity to demonstrate how WBCNs activism in the late 1960s and early 1970s remains relevant today.

We wanted to generate a discussion about the importance of community radio, says Lichtenstein. If you go back to the earliest vision of licensed federal broadcast as an industry, it was always about serving the community, the public interest.

Lichtenstein has partnered with the National Federation of Community Broadcasters to offer the film to its 200 member stations. So far more than a dozen stations, including the legendary WFMU in New Jersey, have screened the film.

We wanted to be involved because we felt like so many stations are trying to figure out how to tap into peoples hearts and minds about the issues theyre seeing right now, says Ernesto Aguilar, NFCBs membership program director. Seeing this film in this moment is really refreshing.

Last week, on the day George Floyd was buried, Aguilar helped coordinate a coast-to-coast simulcast of Sam Cookes A Change Is Gonna Come. Thats the kind of gesture that inspires Matt Murphy, station manager of WERU in central Maine. His station recently presented WBCN and the American Revolution in a Belfast movie theater, then moved the film online once the lockdown began.

Murphy grew up in the Boston area listening to WBCN, and hes not alone.

We had a couple people come to the movie with their BCN T-shirts on, he says.

Link:

WBCN doc reaches a new audience while boosting community radio stations - The Boston Globe

A Guide To Satyrs, A Playable Race Added With The Mythic Odysseys Of Theros Campaign Sourcebook – Happy Gamer

Posted on by

Mythic Odysseys of Theros is a new campaign sourcebook set in the Greek-inspired land of Theros. MOoT is a collaboration of material found in the D&D and Magic: The Gathering universes. Other such crossovers exist, such as the Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica, which came out in 2018.

With MOoT came a couple of new subclasses and races, one of which is the Satyr. In classical Greek mythology, Satyrs were nature spirits with the legs and ears of a horse that loved dancing, wine, and all sorts of carnal pleasures. Today, theyre pretty much the same but they look more like goats.

Satyrs live in the Skola Vale, a lush land in Theros blessed by Nylea. These fey are known for enjoying life to its fullest. They follow unpredictable paths and tend to go with the flow more often than not.

They engage in revels that, while seemingly only about debauchery and hedonism, are actually more complicated. Satyrs celebrate the good and small things in a world that is often plagued with strife.

NAMES:Satyrs are given a name when their personality begins to shine through. This name is meant to match the energy of the Satyr. Many Satyrs also give each other nicknames, most often designated by physical or mental aspects.

Female Names: Aliki, Avra, Chara, Dafni, Eirini, Elpida, Irini, Kaiti, Lia, Niki, Tasia, Xeni, Yanna, ZoiMale Names: Alekos, Dimi, Filippos, Ilias, Kyriakos, Neofytos, Omiros, Pantelis, Spyro, Takis, ZenonNicknames: Bounder, Bristlechin, Clip-Clop, Dappleback, Hopper, Nobblehorn, Orangebeard, Quickfoot, Scrufflebutt, Sunbeam, Skiphoof, Twinkle-Eyes

TRAITS: Ability Score Increase: +2 Charisma, +1 DexterityAge: Same as humans.Alignment: Trend towards good, and a life free of law lends itself to Chaotic Good alignment.Size: Just under 5 feet to 6 feet tall, slender builds, size is MediumSpeed: Your walking speed is 35 feet.Fey: Your creature type is Fey.Ram: Unarmed strikes, 1d4 + Strength bludgeoning damageMagic Resistance: Advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects.Mirthful Leaps: +1d8 feet when making long or high jumps. Extra distance costs movement as normal.Reveler: Proficiency in Performance and Persuasion, as well as one musical instrument of your choice.Languages: Common and Sylvan

SUGGESTED CLASSES:This races ASIs are best suited for any Charisma-based class, but the Magic Resistance feature makes this race a viable option for any class, not just the most optimal ones.

Bard: This was a given, and arguably the class that benefits the most from the Satyrs combination of racial abilities, beyond the bonuses to Charisma and Dexterity. Magic Resistance suddenly increases the survivability of a bard ten-fold, and the Fey racial typing means the Satyr is given straight immunity to many magical effects and spells. Reveler also gives you three proficiencies that are staples for bards, allowing you more creative control over skill choices, making the bard even more of a jack-of-all-trades. The addition of the College of Eloquence would be mechanically and thematically appropriate.

Sorcerer: The Sorcerer benefits from the Satyr in much the same way as Bard does. ASIs contribute to the Sorcerers casting stat and AC, but the big bonus for this class is still definitely Magic Resistance.

Warlock: Warlocks are right up there with bards as the classes that get themost out of the Satyr. A bonus to Charisma boosts the warlocks casting stat and Magic Resistance is what it is. The Fey typing helps the Warlock to avoid an array of spells, while Warlock Invocations can also help to shore up the Satyrs main weakness, (if this really matters) which is a lack of darkvision. Hexblades probably benefit the most out of the warlock subclasses, with the increased survivability and walking speed making them less glass-cannony.

View post:

A Guide To Satyrs, A Playable Race Added With The Mythic Odysseys Of Theros Campaign Sourcebook - Happy Gamer

The best theatre plays about art, from Sunday in the Park with George to Red – Evening Standard

Posted on by

Bringing our city to your living room

Plays about art have the potential to be masterpieces or just painfully pretentious. Its a fine line, but the ones that do it well can create a thing of beauty.

There are plenty of discussions to be had about the nature of responsibility and truth when it comes to art, and artists lives have depths of drama, hedonism and anguish to be plumbed for the stage.

From biographies to surreal musings on obsession, here are some the plays about art to seek out:

(Getty Images)

John Logans Red was inspired by a trip to Tate Modern, where he saw Mark Rothkos Seagram Murals. He said that as soon as he read the label recounting how they were created, the entire play came to him. Set in fifties New York, Rothko (originally played by Alfred Molina) is under commission to paint a series of murals for an upscale new restaurant. His assistant (a fictional character named Ken initially played by Eddie Redmayne and, later, Alfred Enoch) challenges him on accepting a commercial endeavour. In reality, Rothko told Harpers Bazaar his reasoning, saying: I hope to ruin the appetite of every son of a bitch who ever eats in that room.

Yasmina Rezas French three-hander stood the test of time. It ran for eight years in the West End (with everyone from Albert Finney to Richard Griffiths to the League of Gentleman in the casts), and returned for its 20 year anniversary to the Old Vic in 2016 with Rufus Sewell, Tim Key and Paul Ritter. A play about art and friendship, it sees a 15-year-long bond between three men tested when one buys an incredibly expensive, completely white painting or a piece of white shit. The play has been translated into 20 languages, with the English version adapted by Christopher Hampton.

(Getty Images)

French pointillist artist George Seurats painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte was the inspiration for Stephen Sondheim and James Lapines musical. The story focuses on the painter and his great-grandson, also called George and also an artist, who grapples with the same ideas of artistic inspiration a century later. As the song goes: There are worse things than staring at the water as you're posing for a picture being painted by your lover, in the middle of the summer.

Artemisia Gentileschi's significance in Western art history has only recently been appreciated. In her lifetime, her talents were overshadowed by a sexual assault. In 1612, Agostino Tassi was tried for the rape of the painter when she was just 15, in a case that lasted seven months and gripped Renaissance Rome. Breach Theatre turned the real court transcripts from the trial into a new show. Bringing together myth, history and contemporary commentary, the play asks how much has changed in the intervening centuries and tells the story of a woman who took revenge through her art. The play was supposed to have a Barbican run, but instead streamed online over lockdown.

Nick Dears play, set in 18th century London, compresses the events of ten years of William Hogarths life into one single night. Michael Kitchen, Niamh Cusack and Simon Russell Beale were part of the opening RSC cast in 1986. According to Dear, what started as a play about the political manipulation of art turned into a lurid comedy of sexual manners, telling of the escapades of artists, politicians and royalty, and debating the nature of ambition, gender and the artists responsibility.

Another play that was supposed to open in London only to be scuppered by the pandemic is Jeremy O. Harriss melodrama Daddy. Franklin, a young Black artist about to embark on his first show, meets Andre, an older, wealthy, white art collector. He moves into Andres Bel Air home, where the action takes place in and around a real swimming pool, sunken into the stage. A surreal exploration of art, intimacy, identity and commodification follows, with George Michaels Father Figure playing in the background.

Janet Adler and Margaret Gibb, a pair of conceptual artists described as the most ferociously uncompromising voice of their generation, are the subject of Tim Crouchs experimental 2014 play. Adler has died, leaving her partner behind. Lou, formerly an art student and now an actress making a film about the object of her life-long obsession, Adler, breaks into the artists home unaware that Gibb is still living in it. Adler & Gibb looks at the pretensions of the art world and the way in which people leech off those they admire. Crouch said: The story developed over five years and still, even in rehearsal, I didnt know quite what it was.

(Getty Images)

Originally titled Little Dancer after the statue that inspired it, Tony Award-winner Lynn Ahrens new musical imagines the life of Marie, the 14-year-old ballet dancer who disappeared from records after she posed for Edgar Degas. As a young woman, she is pulled between her love and her talent as a dancer, with the musical showing the well-trodden conflict between life and art. Its early days for this play, but we hope there will be more theres always room for a ballet/musical crossover.

Read more:

The best theatre plays about art, from Sunday in the Park with George to Red - Evening Standard

BC’s Tales of the Pacific | Is this the end of the cruise industry? – Marianas Variety

Posted on by

COVID-19 has not ravaged all industries with equal ferocity.

Some, such as the health care industry, movie streaming services, and oddly enough the sex industry, have weathered the storm and even prospered. Others have been dealt such vicious blows that it will be a miracle if they survive at all. The cruise industry is one example.

Around the world, ports are choked with massive cruise ships lying at anchor in bloated rows. In many cases, their crew are not allowed onshore for fear of spreading the virus. These vessels cost tens of thousands of dollars per day just to exist, even if they dont go anywhere. Power, insurance premiums, salaries and other costs rack up even when the ship is idle. Obviously, as is the case with most large assets, the ships need to be full and engaged in their primary function, the more often the better.

As the navies of the world are painfully learning, ships are petri dishes for the nurturing and spreading of diseases. Many people crammed into a restricted space guarantees that what one has, all catch.

The cruise industry has shut down for its own good for the last several months. The question is, where does it go from here? Will there even be a cruise industry when the Covid crisis has passed? There are two competing opinions, but they share one common idea: the cruise industry as we know it is a thing of the past.

One group believes that public mistrust of crowded spaces will keep people away to the point that the industry will collapse. Ships have the added liability in that, once an outbreak does occur, a person cannot easily escape it as can be done on land. The public remembers that in the early days of the Covid crisis, the entire compliment of passengers and crew of a cruise ship was forced to stay aboard in a port in Japan. For the first month of the quarantine, people who were not infected could not escape from those who were. They were doomed to breathe the same air and eat the same food, virtually guaranteeing they would also fall victim, which many of them did.

Another group believes the industry will make needed changes and ultimately survive, although in radically altered form. The cruise ship of the future will likely be smaller and yet more spacious, giving passengers the added peace of mind that they are not breathing each others air. Cruise companies will likely reduce fares in an effort win back passengers, no small feat considering the reduction in passengers. What both sides agree on is that the gigantic, bloated, 5,000-person, floating fraternity parties are a thing of the past. I, for one, say good riddance.

To me, the massive cruise ship was the very definition of hedonism. I could not, in good conscience, partake of an orgy of gluttony while others go hungry or sleep in dirt. Im not being sanctimonious, Im being relevant. My wife and I always thought that if we did go on a cruise someday, it would be a smaller vessel that travelled to somewhere interesting, the Alaskan coast or Great Barrier Reef perhaps, not the kind of ship that features 24-hour buffets and stops at a different island ports so passengers can buy the t-shirt of the day.

The cruise industry will either disappear or transform into a leaner, more responsible version of itself. Either one will be better than what we have now.

BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for 20 years. He currently resides on the mainland U.S.

View original post here:

BC's Tales of the Pacific | Is this the end of the cruise industry? - Marianas Variety

Black Eyed Peas On Crafting New Album Translation In Lockdown – Wonderland Magazine

Posted on by

The music industry oracles on Black Lives Matter, surviving cancer, and crafting their new album Translation in lockdown.

Taken from the Autumn/Winter 2020 issue of Rollacoaster. Order your copy now.

In the distant future, when the world has been reduced to smouldering dystopian plains, and curious extra-terrestrial life finds itself methodically dredging the decimated earth for past relics, you can count on any Black Eyed Peas record like a cultural time capsule to reflect exactly where humanity was at, at that exact time. Or just before.

You see, throughout the last three decades, the salient pioneers have managed to maintain their status as one of the biggest boundary-pushing groups in the world restlessly warping, reinventing and redefining their addictive olio of pop, hip-hop, dance and conscious rap. The three founding members will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap harbour a preternatural foresight that has consistently positioned them teetering all-knowingly at the precipice of the next zeitgeist, right before it topples over us. Music industry oracles, if you will.

And their celestial music has soundtracked just about everything in our teen-to-adult lives. Their breakthrough album Elephunk in 2003 with longtime BEP singer Fergie saw their commercial success hit household name status with its breezy, thumping exuberance, tied off with politically-charged track Where Is The Love? (originally written in response to 9/11, but showcasing its heartbreakingly timeless relevance when rebooted in 2016 aimed at Americas gun violence crisis, and then again in an emotional live performance with Ariana Grande following the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing). Monkey Business in 2005 spurred on a hedonistic R&B era with the revved-up energy of Pump It and accessible house party fodder of My Humps. But world domination became irrefutable with 2009s party behemoth The E.N.D., which saw the group focus on our call for dance floor hedonism, with global hits I Gotta Feeling, Boom Boom Pow and Meet Me Halfway. After a years-long hiatus, their ambitious next project, 2018s Masters of the Sun, pivoted to a new era with tech-driven ideas; an intersection of an album meets a socially-conscious, augmented-reality comic book, and saw BEP trade their club prowess for a return to gritty politically-charged jazz flows in hit track Street Livin. Its a song, that no doubt akin to Where Is the Love? with its incensed lyricism and poignant indictment of the criminal justice system and police brutality, has bearing with the current Black Lives Matter protests and riots.

The forward-thinking vanguards have become an irrepressible industry institution propelling, shaping and spearheading whatever comes next. This summer sees the group drop their highly-anticipated eighth studio album Translation their first pop album in 10 years this time turning their focus to a Latin-infused sound with global rhythms and internet-breaking features of Shakira, J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Latin-trap star Ozuna and more.

But 2020 has been a year of uncertainty. No one could have foreseen a global pandemic, or its economic repercussions, or the unjust death of an unarmed black man in Minneapolis triggering global uprising and instilling a collective conscience in people all over the world. In the palm of my hand, my phone and social media feeds are dosing out overwhelming measures of panic, brutality, and polarity. And when I catch up with the trio over the phone from LA, they are impassioned, and hope releasing such triumphant sounds at such a time will help their fans explaining in a Twitter statement: with all the negativity, panic, pain, stress and confusion[we] think some sunshine and joy can lift peoples spirits

Their blueprint for success, like the thundering course of natural waters, are impossible to replicate. But one thing is clear, Black Eyed Peas are going nowhere. I caught up with will.i.am, Taboo and Apl.de.ap and talked about Black Lives Matter, surviving cancer, and crafting their album in lockdown

Rollacoaster: Hello guys, hows it going at this crazy time?

will.i.am: [doing an impression of a posh British accent] Hello, this is Will. Im doing a very rubbish UK accent.

[Laughter] Rollacoaster: Not rubbish at all! Im very impressed. How has lockdown been for you guys?

Taboo: Im in Los Angeles. I live in Pasadena so Ive just been locked down at my home, with my family, and periodically Ive been able to social distance at the studio with Apl and Will.

will.i.am: Yeah, it feels like COVID-19 was a year ago with the rise of this new thing that were dealing with right now. There are soldiers on the street, our city is on fire, businesses are destroyed.

Apl.de.ap: Theres people fighting, you know? The actual looters and then people who have to protest and protect buildings at the same time. Its really confusing.

Rollacoaster: You guys started out with conscious hip-hop, pouring socially astute messages into your music. I mean, Where Is The Love? came out 17 years ago, covering police brutality and systemic racism. With everything thats going on right now, is it kind of devastating to feel like nothing has changed in 17 years?

will.i.am: Nothing has changed for the black person in America. Nothing has changed in 100 years. I mean, theres been extreme progress with Jim Crow being undone, but the systematic racism that still exists in our justice system, nothing has changed.And you have this crippling and manipulating of lives, wickedness being implemented, lives being taken, broadcasted on our phones for us to see it happen. And at the same time, people havent been working. And if you aint working, you havent been making money; if youre not making money youre struggling, not eating. Its tough, so its compound on compound. Its the system giving people a triple middle finger.

Rollacoaster: And because of social media, fans are noticing the artists that are staying silent now. Do you think that musicians have a moral responsibility to use their platform to be vocal?

Apl.de.ap: You have to be mindful of how you react, it cant come from a angry place. You have to really take your time and get the right messaging.

Taboo: And then you have folks like Colin Kaepernick, where unfortunately it didnt go well for him. He got banned from the NFL for making a statement saying that its not right whats happening in our community.

will.i.am: Its not to say that every single musician has to have a moral responsibility, thats not fair. But we do need to celebrate those musicians who do do that. Bob Marley was a godsend. The Clash. Marvin Gaye. I think fans are intelligent enough to know that entertainment is entertainment. You know, not every artist has to be Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, but the ones that do step out we need to do a better job celebrating those people.

Rollacoaster: Looking at your journey so far, your art goes through these massive changes. With your new record, it feels like were at a different iteration of party music now. How do you decide whats next?

will.i.am: Its future casting. Like when we did electro music that was like, this is where its going, lets get on this, lets start collaborating, lets research, lets network like we did for The E.N.D. We saw what was happening in the underground in 2007. So we collaborated with the Boys Noizes and the David Guettas. And with the conscious jazz-influenced hip-hop, we were just students and fans of music of A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul. We travelled around the world and we were like, wait a second, Macy Gray has a whole bunch of demographics that come to our show and Elephunk was born. And then Where Is The Love? was written in response to 9/11. And Monkey Business was an extension of our global travels and selling out venues that got us to arena status. Then after The E.N.D., we took a little break. Taboo fought and beat cancer, and now were students again. Then we did Masters of The Sun which is about police brutality and injustice, and we returned to our origins and made jazzy, street-conscious, social activist music. I was just listening to Street Livin right now and I was like, we could put this out right now with everything thats happening.

Apl.de.ap: Where Is The Love? (Remix) too.

Rollacoaster: Theyre both super fitting with the current times. And its so interesting that you talk about your changing demographics whats been your response to this rise of TikTok and user-generated content, with people out there doing different dance challenges to one of your latest singles Mamacita?

Taboo: Our core audience are the Peabodies, who are the fanbase that weve had throughout the years because they rocked with us no matter what era. When were were doing the jazzy hip-hop, then it was more underground backpack-type audiences, and then when we transitioned to Elephunk there was a broader audience. And now with TikTok, you tap into a younger demographic, and its cool because we come from the dance world, so we see folks doing their own versions of the Mamacita challenge. Its cool to see where people can take it and how inspired they are by our music and our frequency.

will.i.am: TikTok is like hyper-activity, its really not about your video, its about the content you give them for them to make their own visuals, which is a whole new world to engage. You set off activities and you see people compete. Its like when youre at the concert and you point the mic at the audience and they say where is the love, or you sing I gotta feeling, mic to the crowd, they go woo hoo in unison. Thats TikTok. Its call and response. Everybodys engaged. Doing a different version of the same thing.

Rollacoaster: You guys keep talking about this future casting can you explain what you mean a little bit?

will.i.am: Theres a lack of different types of content makers and participants in culture. There are some people that are like, this is happening right now, lets hop on it. Thats the cookie cutter. They see a shape, and they duplicate the shape after the shape already happened. And then theres folks that are like, I wonder whats coming next? Do you think people are going to like this, or do you think theyre going to like the combination of this style and that? Were those type of folks.

And weve seen you implement this future casting every step of the way. The multi-faceted format of Masters Of The Sun was so unique, looking into augmented reality and incorporating music in that way. Do you think were at the end of putting out straight-forward music albums?

will.i.am: I think were at the end of a lot of things. We have this one good friend of ours, who is a conspiracist with a big heart, and he said something to us like two or three years ago. We were all at dinner, and he was like soak it all in fellas, and enjoy this moment because these are the good old days. And he was absolutely one trillion percent correct. Why? Because we cant gather and go to a restaurant together right now, who knows if that experience will ever be the way that it was before, where all twenty people were at a table, eating dinner, freely breathing, laughing out loud.

Rollacoaster: Its so true. The future is a bit of a question mark right now. And how do you think its all going to affect the future of music?

will.i.am: Music will be needed. Theres going to be new types of sounds, new types of social gatherings around music. A whole new underground is being born right now. Every genre from jazz to blues to swing to hip-hop, it all was underground, and somethings being invented right now. Somethings happening right now.

Taboo: And with ways of artists performing, we had the opportunity to perform with some technology, kind of like robots, with automatic cameras that were filming us. Its about respecting the times but also finding creative ways to perform. Its about being creative and pushing the envelope of performances and how we can still create content for the world to get a glimpse of us, and making an effort to give you something other than just a Zoom performance.

Apl.de.ap: I feel like were going to slowly immerse into performing again. Being creative with like drive-in shows. Its going to look funny and there will be separation, but its just about testing it out, you know?

Rollacoaster: How do you guys feel about releasing a new album in the midst of all of this?

will.i.am: Yeah, its kind of crazy. Its like a double-edged sword because you want to be celebratory about an album or a project but then youre realising whats happening in real time, and it just hurts. It hurts because people are bringing up Where Is The Love? every time something bad happens. Our song that we created on the hills of 9/11 is always brought up and we love that song and its a song to provide therapy for folks that need it.

Rollacoaster: Why is your new album called Translation? And how does it mark a new era of Black Eyed Peas?

will.i.am: Translation is empathy, understanding, collaboration. To translate from one culture, and one language into something somebody else can understand, it takes patience, it takes tolerance, it takes educating. Translation is the bridge. And Black Eyed Peas, we bridge the gap, from this culture to that culture. We were the bridge between electronic music and pop. We were the bridge between what was going on in America to the rest of the world with Where Is The Love? Now were bridging whats happening in the Latin community to the rest of the world.

Rollacoaster: Knowing your track record, following this album theres going to be an explosion of Latin music

will.i.am: The Latin explosion has already happened. Its just to the rest of the world with English-speaking countries, they dont yet know the power of the Latin world. Like, Olly Murs is big in the UK, but not around the world.

Rollacoaster: Thats so true

will.i.am: Theres such a disconnect between what happens in the Spanish-speaking countries versus what happens in the English world. The English world is super isolated, like you could be big in freaking Atlanta but nobody knows about you in Ottawa, Canada. Like J Balvin is big in Columbia and also big in all of the Spanish-speaking countries. Olly Murs is big in the UK, but not big in all English-speaking countries. You could be big in freaking Wales, but they dont know you in Hawaii. What do you mean you mean like a whale in the ocean? No Wales bro- I see whales all the time!

Rollacoaster: [Laughter] Yes, that disconnect needs to be bridged. And ultimately, what do you want the impact of the album to be?

will.i.am: We designed it as a playlist because when youre making a playlist you want to make sure every song is a gem. Everybodys like, Ive got my singles, heres a bunch of bullshit songs to surround them with. There are very few albums that have like jam-packed gems, like [Michael Jacksons] Off The Wall, Thriller, [Stevie Wonders] Songs In The Key of Life, Marvin Gayes Whats Going On.

Rollacoaster: That makes sense; every album should really be full of hits. And what were the biggest challenges of tweaking and honing this record in lockdown?

Taboo: During the pandemic when it all went down, fortunately Will was in the studio, making sure that everything sonically went together, and transitioned from one song to another. He stayed focused on the project while everybody had to be isolated, and the studio was his home. It was a labour of love and time and effort to put together this whole project.

will.i.am: One time we were frustrated with how the songs were going. Apl was like, Will, can I be honest with you? You keep saying were missing something and I gotta tell you, I know what were missing and I hope you dont get mad. Its you bro, youre not focused. Youre doing this tech stuff and all this stuff and that stuff, and when we did Elephunk you were 100% there, and when we did Monkey Business you were 100% there, when we did The E.N.D., even though you were doing your tech stuff you were at least 90% there. But right now, youre not even 60% there. And youre frustrated but its you that youre frustrated with, because youre not there. I was like shit. You broke me down.

Apl.de.ap: I kept it simple and I said, Will, we need your all. Thats it. And not being distracted with a million things. I think thats what made the album really tight. Its a playlist to be put on and get the party going. And thats what we really want to say right now.

Taboo: [Laughs] Will had that Michael Jordan moment where he wanted to go play baseball, and then he went back to basketball. And then started winning championships again.

Black Eyed Peas new album Translation is out now via RCA UK.

Photographed over Skype by

Bartek Szmigulski

See the rest here:

Black Eyed Peas On Crafting New Album Translation In Lockdown - Wonderland Magazine

Russia 3-1 Netherlands at Euro 2008: the modern peak of Russia’s national team – These Football Times

Posted on by

This feature is a part of RETEUROSPECTIVE

While Marco van Basten lit up the final of Euro 88 with his stupendous volley to seal the Netherlands win over the Soviet Union, few realised how pronounced a zenith they were witnessing from the vanquished finalists. The Soviets hadnt even qualified for the finals since 1972, and following the breakup of the USSR in 1991 neither the CIS nor Russia managed a single Euros win until a dead rubber in 2004.

In fact, once the Russian Federation had been formed, the national side were knocked out at the earliest opportunity or failed to even qualify for every single major tournament until 2008.

Their passage to the finals in Austria and Switzerland had been less than convincing; 18 goals was their lowest tally in any qualification campaign other than for USA 94, which had contained four fewer fixtures. Their place was only confirmed on the last day with a scrappy 1-0 win away to whipping boys Andorra while England collapsed 3-2 in the Wembley rain made famous by Steve McLarens forlorn umbrella.

So when Guus Hiddink took a squad short on tournament experience to Austria and Switzerland, there was little expectation back home of success. A 4-1 thrashing by eventual champions Spain in the opening group match did little to assuage fears of another humiliation.

Andrey Arshavin, by far Russias most lethal attacking threat having just spearheaded Zenit St. Petersburgs charge to UEFA Cup glory in May, was suspended for the first two matches after his red card in Andorra. After a 1-0 win over reigning champions Greece was secured without his mercurial touch, he returned to score in the 2-0 winner-takes-all victory over Sweden to set up a quarter-final clash with the Dutch.

Hiddinks compatriots had blasted their way through a group of death with swashbuckling swagger. World champions Italy were hammered 3-0 before France were destroyed 4-1 to leave the Netherlands as not only the highest scorers in the group stage, but also with the most feared reputation.

An early Yuriy Zhirkov free-kick and Roman Pavlyuchenkos free header gave hope to the Russians before Arshavins guided shot was tipped wide at full-stretch by Edwin van der Sar. Even centre-back Denis Kolodin sent Van der Sar scrambling with a rasping 40-yard effort. When Pavlyuchenko tapped in a low cross shortly after half-time, it was nothing short of just deserts for a breathless opening.

Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie were reduced to long-range sighters as Arshavin danced his merry dance, skimming a cross agonisingly in front of Ivan Saenko. The relief on Ruud van Nistelrooys face after he stopped low with five minutes left to force extra-time told the story.

The Dutch defence had little answer to Arshavins incisive runs behind as he laid chances on for Ivan Saenko and Dmitriy Torbinskiy. He was far from the only dangerman: Pavlyuchenkos rocket smacked against the bar, Zhirkov waltzed around Johnny Heitinga in the box before being bundled over but inexplicably not being awarded a penalty and Kolodins right foot once again exploded through the ball giving Van der Sars post precious little breathing space.

This was not the look of a side used to failure and disappointment; there was a coursing confidence flowing through Russian veins.

Still the score remained level into the second period of extra time, though. Heitinga shepherded Arshavin wide but had no answer to the swerving hips that squeezed a couple of inches of space. With his weaker left foot, Arshavin lifted a deep cross to the back post for Torbiskiy to slide it in at the back past.

The playmaker sealed a famous win with a close-range finish through Van der Sars legs with five minutes left as Van Basten watched on from the bench, helpless to conjure up some magic like his from 20 years earlier.

Spain proved a class above in the semi-final as they punctured the dream, but nothing could detract from the euphoria. Other than the hedonism of a home World Cup in 2018, there had never been a moment of such untarnished joy and pride in the Russian national team; it wasnt just the win, but the manner in which it had come. Arshavin was the toast of Europe, and Hiddinks men had proven they could not only compete but dominate the best in Europe if only for a fleeting moment.

By Andrew Flint @AndrewMijFlint

Follow this link:

Russia 3-1 Netherlands at Euro 2008: the modern peak of Russia's national team - These Football Times

Twenty years of Deftones’ White Pony | Gigwise – Gigwise

Posted on by

Today (20 June) marks the 20th anniversary of one of the most pivotal albums to emerge since the turn of the millennium.

It's the year 2000. Korn and Limp Bizkit ruled the airwaves, Y2K is inducing hysteria - and Deftones are in the midst of an evolution. At the turn of the century, Sacramentos finest released the seminal, drug-induced, 11-track tour de force White Pony an album that saw them sever all ties with the bloated nu-metal scene they had been associated with since the release of their debut album Adrenaline.

Whilst the comparisons were largely unfounded, its fair to say that Adrenaline did feature some elements of rap-metal, with vocalist Chino Moreno spitting verses over a metallic backdrop courtesy of guitarist Stephen Carpenter, late bassist Chi Cheng and drummer Abe Cunningham. Yet, Deftones sound contained a level of depth and dynamism that was unrivalled, most notably on the soaring Birthmark and bittersweet closer Fireal.

The now-classic follow up Around the Fur pushed the envelope even further and thrust Deftones into the alternative spotlight thanks to huge singles My Own Summer (Shove it) and Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away). The album exemplified how the band had transformed its sound, with Chinos new wave influences coming to the fore on the anguished Mascara and Dai The Flu. However, the exposure to the mainstream that followed meant that they were unfairly stuck with the nu-metal tag more than ever before.

Deftones entered the studio in April 1999 with a point to prove.

Chino joined Steph on guitar duties for the first time in sessions following Around The Fur, resulting in an infamously fractious working relationship that yielded some of the most ambitious material on White Pony. Frank Delgado, who had featured sparingly on prior releases, was officially announced as a member and was given free rein to layer his now trademark atmospherics onto tracks. The end result was an album that reinvented and redefined, as the band fused elements of dream pop, post-rock and shoegaze to create their magnum opus.

Deftones held a virtual press conference to discuss the albums 20th anniversary, and we learned a lot. When we made the record we pretty much did whatever we wanted [] We took chances and wed try things and see if theyd stick - and a lot of it did Chino explains. This progression can be heard as soon as opener Feiticeira bursts into life, with Chino finding himself at the centre of a grizzly kidnapping. Bound and gagged, the frontman confesses that he is his abductors new cool meat amid clattering drums and rising guitars in what proves to be the perfect introduction to White Ponys seedy underbelly.

Regarding the ambiguous imagery present on the album, the singer says: [It was] a little liberating to be able to write stuff thats not necessarily attached to personal life. As Chino puts it, We wanted to get weird [] and just see how far we could take it. The ethereal Digital Bath then follows, complete with Abes unmistakable backbeat that cuts through Franks misty samples. The tracks sensual verses are offset by Chino lurching into one of his most iconic refrains - Tonight I feel like more. The vocalist said the song came together in a very special way - its dynamic, its sort of lush in a way, but the content of the song itself is a little eerie, referring to its underlying lyrical theme of electrocuting a girl in a bathtub.

Digital Baths seductive state is blown to bits by the poleaxing Elite, which grabs you by the throat and throws you to the floor. Arguably the most ferocious track on the album, Chino addresses narcissism and vanity as he screeches You like attention/It proves to you youre alive alongside Stephs bludgeoning riffs. The song also went on to win Deftones the GRAMMY for Best Metal Performance in 2001. Abe remembers the ceremony fondly: Everybody that was winning [was seated below], on the floor. So were like, Oh, you know, theres no way were going to win. Were just happy to be here. This is great And then they called our name and we were like, What the fuck?! [] it took so long to get up there that by the time we did, theyre like, Okay, cut it, youre done! It was pretty surreal.

Crunching guitars intertwine with glitchy percussive effects on RX Queen, as Chino reveals his reluctance to leave a particularly toxic relationship Cause youre my girl and thats alright/If you sting me I wont mind. He rebuffs the advances of a promiscuous woman on Street Carp before Teenagers trip-hop inspired beat brings proceedings to a hazy halt. Here, White Pony takes a sombre turn as the frontman recounts his first real taste of heartbreak. Pink Floyd collides with Helmet on the bloodlust of Knife Prty, with Chis mutating baseline guiding the track for its duration, delicately floating above Abes pummelling drums. During the songs climax, guest vocalist Rodleen Getsics frantic screams perfectly juxtapose Chinos sedate croon in a moment that captures White Pony at its most frenzied. In its din, the drug fuelled Korea blasts into view, complete with the singer embarking on a trip of pure hedonism to see white skin on red leather in one of his favourite night spots.

The comedown from the night before follows in the form of Passenger, with Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan joining Chino for a six-minute joyride. Passenger was one of the last songs we did. I still hadnt had any ideas for it yet [] and [Maynard] came by the studio. We sort of just sat there and listened to it and wrote it line by line says Chino. Themes of BDSM and exhibitionism are alluded to in the tracks verses, as Keenan whispers about the buttons, buckles and leather surfaces used in the presence of other lucky witnesses. I kind of felt like [Maynard] was involved early on in the record just by being around, adds Chino, For me as a singer to trade lines like that with somebody with his voice was super special.

Passenger slowly builds to a crushing crescendo before retreating to allow for Change (In the House of Flies) to take centre stage. [It was] the first time I [heard] the way I wanted us to sound says Abe, with its desolate opening verse paving the way for a towering chorus, demonstrating how Deftones had fully honed their loud/quiet dynamic. [Change has] a lot of elements of what Deftones have always tried to achieve says Chino, Its probably one of my favourite songs of ours, even though I know its probably the most popular song - I think theres a reason for it.

The slow burning Pink Maggit then White Pony to a brooding close - an emotional bookend to an album that stood as a defiant middle finger thrown in the face of a scene that was toppling under the weight of its own ebbing popularity. In 2000, Chino explained that the song was based on the idea of [Becoming] the leader of your surroundings - and thats exactly what Deftones did with this release.

Despite Maverick Records coaxing the band into recording a rap-rock infused version of Pink Maggit in the form of Back to School (Mini Maggit), White Ponys sonic statement of intent could not be undermined. Deftones had drawn from their eclectic pool of influences to form an album that transcended their contemporaries and placed them in a league of their own. It was five guys just taking chances and believing in themselves says Frank, blazing their own little trail.

The record remains an iconic snapshot of the band at the peak of its powers, resulting in a legacy that will stretch far beyond its 20th anniversary. I believe that the chances that we took making [White Pony] and just trusting ourselves [] is why were still able to do what we do today says Abe. The band continue to mature and develop their sound with each subsequent release, remaining one of the most original, innovate and vital acts in modern day music.

In their virtual conference, Chino adds a final note on the ever-present question - will there be a reissue? Were going to be releasing, later in the year, a reissue of the record and were going to do a sort of flip side to the record as well a remixed version of it entitled Black Stallion. A lot of people are on it, some that inspired the writing on the original record itself. We had that idea pretty much 20 years ago, even before we started writing White Pony [] Its something we always kinda joked about, and now its actually come to life. It has been confirmed that DJ Shadow will be one of the artists to appear on the project.

With this, as well as their ninth studio album on the horizon, Deftones fascinating ascent from Californian skaters to alternative godfathers shows no sign of slowing.

Well be riding the White Pony for years to come.

Read this article:

Twenty years of Deftones' White Pony | Gigwise - Gigwise

Comets Facts | Types, Composition, Size, Information …

Posted on by

Unlike the other small bodies in the solar system, comets have been known since antiquity. There are Chinese records ofComet Halleygoing back to at least 240 BC. The famousBayeux Tapestry, which commemorates the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, depicts an apparition of Comet Halley.

As of 1995, 878 comets have been cataloged and their orbits at least roughly calculated. Of these 184 areperiodiccomets (orbital periods less than 200 years); some of the remainder are no doubt periodic as well, but their orbits have not been determined with sufficient accuracy to tell for sure.

Comets are sometimes calleddirty snowballsor icy mudballs. They are a mixture of ices (both water and frozen gases) and dust that for some reason didnt get incorporated into planets when the solar system was formed. This makes them very interesting as samples of the early history of the solar system.

When they are near theSunand active, comets have several distinct parts:

Comets are invisible except when they are near the Sun. Most comets have highly eccentric orbits which take them far beyond the orbit ofPluto; these are seen once and then disappear for millennia. Only the short- and intermediate-period comets (like Comet Halley), stay within the orbit of Pluto for a significant fraction of their orbits.

After 500 or so passes near the Sun off most of a comets ice and gasis lost leaving a rocky object very much like anasteroidin appearance. (Perhaps half of the near-Earth asteroids may be dead comets.) A comet whose orbit takes it near the Sun is also likely to either impact one of the planets or the Sun or to be ejected out of the solar system by a close encounter (esp. with Jupiter).

By far the most famous comet isComet HalleybutSL 9was a big hit for a week in the summer of 1994.

Meteor shower sometimes occur when the Earth passes thru the orbit of a comet. Some occur with great regularity: thePerseidmeteor shower occurs every year between August 9 and 13 when the Earth passes thru the orbit of CometSwift-Tuttle. Comet Halley is the source of theOrionidshower in October.

Many comets are first discovered by amateur astronomers. Since comets are brightest when near the Sun, they are usually visible only at sunrise or sunset. Charts showing the positions in the sky of some comets can be created with aplanetarium program.

Excerpt from:

Comets Facts | Types, Composition, Size, Information ...

Comet Neowise is the latest to tease with the potential of a big show – CNET

Posted on by

Comet Neowise seen from Australia.

I don't expect you to believe me at this point, but there is another newly discovered comet that has the potential to put on quite a show in the next few weeks.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

Comet C/2020 F3 NEOWISE (or just Neowise, for short) is the third comet this year to be discovered by astronomers, who say it could become visible to the naked eye and perhaps be even brighter. Comet Atlas and Comet Swan also held the same potential, but they broke up or fizzled out before ever really becoming so bright as to cause a mainstream stir.

"It might not look like much now, but this comet could blossom in the weeks after perihelion (closest approach to the sun)," writes astronomer Dr. Tony Phillips on Spaceweather.com. "Northern hemisphere observers would be able to easily see it in the evening sky in mid-July."

If that pans out, Comet Neowise could be as bright as the most brilliant stars in the sky. But if Comets Atlas and Swan are any indication, sky watchers shouldn't get too excited. Both failed to hold up as they raced toward the sun, headlong into its barrage of radiation.

Comets are notoriously fickle in this way: It's just very difficult to predict how they'll fare during their close encounters with the sun. Some fail to resist its gravitational pull and dive straight into our star, extinguishing themselves forever.

But veteran comet spotter Michael Mattiazzo, who took the photo at the top of this story, thinks there's a decent chance Neowise will have more staying power than Swan or Atlas.

"I'd say there's a 70 percent chance this comet will survive perihelion," he told Phillips. "Comet Neowise could be a case of third time lucky."

Read this article:

Comet Neowise is the latest to tease with the potential of a big show - CNET

Special Topic: Orbits and Future Returns – RocketSTEM

Posted on by

Artists conception of ESAs Gaia spacecraft. Courtesy ESA.

Ice and Stone 2020 participants have undoubtedly noticed that I have often discussed how this-or-that comet or asteroid will be returning to the inner solar system or passing by Earth at some point in the future, and perhaps have wondered how such things are determined. In principle, the processes by which such events are calculated are relatively straightforward, although as is usually true in many other scientific disciplines and, indeed, life as a whole the reality can be considerably more complex. With modern computer technology, this can nevertheless be performed with relative ease, and the results are considerably more accurate than they were in earlier times although a small bit of uncertainty is always present.

Once a new object is discovered, the first priority is the measurement of its position i.e., its celestial coordinates of right ascension and declination with respect to background stars, a practice called astrometry. In theory, this can be performed with the unaided eye, and indeed this was the case prior to the invention of the telescope; the 16th-Century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe could do so with an accuracy of an arcminute, and indeed it was from his astrometric measurements of the planets, Mars in particular, that his protg Johannes Kepler derived his Three Laws of Planetary Motion. Before the development of astrophotography astrometry was often performed by the usage of a device called a filar micrometer that was inserted within the eyepiece of a telescope, but once astrophotography came into its own during the latter part of the 19th Century astrometric measurements could be performed from photographs. With modern electronic devices like charge-coupled devices, i.e., CCDs, and specially-designed software it is now possible to perform astrometric measurements to a high degree of precision and accuracy, to well within an arcsecond.

An astrometric measurement can only be as good as the stars positions from which it is measured. The development of accurate star catalogs is thus an important part of this overall process, and this has steadily improved over the years. Until fairly recently stellar positions measured by ESAs HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite (Hipparcos) mission an acronym that references the 2nd Century B.C. Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Nicaea, who performed pioneering work in the measurements of stars that was launched in 1989 provided the foundation for the best catalogs, but these are now being superseded by measurements from ESAs Gaia mission (launched in 2013) that ultimately will provide high-accuracy positional determinations for approximately one billion stars. Because of the wobbling phenomenon called precession discovered, incidentally, by Hipparchus and also the fact that the sun and all the other stars are in constant motion with respect to each other, star catalogs need to be referenced to a specific date in time. At present this is the beginning of the year 2000, although presumably within a couple of decades this will shift to 2050.

One other significant issue that arises in astrometric measurements is parallax. Measurements are, for obvious reasons, not made from the center of the earth, but rather from various locations on Earths surface, and this can affect an objects measured position, especially in the case of an object near Earth. Observatories and institutions that have demonstrated the successful ability to perform astrometric measurements are assigned an official Observatory Code by the IAUs Minor Planet Center, which lists each sites parallax factors based upon its latitude, longitude, and altitude above sea level. Although I no longer perform astrometric measurements from my home site, when I was doing so during the early 2000s my Observatory Code was 921.

Once astrometric measurements are obtained, an orbit can be calculated from these. Then, after an orbit is determined, it is possible to compute an ephemeris (plural ephemerides), i.e., a list of appropriate celestial coordinates that the object will occupy at various points in time. In this procedure, the objects location in its orbit at the time in question is determined, and then the earths location in its orbit is determined for the same time, and via a coordinate transformation the objects sun-centered location is transferred to an Earth-centered location. With the application of a sites parallax factors it is possible to calculate an ephemeris for a specific geographical location on Earth (or in space, for that matter).

An orbit is defined by various terms called elements that describe an orbits size, shape, and orientation, and there is also a time element involved. One of the orbital elements is the inclination, i.e., how steeply the orbit is inclined with respect to the plane of the earths orbit (otherwise known as the ecliptic). An orbital inclination of 0 degrees is in the same plane as the ecliptic, whereas an inclination of 90 degrees is exactly perpendicular to the ecliptic. Inclinations greater than 90 degrees (up to 180 degrees) are retrograde, i.e., an object in such an orbit travels around the sun in the direction opposite that of Earth.

Another important orbital element is the eccentricity (usually written as e) which in general terms describes the shape of the orbit. An orbit with an eccentricity of 0 is a circle, whereas eccentricity values between 0 and 1 are ellipses, with the higher the eccentricity indicating a more elongated orbit. An eccentricity of exactly 1 is a parabola, and an eccentricity greater than 1 is a hyperbola. Objects in parabolic and hyperbolic orbits are unbounded, i.e., they will never return to the inner solar system, whereas objects in elliptical and circular orbits are bounded and will return after a period of time. (Obviously, objects in circular orbits remain the same distance from the sun all the time.) The highest eccentricity ever observed in a natural object is the recent interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov I/2019 Q4 a future Comet of the Week which has an orbital eccentricity of 3.4.

The calculation of an orbit follows directly from Newtons Law of Universal Gravitation, although in the pre-computer era this was mathematically laborious. In principle, an orbit can be calculated from three positions, however in practice, since each position has some error associated with it the more positions that are available, the better-determined the orbit. Orbits based on only a few positions and/or over a short arc can be indeterminate, i.e., any number of widely disparate orbits can be fit through the available measurements. As more and more astrometric measurements become available and as the observation arc becomes longer, the true orbit begins to emerge, although this is always subject to refinement as more data is collected. It sometimes happens that, once a reasonably valid orbit is determined, pre-discovery images of the object in question may be identified weeks or months after the fact, thus allowing for a much more accurate orbit to be calculated. An example of this is Comet Hale-Bopp C/1995 O1 (a future Comet of the Week); once the first reasonably good orbits were calculated, a pre-discovery image on a photograph taken over two years earlier allowed the determination of a very solid orbit.

If the sun and the orbiting object were the only objects in the universe, the object would remain on that same orbit indefinitely. Of course, there are many other objects around, primarily the various planets, including especially Jupiter, and each of these objects exerts a gravitational pull that perturbs the object and affects its orbit accordingly. (Indeed, numerous comets have approached closely to Jupiter and have had their orbits dramatically affected, some of these even ejected from the solar system altogether on hyperbolic orbits.) While the solution of the two-body problem is relatively straightforward, it turns out that there is no analytical solution to the three-body or general n-body problem; the calculation of orbits that properly involves these perturbing effects can only be performed numerically. Again, back in the pre-computer days this was an extremely laborious process mathematically but is now accomplished via computers with relative ease. Such orbits are called osculating orbits and are referenced to a specific date called the osculation epoch; in real terms, such an orbit is the one that the object in question is traveling in at that specific point in time.

Other effects can appear as well. Comets eject material from their nuclei in jet-like geysers that act as small rocket engines that push the nuclei in the opposite direction; this effect is described under the term non-gravitational forces and these were first detected in Comet 2P/Encke, this weeks Comet of the Week. Each comet is different, and sometimes the same comet will exhibit different non-gravitational forces at different times, and thus these can only be determined empirically. Small asteroids, in particular, can experience something called the Yarkovsky-OKeefe-Radzievskii-Paddack, or YORP, effect, wherein sunlight striking different sides of the asteroid and its own resulting thermal emission can affect its rotation and thus introduce small changes in its orbit. Astrometric measurements of objects near the sun, and the orbits of the objects themselves, can also be affected by General Relativity.

Once all the various effects are allowed for inasmuch as the available data will permit, it is now possible to make predictions for where an object will be in the future. For main-belt asteroids, which generally travel in low-inclination nearly-circular orbits, this is a relatively straightforward process, and once an asteroid has been observed at a few successive oppositions its orbit can be considered safe and it can be assigned a permanent number. (The designation and numbering processes are described in a previous Special Topics presentation.)

The first predicted return of a periodic comet is somewhat more uncertain, in part because of unknown non-gravitational forces, and it is not unusual for a predicted time of perihelion passage to be off by up to a day or so. (In the pre-computer era, predicted perihelion times could be off by up to several weeks.) Once a comet has been observed on a second return it can then receive a permanent number.

The situation is similar with respect to near-Earth asteroids. These tend to be relatively small objects and are often only detectable when they are relatively close to Earth, and thus several returns may elapse before they are recovered; it is not unusual for first-time recoveries to be off by a few days or more. As with the other objects, once a near-Earth asteroid has been well observed enough such that its orbit can be considered safe, it can be assigned a permanent number.

Even the orbits of objects especially periodic comets and near-Earth asteroids that are considered safe and that are numbered can only be considered safe for a few centuries or, at most, a few millennia. The uncertainties in even the best-determined orbits propagate and grow larger over time, and objects can drift into and out of resonances with planets such as Jupiter (i.e., an object in 3:2 resonance with Jupiter will orbit the sun three times for every two orbits that Jupiter makes). The orbits of the centaurs discussed in a previous Special Topics presentation are unstable over a timescale of millennia, and over timescales of tens to hundreds of millions of years, the orbits of all the planets are unstable. For example, numerical simulations have shown a tiny but nevertheless real chance that Mercury could be ejected from the solar system, or could strike the sun, or Venus or even Earth sometime with the next few billion years. The upshot of all this is that the solar system we see now, including all the various small bodies that are the focus of Ice and Stone 2020, is a transient thing, just like everything else in life.

Originally posted here:

Special Topic: Orbits and Future Returns - RocketSTEM

Comet finder and ‘national anthem’ composer to be remembered 100 years after death – Stuff.co.nz

Posted on by

supplied

Thames astronomer John Grigg discovered his first comet in July 1902.

Behind a piano shop on Pollen St in Thames, John Grigg built an observatory that would later be used to locate his first comet.

Two more comet discoveries followed, and after more than 100 years, Grigg's astronomical achievements with the stars are still being acknowledged on Earth.

Grigg was born in London on June 4, 1838 and moved to Thames in 1867, at the height of the gold rush.

He relocated his observatory - equipped with a resolving roof - to his home in Queen St, where he discovered his first comet in July, 1902.

READ MORE:* 'Ball of fire' seen travelling across Auckland and Bay of Plenty skies* 'Our 45-year marriage was written in the stars': The clever Kiwi couple brought together by astronomy* Unlocking New Zealand's meteor showers to discover whether life really is out there

supplied

A centenary making the death of John Grigg will be held in Thames this weekend.

At that time, very few explorers of comets had performed the triple task of making the original discovery, securing good observations of position, and computing an orbit.

No one at that time saw Grigg's comet, and it was not until it returned in 1922 and was rediscovered by Frank Skjellerup in South Africa that the accuracy of his observing and computing enabled the two discoveries to be recognised as one-of-the-same.

It is officially known as Comet 1902 II P/GriggSkjellerup.

In 1903, Grigg discovered his second comet, known as Comet 1903 III Grigg, and in 1907, he discovered another comet, confirmed by U.S. astronomer John Mellish 5 days later. It is known as 1907 II GriggMellish.

Throughout the years, Grigg was awarded the Donahue Medal of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society of England.

He photographed Halleys Comet when Earth passed through its tail in 1910.

Waikato-Times

Former Congregational Church/Thames Baptist Church, Mary Street, Thames.

The keen musician also composed a piece of music which quickly became a "national anthem", called My Own New Zealand Home.

It was sung at a number of civic functions, including the opening of the Thames-Paeroa railway line.

Griggs' great-granddaughter Dorothy Finlay said that while Grigg would be remembered for many of his feats, his morals were held in high regard.

"He'll always be known more for his integrity. He was a leader," she said.

Grigg died in Thames on June 20, 1920, at the age of 82, and on the centenary of his death, his family are holding a memorial service in the Thames Baptist Church.

Commencing at 10am on Saturday, June 20, the gathering is open to all interested.

View original post here:

Comet finder and 'national anthem' composer to be remembered 100 years after death - Stuff.co.nz