Ceulan: July 2013

Ali Maow Maalin

Last Person To Get Smallpox Dedicated His Life To Ending Polio
by MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
http://www.npr.org/
July 31, 2013 7:05 AM

Ali Maow Maalin said he avoided getting the smallpox vaccine as a young man because he was afraid of needles. He didn't want others to make the same mistake with polio.

Photo courtesy of the World Health Organization

So far, the human race has eliminated just one disease in history: smallpox. But it's on the cusp of adding a second virus — polio — to that list.

One special man in Somalia was at the battlefront of both eradication efforts. He died unexpectedly last week at age 59 of a sudden illness.

Ali Maow Maalin was the last member of the general public to catch smallpox — worldwide. And he spent the past decade working to end polio in Somalia.

World health leaders called Maalin "an inspiration." Even in the weeks before his death, he was leading anti-polio campaigns in some of the most unstable parts of Somalia.

Maalin's fight against polio began in 1977. Jimmy Carter had just been elected U.S. president. Apple Computer had just incorporated in California. And the world was on the verge of wiping out smallpox. Decades of vaccination efforts had pushed the virus into one last corner of the world: Somalia.

Maalin, then a hospital cook near Mogadishu, caught smallpox while driving an infected family to a clinic. He was careful not to spread the disease to anyone. And about three years later, Somalia — and the world — were declared free of smallpox.

A Yemeni child receives a polio vaccine in the capital city of Sanaa. The Yemen government launched an immunization campaign last month in response to the polio outbreak in neighboring Somalia.

After recovering from smallpox, Maalin decided to dedicate his life to eliminating another scourge. "He would always say, 'I'm the last smallpox case in the world. I want to help ensure my country will not be last in stopping polio,'" Dr. Debesay Mulugeta, who leads polio eradication efforts in Somalia, tells Shots.

So in 2004, Maalin officially became a polio vaccinator. He organized volunteers, went door to door immunizing children and helped to convince families the vaccine was safe.

At the time, vaccinating kids in southern Somalia was a dangerous job. Several militia groups were fighting each other, and some vaccinators were even shot at. Many militia leaders thought the vaccine wasn't safe. So Maalin would share his own experience with smallpox, and change their minds.

Maalin told The Boston Globe in 2006 that he had several opportunities to receive the smallpox vaccine, but initially avoided it because he was afraid the shot would hurt. "Now when I meet parents who refuse to give their children the polio vaccine," he told the Globe, "I tell them my story. I tell them how important these [polio] vaccines are. I tell them not to do something foolish like me."

Such tactics helped Maalin and other health workers stamp out Somalia's polio outbreak in 2005. And the country was declared polio-free in 2007.

Last year, there were just 223 cases of polio worldwide. Health leaders hope to have that number down to zero by 2015.

But this spring, polio began to make a comeback in Somalia. A handful of children were paralyzed by the virus in May; since then, Somalia has recorded more than 70 cases.

So Maalin went back to work and started organizing immunization campaigns in one of the most turbulent regions of Somalia. "The area where he worked was not easy because militia controlled access to it," Mulugeta says.

On the second day of the campaign, Maalin got sick. "He had a fever," Mulugeta says. "But he didn't give much attention to it."

A few days later, Maalin was in the hospital and died July 22. "The hospital said it was complicated malaria," Mulugeta tells Shots. "Ali was such a great colleague. I don't think he went for medical service early enough. He was so busy in the field, so focused on monitoring the campaign."

I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing

Apparently, Black Holes may need Alka Seltzer too once in a while, lol. Video Credit: NASA

Nabta Playa

Nabta Playa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabta_Playa

Nabta Playa was once a large basin in the Nubian Desert, located approximately 800 kilometers south of modern day Cairo or about 100 kilometers west of Abu Simbel in southern Egypt, 22° 32' north, 30° 42' east. Today the region is characterized by numerous archaeological sites.

Nabta Playa calendar in Aswan Nubia museum

Although at present the western Egyptian desert is totally dry, this was not the case in the past. There is good evidence that there were several humid periods in the past (when up to 500 mm of rain would fall per year) the most recent one during the last interglacial and early last glaciation periods which stretched between 130,000 and 70,000 years ago. During this time, the area was a savanna and supported numerous animals such as extinct buffalo and large giraffes, varieties of antelope and gazelle. Beginning around the 10th millennium BC, this region of the Nubian Desert began to receive more rainfall, filling a lake. Early people may have been attracted to the region due to the source of water.

Archaeological findings may indicate human occupation in the region dating to at least somewhere around the 10th and 8th millennia BC. Fred Wendorf the site's discoverer, and ethno-linguist Christopher Ehret have suggested that the people who occupied this region at that time were early pastoralists, or like the Saami practiced semi-pastoralism (although this is disputed by other sources because the cattle remains found at Nabta have been shown to be morphologically wild in several studies, and nearby Saharan sites such as Uan Afada in Libya were penning wild Barbary sheep, an animal that was never domesticated). The people of that time consumed and stored wild sorghum, and used ceramics adorned by complicated painted patterns created perhaps by using combs made from fish bone and which belong to a general pottery tradition strongly associated with the southern parts of the sahara (e.g., of the Khartoum mesolithic and various contemporary sites in Chad) of that period. Analysis of human remains by Fred Wendorf and reported in "Holocene settlement of the Egyptian and Nubian Sahara", based on osteological data suggests a subsaharan origin for the site's inhabitants. Several scholars also support a Nilo-Saharan linguistic affinity for the Nabta people; including Fred Wendorf Christopher Ehret and . By the 7th millennium BC, exceedingly large and organized settlements were found in the region, relying on deep wells for sources of water. Huts were constructed in straight rows. Sustenance included fruit, legumes, millets, sorghum and tubers.

Also in the late 7th millennium BC, but a little later than the time referred to above, imported goats and sheep, apparently from Southwest Asia, appear. Many large hearths also appear.

High level of organization

Archaeological discoveries reveal that these prehistoric peoples led livelihoods seemingly at a higher level of organization than their contemporaries who lived closer to the Nile Valley. The people of Nabta Playa had:
above-ground and below-ground stone construction, villages designed in pre-planned arrangements, and
deep wells that held water throughout the year.

Findings also indicate that the region was occupied only seasonally, most likely only in the summer period, when the local lake filled with water for grazing cattle. Careful comparative research indicates that the indigent inhabitants may have a significantly more advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics than previously thought possible.

Religious ties to ancient Egypt

By the 6th millennium BC, evidence of a prehistoric religion or cult appears, with a number of sacrificed cattle buried in stone-roofed chambers lined with clay. It has been suggested that the associated cattle cult indicated in Nabta Playa marks an early evolution of Ancient Egypt's Hathor cult. For example, Hathor was worshipped as a nighttime protector in desert regions (see Serabit el-Khadim). To directly quote professors Wendorf and Schild:

... there are many aspects of political and ceremonial life in the Predynastic and Old Kingdom that reflects a strong impact from Saharan cattle pastoralists...

Nevertheless, though the religious practices of the region involving cattle suggest ties to Ancient Egypt, Egyptologist Mark Lehner cautions:

It makes sense, but not in a facile, direct way. You can't go straight from these megaliths to the pyramid of Djoser.

Circular stone structure at Nabta

Other subterranean complexes are also found in Nabta Playa, one of which included evidence of perhaps an early Nubian attempt at sculpture.

One of the world's earliest known examples of archeoastronomy

By the 5th millennium BC these peoples had fashioned one of the world's earliest known archeoastronomical devices (roughly contemporary to the Goseck circle in Germany and the Mnajdra megalithic temple complex in Malta). Research suggests that it may have been a prehistoric "calendar" marking the summer solstice.
Claims for early alignments and star maps

Astrophysicist Thomas G. Brophy suggests the hypothesis that the southerly line of three stones inside the calendar circle represented the three stars of Orion’s Belt and the other three stones inside the calendar circle represented the shoulders and head stars of Orion as they appeared in the sky. These correspondences were for two dates—circa 4,800 BC and at precessional opposition—representing how the sky "moves" long term. Brophy proposes that the circle was constructed and used circa the later date, and the dual date representation was a conceptual representation of the motion of the sky over a precession cycle.

Near the calendar circle, which is made of smaller stones, there are alignments of large megalithic stones. The southerly lines of these megaliths, Brophy shows, aligned to the same stars as represented in the calendar circle, all at the same epoch, circa 6270 BC. The calendar circle correlation with Orion's belt occurred between 6400 BC and 4900 BC, matching the radio-carbon dating of campfires around the circle.

Recent research

A 2007 article by a team of University of Colorado archaeoastronomers and archaeologists (three members had been involved in the original discovery of the site and its astronomical alignment) has responded to the work of Brophy and Rosen, in particular their claims for an alignment with Sirius in 6088 and other alignments which they dated to 6270, saying that these dates were about 1500 years earlier than the estimated dates. The Sirius alignment in question was originally proposed by Wendorf and Malville, for one of the most prominent alignments of megaliths labelled the "C-line", which they said aligned to the rising of Sirius circa 4820 BC. Brophy and Rosen showed in 2005 that megalith orientations and star positions reported by Wendorf and Malville were in error, noting that "Given these corrected data, we see that Sirius actually aligned with the C line circa 6000 BC. We estimate that 6088 BC Sirius had a declination of -36.51 deg, for a rising azimuth exactly on the C-line average". Malville acknowledged the corrections made by Brophy and Rosen, but concluded the C-line of megaliths "may not represent an original set of aligned stele; we refrain from interpreting that alignment."

They also criticised suggestions made by Brophy in his book The Origin Map that there was a representation of the Milky Way as it was in 17,500 BC and maps of Orion at 16500 BC, saying "These extremely early dates as well as the proposition that the nomads had contact with extra galactic aliens are inconsistent with the archaeological record. Inference in archaeoastronomy must always be guided and informed by archaeology, especially when substantial field work has been performed in the region.

They propose that the area was first used as what they call a 'regional ceremonial centre' around 6100 to 5600 BC with people coming from various locations to gather on the dunes surrounding the playa where there is archaeological evidence for gatherings which involved large numbers of cattle bones, as cattle were normally only killed on important occasions. Around 5500 BC a new, more organised group began to use the site, burying cattle in clay-lined chambers and building other tumuli. Around 4800 BC a stone circle was constructed, with narrow slabs approximately aligned with the summer solstice, near the beginning of the rainy season.

More complex structures followed during a megalith period the researchers dated to between about 4500 BC to 3600 BC. Using their original measurements and measurements by satellite and GPS measurements by Brophy and Rosen they confirmed possible alignments with Sirius, Arcturus, Alpha Centauri and the Belt of Orion. They suggest that there are three pieces of evidence suggesting astronomical observations by the herdsmen using the site, which may have functioned as a necropolis. "The repetitive orientation of megaliths, stele, human burials and cattle burials reveals a very early symbolic connection to the north." Secondly, there is the orientation of the cromlech mentioned above. The third piece of evidence is the fifth millennium alignments of stele to bright stars.

They conclude their report by writing that "The symbolism embedded in the archaeological record of Nabta Playa in the Fifth Millennium BC is very basic, focussed on issues of major practical importance to the nomads: cattle, water, death, earth, sun and stars."

Falcon HTV-2

NEED FOR SPEED: The Falcon hypersonic HTV-2 is an unmanned, rocket-launched, maneuverable aircraft that glides through the Earth’s atmosphere at incredibly fast speeds. (Photo: DARPA)
The U.S. military lost contact with an unmanned hypersonic glider shortly after it launched on a test flight today as part of a global strike weapons program to develop vehicles capable of flying at Mach 20 and reach any target in the world in an hour.

The DARPA glider, called the Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2), blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California atop a Minotaur 4 rocket at 7:45 a.m. PDT.

According to DARPA updates, the test flight appeared to go well until the glide phase, when monitoring stations lost contact with the HTV-2 vehicle. [Photos: DARPA Hypersonic Glider's Mach 20 Test]

"Range assets have lost telemetry with HTV2," DARPA officials wrote in a Twitter post about 36 minutes after launch.

Monitoring stations further down range of the vehicle's flight path over the Pacific Ocean also did not find the hypersonic HTV-2 glider. The vehicle is designed to crash itself into the ocean at the end of its mission.

"Downrange assets did not reacquire tracking or telemetry. HTV2 has an autonomous flight termination capability," DARPA officials wrote.

Whether the test flight met all of its objecties still remains unclear, but this is the second test flight of the Falcon HTV-2 program that ended prematurely. An April 2010 test flight ended nine minutes into flight, also due to loss of contact.

The HTV-2 vehicle was expected to reach suborbital space, then re-enter Earth's atmosphere and glide at hypersonic speed to demonstrate controllable flight at velocities of around Mach 20, which is about 13,000 mph. At that speed, more than 20 times the speed of sound, a vehicle could fly from New York City to Los Angeles in 12 minutes, DARPA officials said.

A video animation of the HTV-2 flight test depicts how the the hypersonic vehicle was expected to pop free of its rocket, then soar through Earth's atmosphere for an inevitable, and intentional, plunge into the Pacific Ocean at the end of its mission.

A global strike capability

The HTV-2 is part of a program called Prompt Global Strike called DARPA (which is short for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) to develop advanced weapons systems with extreme range.

"The ultimate goal is a capability that can reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour." DARPA officials wrote in a mission description. "The HTV-2 vehicle is a 'data truck' with numerous sensors that collect data in an uncertain operating envelope." [7 Sci-Fi Weapons of Tomorrow Here Today]

Hypersonic flight plan for HTV-2 glider

For today's hypersonic flight test, the HTV-2 vehicle was expected to launch into suborbital space, separate from its Orbital Sciences Corp.-built Minotaur 4 rocket, then re-enter the atmosphere. During the re-entry phase, the vehicle was expected to use rocket thrusters to help maintain its course, according to a DARPA description.

"Assumptions about Mach 20 hypersonic flight were made from physics-based computational models and simulations, wind tunnel testing, and data collected from HTV-2's first test flight — the first real data available in this flight regime at Mach 20," said Air Force Maj. Chris Schulz, HTV-2 program manager, in a statement. "It's time to conduct another flight test to validate our assumptions and gain further insight into extremely high Mach regimes that we cannot fully replicate on the ground."

After the re-entry maneuver, the HTV-2 was slated to enter a pull-up phase to control its speed and altitude ahead of the long glide back to Earth. During the glide, the vehicle is programmed to perform maneuvers to test aerodynamic performance, DARPA officials said.

The HTV-2 was expected to end its hypersonic test flight by performing a roll maneuver to intentionally crash into the Pacific Ocean. DARPA officials said more than 20 observing stations will monitor the entire flight from space, land, ships and aircraft.

Hypersonic tests in wind tunnels on the ground can typically recreate conditions at speeds only up to Mach 15, and only for a few milliseconds at a time, Schulz said.

"And even then we wouldn't know exactly what to expect based solely on the snapshots provided in ground testing," Schulz said. "Only flight testing reveals the harsh and uncertain reality."

This article was reprinted with permission from SPACE.com.

Orange Harvest

Migrant workers face 'severe exploitation' in Italy's farm sector

Andrew Wasley, investigations editor

Amnesty International report calls for urgent action to tackle 'widespread' abuse of migrants in the food sector. This follows two Ecologist investigations into 'slave labour' connected to the Italian tomato and orange harvests.

Migrant workers toiling in Italy's sprawling agricultural sector face 'severe exploitation', according to research published by Amnesty International.

In a new report, the group claims the migrants typically receive wages well below the minimum wage, suffer arbitrary deductions from their pay, see pay delayed or withheld completely and endure long working hours in the country's fields, greenhouses and food processing factories.

The report focuses on the exploitation of workers from sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and Asia carrying out seasonal or temporary jobs in the southern regions of Latina and Caserta, although campaigners say the problem is "widespread and systemic". Many migrants are in Italy without the appropriate paperwork, making them vulnerable to exploitative practices, say researchers.

The findings follow two major Ecologist investigations which revealed poverty wages and squalid living conditions for migrants working in Italy's annual tomato and orange harvests.

We uncovered how tomatoes linked to the abuses were being exported overseas - including to the UK - for sale in tins or as an ingredient in pizzas or other processed foods. And the soft drinks giant Coca Cola was later revealed as a buyer of concentrated juices from Calabria where many oranges are harvested by migrants found to be enduring poor conditions.

Amnesty is now calling on the Italian government to overhaul policies which the group says contribute to the exploitation of migrant labourers.

“In the past decade the Italian authorities have been whipping up public anxiety alleging that the country’s security is threatened by an uncontrollable ‘clandestine’ migration thus justifying strict migration measures. These measures put migrant workers in a precarious legal situation making them easy prey for exploitation,” researcher Francesca Pizzutelli said.

“While the authorities in any country are entitled to control immigration they must not do it at the expense of the human rights of all people in their territory.”

The Amnesty researchers found that many of the African migrants working in the Caserta area arrived in Italy illegally after travelling from Libya; others came from Northern Italy after losing their jobs because of the economic downturn.

All sought employment picking tomatoes or fruit, or working in the dairy sector - some also ended up working in construction or tourism.

Minimum wage

The report describes how groups of migrants seeking work in the region typically assemble at roundabouts or in public squares in the early morning, waiting to be picked up by potential employers. Although the minimum wage should be 5.7 euros per hour, Amnesty says the migrants are forced to take whatever is on offer as they have little bargaining power.

“Any job that anyone gives me I take”, one migrant worker from Ghana told researchers. The standard pay for a day of work is 20-30 euros - less than 3.75 euros an hour - the report found, with some migrants accepting as little as 15-20 euros a day.

Another worker interviewed, from Cote d’Ivoire, said: “Today I worked from 6am to 6pm, with a 30-minutes break, hoeing a field. I was paid 20 euros. If you don’t like the pay there are other people [who would work for that pay]”.

Migrants interviewed also claimed that non payment of wages is common: “Many migrant workers do not get paid. Once I found a job for a week. The employer owed me 250 euros but he disappeared. I don’t know his name and I cannot track him down,” a Tunisian worker said.

Campaigners say migrants have no way of challenging employers or highlighting exploitative practices.

“When amending their migration policies the Italian authorities must focus first and foremost on the rights of migrant workers regardless of their migration status. This includes providing them with effective access to justice,” said Pizzutelli. "This must include a safe and accessible mechanism that workers use to lodge complaints and pursue labour claims against employers, without fear of being arrested and deported."

Despite coming under fire from Amnesty, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano released a statement in December which criticised hostility to immigration in Italy as misguided. "Immigrants in Italy are an essential part of the population, the labour force, and also a source of vital energy for an aging society," Reuters reported him as saying.

Estimates put the number of illegal immigrants in Italy as around 500,000. Some move between Italy's major agricultural regions – including Puglia, Campania, Sicily, Calabria and Basilicata – seeking piece work during the seasonal harvests of oranges, lemons, kiwis, olives, tomatoes and melons.

In 2011, the Ecologist revealed how how thousands scratch a living picking tomatoes for export across Europe. Many were found to be forced to toil for up to 14 hours a day in harsh conditions for meagre wages, frequently under the control of gangmasters who make excessive deductions or charge inflated rates for transport, accommodation, food and other 'services'. Those complaining have faced violence and intimidation.

The tomato pickers were found to frequently live in squalor with home often being little more than a derelict building without power or any sanitation. As many as thirty people could be crammed into a single, one floor house. Healthcare was virtually non-existent and contact with the outside world for many was minimal.

Last year, Coca Cola was forced to examine how it could help facilitate 'fair' conditions and wages for workers harvesting oranges after the Ecologist highlighted similarly squalid living conditions and low pay for migrants harvesting fruit in Calabria, much of it destined for processing into juices or concentrates used in soft drinks.

Bulgaria

Protests strengthening in Bulgaria

A protester waves the national flag during an anti-government demonstration in front of the parliament building in Sofia, July 24, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)

http://www.dw.de

Thousands of protesters gather daily at the parliament building in Sofia. Bulgarians angry over corruption are demanding that the government resign - and the movement is gaining momentum.

"Bulgaria is a victim of mafia government" reads the sign in the hands of a tall, white-haired, middle-aged man. Pravdolub Ivanov comes to protest in front of the government building in Sofia with a new slogan every night. His messages are witty and topical, so people are often snapping photos of him with their cameras and smartphones. When protesters were accused of being paid, he wrote on his white poster: "I am not paid. I hate you for free."

"Protesting takes me a few hours daily and I have to reorganize my time, my work suffers, my family too. I have two small kids and all that goes to my wife," explained Pravdolub, who's been participating in the anti-government protests in Bulgaria that have been going on for nearly a month and a half now.

Thousands of people gather at the parliament building every night to demand resignation of Plamen Oresharski's government, which is backed by the former communist party BSP, the party of the Muslim minority known as DPS, and the nationalistic and anti-European "Attack" party.

"I have to be here because we need to tear our country free of the hands of the mafia," added Ivanov, who works as a painter when he is not protesting. The protest movement began on June 14 this summer when parliament approved the controversial appointment of 33-year-old media tycoon, magistrate, businessman and politician Delyan Peevski as head of the powerful national security agency. A week later, Peevski's appointment was annulled under pressure - but the protests went on, becoming stronger.

Protesters hold barricades made of cardboard in front of policemen during an anti-government demonstration in front of the parliament building in Sofia, July 24, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)

Bulgarian citizens have been the next to rise up against their government, after recent movements in Turkey and Brazil

Bulgaria ruled by 'mafia'

Tihomira Metodieva, a young accountant and a hobby photographer, said the government "went too far with the appointment of dirty people. It is not normal for criminals to rule the country," she said.

Metodieva comes every night for the rally, and some hours later comes to "drink coffee" in front of the parliament, as the protesters call their morning demonstration. "When I have to exchange some documents with my clients or sign bank papers, I ask them to come here," Metodieva said. Unlike Ivanov, she has found a way to combine work and protest.

"Mafia" is the word you hear and read most often from the protesters. No party signs or party leaders are visible, only the national flag. A recent survey by the Open Society Institute in Sofia indicated that a record-high 72 percent of Bulgarians see the situation in the country as "unbearable," while almost two-thirds support the protests. The insurgence has no leaders or political party, but is gaining popular support regardless.

Politicians are being accused of serving the mafia, and putting all public resources into the hands of oligarchs and monopolies.

Ognian Yanakiev, a mechanic who has come to protest together with his partner Angelina and their 13-month-old son Yassen, explained the problem from a personal perspective. "I am trying to open a small business, and for the last three months I've been fighting with the monopoly electricity supplier. It's been a dead-end," Yanakiev said. "I want to work, not waste my time on bureaucracy. Something has to change!" he almost shouted.

People at the square provide different answers to the question, "What's next?" But they are perfectly clear about what they want now: "I want them to resign, nothing more. We all demand resignation," answered Metodieva.

Protesters burn a barricade outside the parliament building in Sofia, early July 24, 2013. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer) On Wednesday (24.07.13), protesters blockaded exit of more than 100 people from parliament for about eight hours

Small group of provocateurs

Victor Dimchev is a 35-year-old television producer and member of a Facebook group whose name plays off the abbreviation for the Bulgarian security agency. "I came here because I see the government leading Bulgaria to ruin," he said. The group supports organization of the protests, coordinates events and monitors for provocations.

On Wednesday (24.07.13) night, the crowd was unable to isolate a small group who started dislodging cobblestones from the street. The police declared the protests no longer peaceful, and a number of people were beaten as security forces tried to evacuate parliamentarians and ministers from the besieged national assembly building.

"I was there, I saw women beaten, I saw people bleeding, I saw flying stones and unimpressed policemen just watching the provocateurs," recalled Victor Dimchev. "I saw angry policemen, but I saw crying policemen too - crying while beating protesters," he added. On the following day, twice as many protesters showed up, and the crowd was more enthusiastic than ever.

Political 'endgame'

Dimiter Dimitrov, a professor of political science at the University of Sofia, said the government is in an endgame. "It's impossible for parliamentary sessions to always end before sunset, and for the parliamentarians to be evacuated by bus every night. It's surreal," he pointed out.

Now, 42 days into the protests, "the fatigue is enormous, I sleep for only three hours a day. But I am not giving up, they have to give up," Metodieva said.

As the sun goes down on the 42nd night of unrest in Sofia, Dimchev shakes the hands of newcomers, almost one every minute. It turns out that those people are his guests: "I asked all my friends to come to the square, and this is the best present I could dream of: I am turning 35 today."

HM Interview on The Queen

Beatrix Potter

The author of The Tale of Peter Rabbit wrote charming illustrated letters. In honor of her 147th birthday, here are some selections from her correspondence with Noel Moore between 1892 and 1900, courtesy of the Morgan Library & Museum.

Posted on July 28, 2013 at 9:00am EDT

Ariane Lange

BuzzFeed

1. She describes the real Peter Rabbit. Not one to be fettered by reality, she then draws a pictures of rabbits throwing snowballs.

“My rabbit Peter is so lazy”: maybe the most adorable independent clause in any letter, ever.

2. She writes about feeding buns to elephants, and about not being allowed to feed the ostriches because “a naughty boy gave them old gloves + made them ill.”

Presumably, that drawing towards the middle is a drawing of a naughty boy feeding old gloves to an ostrich.

3. Just look at that mouse bundled up in an armchair.

4. She doesn’t shy away from the ugly side of things. There’s a fox with a dead bird in his mouth!

5. She describes branches as “quite covered with chickens.”

6. She reminds you to appreciate the little things.

“It is such a pretty place, and we have a boat,” she writes.

7. When she knows you’ve been sick, she sends the illustrated conclusion of the “Owl and the Pussy cat.”

Her letters also teach you how to drive a bargain.

8. She knows that just because you’re a dog named Stumpy doesn’t mean you’re not a gentleman.

Or rather “a polite grave gentleman.”

9. And, like all the better pen pals, she is not too proud to admit she’s offended when a dog named Stumpy snubs her.

“He is such a polite grave gentleman, but so proud! I meet him out shopping in the morning, he looks at me sideways but he never speaks.”

10. Her letters are a little window into her precious mind.

“Indeed the cottages are so little, I think they must have been meant for cats and dogs!” A supposition as unlikely as it is winning.

11. And she felt bad when she didn’t have time to draw more pictures.

“I am going today to a place called the Lizard so I have no time to draw any more pictures.” So sweet of her to explain!

Frankie and Johnny

Suddenly Last Summer

Prince George's Birthday Party

Feeding Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Seinfeld

Ordinary People

Dyfi Bridge

https://www.flickr.com/photos/goleudy/

Harvest of Shame - Edward R. Murrow

Andre Aciman

11.04.2012

Writer Andre Aciman says a good memoir can capture emotional truth even when certain historical details are fictionalized. He describes the art of the memoir, and how writers draw on their memories to conjure up literary worlds.

Interviewer: Steve Paulson
Guest: Andre Aciman
Producer: Steve Paulson

http://www.amazon.com/Alibis

Jim Fleming: Do you ever ache for a piece of your past? Maybe a younger version of yourself that feels long gone? Novelist and essayist Andre Aciman knows all about longing, even if the past he remembers never really existed accept in his imagination.

Andre Aciman: I was born in Alexandria, Egypt but I’m not Egyptian. I was born into a Turkish family but I’m not Turkish. I was sent to British Schools in Egypt but I’m not British. My family became Italian citizens and I learn to speak Italian but my mother tongue is French. For years as a child I was under the misguided notion that I was a French boy who - like everyone else I knew in Egypt - would soon be moving back to France. “Back to France” was already a paradox, since virtually no one in my immediate family was French or had ever set foot in France. But France and Paris were my soul home, my imaginary home, and would remain so in my life even if after three days in France I cannot wait to get out. Not a single ounce of me is French.

Fleming: Andre Aciman now lives in New York City but he still considers himself an exile without a country that’s really his own. In his new collection of essays called Alibis, Aciman reflects on his memories of various places his loved. He recently stopped by our studio to talk with Steve Paulson.

Steve Paulson: One theme that comes up over and over in your essays is memory, but it’s a very complicated notion of memory. Not just remembering what happened but it might be the memory of longing or a disappointment or - as you put it - of imagined happiness. Why is memory so central to your writing?

Andre Aciman: I think there are many answers one could give to that. One of them is because when you’ve lost something that you believe is important you always revisit that loss. You tend to look back more than you look forward because you are always trying to recreate the narrative that brought you here, you’re trying to understand, you know, “What is this trajectory? What is the itinerary that brought you to where you are today?” Not to have that is to feel completely lost.

Paulson: Is there always an element of longing then in the memories?

Andre Aciman: Yes, yes. Again, it’s a complicated question. You long for something that was in the past, that was very important, and then you spend your whole life trying to recover it. Most people have that when it comes to their childhood, even if it was a bad childhood, they long to recover lost footsteps. In my case I long to recover something that I never loved. So, that puts to me totally paradoxical position. In my case the big mysterious place is Alexandria.

Paulson: Alexandria, Egypt?

Andre Aciman: Right. That’s where I came from, that’s where I was born, and that’s where I was kicked off as [sic] who had to leave Egypt. But I never like Alexandria. Who am I kidding? I’ve never kidded myself, I wanted to get out of Alexandria but nevertheless this is the place that I go back to when I try to understand what happened to me. Who I am? Where am I going? How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve come from?

Paulson: So, this is not nostalgia; this is something different?

Andre Aciman: Oh, yes it is, and many people confuse it with nostalgia because that’s an easy name for it. You cannot be nostalgic for something that you couldn’t wait to get out of. There is also another component; it’s the idea that most of our memories are made up of things we wished we had and never got, and so those become memories too by the way.

Paulson: In another words, a memory’s always an inaccurate re-creation of what actually happened? It might be quite fictional?

Andre Aciman: Totally. In other words, if you’re in a place… let’s say you’re in jail and you don’t like the jail and every day in jail you kept thinking of places outside the jail that you’ve never even visited but you imagine them… well guess what… you’ll have memories of those places that you never visited and wished [sic]. So, wishes have a long history and most people cannot tell a wish from an actual event in the past, because they get conflated.

Paulson: Well, this raises all kinds of interesting questions for a memoir writer because ostensibly you’re telling the truth, you’re rendering on the page what actually happened. But off course we know that anyone who is looking back decades to try to recall those details embroiders… perhaps lies? I don’t know…

Andre Aciman: Or you could do it… I call it, “to put a nicer spin on it,” [chuckle] which is to say that I switch the furniture around. The furniture is all there but you need to create a narrative and sometimes very faithful narratives are extremely boring. You need to skip details or you need to make adjustments so that detail A and detail G follow each other right away, as if they were A and B. So, you skip steps but the furniture is all there. So, my life in Egypt, it happened exactly as I tell it. And my family, including those people that lived 50 years before I was born and whose dialogs that I couldn’t have heard because I wasn’t even in my mom’s tummy… Nevertheless I think that I capture their voices and their feelings as accurately as gossip reported to me. And gossip is, for me, a font of information superior to history.

Paulson: Do you have any concerns about recreating conversations and actually putting those conversations within quotes, anything that happens decades ago?

Andre Aciman: No. Not a single one and I will tell you ultimately why. Because the people who were there and who said those things said, “You captured X and Y’s voice perfectly. You captured their personality. This is exactly what I said.”“No you couldn’t have said that because I invented it, but I got you well enough so that you, yourself are persuaded I was writing about you.” And for a writer is the ultimate sort of accolade.

Paulson: Well it raises fascinating questions about what truth is. You’re suggesting that there can be greater truth, to certain degree, in fiction.

Andre Aciman: Well, that goes back to Eric Stotle who said “You know, history tell it as it is you know, literature as it could, might, should have been”and I’ve found that “could might should” far more accurate when it comes to people.

Paulson: If there is one writer who seems to hover over own writing, it would be Proust, I would think… sort of this whole question of memory and, you know, how you create a narrative arc out of memory? How formative an influence was he?

Andre Aciman: Well, Proust is someone I knew when I was a kid. When I was 14 years old, my father spoke to me about Proust, it was my father who introduced me to Proust and he said “You would like Proust.”And, of course, by the way, as soon as he said that the first impulse was “I’m going to hate Proust.” [laughter] “I’m not sure I like you. So, how can I like Proust?” But he told me a couple of things about Proust. About memory, smell, and long sentences. And guess what? All three I knew I was fascinated by before reading Proust. So, I deferred reading Proust as long as I could… but once I got into it, it was the most eye opening experience that I’ve had intellectually in my whole life. Because you’re finding on paper somebody who is you. And I think that the ultimate trick of literature is to tell you a story that you never heard but is your story.

Jim Fleming: Andre Aciman is a novelist and memoir writer. He talk to Steve Paulson about his essay collection, Alibis.

Native American Art at the Vatican

Fred Hermes

http://amazingflashsites.com/fred/

Pee Wee's Big Adventure in 9 Minutes

American Heros ~ Jake Chisaki

Jake Chisaki

De Young Museum

Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco

http://deyoung.famsf.org/deyoung/exhibitions/medal

L: The 442nd Regimental Combat Team received a citation for its battlefield gallantry. France, 1944. Courtesy National Archives. R: Nisei Congressional Gold Medal obverse. Courtesy of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History

American Heroes: Japanese American World War II Nisei Soldiers and the Congressional Gold Medal

June 29, 2013 - August 4, 2013

Nearly seven decades after the beginning of World War II, the Congressional Gold Medal—the nation’s highest civilian award—was bestowed collectively on the U.S. Army’s 100th Infantry Battalion, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service for their extraordinary accomplishments in the war. The men in these units, comprised almost entirely of persons of Japanese ancestry, fought with bravery and valor against America’s enemies on the battlefields in Europe and Asia, even while many of their parents and other family members were held in internment camps. The National Veterans Network has partnered with the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program to share this extraordinary story during an exclusive seven-city tour. The Congressional Gold Medal and accompanying educational app, available at cgm.si.edu, will highlight the stories of these important and honored Americans.

American Heroes: Japanese American World War II Nisei Soldiers and the Congressional Gold Medal was developed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in collaboration with the National Veterans Network and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service. Accompanying educational materials were developed by the National Veterans Network in partnership with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Cole Chemical is the lead sponsor for the national tour. Additional support provided by AARP, Comcast/NBC Universal, the Japanese American Veterans Association, Pritzker Military Library, the Shiratsuki Family, Southwest Airlines, and the Spirit Mountain Community Fund.

Friday July 5, 2013

Japanese American Heroes of WWII Film and Lecture Series: "Honor Bound: A Personal Journey"

7:00 pm

Saturday July 6, 2013

Japanese American Heroes of WWII Film and Lecture Series: "Searchlight Serenade"

2:00 pm

Sunday July 7, 2013

Japanese American Heroes of WWII Film and Lecture Series: "Uncommon Courage"

2:00 pm

Saturday July 13, 2013

Japanese American Heroes of WWII Film and Lecture Series Special Lecture: "Twice Heroes"

2:00 pm