Roald Dahl’s
children’s novel Matilda was first
published in 1988 with illustrations by Quentin
Blake. It is the story of a very
bright and rebellious little girl, with special powers. Matilda’s parents, Mr and Mrs Wormwood, have
no time for her and treat her as a nuisance.
She spends most of her time reading books from the library astonishingly
quickly, whilst they watch the telly and Mr Wormwood sells dodgy used
cars. At school things are no better as
despite the care and support of her teacher, the lovely Miss Honey, Matilda has
to contend with the terrifying headmistress Miss Trunchbull who rules the
school with cruelty and fear. Matilda
fights against the injustices at home and at school. Eventually she decides the grown-ups should
be taught a lesson and in the process discovers her supernatural powers. In December 2008, director Matthew
Warchus approached Tim Minchin about writing the music and lyrics for a stage
musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s famous book, to be produced by The Royal
Shakespeare Company. Tim had little
hesitation: not only was the chance to write for the RSC impossible to resist,
but as a life long fan of Dahl, he had – coincidentally – attempted to secure
the stage rights to Matilda ten years earlier, when he was writing for theatre
in Perth, WA. Working from Kelly’s
script adaptation, Tim wrote his first draft in the middle of 2009, with the
first workshop production taking place in London in September. Matilda, the Musical
opened in the West End at the Cambridge Theatre on Thursday 24th November, 2011. See list
of awards at: http://www.timminchin.com/matilda/
Though James Madison has been given the title “Father of the
Constitution,” Gouverneur Morris
could be considered second in importance in shaping the final version. Morris spoke more often (173 times) than any
other delegate at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. Though he was often on the losing side of
issues and was not a political theorist on the level of Madison, Morris was a
leader of the nationalist bloc at the Convention that ultimately carried the
day. In addition, it was the native New
Yorker who actually crafted much of the language of the United States Constitution. Assigned to the Committee of Style as debate
at the Philadelphia Convention drew to a close, Morris was given the task of
wording the Constitution by the committee’s members. Through thoughtful word choice, Morris
attempted to enhance the power of the federal government. Most significantly, Morris’s choice of the
words, “We the people,” for the beginning of the famous Preamble helped to define the American
nation as a single entity, created by the people, not the states. This argument would later be used by John
Marshall and Abraham Lincoln to assert the supremacy of the federal government
over the states. Link to America's
founders, founding documents and sign up for newsletter at: http://billofrightsinstitute.org/resources/educator-resources/founders/gouverneur-morris/
Works of Aboriginal Australian artists on view at
museum
Visitors to the Crossing
Cultures exhibition at the Toledo Museum of Art will be struck immediately by a
sense of movement. The Aboriginal
Australian artists who created these vibrant, uniquely contemporary works
conveyed the undulations of a desert landscape that is often in flux. There are shimmering and pulsating effects
within the art and hidden stories that tell of a past, present, and future that
are simultaneous and called the “everywhen.”
“It’s a deliberate strategy on the parts of those artists to evoke that
energy and make you feel like you’re in the presence of something that is grand
and spiritual,” said Will Owen, a University of North Carolina librarian, who
along with his art-collecting partner Harvey Wagner collected the paintings
that are featured in the free exhibition that runs until July 14 at TMA. Some of the works, which range from acrylic
on canvas to bark paintings, sculptures, and photography, have a
three-dimensional aspect. The artists
live in remote regions and the art is part of their family stories, said TMA
Director Brian Kennedy. He said that
some of the paintings reverse the foreground and background so that “secret
sacred knowledge” is embedded in the art but hidden behind the “shimmer”
effect, almost as if it is underwater. Texture
and earth tones convey a sense of the rough-hewn environment in which the
Aboriginal people live, but there is nothing old-fashioned about these works,
most of which were created after 2000. The
paintings, sculptures, and photographs are part of a collection that is housed
at the Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. The exhibition was curated by Stephen
Gilchrist of the Hood. Crossing
Cultures: The Owen and Wagner Collection of Contemporary Aboriginal Australian
Art from the Hood Museum of Art will be on display at the Toledo Museum of Art,
2445 Monroe St., until July 14. Admission
is free. A number of gallery talks,
films, and other activities will take place during the exhibition. For details go to www.toledomuseum.org. Rod Lockwood
http://www.toledoblade.com/Art/2013/04/14/Works-of-Aboriginal-Australian-artists-on-view-at-museum.html
April 14, 2013 With
coastal areas bracing for rising sea levels, new research indicates that
cutting emissions of certain pollutants can greatly slow down sea level rise
this century. The research
team found that reductions in four pollutants that cycle comparatively quickly
through the atmosphere could slow the annual rate of sea level rise by roughly
25 to 50 percent. “To avoid potentially
dangerous sea level rise, we could cut emissions of short-lived pollutants even
if we cannot immediately cut carbon dioxide emissions,” says Aixue Hu of the
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), the first author of the study.
“This new research shows that society
can significantly reduce the threat to coastal cities if it moves quickly on a
handful of pollutants.” “It is still
not too late, by stabilizing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere
and reducing emissions of shorter-lived pollutants, to lower the rate of
warming and reduce sea level rise by 30 percent,” says Veerabhadran Ramanathan
of Scripps, who led the study. The
potential impact of rising oceans on populated areas is one of the most
concerning effects of climate change. Many of the world’s major cities, such as New
York, Miami, Amsterdam, Mumbai, and Tokyo, are located in low-lying areas by
the water. As glaciers and ice sheets
melt and warming oceans expand, sea levels have been rising by an average of
about 3 millimeters annually in recent years (just more than one-tenth of an
inch). If temperatures continue to warm,
sea levels are projected to rise between 18 and 200 centimeters (between 7
inches and 6 feet) this century, according to reports by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and the U.S. National Research Council. Such an increase could submerge densely
populated coastal communities, especially when storm surges hit. Despite the risks, policy makers have been
unable to agree on procedures for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide, which
is the main human-emitted greenhouse gas. With this in mind, the research team focused
on emissions of four other heat-trapping pollutants: methane, soot,
refrigerants, and gases that lead to the formation of ground-level ozone. These gases and particles last anywhere from a
week to a decade in the atmosphere, and they can influence climate more quickly
than carbon dioxide, which persists in the atmosphere for more than a century. Previous research by Ramanathan and Yangyang
Xu of Scripps, a co-author of the new paper, has shown that a sharp reduction
in emissions of these shorter-lived pollutants beginning in 2015 could offset
warming temperatures by up to 50 percent by 2050.
Audrey Marie Munson (1891–1996) was an American artist's
model and film actress, known variously as "Miss Manhattan,"
"the Exposition Girl," and "American Venus." She was the model or inspiration for more than
fifteen statues in New York City and appeared in four silent
films. In 1906, when
Munson was 15 years old, she was spotted in the street by photographer Ralph
Draper, who in turn introduced her to his friend, sculptor Isidore
Konti. Konti persuaded the young
woman to model for him. For the next
decade, Munson became the model of choice for a host of sculptors and painters
in New
York City. By 1915, she was so well
established that she was chosen by Alexander Stirling Calder as the model of
choice for the Panama-Pacific
International Exposition (PPIE) held that year. She posed for three quarters of the sculpture
at that event as well as for numerous paintings and murals. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audrey_Munson
A tontine is
an investment scheme through which shareholders derive some form of profit or
benefit while they are living, but the value of each share devolves to the
other participants and not the shareholder's heirs on the death of each
shareholder. The tontine is usually
brought to an end through a
dissolution and distribution of assets to the living shareholders when the
number of shareholders reaches an agreed small number. The word 'tontine' is derived from the name
of Lorenzo de Tonti, an Italian political exile living in France. He proposed the original tontine to Jules Cardinal
Mazarin in the early 1650's as a means for French King Louis XIV to raise
revenue.
Fordham Journal of Corporate
& Financial Law Volume 15, Issue 2
2009
square
1. a rectangle having all four sides of equal
length. 2. anything having this form or a form approximating it, as a city block, rectangular piece of candy, etc.
3. an open area or plaza in a city or town, formed by the meeting or intersecting of two or more streets and often planted with grass, trees, etc., in the center.
4. a rectangularly shaped area on a game board, as in chess or checkers.
5. a try square, T square, or the like. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/square NOTE that definition 3 fits St. Peter's Square in Vatican City.
The Digital Public Library of America http://dp.la/
launched on April 18, 2013
A Message from Executive
Director Dan Cohen From all of us at the
Digital Public Library of America, our hearts go out to those affected by the
terrible events in Boston . . . The
tragedy took place right in front of the Boston Public Library where we planned
to have our gala launch on Thursday. Unfortunately,
I no longer think it is possible to hold those events this week. The area around the BPL has been closed off,
perhaps for several days, and it is not easy to relocate such a large-scale
meeting. But logistics are the least of
my concerns. People need time to mourn
and to get resettled. I do not have the
exact details yet, but we have already begun to plan an even larger event for
the fall, one that will highlight our continued growth and emergence from the
beta phase, and that also can serve as our first annual DPLAfest. The new DPLA site will still go live at noon
ET on Thursday as planned, and we look forward to sharing the riches of
America’s libraries, archives, and museums. Although we have canceled all of the formal
events, DPLA staff will be available all day online, and informally in person
in the late afternoon in the Boston area (at a location to be determined), for
those taking their first look. I see the
building of a new library as one of the greatest examples of what humans can do
together to extend the light against the darkness. In due time, we will let that light shine
through.
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