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👁 :52
Spacecraft attempts closest-ever approach to Sun
Catagory:News
Author:Alison Francis Senior Science Journalist
Posted Date:12/24/2024
Posted By:utopia online

A Nasa spacecraft is attempting to make history with the closest-ever approach to the Sun. The Parker Solar Probe is plunging into our star's outer atmosphere, enduring brutal temperatures and extreme radiation. It's out of communication for several days during this burning hot fly-by and scientists will be waiting for a signal, expected on 27 December, to see if it has survived. The hope is the probe could help us to better understand how the Sun works.Parker Solar Probe launched in 2018, heading to the centre of our Solar System. It has already swept past the Sun 21 times, getting ever nearer, but the Christmas Eve visit is record-breaking. At its closest approach, the probe is 3.8 million miles (6.2 million km) from our star's surface. This might not sound that close, but Nasa's Nicola Fox puts it into perspective: "We are 93 million miles away from the Sun, so if I put the Sun and the Earth one metre apart, Parker Solar Probe is four centimetres from the Sun - so that's close." The probe will have to endure temperatures of 1,400C and radiation that could frazzle the onboard electronics. It's protected by a 11.5cm (4.5 inches) thick carbon-composite shield but the spacecraft's tactic is to get in and out fast. In fact, it will be moving faster than any human made object, hurtling at 430,000mph - the equivalent of flying from London to New York in less than 30 seconds.So why go to all this effort to "touch" the Sun? Scientists hope that as the spacecraft passes through our star's outer atmosphere - its corona - it will solve a long standing mystery. "The corona is really, really hot, and we have no idea why," explains Dr Jenifer MIllard, an astronomer at Fifth Star Labs. "The surface of the Sun is about 6,000C or so, but the corona, this tenuous outer atmosphere that you can see during solar eclipses, reaches millions of degrees - and that is further away from the Sun. So how is that atmosphere getting hotter?" The mission should also help scientists to better understand solar wind - the constant stream of charged particles bursting out from the corona. When these particles interact with the Earth's magnetic field the sky lights up with dazzling auroras. But this so called space weather can cause problems too, knocking out power-grids, electronics and communication systems. "Understanding the Sun, its activity, space weather, the solar wind, is so important to our everyday lives on Earth," says Dr Millard.Nasa scientists face an anxious wait over Christmas while the spacecraft is out of touch with Earth. Nicola Fox says that as soon as a signal is beamed back home, the team will text her a green heart to let her know the probe is OK. She admits she's nervous about the audacious attempt, but she has faith in the probe. "I will worry about the spacecraft. But we really have designed it to withstand all of these brutal, brutal conditions. It's a tough, tough little spacecraft."


Type:Technology
👁 :9
Gaetz, who resigned from the US House of Representatives
Catagory:News
Author:Lisa Lambert
Posted Date:12/24/2024
Posted By:utopia online

The House Ethics Committee report on Donald Trump ally Matt Gaetz released on Monday revealed fresh details about the former congressman's alleged behaviour, at least one new accusation and insights into the panel's investigation. From at least 2017 to 2020, the committee concluded that the former Florida congressman regularly paid women for "engaging in sexual activity", had sex with a 17-year-old girl, used or possessed illegal drugs, accepted gifts beyond House limits and helped a woman obtain a passport, according to the report. Gaetz, who resigned from the US House of Representatives in November - days before the report was scheduled to be made public and after Trump announced him as his pick for US attorney general - denied the committee's findings and has accused it of conducting an unfair investigation. Here are four parts of the much-anticipated report that stand out.A winding money trail House investigators said Gaetz paid more than $90,000 (£71,843) to women for sex and drugs, but created a complicated web of transactions that were hard to trace, according to the report. "The committee was unable to determine the full extent to which Representative Gaetz's payments to women were compensation for engaging in sexual activity with him," the report found. He allegedly used his friend Joel Greenberg, currently serving 11 years in prison for crimes he said he committed with Gaetz, as a frequent go-between and logged onto Greenberg's account on SeekingArrangement.com, which bills itself as a "luxury dating site", to interact with young women. Gaetz also paid women directly, sometimes through platforms such as Venmo, according to the report. But the committee said he often used another person's PayPal account or an account linked to an email address with a fake name. He also obscured payments, the panel wrote. In one example, he gave a college student a cheque made out to "cash" with "tuition reimbursement" in the memo line. The woman said she received it after a group encounter, which "could potentially be a form of coercion because I really needed the money". Gaetz has posted on social media that he gave money to women he was involved with as gifts, not payments. The committee found that two women, aged 27 and 25, did not consider their relationships transactional. Another woman who was considered his girlfriend invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when asked if she was given money for sex or drugs, or to pay others. The committee attempted to prove Gaetz frequently paid for sex through a text message that described his inability to pay at one point. His then-girlfriend said in the message that he and Greenberg were "a little limited in their cash flow" and asked a group of women "if it can be more of a customer appreciation week". A few months later, according to the committee, she wrote: "Btw Matt also mentioned he is going to be a bit generous cause of the 'customer appreciation' thing last time." Sex, drugs, and a passport application The committee also said Gaetz bought illegal drugs or reimbursed people for them. It gives examples of his alleged cocaine and ecstasy/MDMA use, but focused on what appeared to be a heavy marijuana habit. He allegedly asked women to bring marijuana cartridges to meetings and events, and created the fake-name email account to buy marijuana. A trip he took to the Bahamas "was paid for by an associate of Representative Gaetz with connections to the medical marijuana industry, who allegedly also paid for female escorts to accompany them", according to the report. One woman felt the use of drugs and alcohol at parties had impaired her ability "to really know what was going on or fully consent". "Indeed, nearly every woman that the committee spoke with could not remember the details of at least one or more of the events they attended with Representative Gaetz and attributed that to drug or alcohol consumption," the report said. His then-girlfriend, who was 21 when they met and "was paid tens of thousands of dollars" during their two-year relationship", often participated in encounters with women and acted as an intermediary, according to the report. A woman told the committee she was 17 at the time she had sex with Gaetz twice at a party in 2017 - at least once in front of other people - while under the influence of ecstasy. The woman, who had just completed her junior year in high school, then received $400 from him. She also told the panel she did not tell Gaetz she was a minor and the committee did not find any evidence that the former congressman knew she was underage. In 2021, Greenberg pleaded guilty to sex trafficking the girl. Gaetz also allegedly directed his chief of staff to expedite a passport application for a woman he was sleeping with, whom he said was a voter in his district. He also allegedly gave her $1,000. Gaetz violated House rules that bar using his position for special favours, according to the committee, which wrote: "The woman was not his constituent, and the case was not handled in the same manner as similar passport assistance cases".Accusations of obstruction The committee dedicated a great deal of the report to detailing how Gaetz allegedly obstructed its investigation, including failing to produce evidence he said would "exonerate" him. The report concluded he "continuously sought to deflect, deter, or mislead the Committee in order to prevent his actions from being exposed". Gaetz, who has accused the committee of being "weaponised" against him and leaking information to the press, alleged the panel was working on behalf of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to the report. Last year he helped lead an effort to oust then-Speaker McCarthy from his role. While Gaetz claimed he had "voluntarily produced tens of thousands of records," he gave the committee "only a couple hundred records, more than 90% of which was either irrelevant or publicly available," the report found. One sore point was a trip to the Bahamas, where the committee said he withheld information. Ultimately it concluded he violated rules on gifts because the trip was too high in value. The committee also cited the Justice Department's probe into the allegations against Gaetz as a reason for delays. Some witnesses asked the committee to use statements they had given to the department, but it refused to share them because they had not issued charges and because it said it could deter future witnesses in other cases from coming forward. Committee chairman dissents The report ends with a single-page statement from Ethics Committee Chairman Michael Guest "on behalf of dissenting committee members" who are not named. Those members do not challenge the committee's findings, but disagree with releasing the report after Gaetz resigned from the House, which has not happened since 2006, they write. It "breaks from the Committee's long-standing practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, and will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponise the Committee's process". source : https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0mvpmnm9gno


Type:Technology
👁 :137
"The man who was a business man died"
Catagory:Reading
Author:Kenne Fant, translated by Marianne Ruuth
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

Mr. Alfred Nobel has presented a weapon called redemption for the first time, the weapon he created is the reason for many people. The whole world is saddened by this act. Several of his friends advised him not to supply this disastrous material in the world market, he stopped him from giving it to his earners. Alfred Nobel who refused to accept the advice people gave him, as he became one of the biggest wealthy owners. In his old age - one day he sat in front of the door and started reading a magazine published that day. While reading this I saw something so terrible on the faces of dead people that he couldn't believe his eyes. "Alfired Nobel the dead trader is dead! "" I read the scripture that says. His picture was also posted as one of the dead. Nobel was so shocked by what I saw, he started thinking while sitting in great fear. "Will this world remember me like this if I die? Is it called a dead businessman? "I thought he was saying "" Then he asked for one very important question. "What can I do to change my story?" "This was the question that was the foundation for his life-changing history. Finally, the world's company of people decided to establish a generation of award after your death. It's today that you'll start making bad decisions to market that you'll remember. "Now he made a great decision to award the people who made a positive impact on the world." Nobel Prize founded organization. This organization still rewards people who do great things all over the world. The history of Alfred Nobelis is now remembered not with weapons, but with this famous award. Deciding to change your history in your old age is like this. As we can see from the above history, Alfred Nobel has contributed to the world's most important material. The death of many lives has also caused. He brought the world to make money. At the end of the day, he did an act that made the world forget his original history. Let me come back to you. What do you want to be remembered when you die? What generation do you want to name you after your death? What do you want your story to be read at your funeral? These questions are so important. Please take a moment to write their answers. The answer you give to this question is very useful. You start doing what generation will remember you after your death. You may have made any mistake yesterday. That was just yesterday. Yesterday's mistakes can't be corrected in any way. Why is it that the hell? Yesterday is gone; it will never come back. But it's worth learning from it. Yes, your past is a good teacher. Don't make other mistakes by learning from your mistakes, you can stand on today and fix what you need to fix. Just like Mr. Alfred Nobel, you can do a good job that makes generation forget today's mistakes. That is a great opportunity. An important question you have to ask yourself, "What can I do today that will be remembered after my death?" "It's the one that says" The answer to this question has a lot of meaning for you. Many people in this world are not for generation, they live for themselves. Since they don't have a mind that thinks for generation, they live by selfishness. This is a great loss, some of us are given the opportunity to live in this world, to make a positive impact on the lives of others. Our lives should be able to touch, change and help people's lives.


Type:Social
👁 :66
Ada Lovelace
Catagory:Biography
Author:Biography.com Editors
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

The daughter of famed poet Lord Byron, Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace — better known as "Ada Lovelace" — showed her gift for mathematics at an early age. She translated an article on an invention by Charles Babbage, and added her own comments. Because she introduced many computer concepts, Lovelace is considered the first computer programmer. She died on November 27, 1852. Early Years Ada Lovelace, born as Augusta Ada Byron on December 10, 1815, was the only legitimate child of the famous poet Lord George Gordon Byron. Lord Byron's marriage to Lovelace's mother, Lady Anne Isabella Milbanke Byron, was not a happy one. Lady Byron separated from her husband only weeks after their daughter was born. A few months later, Lord Byron left England, and Lovelace never saw her father again. He died in Greece when Ada was 8 years old.Lovelace had an unusual upbringing for an aristocratic girl in the mid-1800s. At her mother's insistence, tutors taught her mathematics and science. Such challenging subjects were not standard fare for women at the time, but her mother believed that engaging in rigorous studies would prevent Lovelace from developing her father's moody and unpredictable temperament. Lovelace was also forced to lie still for extended periods of time because her mother believed it would help her develop self-control. From early on, Lovelace showed a talent for numbers and language. She received instruction from William Frend, a social reformer; William King, the family's doctor; and Mary Somerville, a Scottish astronomer and mathematician. Somerville was one of the first women to be admitted into the Royal Astronomical Society.Babbage and the Analytical Engine Around the age of 17, Ada met Charles Babbage, a mathematician and inventor. The pair became friends, and the much older Babbage served as a mentor to Lovelace. Through Babbage, Lovelace began studying advanced mathematics with University of London professor Augustus de Morgan. Lovelace was fascinated by Babbage's ideas. Known as the father of the computer, he invented the difference engine, which was meant to perform mathematical calculations. Lovelace got a chance to look at the machine before it was finished, and was captivated by it. Babbage also created plans for another device known as the analytical engine, designed to handle more complex calculations. Lovelace was later asked to translate an article on Babbage's analytical engine that had been written by Italian engineer Luigi Federico Menabrea for a Swiss journal. She not only translated the original French text into English but also added her own thoughts and ideas on the machine. Her notes ended up being three times longer than the original article. Her work was published in 1843, in an English science journal. Lovelace used only the initials "A.A.L.," for Augusta Ada Lovelace, in the publication. In her notes, Lovelace described how codes could be created for the device to handle letters and symbols along with numbers. She also theorized a method for the engine to repeat a series of instructions, a process known as looping that computer programs use today. Lovelace also offered up other forward-thinking concepts in the article. For her work, Lovelace is often considered to be the first computer programmer. Lovelace's article attracted little attention when she was alive. In her later years, she tried to develop mathematical schemes for winning at gambling. Unfortunately, her schemes failed and put her in financial peril. Lovelace died from uterine cancer in London on November 27, 1852. She was buried next to her father, in the graveyard of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in Hucknall, England. Personal Life In 1835, Lovelace married William King, who became the Earl of Lovelace three years later. She then took the title of Countess of Lovelace. They shared a love of horses and had three children together. From most accounts, he supported his wife's academic endeavors. Lovelace and her husband socialized with many of the interesting minds of the times, including scientist Michael Faraday and writer Charles Dickens. Lovelace's health suffered, however, after a bout of cholera in 1837. She had lingering problems with asthma and her digestive system. Doctors gave her painkillers, such as laudanum and opium, and her personality began to change. She reportedly experienced mood swings and hallucinations. Legacy Lovelace's contributions to the field of computer science were not discovered until the 1950s. Her notes were reintroduced to the world by B.V. Bowden, who republished them in Faster Than Thought: A Symposium on Digital Computing Machines in 1953. Since then, Ada has received many posthumous honors for her work. In 1980, the U.S. Department of Defense named a newly developed computer language "Ada," after Lovelace. referance Author: Biography.com Editors Website Name: The Biography.com website Url: https://www.biography.com/scholars-educators/ada-lovelace Access Date: Publisher: A&E; Television Networks Last Updated: May 6, 2021 Original Published Date: April 2, 2014


Type:Social
👁 :45
The archaeological mystery of Stonehenge's long-lost megaliths
Catagory:Reading
Author:Mike Pitts
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

Stand at Stonehenge on midwinter day, 21 December, as the Sun is setting you can experience a striking event – provided the sky is clear. Position yourself between the tall, outlying Heel Stone and the stone circle, and look south-west through the megaliths. In the closing darkness they appear like a huge crumbling wall, orange light slanting through vertical fissures. In the last quick moments, the Sun disappears from a window formed by two great vertical stones and the horizontal lintel they support. It's dark and cold. Stonehenge, it feels, has swallowed the Sun. My archaeological colleagues and I are convinced that this alignment is no coincidence: it was designed by the monument's builders. But were you able to see this annual drama 4,500 years ago, the spectacle would be yet more impressive. The solstice sightline was marked by as many as six futher upright pairs. Of the greatest of these – the tallest and the most finely carved stones on the site – now just a single megalith known as Stone 56 is left. A projecting bulge on the top of this stone once fitted into a giant lintel. Now that tenon rises exposed and useless. And many more upright stones have gone. What happened to these missing stones? Who took them down and where did they go? How do we know they were once there? Can we picture what the completed Stonehenge looked like? Indeed, was it ever finished at all?These are questions that archaeologists like myself have asked for centuries. We can't answer any of them with certainty. But a long, active search has brought my colleagues and I closer. Through survey, excavation and geological studies have helped to clarify – sometimes in the most surprising ways – one of the big puzzles of Stonehenge: is that all there was? When we visit Stonehenge today, what we see is almost exactly how it looked when the first accurate plan was made in 1740 by John Wood, a leading architect of his time. The first realistic sketches date from the 16th Century, and while they skimp on detail, the impression remains that little has changed. But don't be fooled. Half the stones have been moved. That happened between 1901 and 1964, when the authorities were concerned that megaliths might fall on visitors. These were justifiable fears: several large stones had long been propped up with timbers, and lintels skewed threateningly. Many of the uprights were straightened and set in concrete, and a few known to have fallen in historic times were restored. The monument was deliberately secured to look as it had when recorded by John Wood, but archaeological excavations conducted alongside the engineering works revealed another, different Stonehenge. For the first time, there was proof that not all the stones were still there.Such a suspicion had first been raised in 1666 by John Aubrey, biographer and antiquary, who saw five "cavities in the ground" just inside the circular bank and ditch that surround the present stones at a distance. He thought the hollows were created by the removal of megaliths, suggesting there had once been an outer stone circle 85m (280ft) across that is now entirely missing. Excavation in that area in the 1920s revealed a perfect circle of 56 pits (assuming regular spacing through unexcavated areas) now known as the Aubrey Holes. Two further unexpected pit rings were found closer to the existing stones. At the time, it was concluded that none of these had held megaliths, though more recently some archaeologists have come to think that the Aubrey Holes are in fact all that remain of an expansive stone circle.Restoration and excavation resumed in the 1950s and 60s, when more buried holes were found, this time in amongst the present standing stones. Pits in two closely nested half-circles very likely held small megaliths, and other pits indicate that these stones were taken down and rearranged – with the addition of more stones – in a concentric oval and circle. These two were later adjusted to form the present arrangement of a circle and open-ended horseshoe, of which many stones have gone. In 1979 my own excavation discovered a pit beside the Heel Stone. On the bottom the chalk had been crushed by the weight of a large stone, which would have complemented the present megalith. It was an entirely unexpected find for a young archaeologist – made on the verge of the road as people were gathering for the then infamous Stonehenge pop festival – that has affected how I think about the site ever since: I never take anything for granted. With the Heel Stone, the missing stone would have created a pair either side of the solstice alignment – to frame, looking out to the north-east, the rising midsummer Sun.By then, it was clear that Stonehenge had a complex history spanning as much as a thousand years. Archaeologists knew that many stones were missing. How many was an open question. The earlier arrangements were poorly understood, and some archaeologists were suggesting that the stone circle itself had never been finished. Its south-west side had only one standing megalith, and there seemed to be insufficient fallen pieces to complete the ring. In one striking instance, a sarsen lintel looked like a sausage roll compared to its sharp-angled companions that had remained high out of reachThe plot thickened in 2009, when a previously unknown stone circle was discovered in an excavation a few minutes' walk away. Some 25 pits would have held megaliths the size of the small ones at Stonehenge. Every excavated pit was empty. At this point it helps to know more about what I've called the large and small stones. They are composed of different types of rock, which has affected what has gone and what remains. The big stones – the ones that box the setting midwinter Sun and create the famous Stonehenge silhouette – are formed of sarsen, a very hard relatively local sandstone. The small ones, known collectively as bluestones, are a mix of softer rocks, most brought to the site from south-west Wales. If the Aubrey Holes held megaliths, they were only big enough for bluestones – as were pits at the nearby missing circle, whose stones were probably moved to Stonehenge. Reports in earlier centuries tell of visitors knocking off bits of the stones to keep as souvenirs. Archaeologists assumed these stories were exaggerated, but in 2012 a laser survey of the megaliths revealed the extent of damage. Hardly a stone was spared by the hammers – it was said in the 19th Century you could hire them in nearby Amesbury. In one striking instance, a sarsen lintel that had fallen in 1797 and been re-erected in 1958 looked like a sausage roll compared to its sharp-angled companions that had remained high out of reach – due to the extent of the rock chiselled away. Between the circle and the Heel Stone, a large sarsen, known as the Slaughter Stone, lies on the ground, one end scored by hammer and chisel holes as if someone had been interrupted in the midst of stealing a part. Excavation in the 1920s found a large pit beside it. Had the stone once standing there been broken up and taken away? Or was it moved thousands of years ago to stand elsewhere on the site? Perhaps the sarsen circle is now incomplete on the south-west side because the stones there were broken up in recent centuries too. We may never know their fate, but in 2013 after a wet spring and early summer, custodians noticed marks in the now parched grass revealing pits for all the missing stones. It seems the original megaliths there were thinner and less regular, and thus easier to break – implying that was the "back" of the circle.Despite searching, no sarsen that was once part of Stonehenge has ever been found away from the monument. It's a different story with the bluestones. An infamous boulder known as the Boles Barrow Stone was given to Salisbury Museum in 1934 by the writer, Siegfried Sassoon, who spotted it in his garden after moving into a new home not far from Stonehenge. This, it was once argued, was proof that a glacier, not Neolithic people, brought all the bluestones to Salisbury Plain. Geology has never backed that case, and archaeologists now agree that the Boles Barrow Stone must have been taken from Stonehenge in the recent past. Excavation has shown that many bluestones, easier to break than the sarsens, survive as little more than stumps and scattered debris. There are hints from excavations that some of this damage occurred in Roman times, and perhaps even in the Bronze Age, not many centuries after the stones had been erected. One theory is that pieces were thought to have healing powers. In one case, however, we know exactly who took some chips, when and why. They unlocked one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made about Stonehenge. At the centre of the monument lies the Altar Stone. It is the only sandstone bluestone, at first thought to be of South Wales origin. However, intensive research by a British geological team led them to suggest it came from northern England or Scotland. They identified two chips from the stone in museums, one knocked off for examination in 1844, the other found during excavation in the 1920s. They sent samples from these chips to an Australian team, who were able to use cutting-edge technology to show, in 2024, the Altar Stone had come from the far north-east of Scotland. The most-travelled megalith at Stonehenge had finally been tracked to its source, after tiny pieces of it had been round the world and back again.


Type:Technology
👁 :39
Google suggests fixes to its search monopoly
Catagory:News
Author:Lily Jamali
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

Alphabet's Google proposed new limits to revenue-sharing agreements with companies including Apple which make Google's search engine the default on their devices and browsers. The suggestions stem from the US search giant's ongoing antitrust battle over its online search business. In August, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google illegally crushed its competition in search - a decision the company vowed to appeal. In a legal filing submitted Friday, Google said it should be allowed to continue entering into those contracts with other companies while widening the options it offers.These options include allowing different default search engines to be assigned to different platforms and browsing modes. Google's suggested remedies also call for the ability for partners to change their default search provider at least every 12 months. The proposals stand in stark contrast to the sweeping remedies suggested last month by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which recommended that Judge Mehta force the firm to stop entering into revenue-sharing contracts. DOJ lawyers also demanded that Google sell Chrome, the world's most popular web browser. Google's search engine accounts for about 90% of all online searches globally, according to web traffic analysis platform Statcounter. In a statement, Google called DOJ's remedies "overbroad" and said even its own counterproposals, which were filed in response to a court-mandated deadline, would come at a cost to their partners. Judge Mehta is expected to issue a decision in the remedies phase of the landmark case by August, after a trial.


Type:Technology
👁 :10
'It's pure beauty' - Italy's largest medieval mosaics restored
Catagory:News
Author:BBC
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

On a hill overlooking the city of Palermo, in Sicily, sits a lesser-known gem of Italian art: the cathedral of Monreale. Built in the 12th century under Norman rule, it boasts Italy's largest Byzantine-style mosaics, second in the world only to those of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Now, this Unesco World Heritage site has undergone an extensive restoration to bring it back to its former glory. The Monreale mosaics were meant to impress, humble and inspire the visitor who walked down the central nave, following the fashion of Constantinople, the capital of the surviving Roman empire in the east. They span over 6,400 square meters and contain around 2.2kg of solid gold.The restoration lasted over a year, and in that time the cathedral was turned into a bit of a building site, with a maze of scaffolds set up on the altar and transept. Local experts from the Italian Ministry of Culture led a series of interventions, starting with the removal of a thick layer of dust that had accumulated on the mosaics over the years. Then they repaired some of the tiles that had lost their enamel and gold leaf, making them look like black spots from down below. Finally, they intervened in the areas where the tiles were peeling off the wall and secured them. Working on the mosaics was a challenge and a big responsibility, says Father Nicola Gaglio. He has been a priest here for 17 years and has followed the restoration closely, not unlike an apprehensive dad. "The team approached this work almost on their tiptoes," he tells me. "At times, there were some unforeseen issues and they had to pause the operations while they found a solution. "For example, when they got to the ceiling, they realised that in the past it had been covered with a layer of varnish that had turned yellowish. They had to peel it off, quite literally, like cling film."The mosaics were last partly restored in 1978 , but this time the intervention had a much wider scope and it included replacing the old lighting system. "There was a very old system. The light was low, the energy costs were through the roof and in no way it made justice to the beauty of the mosaics," says Matteo Cundari. He's the Country Manager of Zumtobel, the firm that was tasked with installing the new lights. "The main challenge was to make sure we'd highlight the mosaics and we'd create something that answers to the various needs of the cathedral," he adds. "We also wanted to create a completely reversible system, something that could be replaced in 10 or 15 years without damaging the building."This first tranche of works cost 1.1 million euros. A second one, focussing on the central nave, is being planned next. I ask Fr Gaglio what it was like to see the scaffolding finally come off and the mosaics shine in their new light. He laughs and shrugs. "When you see it, you're overwhelmed with awe and you can't really think of anything. It's pure beauty," he says. "It's a responsibility to be the keeper of such world heritage. This world needs beauty, because it reminds us of what's good in humanity, of what it means to be men and women."


Type:Social
👁 :
Woman dies after being set on fire on NYC subway
Catagory:News
Author:BBC
Posted Date:12/23/2024
Posted By:utopia online

A man has been arrested in New York in connection with the death of a woman who was set on fire on a subway train in Brooklyn. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the incident on Sunday as "one of the most depraved crimes one person could possibly commit against another human being". She said the woman was on a stationary F train to Brooklyn when she was approached by a man who used a lighter to ignite her clothing. The victim died at the scene, she said, adding that the suspect had been arrested following a tip-off from a group of high school students as he rode the subway later on Sunday.Police said the woman, who has not been named, was in a subway carriage at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn at about 07:30 local time (12:30 GMT) when a man approached her. There was no interaction before the attack, police said, adding that they did not believe the two people knew each other. The man got off the train as police officers on patrol in the station rushed to the fire. "Officers were on patrol on an upper level of that station, smelled and saw smoke and went to investigate," Ms Tisch said. "What they saw was a person standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames." Police are still working to identify the victim and the motive for the attack."Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car," Ms Tisch added. She explained responding officers were able to get a "very clear, detailed" look at the man and images were disseminated by the New York Police Department (NYPD). Later, three high school-aged New Yorkers called 911 to report they recognised the suspect on another train, Ms Tisch told reporters. The man was then located after officers boarded the train and walked through the subway carriages. He was arrested at Herald Square station - which is located in near to the Empire State Building in Manhattan. The man was found with a lighter in his pocket, the police commissioner said. "I want to thank the young people who called 911 to help," Ms Tisch added. "They saw something, they said something and they did something."The man, who was not publicly identified, emigrated from Guatemala to the US in 2018, the NYPD's Joseph Gulotta said. Gulotta explained detectives are still trying to establish whether the victim was asleep when she was set on fire. "She's definitely there, she's motionless," Mr Gulotta added. "So to say if she's asleep or not, we're not 100% sure, but it appears that she's motionless at that spot. "There is no interaction between the two. And when the incident happens, there is no interaction between them."


Type:Social

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