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archiveofprolbems · 4 years ago

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On Space Art by Xin Liu & Xin Wang

Xin Liu, Orbit Weaver, 2017. Production still of artist's performance during a parabolic flight. Image courtesy of the artist. Photo by Steve Boxell.

During the prolonged lockdown that defined much of 2020, the Xinjiang-born, New York-based artist and engineer Xin Liu juggled multiple roles. These included participating in a volunteering network that supplied PPE to medical workers in dire need of protection against Covid-19; designing an indie game, Sleepwalk (2020), which reflected on the conditions of confinement and hyper-connectivity; engineering a series of hypnotic sound experiences with her partner Gershon Dublon titled The Wandering Mind (2020), which guides the dreams of a sleeping audience with source materials organized by an AI system; and live-streaming an ambient soundscape recorded on Whitehead Island, off the coast of Maine, for the Camden International Film Festival.1

As the Arts Curator at MIT Media Lab’s Space Exploration Initiative and an artist who makes work for exhibition spaces, film festivals, and astronautical conferences, Liu’s ongoing fascination with space as a medium and destination for new art has seen her send a wisdom tooth into outer space, cultivate potato seeds that had travelled to the International Space Station, and imagine weightlessness as an intimate, “body-opening” condition. In this interview, we spoke about the past lives and expansive futures of Space Art, her unique mixture of academic and identitarian backgrounds, and the creative strategies of innovation and resistance while working at the juncture of art and technology.

Xin Wang: You’ve recently been referred to as a “famous space artist” in a panel discussion poster, which suggests that this is a solidified genre.

Xin Liu: It is a genre! If you google “Space Art,” there’s a Wikipedia page that defines it, though it’s very much about visual artists depicting the vision of space exploration, like images of Martian colonies, weightlessness, spaceships, etc. It was also called Astronomical Art, with notable artists such as Chesley Bonestell. These artists really tried to define the aesthetics of space, which even changed the way we would later color actual scientific images captured through different telescopes. Even now, if you look at NASA’s art programs, that’s still basically the main concept. Slowly it diverged into art in space, or art that uses space and environmental textures for creation, experimentation, and storytelling.

For me, Space Art conceptually connects more to Land Art in the seventies; the questions they were asking—regarding spatial-temporal dimensions and the way we engage with geological transformation—are more related. However, there is this jump in the Space Art medium from astronomical paintings right away to “art in space.” It is a gap in our understanding of Space Art; in my position as the Space Art curator at MIT, I have made sure to take into account Land Art, science fiction, and so on, in lectures.

XW: What questions do you want to ask with your Space Art?

XL: First of all, the duality in our perception of the world: being a human being walking, eating, sleeping, drinking, and laughing on this planet; and on the other hand, knowing that we exist on a gigantic rock spinning around another hot rock in endless space. The epistemological jump is exciting but also problematic when we distance one from the other. People talk about science versus culture as if they are the polar opposites. I’m trying to reconcile the two views of the world and find places to live in-between. My other interest has more to do with the body, our sensations, our death, and the cycles of life and materials.

XW: Your works have always struck me as poetic—you sent one of your wisdom teeth into space in Living Distance (2019), which was inspired by childhood folktales and executed with robust engineering. But the whole debate around the idea that culture and science are antithetical has a long history. Susan Sontag wrote about it in the sixties, for example; what are you seeing in terms of new manifestations of, and challenges to, that tension?

XL: The philosopher Yuk Hui has proposed the concept of cosmotechnics, which argues that science and technology aren’t objective but are born of human cultures. One of my current projects, Unearthing Futures, is a collaboration with the Peruvian artist Lucia Monge, the International Potato Center in Lima, and the International Space Station (ISS).2 We are interested in potato history as human history; native to Peru, the potato’s journey becoming one of the most widely grown crops in the world mirrors colonial history. As we set foot and grow crops beyond the earth bond, one option here is to engineer the perfect potato that survives all conditions, while the other is to trust the possibilities of biodiversity, where a consortium of diverse species that are mutually dependent yields a higher chance of survival in extreme environments. Both are questions of science and technology, but at the same time they reflect philosophies—ones about how we survive.

We selected six varieties of native Peruvian potatoes with different characteristics, sent the potato seeds to the ISS to spend a month in microgravity, and exposed them to environment stressors such as radiation. The project has not grown potatoes in space, but it’s a significant step to understanding how environmental stressors affect thesis seeds. Having harvested the first generation in our respective studios, we plan to grow multiple generations and increase the numbers that we can process. Maybe in the fourth or fifth generation we can cook them and use them in workshops that involve the general public (we are working with public elementary schools in Portland) to think about the possibilities of food and agriculture in space exploration. Space potatoes are the protagonists in our stories and would facilitate these dialogues.

XW: When we were reviewing proposals for Sojourner 2020, an open call for artworks to be sent into low earth orbit by the MIT Media Lab Space Exploration Initiative, there were equally visible tendencies to flatten the crossover between art and technology into very gimmicky projects. In your position as both curator and artist working in this increasingly hyped juncture of art and tech, what are some of your goals and challenges?

XL: With the dropping costs of space launches and privatization, we are entering the New Space Age. Space Art is truly at the frontier now (no pun intended). There are many amazing art practitioners I’ve been able to invite to MIT and imagine together what this practice can be. The artist Agnes Meyer-Brandis, for example, created The Moon Goose Colony, where she trained geese on planetary science and different flight patterns to prepare them for the Moon.3 She even incubated and hatched the eggs herself. In 42-The Large Meteor T-R-A-P (2014), she uses electronic magnetic devices to guide the movement of meteorites, which can be viewed as a planetary defense system. In fact, the first planetary defense systems launched by NASA (the Double Asteroid Redirection Test) this past year also had to do with devices latching onto the meteorites to change their course of movement. I really like projects that are ambitious, beautifully executed, and which explore scientific possibilities as well as artistic ones. Unapologetically inserting yourself into other domains is also something I’m passionate about.

XW: What are some examples of such insertions?

XL: I recently had a conversation with the researcher Weng Jia, who looked into the detailed history of weather satellites beyond the pragmatics of weather forecast—itself a form of weather control that generates state power. It’s important to understand that history, but at the same time we can ask, as cultural producers, what now? We can either involve public engagement and sign petitions to request open access, or we can learn from the hackers—there are so many amateur enthusiasts who eavesdrop on state-owned radio signals, and through listening we are able to understand so much already. During the pandemic, my partner Gershon Dublon and I have tinkered with software-defined radio. Using just a tiny, 20-dollar USB dongle with an antenna we built from our clothing wires, we could receive the signals from retired National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather satellites as they pass through the sky.

Even before the pandemic, my partner was looking into personal monitoring of air traffic, as most aircrafts have to broadcast their locations after reaching 18,000 ft. This was a fun plane-tracking activity at home. But later on we were put in touch with the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who were protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline encroaching their territories. They were being illegally harassed and even sprayed with unknown chemicals by aircraft flying over their encampment, but couldn’t track the perpetrators. We helped them set up the aforementioned system using a computer, a 20-dollar dongle, and electrical metal wires, with which they were actually able to “see,” ID, and track the aircraft. Using that data and US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, the water protectors were able to pursue their harassers and hold them accountable. Is it art practice? I think it’s important and exciting to examine the “wall”; there’s no wall that’s perfect—there are always cracks. You can find things between the breaks and slowly percolate, and, in a way, take back those powers—I found those processes most exciting.

XW: I think this is a powerful approach that counters the general pessimism towards big tech, technocratic states, and surveillance to the point that people don’t even want to think about the possibilities of cracks.

XL: But that’s a facade, and I don’t know who marvelously crafted it. A lot of these things, such as the radio, are not so complicated. Given a week and the internet, most people can figure it out; it’s not rocket science. You know who is most interested in amateur radio nowadays? The fifty-plus generation, sometimes grandpas. There is a big community in Staten Island in New York. However, in the arts, these systems and disciplines are rendered unfathomable, which prohibits further investigation. That’s the problem.

XW: When you were speaking about “the cracks in the wall” earlier, I had a very dark thought—in the future, planetary warfare will look drastically different and be much more deadly than the wars currently taking place on Earth.

XL: Future wars may not be quite so physical as we imagine—the virus is a powerful model for what could happen. It shows how fragile and resilient humans are; cyberattack, trade wars, geoengineering manipulation of nature—these are all struggles on different planetary scales, and we have to constantly self-educate as citizens and decode what the decision makers are actually saying.

XW: You received your undergraduate training at Tsinghua University, which is known for its rigorous focus on scientific training and as a place that has groomed many of China’s top technocratic leaders. It’s also considered the Chinese counterpart of MIT, where you completed a graduate program. How do those experiences compare and inform your trajectory?

XL: When I was in Tsinghua, I studied mathematics, physics, and mechanical engineering; my degree was in precision instruments. Nowadays I still practice them in my sculpture in its manufacturing and fabricating processes. It’s a craft. I later went to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), not because I wanted to be an artist, but out of a sad realization. In China, we separated art and science education since high school, and my liberal arts education was limited.

It was a selfish desire to study fine arts after college just to become a “complete” human being. I am very grateful that my parents didn’t disapprove this decision. At the time I told myself that I’d probably still end up working for Google and Microsoft; I had interned at both places during graduate school, thinking that’s how I would make a living eventually. But those two years were transformative and gave me an absolutely new way of looking at the world. Even graduating with an MFA from RISD, I still couldn’t commit a hundred percent to being a professional artist, as it is really difficult financially. I’m a practical immigrant. I had to figure out a way to stay in the country and feed myself. Then I went to MIT, because it was fully funded and I had the luxury to do research; after another two years in school, I decided that I wanted to work freely, and “artist” is the title that offers the most freedom.

XW: Do you still believe that?

XL: I do. If you tell people you are an artist, whatever you do doesn’t surprise them as much. It’s harder to talk about sending a tooth to space as a physicist.

XW: I’m struck by the way you describe gravity as a “momentum of feelings” on your website.

XL: That’s something I was thinking about when I first experienced weightlessness in 2017, during a parabolic flight. The plane literally free-falls in the sky, and in reference to the cabin, everything inside the plane is weightless. I had a bit of a performance background in dance. The experience was shocking: there was no “free from gravity”—gravity is always there. It was just everything falling together. The experience was less about me floating or flying than about the ground beneath me dropping. It’s not liberating in the way that you are accelerating and going up, which is what we associate with space exploration probably, but rather a kind of letting-go and descending. It was an eye-opening—body-opening—experience for me, and a bitter-sweet moment as well.

XW: Speaking of bodies and embodiment, do you find this excessive attention to—often performances of—an artist’s identity shows up more or less or differently for you, given the curious juncture of disciplines and identities you inhabit?

XL: It depends on who is seeing me. The tech aspect of me can seem alarming to people who are used to traditional practices, and in the so-called media/tech/science art world, gender might manifest more. The audience decides who I am. My name reads as gender-neutral in both English and Chinese. Sometimes people assume I’m a man initially, because I’m working with technology; but a bit more engagement with the work might compel one to realize that I could be a woman, because of the way I deal with technology. Still deeper into it, you might realize I’m Asian.

Another interesting aspect comes from the fact that I don’t just participate in art events; I also present my works at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), where it’s just pleasing to see my portrait—that of a young Asian woman—next to attendees that are largely from different demographics. And I enjoy that—inserting myself in different systems. It’s not just gender, but also geographic. I am an outlier in many ways—I went to a military-affiliated high school, so the instinct to fit in was strong growing up. But here, as people of color and women, we naturally stand out and have more identities. It could be tiring but it’s also our power—meaning that we can potentially empathize with more people. People like you and me—when we talk about America in a positive light in China or criticize the Chinese government, we are perceived as brainwashed by Western liberalism; but when we talk about Chinese companies like WeChat positively here, or the effective Covid-19 responses and technological innovations in China, we’d be considered brainwashed in the other direction too.

XW: I always feel that exposure to different systems of brainwash leads to utmost clarity. What do you think the future of space art will be, or what you hope it could be like?

XL: I think it will mature like digital art, bio art, internet art, AR/VR art—all these sub-domains. I read extensively on space policies, which obviously figure prominently on many nation states’ agendas. At the IAC conference in 2020, eight national space agencies just signed the Artemis Accords, which is an international agreement on the principles for corporations and civil explorations for the moon, Mars, comets, and asteroids. Particularly notable is the encouragement and protection for private entities to participate in the future of space exploration, and its effect on commercial activities will be significant; even the ISS is going through a commercialization process already. Space will become more commercial and privatized; it will engender more conversations and force us to be involved and investigate the industry.

XW: What’s your favorite Space Art piece?

XL: I was struck by Ilya Kabakov’s The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment (1985) when I first knew about it. I have been (and am still) confined in my apartment due to the pandemic. It is the absolute desire to break the ceiling and get out. Though both are heading towards outer space, the Soviet campaign in space exploration and a personal desire to leave, to be free, cannot be more different. In fact, one is defeating the other.

_____________________

Xin Liu (b. 1991, Xinjiang/China) is an artist and engineer. She is the Arts Curator in the Space Exploration Initiative in MIT Media Lab, a member of New INC in New Museum, and a studio resident in Queens Museum. She is also an artist-in-residence in SETI Institute and the recipient of numerous awards and residencies.

Xin Wang is a curator and art historian based in New York. She is currently planning an exhibition that explores Asian Futurisms for The Museum of Chinese in America, New York. While pursuing her PhD in art history at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, she’s also been conducting a series of public zoom webinars on topics of technology, new media, and Asian American perspectives for the Whitney Museum of American Art since spring 2020.

Source: https://www.art-agenda.com/features/372727/on-space-art

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discountautoglasspdx · 2 years ago

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Discount Auto Glass Repair

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militaryonline · 2 years ago

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To paint the town red

This game is similar to the original Scribblenauts. There are puzzles and riddles that you need to solve in order to get out. Escape RoomĮscape Room is a game where you are trying to escape from a room. Collect all the crayons before the timer runs out. Crayola ScootĬrayola Scoot is a game where you collect as many crayons as you can while avoiding obstacles. Create some items to solve different puzzles and get through the levels. In Scribblenauts, you can create any object you'd like and use it to solve puzzles. Here are some games with similar gameplay: 1. Martens, Technology of Paints, Varnishes, and Lacquers (1968).Paint The Town Red is a game where you play as a vigilante and try to clear out your city of drug dealers and maintain your reputation. Baked acrylic finishes have recently become popular for industrial products such as automobiles and appliances. Click the link for more information. in an organic solvent. Pyroxylin lacquers are made by dissolving pyroxylin in a mixture of volatile solvents and adding a plasticizer and a pigment or dye. It is used in lacquers, plastics, and artificial leathers. , partially nitrated cellulose (see nitrocellulose). The vehicle is commonly pyroxylin pyroxylin Industrial lacquers (widely used on automobiles and furniture) are valued for rapid drying to a hard finish. Click the link for more information. and usually dry to a hard, glossy finish. Homogeneous solution of gum or of natural or synthetic resins in oil (oil varnish) or in a volatile solvent (spirit varnish), which dries on exposure to air, forming a thin, hard, usually glossy film. Latex emulsion paint provides such excellent durability and color retention that it now dominates the paint market. For water paints, pigment is dissolved in a mixture of water with a binder such as glue or casein, or emulsified in a latex polymer. metallic salts that catalyze oxidation of the oil may be added to increase the rate of drying. It is made up of two principal components, an essential oil and a type of resin that is called rosin. Yellow to brown semifluid oleoresin exuded from the sapwood of pines, firs, and other conifers. These oils are diluted with a thinner, usually turpentine turpentine, Click the link for more information., castor oil, or tung oil. The raw oil extracted from the seeds by hydraulic pressure is pale in color and practically without taste or odor. Click the link for more information. such as linseed oil linseed oil,Īmber-colored, fatty oil extracted from the cotyledons and inner coats of the linseed. The common drying oils are cottonseed oil (see cotton), corn oil, soybean oil, tung oil, and linseed oil the first three oils mentioned are more properly called Oil paints are pigments dispersed in a drying oil drying oil,Īny of several natural oils which, when exposed to the air, oxidize to form a tough, elastic film. They may be manipulated to produce glossy, satin, or flat finishes. Pigments, finely ground, impart color (including black and white) and affect the consistency, crack resistance, and flow characteristics of paint. Industrial finishes are usually applied by spraying or immersion and are often hardened by baking. Paint is used to decorate or protect surfaces and is generally applied in thin coats which dry (by evaporation or by oxidation of the vehicle) to an adhesive film. Click the link for more information., portland cement paint, printing ink, calcimine, and whitewash. Quick-drying synthetic lacquers are used to coat automobiles, furniture, textiles, paper, and metalware. Solution of film-forming materials, natural or synthetic, usually applied as an ornamental or protective coating. Click the link for more information. and a binding medium, usually thinned with a solvent to form a liquid vehicle. In paint, the pigment is a powdered substance which, when mixed in the liquid vehicle, imparts color to a painted surface. Substance that imparts color to other materials.

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truptilisa · 3 years ago

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Offshore Oil & Gas Paint and Coatings: Demand, Size, Growth Opportunity

The offshore oil & gas paints and coatings market was valued at $378 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $620 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 7.3% from 2017 to 2023. The epoxy resin segment accounted for nearly two-fifths of the total market share in 2016.

Offshore oil & gas installations require coatings to withstand extreme weather conditions, saltwater abrasion, dissolved oxygen, ultraviolet exposure, mechanical impact from debris, and damage by marine life. Therefore, offshore paints and coatings possess characteristics to withstand the rigors of underwater cleaning.

Moreover, stationary vessels accumulate heavy fouling very quickly; therefore, thicker systems consisting of 12-20 mils of coal tar epoxy coatings are employed to protect the vessels. Moreover, organic, zinc-rich primers, higher build epoxies, coatings are applied on a base composed of either vinyl ester or polyester.

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At present, the global offshore oil & gas paints and coatings market is witnessing numerous opportunities, owing to rapid increase in the development of offshore oil & gas industry in Asia-Pacific and LAMEA. Organic zinc paints are heavily applied under a specific range of environmental conditions as they are less costly than zinc silicates coatings.

Moreover, epoxy intermediate coats possess a number of environmental benefits, such as lowering of volatile organic compounds (VOC), propelling the market growth. In addition, epoxy coats achieve the required thickness and retain film build around sharp edges, which boosts the market growth.

Furthermore, deployment of polysiloxane coatings on vessel surface makes the surface durable and resistant to abrasion, wear, and weathering, leading to market growth.

The epoxy resin segment accounted for two-fifths of the total share, in terms of volume, in 2016. Moreover, in accordance with rules framed by International Maritime Organization (IMO), epoxy resin-based coatings are used for vessel flooring applications, which improves the adhesion properties of marine paints, increasing the market demand.

However, rise in prices of raw material is expected to hamper the market growth.

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Key Findings of the Offshore Oil & Gas Paint And Coatings Market:

In terms of value, the epoxy resin is anticipated to show the highest growth rate of 6.6% during the analysis period.

LAMEA is anticipated to maintain its lead throughout 2023, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.3%, in terms of value.

The jackups installation segment occupied nearly half of the total market in 2016.

Asia-Pacific occupied nearly one-third of the total offshore oil & gas paints and coatings market in 2016.

In terms of value, polyurethane resin segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.2% from 2017 to 2023.

In 2016, LAMEA accounted for nearly two-fifths of the total offshore oil & gas paints and coatings market, and is expected to continue this trend due to availability of vast offshore petroleum resources, specifically in Brazil. However, increased dependence of this region on imports for many raw materials needed during paint production, e.g., resins and pigments, is expected to limit the market growth to some extent.

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laikaworld · 7 years ago

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The Stop-Motion Animation Studio With a Cult Following

Travis Knight, CEO of Laika, is breathing new life into an under appreciated art form

Travis Knight is sitting in the back of Laika Experience, an exhibition at Comic-Con in San Diego, next to an interior set from his film Kubo and the Two Strings, one of several film sets stationed around the room. Each setup looks effortless, but the reality of the hours and decisions that went into that tiny space is something only Knight and his team understand. In a way, you could say seeing the sets re-created is like returning to an alma mater campus. Memories. Sometimes too many. “I won’t say which one, but one shot on Kubo took two months to get the expression right,” says Knight, CEO and president of stop-motion animation studio Laika. “It’s ridiculous on some level.”

The first stop-motion film was made in 1898, but the technique was largely replaced by hand-drawn celluloid animation by the 1920s. Stop motion was deemed too time consuming: painstakingly animating clay or wooden puppets by hand, frame by frame, so that, played in succession, photographed frames mimic real action. “One of the things I wanted to do at Laika right from the start is take this medium that I’ve loved since I was a kid and bring it into a new era, dragging, kicking, screaming,” Knight says.

And guess what?! We get some new-ish info on film five!

“According to Knight, the fifth film (the name of which is still secret) is a major departure for the studio. For one, it has no characters who are children.”

Read the rest under the read-more below!

Knight, 44, grew up outside of Portland, Oregon, where he filled his time with illustration, music and the arts. He watched stop-motion animation flicks like Ray Harryhausen’s creature features and Rankin/Bass specials including the holiday staple Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. In 1998, shortly after Knight graduated from Portland State University, his father, multibillionaire Nike co-founder Phil Knight, invested $5 million for a minority stake in an animation studio led by Will Vinton, who co-directed Closed Mondays, the first stop-motion short to win an Oscar for best animated short film. Vinton, who had opened the animation studio in Portland in 1975, was in financial trouble and in need of an investor. The younger Knight, coming off of a failed attempt to launch a rap career in New York and still passionate about animation, started an internship.

‘I wanted to take this medium...and bring it into a new era.’

At Will Vinton Studios, Knight rose to production assistant and then animator on the Emmy Award–winning stop-motion show The PJs, which was created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore and Steve Tompkins. He quickly became one of the studio’s standout animators. But by 2003, Vinton was still struggling, so Phil bought the company—he has said he was partly motivated to own Will Vinton Studios because if it failed, his son would likely leave for a studio in Los Angeles. He had spent most of his sons’ childhood away from home, a reality that was especially difficult when his older son, Matthew, died in 2004 at 34. In 2005, Phil and Travis launched Laika and began developing their first feature.

What links Laika’s films—Coraline (2009), ParaNorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014) and Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)—is their depth and complexity. Ben Kingsley, who voiced the villain Archibald Snatcher in The Boxtrolls, explains that the movies “include a dark side many other people in [Knight’s] field might outlaw.” Coraline, adapted from the children’s gothic novel by Neil Gaiman, follows a blue-haired girl who slips away from her inattentive parents into a twisted dream world. Kubo, a story in which Knight says he channeled emotion from his own experiences, is about a boy who seeks his deceased father’s armor to protect him from his unfeeling specter grandfather and aunts. In both films, family members vie for control over the main characters’ sight and identity.

Gaiman met Travis years before he became CEO, when Gaiman and Henry Selick, director of the 1993 film The Nightmare Before Christmas, were already working on the screenplay for Coraline. Shortly after the film’s release in 2009, Travis was promoted to president and CEO. “It was terrific watching a relatively reclusive animator step up,” Gaiman says. Animators work mostly alone. Once a director has briefed them on a shot, they work solo with the puppets and sets. There are 24 frames in a single second of film, and each puppet is meticulously posed and made to stand, often with a rig that is later removed from the picture using CGI. An animator will finish around four seconds of film per week. If a character takes a couple of steps, it’s a good day.

After years spent tending to the micromovements of puppets, Travis grew into his role as CEO, then director, and has now branched out. This summer, he began filming his first live-action feature, Bumblebee, a Transformers prequel backed by Steven Spielberg. But his accomplishments with Laika are still his greatest achievement. Each of the studio’s four films has been produced with the same budget, about $60 million, a fraction of the cost of CGI projects from studios like Pixar and DreamWorks. If his father’s Nike empire was built on products for speed and momentum (“Just Do It”), Knight has dedicated his life to stopping motion, breathing life into pauses and stillness (just barely move it). Yet, working as a businessperson and artist, Knight often calls on his father for wisdom. “Personally, one of the most rewarding things has been how I’ve been able to understand and connect more deeply with my father,” he says.

All four of the studio’s films have been nominated for an Academy Award for animated feature film, and in 2016, the studio won a scientific and technical Oscar for its innovation in rapid prototyping, or 3-D printing, in animation. Each puppet is designed so that the facial expressions can be switched, with thousands of eyeless masks that can pop on and off the puppet’s steel armature. Although this technique, known as replacement animation, has been used for a century, Laika’s integration of modern technology has given its characters unprecedented depth. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, the moon-headed Jack Skellington wore 800 hand-sculpted faces. For Coraline, the title character had 6,333 printed and painted faces. Kubo had even more (23,187).

But despite all of Laika’s accolades, none of the films’ characters have been mass-marketed—meaning none have ever appeared on bedsheets or sippy cups. The studio launched its first Instagram page only a week before the exhibition at Comic-Con in July. “At some point you step back and realize we’re doing the company a disservice by not exploring these opportunities,” Knight says. In 2016, Laika hired Brad Wald as CFO (he had commercialized Downton Abbey for NBCUniversal in London). Knight wanted to expand the studio’s brand and produce a film each year, along with apparel, dolls and life-size foam figures. For the fifth Laika feature, which will wrap filming around March 2018 and will be released by 2019, the plans for merchandise are already underway.

According to Knight, the fifth film (the name of which is still secret) is a major departure for the studio. For one, it has no characters who are children. The collective vision of the films will be on full view at a Laika retrospective, Animating Life: The Art, Science, and Wonder of LAIKA, that will run at the Portland Art Museum beginning this month. When you see a tiny puppet with bits of human hair dipped in silicone and remember how they blew across the character’s face in a snow gust, you can’t help but marvel at the fact that each strand had to be lifted by hand to create that swirl. “The only life [a character] has on-screen is the life that the artists bring to it,” Knight says. “I just think that’s movie magic in its finest form.”

#laika #laika studios #animation #travis knight #news #laika film 5 #same here travis!#i put the whole story under a read-more #because you need to subscribe to the NYT to read it all i think?#queuebo and the two strings

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moviedailymotion · 4 years ago

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- Ein Geschenk von Bob - VOLLEDIG 2020 - M O V I E S [STREAMING ONLINE]

Ein Geschenk von Bob - VOLLEDIG 2020 - M O V I E S [STREAMING ONLINE]

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Our relationship is strained. It feels like it has been for a while. For the last four years, there has been an elephant in the room — I’d joke and call it an orange elephant, but I’m nervous that might end this earnest conversation before it even begins. Have I changed? I mean, yes, of course I have. I’ve gotten older. I’ve had two children. I’ve tried to read and learn as much as possible, just as you taught me. In fact, that’s sort of the weirdest thing. I don’t think I’ve changed much. I still believe, deep in my bones, all the fundamental things you not only talked to me about, but showed me when I was little. I believe in character. I believe in competence. I believe in treating people decently. I believe in moderation. I believe in a better future and I believe in American exceptionalism, the idea that the system we were given by the Founding Fathers, although imperfect, has been an incredible vehicle for progress, moral improvement, and greatness, unlike any other system of government or country yet conceived. I believe this exceptionalism comes with responsibilities. Politically, I’m pretty much the same, too. Government is best when limited, but it’s nonetheless necessary. Fair but low taxes grow the economy. Rights must be protected, privacy respected. Partisanship stops at the water’s edge. No law can make people virtuous — that obligation rests on every individual. So how is it even possible that we’re here? Unable to travel, banned from entry by countless nations. The laughingstock of the developed world for our woeful response to a pandemic. 200,000 dead. It hasn’t been safe to see you guys or grandma for months, despite being just a plane ride away. My children — your grandchildren — are deprived of their friends and school. Meanwhile, the U.S., which was built on immigration — grandma being one who fled the ravages of war in Europe for a better life here — is now a bastion of anti-immigrant hysteria. Our relatives on your side fought for the Union in the Civil War. Great-grandpa fought against the Russians in WWI, and granddad landed at Normandy to stop the rise of fascism. And now people are marching with tiki-torches shouting, “the Jews will not replace us.” What is happening?! Black men are shot down in the streets? Foreign nations are offering bounties on American soldiers? And the President of the United States defends, rationalizes, or does nothing to stop this? I’d say that’s insane, but I’m too heartbroken. Because every step of the way, I’ve heard you defend, rationalize, or enable him and the politicians around him. Not since I was a kid have I craved to hear your strong voice more, to hear you say anything reassuring, inspiring, morally cogent. If not for me, then for the world that will be left to your grandchildren. This does not feel like a good road we are going down… Look, I know you’re not to blame for this. You hold no position of power besides the one we all have as voters, but I guess I just always thought you believed in the lessons you taught me, and the things we used to listen to on talk radio on our drives home from the lake. All those conversations about American dignity, the power of private enterprise, the sacredness of the Oval Office, the primacy of the rule of law. Now Donald Trump gushes over foreign strongmen. He cheats on his wife with porn stars (and bribes them with illegal campaign funds). He attacks whistleblowers (career army officers, that is). He lies blatantly and habitually, about both the smallest and largest of things. He enriches himself, his family members, and his business with expenditures straight from the public treasury. And that’s just the stuff we know about. God knows what else has happened these last four years that executive privilege has allowed him to obscure from public view. I still think about the joke you made when we walked past Trump Tower in New York when I was kid. Tacky, you said. A reality show fool. Now that fool has his finger on the nuclear button — which I think he thinks is an actual button — and I can’t understand why you’re OK with this. I mean, the guy can’t even spell! You demanded better of me in the papers I turned in when I was in middle school. I know you don’t like any of it. If you’d have had your choice, any other Republican would have been elected but Trump. You’re not an extremist, and you’ve never once said anything as repulsive as what people now seem comfortable saying on TV and social media (and in emails to your son, I might add). Four years ago, I wrote to you to ask you not to vote for Donald Trump. But this time around, that’s no longer enough. At some point, just finding it all unpleasant and shaking your head at the tweets, while saying or doing nothing more about it, is moral complicity. You told me that as a kid! That the bad prevail when good people do nothing. A while back I emailed a friend of mine who is an advisor to the administration. I said to him, why do you think my dad’s support of Trump bothers me so much more than yours? Because it does. This is someone who helped put Trump in office and wants to keep him there, but we’re still friends. Talking to him doesn’t hurt my heart the way it does when politics come up over family meals. The man’s answer was telling, and I am quoting. He said, “Because I am irredeemable, but your dad ought to know better.” Does that register with you at all? One of the things you taught me well was how to spot a scam. Double check everything, you said. Do your research. Look at what the people around them say. Look at their history. Remember when you used to quote Reagan’s line to me, “Trust, but verify”? I’ve been lucky enough to make a few trips to Washington the last few years. I’ve sat across from Senators and Congressmen. I’ve talked to generals who have briefed the president, and business leaders who worked with him before the election. This is a guy who doesn’t read, they said, a guy with the attention span of a child. Everybody avoided doing business with him. Because he didn’t listen, because he stiffed people on bills, because he was clueless. He treated women horribly. He’s awful, they said. I thought this was a particularly damning line: If Donald Trump were even half-competent, one elected official told me, he could probably rule this country for 20 years. I have trouble figuring what’s worse — that he wants to, or that he wants to but isn’t competent enough to pull it off. Instead, Washington is so broken and so filled with cowards that Trump just spent the last four years breaking stuff and embarrassing himself. I learned from you how to recognize a dangerous or unreliable person. If you don’t trust the news, could you trust what I’m bringing you, right from the source? Let’s trust our gut, not our political sensibility. Based on what I’ve told you, and what you’ve seen: Would you let him manage your money? Would you want your wife or daughter to work for him without supervision? I’m not even sure I would stay in one of his hotels, after what I’ve read. Watching the RNC a few weeks ago, I wondered what planet I was on. What’s with all the yelling? How is this happening on the White House lawn? Why are his loser kids on the bill? His kid’s girlfriend??? And what is this picture of America they are painting? They are the ones in charge! Yet they choose to campaign against the dystopian nightmare that is 2020… which is to say, they are campaigning against themselves. Look, I agree there is crazy stuff happening in the world. The civil unrest is palpable, violence is on the rise, and Americans have never been so openly divided. Sure, rioting and looting are bad. But who is to blame for all the chaos? The President. Remember what you told me about the sign on Truman’s desk? The buck stops here. (May we contrast that with: “I don’t take responsibility at all.”) In any case, what some crazy people in Portland are doing is not ours to repeatedly disavow. What the president does? The citizens are complicit in that. Especially if we endorse it at the ballot box come November 3rd. Besides, what credibility do we have to insist on the ‘rule of law’ when eight of the president’s associates have faced criminal charges? His former lawyer went to jail, too! And then the president commutes their sentences, dangles pardons to keep them quiet, or tries to prevent them from cooperating with authorities? When he’s fined millions of dollars for illegally using his charity as a slush fund? When he cheats on his taxes? When he helped his parents avoid taxes, too? I remember you once told me the story of a police officer in your department who was caught filling up his personal car with gas paid for by the city. The problem, you said, wasn’t just the mistake. It was that when he was confronted by it, he lied. But the cameras showed the proof and so he was fired, for being untrustworthy most of all. Would you fire Trump if he worked for you? What kind of culture do you think your work would have had if the boss acted like Trump? As for the lying, that’s the craziest part, because we can, as the kids say, check the receipts: Was it bad enough to call John McCain a loser? Yes, but then, of course, Trump lied and claimed he didn’t. Bad enough to cheat on his wife? Yes, but of course, he lied about it, and committed crimes covering it up (which he also lied about). Was it bad enough to solicit help from Russia and Wikileaks in the election? Yes, but then he, his son, and his campaign have lied about it so many times, in so many forums, that some of them went to jail over it. Was it stupid that, in February, Trump was tweeting about how Covid-29 was like the flu and that we didn’t need to worry? Yes, but it takes on a different color when you listen to him tell Bob Woodward that in January he knew how bad it was, how much worse it was than even the worst flu, and that he was deliberately going to downplay the virus for political purposes. I’m sure we could quibble over some, but The Fact Checker database currently tallys over 20,000 lies since he took office. Even if we cut it in half, that’s insane! It’s impossible to deny: Trump lied, and Americans have died because of it. A friend of mine had a one-on-one dinner with Trump at the White House a while back. It was actually amazing, he said. Half the evening was spent telling lies about the size of his inaugural address. This was in private — not even for public relations purposes, and years after the controversy had died down. That’s when he realized: The lying is pathological. It can’t be helped. Which is to say, it makes a person unfit to lead. Politics should not come before family. I don’t want you to think this affects how I feel about you. But it does make it harder for us to spend time together — not just literally so, since Trump’s bumbling response to the pandemic has crippled America and made travel difficult. It’s that I feel grief. I feel real grief — were the lessons you taught me as a kid not true? Did you not mean them? Was it self-serving stuff to make sure I behaved? Was I a fool for listening? Or is it worse, that my own father cares more about his retirement accounts — and I’ll grant, the runup of the market has been nice for me, too — than the future he is leaving for his children? Are you so afraid of change, of that liberal boogeyman Limbaugh and Hannity and these other folks have concocted, that you’d rather entrust the country to a degenerate carnival barker than anyone else? I see all this anger, what is it that you’re so angry about? You’ve won. Society has worked for you. My own success is proof. So what is it? Because it can’t possibly be that you think this guy is trustworthy, decent, or kind. It’s definitely not about his policies… because almost every single one is anathema to what Republicans — and you — have talked about my entire life. The one thing I hold onto is hope. I believe in America. I believe in the goodness of hardworking people like you and Mom. I know that this is not what you wanted to happen, that this is not the America you grew up in nor the one you would like for me and my kids to grow up in. I hold onto hope that you’re tired enough to draw the line. That you are not irredeemable as that Trump advisor allowed himself to become. The right thing is always the right thing, you’ve said. Even when it’s hard. Even when it goes against what your friends think, or what you’ve done in the past. The right thing is obviously to end this. To cancel this horrendous experiment with its cavalcade of daily horrors and vulgarities and stupidities and historical humiliations. America is a great nation. …

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koljabartsaderawegf · 4 years ago

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anarchistnewsdaily · 7 years ago

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News Highlights: January 22 2018 - January 28 2018

In case you didn’t see, hear, or do it yourself these are some events that took place or were reported during the last week.

Smashy

Santiago, Chile: Incendiary Attack Against the Mother of Divine Providence Parish During the Visit of the Pope

“Anonymous attackers managed to break the padlock of the perimeter fence of the religious temple, then set the Vatican and Chilean flags on fire at the the feet of a sculpture of the Virgin, as well as throwing incendiary devices at the doors of the Parish. The fire began to spread both at the door and inside the Parish before being discovered by priests and security guards who extinguished it. At the scene they would have found anarchist leaflets which were not mentioned by the media, but would have contained slogans against religion and the Pope’s visit to Chile.“

Report Back from the Eagles Riots: A Chance for Solidarity, but More Importantly, a Chance for Joy | anarchistnews.org

“On January 21st, we took the opportunity to take part in the temporary autonomous spaces created by the post victory fervor of thousands of football fans. Realizing that the soon to be victory of the Eagles was an ample time for us to strike back against the domination of civilization, the police, and the prison walls built by our own deteriorating mental, we met up with friends outside of Lincoln Financial field with the intention of freeing ourselves, albeit temporarily. We joined up with fellow members of the continuous class war in their celebration, singing, chanting, lighting fires, and using this opportunity to attack ATMs and throw a little bit of art on the dismal walls of south Philadelphia. We moved down broad street with a roving party that the Philly PD just couldn’t seem to shut down.“

Earth Liberation

FERC Grants Request to Begin Tree Cutting for Atlantic Coast Pipeline | Earth First! Newswire

“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has granted a request by the Dominion Energy-led Atlantic Coast Pipeline to begin cutting down trees along parts of the 600-mile pipeline route in West Virginia and Virginia, despite the fact that the project still lacks some regulatory approvals.“

Menominee Tribe Files Lawsuit Over Back Forty Mine Clean Water Act Wetlands Permit | Earth First! Newswire

“Today the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Tribe asserts that the agencies have failed to take primary responsibility for a wetland permit that is key to the future of the controversial Back Forty Mine proposal.“

Protesters March Against Snowbowl, Snowmaking

“Just the day before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a vehement group against the expansion of Arizona Snowbowl and snowmaking on Dook’o’ooslííd, marched across downtown Flagstaff, urging the city council to end the city’s contract with the ski resort.“

Estonia: Logging Threatens Endangered Species, Sacred Sites | Earth First! Newswire

“Thousands of ancient sites are at risk of logging because the government will not pay to have them mapped, according to Tiit Kaasik, board member of the country’s Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Estonia’s FSC is prepared to recommend to international headquarters that auditor Nepcon be stripped of its certification rights, he told Climate Home News, if pagan traditions are not respected.“

Hambacher Forest, Germany: Barricade-eviction, and the ‘Hambi 9’ « Contra Info

“9 activists in pre-trial detention, after being arrested during a barricade-eviction in the occupied Hambach Forest, Germany. The activists are accused of ‘obstructing the work of police officers’, during the barricade eviction on Monday the 22. of January. Arriving early in the morning, the cops were met with activists occupying blockading-infrastructure, including 2 tripods, 3 monopods, a skypod, and a 3 meter deep tunnel. The cutting of the Hambacher Forest was officially stopped early this season, on a court-decision, postponing cutting until October 1st 2018, however the risk of eviction of the occupation is as great as ever.

Canada: Kwakwaka'wakw Leaders Hand Eviction Notice to B.C. Fish Farm | Earth First! Newswire

“Setting out from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, members of at least six B.C. First Nations took to the sea Monday to deliver an eviction notice to a fish farm operated by Marine Harvest: one of Canada’s largest producers of farmed Atlantic salmon.”

South Dakota: Oglala Lakota People Denounce State's Approval of Gold Mining | Earth First! Newswire

“At a hearing on Jan. 18, Oglala Lakota tribal members and others took issue with state officials for approving a permit transfer that moves Canadian prospectors one step closer to their goal of large-scale Black Hills gold mining.”

Animal Liberation

First Wolf in a Hundred Years Recorded in Belgium | Earth First! Newswire

“The first recorded wolf on Belgian soil for at least 100 years has made her bloody mark. Farmers in north-east Flanders have been put on high alert after evidence emerged that Naya, a female originally from eastern Germany that has been making a pioneering trek across Europe, had killed two sheep and injured a third near the Belgian town of Meerhout.“

Mutual Aid

San Diego, CA: Report on Autonomous Activity Over Last Week - It's Going Down

“Food Not Bombs of San Diego/Drop the Ban held one of several actions defying El Cajon’s new law against feeding houseless people in public on MLK Day. Earlier in the day, reportedly a blue lives matter flag was captured from a local business in an increasingly gentrified, hip part of town, and the words “I CAN’T BREATHE,” were seen painted onto the side of the building.“

“Meanwhile, signs have been put up in all of the popular panhandling spots with the words “DON’T SUPPORT PAN HANDLING. CONTRIBUTE TO THE SOLUTION…” Suggesting people donate to other services online instead. These signs are promptly being vandalized. Lastly, on January 20th, in solidarity with the J20 defendants and increasing border struggles a very large banner was dropped over the busy I-15. The banner read: “WE ARE STILL HERE DROP J20 SMASH THE WALL!” A bold three arrows on one side and a circle A on the other.“

Banner Drop

Minneapolis, MN: Banner Drop in Solidarity with #J20 - It's Going Down

“Solidarity from comrades in the Twin Cities IWW/GDC! The banner reads: Drop The Charges #Defendj20!“

Chicago: Solidarity with #J20 Defendees Coordinated Banner Drop - It's Going Down

“On the one year anniversary of the J20, partisans in Chicago coordinated a series of banner drops in support of the 59 remaining arrestees. We will continue to organize and fight with our comrades until each and every one of them is free from the state’s repression.“

Narrm / Melbourne, So-Called Australia: Banner Action for Invasion Day 2018

“Banner drop. West Gate freeway. Melbourne. Solidarity with our Indigenous brothers and sisters.”

Narrm / Melbourne, So-Called Australia: Banner & Poster Action for #7DaysOfResistance

“Anti-colonial poster & banner action for #7DaysOfResistance on occupied territory of the Boon Wurrung, Kulin Nations. South Eastern suburbs of so-called-Melbourne, ‘Australia‘.

Banners (L-R): Australia Is A Crime Scene, Stop The Genocide, Abolish Aus Day

Posters: Sovereignty Never Ceded! No Pride In Genocide, Queers Against Colonialism

Abolish Australia Day, Solidarity with the Aboriginal Resistance, Burn the Butcher’s Rag.”

Armidale, NSW, So-Called Australia: Banner Drops for Invasion Day 2018

“In the early hours of January 26th, 2018, banners were hung around so-called Armidale, NSW, with one facing out onto the parklands where Australia Day Festivities would be held later that day, reading “NO PRIDE IN GENOCIDE – JAN 26 = INVASION DAY”. This action was taken by non-Indigenous people as a minimal act of solidarity with the ongoing struggles of First Nations peoples.”

Infiltration

An Anarchist Survey of Amazon: Day Two | anarchistnews.org

“Security was very lose and we entered without issue or incident. This laxness was due in large part to the fact that Jeff Bezos was not going to be there. Our first observation was that the majority of Amazon employees in Seattle are between the ages of 25 and 35, many of whom wore Romanesque laurels around their heads. The only major exceptions were immigrant tech employees on H1B visas who were mostly in their 40s and early 50s. Our first stop was the silent dancing area where two hundred employees danced to music over specialty headphones provided for the occasion. It was eerily reminiscent of the celibate loner cult depicted in the film The Lobster who danced silently to their headphones in the middle of a forest. “

Union Activity

Portland, OR: Burgerville Workers Union Pickets and Expands Into More Stores - It's Going Down

“Our first picket of the year kicked off 2018 right: faced with yet another strong picket, Burgerville CLOSED THE STORE for the duration of the action for a suspicious “maintenance inspection.” This is the power of workers and the community coming together to show that we can and will continue to shut union-busters down!“

Antifa

Neo-Nazi Virginia Tech Employee Mark Neuhoff Continues Online Rants Against African-Americans and Jews - It's Going Down

“This following report from New River Against Fascism, details the ongoing exploits of Graduate Assistant Mark Neuhoff, a current employee of Virginia Tech University.”

We Don't Forget J20: Action Report Back from the Greater Seattle IWW General Defense Committee - It's Going Down

“local musicians performed and the DJ blasted songs throughout the square. Not much later began a rousing march through the campus and down the University Avenue main thoroughfare.“

J20 Solidarity Demonstration in Grand Rapids, MI - It's Going Down

“On January 20, about 30 people held an event in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan in solidarity with the remaining J20 defendants. There was a short rally with speakers about the J20 case, ongoing struggles, and the importance of fighting back. Following the speakers, the crowd burned an American flag and a Trump banner before setting off on a march through the center of the city. There were numerous people masked up, anarchist flags were flying, and anti-fascist chants were plentiful.“

Berkeley, CA: Antifa Patrol Turns Up Zero Alt-Right Posters - It's Going Down

“Along the way, we were able to put several anti-fascist stickers up on campus and the surrounding area. So in the end, what was to be a 4chan propaganda night ended up becoming yet another opportunity to make it known that Berkeley is an antifa zone!“

Albany, NY: Anarchists & Radicals Stand in Solidarity with J20 Defendants at Benefit - It's Going Down

“The Albany anarchist and radical community came out en mass to celebrate and support J20 defendants at a benefit show thrown at community education space The Albany Free School in the city’s Mansion District. The event put on by “friendly neighborhood anarchists,” featured over a dozen bands from around the capital region, vegan pizza sourced and catered by Albany Food Not Bombs, and a raffle with anarchist themed prizes donated by groups such as It’s Going Down and AK Press.”

Phoenix, AZ: #MyBordersMyChoice Neo-Nazi Propaganda Efforts Foiled by Antifascists - It's Going Down

“Around 50 fliers were found in total, a large increase in prior instances, and it was determined that at least two people were involved, with the comparison of fliers, and techniques used to post them. After we were confident that we had rounded up the significant majority of fascist materials, we moved to a nearby park and disposed of them by fire.“

Stand With Tariq Khan As Alt-Right Outrage Machine Inspires Death Threats - It's Going Down

“It is questionable whether Khan and his partner will be able to continue their studies uninterrupted, putting their dreams on hold until racists can stop making harassment their pet cause. This is disgusting, and it is not something we are going to stand by and just let happen. Khan is a respected academic and scholar, a celebrated educator, a committed student, and an amazing father and husband. We will not allow college campuses to be the killing fields for Alt Right terror, and we stand with Khan and anyone else who has been victimized by this kind of threat.”

Knoxville, TN: Neo-Nazis outnumbered 700 to 1 at Knoxville Women’s March - It's Going Down

“Less than two hours after they arrived at their barricaded protest area, the Traditionalist Worker Party members were escorted back to their vehicles in a nearby parking garage by several police officers in riot gear. A crowd of antifa and anti-racist activists followed them, shouting, “Go home Nazi.”

Outreach

Kolkata, India: International Anarchist Solidarity Action with Villawood Hunger Strikers

“Our solidarity action involved displaying a banner, reading; “Solidarity with Villawood Hunger Strikers! Burn down the concentration camps! Boycott Australian Tourism, End Exploitation of South Asian Students!”. We also distributed 200 plus flyers to passers-by and students attending the Indian State sponsored Australian Education Fair,”

Repression

#NoDAPL Water Protector 'Rattler' Takes Non-Cooperating Plea - UNICORN RIOT

“The Water Protector Legal Collectiveannounced that attorneys for water protector Michael Markus, known as Rattler, had reached a non-cooperating plea agreement with federal prosecutors. In the deal, Rattler agreed to plead guilty to one charge of Civil Disorder in exchange for a recommended prison sentence of three years. He had been scheduled to go to trial on two charges of Civil Disorder and Use of Fire to Commit a Federal Felony Offense, which carried a minimum sentence of ten years in prison and a possible sentence of up to fifteen years.“

Chile: Prison Officer Michelle Barahona, Responsible for the Harassment & Mistreatment of Anarchist Comrade Tamara Sol (Eng/Esp)

“Tamara Sol has been punished in a severe and inhuman manner. The last incident was provoked when two common prisoners, instructed by the gendarmarie, threatened Tamara and she defended herself. Tamara and two comrades who came to her aid, were brutally beaten, locked in ‘La Jaula’ (punishment cell) and shackled, with their hands and feet bound.“

Third Black Cville Resident Arrested in Wake of 'Unite the Right' - It's Going Down

“Mr. Blakney is the third counter-protester to be arrested and charged arising out of the events in Charlottesville on August 12, 2017. Corey Long and DeAndre Harris are both also facing criminal charges. All three are Black men and local residents who were attacked that day.“

Italy – The Italian government’s politics in Libya |

“With the shameless pretext of the ‘struggle against human traffickers’, the Italian State is lavishly financing war lords, guards and militias (those clumsily defined as the ‘Libyan government’) for the control and mass internment of the poor in flight. Patrols and refusal of entry along the Mediterranean coast, the detention of about six hundred thousand people in the Libyan concentration camps, the erection of a wall in the desert along theborders with Niger, Chad and Mali.“

The Heat is On: Update on Week 1 of #OperationPUSH - It's Going Down

“Prison organizers who correspond with these groups are being targeted for having their “security threat level” increased–a practice that translates into greater isolation and harsher conditions of confinement. One prisoner was told point blank, “As long as you communicate with these people you’re always going to be labelled a security threat and you’re always going to be put under investigation. ”Communication has been curtailed so severely that it’s hard to know how much of an economic impact the strike has had so far; we do know that in some cases scab labor has been brought in to keep facilities running.“

BREAKING: Rashid Johnson Tortured by Florida DOC - It's Going Down

“Kevin “Rashid” Johnson is being tortured at the Florida State Prison according to an “emergency note” Rashid’s lawyers received from him yesterday dated 1/19. It is suspected the torture began sometime between 1/12 and 1/19 since there was no mention of it in his 1/12 communication. No other details are available at this time but we will post updates here once we have them. This comes immediately after news that Rashid faces an “inciting a riot” charge for merely reporting on #OperationPUSH. You can read Rashid’s original reporting on Operation PUSH and the conditions in Florida prisons on IWOC’s site here. Rashid is the Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party (Prison Chapter) and a prolific organizer, author, and artist.

Albany, NY: Support for Dawedo from Capital Region Anti-Repression Committee - It's Going Down

“Here in Albany, a community member is being targeted by ICE. Dawedo Sanon was taken and is being held in an immigration facility in Buffalo, NY. She is facing court dates, and her family is navigating how to keep her home. They’re raising funds to get her out of the facility. Her family has set up a fundraiser, which you can donate to here.“

Kurdish Fighters Defend Afrin From Turkish Military Invasion in Northern Syria - UNICORN RIOT

“Turkish Armed Forces launched “Operation Olive Branch” which amounted to a full-scale military invasion of northwestern Kurdish-controlled Syria. The Turkish Armed Forces rank second to the United States, as the largest military force within the NATO alliance. In the last few days, the Turkish military along with an estimated 25,000 Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels, have fired extensive artillery barrages into multiple villages near Afrin, dropped hundreds of bombs with F-16’s, and driven ground forces into Syria that include armored tank brigades and heavy infantry.”

“On January 17th, 2018, our compañera and community member of Cherán, Guadalupe Companur, was found dead in the area known as Irapio, in the Municipality of Chilchota, Michoacán. We want to clarify that her assassination did not occur inside the community, nor in the territory of Cherán. In spite of the measures of community security we have developed in our community, the region continues suffering from problems of insecurity and violence.“

Arrests and Injuries as Mexicali Resiste Defends Blockade Against Police Attack - It's Going Down

“For more than one year, residents of Mexicali have been organizing against the construction of a brewery and aqueduct by the U.S. company Constellation Brands. If completed, the facility would produce beer for export to the U.S. and consume seven to thirty million cubic meters of water annually. (A city of one million uses around 20 million cubic meters.) Earlier this month, members of Mexicali Resiste began blockading aqueduct construction. On January 16, state and local police forces attacked the blockade and an hours-long confrontation ensued. While the blockade was successfully defended, at least five were arrested and ten injured. Below is a translation of the statement released later that day by Mexicali Resiste.“

Italy – Updates on the deported Sardinian anarchist prisoner Davide Delogu |

“From a telegram we received on 15/01/2018 we learn that the censorship office has been accumulating books sent in over 8 months, which they are not giving him. He has only received two bulletins. He sends hugs to all comrades who unconditionally struggle with dignity on both sides of the walls.“

Senate Approves Extended Surveillance Powers For Trump - UNICORN RIOT

“The US Senate voted to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA – the legal underpinning for global mass surveillance carried out by the National Security Agency (NSA). The Senate passed the bill last Thursday after the US House of Representatives approved the same legislation a week earlier on January 11. President Trump signed the bill into law on Friday, January 19. The bill would extend unaccountable surveillance authorities for another seven years, at which point FISA will again be up for congressional reauthorization.“

Humanitarian Arrested After Group Releases Report Implicating US Border Patrol - UNICORN RIOT

“Hours after the release of a report titled ‘Interference with Humanitarian Aid: Death and Disappearance on the US-Mexico Border‘, which exposes the US Border Patrol’s efforts to destroy water, food, and blankets left by humanitarian aid workers, agents arrested an aid provider and two others receiving aid near Ajo, Arizona on January 17, 2018.

The aid provider arrested by Border Patrol was Scott Warren, who since 2013 has been working with the organization No More Deaths to provide “direct humanitarian aid in an effort to end death and suffering along the US-Mexico border.”

Judge Accepts Red Fawn Fallis Plea Agreement - UNICORN RIOT

“Red Fawn Fallis’s plea agreement was accepted by North Dakota Chief Judge Hovland. The agreement, made between her defense team and federal prosecutors, dropped the most serious charge of “discharge of a firearm in relation to a felony crime of violence.” Fallis pled guilty to the remaining charges of ‘Civil Disorder and ‘Possession of a Firearm and Ammunition by a Convicted Felon.’ Red Fawn Fallis is expected to have a sentencing hearing sometime in May.”

Social Center Burned Down by Nazis & Nationalists in Thessaloniki, Greece - UNICORN RIOT

“Using the cover of a large nationalist rally over Macedonia naming rights, Nazis and nationalists attacked two social centers (burning one to the ground), vandalized a Holocaust Memorial and tore down a sign promoting religious tolerance. Although dozens of police were present, no arrests were reported in either of the attacks on the social centers, ‘The School’ and ‘Libertatia Squat’.“

Water Supply at the Ramsey Unit, Texas, May be Contaminated Like the Rest of the State - It's Going Down

“Jason Renard Walker is Deputy Minister of Labor for the New Afrikan Black Panther Party and one of the contributors to the Fire Inside zine. He writes here about possible water contamination in Texas prisons, as it has been revealed that across Texas, many people are drinking water polluted with radium.“

Cops, Cameras, and Condos: Bloomington Is Getting Worse - It's Going Down

“Bloomington is not an unaffordable, tightly-packed, constantly-surveilled dystopia yet. There are more condos, cameras, and cops now than in the recent past, and there will be even more of all three in the future. This piece is not meant to produce a feeling of hopelessness, but rather point out to those who are threatened by these new developments how the situation here is changing, so we can adapt. The forces of order are still not omnipotent, not even close.”

Cambodia: Environmental Activists Jailed For Photographing Boat | Earth First! Newswire

“Dem and Hun were arrested on September 12, 2017 while at sea after filming boats suspected of being involved in the transportation of illegally dredged silica sand. The two environmental activists have been held in pre-trial detention since their arrest.”

Class War Scotland member on trial for displaying a poster on his window | anarchistnews.org

”Eventually David was arrested for ’threatening or abusive behaviour’ under Section 38, The Criminal Justice and Licencing (Scotland) Act 2012 and for ‘failure to give details as a witness’ under the Court Section 13–14, The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995. However, initially David wasn’t even charged: instead, he was taken to the police station, where he was made to wait for 9 hours, and was subjected to anal cavity search. David is a member of Class War Scotland. He says that ‘It was done to humiliate me, because they were obviously aware of my political standing which is anarchist’. David’s trial took place mid- January at Glasgow Sheriff Court and the case has been adjourned till June. “

Rest In Power

Ursula K. Le Guin, Acclaimed for Her Fantasy Fiction, Is Dead at 88

“Ursula K. Le Guin, the immensely popular author who brought literary depth and a tough-minded feminine sensibility to science fiction and fantasy with books like “The Left Hand of Darkness” and the Earthsea series, died on Monday at her home in Portland, Ore. She was 88.“

For further news check out: Anarchist News Daily

For anarchist podcasts, lectures, and audiobooks check out: F Yeah Anarchist Audio

For anarchist videos check out: F Yeah Anarchist Video

Current news sites include: itsgoingdown.org insurrectionnewsworldwide.com earthfirstjournal.org unicornriot.ninja anarchistnews.org contrainfo.espiv.net actforfree.nostate.net

#anarchism #news #january 2018 #highlights #h

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alexander-reformed-blog · 5 years ago

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9 Signs You Sell concrete betekenis for a Living

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rogueofcreations · 5 years ago

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The 3 Biggest Disasters In Concrete Walkways Mn History

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inferrance · 5 years ago

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15 Surprising Stats About concrete sealer

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sciencespies · 5 years ago

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Twelve Anniversaries and Events Worth Traveling for in 2020

https://sciencespies.com/history/twelve-anniversaries-and-events-worth-traveling-for-in-2020/

Twelve Anniversaries and Events Worth Traveling for in 2020

SMITHSONIANMAG.COM | Jan. 24, 2020, 1:50 p.m.

What better way to kick off a new decade than by planning a trip? If you’re hoping to fill the next ten years by seeing new sights, learning about other cultures, taking in history or relaxing on an endless white-sand beach, Smithsonian magazine has curated a list of destinations worth considering for 2020. Some will host once-in-a-lifetime athletic competitions (Tokyo and the Summer Olympics), others boast world-class art exhibitions (Rome and New York City) and still others allow visitors to experience wonders of the natural world (El Morro, New Mexico, or Ilha Grande and Paraty, Brazil). Read on, and happy traveling.

Japan’s new 68,000-seat National Stadium, designed by the architect Kengo Kuma.

(Arne Müseler via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 3.0 DE)

In 1964, Tokyo became the first city in Asia to host the Olympics, and this summer, the Japanese capital will serve as the summer Games’ venue once again. With the 2020 Olympics (July 24-August 9, followed by the Paralympics August 25-September 6) comes a brand-new, $1.43-billion main stadium built with timber from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures as well as five new sporting events: skateboarding, baseball and softball, surfing, sports climbing (think lightning-quick, spider-like wall-scaling—here’s a video) and karate.

Even without a coveted Olympics ticket—the Wall Street Journal recently forecasted that a Tokyo seat “looks like the toughest Olympic ticket ever”—Japan’s biggest metropolis has plenty to offer tourists: the bustle of Harajuku shopping district, the crowded-but-orderly Shibuya Crossing, conveyer-belt sushi restaurants, the traditional izakayas that line “Piss Alley,” a fashion exhibit at the National Art Center, views from 2,000 feet up in the Tokyo Skytree and the animated film company Studio Ghibli’s headquarters. 2020 also marks the centennial of Meiji Jingu, a mid-city oasis (volunteers planted 100,000 donated trees that have grown towering in the intervening century) and active Shinto shrine dedicated to a former imperial couple. Meiji-Tenno-Sai, the memorial day of Emperor Meiji, falls on July 30, during the Olympics; the 19th- and 20th-century monarch will be commemorated in a Shinto ceremony, and the affiliated Treasure Museum will waive its usual entry fee. In November, the three-day autumn festival at Meiji Jingu takes place. Expect to see traditional Noh theater, sumo, horseback archery and more.

Tokyo’s first time hosting the Olympics was intended to be 1940, but World War II disrupted those plans, and it’s that global conflict that led to another anniversary this year: 75 years have passed since the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The first (and only) use of nuclear weapons in war, the attacks killed an estimated 275,000 people. This devastating event for Japan is commemorated at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, where a permanent exhibit lays out the belongings of many who died in the strike. The memorial itself—known as the Genbaku Dome—has been preserved exactly as the one-time exhibition hall looked in the immediate aftermath of the bombing. In the port city of Nagasaki, feel the weight of this history at the Atomic Bomb Museum and nearby memorial, the Peace Park and the Atomic Bomb Hypocenter Park, where a lone column pinpoints the spot above which the bomb burst. Both cities are accessible by a combination of shinkansen—bullet trains that debuted for the 1964 Olympics—and express trains.

(Corey Templeton via Flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

On March 15, 1820, Maine separated from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and became the nation’s 23rd state. As a part of the Missouri Compromise, Maine joined the union as a free state, while Missouri entered it as a slave state, maintaining the balance between free and slave states in the nation. Now, Maine’s hosting a year-long birthday bash, commemorating 200 years of statehood.

Leading the state’s official commemoration is the Maine Bicentennial Commission, a group of politicians, curators, historians, educators and others organizing a series of events and offering grants to communities throughout the state looking to stage parades, lectures and exhibitions. Among the grant winners is Rockland’s Center for Maine Contemporary Art, which is presenting an exhibition this summer of photographer S.B. Walker’s visual record of contemporary life in Maine. On Statehood Day, March 15, the public is invited to musical performances and speeches—and to enjoy a slice of cake—in the Augusta Armory. The commission will also hold a Bicentennial Parade in Auburn-Lewiston on May 16, that promises to be chock full of state pride. Kicking off in Boothbay Harbor on June 26, the traveling Tall Ships Festival brings a month of dockside activities, such as concerts, fireworks and community races, as it makes stops in Rockland, Bangor, Brewer, Bucksport, Castine, Searsport and Belfast.

To soak up more of the state’s history, head to some of its many landmarks. Sitting atop the Munjoy Hill in Portland is the oldest maritime signal tower in the United States. Built in 1807, the Portland Observatory was tasked with sending signals to ships entering the harbor, but today, it offers visitors spectacular views of the city during spring months, when it is open for visitors. The Italianate Villa-style Victoria Mansion, in Portland’s Arts District, was built in 1860 as a summer house for wealthy hotel magnate and Maine native Ruggles Sylvester Morse. Opening its doors for the season in May, visitors can experience this national historical landmark with all its luxurious staircases and chandeliers.

One of the Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City.

(Juergen Ritterbach / Alamy)

Home to a rich history of classical art, Rome should be a destination on every art lover’s map. Among the artists that fell in love with the city, decorating its walls and chapels with masterpieces, is Raphael—a member of the great trio of High Renaissance art including Leonardo and Michelangelo. To honor the legacy Raphael built in Rome, the city is commemorating the 500th anniversary of his death throughout the year. The Ministry of Culture has organized a mega-exhibition, simply titled “Raphael,” at the Scuderie del Quirinale (March 5-June 2, 2020) that will feature more than 200 of Raphael’s pieces, including the famous Madonna del Granduca (1506-1507) and La Donna Valata (1512-1515). Jointly organized with the Uffizi, which provided over 40 works, the exhibition will include masterpieces never before seen together, on loan from Paris’ Louvre, London’s National Gallery and Madrid’s Prado among others. The celebrations of the artist are not limited to Italy, however; the National Gallery in London is running an exhibition from October 3, 2020 until January 24, 2021 that explores Raphael’s career through his masterpieces.

To fully experience Raphael’s artistic mastery, visit the four rooms in the Vatican Museums, filled with graceful portraits and ornate frescoes, that he and others in his workshop painted between 1508 and 1524. With religious themes and brilliant details, these rooms are the epitome of Italian high renaissance. Another destination that should not be missed is the ancient Pantheon in Rome—inspired by its beautiful architecture, Raphael requested it to be the place of his eternal rest. This spectacular temple has stood for over 2,000 years, and it is one of the best-preserved monuments of Ancient Rome.

Paraty and Ilha Grande, Brazil

Colorful doors in the colonial town of Paraty on Brazil’s coast.

(Christoph Diewald via Flickr under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

One of UNESCO’s newest World Heritage sites lies on the Brazilian coast between Rio and São Paulo. Paraty, population 43,000, was a port town once critical to the gold and slave trades, and it retains much of its 18th-century colonial architecture and cobblestone streets, making it “one of the best preserved colonial coastal towns in Brazil,” according to UNESCO. Trek up the Morro da Vila Velha hill to see archaeological sites, the first European settlement from the mid-16th century, as well as a fort built two centuries later.

The UNESCO-designated site also includes four nearby protected areas, famed for their biodiversity, that are home to jaguars, a myriad of rainforest frogs and mustachioed, pig-like mammals known as white-lipped peccaries. Travelers can relax on the undeveloped Lopes Mendes beach (for the outdoorsy, you can even hike from a nearby village to this sandy destination) on the island of Ilha Grande or kayak through mangroves near Paraty. Serra da Bocaina National Park, meanwhile, attests to the region’s history with a portion of the paved gold route, or Caminho do Ouro, and the ruins of a building devoted to weighing and taxing that gold.

About 12 miles from Paraty is the Quilombo Campinho da Independência. Quilombos are settlements, often in remote areas, founded by people who escaped slavery. This particular quilombo has a restaurant serving African-influenced Brazilian food as well as a handicraft shop. In the restaurant’s lounge, groups can listen as old and young quilombonas share their experiences (the conversations are translated into English or Spanish) in a “storytelling wheel.”

The capitol building in Nashville, where the 19th Amendment secured Tennessee’s crucial vote to adopt it into the Constitution.

(Jelle Drok via Flickr under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Nashville earned the moniker “Music City” for a reason, but the Tennessee capital made our list not for its fantastic music scene but because Nashville is where the decisive and dramatic vote to add the 19th Amendment—women’s suffrage—to the Constitution took place. Three quarters of the states needed to sign onto the 19th Amendment for it to be ratified, and in August 1920, Tennessee became the crucial 36th state. A young state legislator, Harry T. Burn, switched political sides following a persuasive letter from his mother and cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of suffrage.

A spate of performances and special exhibitions will mark the centennial. On March 27, the Tennessee State Museum will open an 8,000-square-foot exhibition tracing the state’s suffrage movement from its early, post-Civil-War days to the final vote, while the main Nashville Library is hosting its own “Votes for Women” exhibit, showcasing political cartoons and plenty of kid-friendly interactives. One block away, the opulent Hermitage Hotel, once the epicenter of pro- and anti-suffrage lobbying, displays objects from the political fracas, including a telegram congratulating famous suffragist Carrie Chapman Catt, who stayed at the hotel, on the victory.

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Music lovers can also add suffrage-themed performances to the itinerary (along with Nashville classics like the Grand Ole Opry or Bluebird Café). In September, the Nashville Symphony will stage the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Julia Wolfe’s new suffrage-inspired work, played and sung by an all women’s chorus and full orchestra. On August 2, the Nashville Opera will put on a one-night-only event where talented local vocalists sing songs, like “Since My Margarette Became a Suffragette” and “She’s Good Enough To Be Your Baby’s Mother and She’s Good Enough To Vote With You,” used to fight for (and against) women’s right to vote. Nashville Ballet, later this year, will premiere 72 Steps, a newly choreographed work named for the number of steps to the Nashville capitol building that recounts the struggle for suffrage in Tennessee. For visual arts aficionados, the Frist Art Museum will display locally-made artwork inspired by Nashville residents’ personal stories about their first times voting.

Star trails above Inscription Rock in El Morro National Monument.

(NPS: Derek Wallentinsen)

Interested in seeing the Milky Way? Away from city lights, El Morro National Monument, about a two hour drive west of Albuquerque, offers a spectacular view of stars, galaxies and planets. In fact, the International Dark Sky Association recently named El Morro an International Dark Sky Park—a recognition that allows the park to host more astronomy-based educational programming and improve its energy efficiency through outdoor lighting upgrades.

Made even more awe-inspiring by a starry backdrop, the monument is an impressive record of more than 2,000 inscriptions dating back 1,000 years—petroglyphs carved by Ancestral Puebloans and signatures of Spanish settlers and later pioneers—on a 200-foot tall sandstone cliff. If the next couple events on the park’s calendar are any indication of what’s in store, there will be presentations on the hidden colors of the night sky, tours of the constellations and opportunities for visitors to observe these phenomenon for themselves through a telescope. The summer months, with warmer weather and greater visibility, will allow for even more activities, including a celebration of the Dark Sky Park certification.

Nelson Mandela’s capture site.

(Darren Glanville via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 2.0)

Africa’s southernmost country will commemorate two anniversaries tied to the apartheid era and the political struggle that ultimately ended apartheid and made South Africa a democracy. Thirty years ago, in 1990, anti-apartheid activist and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela—at the time, arguably the world’s most famous political prisoner—became a free man after serving 27 years of a lifetime prison sentence for “sabotage” against the government. Mandela’s release in combination with a number of other events ultimately steered South Africa to its first democratic elections—open to South Africans of all ethnicities—in 1994, through which Mandela became president.

Spots that honor Mandela’s life and legacy crisscross South Africa. Robben Island, where Mandela spent the bulk of his time in prison holed up in a 7-by-9-foot cell, offers four tours daily, and visitors have the opportunity to learn from guides with unique credentials—they were former Robben Island political prisoners themselves. In April, long-distance swimmers compete in the 4.6-mile “Freedom Swim” from Robben Island to the shores of Cape Town. A two-hour plane flight away in Johannesburg, the Apartheid Museum traces how the state came to sponsor the system of segregation starting in 1948 and then, nearly 50 years later, dismantle it. (It also boasts an exhibition about the life of the man many South Africans call Tata—“father” in Xhosa—Mandela.) The roadside site near coastal Durban where police captured Mandela in 1962 is now marked with a remarkable steel-bar sculpture depicting the leader’s face in profile; upgrades to make the destination more tourist-friendly will be completed by August 2020.

2020 also marks 60 years since the Sharpeville massacre, when police opened fire on thousands of people peacefully protesting pass laws, which required black South Africans to carry identifying documents and limited where they could work or live. Police killed 69 and injured more than 180 people at the protest, sparking national and international outcry; Nelson Mandela and other African National Congress. leaders burned their own passes. March 21, the day of the tragedy, is now Human Rights Day in South Africa. Constitution Hill, a prison-complex-turned-museum in Johannesburg, will mark the occasion with a four-day Human Rights Festival with panel discussions, social-justice-related visual art and photography exhibits, performances, a human rights book fair and a groundbreaking for the Museum and Archive of the Constitution at the Hill, which the Huffington Post reports will document “the making of the South African Constitution—from its African origins in the fight against colonialism, segregation and apartheid until the present.” Visitors to the Constitution Hill museums can, as always, visit the cell Mandela stayed at while imprisoned at Old Fort and learn about the people who were held in inhumane conditions at the Women’s Jail and Number Four (where Mahatma Gandhi was once held behind bars).

During Prohibition, Green Mill was favorite speakeasy of mobsters like Al Capone, who the band would greet with a rendition of “Rhapsody in Blue.”

(Bruce Yuanyue Bi / Alamy)

On January 17, 1920, the Prohibition Act officially took effect, stipulating that “no person shall manufacture, sell, barter, transport, import, export, deliver, furnish or possess any intoxicating liquor except as authorized by this act.” With it came the nation’s “worst-kept secret”—the speakeasy. Now, 100 years later, the public is still fascinated by these illicit establishments where men and women gathered to drink bootlegged alcohol and listen to jazz.

By 1924, Chicago had a network of some 20,000 speakeasies. Given this high concentration, the city has become a popular destination for delving into Prohibition history. The Original Chicago Prohibition Tour takes people to the era’s most popular watering holes, while another option, the Chicago Prohibition Gangster Tour, caters to those more interested in the rise in gang activity and mob crimes during Prohibition—making stops at the site of the infamous St. Valentine’s Day Massacre and the location where notorious gangster and bank robber John Dillinger was killed.

Illinois is also celebrating the 100th birthday of one of its most famous authors this year, Ray Bradbury. The sci-fi author recently made news when the New York Public Library released a list of the most checked out books of all time—his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 ranked number seven. Born in Waukegan, Illinois, on August 22, 1920, Bradbury wrote upwards of 30 books and nearly 600 short stories in his lifetime. When he died in 2012, the New York Times declared him “the writer most responsible for bringing modern science fiction into the literary mainstream.” Set to open in August 2020 in Waukegan, the Ray Bradbury Experience Museum will educate the public on the sci-fi author’s life and honor his work with immersive and interactive experiences that interpret his creative works.

Palau’s 183,000-square-mile National Marine Sanctuary is home to an abundance of coral and fish.

(Yuichiro Anazawa via Wikimedia Commons under CC BY 3.0)

Travelers arriving in Palau, a freckling of islands in the western reaches of the Pacific Ocean, sign a pledge: “I vow to tread lightly, act kindly and explore mindfully,” reads the passport stamp. “The only footprints I shall leave are those that will wash away.” The statement, adopted in 2017, reflects the dive destination’s environment-first attitude.

In 2020, after five years of work, Palau’s new National Marine Sanctuary went into effect, protecting 183,000 square miles or nearly 80 percent of the tiny country’s waters from commercial fishing. The marine sanctuary is intended to protect Palau’s 1,300-plus species of fish and 700 types of coral but will not dictate where tourists can visit, a representative from the Stanford Ocean Center, which helped create a report for the Palau government on the planned sanctuary, assured Smithsonian. The country also became the first in the world to ban types of sunscreen (about half of the commercially available options, according to the BBC) that contain ingredients known to bleach coral.

Palau’s reputation as an “underwater Serengeti” is warranted; adventurers can snorkel alongside gentle, non-stinging golden jellyfish in the aptly-named Jellyfish Lake, marvel at the giant clam inhabitants of Clam City, or (for experienced divers) spot reef sharks at the Blue Corner. The Rock Islands—uninhabited, vegetation-shrouded outcroppings that are a haven for nearly 400 coral species—are also well worth a visit. The 445 mushroom-shaped islands were proclaimed a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2012.

While the majority of tourists partake in the nation’s aquatic attractions, the islands have offerings for landlubbers too. On Babeldaob, the largest island, travelers can hike through the jungle to the thundering Ngardmau Waterfall—the highest in Micronesia. World War II buffs might want to tour Peleliu, an island where rusty plane wrecks and weapons attest to a fierce 1944 battle between the U.S. and Japan over its airstrip.

(Dumphasizer via Flickr under CC BY-SA 2.0)

In 1620, the Mayflower embarked on a voyage from Plymouth, England to the New World. Upon arrival on the shores of what is now Provincetown, Massachusetts, the pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact—a governing document believed by many to have been an early influence for the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. After spending five weeks exploring the area, the colonists sailed across Cape Cod Bay to Plymouth, where they established the Plymouth Colony.

To mark the 400th anniversary of these events, celebrations will be held on both sides of the Atlantic. Plymouth, England, is organizing a multitude of events, from a Mayflower Ceremony on September 16 (the date of the ship’s departure four centuries ago) to a “Mayflower 400: Legend and Legacy” exhibition at The Box, a new museum opening this spring. Meanwhile, in Massachusetts, the Pilgrim Monument and Provincetown Museum (PMPM) has organized a series of commemoration activities, kicking off with an opening ceremony on April 24 in Plymouth and featuring a historical reenactment of the signing of the Mayflower Compact on September 13 on Provincetown’s MacMillan Pier. Provincetown 400, as the series is called, aims to retell the history of Plymouth Colony from both perspectives, the Mayflower Pilgrims and the Wampanoag nation.

As a part of the 400th anniversary celebration, Mayflower II, a full-scale reproduction of the sailing vessel that carried the English colonists in 1620, will sail from Plymouth, where it sits as an exhibit in the Plimoth Plantation, to Provincetown, Massachusetts, on September 10, 2020. “We expect thousands to come to Provincetown to visit Mayflower II and to learn about the beginning of the Pilgrims’ story,” said Dr. K. David Weidner, executive director of the PMPM.

The Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany.

(Thomas Depenbusch via Flickr under CC BY 2.0)

Widely known as the City of Beethoven, Bonn is pulling out all the stops for the 250th anniversary of the classical composer’s birth. Born in 1770 (his real birthday, still a matter of speculation, is believed to be a day before his recorded baptism on December 17), Ludwig van Beethoven lived in this German city until he moved to Vienna at age 22. The house where Beethoven was born and raised for the first few years of his life—known today as Beethoven Haus—is still standing and a popular attraction in the city. Built in the 18th century, the home recently underwent a 10-month long renovation and reopened in December, with its permanent exhibit including instruments, scores and notebooks used by the composer.

The Beethoven Anniversary Society have planned BTHVN2020, a year-long calendar of concerts and tributes across Germany dedicated to the life and achievements of the composer. An estimated 1,000 performances and events are taking place between now and December 17, 2020 in Germany, with the majority of them happening in Bonn. The two-day “Beethoven Bürgfest,” beginning August 14, 2020, will trace Beethoven’s life in Bonn, feature musical performances and remember the 1845 unveiling of the bronze Beethoven monument in Bonn’s city center. The year of celebration will close with a concert held in Bonn’s parliament building, as a tribute to the political significance of the composer’s work—the European Union anthem is based on “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

The Met’s famous 5th Avenue entrance.

(Courtesy of the Met)

New York City’s most visited museum—the Metropolitan Museum of Art—is celebrating the 150th anniversary of its incorporation and very first acquisition, a Roman sarcophagus. Both events occurred four short years after lawyer John Jay first floated the idea to a circle of American friends while in Paris and wooed philanthropists and art collectors to support his fledgling museum. While the sesquicentennial doesn’t mean the Met Gala is opening to the public, the museum is hosting a “community festival” with tours and to-be-announced performances and art-making activities the weekend of June 4-6. The “Making The Met, 1870-2020” exhibition (March 30-August 2) will highlight gems of the Met’s vast (it spans 5,000-plus years of art) collection, including rarely-displayed, fragile works like Michelangelo’s studies for the Sistine Chapel’s Libyan Sibyl, a female figure painted on the ceiling fresco. In March, the museum will open 11,000 square feet of gallery space showcasing British decorative arts (think carefully crafted teapots) from the 16th to 20th centuries. And as usual, the Met’s rotation of exhibits will showcase art from around the globe, including early Buddhist art made in India, Cubist paintings and Tudor-era masterworks.

The Met sits in Central Park, which is where the first New York City Marathon was held 50 years ago, with 127 participants who’d paid the $1 entry fee. Less than half of them finished. Last year, 53,627 runners took part in the 26.2-mile run, now spanning all five of the Big Apple’s boroughs. Even non-runners can enjoy the race’s 50th anniversary this year (November 1) by joining the crowds that cheer, sometimes rowdily, the endurance athletes on. (Here’s a list of the best cheering spots, courtesy the New York Times; apparently, there’s even a Baptist church whose choir sings for marathoners at full volume.)

#History

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