Helena Bonham Carter & Thunnus obesus, 11 Feb 2015.

"By the end of the morning we'd truly bonded. He will be my Valentine."

ELSER / engl.:"13 Minutes"
Release Date: 9 April 2015 (Germany)
Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Starring: Christian Friedel, Burghart Klaußner, Katharina Schüttler, Johann von Bülow, Peter Becker &c.

Es waren 13 Minuten. 13 Minuten, die gefehlt haben, dass ein Schreiner aus Königsbronn im Alleingang Adolf Hitler tötet. Doch es kam anders an diesem 8. November 1939 im Münchner Bürgerbräukeller: Hitler verlässt den Ort des Attentats zu früh – und Georg Elser wird zum Mann, der die Weltgeschichte hätte ändern und Millionen Menschenleben hätte retten können.

Wer war dieser Mann, der die Gefahr, die von Hitler ausging, früher erkannte als viele andere, der handelte, als alle anderen, einschließlich der deutschen Generäle, mitliefen oder schwiegen? Was sah er, was sie nicht sahen oder sehen wollten? Der Mann der seinen Folterknechten ins Gesicht sagte, dass er das Blutvergießen des absehbaren Weltkrieges verhindern wolle? Read More »

Measles by the numbers: A race to eradication
The US media are abuzz after an outbreak of measles in Disneyland but the disease will keep on popping up until it is wiped out worldwide.
by Declan Butler
nature, Volume 518, Number 7538, 12 February 2015

Measles A race to eradication
Infographic Download (PDF, 0.4 MB)

(Fresco by Cecco Bravo, 1636, Casa Buonarroti, Firenze)

Galileo Portal
Galileo//thek@ represents an integrated federation of digital Galilean resources online, easily explorable thanks to refined research instruments. In this section we offer the user access to every archive. From the interface Galileo//thek@ it is possible to pass from one type of resource to another.
http://portalegalileo.museogalileo.it

:-)

(SDSS J1038+4849 by NASA & ESA, 9 February 2015)

Biologisches Praktikum für Mediziner
- Anatomie eines Frosches -

Assistent: Higgins
Aufgabe: Der Student soll einen Frosch präparieren und dessen innere Organe untersuchen
Name des Studenten: E. Myron Nebelig

Labohrotoriumsbericht von dem Aufschneiden eines Froschs.
Mein Plan: Ich werde einen Frosch nehmen und ein scharfes Messer und in den Frosch reinschneiden wenn er noch lebt.
Teil Eins: Herr Higgens gab mir einen Frosch, ein Messer und eine Schale mit sowas wie Waggelpudding. Ich pakte den Frosch an seinen Hinterfüsen und schlug seinen Kopf auf die Egge vom Labohrtisch, damit er nicht beist. Alts er belemmert war und fertich für die wissenschafftliche Untersuchunk, stekte ich Reisnägel in seine Füse und pinnte ihn auf den Waggelpudding, mit dem Bauch nach oben.
Teil Zwei: Bald fing der Frosch wider an zu zappeln, und weil ich Angst hatte, daß er weghubst, rammte ich wissenschafftlich das Messer in seinen Magen. Dann lief eine kleberige dunkelrote Flüßigkeit da raus, wo ich reingebort hatte. Bald fing er an immer wehniger und wehniger zu zappeln wenn ich ihn anbohrte und zum Schlus zappelte er gar nicht mehr. Ich ging zu Herrn Higgens und kriegte einen frischen Frosch. Read More »

O Faulheit, erbarme Du Dich des unendlichen Elends!
O Faulheit, Mutter der Kunst und der edlen Tugenden,
sei Du der Balsam für die
Schmerzen der Menschheit!

(Paul Lafargue, Das Recht auf Faulheit, 1880)

"I traded my tomorrows to remain in yesterday / Whiskey tears are falling now, each one cries another day."

(Cheap Sorrows & Writers Tears for just 29,95€/bottle
@Ebrosia GmbH)

3 kg of Paduan Urban Power Transmission Cable, Stolen
Plastic, copper, cardboard, tar, 5 x 8 x 30 cm
by Michelle-Marie Letelier, 2013.

Wissen ist Macht!
Frankreich ist Schinken!

Universe No. 25
from John B Calhoun: "Death Squared. The Explosive Growth and Demise of a Mouse Population", Proc R Soc Med. 1973 Jan; 66(1 Pt 2): 80–88.

Sci-Fi Dystopias We've Actually Created:
Universe No. 25
by Robert Brockway (Cracked, June 13, 2012)

Let's set the scene: A brilliant, eccentric scientist devotes his life to refining the perfect society. After two dozen iterations, he finally hits it: Universe 25. It is a huge, painstakingly designed megastructure with prebuilt living spaces for all of its occupants. There are no threats, no danger, no disease, and everything is provided for you. There's unlimited free, clean water and healthy food, the temperature is always 68 degrees Fahrenheit -- hell, it even cleans itself every couple of weeks. And sure, maybe it's a little disconcerting that the walls go so high and there are no exits, but really, do you need them? Where do you have to go anymore? All you have to do in this place is live happily with yourself, your wife and three other couples. It's paradise. Read More »

Population Density and Social Pathology 
JOHN B. CALHOUN, PH.D., National Institute of Mental Health 
Calif. Med. 1970 Nov; 113(5): 54.

In the celebrated thesis of Thomas Malthus, vice and misery impose the ultimate natural limit on the growth of populations. Students of the subject have given most of their attention to misery, that is, to predation, disease and food supply as forces that operate to adjust the size of a population to its environment. But what of vice? Setting aside the moral burden of this word, what are the effects of the social behavior of a species on population growth-and of population density on social behavior?

Some years ago I attempted to submit this question to experimental inquiry. I confined a population of wild Norway rats in a quarter-acre enclosure. With an abundance of food and places to live and with predation and disease eliminated or minimized, only the animals' behavior with respect to one another remained as a factor that might affect the increase in their number. There could be no escape from the behavioral consequences of rising population density. By the end of 27 months the population had become stabilized at 150 adults. Yet adult mortality was so low that 5,000 adults might have been expected from the observed reproductive rate. The reason this larger population did not materialize was that infant mortality was extremely high. Even with only 150 adults in the enclosure, stress from social interaction led to such disruption of maternal behavior that few young survived. Read More »

Avant-garde model
(from Spanish Civil War, Museum University of Navarra)

(Reuters, Friday 6 February 2015 01.55 GMT) Oregon officials are warning early morning joggers and park visitors in the state capital, Salem, to watch out for an owl that steals hats after at least four people were attacked in a month.

No one was seriously hurt in any of the incidents but Brad Hilliard, 36, is one of the joggers who have lost headwear in a brush with the bird.

(the guardian)

... 200,526,000 Km ...

Pluto & Charon... just another 202,976,400 Km away.
(NASA news release 15-018, February 4, 2015)

Virgil between Clio and Melpomene.
(from Hadrumetum, 3rd century CE, now Bardo Museum in Tunis)

Build your own 3D New Horizons spacecraft model
Zipped file of .stl-formatted printable models including instructions for printing and assembly: Download 2.29 MB.

(© 2015 The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)

UNESCO alarmed by news of mass destruction of books in Mosul
UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova today expressed alarm over reports of the massive destruction of books in the museums, libraries and universities of Mosul, Iraq.

(03.02.2015 - UNESCOPRESS) “This destruction marks a new phase in the cultural cleansing perpetrated in regions controlled by armed extremists in Iraq,” said the Director-General. “It adds to the systematic destruction of heritage and the persecution of minorities that seeks to wipe out the cultural diversity that is the soul of the Iraqi people.”

According to numerous media reports, thousands of books on philosophy, law, science and poetry have been deliberately burned  over the past several weeks. If confirmed, this would be one of the most devastating acts of destruction of library collections in human history. Read More »

My Very Educated Readers, Please Write Us a New Planet Mnemonic