Here on Earth, the satellites that make up Starlink look like a string of stars traveling across the night sky. More than 4,000 of them are circling Earth in low orbit right now. They’re part of the private venture that’s the brainchild of billionaire and SpaceX founder Elon Musk.
Last year, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Musk sent Starlink terminals there so Ukraine could stay connected to the internet. But it turns out Musk controls both the on and the off switch on that technology, giving him an outsized role in the conflict.
Steven Feldstein of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has written a story in The Atlantic on how that happened and what can be done about it.
thanks to Pam P for the “Musk Rat”
Posted inEthics, Government, technology, War|Comments Off on How Musk’s Starlink became a security liability for the U.S.
New York University plans to divest from fossil fuels, the Guardian has learned, following years of pressure from student activists.
The move from one of the US’s largest private universities, whose endowment totals over $5bn, represents a significant win for the climate movement, organizers said.
The university first formalized the commitment in an August letter from William R Berkley, chair of NYU’s board of trustees, which was seen by the Guardian, addressed to a student activist group. “New York University commits to avoid any direct investments in any company whose primary business is the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels, including all forms of coal, oil, and natural gas, and not to renew or seek out any dedicated private funds whose primary aim is to invest in the exploration or extraction of fossil fuels,” he wrote.
NYU has taken other steps to address the climate crisis, Berkley wrote, including slashing greenhouse gas emissions from building energy, setting goals to reduce food-related emissions and pledging to achieve net zero by 2040.
The university currently has “no direct ownership of public securities” of any fossil fuel company, he wrote. In 2014, the school had $139m, or 4% of its endowment invested in coal, oil and gas, university disclosures said at the time.
The commitment will apply to the top 200 coal, oil and gas companies, said an NYU spokesperson, Joseph Tirella.
The letter follows a February meeting between the NYU board of trustees’ investments committee and the university’s chapter of the youth-led climate organization Sunrise Movement, which has led recent advocacy for divestment on campus.
“The board was very pleased with the tenor of its conversations with the students and the letter arose from those exchanges,” said Tirella. “The University is glad to know the students were also pleased by the outcome of those conversations and by the letter.”
In an unusual move, Berkley addressed the letter directly to Sunrise organizers.
“I’ve read a lot of other divestment announcements from other schools and it’s not common for them to name, much less to celebrate, the success of the student groups that got them there,” said Alicia Colomer, an NYU senior who co-founded the school’s Sunrise chapter in 2020, and also serves as communications coordinator for Fossil Free Research, an advocacy group focused on eliminating oil and gas funding in academia.
Students have been pushing NYU to divest from fossil fuels since at least 2004, but were previously rebuked.
“Back when I was at NYU … we were not exactly met with open arms,” said Sophie Lasoff, who co-founded a fossil fuel divestment campaign as an NYU student in 2012 and now works as a political organizer, most recently with progressive political organization Justice Democrats.
In a 2016 open letter, Berkley said the board was “not persuaded” by the idea that divestment would cut fossil fuel dependency, arguing that the move would not reduce the funding available to oil and gas companies, that many fossil fuel companies invest renewables, and divesting from fossil fuels while still using them on campus would be “disingenuous”.
“It would be hard to make those arguments today,” said Dylan Wahbe, recent NYU graduate and co-founder of the school’s Sunrise chapter, with slews of reports showing fossil fuel companies are continually expanding oil and gas and in some cases even rolling back earlier climate commitments.skip past newsletter promotion
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Public awareness about the climate crisis has grown, he added. “The global climate movement has done a great job at educating the world,” he said.
Wahbe, Colomer, and other students relaunched divestment efforts at NYU in 2021. The campaign collected more than 2,000 petition signatures and garnered about two dozen endorsements from approximately two dozen organizations, including unions representing graduate students and professors, and New York City’s Sunrise Movement chapter.
Though fossil fuel divestment is a major win, there is more NYU should do to cut ties with oil and gas companies, said Wahbe.
“Divestment is part of a larger push to have these institutions disassociate from this corrupting industry,” he said. In the future, he expects efforts to eliminate fossil fuel funding for research at NYU while ensuring important climate-focused scholarship is a priority.
Some student organizers have also been pushing university board members to disaffiliate from fossil fuel companies. Last month, a renowned environmental lawyer at Harvard University stepped down from a highly paid role at the oil and gas giant ConocoPhillips following months of pressure from activists.
Some activists have also called on NYU to remove certain members of its board of trustees, including Larry Fink, CEO of the asset manager BlackRock, a major investor in oil and gas whose fossil fuel investments have been the subject of public scrutiny, and the Fox Business News journalist Maria Bartiromo, who last year said that declining investments in oil and gas are an “emergency”. Fink declined to comment; Bartiromo was not immediately available for comment.
Some 250 US educational institutions have divested from fossil fuels, according to data from Stand.earth and 350.org. Last year, students at five leading universities – Yale, MIT, Princeton, Stanford and Vanderbilt – filed official legal complaints accusing their colleges of breaking the law by investing in coal, oil and gas companies.
Posted inBusiness, environment, Finance|Comments Off on New York University will divest from fossil fuels in win for student activists
Minoru Yamasaki was commissioned to create the World Trade Center after gaining notoriety for his design of the 1962 World’s Fair pavilion. Article from Crosscut by Knute Berger
Seattle-trained architect Minoru Yamasaki (second from left) and his engineering team
Sixty years ago this month Seattle-trained architect Minoru Yamasaki and his engineering team were racing to finish the design for the World Trade Center’s twin towers for a public unveiling in January 1964.
The path to the towers started with the idealism expressed at Seattle’s Century 21 Exposition in 1962. Architect Yamasaki gained notoriety for his Federal Science Pavilion built for the World’s Fair, an event for which he had served on its advisory committee. The pavilion complex is now the Pacific Science Center, a city landmark. Yamasaki impressed visitors and the media as a modern architect who could design a structure that was beautiful, like a 21st-century Alhambra, a place of beauty and serenity.
Yamasaki experienced racism in Seattle as a child of low-income parents raised in Japantown on Yesler Hill. He had helped his parents avoid the World War II West Coast Japanese incarceration by moving them east to live with him in his one-room apartment in New York during the war. He’d been subjected to brutal working conditions in Alaska canneries, while working his way through college as he studied architecture at the University of Washington. He came to believe in the power of architecture to uplift people in the face of the modern world’s often grim realities.
While the Space Needle became the symbol of the fair Yamasaki’s pavilion’s “Space Age Gothic” arches and exterior pools and fountains became its architectural gem. While some critics dismissed his work — Vincent Scully referred to an earlier Yamasaki project as a “twittering aviary” — others loved it, including the representative of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, who saw it in person and was entranced. After the fair, Yamasaki was added to the mix of architects being considered for their World Trade Center project in Lower Manhattan.
Yamasaki’s Detroit-based firm was selected to lead the design team. As the project evolved, what the Port Authority wanted proved to be far from simple but stated simply: Build the tallest buildings in the world and make them beautiful.
Yamasaki had never undertaken a commission so large, but he had plenty of ideas. He developed an innovative structure with Seattle engineer John Skilling’s team that would give the Trade Center towers unprecedented height (each over 1,300 feet tall) with a maximum of leasable square footage — each floor offered about an acre of space. The buildings were supported not by interior pillars but by their exterior frames.
Skilling had worked with Yamasaki on the Science Pavilion’s striking space arches. While working on the WTC design, the pair also designed the IBM office building (now the 1200 Fifth building) at Fifth Avenue and Seneca Street in downtown Seattle. At a glance, it resembles a miniature model of a Trade Center tower: narrow windows and an exterior structure that resembles pinstripes, with gothic arches at the base. When the IBM building opened in 1964 it added mid-century class to a downtown that had little of it.
The Trade Center project was more challenging. Height and budget created limitations and problems, for example, keeping the 90-story towers stable against wind and sway, and how do you protect them against fire? The demands of size and elegance seemed to be a contradiction. During the design phase Yamasaki was tempted to quit, but decided it was a “twice-in-a-lifetime” commission, one he called “the grandest project ever.”
While Yamasaki had been criticized for being too decorative with his “aviary,” critics could not say the same for his stripped-down design for the towers, a truly minimalist approach. The twin towers were not visually elaborate like some of New York’s other classic skyscrapers. Their scale would be their message, and their soaring height would signal global economic ascendancy. Yamasaki saw them as a “beacon of democracy.”
Their unprecedented scale was undone by a 2001 terrorist attack. The best one could say about their design and engineering is that many people in the buildings were able to escape because the towers did not collapse immediately after being purposely rammed by fuel-heavy commercial aircraft. But that is little solace. Examination of how the structures failed was a painful part of the attack’s post-mortem.
Yamasaki died in 1986, but Skilling’s tower engineer Leslie Robertson witnessed the 9/11 attack. He told The New Yorker shortly afterward: “There are all kinds of terrible things that take place on this planet, that nature brings on us. But this event … was it man against man but it was live on television, and we watched it, and you could reach out and touch it… but there was nothing you could do.”
Even now, 9/11 is front of mind in our politics. A candidate for the Republican presidential nomination has said he “wants the truth” about 9/11, hinting it might be part of a U.S. government conspiracy. Rudolph Giuliani, who gained world fame as the New York City mayor during 9/11, has been indicted on felony charges in Atlanta and faces disbarment in New York, raising questions about how far he has fallen from being “America’s mayor.” Comedian Jon Stewart has argued passionately for healthcare for 9/11 first responders who have suffered long-term illness from toxic exposures at Ground Zero. It is an argument against America’s habit of forgetting.
September 11 is an opportunity to remember the people and tragedies of that day, the heroism and terrorism that rolled out in multiple acts in New York and beyond. The Twin Towers had become potent symbols that attracted enemies as well as admirers, something no one fully anticipated.
Posted inArchitecture, History, Race|Comments Off on The Seattle architect behind the PacSci arches and the Twin Towers
Ed note: Not so sure this app can do all that is touted. But it’s interesting that AI is moving rapidly into health care.
By Ajla Basic
Adding to the technological toolbox is a new app that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to generate health diagnostics―and all it needs is a smile from the user! This new app, called Together, helps measure vitals and manage care regimens for aging adults through selfies from their phone cameras.
Although more apps are in the pipeline, the Together app is the first to record blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen levels by using imaging (i.e., selfies) for those specific functions. The app can detect these health functions based on the changes in the color of the subject’s skin. In addition, the app helps with medication reminders and refills by allowing the older adult to just scan the label on the prescription bottle. The app can then detect all medication information, including doctor’s contact information, should the user need that detail.
Creators of the Together app believe that this facial-recognition-based detection can be more accurate and informative than standard diagnostic approaches. However, the creators caution that, as with all AI technology, privacy and security are ethical problems that need more consideration and oversight.
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Personal Safety Nets – The Next Generation Join Denise Malm, Social Worker and Geriatric Mental Health specialist, as she dives into the fascinating world of Personal Safety Nets (PSN) and their role in combating the growing issue of loneliness and isolation in our society. Discover how this concept, born in 2007 thanks to Judy Pigott and Dr. John Gibson, offers creative ways to build meaningful relationships. Malm will uncover the potential of PSN to enhance connections and boost health and well-being as we age.
Posted inAdvocacy|Comments Off on Personal Safety Nets – The Next Generation
Seattle, unlike most American cities, is not a river-mouth city, located (like Portland and St. Louis) at the mouth of a major river that drains a resource hinterland. Seattle’s forgotten Duwamish River drains a short and forested land on this side of the Cascade Mountains. Many cities competed to be the major city on Puget Sound, usually building a sawmill at a river mouth. Seattle (like Boston) looked to international trade in lumber, coal, and fish, meanwhile turning the river into industrial land and dramatically cutting off its drainage.
The first settlers, arriving a few months before the famous Denny Party landed at Alki in 1851, settled upriver and developed orchards, hops, timbering, and coal. Those settlers (the Maples, van Assalts, and Luther Collins) quickly faded from local history, as did the river resources. The same story is told in this fine book about the Native Duwamish Tribe, who named the river and “Lake Duwamish” (as Lake Washington was once called), and who were cruelly treated by the white settlers the tribes invited in and whose chief became the name for the city. (When Chief Seattle died in 1866, no local paper carried the news.)
The Duwamish Tribe, including Chief Seattle’s mother, gambled that the white settlers would mostly want to trade, not settle and displace them. Chief Seattle envisioned a cross-cultural society that soon was displaced by land hunger and the desire to build (and cash in on) a major city. The Duwamish, whose main village was at the south outlet of Lake Washington, were denied a reservation in their homeland, since the area was coveted by white settlers for its coal and farmland. That decision to stiff the Duwamish Tribe, which might be called Seattle’s original sin, is still unclear as to its rationale and perpetrators.
The Cummings book also explores a second aspect of the north-south dividing line that helps define local history. More than a century ago, two economic interests faced off over efforts to connect Puget Sound with Lake Washington. Heading the northern route (the ship canal of today) were railroad interests led by Judge Thomas Burke and Republicans. The advocate for the southerly canal, a 300-foot cut in Beacon Hill, was Democrat Eugene Semple, who had been appointed governor prior to statehood in 1889. That gash in the hillside was used to fill the flatland of the meandering delta of the Duwamish.
What defeated the Semple canal was a desire to reduce flooding of the Duwamish Valley. Elaborate geographic engineering did the trick. One river flowing into the Duwamish, the White (flowing from Mt. Rainier’s main glacier), was diverted south to Tacoma’s Puyallup River. Another, the Cedar, was diverted north to flow into Lake Washington. That lake used to drain at the south end into the (now defunct) Black River near Renton, flowing into the Duwamish and creating a very large drainage area. Instead, the whole drainage system was cut by three-quarters, rather than developing the large Duwamish basin. And the delta of the Duwamish was turned into a polluted industrial waterway, its meanders filled and its main stem dredged.
The result was to turn the Duwamish into a highly toxic river, whose pcb’s now spread via salmon to orcas to the entire Sound. That historic turn leads to the main narrative of the Cummings book (one in which the author played a leading activist role) of attempting to clean up the river, whose salmon had provided an economic mainstay for centuries. It’s an epic task. Among those fighting the cleanup were Boeing (now an ally of cleanup), various industries, Metro, King County, and business interests determined to create flat industrial land in the river delta. One key obstacle was discovering remains of a native village in one of the delta meanders. Another was the political alliance of Native organizations with the salmon issue and fishing interests. And there are unsung, unlikely heroes in the long effort: NOAA, Judge George Boldt, U.S. Attorney Stan Pitkin, and a stubborn South Park activist named John Beal.
The book, published by UW Press, is one long effort at paying attention to a side of Seattle history that is mostly forgotten or swept into oblivion. BJ Cummings writes: “Given [Gov.] Semple’s singular role in achieving these ends [securing Seattle’s industrial lands], it is curious that his name is not more prominently memorialized in Seattle today. Just as the influence of Collins, Maple, and Van Asselt as the city’s first settlers is often neglected, Semple’s role in transforming the Duwamish River into Seattle’s industrial powerhouse is commonly overlooked in our ‘founding stories.’”
And so, historic justice is accomplished by this book. A tougher question is whether the restoration of the neglected river is possible, and whether there could have been other paths taken. As is typical in Seattle’s idealistic crusades, many conflicting goals are layered on (and many independent voices are at the table) so the odds for success grow long. To be fair, many good things (such as Superfund designation) have happened. But the stubborn fact remains that, having created an industrial river, can that outcome be meshed with environmental justice, health, equity issues (such as avoiding displacement), and doing justice to tiny forgotten settlements such as South Park? It’s a tall order, which the author minimizes.
I ended up reading this illuminating book hoping for more pragmatism and broad-based benefits (as in the story of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal in D.C., an urban walker’s wonderland) in our neglected founding river. But it’s a familiar, frustrating Seattle story. Destroy a natural treasure and then try like Humpty Dumpty to put the political pieces back together again.
Posted inenvironment, Essays|Comments Off on Duwamish: The River Seattle Forgot
Ed note: Put B. sent me the article below and wrote the following. It raises important questions, particularly about the ease and convenience of dining together and meeting new friends over a shared meal. But is there even more we could do to enhance social interactions and prevent loneliness?
From Put: “I’m sending it [the article on loneliness] along because it mentions one of my favorite things about Skyline, namely eating together.
But but but, the Dining Rooms no longer facilitate doing so. The common practice when Val & I moved here in 2018 was something called “Plus 2”. It was an option on the dining reservation form that isn’t present on the Cubigo form. And, apparently, cannot be added.
There is a comment space on the Cubigo form. It is looked at by the dining room staff. I know that because when Val or I ask to be seated outside, it happens. (Or we asked upon arrival, on cool nights, “Do you still want to eat on the patio?”) But no matter how many times I write “We would be happy to be seated with another resident, or two more”, it never happens. They don’t seem to have any way to record that interest and do whatever they did back in the day. I think I remember being asked on arrival, “We can seat you with a (a named person). Is that OK with you?” I don’t think we ever answered “no”..
Of course, you can always join one of the bigger tables in The Bistro. But no such opportunity exists in the Columbia Cafe; there are no larger tables there.
I’ve heard that the same group of residents usually sit together at the “Open Table” and, hence, there is no room for casual drop-ins. Maybe that suggests there should be another where that practice is discouraged….somehow.
Thanks for listening to my rant,“
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By Nicholas Kristoff in the NYT
Loneliness crushes the soul, but researchers are finding it does far more damage than that. It is linked to strokes, heart disease, dementia, inflammation and suicide; it breaks the heart literally as well as figuratively.
Loneliness is as deadly as smoking 15 cigarettes a day and more lethal than consuming six alcoholic drinks a day, according to the surgeon general of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Loneliness is more dangerous for health than obesity, he says — and, alas, we have been growing more lonely. A majority of Americans now report experiencing loneliness, based on a widely used scale that asks questions such as whether people lack companionship or feel left out.
Yet there are solutions as well, approaches that build connections and bind us together. Britain is the pioneer of these efforts, having established the post of minister for loneliness in 2018. Britain oversees public-private partnerships that collectively knit millions of people together with programs like nature walks, songwriting workshops and community litter pickups.
A minister for loneliness is a less obvious need than a defense minister or a foreign minister. But other countries are paying attention: Japan has also appointed a minister for loneliness, Sweden has a minister for social affairs who has tackled the issue aggressively, and there have been calls in Australia and other countries for such a post.
That’s because if the researchers are correct, social isolation probably kills far more people in the West each year than terrorists and murderers, and it costs the public enormous sums in unnecessary health costs. Countermeasures can make a huge difference: One review of 148 studies concluded that social connections increase the odds of an individual’s surviving over roughly the next seven years by about 50 percent. (continued)
Have you received unsolicited mobile text messages with an unfamiliar or strange web link that indicates a USPS delivery requires a response from you? If you never signed up for a USPS tracking request for a specific package, then don’t click the link! More info at www.uspis.gov.
Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival will take place on Sunday, September 10: 11am-7pm at the Armory Food & Event Hall, Mural Amphitheatre, and Fisher Rooftop. The festival is part of the Seattle Center Festál series. It is free and open to the public.
In 1778, there were 1,000,000 Hawaiians living and thriving on the Hawaiian Islands. By 1822 and the introduction of missionaries and disease, there were only 200,000 pure Hawaiians alive. By 1922, there were only 24,000. Today, there are less than 8,000 alive.
There are over 50,000 Native Hawaiians living in Washington State.
A common misconception is all people from Hawaii are Hawaiians. Hawaiian is a culture, race, language, and an indigenous group of people. The ancient Hawaiians felt a deep connection with nature and explained everything from the creation of Earth to the lava that formed the Hawaiian Islands through the stories of their gods and goddesses.
Early Hawaiians were master non-instrument navigators. Using only the sun, moon, stars, and waves, the Hawaiians were known to traverse the Pacific, resulting in the occupations of many small islands in Polynesia.
The I’olani Palace, completed in 1882, was the official residence of the Hawaiian monarchs. It was ahead of its time and outfitted with the most up-to-date amenities, including the first electric lights in Hawaii, indoor plumbing, and a telephone.
By the Editorial Board of the NYT – thanks to Put B.
America may still think of itself as a young nation, but as a society, it is growing old. Thanks to falling birthrates, longer life expectancy and the graying of the baby boomer cohort, our society is being transformed. This is a demographic change that will affect every part of society. Already, in about half the country, there are more people dying than being born, even as more Americans are living into their 80s, 90s and beyond. In 2020 the share of people 65 or older reached 17 percent, according to the Census Bureau. By 2034, there will be more Americans past retirement age than there are children.
The challenge the country faces transcends ideology, geography and ethnic or racial category, and American leaders, regardless of their party, need to confront it with the appropriate urgency.
It has been decades since lawmakers last came to a consensus about what old age in America should look like: In 1935 the passage of the Social Security Act was meant to ensure that older people would not die destitute because they could no longer work. In 1965 aging was included as part of the vision of the Great Society. Our society now faces another moment when it is up to us to decide what America’s future will be.
This shift has major implications. A drop in the working-age population typically means labor shortages, productivity declines and slower economic growth. Places like Japan, with the highest proportion of people 65 or older in the world, offer a hint of what the near future might look like for America. In Japan, especially in rural areas, schools shut their doors because there are no longer enough children to fill them; births fell below 800,000 in 2022, and about 450 schools close every year. With fewer young people working, revenue for retirement programs is shrinking, and there is a chronic labor shortage. Japanese people increasingly work into their 60s, 70s and beyond, often in physically demanding but low-paid jobs such as making deliveries and cleaning offices. That means employers have to adjust, adding rest areas, ramps and handrails in workplaces to accommodate older workers’ needs.
Aging societies have different needs from young ones, and while America is far from the only country facing this shift, it has been slow to address it. The strains are showing in everything from health care and housing to employment and transportation. With an average of 10,000 boomers turning 65 each day, these pressures are steadily intensifying and will continue to do so, especially if current immigration policies hold. The recent decline in Americans’ life expectancy over the past few years is especially alarming. It reflects deaths from Covid and drug overdoses, as well as higher mortality rates among children and teenagers from violence and accidental deaths, but that does not change the underlying demographic shift. By 2053, more than 40 percent of the federal budget will go toward programs for seniors, primarily Social Security and Medicare — but those programs are not designed for or prepared to handle the new demographic reality.
The challenges of an aging population are also deeply personal. Among the most elemental questions are where and how we will spend the closing years of our lives. Millions of Americans are already grappling with these dilemmas for themselves and for their loved ones. A cottage industry of products and services has emerged to help people adjust their homes and their lives for aging. A demographic shift this significant calls for a broad-based response, and the longer the challenges go unaddressed, the more formidable they become.
There are many pieces to this puzzle, including who will care for older people, where they will live, how our cities are designed and how businesses will adapt. Many older people in the United States say they feel invisible in a country that has long been obsessed with youth, avoiding the inevitability — and possibilities — of old age. Americans of every generation owe it to themselves and their families to begin asking the question: Is this a challenge we want to handle on our own? Or is it something that we as a society should confront together?
Posted inAging Sites|Comments Off on Can American Age Gracefully
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” That likening hath never been less apt Today, our summers kindle flood and flame, To which humanity might not adapt That summer I once dared to denigrate, Compared to now, was such a pleasant place I fear this torrid tempest won’t abate, What spiteful irony I now must face! I once lamented summer’s fleeting span; In hindsight, there was much I hadst to learn “Eternal summer,” ’tis a frying pan: Without a change of course, the world will burn My modest sonnet, fate hath cruelly read Now, summer only warms my heart with dread.
Joel Watson San Diego
The Gettysburg Regress
Four score months, almost seven years ago, our voters brought forth on this continent a new president, conceived in Queens, and dedicated to the proposition that “when you’re a star, they let you do it.”
Now we are engaged in a great culture war, testing whether that president, or any president so conceived and so dedicated, can elude censure. The internet is the great battlefield of that war, with some very fine people on both sides. We have come to dedicate a large portion of our field of attention to websites and apps as the final resting place for our opinions that they may live forever. It is not altogether fitting or proper that we should do this.
And, among the nonsense, we can no longer enjoy the love we make — in case we accidentally procreate — with abortion newly struck down. The brave women, living in dread, who struggle in fear, have old men to blame for it, and deserve nothing less than to have us now act.
The world must long note, and long remember, what he did on Jan. 6 after an election year. It is for us the voters, then, to be dedicated without fear to the unfinished but necessary work of eternal vigilance.
It is for us the voters to be dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that in spite of what we may have seen on Reddit, we take increased devotion to that cause of facts over emotion — that we hereby resolve that Gold Star families shall not have grieved in vain — that this nation, however odd, shall only give birth to freedom — and that, though we may not always get what we want from our leaders, we always get what we vote for.
Think about the last few times you ordered a glass or bottle of white wine in a restaurant. Did it show up ice cold? Odds are it did, because standard restaurant practice is to keep white wines in a fridge. As often as not, a server will bring a well-chilled bottle to the table and ask if you want an ice bucket. Just in case the wine accidentally reaches a drinkable temperature. This is thought to be a hallmark of fine wine service.
Consider what happens to a wine when it is chilled down to refrigerator or ice bucket temperature. The aromatics – a strong point for many white wines – all but vanish. The fruit flavors close up – shrinkage! The acids pop out aggressively, because everything else has been squashed. And should that wine have a flaw, such as brett or TCA, it will either be undetectable or hidden to such a degree as to seem unimportant.
From a restaurant point of view, this is all good, because it heads off many possible problems. But from where I sit, it takes away much of the pleasure that I’m paying a premium for. I’ll grant you that serving white wines at a proper drinking temperature is a challenge. Room temperature is too warm, but the easy alternatives – fridge or ice bucket – are too cold. And quite honestly, most people are so accustomed to drinking their whites really cold that they may not notice or care about what they are missing.
Russia’s first giant panda cub was born in the Moscow Zoo, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said on Wednesday. Its birth is a significant milestone and the product of a collaborative effort between Russian specialists and their Chinese counterparts.
Weighing about 150 grams, the cub was born last week to giant pandas Ru Yi and Ding Ding. The panda pair arrived in Moscow in April 2019 from China’s southwestern Sichuan province.
“The first giant panda cub in Russia’s history was born in the Moscow Zoo! This is a unique and very rare event — the result of the coordinated efforts of our specialists and their Chinese colleagues,” Sobyanin said on Telegram, describing the cub’s birth as a significant event for Russia and the international community.
He said pandas are China’s national symbol and represent its heritage. “With the efforts of the Chinese government and relevant partners over the years, the giant panda population has reached nearly 2,600, of which about 1,900 live in the wild,” he said.
The newborn is the first-ever panda cub born in Russia. Moscow Zoo called the birth “very unique”, considering that Ru Yi and Ding Ding are still quite young.
The gender of the cub is still unknown, the zoo said, adding that Ding Ding is taking good care of her baby and is being constantly monitored.
In preparation for the pandas’ arrival in 2019, Moscow Zoo renovated its pens and enclosure, and its employees had undergone several months of training at a Chinese panda breeding center to ensure proper care of the animals, Sobyanin said, noting that the transfer of pandas to another country is a “sign of great trust”.
Ru Yi and Ding Ding were brought to Moscow to mark the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
According to an agreement, two employees from China will stay in the zoo for at least 120 days a year for 15 years, supervising and training Russian employees.
Svetlana Akulova, general director of Moscow Zoo, said the pandas enjoy the climate in Moscow, as it is not too hot or humid during summer and temperatures do not drop too low during winter. They can also roll about in the snow.
Posted inAnimals|Comments Off on Russia’s 1st giant panda cub born in Moscow Zoo
Just what we need?! At the corner of Marion and Terry, this monster 46 story apartment building is planned. It will certainly dominate the sky. The Cabrini Tower is 19 stories. First Hill Plaza is 33 stories.
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