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http://insider.si.edu/2016/07/castle-corbel-chisled-basque-country-stone-carver-bernat-vidal/  
Castle corbel chisled by Basque Country stone carver Bernat Vidal  

Peering closely at the surface of the ruddy red Maryland sandstone block, Bernat Vidal sets a chisel resolutely against the stone and confidently taps it with a wood-handled mallet. With every strike, puffs of dust wisp upward, and tiny sharp chips fly off in all directions.

Vidal, unflinching, etches the beginnings of an incised line into a semi-circle that he has already coaxed out of the squared-off stone. With the easy reflex of 30 years' practice, he flicks away larger shards to reveal the beginnings of an ornate corbel to crown a stone column.

The column in question is on the west face of the Smithsonian's iconic red sandstone Castle, and the sculptor bending to the task traveled from the Basque Country, located in northern Spain and southern France, to share his craft with the public at the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The unique Seneca Creek sandstone block from a nearby quarry is very similar to the buttery sandstone Vidal chisels in his studio outside Bilbao, on Spain's northern coastline.

“We gave Mr. Vidal a couple of pieces of Seneca sandstone from our attic stock and a photograph of one of the Castle's decorative corbels,” says Paul Westerberg, registrar for the Castle Collection. “He's going to leave it unfinished and rough for us in order to show his tool marks in the stone.”

Vidal's unfinished block will eventually go on display in the Castle's Schermer Hall next to an 1846 Castle model by architect James Renwick “as a representative sample of how these carvings are made,” Westerberg adds. “People normally only see the finished product. It's rare to see something in the process of its creation. We were very happy a master stone carver was working on the Mall.”

Though once renowned in the Middle Ages for their skill, today, only a handful of traditional Basque stone workers continue the craft. Originally a painter and ceramics artist, Vidal came to the tradition almost on a whim, but became so smitten that he began to teach to the younger generation at a stone carvers' college in Bilbao 20 years ago.

Among his works: a 1.5-ton coat of arms, carved from a 6-ton block, mounted on the City Hall of Guernica, an important symbol of Basque autonomy before and after it was bombed during World War 2; and the Puerta del Mar in the Dominican Republic, commissioned in 1992 for the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas.

Vidal laments the economic realities that make even highly regarded traditional craft a lackluster prospect for Basque youth, though he hopes that his efforts in educating others and demonstrating the craft may yet bring renewed interest to the trade.

Insider writer Michelle Donahue spoke to Vidal during a lull at the Festival, and he shared some of his thoughts on the history and future of Basque traditional stone carving.

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the importance of what you do as a reflection of the Basque culture as a whole?

Vidal: Basque carvers were very important during the Crown of Castile [the consolidation of Spanish kingdoms in the 13th century]. These were carvers whose works were very much sought after, but then this art was all forgotten because all of this work was being done outside of Basque country. So, the Basque people as well as the rest of Spain have lost the tradition. For me to discover this art form was very beautiful.

Q: Was the purpose of traditional Basque stone carving originally for house building, fortress building, or some other reason?

Vidal: Historically, it was for house building and making artistic works. It was even further divided than that, with specialists in different forms. Nowadays, 80 percent is for custom work at houses, family crests, or the name of the house in stone with different designs, because in Spain traditional homes have names.

Q: How did you come to be a stone carver? Was this a family tradition?

Vidal: In the village where I lived, there was strong stone influence—not in carving, but in quarrying. Then I had the opportunity to take a carving class and I loved it, the complexity of the rock. It was something that filled me.

Q: Was it easy for you to master?

Vidal: It wasn't too easy, but it wasn't too difficult, either. When you are absolutely dedicated to something, you slowly begin to master it.
Has your work attracted the interest of young people who want to learn from you?
Approximately 20 years ago, I was a professor at the stone carvers college in Bilbao. But now with the economic crisis in Spain, few are interested. It's a tough and dirty job, and people nowadays prefer to be in front of a computer.

Q:What do you hope people here learn from your work?

Vidal: By virtue of seeing it here, people can value the effort that is required to do this kind of work, and that there are very few people who actually do this. Truthfully, I've been surprised—people have been very interested in all of the aspects of my work, with a desire to learn [about] my craft.

Q: How do you find the experience of carving the Castle stone compared to the others you've worked with?

Vidal: It's intriguing. Where I'm from in Navarre there is also a different kind of red stone that looks exactly the same. But upon a closer look there are differences—that one has larger grains and it's more abrasive, whereas this one is much finer and is very malleable, but breaks very easily.

Q: How long will it take you to complete this piece?

Vidal: It's difficult to say. It's a very detail-oriented job. I'd calculate that if I was back in my shop, I'd say about a week.

Q: Will you take it back and finish it or will you stay here until it's completed?

Vidal: I can always send it back because it would be great to show all of the phases of the work, so others can see what is necessary to prepare a stone for carving. But the Basques also like this type of stonework, so they might want to keep it! [laughs]

The post Castle corbel chisled by Basque Country stone carver Bernat Vidal appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
culture  

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http://insider.si.edu/2016/07/monitoring-seafood-catch-data/  
Monitoring seafood catch data  

Knowing what we take from our oceans matters. Smithsonian scientists are developing tools to better understand and protect our oceans. One project they are working on is a mobile app that collects catch data from remote fishing communities. Find out more at ourfish.org

The post Monitoring seafood catch data appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.

 
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http://movieposteroftheday.tumblr.com/post/147053662257  
US one sheet for ON MY WAY TO THE CRUSADES, I MET A GIRL...  

US one sheet for ON MY WAY TO THE CRUSADES, I MET A GIRL WHO… aka THE CHASTITY BELT (Pasquale Festa Campanile, Italy, 1969)

Designer: uncredited

Poster source: Heritage Auctions

 
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160707131810.htm  
Beating heart of the Crab Nebula  
Peering deep into the core of the Crab Nebula, this close-up image reveals the beating heart of one of the most historic and intensively studied remnants of a supernova, an exploding star.  
astronomy  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Falice-cunningham%2Fremembering-the-seeds-of-_b_10742950.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
Remembering The Seeds Of Freedom  
In America's early days, the nation's founders required a potent symbol to communicate the concept of freedom. In colonial Boston, the symbol that became synonymous with freedom was an elm tree.

The Liberty Tree, as it came to be known, was a gathering place for advocates for freedom. Though eventually cut down by opponents, its symbolic resonance only grew, gracing flags and pins, with elms being planted throughout the new nation.

This week following Independence Day, and throughout this summer, I hope that we can all remember the Liberty Tree and why it was such a powerful symbol. And, why the growth that it promises may continue to resonate as we undertake a new struggle for freedom.

The struggle we now face is no less a campaign for self-determination than the American Revolution. Much like the Revolution, what is at stake is personal freedom and the ability to choose your own destiny.

It is a struggle over the freedom to choose what you can grow and eat; each of us is involved, whether we know it or not. The right to choose seems basic. Indeed, you may assume that farmers have the ability to save and exchange seed that they are growing our food with, but you would be wrong.

Seeds are a gift of nature, the result of centuries of labor by farmers worldwide who have conserved heirloom seeds and thousands of natural varieties. But over the past few decades, legislation restricting access to seeds helped diminish small farmers' holdings and have established industrial agriculture as globally dominant.

Under certain laws, seed varieties must undergo complicated tests and registration procedures. Costly and lengthy processes, these favor companies with deep pockets that produce seeds -- many of them genetically modified -- dependent upon chemicals for their cultivation.

The putative goal of these laws is to protect food security. The ironic result is that our food security -- both in the U.S. and globally -- is threatened due to a lack of agro-biodiversity. As we face the uncertainty of climate change, we need more, rather than less, types of seed capable of flourishing under conditions such as drought, insects or flood.

With a handful of global seed companies monopolizing the market, we have handed our freedoms over to corporate boards. Right now, according to the ETC Group, six multinationals control 75% of all private-sector plant breeding research, 60% of the commercial seed market and 76% of global agrochemical sales.

New laws which make it illegal for farmers to save and exchange seed are a further threat. Ethically and ecologically unjustified, seed patents grant exclusive rights for inventions; but, seed is not an invention. Further, genetically engineered seeds contaminate our farms, removing the option for GMO-free food.

That's untenable. It's time for a declaration of independence that recognizes that seed is the source of life and seed freedom is the birthright of every farmer and food producer. Seed Freedom -- an initiative created by activist, author and scientist Dr. Vandana Shiva -- has done just that: created the Declaration on Seed Freedom. It's very much needed right now.

We the people should also secure the right of farmers to save, exchange, evolve, breed and sell seed. This guarantees the right of all people to food freedom, the right to know what we are putting in our bodies and the right to exercise self-determination every time we step into a market. As growers and eaters, remember that our choices -- our demand to eat and grow foods that are the products of natural and organic agriculture -- provide moral and monetary support for this struggle.

As we think back on the birth of our independence, it's clear why the patriots chose a tree as the symbol of liberty and why we can use this symbol today. The most basic of liberties is the right to choose and that right has deep roots in our democracy. Farmers and gardeners are right now struggling to regain that right. This movement is growing, sending roots deeper and shoots upward, but it isn't over. We need all of you who care to help fight for this most basic of freedoms -- the freedom of choice.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
gaia  

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Time Out, America  
Can American communities repair the broken interface between citizens and keepers of the peace?  
gaia  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Fsteve-zwick%2Fwar-peace-and-climate-how_b_10885768.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgreen%26ir%3DGreen&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
War, Peace, and Climate: How Carbon Trading Can Help Avert Resource Wars  
This story first appeared on Ecosystem Marketplace.

Liberian environmentalist Silas Siakor knows all too well what can happen to a fragile nation when a dictator hijacks its commodity sector, as warlord Charles Taylor did in the 1990s - first by using slave labor and "blood diamonds" to finance a devastating civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, and then by spreading that war to Guinea and commandeering the presidency of Liberia itself.

Siakor helped expose Taylor's use of "conflict timber" to finance those bloody wars, and he helped make sure farmers, conservationists, and commercial enterprises all had a role in restructuring the forest sector once the sanctions were removed - a process that Art Blundell, who chaired the UN Panel of Experts on Liberia, credits with keeping the country's current peace alive.

He cautions, however, that Liberia's peace is the exception that proves the rule.


Art Blundell

"The UN Environment Programme says that natural resources are a factor in about 40% of conflicts since the end of the Cold War, and they are often a driver," Blundell said at last month's Oslo REDD Exchange in Norway, where he presented findings from recent analysis conducted on behalf of Ecosystem Marketplace publisher Forest Trends. "But if you look at peace agreements, only about 15% of them mention natural resources, let alone call for reforms of governance in a way that will minimize the role of resources in causing future conflict."

The result, he said in a recent episode of the Bionic Planet podcast, is tragic: "More than half of peace agreements fail within five years, often because belligerents get money from the exploitation of natural resources, like logging, that they can use to fuel the resumption of civil war."

Liberia has so far avoided slipping back into that cycle, in part because it tore up corrupt concessions and started with a clean slate on forest governance. That peace, however, has a downside of its own: without civil war, the forests are now safe for illegal logging - which is often carried out not by ruthless logging companies, but by desperate farmers looking to feed their families.

As the government steps in to save forests, it risks pitting conservationists against small farmers - something Siakor says has already happened.

"The government has tried to impose [conservation] projects on the people - in protected areas - but people have resisted, and they're very active in this resistance," he said at the Oslo REDD Exchange. "The government had to roll back [its conservation efforts] and grant the community the right to manage that particular forest."

This story has been adapted from the Bionic Planet episode "Climate, Conflict, and Commodities: The Calculus of Peace on a Changing Planet", which is available on iTunes, TuneIn, Stitcher, and elsewhere.

Siakor sees a more workable solution in President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's efforts to tap carbon finance through the United Nations REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation of forests, plus other land uses) initiative, which aims to slow deforestation by funding sustainable agriculture initiatives so that farmers aren't forced to chop trees - a process that aligns the interests of small farmers with those of the forest and also promotes the kind of governance associated with lasting peace.


Silas Siakor

Such initiatives have proven successful in several Latin American and African countries, and forest-carbon projects are currently being used to conserve forested areas larger than the entire Democratic Republic of Congo, according to the most recent State of Forest Carbon Finance report. Both Siakor and Blundell say that REDD+ can support the peace process in war-torn areas, but only if its implemented in ways that recognize the challenges particular to war-torn regions.

"REDD programs working in the countries have to remember that people have been traumatized," said Blundell, adding that traumatized people are slow to develop trust. "You have to understand the history of the conflict, the legacy of that conflict in the present, and your interaction with it."

Understanding REDD+

For a deeper understanding of REDD+ and forest carbon, check out:
REDD Dawn: The Birth Of Forest Carbon
How Markets And Mother Earth Each Found A Home In The Paris Climate Accord

Liberia, Colombia, Myanmar: States of Readiness

Liberia began overhauling its forest governance more than a decade ago - when REDD+ was still in its infancy - but Colombia and Myanmar are now struggling to implement peace agreements. Colombia's peace agreement explicitly builds on resource reform, says the country's Vice Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Pablo Viera Samper, while Myanmar's peace agreement gives short shrift to resource management, says Saw Frankie Abreu, the director of Myanmar's Tenasserim River and Indigenous People's Network (TRIP NET). Both men see a potential for REDD+ in supporting resource management.

"When you're designing a REDD programme, the main objective is not [to get] money for planting trees," said Samper, who said that, from his perspective, the role of REDD+ is to "transform those drivers that are resulting in deforestation into more sustainable activities that will lead to a reduction of the conflict - social, environmental - and generate opportunity's, generate jobs, and generate income for the population."

REDD+ and Peacebuilding: Untapped Potential

Blundell's analysis shows that more than half of the countries developing REDD+ initiatives have experienced organized armed conflict since 2008, when the UN first started considering REDD finance.


Pablo Viera Samper

"The governance reform that's required for peace building is very much what is also required by REDD Readiness," he said in Oslo, referring to the process of getting a country's ducks in a row. To be "REDD Ready," countries must not only be able to demonstrate that the government can accurately monitor its forests, but also to show that their forest people and small farmers are engaged in the governing process.

"REDD+ offers a plausible alternative to sectors that have contributed to conflict, such as industrial forestry and plantation agriculture, and governance reform associated with REDD readiness can contribute to 'environmental peacebuilding'," his analysis states. "But to be effective, REDD+ must address challenges unique to countries attempting to recover from conflict."

Key Challenge: Spoilers

Blundell said that "spoilers" present a common challenge in war-torn areas.

"These are people who did well through war...and they can take advantage of grievance to go back to war to protect their own self-interest: their power and money streams," he said.

Siakor agreed, and said that Liberia's reforms were designed to make sure no vested interests are in a position to disrupt forest governance.

"We are building on the good elements of reform that have been initiated, bearing in mind the possibility that some of the spoilers could take advantage of it's not designed very well," said Siakur. "The logging companies come at the very top, wanting business-as-usual."

Ironically, Blundell says, Liberia's forest reforms are not enshrined in the peace agreement itself, but instead emerged from the agricultural and environmental communities, with support from the World Bank and some outside governments.

The Siren Song of Industrial Forestry

REDD+ proponents also face a perception problem: namely, that money flows quickly and abundantly from massive soy and palm plantations, but trickles only slowly from REDD+.


Saw Frankie Abreu

Blundell says both perceptions are wrong, and Samper adds that even when money does flow to illegal or industrial activities, it rarely makes its way to the laborers on the ground.

"If...the actual miners or the people who are growing the coca leaves (for cocaine production) were receiving the economic benefits from their products, then it would be very difficult [to win support for REDD+ or sustainable agriculture], but the reality is that the [laborers] make very little money," he said. "The reality is that they are under a situation where they are, a lot of times, forced to do this work; and the reality is that, when you talk to them, they all say that, given an opportunity, they would move away from those activities."

REDD+ funding tends to flow more effectively to farmers, and it also flows earlier than it did in the past, when payments for performance only followed after years of validation and verification. Today, payments tend to come intermittently over the course of a project, and more money should flow as companies implement the Paris Agreement.

"Right now, the question that people ask is, 'Where will the money come from to pay for the carbon?  Are you relying on the market?  Will there be sufficient money?'" he says, adding that mining companies have given more than $80 million towards local communities in the last few years.

This is the first of a two-part series. Click here or check back next week for Part Two.

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Perfect storm hits Taiwan as China sees worst floods in 20 years  
Super-typhoon Nepartak has hit Taiwan's east coast hard. It is expected to make landfall in China which is struggling with its worst floods since 1998  
gaia  

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Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas  

A million pirates yelled 'splice the mainbrace, me hearty!'

Comment Rolls-Royce and the Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications Initiative (AAWA) believe the future of cargo transportation is autonomous and they have published an 88 page white paper (PDF) to prove it.…

 
science  

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New ISS crew will spend their time bombarding computers with radiation  

And seeing what happens to your bones in zero-G

Three new astronauts currently rocketing up to space in the Soyuz spacecraft will be conducting new experiments, including sequencing DNA and blasting computers with radiation.…

 
science  

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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.theatlantic.com%2Fvideo%2Findex%2F489455%2Fthe-art-and-business-of-creating-life-like-baby-dolls%2F%3Futm_source%3Dfeed&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8  
The Art and Business of Creating Life-Like Baby Dolls  

Jean Campbell is dedicated to her craft—building “reborn” dolls that bear a shocking resemblance to real-life babies. In this short documentary, Reborning, Campbell explains the meticulous process of creating these dolls, and her motivations behind doing so. She says goal for the finished product is to have a doll that is indistinguishable from the real thing: "You want it to be so real-looking that heads turn and say, 'Oh what a beautiful baby, can I hold it?'"

The film is produced, directed, and edited by Yael Bridge and Helen Hood Scheer, who also served as cinematographer. Bridge is currently working on the feature-length documentary Saving Capitalism, and Scheer is an Assistant Professor at California State University Long Beach in the Department of Film and Electronic Arts.

 
general  

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Photos of the Day: July 8, 2016  

Explore the news of the day with these images from around the world.  
images  

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Photos of the Week 7/2-7/8 (35 photos)  

Tears for Alton Sterling, haute-couture fashion, a swollen river in China, a rocket to the International Space Station, gorgeous goldfish, Eid al-Fitr in a 14th century mosque, lightning strikes the Las Vegas strip,  and much more.

 
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r0B0t: AI system sifts through drinker feedback to make tastier beer - Inquirer  

Inquirer

AI system sifts through drinker feedback to make tastier beer Inquirer ROBOT-MADE BEER is now a thing thanks to the IntelligentX Brewing Company, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to fine-tune beer to the taste buds of piss heads connoisseurs. The brewer joined forces with machine learning company Intelligent Layer ... This beer has been brewed with an AIAlphr Your next bottle of beer could well be brewed by an artificial intelligenceT3 Beer brewed with the help of AI? Yup, that's now a thingWired.co.uk CNET -Science World Report -Forbes -Engadget all 11 news articles »

 
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Ferdinand von Zeppelin Scientist of the Day Count Ferdinand...  

http://welweb.org/ThenandNow/images/Graf-Zeppelin.jpg


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1972-099-15,_Ferdinand_Graf_Zeppelin_am_Schreibtisch.jpg


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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeppelin#/media/File:Graf_Zeppelin_stamp_65c_1930_issue.jpg


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Los_Angeles_(ZR-3)#/media/File:ZR3_USS_Los_Angeles_an_Kriegsschiff.jpg

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Scientist of the Day

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, a German aeronautical inventor, was born July 8, 1838.

read more…

 
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Sunset north London  

Leo Hidalgo (@yompyz) posted a photo:

Instagram: @yompyz

 
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she by Nikolay Tikhomirov  

she by Nikolay Tikhomirov

Nikolay Tikhomirov: Photos

 
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flower by Nikolay Tikhomirov  

flower by Nikolay Tikhomirov

Nikolay Tikhomirov: Photos

 
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Final Jump by Julien Orre  

Final Jump by Julien Orre

Thank you so much for viewing my images ! FollowMy Facebook Page and My Instagram

Julien Orre: Photos

 
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Les yeux dans les yeux... by Michael Pierre-Louis  

Les yeux dans les yeux... by Michael Pierre-Louis

Dans les yeux de Sophie...

Michael Pierre-Louis: Photos

 
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Green valley by Sergy Shaby  

Green valley by Sergy Shaby

From june's trip

Sergy Shaby: Photos

 
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http://twitter.com/ehiebewele/status/751394553886806017 
CITES is Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora @FMEnvng 
http://ifttt.com/missing_link?1467982188 

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Does the UK comparatively underinvests in meningitis research?  
Recent research by the UK's Wellcome Trust ¹ suggests that when it comes to infectious disease, the UK is not proportionately investing public funds in meningitis research as much as it should. And it hasn't been for a long time.



In the Research Investments (ResIn) in Global Health report, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, meningitis is shown to be the 5th largest communicable disease killer (303,500 deaths globally in 2013), but only ranks 17th for public investments proportionate to the number of deaths caused by the disease in that same year.

The UK's average spend per infectious disease death is over 10 times higher across all causes than it is for meningitis. We spend only £29 on meningitis compared to an average of £337 for all causes combined.

Total UK research investments from public bodies and research charities into infectious diseases between 1997 and 2013 totalled over £3.7 billion.

Of this, meningitis received just £91m - or 2.4% of the total.

This 2.4% is for a disease that consistently ranks in the UK as the condition parents most want their children vaccinated against.

Our course, this study is only part of the picture. It does not include investments from the private sector - most notably pharmaceutical companies. A total picture would be very useful. But it is a good window into where public and charity money is going now.

Meningitis Research Foundation and our incredible supporters do everything possible to make sure meningitis research is a priority in this country. With their support, we have invested nearly £20 million in research over the past 30 years. But elsewhere in the public domain, I am increasingly worried that meningitis is somehow slipping into the 'job done' category in the UK and nothing could be further from the truth.

Some of my fears will be tested next Monday when we await news from the Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation (JCVI) about whether they have recommended the MenB vaccine for extension to under 2 year olds. If it isn't it will be interesting to hear on what grounds.

At the same time we still await detailed plans for the teenage evaluation of the MenB vaccine despite the JCVI recommending this two years ago. And we want to know when the cost effectiveness working party recommendations will be made public so everyone can see and question whether these are fair.

So we're a long way from eradicating this dreadful disease and this is no time for the UK to take its foot off the gas. It's time to put the money, and action, where the facts indicate they should go.

References
¹Research Investments in Global Health: A Systematic Analysis of UK Infectious Disease Research Funding and Global HealthMetrics, 1997-2013, Head et al, 2015, published in EBiomedicine
²Called Investment per mortality observed.

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