• Early in her career, Ernestine Schumann-Heink studied the lead role of Carmen. At first, she learned the part by ear, then she studied various performances of Carmen, learning something from each performance. Unfortunately, after she sang the role professionally for the first time - in an emergency and without a rehearsal - the conductor, Gustav Mahler, laughed and said that she had memorized the mistakes of all the different Carmens she had seen and heard. (She was a hit, nevertheless.)
• Mezzo Mignon Dunn was five-foot-nine, and many of her fellow male opera singers were shorter than she, so on stage she often sang with her knees bent. However, one day director Tyrone Guthrie saw her doing that and asked, "You cow, what on earth are you doing?" Afterward, she sang with unbended knees.
• Tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi was proud of his sustained high notes. In Trovatore in Rome, he raised his sword and hit a sustained high-C note, but a curtain fell too quickly, in his opinion. Still singing the high-C note, he parted the curtain and brandished his sword, finishing the note when he felt like it.
• Each time soprano Birgit Nilsson returned to sing at the Metropolitan Opera, general manager Rudolf Bing got on his knees before her. After he had been knighted, he kneeled again at her return to the Met, and she told him, "You do that much better since you practiced it for the Queen."
Politics
• Steve Earle's life has been more interesting than most, although except for the music and the moments of happiness, that may not be a good thing. For example, in 1994 he kicked heroin - after spending four months in jail. Also, he had seven failed marriages before marrying fellow musician Allison Moorer. Mr. Earle says, "Trust me, when you've been married as many times as I have, you figure out that you're at least part of the problem." Giving up heroin and stopping being an alcoholic just might help marriage number eight to work. By the way, Mr. Earle is interested in politics, although some politicians are not interested in him. At a political event, a friend wanted a photograph of Mr. Earle with Al and Tipper Gore, but Mr. Earle says that the Gores "pretty much levitated [in] trying to avoid it." During the 2008 Democratic Presidential primary contest between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Mr. Earle said, "It does make a difference to me if it's Clinton or Obama, but I won't publicly go on record to say which one I prefer. I've learned it probably doesn't benefit the candidate for me to do that."
• Mandy Patinkin is an excellent singer, although he is best known for his performance in Rob Reiner's movie The Princess Bride, in which he said these famous lines: "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." His singing has touched people. He says, "Generally, you have very little connection with the audience - to whoever is buying the CDs. But individuals have come up to me and said, 'I can't tell you how you got me through chemotherapy, or my father's death, or the death of my child.' You just don't know how people are using the music." During the 2008 United States Presidential campaign, he went door to door to urge people to vote for Barack Obama. Mr. Obama, who became President Obama, certainly had an enthusiastic organization. One irritated woman told him, "Will you tell your supervisors that four people have already come by today?" Mr. Patinkin remembers, "Then a minute later she came running over - I guess her neighbor had told her who I am - and she says, 'Oh, my God. I'm so sorry. Will you come in and have some salmon?' I said, 'No, no. It's OK. Just vote for Obama.'"
Canopus, also designated a Carinae, Latinised to Alpha Carinae, is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina and the second-brightest star in the night sky. With a visual apparent magnitude of -0.74, it is outshone only by Sirius. Its proper name is generally considered to originate from the mythological Canopus, who was a navigator for Menelaus, king of Sparta.
Located around 310 light-years from the Sun, Canopus is a bright giant of spectral type A9 or F0, so it is essentially white when seen with the naked eye. It has a luminosity over 10,000 times the luminosity of the Sun, is eight times as massive, and has expanded to 71 times the Sun's radius. Its enlarged photosphere has an effective temperature of around 7,400 K. Canopus is undergoing core helium burning and is currently in the so-called blue loop phase of its evolution, having already passed through the red-giant branch after exhausting the hydrogen in its core. Canopus is a source of X-rays, which are likely being emitted from its corona.
The prominent appearance of Canopus means it has been the subject of mythological lore among many ancient peoples. The acronychal rising marked the date of the Ptolemaia festival in Egypt. In Hinduism, it was named Agastya after the revered Vedic sage. For Chinese astronomers, it was known as the Old Man of the South Pole.
Source
Billy in Cypress U$A was first, and correct, with:
Canopus also referred to as a Carinae is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Carina. It is the second-brightest star in the night sky, after Sirius.
Mark. said:
Sirius.
Alan J answered:
Canopus.
Dave wrote:
Canopus. It is only half as bright as Sirius in the earth's night sky. Bright giant star Canopus is 310 light years from our sun, is 8 times the sun's size and is 10,000 times as bright. Many Americans have never seen Canopus because it is not visible in the northern US states. Venus is the second brightest object in the night sky after the moon.
Cal in Vermont replied:
Sirius, at least in Northern climes. Not kidding. I'm serious here. I will see myself out.
Mac Mac responded:
Sirius
zorch said:
Canopus.
Barbara, of Peppy Tech fame wrote:
The answer is Canopus.
Deborah, the Master Gardener, responded:
Canopus, which I'd not heard of until I looked up the question. All kinds of learning here…
The illegal fireworks weren't too bad yesterday or Friday. The pup barks, the rehome barks because the pup barks, and the old dog has no f*cks to give either way. I'm ready for some peace and quiet, though.
Randall wrote:
Sirius
. . . the Dog Star
mj took the day off.
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BttbBob has returned to semi-retired status.
~~~~~
Music: "Teeside Guitar" from the album THE CELESTIAL SOUNDS OF THE SPACE AGENCY
Artist: The Space Agency
Artist Location: Hove, UK
Info: "Formed in 2002 by Simon Jones from England, Hiromi Jones from Japan & Andrew Bowler from Wales, they have released four albums of their unique, out of this world Instrumental Sounds."
Christopher Miller (a fan) wrote, "This one is a buffet of stylings compared to their earlier releases. A few are old favorites (Bomb Pots). Some of it is just plain Weird (the Munchies). I would expect no less from the Space Agency! To Sum it up in a word … Eclectic. Favorite track: Bombay Potatoes."
Simon Jones - Lead Guitar, Guitar
Hiromi Jones - Baritone Guitar
Andrew Bowler - Drums
Price: £1 (GBP) for track; 7£ (GBP) for 12-track album
Fireworks here in the 'burbs were LOUD--louder than I've ever heard them before, and they went on for hours. Normally, they don't bother me, but I kept jumping out of my skin. Local weather forecasts today talked about the haze caused by the fireworks for Predator's latest tax-payer financed hate rally. First time ever that I've heard local weather forecasts talk about haze caused by Fourth celebrations.
Linda >^..^<
We are all only temporarily able bodied.
The shittens are back to bringing in sticks - left one on my pillow this morning.
Tonight, Monday:
CBS opens the night with a RERUN'The Neighborhood', followed by a RERUN'Bob Hearts Abishola', then a RERUN'All Rise', followed by a RERUN'Bull'.
On a RERUNStephen Colbert (from 6/9/20) are Emmanuel Acho and Chris Wallace.
On a RERUNJames Corden, OBE, (from 4/27/20) are Joe Jonas and Yungblud.
NBC begins the night with a FRESH'The Titan Games', followed by a RERUN'The Wall', then 'Dateline'.
On a RERUNJimmy Fallon (from 4/13/20) are Blake Shelton, Kenan Thompson, and Gwen Stefani.
On a RERUNSeth Meyers (from 5/14/20) are Amy Schumer, Chris Fischer, and Graham Norton.
On a RERUNLilly Singh (from 3/4/20) are Jo Koy and Erinn Hayes.
ABC fills the night with a FRESH'The Bachelor'.
Scheduled on a FRESHJimmy Kimmel, with guest host Anthony Anderson, are Tracee Ellis Ross, and Mayor Muriel Bowser.
The CW offers a FRESH'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', followed by a RERUN'Whose Line Is It Anyway?', then a FRESH'Penn & Teller: Fool Us'.
Faux has a RERUN'9-1-1', followed by a RERUN'9-1-1: Lone Star'.
MY recycles an old 'L&O: SVU', followed by another old 'L&O: SVU'.
AMC offers the movie 'Godzilla', followed by the movie 'Wakefield', then the movie 'Godzilla'.
BBC -
[6:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Change of Heart
[7:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
[8:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Inquisition
[9:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - In the Pale Moonlight
[10:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - His Way
[11:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Reckoning
[12:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Valiant
[1:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Profit and Lace
[2:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Time's Orphan
[3:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - The Sound of Her Voice
[4:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Tears of the Prophets
[5:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Image in the Sand
[6:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Shadows and Symbols
[7:00PM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Afterimage
[8:00PM] APOLLO 13
[11:00PM] APOLLO 13
[2:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Change of Heart
[3:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night
[4:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - Inquisition
[5:00AM] STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - In the Pale Moonlight (ALL TIMES ET)
Bravo has 'Below Deck Mediterranean', followed by a FRESH'Below Deck Mediterranean', then another FRESH'Below Deck Mediterranean', and another 'Below Deck Mediterranean'.
FX has the movie 'Hidden Figures', followed by the movie 'Hidden Figures', again.
History has 'American Pickers', another 'American Pickers', followed by a FRESH'American Pickers', then a FRESH'Pawn Stars'.
IFC -
[6:00A] The Three Stooges - Cash and Carry
[6:30A] Point Break
[9:30A] Lethal Weapon 3
[12:15P] Lethal Weapon 4
[3:00P] That '70s Show
[3:30P] That '70s Show
[4:00P] That '70s Show
[4:30P] That '70s Show
[5:00P] That '70s Show
[5:30P] That '70s Show
[6:00P] Two and a Half Men
[6:30P] Two and a Half Men
[7:00P] Two and a Half Men
[7:30P] Two and a Half Men
[8:00P] Two and a Half Men
[8:30P] Two and a Half Men
[9:00P] Two and a Half Men
[9:30P] Two and a Half Men
[10:00P] Two and a Half Men
[10:30P] Two and a Half Men
[11:00P] Two and a Half Men
[11:30P] Two and a Half Men
[12:00A] Two and a Half Men
[12:30A] Two and a Half Men
[1:00A] Annabelle
[3:15A] Piranha 3D
[5:15A] The Three Stooges - Cash and Carry
[5:45A] The Three Stooges - Fright Night (ALL TIMES ET)
Sundance -
[6:00am] hogan's heroes
[6:30am] hogan's heroes
[7:00am] hogan's heroes
[7:30am] hogan's heroes
[8:00am] hogan's heroes
[8:30am] hogan's heroes
[9:00am] hogan's heroes
[9:30am] hogan's heroes
[10:00am] hogan's heroes
[10:30am] hogan's heroes
[11:00am] hogan's heroes
[11:30am] hogan's heroes
[12:00pm] hogan's heroes
[12:30pm] hogan's heroes
[1:00pm] hogan's heroes
[1:30pm] hogan's heroes
[2:00pm] hogan's heroes
[2:30pm] the naked gun: from the files of police squad!
[4:30pm] crocodile dundee ii
[7:00pm] hap and leonard - Savage Season
[8:01pm] hap and leonard - The Bottoms
[9:02pm] hap and leonard - The Dive
[10:02pm] hap and leonard - Trudy
[11:02pm] hap and leonard - War
[12:02am] hap and leonard - Eskimos
[1:02am] the mexican
[4:00am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c.
[4:30am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c.
[5:00am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c.
[5:30am] gomer pyle, u.s.m.c. (ALL TIMES ET)
SyFy has the movie 'Jurassic Park III', followed by the movie 'Edward Scissorhands'.
A day after Axl Rose tweeted criticism directed toward the U.S. Surgeon General, the Guns N' Roses singer penned a July 4th message defending his political outspokenness.
"My disdain 4 [our] current administration n' what I perceive as its threat to [our] democracy is no secret," Rose wrote; while the singer isn't active on social media, when he does use Twitter, it's often to criticize Donald Trump (R-Buffoon) and his cabinet.
"In general my posts in regard to current events, politics or social issues [are] usually coming from a sense of outrage, obligation n' responsibility to say something at times when I feel not to is being complicit (as opposed to a desire for attention or self promotion)," Rose continued.
"I'm nobody, just a citizen that like everyone else has my own opinions n' believes in my heart that ultimately I want what's best for not just [our] country but for humanity, wildlife n' [our] environment n' other's as opposed to right, left or any other wing fascism [are] at least in this country free to disagree."
On July 3rd, Rose slammed U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams after he appeared in an interview and refused to comment on whether or not U.S. citizens - in the midst of a pandemic - should attend July 4th parties. "Jerome Adams is a: A coward b: A POS c: Both," Rose tweeted. "Resign. U don't deserve the job or title. America deserves better."
The Minnesota town where one of the most famous scenes from Prince's movie "Purple Rain" was filmed has unveiled a life-sized bronze statue of The Purple One in a garden filled with purple flowers and other tributes to the artist.
A mural of Prince leaning on a Little Red Corvette looks down on the statue, which was installed on June 28 in Henderson, Minnesota.
Fans of the 1984 film will recognize Henderson from the Lake Minnetonka scene where actress Apollonia Kotero's character jumped into the frigid water only to learn that it was not Lake Minnetonka.
The statue cost $40,000, with most of the money coming from fans, who gave $100 to have their names included on a bronze donor plaque, according to Joel King of the Prince Legacy Henderson Project.
Frank Sinatra's daughter says her father "loathed" Donald Trump after the president paid tribute to him in a speech and suggested his inclusion in a planned monument to American heroes.
Actress and activist Mia Farrow, who was once married to Sinatra, tweeted: "Frank Sinatra would have loathed Donald Trump."
To which his daughter, Nancy Sinatra, responded: "He actually did loathe him."
In 1990 Frank Sinatra reportedly told Donald Trump to "go f*** himself" after he took issue with the singer's financial demands, a 2017 book claimed.
Old Blue Eyes was due to perform at the opening of Mr Trump's Atlantic City casino in 1990 when the magnate was said to have told him his costs were "a little rich". On hearing the news, Sinatra gave his manager Elliot Weisman - in whose memoir the anecdote appears - two options, either to pass his message to Mr Trump or give him his number and he would do it himself.
President Donald Trump (R-Failure) is being trolled on Twitter after footage of a man singing a Bruno Mars song at his Fourth of July event at the White House was shared online.
Many of the president's critics were quick to point out that former President Barack Obama had the real Bruno Mars perform at his Fourth of July party in 2015, calling it "a tale of two presidents."
"Perfect anology [sic] for the deterioration at the White House: 5 years ago the real Bruno Mars performed at the White House," one user wrote on Twitter while retweeting the video of Trump's celebration.
In the footage, the military personnel could be heard singing Mars and Mark Ronson's 2014 song "Uptown Funk." Many critics also pointed out the relatively empty seats at Trump's event, which was largely criticized for still taking place amid the coronavirus pandemic.
At the celebration, dubbed "Salute to America," the president gave an inflammatory speech making a number of claims that did not reflect the reality of the dramatic surge in cases around the country. "We've made a lot of progress, our strategy is moving along well," said the president, who did not wear a face mask. "It goes out in one area and rears back its ugly face in another area, but we've learned a lot. We've learned how to put out the flame."
The U.K. government announced that Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has already spoken with Tom Cruise about how the exemption will allow production to resume on 'Mission: Impossible 7.'
The U.K. Government will allow a number of film and television productions to be exempt from following quarantine rules and resume filming safely this summer.
The government announced the exemption Sunday in hopes of allowing production of international blockbusters to get underway. The exemption only applies to those traveling to England. Exempted individuals are set to live and work in controlled "bubbled" environments that will only include their production and accommodation locations.
Apart from Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, Universal is also expected to resume filming on Jurassic World: Dominion starring Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard on July 6 at Pinewood, Preproduction kicked off in June.
Individuals traveling to England to work on film and television productions qualify as British under one of the government's cultural tests or official co-production treaties. A new government guidance will be published later this week that will allow a limited number of essential cast and crew to travel to the U.K. without needing to quarantine for 14 days. The government attributed the screen industry's progress to the BFI's Industry COVID-19 Screen Sector Task Force and the British film Commission's new production guidance announced in May.
Berlin's public transport company BVG said on Saturday that completing the renaming of a city centre metro station with a name based on a derogatory word for Black people will take until the end of the year.
"Mohrenstrasse" metro station literally means Moor Street, using the medieval term for people from North Africa.
It will be renamed after another nearby street, Glinkastrasse, named after 19th century Russian composer Mikhail Ivanovich Glinka.
BVG said on Friday it would change the station name, amid a worldwide reckoning with buried legacies of racism and colonial crimes underpinning many western societies, sparked by the death in the United States of George Floyd, a Black man, at the hands of a police officer.
Last month, unidentified activists taped over the station's entrance, temporarily naming it "George Floyd Street".
Paris police blocked anti-racism groups from leading a "de-colonial tour" of Paris on Sunday to call attention to monuments and streets honoring historical figures tied to the slave trade or colonial-era abuses.
Instead, the protesters marched around a monument in front of the French capital's Museum of Immigration, waving signs with proposed new street names and symbolically "renaming" them with each circle.
A Paris police official said the organizers failed to declare their march route properly and so were held in place. The city has seen several protests in recent weeks against police brutality, racial injustice or economic injustice, and some have erupted in tensions.
Sunday's protest wrapped up peacefully.
While statues have fallen across the U.S. and in some other European countries amid the global anti-racism movement following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis on May 25, the response to such monuments in France so far has been more muted.
Researchers diving into dark submerged caves on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula have found evidence of an ambitious mining operation starting 12,000 years ago and lasting two millennia for red ochre, an earth mineral pigment prized by prehistoric peoples.
More than 100 dives totaling more than 600 hours in Quintana Roo state turned up numerous mining artifacts, the scientists said on Friday. These included ochre extraction pits, digging tools like hammerstones and small piledrivers made of stalagmites, markers that helped the miners navigate the extensive cave network and hearths used to provide light. The caves were not underwater at the time of the mining.
The mining was undertaken as human populations first spread through the region. The caves subsequently were abandoned for millennia before becoming submerged roughly 8,000 years ago amid rising sea levels after the last Ice Age.
Researchers previously had found human skeletons in the caves but had not identified why people were there.
Ochre is believed to have offered uses including painting objects and bodies, mortuary practices and perhaps hide tanning.
Nature is a brutal place, so during brooding, chinstrap and Adélie penguins are reluctant to leave their eggs unguarded in the nest-even to relieve themselves. But one also does not wish to sully the nest with feces. So instead, a brooding penguin will hunker down, point its rear end away from the nest, lift its tail, and let fly a projectile of poo-thereby ensuring both the safety of the eggs and the cleanliness of the nest.
Back in 2003, two intrepid physicists became fascinated by this behavior and were inspired to calculate the answer to a burning question: just how much pressure can those penguins generate to propel their feces away from the edge of their nests? Answer: about three times more pressure than a human could produce. That paper earned them a 2005 Ig Nobel Prize and lasting glory among those obsessed with pooping penguins. Now, a pair of a Japanese scientists has weighed in on the matter, calculating the projectile trajectory of expelled feces and recalculating the rectal pressure. These scientists reported on their findings in a draft paper they posted to the physics arXiv.
According to Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow of the Research Institute of Luminous Organisms in Japan, a co-author of the original 2003 paper, these fecal findings all started with an expedition he led to Antarctica. Although he was collecting samples of local marine worms and tiny terrestrial insects called springworms for further study, he also took copious photographs of the many penguins in the region, which he used in his lectures. During a seminar at Kitasato University in Japan, a young woman asked about a slide showing a penguin brooding on its nest, wondering about the white and pink lines radiating outward. She interpreted them as "decoration" and asked how the penguins made them.
"I explained that a penguin stands up, moves to the edge of its nest, turns around, lifts its tail, and then shoots from its rear, which leaves a 30-40 cm long streak of semi-liquid whitish stuff behind," Meyer-Rochow wrote in a 2019 blog post. "Everybody laughed-with the exception of the questioner. She got red in her face and quietly sat down." (The color of the feces depends on the penguin's diet: if primarily fish, the poop is white. If the penguin has been feasting on krill, the poop takes on a pinkish hue.)
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