Monday, March 18, 2024

Cultural Information on Late March of 2024.

  


For over 150 years, Toronto, Canada has been in existence. Through grit and determination, Toronto has grown to be the largest city in Canada in terms of population. It is a city filled with technological growth, a long history, and a multicultural population. That is why diversity is part of strength. A city filled with immigrants, black people, Native Americans, and human beings of every color and background, Toronto possesses a reach essence of human ingenuity. Canada is the northern neighbor to the United States of America. It has ten provinces and three territories that extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean plus northward into the Arctic Ocean. It is the world's second-largest country by total area with the world's longest coastline. Canada's border with America is the world's longest international land border. Today, it has over 40 million human beings who live in the country. Being part of a parliamentary democracy and a constitutional monarchy (in the Westminster tradition), its governmental culture is different from many nations of the world. Canada's economic infrastructure is heavily reliant on its abundant natural resources and developed international trade networks. As an international city of business, Toronto is constantly growing culturally, economically, and socially. People have their leisure in Toronto by joining restaurants, museums, party locations, and Carnival. Historic places like the Ontario Legislative Building, the Toronto Sign and City Hall, the Humber Bay Arch Bridge, Casa Loma, Royal Ontario Museum, and Scarborough Bluffs have inspired tons of people for years and decades. Therefore, Toronto is a great city for humans to live, visit, and enjoy themselves at. 

 


Stefanik asked us if we were better off now than four years ago. The answer is that we are better off now proven by the metrics. We have lower unemployment than four years ago. We have a lower overall crime rate in America than 4 years ago. We have fewer cases of COVID-19 than four years. Many people tend to forget that COVID-19 killed over 1 million Americans years ago in a short period. People were forced to live in their homes for months because of the dangers. Four years later, we now have massive manufacturing jobs. Thousands and millions of people died from COVID-19 as a product of Trump's incompetence and bad policies. Stefanik will ignore these facts, because she is a faithful supporter of the MAGA cult. MAGA cult member and GOP nominee to run North Carolina public schools (whose name is Michele Morrow) said once that he wanted a televised showing of the execution of Barack Obama and Joe Biden. This is insanity and evil from her. This represents the fruit of Trumpism in full display. The fake leftists who want no help to Ukraine to defend themselves actually want Ukraine to surrender to Russia and be a colony of Russia too. Ukraine has the right to be free from an illegal Russian invasion. 


To break down the legal affairs of Donald Trump, we have to break it down into four major cases. The first Major case is from the New York City case. This case is related to the March 2023 indictment in New York City. Trump faces 34 criminal charges of falsifying business records in the first degree related to payments made to Stormy Daniels before the 2016 Presidential election. The trial is scheduled for a date of April 15, 2024, which could change. 


The second case is from the June 2023 federal indictment in Florida. This is about a federal government indictment related to classified government documents, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida. Trump faces 40 criminal charges alleging mishandling of sensitive documents and conspiracy to obstruct the government in retrieving these documents. The trial is scheduled for May 20, 2024. 


The third case is the August 2023 federal indictment in Washington, D.C. An August 2023 federal indictment related to attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in which Trump faces four criminal charges of conspiring to defraud the government and disenfranchise voters, and corruptly obstructing an official proceeding. This case includes Trump's involvement in the January 6 U.S. Capitol attack. On February 2, 2024, Judge Tanya Chutkan said she would not schedule a trial until the DC Circuit Court of Appeals decides whether Trump is immune from prosecution. On February 6, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump does not have presidential immunity from prosecution. The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump has immunity from prosecution or not. Hopefully, the Supreme Court will make the right decision and say that Trump has no immunity unconditionally. 


The fourth case involves an August 2023 indictment in Georgia, in which Trump faces 13 criminal charges related to alleged attempts to overturn Joe Biden's victory in Georgia, alongside 18 accused co-conspirators. The trial is not yet scheduled. Prosecutor Fani Willis is involved in the case against Donald Trump in Georgia. The case involving Fani Willis and her disqualification hearing is over. The judge rules that Fani Willis is allowed to continue to try the Georgia election case against Trump and his allies. Yet, she is ordered to fire Georgia prosecutor Nathan Wade. Nathan Wade has sent his resignation letter to the authorities. The Fulton County judge sent a scathing ruling to both Willis and Wade. Nathan Wade wrote his letter saying that she is proud of the work involving his team investigating, indicting, and litigating the case. Willis accepted the resignation on Friday, praising Wade for his courage to accept the role, even though he didn't seek it. Judge Scott McAfee is allowing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue on the election subversion case against Trump is very historic. Willis has a technical legal win. Trump and 14 other people still face charges and will have a legal trial. The judge said that Willis's speech at a church in Atlanta could face a gag order over her words on the case. Some people feel like the judge went too far in criticizing Fani Willis's personal life instead of focusing more on the case against Trump. We know what the elephant in the room is. Let's keep it real and show it. A confident, unapologetic black woman like Fani Willis angers many in the establishment. The truth is that any black woman has the right to be confident and unapologetic just like Fani Willis is. The lesson here is that folks have to be careful. At the end of the day, Trump and his allies should have accountability for their crimes against democracy indeed.



 


By 1954, Jones was a guest professor at Centre D'Art and Foyer des Artes Plastiques in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The Haitian government back then invited her to paint Haitian people and landscapes. Her work was energized by bright colors. She and her husband returned there during summers or the next several years. They traveled to France on trips too. Jones finished 42 paintings and exhibited them in her show Oeuvres des Loïs Mailou Jones Pierre-Noël, which was sponsored by the First Lady of Haiti. As a result of her paintings, Jones was given the Diplôme et Décoration de l'Ordre National "Honneur et Mérite au Grade de Chevalier."  In 1955, she unveiled portraits of the Haitian president and his wife commissioned by United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Jones's numerous oils and watercolors inspired by Haiti are probably her most widely known works. In them, her affinity for bright colors, her personal understanding of Cubism's basic principles, and her search for a distinct style reached an apogee. In many of her pieces, one can see the influence of the Haitian culture, with its African influences, which reinvigorated the way she looked at the world. These include Ode to Kinshasa and Ubi Girl from Tai Region. Her work became more abstract, vibrant, and thematically after moving to Haiti. Her previously impressionist techniques gave way to a spirited, richly patterned, and brilliantly colored style.


In the 1960s, she exhibited at School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Cornell University, and galleries in France, New York, and Washington, D.C. In 1962, she initiated Howard University's first art student tour of France, including study at Académie de la Grande Chaumière and guided several more tours over the years. In 1968, she documented work and interviews of contemporary Haitian artists for Howard University's "The Black Visual Arts" research grant. Jones received the same grant in 1970 as well. Between 1968 and 1970, she traveled to 11 African countries, which influenced her painting style. She documented and interviewed contemporary African artists in Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Zaire (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Dahomey (today known as Benin), Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Senegal. Her report Contemporary African Art was published in 1970 and in 1971 she delivered 1000 slides and other materials to the University as fulfillment of the project. On May 22, 1970, Jones took part in a National Day of Protest in Washington D.C. The protest was created by Robert Morris in New York City. They protested against racism and the Vietnam War. While many Washinton, D.C. artists did not paint to be political or create their own commentary on racial issues, Jones was greatly influenced by Africa and the Caribbean which her art reflected. Those areas of the world also had people of black African heritage who fought against imperialism, colonialism, economic exploitation, and other forms of oppression. Jones's "Moon Masque" is thought to represent then-contemporary problems in Africa. By 1973, Jones received the "Women Artists of the Caribbean and Afro-American Artists" grant from Howard University. In the same year, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Philosophy from Colorado State Christian College. 


Her research inspired Jones to synthesize a body of designs and motifs that she combined in large, complex compositions. Jones's return to African themes in her work of the past several decades coincided with the black expressionistic movement in the United States during the 1960s. Skillfully integrating aspects of African masks, figures, and textiles into her vibrant paintings, Jones became a link between the Harlem Renaissance movement into a contemporary expression of similar themes. On July 29, 1984, Lois Jones Day is declared in Washington, DC. Jones continued to produce exciting new works at an astonishing speed. She traveled to France and experimented with her previous Impressionist-Post-impressionist style that started her career in Paris. Her landscapes were painted with a wider color palette from her Haitian and African influences. On her 84th birthday, Jones had a major heart attack and subsequently a triple bypass. The Meridian International Center created a retrospective exhibition with the help of Jones herself. Her 1990 exhibition toured across the country for several years. The exhibition was the first exhibition of Jones that garnered her nationwide attention. Despite her extensive portfolio, teaching career, and cultural work in other countries, she had been left out of the history books because she did not stick to typical subjects that were suitable for African Americans to paint. Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton collected one of her island seascapes paintings too. 




In 1991, The National Museum of Women in the Arts held an exhibition that showcased some of Jones' children's book illustrations. In 1994, The Corcoran Gallery of Art opened The World of Lois Mailou Jones exhibition with a public apology for their past racial discrimination. In 1997, Jones' paintings were featured in an exhibition entitled Explorations in the City of Light: African-American Artists in Paris 1945–1965 that appeared at several museums throughout the country including the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and the Studio Museum of Harlem. The exhibition also featured the works of Barbara Chase-Riboud, Edward Clark, Harold B. Cousins [fr], Beauford Delaney, Herbert Gentry, and Larry Potter. The exhibition examined the importance of Paris as an artistic mecca for African-American artists during the 20 years that followed World War II. In 1998, Jones died with no immediate survivors at the age of 92 at her home in Washington, DC. She is buried on Martha's Vineyard in the Oak Bluffs Cemetery. Howard University hosted the exhibition Remembering Lois.

  



 

There are sophisticated ways on how a boat works when you turn the engine of a boat on. The boat converts the spinning motion of the crankshaft into horizontal spinning motion. This horizontal spinning motion is then used to power the propeller, which propels the boat through the water1. The forces of the wind on the sails and the water on the underwater parts of the boat combine to propel the boat through the water. The wind blows across the sails, creating aerodynamic lift, which contains a sideways force and a small forward force. Experts in sailing have to study the weather, water currents, and wind to create the best, safest route in traveling in places in the water. Many boats have lights, a port, gunwale, hull, bow (or the front of the boat), red and green sidelights, the stern, the cleat, and the propeller (which can rotate and power a boat forward or backward). 


 


Planes fly in a beautiful method. A plane's engines are designed to move it forward at high speed. That makes air flow rapidly over the wings, which throw the air down toward the ground, generating an upward force called lift that overcomes the plane's weight and holds it in the sky. So, it's the engines that move a plane forward, while the wings move it upward. 

 


During ancient times, the hand axe was an early machine made by human beings to split food or cut stones. There was the inclined plane of ramp that was used to move heavy objects, even during prehistoric times. There was the wheel being invented by the Sumerians in the Middle East. The wheel, along with the wheel and axle mechanism, was invented in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) during the 5th millennium BC. The lever mechanism first appeared around 5,000 years ago in the Near East, where it was used in a simple balance scale, and to move large objects in ancient Egyptian technology. The lever was also used in the shad oof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia c. 3000 BC, and then in ancient Egyptian technology c. 2000 BC. The earliest evidence of pulleys dates back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC, and ancient Egypt during the Twelfth Dynasty (1991-1802 BC). The screw, the last of the simple machines to be invented, first appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911-609) BC The Egyptian pyramids were built using three of the six simple machines, the inclined plane, the wedge, and the lever.



Three of the simple machines were studied and described by Greek philosopher Archimedes around the 3rd century BC: the lever, pulley, and screw. Archimedes discovered the principle of mechanical advantage in the lever. Later Greek philosophers defined the classic five simple machines (excluding the inclined plane) and were able to roughly calculate their mechanical advantage. Hero of Alexandria (c. 10–75 AD) in his work Mechanics lists five mechanisms that can "set a load in motion"; lever, windlass, pulley, wedge, and screw, and describes their fabrication and uses. However, the Greeks' understanding was limited to statics (the balance of forces) and did not include dynamics (the tradeoff between force and distance) or the concept of work.


The earliest practical wind-powered machines, the windmill and wind pump, first appeared in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age, in what are now Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, by the 9th century AD. The earliest practical steam-powered machine was a steam jack driven by a steam turbine, described in 1551 by Taqi ad-Din Muhammad ibn Ma'ruf in Ottoman Egypt.


The cotton gin was invented in India by the 6th century AD, and the spinning wheel was invented in the Islamic world by the early 11th century, both of which were fundamental to the growth of the cotton industry. The spinning wheel was also a precursor to the spinning jenny. The earliest programmable machines were developed in the Muslim world. A music sequencer, a programmable musical instrument, was the earliest type of programmable machine. The first music sequencer was an automated flute player invented by the Banu Musa brothers, described in their Book of Ingenious Devices, in the 9th century. In 1206, Al-Jazari invented programmable automata/robots. He described four automaton musicians, including drummers operated by a programmable drum machine, where they could be made to play different rhythms and different drum patterns.


During the Renaissance, the dynamics of the Mechanical Powers, as the simple machines were called, began to be studied from the standpoint of how much useful work they could perform, leading eventually to the new concept of mechanical work. In 1586 Flemish engineer Simon Stevin derived the mechanical advantage of the inclined plane, and it was included with the other simple machines. The complete dynamic theory of simple machines was worked out by Italian scientist Galileo Galilei in 1600 in Le Meccaniche ("On Mechanics"). He was the first to understand that simple machines do not create energy, they merely transform it. The classic rules of sliding friction in machines were discovered by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519), but remained unpublished in his notebooks. They were rediscovered by Guillaume Amontons (1699) and were further developed by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb (1785).


James Watt patented his parallel motion linkage in 1782, which made the double-acting steam engine practical. The Boulton and Watt steam engine and later designs powered steam locomotives, steam ships, and factories. James Albert Bonsack's cigarette-rolling machine was invented in 1880 and patented in 1881. The Industrial Revolution was a period from 1750 to 1850 where changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic, and cultural conditions of the times. It began in the United Kingdom, then subsequently spread throughout Western Europe, North America, Japan, and eventually the rest of the world.


Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labor and draft-animal-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanization of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques, and the increased use of refined coal. By the 20th and 21st century, more machines will be part of computers, television HP screens, flying devices, AI technology, robots, etc. 


 

For millennia, machines have improved the lives of humanity. From building the Great Pyramids to the creation of Apple Plus headphones, machines exist with diverse capabilities. Some machines can be large, and others can be micro-sized in advanced laptop computers. The spirit of innovation and invention is found among the human family. This is why I don't believe in an authoritarian society. People have the right to achieve their own destinies as human beings individually while allowing progressive policies to help humanity collectively at the same time. There is nothing wrong with the power of the individual as long as the individual doesn't lead to selfishness and monopolies. There is nothing wrong with collective power in the community as long as the collective doesn't interfere with individual innovation and ingenuity unfairly. Studying machines is just fun to be blunt. To work on cars, to study machinery, to go about to analyze the importance of mathematics including other forms of technology makes sense in a complicated 21st-century society. Today, we have to encourage people, especially young people, to join the STEM culture if they desire to. 



By Timothy