Destruction of Sodom (destruição de Sodoma)

The city of Sodom, situated beside the Dead Sea, was destroyed by fire by God’s intervention (Genesis 13 and 14) as he was unhappy with the behavior of its inhabitants with regard to homosexuality. The terms “sodomite” and “sodomized” came from the name of this city.


A cidade de Sodoma, situada junto ao Mar Morto, teria sido destruída pelo fogo por intervenção de Deus (Génesis, 13 e 14) descontente com o comportamento dos seus habitantes no que respeitava à homossexualidade. Do seu nome se processaram os termos sodomita e sodomizado.

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)-'Lot fleeing with his daughters from Sodom'-oil and tempera on panel-ca 1498 Washington-National Gallery of Art

John Martin (1789-1854)-'the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah'-oil on canvas-1852

Jules-Auguste-Joseph Laurens (1825-1901)-'the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah'-etching

Unknown (15th century)-'Lot leaving Sodom' from Hartman Schedel; Nuremberg Chronicle, fol. 21r

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)-'Lot's flight from Sodom'-1625 Paris-Musée du Louvre

New NASA Map Reveals Tropical Forest Carbon Storage

A NASA-led research team has used a variety of NASA satellite data to create the most precise map ever produced depicting the amount and location of carbon stored in Earth's tropical forests. The data are expected to provide a baseline for ongoing carbon monitoring and research and serve as a useful resource for managing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.

The new map, created from ground- and space-based data, shows, for the first time, the distribution of carbon stored in forests across more than 75 tropical countries. Most of that carbon is stored in the extensive forests of Latin America.

"This is a benchmark map that can be used as a basis for comparison in the future when the forest cover and its carbon stock change," said Sassan Saatchi of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., who led the research. "The map shows not only the amount of carbon stored in the forest, but also the accuracy of the estimate." The study was published May 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Deforestation and forest degradation contribute 15 to 20 percent of global carbon emissions, and most of that contribution comes from tropical regions. Tropical forests store large amounts of carbon in the wood and roots of their trees. When the trees are cut and decompose or are burned, the carbon is released to the atmosphere.

Previous studies had estimated the carbon stored in forests on local and large scales within a single continent, but there existed no systematic way of looking at all tropical forests. To measure the size of the trees, scientists typically use a ground-based technique, which gives a good estimate of how much carbon they contain. But this technique is limited because the structure of the forest is extremely variable, and the number of ground sites is very limited.

To arrive at a carbon map that spans three continents, the team used data from the Geoscience Laser Altimeter System lidar on NASA's ICESat satellite. The researchers looked at information on the height of treetops from more than 3 million measurements. With the help of corresponding ground data, they calculated the amount of above-ground biomass and thus, the amount of carbon it contained.

The team then extrapolated these data over the varying landscape to produce a seamless map, using NASA imagery from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft, the QuikScat scatterometer satellite and the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission.

The map reveals that in the early 2000s, forests in the 75 tropical countries studied contained 247 billion tons of carbon. For perspective, about 10 billion tons of carbon is released annually to the atmosphere from combined fossil fuel burning and land use changes.

The researchers found that forests in Latin America hold 49 percent of the carbon in the world's tropical forests. For example, Brazil's carbon stock alone, at 61 billion tons, almost equals all of the carbon stock in sub-Saharan Africa, at 62 billion tons.

"These patterns of carbon storage, which we really didn't know before, depend on climate, soil, topography and the history of human or natural disturbance of the forests," Saatchi said. "Areas often impacted by disturbance, human or natural, have lower carbon storage."

The carbon numbers, along with information about the uncertainty of the measurements, are important for countries planning to participate in the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) program. REDD+ is an international effort to create a financial value for the carbon stored in forests. It offers incentives for countries to preserve their forestland in the interest of reducing carbon emissions and investing in low-carbon paths of development.

The map also provides a better indication of the health and longevity of forests and how they contribute to the global carbon cycle and overall functioning of the Earth system. The next step in Saatchi's research is to compare the carbon map with satellite observations of deforestation to identify source locations of carbon dioxide released to the atmosphere.

For more information visit http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-165

Rome: Kalends of February

I was wrong in my last review; it turns out that, somewhat counter-intuitively, this actually is the episode in which Julius Caesar gets murderlised. There is a reason for this - it's on the Kalends of February that, in the Rome version of events, Caesar announces he will be creating a hundred new senators, which proves to be the final straw for the conspirators and, indirectly, the downfall of Niobe. In real life, Caesar would have filled the vacant seats in the Senate (caused by all those messy civil wars) much earlier than a month before he died, but we probably shouldn't let that bother us.

As the episode opens, Dodgey Soldier and The Godfather (formerly known as Boring Soldier) have become minor celebrities, thanks to their dramatic exit from the arena last week. Dodgey is still recovering from his wounds, but The Godfather is busy having it away with his wife in front of an audience as part of a truly peculiar ritual on their new land while she expresses surprise that Caesar (who has just given them the land, hence the ritual) might be a bit put out that The Godfather took it upon himself to rescue a condemned criminal.

Pullo makes a bid for freedom from the 'hospital' (I'm pretty sure the Romans didn't have those) and is brought back to The Godfather's house to make even more of a nuisance of himself. Niobe catches Eirene holding a knife to this throat and points out this would not end well for Eirene herself, who would definitely be the prime suspect if Dodgey were to be found murdered. She then orders Eirene to look after Dodgey, possibly as some kind of punishment? It doesn't make much sense. Eirene spits in Dodgey's food. Good for her.

Caesar has decreed that a hundred new senators will be created and tells The Godfather that he will be one of them. Caesar did fill vacant seats with his own supporters, including centurions and men who'd fought for him, but as I said, I suspect he did it a lot earlier than a month before his death. The reason for the placement of The Godfather's promotion here, of course, is to tie his and Niobe's story to Caesar's for the finale. The Godfather is Caesar's most feared bodyguard, thanks to his antics in the arena, so the conspirators have to get him out of the way, so they spill the beans about Niobe's affair to him just as they're murdering Caesar. It's an ingenious way of tying the stories together (even if it is a bit reminiscent of Carry of Cleo in the set-up) and works rather well, and according to Cassius Dio Caesar did have a bodyguard of knights and senators. The only minor problem with this is that it does mean one of the more fascinating aspects of Caesar's personality and behaviour towards the end, his supposedly casual attitude towards the possibility of his own assassination, has to be left out, which is a shame.

We are reminded of Caesar's close relationship with both Antony and his slave/freedman (never have quite worked out which he is) Posca which will make the scenes of Posca trying to save Caesar and Antony finding his body that much more poignant. I particularly like Caesar and Antony's exchange, in which Antony wants to know why Caesar trusts him. Caesar tells him 'If you were going to betray me, you'd have done it long ago' and Antony replies 'Don't think I wasn't tempted,' which is a nice reminder of how ruthless they all are while also, strangely, reinforcing Antony and Caesar's mutual loyalty.

I'm delighted to see Calpurnia's ominous dream get reasonably full treatment - we don't see the dream itself, but her concern and Caesar's dismissal of it as just a dream feel both sweet and true. Brutus and Servilia, meanwhile, are attempting to gain the favour of some god or other for their assassination attempt, in a slightly odd scene that seems intended to be generally portentous.

Dodgey goes out to get a prostitute/floozy/one-night-stand but sends her away when Eirene spots them heading into the house together. Miraculously, from this point on, Eirene softens towards him. Yes, girls, when a man has brutally murdered your lover, all he has to do is refrain from sleeping with a prostitute in front of you and you will find yourself suddenly drawn to him, so eventually all will be forgiven. (Please note all readers of any gender: This Is Sarcasm).

The conspirators and Cicero stand symbolically high up and sneer at the new senators, while Caesar waves at them, looking like he knows something's up. Later on, they discuss the knotty problem of getting The Godfather out of the way for the main event without killing him and therefore making themselves unpopular. Brutus insists on the importance of killing Caesar on the Senate floor because this somehow makes it honourable and not murder, which is especially ironic given that Caesar wasn't killed on the Senate floor, the Senate were meeting in the Theatre of Pompey that day and he was killed there (underneath the statue of Pompey, as depicted in Shakespeare's version).

Niobe and The Godfather have a sweet bedroom scene together because Niobe is Doomed and this is Poignant and Tender. Servilia sleeps alone because all her lovers realised what a psycho she is and left her. She suddenly remembers that she knows all the gossip about The Godfather because Octavia told her, having heard it from Octavian during their secret-swapping, and that this may prove useful in getting him out of the way. She then invites Atia and the kids over for Murder Day, while Dodgey tells Eirene he's going out to a shrine to ask for forgiveness and asks her to come with him. Eirene does, because she's clearly insane.

The town crier (who, by the way, uses the most fantastic gestures which I assume come from Quintilian's description of the gestures used in legal speeches) informs us that the Senate is in session and the plinky-plonky Music of Doom informs us that Sh*t is About to Go Down. Some old woman claiming to be working for Atia comes up to The Godfather and tells him the truth about Niobe's baby and he runs off in a fury, leaving Caesar to the knives. Mark Antony is also dragged off and Posca can't go into the Senate anyway.

Caesar's murder finally gets under way, starting with a remarkably undignified scuffle but carrying on in suitably bloody fashion while Brutus watches with his mouth gaping open like a fish. Finally, Cassius shoves a knife into Brutus' hand and forces him to put the last cut into a dying Caesar. Caesar, having received multiple wounds to the lungs, says nothing, though he does give Brutus a rather heartbreakingly sad look. He then pulls his toga over his head, which is both historically accurate and genuinely sad.

I can see why the writers decided to leave That Line out. Saying it in Latin would sound daft because very little Latin is used in this series. Saying it in English means having to choose between Shakespeare's 'Brutus' or Suetonius' teknon, which could be translated as 'child', 'boy' or 'son', words which all have different connotations in English. Not all ancient sources attribute any last words to Caesar at all so it's perfectly acceptable to assume he said nothing (especially given all the stab wounds in the chest area). The scene is also rather effectively played so that you can almost hear Caesar saying The Words as he stares at Brutus, even though he doesn't actually say them. I have to confess, though, that if it were me, I would have had him say 'And you?' (leaving out the vocative 'Brute?'). Those words are just so expected, thanks to Shakespeare, that it's almost disappointing not to hear them, or some of version of them.

We interrupt this assassination fallout to return to Niobe and The Godfather. He rants and rages and waves a knife at her. She tells him she thought he was dead and promptly throws herself off the balcony. Since Niobe was one of my favourite characters, this is rather upsetting, but story-wise it works. We suspect The Godfather would never actually have stabbed her, but he had the legal right to do so and presumably she was also motivated by guilt and worry about their future. The first time I saw it, I was torn between feeling that this was a suitably tragic and dramatic end to this particular plot, and worrying that I wasn't remotely interested in The Godfather (formerly known as Boring) without Niobe.

Cassius gloats over Caesar's body and Brutus continues to look like someone just ran over his puppy, as if he can't quite believe what he's done. Mark Antony makes it in to the historically inaccurate scene of the crime, sees the body, and backs away, looking angry, sad and probably a little bit nervous as well, though none of them go after him.

Servilia explains all this to Atia as if it were her personal triumph over Atia and nothing to do with dictators or politics at all (perhaps she's right). She also informs Atia that she's going to make her suffer, presumably blissfully unaware that Caesar adopted Octavian in his will and she will, therefore, come to regret this bit of crowing quite a lot. Octavian is certainly not impressed with this turn of events.

We see The Godfather cradling Niobe's body and looking at the unfortunate toddler like he doesn't know what to do with him, which he probably doesn't (the child actor here looks impressively like Niobe).

And after all that fantastic drama, what do we finish on? Dodgey and Eirene walking away from a roadside shrine, hand in hand. I suppose it's nice to end on a more peaceful image, one that's about forgiveness and love rather than death and destruction, but it's a bit frustrating after such a fantastic climax to end on the one note that, for me, really doesn't ring true.

This is a great season finale, which ties up Niobe and The Godfather's story nicely while leaving the historical story on a note that certainly represents an ending, but also creates something of a cliffhanger, as Mark Antony walks away into Shakespearian fame. The double climax of Niobe and Caesar's deaths is very effective and the decision to deal with Caesar first and Niobe second works as well - the audience know what happens to Caesar, so his death is dramatically satisfying but without the thrill of the unexpected, ensuring that Niobe's quieter death has maximum impact, as the audience have no idea what it going to happen to her, so her story keeps their attention even after the big events at the (inaccurate) Senate have taken place. The acting all round is great and of course it's a necessary shame to see Ciaran Hinds' Caesar go, he was brilliant in the role. James Purefoy as Mark Antony is probably the most impressive, in his combination of calm, anger and distress conveyed entirely through a facial expression, but Hinds' dying moments are also tragically beautiful. For me, the only shame is that Dodgey and Eirene's story, which I find peculiar and totally implausible, has to intrude on an otherwise excellent finale, but on the upside it does give us a prettier image to go out on, ready for more blood and guts in season two.

London by George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)

The Bavarian artist George Johann Scharf (1788-1860) left interesting aspects of London where he lived for many years.


O pintor Bávaro George Johann Scharf (1788-1860) deixou interessantes aspectos de Londres, cidade onde permaneceu longos anos.

George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)-'laying the foundation of the Lycian Room, British Museum, 1845'

George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)-'building the new gallery of the British Museum'

George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)-'giraffes on the staircase in the British Museum, 1845'

George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)-'old Covent Garden market, 1825'

George Johann Scharf (1788-1860)-'the monkey house at the Zoological Gardens, Regent Park'-engraving-1835

NASA Infrared Satellite Sees Severe Weather in NW Georgia

Northwestern Georgia felt the effects of severe weather season yesterday, May 27, as severe thunderstorms brought heavy rainfall, gusty winds and reports of a tornado. NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared look at that storm system that revealed very strong thunderstorms with icy cold cloud tops.

Infrared imagery basically shows temperature signatures. That means that scientists can determine how hot or cold something is by looking at something using infrared light. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite captured infrared imagery when it flew over severe thunderstorms in northwestern Georgia on May 27 at 07:17 UTC (3:17 a.m. EDT).

The infrared image from AIRS revealed a circular shaped area of thunderstorms over northwestern Georgia, with very high thunderstorm cloud-tops. AIRS data measured the cloud top temperatures to be as cold as or colder than -63 Fahrenheit/-52 Celsius. The rule with thunderstorms is that the higher the cloud top, the colder it is and the stronger the thunderstorm. These storms have the potential of dropping as much as 2 inches (50 mm) of rainfall per hour.

The image also showed a somewhat scraggly line of high thunderstorm cloud tops, indicative of the cold front those storms are a part of that stretch from northwestern Georgia up the western side of the Appalachian mountains to northwestern Maine. That line is moving east with the progression of the cold front on May 28.

The National Weather Service's Hydrometeorological Prediction Center in Camp Springs, Md. noted on May 28 "a weakening upper-level closed low over the Ohio valley will lift northeastward into southern Canada by Saturday. Showers and thunderstorms will develop along and ahead of the associated weakening cold front from the eastern gulf coast to the central Appalachians moving eastward to the mid-Atlantic and southward to the southeast."

The area on the AIRS imagery where the very high, cold, strong thunderstorms were located may have experienced a tornado. Chattoga County in northwestern Georgia reported damage from storms that may have been caused by a tornado. Chattooga County is about 80 miles northwest of the city of Atlanta. Today, the National Weather Service is investigating reported damages to determine if a tornado touched down. A small private airport in the county suffered damage to hangars and flipped planes, according to Channel 2, WSB-TV, Atlanta. The damage path began on Lookout Mountain and spread into the valley below, damaging homes, downing trees and power lines. Atlanta was not spared from severe weather from this system either. According to reports from Fox 5 television, Atlanta three people lost their lives from fallen trees. The National Weather Service reported golf-ball to softball-sized hail in Gwinnett and Fannin Counties. Power outages were reported in the Metro Atlanta area and in Dekalb and Clayton counties.

The AIRS instrument is one of several that fly onboard NASA's Aqua Satellite. With its ability to create three-dimensional maps of the atmosphere showing temperature, water vapor, and cloud properties, AIRS provides a unique view of the environment in which storms come to life. For more information about AIRS, visit: http://airs.jpl.nasa.gov/.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/georgia-20110527.html

Rome, Borgo district by Roesler (1845-1907)

It is located in the floodplain area of Ager Vaticanus between the River Tiber and the Vatican and Janicolo hills. It was a zone subject to malaria. There were several buildings connected to the pilgrims who visited the Holy See, like the Palazzo dei Penitenzieri where penitents confessed and the Santo Spirito Hospital where they were treated. An important fire is represented in a fresco painting by Giulio Romano, in the Apostolic Palace. The opening of the Avenue of the Conciliation (Via della Conciliazione) cut the area in half.


Situa-se na zona alagadiça do Ager Vaticanus entre o rio Tibre e os montes Vaticano e Janícolo. Era zona de malária. Possuiu vários edifícios ligados aos peregrinos que visitavam a Santa Sé, como o Palazzo dei Penitenzieri onde os penitentes se confessavam e o Hospital Santo Spirito onde eram tratados. Importante incêndio encontra-se representado no Palácio Apostólico num fresco de Giulio Romano. A abertura da Avenida da Conciliação cortou-o a meio.

Franz Ettore Roesler (1845-1907)-'castello Sant'Angelo'-watercolor-ca 1880

Franz Ettore Roesler (1845-1907)-'Tiber flooded'-watercolor-ca 1880

Franz Ettore Roesler (1845-1907)-'Borgo Angelico'-watercolor-ca 1880

Franz Ettore Roesler (1845-1907)-'via dei Penitenzieri'-watercolor-ca 1880

Franz Ettore Roesler (1845-1907)-'vicolo del Campanile (church of Santa Maria in Traspontina)'-watercolor-ca 1880

Satellite and Radar Data Reveal Damage Track of Alabama Tornadic Thunderstorms

Caption for Tuscaloosa, Ala., Image 1: This image shows the radar reflectivity from the National Weather Service Doppler Radar in Birmingham, Ala. at 5:10 p.m. CDT on April 27, 2011, as a supercell thunderstorm moved across the city. The radar reflectivity is overlaid upon Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER, satellite data acquired on May 4, 2011, showing the damage track resulting from for the EF-4 tornado associated with the storm as it passed through the city and continued northeast toward Birmingham, Ala. The complex pattern of ASTER data indicate variability in land use characterized by colors in this three-channel composite. Here, the ASTER data shows the tornado damage scar -- aqua in color -- left by the violent tornado as damage disrupts other, more typical land use patterns, while radar data shows the classic "hook echo" signature associated with the rotating storm updraft. On the lower end of the hook is a round region of enhanced radar reflectivity -- near the Interstate 359 marker -- associated with the surface debris lofted by the tornadic winds. This "debris ball" signature corresponds to the ASTER tornado damage track in this and subsequent radar images.

Caption for Phil Campbell, Ala., Image 2: Similar to the radar and satellite composite imagery provided for the Tuscaloosa, Ala. tornado, this image from Phil Campbell, Ala. shows radar reflectivity from the National Weather Service Doppler Radar at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. at 3:33 p.m. CDT as a strong supercell departed Marion County, Ala. and entered Franklin County, Ala. As in the Tuscaloosa case, the “hook echo” signature is apparent with enhanced radar reflectivity along the damage scar indicated by Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer, or ASTER satellite data, likely corresponding to lofted debris. Damage in the Phil Campbell area was rated as an EF-5 and continued northeast before weakening slightly in the Mount Hope, Ala. area. The damage scar continues southwest into Marion County, Ala., through the community of Hackleburg, Ala. -- not shown -- and further to the northeast as the storm continued into southwestern Lawrence County, Ala.

These images were created by the NASA Short-term Prediction Research and Transition, or SPoRT, Center at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., using ASTER data provided courtesy of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.; the United States Geological Survey Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center in Sioux Falls, S.D., Japan's Earth Remote Sensing Data Analysis Center in Tokyo, Japan; the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, along with the Japan Research Observation System Organization. Final ASTER imagery were produced using resources of the Nebula Cloud Computing Platform, tiled, and displayed within Google Earth. Radar imagery were provided by the NOAA National Climatic Data Center's NEXRAD Archive in Asheville, N.C. Storm survey information was provided by the National Weather Service Forecast Offices in Birmingham and Huntsville, Ala.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/features/alabama_tornadoes.html

Galleria degli Uffizi (religious selection)

This museum has a significant collection of Christian themes which comes from orders performed ​​by Italian artists during the temporal power of the Catholic Church.


Este museu possui importante espólio de orientação Cristã proveniente de encomendas realizadas pelos artistas Italianos durante o período do poder temporal da Igreja Católica.

Andrea and Jacopo Orcagna di Cione (1308-1368)-'St. Matthew raising a young man from the dead'-(1367-1370)-oil on canvas

Luca Signorelli (1450-1523)-'the Holy Family'-oil on canvas-ca 1485

Antonio Francesco Peruzzini (ca 1643-1724)-'countryside with Hermits'- oil on canvas (1700-1710)

Jacopo d'Antonio Negretti or Palma il Vecchio (ca 1480-1528)-'the Resurrection of Lazarus'-(1508-1510)-oil on panel

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1653)-'Judith beheading Holofernes'-oil on canvas

King Arthur: Stories of the Knights of the Round Table (by Vladimir Hulpach)

When I was little, I had a couple of big compendium books I really loved. One was A Treasury of Literature for Children, which was a collection of excerpts from longer novels and poems (the story of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi from The Jungle Book, an extract from What Katy Did, 'A Smuggler's Song' and so on). King Arthur: Stories of the Knights of the Round Table, a collection of various stories relating to Arthur and his knights, was the other.

When I read it, though, I always skipped the first chapter. The second chapter told the story of Merlin's childhood and the third finally got to the birth of Arthur (and therefore, to me, the interesting bit) but the first explained how the kingdom of Britain was, in fact, founded by Trojans. This chapter, I'm afraid to say, did not interest me at all!

The story given in the book (which I presume became attached to Arthurian legend somewhere in the medieval or early modern period, though I don't know when) is that Ascanius' grandson Brutus was exiled after accidentally killing his father and was led to Britain by Artemis through a dream. However it got attached to Arthurian legend, the intention is clear - to make Arthur a great Classical hero as well as a British one and to tie the Britons, like the Romans before them, to Homeric legend. Julius Caesar's invasion of Britain is reimagined as a meeting of ancient kinfolk and Arthurian legend is made part of a larger Classical story.

This only means anything, though, if you are already familiar with Classical mythology and can enjoy drawing links between the two systems. I didn't know anything about Classical mythology as a child, so, being an obstinate child, I wasn't interested in it. This problem is compounded by the fact that the story is taken right from the Trojan War to the founding of Britain, through Aeneas, Ascanias, Silvus and Brutus, and the story whizzes through the whole of the Aeneid and more in a few hundred words, leaving no time to get to care about any of the story. Plus, the only thing I did know about Classics at the time was that Brutus killed Julius Caesar, so I was also really confused.

Going back to it as an adult, the chapter still feels a bit rushed, but works much better. Artemis, orders given in dreams, people accidentally shooting relatives and going off to found new kingdoms all seems much more familiar to me now and the tying together of the two mythologies is quite fun. I've no idea if this book is still in print, but I'm glad I still have it - it's beautifully illustrated by Jan Cerny and I always enjoyed its retellings of the Arthurian legends as a child. I'm glad it includes the Classical sections as well, as I can really appreciate them now - no more skipping Chapter One!

Fifers or pifferari (tocadores de pífaro)

Wind musical instruments were always used in Europe at all times; they included the use of fifes. The fifers or “pifferari” were itinerant musicians who travelled through several regions of Italy fulfilling religious promises and receiving alms.


Os instrumentos musicais de sopro foram em todas as épocas sempre muito utilizados na Europa, entre eles o pífaro. Os pifferari eram itinerantes: percorriam certas regiões de Itália cumprindo promessas religiosas e recebendo esmolas.

Unknown (19th century)-'the pifferari playing before the Virgin, Rome'-engraving Washington-Library of Congress (Music Division)

Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824)-'pifferari'-oil on panel Private collection

Franz Catel (1778-1856)-'pifferari'-watercolour-1835

Arthur John Strut (1819-1888)-'pifferaro in the Roman Campagna'-watercolour over penci-1847

Alexandre-Gabriel Decamp (1803-1860)-'pifferaro in front of a Madona'

James Webb Space Telescope ISIM on 'Spin Cycle'

Prior to taking a new telescope into space, engineers must put the spacecraft and its instruments through a "spin cycle" test for durability to ensure they'll still work after experiencing the forces of a rocket launch. Finding out they don't work once they're in orbit is too late. The structure that houses the science instruments of the James Webb Space Telescope is undergoing that cycle of tests during the weeks of May 23 and 30 at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. This structure is called the Integrated Science Instrument Module, or ISIM.

The Webb telescope will experience significant shaking and gravitational forces when it is launched on the large Ariane V rocket. The ISIM structure will house the four main scientific instruments of the telescope.

During the testing process, as the ISIM structure is being spun and shaken, engineers take measurements to compare with their computer models. If there are discrepancies, the engineers hunt for the reasons so they can address them. The huge centrifuge will spin at speeds close to 11 rpm, exposing the ISIM structure to about 10 times the force of gravity.

Webb is the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope and will serve thousands of astronomers worldwide. Webb will study the history of our Universe, ranging from the first luminous glows after the Big Bang, to the formation of planetary systems capable of supporting life on planets like Earth, to the evolution of our own Solar System. The Webb telescope is a joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and Canadian Space Agency.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/topics/technology/features/isim-spin-test.html

Taverns by Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)

Dutch tavern scenes are a frequent theme in the paintings of Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668).


O ambiente das tabernas holandesas surge com frequência nos quadros de Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668).

Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)-'peasants in the tavern-oil on wood Budapest-Museum of Fine Arts

Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)-'tavern of the crescent Moon-oil on canvas Budapest-Museum of Fine Arts

Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)-'drinking peasants'-oil on panel Private collection

Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)-'king drinks'-oil on panel-(1636-1637) Vaduz-Prince of Lichtenstein collection

Jan Miense Molenaer (1610-1668)-'the inn'-oil on panel Firenze-Galleria degli Ufizzi

Spitzer Sees Crystal Rain in Infant Star Outer Clouds

Tiny crystals of a green mineral called olivine are falling down like rain on a burgeoning star, according to observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

This is the first time such crystals have been observed in the dusty clouds of gas that collapse around forming stars. Astronomers are still debating how the crystals got there, but the most likely culprits are jets of gas blasting away from the embryonic star.

"You need temperatures as hot as lava to make these crystals," said Tom Megeath of the University of Toledo in Ohio. He is the principal investigator of the research and the second author of a new study appearing in Astrophysical Journal Letters. "We propose that the crystals were cooked up near the surface of the forming star, then carried up into the surrounding cloud where temperatures are much colder, and ultimately fell down again like glitter."

Spitzer's infrared detectors spotted the crystal rain around a distant, sun-like embryonic star, or protostar, referred to as HOPS-68, in the constellation Orion.

The crystals are in the form of forsterite. They belong to the olivine family of silicate minerals and can be found everywhere from a periodot gemstone to the green sand beaches of Hawaii to remote galaxies. NASA's Stardust and Deep Impact missions both detected the crystals in their close-up studies of comets.

"If you could somehow transport yourself inside this protostar's collapsing gas cloud, it would be very dark," said Charles Poteet, lead author of the new study, also from the University of Toledo. "But the tiny crystals might catch whatever light is present, resulting in a green sparkle against a black, dusty backdrop."

Forsterite crystals were spotted before in the swirling, planet-forming disks that surround young stars. The discovery of the crystals in the outer collapsing cloud of a proto-star is surprising because of the cloud's colder temperatures, about minus 280 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 170 degrees Celsius). This led the team of astronomers to speculate the jets may in fact be transporting the cooked-up crystals to the chilly outer cloud.

The findings might also explain why comets, which form in the frigid outskirts of our solar system, contain the same type of crystals. Comets are born in regions where water is frozen, much colder than the searing temperatures needed to form the crystals, approximately 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit (700 degrees Celsius). The leading theory on how comets acquired the crystals is that materials in our young solar system mingled together in a planet-forming disk. In this scenario, materials that formed near the sun, such as the crystals, eventually migrated out to the outer, cooler regions of the solar system.

Poteet and his colleagues say this scenario could still be true but speculate that jets might have lifted crystals into the collapsing cloud of gas surrounding our early sun before raining onto the outer regions of our forming solar system. Eventually, the crystals would have been frozen into comets. The Herschel Space Observatory, a European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions, also participated in the study by characterizing the forming star.

"Infrared telescopes such as Spitzer and now Herschel are providing an exciting picture of how all the ingredients of the cosmic stew that makes planetary systems are blended together," said Bill Danchi, senior astrophysicist and program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

The Spitzer observations were made before it used up its liquid coolant in May 2009 and began its warm mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for the agency's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/spitzer/news/spitzer20110526.html

Alexander the Great and Diogenes of Sinope

When Alexander of Macedonia met Diogenes of Sinope in the Greek city of Corinth, the cynic philosopher said: “Get out of my way because you are blocking the sun”.


Quando Alexandre da Macedónia encontrou Diógenes de Sinope na cidade grega de Corinto, o filósofo cínico terá dito: “Sai da minha frente porque me tapas o sol”.

Unknown (Urbino 16th century)-'Alexander and Diogenes'-majolica with polychrome decoration embellished Lyon-Musée des Beaux-Arts (H 494)

Giovanni Battista Langetti (1625-1676)-'Alexander and Diogenes'-oil on canvas-ca 1650 Venezia-Fondazione Querini Stampalia

Hendrik Heerschop (ca 1620-1672)- 'Alexander and Diogenes'

Matvei Ivanovich Puchinov (1716-1797)-'Alexander and Diogenes'-oil on canvas-1762

Pierre Paul Sevin (1640-1710)-'Alexander and Diogenes'-oil on canvas-ca 1700

NASA's Hubble Finds Rare 'Blue Straggler' Stars in Milky Way's Hub

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has found a rare class of oddball stars called blue stragglers in the hub of our Milky Way, the first detected within our galaxy's bulge.

Blue stragglers are so named because they seemingly lag behind in the aging process, appearing younger than the population from which they formed. While they have been detected in many distant star clusters, and among nearby stars, they never have been seen inside the core of our galaxy.

It is not clear how blue stragglers form. A common theory is that they emerge from binary pairs. As the more massive star evolves and expands, the smaller star gains material from its companion. This stirs up hydrogen fuel and causes the growing star to undergo nuclear fusion at a faster rate. It burns hotter and bluer, like a massive young star.

The findings support the idea that the Milky Way's central bulge stopped making stars billions of years ago. It now is home to aging sun-like stars and cooler red dwarfs. Giant blue stars that once lived there have long since exploded as supernovae.

The results have been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. Lead author Will Clarkson of Indiana University in Bloomington, will discuss them today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Boston.

"Although the Milky Way bulge is by far the closest galaxy bulge, several key aspects of its formation and subsequent evolution remain poorly understood," Clarkson said. "Many details of its star-formation history remain controversial. The extent of the blue straggler population detected provides two new constraints for models of the star-formation history of the bulge."

The discovery followed a seven-day survey in 2006 called the Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search (SWEEPS). Hubble peered at 180,000 stars in the crowded central bulge of our galaxy, 26,000 light-years away. The survey was intended to find hot Jupiter-class planets that orbit very close to their stars. In doing so, the SWEEPS team also uncovered 42 oddball blue stars with brightness and temperatures typical for stars much younger than ordinary bulge stars.

The observations clearly indicate that if there is a young star population in the bulge, it is very small. It was not detected in the SWEEPS program. Blue stragglers long have been suspected to be living in the bulge, but had not been observed because younger stars in the disk of our galaxy lie along the line-of-sight to the core, confusing and contaminating the view.

Astronomers used Hubble to distinguish the motion of the core population from foreground stars in the Milky Way. Bulge stars orbit the galactic center at a different speed than foreground stars. Plotting their motion required returning to the SWEEPS target region with Hubble two years after the first observations were made. The blue stragglers were identified as moving along with the other stars in the bulge.

"The size of the field of view on the sky is roughly that of the thickness of a human fingernail held at arm's length, and within this region, Hubble sees about a quarter million stars toward the bulge," Clarkson said. "Only the superb image quality and stability of Hubble allowed us to make this measurement in such a crowded field."

From the 42 candidate blue stragglers, the investigators estimate 18 to 37 are likely genuine. The remainder could be a mix of foreground objects and, at most, a small population of genuinely young bulge stars.

"The SWEEPS program was designed to detect transiting planets through small light variations" said Kailash Sahu, the principal investigator of the SWEEPS program. "Therefore the program could easily detect the variability of binary pairs, which was crucial in confirming these are indeed blue stragglers."

Hubble is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy in Washington.

For more information visit http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/science/blue-straggler.html

The Mummy Returns (dir. Stephen Sommers, 2001)

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Spoilers follow, though this film is far from unpredicatable anyway!

The first time I saw this film, on a borrowed video, I watched something like four times in three days. I honestly couldn't tell you why! (I think I might have had flu or somthing). Whereas The Mummy was a quality action-adventure film, The Mummy Returns is deeply, deeply silly. There's a mad hot air balloon with a boat-thing strung underneath it, an army of skeletal pygmies, The Rock as a badly CG-ed scorpion, and Brendan Fraser's American serving in the French Foreign Legion turns out to be from an orphanage in Cairo and is actually an ancient Magi, while Rachel Weisz's English librarian suddenly turns into Xena Warrior Princess as she starts remembering a past life an as Egyptian princess who, for reasons passing understanding, has been trained in martial arts.

And yet, it is still fun silliness. The leads are as likeable and watchable as ever and Fraser and Weisz have really nice chemistry as a refreshingly happily married couple. The humour is still there, the handsome men are still there, and the whole thing looks pretty good (slightly outdated special effects notwithstanding). Evie's death produces an odd moment that doesn't quite fit the rest tonally, but the audience can be pretty confident that she isn't going to stay dead and the whole thing just has a sweetness about it that's lacking from an awful lot of films lately (especially 'darker and edgier' sequels - Pirates of the Carribbean, I'm looking at you. Though I haven't seen the fourth one yet, so maybe that one lightens up again).

In the film's opening sequence, the Scorpion King offers his soul to Anubis in exchange for life. Anubis as the featured god makes sense, as he was god of the dead and the underworld (which is why the airline in True Blood is called Anubis Air), plus he gets an army of jackal-type creatures, which is fun. His minion, the Scorpion King, can be killed with the Spear of Osiris, who was another god associated with the dead and the underworld, so that sort of makes sense, in a way.

Desert oasis in Tunisia

The concept of 'offering your soul', though, strikes me as a rather Christian thing that doesn't really seem to fit ancient religion. Anubis is associated with death and the afterlife, so he'll presumably get his mitts on everybody's souls at some point. The idea of a god wanting to take your soul in return for something strikes me as an idea that only really works if you only have two choices, as in the Christian idea of selling your soul to the Devil, as opposed to God. Maybe I'm wrong though - does anyone know any mythologies with a larger pantheon where a person might offer their soul to one god exclusively? It's certainly not an idea I've come across in ancient religion (unless it was part of the secretive mystery cults, where you might expect a better afterlife thanks to your service to the god in this life - but since you would still worship all the other gods when necessary as well, you weren't really giving your soul to one in particular, just offering them extra service).

At the beginning of the film, I got quite excited to see Evie actually doing some proper archaeology, brushing a relief with a proper little archaeologist's brush. Five minutes later, however, Rick turns up and whacks half the wall down. Then a bad guy tramples on the relief as it lies on the floor. Ah well. Digging in the sand for weeks in order to turn up a few tablets like in real archaeology just wouldn't be very exciting. And archaeologists in earlier eras really were much less careful with ancient stuff than modern ones are (Heinrich Schliemann famously destroyed half a dozen levels of archaeological remains at Troy, trying to get to the mythical Bronze Age city).

I wonder why the Scorpion King had a little series of pictures demonstrating exactly how to kill him on his wall? Interesting choice on the interior decoration front, that one.

This is a daft film, and I'm not quite sure why I thought it warrented so many viewings in one weekend (I must have been delirious) but it's still good quality family fun. It even features a non-annoying kid with a British accent! Alex is genuinely likeable, which is a great relief and is down to both good writing and an occasionally stilted but generally endearing performance from Freddie Boath. The moment when the handsome Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) is about to fight an enormous army of jackal things and they turn to dust just as they reach him is also really quite awesome. When all's said and done, this is a film with hot men fighting each other in the desert, Rachel Wesiz kicking bottom, quality comic relief from Boath and John Hannah and a mummy vs a giant, badly CG-ed scorpion thing. Really, what's not to like?!

Some handsome men