Inspiro Robustas: a real Firestarter

Today is Stephen King's birthday. This week I had the chance to see Gerald's Game on Netflix, based on a King novel by the same name. This is a really interesting movie, and I highly recommend it. In the film, a dog is referenced as Cujo, a reference to another film/novel by the same name. That got me thinking. King's books and subsequent films have become such a part of the zeitgeist that we now can use them to reference other ideas. His stories, his brand has integrated into such a presence that likely anyone in the West, perhaps most people in the world are impacted by him. Here is a short list of films and TV shows based on his works that have had a huge impact on me:

• Carrie
• Salem's Lot
• The Shining
• Children of the Corn
• Firestarter
• Stand by Me
• Pet Sematary
• Misery
• The Shawshank Redemption
• The Mist
• Under the Dome
• Castle rock

Of course, the list of his works is MUCH longer, and has had more impact than my limited and subjective list. What are your favorites?

Inspiro Robustas: 3 ways to count the days

On this day in the year known as 1752 AD -- to those that count that way -- Britain and her colonies (which included the US at the time) adopted the Gregorian calendar. This week also marked New Year celebrations of Rosh Hashanah for Jews (year AM 5779). And a Lyft driver told me this week that he was celebrating Ethiopian New Year, which is called Enkutatash (year 2011, although I feel certain he told me a year in the 4000's). With all these calendar differences converging in one week, it begs the question from my little desk, set snugly in 2018 CE: with one earth, one moon and one sun, why do we have SO many different calendaring systems?

As it turns out, the answer comes down mostly to a bit of religion and a whole lot of politics:

A Christian Church in Ethiopia

Enkutatash occurs every year on September 11th. My Lyft driver inspired me to research the calendar he referred to, which is known simply as the Ethiopian calendar. It is a solar calendar, having a uniform twelve months of 30 days, and then one final month of 5-6 days, depending on leap year. This calendaring system has the same roots as the Gregorian calendar we use, but differs almost entirely due to non-acceptance of the year Jesus was born, which is the baseline marker for both systems. This discrepancy places calculation of years some 7-8 years behind our calendar.

I'm not going to lie though, he sold me on this system. It's uniform, easy to figure out, and it just makes sense. And his salesmanship on Ethiopia didn't stop there.

They also have a related clock system, which marks 12 hours between sunrise and sunset all through the year (I frankly still do not understand how this is possible). My driver said that in Ethiopia, "Good Morning" is not said until sunrise (which is 1 o'clock their time), "Good Evening" or "Good Night" is said only after sunset, which would only be after the next 12 hour cycle begins. 

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Maimonides, the Rabbi who
named the current Hebrew epoch

Rosh Hashanah is basically Jewish New Year, except it has more religious implications than the Gregorian New Year on December 31st. This holiday follows a calendar system that cycles, and therefore it is not on the same day every year.

The present Hebrew calendar has been an evolution, with diverse influences including even Babylonian. It is a lunisolar calendar that I couldn't begin to document here as it shifts greatly between the solar and lunar years to determine religious holidays, AND IT IS REALLY CONFUSING! According to this calendaring system, we are currently in the Anno Mundi (AM) epoch, adopted in 1178 CE (by the Gregorian calendar). The documented AM year is intended to count from the creation of the world, to today; and so to their count, the Earth is some 5700 years old.

In this calendaring system: 

• the length of days are not fixed
• there are 7 days in the week always, however the number of weeks in the year are not fixed
• there are typically 12 months except in leap years, in which there are 13
• the zodiac also plays a significant role in the calculation of the calendar, and although the constellations are named differently, they represent relatively the same cycles that are used to predict your horoscope in the paper

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Pope Gregory XIII

The Gregorian calendar is a solar calendar with 12 months of varying days, regularly occurring every year, including the leap year cycle which attempts to correct for the missing 5+ hours every year that is not accounted for in normal year. It is a reform of the Julian calendar, instituted by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 CE. Critics of the system cite issue with the uneven and sometimes irregular days per month, the illogical names of the months, the difficulty users find in calculating intervals between dates as a result, and view its imposed usage as a form of occupation from the West. It took until the 1900's to be fully adopted across Europe, and in the course of that time, loads of misrepresented dates were documented and we skipped 10 days (or more) in the process. 

Inspiro Robustas: made in his image

On this day, back in 1927, Philo Farnsworth succeeded in transmitting an image through purely electronic means via the "image dissector", which lead to his invention of the electronic television.

He first worked out the principle of the "image dissector" in 1921, just before his 15th birthday, and just after his 21st he demonstrated the first working version. He was a farmboy, and it is said that the idea for scanning an image as a series of lines came from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field. He also helped developed the "image oscillite", which helped to display the images captured by the image dissector.

Farnsworth's image dissector tube

In 2011, there are an estimated 1.6 billion television sets in use globally, in about 1.42 billion households. The TV viewing audience is estimated to be about 4.2 billion people, all effected relatively regularly by the legacy of Farnsworth.

Farnsworth also invented or developed other inventions, including the Farnsworth-Hirsch fusor which created nuclear fusion. That device later turned out to not be very effective for fusion, however the process of the device did prove to be a great source of neutrons. When he died, Farnsworth held 300 US and foreign patents for inventions that lead to the development of radar, infra-red night vision devices, the electron microscope, the baby incubator, the gastroscope and the astronomical telescope. 

All this very inspiring and impactful work from a guy who grew up in Rigby, ID!

Inspiro Robustas: The Scream of Nature

On this day in 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales died in a car crash in a tunnel in Paris. You will hear a lot today about this deeply saddening event. You will hear a lot about her, her sons, and her impact on humanitarian efforts including those for victims of landmines, AIDS and leprosy. You will hear about her sense of style. You will hear about her fairytale wedding, and the dissolution of her marriage which eventually lead to her death in that Parisian tunnel. Remembrance of Diana's death will lead the news today, twenty-one years later.

But I'm not writing about Diana today, inspiring though she was. I want to focus instead on the recovery of Edvard Munch's famous painting "The Scream" by Norwegian Police, on this day in 2006. The painting was stolen, along with Munch's "Madonna", at gunpoint from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway in 2004. This version of the "The Scream" -- there are four -- was painted in 1910. Previously in 1994, the 1893 tempera on cardboard version was also stolen and recovered.

The inspiration for "The Scream" (actually named "Schrei der Natur" or "The Scream of Nature") was described by Munch in a diary entry in 1892:

I was walking along the road with two friends – the sun was setting – suddenly the sky turned blood red – I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence – there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city – my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety – and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature.

Later, he described the event again:

One evening I was walking along a path, the city was on one side and the fjord below. I felt tired and ill. I stopped and looked out over the fjord—the sun was setting, and the clouds turning blood red. I sensed a scream passing through nature; it seemed to me that I heard the scream. I painted this picture, painted the clouds as actual blood. The color shrieked. This became The Scream.

Two Men breaking into the National Gallery
to steal The Scream, in 1994

Scholars have suggested other theories of inspiration which include memories of the volcanic eruption of Krakatoa, the proximity to the lunatic asylum and slaughterhouse, and the figure some say was inspired by a Peruvian mummy that was touring at the time. But whatever the inspiration for the works, they certainly have gone on to inspire others to crime, as well as informing episodes of the immensely popular Doctor Who and The Simpsons, the Scream horror movie franchises, emojis, t-shirts and poster. The Home Alone screaming Kevin McCallister is also said to be inspired by The Scream.

Inspiro Robustas: Under an "Umbrella Pine" Cloud

"It was not clear at that distance from which mountain the cloud was rising (it was afterwards known to be Vesuvius); its general appearance can be best expressed as being like an umbrella pine for it rose to a great height on a sort of trunk and then split off into branches, I imagine because it was thrust upwards by the first blast and then left unsupported as the pressure subsided, or else it was borne down by its own weight so that it spread out and gradually dispersed."- Epistulae VI.16, VI.20 from the Penguin translation by Betty Radice

On this day, in 79 AD, the towns of Pompeii and nearby Herculaneum were wiped out by volcanic eruptions from the long-dormant Mount Vesuvius. Most know at least something about this event, famous for so long thanks to excavation over 1600 years later. But long before Pompeii's rediscovery and excavation, the event was known and famous thanks to the writings of Pliny the Younger (PTY), who witnessed the events and was one of the very few survivors.

Pliny the Elder

PTY had an interesting life. Pliny the Elder (PTE), his uncle, was a famous author and naval commander for the Roman fleet. When he was only 17, PTY was staying with his famous uncle when Vesuvius erupted a huge cloud of smoke and ash, darkening the sky to night. They were 19 miles away and such was the extent of the blast-cloud that all daylight was blocked by the explosion.

PTE set off to Pompeii on a rescue mission which turned out to be his demise. He died on the beach at Pompeii. PTY escorted his mother to safety, in the dark. 

Pliny the Younger

Twenty-five years later, PTY recounted the story in letters to the Roman historian Tacitus. His account was so exact and specific in certain descriptions of the events that later scientists determined that the towns fell victim to pyroclastic surges at 180-220°C (360-430°F), and instantly killed the 1,500 people who did not escape. Due to PTY's excellent recount, modern volcanologists call these eruptions "Plinian".

Mount St. Helen's had a Plinian eruption

Mt. St. Helens

in 1980. 

PTY went on to greatness: he was known as a man of letters and had a distinguished career as a Roman official.

Though buried under ash and lava, the history of Pompeii did not end there either. It was rediscovered in 1599 and was excavated in 1748. It is now a very popular tourist destination, with almost 2.5 million visitors every year. 

Inspiro Robustas: Woodstock's Success

On this day in 1969, the Woodstock Festival concluded. During the three day music festival, thirty-two acts performed, sometimes in the rain. The fete is largely considered a galvanizing moment for both pop and rock music, as well as for the counterculture movement that was building at the time. Songs played at that event and later to commemorate the event are still well-known and iconic.

The logistics of the festival itself were a disaster. The for-profit venture was initiated through the efforts of Lang, Kornfeld, Rosenman and Roberts – a mixed group of promoters, bankrollers and a musican. Creedance Clearwater Revival was booked as the first act in April 1969, before the venue had even been secured. The team, mired in local bureaucratic roadblocks and resident opposition, eventually settled on the natural “bowl” design of Yasgur’s Dairy Farm, and the town of Wallkill (the original venue location, and the site of the proposed follow-up recording studio) lost out eventually on what could have been lasting economy, tourism and fame.

Once settled on the late-change of venue, the promoting team was presented with a bigger problem: they had few resources to build amenities and were left with the options to either build fencing and a ticket booth, or a stage. Afraid that the lack of stage would cause disgruntled talent and audience, they opted for the latter. As a result, those without tickets simply walked into the area, never bothering to pay. And though the audience was estimated at 400,000, as a result of the lack of fencing, the promoting team was forced to make the event free, and were nearly bankrupt at the end of the weekend. But their ownership of the film and recording rights more than covered their losses eventually, proving that sometimes concession can lead the way to success.

The legacy of Woodstock is far reaching, showing up in films, music, and artwork…even eventually informing the name of this character:

Michael Lang said in 2014 that he is working toward a 50^th anniversary concert in 2019.

The Storm which is Qanon

Qanon is likely the single most interesting topic to me right now. Down into the rabbit-hole we go:

• Qanon is the conspiracy theory, Q is the "informer", 4chan is the source of Q. It started just last November. (source: NBC News)
• Qanon is related to the Roseanne Barr tweet incident that lead to her being fired from her own show. (source: Reply All from Gimlet)
• Q of Qanon fame is related to the recent devastating fires in CA (Source: Huff Post)
• Qanon was referenced by a recently foiled attempted Presidential assassination (Source: The Daily Beast)
• Qanon was cited by the perpetrators as the reason for the recent Hoover Dam incident and the related Cemex cement plant standoff. (Source: AZCentral)