Webstek van Renske
'Their most controversial action on behalf of civil rights was their offer of Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk as a partial gift to the city of Houston in 1969, on the condition that it be dedicated to the recently assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The city refused the gift, sparking a controversial debate that involved John de Menil proposing that the sculpture be inscribed with the Biblical quote "Forgive them for they know not what they do."'
'Deze film kreeg destijds tegenstrijdige commentaren: sommige critici begrepen de onderliggende boodschappen niet.'
'In 1661 werd Oliver Cromwells lijk opgegraven en postuum geëxecuteerd op 30 januari, de datum waarop hij Karel I had laten executeren.'
'Hugues-Adhémar Cuénod (born 26 June 1902) is a Swiss tenor born in Corseaux-sur-Vevey.[...] He holds the record as the oldest person to make a debut at the Metropolitan Opera, singing the Emperor Altoum from Puccini's Turandot in 1987, aged 84.
Cuénod resides with his life partner, Alfred Augustin (41 years his junior), in the Vaud region of Switzerland, in the Château de Lully, an 18th-century castle that belonged to his ancestors. In January 2007, when Cuénod was aged 104, he and Augustin entered into a civil union after changes in Swiss law gave same-sex couples many of the legal benefits of marriage.
On 26 June 2009, Hugues Cuénod reached the age of 107.'
'His sole focus had been to develop a safe and effective vaccine as rapidly as possible, with no interest in personal profit. When he was asked in a televised interview who owned the patent to the vaccine, Salk replied: "There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"'
"Cohn was also selfless in the best (and worst) scientific tradition. For example, he would often give public demonstrations of the blood fractionation machine, in which he would fractionate his own blood on the stage during the lecture. In one such lecture, at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon, the machine became blocked (without Cohn's knowledge) and exploded, showering the first few rows of the audience with Cohn's blood. Cohn maintained his sangfroid, however, and continued his lecture without significant interruption. More generally, Cohn drove himself relentlessly and ignored his doctors' advice to cut back on working because of his high blood pressure (which finally killed him)."
'Powell was the swing vote in Bowers v. Hardwick 478 U.S. 186 (1986), opting to go with the majority ruling which upheld Georgia's sodomy laws. He was reportedly distressed over how to vote. A conservative clerk advised him to uphold the ban, and Powell, who believed he had never met a gay person (not realizing that one of his own clerks was a closeted homosexual), voted to uphold Georgia's law, though Powell in a concurring opinion expressed concern at the length of the prison terms prescribed by the law. The Court, 17 years later, expressly overruled Bowers in Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003).
In 1990, after his retirement from the Court, he said, "I think I made a mistake in the Hardwick case," marking one of the few times a justice expressed regret for one of his previous votes.'
'He believed that scientists have an individual moral responsibility, and just as the Hippocratic Oath provides a code of conduct for physicians, he thought that scientists should have their own code of moral conduct, a Hippocratic Oath for Scientists. During his tenure as president of the Pugwash conferences, Rotblat nominated Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu for the Nobel Peace Prize every year from 1988 to 2004. Vanunu had disclosed the extent of Israel's nuclear weapons programme, and consequently spent 18 years in prison, including more than 11 years in solitary confinement.
Rotblat campaigned ceaselessly against nuclear weapons. In an interview shortly before the 2004 U.S. presidential election, he expressed his belief that the Russell-Einstein Manifesto still had "great relevance today, after 50 years, particularly in connection with the election of a president in the United States", and above all, with respect to the potential pre-emptive use of nuclear weapons. Central to his view of the world were the words of the Russell-Einstein Manifesto with which he concluded his acceptance lecture for the Nobel prize in 1995: "Above all, remember your humanity".'
"A minor planet, 3204 Lindgren, discovered in 1978 by Soviet astronomer Nikolai Stepanovich Chernykh, was named after her. The name of the Swedish microsatellite Astrid 1, launched on 24 January 1995, was originally selected only as a common Swedish female name, but within a short time it was decided to name the instruments after characters in Astrid Lindgren's books: PIPPI (Prelude in Planetary Particle Imaging), EMIL (Electron Measurements - In-situ and Lightweight), and MIO (Miniature Imaging Optics). Astrid said that maybe people should call her Asteroid Lindgren instead."
"CC OBC Ph.D LLD (UoPEI, hc) DSc (UoW, hc) DSc (AU, hc) LLD (TU, hc) LLD (UoC, hc) DHL (GSU, hc) DSc (LU, hc) DSc (MU, hc) LLD (QU, hc) DSc (CU, hc) DSc (AC, hc) DSc (GU, hc) DDL (OU, hc) DSc (WC, hc) DES (UC, hc) DDL (SFU, hc) DSc (YU, hc) DSc (UQAM, hc) DSc (FU, hc) DC, hc) DSc (RU, hc) DSc (UoM, hc) DSc (UoWO, hc) DSc (MUN, hc)"
'Een voorbeeld van Lodewijks taalbeheersing is een briefje dat hij in 1807 vanuit de Pyreneeën verstuurde naar minister Willem Frederik Röell, die naar hem onderweg was:
"Goed dag mij waard Röell, van doe gij nog in Tarascon, in deze slect en droefig dorp? Waarom zijt gij niet hier bij mij? Zonder Hollands gesel ik con niet al den dagen less nemen, trek dan geshuin en omkeeren in venig van tijd. Gelukig man! Gij ga moë wrouen zien en die vie is moiste en aimableste. Nu gij zal meer galant vorden, maar niet meer bevrindt van uw wriende. Waar wal mij waart tot verder zien in Paris. Pamiers deze wier augustus 1807, Lodewijk. Antwoorde mij in talen hollandsch in Toulouse. Mijn heer Flament heeft gehad mijn book, en screve aan u nog voor een goed less nemen."'
'As First Lady during her husband's presidency, Higuchi was one of the first people in Peru to allege criminal misdoings on the part of her husband. As early as 1992, she denounced several of her Fujimori in-laws for corruption in connection with the sale of used clothing donated by Japan. In 1994, she publicly condemned her husband as a tyrant and his government as corrupt. Fujimori reacted by formally stripping her of the title First Lady in August 1994, appointing their elder daughter First Lady in her place.'
'In the 1990s, after Waterloo station was chosen as the British terminus for the Eurostar train service, Florent Longuepée, a municipal councillor in Paris, wrote to the British Prime Minister requesting that the station be renamed because he said it was upsetting for the French to be reminded of Napoleon's defeat when they arrived in London by Eurostar. There is a name counterpart in Paris: the Gare d'Austerlitz is named after the Battle of Austerlitz, one of Napolean's greatest victories. However, this station is less important than most other stations in the city and Eurostar trains run to the Gare du Nord.'
'The cereal is marketed on the basis of the noises it produces when milk is added to the bowl. The onomatopoeic noises differ by language:English: "Snap! Crackle! Pop!"
Canadian French: "Cric! Crac! Croc!"
Spanish: "Pim! Pum! Pam!"
German: "Knisper! Knasper! Knusper!"
Danish: "Piff! Paff! Puff!"
Finnish: "Riks! Raks! Poks!"
Dutch: "Pif! Paf! Pof!"
Afrikaans: "Knap! Knaetter! Knak!"'
'Let's trim our hair in accordance with the socialist lifestyle, or alternatively translated as Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle, was part of a North Korean government propaganda campaign promulgating grooming and dress standards. It was broadcast on state-run Korean Central Television in the capital of Pyongyang. The television program claimed that hair length can affect human intelligence, in part because of the deprivation to the rest of the body of nutrients required for hair to grow. It was one part of longstanding North Korean government restrictions on haircuts and fashions deemed at odds with "Socialist Values".
[...]
The series began in 2004 as part of the regular television program Common Sense. In the fall of that year, a larger media campaign (print and radio as well as television)began promoting proper attire and neat appearances in men. The show encouraged state-mandated short hairstyles, such as the flat-top crew cut, middle hairstyle, low hairstyle, and high hairstyle. It said that hair should be kept between 1 cm and 5 cm in length, and recommended haircuts for men every 15 days. The country's official hairstyles did allow men over 50 years old to grow their upper hair up to 7 cm long, to disguise balding.
An initial five-part series of the show featured officially endorsed haircut styles, while a later series went a step further by showing certain men as examples of how not to trim one's hair. With each example, the show conveyed the person's name and where they lived (or worked) via subtitles and/or voice. For example, in one episode (shown in January 2005) a North Korean citizen named Mr. Ko Gwang Hyun, whose unkempt hair covered his ears, was shown as a negative role model, with the voiceover commentary: "We cannot help questioning the cultural taste of this comrade, who is incapable of feeling ashamed of his hair style. Can we expect a man with this disheveled mind-set to perform his duty well?"'
'In the book, Mary Roach describes a session in which she and her husband Ed volunteer to have sex in a 20-inch diameter MRI tube in the interests of science. During the experiment, a doctor looks on, making suggestions, and finally telling Ed that he "may ejaculate now."'
"De naam nylon werd op 27 oktober 1938 wereldkundig gemaakt door Charles Stine, directeur van de chemische afdeling van DuPont. Over de totstandkoming van de naam doen verschillende verhalen de ronde, een officieel verhaal en enkele legendes. De officiële en meest waarschijnlijke ontstaansgeschiedenis is de volgende: toen gezocht werd naar een geschikte naam voor het nieuwe materiaal werd een commissie van drie wetenschappers samengesteld. Een van de commissieleden, Dr. E.K. Gladding, stelde norun voor, omdat gedacht werd dat nieuwe (nylon)kousen nauwelijks zouden ladderen. Toen bleek dat de kousen dat wel deden stelde Gladding de naam te veranderen in nuron. Dit leek echter teveel op neuron, en werd afgewezen. Vervanging van de "r" door een "l" gaf de naam nulon, echter "new nulon" klonk niet lekker. Er werd gesuggereerd om de "u" te vervangen door een "i", maar dat gaf weer problemen bij de uitspraak (moet deze "i" als "need" of als "nine" uitgesproken worden?). Uiteindelijk werd de "i" vervangen door een "y". Het probleem van de uitspraak was verholpen en nylon was geboren.
De legende is interessanter, en is een klassiek voorbeeld van de neiging van Engels-sprekenden om humoristische, sarcastische of beledigende versies van acroniemen te maken. Het was niet al te moeilijk om "Now You Lose Old Nippon" of "Now You Lousy Old Nippon" te bedenken. Nylon vormde een grote bedreiging voor de Japanse zijde-industrie, die de wereldmarkt van vezels en stoffen domineerde. Daarnaast werd de periode waarin nylon gesynthetiseerd en geproduceerd werd, gekenmerkt door sterke anti-Japanse gevoelens. Een Amerikaans succes werd vergezeld met de wens Japan te schofferen. Dit verhaal ontstond ongeveer tegelijkertijd met het ontstaan van nylon in 1938, en verspreidde zich razendsnel over Amerika. De impact en bekendheid was dusdanig groot, dat DuPont in 1941 in een Japanse krant ontkende dat nylon een beledigend acroniem zou zijn. Deze PR-actie heeft niet mogen baten, want zoals een goede legende betaamt, is deze tot vandaag de dag veel bekender dan het officiële verhaal."
"Until October 2007 she presented in the 10pm till 1am slot on Monday to Thursdays on BBC Radio Five Live. She now co-presents the station's weekday "Drive" (16:00 - 19:00) slot with Peter Allen, having replaced Jane Garvey in 2007. On television, Anand has been a presenter on the Heaven and Earth Show, and is currently co-presenting The Daily Politics on BBC Two with Andrew Neil. She has also written articles for India Today and The Asian Age newspaper, and used to write a regular column in The Guardian.
On 18 November 2005 she won the Nazia Hassan Award for 2005 in the category of upcoming Television Broadcasters. Has wonderful sense of humour and a delightful laugh."