Marcel Proust, how does Harvard love thee? Let me count the ways: an exhibit of rare letters, now on display at Houghton Library, and, coming later this semester, an online art show, a photography exhibit, a music concert, a film series, and a late-April international conference of literary scholars.All this affection and attention — a sort of Proust spring at Harvard — is inspired by the 100th anniversary of “Swann’s Way,” the first volume of the novel that grew to be the longest ever written. “In Search of Lost Time” — first known as “Remembrance of Things Past” — eventually filled seven volumes, ranged over 4,000 pages (in the Modern Library edition), and brought to literary life something like 2,000 characters. Its eventual size is partly a memento of World War I, which stalled the French publishing industry, giving the dreamy, discursive Proust more time to write.For all its length, the plot is simple, said François Proulx, a lecturer in Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature. “It’s a novel of one man’s apprenticeship as an artist.” “Swann’s Way” is also an artifact of the memories, reflections, and artistic influences that shaped Proust — “the worlds he learns from, and goes beyond,” said the young scholar.Proulx is co-organizer of “Proust and the Arts,” the April conference, and of the events promised in a related website, which in sum give a sense of all of Proust’s worlds. Proulx is teaching French 165 this semester with co-organizer Christie McDonald, Smith Professor of French Language and Literature and professor of comparative literature. Their class of 22 graduate students and undergraduates will read excerpts amounting to half of “In Search of Lost Time,” which Proulx described as “the Mount Everest of French literature.”But his long novel does not mean Proust was, as some of his critics said, merely gabby, or a man of leisure whose lazy prose just wandered, as a rich man might from party to party. “That’s unfair,” said Proulx of this common misrepresentation. “He is long-winded, but not rambling.”To prove it, the young scholar pointed to the centerpiece artifact of “Private Proust” in the Houghton’s Amy Lowell Room: a framed galley proof from the second volume of Proust’s masterpiece, “In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower” (1919). All around the spliced yellowing pages, painstaking revisions in his tiny hand swarm like bees. Proust wrote and rewrote, said Proulx, with savage attention.Cambridge is a long way from Paris, where the asthmatic writer composed his magnum opus — largely in pajamas, in bed, and late at night. But Proulx and others have uncovered an unusual share of Proust riches at Harvard, which together illuminate the artist’s life and times and his path to greatness.This semester, Marcel Proust (pictured) will be at the center of an online art show, a photography exhibit, a concert, a film series, and an international conference of literary scholars.For one, there is the rare collection of more than 125 letters given to the Houghton Library in 1994. They are part of the decades-long correspondence Proust had with composer Reynaldo Hahn. When the two met, and became lovers, Proust was 22 and Hahn was 19. That was 1894, and “Swann’s Way” was nearly two decades in the future. The selection of their letters in the Houghton exhibit (up through April 28) are from 1894 to 1912, a period in which Proust made the transition from social butterfly to serious writer.The Harvard Art Museums also add to our understanding of Proust, whose passion for painting, sculpture, and architecture informed the imaginary worlds he created. This spring, viewers can visit “A Proustian Gallery,” an online exhibit of Harvard-owned examples from 70 of the more than 100 visual artists mentioned in Proust’s works.All of Proust’s writing, beginning with “Pleasures and Days” (1896), is energetically referential, complete with musical scores, poems, and drawings — a kind of multimedia aesthetic that prevailed in the French literary magazines of his time. In addition, artists and musicians — veiled composites of people he knew — populated his books. “Proust believed in the capital importance of art,” said Proulx, “not just in his own life, but in everyone’s life.”The science of Proust’s era does not merit the same attention, he added, but the artist had a fascination with new technology, including the motorcar (which he used to tour French cathedrals in 1907), the airplane, and the telephone — devices he tended to describe in mythological terms. At one time the reclusive Proust used a Paris subscription service to listen to live opera over a phone line.Adding to the contextual riches: Harvard has photographs of Paris at the time Proust was at work, access to films that were derived from his writing, and student musicians who this semester will bring to life the scores either favored by the author or simply part of his pre-war Parisian milieu.But for now, the Houghton exhibit is the best way to enter Proust’s vanished world. The letters on display show his light, spidery, and well-spaced hand. They reveal his formative relationship with Hahn, to whom Proust read the first 200 pages of “Swann’s Way,” and to whom he often confessed his artistic travail. The letters also reveal the private language the two men used, a sort of sibilant Pig Latin based on adding extra letters to words.Most surprising, the Houghton exhibit letters reveal little-known drawings that Proust used only in correspondence with Hahn, whom he called “my other self.” One shows a crucifixion scene, in which — Proust’s caption reads — “Christ symbolizes poor sickch Marcel.” In another, Hahn is the Holy Spirit, bearing to the suffering artist gifts of grace and love.Famously, Proust suffered from asthma and other ailments — and just as famously would often exaggerate his delicacy, wrapping himself in scarves and greatcoats while at table in tony restaurants. Proust kept his living spaces sealed and later in life often felt well enough to write only in the middle of the night, when the air seemed more pure. But his renowned seclusion had an artistic origin, too — the sheer compulsion to write. Around 1909, his desire to complete the book he called cela — “this” — heated to boiling. That same year, he wrote a friend, finishing the work became “a duty.”It was never a complete seclusion, said Proulx, who is eager to dispel the myth that Proust lived out his final years boxed up in cork-lined rooms. Proust still went out, sometimes scouring the late-night Hotel Ritz for friends. In addition, a voluminous correspondence kept him informed and connected. “They’re his lifeline to the outside world,” said Proulx of the letters. “But they’re also the way to keep the world at bay.”Proust died in 1922, a quarter century before his beloved Hahn passed away in 1947. The sum of their correspondence is still only partly collected in English editions and not wholly translated into English — a fact that Harvard’s Proust Spring may help change. A small volume of their pivotal correspondence, mused Proulx, “might make an interesting project.”Meanwhile, the Houghton letters underline Proust’s sense of the serious woven in with the whimsical. One, addressed to Hahn’s dog Zadig, is a meditation on the limits of intellect in artistic creation. Proust avers that rationality was only capable of “weak facsimiles” of the real truth of the human condition. “It is only when I have reverted to the state of dog, to a poor Zadig like you,” Proust wrote, “that I start to write.”It was something akin to that “state of dog” that Proust touches on in the opening pages of “Swann’s Way,” in a meditation on sleep and dreaming. In deep sleep, “I had only the most rudimentary sense of existence,” he wrote, “such as may lurk and flicker in the depths of an animal’s consciousness.” But then came memory, the primary gift of these near-animal states. Memory, Proust wrote, “would come like a rope let down from heaven to draw me up out of the abyss of not-being.”Everyone knows that “In Search of Lost Time” is long. But there is one other thing memorialized on that small shelf allotted to Proust in the popular mind: that sudden epiphanies trigger memory, mostly by way of sensory portals such as sound, taste, and touch. The memory of Proust’s childhood village was prompted by the taste of a madeleine dipped in hot tea. The experience triggered, he wrote, “this all-powerful joy.”The conference on April 19-20 — surely it will be joyful — signifies another Harvard treasure, just as the collections of letters and paintings do: the University’s convening power, needed to muster in one place so many Proust experts, in a year that will be busy with worldwide celebrations of a literary centenary.During the event, presenters will be confined to a non-Proustian 20 minutes each. Proulx smiled at the idea of this temporal challenge. “We’ll find out,” he said, “if that is feasible.” read more
For years scientists have sought to unravel the mystery of why about 90% of people infected by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause tuberculosis (TB), remain symptom-free for years, while the remaining 10% become sick and may die. A December 15, 2013 study in Nature Medicine by Sarah Fortune, the Melvin J. and Geraldine L. Glimcher associate professor of immunology and infectious diseases at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), and University of Pittsburgh researchers revealed new findings about lung lesions in laboratory animals with TB that may help guide scientists seeking to better understand the disease.The researchers discovered that animals that get sick with tuberculosis and those that remain symptom free for life do not differ as much as previously believed. Indeed, the immune responses in both groups of animals are very effective at killing most of the infecting bacteria. Animals get sick because the immune system loses control of infection at just one or a few sites in the body. These findings provide researchers with a new road map for developing a TB vaccine—where the solution may lie in comparing sites of control with sites of immune failure. “We need to really have a lesional perspective in order to understand what we are going to need to do to build a TB vaccine,” said Fortune in a January 2014 Nature Medicine podcast. Read Full Story read more
Just walked Of the musical I SOBBED & LAUGHED,& I WAS PREPARED NOT 2LIKE IT.AUDIENCE CLAPPED AFTER SONGS,& GAVE IT STANDING OVATION— Cher (@cher) January 17, 2017 Lesli Margherita & Lena Hall(Photos: Emilio Madrid-Kuser) If we could turn back time, we would have front row seats to this reading! According to The New York Post, this week marked the first official read-through of the Cher musical, and Lesli Margherita (Matilda), Tony winner Lena Hall (Hedwig and the Angry Inch) and Jillian Mueller (Bye Bye Birdie) played three incarnations of the pop icon. Jarrod Spector (Beautiful) took on Sonny Bono, the music superstar’s late first husband and longtime performing partner.As previously reported, the Jason Moore-directed bio-musical will feature a book by Jersey Boys scribe Rick Elice. In addition, Hamilton heavy-hitter Jeffrey Seller as well as TV executive Flody Suarez are on hand to produce.The Cher musical chronicles the life of the music legend and includes hits like “I Got You Babe,” “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” and “If I Could Turn Back Time,” the third being sung by all three performers. The production is still in the early stages, and casting is not yet confirmed for later incarnations of the show. Take a look at what Cher herself had to say about the reading below! View Comments read more
Updated: 9:00 A.M. 12/2/2016A wildfire that originated deep in the backcountry of Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GSMNP) recently spread into Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and other parts of Sevier County in far eastern Tennessee—destroying more than 400 structures, many of them homes, and forcing the evacuation of thousands of residents.The fire came during one of the worst droughts the Southeast has seen in decades. Even as rain began to fall near Gatlinburg and other parts of the drought effected Southeast Tuesday morning, many of the of the fires in east Tennessee continued to burn, though the worst now appears to be over.The rapid acceleration of the Tennessee wildfires that caused so much destruction on the night of Monday, November 28th was brought about by extreme winds, some recorded gusts reaching 87 mph.The wind caused the fire to spread quickly and unpredictably, allowing residents and evacuees little to no warning of the impending flames.Gatlinburg mayor Mike Werner, who lost his home in the blaze, told CNN that “people were basically running for their lives.”“When you see the fire it is a scary thing to see,” he said.According to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency as many as 14,000 residents were evacuated in Gatlinburg alone.Much of the destruction was captured by residents with cell phone cameras, including the video below, which shows guests being cornered by flames inside the 16-story Park Vista Hotel in downtown Gatlinburg.As of now, eleven deaths have been reported, and at least a dozen people were taken to area hospitals. National Guard troops have been called in to aid overwhelmed fire fighters.The National Park Service announced on Twitter, that all facilities within GSMNP are closed “due to the extensive fire activity, and downed trees.”Stay tuned as we continue to update this developing tragedy in Eastern Tennessee.How You Can HelpClick here to donate to a relief fund set up by the Great Smoky Mountains Association for National Park Service employees and other employees of GSMNP effected by the fires.Kroger supermarkets in East and Middle Tennessee, northern Alabama and southern Kentucky are partnering with the Red Cross to collect money to provide aid to those affected by the fires.Remote Area Medical will take Gatorade and water to LeConte Medical Center and volunteer fire departments today. Deliver to RAM headquarters, 2200 Stock Creek Boulevard in Rockford, TN. RAM will pick up large donations; call 865-579-1530.The American Red Cross is always accepting donations. You can donate online or sign up via the website to volunteer after the fires. Because today is ‘Giving Tuesday‘, the Red Cross will match any donation up to $50,000.Click here for a more comprehensive list of ways you can donate time or money to those effected by the Sevier County fires. read more
ShareShareSharePrintMailGooglePinterestDiggRedditStumbleuponDeliciousBufferTumblr continue reading » Total revenue in 2018 for U.S. credit unions grew 12.8% to $74.4 billion, a 3.2-percentage-point acceleration from 2017. Annual income at credit unions has increased 37.4%, or $20.2 billion, since the Great Recession. Largely a result of rising loan demand and interest rate trends, the amount of income generated at credit unions has expanded throughout 2018.Buoyed by interest rate hikes, interest income rose 13.9% year-over-year to $54.7 billion at year-end 2018. Interest income, which consists of income from investments and loans, comprised 73.5% of credit union revenue. The Federal Reserve issued four rate hikes throughout the year, which subsequently pushed up interest rates on both sides of the balance sheet. Gaining more per dollar loaned and invested, credit unions increased loan income (less interest refunded) 13.1% annually to $47.6 billion as of Dec. 31, 2018. Investment income increased 20.3% to $7.1 billion. read more
May 10, 2006 (CIDRAP News) The creators of the fictional ABC-TV movie “Fatal Contact: Bird Flu in America” blended medical facts from the 1918 influenza pandemic with current predictions from flu experts to portray a contemporary flu pandemic, but they added a liberal dash of sensationalism. See also: In the drama, H5N1 avian flu begins to spread from person to person in China, signaling the start of a pandemic. An American businessman contracts the virus and brings it back to his home in Virginia, where he spreads it to others before falling desperately ill. Soon, cases are spreading across the United States. As panic spreads, the governor of Virginia quarantines neighborhoods where cases have cropped up, and federal officials confess they have no vaccine and scant supplies of antiviral drugs. Major socioeconomic disruption sets in, with shortages of food and medical supplies, power outages, and riots in the streets of New York. Eventually (after countless numbing commercials), the pandemic begins to subside. But in the final scene, the discovery that the entire population of an Angolan village has died heralds a new mutation of the virus and a second wave of cases. The illness in the American businessman who has the first US case in the film clearly resembles the illness that struck many in 1918. After fits of violent coughing, he suddenly collapses on the job, blood streaming from his nose. He later dies of acute respiratory distress. At his autopsy, a CDC doctor says, “He coughed so violently he tore apart his abdominal muscles. He basically drowned in his own blood.” Another example was the film’s grimmest scene, in which dump trucks back up to a large pit and dump mounds of shrouded human bodies into it. This too may have been inspired by the 1918 experience. In that pandemic, the city of Philadelphia was overwhelmed by the number of corpses, and mass graves were used for a time. But there is no record of bodies being unceremoniously dumped, and such a scenario seems inconceivable today. “Fatal Contact” portrayed a number of difficulties and dilemmas that public health planners are envisioning now as they prepare for a pandemic. Some examples include the necessity of rationing vaccine and ventilators, overwhelmed hospitals, the use of overflow hospitals, shortages of healthcare workers as staff members stay home to care for their families, shortages of ordinary drugs and medical supplies, such as insulin, and food shortages caused by disrupted transportation systems. In some scenes, the movie clearly went over the top. One was the governor’s decision to quarantine some neighborhoods behind chain link and barbed wire, an obviously futile measure with the pandemic well under way. “I can’t imagine any elected official doing that,” said Osterholm. “I think pressure would be brought to bear by other government leaders” to prevent it. The disease shown in the film, aired May 9, bore a strong resemblance to the illness that killed an estimated 675,000 Americans in 1918 and 1919. And a good many of the issues raised came straight out of the US government’s pandemic preparedness plans and recent news stories about possible pandemic scenarios. But some scenes and details went well beyond what happened in 1918 or what is plausible today. And along the way, important medical details were left out. US Department of Health and Human Services information about “Fatal Contact”http://www.pandemicflu.gov/news/birdfluinamerica.html For those interested in medical and epidemiologic details, the film left some major questions unanswered. There was no indication of the case-fatality rate, for one thing. It appeared that only two characters who had the disease survived (the son of the businessman, and a soldier who got sick while in Iraq), which implied a very high fatality rate. But no clear information was given. Nor was there any indication of the age distribution of cases. Was it the typical pattern, with the very young and very old most affected? Or did the illness hit young adults the hardest, as occurred in 1918? It wasn’t clear. The 1918 pandemic produced similar reports: people collapsing suddenly, coughing up blood, and autopsies revealing lungs clogged with fluid, the imprint of the “cytokine storm,” or immune system overreaction. The businessman’s copious nosebleed might have seemed sensational, but it had a basis in fact. “The nosebleed was described in 1918,” said Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of CIDRAP. “They made it fairly extreme.” Another scene in the film has armed men trying to seize a van carrying a supply of vaccine, only to be shot by soldiers. That looked extreme, but Osterholm found it conceivable. “I don’t think that one was necessarily unreal,” he says. “Corpse management will be a real concern [in a pandemic], but I can’t imagine under any condition we would put bodies in the back of a truck and dump them in,” said Osterholm. This commentary was written by the CIDRAP Editorial Staff. The production also gave birders and conservationists reason to complain. It began and ended with scenes of wild geese in flight, implying that wild birds are the main carriers of the H5N1 virus around the world. This question is hotly debated, but most experts would probably say that both wild birds and poultry handling practices play a role in spreading the pathogen. The 200-plus human cases of H5N1 that have occurred over the past 3 years have been severe as well, of course, but just how closely the movie portrayal resembles them is not clear from our perspective. In any case, in depicting a 1918-like illness, the producers deliberately chose a worst-case scenario. While disease experts agree that a flu pandemic is inevitable sooner or later, they don’t believe it will inevitably be as severe as in 1918. Even if the H5N1 virus is the pathogen, in acquiring the ability to spread from person to person, it could become less virulent. The other two 20th century pandemics, in 1957-58 and 1968-69, were far milder than 1918. The fact is that no one knows how severe the next pandemic will be. On the vaccine front, the movie made a bad situation look even worse. It depicted the government as having no vaccine at all at the outset of the pandemic. In reality, the government is stockpiling a “pre-pandemic” vaccine based on the H5N1 virus. The supply is small, and studies have shown it takes two large doses to generate an adequate immune response, which occurs in only about half of those vaccinated. But this vaccine would probably be better than nothing if a pandemic began today. The end of the film, in which an entire Angolan village appears to have been wiped out, is another example of sensationalism. Osterholm, who previewed the film but was not involved in it, commented in a news conference this week that the scene “looks like the Jonestown massacre, not something caused by infectious disease.” A 100% fatality rate would be highly unlikely with any virus. In fairness, the producers told the New York Times that the scene was meant to show a village that was emptied by a combination of evacuation and disease. read more
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China’s Wison Offshore & Marine has completed the final delivery for Exmar’s Caribbean FLNG, described by Wison as the world’s first barge-based floating natural gas liquefaction and storage facility (Caribbean FLNG). Prior to the delivery, the contracts for project financing provided by Bank of China, Deutsche Bank and supported by China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation have been officially signed, which laid a good foundation for the successful delivery of the project, Wison said.Wison undertook the Caribbean FLNG project under an engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning (EPCIC) contract with Exmar. With a liquefaction capacity of 500,000t/y, the FLNG successfully completed its performance test at the Wison yard in Nantong, China in Sept. 2016.According to Wison, the performace test marked for the first time in history that LNG has been produced onboard a floating facility as well as the first time that a floating liquefaction unit has completed gas-trial and performance test before sail-out.The Caribbean FLNG project comprises a non-propelled barge that will be installed off the coast of Colombia and equipped to convert 69.5 million scf/d of natural gas into LNG (+/- 500,000 tons of LNG per year) for temporary storage and export. The topsides equipment will utilize the PRICO® technology, an innovative process developed by Black & Veatch to liquefy natural gas marking the first time this system has been applied to a floating LNG facility. read more
Beckham briefly shared a Champions League stage with Messi towards the end of his own distinguished playing career. The former LA Galaxy midfielder was on the books at Paris Saint-Germain by that stage, as he prepared to hang up his boots in France. PSG were paired with Barca at the quarter-final stage of Europe’s premier club competition in 2013, with the Catalan giants eventually progressing on away goals after a 3-3 stalemate over two legs. Beckham’s side were ahead at one stage during their visit to Camp Nou, but Messi stepped off the bench in that game and Pedro snatched what would prove to be the decisive effort in a thrilling tie. “We were leading before Messi came in, and once he came in, Barcelona scored,” Beckham said. Loading… Lionel Messi is a level above even Cristiano Ronaldo, says Manchester United legend David Beckham, with the Barcelona superstar considered to sit in a class of his own. Many share that opinion of the mercurial Argentine forward, with his exploits at Camp Nou continuing to amaze and raise the bar of individual excellence. Promoted ContentBirds Enjoy Living In A Gallery Space Created For ThemWho Is The Most Powerful Woman On Earth?A Guy Turns Gray Walls And Simple Bricks Into Works Of ArtPortuguese Street Artist Creates Hyper-Realistic 3D GraffitiYou’ve Only Seen Such Colorful Hairdos In A Handful Of AnimeCouples Who Celebrated Their Union In A Unique, Unforgettable Way6 Unforgettable Shows From The 90s That Need To Make A Comeback6 Best Supercars In Movies You’ll Dream To Drive At Least Once8 Superfoods For Growing Hair Back And Stimulating Its Growth6 Best ’90s Action Movies To Watch TodayWho Earns More Than Ronaldo?10 Risky Jobs Some Women Do Eternal rival Ronaldo is the only player to have got close to Messi, with the pair having split 11 Ballons d’Or between them. The Portuguese, currently starring for Juventus, does boast many qualities in his game that Barcelona’s captain lacks, with the 35-year-old all about physicality and relentless ambition. Messi, though, has captivated audiences with his mazy dribbling and audacious finishing for the best part of 16 years, with a remarkable return of 627 goals recorded for the Blaugrana in that time. For former England captain Beckham, who passed on the No.7 shirt at United to Ronaldo and also preceded him at Real Madrid, South American flair wins out over Portuguese power. Read Also: Chelsea star breaks ups four-year romance after texts to ex-pole dancer “Although I enjoyed playing at that level at my age, I do not like to lose. “Our team played well. In both matches, we did things we should be proud of. “We didn’t lose against Barcelona, and that is something that should motivate us.” FacebookTwitterWhatsAppEmail分享 He told Telam: “He [Messi] is alone in his class as a player, it is impossible that there is another like him. “He, like Cristiano Ronaldo, who is not at his level, are both above the rest.” read more
Loading… Multiple Italian sources claim Manchester United are the favourites to sign Napoli defender, Kalidou Koulibaly, for €90m, ahead of PSG, Liverpool and Newcastle United. French papers had already suggested Paris Saint-Germain were pulling out, while Barcelona and Real Madrid are also looking at other targets. Now La Repubblica and Il Mattino newspapers in Italy also point to Manchester United as the primary candidates should Koulibaly leave the Stadio San Paolo this summer. The asking price has dropped due to the coronavirus pandemic and its effect on the wider transfer market, as President Aurelio De Laurentiis had rejected over €100m in the last couple of years.Advertisement These latest reports put the price-tag at €90m, which would still be a massive profit considering he turns 29 next month and cost only €7.75m to purchase from KRC Genk in 2014. read also:Man Utd step up pursuit of Koulibaly after ahead of Liverpool’s transfer interest The Senegal international centre-back is under contract with Napoli until June 2023 and there is no release clause in his contract. Other interested parties include Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City and Newcastle United. FacebookTwitterWhatsAppEmail分享 Promoted ContentInsane 3D Spraying Skills Turn In Incredible Street ArtThe Very Last Bitcoin Will Be Mined Around 2140. Read More7 Universities In The World Where Education Costs Too Much11 Most Immersive Game To Play On Your Table TopPlus-Size Babes Who Will Make Your Heart Race7 Universities In The World With The Highest Market Value9 Facts You Should Know Before Getting A TattooWho Earns More Than Ronaldo?10 Risky Jobs Some Women DoTop 10 Most Romantic Nations In The WorldThe Runner Who Makes Elaborate Artwork With His Feet And A Map8 Fascinating Facts About Coffee read more