Author Archives: laurn larson

My Friend Can Stick Around

27 January 2025 By in Music Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“The Weight” by Robbie Robertson is one of The Band’s best-known songs. It was released on their 1968 breakout album, Music from the Big Pink. It is ranked among the greatest rock songs of all time by Rolling Stone and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The song’s narrative is a commentary on the impossibility of doing good, emphasizing that morality and virtue require effort. Jake Grogan quotes Robertson philosophically explaining his song as the weight placed on one’s shoulders when fulfilling a favor: “The Weight was this very simple thing. Someone says, ‘Listen, would you do me this favor? When you get there, will you say hello to somebody, or will you give somebody this, or will you pick up one of these for me? … I’ve only come here to say ‘hello’ for somebody, and I’ve got myself in this incredible predicament.”

Trivia: The opening line of the song, “I pulled into Nazareth, was feelin’ about half past dead,” refers to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, where Martin Guitars manufactures their instruments.

Source: Origins of a Song by Jake Grogan, 2018. Graphic: The Weight video by Robbie Robertson and Ringo Star, 2018 Universal Music Publishing.

Brunelleschi’s Dome

26 January 2025 By in Architecture, Art Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Filippo Brunelleschi, a goldsmith, engineer, and relatively inexperienced architect, completed the largest masonry dome in the world in 1436—a record that has never been broken. The world now knows it as Brunelleschi’s Dome, which sits atop the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower in Florence, Italy.

When completed, the dome was 52 meters (171 feet) high, with an exterior diameter of 45.5 meters (149 feet) and an interior diameter at its base of 41 meters (135 feet). The base of the dome sat above the crossing of the Cathedral, which was 55 meters (180 feet) above the ground. Atop the dome was a lantern measuring 21 meters (69 feet) in height, bringing the entire Cathedral structure to a remarkable 128 meters (420 feet). While it was not the tallest structure in the world at the time—Lincoln Cathedral in England, at 160 meters (525 feet), held that distinction—it was certainly an impressive architectural feat.

Trivia: Brunelleschi developed an ingenious mechanical lift to raise materials up to the dome. The modern world knows what that device looked like and how it worked because a young Leonardo da Vinci sketched the hoist when he was apprenticed to the Florentine painter Verrocchio beginning in 1466. Due to that sketch, Leonardo was sometimes mistakenly given credit for inventing the hoist.

Source: Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King, 2000. Graphic: Brunelleschi’s Dome by National Geographic, 2013-2019.

Put Your Lights On

24 January 2025 By in Physics Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

A distant galaxy at the edge of the universe and the beginning of time has revealed a remarkable discovery by Yale researchers. They have identified a variable quasar that rapidly brightens as its astrophysical jets periodically align with the position of Earth.

The researchers believe that this quasar, and others like it, played a significant role in bringing light into the early dark universe, alongside massive early stars which preceded the quasars.

Quasars are supermassive black holes at the centers of early galaxies, spinning at relativistic speeds. These early galaxies contained substantial unincorporated material, primordial gas clouds akin to present-day nebulae, which were easily captured by the black hole’s gravity. Near the event horizon of the black hole, this matter is caught in a ‘turbulent’ vortex, creating massive astrophysical jets. These jets, partially composed of ionized plasmas, are expelled at relativistic speeds, extending up to hundreds of light-years from the black hole and perpendicular to its event horizon. As the ionized hydrogen plasmas capture electrons from the neutral hydrogen in the early universe, photons are released, contributing to the illumination of the cosmos.

Thomas Connor, an astronomer at the Chandra X-Ray Center and co-corresponding author of the study, states, “[This] epoch of reionization is considered the end of the universe’s dark ages.”

Trivia: The song Put Your Lights On was written by Erik Schrody (Everlast) and performed with Santana on his 1999 album Supernatural. He wrote the song while recovering from a heart attack, pondering the hope that exists in life.

Source: This Quasar May Have Helped Turn the Lights on… by Shelton, Yale, 2025. Graphic: Black Hole Outflows from Centaurus A, ESO, 2009.

1556 Shaanxi Earthquake

23 January 2025 By in History Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

23 January 1556, a massive earthquake with a magnitude estimated between 7 and 8 struck Shaanxi, China, resulting in the tragic loss of upwards of 830,000 lives. The quake hit late in the evening, when most people were at home, leading to widespread destruction as homes were buried by landslides and collapsed structures.

This devastating extensional earthquake occurred in the Wei River Valley, part of the Weihe-Shanxi Rift system. Faults in the region indicate that vertical movement of up to 25 feet might have occurred during the tremor or multiple quakes.

The Wei River Valley is also renowned for its extensive loess deposits—glacially created windblown silt and fine sand—that have shaped the landscape into a series of terraces and rolling hills. In the 16th century, local inhabitants carved out caves, known as yaodongs, in these loess deposits for shelters. Tragically, during the earthquake, these caves and above-ground shelters collapsed, burying most of the inhabitants alive.

Source: Shaanxi Earthquake by Smith, 2021, Nature World News. Graphic: Loess Landscape Near Shanxi, China by Till Niermann, public domain.

Iron Lion

22 January 2025 By in Movies Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Kraven the Hunter: Kraven (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) goes on a lion hunt led by his overbearing and unsympathetic widowed father (Russell Crowe). During the hunt, Kraven is fatally mauled by an almost mythic lion but is saved by a potion, mixed with some of the lion’s blood, given to him by a future voodoo priestess, Calypso. The serum grants Kraven superhuman strength, speed, and senses, which he uses to hunt criminals, poachers, and other enhanced baddies.

Kraven could have been a better film. It’s a 95-minute movie crammed into 127 minutes. The most serious flaws are the CGI effects, the ending, and an excess of unnecessary drama. The subpar CGI disrupts the immersion in an action-heavy movie, while the ending focuses too much on setting up sequels and spinoffs, detracting from the action scenes. Resolving his father issues would have served as a fitting end to the movie, but the writers were likely beholden or burdened by the suits on the business end of the studio lot.

Genre: Action—Adventure—Drama–Thriller

Directed by: J.C. Chandor

Screenplay by: Richard Wenk, Art Marcum, Matt Holloway

Music by: Benjamin Wallfisch, Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine

Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Russell Crowe

Film Location: Iceland, London, Scotland

ElsBob: 5.5/10

IMDb: 5.4/10

Rotten Tomatoes Critics: 16%

Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter: 74%

Metacritic Metascore: 35%

Metacritic User Score: 4.5/10

Theaters: 13 December 2024

Runtime: 127 minutes

Budget: $110-130 million

Box Office: $59.5 million

Source: Rotten Tomatoes, IMDb, Metacritic. Graphic: Kraven the Hunter Trailer, copyright Sony.

Tomaiolo Chianti Classico 2020:

21 January 2025 By in Red Wine Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Sangiovese from Chianti, Tuscany, Italy

100% Sangiovese

Purchase Price: $14.99

Wilford Wong 90, ElsBob 90

ABV 12.5%

Ruby red in color, aromas of red fruits, medium bodied, slightly tannic, slightly dry, acidic. Ideal with roasted or grilled meats, and naturally, pasta.

An excellent table wine at a fair price of $15 although the wine now appears to be selling for about $20.

No One Shall Sleep

20 January 2025 By in History, Music, Music, Poetry Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“Nessun Dorma,” (No One Shall Sleep) an aria by Giacomo Puccini from the final act of his opera Turandot, is performed by an enigmatic tenor prince who seeks the hand of Princess Turandot. The Princess decrees that any suitor must solve three riddles to win her consent for marriage. The unknown prince answers all the riddles correctly, but the Princess still defers. He then proposes a counteroffer: if she can guess his name, she can have him executed, but if she cannot, she must marry him. In response, the Princess commands that none of her subjects shall sleep until they uncover his name.

Puccini’s opera, left incomplete at his death in 1924, offers a unique interpretation of Carlo Gozzi’s 18th-century play of the same name, which, in turn, drew inspiration from a 12th-century Persian fairy tale by Nizami as part of his poem collection titled Haft Peykar. In the fairy tale, a princess sets impossible riddles for her suitors.

Puccini retains three riddles from Nizami’s tale but alters the third one:

  1. What is born each night and dies each dawn? (hope)
  2. What flickers red and warm like a flame, but is not a flame? (blood)
  3. What is like ice but burns? (Princess Turandot)

(Nizami’s original 3rd riddle: What echoes with countless voices, yet has no voice of its own? (a letter))

Source: Grove Book of Operas edited by Stanley Sadie, 2006. Wikipedia. Graphic: Nessun Dorma by Pavarotti, 2023 copyright Warner Classics.

Cupid and Psyche

19 January 2025 By in Art, History, Novel, Philosophy, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Cupid and Psyche is the timeless tale of love’s conquering power, overcoming all obstacles in its path. It symbolizes the union of the soul with desire, transcending to a love that goes beyond the physical and the mortal.

The only extant writings of Cupid and Psyche is known from Apuleius’s romance “The Golden Ass,” composed in the 2nd century AD. The tale is likely to have been known as early as the 4th century BC, and Cupid is known as far back as the 8th century BC from Hesiod’s “Theogony.”

In the myth of Cupid and Psyche, with Cupid’s mother Venus as the antagonist, the characters metaphorically act out various emotions and experiences, both mortal and immortal.

Psyche,a mortal more beautiful than the goddess Venus, represents the soul (in Greek, Psyche means soul) and its journey from the tragedy of human life to the transformative power of love for everlasting spiritual fulfillment.

Cupid, tasked by his mother Venus to destroy Psyche for possessing beauty beyond that of a mortal, instead falls in love with her. Cupid embodies love and desire, and the emotional power and unpredictability that it brings to a relationship.

Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, represents jealousy and the obstacles that Psyche battles to realize the completion of her quest for emotional and spiritual fulfillment. Her trials for Psyche reflect the ever-present barriers to true love.

Cupid and Psyche is a story of transcendent transformation over the physical to the triumph of love and the immortality of the soul.

Trivia: In the painting by Gerard, the butterfly floating above Psyche’s head represents, rather redundantly, the soul.

Source: The Golden Ass by Apuleius. The Evolution of Cupid, Erlang Shen, Fatelines, 2022. Graphic: Cupid and Psyche by Francois Gerard, 1798, The Louvre, Public Domain.

Plasma Jets

17 January 2025 By in Physics Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

In a galaxy far, far away within the Draco (Dragon) constellation, an international team has, for the first time, observed plasma jets forming in real time and shooting out at relativistic speeds, perpendicular to the plane of a black hole’s event horizon. Plasma jets, composed of ionized matter, are a subset of astrophysical jets—energetic, narrow beams of matter and radiation ejected from various objects, primarily black holes, along their axis of rotation.

These plasma jets were observed in the Milky Way’s gravitationally captured satellite, the Draco Dwarf Galaxy, located 270 million light-years from Earth. The Draco Dwarf Galaxy is home to a black hole that apparently has a white dwarf star companion. A likely scenario is that the white dwarf was once a companion to a much larger star that evolved faster, went supernova, and collapsed into a black hole. Today, the black hole is possibly cannibalizing material from the white dwarf, potentially leading to the plasma jets observed by researchers.

Source: Astronomers observe real-time formation of black hole jets by UMBC, 2025. Graphic: Black Hole Outflows from Centaurus A, ESO, 2009.

The End

16 January 2025 By in History Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

On 16 January 27 BC, the Roman Senate voted to confer the title of Augustus upon Octavian, Julius Caesar’s adopted son, realistically marking the end of the Roman Republic and the beginning of the Roman Empire. This decision aimed to restore stability and order after years of civil war and internal conflict, legitimizing Octavian’s authority while maintaining a veneer of republican governance. Augustus took effective control of the military, religion, bureaucracy, and administrative operations of the empire.

After the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, Octavian, in 43 BC, formed the Second Triumvirate with Mark Antony and Lepidus. Following their eventual conflict and his decisive victory at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC, Octavian became the uncontested ruler of Rome.

The Roman Empire was the final iteration of the Roman government, which began as a monarchy with Romulus as king in 753 BC, transitioned into a republic in 509 BC, and lasted through the era of civil wars and dictatorships until Octavian’s elevation as Augustus in 27 BC. The Roman Empire as a whole lasted until 476 AD when the Western Empire fell, while the Eastern Empire continued until 1453 AD.

Trivia: 16 January 27 BC, is the actual Julian calendar date, retained and quoted in texts for historical accuracy. According to the Gregorian calendar, however, the date marking the end of the Roman Republic would be 26,27 January 27 BC.

Source: Roman Republic…by M. Vermeulen, The Collector, 2020.  Graphic: Evolution of the Roman Empire, by ESKEHL-Wikipedia, 2022.